Thursday 17 March 2016

Ythrians And Kzinti

In an Ythrian flagship:

"The air blew warm, ruffling their plumes a little, scented with perfume of cinnamon bush and amberdragon. Blood odors would not be ordered unless and until the vessel got into actual combat; the crew would soon be worn out if stimulated too intensely."
-Poul Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (New York, 2011), p. 518.

And in a kzinti Slasher:

"...the cabin was furnace hot and dry, full of the wild odors of fear and blood that the habitation-system poured out in combat conditions."
-Jerry Pournelle & SM Stirling, Man-Kzin Wars II, p. 185.

Although Ythrians and kzinti are hunting carnivores, the former are fliers, needing room to spread their wings even in a spaceship and would soon go insane if confined in spacesuits. Thus, although they are stimulated by blood odors like the kzinti, they cannot travel or fight in the same cramped conditions as either kzinti or human beings.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

The practical difficulties Ythrians had mastering or adapting to space travel was one major reason the Domain of Ythri eventually expanded to only about 80 light years in diameter.

Sean