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On Deinar, miros were sometimes used to located food (kind of like the way pigs are used to located truffles), but miros usually too stubborn and ill-tempered to be trained to scent something else.
In time periods in which the use of animals was valuable, smuggling of contraband or terrorist bombings were not really a thing. In the modern period, the Loroi have mechanical detection tools which are a lot easier to use than animals, but their main tool to find out if someone is smuggling contraband or weaponry is to ask them, "Are you smuggling contraband or weaponry?"
)Moia means era, age, or epoch, and like those terms, it does not refer to a specific length of time.
By "honorable" I meant the unspoken agreement not to involve civilians and the very important matter of not harming males. After all, bombs tend to maim and kill indiscriminately.Arioch wrote: ↑Mon Sep 06, 2021 8:37 pmIn time periods in which the use of animals was valuable, smuggling of contraband or terrorist bombings were not really a thing. In the modern period, the Loroi have mechanical detection tools which are a lot easier to use than animals, but their main tool to find out if someone is smuggling contraband or weaponry is to ask them, "Are you smuggling contraband or weaponry?"
I think there's a distinction to be made between ethical behaviors and the personal honor that militarist societies are often obsessed with (perhaps better referred to as "face"). In our history, the cultures that placed the highest importance on personal honor were the ones that committed the most unethical acts. If you're so obsessed with saving face that you're willing to commit suicide to avoid being shamed, then there's probably very little that you wouldn't do to someone else.
(I also think that most of our codes of "honorable" behavior like chivalry or bushido are ahistorical; they came about after the period to which they were supposed to apply as a romantic view of the past. (Example: bushido wasn't codified until the Edo period after the internal warfare was over, and the only fighting that was left was personal duels between samurai.))
I don't think the modern mainstream Loroi culture is one that is obsessed with personal honor, but we have only to look at their history to know that there's very little in terms of ethical behavior that's out of their scope, and as far as sabotage or subterfuge, well... they have a whole military caste that specializes in this.
True, but cats are
I was just trying to come up with a flavor term that would have the same meaning as a century. Perhaps something like the age where a Loroi is considered an elder/matron? About 250 to 300 years, or maybe 8 times the Semoset cycle? Do the Loroi have/had such a concept?
In the Western culture that became dominant on Deinar and forms the basis of the interstellar Loroi civilization, wars were explicitly fought between armies in the field, and attacking a city or pulling your troops back into the city to use the civilians as shields were considered war crimes. These ethics didn't survive well into the modern era of total war, in which civilian workers are a strategic part of the war effort and can't easily be ignored. Despite their reputation for genocide, the Loroi don't like attacking non-military targets.Cthulhu wrote: ↑Mon Sep 06, 2021 9:56 pmBy "honorable" I meant the unspoken agreement not to involve civilians and the very important matter of not harming males. After all, bombs tend to maim and kill indiscriminately.
I have to agree that most other "cowardly" or "dishonorable", yet targeted acts like assassination, kidnapping and blackmail should've been (and still are?) quite common.
"Century" just means one hundred; if you want to say 100 years, then just say "100 years." Though the Trade numeral systen is base 8, so Loroi probably wouldn't use a base 10 number like 100.Cthulhu wrote: ↑Mon Sep 06, 2021 9:56 pmI was just trying to come up with a flavor term that would have the same meaning as a century. Perhaps something like the age where a Loroi is considered an elder/matron? About 250 to 300 years, or maybe 8 times the Semoset cycle? Do the Loroi have/had such a concept?
Generalized contempt for the people who fulfill the lowest steps of a society's pyramid of needs is distressingly common.
The thing is, if we assume that half of loroi population or less is civilians, then that means that each time one country takes over the other population is essentialy halved or worse.Arioch wrote: ↑Mon Sep 06, 2021 11:37 pmIn the Western culture that became dominant on Deinar and forms the basis of the interstellar Loroi civilization, wars were explicitly fought between armies in the field, and attacking a city or pulling your troops back into the city to use the civilians as shields were considered war crimes. These ethics didn't survive well into the modern era of total war, in which civilian workers are a strategic part of the war effort and can't easily be ignored. Despite their reputation for genocide, the Loroi don't like attacking non-military targets.Cthulhu wrote: ↑Mon Sep 06, 2021 9:56 pmBy "honorable" I meant the unspoken agreement not to involve civilians and the very important matter of not harming males. After all, bombs tend to maim and kill indiscriminately.
I have to agree that most other "cowardly" or "dishonorable", yet targeted acts like assassination, kidnapping and blackmail should've been (and still are?) quite common.
Terrorism of the kind against which bomb sniffing animals would be useful is not normally a tactic of the military... it's the resort of dissidents or marginalized nations.
Why do you assume that intra-loroi conflicts were solved by the complete extermination of the losing side's military caste?Zorg56 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 09, 2021 12:20 pmThe thing is, if we assume that half of loroi population or less is civilians, then that means that each time one country takes over the other population is essentialy halved or worse.
It dosent matter if they will see your actions as a warcrime if you are gona die regardless if you lose, so you will burn everything that can burn, salt the land, posion all water wells, mobilize civilians etc.
I dont remember where exactly.gaerzi wrote: ↑Thu Sep 09, 2021 3:03 pmWhy do you assume that intra-loroi conflicts were solved by the complete extermination of the losing side's military caste?Zorg56 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 09, 2021 12:20 pmThe thing is, if we assume that half of loroi population or less is civilians, then that means that each time one country takes over the other population is essentialy halved or worse.
It dosent matter if they will see your actions as a warcrime if you are gona die regardless if you lose, so you will burn everything that can burn, salt the land, posion all water wells, mobilize civilians etc.
You're assuming that all wars end in the total defeat and occupation of one side. Most wars (both human and Loroi) end with a treaty in which the "losing" nation makes concessions but continues to exist. There were plenty of savage wars that ended in the total destruction of one side (both human and Loroi), either because one side fought to the last man or were put to the sword after surrendering, but this was not the norm. The farther back in Loroi history, the more savage the resolution to wars tended to be, but the more recent the conflict was, the more ordered and ritualized the conduct of war became.Zorg56 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 09, 2021 12:20 pmThe thing is, if we assume that half of loroi population or less is civilians, then that means that each time one country takes over the other population is essentialy halved or worse.
It dosent matter if they will see your actions as a warcrime if you are gona die regardless if you lose, so you will burn everything that can burn, salt the land, posion all water wells, mobilize civilians etc.
As differently as different individual humans would react to unfamiliar animals.Keklas Rekobah wrote: ↑Fri Sep 10, 2021 8:45 pmHow well would the average Loroi get along with Terran pets like birds, cats, dogs, rodents, et cetera?
So somewhere between "Aww, can I hold him?" and "Get that THING away from me!".Arioch wrote: ↑Fri Sep 10, 2021 8:47 pmAs differently as different individual humans would react to unfamiliar animals.Keklas Rekobah wrote: ↑Fri Sep 10, 2021 8:45 pmHow well would the average Loroi get along with Terran pets like birds, cats, dogs, rodents, et cetera?
