The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

Yes, not months,but YEARS !
I am slightly off the edge here, but i just want to speak out and begin with http://www.figu.org.

What I am talking about is: The FIGU is an organisation based on one man's UFO encounter (here, in real life...hello ?! :D) that is supposed to be ongoing still. If you are too lazy to check the link and find out more, i ll tell you briefly about it: Billy Meier, a Swiss farmer, had begun his contacts with extraterrestrials in late 70s (with 'unaware' contacts right from the 40-50s), shot their craft with photo equipment, and most important has preserved  A LOT OF CONTACT NOTES (several thousands of pages).

Now what has this to do with Star Control ?`Well, i ve read some of the pages, and personally I think they are genuine, as they express some sort of very deep wisdom. One of the pages is quite long and tells the past, present and future of humanity.

Wouldn't by chance Fred and Paul have been inspired by Billy Meiers contact reports ? Or wouldnt there even be an untold mystery that we never will know which goes around just WHERE AND WHEN the story began ?

Some of the similarities, i find staggering, for example the histroy lineage telling that humans DID NOT originate on Earth, and are instead a scientific DNA experiemnt (manufactured species) by extraterrestrials (analogy with Arilou altering human DNA, and being our "protectors"). Those extraterrestrials that have manufactured us are supposed to be seeking us, as humans had taken refuge from MArs to Earth (reason: environmental cataclysms), and they have been doing so for eons, also having other species as targets on their cleansing mission. This is real life, but isn't this SO LIKE the Ur-Quan hunting sentient races for the purpose of purifying the galaxy (cleansing). And there is even more: The contact reports by Billy Meier also speak of us creating a sub-species for labour by mixing our own DNA with that of pigs. The result will have been more violent, more robust, smarter and stronger human derivations. Doesnt it remind you of Androsynth ?

The list goes on, but those contact reports are quite vast and I havent read them since like a year ago, so i dont remember much of them. But to this day, i am hunted by the thought that the two share some kind of bizarre reason for them to coexist, to put it this way ;)

Comments ?

Naw, that farmer just played SC to get his ideas.

(this is a joke)

Didn´t read your text too well but as for Arilou being the human race protector is not as sweet as it sounds. The only intrest they have in us is similar anatomy. We are their replacement parts! (sorry for the spoil. This is revealed in SC3)
And as for Ur-Quans they are not hunting sentient races they are trying to end all conflict in space by putting every race under theyr level of exictance under slave shields. Koh-arkh (typo) are the ones who lost theyr ability to think strait a few eons ago and started to systematicly anhilate all sentient races.

hmm... is it me or my keyboard  ???
any way ... i ment to say didnt read your text too well instead of the Didn´t ...  :P

Well, i didnt say the similiarities were THAT strong. Nevertheless, if you one day take a cup of good cofee latê and take some time to read contact report 251 (only 5-6 are currently available online), it is covered there in more detail.

Arilou still have the same attitude towards humans, as those mentioned by Meier. Who knows the truth ? We know what we are told. Both are watching us ;)

Well, not Ur-Quan perhaps, but Kzer-Za are hunting humans down. Meier doesn't say that humans are the only target, and this makes me believe there are similiarities involved.

Ha, recalled another funny resemblance:
Meier mentiones a fraction of people who disappeared under unusual circumstances involving UFOs and ETs, and also a fraction of those who had been "taken" for whatever reasons - he was told by his interviewers (ET origin), that sometimes those unlucky individuals are kidnapped or "borrowed" to be transported for exhibitioning in extraterrestrial zoos in some "far corners of space". This looks like Admiral Zex's fetish doesnt it ?

And that is one of the reasons I didn't like that game.  All the plot points were so...lazy.  In SC2 the Arilou tell you that their motives are multiple and their desires are complex, and then SC3 comes along, and suddenly they have but one motive and desire: survival, and we are simply means to that end.

Pardon me, (especially because I'm sure I could scarcely do better) but that's simply the product of lazy storytelling.  Given that the Arilou were extra-dimensional, their origins and interactions with hunams had basically no boundaries.  Their interest in us could have been the result of anything, but they chose to take the obvious, cynical "one group exploiting another" tack.  Lame.

But, the same could be said for just about every other plot point in that wretched game.  Sometimes it pays to hire talented writers..

what

SCII didn't say humans weren't from Earth. They simply stated that the Arilou "modified" human's DNA. Which would mean that there had to be humans around to modify and so I highly doubt SCIII's nonsense. Anyway, I don't want to put down your personal beliefs, but I think you've gotten way too hooked into Sci-Fi. If you take the DNA of every single animal on earth (including humans) you will find similarities. Which would mean that we're related to them and have split into different groups at one point or another. So, if that farmer's journals were to be true these aliens had to introduce the version that started these many groups of animal, millions of years ago.

actually, you will find more than similarites.. There is a 2% difference between the DNA of a bacterium and that of a human

Well if I remember correctly it's yeast, not bacteria, but thank you for that. I was trying to find a way to link humans with all life on this planet, (way past just millions of years) but I couldn't think of anything off hand, that wouldn't pass proof and go more into theory.

Aliens?
Hmmmm.
"How To Serve Man"

Ummmmmm.....oooookay.  I thought that Star Control II was fiction, silly me ::)

Soylent Green is People! PEOPLE!!!  :)

There was also some SC2 similairities in some TV shows. Like the Vree in Babylon 5 looked a lot like the Arilou (and their ships too) or the Taelons in Earth: Final Conflict (having a hidden adgenda towards Earth, the ID travel capability, etc). Maybe it's just me though...

The Arilou/Taelon/Flying Saucer People archetype is becoming more and more universal in SciFi.  I like it.  Almost invariably, (the Vree being an exception), the race is advanced, has a hidden motive, and (if we know of them) claim to have a benevolent, helpful agenda.

That being said, I seriously doubt that TFB looked specifically at any one website to get the Arilou!  The archetype is already there, and nearly universal!  I doubt they even had to look at ONE website!  Flying saucers are simply a modern-day myth that TFB put in their game.

Um, did eveyrone else read the same post that I just did?

First off, the similarities between SC2 and the story of that guy who says he met aliens are no greater than those between the guy's story and a great many other scifi stories, as I believe others have mentioned.

Second, this UFO stuff is just a total load of BS!  I'm sorry to be so blunt, but go get an education and acquire some critical thinking skills, for pete sake.  Or if you want quicker results, read something by Carl Sagan, like "Demon Haunted World."

First of all, I have my share of critical thinking AND education, thank you. No need to tell me what to do ok ?  

Second, thanks for the Carl Sagan thing. I wanted to read his stuff for some time now, just never reached out enough..

Personally the Sweits guy has a point there. I dont if thats the truth he is saying, but there something behind it fo' sho' IMHO.

Was that website even around when SC2 was being made?

Was that website even around when SC2 was being made?

That would be kinda hard, considering that the original web browser, NCSA Mosaic, didn't debut until about the same time that SC2 did. For that matter, the term "World Wide Web" and the more widespread use of Mosaic didn't come until probably close to a year afterward.

Wait a second. The "web" (actually http) is 10 years old?  Oh, geez, do I suddenly feel old...  

Ya, it was kind of a rhetorical question.  ;)

...reason being that although TFB could have done specific research on this organization, I'd bet that there's absolutely no connection at all.  And perhaps the stuff on the web pages are of recent origin, i.e. written specifically for the website.

Who knows, eh.

Eh, I never take SC3 as canon. Having never played it myself (though I have a burning curiosity to see the direction it went) I tend to go by only the events in SC2 as 'true' or 'accurate'.

But anyways, I always figured that the Arilou's commentry:



And the fact that they constantly refer to you as 'child' instead of 'precocious human' and the fact that they claimed to have known the first human, indicated to me that the first human was artificially and genetically created by Arilou. The similarity in genetic structure also hints that Earthlings may actually be a subspecies of Arilou. (as Pkunk are to Yehat?)

I imagine that Earthlings are an experiment in genetic diversity. The Arilou probably hit a plateau of evolutionary development, and they need a fresh pool of less evolved Arilou genes in which to perform a biological study of evolution occurring in a different direction than that which the Arilou underwent. So they opened up a project in which they 'cleaned up' some of their genetic structure, making it more rudimentary, more primitive, and giving it a chance to evolve again from scratch.

The following seems to support the concept of a 'cleaner, as-of-yet-unevolved gene pool'.



The earlier note of 'vested interest' in Earthling development and the promise of what will happen to the Arilou relatives (us Earthlings) 'someday', seem to remark on a fact that eventually Earthlings will be reincorporated into the Arilou race. Or the best aspects of our similar (and yet evolved along a different direction) genetic structure, anyways.

An alternative but similar theory being that the first 'human' was really simply a genetically modified Arilou. A study in immunity to denizens of the other dimension/planes. (Basically, Orz and company. The folks who might 'see' us, the ones whom we 'do not want to be seen' by.) A modified Arilou made to be more 'basic' and 'primitive' so that it could evolve again-- but this time with the proper tinkering over long periods of time so that the whole subrace's genetic structure could be immune to detection by the 'others'. Incorporate this newfound and (eventually) utterly reliable genetic 'invisibility' into Arilou DNA, and suddenly they have a new weapon in this (losing?) war against the 'others'. Basically, a way to see your enemy without being seen. Or maybe not even a weapon. Maybe just a way to hide from the aggressors in a losing war.

Running with that idea --

Perhaps the Arilou wanted  to figure out what it was about them that made them special, so they took a tiny (1%) portion of their genes and implanted them into a proto-human, and watched. If we do extra-well, then they know that they got it right and what makes them special is what they put in us.
It that's the case, you could almost say that we're Arilou where it counts - it's the parts around the edges that differ.

Maybe they're in fact trying to do this because they have been subtly infected or genetically damaged in some way and want to see what parts of themselves they can safely excise without diminishing themselves.

To use the orz terms which seem to work better, is it possible, perhaps, that arilou are actually arilou 'fingers', and humanity is an attempt to port the arilou race to a different dimension instead of just intruding upon it with fingers?

I always chalked up the Orz's inability to communicate clearly with other races as the sign of the fragmented id of a graeter other-dimensional being who is completely immersed in their home enviroment and thus has to relate to things in terms of how physics operate in their plane of existence, whereas the Arilou are explorers to those realms but not denizens (They have a homeworld in a TrueSpace Eddy within QuasiSpace, afterall.)

Of course you could be completely right and accurate. It could be that 'Arilou fingers' have had a much longer time to adapt to TrueSpace and its denizens and whatnot.

An interesting question that is raised by that is, how did the Arilou homeworld come to be in a truespace "eddy"? ahs it always been there, or was it moved thetre? And ifso, form where, and how. And if it always was there, how does that work? They just happened to evolve in this nice little niche, exitable only through Quasispace?

I'm inclined to believe that every space has its natives, and a few of them are capable of shifting from one space to another. Arilou are from our space and capable of shifting around; Orz are from a different space.

I wonder what lives in Hyperspace? *Nggn*, was it? Apparently they do not know how to shift out of it. What about the Keel-verezy?

That raises the intersting question of where in HS the Nggn live. What the Arilou say seems to imply that they kind of "swim" around in it, like HS was some darn big ocean. But they can't be the only creature out there in that case, there must be some sort of ecosystem surely?

And if they actually live on anything remotely alike our planets, but in HS, what do these ook like, and why haven't we seen them? It'd certainly be interesting to make contact... But, I suppose we aren't *solid* enough.

I would say that Faliraliwhateverally, the Arilou homeworld, probably existed in truespace first... and then when they developed their portal spawner technology, they whisked it away into Quasispace where it would be much much safer.

I had a thought that, originally, humans came from the Syreen homeworld and the Arilou transported them to Earth.

Syreens and humans are genetically compatable and are capable of producing hybrid young. These hybrids are capable of breeding as well. This means that humans and Syreens are the precise same species, since otherwise they would produce infertile young or wouldn't reproduce at all.

This would explain why the Arilou 'knew the first human'. They would obviously know the Syreen transports they brought to Earth.

I think a species *smell* has more to do with their _culture_ than their biology. The Androsynth had a much different culture than the mainline humans, which eventually led to the Orz *smelling* them. Likewise, the Syreen may have also been on a course (or may still be on a course) to become *smelly*. If the Arilou could detect this cultural bias, it would make sense to transport a maliable segment of the population to Earth where they could be properly culturally trained.

Why would they do this? Good question.

I noticed this during my very first play through the game.

Commander Hayes:
I like to think I'm not a bigoted person, Captain, especially when it comes to allies but there is just something about those Arilou that gives me the creeps.
Talana:
The Arilou, those creepy little weasels, just plain bugged out -- vanished
Talana again:
What I am trying to say is that our SPECIES are almost identical, almost too close a match to be just a coincidence.
I find it intriguing that the same basic word (creepy, creeps) is used in reference to the Arilou. None of the other races in the game use this term when referring to them. Of course it probably has nothing to do with the big picture, but I like finding little connections between things, even if they're insignificant. =)

Still, the feeling of uneasiness shared by humans and Syreen may have something to do with another phenomenon in the game: genetic memory. Whereas some races can consciously recall genetic memories (the Mycon, the Ur-Quan, the Dnyarri) it seems this ability is absent in humans -- and therefore probably Syreen as well. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's absent.

Still, with no direct proof this can only go as far as being a personal point of view on the matter. It's still an interesting line of thought though, yes?

I never thought about this, I always assumed that the grandchildren were Talana's genetic grandchildren, but that doesn't have to be true;  Talana and the Captain may have adopted children, or maybe they adopted some Androsynth (found after SC2), and these Androsynth adopted some human children.  Anyone know if there is dialog regarding genetic compatabilities between Syreen and Human (beyond mere physical compatabilities that we know already exist)?

Either that or Heinlein would be proud and Zelnick enters a multiple marriage.

Correct.  The ending also does not explicity say The Captain and Talana were the ones to get married.  It indirectly implies that.  But I wouldn't say the ending text makes that an absolute truth! :-/