What my question is, though, is why did the Ur-Quan
eliminate all those historical sites, and does it have
anything to do with the Arilou and their visiting Earth?
I think this concept was borne out of people thinking the
Pyramids or Stonehenge are of cosmic significance, maybe
beacons for other creatures or a source of power, divine
or otherwise.

Actually, I'm wondering what they blasted deep below the polar ice cap (I don't remember if it was the north or south one). What do you suppose could have been hidden there? I'll bet those sneaky Arilou know.

While possible, there are some descrepancies.  If the Orz are indeed an extention of the Precursor, then why is there a problem with the translation.  It is clear that through dealings with the Slylandro that the Precursors were at least able to manage common dialect that is obviously maintained well enough so that you can make out all of what the Slylandro tell (though I will give that they have also had interaction with the Milue and the Melnorme).  As a lesser extension of the Precursor, the Orz should at least be able to manage something like that.  Also, the thought of sentience within sentience does not seem plausible.  If a portion of sentience within another sentient being tried to rebel (felt imprisoned or whatever), it could mean the end of the greater sentient being.  It'd be like a person's liver rebelling against an alcoholic.   I don't think that a sentient being, such as the precursors (with as much power as we assume they have) would give lesser portions of themselves such possibly self-destructive power.  I also do not feel that the Precursors would just allow a part of themselves to remain in real space, a place which they undertook such great feats such as the rainbow worlds to leave.

Hmmm....
I think I can answer most of that. The fingers evoled sentience seperate from the Precusors. Thus, they may have developed their own language and hence the problems with translation. Senteience within sentience has been done in other sci-fi stories. An example of this is Vampire Hunter D. D's hand is itself a seperate sentient being. Most sentients that are part of another sentient would probably not rebel as we can assume they have evolved enough to know that destroying the host will most likely destroy themselves. Even at the earliest stages of evolution some form of instinct or genetic programming would likely prevent this. Finally, I believe the Precursors may have allowed the Orz to remain behind so nobody would get too suspicous and go snooping around for the Androsynth. They figured most races would simply think that the Androsynth were conquered by the Orz and leave it at that. The Orz had never been to *heavy space* so the Precursors might have just made a concession in order to keep them happy and/or occupied so that they could get on with more important matters.

[NOT]

Here's some new ideas for you so as to confuse everything even more:

1) The orz are the *fingers* of the Precursors. The Precursors are giants as you will recall. their fingers may well be the size of an Orz. They have possibly evolved so far as that even some of their limbs and/or organs have gained sentience.

2) The Rainbow Worlds are the easy places. This is what the Precursors constructed them for. They used these to travel to whatever dimension they are in now and their fingers managed to poke through from that dimension. If the Orz are the fingers of the Precursors this explains why those are the 10 easy places they know about.

3) The Orz did try to rescue the Androsynth (sort of, more like they helped the Precursors). "Snatched" does not necessarily imply that they struggled. Rather it means they were taken quickly without warning. Perhaps when the Precursors learned of the Androsynths discovery they attempted to pull all the Androsynth in with them. But in order to do so they would need to punch further in than with just their fingers. This explains maybe the "mosquito mange" effect.

4) "They" are most definately NOT the Orz. The Androsynth discovered "They" first. Then the Precursors sensed this from their dimension and and punched through in order to save the Androsynth. The fingers stayed behind because they liked it in *heavy space*.

5) *Bubbles* are atoms. *Many bubbles* are molecules. Most molecular models show atoms as bubbles, and molecules are made up of multiple atoms or many bubbles. We think the Orz are made up of some type of molecular structure similar to ours but that may not be the case in their dimension. Human bodies can only withstand one set of physical laws but the Precursors bodies may have been capable of adapting to new physics. Thus, the Orz are made up of whatever they need to be made of in order to exist in the plane they are on. My guess is they are from some type of ethreal or astral plane as they refer to our dimension as *heavy space*.

I sat up all night reading this entire thread to make sure I didn't repeat anybody else too much. I enjoyed everyone else's veiws very much and couldn't tear myself from a single post. I would very much like to hear some thoughts.

I have been trying to get my second joystick to function with UQM but enabling it only seems to freeze the game at the opening splash screen. Is this just me? I want to have both joysticks available for melee.

For the record my computer is as follows:

AthlonXP 2000+
1 GB PC133 SDRAM
128 MB Radeon 9200
Sound Blaster Live 5.1

The 2 joysticks in question are:
Player 1 - Logitech Wingman Rumble Pad (USB)
Player 2 - Saitek P750 (USB)

Thank you to all who help.