RE: The Kra'Vak

At 01:18 07/10/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Er, John...That was me.  Sorry, Tony, I've got to claim the 
>'surrender/switch' as my own :).  Anyway, no hard feelings - it's
difficult 
>to keep track of all of this sometimes.  And work still progresses on
the 
>'surrender/switch' Kra'Vak...

	Thats all right cause I didn't have a clue as to what John was
talking
about.

>From Los
> think that the surrender/switch rule being the norm for KV/on KV
fights is
>>this way of fighting, has caused them to go into erradication mode.
(Being
>that the option of surrender switch has been taken away from the KV in
a
>human encounter.) They reconcile this by defaulting to fail morale, go
>beserk.

	Now I have some ideas for Kravak pyshcology that Andrew Cowell
put on the
list a couple of years ago (have I been here that long?). From that i
was
imagining that the Kravak fight for dominance at various stages of their
life and that the threat of combat hightens their fight response. This
makes them a little unsettled. I also imagined that the senior KV kept
the
lower ranks in line to a degree by pheramones (you know what I mean even
if
I cant spell it) so that if a leader is killed the effect on the troops
is
that they totally lose it. Worse still if some of the lesser KV are
nearing
the next stage of maturity (I thinking 5 or 6 distinct stages). With the
Seniors scent no longer around this nearly "mature" KV will fight for
dominace of the group. The more life stages they have been through the
more
quickly they will assert domination over part of the group but the more
savage the fight for dominace. Normal troops wont assert any dominace
and
just go totally beserk.

>From Noah
>And if they breed fast (made possible by the alleviation of population 
>pressure through interstellar migration) they want every planet they
can 
>get their hands (manipulators, whatever) on.  Imagine GIANT freighters
full 
>of KV and their colonial equipment, built cheap with slow drives.  They

>spread out over the stars - now, any KV that can afford a steerage
ticket 
>can go to a new colony, and be guaranteed consideration for 
>breeding...pretty soon you've got KV everywhere, and the growing
colonies 
>create the pressures that drive more colonial migrations...and they're
all 
>building fleets and armies, slowly, but there's a LOT of them.

	They might breed fast but this might also make life very cheap.
I tend to
think that junveniles before their first molt/puberty/change/whatever
are
to be consider valueless even though they probably do all the manual
work
within KV society. And I doubt if there are any safety standards. In
which
case you are going to have a heavy attrition of young KV in their 1st
and
2nd life stages. The KV are expanding but not as fast as their birth
rate
might indicate.
	In their second stage young KV are probably chosen for a "life
path". With
this surrender/switch response you probably are not going to find castes
as
such but young KV that show promise might be taken up by a mentor (5th
or
6th life stage, sexually mature, probably male if the last life stage is
mature female laying eggs or some such, some personal fife) and trained
to
follow a particular path. Say a young stage 2 KV has a gift for
metalworking (I still cant my thesis out of my head). A master
craftsman/woman/it might take the KV into his fife/workshop, after a
proper
payment of somekind like tools or weapons. The young KV would start as a
"go-fer" for a 3rd stage KV. The mentor probably has a number of these
novices as well as a number of older KV who are his "journeymen" and
"craftsmen" working for him. As the KV under whom he is working matured
the
young KV might also advance a stage and begin actually learning the
trade.
BY the time he reaches his 4th stage the young KV is the equvialent of a
Journeyman and may become a mastercraftsman in time if he survives,
matures
and can fight for his position. Who as KVs parents are/were is
unimportant
(probably no one knows anyway) but once they have been chosen for a path
they must stick to it unless they are able to become fully mature
females
and lead their own clan.
	As they get older the KV's life becomes more valued by his clan.
This
would strengthen the switch/surrender response in older KV. They will
fight
damn hard to maintain a position but only for as long as they see a
benefit
in it. This means that capturing a leader will encourage that leader,
and
their followers, to work for you. Kill the leader and the group will
split
into factions and generally the KV become very unpredictable and very
nasty.

from Noah
>>Now that I think about it, I'm not sure that I like the 'KV runs from 
>UberAlien' scheme.  Maybe it seems a bit cliche, or maybe I just
haven't 
>thought of a good UberAlien to run from.  If they have this UberAlien
to 
>run from, why are they so surprised at Human behavior?  Why is human
space 
>their only expansion axis?  Maybe it's not, but this could be the first

>real Threat they have come up against.  And they are worried.	Not only
are 
>they different looking, they're lunatics.  Maybe the KV think that a
show 
>of force will settle the Humans down.	Or maybe they're gearing up for 
>genocide...

	I cant say that I have ever liked this idea either. I do like
the idea
that the KV are nomads and haven't been this way for a while. I sorta'
think that they are as agressive as they are because THE
Leader/Emperor/Khan/Mother of all Mothers has died and everybody is out
for
themselves to establish their level of dominence in the new regime.
Things
wont calm down until their is a new leader and that cant be desided
until
all the clans have sorted out their pecking order. Once that is all done
the KV will probably be very settled for 20 years or so until the next
ruler dies.

	Tony.
	"a week to go"
	twilko@ozemail.com.au