Races of the Perry Rhodan Universe
an Introduction and Interpolation
(C) 1997 by Dansen T. Stahl
gtolle@infinet.com
Perry Rhodan and the alien races described here
are trademarked products of VPM
Go to the Perry Rhodan English Homesite FAQ
The following is a description of some of the races encountered in the first 150 issues of the Perry Rhodan series. Although some races were described in considerable details others received little more than a sentence or two. Although the series is fantastic in the breadth of its scope it has sacrificed depth in the process. To say that many races used in the series are two-dimensional is probably overstating their characterization. With this introduction I have tried to remedy this situation somewhat. I have taken what information I can gather on the races from the first 150 issues of the series (as well as some hints from later issues of the series). This was the extent of the american version of the series and, in my mind, probably covers one of the most interesting periods of the series because the people, technology, and situations still seem accessable to readers of our time period. Terrans are still colonizing new worlds and Terra is still orbiting Sol. In any case, I have taken this information, correlated it, and attempted to fill in some of the details on some of the races and history of the galaxy. I have tried to stay with information that people of the time could reasonably be expected to know and have tried to be sure that I don't contradict information presented later in the series. I must also credit the writers of the series for resurrecting plot threads that even I thought long dead. Still, there is, I feel, plenty of room for development even in the one short era of galactic history.
The hardest part of the writing has been to develop a galaxy that has been, essentially, static for the last 25,000 years. I have tried to present a galaxy where the Arkon Empire is the relatively static part of history but many events have occured within the Empire that have resulted in the rise and fall of more than one race. These descriptions are not yet complete. I have twenty or more races left to describe (including human races). Although most of these are minor races they still serve a purpose in the PR universe and I hope to make at least some of them interesting and vital. You will also note that, in many cases, I deliberately avoided precise dates. Especially in recent history some dates are availible. I, however, do not have the time to spend tracking them all down. If any interested readers would like to try to contribute dates I would be more than willing to try to work them into a future editions. Also, I encourage all readers who spot obvious errors in development or contradictions in future (or past, as with the Atlan series) information from the series to write to me so that I can correct them. For those who are interested, I will probably also be developing an introduction to some of the technology of the PR universe but that will still be somewhat down the road.
Lest any reader think that it is unlikely that the Arkonides wouldn’t have recognized the connections between many of the races of the galaxy it is important to remember two important points about arkonide mentality. The first is that, to them, other races of the galaxy are essentially servants or enemies. Their interest, for the most part, in connection between races stops at the ally/enemy level. The second is that a(r)konide technology and medicine developed with little or no understanding of evolution. A(r)konides were unique in the galaxy and unrelated to any other life. This has left them with something of a divinity complex that not even the discovery of Terra has erased. Taken together these two points have produced a blind spot in arkonide (and probably akonide) science. The Aras are not quite as blind but neither are they as open-minded or inquisitive as Terrans on this point (who love to learn and classify the connections between various alien races).
Anyone who finds inspiration with these descriptions please note that our host John Foyt is interested in posting short fiction on this site and I am looking to put together a book of PR fan fiction for 1997.
Geoffrey Tolle
gtolle@infinet.com
Physiology
The Akvons are seal-like in general shape with a fleshy "skirt" where the rearlimbs would normally be and two slender arms ending in a four-fingered hand (two fingers opposed to two fingers). The "skirt" is actually their primary means of locomotion. In a wave motion it opens in the front to engulf water then closes, squeezing the water, and forcing out two tubes in the rear of its body. This "jet propulsion" propels the Akvon through the water at about 20 kmph. Directional control is achieved through hydroplaning of the Akvon's body and by pointing the jets. It is interesting to note that the Akvons are an excellent example of intelligence as a selective force in evolution. Of the higher animals of Akvomundo only the Akvons and one of their close genetic relatives (a rare semi-intelligent primative) care for their young. Akvon young are lain as eggs. The Akvons have adapted two of the normal four jet sacs to holding these eggs until they hatch and for carrying their young about for a time after birth. This development seems to have been arrived at only in the Akvons because they made a conscious decision to begin protecting their young early in the development of their intelligence. The Akvons are essentially cold-blooded with a primative homeothermic system that they use to heat their brains.
The Akvons use sonar to navigate and communicate underwater. Because of the limitations of aquatic technological development the Akvons have tended to specialize in selective breeding and some genetic engineering to produce their technology (especially in energy and agriculture). They do have a fairly good comprehension of mechanics. Although terrestrial food is not normally poisonous to them they derive very little nutrition from it.
Background
In around 1982 Akvomundo, the fourth planet of the Betelgeuse system was occupied by the Topsiders as an outpost for their empire. They found it occupied by the Akvons but, since the Akvons had no interest in their land bases, the Topsiders left them alone. In 1984 the Solar Alliance conned the Topsiders into building up military forces on the third planet of the system then conned the Springers into believing that this planet was actually Terra. After a short but nasty battle the Springers arkon bombed the third planet destroying it. Terra had been destroyed and the Topsider occupation of the system ended. The Robot Regent placed several ships in the system to monitor for remnants of terran activity and left it alone. Although there was one inhabitable world left in the system the Arkon Empire was not actively expanding its colonial activities and, so, simply quarantined the system for further use (the fact that it was at least 10,000 light years from the nearest arkonide system was a major contributing factor towards this move).
The Terrans were patient. They sent a few scouts into the system to check on the condition of the Akvons (there was some concern as to the fate with the destruction of one of the planets of their system). Successfully evading the Regent's quarantine ships they were able to determine that the Akvons had been only minimally affected by the events off their planet. It was not until 2052 that the Solar Alliance established official contact with the Akvons offering them membership in the Solar Alliance. It took the Akvons 17 years to work out the political details of joining (mainly matters of interactions between the various Akvon nations). Since then the Akvons have been a major force in aquatic exploration in the Solar Alliance and in the Arkon Empire. Especially with the Arkonides's disdain for mutual dealings with non-oxygen/air breathers the Arkon Empire has proven a very lucrative area of exploration. Interestingly, after the Posbis-Laurin War brought the Solar Alliance and the Arkon Empire closer together (and, eventually, the United Stars Organization), the Aras proved a frequent business partner with the Akvons, mostly drawn together by an interest in xeno-genetics.
Ships and Special Technology
The Akvons have an advanced biological technology and, with access to genetic developments from the Terrans and the Aras, have greatly advanced their bio-engineering abilities. They are not, however, very good with advanced electronic technology. As a result their ships, communications gear, computer technology, etc. are all terran/arkonide.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #40 - Red Eye of Betelgeuse.
Physiology
The non-terran branches of the humanoid tree are very similar to terrans except that they have vertical reinforcing on their rib-cages, enlarged foreheads and brows, and ten-month gestation periods. There is a marked uniformity in the genetic codes of these races that is not present in the human races.
Background
There is a considerable amount of human life on the "west" side of the Milky Way and extending to the M-13 star cluster. When Terran first met Arkonide the assumption, on the part of the Arkonides, was that Terra was a lost arkonide colony (with a 20,000 year history of space colonization such a belief was not unreasonable except that there was good evolutionary and biochemical evidence that humans originated on Earth). The issue was further confused when Perry Rhodan returned from the inter-galactic planet of Barkon where he had met a human race over one million years old. Presumably the ancestors of the Arkonides (at least they thought they were) this pushed back the origins of human life in the Milky Way a considerable time (though, with time anomalies likely, the full million years could not be relied on). The discovery of the Akonides in 2102 filled in the gap somewhat by establishing that the Arkonides had broken off from the Akonides in a monstrous civil war some 25,000 years ago. Because of the reclusiveness of the Akonides is has not been possible to use their records to establish what link they might have to the Barkonides.
An interesting feature to the non-terran human races is that they almost all share several mental traits: racial specialization and the a(r)konide language. Nearly every non-terran human race has a racial specialty. For Akonides it's isolationism, for Arkonides it's imperialism, for Aras it's medicine, for Springers it's mercantilism, etc. This is not an overwhelming trait on the individual level but it does express itself on the societal level. The other, far more interesting trait is the akonide language. No known human language has been conclusively shown to be related to it yet every non-terran human race speaks its well enough to be understood by any other akonide speaker even after several thousand years of isolation (as with the Isanians). Philologically, this might be barely possible in a stabilized high-tech society. In an isolated low-tech society, however, it is nearly impossible after only a few hundred years let alone a few thousand. This is, perhaps, the strongest evidence for very early genetic manipulation of the akonide races (the Aras are fairly certain that they are responsible for the genetic manipulations that created the Aras and the Springers and they know they engineered the Mounders). Other genetic features such as the akonide photographic memory and resistance to zero-G medical effects are also believed to be the result of early genetic manipulation. Given the time-frame and the some of the physical features it has been argued (and fairly successfully) that the akonide races may be more closely related to Neandrathals than to Terrans.
Ships and Special Technology
Arkonide technology is the basis of terran technology. Anything that they have terrans have as well with the exception of a few high-tech devices lost in the annals of time. Akonide technology is the basis of arkonide technology but, after their civil war, arkonide technology stagnated while the Akonides went on to develop of translinear drive, matter transmitter gates, and time distorters (among other devices that they have not yet revealed to non-Akonides). Other akonide races possess varying degrees of technology.
Special Notes
Akonides - The first known akonide race. They inhabit Sphinx, the fifth planet of the sun Akon. Racial isolationists since the Akon-Arkon Civil War 25,000 years ago the Akonides have enclosed the Akon system in a blue hyper-spatial forcefield. With the exception of a handful of ships used by the Energy Command for colonization exploration the Akonides have abandonned space travel. Instead, they make use of a network of intra- and inter-planetary and stellar matter transmitter gates. Since the rediscovery of the Akonides by the Terrans the Akonides have reluctantly acknowledged the existence of the Solar Alliance and the independance of the Arkon Empire. They have even become members of the USO. However, they remain extremely reclusive, giving out little information about themselves. During the Posbis Blitzkrieg on the Milky Way they are known to have almost allowed one of their colonies be destroyed rather than allow the Terrans to learn of its existence. How many other colonies they may have, scattered throughout the galaxy is unknown. Although there are numerous exceptions to the trend Akonides seem convinced of their superiority over all other races of the galaxy and, it is believed, would like nothing more than to see the upstart Terrans reduced to their proper place beneath the superior rule of the Akonides (they have shown few compunctions against genocide in the past having tried to destroy Terra at least three times). Although there are, doubtlessly, variations among akonide colonies (as there are among arkonide colonies) the Akonides of the Akon system are brown-skinned with coppery to bluish-black hair. Their eyes are, generally green or brown. Although there are probably psis among the Akonides they have reached a point in their technology where the use of psionics is discouraged.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #92 - Target Star.
Antis - See Baalols.
Aras - An offshoot race of the Springers specializing in (often unethical) medical practices. Like the Springers they call few places home but generally travel where their work and atrocities take them. If the Aras have a homeworld it is Aralon, the fourth planet of the Kesnar system. They are, generally, over two meters tall, exceedingly thin with large heads. Like Arkonides they are almost albinoes.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #27 - Planet of the Gods.
Arkonides - For the first hundred or so years of Terran expansion into space they believed that the Arkonides were the mother races of all the human races in the galaxy, even Terrans. Although this was eventually proven incorrect they do seem to be the mother race of the human races in the M13 galaxy cluster. In terran terms they would, most likely, be considered nordic. The possess white hair and light skin though they can tan quite dark. Currently, there are two main varieties of Arkonides: modern and sleepers. The modern Arkonides are the result of a several thousand year slump into racial boredom. They are generally listless with low energy levels and an almost over-riding need for mindless entertainment. They are generally considered degenerate and many of them are, in fact, albinos. The other variety derive from about 100,000 Arkonides found (many frozen for thousands of years) aboard a colony ship lost in space for about 8,000 years. They are well-adapted for space life and come from a period near the beginning of the Arkonide's slide into degeneration so, possess moderately high energy levels. It is these latter Arkonides who are slowly (with the help of some government-sanctioned breeding control) slowly infusing energy back into the arkonide race.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #1 - Enterprise: Stardust.
Azgonians - This offshoot of the Arkonides from Azgola was generally Arkonide in appearence but remarkably thin. All members of their race either died from over-consumption or were evacuated when their planet was seeded with fatmoss by the harvest ships of the Mechanicans. Those brave individuals who wished to return to their devastated world were allowed to do so once the harvest ship had finished cleansing the planet of fatmoss
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #111 - Seeds of Ruin.
Baalols - See Baalols.
Barkonides - This is a vibrant race, seemingly of the Akonide line but this cannot be confirmed, who claim to have lived on their planet for over a million years as it wandered from its place within our galaxy into intergalactic space. They believe that they are the progenitors of the human races in our galaxy and have shown Perry Rhodan records of such. If they are, there are many unanswered questions that await their return to our galaxy. Somehow, over that million years they have managed to remain a vibrant but static race (Perry Rhodan reported little evidence of technology significantly advanced over Arkonide). They have, however, devoted much of the last several hundred years to a racial quest to return to the Milky Way galaxy. No longer possessing sufficient space-faring technology to send forth emigration ships (and aware of mysterious dangers in intergalactic space) they have, instead, chosen to convert their entire world into a sub-light spaceship. This process, however, had the consequence of reinitiating the, til-then quiesent, war between the Laurins and the Posbis which has, since then, spilled back into our galaxy. There has been some speculation that the Laurins (known to have moved planetoids from the Andromeda Galaxy to ours) may have been responsible for the drift of Barkon into intergalactic space but this remains strict speculation and the time-frames (what is known of them) remain unresolvable.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #24 - Flight to Infinity.
Ekhonides - This offshoot race of the Arkonides is nearly identical to them in all respects (including a degree of degeneracy) and are from one of the first arkonide colonies in the M13 galaxy. They have had a long and loyal relationship with Arkon. They inhabit the planet Ekhas in the Naral system.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #(G**.
Ep-Hogers - This is a very unusual offshoot of the Arkonide race. They are the inhabitants of the planet Op-Ghan in the Ep-Hog system. They possess some of the most advanced aquatic technology found in the galaxy, capable of creating underwater cities and vehicles of marvelous durability and efficiency. Their early history is unknown but their genes show definite signs of deliberate alteration. The Springer sources have admitted that the Aras modified the Ep-Hogers soon after the Ep-Hogers colonized this world which was, then, outside the Arkon Empire. Being isolationists the Aras were able to experiment on them without the Empire becoming aware of their activities. Now adapted for aquatic life the Ep-Hogers possess webbed hands and feet, green scaley skin with a thick sub-cutaneous fat layer to help maintain their body heat, and breathing tubes on the back of their necks which allow them to swim on the surface of the water without having to hold their head out of water. The tubes are muscular and can expand up to two meters in length. Normally they rest in a contracted position (about 20 centimeters long) along the Ep-Hogers' spines. To overcome the problem of Ep-Hoger lungs fighting water pressure at two meters depth the tube "gulps" down air in peristaltic contractions of the muscles in the tube. The tubes are extremely sensitive. Like many air-breathing aquatic animals the Ep-Hogers can hold their breaths for extended periods of time and dive hundreds of feet underwater during that time. They have been equipped with a sonar sense with which they can "see", communicate, and even stun or kill small "fish" at short distances. They have very little contact with Arkonides, being a "lost colony" near the edge of the Arkon Empire proper. They have, however, been exploited for the last several hundred years, by the Springers and Aras. With the rise of Solar Alliance power this exploitation has been pretty much terminated. The Ep-Hogers, disgusted with the explotation, have cut off all contact with the outside galaxy so the Solar Alliance maintains a presence in the system only to protect them. It is hoped that, at some time in the future, the Ep-Hogers will wish to reopen communication with the galaxy and the Solar Alliance has provided them with communications gear to do so should they ever desire to.
Just before the Ep-Hogers broke off contact with the outside galaxy the Aras and Terrans operating on Op-Ghan discovered something very interesting. The Aras discovered that an extract from the Psimo coral, prolific on Op-Ghan, could produce a state of either indifference or aggression in humans which could only be reveresed by low-level radiation exposure. They were stopped by the Terrans before they could turn this into a new weapon for their medical arsenal. The Terrans, in turn, discovered that the extract not only adapted to its environment (suggesting that it was actually alive not just a chemical) but could actually modify its effects on its human hosts. Further testing showed that it was the spore of the Psimo coral, the same organism that illuminates the water of Op-Ghan. This organism is also found as an integral part of Ep-Hoger metabolism, having actually incorporated itself into the cellular structure of the Ep-Hogers. Terrans scientists have been unable to further study the effects of spores on the Ep-Hogers but off-world testing has suggested that Rhodan's initial assessment of the "gas" as intelligent may be far more accurate than he ever suspected.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #85 - Enemy in the Dark.
Ferronans - The Ferronans, inhabitants of Ferrol (originally known to us as Vega 8), are our closest neighbors being only 27 light years from Earth. It had long been believed that they were descendants of the Arkonide colonists who travelled to this part of the Milky Way (even colonizing Earth) but the recent discovery of the Akonides has forced scientists to reconsider this possibility. Since A(r)konide genes are so resistant to genetic drift it has not been possible to accurately estimate the time of the Ferronans on Ferrol that way. However, archeological evidence has suggested that Ferronan inhabitation may preceed the formation of the Arkon Empire (this is difficult to track down, however, as NaTogaam's (Vega's) solar radiation makes carbon-14 dating erratic at best). Exploration records from the Robot Brain on Venus mention that Ferrol was already inhabited at the time that Arkonides were settling on Terra. Since they had a primative but effective interplanetary technology even then the Arkonides were forbidden to interfere with the development of the planet unless it were established to be a lost colony of Arkon. Since there was no record of any such investigation it may be assumed that the Arkon-Maahk War caused the Arkonides to concentrate on other concerns. The Ferronans are a small race, only about 1.6 meters tall compared to the 1.9 meters of the Arkonides, but they are powerfully built. They have light blue hair and copperish skin which protects them from the high ultra-violet radiation levels of their sun. An interesting deviation from the normal A(r)konide mentality is that the Ferronans seem to have no individuals capable of hyperspatial conceptualization. This is especially unusual as they make use of an interplanetary network of primative (compared to akonide technology) matter transmitter cages. Legend has it that they were given instructions on how to create and use these cages by an ancient and mysterious visitor believed (by terran explorers including Perry Rhodan) to have been It. The Ferronans have no idea how these cages work but they continue to build and operate them. With them the Ferronans have colonized two other worlds in the NaTogaam system and have bases of operation on or near most of the remaining planets. Until the coming of the Terrans they had no interstellar capability. Theirs were the first planets after Venus (even before Mars) to join the Solar Alliance. Ferronans have some interesting and unique technology including micromechanics (they have, for instance, for the fun of it, built a computer chip with the computing capability of the Eniac less than eight centimeters in diameter which functions, not electronically, but mechanically using principles similar to the Babbage system). They also produce wonders with electronics.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #5 - the Vega Sector.
Ghamans - The Ep-Hogers seem not to have been the only arkonide adapted to aquatic life by the Aras. The colonists of Ghama (Toghma System) have been genetically modified to live underwater. Rarely taller than 1.3 meters the Ghamans have a bronze, oily skin, webbed hands and feet, and gills. They are amphibious and civilized. Under long-contact with the Springers they have built impressive underwater cities using discarded Springer technology. Because they are amphibious they are not well-accepted off-planet. As such, much of the planetary income comes from trade in biologicals and crafts. When, under the influence of the Solar Alliance, the Springers abandonned their contracts on the planet the Ghamans were able to free trade with other planets of the Empire and the Alliance rapidly increasing their planetary income. Despite problems with Springers and the Arkon Empire's lack of interference on their behalf the Ghamans have chosen to strengthen their ties to the Empire.
First Appearence: Perrry Rhodan #94 - Action: Division 3.
Goszuls - This is an offshoot race of the Arkonides. A lost colony this people had slowly worked its way back up to steam-age technology when they were discovered by the Springers some five hundred years ago on Goszul in the 221-Tatlira star system. Since then the Springers and Aras have exploited them, passing themselves off as gods and ruthlessly suppressing any technological advances. Because of the complete integration of arkonide "gods" into their culture the Arkon Empire has been forced to implement a plan to slowly wean the Goszuls from Springer/Ara influence by slowly changing cultural attitudes and allowing technology to increase. The Springers haven't resisted the plan if, for no other reason than that the plan will allow them to continue to exploit the planet, in a limited fashion, over the next two hundred years. The Goszuls are slightly telepathic (a talent that has not escaped Atlan's plan's for developing the Arkon Empire's equivalent to the Solar Alliance's Mutant Corps). Although they share the Arkonides' white hair and red eyes their skin is reddish.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #85 - Planet of the Gods.
Isanians - See Isanians.
Mounders - This is an offshoot race of the Springers. About 5,000 years after the Great War Springer Clan, Ut-Pen, realized that they were making more money from offering their services to other Springer clans as mercenaries than from their mercantile operations. They made the decision to specialize in mercenary operations. The first step in this process was to slowly convert their ships to war vessels. Also, for the first thousand years, their young men and women served time in the Arkon Navy for there was no more effective military force in the known galaxy. As their ships and training improved (sometimes beyond the Arkon Navy) they weaned themselves from their service with them (though the Halox sub-Clan continues to serve the arkonide emperor to this day much as the Gurkhas serve the british monarchy on Terra). Still, this wasn't enough for the clan patriarchs. It was about 8,000 years after the Great War that another Springer offshoot race, the Aras, came to them with a proposal: for a fee that would make the Mounders almost indentured servants to the Aras for several hundred years and a supply of test subjects the Aras would endeavor to find a way to genetically alter clan members for stronger, faster bodies. After much haggling the Ut-Pen clan agreed. For the next three hundred years they supplied prisoners to the Aras for experimentation and performed military operations for the Aras for free. By the end of this time the Aras had succeeded in genetically altering the clan and in establishing their exclusive medical services on hundreds of worlds. Once the altered children were being born the Mounders, as they now called themselves, built themselves a homeworld. Using a harsh but inhabitable planet, Pallali 4 (named after the springer equivalent to Valhalla) in the As-Korth system, with about three times Terra's gravity they became the first Springer clan in millenia to have a homeworld. Since then they have proven to be one of the most formidable fighting forces in the known galaxy and they have many tales of battles in which entire solar systems glowed in nuclear fire because of their battles. The only forces that they have ever considered their equals (overwhelming number don't count) are the Maahks and the Terrans. Despite the general hatred of the Springers for the Terrans the Mounders have always had grudging respect for them. Physically, the Mounders stand about 1.6 meters tall and are about 1.4 meters broad. They possess about five time the strength of a normal human and can react about twice as fast. Their hair is reddish-brown with dark-brown skin and pitch-black eyes.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #24 - Infinity Flight.
Soltaners - This is an offshoot race of the Arkonides. Although they resemble the older Arkonides in many ways they are hunchbacked and possess somewhat more bulging heads than mainstream Arkonides. The hunch is not, as many people suspect, a spinal defect but a parasite native to Soltan. Although they could medically eliminate the parasites the parasites actually saved the lives of the Soltaners during their early inhabitation of the planet. The implantation of the parasites has become a tradition on Soltan and gives the Soltaners telepathic control over much of the native life on Soltan. Their telepathy is not known to work on non-Soltan life-forms. The soltaner culture, in the Forit System of the Arkon Empire, is an interesting blend of high-tech and jungle-world. It is a matriarchal world that is not well visited because of one very strange characteristic of the males, they are liars. It is said that, off-world, a male Soltaner will never tell the truth when a well-told lie is possible. Needless-to-say, this makes business dealings with them very difficult. On the other hand, the female Soltaners, who do not lie, rarely leave their planet.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #63 - the Tigris Leaps.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #22 - Fleet of the Springers.
Tuglans - This offshoot race of the Arkonides inhabits the planet Tuglan, in the Laton System, near the edge of the current Arkon Empire. The have reddish-blue skin and glittering violet hair.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #12 - the Rebels of Tuglan.
Zaliters - This offshoot race of the Arkonides inhabits the planet Zalit, in the Volat System. They have reddish-brown skin and coppery hair. Although very close to the Arkonides they seem to be more susceptable to telepathic influences than most Arkonides.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #32 - Challenge of the Unknown.
Baalols - Aka., Antis, Anti-Mutants
Physiology
Baalols are an offshoot race of the Akonides. They have tan skin and black hair. They are an unusual akonide race in that they possess a variety of strongly expressed psionic abilities. Although the strength and proficiency of the individual's powers vary considerably (they are, in fact, primary determinants in an Baalol's rank within the Cult of Baalol hierarchy) nearly every Baalol possesses some degree of telepathy, shielding, and anti-psi. Other psionic powers, such as teleportation, telekinesis, and suggestion occur among Baalols but far less frequently.
The shielding power allows an Baalol to generate two hyperspatial fields very similar in nature to the shields used on most arkonide ships. One of them allows an Baalol to resist physical attacks while the other allows a Baalol to resist electromagnetic energy attacks (such as from thermobeamers and disintigrators). While a very few Baalols are capable of generating both fields at the same time most are capable of generating only one field at at time (about one in ten Baalols can generate only one of the two fields). They can, however, switch back and forth rapidly (generally requiring less than a second). Although the strength of shielding varies considerably from Baalol to Baalol most Cult field operatives are capable of resisting at least the power of most hand weapons. USO intelligence is still trying to learn more about Baalol powers but they have noted an interesting point about Baalol shielding: unlike ships' shielding which require capacitor banks to buffer the energy absorbed by the shields no Baalol has ever show signs of energy burn-out suggesting that they, somehow, shunt the absorbed energy somewhere other than their own bodies.
The anti-psi power seems to be directly related to the Baalols' telepathic abilities. Although most Baalols are not capable of suggestion individually they do seem to be able to telepathically shut down the psionic abilities of even the most powerful psi within range of their powers which can range from several meters to several hundred meters. Baalols are the only known human psis immune to this effect (the effect has not yet been well observed with non-human psis though they are able to affect Mousebeavers) but even they can be shut down by more powerful Baalols. If the Baalol is powerful enough (or enough Baalols combine their abilities) anti-psi can be used to shut down a victim's brain killing him or her. This is, in fact, the prefered method of cultic execution. Even when a psi is not using any psionic abilities the anti-psi effect is noticable by an accompanying (sometimes debilitating) headache.
As has been noted with telepaths in the Mutant Corps gestalitic psionic powers are possible when psi merge telepathically. This aggregate produces a power pool of greater strength than the sum of the power levels of the individual psis. It can also produce some powers that are not present in the participating individuals. As nearly all Baalols and all priests are telepathic they are well-trained in forming telepathic gestalts. Groups as small as a ten priests have been able to generate shields capable of withstanding full-strength ship's thermobeamers (though not for long periods of time). They are also capable of teleporting ships interstellar distances though the strain is considerable. Their most effective gestaltic power, however, is transition shock shielding. Like the transition shock compensators that the Terrans use this ability suppresses the tell-tale shock signature that arkonide hyperjump engines generate when they jump through hyperspace.
Although it has never been confimed by outside sources captured Baalols have insisted that their god, Baalol, is real and that they can communicate with him when they merge their minds during religious cermonies. USO psionics experts have speculated that it is possible that the Baalols' collective subconscious and telepathic gestaltic powers have created a gestaltic manifestation which they believe to be Baalol. It is also possible that the Baalols are in communication with a psionic entity similar to (but, obviously, not as powerful as) It.
Background
Some 18,000 years ago the Baalol left the Akonide Coalition and settled on the planet Trakarat. This much the USO has learned about them. No other information has been made availible from any early akonide records on the Baalol (since they used them in their attempt to conquer the Arkon Empire it may be presumed that they are trying to preserve some secrets about them). The next mention of the Baalol occurs in old Arkon Empire records. About 16,000 years ago a Cult of Baalol arose on Arkon with powerful connections within the Arkonide Navy. At this time there was still a reasonably strong belief in the gods of Arkon of whom Baal with the leader (the worship of this deity was still practiced 10,000 years ago when Arkonides (including Atlan) colonized Atlantis on Earth and is probably the origin of the god Baal worshipped in the Middle East for several thousand years). At this time the cultists attempted to overthrow the Emperor and replace him with their high priest who would consolidate all secular and religious power within himself.
They were stopped at the last moment and brought to trial. However, because of their powerful political and military connections, there was a danger of causing a civil war within the Empire if the leaders of the Cult were executed. The Emperor worked out a compromise: the Cult would accept voluntary exile outside the boundries of the Arkon (i.e., they would return to their homeworld) and they could take with them all cultic property they could carry and any worshippers who wished to go with them. In return, they were to reveal the existence of any and all temples and properties of the Cult within the Empire which would be disassembled and destroyed. They were to remain forever outside the boundries of the Arkon Empire. Any infringement of this edict would result in the prompt execution of any and all cultic violators. The Baalol left and Empire security was very effective in rooting out remaining pockets of cultic activity and attempted incursions. After several hundred years of careful suppression the cult disappeared within the Arkon Empire.
One reason that the suppression was so effective was that the Baalols, as a whole, carefully obeyed the exile edict. They had looked at the reasons for their loss and decided that their purpose had become tainted. Back on Trakarat they began enforcing and practicing their religious beliefs to their fullest. This included breeding for (and attempting to genetically enhance for) psionic powers which, they believed, would bring them closer to their god, Baal. Over the next several millenium they developed telepathic powers in nearly all their numbers. They were able to maintain much of the technology that they had brought with them but were unable to make significant developments upon it. Thus, they remained within their solar system until a bit less than a thousand years ago when they discovered their gestaltic ability to teleport ships. Carefully reentering the Arkon Empire they found that they had been completely forgotten about and set out, at once, to re-establish their cult. By this time, however, the Arkonides had seriously degenerated and there was little interest among them to join a long-dead cult. The Cult was far more successful on border worlds where yolk of the Empire was felt harshly while the benefits were transient at best. They have, however, made contacts with some Ara and Springer clans and have arranged to purchase several Springer-built ships to more effectively move within the Empire.
Within the last century the Baalols became deeply involved in the Thomas Cardiff/Rhodan affair, backing him in his bid to depose Perry Rhodan and conquer the Solar Alliance. Somehow, the Akon Coalition learned of them and enlisted their aid against the Solar Alliance and their errant rebels, the Arkon Empire. When their bid for power failed and their machinations revealed the full force of Solar Alliance Intelligence was directed to rooting them out and was about 90% effective in their efforts. The galactic blitzkrieg of the Posbis by-passed Trakarat but destroyed so much of so many worlds that even USO Intelligence has been unable to make any further significant progress in exposing the Cult's activities. Baalols are considered highly antagonistic to the terrans. They are even known to have attempted to form an alliance with the Laurins. While the Cult of Baalol is technically a member of the USO it is widely (and unofficially) known that it has joined only to further its own agenda. The Cult of Baalol openly operates churches on many worlds but these have never been successfully linked to any underground activity. The USO has been attempting to recruit trustworthy Baalols into the Mutant Corps but this has proven a generally unsuccessful practice.
Ships and Special Technology
The vast majority of Baalol advanced technology is purchase directly from the Springers. This is especially true of their spaceships which are simply surplus Springer ships. Even though they use standard hyperjump technology they are, effectively, untracable because of the Baalol crew's cloaking technology. What advanced "technology" the Baalols possess is their psionic abilities.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #88 - Mystery of the Anti.
Physiology
While the Dwarves are not the most unique life-form that mankind has encountered in the galaxy (the Ghosts of Gol and It probably hold that title) they are still among the most interesting. In essence, they are several layers of cell tissue overlaying a mesh of organic semi- and hyper-conductive fibers and moving by means of telekinesis. The mesh is a combination of "skeleton" and brain. No thicker than a piece of canvas they are about 1.1 meters in diameter when evenly spread. They are extremely variable in shape, lengthening and contracting body parts to a still unfathomed purpose. Altogether, they weigh about 2 kilograms.
Mentally, they are nearly as intelligent as humans (much more so in a few areas) but the differences in thought processes is so great that an exact comparison is impossible. Generally non-belligerent, they are gifted with telekinetic and telepathic abilities. Their macro-telekinesis handles objects of about five to ten kilograms (as well as their own masses), however, their powers can be linked telepathically, synergistically amplifying them to about three times their un-linked levels. It is their micro-telekinetic abilities that have made them highly sought-after in the Solar Alliance.This power allows them to literally "grow" objects molecule by molecule. Thus, any devices built by them are, essentially, one piece and may possess properties unobtainable by any known terran or arkonide technology. It can also be used to rebuild damaged tissue or destroy invasive tissues and items in patients.
Much of their movement is telekinetic levitation. They are photo- and magneto-synthetic, generally giving off a blue color. They do need to frequently absorb miscellaneous nutrients by "bathing" in highly mineralized water.
Like the Ghosts of Gol much of the energy that they accumulate is stored hyperspatially. About 10% of it, however, is converted to chemical energy for metabolic purposes. Careful examination of their atomic structure has revealed that, despite the incorporation of normal einsteinian matter, their molecules maintain slightly different physical constants. It is believed that their ancestors were originally inhabitants of another time-space continuum and that their psionic powers allow them to maintain these properties.
Blue Dwarves live about 230 years.
Background
When 8,000 political exile bagan colonizing the planet Grautier, in the Mythra system, they discovered that there were already two intelligent races living there. One of these was the Blue Dwarves. Unfortunately, there wasn't time for a long investigation period. Within two years of the initial colonization of Grautier it was discovered that the Druuf Continuum would intersect einsteinian space near that world. The colonists were agains evacuated. This time, however, knowing that Grautier might not survive the forthcoming battle, some of the planet's native life was evacuated as well. Numerous Mungos (the semi-intelligent "monkeys" of Grautier) and nearly all of the Blue Dwarves were evacuated. Aided by a large contingent of telepaths from the Mutant Corps the Dwarves were settle on another world and, there, they were studied more carefully.
Through the telepaths it was learned that these beings were not by their legends (and confirmed by bio-chemical analysis), native to Grautier. According to their legends their ancestors fled from an evil race to Grautier through a ring of light. Since then, the Dwarves have lost considerable know-how and have taken to living in sophisticated cave systems constructed though their micro-kinesis. Still, they have retained enough technology to know how to construct electrical lightbulbs and water pumps for their caves. That the Dwarves come from the Druuf Continuum during the last overlap period some 10,000 years ago has been suggested. Certainly, the description they retain of their "evil race" could fit the Druufs but there is nothing that can be used to confirm the connection.
Currently, the Dwarves can be found throughout the Solar Alliance. Their micro-telekinetic skills are in much demand and bring a more than generous market price. With some special equipment many of them have been able to attend Solar Alliance universities. Although it often takes them twice as long to graduate as most humanoids (arkonide hypno-training is only somewhat effective on them) the last half-century has produced some truly remarkable Dwarf scientists and artists (it is, for instance, widely acknowledged that Dr. Ronnel/23, a Dwarf hyperphysicist, was crucial to helping Dr. Kalup develop the Kalup drive used on a majority of terran ships today)
Interestingly, despite a lack of Swoon telepaths, the Solar Alliance Swoons on Mars and the Dwarves get along famously, capable of producing technological devices of astounding miniaturization and complexity. Despite the fact that their micro-telekinesis does not lend itself to mass manufacture they, and researchers working with them, have revolutionized the field of micro-gravitic materials manufacture.
Ships and Special Technology
The Blue Dwarves rely, primarily, on terran technology to which they have added their own unique scientific touches. All ships are modified Solar Alliance ships and only a few have been modified for Dwarf crews (generally, they hire chauffeur crews for their company ships and such). Because they communicate primarily by telepathy they often emply human (or alien) telepaths to act as conduits for them. When this is not practical (or affordable) they can use and electromagnetic translator which works well for their listeners but is a bit like using braille for them. A much more expensive version of this device uses and arkonide fictiv as a telepathic translator. It is not as reliable as the electromagnetic translator but it is much easier for the Dwarves to use.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #54 - the Blue Dwarves.
Physiology
Chrektors are of human gene stock but they are of neither a(r)konides nor terran descent (though they are closer to A(r)konides than Terrans. They are an incredibly ancient race. Traces of them have been found on their home planet of Rektas dating back 40,000 years. Although they share a similar rib and cranial structure with the A(r)konides the resemblence stops there. The most striking feature about them is their transparent skin and muscles and colorless blood. They appear to be walking skeletons with organs. They average about 1.3 to 1.5 meters in height and are very strongly built. Because of the differences in metabolism they get cold and slow down very easily (by 0 degree C they can easily become comatose). On the other hand, they become extremely fast at higher temperatures (by 40 degrees C they have reaction times three times faster than normal humans). Perhaps their most interesting (and feared) feature, however, is their ability to psionically drain heat from an object. They can, with but a three second touch, freeze a normal-sized human solid. They can use some of this heat to keep themselves warm but most of it escapes hyper-dimensionally. More talented Chrektors can even transfer this heat from one object to another. The native language of the Rektas bears no more resemblence to Arkonide than does English.
Background
Rektas lies in the Youn Star System some 6,500 LY’s from Arkon. It is a highly volcanic planet and was discovered by the Arkonides early in the establishment of the Arkon Empire some 25,000 years ago. For several millenia the Arkonides found little use for Rektas except to export some of the Chrektors for display purposes. Then, about 19,000 years ago Emperor Bannoth became fascinated by the Chrektor’s ability to freeze objects. It did not take him long to realized that the Chrektors were the answer to a problem that arkonide technicians had never solved: how to viably freeze then thaw a higher organism such as human. After extensive testing to determine that the procedure could be reliably induced he established a priesthood of Imras (the chrektor god of eternal cold) at the imperial palace. These priests would be responsible for preserving his body until such time as arkonide medicine developed a cure for the debilitating neural disease that affected him. The priesthood served the arkonide emperors in this fashion until the Great Maahk War when, long since replaced by gfirtan hyper-cryogenics technology, they received permission to return to Rektas.
On Rektas the Chrektors had developed a civilization based on volcanic energy channelled by the priests of Satramaliboris (the volcano god). Together they absorbed the heat of the volcanoes so common on Rektas and redirected the heat either to stabilizing their local environments or to powering their cities. Until the coming of the Arkonides other sources of power were considered sacreligeous and even lighting a fire, if not done with the appropriate prayers, could result in execution. With the coming of the Arkonides, however, much of this changed. Over the course of a millenia the power of the priesthoods was broken and Arkonide technology was purchased to provide power and other products for the cities. Still, the priesthoods survived, adapting to new ways but never quite forgetting the old. Then, during the Great Maahk War contact with the Arkonides was broken. The coming of the Maahks was taken as a sign from the gods that the old ways should return. Destroying the artifacts of the Arkonides the Chrektors isolated themselves from the galaxy and returned (not entirely voluntarily) to a totalitarian theocracy. Small groups of Chrektors managed to flee their planet for fear of religious persecution. They have since been pretty much swallowed up in the great population mass of the Arkon Empire. Rektas itself was of little value to the Empire. Several hundred years after the Great Maahk War ended the Empire finally reestablished a presence on Rektas but they chose not to involve themselves in the politics of this strange planet any more than to collect the annual taxes. Rektas has remained essentially isolated from the galaxy ever since.
Ships and Special Technology
Chrektors have a technology not unlike 19th Century european or american technology. Much of it is a bit more sophisticated but it is still based on thermal energy provided by a small priest-class. Although they could have access to arkonide technology those Chrektors still on Rektas have chosen to ban higher technology.
First Appearence: Atlan #1 - the Spider Desert.
Physiology
Five to six meters long these beings are extremely snake-like in appearence. They have a long, thin tail (about 15 cm in diameter and four to five meters long) with a thicker “chest” area (about 30 cm in diameter and about 75 cm long) from which four spindly but very strong arms emerge. The arms, two to a side, end in four-fingered hands with thumbs. The head is 50 cm in diameter and approximately spherical. Although there is a mouth at the end of the head there are numerous other orifaces which serve less clear functions. These are actually the Evergreens’ eyes (twenty) and ears (eight). Interestingly, eight (four front/four back) of the Evergreens’ eyes see in the infrared spectrum. All the eyes coordinate their neural data so that the Evergreens can see in all directions at once. Quite unexpectedly, the Evergreens do not slither but hop to travel, using their arms for balance and guidance. Evergreen are vegetarians and also use their hands for grasping limbs to feed on. Although they are intelligent and communicate quite well in a vowel rich language or through a drum language) they seem to have reached a (perhaps temporary) peak in their intellectual evolution. They appear to be relatively uninterested in technology and use only very primative tools. They make shelters only for the purpose of sheltering their young, which are lain in eggs, until they are old enough to hop on their own.
An interesting feature of the Evergreens is that they shed their skins every two months. This might not be of exceptional interest to the average person until they realize that evergreen skin, once scaled, is a strong, supple leather that cures and dyes readily and exudes a very pleasant aroma. This “perfume” is extracted to make Passa and other similar perfumes which were, for a time, extremely popular and, in fact, euphoric. Unfortunately, a minor component of the perfume is also a powerful aggressor drug which is highly volatile and permeates quickly through skin contact. Although this was considered a potential weapon against Terrans for a time it was found that it was readily deactivated in the skins and perfumes. Passan leather remains a strong competitor to bovine and girem leathers for interstellar commerce.
Background
In 2048 the Solar Alliance began its colonization of the ninth planet the Antares system in an effort to prevent the elimination of the terran race should Terra be destroyed. To get an idea of how serious this effort this was note that they moved over a million colonists a year to Passa for ten years and this was only one of a dozen or so planets that were part of the colonization plan. Needless to say, when intelligent native life was discovered on Passa in 2056 it was too late to send all the colonists home. Instead, despite the best efforts of a variety of conservationist groups, the Solar Alliance was forced to suspend portions of the Aboriginal Protection Act for Passa. Fortunately, this turned out not to be a major problem. The natives seem quite content to remain in their glass forests while the terran colonists (even most adventurers) prefer to remain outside them. The natives also show little or no interest in technology.
The result has been the development of two separate societies on Passa except in the area of passan leather. Here terrans have established permanent locations where the nomadic Evergreens can come, molt their skins, and receive foods and other goods in trade. Soon after the popularity of passan leather and perfume became an off-world phenomenon the Springers attempted to gain a piece of the action, a very large piece. The Solar Alliance fleet soon convinced most of the springer clans to look elsewhere for profits. As passan leather was being imported into markets that were, legitimately, springer a few clans were allowed to work out export deals.
In 2098 an Ara discovered a novel aggression drug in the “perfume” of passan leather. With a grant from the Aran Supreme Council and mechanistic support from the Golzak Clan he was able to establish a secret research base on Passa to study the effects of this new drug on Terrans. Later, when they were ready for larger scale testing they imported several God-Beasts from a planet known only the Aras. These they passed off as the evergreen god Ayaa-Oooy, the Magnificent. With the help of Evergreens (a very religious (or, at least, supersticiously fearful) people) the Aras eventually gathered up some 10,000 Terrans from Passa. They were, however, discovered by Division 3 and their operations stopped saving all but about 300 of kidnapped Terrans.
Since this incidence Solar Alliance scientists have suggested that Ayaa-Oooy was actually an alien visitor, quite probably of a hexapod race, who visited Passa in the far past. They also point to the presence of the glass trees, which are unlike any other life-form on Passa (standing as much as 50 meters tall and composed mostly of silica). According the evergreen legends the glass trees were a gift from Ayaa-Oooy to protect them from their enemies. They have, recently, been shown by swoon scientists to be related to the oxygen generating sands of Swoofon.
Ships and Special Technology
Evergreens have, essentially, no technology. They make only limited use of a few primative tools.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #98 - the Idol from Passa.
Physiology
Froghs lie about six meters long, the last meter of which they generally hold upright except when running quickly and the last two meters of which they can hold upright for short times while they converse with humanoids. The first meter is covered with bony plates which even cover a Frogh’s head. A Frogh has three pairs of eyes. Each pair covers a slightly different portion of the spectrum from visible well into the infra-red. It is rumoured that some Froghs can see the heat signature of invisibly shielded arkonide combat suits. The first meter also has a Frogh’s three pairs of arms. The first pair are scythe-like arms (not unlike the arms of the terran Praying Mantis) which a Frogh uses to hold its prey (often for eating). The second two pair end with hands with two stubby fingers and a thumb each. They are powerful grasping hands but not capable of much delicate manipulations. The rest of the body is more lightly armoured and sits atop fifteen pairs of legs. Despite the immense length of a Frogh’s body it is little more than half-a-meter across. It is also very lightly built with a hollow bone structure and four pairs of rather large lungs. Thus Froghs can run up to 70 kmph and can jump 10 to 15 meters from a stand. Because they can distribute their weight over so many arms and legs Froghs are excellent climbers and have even been known to ambush prey but clinging to ceilings for hours waiting for their victim to walk under them.
Froghs are well bred for linguistic abilities. Most are able to speak five or six languages and/or dialects with no noticable dialect (including Arkonide, which many speak better than their aran masters). Once imprinted to an owner Froghs are unswervingly loyal to their owners. They may question their owner’s commands but they will never disobey them unless they command endangers the owner. They are not only carnivorous but cannibalistic eating their own for a variety of religious reasons.
Background
The history of the Froghs, before their aran servitude, seems to be lost forever. It may reside in some dusty corner of some aran records building but not even their home world is known. To all extents and purposes the history of the Froghs begins about 19,000 years ago, only a few hundred years after the Aras officially split from the Springers. Even then they were servants (slaves) of the Aras. Since then, thousands of years of breeding have produced a blindly loyal and exceedingly dangerous slave race for the Aras. Following the lead with arkonide servant races specific aran clans are specialized in the breeding and training of Froghs. Once sold the trainers take the still unhatched Frogh to its owner where, upon hatching, it is imprinted with its new owner. From that point on, despite the years of training by the Frogh-masters the Frogh is blindly loyal to its owner.
Froghs have a well-deserved reputation for being among the most dangerous intelligent beings in the known galaxy. Fortunately, the are rarely found outside the employ of Aras. Masterless Froghs will, generally, either kill themselves or be killed or eaten by other Froghs. In the last three thousand years the advent of inexpensive, mass-manufactured robots in the Arkon Empire has moderately lowered the demand for Froghs. However, many Aras retain a preference for their own biological creations so the market in Froghs has survived.
Direct evidence is slim but eyewitness testimony and a few recovered example show that the Aras have secretly augmented some of their Froghs with conventional and biological prosthetic equipment. Given the deadly efficiency of Froghs and aran inventiveness with bio-weaponry such enhanced Froghs are expected to be extremely dangerous.
Ships and Special Technology
Froghs have no technology of their own and use aran technology. Because of their absolute loyalty to the Aras select Froghs are equipped with advanced aran bio-weaponry. These Froghs are rarely encountered and are believed to used almost exclusively by the Aran High Council’s elite security forces.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #43 - Life Hunt.
Physiology
A Gfirtan stands about 2.5 meter tall and possesses about four times the strength of a normal human. It is generally humanoid but is hairy over its entire body and has three prehensile trunks about where its nose should be. Despite being humanoid Gfirtans have a very different genetic structure from humans. They are quite intelligent and are masters of barter often being refered to as the “poor man’s Springer”.
Background
The Gfirtans are a very interesting race. 16,000 years ago they entered the Arkon Empire searching for a planet on which to end their long journey. They claimed that 37,000 years earlier they had had a small but prosperous interstellar realm in a portion of the galaxy almost directly opposite of the Empire. Then had come a galactic war between two other races that drove their people from system to system until there was nowhere left to go. It was then that the Gfirtans formulated a bold plan. They did not have hyperjump capability but they did have a primative FTL drive. They converted several dozen planetoids into gigantic spaceships and launched them into the inter-galactic void. They hoped to use the gravitational pull of the galaxy to slingshot them to the other side of the galaxy. They knew up front that such a journey would take their people hundreds of years in relativistic time and thousand of years in real time to complete. They hoped that, by then, the war would have burned itself out and they could find new worlds on which to live. Thus, they placed five billion people into suspended animation. Once at their maximum speed they shut off their engines and coasted the rest of the way back into the galaxy. The relativistic fields enclosing them were independantly stable and would be shut off at the end of the journey. Nearly isolated from the galaxy their ships achieved near absolute zero without additional maintainance. When they reached the M13 galactic cluster their ships gradually turned back on and awakened their command crews. Of the 36 ships that started off on the trip four were lost in intergalactic space and three more did not revive to shut off their relativistic fields.
Confronted by warships of the Arkon Empire the gfirtan ships did not resist being boarded and inspected. Although the Gfirtans were non-human even the Arkonides could not help but admire their daring. In an unprecedented move the Emperor deeded them two neighboring planetary systems some 3,000 LY from Arkon (near the galactic rim) and even provided emperial aid to transport the people and equipment of one of the ships to the gfirtan worlds to set up for the other refugees who would not arrive for another 200 years. Since then the Gfirtans have been loyal, if somewhat reclusive, members of the Arkon Empire. As a race they have restricted their activities to their own two systems, extensively re-engineering them over the last 16,000 years so that they can occupy nearly every planet in the systems. They also developed their relativistic field technology sufficiently to allow them to recover the three shielded ships from the outside. During the Methane War they fought valiantly against the Maahks. During the Posbis Blitzkrieg they were attacked once by three posbis fragment ships and were able to repulse them with the loss of only one of their smaller planets. It is believed that their preference to use their own FTL drive rather than hyper-jump drive enabled them to escape posbis notice until near the end of the Blitzkrieg despite their presence on the edge of the galactic rim.
Ships and Special Technology
Gfirtans make use of arkonide technology but prefer to use their own technology for some applications. Although some of their ships are equipped with hyper-jump drives most of them still use relativistic FTL. This, by the way, was offered to the Arkonides 16,000 years ago but, because of it slow speed (~15xs SPEOL), it was never adopted by the Arkonides. They also make extensive use of solar taps to provide energy for their planets that would, otherwise, disappate into interstellar space. Gfirtans have a reputation as master planetary engineers and are known to have been involved in the moving of Arkon 2 and 3 into their present triple orbit with Arkon 1. Gfirtans also maintain their refugee ships against the day that they might need them again. They are reputed to have made many improvements on them in the intervening millenia. Gfirtan cold sleep technology is actually the basis for arkonide cold sleep technology.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #47 - Shadow of the Mutant Master.
Physiology
These beings are primarily energy beings, capable of absorbing tremendous amounts of energy (larger individuals have been known to survive direct bombardment by ship's thermo-beamers with little difficulty) which they feed on. They do possess a physical structure. Gossamer-like it has not been studied thoroughly due to the diffculty of probing live Ghosts but gathered remains of a few show what is probably a mixture of super- and semi-conductors. The Ghosts also possess hyperdimensional characteristics resulting in their ability to become at least partially immaterial and to store far more energy than their frail frames would suggest. Ghosts can drain energy directly from human bodies (usually resulting in splitting headaches and fatigue, death is possible) but prefer more direct energy. Hyperspatial energy seems to disturb or even harm the Ghosts.
At least five types of Ghosts have been identified (not including a rumoured high-altitude type) at least two of which possess a rudimentary language (and intelligence). Although the existence of a language has been established the hyperdimensional characteristics of the Ghosts' thought processes has made decipherment of their language impossible, so far, beyond the most rudimentary level.
It is now believed that the Ghosts are related to the Luxites of Andromeda
Background
Vega 14, called Gol (after a mythic ogre) by Terrans, is a planet 164,000 miles in diameter with three times the volume of Jupiter. Unlike Jupiter Gol possesses a solid core, now believed to be the remnants of one or more planets shattered and spread around Gol's inner core (probably a bizarre and hellish mixture of "gasses" and metals fused into a solid liquid at tens of thousands of psi and generating tremendous amounts of magnetic and electromagnetic radiation). As the Vega system does not seem to be missing any planets the origin of this captured planet(s) is, as yet, unknown. With a methane/ammonia atmosphere, 1,300 mph winds, and 40 G's Gol is a formidible planet to explore let alone thrive thrive upon yet the Ghosts exist. Feeding on the magnetic energies generated by Gol's core and the electrical energies generated by Gol's atmosphere. These creatures live in most areas of Gols but rarely travel above the surface more than about 10 miles prefering to stay within about a mile. There have been rumours of Ghosts being found as high as 200 miles but this has not been confirmed. It is believed that the Ghosts remain near the surface to more efficiently gather the trace materials they need for their minimal corporeal forms.
After as thorough a geological survey as possible it is now believed that the surface of Gol is extra-golian in origin. Combined with the evidence that the Ghosts are probably related to the Luxites of Andromeda the following scenario for the origin of Gol and the Ghosts has been generally agreed on.
During the laurin offensive against the Posbis (ca. 10,000 years ago) they began transporting Luxites from the Andromeda Galaxy to the Milky Way in great asteroid ships. When dropped onto a world not only was the impact of the asteroid catastrophic but the Luxites, mostly uninjured by the impact, would scavenge energy from the survivors. In at least one instance an infested planet must have been transported to the Vega system and dropped into Gol. The entry into Gol's atmosphere and impact with its solid liquid core would have shattered the planet. The core of Gol, however, was, in many ways denser than the incoming planet so the fragments of the planet spread out to cover the core, forming a solid rather than solid liquid surface. Many of the Luxites would have survived the impact and, over the millenia, evolved to conditions on their new world. At least five types seem to have evolved, three of which no longer seem to be intelligent. As It has made use of Gol as a clue in the search for Wanderer, is probably capable of transporting an entire planet, and knows of the Luxites it seems probable that It was responsible for the transporting the unknown planet to Gol.
Ships and Special Technology
The Ghosts have no technology and, indeed, the level of their intelligence is not even known. However, they are natural hyper-space transmitters and have been the object of intense scientific study over the last several decades. Of course a major problem has been how to study these beings without being destroyed by their insatiable energy lust. The answer has been the golosphere. This is 100 meter diameter ship converted to exploration of Gol. The ship has been redesigned for a minimal energy signature during its descent into Gol's atmosphere. What space in this ship isn't taken up by observation equipment and space for the five-man crew is pretty much taken up by a ring of power generators that activate about the ship at random so as to make it more difficult for a Ghost to get a meal. Most soon tire of "chasing" their food. The artificial gravity plates and motion compensators operate on much the same principle. Another and, perhaps, the most important safety measure are high energy decoys. These are little more than arkonide fusion generators set to generate extremely high levels of energy for about 10 minutes. If a Ghost infestation becomes too great the golosphere can drop one of these decoys and, while the Ghosts are busy eating at that source, the golosphere can make its get away.
Although the ship could (and has) landed on the surface of Gol it gains an extra margin of safety by remaining at about 1 mile about the surface and sending down low energy-profile robotic probes built to operate without anti-gravity in the heavy-G environment of Gol. In addition to high-stress parts these robots were designed with the aid of the Mooffs (also from a methane/ammonia world though one with considerably lower gravity) for more efficient movement and environmental resistance. Much of this consists of a jelly-like but electrically moldable outer surface that grants considerably more freedom of action under these conditions than the standard static arkonide robot design. The offshoot of the research on the ghosts has been advances in super-conducting materials, hyper-space signal generation and coding, and even the (still theoretical) idea of Erickson junctions which are hyper-spatial logic circuits which might vastly expand terran computer technology if numerous technical difficulties can be worked out.
The golospheres and their crews are docked at an orbiting space station designed for their use (and equipped with a computer specially designed for dealing with hyper-mathematics). As a final safety check the golosphere begins to emit a low-level hyper-spatial transmission at about 10 miles altitude and is irradiated with a hyper-spatial transmission before being allowed to dock. This has, so far, "sterilized" the golospheres of any Ghosts to prevent transfering any to the space station. The low-level transmissions begun in the atmosphere are intended to gently remove any Ghosts before the need to kill any intelligent Ghosts arises.
First Appearence: (Ghosts) Perry Rhodan #10 - Ghosts of Gol, (Luxites) Perry Rhodan #137 - Phantom Horde.
Goms - The Great Gom Experiment or, Gom with the Wind.
Physiology
The Goms are form of life unique to this part of the Milky Way galaxy (although this may simply be because of the Arkonide adversity to exploring heavy-G worlds). Each organism consists of a eight "cells" arranged as five moblity/metabolism cells surrounding three memory cells. Each of these cells has a subcellular arrangement. It is about 8 cm across and about 3 mm tall. They feed by engulfing and dissolving externally then absorbing the dissolved nutrients into their body. Individually Goms are little more intelligent than a mite (though they are less hard-wired and more capable of learning) however, they possess the ability to merge together to form mega-organisms which share nutrients and experiences. Although there is some chemical transfer of data between organisms (especially nutrient data) they communicate primarily by telepathy. When combined into an organism of several hundred cells they reach the intelligence level of a dog, at several tens of thousands they reach the level of a human. During this "aggregation" the Goms develop powerful psionic abilities. These include telepathy, projective telepathy (including suggestion), and telekinesis. At the level of several hundred thousand the Goms' power is sufficient to telepathically influence humans in lunar orbit as well as pluck a Gazelle from lunar orbit. Interestingly, the more powerful the Gom's telepathic powers become the less they are able to influence human minds (their colony ships are, thus, able to communicate but not influence humans).
Another interesting feature of the super-Gom thought processes is that, in their solo state, they perceive the universe essentially two-dimensionally. As they aggregate to about the thousand or so level they begin to perceive space in a hyper-planar fashion. That is, they still perceive space as flat but realize that it often curves out of the flat plane taking many hyperspatial forms (we would perceive them as hills and such). As their aggregation expands to tens and even hundreds of thousands their perception of space become more truly three-dimensional yet the mechanism for perceiving things hyperspatially seems to persist.
Background
After the experiences of Reginald Bell, John Marshal, and several others trapped on Gom Rhodan formulated a strange plan to determine if the Goms could become a part of the Solar Alliance. With the Ara influence over the Goms ended with the destruction of their base on Gonom's moon Laros the Terrans began their own negotiations (ten years later) with the Goms. They offered to provide more warrens on Gonom in exchange for enough Goms to establish a Gom colony offworld. The Goms agreed.
After a year of constructing two new warrens (having been carful to workout some of the over-population problems) and two more years hollowing out and outfitting a one kilometer asteroid terran scientists began the process of transporting some one hundred thousand Goms to the asteroid, enough to create a super-Gom capable of "three"-dimensional thought. Within a decade the Gom population had increased to its self-imposed limit of one million Goms. During that time they learned from their terran hosts basic maintainance of their home, what the galaxy was like, and what the Solar Alliance stood for.
They also learned more about their own abilities. Having reached a size unheard of on Gonom because of predation, disease, and food limitations they developed a stable four-dimensional (don't forget, we live in three spatial dimensions but we live in four dimensions total) intelligence. They learned to understand human moral concepts (somewhat), to split off small aggregates in telekinetically controlled ships as telepathic scouts, and to move their asteroid about their solar system (again, telekinetically). They also learned to avoid creating more than drone aggregates due to the confusion is caused in the aggregate intelligence. In the end they proved very interested in joining the Solar Alliance.
Through funds generated by sales of solar mining rights and unique biologicals the Goms were able to finance the construction of a second asteroid colony the purchase of two large freighters, and the purchase of a small fleet of fighters for system defense. To avoid aggregate confusion the second asteroid community was constructed as a totally separate entity and, though communications between them are constant, the super-Goms contend that there is a vast difference in "personalities". Indeed, the original does seem to be intent on scientific pursuits, perhaps because of the focus of it orginal generation, while the newer aggregate seems to be intent on more economic pursuits. The freighters are crewed by lesser super-Gom intelligences which are, likewise, independent from the main super-Goms. The fighter aggregates are drones. The construction of this small fleet was not yet completed when several of the Gom's trading partners were taken by during the planetary raids by the Druuf's in **. Although this put their development behind by several years it was, eventually completed and, by the time of the formation of the USO in **, the Goms had developed eight super-Gom aggregate ships of which two had hyper-jump capability.
Ships and Special Technology
Nearly all of Gom technology is based on arkonide/terran technology as the Gom's had no technology at all before their agreement with the terrans. For obvious reasons much of their technology is either imported or constructed by robot factories bought from the terrans. Much of their unique technology comes from either modifications to terran technology for their specific physiology, from psionic biotechnology (their drones), or from their theoretical physics.
It is rumoured that the super-Goms are currently constructing an ultra-Gom ship capable of supporting a Gom population of over twenty million. Designed for exploration (with a super-Gom modified hyper-jump system of unknown capabilities) and defense rather than colony life it will need to be supported externally. It is believed that its primary purpose is to support a five-dimensional intelligence possibly with the capability of directly effecting hyperspatial travel (though, whether through teleportation or a form of hyper-linear travel is not yet known, at least the Goms have not been able to make the nature of the effect clear to human hyper-technicians).
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #39 - Silence of Gom.
Physiology
Although Greens look quite different from A(r)konides they, nevertheless, appear to be closely related to them. Their DNA is >99% correlatable to both Terrans and Arkonides but the Greens have the characteristic arkonide reinforced rib cage and speak a barely recognizable form of Arkonide. Their skin, which varies from brown to black, has developed a scale like texture which reduces water loss, radiates body heat better than normal skin, and protects from them much better from the scouring wind-driven sand so prominent on Moh-Luuk. Their hands and feet have elongated allowing them to better traverse sandy areas with their legs being 30% longer than their bodies and heads together. Most noticable, however, are their faces which have an elongated and flattened naso-oral area not totally dissimilar to a terran duck’s beak. This seems to provide them considerable protection from the wind and sand. Whether these changes are natural or engineered cannot be determined as yet. It seem unlikely that this could have happened through natural selection. Still, in 30,000 to 40,000 years, a lot can happen, even to a race as genetically stable as A(r)konides.
The Greens have a racial psionic ability of anti-psis. Similar to Baalols the Greens can shut down the psionic abilities of others. Many of them are also telepaths helping them communicate across the vast distances of their meager living zone and to sense their mortal enemies, the Ililunis, the “Shadows of the Desert”. It has been suggested that the Greens may be descendants of Baalols somehow stranded on Moh-Luuk thousands of years ago but it has been impossible to prove this with any certainty.
Background
At the time of their discovery the Greens had only a primative culture and technology. They were capable of building staff cannons (primative versions of muskets) and were beginning to develop steam power. Although they have access to some supplies of metals much of their materials technology centers around ceramics, stone, leather, and short, laminated pieces of wood and bone (necessitated by the shortness of Moh-Luuk’s woody plants). Their houses were small, mostly buried adobe buildings in which three or four Greens lived. They were surviving, barely, in the tiny habitable zones scattered about in a approximately 3,000 kilometer diameter area of Moh-Luk (second planet of the Greenol System, 20,000 LY from Terra). Much of their food was provided by gardens maintained by the Greens although some gathering and hunting was also engaged in (mostly of a variety of small animals not unlike terran rodents). They were, however, a gregarious folk welcoming friendly visitors to their village and sharing their tiny stores with them. Despite projections to contrary, the Greens seem to have given up warring over resources and, in fact, carefully control their population to prevent overstraining their limited resources. In all, given their limited resources, harsh lives, and religiousness, they were doing remarkably well.
The Greens are a legend-oriented people with story cycles that appear to go back thousands of years. In these they speak of the Ililunis, beings that live in the Desert regions (areas where harsh winds make even travel almost impossible). Although Solar Alliance scientists have encountered them on several occaisions they have never been able to identify exactly what attacked them. Victims of these attacks either disappear entirely or are found desicated and shredded. These attackers (if they are Ililunis) attack in the middle of sand storms and leave no organic traces behind. Thermo-beamers and guns have proven useless against them though disintigrators have had some effect. Strangely enough the most effective weapons against them seems to be psycho-beamers. The Greens seem to defend themselves with their anti-psi suggesting that the Ililunis are psionically-endowed creatures or psionic projections. In either case it has not been possible to learn more about them. Fortunately, their attacks are rare outside the Desert areas.
The Greens were rediscovered in 2044 by a Solar Alliance team searching for Molecular Transformers. They crashed on the planet and were taken in by the Greens. Only after many hardships was it discovered that one of the Greens was actually the last known Molecular Transformer in disguise. He had crashed on the planet hundreds of years before and had been unable to leave both because he was not a para-pilot and because the Greens were sub-consciously blocking most of his psionic power. Unable to repair his own ship the Terrans provided him another way off: their own ship. Unfortunately, in trying to force the Terrans to take him off of Moh-Luuk he set in motion actions that soon resulted in his death.
Immediately after this incident the Solar Alliance quarantined the Greenol system and tried to keep it a secret. It is difficult, even for Terrans, to keep some things secret in this galaxy and hiding a world is even more difficult, especially when it is Terrans who are trying to uncover the secret. In 2132 a terran journalist revealed that the Solar Alliance had, in breach of the Aboriginal Protection Act, modified green society. After an orientation and education period they began helping the Greens design and build more technically advanced communities. After several decades of study by some of the top alliance para-physicists they developed a hypno-training program to help the Greens develop their telepathic and anti-psi powers to their fullest. In return, the Alliance recruited many of the Greens into their Mutant Corps. Something that the journalist had not known before publishing his article was that the Solar Alliance had been planting Greens on planets around the known galaxy using a cover that they were a race from outside the Empire (which was quite true). When their connection to the Solar Alliance was discovered their covers as “tourists and businessmen” were blown. Moh-Luuk has, since, been opened up to restricted commerce with the galaxy and Greens operate a little more openly on many worlds. Greens are encountered occaisionally on Mars though they find the planet far too cold for their tastes. Terra, on the other hand, is too humid.
There are rumors that Greens have a primative group mind and are able to communicate (if only very simply) with others of their kind across interstellar distances much as their ancestors communicated across the expanses of their homeworld.
Ships and Special Technology
Before the coming of the Solar Alliance the Greens had only very primative technology. Since then they have adopted standard terran and arkonide technology. There was no report of the Molecular Transformer’s ship being destroyed so it may be assumed that the Solar Alliance has retrieved it and has been studying it avidly. The presence of a stable oxygen atmosphere on Moh-Luuk has raised many questions most of which remain unanswered. One of the biggest is if there are oxygen-generating sands on Moh-Luk (such as are found on Swoofon) and, if there are, are they related, somehow, to the Ililunis.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #84 - Secret Mission: Moluk.
Physiology
Until recently it was not generally known that the various hexapod races were related. Since the publication of the genetic comparison of Swoons, Fantans, Manolians, and Umoteeners Aras have come forward with ancient records of their own supporting the comparison. Even now many find such a relationship hard to accept. The variation between the known hexapod is considerable but the correlation between the various races' DNA codings is unmistakable and completely unrelated to human/a(r)konide DNA.
The common features of the hexapods are six limbs and a, more-or-less, cylindrical body. On their heads (which sit directly on their bodies) they have two large eyes (well-adapted for night vision), a nose with closure flaps rather than an external casing (such as humans have), and wide mouth. The Swoons, Fantans, and Umonteers are well-adapted to arid conditions. The fourth known hexapod race, the God-Beasts of Passa, are jungle dwellers and have developed a heavy fur for added protection. Although the middle set of limbs has opposable thumbs and can be used as arms they can also be used for legs for faster transport. The Umoteeners, in fact, use their middle limbs almost exclusively for locomotion. Hexapods are egg-bearers situated somewhere between egg-layers and live-bearers. The fetuses develop within discrete eggs which are held in the body until birth. The eggs receive some life support from the mother but some have been known to be be brought to live-birth in cases where the mother has died before giving birth.
An interesting feature of their psychology is that, although they are all gregarious races, their children, at about sexual maturity, develop an urge for adventure. Thus, all hexapod races have some form of journey into adulthood. This urge is much stronger in the males than in the females but, at least in Fantan society, has been culturally extended to include the females. It is widely believed by hexapod behaviorologists that this developed from a biological imperative to maximize genetic distribution.
Background
There is no known common historical background to the hexapod races. The known races have been isolated from their interstellar progenitors for so many millenia that no physical remains have yet been found of them.
Ships and Special Technology
The technology of three of the four known hexapod races is based on arkonide technology (with a bit of terran technology thrown in in the case of some Swoons and Fantans). The fourth race, the Gods of Passa, are a protected primative society and, as such, possess only pre-industrial technology.
Special Notes
Fantans - These beings are about two meters tall when they stand on their rear limbs. They are nearly hairless. After being discovered by the Arkonides some 13,000 years ago the Fantans became just another non-arkonide race within the Empire. Showing an aptitude for the sciences the Fantans slowly began to distinguish themselves as jack-of-all-trades around their region of the Empire. By about 9,000 years ago the Fantans had managed to buy the rights to ten planets near their homeworld (although some individual Arkonides owned more planets this was very impressive for the non-arkonide race). At this point they made a major mistake. They found a loop-hole in their contracts with the Springers that they felt allowed them to conduct their own trade within the boundries of their own worlds. The loop-holes were real and upheld by the empirial courts. For a time the Fantans prospered but the Springers decided to make an example of them. Over the next 3,000 years they conducted a campaign of disinformation and economic warfare against the Fantans. Being non-Arkonides the Fantan got little support from the Empire against these tactics and, in fact, by 2,000 years into the campaign found themselves the victims of laws specifically designed against them. By the end of the 3,000 years the Fantans no longer owned any of their planets (including their homeworld) and over 90% of the population were slaves. At this point the Aras stepped into the situation and added their own touches. Through psychological operations they gradually convinced the majority of the fantan population that they no longer had any reason to continue their existences. Over the next 1,000 years over 90% of the Fantans in the galaxy either committed suicide or ceased reproducing. The remaining population were the psychologically toughest of the Fantans. With the greatly reduced population the Aras quit their experiment, satisfied with the results, and the Springers were able to cut back their efforts while still ensuring that the Fantans remained a suppressed race. Reduced to a level of poverty almost inconceivable to any Arkonide the Fantans focused their jack-of-all-trades to the purposes of survival. They became masters of salvage and, were it not for springer suppression, could have easily bought back their freedom. At it was the last of their known ships are believed to have been destroyed by Perry Rhodan when they followed Thora's distress signal to the Sol System in hopes of salvaging an arkonide ship. When Solar Intelligence informed Rhodan of the true situation with the Fantans he deeply regretted his actions and began looking for a way to help the Fantans. It was the Posbis Blitzkrieg that gave him the opportunity he was looking for. With between sixty and eighty percent of the military ships in the Arkon Empire (including springer and mounder ships) and Solar Alliance destroyed by the Posbis and fragments of hundreds of posbis fragment ships needing collection and study Rhodan offered the Fantan the largest salvage contract in known galactic history. The job was massive and nearly the entire adult fantan population was employed at it. They worked for years to salvage what material could be salvaged from around the galaxy. Serving with terran crews and aboard borrowed ships they salvaged enough material to re-equip nearly 20% of the replacement fleet. They also assembled the most complete collection of posbis technology ever seen by non-Posbis in this galaxy. Within thirty years the Fantans went from obscure poverty to being among the most sought-after technicians in the galaxy. In addition, Fantan scientists have been invaluable in unraveling the mysteries of posbis technology. As the galaxy moves into a new era with the USO the Fantans are poised to take their rightful place as a small but key race in the galaxy.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #3 - the Galactic Alarm.
God-Beasts of Passa - Although the God-Beasts of Passa have been known to the Arkonides for about 3,000 years the first time they came to the attention of the Solar Alliance was when the Aras used five of them on the planet Passa to deceive the native Evergreens. The Evergreens have legends of a two-legged, four-armed god, Ayaa-Oooy who, in the dawn times, saved their world from the Star-Beasts. The Aras used the God-Beasts to influence the Evergreens to begin an assault on the terran colonists of Passa (Antares System). The Solar Alliance, at first, thought that the God-Beasts were genetic creations of the Aras. Since then it has been learned that the God-Beasts are actually a primative race from a world outside the Arkon Empire but known to the Aras.
Although that mystery was solved another remains unsolved. Who was the hexapod that became known as Ayaa-Oooy? Since the legends speak of only one hexapod god it seems likely that this one was a space-travelling visitor to Passa. This supposition is supported by information provided by Atlan and central arkonide records that, during the Arkon-Maahk War, hexapod space-travellers were occaisionally spotted using their advanced technology to aid some of the less well-off inhabitants of the galaxy (Atlan encountered them near Terra, which is not far from Antares). Unfortunately, they never stayed long enough for certain identification or contact. This leaves the unanswered question: who and what is this race?
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #98 - the Idol from Passa.
Manolians - The Manolians are a green-skinned hexapod race about 1.1 meters tall. After tens of thousands of years serving (and imitating) Arkonides their middle limbs have moved somewhat higher on their bodies giving them a somewhat more human look but specializing those limbs as arms rather than arm/legs. Millenia of servitude has also bred them for domesticity. Manolians (especially those that grow up in a House) adapt to the personalities of their masters, often developing a nearly psionic ability to predict their masters’ whims before they are expressed. They are extremely quick studies but rarely show any initiative of their own (even on the point of choosing mates). To most Manolians, serving Arkonides is the highest service to which Manolians may aspire.The ancient history of the Manolians is unknown. Mention of them as servants has been found in some of the few ancient (>20,000 years old) arkonide records that remain publically availible. It is believed, by those who have studied the origins of the Manolians (you’d be amazed what desperate arkonide and aran students will write theses on in order to graduate), that the Manolians have been with the Arkonides (generally as slaves) since before their split with the Akonides. The Akonides have been without non-akonide servants for millenia and have not opened their historical records to determine if manolian servitude began under akonide rule. Manolians can be found on nearly every world of the Arkon Empire that has a large population of Arkonides. Although the role of Manolians as personal slaves of the Arkonides is mostly over (the trend towards robotic servants was a fashion trend that began about 2,000 years ago and has continued since) Manolians can still be found performing many of the low menial jobs that are not fit jobs for the much more expensive robots. Manolians are generally found in ghettos when they are not employed in arkonide Houses. Although Arkonides currently regard Manolians as unfashionable servants many other races and arkonide off-shoot races actively employ them. With the slow revitalization of the Arkonides being attempted by Emperor Gononzal VIII manolian servants are becoming somewhat more fashionable again.
First Appearence: Atlan #1 - Spider Desert.
Swoons - Inhabitants of the arid world of Swoofon (second planet of the Swaft System about 1,000 LY from Terra) the Swoon are 30 centimeter tall green-skinned hexapods. Since genetic analysis has revealed less genetic drift between the Swoons and Fantans than between the Fantans and the God-Beasts of Passa it seems very unlikely that their decreased size is due to genetic engineering. A more likely explaination is that the ancestors of the Swoons were subjected to the same shrinking effects that have affected the human colonists of Siga. No information remains of any migration of the Swoons to Swoofon. It must have been well before the Arkonides discovered their planet 14,000 years ago. Although the Arkonides didn't even notice the tiny primative creatures for almost 500 years (Swoons build their cities underground to conserve water better) the Swoons noticed them and imitated the buildings that they left on Swoofon for monitoring purposes. When the Arkonides finally realized that the Swoons were intelligent they quickly discovered the Swoons' talents for designing and building microminiaturized devices. For nearly 3,000 years Empire Intelligence sealed off the Swaft system from the rest of the galaxy and used nearly the entire swoon population to build devices for them. They were especially helpful to the Arkonides during the Great Methane War. After the war knowledge of the Swoons became wide-spread and the Empire slowly released its control on the world. Although the Swoons might have made a fortune for their race the relaxing of arkonide control meant that the Springers became the primary vendors of Swoon wares. With typical Springer middle-manship the Swoons were lucky to keep their planet out of debt. Several times, in fact, they had to resort to influence afforded them through their large-scale and permanent government contracts with the Arkon Navy to prevent being reduced to little more than a springer slave world. The cost to the Swoons was high (Arkonides hate having to defend non-Arkonides against their own (in this case Springers) but they saw the necessity) but they remain free to this day. After the rise of the Solar Alliance and the secret (at least then) emigration of more than twenty thousand Swoons to Mars the Swoons have been able to slowly break away from springer influence. The Swoons have freed up enough capital in recent decades to invest in climate control devices to stabilize Swaft's environment and to develop lucrative new markets. They have even begun to invest in Swoon-sponsored R&D facilities where they are free to develop new areas of miniaturization technology. Although the galaxy-at-large believes that there is a fierce economic competition between the Swoons and the Ferronans the truth is that much of it is hype. Although there is some market overlap the Swoons' market is primarily the Arkon Empire while the Ferronans' market is primarily the Solar Alliance and, galactic distances between the two realms being what they are, this situation is likely to remain as is for many years to come. There is some overlap marketing with specialty devices that command prices high enough to justify the 20,000 light year transport costs even here the two races have specializations that rarely overlap. The tales of market competition are more to stimulate sales than anything else and both races are profiting.
A very interesting feature of Swoofon is that it is almost barren of plant life yet support a breathable oxygen environment. Since this is highly unlikely even on a cosmic scale the original arkonide scientists to study the world were convinced that there must have been some kind of machinery to maintain the atmosphere. They never found any machinery but they did find that certain soils on the planet that seemed to be able to absorb gasses and sunlight and maintain the atmospheric balance. The Arkonides passed this off as a curious chemical anomoly and the Arans, convinced that it was non-biological in nature, ignored it. The Swoons, however, depended on this “curiosity” for their very existence. They have studied it for hundreds of years yet kept the results a secret until their emigration to Mars. Once on Mars they distributed tons of soil about their new city, claiming religious requirements (which was true but only partially). They did not reveal until several decades later their discovery that these special soils were, apparently, alive, capable of reproducing yet totally inorganic in nature. They have no idea if this life form is natural or artificial but they have applied some of the chemistry learned from these soil into their technology allowing them to create effects that neither terran nor ferron technology has ever been able to duplicate. For the most part terran scientists have continued to regard this soil as a curiosity. Not more than a few hundred scientists are studying the soil at the martian universities. With access to terran technology the Swoons have advanced their understanding of these soils and have, in fact, patented several air recycling devices, based on that information, that are, currently, being installed on numerous spaceships throughout the USO (including some military vessels). Currently, the soil, which needs fairly arid conditions, grows on Mars only on the several hundred thousand square kilometers of the swoon community.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #55 - the Micro-Techs.
Umoteeners - This is an obscure and primative race of hexapods from the Tetrew System. Discovered by terran explorers they are currently protected by the Aborigine Protection Act. Their world is a harsh and rocky world which has forced them to use their middle limbs almost exclusively as legs. At 2.3 meters from head to rump and massing about 200 kilos these hexapods are the largest and most aggressive known. So far there has been no contact with them though Solar Alliance scientists have been studying them intently. Their world is quarantined until such time as the Umoteeners advance enough culturally to be contacted under the regulations of the Aborigine Protection Act.
First Appearence: This Entry
Physiology
The Mousebeavers are yet another galactic oddity. They are highly intelligent yet, on their homeworld, Vagabond, they had no civilization to speak of. In addition, they have a DNA-based metabolism with a 90% correlation to human DNA and a 96% correlation to beaver DNA. Although little study was done on the Ilts or their world there is little question that they are related to humans in some fashion. About one meter tall they appear to be humanoid beavers with greatly enlarged ears (probably an adaptation to the thin air of Vagabond). Possessing fairly short attention spans Ilts are, in their native environment, playful beings often unable to distinguish between the serious and the fun. Most Ilts are telepathic and telekinetic. A few, such as Pucky and Iltu, are also capable of teleportation. The lifespan of Ilts is unknown. Pucky has been among humans for over around two hundred years and has shown only a few signs of aging. Even he is uncertain how old he was before he joined Perry Rhodan’s crew.
While many scientists believe that the Ilts are the result of the same galactic dispersion that resulted in the distribution of A(r)konides and Topsiders to a variety of planets there are others who feel that the genetic evidence suggests a much older migration. Perhaps, as with the Barkonides, we will learn the truth in time (or through time travel).
Background
By the time that the Ilts were discovered by Terrans on Vagabond their sun was ancient and the planet much like Mars under the sun’s red light. They had no knowledge of civilization (nor were any traces discovered on several quick surveys of their planet). As Vagabond was the destination set into It’s transmitter on Gol which is what caused its discovery it would appear likely that It is somehow involved in the presence of Ilts on the planet. Although ilt elders are somewhat more sedate than the children all Ilts seemed to live for the moment and for play. Being the only animals on an arid but foliated planet they did not even have a concept of predation and, with their telekinetic abilities, what natural dangers presented themselves were rarely fatal. All this ended in 2044 when an, as yet unidentified alien force, destroyed Vagabond in a nuclear (though of a type as yet unknown) fire. Warned by some ill-defined telepathic feeling Pucky returned to his planet in time to save about thirty infant Ilts. Those infants were brought to Mars where they were raised in a special reserve created just for them. Since that time one of the infants, Iltu, has matured and has become the romantic interest of Pucky. As they have matured all the Ilts have entered the Mutant Corps. Although they have not all become active members of the Mutant Corps they are well-trained in the use of their abilities. With such a small population to draw upon the future of the Ilts is uncertain but USO scientists continue to address the problem. Although Pucky is not well-known for his long attention span there is little doubt in anyone’s mind that, even after the last hundred or so years, Pucky intends to find the race that destroyed his people and exact a fitting revenge.
Ships and Special Technology
Until the relocation of the Ilts onto Mars they had no technology. Now they make use of terran technology.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #11 - Planet of the Dying Sun.
Physiology
The Isanians are from basic arkonide stock.
Background
An former arkonide colony Isan lost contact with the Arkonide Empire during the great war with the Maahks 10,000 years ago. With much of their civilization bombed by the Maahks and without hyperjump ships the Isanians took a long plunge into barbarism. Within two centuries they had been reduced to iron-age technology and a series of religious movements formed and, backed with the power of a few remaining "forbidden god devices", they kept civilization static for several millenia. Finally, about 5,000 years ago, the power of the theocracies broke and the Isanians were able to begin the long hard road back to technology.
Tragically (and perhaps ironically) Isan went through a nuclear war at almost the same time that Earth barely avoided its own. The result was that Isan's population of three billion was reduced to about 100,000 in subterranian cities and another 100,000 on the surface.
When Isan was accidently discovered by terrans as result of a random hyperjump (Perry Rhodan #45: Unknown Sector: Milky Way) it was just in time to end a war between two of the subterranian cities, Fenomat** and **. Although the Solar Alliance had originally considered leaving Isan alone to prevent Arkon from discovering that they still existed the point soon became moot and Terra opened up negotiations to bring Isan into the Solar Alliance.
With terran technology and supplies the decontamination of Isan, which was well on its way already, was sped along and the various subterranian survivors returned to the surface. There, they were met by the surface survivors. The mutations were not as severe as first feared (even among the surface dwellers, apparently part of an improved radiation resistance engineered into Arkonides (or Akonides) millenia ago) and genetic surgery was offered to the most afflicted. More importants, however, was the growing number of mental mutations. With help from the Solar Alliance's Mutants Corps many of these mutants learned to use their powers more effectively and proved of immense help not only to rebuilding their world but to increasing the numbers of the Solar Alliance's Mutants Corps.
Ships and Special Technology
The Isanians purchase much of their high technology from off-world but have a high level of human (and animal) mental mutations in their population which is rented out to other Solar Alliance worlds and brings in considerable capital to their world.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #45 - Unknown Sector: Milky Way.
Physiology
Information on laurin physiology is extremely limited. Although considerable morphological and some biochemical information has been gathered from several hundred vacuum-mummified laurin corpses retreived from the extra-galactic luxite asteroid to which Solar Alliance forces were directed by It in 2114 considerabley less is known about their psychology and physiology. Over the last several decades only a handfull of living Laurins have been captured. >From these sources and the analysis of their actions the following information has been assembled.
Physically a Laurin stands about two meters tall on its three legs. It has two arms. It has a tiny, twelve centimeter wide head with a mouth and three eyes. It has no known hearing organs. Its skin is covered by a pale-grey to pale-red fur (the purpose of this color difference, if any, remains unknown). Researchers now believe that the Laurins evolved from a trilaterally symmetrical creature (presumably oceanic). In its evolution to land dwelling that trilateral symmetry degenerated into a pseudo-bilateral symmetry. Although the three eyes were retained the (presumably) central mouth migrated to one side (much as the eyes did in the terran flounder). Two sets of fins developed into legs while the third set evolved into a degenerate “arm” (an almost unnoticable dorsal hump) and a “tail”. Later, when the Laurins evolved an upright stance the tail evolved into a third leg. Their “bone” structure is actually a cartilage-like substance that they can harden at will by applying a little bio-electrical current through the “cartilage”’s semi-conductive components.
Their metabolism is close enough to a human’s that they can eat many of the same food but they incorporate considerably more metal into their biochemistry. In fact, they rely much more heavily on semi-conductive biochemistry than terran creatures (whose most prominant use of it is in hemoglobin and chlorophyll). They have also developed biochemical combinations that are highly unfavorable quantum mechnically suggesting that some physical constants in the Andromeda Galaxy may be slightly different than in the Milky Way Galaxy. This does not stop them from functioning in the Milky Way, simply makes it less energetically favored.
The most important feature (to most other races) about a Laurin, however, is its biological deflector organ. This allows a Laurin to not only become invisible across much of the spectrum (with the except of a faint infra-red signature which can be detected by anti-deflector filtering) but to become effectively desolidified as well. Although, after decades of research USO have not advanced very far in their understanding of this ability (perhaps, mostly, through the lack of living subjects) the best accepted theory is that they can, somehow, shift their bodies into a fractal dimension (such as between the fourth and fifth dimension). This has been given some theoretical support which has shown that immateriality might result if, somehow, one or more constants of an atom’s superstring axes were changed. Although it has been shown theoretically, how the effect can be coordinated across a Laurin’s entire body and even how it can be achieved in practice remain unknown. This effect would also seem to be at the basis of much of the observed laurin behaviour. Although Laurins show super-human intelligence and little fear of death in groups they appear to be almost imbecilic and quite cowardly individually. It is believed that Laurins are linked to other Laurins within a specific distance through some sort of fractal spatial connection. This allows them to link their, admittedly tiny, brains (about 10 centimeters across) to create a collective consciousness. Their cowardliness in isolation presumably result, at least partially, from the loss of collective consciousness. As with their “invisibility” this transfer shows a microwave signature but is only a shadow of the information transfered and, so, cannot actually be translated. Telepathic examinations can monitor some laurin thoughts and can detect the mental linking but the link is definitely not telepathic. It should also be noted that, while Laurins are invulnerable to physical attack in their desolid states they can be affected by thermo-beamers (which attack them through their infra-red vulnerability) and disintigrators (which, presumably because the operate on sub-atomic prinicples, can still affect them). They can resist the damage from one or two hand weapons but are quickly slain but more than two if caught in the cross-fire. When slain by energy weapons while their deflector organs are active their bodies lose control of the desolid effect and the body loses all cohesiveness thus leaving no traces of their bodies. Anesthetic weapons can effect physical Laurins but not deflectored Laurins. Psycho-beamers can have an effect but are normally too erratic to be effective outside the hands of a telepath.
As for the laurin fear effect this seems to be based on the Laurins’ electromagnetic abilities. They broadcast on a frequency that can be detected by animal nervous systems and is interpreted as fear. The effect seems to be a natural laurin defence and cannot be shut-off. Thus, animals (and even insects) of many worlds flee from Laurins even if they cannot, otherwise, be detected. Even humans have reported feeling nervous, uncomfortable, and fearful in the presence of several Laurins. Although telepaths detected intense feelings of hatred from the laurin minds the early encounters with the Laurins (such as Rhodan’s trip to Barkon) presumably failed to notice this effect because of the electro-magnetic shielding built into standard terran and arkonide space-suits. When Laurins die they give off a death-screech that can be heard physically and electro-magnetically.
Background
Little has been learned about the Laurins. It appears that they were involved in the formation of It but how long ago and how is unknown. It has not been possible to estimate how long the Laurins and Posbis have been at war. Given the nature of the weaponry that they used (including asteroids with Luxites) and the fact that evidence of such weaponry has not been evident in the known galaxy for 10,000 years the hiatus in the war seems to be at least that long ago. Carbon dating on botanical matter from Mechanica suggests that life on Mechanica died off over ** years ago. Since the Posbis are believed to be at least partially created by the Mechanicans the earlist date for the Posbis-Laurin War would be about then. More recently (about 2110) the Posbis/Laurin War became active again. The battle quickly engulfed the Arkon Empire and the Solar Alliance. It is known that Laurins have inhabited a number a planets in our galaxy (it is almost at though they are the remnants of a previous invasion force forced to survive in this galaxy rather than newly-arrived forces). Somehow the Baalols have made contact with them (and even allied themselves to them on several occaisions) and through them the Akonides. It was this alliance of Laurins, Baalols, and ultra-militant Akonides that launched an attack of some 3,000 Laurins against Terra in 2114. Although this attack was thwarted by the intervention of laurin-hunting Posbis the effects on Terra were devastating. Using Terra’s own technology and resources the invading Laurins were able to detonate nuclear warheads in cities across the globe (Paris, London, Washington, DC, Calcutta, and others) before they were hunted down and destroyed. The total death-count of Terrans will never be known with certainty but numbered well over two million. Since then laurin activity has been relatively light.
Ships and Special Technology
Little is known about laurin technology. They, apparently, have some form of faster-than-light drive that allows them to travel between the Andromeda and Milky Way Galaxies (although how quickly is unknown). It is known that they have the technology to desolidify matter to a state like they, themselves, achieve. Using this technology their ships enter battle invisible and immaterial to matter. Although their ships possess weapons strong enough to destroy posbis fragment ships their shielding is not nearly as strong and they can be destroyed by the concentrated fire of any 500 meter or greater arkonide or terran ship. When destroyed their ships become material for a short time then disappate into immateriality, the same effect observed when they themselves are slain while using their deflector organs. Laurins are known to have the technology (or, less likely, the natural ability) to take over sleeping or drowsing humans. The effect is not unlike that of the arkonide psycho-beamer but can be broken by the use of some stimulatory drugs. They have shown the power to move planetoids across intergalactic distances. Considering the duration of their war with the Posbis the Laurins would seem to come from a civilization much more advanced than our own and capable of planning military tactics across hundreds if not thousands of years.
First Appearence: Perry Rhodan #106 - Caller from Eternity.
Physiology
The Maahks were massive humanoids standing some 2.2 meters tall and about 1.5 meters wide. Their heads were hemi-spherical and sit directly upon their shoulders. Around their heads they had four 10 centimeter diameter green eyes. Their standard gravity was 2.4 G’s and their atmospheric pressure about 3.6 with considerable methane and ammonia. That they are DNA based was confirmed by autopsies of bodies during the Methane Wars and the fact that they were known to be able to eat arkonide rations (arkonide soldiers could not eat maahk rations without purification because of the high ammonia content). Their intelligence was comparable to arkonide intelligence but they were seemed to be much more logical than Arkonides. There also did not seem to be much emphasis on the indivdual in their culture with individuals designated by the function in society. They spoke Kraahmak which was a language that could be readily learned and spoken by most humanoids.
Background
Little is known for certain about maahk history currently. The little that was known during the Methane Wars (Arkonides were never famous for wanting to know much about their enemies only how to enslave them or destroy them) and this has been obscured by time and arkonide “clarification” of history. It appears that the Maahks claimed to have come from the Andromeda Galaxy but, because of the great distances involved the