Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

[Sweforce]

To me it sounded like a long standing bet, so Alex is out of the loop as a bet, but spoil-of-wars may not be, and Alex could be considered to be that. But then he is on the flagship of this group, and it would be weird to have him on a different ship in the brigg....

Well it was supposed to be a joke. The fact is, we have no idea and chances is that Arioch doesn't know either. It could be for the honor of being best for all we know.

[Razor One]

Clearly its for the lions share of hair care products on the Tempest and the rights to say who gets to use what.

What? You think the Loroi's fabulous hair is a mere accident? Fireblade needs at least four cans of hairspray per day to get her luxurious locks of hair under control. Stillstorm needs a dozen cans of gel to get her hair to stick out the right way, and those bouncy locks that make Tempo look so comely? Do consider how many cans of styling mousse goes into that!

As for Beryl, a bottle of baby shampoo keeps her covered for a month with daily usage. By keeping a no-nonsense and low-maintenance cut, she both rises above the hairdo politics of the Empire and directly contributes to the war effort by consuming less war-critical resources.

War is hell, and only the most stylish can win. This, more than anything, is why the Umiak will lose, for their heinous crime of favouring shoulder pads and flourescent yellow, their empire will burn.

[Argron]

Silly question, what does the wager between the two Loroi commanders has as a reward?

Who gets to be on top. No amount of Word of God will make me change my mind.

Clearly its for the lions share of hair care products on the Tempest and the rights to say who gets to use what.

What? You think the Loroi's fabulous hair is a mere accident? Fireblade needs at least four cans of hairspray per day to get her luxurious locks of hair under control. Stillstorm needs a dozen cans of gel to get her hair to stick out the right way, and those bouncy locks that make Tempo look so comely? Do consider how many cans of styling mousse goes into that!

As for Beryl, a bottle of baby shampoo keeps her covered for a month with daily usage. By keeping a no-nonsense and low-maintenance cut, she both rises above the hairdo politics of the Empire and directly contributes to the war effort by consuming less war-critical resources.

War is hell, and only the most stylish can win. This, more than anything, is why the Umiak will lose, for their heinous crime of favouring shoulder pads and flourescent yellow, their empire will burn.

You fell for Loroi trickery, that hair is straightened and hardened until it becomes a concealed weapon, their reverse headbutts are lethal. Beryl is fluffy and weak.

[icekatze]

hi hi

Maybe it isn't the winner who gets something, but the loser who has to lose something. Maybe whoever loses the bet has to lose a finger. What, I'm sure they would grow back.

Does make me wonder though if the Loroi have any other superpowers beyond just telepathy, just on account of being a genetically engineered species. Stuff like regrowing limbs, going into torpor when food is scarce, seeing unusual colors like infrared or ultraviolet, etc.

[dragoongfa]

I think that Arioch has already covered what the Loroi are able to do in the insider and this thread.

[Arioch]

Silly question, what does the wager between the two Loroi commanders has as a reward?

Quatloos, of course.

Seriously though, it's a good question. I hadn't really thought about it.

Currency is the easiest answer, but I doubt that currency would be of very much use to either captain in their current situation. Being assigned to a raider group for which supply is an issue, I think it's more likely that they bet with some kind of goods or supplies that are hard to get.

[edit 6 March 2018] The subject of the wager was resupply priority upon return to Loroi territory. This is why Ashrain's group was already resupplied when the Umiak attacked Leido.

Does make me wonder though if the Loroi have any other superpowers beyond just telepathy, just on account of being a genetically engineered species. Stuff like regrowing limbs, going into torpor when food is scarce, seeing unusual colors like infrared or ultraviolet, etc.

The Barsam have some rapid-healing attributes, but even they can't spontaneously regenerate limbs, and rapid healing is metabolically expensive; Barsam require a great deal more food than the Loroi, pound for pound. In a civilization with very advanced medical technology something like limb regeneration would be unnecessary.

[dragoongfa]

Silly question, what does the wager between the two Loroi commanders has as a reward?

Quatloos, of course.

Seriously though, it's a good question. I hadn't really thought about it.

Currency is the easiest answer, but I doubt that currency would be of very much use to either captain in their current situation. Being assigned to a raider group for which supply is an issue, I think it's more likely that they bet with some kind of goods or supplies that are hard to get.

I imagine that mission critical stuff, like spare parts and missiles are out of the question since Stillstorm wouldn't like any single one of her ships to be under equipped, so that means various non essential but still highly sought out goods. Elite outfits in general are given a leeway and priority from high command so that means there is bound to be something extravagant that is sought out.

Human captains would probably wager over beer and high quality rations if that was the case (this has been happening since the time warships first sailed the seas actually). For Loroi such goods would be useless, since they don't value food that much and alcohol is immediately out of the question for obvious reasons.

Furthermore everything looks to be under the silent consent of Stillstorm which means that she either can't be bothered stopping it or finds the competition to be important for morale and thus has gotten her approval beforehand.

So my question is what would the Loroi consider an acceptable extravagance to be fought over with the approval of their commander?

Razor One's joke above about hair products does make sense if taken seriously; human warrior societies that emphasized personal cleanliness and hygiene, the ancients Spartans and Samurai to mention but a couple, did have various customs about how to properly clean their body and take care of their hair and even put value in various affiliated commodities, for a historical example using perfumes in social gatherings was a status symbol for Japanese Samurai and feudal lords, while one of the greatest insults among them was to call someone unclean and putrid.

For the Loroi who's hair is automatically an important status symbol which highlights their position on the social ladder, such products would be an extravagance in a war-zone but an extravagance that would be highly sought out nonetheless because they want to be 'better' than their compatriots.

[Zakharra]

Maybe the loser has to have several inches of hair chopped off. /shrug

[Sweforce]

Maybe the loser has to have several inches of hair chopped off. /shrug

The horror!!!!

I need to calm down, maybe I should see a Saw movie or something.

[Krulle]

Ah, that explains Beryl... She's humourous, doesn't say no to unfair bets, and lost most of her hair with not much of a shrug.
Everyone knows why her hair is short, and gives her no hard time for it, and she enjoys the simplicity and advantage of having a short haircut.

Clever girl....!

[Grayhome]

I had a thought about a way to prove that the Loroi were descended from a high tech civilization while thinking about the Fallout universe and specifically, the Brotherhood of Steel.

A high tech civilization of the Soia's level would be well educated. Manufacturing, science, engineering, technology, mathematics, etc, lots of people would have very advanced skills.

If the Loroi were part of that civilization, the Loroi who survived the cataclysm and landed on the sister worlds would have such skills. Not everyone would be a master scientist but enough people would be around that they would retain some level of high tech knowledge.

These skilled individuals would leave evidence of their existence, agricultural machines cobbled together and built from scrap, mining equipment that was no where near pre-cataclysm levels but still high tech enough. Crude laser/plasma/slug throwers with high tech engineering that would be discernable from what came pre-cataclysm and what came post-cataclysm.

Is there any evidence of a... Falloutesque civilization on the Loroi sister worlds? That would support the Loroi's claims that they were descended from a high tech civilization

[Arioch]

Yes, there were post-cataclysm Loroi high-tech settlements on Deinar, but they did not last for very long.

[Grayhome]

Only on Deinar? Why was that? Why did they not last very long?

[Hālian]

Everyone knows why her hair is short

I don't. O.o

[Razor One]

I don't think that the warriors of a warrior society who feel that long hair represents status and is a symbol of their warrior pride will make frivolous bets about getting it cut off. It'd be lethally rude to make the wager, and would reflect incredibly poorly on the warrior that accepted such a wager.

The only point I could imagine a Loroi getting a haircut would be if they didn't see themselves as a warrior at all (Beryl, Shoegirl), or if they were so shamed by their actions or defeat that they felt compelled to cut it.

Oh, a question for Arioch. How do the Loroi honour their dead? Military funeral? Specific mourning rituals? Moment of silence? Sharing tales of the departed? Double tapping to make sure they don't rise up as Zombie-Loroi?

[Argron]

Hey Arioch, how are decks in the larger ships arranged? with habitation parallel to the longer axis of the ship and gravity perpendicular to said axis like for example a current aircraft carrier or any other naval ship, or the opposite, like how people live and work in a skyscrapper? from page 102 I'm assuming it's the former? I'm unsure from the elevator scene since a 750 m ship will probably have a heck of a lot of decks no matter the axis.

What made you choose one or the other? scientific reasons or because it looked more reasonable to readers?

[Arioch]

Only on Deinar? Why was that? Why did they not last very long?

Let me rephrase: on Deinar, the post-fall civilization was large enough and lasted for long enough to leave clear archaeological traces that extend beyond the bombardment layer (which includes a variety of detritus of war). Such settlements may have existed on other worlds, but there is no clear record of them.

It's not known for certain why the post-fall civilizations failed, but a good guess is that they were destroyed by Loroi barbarians. A post-apocalyptic environment is a harsh one, but the chief threat is usually the other survivors who want what you have, and don't mind killing you to get it, even if that means destroying the source.

How do the Loroi honour their dead? Military funeral? Specific mourning rituals? Moment of silence? Sharing tales of the departed? Double tapping to make sure they don't rise up as Zombie-Loroi?

The normal mode is cremation (sometimes in a ceremony) and then anonymous disposal of the ashes. Some Loroi sub-cultures erect monuments or cenotaphs to the dead, but few inter remains in a known location -- they do not put much importance in the remains of a Loroi, except that they dislike the idea of having remains that can be found and desecrated by an enemy.

In the modern fleet, Loroi remains are incinerated and disposed of in the same manner as other garbage.

Hey Arioch, how are decks in the larger ships arranged? with habitation parallel to the longer axis of the ship and gravity perpendicular to said axis like for example a current aircraft carrier or any other naval ship, or the opposite, like how people live and work in a skyscrapper? from page 102 I'm assuming it's the former? I'm unsure from the elevator scene since a 750 m ship will probably have a heck of a lot of decks no matter the axis.

What made you choose one or the other? scientific reasons or because it looked more reasonable to readers?

Human and Loroi ships have decks parallel to the long axis of the ship, like a naval vessel. The justification is that because of the high accelerations used, you have to have inertial dampers and artificial gravity anyway, and so the space benefits of longer decks outweigh the benefit from being able to use some of the ship's acceleration instead of artificial gravity. If the ship is laid out like a skyscraper, with more but smaller decks, you have to devote a lot of space to elevators.

The real reason is aesthetic. At one point the predecessor story to Outsider used ships without inertial dampers that were laid out like skyscrapers, and they all looked like long tubes or cigars. It was realistic but not very visually engaging.

[Razor One]

How do the Loroi honour their dead? Military funeral? Specific mourning rituals? Moment of silence? Sharing tales of the departed? Double tapping to make sure they don't rise up as Zombie-Loroi?

The normal mode is cremation (sometimes in a ceremony) and then anonymous disposal of the ashes. Some Loroi sub-cultures erect monuments or cenotaphs to the dead, but few inter remains in a known location -- they do not put much importance in the remains of a Loroi, except that they dislike the idea of having remains that can be found and desecrated by an enemy.

In the modern fleet, Loroi remains are incinerated and disposed of in the same manner as other garbage.

I think I may have phrased the question badly. I was thinking more of how the Loroi themselves deal with death, rather than the remains of the deceased. Alcohol isn't a thing for the Loroi, so drinking to the memory of the fallen is out. I'm just curious as to how they deal with the matter on a personal level ranging up to groups and beyond for extremely important people.

As Tempo mentioned on page 70, "We would not wish to fail to accommodate your death rituals. Loss is something we Loroi understand all too well". How do the Loroi deal with death?

[Krulle]

Due to telepathy they feel it immediately (http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider079.html). They might even transport some essence of the dead around with themselves, due to the direct telepathic contact....

[dragoongfa]

I think that the destroyed ships were well beyond the sensing range of everyone on Tempest with the exception of the ship's farseer.