lewiscroberts
SOC-5
Hi,
I've been exploring what I can do with large language model AI and using Traveller as a test case. I took one of the ideas I had for a dead alien race and fed it into Google's Gemini AI. I then started asking it questions about the biology of the race and it would spout out answers. Some of the answers were stupid and I told the program to drop those ideas. Some where good and I kept those. A few times, I asked it to come up with several ideas and discuss the pros and cons of each idea and then recommend an idea. Doing it this way, "we" came up with this history. I had it write up an article about the Aeolians (aka the Vah-Sheen) and I then reworked it and fixed the things I didn't like.
It's certainly different than what I would have come up with on my own. It was probably a bit faster than doing it without AI. I also had it create some of the animals that were transplanted between worlds and I'll post them later.
Everything will get posted to the BARD pages : https://dedzone.net/traveller/BARD/
Lewis Roberts
---------------
The Vah-Sheen (The Aeolians): A Legacy of the Deep Dark
Vilani corporate scouts were the first to set sight on the Vah-Sheen’s ancient megalith on Rolf/Old Expanses. It was obviously built by an intelligent species, but there were no signs of the species on the planet. A few decades later it was realized that large number of the same animal species were found on several worlds in the same main: Rolf, Mager, Antalan, Bote, Canton and Yontez. Most scientists chalked it up to yet another example of the meddling by the Ancients, though some were worried that another major race was in the area or had gone extinct somehow. Subsequent DNA testing done near the end of the First Imperium showed that the animals only had 50,000 years of genetic drift and that they were most likely native to Rolf. It took until early days of the Rule of Man for formal archeological surveys to be dispatched to the worlds. They uncovered ruins from an advanced technological species on all six of the worlds. Further analysis of the ancient megalith showed that it was both a tomb complex and was designed to force the wind through gaps and cracks that created a low-frequency harmonic resonance known as the "Song." It gained the name the Windchime from this work. Much of the Windchime is worn and doesn’t function as intended anymore, but when the wind comes in from the north at the right angle, you can hear a trace of what the ancient natives heard. The site was the location of the earliest city on Rolf and dates from 260,000 years ago. From this the archeologists gave the species the name the Aeolians. It was still a mystery on how the race was transplanted to multiple worlds.
The Windchime is still impressive, and it became a significant tourist site during the Rule of Man and once again during the Third Imperium. A nearby museum showcases the Aeolians and the mystery of their history.
Biology
Numerous bones and tissue remains have been found and scientists have been able to determine that the Aeolians were race of gliders who evolved the wind-swept coast of Rolf. They have a height range of 1.1-1.5 meters tall and weighing 25-40 kilograms, they were masterworks of low-density biology. Their skeletons consisted of a lattice honeycomb, providing structural integrity while remaining light enough for gliding. Gliding is helped by Rolf’s low gravity and dense atmosphere. They were bipedal with a large flat of skin from their long arms to their torso. The large “wing” size of the Aeolians enabled them to leap off cliffs and hills and catch updrafts and soar for hours. The other colony worlds had thinner atmospheres and higher gravities. The Aeolians created a device similar to a grav belt, but instead of neutralizing all of the gravity, it reduced gravity enough to enable the Aeolians to still soar and glide. Almost all Aeolians on the colonies wore these.
In 1049, an Imperial Scout survey team found a massive ship (over 1,000,000 tons) in deep space. Subsequent exploration showed that it was an Aeolian sublight ship that had malfunctioned during flight. It was carrying tens of thousands of passengers in low berth as well as supplies for colonization. A few Aeolians crew members stayed awake to crew the ship during its decades long journey. The researchers were able to translate some of the records and determine that the Aeolians called themselves something that sounds like Vah-Sheen in galangic. While the discovery revealed a great deal about the Aeolians (Vah-Sheen) the mystery of their disappearance remains. (As to why the Scouts were looking in deep space, most civilians assume they were scouting for rogue planets that could be used refueling stops by the Imperial Navy in the case of war.)
In 1102, the upstart Solomani genetics corporation, Blue Helix, announced that they had procured genetic samples of the Aeolians and they intended to resurrect them to allow them to once again soar the skies of the Old Expanses. After their initial announcement, very little was heard about the project, and all news was lost when the Rebellion started. The Aeolians remain a race of ghosts, singing only through the wind in the stones of Rolf.
Description
They possessed two forward legs and a pair of weak legs. They were slow and clumsy on land, but graceful in the air where they soared for hours. Their faces were triangular with large eyes atop the skull and a small mount at the bottom. They had no external ear and only small slits for nostrils.
They had two genders, a "Donor" and a "Bearer." They utilized external egg-brooding; once fertilized, eggs were rooted into a vascularized patch of skin on the Bearer's abdomen. This six-month physical union forged a core element of their faith that every life was a "seed" to be carefully nurtured and protected. Family and lineage were very important to the Vah-Sheen. One the harshest penalties for a crime on the worlds of the Vah-Sheen was for the sterilization of the offender and the killing of their mate and their descendants. The criminal was then imprisoned for life knowing that their lineage was extinct.
Section 2: The Stewardship Directive and the Watchers
The Vah-Sheen did not expand out of greed, but out of a biological imperative to protect the “Rolf " ecosystem. They viewed themselves as the galaxy's gardeners, and the stars were simply distant plots of soil. Because they never developed Jump drive, their colonization of other worlds was a feat of incredible patience, utilizing sublight arks.
This required the creation of the Watcher Caste. Before an ark left Mager, the crew underwent permanent chemical sterilization. This was the ultimate sacrifice: in a culture that worshipped the lineage of the "seed," the Watchers gave up their own genetic future to ensure the survival of others. They did this because they felt it was wrong for children to be borne between worlds and they did not want accidents to happen. Birth was sacred and must be done planeside anything else was an abomination. A soul born in the vacuum lacked the "Root" necessary to be a successful parent and was a soulless monster. They also did not trust robots to do this job, as they felt that if the sleepers had no one to watch over them it would make them effectively orphans. For 40 to 50 years of the journey, while thousands of the "Sleepers" lay in low berths, the Watchers spent the majority of their lives awake in the "Middle-Dark." They did not view the passengers as cargo, but as their pseudo-children. When the ship arrived at its destination, the Watchers were revered by those on the colony for the supreme sacrifice they had made.
Referee Only:
For nearly thirty thousand years, the Vah-Sheen maintained a network between their colonies. It is also possible they explored beyond those worlds, but no records have been found. The fall came approximately 20,000 years ago with the emergence of a Pathogen quickly spread but had a long incubation period before invariably killing the host. The tragedy was systemic: the very arks that connected the five worlds became vectors for the disease. The origins of the disease are unknown. It appears to have started on Yontez. It could have been brought back by ships exploring further worlds. It is also possibly a biological weapon created by a extremist group, or one of the Vah-sheen nations on a colony in some bid for power. The Vah-sheen never figured out the origin, and their civilization died with a whimper.
I've been exploring what I can do with large language model AI and using Traveller as a test case. I took one of the ideas I had for a dead alien race and fed it into Google's Gemini AI. I then started asking it questions about the biology of the race and it would spout out answers. Some of the answers were stupid and I told the program to drop those ideas. Some where good and I kept those. A few times, I asked it to come up with several ideas and discuss the pros and cons of each idea and then recommend an idea. Doing it this way, "we" came up with this history. I had it write up an article about the Aeolians (aka the Vah-Sheen) and I then reworked it and fixed the things I didn't like.
It's certainly different than what I would have come up with on my own. It was probably a bit faster than doing it without AI. I also had it create some of the animals that were transplanted between worlds and I'll post them later.
Everything will get posted to the BARD pages : https://dedzone.net/traveller/BARD/
Lewis Roberts
---------------
The Vah-Sheen (The Aeolians): A Legacy of the Deep Dark
Vilani corporate scouts were the first to set sight on the Vah-Sheen’s ancient megalith on Rolf/Old Expanses. It was obviously built by an intelligent species, but there were no signs of the species on the planet. A few decades later it was realized that large number of the same animal species were found on several worlds in the same main: Rolf, Mager, Antalan, Bote, Canton and Yontez. Most scientists chalked it up to yet another example of the meddling by the Ancients, though some were worried that another major race was in the area or had gone extinct somehow. Subsequent DNA testing done near the end of the First Imperium showed that the animals only had 50,000 years of genetic drift and that they were most likely native to Rolf. It took until early days of the Rule of Man for formal archeological surveys to be dispatched to the worlds. They uncovered ruins from an advanced technological species on all six of the worlds. Further analysis of the ancient megalith showed that it was both a tomb complex and was designed to force the wind through gaps and cracks that created a low-frequency harmonic resonance known as the "Song." It gained the name the Windchime from this work. Much of the Windchime is worn and doesn’t function as intended anymore, but when the wind comes in from the north at the right angle, you can hear a trace of what the ancient natives heard. The site was the location of the earliest city on Rolf and dates from 260,000 years ago. From this the archeologists gave the species the name the Aeolians. It was still a mystery on how the race was transplanted to multiple worlds.
The Windchime is still impressive, and it became a significant tourist site during the Rule of Man and once again during the Third Imperium. A nearby museum showcases the Aeolians and the mystery of their history.
Biology
Numerous bones and tissue remains have been found and scientists have been able to determine that the Aeolians were race of gliders who evolved the wind-swept coast of Rolf. They have a height range of 1.1-1.5 meters tall and weighing 25-40 kilograms, they were masterworks of low-density biology. Their skeletons consisted of a lattice honeycomb, providing structural integrity while remaining light enough for gliding. Gliding is helped by Rolf’s low gravity and dense atmosphere. They were bipedal with a large flat of skin from their long arms to their torso. The large “wing” size of the Aeolians enabled them to leap off cliffs and hills and catch updrafts and soar for hours. The other colony worlds had thinner atmospheres and higher gravities. The Aeolians created a device similar to a grav belt, but instead of neutralizing all of the gravity, it reduced gravity enough to enable the Aeolians to still soar and glide. Almost all Aeolians on the colonies wore these.
In 1049, an Imperial Scout survey team found a massive ship (over 1,000,000 tons) in deep space. Subsequent exploration showed that it was an Aeolian sublight ship that had malfunctioned during flight. It was carrying tens of thousands of passengers in low berth as well as supplies for colonization. A few Aeolians crew members stayed awake to crew the ship during its decades long journey. The researchers were able to translate some of the records and determine that the Aeolians called themselves something that sounds like Vah-Sheen in galangic. While the discovery revealed a great deal about the Aeolians (Vah-Sheen) the mystery of their disappearance remains. (As to why the Scouts were looking in deep space, most civilians assume they were scouting for rogue planets that could be used refueling stops by the Imperial Navy in the case of war.)
In 1102, the upstart Solomani genetics corporation, Blue Helix, announced that they had procured genetic samples of the Aeolians and they intended to resurrect them to allow them to once again soar the skies of the Old Expanses. After their initial announcement, very little was heard about the project, and all news was lost when the Rebellion started. The Aeolians remain a race of ghosts, singing only through the wind in the stones of Rolf.
Description
They possessed two forward legs and a pair of weak legs. They were slow and clumsy on land, but graceful in the air where they soared for hours. Their faces were triangular with large eyes atop the skull and a small mount at the bottom. They had no external ear and only small slits for nostrils.
They had two genders, a "Donor" and a "Bearer." They utilized external egg-brooding; once fertilized, eggs were rooted into a vascularized patch of skin on the Bearer's abdomen. This six-month physical union forged a core element of their faith that every life was a "seed" to be carefully nurtured and protected. Family and lineage were very important to the Vah-Sheen. One the harshest penalties for a crime on the worlds of the Vah-Sheen was for the sterilization of the offender and the killing of their mate and their descendants. The criminal was then imprisoned for life knowing that their lineage was extinct.
Section 2: The Stewardship Directive and the Watchers
The Vah-Sheen did not expand out of greed, but out of a biological imperative to protect the “Rolf " ecosystem. They viewed themselves as the galaxy's gardeners, and the stars were simply distant plots of soil. Because they never developed Jump drive, their colonization of other worlds was a feat of incredible patience, utilizing sublight arks.
This required the creation of the Watcher Caste. Before an ark left Mager, the crew underwent permanent chemical sterilization. This was the ultimate sacrifice: in a culture that worshipped the lineage of the "seed," the Watchers gave up their own genetic future to ensure the survival of others. They did this because they felt it was wrong for children to be borne between worlds and they did not want accidents to happen. Birth was sacred and must be done planeside anything else was an abomination. A soul born in the vacuum lacked the "Root" necessary to be a successful parent and was a soulless monster. They also did not trust robots to do this job, as they felt that if the sleepers had no one to watch over them it would make them effectively orphans. For 40 to 50 years of the journey, while thousands of the "Sleepers" lay in low berths, the Watchers spent the majority of their lives awake in the "Middle-Dark." They did not view the passengers as cargo, but as their pseudo-children. When the ship arrived at its destination, the Watchers were revered by those on the colony for the supreme sacrifice they had made.
Referee Only:
For nearly thirty thousand years, the Vah-Sheen maintained a network between their colonies. It is also possible they explored beyond those worlds, but no records have been found. The fall came approximately 20,000 years ago with the emergence of a Pathogen quickly spread but had a long incubation period before invariably killing the host. The tragedy was systemic: the very arks that connected the five worlds became vectors for the disease. The origins of the disease are unknown. It appears to have started on Yontez. It could have been brought back by ships exploring further worlds. It is also possibly a biological weapon created by a extremist group, or one of the Vah-sheen nations on a colony in some bid for power. The Vah-sheen never figured out the origin, and their civilization died with a whimper.
