I recently noticed that a new map appeared last year in the insider.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

What are Loroi plans, if they have any, with respect to the Umiak and the territory they occupy when they win the war?

I am not talking about how they plan to win the war (at present they may have other more urgent things on their hands, such as not losing), but assuming they defeat Umiak fleets and invade the enemy territory, what will they do with the Umiak worlds and, more importantly, Umiak allies? Are they planning a wholesale genocide of the Umiak and/or their allied/subject species? Have they even considered invading and occupying the Umiak worlds, or are they so pissed off right now that they'd glass them all without a second thought?

There is no standing policy on the matter. It would depend on the circumstances.

On page 77
https://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider077.html
I'm seeing the loroi ships have both blue and red beams, and one has both a blue and a red beam.
Are those beams of different iterations of the same technology? Is one an upgrade over the other, and the fleet not really fully up to speed in terms of loroi tech levels?

They're different weapons. The bluish-white beams are the plasma pulse cannons (heavy weapons), the magenta beams are the blasters/particle beams (medium weapons)), and the red beams seen on later pages are point defense lasers.

What do the Salinn do?

Salinn was a clan of Arran on Deinar, in the era before the clan names were replaced with caste names.

I'm sure this has been asked before so bear with my laziness in asking again and not looking for the ~ likely already given answer...

Its a given that Loroi can share their thoughts with each other... does this include memories? And how much sensory input is transferred, if any, in such memory communication?

Could, perhaps, Tallon 'share' with her crewsisters how it felt to hold Alex's hand.. the softness and warmth of his touch with the memory of the contact? And would she do such a thing or is that too personal?

They shoot their best commanders and attack in human waves.

Telepathy isn't fundamentally different from spoken communication in this respect, but it has higher bandwidth. You can pretty effectively describe an experience using spoken language, describing every sensory impression if you want to, but it's not quite like experiencing it yourself. Telepathy would be closer, but still not quite seeing through someone else's eyes.

As to whether this information is too personal, I think that's an individual character question. Talon and Spiral are very close, but most of the other occupants of the shuttle are not particularly so.


Salinn, not Stalin.

There's a question... if one Loroi has song stuck in her head, will it 'infect' others?

Link COMPLETELY unrelated. You have been warned.

Heh, I've been betting you'd rickroll us.

At risk of reopening the “sanzai is faster than speaking” debate (TL;DR: it’s faster because the author has built it that way), a recent paper has shown that many human languages apparently come out at the same information speed. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/09/human-speech-may-have-universal-transmission-rate-39-bits-second?utm_campaign=NewsfromScience&utm_source=JHubbard&utm_medium=Twitter

Of course, this neglects the use of heavy idiom and jargon for purposes of “compression.” Which Alex won’t be able to do because he’s the only representative of his culture in the comic at present. This is where a fiction culture could be helpful: it is willing to explore and discuss impossible things.

I’m now imaging the rare Loroi fiction junkie to be regarded like a raving Anime otaku: “Stay calm, back away slowly, do not engage in cross-narrative meta discussion.”

What would you call that? It shouldn't be Terran fiction, but give then a few decades, and you could be Terboos.

Slang is always evolving and highly group specific, so while it'd take some time you'd see a mixed crew to develop their own specific lingo centered around their jobs/social class/etc, which may or not be a hybrid language taking words/expressions from both sides..