(C&C) Q&A Thread - Quick questions go here

[Ahzoh]

The cassowary thing was actually meant to be a joke. We weren't literally saying you needed vocabulary around cassowaries, or that your culture needed cassowaries. It was just an example - we expected you'd respond with some creativity of your own.

I'm aware of that. I have vocabulary focusing on crows and vultures; the "sacred" birds.

[eldin raigmore]

I have an idea: Camels are the transport trucks of the desert while Cassowaries would be the pick-up truck

Also to the Elephant Bird idea.

[Ahzoh]

I have a description of Vrkhazh:
"The very south of Vrkhazh is a tropical region with soil suitable for farming. There is a sea to west of Vrkhazh and another nation to the east, in a region known to the Vrkhazh as Himāq, an ancestral homeland of the Vrkhazh.
To the very north is a large mountain past the territorial range of Vrkhazh that causes the very north-east region of Vrkhazh to be very cold and snowy. The rest of Vrkhazh is arid and semi-arid."
Is this plausible? What would the directions of air (warm and cold) be like?

I have a hard time visualizing this landmass, though... I wonder if someone could suggest a possible design... Based on the description.

[eldin raigmore]

I have a description of Vrkhazh:
"The very south of Vrkhazh is a tropical region with soil suitable for farming. There is a sea to west of Vrkhazh and another nation to the east, in a region known to the Vrkhazh as Himāq, an ancestral homeland of the Vrkhazh.
To the very north is a large mountain past the territorial range of Vrkhazh that causes the very north-east region of Vrkhazh to be very cold and snowy. The rest of Vrkhazh is arid and semi-arid."
Is this plausible? What would the directions of air (warm and cold) be like?

I have a hard time visualizing this landmass, though... I wonder if someone could suggest a possible design... Based on the description.

If the rest of Vrkhazh is arid and semi-arid, chances are the prevailing winds are being blocked by the mountain range from reaching most of it.
Certainly, chances are, there's little wind blowing in from the ocean.
So the prevailing winds would be the wind from the north (being blocked by the mountain(s)) and the wind from the east (which has already dropped most of its rain on Himaq).

Just a guess; tried to make it a (quasi-)smart one.

[Ahzoh]

Does anyone know what this is? The cutting edge is on the outside curve. It's apparently not a sickle, hook, pick or reaver. When the owner took a few swings of it, they said it felt like it was intended as a weapon. It is also described as: "Its got a handle designed for one hand, bound in wood or leather for grip. Its base construction is almost entirely metal. It is clearly designed to apply lever force from a swing motion to the sharp point. The point it has is not durable enough for mining rock, long enough to be useful for cutting grasses, nor short enough to cut small leaves like mistletoe."

[Ahzoh]

I wonder what the colours of my flag could represent:

The wings represent crows, a highly valued bird, while the symbol represents a cultural hero.

[Dezinaa]

I saw a map of Middle Earth, and realized there is a basically square mountain range around Mordor. Would that even be possible on a conworld?

[Xonen]

I saw a map of Middle Earth, and realized there is a basically square mountain range around Mordor. Would that even be possible on a conworld?

Well, anything's possible in a conworld. But in a realistic conworld with earthlike plate tectonics, I would, until a few minutes ago, have assumed "no". But of course someone on the Interwebz has already actually studied this, and turns out I would've been wrong.

[Lambuzhao]

Does anyone know what this is? The cutting edge is on the outside curve. It's apparently not a sickle, hook, pick or reaver. When the owner took a few swings of it, they said it felt like it was intended as a weapon. It is also described as: "Its got a handle designed for one hand, bound in wood or leather for grip. Its base construction is almost entirely metal. It is clearly designed to apply lever force from a swing motion to the sharp point. The point it has is not durable enough for mining rock, long enough to be useful for cutting grasses, nor short enough to cut small leaves like mistletoe."

IMHG it's a lumberjack tool, used to help move logs along in the water, with the smaller recurved blade used to prune smaller branches and foliage that stick out from the log.

Or, it could be an old cetacean-gutting/blubber-cutting tool used by whalers.

It could be an African throwing knife...but it does not look weighted properly.
But these are complete guesses.

[Lambuzhao]

I wonder what the colours of my flag could represent:

The wings represent crows, a highly valued bird, while the symbol represents a cultural hero.

The black may also represent "whither the crow flies" i.e. maybe a Vrkazh concept of "Lebensraum".

The symbol of the hero is in red, evoking the whole "blood of the ancestors" motif, i.e. "the symbol is red because his/her blood flows in us" {unless, of course, their blood is not red}

The blue color could mean anything, but for some reason it reminded me of how Native American, Turkic, and othe rcultures associate cardinal directions with psrticular colors.
which see:
https://sites.google.com/site/colorsoft ... ated-links

[eldin raigmore]

I saw a map of Middle Earth, and realized there is a basically square mountain range around Mordor. Would that even be possible on a conworld?

Well, anything's possible in a conworld. But in a realistic conworld with earthlike plate tectonics, I would, until a few minutes ago, have assumed "no". But of course someone on the Interwebz has already actually studied this, and turns out I would've been wrong.

Cool!
What I was always troubled by (though mildly, because I repressed it) was, "what the heck is mithril, chemically; and what if any is the justification for calling it "truesilver"?
I wonder if the article is available online? or for free? (preferably both).

[Ahzoh]

I wonder what the colours of my flag could represent:

The wings represent crows, a highly valued bird, while the symbol represents a cultural hero.

The black may also represent "whither the crow flies" i.e. maybe a Vrkazh concept of "Lebensraum".

The symbol of the hero is in red, evoking the whole "blood of the ancestors" motif, i.e. "the symbol is red because his/her blood flows in us" {unless, of course, their blood is not red}

The blue color could mean anything, but for some reason it reminded me of how Native American, Turkic, and othe rcultures associate cardinal directions with psrticular colors.
which see:
https://sites.google.com/site/colorsoft ... ated-links

Lebensraum... Yeah, I'm not sure I want something that is a major component of Nazi/fascist ideologies...

That is not blue, it's turquoise.

[Lao Kou]

The black may also represent "whither the crow flies" i.e. maybe a Vrkazh concept of "Lebensraum".

Lebensraum... Yeah, I'm not sure I want something that is a major component of Nazi/fascist ideologies...

I'm not sure Lam was at all suggesting modelling Vrkazh on the Third Reich. Would one feel better calling it "Manifest Destiny"? Or set it to Schoolhouse Rock and call it "elbow room". "Whither the crow flies" suggests to me freedom and vastness, which I can certainly imagine a desert people plugging into, and would probably count as "maybe a Vrkazh concept of 'Lebensraum'" (which, stripped of all the baggage, just means "living space").

[Ahzoh]

The black may also represent "whither the crow flies" i.e. maybe a Vrkazh concept of "Lebensraum".

Lebensraum... Yeah, I'm not sure I want something that is a major component of Nazi/fascist ideologies...

I'm not sure Lam was at all suggesting modelling Vrkazh on the Third Reich. Would one feel better calling it "Manifest Destiny"? Or set it to Schoolhouse Rock and call it "elbow room". "Whither the crow flies" suggests to me freedom and vastness, which I can certainly imagine a desert people plugging into, and would probably count as "maybe a Vrkazh concept of 'Lebensraum'" (which, stripped of all the baggage, just means "living space").

I would certaintly consider Friedrich Ratzel's definition, "Ratzel believed that the development of a people was primarily influenced by their geographical situation and that a people that successfully adapted to one location would proceed naturally to another."

[Ahzoh]

Could desert countries have an abundance of iron, copper and tin? Is there a scientific means of determining the distribution of these materials?

[Lambuzhao]

The black may also represent "whither the crow flies" i.e. maybe a Vrkazh concept of "Lebensraum".

Lebensraum... Yeah, I'm not sure I want something that is a major component of Nazi/fascist ideologies...

I'm not sure Lam was at all suggesting modelling Vrkazh on the Third Reich. Would one feel better calling it "Manifest Destiny"? Or set it to Schoolhouse Rock and call it "elbow room". "Whither the crow flies" suggests to me freedom and vastness, which I can certainly imagine a desert people plugging into, and would probably count as "maybe a Vrkazh concept of 'Lebensraum'" (which, stripped of all the baggage, just means "living space").

I would certaintly consider Friedrich Ratzel's definition, "Ratzel believed that the development of a people was primarily influenced by their geographical situation and that a people that successfully adapted to one location would proceed naturally to another."

....Maybe "Sphere of Influence" is less fascist?
...or how about "As the crow flies"...?

[Lambuzhao]

Could desert countries have an abundance of iron, copper and tin? Is there a scientific means of determining the distribution of these materials?

I am quite sure northern Chile's Atacama Desert region is pretty rich in mineral resources. The Andes mountains nearby certainly are. Peru has been kicking itself in the pants ever since losing it to Chile back in the 19th century.


I would say that, as long as a desert had mountains are nearby, the case could be made that abundant valuable minerals (gems, ores) can be discovered. But there are numerous minerals of interest to you to be had in the deserts themselves, which see-
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/deserts/minerals/


Here's a short article about Morocco's untapped mineral wealth:
http://rough-polished.com/en/expertise/59230.html

Here's a paper on Fractals and Power Laws to predict the location of mineral deposits-
http://www.maths-in-industry.org/miis/5 ... posits.pdf

[Corphishy]

How practical would it be to use cobalt for things like weaponry, tools, etc?

[Ahzoh]

IMUO, I would say not very practical... But... I cannot find any mention of cobalt as a material for weapons...

---

Could the colour black symbolize existence and tangibility rather than nothingness?
Think not a shadow, but of what gives a shadow,
Think of a black stain on white linen,
Think of a silhouetted shape in the darkness.

Although black is visualized as something unseen and full nothing, I would argue that white is blank and clean, with nothing on it.

[Salmoneus]

How practical would it be to use cobalt for things like weaponry, tools, etc?

Not in the slightest.

I mean, where are you getting the cobalt from? Cobalt is a devil (note the name) to produce - it occurs with other stuff, and smelting it will turn it into powder (it oxidises rapidly). And kill you (because it usually occurs alongside arsenic, and arsenic oxides are toxic). A very small amount is available in recent meteorites, but even then you need to unentangle it from the nickel.

Once you've gotten your raw cobalt - great, its physical properties are fairly similar to bronze and steel. There's no particular reason to use it rather than bronze or steel, however, since the latter would be much cheaper. I'm also not sure about oxidation: apparently it forms a protective oxide layer, like aluminium, but I don't know if that oxide layer is something you're going to want to be bashing against an anvil or a shield. Maybe, maybe not, you'd need to talk to someone who knows about this stuff.

Short version: it's possible it's entirely useless (if the oxides can be bashed away too easily). Best case scenario, it's useful but not especially. And it's hell to obtain.

It is of course incredibly useful in creating superalloys, but a culture would have to be modern to be able to do that reliably (as opposed to, say, a particular 'miracle mine' that gives really good 'steel').