The ship
descriptions for the released games are pulled mainly from the fiction on the
official site, written chiefly by Marcus Skyler, with
additional information found in the manual and the game
dialogue itself. Analysis
and summary by the Shipyards staff are included separately
from the official fiction, and in yellow type. Original
fictional descriptions and names written by Shipyards staff
are marked in pale blue type. Preview
quotes from developers or journalists are listed in white,
enclosed in quotes, and usually have the source listed with
the quote.
For a variety of reasons, there
are a few conflicts with the official fictions. The main
conflict has been the ability in Homeworld to choose either
the Kushan or Taiidan as the “Exile” player race.
Although Relic has since made official that the Kushan are
now the Exiles, the early fiction was written with either
race in mind. As a result, the Taiidan vessels have
Kharakian names and some of the Taiidan ship fictions make references to the
Exiles’
journey. Newer fiction tries to explain the Taiidan ship
names as Hiigaran intelligence aliases (in the same way that Allied
intelligence gave English names to Russian warcraft such as
"Flogger" and "Foxbat"). Still, there are some passages that
don’t make sense, and so I have done what I can to edit
them out.
Another
issue is the variable spelling of the many-voweled names in
the game. For example, the name of the Homeworld itself is
spelled three different ways within the subtitled game dialogue:
‘Hiigara,’ ‘Higaara,’ and ‘Hiigaara.” Similar
problems are encountered with names such as ‘Kuun-lan’ /
‘Kun-laan’ and ‘Khar-Selim’ / ‘Kar-Suelim.’ I
have done what I can to check with the official sources
(notably Marcus) about the correct spellings of these names,
and tried to use them consistently.
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