Difference between revisions of "Path of Now and Forever"

Latest revision as of 01:24, 13 July 2015

Ur-Quan Topics
Species
Ur-Quan Kzer-Za • Kohr-Ah
History
Sentient Milieu Slave Revolt Slave War The Words Doctrinal Conflict Second Doctrinal War
Personalities
Kzer-Za • Kohr-Ah
Philosophies
Path of Now and Forever Ur-Quan Hierarchy • Battle Thrall • Fallow Slave • Oath of Fealty Eternal Doctrine Death March Doctrinal Conflict
Ships
Dreadnought • Marauder • Sa-Matra
Science
Excruciator • Slave Shield • Talking Pet

The Path of Now and Forever is the guiding philosophy of the culture of the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za. In short, it dictates that all other forms of sentient life have the potential to one day enslave the Ur-Quan as the Dnyarri did. To solve this problem, the Path of Now and Forever calls for all sentient life to be either imprisoned within a slave shield as a Fallow Slave, or to serve the Ur-Quan as a Battle Thrall.

Name[edit]

Strangely, the Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah use the same name to refer to their alternative philosophy. This may be a communication error (i.e. accidental mixup in writing the game dialog) or may indicate that the phrase can be broadly applied to the Ur-Quan philosophy of dominance. However, it is general practice to follow the example of the Kzer-Za, the Melnorme, and Human sources, using the name to refer specifically to the Kzer-Za philosophy.

History[edit]

Origin[edit]

After the success of the Ur-Quan slave revolt, the Ur-Quan found themselves in an extremely vulnerable psychological position, having seen the entire context of their culture, their place in the Sentient Milieu, completely destroyed and having been forced to suffer the unspeakable torture of living in the Dnyarri slave empire. Their natural xenophobia and distrust of other sentients was now fully unleashed and stained by the traumatic memories of ultimate enslavement under the Dnyarri. Thus, all Ur-Quan became convinced of the absolute necessity of maintaining their dominance and freedom at all costs, by acting as rulers of the lesser sentient races; all races that were not immediately useful to their goal of subduing other races would be kept alive but in as harmless and confined a position as possible.

Doctrinal War[edit]

They therefore developed the slave shield technology as the ultimate means of imprisoning and neutralizing possible threats, and proceeded to use it on the Faz, one of the few surviving races of the Sentient Milieu.

However, the Path of Now and Forever developed by the Kzer-Za was rejected by a charismatic Black Ur-Quan fleet officer, Kohr-Ah, who formulated the Eternal Doctrine, that all other sentient life must simply be completely destroyed. The Black Ur-Quan unanimously accepted the new philosophy, going as far as to rename their species "Kohr-Ah", in the honor of the founder of their Doctrine, and incinerated the Yuptar homeworld, afterwards proceeding towards the last remaining free world, the planet of the Mael-Num. The Kzer-Za were unable to accept such a gruesome conduit and confronted the Kohr-Ah in orbit above that world, initiating the Doctrinal War.

After discovering the Sa-Matra and subsequently defeating the Kohr-Ah, their high regard for the Ur-Quan species as a whole, coupled with their willingness to accept that they might have been in the wrong, left them unable to destroy or enslave their Kohr-Ah brothers. Instead, they agreed to pursue the Path of Now and Forever in their travels spinward around the galaxy with the use of the Sa-Matra, while the Kohr-Ah pursued the Eternal Doctrine in their travels anti-spinward without it, agreeing to fight a ritual reenactment of the War once they met again and award the Sa-Matra to the next victor.

Since then the Kzer-Za have conquered thousands of species throughout a large portion of the galaxy, before finally being defeated by the New Alliance of Free Stars during their second Doctrinal War with the Kohr-Ah and being forced into flight.

Beliefs[edit]

The Ur-Quan Kzer-Za are not willing to accept the murderous Eternal Doctrine of their Kohr-Ah cousins, whom they view as "the only real devils". However, just as the Kohr-Ah, they also have a moral justification for their doctrine — they believe that a sentient species left to its own devices is likely to eventually annihilate itself, either through nuclear war or gaian collapse, a situation whose results they claim to have observed on countless worlds; thus, the "boon of slavery" they impose upon their slaves actually is considered a necessary evil, since by accepting the social framework set by the Kzer-Za, sentient species will finally find peace. The Kzer-Za state that although, today, they are the enemy, in time, the Humans will come to respect and love them for this gift, of salvation of their entire species.

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+__NOTOC__
 {{UrQuanNav}}
-'''The Path of Now and Forever''' is the [[Ur-Quan]] [[Ur-Quan Kzer-Za|Kzer-Za]] Doctrine forbidding the freedom of other sentient races.  They must either be contained under a [[slave shield]] or willingly join the Ur-Quan [[Hierarchy]] of [[Battle Thralls]].
+'''The Path of Now and Forever''' is the guiding philosophy of the culture of the [[Ur-Quan Kzer-Za]]. In short, it dictates that all other forms of sentient life have the potential to one day enslave the [[Ur-Quan]] as the [[Dnyarri]] did. To solve this problem, the Path of Now and Forever calls for all sentient life to be either imprisoned within a [[slave shield]] as a [[Fallow Slave]], or to serve the Ur-Quan as a [[Battle Thrall]].
-The first race to fall to the Path of Now and Forever was the [[Faz]], another member &mdash; alongside the Ur-Quan &mdash; of the former [[Sentient Milieu]]. Countless others have followed in the passing millennia. The reasons for this extreme measure are quite simple. The Ur-Quan know the pain of enslavement and they know it well. They can never allow another race to control them as the [[Dnyarri]] once did. Any sentient race could become a threat, and so they all must be controlled.
+==Name==
-When slave shielded, a race is cut off from the rest of the galaxy. Only the most powerful communication systems can penetrate the shield, even then only to short distances, and nothing physical can pass the barrier. All signs of that race outside of the shield are annihilated. Also, if the enslavement of [[Earth]] and the [[Human]]s is to be taken as an example, the ancient signs of the race's culture are also destroyed. Whether this is to simply punish the race in question, break their will to resist, or some other purpose is unknown. It is also possible that Earth is an isolated incident.
+Strangely, the [[Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah]] use the same name to refer to their alternative [[Eternal Doctrine|philosophy]]. This may be a communication error (''i.e. accidental mixup in writing the game dialog'') or may indicate that the phrase can be broadly applied to the Ur-Quan philosophy of dominance. However, it is general practice to follow the example of the Kzer-Za, the [[Melnorme]], and [[Human]] sources, using the name to refer specifically to the Kzer-Za philosophy.
-As a Battle Thrall the race is given limited freedom. They can travel space and persue technology, but they are carefully watched by the Kzer-Za. Battle Thralls are substantially less powerful than even a fraction of the Kzer-Za fleet and are expected to fight alongside the Kzer-Za to subjugate yet more races.
+==History==
+===Origin===
-The Path of Now and Forever is in opposition to the [[Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah]] [[Eternal Doctrine]]. Proving the superiority of one doctrine over the other is the purpose of the Ur-Quan [[Doctrinal War]].
+After the success of the [[Ur-Quan#Slave revolt|Ur-Quan slave revolt]], the Ur-Quan found themselves in an extremely vulnerable psychological position, having seen the entire context of their culture, their place in the [[Sentient Milieu]], completely destroyed and having been forced to suffer the unspeakable torture of living in the [[Ur-Quan#Dnyarri slave empire|Dnyarri slave empire]]. Their natural xenophobia and distrust of other sentients was now fully unleashed and stained by the traumatic memories of ultimate enslavement under the Dnyarri. Thus, all Ur-Quan became convinced of the absolute necessity of maintaining their dominance and freedom at all costs, by acting as rulers of the lesser sentient races; all races that were not immediately useful to their goal of subduing other races would be kept alive but in as harmless and confined a position as possible.
+===Doctrinal War===
+They therefore developed the [[slave shield]] technology as the ultimate means of imprisoning and neutralizing possible threats, and proceeded to use it on the [[Faz]], one of the few surviving races of the Sentient Milieu.
+However, the Path of Now and Forever developed by the Kzer-Za was rejected by a charismatic [[Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah|Black Ur-Quan]] fleet officer, [[Kohr-Ah (Character)|Kohr-Ah]], who formulated the [[Eternal Doctrine]], that all other sentient life must simply be completely destroyed. The Black Ur-Quan unanimously accepted the new philosophy, going as far as to rename their species "Kohr-Ah", in the honor of the founder of their Doctrine, and incinerated the [[Yuptar]] homeworld, afterwards proceeding towards the last remaining free world, the planet of the [[Mael-Num]]. The Kzer-Za were unable to accept such a gruesome conduit and confronted the Kohr-Ah in orbit above that world, initiating the [[Doctrinal War]].
+After discovering the [[Sa-Matra]] and subsequently defeating the Kohr-Ah, their high regard for the Ur-Quan species as a whole, coupled with their willingness to accept that they might have been in the wrong, left them unable to destroy or enslave their Kohr-Ah brothers. Instead, they agreed to pursue the Path of Now and Forever in their travels spinward around the galaxy with the use of the Sa-Matra, while the Kohr-Ah pursued the Eternal Doctrine in their travels anti-spinward without it, agreeing to fight a ritual reenactment of the War once they met again and award the Sa-Matra to the next victor.
+Since then the Kzer-Za have conquered thousands of species throughout a large portion of the galaxy, before finally being defeated by the [[New Alliance of Free Stars]] during their second Doctrinal War with the Kohr-Ah and being forced into flight.
+==Beliefs==
+The Ur-Quan Kzer-Za are not willing to accept the murderous Eternal Doctrine of their Kohr-Ah cousins, whom they view as "the only real devils". However, just as the Kohr-Ah, they also have a moral justification for their doctrine &mdash; they believe that a sentient species left to its own devices is likely to eventually annihilate itself, either through nuclear war or gaian collapse, a situation whose results they claim to have observed on countless worlds; thus, the "boon of slavery" they impose upon their slaves actually is considered a necessary evil, since by accepting the social framework set by the Kzer-Za, sentient species will finally find peace. The Kzer-Za state that although, today, they are the enemy, in time, the [[Human]]s will come to respect and love them for this gift, of salvation of their entire species.
+[[Category:Kzer-Za]]
+[[Category:Hierarchy]]