MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Discussion regarding the Outsider webcomic, science, technology and science fiction.

Moderator: Outsider Moderators

Victor_D
Posts: 188
Joined: Tue Dec 11, 2012 8:46 am
Location: Czech Rep., European Union

MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by Victor_D »

Since Outsider is partly inspired by Master of Orion II's races, I was wondering if we could draw 1-to-1 parallels (with a huge grain of salt). This is mostly for fun, so feel free to suggest different matches.

Elerians -> Loroi (telepathic matriarchal blue-skinned space warrior babes, duh)
Klackon -> Umiak (industrial space hive-mind insectoids, duh)
Humans -> Humanity (I had to think very hard about this, but eventually the physical similarity led me to believe this might be the case /s)
Bulrathi -> Barsam/Nibiren (mostly because of their robust appearance; nothing else matches very well)
Sakkra -> Nissek (reptilian appearance)
Gnolams -> Orgus (space traders)
Sillicoid -> Golim? ("exotic" life form thriving in a deadly toxic planet; the similarity is very superficial as Golim are not living rocks or silicon-based life)
Alkari -> Arekka (mostly due to the bird-like appearance)
Mrrshan -> Delrias/Morat (exclusively carnivorous predatory warrior species)
Trilarians -> Pipolsid (aquatic species, very adept at space propulsion)
Psilons -> Neridi? (I am treading water here)
Darloks -> Historians? (hidden and mysterious... no, I've got nothing)
Meklar -> ???

(Ancient Orions -> Soia? )

Am I close? Is this completely silly? Both?

Arent
Posts: 264
Joined: Sat Jan 24, 2015 8:42 pm

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by Arent »

I think only a part is inspired by the moo2 races. Which is ok, since the universe usually develops & expands with the story.

The obvious ones are:

Loroi -> Elerians
Umiak -> Klackon
Humans -> Humans
Barsam -> slightly reminiscent of Bulrathi

But there are some which are less obvious. For example, we have not really seen the historians yet. They seem to be the technologically most advanced race. But whether they look like the Psilon is up to speculation.

Another faction we potentially do not know is the ship that shot down the Bellarmine. The way it appeared and vanished could very well be "Darlok like".

User avatar
SVlad
Posts: 305
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 5:43 pm
Location: Saint-Petersburg, Russia

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by SVlad »

Orgus strongly resembles this MoO2 leader for me:
Image
Emo
the Science Leader
Science Leader +10%

And this guy also looks suspiciously familiar:
Image
Jarred
the Explorer
Starting experience: 60 (Captain)
Helmsman +5 (+5 per level)
Navigator* +1 (+1 per level)
Weaponry +5 (+5 per level)
Diplomat +10 (+10 per level)
Outsider in Russian
Image

nweismuller
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2014 4:57 pm

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by nweismuller »

My suspicion is that the Neridi (diminuative traders and administrators) are actually the *Gnolams*, while the Historians (four-armed highly advanced race) are the Psilons. An offhand comment somewhere suggested that the Meklar eventually mutated in concept to the Mannadi, although the similarity between the MoO2verse and Outsiderverse versions are extremely marginal. If there's a Darlok equivalent, I don't know what they are.

Victor_D
Posts: 188
Joined: Tue Dec 11, 2012 8:46 am
Location: Czech Rep., European Union

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by Victor_D »

nweismuller wrote:My suspicion is that the Neridi (diminuative traders and administrators) are actually the *Gnolams*, while the Historians (four-armed highly advanced race) are the Psilons. An offhand comment somewhere suggested that the Meklar eventually mutated in concept to the Mannadi, although the similarity between the MoO2verse and Outsiderverse versions are extremely marginal. If there's a Darlok equivalent, I don't know what they are.
Yeah, I originally considered Neřídí for the Gnolams too. Maybe that would fit better.
SVlad wrote:Orgus strongly resembles this MoO2 leader for me:
Image
Emo
the Science Leader
Science Leader +10%

And this guy also looks suspiciously familiar:
Image
Jarred
the Explorer
Starting experience: 60 (Captain)
Helmsman +5 (+5 per level)
Navigator* +1 (+1 per level)
Weaponry +5 (+5 per level)
Diplomat +10 (+10 per level)
Good point, I almost forgot about that leader!

Jericho
Posts: 251
Joined: Fri Dec 21, 2012 11:11 am

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by Jericho »

nweismuller wrote:My suspicion is that the Neridi (diminuative traders and administrators) are actually the *Gnolams*, while the Historians (four-armed highly advanced race) are the Psilons. An offhand comment somewhere suggested that the Meklar eventually mutated in concept to the Mannadi, although the similarity between the MoO2verse and Outsiderverse versions are extremely marginal. If there's a Darlok equivalent, I don't know what they are.
I agree that the Neridi are the most Gnolam like spieces in this settings but i disagree with the Historian -> Psilon comparison.
The Historians are not a researching species and they haven't made much advances since the fall of the soia. The Psilon have more in common with the pipolsid with both species being gifted scientist.

We don't know the Historians motives yet but i wouldn't put it past them to be manipulating the Loroi and the Umiak behind the scenes for their own ends. They are the most likely candidate for a Darlok counterpart.

Here's my list for comparison

Elerians -> Loroi
Klackon -> Umiak
Humans -> Humanity
Bulrathi -> Barsam/Nibiren
Sakkra -> Nissek
Gnolams -> Neridi
Sillicoid -> Golim?
Alkari -> Arekka
Mrrshan -> Delrias/Morat
Trilarians -> Pol
Psilons -> Pipolsid
Darloks -> Historians
Meklar -> Mannadi
If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through. General C.H Melchett commander of some unknown british regiment in the western front.

nweismuller
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2014 4:57 pm

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by nweismuller »

The Nibirien are actually clearly the blue 'natives' of MoO2. I think *that* is pretty unambigious. And come on, the Pipolsid are clearly more inspired by Trilarians than Psilons. Peaceful aquatic beings with unique capabilities in propulsion is basically the Trilarians to a 'T'.

Jericho
Posts: 251
Joined: Fri Dec 21, 2012 11:11 am

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by Jericho »

nweismuller wrote:The Nibirien are actually clearly the blue 'natives' of MoO2. I think *that* is pretty unambigious. And come on, the Pipolsid are clearly more inspired by Trilarians than Psilons. Peaceful aquatic beings with unique capabilities in propulsion is basically the Trilarians to a 'T'.
This was discussed in another thread way back but i can't find it. But yes the Niberen are directly inspired by the natives of moo2. Maybe your right about the Pipolsid, been a while since i played MoO.


On another note. How many have played the remastered version? The Elerians where bit dissapointing in design to be honest, They should have just reused the old designs. But i had a suprising amount of fun with the game and i've really come to enjoy the Terran Khanate.
If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through. General C.H Melchett commander of some unknown british regiment in the western front.

harlequin2262
Posts: 67
Joined: Tue Dec 15, 2015 3:08 am

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by harlequin2262 »

I'll try to find some images later, but if you care to, compare the picture of the Antaran Leader with the Historian Hologram. The latter seems rather close to the image of a skeleton of the former.

Cross reference that with their advanced technology, highly telepathy adverse nature, and guardianship of the Well of Souls, a dimensional portal if I ever saw one.

entity2636
Posts: 339
Joined: Fri Jan 12, 2018 11:53 am

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by entity2636 »

harlequin2262 wrote:I'll try to find some images later, but if you care to, compare the picture of the Antaran Leader with the Historian Hologram. The latter seems rather close to the image of a skeleton of the former.

Cross reference that with their advanced technology, highly telepathy adverse nature, and guardianship of the Well of Souls, a dimensional portal if I ever saw one.
For one, thus far there is no concrete in-universe info on what historians really look like. The hologram you are referring to is a virtual intelligence construct and not a hologram of an actual Historian.

For two, the Well of Souls is a gravitational anomaly, most likely a black hole or neutron star.

Victor_D
Posts: 188
Joined: Tue Dec 11, 2012 8:46 am
Location: Czech Rep., European Union

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by Victor_D »

entity2636 wrote:
harlequin2262 wrote:I'll try to find some images later, but if you care to, compare the picture of the Antaran Leader with the Historian Hologram. The latter seems rather close to the image of a skeleton of the former.

Cross reference that with their advanced technology, highly telepathy adverse nature, and guardianship of the Well of Souls, a dimensional portal if I ever saw one.
For one, thus far there is no concrete in-universe info on what historians really look like. The hologram you are referring to is a virtual intelligence construct and not a hologram of an actual Historian.
I always assumed it was a stylised image of what a "Historian" looks like, kind of as if we sent a VI hologram with a simplified animated human figure to talk for us with aliens who have no idea what we truly look like.

Ackapus
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Nov 19, 2022 2:09 am

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by Ackapus »

Late to the party, but the Historians being Darlock analogs certainly fits the bill.
Doesn't let you see their true form- Darlocks were shapeshifters that wore concealing clothes or robes.
Brokers technology for political clout and sows discord between other races- c'mon, it's their hat.
Casually untrusted by allies despite an obvious penchant for florid speech and manipulative words- again, very on point with spying.

Here's another- the image of their constructs would be a conscious choice, quite possibly a figure with some intrinsic scare or shock value to those who see it. In a galaxy of aggressive or powerful neighbors, a fearsome appearance can be just as useful as assuaging statements. With multiple mass extinction events in the past, I would say there's a really good chance an extradimensional equivalent of the Antarans is lurking about, and the Historian construct bears more than a passing resemblance to MoO:CtS Antarans. Making your diplomatic constructs in the image of the race that has overturned galactic empire-builders for eons seems like a pretty good power move, I'd say.

gaerzi
Posts: 246
Joined: Thu Jan 30, 2020 5:14 pm

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by gaerzi »

Nobody's thought of the Meklar for the Historians? In original MoO/MoO2 as well as in CTS, they're cyborgs, but in Mo03 they're fully artificial beings who have basically overthrown their cybernetic creators (who themselves had presumably replaced their fully-biological ancestors). I kind of get that vibe from the Historians as it seems it's personality constructs who handle everything and I'm not sure those who call the shots are flesh-and-blood...

User avatar
Arioch
Site Admin
Posts: 4486
Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:19 am
Location: San Jose, CA
Contact:

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by Arioch »

I think I played Master of Orion 3 for a grand total of about 30 minutes.

User avatar
Ithekro
Posts: 261
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2019 3:55 am

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by Ithekro »

I tried to play MoO3. Really tried. Just couldn't quite figure it out. I did manage to lose by the Galactic Council voting some race into power over the "New Orions" but I was outside the core worlds and thus not part of the council to start with.
I also somehow remember that the "pirates" news had an image of Desslok's huge flagship from the third season of Space Battleship Yamato, just painted black.

I liked some of the lore stuff for MoO3, and if the new version of Master of Orion did an update for those races, I wouldn't say no.

User avatar
SVlad
Posts: 305
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 5:43 pm
Location: Saint-Petersburg, Russia

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by SVlad »

Arioch wrote:
Sun Nov 20, 2022 11:05 pm
I think I played Master of Orion 3 for a grand total of about 30 minutes.
Same here.

Actually, MoO3 resembles Stellaris in it's game model, but without all lore side events, and with messy interface and lack of balance. Even comparing to Stellaris itself that is not known for interface and balance.
Outsider in Russian
Image

User avatar
Moon Moth
Posts: 34
Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2022 1:09 am

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by Moon Moth »

I think the most Darlok thing of all would for no one to know they exist. Yet.

Who shot the Bellarmine?

How did the tensions between the Loroi and the Umiak erupt into war? ("You were framed.")

We keep saying that there's no stealth in space, but maybe that's just because we haven't seen any.

(I wouldn't bet on this, my money'd be on the Historians and the Umiak, respectively, but it's fun to think about.)

Ackapus
Posts: 6
Joined: Sat Nov 19, 2022 2:09 am

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by Ackapus »

The Meklars may have evolved into beings of pure energy in MoO3, but this was coupled with a hardy helping of anti-biological racism. And curiously, this didn't preclude them from being eaten by ithkul. Always wondered how that worked.
I can't place any of the Outsider race images to MoO3 leaders, but that's the area I'm most fuzzy on. Although Black Razor was a leader in MoO2, not a ship, so we've got inspiration coming from different areas here. Given that of all the letdowns in MoO3, the art design was possibly one of the biggest drops in game quality, I doubt that any good would come of looking at them closer. Loknar went from space lucha libra to a minor NPC in off-name World of Warcraft, and the Elerian leaders' pictures have less character than Tali vas Normandy's picture if you romance her in ME3. Of course, given that the MoO3 leader list includes Captain Chode as an homage to Tripping the Rifts, something tells me they realized at some point they weren't making the next Civilization there.
I digress. As far as Historians being analogs to anyone, we know about two things regarding them- extremely good with computer technology, and use technology brokering to bolster their diplomacy. The Loroi don't know of anyone that's been to their worlds and haven't seen them wage war outside of them, but we know the Loroi can be deceived. Perhaps the Umiax cloaking technology was given them by the Historians. Point is, good computer tech was a trait of the Darlocks in MoO1, shared by Psilons(obviously) and Silicoids(because silicon), with Meklars being the only race with excellent computer tech- the Darlocks being the only ones there without an obvious stake in Computer tech.
Maybe they're a sort of Darlock-Meklar gestalt? But I think it more likely that Terrans and Loroi are really the only two direct analogs, with Umiax being a close resemblance to their inspiration. Everyone else is either original or takes only one or two traits, be they physical or socio-psychological.

User avatar
Arioch
Site Admin
Posts: 4486
Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:19 am
Location: San Jose, CA
Contact:

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by Arioch »

The map and history of the faction interactions in Outsider are loosely based on an amalgam of several MOO2 playthroughs. Some of the analogues are rather obvious, but others have very little to do with each other and simply fill a slot or role in that particular playthrough (for example, the Mannadi have nothing in common with the Meklar other than the first letter of their names).

If you want to know, the slots and their counterparts were as follows:

Early Loroi Empire
  • Elerians -> Loroi (Deinar)
  • Gnolam -> Neridi
  • Trilarians -> Pipolsid
  • Mrrshan -> Delrias
  • Meklar -> Mannadi
  • Sakkra -> Nissek
  • Bulrathi -> Barsam
  • Alkari -> Arekka
Steppes Expansion
  • Elerians -> Loroi (Seren)
  • Silicoids -> Golim
  • Gnolam -> Neridi
  • Humans -> Humanity
  • Psilons -> Historians
  • Klackons -> Umiak
  • Mrrshan -> Morat
  • Bulrathi -> Lurs
The Darloks weren't in either playthrough. One shouldn't read too much into the implications of the above list for what's going on in Outsider... the analogues only go so far, and a lot of stuff has been added that was not based on the above seed.

nweismuller
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2014 4:57 pm

Re: MoO II races and their parallels in Outsider

Post by nweismuller »

So, leaving aside the Steppes Expansion game as likely being spoiler-y... I'm guessing the Early Loroi Empire game had you as the Elerians finding two splinter colonies, one on a swamp world and one on an ocean world, subjugating the Mrrshan, Meklar, and (most of) the Alkari, in war, then winning the galactic council vote in a matchup against the Sakkra?

Post Reply