Questions about the Nephilim...

-danr-

Vice Admiral
There's something has been troubling me for some time.

I've just finished replaying Prophecy, for the first time since about 2001, and subsequently spent a morning on Google trying to get answers from wiki sources and from this very forum, but with little luck.

Let's talk about the bugs...

What do we really know about this race? I mean in terms of their homeworld, their culture and their history. I find Prophecy deals with the bugs in a similar way to how WC1 dealt with the Kilrathi, a mysterious enemy with only the occasional glimpse at their physical form, the odd cut scene perhaps.

That's obviously where the similarities between our two foes end, from what we see of Blair's death, the Nephilim is an insect-like 'slimey' creature, 14 feet tall with extendable wings.

Also... to avoid starting another thread, I wanted to bring up Melek's speech to Blair shortly after the destruction of Kilrah, in the novel he describes humanity's victory over the Kilrathi as a 'folly' to human interests, claiming that the Kilrathi had long acted as a buffer between humanity and other enemies of Kilrah, who the cats had long kept out of humanity's sphere.

Could this be the Nephilim?
 
There's something has been troubling me for some time.

What do we really know about this race? I mean in terms of their homeworld, their culture and their history. I find Prophecy deals with the bugs in a similar way to how WC1 dealt with the Kilrathi, a mysterious enemy with only the occasional glimpse at their physical form, the odd cut scene perhaps.

Star*Soldier goes into a bit more about where they come from (Fluid Space) but doesn't really explain in detail. SO delves into some of the consequences of contact with them (the virus), but again for the most part they are left fairly blank that someone in the future could fill in the gaps. Like how the S*S timeline ends in 2681 so as to leave the events of the war up to someone else (granted they do mention certain encounters and events but they aren't very detailed).


Also... to avoid starting another thread, I wanted to bring up Melek's speech to Blair shortly after the destruction of Kilrah, in the novel he describes humanity's victory over the Kilrathi as a 'folly' to human interests, claiming that the Kilrathi had long acted as a buffer between humanity and other enemies of Kilrah, who the cats had long kept out of humanity's sphere.

Could this be the Nephilim?

I believe in that sense Melek is thinking about the Mantu (who are sort of "defanged" in the ICIS manual for WCP as being paranoid explorers) in that sense since it's before the Nephilim have been brought into the story. Prior to WCP the Mantu were the "big bad enemy" waiting around the corner for Confed. However with WCP they are explained away and replaced with the Nephilim myth.
 
+1 rep for this helpful answer :D

seriously though, thanks, I appreciate that - it gives better perspective than anything I've found online, I'm glad to know that I'm not alone in pondering the mysterious nature of these creatures. Was worred I'd missed something major.

'Fluid space' now there's something to ponder...
 
You may already know this, but Prophecy was supposed to be the start of another saga of Wing Commander games, sort of how WC1/2/3/4 go together as "Blair's story." Origin's intent was for the enemy in the first game to be just the tip of the iceberg. The design docs hosted on the CIC present the Nephilim as one of the servitor races to an immense alien power, invading our part of the galaxy both to test their own worthiness in the eyes of their masters and to sort of scout humanity and/or the Kilrathi to see if they'd make good candidates to also fight for their bosses.

This whole scenario wasn't explored in Prophecy, though Blair tells Casey that Nephilim are fascinated by humans and their ability to kill pitilessly. Obviously, the rest of the planned series never materialized - other than Secret Ops, where you still blast Nephilim. It's as likely as not that any future Wing Commander games will abandon the original Nephilim backstory and treat them as an independent threat. Arena is set twenty years after Prophecy, and its manual doesn't mention there being any other species affiliated with the Nephilim.

Prior to WCP the Mantu were the "big bad enemy" waiting around the corner for Confed. However with WCP they are explained away and replaced with the Nephilim myth.

Yes, Prophecy replaces the Mantu (a powerful race the Kilrathi had encountered - fear of their inevitable return spurred the cats to war) with the Nephilim (a powerful race the Kilrathi had encountered - fear of their inevitable return spurred the cats to war).

It's the most pointless bait-and-switch ever.
 
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Star*Soldier does mention “the Aligned People’s” a couple times but doesn’t give any details about them.
 
It's the most pointless bait-and-switch ever.

I quite like the way the Kilrathi are in shock-and-awe by the arrival of the Nephilim though, after all, the cats always had the edge over humans when it came to physical hand-to-hand contact (after all, the cats are 8ft, muscular, clawed killiers) so I'd imagine a certain amount of surprise and terror descending upon them when the bugs turn up and savage them... For instance, the word 'Knathrak' [darkness, evil] being scrawled across a hangar floor in cat blood conjours up images of a brutalised Kilrathi, crawling to his death, only able to describe what has just happened to him in one word: 'Evil'...

...that said, I've probably just misunderstood Zero & Hawk's explanation of events, can anyone clarify who it was (Cat or Bug) who is implied to have written that word?
 
I quite like the way the Kilrathi are in shock-and-awe by the arrival of the Nephilim though, after all, the cats always had the edge over humans when it came to physical hand-to-hand contact (after all, the cats are 8ft, muscular, clawed killiers) so I'd imagine a certain amount of surprise and terror descending upon them when the bugs turn up and savage them... For instance, the word 'Knathrak' [darkness, evil] being scrawled across a hangar floor in cat blood conjours up images of a brutalised Kilrathi, crawling to his death, only able to describe what has just happened to him in one word: 'Evil'...

...that said, I've probably just misunderstood Zero & Hawk's explanation of events, can anyone clarify who it was (Cat or Bug) who is implied to have written that word?

I think it was written by a kilrathi, there wouldn't be much reason for the bugs to create a horrifying scene if they didn't intend for anyone to see it. It seems to me more like a kilrathi's final act of desperation.
 
I quite like the way the Kilrathi are in shock-and-awe by the arrival of the Nephilim though(...)

I guess that's what we're supposed to think but besides the Kn'thrak-thing we don't really get any strong emotions by the Kilrathi, considering they're meeting their prophesied doom.
 
I guess that's what we're supposed to think but besides the Kn'thrak-thing we don't really get any strong emotions by the Kilrathi, considering they're meeting their prophesied doom.

That may just be because we don't have much exposure to the Cats in Prophecy, and then in Secret Ops are off on a secret assignment where we wouldn't be fed daily updates of Cat news ANYWAY.

At any rate, until the events referenced in Star*Soldier (just after WCSO) with additional wormholes opening up (nearly all of them in Cat space) the Kilrathi haven't exactly had to face the Bug's in any kind of large scale conflict.
 
That may just be because we don't have much exposure to the Cats in Prophecy(...)

That's exactly what I lament.

At any rate, until the events referenced in Star*Soldier (just after WCSO) with additional wormholes opening up (nearly all of them in Cat space) the Kilrathi haven't exactly had to face the Bug's in any kind of large scale conflict.

The Kilrathi on E'loy would probably disagree, also the Kilrathi battle fleet from the WCP intro. Heck, the whole of WCP takes place in Kilrathi space.
 
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