Slylandro

Slylandro

Slylandro gasbags

Homeworld: Beta Corvi IV (Source) Coordinates: 033.3 : 981.2 Member of: None Ship: Probe

The Slylandro are the only known race whose homeworld, which they call Source, is a Gas Giant. They are physically incapable of leaving their planet and travelling thru space, which prompted them to purchase a "Catalog Item 2418-B: Self-Replicating Robot Explorer Probe" from the Melnorme to explore space for them and report back to them. The Slylandro have had contact with the Precursors, the original Ur-Quan and the Sentient Milieu.

Physiology

They are essentially sapient bags of gas (and a limited quantity of solid and/or liquid) that float through their homeworld's atmosphere. Their visual range is different from most races and it is to their great dismay when they realize that their bodies are transparent to human vision, revealing their reproductive organs, which look like "glowy bits".

They evolved from simple, unimodular consumers that thrived in atmospheric convection currents. Originally mindless but social creatures, they developed language to better coordinate efforts to herd their food source into dense concentrations. Source has a great biodiversity for a gas giant—hundreds of species, some producers, others consumers, hunters or parasites—but the Slylandro claim to be the only ones to have evolved intelligence.

Because of their unique physiology, the Slylandro inhabit only a 500 kilometer thick layer in the the atmosphere of Source. Ascending above this layer, into what the Slylandro call "Void", causes them to become giddy and behave inappropriately. Descending below this layer into "the Depths" can be fatal as the increasing pressure can eventually rupture a Slylandro's gas bag. In a common feat of courage, youths will sink into the Depths just enough to damage but not rupture their gas bags, producing tissue scars which last for many rotations and are thought to make the individual more attractive to potential mates.

Culture

Isolation from the rest of the galaxy makes their lives extremely monotonous; one of the only marginally interesting activities they can do is watching the clouds, the wind and the lightning. Indeed, as a result of this, the Slylandro have developed over eight hundred "symbolic references" solely for the purpose of describing clouds; most of the time when they are not eating, they are talking about what the clouds look like, for lack of a better subject. The lack of excitement is compounded by the long lifespans of the Slylandro—more than twenty thousand Earth-years. Content to Hover, a Slylandro Speaker, claims to have been a nymph when the original Ur-Quan visited their homeworld.

The Slylandro have an egalitarian society, but this, as Content to Hover comments, "doesn't stop some people from being stupid fools or jerks." Inhabitants of Source deal with bothersome individuals by simply going somewhere else on their massive planet.

Because of the limitations of their world, the Slylandro have no native construction, technology or written records. Attempts to create objects from animal carcasses are futile, as the construction becomes too massive and dives into the Depths, its buoyancy being overcome by gravity. Unable to maintain written records, the Slylandro employ long songs called History Chants, whose patterns and rhythms help prevent the record from being corrupted. Also linked to their peculiar habitat and physiology is the Slylandro Timekeeping system, based solely upon the rotation period of their planet, Source. Their units of time are the Drahn, the Drahnasa, and rotations.

Relations with other races

The foreign relations of the Slylandro depend on other races visiting them, which occurs rarely, even by Slylandro standards. They are always very friendly when dealing with alien visitors and are eager to learn as much as possible from any new "Traveller". This has kept the Slylandro neutral in galactic affairs because they are physically unable to join any alliance and no race is known to have the technology to move them. The isolation is was led them to purchase a Remote Self-Replicating Robot Explorer Probe from the Melnorme and to increase the priority of its Replication behavior, inadvertently creating an ever-growing menace to space travel.

Precursors

Referred to as the "Shaggy Ones" by Content to Hover, the Precursors were once close friends with the Slyandro who arrived "41 Drahns ago" and introduced them to many forms of new technology and terminology, such as "aliens", "ships", "stars" and "planets". The Precursors also gifted the Slylandro with an orbital satellite equipped with a Hyperwave Broadcaster so that they could remain in active communication wherever they were.

Yuli & Drall

While the Slylandro speaker Content to Hover offers little information about the Yuli and Drall, he does note that both races were members of the Sentient Milieu and would commonly engage in conversation with the Slyandro.

Ur-Quan

The Slyandro remember the Ur-Quan only in their original, "brown" state, and visited with them regularly "three Drahn ago" to the point where they became great friends.

Melnorme

The Melnorme are responsible for selling the 2418-B: Remote Self-Replicating Robot Explorer Probe to the Slylandro in return for biological information on the Slyandro's homeworld as well as their unique physiology. Unfortunately, the Slylandro were left responsible to program the Probes themselves and accidentally caused them to replicate uncontrollably. The Melnorme, however, evaded responsibility for this by forcing the Slylandro to agree to a formal waiver of damages were such a thing to happen.

New Alliance of Free Stars

The Slylandro Probe ship spread throughout our corner of the galaxy and terrorized fleets belonging to both Alliance and Hierarchy worlds. No one was certain who was responsible for the aggressive and powerful probes, but the Thraddash and Zoq-Fot-Pik gathered evidence that pointed towards the far northwest sector. When The Captain arrived, he was perhaps surprised to meet such a cordial and curious race. After fruitful discussions that included all aforementioned information on Slylandro diplomatic history, the Captain alerted the gaseous people to the damage their ships were causing. The Slylandro promptly provided the Captain with a self destruct code to transmit to the Probes.

Known individuals

• Content to Hover, a Slylandro Speaker
• Sullen Plummet, female Slylandro
• Joyous Lifting, transmits historical information about the Precursors.

Gameplay notes

Sources of information

Both the Thraddash and the Zoq-Fot-Pik indicate the direction from which the probes come, but not the exact star system. The Arilou, while not providing any clue on the location, hint that the Slylandro live on "a world with no surface," a gas giant. One of the probe's responses in the PC version gives the probe's position coordinates relative to the Slylandro homeworld (but with x- and y-coordinates reversed). The manual hints at the possibility of life existing on Gas Giants, stating "To date, no complex life-form has ever been found in/on a gas giant; however, research into this field has been minimal." However, only the Melnorme give current and complete information on the Slylandro.

Relevance to the plot

Though not necessary to completing the game, the Slylandro have a self-destruct code that removes the necessity of fighting probes, reduces their overall number and allows them to be scavenged for resources much more easily. Visiting them again after obtaining the Code will slowly but permanently reduce the probability of a Probe encounter to zero, and is thus not recommended due to the inability to scavenge them anymore.