VileFault Posted October 24, 2016 Posted October 24, 2016 Type: Skrell Faction Founding/Settlement Date: 100 - 200 BCE Region of Space: The Jargon Federation Other Snapshot information: The Aelao (or the Manipulators) is an ancient group of highly augmented Skrell clones who specialize in working with complex spacial and mathematical puzzles that are incomprehensible to most. Though they suffered greatly during the rule of Glorsh-Omega, the Aleao have risen from the ashes as a prominent and well respected force in the modern Federation that may play a role in the course of events to come. Long Description: Here we go... | --- Regarding the Aelao ---| |---The World that Begat Them: As the Alliance of Three grew to an intercontinental empire during the early 100s BCE, it began to contend with problems the Skrell had never before suffered. Vast factories produced a multitude of luxury items and essential goods, yet the Alliance was still beset by numerous woes. Famine and disease often wracked the land, even though many regions produced plentiful antibiotics and food. Eventually, it was determined that this was due to the suboptimal distribution of goods; their pricing and movement was regulated only by the small worker councils that had little economic expertise or personal motivation. Most such councils regarded production as their civic duty, but rarely were incentivized to transport their goods to the areas where they were most needed. Entire crops of algae were once left to rot in the bog-fields of temperate Miftaup'nion while the people of frigid Q'luatop starved! Of course, when the situation became this dire the Alliance would send aid convoys to alleviate the famine, but such methods only ever lessened suffering - they did little to prevent it in the first place. |- The Skrell came to believe that some central body was needed to assure that everyone partook in the benefits of their considerable production and the bounties of modernity. Indeed, most Skrell workers were glad to hear out any proposal that would magnify the positive impact of their work, and balked at these seemingly avoidable tragedies. But talk of central planning raised many questions. What prices should be set? Where and when should goods be moved? Who needs how much of what? No Skrell bureaucracy seemed fully ready to take on the immense complexity of the management of Jaron IV's global economy. No matter, however. When Skrell encounter a problem they cannot yet conquer, they will create Skrell that can. To this end, a team of scientists was assembled from the Heshyu Collective and and Tzqul Republic to bring together cutting edge implant technology, genetic manipulation, Qeblak teachings, and a contemporary paragon of Skrellian virtue. |---The Genesis of the Aelao: In these years, the early 100s BCE, the technology that now produces legions of vat-grown Tup commandos was in its infancy. Perhaps was was fitting, however, that our scientists' optimistic project was pursued with a device so emblematic of Skrellian progress and ingenuity. The team knew their goal: they would find a exemplar of the traits they wanted to cultivate - multilayered, complex thinking and a strong sense of civic virtue - and they would build on and magnify these qualities until they made Skrell fit for the monumental task their governments had set out. Immediately, all eyes fell on one Skrell: Qeltuo Rzeo'waa. A practiced philosopher, scientist, and Qeblak monk, she was known throughout the Alliance as a thinker of incredible depth and character. It was said at the time that her advice was so eloquently phrased that but a single sentence could advise a Skrell for years to come, regarding problems they didn't even know they had. Some of Qeltuo's contemporaries even believed her to be prescient. Though the team didn't entertain such superstition, they reasoned that with a hundred similarly exemplary Skrell working together no mental task would be be beyond the Alliance's reach. Qeltuo discretely contacted, and after a day of contemplation she agreed to donate her genome to the Alliance's project, with a single condition: she alone would supervise the education of her modified clones (after all, she had intimate knowledge of their mental tendencies). The team grudgingly agreed to the sense of such a proposition, and the modification process was soon begun. |- For a time, everything was in flux and no recess of Qeltuo's genome escaped the scientists' meticulous manipulation. The team isolated and studied the traits that separated Qeltuo from her fellow Skrell, amplifying some and removing others. Hormonal balances were adjusted, organs resized, entire swaths of the Skrellian brain were radically shifted in both form and function. After nearly eight years of careful tinkering, they were ready to create the future administrator of their society. Everything was aligned: the vat, the genome, the embryo. Its growth was consistent and its neural activity regular - all was going according to plan. After a restless and taxing month of accelerated growth, the team's creation finally emerged to greet the world. It life from that point forward comprised 37 short minutes in which it, having never been taught language, uttered nothing but pitiable cries before lapsing into a faint, then into convolutions, then coma, and finally drifting into that vast ocean all Skrell find in their time. |- The team, of course, was mortified. Not only was it dissatisfying to have created a creature who was so quickly consumed by agony, but the episode also represented a sizable personal failure for all involved. Or, more properly, all but one. For her part, Qeltuo seemed strangely unsurprised by this tragic turn of events. It was, in fact, her council that encouraged the nations to continue their endeavor. And continue they did. Five years later, they brought another "prototype" into the world. This time, the creature seemed far more stable. Though it, or she, emerged as a fully formed young adult, there was still a great deal of work to be done. As promised, she was taught exclusively by Qeltuo. Though all their conversations were recorded (the team had no intentions of losing another), little could be made of them. Qeltuo spoke in strange allegory, and her pupil spoke in disjoined and broken prose, when it spoke at all. Nonetheless, the fledgling grew readily. In but two months it was verbal, and chose for itself the title of "Aelao," the Skrellian word for "manipulator." Though the significance of the choice was lost on the researchers, it clearly struck a cord with our esteemed philosopher. In four more months, it was trivially solving high-level maths that would take a normal Skrell years to learn, and seemed eager to put its considerable intellect to good use. |- After a year of life free from the growth-vat, however, the young Aelao's condition began to deteriorate. Strange metabolic imbalances left her weak and pallid, and she was often beset by seizures that would last for first minutes, then entire hours. Luckily, however, the researcher's previous genetic editing seemed to have drawn the process out over many years, rather than compressing it into mere minutes. Though problematic, this development was far from insurmountable. The team, determined to avoid another failure, set about diagnosing and devising a cure. After years of this, with the continued full support of the Alliance, they had developed a solution: a specialized set of implants that could sustain the Aelao, and compensate for her genetic deficiencies. Once installed, her symptoms retreated and her brilliant golden hue returned. Satisfied that they had finally created a being who could administer and direct the innumerable complexities of their grand society, they produced a dozen more and turned their focus towards potential applications. |---The Zenith of the Aelao: As more Aelao were birthed from the vats and fitted with implants, it was expected that they would take on different titles. This was not the case, however, and the Aelao merely began appending short words or syllables to the end of the first’s name. The second modified clone was called “Aelao’gee” (meaning “manipulator close to (or related to) the underwater darkness”) and the third took the name of “Aelao’etlo” (which translates roughly to “manipulator bound to the annealing of glass”), and so on and so forth. At first their titles seemed to be picked at random, considering that their studies (still lead by Qeltuo) were now focused around the Skrellian economic knowledge of the day. As the Aelao grew in number and age, however, the mechanism of their thought became more readily apparent. It became clear that they were not merely calculators, mechanically crunching through complex equations (though they were certainly capable of that as well). Instead, they seem to find patterns in their environment like every Skrell, finding patterns in their environment and using the gross similarities to tease out subtle differences. The Aelao, however, seemed to seek out decidedly more fundamental patterns. Instead of analogizing global trade to a flowing river because of a few general visual similarities, as a human would, an Aelao might instead deliberately compare it to some seemingly unrelated phenomenon such as the movement of planets in a solar system. Among the Aelao, such metaphors were not merely poetic tools. They had no use for such frivolous and flowery language. Instead they believed the processes they connected to share numeric patterns invisible to most and thought that one phenomenon could be readily used to predict the other. While most contemporary Skrell who questioned the Aelao on this point retained a healthy amount of skepticism regarding these supposedly fundamental numeric patterns, the Aelao appeared to have an unprecedented ability to predict the future course of complex systems. |- In no time... |---The Collapse of the Aelao: |---The Fallen Aelao:
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