Hard Light Productions Forums
General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: Antares on March 20, 2004, 07:41:47 pm
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Here it is, folks.
I spent most of today poring through the original release of the Shivan Manifesto, looking over commentary from you and editing in my own responses. Most of this was cut-and-paste work, but it still took several hours to accomplish.
I believe I've addressed every conceivable topic that could ever arise from this essay, but if I've left something out, be sure to let me know, so I can make changes. Some minor errors still exist--lots of italicizing needs to be done for purposes of style and emphasis, and there are probably a few typing errors, but by and large, everything is in good shape. Some ideas may be out of order--i.e., you may read mention of something that hasn't been discussed yet--due to the lengthy editing process. Apologies in advance.
Setekh, you once mentioned making up some illustrations for this monstrous thing. I'm too nice of a guy to ask you for any directly, but if you feel like making some renders or something, be my guest. :D
EXTREME LENGTH WARNING. The Shivan Manifesto is approximately thirty pages in length as a Microsoft Word file. Do not begin reading unless you plan to finish.
Excelsior!
***
Since the first FreeSpace title, the question of the Shivans' origin has remained largely a mystery. While the subject of much conjecture and guesswork, the relatively scant canon material provided in-game makes it difficult to formulate any elaborate hypothesis concerning just who--or what--the Shivans are, and what their purpose in FreeSpace is.
Here, I shall set forth my own theory as relates to the Shivan mystery, attempting to unravel FreeSpace's greatest standing enigma. Be forewarned that this discussion is quite lengthy, as I have done what I can to work out each point in detail, with as much information as I can recall after several playthroughs of both FS titles. In places where I lack direct proof, I am forced to make assumptions--some of them far-fetched--a tactic I hope will not offend those of you who are FreeSpace purists.
Comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome. Please enjoy the reading.
***
[glow=red]The Shivan Manifesto[/glow]
I. Who or what are the Shivans?
The most obvious answer to this question is that the Shivans are a violently xenocidal alien race, possessing advanced offensive and defensive technologies. They have exhibited virtually no interest in diplomatic contact (a point we will discuss shortly), and strangely, have given higher priority to the possession of subspace jump nodes rather than habitable planets. We know the Shivan fleet is vast, as evidenced by their innumerable fighter squadrons and--in their greatest display of brute force to date--their ominous armada of over eighty Sathanas-class juggernauts. However, there is no evidence of a Shivan homeworld, nor any habitable Shivan space installations. The Shivans are known to have a high degree of expertise in the field of subspace, able to navigate uncharted jump nodes or nodes too unstable for Terran/Vasudan engines, and also able to generate strange subspace energy pulses from their larger vessels.
The supplemental material that follows is the FreeSpace 2 database entry on the Shivans, taken (with apologies) from Tech FreeSpace:
"32 years after the Great War, we still know almost nothing about the Shivans. Physically, the Shivans have multiple compound eyes and five legs with claw-like manipulators. Their insect-like carapace does not appear original to the creature's physiogomy, suggesting the Shivans are a cybernetic fusion of biology and technology. The integrated plasma weapon also exhibits properties of an organic artificial fusion. The weapon may be a kind of focusing device powered by the energy of the being itself, though this point is the subject of heated controversy. These details are cited as evidence that the Shivans could not have evolved as the Terran or Vasudan species had, but that they were likely constructed by another entity.
Only a handful of Shivans have ever been captured, and all research on live specimens ended with the GTI's Hades rebellion in 2335. The results of these studies remain highly classified. Though the Shivans are obviously xenocidal, their motives and origins have yet to be determined. According to Ancient artifacts, the Shivans seem to possess some kind of sensitivity to subspace disturbances. We do not know if the Shivans returned to this corner of the galaxy by chance, by cycle, by pattern, or by their detection of Terran-Vasudan subspace travel. Xenobiologists know very little about Shivan society. A leading hypothesis is the hive mind theory, arguing that Shivan society is broken down into specialized functions driven by a collective intelligence. The most convincing evidence supporting this theory is the behavior of Shivan forces following the destruction of the Lucifer, the turning point of the Great War. Other experts caution against attributing insectoid properties to the Shivans, regardless of their appearance and behavior. Shivan communication seems to occur in the electromagnetic spectrum, though efforts to decode their transmissions have yielded no meaningful results to date."
a. Where do the Shivans come from?
As stated, the Shivans have no apparent home planet, nor any space stations from which to deploy their forces. If such a location exists, it would naturally be believed to be located somewhere deep inside their territory, beyond the binary star system where SOC forces encountered the three Shivan Communication Nodes ("In the Lion's Den"). This notion is given credence by the existence of the third Knossos portal in that same system, which the Ancients would not have constructed had Shivan forces already been present. In-game dialogue suggests the region beyond the portal is the area of space in which the Ancients were first confronted by the Shivans, but we have no way to confirm this supposition.
The best clues we have to the Shivans' origins come directly from Volition. One comment reveals that the Shivans' bodies, as seen in-game, are not artificial suits, but their true bodies. The highly versatile nature of the Shivan body, able to move through outer space itself without protection (as evidenced in the FreeSpace Reference Bible) suggests that the Shivans either evolved entirely in the void of deep space, or that their bodies were created with the specific intent of being able to operate in that environment.
A second, more crucial comment from Volition indicates that as terrifying as the Shivans are, they should be viewed as "a symptom of a bigger problem". More on this revelation will be discussed later.
b. What is the extent of the Shivans' offensive and defensive capabilities?
Weaponry appears to be one of the Shivans' most specialized fields of expertise; the Shivans possess a wide array of destructive armaments, many of which are more potent than any comparable equipment in the GTVA. Shivan offense is wide-ranging, able to neutralize individual fighters, bombers, and capital craft, commence thorough and sustained planetary bombardment, and even destroy entire solar systems via induced supernova. Whether the Shivans possess any more powerful weapons of annihilation--as inconceivable as the notion may seem--is, as of this writing, unknown.
Strangely, in contrast to their immensely powerful arsenal, Shivan armor plating appears to be relatively weak. The Shivans' primary defensive advantage is their possession of a versatile energy shielding system, a technology which the GTVA has subsequently reverse-engineered and applied to its own fighter squadrons. The Shivans appear to lack the expertise needed to shield a capital-class vessel, with one notable exception: the heavily-armed superdestroyer Lucifer was protected by an impenetrable energy shield, likely energized by the ship's five reactors. Allied craft were never able to penetrate the shield directly, and were forced to circumvent the mechanism entirely by pursuing the Lucifer through subspace transit, a time during which its shields would not function.
The Lucifer-class vessel destroyed at the close of the Great War was the only known craft of its type to exist in the entire Shivan armada. After 32 years, the design may now be obsolete, or the superdestroyers themselves might only be manufactured in minimal numbers. We have no way of confirming either hypothesis.
c. Why are the Shivans so destructive?
The Shivans' motives are as much a mystery as their very existence. They kill with frightening indiscrimination, firing upon any non-Shivan craft, regardless of its intentions. The Hammer of Light, for example, sought to ally with the Shivans, but several HOL craft and at least one major HOL base were destroyed by Shivan forces ("The Darkness and the Light").
The Ancients, in their FS1 monologues, believed themselves to be trespassers into subspace, and that they had somehow "sinned" against the cosmic order by intruding there. To the Ancients, the Shivans were, in a sense, a sort of divine punishment meant to exact the universe's revenge upon their race. In one of Admiral Bosch's own monologues, he echoes this notion, stating that the Ancients "believed their voyage across the sea of stars awakened the dragon that slept beneath the waves, that the Shivans were birthed in the flux of subspace and their destruction was the revenge of an angry cosmos." This point is central to the theory of the Shivans' true origins, to be discussed shortly.
c. If the Shivans are truly xenocidal, why did they respond to Admiral Bosch? What happened to him?
Exactly why Bosch believed an alliance with a race so incredibly destructive was even possible is unknown. In his monologues, Bosch simply states that he believes the human race "has no future with the Vasudans", and that humanity's destiny "lies elsewhere". What we know for sure is that Bosch initiated contact with at least three Shivan vessels through the use of ETAK, his communication technology which transmitted modified quantum pulses. The first vessel, the Shivan cruiser Rephaim, was apparently destroyed before significant progress by Bosch could be made; the second and third cruisers, the Sammael and the Azmedaj, were also destroyed, but not before an Azrael-class transport carrying Bosch and his command crew had managed to escape ("Return to Babel").
The Shivans could have reacted to Bosch's olive branch for any number of reasons. It is possible that they were genuinely interested in his peaceful overtures, but given the Shivans' history of wanton annihilation, this theory is highly unlikely, to say the least; it is further undermined by the events in "Return to Babel", in which the encounter between the NTF and the Shivans onboard the Iceni is revealed to have been very violent, with a body count in the thousands, and casualties on both sides. Bosch's subordinate onboard the Iceni states that the Shivans "took" Bosch with a dozen of his lieutenants, suggesting his meeting with the Shivans was not a friendly one ("Return to Babel"). In his monologues, Bosch claims the alliance with the Shivans is intended for the good of all humanity; it seems unlikely, therefore, that he would ask the Shivans to kill members of his own loyal crew.
The most plausible explanation is that the Shivans were more intrigued by the nature of Bosch's transmissions, rather than their actual content. Bosch himself states that the first contact was "rudimentary and crude", meaning that the content of his message may very well have been different than what he'd initially believed--something nonsensical like "cheese is ambitious except on Sunday in winter" as opposed to "we come in peace". The Shivans, in turn, would have been puzzled by what they encountered: a Shivan transmission emanating from a Terran vessel. When they investigated, perhaps expecting to find captured Shivans, but instead discovered an overly-idealistic Aken Bosch, it is reasonable to assume that they were none-too-pleased.
To conclude the point, Admiral Bosch is likely dead. After being presented with a vessel full of unprepared Terrans, the Shivans probably acted on the chance to conduct biological dissection and other experiments upon their new specimen.
d. Is it possible that the Shivans captured Bosch in order to interrogate him?
Unlikely. The Shivans have never previously been interested in talking to either Terrans or Vasudans, and have never taken prisoners (with the exception of Bosch and his command crew). We are granted very few glimpses of Shivan/Terran personal interaction: once in the "Hall Fight" cutscene, and again with the apperance of the Lucifer at Tombaugh Station (described in the Freespace Reference Bible). We may or may not wish to include the boarding of the Iceni as a third example. In each case, contact has been extremely violent, with no intent to discuss any sort of terms, or indeed, to ask questions of any kind.
Secondly is the problem of the language barrier itself. Humans aren't Shivan, as Commander Snipes so succintly points out to us, and we don't speak "quantum pulse" very well. So far as we know, the only ETAK prototype was aboard the Iceni; whether this device was destroyed along with the command frigate or not is unknown, but it can be assumed lost. ETAK was a prototype device, and as the first of its kind, probably wouldn't have been very portable. The first Earth computers were enormous, taking up entire rooms, and Bosch's ETAK may very well have existed on a similar scale.
Despite Bosch's rigorous study of the Shivans, he's no MacGyver, and it seems unlikely that he would be able to rebuild such a device completely from memory. Even if we accept that Bosch had the ETAK blueprints stored on his nifty little laptop, and that he took it with him when he was captured (something that is virtually guaranteed to be untrue; if the Alliance hadn't recovered Bosch's computer, then we probably wouldn't be reading his personal log), then he is still aboard a Shivan vessel, with no Terran tools or materials with which to assemble his device.
***
We are led back to the questions of what exactly the Shivans are. To say they are possessed of a "hive mind", as the FS2 database suggests, is not enough; if it is true, it is merely an attribute of their kind, and does not explain their existence. Were they simply aliens in the same vein as the Vasudans are aliens to Terrans, it seems strange that they would shun any and all diplomacy, as well as ignore any planetary resources while focusing entirely upon jump nodes. If the Shivans are artificial life-forms, some variety of cyborgs or robots, it begs the question as to who their creators are, and whether or not they are alive or dead. Are the Shivans once-harmless environmental preservation constructs that have gone terribly awry? Or are they doomsday weapons unleashed in a war that has been over for millennia? Such questions are so far-removed from the immediacy presented by the events and scenarios of the FS universe itself, that I am led to believe they cannot be the case.
The preceding information leads me to believe that the Shivans are, in fact, subspace life-forms. They originate from somewhere within subspace itself. While it is mere conjecture on my part, I believe that the Shivans initially exist as pure, sentient, subspace energy, and that the insect-like bodies we observe are fashioned by the Shivans in order for them to effectively move about within our plane of existence. Such bodies would have no use in subspace itself, where no matter exists to be handled or used. This theory would explain their skill with subspace manipulation, as well as provide a foundation for their motives in attacking other space-faring races.
e. The idea of energy-based life-forms is stupid, and you have no proof that the Shivans come from subspace.
Is it? Energy beings have been a staple of science fiction for years, and the idea of a soul--a form of life lacking any physical body--is important to many religions worldwide. Legends of spirits and ghosts are as popular as they've ever been, yet their subjects are seldom encumbered by physical matter.
The Shivans' subspace origins are indeed uncertain, but it is an explanation that fits the facts at hand: the Shivans' total disinterest in planets or technology, the skill with which they manipulate subspace energy, and their bodies' adaptation for zero-gravity environments. It also fits with the hypothesis of the FreeSpace technical database that the Shivan personal armament is merely a focusing device for an already-present form of energy.
II. What is the Shivans' primary goal?
On the surface, the Shivans' only apparent intention is to destroy. The Ancients themselves gave the Shivans the label of "The Destroyers", a moniker Admiral Bosch frequently applied to them. We must strive to narrow this rather broad focus, however, for the Shivans obviously do not wish to destroy everything; they disregard planets, resources, and technology entirely, and in a rare display of strategy, they chose to capture Admiral Bosch rather than kill him outright. This indicates there is more complexity to the Shivans as a race, despite their apparent single-mindedness.
To begin my explanation, I turn again to the Volition comment that the Shivans are merely a "symptom of a bigger problem". I ask you to think about that for a moment. As dire a threat as the Shivans already are, Volition claims they are a sign or indication of an even more serious situation.
The Shivans, as they currently stand, are a virtually unstoppable race of butchers hell-bent on the annihilation of all life they come across. In order to conceptualize something even worse, we are forced to broaden our outlook on the situation. There are those who have proposed that the "bigger problem" is yet another alien race, one superior to even the Shivans, yet with this I must disagree. This would suggest a race of unbelievable power, so much so that even the Shivans' monstrous weaponry and apparently endless numbers would be unable to stand against them. From a practical standpoint, this idea makes little sense, as it would not serve to flesh out the FS universe in any way. The GTVA has already proven inferior, both in terms of technology and in size, to the Shivan forces... therefore, what would be the point in introducing another brand of aliens that simply drives this point home? Such a scenario would prove so bleak and hopeless that it would serve to depress the gamer, and I doubt this is Volition's intention.
So we must ask ourselves: barring bigger, badder aliens, what could be worse than the Shivans' methodical destruction of spacefaring life-forms?
The answer is damage to space itself.
a. Theoretical Subspace Physics
Think of the fabric of space as being like the skin of a living creature. Also, think of a subspace jump as being like making a tiny wound or incision into said skin. Given time, the skin will heal, but with repeated cuts and gashes, scars are formed, and the possibility of infection--or, in severe cases, amputation--develops.
We know that subspace is relatively "fickle". The FS database tells us that most nodes open and close within milliseconds. We also know that larger nodes can be collapsed by way of large explosions, such as the sealing-off of the Sol-Delta Serpentis node by the destruction of the Lucifer, or the collapse of all nodes leading off Capella by Orion-class destroyers loaded with Meson warheads ("Clash of the Titans II"). Therefore, I feel it is not unreasonable to speculate that subspace damage is also incurred, on some level, by the use of subspace travel. It is entirely possible that traffic through subspace corridors will accelerate node collapse more quickly than the natural passage of time.
If we make the logical assumption that subspace--literally meaning "under space" or "beneath space"--acts as the physical support for normal space, and accept for the purposes of argument that subspace travel does incur gradual damage to the subspace fabric in the long-term, then what will happen when--eventually--subspace as a whole comes to collapse entirely?
The terrifying answer is that, left without structural support, normal space will collapse upon itself in turn. The end result might be like the formation of a black hole, a literal gap in space that is devoid of anything, even of the theoretical surface that holds the fabric of space and time together. Indeed, the apperance of new black holes in isolated places might be interpreted as a sign of the weakening or collapse of the subspace dimension in given locations. Of course, even black holes shrink over long periods of time, meaning that presumably, the subspace fabric is capable of "healing", provided it is left undisturbed.
b. Subspace Fights Back
Nature, in terms of the structure of natural objects, enjoys static things. Depleted resources (gradually, sometimes over long periods of time) renew themselves. Plants and animals grow in accordance to blueprints set down in DNA patterns. Water--unless subjected to temperature extremes--remains water, no matter what container it is placed in. And, of course, injuries inflicted to the body heal over time, with the help of the immune system. If we look at outer space from such a medical standpoint as has been put forth, however, then what--if anything--serves as the immune system for the cosmos?
None other than the Shivans. If humanity is the disease, then the Shivans are literally the cure.
Volition's comment on the nature of the Shivans leads me to look at the problem in question as being more of an internal one (in the sense of a wounded body) than an external one (in the sense of Super-Death-Aliens). While the FS games certainly provide no hard evidence for such a theory, it nonetheless makes sense. We know that the Shivans have appeared on three distinct occasions:
1. To the Ancients, following their discovery of subspace and their rampant expansionism across our galaxy; the Ancients themselves believed their new empire would "surely know no boundaries".
2. To the GTA and PVE during the T-V War, a period of time during which subspace travel would have undoubtedly been heightened, and only 22 years after Terrans discovered subspace itself.
3. To the GTVA in Gamma Draconis, following Bosch's activation of the first Knossos portal... a device that literally warps and twists the subspace fabric in order to form new jump nodes.
I feel it important to mention that I do not believe that subspace travel in itself was enough to attract the Shivans' attention. If that was the case, the Shivans probably would have appeared long before the Ancients had cause to build Knossos portals to expand their control of the galaxy, or would not have waited over two decades to come in search of the Terrans and Vasudans (it is reasonable to assume, though by no means certain, that Vasudans discovered subspace travel at roughly the same time as Terrans). During these periods mentioned, heavy subspace traffic would have caused more extensive damage to subspace, coaxing the Shivans out of the ether to perform their roles as "galactic antibodies". The destruction of the Ancients over 8,000 years ago is the earliest Shivan intervention of which we are aware, but there is no telling how many subspace-faring civilizations the Destroyers wiped out prior to that time.
Yet we must also be careful not to characterize the Shivans exclusively as little more than what the galaxy uses to rid itself of an ailment. The human immune sytem of white blood cells can be broken down into roughly half a dozen divisions (T-cells, NK-cells, and so on), but the Shivans possess a wide array of fighters and bombers, to say nothing of their capital vessels, and the Shivan pilots themselves. As Dr. Mina Hargrove said, the Shivans display "considerable diversity as a species". Therefore, I believe we should view the Shivans as just that: a species, something more than a natural reaction on behalf of the cosmos. We must also remember that the Shivans are capable of developing strategy, able to set traps (as in "Pandora's Box"), indicating that they are not driven by a lone impulse to kill and destroy. They are, on some level, thinking creatures, with as much at stake in their conflict with the GTVA as anyone else. If the fabric of space/time is torn asunder, then the Shivans will surely die along with everyone else.
The "immune system" depiction is not without flaw. Such a theory would suggest that the Shivans are spawned from subspace in overwhelming numbers, in the same manner as immune cells are within the body. While there can be no argument that the Shivans are numerous, their legions cannot be infinite; this would stack the odds in such a way as to automatically doom both Terrans and Vasudans to extinction. So colossally unfair an advantage would be against the trend of balance in nature--not to mention the programmers at Volition, who would probably want to make a gamer feel somewhat less-worthless than this.
It stands to reason, then, that the Shivans' numbers are finite, giving credence to the idea that they must originate from a "home base" of one sort or another. We will discuss that notion in-depth later in the essay.
Above all, we are called to recognize that this theory illustrates the true meaning of the Shivans' roles as the "Great Preservers", not only of single, as-of-yet undeveloped races, but of the entire universe. It is supremely ironic that they have been perceived as merciless Destroyers for so long, when in reality, they have been striving to save us all.
c. The Shivans make subspace jumps, too. Doesn't that defeat their own purpose?
Not necessarily. As schooled as they are in the workings of subspace, the Shivans are probably capable of designing engines for their craft which avoid causing damage to the subspace dimension. We know for a fact that their engines are able to traverse unstable jump nodes that Terran/Vasudan engines can not. If this is not the case, then the Shivans are likely to view subspace travel as a "necessary evil", in their case; inflicting moderate damage upon the subspace fabric for the sake of preserving subspace as a whole. In fact, as well-versed in matters of subspace as the Shivans are, they may very well be able to effect repairs to the subspace fabric, provided they don't have to deal with mounting damage resulting from node travel.
d. By using nodes too unstable for travel by the Alliance, aren't the Shivans causing needless subspace damage?
Consider this:
1. If the Shivans do possess highly-advanced subspace technology, we hypothesize that their use of subspace nodes causes little or no damage, whether the Alliance has knowledge of those nodes or not.
2. If the above statement is half-true or not true at all (i.e., the Shivans can use unstable nodes, but still cause subspace damage nonetheless), then their use of "secret" nodes is, in fact, relevant in terms of strategy. We've stated several times that the Shivans aren't dumb; if it were absolutely necessary for them to make use of subspace travel for the sake of waging war, then they would do so. However, they would seek to do so in the most efficient way possible, a way which would quickly end the conflict at hand, and minimize the damage sustained by the subspace dimension. We should also factor in the reasonable assumption that the Shivans will want to minimize the losses to their own forces.
In FS1, for example, the Shivan armada levels Tombaugh Station in the Ribos system while gathering their forces there for a strike upon Vasuda Prime. In response, the GTA sets up a blockade in the adjacent Antares system, which is the only "stable" route to reach Vasuda. To reduce the hassle to themselves, the Shivans jump through a "hidden" node directly to Deneb, which is also one jump away from Vasuda. This allows the Shivans to circumvent the Allied blockade and destroy Vasuda Prime more quickly, hence shortening the duration of the war itself. Admiral Petrarch also clearly states that the Shivans made inter-system jumps without the use of recognized jump nodes during the Great War, so the question is not if the Shivans make such jumps, but why.
e. If heightened subspace activity attracts Shivans, then wouldn't they have investigated the collapse of the Delta Serpentis-Sol jump node, or the outbreak of the NTF rebellion?
We know that subspace nodes, as a natural phenomenon, form and collapse of their own accord. The Shivans, being unable to communicate with the Lucifer (for reasons I will explain), probably would have regarded the collapse of the Sol node with indifference, regarding it as a natural collapse--or, at most, a direct result of the Shivan attack against the Alliance. The reduced subspace traffic following the destruction of the node--due to the great depletion of Allied forces--would have been an indication to the Shivans that their enemies had been destroyed, and that no further investigation was necessary.
To the best of our knowledge, the NTF rebellion had been in progress for a mere eighteen months prior to the arrival of the Shivans. This figure pales in comparison to the Ancients' decades of rampant expansion, or the fourteen years of the Terran-Vasudan War. The activation of the Knossos involved subspace disruption on a larger scale, and would have merited the Shivans' more immediate attention.
f. Immune systems have a limited amount of defensive cells. These numbers can be depleted, or even eliminated. Wouldn't that make Shivan forces finite, meaning that particular explanation is valid?
While it is true that the immune system within a body works within a set scope of numbers, it is important to remember the scale on which we are speaking. When a human body's immune system is depleted, the body either fights off an infection and regenerates its numbers, or succumbs to the infection and dies. Since the "body" the Shivans would be protecting would be all of subspace, we are left with two possibilities:
1. Deplete Shivan numbers, only to have them replenished because subspace still exists--a theory we regard as improbable, because this would make Shivan forces infinite, or
2. Eradicate Shivans by destroying subspace completely--and, by proxy, destroying the entire physical universe, something we'd like to avoid.
For these reasons, the Shivans must have some base of operations from which their forces originate. More on this later.
g. If the Shivans are attracted by the subspace-warping effects of the Knossos devices, then why don't they destroy them? Don't Shivans themselves use the portals?
The Shivans do not "use" Knossos portals, per se. The portals exist in Shivan-controlled areas, but so far as we know, the Shivans do not know for certain how to activate them, or precisely what they are used for. It was Admiral Bosch who drew the Shivans' ire with his activation of the first Knossos; we cannot know for certain if the Shivans, on their side of the node, were even aware of its existence. In their monologues, the Ancients state that the Destroyers did not seek "territory, technology, or resources". The Shivans appear to concern themselves primarily with their own technological advancement (if they advance--see earlier comments on stagnation), and in all likelihood, they are more interested in the jump node created by the Knossos portal than in the workings of the device itself. This, however, is an uncertain point; much of our theory centers around the Shivans having a great deal of subspace expertise, so it is logical to assume that they would know a device capable of manipulating subspace when they saw one.
We do not know for certain if the Shivans are even capable of destroying the portals. The briefing for "A Flaming Sword" states that the Alliance chooses to destroy the first device via Meson bomb deployment as opposed to main gun barrage for "strategic and scientific reasons". This presents us with three possibilities:
1. The material of which the Knossos is made will react in a strange manner when directly exposed to beam energy. We can only guess as to what this reaction might be, or why it would even matter, since the Alliance's goal is to destroy the portal anyway.
2. The portal is either partially or totally resistant to beam energy, making Meson bombs a more efficient method of its destruction.
3. Beam cannons can damage the device, but Allied scientists would rather use the opportunity to test the Meson bombs.
The player and various other vessels can fire on the Knossos in-game with no visible effect. We know for a fact that the portal is a sturdy structure, simply because the detonation of the first Meson bomb--despite wiping out all small craft within some three kilometers--caused no apparent damage. Whether or not the Knossos could withstand assault by a Sathanas is another question entirely, but since the largest Shivan vessels to enter Gamma Draconis prior to the destruction of the portal were of cruiser-class, then the point becomes moot. We can assume that the Shivans could probably destroy the portals by detonating nearby stars, but would they really go to all that trouble when it would be easier to eliminate traffic through the node?
h. Isn't it inaccurate to call the Shivans "Preservers" when they are so bent upon destruction?
The title of "The Preservers" is truly an ironic one to apply to the Shivans. In FreeSpace's final monologue, the narrator--presumably the pilot you've been playing--pretty clearly illustrates the meaning of this phrase. Here is the actual wording from the FreeSpace Reference Bible:
"I know why the Ancient Ones were destroyed. And I know what they knew.
I know that if not for the Shivans they would have been conquered long before.
Without the Shivans, someone would have discovered them long before, in their infancy. And destroyed them, just as surely as they destroyed countless billions of others.
I believe it is only the destroyers who are destroyed. The Shivans are the great destroyers, but they are also the great preservers. That is why there was no one to destroy us.
Long had we been the destroyer. Our turn had nearly come.
In the Vasudan war we learned how to adapt.
We learned how to study our enemy.
We learned how to overcome.
We learned how to survive.
And so we did."
The narrator explains, in simple terms, that the Shivans exterminate older, advanced races to ensure the survival of younger, undeveloped ones. The predecessors to the Ancients, whoever they were, were destroyed by the Shivans so that the Ancients might thrive; the Ancients, in turn, were themselves destroyed so that humanity, and presumably Vasudans (although there is evidence that the Vasudans themselves may in fact be descendants of the scattered Ancient population) could survive. As the narrator mentions, humanity--having assumed its own mantle as conqueror of the cosmos, rampantly colonizing, exploring, and waging war upon the Vasudans--had nearly reached the time of its own destruction.
Is it the fate of all space-faring races to be annihilated once they stumble upon the secrets of subspace travel? In one of the few uplifting points of the entire Manifesto, I can say with some confidence that the answer to this question is "no".
In one of his own monologues, Admiral Bosch provides us with the following question to ponder:
"Thirty-two years ago in the Altair system, Vasudan scientists discovered the remnants of an extinct civilization we now call the Ancients. Here, we found the secret to defeat the Shivans. How close did we come to being a footnote in the history of a future species that would happen upon our ruins ten thousand years from now? Would they indulge in the fiction of their own immortality until the Shivans came for them, and how long had this gone on?
Did the Ancients stumble upon the monoliths and the tombs of their predecessors in this distant corner of space, dismissing the warnings carved into the walls of the sepulchre? And when the Destroyers came at last, what did the Ancients think as they sifted the cremation of dust and bones, staring into the mute remains for a key, some solution to their plight?
What if there had been countless races, stretching back into infinity, and like the nine cities of Troy, each civilization had been built on the rubble of the one that came before, each annihilated by the Shivans?"
Bosch suspects that the cycle of destruction perpetuated by the Shivans has continued for a very long time--longer, perhaps, than any of us can estimate. If the Ancients did indeed uncover ruins of the races that came before them, ruins providing some clue or hint as to how the wrath of the Destroyers might be stayed, then that warning was either ignored, or understood too late for it to have any meaning. The Ancients fell just as the innumerable races that came before them did, their empire turning to ash.
In the case of the Alliance, however, something has changed.
At the end of the Great War, the Shivans failed to complete their objective of xenocide--quite possibly the first time they had ever failed to accomplish their monstrous task. Unlike the Ancients before them, the Terrans and Vasudans were able to heed the age-old cautions they discovered, able to learn from them, able to adapt them for their races' own purposes. As the narrator of the final FS1 monologue so eloquently states, the Terrans learned how to study their enemy, how to adapt, and how to survive. Thus, the cycle of wanton destruction that has continued without end for countless millennia has at last been broken. The GTVA is not simple prey, like the other fallen empires, but a sophisticated enemy, one the Shivans will require more than brute force to extinguish from the universe.
In a fashion, this in itself may be the answer to the question of the "Great Preservers". Perhaps the rise of the Alliance, a force that, like the Shivans themselves, "did not die", is something the Shivans--maybe without realizing it--have been fostering for centuries. It was inevitable that eventually, there would come a race that would learn from the mistakes of those that came before, one that would not so easily knuckle under to the Destroyers. Unlike the dead and buried societies of the past, the GTVA has potential, potential to learn and adapt, potential to discover a final, permanent solution to the conflict with which they are faced. It is possible that, in the distant future, Terrans and Vasudans may stumble upon a means of travel superior even to that of the subspace corridor, allowing them to maintain their integrity as a society without incurring the hateful, desperate rage of the Shivans.
The question which this poses, however--one we are, at this time, unable to answer--is whether one or both sides of the Great War will perish in the hellfire of battle before that time should arrive.
III. Capella
The destruction of the Capella star at the hands of the Shivans has long puzzled FreeSpace players. It is an enigma with which we are provided very little evidence to examine--only the final cutscenes of the game, and the last few missions leading up to them. In this section, we will submit a theory as to why the Shivans took it upon themselves to kill a sun.
a. d00d TEH $][I\/AN$ JUST N00K3D CAPELLA OMGWTFBBQ
As we are told in the endgame of FreeSpace 2, an imposing fleet of 80+ Sathanas-class Shivan juggernauts gather in formation around the Capella star, generating a subspace field that grows in intensity over the course of 72 hours. During the final phase of Capella's evacuation, the star itself abruptly supernovas, destroying all the planets in the system, as well as the remaining Terran, Vasudan, and Shivan craft.
Our first clue as to the purpose behind this mind-boggling act of devastation comes from Admiral Petrarch in the course of his endgame monologue. It is presented here in its entirety.
"To the officers and crew of the GTD Aquitaine. We have halted the Shivan advance. The battle of Capella is over. We sealed off the system and our people are safe, maybe forever. No one can fathom how or why the Shivans destroyed the Capella star. Though we know our enemy better now than we did 32 years ago, their motives remain a mystery. Perhaps they are exiles like we are, nomads wandering the universe, searching for a way back home. The explosion of a star might be a bridge between this universe and their own. As the old poet once said, 'There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.'
From our odyssey into Hell we have returned with a gift: the Ancient technology to build a portal between Delta Serpentis and Sol. To restore the link to our blue planet. To return home after all these years.
This is Admiral Petrarch, signing off."
At first, Petrarch's words seem like little more than simple rhetoric. The war has just ended, after all, and now is undoubtedly the time for speeches of victory and remembrance. The tone of Petrarch's monologue is strange, however; it almost seems to lament the plight of the Shivans, rather than condemn or gloat over them. It is very odd for the Admiral to feel sympathy for the Shivans when one considers the damage they caused during their relatively short-lived incursion into GTVA space. When observing the speech from this standpoint, we are left to wonder if perhaps there is a hint of literal truth in Petrarch's words... if perhaps the Shivans really were attempting to return to whatever they call home.
For a moment, let us look at the situation from the strategic point of view. The Shivans have amassed a juggernaut armada in-system, and are poised to launch a full-scale strike upon Allied space, a spearhead which the fatigued GTVA is not likely to survive. Yet, instead of invading Allied territory, the Shivans choose instead to destroy the star, killing the mere handful of refugees in the system at the time, and losing several juggernauts in the process, perhaps a substantial portion of their fleet (though an accurate figure is impossible to determine, since we are provided with only one camera angle in the cutscene to observe). In addition, those juggernauts that are not destroyed enter subspace, but to the best of our knowledge, there are no inter-system nodes other than those leading to Vega and Epsilon Pegasi. The juggernauts could not make an in-system jump without being caught by the supernova blast, so just what was their destination?
We must ask: what practical purpose did the destruction of Capella serve?
b. "Whatever those things were, the Shivans have got less of them now."
For the answer, we look not to Capella itself, but to the SOC reconaissance mission into Shivan space conducted a few days prior. During that sortie, SOC forces destroyed three strange-looking Shivan devices composed of a large red crystal and exterior "blades". The shock wave created by these devices was unusually large for objects of their size ("In the Lion's Den"). In the FS database, these objects are referred to as "Comm Nodes", suggesting that they serve as relay stations for the quantum pulses used in Shivan communication. When observed up-close, the objects can be heard emitting the same "buzz" Allied fighters heard when they received transmissions from the cruiser Rephaim.
At the time of the SOC mission, only nine juggernauts had jumped into the unidentified binary system. Days later, when the armada gathered around Capella, that number had increased ninefold. This, of course, could be mere coincidence, but it could also be an indication that the objects destroyed by the SOC had more value than mere radio relay stations.
If the Shivans are indeed subspace-born creatures, then they would find normal space a much different place from their natural environment. This much can be gathered from the bodies they construct to harness their essences, if we accept the other points in this treatise as being true. It is quite possible that Shivan shielding systems were originally developed not for combat deployment, but as a way to allow them to retain their coherence in our material universe.
Perhaps, then, the Shivan Comm Nodes are much more than just that. They may very well be like lifelines, of a sort, providing the Shivans--far separated from their subspace domain--with the inherent subspace energy they need to survive in normal space. I believe the crystals in these devices, due to their highly volatile nature, to be some kind of subspace battery, a shell for pure subspace energy to inhabit. On a larger scale, I believe this crystalline substance to be the base component in all Shivan construction, crafted in their own subspace dimension, but then heavily modified via electronics in order to function properly in standard space. The distinct red hue of all Shivan craft suggests this crystal--or some like material--is an integral component; even their weaponry and engines seem based around the same substance, suggesting its extreme importance to their functionality.
If true, it would mean that the SOC destroyed something far more vital than simple communications equipment. It would mean they destroyed installations absolutely vital to the Shivans' continued existence, and quite possibly killing an untold number of them by suddenly and abruptly severing their life support.
c. Apocalypse
This would serve to explain the sudden increase in the numbers of the juggernaut fleet, but it still does not give us the answer as to why the Shivans destroyed Capella instead of attacking the GTVA directly.
To understand the solution, we must observe the problem from the Shivan standpoint. Throughout their incursion, the Shivans gained very little ground against the GTVA. The furthest-encroaching Shivan vessel was the original Sathanas, and it was destroyed in Capella--merely one jump from Gamma Draconis--by the GTVA Colossus. It is likely that the Shivans, in all their destructive fury, had never previously lost a vessel of that magnitude to an enemy. Since they were never able to advance any further than Capella (with the exception of a Shivan force that attacked the Vega-Capella node in the endgame), the Shivans could not know for certain just how many Colossus-class vessels the GTVA had in their ranks. For all they knew, a fleet of the mammoth vessels could have been waiting deep within GTVA territory, waiting to spring a trap on the advancing Shivan fleet. Faced with such uncertain opposition, the Shivans took the only course of action open to them:
They ran away. The Shivans were not attacking the GTVA, but retreating from it.
The FS database tells us that subspace jumps require the presence of intense gravitational fields. If we look closely at the Capella supernova cutscene, we can see a strange black "aura" surrounding the star after the juggernauts release their subspace charges. This odd field extends for a wide area around the sun, blocking out the glimmer of stars behind it... and it is into this area of darkness that the escaping juggernauts jump. This darkness cannot be a black hole, for if it were, we would not be able to see the light emanating from Capella itself. Therefore, this ebony field must be the outer rim of a tremendously large jump node, one the juggernauts have opened using the gravity field of the star as a springboard (this theory is strengthened, albeit not much, by the fact that Capella turns green in hue. Yellow star + blue subspace node = green :D). Their destination within subspace, wherever it is, requires an exceptionally strong gravitational field in order to make the subspace jump, one that can only be provided by the force of a star.
Unfortunately for us, the Shivans' methodology has a disastrous side-effect. A stellar supernova is triggered when a star of substantial size runs out of light elements to burn; when this happens, the heavier elements are condensed into iron, which the star cannot use for fuel. Unable to "explode" outward any longer, the star collapses inward, crushing the iron core so tightly that its subatomic structure changes. In less than a second, the iron core shrinks to a neutron core, which is in turn crushed by the star's outer layers as they too collapse. The core heats up to a few billion degrees, and explodes in a supernova. Mind you, this takes place naturally over the course of several billion years; when the Shivans disrupt the process with a few minutes of subspace tinkering, their gravimetric distortions causing Capella's core to fuse before the sun has even finished depleting its remaining elements, then a supernova is the inevitable outcome.
d. Couldn't the juggernauts have been using inter-system jump nodes near the Capella star that the Alliance didn't know about?
I had always visualized system-to-system nodes as lying along the "edges" of any given star system, not smack in the middle. It seems unlikely that each juggernaut was jumping through a separate node--this would indicate that a large number of such nodes were bunched very closely together, something we have never seen--meaning that if such a jump point existed, it would be one very large node. In all the time that the GTVA has been studying subspace, we have never heard anything to suggest that "supernodes" exist in close proximity to stars. Therefore, I feel my theory that the Sathanas fleet creates its own node is more credible, in this respect.
Carefully observe the "End Game" FS2 cutscene. You will see that some juggernauts continue to activate their subspace "charges" while the other ships depart, even after the Capella star has already turned green--and, we assume, already been affected by whatever the armada did to it. When the main body of the fleet has departed, the charges on the ships left behind dissipate entirely, and the juggernauts themselves "go dark", their characteristically red glows fading to simple black.
Why do the stranded juggernauts power down? Do they know it is futile to try and attempt the explosion of Capella, and therefore make no effort to do so? Have the Shivans onboard these ships somehow been evacuated to those that escaped by means of a teleportation technology? We have seen no evidence of such capability on behalf of the Shivans (in fact, the FreeSpace Reference Bible provides a graphic description of Shivans physically leaping from ship-to-ship in the course of a battle), so this seems unlikely. Therefore, what conclusion are we to reach?
It is my own belief that the "marooned" juggernauts were using the full extent of their energies to sustain the artificial jump node while the other craft in the Shivan fleet made their escape. If we accept, for the moment, that the juggernauts are "alive" as some evidence suggests, then we could interpret the dimming of their surface lights as a form of "death". We know for certain that their subspace charges took some time to energize--at least three full days--and that by the same token, they were likely to be very intense. Left with no remaining energy, the Sathani--dead or dying--could only drift, derelicts in space, waiting for the supernova to overtake them. It sounds cliche, to be sure, but the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
e. If the Shivans needed a star, why didn't they use Gamma Draconis, the star seen through the nebular clouds, or the binary stars in the system with the Comm Nodes?
FS briefings tell us that Gamma Draconis is a remote system lacking in either planets or viable resources. Having no planets at all suggests that the Gamma Draconis star is probably small, and lacked the gravitational field necessary to pull together matter to create planets during its initial formation. Such a field would have been too weak for the Shivans to adapt to their own purposes. Similarly, the star seen in the Shivan nebula--a nebula which is, as Admiral Bosch tells us, the remnants of whatever star had lived and died there previously--must have been young and/or small, or it would have already consumed the nebular gases themselves. Lastly, the gravitational fields created by two stars feeding off one another are likely to be unpredictable, and thus unsuitable for the Shivans' needs.
f. But in Real Life, Gamma Draconis is a huge star. Surely it would be big enough for the Shivans to use.
This is an excellent point, one I am hesistant to even address. As much as I hate to shun reliable sources, I am afraid we must be forced to ignore some real-life astronomical statistics when dealing with the FreeSpace universe.
The folks at Volition are, by profession, game designers--and damn good ones at that, or I wouldn't have poured so much time into FreeSpace as I have. So far as we know, none of them are physicists who have any more basic knowledge of astronomy than you, me, or anyone we would meet on the street. I remember reading in an interview that an author was hired to create the main plotline for FS2, and we can safely assume that he, too, was just another average guy looking to get his paycheck. I find it very likely that rather than pick and choose star names to assign to various systems in accordance with their specific needs--a process that would have taken a tremendous amount of time--the Volition staffers simply randomly chose the names of popular stars, or stars that they happened to be fond of.
This supposition is not without some supporting evidence. Take Capella, as it is depicted in FS2: a system with one star, densely-populated, a center of industry, and the headquarters of the GTVA's 3rd Fleet. This would lead us to assume that either the planets in this system are suitable for habitation, or that the system itself is legion with installations fit for both residential and mining/production purposes.
In reality, Capella is a rather inhospitable place to be. The system itself contains at least ten stars, including the G-type giants Capella A and Capella B, which are generally those most-associated with the system. We never see any of these sister suns in FS2. Capella A and B are large stars, and have a narrow orbit around one another (about the distance from Earth to Venus), and the potential for a stable planetary orbit around either star is small. Even if planets were orbiting around Capella, those worlds would be severely irradiated by both stars, and would also be tidally locked, meaning that the same side of the planet would always face the sun (in the same way as the same side of the Moon always faces the Earth--hence, the "dark side of the Moon" is the side we never see). This eliminates the potential for planet-based life as we know it, leaving us to rely upon life existing upon heavily-trafficked space stations... something I view as being more than a little difficult with almost a dozen stars crowding the immediate vicinity.
The point I'm making is that for the purposes of our discussion, we should try to regard astronomical details as they are presented within FreeSpace itself, without turning to outside sources. I don't fault Volition in the least for randomly naming their star systems; it's a time-saving measure, and some games, like the Master of Orion series, provide random names to every star in the galaxy (with the exception of the homeworld, which has a pre-set name determined by species, a value the player can change) as selected from a set list of some 300 stars. It may not be the most realistic approach to take, but then again, the designers of these games hardly expect the vast majority of their fans to look into the titles with as much depth as we have.
g. Why would the Shivans worry about a Colossus fleet? Wouldn't they already know about Allied fleet strength from experience during the Great War?
This is not feasible for two reasons. The first is the theory that Shivan forces in normal space cannot communicate with forces residing at their subspace "home", but we will discuss this idea in a later section. The second, simpler reason is the simple fact that unlike the Shivans, Terran and Vasudan fleets actually make progress. So far as anyone knows, the Shivan species has remained essentially the same--if not stagnant--for the last eight thousand years, using the same kind of weaponry (as per the discoveries of the Vasudan scientists in Altair), and presumably, the same kinds of spacecraft. While there are notable additions to the Shivan fleet between the First and Second Great Wars, such as the Mara, the Astaroth, the Moloch, and the Ravana, just to name a few, there are also numerous "older" craft, such as the Basilisk, the Manticore, the Nephilim, the Seraphim, and several capital ships. The folks over in the Inferno (http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/inferno/) camp would even have us believe that the Scorpion is still in use. In contrast, the GTVA is nearing completion of its switchover from the old "Great War relics", opting to incorporate faster, more capable, more destructive war machines.
Humanity's potential for adaptation should not be underestimated. We went from having no existing space program to landing on the moon in less than twenty years. In "The Great Hunt" (FS2), you'll even hear one of your wingmen muse about what a "miracle" it was the Alliance won the Great War, due to the lack of present-day technological advantages: shields (a slight continuity error, as Terrans and Vasudans only lacked energy shielding for a relatively short portion of the Great War, before using them throughout the remainder of the conflict), flak guns, and beam cannons.
h. You're full of it, buddy. The Shivans would never back down from a fight.
This is an understandable sentiment, but one disproven by the facts. Consider the following:
Firstly, if we accept that the Shivans operate with a hive mentality (something we will accept as true for the purposes of the essay), then we need not necessarily conclude that their reaction at Capella was one of "fear", per se. It would be in error to confuse the notion of "fear" with that of "self-preservation".
If there is any dominant principle in the animal kingdom, it is to stay alive. This is commonly observed in the "fight or flight" principle, which even humans possess; we either confront an enemy, or run away so that we might live to fight another day. This principle is more complex when applied to a hive society, as generally, there are no individuals; all drones or workers strive for the good of the colony, and may very well be willing to sacrifice their own lives for the sake of that goal. However, this should not lead us to conclude that mass suicide is acceptable by default; if all the drones in a hive society are killed, who will be left to support the hive itself? In Robert Heinlein's classic Starship Troopers, a group of the grotesque "Bugs" (also called Arachnids, the book's main "bad guys") have surrounded a space marine who is shielding himself behind a bulbous "brain bug" which serves as the controlling influence for the hive's workers. The "warrior" Bugs screech in protest and frustration, unable to attack the hiding marine; if they do, they risk killing the brain bug itself, destroying the hive hierarchy and silencing the source of their own commands. In effect, the Bugs would be comitting suicide.
For that reason, you Shivan fans out there should not think of the Shivans as being "afraid" of the GTVA. Rather, you should think of them as regrouping and marshalling their forces instead of risking complete decimation at the hands of a Colossus fleet. They are merely exercising good judgment in the face of the unknown. To paraphrase Heinlein himself, any race that possesses enough skill to construct spacecraft is not stupid.
Although the Shivans themselves are not the sort to often make retreat, they have done so on more than one occasion, when the situation calls for it. In "First Strike", the Shivan cruiser Taranis--low on supplies--attempts to retreat through the Beta Cygni jump node. Shivan cruiser group "Hellfire" tries to rejoin the primary Shivan fleet in Delta Serpentis, rather than lingering to do battle with the attacking GTA fighters, in a show of simple strategy. Even the Demon-class destroyer Beleth gives priority to making the jump to Capella instead of powering down its engines to combat the Vasudan corvette Thebes and the player's remaining bomber wings. This is either because the Beleth does not believe it can survive a bomber attack, or is more focused upon providing reinforcement to the Sathanas. In either case, the destroyer's first concern cannot be the engagement of the nearby GTVA forces, or it would not bother making such a run for the jump node. This is just one more indicator of the Shivan strategic mindset: self-preservation and accomplishing orders take priority over enaging every target of opportunity. This is further evidenced with the first Sathanas, which breezes through to Capella without remaining to mop up the surviving bombers, and by the juggernaut fleet itself, which proceeds on course straight to the Capella star without engaging nearby GTVA warships.
But then, why do the Shivans throw swarms of fighters and bombers at the Alliance with such apparent abandon? The simple answer is that this in itself is not a bad strategy; overwhelming numbers have determined the outcome of many a battle in the course of history. However, we should also take note of the benefits vs. costs standpoint. In the briefing preceding "Their Finest Hour", Admiral Petrarch informs us that the GTVA has suffered over one hundred thousand casualties, a figure which probably includes all military craft and civilian transports. Given the Shivans' military superiority, we will arbitrarily assign them one-tenth the casualties at a figure of 10,000 in terms of fighters and bombers for the purposes of this discussion. This figure in itself is admittedly optimistic, for not every pilot in the GTVA can be a Triple Ace and mop up some 400 Shivans over the course of his or her career. If we include all capital ship classes ranging from crusiers and up, we can probably double this number to 20,000, perhaps 25,000; if we assume the Sathanas has at least the same crew capacity as the Colossus (the actual figure is probably smaller, for we can assume the Shivans are more efficient in terms of space than either Terrans or Vasudans, and are able to operate their ships with smaller crews), then the number balloons to around 50,000 or 60,000.
If we accept a static figure of 30,000 for a Sathanas crew (acknowledging our uncertainty), and multiply that number by 85 (as we are told there are "more than eighty" juggernauts, but apparently less than ninety), and add this product to our previous figure of 60,000, we are left with a rough estimate of what the Shivans would view as their potential losses in a full-blown shootout with the GTVA: a staggering 2.6 million Shivans, more than twenty times the casualties of the GTVA, even when taking into account the destruction of the Colossus. This is a considerably larger investment than the dozens of "throwaway" Shivans in any given fighter or bomber squadron. Faced with such tremendous losses to their active forces, it is not difficult to imagine why the Shivans would choose to make a strategic retreat.
As for the notion of the theoretical "Colossus fleet" itself, remember that GTVA space is pretty big; not large, perhaps in a galactic sense, but still consisting of some 23 star systems, excluding Sol and Capella. If the GTVA did possess a Colossus armada, it would make sense for them to evenly distribute these vessels throughout their borders, rather than lumping them all together in one particular system. As anyone will tell you, capital ships are relatively slow-moving; even the vaunted Sathanas only has a top speed of 25m/s, with the Colossus matching this velocity. If a Colossus were stationed on the fringes of GTVA territory, in Alphard or even Altair, it would take quite a while to make the complex system of subspace jumps needed to reach Vega. You can rest assured that the Shivans weren't able to round up their own armada in a matter of hours, either. Bei
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*Antares Passion of Shivans*
Will read mre tomorrow very good work
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i am going to read this one day :nervous:
you might want to chop it up and throw it in the wiki. click the link under my name to take you there. if you put it there, anyone can edit it, add to it, and illustrate it.
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done!
/me collapses
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It's amazing how similar yet completely different this is to my theory :)
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Your fingers are an inch shorter for typing all of that.
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some people have too much free time. :nervous:
I'm not sure if this applies to this revised version but I'm not going to take all the trouble of reading through that whole thing again so here it goes.
There are some points who seem to diverge... instead of one theory you have a lots of them!
You say the shivans are, some kind of anti-bodies, energy beings, physical beings (because of the need of a planet, "Cocytus", among other things)...
Then there are some points where I am confused by the data you provide, I will give some examples...
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The "immune system" depiction is not without flaw. Such a theory would suggest that the Shivans are spawned from subspace in overwhelming numbers, in the same manner as immune cells are within the body. While there can be no argument that the Shivans are numerous, their legions cannot be infinite; this would stack the odds in such a way as to automatically doom both Terrans and Vasudans to extinction. So colossally unfair an advantage would be against the trend of balance in nature--not to mention the programmers at Volition, who would probably want to make a gamer feel somewhat less-worthless than this.
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The immune cells within a body are not infinite, or else AIDS and other deseases would never be such a problem now would they?
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this theory is strengthened, albeit not much, by the fact that Capella turns green in hue. Yellow star + blue subspace node = green
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In both my FS the subspace nodes are green, is this a bug?
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Comm Node = Life Support
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If that is true wouldn't we have seen such evidences of them in the great war? Wouldn't it be better to protect such a valuable thing? Snd then you say something which confuses me even more like...
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Secondly, for reasons unknown, the Shivans do not seem capable of sending messages from normal space into subspace.
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So... that would mean that they would need to have what? At least one in every sector? And how to get in that sector in the first place?
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All of those points are addressed in the revision. I hope. :nervous:
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Originally posted by Ghostavo
In both my FS the subspace nodes are green, is this a bug?
you can set it to whatever color you want. however, the warpout thingie is blue to the color. follow?
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Nice work on the document. I'm printing it out right now to read downstairs since I'm bored, until I saw this. BTW: Microsoft word reads it as merely 23 pages, not 30. But I guess the font was a little bigger on yours I suppose. But nice work anyway.
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... OpenOffice gave me 37 pages. :confused:
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I just browsed through it since I've already read most of it during its birth - I'd like to add one minor detail about intersystem jump nodes:
Subspace seems to be more prone to use near stron gravitic fields - that way a systems best acces point would be near the surface of its star - but it's not accessable even for shivans.
Some distance from the star is possible - however, that acces pint could be too unstable since even minute changes in the star could distrupt the point and lead to catashtophic misjumps (into the sun for example) - these jumpoints could be called "rouge" points and probably not even the Shivans dare use them.
So far I wasn't speaking of jump nodes, only jump points - the most accesable part of subspace in a solar system.
The next best candidat for the jumpoint title is where the gravity of a systems gasgiant creates the greatest gravitic field. - of course this point of space is also affected by the sun of the system.
These points are probably the La Grange points of the Gas giant.
These areas in space are places where an object can indefinitly stay in orbit since the gravitic pulls cancel each other out, so no fuel is needed to compensate for the effects of the sun or the planet.
These point also have a major advantage, that could be even more important than the presense of the gravitic field: they are relativly the most gravitically stable points of the solarsystem - these are the most stable and easy to acces jumppoints within the system.
Now, the problem is what's the difference between a good jumppoint and a jump node?
A node connects 2 solar systems.
But where is it?
My guess is we once again have to look for a poin in space with the stongest gravitic field, and a stability that will keep the layout of the fields.
In case of stars the only thing that really interferes with their gravitic field (which is a multitude greater than planet's field even gas giants) is the mass of other stars. If we use this model the problem is there's no mathematic formula how we can calculate the node point of a star - this may be a reason why the actual finding of a node was only decades after the discovery of subspace.
To make the calculation more simple we should only take the closest stars to the system we analyse, and disregard all the other stars - except for the centre of the galaxy, we can take into account most of the other stars if we put their mass there along with the great black whole that supposedly exist in the center of most galaxies.
Therefore we have the strongest field on the sides of the star that are on the radial that connects the star with the center of the galaxy. This can be somewhat distorted by neighbour stars.
That way we can get the jumpoints that are the best candidates to be jumpnodes. The existing good jumppoints are not going to be among them - the problem is La Grange point orbit their sun along with the planet they're assgned to, so they probably will intersect with the jumpnode area for only a bried period of time - such "temporary" nodes could exist though.
The problem is that the system we want to go to also should have a relativly close and strong jump node candidate jumppoint with the right orientation.
So to sum things up: it's quite a matter of luck to find a jumpnode.
However do we need to know where the jump node is to use it?
Once we enter subspace we can more or less travel to any "fluent" area within a system (with enough) gravity to permit acces.
What if we more-or-less knew the general bearing of a jump node - could we jump into it using subspace?
Why not. The problem is a lot easier than.
What we need is a jumpoint that will allow a jump into a subspace corridor that connects our system with the intended target (- if such a corridor exits - and this can be located by the effects of the corridor (like the more intense pull the other star has on our on system thanks to the corridor) ). We need a jumppoint that will let us jump along a vector that will be probably captured by the subspace complex (the term corridor I used is a simplification of this) that connects the two systems.
What is this vector I speak about? I guess that actually what we see in real space also exist in a form in subspace as well, but not as objects or matter. Subspace is more fluent in places of great gravity - so inside a star or a gasgiant it will be superfluent - however passing through such a region is not beneficial - the forces of subspace are so uneven in such a region moreover this is not a homogenous superfleunce, but a gradually increasing one. If our ship entered one such area, the effect would be similar to jumping into a blackwhole.
We can use these areas though, as the space probes used Jupiter's gravity to slingshot out of our solarsystem.
The vector we need is one that doens't end in the star we're orbiting and also avoids planets. To ensure this we need a stabile region - a La Grange point.
It seems we've run in circles, but from an unsolvable situation we've come to the conclusion that the most stabile jumppoints are also the prime candidates for entry point into the actual jumpnodes - so in shipping terms, people would likely call these points jump nodes.
I also would like to point out why can't we go anywhere within subspace: I already said why we can't go through areas that are occupied by mass, what about vacum (in real space)? The effect would be similar to what happens when we jump through a star - except we would venture too far from the gravitic souce so the same effect would take place thanks to the hardening (non-fleunce of subspace).
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How did you make that "The Shivan Manifesto" title glow red?
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do NOT tell him the tags :shaking:
by the way: funny signature: "...your trivial exhistance?"
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OFF: Anyone who hadn't played that classic missed the creepiest experience of his life.
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finally, i read it all.
Great work indeed.
and i agree with LS, Don't tell him the tags.
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Always fun reading this stuff :)
most of it makes pretty much sense too.
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God damnit, why dont you guys tell me the tags?
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isn't it [ glow=color] or someehhing?
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Y'know, now that I think about it, the whole 'from subspace' thing makes alot of sense.
I mean, subspace is an entirely different universe unto itself. Maybe Terrans and Vasudans passing through it harms the Shivans (or whomever in Subspace made their physical bodies). And maybe they can only get from their subspace universe to our by way of the Knossi or through systems of significant dimensional weakness (IE, Nebulas and nova'd systems).
It'd explain the lack of planets/stations, their obsession with nodes, their skill with energy, their 'quantum pulse' language, and most important of all: Their weak armour.
Think about it. If they've had no interactions with matter before they'd be poor at making good, solid armour.
And it'd also explain both how and why the Lucifer was shielded: It was phased into subspace. This would protect it from attack and also serve as some kind of control beacon to individual Shivans, explaining why they went nuts when it was destroyed: They reverted to the directives of their physical bodies without the control of their subspace personas.
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It's good, but I'm still confused by the whole Lucifer thing, after all, had Shivans developed in Subspace, it seems odd that they would create shields that only work outside Subspace in order to attack us. It doesn't seem they would spend enough time in the 'matter' bodies to develop that kind of technology?
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Originally posted by kode
isn't it [ glow=color] or someehhing?
I love you... ;) ;)
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kode, what have you done? You have created a monster! A monster I tell you!!! :shaking:
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Oh no!
well, at least the sig still is funny: "Then end of your trivial existence ? "
Then grammar is lovely. Also, the layout is amaz0ring™.
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Originally posted by Ghostavo
kode, what have you done? You have created a monster! A monster I tell you!!! :shaking:
It's not like it matters to me, opera doesn't support glowy text... :drevil:
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Neither does Mozilla, but it's just there because its pretty...
And thank you Lightspeed for finding all my errors in the sentance. I appreciate that. Here's one for the road!
[glow=red]Thanks for the glow! [/glow]
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well, well...
(http://www.class50.co.uk/picture/revenge.jpg)
;7
edit: btw - who is "Polito form" ?
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Yes... revenge will be sweet... now to recreate the magic inside this "opera" into IE.
*puts on a funny sorceror hat and locks himself in his room*
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31 pages in Word... read, saved, about to be printed and stored in a 5-code safebox. :)
Definitely a Sticky nominee, IMO.
edit:
Originally posted by Lightspeed
edit: btw - who is "Polito form"?
I see you didn't play System Shock 2 yet, so I won't throw any spoilers your way... all I can say is - get the game as soon as possible. You might find it... [glow=green]amusing, insect...[/glow]
Excuse me. *cough*
Seriously, it might be a 1999 but it's well worth the buy. If you liked games like Deus Ex or the Thief serial, you'll love it... if not, try it anyway, you never know.
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- doublepost killed. apologies -
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Originally posted by Stealth[cro]
Seriously, it might be a 1999 but it's well worth the buy. If you liked games like Deus Ex or the Thief serial, you'll love it... if not, try it anyway.
hell, fs2 is a 1999...
and I have system shock 2, but I haven't had the time to play more than just the very beginning. so I know some of what it's about anyway.
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Well, yes... FS2 was, like System Shock 2, one of the most underrated games ever. Except System Shock, at least to my knowledge, never had the chance to reach a level as high as FS did with HLP. The "1999" comment was there for anyone who might filter it out because of the "ugly, un-UT2004" rendering.
As for SS2, you might want to reinstall it and grab the patch along. The beginning might be a bit slow, but once you get that firsrt keycard and enter central Deck 2... well, let's just say, don't play it at night. Even after finishing it three times it still gives me a nasty shock whenever I hear something around the corner. :sigh:
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I know what you mean.
You can get the game from Underdog, with no cutscenes but everything else included, but there are virtually no load times. I myself LOVE to play LAN parties with folks or connect IP's with a friend of mine, and we us AOL Phone Chat to talk to eachother, via headsets. You just dont HAVE the time to type in a message when you say,
"OMG! ITS TEH RUMBLER! **** **** ****!" *loads Anti-Personel bullets*
Ya see what I mean?
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The only way I will finish is if it was in game because I'm to lazy to read it here.
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Alright, to stop hitching this thread already ('cause I can already feel the wrath of Antares and mod alike), I've recreated the System Shock II thread right here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,22338.0.html).
Antares - as someone already mentioned, can it get Wikified? Better yet, could someone clone it into a more printable format, like PDF?
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Originally posted by .::Tin Can::.
I know what you mean.
You can get the game from Underdog, with no cutscenes but everything else included, but there are virtually no load times. I myself LOVE to play LAN parties with folks or connect IP's with a friend of mine, and we us AOL Phone Chat to talk to eachother, via headsets. You just dont HAVE the time to type in a message when you say,
"OMG! ITS TEH RUMBLER! **** **** ****!" *loads Anti-Personel bullets*
Ya see what I mean?
I remember playing SS2 with 3 friends at a lan party...
that game is just plain scary, you just never know of there is one of the zombie looking guys behind the door that you just went through and you are about to head back...
It's one of the few games that scare me ****less no matter how many times I play it.
edit: bleh, noticed the recreation of the SS2 thread AFTER I had posted this...
*looks around for an admin*
could any of you move this post?.. :nervous:
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Originally posted by Stealth[cro]
Antares - as someone already mentioned, can it get Wikified? Better yet, could someone clone it into a more printable format, like PDF?
That I could probably do. If you can wait until I'm finished with school for today.
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I don't really know how to make my way around the wiki, so I wouldn't know how to go about adding it. The writing style is also more laid-back in places than would fit the wiki norm. But aside from that, this is meant to stand as an independent document, and isn't really subject to revision/alteration unless I'm the one doing it.
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in that case, just put a link to it in the wiki, under "Shivans". If you have any list of specific facts from the games themselves, feel free to add that to the wiki itself. there is a great deal of help in the posting guidelines, and if you know basic HTML or vB code, you could add anything easily.
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I was bored, so I pdf-ified it. If you mind, antares, I'll remove it. If you don't, please someone mirror it, as the file is currently on my account at uni.
http://www.cyd.liu.se/users/~johbu692/The%20Shivan%20Manifesto.pdf
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I don't mind it being mirrored anyplace.
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Don't forget to get the new models for SS2! They're uberized! :D
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kode - great work there, under 100kb too.
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Originally posted by Stealth[cro]
kode - great work there, under 100kb too.
heh, it's actually smaller than the word document I did it from :D
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I agree with some of your points but disagree on some of the others (the "subspace being damaged" reason for the Shivans' xenocidal bloodlust). Starforce and A Terror and a Traitor both have somewhat different reasons for why the Shivans do what they do.
According to A Terror and a Traitor, the Shivans are used by a higher race, whose exact name Shivans never dare to mention, to crush anything considered a potential rival or threat to the higher race before the target becomes a real problem. This "higher race" is so proud, so jealous, and so ruthless that it will not accept anything less than total superiority over all other races technolgically and militariy. They are loath to sacrifice their own "alienpower" and assets to accomplish these ends, so they created the Shivans to do their dirty work. Shivans are a brainwashed species. Throughout their lives, the notion that all other races besides the "higher race" are scum worthy of nothing but total annihalation is pounded into them. Until ETAK was developed, Shivans had no way of communicating with their foes, so they weren't even aware that they were intelligent, thinking beings!
When they were contacted by the Iceni, they were completely confused and bewildered. Surely these space animals could not posess language, they always thought. But there it was, a message from the Terrans. Roughly translated, it said: "NTF ICENI TO UNKNOWN RACE. WE DESIRE CONTACT. TRANSMITTING COORDINATES." followed by the location of the Iceni and a detailed layout of the vessel.
The crew of the Iceni did not anticipate the Shivans boarding the Iceni, so they viciously attacked. The Shivans pressed onwards, taking out the resisting crewmen. Bosch and his command staff put up no resistance, so the Shivans knew that they were the ones who sent the message. Bosch and the command staff took the ETAK device and followed the Shivan boarders out of the Iceni into a waiting transport.
Over several weeks, Shivan engineers, with Bosch's assistance duplicated and refined ETAK, creating ETAK II, which could translate Shivan pulse communication to English and English to Shivan communication nearly as well as the ubiquitous "squawkers" can translate English to Vasudan and Vasudan to English. ETAK II came in both starship transmitter and portable being-to-being translator form.
The Sathanas fleet and its supporting vessels rejected the control of the higher race and allied with Bosch. The new Terran-Shivan Alliance was born, with the goal of uniting all Terrans and Shivans in one political entity and breaking the power of the higher race.
In Starforce, the Zica were once a ruthless galactic superpower that was bent on subjugating the entire galaxy. By the beginning of the 210th century B.C., the Shivans were the only major race left, and were more or less at the technologival level of the Terrans in early FS1 (the Zica were far less advanced than they are in Starforce, which is in the 41st century, but they were more than a match for the Shivans). The Shivans at this time were not excessively aggressive. The Zica saw this as a weakness and immediately struck. The Shivans were quickly overwhelmed by the Zica fleets despite putting on a desperate struggle. Like the FS1 Terrans, they stole and copied many Zica technologies (including shields, Knossos technology, and subspace weapons), and eventually, just as they were on the brink of utter destruction, they began a fierce counteroffensive, steadily pushing the Zica back and driving them through the Stargate (think a subspace node taken to the extreme) that connected the Milky Way to the Andromeda galaxy. To prevent the Zica from ever returning, they collapsed all of the galaxy's Stargates, including the one linking to the Andromeda galaxy (the Andromeda Stargate would be reopened by a joint Terran-Vasudan effort just before the Starforce campaign begins using an advanced form of Knossos technology, allowing the Zica to return with a vengeance).
The Zica were gone, but the price was enormous, far worse than that paid by the Terrans and Vasudans. Over 90% of their entire population, all of their inhabited planets (only their spaceorne colonies remained), and 80% of their spaceborne assets were lost. The Shivans focused what was left of their strength on rebuilding. They adapted their genetic code to a new life among the stars. They colonized what precious few planets (only 13 in the whole galaxy) that could support them and ripped many useless ones apart to fuel the construction of countless new space colonies and starships.
But the greatest change of all was on their outlook. Their experiences left them with a violent xenophobia--they regarded other intelligent life as a danger to their very existence. Their genetic adaptation included making their bodies perfect fighting machines and imbuing their minds with a natural aggression bordering on psychosis. The once-peaceful Iakar became the scourge of the galaxy, the Great Destroyers, the Shivans.
Also, the lack of ground troops in the siege of Vasuda does not support the fact that they don't need planets. Perhaps they might not have considered the planet suitable for Shivan habitation. If that is the case, sterilizing the planet might be acceptable to them. It's much easier to strip-mine a deserted planet than a planet with four billion furious Vasudans living on it. Perhaps they didn't need that particular planet because they already had plenty of useful planets and resources in their own space and simply wanted to punish the Vasudans. In either case, rendering the planet virtually sterile would be a desirable outcome.
Orbital bombardment would be the best means of carrying out such an attack and ground troops would definitely be the worst (well maybe it would be better than low-altitude aerial bombardment with pillowcases, but that's just silly). The Lucifer's weaponry is much more destructive than any number of ground troops. In fact, ground troops would just get in the way if they were used in the Vasuda attack. Ground troops are good at capturing and holding but terrible at raw destruction.
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e. The idea of energy-based life-forms is stupid, and you have no proof that the Shivans come from subspace.
Is it? Energy beings have been a staple of science fiction for years, and the idea of a soul--a form of life lacking any physical body--is important to many religions worldwide. Legends of spirits and ghosts are as popular as they've ever been, yet their subjects are seldom encumbered by physical matter.
The Shivans' subspace origins are indeed uncertain, but it is an explanation that fits the facts at hand: the Shivans' total disinterest in planets or technology, the skill with which they manipulate subspace energy, and their bodies' adaptation for zero-gravity environments.
The idea that Shivans are energy-based life forms is coherent with the FS Canon; the cutscene with the Shivans and what other references are made, fully back this idea almost 100%. If someone indeed thinks this is stupid perhaps they should play Freespace1/2 more often.
3. To the GTVA in Gamma Draconis, following Bosch's activation of the first Knossos portal... a device that literally warps and twists the subspace fabric in order to form new jump nodes.
Highly unlikely! They would have destroyed all the Knossos Portals if they caused damaged or altered subspace in any way (later you say why they haven't destroyed the device, a race who are quite familiar with the physics of subspace should know how to alter and repair and if necessary remove devices related to it), it would have become an even bigger threat then the Terrans or Vasudans. Knossos Portals merely stabilise an unstable node, in retrospect a Knossos can stabilise highly unstable nodes. I would have to say it’s impossible to destroy a node.
"Great Preservers"
That’s not a reference it’s a poetic interpretation from a military stand point of view! :nod:
The Lucifer-class vessel destroyed at the close of the Great War was the only known craft of its type to exist in the entire Shivan armada. After 32 years, the design may now be obsolete, or the superdestroyers themselves might only be manufactured in minimal numbers. We have no way of confirming either hypothesis.
They could have been created or grown, manufactured has such a synthetic meaning. :p. I think the Lucifer-class vessels still exist. They are only on ‘Scouting Parties’.
The activation of the Knossos involved subspace disruption on a larger scale, and would have merited the Shivans' more immediate attention.
I doubt it especially when they were able to establish so many portals in their empire
For these reasons, the Shivans must have some base of operations from which their forces originate. More on this later.
Agreed :D
The player and various other vessels can fire on the Knossos in-game with no visible effect. We know for a fact that the portal is a sturdy structure, simply because the detonation of the first Meson bomb--despite wiping out all small craft within some three kilometers--caused no apparent damage. Whether or not the Knossos could withstand assault by a Sathanas is another question entirely, but since the largest Shivan vessels to enter Gamma Draconis prior to the destruction of the portal were of cruiser-class, then the point becomes moot. We can assume that the Shivans could probably destroy the portals by detonating nearby stars, but would they really go to all that trouble when it would be easier to eliminate traffic through the node?
Wouldn’t the destruction of a star have influence on the Subspace Node System?
The narrator explains, in simple terms, that the Shivans exterminate older, advanced races to ensure the survival of younger, undeveloped ones. The predecessors to the Ancients, whoever they were, were destroyed by the Shivans so that the Ancients might thrive; the Ancients, in turn, were themselves destroyed so that humanity, and presumably Vasudans (although there is evidence that the Vasudans themselves may in fact be descendants of the scattered Ancient population) could survive. As the narrator mentions, humanity--having assumed its own mantle as conqueror of the cosmos, rampantly colonizing, exploring, and waging war upon the Vasudans--had nearly reached the time of its own destruction.
I don’t believe the Shivans exist to Keep the peace..
”Admiral Petratch”, Ending 1
To the officers and crew of the GTD Aquitaine. We have halted the Shivan advance. The battle of Capella is over. We sealed off the system and our people are safe, maybe forever. No one can fathom how or why the Shivans destroyed the Capella star. Though we know our enemy better now than we did 32 years ago, their motives remain a mystery. Perhaps they are exiles like we are, nomads wandering the universe, searching for a way back home. The explosion of a star might be a bridge between this universe and their own. As the old poet once said "
There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy." From our odyssey into Hell we have returned with a gift. The Ancient technology to build a portal between Delta Serpentis and Sol. To restore the link to our blue planet. To return home after all these years.
This is Admiral Petrach, signing off.
I tend to think that V has some how pointed us towards a cliff hanger… (its highlighted).
Bosch suspects that the cycle of destruction perpetuated by the Shivans has continued for a very long time--longer, perhaps, than any of us can estimate.
Good Point :yes:
At the end of the First Great War, the Shivans failed to complete their objective of xenocide--quite possibly the first time they had ever failed to accomplish their monstrous task. Unlike the Ancients before them, the Terrans and Vasudans were able to heed the age-old cautions they discovered, able to learn from them, able to adapt them for their races' own purposes.
The Ancients could have been destroyed by the second invasion not the scouting party, nothing in the texts suggest otherwise, only Altair which could have been isolated from the Empire after attacks in other systems, they may have assumed the entire race was destroyed…
(this theory is strengthened, albeit not much, by the fact that Capella turns green in hue. Yellow star + blue subspace node = green ).
Very interesting :nod:
Another thing, the Fs1 monologues can be interpreted so differently that there not good use for reference (personal thoughts on fs1 cutscenes). What they say is usually from a stand point, and too poetic. It seems more like a dialogue to decode!
Some of the information goes into highly speculative territory. Some nice ties in the information there, especially Theoretical Subspace Physics. There are some very good notes and ideas in the manifesto. Great Work ;) and Dedication :yes:
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An On-Topic Reply (imagine that)"
I'm just going to comment on a few select blocks of text in the order which they appeared:
The Shivans appear to lack the expertise needed to shield a capital-class vessel, with one notable exception: the heavily-armed superdestroyer Lucifer was protected by an impenetrable energy shield, likely energized by the ship's five reactors. Allied craft were never able to penetrate the shield directly, and were forced to circumvent the mechanism entirely by ambushing the Lucifer during subspace transit, a time during which its shields would not function.
The Lucifer-class vessel destroyed at the close of the Great War was the only known craft of its type to exist in the entire Shivan armada. After 32 years, the design may now be obsolete, or the superdestroyers themselves might only be manufactured in minimal numbers. We have no way of confirming either hypothesis.
The Lucifer Super Destroyer (or something like it) has been inservice for thousands of years, we know this because the Ancients fought against a shielded warship and lost. I think its unreasonable to assume that
1. the Lucifer is a unique vessel
2. that the Lucifer was the same ship to fight the ancients
Just because there aren't any Lucifers in FS2 doesn't mean they're aren't more around.
d. Is it possible that the Shivans captured Bosch in order to interrogate him?
Unlikely. The Shivans have never previously been interested in talking to either Terrans or Vasudans, and have never taken prisoners (with the exception of Bosch and his command crew). We are granted very few glimpses of Shivan/Terran personal interaction: once in the "Hall Fight" cutscene, and again with the apperance of the Lucifer at Tombaugh Station (described in the Freespace Reference Bible). We may or may not wish to include the boarding of the Iceni as a third example. In each case, contact has been extremely violent, with no intent to discuss any sort of terms, or indeed, to ask questions of any sort.
I think this statement is somewhat contradictory. You say that the Shivans have never been interested in taking prisoners and yet at the same time say that Shivans won't interrogate (ie talk to) Bosch. Well if they're not going to talk to him, what the heck was the point of taking him alive?? From the fact that Bosch was taken we can assume three things:
1. There is no prior evidence of Shivans boarding Terran or Vasudan vessels; the fact that they've never used ground troops suggests that such an occurance is extraordinary.
2. The shivans knew who Bosch was ; in a ship with thousands of crew members, only Bosch and his officers were not killed.
3. The fact he's alive, among the Shivans is important. Volition wouldn't end the first of two major storylines by saying "hey, shivans took bosch but they're just going to poke him it has not real consequences"
We know that subspace is relatively "fickle". The FS database tells us that most nodes open and close within milliseconds. We also know that larger nodes can be collapsed by way of large explosions, such as the sealing-off of the Sol-Delta Serpentis node by the destruction of the Lucifer, or the collapse of all nodes leading off Capella by Orion-class destroyers loaded with Meson warheads ("Clash of the Titans II"). Therefore, I feel it is not unreasonable to speculate that subspace damage is also incurred, on some level, by the use of subspace travel. It is entirely possible that traffic through subspace corridors will accelerate node collapse more quickly than the natural passage of time.
If the average subspace node lasts milliseconds, the lack of permanent subspace nodes would be the norm. Therefore, the collapse of subspace nodes by explosions or travel would also be moving things towards a more normal state of affairs.
Therefore, I'm unconvinced that travel through a subspace node has any effect whatsoever. Though certainly, the release of a massive amount of energy within a node will collapse it.
The Shivans do not "use" Knossos portals, per se. The portals exist in Shivan-controlled areas, but so far as we know, the Shivans do not know for certain how to activate them, or precisely what they are used for. It was Admiral Bosch who drew the Shivans' ire with his activation of the first Knossos;
This is an unfounded assumption. We do not know if the Knossos caused any emotional reaction whatsoever (negative or otherwise). What we do know, is that either from the Knossos' activation or from the appearance of the Trinity within the nebula, the Shivans began utilising the node and entering Gamma Draconis.
At the time of the SOC mission, only nine juggernauts had jumped into the unidentified binary system. Days later, when the armada gathered around Capella, that number had increased ninefold. This, of course, could be mere coincidence, but it could also be an indication that the objects destroyed by the SOC had more value than mere radio relay stations.
This is also a false assumption, in loop2-2 Snipes states: Sathanas number six now in system. At this rate, we'll have a hundred Juggernauts bearing down on Capella in no time. Before destruction of the devices, the number of juggernauts moving in was already at the final levels. If anything, the number of Juggernauts DECREASED with the destruction of the devices because only 85 showed up instead of 100+. It's also safe to assume that since Snipes says it, Voltion means it. As I would think most in-game dialogue (cutscene or otherwise) has purpose behind it rather than just "this'll sound cool"
If true, it would mean that the SOC destroyed something far more vital than simple communications equipment. It would mean they destroyed installations absolutely vital to the Shivans' continued existence, and quite possibly killing an untold number of them by suddenly and abruptly severing their life support.
Furthermore, to refute the above, if the destruction of the devices killed untold numbers of Shivans, the assault would have been delayed would it not have?
The second, simpler reason is the simple fact that unlike the Shivans, Terran and Vasudan fleets actually make progress. So far as anyone knows, the Shivan species has remained essentially the same--if not stagnant--for the last eight thousand years, using the same kind of weaponry (as per the discoveries of the Vasudan scientists in Altair), and presumably, the same kinds of spacecraft.
This is completely false. A Lilith has a shivan turret in FS1, a LRed in FS2, isn't that progress?
The massing of the juggernaut fleet to destroy Capella must have one of two purposes: either as an offensive or defensive action.
Unfounded. Not everything the Shivans do must be offensive or defensive, there are more reasons than that. Take the Beleth, the Demon which was supporting the Sathanas, it didn't engage the Sobek but continued towards the node? Why? It had other things to do. Maybe the Shivans just had more important things to do than killing of the T/Vs just then.
We know that subspace is inherently unstable, both due to the brief formation/collapse of most nodes, and due to the fact that jump portals--once opened via jump drive--do not remain open for long, but quickly seal up after the vessel in question has entered the subspace corridor. If the Shivans are, in essence, living subspace energy, then their first explorers would have met a grotesque end, the very energy composing their beings dissipating and drifting off into the void.
The idea that Shivans are energy-based life forms is coherent with the FS Canon; the cutscene with the Shivans and what other references are made, fully back this idea almost 100%. If someone indeed thinks this is stupid perhaps they should play Freespace1/2 more often.
(above is from two posts)
If shivans are subspace beings, two questions need answering:
1. How does an energy being manipulate metal to make starships and space suits?
2. Why does an energy being need a space suit at all? They don't use ground troops? Why not simply have a solid spaceship and live as a part of the ship? Have a Sathanas as your space suit, that'll be more protective than some 2m tall thing. Energy beings don't need suits, and they don't need hallways to move around.
3. By quoting the text about the shivan weapon in Hall Fight, why is it assumed that the harnessing of energy to fire must mean it is an energy being? Do not lifeforms such as humans have energy as well? That's the entire basis of the Matrix triology. Perhaps the Shivans are simply advanced enough to harness their body energy.
1. "In the Lion's Den" is considered by many--including myself--to be the most compelling and exciting of all the Freespace missions. It provides a unique perspective from the cockpit of the Shivan Mara, an exhilirating intro ("DIVE, DIVE, DIVE!"), and witty commentary throughout by Snipes. It also gives the player the first real glance at Shivan "space", unobscured by thick nebular clouds. Wouldn't you think it somewhat anti-climactic, therefore, for the main targets in this mission to be little more than glorified satellite dishes?
2. Don't you think the Comm Nodes make unusually big bangs upon their destruction, if they are really simple communications equipment? The Alliance has studied Shivan comm systems before, but these give off "unusual" sensor readings before they go kablooey. Why?
I don't buy it. I don't buy the fact the a Comm Node, a defensive object in the middle of nowhere, is the lifeblood of Shivans in far off systems. I also don't agree with basing such importance on optional missions. Remember, that a player could play the campaign + skip these missions with the story still making sense. It makes sense in the Bosch case.
But since we're on the subject, here's my own hypothesis in short form:
A - the Shivans are a hive mind as suggested. They have a queen and a master hive, a Cyotus as you said.
B - Near the end of FS2, the Shivans were amassing a fleet to go and wipe out the Terrans. Even assuming they suspected a Colossus fleet, there's simply no reason for the Shivans to retreat by loosing barely more than 1 percent of their forces.
C - the Comm Nodes rather, are simply that: Communication Nodes. They have unusually high energies because they don't do system to system communication, but rather they connect the Shivan armada to main hive. By destroying the Comm Nodes, you destroy the link and the Shivan fleet is leaderless.
D - In the same way that Borg chick Seven of Nine yearned to return to the collective, so do the Shivans wish to return home to regain their link. The destruction of Capella was infact a return, not a retreat, to the Shivan home base, whether it be an alternate dimension or otherwise.
E - so, while the end seems hopeless the player infact saves the universe once again. By destroying a few comm nodes, he disrupts the communications and instead of the juggernauts annihilating all life they instead return home for some new orders.
F - By the same assumption, as a scouting force, the Lucifer fleet is expected to operate on its own. Therefore the Lucifer was the leader. Since there are no Lucifers in FS2, there are no leaders except at home base.
There you go
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Originally posted by Akalabeth Angel
If shivans are subspace beings, two questions need answering:
1. How does an energy being manipulate metal to make starships and space suits?
That is something that will be explained once the human race encounters one. Meanwhile ones imagination may be endless and vast but ideas and answers come slowly. So if I come up with an answer or some sort of explanation or theory I'll post it. :D
Originally posted by Akalabeth Angel
2. Why does an energy being need a space suit at all? They don't use ground troops? Why not simply have a solid spaceship and live as a part of the ship? Have a Sathanas as your space suit, that'll be more protective than some 2m tall thing. Energy beings don't need suits, and they don't need hallways to move around.
Lets just say for the moment that it is an energy being and living outside of subspace without some sort of containment suit would kill them. To live part of the ship is a possibility, for we know the ship may be partially organic. We haven't seen them use groud troops but it is unlikely...
Maybe they need suits to harness the energy for weapons and other processors. They may indeed be like the Vorlons, all we saw so far of the Shivans are them in suits when we boarded a vessel, nothing more. They could have been in some sort of defense suit when the Terrans came aboard.
Originally posted by Akalabeth Angel
3. By quoting the text about the shivan weapon in Hall Fight, why is it assumed that the harnessing of energy to fire must mean it is an energy being? Do not lifeforms such as humans have energy as well? That's the entire basis of the Matrix triology. Perhaps the Shivans are simply advanced enough to harness their body energy.
Well they are advanced and I would have to say related to subspace in some form or another. Though would it not make more sense that the beings are energy because they are 'born out of the flux of subspace'
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The idea that Shivans are energy-based life forms is coherent with the FS Canon; the cutscene with the Shivans and what other references are made, fully back this idea almost 100%. If someone indeed thinks this is stupid perhaps they should play Freespace1/2 more often.
I'm curious, exactly what in the cutscenes and/or the Reference Bible give the impression that the Shivans are an energy-based lifeform? I just rewatch and reread the FS1 material and found nothing which suggested that whatsoever. If anything, Hallfight suggests that the Shivans have bodies. When one of the Shivans die there is no hint of energy being released, it simply explodes more like a robot than anything else. The firing of the plasma beam at the soldier has the same effect that the Lucifer is supposed to have, and that FS2 beam weapons have. It simply draws particles into itself before firing. Is a GTD Hecate an energy being also? Of course not, so why would that effect suggest that they are?
Lets just say for the moment that it is an energy being and living outside of subspace without some sort of containment suit would kill them. To live part of the ship is a possibility, for we know the ship may be partially organic. We haven't seen them use groud troops but it is unlikely...
Maybe they need suits to harness the energy for weapons and other processors. They may indeed be like the Vorlons, all we saw so far of the Shivans are them in suits when we boarded a vessel, nothing more. They could have been in some sort of defense suit when the Terrans came aboard.
How do we know that the ship may be partially organic? What in FS canon even remotely suggests this? Derelict? Derelict isn't cannon, and the effects of the Nyarlathotep de-stablizing the node by remaining within it should not be seen as canon either. I think a lot of people have consciously or subconsciously taken Derelict to have some elements of canon, especially in their campaigns, when in fact everything in the campaign is 3rd party and compared to FS, pure bulls***. Which of course isn't to say its not a great campaign, but any story which is not supported by FS1+2 should not be regarded as anything but 3rd party conjecture.
Once again, I say, what does an energy being need with a space suit? Don't compare Shivans to Vorlons. For one thing, Vorlons don't need space suits, they use space suits to cover up their angelic appearance which they used to manipulate the younger races. And they're actually called "Encounter Suits" used to encounter other races.
But as for the Shivans, if they are in fact energy beings and they do need some sort of suit then why not simply use a space ship as your suit? There is absolutely no reason why an energy being simply wouldn't reside inside their own ships. The use of hallways, and other such structures is a complete waste of space. An energy being would only use such bodies as defensive robots, not used to defend their vessels but to board enemy vessels. However, since [V] has stated that the beings seen are infact Shivans, not robots, then therefore they're not energy beings.
Look at it this way, lets say your computer tower is a Shivan vessel, and within that tower are a bunch of energy-based shivans. As it stands, the shivans can nearly instaneously move from one part of the tower to another through the electronic gizmos one finds in a computer. If the shivans need some sort of containment, let's say they live in the hardrive. That's their containment source. What you and the manfiest guy are proposing, is that instead of your average computer tower, the shivans have built little rooms and tunnels within it. And instead of living the hard drive, there's a bunch of little robots with little hard drives to hold individual shivans that move up and down these hallways to do whatever task they need to do.
Now my question is, as an energy being would the shivans be completely stupid? No, they wouldn't. So they wouldn't build tunnels and little bodies to hold themselves in. Living in a self-contained body poses two problems:
A - it imposes SEVERE limitations on the energy beings ability to move. How long does it take you to get from say New York to London? Even by the fastest plane in the world, an SR-71 Blackbird? A long time. How long does it take your voice to travel to London when you're talking to some dude on the telephone? A few seconds at most? So why in the world would a Shivan purposely place the limitations of a physical body upon themselves when their pure energy form is so much more free. If one says "in order to survive", cannot a shivan survive in a much more larger construct? Instead of using a body to survive in, why not survive in the encompasing shell of a cities' electronic grid for example. Then a Shivan could move from point A to B in the blink of an eye.
B - It is a completely, and utterly inefficient waste of space. How much space on a warship is taken up by crew quarters, hallways, tunnels, rooms and whatever? A lot. If the Shivans are some of the most efficient killers in known space, why wouldn't they build efficient starships? And again, use a containment system encompassed by the whole ship, not some little body.
Well they are advanced and I would have to say related to subspace in some form or another. Though would it not make more sense that the beings are energy because they are 'born out of the flux of subspace'
Freespace canon, in my opinion points to one thing. The Shivans are more intimate and knowledgable of subspace, nothing more. I don't see where there's any evidence of energy-based life forms whatsoever.
As for subspace itself, remember that it was originally called freespace, not subspace. As for the manifesto author's idea that the name subspace means it supports normal space, I don't think there's evidence for that either. In the reference bible, it states that scientists don't really know much about subspace other than how to travel through it. Therefore, it is logical to assume that the name a group of scientists give to something they know nothing about, just happens to be the correct name??? I don't think it is. Furthermore, the reasoning that because Shivans blockade + contol nodes (something only evidenced by the ref bible, not the game btw) says that they're protecting subspace is irrational also. I think its more akin to the Shivans know more routes of travel, so they block the obvious ones and use the less-obvious ones to dominate their opponent strategically.
Also, to Xel, where do you get this 'born out of the flux of subspace' quote from??
Anyway, I don't know why the Shivans are "the symptom of a bigger problem", but I don't think its the collapse of the universe through damage to subspace.
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"Born out of the flux of subspace" is a Bosch quote IIRC. Which in itself doesn't imply that it's correct necessarily.
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Went through and added a few minor details. Made numerous style changes (italics) and corrected typos.
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Lets just say for the moment that it is an energy being and living outside of subspace without some sort of containment suit would kill them. To live part of the ship is a possibility, for we know the ship may be partially organic. We haven't seen them use groud troops but it is unlikely...
1. Subspace conditions seem little different from realspace, judging from the fact that nothing happens to crewed starships traveling through them.
2. The ships are clearly artificial in nature, being composed of metals and some kind of red crystalline material. Just LOOK AT THEM. Besides, organic materials would fare poorly against the brutal radiation, debris, and other hazards of outer space. Crews in space need radiation shielding to survive, and organic materials make for TERRIBLE radiation shielding, being composed of complex molecules and light elements. The radiation would quickly destroy the organic hull.
[quote[Maybe they need suits to harness the energy for weapons and other processors. They may indeed be like the Vorlons, all we saw so far of the Shivans are them in suits when we boarded a vessel, nothing more. They could have been in some sort of defense suit when the Terrans came aboard.[/quote]
I believe that those "suits" are actually their bodies, which are altered to accept the plasma cannons and energy blade devices. The implants would be connected to the Shivan's equivalent of a nervous system so it can be controlled like a part of the creature's body, but it would have an independent power source.
Well they are advanced and I would have to say related to subspace in some form or another. Though would it not make more sense that the beings are energy because they are 'born out of the flux of subspace'
Please. Semantics are not good evidence, especially from someone like Bosch, who knows nothing for certain about the Shivans' origins.
One more thing: Volition explicitly said those things seen in Hallfight were the Shivans' actual bodies.
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Akalabeth Angel
How do we know that the ship may be partially organic?
I remember in FS2 (Playing through the game right now) someone mentioned that the red glowing parts maybe somewhat alive or orangic something similar to that, maybe I remember it a different way...
@ Akalabeth Angel, seeing that V can vouch for the Shivans... lets ignore it for just one second and say they were energy, if they were not wearing a suit of some kind how would they evacuate a ship thats about to explode or perhaps jump onto one as seen from the clip on the fs disc. If they went outside there own vessel without a suit they would die would they not?
Originally posted by Woolie Wool
One more thing: Volition explicitly said those things seen in Hallfight were the Shivans' actual bodies.
Ok, something I did not know. :o
Originally posted by Woolie Wool
Semantics are not good evidence, especially from someone like Bosch, who knows nothing for certain about the Shivans' origins.
Yeh I know, I just thought I'd use it :D
Originally posted by Woolie Wool
organic materials would fare poorly against the brutal radiation, debris, and other hazards of outer space. Crews in space need radiation shielding to survive, and organic materials make for TERRIBLE radiation shielding, being composed of complex molecules and light elements. The radiation would quickly destroy the organic hull.
Not necessarily, organic materials could be great against radiation... what your saying is merely speculation, of course so am I.
Anyways I think this cleary ends my participation in this thread, it requires too much thinking right now... I actually like the way the Shivans are, someone on this forum described it quite well once and I think thats the way I'll leave it. :D
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lets ignore it for just one second and say they were energy, if they were not wearing a suit of some kind how would they evacuate a ship thats about to explode or perhaps jump onto one as seen from the clip on the fs disc. If they went outside there own vessel without a suit they would die would they not?
Perhaps. It depends on what sort of being they are. Does anyone believe that the glowing claws and plasma cannon are born naturally with the creature? I'd doubt that premise. Either the Shivans are in a suit, or they have enhanced themselves through technology to function within zero gravity and in the vacuum of space (for limited periods of time).
Regardless of whether those are shivans true bodies, or enhanced bodies, or shivans in combat armor, the fact remains that there's no reason an energy being would restrict themselves to a body like that.
If an energy being was within a ship without hallways + rooms but rather just confined within the ship itself, and the ship started to explode then the energy beings (assuming they needed the ship to surive) would probably be screwed. Else, they could all squeeze into an escape battery and fly off somewhere else as well.
As an aside, one thing that I always wondered about is how such a big creature like a Shivan can fit into their little thin + narrow fighter planes. Are they crewed by Shivans? Or are they autonomous drones of some variety?
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Those ships are bigger than you think--even the Dragon is the size of a house (16m long, 6m wide, 3-5m high) and the cockpit is towards the aft part of the ship, which is taller than the front. A Shivan in normal posture is around 3m wide, 3m long, and 2m tall, and is much smaller if you fold up the legs and arms.
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I just managed to read all of this document, and i must say it's a really great work.
Hovewer, there are some points i want to discuss:
- The assumption that the shivans are pure energy beings. While there is no way to say that this assumpton is wrong, i also don't see any evidence that this could be true too. All we see are physical shivans, who use physical ships, who employ weapons to attack other physical things. Novere i see hits that the body of a shivan is merely a host for the ture shivan, and also Volition clearly stated that the shivans we see is their real body.
- The assumption that subspace is unstable and that contains no matter at all. I don't think in any case is mentioned that subspace is an unstable dimension, what is said is that the portals between realspace and subspace are volatile and unstable. If that assumpiton implies that subspace is unstable it can also implies that realspace is unstable too, and we know that is simply not true. Also how can we know that subspace doesnt' contain matter at all? All we see of subspace are narrow tunnels between two location of realspace, we never manage to really explore subspace freely, and as matter in realspace is scattered at enormous distance and is very rare compared to the total volume, tha same could be for subspace. I mean, if you can transport to a random place in realspace there are virtually no chance that you can come near a star or planet, so you'll wrongly assume that realspace is empty. Of course if there is matter in subspace it will probably be a very different and esotic kind of matter, and not the one we are used to.
- The assumption of shivans not being skilled with material construction because they are energy being. This is clearly wrong, because it is true that their fighters aren't armoured, but this is becauase they had nearly impenetrable sields to protect them (that's it, until GTVA developed adeguate weapons) so there was no need to make them sturdy. This is proved by the fact that their un-shielded battleship are as sturdy and armored as the GTVA equivalents, if not more. If the shivans were unable to create powerful armors how can their battleships be so strong, able to endure the deadly beam wepons of the GTVA with ease? Are they unable to create heavy armor for fighters only?
- The shivans fleeing from a probable colossus fleet. This is very very unlikely, and it's also assuming that the shivans are pretty stupid, which we know is not true. How can they order a massive retreat of a fleet, with many self caused losses, that clearly is superior in every aspects to that of the GTVA one, only because they lost a Sathanas? Also we all know that normally a Colossus can't beat a Sathanas in one-to one, and only managed to win thanks to alpha one that disabled the Juggernaut main armaments, and they must know that. I simply can't believe that the shivan can be scared that easily, i mean, ok they found GTVA had a ship comparable to their (not quite, but we assume so), what do they do? Attack in full force? Panic and retreat trying to save their asses? I firmly believe it's the first one... also if shivans are hive type creatures the single individuals will not be afraid of dead and will not panic and flee except when their defeat is certain. Finally, i think the shivans are smart enought to understand the colossus is one of a kind ship, or at least a very rare ship (while they have a lot of juggernauts).
- The assumption that the comm devices are more than just that, communicantion devices, is pure speculation and have no basis at all. Also i dont believe the shivans require anything to live in realspace more than their own bodies, else they will need to fill the systems they invade with their life-support device first, and this clearly doens't appens anywere.
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Overall, fantastic work. Some flaws sure, but some thoughts I want to raise.
I LIKE this explanation. It rings true to evidence (at least a reasonable interpretation of it) and is unique. As a Sci-fi fan, this is some good stuff here, especially regarding the nature and purpose of the Shivans. The "all-powerful alien race comes through a portal to kick your mojo" has been so overused it is pathetic. This fleshes out the shivans, adds details and intrigue to make them their own interesting plot along the lines of figuring out where the vorlons came from in B5.
If we are going to be writing the future of the freepsace universe, why go with old crap? I reject the idea that the shivans are servants of yet a more powerful race on this idea alone- it's a rotten story. This is good- lets use it!
Nature of subspace (my theory):
A non-localized energetic environment. Within subspace there is no relativity, meaning no distance, no space. To compare to our universe, it would be as if every point in subspace simultaneously also existed at every other point. (similar to the statrek concept of warp 10 extended to the entire dimension)
This explains why shivans are so easily perturbed by subspace distrubance- no matter where or on what scale the disturbance occured in realspace, it would be perceptible to the shivans in subspace. By this theory, subspace is more like a core around which the real universe is founded rather that a plane underneath it. Since no space exists in subspace it is as if all of subspace consists of 1 point, and if a bridge was made from subspace to realspace it could be made to any point in realspace suitable to form the conenction (aka, some sort of mega-node, Capella star hint hint).
This means subspace corridors are not channells through subspace, but instead going accross it. A localized phenomenon (eg, a starship) could not exist in non-local space. However, it might be possible for an interaction to reach from on point in realspace, accross subspace, to a second point in realspace- a subspace corridor.
Given the above, the nature of the shivans:
If subspace is a non-local envorinment, it would not foster any sort of individuation among lifeforms that develop there. Yet we see individual shivans. In their natural state, shivans are most likely one single entity- a unity of thought and conscioussness in the form of energy. The local nature of our space prevents this unity from existing (the fact of distance between two points prevents and sort of universal linkage within the boundaries of realspace). So, to interact in our space, they must therefore create localized pockets of conscioussness- individual shivans.
They then create bodies and ships to contain this awareness to prevent it from dissipating. This is relatively simple- the shivans have access to nearly limitless energy. Mass and energy are more or less interchangeable (this is essentially what E=mc2 states), so the convert their energy into mass. Likely this process is not feasible on a massive scale- a too large dispalacement of energy/mass would result in distortion of space. Also, this must occur through a connection between subspace and realspace, limiting the amount of energy transfered without causing a major subspace disruption, which the shivans desperately want to avoid. As a side note, energy from subspace would be formless, and there would need to be some way to organize into into structures here in realspace. This supports the concept of some sort of central installation, and explains their complete lack of interest in planets and resouces.
There is no evidence for any of this, and likely not what Volition had in mind, but there are no outright conflicts either. And who cares what voltion planned, Freespace is ours now, lets create some fantastic background info to go with it.
Summary of major points:
Subspace is really wierd- so much so that human existence in subspace is impossible and only superficially interactions with it are possible.
The shivans evolved in and may even be part of subspace. While in realspace they would likely be in some way completely dependent on their connection to subspace for survival.
The shivans are a a single entity within subspace, whose consciossness is distorted and fragmented when they enter realspace, becoming the shivans we know and love to blow up.
The shivans have limitless rescources, but limited ability to manifest those resources in realspace.
To me these points suggest a general plot for the resolution of the Great War scenario:
Possibility 1: The GTVA, through much trial and no doubt many battles (which we will get to fly in, hehehe) eventually discovers the true nature of the shivans and subspace, and creates or discovers technology to live in harmony with subspace.
Possibility 2: The GTVA defeat the shivans by driving them off, contunally expands, and indirectly causes the destruction of the shivans by perpetuating too much subspace damage (this damage need not nessecarily be massive enough to destroy the whole universe, just the shivans that live in subspace)
There may be more, but most appear to involve the death of the GTVA. The Alliance is one of my favorite aspects of freespace as a whole, the idea that countless individual civilizations fell and the Alliance stood is an appealing aspect of the story.
There are countless conflicts and stories to be written before either one of these endings- the existance of an ending is only to give direction to the journey after all, and it's the story that takes us there and the missions we'll fly in the process that are what we're truly after.
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:jaw: :jaw: :jaw: :jaw: :jaw: :jaw: :jaw: :jaw:
holy sh-crap-it
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*Points upward* Biggest. Bump. Evar!
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*reads it all* jesus christ, that's a lot of text. and well written, as well. excellent work, antares. this should be in our wiki. :)
i always thought that the Shivan CommNodes were like the pieces to the Shivan hive mind, if that's how their minds operate. :)
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Please constrain your discussion to the primary thread and do not bump old threads without good reason.
(Eight smilies and a stutter is not a good reason.)