Who are the Darrians and the Solomani?

[Easterner]

The Future Shock would probably be coma inducing.

Example 1945 TL 4-5 Russians entered Berlin a TL 5-6 city and the several peasants unscrewed lightbulbs and cut faucets from walls under the assumption once installed in their huts in the hinterlands would work there. They recognized the items and what they did, they didn't recognize the infrastructure that let them work.

1868
Several Indian Chiefs and their Mountain Man guide were placed in an elevator back East on way to DC Peace Treaty. That went well.

1970's
Saudi Arabia
Lunch time on airliner. One passenger started a fire to cook his meal. That went less well.

In two the fools should have had a clue, none were just suddenly there. The Indians did not but that was TL 0 going to TL 5 but still were building up gradually.
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Oh don't forget the Confederation projects strength but is so weak the Hivers are propping it up as a counter to the Imperium. That nugget was mentioned somewhere way back.

 

[GypsyComet]

Which helps explain why the IISS prefers to interdict primitive cultures and species for their own protection.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

The Future Shock would probably be coma inducing.

Example 1945 TL 4-5 Russians entered Berlin a TL 5-6 city and the several peasants unscrewed lightbulbs and cut faucets from walls under the assumption once installed in their huts in the hinterlands would work there. They recognized the items and what they did, they didn't recognize the infrastructure that let them work.

1868
Several Indian Chiefs and their Mountain Man guide were placed in an elevator back East on way to DC Peace Treaty. That went well.

1970's
Saudi Arabia
Lunch time on airliner. One passenger started a fire to cook his meal. That went less well.

In two the fools should have had a clue, none were just suddenly there. The Indians did not but that was TL 0 going to TL 5 but still were building up gradually.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh don't forget the Confederation projects strength but is so weak the Hivers are propping it up as a counter to the Imperium. That nugget was mentioned somewhere way back.

Naw, the OTU would have a lot less future shock that Transhuman Space, as many things in the Traveller World are just futuristic analogs to things in the modern world.

 

[Condottiere]

The Solomani are us, but how you want to portray them collectively can be to your individual taste. Undoubtedly the concept grew from the paranoia of the sixties and seventies, but you could give it a current twist, by comparing it to the PRC with a single political party giving an overall paternalistic guidance to a vast collection of differing regions whose primary interest is to just get ahead and make as much money as possible, by trying to tie them to a common culture and history, while preserving a sense of victimhood against a larger cultural force, and with definite plans to recover what they perceive to be part of their geographic heritage.

Or on the local level, your grassroots political activist railing against the beltway culture and finding little difference between getting represented there by either party.

Still wondering who represents the Space Orcs, since gnolls, Thundarians and dwarves are covered.

 

[Easterner]

Naw, the OTU would have a lot less future shock that Transhuman Space, as many things in the Traveller World are just futuristic analogs to things in the modern world.

Postulation is TL15 Terra. Despite the limited insight of 1978 GDW the futuristic Terra would be incredible to see. To suddenly transition from 2015 to 5623 just would be too much sensory overload IMHO.


Unrelated

What are gnolls, Thundarians?

Dwarves are Geonee.

Orcs presumably are Ithklur?

 

[Condottiere]

 

[Condottiere]

The Darrians may be Vulcans; though it could be argued that Vulcans are High Elves and Romulans their Dark Elf cousins.

The Vilani might be Space Elves with their extended lifespan and ancient empire, though Elves lose wars not because they're useless at fighting them, but due to attrition.

 

[Annatar Giftbringer]

Weren't the Zhodani described as Vulcan-like? Yes, if using them as allies (AM 4 p. 189). Though I see the Zhodani as a bit Tau-like (40k).

Gnolls? I think you just ruined Vargr for me....

As for space orcs, I think Aslan fits, at least for some orc versions (mainly Warcraft, where the orcs are driven by honour and conquest). Maybe it's just me, but from a certain perspective the Aslan also remind me of Predators (honour and martial prowess again, plus the claws, throwing weapons and spears, they're big and strong, males mostly run around and fight just to prove they're better than everyone else.... )

 

[simonh]

IIRC the human colonists that are one strand of the ancestry of the Darrians were largely of Turkish orrigin. I'm nout sure where I got that from though.

Simon Hibbs

 

[Condottiere]

Maybe the Zhodani are the Dark Elves, that the Darrians have been trying to keep in check?

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Naw, the OTU would have a lot less future shock that Transhuman Space, as many things in the Traveller World are just futuristic analogs to things in the modern world.

Postulation is TL15 Terra. Despite the limited insight of 1978 GDW the futuristic Terra would be incredible to see. To suddenly transition from 2015 to 5623 just would be too much sensory overload IMHO.


Unrelated

What are gnolls, Thundarians?

Dwarves are Geonee.

Orcs presumably are Ithklur?

It would be a similar shock to someone who suddenly stepped into a Fantasy setting with real wizards, monsters, and magic spell casting. I don't think it would be sensory overload. The technologies of Traveller are quite imaginable, otherwise we wouldn't be able to play the game. I don't know how a grav vehicle would work, but I can easily imagine how it would look and operate. a laser gun is even easier, I've seen real lasers in operation, typically they make the target burn. You don't see glowing bolts flying out of the muzzle, you see a bright point of light on the target as a hole is burned through it.

 

[Jame Rowe]

IIRC the human colonists that are one strand of the ancestry of the Darrians were largely of Turkish orrigin. I'm nout sure where I got that from though.

Simon Hibbs

I believe it's in the GDW and MGP Alien Modules for them. Though I would suggest that they had some non-Turkish people in them, from the way modern Daryens are described.

 

[EvilDM]

A bit late to the party, but a more extensive writeup.

Darrians

Darrians are a humaniti subrace. Their planet was used for a social expetiment by the ancients. This, and the later arrival of solomani settlers with whom they could interbreed resulted in a very community orientated and scientifically focused culture. At the height of their small empire they were more advanced than the imperium is now.
Then one of their experiments created a massive emp wave which consumed all of their systems, dropping their tech level to pre industrial levels.
They have climed back to nearly imperium level by now and they do have some advanced ships and battle dresses which they protected from the emp and left in storage until they had the ability to maintain them a bit.

The Darrians are allied to the imperium and in a constant cold war with the sword worlds (space vikings) and their Zhodani allies. Currently the sword worlds are holding some of their worlds and there will likely be war in the future. The trump card of the darrians are their irreplaceable advanced ships, complete with anti matter torpedos, and the stellar trigger, a weaponized version of the emp which destroyed their civilization.

There are also many aslans living among the Darrians. Many of them having assimilated the Darrian culture, although there is a planet which still follows the aslan way. All of them consider themselves Darrians though and there in no animosity between them. They are descendants of aslan mercenaries who were given a prime planet by the darrians for supporting them in a war.

Solomani

The Solomani are, as it was said, us, the people from Terra. Ever since they conquered the old Villani empire before the long night the Terrans thought themselves to be the best humaniti subrace out there. That terra was the original human home world supported that. When the 3rd imperium became more and more Villani centric the solomani worlds broke away. War ensured and Terra did fall to the Imperium. Currently there is a tense peace with the Solomani limiting their activities to supporting terrorism on conquered worlds.

The society is martialistic with lots of patriotism. Starship Troopers has already been mentioned, but if you are familiar with German history I would consider it a mix between pre holocaust nazi germany (racial predjudice) and east germany (Stasi/spying on their own popilation).

There is a lot of racism in solomani space with pure blooded solomani at the top of the pecking order before half bloods and full villani and the aliens at the bottom (with vargr maybe slightly higher because of their terran ancestry). Because that doesn't leave them with a lot of allies they uplifted terran animals like dolphins and monkeys.

If you want to suceed in solomani space you have to be a member of the solomani party and often position in the military or politics are given because of party membetship and relations and not merit. The party is of course only open to full blooded solomani and maybe, on some worlds, dolphins but that is rather radical.
The party itself is filled with many different factions, ranging from hawks who either want to start the war immediately, attack the vegan allies of the imperium or at least increase their support for terrorism to doves who want a stable peace and commerce.

The solomani have a very active internal spy agency (solsec) which are on the lookout for subversient behaviour and non pure solomani who hide their ancestry. That goes so far that ordinary citicens can be recruited as monitors and you can never be sure if you are spied on or if what you say will be reported or not.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani: Pure-Blooded

A little genetic manipulation would ensure that anyone would register as pure-blooded.

So I suspect that there's a little cultural aspect to that bias as well.