-
I tend to get scientific at times, and I've had this idea in my head. I'm abandoning all of the newer ideas about the aliens, and sticking with what little bits we know about them from just the first two games. From there, I came up with some reasonable ideas to explain where the aliens came from and what they're doing here. This story is far too realistic for mainstream fiction, so prepare to see many fiction tropes thoroughly dashed.
I like to think it all could have happened.
The aliens began as the noble Aquatoids perhaps ten to twenty million years ago. Back then they were a short, slender, aquatic-benthic being with prehensile limbs that could manipulate tools, and large eyes that could see clearly in deep waters. They looked very different from the aquatoids we know today. Their intelligence and communication skills evolved to the point they began going through stages of technological progress. Now, they differed from us humans in that they started off much more slowly. Over hundreds of thousands of years, they very gradually developed an advanced society. You see, these people were naturally tenders of their environment. Their ecological tendencies were strong, and they were content to maintain most things as they were. The Aquatoids were well-situated in their environment as a highly successful apex predator, thus their evolutionary pressure was slow and they had little need to advance further. Thus, their slow progress was fueled primarily by selection of mates initially, and later by sheer boredom alone. Life was easy for them, so they focused most of their efforts on entertainment.
These creatures weren't explorers then, and they were content to live underwater. Population became problematic many times, given how uncommon it was for an aquatoid to die from any cause other than age, but they would eventually find solutions that were ecologically viable. They invented every trick in the book to stave off population growth. Thus they pretty much ignored dry land, even though there existed on their world vast continents covered in large multicellular life. It was well into their technological development that they began to see diminishing nonrenewable natural resources as a particularly important problem. For hundreds of thousands of years they had simply recycled everything, and were exceedingly conscious about resource usage. But some things just couldn't last forever, and it had been too long since they had lived without their technology. Around six to eight million years ago, it came time for them to emerge from the oceans and explore.
The continents were rich with natural resources, but they knew it would not last. The Aquatoids built domed cities on land to hold in the water, and their population began to grow, but resource costs to build and maintain these cities was high. This pressured them to seek out a more efficient way to live on land, and they began to study genetic manipulation. Their goal was to create a version of themselves that could exist on land without life support systems. This led to the discovery that they could incorporate genes from other species to achieve new and potentially useful results. Over perhaps two hundred thousand years, they developed and perfected a being, which we might call the terratoid. And thus the surface became populated by terratoids and they worked with the aquatoids to distribute resources and improve efficiency. But the study of genetics continued, and more discoveries were made. It appeared that there were more breakthroughs to be had which could further improve efficiency...
Over the next couple million years, the aliens built many servant races through genetic manipulation, and became extremely efficient, but the land resources weren't going to last forever, no matter how efficient they became. This led to the eventual discovery that it was possible to leave the planet, and that out there there were more planets. The aliens built mining posts throughout their solar system, but it was a rough start because space technology was extremely demanding on nonrenewable resources. It was worth it, they reasoned, because they had no choice. But the aliens did ravage through just about everything they dared to mine in only a few thousand years time. It was time to leave for the stars, lest they be forced to damage their beautiful planets beyond recognition.
Space travel technology was developed, but nothing like we humans imagine. The aquatoids were more than content to drift through space for many generations. They weren't trying to get anywhere, rather they were simply making a calculated move to protect and nurture their home environment. Thus over the next few million years small numbers of them drifted throughout space, gradually winding up around just about every star within several dozen parsecs. They would carefully extract useful resources from planets and develop huge vaults to store the resources for long term use. Eventually, large shipments would be sent home. Life-bearing worlds were rare gems rich with genetic material they could sample to improve their servant races.
Around three million years ago, one expedition of aquatoids happened upon Earth, and it was the first world they had come across with multicellular life since leaving home. They immediately became fascinated by its wealth of advanced multicellular life, for its land and seas were filled to the brim with all sizes of plant, animal, and fungus, many of which were very large. Earth is significantly larger than the Aquatoid's home world and has over two times the gravity, so it provided a wealth of creatures adapted to a unique planetary environment, spread over much more total surface area than they had encountered on their world. The gravity was no problem as they were benthic beings, and the water could support their frame easily. Thus they dismantled their entire expedition and made a new permanent home for themselves on Earth.
The aquatoids brought with them aquatic servants from their world, including tasoths and tentaculats. They maintained a tight leash on these creatures, however, as they wanted more than anything to preserve this lush biosphere. A servant species let loose could easily become invasive. The aliens built the giant city of T'Leth deep in the ocean on a vast plain where they could construct a large structure without disrupting the natural ecosystem. Inside the city was a microcosm of home, but outside was the natural untainted Earth. For hundreds of thousands of years the aliens very carefully exploited the important resources of the Earth in careful mining operations which prevented terrain destruction. Simultaneously, they built a large array of servant races from the creatures on Earth, and even extracted genetic material from the fossils of long-extinct creatures.
Most of the aliens' time was spent in hibernation. The most efficient resource extraction methods were very slow, and there was much waiting to be done. There was no hurry, and no sense wasting resources being lively. So they slept and dreamed, and remained in stasis most of the time.
It was perhaps twenty thousand years ago that the second expedition came to Earth. They established lines of communication with T'Leth and shared their knowledge. The second expedition had brought with them servant species from other worlds, and new technology unknown to T'Leth. This expedition was not crewed by aquatoids, but by sectoids, a variation of the terratoids built for space travel and environmental resilience. They settled down on Mars and found it much to their liking, for it had lower gravity and dimmer light. With their large eyes and weak frame, they would have found it uncomfortable to settle on Earth. But air pressure was a minor concern as they were content with pressures as low as a tenth of our air, so there were no stress issues with their domed cities.
The sectoids built a city on Mars, in what is now known as Cydonia. They mined Mars for its resources and visited Earth in short stints to take advantage of the land resources that T'Leth had been ignoring. There was a species of ape on the land which was unique among the Earth animals: these creatures would build high-tech hunting weapons out of stone, and hunt large animals to eat. The apes were hugely successful, warlike, and often squabbled with each other. They ravaged lands, hunted species to extinction, and explored in search of new lands to conquer. They were not resource conscious at all. But the sectoids merely watched these apes with interest, and did not interfere with them.
Over thousands of years the sectoids amassed a wealth of precious Elerium fuel which they stored underground on Mars. They were manufacturing this substance by bombarding Uranium with alpha and beta particles. Just like the aquatoids, the sectoids built slowly with great care to preserve the Earth's natural environment. The apes (humans) developed technological advancements rapidly compared to the much slower sectoids. And so the sectoids watched with interest, staying out of the human's sight, and occasionally taking humans for study. It was their intent to make humans into a servant race.
Human war technology grew out of hand, and the sectoids began to fear they would lose control of us. Thus they began to devise a scheme to topple our governments and convert us to anarchy, however as a backup strategy weapons were devised for defense. Through subterfuge tactics and careful application of psionic coercion, the aliens began to sway humanity to turn away and ignore them. Still, small groups of humans persisted in noticing the aliens and perceiving them as a threat. After enough alien research groups went missing, a secret intergovernment organization was built to gather data on the aliens in total secrecy and protect that data so that it could be eventually used to combat the aliens. That organization was X-Com, and it was founded some time in the late 1950s.
For the first few decades of its existence, X-Com studied the aliens and was very careful to ensure the aliens didn't know what they had found out. Slowly but surely, we began to unravel their strategies, the capabilities of their technology, and their weaknesses. We learned they navigated the Earth with levitating aerial spacecraft, and that they could sense animals psionically. We could hide research groups from them most easily by putting them underground directly beneath centers of large-brained animal activity, because the animals would provide psionic waves to mask the presence of the humans. These bases could be hidden from humans and aliens alike.
In 1999, X-Com officially became aggressive against the aliens. Advanced aircraft and weapons had been developed in secret, optimized for use against the aliens. The first attack was a huge success. An X-Com stealth fighter fired a pair of medium range ballistic missiles, each carrying a small nuclear payload, at an unsuspecting alien scout vessel from a range of 60km. The vessel did not see the attack coming and was badly damaged. It crashed into the ground and X-Com sent out a ground expedition to finish off the aliens and plunder their technology. That mission was successful and X-Com walked away with a huge prize.
X-Com assimilated alien technology rapidly in the coming weeks, but the aliens had decided that retaliatory measures were necessary. It was war. Not knowing where to find X-Com, the aliens resorted to the use of terror tactics to weaken humanity's resolve to fight them. A major city was attacked on foot, and the aliens walked the streets, shooting every human in sight. Of course X-Com showed up, but this time the aliens were ready and massive X-Com casualties were inflicted. Little actual damage was done, but the message was clear: do not attempt to fight the aliens lest there be consequences.
In the following year or so, the aliens and X-Com played a tug of war game, with the aliens using smear tactics to make X-Com look bad, and X-Com continuing to plunder more and more alien technology, gaining an ever-larger advantage over the aliens. These weapons were so much more dangerous in the hands of the warrior humans. It quickly became clear to the sectoids that they were going to be overwhelmed. A last ditch effort was made to infiltrate the top governments through direct usage of psionic control. These bold attacks quickly made it clear to every human that the aliens were our enemy, and countries began to choose sides quickly, either aligning with X-Com or surrendering to the aliens.
X-Com won the war by attacking Cydonia and killing the hive brain. The sectoids lost control of their servant races and their lines of communication were breached. The few remaining aliens on Earth were systematically hunted to extinction. But during the attack on Cydonia, a message was sent to T'Leth. Humans didn't know about T'Leth yet, and so the aquatoids would keep it that way for a time. They quickly began to wake from their sleep and build war technologies. It was preparation for a massive invasion.
In 2039, the humans had almost forgotten about the aliens. It was then that the aquatoids attacked, striking down key targets in an attempt to disrupt Earth's ability to put up a fight. Military targets were attacked, as well as logistics chains and supply warehouses. They wanted to take away our weapons. X-Com still existed, but it was running skeleton crews and was not prepared for another invasion. Governments gathered in secret and equipped X-Com quickly to enable them to fight yet another war. Unfortunately, they could not take advantage of plasma weapons technology from the last war due to Elerium shortages, and the fact that the huge stores of Elerium on Mars had not yet been found. Plasma weapons had been outlawed, and all existing weapons had been locked up in secret vaults. The technology remained in computer files but not even X-Com could use the weapons or own Elerium.
So back to war we went, but this time there were far more casualties. X-Com struggled against the aliens' sheer might, but our ability to plunder technology and wage wars proved too much for them and once again we began to gain the upper hand. It was all downhill from there. It was a close call, but we won the war and destroyed T'Leth. We discovered human/sectoid hybrids and spared them because they were around 95% human, but destroyed all other servant species. The hybrids were able to re-integrate into society for the most part but were subject to racial tensions and prejudice.
Someday perhaps we will meet the sectoids and aquatoids again. Perhaps next time, circumstances will be different.
-
Thank you for the very interesting read. It is quite good and well-written.
One minor issue I have is that both tentaculats and tasoths are made purely for war. Why would aquatoids need such creatures, if they were not at war, and possibly never fully developed military strategy by then? It would be more more logical for them to engineer them much later.
Another small point I found unlikely, that all plasma weapons were destroyed. Really? By whom? I don't think any organization on Earth would be fanatical enough to do so. And plasma weapons were too spread. I'd drop this part and just focus on Elerium shortage.
But I also have one big problem with the entire story. What happened to the Ethereals? Were they just another servant race, not even worth mentioning? I think it's too big of a hand wave, really.
-
I'm not entirely certain the tentaculats and tasoths were meant only for war. Maybe that is merely how our scientists interpreted them. But alternatively, they may have had a huge variety of servant creatures at their disposal and selected from among them the most warlike when it came time to wage war. Most of the species were probably contained in DNA banks when they arrived. They had worked at genetic manipulation for millions of years. On a large scale they may have never needed a warfare creature, but on a small scale I'm sure there were plenty of occasions when a few of the rougher things were important.
Perhaps the plasma weapons weren't destroyed, but one way or another X-Com couldn't get their hands on them. I could edit that part of the story for sure.
I don't see anything wrong with the Ethereals being a servant race. The wording used may make it sound to us like they were subservient to, or even enslaved by, the Aquatoids, but the relationship could have been different. Or maybe they were enslaved. Since they are genetically manipulated just like the other servant races, it should be a cinch to keep them in line--they probably enjoy doing their job which seems to be running the other servants en masse.
It is not unreasonable to assume that the creature the ethereals came from were just animals with psionic powers, with no technology and no civilization. They could have been a much more substantial animal, atrophying over time in their new career. Or perhaps the sectoids directly atrophied them through genetic manipulation, took away excess flesh they didn't need. Most of the servant races seem to be missing what we might say are important parts, while the sectoids only lack genitalia which they clearly have no need for.
-
I'm not entirely certain the tentaculats and tasoths were meant only for war. Maybe that is merely how our scientists interpreted them. But alternatively, they may have had a huge variety of servant creatures at their disposal and selected from among them the most warlike when it came time to wage war. Most of the species were probably contained in DNA banks when they arrived. They had worked at genetic manipulation for millions of years. On a large scale they may have never needed a warfare creature, but on a small scale I'm sure there were plenty of occasions when a few of the rougher things were important.
I don't know, the zombification process seems to have little use outside terror warfare. I mean, it's so energy expensive, I doubt it would even be possible naturally (without something like Elerium blood).
Tasoths are more likely to be non-combat originally, but whatever they were, they were awesome.
Perhaps the plasma weapons weren't destroyed, but one way or another X-Com couldn't get their hands on them. I could edit that part of the story for sure.
Yeah, I think it's a good idea.
I don't see anything wrong with the Ethereals being a servant race. The wording used may make it sound to us like they were subservient to, or even enslaved by, the Aquatoids, but the relationship could have been different. Or maybe they were enslaved. Since they are genetically manipulated just like the other servant races, it should be a cinch to keep them in line--they probably enjoy doing their job which seems to be running the other servants en masse.
Yes, I'm not saying it's impossible. I just wanted to know more about them, because they're so smooth. :)
It is not unreasonable to assume that the creature the ethereals came from were just animals with psionic powers, with no technology and no civilization. They could have been a much more substantial animal, atrophying over time in their new career. Or perhaps the sectoids directly atrophied them through genetic manipulation, took away excess flesh they didn't need. Most of the servant races seem to be missing what we might say are important parts, while the sectoids only lack genitalia which they clearly have no need for.
Hmmm, they look pretty similar to the Aquatoids themselves... Could they have been a ruling caste or something, created by Sectoids?
-
I don't know, the zombification process seems to have little use outside terror warfare. I mean, it's so energy expensive, I doubt it would even be possible naturally (without something like Elerium blood).
Realistically speaking, such a weapon might attack their nervous system and temporarily bring them under control of the aliens' psionic will. The physical changes that grow a tentaculat inside it would likely occur over the course of days--and that's assuming the tentaculat is made of simple tissues that can grow quickly. It would also need a nutritional supplement to make up for what is lacking in the body it's consuming. But from a gameplay standpoint, it makes more sense to have them burst out right away. And zombification is far from the only example of game functions that happen unrealistically fast. If a turn is 10 seconds, then an entire terror mission will tend to last under two minutes, yet you can take most of a day to arrive and still get there before any civilians have been killed.
I think the tentaculat transformation is probably useful for gaining control of aggressive animals that are difficult to control through the use of force. If you unleash a few tentaculats on them in a wide landscape with room to hide, the tentaculats can lurk about and ambush the animals, rendering them helpless almost immediately. Within a short time, the tentaculat population begins to grow and overwhelm the native population. After they take heavy losses, the aquatoids can move in and capture the stragglers. It's probably not a favorite of theirs, but with over three million years worth of creating servant races, they probably found a use for it somewhere.
Yes, I'm not saying it's impossible. I just wanted to know more about them, because they're so smooth. :)
Hmmm, they look pretty similar to the Aquatoids themselves... Could they have been a ruling caste or something, created by Sectoids?
The Ethereals, Gill Men, Deep Ones, Mutons, and Aquatoids/Sectoids all have a startlingly humanoid appearance. The obvious explanation is that the developers at MicroProse were humans, but if we want to make some realism out of it, there's still some room.
The Gill Men are explained to be genetically related to humans and are also reptilian. They may be a servant race created from human DNA as a baseline but strongly altered to make them useful as aquatic servants. Their seeming to have a history as a distinct people could hint at a much richer backstory.
The Deep Ones are probably captured humans which have been altered. It may be a weapon created in haste, without full development into a proper servant race, they may rely on making surgical alterations to each individual instead of growing them all from scratch.
The Mutons' form is a perfect match for a human, and even their internal organs (what few are left) look the same as ours. They may appear genetically distinct from humans so far as to be thought to have originated on another planet, but it is more likely they were built from humans. The armor is implanted surgically and may have been added as an afterthought when the humans started to get frisky. Perhaps the sectoids weren't sure which direction to take the human servant race, and left it flexible and receptive to surgical implants. Had they had more time, they might have better developed the mutons.
The Ethereals bear a form that most closely resembles a human, but it could also be based on the aquatoid form. Its internal organs are largely removed, and all that appears to be left (in the autopsy image) is a large pair of lungs, a likely mechanical heart, and some lower abdominal mass that may serve to store and process nutrient fluids that are fed to them, perhaps intravenously. It could easily be an elongated terratoid with its head mass reduced, with excess brain functions removed. The broad shoulders probably help support the enlarged lungs. I'd think they probably don't need enlarged lungs most of the time, but there might be some reason behind that which I don't know about.
And that leaves us with only one coincidence of similarity, and it's not even that strong of a coincidence. I find that believable. The aquatoids likely evolved from a slightly monkey-like creature that walked upright on the sea floor, gradually transforming from a swimming creature. They probably retain the ability to swim much like we retain the ability to climb trees. Their benthic nature and prehensile hands would prove useful in manipulating their environment in inventive ways, promoting further growth of their social and communication skills, as well as enlargement of their brains.
Perhaps also the aquatoids did not evolve psionic powers naturally. Psionics may have been first discovered as a trait existing in the ancestors of ethereals--the being from which the psionic traits were "borrowed", which would mean that the founders of T'Leth had never seen or heard of psionics. They used their firm grasp of field manipulation technology to form a system of remote control, we know it as Molecular Control and it functions similarly to psionics in outward appearance but is much less energy efficient as well as being functionally very different. It may require the expenditure of zrbite to maintain control, while psionics do not exhaust any non-renewable resources.
Zrbite is made from gold and is perhaps the fuel source originally invented to enable long-distance space travel. Later expeditions learned to create Elerium fuel and decided it was superior, perhaps because uranium is so much more abundant while gold is going to be in high demand for other uses.
I'm enjoying discussing this with you! The more we talk about it, the richer the backstory can become!
-
Realistically speaking, such a weapon might attack their nervous system and temporarily bring them under control of the aliens' psionic will. The physical changes that grow a tentaculat inside it would likely occur over the course of days--and that's assuming the tentaculat is made of simple tissues that can grow quickly. It would also need a nutritional supplement to make up for what is lacking in the body it's consuming. But from a gameplay standpoint, it makes more sense to have them burst out right away. And zombification is far from the only example of game functions that happen unrealistically fast. If a turn is 10 seconds, then an entire terror mission will tend to last under two minutes, yet you can take most of a day to arrive and still get there before any civilians have been killed.
I don't think we can say that a turn literally takes 10 seconds, much like we can't say that the entire terror mission takes place on 250 square metres. Or that nobody in town has a toilet. These are some simplifications of the battlefield, or a smaller scale.
With the Tentaculat/Chryssalid however it's different. It's not a simplification, it's a fact that the transformation is very fast. With Chryssalids we can assume they actually have Elerium-based biological components, Tentaculats can have some sort of Zrbite analogue.
I don't think it's terribly important to the overall story though.
The Gill Men are explained to be genetically related to humans and are also reptilian. They may be a servant race created from human DNA as a baseline but strongly altered to make them useful as aquatic servants. Their seeming to have a history as a distinct people could hint at a much richer backstory.
Weren't they the previous sentient race on Earth, who ruled the planet some millions years ago? Or is it just in my head?
The Deep Ones are probably captured humans which have been altered. It may be a weapon created in haste, without full development into a proper servant race, they may rely on making surgical alterations to each individual instead of growing them all from scratch.
Yes, definitely.
The Mutons' form is a perfect match for a human, and even their internal organs (what few are left) look the same as ours. They may appear genetically distinct from humans so far as to be thought to have originated on another planet, but it is more likely they were built from humans. The armor is implanted surgically and may have been added as an afterthought when the humans started to get frisky. Perhaps the sectoids weren't sure which direction to take the human servant race, and left it flexible and receptive to surgical implants. Had they had more time, they might have better developed the mutons.
Yes, both possibilities exist. I'd just like to notice that Aquatoids themselves are quite human-like, which suggests it's a common body plan in the Galaxy.
The Ethereals bear a form that most closely resembles a human, but it could also be based on the aquatoid form. Its internal organs are largely removed, and all that appears to be left (in the autopsy image) is a large pair of lungs, a likely mechanical heart, and some lower abdominal mass that may serve to store and process nutrient fluids that are fed to them, perhaps intravenously. It could easily be an elongated terratoid with its head mass reduced, with excess brain functions removed. The broad shoulders probably help support the enlarged lungs. I'd think they probably don't need enlarged lungs most of the time, but there might be some reason behind that which I don't know about.
Yes, that's more or less how I understood your idea.
And that leaves us with only one coincidence of similarity, and it's not even that strong of a coincidence. I find that believable. The aquatoids likely evolved from a slightly monkey-like creature that walked upright on the sea floor, gradually transforming from a swimming creature. They probably retain the ability to swim much like we retain the ability to climb trees. Their benthic nature and prehensile hands would prove useful in manipulating their environment in inventive ways, promoting further growth of their social and communication skills, as well as enlargement of their brains.
The Aquatoid's body is completely weird for an aquatic life form, but well, there are weirder. Maybe that big brain is for buoyancy? :)
Perhaps also the aquatoids did not evolve psionic powers naturally. Psionics may have been first discovered as a trait existing in the ancestors of ethereals--the being from which the psionic traits were "borrowed", which would mean that the founders of T'Leth had never seen or heard of psionics. They used their firm grasp of field manipulation technology to form a system of remote control, we know it as Molecular Control and it functions similarly to psionics in outward appearance but is much less energy efficient as well as being functionally very different. It may require the expenditure of zrbite to maintain control, while psionics do not exhaust any non-renewable resources.
Yes, all this seems logical.
I'm enjoying discussing this with you! The more we talk about it, the richer the backstory can become!
Good! :)
-
I don't think we can say that a turn literally takes 10 seconds, much like we can't say that the entire terror mission takes place on 250 square metres. Or that nobody in town has a toilet. These are some simplifications of the battlefield, or a smaller scale.
With the Tentaculat/Chryssalid however it's different. It's not a simplification, it's a fact that the transformation is very fast. With Chryssalids we can assume they actually have Elerium-based biological components, Tentaculats can have some sort of Zrbite analogue.
It seems important because there needs to be a realistic explanation. It does seem possible to do a partial transformation very rapidly (in minutes or less) and a complete transformation in mere days. But maybe it's possible to go even faster. The fact that there are both tentaculats and chryssalids doing the same thing hints at what I see as two possibilities:
1.) it's a high tech trait implanted into them, and they didn't have it naturally
2.) their ancestor species are both from the same planet, which has a huge array of species carrying this same trait, many of which are distant relatives of each other
Or perhaps it's a combination of the two: they selected animals with the greatest capacity to breed this way and furthered their development as a servant race with gene selection from other animals on the planet, gene manufacturing, adaptation by artificial selection, and final surgical alteration to implant them with mechanical parts. It could have been a long and arduous process making them into such a powerful animal.
Weren't they the previous sentient race on Earth, who ruled the planet some millions years ago? Or is it just in my head?
They couldn't have evolved here naturally, for they have no fossil ancestors. Theirs and our body plan is unique to two genuses (homo and australopith) of one family (homonidae). It's highly specific and bears clear origins as an arboreal species. There are no reptilian animals on Earth which grasp and hang from tree limbs with their forearms, and even if there were, they wouldn't be aquatic. Also, any species that was like that wouldn't be labeled as a distant relative of humans any more than we'd say an iquana is a distant relative of humans.
But there is another possibility:
The aliens may have made a servant race out of humans and let them colonize a part of the ocean. There could have been a long-running project in which these people had free reign of a small patch of ocean, and in this area they may have developed advanced societies and governments.
It couldn't have happened without alien intervention. The Gill Men are both too close to us and too far from us to be natural.
Yes, both possibilities exist. I'd just like to notice that Aquatoids themselves are quite human-like, which suggests it's a common body plan in the Galaxy.
It can't be a common body plan in the galaxy. It's not a common body plan on Earth. But maybe it can be common among prehensile tool-users. There's almost certainly several other viable body plans for tool-users, but it may be a fairly short list. Also, it is unlikely that quadrupedal animals are significantly more common than hexapedal animals, and there's probably other numbers of limbs out there. Quadrupedal animals probably make up well under half of the animals out there, and as we see here on earth, the number of limbs won't generally increase or decrease just because a genetic line starts building things. Instead they use the limbs they have and the limbs themselves morph into better shapes for building. Examples: ants, termites, beavers, prairie dogs, moles, bees, wasps, birds, and many others...
Aquatoid-Hominid similarity is still coincidental but I think it's in the realm of reason. There are many examples of convergent evolution, but there are always major differences mixed in with the similarities. Mutons and Gill Men are too similar to be coincidence, but Aquatoids are very different from us, and Ethereals might have been--it's hard to tell because so little remains of their original self.
The Aquatoid's body is completely weird for an aquatic life form, but well, there are weirder. Maybe that big brain is for buoyancy? :)
We're pretty weird for a terrestrial animal. A few animals walk upright for various reasons, we do it for energy efficiency during travel, and it's remarkably effective despite how rare it is for other animals to do it. Kangaroos/wallabies are even more energy efficient in travel, yet their foot/leg plan is also rare. Aquatoids probably don't do it for energy efficiency because they're in the water, but also because they live in water, it would make it very easy for their ancestors to have chosen to walk upright even without having the body plan for it. Land animals sometimes choose to walk upright but it's difficult with so little buoyancy. Benthic critters do all sorts of weird "handstands" though. If Aquatoid ancestral society relied on standing upright a lot, they might have slowly adjusted to a form more fitting for that. Given that they're quadrupedal, it seems reasonable for them to associate standing on two limbs with tool use, so they can free the other two limbs.
-
It seems important because there needs to be a realistic explanation. It does seem possible to do a partial transformation very rapidly (in minutes or less) and a complete transformation in mere days. But maybe it's possible to go even faster. The fact that there are both tentaculats and chryssalids doing the same thing hints at what I see as two possibilities:
1.) it's a high tech trait implanted into them, and they didn't have it naturally
2.) their ancestor species are both from the same planet, which has a huge array of species carrying this same trait, many of which are distant relatives of each other
Or perhaps it's a combination of the two: they selected animals with the greatest capacity to breed this way and furthered their development as a servant race with gene selection from other animals on the planet, gene manufacturing, adaptation by artificial selection, and final surgical alteration to implant them with mechanical parts. It could have been a long and arduous process making them into such a powerful animal.
Yeah, I realize all this... But in a world of mutons and Tentaculats, I am not so sure any more! :)
They couldn't have evolved here naturally, for they have no fossil ancestors. Theirs and our body plan is unique to two genuses (homo and australopith) of one family (homonidae). (...)
And Ethereals. And Sectoids. And Mutons. And Floaters too, probably...
But there is another possibility:
The aliens may have made a servant race out of humans and let them colonize a part of the ocean. There could have been a long-running project in which these people had free reign of a small patch of ocean, and in this area they may have developed advanced societies and governments.
Sure, why not.
It can't be a common body plan in the galaxy. It's not a common body plan on Earth.
It is, for sapients.
If there were no Sectoids and co., I wouldn't say a thing. But clearly, in two out of two sentient species in the galaxy, the same body plan is used!
But maybe it can be common among prehensile tool-users. There's almost certainly several other viable body plans for tool-users, but it may be a fairly short list. Also, it is unlikely that quadrupedal animals are significantly more common than hexapedal animals, and there's probably other numbers of limbs out there. (...)
There are also, for example, trunks (elephants, tapirs) and specialized mouth organs (many invertebrates, but potentially also mammals).
-
It is, for sapients.
If there were no Sectoids and co., I wouldn't say a thing. But clearly, in two out of two sentient species in the galaxy, the same body plan is used!
There are also, for example, trunks (elephants, tapirs) and specialized mouth organs (many invertebrates, but potentially also mammals).
Sapience, sentience, self-awareness, these are pseudoscientific terms invented by awestruck people to explain a distinction between humans and other animals that they don't understand. A distinction which, as science overwhelmingly shows us more and more each decade, doesn't exist. There are thousands of sapient species on this planet, they are often at least as intelligent as we are. There is exactly two traits that set us apart from everyone else on Earth, and neither has anything to do with intelligence, self-awareness, or tool using skill:
1.) attention span - we listen to each other and learn from each other
2.) spoken language - we transmit concrete, objective ideas
I've seen a lot of animals more intelligent than we are, usually individuals as the variance is usually person-to-person more than it is species-to-species.
Sectoids/Aquatoids do have a body that's a bit too similar to humans for comfort, but it is far more different from us than the Mutons or Gill Men or Ethereals. But maybe all of them are based on humans. Maybe the original species is something else entirely, something we have yet to meet face to face. Or maybe we have met two before: The Alien Brain (Cydonia) and The Alien Horror (T'Leth). These might have been, from a baseline perspective, members of the same species, who had altered even their own bodies so drastically as to make themselves virtually unrecognizable from their original form.
I also missed another aspect in my story: according to the Alien Species Wiki, T'Leth crash-landed to Earth during the late Cretaceous period and is the impactor we blame today for the iridium-rich K/T Extinction Boundary ~66 MYA. That pre-dates the Aquatoid society I had written about. Based on my research regarding the many steps of development of technology-developing life, it may suggest they are one of the founder species: the oldest possible civilizations to hit the stars. I presume that we humans are a founder species, thus explaining the Fermi Paradox: the universe is too young. If these aliens hit the stars over 66 million years ago, it means they developed even faster than we did, or perhaps their planet got an earlier start.
I'm gonna go write up an article detailing and condensing my ideas behind the Fermi Paradox explanation and why I think we're a founder species and what that means.
-
I know how smart and adaptable animals are. However, to say there is no mental difference between humans and other animals is both silly and unscientific. Science has yet to prove the existence of abstract thought in animals at a level comparable to humans. In other words, no animal can consistently use and change their environment like we do. No other animal can amass all sorts of knowledge like we do.
No, sentience is as fuzzy as it is real.
Sectoids/Aquatoids do have a body that's a bit too similar to humans for comfort, but it is far more different from us than the Mutons or Gill Men or Ethereals.
Different in what? Genetics, maybe, but that's not on topic. They have analogues of human head, eyes, fingers, knees, brain, stomach, lungs, pretty much everything.
But maybe all of them are based on humans. Maybe the original species is something else entirely, something we have yet to meet face to face. Or maybe we have met two before: The Alien Brain (Cydonia) and The Alien Horror (T'Leth). These might have been, from a baseline perspective, members of the same species, who had altered even their own bodies so drastically as to make themselves virtually unrecognizable from their original form.
Yes, that would be possible too. And Aquatoids would be in fact modified humans, or at least primates?
I also missed another aspect in my story: according to the Alien Species Wiki, T'Leth crash-landed to Earth during the late Cretaceous period and is the impactor we blame today for the iridium-rich K/T Extinction Boundary ~66 MYA. That pre-dates the Aquatoid society I had written about. Based on my research regarding the many steps of development of technology-developing life, it may suggest they are one of the founder species: the oldest possible civilizations to hit the stars. I presume that we humans are a founder species, thus explaining the Fermi Paradox: the universe is too young. If these aliens hit the stars over 66 million years ago, it means they developed even faster than we did, or perhaps their planet got an earlier start.
I'm gonna go write up an article detailing and condensing my ideas behind the Fermi Paradox explanation and why I think we're a founder species and what that means.
OK, I'll refrain from comments for now and wait on the article.
-
I know how smart and adaptable animals are. However, to say there is no mental difference between humans and other animals is both silly and unscientific. Science has yet to prove the existence of abstract thought in animals at a level comparable to humans. In other words, no animal can consistently use and change their environment like we do. No other animal can amass all sorts of knowledge like we do.
No, sentience is as fuzzy as it is real.
Science notes that we humans invent tools and techniques and teach our offspring how to reproduce these things, and that no other animals do this. But when we attribute it to our intelligence or sense of self, that's not science. Science has difficulty measuring how other animals think, it has difficulty determining whether or not other animals think in the abstract. The absence of a result isn't a negative result. In this case, it means we need to refine our techniques more than it means anything else.
But we do know that dolphins and chimpanzees are able to visualize objects in their mind. They can understand themselves as a being alongside others--they can understand that other animals are creatures just like them. They can strategize in teamwork and come up with complex solutions to problems their instincts could never have prepared them for. We know this because we have studied dolphins and chimpanzees a lot. There is no reason to believe they are any less intelligent than we are. What we can do that they cannot is not a mental faculty but a social trait.
And they aren't the only animals like that. Orangutans, octopuses, elephants, parakeets, rats, and many other animals have been found to be highly intelligent. Ideas that they run on just instinct are silly things said by people long ago who hadn't properly studied them, and modern science has thoroughly debunked such ideas. These animals think on the fly and have complex personalities. Some of them can even learn verbal languages and communicate concrete concepts with others--if we teach them to. Chimpanzees and orangutans are best at this, both have been taught a small vocabulary in sign language and have shown that they can ask questions and talk about their own feelings.
I think we pat ourselves on the back too much for what the most intelligent humans built before us. Most of us have little to no understanding of how any of our technology works; we simply understand how to use it. A lot of animals can understand how to use a high-tech tool that's built for them. Pretty much every animal we keep as pets does this on a regular basis. But to invent a tool takes a higher level of intellectual capability, and that's not a human trait. That's a minority trait. And other species have that same minority we have. The difference is that we never learn about them because they can't show anyone what they have figured out.
Compare this with science in the Renaissance era. Nearly all scientific breakthroughs were made by rich people. The rich people weren't better at science and they weren't more intelligent, but they were far more capable of telling others about their ideas. They were also far more capable of spending time developing these ideas, whereas the poor folk were busy working all day. You can see how this plays back in human history. A hundred thousand years ago we had a variety of advanced technologies, but new technologies came along very rarely because everyone was too busy perfecting their use of existing technology to ensure their survival. They didn't have the time nor the boredom to invent. I submit to you that our pet dogs and cats and parakeets and rats have more inventive thoughts in their spare time in a day than came out of entire human communities over whole years back before we conquered the world.
Different in what? Genetics, maybe, but that's not on topic. They have analogues of human head, eyes, fingers, knees, brain, stomach, lungs, pretty much everything.
Yes, that would be possible too. And Aquatoids would be in fact modified humans, or at least primates?
Maybe an australopith or ardepith. It could explain their stature and size a bit better.
-
Yes, I was trying to express that I fully understand these arguments, but catastrophically faile to do so. My point is: sentient species is what we understand as sentient species. It is irrelevant how it works, how it's different from "non-sentients", and so on. Sentience is a purely functional label that is nonetheless very useful.
So what is the final word? Are Aquatoids of Earth origin?
-
Yes, I was trying to express that I fully understand these arguments, but catastrophically faile to do so. My point is: sentient species is what we understand as sentient species. It is irrelevant how it works, how it's different from "non-sentients", and so on. Sentience is a purely functional label that is nonetheless very useful.
I think it fools people into misinterpreting how brains work, and convinces them that people animals are stupid or inferior to us. I think it furthers unnecessary derogatory speciesism.
So what is the final word? Are Aquatoids of Earth origin?
I'd say yes. I'm going to need to re-wite this back story. This one doesn't work. Maybe at some point I'll write a backstory #2, but first I'd like to discuss more of the elements so I can do the best job possible. It's too bad nobody else has responded yet. Only two voices in this chat...well hey at least it's the two brightest! :D
So I like the idea of going with T'Leth arriving as the K/T Extinction boundary impactor. I have two important points to make about this, however:
1.) The K/T Extinction was not dependent solely on the impactor, and may have been more strongly associated with the carbon monoxide that was erupting from the ground. The asteroid may have been coincidence, or perhaps struck when the Earth was weak. Maybe similar size objects have hit us other times and caused a far smaller amount of extinction.
2.) While it is easy to write "their navigation systems failed and they crashed" into a sci-fi book, it's not really a very good explanation in reality. If they were traveling at a significant fraction of the speed of light using high-thrust, high-efficiency, non-space-warping engines, they would take a nearly straight path to the target virtually unaffected by gravity, and they would suddenly "stop" when they enter the system. If they have the faintest glimmer of intelligence, they would slow down in the middle of open space and set themselves on a lower velocity approach vector to the planet, one which would glance past the planet without actually touching it. If they fail to slow down in time either passing the star system or passing the planet, they will simply zoom right past it. If they actually crashed at that speed (which would be stupid) they would be obliterated.
I want to brainstorm some ideas to explain how the arrival of T'Leth matches the K/T Impactor event, but I just don't think it'll be a high-speed crash landing. It could be a low-speed crash landing if they were slowly descending through the atmosphere when their engines failed, but that wouldn't cause dark clouds of debris to cover the whole planet.
Here's some rough brainstormed hypotheses:
* The ship landed without a hitch, and the aliens used dirty technologies which wrecked the environment and killed off many species. This could explain the carbon monoxide and iridium found in the rocks. The lack of artifacts may be because they cleaned up their mess afterward once they realized they were killing the planet.
* The ship's engines fail in orbit but they have to land in order to re-fuel and properly repair, so they jury-rig an engine off their weapon systems using asteroid fuel in order to make a rough landing. The engine causes tremendous damage to the landing site and carves out a huge crater.
* The ship contains a lot of rock (as we've seen in the pictures) and during landing a piece was knocked off and sent hurtling toward the Earth. OOPS. (Alternatively, a meteoroid impact broke off a piece of the city.)
* They're trying to cover their tracks so they use an asteroid to "clean up the mess" where they did something they don't want anyone to know about.
These are bad hypotheses, so I hope you have some more. :P
-
I'm going to need to re-wite this back story. This one doesn't work. Maybe at some point I'll write a backstory #2, but first I'd like to discuss more of the elements so I can do the best job possible. It's too bad nobody else has responded yet. Only two voices in this chat...well hey at least it's the two brightest! :D
Nice reading, I won't add more tho, my imagination is below that of my parakeet pet ;-(
I think we pat ourselves on the back too much for what the most intelligent humans built before us. Most of us have little to no understanding of how any of our technology works; we simply understand how to use it.
Yup, that's me alright. But I am trying...
-
Nice reading, I won't add more tho, my imagination is below that of my parakeet pet ;-(
Yup, that's me alright. But I am trying...
Come on, I'm sure you have some valuable input. Don't forget, we're stupid humans, too! I think you're probably more creative than your parakeet. If you said your pet was a giant pacific octopus then I'd figure your pet was probably more creative than you are, but even then it still depends greatly on the individual. But heck, I'd be interested to hear what a hamster has to say on the subject.
-
Interesting read! I finally managed to read through the whole thing and don't regret it. That being said, it seems like it would benefit from thorough reading of all the paedia articles from both EU and TftD. I really like your patient ecological twist on the aliens, that fits well with their way of acting in the games: They don't send an army, they try to sway the governments into joining them. They don't revive everyone in T'leth immediately, they do it slowly, conserving resources and minimizing their impact on the planet until the message from Mars tells them that they are under threat.
Assuming what we read there is true (and genetic lineage should be easy to assess in the times of TftD), Gillmen were active amphibious reptilian beings during the time of the dinosaurs (a reference to the fabled "intelligent dinosaur", I guess) that were mostly destroyed at the same time as them, when T'leth crashed on Earth. At that time, they entered a symbiotic relationship with the aquatoids, presumably helping the survivors with local knowledge and manpower, while the aliens provided technological support that enabled the species to survive the cataclysm (maybe prompted by their guilt at destroying the current order of the planet, going by your ecological take on aquatoids).
Another comment I had is that I'm not sure of the usefulness of introducing terranoids. It would make a lot more sense for the aquatoids to be like they are if there was little land on their original planet. T'leth would have been sent early in their history, before the apparition of terranoids and sectoids), as the aquatoids' first foray in space travel. Maybe they realized that sending water laden crafts in space was not a great idea (more massive than gasses, more difficult to ventilate) and that not all planets were covered in water (astronomy from underwater is not easy.. they might be great at gravitational astronomy using gravity waves, being used to tides and other gravity based phenomena, but it's hard for them to properly observe stars and the spectral composition of other planets from underwater), rather rapidly. Then they could have gone straight to the space faring, versatile sectoids.
The longer they spend on land, the less it makes sense that they would send aquatoids to settle other planets, and especially that the aquatoids of T'leth didn't have access to the sectoid strand to help them fight the ground based humans, or take control of the world in the millions of years that they had.
Finally, I think making The Great Dreamer the "founding species" would be interesting. The cydonian brain could be an evolution, after millions of years emphasizing psychic control at the detriment of everything else. The Great Dreamer is a formidable being that could stand against humanity should it be awakened, but it needs implants to control its minions, whereas the brain can't do anything, but it can control aliens through sheer psychic might.
-
I really like your patient ecological twist on the aliens, that fits well with their way of acting in the games:
Yeah, I saw there was a plethora of reasons that they needed to be a relaxed, slow-paced people. Us not standing a chance of fighting them notwithstanding, were our planet invaded by an aggressive race like humans, it would be blindingly obvious they're here.
Assuming what we read there is true (and genetic lineage should be easy to assess in the times of TftD), Gillmen were active amphibious reptilian beings during the time of the dinosaurs (a reference to the fabled "intelligent dinosaur", I guess) that were mostly destroyed at the same time as them, when T'leth crashed on Earth. At that time, they entered a symbiotic relationship with the aquatoids, presumably helping the survivors with local knowledge and manpower, while the aliens provided technological support that enabled the species to survive the cataclysm (maybe prompted by their guilt at destroying the current order of the planet, going by your ecological take on aquatoids).
That's a neat take on it. Maybe the aliens altered the Gill Men and later Mutons and Humans to look like them. Maybe they coerced our development slowly, biasing us toward a specific form. Tasoths could be an earlier iteration of what later became the Gill Men.
Another comment I had is that I'm not sure of the usefulness of introducing terranoids. It would make a lot more sense for the aquatoids to be like they are if there was little land on their original planet. T'leth would have been sent early in their history, before the apparition of terranoids and sectoids), as the aquatoids' first foray in space travel. Maybe they realized that sending water laden crafts in space was not a great idea
The longer they spend on land, the less it makes sense that they would send aquatoids to settle other planets, and especially that the aquatoids of T'leth didn't have access to the sectoid strand to help them fight the ground based humans, or take control of the world in the millions of years that they had.
Their planet is mostly ocean, like ours. At first, only a small fraction was habitable, slivers along the shoreline. But as their technology grew, they inched their way deeper and deeper, and eventually they could live on the bottom of the ocean. By the time they were capable of going that far, they were also able to control their population size. There was no need to go on land, so they didn't do it. They studied the stars I'm sure, as they were a watchful people, but they wouldn't have thought there were other planets out there.
When they decided they had to expand beyond the ocean, the land was the obvious choice. At this point, much of their technology was far superior to ours, having been in development for over a million years past computers. They still didn't know other planets existed, because it wasn't important to them. They built terratoids because it brought them resource efficiency for over a million years. It was their first major alteration to their own genome. Sectoids came much later as an advanced form, when they had a lot of experience both with the rigors of space travel and with altering their genome, and probably they sampled genes from life on rougher worlds, microbes surviving on worlds that lost their atmosphere, perhaps.
They probably sent Aquatoids into space for any of a few reasons:
1.) Aquatoids were around 75-80% of their population
2.) Terratoids were weak, energy-inefficient compared to Aquatoids
3.) They needed to bring water along for long distance travel anyway, to protect against cosmic rays.
But maybe I'm wrong and they would have sent Terratoids. It's not important really, I think I've decided pretty firmly at this point that the Aquatoids aren't the founders.
Finally, I think making The Great Dreamer the "founding species" would be interesting. The cydonian brain could be an evolution, after millions of years emphasizing psychic control at the detriment of everything else. The Great Dreamer is a formidable being that could stand against humanity should it be awakened, but it needs implants to control its minions, whereas the brain can't do anything, but it can control aliens through sheer psychic might.
That's a cool idea! Maybe it was a member of a race with lots of experience altering genetics. They had imbued themselves with the greatest traits they had come across or even invented, such as psionics. This one went rogue perhaps, and sought its fortune in a new sector of the galaxy. It's a bored megalomaniac maybe, trying to play God, and creating servants in its own image--although since its direct appearance is variable, it makes us look the way it envisions an ideal version of itself.
One last thought:
I had this idea a while back that they colonized Mars first, when it was lush--they considered Mars more habitable due to its lower gravity. They made a small Earth expedition which relied on supplies from Mars. The Martian climate destabilized and the Mars colony fell into minimum operational status and was unable to support the Earth outpost, so the Earth outpost went to sleep. They lived so slowly that they failed to react well enough to the changing climate. Fast forward to now, and the Mars colony is making trips to Earth to gather food and genetic material, as they continue to perfect their Mars climate resistance while also trying to beef up their gravity tolerance.
They wake up the Earth outpost as a last effort to survive. It goes into overdrive mode, depleting most of its stored resources in 40 years, preparing for an invasion.
Would be neat if we had all the tech from the first game in TFTD, and we needed it because what the aliens bring to bear against us after preparation is so much more fearsome...
-
Read everything in this topic yesterday. Interesting lore stuff I must say! Not often at all when I feel somewhat at home.
Through years of sometimes playing X-Com 1 and then 2, I've always considered ethereals and sectoids to be allies with each other unless it just seems like it is. Considering that the sectoids are the first ones to appear on the X-Com radars the first time in the game, can't help but feel that the ethereals might very well be the ones pulling all the strings apart from the large brain entity.
Either sectoids needed to to gather the intel first themselves on the ground to figure out which slave species to send as warfare tools or it could be the other way around as in that the ethereals being responsible for sending in inferior psionics in first to see what they can or could do. Still a grey area for me though unless I consider the fact that the second game has aquatoids and no hint of ethereals what-so-ever other than the lovecraftian terrorizing horror unit (Tentaculat) which made even me stay away from those at least 10-20 tiles away if I had no molecular equipment using armored backup-infrantry yet.
TFtD was/is a kind of game where I had to rethink my approach to hostiles to make my small super squad matter again with hiding, saving TUs for enemy turn in case a lucky reaction fire opportunity from my side and once I spotted something extremely dangerous I either shot at it from a safe distance or took control over it with the TFtD's psi-gun alternative to also visual-sweep the area from the alien's side if in-case there's more of them over yonder and if I had the chance I used the opposition's own forces against them.
And good grief.. don't get me started when I ran into both Tentaculats, Bio-Drones and Hallucinoids along with their masters all at once in the cursed 2 to 3 part battlescape mission progressions.. and then there's always that one last hiding foe in some unknown damn corner or a closet. x_x My experience of course with TFtD goes back long before OpenXcom supported the second game so I played it with Dosbox and so I have not played it for years now and have kept to playing the original instead from time to time.
In-game around-the-corner alien sledgehammer head-smack surprise shenanigans aside. I've always been interested about the aliens of the game and what actual story and backstory they could have.
-
Xcom UFO Defense came out at a time which there was quite a bit of alleged UFO sightings together with some of their crewmembers
The Greys are quite well represented by the Sectoids and Snakemen vaguely resemble the reptilians.
The mysterious hooded Ethereals might have corresponded to the Nordic aliens though out of the gown the subsequent XCOM series' depictions of them certainly explode any idea of that.
UFO lore has gained traction with the writer Whitley Strieber books, which gives alleged accounts of his contact with what appear to be extraterrestrials and their motivations, (though Whitley himself draws no conclusions about the identity of the alleged abductors).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_alleged_extraterrestrial_beings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitley_Strieber
-
I'm glad you liked my topic! I'm still collecting ideas for whenever (if ever) I get around to a re-write.
Still a grey area for me though unless I consider the fact that the second game has aquatoids and no hint of ethereals what-so-ever other than the lovecraftian terrorizing horror unit (Tentaculat)
The tentaculat does not use molecular control. That is what the tasoths do. Tentaculats are basically just flying chryssalids.
It's difficult to tell who is using the mind control, so you kind of assume it's the smart-looking brain alien, rather than the primitive-looking lizard alien.
-
No, no no. By "Large alien brain" I meant the one you destroy in the first game's last mission and as for the tentaculats, my mind wandered back when I played it and I played it with a super squad so that mind control alternative molecular control in TFtD failed each time the AI used it on my troops (that or I used some kind of cheat tool as I usually do to make my troops immune.) but tentaculats, they covered the ground's tiles fast in each turn and even my super squad was in a real detrimental outcome once a tentaculat got close and used its attacks.
And also by "molecular equipment using armored backup-infrantry" I meant my super squad, a branch of it using that molecular control tech to take control over the tentaculats as fast as possible to give my self room and a break to think whenever I saw them either approaching or around a corner hiding.
Good grief.. am I losing the ability of how to put things into words or something!?! *strong headdesk*
Anyhow despite that I just needed to respond what I meant exactly, I'm interested to see where this lore will go as there has never been to my knowledge a backstory of the game's hostiles apart from ufopaedia entries.
-
X-Com: Interceptor seemed to be making some backstory for the sectoids, but I didn't play very far into that game.
Good grief.. am I losing the ability of how to put things into words or something!?! *strong headdesk*
I never had that ability. I think not having it is a sign of genius. =)
-
Oh, yeah, X-Com: Interceptor only just now remembered it. Last time I played it was also years ago and I remember reading the ufopedia there after tachyon blasting the hostiles inert in hopes of getting more stuff to put into research and manufacture. I was better at flying the X-Com craft with the over-sensitive mess of the controls of the game than actually managing stuff across the RTS-esque game map.
I never had that ability. I think not having it is a sign of genius. =)
Heh, thanks. Does seem like so as I can think of various stuff from one thing after another thing faster than I'm able to verbally say or write to keep up. I find myself tad too often unable to translate my thoughts over to words, takes longer to say than to think.
-
Once at a stage of "completion," (lore like this can be revised endlessly, look at Batman and Superman from their inception for example), you could take it and add it as "get one free" UFOpedia bits one can get interrogating the aliens. Each bit would be part of the story , stand alone yet fitting together.
-
Indeed. Does seem fitting, though I am a rather jaded person due to my open minded way of thinking in most cases.
As for the lore. From what I've gathered by playing the game over the years, most of the aliens are not only altered but enhanced by cybernetics or other such artificial stuff like a floater's lower body swapped with a large device that also gives ability of flight. It is rather strange that sectoids and ethereals are pretty much the only ones without major artificial alterations, same goes for some of the pets/terror units more or less but that goes for all pets that can be tamed to be part of something without artificial means of control, that and mind control can be easily used also to command them and perhaps even without directly controlling their bodies/brains but give them mere mental info of what to do and what they'll get for doing it to motivate and move them.
Sectoids and ethereals could very well be a governing part of some alien government where they are the overlords of. From slavers to enslaved life forms who are subject to be changed into some cybernetic units of workforce and/or warfare. The massive brain entity in X-Com 1 could also very well be not the only one around if beings from other star systems are concerned and since they probably all have long lifespans and/or immortality, time doesn't seem to concern them as much as they have enough time to be patient and observing, X-Com merely threw an unexpected wrench into their (slow) operations thus forcing them to be assertive, quick and cruel. Throwing everything to win and gain control over another enslaved species.
In my own spin-off personalized story/backstory of my Gazer commando is that he's essentially in a rogue group along with other gazers who have managed to get control over the overlords for a short period and escape along with majority of high-end advanced tech, willing to sometimes turn themselves into customized cybernetic super units just to fight against the draconian evils that is sectoids and ethereals and whatever else is at the helm of the proverbial slaver whip, to demoralize the overlords with shock and awe attacks by singular units from ground and EVA commandos to unexpected destruction of fleets by said commandos in superior and faster spacecrafts to drop in and out, leaving little trace thus making not only the X-Com fighting for freedom but also a small branch of aliens willing to help the X-Com.
That is why my avatar currently is one of the main gazer commando's face. And I must stretch again that what I just wrote about gazers is purely of my own fan-fiction basically, to keep myself interested playing as them.
-
I
Sectoids and ethereals could very well be a governing part of some alien government where they are the overlords of.
Were not the Sectoids a "manufactured" race?
UFOPEDIA
STR_SECTOID_AUTOPSY_UFOPEDIA: "The autopsy reveals vestigial digestive organs and a simple structure. The brain and eyes are very well developed. The structure suggests genetic alteration or mutation. The small mouth and nose appear to have little function. The webbing between the fingers, and the flat feet suggest aquatic origins. There are no reproductive organs, and no clues as to how this species can reproduce. They are most probably a genetically engineered species."
of the ETHEREALs
...They rarely appear on earth since they seem to rely on other races to pursue their objectives.
-
Woah, damn I've been getting things backwards big time then. 'scuse me, spoke of them that way because of their use of mind control and other telepathic attacks, related that with them being in control because it feels like a natural trait to use against foes, I have read the ufopedia many times but usually my time is still filled with geoscape and battlescape the most.
Something more sinister and ominous must be the governing element, like that brain entity, something that uses lesser species as cannon fodder in frontlines, kinda explains why sectoids are first to go into the proverbial meat grinder. Mystery remains, like what are the origins of that brain-being and what's beyond that one controlling element.
Thinking here about it more and it all starts feeling a lot more like something out of a lovecraftian horror.. and I love that feeling, a feeling that this fine piece of music describes perfectly: X-COM Apocalypse Soundtrack - 32 - An Empty Home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhjEOZZ90Fk
and X-COM Apocalypse Soundtrack - 18 - Alone in Mega-Primus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH7CNI85voo
This is part of the reason of why I love space to death. Like imagine you're an explorer onboard your first starship, alone to almost alone, making sure you're in the safe zone by checking the radar equivalent of true space age sensors as usual, from sphere of influences aka planets and their stars to possible exo-planets and smaller objects in case something approaches or is out of the ordinary until that one day comes where something truly fascinating happens for better or worse, an anomaly of unknown and of alien origins, one way or the other it'll happen by either sensors picking up traces of something odd and/or artificial, or you see/spot something clearly out of your ship's window or through a screen/monitor that displays visual info from a camera, or you don't manage to notice it until you are captured by some other sentient life that has noticed your ship in their area of space.
Or all of the above, putting Murphy's law into high gear and everything odd happens, from one experience to another, leading up to a capture or something along of those lines. It's quite possible to have an epic good day or a bad day where somebody dies, something breaks, something falls, something crashes, something that lands you in a hospital and to top it all off, you've found out that the person you know has been lying to you the whole time or something and the next day or a week after when you finally regain consciousness you're asking yourself what the actual frell did just happen or what didn't happen and how the actual hell did everything go so bizarre, arse-backwards crazy bonkers within a span of a day.
-
I like to think of the brain from the first game as being like a Zerg Cerebrate from StarCraft. One possible background for the creature is a servant construct made to act as a psionic nexus to control the aliens' forces. But on the other hand, the Ethereals are stopped along with the others when the brain is killed, so it may very well be much more important than that.
Another hyothesis is that the final alien in TFTD is a being of immense power and is behind both invasions, perhaps it's a being attempting to make the solar system its home. The brain may be a proxy for it, carrying its mental patterns and operating while the alien sleeps, keeping it safe and hidden. They wake it up perhaps because it has been threatened where it lives, and it can no longer hide.
-
.
Thinking here about it more and it all starts feeling a lot more like something out of a lovecraftian horror..
Yes there are some similarities between XCOM and Lovecraftian lore. The cultists controlling things in the world trying to make way for the awakening of the long slumbering Cthulhu. The latter appears to have powers that reach beyond his coma influencing some to heinous acts and others into madness.
While Cthulhu is demonstrable fiction with origins in a fertile imagination, UFO lore to exist on the edge of reality if not a part of it. Reasonable and otherwise credible people actually state they have been abducted by UFOs and have been experimented upon. When the TV show Invaders aired, I heard of anecdotal stories of some parents not allowing their children the watch it "because something like that might really be going on." Regrettably I cannot lay my hands on the source of those quotes but you get the idea.
If such a possible truth is set aside and we dip back into the world of Xcom, the governments are concerned and rightly so, since elements their populace is being terrorized, pressuring those respective governments into some kind of cooperation with the aliens. There is no D-Day invasion with UFOs covering the horizon from one end of the sky to another, there are no divisions of national armed forces called up.
If the governments do not co-operate with the UFO agenda, then more of their populace will be terrorized, destabilizing those in power who are meantime probably explaining those incidents away as the classical "gas leak," or disgruntled militants in Halloween costumes or some such. It is a conflict that exists as a slow intense burn that nevertheless exerts considerable influence one way or another .
Because the scale of the game is around 1 on 1 Aircraft vs UFO encounters; a handful of bases around the world with less that a few hundred people total with around a dozen soldiers per mission securing UFO crash sites, going on anti-terror missions and alien base destruction, it would seem the threat and response are both very low key; beneath the public-at at-large radar. In this vague way they are like the accidental detectives stopping the machinations of the cultists of Cthulhu, where the actions of a few individuals hold considerable weight.
-
I like to think of the brain from the first game as being like a Zerg Cerebrate from StarCraft.
Indeed! Makes a lot of sense and even more so to me as I've played StarCraft myself, when it came to controlling the Zerg I had the most fun with burrowing units as either on-the-field makeshift cloak to save them a few paces away or as a surprise trap attack along with usually Mutalisks being an aerial/space unit backup, and yeah.. one can watch a few video clips of Zerg flying units in space too, moving about by their own natural means of invisible propulsion but seemingly slower than whatever X-Com alien ships can pull off.
Yes there are some similarities between XCOM and Lovecraftian lore.
The second game was/is definitely a fine example of that! Not only did it capture that Lovecraftian element but it was the first game to me that made me dig deeper into the origins of it all and that's where I ended up reading wikis and info about some to most of the stuff in his books along with playing a PC game or two.
As for both fictional and real life aliens, the unknowns have so many variables. Like aliens who have grown up and evolved as cruel, conquering and otherwise just bad news, may have no concept of them doing something bad, and if they do have that concept they'd have already a deflecting answer or a quick counter-question to get away with their malevolent nature and means to an end through violence. However, not all aliens are like that, just like in nature it can make way for both good and evil to emerge on their own and by default it means that there'll also always be somewhere good space-faring species too, like the United Federation of Planets and Vulcans from Star Trek who are capable of putting yet-to-evolve to evolving life holding planets for example under their protection for a while, sometimes in hopes of gaining new allies perhaps to help keep everything that is good and precious in life and protect it from evils of destruction.
Personally I'm on the side of exploration, observation, life and good, despite having a strong case of pure rage sometimes within me. It is a pure rage that stems from when lights go out, when there's too much death and suffering, when hope and freedom starts going away by true darkness. It is that pure rage in me that'll try its best 110% to keep a light of life burning and away from death, hence why after watching Interstellar movie that poem spoke to my heart, that first part of Dylan Thomas' poem that old scientist in the movie says:
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Took me a tad bit to understand its meaning completely originally but now while thinking of it again and writing it I understand it even more now than ever and why it speaks volumes to me. Point I'm getting at is humanity needs to work out its problems and achieve space-faring status to survive and not only surviving in space but being able to cope with hazards from nature to artificial sources. Here's a motivational speech ending from Babylon 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6EDzhDv-Is
With all of that said, I can finally say what I meant to say from the beginning of the post somewhere. Any of you ever thought about the fact why after the first nuclear bombs were tested and dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, suddenly so did also start the odd sightings of different kinds of flying crafts with record breaking speeds, speeds that without some kind of inertial damper technology would turn any human and other creatures into bloody paste against a ship's interior areas, that aside there's of course other incidents from closer sightings to actual up-close encounters that even I can't ignore anymore since I've done a lot of digging myself and filtering out details through my own brain's BS filter of some event/incident to analyze it all, since I'm not as biased and as close-minded like everyone else so my proverbial gates are wide open but with proverbial emergency forcefield shields ready to activate just in case. Anything I can't explain or otherwise find answers to initially I just throw them in my grey bucket area until future can provide more info on the matter.
Sorry that this got so long but hopefully for a good reason, something we all can agree on is that thanks to real life events of whatever happened, we have gotten many great Sci-Fi stuff from movies to games to even people being inspired by Sci-Fi shows and movies to make some tech from there a reality in one way or another! ;)
-
Cool reading! Took me some time to read with all replies and I admit I enjoyed the whole a lot!
I remember I made a mod for OpenGeneral what were strongly based on X-com. I thought much about the aliens history to evolve it to a form of a strategy game with some sense...
In my version there were a swamp planet somewhere dominated by a peacefull alien race. A death of a nearby star - supernova - forced them to find ways to save their race somehow so they started to equip colony ships. One ship went to a nearby star what were far enough from their homeworld and the supernova still close enough to be a key point to later re-estabilishment of communication, civilization, whatever or just make some cakes... Another ship went farther - T'leth's explanation along with Cydonia - what reached our solar system and first set up an automated outpost and supply-base on Mars while the ship continued toward Earth but an accident happened. Dinosaurs extinct, you know...
Back to the homeworld the planet turned from swampy to desert but the race inhabited it survived and thanks for the radiation evolved and gained psionics. Contacted with their nearby brethren but the differences were big and clear and you know what differences mean: Struggle, intrication, hatred and war. And if you taste the war and victory you easily become militaristic stating: If we can others may also can! Let us defend ourselves from outer treaths!
So, the basis of a new stellar empire found by a sibling-war. The descendants however wanted to find their precursors and their lost knowledge so started to explore the stars and follow the trace of the lost colony ship. And during their search they found other habited planets with more or less sentient beings they found possible threaths. New wars, new victories and new additions to a growing stellar power.
Then they reached us but the expeditionary forces were only a piece of their military. They seized the automated Cydonia and set up their base of operations. Then come to Earth supplied by Cydonia and awaiting their reinforcements from the unfathomable depths of the stars...
Not as good as your story but explained much of X-com lore and made a good background story for long campaigns...
-
Can I add my cents?
Doens't The Alien Bain reveals that the Sectoids/Aquatoids were the original dwellers of Mars?
I figure they fled Mars to elsewhere when they realized their world was dying. Cydonia is the last piece of their original civilization, or a later outpost.
On Sectoids/Ethereals: I think they're more or less the same race, but Ethereals are an elite caste which prioritized intelligence and psionic power other factors. Its why Ethereals shouldn't even be alive.
Humans show that Ethereals are deeply flawed creatures: Some humans can match and even exceed the psionic power of the Ethereals, but without having horrible, barely functional bodies.
Floaters: Probably some alien species the Sectoids immensely useless, until they had the whole "Stick a anti-grav device into their bodies" idea.
Snakemen: Clearly mercenaries. Their homeworld was probably put in a tributary relationship with the Sectoids, or its strong enough the Sectoids couldn't crack it, so they hire it instead. Considering their reproduction rate, they might be a very warlike species and becoming mercenaries off-world is how the ones at the bottom of the totem pole don't starve. Their rulers now might be mercenaries who suceeded and are loyal to their masters. Societally, seems likely the average offspring is barely cared about (too many hatchlings) and is probably born able to take care of itself.
Chrysalids: Probably from the same world Snakemen are from, which is why they are the Snakemen terrorists. The ones we know are definitely artificial beings, but Proto-Chrysalids might have existed for aeons in the Snakemen planet. Maybe as predators to the Snakemen, maybe they were animals used as weapons. Either way, the Sectoids tweaked and created the modern Chrysalids we know today.
Mutons: Their lack of genitals reveals clearly artificial stock. They might be based on some conquered species, or even be a purely vat-bred creature based on the human mold.
Alien Brain: An immense wetware computer created by a mix of cybernetics and vat-grown brain matter. It is not a ruler as much as it is a central psionic node, like a mental cloud server.
Its why its creatures can be scared or go berserk: It actually doesn't remote-control (it can but it doens't often), it estabilishes directives which other inferior beings follow.
The average clone is pretty much a biological robot given mental programming and information feed from its masters. This way, it cannot rebel. The death of the Brain shattered the mind links between all these creatures, turning them into confused, scared, mind-addled wrecks. There are multiple Brains, but this one was directed to the infiltration and invasion of Earth. When it died, the entire thing pretty much stopped dead.
Why there ins't Elerium on the solar system: Sectoids mined it all a long time ago. If E-115 is a natural trans-uranic element with a long half-life, then it probably tends to always end up sinking inside planetary cores, due to its immense weight. There might as well be Elerium deep in the Earth, but no one is ever going to mine to dig a giant borehole into the core. E-115 deposits on other planets are probably the result of weird surfacing events, or massive planetary collisions throwing mantle and core material into planetary surfaces. Being rare is what makes it so valuable.
T'leth:
I think what happened to T'leth wans't an accident. We know the Great Dreamer/Ultimate Alien is a Cthulhu expy. My theory is that it caused T'leth's crash into Earth.
Great Dreamer is a extra-dimensional creature which found a home in dinosaur age Earth. BUT... It also got stuck somehow. So it made T'leth crash into it.
It couldn't control the life of Cretaceous Earth, like the Gillmen... But it could control the Aquatoids.
Gillmen: The Gillmen were aquatic/amphibian "intelligent dinosaurs" and the original sentient inhabitants of Earth. Convergent evolution meant humans took on a very similar body plan. Living underwater saved from being "microwaved" by the K-T Impactor.
The Gillmen likely created their own proto X-COM to fight the emerging Aquatoids, but couldn't win. They sold themselves when they realized the Earth was dying and the oceans would soon become unfit for their life as well.
Enviado de meu moto e5 play usando o Tapatalk
-
How come nobody here did the Apoc aliens? I will start.
As X-COM Apocalypse revealed, there is more than one dimension/universe. In fact, there are likely more - the aliens would originally have multiple pseudo-random dimensions. Let's call it... Dimension X.
The Micronoid dimension is a parallel universe not unlike our own. The main divergence, is that our sun and solar system never formed. Instead, another solar system formed in its place, with a different star and planets.
If we assume both our stars developed at the same time, the Dimension X Not!Sun is a larger, brighter, shorter-lived star. Stars like the sun last... Ten billion years, I think? I don't remember. Our sun is a middle-aged star, their sun was already a bloated, leaking, dying stellar object when X-COM first formed in '99.
This sun eventually wrought a very much Earthlike planet, where life took its own path.
The Micronoids: Bacteria in another dimension which could develop neuron-like structures in their colonies, each individual Micronoid being a "neuron" inside the greater whole. An emergent intelligence.
In our world, there was a time when the surface was dominated by huge bacterial mats. Perhaps Dimension X is a world where the bacteria won out.
Other Aliens:
Larger life developed originally from omnivorous worm-like creatures. Those were the original Multiworms and Hyperworms. Possibly water dwellers originally.
Eventually, Multiworms started fitting their environments, by creating new life to serve them. They are natural collectors of bio-matter, allowing them to create Chrysalis capable of working not unlike a cloning chamber. The Chrysalis then creates a more developed individual.
The original creatures were probably just different types of worms, but eventually they assimilated the genetics of other creatures in their planet, and new forms started evolving.
The Hyperworms were so voracious, they eventually devoured and assimilated everything that could compete.
Eventually, the proto-Multi-Worms ate and assimilated most or all macroscopic life in their planet.
Micronoids discovered they could thrive inside the cerebral structures of other beings. Eventually, the Micronoids acquired psionic power - perhaps through another species. Psionics allowed Micronoids to establish larger links, not just between individuals in colonies, but between separate colonies. This lead to an emerging intelligence.
There may have been multiple micronoid-like bacteria, competing and mixing with each other, but eventually one won out. Maybe the Micronoids are the last one left when everything went super-nova.
The Micronoids eventually realized the Multi-Worms and their life cycle were a thing. So, they infected those creatures, and through them, gained the ability to create new life, shaping their entire environment.
Eventually, the entire ecology was dominated by the Micronoid-Multi Worm symbiosis.
Two sentient creatures developed from this Alien Life Cycle: The Anthropods and the Skelletoids. Beings like Psimorphs might have come from there, too. Alternatively, those beings evolved independently, but were assimilated.
(Spitters are humanoid but not sentient. They don't even have brains)
The "Alien Life Cycle" allowed for the creation of biological technology. Rather than develop tools, create life to be tools. There's no need to create a gun, when you can create a handheld monster which spits acid at high speeds upon pressing a protuberance.
With this, they could create and grown any sort of creature, tool or building. They grew buildings, they grew ships, they grew tools. They created Queenspaws and such to increase the rate of breeding and growing.
Best way to understand those beings, are as a self-evolving alien ecology.
Micronoid Non-Organic Technology:
A good question. Where this came from? Apocalypse states rather clearly that some Micronoid non-organic tech doens't look like their organic technology and comes from another alien intelligence.
One possible theory is that the Micronoids were already dimension-hopping before the events of Apocalypse. After all, the original concept included multiple Alien Dimensions. They may have come into contact with a fourth unknown alien species, and taken technology from them.
Another theory, is that this technology is actually from the Sectoids who got literally blasted into another dimension at the end of Interceptor. This might include the dimension-portal tech. We know from Apocalypse that the Micronoids had enslaved Sectoids in their dimension.
In fact, this may also be the origin of their dimension portal tech, and their knowledge of Planet Earth.
The Real Alien Threat:
The Apocalypse aliens seek to take over humans, because the Alien Life Cycle is not sustainable on Earth. Given enough time, the aliens die in our atmosphere. They cannot simply invade and turn Earth into their world.
Their technology is almost entirely biological, so they can't even terraform the world. Hell, even the Earth circa 2080 is not terraformed, it looks more like an alien hellscape then.
Given time, those strange beings could adapt. But they don't have time, not any longer. Their world is dying. A super nova blasted their world. Their world is baked, and eventually it will turn into a ball of ice when things cool down.
The Micronoids discover something: They can survive Earth's conditions within the bodies of humans, both pure and hybrid.
To be infected by Micronoids is akin to toxoplasmosis: You are still you, but your biological instincts are hijacked to serve a parasite. They will sacrifice your life to save theirs, if needed be.
Enviado de meu moto e5 play usando o Tapatalk
-
This is really incredible stuff here. I know who to seek out to make my backstory intriguing when I get to making a full fledged mod.