![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The following is me gathering some of my scattered thoughts. Spoilers, rambling, and tangents probably apply.
The Hylin. It's a word that sends ripples of terror through any human in the story. The Hylin have been a spacefaring race for at least 5,000 years although they're not terribly more advanced then humanity. Part of that is in the interest of competitive balance. Otherwise the humans would get obliterated and there would be little left to build conflict around. I can handwave this with the unusual structure of Hylin society. Well, that and the innovation plateau.
What worries me the most are falling into one of two stereotypes with my aliens: Scary Dogmatic Aliens or Proud Warrior Race Guy. I can actually see how things are going to turn out for the Hylin on Etol and it's not pleasant. They're no more immune to pulling "go crazy" cards out of the mystical hat then their human counterparts. I'm pretty sure the commanding officer they'll spend most of the invasion with will survive but what state she's in at the end will entirely be a function of how I decide to take Tenshi psychology.
So yeah, scary dogmatic aliens. I'm not setting out to make a deliberate parallel between the Hylin and some scary political ideology here on Earth. Frankly, that's a bit boring. I prefer to fully explore the extremes possible in the fictional society and figure out where their mindset starts breaking down. I thought I wrote out interviews with the top two Hylin last year but either I did and lost those notes or I forgot to because now I can't find any such entries. Oh well, I guess I can at least address some of the basics.
Do they have any religious beliefs? (Yes, but they've mostly fallen apart due the reality of living in space for so long. Religion for this species is more concerned with maintaining tradition and holding on to their history then the veneration of a deity. In truth there is no deity to whom the Hylin pray. There are saintlike figures but espousing a belief in a supreme deity is an invitation to get your ass kicked among them. Hylin collectively despise the idea of predestination for that means all their efforts to build glory are rather pointless. However they are as vulnerable as humans to mass manipulation.)
Are there social castes? (Hell yes and they're pretty rigid.)
Are they social organisms? (Extremely - perhaps a bit moreso then humans. They raise their young communally. However they're also intensely individualistic and building an impeccable reputation gives a Hylin some degree of immortality. The Hylin really are a reflection of the contradictory elements within America that I've witnessed in my lifetime. In short, every Hylin is torn between duty and dedication to their place in society and pressure to make something of themselves. It makes them irrational.)
Are they a warrior society? (The Hylin have a huge military. Actually, that statement is misleading. The clan in contact with humanity is composed of 8 distinct tribes. There are two other clans that are a bit bigger with 9 tribes each but they are so far away from earth as to be completely disinterested in whatever trouble their distant cousins get themselves into. All the tribes have to have an independent military or they risk destruction at the hands of their fellow Hylin. They are a race either eternally on the brink of civil war or hip-deep in one.)
Do the Hylin hate humans? (Some, yes and for good reason. The Akutenshi series takes place 70 years after the Hylin fought a particularly nasty war with earthlings. The intervening decades have been quiet for the Antilles system but the exact opposite over by Earth. Once bitterness sets in hate quickly follows.)
Why don't the Hylin just use X technology and wipe everyone out? (Competitive balance. To be sure - they avoid direct hand-to-hand combat when possible. Yes, the Hylin are approximately 5,000 years older then humanity in terms of time out in space but that doesn't mean they're 5,000 years ahead of them technologically - by whatever metric you'd use to measure such a thing. As a species they are no more invulnerable to disease, war, and disaster then humans. They've suffered ... setbacks ... over the intervening millenia. I'll leave it at that.
Yeah, I know it sounds silly that one little planet could try to fend off hundreds of thousands of aggressive aliens supported by billions more with an infrastructure Earth as a whole couldn't hope to compete against. However, only a small percentage (less then 5%) of that one clan decided to actually go to war. More joined later out of principle. The initial attackers even knew enough about Earth to know they were being stupid (as they say "There are no secrets in the cosmos...") but went ahead and moved anyway out of sheer pride.
I let the humans speculate wildly on why they're being attacked. Unfortunately there will never be an answer that can truly explain why. The Hylin themselves don't really know why they invaded. Ask ten of them that question and you'll get ten different answers. However once the conflict was set into motion it took on a life of it's own.
The Hylin. It's a word that sends ripples of terror through any human in the story. The Hylin have been a spacefaring race for at least 5,000 years although they're not terribly more advanced then humanity. Part of that is in the interest of competitive balance. Otherwise the humans would get obliterated and there would be little left to build conflict around. I can handwave this with the unusual structure of Hylin society. Well, that and the innovation plateau.
What worries me the most are falling into one of two stereotypes with my aliens: Scary Dogmatic Aliens or Proud Warrior Race Guy. I can actually see how things are going to turn out for the Hylin on Etol and it's not pleasant. They're no more immune to pulling "go crazy" cards out of the mystical hat then their human counterparts. I'm pretty sure the commanding officer they'll spend most of the invasion with will survive but what state she's in at the end will entirely be a function of how I decide to take Tenshi psychology.
So yeah, scary dogmatic aliens. I'm not setting out to make a deliberate parallel between the Hylin and some scary political ideology here on Earth. Frankly, that's a bit boring. I prefer to fully explore the extremes possible in the fictional society and figure out where their mindset starts breaking down. I thought I wrote out interviews with the top two Hylin last year but either I did and lost those notes or I forgot to because now I can't find any such entries. Oh well, I guess I can at least address some of the basics.
Do they have any religious beliefs? (Yes, but they've mostly fallen apart due the reality of living in space for so long. Religion for this species is more concerned with maintaining tradition and holding on to their history then the veneration of a deity. In truth there is no deity to whom the Hylin pray. There are saintlike figures but espousing a belief in a supreme deity is an invitation to get your ass kicked among them. Hylin collectively despise the idea of predestination for that means all their efforts to build glory are rather pointless. However they are as vulnerable as humans to mass manipulation.)
Are there social castes? (Hell yes and they're pretty rigid.)
Are they social organisms? (Extremely - perhaps a bit moreso then humans. They raise their young communally. However they're also intensely individualistic and building an impeccable reputation gives a Hylin some degree of immortality. The Hylin really are a reflection of the contradictory elements within America that I've witnessed in my lifetime. In short, every Hylin is torn between duty and dedication to their place in society and pressure to make something of themselves. It makes them irrational.)
Are they a warrior society? (The Hylin have a huge military. Actually, that statement is misleading. The clan in contact with humanity is composed of 8 distinct tribes. There are two other clans that are a bit bigger with 9 tribes each but they are so far away from earth as to be completely disinterested in whatever trouble their distant cousins get themselves into. All the tribes have to have an independent military or they risk destruction at the hands of their fellow Hylin. They are a race either eternally on the brink of civil war or hip-deep in one.)
Do the Hylin hate humans? (Some, yes and for good reason. The Akutenshi series takes place 70 years after the Hylin fought a particularly nasty war with earthlings. The intervening decades have been quiet for the Antilles system but the exact opposite over by Earth. Once bitterness sets in hate quickly follows.)
Why don't the Hylin just use X technology and wipe everyone out? (Competitive balance. To be sure - they avoid direct hand-to-hand combat when possible. Yes, the Hylin are approximately 5,000 years older then humanity in terms of time out in space but that doesn't mean they're 5,000 years ahead of them technologically - by whatever metric you'd use to measure such a thing. As a species they are no more invulnerable to disease, war, and disaster then humans. They've suffered ... setbacks ... over the intervening millenia. I'll leave it at that.
Yeah, I know it sounds silly that one little planet could try to fend off hundreds of thousands of aggressive aliens supported by billions more with an infrastructure Earth as a whole couldn't hope to compete against. However, only a small percentage (less then 5%) of that one clan decided to actually go to war. More joined later out of principle. The initial attackers even knew enough about Earth to know they were being stupid (as they say "There are no secrets in the cosmos...") but went ahead and moved anyway out of sheer pride.
I let the humans speculate wildly on why they're being attacked. Unfortunately there will never be an answer that can truly explain why. The Hylin themselves don't really know why they invaded. Ask ten of them that question and you'll get ten different answers. However once the conflict was set into motion it took on a life of it's own.
◾ Tags:
