Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

[SVlad]

How will humans be of service?

Deinar needs men!

[Hālian]

Deinar needs dads, even.

[elorran]

http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2002-07-20

[Luge]

Hello!

I came back to Outsider after a long time away to see if it was still here. I'm pleased that there has been some progress! I've been watching on and off since the early days.

I have a few comments questions and requests. I've searched a bit for and found some answers, but please forgive me if these questions have been answered.

What, exactly, is the Well of Souls and what does it look like? I came here originally to visit Homeworld Shipyard many, many (many) years ago, so I believe there's a connection there. If there is, it's been lost in the mists of time. I know Arioch has mentioned it exists in the Outsider universe somewhere. So what it is in Outsider?

Outsider Page 26:
Why is Fireblade the leader of the interrogation team, and do the other two have names or titles yet?
It would seem logical that someone like Tempo would be more suited to reading telepathic information from a subject rather than Fireblade, who is more likely to accidentally squish their cranium. Tempo certainly has more powerful and more subtle telepathic skills on her GURPS sheet, including telesense, confusion and others which would be useful for interrogation.

Outsider Page 32:
No one else think it funny that Loroi "Do not do these things" signs are the same as 20th century human ones?

Outsider Page 36:
Beryl looks huge in the first panel! #justsaying

Outsider Page 72 and 101: I really like page 101 102, and 103. For a race that don't do physical contact, the Loroi seem fine with getting into Alex's area of personal space. See also Beryl on Page 72. Is this artistic impression or is her curious nature driving her to examine him at every opportunity? Seems like Fireblade doesn't need to be so close, given she could punch him in the stomach from the other end of the room.

Page 73: This is a really good page. In particular, I like the part with Stillstorm in the bottom left. Stillstorm's features are a lot sharper than most Loroi. It gives her a "wicked witch of the west" kind of look. Could someone please remind me why Nova (in charge of Winter Tide) has a different uniform to the others? I think I saw something about her being brevited up temporarily?
Why does Ashrain get a fancy earpiece?

Page 76: Stillstorm gestures a lot. See also page 22. Do Loroi not telepathically say "over there" much?

Page 84: Was Winter Tide lost with all hands?

General
Speaking of which, are some of Tempo's skills blacked out on her GURPS sheet because she's lost them or to avoid revealing too much at this stage?
How bad is Perrein cuisine by human standards? Are we talking about eating snails and squid tentacles or are we in Galaxy Quest territory, consuming live blood ticks in acid?

Thanks, and keep it up!

[dragoongfa]

Hi Luge, welcome back

I think that I may be able to answer some of your questions:

Why is Fireblade the leader of the interrogation team, and do the other two have names or titles yet?

Fireblade is the ranking Teidar of Tempest and is probably older than the other two Teidar as well. I am certain that one of the two Teidar is 'Mothwing' (The purple haired perhaps?)

Tempo is certainly occupied elsewhere and it looks like she didn't even know about Alex until after the interrogation, which means that she was either somewhere which precludes telepathic contact with the rest of the ship or was sleeping and no one saw fit to wake her up. I am leaning towards the first scenario and that the whole interrogation was something orchestrated by Stillstorm who wanted answers here and now.

No one else think it funny that Loroi "Do not do these things" signs are the same as 20th century human ones?

It is a fact that certain human mannerisms are universal, the heightening of ones voice is universally a sign of anger for an example and waving is a sign of friendly intentions. It stands to reason that certain mannerisms are common with the almost identical Loroi.

Beryl looks huge in the first panel! #justsaying

She is closer to the POV and Alex is on a lower plane.

For a race that don't do physical contact, the Loroi seem fine with getting into Alex's area of personal space. See also Beryl on Page 72. Is this artistic impression or is her curious nature driving her to examine him at every opportunity? Seems like Fireblade doesn't need to be so close, given she could punch him in the stomach from the other end of the room.

Beryl is described as a xenophile, extremely curious and with a bad reputation, I think that she doesn't care about the usual taboo in regards to Alex. I am almost certain that Fireblade has been ordered to keep an extremely tight leash on the Alien who is intruding in the bridge during a fleet battle. Her being close and monitoring him could also be interpreted as an attempt to find a telepathic echo from him now that he is awake and 'not resisting'.

EDIT:

Could someone please remind me why Nova (in charge of Winter Tide) has a different uniform to the others? I think I saw something about her being brevited up temporarily?
Why does Ashrain get a fancy earpiece?

Stillstorm and the other officers are of the Torrai caste which is the leadership caste of the Loroi military. Nova is still a Soroin in command of Winter Tide, the Torrai in charge of Van squadron had her ship damaged and had to leave the field, leaving Van squad to Nova.

I think Ashrain's earpiece is some form of an amplifier.

Stillstorm gestures a lot. See also page 22. Do Loroi not telepathically say "over there" much?

The Loroi are a very visual heavy species, it stands to reason that hand gestures play a similar role to their communications with ours.

Was Winter Tide lost with all hands?

Antimatter explosions don't leave anything behind.

[Arioch]

What, exactly, is the Well of Souls and what does it look like? I came here originally to visit Homeworld Shipyard many, many (many) years ago, so I believe there's a connection there. If there is, it's been lost in the mists of time. I know Arioch has mentioned it exists in the Outsider universe somewhere. So what it is in Outsider?

In Outsider, the Well of Souls is a stellar remnant located at the edge of the Pleiades bubble, spinward of Historian territory. It is named after a location in Barsam religious mythology.

Why is Fireblade the leader of the interrogation team, and do the other two have names or titles yet? It would seem logical that someone like Tempo would be more suited to reading telepathic information from a subject rather than Fireblade, who is more likely to accidentally squish their cranium. Tempo certainly has more powerful and more subtle telepathic skills on her GURPS sheet, including telesense, confusion and others which would be useful for interrogation.

Fireblade was the senior of the three Teidar present (the other two are Razorthorn (purple hair) and Mothwing (yellow-green hair).

Tempo is certainly better suited to telepathic interrogation, not to mention being the chief diplomat. The fact that she was not present during Alex's first interview should be viewed as significant.

For a race that don't do physical contact, the Loroi seem fine with getting into Alex's area of personal space. See also Beryl on Page 72. Is this artistic impression or is her curious nature driving her to examine him at every opportunity?

It's both. This also applies to your other questions about Loroi gestures: since most of the Loroi characters don't speak, body language is an important storytelling tool to give an insight into the Loroi characters. Beryl and Tempo both get up in Alex's face at times, but hopefully the reader gets the sense that it's for different reasons.

Could someone please remind me why Nova (in charge of Winter Tide) has a different uniform to the others? I think I saw something about her being brevited up temporarily?

Normally a ship captain is inducted into the Torrai class (red uniforms), but in wartime there are a lot of field promotions and not always time for the formal ceremonies. Nova was a Soroin Torret rather than a Torrai Torret -- same rank, different class -- implying that it was a recent promotion.

Why does Ashrain get a fancy earpiece?

That's a psi amplifier. Ashrain has some telekinetic abilities.

Stillstorm gestures a lot. See also page 22. Do Loroi not telepathically say "over there" much?

No reason they can't do both. Human beings often gesture when speaking, and Loroi often gesture when sending.

Was Winter Tide lost with all hands?

Yes.

Speaking of which, are some of Tempo's skills blacked out on her GURPS sheet because she's lost them or to avoid revealing too much at this stage?

Some are spoilerific, and some are GURPS-isms that don't match perfectly with the Outsider setting.

How bad is Perrein cuisine by human standards? Are we talking about eating snails and squid tentacles or are we in Galaxy Quest territory, consuming live blood ticks in acid?

More squids and snails; no live meat, but some raw meat.

Thanks, and keep it up!

I will, and thank you.

[Hālian]

Where does a loroi uniform derive the power necessary to luminesce when its wearer is on duty? or does it use non-electrical luminescence?

What, if it's not spoilerific, is the significance of Eighth Dawn's name?

What are the differences between the earpiece- and diadem-style psionic amplifiers?

Will we learn about what gave Beryl her reputation?

About what temperature is the average loroi air conditioner set to, since we set ours to a level (74° AIUI) that's tropical by their standards?

[Arioch]

Where does a loroi uniform derive the power necessary to luminesce when its wearer is on duty? or does it use non-electrical luminescence?

It has a battery.

What, if it's not spoilerific, is the significance of Eighth Dawn's name?

There is presumably a story behind it, but I haven't worked it out.

What are the differences between the earpiece- and diadem-style psionic amplifiers?

Wearable amplifiers must be customized to the user; the variations in shape are mostly due to those customizations.

Will we learn about what gave Beryl her reputation?

Not sure which reputation you mean, but she will tell some of her history.

About what temperature is the average loroi air conditioner set to, since we set ours to a level (74° AIUI) that's tropical by their standards?

That would depend on the preferences of the individual; Loroi accustomed to warmer climes would probably not mind hotter temperatures. Heat tolerance is about keeping your body cool, and with a lower core temperature and less heat generation, the Loroi are better at this than humans. The ship interiors are kept cool (as low as 50°F) to save energy, but Loroi have no problem operating in higher temperatures, especially if the individuals are accustomed to it.

[Tamri]

That would depend on the preferences of the individual; Loroi accustomed to warmer climes would probably not mind hotter temperatures. Heat tolerance is about keeping your body cool, and with a lower core temperature and less heat generation, the Loroi are better at this than humans. The ship interiors are kept cool (as low as 50°F) to save energy, but Loroi have no problem operating in higher temperatures, especially if the individuals are accustomed to it.

A strange statement. The space ship is easier to heat than the other way around. In such circumstances, to maintain a lower temperature will conversely require great effort.

[Turrosh Mak]

A strange statement. The space ship is easier to heat than the other way around. In such circumstances, to maintain a lower temperature will conversely require great effort.

Tamri is correct. Once you have insulated your ship against outside temperatures, getting rid of heat generated inside is the big concern. If you want it cool, you have to run your heat exchangers harder.

[saint of m]

A strange statement. The space ship is easier to heat than the other way around. In such circumstances, to maintain a lower temperature will conversely require great effort.

Tamri is correct. Once you have insulated your ship against outside temperatures, getting rid of heat generated inside is the big concern. If you want it cool, you have to run your heat exchangers harder.

Wouldn't that make you a target though? I know I mostly working on Mass Effect Science here, but space is not very insulated, so a sudden increase in heat in a particular area might get the sensors or no?

[Tamri]

Wouldn't that make you a target though? I know I mostly working on Mass Effect Science here, but space is not very insulated, so a sudden increase in heat in a particular area might get the sensors or no?

The problem is that the ship suspended in a vacuum it's an insulated system and in closed system entropy can only increase. The ship is constantly heated at least by the crew and by the working of the filling. A reset this heat is possible only emitting. That is why the ship is easier to heat than the freeze - there is always a warm and to cool it must be quickly reset.

[dragoongfa]

Actually artificial heating is needed after a certain amount of time, one of Apollo 13's issues that nearly proved fatal to the passengers was the lack of heating for their cabin due to the loss of power.

Heating is shed slowly in space but it is shed, it just needs a few days for something to reach noticeably colder temperatures (36C to 0C). Reaching absolute zero temperatures takes a couple of months.

[Tamri]

Actually artificial heating is needed after a certain amount of time, one of Apollo 13's issues that nearly proved fatal to the passengers was the lack of heating for their cabin due to the loss of power.

Heating is shed slowly in space but it is shed, it just needs a few days for something to reach noticeably colder temperatures (36C to 0C). Reaching absolute zero temperatures takes a couple of months.

The problem is scale. Apollo 13 was the count capsule with a low-power electronics and passive energy sources, half de-energized to the same. On the spacecraft in question, the radiation alone engines and reactors without problems can provide impressive positive thermal balance of the entire ship. But there are also powerful electronics, sensors, some elements of the LSS is also good warm all construction. And in combat the mite contribute tools and EWS and JS, and the fact that all of the above begins to operate at full capacity. So freeze on your warship is impossible, where probably the opposite problem.


Artificial heating may need to constructions like the same Apollo: rescue capsule, short-range mosquitoes, shuttles with a minimum of active equipment on board, etc. Not on the normal spaceship.

[Krulle]

Likely you will always need both in a spaceship.
The "thermal roll" is not without reason. With large spaceships that may become unpractical/unwanted, especially when all sensitive sensor arrays are fully extended.

[dragoongfa]

That depends on the heat that is emanated from all of the equipment, anti-matter reactors for example may not produce as much heat as people may expect nor do we have to take for granted how heat producing their electronics are.

A little more than decade or so ago CPUs had the nasty habit of regularly going up to 80 to 100 degrees Celsius when stressed, one could practically bake an egg on an Intel CPU of that time. Now the norm is around 70 when stressed, still hot but far cooler than what it was a few CPU generations ago.

At tech level 11 we have to take into account the possibility of the equipment running cooler than now and thus its background heat radiance may not be enough to provide heat for entire ships. However if there is a heavy heat producer things may be tricky for the life support systems to evenly distribute the heat throughout the ship. As a rule of thumb if it took far more energy to spread the heat around than to vent it and have life support take care of it then spreading the heat throughout the ship is a no go.

Heat dissipation in battle however, that is when things become interesting as weapons have to be cooled 'here and now' in order to remain operational.

[Tamri]

Likely you will always need both in a spaceship.
The "thermal roll" is not without reason. With large spaceships that may become unpractical/unwanted, especially when all sensitive sensor arrays are fully extended.

Ships emit not only the IR so simply reduce heat radiation not enough for stealth. Not to mention the fact that the RD just can not be unnoticed.

SpoilerShow

That depends on the heat that is emanated from all of the equipment, anti-matter reactors for example may not produce as much heat as people may expect nor do we have to take for granted how heat producing their electronics are.

A little more than decade or so ago CPUs had the nasty habit of regularly going up to 80 to 100 degrees Celsius when stressed, one could practically bake an egg on an Intel CPU of that time. Now the norm is around 70 when stressed, still hot but far cooler than what it was a few CPU generations ago.

At tech level 11 we have to take into account the possibility of the equipment running cooler than now and thus its background heat radiance may not be enough to provide heat for entire ships. However if there is a heavy heat producer things may be tricky for the life support systems to evenly distribute the heat throughout the ship. As a rule of thumb if it took far more energy to spread the heat around than to vent it and have life support take care of it then spreading the heat throughout the ship is a no go.

Heat dissipation in battle however, that is when things become interesting as weapons have to be cooled 'here and now' in order to remain operational.

I consider. But positive thermal balance will be in any case, and a considerable one. Even the most efficient and ergonomic equipment anyway increases the entropy. Annihilation reactors even in my view, and will be less fusion, but unlike them, they give powerful gamma, rather than the average alpha-beta-gamma. A penetrating radiation in addition to the ionization of casing is also very good it warms. Unless we find a completely new type of electronics, power tools necessary anyway be seriously warm. Even the stable heat of 40-50 degrees the whole structure will quickly lead to the need for somewhere to dump surpluses, because to avoid overheating of a particular device, ie cooling, needed is the temperature difference, and when we have fifty strong heat sources on the ship 500-700 meters in length with a warm-blooded crew 500-2000 - warm-up ship for uncomfortable temperatures will require not too much time.

This isn't to mention the fact that all of the above at the Loroi obviously not.

[icekatze]

hi hi

The reason why CPUs have gone down in temperature when stressed is really because of better case design and airflow. If you put a modern CPU in a decade old case, like I do, you will see it reaching up to 90+ celsius when stressed all the same, and then it doesn't go higher because it throttles itself.

The Apollo Command/Service Module had 2, 30 square foot environmental control radiators, and 8 electrical power system radiators to dump waste heat from the cabin, which on Apollo 13 became a problem when the spacecraft stopped generating power, but still had the radiators.

Now, I may be mistaken, but I seem to recall hearing that the Loroi can dump waste heat into their exhaust when under power, so it is not necessarily a huge problem during battle at least.

[Suederwind]

How hard is it for a psychokinetic Loroi to her (or his) powers under control in situations of stress (like pain, etc...)?
Would it be, for example, dangerous for other Loroi close by, if someone as powerfull as Fireblade had nighmares?

Do farseers also monitor their own population or only enemy forces?
Can they approximately say how many Loroi or aliens are on a ship/fleet/planet or can they just say something like "large enemy forces in the next system"?

Will Alex meet a Farseer someday?

[Arioch]

How hard is it for a psychokinetic Loroi to her (or his) powers under control in situations of stress (like pain, etc...)?
Would it be, for example, dangerous for other Loroi close by, if someone as powerfull as Fireblade had nighmares?

Depends on the individual. Most Teidar are well-trained in mental discipline, but it is possible to lose control.

Do farseers also monitor their own population or only enemy forces?

There is a subdivision of the philosopher order (Nedatan Timadi) with farseer-like abilities who monitor their own populations.

Can they approximately say how many Loroi or aliens are on a ship/fleet/planet or can they just say something like "large enemy forces in the next system"?

Mostly the latter.

Will Alex meet a Farseer someday?

Yes.