Pre-mongoose, canon was clear - wolves.
Both and neither, actually. But close enough that Man-in-suit play isn't too problematic.
Kilrathi are Kzin without the parasol ears and non-sentient females.
Now, that's an idea...
All Things Vargr
- Thread starter Condottiere
- Start date
From the Other Side
The Pakkrat: Tomorrow’s news today, this is Net-7 News! On location in orbit above Roethoeegaeaegz (Knoellighz 1726), this is the Pakkrat. In the lounge with me is a fairly diverse mix of Gvegh, Logaksu from Trailing and Aekhu from points Rimward. We even have an Irilitok from clear across the Vargr Extents today. These students are taking courses featured at the Highport through an exchange program to what? Study Vargr matriarchies?
Gvegh Female 1: That’s right. We’re working on dissertations concerning social, economic, political and racial effects that matriarchies have in contrast to other governments.
PR: Today, Humans from the Third Imperium say interesting things like “Vargr are ‘furries’ in costume” and that Vargr are “space Vikings” and make the Major Race from Lair out to be hyper versions of Humaniti.
Logaksu Male 1: Well, of course they do. They are using only what they know - themselves. Crystalized in their worldview, Vilani and Solomani in particular paint Charted Space with their polarized attitudes. They compare every sophont they encounter to homo sapiens and then make silly decisions as to whether Vargr characteristics are more, less, different, same and other evaluations in relation to them.
Aekhu Female 1: It’s like they [Humaniti] put themselves in the middle of all measured spectra and then decide if having fur, or a digitigrade stance, claws, carnivore teeth, tails, and other Vargr traits are valuable or a hindrance to their way of life or activities.
PR: I notice that Humaniti frequently uses the word ‘alien’ when referring to other Major and Minor Races that they encounter.
Gvegh Male 1: Well, that’s because of ego-centric point of view. Anything that isn’t Human is going to be different and if not fully understood or studied, is bound to be labeled as alien. And this is compounded by their solidified concept of Social Standing. You see it on their resumes and other UPP documents.
Logaksu Male 1: Yeah, Humans somehow get born predestined into some stratification of society and then sit there and hope their actions will make their Social Standing climb, like some authority will bless them with upwardly mobile notification and welcome that Human to the next rung in their social dynamic with all the pros and cons the new level entails - would that they were more fluid like us Vargr.
PR: Do you students find Humaniti to be ‘alien’?
Aekhu Female 1: Our sophontology professors prohibited us from using that term. Humans, if the Solomani Hypothesis is to be believe or even correct, could be Ancient-uplifted apes, the gatherer omnivores, just as easily as they see us Vargr as uplifts from Terran chasers.
Gvegh Female 1: But you don’t see us Vargr leading an encounter with a banana, do you?
(much laughter)
PR: And the Zhodani? Have you experienced more of this behavior from the Humans from Spinward?
Gvegh Male 1: They’re a very old society and culture, but one has to remember that the Zhodani color their universe in terms of their psionics and whether an encountered being possesses or even is able to develop mental powers. I hear that there is a Major Race far to Trailing that has culturally purged such disciplines from their peoples as a rule.
Aekhu Female 1: Those Aslan? Yeah, they don’t like psionics and see many of the disciplines as dishonorable to possess or use. We have quite a few clans in the Spinward Marches who are coming Coreward.
Gvegh Female 1: The Zhodani do recognize that Vargr have the same potential for psionics and a crystalized culture as they have enjoyed for millennia. But though psionics has its lure, especially to us Gvegh so close to their borders, it is not some better, higher planar realization in our eyes. Like our so-called “natural weaponry”, the mental powers of the Zhodani shared with Vargr; they are just another means to an end to get tasks done. It doesn’t make them or us Vargr any better. To us, most Zhodani can’t think for themselves individually and thus support their personal Charisma.
PR: I’m glad you brought up Charisma. Why don’t Humans have Charisma?
Aekhu Female 1: Those Humans who come into contact with Vargr, especially where I’m from in Deneb Sector, try to emulate Charisma in dealings with us and that is to their credit – the attempt. But it is they who fall short, mainly because after the business is done, they fall back to their birth stratifications and seem content with their lot in life. A Vargr evaluates self-worth with every encounter and every dealing, the good with the bad. Success and failures help us to modify our Charisma and respect from others every day. Humans have this pre-set image and then wait for someone higher than they to acknowledge and congratulate or condemn their actions in order to feel better or worse after the encounter or business in concluded. So dependent! It is this co-dependence that keeps Humaniti from embracing Charisma and forsaking titles and birthrights of Social Standing, as if the amount of iron in their family blood has meaning.
Irilitok Female: While we don’t have those stratifications in the Julian Protectorate, titles I mean, we have seen a better integrated interaction with Vilani closely followed by the Solomani who have had long-term contact with us Irilitok, Ovaghoun and even the Urzaeng. There is a dropping of their birth strata when they crew, live with or interact on more than a daily basis with us Vargr. Entitlement eventually takes on a value when they return to space that has less of us and more of them. It is then that Imperials, Gashikans, and even some Julians take up their titles and birth nomenclature of castes (for lack of a better word). Until then, we find they can speak their true selves unhindered by what Humaniti thinks should be the behavior they should exhibit. To us it’s like they are bound by invisible strings that constantly remind them how to stand, give facial expressions, talk in their Galanglic language, and conduct business formally or informally. It ranges from condescending to seeking our approval depending on their “Social Standing”. We Irilitok have recognized this and learned to look up a future Human contact’s UPP and know ahead of time their societal level. They practically advertise it every time their names are spoken. It can be found along their UPP as titles and patents of Nobility given to them from their central alpha, the Emperor, Sector Archduke, subsector Duke.
Gvegh Male 1: It’s so strange to us Vargr to hear Humans call domestication jokes like being leashed dogs at us, when they are the ones leashed to their social strata and rarely see any change upward or downward, like meritocratic change is not in their vocabulary unless someone truly important to them looks down and says, “Good citizen” or “Bad citizen.” How crystallized they are!
Gvegh Female 1: Yeah, and they have no means of challenging each other’s authority through Infighting. If a Human has a problem with another Human, they can’t seem to satisfy it with Charisma exchange. It’s either one is cowed by the entitled or they kill each other. Nothing between seems to exist.
Irilitok Female: Well money does lubricate bad encounters we find, but on the whole you are right. Humans think we Infight because we like to do so, when it’s about satisfying Charisma, a concept they can’t seem to grasp at first. Later, especially in the Protectorate, we see increased attempts at Infighting from Humans who have taught themselves or have Vargr instructors in how to satisfy Charisma. They are still trying to learn our body language and integrate it with spoken and gestures in dealings. I have seen a Human Infight an Irilitok, without weapons in a sort-of wrestling match that caused his opponent to yield his neck and the exchange was over without bloodshed.
PR: Should Humaniti mold itself to Vargr, to improve their crystallized strata classifications?
Irilitok Female: I don’t think so, but the racial jokes would be less used if they were to come to better understanding, through education of their young early on, of Vargr Charisma and our family and pack structures. They can still have their entitlements if it makes them feel any better, perhaps as a stop-gap from depression or feelings of rock-bottom descent. Both Major Races have the sophont condition, survival issues of the day and both are struggling to stave off entropy. If we concentrated on how Humaniti and Vargr are alike, as my folk on Asimikigir do, the interactions would be more meaningful over time.
Logaksu Male 1: Maybe if they stopped seeing Vargr as ‘alien’ or silly notions of “Humans in Vargr suits”, they would see that hundreds of thousands of years ago, Lair produced a Major Race equal to or sometimes slightly advanced to Humaniti at times. Our so-called chaos in the Extents and Enclaves is merely versatility in action – the embrace of change rather than cringing at failures and pride at successes. They’d see that change is the only constant in the universe. Change just is.
PR: Well spoken. Thank you, students. You heard it here first, viewers. Humaniti can be different to Vargr as Vargr are different to Humaniti. From physical, emotional, causal and mental faculties, the two Major Races still have much to learn before true integration and more rewarding interaction can take place. Live from Roethoeegaeaegz Orbital, this is the Pakkrat for Net-7 News.
The Pakkrat: Tomorrow’s news today, this is Net-7 News! On location in orbit above Roethoeegaeaegz (Knoellighz 1726), this is the Pakkrat. In the lounge with me is a fairly diverse mix of Gvegh, Logaksu from Trailing and Aekhu from points Rimward. We even have an Irilitok from clear across the Vargr Extents today. These students are taking courses featured at the Highport through an exchange program to what? Study Vargr matriarchies?
Gvegh Female 1: That’s right. We’re working on dissertations concerning social, economic, political and racial effects that matriarchies have in contrast to other governments.
PR: Today, Humans from the Third Imperium say interesting things like “Vargr are ‘furries’ in costume” and that Vargr are “space Vikings” and make the Major Race from Lair out to be hyper versions of Humaniti.
Logaksu Male 1: Well, of course they do. They are using only what they know - themselves. Crystalized in their worldview, Vilani and Solomani in particular paint Charted Space with their polarized attitudes. They compare every sophont they encounter to homo sapiens and then make silly decisions as to whether Vargr characteristics are more, less, different, same and other evaluations in relation to them.
Aekhu Female 1: It’s like they [Humaniti] put themselves in the middle of all measured spectra and then decide if having fur, or a digitigrade stance, claws, carnivore teeth, tails, and other Vargr traits are valuable or a hindrance to their way of life or activities.
PR: I notice that Humaniti frequently uses the word ‘alien’ when referring to other Major and Minor Races that they encounter.
Gvegh Male 1: Well, that’s because of ego-centric point of view. Anything that isn’t Human is going to be different and if not fully understood or studied, is bound to be labeled as alien. And this is compounded by their solidified concept of Social Standing. You see it on their resumes and other UPP documents.
Logaksu Male 1: Yeah, Humans somehow get born predestined into some stratification of society and then sit there and hope their actions will make their Social Standing climb, like some authority will bless them with upwardly mobile notification and welcome that Human to the next rung in their social dynamic with all the pros and cons the new level entails - would that they were more fluid like us Vargr.
PR: Do you students find Humaniti to be ‘alien’?
Aekhu Female 1: Our sophontology professors prohibited us from using that term. Humans, if the Solomani Hypothesis is to be believe or even correct, could be Ancient-uplifted apes, the gatherer omnivores, just as easily as they see us Vargr as uplifts from Terran chasers.
Gvegh Female 1: But you don’t see us Vargr leading an encounter with a banana, do you?
(much laughter)
PR: And the Zhodani? Have you experienced more of this behavior from the Humans from Spinward?
Gvegh Male 1: They’re a very old society and culture, but one has to remember that the Zhodani color their universe in terms of their psionics and whether an encountered being possesses or even is able to develop mental powers. I hear that there is a Major Race far to Trailing that has culturally purged such disciplines from their peoples as a rule.
Aekhu Female 1: Those Aslan? Yeah, they don’t like psionics and see many of the disciplines as dishonorable to possess or use. We have quite a few clans in the Spinward Marches who are coming Coreward.
Gvegh Female 1: The Zhodani do recognize that Vargr have the same potential for psionics and a crystalized culture as they have enjoyed for millennia. But though psionics has its lure, especially to us Gvegh so close to their borders, it is not some better, higher planar realization in our eyes. Like our so-called “natural weaponry”, the mental powers of the Zhodani shared with Vargr; they are just another means to an end to get tasks done. It doesn’t make them or us Vargr any better. To us, most Zhodani can’t think for themselves individually and thus support their personal Charisma.
PR: I’m glad you brought up Charisma. Why don’t Humans have Charisma?
Aekhu Female 1: Those Humans who come into contact with Vargr, especially where I’m from in Deneb Sector, try to emulate Charisma in dealings with us and that is to their credit – the attempt. But it is they who fall short, mainly because after the business is done, they fall back to their birth stratifications and seem content with their lot in life. A Vargr evaluates self-worth with every encounter and every dealing, the good with the bad. Success and failures help us to modify our Charisma and respect from others every day. Humans have this pre-set image and then wait for someone higher than they to acknowledge and congratulate or condemn their actions in order to feel better or worse after the encounter or business in concluded. So dependent! It is this co-dependence that keeps Humaniti from embracing Charisma and forsaking titles and birthrights of Social Standing, as if the amount of iron in their family blood has meaning.
Irilitok Female: While we don’t have those stratifications in the Julian Protectorate, titles I mean, we have seen a better integrated interaction with Vilani closely followed by the Solomani who have had long-term contact with us Irilitok, Ovaghoun and even the Urzaeng. There is a dropping of their birth strata when they crew, live with or interact on more than a daily basis with us Vargr. Entitlement eventually takes on a value when they return to space that has less of us and more of them. It is then that Imperials, Gashikans, and even some Julians take up their titles and birth nomenclature of castes (for lack of a better word). Until then, we find they can speak their true selves unhindered by what Humaniti thinks should be the behavior they should exhibit. To us it’s like they are bound by invisible strings that constantly remind them how to stand, give facial expressions, talk in their Galanglic language, and conduct business formally or informally. It ranges from condescending to seeking our approval depending on their “Social Standing”. We Irilitok have recognized this and learned to look up a future Human contact’s UPP and know ahead of time their societal level. They practically advertise it every time their names are spoken. It can be found along their UPP as titles and patents of Nobility given to them from their central alpha, the Emperor, Sector Archduke, subsector Duke.
Gvegh Male 1: It’s so strange to us Vargr to hear Humans call domestication jokes like being leashed dogs at us, when they are the ones leashed to their social strata and rarely see any change upward or downward, like meritocratic change is not in their vocabulary unless someone truly important to them looks down and says, “Good citizen” or “Bad citizen.” How crystallized they are!
Gvegh Female 1: Yeah, and they have no means of challenging each other’s authority through Infighting. If a Human has a problem with another Human, they can’t seem to satisfy it with Charisma exchange. It’s either one is cowed by the entitled or they kill each other. Nothing between seems to exist.
Irilitok Female: Well money does lubricate bad encounters we find, but on the whole you are right. Humans think we Infight because we like to do so, when it’s about satisfying Charisma, a concept they can’t seem to grasp at first. Later, especially in the Protectorate, we see increased attempts at Infighting from Humans who have taught themselves or have Vargr instructors in how to satisfy Charisma. They are still trying to learn our body language and integrate it with spoken and gestures in dealings. I have seen a Human Infight an Irilitok, without weapons in a sort-of wrestling match that caused his opponent to yield his neck and the exchange was over without bloodshed.
PR: Should Humaniti mold itself to Vargr, to improve their crystallized strata classifications?
Irilitok Female: I don’t think so, but the racial jokes would be less used if they were to come to better understanding, through education of their young early on, of Vargr Charisma and our family and pack structures. They can still have their entitlements if it makes them feel any better, perhaps as a stop-gap from depression or feelings of rock-bottom descent. Both Major Races have the sophont condition, survival issues of the day and both are struggling to stave off entropy. If we concentrated on how Humaniti and Vargr are alike, as my folk on Asimikigir do, the interactions would be more meaningful over time.
Logaksu Male 1: Maybe if they stopped seeing Vargr as ‘alien’ or silly notions of “Humans in Vargr suits”, they would see that hundreds of thousands of years ago, Lair produced a Major Race equal to or sometimes slightly advanced to Humaniti at times. Our so-called chaos in the Extents and Enclaves is merely versatility in action – the embrace of change rather than cringing at failures and pride at successes. They’d see that change is the only constant in the universe. Change just is.
PR: Well spoken. Thank you, students. You heard it here first, viewers. Humaniti can be different to Vargr as Vargr are different to Humaniti. From physical, emotional, causal and mental faculties, the two Major Races still have much to learn before true integration and more rewarding interaction can take place. Live from Roethoeegaeaegz Orbital, this is the Pakkrat for Net-7 News.
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Or an unsteady Droyne claw to guide them into total chaos? :smirk:
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Who let the Fursona in?
It always happens quickly.
They're fast and they're furries, yes?
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Notable trait, dexterity plus one.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Apparently, this has been posted before.
An idle thought occurred to me, given the sensitivity of Vargr hearing, would they tend to design/build slug throwers with built-in sound suppression?
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Recoil should be another issue.
I'd have no problem with Vargr preferring a suppressed version of any firearm, though you'd think there should be some penalty in accuracy, even if minor.
I've always thought the gunsmith would be a highly respected profession in Vargr society.
I'd have no problem with Vargr preferring a suppressed version of any firearm, though you'd think there should be some penalty in accuracy, even if minor.
I've always thought the gunsmith would be a highly respected profession in Vargr society.
Built in gyrostabilization solves that. And if built as suppressed you never have a chance to learn other aiming habits with the weapon.
The penalty is realistically well below the graininess of 2d6.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
The Vargr will always repeat any form of governance, after they’ve exhausted all the alternatives.
Late to the game, a couple of thoughts.
First, it occurs to me that the Vargr do not need to defeat an Imperial squadron in combat to defeat an Imperial fleet in a subsector. Not that I think they wouldn't be able to build capital ships, but it's really not needed. They can defeat it over the long term by eroding its base of maintenance and supply. We're making assumptions based on High Guard and MT paradigms that don't necessarily apply to a culture based on raiding and personal prestige. An Imperial battle squadron is, say, roughly 1.6 million dTons of warcraft, plus auxiliaries and escorts. A countering fleet of, say, 1600 high agility, high armor thousand dTon warships, each carrying a company of Vargr troops in armored vehicles, doesn't have to confront the squadron. They have to move past it, get to the world, land and sack it, then get out, taking whatever losses occurred as they did so, bringing out whatever loot they could. Their ground forces would be dispersed, highly mobile, and behaving atypically, sacking targets of opportunity and fighting encounter battles of their choice rather than marshaling for a set piece battle.
It's not likely the Vargr would sit down and do a calculation of forces needed to achieve even odds. They would assemble in groups big enough to raid a particular target, starting with small targets, gathering larger forces and taking on larger targets as they grew in reputation. They might take heavy casualties, they might even be defeated, but the damage to each world's economy would be significant. If the Imperial sector forces reacted defensively instead of aggressively, if the Vargr started believing the Imperium was weak, such forces would be more likely to spring up and snowball.
After years of such encounters, the sector would degenerate into islands of resistance built around the strongest worlds and their system defenses. Eventually the raiding groups could grow strong enough to attack even those, and even an unsuccessful attack would weaken an island and make it less able to resist the next raid. The Vargr may have capital ships - having the prestige and reputation to be able to motivate Vargr to such accomplishments may be an integral part of building the larger polities. But these may not have played a significant role in the sector's fate until late in the collapse.
The other point is that conflict does not need to be the primary means of achieving the kind of prestige and reputation that would extend one's influence, nor is conflict the only setting in which charisma could be asserted and rewarded, not and have the Vargr achieve any level of technological competence. Vargr with an aptitude for and interest in science or engineering may be drawn to particularly brilliant Vargr scientists or a particularly gifted engineer and aspire to high status and respect among their peers.
In business, the Vargr "disloyalty" promotes a kind of evolution among competing businesses: the businesses that are most successful are the ones that evolve a business culture in which the cream rises most quickly and consistently to the top rather than encountering obstacles and deciding to shop their talent elsewhere, while the businesses that fail are the ones that see their talent leak away to seek fortune elsewhere. A successful business enterprise might have a collective charisma akin to an individual as a result of the coordinated effort of the group, gaining the respect and support of - and the trade of - other businesses as a result, attracting capital and new recruits on that basis. The Vargr business model may treat business as something more akin to a fraternal order or association rather than as a property owned by some magnate and run on the kind of feudal hierarchies that pervade human culture. Their industries will therefore be more fluid hierarchically, with the various levels of the business organization ejecting or demoting leaders who become unpopular and promoting new leadership by consensus rather than seeing the organization disperse because a leader becomes unpopular. In essence, the one who leads your team is the one among you who everyone agrees to follow, and if he proves ineffective, the team forms around someone else among them rather than waiting for someone above to fire him or individually seeking greener pastures elsewhere: the relationships and the hope for advancement hold the team together and the job continues to get done but leadership becomes fluid, with higher levels of the business hierarchy functioning on the same model, and the businesses that endure are the businesses most effective in following that model because otherwise people leave. Industry may endure over the decades specifically because individual companies do not rigidly retain their organizational hierarchy but fluidly promote and demote at all levels based on charisma and effectiveness. Vargr businesses may be more effective than human businesses because they are more adaptive as a result of that competitive challenge to keep talent.
First, it occurs to me that the Vargr do not need to defeat an Imperial squadron in combat to defeat an Imperial fleet in a subsector. Not that I think they wouldn't be able to build capital ships, but it's really not needed. They can defeat it over the long term by eroding its base of maintenance and supply. We're making assumptions based on High Guard and MT paradigms that don't necessarily apply to a culture based on raiding and personal prestige. An Imperial battle squadron is, say, roughly 1.6 million dTons of warcraft, plus auxiliaries and escorts. A countering fleet of, say, 1600 high agility, high armor thousand dTon warships, each carrying a company of Vargr troops in armored vehicles, doesn't have to confront the squadron. They have to move past it, get to the world, land and sack it, then get out, taking whatever losses occurred as they did so, bringing out whatever loot they could. Their ground forces would be dispersed, highly mobile, and behaving atypically, sacking targets of opportunity and fighting encounter battles of their choice rather than marshaling for a set piece battle.
It's not likely the Vargr would sit down and do a calculation of forces needed to achieve even odds. They would assemble in groups big enough to raid a particular target, starting with small targets, gathering larger forces and taking on larger targets as they grew in reputation. They might take heavy casualties, they might even be defeated, but the damage to each world's economy would be significant. If the Imperial sector forces reacted defensively instead of aggressively, if the Vargr started believing the Imperium was weak, such forces would be more likely to spring up and snowball.
After years of such encounters, the sector would degenerate into islands of resistance built around the strongest worlds and their system defenses. Eventually the raiding groups could grow strong enough to attack even those, and even an unsuccessful attack would weaken an island and make it less able to resist the next raid. The Vargr may have capital ships - having the prestige and reputation to be able to motivate Vargr to such accomplishments may be an integral part of building the larger polities. But these may not have played a significant role in the sector's fate until late in the collapse.
The other point is that conflict does not need to be the primary means of achieving the kind of prestige and reputation that would extend one's influence, nor is conflict the only setting in which charisma could be asserted and rewarded, not and have the Vargr achieve any level of technological competence. Vargr with an aptitude for and interest in science or engineering may be drawn to particularly brilliant Vargr scientists or a particularly gifted engineer and aspire to high status and respect among their peers.
In business, the Vargr "disloyalty" promotes a kind of evolution among competing businesses: the businesses that are most successful are the ones that evolve a business culture in which the cream rises most quickly and consistently to the top rather than encountering obstacles and deciding to shop their talent elsewhere, while the businesses that fail are the ones that see their talent leak away to seek fortune elsewhere. A successful business enterprise might have a collective charisma akin to an individual as a result of the coordinated effort of the group, gaining the respect and support of - and the trade of - other businesses as a result, attracting capital and new recruits on that basis. The Vargr business model may treat business as something more akin to a fraternal order or association rather than as a property owned by some magnate and run on the kind of feudal hierarchies that pervade human culture. Their industries will therefore be more fluid hierarchically, with the various levels of the business organization ejecting or demoting leaders who become unpopular and promoting new leadership by consensus rather than seeing the organization disperse because a leader becomes unpopular. In essence, the one who leads your team is the one among you who everyone agrees to follow, and if he proves ineffective, the team forms around someone else among them rather than waiting for someone above to fire him or individually seeking greener pastures elsewhere: the relationships and the hope for advancement hold the team together and the job continues to get done but leadership becomes fluid, with higher levels of the business hierarchy functioning on the same model, and the businesses that endure are the businesses most effective in following that model because otherwise people leave. Industry may endure over the decades specifically because individual companies do not rigidly retain their organizational hierarchy but fluidly promote and demote at all levels based on charisma and effectiveness. Vargr businesses may be more effective than human businesses because they are more adaptive as a result of that competitive challenge to keep talent.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Communication In Ancient Rome, Before the Development of Information Technology
Communication is often noted to be the strongest element of a good long lasting relationship. This is also true when applied culture and identity, this is a reason why the media is so successful, because it is a form of communication. The more concrete and stable a system of communication is between people the better educated, and sophisticated the society will be.
The Reason the Roman Empire was so strong was because of the empires ability to communicate among the masses. Communication was what held the society together, through believing in common myths laws, and demonstrating a common bond passed down from generation to generation. However in Ancient Rome, the communication infrastructure was not at all like today. Spreading ideologies today is done through electronically mediated text, mass production, and books. Therefore the Romans established their own means of communication in order to speak to large numbers of people at a time. Emperors would communicate to the people at public events while displaying gestures that could be read from afar, where voice would not carry. Also through the development of art and architecture messages were incorporated in order preserve history, and incorporate mythical themes. Rome would use gestures and art in order to instill values , express emotions and inform the people.
Medium Of Oratory (Art of Public Speaking)
Public gatherings, exhibitions and shows are what dominated the urban life of Rome. These spectacles would include various forms of entertainment such as gladiator combats, chariot races, theatre, along with religious ceremonies , holidays, court trails and especially funerals (Aldrete, xviii). Within the intensely public life of Rome, oratory otherwise known as the art of public speaking was the center of pubic event. There were manuals even written at the time to outline the important rules of public speaking. The most famous ancient writer in this field was also one of the greatest speakers of all time; his name was Quintilian and is known for his work Institutio Oratoria. Roman orators or rhetoricians divided their discipline into five categories when delivering a speech. First invention (invento) then arrangement ( collocation), then style (elocatio), then memory (memora) and finally delivery (action) ( Aldrete,4). Delivery holds the most importance out all the other 4 elements. Delivery can further be divided into two further sections known as voice tone and guesture. Therefore when the speaker would address his crowd he would be participating in verbal and nonverbal communication. And because most of the spectators were unable to hear the words of the speaker, the gesture that was communicated held a great importance. To some it was considered even more important then the verbal. Sermocorporis is the term that means language of the body (Aldrete, 5), to the Romans, this language was understood with a high regard with a much greater emphasize then it has today, it had the capability to replace spoken word all together .
One of the main goals of the speaker was to convey his emotion to the public through the act of guestures. Quintilian mentioned the importance of the correct use of eyebrows, lips, nostels. And also the importance of the gaze, it was considered important for the speaker to never have a gaze fixed in one spot, or appear to not concentrated on the entirety of the crowd. However through gestures the most emphasize was given to the actions made with the arms , hands and fingers. As Quintilian articulates it,
“ the hands may almost be said to speak . Do we not use them to demand,
promise, summon, dismiss, threaten, supplicate, express aversion or fear, question
or deny? Do we not use them to indicate joy, sorrow, hesitation , confession,
penitence and measure quantity , number, and time?” ( 11.3.86-87).
Roman hand guestures held a great deal of importance in order to communicate to the masses . Some of the gestures used in antiquity are still carried on to modern times for example the clenched fist pressed against the chest to show anger is a sign that the Romans conveyed(Aldrete, 9).
(Aldrete, Gregory. Guestures and Acclamations in Ancient Rome. Balitmore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1999)
I think the Vargr will love the internet; but theirs are likely to be closed gardens, divided by interstellar lag and tribalism. Where it's somewhat open, it will be inevitable that birds of a feather will flock together.
The Vargr are likely to have a natural distrust of unvetted sources and news, and prefer a direct physical confrontation of beings they are personally unfamiliar with, to assess their character and credibility.
While there is no overriding culture amongst the diaspora, the Vargr aren't shy of cultural appropriation if they find certain aspects engaging and interesting.
Communication is often noted to be the strongest element of a good long lasting relationship. This is also true when applied culture and identity, this is a reason why the media is so successful, because it is a form of communication. The more concrete and stable a system of communication is between people the better educated, and sophisticated the society will be.
The Reason the Roman Empire was so strong was because of the empires ability to communicate among the masses. Communication was what held the society together, through believing in common myths laws, and demonstrating a common bond passed down from generation to generation. However in Ancient Rome, the communication infrastructure was not at all like today. Spreading ideologies today is done through electronically mediated text, mass production, and books. Therefore the Romans established their own means of communication in order to speak to large numbers of people at a time. Emperors would communicate to the people at public events while displaying gestures that could be read from afar, where voice would not carry. Also through the development of art and architecture messages were incorporated in order preserve history, and incorporate mythical themes. Rome would use gestures and art in order to instill values , express emotions and inform the people.
Medium Of Oratory (Art of Public Speaking)
Public gatherings, exhibitions and shows are what dominated the urban life of Rome. These spectacles would include various forms of entertainment such as gladiator combats, chariot races, theatre, along with religious ceremonies , holidays, court trails and especially funerals (Aldrete, xviii). Within the intensely public life of Rome, oratory otherwise known as the art of public speaking was the center of pubic event. There were manuals even written at the time to outline the important rules of public speaking. The most famous ancient writer in this field was also one of the greatest speakers of all time; his name was Quintilian and is known for his work Institutio Oratoria. Roman orators or rhetoricians divided their discipline into five categories when delivering a speech. First invention (invento) then arrangement ( collocation), then style (elocatio), then memory (memora) and finally delivery (action) ( Aldrete,4). Delivery holds the most importance out all the other 4 elements. Delivery can further be divided into two further sections known as voice tone and guesture. Therefore when the speaker would address his crowd he would be participating in verbal and nonverbal communication. And because most of the spectators were unable to hear the words of the speaker, the gesture that was communicated held a great importance. To some it was considered even more important then the verbal. Sermocorporis is the term that means language of the body (Aldrete, 5), to the Romans, this language was understood with a high regard with a much greater emphasize then it has today, it had the capability to replace spoken word all together .
One of the main goals of the speaker was to convey his emotion to the public through the act of guestures. Quintilian mentioned the importance of the correct use of eyebrows, lips, nostels. And also the importance of the gaze, it was considered important for the speaker to never have a gaze fixed in one spot, or appear to not concentrated on the entirety of the crowd. However through gestures the most emphasize was given to the actions made with the arms , hands and fingers. As Quintilian articulates it,
“ the hands may almost be said to speak . Do we not use them to demand,
promise, summon, dismiss, threaten, supplicate, express aversion or fear, question
or deny? Do we not use them to indicate joy, sorrow, hesitation , confession,
penitence and measure quantity , number, and time?” ( 11.3.86-87).
Roman hand guestures held a great deal of importance in order to communicate to the masses . Some of the gestures used in antiquity are still carried on to modern times for example the clenched fist pressed against the chest to show anger is a sign that the Romans conveyed(Aldrete, 9).
(Aldrete, Gregory. Guestures and Acclamations in Ancient Rome. Balitmore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1999)
I think the Vargr will love the internet; but theirs are likely to be closed gardens, divided by interstellar lag and tribalism. Where it's somewhat open, it will be inevitable that birds of a feather will flock together.
The Vargr are likely to have a natural distrust of unvetted sources and news, and prefer a direct physical confrontation of beings they are personally unfamiliar with, to assess their character and credibility.
While there is no overriding culture amongst the diaspora, the Vargr aren't shy of cultural appropriation if they find certain aspects engaging and interesting.
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