![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
herewiss13You know you're going to have a day when you get up, bike to work and are about to log into your computer when you finally discover that your shirt is on inside out.
*sigh*
So the whole premise of The Psi-Lords of Darwin (well, one major, shallow premise) is "Big Fierce Monsters" And since the technology of Darwin doesn't include gunpowder, the typical science fiction answer to "Big Fierce Monsters" (i.e. "Big Shiny Guns") isn't available. If you're a human living among dinosaurs, even a human with big psychic powers, you're still going to have to think about how you go about _fighting_ those dinosaurs. What can one man do against a T-rex?
Another way to think about the problem is this: the most basal predator in the Darwin food-chain, the jackal analog, is going to be built like a rabid grizzly...possibly with armor plating. The typical fantasy answer to such a creature would be to whack it with your sword. The real-world consequence of such an action would be that your sword would bounce off it's thick skull (and/or leave a superficial gash), the charging animal would then knock you down and procede to eat your face. Not an optimal out-come.
Spears are the weapons most generally indicated for grizzlies (if any non-powered weapon can truly be called such), but they tend to be unwieldy and of limited use. A spear is the best you can hope for against a grizzly, but it isn't a sure-fire kill. Against anything larger than that, you might as well be shaking a toothpick. The sort of pike you'd need to withstand a tricertops just isn't transportable/deployable in the jungle.
As for conventional projectiles, arrows just aren't going to cut it. Even if you can bury the entire shaft in the body of the beast, it's just a thin little arrow...and most of most bodies will have bone in the way. A shot through the eye into the brain would do the trick...but that's a pretty tough shot and not every critter is going to have eye and brain in such conveniently close proximity. In some instances, a poison arrow might work. However, a lot of beasts are going to be very resistant to toxins and anything potent enough to kill a toxin resistant animal is probably going to spoil the meat. Not so important with grizzlies, perhaps. But if you're going out in search of a bronto-burger...
Crossbows would be just as bad, with a slower load time to boot.
So the question shifts to become something more like: _can_ things be arranged so that a person, with a sword, is able to defeat a grizzly...or a triceratops...or whatever.
When you've formatted the question like that, it gets a little easier to organize the issue. The grizzly, etc. has a variety of advantages. In order to give the swordsman a fighting chance, each must be countered.
1.Momentum.
It's not just that the grizzly is big, or that it's fast. It's that it's big _and_ fast and coming directly at you. Even with you in plate armor, the grizzly is still going to rear up and knock you ass-over-teakettle if you stand there waiting to swing.
The answer? Don't be there. Duck, swerve, come from the back and sides. Very easy to say, much harder to do. Not something _we_ could do, certainly. Good thing we're not talking about a normal H. sapiens, but rather H. sapiens darwinii.
The key to a "psi-lord's" survival (and I _am_ using the term as a placeholder, trust me) is his "othersenses" (which I can now not remember if I've written about on LJ before or not). Clarivoyance, clariaudience, etc. are the most basic of psi talents and have the most universal distribution. The total package combines to create a kinesthetic awareness (the sort of awareness of your body that allows you to reliably touch your finger to your nose even in pitch darkness) that extends outwards for several feet, or even meters.
If you are aware of the grizzly's movement at an instinctual level, from the _moment_ it starts to move...then you have a much better shot of getting out of the way. Several millenia of ancestors who've managed to do the same wouldn't hurt either. Neither would a touch of precognition...a talent found sparingly in the gene pool at any strength, but might be wide-spread at a level weak enough to be mistaken for really _good_ situational awareness.
This takes care of the most important part: keeping the grizzly from eating your face. And it has wider applicability too. Psi-Lords stay alive by being _really_ good at playing "Toreador" with whatever crosses their path. Something like a T-rex might be harder to side-step, given its size, but that same situational awareness makes going _between_ the legs easier too, etc. etc.
This takes us to the next issue:
2. Doing Damage.
A grizzly bear is an incredibly tough animal. Lewis & Clark, for example, record firing multiple rifle shots into charging animals without even slowing it down. Unless you're incredibly lucky and/or incredibly strong, killing one with an edged weapon is going to take some doing...especially since you're having to dodge single-kill swipes of its massive paws at the same time. Real World people have killed grizzlies and even elephants before with spears and other bladed weapons, but you have to remember...grizzlies would be among the _weakest_ members of the Darwin ecosystem. If you can't deal with them reliably and with dispatch, you might as well stay home (although you're still going to have trouble with the cockroach analogs then).
So again, we ask: what does a Psi-Lord bring to the table that a normal human doesn't?
Actually, this is the easier question to answer. Just pick any one of your favorite cartoon shows featuring an ecclectic group of heroes battling evil and you can find a solution. Some use fire to increase the damage they inflict, some telekinetically increase the sharpness of their blades, which would allow them to slice through bone with ease. Some just focus extra kinetic energy into their blows, knocking the grizzly around as if it were being hit by a wrecking ball. The permuations are endless. And even the weakest should be able to dodge long enough to hamstring the beast. A hamstrung grizzly is just a very angry lump.
There is a large variety of creatures on Darwin and every one is different, but using good tactics along with being extra nimble and dealing extra damage is what gives the Psi-Lords their edge...especially given that they're lacking everything else.
The reason they don't just wave their hands and cause the monsters to explode with the power of their minds is another issue with both narrative and techno-babble explanations...but that'll have to wait for another day.
*sigh*
So the whole premise of The Psi-Lords of Darwin (well, one major, shallow premise) is "Big Fierce Monsters" And since the technology of Darwin doesn't include gunpowder, the typical science fiction answer to "Big Fierce Monsters" (i.e. "Big Shiny Guns") isn't available. If you're a human living among dinosaurs, even a human with big psychic powers, you're still going to have to think about how you go about _fighting_ those dinosaurs. What can one man do against a T-rex?
Another way to think about the problem is this: the most basal predator in the Darwin food-chain, the jackal analog, is going to be built like a rabid grizzly...possibly with armor plating. The typical fantasy answer to such a creature would be to whack it with your sword. The real-world consequence of such an action would be that your sword would bounce off it's thick skull (and/or leave a superficial gash), the charging animal would then knock you down and procede to eat your face. Not an optimal out-come.
Spears are the weapons most generally indicated for grizzlies (if any non-powered weapon can truly be called such), but they tend to be unwieldy and of limited use. A spear is the best you can hope for against a grizzly, but it isn't a sure-fire kill. Against anything larger than that, you might as well be shaking a toothpick. The sort of pike you'd need to withstand a tricertops just isn't transportable/deployable in the jungle.
As for conventional projectiles, arrows just aren't going to cut it. Even if you can bury the entire shaft in the body of the beast, it's just a thin little arrow...and most of most bodies will have bone in the way. A shot through the eye into the brain would do the trick...but that's a pretty tough shot and not every critter is going to have eye and brain in such conveniently close proximity. In some instances, a poison arrow might work. However, a lot of beasts are going to be very resistant to toxins and anything potent enough to kill a toxin resistant animal is probably going to spoil the meat. Not so important with grizzlies, perhaps. But if you're going out in search of a bronto-burger...
Crossbows would be just as bad, with a slower load time to boot.
So the question shifts to become something more like: _can_ things be arranged so that a person, with a sword, is able to defeat a grizzly...or a triceratops...or whatever.
When you've formatted the question like that, it gets a little easier to organize the issue. The grizzly, etc. has a variety of advantages. In order to give the swordsman a fighting chance, each must be countered.
1.Momentum.
It's not just that the grizzly is big, or that it's fast. It's that it's big _and_ fast and coming directly at you. Even with you in plate armor, the grizzly is still going to rear up and knock you ass-over-teakettle if you stand there waiting to swing.
The answer? Don't be there. Duck, swerve, come from the back and sides. Very easy to say, much harder to do. Not something _we_ could do, certainly. Good thing we're not talking about a normal H. sapiens, but rather H. sapiens darwinii.
The key to a "psi-lord's" survival (and I _am_ using the term as a placeholder, trust me) is his "othersenses" (which I can now not remember if I've written about on LJ before or not). Clarivoyance, clariaudience, etc. are the most basic of psi talents and have the most universal distribution. The total package combines to create a kinesthetic awareness (the sort of awareness of your body that allows you to reliably touch your finger to your nose even in pitch darkness) that extends outwards for several feet, or even meters.
If you are aware of the grizzly's movement at an instinctual level, from the _moment_ it starts to move...then you have a much better shot of getting out of the way. Several millenia of ancestors who've managed to do the same wouldn't hurt either. Neither would a touch of precognition...a talent found sparingly in the gene pool at any strength, but might be wide-spread at a level weak enough to be mistaken for really _good_ situational awareness.
This takes care of the most important part: keeping the grizzly from eating your face. And it has wider applicability too. Psi-Lords stay alive by being _really_ good at playing "Toreador" with whatever crosses their path. Something like a T-rex might be harder to side-step, given its size, but that same situational awareness makes going _between_ the legs easier too, etc. etc.
This takes us to the next issue:
2. Doing Damage.
A grizzly bear is an incredibly tough animal. Lewis & Clark, for example, record firing multiple rifle shots into charging animals without even slowing it down. Unless you're incredibly lucky and/or incredibly strong, killing one with an edged weapon is going to take some doing...especially since you're having to dodge single-kill swipes of its massive paws at the same time. Real World people have killed grizzlies and even elephants before with spears and other bladed weapons, but you have to remember...grizzlies would be among the _weakest_ members of the Darwin ecosystem. If you can't deal with them reliably and with dispatch, you might as well stay home (although you're still going to have trouble with the cockroach analogs then).
So again, we ask: what does a Psi-Lord bring to the table that a normal human doesn't?
Actually, this is the easier question to answer. Just pick any one of your favorite cartoon shows featuring an ecclectic group of heroes battling evil and you can find a solution. Some use fire to increase the damage they inflict, some telekinetically increase the sharpness of their blades, which would allow them to slice through bone with ease. Some just focus extra kinetic energy into their blows, knocking the grizzly around as if it were being hit by a wrecking ball. The permuations are endless. And even the weakest should be able to dodge long enough to hamstring the beast. A hamstrung grizzly is just a very angry lump.
There is a large variety of creatures on Darwin and every one is different, but using good tactics along with being extra nimble and dealing extra damage is what gives the Psi-Lords their edge...especially given that they're lacking everything else.
The reason they don't just wave their hands and cause the monsters to explode with the power of their minds is another issue with both narrative and techno-babble explanations...but that'll have to wait for another day.
