Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

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Arioch
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

Zorg56 wrote:How often Tempest cells were used?

I see some damage on the walls in chapter one? Or they are just rusty?
The cells aren't used frequently, but Tempest is around 13 years old, so even infrequent use adds up. They keep the cells clean, but there's not much incentive to make them pretty.
SVlad wrote:IIRC US army service is strictly voluntary. So one who has low chances to pass most likely wouldn't enlist at all, and so stay unaccounted.

This paper states that in Israel army (that uses mandatory draft) dropout is 16% but additionally up to 35% of draftable population never drafted at all for various reasons.
So full dropout rate (if we just draft everybody) could be up to 45%.
The Loroi dropout rates could easily be higher, but military service is considered very important in Loroi society, and dropping out of military training means being kicked out of your family. There's a pretty strong motivation to try to pass the trials.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Onaiom »

Arioch wrote: The cells aren't used frequently, but Tempest is around 13 years old, so even infrequent use adds up. They keep the cells clean, but there's not much incentive to make them pretty..
How and when they were used ? I mean, Loroi are fighting war for survival, that is as cooperative as they can get.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

Onaiom wrote:How and when they were used ? I mean, Loroi are fighting war for survival, that is as cooperative as they can get.
They're most often used to incarcerate crewmembers. Tempest has a standard complement of about 800; people occasionally misbehave. Being at war only increases the pressure on the crew, particularly when they're assigned to especially hazardous duty for extended periods as Tempest has been. Considering also that most of the crew are extremely young, and Loroi society feels that being polite is cowardly.

There have probably also been a few alien captives, including some Umiak.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Werra »

Do Loroi make use of personifications of nature? Like "Godfather Death" or the rhine as an old man.

If they do, anything you can tell us about it?

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by icekatze »

hi hi

I figure that some of the brig is explained by Beryl. "The commander sometimes gets... tired of looking at some of her officers." ;)

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

Werra wrote:Do Loroi make use of personifications of nature? Like "Godfather Death" or the rhine as an old man.
That sort of persistent metaphor is, I think, mainly a function of language. Telepathy tends to be more literal.

Some sort of metaphor is not unknown to the Loroi -- Talon did refer to Tempo as "mother" (even though she's not Talon's mother), and she did use other, um... colorful worlds to describe the captain of Clearbrook that weren't literally correct. But I'm not sure there's much more to say about it than that.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by orion1836 »

What material is Beryl's space-age hair scrunchie made from? Is it rigid or flexible?

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

orion1836 wrote:What material is Beryl's space-age hair scrunchie made from? Is it rigid or flexible?
It's rigid. It has a clasp and a hinge to open and close.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by White »

How many military ships do the Loroi have total.

If that's a fuzzy number, than perhaps it would make more sense to ask how many jump capable ships they have that can take on active combat duty.

How quickly can they construct these ships?

How many jump capable ships are there in the union total? Both civilian and military.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

White wrote:How many military ships do the Loroi have total.
I don't have precise numbers, but my best guess would be between two and three thousand.
White wrote:How quickly can they construct these ships?
I would imagine that shipbuilding takes a similar amount of time as it does today; some months or years depending on the size and complexity of the ship. I don't have a good estimate for how many ships are produced in a given amount of time.
White wrote:How many jump capable ships are there in the union total? Both civilian and military.
I don't know, but it's probably in the several tens of thousands.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by SVlad »

I recently noticed that a new map appeared last year in the insider.
SpoilerShow
Image
This sector is on the other side of the Loroi Space. And if this is a map of the sector, where will be further events, it means that the characters had to flee to the hinterland. Possibly, all other space would be conquered by Umiak.

PS
Maybe, this should have been posted in WIP Discussion thread.
Outsider in Russian
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

It was posted to accompany the Barsam article posted at the same time.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by boldilocks »

Did Stillstorm intend to fight the Umiak from the start, in chapter 1?

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Sweforce »

Arioch wrote:
White wrote:How many military ships do the Loroi have total.
I don't have precise numbers, but my best guess would be between two and three thousand.
White wrote:How quickly can they construct these ships?
I would imagine that shipbuilding takes a similar amount of time as it does today; some months or years depending on the size and complexity of the ship. I don't have a good estimate for how many ships are produced in a given amount of time.
If you expect to loose ships fast, then you can probably cut some corners to hasten the process, especially if it just about visuals. The Tempest have this nice mosaic that depicting the historical/mythical Tempest, If you are in a hurry, extravaganza like that may be considered unnecessary even thou the cost of that piece of art probably is negligible. I do however suspect that loroi vessels designed and built during the war probably are a lot more cramped, at least by loroi standards.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

boldilocks wrote:Did Stillstorm intend to fight the Umiak from the start, in chapter 1?
I generally don't comment on characters' motives, but the engagement depended on Umiak actions, so I'm not sure Stillstorm's intentions factor into it.

Or perhaps you think she was baiting them? To what end?

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by boldilocks »

Arioch wrote:
boldilocks wrote:Did Stillstorm intend to fight the Umiak from the start, in chapter 1?
I generally don't comment on characters' motives, but the engagement depended on Umiak actions, so I'm not sure Stillstorm's intentions factor into it.

Or perhaps you think she was baiting them? To what end?
The thought struck me that she might have intended to just scuttle the Terran remains and retreat, and took an unfavorable engagement on Tempos orders as an act of military propaganda, ie convince the terrans of loroi military supremacy.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

boldilocks wrote:The thought struck me that she might have intended to just scuttle the Terran remains and retreat, and took an unfavorable engagement on Tempos orders as an act of military propaganda, ie convince the terrans of loroi military supremacy.
How would the Terrans know about it? Stillstorm ordered Alex off the bridge; it was Tempo who countermanded this order. (Not that Alex is likely to communicate with Terran authorities any time soon...)

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by boldilocks »

Arioch wrote:
boldilocks wrote:The thought struck me that she might have intended to just scuttle the Terran remains and retreat, and took an unfavorable engagement on Tempos orders as an act of military propaganda, ie convince the terrans of loroi military supremacy.
How would the Terrans know about it? Stillstorm ordered Alex off the bridge; it was Tempo who countermanded this order. (Not that Alex is likely to communicate with Terran authorities any time soon...)
If Alex, as the last human survivor of the bellarmine, is supposed to be the terran intermediary then it would be for his benefit, as it was Tempo who pushed for him to remain on the bridge as well. He would either have the battle results in his mind in future negotiations, or would most likely report it back to his people if they have to establish a better diplomatic channel.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Werra »

Arioch, can you talk about Loroi family structures? In general but specifically on how they trace their ancestry. Where is the cut-off point for example? Would a direct descendant of the 40th generation (or however many fit into a single lifetime) be considered part of the clan still?

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

Werra wrote:Arioch, can you talk about Loroi family structures? In general but specifically on how they trace their ancestry. Where is the cut-off point for example? Would a direct descendant of the 40th generation (or however many fit into a single lifetime) be considered part of the clan still?
Family structure varies by local culture, and it has become complicated, especially since the traditional clans were abolished at the end of the Splinter Wars in 1402. For the most part, individual female Loroi warriors define their lineage relative to a particular notable female ancestor, and there is no limit to number of generations removed (in some more traditional families, the older, the better). But whether or not you are considered part of the same family depends on the personal and political relationships of you and your immediate female relatives to the rest of the family group in question. Much like in our society, I think.

In the early clan culture of Western Deinar (Zaral and Arran), the family structure was strictly matrilineal and fairly uncomplicated: every female offspring of a female clan member who passed the warrior trials was considered a clan member and took the clan name. Caste and clan were mixed up together; each tribal nation effectively had its own caste (or castes). As the nations grew into empires and the cultures grew more sophisticated, and nations began to specialize and regionalize, and as clever matriarchs began to use male offspring as tools of alliance and expansion of the clan, then male lineage sometimes became a factor. A large nation would have multiple sub-families with different names often linked to the main family through a male ancestor. Also, sometimes sub-families with the main clan name would revolt or change allegiance. It became more complicated.

In pre-contact Perrein, many of the families (especially in the highlands) were patrilineal, and so things were more complicated from a much earlier stage, as well as being more varied in the starkly different highland and shadowland regions.

With starflight and reunification of the splinter colonies, there was both a merging of different cultures and a radiation of new sub-cultures as new colony worlds were founded, separating some clan groups. Over the next several hundred years, and especially after the Delrias wars and the acquisition of large amounts of new territory, these old and new cultures clashed over whether the Loroi were to be a single nation, or multiple nation-states. These conflicting visions of the future of the Loroi culminated in the Splinter Wars, a series of civil wars that spanned the better part of 80 years. The wars concluded with the centralization of the empire under a single matriarch, the First Loroi Emperor Loremark, who abolished the traditional clan affiliations and reorganized the castes as nation-wide professional specializations rather than regional polities. Clan governing structures became caste and government structures.

In the current time period of the story, family affiliation can be somewhat fluid. Many ordinary warrior Loroi who live and work in the colonies or in the Fleet or other remote posts may have illustrious ancestral connections, and perhaps even political alliances with the ancient family group back home, but their day to day lives center mostly around their group of local colleagues (which may, in some cases, include some blood relatives). Loroi with planetside jobs, especially on the old homeworlds, may have very strong family connections and may even live and work together with large numbers of relatives in the old clan citadels (though the clan names have been abolished and most of their governmental power reduced, the old families still exist). Even if you are the 686th great-granddaughter of Salinn Bladestorm, or the 34th grand niece of Azerein Greywind, whether you are considered to be part of the same family with the rest of that matriarch's descendants depends on the location, status, relationship and political activity of you and your immediate relatives. Closeness of family relations often depends more on proximity and friendship than it does strictly on biological relationship.

For female civilian Loroi, who are mostly the offspring of warrior females, lineage can be a status factor in civilian society even though such individuals are no longer acknowledged as part of the warrior family. ‘Family’ for ex-warrior civilians consists of local friends and colleagues and direct offspring, if any.

Males exist mostly outside family society in their own specialized culture, though maternal lineage does affect status within that culture, and affluent female family members sometimes do interject themselves into the affairs of a high status male.

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