What do the Vishnans want with us – a hypothesis
I have been thinking recently (I know, dangerous right?) and I am left wondering why the Vishnans are acting so cagey. Why are they only communicating with the Elders? The rest of the UEF appears unaware of the Vishnans existence or their influence. I suspect the Vishnans told the Elders to keep quiet about their existence and involvement. Why so secretive? And why have they been so vague even with the Elders as to what their plans for humanity are?
I suspect that the Vishnans need us to become something, but that this ‘something’ is something no sane intelligence would willingly become. Therefore they are lying.
Perhaps they need humanity to become something – perhaps a summed psyche entity that can contain / repel / fight etc. the Great Darkness. Fighting the GD may be an eternal struggle and painful / damaging / horrifying in ways we cannot conceive of. Convincing an entire civilisation (or at least a sufficiently large percentage thereof) to willingly sacrifice themselves in such a way might be impossible, even for the Vishnans.
So instead they trick the Elders by giving them vague ideals of achieving a state of enlightenment / paradise etc. and then get the Elders to groom the rest of the civilisation in preparation. By the time the civilisation realises what is actually instore for them it is too late.
It may also be that becoming a summed psyche would essentially mean the ‘death of the of self’ for all members that comprise it. See some of the works and presentations by Peter Watts to see why a hive mind really isn’t something you would want to be part of:
https://youtu.be/v4uwaw_5Q3I
I’ll admit these musings were not an entirely original idea, and were in fact inspired by the game Clive Barker’s Jericho. Near the end the Jericho team learn that to contain the First Born (amoral godlike child entity that hates humanity and intends to exterminate us wholesale) they will have to bind themselves to the breach to its dimension. They are told this will be like a dreamless sleep. However, one of the team realises that this is a lie, and that this binding will mean agonising pain and torment for all eternity – not something he is willing to accept regardless of the stakes involved. The videos below show this in sufficiently gory detail.
https://youtu.be/GRexdhrTsWM?t=3017https://youtu.be/GRexdhrTsWMPerhaps this is the predicament the Vishnans are in. They may be benevolent, or at least neutral, but need to manipulate and sacrifice us in order to preserve the universe. As they say in Hot Fuzz “For the greater good”. It has been stated that they (Vishnans) are running out of time and candidates. Perhaps previous species they have attempted to groom saw threw the ruse and thus rejected them, just like our mini-gunned friend in the videos. To stop the truth getting out to other civilisations they (Vishnans) would then need to order a cull, thus letting the Shivans do their omnicidal thing.
Could this scenario account for some, or possibly even
ALL of the Shivan’s past exterminations? Were they all the result of cull orders decreed by the Vishnans? Do the Vishnans have the blood of countless species on their ethereal hands?
Speaking of the Shivans, I couldn’t figure out before why they should care about a Braham successor. Perhaps it is linked to this? Since the GD already exists simply exterminating any life that could turn into a GD as a preventative measure wouldn’t work as it is too late for that. What’s more doing so would prevent said species from becoming something that the Vishnans could use to fight the GD.
Just some late-night head cannon musings but I think I might be on to something here. Feel free to comment or ignore entirely