Ilii and Human deep-sea diving

Questions or discussions about Almea or Verduria-- also the Incatena. Also good for postings in Almean languages.
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con quesa
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Ilii and Human deep-sea diving

Post by con quesa »

So the Ilii gradually abandoned their habitations on land when humans began moving to settle there, and went to live on the continental shelf. But what will happen in 200 or so years when some technological human civilization (probably the Verdurians) invents scuba-diving, bathyscapes, and begins to explore the ocean floor. What will happen when they discover the Iliu settlements? And what will happen if people are inspired by the Ilii's example to try to make their own under-sea habitats? How would they react?
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Post by Rory »

The Ilii will kick their asses.


Or the humans'll be eaten by Ktuvoki. Either way, not happy.
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Post by Ezekiel »

My thoughts are that, depending on their level of technological advancement, it would either be a repeat of the colonization of the Americas by the Europeans (something that always depresses me, even though I'm completely white), or it would be a matter of time before hostilities broke out between the two peoples.

Unfortunately, I really can't see the possibility of civil, courteous relations remaining for an extended period of time. Factions on both sides--even if they aren't the respective governments themselves--are going to covet their neighbor's things. As the old saying goes, the grass is always greener or, in this case, the seaweed. Resources, technology, land on the seafloor, etc. are all going to be points of contention.

Now, certainly it would take a while for things to get to this point, and there's always the limiting factor in that the Verdurians (or any other land-based species) are simply not designed for this kind of environment, and they'd have to continually return to a dry place (undersea colony, a ship or submarine, or dry land itself). Also, depending on the conditions, there may not be anything that the Verdurians see as valuable, other than the scientific information that can be gathered there--not exactly a commodity, if you know what I mean.

Seems to me that either the situation will become one of strife, or contact between the Verdurians and the Ilii would be minimal at best for a long, long time.
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Post by So Haleza Grise »

Ezekiel wrote:My thoughts are that, depending on their level of technological advancement, it would either be a repeat of the colonization of the Americas by the Europeans (something that always depresses me, even though I'm completely white), or it would be a matter of time before hostilities broke out between the two peoples.

Unfortunately, I really can't see the possibility of civil, courteous relations remaining for an extended period of time. Factions on both sides--even if they aren't the respective governments themselves--are going to covet their neighbor's things. As the old saying goes, the grass is always greener or, in this case, the seaweed. Resources, technology, land on the seafloor, etc. are all going to be points of contention.

Now, certainly it would take a while for things to get to this point, and there's always the limiting factor in that the Verdurians (or any other land-based species) are simply not designed for this kind of environment, and they'd have to continually return to a dry place (undersea colony, a ship or submarine, or dry land itself). Also, depending on the conditions, there may not be anything that the Verdurians see as valuable, other than the scientific information that can be gathered there--not exactly a commodity, if you know what I mean.

Seems to me that either the situation will become one of strife, or contact between the Verdurians and the Ilii would be minimal at best for a long, long time.
Careful there. The Verdurians are a nationality, uesti are the species.

I don't know if the Ilii really go into covetousness. What little we know about Ilian morality suggests that it surpasses the human version. We also don't know precisely how technologically advanced the Ilii are; so in what sense would they and uesti be direct competitors? Hard to say.
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Post by WeepingElf »

Hallo!

This begs the question whether the Verdurians or whoever want to settle on the ocean floor at all. If we take our world as an example: undersea cities were predicted by many, and they would be technologically possible by now, but yet there are none - because nobody wants to live in what is the ultimate cold, dark and damp place.
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Post by con quesa »

WeepingElf wrote:Hallo!

This begs the question whether the Verdurians or whoever want to settle on the ocean floor at all. If we take our world as an example: undersea cities were predicted by many, and they would be technologically possible by now, but yet there are none - because nobody wants to live in what is the ultimate cold, dark and damp place.
The difference between our world and Almea, though, is that we do not have an entire civilization who is successful in living underwater as an example, and Almea does. I can just imagine the first prototypical Human submarine descending down an underwater ridge, and seeing an Iliu city, filled with all sorts of things that are completely foreign to them, and then returning to the spot with a fleet of research ships.
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Post by WeepingElf »

Hallo!
con quesa wrote:
WeepingElf wrote:Hallo!

This begs the question whether the Verdurians or whoever want to settle on the ocean floor at all. If we take our world as an example: undersea cities were predicted by many, and they would be technologically possible by now, but yet there are none - because nobody wants to live in what is the ultimate cold, dark and damp place.
The difference between our world and Almea, though, is that we do not have an entire civilization who is successful in living underwater as an example, and Almea does.
The ilii are successful in living underwater, yes, but they can do so in ways humans cannot. Just because there is a (different) sapient species down there, doesn't mean that Verdurians (or whoever) will want to live there too. To ilii, the ocean floor may be a liveable environment - but humans still need artificial life support, and if they are anything like us, it is not the kind of place they want to live in.
con quesa wrote:I can just imagine the first prototypical Human submarine descending down an underwater ridge, and seeing an Iliu city, filled with all sorts of things that are completely foreign to them, and then returning to the spot with a fleet of research ships.
Yes. But there is a difference between doing expeditions into a hostile environment (which we do here on Earth as well) and trying to live there. They surely will send research vessels, yes, and probably try to establish trade relations.
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Post by zompist »

Not to damp down the speculation, but some of the comments are missing the point that the iliu are not an unknown species. Almean humans know perfectly well who they are and where they live, and have been trading with them for milennia.

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Post by WeepingElf »

Hallo!
zompist wrote:Not to damp down the speculation, but some of the comments are missing the point that the iliu are not an unknown species. Almean humans know perfectly well who they are and where they live, and have been trading with them for milennia.
Exactly. I was just about to point out this fact.
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