22 Lage 4385: Poll!

[rowyn]

Since Voidsy suggested I ask you about yourselves, I put together a poll! Please let me know who you are.

[Poll #1585396]

Thank you so much for filling me in!

[[ OOC Edit: I'll be perfectly happy to write Delight chatting with people from other fictional universes unrelated to Earth or World Tree. So if you want to RP someone from a different setting talking to her, feel free. :) ]]

Comments

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Extradimensional only sapient on world. Prime by default, or nonprime, depending on who you talk to -- many world tree folk would say just cause we're the only sapients, doesn't mean we are PRIME equivalents.

Human, also called Homo Sapiens.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Sapiens

Hope that works, that's kind of made for someone with a grounding in our natural sciences though.

Also the interface in which I see your scroll is not a scroll on my end, it's, um, kind of an illusidor display, but built as a machine and not with magic.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Uh, sorry, member of the only current living sapient SPECIES on this world. Using a base ten numbering system, there are about 6,700,000,000 humans on this world.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

*does some quick calculations*

Primes live at least 50,000 miles down each branch and 20 branches down -- probably farther. They've got cities -- tiny cities, with like 20,000 people -- roughly every 20 miles along the branches, and branches themselves branch out.

This means there are probably quadrillions of primes on the world tree. But it could be as few as hundreds of billions, if the sub-branches aren't very common.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Also, Terry, humans aren't boring! They have some pretty interesting abilities that nothing else in the world does, including:

-Being able to run RIDICULOUSLY far, at a reasonable pace
-Being able to manage drastic changes in temperature and environment (think of going from a sweltering summer heat to a very very cool car (think of a self moving carriage which often has passenger cooling, Delight.) without getting sick) which few creatures can do from moment to moment really well
-Adapting to extended exertion in very hot weather quite well.

True, nothing as "sexy" as claws or sharp teeth or a tail that serves as a rudder, but not bad, considering there is no obvious magic use in this world!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Hundreds of billions that sounds like a LOT I think you may be overestimating branch density or expansion? There are cities 50,000 miles along Choinxeia but I don't think every branch has built out nearly that far. The lower branches aren't that long even.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

They aren't? I thought the lower branches were longer and wider since they're older, and the tree grows up. Shouldn't Choinxeia and company be the shortest and thinnest branches on the tree?

Aside from the new ones above them that haven't even started growing yet of course.

Hundreds of billions assumes no one lives except in cities and that no one ever colonized a side branch. That's why it's the low estimate. When you add in non-prime sapients, which seem to already live everywhere that the primes haven't been yet, the world tree is a truly insanely ludicrous concentration of life and intelligence on a relatively small world.

Why do you think extradimensional monsters always want to conquer it?

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Hee that's good you'd be very very lonely if you were the ONLY sapient!

Your people have very flat faces! At least you're not as funny-looking as a Khtsoyis though.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Why thank you! One thing I did read about though, the flat faces let us say sounds that are hard for many Primes to say, supposedly. Anyway, the reason I, for example, have a flat face is that a very very very very very long time ago (like hundreds of thousands of years), a group of my ancestors had a flatter face and some other useful features, so that helped them survive and pass on those traits to their kids, and so on and so on.

If you want to read more about this process, and where we came from, and probably be very confused, go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution

Of course, the process of evolution MIGHT be going on in the World Tree, but if so, the changes would be tiny compared to the change of say, a god deciding they wanted the next generation of their favorite monster looking and acting very different than any before (Yes, I am thinking of Vae), and it therefore wouldn't be the most useful tool to understand the processes of life changing in your world, even if it does happen to also be true. Of course, if the gods decided to play hands off on the actively changing species thing for, ohh, two hundred thousand years or so, some very noticeable changes might happen anyway.

[zeeth_kyrah]

Only proven sapient. If you're devising the test for sapience, but dealing with a superiority complex, then other species passing the test is meaningless.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

How do your people test for sapience? Here it's mainly whether or not they can at least speak Common like they understand language and aren't just repeating a few words that are useful to them the way say inkutta do. Even Scawn can communicate more than "Play nice!" and "Ball!"

But it is kind of a sliding scale sometimes it's hard to tell just how smart monsters are.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

It's... really hard. We don't have a "Common". Again, not an obviously-god-designed world! Here, these are some of the animals we think are particularly smart, in general:








So! You have your first image that shows you a picture that stretches all to the horizon, of my not-tree-based-world, a picture that shows a horizon made of an ocean of saltwater, nonetheless! What do you think?

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Isn't that just a lake? Your sky looks very boring!

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Nope, it's not just a lake. Our world is a sphere, with most of it's surface, about 7/10 of it, covered in saltwater, with continents of land. The funny thing about it, is that "down" is toward the center of the sphere, so no matter where you are standing on the surface, your feet are firmly on the ground, and the sky is above you. And there are things in the sky -- clouds, birds, vehicles.... and far far away, there is our local sun (we only have one, and it is built differently than yours), and at night you can see all the stars, which are much much much further suns. Even 'night' is simply, "when the sphere of our world, which happens to be spinning, is pointed away from the sun." -- and our sun is always on too, and always shining on half of the earth, so it doesn't need to be turned off and on. Anyway, the sphere is sooo big, you can't tell it is a sphere from that angle, you have to go much further up from the surface to see any curve at all, and then you see only the slightest curve. Here is a picture of it as seen from the nearest celestial body, our moon.



And here are some pretty pictures of it, from less far away, but still REALLY far away.


and

and


And remember the scale here -- 6.7 billion people live on the surface of Earth, or Terra, so it is REALLY REALLY REALLY big.

And, yes, you can see lots of things in the sky, even from the ground... here is an example, as seen at night, using a few but not too many special tools:

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh that's a very funny shape for a world it looks like a lot of space for Verticals and Underneath! The sky is pretty in the last one though.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Remember, there is no verticals or underneath -- the "top" is all of the surface! There are places that are very very cold and that people usually don't go unless it is to study the things that live in the cold though. Like I said, gravity points toward the center of the world!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

So ... the people Underneath and in the Verticals think they're on the Flats too?

That is SO COOL! It's just like something "Here" would make!

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

They don't just THINK they are on the flats, for all intents and purposes, they ARE on the flats! Really! The whole place is flats! That's how it works. When the whole thing is a sphere, and down is always 'toward the center of the sphere', is it really worthwhile to think of the place as having verticals or flats at all? especially if the sun shines on pretty much everything?

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Right that's what makes it AWESOME!

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Okay, just making sure you understood that we didn't have verticals or underneaths, you implied that you didn't quite 'get' that earlier...

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

verticals or *underneaths, rather

More interesting sky

[eileenlufkin.livejournal.com]

My default user picture is a sunset seen through an ocean wave.

Re: More interesting sky

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

That's a very pretty picture!

Re: More interesting sky

[eileenlufkin.livejournal.com]

And this is a picture of me.

Re: More interesting sky

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Oh neat you look like you're the same species as vik_thor except your face is all bald and not just mostly bald not it's very interesting.

Re: More interesting sky

[eileenlufkin.livejournal.com]

Yes, human, the same species as vik_thor and gavinfox. I do have some hair on my face, but it's very short and light. I found another picture of sunset: but I'm too tired to figure out what I'm doing wrong with the extra step to add pictures to a comment so never mind. Sorry.

Re: More interesting sky

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

It's okay I can see it ...

... oh wow that's your world. Going into shadow. Its own shadow.

Wow.

[zeeth_kyrah]

We don't have a standard test. Most of the creatures on this world make entirely different sounds from each other, so any language but their own can be hard for them to speak. Some have learned to make hand signs, and some have learned to speak words; those who have learned have been able to express themselves.

But to pass a test for sapience, one first must decide where to draw the line. What makes a creature sapient vs sentient? If you draw the line too high, only a very few will ever pass the test; if you draw the line in the shape of only one thing, then those with a different shape won't fit.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

*Looks at Sythyry's answer to why zie is reading your scroll* Ahh I think the lizard is teasing you, Delight-in-Justice!

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

*giggles* Maybe zie is! Maybe "Here" wants me to be able to talk to Sythyrs! Or maybe the scroll will help hCevian somehow!

Or maybe Sythyrs is just being Zi-Ri-ly mysterious.

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

I daresay you could probably just read zir journal and get a good idea of how much of that mysteriousness is an act! =)

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Oh, I might be able to maybemaybemaybe get some folk from other worlds to talk to you. Though it'd be, um, kind of like, uh, Channeling them? it would be a very limited sort of interaction, they would have to be using an interface that is familiar to me, and they wouldn't know about *me*. Also it's kind of one of those things that can't be proven that they are real or not. at least not by folk in my world. So it could just be me being crazy. On the other hand, it might let you talk to other folk via me!

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

I mean an interface that is familiar to them, like your scroll is to you. and by channeling it's kind of I go do...something... and ask them your questions in a way they understand. And I would like it if they don't necessarily know about me, cause that would really complicate things.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh would that be like what happens with terrycloth and the way that name isn't always the same person (and is sometimes a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE MONSTER?)

...

I don't want to talk to any more horrible horrible monsters one is too much but if there are nice friendly ones you know that'd be neat!

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Trust me, I don't like using, or even ALLOWING, my resources to find horrible horrible monsters. Apparently Terrycloth either can't prevent it or isn't willing to for some reason. Hmmmph! He should take more care, in my opinion! But yea, I should be able to find someone who is somewhat friendly and not too monstrous for you to talk to!

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

Uhm. Hmmm. I found one. This PERSON is very much not evil, and very much wants to make a useful helpful place in society, but many in her world treats her race, well, like Scawn or Blee, maybe. She's embarrassed about the whole affair, but her particular tribe has been very much 'uplifted' into appropriate behavior, ethics, goodness, and morals over the past two hundred years or so. Maybe 'as civilized and ethical as the best Taptet' would be an appropriate way to describe her home culture? I'm not quite sure. Is that too monstrous for you?