If you could pen the canon ...

Started by Ijapa, Jun 14, 2009, 05:51:17 PM

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If you could pen the canon ... (Read 3,085 times)

Ijapa

Ijapa

We all think we know what's best for Aliens and Predators. If Fox knocked on your door and asked you to pen canon, what would it look like?

Predator

The Yautja are a race of space-faring game hunters who cruise the cosmos for deadly monsters to stuff and mount on the walls of their sweeeet rides. The Yautja's society is fiercely clan-based, with literally thousands of varyingly sized interstellar tribes playing a savage game of one-upPredatorship. Each tribe commutes to the next hunt in their own rockin' spaceship, handed down through possibly hundreds of generations. Each clan has their own oh-so-special twists on the ritualized slaughter that almost every Yautja partakes in.



Your standard Predator, packin' exotic weapons and exotic scars. Lanky, slimy, leathery.

Keeping it together for 'em are the Hish (I like the word). These Predators are the ipso facto enforcers of all that is 'The Hunt.' The Hish operate the happenin' hangouts we might call Motherships. Every Predator finds his way to one of these joints sometime or another; whether it is to brag, acquire spare parts or access new weapons. Keeping things as orderly as things can conceivably be when Predators are involved, the Hish have their work cut out for 'em. These adjudicators are unique.

The Hish pluck young promising Yautja from their clans and raise them to be swift, fair arbitrators between tribes and brutal defenders of the 'The Hunt' against outsiders. To be chosen to serve among the Hish is a terrific honor. These warriors are always on call; Hish pursue the most dangerous Bad Bloods, contain the worst outbreaks of the extragalactic disease we call the Alien, investigate and improve new technology, wage war, and settle disputes between multiple clans that grow too deadly. Ironically, the Hish are unable to engage in 'The Hunt' that they are honor-bound to protect. For them, this mystifies its spiritual underpinnings and they come to revere it so that they can almost be seen as a sort of faux-cult.



Specifically, the Shogun commander guy roarin' up there is what I imagine the standard Hish Predator-dude to look like. I have to admit I like the Halo-Predators too.

When any Predator hangs enough trophies or accumulates enough honors amongst its fellows, it usually rises to a position of clan or Hish leader, but sometimes these grizzled vets instead choose to head home, literally. To reside on the Predator homeworld, on the ancestral lands of your clan, is one of the highest honors in the Yautja society. Many never even actually see this place, but this doesn't detract from the outright zeal they have for it. A special contingent of Hish maintains close watch over it and the solar system it's in. Terrestrial Yautja are uniquely independent and free to do as they wish, but still generally keep in close contact with their clan.



Predator homeworld on an overcast day.

Oh, and for God's sake, the tendrils on their body aren't hair, they're just the weird equivalent of hair to Humans; they're just oily tendrils!

Aliens

The sentient disease from outer-friggin'-space we call the Alien begins with the Space Jockey race. These extragalactic geeks are definitely the smartest folks anybody knows of in the year 2800. And they've basically been dead for millions of years. The Space Jockey's were (and are, if we consider the unsustainable bit o' population that remains) the apex of sentience. Mastering biology and engineering, the Space Jockey's made the next logical step and combined them. This synergism of opposites gave the Jockey's a step up on its Universal competition and they've been on top of the heap, in terms of outright braininess, ever since. The culmination of this fact is an impossibly complex 'biomechanical terrain' they developed – a symbiote. This strange substance, complete with a nervous system and encapsulating primitive intelligence, could bond with the equally self-modified Jockey's physically and mentally, giving them total awareness of the presences and thoughts of others anywhere within the limits of the artificial landscape. Soon, the ambitious Jockeys endeavored to terraform entire planets with it and synchronize with what would essentially be a sentient world.



Smart goop.

Churning out the stuff on that scale would require a whole different method of production.

So the Jockeys manufactured the perfect delivery system (after a lot of tries). These factories could consume organic material to fuel the production of the symbiote. Once produced, the factory could interface with its product and do basically what amounts to a global landscaping gig. Modeled after both viruses and parasites for efficiency, the delivery system acquired the traits of the native life forms to better survive the harsh environments in would likely encounter. It was also designed for rapid mutation to quickly adapt to changing circumstances and to combat forces hostile to it.  We would come to know these creatures as the Aliens.

... But there was a ghost in the machine. Turning the Aliens off became a problem. While the Jockey's had a lot of know-how about genetic manipulation, the Aliens' capacity for mutation had overwhelmed the artificial barriers their creators had put in place. Unable to effectively control the factories producing the symbiote, so too did the symbiote become uncooperative with the Jockeys. Too late did the biomechanoids realize the Aliens' meticulously crafted ability to survive via mutation allowed them to affect the symbiote.

All at once the Jockey's realized they had unleashed in their midst a sentient plague.
The Jockey's could not recover; they had created something that was too capable and too efficient to combat.

Millions of years later all humanity knows of the Aliens is that they are too capable and too efficient.



Dangerous killers outside of their hives, inside ... they are virtually omniscient thanks to the nature of their symbiosis with it. Any creature that's not an Alien can be consumed by the hive itself or, perhaps even worse, be affected by the psychic hive mind dominated by the Brood Queen Alien. If someone should be lucky enough to escape the Hive alive, the psychic connection it briefly shared, likely unknowingly, with his or her pursuers diminishes only over distance and time. It is quite possible the Brood Queen and to some degree even the drones, can continue to affect the mind of these unfortunate escapees, driving them mad or subjugating them so they willingly return to sacrifice themselves.


Nachtfalke

Nachtfalke

#1
Oh, I don't have the energy, but I have certain ideas of what they are and what they were, etc.

Predators: Nomadic, honour based, ritualistic, egotistical, in it for glory and accolades it provides.

As for specifics:
Predators have a clan society, all are equal, but the Elders of each clan report to various impartial overlords who in turn are governed by an Emperor or Pharaoh, and have existed that way for many centuries, travelling the universe collecting trophies and hunting game across the stars.
They have an aversion to war, find it deplorable, and only hunt game that is armed, worthy and suitable.
They scan all potential prey with their advanced vision modes to determine any weaknesses or ailments that would define a dishonourable kill.
Collateral prey is still prized, but is secondary to the prime goal.
Worthy and honorable prey has its skull and spinal column removed and used as trophies, secondary prey is flayed, gutted and skinned. The skins are used not unlike other animal hides, for cloth and rope items.
The skinned corpses are abandoned and are often used as psychological taunts to the Predator's prey, especially when weeding the weak from the strong when they hunt a group.
Predators are also not above pleasure kills, killing to just release tension or as self defense against unprized beings during a hunt.
Every clan differs slightly when it comes to ritual, but all adhere to the core principles, such as honour.
Manhood rituals can consist of a variety of tests and these vary according to the specific clan.
Predators are very fond of two very different species, Homosapiens and Xenomorphs.
Predator equipment and vessels are superior to much of the galaxy's civilised races, but at the same time very primitive in their technology.
Much gear and vessels are passed through generations and awarded as totems, dowry and trophies.
Reproduction is asexual as Predators are Hermaphorodites. A mature adult's biological clock initiates the birth.
The infant is birthed through a muscle flange on the Predator's back and the Predator must arch forward to expel the infant. The infant is able to eat solid and complex foods from birth.
The Elder of every clan takes the infants in and raises them to the strict laws and teaching sof the clan.
Their life span is varied, due to the vast variety of environments they hunt in as well as the native sustenace on other worlds that they consume. Lifespan is generally between 700 and 800 years.
In extraordinary and rare circumstances, ages of 900 plus can be reached.
Food for the Predators is predominantly rotting meats and plant matter in its early stages of decomposition. Fresh matter yields little to no sustenance for thier metabolisms.
Physiologically, they have a tough endoskeleton consisiting of catrlidge covered muscle that has a green lumious substance in a layer beneath it, under which the Predator's key organs and rigid, but thin skeleton hide.
This endoskeleton is tough enough to absorb very punishing injuries and must be quickly sanitised and fused as there is a risk of the substance layer escaping and causing irrepairable damage.

Aliens: Parasitic, hive mentality, merciless, indiscriminate, in it for survival and proliferation of the species.

As for specifics:
Aliens have a Hive society and are defined into two main classes, the warrior and the matriarch and they have existed that way since the origins of the universe, having evolved from small parasitic organisms on a distant and primitive star.
Their homeworld is long gone, extinguished by solar flares. Various pockets of them exist across space as they were either plundered and farmed as genocidal weapons or taken to other worlds by unwary travellers.
They have an aversion to fire and extreme cold, though can hibernate in sub zero environments for hundreds of years.
A mite, tentatively called a 'facehugger', which is produced by a Queen in an egg-like cocoon, achieves reproduction through the implantation of an embryo into a host organism. After implantation, the mite dies.
Once the embryo matures, it leaves the host. The method by which the Xenomorph leaves is by bursting through the chest cavity, killing the host that also provides sustenance.
Their instinct is to reproduce and feed.
Warriors protect the hive a colony inhabits, even from individuals from other hives.
Warriors serve the Queen, their only superior, and each hive is independant of the other with no common governance.
Warriors also hunt for hosts, especially when a hive is still expanding, but as a rule of instinct, will only collect one kid of host to keep a hive pure.
Their life span is dependant on many factors, including in which species the individual gestates in, and the health of that host.
Warriors will not kill a host carrying an embryo, regardless of the species, however a queen will kill any host that is not of the same genetic species to keep the hive pure.
The Queen will also kill a host regardless of species should the incubating embryo be a Queen, to limit competition.
All Warriors have the ability to become a Queen. When a hive reaches a certain size and the warriors out number the Queen greatly, a genetic trigger causes the oldest Warriors to start metamorphosing and as they do, they are driven from the hive by the Warriors, or killed by the Queen. These new Queens search for pastures new and build new hives.
The trigger is set off by the density of the pheromones within the hive.
All embryonic Warriors and Queens inherit genetic traits from their hosts. Thes etraits can be of many variants, outward appearance, physical abilities or even reproduction methods. Instinct however, is unaffected as this would be counter to their cause and existence.
When feeding, a Xenomorph seeks out various glands and fluids in its prey. Xenomorphs subsist mainly on a fluid and gland found in the brain of their prey. Their retractable jaw is able to strike out with enough force to shatter the skull and enter the cranial cavity of most prey.
Their blood is highly acidic and can eat through thick steel and armour. This is mainly to discourage the removal of the 'face hugger' mite during implantation, but is a feature of all adult Xenomorphs.

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