TL;DRThe name was pitched because it also means 'toil, labor, hardship' in Ancient Greek, suiting rugged work boots; the Russian meaning was unintended but considered funny.
We answered your question in this installment of Loremakers: Community Questions (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch/20364-Loremakers-Community-Questions). Adding our answer so it also lives in this thread. Thanks for the question!
Question: While playing with a friend, we quite by chance found boots named Ponos/Понос, which translates from Russian as diarrhea. So I want to know if the appearance of boots with the same name was originally planned or is this some kind of joke by a Russian-speaking developer?
Answer: To provide a peek behind the curtain, when items get a Narrative pass two or three potential names are pitched. Then Narrative leads review and pick their favorite based on what sounds/feels right for the brand. In the case with the Ponos boots, the name was pitched because it's also Ancient Greek for 'Toil, Labor, Hardship'. Felt like a fitting name considering that they are rugged work boots meant to withstand whatever labors you put them through. The Russian meaning was not intended but very funny.
We answered your question in this installment of Loremakers: Community Questions (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch/20364-Loremakers-Community-Questions). Adding our answer so it also lives in this thread. Thanks for the question!
Question: Will we get an updated model of her? Since the Character Creator has greatly improved since the campaign photos I was wondering if the UEE would be addressed sometime in the future by her with the updated model and using the improved FOIP system.
Answer: Definitely. We were actually discussing plans earlier in the month to give Addison more of a presence in the fiction as her administration has been a little quiet of late.
TL;DRDave Haddock says answering the xenolinguist's questions does push alien definitions further and helps other teams, but they keep answers loose so they can adjust, and Adam Wieser recommends the language docs as a read.
Yeah, definitely. And it's always going to be one of those interesting things, because we're working with the art team and the character team as far as what the physiology of these things look like and stuff like that. It helps push conversations forward on other fronts too, which is really cool. But at the same time, because we're having these conversations earlier than some of the other teams are looking at some of the aliens, we don't want to hem them in. So we try to, again, stay cryptic where we can, get answers where we can, but still keep it a little bit loose, so we have the ability to modulate and adjust as we go.
And I'll just hop in and say that the language docs, even if you don't quite have the time or the inkling to teach yourself Xi'an over the next month or year, they are a great resource just to read if you want to learn more about the culture of a specific species, whether it's their approach to time or gender or work, all these different things are all wrapped into there. So it can also be a fun thing just to peruse if you want to learn more about the Banu or the Xi'an in and of themselves. It's a very fascinating document. And I know anytime I work on anything related to one of these species, I bring up that doc and I'm just going through it to see how they approach it from a cultural aspect or how they think about things. So it's really cool. It's a wonderful resource and a really, really interesting read. So highly recommend it if you have any interest in any of the language or alien stuff whatsoever.
TL;DRThe Banu are friendly, trade-focused first-contact aliens with short lifespans, a count-up sense of time, little interest in recording history, and loud enthusiasm for sports like Sataball.
So the Banu were the first alien species that humans encountered, when one Banu was trying to basically run from the law in Banu systems and discovered a jump in the Davien system. Just through that first encounter it set the stage where the Banu are extremely friendly and first and foremost interested in trade and building connections with other species. So we've known them the longest, we've never had any conflicts with them. They're also a species, they live shorter lifespans, we're thinking, I think, 30 to 40 years, something like that, in comparison. And their concept of time is interesting, where they count up. So when they start to work, they have a clock on their wall that says, I'm working to these many beats, which is also how they tell time, through beats. Essentially, but yeah, they're great. They also don't have a written history that they keep around. They don't sit down and write things to have forever. They just know if something works, that's the thing that works. So it's like if a brand new quantum drive is designed and it works better than the previous one, they stop caring about the one that came before, because this one is better, so why do we even need that anymore? So their sense of history is different than ours, in that in some ways humanity probably has kept and recorded more Banu history than the Banu have right now, because as long as we've known them, we've kept track of certain things. But for them, they don't care. It's all about living in the moment and what works good for now. Also very, very loud and big fans of Sataball. So if you go to Sataball games, they are there, and they love just to cheer in general. They're very enthusiastic.
I think it's just sports in general. Again, they don't have team identification. They just enjoy the celebration of the game. So they're like, yay, you're doing great, at both sides, which we've always joked would be amazing to see ultimately, but would just be probably really aggravating for most of the other spectators there.
TL;DRVanduul waste is handled in over-engineered rest pods that replenish nutrients and double as a place to eliminate waste, according to a narrative document the team found.
I mean, again, as part of our unique job description, we have had to have conversations about how each alien poops. I think we had figured... Adam, do you remember? I feel like we said that they probably had some way of recycling their waste, almost like a natural Fremen system, like the Fremen suit thing where it recycles your waste into something like that. But I actually don't remember.
I don't recall either, but I see Cherie searching furiously, so maybe she'll have an answer in a few moments while I add here for a second. These are the fun things. We do have these extensive documents that we work on just with these questions. And for the Vanduul in general, even though within the game world people don't know much about them, we as a narrative group know a lot about them and these kind of small things. It's fun to know all this stuff and to expand on it, and can't wait until you all get to learn more about it.
I found the answer to the very important Vanduul question. It's in one of our docs. So when the Vanduul are not fighting or they don't have any duties going on, they take rests in these heavily over-engineered pods that just replenish their nutrients, give them a better environment to sleep, et cetera. And the pods double as a place to eliminate your waste as often as you need to. All in one machine.
TL;DRNothing new to share on the Kr'Thak, who are humanity-unknown, longtime enemies of the Xi'an; the deepest existing lore is an RSI article on the Xi'an's second Imperial Age ending.
Nothing to share. They are a thing. To provide context, again, the Kr'Thak are basically a longstanding mortal enemy of the Xi'an. Humanity in our universe has not actually experienced them, come across them, doesn't know what they are, but just knows that they basically exist on the other side of the Xi'an Empire. So there's humanity, Xi'an, and then Kr'Thak somewhere over here. But they basically had a very long war with them that was pretty devastating. So we know they exist, but we don't know anything about them, and they won't tell us anything about them.
I would say just from what is out there from a lore perspective, there is on the RSI website an article about the end of the second Imperial Age of the Xi'an, which, we don't know too many details, but the Kr'Thak were basically involved in ending the second Imperial line of the Xi'an. So if you have an interest in digging in, that's kind of the deepest thing that humanity knows so far about the Kr'Thak and what they're able to do. So if that interests you, go track that down. And also, Jeremy wrote a great short story called Crossroads, specifically about Tevarin bounty hunters, that digs into the topic of the Tevarin right now and where they sit in this world. If that interests you at all, definitely go check that out, because it's very cool and it really highlights how they're situated in the current game world.
TL;DRAdam says there is room in the lore for a new Tevarin manufacturer, via government support or the Branaugh settlement, but notes the narrative team doesn't decide which ships get made.
I think the easy answer is there is space in the lore for it. With the way the Tevarin are currently going, not only are they starting to have a resurgence within the UEE, the first Tevarin senator, Soush Kozy, was elected and re-elected from Elysium, which was the Tevarin's original home world. And he's been pushing to get more Tevarin involved in the UEE, involved in the government, so it could be something like him pushing for government subsidies to be able to support a manufacturer of a new Tevarin ship line within the UEE. There's also a settlement in Branaugh, which is an unclaimed system, so it's not part of the UEE. But a lot of the Tevarin diaspora that maybe didn't quite feel at home in the UEE, or just wanted to go to a place where their culture was all their own, have started their own giant community there. There's a growing population of Tevarin there. So there's also an angle where we could potentially have some kind of manufacturer come out of the Branaugh system that's basically making more modern Tevarin ships for what they need out there. It's definitely there, though we do have to couch it in saying that what ships get made and what their functions are aren't our choice. We're part of that process, but we're normally not the ones that are driving that conversation. But we put in those little areas, so if a ship like that is desired or talked about, we can support it.
Yeah, they totally would, just not a lot. If you want a party bus, you should probably hit up the Banu. I imagine their party buses are the sickest in the universe.
Oh, yeah. Those would be the ones to be on. I just feel like, based on our conversations with Xi'an music being extremely slow, a Xi'an party bus would just be this droning thing with decaying food, slow-paced music.
Meanwhile, the Banu, I believe the Banu are the ones that take short little naps in cuddle piles, right? So if you're more looking for that vibe. And they have the Slomadon, which is a giant drinking vessel that they do when you close a deal with the Banu. They take all this stuff, and everyone is supposed to bring something to add to the Slomadon to then drink, whether it's the Banu stuff or stuff from that. So in the Banu language guide, if you check it out, one of the cultural things, it warns you that if you do deal with the Banu and drink from this, to take it slow, bring something light, because sometimes the stuff the Banu put in is very, very strong. So yeah, Banu party bus, cuddle nap sleeping rooms, I think they'd be the ones that'd be way more into it than the Xi'an.
TL;DRXi'an endurance racing, where winners slow their body functions and are highly revered, is the main alien sport named, alongside the Banu's love of Sataball, where some play professionally.
We've got a few so far. Probably the most apparent one, and I don't even know how to pronounce it, is basically Xi'an endurance racing. Cherie, I'm not sure if you... the Kaikola.
So the endurance race the Xi'an have is, as we talked about, their operas being extremely long and their music being slow and stuff like that. Because I think it's endothermic, they're able to slow their heart rate to a certain pace. So the Xi'an endurance race is about seeing a long, long race where the best racers basically are able to slow their body functions down to a certain point. It's obviously maybe not the most exciting from a human or Banu perspective, but it does take a lot of skill, and basically the winners of that in Xi'an society are very highly regarded, because being able to do this well and control your body like that, and to meditate while still operating the ship over long distances, is very revered. So that's one sport type thing that we put in. The Banu are also, like you said, big fans of sport and Sataball in general. Even though that's not their sport, they love to watch, and Banu are even professional Sataball players within the UEE, because they've taken to this sport so much.
Yeah, Cluey was, it's been mentioned in just a few little lore pieces we did, but it's not too widely known, because it was something that was done pre-Purge, before the Tevarin were defeated in the wars and then basically gave up their culture and society. But supposedly it was a team game that was played on stone courses. And the belief is that basically the team tactics used to navigate the course and win the game were a way to teach younger Tevarin some of the tactics that would be used when attacking and boarding enemy ships and stuff like that. So yeah, that's kind of out there too.
TL;DRLore lives mainly in weekly-turned-sporadic lore posts on the RSI site's Spectrum Dispatch, short stories and Jump Point portfolios, and new lore is created only in service of the game's needs.
This is where I want to plug the only weekly recurring endeavor that's been going on longer than the shows that I make, and that's the weekly lore posts that go out every Tuesday.
Well, they're not going out every Tuesday anymore. We've been scaling back on it. They're going out more and more sporadically. We have been trailing off because the needs of Star Citizen and Squadron have sort of overridden those. But yes, they went on for over 10 years every week. And they used to be actually three times a week. When we first started, I was doing Kid Crimson, Cal Mason, and a news dispatch every week. That was fun.
Those are all available on the RobertsSpaceIndustries.com website. Generally speaking, one almost every week, and they cover a variety of topics. They're in a bunch of different formats. Some take the format of talk shows. Some are more like news reports. Some are just straight fiction. But many of them are delightful, and they paint a wonderfully complex picture of the society that's sitting underneath the Persistent Universe that the developers are building right now.
And the easiest way to get to them, let me just jump in, is if you go to the Comm-Link, and then the top dropdown on the left is called Channel. And if you go to Spectrum Dispatch, so if you think about this as a dispatch going out on the Spectrum, that's where the repository of all these live, going back years and years and years. And they do have things where they can be, like Jared said, really quick one-offs, or, as mentioned earlier, a longer story that Jeremy wrote called Crossroads, or we have a few stories like that that fill in some other things too. So it's an easy way to start diving into things. And then if you have any certain topics, you could type in Banu or Xi'an and just see what pops up, and then go through and see where they're referenced in any of these stories.
Yeah, and we have the Jump Points as well, which always have interesting narrative elements tied into the portfolios about the companies. I think older portfolios do get posted to Spectrum, but if you want to keep up kind of live, there's always interesting things to read there. I think the development of new lore, it's something that I faced over this last first year here: everyone's always really interested in creating and coming up with more. We're definitely doing it in service of a broader vision for the game, and when there are development needs that lore can answer questions to, to inform choices along the way. I think if we go too far and just make up lore for anything and everything without any connection to the rest of the game, then we start constraining what's possible with that vision, when ultimately we're trying to be in service to the players and to the game and to creating a cohesive vision for what Star Citizen can be, and can be understood by both the players and the developers. Because we've all read the deep 100-page-plus documents that we have for all the various little parts, niche parts of the game. I think we don't really expect that of anyone else, but that information is there for people who are passionate and interested about it.
TL;DRThe lore posts began as a way to bring people into the world and later helped designers and artists, with hopes to bring some of them into the game, though porting is a lot of work.
Yeah, that was an initiative that Dave started with basically the Time Capsule series in the run-up to the initial crowdfunding campaign, just as a way to bring people into the world, to show them the type of world we were thinking of building and highlight some elements of it. And it just kept going for years and years as the game was being built, because we found that if there were certain aspects of the game that weren't ready to be experienced, being able to tell stories or show these different shows and these different viewpoints of the verse would help fill out the world for the players. But also, as we discussed earlier, for designers and artists that were also working on the game. To circle back around to your earlier question, there are times when a designer or a character artist would come to us and say, hey, I'm about to work on this. What have you established? What can I read? And then we'd have this backlog of material we'd be able to feed them, which would then help them do their job, or at least put them in a certain direction. So we just found it was a really fun way to get people into the world, to introduce it for them. And this extended into Jump Point, into the lore pieces that we have there, the different adverts for some of the subscriber items that were always in Jump Point. Whenever we had a chance to just make the world seem alive from different angles, we decided to do it that way. So whether it's an SET, which is a fake TV talk show, or a TV talk show in that current age, or whether it's Parker Terrell and the Plain Truth spitting conspiracy theories about the future, or a news post, it was always a really fun and interesting way to dip into the world and to show people our intention for it. So while it's not tactile in game, we will hopefully bring some of those posts into the game. It's a lot of work to be able to port all that stuff over, but it still exists in the framework of the wider Star Citizen universe. So it's just a part of our job to help fill it in and add that color where we can.
That Rust Society guide has a pretty extensive Banu language dictionary in there already. It's not completely filled out, but it's become a great resource for us, because as we develop and release more Banu items like knives or weapons or ships, we'll often refer to that dictionary as a source of inspiration for what a name might be or things like that. And that document is extremely long, and a lot of it is cultural, just to give you an idea of who the species is, like Will was saying. And then there are just pages and pages of literal translations, and sometimes going through and just seeing, and this is where Britton's brilliance is, a word, what it's related to or how it ties in there. So that I think gives an insight into the species. So yeah, it's very informative and very interesting.
What the Nine Tails want is a bit unknown at this point. But yeah, there's a portfolio on them, where they started off as a for-hire gang that was out there pulling big jobs in other parts of the UEE, and for some reason decided to settle at Grim HEX station and take it over and take full command of it, and focus all their efforts in and around the Stanton system at this point. So the reason behind that decision, or what's going on with that, is still up in the air, but they're causing a lot of headaches when it comes to the Stanton system in general, because Grim HEX is technically in the control of Crusader, and they don't necessarily have the best security protocols or desire to do it. But with it obviously being a quick QT to any other place in the system, it's easy for them to go hit another planet, hit their infrastructure, hit their shipping lanes, and then just duck back to Grim HEX, where Crusader doesn't seem to want to do a full-on assault on their own, and the other corporate entities in the system don't seem to have the muster to get together to try to take on the problem. And the UEE is like, hey man, we sold you guys this system. It's your job to keep it clean. So the UEE doesn't want to get involved. So they're sitting in this nice little gray zone, just causing trouble for some reason.
And in recent times, the UEE has been approving the CDF, the Civilian Defense Force, to deputize people to help out with the Nine Tails. But that's always kind of a reactionary measure of, this is an immediate threat, so we need all these hands on deck to help deal with that security situation. Whereas the idea of, oh, why don't we stage a massive assault on a full station full of people and evict them, is a different matter entirely. So it's kind of: how do you deal with this known encampment that's at Grim HEX station?
TL;DRTevarin are absent because of staggered development; they're hoped to spread through the UEE once art and design work is done, and Stanton's corporate ownership explains the lack of Tevarin architecture.
This is just part of staggered development, is really the answer. We want to have Tevarin spread throughout the UEE as appropriate, and they'll have bigger enclaves that we've talked about in the lore, and maybe we can dive into those a little bit in a second just for some fun background. Generally, it'll come to pass, like how there were no refineries available for players to see until we added refineries, even though in lore, of course, they were refining stuff all the time. So that's our hope and goal. Down the road, we'll have a quarter where we get art and design, environment art, character art, a bunch of props, different disciplines that have to focus on creating these kinds of elements in order to have the Tevarin in place. And so that's the answer. But they do, there are Tevarin living in the Stanton system anyway.
And with the system too, since it's owned by all these corporate entities, there's no Tevarin architecture, because those entities, these companies, aren't building Tevarin buildings or shrines or anything related directly to that. If you go to Elysium or Branagh or other places like that, where there's going to be more Tevarin enclaves, you might see more Tevarin architectural influence in that way too, not just in them being there, but also maybe their input on stores and different areas, locations like that too.
TL;DRThey want to add alien NPCs, kiosks and signage down the line, depending on development factors; Banu and Xi'an text already exists, Tevarin language is still in development, and a Montreal branding team is being built.
Yeah, it's just the same answer. Like Will said, it depends on a lot of factors related to development and related to the different teams working together to make the best aliens that we can make. But down the line, we really want not just Tevarin and Tawai walking around, but Xi'an and Banu. And Banu kiosks, little stands where Banu are selling things, various Banu and Xi'an signs. Ideally, we would also have Tevarin language signs, although that would be contentious itself within the Tevarin community. Some of them would hate to see stuff in Tevarin language, and some of them would say, no, no, no, it's time for us to embrace the culture that we threw away. And there might be fights over it. Who knows?
And different locations that would embrace those signs too, or want to maybe convert some of the human standard stuff into their language as a way to kind of reclaim their history. So it's a fun little balance for the aliens, for them to have to kind of see that played out through the environment.
Folks are aware of our budding studio up in Montreal with our partners at Turbulent. One of the teams that is currently being built out there right now is a branding team, specifically designed to help unify and explore and exploit all the opportunities for in-game branding. That includes things like graffiti and stuff like that. So I was just talking to them the other day, and they've got their work cut out for them. But when they get up and running, there's going to be a lot more immersive decor to the environments that you see. A lot more branding that seems genuine and in place and proper for the location. I'm excited for it.
Yeah, they were just asking about some Banu language the other day, which I think I pointed them correctly to you, Cherie. Cherie's our in-house xenolinguistic expert, who works with our external xenolinguistic expert. He's our true expert. So for eagle-eyed players out there, there is Banu and Xi'an text already in the game that you can find around our different locations. Do you want to give an example, Cherie, that comes to mind?
Yeah, there was a Luminalia greeting on that cool sweater. It was the fan design sweater last year, wasn't it? We loved that. And we loved how the fan made sure to include accurate Banu text on it. That was a really nice touch.
So it's pretty neat. And then Tevarin, just to clarify, we're still in the process of developing that with Britton. It was a lower priority language because it's not as in active use as Banu and Xi'an were going to be in the game, though it's still coming and we're going to have it.
Oh, yeah. And we're having a lot of interesting discussions about how we're going to develop it. Britton favors a two-pronged approach where he develops the bones of the language as it actually was before the purge, and then he develops a modern version of the language that's mixed with UEE standard to create kind of a newish language, like what happened with English when the French invaded.
Yeah, it's very extra. We love it. Britton takes it next level. I've seen some of the docs. He will send Cherie a doc 100 pages long with questions about a certain species to be like, give me an idea about this. And he's all in and he's very into the details. It's incredible.
TL;DRThey hope to add datapads more frequently and improve how they're read, and eventually bring old dispatches into the game, but give no timing; Kid Crimson's return is left unanswered.
It's something we've been in discussion with for kind of the loot generation system and our ability to kind of include those items with set dressing and have a wide variety of them. It's something that we hope to have coming in greater frequency soon. And we want to improve the interactions with the datapads. Like the recent Siege event, we had those fun datapads that you could find on the lieutenants, which hopefully some of you got to read, because I enjoyed those. But we definitely highlighted some of the current shortcomings with interacting with them, with our inner thought system, so we're looking at improving that and how the messages are delivered. Right now, they're all going into the journal part of the mobiGlas. And so that's kind of an ongoing discussion too. So hopefully there'll be changes and improvements. But yes, we want more. And we also want to go through a backlog and start introducing all the old dispatches into the game as well at some point, so that all the stuff you've been able to read on the site, you'd actually be able to find sprinkled throughout the universe as well.
TL;DRSaddleball is described as very popular across the empire, on a level with football or cricket, with Banu fans too, and branding work may eventually show team jerseys and hats in the stands.
I'll talk about Saddleball. I think Saddleball is very popular. I think it was an early kind of Lore Builders where we went through and broke down a bunch of different divisions and teams and spread them out all across the UEE. So it's empire-wide. We've talked about there being kind of big stadiums all over the place. So it's big enough to support tens of thousands of spectators every day. We've brought the Banu into loving the sport too and being a big fan of it. So it's not only a sport beloved by humans, but also now by Banu. So yeah, I think it's very popular. And I know there's even posters that might be sprinkled in some of the set dressing all over the place. I think it being football, or kind of as popular, I know cricket too has billions and billions of fans all around the world. So I would say in the universe, it's definitely at that level.
And that'll be part of the branding stuff that Nick and his team in Montreal will hopefully help us dive into, what's coming up. Because we have all the teams blocked out. So in the stands, hopefully you'll start seeing people eventually wearing the local teams' jerseys and hats and stuff.
TL;DRYes, religion and spirituality exist among the alien civilizations; the Xi'an practice Litova, centered on understanding time and actions across time, which also ties into meditative states and endurance racing.
Yeah, absolutely. We've put a lot of thought into developing the spirituality of the different alien civilizations. It's my thought that it's difficult to have a civilization without some kind of concept of spirituality or some kind of interest in exploring mysteries, which I think is part of what religion is all about, just exploring and understanding things that you don't understand. But the Xi'an have a really complex code of ethics slash spiritual-ish religion called Litova that's dedicated to the understanding of time, which ties into the understanding of actions across time. Because they live so long, they have firsthand experience about how any tiny decision that you make can have a ripple effect that you haven't foreseen across years. So Litova partially developed out of that, which developed out of the civil war that they had when they accidentally destroyed their planet. Oops. I mean, it's still there. You can't live on it. It's not safe. So one cornerstone of Litova is actions across time, and the other is the exploration of time as a concept. Oh, they also, I think we do this in humans too, the ability to meditate to the point where it feels like time is slowing down, but for them it's a more solid thing. So if they meditate enough, they experience time at a much more different rate than us. So something that sounds like it's really fast to us, to them, when they're in that state, would sound like it's happening very slowly. Hence why Xi'an opera takes so long.
Yeah, I think, Cherie, you're the expert on the Cali-Cola or something, exactly the pronunciation for it. But the idea being that it was an endurance, kind of extreme Le Mans-type race where they're traveling great distances for long periods of time, and the best racers are able to enter the state Cherie was just talking about, as a way to slow down their body functions and be able to travel longer without taking breaks and stuff like that. I know it should be up on the RSI site. There is a portfolio specifically on that race that talks about it and kind of the origins of it, which again ties into all that. So among the Xi'an, being a racer who can do this, who can find that state, makes you revered within the culture. So it ties in with that also.