Miscellaneous Umiak/misc. races question-and-answer thread

[GeoModder]

Well I hope we see more of them and not just hard troops.

*And suddenly the comic took an unexpected turn, and The Stray personally intervened to spare the Highland and board it with scores of hardtroops, void of lethal weapons, and drag the terrified human out of the witches' reach to his command cabin.

[Cthulhu]

That would be a truly shocking plot twist, the Umiak as the "good guys". I mean it's highly improbable, but it would be interesting to at least get some information on their culture and society, especially from their point of view.

*And suddenly the comic took an unexpected turn, and The Stray personally intervened to spare the Highland and board it with scores of hardtroops, void of lethal weapons, and drag the terrified human out of the witches' reach to his command cabin.

Imagine the Stray as a classic James Bond villian, politely explaining his evil plan to Alex who is about to die a slow, agonizing death (but there's an obvious escape route). But then, who is going to be the Bond girl?

[Bamax]

Well I hope we see more of them and not just hard troops.

*And suddenly the comic took an unexpected turn, and The Stray personally intervened to spare the Highland and board it with scores of hardtroops, void of lethal weapons, and drag the terrified human out of the witches' reach to his command cabin.

The stray won't be anwhere nearby if he stayed aboard his heavy cruiser... which while making him safer also paints a huge target on his back.

The moon-what's-her name snobby Loroi captain said she was off to tangle with the stray, implying that the Loroi either are trying to blow him up, have already, or being the escape artist he is, the stray has escaped their grasp yet again.

That battle, if I recall correctly, is some ways away from the remains of Leido station where the main cast is nearby.

.

[Bamax]

That would be a truly shocking plot twist, the Umiak as the "good guys". I mean it's highly improbable, but it would be interesting to at least get some information on their culture and society, especially from their point of view.

*And suddenly the comic took an unexpected turn, and The Stray personally intervened to spare the Highland and board it with scores of hardtroops, void of lethal weapons, and drag the terrified human out of the witches' reach to his command cabin.

Imagine the Stray as a classic James Bond villian, politely explaining his evil plan to Alex who is about to die a slow, agonizing death (but there's an obvious escape route). But then, who is going to be the Bond girl?

Neither the Loroi or the Umiak are good guys per se. They both are guilty of killing millions, billions likely in the case of the Loroi who have gone to taking planet wiping measures.

They simply seem like they both are pragmatically doing what they can to win. They have ethics I am sure... they just ignore them as they see fit to win.

[Cthulhu]

Neither the Loroi or the Umiak are good guys per se. They both are guilty of killing millions, billions likely in the case of the Loroi who have gone to taking planet wiping measures.
They simply seem like they both are pragmatically doing what they can to win. They have ethics I am sure... they just ignore them as they see fit to win.

I mean we do not even know what ethics the Umiak have, at least in-comic. What's their reason for the war is completely unknown at this point.

Strangely enough, should the Umiak win, the humans may actually be safer. Since then their immunity to telepathy would make them an asset, not a threat, as well as ideal overseers for enslaved Loroi populations. On the other hand the Loroi will always see the humans as a threat both for practial reasons due to the Lotai as well as our existence being a wrench in their propaganda machine. It would be an interesting idea for a fanfic where Alex would be rescued by the Umiak instead. Although I think they would realize that humans are the Loroi template species rather quickly.

Anyway, to get back on topic for this thread, do the Umiak have any kind of heroic legends or stories, even fictional ones?

[gaerzi]

Strangely enough, should the Umiak win, the humans may actually be safer. Since then their immunity to telepathy would make them an asset, not a threat, as well as ideal overseers for enslaved Loroi populations. On the other hand the Loroi will always see the humans as a threat both for practial reasons due to the Lotai as well as our existence being a wrench in their propaganda machine.

Didn't the Umiak figure out the Loroi weren't worth the trouble of enslaving, and didn't they shift to a policy of eradication?

[Cthulhu]

Didn't the Umiak figure out the Loroi weren't worth the trouble of enslaving, and didn't they shift to a policy of eradication?

They may want to occupy some Loroi worlds in order to get the infrastructure instead of nuking it all from orbit. Then exterminate the population like they did on Seren. In this scenario the humans would be rather useful as psi-immune ground troops. Even later on, as the Loroi are no more, the Hierarchy may run into an another telepatic species and we will come in handy. Basically, imagine humans as battle tralls, Star Control-style. Not a particularly nice future, but still better what the Loroi did to the Tithric. The point is that, just as Cpt. Hamilton said, slavery is reversible, genocide is not.

[Arioch]

Anyway, to get back on topic for this thread, do the Umiak have any kind of heroic legends or stories, even fictional ones?

Sure, they have all kinds. I think every culture has at least some kind of origin myth, whether or not they believe it to be actually true.

The Umiak have a media culture, of a sort... they're not nearly as visual as Loroi or humans, and so "Umiak Radio" is a thing. Umiak "music" consists primarily of rhythmic percussion instruments, and Umiak speech itself can be musical in this sense, if "sung" rhythmically, and so much of Umiak media is musical. One thing the Umiak especially appreciate about audio is that they can listen and/or sing while doing something else, so Umiak at their posts will often be singing the equivalent of sea shanties or marching cadence, or listening to the lasted musical radio serial.

[Cthulhu]

Sure, they have all kinds. I think every culture has at least some kind of origin myth, whether or not they believe it to be actually true.

The Umiak have a media culture, of a sort... they're not nearly as visual as Loroi or humans, and so "Umiak Radio" is a thing. Umiak "music" consists primarily of rhythmic percussion instruments, and Umiak speech itself can be musical in this sense, if "sung" rhythmically, and so much of Umiak media is musical. One thing the Umiak especially appreciate about audio is that they can listen and/or sing while doing something else, so Umiak at their posts will often be singing the equivalent of sea shanties or marching cadence, or listening to the lasted musical radio serial.

Then what about more recent heroic deeds? Do they have stories about Kikkitik, for example, or other war heroes. Maybe about an colonial administrator who managed to complete the 5-year-plan in just 3 years? Do they have or even need propaganda for the common Umiak?

But most importantly, what do they do with a drunken Umiak sailor?

[GeoModder]

One thing the Umiak especially appreciate about audio is that they can listen and/or sing while doing something else, so Umiak at their posts will often be singing the equivalent of sea shanties or marching cadence, or listening to the lasted musical radio serial.

Jingles included!

[Arioch]

Then what about more recent heroic deeds? Do they have stories about Kikkitik, for example, or other war heroes. Maybe about an colonial administrator who managed to complete the 5-year-plan in just 3 years? Do they have or even need propaganda for the common Umiak?

Yeah, I don't think Umiak need to have Soviet-style propaganda drummed into them to know what their duty is, so I think much of top-down Umiak radio would be somewhat frivolous and more targeted at uplifting spirits. Bottom-up working songs are going to be about whatever the crews are thinking about, and so there may be songs about current figures (either complimentary or uncomplimentary), but they probably wouldn't be disseminated via public radio. Heaping praise on an individual is considered almost as shameful as deriding it... an individual's humility can be injured as easily as its pride. Umiak may sing songs about Kikitik-27, but they wouldn't be broadcast over national media, and Kikitik's own crew would certainly never sing them where it could hear.

But most importantly, what do they do with a drunken Umiak sailor?

Well naturally, you stick him in a scupper with a hosepipe bottom, early in the morning.

[Cthulhu]

Yeah, I don't think Umiak need to have Soviet-style propaganda drummed into them to know what their duty is, so I think much of top-down Umiak radio would be somewhat frivolous and more targeted at uplifting spirits. Bottom-up working songs are going to be about whatever the crews are thinking about, and so there may be songs about current figures (either complimentary or uncomplimentary), but they probably wouldn't be disseminated via public radio. Heaping praise on an individual is considered almost as shameful as deriding it... an individual's humility can be injured as easily as its pride. Umiak may sing songs about Kikitik-27, but they wouldn't be broadcast over national media, and Kikitik's own crew would certainly never sing them where it could hear.

Do the Umiak create and broadcast propaganda for the enslaved populations Hierarchy members then? Exaggerate the atrocities of the "Murdering Witches", embellish their own victories, praise worlds that fulfilled their quotas ahead of shedule, etc.?

P.S.: Great, I now have the mental image of a Umiak crewed by Umiak pirates, singing frivolous, mathematic sea shanties...
Were there any Umiak pirates, sea or space-bound, by the way?

[GeoModder]

I'd say the Hierarchy is piracy taken to the extreme. Perpetual robbery of any world within reach.

[Arioch]

Do the Umiak create and broadcast propaganda for the enslaved populations Hierarchy members then? Exaggerate the atrocities of the "Murdering Witches", embellish their own victories, praise worlds that fulfilled their quotas ahead of shedule, etc.?

They released official statements which are of course "spun" in their favor, but they don't create popular media for alien consumption. They don't speak alien languages, and translated Umiak doesn't make for good viewing.

The client states have their own governments (which are run by quislings); the Umiak don't interfere unless the client state does something they don't like, in which case there is usually a change in local leadership.

P.S.: Great, I now have the mental image of a Umiak crewed by Umiak pirates, singing frivolous, mathematic sea shanties...
Were there any Umiak pirates, sea or space-bound, by the way?

Space piracy doesn't work very well unless it has a state sponsor, in which case it's not really piracy, but commerce raiding. And commerce raiding doesn't work very well in a war situation, since you don't normally have access to shipping that's behind enemy lines. In a peacetime situation, it doesn't take very long for the target nation to figure out who's funding the pirates, so it won't remain peacetime for very long. I can imagine that Umiak warships may have harassed shipping of the nations they were trying to coerce into joining the Hierarchy, by stopping and "searching" them and generally giving them a hard time.

The Umiak don't have a strong tradition of sailing; Umiak bodies are heavier than water, so they can't swim. The Hal-tik Umiak in particular (from whom the modern Umiak are most directly descended) had a deep fear of the ocean.

In ancient times the Hal-tik were the nomadic equivalent of the steppes barbarians to the Imperial China of the related Tizik-tik, so if barbarian-style raiding of settlements counts as piracy, then yes... they did a lot of that.

[Krulle]

I've read up in the insider about Umiak.

Man, these are pirates. They pirated their civilisation.
They did not achieve it, they stole it.

They remind me of Peter F. Hamilton's Tyrathca (Reality Dysfunction series).
They too evolved on a planet with another sapient life-form, and they were not the most intelligent ones, living on the fringes of the civilisation of the other sapient race on the planet they evolved on.
But they were more war-geared, and due to a lack of evolved creativity, ruthless with their own selfs and offspring in an effort to become even stronger.
Resulting in all kinds of tests to improve their own war abilities (genetic modification, chemical modifications in developing phases of the youngling's bodies,...) , in the end overpowering the other sapient race, enslaving them and making them work for them.
Recognising basically only, that the other are smarter and more creative, thus technologically faster developing. Which they harnassed by enslaving them. Which they continued to do on other planets.

[Keklas Rekobah]

Q9: If the label "Umiak" is for the entire species/society, should a solitary Umiak away from its people more properly be called a "Kaiak"?

[CrimsonFALKE]

Question how did the umiaki see the world without their augmented hardtrooper gear is it a wide spectrum of colors and shapes or various shapes that allow them to spot something and keep it in their sights like some predators?

[CrimsonFALKE]

I've read up in the insider about Umiak.

Man, these are pirates. They pirated their civilisation.
They did not achieve it, they stole it.

They remind me of Peter F. Hamilton's Tyrathca (Reality Dysfunction series).
They too evolved on a planet with another sapient life-form, and they were not the most intelligent ones, living on the fringes of the civilisation of the other sapient race on the planet they evolved on.
But they were more war-geared, and due to a lack of evolved creativity, ruthless with their own selfs and offspring in an effort to become even stronger.
Resulting in all kinds of tests to improve their own war abilities (genetic modification, chemical modifications in developing phases of the youngling's bodies,...) , in the end overpowering the other sapient race, enslaving them and making them work for them.
Recognising basically only, that the other are smarter and more creative, thus technologically faster developing. Which they harnassed by enslaving them. Which they continued to do on other planets.

Almost parasitic in nature.

[CrimsonFALKE]

Then what about more recent heroic deeds? Do they have stories about Kikkitik, for example, or other war heroes. Maybe about an colonial administrator who managed to complete the 5-year-plan in just 3 years? Do they have or even need propaganda for the common Umiak?

Yeah, I don't think Umiak need to have Soviet-style propaganda drummed into them to know what their duty is, so I think much of top-down Umiak radio would be somewhat frivolous and more targeted at uplifting spirits. Bottom-up working songs are going to be about whatever the crews are thinking about, and so there may be songs about current figures (either complimentary or uncomplimentary), but they probably wouldn't be disseminated via public radio. Heaping praise on an individual is considered almost as shameful as deriding it... an individual's humility can be injured as easily as its pride. Umiak may sing songs about Kikitik-27, but they wouldn't be broadcast over national media, and Kikitik's own crew would certainly never sing them where it could hear.

But most importantly, what do they do with a drunken Umiak sailor?

Well naturally, you stick him in a scupper with a hosepipe bottom, early in the morning.

I'm sort of shocked they won't glorify kikitiks results as a way to back up their system's righteous nature. So they do use recreational drugs?

[CrimsonFALKE]

That would be a truly shocking plot twist, the Umiak as the "good guys". I mean it's highly improbable, but it would be interesting to at least get some information on their culture and society, especially from their point of view.

*And suddenly the comic took an unexpected turn, and The Stray personally intervened to spare the Highland and board it with scores of hardtroops, void of lethal weapons, and drag the terrified human out of the witches' reach to his command cabin.

Imagine the Stray as a classic James Bond villian, politely explaining his evil plan to Alex who is about to die a slow, agonizing death (but there's an obvious escape route). But then, who is going to be the Bond girl?

I say Tempo