-------------------------------------------- ATC2 - A Galaxy Full of Stars: The Sleythin Response and the Bug Resurgence -------------------------------------------- Sleythin ******** The Sleythin are a generally unflappable race. They have survived much longer than humanity on a philosophy of tradition and deep thinking. So, despite the humans being a quick-thinking, short-lived, and generally hyperactive civilization in comparison, the Sleythin are all right with that. And for the most part, the two civilizations get along just fine. They're not really all that different, anyways, despite one breathing methane and the other oxygen. But that's not to say the Sleythin take everything in stride. The Sleythin response to the Twenty-Four syndrome explosion has been to mostly back out of human affairs. They have not quarantined themselves by any means - Sleythin, especially visiting ones, are regular sights in almost any major city - but there certainly has not been a mass emigration, either. It is an uncertainty to them - they don't know what the newfound power will cause people to do, and they certainly would like to avoid a civil war, if one occurs. Not that it particularly looks like one will, but it's always better to be cautious. The human technology is, of course, marvelous, but there are so many tests to be taken before it's adapted to Sleythin. The Mindlink technology, most of all, must be thoroughly inspected and tested first. And most Sleythin totally eschew cybernetics, even as a replacement for lost limbs, etc., unless it's life-saving, such as a pacemaker or the like. Sleythin have become obsessed with Earth's classical music, helping to spark a comeback there. But for a species which had no concept of the brass instrument, Bach, Beethoven, and the rest are wholly new experiences, and they are eating them up. Attempts to integrate new brass instruments into sleythin bands and orchestras are actually moving faster than attempts to alter technology. As for the Sleythin lifestyle, it is unchanged from ATC1. Sleythin live underground in their gigantic cavern city, called the City of Refuge. There are a little over 2 billion of them. They respirate methane, and require liquid on their skin at almost all times. They are a generally socialistic society, with most of the 50% tax rate going to repairs and improvements on the cavern. They have a rigid, yet strangely fluid class system, and a very large, very slow government. This is not an issue because the Sleythin tend to doi things slowly as it is. Sleythin look kindly upon the humans who live in their city. Not quite like older siblings, but close; more like kindly protectors who try to keep them from hurting themselves while they scramble around being confused in general. In general, the Sleythin are hanging back, waiting to see how human-kind adapts to the changes that it's going through until they throw in their lot with their new neighbors. Bugs **** After the destruction of the Pyramid, the Bugs all simultaneously dropped dead. Or appeared to, anyways. But since the Bugs are silicon-based life forms, death is really more of an "off-state". And since it is very unlikely the Bug species would have evolved with such an obvious Achilles' Heel and no way around it, there is of course a catch. At seemingly random times, any higher-level Bug can spontaneously evolve independent sentience, and all the lower Bugs beneath it will reactivate. Usually the Bug either remembers its former mission, or is reborn with a mad rage. Either way, it and its minions end up wreaking havoc wherever they are reanimated. Since after the war with the Bugs, people used their rock-like bodies as fill for holes, or merely pushed them off into ravines, or even just left them on the plains, and then forgot about them, there can be Bug Resurgences almost anywhere, though most of them are on Mars. There are rumors that some Bugs Resurge with no memory of their previous hatred of humans, and with no murderous rage. These rumors have never been proven, and if they did occur, then they have been hushed up remarkably well. Player Note: Playing a Resurgent Bug will require the GMs to be very confident in your skill as a player, and will also require you to not mind quite a few restrictions on your abilities, etc. Talk to Yu or Cham if you're interested, though. But by and large, the Bugs are no longer existant as a force in the galaxy, and people breathe easier for it.