Lucas Cats

by on January 12, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

San Lucas was the center of a moral dilemma for humanity. Elements of the Gangani, indigenous intelligent cats, asked us for help in overthrowing their current government. This brought up many questions for us when it comes to the morality of interfering with indigenous cultures. Many people promoted a Star Trek-like Prime Directive that all humanity should ascribe to, while others detailed all the times our most successful empires used requests for help just like this to overthrow less powerful governments for our own benefit. And others asked if it would be moral to ignore a request for help from someone who was obviously intelligent enough to ask for it. After much internal debate, the human government of San Lucas chose to answer the call for help, and that has affected our relations with the San Lucas cats ever since.

 Comment 

San Lucas – Hankou

by on January 11, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Essential Galactic Atlas

The eastern continent of San Lucas is named Hankou, and is home to the Toshi and Laohu civilizations that are embroiled in a contentious religious war to this day. Hankou is a roughly circular continent dominated by lowland jungles and a few tree-covered mountain ranges spiraling out from the single massive volcano in the continent’s center. It had been largely dormant for thousands of years when we arrived, but geological evidence showed periodic eruptions that covered the lowlands in volcanic ash over and over again. That made the lowlands amazingly fertile, and the jungles that filled them flourished. And so did the cats who lived there. It was an excellent place to grow a new civilization, as long as the volcano remained dormant.

 Comment 

Jack

by on January 10, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Character Profiles

I grew up in Northern Minnesota. I could step out of my room and see a deer walking in the trees. I could step out onto the dock and catch my evening meal out of the lake. I thought that was normal when I was young. Even in school, my International Falls classmates included a lot of kids like me. They lived away from the town center, in the middle of nature. Sure, some of them lived in town, but even they had family or friends outside and could enjoy the same life I did on the weekends. We grew up on the lake, in the woods, under the stars, breathing crisp morning air. It was paradise. I didn’t realize at the time how rare it was. Now I do, and I can say without reservation that I was blessed to grow up on the edge of civilization.

 Comment 

Lucas Cats

by on January 9, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Races of Humanity

San Lucas is home to several species of large cats genetically modified from Terran species. The panther-derived Gangani ruled an empire hundreds of years old when we arrived. Our ships painted fire in the sky as they came down and sparked rebellions from those the Gangani ruled, both other panthers and the jaguar-derived cats they had conquered centuries ago. It was a slow serious of rebellions, some cold and others hot, as province after province chose to leave. The Gangani let some go with little to no response. Those were invariably on the outskirts of the empire, backwaters they did not care about. The important regions that wanted to leave garnered a different response, and several bloody rebellions were in progress when reformists inside the Gangani made Contact with us. They had been watching us, you see. And some among them thought we could help.

 Comment 

Winter in Paradise

by on January 8, 2018 at 7:28 pm
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

We’ve had a fun last couple weeks up here in Minnesnowta. The cold front finally came in and decided to stick around for some encore action. Sub-zero weather gets a bit chilly when it sticks around day after day after day. But it kills the bugs, and I can put on more layers, so I’m fine with that.

Layers? Yeah, for those of you who don’t live where the air hurts your face, we wear multiple layers of clothing to keep the cold out. There’s no such thing as a single coat good enough to keep us warm that is also affordable to buy, so we tend to buy coats two or three sizes too large, and wear them over sweaters. Or spring and fall coats. Which we wear over other clothing. That’s layers.

We learn to dress in layers when we are kids because how else are we going to go out and play in the snow for long hours? Plus, if we are playing and get too warm, we want to only take off one or two layers so we don’t start getting cold again. It’s a delicate balance, figuring out exactly how much to wear when the air is cold enough to hurt your face. And it depends heavily on how active we are at the time. We need less clothing when we are working, since we generate body heat from action. So seeing somebody wearing a light spring and fall jacket, with thick gloves and hat to protect our ears and fingers from the extreme cold, is a fairly common sight.

It also depends on whether or not we want to take a picture. We tend to toss off the outer layers so we look good for pictures that are going to go out all over the world, smile like we aren’t already starting to shiver, and then snuggle back up into our outer layers within seconds of hearing that lovely click of the camera shutter. Because we wouldn’t want any of our sissy southern friends and family to realize that we actually think it’s a bit chilly out there too. But that’s winter in paradise. Just the way we like it.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

 Comment