The "Shadows" Race

[Golan2072]

(No, I don't mean Babylon 5's TL16+ invisible-archinid race).

I'm referring to the reptilian (apparantly?) race that was mensionede in the Shadows adventure, which was IIRC part of DA1, in addition to Annic Nova. I liked the idea quite much, but were they mentioned in any other place?

What I recall about them is:
1) Evolved in an Insidius (or was that Corrosive?) atmosphere.

2) Local lifeforms were immune to the atmosphere's effects as long as they were alive, but decomposed quickly once they died - so prey had to be eaten alive; consequently, eating never became a social function for these sophonts.

3) They've reached the Spinward Marches (is it where Shadows is located?) in some time in the (distant?) past.

4) Their architectual style used alot of pyramids on the outside and round spaces on the inside.

5) They (apparantly) colonized planets with Insidius/Corrosive atmospheres.

6) They brought their food along - that is, their (natural?) prey animals.

7) Their technology was rugged enough to function after millenia (possibly?) under an insidius/corrosive atmosphere.

 

[Pickles]

Originally posted by Employee 2-4601:
1) Evolved in an Insidius (or was that Corrosive?) atmosphere.

Insidious.

3) They've reached the Spinward Marches (is it where Shadows is located?)...

Yup. Yorbund/Regina 2303 (on my old CT Deluxe map).

...in some time in the (distant?) past.

50,000 years ago (perhaps).

 

[robject]

They aren't mentioned anywhere else.

Do you suppose they travelled from somewhere in the Vargr Extents? Or is their homeworld somewhere in the Imperium? Or the Consulate?

Possibilities in the Marches:

Retinae        0416 E8C69AA-5   Hi Fl                   910 Cs M4 V M7 D
Frond          0810 E9C3300-9   Lo Ni Fl                103 Cs F8 V M4 D
Egypt          1737 BAC6567-7 N Ni Fl                   521 Im F8 V M2 D
Yres           1802 BAC6773-7   Fl                      335 Im G5 V M1 D
Wypoc          2011 E9C4547-8   Ni Fl                 A 922 Im M3 V M2 D
Wochiers       2207 EAC28CC-9   Fl                      703 Im F0 V M8 D
Yorbund        2303 C7C6503-7   Ni Fl                   220 Im M8 V M8 D 
Plannet        2519 E9C5677-7   Ni Fl                   224 Im K5 V M7 D
Rugbird        3102 BAC5634-A   Ni Fl                 A 811 Im M1 V K6 D

Possibilities in Gvurrdon:

Aedhue         0223 A9C4000-B   Lo Ba Ni                824 Vp K0 II M0 D
Aroelloe       0613 B9C5533-9   Ni Fl                   303 Vp M6 V M6 D
Agsaez         0619 DAC8787-9   Fl                      534 Vp G8 V G0 V
Aksugzael      1102 BAC5786-9   Fl                      802 VV M6 V M1 D
Tanga          2005 B9C56BB-9   Ni Fl                   120 Dr M3 V M8 D

 

[Golan2072]

This, ofcourse, relates to the size of their empire(s) and/or their means of transit (STL colony races could easily be spread far, even though they'll be spread thin, as the Island Campaign and (IIRC) the Sword-Worlders show.

Travel by STL from the less mapped areas (Far Frontiers? Or even the Rim?) could possibly explain why they don't have other known colonies in the Marches.

 

[robject]

It seems like they ought to be STL travellers.

If so, then doesn't Yorbund 'seem' like an awfully small colony? Not worth the effort? So I'm thinking hibernation comes naturally to them, and they have a technological edge that lets them build what they need with a relatively small colony size. That would make small colonies cheaper and easier.

Since we didn't see robots or spaceships in Shadows, maybe their colony ships were built to discombobulate and turn into colony buildings upon arrival. This would mean the colony's defensive weapon is the main battery of their colony ship.

 

[Whipsnade]

Gents,

I thought it had been established that the 'Shadows' race is those STL 'lizards' causing a ruckus in the Vargr Extents? No, not the ones in GT:AR1, the CT/MT ones.

Their name escapes me; something like Sssiatha or such, but they arrived at a Vargr world aboard a series of HUGE STL generation ships, took it over, got jump drive, and have carved out a nice sphere of influence since.

They smoke for recreational and medicinal purposes. They prefer maglev instead of gravitics because they have a very fine innate magnetic sense.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[daryen]

Outta curiousity, which product had those lizards?

 

[Whipsnade]

Daryen,

They had a big write-up in a Challenge issue. I'm looking to see if they had an earlier mention in the dead-tree version of JTAS.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[Flynn]

Are you talking about the Hhkar from Challenge #52, based out of Amdukan sector?

They do have a history that vaguely coincides with the time table, but are parsecs and parsecs away. Still, they could be that race.

For more details, check out:
http://granicus.if.org/~nw/traveller/classic/amdukan/gen/hhkar.txt

Hope this helps,
Flynn

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by Flynn:
Are you talking about the Hhkar from Challenge #52, based out of Amdukan sector?

Flynn,

That's the one. Thanks!

They've been around a long time spending centuries or millennia aboard STL ships. They'd left in STL ships the world they returned to take from the Vargr well before the Vargr settled it. Their actual homeworld is unknown, maybe destroyed in some manner.

Someone at JTAS or the TML pointed out they're a good match for the 'Shadows' race and it was generally accpeted. They're 'reptilian', used STL before they took the world from the Vargr, are adapted to 'tainted' atmospheres, use maglev tech like the floors in the Shadow pyramids, like live food, etc.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[robject]

Originally posted by Flynn:
Are you talking about the Hhkar from Challenge #52, based out of Amdukan sector?

They do have a history that vaguely coincides with the time table, but are parsecs and parsecs away. Still, they could be that race.

For more details, check out:
http://granicus.if.org/~nw/traveller/classic/amdukan/gen/hhkar.txt

Hope this helps,
Flynn

A bit ponderous, but the correlation is plain.

 

[daryen]

The problem with the correlation is that the Hhkar like "tainted" atmospheres. The "Shadows" lizards lived in an "insidious" atmosphere. It is quite likely the Hhkar would dissolve just as fast as a human on Yorbund.

 

[aramis]

Perhaps the Shadows were the progenitor, and they evolved away from corrosive/insidious tolerances.

But not close enough for me.

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by daryen:
The problem with the correlation is that the Hhkar like "tainted" atmospheres. The "Shadows" lizards lived in an "insidious" atmosphere. It is quite likely the Hhkar would dissolve just as fast as a human on Yorbund.

Daryen,

Perhaps the atmosphere is insidious now and wasn't insidious then? Or perhaps it was originally only borderline insidious and grew more insidious with time? We have the example of Poyzen in TNE and we really don't know what makes Yorbund's atmosphere do what is does.

Who ever the Shadows race, was they're gone now. Bugging out or dying off because of a climate change they could not handle/reverse could be one excuse. There may be others.

The Hhkar were only one suggestion. They were accepted more with a shrug than a hooray. If it's not the Hhkar, there is no canonical answer for the question.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[plop101]

We also know that somebody at one time had Droyne Coyns. But not the Ancients. Interesting...

Dan Roseberry/plop101

 

[Elliot]

. . . confused more like

Mike Mikesh did an adventure for DGP on the homeworld of the shadow race - available here http://traveller.downport.com/mt/ as Deep Shadows.

Obviously not 'canon' but a pretty good pdf anyway.

 

[Jame]

I would suggest (1) that the Shadows race is not the Hhkar, although there could certainly be physical similarities, and (2) that whoever the Shadows race are/were, they were technologically comparable to the lower end of the Imperial average (i.e. about 10-11, and posession of artificial gravity is left to the Referee's discretion), without Jump drives.

Edit: After going over the "Deep Shadows" adventure mentioned above, perhaps the Zhodani - if they've heard of the site on Yorbund - begin calling the builders the Ssrar (they don't find any remains, naturally, but have something to go on from any drawings there might be).

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by Elliot:
Obviously not 'canon' but a pretty good pdf anyway.

Elliot,

Screw canon. Deep Shadows is a very good adventure.

The Hhakr 'solution' was greeted more with shrugs than hoorays. It sort of fit and it used a canonical race. Those were the only two things working in its favor.

It's pretty obvious that GDW did not have any specific race in mind when they wrote Shadows and never felt any pressing need to create one after the fact.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[selunatic2397]

I ran Shadows waaaaaaay back when I was in junior high school, and I only realized that the corpse in that module wasn't a droyne last year when I was going through the alien races books for Gurps.

Absolutely none of my group picked up on that either. We were too into shutting down the energy beam so our little scout could get out of there. That, and taking everything not serously fastened down for resale.

Bill hit the nail on the head, if GDW didn't care just have fun. That's all that matters in the end anyway.

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by Jame:
Edit: After going over the "Deep Shadows" adventure mentioned above, perhaps the Zhodani - if they've heard of the site on Yorbund - begin calling the builders the Ssrar (they don't find any remains, naturally, but have something to go on from any drawings there might be).

Jame,

Well, the adventure flat out states the race the Zhos call 'Ssrar' are the race the Imperium knows as the 'Hhkar'. A Zho consul in the adventure knows about Yorbund and the structures there thus making the 'link'.

Mr. Mikesh neatly worked his adventure into what little canon is available. We know from the JTAS article that the Hhkar had left their homeworld for reasons they will not discuss. Mr. Mikesh's adventure reveals those reasons. He also is careful to make Ssrar-Hhkar parallels, especially concerning their ability to sense magnetic fields.

Still, GDW did not write Shadows with any particualr race in mind, GDW never went 'back' and created a race for Shadows, and the Hhkar are at best a loose 'fit'.


Have fun,
Bill