Scores Of Thousands Of Sophont Species -
- in the Terran Empire? Yes. We are repeatedly told that the 400 light-year diametered Empire encompasses an estimated four million stars, most with planets, that maybe half of these planetary systems have been visited at least once and that a mere hundred thousand have, often sporadic, Imperial contact and bear, often purely nominal, allegiance. See Djana And Rax. Djana asks who can remember all the races in the Empire and reflects that even the hundred thousand are too many to keep track of.
Thus, within the Imperial sphere:
two million stars have never been visited;
one million, nine hundred thousand have merely been visited, maybe just once;
one hundred thousand have contact that, in many cases, is sporadic.
So there is plenty of room for scores of thousands of intelligent species. One hundred is five score. Among those one hundred thousand planetary systems:
Do some species occupy more than one planet?
Does this number include the humanly colonized planets, Hermes, Aeneas, Vixen, Dennitza, Unan Besar, Germania, Atheia, Imhotep, Daedalus, Llynathawr, any others?
How many have more than sporadic contact?
Sean Brooks estimates that each Imperial sector encompasses 1,000 planets. See:
When Aycharaych arrives on Llynathawr, the capital planet of Sector Alpha Crucis, he claims to be from the planet of Jean-Baptiste in Sector Aldebaran. Some Merseian agent has inserted false data in the files on Llynathawr, confirming the existence of the non-existent Jean-Baptiste. There is no interstellar internet connection. When Chunderban Desai, High Commissioner of the Virgilian System in Sector Alpha Crucis, requests information about Aycharych, a data reel must be physically transported under high security from Catawrannis on Llyanathawr to Nova Roma on Aeneas where Desai is based.. See Imperial Administration III. The size of the Empire works against it. Deception is easy, even including a falsehood about the existence of an entire planet and its rational species.
This MIGHT be the only post for today:
running out of inspiration (?);
needing to slow down (?);
other stuff going down (!)
It would be possible to reduce the frequency of posts significantly while still continuing to post regularly but this would require some mental readjustment on my part. We will find out.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, I have to agree, after the discussion, both here and in the "Scores of Thousands..." blog piece, the Empire did have scores of thousands of sophont species. At least 40,000.
Thanks for the nice mention of my "Sector Governors" contribution!
And we know some non human races in the Empire, such as the Cynthians, settled more than one planet. At the very least, some planets like Imhotep, Daedalus, and Dennitza had mixed species populations. And many individuals of many races were traveling back and forth around the Imperial domain. I even suggested some were criminals on the lam fleeing the authorities of their home worlds!
Yes, the sheer size of the Empire would make it harder to defend against false information being planted by agents of hostile powers. And that can happen on a SINGLE planet as well. One example I've thought of being how the Army Purges of the 1930's which devastated the Soviet Army may had been triggered by false information planted by German agents. At least that was what I read somewhere. I'm not sure German disinformation triggered those purges.
Understood, what you said about how various reasons had been causing you to slow down on writing blog pieces. I can see some advantages in that for you. Such as giving you more time to take care of other matters. And taking a "holiday" from blogging gives you time for plain old resting.
And the PA Appreciation blog is still a lot busier than many other blogs! I simply wish more readers than a few like me would leave comments in the comboxes.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I'm not quite satisfied with the selections someone chose for that boxed collection of the Flandry stores in the illustration. I would have done it like this: ENSIGN FLANDRY, A CIRCUS OF HELLS, THE REBEL WORLDS, AGENT OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE, and then FLANDRY OF TERRA. A second box would include A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS, A STONE IN HEAVEN, and THE GAME OF EMPIRE.
Some might prefer both boxes to have four books each: (i) ENSIGN FLANDRY, A CIRCUS OF HELLS, THE REBEL WORLDS, and AGENT OF THE TERRAN EMPIRE. Next would be (ii) FLANDRY OF TERRA, A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS, A STONE IN HEAVEN, and then THE GAME OF EMPIRE.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I would say, for the whole Technic History -
Box I: the Polesotechnic League Tetralogy;
II: THE SATURN GAME AND OTHER STORIES + the 2 Ythrian volumes;
III: the Young Flandry Trilogy + "Outpost of Empire" & THE DAY OF THEIR RETURN;
IV: the 3 Captain Flandry volumes;
V: the 2 Admiral Flandry novels + the post-Flandry collection.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
That's the ideal way of "packaging" the Technic stories, both in boxes and as parts of a COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS OF POUL ANDERSON.
I would still argue for any collection of the post-Flandry stories being named THE POST-IMPERIAL ERA.
Ad astra! Sean
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