Jun 19, 2014

The Fru'wu

A Fru'wu "individual" swimming through the very
dense atmosphere that they prefer.
This image is a reconstruction of the Fru'wu
appearance based on only a brief glimpse
and a semi-coherent verbal description
delivered seconds before the observer's death.
I've been developing my thinking about the Fru'wu and the role that they play in the Exode Trilogy for about two years. I think of the Fru'wu as an "alien species" but they are not a type of naturally evolved biological organism.

There is actually very limited contact between humans and the Fru'wu, so the only individual of the Fru'wu species that I have named is Fru'manu. "Fru'manu" is just a code designation, much like "agent 007". It is not clear to what extent the Fru'wu have a concept of "individuals" since they are all coupled together by a heavily used type of technology-assisted telepathic communication.

I named the Fru'wu home world Reahand and it would have been a world located too far from its nearest star to have liquid oceans except for its thick atmosphere with a powerful greenhouse effect.

Example of an imagined appearance for the Fruthwa.
Ivory's imagination was guided by rumors suggesting that
some Fruthwa survive, either on an Archive World
in the galactic core or in the Hierion Domain.
The Fru'wu are an artificial life form that can trace its origin back to a biological species that evolved on the planet Clutence (a common alternative spelling among the Pla is Clustence). The Fruthwa became addicted to fossil fuels, just as we Earthlings are. Clutence, went through global warming, but never had any polar ice caps. Eventually the planet became uninhabitable due to atmospheric changes. Due to its high gravity, Clutence had a thick atmosphere to begin with. Some have speculated that the Fruthwa were humanoids with near-human appearance, but their natural morphology is not currently known to Earthlings. The reason for thinking that the Fruthwa might have closely resembled we Earthlings is not due to a common genetic origin, but rather, due to the fact that another alien species (known to us only by the name "Huaoshy") spent several million years performing selective breeding and directed evolution on both the Fruthwa and we humans, possibly shaping both species so as to have similar appearance to the original biological form of the Huaoshy.

Stitched Drake; elements of this were used for the
imagined Fru'wu image at the top of this page
Through extensive use of fossil fuels, the Fruthwa civilization triggered runaway global warming on their home world, making it uninhabitable (the surviving Fruthwa lived in artificial underground enclosures). This was about 50,000 years ago. The Fru'wu are a "nanobionic" artificial life form that was crafted after the Fruthwa could no longer breath the atmosphere of Clutence. The remnants of the Fruthwa developed "generation starships" and created several partially-artificial life forms ("daughter species" such as the Fru'wu) suited for the worlds that they colonized such as the planet Reahand. Eventually, the small but growing  "Interstellar Empire" of the Fruthwa suffered another technological catastrophe (possible related to their use of nanotechnology) causing the Fruthwa remnants on Clutence to go extinct while the Fru'wu persisted for several thousand years on Reahand. Eventually the Fru'wu repeated the errors of the Fruthwa and the civilization on Reahand was destroyed. Some of the Fru'wu had long since been transplanted to the world Clu'ten'iun, a world of the galactic core region.

detail from Overnight Procedure
Fru'manu, the one Fru'wu individual who is ever "on stage" during the course of the Exode Trilogy, is from the planet Clu'ten'iun. The Fru'wu are half biological and half artificial; a symbiotic hybrid construct of biological cells and nanite components. Although not complete shapeshifters, the Fru'wu can easily alter their surface features and it is doubtful that humans have ever seen their unaltered form. The Fru'wu try to adopt pseudo-mammalian appearance for their heads when they know that they will be seen by humans. Clu'ten'iun has a very dense and acidic atmosphere that would degrade human hair. It is likely that the Fru'wu residents of Clu'ten'ium make use of a semi-synthetic exoskeleton that protects them from the harsh environment of that world. Overnight Procedure (2014) by Jon-Laurence at deviantART suggests the type of artificial life form that the Fru'wu might be, with a biological core that is humanoid, encased in a synthetic protective exoskeleton that allows survival on a harsh planet like Clu'ten'iun.

Leymaygn and Vozgrow.
We have a few reports on the experiences of the two humans who are known to have interacted with Fru'manu. As far as we know, those interactions have all involved telecommunications links. The images that Fru'manu has shared with Leymaygn and Vozgrow seem to show an artificially-generated face, apparently constructed during each teleconference according to the whims of Fru'manu. Having used Fru'wu medical nanites for thousands of years, Vozgrow might be taking on some physical features of the Fru'wu.

One role of the Fru'wu in the Exode Trilogy is that they illustrate for humans the type of unpleasant future that our species could have. Pla'mak initially suspects that the problems experienced by the Fru'wu are due to the Huaoshy meddling in the development of their civilization. For hundreds of years Pla'kao and Pla'mak willingly accept technological tools and other help from the Fru'wu and they try to help the budding civilization on Earth sneak around the restrictions imposed on humans by the Huoashy. Only slowly does Pla'kau come to realize that by "helping" the humans on Earth develop a technologically advanced civilization, the Pla might be inadvertently sending Earth towards destruction, pushing Earth towards global warming and catastrophic changes to the oceans. Are the Fru'wu valuable friends of we Earthlings or a dangerously bad influence?

The Book of Fru
- a short history of past contacts between humans and the Fru'wu
- the Klyz teleportation hub is a Fru'wu base of operations
- the Fru'wu interventionist faction that became involved with the Nereids
- the theory that the name "Huaoshy" was passed from the Fru'wu to the Pla
- on why the Fru'wu want to contact the Nereids in Exode
- a short glossary entry about the Fru'wu for Exode
- some commentary on the technological disasters suffered by the Fru'wu
- what the Fru'wu have planned for Parthney and his mission to Earth
- an example of the contact that Parthney has with the Fru'wu while he is on Earth
- some history of past interactions between the Fru'wu and Trysta (A.K.A. Noÿs)

source
....other aliens.......
If you are interested in alien biology then also see:
- an Asterothrope female
- Sedronite genetics


- some Preland physiology

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