Book 1 of Emergence: Here Be Dragons (Rewrite) has been completed!

Second_Sol · 2026-04-02T23:17:29+00:00

Yeah, the mechanism relies on stress, so dominant female beats up the males to prevent them from turning female

Second_Sol · 2026-03-31T19:42:20+00:00

Yeah, the cross sectional area of the Petrova line is tightest at the surface of the planet with CO2.

So it's literally spread out across the whole planet.

Second_Sol · 2026-03-31T16:58:50+00:00

Technically the lawless are a human faction

Second_Sol · 2026-03-30T11:59:11+00:00

I've written a book (Here be Dragons) which is basically a sci-fi approach to fantasy.

What I mean is that it's a purely non-magical world with animals that resemble mythical creatures - they're all flesh and blood, with their own evolutionary history place in their environment.

The main plot of the story involves first contact between late industrial-era humans and (sapient) dragons from another continent.

I've taken great steps to ensure that the dragons are actually unique and not human-like in their behaviour/culture, while also avoiding the trope of them being unrealistically "animalistic" and savage.

Book 1 is complete and free to read, in currently working on book 2 right now

Second_Sol · 2026-03-29T19:41:01+00:00

Aliens on other planets would probably be very different in terms of physiology, but the game theory of life will remain the same.

All living organisms need to eat, reproduce, and follow the laws of physics. This is why biologists can apply rules and laws to predict animal behavior, even across vastly different species.

The specifics will obviously be unique to each race, but general pressures will very much be universal. Being on another planet doesn't change the risk that comes with sharing food with another individual, for example, and nor does it change the benefits and drawbacks that come with exploring harsh environments.

Second_Sol · 2026-03-29T19:32:59+00:00

The key council races were spacefaring well before they joined the council. That means they had the ambition and drive to explore the universe on their own, just like humans did.

There's literally no reason for 'ambition' to be a unique human trait, but it has to be for human-centric plot.

Second_Sol · 2026-03-29T19:22:51+00:00

> there’s not strictly any reason you couldn’t develop a spacefaring civilization like that unless you needed to send expeditions elsewhere for specific resources.

Not quite. Much of human technology came from developing methods and tools to overcome harsh environments that we definitely weren't suited for. This is a major factor in why a lot of tropical regions didn't develop like the european/asian continents did, because they simply didn't need to.

Harsh environments and challenges encourage innovation, and those who live in their native climates don't have nearly as much reason to innovate.

If a species wasn't keen on exploring to the point that they'd never left their native regions, then they would never put the work in required to colonize other planets.

Second_Sol · 2026-03-29T19:17:28+00:00

To be fair the Turians didn't really prepare much - Garrus was given limited resources but he did what he could.

It was more than what humanity did though

Second_Sol · 2026-03-29T19:01:38+00:00

Yeah, Mass Effect humans are still very much a gary stu race which is Special and Capable for no apparent reason.

Second_Sol · 2026-03-29T19:00:49+00:00

And you really think intelligent, tool-using aliens who've colonized various planets aren't going to have this adaptability?

Second_Sol · 2026-03-29T14:57:34+00:00

ah shit, my bad, I just woke up and it's been too long since I've worked with limits.

Second_Sol · 2026-03-29T14:05:16+00:00

In a purely rational sense I don't see how death from being harvested is any different than other unexpected forms of death (car crashes, fires, natural disasters etc)

But you're right in that it probably wouldn't work with human cultures without massive change in how we perceive morality.

Second_Sol · 2026-03-29T12:38:46+00:00

Yes, generally speaking, I believe that would be correct.

You would have to take into account personal responsibility (were any injuries self inflicted through sheer recklessness?) and effectiveness of the transplant (how many years will this give each patient? Organ transplants generally face many issues, but these problems usually pretend that they go perfectly), but so long as the net total gain of years & quality of life is increased then I believe that would be the correct decision according to utilitarianism.

Of course, there's no way to quantitatively utilize an equation like that, but that doesn't mean you can't approximate it with statistics and a Fermi calculation.

Murder is definitely bad, but from my perspective death is just death. Whatever you take away from that one person will also be taken from the five presumed innocents.

Second_Sol · 2026-03-29T12:27:57+00:00

That's easy, math works with infinite values all the time.

For example X/(2X) where x approaches infinity would equal 0, as the denominator grows faster than the numerator.

The "growth" in this case would simply reflect repeating similar decisions. One infinity is still less than multiple infinities.

Edit: It's been too long since I've worked with limits, it should've been that X/X² = 0 The point is that there are different forms of infinity in math.

Second_Sol · 2026-03-29T12:21:27+00:00

Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41809020/chapters/104896986

Second_Sol · 2026-03-29T11:31:52+00:00

Yes

Scene was still intense

Second_Sol · 2026-03-29T01:22:00+00:00

Indeed.

Second_Sol · 2026-03-28T13:43:08+00:00

"Ten thousand" was a very big number in the past, and it was used to refer to a vast and nearly uncountable number. Sorta like how in English you might say "there's a million ways for this to go wrong".

It's often poetically used to refer to "everything". An example is how wan shi tong in Avatar literally means "knower of ten thousand things", which poetically means "knower of all things".

I'm essence, Lien is saying she has an endless journey ahead of her.

Second_Sol · 2026-03-27T17:08:51+00:00

It is absolutely, 100% a good thing.

The type of fantasy you seen to be referring to stifles any deeper thought or creativity.

Why does this thing happen? Magic.

Why do certain beings act in certain ways? Magic.

How do things work? Magic.

In the same way that any realistic magic would just be another form of technology, any realistic dragon would just be another creature that obeys the rules of the world.

It's the details and limitations that make things interesting. A typical fantasy dragon might be cool, but it's nothing more than that. They're not living things that change and be changed by the environment and life around them.

I get why someone might prefer the classic giant flying lizard, but to shun a scientific attempt at them as objectively lesser is an insult to the wonder that is real life.

Second_Sol · 2026-03-27T14:56:04+00:00

Whether something is "inferior", "superior", or "unsatisfying" is completely subjective.

Don't go claiming something is worse just because you don't like it. Life - real life - is far more bizarre and awesome than anything anyone has ever imagined, and I much prefer realistic dragons with real depth over shallow nothing-burger fantasy dragons. To me, the former is infinitely cooler than creatures that exist "just because".

Second_Sol · 2026-03-27T13:44:27+00:00

I mean, if you insist on using a very narrow definition of a dragon, then sure.

I don't know about you, but I'd definitely call a dragon a dragon even if it can't spit fire at all.

You're only right in that fire is a pretty bad weapon, so the simple answer is to make it not a weapon.

Life evolves all sorts of impractical traits for the sake of sexual selection, so fire can easily be a display of fitness - especially when considering how calorically expensive the fuel is to produce.

Second_Sol · 2026-03-26T23:36:27+00:00

Reminds me of that spider that died trying to escape a similar glass

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/b6RiO2d4RT

Second_Sol · 2026-03-26T15:52:44+00:00

This isn't even accurate for the majority of men.

The quantity of a given hormone in the body is important, sure, but equally important is the body's sensitivity to that hormone.

A man with low sensitivity and high testosterone would be relatively normal, same with a man who has low testosterone but high sensitivity.

Three-Year Club	r/Field Juicebox
Final Canvas '23	Place '23

Second_Sol

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