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	Archive through January 08, 2005	25		01/08 11:03pm

Actually, he's just jealous that we made the Klingons, a proper warrior race, our clients, and he got stuck with the plant eating Feds as his clients.

adm

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Sunday, January 09, 2005 - 02:49 am: Edit

That's no MAN, that's a Klingon baby!

By Michael Powers (Mtpowers) on Sunday, January 09, 2005 - 11:53 am: Edit

Klingon babies taste like cheese.

grrrmble...cheese...(slurrrp!)

By John Rudd (Johnrudd) on Sunday, May 15, 2005 - 07:05 pm: Edit

And even in Niven's universe, there are sentient kzinti females (on the Ringworld, and on the zoo world were Locklear (?) lives).

By Steve Cain (Stevecain) on Monday, May 30, 2005 - 04:20 am: Edit

"The only unintelligent... queen seltorans..." 3/22/02
tell that to the male seltoran that gets its head bit off when she moves from mating dance to dinner.
Ok. so I am slow making the observation. I'm just starting to get interested in RPG after about a 20 year hiatus.

By George M. Ebersole (George) on Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 01:43 am: Edit

Wow. Sounds like a case for a pre-nup.

By George M. Ebersole (George) on Saturday, March 04, 2006 - 12:25 pm: Edit

Well,.... I thought it was funny.

By Joseph E. Uzel (Joseph_Uzel) on Monday, October 11, 2010 - 05:42 pm: Edit

I've come late to this topic, but am looking forward to this publication, as the feline races are my favorites. Regarding this request:

"A thought concerning the Kzinti and Lyrans of the WYN Star Cluster: It's been stated that the reason that the WYN denizens of these two races get along while the standard versions don't is supposed to be an "officially never-to-be-answered mystery"...I _would_ like to see the Feline Empires sourcebook propose a number of competing (and, if possible, contradictory) possible explanations which the GM can choose between or take inspiration from for his own campaign."

The first thought that went through my head was that the radiation might in some way alter them,
or as others suggested, food or water sources within the cluster. (Sci-Fi and Comics once used
"cosmic radiation" as a catch-all explanation for
all manner of bizaare things! LOL!) But would that still apply to Wyns who left the Cluster?

Then I considered the societal aspect...most of those who wind up there are outcasts from their own people - the losing side of a civil war, for example. The psychology of an alien race is likely to be very different from a humans. Perhaps this experience causes them to lose some of their sense of "racial identity". If there is a sense of belonging: of cultural, feudal, familial bonds that tie them to specific codes of behavior...what happens when that structure of kinship rejects them and casts them out? Does
their whole view of who and what they are change?

Okay, third and final idea. The radiation makes the Cluster an ideal place for the Wyn to hide out, right? Would it not therefore be the perfect place for others to conceal themselves?
Isn't it "canon" that the Lyrans and Kzinti were both seeded by the ancient "Leopard Kings"? We don't really know where they went, or why...what
if there was a small enclave of hold-outs in the Cluster?

If refugees, already experiencing my suggested
loss of cultural/racial identity, faced hard proof of a common ancestor...what might happen?There wouldn't even need to be living Leopard Kings still there to preach "brotherhood"
to them. Maybe the Kings left behind a "time capsule" of information, with the theory that by the time their "off-spring" figured out how to penetrate the radiation, they would be ready to know the truth. Feedback on any of these ideas appreciated and welcomed!

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, October 11, 2010 - 08:33 pm: Edit

Nah, you're early, not late. This book is at least two or three years away.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Monday, October 11, 2010 - 11:52 pm: Edit

The reasons why the Lyrans and Kzintis hate each other so much may be down to political reasons rather than some kind of inborn antipathy. Both species seem to be highly competitive within their own species, but when it comes to threats from outside, they seem to pull together. Kzintis seem to be more or less top dogs in the Cluster, because Kzintis got there first. However, the Kzintis need the Orions and the other refugees that populate the cluster; and vice versa. When it's a case of "we must all hang together, or be hanged separately" the WYNs will co-operate.

By Gary Plana (Garyplana) on Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - 12:03 pm: Edit

Terry, calling the Kzinti "top dogs" is unwise in any context!

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - 01:52 pm: Edit

Well, one thing is for sure, after the first Federation/Kzinti war the Marines changed the colloquial feline based term for coward to something else.

Fed Marine: “You’re all a bunch of p***ys!”

Kzinti Marine: “Yes. Yes we are.”

Fed Marine Squad: “Ooops!”

==============
And an older woman dating a younger man is still a cougar, but a really BIG older woman is a Zin.

By Dale Lloyd Fields (Dylkha) on Wednesday, October 13, 2010 - 02:47 pm: Edit

Loren

Older women, much taller women, furries?

Did you hit tvtropes first before coming up with that list of fetish fuel?

By Loren Knight (Loren) on Wednesday, October 13, 2010 - 03:57 pm: Edit

I once knew a guy in THE biker association (H.A.) named "Tiny". He is named such in the same way you would call a Kzinti a Puddy Cat.

"Big" catches it all in general form. People can be "big" in many different ways including personality.

Furries are one group that leave me scratching my head.

By Patrick H. Dillman (Patrick) on Thursday, October 14, 2010 - 12:21 pm: Edit

<BLOCKQUOTE><HR SIZE=0><!-Quote-!><FONT SIZE=1>Quote:</FONT><P>By Loren Knight (Loren) on Wednesday, October 13, 2010 - 03:57 pm: Edit

Furries are one group that leave me scratching my head<!-/Quote-!><HR SIZE=0></BLOCKQUOTE>

This leaves me flummoxed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDoAvAVA-Qs

By Joseph E. Uzel (Joseph_Uzel) on Saturday, October 16, 2010 - 04:06 pm: Edit

"Well, one thing is for sure, after the first Federation/Kzinti war the Marines changed the colloquial feline based term for coward to something else.

Fed Marine: You're all a bunch of p***ys!�

Kzinti Marine: �Yes. Yes we are.�

Fed Marine Squad: �Ooops!�"

Oh, THAT colloquialism! Are you sure thats a feline reference? I thought I read somewhere that it referred to something else...

Your proposed conversation between marines raises several questions in my head. Did they have some sort of "translator" devices? If so,
the human better hope that the Kzinti's device translated the word as "cat" and not as an insult that would suggest wimpiness. Its suicidally foolhardy to tell a 7', 300 lb warrior evolved from a predatory feline that he's
"a wussy". Unless you want to find yourself being eaten by a "p#@@y(cat)".

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, October 16, 2010 - 05:50 pm: Edit

By the 23rd century, the term was "woosies" and applied to cowards of all genders, and the original derivation was long forgotten.

By Steven Weaver (Wanderer) on Tuesday, November 29, 2011 - 07:02 pm: Edit

With all the talk and discussion on Kzinti females, I'm curious about the status of Lyran females. The only mention I have found is that when the LDR was formed, only adult males voted, indicating a 2nd-class citizen status for Lyran females on the whole.

I would presume this would mean there were no females in the Lyran political hierarchy, other than as just the wife of a noble. Now, that doesn't mean there weren't any female nobles that had a measure of power, perhaps controlling things from behind the throne of a weak husband.

I would also guess that females were not allowed to serve in the fleet or armed forces.

Personally, I would rather have had just the opposite, as I would find it a bit limiting as a writer or RPGer to have so few options for female characters. It also makes the Lyrans a bit too much like the Kzinti (although, perhaps that is by design in and of itself).

Discuss.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Tuesday, November 29, 2011 - 07:20 pm: Edit

Steven, GURPS Prime Directive states on page 50 that "Males and females are equals." PD data is generally definitive. Other fiction and sources also show females in combat roles. The story Doomward and the Vortex being one example.

By Steven Weaver (Wanderer) on Tuesday, November 29, 2011 - 08:39 pm: Edit

Terry, thanks for the information. Of course it would be in stuff I don't have at the moment.

Still, an interesting side note to the LDR, if it is to be used.

By Michael C. Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - 01:54 am: Edit

There are also Kz/Lyr females in combat roles in the story about the WYN Black Dragon (???) voyage to get the gatling phasers from the LDR. One of my favorite stories.

Both cultures are pretty male dominated though from what I have read...

NOTE that I have a LONG article to SVC/ SPP about the Lyran military career & shipboard departments.