What Are Your Questions about Yamatai?

They have SYNC access all the time. It's Yamatai's communications network that most citizens are connected to.

Good thing they come out with fairly mature brains then. That's worse than giving a teen a laptop in a house with open WiFi. Actually, that's normal these days, isn't it?

It's kind of depressing, actually. I have to wonder why some people even bother going out to eat together anymore, since no less than half of the tables I ever see in a restaurant nowadays are filled with people who spend more time plinking away on their smartphones than actually talking to (or even looking at) one another. I cringed when I realized that my daughter was going to grow up in a world that will never be more than a few steps away from being connected to a Matrix-like supernetwork. To her, the concepts of a folding road map, rotary telephone, and compact disc are going to be as archaic as a hand-cranked phonograph was to me when I was little.

Anyway, I did actually have a question. :lol:

To make sure I understand fabrication technology appropriately: these machines are capable of creating virtually anything using no raw materials?

If so, then my next question is this: why does this universe bother with a liquid medium of exchange such as currency? If anything can be fabricated, this eliminates the fundamental driving factor of the concept of trade -- scarcity of goods. There can virtually be no more shortages of anything, which means that everyone can have exactly as much of anything as they want, which means that money no longer has value.

I'm sure there's something I'm missing, even if it's just for someone to lightly smack the back of my head and tell me to lighten up and suspend my disbelief already. :mrgreen:

To make sure I understand fabrication technology appropriately: these machines are capable of creating virtually anything using no raw materials?

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Sort of. The Ketsurui Zaibatsu, a huge government-controlled manufacturing consortium, is able to synthesize raw materials out of the aether, which can then be used to build things (and robots build them) so there is certainly some of that going on. However the tech is not used for everything to the point where there's no scarcity. That said, in Yamatai, some materials are very cheap, particularly metals.

Wait, raw imported energy to chemical element synthesis? Too cool!

Equivalent exchange. Nice.

Q1. What are the classes and what period of Japan's history does Yamatai reflect?

Q2. Could you tell us more about the samurai, what independence they have and how they are used?

Q3. In a world with ST backups and huge computers, is there really such a thing as death? If so, why?

Q4. Legally, are Nekovalkyjra people or property?

Q5. What is a typical city like?

Q6. Does Yamatai prime or its surrounding worlds have a dark and seedy underbelly?

Q7. Does Yamatai have a yakuza-like entity?

tl;dr: I feel Yamatai are too squeaky clean and it makes them unbelievable. What would be more believable is hiding their dark underbelly but still having one.

For new folks to this thread: I'm Doshii Jun, a secondary FM for Yamatai. I'll keep my answers to the questions in my wheelhouse and what can be wikianswered.

Q2. Could you tell us more about the samurai, what independence they have and how they are used?

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The Ketsurui Samurai page provides a good newbie starter, but for a little more depth —

There are samurai on Yamatai hailing from many of the clans, with the Tamahagane and Karasu clans seemingly having warriors the longest. However, only Ketsurui Clan warriors have the official title of Samurai (big S).

Samurai overwhelmingly are born into their profession, but there are occasions when Samurai were accepted under special circumstances. They are not duty-bound to stay in it, however, and Samurai also have fallen from grace. As of this writing, the Samurai are dealing with a great betrayal within their order, and have much face to regain.

Ketsurui Samurai are headed by a daimyo, with a council of elders below her and a roster of teachers below them. Inside the Samurai, who have their own residence and training complex, there only are four ranks: trainee, journeywoman, Samurai and daimyo. Right now, the daimyo is Ketsurui Tsuya. She's a bit of a mystery.

Samurai historically have had great independence within the clan, and, after the Ketsurui formally came to power, outside of it. Though only some Samurai are of the police class (fukei) that has interempire jurisdiction, all Samurai are considered a class above the usual citizen and accordingly are afforded privileges. In the Star Army, the Samurai rank translates into a warrant officer, and always are granted a certain extra respect.

Samurai are used according to their class. As mentioned above, the fukei are a police force, able to operate on their own or working with other agencies. Gunsotsu are the closest thing Yamatai has to U.S. Marines; they are basic, but highly trained and ruthlessly efficient soldiers. Some Samurai strictly are Power Armor Pilots. There are more classes than those listed on the wiki, and some Samurai go without a class for some time. Though not a literal translation as we know it, the Samurai call the classless among them ronin.

Q4. Legally, are Nekovalkyrja people or property?

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The bodies are property. The souls are not.

Q5. What is a typical city like?

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Planet Yamatai has no typical city, though its major city and planetary capital is Kyoto. Yamatai's empire used to include Nepleslia and its planets, so there are many cities built in a Nepleslian style, including Port Xenn, Ternifac, Ralt and others. Malifar was a blended town, and is being rebuilt in a similar way.

Basically, imagine Kyoto as Tokyo, Nepleslian cities as Western/American, and a few of the other cities (Malifar, Ralt) as microcosms of other ethnically styled cities.

Q6. Does Yamatai prime or its surrounding worlds have a dark and seedy underbelly?

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Nothing is perfect.

Colony worlds, especially ones that are new, have sometimes shaky establishments and governments. Crime happens much more on the colonies than Planet Yamatai.

There also are many unexplored, or just plain mysterious, parts about Planet Yamatai, including Winstonville, Xiuluria and the island chains in the far north and south.

Err, well I don't want to ask this question. But I will

What is a "soul" to Yamatai?

When it is used, "soul" is used just a synonym for "mind." It's the sum of personality and memory that makes a person who they are and determines how they think. It can reside in a brain or a computer. Yamataians generally are not religious and do not believe in an afterlife.

Per a discussion with Wes in the past. It is the mind, the collective experience of the individual. After all if it was not so the first time a person had a body transfer it would be murder.

What side of the road do you drive on in Yamatai?

On the right side, per Nepleslian "roots."

This follows with the design of many cars and other vehicles, including military ones.

Unless its an air car, then they don't need roads.

Though I wonder if in traffic it goes right-side anyway, just so people aren't zooming and zinging across the air and into each other.

Probably for consistency, so that an air car coming down to merge with ground traffic doesn't have to swerve.

I want to know more about her dark underbelly. Literally, anything that isn't just military or intelligence.

OsakanOne said:

I want to know more about her dark underbelly. Literally, anything that isn't just military or intelligence.

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Oh that is good question. I am curious about that too. What abotu Yama-yakuza? Black market? Trade with neko bodies and what not. There has to be some fun stuff like that. Even if it was limited.

Ex, Revolver and I got the On'nin Ikemen approved. Recent wiki changes a while back showed Nashoba working on something cool, but I've forgotten what he's calling them.

Why fruits, @Wes? I was so confused to have a Blueberry, Cherry, and Mango aboard the Eucharis!

And another: What path would a wandering Ronin Samurai take after leaving the Imperial Palace? Are there any hot spots that they would seek out and want to explore or would it be a free for all?

Maybe they were named after characters from a TV show that Sarena really liked and was immensely popular a few years ago... Like Veggietales, but with fruit, and actually popular. And hopefully less terrifying. Okay, maybe not like that except for being a TV show.