No fap material? D; Why Lincard, are you trying to kill meeh
...

Ah, my wonderful Teutonic Todex... you wouldn't like it anyway, even if it had fap material. Toooooo many wooooooooooords. Jeg sprechen sie poop!

OY!!! I read tons of words each day; they mostly just don't happen to be grouped in the cluster you'd call 'BOOK' *kicks your walkingstick*

HELP I'VE FALLEN AND I CANT GET (it) UP!

*hands you hydraulic crotch-lifter* =3

Gonna need something more than that to get the ol' LINCY ManWrecker™ off the ground.

Yeeeees... yes.... yes.... How about a Vanguardian ShockLance set to maximum? :3

Isn't that what they do to bulls to get spooge for artificial insemination?

I'd have to look into your VanguardGuide-thingy to see if they have bullz on their ships :3

Nope, no bulls.

But emails tomorrow

YEAH YOU BETTER.

Or what?

EMPTY TEUTONIC THREATS!

EMPTY? CUM HERE AND I SHOW YOU WHO'S EMPTY!

I don't know whether to be aroused or frightened right now.

I R Confused.

Do it like Machoke and use weights in confusion :3

You kids and your silly puckymunz and digicubes...

GET OFF MAH LAWN!

ITS NOT YOUR LAWN ANYMORE! ALL POWER TO THE POKE-MONZ AND GROP-E-MONS

No, you're right. The lawn is a lie. Monz and Mons are also a lie, and if not then they should be.

I don't have alzheimers!

MY UNDERPANTS?!

OK, just to say, this whole exchange? I am currently on the floor.

XD

Don't mind us, we are easily amused

DNA is different from that of Earth-based life in that it has three interconnected strands in a helix instead of the two found in terrestrial organisms.

That means it's TNA (Tri-oxy ect,.) and forms a triple Helix, witch would need a different sequence and composition if it was to join to each strand per RNA nodule, which also means they need an odd number of chromosomes or cells in their bodies split into 3s which is a neat idea to entertain to explain A) an increased ammount of growth and or regeneration, B) quicker passes for evolution, due to more going wrong/right faster due to more chances of going mutation because of strand replication.

If they mutate faster, they should also suffer from cancer/genetic deseases and syndroms more frequently as well.

Contact your local Organic chemist for more info (Which I am not, really, please do, there is nothing better than theoretical quarrelling for some professors with some free time)

Vanguard spawnlings (immature Vanguard) are born with black teeth which swiftly become whitish due to a bleaching action from enzymes in their saliva.

Because the main element is manganese, their teeth would still remain black unless otherwise encrusted by the enzymes, because MOST of the tooth is comprised of calcium compounds, which makes me think now that it wouldn't be Mn in there at all, otherwise OUR teeth would be red, not to mention the fact that the would have somewhat rapid teeth generation because of that waring otherwise. In fact

Ca10[PO4]6[0H]2 (bone's hydroxyapatite crystals, which is brick to the fibre mortar) requires at least 20- for it to work, while Manganese fills the role, it turns PINK or various reds when it goes 2+ as a salt (Which I believe would turn the bones/teeth a deep, deep, purple-ish or red in conjunction with the blood's colour, see Manganese(II) chloride)

I refute only those points.

Also, most technically minded documents don't have smiley faces >_>

I mean no harm towards you, or your work.

Stupid lack of an edit button, those excerpts should be bold or something more visible T_T

YOU ASKED FOR A CRITIQUE

I did indeed ask for a refute and it came from someone knowledgeable in the field of chemistry (I chemistry) as well which makes it even more valuable.

Seriously, my sincerest thanks for the nit-picking - I shall have to revisit those sections of the document and tidy them up a bit to bring them more in-line with reality. Although I will quibble with the smileys... I wouldn't put them in my actual novels, but for a document like this I am happy for them to stay since it is not intended to be a story

Much appreciated, Sir - thank you.

Glad I could help in some way.

I sincerely advocate the Renaissance Man >_>

This is all highly theoretical due to the fact I'm only in Grade 11

The whole point behind making this document was for people interested in more specific details about the alien races I wrote about in the novels - if I tried to cram all this crap into a book along with a storyline it would be as boring as hell to read. So while you can get away with murder in a novel by the sin of omission for brevity's sake, I cannot get away with it here which is why I'd like it to be as correct as possible (while still a little entertaining).

So your assistance IS appreciated - nice to have someone that isn't just all ass-pats and is willing to provide valuable, well argued/thought-out critiques.

I dropped out of university level chemistry/physics etc after my second year, and that was a HELL of a long time ago - so I'm a little rusty - sorry, I'm a little oxidized

You better get 2O it!

And you would be surprised at what people actually read, similar documents like Terry Pratchett's Guide to the Diskworld, and Tolken's Samerillion are quite like you're doing, (The Samerillion being a collection of history about the world, while Guide to the Diskworld is a better in depth about the setting. Mind you he's really good at being funny no matter what he's writing.)

Carbon you later.

I'll send you my Fe.

I'm a big fan of Peter F Hamilton's sci-fi work and he has written a guide to the universe set up in some of his novels. I found it fascinating getting a bit more of an in-depth look into aspects of the universe he created but never spent a lot of time on in the novels.

Although I'm just some amateur hack publishing crap for free on the interbutts, I had enough people interested in knowing more to make this project worthwhile.

YoUr Puns Are VEry Bad, Indeed, SIr.

O R Li Y?

MY PUNS Ar ThAr WORSTiEs!

Had a quick skim over it, and there's not much I can see wrong biology-wise. Well, nothing wrong that can't be answered with 'they're mother-f***in' aliens, fer chrissakes'.

True, you can get away with murder in that regard. One thing I figured was that on a world with a high amount of ultraviolet radiation and high mutation, the more hardy species would have developed a much simpler biology over time. Complicated physiology would only have a higher chance of being adversely affected by a high malign mutation rate.

Which is correct, if you look at bugs that can stand a high radiation, and those heavy plates you described do function as a semi-exoskeleton.

Which helps of course!

Thank you, BTW!

i'll need to read this tonight, as i'm kinda under a time limit, but squee. from the other comments, looks like you really get into the nitty gritty. hope my head doesn't go boom...

Your head might go boom, just don't go getting your hopes up. This isn't a story, but more of an "instruction manual" of the universe the TCW novels take place in, if that makes sense

If a Vanguard consumes more water or fluids than its physiology can cope with then autonomic responses induce an involuntary regurgitation of the stomach contents.

After doing a bit of skimming this is the only thing I can put my finger on at the moment. Puking is only effective to get rid of water if the amount of water in the stomach causes uncomfortably much pressure. To get rid of the water that”the body can’t cope with” it would help greatly to sweat or urinate and very little to actually puke.

Puking only empties the body for the water in the stomach (unless Vanguard puking is a lot different than mammal way of blowing chunks) and water poisoning only occurs when too much water has been absorbed in the body and is starting to throw the salt balance out of whack. It would have to be several liters of course, but I reckon a human (proportionally) could handle more water than a Vanguard since a lot of the water will be expelled before becoming dangerous to the cells.

Not urinating or sweating seems kind of weird for a creature that’s this similar to Earth reptiles. Birds, for example, don’t urinate in the strict sense of the word; instead urine and waste come out of the butt while the avian answer to a penis is used for reproduction.

On that note. If water in large enough amounts is dangerous to a Vanguard then I imagine it could be used as a method of torture or something. Imagine doing something really wrong and be sentenced to Death by H2O. Dun dun dunnn!

(I’m sorry if I just addressed something explained in the text. I just skimmed it and TOILED BREAK caught my eye.)

Heh, I tried to keep things somewhat light-hearted in the explanations.

You do raise a good point, however as much as the Vanguard might externally resemble terrestrial reptiles, they are not. But yeah... think that is a good point for clarification, actually. Because they need to consume a lot in order to fuel their bodily processes, and because they do process water very efficiently it being such a rare commodity on their home-world during their evolution... too much water would very quickly produce a much more severe reaction than it would with a human...

...which could conceivably set off a reaction where their stomach "shuts down" and expels all contents to avoid absorbing any more until the overload can be dealt with. So play off that faster physiological reaction time to too much water, which is logical and makes sense.

There is a story-arc I am going to be playing with in the third novel involving a lot of water and the Vanguard inability to cope with it. They're so dense and large that they would also sink very quickly, and would not be good swimmers at all.... And the thought of "water boarding" would be a truly terrifying concept...

Foods for thought there. Much Obliged, Ms. CornerShop - thank you very much.

You have been such an amazing driving force behind this project, I owe you big-time.

Naw, I liked the title. It just caught my eye because I have a thing for toilets or something!

I know they’re not lizards or anything, but I reckon a desert dwelling reptile of some kind could have been a good reference for how a creature like a vanguard would work if it was real. I didn’t mean any offense!

There is a story-arc I am going to be playing with in the third novel involving a lot of water and the Vanguard inability to cope with it.

Oh my god. I’m looking so very much forward to the day you write that third book! You have no idea. I smell a great deal of action. Just, feel free to note me with written stuff any day if you need some of my mediocre critique or personal opinions. I’m lousy with chemistry, but not half bad when it comes to biology (though I reckon I’m worse than you).

Now I need to go and read book two again. I’m craving some interspecies relationship fluff.

Oh there was very much NO offense taken - I was hoping you would chime in at some point with some criticisms and questions, after all you are the person who really gave me the motivation to make this more than just a vague thought of "that might be cool" And from a purely "selfish" point of view, having a reference like this that I can refer to when I am writing will be invaluable also - consistency is a good thing when it comes to serialized stories using similar characters.

For the past three months or so I have not been feeling very motivated so work on that third novel came to a complete stand-still. However this has renewed my interest in picking it up again and making some more progress on it. I might just have to fling something your way to see if I am on the right track toward something people would find interesting.

Heh, the only problem with re-reading Taniwha is that you'll pick up even more of the crap writing and mistakes I made

I'm not sure weather camels "expel" water.

And if anything, they would have a organ for extended storage of water, due to infrequent encounters with it, so a "fill up" type biology would emerge. Even better yet! Not actually needing H2O, but a different chemical compound altogether >_>

Unfortunately H2O is a very unique compound (It's an acid/base for goodnesssakes!).

Also, water torture could first be viewed as a blessing.

Water could be absolutely crazy f*in delicious to them, diving them to A) Seek it and B)Want it, and coming to earth or other hydroponic planets could be a heaven.

Tie that into a mythology and cultural aspect.

Art, and individualism/creationism are closely tied both to self awareness, and scientific development. Art and entertainment are both important steps in the process of technological innovation. The Renaissance and the spawning of the ability to have time to "think" out side of I NEDZ FOODS, allowed people like Galleleo to prove and think through mathematics the fact that the earth goes around the sun --Which was created through one bored Greek trying one day to explain it all--

Without the mere thought that "What if" appears and manifests quite frequently through art and mythology.

All cultures, had some sort of myth about creation. The Mongols, Persians, for however war-like, still had one.

Architectural (as an example) design through the Middle Ages was to not get killed, as they didn't have to worry about that, they could start elaborating like the french gothic cathedrals that started to pop up everywhere (which was tied to mythology and the drive that it created), to become modern architecture.

While they might have a different sense of aesthetics, praising function over form, there is still art. Is it a cultural stigma instead? Pure art does nothing for survival really, but there has to be a group in the large population they must support.

In order to feed large amounts of people, they would have to have started farming at one point or another.

I did get into a bit of the basics around how the Vanguard evolved the use of tools/weapons, and what drove their technological evolution (cometary debris raining down on their world through the impenetrable cloud layers, ergo ZOMG there must be something out there, lets go find it because we HAVE to know, which lead to ZOMG there are aliens who might be more powerful, cannot have that!)... but the art thing is perhaps something I need to expand on a bit more you reckon?

Their mindset is very practical, and as you say art has no real function other than to be aesthetically pleasing. So although they can appreciate something "attractive" there is no desire to replicate it unless there is a specific benefit for doing so. So while they might have dreamers (some engineers and medics) they don't really have any hippy artist types

But I like the water thing... as you say the whole desire/fear aspect could be played upon to great effect.

They did get into farming of feed animals which they discovered was more efficient than simply hunting for prey (leading to the first settlements)... I have included that aspect already, but thank you.

Camels urinate, but because they're desert animals they only do it when the body absolutely needs to. Plus I do believe they sweat to cool down and/or to get rid of some of the water, though that's mostly because of the former.

Excellent work my friend! Interesting and funny with some lovely artwork :)

Aww thank you, Sir! I tried to make it as entertaining as possible rather than just lots of dry facts.

You're very qualified, pick my musical/art section apart!

No, it's kind of a "special occasions" sort of thing with them, rather than a form of daily or casual entertainment.

Only got a chance to skim though it, though I doubt that there's anything that I could pick apart as far as the biology goes, but I should have some questions as far as some of the tech and social aspects go, I just need to sit down and read it over a couple of times.

Please do, and don't be afraid to be really critical, I have already had some great advice from people about various aspects.

Thank you

dude, the vanguard are like the sexy older brother to my shekki guys. what with the 'seeing into IR and UV' thing. and a few other things. i'll have to think of some specific things to ask later after reading it again, but i will say the we totally gotta do like a crossover type thing once i'm able to do computer things at the house. i've got an idea based off something in the 'subspace' bit.

With most life having originally evolved underground and with a very thick planetary atmosphere which would make everything rather gloomy, it made sense that they could see partially into the infrared spectrum. Also because their planet orbits relatively close to the parent star they would still get a reasonable amount of UV light coming through. They're not "superhuman" as bright light levels are visually crippling for them, but it does offer some advantages to a predator type species.

And I'd be interested to hear what you have to say about any ideas regarding sub-space and the like

The reason my shekki have UV and IR vision is kinda the reverse. They evolved with "normal" vision, then filled in the gaps that nature left so they could live easier once they went underground due to a nuclear winter they caused (my version of the KT Event). They've kinda got shit for eyes in visible light now though, but they can always tell when their kids are faking a fever to get out of school.
And the subspace thing caught my eye because of those "weird ships nobody's ever seen before". In the distant future of my li'l reality, they figure out how to travel between realities to get around that annoying "speed of light" thing. Their ships already use the barrier between worlds to move, kinda like a boat floating on the water's surface, but they can also "dive" into a lower plane of reality they call "alter space" and surface quite a bit farther away in their own reality. The way my thing works, the other plane naturally pushes "foreign bodies" out after a time (at least for them), so they'd never have had to figure out a way back and wouldn't stay long enough to notice very much. Like other ships down there. Which is what got me thinking of a possible crossover thing when I saw the "otherworldly ships" mentioned there.
Not sure yet how the two realities would interact, or if it'd be canonically possible for either of us, and it'd have to be once i have internet back at my house (look at me, still having hope! ha!)but it'd be fun to try out though eh? Whad'ya say?

Possiblities I thought of are a shekki ship gets stuck in Alter Space and a Vanguard ship goes bonk with it, or a Vanguard ship gets the subspace breach wrong and falls into the shekki/lykoi/human reality.

Also, I'm so stealing your spiffy layout to compile my own of these things. You thought of a few headings I haven't even thought up any info for. PSP doesn't like FA's submission form (or FA haet PSP) and only allows me to upload images, so it's gonna be a while before I can get it up here, but yeah.

help yourself to any format/layout. As for the headings I lumped them into what seemed like logical groupings.

And certainly, we could collaborate on something together sometime, could be fun Because the singularity generators used to create the breach into subspace have to be specifically "tuned" it would make sense that something from the TCW reality could conceivably end up somewhere other than sub-space if something went wrong with the resonance.

Awesomeness. I was kinda thinking of a comicy thing, as I can write dialog but am ass at setting tone and such. Just try not to forget though. It's gonna take a while (a whiiiile) for this thing going on to be settled. In a few months or so, I'm gonna PM you with ideas and you'll be all "what the hell is this?" XD

S'okay, my long term memory is fine it's just my short term that is shot from old age.

Really? What did you find fappable, just out of interest? Was never really intended to be such but I am amused if someone did find something in there that they thought might be arousing.

Cock is always hot!

Easy to please, and no arguments here Just amused that you found it arousing, given the dry, anatomical way I described it.

Yeah, well, I'm like that. By the way, can I use the Shock Lance pic in my character profile?

How do you want to use it, exactly? I don't have any objections if you can give me a reasonable explanation - if that is okay then just get permission from the original artist.

Well, Silent-Hunter is a warrior, and I have used him in combat RPs. I have been asked about Vanguard weaponry. I was hoping to show this to them. I would also show them the Vanguard heavy assault rifle and mono-filament crystal blades, but I haven't seen pictures of those. I wish I could draw.

Probably one of the best looking heavy assault rifles is this one: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2547718/ The blades I have never had drawn. But go for it, anyway. If you post it anywhere though give the artist full credit (and ask for their permission) - you have my blessing.

Thanks! Is it okay if I use excerpts from the Vanguide to describe the weapons? I'll give full credit.

Sure, just bear in mind that final descriptions in this document may change.

Thanks! They won't change that much I'm sure. The descriptions are excellent as they are!

Well, judging by the interesting comments(especially up top), this would be an interesting read when I get my internet back up. Sadly, LG phones aren't exactly good for that. and I don't think even Bitstream Bolt would spring for this.

It needs updating but my life is in a bit of an uproar at the moment (nothing bad, just events are progressing ). But it is basically a WIP of all the background stuff that much of my Vanguard universe writing is based on. All the technobabble I left out of the novels to avoid overload or boredom

Is it OK if I link people who ask about Vanguard to this submission? I know it's not finished, but it gives a lot of info.

Go for it, buddy

Thanks! *hugs*

XD You should probably put this on your profile page.

I probably will, once it's complete

Oh? It seems to have quite a bit of info so far, were you still adding more?