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[Armok]

Oooh, just had an even better idea for my species. The other 3 are still on the todo list, but this one is priority:

Presumably, they have larva or nymphs or something like that (if not, I need more feedback on how exactly they reproduce). I make that stage last MUCH longer, make them extreme K-selectionist, and look (and possibly have mannerisms) like Ataqalaa. This a) makes them smarter/more flexible since their brains are growing and malleable for longer, b) enforces cooperation and care, since they wont be able to take care of them alone, c) establishes a strong precedent for caring and protection without reciprocity associated with our appearance.

[Ross Vernal]

No caste.

Pretty much, everything Kaian-a-coel and Armok are saying, though.

Make them somehow interbreedable if at all possible, and then let growth and war commence,

[Deny]

These are all great ideas, I'll post after school though since i have to go in like five minutes, if anyone else wants to contribute, feel free

[Deny]

Here is my first post, the Vorglockie post will come later today, till then enjoy
Names:
Kaian’s creature, Salmass, means The New Born
Armoks creature, Vorglockie, means The Selfless
A story from the Salmass
It is said that when the first woke, his first feeling was that he was in a liquid, but he felt surprisingly calm he somehow knew he shouldn’t be able to breath, yet he could. Then he felt a curiosity, he wanted to see what was around him, he opened his eyes and saw them, they were long, elegant, no legs but they had long delicate arms and four long tendrils which they surprisingly didn’t use very often, they slithered around but in a graceful way, and he felt surprisingly calm being contained in this, liquid tube. Then he looked to the sides and saw seven other tubes, each containing strange creatures, they had six limbs, thick carapace armour, large round heads with eight eyes and even thicker carapace, when he was done looking he found that one of the creatures was looking at him, it temporarily closed its eyes and stood stock still, only its tendrils moving around in slow lazy patterns, it remained that way for some time, he couldn’t tell, but eventually it seemed satisfied. Then he noticed that the other creatures where looking at him in seeming anticipation, then he noticed a large circular part of the wall, open, and through it came three more strange creatures, the first was larger than the other two, it consisted of a circular ball, about the size of his head, and four long round cylinders seemingly floating around it but he noticed that the cylinders had no edges, in fact nothing here had edges except for those on the tube creatures carapace. The other two creatures meanwhile, also had a similar sized ball in the middle but only two cylinders, then the tube somehow had a hole into it, he stepped out and immediately the larger of the round floating creatures hovered over him, its four arms extended in a kind of umbrella shape over him. Then one of the creatures approached, it stopped just in front of him, then spoke, “Greetings Salmass, new born and possibly future protector, my name is Alerish, I am an Ataqalaas, the race who created you.” The first nodded his large head slowly, not speaking, but he felt strangely at peace with this voice, after a while Alerish spoke “ask any question you like, and I will answer with the honest truth.” The first thought about this for some time before finally asking “What are those creatures in those tubes?” Alerish seemed to smile at this question for a bit, before answering “why, they are your brothers, your sisters, they are Salmass, just like you, but in many small ways, they are not like you.” The first was confused about this before he realised, he had eight eyes, his head felt rather heavy, and looking down at himself he saw that he too, had four legs and two arms, “where am I?” asked the first. Alerish waited some more before answering this question “you are on the Galyiam, enjoy your time here, for it shall be the most glorios time of your life.” The first was about to ask another question when he noticed his brothers and sisters stirring, seven other groups of the floating things came and they too were realesed from the tubes, “what are those things?”  Asked the first.
“I told you, your brothers and sisters.”
“No the floating things.” Alerish smiled again
“they are called drones, remember that name,” the first continued to watch as his brothers and sisters where all brought to him, they soon formed into a small group around him, quite overtaken by what they saw, just as one was about to ask a question, the being Alerish raised his hand, “patience, all will be revealed by your brother here later. And then the wall opened up again, this time two more figures emerged, they were Ataqalaas, but they seemed to hold authority, one was bigger than most Ataqalaas, Alerish leaned closer to the first and whispered “The big one is Slask, and the smaller is Shaleskia, she is our leader,” Shaleskia and Slask came closer, and the first thought he saw some disapproval in his eyes, fortunately he saw none in Shaleskia’s eyes, she seemed somewhat curious. “So I see the operation was a success, these are the Salmass?”
“Yes Shaleskia, these are the Salmass,” spoke Alerish with much pride.
“A waste of work if you ask me, we should have focused on the Vorglockie.” Spoke the one called Slask. Alerish tensed up at this comment, and he soon looked like he would say something when Shaleskia rounded on Slask, “we’ve been through this before Slask don’t argue about it now.” Slask backed down at this though he continued to glare at the first born. Shaleskia looked at the first born with approval and said, “I’m sure that you all have many questions, but these will be revealed in later time, just remember this meeting, and all will be revealed in time,” then the drones let out some white light, and the world went black, the first born then woke on a small land, and set about their work to survive, and they split off into pairs, one male and one female, in different directions, they would go on to form the clans, the first clan stayed where they were and that clan was the largest, sometimes other trueborn would come, they would be introduced to the clans, or sometimes they formed their own, then one day we woke to find the world had changed, the land was more hostile, fierce creatures called the Vorglockie, a name remembered by our people, fought us for land, they shouted in the name of Slask, and so Slask was confirmed as the evil one, Alerish the generous, and Shaleskia the leader. Ever since then we have fought the Vorglockie, one day we shall win, one day we shall reach the heavens, where the Ataqalaas wait, one day we shall seize our destiny.”

[Deny]

The Vorglockie libraries
At first we were young, we were impure, we squabbled amongst ourselves, and in some ways, we still do. Then one day, he came, the first hive he went to, attempted to destroy him, then the next, and the next and the next, but then he found one hive that was willing to listen, they took him to the queen, to whom he spoke, he showed her a crystal, it was red, shaped like one of our eyes, and he told the queen, “if you accept this gift, you will find endless supplies of it within your lands,” the queen accepted, seeing nothing to lose from the venture, the queen accepted. The stranger left, but it was just the start of our peoples future, soon we began to change, the larvae looked more like the stranger, minus the arms replacing them with an extra pair of tendrils, then these larvae showed more independence, more intelligence, and they even showed a gift to move things with their minds, they grew in number, until finally a queen was born with these qualities, this was the birth of the true Vorglockie, these sensed that they had a truer calling, a calling to grow in power, but they lacked the means to do so, then, five hundred years after the first Vorglockie queen had been born, the stranger returned, he went to every hive that was Vorglockie, before he finally returned to the original hive, he told them “Your destiny is to be the master race of all, you will one day share the heavens with me, but in order to do this, you must destroy the impure, for they can have no place in this world,and be wary of the soulless, for they will seek to destroy you” with this said he turned to leave, but before he did the queen asked “what is your name, tell us so we can worship you,” the stranger turned to face the queen, before finally speaking. “My name is Slask, and remember that by Slask’s will, this is your land. Before any more questions could be asked he disappeared in a bright flash of light. With Slasks blessing, the Vorglockie spread across the world destroying the impure, and taking the land by storm, we developed superior technology, and the world was ours. However, the princes greed took over, and the hives started fighting each other, hives were destroyed and others were formed, but in the end, we were united by our enemy. One night, some scouts found strange creatures, at first we were simply curious, but then we found, to our horror, that we couldn’t sense their souls, realising that these were the soulless ones we immediately set upon them, but they were strong, and we were unorganised, so they survived, now they threaten our home, claiming to be servents of some devil named Alerish, and so we realised that he must be a sworn enemy of Slask, and so the war has continued, to this day, but some day we shall drive the soulless out, then we shall prove to Slask that we are worthy of the gifts bestowed on us.

Organisation:
1 Queen, she lays the eggs and is the leader of the hive, queens are about as big as a road train but more lithely built, they have large swollen abdomens, six large legs, a rather large head and body, they have psionic abilities, if she must fight then she will use her size and psionic abilities
1 Prince, he is the queens mate and oversees the military, economic and basic day to day running of the hive, Princes are about 2  metres tall, they have wings, are very strong, and have psionic abilities, they will use long axe-staffs for combat
Queens guard, they oversee law in the hive, enforcing the queens will, but will only fight if the hive is attacked, they are about 1 and three quarters of a metre tall, have wings, and only the high ranking captains have psionic abilities, they wield dual small axe-staffs for combat
Princes guard, they are the elite troops of the hive and guards to the prince, they are the same size as a queens guard, have wings and only commanders have wings, they wield small axe-staffs and large shields for combat
Ornalords, they are the priests and scientists, they are the most psionic capable of the hive except the queen, they are the same size as queens guard, no wings, and wield staffs for combat
Soldiers, they are the basic troopers of the hive, they are 1 and a half metres tall, have no wings or psionic abilities, and wield axes, spears and bows in combat
Scouts, they are the hunters, assassins and scouts of the hive, they have wings, are one metre tall, and have no psionic abilities, they wield long spears and bows in combat
Workers, they are the grunts and workers in the hive, they are 1 metre tall, have no wings or psionic abilities, and when forced to fight will wield axes for combat


(The crystal is what they use to make their weapons)

[Deny]

It had taken some time, five thousand years in fact, but it was done, the Kailarsk, imitators of the enemy, had been almost wipedout by the Vorglockie, this was sad, but it was reality, as it turned out the grubs had meerly been the scorpions offspring, so now the Salmass offspring looked like the grubs, the two races were at war, but it was very obvius that either would be very suitable for the role of protector, neither side is winning yet, and technology still hadn't caught up enough for iron, although bronze was being used alot. Slask supported the Vorglockie while Alerish supported the Salmass, both races were proving to be very good fighters and very protective of their own, the scouts often viewed battles between them, the Salmass had saken to riding large crisket creatures with jaws and sharp teeth to make up for the Vorglockie's flying ability, perhaps another race would be possible, but it would be hard pressed, still, progress was going very smoothly.

Spoiler: Galyiam Cargo (click to show/hide)

-12 scout drones (all out scouting)
-5 combat drones
-3 comunicator drones
-8 capture drones
-10 carrier drones
-12 bio-vats of varios sizes
-8 moulder kits
-3 capture kits
-5 shuttles
-1 food generator
-2 water generators

Spoiler: Bio Vats (click to show/hide)

[kaian-a-coel]

Q-Q-Q-QUAD POST! 

So am I Alerish?

I like this story-telling very much! Sorry for your laptop screwing. I am eager to read the Vorglockie part!

[Deny]

your not really alerish but your point of view is reperesented by him

and thanks for the compliement, I got the idea from that Deamonhood forum, I still sometimes read it, although you probably wont see more posts like these for a while, they take so bloody long, anways enjoy,

[stabbymcstabstab]

This is awesome hands down.

[Armok]

Omg this is so awesome!

I love the race and the personality you've made for me! It is perfect!

Ok, time to kick things up a notch. Once every decade, I go from tribe to tribe offering them a chance at power. Then, representatives of each tribe have to fight each other in an arena, using modern equipment (not explained how it works and subsequently taken away, obviously) they only get a few weeks to learn about, (some other tests of ability, but fighting in the main one), and the hive of the winner is improved.

hopefully this will:
 - make the changes psychologically a reward t fight for, not a change imposed.
 - give the tribes who are the most fit to begin with a large advantage.
 - provide lots or preliminary test data on their capabilities with modern equipment as well as footage to send my superiors.
 - motivate them to develop and train styles that wont become obsolete and wasted.
 - allow for full arms race mode in fighting ability withote cripeling the population.
 - further cement my divine status.

changes to the structure of a hive, to be made gradually, such that each tournament winner gets to one-up the previous decades one, and there never is an upheaval of the entire race/culture:
 - Smaller and more compact hives with smaller and more compact queens, for increased mobility and autonomy of smaller bands. (trom the size of the quens I assume hives are at least in the thosands, slowly tune it down to one or two hundred)
 - prince and queens guard castes merged, with each hive having several princes that also takes over the previous tasks of the queens guard
 - princes guard merged into the soldier caste, all of which gains their abilities
 - scouts more common, and largely take over the non-elite soldier role, being more suited for more modern combat.
 - wings and psionic abilities generally much more common and stronger in all castes except workers.
 - most larva pass throguh an almost Ornalord like stage, giving even those destined to eventualy be much dumber a chance to learn more advanced skills they may still have use of later. This also makes childhood still longer.
 - partial shift of power towards Ornalord advisor and larva.
 - by hormonal changes, larva are made to feel extremely entitled, sensitive, and infallible. Adults still feel they *were* those things when they were larva, and the memories are exaggerated exaggerated such that the pain they may currently feel does not matter and that their harm or death matters little if it is to protect those more sensitive, since they know first hand how absurd any other state of affairs would be. As much as posible everything is fitted and mathed such that Ataqalaas will trigger the reaction.
 - introduce meta-hives: to compensate for the smaller hive sizes, related hives can form into a single meta hive or splitt up as is practical. The meta hive can have up to hundreds of queens, and drones can move freely betwen sub-hives and in general it shares many characteristics previously only seen within single hives.

[kaian-a-coel]

This is a clearly interventionist action.
I admire your idea of make the Vorglockie feel like Ataqalaas are "their larvaes", to trigger an enhanced maternal instinct. Very original.
If I can say a word about it, for the tournaments, instead of giving ultra-modern-high-tech equipment, give them ahead-of-time equipment. Something they can conceive and understand with efforts, but not lasers-guns they'll feel to be pure magic and god-work.


For my part, I only wish a few things.
  -First, make them more aware of their dreams, and make them take dreams as seriously as weighed, reflected upon suggestions. Never dismiss an idea as impossible, unorthodox or unholy. Except if it endanger too much lives.
  -Every Salmass is encouraged to develop his/her own solutions to problems, and the group will adopt the most effective one.
  -There is no real hierarchy. Everyone make what's he/her is good at. In battle it appear to be strict hierarchy because there is some good at giving orders and some good at executing orders. Personal status is nothing before greater good.
  -There can, and will, be infighting. But the Salmass know their kind and will immediatly join former rivals against common threat.
  -Send dreams and voices giving analysis, hints and advise, but do not tell them things no Salmass know of. Later, brain chips will deliver computer assistance akin to it.
  -Traditions are kept only as long as they're efficients. If no proof of efficiency shows, drop them. Gods and spirits does not help, and probably does not exist. Only the Kin is wothy of faith. Only for the Kin it is worth to die. But all Kin is not Salmass. Everyone that live and die for the Kin is Kin.


In short, selfless pragmatism FTW.

[Armok]

Thanks. Not giving them medium tech is intentional, since that is one area where intervention isn't desirable at the moment, and seeming godlike is an explicit goal.

Got even more ideas:

Those who have psionics, should also have an organ resembling a lided protected pocket on the back of their heads, and a sub area of their psionic centre specialized in extremely rapid and precise, but weak, sensing and manipulation of the contents of this area. The eventual use of this is, obviously, cybernetic implants/computer interfaces, but at their current tech level it can still be useful for things such as compasses, abacuses, or microfilm made according to a low-tech recipe I do share (which they'd without this organ not have the tech to write nearly as small or fast onto). Having it this early should give both their culture and brain time to adapt to it, with martial arts being designed to protect it, it being accepted as normal, useful traditions around it, etc.

One thing that already happens naturally, but should probably be encouraged and used, is the stealing of larva. Raising a larva takes lot of resources, and raiding another colony to steal theirs is thus cheaper than raising it from scratch. This both provides somone trying to specificaly ahrm the larva justifying and traing all those protective instincts, and also teaches that even the larva of other colonies are valuable and worth prtecting, so much that the privilege to protect them is worth fighting for.

[Deny]

Slask and Alerish set about working on their races, unfourtunately, neither race seems to pick it up, the vorglockie do go to the games, but they are only in awe of the technology, they dont seem to pick it up, but what they do pick up is the idea of capturing larvae, and the hives, now fight eachother as much as they fight the Slamass, the larvae wars decimate the population, with very little gained. Fourtunately for the Vorglockie, the Salmass pick up problems as well, the idea of selflesness leads to these 'berserker' Slamass who fight to the death for their kin and often launch suiside assults against their foes, this decimates the Slamass population as well, and the kin ideal leads to selflesness but also fighting against other Slamass, however the Slmass come out the best and by the year one thousand, they own 52% of the land.

Spoiler: Galyiam Cargo (click to show/hide)

-12 scout drones (all out scouting)
-5 combat drones
-3 comunicator drones
-8 capture drones
-10 carrier drones
-12 bio-vats of varios sizes
-8 moulder kits
-3 capture kits
-5 shuttles
-1 food generator
-2 water generators

Spoiler: Bio Vats (click to show/hide)

Sorry for the late post, I was at games workshop and Armok, you got 12 and Kaian got 28 (Out of 100)

[kaian-a-coel]

lol, I am going to warhammer club now (warhammer being a game from... Games Workshop.)


Do your best to make the Salmass understand that mass suicide is bad. They are Kin too. Losing a few to save more is good, but losing none to save a lot is better. The dillemm is minimizing death ratio.

[Armok]

next time you're at a workshop, just delay it another day when you have the energy to make the writing awesome instead of sucky.

Also, games that use dice like this tend to just frustrate players and just lead to the games demise. It's much better to base success on say how much you like the ideas or how likely you think the strategy would be to actually succeed.

Also, I used up ALL my ideas on that huge list. I'm just going to retry boringly untill it works, I have a specific problem it'll succeed if I fix, or I ragequit.