Spartakrod
Judeo-Spartacist Bolshevik-Kabbalist
- Location
- Sanctum Arcanorum
- Pronouns
- Fae/Faer/Faers/Faerself
We're obviously not talking about which of the Ur-Quan faction's philosophy was better for the rest of the universe, because that's just a "servitude versus oblivion" choice and the choice is pretty obvious every time. Rather this is more about who actually had a better system to ensure that the Ur-Quan would never be enslaved again as they were by the Dnyarri.
Some context: The Ur-Quan are the primary antagonists of the Star Control series, a centipede esque solitary species, the Ur-Quan were intensely territorial due to their solitary nature; only really coming together to mate, though they still developed technology and intelligence to claw their way up to the top of the food chain. When they met other species, the Ur-Quan found that most of them set off their fight or flight mechanisms, and while they joined the Sentient Milieu (basically a multi-state confederacy) they mostly kept to themselves, though the Silicoid Taalo did not trigger their hostility and so were essentially their only actual friends. A few thousand years into the Milieu they encountered the psychic Dnyarri, who expanded their civilization primarily through mind controlling other sapient life forms to do their work for them. The Ur-Quan were especially susceptible to Dnyarri telepathy and the Dnyarri ordered them and their other puppets to kill off the Taalo due the Taalo being immune to their psychic powers. The Dnyarri split the Ur-Quan into two castes, the Greens who would be their thinkers; scientists, administrators, engineers and so on, while the blacks would be their soldiers and labourers.
For thousands of years the Dnyarri ruled their region of space with an iron fist until an Ur-Quan named Kohr-Ah discovered that the Dnyarri broke off mind control with individuals who were about to die or were in extreme pain due to being able to feel that pain. Working with a scientist named Kzer-Za who created a device that would inflict excruciating (albeit nonlethal) pain upon the subject, the Ur-Quan revolted and destroyed the Dnyarri utterly, reducing the remaining Dnyarri into nonsapient animals that would be used as translation tools by the Ur-Quan as reminders of their victory. However with the destruction of the Dnyarri empire came the question of how to avoid this from happening again, and Kohr-Ah and Kzer-Za had a falling out over this.
Kohr-Ah's faction suggested the Eternal Doctrine: the belief that the only way to guarantee the Ur-Quan species' freedom was to eradicate every last single other form of intelligent life in the universe; organic, robotic, gaseous, solid, all of them. Due to Ur-Quan belief in reincarnation, Kohr-Ah also advocated that once there was no other form of life to reincarnate as, all those they killed would reincarnate as Ur-Quan anyway. Kzer-Za and their faction instead suggested the Path of Now and Forever, where the Ur-Quan would ensure that no threat could ever rise against them by conquering all other civilizations; who upon being militarily vanquished would be given the choice to either be confined to their homeworld beneath a massive planetary shield as Fallow Slaves; allowed to mostly govern themselves but never to leave their planet again; or take the path of Battle Thralls, those who would be allowed to remain spacefaring but would be subject to Ur-Quan regulations and would have to join the Ur-Quan war effort to conquer all other life.
The Kohr-Ah and the Kzer-Za would both subject a single species to their respective doctrines before meeting each other over the homeworld of the Melnorm where attempted philosophical debate broke into open conflict, letting the Melnorm escape while the Ur-Quan fought their doctrinal war. The Kzer-Za managed to win thanks to uncovering a precursor ship they called the Sa-Matra that was capable of devastating whole planets and fleets from across the breadth of solar systems while itself being essentially invulnerable to all modern weaponry, but not sure if theirs was the right way; exiled the Kohr-Ah instead of conquering them, offering them a rematch when they met each other again as the Kohr-Ah were sent off to travel around the Galaxy in one direction while the Kzer-Za would conquer everything they came across while going in another direction.
Of course in canon both ended up being defeated in the second game and by the third game that we shall not speak of the Ur-Quan seem to have rejected both doctrines in favor of peaceful coexistence with other life forms after their vanquishers decided to show them mercy, but there is the question of who actually had the better way to ensure the survival and freedom of the Ur-Quan.
The Kohr-Ah way of course, is far more final. If every other form of intelligent life in existence has been wiped out then there really will never be anything that can threaten the Ur-Quan ever again. However literally everyone was willing to contribute resources to stopping the Kohr-Ah death march once the threat they posed to all life was made apparent after they won their second conflict with the Kzer-Za and took control of the Sa-Matra. Their annihilationist world view means that it is in every living being's interest to stop the Kohr-Ah which would provide for a short term increase in the chances of someone overcoming the Ur-Quan in the end; something only really hampered by the Ur-Quan having the best military technology and the largest military machine in Star Control.
The Kzer-Za way on the other hand offers the chance of an uprising in the future that they tried to counteract by generally ruling over their subjects with a velvet glove and generally only stepping in to prevent in fighting, keep battle thralls focused on the military objectives of the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za Hierarchy, and ensure that Fallow Slaves remained disarmed, planetbound, and kept up their rotating cycles of starbase crews. Otherwise subjects were largely allowed to retain their cultures and live without too much intervention from the Kzer-Za.
The Kzer-Za were even willing to help conquered species with problems that arose; for example after conquering the Syreen who were left without a planet after their homeworld's destruction, they scoured through their territory to find an ideal world for them to settle, and they stepped in to stop self destructive actions like the Thraddash's tendency to nuke themselves back to a pre-industrial state every time their government was deemed to have failed to restart their culture. So you had a number of species who were genuinely loyal to the Ur-Quan, although their actions to the Spathi who only ended up being Battle Thralls due to a prank by one of the Ur-Quan's other subject governments, are quite dickish as the Ur-Quan don't seem to accept the concept of "backsies".
There is something to be said about safety in numbers, and the Hierarchy was able to draw on the technologies of conquered people while the Kohr-Ah generally refused to communicate beyond politely telling their victims to make whatever preparations for death are required of them by their religions and cultures before the Kohr-Ah start shooting; let alone bother to learn much of anything from the technological achievements of the cultures they extinguished.
As you can see I've given this an inordinate amount of thought, especially for someone who only got into Star Control earlier this year, but I was wondering if anyone else had given the subject any thought?
And yes, from a moral standpoint both the Kohr-Ah and the Kzer-Za are incredibly abhorrent, with the Kzer-Za only being somewhat less awful than the Kohr-Ah, but that's not really the point here. It's more about who actually has the better means of ensuring that the Ur-Quan never repeat the Dnyarri experience.
Some context: The Ur-Quan are the primary antagonists of the Star Control series, a centipede esque solitary species, the Ur-Quan were intensely territorial due to their solitary nature; only really coming together to mate, though they still developed technology and intelligence to claw their way up to the top of the food chain. When they met other species, the Ur-Quan found that most of them set off their fight or flight mechanisms, and while they joined the Sentient Milieu (basically a multi-state confederacy) they mostly kept to themselves, though the Silicoid Taalo did not trigger their hostility and so were essentially their only actual friends. A few thousand years into the Milieu they encountered the psychic Dnyarri, who expanded their civilization primarily through mind controlling other sapient life forms to do their work for them. The Ur-Quan were especially susceptible to Dnyarri telepathy and the Dnyarri ordered them and their other puppets to kill off the Taalo due the Taalo being immune to their psychic powers. The Dnyarri split the Ur-Quan into two castes, the Greens who would be their thinkers; scientists, administrators, engineers and so on, while the blacks would be their soldiers and labourers.
For thousands of years the Dnyarri ruled their region of space with an iron fist until an Ur-Quan named Kohr-Ah discovered that the Dnyarri broke off mind control with individuals who were about to die or were in extreme pain due to being able to feel that pain. Working with a scientist named Kzer-Za who created a device that would inflict excruciating (albeit nonlethal) pain upon the subject, the Ur-Quan revolted and destroyed the Dnyarri utterly, reducing the remaining Dnyarri into nonsapient animals that would be used as translation tools by the Ur-Quan as reminders of their victory. However with the destruction of the Dnyarri empire came the question of how to avoid this from happening again, and Kohr-Ah and Kzer-Za had a falling out over this.
Kohr-Ah's faction suggested the Eternal Doctrine: the belief that the only way to guarantee the Ur-Quan species' freedom was to eradicate every last single other form of intelligent life in the universe; organic, robotic, gaseous, solid, all of them. Due to Ur-Quan belief in reincarnation, Kohr-Ah also advocated that once there was no other form of life to reincarnate as, all those they killed would reincarnate as Ur-Quan anyway. Kzer-Za and their faction instead suggested the Path of Now and Forever, where the Ur-Quan would ensure that no threat could ever rise against them by conquering all other civilizations; who upon being militarily vanquished would be given the choice to either be confined to their homeworld beneath a massive planetary shield as Fallow Slaves; allowed to mostly govern themselves but never to leave their planet again; or take the path of Battle Thralls, those who would be allowed to remain spacefaring but would be subject to Ur-Quan regulations and would have to join the Ur-Quan war effort to conquer all other life.
The Kohr-Ah and the Kzer-Za would both subject a single species to their respective doctrines before meeting each other over the homeworld of the Melnorm where attempted philosophical debate broke into open conflict, letting the Melnorm escape while the Ur-Quan fought their doctrinal war. The Kzer-Za managed to win thanks to uncovering a precursor ship they called the Sa-Matra that was capable of devastating whole planets and fleets from across the breadth of solar systems while itself being essentially invulnerable to all modern weaponry, but not sure if theirs was the right way; exiled the Kohr-Ah instead of conquering them, offering them a rematch when they met each other again as the Kohr-Ah were sent off to travel around the Galaxy in one direction while the Kzer-Za would conquer everything they came across while going in another direction.
Of course in canon both ended up being defeated in the second game and by the third game that we shall not speak of the Ur-Quan seem to have rejected both doctrines in favor of peaceful coexistence with other life forms after their vanquishers decided to show them mercy, but there is the question of who actually had the better way to ensure the survival and freedom of the Ur-Quan.
The Kohr-Ah way of course, is far more final. If every other form of intelligent life in existence has been wiped out then there really will never be anything that can threaten the Ur-Quan ever again. However literally everyone was willing to contribute resources to stopping the Kohr-Ah death march once the threat they posed to all life was made apparent after they won their second conflict with the Kzer-Za and took control of the Sa-Matra. Their annihilationist world view means that it is in every living being's interest to stop the Kohr-Ah which would provide for a short term increase in the chances of someone overcoming the Ur-Quan in the end; something only really hampered by the Ur-Quan having the best military technology and the largest military machine in Star Control.
The Kzer-Za way on the other hand offers the chance of an uprising in the future that they tried to counteract by generally ruling over their subjects with a velvet glove and generally only stepping in to prevent in fighting, keep battle thralls focused on the military objectives of the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za Hierarchy, and ensure that Fallow Slaves remained disarmed, planetbound, and kept up their rotating cycles of starbase crews. Otherwise subjects were largely allowed to retain their cultures and live without too much intervention from the Kzer-Za.
The Kzer-Za were even willing to help conquered species with problems that arose; for example after conquering the Syreen who were left without a planet after their homeworld's destruction, they scoured through their territory to find an ideal world for them to settle, and they stepped in to stop self destructive actions like the Thraddash's tendency to nuke themselves back to a pre-industrial state every time their government was deemed to have failed to restart their culture. So you had a number of species who were genuinely loyal to the Ur-Quan, although their actions to the Spathi who only ended up being Battle Thralls due to a prank by one of the Ur-Quan's other subject governments, are quite dickish as the Ur-Quan don't seem to accept the concept of "backsies".
There is something to be said about safety in numbers, and the Hierarchy was able to draw on the technologies of conquered people while the Kohr-Ah generally refused to communicate beyond politely telling their victims to make whatever preparations for death are required of them by their religions and cultures before the Kohr-Ah start shooting; let alone bother to learn much of anything from the technological achievements of the cultures they extinguished.
As you can see I've given this an inordinate amount of thought, especially for someone who only got into Star Control earlier this year, but I was wondering if anyone else had given the subject any thought?
And yes, from a moral standpoint both the Kohr-Ah and the Kzer-Za are incredibly abhorrent, with the Kzer-Za only being somewhat less awful than the Kohr-Ah, but that's not really the point here. It's more about who actually has the better means of ensuring that the Ur-Quan never repeat the Dnyarri experience.
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