> From David Brewer
> I think, just to drag this somewhere vaguely on-topic, that this
Perhaps, who's to say that they are psychotic? Perhaps this method
of inter-species relations is the only one they know? And what if they
are a hive species? Whilst I agree with you in terms of the fact that there is
a tendency to portray aliens as monocultured, how do we know that they aren't?
I dunno, I quite like them being psychotic bugs from hell, there's something
intrinsically fun about squashing Kra'Vak like.. umm, well bugs.
;-) But it is a valid point, most aliens are either monocultured
humanoids (Star Trek etc.) or big mean and nasty hive bugs that just kill
things (Aliens etc.) What I'd really like to see is a compassionate and caring
hive species, just for the hell of it. ;-)
However back to the Kra'Vak, they really haven't been expanded on beyond the
original few pages, well that's as far as I know. Are they in the SGII or DSII
games at all? I only have Full Thrust at the moment. IMHO the *real* problem
with having monocultured species is that the creators don't *justify* why they
are monocultured. If say humans went berzerk and started wiping out anyone
that did not have blonde hair and blue eys, and was not conforming to a
specific culture, we could become very much the specific culture. It's also
possible that the cultures we are viewing are not as simple as what we see:
look at the English 'Victorian culture', it was very moral and uniform... on
the surface, but underneath? No way. But if you were an outsider, which view
would you have seen?
The impression I have, and please bear in mind that I have not read the source
material in a while, is that the Kra'Vak are either a hive species, or very
close to one? And at the very least, a culture in which the individual is
relatively unimportant.
Just my 2 cents worth, on the bugs of death side.:)
> The impression I have, and please bear in mind that I have not
> From what I have read of them (which is all of the stuff available in
I love the Stargrunt minis of them. They look so Predator-ish.
Cool......
> At 09:59 12/09/97 +1100, Loki wrote:
Biologically speaking, Hive species tend to be very um, something LIKE
compassionate (I personally think ti would be rather silly to assign human
emotions to say, a bee) but only to the members of the hive. All hive species
tend to exhibit the behaviour trait of being highly agressive en masse when
threatened.
> However back to the Kra'Vak, they really haven't been expanded
IMHO There is a litlle bit of 'flavour text' in MT. It suggests that the
Kra'Vak operate on a clan system which might equate to a hive instead, but it
also implies they have an honour system much like the movie interpretation of
the Samurai system.
> the *real* problem with having monocultured species is that the
But
> if you were an outsider, which view would you have seen?
You would have seen the view they were protraying to you. One aspect of a lot
of group organisations (both in people and in higher order mammals) is that
when faced with an external problem the group becomes much more uniform and
homogenous. I.e. they may not actually BE monocultured, but they are only
prepared to show you part of their culture.
> The impression I have, and please bear in mind that I have not
It is in some clan systems too. The text implies that honour (however they
define it which isn't clear) is all important to Kra'Vak.
> Just my 2 cents worth, on the bugs of death side. :)
S'Alright for you. I'm a Sa'Vasku fan. Hard to get emotionally attached to
blancmanges who make the Vorlon look demonstrative.
TTFN
Jon
In message <199709112259.JAA30076@student.macarthur.uws.EDU.AU>
> s953273@ariel.macarthur.uws.EDU.AU (Loki) wrote:
> >From David Brewer
Let's say there's six sides to the Krav'ak, one of them being the aggressive,
warmongering, conquering, psycopathic side we all know and love. if the other
five sides are less enthusiastic about going out and meeting people, then the
type of Kravak we are most likely to meet are the warriors.
It'll be a long time before we meet the nice friendly ones.
> In message <f535bc947%sam@bifrost.demon.co.uk> Samuel Penn writes:
I guess I rather walked into this one. I hope no one thought I was being
overly harsh in bringing up the GZG background like I did. I guess Jon T. (or
Steve Blease?) has done alright with the Kra'Vak, leaving them rather
mysterious, as well as pointing people toward the usual SF cliche that drives
the GZG games. That's good enough for a war game.