Re: KV, Humans, and Political Divisions

On 11-Mar-00 at 18:02, J Sadler (jsadler@earthling.net) wrote:
> >The Su'Vasku are - well - the Su'Vasku. Forget about trying to
> >understand them. Fortunately they follow a principle of enlightened
> >self-interest, and are relatively trustworthy, so can be worked with.
> >Sometimes.
> 
> I've always believed the Sa'Vasku should be completely
incomprehensible to
> humanity ie we don't know why they do the things they do. One day,
they'll
> pop up and blow a colony out of existence; the next, they'll help a
human
> ship crippled by pirates to reach safety. Why? Who knows? We can't
> communicate with them, they either can't or wont communicate with us,
and
> they are truly, truly alien.
> 
> Remember: the moment we start giving traits we recognise to aliens,
they
> stop being truly alien. The Kra'Vak, for example, are really men in
rubber
> suits - sure they react differently, but they have traits that humans
> understand. This is not necessarily a bad thing - I think the Kra'Vak
are
> developed very well and are good aliens. However I think beyond game
> mechanics, very little should be written about the Sa'Vasku except
what we
> think we know: they're very, very old, they appear to live in space
(we've
> never seen a foot soldier, unless the Not-Bugs are considered to be
them)
> and they are a race like none other that humanity has met.

Just because we can understand some of their behaviours does not make
them any less alien.  I understand cats and dogs, they are definately
not human.  Once you analyze how the biology works and how the groups
are organized there are some givens prompted by evolution.  The genetic
material will attempt to increase itself.  There will be competition.
Survival of, if not the individual, the clan, and thus the species will
be of primary importance.  These are all things I can understand and
will be things common to all species, wether sentient or not, wether
they evolved on earth or not.

I am intentionally leaving out "manufactured" species.

Roger