 November 30, 2011 - 7:40am | Found this old page through an internet archive: http://web.archive.org/web/20080829132011/http://www.xmission.com/~layne/adv/43Bro.html The author wrote a little story to introduce details about Exib, the Flit tail or dzelt, the Medib (sting fly) and the Mulkis large herbivore. Not sure I like the presentation of the story with the disjointed dialog but I do appreciate the way the author has painted nice picture of life on Exib. Lacking any concrete cannon material detailing Exib and being an idea whole I see no reason to use this material wholesale. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 30, 2011 - 8:20am | Interesting details: Yazirian miners can come down with Blue Lung and be forced to retire from mining. Yazirian farmers on Exib raise gett-hens, a 4 legged bird that lays eggs, with enough gett-hens and a small garden you can keep a family fed. A favorite pastime of young yazirians is chasing the gett-hens around the farm yard but this runs the fat off them and leads to discipline. Killing a dxelt is a supersticious thing on Exib. like breaking a mirror or letting a black cat cross your path. khad'dan- something yazirian and probably traditional that was returned to the family of a dead yazirian. Milo's Disease is carried by Medib (sting flies) only affects yazirians- loss of 1/2 DEX and spikeing feavors. disease incubates for 1d10 days. Treated with Haltine the disease is incurrable. Haltine must be administered daily or symptoms return. Mulkis produce violet milk known as mulk, it is used as a beverage and a fine purple hued cheese is produced from it. Grape-corn feilds are a favorite treat of the mulkis. there were no higher carnivores to prey on the mulkis. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 30, 2011 - 8:19am | What can be extrapolated from the above: 1. Mining and Blue Lung- where would such mining go on? in Yazirian space are a moon in the Scree Fron system, and on Hargut, Garuna Garu system. This is not to say that the mining was not going on somewhere else, but I figured that local culprits should be examined first. Since the grandfather in the story retired from mining and went into part time farming I'm assuming that the lighter gravity of Exib was more conducive to his condition. Since he retains strength and the children could not pin him in wrestling I'm betting it was in mining on Hargut with its higher gravity over years spent mining on a moon with lower gravity and predictable results to muscle mass. So I would make Blue Lung a condition aflicting miners on Hargut. 2. With purple milk and "grape-corn" I would expect that there is something in the environment on Exib leading to the color purple in food products. Not sure what that could be and no doubt there are a variety of possibilities. However, what we can extrapolate is the presence of purple bread, and or a grits/oat meal like gruel that is probably purple. Only name that comes to mind right now is Pruel for purple gruel. Exports from EXib are grape-corn meal, mulkis cheese, meat- from the mulkis and the gett-hens. Pet trade: dzelts (flit tails) can they survive off planet? can they eat other bugs? Neccessary to take precautions against the sting fly when visiting EXib. Hotels would be sealed against the fly. and things like bee keeper hats and gloves would be needed for sleeping outside exposed. Likely exports from Exib ship direct since lift off from the moon must be much cheaper then from Yast. any product sent to Yast would be sold there not reshipped out system. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 30, 2011 - 9:06am | Looking at this setting material and Shadow Shack's Yazirian Clan article from SFman #8 First off I Just noticed something: the Hentz, Hargut and Hakosar lineages are all tied to a specific planet but Athor lineages is tied to a system- likely just an oversite but I would interpret that to mean that the listed lineages for Athor apply to both Yast and Exib. Secondly since we have in the above cited story a miner retiring with the Blue Lung condition and taking up farming on Exib it could be that this is a somewhat common occurance. So it might not be unusual for yazirians with Hargut lineages to resettle on Exib for much the same reason as the grandfather in the story. So I would modify the clan table for Athor when a yazirian comes form Exib so that the last item on the table would no longer be 81-00 "No Tracable clan" to be 81-90 Roll on Hargut table and 91-00 "no tracable clan". Looking at particular Athor Clans: Ophiria: Clan symbol is an embalmed insect worn around the neck- for Ophiria clan members on Exib with would be the Medib (sting fly) and since they are adept outdoorsman they very likely keep a dzelt pet or know a recipe for sting fly repellant. Pasamorian Clan symbol is a feather necklace worn around the neck- on Exib its likely they are feathers from a gett-hen and the yazirian had to run this hen down himself, as well as kill, cook and eat it. New Clan: Slo-Nack This clan developed on Exib and has evolved a 80% immunity to Milo's Disease. Clan symbol is a medalion with a dzelt on it. Those from the clan without full immunity suffer only half effects from Milo's Disease and all clan members have a powerful resistence against infections of all sorts- +10% to all rolls to resist an infection or to be cured of one. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 30, 2011 - 8:57am | Consulting the rule books: there is no space station in this system and no formal militia. No space station leads me to wonder if Exib would function as a warehouse for products from Yast? Or perhaps cargos are sent into orbit and tugs collect them and lash them together till they are turned over to a freighter. Secondly the no militia issue leads me to think that the population of Athor is susceptable to bulling from Hentz and the Family of One. If the Fo1 gets away with throwing its weight around in this system, and that is likely since Athor functions as the gateway between Yazirian space and the rest of the Frontier, then Athor would quite naturally be a hot bed of simmering dissent against the Fo1. Balorite Religious practice would be an open secret on Yast but the importation of wyvoles to Exib would be problem matic as the wyvole is a predator and the Mulkis is a seriously dumn animal, far more likely that miniature wyvoles are present on Exib and a full size wyvole will only be imported for sacrifice at a specific religious ritual but this wont be common knowledge lest the F01 be forced to take action against the banned practice. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 30, 2011 - 9:00am | Adventures on EXib A farming moon seems like a placid place to visit. It does not even have large predators. So any action here must derive from inter clan or religious conflict. Ie drama must be arising from the cast of characters involved. Thus using Exib as a setting locale means delving into yazirian heritage and culture. Perhaps a yazirian civil war where the various colonies tell Hentz and the Fo1 to stuff it. This will of course lead to some inter clan fighting on some yazirian colonies. All of the above detail makes Exib ripe to write a mini adventure. Perhaps a young farm pup becomes involved with a crazy old priest name Obi Wan K'yazbie and they both get caught up in events larger then themselves and end up going off to fight for the Rebellion. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 30, 2011 - 9:05am | Note RE Clan Structure discussion in the Core Four Project: Yazirians relocating to Exib "for their health" would be cut off from traditional clan structure and would have small groupings that look more like an extended family then the typical Yazirian Clan. The oldest would likely be honored as a clan leader and each group would do its best to keep up traditions. There would be a high rate of slippage in the area of tradition for such groups and these groups would produce yazirians that tend to be more open minded. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 4, 2011 - 8:11am | Need a gravity for the moon. Anyone have a idea what might be reasonable? Secondly, I'm going to speculate that the air pressure is lower than sea level on an Earth size world. Perhaps that is a feature that makes it desirable for a yazirian suffering from Blue Lung to move here? Major problem is the interplay between gravity trying to hold an atmosphere and the radiation from the star stripping it. Possible that since the Fo1 and its church owned mega corp are into terraforming that they have atmosphere plants generating atmosphere and have reached a state of equillibrium where the output of the plants equals what is lost due to solar radiation. Note to self: dont forget to write in a Khad'dan Smith into the setting RE: http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/5902 I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 6, 2011 - 2:43am | Government of Exib: like Yast the recognized clans living on Exib form a Clan Council and elect a speaker from among their number. many of the founding clans on EXib came from Yast so that a few of the power broker clans on Exib actually span both the moon and the planet. Some that are no longer officially part of the clan on Yast still have close ties to their parent clan on Yast. Exib has seen a large influx of yazirians from Hargut (the lower air pressure on Exib is condusive to yazirians suffering from Blue Lung from having worked in the mines on Hargut). Consequently Exib is not quite as traditional as Yast and quite a bit more accepting of the Fo1 as well. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 6, 2011 - 6:10pm | Since Yast is a terrestrial planet, I don't think it's possible to make Exib large enough to retain an atmosphere on it's own. Mostly likely any moon of a planet that is colonized will be either some sort of subsurface colony or domed if on the surface. To hold an atmosphere you have to contain it in something. I'd have to do some math to figure out what the loss time is for an atmophere around a moon sized body. It might be possible to "manufacture" an atmosphere fast enough to keep it around the moon. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
December 7, 2011 - 5:06am | Since Yast is a terrestrial planet, I don't think it's possible to make Exib large enough to retain an atmosphere on it's own. Mostly likely any moon of a planet that is colonized will be either some sort of subsurface colony or domed if on the surface. To hold an atmosphere you have to contain it in something.
Would it be possible to have two terrestrial bodies orbiting a Barry center?I'd have to do some math to figure out what the loss time is for an atmophere around a moon sized body. It might be possible to "manufacture" an atmosphere fast enough to keep it around the moon. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 7, 2011 - 3:27pm | Is it dynamically stable? Yes, you could set it up to make it work. Technically Pluto and Charon are this type of system as their barycenter is outside of Pluto's radius so they are a double planet system. The Earth and the Moon are almost but the barycenter is about 1000 km below the surface of the Earth so it still counts as a planet/moon system. However, having it occur naturally is a much harder prospect, especially with two bodies big enough to have gravities in the 0.7 to 1.0 range. Remember Pluto is smaller (by about a factor of 2 in diameter) than our moon and Charon is half Pluto's size. To have a 1.0g and 0.7g double planet system you're talking about something the size of the Earth and a second object almost the size of Venus (0.9g surface gravity, Mars is 0.33g). It is very, very unlikely that there was enough mass in the inner part of the system when the planets were forming to get two objects that mass in the same orbit. Such a system probably had to occur due to collisions and multi-body encounters. So it's possible, just very, very, very, very improbable. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
December 7, 2011 - 5:30pm | Ok, Tom, this probably doesn't help much but perhaps we can tone down the gravity for the moon to .5- I believe that is the lowest gravity for a planet in the astro catalog for the game. No doubt with that gravity yazirians love the planet for gliding. I'm unsure about tidal lock issues would that come into play here? or will both planets continue to spin? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
