Orcas

[Timerover51]

In the North Pacific, the favorite food of Orcas is seals, along with the occasional Bowhead or Grey Whale, along with some dolphins. Sea Otters stay in the kelp beds. In Antarctica, they like seals and penguins. As for more friendly to humans, you might want to check the casualty list of Orca trainers.

They are very large, very powerful predators, and have no problems taking warm-blooded prey that lives on the surface.

 

[gchuck]

As for more friendly to humans, you might want to check the casualty list of Orca trainers.

Wiki: Killer whale attacks on humans. In the 'wild'. 5 documented since 1910. None fatal.

In captivity: 36 documented attacks since the '60s, some fatal.

Since they're uplifted, I'm pretty cool with my plan to run this thing.

The snowball fight is what really sold me.

 

[Timerover51]

Wiki: Killer whale attacks on humans. In the 'wild'. 5 documented since 1910. None fatal.

If an Orca really went after a human in the wild, do you really think that there would be a survivor to report?

In captivity: 36 documented attacks since the '60s, some fatal.

Since they're uplifted, I'm pretty cool with my plan to run this thing.

The snowball fight is what really sold me.

By "uplifted" do you mean that they have been conditioned not to attack humans?

 

[gchuck]

By "uplifted" do you mean that they have been conditioned not to attack humans?

Not really. Just 'modified' for greater intelligence and size. I liken it to what was done to T. Galactis.

I postulate they were bred for exploration and recon on water worlds, and worked with humans. Albeit a long time ago. Several dozen centuries in fact.
And just managed to survive.

I'll just have to see how it goes.

 

[gchuck]

I'll just have to see how it goes.

Well...Went pretty well. Players got to witness Orcas herding fish for another group of Orcas. The intentional beaching kind of freaked out the players.

Took about 15 minutes game time. A nice touch of color for the game.

 

[GypsyComet]

I seem to recall that Lords of Thunder was part of a quadrilogy authored by Jack L. Chalker … I can't remember much of it though … or am I thinking Pirates of Thunder? Oh well.

Chalker's books would be the Four Lords of the Diamond.

 

[whartung]

But I don't think the 4 Lords of the Diamond series it had anything to do with this. I don't directly remember what they were about, but it was mostly about body swapping and such (always a topic for Chalker).

 

[Blue Ghost]

In retrospect it was allegorical psychiatric scifi secret agent stuff. I seem to recall that some kind of android infiltrator blew up a top security area on Earth, and an agent is cloned where his clones are sent to investigate the four Diamon Worlds. It was an interesting read.

 

[GypsyComet]

Chalker's books have little or no bearing here, other than his recurring themes of dealing with bodies not (or no longer) Human. The personality over-writes used at the outset are more Traveller relevant than I thought at the time I first read the Four Lords of the Diamond, and the little glimpses we get of the larger interstellar state are interesting, but my reason for identifying the books is to resolve the hanging reference from earlier.

If we're looking for Orca references, we're dealing mostly with Brin's Uplift cycle, a little Niven (the old RPG and a throw-away ref or two), some Taylor (Shlock Mercenary), and real life. Other SF references would not surprise me, given how so much of SF falls into obscurity when the author passes, or just departs the field.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Well, I did start the thread because I remember reading in Blue Planet about how an orca was accused of being a killer. Intelligent non-orca dolphins being a thing in the 3I and Soli space, I wondered if anyone had the big black and blue dolphins as NPCs.

Chalker's books were interesting, but I expected more out of Cerberus, the water world. That's loosely related here.

 

[Spinward Flow]

Equus / Lanth / Spinward Marches

 

[GypsyComet]

Chalker's books were interesting, but I expected more out of Cerberus, the water world. That's loosely related here.

That series concept struck me as running out of steam by the end of book 3. The result was that Book 4 (Medusa) was quite different, and a bit more Traveller-y, but lacked most of the hooks that had made the Pulp Psion (Lilith), Spy Op (Cerberus), and Political Fantasy (Charon) tales more coherent for their differences. I've read the series two or three times, and frankly Cerberus is the peak of the series. Lilith climbs to that potential, while Charon and Medusa are a long slide down from it.

But we digress.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I'll start a new thread in the off topic section. It's sparking some thoughts.

 

[aramis]

Chalker's books have little or no bearing here, other than his recurring themes of dealing with bodies not (or no longer) Human. The personality over-writes used at the outset are more Traveller relevant than I thought at the time I first read the Four Lords of the Diamond, and the little glimpses we get of the larger interstellar state are interesting, but my reason for identifying the books is to resolve the hanging reference from earlier.

If we're looking for Orca references, we're dealing mostly with Brin's Uplift cycle, a little Niven (the old RPG and a throw-away ref or two), some Taylor (Shlock Mercenary), and real life. Other SF references would not surprise me, given how so much of SF falls into obscurity when the author passes, or just departs the field.

You can add Star Trek to that; there are cetaceans in many ships. (We finally see them in Lower Decks, but they've been in extended universe and design staff materials for nearly 3 decades now.) Lower Decks lets us know Orcas are amongst the cetacean crewmembers.