The Lonely Galaxy Megathread (comments encouraged)

[Visions1]

Assuming that a whole litter can disappear in the flick of a whisker, it wouldn't make sense for them to just barely replace themselves - a successful moot of eight parents means you have eight Yinrih on average. Assuming one dies, you're tending towards extinction.
Meanwhile, if an oviraptor gets there - or better yet, disease or disaster strikes - and the species will suffer sharp decline. Just replacement level ensures extinction.
To give a picture with people: hunter-gatherer cultures try to have as many kids as possible - though due to their lifestyle, often only have five at most. Children are likely to die. In agrarian societies with animals, you can have loads of babies, but unless you have medicine, expect maybe 3/4 of them to die.

Maybe it should be something like 1.5 times the amount of parents (4 parents make 6 kits, 8 parents make 12 kits, 12 make 18) - with an egg carrying twins relatively often.

[lurker]

Maybe it should be something like 1.5 times the amount of parents (4 parents make 6 kits, 8 parents make 12 kits, 12 make 18) - with an egg carrying twins relatively often.

Good advice. I think I might have to do some... m a t h *shudder* to see how that effects population growth.

[Visions1]

Maybe look into (coincidentally) monkey and Aussie possum breeding patterns - monkeys due to lifespan and intelligence, australian possums since some breed basically once before themselves dying.

Oh, and there's a word for only breeding once in a lifetime - semelparous.

Edit: found some stuff.
https://www.uvm.edu/~dstratto/bcor102/r ... belias.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/scie ... r-sex.html
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/ ... .2023.1316

[lurker]

Code: Select all

G    rnL rDB-0     rLPq-p  rNlr-0    hgq rLPq-p   rNlrGH-p     rNlrGH-p  
must not say-AUTH light-3D good-AUTH for light-3D goodness-3D goodness-3D
Do not say "The Light is good", for The Light is goodness itself

G    rnL rDB-0     rLPq-p   qCDr-0    hgq rLPq-p   qCDrGH-p   qCDrGH-p
must not say-AUTH  light-3D just-AUTH for light-3D justice-3D justice-3D
Do not say "The Light is just", for The Light is justice itself.

G    rnL rDB-0    rLPq-p   snp  hgq rLPq-p   rNPq-p    b  BC  snpGH-p          
must not say-AUTH light-3D holy for light-3D source-3D of all holiness-3D
Do not say "The Light is holy", for it is the fount of all holiness.

Some insight into more of the Bright Way's theology. Strictly speaking, one cannot attribute qualities to The Light, as all other things in Creation possess or lack qualities insofar as they reflect The Light. A person is good or just if they reflect The Light well, and evil or unjust if they don't.

To say that "The Light is good" implies a standard of goodness over and above The Light to which it must be subject.

[Visions1]

Do they have negative theology then?

[lurker]

Do they have negative theology then?

I haven't quite worked it all out, but yes, I'd say their theology is fairly apophatic.

Oh, and there's a word for only breeding once in a lifetime - semelparous.

Thanks. I've been thinking about the fact that yinrih only have one reproductive cycle, but unlike Earth animals that only reproduce once, they don't die right away. For now my explanation is that they evolved semolparity first, and became long-lived because that allowed them to pick the best time to have their litter. It probably doesn't pass a zoological sniff test, but this isn't a spec evo project.

[lurker]

There are two Commonthroat words that yinrih use to refer to themselves. The most basic is <qgKqg>, which is analogous to the word "man" or "human", it's a common name referring to anyone of their species.

the other is <sfq-Jq-g>. This word has two morphemes (not counting the deictic inflection). It's a combination of the word <sfq-g> which refers to the planet Yih, and the suffix <-Jq> which denotes a resident of a place or a member of a group, similar to the English suffixes -ese or -an. The word is therefor analogous to the English "Terran" or "Earthling". There is a bit of contraversy surrounding the use of the word <sfqJqg> to refer to yinrih in general. The yinrih have been an interplanetary civilization for nearly 95 thousand years. Even though all yinrih descend from ancestors on Yih, the vast, vast majority of the total yinrih population has never had the soil of Yih under their palms. Many people who live on Yih, especially if they were hatched there, object to the use of <sfqJqg> to refer to yinrih in general, saying it should only refer to people from Yih.

Unfortunately for these objectors, <sfqJqg> has a certain sci-fi flare to it, just like the English "Terran". So in spite of the fact that none of the missionaries are Yih natives, they decided to introduce themselves to humanity with <h sfqJql> "We are people from Yih". The word (minus the 1st person ending) is pronounced /yip, short high strong whine, huff, long high weak growl, huff/, which the very ad hoc human First Contact team hears as "yinrih".

In English the word "yinrih" is sometimes treated like the name of a species, and thus follows the English convention of zero plurals like "fish", "sheep", "deer", etc. It is also not capitalized, just as the word "human" is not capitalized. However, since yinrih are also sapient, the word is sometimes treated like a proper noun referring to a culture, and is thus styled "Yinrih". With all that in mind, the following examples are all considered correct usage:

I saw three yinrih resting in a tree.

The Yinrih speak many languages.

A yinrih is auditing one of my college classes.

The phrase "monkey fox" is also in common use. Many humans (the sort of people who get offended on others' behalf) regard it as a slur, but most yinrih themselves don't mind, especially given that both monkeys and foxes are known for their cleverness.

The word "cynoid" (dog-shaped) is favored in some circles. Many yinrih who are fans of human culture use the word to describe themselves since it has a pulp sci-fi ring to it.

There's also a taxonomic name as described in an earlier post, "Vulpithecus fidelis". If you want to refer to both tree dwellers and yinrih together, or to their common ancestor, the word "vulpithecin" is used, coined by analogy with "hominin".

Yinrih use the word <qMqmg> to refer to humans. The word is an onomatopoea of the English word "human".

Yinrih, especially Wayfarers, may use the word <sFsFg> (friend) to refer to humans. When the missionaries ask for the name of the country they've landed in, the humans respond "Texas". When asked for the meaning of the word "Texas", the humans say that it means "friend".

[lurker]

Humans use anesthetic to make the blindingly painful and mentally scarring experience of having your eyes sliced open, viscera exposed, or limbs hacked off more tolerable. This is accomplished by inducing unconsciousness in the patient.

Since yinrih can't lose consciousness, they've had to come up with other ways to not give patients PTSD. The most straightforward way is by making surgery less invasive. Micro Mechs have already been mentioned. The fixed external surgical robots that healers use to avoid the hygiene issues that accompany their four-legged body plan are also designed to be as minimally invasive as possible. Many surgical procedures thus be carried out with the application of a local analgesic. Additionally, some operations can be performed during the patient's torpor period when the nervous system is less responsive to external stimuli. But what if you're amputating a limb? There's no way to do that with anything approaching subtlety. The answer is simple: send the patient on a wild drug trip! Psychedelic drugs are the only way outside of suspension to prevent a patient from processing the intense pain signals generated by invasive surgery.

There's a thriving black market for this so-called mind candy, and addiction is prevalent among healers. The illicit use, possession, distribution, and manufacture of mind candy is subject to severe punishments in most jurisdictions. The Spacer Confederacy is perhaps the only exception, though individual colonies like Wayfarers' Haven may still penalize these actions.

[Visions1]

I think the semelparity then long-life reasoning actually makes a lot of sense. It's either going to make things that live fast and die young, or do the opposite.

Also, assuming mind candy is a thing, do they have drug culture(s)? Clothing, music (for when you're tripping/for when you're not/inspired by trips), beliefs (atavists, misotheists, heresies, etc.), etc..

[lurker]

I think the semelparity then long-life reasoning actually makes a lot of sense. It's either going to make things that live fast and die young, or do the opposite.

Also, assuming mind candy is a thing, do they have drug culture(s)? Clothing, music (for when you're tripping/for when you're not/inspired by trips), beliefs (atavists, misotheists, heresies, etc.), etc..

They absolutely have drug culture. It's prevalent in Neoshamanism especially. I've mentioned before that humans confuse the yinrih's lack of libido for innocence in general. There are more than enough drug dens around Focus to make up for the nonexistent brothels. Since they don't have a "built-in" way to make their brain pump out a bunch of happy chemicals all at once, yinrih hedonists have to get creative. In addition to drug use, gambling and thrill-seeking are widespread. Recreational suspension is worth a post on its own.

The Bright Way views any unnecessary compromise of one's reasoning faculties to be a grave sin. That goes back to their belief that sapience is a divine gift. I've also mentioned that intoxication was severely punished in the yinrih's pre-theophany religion since a drunk yinrih was a liability to the rest of the group.

[Khemehekis]

They absolutely have drug culture. It's prevalent in Neoshamanism especially. I've mentioned before that humans confuse the yinrih's lack of libido for innocence in general. There are more than enough drug dens around Focus to make up for the nonexistent brothels. Since they don't have a "built-in" way to make their brain pump out a bunch of happy chemicals all at once, yinrih hedonists have to get creative. In addition to drug use, gambling and thrill-seeking are widespread. Recreational suspension is worth a post on its own.

Wow. That sounds like me in high school and college. I drank alcohol, smoked weed, and sniffed glue, yet I remained a virgin (even though I was openly bisexual).

[Glenn]

For now, the genus is Vulpithecus. The yinrih are V. fidelis and the tree dwellers are V. ferox.

Another possible species name that comes to mind for the yinrih is V. scriptor, referring to their writing claw.

Thank you for sharing the information about the childermoot and primitive society. You may have mentioned this already, but I am curious about the form that the adolescent phase takes in later and modern yinrih society; does it become something like an apprenticeship period, or something else?

[lurker]

For now, the genus is Vulpithecus. The yinrih are V. fidelis and the tree dwellers are V. ferox.

Another possible species name that comes to mind for the yinrih is V. scriptor, referring to their writing claw.

Thank you for sharing the information about the childermoot and primitive society. You may have mentioned this already, but I am curious about the form that the adolescent phase takes in later and modern yinrih society; does it become something like an apprenticeship period, or something else?

Scriptor was one I had also considered. I'm not entirely set on the names other than that I want the two species names to alliterate. Changing the tree dwellers to silvestris is really tempting because the Commonthroat word for tree dweller already incorporates the word "forest". <qgKqdqg> literally means "forest yinrih".

At the end of the day the binomial name is largely ceremonial since yinrih are from a completely different tree of life. Yinrih have their own way of referring to lifeforms on Yih, but since I'm not a biologist I can't think of a creative way they'd do that. Maybe they use numbers or something.

Regarding the teenage phase, I'm not sure to what extent it effects modern yinrih other than them wanting to be more independent, which is already what human teenagers do.

[lurker]

Exovoviviparans are a clade of animals roughly as broad as Earth mammals. They're known for reproducing via womb nests, hence the name. They also bear fur, although they're not the only animals to do so. Yinrih and tree dwellers are members of this clade.

Other exemplars are forest flyers (small flying animals that look like a cross between a bat and a colugo). These were one of the first animals domesticated by the yinrih, being favored for eating pests. In modern times they're kept as house pets, occupying a similar cultural niche as cats do for humans. The Commonthroat word for forest flyer <sMPrg> /yip, long rising strong grunt, chuff, short low weak growl/ can also mean a person who appears clever without actually being clever.

[Khemehekis]

Are yinrih based on DNA?

[lurker]

Are yinrih based on DNA?

I'm not sure. Their biochemistry is similar enough to ours that they can eat our food and vice versa, Sarah's misadventure with Sunshine's cooling bark notwithstanding. (It's actually perfectly safe, just really, really strong thanks to humans having a more acute sense of taste than yinrih.)

I've toyed with the idea that life on Yih works on lamarckian evolution though. I've also pondered the idea of communicable diseases. I don't think I can swing having them be able to eat human food but also not be susceptible to Terran pathogens, at least not inherently so.

[lurker]

While the Bright Way held a monopoly on interplanetary travel during the age of decadence, terrestrial transport and logistics lay outside their control.

Personal vehicles are much rarer in yinrih society compared to my terminally car-dependent hometown Earth. Fixed route public transit dominates in large urban centers, especially trains. Some train lines are owned by private companies, others by municipal governments. It varies by region. Trains and train infrastructure are almost entirely automated, meaning timeliness is rarely an issue.

[lurker]

Unlike Earth holy days to which the spring feast is often compared like Easter and Passover, which are reckoned according to the northern hemisphere spring equinox, the Bright Way's spring feast is celebrated during local spring, meaning while the northern hemisphere has their winter feast, the southern hemisphere has their spring feast, and vice versa. Different planets celebrate the feasts according to their own orbits.

Like the other seasonal feasts, the spring feast is preceded by a week of fasting. Fasting in the Bright Way consists of abstaining from solid foods. The fermented juice of steadtree fruit is a traditional drink consumed during fasts.

The unique feature of the spring feast is the presentation of new litters, where childermoots who have had their litter over the past year present their pups to the hearthkeeper for blessing.

[lurker]

Iris and Lodestar are two litter mates who form part of the crew of the Dewfall.

Iris is the hearthkeeper leading the mission. She's small, about 50 pounds, with white fur and biscuit coloration on the tips of the ears. Lodestar is a Knight of the Sun. He's a dusky blue-gray color, and an absolute unit of a yinrih at around 80 pounds. He may sport a bachelor's mantle.

The two litter mates were hatched in the border of Moonlitter to a very large family of 12 sires and dams and 20 pups. Iris was the runt of the litter, while Lodestar was by far the largest. While their sires and dams were loving parents, runts are often picked on by their litter mates, and Iris was no exception. Lodestar took it upon himself to defend her from their siblings' teasing. As the largest pup in the litter, he blamed himself for Iris's runt status, thinking his large size was due to depriving Iris of nutrients while in utero. This isn't true; he just won the genetic lottery and it's common for large litters to have a runt. Iris keeps trying to tell her brother this, but he still feels somehow responsible.

Like the other refugees that formed Wayfarers' Haven, their family was devout. Their lives revolved around the local lighthouse, and it was there they met one of their friends and future _Dewfall_ crewman, the previously mentioned Pascal. The socially awkward Pascal was himself a frequent target of teasing, and Lodestar came to his defense as readily as he did for his sister.

Unlike every other resident of Moonlitter covered thus far in this thread, the two siblings made it through their mandatory customer service jobs with their faith unshaken, with both of them pursuing religious vocations after their "conscription".

Like Pascal, Iris was troubled by the clergy's asedia, and particularly the high hearthkeeper's attempt to halt interstellar mission work. Unlike Pascal, her concern manifested as a desire to renew the faith from within rather than to abandon it as a lost cause. As she would say, "If you want to put out a fire, you run toward it, not away from it." So she entered the seminary, associating with various traditionalist movements opposed to the compromises that the hierarchy were making in an attempt to stay relevant. It is here that she began working with the missionaries. During her formation she quickly proved herself adept at both the spiritual and mechanical side of hearthkeeping. Her engineering prowess would prove crucial as she aided Stormlight to erect the mass router trunk between Sol and Focus.

Meanwhile, Lodestar carried his hypertrophied sense of justice into adulthood. This, along with his piety and strength made him a perfect fit for the Knights of the Sun. At this time the Knights were primarily put to work guarding lighthouses. It is forbidden for a lighthouse to lock its doors, and all must be welcomed at all hours. Like other places of worship, lighthouses have valuable religious articles within, not to mention the fact that lighthouses are also ossuaries, the bones of the dead being sought by covens of neoshamanists for use in their rituals. Knights were often put to work watching over the occupants, both living and deceased, as well as the lighthouse's property. Lodestar had an intimidating presence, and he never had to lift a paw to deter would-be troublemakers from disturbing the living worshipers or the resting bones.

Iris and Lodestar are not their original names. Iris was named <MNr-sPnq-sd-Mr> "Snowpelt" while Lodestar was given the much more laconic name <jr-sk-Mr> "Big". Hearthkeepers take a clerical name upon ordination, and Lodestar likewise took a religious name when entering the Knights of the Sun. Iris's namesake, Iris the Hearthsider, was a significant figure who helped form the Pious Dissolutionists who's probably worth her own post someday.

As mentioned before, Iris encouraged the lapsed Pascal to go on the mission. This was a controversial move, especially in the traditionalist circles Iris ran in. She countered that there would be no hope for him if he were simply shunned (see the quote regarding fire above).

After landing on Earth, Iris is initially offered lodging by the human cleric, Fr. Shaheen, but she politely insists that Pascal stay with him instead. Iris chooses to stay with the de facto head of the very ad hoc First Contact team, one Dr. Staples, professor of linguistics at the local college. Together Iris and Staples break down the language barrier that separates humans and monkey foxes. Iris is the one who seizes upon the idea of using a keyer and HUD specs to synthesize human speech.

Lodestar, ever the paladin, wants to continue following his vocation to help the weak among his new human friends. Dr. Staples introduces him to one of his linguistics students, who recently lost his guide dog. Lodestar is thrilled to serve as the student's new sighted guide, and the blind student is happy to have a "guide dog" he doesn't eventually have to bury.

[Visions1]

What do trains look like on the inside? Perches and hooks to hang from from your tail?

So the spring feast symbolizes rebirth? What else? Any other customs? (Gosh, how each season reminds me of the holidays...)

Also, do they have holiday songs? Music? Prayers? Things they play on radio until you wish you could stuff your ears? Mariah Carreys?

So on earth, will Yinrih end up taking on these roles that may require longer amounts of time?