Drake, Fermi, and aliens

[Corva]

I very quickly learned to beware of anyone offering cookies on this site.

Yet Tempest insists on giving them to my computer...

[asdf]

Well, there were aliens, but we kicked them out 5000 years ago and buried the device they used to travel between planets somewhere in Egypt.

Egypt? I thought it was under New Mombasa, South Africa. And also they killed all life in the galaxy to stop these weird interstellar zombies and sent their robots with samples to repopulate it. Or you could be going by "new" indiana jones, in which case you would be right and i dont know why im typing this. Prob shoulda thought of that sooner, derp.

[Falconer]

Stargate. Though the Halo ref. is cool too.

[Corva]

If there are any aliens in our galaxy, I give it quite good odds that they're related to us. Either through panspermia, but also the possibility of them being a sister species to humanity. We've been around for 2 million years (I count Homo erectus as being human), after all, and it only took us 14000 years to go from hunter-gatherers to spacefarers who have the knowledge (but alas, not the infrastructure) to build starships. Ultraterrestrials is the term used for such "aliens".

I definitely think there were "advanced" ancient civlisations, though probably not much more advanced than the Romans. It would not surprise me if agriculture, pottery, and maybe even metalworking were discovered and lost repeatedly through human history. Feeding, of course, into the next civilisations mythologies.

Perhaps one subspecies were intelligent enough, and survived long enough, to develop spaceflight, before fleeing Terra because of some catastrophe (Toba, perhaps?). There, they began to spread throughout the galaxy, leaving their home world as some backwater planet that few care for...

[Falconer]

Also would be less improbable, statistics-wise, than two separate sentient races popping up.

[Ersska]

This whole post intrigued me and gave me a headache at the same time.

[Falconer]

Head-on! Apply directly to the forehead!

[Ersska]

Every time that commercial is on, I want to punch the voiceover guy.

Anyway, the concept sounds like it could be fun. Have you started working on the book yet?

[Falconer]

Not yet. Wanted to ping some folks on the concept to see if it made sense.

[Corva]

This reminds me of a concept I've been playing around with, for a hard sci-fi "supernatural" roleplaying game featuring werewolves, vampires, mages, gods... it's what happens when you spend a lot of time reading TV tropes, especially the page for Hunter: The Vigil.

Anyway, the backstory is that humanity was split into two species in the distant past, a technologically advanced species (known to us now as the Ancients) and primitive humanity who contributed most to modern humans ancestry. The Ancients possessed a Tier 3-4 technology level, with advanced biotech and cybernetics that gave them immortality among other things; the humans (for lack of a better term) were Tier 1, basically early neolithic. The Ancients ruled over the humans as their gods, bestowing gifts upon those who served as their priests (hallowed are the Ori - honestly, I came up with this before watching Stargate...) and turning other humans into living weapons, the source of our myths of vampires and werewolves. What caused their downfall was their penchant for raping human women (for the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful...), leading to the demigod heroes of old, who possessed the biological enhancements of their fathers, and also some of the Ancients siding with humanity against their oppressors (most notably, the one who we remember today as Prometheus). This triggered a war, a highly destructive one that only ended with the activation of a superweapon that triggered a global deluge, thought only survived by a demigod and his human family, who constructed an Ark, well equipped with facilities to clone the species that were rendered extinct by the flood. But many of the Ancients were in stasis in their sarcophogi, and their weapons lay dormant, until the time was right for them to awaken and retake the world...

Of course, all that was forgotten, and humanity fell once again into superstition, turning to worship the false gods who had once enslaved them - though being dead, or mostly so, there was little chance their prayers would be heard. Those who were unlucky enough to fall prey to the bioweapons that still lingered were ostracised and usually executed, whilst those who came across the devices used to empower priests (using advanced microtech and cybernetic enhancements) appeared to possess magical abilities.

Forgotten, that is, until the present day. Vampire and werewolf activity is on the increase, and the mages are recruiting new members, old fears about the occult no longer holding people back. To counter this, hunters are stepping up to the plate. But now a much bigger threat is emerging, witht the discovery of a sarcophogus by a deep sea exploration team...



I think this setting would work for an RP. Anyone want to play?

[asdf]

That... sounds... AWESOME!!! Wait, which side are we on here? Because i do not want to die because im trying to kill a god with a pistol. I like super weapons and immortality. Okay, i might play human side to see how.long i last, but im still probably gonna die.

[Corva]

Well, hopefully it wouldn't get to the point where you're trying to kill an Ancient, because they won't be able to awaken. The hardest being to kill will be a half-ascended Mage, or Elder Vampire...

I think it's a setting with lots of potential for games, with lots of potential stories. Though you wouldn't want to be a mage when the Ancient who gave you the power awakens, given they're locked to the Ancient...

[Falconer]

Tie in with Lovecraftian Cthullu stories?