Freelance Traveller

Travelling in the Liaden Universe^®

by Jeff Zeitlin

This article originally appeared in the September/October 2024 issue.

If C.J. Cherryh’s Compact Space is a good setting for Traveller, the Liaden Universe^® [LU, henceforth] by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller must be viewed as better, in most ways.

The LU has room for more than just mercantile campaigns; mercenary, exploratory, ‘technical’, and political opportunities abound. The setting is mostly (but not exclusively) human (though the non-humans are best limited to NPC roles), but with room for cultural variation at least as wide as has been seen in both official Third Imperium material and Traveller/Cepheus Engine ‘fanac’.

Most of the novels (there are 26 [so far] and an additional five [again, so far] compilations of shorter stories) illustrate challenges that occur when dissimilar cultures rub against each other, and Lee and Miller have made an effort to present both sides from their own views, and show how the challenges are risen to.

While many of the short stories do not follow the main arcs of the novels, they do throw additional light on Lee and Miller's worldbuilding—which is, in my opinion, some of the best and most thorough worldbuilding to have ever graced the speculative fiction metagenre.

Cultures (and Aliens)

I usually start with the interstellar travel model for the universe; I start with Cultures here instead because different cultures use different interstellar drives. Please bear with me.

The most prominent culture we are shown is that of the Liadens. As a whole, the Liadens are the most formal, and perhaps the second most rigid culture portrayed, and most of the stories we are given involve Liadens, often of Clan Korval, who are perhaps not as rigidly Liaden as those not of Korval, but who nevertheless are positioned within the stories to give us the best view of what being Liaden means. Even when the viewpoint character is not Liaden—such as in Balance of Trade, Trade Secret, and Fair Trade—the view of Liaden culture is quite definitely enlightening. In dealing with Liadens, one must be conscious of “melant’i”, which can answer for a combination of ‘face’ (in the social sense often mistranslated and misunderstood in connection with Far Eastern cultures), Social Standing (in the Traveller sense), and ‘reputation’ (in a mode analogous to its variability across the Stack Exchange network, though not numerically evaluated). (This would make C6 in Traveller-LU a full sub-profile for Liadens, as one’s melant’i as a member of Clan would be different from one’s melant’i in one’s role in society or in employment—or even in the relationship between two individuals depending on the ‘mode’ of the relationship.) It should be noted that Liaden culture is homogeneous, but not exactly rigidly uniform.

The books speak of “Terrans” in contrast to Liadens; one cannot say that there is a Terran culture in the LU; say rather that those cultures labelled “Terran” represent an assumed heritage. Here, there is infinite room for variation; if you can imagine it for Traveller, chances are it will fit well in the LU. It is perhaps worth noting that not all “Terran” cultures are planet-based; some “Terran” trading families remain shipbound, coming planetside only for trade and “Festival”, whose description allows for opportunity for genetic mixing.

The Yxtrang are a militarised (and rigidly so) culture; they stand as an enemy in a permanent state of war with those who are not Yxtrang. We see little of them from their own point of view; most presentation is as seen by those fighting against them. Looking at the internal chronology, however, it is only in the earliest and latest books that we see inside the fully-militarised culture of the ancestors of the Yxtrang—and what little we see of the actual Yxtrang suggests, in light of what we learn from the earliest and latest books, that they have forgotten their true mission. There is evidence that the Yxtrang are genetically-engineered human stock, and may well still be able to interbreed with Liaden or Terran.

Of the non-humans, there are three noteworthy groups: The “Clutch” (or “Clutch Turtles”), the “norbears”, and the “Free Logics”.

The Clutch are long-lived, normally slow-moving entities, preferring caverns as homes and workshops. Their understanding of materials, especially of mineral origin, is unmatched, and their crafting of artifacts is portrayed as being most like bonsai, though there is ample evidence that they use sound as a tool. In appearance, the Clutch do appear more like turtles than any other Earthly creature, but they do walk upright and use their forelimbs for manipulation. Their age may be estimated from the size of their shell, and their lifespan is not clearly defined, but may be in the hundreds of years (regardless of whether we’re speaking of our own years or Liaden years).

We know little of norbears save that they are empaths that are pleased to associate with humans; although arguably sophonts (in Traveller terms), we most often encounter them in relationships that place them as nonsophont ‘pets’, and within the Liaden universe, there is some question whether they qualify as ‘people’ rather than ‘animals’.

Free Logics answer to the description of what in current discussion would be described as Artificial (General) Intelligences. Their status as of the latest novel is ambiguous at best; until late in the internal chronology, their existence was illegal, due to what we would call the Frankenstein Complex (but which term is not actually used in the stories).

Lee and Miller do not attempt to paint any of their characters or cultures as unambiguously “good” or “evil”; there is always moral ambiguity involved, even where the portrayals are intended to result in the reader being sympathetic—or not—to the stated goals. One can disapprove of the goals and methods of the “Department of the Interior”, while perhaps understanding why those goals may have arisen—and similarly (or opposite) with Clan Korval, the Scouts, the Council of Clans, the government of Eylot, and so on.

Interstellar Travel

As with Compact Space, we are not given any solid benchmarks for interstellar travel, but like ‘book’ Traveller, subjective, objective, and physiological time appear to align, and interstellar travel is not instantaneous; it is at the speed of plot, but does involve Traveller-style elapsed time in transit. It should be noted that “Terran”, Liaden, and Clutch star drives are suggested as operating by different principles, and will cover the same distance in differing amounts of time (ranked from fastest to slowest, Terran, Liaden, Clutch; ranked from least risky to most risky, the reverse).

Ship sizes and configurations are not clearly described for Traveller-style visualization; one might get the impression that most Terran or Liaden ships are larger in capacity but approximately equal in crew; Clutch ships tend towards extremes of size, but crew counts are unknown, and Clutch ships may be programmed to travel without operating crew. Interstellar travel appears not to be quantized, nor does there appear to be limitation on how far a ship may transit in one operation, save prudence and risk evaluation.

Psionics or Magic

Even psionics—or magic—can be accommodated in the LU; the talents of the Healers and the dramliz can answer to either label, and reactions to their existence and use vary “all over the map”, from outright fear and suppression to complete acceptance.

Adventuring

There are organizations that can answer to Traveller’s Scout service, and the Liaden Scouts have an interest in collecting and suppressing the use of ‘befores’, which are portrayed as extremely old technology, based on malign artificial intelligence, and detectable because they are all based on an exotic element called ‘timonium’. The scouts are also involved in exploration and first-contact or re-contact.

The primary reason for interstellar travel is clearly mercantile (including perhaps some tourism); there are ships that operate as Traveller free traders, but routes and loops are common, and exploratory trade is generally aimed at establishing new routes or loops.

Mercenary operations are not unknown, but organized interstellar warfare appears to be outside the worldview; even the Yxtrang focus on planetside battle rather than ship-to-ship action. There are no equivalents to Traveller’s Naval or Army/Marines career; at best, one might get similar training to the latter in a mercenary company.

Note: Even aside from considering the LU as a Traveller setting, the books, in spite of the sheer volume of text in total, are quite worth reading. Strongly recommended; they may all be purchased from Baen Books.