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Amalgam Answers

So most of Earth is category 4, Australia is category 5, the UK must be something like category 2. There is literally nothing deadly here and the worst we have is stinging nettles and sometimes horseflies.

What would actually constitute a category 1 or less, or a non-deathworld? All I can think of would be an entire world of primary producers but there are established predators in Amalgamverse…

Deathworld categories are judged entirely on the surface inhabited by the dominant cogniscent life form.

Since humans make their homes near volcanic cauldera and in known tornado hotspots, Earth ranks a total of 3.8, and most of that is because of Australia.

They also count lifeforms that are hazardous and toxic to the dominant cogniscent life form.

Category One deathworlds mostly have hazardous seasons [for example, killing winters or killing summers, tornadoes, cyclones or flooding monsoons] or a pernicious species that is known to be hazardous or toxic.

Species from Category Five deathworlds are generally avoided [if they survive to make it into space]. Oddly enough, humans are one of the few species who can stop them in their tracks.

Non-deathworlds, by comparison, have stable and sensible food chains and hardly any naturally toxic life forms. Those that are toxic are mildly so, in the order of discouraging a potential attacker from attacking again. The life forms from these worlds are generally far more fragile than deathworlder stock.

Exposure to deathworlders - even careful ones - is enough to sympathetically toughen up non-deathworlder species. Most cogniscents see this as an advantage and court tourists from gradually incremental deathworlds.

Answering this now because it's more of a question than a prompt

So the Amalgam verse has those fan-pins for insulters, and you mentioned somewhere that there was a three-badge scale from something like occasional-accidental-insult to has-no-idea-what-social-mores-are-please-educate. What’s the fan level for will-insult-your-entire-family-when-annoyed or the reaction to precisely and deliberately reducing someone to a puddle of crying goo with a few well placed verbal barbs?

The fan pin is for people who are insulting by accident. Most people of the level you describe go pro or are selected for special training by

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Answering this now because it's more of an ask than a prompt.

For all the snippets involving Shayde, there hasn’t been much more than a hinted explanation of how she got to be where she is now. So, how did she arrive in the Galactic Alliance, and was it before or after other humans had made proper contact?

(Also, what does Shayde look like? I can’t find a description but I remember something about being like a living shadow so my best guess is similar to the Death in “

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