Clans of the Aslan - has just arrived!

[Terry Mixon]

Possibly transported to targeted worlds by the fleets of their clans, to get rid of them, to extend their clans' territories, or both.

The Imperium should be a good neighbor and offer them free passage to the K'kree border. They and the Aslan would get along famously.

 

[actionman]

The Imperium should be a good neighbor and offer them free passage to the K'kree border. They and the Aslan would get along famously.

I completely agree. If the Aslan win, then the Imperium would have a positively disposed power to its trailing, strong enough to be useful but too weak to be a threat. If the K'Kree repulse the Aslan, then the Imperium can use them as a garbage disposal for land-hungry Aslan hordes, all while making money selling the Aslan conquest fleets supplies and services.

 

[Vormaerin]

Do keep in mind that this
1) an entire generation so there aren't that many all at once.
2) Some of the htatei and ihatei get sick/injured/etc.
3) Assumes that even poor Aslan males are having multiple wives and like 5 kids. Which is contradicted by some published Aslan materials that suggest polygamy is rank dependent.

 

[actionman]

1) an entire generation so there aren't that many all at once.

Even better. Smaller groups would be easier to pour into the meatgrinder of K'Kree space. Travellers could find many adventures selling intel on fleet movements to the K'Kree, the Aslan, or both.

 

[Garnfellow]

Do keep in mind that this
1) an entire generation so there aren't that many all at once.
2) Some of the htatei and ihatei get sick/injured/etc.
3) Assumes that even poor Aslan males are having multiple wives and like 5 kids. Which is contradicted by some published Aslan materials that suggest polygamy is rank dependent.

These are all true points. However, building a stochastic population model for the Aslan would be a pretty serious undertaking.

 

[Vormaerin]

I know you are being facetious, but its 75 Jump-3 from the Aslan border to the Lords of Thunder

 

[Terry Mixon]

I know you are being facetious, but its 75 Jump-3 from the Aslan border to the Lords of Thunder

I am being facetious, but it would still be fun to set up.

 

[Vormaerin]

These are all true points. However, building a stochastic population model for the Aslan would be a pretty serious undertaking.

Totally. It's completely unreasonable

 

[Condottiere]

1. In terms of litters, you could try counting the number of nipples that the Aslan have.

2. Extreme sports should attrition male numbers.

 

[Geir]

When thinking about ihatei fleets it’s important to remember that while the word ‘ihatei’ literally means second son, migration fleets doubtless include many females as well as many landless htatei who might be first born but are not in line to inherit lands.

As an example of ihatei numbers we can look at a clan I’ve been working up: let’s call them the Wardens for now. I’m going to initially rely on CT sources to develop the following estimates, primarily because I almost always start with CT before looking at other systems but also because CT establishes a direct relationship between SOC and territory. These maths are going to involve several simplifying assumptions, so take them with the appropriate handful of salt.

The Wardens own a single world deep inside the Hierate. The total clan population is 186 million, which at a 3:1 sex ratio breaks into 139.5 million females and 46.5 million males. This is a respectably sized but unranked independent clan, large enough to field its own Ground and Space Forces.

The average Aslan family contains one patriarch plus 1D-1 (2.5) wives. Assume each wife produces 1D-2 (1.67) children, for a total of 4.67 children per family. Further assume each family has 1D-3 (1) additional members. The average Aslan family therefore consists of 8.675 members, which is consistent with CT Aslan.

The Wardens population of 186 million equates to roughly 21.441 million individual households. That breaks into 21.441 million patriarchs, 53.603 million wives, 89.516 million children, and 21.441 million other members.

Based on my calculations, the 89.516 million children include 11.483 million htatei, 10.852 million ihatei, and 67.182 million atao (daughters).

If we use Classic Traveller assumptions that patriarchs with SOC 9+ (27.77%) are landowners , that implies the Wardens have 5.954 million landed households and 15.887 landless households.

Because male births are distributed unevenly, even though there is slightly more than one male child per household, 9.985 million households will not have a male heir, either because the family has no children or the children are all daughters. Of these households without heirs, 2.765 million will be landed. Let’s assume each of these landed families can be matched with one ihatei, reducing our pool of clan ihatei to 8.086 million.

Assume 90% of these ihatei find gainful employment, either in the clan military, or as vassals, spiritual advisors, or as mercenaries outside the clan. That still leaves us with over 808,000 ihatei.

Let’s turn back to the 15.887 landless families. While many of these have no male heirs and are likely doomed to pass into history, 8.294 million households will have a htatei who does not stand to inherit significant lands – and will thus be potentially interested in joining an ihatei expedition. Again, if we assume 90% of these landless htatei will be gainfully occupied within the clan, that still leaves more than 829,000 males with serious motivation to find and secure lands of their own.

Combining the true ihatei with landless htatei gives our little Wardens clan approximately 1.682 million males potentially open for conquest. Even if you use much more conservative assumptions, apply similar calcs across the entire Hierate and you could potentially have a great many land-hungry males.

So, checking no intermediary work, it comes out to 9 per 1000 total population is the number of males like to go viking ihatei at least once in their lives. Plus a like number of females along to make the ships go and take care of little details like logistics. So then the question becomes how many of that ihatei's years are spent on such expeditions? Let's call it 30 years of ihatei-potential, one expedition lasting 1 year per ihatei (to account for longer/shorter/fatal expeditions) and in any one year, 300 per million of the population is an active male ihatei?

 

[Garnfellow]

So, checking no intermediary work, it comes out to 9 per 1000 total population is the number of males like to go viking ihatei at least once in their lives. Plus a like number of females along to make the ships go and take care of little details like logistics. So then the question becomes how many of that ihatei's years are spent on such expeditions? Let's call it 30 years of ihatei-potential, one expedition lasting 1 year per ihatei (to account for longer/shorter/fatal expeditions) and in any one year, 300 per million of the population is an active male ihatei?

I think that is a pretty good approximation. In CT Aslan the Loakhtarl (likely a much larger clan than the Wardens) send out a migration fleet of "more than 20,000 Aslan," in "ten armed 50,000 ton ships, each capable of jump-3 and 3-G. Each ship carried 10,000 tons of cargo (primarily colonial supplies), a crew of 300, and a colonial force of 1700 and represented some of the best shipbuilding the clan could obtain."

 

[Vormaerin]

I think that is a pretty good approximation. In CT Aslan the Loakhtarl (likely a much larger clan than the Wardens) send out a migration fleet of "more than 20,000 Aslan," in "ten armed 50,000 ton ships, each capable of jump-3 and 3-G. Each ship carried 10,000 tons of cargo (primarily colonial supplies), a crew of 300, and a colonial force of 1700 and represented some of the best shipbuilding the clan could obtain."

See, that's what I think would happen. Not a bunch of impoverished Aslan mysteriously having warships belonging to no clan heading off to do who the heck knows what with those resources.

 

[WHULorigan]

They are not actually cats, but they are not actually apes or humans either. They have been very described as cat-like even though they are not related to Terrna felines, true. What is the second stage of group organization among Aslan. Does anyone remember? It goes family, then this thing, then clan. Correct? What was that called?

Prides?

pride (ahriy)

It was called an Ahriy. Solomani later chose to apply the term "Pride" when translating into Anglic due to the original Turkic explorers' comments that noted the vague resemblance to Terran Lions and having called them "Aslan" in Turkic as a result. ("Aslan" is Turkic for "Lion").

 

[WHULorigan]

Don't forget that the Aslan Hierate has a completely open Spinward and Rimward frontier relatively free for the taking, without any significant opposition. Level-headed females would likely direct land acquisition in that direction if feasible, looking for new and undiscovered (and unclaimed) territory and resources rather than provoke other existing powers without a significant reason.

Also remember that a number of the Clans have treaties with the Imperium and other groups (Peace of Ftalahr, et al), and will abide by those rather than risk losing honour by becoming oath-breakers.

 

[Sigtrygg]

That assumes the other clans will allow safe passage for an invasion fleet...

 

[MasterGwydion]

I will just treat them like cats in MTU. It is the only thing that makes their society work. No high-tech human civilizations have family sizes of 8+. You find enclaves of humans that do, but none of them on the high-tech side of things. Multiple births being a rarity doesn't make sense. Twins being a rarity? Sure, fine. So, they are not twins. They are not from the same ova, but they are still from the same birthing. I am not sure if that really matters at all in the grand scheme of things. Let's make it even simpler. What is the Latin taxonomical name for Aslan. Where do they fit on the chart of all other living things that humans like to build? Do they have double helix genes or triple helix genes or something else? Are they more primate-like or more feline-like? Mongoose has put out several books on the Aslan, but they never seem to have decided what the Aslan actually are. The Trope seems the be, "Aslan look like cats are organized in a feline version of human tribal society but are not cats. Have vestigal tails and retractable claws, but are not cats. Has the exact enhanced senses as a feline, but are not cats. Has the family structure of the great cats, but aren't cats."

It seems like Traveller goes out of their way to describe them as felines, but then also goes out of their way to say that they are not felines, so everything not mentioned as being feline should be understood to default to "human-standard". Are We basically saying then, that Aslan are just humans with a different skin playing at being "cat-like". If so, that is cool. It makes Aslan much easier to play. Just play them the same way as a human who is too stupid to understand technology, if male and as a gaslighting "men are useless-style" feminist, if female. Even to the point where some "artists" have been designing Aslan ships with big cat faces on them.

Personally, I will run and play them as a feline-derived, honor/shame-based society. As written, they are unusable.

 

[Terry Mixon]

I will just treat them like cats in MTU. It is the only thing that makes their society work. No high-tech human civilizations have family sizes of 8+. You find enclaves of humans that do, but none of them on the high-tech side of things. Multiple births being a rarity doesn't make sense. Twins being a rarity? Sure, fine. So, they are not twins. They are not from the same ova, but they are still from the same birthing. I am not sure if that really matters at all in the grand scheme of things. Let's make it even simpler. What is the Latin taxonomical name for Aslan. Where do they fit on the chart of all other living things that humans like to build? Do they have double helix genes or triple helix genes or something else? Are they more primate-like or more feline-like? Mongoose has put out several books on the Aslan, but they never seem to have decided what the Aslan actually are. The Trope seems the be, "Aslan look like cats are organized in a feline version of human tribal society but are not cats. Have vestigal tails and retractable claws, but are not cats. Has the exact enhanced senses as a feline, but are not cats. Has the family structure of the great cats, but aren't cats."

It seems like Traveller goes out of their way to describe them as felines, but then also goes out of their way to say that they are not felines, so everything not mentioned as being feline should be understood to default to "human-standard". Are We basically saying then, that Aslan are just humans with a different skin playing at being "cat-like". If so, that is cool. It makes Aslan much easier to play. Just play them the same way as a human who is too stupid to understand technology, if male and as a gaslighting "men are useless-style" feminist, if female. Even to the point where some "artists" have been designing Aslan ships with big cat faces on them.

Personally, I will run and play them as a feline-derived, honor/shame-based society. As written, they are unusable.

You do you. Personally, I find them playable as written and wont change the birth rate from the singletons the game clearly says they have in an overwhelming number of births.

 

[WHULorigan]

Let's make it even simpler. What is the Latin taxonomical name for Aslan. Where do they fit on the chart of all other living things that humans like to build?

For one thing, for any alien life, Aslan or otherwise, the "Latin" taxonomical tree will need to have at least one higher level above Kingdom, namely "Biome" describing the world of origin.

Do they have double helix genes or triple helix genes or something else?

This should fit with the above.

Are they more primate-like or more feline-like?

"Pseudo-felinoid / Pseudo-primatoid".

 

[Sigtrygg]

The Aslan got their name from Turks who thought they looked a bit like lions. Since they share no DNA what so ever with Terra this is purely coincidence. Sadly the authors and artists keep missing this.

As more was learned about them the Turks' labeling stuck and the humans who interacted with them bent over backwards to use human terms, to describe Aslan traits and society, this introduces a level of "cat like" perception to the humans that is not there. Describing their honour system as similar to feudal Japan was enough to promote samuri pizza cats. Its as racist a portrayal as you can get, almost as bad as the constant Vargr are dogs.

Now add authors who missed this unreliable narration or had never read it in the first place, and instead based their Aslan on Kzinti and Kilrathi and you end up with the Mongoose Aslan.

 

[Vormaerin]

Mongoose 1e Aslan. The 2e Aslan sourcebook is much more in line with other editions.