It's an age old question jdjtcagle, but we guess the answer is gameplay.
BTW you need oxigane to burn anything or some other oxigent substant.
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Lightspeed this is an excelent theory!
However I once again have to voice my own version
I think my whole attempt to "enlighten" your point of view would be very similar to a discussion between Platon and Aristoteles.
Platon believed in an other world - or the world of ideas - and his beliefs formed the very bases for our culture (religion included, along with the prospect of a soul!), while Aristoteles claimed that the ideas he spoke of was nothing but abstactions of the world, an image that human creates in his mind.
IMHO the same stands for subspace.
You speak of it as another world in the same place - I think it's the SAME WORLD in the SAME PLACE!
Later I'll do a "technical run down of my subspace idea
".
To make the whole concept short, subspace is present in small pockets however at certain places - like the big blackwhole at the middle of the galaxy, or a blackwhole that remained from the Big Bang it is very fluid and more stabile than elsewhere, so there is no such thing as a pure "subspace world".
However what I agree on is that the use of subspace "hurts subspace" - but not real space, and I doubt it would collapse the universe for if it could it would have quite a while ago.
I think that the damage can be undone - however it takes several millenias for subspace to regain its texture.
I doubt Shivans have originated from subspace since they are too physical to be energy beings - and I think only energy beings can be born in a world that's constantly shifting and has huge energies on the loose - however they could have been sent by one specie who is.
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The point I'd like to emphasis is their age - as I always do.
Thousands of years! Human history in not roughly more than ten thousand years (some would say twenty)!
These being lived for thousand years without chaging too much - they are either incapable of change or their current way of life is too rigid.
The reason behind this could be that they are robots - but if they're just automats, then they couldn't even handle the necessities of war.
So they are ither partly/wholly cybernetic beings sent by someone or acting on their own volition, one things remains the same - they're ancient.
That thing alone answers why they have zero-G tendencies in their bodies - or why zero-G evolution has taken a toll on them - they've just spent so much time in space they evolved while doing so!
Back to the age stuff, if they are that old....and still not Gods.... they must have reached a static level of life or at least something - or they temselves - prevent them from evolving further (.....or degenerating too. Some believe the only evitable end of evolution is death and decay and only doom awaits at the end of the tunnel).
So we have a
bunch of cyborgs in a form that is milenias old (we don't know wheter they live that long, but their way of life and the way they handle things seems to suggest they are quite used to everything the universe may throw at them and simply stopped caring - they've always won, so they will win just like they did so far regardless setbacks).
If their culture or customs are that ancient it has to be quite static or have a very strong basis to stand throughout the changes of history.
Before you go on and say "Good, now what about their motives?" let's ponder this a little more. Did we have smg. similar on Earth, during our own Terran history.
You won't really find examples withing your reach, for the Western/European/American culture was always in perril and such forms of state were impossible.
As Henry Kissinger puts it in the Introduction of his book "History of Diplomacy", in Europe where the land is small and resources are close the constant struggle of wills was seen as an insusrer of the greater peace.
However most of Earth never knew such belief! In the East, Asia was ruled by EMPIRES most of the time - they stood for hundred if not thousand years and the dimensions of an individual were far less important than his place in the greater picture.
If we can take any merit from the above, then I have to conclude that
Shivans have IMPERIAL tendencies, not in the terms of the age of colonisation, but rather the very thoughts and ideals of living in a huge imperium.
The other possibility is that they resemble a more primitive form, the tribal society that has lived even today (please take a look at the Middle East). During our entire history some place on Earth were so harsh that it was impossible to maintian a stabile life - so only nomad tribes could exist.
Of course as technology advanced less and less places fir into the category, but who can say that were never setbacks, or other problems that arose with the effects of the said advancement on society (IMHO the several dictatorships and other late "cyberpunkish" tendencies around centralised power show this desire for the return an earlier "form of leadership" (with deadly promise for opposition) that can hold the society together).
Never the less tribal and dictatoric societies exit and I'm afraid that they will exist in the future too. These societies are very rigid by nature to ensure the sheer survival of the people when resources are far between.
This situations can arise anywhere in history so this form of society or just the general rigidness can arise time to time.
It is possible that
Shivans inherited nomadic/tribal tendencies.
Now we have a deadly mixture for Shivan behavior.
If something is old it has to be rigid if it's unchanging. The two possibilities I saw is either the
imperialistic character created by the sheer wastness of the culture - and it is a good generalisation that the older a state the "bigger" it gets culturally and by sheer territory if it maintains it position, the other is the
nomad tendancy created by the harshness of life.
Mix those -
imperial with
nomad.
The fact they ruled so long, as well as their constant move and lack of interest in planets can validate both statements.
You have a substance that can be more evil than anything to your Christian soul (I mean Christian as someone brought up in that cultural environment, it's not religion I speak of), for it contradicts most of your beliefs and your ways of life.
Vasudans were - imperial, civilised. Terrans idividualistic, civilised.
Regardless their motives or their origin with those attributes they are going to be the
nemesis of Terrans.
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So if we look for the goals of Shivans we have 3 things to consider:
-Shivans are
ancient--> imperial, nomad
-Subspace is damaged by its very use.
The Shivans could originate from an empire - their own, or their masters, that would explain the imperial part more clearly than the sheer time stuff (though such a mindset has a greater chance to endure time).
If it was their/their masters empire they must have used subspace - and an empire that old is beyond our imgination. It must have been huge.
However the greater the emire the heavier the subspace use - so in growing so big any empire in effect kills itself.
Asimov portreys this excelently in his Foundation novels - over centralisation leads to decay and eventual impossibility to keep the centre alive, while decentralisation leads to fragmentation of the state.
You need a massive flow of matter and spirit (yes, spirit, a part of culture the general ideals and thought IMHO are just as important as goods), to maintain the empire - for the lack will separate the parts and either lead to fragmentation or an ever growing strain between the centre and the ruled worlds.
Either the Shivans or their Masters must have realised this - or they would have perished - so some measure was taken to prevent or reform the use of subspace.
So a
purpose of the Shivan is to solve the subspace crisis.Going from the nomadic point of view Shivans could have been nomads all the time - however as simple nomads they would never rise to the piller of power they stand upon.
They either became nomads following a powerfull cataclysm ("their exile") or were created as wanderers to do their duty (monitoring/annihilting the leseer subspace users), it is also possible they were the nomads who brought down the empire before it could kill itself so subspace abuse, and live off the remains.
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TO SUM UP MY THOUGHTS OF SHIVAN NATURE-Shivans are ancient --> imerial and/or nomadic - probably both
-Subspace fragile --> subspace crisis
Shivans are an answer to the subspace crisis.
They are either smg. that remained from a once great empire (as its servants/soldiers, once rulers or the rebells who brought it down), or the empire has left our know world along with the crisis leaving the Shivans behind to prevent another crisis.
They can protect an existing empire too - however the empire can be in decay, or exist mostly in the Shivans imagination remaining in ruins, or the Shivans can struggle to revive it and has to pacify the whole galaxy to do so - and calm the ripples of subspace as well.
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COCKYTUS -
viable without the center of universe - the galactic balckwhole would be just as good.
Their could be an alternate answer other than the regulation of subspace travel or annihilation:
I liked the
Cockytus idea - by moving INTO SUBSPACE, a transfer system can be set up that can monitor and use subspace effectivly, with a carefull schedule and planning the effects of several and millions of vessels can be toned down.
Think of Lightspeed's glass with oild and water.
If you toned all the pokes to a rythm and the surface could keep up the pace - of course if you kept doing that eventually it would still be too much, but it would take a lot more effort.
It could be that that's what precisly happened. The empire thught they solved their problems, when a a couple of thousand years later they overstressed their new subspace, destroying their own civilisation - leaving the Shivans behind who vainly try to put things to their place "removing" off sync. interference who could casuse the breakdown - us and all the orher races, that have risen since the fall of the empire.
It is also possible that other events eventually consumed the empire leaving space for other races - however COCKYTUS is still there - with the promise of salvation.
However COCKYTUS was the empire's stronghold and centre, as well as the heart of the galaxy near the great black hole where subspace is smootherst.
A paradise in the abbys of death, guarded by the fiery dragons of an angry subspace enraged by mortals meddling with powers beyond their right.
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SUBSPACE
We don't live in a 4 dimensional time space, we live in multidimensional one. Stephan Hawkings already mentioned this theory in the "Brief History of Time" - he used the orange aproximation.
When you look at an orange from distance you can pretty much say it's a sphere - however if you look close you can notice all the small bumbs and trenches on the surface.
The same stands for the other dimensions - they don't come into play unless events take place on a miniscule scale - quantum phisic scale.
Latest studies try to explain this even without addition of new "dimensions". Instead - as far as I could understand - they explained it as if space could "wrap around itself" creating small pockets of universe.
Of cource these wraps have an edge - that's where you can enter.
However it seems the laws of physics aply everywherer - so gravity, electromagnetic fields, weak and strong interaction can intervince.
Gravity is special since it practically wraps space if some of Einstein's laws are viewed in that fashion, so gravity can disturb these pockets, and create an opportunity to enter - thereby a node.
IMHO subspace is not homogene, it is fractured in most of the universe but around big masses with great gravitiy it is more solid than elsewhere - this is the reason intra system jumps are esier to make.
