Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

[RedDwarfIV]

It's called "taimat." It's stable as long as it is kept superfluid, at a very low temperature. In an emergency, the fuel can be vented into space, where it will boil and irregularly decay -- which gives off a lot of energy and radiation -- but which is usually preferable to having it explode inside the ship.

Ah, sorry. I did recall that its name had some Homeworld connection, but couldn't find it in the insider articles. Sounds like very dangerous and hard to produce stuff, so I quess one would not like to live next to a taimat refinery or even in the same system.

Supposedly it's easier to produce than normal antimatter.

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=22962
Going by this, if you had, say, a huge solar farm on Mercury's equator, with a huge number of antimatter factories at either pole, you could probably produce kilograms, tons or more of antimatter every day. It'd be a big project, but I'm thinking about having such a thing in my book, as a source for the antimatter that FTL couriers use.

[cacambo43]

The level of detail and work put into that story amazes me.

Yes, a lot of drawing-hours, to be sure

CJSF

[Arioch]

In the current war situation, destroyers and smaller will usually have the equivalent of a Mallas in command. In peacetime, with a surplus of personnel, nearly every ship has a Torrai captain.

How long would it take in the current war situtation for a Loroi to become Mallas?

Promotion is based (ideally) on merit rather than time of service, so it varies. Rune-Laurel is over 100 years old but is still a Soroin Mallas. Ashrain is a Torrai Torret at age 25, so she would have had to become a Mallas around age 21. I think that's a best-case scenario for an officer who entered service post-Semoset.

Okay, I have to admit that I wasn't expecting an answer to this one. The level of detail and work put into that story amazes me. However, is it usual that Listel cast members are named after minerals or just a coincidence?

Just a coincidence.

Almost every character that appears in more than one panel in the comic has to have at least a code name associated with him or her, to reference in the script and to associate with a visual design.

[Hālian]

What would the virtual windows on the bridge look like if they broke, lost power, or for some other reason stopped displaying images? Probably the same grey as the other walls?

[GeoModder]

What would the virtual windows on the bridge look like if they broke, lost power, or for some other reason stopped displaying images? Probably the same grey as the other walls?

I assume they just wouldn't be there anymore?

[RedDwarfIV]

What would the virtual windows on the bridge look like if they broke, lost power, or for some other reason stopped displaying images? Probably the same grey as the other walls?

I assume they just wouldn't be there anymore?

Depends on whether they're screens or holograms. If holograms, you'd see walls. If screens, you'd probably get matte black or very dark grey.

[Arioch]

What would the virtual windows on the bridge look like if they broke, lost power, or for some other reason stopped displaying images? Probably the same grey as the other walls?

I assume they just wouldn't be there anymore?

Depends on whether they're screens or holograms. If holograms, you'd see walls. If screens, you'd probably get matte black or very dark grey.

Either way they'd be black or very dark gray; a true hologram would be translucent. It's an oblate spherical chamber with paneled metal walls, with each panel having a number of emitters on it.

[RedDwarfIV]

Either way they'd be black or very dark gray; a true hologram would be translucent. It's an oblate spherical chamber with paneled metal walls, with each panel having a number of emitters on it.

I'm guessing screens then. I haven't seen any holograms in Outsider that had more than a few colours. The bridge tactical display and the Historian construct's emitter are all I can think of. Screens, meanwhile, we know can show all colours.

[dragoongfa]

Either way they'd be black or very dark gray; a true hologram would be translucent. It's an oblate spherical chamber with paneled metal walls, with each panel having a number of emitters on it.

I'm guessing screens then. I haven't seen any holograms in Outsider that had more than a few colours. The bridge tactical display and the Historian construct's emitter are all I can think of. Screens, meanwhile, we know can show all colours.

The Hologram screens for the Barsam and the Loroi officers have plenty of colors

[RedDwarfIV]

Either way they'd be black or very dark gray; a true hologram would be translucent. It's an oblate spherical chamber with paneled metal walls, with each panel having a number of emitters on it.

I'm guessing screens then. I haven't seen any holograms in Outsider that had more than a few colours. The bridge tactical display and the Historian construct's emitter are all I can think of. Screens, meanwhile, we know can show all colours.

The Hologram screens for the Barsam and the Loroi officers have plenty of colors

Huh. So they do.

... but then, I don't see any black screen behind them. Are they not 'true' holograms?

[EDIT] On http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider064.html the Barsam's screen is shown to be translucent from behind. But if so, then we should see the bridge external display coming through it.

[icekatze]

hi hi

It might also be worth pointing out that the Threat Well also displays a variety of colors.

[RedDwarfIV]

hi hi

It might also be worth pointing out that the Threat Well also displays a variety of colors.

That's what I was referring to as the Bridge Tactical Display. It has a few colours, but hardly the whole spectrum.

[dragoongfa]

Huh. So they do.

... but then, I don't see any black screen behind them. Are they not 'true' holograms?

[EDIT] On http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider064.html the Barsam's screen is shown to be translucent from behind. But if so, then we should see the bridge external display coming through it.

Could be working like a one way mirror. Those behind it can look through it, those in front cannot.

[RedDwarfIV]

Huh. So they do.

... but then, I don't see any black screen behind them. Are they not 'true' holograms?

[EDIT] On http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider064.html the Barsam's screen is shown to be translucent from behind. But if so, then we should see the bridge external display coming through it.

Could be working like a one way mirror. Those behind it can look through it, those in front cannot.

Those require the room people look out from to be dark.

[Grayhome]

Hey Arioch, you mentioned that there is a rare religion within the Loroi state, could you explain that religion in detail? Beliefs, rituals, ceremonies etc.

Is the Loroi Emperor religious?

[Mr Bojangles]

hi hi

It might also be worth pointing out that the Threat Well also displays a variety of colors.

Huh, so that's what the tactical display is called...

Huh. So they do.

... but then, I don't see any black screen behind them. Are they not 'true' holograms?

[EDIT] On http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider064.html the Barsam's screen is shown to be translucent from behind. But if so, then we should see the bridge external display coming through it.

Could be working like a one way mirror. Those behind it can look through it, those in front cannot.

Or it could be that when viewed from a distance the translucency is much less apparent since whatever is behind the hologram will blend with it.

[Arioch]

Hey Arioch, you mentioned that there is a rare religion within the Loroi state, could you explain that religion in detail? Beliefs, rituals, ceremonies etc.

It is not a modern, currently practiced religion. There was a cult in the ancient highlands of Perrein (above the canopy of the monster fungoid forests) that worshipped the sun, and at various points in Perrein history developed into what we would recognize as a full-blown religion, complete with a priesthood, temples, idols, rituals, animal sacrifices, etc. It waxed and waned over the millennia with the rise and fall of individual city-states, but largely died out before the industrial age. There was an attempt to revive the trappings of that culture by one of the highland city-states in the TL6/TL7 era (in a sort of way analogous to how the Fascists of the 30's tried to revive and co-opt the trapping of ancient Rome), but those folks were mostly wiped out in the atomic wars that followed. You can find a few modern Loroi who claim to follow some form of this religion, but they're like people today who claim to worship druidism or wiccanism, in that what they're actually practicing is a modern cult that they've mostly made up themselves.

Is the Loroi Emperor religious?

Not in the sense that I think you mean.

Mainstream Loroi culture is not religious in the sense that we think of, as in worshipping a supernatural deity or deities. There are elements of Loroi culture that have pseudo-religious qualities, such as the reverence for ancestors and the practice of idolizing them in the retelling of their heroic tales, and in the philosopher "priesthood" that is built around these "rituals." Greywind is a part of this mainstream culture. As to how deeply she buys into the deeper implications of this philosophy... I don't think it would be appropriate to get into the personal inner motivations of characters, especially ones we haven't even been introduced to yet.

[icekatze]

hi hi

I don't know what its official designation is, but there are probably a number of different names that could apply to it. Threat well, tactical display, sensor globe, etc.

It can display red, green, yellow, and blue, and display them in gradations. Why would there be any reason to think that it couldn't display a full spectrum of colors?

[RedDwarfIV]

hi hi

I don't know what its official designation is, but there are probably a number of different names that could apply to it. Threat well, tactical display, sensor globe, etc.

It can display red, green, yellow, and blue, and display them in gradations. Why would there be any reason to think that it couldn't display a full spectrum of colors?

Maybe it could, but I haven't seen it do that. The possible many-colour holograms as shown are at odds with how Arioch just described them. All the console hologram displays are blue and white only.

[icekatze]

hi hi

Did you miss the display on Page 59 that has blue, red, green and yellow on it?

The comic itself is being displayed on a computer monitor, with all available colors being reproduced by combinations of red, green, and blue.