psssst Dave: in "Language," "it's verbs" should not have an apostrophe. The possessive of "it" is "its," like hers, yours, and ours. "It's" is a contraction for "it is" or "it has."

If every Tesskan must kill the oldest pack member in order to join the pack, doesn't that mean that the pack size will never increase? Pack members die in the fights every mating season, but newborns can never rejoin the pack without taking someone else's place? Shouldn't Tesskans be extinct by now?

While we're at it, "world-chaging".

psst Lauren_lpsum: He is perfectly correct in the use of 'it's in this situation.

read: "It is worth revisiting...."

@awc: I think Lauren_Ipsum was referring to was "It's verb tenses are almost entirely...", in which case it's "its" and not "it's". Clear now?

-ff

P.S.: The way I remember this is "his" and "hers" (the possessive forms) don't have apostrophes, so "its" doesn't either.

Would it be possible to create a new section on the site that's dedicated to these Enciclopedia Xenobiologia entries?

@vulcanviking:

Great question, and I can see the confusion: The many hundreds of surviving cubs (each mother has a litter) that rejoin the pack are tasked with killing the oldest pack member en masse. It culls out those who can survive the grasslands, but might not survive combat.

@kiga:

That's awesome to see you lookin' for 'em, but yeah... those are a different species.

@rubisco:

Totally. I think, long-term, that'll be a brilliant idea, especially as we get up to one or two dozen species.

While we're discussing typos and misspellings:

In the last paragraph, 'Destorying' should obviously be 'Destroying'.

I thought he meant all of the baby Tesskans ganged up on the oldest one.

Okay, that last line is gold. I totally completely and unequivocally love this comic.

Awesome job Dave.

Whoa, whoa, whoa: are we trying to create the impression that Steve* is a Filipod?

* (I'm with the little guy, "Skitter" doesn't fit. If we're going to come up with a silly name, I'd go with "Moe". Or, based on today's found document, maybe "Phil".)

I think it's interesting that the Tesskans were armed with extremely crude spears instead of, well, really anything else. It makes me wonder if the Empire didn't see fit to reduce them somewhat technologically speaking as a response to their stated inability to use technology for really any other purpose than mass genocide. Not that I'm really weeping considering they've tried to exterminate at least three sentient species that they've bothered to keep a record of.

I'm am curious though, what kind of sublight drives could they have upgraded to if their existing ship technology was not up to the task, but they could make a minimum 4 light year journey in three years?

So, we know that Veetans don't live so long, but that Nosh's grandfather is old enough to remember the war. Seems that the found document must be around 90 years forward in time of the current storyline (refers to Tesskan attacks 110 years ago). If Skitter is a Filipod, which makes sense considering their kind work for the Tesskans and that members of Skitter's species were working a fuel depot on the Tesskan moon, then that could help explain how the document knows about them, yet no one in the current empire knows what Skitter is. Perhaps, 90 years prior to the entry, no one outside Tesskil society would have encountered them. Being a Filipod might also explain why the Veetan records, even with their extensive travels, make no reference to Skitter's kind anywhere else. Presumably any space-faring species, which we assume Skitter is (you don't typically abduct people off their home planet just to incarcerate them), should have come in contact with the Veetans, unless there was a reason why they didn't get to travel on their own too much.

BUT - it's still a huge stretch to say you can conquer a planet, assimilate their inhabitants into your empire, and STILL not discover a vital, second sentient species of scientists and engineers living in subjugation. So, if Skitter *is* a Filipod, I want to know how the heck they got overlooked by the empire.

On the other hand, if there were a deliberate conspiracy by the Tesskans to hide the Filipods (or exterminate as many as they could after losing the war - now there's a sad thought!), it might explain how the empire missed them.

So Dave, did I get any of that right?