List of Star Control races
Encyclopedia
This is a list of fictional alien species that appeared in various games of the Star Control
franchise.
Star Control 3 took the template of interesting races that the series had become known for and expanded upon it. Computer and Video Games felt the game lacked the appeal of its predecessor, but still offered praise for its "brilliant characters". According to GameSpot, "the creepy critters and droids who inhabit Star Control 3 are its strongest point ..., all of them animatronically controlled renderings, and each with its own distinct personality. GameRevolution praised the game for its character design, noting that "the new species vary in their traits and appearances so as to make the players interaction with each species an interesting experience of it's own."
s. Genetically engineered for intellectual superiority, they were denied equal rights and forced into a life of work. As a result they grew to harbour deep hatred for their imprisoners. They went renegade, escaping Earth in one large movement, having secretly invented hyperspace
travel before the Earthlings. The race found a new home in the Vulpecula
constellation and allied with the Ur-Quan in their Hierarchy of Battle Thralls, hoping to defeat some of their old oppressors.
An Earthling exploration vessel intent on meeting with the Androsynth entered the system many years later, only to find the apparent remains of the Androsynth civilization on the second planet. Not a single Androsynth, dead or alive, was found among the scraps of their buildings and technology. The fate of the Androsynth remains a mystery.
Rumours through the galaxy cite Androsynth to have again made a great leap of technological prowess, which had for unknown reasons resulted in the disappearance of the entire race. However, the Arilou suggest the Orz did something terrible to them, after the Androsynth made some interdimensional discovery. The Arilou avoid discussing it further, warning that the mere knowledge of it could put all of humanity in danger of suffering the same fate.
of popular science fiction, and their ships also resemble stereotypical flying saucers. The Arilou live outside the galaxy, out of truespace and hyperspace
. This little "nook" is called QuasiSpace, and it contains their homeworld Falayalaralfali. Well versed in information gathering and intergalactic or interdimensional travel, they know many races and beings that Earthlings do not. The Arilou would rather keep it that way—they claim that things exist, the mere knowledge of which is dangerous.
The Arilou have had much interaction with Humans throughout mankind's evolution, and hint at a "vested interest" in the Human race. They visit Earth often to "check up" on Humans, although their true motive remains unrevealed. They have peaceful relations with the Umgah race, even after the tricksters joined the Ur-Quan Hierarchy of Battle Thralls. Orz are another dimension-travelling race; however, the Arilou say that is where their similarity ends.
Due to their age and partially due to their time in QuasiSpace, Arilou DNA
is prone to abnormalities and defects, and human DNA can be "spliced in" to alleviate this. Like many of Star Control 3' s "revelations", this is generally disregarded as non-canonical
by fans of the series, although it would explain alien abductions. The Arilou has been described as "haughtily omnipotent" by GameSpot".
They naturally evolved intelligence, and since they have no natural predators, they are entirely non-aggressive. Their most preferred activity is calm philosophical discourse.
The Ur-Quan final weapon, the Sa-Matra, destroyed the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm fleets. The two races both chose to be slave shielded on Procyon II and synthesized their races to create a more powerful composite race that would later be called the Chmmr. This synthesis was powered by solar energy and expected to take 60 years. Retrieval of the Sun Device from Mycon space multiplied the energy received and caused the near instant creation of the Chmmr as well as collapsing the lurid red slave shield over Procyon II.
In the Star Control universe, the Chenjesu were the first race humans came in contact with, in 2112 at Ceres. During Star Control II they were allied with the humans.
projects, such as point-defense lasers and nuclear tipped guided missiles.
s where eyes would usually be in humanoids, and below that a mouth. Their mandibles allow them to eat, communicate, and have uses as weapons. Their appendages will regenerate if lost or damaged, often a result of their many rituals of pain. When talking, they sound bloodthirsty and sometimes draw words out, and sometimes inhale when talking about their religious tortures with fondness. In the game, every word they speak is capitalized. Their ship type, the Avenger, is armed with a short-range flamethrower and a cloaking device
, making it one of the trickier ships to pilot and to pilot against.
The Ilwrath consider themselves evil, believing their gods would never reward a species that was not evil with their baleful grace. Since evil is sanctioned by their culture, it would be "bad" to do otherwise, and the Ilwrath grow extremely angry when people point this out. The Pkunk have a theory that the Ilwrath were once so noble, pure and good that they could get no better. Then they paradoxically did become better which somehow regressed them to being as evil as possible (a programming joke, see Signed number representations
). Religion is the primary factor in Ilwrath society. They worship two gods, Dogar and Kazon; later shown to be part of a particularly despicable Umgah 'practical joke'. They begin their religion at birth, believing that their first frenzied gorging is the hatchlings showing their respect to the gods. During their "Dark Ages", the Ilwrath worshipped many gods from Awk of the Seds (a reference to the Unix tools AWK and sed
) to Zith of the Pelt. After a priestly body was formed, the priests announced that only Dogar and Kazon were the true gods and should be worshipped. All heretics were to be eaten, and all possessions were delivered to holy sites or priestly dwellings. The priests controlled the Ilwraths' method of worshipping until the Ilwrath could "Do No Better". In modern times, the Ilwrath believe their gods speak to them through their hyperwave radio.
For eons the Ilwrath lived a subsistence existence ("appendage to mandible"). Thousands of years before the game, the Ilwrath started worshipping Dogar and Kazon. They advanced their technology to create more sophisticated tools for murder. Then, c. 2126, the Ur-Quan improved their starships and weapons and they joined their Hierarchy of Battle Thralls. During the war, the Ilwrath attacked the Humans, and probably also ate them. When Earth fell to the Ur-Quan, their gods made clear their desire for death by the billions. The Ilwrath transported thousands of portable altars and millions of blood gowns and fillet knives to Earth, but were disappointed when the Ur-Quan commanded that the humans be left alive. After the Alliance of Free Stars fell, they used native animals for their religious ceremonies, until all the lifeforms on their planet were extinct. In c. 2147, the Ilwrath believed that they received guidance to attack the Pkunk, and use them for their ceremonies. Sometime within the 5-year timespan of Star Control 2 from 2155 to 2159 or 2160, depending on events, the player has the opportunity to use a hyperwave caster to impersonate Dogar and Kazon. If the player orders them to stop attacking the Pkunk and seek other prey, the Ilwrath attack the Thraddash. Strangely, even though the Ilwrath sphere of influence is about three times as big as the Thraddash sphere of influence, when they meet, the spheres of influence get smaller until both either simultaneously disappear or are vastly reduced in size (depending on previous events in the game).
Upon arrival, they met with the Chenjesu who would later become the leaders of the Alliance of Free Stars. The Mmrnmhrm and Chenjesu shared the same region of space in peaceful coexistence and when the Ur-Quan armada appeared they were the core group that formed the Alliance of Free Stars to try and fight back the enslavers.
Evidently, the Ur-Quan met with furious resistance to their enslaving efforts. The combined Mmrnmhrm-Chenjesu might held the line for a long time against the Ur-Quan, Ilwrath, Spathi and Umgah. The Ur-Quan used the Sa-Matra, a powerful Precursor ship that incinerated the finest Broodhomes and Transformers easily. Against the might of the Sa-Matra, the Mmrnmhrm and Chenjesu faced a poor choice of either surrendering or being eradicated. The Mmrnmhrm chose to join the Chenjesu in passive slavery on the Chenjesu homeworld in the Procyon system. Their sphere of influence and whatever planets they may have inhabited were taken over by the Ilwrath.
As soon as the Ur-Quan armada left Procyon, they began to merge the crystalline Chenjesu with the robotic Mmrnmhrm. Their intention was to form a hybrid race, crack the slave-shield over their world, and be powerful enough to combat and defeat the Sa-Matra. The Process was supposed to take several decades as there was no better power source than solar power. They warned that any attempt to hasten the process may be extremely dangerous. When the protagonists radically hastened the Process, the Mmrnmhrm were instantaneously merged with the Chenjesu to form the Chmmr, not the expected result. It is believed that no "pure blooded" Mmrnmhrm or Chenjesu were left unmerged.
structures allow them to withstand such extreme environments. Star Control 3
revealed them to be terraforming
tools of the Precursors, whose programming drifted after their Creators' mysterious disappearance. Mycon reproduce by budding and offspring apparently reach instant maturity. They can genetically modify themselves by thought.
Mycon are hard to understand. A coherent Human-Mycon conversation appears to be an impossibility; Mycon ramblings seldom seem to attach any relevance to what's said to them even when they acknowledge the presence of others. Mycon receive select memories of their forebears at birth and dead Mycon from millennia ago can speak through their descendants, one of the few times a Mycon will refer to itself as I. They are lucid when presented with knowledge of a world ideal for their Deep Children.
A central concept to the race is Juffo-Wup, the hot light in the darkness, which is like a religion for the Mycon. Mycon live for it, and only for it. Juffo-Wup seems to be positive, connected to them or their spread. Related are the Non, what is not Juffo-Wup, and Void, what Non that does not become Juffo-Wup must become Void. Juffo-Wup seems to refer to the Mycon and anything under their control, Non is other life and planets that the Mycon have not yet violently terraformed to their liking, and Void is anything else, such as space or dust. The Mycon claim that Juffo-Wup recognizes Non that cannot be turned into Void at a certain time. The Ur-Quan are an example of this. Instead, the Mycon will attempt to ally with the Non until such time as they can destroy it, turning it into Void.
Mycon are capable of clearly purposeful action and pursue large-scale objectives. The specific nature of those objectives is not clear; they are the only known race to actively seek out the Ur-Quan to become willing members of the Hierarchy. The Mycon have existed for over two hundred thousand years, though their Sphere of Influence is only medium-sized.
During the second game, they fight against the Alliance of Free Stars. After the Alliance's collapse they serve as unattended combat thralls of the Kzer-Za, who are otherwise preoccupied, and only concern themselves with the spread of Juffo-Wup. The Mycon spread was responsible for the cataclysmic destruction of the Syreen homeworld Syra, and the almost total extermination of their race. When the Syreen find out, they trick the Mycon into an ambush and destroy their fleet of Podships.
During the third game, the League can learn the secrets of the Deep Children, which appear to be young Mycon. Normally the elders catch them and imprint their own memories into them (erasing previous memories), transforming their mentality to that of the "elder" Mycon.
In effect, they are slaves, and being mentally slain by the elders.
A powerful device, the Plasma Regroover, could be used to undo the Precursor programming of the Mycons, essentially transforming all Kessari quadrant Mycons into Deep Children.
by the Yehat. Their culture has a code of honor similar to Bushidō
, and their spacecraft are equipped with a powerful self-destruct bomb called a "Glory Device" that makes their otherwise weak Scout a dangerous kamikaze
weapon.
With their friend the Yehat, at the beginning of the Ur-Quan Slave War they joined the Alliance of Free Stars against the Hierarchy of Battle Thralls. At the end of the war (between Star Control I and II), after the conquest of the Humans and the withdrawal of the Yehat, the Shofixti caused their own sun to go nova
with a Precursor device to destroy the Ur-Quan invasion fleet. This destroyed their entire species, with the exception of a group of female Shofixti in cryogenic suspension
in Admiral ZEX's zoo and the brothers Tanaka and Katana who continued to patrol their sterile home system. It is possible in the game to repopulate the Shofixti race, as long as Tanaka (or failing that, Katana) is not destroyed, by bringing the lonely warrior "Rat-babes galore!"
The Spathi are notorious for their poor language skills. They mispronounce names, such as those of star systems or the correct name of humans (whom they refer to as "hunams").
The Spathi were defeated by the Ur-Quan before the first war erupted. They were offered the usual terms of slavery: become Battle Thralls or be forever encased beneath an impenetrable shield. The Spathi were ecstatic at the prospect of a life of safety beneath a permanent shield. However, due to an Umgah trick, they accidentally became battle thralls and were forced to fight against the Alliance of Free Stars. After the first war concluded, the Spathi and Ilwrath were stationed on Earth's moon to ensure that the defeated humans did not try to break the conditions of their surrender. Shortly after, the Ilwrath left and the Spathi began to "strategically redeploy" themselves farther and farther from Earth. At the time of Star Control II, they are stationed on Pluto, leaving a few bio-droids on Earth's moon to make it look like they were still there. After studying the shield around Earth during the early stages of the second war, they encased themselves in an Ur-Quan slave shield after the humans exterminated the "Evil Ones" for them. Gamespot has described this race as slouch-shouldered and cowardly.
s and a phallic starship, the Penetrator. They reluctantly fight alongside them in the Alliance of Free Stars at the beginning of the series and are biologically compatible with humans. This is an acknowledged evolutionary impossibility (two life forms never evolve in exactly the same way in separate biosystems) and would have been examined had the races not been engaged in a fight for their lives when they met. The Alliance with humans continues in Star Control II. The name is a reference to the Siren
s in Greek mythology, whose enchanting song brought sailors dangerously close to nearby cliffs, where they would crash on the rocks and drown. Syreen look like blue-skinned humans with slightly luminescent
eyes and "certain parts".
The lush world of Syra was Earth's near twin, though warmer and somewhat more hospitable. It hosted a peaceful utopia in harmony with nature from agrarian tribes to the first steps of interstellar exploration, until a stray asteroid smashed into the world and penetrated into the mantle. A year later, a series of supervolcano
es and fissure
s erupted planetwide, incinerated Syra's continents, poisoned its atmosphere, and shattered the crust. The largely female Space Patrol was the only faction off-planet, leaving the race with under 10000 members, 500 male. They added stardrives to anything that could be made to hold air and set out to the stars. Several decades later, the sublight Habitat fleet found the formative Alliance-Hierarchy war and joined out of necessity, being unable to defend itself. When the Alliance fell, the Syreen chose imprisonment on their world over thralldom as their slavery. Since the Syreen had none, the Ur-Quan gave them the terran planet of Gaia in the Betelgeuse
system as the closest equivalent. When the "asteroid" was revealed to be a Mycon Deep Child terraformer, the Syreen threw away the respite they had been enjoying to fight against the Mycon, and by extension the Ur-Quan. They retrieved their starships, destroyed the Mycon fleet and joined the New Alliance.
Talana, clad in a near-exact replica of Princess Leia's dancing girl outfit, is the commander of the Ur-Quan resupply starbase orbiting Gaia at the time of Star Control II. The player delivers to her proof of the Mycon's culpability and has the ability to engage in very, very heavily implied sexual relations. The two are implied to go on to have children.
Developer Paul Reiche III addressed the Syreen in a questions-and-answers session in 2007, describing the Syreen song's strength as a "glass of white wine" in comparison to the Dnyarri compulsion being "intravenous lab alcohol" plus a "horse tranquilizer".
, and prefer biotic environments in their ships. They are immensely skilled at bioengineering and often add or remove limbs and organs from themselves for fun.
Umgah discussion is full of jokes, and their sense of humor is renowned (or, more accurately, feared) throughout the galaxy. Umgah jokes often involve using a HyperWave caster to send messages to other civilizations, claiming to be gods or monsters. They have performed such jokes on the Ilwrath and the Spathi, in the former pretending to be the gods Dogar and Kazon, and in the latter pretending to be monsters such as the "Grand Master Planet Eater". Their pranks have resulted in several thousand Spathi dead of acute anxiety, a six year holy war by the Ilwrath, and the Umgah joining the Ur-Quan's hierarchy bent on enslaving all sentient life.
When the Arilou discovered a living Talking Pet, they took it to the Umgah for medical treatment. The Umgah were able to restore it to health, but their genetic alterations restored the full psychic potential of the creature, a Dnyarri, and led to the entire Umgah race being psychically dominated.
-like sentient creatures with brownish skin who evolved from solitary hunters on their harsh home planet. While they were still using crude atomic vehicles to explore their system, the Ur-Quan encountered the Taalo. The Ur-Quan attacked them, but the patient Taalo eventually won the Ur-Quan's friendship—the only race to ever do so. The Taalo convinced the Ur-Quan to join the Sentient Milieu, a cooperative of alien races. Due to their solitary nature, the Ur-Quan were frequently used as scouts and explorers and were active in finding Precursor artifacts. GameSpot
has noted how the rich history of the Ur-Quan helps to give Star Control II its sense of wonder. The sympathy this enemy race evokes due to their tragic history has been hailed as a "rare and praiseworthy" design achievement.
Over thousands of years, the Dnyarri eventually became lax in their mental domination. A green Ur-Quan scientist named Kzer-Za noticed that the Dnyarri "detached" psychic control from an Ur-Quan suffering near-lethal pain. Using one of the few moments of mental freedom the Dnyarri gave their slaves, he injected his body with a lethal and painful poison, and used the mental freedom to broadcast the news across the empire. Ur-Quan slaves everywhere began burning themselves and hacking their own bodies to give them the freedom needed to kill the nearest Dnyarri. This was refined into a brain implant known as an Excruciator which causes enough pain to force a Dnyarri to detach, but leaves the Ur-Quan's body whole and functional.
Now free, the Ur-Quan decided that extinction was too good for the Dnyarri. Instead the Dnyarri were genetically modified into dumb "Talking Pets", retaining psychic powers only to allow translation and communication with alien species, something the Ur-Quan now considered demeaning. The two sub-species of the Ur-Quan developed doctrines to ensure they would not be slaves again. The green Ur-Quan, renamed the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za in honor of the scientist who freed them, devised the "Path of Now and Forever", which states that all non-Ur-Quan sentient life be slaves to the Ur-Quan either as battle thralls, or forever be imprisoned on their homeworlds under impenetrable force-fields. The Black Ur-Quan, renamed the Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah after their new leader, felt that only their "Eternal Doctrine", the annihilation of non-Ur-Quan life, would keep them safe from slavery. This led to a war between the Kohr-Ah and the Kzer-Za known as The Doctrinal Conflict, which devastated both sides. The Kzer-Za eventually triumphed through the discovery of an enormous Precursor Battleship named the Sa-Matra. Defeated, the Kohr-Ah were sent in the opposite direction of the galaxy as the Kzer-Za, with the understanding that when the two species met again, they would fight The Doctrinal Conflict once more, with the victor claiming the Sa-Matra. GameSpot described this race as "manipulative and conniving".
The first encounter between humans and VUX was between Captain Rand and an unknown VUX captain. Upon seeing the new alien species for the first time, Rand burst out with the first thing that came to mind, which happened to be an insult. Rand was unaware that the VUX translating technology was so far advanced that his words were relayed to the VUX captain perfectly. This botched first encounter between the two races soured relations long enough for the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za to subjugate the VUX. The VUX then fight against the humans. In Star Control II it is revealed that the VUX's reason for not joining the Alliance was due to their own extreme disgust with the appearance of humans. Captain Rand's overheard comment had been merely a scapegoat, for they find humans far more disgusting than humans find them.
In Star Control III, they are revealed to be "half" of the Vyro-Ingo race, and can be reunited in the course of the storyline.
when their language is translated to English. In Star Control II, they are Ur-Quan battle thralls, but once the player brings them evidence that their adopted children, the Shofixti, are still alive, they ally with the humans once again (after undergoing a civil war). The Pkunk are an offshoot of the Yehat race. Yehat life is governed by one Queen, who rules over the various Yehat clans. Historically, this has been one from the Veep-Neep Clan, but at the end of Star Control II a Pkunk Queen was chosen.
The Yehat are the backbone of the Alliance Starfleet, due to their advanced weapons technology and their intensely martial society.
The Chmmr are not what the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm envisioned. Where the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm showed patience, care and wisdom, the Chmmr seem reckless and aggressive. Their plans, behavior, and personalities are unpredictable. While it is agreed that they have assumed the Chenjesu's old position as the unofficial leaders of the alliance, it is doubtful that they share the same benevolent wisdom of their predecessors.
The appearance of the Chmmr was changed slightly in Star Control 3. They are still a mixture of mechanical and crystalline objects, but the bond appears to be less complete, and they float. The interior of the structure shines moving lights through the crystals depending on the mood of the Chmmr. The Chmmr are separated into Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm, but the player again joins the two races using another sun device.
, the singer. They provide history, current events, fuel, and technology in return for biological data and the locations of certain colorful worlds assembled (or found) by the Precursors known as Rainbow Worlds. They use large Trader vessels to seek out, contact, and strike deals with potential customers. Though in possession of a great deal of information and technology, the Melnorme come across as benign and harmless. While trading with them is not required to complete Star Control II, abstaining from it makes the game vastly harder to finish.
The Melnorme are highly secretive of themselves and their origins, but their similarities have led many to believe that the Melnorme are the descendants of the Mael-Num. This link was later confirmed outside of the game by the game designers. While they are technically ready to divulge such information, the prices are ludicrous. To learn why their bridge turns purple, for instance, costs more credits than the player can possess in the game. They based their culture entirely on equivalent trade and reject the concept of charity, finding it highly offensive. Though the Melnorme are by definition mercantile, they deal fairly with the protagonist and sell trustworthy information. They place a great emphasis on colour, to the point of basing their own names on different shades, such as Trade Master Greenish of the starship Inevitably Successful in All Circumstances.
. Their ships are filled with liquid ethanol, and they appear to be somewhat similar to parrotfish
. The Orz language is excessively unorthodox, and translation computers in the game are not particularly good at deciphering it. With effort from the player at least some degree of understanding can be gained. They can join an alliance with the humans. This race has been described by reviewer Francois Laramee as "disturbingly scary".
In Star Control II, Arilou implied that the Orz are manifestations of a single extra-dimensional being; even the Orz refer to themselves as 'fingers'. In essence, all Orz are the same creature. This was confirmed by the game's developers, Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III
, in a chat on EFnet
in 1998.
In Star Control II, the Orz seemed to have displaced the Androsynth, who were apparently conducting experiments with other dimensions. This made them visible to the Orz. As a result, the Androsynth disappeared, leaving their cities behind in ruins. The Orz are very sensitive about the Androsynth, and will fight when pressured to tell about their fate. According to the Arilou, even knowing too much about other dimensions makes one vulnerable to extra-dimensional dangers, such as the Orz, and the Arilou suggest that this is what happened to the Androsynth.
. The Pkunk believe that their psychotic and genocidal neighbors, the Ilwrath, were perfect beings in their past lives, and that the karmic consequence of their excessive goodness was their totally evil reincarnation. To avoid such a fate, the Pkunk strive to remain just short of perfection. They accomplish this by being slightly annoying to whoever they encounter. When flying their ships in battle, they constantly taunt and insult their opponents, a practice that powers their ships. They state that, as they are so inherently happy and carefree, they must work themselves up by screaming insults.
planet in star system Beta Corvi they call Source. They have records of contact with the Precursors. Since the Slylandro have no methods of physically recording history, long chants of past events have to be memorized in order to preserve the past. The Slylandro see on a spectrum band
where they are opaque to each other and are very shy about humans seeing their "glowy bits" (their reproductive organs). The standard measurement of time for the Slylandro is the Drahn, which is equal to 4 million rotations of the planet, or about 6460 Earth years.
The Slylandro are restricted to a narrow band on their surfaceless world. Below their inhabited area are "the Depths", which grow darker and more hostile as one ventures deeper. When a Slylandro sinks deep enough into the depths, their gas bag is almost ruptured by the pressure, causing scarring to occur which is believed to attract potential mates. Above is "the Void", which when ventured into, causes a Slylandro to "grow giddy and behave inappropriately".
The Slylandro have no technology and no means of obtaining any. Attempts to construct any devices have resulted in them becoming too heavy and dragging their inventor to the Depths. The Slylandro play very little part in the greater scheme of things and have been discovered and rediscovered by several subsequent civilizations. Due to Source's low-stimuli
environment and the Slylandro's inability to venture off-planet, they have become intensely curious about other worlds and races.
In the Anne McCaffrey
novel The Ship Who Sang
, a brainship
and its pilot come into contact with a race that live on a gas giant planet in the Beta Corvi star system.
The Supox have always been symbionts. During their long evolutionary path they forged symbiotic correlations with several races of plants and animals on their homeworld, trading "reproductive assistance" for nutrients. The Supox look to the Utwig for guidance, and use the Utwig culture as a model for their own. In return, they give the Utwig the emotional support they need.
The Thraddash have had 18 different planetary cultures. Each time their culture reached a certain point a new ideology for a more perfect culture arrived, and they fought a bitter war and started a new culture from scratch. The earliest Culture mentioned by the Thraddash is Culture Two, which glorified fortitude and stoic resistance to pain. The most important artifact common to all Thraddash cultures is the Aqua Helix. Culture Nine was the only culture to question its significance. Culture Nine considered excessive the amount of blood and passion expended over the artifact. Unfortunately, their complete defeat at the hands of Culture Ten after only two weeks of dominance only reinforced the Thraddash belief in the sanctity of the Aqua Helix.
Culture Fourteen is the second Culture to question traditional Thraddash values. Shortly after achieving dominance, Culture Fourteen claimed that the Thraddash method of cultural evolution was wrong. They claimed that every inter-Culture conflict set the Thraddash back 500 years. As with Culture Nine, Thraddash tradition again proved itself immune to change as Culture Fourteen was destroyed by Culture Fifteen after a reign of only ten years. Interestingly enough, the violence ensuing from Culture Fourteen's replacement only set the Thraddash back by "two, three hundred years tops", hence disproving Culture Fourteen's main tenet.
Culture Eighteen was the dominant Thraddash culture when the Ur-Quan invaded. Their swift defeat by the Ur-Quan put their superiority into question, and an attempt for a resolution was made by the means of a thermonuclear exchange. The Ur-Quan in orbit around the Thraddash homeworld did not allow such intra-species fighting, and intercepted all of the warheads with their fighter vessels. The Ur-Quan's intervention, however, only postponed the inevitable. Shortly after the failed thermonuclear weapon exchange, Culture Eighteen's challengers introduced a super-lethal poison into the air and water, ending the reign of Culture Eighteen.
After the poisoning of Culture Eighteen, the Ur-Quan executed all of the emerging Culture's leaders, and arbitrarily assigned leaders. The Ur-Quan explained that any further violations of the Slave Laws would be punished by the eradication of the Thraddash species. Culture Nineteen elected to become Battle Thralls upon being enslaved by the Ur-Quan. As such, they expected to be part of the Ur-Quan's offensive in the quadrant. Their relative military weakness, however, as well as their predisposition to pick fights with other slave races, especially the Umgah and Ilwrath, made the Ur-Quan decide that they would be more of a liability than an asset in the coming battles, and ordered them to "guard the flank." The modern Thraddash have improved their Torch ships with an effective Reeunk Afterburner (named posthumously after its creator), and are itching to prove their worth to the Ur-Quan.
Conflict with the Kohr-Ah is unavoidable for any other species as they follow the "Eternal Doctrine," their interpretation of the "Path of Now and Forever," which reveals that their purpose is to "cleanse" the galaxy of all non-Ur-Quan sentience. The Kohr-Ah carry out the words of their doctrine to ensure their freedom and security, and to a lesser degree, they believe they are doing those they cleanse a service: the opportunity to be reincarnated as an Ur-Quan, the superior race. Perhaps as a result of this dispassionate view, neither the Kohr-Ah nor the Kzer-Za will insult or lie to their adversaries.
For another fifty thousand years, the Zoq, the Fot and the Pik relaxed in the forests, until one day one of each race was walking up a steep path looking for something to eat, when a bolt of lightning struck nearby. The bolt of energy carved a wheel-shaped chunk of granite out of a cliff. As the rock began to roll down the hill, some dry grass got caught in its hole, and since the rock was still hot the grass caught on fire. Thus the Zoq, Fot, and Pik simultaneously discovered the wheel, fire, and religion. The wheel and fire were based on the rock, and religion developed when the Zoq was killed by the rolling rock and the remaining two decided that he had simply gone to "a better place".
The three species are said to feed on airborne zooplankton, solar and ambient energies, and rocky fungal clingers. It's never said exactly which species feeds on what, but there are some clues - the one on the right of the communication screenshot is shown blowing air out the three holes on its head, and the one on the left exclaims "our favorite" when speaking of rock clingers. Also, the green one on the left seems to be a botanical species, from her appearance, and, at one point, threatening to "blow a cloud of spores" in the face of the blue one, so she seems to absorb the sunlight. The function of the arm-like appendages on the leftmost creature are unknown, but possibly includes communication since they move when the creature "talks". Very little is known about the one-eyed creature in the center as neither of the other two mention anything about it except the fact that it never talks.
An obvious satiric
take on bad spectator sports, Frungy is a wildly popular sport among the Zoq-Fot-Pik. No details about the rules or concept are disclosed, although the Zoq-Fot-Pik (or at least the one on the right) are very glad to comment on how great, fun and interesting it is, making numerous references to Frungy throughout the game. Frungy, like most spectator sports, appears to have a governing organization. When beginning a new playthrough of The Ur-Quan Masters, a splash screen noting sponsorship by the Interstellar Frungy League is shown.
GameSpot described this race as unique and funny.
The Clairconctlar move and speak at a stately, nearly glacial pace. They are patient, and extremely slow to anger. When aroused, however, they move with deadly swiftness. They seek just and honourable contact with all other races. They have little patience for brutality and the kinds of atrocities marking much of the galaxy's development.
All living Clairconctlar were sired by their queen. The queen looks like a majestic blue-grey mountain, larger than many moons. At intermittent cycles, the queen emits a pale blue egg, called a Conc Rock. The Conc Rock is actually a mass of adamantine flakes. In the right circumstances, each flake has the potential to grow into a Clairconctlar. When the queen releases a Conc Rock, the Clairconctlar take it deep into a cave rich with mineral deposits. There, the flakes leach geologic nutrients from the stone walls, and grow into embryonic Clairconctlar.
Over the centuries of gestation, the flakes accrete enough matter to be born as living Clairconctlar. The Conc Rocks are vital to the Clairconctlar because they represent the continuation of the race. Anyone who knowingly destroys one is subject to a vengeance hunt. Clairconctlar forsake all other obligations until they hunt down and exterminate the rock-breaker.
When the Crux arrived in the Kessari Quadrant, the Clairconctlar resisted their incursions. The Crux saw no way to win a war against the indomitable stone warriors, and decided to defeat them with subterfuge. They recruited the Clairconctlar after the Daktaklakpak discovered the Clairconctlar's unusual means of reproduction. The Ploxis sent the K'tang to abduct the Clairconctlar queen.
After a bloody battle which greatly reduced K'tang forces, they subdued the queen. They took her to another planet and used Precursor technology to affix her to bedrock, and to record a phoney message. The message tells the Clairconctlar that a debt of honour binds them to the Ploxis. The message does not divulge the origin of this debt, but the Crux created a convenient fiction in case the Clairconctlar get curious: The Clairconctlar, they claim, destroyed most of the Ploxis race. In truth, the Ploxis destroyed most of their own.
The queen calls out to her people for salvation, but the Crux has forbidden them to visit the planet where they hold her, without saying why. The Clairconctlar know the Crux is an empire without honour, but are duty-bound to serve until the queen tells them they're free of the debt. They're stuck - unless the League can find a way to liberate them.
The Clairconctlar are known for their valour in battle. The ship is built to launch deadly broadside attacks, then transport away with its warp beacon in order to recharge its energy reserves for another attack.
They adore the Precursors and seek their artifacts. Though allied with the Crux, they would eagerly defect for the pursuit of greater knowledge. In particular, they quest to find the full name of Eternal Ones, which they believe will reveal the exact nature of the species. They will trade virtually anything for this information, including information on their allies, advanced weaponry, or services in battle. When the Daktaklakpak met the Ploxis (who were engaged in a civil war), they traded a Precursor vessel for several valuable artifacts. With this vessel the Ploxis Plutocrats and their K'tang allies won the war. In the Crux, the Daktaklakpak dissect new races and technologies provided by their allies, the Ploxis. This was the origin of the name of their ship: The Daktaklakpak Vivisector. They have several such craft stationed at every artifact site in the quadrant, presumably guarding them till excavation crew arrive. Gamerevolution.com described this race as "calculating".
from time to time. According to the Daktaklakpak, the Eternal Ones' name comes from their DNA formulae that start as 'Eternal1'. Their complete name is their complete DNA formulae, something so complex that any sentience that tries to learn it all, organic or machine, becomes insane.
The Eternal Ones evolved from sentient organic beings until they lost their material bodies and became pure energy, reaching the verge of transforming into "something else". The Eternal Ones were afraid to evolve and lose their last physical vestige, and made a plan to stop their evolution that required consuming incredible quantities of sentient energy. To harvest sentience in great quantity, the Eternal Ones planted "seeds" throughout the universe that created all the other races in the Star Control universe. The Precursors became aware of this and devolved themselves to non-sentient animals and created semi-sentient machines called Daktaklakpak to re-evolve themselves when the harvest was over. Unfortunately the Daktaklakpak forgot their main objective and started to wander the galaxy collecting and protecting all Precursor technologies. The long-term purpose for the Precursors was to develop an artifact to optimize the harvest for the Eternal Ones. The Precursors had noticed that sentient harvest was incredibly inefficient, and theorized that by optimizing the harvest, there would not be a need for such genocide.
In Star Control 3, the player, as the human leader of the sentient races, foresees the harvest, and unites most races to find a solution. He finds the unfinished artifact and re-evolves a Precursor who helps the player finish it in time for the next harvest. The much greater efficiency of energy absorption allowed by the artifact allows the Eternal Ones to feed without requiring the death of all sentient creatures.
tribbles and as such would not be capable of a technological society on their own; the Harika grant them this chance. At the start of the game they are members of the Hegemonic Crux and suffer from the Xchagger virus.
. They killed all competing races, a significant portion of their own species and enslaved those that remained. Despite their powerful weaponry, not a single worm had strategic thought, no warrior lowered himself to running the supply lanes, and no slave was good enough to do it. Each K'tang scrounged whatever weapons he could, then went into battle hiding behind his allies. They encountered the Ploxis Plutocrats, who were looking for some easily controllable muscle to serve them. The K'tang quickly allowed their "allies" to run their logistics and strategy, turning the tide of the war in their favour. Once their enemies were defeated, they joined with the Plutocrats, killing Ploxis, Doog, Harika, and the League. This was their downfall, for they let slip much of their Ploxis' carefully constructed plots. Their downfall came when the Captain procured the Overlord-Seeking Larvacide missile from the Daktaklakpak and atomized the armoured shell that housed the K'tang King. The naked worm quickly surrendered to the League, and he and his men served as sullen allies for the remainder of the war, lest the League use their weapon and return them to the dirt. This race has been described as cruel by gamerevolution.com.
They were non-sentient before being genetically uplifted by the Precursors. They "lost" DNA during this process, and this lost DNA became the VUX. The Vyro-Ingo were left with a sense of genetic inferiority, so they frequently insult others. During the storyline, they can reunite with the VUX.
Star Control
Star Control is a science fiction computer game that was developed by Toys for Bob and published by Accolade in the early 1990s. Star Control still enjoys a cult following...
franchise.
History and reception
The original Star Control game featured a melee combat mode where players could engage in combat using a variety of alien ships. However, Star Control II became critically acclaimed for its innovative storyline where the player must recruit the help of several memorable alien races. All Games praised the storyline based on the fact that "races span a range of emotions", resulting in an overall "rare and praiseworthy design achievement". GameSpot considers Star Control II one of the greatest games of all time, in part because "the 18 different races in Star Control II were all distinctively different, and none of them fit the generic science-fiction stereotypes that have always been so common in games." This also earned the game a top 10 ranking for the best game worlds of all time among GameSpot readers, claiming that "the extraterrestrial races you meet ... are what made the gameworld one of your favorites of all time." These exterrestrial races were also instrumental in earning the game a rank as one of the top 10 game endings of all time. "The ending sequence was not only highly amusing, it also provided a great deal of closure, since it tied up all of the loose ends for each race.Star Control 3 took the template of interesting races that the series had become known for and expanded upon it. Computer and Video Games felt the game lacked the appeal of its predecessor, but still offered praise for its "brilliant characters". According to GameSpot, "the creepy critters and droids who inhabit Star Control 3 are its strongest point ..., all of them animatronically controlled renderings, and each with its own distinct personality. GameRevolution praised the game for its character design, noting that "the new species vary in their traits and appearances so as to make the players interaction with each species an interesting experience of it's own."
Androsynth
The Androsynth are super-intelligent Homo sapiens cloneCloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
s. Genetically engineered for intellectual superiority, they were denied equal rights and forced into a life of work. As a result they grew to harbour deep hatred for their imprisoners. They went renegade, escaping Earth in one large movement, having secretly invented hyperspace
Hyperspace (science fiction)
Hyperspace is a plot device sometimes used in science fiction. It is typically described as an alternative region of space co-existing with our own universe which may be entered using an energy field or other device...
travel before the Earthlings. The race found a new home in the Vulpecula
Vulpecula
Vulpecula is a faint constellation in the northern sky. Its name is Latin for "little fox", although it is commonly known simply as the fox. It was identified in the seventeenth century, and is located in the middle of the Summer Triangle .-Stars:There are no stars brighter than 4th magnitude in...
constellation and allied with the Ur-Quan in their Hierarchy of Battle Thralls, hoping to defeat some of their old oppressors.
An Earthling exploration vessel intent on meeting with the Androsynth entered the system many years later, only to find the apparent remains of the Androsynth civilization on the second planet. Not a single Androsynth, dead or alive, was found among the scraps of their buildings and technology. The fate of the Androsynth remains a mystery.
Rumours through the galaxy cite Androsynth to have again made a great leap of technological prowess, which had for unknown reasons resulted in the disappearance of the entire race. However, the Arilou suggest the Orz did something terrible to them, after the Androsynth made some interdimensional discovery. The Arilou avoid discussing it further, warning that the mere knowledge of it could put all of humanity in danger of suffering the same fate.
Arilou
The Arilou (short for Arilou Lalee'lay) are aligned with the Alliance of Free Stars. They resemble the little green menLittle green men
Little green men is the stereotypical portrayal of extraterrestrials as little humanoid-like creatures with green skin and sometimes with antennae on their heads. The term is also sometimes used to describe gremlins, mythical creatures known for causing problems in airplanes and mechanical devices...
of popular science fiction, and their ships also resemble stereotypical flying saucers. The Arilou live outside the galaxy, out of truespace and hyperspace
Hyperspace (science fiction)
Hyperspace is a plot device sometimes used in science fiction. It is typically described as an alternative region of space co-existing with our own universe which may be entered using an energy field or other device...
. This little "nook" is called QuasiSpace, and it contains their homeworld Falayalaralfali. Well versed in information gathering and intergalactic or interdimensional travel, they know many races and beings that Earthlings do not. The Arilou would rather keep it that way—they claim that things exist, the mere knowledge of which is dangerous.
The Arilou have had much interaction with Humans throughout mankind's evolution, and hint at a "vested interest" in the Human race. They visit Earth often to "check up" on Humans, although their true motive remains unrevealed. They have peaceful relations with the Umgah race, even after the tricksters joined the Ur-Quan Hierarchy of Battle Thralls. Orz are another dimension-travelling race; however, the Arilou say that is where their similarity ends.
Due to their age and partially due to their time in QuasiSpace, Arilou DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
is prone to abnormalities and defects, and human DNA can be "spliced in" to alleviate this. Like many of Star Control 3
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
by fans of the series, although it would explain alien abductions. The Arilou has been described as "haughtily omnipotent" by GameSpot".
Chenjesu
The Chenjesu are a crystalline silicon race of aliens who interact with their ships using lightning-like "fingers". The only other known beings of similar composition are the extinct Taalo.They naturally evolved intelligence, and since they have no natural predators, they are entirely non-aggressive. Their most preferred activity is calm philosophical discourse.
The Ur-Quan final weapon, the Sa-Matra, destroyed the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm fleets. The two races both chose to be slave shielded on Procyon II and synthesized their races to create a more powerful composite race that would later be called the Chmmr. This synthesis was powered by solar energy and expected to take 60 years. Retrieval of the Sun Device from Mycon space multiplied the energy received and caused the near instant creation of the Chmmr as well as collapsing the lurid red slave shield over Procyon II.
In the Star Control universe, the Chenjesu were the first race humans came in contact with, in 2112 at Ceres. During Star Control II they were allied with the humans.
Earthling
The Earthlings are a member race of the Alliance of Free Stars in Star Control, and the founding race of the New Alliance in Star Control II. They rely on weaponry derived from the 1980s SDIStrategic Defense Initiative
The Strategic Defense Initiative was proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983 to use ground and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic...
projects, such as point-defense lasers and nuclear tipped guided missiles.
Ilwrath
The Ilwrath resemble large red spiders with four visible (probably compound) eyes on top of their head, large mandibleMandible
The mandible pronunciation or inferior maxillary bone forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place...
s where eyes would usually be in humanoids, and below that a mouth. Their mandibles allow them to eat, communicate, and have uses as weapons. Their appendages will regenerate if lost or damaged, often a result of their many rituals of pain. When talking, they sound bloodthirsty and sometimes draw words out, and sometimes inhale when talking about their religious tortures with fondness. In the game, every word they speak is capitalized. Their ship type, the Avenger, is armed with a short-range flamethrower and a cloaking device
Cloaking device
Cloaking devices are advanced stealth technologies still in development that will cause objects, such as spaceships or individuals, to be partially or wholly invisible to parts of the electromagnetic spectrum...
, making it one of the trickier ships to pilot and to pilot against.
The Ilwrath consider themselves evil, believing their gods would never reward a species that was not evil with their baleful grace. Since evil is sanctioned by their culture, it would be "bad" to do otherwise, and the Ilwrath grow extremely angry when people point this out. The Pkunk have a theory that the Ilwrath were once so noble, pure and good that they could get no better. Then they paradoxically did become better which somehow regressed them to being as evil as possible (a programming joke, see Signed number representations
Signed number representations
In computing, signed number representations are required to encode negative numbers in binary number systems.In mathematics, negative numbers in any base are represented by prefixing them with a − sign. However, in computer hardware, numbers are represented in binary only without extra...
). Religion is the primary factor in Ilwrath society. They worship two gods, Dogar and Kazon; later shown to be part of a particularly despicable Umgah 'practical joke'. They begin their religion at birth, believing that their first frenzied gorging is the hatchlings showing their respect to the gods. During their "Dark Ages", the Ilwrath worshipped many gods from Awk of the Seds (a reference to the Unix tools AWK and sed
Sed
sed is a Unix utility that parses text and implements a programming language which can apply transformations to such text. It reads input line by line , applying the operation which has been specified via the command line , and then outputs the line. It was developed from 1973 to 1974 as a Unix...
) to Zith of the Pelt. After a priestly body was formed, the priests announced that only Dogar and Kazon were the true gods and should be worshipped. All heretics were to be eaten, and all possessions were delivered to holy sites or priestly dwellings. The priests controlled the Ilwraths' method of worshipping until the Ilwrath could "Do No Better". In modern times, the Ilwrath believe their gods speak to them through their hyperwave radio.
For eons the Ilwrath lived a subsistence existence ("appendage to mandible"). Thousands of years before the game, the Ilwrath started worshipping Dogar and Kazon. They advanced their technology to create more sophisticated tools for murder. Then, c. 2126, the Ur-Quan improved their starships and weapons and they joined their Hierarchy of Battle Thralls. During the war, the Ilwrath attacked the Humans, and probably also ate them. When Earth fell to the Ur-Quan, their gods made clear their desire for death by the billions. The Ilwrath transported thousands of portable altars and millions of blood gowns and fillet knives to Earth, but were disappointed when the Ur-Quan commanded that the humans be left alive. After the Alliance of Free Stars fell, they used native animals for their religious ceremonies, until all the lifeforms on their planet were extinct. In c. 2147, the Ilwrath believed that they received guidance to attack the Pkunk, and use them for their ceremonies. Sometime within the 5-year timespan of Star Control 2 from 2155 to 2159 or 2160, depending on events, the player has the opportunity to use a hyperwave caster to impersonate Dogar and Kazon. If the player orders them to stop attacking the Pkunk and seek other prey, the Ilwrath attack the Thraddash. Strangely, even though the Ilwrath sphere of influence is about three times as big as the Thraddash sphere of influence, when they meet, the spheres of influence get smaller until both either simultaneously disappear or are vastly reduced in size (depending on previous events in the game).
Mmrnmhrm
The Mmrnmhrm (ˈmɜrnəmhɜrm ) are a sentient robotic race of unknown origin. They resemble a series of metal discs with a sensor in the top disc, probably acting as "eyes" to the Mmrnmhrm. They have no reproductive organs and cannot build more of their kind, so their number is finite and declining as the Mother Ark that produces them falters. In Star Control, these beings played a small part as sidekick protagonists. Plot-wise they had little weight and their general importance was insignificant. Their Variable geometry wing X-Form ship was favored by many players due to its high versatility.Upon arrival, they met with the Chenjesu who would later become the leaders of the Alliance of Free Stars. The Mmrnmhrm and Chenjesu shared the same region of space in peaceful coexistence and when the Ur-Quan armada appeared they were the core group that formed the Alliance of Free Stars to try and fight back the enslavers.
Evidently, the Ur-Quan met with furious resistance to their enslaving efforts. The combined Mmrnmhrm-Chenjesu might held the line for a long time against the Ur-Quan, Ilwrath, Spathi and Umgah. The Ur-Quan used the Sa-Matra, a powerful Precursor ship that incinerated the finest Broodhomes and Transformers easily. Against the might of the Sa-Matra, the Mmrnmhrm and Chenjesu faced a poor choice of either surrendering or being eradicated. The Mmrnmhrm chose to join the Chenjesu in passive slavery on the Chenjesu homeworld in the Procyon system. Their sphere of influence and whatever planets they may have inhabited were taken over by the Ilwrath.
As soon as the Ur-Quan armada left Procyon, they began to merge the crystalline Chenjesu with the robotic Mmrnmhrm. Their intention was to form a hybrid race, crack the slave-shield over their world, and be powerful enough to combat and defeat the Sa-Matra. The Process was supposed to take several decades as there was no better power source than solar power. They warned that any attempt to hasten the process may be extremely dangerous. When the protagonists radically hastened the Process, the Mmrnmhrm were instantaneously merged with the Chenjesu to form the Chmmr, not the expected result. It is believed that no "pure blooded" Mmrnmhrm or Chenjesu were left unmerged.
Mycon
The Mycon resemble fungi 0.5 to 3.5 m tall that thrive in hostile, volcanic environments created for themselves by implanting "Deep Children" (living terraforming devices) under the crust of a blue, life-bearing planet. The outcome is known as a "Shattered World" with significant crust destabilization and rivers of magma on the surface. AmphiboleAmphibole
Amphibole is the name of an important group of generally dark-colored rock-forming inosilicate minerals, composed of double chain tetrahedra, linked at the vertices and generally containing ions of iron and/or magnesium in their structures.-Mineralogy:...
structures allow them to withstand such extreme environments. Star Control 3
Star Control 3
Star Control 3 is a video game developed by Legend Entertainment. They were hired by Accolade to create a sequel of Star Control II when the original creators Toys For Bob expressed no interest in creating the sequel with the same budget as Star Control II...
revealed them to be terraforming
Terraforming
Terraforming of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth, in order to make it habitable by terrestrial organisms.The term is sometimes used more generally as a...
tools of the Precursors, whose programming drifted after their Creators' mysterious disappearance. Mycon reproduce by budding and offspring apparently reach instant maturity. They can genetically modify themselves by thought.
Mycon are hard to understand. A coherent Human-Mycon conversation appears to be an impossibility; Mycon ramblings seldom seem to attach any relevance to what's said to them even when they acknowledge the presence of others. Mycon receive select memories of their forebears at birth and dead Mycon from millennia ago can speak through their descendants, one of the few times a Mycon will refer to itself as I. They are lucid when presented with knowledge of a world ideal for their Deep Children.
A central concept to the race is Juffo-Wup, the hot light in the darkness, which is like a religion for the Mycon. Mycon live for it, and only for it. Juffo-Wup seems to be positive, connected to them or their spread. Related are the Non, what is not Juffo-Wup, and Void, what Non that does not become Juffo-Wup must become Void. Juffo-Wup seems to refer to the Mycon and anything under their control, Non is other life and planets that the Mycon have not yet violently terraformed to their liking, and Void is anything else, such as space or dust. The Mycon claim that Juffo-Wup recognizes Non that cannot be turned into Void at a certain time. The Ur-Quan are an example of this. Instead, the Mycon will attempt to ally with the Non until such time as they can destroy it, turning it into Void.
Mycon are capable of clearly purposeful action and pursue large-scale objectives. The specific nature of those objectives is not clear; they are the only known race to actively seek out the Ur-Quan to become willing members of the Hierarchy. The Mycon have existed for over two hundred thousand years, though their Sphere of Influence is only medium-sized.
During the second game, they fight against the Alliance of Free Stars. After the Alliance's collapse they serve as unattended combat thralls of the Kzer-Za, who are otherwise preoccupied, and only concern themselves with the spread of Juffo-Wup. The Mycon spread was responsible for the cataclysmic destruction of the Syreen homeworld Syra, and the almost total extermination of their race. When the Syreen find out, they trick the Mycon into an ambush and destroy their fleet of Podships.
During the third game, the League can learn the secrets of the Deep Children, which appear to be young Mycon. Normally the elders catch them and imprint their own memories into them (erasing previous memories), transforming their mentality to that of the "elder" Mycon.
In effect, they are slaves, and being mentally slain by the elders.
A powerful device, the Plasma Regroover, could be used to undo the Precursor programming of the Mycons, essentially transforming all Kessari quadrant Mycons into Deep Children.
Shofixti
The Shofixti are a marsupial-like species that were upliftedBiological uplift
In science fiction, uplift is the development or transformation of animals into an intelligent race by other, already-intelligent beings. The concept appears in David Brin's Uplift series and other science fiction works.-History of the concept:...
by the Yehat. Their culture has a code of honor similar to Bushidō
Bushido
, meaning "Way of the Warrior-Knight", is a Japanese word which is used to describe a uniquely Japanese code of conduct and a way of the samurai life, loosely analogous to the concept of chivalry. It originates from the samurai moral code and stresses frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and...
, and their spacecraft are equipped with a powerful self-destruct bomb called a "Glory Device" that makes their otherwise weak Scout a dangerous kamikaze
Kamikaze
The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....
weapon.
With their friend the Yehat, at the beginning of the Ur-Quan Slave War they joined the Alliance of Free Stars against the Hierarchy of Battle Thralls. At the end of the war (between Star Control I and II), after the conquest of the Humans and the withdrawal of the Yehat, the Shofixti caused their own sun to go nova
Supernova
A supernova is a stellar explosion that is more energetic than a nova. It is pronounced with the plural supernovae or supernovas. Supernovae are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy, before fading from view over several weeks or months...
with a Precursor device to destroy the Ur-Quan invasion fleet. This destroyed their entire species, with the exception of a group of female Shofixti in cryogenic suspension
Cryogenics
In physics, cryogenics is the study of the production of very low temperature and the behavior of materials at those temperatures. A person who studies elements under extremely cold temperature is called a cryogenicist. Rather than the relative temperature scales of Celsius and Fahrenheit,...
in Admiral ZEX's zoo and the brothers Tanaka and Katana who continued to patrol their sterile home system. It is possible in the game to repopulate the Shofixti race, as long as Tanaka (or failing that, Katana) is not destroyed, by bringing the lonely warrior "Rat-babes galore!"
Spathi
Spathi resemble shellfish with large familial units, often numbering in the tens of thousands, with one female parent. They receive only a small amount of attention from their parent, and it is rare to be referred to directly by name. This is typical of animals with a high rate of predation, which may explain their fear-based culture. Their cowardice makes them easily bullied into doing things against their will. Dialogue with Spathi contains references to "monsters" and a supposed "Ultimate Evil", which lurks just outside the range of the most sensitive sensors. This rampant neurosis makes them a favorite target for the pranks of the Umgah. Spathi will fight if they cannot run away or if their allies are scarier than their enemies. All Spathi technology was developed as a response to fear. They went from stone age technology to primitive nuclear space rockets in under a century, purely to get off their planet and away from creatures who desired their flesh. They resided for a time on Spathiwa's moon because they feared these "Evil Ones".The Spathi are notorious for their poor language skills. They mispronounce names, such as those of star systems or the correct name of humans (whom they refer to as "hunams").
The Spathi were defeated by the Ur-Quan before the first war erupted. They were offered the usual terms of slavery: become Battle Thralls or be forever encased beneath an impenetrable shield. The Spathi were ecstatic at the prospect of a life of safety beneath a permanent shield. However, due to an Umgah trick, they accidentally became battle thralls and were forced to fight against the Alliance of Free Stars. After the first war concluded, the Spathi and Ilwrath were stationed on Earth's moon to ensure that the defeated humans did not try to break the conditions of their surrender. Shortly after, the Ilwrath left and the Spathi began to "strategically redeploy" themselves farther and farther from Earth. At the time of Star Control II, they are stationed on Pluto, leaving a few bio-droids on Earth's moon to make it look like they were still there. After studying the shield around Earth during the early stages of the second war, they encased themselves in an Ur-Quan slave shield after the humans exterminated the "Evil Ones" for them. Gamespot has described this race as slouch-shouldered and cowardly.
Syreen
The Syreen are a mixture of "green-skinned space babe" clichés, full of double entendreDouble entendre
A double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....
s and a phallic starship, the Penetrator. They reluctantly fight alongside them in the Alliance of Free Stars at the beginning of the series and are biologically compatible with humans. This is an acknowledged evolutionary impossibility (two life forms never evolve in exactly the same way in separate biosystems) and would have been examined had the races not been engaged in a fight for their lives when they met. The Alliance with humans continues in Star Control II. The name is a reference to the Siren
Siren
In Greek mythology, the Sirens were three dangerous mermaid like creatures, portrayed as seductresses who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on an island called Sirenum scopuli...
s in Greek mythology, whose enchanting song brought sailors dangerously close to nearby cliffs, where they would crash on the rocks and drown. Syreen look like blue-skinned humans with slightly luminescent
Luminescence
Luminescence is emission of light by a substance not resulting from heat; it is thus a form of cold body radiation. It can be caused by chemical reactions, electrical energy, subatomic motions, or stress on a crystal. This distinguishes luminescence from incandescence, which is light emitted by a...
eyes and "certain parts".
The lush world of Syra was Earth's near twin, though warmer and somewhat more hospitable. It hosted a peaceful utopia in harmony with nature from agrarian tribes to the first steps of interstellar exploration, until a stray asteroid smashed into the world and penetrated into the mantle. A year later, a series of supervolcano
Supervolcano
A supervolcano is a volcano capable of producing a volcanic eruption with an ejecta volume greater than 1,000 cubic kilometers . This is thousands of times larger than most historic volcanic eruptions. Supervolcanoes can occur when magma in the Earth rises into the crust from a hotspot but is...
es and fissure
Fissure vent
A fissure vent, also known as a volcanic fissure or simply fissure, is a linear volcanic vent through which lava erupts, usually without any explosive activity. The vent is usually a few meters wide and may be many kilometers long. Fissure vents can cause large flood basalts and lava channels...
s erupted planetwide, incinerated Syra's continents, poisoned its atmosphere, and shattered the crust. The largely female Space Patrol was the only faction off-planet, leaving the race with under 10000 members, 500 male. They added stardrives to anything that could be made to hold air and set out to the stars. Several decades later, the sublight Habitat fleet found the formative Alliance-Hierarchy war and joined out of necessity, being unable to defend itself. When the Alliance fell, the Syreen chose imprisonment on their world over thralldom as their slavery. Since the Syreen had none, the Ur-Quan gave them the terran planet of Gaia in the Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse, also known by its Bayer designation Alpha Orionis , is the eighth brightest star in the night sky and second brightest star in the constellation of Orion, outshining its neighbour Rigel only rarely...
system as the closest equivalent. When the "asteroid" was revealed to be a Mycon Deep Child terraformer, the Syreen threw away the respite they had been enjoying to fight against the Mycon, and by extension the Ur-Quan. They retrieved their starships, destroyed the Mycon fleet and joined the New Alliance.
Talana, clad in a near-exact replica of Princess Leia's dancing girl outfit, is the commander of the Ur-Quan resupply starbase orbiting Gaia at the time of Star Control II. The player delivers to her proof of the Mycon's culpability and has the ability to engage in very, very heavily implied sexual relations. The two are implied to go on to have children.
Developer Paul Reiche III addressed the Syreen in a questions-and-answers session in 2007, describing the Syreen song's strength as a "glass of white wine" in comparison to the Dnyarri compulsion being "intravenous lab alcohol" plus a "horse tranquilizer".
Umgah
The Umgah were the second race in the quadrant (after the Thraddash) to be defeated by the Ur-Quan and to join their Hierarchy of Battle Thralls. The Umgah are large, pink or lilac-colored blobs, with several mouths, eyes, and tentacles at seemingly random positions in their bodies. All Umgah are born with agoraphobiaAgoraphobia
Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder defined as a morbid fear of having a panic attack or panic-like symptoms in a situation from which it is perceived to be difficult to escape. These situations can include, but are not limited to, wide-open spaces, crowds, or uncontrolled social conditions...
, and prefer biotic environments in their ships. They are immensely skilled at bioengineering and often add or remove limbs and organs from themselves for fun.
Umgah discussion is full of jokes, and their sense of humor is renowned (or, more accurately, feared) throughout the galaxy. Umgah jokes often involve using a HyperWave caster to send messages to other civilizations, claiming to be gods or monsters. They have performed such jokes on the Ilwrath and the Spathi, in the former pretending to be the gods Dogar and Kazon, and in the latter pretending to be monsters such as the "Grand Master Planet Eater". Their pranks have resulted in several thousand Spathi dead of acute anxiety, a six year holy war by the Ilwrath, and the Umgah joining the Ur-Quan's hierarchy bent on enslaving all sentient life.
When the Arilou discovered a living Talking Pet, they took it to the Umgah for medical treatment. The Umgah were able to restore it to health, but their genetic alterations restored the full psychic potential of the creature, a Dnyarri, and led to the entire Umgah race being psychically dominated.
Ur-Quan Kzer-Za
The Ur-Quan Kzer-Za (commonly referred to simply as Ur-Quan until the appearance of the Kohr-Ah) are the main villains of the series. They were fiercely territorial large centipedeCentipede
Centipedes are arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda of the subphylum Myriapoda. They are elongated metameric animals with one pair of legs per body segment. Despite the name, centipedes can have a varying number of legs from under 20 to over 300. Centipedes have an odd number of pairs of...
-like sentient creatures with brownish skin who evolved from solitary hunters on their harsh home planet. While they were still using crude atomic vehicles to explore their system, the Ur-Quan encountered the Taalo. The Ur-Quan attacked them, but the patient Taalo eventually won the Ur-Quan's friendship—the only race to ever do so. The Taalo convinced the Ur-Quan to join the Sentient Milieu, a cooperative of alien races. Due to their solitary nature, the Ur-Quan were frequently used as scouts and explorers and were active in finding Precursor artifacts. GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
has noted how the rich history of the Ur-Quan helps to give Star Control II its sense of wonder. The sympathy this enemy race evokes due to their tragic history has been hailed as a "rare and praiseworthy" design achievement.
Dnyarri
An Ur-Quan scout mission discovered the Dnyarri and unwillingly brought thousands of Dnyarri to the heart of the Sentient Milieu. The Dnyarri used their psychic powers to dominate the minds of the Milieu. The Taalo were immune, so the Dnyarri compelled the other races of the Milieu to annihilate them. The Ur-Quan were the favored slaves of the Dnyarri, and the most susceptible to their psychic powers. The Dnyarri began to genetically experiment and separated the Brown Ur-Quan into two sub-species: the Green Ur-Quan were scientists and politicians and the Black Ur-Quan were basic soldiers and laborers. As far as anyone knows, the original Brown Ur-Quan became extinct.Over thousands of years, the Dnyarri eventually became lax in their mental domination. A green Ur-Quan scientist named Kzer-Za noticed that the Dnyarri "detached" psychic control from an Ur-Quan suffering near-lethal pain. Using one of the few moments of mental freedom the Dnyarri gave their slaves, he injected his body with a lethal and painful poison, and used the mental freedom to broadcast the news across the empire. Ur-Quan slaves everywhere began burning themselves and hacking their own bodies to give them the freedom needed to kill the nearest Dnyarri. This was refined into a brain implant known as an Excruciator which causes enough pain to force a Dnyarri to detach, but leaves the Ur-Quan's body whole and functional.
Now free, the Ur-Quan decided that extinction was too good for the Dnyarri. Instead the Dnyarri were genetically modified into dumb "Talking Pets", retaining psychic powers only to allow translation and communication with alien species, something the Ur-Quan now considered demeaning. The two sub-species of the Ur-Quan developed doctrines to ensure they would not be slaves again. The green Ur-Quan, renamed the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za in honor of the scientist who freed them, devised the "Path of Now and Forever", which states that all non-Ur-Quan sentient life be slaves to the Ur-Quan either as battle thralls, or forever be imprisoned on their homeworlds under impenetrable force-fields. The Black Ur-Quan, renamed the Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah after their new leader, felt that only their "Eternal Doctrine", the annihilation of non-Ur-Quan life, would keep them safe from slavery. This led to a war between the Kohr-Ah and the Kzer-Za known as The Doctrinal Conflict, which devastated both sides. The Kzer-Za eventually triumphed through the discovery of an enormous Precursor Battleship named the Sa-Matra. Defeated, the Kohr-Ah were sent in the opposite direction of the galaxy as the Kzer-Za, with the understanding that when the two species met again, they would fight The Doctrinal Conflict once more, with the victor claiming the Sa-Matra. GameSpot described this race as "manipulative and conniving".
VUX
The VUX are green, tentacled creatures with a long snout and one visible eye. They are noted for their fiendishly extreme dislike of humans (with the exception of Admiral ZEX, a sexual deviant who is attracted to humans), and will be more than happy to engage in combat whenever the revolting visage of a human appears on their communication screens. They are referred to in all capital letters by nearly every other alien race in the game, including themselves, and their captains also capitalize their three-letter names as well. This has caused the humans to joke that VUX stands for Very Ugly Xenoform.The first encounter between humans and VUX was between Captain Rand and an unknown VUX captain. Upon seeing the new alien species for the first time, Rand burst out with the first thing that came to mind, which happened to be an insult. Rand was unaware that the VUX translating technology was so far advanced that his words were relayed to the VUX captain perfectly. This botched first encounter between the two races soured relations long enough for the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za to subjugate the VUX. The VUX then fight against the humans. In Star Control II it is revealed that the VUX's reason for not joining the Alliance was due to their own extreme disgust with the appearance of humans. Captain Rand's overheard comment had been merely a scapegoat, for they find humans far more disgusting than humans find them.
In Star Control III, they are revealed to be "half" of the Vyro-Ingo race, and can be reunited in the course of the storyline.
Yehat
The Yehat are fearsome and honorable pterodactyl-like creatures who were allied with the Alliance of Free Stars in Star Control. They speak with a notable Scottish accentScottish English
Scottish English refers to the varieties of English spoken in Scotland. It may or may not be considered distinct from the Scots language. It is always considered distinct from Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic language....
when their language is translated to English. In Star Control II, they are Ur-Quan battle thralls, but once the player brings them evidence that their adopted children, the Shofixti, are still alive, they ally with the humans once again (after undergoing a civil war). The Pkunk are an offshoot of the Yehat race. Yehat life is governed by one Queen, who rules over the various Yehat clans. Historically, this has been one from the Veep-Neep Clan, but at the end of Star Control II a Pkunk Queen was chosen.
The Yehat are the backbone of the Alliance Starfleet, due to their advanced weapons technology and their intensely martial society.
Introduced in Star Control II
Star Control II introduced eleven playable races: Chmmr, Druuge, Melnorme, Orz, Pkunk, Slylandro, Supox, Thraddash, Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah, Utwig, and Zoq-Fot-Pik.Chmmr
The Chmmr are a fusion species between the crystalline Chenjesu and the mechanical Mmrnmhrm. The species was formed in Star Control II, when the player uses the Sun Device to speed up the fusion process, which would have normally taken several decades. They ally with humans and are needed to complete the game and destroy the Sa-Matra.The Chmmr are not what the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm envisioned. Where the Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm showed patience, care and wisdom, the Chmmr seem reckless and aggressive. Their plans, behavior, and personalities are unpredictable. While it is agreed that they have assumed the Chenjesu's old position as the unofficial leaders of the alliance, it is doubtful that they share the same benevolent wisdom of their predecessors.
The appearance of the Chmmr was changed slightly in Star Control 3. They are still a mixture of mechanical and crystalline objects, but the bond appears to be less complete, and they float. The interior of the structure shines moving lights through the crystals depending on the mood of the Chmmr. The Chmmr are separated into Chenjesu and Mmrnmhrm, but the player again joins the two races using another sun device.
Druuge
The Druuge are a race of horned, pig-like aliens that are notorious for their insatiable greed and psychopathic treatment of other races. Their planet and the entirety of its resources are owned by the Crimson Corporation, of which every Druuge is a member and shareholder. They believe that the purpose of every individual Druuge is to serve the corporation; those who relinquish their membership are instantly convicted of stealing corporate air and sentenced to death, while those who threaten the group's profit margin due to illness, debt or old age are thrown into furnaces. The Druuge like to justify their actions with conveniently convoluted legal and ethical systems. For example, they hold unarmed travelers in their territory responsible for encouraging piracy, as their vulnerable ships are likely to attract belligerent plunderers. Therefore, any Druuge vessel may attack and plunder such ships and penalize their crews with indefinite slavery.Melnorme
The Melnorme are a race of merchants, primarily in the business of buying and selling information. The name is a reference to Mel TorméMel Tormé
Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
, the singer. They provide history, current events, fuel, and technology in return for biological data and the locations of certain colorful worlds assembled (or found) by the Precursors known as Rainbow Worlds. They use large Trader vessels to seek out, contact, and strike deals with potential customers. Though in possession of a great deal of information and technology, the Melnorme come across as benign and harmless. While trading with them is not required to complete Star Control II, abstaining from it makes the game vastly harder to finish.
The Melnorme are highly secretive of themselves and their origins, but their similarities have led many to believe that the Melnorme are the descendants of the Mael-Num. This link was later confirmed outside of the game by the game designers. While they are technically ready to divulge such information, the prices are ludicrous. To learn why their bridge turns purple, for instance, costs more credits than the player can possess in the game. They based their culture entirely on equivalent trade and reject the concept of charity, finding it highly offensive. Though the Melnorme are by definition mercantile, they deal fairly with the protagonist and sell trustworthy information. They place a great emphasis on colour, to the point of basing their own names on different shades, such as Trade Master Greenish of the starship Inevitably Successful in All Circumstances.
- Note: It is possible to get enough credits by hacking the game with a hex editor, but even if you have enough credits, the Melnorme respond with the same answer when asked about the screen changing color. The reason the screen turns purple was never programmed into the game.
Orz
The Orz are fish-like creatures that live in what used to be Androsynth space. They are yellow and roughly spherical, with a stub too small to be a tail, two eyes on stalks, a large set of gills, four tentacles, and a beakBeak
The beak, bill or rostrum is an external anatomical structure of birds which is used for eating and for grooming, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food, courtship and feeding young...
. Their ships are filled with liquid ethanol, and they appear to be somewhat similar to parrotfish
Parrotfish
Parrotfishes are a group of fishes that traditionally had been considered a family , but now often are considered a subfamily of the wrasses. They are found in relatively shallow tropical and subtropical oceans throughout the world, but with the largest species richness in the Indo-Pacific...
. The Orz language is excessively unorthodox, and translation computers in the game are not particularly good at deciphering it. With effort from the player at least some degree of understanding can be gained. They can join an alliance with the humans. This race has been described by reviewer Francois Laramee as "disturbingly scary".
In Star Control II, Arilou implied that the Orz are manifestations of a single extra-dimensional being; even the Orz refer to themselves as 'fingers'. In essence, all Orz are the same creature. This was confirmed by the game's developers, Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III
Paul Reiche III
Paul Reiche III is a game designer, particularly for computer games. Reiche is best known for being the co-creator, together with Fred Ford, of the Star Control universe.-Pen and paper RPGs:...
, in a chat on EFnet
EFnet
EFnet or Eris Free network is a major IRC network, with more than 35,000 users. It is the modern-day descendant of the original IRC network.- History :...
in 1998.
In Star Control II, the Orz seemed to have displaced the Androsynth, who were apparently conducting experiments with other dimensions. This made them visible to the Orz. As a result, the Androsynth disappeared, leaving their cities behind in ruins. The Orz are very sensitive about the Androsynth, and will fight when pressured to tell about their fate. According to the Arilou, even knowing too much about other dimensions makes one vulnerable to extra-dimensional dangers, such as the Orz, and the Arilou suggest that this is what happened to the Androsynth.
Pkunk
The Pkunk are a race of bird-like offshoots of the Yehat. They ally with the protagonist in Star Control II as soon as he meets them. They resemble a stereotypical phony psychic, consistently agreeing with anything mystical the player says and basing all their decisions on universal harmony and similar grand sounding concepts. However, the Pkunk really are powerful psychics who provide hints to the player, even going so far as actual clairvoyanceClairvoyance
The term clairvoyance is used to refer to the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception...
. The Pkunk believe that their psychotic and genocidal neighbors, the Ilwrath, were perfect beings in their past lives, and that the karmic consequence of their excessive goodness was their totally evil reincarnation. To avoid such a fate, the Pkunk strive to remain just short of perfection. They accomplish this by being slightly annoying to whoever they encounter. When flying their ships in battle, they constantly taunt and insult their opponents, a practice that powers their ships. They state that, as they are so inherently happy and carefree, they must work themselves up by screaming insults.
Slylandro
The Slylandro are a race of ancient and friendly gas bag people that inhabit a gas giantGas giant
A gas giant is a large planet that is not primarily composed of rock or other solid matter. There are four gas giants in the Solar System: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune...
planet in star system Beta Corvi they call Source. They have records of contact with the Precursors. Since the Slylandro have no methods of physically recording history, long chants of past events have to be memorized in order to preserve the past. The Slylandro see on a spectrum band
Electromagnetic spectrum
The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of all possible frequencies of electromagnetic radiation. The "electromagnetic spectrum" of an object is the characteristic distribution of electromagnetic radiation emitted or absorbed by that particular object....
where they are opaque to each other and are very shy about humans seeing their "glowy bits" (their reproductive organs). The standard measurement of time for the Slylandro is the Drahn, which is equal to 4 million rotations of the planet, or about 6460 Earth years.
The Slylandro are restricted to a narrow band on their surfaceless world. Below their inhabited area are "the Depths", which grow darker and more hostile as one ventures deeper. When a Slylandro sinks deep enough into the depths, their gas bag is almost ruptured by the pressure, causing scarring to occur which is believed to attract potential mates. Above is "the Void", which when ventured into, causes a Slylandro to "grow giddy and behave inappropriately".
The Slylandro have no technology and no means of obtaining any. Attempts to construct any devices have resulted in them becoming too heavy and dragging their inventor to the Depths. The Slylandro play very little part in the greater scheme of things and have been discovered and rediscovered by several subsequent civilizations. Due to Source's low-stimuli
Stimulus (physiology)
In physiology, a stimulus is a detectable change in the internal or external environment. The ability of an organism or organ to respond to external stimuli is called sensitivity....
environment and the Slylandro's inability to venture off-planet, they have become intensely curious about other worlds and races.
In the Anne McCaffrey
Anne McCaffrey
Anne Inez McCaffrey was an American-born Irish writer, best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series. Over the course of her 46 year career she won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award...
novel The Ship Who Sang
The Ship Who Sang
The Ship Who Sang is a science fiction novel by Anne McCaffrey, a fix-up of five stories published 1961 to 1969. Alternatively, "The Ship Who Sang" is the earliest of the stories, a novelette, which became the first chapter of the book...
, a brainship
Brainship
A brainship is a fictional concept of an interstellar starship. A brainship is made by inserting the disembodied brain and nervous system of a human being into a life-support system, and connecting it surgically to a series of computers via delicate synaptic connections The brain "feels" the ship ...
and its pilot come into contact with a race that live on a gas giant planet in the Beta Corvi star system.
Supox
The Supox Utricularia are allies of the Utwig and providers of the Ultron. In Star Control 3 they are part of the expedition but their colony ships are destroyed, with the Orz implicated. They are a race of kind, sentient plant creatures who evolved from a species of semi-mobile symbionts. In the setting, the evolutionary path of sentient plants is considered an established scientific impossibility, one that Supox science has verified. Many Supox attribute the incongruity of their existence to the favor of "Higher Powers."The Supox have always been symbionts. During their long evolutionary path they forged symbiotic correlations with several races of plants and animals on their homeworld, trading "reproductive assistance" for nutrients. The Supox look to the Utwig for guidance, and use the Utwig culture as a model for their own. In return, they give the Utwig the emotional support they need.
Thraddash
The Thraddash are a noisy and extremely aggressive race of rhinoceros-like aliens. They constantly bluster and boast while interacting with the protagonist, providing a thin facade over the actual inadequacy of their military and its primitive technology. This backwardness, the result of their tendency to repeatedly bring themselves to the brink of cultural annihilation by constantly nuking each other, does not deter them from throwing their outdated forces into battle at the slightest provocation.The Thraddash have had 18 different planetary cultures. Each time their culture reached a certain point a new ideology for a more perfect culture arrived, and they fought a bitter war and started a new culture from scratch. The earliest Culture mentioned by the Thraddash is Culture Two, which glorified fortitude and stoic resistance to pain. The most important artifact common to all Thraddash cultures is the Aqua Helix. Culture Nine was the only culture to question its significance. Culture Nine considered excessive the amount of blood and passion expended over the artifact. Unfortunately, their complete defeat at the hands of Culture Ten after only two weeks of dominance only reinforced the Thraddash belief in the sanctity of the Aqua Helix.
Culture Fourteen is the second Culture to question traditional Thraddash values. Shortly after achieving dominance, Culture Fourteen claimed that the Thraddash method of cultural evolution was wrong. They claimed that every inter-Culture conflict set the Thraddash back 500 years. As with Culture Nine, Thraddash tradition again proved itself immune to change as Culture Fourteen was destroyed by Culture Fifteen after a reign of only ten years. Interestingly enough, the violence ensuing from Culture Fourteen's replacement only set the Thraddash back by "two, three hundred years tops", hence disproving Culture Fourteen's main tenet.
Culture Eighteen was the dominant Thraddash culture when the Ur-Quan invaded. Their swift defeat by the Ur-Quan put their superiority into question, and an attempt for a resolution was made by the means of a thermonuclear exchange. The Ur-Quan in orbit around the Thraddash homeworld did not allow such intra-species fighting, and intercepted all of the warheads with their fighter vessels. The Ur-Quan's intervention, however, only postponed the inevitable. Shortly after the failed thermonuclear weapon exchange, Culture Eighteen's challengers introduced a super-lethal poison into the air and water, ending the reign of Culture Eighteen.
After the poisoning of Culture Eighteen, the Ur-Quan executed all of the emerging Culture's leaders, and arbitrarily assigned leaders. The Ur-Quan explained that any further violations of the Slave Laws would be punished by the eradication of the Thraddash species. Culture Nineteen elected to become Battle Thralls upon being enslaved by the Ur-Quan. As such, they expected to be part of the Ur-Quan's offensive in the quadrant. Their relative military weakness, however, as well as their predisposition to pick fights with other slave races, especially the Umgah and Ilwrath, made the Ur-Quan decide that they would be more of a liability than an asset in the coming battles, and ordered them to "guard the flank." The modern Thraddash have improved their Torch ships with an effective Reeunk Afterburner (named posthumously after its creator), and are itching to prove their worth to the Ur-Quan.
Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah
The Kohr-Ah are a subspecies of the Ur-Quan and were not present in Earth's part of the galaxy during the first Alliance-Hierarchy war in Star Control I. Star Control II takes place during the Second Doctrinal Conflict, in which the Kohr-Ah will kill all sentient life if victorious. The Kohr-Ah are physically similar to the Kzer-Za except their skin is black and their eyes are a deep red. They are led by a matriarch called the Kohr-Ah Primat.Conflict with the Kohr-Ah is unavoidable for any other species as they follow the "Eternal Doctrine," their interpretation of the "Path of Now and Forever," which reveals that their purpose is to "cleanse" the galaxy of all non-Ur-Quan sentience. The Kohr-Ah carry out the words of their doctrine to ensure their freedom and security, and to a lesser degree, they believe they are doing those they cleanse a service: the opportunity to be reincarnated as an Ur-Quan, the superior race. Perhaps as a result of this dispassionate view, neither the Kohr-Ah nor the Kzer-Za will insult or lie to their adversaries.
Utwig
The Utwig are a race of fatalist and sophisticated humanoids; they are mentors to the Supox and the keepers of the Ultron device, which they believe provides happiness and enlightenment. Utwig are required to wear masks for as long as they live. They have developed "Mask-Etiquette" for the thousands of masks they wear. Each is suitable for different activities, moods, festivals, and ceremonies. This custom was born in their ancient violent past, when they came to the conclusion that the expression of primal emotions upon faces was the source of war and violence. Therefore faces must be hidden in order for a culture to progress peacefully. The accidental destruction of the Ultron sent the entire species into a state of depression and resulted in the destruction of all masks except the Mask of Ultimate Embarrassment and Shame. Its subsequent reconstruction was more than enough to pull the previously unaffiliated Utwig and Supox into the war against the Ur-Quan. The Utwig has been described as "comic" by reviewer Francois Laramee.Zoq-Fot-Pik
The Zoq, Fot, Pik and Zebranky species all evolved on the same planet. The Zoq, Fot and Pik were non-carnivorous, but the Zebranky preyed on them. The Zoq, Fot and Pik races banded together, annihilated the Zebranky, and formed a cooperative union. They integrated so well that they no longer recall which of the races are Zoq, which are Fot, and which are Pik. Afterwards, they faced a dilemma: whether to develop technological and cultural sophistication, or to return to the forests and relax. They chose the latter.For another fifty thousand years, the Zoq, the Fot and the Pik relaxed in the forests, until one day one of each race was walking up a steep path looking for something to eat, when a bolt of lightning struck nearby. The bolt of energy carved a wheel-shaped chunk of granite out of a cliff. As the rock began to roll down the hill, some dry grass got caught in its hole, and since the rock was still hot the grass caught on fire. Thus the Zoq, Fot, and Pik simultaneously discovered the wheel, fire, and religion. The wheel and fire were based on the rock, and religion developed when the Zoq was killed by the rolling rock and the remaining two decided that he had simply gone to "a better place".
The three species are said to feed on airborne zooplankton, solar and ambient energies, and rocky fungal clingers. It's never said exactly which species feeds on what, but there are some clues - the one on the right of the communication screenshot is shown blowing air out the three holes on its head, and the one on the left exclaims "our favorite" when speaking of rock clingers. Also, the green one on the left seems to be a botanical species, from her appearance, and, at one point, threatening to "blow a cloud of spores" in the face of the blue one, so she seems to absorb the sunlight. The function of the arm-like appendages on the leftmost creature are unknown, but possibly includes communication since they move when the creature "talks". Very little is known about the one-eyed creature in the center as neither of the other two mention anything about it except the fact that it never talks.
An obvious satiric
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
take on bad spectator sports, Frungy is a wildly popular sport among the Zoq-Fot-Pik. No details about the rules or concept are disclosed, although the Zoq-Fot-Pik (or at least the one on the right) are very glad to comment on how great, fun and interesting it is, making numerous references to Frungy throughout the game. Frungy, like most spectator sports, appears to have a governing organization. When beginning a new playthrough of The Ur-Quan Masters, a splash screen noting sponsorship by the Interstellar Frungy League is shown.
GameSpot described this race as unique and funny.
Clairconctlar
The Clairconctlar are noble warriors of ancient heritage. Their origins are shrouded in history, unknown both to the Crux and the League. The craggy, stone-faced warriors are a mystery even to the Precursors, who suspect that they resemble the ancient Taalo race.The Clairconctlar move and speak at a stately, nearly glacial pace. They are patient, and extremely slow to anger. When aroused, however, they move with deadly swiftness. They seek just and honourable contact with all other races. They have little patience for brutality and the kinds of atrocities marking much of the galaxy's development.
All living Clairconctlar were sired by their queen. The queen looks like a majestic blue-grey mountain, larger than many moons. At intermittent cycles, the queen emits a pale blue egg, called a Conc Rock. The Conc Rock is actually a mass of adamantine flakes. In the right circumstances, each flake has the potential to grow into a Clairconctlar. When the queen releases a Conc Rock, the Clairconctlar take it deep into a cave rich with mineral deposits. There, the flakes leach geologic nutrients from the stone walls, and grow into embryonic Clairconctlar.
Over the centuries of gestation, the flakes accrete enough matter to be born as living Clairconctlar. The Conc Rocks are vital to the Clairconctlar because they represent the continuation of the race. Anyone who knowingly destroys one is subject to a vengeance hunt. Clairconctlar forsake all other obligations until they hunt down and exterminate the rock-breaker.
When the Crux arrived in the Kessari Quadrant, the Clairconctlar resisted their incursions. The Crux saw no way to win a war against the indomitable stone warriors, and decided to defeat them with subterfuge. They recruited the Clairconctlar after the Daktaklakpak discovered the Clairconctlar's unusual means of reproduction. The Ploxis sent the K'tang to abduct the Clairconctlar queen.
After a bloody battle which greatly reduced K'tang forces, they subdued the queen. They took her to another planet and used Precursor technology to affix her to bedrock, and to record a phoney message. The message tells the Clairconctlar that a debt of honour binds them to the Ploxis. The message does not divulge the origin of this debt, but the Crux created a convenient fiction in case the Clairconctlar get curious: The Clairconctlar, they claim, destroyed most of the Ploxis race. In truth, the Ploxis destroyed most of their own.
The queen calls out to her people for salvation, but the Crux has forbidden them to visit the planet where they hold her, without saying why. The Clairconctlar know the Crux is an empire without honour, but are duty-bound to serve until the queen tells them they're free of the debt. They're stuck - unless the League can find a way to liberate them.
The Clairconctlar are known for their valour in battle. The ship is built to launch deadly broadside attacks, then transport away with its warp beacon in order to recharge its energy reserves for another attack.
Daktaklakpak
A semi-sentient machine, Daktaklakpak form the technological wing of the Hegemonic Crux. They are arrogant because the Precursors made them; however, they do not realise they were created as maintenance drones. The Precursors prevented the Daktaklakpak from developing full sentience which, combined with their amateurish self-modification, resulted in an initially indecipherable language ("Daktaklakpak! 5576 squared! 888, warning!", etc.). Daktaklakpak is the beginning of an alphanumeric string that encodes their creation by the Precursor factories, and contains all information about them. They believe the same applies to the Eternal Ones.They adore the Precursors and seek their artifacts. Though allied with the Crux, they would eagerly defect for the pursuit of greater knowledge. In particular, they quest to find the full name of Eternal Ones, which they believe will reveal the exact nature of the species. They will trade virtually anything for this information, including information on their allies, advanced weaponry, or services in battle. When the Daktaklakpak met the Ploxis (who were engaged in a civil war), they traded a Precursor vessel for several valuable artifacts. With this vessel the Ploxis Plutocrats and their K'tang allies won the war. In the Crux, the Daktaklakpak dissect new races and technologies provided by their allies, the Ploxis. This was the origin of the name of their ship: The Daktaklakpak Vivisector. They have several such craft stationed at every artifact site in the quadrant, presumably guarding them till excavation crew arrive. Gamerevolution.com described this race as "calculating".
Doog
The Doog are a species of extremely loyal and naive dog-lizards. Described as dull-wiited by gamerevolution.com, they lack the intelligence to understand that no matter how hard they worked, they could never make enough money to buy themselves out of their K'Tang-Ploxis owned financial slavery.Exquivan
The Exquivans are a race of "monks" who try to reduce their own level of sentience in order to avoid being devoured by the Eternal Ones. They have been described as enigmatic by gamerevolution.com.Eternal One
The Eternal Ones are a race of god-like, extra-dimensional beings who consume all sentient life in the UniverseUniverse
The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
from time to time. According to the Daktaklakpak, the Eternal Ones' name comes from their DNA formulae that start as 'Eternal1'. Their complete name is their complete DNA formulae, something so complex that any sentience that tries to learn it all, organic or machine, becomes insane.
The Eternal Ones evolved from sentient organic beings until they lost their material bodies and became pure energy, reaching the verge of transforming into "something else". The Eternal Ones were afraid to evolve and lose their last physical vestige, and made a plan to stop their evolution that required consuming incredible quantities of sentient energy. To harvest sentience in great quantity, the Eternal Ones planted "seeds" throughout the universe that created all the other races in the Star Control universe. The Precursors became aware of this and devolved themselves to non-sentient animals and created semi-sentient machines called Daktaklakpak to re-evolve themselves when the harvest was over. Unfortunately the Daktaklakpak forgot their main objective and started to wander the galaxy collecting and protecting all Precursor technologies. The long-term purpose for the Precursors was to develop an artifact to optimize the harvest for the Eternal Ones. The Precursors had noticed that sentient harvest was incredibly inefficient, and theorized that by optimizing the harvest, there would not be a need for such genocide.
In Star Control 3, the player, as the human leader of the sentient races, foresees the harvest, and unites most races to find a solution. He finds the unfinished artifact and re-evolves a Precursor who helps the player finish it in time for the next harvest. The much greater efficiency of energy absorption allowed by the artifact allows the Eternal Ones to feed without requiring the death of all sentient creatures.
Harika & Yorn
The Harika & Yorn evolved as a symbiotic relationship with the warlike reptilian Harika eating the Yorn which serves to control the Yorn's population numbers. They also gain the advice of their somewhat more diplomaticly minded food. The Yorn resemble Star TrekStar Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
tribbles and as such would not be capable of a technological society on their own; the Harika grant them this chance. At the start of the game they are members of the Hegemonic Crux and suffer from the Xchagger virus.
Herald
The current Heralds are an unnamed species which were defeated by the previous Heralds. The Eternal Ones, while destroying all other sentient life, gave the Heralds the choice of oblivion, or becoming their messengers. The Heralds chose the latter fate.K'tang
The K'tang are small, weak, cowardly worms of low intelligence and cunning. They evolved aware of their own inferiority, among bigger and smarter species. In an unusual display of cunning, the K'tang managed to scavenge or hijack enough sophisticated technology to cobble together MechaMecha
A mech , is a science fiction term for a large walking bipedal tank or robot, including ones on treads and animal shapes.-Characteristics:...
. They killed all competing races, a significant portion of their own species and enslaved those that remained. Despite their powerful weaponry, not a single worm had strategic thought, no warrior lowered himself to running the supply lanes, and no slave was good enough to do it. Each K'tang scrounged whatever weapons he could, then went into battle hiding behind his allies. They encountered the Ploxis Plutocrats, who were looking for some easily controllable muscle to serve them. The K'tang quickly allowed their "allies" to run their logistics and strategy, turning the tide of the war in their favour. Once their enemies were defeated, they joined with the Plutocrats, killing Ploxis, Doog, Harika, and the League. This was their downfall, for they let slip much of their Ploxis' carefully constructed plots. Their downfall came when the Captain procured the Overlord-Seeking Larvacide missile from the Daktaklakpak and atomized the armoured shell that housed the K'tang King. The naked worm quickly surrendered to the League, and he and his men served as sullen allies for the remainder of the war, lest the League use their weapon and return them to the dirt. This race has been described as cruel by gamerevolution.com.
Lk
The Lk are a species of fungus which used to feed on Precursor artifacts. They have a callous view of life, expecting other species to behave the same way.Owa
An underwater species. Their planet's sun went nova long before the development of its life. All life on their home planet developed from underwater chemical reactions, therefore they have no light sensing abilities.Ploxis
Not much is known about the Ploxis race, beyond the short history described by a rebel captain of that race, who had spent quite some time in suspended animation. The Ploxis were at once a race that celebrated diversity, and believed deeply in the idea of fairness and of the correlation between success and worthiness as a sentient. This liberal attitude caused them to respect even those who decided that the acquisition of wealth and power should be their primary motivation. By the time the peace-loving Ploxis decided to take a stand against these new thinkers, the Plutocrats, it was too late. The Plutocrats had already made contact with the K'tang, and had swapped technology for servitude. With the K'tang and various Precursor artifacts, the Plutocrats made short work of those Ploxis who wished to cling to the old ways. All that remains of the defeated forces are a few scattered individuals in suspended animation. The ploxis have been characterised as "plotting" by gamerevolution.com.Vyro-Ingo
Crustaceans with a full exoskeleton resembling lobsters.They were non-sentient before being genetically uplifted by the Precursors. They "lost" DNA during this process, and this lost DNA became the VUX. The Vyro-Ingo were left with a sense of genetic inferiority, so they frequently insult others. During the storyline, they can reunite with the VUX.