Arilou Lalee'lay

The Arilou Lalee'lay, or Arilou for short, are an enigmatic and reclusive species. While they were known to the members of the Alliance of Free Stars, they chose to remain neutral in the first war against the Ur-Quan. However, they changed their minds and joined the Alliance within hours of the Humans being recruited by the Chenjesu. Their actions were equally mercurial at the end of the war, retreating and abandoning the other races as soon as the Humans were Slave Shielded.

Appearance and Phisiology

The Arilou eerily resemble the human pop-culture image of an alien, with smooth blue-green to grey skin and huge eyes that dominate the face, and slightly shorter than humans, standing around 1.5 meters. Their Skiff spacecraft are also the spitting image of the "flying saucer" popularized by 20th century human science fiction.

This is no coincidence, as the Arilou were the cause of these stories, as well as having been responsible for other mythical creatures in Earth's history, including Elves, Fairies, Martians, Greys, and Zeta Reticulans. Infact, the name "Arilou Lalee'lay" was used by the ancient Celt civilization to describe a race of mythological elf-like creatures. Whether the Arilou gave this name to themselves or took it as their own from the Celts is up for debate.

The Arilou have claimed responsibility for the infamous UFO sightings and alien abductions occuring on Earth, starting from 1940 or earlier and going to the year 2000 and beyond.

The Arilou are psychically active, communicating with other beings telepathically, and controlling their ships through mental commands.

Homeworld

The Arilou sphere of influence in HyperSpace is centered in the Chandrasekhar constellation, but their homeworld, Falayalaralfali, can only be accessed via QuasiSpace. Chandrasekhar contains the only known natural entrance to QuasiSpace (a secret which the Arilou jealously guard) and this is presumably why the norminally pacifist Arilou defend the region so vigorously. Falayalaralfali bears a striking resembalance to Earth.

Relations with Other Races

For some unknown reason, the Arilou seem to have a vested interest in the well-being of humankind. This attitude covers not just Humans, but their offshot species the Androsynth as well as the genetically compatible Syreen. The Arilou often take a patronizing attitude towards these races, hinting that they know more than they are willing to say. They reveal little of what they truly know or what motivates their actions, and even when they do their answers are cryptic and generally leave even more questions in their wake.

The Arilou have a strong dislike of the newly-arrived Orz, although this may be simply be an extension of their protectiveness of the Andosynth, who the Orz are assumed to have eradicated.

When it comes to the other races of the galaxy the Arilou take no notice as long as they are not a threat to their chosen wards. With this in mind, their actions in the first war seem quite reasonable; the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za would not have destroyed humanity, instead they would have given them the option to serve as battle thralls or to be slave shielded; therefore the Arilou took no action. Once humanity decided to join the Alliance of Free Stars though, there was a chance the species could have been decimated by the conflict, so the Arilou joined in to defend them. And once Humanity was defeated and place beneath an invincible slave shield, the Arilou found it safe to retreat back into anonimity.

Needless to say, the Arilou are concerned about the possible victory of the Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah over their Kzer-Za brethren, as their Eternal Doctrine would be a great threat to Humanity and the Syreen. Therefore, the Arilou's assistance could be counted on in the Second War.

Theories

The following statements are not proven, and in many cases are not accepted by the majority of the community.

The genetic similarities between Humans and Syreen, left to chance, are a statistical impossibity. Knowing how long the Arilou have been associating with Humans, it is likely that they are somehow responsible for this developement. Perhaps they seeded both the Human and Syreen homeworlds with the same species, or have continually crossbred the two to maintain genetic similarities, or perhaps have used some kind of otherwise unknown technology or psychic phenonmenon to guide the two species' evolution. The quesion is, why?

There are other disturbing facts about the Arilou. During one conversation between Arilou leaders and The Captain, the translator was unable to properly translate one Arilou concept, instead providing a best-fit word: *time*. This indicates that Arilou may have a more profound understanding of what we think of as time. This has led to some speculation that the Arilou could be a future state — or at least a possible future state — of humanity (or the Syreen or their offspring). Indeed, the Arilou's seemingly magnanimous actions certainly take on a more logical — and also more self-serving — tone if one assumes that they are working to promote their own existance. This would also explain the similarity of Falayalaralfali to Earth.

If one follows this path of thinking, it raises some interesting possibilities about Orz's statements that the Arilou are from *above* (the future?) and that Orz is from *below* (the past?). These beliefs are likely incomplete, or at least naive simplifications, considering our lack of complete understanding for the Arilou concept of *time*.