The Ur-Quan Masters Discussion Forum

This has been bugging me for too long time... The Kohr-Ah and the Kzer-Za, and the Slylandro talk alot about the Mael-Num, as they were members of the Sentient-Milieu.
But my main question is, who were they, really? The kohr-ah said they are one-eyed creatures, and they described them as the Melnorme, even the race name sounds close.  But how come the melnorme\slylandro\both urquan races never mentioned anything about the melnorme as well?
Who are the melnorme?  Some modern-race of the mael-num? I just dont get it. What are your theories about the subject?

The Melnorme are indeed the Mael-Num. It was just a theory at first, but Fred and Paul confirmed it in a chat. So there you have it.

The Melnorme aren't mentioned because they're probably doing their damndest to keep out of sight of either Ur-Quan.

Okay, where was that chat? or forum post? are there any logs saved?

but still, it's kinda redicilous the last idea.. the melnorme are kinda anywhere on this region of space(which they came recently) they talk so much about the history of the sentient-milieu and never talked once about themself as they were a member of the s.m) i take that the melnorme were the mael-num as a fact, but still trying to understand why all the race name change and all.. trying to figure THIS theory..

--also: I'm not sure; but isn't joining without any profit or something like that is not the way of the melnorme?
well.. that's the thread idea all about.. i assume they have changed somehow over these years. but i guess the only one who can ever give us some clues all about it, are TFB.
THX

I don't think a 'name change' is even that apparent - after all, the Japanese word for Japan is Nippon. What the French call Bretagne and the English call Brittany is called Brezon by the locals. 'Mael-Num' might have been the spelling/mispronounciation of their name in the lingua franca of the days of the Milieu, or perhaps the Melnorme language has changed in a few millennia, and along with it the word they use for themselves.

Another theroy is that they changed it to cover their tracks or something, but they don't strike me as that silly - if that was the reason, they'd be better off calling themselves the ZoqFotPik.

---
What do you mean by the joining for profit thing? Do you mean the reason why they were members of the milieu? If that's it, then it's obvious that joining YOU in SC2 is hardly a profitable thing to do, since the risk of getting blown to smithereens is quite high, and there's no immediate benefit in sight. The Milieu was not a patched-together alliance, but a long-standing body like the UN, which obviously benefitted trade, and was thus a suitably non-altruistic arrangement for them.

also last thing, hasn't ONE of the urquan races, or even the melnorme themselves said that the all of the sent.milieu members were killed besides the urquan?
i'm not sure tho

IIRC, the Kohr-Ah were about to wipe out the Mael-Num when the Kzer-Za intervened, and this started the Doctrinal war, and the Mael-Num high-tailed it out of there, never to be seen again (until they reappeared).

'Around twenty-five thousand years ago, there existed near this region of space...an association of starfaring races called the 'Sentient Milieu'.    This group formed over several thousand years to enrich mutually their respective cultures...to provide a safe creche for emerging sentient species...and to afford themselves a degree of protection from external hostilities via military alliance.' - Trade Master Greenish

The Melnorme themselves tell you about all six members of the Sentient Milieu and their eventual fates...  only three of the six are actually 'confirmed' to be extinct.

Ur-Quan -> You know the story...  the Dnyarri split them into black and green Ur-Quan, they fought back from their slave masters, and then pursued to fight the Doctrinal Wars their two sides so religiously preach.  The rest, as they say, is history...  Obviously, since the Ur-Quan are still alive and kicking, then not all the races of the Milieu were killed.

Faz -> Survived the Dnyarri enslavement, in a strange twist, were the first race to be enslaved by the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za...  (Theories also say the Faz may be modernly known as the "Utwig", or that there is some strange relation between the Faz and the Utwig homeworld called "Fahz"...)

Mael-Num -> Obviously survived, as they are the Melnorme... although they never admit the fact.

Yuli -> Found inferior by the Dnyarri and ordered destroyed, killed by the other enslaved races of the Milieu (presumedly the Ur-Quan).

Yuptar -> Survived millenia of Dnyarri slavery only to become the first victims of the Kohr-Ah's "Eternal Doctrine".

Taalo -> Original friends and discoverers of the Brown Ur-Quan race, these slow, quiet and peaceful silicon-based people.  While the only race able to fight off the psychic enslavement of the Dnyarri and maintain their freedom, the evil creatures ordered the enslaved Milieu to destroy their race and homeworld on Delta Vulpeculae 2c.  Theories can be made about whether the Orz prove the Taalo are still around, but try as they may, the Melnorme tell the captain their race was annihilated.

Of course, most of this data is on the "Pages of Now and Forever" website, or the Star Control Writer's Collective...  information about the Milieu is actually fairly detailed in the game, except for those races now missing or extinct (minus the Taalo, of course...  the Melnorme go into much detail about them, as do other races).  Just thought I'd include it here for all interested peoples.

Hey... now there's a good theory! :)

You'll find a Melnorme in a super-giant system in the Ur-Quan/Kohr-Ah sphere of influence...wonder if this is just a fool-hardy Melnorme?

I'm not so sure about faz=utwig.
Or even that they are somehow related to them.
When you ask the Utwig about the urquan they say they know nothing about the specie that I have mentioned.. then they talk about just encountering the KohrAh...

Also, if memory serves me right, it's only the home planet of the Utwig that's called Faz, why would they rename thieir race?

Faz <-> Fahz
According to the writings on the original star map supplied with the PC game version:

"This map details the spatial relationship between the stars in our known region of the galaxy, as well as spheres of unfulence for each alien race as of AD 2133. The positions are based on HyperSpace coordinates, which may be unsettling to some students of TrueSpace astronomy. Defiend long ago by Chenjesu stargazers, the constellations are now accepted by all Alliance races as the standard. Due to the great difficulty in pronouncing the Chenjesu language, each race has translated the names into their own tongue. When it came time for Earth to adopt this system, the United Nations decided to use traditional astrological designations, assigned at random. This has caused some confusion, but it is considered preferable to the suggested alternative: using the names of past politicians."

:P
Then again, that might have just been a bit more of the Star Control humor

That's not what I mean... the Utwig say

"It all began when the Chimt rose from the Murky Bog and the Utwig emerged as well.
In these primitive times we cavorted about our world oblivious to any sort of higher purpose
we took everything at face value.
Meanwhile, the tendrils of the Chimt infiltrated the vast sky canopies of Fahz and then the veils fell!
Suddenly, the Utwig were stunned by a collective realization!"

Indicating that their home planet is named Fahz (or did I get this wrong?). It doesn't matter what their star system is named according to the standard  Alliance protocol, because thats the entire system. I mean,  we didnt change any of the names in side our system either. nor did the spathi, or anyone else as far as we know. So their world was named Fahz long before their system got named Beta Aquarii.

So, what I meant is,  their  planet is named Fahz by themselves, whereas the sentient milieu race was named Faz. Why would the Faz suddenly change their name to Utwig? the Faz of Fazh does make sense, but the namechange + the fact that they say they don't know the Kzer-Za and have just encountered the Kohr-Ah really makes it look like they aren't the same...

Orz mentions the TAALO several times, usually refering to them in the present tense, and mentioning that they are in another space.  The conversations are on PONAF> Star-Control 2> Conversation> ORZ

This ties into the Whole Orz-Arilou discussion. What the Orz says isn't always that clear, especially since we have no idea of how it views *time*. It might actually see all the time in the place it is, although it inhabits only a bit. Or the Taalo could have fled to another dimension. For al lwe know *pretty space* might even be heaven ;)

begins singing "Stairway to Quasispace"

Is that the 3DO performance or the original PC?  ;D

I read the chat and the Taalo, are indeed, ALIVE!

I read the same chat, and the official award for "longest time period between telling of joke and understanding of joke" officially goes to me.

In the chat, they claim that the goal of the original Star Control was to make "an Archon-like game in space"  Thus, the name STARCON.  Blizzard did the exact same thing years later; WarCraft in space = StarCraft.

The part that really makes me feel stupid is that I even described the game to people (back in the day) as "an Archon-like strategy game set in space," and STILL didn't get the joke.  Sigh.

Yes, but are they alive in our time, or in theirs? *Time* is so *tricky* for you *campers*... :)

From all indications, while the Orz only speak in the present tense, their concept of time is the same as ours--they do say "and after this..." when speaking of events.

Also, certain Orz quotes explicity say that the Taalo *slid* to run away from the Dnyarri.  By this, it was always certain that the Taalo attempted to flee, but it was unclear whether they succeeded (and the *time tricks* thing added to the debate).  Since TFB has stated the Taalo live, and imply that some role was planned for them in the sequel, there is not doubt that the Taalo are presnently alive in every sense of the word (though they may have changed drastically over time).

I try to ignore the Clairconctlar-Taalo reference in SC3...  To me, it was a cheap and stupid way to link the Sentient Milieu into the game some way...  I thought the Clairconctlar race was also unoriginal since it stole ideas from the Taalo and then gave no real reasons why they were so similar to the anicent Milieu members...  I try to forget about such a stupid and misplaced reference.