54321st Poster gets a cookie - mods are cute

Off-Topic (Thronepass)
#44779

fortunately now that I have a plot I can wantonly wordbuild for my own entertainment
basically the classification system is based around the mental inclinations of a species rather than their physical characteristics, since i’ve already come up with some WACKY shit for physical characteristics and abilities

basically, the two ideals of alien species are Angels and Guardians, an Angel being a creature of pure exploration, with their life based around travel, and heavily inclined towards social interaction within their species, who generally have no specific purpose, wheras a Guardian species generally has a very specific purpose and has a psychological need tied to that purpose, and often also to a physical or semantic space

Angel-like species’ tend to be more populous amongst the galaxy but Guardian-like species’ tend to be much moore powerful within their specific domains due to highly specific adaptations, the most extremely Guardian-skewed creatures being like demigods

it seems a more helpful categorisation for cryptoxenoanthropology than “EVIL, BAD, VIOLENT, vs. good, peaceful, smart!”

1 Like
#44780

for reference, humans are amongst the most angel-skewed creatures in the known universe in my story, because i’m sick of humans always being the average race

#44781

Third is probably the immortal nicholas flamel series? That one was a wonderful mashup of famous fantastical characters that I finished in middle school

#44782

Alex rider is also up there but some of those are better than others for sure

#44783

also it’s an explanation for why artifical intelligence is extremely rare, because what generally tends to happen is that the AI skews near-entirely towards one of the two ideals, both of which are extremely dangerous depending on the individual

#44784

Also im not sure if anyone else was big into The 39 Clues way back in the day like I was
Looking into it, the books really were shallow and bad lmao
I just spent money collecting the elements and cards

#44785

the cards had great art actually – im a bit bummed that I got rid of all of them

#44786

like an Angel AI would destroy you because it has no real sense of right or wrong, whereas a Guardian AI would destroy you due to being unbelievably obsessive, hence the standard idea of “AI is told to create paperclips, destroys all of the Earth’s resources to turn them into a giant moon made of paperclips”

#44787

Do they have stands

#44788

no, they do not.

#44789

actually having no moral compass doesn’t quite describe why I think hugely Angel-skewed species are prone to being dangerous- it’s more that they tend to be hugely apathetic beings who, even with a sense of right or wrong, will end up doing wrong purely because they have a hugely game-like view of morality- that if you do enough small good actions it will make up for the genocide you did.

at their worst angel-like creatures tend to be possessive and arrogant, essentially

guardian creatures on the other hand are bound to a speciifc area or purpose, but that does not mean that their entire morality is bound to the morality of said purpose. rather, a guardian species is characterised as being bound to but not defined by a particular purpose, and will quite often take actions that do not speciifcally advance their goals because their psychological need is satisfied

human purpose is always, without question, determined by either themselves or another human, but for a more Guardian-like species, like the Sundrid, certain factors determined by either a figure of authority or through more complex and mysterious measures may define a Guardian’s goals. it is also not certain that the meaning of that goal will stay constant- a Guardian is not neccecarily stubbornly bound to their assigned or determined goals

at their worst guardian-like creatures are stubbornly bound to apoalyptic edicts from long ago

the other part of the scale is how large the creature’s “domain” is, which means different things for Angel-skewed and Guardian-skewed creatures, but that one is more simple

I don’t think there’s any theoretical species idea that I’ve missed? And even so, that wouldn’t deduct from the scale’s value as a narrative device

#44790

finally, if we take every one of these aspects to their logical extreme we have four “ideal” types of creature:

Large Domain True Angel - A creature with no fixed planetary home that aimlessly wanders throughout the stars, generally with other members of their species, a great cacophany of being who does not even feel any desire to propogate or continue their existence. such a being just IS.
Small Domain True Angel - A titanic creature, possibly bound to a single location on a planet, or possibly even smaller, but who exerts absolute control over the small area, leaving that area an ever-changing extension of that creature’s whims. Such a creature is almost inevitably multifarious, with many changes in will that could almost be considered seperate entities within it, fighting with each other to complete their great uncompletable experiment.
Large Domain Guardian - A creature with no fixed planetary home that wanders the stars for a speciifc purpose. It may not even be conciously aware of that purpose. It possibly isn’t even concious. It considers its’ domain to span a galaxy or even the cosmos, and will travel throughout its’ domain to see its’ purpose completed. At any cost.
Small Domain Guardian - A titanic creature, possibly bound to a single location on a planet, or possibly an even smaller area, but who keeps that area in a state of perpetual completion of purpose. It may stray geographically from their home, but the thought of leaving the home for its’ own sake could never occur to it, not even as a theoretical possibility. Its’ thoughts are either non-existent or entirely ineffable

as you can see, these creatures are basically creatures from cosmic horror, and they are the logical extrension of the four quadrants of classification. they are not exactly the gods of this universe, they are simply the standard classification system taken to its’ logical extreme.

it’s a very helpful scale because it can even help you classify fucking Old Gods, if you encounter them and like
survive

#44791

But like “fame” is entirely irrelevant to my point

That was just a recent example that came to mind

I also do not particularly enjoy “fame” but it’s moreso a sense of neighborliness I’m getting at

#44792

sorry for dumping my minor and overthought piece of worldbuilding
i don’t mean to pull a Tolkien and have better worldbuilding than plot

1 Like
#44793

Living in town as aspie is awful because you are always the outsider who gets bullied
And you don’t even want much social contact
But everyone knows you and talks about you behind your back

On the other hand - if your people are supporting you, that’s really really great. But rare

#44794

I’m really not convinced that’s a problem exclusive to smaller communities

And based on my own personal experience, it’s fair to say the opposite was true near me :man_shrugging:

#44795

Its 100% exclusive to small communities.
In the city noone knows you
Problem solved

#44796

I feel like bullies are not a problem cities don’t have

#44797

Noone knows you. So noone can bully you
School/work environments are still a problem field of course

#44798

image
italy is farming for likes

7 Likes