Avikan/Trivia

This section is for both trivia and quotes by Aegonian that don't seem to fit anywhere else.
 * "No, the Avikan weren't inspired by the Avali, though the mod itself WAS inspired by the original Avali mod. Seeing the Avali mod and playing the game with it is what really inspired me to start implementing my own races into the game, and deconstructing the Avali (and other mods) is what taught me how to make my own stuff. I do confess that the Avikan and Avali sprites share some similarities - though their more detailed sketches don't really have that issue - but that's mostly down to their similar body shape and the lack of detail due to pixel count restrictions. And it's not a weird question at all! I've gotten this question a lot, and I definitely see where it comes from, so no worries!" --Aegonian
 * The Avikan date at the start of the roleplay, and at the time of the Starbound storyverse, is 82 AF (After Flight)
 * "Some of the post-Blast events have already happened in the new timeline, such as the Avikan Nomada finding the Elithian Alliance, so events are getting shuffled around a bit. As for where we are on the timeline now, I'd say we're near what was originally the end of the original roleplay."
 * The Avikan will use trenches to fortify their positions sometimes, but it isn't a very common practise for them. When the Avikan fight, they usually fight the Theleans, and they have plenty of ways to circumvent the trenches (aerial/orbital strikes, high precision weapons firing in an arc etc.). It's always an easy way to further fortify one's position though, so trenches would still be used occasionally.
 * [If another species wanted the avikans to produce drodens for their war. Would the avikans technically be like geonosians?] "I guess so, but the Avikan would be very unlikely to enter into such an agreement with another species. You'd have to offer incredible protection for them to accept the risk of alerting the Theleans, but if you can convince them you can keep them safe from the Theleans, it might work."
 * Dhakorin is a desert world which holds one of the minor Avikan colonies.
 * They would hate a Droden made of centensian metal.
 * "I don't have a final number on the amount of Avikan clans yet, but there'll be a few dozen, most likely, with a handful of incredibly large clans and a whole bunch of minor clans."
 * "Dune wasn't the only source of inspiration for the Avikan, and I want all of my alien species to look believable and exotic - the story of Dune does follow humans, but doing the same for the Avikan wouldn't feel right. Dune primarily inspired me to create a species living on a harsh desert world, and a somewhat reptilian appearance fitted that style. The Avikan aren't actually reptiles, of course - they don't really fit within any group of Earth animals - but the leathery skin and such were a good fit for a species living in such harsh deserts."
 * "The Fremen served as the primary source of inspiration for me to create the Avikan - they really motivated me to create a desert-dwelling species - but culture-wise they aren't all that much alike. I suppose the Quarians served partially as inspiration for their culture, but the desert theme was always a good fit for nomadic cultures anyways. I haven't used real life cultures much to shape the Avikan, but Arabian clothing has certainly been a very big influence on the Avikan."
 * "If an Avikan sees a toilet, for example, they may not really know what they're looking at since such things don't exist in Avikan society (they have something more similar to a litter box)."
 * [How bothered is The Watcher (Starbound Avikan player) about Earth’s destruction?] "It's unlikely they care much about the planet itself - though they may have grown to like it somewhat during their stay at the academy - but they'll be very concerned about the fact that a planet was destroyed so easily and quickly."
 * The exodus from Kadavan took place approximately 82 years before the events of Starbound and the roleplay, so while it's been a while, there's still plenty of Avikan alive who remember life back on Kadavan.
 * {Do avikan have any rude gestures?} "They do, though I haven't detailed any of them yet. They'd likely be related to either the Theleans or to the Vathra, but I'm not sure yet what the gesture would look like."
 * Much like how the Thellhunter's Bow isn't objectively better at killing Theleans, the Errasslayer's Lance isn't objectively better at killing Errasmeyr. The name of the weapon is more of a title than a description of its functionality: it's a weapon that was once used to kill a number of Errasmeyr, and the weapon description is a bit more flavor than fact. That being said, the Errasmeyr have often used drones, pets and other minions to overwhelm targets in combat, and that is where the weapon shines: it doesn't deal the most single-target damage, but anything caught in the blast can chain the explosion even further, making it great against dense groups of enemies.
 * [Did Centensians have linerifles too?] "No, but they had similar charged weapons and the first few linerifles were built to resemble those weapons. The linerifle has been developed much further since, and it's now a weapon unique to the Avikan."
 * [How similar did the Centensian.. Chargerifles? Fire compared to a modern linerifles?] "Not very similarly. They were weapons that required a charge and automatically fired the projectile when fully charged, and the weapons were precision rifles meant for long distances, but that's pretty much where the similarities end.The distinctive line left behind by the projectiles, which is where the weapons got their name from, weren't a feature on those Centensian weapons. Nor did those weapons have any sort of tracking capabilities."


 * [Could Avikan use Vaash in their tech?] "The Avikan prefer sticking to their linetech, but also don't have much experience with the Akkimari and Vaash yet and haven't really had the chance to research it yet."
 * The oldest (recorded) Avikan lived to be 142 years old: they were already old when they fled Kadavan on the Nomada. For Avikan born on the Nomada, the average and maximum lifespans are likely going to increase further. The first Avikan born on the Nomada are now around 80 years old, and most are still going strong: they'll likely break the previous record, as they've lived their entire lives in the relative luxury of the Nomada.
 * Keffriders have been known to use their spears as lances, though it's certainly not common practice
 * [Are there Avikan who have been able to ride the larger sandcrawlers across the deep deserts of Kadavan?] "It was a rare technique reserved mostly for some of the deep desert clans, but yeah, there were Avikan who rode the giant sandworms like Halla'Khan (though Hall'Khan himself was never ridden)."
 * There's still Avikan alive who saw that final invasion in person, but most of them are starting to get old.
 * [If, hypothetically, the Avikan were to hear of a war between the theleans and the elithian alliance, would they throw their lot in with the alliance? or would they stay out of it?] "They'd most likely stay out of it if they only heard about such a war. If the Alliance were to approach them first - something that's unlikely since the Avikan are so hard to approach - they might try to convince the Avikan to fight along. If other species - like the Akkimari and some of the undiscovered species of the galaxy - were to also join the fight and the Avikan would be convinced there's a chance of winning, they might just consider lending their support. It'd be a very hard sell, though."


 * Avikan weren't made in Spore. Idea of them existed then, but it came to fruition after Aegonian quit playing the game.
 * [so how do the avikan waste system work? Do these litter boxes empty themselves or does someone have to clean it?] "They empty automatically, or by using some kind of handle like we use on toilets. An Avikan litter box doesn't have to be emptied every time it's used because their feces doesn't smell as much."
 * [How would Nomadic Avikan fair on a place that’s temperate, but not quite a desert, like a beach world?] "The Avikan would likely fare pretty well there. They lived in the deserts of Kadavan, which meant massive heat during the day, but also freezing temperatures during the night. They sought shelter at night, of course, but were still adapted to living in colder temperatures. They wouldn't fare well on a frozen world as they do need some heat, but a temperate world would do just fine. They'd miss going out into the heat at times, though, so they might make use of artificial heat for comfort."


 * "They could learn to swim, but it won't be easy." "The flaps get in the way too, like swimming in clothing all the time. Avikan were never built for swimming. They rarely encounter a deep enough pool to swim in anyways. And given that they have breathing orifices all over their body, risk of water getting into their lungs is also larger. Though it does mean that they could swim with their head submerged and still breathe if their armpit is above water, for example. Awkard position, but still valuable to some extent."
 * "They love puddles, water is valuable to them and they do enjoy getting into a shallow pool of water."
 * "Linecharge is essentially a superheated plasma, very much like lightning but I didn't think the vanilla electric damage was a good fit for it. Linecharge weapons charge up a massive electrical charge, then send out a 'seeker' projectile that creates an ionized path. A fraction of a second later, the charge is released, and it (mostly) follows the path that the seeker projectile created for it. The plasma burns its targets heavily, but also inflicts some electrification - the latter is more of a gameplay element than a lore element, though. These weapons are dangerous to use near metal or conductive surfaces, and aren't too safe in tight spaces - the charge can leap while charging the weapon, and the capacitors heat up significantly (those are the glowing bits during the charging animation) so a lot of Avikan have sustained serious burns from improperly handling these weapons. Yeah! The effect was also designed to be a mix of fire and electrical effects. Linecharge in the mod is effective against robotic enemies especially, whilst stone enemies (and hardened enemies with a hard shell or the like) are resistant to it, and immune to the effect. Seemed logical, as stone is not especially conductive and hardened shells can be seen as somewhat similar."


 * [Concerning the Avikan Gemstones, due to their pallete, are they pure hyverium crystals (Xanafian)?] "They're just a pretty mineral found on Kadavan! The colours are very similar, yeah - might well be the exact same palette, been a while since I looked at those sprites - but that's mostly due to the fact that those were some of the first objects I made. Didn't really have all of the colour schemes defined yet, and ended up using the same colours for hyverium."
 * [Is the pointy bit of the Avikan's head bony or soft?] "It's bony: the skull of the Avikan extends quite a ways backwards. There is a layer of fat (and skin of course) above it though, so the very tip is a bit softer. If you press on the tip, it's gonna compress a bit like if you pressed into someone's belly. It's relatively dense though, so it's a lot tougher and since there's bone not too far underneath, you can't press in very far."
 * There's plenty of Avikan who enjoy searching for and collecting Centensian items. Officially, any Centensian artefacts you find have to be reported to the Centlary or the Rhaiod, so they can determine what it is and decide whether the finder can keep it or the Centlary needs it (in which case the finder gets a good amount of tokens of merit for helping the Centlary. Most artefacts found are voluntarily donated, but there is also a black market for Centensian items.
 * [A hunter trying to make the transition from spear to linerifle. Would that make sense?] "Sure, plenty of hunters have transitioned from the spear to the linerifle! You usually wouldn't want to use a linerifle for hunting, though, at least not if you plan on harvesting meat or hide from your target. Linerifles cause devastating burns that absolutely ruin your prey." "True, though thoroughly burned and roasted may be more accurate. The meat deeper in may be good to go though!"


 * "Avikan eggs would be rather tough, and somewhat dry compared to many other types of eggs. They have a tough leathery shell, and I doubt the embryo inside will taste good, but the yolk may be okay. It'd be a lot denser, and while I can't really describe the taste very well, it'd be a decidedly odd taste compared to what we know."
 * [Story for Oathbreaker's sorrow] "The story isn't fully defined yet, but the basics are there! It started with two Avikan warriors who were granted Xanafian-powered blades. These warriors were likely Elderguard for some old clan, and sworn to protect the Elders of the clan. One of these warriors stayed true to their cause, while the other eventually abandoned the cause and went rogue, using their blade for crimes. At some point, the rogue warrior's blade was damaged, likely by another Xanafian-powered weapon, cracking the Xanafian Shard that powered the blade. The warrior survived, however, and it is said the blade was corrupted when the warrior tried to mend the crystal. Eventually, the two warriors crossed paths again and fought. The rogue warrior came out victorious and vanished again, until they were found again years later by an Avikan warrior wielding the Oathbreaker's sorrow shotgun. They managed to kill the rogue warrior, earning their shotgun the name "Oathbreaker's Sorrow". The two swords were also named Oathbreaker and Oathkeeper at some point, their original names (if they had one) lost to time."


 * [Is it illegal to use a vanguard weapon?] "It isn't directly illegal, though the Vanguard will want to monitor these weapons quite closely. It should be noted that Starbound uses the lore a little more loosely (and it isn't part of the canon lore), since it also takes Starbound lore and gameplay into account which aren't always compatible with canon lore."
 * [How would it's use be viewed by Avikan?] "It depends on a lot of factors! The way you'd obtain such a weapon matters - a prize claimed from a defeated enemy may be appreciated more than experimentation with alien technology - but your status matters too. A captain, for example, is always highly regarded in Avikan society, so if a renowned captain had such a weapon more Avikan would accept it than when a scavenger wields one."
 * Most Avikan have absolutely no idea who Rashaek is (even a lot of Theleans don't know about him), and would react just as they would with other Centens. If they do know who he is and what he did (and haven't been misinformed about his actions), they wouldn't really blame him for anything: Rashaek gave knowledge to Creaton, and set him on his path of reclaiming every Centensian relic he could find, but Rashaek had no influence no how Creaton went about achieving that goal. If they truly knew why Rashaek set Creaton on that path, they might even support it. But only Creaton and a few members of his inner circle know the reasons Rashaek had for granting that knowledge.