Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

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ShadowDragon8685
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by ShadowDragon8685 »

orion1836 wrote:Today I found myself wondering what would happen if Alex wore Fireblade's amplifier (probably because of a curious Beryl).
Alex would look kind of silly wearing a decoration made for a woman, Tempo and Talon laugh, Spiral complains that they're screwing with her concentration, Fireblade becomes very upset, Reed asks Fireblade to please remember that Alex is a VIP and it wasn't his doing in the first place, Beryl hides somewhere Fireblade can't easily squish her with her mind without doing irreparable harm to the shuttle.

Recall, Amps are made for the specific user. Fireblade's amp would do nothing for Ashrain, and even less for Alex.
In the Outsider-verse, would there be any way to bootstrap Human telepathy with technology? Do we have the biological hardware and just lack the ability to use it, or do we not have the physical characteristics required for telepathy?
If anything, it's likely to be that humans are twisted in such a way that they're more like Blanks from 40K.


Also, I think Talon's the most attractive of the Loroi we've yet seen. Go figure.

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Arioch
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

Amplifiers don't create psionic power, they just amplify it. An amplifier fitted to someone who had no psionic ability would do nothing.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Luge »

Arioch wrote:Female Loroi have similar strength as a human male of the same height, and slightly better endurance (though a human male of the same height will probably outweigh her by about 10%). You can consult the GURPS character sheets if you want specific examples (in this system, Alex is ST10 DX10 IQ17 HT10).
Fascinating! This would put Alex's IQ ahead of both Beryl and Tempo (by one and two points respectively). I never had Alex down at stupid but I hadn't imagined his intelligence to be above those two particular Loroi. They are literally intelligence officers, after all.

Then again, IQ can take many forms - Alex may have "Street smarts", ingenuity and practical application of theory that the Loroi have never had to use. He's also a lot older than both of them.

This bring me to another question I've been thinking about... Since the Loroi have only met Alex so far and he's so similar to them, they may be assuming that human society is similarly matriarchal, ruled by a human queen.

They might also be assuming that if Alex is a typical male, typical human females are much bigger and tougher than he is! I'm sure that the characters will discuss this at some point (either on-screen of off-screen) but right now Beryl might imagine that Alex's female counterpart is the size of a yeti!

A.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by boldilocks »

Luge wrote:Fascinating! This would put Alex's IQ ahead of both Beryl and Tempo (by one and two points respectively). I never had Alex down at stupid but I hadn't imagined his intelligence to be above those two particular Loroi. They are literally intelligence officers, after all.

Then again, IQ can take many forms - Alex may have "Street smarts", ingenuity and practical application of theory that the Loroi have never had to use. He's also a lot older than both of them.
I'm not sure how much 'street smarts' we could expect from a human genius who graduated from a prestigious university. That's usually a sign of someone who's part of the elite classes.
His intelligence quotient aside, I assume Still-storm would have the same kind of education in tactics (and presumably vast superior experience in it).
Luge wrote:This bring me to another question I've been thinking about... Since the Loroi have only met Alex so far and he's so similar to them, they may be assuming that human society is similarly matriarchal, ruled by a human queen.

They might also be assuming that if Alex is a typical male, typical human females are much bigger and tougher than he is! I'm sure that the characters will discuss this at some point (either on-screen of off-screen) but right now Beryl might imagine that Alex's female counterpart is the size of a yeti!
That's unlikely, as the Loroi had recovered some 50-60 bodies from the Bellarmine.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Krulle »

How many bodies do you think survived the first strike? The second strike? The explosion of the fuel tanks?
Granted, in space an explosion shock wave tends to prepel stuff away, instead of merely pulverizing it.
But most of the bodies were not outside the explosion when it happened. They were inside the explosion, and therefore not hint only by the explosion front.

Many of the bodies are not recoverable anymore, and some have simply been flung on trajectories far away from the Loroi battle group.

How much time did the Loroi scavengers have to assess which of those bodies are female, and actually did they even have time to record that kind of stuff in a battle situation?

Yes, they recovered something, but what, how much, the recorded data, ..., has all not been shown/disclosed to us.
Nor if they're already busy evaluating the measured data.
Or the conclusions they took from the measured data.
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by CF2 »

This may have been asked before but will the human dead from the Bellarmine be making any reappearances? Are they kept for study or have they been processed for burial/disposal?
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Luge »

Boldilocks is quite right.
boldilocks wrote:That's unlikely, as the Loroi had recovered some 50-60 bodies from the Bellarmine.
Confirmed on this page: http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider060.html

Those bodies weren't just found, they were recovered - That means they are probably in cold storage somewhere, for the Loroi to examine at any time. I'm sure once they got the suits off any corpses they're be able to distinguish male and female very quickly.

Early in the story Beryl asked Jardin what the human male/female ratio was, so perhaps that kind of study hadn't been done at the time. The Tempest would have been focussing on the live survivor they found ad just gathering as much material as possible.

L.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

Luge wrote:He's also a lot older than both of them.
Just to clarify: Tempo is more than twice Alex's age.
CF2 wrote:This may have been asked before but will the human dead from the Bellarmine be making any reappearances? Are they kept for study or have they been processed for burial/disposal?
The human artifacts and specimens were acquired at significant cost; Stillstorm lost two ships in the process, so even she recognizes their value. Since the plan was for SG51 to return immediately to action, you can probably take an educated guess about where those artifacts and specimens are right now.

The Loroi aboard Tempest had more than a week to examine the 57 bodies which were recovered, and Beryl was certainly involved in this investigation. Many of the corpses were probably in poor condition, but there were surely enough that were sufficiently intact to give the examiners a sense of the shapes and sizes of typical humans of both genders.

Devices recovered would be limited to items that weren't tied down. Most of the data on these devices is probably encrypted, but even if it wasn't, I'm not sure the Loroi would be able to make very much of it in the time available. They have no human language or data format references to help them.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by icekatze »

hi hi
Arioch wrote:...you can probably take an educated guess about where those artifacts and specimens are right now.
I'm guessing the main cargo bay of the shuttle, but I suppose the Barsam courier or the resupply convoy are also legit options.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by orion1836 »

Arioch wrote:
Luge wrote:He's also a lot older than both of them.
Just to clarify: Tempo is more than twice Alex's age.
CF2 wrote:This may have been asked before but will the human dead from the Bellarmine be making any reappearances? Are they kept for study or have they been processed for burial/disposal?
The human artifacts and specimens were acquired at significant cost; Stillstorm lost two ships in the process, so even she recognizes their value. Since the plan was for SG51 to return immediately to action, you can probably take an educated guess about where those artifacts and specimens are right now.

The Loroi aboard Tempest had more than a week to examine the 57 bodies which were recovered, and Beryl was certainly involved in this investigation. Many of the corpses were probably in poor condition, but there were surely enough that were sufficiently intact to give the examiners a sense of the shapes and sizes of typical humans of both genders.

Devices recovered would be limited to items that weren't tied down. Most of the data on these devices is probably encrypted, but even if it wasn't, I'm not sure the Loroi would be able to make very much of it in the time available. They have no human language or data format references to help them.
Which brings up an interesting problem for the next few pages... Talon's comments seem to infer that the shuttle is not *landing* on the frigate, but rather docking with it to transfer passengers and cargo (else why would Stillstorm have to fish for it?). If the rendezvous is happening with limited time for them to get out of the system, and they are crossing an umbilical at speed, will they be able to move the cargo?

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by boldilocks »

icekatze wrote:
Arioch wrote:...you can probably take an educated guess about where those artifacts and specimens are right now.
I'm guessing the main cargo bay of the shuttle, but I suppose the Barsam courier or the resupply convoy are also legit options.
The Barsam courier isn't carrying the artifacts, judging by Mozin's statements here: http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider054.html

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Luge »

Arioch wrote:
Luge wrote:He's also a lot older than both of them.
Just to clarify: Tempo is more than twice Alex's age.
Ah, yes. I see it on the GURPS sheet now. Thanks for setting me straight.
Arioch wrote:The Loroi aboard Tempest had more than a week to examine the 57 bodies which were recovered, and Beryl was certainly involved in this investigation. Many of the corpses were probably in poor condition, but there were surely enough that were sufficiently intact to give the examiners a sense of the shapes and sizes of typical humans of both genders.
If this is the case, why is Beryl surprised at Jardin's explanation of the human male-female ratio on pages 37 to 39?

At best, the male-female ratio on the Bellarmine may have been 50-50, although from the images in the Prologue and the first few pages of Chapter 2, it's closer to 70-30 male-female. Beryl would know this based on the corpses recovered.

L.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

Luge wrote:
Arioch wrote:The Loroi aboard Tempest had more than a week to examine the 57 bodies which were recovered, and Beryl was certainly involved in this investigation. Many of the corpses were probably in poor condition, but there were surely enough that were sufficiently intact to give the examiners a sense of the shapes and sizes of typical humans of both genders.
If this is the case, why is Beryl surprised at Jardin's explanation of the human male-female ratio on pages 37 to 39?
That conversation took place while the recovery operation was still in progress. The week-or-so of analysis took place during the transit from Naam to Leido.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Siber »

The question would probably be worth asking anyway. The crew of your average Loroi warship wouldn't give you an accurate picture of their gender ratio, after all.
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by icekatze »

hi hi

For some reason, I thought I remembered a silhouette of a Barsam courier on the crossroads system map. I seem to be mistaken.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by entity2636 »

orion1836 wrote:Which brings up an interesting problem for the next few pages... Talon's comments seem to infer that the shuttle is not *landing* on the frigate, but rather docking with it to transfer passengers and cargo (else why would Stillstorm have to fish for it?). If the rendezvous is happening with limited time for them to get out of the system, and they are crossing an umbilical at speed, will they be able to move the cargo?
Indeed, the original plan probably was to dock, transfer passengers and any eventual cargo to Clearbrook and fly the Highland back to SG51 with a different crew. The Highland is a very large shuttle, about twice the width and almost twice the length of a standard shuttle (the Slipper class) so there is probably not enough room in Clearbrook's hangar bay for it even the bay was empty.

Now plans have changed and they appear to go for quick docking, possibly while still at cruise speed, evacuate and jettison the shuttle, due to Highland being out of fuel after the emergency burn. They may not have the ability to move any cargo if there is any in the first place.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by inxsi »

Do the Loroi perform any investigation of military accidents or deaths in training? Does it differ from the diral bands to the graduated military units? Does any of this change if a Mizol was involved?

Is there any loss of status for being involved in a training accident?

Do shipboard Loroi military members have personal possessions that they can bring on board? If so, what would be some examples? Would the lower-ranking members have personal possessions?

Do the Loroi ever get acne? Or does this get dealt with by their high-level technology?

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

inxsi wrote:Do the Loroi perform any investigation of military accidents or deaths in training?
It depends on the circumstances, who was killed, and local customs and laws. For the most part, what happens in the diral bands stays in the diral bands; even if one trainee outright kills another, this is often tolerated as part of the training regime and justice is expected to be handled by the diral group itself. The children are still minors, and so have limited legal rights. The notable exception would be if there was suspicion of conspiracy or outside interference, such as deliberately targeting a child as an act of retribution against a parent.
inxsi wrote:Does it differ from the diral bands to the graduated military units?
Adult warriors do have rights, and fatalities in non-combat situations usually require an investigation. Duelling is illegal, though it does occasionally happen anyway. A warrior who is attacked is considered to have the right to defend herself.
inxsi wrote: Does any of this change if a Mizol was involved?
I can't think of a reason why it might. Mizol are not exempt from ordinary rules, if that's what you mean.
inxsi wrote:Is there any loss of status for being involved in a training accident?
Depends on whether one was personally responsible for the accident, how much of an "accident" it was, and how many were killed. If your training ship sank and you were the only survivor, this would probably carry a significant stigma.
inxsi wrote:Do shipboard Loroi military members have personal possessions that they can bring on board? If so, what would be some examples? Would the lower-ranking members have personal possessions?
Personal wealth for members of the Loroi warrior class is subject to strict limitations: warriors are prohibited from earning income from any source other than the military, and personal property is mostly limited to items which the warrior can keep with her. Shipboard crew will be under an additional mass limitation, so most Loroi warriors will not own anything more than what can be stored in a footlocker equivalent. More on this in this discussion.

Examples of personal possessions could include: personal grooming items (esp. combs), jewelry (mostly limited to items worn in the hair or on the head), tools, weapons, recordings, documents, musical instruments, toys, games, trophies, crafted items, heirlooms, gifts, loot, personal keepsakes, and rare food items or other consumables.
inxsi wrote:Do the Loroi ever get acne? Or does this get dealt with by their high-level technology?
Acne is an immune over-response to a particular bacterial infection, so I don't think it would be common among Loroi the way it is among humans. Various forms of skin inflammation are probably very treatable by Loroi medicine.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by icekatze »

hi hi

Speaking of infection. I would think that being engineered, the Loroi would be pretty resilient to infection, but were there ever any noteworthy plagues to strike the Loro while their medical technology was not so advanced?

I suppose the Umiak might employ bio-weapons, but that's probably a different can of worms.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

icekatze wrote:Speaking of infection. I would think that being engineered, the Loroi would be pretty resilient to infection, but were there ever any noteworthy plagues to strike the Loro while their medical technology was not so advanced?
There were very few on Deinar or Taben, the native microorganisms of which were very primitive compared to the prospective alien hosts. Perrein has an ancient and highly sophisticated native biome, and so plagues were much more common.

More on this in the previous discussion.

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