All Things Vargr

[Condottiere]

Llamas Kick Wolves To Death To Protect Sheep (The Ultimate Guard Llama)

When most people think of animals protecting livestock, they think of a dog. Well, move over dog, because there's a new guardian in town... the llama.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4T8kjZlDoc&ab_channel=FactFiend-WithKarlSmallwood


Uplifted llamas in the Spinward Marches.

 

[whartung]

Uplifted llamas in the Spinward Marches.

Forget that, I'll just get some off the shelf Llamas to guard my facility against Vargr intruders!

Imagine a place guarded by llamas and geese -- formidable indeed.

Actually, will Alpacas work too? Then I can sell the fur...

 

[boomslang]

This is all clearly some sort of anti-carnivore propaganda program by the K'kree.

I would not be surprised to find the crafty tentacles of some Hiver Manipulator behind the whole thing.



(Also, I am considering "Space Llama" as the name of my still-on-the-drawing-board anti-Corsair merc gunship, because obviously.)

 

[Condottiere]

 

[Condottiere]

I'm surprised no one ever threatened to bombard Vargr planets with Terran pests.

It might not work with the Aslan, but Vargr should be compatible.

 

[BRover]

Looks like LLamageddon is around the corner--a full-blown Alpacalypse . . . :xh:

 

[Grav_Moped]

Not sure if this has been covered: Vargr accents when speaking Anglic (and probably other languages).

Vargr probably can't pronounce the "p" or "b" sounds because they don't really have lips as such, and work around that by substituting "d" or "t" instead.

"My starshid's junt drive is detter than yours."

Less fluent Vargr speakers of Anglic might mistakenly make improper subsitutions: "starshit," for example. They might also do this intentionally...

Alternately, "p" and "b" get replaced by "pf" (mostly in polite, unhurried speech -- and there's usually a just-noticeable hesitation around the sound because it's not a reflex action).

"My starshipf's jumpf drive is pfetter than yours."

It's not that they can't hear the difference (as in confusion between "L" and "R" in Japanese-English translation, and the issues Anglophones have with tonal variations in Mandarin), they just can't enunciate it.


Also, a weary sigh might sound like a bilabial fricative ("raspberry" or "bronx cheer"), though an exasperated sigh would just be a normal heavy exhalation.

 

[whulorigan]

Vargr probably can't pronounce the "p" or "b" sounds because they don't really have lips as such, and work around that by substituting "d" or "t" instead.

I would think 'f' ('pf'), 'v', or 'w' may be better substitutes for 'p' or 'b'.

 

[Condottiere]

Dialects.

 

[Grav_Moped]

I would think 'f' ('pf'), 'v', or 'w' may be better substitutes for 'p' or 'b'.

"V" and "w" might still be difficult without fine lip control. "F"/"pf" is more plausible if you're keeping the same mechanical function, but it'll sound indistinct (and possibly not forceful enough to suit a Vargr speaker). "T" and "d" are substituting tongue-formed sounds for similar lip-formed ones.

Also, anything requiring lip control (and it won't be precise in any case) is going to look like a momentary hint of a snarl (bared teeth)...

Vargr might consider this a feature rather than a flaw, though.

 

[whulorigan]

"V" and "w" might still be difficult without fine lip control. ...

I was thinking a "w" more like an "hw" or "fw" (or air foced thru the front of the mouth while mostly closed at the sides - not quite a "w", but I think you get the idea).

A "v" might be the same as a "w" as described above, but with a throat-vocalization (almost a "half-bark" like some dogs make when they are unsure whether or not they want to bark at something).

 

[Grav_Moped]

I was thinking a "w" more like an "hw" or "fw" (or air foced thru the front of the mouth while mostly closed at the sides - not quite a "w", but I think you get the idea).

A "v" might be the same as a "w" as described above, but with a throat-vocalization (almost a "half-bark" like some dogs make when they are unsure whther or not they want to bark at something).

Could work. I"m still thinking that the lack of muscle control over the flews/jowls turns it into a bilabial fricative, unless a significant conscious effort is made, but a modified partial-bark would be a likely Vargr vocalization.

 

[Condottiere]

What's involved? Lung control, voice box, tongue, mouth, lip control?

 

[Grav_Moped]

What's involved? Lung control, voice box, tongue, mouth, lip control?

In this instance, fine lip control.

 

[Condottiere]

I guess slobber control might be a start.

 

[Grav_Moped]

I'd assume most subspecies of Vargr don't have the "big dog with a drool problem" issue, since they're derived from wolves, not bulldogs or mastiffs.

That said, apparently the Irilitok Vargr (trav wiki) tend toward brachycephaly (wikipedia), or flat-faced-ness, due to an intentional "eugenics" program.

 

[Condottiere]

Dogs in Space Trailer Netflix Futures

Fetch — a new planet for us all! With Earth in danger, desperate scientists send genetically enhanced dogs into space to find a new world to call home. Dogs in Space is zooming to Netflix November 18!

Now we know the purpose of the Vargr, they were meant to find new planets for the Ancients to settle on.

And a hundred millenia later, they still blindly carry out their Prime Directive.

To boldly go, where no Manx has gone before.

 

[Grav_Moped]

To boldly go, where no Manx has gone before.

But there's one problem: All their base are belong to CATS, because they set them up the bomb.

 

[mike wightman]

From the words of MWM himself:

Then, I started to talk out our current situation. “Out here in dogspace…”24
She interrupted. “Wait a minute. They call us Humans,25 not apes. We owe them the
same respect. Vargr, not dogs.”
Who was she, the new hire to tell me how to talk? We all called them dogs.
Sometimes they called themselves dogs. And they certainly called us apes. Or, some
equivalent word in their growling language.
...
“Dogs is inappropriate. They are Vargr.” Captain certainly registered surprise.
Beecie continued, “These people are our customers, our clients, our suppliers. We get
money from them for the goods we sell. We pay them to refuel us and service our ship.
We expect them to do it right. Our lives are in their hands, in more ways than one.
“They must be hearing you calling them dogs. You are ignoring their own cultural
value for small group hierarchies. They deserve your respect until they prove unworthy.
Our ship’s Imperial registry commands some deference, but when you talk like that it
triggers micro-aggressions. They aren’t conspiring across parsecs to defraud you. They
just don’t like you. If you ever come back to the same port, they will remember.”
...

To which MWM added this footnote:

I had an exchange similar to this one myself. I sold for a mutual (owned by the policy
holders) insurance company, and a fellow agent spoke deprecatingly of Asians. I spoke
up, and the speaker apologized. I found it notable that our manager, who was present, did
not speak up, and did not join in with support. I never heard such comments again, but
that doesn’t mean they weren’t made.

 

[Fovean]

“small group hierarchies”

I like that. I guess “packs” is right out.