Author Topic: A Realistic Backstory for the Aliens  (Read 22357 times)

Offline Duke_Falcon

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Re: A Realistic Backstory for the Aliens
« Reply #30 on: August 30, 2017, 10:34:23 pm »
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...

Offline Slaughter

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Re: A Realistic Backstory for the Aliens
« Reply #31 on: May 30, 2020, 08:07:42 pm »
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.











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« Last Edit: May 30, 2020, 11:21:36 pm by Slaughter »

Offline Slaughter

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Re: A Realistic Backstory for the Aliens
« Reply #32 on: May 30, 2020, 11:51:20 pm »
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.




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Offline gaffer

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Re: A Realistic Backstory for the Aliens
« Reply #33 on: June 02, 2020, 08:08:57 pm »
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.