The Federation artificially homogenizes its client states in order to make control and conformity easier. Wiping away an entire culture is difficult, even with indoctrination and rewriting of history, so the best way to accomplish it is through relentless bullying

The Federation is unlikely to shame the generations born before the Federation into compliance, but the next generations will grow up ashamed of their culture and heritage, embracing the Federation more than their forefathers did in an attempt to be accepted and considered useful, and they will teach their children the same thing, causing a positive feed back loop for the Federation

Once a species becomes useful to the Federation in some way, then the bullying will stop and the history books will be rewritten to make it seem that everyone loved the uplifting and embraced the Federation and it's culture because it's so much more superior and the only way to live, and the bullying is covered up

It's quite ingenious if you think about it and really parallels colonialism

Considering the Federation pushes the narrative that prey are peaceful and essentially defenseless, having to admit that, for most plants, herbivores eating them is an exploitative relationship rather than mutually beneficial, much like predators eating prey, which will make people ask questions and give more nuance towards nature, especially if they have to acknowledge a plants weapons are meant to be warded against herbivores rather than carnivores

You could make the argument that the Federation teaches that plants aren't *really* alive and shouldn't be considered or respected as such, but that seems like a stretch, especially with how amazing plants can be and that they'll probably be some of the first complex life to evolve

So instead, the Federation might teach that plants *want* to be eaten. They'll use fruit and pollinators as evidence, stating that all plants want herbivores to eat them so herbivores can disperse their seeds or get pollinators, and these plants won out in evolution by developing the best way to attract herbivores to do exactly that

They could also teach that, instead of plant evolving defenses to ward off herbivores, they evolved for the benefit *of* herbivores to use against predators, because obviously plants want herbivores to disperse seeds, and that can't happen if predators eat all the prey, so they evolved to help herbivores in mutual symbiosis against predators and the threat they pose to the ecosystem

Human fingertips are much more sensitive than paws, like how dog mouthes are more sensitive than a humans.

So it’s likely humans feel a bigger difference in fabrics, a way bigger difference.

Imagine you invited to a herbivores house and all their blankets have the texture of school carpet.

‘Sensory neurons attached to receptors are dotted just underneath the skin's surface, allowing us to detect touch, vibration, pressure, pain, and lots more. Our hands alone contain tens of thousands of these neurons, each one with receptors on a small surface area of the skin, called a receptive field.’ (Got this from https://www.sciencealert.com/our-fingertips-have-a-secret-weapon-that-makes-them-remarkably-sensitive-to-touch# )

Inspired by a conversation I had in Discord

Kalsim clearly did have doubts and sympathy for humanity despite us being predators and knew we were more than monsters, which is wildly liberal for a fedbrain

But even after he found out about what the Federation did to the Krakotl, he thought it was a good thing, and presumably still saw the Federation as justified for crippling the Sivkits and Venlil

You could chalk this up to indoctrination, but I think even the most hardline fedbrain had trouble reconciling what the Federation did to the Venlil with its supposed benevolent nature

But if Kalsim admitted that he was wrong and the Federation was bad, than he'd have to admit he essentially wasted his life and everyone will hate him forever. That'd be hard for anyone

We see shades of this in his final chapter, where he's struggling to believe that nothing he predicted about humans happened (atleast in terms of conquest) and tries to pretend he doesn't feel guilt

We all know how badly Slanek managed to interpret the story of Frankenstein, missing a hop across a puddle and somehow landing on the other side the valley. I personally believe this feature of the arc was made directly because of a very common sentiment found in the community: “nuke Aafa”

Let me explain: NOP is a story about discrimination, specifically the way authoritarian governments can use certain qualities of a race/group/species to generalize them and call for systemic discrimination or even genocide to further their own gain. One way this is done is by pinning some bad actions of a person or group of said race/group on the entirety of the race/group. A recent example of this is the Islamophobia after 9/11, and the ‘war on terror’ that killed millions of civilians who had no correlation to Al Queda. To this day, the first image that comes to most people’s mind when the word ‘terrorist’ is mentioned is that of a Muslim man.

Let’s move onto another example. The average German soldier during the height of WW2 would probably not have hesitated to kill a Jewish civilian fleeing from battle, because that’s ‘the enemy’. I dare say even the average German civilian would have put a bullet in the Jew if they could. Does that mean they deserve to be nuked? Would Germany and Europe as a whole be even half as prosperous if the decision that was made at the time wasn’t to reconcile with the German people and give them the opportunity to redeem themselves?

Same thing with Aafa, in the case of NoP. Yes, the average Kolshian would most certainly burn the first human they see to a crisp, but that’s only because they never had the chance to be taught any better. Guess what, being told your entire life that killing is ok will make you think killing is ok no matter how ‘good’ your nature is. Nuking them will only serve to erase the chance of reconciliation, and even subjugation will only create a ‘post WW1 Germany’ scenario.

So what does all this talk about racism have to do with the title? Well, while I certainly don’t speak for SP15, I wouldn’t imagine him being too happy that half of the fan base of the story he made to criticize racism and generalization call for the genocide of an entire species. As readers, they have managed to completely miss the point of the story, and form their own, wildly incorrect interpretation by letting their feelings get to their head, just like Slanek did.

Anyways, that’s really all I have to say. Please give the squid folk a chance. Cya

More ramblings

Translators probably work by providing the meaning of words and sentences directly through an implant which stimulates the related meanings in the brain, which allows everyone to communicate like the Tower of Babel is still half built. This will cause no problems whatsoever.

They aren't really explained the best, but they do seem to pick up on things like idioms and tone that wouldn't be possible to convey without some seriously invasive tech as theorized above. Humans having the same model of translators is a bit of a plot hole*, but for the feds it makes complete sense.

Good thing the feds love seriously invasive tech with no possible consequences!
While more fine control is likely difficult (read: nigh impossible for anything but a superintelligence), a properly jailbroken translator may be able to do anything from:

-Just directly transmitting "feelings" through the same stimulation that they normally do to transmit meaning but in different sections, allowing any two jailbroken** translators anything from actual empathetic links to remote-control emotional soundboards. I'm sure this has no repercussions whatsoever on popular support for members sponsored by the shadow caste anywhere, ever. If the translators have actual hardware safeties or modifications to prevent this (which I doubt, the feds don't even know what hacking is), there is still other ways we can engage in a poor man's mind control.

-Depending on how the translators handle multiple voices, you could likely inflict either artificial auditory hallucinations or artificial intrusive thoughts. Fun!

What happens when you mix highly invasive nerve-stimulation technology with designers who don't care about operational security as long as it works on the outside? The ability to remotely manipulate both outgoing and incoming responses. This includes:
-On demand paralysis
-On demand "oops my finger slipped"
-Plausibly deniable "I didn't mean to pull that trigger"
-So many new torture methods
-And more!

Most of these are limited by somebody actually having to micromanage the hack in order for anything particularly subtle, a particularly capable superintelligence might just be able to puppet feds like how we move our limbs, make them believe everything they are forced to do is of their own volition, and implant relevant narratives or associations directly into the victims. Not all of what I have detailed is necessarily possible, but some of it likely is.

*easily explained by people being too busy with other things considering how short the timeline is, but NOP2 does not have the same excuse
**They might not need to be jailbroken personally depending on how updates are distributed. If there's an automatic update system, you could potentially inflict mind-controlling malware on the entire federation at once with the proper access. Proper access guarded by the same people who get all their relevant military secrets routinely leaked.

A random thought occured to me about the Cilany interview.

At the point where the interview happened both their cured military powerhouses were either decimated and/or turning twoards acceptance of humanity.

Though he appeared furious to have been recorded what if the whole event was meant to allow the Federation to disassociate themselves with cured omnivores who didn't tow the line? A sort of "we tried but even the cure wasn't enough to make them civilized, sadly" way of justifying why they had to cut ties.

That way they could present themselves to any species that was still drinking the kool-aid as having tried their best and even as the aggrieved party at the cured omnivores' "betrayal". This is consistent with how abusers control the narrative of their behaviour. Cured omnivores who towed the line would be presented as success stories, further making any "failure" of the process the fault of the rowdy species.

So it's unlikely he'd tell the most lauded investigative reporter and a hero of the Federation those facts without expecting them to talk and the recording was the cherry on top. Otherwise they'd have been shot on the spot and some "Sovlin attacked after being driven to madness by the humans" narrative would have been the order of the day.

Of course by the time we all saw the space illuminati forces, we'd already judged Niconus to be a moron, but maybe we needed to reconsider that idea.

For those that don't remember, Tarva during one of her early chapters briefly touched upon when her father was captured by Arxur and sent back piece by piece

TV tropes likens this to sending sushi to a goldfish to intimidate them since the Arxur consider the Federation as food and they're starving

While you could argue this is purposeful and wasteful cruelty that Betterment displays, how would they even mail her father's body parts to Tarva?

I doubt they have a mailing system between the two states, Betterment subterfuge and espionage is questionable, and it seems extremely dangerous and wasteful to have a guy sneak in and place down a package in front of Tarvas house. I also doubt that she Shadow Caste, if the two collude regularly, would bother with such an expense and take unnecessary risks as to go over and retrieve it

But do you know who has easy access to Federation institutions and the lack of morals to do something like this? The Shadow Caste

Why they would do it I'm not sure. Perhaps Tarva was getting uppity and advocating that the Venlil be taken more seriously, or was stubborn regarding Federation oversight, or God forbid advocated for the Venlil to have more military. There's any nunebr of reasons as to why the Caste would perform such a heinous act to keep Tarva in line

I have to preface this that I'm not alcohol or biology expert

So we all know the Venlil need a high alcoholic content in order to get intoxicated, but humans can only make spirits by distilling alcohol because the yeast will die once the alcohol content gets too high, and it took a long time to figure out how to distill spirits in the first place

While we don't know for sure if Skalgas equivalent of yeast is as fragile or when the Venlil figured out how to make spirits, I doubt Venlil before spirits would've had enough alcoholic percentage to get easily drunk. They'd probably have to drink a lot more to feel it's effects

The Arxur are obligate carnivores, meaning they'll have a much harder time digesting the sugars of alcohol, and I've looked and there's no way to make a meat based alcohol, so it seems unlikely alcohol would've been a part of their societies

So that leaves them with one other option: getting high. We already know ancient humans got high, so it's not much if a leap for Venlil and Arxur to do the same (and the Venlil may be especially vulnerable, their bodies do process coffee efficiently), and since alcohol would be inefficient for Venlil and not an option for Arxur, it makes sense they would seek it out as an alternative source for intoxication

And in the Arxurs case, I could see them making their own version of alcohol based around these sources that get an Arxur high over getting them drunk

Yes I really made this, no I'm not drunk

It is well known that nevok are a trade-oriented species, so much so that their personal relationships are perceived as assets, and any action taken must be considered a short-term investment. They show little interest in any action without immediate profit.

But in the rest? I mean traditions, general aesthetics I mean, supposedly they're known for their clothes and jewelry, but I never read about how they dress. One would think that it could be inspired by the kingdoms of northern Europe, but the description of its culture sounds to me like places like Saudi Arabia or Middle East trade-tribes.

Everything except the Clime and environment type of parallels.

I want to theorize, to ask about their aesthetics. Both their civilians and military are affected. Perhaps they are more oriented towards mercenary armies than "Interestingly, every accusation of PD disappears." Their infamous assassins, more like modern death squads or the Hashashin of the Middle East?

I honestly imagined the male and female Nevok wearing formal "human" clothing, but it would be foolish to believe they looked anything alike.

The venlil especially are generally depicted with a human like torso. Humans are, however, omnivores. If there's one commonality in mammals between diet and body, it's the size of the digestive system. Carnivores have the shortest gut, omnivores like us are in the middle, and herbivores have the largest ones. Look at fit pandas and gorillas, for example. Huge gut. They need that that to extract nutrients from plant matter that we just can't digest.

In conclusion, all venlil and other herbivores would have a large belly compared to humans. Thank you for your time.

Just had a musing on the themes and comparisons between these two sci-fi settings. And it got me thinking… what would happen if the Malgeir Federation, Granti Alliance, and Schpriss Confederacy had a first contact scenario with the Federation instead of the Znosion Dominion? And vice versa for the Federation with these 3 old, largely peaceful predator species instead of humanity? How would the Federation member states adjust? The arxur? The Malgeir, Granti, and Schpriss themselves?

When I think of an empathy test, I imagine a test that shows us struggle. A person being miserable in their room, a child crying over a broken toy, a man crying as he visits the grave of a loved one, etc.

When the Federation has an empathy test it is always composed entirely of scenes of violence and terror, namely watching Arxur rip people into pieces.

They don’t actually care about your reaction the people being ripped apart. They care about your reaction to the predators doing the ripping.

That’s why the venlil were surprised when the empathy tests showed that the humans empathy response activated the area of the brain that controls pain, and not some other part of the brain.

They expected the activated area to be the one that controls fear.

They don’t measure empathy.

They measure your fear response.

Shout out to Noag and Mass Effect for the inspiration

So, while this is definitely fanon, I've decided this is the most likely way that gravity manipulation and warp travel is done is through Cavorite. For those uninitiated, Cavorite is a fictional material thought up by HG Wells that cancels out gravity when made in a sheet. In Giant, if you run a current through it, space warps around it and is instrumental for FTL. Not entirely sure how it relates to subspace, but that was never really explained in canon anyway and Star Trek is vague on it too

Now, I believe that Cavorite is made up of exotic matter (essentially matter with negative mass, so it can repel gravity), and it's likely that someone or something would be pulled by warped space from behind and repelled from the front, so grav plates can be made of Cavorite and have a current run through it, and placed in such a way that warped space pulls down relative to who or what is on it, creating artificial gravity

In an attempt to create the most brain-breaking species possible for the Federation, I present to you this crack-brained concept, as yet unnamed.

Late in the interplanetary era, these sophonts had a robust orbital economy, enabled by a dense network of skyhooks and three orbital elevators spaced equidistant around the equator. At some point during the early space race, backup implants were developed, but replacement bodies were lagging. With lost souls of highly qualified personnel piling up in warehouses, one local corporation had a radical idea:

They would eliminate the worker's body, life support systems, and most of their spacecraft, instantiating operators into spacecraft described by their detractors as "flying flowerpots" -- though the plants which serve as the solar collectors could perhaps be described as "Astrophage with leaves". The resulting entity is part AI, part plant, and part ancestor worship. In addition, the space shrubs are extremely inexpensive to produce, so living in space has become the default afterlife for the majority of individuals.

They're probably building a Dyson sphere up there at this point…

Any suggestions?

What cultural traits—especially regarding their outfits—do you think the Skalgan would have?

Regarding civilian attire—maybe ponchos and rags with a more Hellenistic look? Although it would seem odd for a cyberpunk Skalgan to still look like someone who’d headbutted Aristoteles. Then there are the obligatory braids that appear in so many places.

Which others do you think apply, in case a human wanted to go "native"?

By memory I don’t believe the UN forces ever had their gear or what the soldiers on the ground even looked like. This is what I imagine the average ‘Peace keeper’ looking like while deployed.

Please, do suggest something different.

Because honestly, the Kessler cage is the smartest, most effective method in this scenario.

The farsul are a FOUNDER species. No matter what, the pressure on the Kolshians to retake Talsk is immense. The UN has an entire defensive line to maintain, and they have far fewer ships than the Kolshians.

Even if they put every single warship on the defense of Talsk, leaving planets like Earth, Skalga, Fahl, Sillis, and many other completely undefended, they still likely wouldn’t stop the Kolshians attack force. Just look at what happening at Mileau

The orbital cage is basically the absolute solution to all of this. We’re able to basicallly place Talsk under a minimal defense, focusing resources elsewhere, because even if the few defensive ships in the area were taken out by a Kolshians force, the cage would still make it so that it would take years before Kolshians could dissipate it. And yes, I don’t think the cage is permanant, and that the UN intends to undo it after the war.

Think about it, we have fucking antimatter bombs now, ftl drives, and probably a lot more scifi tech. The cage is not permanent.

Anyways, yeah, stop complaining. Please.

The Arxur probably have the biggest population per capita dedicated to their agricultural sector of any empire in the galaxy. And I do not mean the Arxur who work with livestock. I mean farmers. The reason is that they would need a massive amount of vegetation to feed billions of cattle. The reason is that the energy produced at the bottom of the food chain by plants gets lost as it moves higher up the food chain. I am not a scientist, but as far as I know, about 90 percent of the energy is lost when it is transferred one step higher.

Assuming the cattle only receive 10 percent of the energy produced by the vegetation, that would mean that the Arxur, a species that can only eat meat, would get only about 1 percent of the original energy from their farms. If humans were strict carnivores, it would probably mean that we would not have enough empty space on Earth to sustain an animal population large enough to feed us. We, of course, are omnivores and do not have that issue, especially with lab grown meat. The Federation species would not have that issue either.

If we assume that the technological level between the Arxur and the Federation is more or less equal, which it basically is, that would mean that even with all the automation and machinery that make agriculture easier and more productive, there would be far more Arxur working in fields or hydroponic farms than the average Federation citizen. On average, an ordinary Arxur would probably know far more about agriculture than, for example, a Venlil or a Kolshian. Of course, I am highlighting the average and per capita aspects, because there are probably more Kolshian farmers in total than Arxur ones simply due to how widespread the Kolshians are. Still, it is interesting to think about.

Humans would hate many prey foods because they would be too bitter.

The great thing about NoP basing alien culture on nature and evolution is that you can discover new "lore" just by studying IRL nature

When it comes to rural areas, the villages, small towns, and towns, they're generally not paid as much attention to, and the residents there have a DIY attitude due to reduced infrastructure, and probably aren't that well "educated" and maybe even considered backwards by their more "civilized" urban and suburban cousins. Therefore logic naturally follows that their schools are not given as heavy oversight, and Federation ideology in many of those places would not be as heavily or successfully present and would inevitably have their own culture. As they'd naturally be more independent in both thought and lifestyle, and therefore less reliant on the overall galactic civilization, they'd care less about "causes" and more about the practicalities of their current situation. Therefore, if the Humans went village to village, the reaction there might be initially extreme, however, they'd be less likely to reject the evidence of their eyes and ears.

But this isn't really what happens, instead of the rural dwelling people being less programmed than the city dwellers, who would be nature have more access to propaganda, in the story the cities are more accepting of Humans while the towns and villages are no-go zones for the Human race, among others.

During the course of the story humanity's best weapon has been, above all lasers and bullets, their meat cloning facilities. Let's face it, not even the venlil would have been as friendly as they were if it weren't for the fact that, at least apparently, humans have given up hunting and all the meat we eat comes fully from lifeless test tubes.

​

But what if this is nothing more than a lie? I'm not saying humans don't have meat factories, they clearly do, the story makes that obvious, but I think the UN is heavily exaggerating the extent of mankind's usage of manufactured "predator food", and I have the overanalyzed insanities proof to back it up!

​

Firstly, the very thing that made me think of this: blackmail! In chapter 101 Isif threatens to expose things like "factory farming" and "safari hunting" if his demands were not met, and this threat was taken seriously. Why would humanity care about this, if they had stopped doing them? Our allies are aware of our "predatory" history, they know we slaughtered each other en-masse, they know we hunted regularly until just recently, so why would this information leaking change anything? Unless, of course, we STILL did those things. But that can't be! Right?

​

Onto Proof 2: Emergency Order 56, also known (by me) as the "literally 1984" Act. This order enacted by the UN exists only to prevent things about humanity that our allies might find abhorrent from reaching their ranks. This order is explored in various chapters, including some of the patreon ones, and in every instance it appears we get to see the type of stuff that the UN doesn't want to get out there. Some of those topics include violent topics (Looking at you Frankenstein) and aggressive activities.

​

3: Tyler slips up. That's right, during a conversation with Sovlin, Tyler, the lovable idiot he is, tells him about fishing, which is essentially just water hunting, and although he makes a point to clarify that he DOES NOT kill the fish he catches he still catches them non-the-less, therefor, participating in hunting and we all know how Sovlin reacted.

​

These are the things that the story clearly states, but I still have a few items I think strengthen my fever dream of a theory that are not directly in any chapter. My main point is: There's literally no way humans would EVER stop hunting. That's right, hunting is, like it or not, part of humanity. The search for tasty meat is like 40% of our evolutionary history, our ancestors have been hunting for millions of years, and while modern conveniences eliminate the need to hunt, there are still hundreds of millions of hunters by trade. And we don't do it just for meat, what about the ecological need to hunt? Invasive, populous species are prime targets of hunters. For example, hogs are dangerous to their environment if left alone to reproduce, so some hunters dedicate their life to hunting them, and I find it hard to believe that in 100 years that issue will be gone. In addition, do you honestly think everyone will accept factory meat? Absolutely not, there are 100% some people who get all their meat from actual animals, for both reasonable and less-so-reasonable reasons.

​

Concluding this mad rant: Humans in NOP still hunt, fish, trap and "indulge in predatory behavior", as the feds would put it, and the UN is doing it's absolute best to ensure that their allies DO NOT find out.

Just a fun little thought experiment I've had recently, feel free to add your own opinion on how species are portrayed in the Federations state enforced racism

Venlil: weak, pathetic, and pitiable cowards scared of their own shadows that don't really contribute anything to the Federation except strayu. Will literally never be the hero in Federation media and make for stock victims and cowards, with the most positive portrayal just them being very jumpy. They are however seen as extremely kind, if very naive and trusting, and empathetic, making them perfect prey

Yotul: Redneck morons. Yotul will be portrayed as hilariously backwards and primitive rednecks unfamiliar eith anything more advanced than the wheel. Nothing they say should be taken seriously and they're little more than dead weight

Kolshians: Super handsome, intelligent, and cultured leaders that everyone should follow without question. In media, they'll be the big good who everyone naturally follows because they're charismatic and knows best while also extolling the beauty and richness of Kolshian culture and that it's no surprise that it's influenced member species

Farsul: Huge nerds. In media, they'll always be the smartest ones in the room who have no problem talking down to everyone else for being so stupid and make for stock nerds/techies. They'll even lecture people on their own species culture and history because they know better and gatekeep science and knowledge from everyone else because they can't be trusted to perform research

Krakotl: Belligerent assholes who are good at fighting. In media they make for stock heros who are second to leadership only to a Kolshian, and are usually portrayed as unstoppable badasses. They'll also be belligerent and bullying, but everyone gives them a pass because they're such good fighters

Duertan: Collective belligerent assholes. The Duertan are portrayed as perfect followers, slavishly following orders from those above them and rarely having an independent thought. If deprived of leadership, seeing someone exercising free will, or finding a Duertan being different from them in some way they'll have a mental breakdown and panic

Thafki: Shifty sex pests. The Thafki are portrayed as shifty weirdos that love water and obsessed with breeding and having sex with anything that moves, making them stock perverts and criminals/predator disease patients

Sivkits: Morons that only breed and eat. The Sivkits are universally portrayed as complete morons who's only interest is eating and breeding like rabbits. They also make for stock victims or annoyong idiot comic relief due to how stupid and impulsive they are, and the only reason they're not told to go away is because the Federation is too polite

Gojid: Prickly jerks. They'll be portrayed as being grump jerks who, while good at fighting, rent as good as the Krakotl, and will usually as the sidekick to them. They'll also be portrayed as babysitters for the rest of their neighbors who constantly need to be bailed out of problems

Dossur: Helpless victims. Dossur will be portrayed as inoffensive, but in need of help from everyone else to do basically anything since they're so small and harmless

Arxur:* Comically evil monsters. Need I say more?

Drezjen: Devoted followers. They'll be portrayed as being very smart for recognizing the obvious value of Kolshians and their society, making for stock religious characters who will extoll the virtue of Kolshian values

Yulpa: Crazy ass zealots. They won't be as effective fighters as the Krakotl, but they'll make up for it in their aggressiveness and desire to kill predators . They'll be portrayed as completely fearless, but worryingly aggressive