There are only two sapient species in the Lonely Galaxy, humans and yinrih. There is a closely related non sapient species to the yinrih, closer even than chimps are to humans, and the question of why the yinrih are sapient and the tree dwellers are not drives a lot of philosophizing on the yinrih’s part. The Atavists in particular resent the burdens of existential dread and moral guilt that come with having a rational soul and wish to return to being irrational animals.

Pre-space age yinrih history is somewhat messy right now, but current lore has them achieving spaceflight 5 millennia after achieving sapience. Given their much longer lifespans (~723 Earth years) this would be like humans going from crudely knapped flint hand axes to orbital flight in 500 years. So they’re in space before humans leave Africa. My (admittedly weak) justification for this is that they start the game with writing unlocked, there’s no ice age to impede the invention of agriculture, and religious zeal is one powerful motivator.

I don’t have any specific dates for hot air balloons, although it is the first thing they mess around with. I do have them playing with Jules-Verne-esque manned projectiles around the year 1406 AK (about 2000 Earth years after the first evidence of written language). This begins a period marked by high casualty rates among research monks and their lay assistants. These brave souls are known as the Cannonized [sic] Martyrs.

Thus said the Uncreated Light:

Consider, little ones, the Tree-dwellers^[1], the very clay from which I sculpted your form. They move about, seek refuge, nourish themselves, and beget young according to the passions which I have kindled within them. Yet do they gain any merit thereby? By no means! For they do so without understanding. They paint the leaves, yet they cannot write a single glyph^[2]. They call out to one another, yet they cannot chant a single syllable. But to you, little ones, to you alone among the myriads of creatures walking upon the land and swimming beneath the waves and soaring upon the wind of this earth, I have granted the light of understanding^[3]. Now gaze, little ones, upon the countless stars bedewing the heavens. Think ye that I have wrought them for no purpose? Nay, each one shines forth my love. Know ye that there are others like yourselves, in whom I have kindled the fire of understanding. Their bone is not of your bone, their flesh is not of your flesh, yet their souls are like unto your own. search among these stars for other minds, that together ye might meditate upon the mysteries of this dear little creation^[4]. Listen to them for other voices, that they might join you in song. Seek among them other hearts, and offer to them your friendship. Go, dearest little ones, spread your light to the stars, and ye shall become brighter yourselves.

If a species is arboreal (like my yinrih) many may choose to live permanently in microgravity to allow them to use all of those prehensile extremities for prehending instead of walking.

Also consider the reasons why a species pursued spaceflight in the first place. Humans were using it as a show of power. Rockets are just fancy missiles, after all. The yinrih pursued it for religious reasons, meaning that people who died while furthering that goal are venerated as literal martyrs.

OK things seem to be back to normal for the time being. Nobody’s password got changed this time. The admins updated to the latest version of phpBB after Monday’s incident, so it’s possible whatever vulnerability was used Monday was patched out.

The forum seems to be holding up better this time, but it’s still getting flooded.

Definitely let me know if this is off topic and I should shut up or whatever, I just figured there would be some overlap and people would want to know. Anyway, the site is above 2000 concurrent users as of 7 PM CDT.

Yup. It’s definitely happening again.

Seems like another attack may be underway.

Does fldigi do SSTV now or am I not getting the joke?

Depending on how big the island is, and how the gas is stored, I don’t think it would drop like a rock, I think it would slowly drift down as gas escapes. This reminds me of Laputa from Gulliver’s Travels. Perhaps residents could weaponize the islands by selectively reducing buoyancy to crush cities below.

I have a setup involving floating cities in the upper atmosphere of a gas giant, but instead of using a lifting gas they use Flanar pontoons.

Where possible I use an Anglish (YouTube Link) translation convention for alien words since their languages are unutterable by humans (and vice versa). As for how they sound, imagine the quiet yipping and growling made by a dreaming dog. The word in the OP is Romanized (if you can call it that) as GJbfrMr, and is pronounced /long rising weak growl, short rising strengthening whine, chuff, long low strong grunt, chuff/. The root word is the verb GJ meaning to work or to make and the suffix -bfr, which forms nouns from verbs or adjectives with a meaning of a software program or digital service described by the root. -Mr is an 3rd person proximal noun suffix roughly meaning “this…” or “this is a…”

I post my worldbuilding stuff mostly on the CBB conlanging forum, and there’s a comprehensive grammar for Commonthroat–the most widely spoken alien language–on FrathWiki. Sometimes I put stuff on a worldbuilding community here on lemmy [email protected].

*edit: got my own grammar wrong.

Thanks! Here are a few more samples:

Part of the livery of a particular spacecraft, spelling out the craft’s name, Dewfall.

The word for ‘Mech hangar’ (Every sci-fi setting needs some big ol’ stompy walking war crimes).

Another attempt at a glowing CRT aesthetic. This is the name of the worldbuilding project as a whole “The Lonely Galaxy”.

And here’s what the writing system looks like when hand-written. The word is “egg eater”, which is a very vulgar insult among these oviparous aliens. The aesthetic of the script leans toward the Brahmic writing systems of South and Southeast Asia.

Tattoos aren’t a thing since most of the population is covered nose to tail in fur. Perfumes are the primary means of personal adornment. The only visual decorations are designs painted or scored onto the writing claw (done by both men and women) and tail rings, which are usually cloth sleeves worn around the tail rather than rigid metal loops.

The anti-baldness laws aren’t heavily enforced, and even when they are, it involves preventing the balding drugs from being leaked to the public rather than punishing possession and use. Perfumes are a more salient way to communicate status and rank anyway, and healers supplement their baldness with specific scents.

They also didn’t always have germ theory, so they weren’t always aware they needed to take these precautions.

I’ve backed myself into a corner somewhat regarding commercial cooking. In theory deliberate baldness would also be prevalent among cooks since they also have to meet sanitation requirements, but I’ve made baldness such a distinct indicator of the medical profession that in some jurisdictions it’s illegal to shed one’s fur as it’s considered impersonating a healer ^[1].

For now cooks use bunny suits or glove boxes, though the use of a mobile assistant who carries tools on the back as described above is also common in kitchens. There’s even a Commonthroat word for the job qgkNPqg that carries secondary meanings of someone who is made to do someone else’s dirty work.

Yes, very much so.

I’ve never heard of a sport where you can lose points, but I’m also not a sports guy.

At the time of the OP I was testing federating two nodeBB instances. ActivityPub requires HTTPS AFAIK.

Are the sugar gliders more like familiars/companions for the wizards or do they have their own society and stuff? Is dancing something sugar gliders are known for?

OK. NOW email is working properly. Turns out my own email provider is more permissive about random email servers. Gmail won’t even put it in the spam folder. I had to switch to a 3rd party email provider. Before I was using sendmail built into the server. I can confirm Gmail is receiving the verification emails now.