Re: KV history/psychology - St. Jon has been reading minds again.....

>On Thu, 9 Mar 2000, Jeff Miller wrote:
>
>> Laserlight wrote:
>>
>> > >We concluded that this was (similar to Jon) a defence mechanism
for the
>> > >species - both for the individual and (on a larger scale) for the
>>clan and
>> > >race. Individuals were expendable to protect key clan/race assets.
>> >
>> > 1 a)  Do they each berserk individually, or
>> >	 b) does the first to berserk give off pheromones which help
>> > trip the response in other nearby individuals?
>> > 2 a)  If the latter, does the pheromone guarantee the response
>> > (no die roll needed), or
>> >	 b) does it just raise the probability (die roll modifier) ?
>> >
>>
>> Another possibility is that their bodies don't use pheromones.  Maybe
their
>> response is triggered by visual cues that go straight to the response
>>center.
>
>yet another possibillity is that pheromones are involved, but they are
>inhibitory, rather than stimulatory: KV produce signals which tell the
>others to calm down. when they enter frenzy, they stop producing the
>pheromone. this gives just the same dynamics as the
stimulatory-pheromones
>setup, with a few twists. sealed suits would lead to *more* frenzy
>(berzerker PA!), due to the isolation of the individual from the
flock's
>pheromones. tightly-packed KV would be less likely to frenzy (increased
>pheromone concentration), spread-out ones more (vice versa). if KV are
>moving fast, they are not letting the pheromone build up around them,
and
>so they frenzy.

Why do I get horrible mental pictures of Kra'Vak Sia'Na with Afro wigs
and
pink-and-green shell-suits, going "Calm DOWN, our Terry, calm DOWN!"...?

{NB: US listers will NOT understand what the hell I'm talking about
here....}

:-)

Jon (GZG)
[snip]
>
>tom