Talk:Faz

An interesting theory about the Utwig. Still though, didn't it say somewhere that the only member of the milieu to live in our quadrant were the Taalo? -Fadookie 15:47, 16 Oct 2004 (CEST)

Our "area of space". There isn't any evidence that the SC2 galaxy is formally divided into "quadrants", or that the Starmap in SC2 comprises one particular quadrant. Fahz is all the way on the other side of the map from both Sol and from Vulpeculae.

A load of crap

"A few theorists contend"... only one so far. Just because one person has one far-off theory, that doesn't make it worth a mention in an encyclopedia article. I'm waiting for someone to claim the Mycon have descended from the Spathi, because the Spathi call their home star "Yuffo". Or that the Vux are actually "fingers" of another Orz-like creature, because there's a VUX captain called ORZ.

Only one? Really? ISTR I've heard this more than once. It's one of those things where the fact that this is a game written by two people rather than an actual collection of data from real life means that a lot fewer things may be coincidences. The thing that makes me think there's an intentional link here is the explicit weirdness and vagueness of the Utwig's description of the "veils of Fahz" or "sky-canopies" floating in the atmosphere. It's *at least* as compelling as the theory that "Mael-Num" and "Melnorme" are the same (especially given that that one was finally independently confirmed by the creators long after it'd become fanlore.)

I've encountered only one, including you. As for explicit weirdness and vagueness, the reference to Fahz is just a short remark in a longer text which is even weirder and vaguer. And there connection between the Mael-Num and Melnorme is much greater. Where do I start...

• "The one-eyed creatures, the Mael-Num, asked so simply, [...]" (Kohr-Ah speech). Appearantly the one-eyedness is a defining feature.
• "[...] the Melnorme are an old and widely traveled race." (resource guide)
• They make a point of pointing out that the Mael-Num could be alive: "While we fought, the Mael-Num escaped. We never found them again." (Kohr-Ah speech). "the Mael-Num fled their planet in a huge fleet of interstellar vessels, and vanished" (resource guide).
• They make a point of pointing out that the origins of the Melnorme are unknown: "The history of the Melnorme is poorly understood, [...]" (resource guide).
• Both the Melnorme and the Mael-Num likely came from outside this region of space: "Though we Melnorme have just recently arrived in this region of space" (Melnorme speech), "[the Taalo home planet] was one of the few Milieu worlds located in this region of space." (Melnorme speech)

Of course these are far from conclusive (Why didn't the Kohr-Ah recognise the Melnorme as the Mael-Num? Why didn't the Slylandro mention the similarity (maybe they never saw them?)), but it's a lot stronger than "Fahz and Faz sound alike".

Well, I didn't invent it -- I heard about it on the SC2 forums for UQM multiple times a while ago. And the evidence isn't that "Fahz" and "Faz" sound alike, it's that the Utwig have super-advanced shield technology -- that, as others have pointed out, is red and glowing -- and in general have an obsession with covering up, hiding, masking, maintaining order that's linked to their mythology of "the sky-canopies of Fahz" which fell down. The link with the idea of a slave shield sounds pretty strong, given all the symbolic value the Kzer-Za give the slave shield in their speeches about order and security and such. And since the Faz are said to have been the very first race to have been slave-shielded eons ago, it's a logical twist that their slave shield might've been the first to fall on its own.

I don't think the "sky-canopies of Fahz" are *that* weird and vague -- they're just a piece in a speech that mostly makes a lot of sense. The one mystery in it, what the sky-canopies actually are, reads more to me like a mystery meant to be solved than just garbled nonsense.

Anyway, most of your points are themselves pretty weak. The only *real* connection is that the Mael-Num are one-eyed and so are the Melnorme. Otherwise, all of your points are very general points about the lack of evidence *against* a theory. The Mael-Num weren't ever genocided, and neither were the Faz. The Mael-Num home planet is far away from Sol, and so is Fahz -- by the way, I don't think it's a valid assumption that there's some sort of natural "sector" that the starmap comprises, and that anything not in "this region of space" is off the map. That's something SC3 invented. The history of the Melnorme is mysterious, and so is the history of the Utwig. The only *real* link is one single line, "one-eyed creatures", and one name similarity, "Melnorme" to "Mael-Num". You have exactly the same thing for Utwig, even though it's less emphasized -- one line, "sky-canopies", and one name similarty, "Fahz" and "Faz".

The Slylandro propably didn't ever meet with the Mael-Num, although they knew they were members of the sentient milieu. They met the Yuli, Drall and Ur-Quan at least.

IIRC the Slylandro actually said they only ever *met* the Ur-Quan, the Milieu's long-range scouts, and *learned* of the other Milieu members from the Ur-Quan -- hence why they weren't able to give you any details about the Yuli and Drall but their names. Also, it's pretty clear that the Melnorme never revealed their presence to either of the Ur-Quan races, and that in general they don't seem to be known by anyone they don't want to be known by, so the Kzer-Za or Kohr-Ah recognizing the Melnorme is not really a factor.

More fact, less theory

There are all kinds of things that we can guess about and make vague connections to possibly support. Not all of them are worthy on inclusion to an ecyclopedic source. Everything that goes in here should be widely accepted and pretty well documented. Equating Faz to Fahz seems like a bit of a stretch.

On the other hand, the Jugger's shields are impenetrable and red... Did they perhaps borrow this technology from somewhere?

Humanity was shielded for 20 years. That must have sucked; can you imagine? And the Ur-Quan destroyed every historical site on the surface (and a few even deeper). What might they have done to the first race they defeated? 20,000 years can do a lot to a species.

Still, stronger notes that this unsubstantiated would be in order.

Mmrnmhrm 15:40, 18 Oct 2004 (CEST)

"A few theorists contend" is stronger than "it is possible" -- theorists do contend things that aren't always actually possible, after all.

"Humanity was shielded for 20 years. That must have sucked; can you imagine?" Actually, I don't think it would be as bad to be confined to a single world as the game makes it out to be. When was the last time you left earth? ;) Yes, the red sky would be weird, but I'd imagine you'd get used to it after a while. What I think would be worse is the destruction of our ancient history. That would hit much closer to home for me, as the conception we humans have of what we are hinges largely on what we were. -Fadookie 09:24, 1 Nov 2004 (CET)