Page 169: The most messed up!

[Arioch]

Do they have a an accurate account of the time before the fall? Do they perhaps know the truth of the Loroi/Barsam/etc's origins?

If they do, they're keeping it to themselves.

[Arent]

A partial answer is that they see themselves as passive observers of history more than active participants in it. Their "civilization" (if you want to call it that) predates the fall of the Soia, and they've basically been watching the rest of the races recover and rebuild without really helping them or intervening. Kind of like the monasteries in Europe during the Dark Ages, collecting and hoarding knowledge. The Umiak invasion really caught them off guard... despite being much more advanced, they just weren't ready for it... a little bit like those same Christian monasteries that were suddenly being plundered by Viking raiders who weren't Christian and weren't awed by their ancient mystique.

So, they're a bit like switzerland Since they do apparently infiltrate computers even of the humans, they might have been aware of humanity searching contact to the Loroi, which makes them prime suspects of being the ones responsible of shooting down the Bellarmine.

But since you say now that they are strictly non-interfering, maybe the culprit is someone else.

Btw., are there Darlok in the outsider universe? Just asking, because apart from Mrrshan and Psilon, they were my favorite.

[raistlin34]

Once again, why bother preventing the first contact? Humans are (very) primitive and outnumbered in the conflict. Nothing to gain here.
The only reason I can fathom is that humanity existence could light some...inconsistences in the official narrative regarding Loroi's origins and maybe the Soia themselves.

[Arent]

Once again, why bother preventing the first contact? Humans are (very) primitive and outnumbered in the conflict. Nothing to gain here.
The only reason I can fathom is that humanity existence could light some...inconsistences in the official narrative regarding Loroi's origins and maybe the Soia themselves.

Obviously, humans do have some connection to the Loroi and at least Alex exhibits some special abilities like immunity to their telepathy and also a certain ability to sense at least Fireblade.

& obviously, outsider is about Alex going on a grand quest to save the Loroi & humanity. So, humanity or at least Alex might have some deeper secret to be uncovered.

[SVlad]

Btw., are there Darlok in the outsider universe?

Historians, obviously. They only have ships invisible for loroi OMNISCIENT.

[Arent]

Btw., are there Darlok in the outsider universe?

Historians, obviously. They only have ships invisible for loroi OMNISCIENT.

Aren't the historians more reminiscent of psilons? They even have four arms.

[SVlad]

In MoO2 Psilon had two arms. And this comics was created long before Wargaming recreated MoO.

[Arent]

In MoO2 Psilon had two arms. And this comics was created long before Wargaming recreated MoO.

(1) The Historians are, to my knowledge, no shapechangers
(2) They have 4 arms, like Psilons in moo1
(3) They are technologically highly advanced, apparently from their own research

If the Historians were the equivalent to the Darlok, they should at least be shapechangers.

[Voitan]

Once again, why bother preventing the first contact? Humans are (very) primitive and outnumbered in the conflict. Nothing to gain here.
The only reason I can fathom is that humanity existence could light some...inconsistences in the official narrative regarding Loroi's origins and maybe the Soia themselves.

Obviously, humans do have some connection to the Loroi and at least Alex exhibits some special abilities like immunity to their telepathy and also a certain ability to sense at least Fireblade.

& obviously, outsider is about Alex going on a grand quest to save the Loroi & humanity. So, humanity or at least Alex might have some deeper secret to be uncovered.

I think the Loroi telepathy is directly related to humanities "immunity". The assumption that humanity is not telepathic is in my opinion wrong, it's there, just not expressed like a genetic hold over. While connected with Beryl he was able to "see" Fireblade, and the time Fireblade herself tried with much force to get in his head, he was able to "see" her there too. I think the mystery aggressor doesn't want humanity to meet with the Loroi, because there is a possibility that it might create/unlock another species of telepaths. So if Humans had the potential for telepathy, why didn't the Soia just settle with just making Humans full telepaths as their vassals, but instead went with their own creations? Perhaps it was detrimental to their control, or it was flawed, or it was dangerous.

[SaintofM]

Once again, why bother preventing the first contact? Humans are (very) primitive and outnumbered in the conflict. Nothing to gain here.
The only reason I can fathom is that humanity existence could light some...inconsistences in the official narrative regarding Loroi's origins and maybe the Soia themselves.

Obviously, humans do have some connection to the Loroi and at least Alex exhibits some special abilities like immunity to their telepathy and also a certain ability to sense at least Fireblade.

& obviously, outsider is about Alex going on a grand quest to save the Loroi & humanity. So, humanity or at least Alex might have some deeper secret to be uncovered.

I think the Loroi telepathy is directly related to humanities "immunity". The assumption that humanity is not telepathic is in my opinion wrong, it's there, just not expressed like a genetic hold over. While connected with Beryl he was able to "see" Fireblade, and the time Fireblade herself tried with much force to get in his head, he was able to "see" her there too. I think the mystery aggressor doesn't want humanity to meet with the Loroi, because there is a possibility that it might create/unlock another species of telepaths. So if Humans had the potential for telepathy, why didn't the Soia just settle with just making Humans full telepaths as their vassals, but instead went with their own creations? Perhaps it was detrimental to their control, or it was flawed, or it was dangerous.

Would humans have had their evolution altered in some way then, say to counter the blue aliens but the fall of the empire and a subsequent dark age hit and the experimenting fell through to allow more natural evolution to take place?

[Ithekro]

Considering how long ago the fall of the Soia was, I don't think they would have been that interested in the proto-Humans of Earth all that much. We are talking around 275,000 years ago for the fall and then before that for any genetic manipulations. While is extremely early Homo Sapiens at best. They might have used these early Humans or one of our cousin Homo genus species as a basis for the Loroi (unless we did have High Elves back then).

[Sweforce]

Considering how long ago the fall of the Soia was, I don't think they would have been that interested in the proto-Humans of Earth all that much. We are talking around 275,000 years ago for the fall and then before that for any genetic manipulations. While is extremely early Homo Sapiens at best. They might have used these early Humans or one of our cousin Homo genus species as a basis for the Loroi (unless we did have High Elves back then).

275000 years ago humans was evolved well enough that you could take some, put modern clothes on them and they would not stick out on a busy street of today. This is also true for the neanderthal.

[novius]

Templating vs. modification:

Sometimes it is easier to build something from scratch using a given model as a template and adding/removing features as you see fit. The Soia have had the Soia-Liron biology as a building block that has already been tried and true - assuming that the Loroi weren't the first species they created. So why experimenting with something new and unknown if there's a big chance that it would end in failure?

Historians vs. Loroi

The Historians are not quite the stalwart allies the Loroi could wish for - more like allies of convenience or even worse than that. Remember, they usually took a hands-off approach on the local group's affairs, well, until the Umiak decided to make the Historians their business and the Historians taking offense to this. They may have observed the whole thing - how and why the Loroi species was created, the downfall of the Soia and the aftermath. There's no telling on what knowledge the Historians has hoarded, but I get the impression that they have a vested interest in seeing to that the Loroi and Humans never meet. Likely because there is some shared history between Loroi and Humans, one that is better left undiscovered.

Maybe, just maybe it turns out that the Soia were an earlier offshoot of the human's ancestors - after all, even if you go back one million years, well before the founding of the Soia Empire - it is not that much on an evolutionary timescale. And the Loroi were designed as a slave species (what kind of slaves, it could be any guess) and it was a slave revolt that caused the downfall of the Empire.

Maybe it was the Historians - them or them as a part of one of the precursor empires - that tinkered with some proto-human's genome and created the Ubermensch, seeing their mistake much too late, and the newly created Soia went and conquered the local group.

Yep, given that I could totally see why the Historians would rather have that Loroi and Humans never, ever meet or compare notes...

[volrath77]

The Historians are not quite the stalwart allies the Loroi could wish for - more like allies of convenience or even worse than that.

Probably the latter given the Loroi's paranoia of allowing the Historians into their systems. Of course, it's possible that there are all sorts of skeletons in the closet that the Loroi wants to hide from the Historians but it's also possible they probably suspect the Historians as the one 'ally' most likely to stab them in the back. Probably already did but only circumstantial at best and they still lack the definitive proof for it.

[Arent]

Once again, why bother preventing the first contact? Humans are (very) primitive and outnumbered in the conflict. Nothing to gain here.
The only reason I can fathom is that humanity existence could light some...inconsistences in the official narrative regarding Loroi's origins and maybe the Soia themselves.

Obviously, humans do have some connection to the Loroi and at least Alex exhibits some special abilities like immunity to their telepathy and also a certain ability to sense at least Fireblade.

& obviously, outsider is about Alex going on a grand quest to save the Loroi & humanity. So, humanity or at least Alex might have some deeper secret to be uncovered.

I think the Loroi telepathy is directly related to humanities "immunity". The assumption that humanity is not telepathic is in my opinion wrong, it's there, just not expressed like a genetic hold over. While connected with Beryl he was able to "see" Fireblade, and the time Fireblade herself tried with much force to get in his head, he was able to "see" her there too. I think the mystery aggressor doesn't want humanity to meet with the Loroi, because there is a possibility that it might create/unlock another species of telepaths. So if Humans had the potential for telepathy, why didn't the Soia just settle with just making Humans full telepaths as their vassals, but instead went with their own creations? Perhaps it was detrimental to their control, or it was flawed, or it was dangerous.

I do dimly remember that Arioch implied somewhere that Alex might be a rather powerful "telepath/psionic/whatever". I also havn't yet seen any GURPS sheet of him, which is suspicious.

But maybe I also simply misinterpreted his comment.

[Werra]

I do dimly remember that Arioch implied somewhere that Alex might be a rather powerful "telepath/psionic/whatever". I also havn't yet seen any GURPS sheet of him, which is suspicious.

But maybe I also simply misinterpreted his comment.

Are you perhabs thinking of Arioch stating that Alex sensing Fireblade says more about Fireblades psionic strength than about humanities immunity?

[novius]

I do dimly remember that Arioch implied somewhere that Alex might be a rather powerful "telepath/psionic/whatever". I also havn't yet seen any GURPS sheet of him, which is suspicious.

But maybe I also simply misinterpreted his comment.

Are you perhabs thinking of Arioch stating that Alex sensing Fireblade says more about Fireblades psionic strength than about humanities immunity?

Keep in mind that this isn't the first time Alex sensed Fireblade. The first time was when he was brought onboard. It could be that because of that first time he sort of became attuned to her presence.

[kiwi]

... but it's also possible they probably suspect the Historians as the one 'ally' most likely to stab them in the back. Probably already did but only circumstantial...

Yep. They definitely did it in page 156.

[Voitan]

I think humans have a vestigial psychic potential in Outsider, or it was purposely closed off by the Soia, and perhaps all too well to the point where they're "immune" to telepathic intrusion. Old stories and all.

[Arent]

I do dimly remember that Arioch implied somewhere that Alex might be a rather powerful "telepath/psionic/whatever". I also havn't yet seen any GURPS sheet of him, which is suspicious.

But maybe I also simply misinterpreted his comment.

Are you perhabs thinking of Arioch stating that Alex sensing Fireblade says more about Fireblades psionic strength than about humanities immunity?

Reading the comment (For Science [134]) again, Arioch likened Alex more to Holdo (It was a star wars joke) and not to Luke Skywalker. So, he did not really imply that Alex/humans had any greater powers.