The Lonely Galaxy Megathread (comments encouraged)

Discussions about constructed worlds, cultures and any topics related to constructed societies.
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Oubliettes

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It's spoopy season, so how about some good ol' fridge horror regarding metabolic suspension?

What do we know about Amnions thus far?

- They halt a person's metabolism while keeping the brain active.
- They can present a simulacrum to the suspended person.
- They can alter a person's time perception.

What do we know about yinrih neurology thus far?

- They can't go unconscious without dying.

Amnions were originally designed to allow Claravian missionaries to cross the fathomless distances between stars, speeding up their time perception to make the journey pass more quickly and presenting a simulacrum to their active brains to stave off insanity. As seen in my stories, the simulacrum need not be a Matrix-like experience. It can just as easily be an abstract 3D space representing a womb ship's systems, and there's no reason the amnion can't present a real-life sensor feed to the suspended person's brain.

There's nothing stopping the amnion from simply not presenting any form of sensation to the occupant either. Keep in mind it's impossible for a yinrih to go unconscious, so they're still aware, but they lack any form of sensation, including proprioception. If you combine this with slowing down the occupant's time perception so they experience perhaps centuries or even millennia while mere minutes pass outside, and you've got the spitting image of The Void, the Claravian version of Hell.

The Partisans jump on this as a method of punishment for a few reasons. It's comparatively cheap to chuck a convicted murderer in a suspension capsule for six measly minutes while the prisoner experiences a thousand years or more of ultimate isolation. Of course the Partisans, devout materialists that they are, love the fact they're able to perfectly simulate Hell with no pesky metaphysics ruining their day. There's also the fact that it angers the Bright Way, since they regard amnions as sacred objects used to carry out the Great Commandment, and view their use as instruments of torture as sacrilege.

Then again, perhaps this is too grimdark even for the Partisans.
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Re: Oubliettes

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lurker wrote: 20 Oct 2024 00:02 It's spoopy season,
[:D]
lurker wrote: 20 Oct 2024 00:02 Then again, perhaps this is too grimdark even for the Partisans.
There could be a certain faction of partisans that embraces this. This could even cause a scandal or schism if you want to go in that direction.
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Re: The Lonely Galaxy Megathread (comments encouraged)

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lurker wrote: 18 Oct 2024 13:58 The Farspeakers after the War of Dissolution are gutted. The section of the network in Partisan Territory is seized by the Partisans, and it's either nationalized or privatized around the rest of Focus.
This feels like the perfect thing to have an underground something or another over.
lurker wrote: 20 Oct 2024 00:02 The Partisans jump on this as a method of punishment for a few reasons.
...
Then again, perhaps this is too grimdark even for the Partisans.
They are essentially Yinrih North Korea. It wouldn't surprise me if they did it.
We often forget that with new technology comes new ways to torture people.
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Re: The Lonely Galaxy Megathread (comments encouraged)

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Visions1 wrote: 20 Oct 2024 06:21 This feels like the perfect thing to have an underground something or another over.
Oh there are definitely Neopreservationists, or I suppose Restorationists would be a better name. I also have to develop the more pious wing of the preservationists during the war. Skywatcher is pretty exemplary of most preservationists in that he's not terribly devout, and many (if not most) of them only play the faith card when it suits them, like keeping the half of the Knights of the Sun still loyal to the preservationists in line.

One bit I didn't add to RTFM is that the reason the office is dark is that the local hearthkeepers sabotaged the power grid ahead of the Dissolutionists arriving in the area, and the Farspeakers are doing likewise to the network. The alliance between the secular and pious wings of the Dissolutionists has started breaking down. Both sides knew all along it wouldn't last, and that as they approached Yih they'd turn on each other. Both sides agree they want the current hierarchy gone, but disagree what should happen after, so as soon as the common enemy is dealt with they start fighting each other.

There's also the internal schism between the moderate secularists and the Partisans. Most of the moderates represented the interests of old political entities who wanted to be out from under the hierarchy's palms, and plenty of them were practicing Wayfarers themselves, just not acting on behalf of the organization itself.
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Re: The Lonely Galaxy Megathread (comments encouraged)

Post by Visions1 »

I read the two stories. Here are my thoughts.

Farspeaker draft

Definite improvement.

The verbosity does make it less punchy, though I'm enjoying gleaning things from the extra detail.

Are witches a thing? It wouldn't surprise me some old stuff would get preserved from the shamanistic days - look at the Irish: Catholic as they come since the "Dark Ages", but until recently terrified of the little folk, telling sagas, and making folk remedies. And while the Bright Way™ is basically that but updated, I do wonder. Maybe they're calling them shamans as an insult? It is Hearthside after all. Though, the insult might then be lost on the Yiher.

RTFM:

What is an "immortal" in Commonthroat?
Is it similar to the word in Greek? Or in Chinese (Xian)?

"Eggless" in Commonthroat? Also, it'd be nice to know the perspective of the other non-Claravian groups on this celibacy business. I imagine there were many varied on it. Same with gender roles.

About the Partisan slogan: What are the ways it could be phrased? "The skies are empty, we are alone" sounds a little bleak.
Based off what I know of Commonthroat, I imagine it's more like "The skies are empty - [and] we, alone!" As in,
the skies are empty of obstacles;
and of other life -
and so, religious authority;
and we alone are sapient - else the world is quiet!
and we, the exceptional,
we alone will thrive!
Or maybe, us only - out with you!

However, I'm a human. Yinrih context makes it sound nicer.
Imagine how they'd view the socialist "No kings, no gods," the nazi "Blood and soil," and the tory "Stop the boats." We know the contexts for these three; we understand they are talking about anti-authority, waging war for lebensraum, and migrants, respectively. Yinrih might view these entirely differently. So my point may be wholly off the mark.
Also, what is "The skies are empty, we are alone" in Commonthroat?

Why would a Preservationist want to destroy their networks?

I think high hearthkeeper should be capitalized when used as a title for someone, like pope often is.

All in all, a nice read. Reminds me of stuff I've read. You'd make a good hagiographer for the Bright Way.
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Re: The Lonely Galaxy Megathread (comments encouraged)

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As always your feedback is invaluable, thanks.
Visions1 wrote: 22 Oct 2024 06:54 About the Partisan slogan
The Partisan credo is a reference to Cloudbearer the Heresiarch's rejection of the Great Commandment, which I've rendered thus in Commonthroat:

Code: Select all

h scrp rML rnL rDB rMP rnL hgq sjHp sBCq j h jkl rdrc
h  scr-p   rML-0   rnL rDB-0            rMP   rnL hgq     sjH-p  sBCq-0  j   h jk-l      rdrc-0
PL star-3D think-A not smell_like-A not speak not because sky-3D empty-A and PL little-1 alone-A
The stars think not, feel not, speak not, for the skies are empty and we little ones are alone.
The Partisans would use Outlander, or more likely a predecessor language, rather than Commonthroat, or the equivalent for the time, but the credo would pare it down to this in modern Commonthroat:

sjHp sBCqK j h jkl rdrcK
Basically the last clause with the adjectives inflected in the dogmatic mood to make it sound more assertive.

Your other suggestions are excellent, by the way, and I can see supremacist movements forming in Partisan Territory or the Spacer Confederacy after First Contact.
Visions1 wrote: 22 Oct 2024 06:54 What is an "immortal" in Commonthroat?
The English word is a reference to the Greek and Persian Athanatoi. In-universe it's a reference to their skill in battle but also the fact they're in metabolic suspension and thus don't age, or at least don't age as fast. The idea of plugging an incapacitated person into a high-tech war machine is surprisingly common. Off the top of my head I can think of the main character from Armored Cor VI, Dreadnoughts from WH40K, Dragoons from Starcraft (based no doubt on the aforementioned Dreadnoughts), and even Dib in one episode of Invader Zim. The Commonthroat word may be a claque of "undead", as that would lean nicely on Firefly basically being a sci-fi lich (the Eternal Womb is his phylactery in a way). In any case I don't have the vocab yet to render it in Commonthroat.
Visions1 wrote: 22 Oct 2024 06:54 "Eggless" in Commonthroat? Also, it'd be nice to know the perspective of the other non-Claravian groups on this celibacy business. I imagine there were many varied on it. Same with gender roles.
Right now it would be <HKq>, from H (no, none) and Kqg (egg). I've used H as a privative suffix more than I've used it as a quantitative adjective. I may come up with a suffix instead. "Eggless" in this context means barren or infertile, rather than celibate. Yes I need to develop the other ideological groups more. I'm toying with introducing a neoshamanist character into the Multiverse Inn to help in that regard.
Visions1 wrote: 22 Oct 2024 06:54 Are witches a thing?
Perhaps. I've mentioned that there's a lot of popular superstition around what humans would call demons. This is something carried over into the Bright Way from the primordial animist religion, but the Claravian Magisterium's official position on demons is "It's best not to worry about it, as they may not even exist, and if they do, you're inviting trouble by obsessing over them." The Misotheists are also prime candidates for witchcraft given what they believe about the noosphere (to them it's like the Warp from WH40K: Ideas and emotions manifest as entities in the noosphere that have more or less agency over the real world depending on how many sophonts hold that idea). I can see them treating these entities as gods or fay, etc, that they can bargain with or manipulate.

Visions1 wrote: 22 Oct 2024 06:54 Why would a Preservationist want to destroy their networks?
It's a scorched earth tactic. They're on their last legs at this point and they just want to make things as difficult as possible for the ones that take over.
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Miscellaneous art

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Not much justification for this one. I'm just playing around with InkScape.
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Baby steps toward a map of Yih

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A very, very preliminary sketch of Yih. It doesn't really say anything I haven't made known already. Yih has an axial tilt of exactly 30 degrees, and a ring that casts a shadow on the subtropics and mid latitudes in the winter. Yih is slightly larger than Earth, but is a little less dense, giving at surface gravity of 0.88g.

I have to figure out how the ring affects the climate. With two years of meteorology classes under my belt, I have a passing understanding of relevant topics like the three-cell model, the interplay of wind and ocean currents, semi-permanent and seasonal (anti)cyclones, etc. With less insolation in the mid latitudes, I regret to say that Yih likely doesn't have the massive twisters I'd hope for.
Edit: I might be wrong on that. The decreased insolation only happens in winter. So maybe I can give Yih a tornado alley after all, or as I shall call it, the Suck Zone™.
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Re: The Lonely Galaxy Megathread (comments encouraged)

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What was the stereotypical alien like in yinrih culture before First Contact?
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Re: The Lonely Galaxy Megathread (comments encouraged)

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HolyHandGrenade! wrote: 24 Oct 2024 15:34 What was the stereotypical alien like in yinrih culture before First Contact?
The Great Commandment refers to aliens as "bone not of our bone, flesh not of our flesh, but with souls like unto our own." The Bright Way took that to mean that aliens could look like anything, but there were some unspoken assumptions that undergirded their actions and beliefs on the topic. In particular:

- That all aliens would be recognizable as living things, no sapient boulders that eat silicon and whose metabolism operates over geologic time, for example.

- That they would be easily recognizable as sapient, which for the Bright Way's purposes meant they possessed language and some form of ritual behavior, especially reverence for their dead or other activities with a spiritual component.

- That their biology would be compatible, if only broadly, with the yinrih, meaning they could survive in similar environments, albeit perhaps with the aid of protective suits.

- Most importantly, that their psychology would be compatible such that the two species could communicate and form meaningful social connections with one another.

Secular commentators often asserted that extraterrestrial sophonts could violate one or more of these assumptions, leaving the Bright Way in the precarious position of having found aliens but being unable to actually bridge their noospheres by forming friendships and exchanging knowledge.

As far as broader culture was concerned, there is a type of Claravian liturgical drama enacting potential First Contact scenarios. These dramas always end well, with the yinrih accepting their new galactic neighbors as friends. As society secularized, more subversive takes on these First Contact stories emerged, often with the yinrih or the aliens as aggressors. These new stories much more resemble what humans associate with alien encounters. In any case, the alienness of these creatures is directly proportional to the SFX budget of whoever is producing the media.

Much like humanity's many conceptions of potential aliens, space doggos yinrih often draw on animals or creatures from folklore when speculating about how extraterrestrial sophonts would look and act. A particularly popular depiction is inspired by the <qghfdg>, diminutive creatures from cynoid folklore whose only consistent trait is their small size.
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A parable

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Three Farspeakers were walking along a path. Each was carrying a heavy bundle of cable across his back. A stranger approached the first and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I am carrying a bundle of cable," he replied.

The stranger approached the second and asked him the same question.

"I am repairing a broken trunk line," he replied.

Finally, the stranger approached the third Farspeaker. "And what are you doing?" she asked.

"I am tending to the body of the noosphere," he said.
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Re: The Lonely Galaxy Megathread (comments encouraged)

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I like the parable; I once encountered a similar one about the building of a cathedral.

(Also: hello, everyone! Long time no type!)
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Re: The Lonely Galaxy Megathread (comments encouraged)

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Glenn wrote: 25 Oct 2024 22:27 I like the parable; I once encountered a similar one about the building of a cathedral.

(Also: hello, everyone! Long time no type!)
It's been a bit since I've seen you on here, so welcome back!

The similarity is not coincidental.

As I write this it occurs to me that the yinrih's internetwork is dozens of millennia old. Just like there's a dark web, I can imagine an archeonet of really old but still connected servers of priceless historical value scattered around Focus. Perhaps there are cyberarcheologists that delve into these ancient nets.
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Puke Paws

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Military nicknames are, I am told, not terribly flattering. They usually stem from inside jokes or embarrassing incidents. Here's how Tod got his.

He seems to embellish more and more details each time he tells the tale, but it usually unfolds like this. He's hanging out with some other recruits after hours. While many of them are moonies like himself, some are from cosmopolitan urban centers on Welkinstead proper. These city folk have tasted the many and varied delights and temptations that have taken root on Welkinstead from around Focus, and they have a mind to corrupt their more rural brothers in arms.

One of these more worldly recruits shows up with a heaping bowl of wind fruit. Tod, innocent of the fruit's intoxicating properties, devours nearly the entire bowl. Keep in mind that a single fruit is enough to get a yinrih drunk. Tod staggers outside, three sheets to the wind, and promptly does the technicolor yawn several times, painting the pavement with the contents of his gut. Then he stumbles through the puddle of his own sick, covering all four paws with his own vomit.

His fellow soldiers call him "Puke Paws" from that day forward. One would think he'd be embarrassed by it, but he wears it with pride since it has nothing to do with his red coat or black ears.
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working on Yih some more

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It's been a bit since I've played with Blender. Here I'm trying some ring dimensions for Yih. The red and cyan lights are just there to demonstrate the shadow the ring casts on the planet and the planet casts on the ring.
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Yinrih proxemics, familial gestures of affection, and grooming

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Adult yinrih are much more particular about their personal space compared to humans. There are a few expressions of affection involving contact shared between parents and their pups, as well as between littermates or unrelated playmates, but never between parents in a childermoot.

Intertwining tails is similar to a hug. It shows emotional closeness and expresses a desire to give comfort and protection. Sires or dams often intertwine their tails with young pups when out and about, similar to holding hands for safety. Parents may also rest their tail across a pup's back to express a similar sentiment.

Touching the wet tip of the nose to the muzzle, cheek, top of the head, or the back of an ear and quickly exhaling (AKA "kissing") is an affectionate gesture that pups give to their parents and vice versa. Kissing is also used by Wayfarers to show reverence to sacred objects such as the star hearth, holy relics, or the bones of their deceased loved ones.

Between pups, gentle headbutting and tail pulling are common ways to initiate play. A quick thump across the other's back with the body of the tail expresses fraternal affection.

As pups reach their adolescent years, they stop giving these gestures to parents and littermates, and stop tolerating them from others. As they progress into adulthood, however, they may resume more mild gestures of affection from parents and now adult littermates depending on cultural norms.

Aside from the above, physical gestures like this are likely to be interpreted as violations of personal space when they occur between adults, including between members of a childermoot. Adult vulpithecins, including tree dwellers and yinrih, do not engage in social grooming, as their jungle home has a variety of bristly plants they can rub against to dislodge loose fur and skin parasites.

Synthetic recreations of these bristly plants are used for personal grooming by modern yinrih. Such tools are called brush boards, brush mats, rubbing boards, and the like. A common simple variant is a bristled surface lying loose on the floor or mounted to the wall. Yinrih will rub their back, tail, and sides against these wall-mounted boards, or wallow on the floor-standing mats. Tools very similar to Terran hairbrushes held in the tail are favored by spacers. Rotating drums covered in bristles are also used.
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More Yih ring attempts

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I think I'm going to go with my "consistency over realism" strategy on this one. I'd like the shadow to fall neatly inside the mid latitudes during winter, regardless of whether that's possible or not. The Earth texture is just a placeholder.

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Fellwinds

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Tornadoes are called <rpLqqkjg>, from <rpLqg> (wind) + <qkj> (fell, evil). This term is the standard word referring to a tornado in Commonthroat. Yinrih synthesizing English often refer to tornadoes as fellwinds. The word comes from a particular branch of Misotheism. The misotheists, as mentioned earlier, believe that the ideas, beliefs, and emotions of sophonts manifest as entities with agency from the noosphere, with particularly potent emotions or widespread beliefs having more agency over the real world. Fellwinds are said to be incarnations of existential dread or the fear of mortality. They exist only briefly, and spend their fleeting existence causing as much chaos as possible.

Tornadoes (tornadic waterspouts if you want to be pedantic) are common on Sweetwater, where the increased insolation and abundant moisture provide fertile conditions for them to form. The surface of Sweetwater is also where many misotheist groups make their home.
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indigenous yinrih etc.

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Here's another brainstorming post.
Unlike humanity, the yinrih don't have a concept of native or indigenous peoples. This is especially true on worlds other than Yih which were terraformed from lifeless rocks and populated by yinrih from scratch. There are a lot of groups that appear to be uncontacted tribes, especially on Sweetwater's many islands and floating vegetation rafts, but they all started out as bands of Atavists, Primitive Wayfarers, Neoshamanists, or other miscellaneous groups who chose to isolate themselves from wider yinrih society.

If you've ever seen the movie The Village, that's how these groups start out. A group of people claims, buys, squats on, or takes over a difficult-to-access bit of land, then forms a group of childermoots, becoming a little insulated shire. They tell their pups that there's nothing beyond the trees/waters/mountains/whatever, and over time history becomes legend becomes myth.

Some residents of the Spacer Confederacy or Outer Belt have the moxy to do this on an orbital colony, which results in a ctrl+C ctrl+V of every sci-fi story about generation ships ever. i.e. the residents believe the colony is the entire universe, with upkeep of the ships systems handled by "machine spirits" (leaseminds and drones) or by a cargo cult.

Before First Contact a subculture of regular yinrih existed that was interested in these self-isolated cultures. The first Terraboos emerged from this subculture after First Contact.
Given what Neoshamanists believe about the noosphere and consciousness, they'd be the ones of all yinrih groups to try for strong AI. They don't get there, but perhaps they pioneer things like machine learning algorithms and leaseminds.

Yet another theory about Yinrihcron™ is that it was built by a group of neoshamanists trying to make an AI god.
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Wind Fruit Picture

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Here's a wind fruit rendered in Blender.

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