Originally posted by Nep Parth
An "artificial" religion? How would that be different than a normal religion?
Once accepted, it would be no different. I meant it's
origin: Given by another group of natural beings who
have no belief in it themselves, but give it in order
to modify the behavior of the target group. Thus, it
is strictly a social control mechanism and nothing
more. As opposed to what I would call a "natural"
religion, meaning either 1) It really *was* given
by *real* supernatural beings or 2) Invented by the
members of the target group to explain the world around
them, by people who actually *believe* it.
I think that, as we don't see any other races besides the Nephilim...and we don't have any evidence of other races...we can we assume that others control them?
They call themselves the "Aligned Peoples", which
implies more than one race. It is *possible* that
the Nephilem are the Master Species, but I believe not.
Why? Because if I were in the business of getting
other species to do my fighting for me (like, as
I proposed, they tried to do with the Kilrathi), I would
hardly stop with only one. Nor would I send my own people
to do a job a soldier caste could do just as well. Thus,
I suspect that the Bugs are the Soldiers, not the Brains,
of the Aligned Peoples. They certainly cultivate a
warrior ethos, like the Kilrathi.
We can't assume that there aren't other races (that control them), but we also can't assume that there are.
Correct. I am speculating.
Also: Quarto, I think you're making a distinction without
a difference when you describe non-aligned as "neutral".
Since the AP's response to non-aligned species seems
to be to exterminate them, their understanding of
"neutrality" seems to be quite different from ours.
I don't think they divide the world into "Friends",
"Enemies" and "Neutral" but into "Strong" and "Weak". Species that do not prove themselves strong are destroyed.
Respectfully,
Brian P.