Writing Prompts

[orion1836]

@discussion of human warfare

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I'd love to see Duskcrown tear into Alex for that actually. How inept can a species be if it needs two world wars to not even get the job done?

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Frankly the opposite... we're too *good* at war, and too lousy at politics.

[novius]

That kind of resolution was one of the scenarios I had in mind. Of course Alex wouldn't have a complete victory over her in this - she's definitely too forceful in her personality to allow for this. And, while she might prefer her males to be more masculine (in the Loroi sense, of course ), kudos on her depiction as a woman who actually enjoys a friendly dispute.

Much like Stillstorm she's surrounded by people who mostly feel trepidation or outright fear at voicing a suggestion and it does look like it's refreshing for her to face someone - alien male or not - who actually speaks his mind. Well, to an extent, of course.

Guess now it's @dragoongfa's time to shine with the most recent turn of topics?

EDIT: I might post a short lead-in, but that would only help to pique Duskcrown's curiosity - of course she wouldn't let that topic slide after just a few words.

[dragoongfa]

Yeah, the solution is more or less what I had in mind although I was going to set it up in a more roundabout way and insinuate that in future relations the problem wouldn't be keeping human males protected but keeping human males away .

Yeah, I am going to love writing the next part.

[novius]

My vote for the other two caretakers goes to Wavecrest and Sorimi Jade.

Definitely a reasonable outcome. Wavecrest was Duskcrown's initial choice, thus making her as good as a shoe-in for one of the slots. About Jade - can't say much, though, only that she is someone owing her loyalty to Duskcrown.

While Wavecrest may be completely uninterested, perhaps Jade might be interested in 'sampling the goods' she is to take care for. But, that would go afoul with Alex's recent conviction to better stay away from Torrai.

Neither Alex nor Duskcrown may know but such a constellation could work even better than they expected. With two additions that dissimilar, it is less likely that it would come down to 2-vs-2 situations with Beryl and Fireblade on one side. One or the other of the two additions would often enough act as a tiebreaker.

And in addition, Duskcrown as good as explicitely told him to remain available to Loroi outside his 'inner circle'... Ouch

[Razor One]

Regarding the World Wars discussion, I recall reading someplace that there was an alternative school of thought that actually regards it as one big war with a 21 year armistice, a given considering how the treaty of Versailles basically assured a second war would occur.

Other stuff I'd love to see referenced, but probably won't because it'll turn into an ad-hoc history textbook if it does:

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Genghis Khan and the reason you DO NOT fuck with Ambassadors.
The Great Siege of Malta and the Battle of Cannae regarding smaller armies defeating larger ones.
Nuts to surrender!
The Hundred Years War, the War of the Roses, Chivalry and the Crusades.
The Meiji Period in Japan and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

...And that's just what's at the top of my list.

[novius]

Other stuff I'd love to see referenced, but probably won't because it'll turn into an ad-hoc history textbook if it does: (...)

Maybe not all at once, but piece by piece. I'm sure it won't be the last time Duskcrown wishes him to grace her with a bit of companionship and spirited discussions.

And if not for her, Stillstorm had shown herself as well as having some interest in his people's military history, even if it is just to get a novel viewpoint to shake up old battle doctrines.

[Zarya]

Regarding the World Wars discussion, I recall reading someplace that there was an alternative school of thought that actually regards it as one big war with a 21 year armistice, a given considering how the treaty of Versailles basically assured a second war would occur.

A contemporary view was put forward in 1919 by British economist John Maynard Keynes, who estimated that the “Armistice” signed by the exhausted combatants would last 20 years at most. He proved to be right, though was probably lucky because also other factors than economy give rise to WW2.

Fact is that reparation payments, loss of territory, hurt nationalistic feelings, as well as limitations imposed on Germany’s armed forces were later used to justify the buildup of an outsized military and new aggression against other States.

Keynes had been part of the British negotiating team discussing peace terms and had pleaded to moderate reparation payments, adopting a view on European economies as a whole. He sought to repair the integrated economic relations that were lost with WW1: up to 1914 European countries had traded almost completely unhindered with each other, and people could famously travel from Riga to the French Riviera without ever showing a passport. Keynes laid out his views and criticism of ‘Versailles’ in “The Economic Consequences of the Peace”.

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Just for consideration: WW1 lasted 4 years, and WW2 from start to finish 6 years. 10 in total, with 21 yrs in between.
Perhaps the Loroi waged a single 10-15 year war, or had multiple years of smaller conflicts that are counted as a single large one.

History and counting eras can be messy so we should not make too much of the fact that humans waged two major conflicts on Earth. If we include the Cold War we might as well say we had three world wars.

[Werra]

Well....we do have the timeline for Deinar.

Their medieval period lasted 1700 years and consisted of near constant warfare.

Their post industrial "New World Conflict" period lasted from 730 - 835 CE

Then their actual world war lasted from 835 - 842. Notice how this comes right at the end of the earlier period and was apparently over quickly, because the victorious side had found amplifiers on another planet.

It honestly reads a lot more violent than human history. Like feuding greek city states without a power to enforce a pax romana. Especially when we consider the ramifications of Loroi reproduction on the value of life for them.

I'm not sure how impressive our history would be to them. And land based wars especially seem to be an intellectual interest at best in Outsider.

[dragoongfa]

Consider that humans have NEVER truly known world peace both in reality and by extension outsider. There has been constant warfare on Earth and parts of the world, the west may have been in near constant peace but the other parts of the world? Genocide, displacement and all that are normal in certain parts and continents of the world.

What the Loroi will find interesting is the base ruthlessness of human conflict throughout the ages. Loroi warfare up until their post industrial era was highly ritualistic and 'honorable', for example word of god is that the cities were left mostly alone and all the battles were fought in the field. I have no doubt that this behavior continued to a degree even in their world war since there was no MAD scenario with the use of atomic weaponry.

The real head turner will be the extremely early adoption of technologies in war fighting. Their first true warplanes were jets and their world war was fought with technology that surpasses modern human technology.

[novius]

What the Loroi will find interesting is the base ruthlessness of human conflict throughout the ages. Loroi warfare up until their post industrial era was highly ritualistic and 'honorable', for example word of god is that the cities were left mostly alone and all the battles were fought in the field. I have no doubt that this behavior continued to a degree even in their world war since there was no MAD scenario with the use of atomic weaponry.

The real head turner will be the extremely early adoption of technologies in war fighting. Their first true warplanes were jets and their world war was fought with technology that surpasses modern human technology.

That's one aspect I touched in "New Frontiers" as well. The diral was surprised, borderline shocked at the ruthlessness with which Nathanial made his preparation and pulled his stunt against the away team, in addition to knowing that he even held back....

And remember the saying "War is the father of all things" - this is something that definitely sets humans and Loroi apart. Most of the things we invented either came up in wartimes and had military roots, and one of the first considerations even in peacetime would be how to weaponize something new. Loroi, on the other hand, more or less dug up most of their technology in Soia ruins - it is debatable how much technology they had to (re)invent from scratch. But, again in opposite to humans, their technological development is stagnating due to political and economical considerations.

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Food for thought - if the Soia patterned the Loroi with the human template, perhaps they thought by limiting the male population and making females the dominant gender, they could curb their new species' aggressive tendencies?

[Werra]

The diral was surprised, borderline shocked at the ruthlessness with which Nathanial made his preparation and pulled his stunt against the away team, in addition to knowing that he even held back....

Sorry to say, but that was the weak part in my opinion. There isn't anything special about what Nathan did. I refuse to accept holes with spikes in them as this new and outlandish idea to the Loroi.

In my opinion it's the Loroi who are the more ruthless species. One example. Prisoners of war. Taking them was the exception for Loroi on Deinar, as telepathic prisoners are very dangerous even unarmed. If you search Ariochs post for "Deinar" and "warfare" you'll see that the Loroi had it all. Somewhat honourable combat and Genghis Kahn styled terror campaigns.

We also need to consider that the Loroi of New Frontiers are spacefaring and therefore have a shared history from three worlds. Perrein will have passed on knowledge on all kinds of underhanded tricks. Not to mention the numerous ground and space based wars against aliens the Loroi have been through. One of them against insurgents so vicious, that the Loroi decided to just exterminate the whole species.

"War is the father of all things"
Not really. The new technologies were applied in war, but with few exceptions, the basics for those were discovered in peacetime. Unless you're talking about the two world wars. But even there the scientific theories for most of the technologies came about before the war and it looks like a huge leap in technology mainly because of the rapid advancement in technology in the prior century. I mean, 1814 they still fought in colourful uniforms and WW1 quickly saw a change in uniform colours. What war is useful for is taking existing technologies and either refining them or turning them into weapons.

[novius]

My point being, it was not the question of the technologies that exist, but their application of them, or the readiness to apply them. Loroi might have a much more controlled, ritualistic approach to warfare, compared to humans - that showed itself in New Frontiers, and in Beacons, when Alex brought up novel approaches to get things done - like with the Gora Relay - or simply put the status quo into question, like when he discussed different battle scenarios with Stillstorm.

Stillstorm herself said while the battle doctrines Alex put up might not be completely unheard of, they're fought tooth and nail by upper command in favor of retaining a more traditional approach.

And, actually, Stillstorm was in search of a Wunderwaffe when the threat of the invisible Shell divisions became all too real with the invasion of Leido Crossroads. That's why she actually bade Tempo to convince Alex to stay onboard the Tempest.

[novius]

New part of "New Frontiers" is up.

New answers and new questions....

[dragoongfa]

You missed a small opportunity to point out that the Mizol are generally very unpopular on Deinar, a Mizol ordering someone shooting a clan's male? Even if the clan is one that doesn't abide by Imperial rules it won't go well with the traditionalist elements of Deinar.

[novius]

You missed a small opportunity to point out that the Mizol are generally very unpopular on Deinar, a Mizol ordering someone shooting a clan's male? Even if the clan is one that doesn't abide by Imperial rules it won't go well with the traditionalist elements of Deinar.

Definitely overlooked it. It may come up at a later point, though - of course the incident could have more far reaching consequences, especially when they have to deal with the Soroin caste elders. As for Bastel chewing out Nelonial - at this point they may still hope they could keep a lid on this clusterfrak

Naturally Coral's findings will complicate things even further.

EDIT: On further consideration, yes, this would fit right in with Bastel's rant

[Razor One]

A decent addition, but I'm kind of surprised at Firebrand being the medic here instead of Copperspike. That kind of knowledge should have made her a shoe-in for the position in the first place, so it's a bit odd that she's suddenly knowledgeable about medicine.

Regarding the next part;

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I was thinking up a bit where Copperspike had to pull the bullet out and seal Nathaniel's artery, all the while swearing up and down about the shitboot who shot him while the rest of the diral frets and fumes. I believe I can work with Firebrand having specialist doranzer knowledge though, kind of a dichotomy between the hands on surgeon and the person that was studying to be a proper doctor, the two of them bickering their way to the best solutions to save Nathan's life.

Think of it like Doctor McCoy having to work with the EMH.

Although, I do have to ask what the story is with Firebrand. What reason did she have to not volunteer for medic duty in the first place? Character insights are always good and it sounds like there's a bit of story to be had there.

[novius]

I thought Firebrand of having a spotty knowledge in field medicine at best - and not having the complete diral in range, thus Copperspike not yet knowing of what happened. Firebrand has a personal stake in Nathanial's wellbeing - after all, she's still on probation and has to show exemplary behavior.

So yes, she may be adept at diagnosing a shock by blood loss and suggest appropriate treatment, but performing a field surgery might be a slightly different matter.

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Yup, I'd definitely like to see how these two would discuss treatment - Perhaps this bit of background becomes clear when they are busy patching up Nathanial.

[Kensai]

Observation...

Novius, good job on that piece- both the dressing down on the station and the field medicine parts.

If its a basic field pack, perhaps a very advanced form of Combat Lifesaver bag with maybe.... maybe... a small portable regen device, if we are talking the level of tech shown in the "Mirror" fanfic.

IIRC, at the TL suggested the Loroi are, I believe such a thing is possible.

I know the QuikClot stuff carried now in Combat Medic bags does wonders for stopping loss of blood and the like. I would imagine either Copperspike or Firebrand would be knowledgeable on that- whichever has the more appropriate field medicine training. Firebrand the most likely, considering its already mentioned.


I look forward to the next parts.... as this is a giant dumpster fire for the Mizol right now- no matter if its loroi based politics or a botched first contact.

Just wow.

(rl job is (well read) Emergency Medical Tech and I was friends with A LOT of Medics/Corpsmen while I was in. One learns things because one can be bored... )

[Werra]

New Frontiers is set 400 years in the past of the comic. Loroi medical tech might not be quite that advanced yet.

[Kensai]

New Frontiers is set 400 years in the past of the comic. Loroi medical tech might not be quite that advanced yet.

Good point.

IRL, we as humanity are TL7-10, depending on what we are talking about.

I figure Loroi are likely solid TL9 to 12, depending on the subject.... then.

Now, I suspect they are solidly TL11/12 everywhere.