Revised Background (The Eldren)
Johnny1A
involving the alien superrace called the Eldren. That was
preliminary, this is the revised version, which fits in with my
Atlantis background. Some parts will repeat what I posted before,
some bits are different, but this version is the one that goes with
the Atlantis line.
I posted previously about the general background of the universe
I'm devising:
I mentioned that a race has been making a habit of spreading
multicellular life when they encounter it, and I also note that
they've been at this for well over a _billion years_. Now I'm working
on the early stages of putting a solider form to these beings.
I picked the name 'Eldren' for it's obvious play off the 'elders'. I
assume that's a common name (in various) languages, used by the
Humanoids to refer to them, since that's what they are, the oldest
intelligent life in the Universe.
I'm not giving Attribute stats, because they'd be essentially
meaningless for a Full Eldren, except a very very young one. The
oldest Eldren were already conscious when the first star ignited.
Granted, these entities won't take a direct hand very often, so pt
valuation isn't all that critical anyway.
Note: The inspiration for these entities comes in part from GURPS
Aliens, specifically the Aurorans, but moreso from the James Blish
young adult novels _The Star Dwellers_ and "Journey to the Heart
Stars_.
In appearance, a Full Eldren looks like a globe of polychromatic light
or
energy, but in fact they are _not_ creatures of pure energy. They are
composed of plasma, force-fields, and forms of matter not entirely
native to this Universe. In their Full (or natural) state, they
appear from the outside to be about 3 to 5 meters in diameter, and
they
radiate electromagnetic radiation across the spectrum from long-wave
radio up through gammas. The exact frequencies shift according to
their internal processes and their moods, so to Humanoid eyes they
appear to be globes of light, blazing in every color in the spectrum.
Humanoids very rarely encounter a Full Eldren, most of them are
_utterly_ disinterested in us. They tend to favor environments where
Humanoids rarely go, such as the depths of intergalatic space (they
tend to like a lot of 'elbow room'). When you've been around as
individuals since before the Galaxies formed, the doings of Man don't
seem that significant, rightly or wrongly. A very few do find us
interesting, not all the interest is necessarily friendly.
The mentalities of Eldren are quite alien to Humanoids. About the
closest thing they have in common with us is that they are divided in
terms of personality into male and female, which is deeply weird, and
puzzling to the Humanoid scientists who study them, since they _don't
reproduce sexually, and never did_. (I know why they are male and
female,
but nobody among the Humanoids in my universe does just yet.)
An Eldren can subdivide itself at will, into smaller and less powerful
copies of itself. These appear similar to their parent, but smaller.
A given Full Eldren can subdivide itself into as many as xD6
subentities, with x=number of million year periods the Full Eldren has
existed (i.e. a ten million Terran year old Full Eldren can subdivide
into as many as 10D6 subentities at once). Each subentity retains the
personality of the 'parent', but smaller attributes and powers. The
more subentities a Full Eldren breaks itself into, the weaker each is,
of course. They can recombine at will, and a common will still
suffuses them when separated (normally). Think of it as a parallel
program running on multiple machines.
Eldren are _enormously_ powerful psionic beings. All Eldren _start_
their ageless existence with _Power 35 telepathy_, plus they have the
Range Enhancement at Universal scale for their own species only. A
Full Eldren can telepathically communicate with another Full Eldren at
intergalactic distances.
MORE LATER.
Shermanlee
Johnny1A
>
> Eldren are _enormously_ powerful psionic beings. All Eldren _start_
> their ageless existence with _Power 35 telepathy_, plus they have the
> Range Enhancement at Universal scale for their own species only. A
> Full Eldren can telepathically communicate with another Full Eldren at
> intergalactic distances.
>
> MORE LATER.
>
> Shermanlee
LATER.
I mentioned in the above posting that these creatures first spread
Earth-derived life-forms at all levels of complexity across the Milky
Way Galaxy (as well as the Lesser and Greater Clouds of Magellan, for
what it's worth). Later, they spread breeding populations of genus
Homo across some of the worlds they had previously stocked and
terraformed with Terrestrian life.
That description is accurate, but misleading, in that it implies that
all this was something done by the whole 'race'. In fact, in my
background universe, pretty much _all_ the interaction with Earth and
Earth-derived life-forms was the doing of perhaps a few hundred of
these
entities.
Recall that they can 'subdivide' themselves at will into xD6
subordinate versions of themselves. These few hundred were very old,
the
youngest over billion years old. Thus they could subdivide into a
huge number of lesser versions of themselves, enabling them to be, in
effect, at many places at once. They were led by five particularly
old and
powerful entities of this ilk.
The Five were not necessarily of one mind, though they shared a common
interest in their 'hobby' (spreading life from world to world). The
result of this was that various aspects of the Project were biased
this way or that by the specific interests of the specific Eldren.
Some of the genetic engineering done to produce new species and
subspecies of Genus Homo can be attributed to the different goals (and
whims) of these Five leading entities.
At the end of the period 70,000 years ago when the Five were last on
Earth, a dispute breaks out between the Five (I haven't decided
exactly what was in contest yet. One advantage of entities that alien
is that you don't necessarily have to provide rational explanations.
They are uber-aliens, after all.)
The dispute had several side-effects, and was centered primarily on
Earth, which is where the Five were at this final stage. They had
finished pretty much all the transfer operation (and ponder the
arrogance of that action in itself), and were finishing up the last
few little details. The dispute turned violent, with the Five
themselves
and their respective followers having the equivalent of a relatively
friendly bar-room brawl. It wasn't that big a deal from the
viewpoint of their race.
From the viewpoint of Earth, it was another matter altogether,
disrupting the climate on a planetary scale, and triggering, among
other things, the eruption of the supervolcano Toba. The last ice
age,
which had been ending, was restarted, with a fresh round of glaciation
triggered.
Still, the Five and their followers would probably have gotten past
the whole
business easily enough, leaving little long-term effect on the human
and humanoid races, except that another Eldren became involved, and
thereby hangs a tale.
MORE LATER.
Johnny1A
>
> Still, the Five and their followers would probably have gotten past
> the whole
> business easily enough, leaving little long-term effect on the human
> and humanoid races, except that another Eldren became involved, and
> thereby hangs a tale.
>
> MORE LATER.
There are many, many Eldren. The oldest are older than the oldest
star that ever shone. The youngest came into existence today. They
are continually born from a natural process that is a basic part of
the Universe's 'operating system'. Once in existence, they endure
until the End of Time or until their violent death/disruption, and the
later is a rare, rare occurrence.
They have their own affairs, most of which are hardly comprehensible
to humanoids, but they also have rivalries, politics, and so forth,
though the issues involved are their own. Suffice it to say that one
of the Five had a rivalry, or a political animousity, or perhaps just
a personal dispute, with another Eldren of comparable rank and age.
Both were over three billion years old, both were powerful even as
members of their people and rank went. This rival was not much
interested in humanoids, or planet-bound life of any sort, but he was
very interested in anything that discomfited his rival.
He had observed with some interest his rival's interest in planetary
life, looking for some way to 'get at' him. For a long time, nothing
of much use presented itself, but now, as the dispute broke out among
the Five, he saw his opportunity for some mischief.
The few hundred Eldren on Earth, in the midst of what amounted to a
good-natured brawl, were vulnerable to something this Eldren had
cooked up. His plan was to 'entrap' his rival on Earth, thus removing
him from the balance of Eldren politics/social life/whatever it is.
What he used could be compared perhaps to a computer virus, though
only in the loosest possible way. It's purpose was to force the Five,
and their followers, into a dormant state, in which they would be
subdivided to their maximum possible state, and kept that way for a
million years or so. It almost worked.
It all occurred over the course of a few minutes. Exactly what
occurred would probably make sense only to another Eldren, but the
'virus' did its work, tossing the Eldren on Earth into a spasm of
mental confusion. Instinct took over, and most of them did indeed
shut down mentally, their corporeal forms splitting apart and
scattering across the face of the planet, going dormant.
Most of them. The particular member of the Five who all this was
targeted against, however, became aware of the attack just in time,
and he counter-attacked. Again, exactly what he did would not be
clear to anyone but an Eldren, but suffice it to say that his enemy
found himself likewise partially ensnared in his own trap. Though his
mind didn't entirely shut down, his form de-integrated and went
dormant. He was left in a dreamy state of half-consciousness,
powerless for the moment, much like his rival. That particular
Eldren, the specific target of the whole attack, had had just enough
time to take some countermeasures, and he, too, retained
half-consciousness.
This was about 70,000 years ago. For the time being, little changed.
The handful of humanoids left on Earth could not comprehend what had
been happening, and were at TL0 or even TL-1 at the time. The
majority of the few hundred Eldren on Earth, plus the troublemaker,
were trapped, and most of them were completely dormant. So matters
would stand for some time.
Shermanlee
Johnny1A
>
> This was about 70,000 years ago. For the time being, little changed.
> The handful of humanoids left on Earth could not comprehend what had
> been happening, and were at TL0 or even TL-1 at the time. The
> majority of the few hundred Eldren on Earth, plus the troublemaker,
> were trapped, and most of them were completely dormant. So matters
> would stand for some time.
>
> Shermanlee
LATER.
Out of all the several hundred Eldren trapped on Earth, only two
remained semi-conscious. Actually, 'semi' is perhaps generous, they
were in dreamy half-state between consciousness and dormancy, varying
back and forth. Unlike the others, they were retained some limited
ability to affect their surroundings. It was only a fraction of what
they would possess 'awake', but a fraction of such power was still
quite impressive.
Recall that a full Eldren possesses, by mortal standards, _gargantuan_
powers. These half-dormant entities were only a pale shadow of their
normal selves, but still immensely capable compared to TL0 Humanoids.
It was the member of the Five who came up with the idea to fix things.
It was a slow thought, since he was thinking slowly. It might have
taken him a century to conceive the idea, another few centuries to
ponder it, another few to decide to act on it, and another century or
so to make it happen. It might have taken longer, even this member of
the Five could not have said. His sense of time was as scrambled as
his consciousness. Perhaps it took millennia, not centuries. He had
no way to know.
He needed a way to manipulate the physical world, a way to reassemble
his de-integrated self, and to awaken the other four of the Five and
their respective followers. What he hit on was the idea of creating
an artificial humanoid, what in GURPS terms would be called a sort of
bioroid. Drawing on the relatively enormous psionic and other powers
he could still use, he created over the course of time something like
a sort of bioroid growth-tank.
It would have looked very strange to a later human bioengineer, more
like a huge mass of living tissues and weird glassine elements than a
machine in the human sense, but it performed its purpose. It was
assembled by a combination of psi-controlled humanoids and apes and
monkeys, and by the action of psi-directed microorganisms and insects.
African termites assembled a variation on one of their nests to form
the framework. Spiders spun structures of silk far more complex than
anything they could produce on their own. Droplets of blood and bits
of skin from the psi-controlled humans who worked to help bring about
this living machine provided DNA and cells to work with as a basis.
It took centuries of steady, patient, tricky work.
At the end, though, using this bizarre creation, the First of the Five
was able to create a bioroid 'host' for himself. He then infused the
largest and most capable of his 'waking' fragments into the bioroid.
The resulting hybridized entity awakened into the paleolithic world of
Earth, thousands of years _before_ the settlement of Atlantis, or the
Americas.
The bioroid had a mind of his own, of course. With an living brain
based on human (and human-cousin) DNA and cells, he was in fact
basically one of us. But his brain and body were 'designed' to be an
ultra-efficient psionic system, and his own innate psi powers
surpassed anything naturally occuring in H. sapiens (at least so far).
His body was an 'idealization' of the human form, stronger, faster,
tougher, etc, though not superhumanly so, unlike the psi factor. In
terms of his physical abilities, think Captain America, not Superman.
Of course, one other difference between the bioroid and the natural
humans who were his cousins was that he had Unaging. He would die
only from violence or starvation or other such causes, age alone would
not end his life (save perhaps on a scale of hundreds of millennia).
The First of the Five wanted a host that would last a while.
The First of the Five then returned to his near-dormancy, storing
himself in a perfect symbiosis with his creation, in specialized organ
structures the bioroid had the normal humanoids don't. The mind of
his creation, in theory, could have access to all the knowledge of his
creator/symbiotic partner. In practice, it didn't work that way. The
young entity emerged into a world equipped with a smattering of
knowledge he didn't know how he knew, some imperatives he didn't quite
comprehend, and powers he soon realized others didn't have.
One of the imperatives was to seek out the other 'fragments' of the
First of the Five, scattered around the planet, and 'awaken' and
absorb them. He didn't know that's what he was doing, but it was, and
he began, over the course of the following centuries, to do that.
Along the way, he also looked, as a result of another subconscious
imperative, for the dormant fragments of the other Eldren.
And, of course, he was programmed to be on the lookout for his
creator's _enemy_, who the First of the Five knew would sooner or
later awaken.
MORE LATER.
Shermanlee
Abrigon Gusiq
I prefer aliens who build a dyson sphere and then enslaves others as their worshippers so that can get food and
like. Since their ancient tech is slowly dying, they no longer understand how it works, or how to fix it, they
just use it to lord over as Gods. I know it is pre-SG, but ..
But cool..
Mike
Abrigon Gusiq
Mike
Mark K Styles
news:3E5B1447...@yahoo.com...
> Also could be sort of like the Taalon from Earth Final Conflict?
>
> Mike
Wow, you switch from top-posting a half a dozen lines onto an unsnipped 6K
post to a single context-less line in reply to the same post. That's...
something. At least, I suppose, you're consistant and make the same
irritating errors throughout the group.
As for the Eldren (now context-less), is this the storyline that becomes the
Atlantis "saga"? This is interesting background material, but becomes
extemely good once it hits Atlantis and Athens.
Hmm, maybe I shouldn't post before having some caffiene.
Abrigon Gusiq
try to keep the posts to a minimum for alot of reasons, old enough to remember
the days when you only posted as little as possible to keep bandwidth usage
down, heh at 300 baud, you have to post little, other than the basic stuff.. Why
reference the last 30 posts in a reply, when hopefull everyone has read it all,
already.
Mike
Johnny1A
> As for the Eldren (now context-less), is this the storyline that becomes the
> Atlantis "saga"? This is interesting background material, but becomes
> extemely good once it hits Atlantis and Athens.
>
> Hmm, maybe I shouldn't post before having some caffiene.
Yes, it's the same background.
Shermanlee
Mark K Styles
> Mark K Styles wrote:
> > Wow, you switch from top-posting a half a dozen lines onto an unsnipped
6K
> > post to a single context-less line in reply to the same post. That's...
> > something. At least, I suppose, you're consistant and make the same
> > irritating errors throughout the group.
> > Hmm, maybe I shouldn't post before having some caffiene.
"Abrigon Gusiq" wrote...
> Yeppers, like me, should post with minimum of caffeine and some good
sleep.. I
> try to keep the posts to a minimum for alot of reasons, old enough to
remember
> the days when you only posted as little as possible to keep bandwidth
usage
> down, heh at 300 baud, you have to post little, other than the basic
stuff.. Why
> reference the last 30 posts in a reply, when hopefull everyone has read it
all,
> already.
And yet you'll top-post a few lines and leave the entire 6KB post attached
(oh, and an even "better" example, from this afternoon I think, in the "A
Technomancer/Stargate game with a little Cabal" thread: a double post of a
small amount of text top-posted to an unedited 13K post, in HTML)? You do
this to save bandwidth?
So, what you do is switch between context-less snippets and uneditted
top-posting? Likely averaging the same amount of bandwidth usage as doing
things the "right" way would _but_ using it in a way that makes
understanding what you say difficult (even more so for those without good
newservers and/or on a connection where size matters) and irritating to
read? How long does it take to format things properly?
Hmm, maybe it wasn't the caffiene, just a touchy day or bad sleep like you
said. Oh well, I guess that fills my 'netiquette rant/crusade quota for a
while.