FreeOrion

What is your all time favourite alien species or a group (the jedi, telepaths could be examples of a group) and more importantly why? Talk about one or two species or groups, which can be from TV-series, movies, books, games etc. and tell us why they are your favourite species or a group/s? Do you like them because of their physical characteristics, because of their technology, society, ideology etc? And please tell us a little bit more about these things than just: "I like their technology." Tell us something about that technology too.

The purpose of this thread is to hopefully give us more material from which to create alien species, ancient races, minor races, possibly dead archaeological cultures, specials etc. Everyone already has his/her own knowledge of some sci-fi aliens and groups, but since the field of sci-fi is quite a large one there might be some interesting ideas out there that might benefit writers that don`t yet know about these ideas.

Also if there are some qualities that are loved by a large group of people, it might support the selection of some species that have these qualities to the game, or these qualities might get used in some other form in the game.

And before someone gets a heart attack and thinks that all original creativity is now lost, lets examine what I am not trying to say. First of all I am not promising that if some kinds of species get a lot of support here, they would be automatically accepted to the game. I am in no position to make such a promise, and even if I were I still wouldn’t promise that. I am also not suggesting that we should just copy great ideas from other sources, glue them together and forget about our own ideas. However I am hoping that this thread might produce some ideas that story writers could use together with their own ideas to create interesting and deep alien species.

It is also possible that other genres, like fantasy for example, could also have some interesting groups or factions that could offer us some nice ideas, so if you think that it is beneficial, feel free to talk about these things too.

I wasn`t sure were in the forums I should post this thread put decided to post it in the story section, since it could offer some interesting ideas to story writers. It is also possible that this thread might end up to be just a fun (or not so fun) poll.

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What is your favourite alien species and WHY?
Preliminary thoughts about diplomacy
Some unfinished ideas for specials

I've always liked the Shadows from Babylon 5. I really like the designs and capabilities of their ships.

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A sucking chest wound is Nature's way of telling you to slow down. --Murphy's war laws

I like the Ousters from Simmons' Hyperion. Why? They come in a huge variety, depending on the environment they decide to live in. Also they build orbital forests, which is one of the most fascinating ideas I've come across in sci-fi. I also liked the templars and their tree ships a lot.

The Pilsons from Master of Orion 2 and 3 were my favorite species. They also were the most annoying.

The Orz, just that hilarious way of speaking and hints they may be a cosmic horror.

Probably H.R. Giger's Xenomorph.

Utterly disturbing and scary, the perfect alien menace, and it's so hard to find art/movies that make you feel anything anymore.
There are a lot of memorable alien races and a lot of good alien races out there, but if there ever was perfection, this has got to be it. A real land mark for sci fi horror.

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Photo-dump.

Musings

I too would say the Shadows. The way their ships were designed conveys perfectly there mystery and fear you should think of when you think of them.

I see there are a lot of Shadow lovers here, and while I agree that they are very well designed, I always liked the Vorlons. Their costumes weren't implemented well, but I loved their ship designs and their mysterious motives.

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There is no charge for awesomeness ... or attractiveness.

I wouldn't necessarily call them a "favorite" -- but the "buggers" from Ender's Game always had an attraction for me. Part of this was due to the alienness that Card managed to capture in their way of thinking without ever truly incorporating them as characters; especially when describing how something as simple as a corridor being a different size could be unsettling to people.

Damn near any of the alien races from the Farscape series were pretty awesome as well. Especially the biomechanical ships.

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I have always liked the Vorlons from Babylon 5. The Vorlons were an ancient, mystical species who didn´t usually give a strait answer to a question, but seemed to have some sort of an understanding of what the future would bring. They were creatures of energy or light, but usually in the presence of other species lived inside their encounter suits, which hid their true essence.

One of the things that I liked about the Vorlons was that they remained some what of a mystery, as in not everything about them was revealed in the series. I have always liked species that are mysterious or stealthy (like the Romulans from Star Trek or the Darloks from MOO 2), since these kinds of species have the potential to offer surprises and perhaps leave some room for the viewer to form his/her own opinions about them.

I also loved the Vorlon organic ships, since the idea of using live, sentient beings, which still have a tremendous amount of power in them, as space ships, fascinates me. As space, at least in our real world terms, is usually not considered to be a very friendly environment for organic beings, or at least to those organic beings that we are currently aware of.

However maybe the thing that in my opinion made the Vorlons ultimately so great was their imperfectness. Since even though the Vorlons at first were described in the series as leaders of the army of light, which could lead you to believe that they are the ultimate and pure heroes against the evil Shadows, you can later see that the Vorlons too had their own agenda, and that with their planet killers they were ready to use not so nice ways to advance it. For me this made them more colourful and interesting than they would have been, if they had been shown as classical pure and innocent heroes of the universe.

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What is your favourite alien species and WHY?
Preliminary thoughts about diplomacy
Some unfinished ideas for specials

Niven's "Puppeteer" struck that fine balance between plausible and hilarious.

Orson Scott Card's "Pequeninos" or "Piggies" have a brilliant, if warped life-cycle that was plenty interesting enough to justifiably take up much of the book.

The Second half of Brin's Uplift Series has a lot of well-done aliens which are nicely inhuman physically and mentally.

The Grendals in the "Legacy of Heorot", is the written equivalent of the creepiness and power of the movie Xenomorph.

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I also liked the Vorlons for the reasons you mention here.

Torwards the vary end of the series it becomes clear that it is not so much that the Shadows and Vorlons are good and evil, order and chaos, but that they are like two parents in an argument trying to get there children to take sides =) Well, in the end they were told to get the hell out of our galaxy !!! =)

The Jem'Hadar!

I like everything they reflect. Their attitude to their gods (We pledge our loyalty to the founders, from now until death; Obedience brings victory - and victory is life), to combat (We are going to battle to reclaim our lives. We do this gladly for we are Jem'Hadar. Always remeber: Victory is life) and let's not forget "Live is nothing, honor is everything" (I yield. I cannot defeat this Klingon. All I can do is kill him. And that no longer holds my interest).

i always liked the minbari from baylon 5, the talosians from the first star trek and i dug the new cylons in battlestar galactica

i liked the minbari in babylon five, the talosians in the very first star trek, i liked the tweaking of the cylons in battle star galcatica and my favorite moo2 race is the trilarians, sorry for the double post i thought i canceled it in time