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One I've not seen before - Vargr and Aslan as furries.

1. You also forgot the Ponies, except for the Friendship part. I take that back, they're very friednly with each other.

2. Not counting any number of uplifted Terran species.

3. Females looking to build up their commercial empire, check.

4. Well, both the Vargr and Aslan want to invade human space.

5. Some players might be furrious over this development.
 
Whoever wouldve thunk it.

Imo they dont qualify as furries because theyre not human enough. I mean theyre not culturally human. The vargr and the tezcat are in the danger zone,
but the aslan are too lionlike instead of catlike, and the kkree dont come in pastel colors. Furry could be a general insult for aliens resembling terran animals mainly used by solomani nationals.
 
The Aslan, according to MWM, the JTAS Contact article and AM1, are only vaguely lionlike - fanon has misrepresented them for decades:
The earliest Terran explorers saw in them a vague resemblance to the Terran lion. and they have been described as lion-like ever since, although there is very little resemblance.
Click to expand...

Early Terran explorers regarded the Aslan as "lion-like," and the simile has stuck ever since, although the Aslan bear little resemblance to Terrestrial lions. Nonetheless, this early misnomer has influenced a great deal of human thinking about the Aslan, including terminology (the use of pride to translate ahriy, for instance) and ascribed behavior-which is not at all leonine. The derivation of the word Aslan is unknown, but is sometimes credited to human explorers who first contacted the race.
Click to expand...
 
mike wightman said:
The Aslan, according to MWM, the JTAS Contact article and AM1, are only vaguely lionlike - fanon has misrepresented them for decades:
Click to expand...


THIS. In fact, I have come across Traveller players on more than one occasion who think that Aslan are actual Terran Felid uplifts like Vargr are Canid uplifts. They're not - they are a completely natively-evolved alien species originating on Kusyu *.
* Though there is an interesting comment in T4: Aliens Vol.1 that suggests that Kusyu suffered from a major environmental change (including atmospheric composition) about 1.8 Mya causing mass extinctions, and that Aslan-precursors (and precursors to other current native Kusyu life forms) do not appear before this time in Kusyu's geological record. This may or may not be related to the White (Degenerate) Dwarf star that is the current close-companion of Tyeyo (Kusyu's primary star). ​
 
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mike wightman said:
The Aslan, according to MWM, the JTAS Contact article and AM1, are only vaguely lionlike - fanon has misrepresented them for decades:
Click to expand...

Not just fanon, but canon, as well. Including the cover of the CT Alien Module.
 
whulorigan said:
THIS. In fact, I have come across Traveller players on more than one occasion who think that Aslan are actual Terran Felid uplifts like Vargr are Canid uplifts. They're not - they are a completely natively-evolved alien species originating on Kusyu *.
* Though there is an interesting comment in T4: Aliens Vol.1 that suggests that Kusyu suffered from a major environmental change (including atmospheric composition) about 1.8 Mya causing mass extinctions, and that Aslan-precursors (and precursors to other current native Kusyu life forms) do not appear before this time. This may or may not be related to the White (Degenerate) Dwarf star that is the current close-companion of Tyeyo (Kusyu's primary star). ​
Click to expand...

So then, what DO they look like?

Where is an "accurate" image of what they look like?
 
whartung said:
So then, what DO they look like?

Where is an "accurate" image of what they look like?
Click to expand...

"Vaguely Felinoid". Beyond that I cannot give you an answer - you would have to talk with Marc Miller. Generally I go with some of the art from William Keith and/or GT: Aliens (Vol. 1). Definitely "Lionish", but clearly different if you place it next to the image of the head of an actual lion and compare them side-by-side. (Which fits the original description in CT-materials of early Solomani explorers "seeing a vague resemblance to the Terran Lion, but that there is little real resemblance").

Wikipedia:
Lion (male)
Lion (female)
Tiger

TravellerWiki:
Aslan (T5)
Aslan (DGP)
Aslan (WH Keith)


If they were an actual uplift, you would expect them to look somewhat like a lion-man, like they do on the cover and in the interior of MgT:Aliens Module 1 (Aslan) (- I like the art, but it does not reflect the original Traveller description).
 
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MgT does not get the Aslan right at all, artistically or culturally. It's almost like past MgT authors have thought they are Kzinti or Kithrathi, especially their 'Glorious Empire' depiction
 
mike wightman said:
MgT does not get the Aslan right at all, artistically or culturally. It's almost like past MgT authors have thought they are Kzinti or Kithrathi, especially their 'Glorious Empire' depiction
Click to expand...

I generally like Mongoose's take on Traveller a lot. But I am highly disappointed by their treatment of Aslan. :rolleyes:
 
Madmax said:
I generally like Mongoose's take on Traveller a lot. But I am highly disappointed by their treatment of Aslan. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Aslan have changed since Pirates of Drinax 2nd Edition. They went through another re-boot. But I still prefer them being lions as shown in MgT Alien Module 1.
 
mike wightman said:
The Aslan, according to MWM, the JTAS Contact article and AM1, are only vaguely lionlike - fanon has misrepresented them for decades:
Click to expand...

Isn't there a Traveller (Mongoose Traveller perhaps?) adventure where a group of stranded Aslan are hunted by humans who try to justify their actions because they say they look very much like native lions? But I may be wrong about this.
 
AtlanticFriend said:
Isn't there a Traveller (Mongoose Traveller perhaps?) adventure where a group of stranded Aslan are hunted by humans who try to justify their actions because they say they look very much like native lions? But I may be wrong about this.
Click to expand...

Pride of the Lion In Journal #19, and reprinted with the Mongoose Journal
 
AtlanticFriend said:
That might be it. So, does it go off-canon, if the Aslan's leonine appearance is but a passing resemblance?
Click to expand...

All the Aslan art, even that in the CT Aslan module, is wrong, as it's all looking like lion-headed humans or humanoids. Mongoose's is more wrong than most. Some of the art at least gets the thumb opposite the middle finger, not adjacent to the fingers. Think talons like a raptor, but with retractable claws and more meat on the bones.

Marc has explicitly said that, as of 2008, no published art for aslan has gotten the dewclaw right. Since all of the new stuff I've seen has the same kinds of hands, I doubt the new art has gotten it right.
 
When FFE republished the CT alien modules they included some of GDW's original design documents, which stated that the Vargr and Aslan were meant to be "humans in funny suits": Aliens who were exotic-looking, but not too alien in their thinking and behavior. The K'kree and Hivers were supposed to be truly alien, for the players who wanted more of a role-playing challenge. With that in mind, seeing the Vargr and Aslan as anthropomorphic animals (especially considering the art) seems natural.
 
AtlanticFriend said:
Isn't there a Traveller (Mongoose Traveller perhaps?) adventure where a group of stranded Aslan are hunted by humans who try to justify their actions because they say they look very much like native lions? But I may be wrong about this.
Click to expand...

The adventure has nothing to do with lions. It has more to do with The Most Dangerous Game.
 
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