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Revision as of 11:25, 18 November 2005 by Szhaider (talk | contribs) (→Technology)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The Taelons are a fictional race of humanoid aliens appearing in the Earth: Final Conflict science fiction series. The arrival of the Taelons on Earth at first appears to be an unmitigated blessing, their advanced technology bringing great prosperity. Later it appears they have a more complex agenda.
Spoiler Warning: some plot elements may be revealed by reading this
History of the Taelons
The Taelon race are an offshoot from another alien species, the Atavus. While there is some debate as to the exact events and their sequence, some members of the Atavus race broke off to devote themselves to the pursuit of spiritual perfection, which eventually lead to a state of existence as pure energy. The remaining members of the Atavus race pursued a life of warfare. The events surrounding the divergence of the Atavus is hindered by the poor continuity within the series as a whole. This divergence led to the speciation of the Atavus, producing the Taelons and the warlike Jaridians. Conflict between the two brances of the Atavus family has raged since (with the Jaridians taking largely the upper hand). The two species despise one another: the Taelons deride the Jaridians as "bloodthirsty heathens with no respect for life", while the Jaridians consider their more philosophically-minded cousins to be weak, affected wimps.
At some point, another, separate species called the Kimera bonded with the ancestors of modern Taelons, irrevocably changing them. The involvement of the Kimera in history is not made clear.
Taelons share a partial collective consciousness, known as The Commonality. This serves as a telepathic link between Taelons. The Commonality does not directly control individual Taelons, nor does it mean that each Taelon may view the thoughts and actions of another immediately, though Da'an was able to use his link to determine Zo'or's actions on at least one occasion. Bel'lie stated that Taelons cannot act against the mass will of the Commonality, even if they feel that the majority is wrong. Individual Taelons nevertheless are able to use a good deal of free will.
Several centuries after the birth of Christ, a Taelon scientist named Ma'el visited Earth. Ma'el's task was to assess the suitability of the human race for contact with the Taelons, an idea which was thought to be integral to the survival of both races in the fight against the Jaridians. Ma'el concluded that humanity was not ready for contact with the Taelons, as she perceived the gulf between the relative intellects of the two species was too great.
Much later, the Taelons arrived in full force despite Ma'el's warning. Referring to themselves as "Companions", they set about eliminating world hunger and poverty. However, some within the human race had reservations regarding their true intentions.
Government
Taelons are ruled by the Synod, a group of fourteen Taelons who make major decisions about their policy, but a body which also considers individual matters if they are important. Members of the Synod have responsibility for different areas of Taelon life: the War Minister, for example, was T'Than. While the Synod generally rules by consensus, they elect a leader from among their number. Leaders have included Quo'on and Zo'or, though for a few days when Zo'or had been infected with a deadly virus, T'than led the Synod, which was an insult to Da'an as he was second in seniority. Other members of the Synod included Da'an, Ku'don, Ba'or and Xia'tan (pronounced "Jha'tan"). The "Sire of the Synod", presumably its founder, was Ra'jel, the first Taelon.
Once Zo'or had assumed leadership of the Taelons, the Synod played a less significant role. Zo'or may have been given free reign over Taelon projects in order to enhance the Taelons' chances for success.
The Taelons are, more broadly speaking, governed by their free will and the commonality, with individual Taelons unable to act against the mass will. The Commonality has the consciousness and energy of every Taelon ever to live, and their continuance within it after physical death may represent Sh'hariath - what the Taelons consider to be the next level of existence, or an afterlife.
Characteristics
Taelons appear as tall humanoids of a slender build. They have pale, mottled skin, and are hairless. Their appearance is androgynous, although Taelon gender and reproductive physiology appears to be more complex than that of humans. They have high, resonant voices.
They are really energy-based beings, composed of what they refer to as "core energy": their skin being an artificial façade that they can generate after sampling the DNA of other species. In their natural state, blue-purple energy can be seen coursing through their transparent humanoid form. There are some individual differences: Zo'or appeared more pink-gold in the first season, while Da'an was often more blue-white. The energy state of Taelons was modified slightly for the second season and was gradually seen less and less over the course of the series.
It is said that no Taelon has killed another through violence in millions of years. The only Taelon to have acted directly to kill another is Zo'or, who murdered another of his kind and absorbed their energy. "Killing by proxy" is nevertheless allowed. This is accomplished by playing a Taelon game called foovlasha in which opponents move markers around a three-dimensional playing board composed of three connected spherical wireframes. In such a game, each Taelon channels their energy and consciousness into their moves whilst the commonality sits in judgement. Eventually, one player must channel all their remaining energy into a move and ceases to exist. A foovlasha game played in this way is called "p'raj'rath" and is the equivilent of a duel to the death.
Technology
Taelon technology is organic, grown from a substance called "bioslurry". Taelon buildings can act as adjuncts to normal buildings, such as was the case with Boone's Interspecies Relations HQ in season 1, or grown independently, such as the American Embassy in Washington that was seen between seasons 1 and 4.
Taelon technology is said to be "millions of years" more advanced than human technology. While this seems reasonable, as Taelons have supposedly been travelling space for a bare minimum of 2 million years (at which time they destroyed several of Saturn's moons to create its ring system), the Taelons embark upon "co-ventures" with several human corporations, such as Doors international to combine Taelon and Human technology.
Rather than have standard security systems, as living organisms, Taelon technology has cyber-antibodies, which will attack and attempt to destroy threats. Taelon embassies are also capable of deploying armoured shells in order to facilitate their defence against external threats. The organic theme of their technology is further carried through into their computer systems, which is said to use pseudo-neurons and be receptive to mental symbiosis to repair damage.
Taelons use interdimensional technology for travel. Interdimensional drives are used on Taelon spacecraft to propel them at velocities ranging from several hundred miles per hour to many times the speed of light. Ground-based "portals" create interdimensional pathways between different points and can be used for near-instantaneous transport. The transport does actually take a certain amount of time, but people are placed in a form of protective stasis while travelling through interdimensional space. Portal travel requires both a sending and a receiving device in order to transport a person or cargo. Units range from small portable devices to huge bulk freight portals.
Taelons visited a planet that was home to a species called the Skrills. Skrills are self-aware and sentient, though their degree of consciousness and sapience is limited. Skrills were subsequently bio-engineered by human scientists who were unaware of the degree of the species' level of consciousness. The original Skrills vaguely resembled a large fleshy scorpion and were fully ambulatory. The bio-engineered species (which itself incorporated several different generations of refinement) was designed as a weapon, almost entirely reliant on its host, acting as a symbiotic parasite. In return for providing massive firepower, the Skrill gained sustenance and a means of getting from place to place. There is a suggestion in the season 1 episode "Scorpion's Dream" that the energy channelling/generation capacities of the Skrill are inherent to their biology: the Taelons' first contact is described as "carnage unceasing". Skrills require a Cyber-Viral Implant in order to be operated, and are only provided to commanders in the Volunteers and to Companion Protectors.
Other Taelon weaponry generally consists of various types of energy pulses, beams, or missiles.
Companion Protectors, and at least some of the Volunteer Service are implanted with Cyber-Viral Implants or CVIs. There are several different varieties of CVIs, but they are all a cross between a Taelon germ and a computer chip. The CVIs given to Companion Protectors improve reading and interpretation speed, provide total recall of memories, and improve basic abilities, as well as allowing the use of a skrill. They also provide a "motivational imperative". This more sinister capacity is used to re-align the priorities of the implanted person so that they consider the interests of the Taelons to be paramount under all circumstances. This has led to Companion Protectors behaving in a way contrary to their pre-implanted nature. For example, before his degeneration into a scheming self-interest, Ronald Sandoval's CVI led him to remove his much-loved wife, Didi, from his life. The CVI irrevocably alters the brain structure of an implanted person, meaning that they cannot survive without one. This created a problem when it was found that the earliest generation of CVIs were fatally breaking down. The human immune system eventually led implants to reject their CVIs and destroyed the motivational imperative. As, in later seasons, CVIs could be removed, it appears that the brain can heal itself when the CVI is gradually disabled, rather than removed wholesale. Surveillance CVIs do not provide any known benefits to the person implanted, but instead transmit whatever the implant sees back to an observer. Most of the Volunteers have CVIs, but of a simpler design, with varying motivational imperatives and attributes. "Drones" have all their motivations redirected, but may not have benefits to the implant.
Spacecraft
Taelons use the same bioslurry for the construction of most of their spacecraft as they do for the construction of their buildings. The craft they use vary enormously in size.
Taelon shuttles are small craft used for the transport accross space. The true range of the shuttle is unknown, but one such vehicle makes a journey to Mars in season 1, another, carrying Lili Marquette, travels at least as far as Alpha Centauri (about 4.5 light years), and another, flown by the Taelon Bel'lie, may have made a much longer journey, possibly even from another galaxy. The shuttles are extremely fast by the standards of Earth aircraft, and, from the second season, are armed with a form of energy cannon. The craft, though quite sturdy, are not indestructable, and can be destroyed in crashes or by enemy fire (in one instance, the resistance were able to use a large shoulder-mounted weapon to destroy a shuttle).
The Taelon cruiser is a much larger vessel. Designated as M'Thraa class, these ships are used for heavy combat, though are not sufficiently powerful to engage the largest Jaridian warships. They are used in support of the Volunteer service, a Taelon program for humans who otherwise have nowhere to go, such as homeless people or high-school dropouts who don't live with their parents. These craft are much larger than shuttles: though their exact size is indeterminate, they appear to be between 50 and 200 metres long, usually appearing closer to the lower end of that range. It is possible that there are several, very similar designs with different sizes, though this would make them subject to the scaling paradox (items cannot simply be scaled up or down, as the ratios of strength and their properties will be altered)
A single Taelon scoutship, originally belonging to the Taelon researcher Ma'el, was seen in the third season episode "Time Bomb". Its total dimensions were not revealed with certainty, but it appears to be of a similar scale to the M'Thraa-class Taelon cruiser. The ship was supposedly long-range, but equipped with minimal armaments. Ma'el's ship was equipped with several stasis units though it is unlikely that these were standard aboard other craft of this design, especially as the stasis units appeared to be for human use: Taelon stasis beds appeared in season 4 and looked quite different.
While most Taelon spacecraft, such as their shuttles and cruisers, are created from the same material as their embassies, there is a notable exception in the Taelon Mothership. While this vessel had an appearance more consistent with other Taelon craft in season 1, in season 2 it was redesigned to be composed of translucent energy currents - more closely resembling the Taelons' energy form itself, and remained in this form until the end of the series. In season 4, the mothership is revealed to be shrinking, as the Taelons shut off sections and reclaim their energy for their conservation efforts. The mothership was nevertheless a gargantuan vessel, big enough to be seen from orbit. It is confirmed in the season 4 episode "Dark Matter", that the ship still maintains at least 153 decks, suggesting an overall size of several kilometres. The mothership is a unique vessel, and is the only ship in the Taelon arsenal powerful enough to fight a Sokara-class Jaridian cruiser. The Taelons were able to upgrade its weaponry in season 4 so the final armaments and capabilities of the mothership are unknown. The mothership is equipped with dozens, if not hundreds of shuttles within a vast landing bay. The ship may also house those cruisers seen in the series, though this is not certain: while the mothership's hangar should be sufficient to house several such craft (especially given the indeterminate sizes of both the cruisers and the mothership itself), and anecdotal evidence from the episode "Second Wave" suggests that the cruisers may be either aboard or externally docked, there is no incontrovertible evidence for it. The mothership also acts as a lifeboat for the Taelon people. Within it are a stasis deck, where the remaining Taelons can be preserved when their personal energy supplies dwindle to near-death. There is also a chamber filled with Taelon embryos in stasis, awaiting a renewed supply of core energy. The fate of these embryos is not known.
Notable Taelons
- Da'an - the American Companion (diplomat assigned to the region of North America)
- Zo'or - leader of the Taelon Synod
- Quo'on - former leader of the Taelon Synod
- T'Than - Taelon War Minister
- Rho-ha - Taelon scientist who participated in evolution experiments
- Ne'eg - head Taelon scientist
- Mit'gai - Taelon healer
External links
- Earth: Final Conflict website
- taelons.com, a site that was run by the producers of Earth: Final Conflict, purporting to be a public relations site run by the Taelon synod.