Subset Games Forum

Let's flesh out the universe a little.

What do you think the Humans, Slug, Zoltan, Mantis, Rocks, and Engi do on their home planets or ships when they aren't fleeing from pirates, being pirates themselves, or just cruising the galaxy?

Mantis have an extensive interpretive-dance-and-epic-poetry culture on their home planet. What better way to have everyone remember epic battles of the past? These energetic dances resemble the "haka" performed by the Maori people (and, more recently, the New Zealand rugby teams). Mantis can't sing though. Their clicking, gurgling mandibles aren't really built for it.

Slugs have a very simple, basic "native language" since a lot of their communication is telepathic. Their language has become more complex lately, however, due to spreading across the galaxies and needing to explain just HOW good a deal he's offering you really is.

Engi don't have a digestive system or lungs, per se. They absorb oxygen and nourishment through their skin. They also have slightly amorphous bodies and will sometimes form temporary "mouths" underneath their bioluminescent green faces to speak. Also, speaking of their faces, they're some sort of odd organic computer monitor.

Well this is a new perspective. I always veiwed slugs as intulectuals......

Although I am highly influenced by metroid, wouldn't the rockmen sortof look like this. http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2 ... Spire2.jpg

Ora_unit_SR388 wrote:Well this is a new perspective. I always veiwed slugs as intulectuals......

Although I am highly influenced by metroid, wouldn't the rockmen sortof look like this. http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2 ... Spire2.jpg

I never said Slugs were dim, I just said that their "spoken language" is fairly simple because most, if not all Slug-to-Slug communication is telepathic. If you could simply beam images and other such things into another person's head, and have them beam a reply back, would YOU bother learning spoken language?

Anybody else...?

I would think the Slugs would have an enormous language because of their telepathy. They don't have to speak to communicate, but they still have to describe various thoughts, emotions or actions. If they can sense more, that would make their language greater.

As for Engi, they're robotic not semi-organic so they would not have any features comparable to other species except for limbs and power source/fuel dependancy. Given that they're good with nano-technology, they could really be any shape. There's no lore about them being created by another race, but it's possible that's how they came to be. Maybe they are all that's left of a race that died out but passed it's knowledge into thinking machines.

Though by no means official, some FTL lore was created during the sessions of FTLOnline role-play, now semi-defunct. Since going through the motions of "straight" beacon visits or combat would get kinda dull and repetitive, players often expanded on the scene and characterised various participating individuals. Be they Rebels, Engi, Zoltan or Slugs, their backgrounds and physical/personal traits were created or fleshed out in more detail. Do male Slugs really secret more slime? Should Engi eye color changes make you nervous? What exactly are the limits of Zoltan energy-bending abilities? Are all Rockmen rednecks, or just these two? Does furniture talk? And why are Door Control system prone to so much malfunction in any sci-fi setting?

Who knows It was based on the FTL universe without straying too far off into the unknown. It's made up lore, but quite good lore nonetheless. Not a bad read either.