Solomani Preserve?

[Blue Ghost]

The Aslan "Moment of Clarity" came as they avoided extinction by nuclear holocaust and developed their jump drive. The Moment ended fairly quickly once their homeworld was no longer under threat of nuclear reset, but the return to low level warfare with occasional open conflict began as they were vying for control of other systems. Spreading into human Long Night space was bloody, and not just between humans and Aslan.

The Heirate presents itself much like Japan did: culturally unified in all important ways. A veneer of family and Clan specific tradition is certainly present, but they all subscribe to the core values. Whether those are coming from a genetic base or have been imposed through positive AND negative reinforcement in the 2000+ years they've been spacefaring is another matter. The Heirate Ihatei made certain that the Glorious Empire died and was reabsorbed for what most outsiders would consider minor variations from Heirate cultural norms.

That's not to say that Aslan are all the same. There is, by most accounts, still a significant Aslan population in Imperial space, concentrated largely in Daibei. Much like the Vargr in Imperial space, they've adapted. Only the cultural traits driven by genetics are universal amongst those populations; Aslan males feel the drive to own land in their bones, and Vargr siblings and adult "packs" still practice internal stratification via the mechanisms of Charisma. Everything else is subject to adaption.

The patterns across the map of Charted Space are pretty clear, though: Races that have had major division/isolation events tend to be more culturally diverse than those which have been secure and unified for their entire spacefaring existence. This pattern is one of the things that gives the dual whammy of Virus and the Wave so much potential; together they are the population bottleneck at many local levels and the isolation of survivors from each other that lead to rapid cultural drift. Two Major Human races have done this before, and it shows. The Virus and Wave impose it on everyone else.

That's interesting. I vaguely recall the nuclear standoff, but I can't remember which supp I read it in. MT or GT.

But other than their pre-space bound homeworld grudge matches, I don't recall a history of warfare of clans squabbleing over colonizable super Earths or Mars like worlds. I think either GT or MT supps might have implied that kind of history, but unlike the Soli and Vilani clashes and civil wars, I've not read anything about clans butting heads. It would make for an interesting supp for the die hard "must have everything" Traveller fan.

 

[Winged Cat]

a Soli preserve out in Vargr space

Check the map again. The Solomani Preserve is specifically beyond the Vargr Extents, by half to a whole sector. There is a thick band of barren worlds between the SP and the vargrs. Hinted at on the map but more explicitly written in the SP article on the wiki: the SP actively keeps it that way.

The patterns across the map of Charted Space are pretty clear, though: Races that have had major division/isolation events tend to be more culturally diverse than those which have been secure and unified for their entire spacefaring existence.

This is something I'm touching on with the Solomani Preserve and neighbors. Once they got there (or, in the Pirians' case, once they were given jump drive), for thousands of years they were able to maintain control of their region of space - more or less - and their neighbors have had their own politics (some of them while part of the unified Yaskoydri Technocracy - which is kind of like if the Imperium claimed the First, Second, Third, and Fourth were just different phases but they were all the same Imperium). Then the Wave happens, and while Virus does not directly affect them that much, broader contact with Charted Space does.

 

[G. Kashkanun Anderson]

That's interesting. I vaguely recall the nuclear standoff, but I can't remember which supp I read it in. MT or GT.

It wasn't a nuclear standoff -- it was a nuclear war. There was a nuclear exchange in -2160 (2356 CE), as a result of Kusyu's World War II. It was initially mentioned in a CT supplement -- Alien Module 1 (Aslan).

They were on their way to a World War IV in -2013 (2503 CE), when the Pathfinder crash abruptly changed their priorities.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I don't recall reading about a limited nuclear exchange in either MT Aslan and Soli nor GURPS Alien Races 2. I'll have to dig around for my CT AM1 supp.

Winged Cat; it'll be interesting to see what you come up with. It seems like everytime I glance at the map someone's adding more to it. And at the same time I can't find the rimward expedition nor some other stuff that's official. But I guess that's why it's a work in progress.

 

[Winged Cat]

Winged Cat; it'll be interesting to see what you come up with. It seems like everytime I glance at the map someone's adding more to it. And at the same time I can't find the rimward expedition nor some other stuff that's official. But I guess that's why it's a work in progress.

I heard there are some quibbles from the T5SS about the potential canonicity of the Solomani rimward expedition, which is why you're not seeing much about it. In fact, I recall hearing that this specifically lead to Mikhail sector being blank right now. (Notice the densities of neighboring Storr and Darret, and Darret vs. Lorspane?)

That said, you're right. It is a grand work that many hands keep adding to.

 

[BRJN]

Seems a good place to mention a news article that I read ...

The book "Europe: A Natural History" contains a chapter on the rise of domesticated animals, which mentions this interesting tidbit:

During the Soviet era, a Russian scientist ran a long-term experiment where he deliberately bred foxes for the trait of being comfortable in and near humans. He reported that after 50 years he had a domesticated fox breed. He proposed this as a rough analogy for the time to get from wolf to proto-dog.

Grandfather or the Vilani bureaucracy might have reached a similar conclusion, trying to create particular results by using psychohistory principles (or trial-and-error) on groups of Vargr. Genetic changes will not come easily or quickly, but social interaction patterns could be influenced.

 

[BlackBat242]

A few years ago, a cable TV series on canids had an episode on domesticated foxes - they said that it only took a couple of generations to get them used to living in houses with people, and in 3-4 generations markings and colorations began appearing (spots, etc) that are never seen in wild foxes.



Of course, its been how many tens of thousands of years, and are cats really fully domesticated?

 

[Condottiere]

Depends on whom was domesticating whom.

 

[coliver988]

Depends on whom was domesticating whom.

Our cats have quite successfully domesticated us Darn tiny Aslan - always expanding their territory!

 

[mike wightman]

Dogs have owners/masters. Cats have servants.

Thousands of years ago cats were worshipped as gods in Egypt - cats have not forgotten this.

 

[whartung]

Those foxes are hardly domesticated, they're just not as wild as normal foxes.

They're in between. They're still more feral than not.

There was a demonstration of it with a strange fox put in to a room with a person in it.

The fox essentially stayed away. It didn't attack, but it didn't come forward, it always remained arms length.

Put in a strange dog in to the same room, and it eventually approached the person, getting within arms reach.

Some folks have tried to keep those domesticated foxes as pets, and they're basically lousy pets.

Still a long way to go for them.

 

[Barrel]

A few years ago, a cable TV series on canids had an episode on domesticated foxes - they said that it only took a couple of generations to get them used to living in houses with people, and in 3-4 generations markings and colorations began appearing (spots, etc) that are never seen in wild foxes.



Of course, its been how many tens of thousands of years, and are cats really fully domesticated?

I read an article once that argued that since most kittens are born to feral cats, the genotype of the species isn't effected much by domestication. The domesticated cats don't breed, by and large.