Ailen Archtypes: The List

[xgotghrrl]

Hey mates, this may be a topic more app for the Star Champions board but what the heck, right. I'm posting this here as it's a psuedo continuation of my international super team thread.

 

I'm trying to compile a list of all the Stock Alien Races Archtypes used in both the Sci-fi and Supers genres, in order to help the player of the Pleadian Planetary Alliance rep of our upcoming capaign.

 

So far what we've come up with is the following.

 

Ancients: Asgard and Vorlons

Bushidos: Klingons, Luxans and Narns.

Decadents: Centauri

Logicals: Vulcans.

Machines: Bynars and Borg

Mystics: Minbari, Bajorans and Delvians

Symbiotic: Trill and Go'auld

 

Any other additionals or examples you can think of pls feel free to add.

 

Love Always

Xgoth

[Kintara]

You forgot the "Humanity in an alternate dimension" group, like most of the aliens of the week in Star Trek.

 

Edit: Hmm, maybe this group is too broad. Klingons could basically be described as: "What if the Mongols succeeded in taking control of the world?" But they do act weird enough to escape what I meant.

 

The group I'm talking about is those aliens that seem almost entirely human, except for having some technological, cultural, or situational twist. Also known as, "Spotted humans," "Slightly Bumpy Humans," and "Funny-looking Earred Humans" (or sometimes "Exactly-the-Same-Looking Humans").

--

Also there's the Psions, like Betazoids or some other aliens who are mostly different because they have psychic powers. Often, they are also Mystics, or Decadents, or Ancients.

[SomeAsianKid]

There's always the alien swarms archetypes, creatures which have hive minds, no technology, have huge bioadapted ships or spread by shooting off their eggs. Examples are the various aliens movies and the bugs off starship troopers, or tyranids from warhammer 40k (a golden star to the person who knows what I'm talking about on the last one).

[Chuckg]

*shudders*

 

Don't remind me about the Tyranid, /please/.

 

We are talking the Ultimate Bug Race here, people. Xenomorphs? Wimps. Zerg? Posers. The Tyranid are /horrific/.

 

Then again, they're from Warhammer 40k. That place is so dark that even the freaking toilet paper is horrific.

[SomeAsianKid]

Lol, tyranids are awesome. It always confused me how a buch of bugs could have more powerful psychic powers then the Eldar, a race known for its psychic powers. I thought about building the tyranids in hero, genestealers would have 2d6 +1 killing attacks with double armor piercing.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Well, maybe some of these:

 

Pacifists at Any Price: Halkans, Organians (though the Organians ended up being something else)

 

Super-Evolved "Steward" Races: Metrons, Organians (usually exist as being of pure energy)

 

Remants of Empire: can't think of a good example off hand, but they'd be the broken-up descendants of what was once a huge empire that spanned a large part of the galaxy. While they still have star travel, their "empire" (if it even still exists as a coherant structure) is probably down to less than a dozen planets, and they're top-heavy with aristocracy. Their technology is probably in decline, too. They are still vain, haughty, and unreasonably proud and refuse to admit they are no longer a great power. (Hmmm...kinda like France.)

 

You Can't Get There From Here: a race who communicates in such an unusual manner there simply is no point of common contact. A good example would be "The Children of Tama" from that Next Generation episode...though they spoke verbally, they spoke only in metaphor...so while the Universal Translator could translate the words, there could be no real understanding because of lack of context for the ritualistic segments of stories used for communication.

 

Thery're Not All There: a race that lives in or percieves multiple dimensions apart from our standard 3 + time. Communicating with them may be next to impossible, and they may have VERY unusual abilities given their being able to interact with multiple dimensions. For example, they might be able to walk through what we consider solid walls by stepping 'around' them in the 4th dimension, or perhaps they are almost impossible to beat in a fight because they percieve time differently and know what we're going to do before we do it. They might arguably fall under the 'Mystic' category already mentioned. The vampire cloud from Obsession might qualify, as it could 'throw itself out of time-synch' to avoid the effects of a weapon strike.

 

Feeders: a race that feeds on some substance that is either almost unheard-of as a food supply, or is actively detrimental to other races. Examples would be Redjac, the Hate Entity from Day of the Dove, and so on. These feed on emotions, and to the detriment of other intelligences, but there are other possibilities as well.

 

The Waitabits and the Eyeblinks: a race whose metabolism or life cycle is either so much slower than ours they pretty much resemble statues or so much faster than ours we can only see them as a fleeting after-image out of the corner of our eye, if then. For an example of a slow race, Eric Frank Russle's short story "The Waitabits" is a classic; for the hyperfast, look at the Scalosians in Wink of an Eye

 

True Gestalts: a 'race' that actually consists of only one individual, despite have a population in the millions or billions. Each individual humanoid, while about as intelligent as the average human, exists solely as part of a true group mind. Such 'entities' would only have as much sense of self-preservation as was convenient; if one humanoid part got killed, so what? Do you worry about scraping some cells off your fingers as you type, or pulling out some hairs when you comb your hair? The group mind is probably very curious about just about everything; two things that would probably fascinate it the most are those races where every body is a true individual, and experiencing more and more extreme sensations, because it's done and experienced practically everything. Using one of its bodies to experience a very painful and deadly (to that body) sensation might be of casual interest and no consequence to the entity as a whole.

 

Varient Chemistry: races whose life-principle are based on an element other than carbon. Silicon life-forms are by far the most popular, ranging from beings like the Horta to the Tholians.

[Jhamin]

Although a couple of the example races were mentioned elsewhere,

 

Endless horde: Borg, Mechanoids, Zentradi, Invid

 

Militant Xenophobes: Cylons, Daleks.

 

Shapechangers: Founders, Dire Wraiths

 

Mythic Figure Aliens: Gould, Vorlons, Apollo from "Star Trek"

[The Watcher]

This may or may not be a subset of Mythic Figures:

 

Us but Better: The Eternals, The Atlanteans of Conspiracy X, The Loi of GURPS Atomic Horror, Ancient Astronaut Types. They're basically what humanity was, or will one day become. Just like us except superior, either physically, mentally, or spiritually.

 

They may be perfect, or they may share our flaws, only writ large. Either way, they think themselves superior, and humanity as their less developed cousins, or children who need to be carefully tended till they reach the adulthood that would make them equals.

[Doug McCrae]

Omnipotent beings like Q, or the Squire of Gothos. These only seem to be found in Star Trek.

 

Body Horror includes the X-Men foes the Brood as well as Tyranids. Regardless, they're all ripped off of HR Giger. There's a bit of body horror in the Borg, too.

 

Shapeshifters also include the Skrulls and the pod people from Invasion of the Bodysnatchers.

[Lord Liaden]

Let's not forget the anthropomorphic animal races, which may not be the most original or imaginative, but are a classic and make really good supers. The cat people (like CJ Cherryh's Hani): fangs and claws, usually fast and agile, keen senses; perhaps with feline sensuality, maybe with a "pride" social structure. The insect people: exceptional strength, very hard exoskeleton, unusual senses (often 360 degree); often a collective social structure and mindset, perhaps matriarchal. The reptillian people: tough scales, a tale usable as a weapon, sometimes amphibious; usually emotionally cold, sometimes ruthlessly so.

 

Just about any animal's abilities and stereotypical traits can be extrapolated that way.

[Lord Liaden]

Another classic which makes for good supers is the alien from a radically different environment (atmosphere, temperature, pressure) who wears a special life-support suit to survive on Earth. The alien within may be a wimp and unable to survive for long unprotected, but the suit itself could be physically powerful, heavily armored, have enhanced senses, and perhaps weapons and transportation systems.

[BobGreenwade]

Don't forget the Wanna-bes: Pakleds, Kazon, Nightsiders, or the green reptilians on B5 (I forget the species name).

[McCoy]

Humanoids descended from other-than primates.

 

Wolflike humanoids, bearlike humanoids, and most especally the catlike humanoids.

[Space Cadet]

You forgot the Dark Power Behind The Scenes category: the

really grim, eldritch horror-type of ETs -- the Shadows and

their servant race, the Drakh (from B5) and the Eddorians from

the Lensman series of novels.

 

Bushido category: the Kaldarans (from the Invasion Terra

campaign setting for the Mekton Zeta RPG).

 

Endless Swarm category: the Aggendi (an insectoid/reptilian

hybrid race; also from Mekton and Mekton Zeta).

 

Ancient Steward category: the Arisians (from the Lensman

series).

 

BTW, the reptilians from B5 that were mentioned in the Wanna-

Be category are the Drazi.

 

I'm not sure which category these guys would fit into, but how

about the Ethicals from the Riverworld novels?

 

Space Cadet

[Mayday]

Space Amoebas and gaseous nebula races appear in alot of Trek and older sci-fi, and a few times on Stargate SG-1.

 

Transplanted Humans: Neitchiens (Andromeda), various SG-1 races (Nox, Tokra etc), Erin's race (Farscape)

 

Humans in BodyPaint: Orions (Trek), Andorians, Chiana's race (Farscape)

 

Invading Hordes: The Magog (Andromeda), Mecha-Godzilla

 

Comic Relief: Tribbles, Ewoks, Gungans

 

 

Some Dr Who races:

 

Gallifreyans: Advanced tech, look human looking but non-interfering

The Rutan: shapeshifting invaders

Cybermen: invading hordes

Sontarans: clone race, invading hordes

 

And last but not least, The StarWars Cantina

[AlHazred]

A distinction needs to be made before the list gets too large. In broadcast media SF, there's a difference between a "race" (which are human-like aliens) and a "monster" (which are all those aliens that have no human commonality). Creatures like the Space Amoeba (from Star Trek) or the Bandersnatchi (from Larry Niven's Known Universe novels) are more rightly called "monsters." Their place in the story is to act in unknowable ways to advance the plot. "Races" are usually in there to point up some foible of humanity; a classic example is the Kzinti (again from Larry Niven's Known Universe novels) whose purpose is to make explicit points about the nature of human aggression.

 

If we're going to call them Archetypes, we have to go beyond mere physical details...

[xgotghrrl]

distinction needs to be made before the list gets too large. In broadcast media SF, there's a difference between a "race" (which are human-like aliens) and a "monster" (which are all those aliens that have no human commonality). Creatures like the Space Amoeba (from Star Trek) or the Bandersnatchi (from Larry Niven's Known Universe novels) are more rightly called "monsters." Their place in the story is to act in unknowable ways to advance the plot. "Races" are usually in there to point up some foible of humanity; a classic example is the Kzinti (again from Larry Niven's Known Universe novels) whose purpose is to make explicit points about the nature of human aggression.

 

If we're going to call them Archetypes, we have to go beyond mere physical details...

 

Absolutely...What I refer to as an Alien Race I suppose might be more appropriately called an Alien culture. An entire civilation seemlingly built on a single core theme, concept, dogma, belief, philosophy etc. Though some Archetype cultures may overlap in some areas the core should be fairly easily identified. One thing that has alway struck me is that no matter the sci-fi program, a Klingon is a Klingon is a klingon. A Vulcan is a Vulcan. A Minbari is a Minbari and a Vorlon is just engimatic. Considering the wide variety of difference on our on planet...you'd think there would be varierty culturally on some others. But of course if that were the case then this thread would be moot now wouldn't it *S*

 

I'll start with the easiest def...

 

Bushidos = Noble Warrior Races. Death before Dishounor, Strong Family/Ancestoral/Terrorial ties, Intergalatic Samurai, Vikings in Space. The Noble Savages of the Cosmos and amongst the most often misunderstood. Don't play well with others. Often times very advanced tech-wise but still hold a heavy reliance on the old ways.

 

Prime Example= Klingons, Wookies, Narns

[Southern Cross]

Here's another alien Archetype- Artificial Species: This race has either been built from scratch or has been changed into a new species by another race (or in some circumstances,by the "parent" race).For convienience I have named the two subtypes "Constructs" (for created species) and "Uplifts" for the transformed species.

Constructs:Cylons(from Battlestar Galactica ,Mechanoids & Movellans (from Doctor Who 0.

Uplifts: Cybermen,Daleks, & Time Lords (There's enough evidence in Doctor Who continuity to imply that Time Lords are an artificially created subspecies of Gallifreyan).

[Space Cadet]

Another possibile choice for the Bushido/Noble Warrior category

is the reptilian race of Dragoncrests (from the Living Steel RPG).

 

Space Cadet