So there are kids that drop out of Warrior School in the (possibly hubris-filled) belief they can strike it rich in the Civilian Districts and live like queens?Arioch wrote:The trials are primarily a test of basic physical fitness and psychological temperament, and bands pass or fail as a group. The only way to really fail as an individual is if you give up (or to be so unlikable that your band-mates refuse to help you). There are plenty of warrior desk jobs, so there is no problem in sorting the graduates into roles that suit their individual skills. This also means that most of the people who failed didn't really want to be warriors in the first place -- or at least not badly enough to stick it out.
That probably doesn't happen very often, but its a neat aspect of their culture.
Given that there is an inherent shortfall in the number of Warriors vs the number of Civilians (because Civilians are less likely to die before the end of their reproductive capacity, and 10% or so of the population of would-be Warriors drops out and joins the Civies), is there ever a point where the Loroi military would consider "drafting" a batch of civilians into the military to make up the difference? Or is that population discrepancy handled entirely by providing warriors with more male access?
Is there a "civil defense" program in place for the Loroi civilians, to train them in case of planetary invasion? Or is that considered too much of a risk? I'd imagine civilians end up "taking up arms" during Umiak invasions regardless (because the alternative is extermination), but there's a lot the Loroi can do to beef up resistance within their civilian population.
So that brings up other questions regarding how Loroi telepathy affects their society. How do the Loroi handle reporting police/fire/emergency situations? The standard way (i.e. with telecoms), or has using their telepathy as a "carrier wave" to relay messages across a populated area ever been a thing? I imagine that runs into the same risks as the telephone game, but on the other hand, given that some members of the population have extreme farsensing range (and possibly extreme telepathic range as a result), having a few Fartalkers on-duty waiting for someone to tele-shout "Help I'm on fire" has some serious practical benefit to it -- or military benefit, if there's someone on-site in a ship battle who can tell the Captain "everyone on Deck Five just got vac'd" or "the flank regiments are getting stabbed and are really upset about it" on a ground battle.Arioch wrote:The Nedatan Timadi are essentially domestic versions of Farseers; they passively track the size, location and general condition of the population on a large scale. They do not read individual minds. The Nedatan Tiret are counselors who have individual sessions with clients. They are not thought police, and they don't compel thought in any way. Periodically the Nedatan operations poll the Tiret to learn what the mood of the population is, and a Tiret who encountered an individual who was clearly insane or had committed crimes would probably report it, but so would any other individual who came into contact with such a person. You don't need an inquisition when everyone has to tell the truth all the time.
Heck, depending on the potential range, Bronze-Age Loroi rulers would probably really have wanted a few Loroi in their capital who can talk to a village elder a hundred miles away and find out if anyone's currently raiding them.