I don't disagree on the matter Mike, but the OP seems unsatisfied with existing canon, so I entertain alternatives 
to make their YTU more palatable.
to make their YTU more palatable.
How come the Vilani are still alive?
- Thread starter Moondragon007
- Start date
IIRC, there are about 6-8 actual root precipitation words (by dialect) used in multiple combinations... but over 800 permutations including the various common particles added. The roots roughly translate as fog, mist, drizzle, slush, sleet, hail, icefog, snow, frost, and hoarfrost... and can be combined, and can be given affixes for light, heavy, sticky, fluffy, dense, thin, etc, as well as sometimes being marked by wind speeds, too.
Oh, and the difference between slush and sleet: sleet has a hard ice core, slush has a clump of snow in the center, and those linguistic conventions have become normative across White Alaska, as well... Slush is annoying; sleet is stinging.
We have some notes of tonality for Bilandin; this also means that a given word in latin letters may be rhyming but non-homophonic (due to tone difference)...
not unlike how in ASL, your face functions as a sometimes (non-optional) qualitative marker for any noun or verb. Frown while singing "like" and it's interpreted as non-genuine, if not outright sarcastic... Sign it with eyes wide, eyebrows up, and a smile? It's impressively and surprisingly good. I'm not great at ASL... but my wife's family used to be, and her brother and sister-in-law are deaf so they still are.)
Moondragon007
SOC-1
Quick question: Where can I find all this information? Even if I make my own universe, I might want to steal sections of the official history.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
GURPS Traveller Interstellar Wars has the most in depth look at the Vilani.
There is a pretty good history of the first Imperium in the boardgame Imperium.
There is a pretty good history of the first Imperium in the boardgame Imperium.
Because they have been in all editions of the game their history has gone thru changes. You may find write-ups in the following sources. I list in order of publication bc new writers change or refine details regardless of the time period covered:
Imperium - The boardgame shows how one teensy little determined Earth has a real shot a taking over the Vilani, whose star empire has existed for close to 7000 years. Takes place in IY -2400 or thereabouts.
Megatraveller Alien Vol 1. Vilani & Vargr - Long out of print and with some intentional unreliable narration, this is the second big write-up with the Vilani during the Rebellion Era (IY 1120).
Marc Miller's Traveller - Millieu 0 A smaller but decent write up of attitudes of the Vilani, particularly how the AAB knowledge repository is run. Vland is sort of made out to be a fabled cultural center, akin to American college students hiking thru Europe for a year for the experience and cultural perspectives. At the dawn of the Third Imperium (IY 0)
GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars - Going back to the -2400 to -2200s, the Vilani's arrogance and stand-off nature is deeply driven home here. When you have had an empire for 7000 years or so, you really start to believe your own hype.
There are other books of course which draw on the history, but the ones I listed really get into what the Vilani are about as a species and culture.
Baroun Tardis
SOC-12
Thinking about it though... TL7 would be enough for what they needed.
That's enough to understand quarantine, By TL7 we understood enough about immunization to kill off smallpox and most of the other large scale plagues on Earth.
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
And that was before we really learned much about DNA and RNA (neither of which played any role in developing quarantine procedures or immunization)!
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
We probably did.
A lot of us.
But Bird Flu hardened us.
A lot of us.
But Bird Flu hardened us.
MIA does go hard.
Not really. It defeated only the local bureaux, not the whole first Imperium. The Duskir plague reduces much... But it isn't any worse than, say, the black death.they would survive...much weaker a society...
As happened in much of Europe.
They would rebound... But the ISW period ends due to taking advantage of the loss of effective governance due to plague. The massive fleets unable to operate due to insufficient crew. Not unlike how Mongol and Moorish did in Europe.
The Mongol conquests in Europe occurred about a century before the Black Death. Their victories were the result of better tactical and strategic leadership, principally by Subedai, against numerically superior forces - the "Great Raid" saw a Mongol force which had started out with about 20,000 men defeat first the army of Georgia, then the Alans, Circassians and Cumans, and finally an 80,000 strong army assembled by Russian princes and Cuman survivors.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
The Vilani still exist as a plot device for Traveller.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
The Villains of the peace.
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
Via-LAH-nee
VI-luh-Nee
(or Bih-LAR-nee, to some)
VI-luh-Nee
(or Bih-LAR-nee, to some)
Spinward Flow
SOC-14 5K
Vil-ahn-nee is how I've always thought of and pronounced the word.
Or you could just say, "villain knee" and be close enough for First Imperium work ...
Or you could just say, "villain knee" and be close enough for First Imperium work ...
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Kakistocrat
SOC-12
Ay, there’s the Vilani villainy.
―Petruchio, The Taming of the Shrew
―Petruchio, The Taming of the Shrew
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
Ah, I see autocorrect got me more than once. One of them I caught.
(Must be the Vilani.)
(Must be the Vilani.)
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