Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

[Kraven Kor]

I'd like to get some brainstorming going for my campaign, to get as much background information as possible.

 

I've ran into a bit of a snag.

 

My general idea is that "armegeddon" ended up being the invasion of an extradimensional race, one that had visited Earth long in the past but been mostly driven out by an alien species who discovered ancient Earth in their travels. This species had encountered these extradimensional beings before on other primitive worlds.

 

After driving them out, they remained to monitor Earth and ensure mankind would not be interfered with again. Over the millenia, they worked in secret, constantly driving out the D'hrek (which human mythology came to call Demons), and constantly working to hide both their own involvement and the existence of the D'hrek from Humans. This resulted in these aliens coming to be known by mankind as Angels.

 

Anywho, basically all our UFO and religious mythologies came from the covert war being fought. In 2012, the D'hrek - directing events through human agents - were able to re-open their portal to Earth and the Akashi were forced to engage them openly.

 

After the Akashi quashed this threat once again, in a battle which to all of Earth seemed to be the apocalypse, they explained to mankind what had been occurring, forced to break their silence.

 

The end result, as I see it, is that slowly Earth's nations began to consolodate, and a focus on achieving interstellar travel began in earnest. The Akashi refused to offer any technological assistance, though they did confirm that they used wormholes - and related technologies - for most of their travel needs. This was deemed a safe piece of information to share, as Human scientists had already discovered a possible wormhole on the outskirts of the Sol system.

 

What do you think would happen between the end of this "Armageddon" and the first human colony being established? How would the governments and religions of the world react if suddenly we knew we were not alone, that most of our myths were inspired not by God and Satan, Angels and Demons, but by aliens - one from another part of our Galaxy, the other another dimension entirely?

 

Just wanting to do some theorizing here and am having some writer's block in the section of history from this first contact and the current campaign setting (2260, with humans having a few dozen systems either colonized or being surveyed.)

 

I'll post what I have so far if anyone feels like picking through a few pages of background info.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

 

One thing that occurs to me is that the "revelations" (if you'll pardon the expression) of the origin of human myth and religion may start to marginalize those who retain faith in them, causing them to become more extreme, reclusive and/or secretive. I could see one or more of the major faiths attempting to establish a colony world for the faithful where they can practice without "persecution."

[McCoy]

Re: Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

 

Let's see, they've been conducting covert operatiions on Earth for millennia, and now openly admit they are withholding technology. No, no reason for suspicion and mistrust there.

 

A number of religons will accuse them of lying, that the Akashi are not the angels of legend. Cults claiming that the D'hrek are actually the good guys will spring up.

 

Governments of the world will openly suck up to the Akashi, while covert/rogue operations try to steal and reverse engineer Akashi tech.

 

More as I think of it.

[Kraven Kor]

Re: Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

 

One thing that occurs to me is that the "revelations" (if you'll pardon the expression) of the origin of human myth and religion may start to marginalize those who retain faith in them' date=' causing them to become more extreme, reclusive and/or secretive. I could see one or more of the major faiths attempting to establish a colony world for the faithful where they can practice without "persecution."[/quote']

 

Yeah, I had thought of this. I don't want mankind to have quite achieved the interstellar empire... I'm thinking that, by 2260, game start, we have explored all the systems within 15 LY or so and the promising ones within 30. Of those systems, only a few have Earth-like planets, and only 2 of those planets actually have breathable atmospheres and indigenous life. The rest are all research outposts, Wormhole station colonies, mining and survey outposts, and planets being terraformed or being surveyed for terraforming. So no one group has a sole claim to any planet - the "UTC" which works like the UN parts out system ownership amongst the major governments. Earth hasn't quite achieved a unified planetary government, so on any colonized planet you have more or less autonomous colonies from various governments. Primarily US/Europe/Australia/Japan, Russia, and China. Certainly some religious groups have their own territory, but not their own planets (though that could make for an awesome "unknown colony" where some group launched a ship in secret to a planet outside of "Terran Space.")

 

Let's see, they've been conducting covert operatiions on Earth for millennia, and now openly admit they are withholding technology. No, no reason for suspicion and mistrust there.

 

A number of religons will accuse them of lying, that the Akashi are not the angels of legend. Cults claiming that the D'hrek are actually the good guys will spring up.

 

Governments of the world will openly suck up to the Akashi, while covert/rogue operations try to steal and reverse engineer Akashi tech.

 

More as I think of it.

 

Now that is a good point. The Akashi are pretty reticent, giving only the minimal amount of info, and then our own government would further obfuscate any sensitive info - huge black hole of unanswered questions would breed a lot of mistrust, conspiracy theories, etc.

[Kraven Kor]

Re: Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

 

And, just to clarify, my main block right now is best diagrammed as so:

 

Step 1: Armageddon Happens, Akashi Save us.

Step 2: ???

Step 3: Earth becomes more united and colonizes the stars.

 

I'm really having trouble with the immediate affects, I'm imagining riots and mass hysteria for the first few days / weeks, until the dust settles, but once it starts to sink in...

 

I think the US, Europe, Japan, Australia, Russia, China... pretty much all your high tech nations would be able to adapt pretty quickly, despite their fair share of nutbars. Third world countries? What would happen in the Middle East, Africa? Particularly in areas with no strong government and less access to TV's or Radios to hear the latest news.

 

When it all went down, when the D'hrek attacked, the whole world knew. The skies went red, electricity went out, all technology ceased to function, storms and earthquakes... they were essentially superimposing their own reality on ours, very Chthulu-esque. When the Akashi stepped in, it was an equally world-wide event. Right out of the bible, they came down from the skies, glowing white and engaged the horrific forms of the D'hrek.

 

Naturally, most people thought this was it, Judgement Day, but then Judgement Day didn't happen and the Akashi slowly left as the situation calmed down, and mankind was left (so it seemed to the average Joe) to figure things out for themselves. The Akashi worked with an assembly of the world's governments to explain their role in things - all the while withholding any technology and offering only minimal answers to our many questions, still doing "damage control" in their eyes - and the United Terran Commonwealth was formed to replace the UN and help guide mankind to the stars.

 

At this point, advice or just questions I haven't thought to answer would be equally helpful.

[Cancer]

Re: Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

 

A lot depends on the level of collateral damage and actual playing-out of the Armageddon thing. The special effects sound interesting, but if, e.g., there's nothing left of Rome but a 22-kilometer caldera, that's something else. Much depends also on whether a witness can tell what weapons and results came from who. I think that the level of possible ambiguity that you have in the actual Armageddon event sets a powerful tone for the rest of the campaign and game-world.

 

Since it's angels/demons, you could posit psionic (or spiritual) backwash from all the weapons used, an experiential thing that left absolutely no doubt in anyone over the age of 3 about who were the good and the bad guys. Or, limit it to segments of the population for more ambiguity (and how you slice those segments can add more stresses to the post-apocalypse society).

[Kraven Kor]

Re: Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

 

Well, the battle itself would have likely been simply incomprehensible to witnesses who weren't trained fighters.

 

The D'hrek are from another dimension, when they come to our reality they kind of look like whatever the observer is most terrified of, more an effect of the human mind giving form to the formless. The Akashi in their armored suits look like a blinding white light of vaguely humanoid form. The weapons used by the D'hrek were equally incomprehensible, some killed outright, others incinerated or disintegrated, still others turned their victims inside out or just drove them mad. Akashi weapons are pretty standard blaster weapons, and their ships filled the sky over most every city on Earth while things settled. Most witnesses to the actual combat, mostly centered in Jerusalem, would be 100% sure who the "good guys" were, but that wouldn't stop them from being distrustful of the Akashi particularly after they basically said "Hey, we stopped the D'hrek, Galaxy is a big place, you're on your own, good luck."

 

The worst damage would have been in Jerusalem and the route from there to the plain at Armageddon, but the actual D'hrek invasion occurred after a slew of coordinated terrorist attacks, so there is plenty of other "fallout" worldwide.

 

The D'hrek, once defeated, vanished entirely but the damage they did did not. It would have been weeks or months before power was restored, longer in poorer nations. The Akashi stayed around and provided aid and peacekeeping forces while things were repaired, though again providing almost no technology or answers, the entire time fending off throngs of people thinking they were Angels and this was judgment day.

[Curufea]

Re: Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

 

Stage 2, I'd be thinking death cult/terrorists as one reaction by religious groups - the other reaction would be to found colonies on other planets where they can live as God intended away from Godless aliens. If they didn't have the tech - they'd pull all their political power to make ships with current tech.

[Spence]

Re: Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

 

The real world would never make it through Stage 2.

 

Humanity would destroy itself. People forget that the enlightened portion of the population of the planet is very very very tiny compared to the general population.

 

Let me define what I mean when I say "enlightened". I am only referring to it as people capable of holding a strong belief and yet being OK with others that disagree.

 

Almost every major religion on earth has a tenet that requires the believers to save everyone else despite themselves. Take that with a religious leadership that depends on large masses of near-illiterate followers for their livelihood and you have a recipe for disaster. A lot of our current problems all resolve down to a small number of fanatics of one flavor of religion or another blowing up or otherwise attacking everyone else. As soon as it is revealed that it really was a lot of empty air all hell will break loose. Not just the fanatics but the rest of the religious believers, who exponentially out number the non-religious when you look at world wide population, will be faced with the choice of accepting the central pillar of their lives was a fraud or that they were right and this is the end game and the devil/demon/anti-Christ/etc has taken over the 'first world' and both aliens are actually servants of the same devil/demon/what have you.

 

Lets see choice A) I'm an idiot and have wasted my life or Its all a plot by the Big Evil. Somehow I don't think the the average citizen our fair planet will use their brains on this one. Especially when there will be thousands of righteous holy men to lead the charge.

 

In order the save the world from the heathens/blasphemers/godless/etc who are in league with the Evil ones, the true-believers must rise up and vanquish them.

 

Nope, I see

 

Step 1: Armageddon Happens, Akashi Save us.

 

Step 2: Shock and panic sweeps the globe as BILLIONS of the poor and undereducated from around the world riot and ignite a global holy war unprecedented in human history. Second and third world regions will unleash nuclear and biological weapons against the Evil Akashi Devils and their lapdogs, turning world into a burnt and blasted wasteland.

 

Step 3: Earth falls into barbarism and slides into obscurity.

 

 

I'm just saying

[Kraven Kor]

Re: Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

 

Well, again the Akashi are going to stick around for a bit, and their technology is... well, let's just say Nukes detonated near them don't detonate, their innate danger sense and psionic powers either identify attackers before they attack, or else contain things in psychokinetic force fields minimizing the damage.

 

I think my game world's history will see that period of madness, but it will be contained by the Akashi peacekeeping force. The Akashi are practically immune to anything we could throw at them in the 21st Century.

 

Eventually, our technology advances and we correct the many problems of Earth - genetic cures for most diseases, the achievement of cold fusion and satellite based solar power, etc. Akashi forces assist mankind in distributing aid to the poorer nations of Earth, erradicating hunger, and slowly bringing the third world into the first and beyond.

 

Now, yes, religion does not - no, can not - die out. Some religions adapt - re-interpreting prophecy to account for these changes (the Mormons probably have the best current framework for this, already believing that God populated other worlds than our own.) The more fanatical become less influential, becoming secretive cults but unable to enact any nefarious plots.

 

I suppose I will have some of these religions send out ships to some uncharted planet, probably through arrangements with the UTC. I don't think I'll have them play a major role in the campaign.

 

Once the Akashi peacekeepers leave, things will probably get a bit ugly again, though by this time the UTC will have established their PsiOps organization, inspired by the Akashi's considerable psionic abilities (their weaponry might be fairly standard blaster guns, but their technology is tied into their natural abilities.)

 

When humans launch their first interstellar craft, the Akashi become a little more helpful, inviting mankind into their loose alliance and providing much more assistance - though still trying to let humans figure things out on their own.

[Spence]

Re: Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

 

Well I'm not saying you can't get to the stage 3 you need for your game. It's your game after all

 

I'm just saying that the stage 2 will be nasty. If the A's super-tech can reduce/eliminate the WMD tickets then the big bang most likely won't happen. But a major religious tsunami will have an extremely high body count, and true believers of any flavor are only a hairs width from the zealot. The current couple decades in the Middle East has illustrated how much damage a virtual handful of people can inflict when they take over a government or act as a terrorist organization. Just imagine what they could do if that style of religious fanatic had true general support of entire countries, entire regions? Just think of the fanaticism that could be generated if the religious declared jihad, not just against a people that have different beliefs, but against tangible actually here "see look" demons and their human chattel? Just how long do you think you could hold off against human wave attacks where the attackers really don't care if they die. Now think of the 3-4 Billion humans on the planet that are the perfect make up to be easily swayed by a demagogue. Heck, there are actually governments banning pork food products because of swine flu?

 

So I don't think Stage 3 will be reached without a lot of mass bloodshed. Casualties in the millions. With the A's help this could be reduced, but you will most likely end up with the "Ruling" civilization and a large zone of the subdued.

 

That may not be a bad thing for the game though. Imagine where the various zealot organizations, both religious and non-religious, that simply could not make the transition and actually accept reality have been contained by force and part of the job of the Bureau of Colonization is to send them to suitable colony worlds so they can be isolated and not threaten humanity as a whole.

 

You could have Earth and its colonies with trade and all that, and then the Forbidden Worlds where the various groups have be left in isolation to develop on their own.

[Alcamtar]

Re: Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

 

People would be split between many different ideas:

 

(a) Many religious people already "de-mythologize" religion and treat it as mere moral fables, and are agnostic or atheistic with respect to the supernatural. These people would take the aliens at their word, while still retaining their religion as a philosophy, tradition, or social club. Others (who previously considered themselves true believers) would be persuaded to adopt this viewpoint and "lose their faith".

 

( Some people would worship the aliens as gods or as supernatural beings akin to angels. These would be a mix of religious people who lost their faith, atheists who finally found something to believe in, and UFO mystics and theorists. Some people would claim to be in communication with the aliens and set themselves up as prophets, privy to the real truth. Rather than integrating into existing religious systems, new religions and cults would be created out of whole cloth and be seen as heretical by established faiths.

 

© Some would remain true to their faith, but integrate the aliens into it. "The are just more of God's creatures that He never told us about." With that they'd continue believing and living as they did before, unfazed. The idea that angels and demons are just creatures living in other dimensions is already a common opinion, this would merely be seen as proof of what we already suspected.

 

(d) Some believers already believe aliens and UFOs are a demonic manifestation. These would see both the Dhrek and the Akashi as demons, cleverly pretending to be aliens and pretending to fight each other, in order to deceive the world for some nefarious purpose. Their revelation would a confirmation that This is the End. Reactions would vary from apathy to fear to aggressive hostility.

 

(e) Some would decide the Akashi really are angels, and that they are now dissembling for some reason. Theologians would try to explain how and why angels could deceive. If Akashi did anything that could be construed as 'evil' this would challenge theological assumptions that angels are incapable of evil, resulting either in rejection of this theory or revision of Angelology. (Which is to say both at once, creating new factions!) In any case nothing has really changed, we already all knew there was a secret cosmic war being fought, now it's just visible.

 

(f) Whatever their true nature, many people don't trust them. Sure the Akashi claim to be our friends, but nobody does something for nothing. What do they really want? Why do they help us but deny technology? (And was Gene Roddenbury an Akashi in diguise, preparing the way?) These people are expecting betrayal and are going to stubbornly resist whatever the Akashi want.

 

I'm not saying one of these scenarios would occur. I'm saying ALL of them would occur, simultaneously. Many of these opinions are already held by many people! These things are also very easy to tie into existing theologies and scriptural texts.

 

In short it would only add enormously to the existing chaos while simplifying nothing and explaining nothing, only creating new questions and more confusion and more divisions. (And I'm sure my scenarios have only scratched the surface of how people would respond to this.)

 

I doubt very much there would be any kind of unified response, other than "what's in it for me?" People are often willing to go along with something they don't fully trust if they gain wealth or other benefit thereby, milking it for what they can get out of it, but losing interest or turning hostile once the profit disappears.

[Alcamtar]

Re: Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

 

Step 1: Armageddon Happens, Akashi Save us.

 

Step 2: Shock and panic sweeps the globe as BILLIONS of the poor and undereducated from around the world riot and ignite a global holy war unprecedented in human history. Second and third world regions will unleash nuclear and biological weapons against the Evil Akashi Devils and their lapdogs, turning world into a burnt and blasted wasteland.

 

Step 3: Earth falls into barbarism and slides into obscurity.

 

You left out Step 4: He-Man discovers the Power Sword and uses it to save the world from Skeletor!! Again and again and again...

[Spence]

Re: Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

 

You left out Step 4: He-Man discovers the Power Sword and uses it to save the world from Skeletor!! Again and again and again...

 

[lemming]

Re: Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

 

I'd prefer Thundar.

[Lucius]

Re: Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

 

 

What do you think would happen between the end of this "Armageddon" and the first human colony being established? How would the governments and religions of the world react if suddenly we knew we were not alone, that most of our myths were inspired not by God and Satan, Angels and Demons, but by aliens - one from another part of our Galaxy, the other another dimension entirely?

 

 

Huge numbers of people - in my cynical opinion perhaps the majority - would simply refuse to believe that. They would probably much rather believe that the Akashi are demons trying to decieve them.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

House of the Palindromedary

[Spence]

Re: Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

 

Huge numbers of people - in my cynical opinion perhaps the majority - would simply refuse to believe that. They would probably much rather believe that the Akashi are demons trying to decieve them.

 

Not cynical. Realistic.

 

Just look at things now. If the sheeple used their heads the US would have a complete new congress next election because every current sitting member regardless of party would be replaced and possibly tarred and feathered in the grand traditions of our forefathers.

 

But no. They will just vote in the same crooks again.

 

for the first contact, many would simply find it easier to cling to their own beliefs rather than pull their heads out of the sand while the various sect leaders would stand to lose too much power and wealth to throw in the towel.

 

Remember, even today we have groups like the Flat Earther's who are firm in their beliefs.

[Drhoz]

Re: Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

 

Unless i missed it (entirely likely), you've left out "Convert the aliens to our faith"

 

Omar Bakri is boldly going where no imam has gone before — ordering followers to convert ALIENS to Islam.

 

Bakri, 50, declared: “We are obliged as Muslims to make the whole galaxy subservient to almighty Allah. Allah has created all living beings in order to obey him and worship him.”

 

and yes "These aliens are really demons in disguise!" is a tragically all too common delusion already

 

1900 hits for "Aliens are demons"

[Alcamtar]

Re: Brainstorming: What would happen if we made contact?

 

Another article I ran across and immediately thought of this thread: Christian Theologians Prepare for Extraterrestrial Life