Well of Souls Forums

And to not wear too much from the topic at hand: power is vey relative, just like in real life. The Swiss, for instance, are terribly difficult to invade, but you can't say they are more "powerful" than say Russia or France. So it's a matter of: 1) power projection 2) technology 3) numbers Power pro...

Would you prefer racially homogenous? They are a people of a common genetic ancestry of a relatively small people in a limited geographical area. And I can assure you there is a swiss people. I think we need a definition of the word "ethnicity" and "people". An ethnicity is a bunch of persons with ...

Arioch, I see your California, and raise you Switzerland (though, even by Swiss standards, Cali seems nuts. The power to recall judges? I might be mistaken, but Ted Bundy was considered a decent member of society by everyone around him...). The swiss work it out by being extremely ethnically homoge...

Ooooh, this thread can go bad in so many ways... Luckily people here are civilised for the most part :) . Arioch, I see your California, and raise you Switzerland (though, even by Swiss standards, Cali seems nuts. The power to recall judges? I might be mistaken, but Ted Bundy was considered a decent...

Some other points: 1) Soooo...the Historians can use a form of communication that is technological and non-radiative... How much are ya' willin' to bet it's superluminal as well? 2) Sooo.... is the thing's brain inside the vessel, or inside the pad? Is that Pad a mere fragment, meant to imitate a pr...

I take it the pocket historian is relaying info using the container, rather than the pad. Because the pad can only communicate using radio waves, which would be detected. Point 2: The historian did not just analyse the memory of the Pad, he reprogrammed it. So simple atomic analysis is not enough, h...

We'll see when we learn more about the Umiak nation. But they started the war prepared and with a massive, succesful surprise invasion. Yet despite that and all the ships and torpedoes they field, the war's been a draw. So they can't be that much more powerful than the Loroi, in which situation the...

And wouldn't ya know it, Mr. Bucknell just published his newest iteration on the nuclear thermal turbo and associated air breathing chemical rocket: https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2019/04/turbo-rocket-a-single-stage-to-orbit-air-breathing-rocket-spaceaccess2019.html He's also answering questions in t...

By my (rough) calculations about equivalent to 20 km on Earth, or twice the pressure found in the Challenger Deep. High as hell, but doable. Might wanna watch what instruments you put on the thing, though.

EDIT: In short, if you have something that leaks radiation you have no better place to dump it than the bottom of the ocean. 'points towards above Europa mission' Exactly. Use the reactor to melt your way through the ice, while bathing the trailing submersible in hard gamma (it's trailing close beh...

The high specific impulse of air breathing engines is exaggerated by a factor of 2 to begin with, in short because it's only that high at low speeds and falls off roughly in inverse proportion to speed. On top of this, you need both a good hypersonic L/D ratio and good acceleration (high T/W) or yo...

Well, it IS an idea... never said it was a good one :P . To quote Bucknell himself: "Exploding is not a thing with a monopropellant rocket (how often do aircraft explode?). As for fuel containment/reactor structure – if the rocket were to have a RUD event the core/shielding is largely metallic with ...

So, I've just had a reeeeally crazy idea I've been mulling over for about two weeks, and I'd like to pass it by here. Firstly, I started from the concept of the Nuclear Thermal Turbo rocket, an idea for a Air Augmented Nuclear Thermal Rocket, that uses air-breathing propulsion to lofts itself out of...

So... the Orgus mentioned that the Loroi were telepathic. Did they also mention that some Loroi were telekinetic?

Mostly agree, except on one point: I'm not convinced that having a few extra super-smart people is really that much of a decisive advantage. Unless you plan on forcing ALL of your people to have gene-enhanced babies... Breed 100-1000, and all a country needs is a single one of them to become a Von B...

"Bedding?"

Insert Beryl's wide smile here.

First name could mean either "beloved" in Hebrew, "martial" in Latin, or "of the sea" in Greek.
Second name is easiest and simply means stalwart.
Family name means "of the harvests".

So together, they might mean "beloved stalwart of the harvests" or "martial stalwart of the harvests".

After watching the latest Tier Zoo vid I have to ask, do the Loroi retain the mammalian diving reflex? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammalian_diving_reflex Are they mammals? Could we even describe them as such, given they belong to an entirely different biosphere, with presumably different biologi...

No, I'm not dead, just kept by real life problems from continuing right now... Too tired to write. Will carry on at the first opportunity.

Hmmm....I thought mothers had little input in the raising of children (which was mostly communal from a certain point). So would the word "mother" truly denote authority?