[Answered] Skrell Lore Feedback?????

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Frances has gone on hiatus until March, and I didn't want to let the Skrell sit in stasis until then. So I took it upon myself to write up their wiki page with the help of Killerhurtz. I spoke with Frances' a lot about the direction the Skrell were to take, and I did my best to follow what I think she wanted them to go for.

My biggest addition is their entire history.

Notable additions:

• Their growth on Jargon IV and life before the Federation.
• The birth, death, and rebirth of the Federation.
  
• A description of the Three Incidents and why the Skrell hate Artificial Intelligence.
  
• A look into the Third Incident, also known as the Glorsh Rebellion.
  
• A glimpse into how bizarre our universe can get when AI's malfunction.

 

I also included their two dominant religions. I did them similar to the Unathi faiths: there are two main ones, but there are countless smaller faiths that can be anything creative players feel like their skrell would follow. I also tried to make them a bit more unique, making them deeply cultural affairs for such a logical species rather than worshipping the sun or something.

 

• Qeblak is an ancient Skrell faith that dates back before even written records. Queblak has no official church or religious leaders, with the modern form of the faith being more of a deep feeling that many Skrell have over their place in the galaxy.
• Weishii is the second dominant faith of the Skrell is a more modern faith. Weishiians believe that science itself is a spiritual endeavor, and they place spiritual importance in it.

 

I'd like public feedback on the overhaul of the Skrell species before I continue my work on them. Next on the agenda is fleshing out their history and relationship with dionae and the whole "implant" business, as well as the arts and culture. I'll also try to make the history more concise or accessible, since this first draft has a lot of information.

[ChevalierMalFet]

I know it's too late to change now, but I really wish someone had chosen a name other than "Jargon."

[Owen]

Alright, I have read through the lore. I am liking how it is turning out. Especially with the addition of all the extra history. Haven't really looked at it deeply enough to find anything too bad with it right now. Also, are those faiths new? I thought they used to just be called Atheists or something.

[Mofo1995]

I liked the new lore, I read through it. So, the genophage is still a problem or is being dealt with slowly?

[Guest]

I know it's too late to change now, but I really wish someone had chosen a name other than "Jargon."

 

Technically; that's the human word for it, Jargon translated into basic Skrellian (aka the stuff Human's can still pronounce but are still not favourable to use) is Nralakk in reference to the system and Qerrbalak in reference to their homeworld of Jargon IV.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

I have one final decision to make on the Skrell before I can expand on their implant shenanigans and consider them "mostly done".

The genophage!

The genophage is the reference to Mass Effect; a virus that Glorsh-Omega unleashed on the Skrell during his reign. Because of Glorsh-Omega's power, he managed to sterilize literally every Skrell in existence within a year. Skrell eggs just don't form right, where previously Skrell could have 6 - 10 kids at a time.

My decision is how bad the genophage is now, in 2458. The way I see it, it can go two ways:

 

• 1) Recovery. The centuries of intense research and experimentation has lead to a partial reversal of the damage of the genophage. The Skrell population is growing, extremely slowly. With extensive fertility treatments roughly half of Skrell women and men can see their eggs turn into tadpoles then grow up to be squids. It's still a coin flip if you're totally sterile. This lets players decide if the genophage has impacted their squid, and because of the long lifespans, they can also decide if they were directly affected by its original outbreak.
  
  
  
  2) Full sterilization. The genophage remains a serious problem. The knowledge and processes Glorsh-Omega used to engineer the gene-altering virus has proved extremely difficult to pin down and reverse. 99% of Skrell remain sterile, with 4 - 5 Skrell total born every year. This would put the Skrell as a dying race, though their long lifespans means it would be at least another 200 years before their numbers started seriously dropping.

 

This one, personally, is the most interesting to me. Every single Skrell players would have an immediate problem to their character that they would reasonably dislike, and it's a resentment that can be directly tied to Glorsh-Omega and synthetics in general. It would also really help explain the reasons the Skrell military acts how it does - the Skrell value their individuals lives far too much to throw them away for just anything, and why they predominately stick to vat-grown clone soldiers with 40-year lifespans for black-op warbles across the galaxy.

It explains why the Unathi can be raging dicks while at the same time being fucking obliterated the moment they warp into Jargon space. They have the most advanced fleet in the galaxy, but their patience and preference to only throw themselves at threats to Federation space itself means that their position is exploitable, which opens up a lot of fun shenanigans for the narrative of our lore.

Also, I've seen some people complaining about the sterilization or Skrell lore in OOC. Please post these complaints here because I disregard/forget every conversation in OOC and dsay.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

I liked the new lore, I read through it. So, the genophage is still a problem or is being dealt with slowly?

 

Currently the wiki says that it remains problematic in the "present day" blurb. Whether or not this changes depends on how severe we want the genophage to be.

[Mofo1995]

So, as it currently stands, you said on server that a Skrell can have 1-3 children in a life time with the help of exceptional fertility treatment. I like the 1-3 number, but I think the "extensive fertility treatment" thing much be a bit much, as I think it implies massive fertility treatment centers all over Jargon just to cater to the needs of all the ladies, and could be too much also given the lack of romance Skrell have.

I suggest a better alternative might be that the genophage was partially undone on a species-wide scale, and that 1-3 in a lifetime is the result, with no further breakthroughs in sight.

EDIT: P.S. you should check out my lore canonization request on Nazi Hunters: Skrell Edition and give me your thoughts.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

So, as it currently stands, you said on server that a Skrell can have 1-3 children in a life time with the help of exceptional fertility treatment. I like the 1-3 number, but I think the "extensive fertility treatment" thing much be a bit much, as I think it implies massive fertility treatment centers all over Jargon just to cater to the needs of all the ladies, and could be too much also given the lack of romance Skrell have.

I suggest a better alternative might be that the genophage was partially undone on a species-wide scale, and that 1-3 in a lifetime is the result, with no further breakthroughs in sight.

EDIT: P.S. you should check out my lore canonization request on Nazi Hunters: Skrell Edition and give me your thoughts.

 

Does the lack of romance really make a disconnect, though? In the big picture, fertility treatment and research centers are meant to help Skrell deal with a damaging genetic virus and keep their population rate high enough to prevent them all from dying off. Individually, Skrell can still want to raise a family, they just don't woo their husband with chocolate-coated seaweed or whatever. So the combination of needing these gene therapy treatments in the first place with all of its time and investment means that most Skrell just don't bother - Jargon healthcare may be universal and free but your time isn't!

On an immediate level, making it impact all Skrell would give them that undercurrent. With the full genophage they're a dying race, and every single Skrell on the station has the knowledge that they're sterile and they can trace it back to a single malfunctioning AI and his army of medical borgs. Would it be heavy handed? Probably! Is it the aesthetic we want for the Skrell? Maybe! Knowing that your species will be reduced to a handful of squids in a mere 400 years, and potentially extinct in no more than 800...

And yes, I read your app. I'll get onto that one in that thread itself.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

I've taken Mofo into account and believe I've settled on how I want to go with it.

The genophage still impacts the Skrell severely. The baseline is that 50% of Skrell are completely, absolutely sterile. 50% of the rest of the Skrell are able to be treated thanks to the many years of extensive genetic research. However the process of reversing the genophage is extremely difficult and time-consuming and there is no guarantee of success. The root of all of this is that roughly a third (or 33%) of Skrell are actually having kids. In the past the average fertile Skrell could have 8 children at any time as many times in the year as they wanted. Modern, treated Skrell can have 2 - 3 eggs survive to grow into children.

I'll leave this open until the end of monday (barring interesting conversation that'll make me want to keep it up longer) for any last feedback or conversation.

[Mofo1995]

I like it a lot, sounds great to me, really excited about the new Skrell lore!

[Guest]

This is good stuff. It was worth reading during my break yesterday to kill time.