The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

I'm surprised no one made such a thread before, but WHO and WHY built the Mother Ark?!

My guess is that it has something to do with the intended result of the Chenjesu-Mmrnmhrm Process - which would perhaps be a superorganism, a Living Procyon?
Maybe the creators of the Mmrnmhrm sought perfection and built the Mother Ark as a seeker of it? Because that's what the Chmmr were intended to be, after all - perfect beings.

My other guess is that they are safeguarding the souls of their creators until they would find a suitable body for them.

And by the way, they could be the vanguard of the returning Precursor race.

The history around the Mother Ark, like the Orz and Precursors, still have plenty of mysteries.  According to Hayes, the Mother Ark produced millions of Mmrnmhrm then stopped for some reason.  And for some reason, it wasn't repaired.

I don't think TFB ever said anything addition about it.

The Mark II  is going to follow the rainbow worlds to some far off distant quandrant and fight the death star as the next SC.

I hear there's a minigame that involves talana too.
 ;)

-Kwamp

Now we have a poll too.

As always, if there's a leftover option, specify it in a post in this thread.

I think these guys were guards or scout ships. Looking at their style, the combination of
little missiles and close-in lasers makes me think they were designed to scout for
or escort larger ships. Especially if you consider the roll a small fleet of the Mmmrmmhrm
working together could play.

They may be something along the lines of the probes. Send out to explore, gather intel, then return/await arrival of species. Only they were built with an AI to prevent "mishaps" with wrongful programming.

The Mother Ark may only have been a means of transport to this region of space.

The fact is that the Mmrnmhrm are self aware. The exploratory program might have been a subversive one, that would deactivate itself when the unit was in danger. The Mother Ark entered a hostile region of space, thus all Mmrnmhrm were "born" with the subversive program turned off, or deactivated immediately at "birth".

that's my 2 cents.

(I see Zeep-Eeep posted something similar, but heck)

I didn't expect Hayes' opinion to have such popularity, frankly!
Now, about the "subversive" program - no, they know their purpose from the birth, they just chose to fight the Ur-Quan since they interfered with their purpose. Excerpt from the SC2 manual:
"These non-hostile mechanical beings were assembled for some kind of mission by a distant alien race. When born/built, each Mmrnmhrm awakens filled with knowledge and purpose, though to date the Mmrnmhrm have not revealed the exact nature of their long-term mission."

Of course the colonization purpose is the most obvious, but I think there's more to the story than meets the eye...

As to the ship design - why wouldn't it be fit for fighting alone, let's say? I mean, it's more of an all-around ship design, made to hold its own in whatever fight, even without allies.

Are they loyal to their theoretical masters? There's no guarantee to be obedient to your creators, especially when you haven't seen them for a thousand years and have a history and culture of your own.

Yes there is, if you are a robot. Even sentient robots can be programmed as to never revolt.

That may depend on how you viwe sentient and revolting. (Revoltnig sentients?)
Assuming sentient beings can change their behavior to adapt, I suppose they
could take strange new directions after a thousand years. For that matter,
what is revolting? If you have received no new orders in thousands of years,
I'd say that indicates a certain freedom to branch out.

Also, it may be true that the creators of the Ark knew they weren't going to
exist forever. In that case, the Ark and its machines may have had a time line
programmed into them, after which.... who knows.

There are a lot of unknowns and loose ends in the SC2 universe which will
probably never be tied up. I like it that way.

This one in particular has no hope of EVER being resolved, being that the Mmrnhrm don't even exist anymore. Unless the creators of the Mother Ark unexpectedly make an appearance and admit to being responsible for its creation (which is unlikely, even if they are searching for the Mmrnhrm, because the hybridization process was probably not something they foresaw their creations taking part in), we're never going to know.

I wouldn't be too sure of that. There is a another race that has some beings living away from their slaveshielded homeworld. They turn out to be saving the entire galaxy. As we are still dealing with individuals here and not a collective mind (assumption here, shoot down where appropriate), not all Mmrnmhrm and/or Chenjesu may merged together. There may actually still be a few of each race left...

Hm, did I just add another loose end?  ;D

Granted, there may be other Mmrnhrm elsewhere, assuming that the Mother Ark is just one of many similar constructs. However, I think it's fair to say that the Chenjesu no longer exist separately; unlike the Mmrnhrm, they evolved naturally on a single world, and all participated in the process when their world was slave shielded.

I guess they could have re-reprogrammed themselves and Zeep-Eeep has some good points.

I once again agree with Draxas.

Ah, and if we were here, the Chmmr will almost certainly travel down the path that the Kzer-Za travelled and free each and every race under their domination. Then there is a 1/2 chance that they will find the creators of the Mmrnmhrm (because they could have been exterminated by the Kohr-Ah).
Or... what if the Mmrnmhrm are creations of the Keel-Verezy?
Another option - their creators come from the "western" region of the galaxy (west from the Ilwrath). The only region that has not seen Ur-Quans.


And jucce: They could not have reprogrammed themselves if they had a program that stopped them from doing such a thing.

What if the Creators hadn't envisioned any of this for the Mmrnmhrm and are actually displeased and go to arms.  Or turn out to be some brand of baddies, bent on world domination. Have the Chenjesu retained enough control in the Chmmr evolutionary form to prevent the Mhrnmhrm aspect doing the Creators wishes? Or is the hardwiring so connected with the Chmmr form that a evil Creators could turn our Chmmr allies against us?

True, but I guess the Chenjesu could. Maybe that's why the Mmrnmhrm merged with the Chenjesu, to break free from their creators (evil?) purpose and live as they want. They may not want to be tools anymore.

I am under the impression that the Chenjesu merged under their own free will. I wouldn't go as far as to assume that all Chenjesu/Mmrnhrm merged together. There may still be a few individuals left from each of the two races (even on Procyon, I mean does everyone run Windows on this world just because it is being shoved down your throat by the masses? no.).

I can't find a link that contains all the text from the game, but I'm pretty sure they say that the Chenjesu and Mmrnhrm are no more. 

I also stumbled upon a comment on the ultranomicon stating that the chmmr isn't the finished product, due to the sun device's acceleration of the process.  Could this mean that the SC3 universe would have the Chmmr as a totally different entity, under the assumption that they completed their metamorphesis?  Maybe that was the point of the Mmrnhrm all along, to find a creature to synth with.

And maybe they were sent by the Precursors, which instructed them to find the most developed race in the quadrant.  And they gave them plans to pass along to synth the two to create a new precursor race.

ohhhhh the conspiracy theorys!
-Kwamp

No, the Process is incomplete and, now, incompletable. Since they say "WE ARE FREE!
YOU HAVE FLOODED OUR SYNTHESIS MECHANISMS WITH A WEALTH OF RADIANT ENERGY.
WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO TAKE DECADES HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED IN SECONDS.
THE PROCESS IS INCOMPLETE, YET WE HAVE EMERGED." - what was supposed to take decades was the whole Process, so it is complete, but in the wrong way.

and

"WE WERE NOT READY... BUT THIS IS NOW IN THE PAST.
WHAT IS DONE IS DONE." - you see, you cannot reverse the Process.

As to where to find the quotes, try http://starcontrol.classicgaming.gamespy.com/scwc/sc2_dialogue_files.shtml (http://starcontrol.classicgaming.gamespy.com/scwc/sc2_dialogue_files.shtml) for all the text (including what is excluded from UQM) or, in your UQM folder, in content\packages there is uqm-0.6.2-content.uqm, which is in fact a renamed .zip file. Inside there is a "comm" folder. Inside there is a folder for each race. Each of those folders has a .txt file with their replies.
And yes, it is implied that there are no more Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm as far as Chmmr know, but who knows what renegade Chenjesu may exist out there?

Considering that the spathi thought the mmrnmhrm were quite civil, that's saying something. I doubt an evil creator made them. Or if they are evil, they thinking really long-term.

You've been playing too much SCn3, you sound like the Daktaklakpak. Next thing you know you'll be talking about some crazy nonexistent race of universal destroyers with a mathematical name or something. ;)


Well, why couldn't they be a Precursor creation? Perhaps, like the Mycon, they are constructs with corrupted programming (though, unlike the Mycon, this corruption has led to them becoming independent while not necessarily impeding their ability to function in any kind of significant way that we're aware of). In fact, the two races almost seem to serve complementary roles: The Mycon are terraformers and world-builders, ostensibly preparing for the return of their creators. And the Mmrnhrm are the warriors and scouts, establishing control of unclaimed systems and making them safe for the Mycon to arrive and do their work, as well as defending the Mycon if they should be in danger while the process is ongoing.

Incidentally, the region of space west of the map is probably pretty empty. Same with the region to the south. That's because the galactic core lies to the northeast, indicating the rim is to the southwest. This is supported by the angles of approach taken by the Ur-Quan: The Kzer-Za from the north through Thraddash space, and the Kohr-Ah from the east through Druuge space. Since they themselves describe it as following the spin of the galaxy (and knowing the zeal to which the Ur-Quan set to the task of following their doctrines), it's probably a fair bet that what we see is pretty representative of what exists between the core and rim in our quadrant.

Besides, they're called quadrants. This sort of implies that there are only 4 of them, and the logical place to put the other 3 would be to the north, northeast, and east of the map.

Hmm...the question appears to have degenerated into these:
 Will the Chmmr complete their transformation and into what
 Is the transformation apart of the Mrrnmhrm's original mission or seperate
 Are the Chmmr subject to that original programming
 And finally: Are there Chenjesu and Mrrnmhrm still seperate and CAN the Chmmr seperate.

 My own answers are as follows:

 Okay, the first one has already been hashed out.

 The second, my thinking is that our mechanical friends are still somehow fullfillinig their programming whatever that may entail. This means that until that programmng is revealed or terminated, we much remain ever vigilant to their true cause and purpose.

 A ship, damaged in battle, may limp away and attempt to make repairs. On a ships as complicated as the X-Form or the Broodhome, this could take years, even decades. Or they may even set up shelter and remain until rescued. Which.....would never have happened since the alliance lost the first Star Control War. However, the fact that they were never discovered during SCWII would indicate that they, assuming that they exist, would either be an advance scout in the opposite direction from the front, or they have laid low for fear of the Ur-Quan. There are, of course, other options, but I can't think of them right now.

 Btw, the reason you may not have heard of me(ha listen to me: may not. Ha) is that this is my first post....yeah...my coworkers looked at me REAL funny when I did my happy dance around the office.

Because there are enough Precursor constructs already.

You too have played too much SCn3. Where is the name "quadrant" used in SC2?!!!

Who said that we are exactly at the edge of the galaxy? Plus, there are some scattered stars outside the main galactic area. Especially in HyperSpace, which is distorted.

The Process might be doctoring out strategy against the UQ as well. That may be one of the reasons they are saying that the process is incomplete. Does not mean they can't finish it anymore.  I come to the same conclusion with the 2nd quote, they can't turn back time and prevent you from flooding them with energy, thus they cannot sit on their crystalline/mechanical behinds figuring out how to beat the UQ. However, it does not imply that they cannot complete the Process. It may simply imply that they can't shoo you off and go back to finishing the Process right now.

Anyhow, theories and speculations enough. I voted for the omnious: not evil, but dead through mystery . Leaves enough open to speculate on that.