As if the source wasn't obvious already... 
Pre-ChaNES: Into the Void
- Thread starter Chandrasekhar
- Start date
alex994
Hail Divine Emperor!
The Chinese Colonial Government of Tiantang denounces the terrorist attacks upon the peace-loving Chinese Peoples.
The Colonial Citizens of Tiantang stand fully behind the Chinese Communist Party. On Tiantang, there is freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech and expression as it is stated in the Glorious Constitution of the People's Republic of China.
The Colonial Citizens of Tiantang stand fully behind the Chinese Communist Party. On Tiantang, there is freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech and expression as it is stated in the Glorious Constitution of the People's Republic of China.
alex994
Hail Divine Emperor!
Thlayli
Le Pétit Prince
Aww, come on guys. Someone has to be the conformist villains.
Symphony D.
Deity
Retroactive deletion.
Yes, that was totally intended, even if I sense the intended irony of your post. Of course it would not stay down for long, but I definitely see the initial reaction to be of that form, in true PRC spirit.
You'd have to figure that this has been pretty much the worst fear of the Communist Party for a long time. I would definitely expect that there are very clear interfaces between Chinese networks and those of the outside world, which would be possible to shut down when needed. So I picture the scenario as something like:
1) Some semi-high ranking official pulls the plug entirely on public internet after a few minutes of frantic scrambling, say 10. The privileged internet with full freedom for the high-ups is of course not affected.
2) Some hours later, possibly two, intra-Chinese internet is restored. Even if the attack originates from within China, at least there would be no way to redirect Chinese citizens to external sites. At the same time messages would start being sent out to the populace regarding the vile terroriest attack responsible for taking down the internet (why mention that we pulled the plug)?
3) Full internet would be restored when deemed safe to do so. I would expect China to manage quite well with just intra-Chinese internet for a long time if need be.
What's awkward for me here is that Chand says I'm not supposed to react, since this happens within the update period, making it a GM concern. So I just offer the above as a plausible event sequence for the sake of discussion, as well as for inspiration for Chand.
Btw, Symphony, we need to talk. I'll be around on MSN most of the day, starting in roughly an hour from now.
You'd have to figure that this has been pretty much the worst fear of the Communist Party for a long time. I would definitely expect that there are very clear interfaces between Chinese networks and those of the outside world, which would be possible to shut down when needed. So I picture the scenario as something like:
1) Some semi-high ranking official pulls the plug entirely on public internet after a few minutes of frantic scrambling, say 10. The privileged internet with full freedom for the high-ups is of course not affected.
2) Some hours later, possibly two, intra-Chinese internet is restored. Even if the attack originates from within China, at least there would be no way to redirect Chinese citizens to external sites. At the same time messages would start being sent out to the populace regarding the vile terroriest attack responsible for taking down the internet (why mention that we pulled the plug)?
3) Full internet would be restored when deemed safe to do so. I would expect China to manage quite well with just intra-Chinese internet for a long time if need be.
What's awkward for me here is that Chand says I'm not supposed to react, since this happens within the update period, making it a GM concern. So I just offer the above as a plausible event sequence for the sake of discussion, as well as for inspiration for Chand.
Btw, Symphony, we need to talk. I'll be around on MSN most of the day, starting in roughly an hour from now.
das
Regeneration In Process
On it.
Anyway, this should make for a pretty nice information warfare exercise; if this isn't an agent provocateur sort of action, it should've been.
Chandrasekhar
Determined
Subject: Loricatus sapiens
This is a report on the native intelligent lifeforms of the second planet in the Liberty system. From genetic samples gathered from abandoned dwellings, and from samples and observations of the native wildlife, these beings have tentatively been asigned to the local genus Loricatus, and given the specific descriptor sapiens, to indicate their capacity for conscious thought. Its evolutionary ancestors are moderately sized grazing animals somewhat similar to Earth's bovines.
L. sapiens has spread across most of its native planet, from the polar tundras to the dense jungles in the equatorial regions. Most L. sapiens live in small, semi-migratory communities which leave little in the way of architecture, but clearly display advanced language and tool-making. L. sapiens society has not progressed beyond this stage on the continent which has been colonized by humans, but on the other main continent, two distinct city-building civilizations at apprixmately iron-age levels of development have been sighted.
The local researchers have deliberately avoided popularizing a colloquial name for L. sapiens, so that when contact is established and the process of uplifting the natives begins, L. sapiens itself will choose the name it will be known by.
Physical Features: Fundamentally, L. sapiens are quite similar to humanity. They are warm blooded, bipedal, have two arms with hands on the ends, and their array of internal organs is mostly analogous to that of humanity. As has been seen on the several other planets with native life, evolution follows similar paths on habitable worlds, and the more habitable a world is, the more similar its biology is to Earth's.
There are several immediately noticeable differences, however. Firstly, L. sapiens are protected in their adult life by a hard exoskeleton which grows and thickens through adolescence, in addition to an endoskeleton underneath their hairless skin. This exoskeleton is thin and brittle, but slick and slippery, and appears to have evolved to help L. sapiens' ancestors escape from predators. This exoskeleton has only limited regeneration if broken, but civilized L. sapiens can generally live without it. Indeed, some L. sapiens tribes appear to have a shell shearing ceremony by which individuals are inducted into a shamanistic role.
Secondly, L. sapiens is one of its planet's many large flight-capable creatures, enabled despite its size by its planet's light gravity and relatively thick atmosphere. Its wings are featherless, like those of a bat, but stem from a pair of apendages entirely unconnected to its arms and legs. Its grazing ancestors used wings to quickly escape ambush predators in the open field. In this evolutionary offshoot, they have evolved toward short bursts of flight, rather than sustained aerial travel - L. sapiens spends the vast majority of its time with its feet on the ground, and is not capable of precision flying among trees or buildings. Most of the time, these wings are folded beneath an opening on the exoskeleton of the back.
The face of L. sapiens only bears a passing resemblence to that of a human. The exoskeletal plating is incomplete here, as it is on the joints. L. sapiens has two small, widely set eyes that seem to have poor visual resolution and depth perception, compared to those of humans, but instead are geared towards detecting movement. A mouth is also present, with teeth and a tongue similar to those in humans, and capable of producing a similar range of sounds, but this orifice also serves olfactory functions. Additionally, rather than a pair of visible ears on the head, L. sapiens has a set of distributed aural organs, which are extremely sensitive by human standards.
L. sapiens has four toes on each foot and four digits on each hand (three fingers and a thumb), arranged similarly to human fingers and toes. Its exoskeleton does not cover its hands and feet. L. sapiens' hands are capable of delicate manipulation and toolcrafting. Its limbs and joins are structured similarly to those of a human, but are generally lighter and more fragile.
Sexual dimorphism in L. sapiens is not very noticeable, with females being only slightly smaller and lighter than males. Infants come into being by live birth, which often fractures or removes part of the mother's exoskeleton, along with all the other complications analogous to those of human birth in societies before advanced medicine.
The average L. sapiens is about 1.4m tall, has a mass of 55kg (but weighs less than that would imply on Earth, due to the planet's weaker gravity), and a fully extended wingspan of 1.7m. Its average lifespan is difficult to determine without direct study and observation, and probably varies greatly between the relatively civilized societies and the tribal ones, but is currently estimated to be approximately 25 years.
Society: Little is known about the societies of L. sapiens at this point. The tribes nearest to the site of human colonization can be covertly studied with relative ease, but the other tribes on the continent are undoubtably greatly varied, and the complexities of the civilizations on the other continent can't be easily studied without direct contact. This report will be updated when more information is available.
---
Whew, just enough room to edit this into the last reserved post. I'll need to reserve more posts in the eventual main ChaNES thread. Anyway, as this is the Pre-NES, feedback on these sapients is welcome from those who have more knowledge of biology than I do, and changes can be made for greater believability. It's a struggle to make something alien, yet biologically plausible, while also capable of building civilization, but I'm pretty happy with how this has turned out.
This is a report on the native intelligent lifeforms of the second planet in the Liberty system. From genetic samples gathered from abandoned dwellings, and from samples and observations of the native wildlife, these beings have tentatively been asigned to the local genus Loricatus, and given the specific descriptor sapiens, to indicate their capacity for conscious thought. Its evolutionary ancestors are moderately sized grazing animals somewhat similar to Earth's bovines.
L. sapiens has spread across most of its native planet, from the polar tundras to the dense jungles in the equatorial regions. Most L. sapiens live in small, semi-migratory communities which leave little in the way of architecture, but clearly display advanced language and tool-making. L. sapiens society has not progressed beyond this stage on the continent which has been colonized by humans, but on the other main continent, two distinct city-building civilizations at apprixmately iron-age levels of development have been sighted.
The local researchers have deliberately avoided popularizing a colloquial name for L. sapiens, so that when contact is established and the process of uplifting the natives begins, L. sapiens itself will choose the name it will be known by.
Physical Features: Fundamentally, L. sapiens are quite similar to humanity. They are warm blooded, bipedal, have two arms with hands on the ends, and their array of internal organs is mostly analogous to that of humanity. As has been seen on the several other planets with native life, evolution follows similar paths on habitable worlds, and the more habitable a world is, the more similar its biology is to Earth's.
There are several immediately noticeable differences, however. Firstly, L. sapiens are protected in their adult life by a hard exoskeleton which grows and thickens through adolescence, in addition to an endoskeleton underneath their hairless skin. This exoskeleton is thin and brittle, but slick and slippery, and appears to have evolved to help L. sapiens' ancestors escape from predators. This exoskeleton has only limited regeneration if broken, but civilized L. sapiens can generally live without it. Indeed, some L. sapiens tribes appear to have a shell shearing ceremony by which individuals are inducted into a shamanistic role.
Secondly, L. sapiens is one of its planet's many large flight-capable creatures, enabled despite its size by its planet's light gravity and relatively thick atmosphere. Its wings are featherless, like those of a bat, but stem from a pair of apendages entirely unconnected to its arms and legs. Its grazing ancestors used wings to quickly escape ambush predators in the open field. In this evolutionary offshoot, they have evolved toward short bursts of flight, rather than sustained aerial travel - L. sapiens spends the vast majority of its time with its feet on the ground, and is not capable of precision flying among trees or buildings. Most of the time, these wings are folded beneath an opening on the exoskeleton of the back.
The face of L. sapiens only bears a passing resemblence to that of a human. The exoskeletal plating is incomplete here, as it is on the joints. L. sapiens has two small, widely set eyes that seem to have poor visual resolution and depth perception, compared to those of humans, but instead are geared towards detecting movement. A mouth is also present, with teeth and a tongue similar to those in humans, and capable of producing a similar range of sounds, but this orifice also serves olfactory functions. Additionally, rather than a pair of visible ears on the head, L. sapiens has a set of distributed aural organs, which are extremely sensitive by human standards.
L. sapiens has four toes on each foot and four digits on each hand (three fingers and a thumb), arranged similarly to human fingers and toes. Its exoskeleton does not cover its hands and feet. L. sapiens' hands are capable of delicate manipulation and toolcrafting. Its limbs and joins are structured similarly to those of a human, but are generally lighter and more fragile.
Sexual dimorphism in L. sapiens is not very noticeable, with females being only slightly smaller and lighter than males. Infants come into being by live birth, which often fractures or removes part of the mother's exoskeleton, along with all the other complications analogous to those of human birth in societies before advanced medicine.
The average L. sapiens is about 1.4m tall, has a mass of 55kg (but weighs less than that would imply on Earth, due to the planet's weaker gravity), and a fully extended wingspan of 1.7m. Its average lifespan is difficult to determine without direct study and observation, and probably varies greatly between the relatively civilized societies and the tribal ones, but is currently estimated to be approximately 25 years.
Society: Little is known about the societies of L. sapiens at this point. The tribes nearest to the site of human colonization can be covertly studied with relative ease, but the other tribes on the continent are undoubtably greatly varied, and the complexities of the civilizations on the other continent can't be easily studied without direct contact. This report will be updated when more information is available.
---
Whew, just enough room to edit this into the last reserved post. I'll need to reserve more posts in the eventual main ChaNES thread. Anyway, as this is the Pre-NES, feedback on these sapients is welcome from those who have more knowledge of biology than I do, and changes can be made for greater believability. It's a struggle to make something alien, yet biologically plausible, while also capable of building civilization, but I'm pretty happy with how this has turned out.
Symphony D.
Deity
Retroactive deletion.
Chandrasekhar
Determined
Eh... You are right. I think I fell into the trap of playing Mad Libs with body parts that I ridiculed erez for, much earlier in the thread. Some of these features can be reconciled, but I should write up a more detailed evolutionary justification in any case. A species moving from one biome to another can pick up an interesting combination of traits, but it should be explicitly justified rather than accepted 'cause it's not impossible. I'll leave this first draft up for any more constructive criticisms, but I'll put up a second draft for further review soon, along with justifications for whatever I feel can be kept.
Kozmos
Jew Detective
On that matter, how do koala's taste?
I can tell you about Kangaroo, Buffalo, a variety of snake, monkey, pigeon and a few other things... but I'm not sure about Koala. I have a sneaking suspicion that they would be rather wiry, highly fatty, with little in the way of meat... but I'm not sure. I can check up on that
das
Regeneration In Process
Hope I didn't scare you off with my non-MSN-ness, Niklas; I'm still waiting for your reply.
Well, if you had had MSN, you would likely have had your reply by now 
- but you'll have it anyway, it'll just take a bit longer (and I've been a bit too busy the past few days). I'll send you something during the evening.
- but you'll have it anyway, it'll just take a bit longer (and I've been a bit too busy the past few days). I'll send you something during the evening.Similar threads
