The Lonely Galaxy Megathread (comments encouraged)

[WeepingElf]

That's not true. Mathematicians have come up with systens that allow division by zero. They just lack many interesting and practical properties, IIRC. It's called wheel theory.

OK. As I said. I am not a mathematician.

[TBPO]

Do you will write a story in which you wake up as yinrih in real world?

No don't think so.

Spoiler:

I wouldn't mind living on Hearthside though. No more seasonal affective disorder!

Since Hearthside is a tidally locked planet, I don't think it would have a significant Coriolis effect. That would make it viable to bore tunnels though the planet to rapidly move between antipodal points, like a high-tech version of digging to China. This could mitigate some of the issues of living in constant sunlight or constant darkness.

The slow rotation also means no magnetic field. I may ignore this lore-wise, or I may try to explain it as they have a constellation of satellites generating an artificial magnetosphere, or they have synthetic aerosols in the upper atmosphere that both lower the amount of insolation to make the climate on the day side more livable and block solar wind... somehow.

What a pity! Whis would be a fantastic story... Can I have permission to write story about it in an indefinite future?

[lurker]

OK. As I said. I am not a mathematician.

So your post (or mine immediately preceding it) is the 500th of this topic! (depends on if you're counting all posts including the OP, or just replies).

[lurker]

What a pity! Whis would be a fantastic story... Can I have permission to write story about it in an indefinite future?

You're welcome to post one here if you'd like.

[TBPO]

What a pity! Whis would be a fantastic story... Can I have permission to write story about it in an indefinite future?

You're welcome to post one here if you'd like.

[lurker]

OK, Yih's escape velocity (really escape speed because direction doesn't matter as long as you don't hit the ground) is about 10.557 km/s. Let's assume the following:

1. a yinrih can survive a constant acceleration of 6G (relative to Earth gravity)
2. a projectile will continue accelerating at a constant rate until it leaves the bore of the cannon

If velocity = acceleration * time, and distance = 1/2 * acceleration * time ^ 2, then how long does the cannon have to be to achieve escape velocity at a survivable acceleration?

First we need to find the time it would take to reach escape velocity at a 6G acceleration. Solving for time we get 179.5454472 seconds, or about 3 minutes. Now we need to figure out how far the projectile will travel in that amount of time. Solving for distance gives us about 948 km, which is just too dang long.

And this is with some generous fudge factor in the yinrih's favor. Yih's gravity is actually lower than Earths, about 88%. If a human can withstand about 6 times Earth gravity, we'd have to scale that down for yinrih. Also, even if you could build a cannon that big, what propellant could possibly achieve a constant 6G acceleration.

The Bright Way eventually figures this out, but they go through a lot of martyrs. It's not that they don't know the math, but they don't know what conditions they can survive.

---

While I was in the middle of writing this, my dog (the very one I based Commonthroat on) flopped down under my desk at my feet, turning off the power strip my computer was plugged into, as if to say "O thou of little faith! We SHALL touch the stars!" Windows somehow recovered the state it was in when it lost power. Yay capacitors, I suppose.

[lurker]

Since a yinrih's tail is as long as the rest of their body, and since the most common length measurement is based on the length of their tail, a yinrih is around two tailslengths from nose tip to tail tip.

[TBPO]

Can I add tree-dweller-like half-sentient species to Saytal? It will be very marginal because it will be one of 900 half-sapient species.

[lurker]

Can I add tree-dweller-like half-sentient species to Saytal? It will be very marginal because it will be one of 900 half-sapient species.

I don't mind, and you don't really need to ask my permission. I don't care unless you're literally copy-pasting my words byte by byte and claiming they're yours in order to make money.

---

(But who would pay for my stuff, seriously? All the fanfic awkwardness and none of the draw of a competently crafted pre-existing setting. On the other hand, I've come to enjoy a lot of amateur sci-fi writing precisely because it's rough around the edges. There's something refreshing about seeing someone's unfiltered imagination. There's no sales targets to meet, no publishers or editors to satisfy.)

[TBPO]

Can I add tree-dweller-like half-sentient species to Saytal? It will be very marginal because it will be one of 900 half-sapient species.

I don't mind, and you don't really need to ask my permission. I don't care unless you're literally copy-pasting my words byte by byte and claiming they're yours in order to make money.

---

(But who would pay for my stuff, seriously? All the fanfic awkwardness and none of the draw of a competently crafted pre-existing setting. On the other hand, I've come to enjoy a lot of amateur sci-fi writing precisely because it's rough around the edges. There's something refreshing about seeing someone's unfiltered imagination. There's no sales targets to meet, no publishers or editors to satisfy.)

Thank you so much!

[lurker]

Deep in the jungles of Newman's Dale lies a massive slab of metal and concrete, with a few crumbling ruins dotted on and around it. These are the remains of the Bright Way's "corporate headquarters" during the Age of Decadence. It was originally a massive skyscraper extending upward to become a space elevator. The High Perch, the symbolic seat of the authority of the High Hearthkeeper, was also originally located here before being moved to The Eternal Hearth in the City of Eternal Noon on Hearthside after the War of Dissolution.

It was here that Greenleaf the steadtree hermit made his denouncement of the High Hearthkeeper after the scandal of Firefly's apostacy.

The structure's razing is generally considered to mark the end of both the War of Dissolution and the Age of Decadence. The final battle of the war actually had three sides. The Preservationists were on their last legs and the writing was on the wall, but they nevertheless fought tooth and claw to the bitter end.

The Pious Dissolutionists were attempting to oust their coreligionists from the structure and occupy it for themselves. It had tremendous symbolic value both as holy ground, being as it was standing on the very soil where the Kindling and the Theophany took place, but also as the center of the Bright Way's ecclesiastical government. Iris the Hearthsider had been set up as an informal anti-High Hearthkeeper, and the Pious Dissolutionists wanted to see her take the High Perch for herself and officially purge the faith of its mercantile interests and put an end to the hierarchy's acedia once and for all.

The third group was a group of Secular Dissolutionists, mostly members of Firefly's Partisans, who wanted to se the structure toppled in their effort to expunge all traces of the Bright Way from Focus. The Secularists ended up winning the day, slabbing the structure and glassing the surrounding area from orbit, but not before the Pious Dissolutionists were able to capture both the reigning High Hearthkeeper and other holy relics, including the High Perch itself.

The High Hearthkeeper initially resisted capture, and refused to recognize Iris as her successor. The Pious Dissolutionists pointed out that it was either spend her remaining centuries in quiet retirement in a monastery on Hearthside, or be brutally tortured and killed by the Partisans. She reluctantly abdicated, making Iris the undisputed leader of the Bright Way.

There were subsequent battles between the various radical and moderate secularist factions for control of Yih, but the moderates repelled the militants, securing the Bright Way's future as a purely religious and philocynoidic institution. These moderate factions would eventually coalesce into a stable government for Yih, which would later go on to form the core of the Allied Worlds.

A modest monastery now stands in the middle of the massive foundation, housing an order of penitents. Wayfarers make pilgrimages here to weep before the ruins in reparation for thirty three millennia squandered in the name of greed.

[lurker]

Here's a symbol for the Allied Worlds. The four circles represent the four member planets. Yih is green, Newhome is red, Sweetwater is dark blue, and Welkinstead is light blue.

Yih is likely the most secular out of the four member planets. It was the center of ecclesiastical corruption during the Age of Decadence. Welkinstead is the most pious, especially the moons. Sweetwater is so socially stratified that it's better to consider it two societies. The poorer surface dwellers are more religious but not just Wayfarers, as the surface of Sweetwater is a mecca for Atavists and Neoshamanists, but also Primitive Wayfarer communities like the one Stormlight was born into. The affluent undersea communities are probably mixed.

Newhome is middle of the road demographically. Biome-wise it's just Yih without a ring.



Here's a symbol for Hearthside. It's the Claravian Star and Gear modified to resemble Hearthside itself, having a day and night side.

[lurker]

Welkinstead is the innermost of Focus's two gas giants. (Or if you want to be pedantic, it's the only gas giant, with Moonlitter being an ice giant.) Its upper atmosphere is rich in economically exploitable gasses. Terraforming proceeded slowly, with floating extraction platforms similar in function to oil rigs being built in the layer of atmosphere where the gasses are most abundant. These structures are held aloft by vacuum pontoons and are capable of a small degree of self propulsion, but otherwise float along with the jet stream. Over time, these floating gas rigs slowly expanded or grouped together until they became floating cities, with entire economies that support the workers who extract the gas.

Welkinstead culture is often compared to America. Welkinsteaders are seen as loud and somewhat provincial, but also friendly and hard-working. Welkinstead is the most devout AW member state, with most citizens identifying as Wayfarers and a large percentage of that actively practicing.

Weather-related names are popular among Welkinsteaders, like "Calmwind" or "Still-sky". The capitol is called "Fresh/Cool Air".

Tod/Steadfast Friend is a native Welkinsteader, specifically a Moony. He's never actually been to the planet itself, having grown up on one of the moons and served his time in the military on other lunar colonies and space stations. This explains his lack of familiarity with Terran thunderstorms.

Welkinstead and Moonlitter get along very well, to the point that Moonlitter hosts a number of Welkinsteader military bases that the AW uses to project hard power toward the Partisans. The Partisans, as you expect, are not fond of this relationship, and Moonlitter's cozying up to Welkinstead and the AW is what provoked the Partisan attack on Pilgrims' Rest.

[lurker]

To most, a mech is merely a vehicle, but to a knight...

Its optics become my eyes, its limbs become my own paws and tail. I feel its wounds. When it is damaged I bark out in pain. I do not command the mech to move forward, I myself stride forth. The ground quakes beneath my tread. The earth itself heralds my approach. My shadow eclipses the very sun. Beware, o evil-doers, for I am become the iron avatar of justice!

[lurker]

Because yinirh eyes act like radio receivers rather than cameras, they can safely stare at the sun.

[lurker]

An academic childermoot is a moot, or more accurately a group of moots, set up as a school. In general, academic moots function as follows:

Prospective members undergo an admissions process. These novices spend time observing and aiding current sires and dams raise their litters, and receive further pedagogical instruction from older empty nesters. During this novitiate, prospective sires and dams group off into their own moots. Then they conceive and raise their own litters, being observed and aided by the next group of novices and receiving even more instruction from the empty nesters. The academic moot may also act as a school for the pups of other childermoots in the community who are not directly attached to the academy, raising money by charging tuition. Once an individual childermoot has raised its own litter to adulthood, the new empty-nesters are usually bound by contract to remain at the academy for a period of time to train novices and current sires and dams.

These academies usually have unique teaching styles or parenting methods that they advertise, and are often affiliated with a wider movement or outlook. There are of course religious academies, academies that focus on a particular career path for the pups, academies that emphasize a broad spectrum of learning, and so on.

[WeepingElf]

Because yinirh eyes act like radio receivers rather than cameras, they can safely stare at the sun.

But how do they image? For imaging, you need some kind of "retina", and a focussing optical system, and that would most likely make staring at the sun cause damage to the eyes.

[lurker]

Because yinirh eyes act like radio receivers rather than cameras, they can safely stare at the sun.

But how do they image? For imaging, you need some kind of "retina", and a focussing optical system, and that would most likely make staring at the sun cause damage to the eyes.

That's something I've also wondered. For now I say that each nanoantenna has a separate nerve that leads back to the brain, so the whole array functions like a bundle of optical fibers, like you see in an endoscope.

Here's an image I drew a while ago that shows what I'm thinking.

[lurker]

This is actually the first bit of xenoergonomics I can remember designing. I've mentioned these dish chairs before but never shown a yinrih using one. These are common in vehicle cockpits, but also they can be seen as workstations in offices.

[WeepingElf]

I still don't see how your eye design creates an image. To get an image, you need an optical system which projects an image on the retina, no matter how the receptors work. If you expose a photographic film to daylight without a camera, you don't get an image, either - just an all-black negative.