Nereids Are Us

The Arbiter Tales

I've never read any of the works of L. Warren Douglas. However, I'm intrigued by the idea that he wrote stories about "the seven mutated races of humanity".

Sadly, finding the term "mutant" in the description of a science fiction story is often a sign that some cringe-worthy biological plot device is lurking nearby and will soon be used to introduce a freakish character.

When I was first discovering science fiction novels, one of the first that I read was Orphans of the Sky. In fact, that might have simultaneously been the first of Heinlein's writings that I read and my introduction to mutants in science fiction.

Originally in Astounding, 1941

The cover illustration-worthy mutant of Heinlein's story was the two headed Joe-Jim, a passenger on an ill-fated generation ship. I was only about 12 when I read the story, but I was distracted by the biological implausibility of Heinlein's "muties".

From that point on, I've steered clear of any story about fictional mutants, including the vast array of comic book mutants.

However, given the wide-spread use of mutants in science fiction stories, it was natural for me to make use of the term "mutant" when I needed a quick "cover blurb" to describe Parthney.

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So, for the back cover of Exode, I wrote that Parthney, as a human, was a rare mutant of the Buld. Of course, there is no truth behind the idea that Parthney is a mutated Buld. However, that is a convenient "excuse" that can be used to "account for" Parthney's existence on the planet Hemmal.

On Hemmal, Parthney sticks out like a sore thumb. The majority of the residents of Hemmal are hermaphrodites, either Buld or Preland. Parthney is the only male on Hemmal, and while he grows up believing that he is human, in reality he is a hybrid Asterothrope-Ek'col.

primates of Earth - art by Boris Vallejo

For the Exode Trilogy, I assume that 7,000,000 years ago the pek removed some primates from Earth and subjected them to genetic engineering and artificial selection. Earth remained in its "wild" state as a "Garden World".

Later, Earth was targeted by Interventionists who gradually introduced new gene combinations into the ape population of Earth. The efforts of the Interventionists were constantly monitored and resisted by the Overseers who enforced the Rules of Intervention.

Through the action of the Interventionists and the process of natural selection, eventually the human species evolved on Earth. Once again, the pek took some primates from Earth, transferring some of the early humans to worlds of the Galactic Core. The pek fashioned the Prelands from that early human stock.

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Nanite Braking
The Overseers, devoted to keeping Earth as a Garden World and preventing it from being over-run by humans, flooded the Earth with Brake Nanites. All human brains on Earth develop under the influence of these nanorobotic devices that exist within our brains. Using their control over these nanites, the Overseers prevented the development of a technological civilization on Earth.

However, the pek "managers" of the Overseers (known as the Orbho) became intrigued by the unusual social behavior of humans and allowed the human residents of Observer Base to escape the nanite-imposed restrictions on brain and culture development that were rigidly applied to Earth itself. As told in Foundations of Eternity, the sciences of robotics and positronics were developed by humans on the Moon. In a strange twist of fate, the Orbho brought into existence a telepathic robot known as R. Gohrlay. R. Gohrlay became the leader of a tribe of positronic robots who were bound by the Laws of Robotics. Driven by their need to protect Humanity, these telepathic robots took control of Observer Base and eventually drove the pek out of our galaxy.

The End of Eternity

Time Travel
The same quirk of sedronic physics that gave positronic robots their telepathy also made time travel possible. Using time travel and their telepathic abilities, the positronic robots of Earth were able to hold off the pek and counter their technological advantages in the areas of nanotechnology and space travel technology. However, the Huaoshy eventually realized the basis for positronic telepathy and devised a means to block or "jam" telepathic signals. Later, the Huaoshy also realized that time travel was possible and they constructed their own "Eternity devices".

At the same time, Gohrlay studied the descendants of Earth's primates that had been taken off to the Andromeda galaxy. Gohrlay realized that although her initial reaction had been to distance the humans of Earth from the pek, that might have been a sub-optimal strategy for meeting her need to serve Humanity. Gohrlay began experimenting with her own genetic modifications of the human species.

An Ek'col male and an
Asterothrope female

Gohrlay eventually constructed a new primate species, the Asterothropes. Asterothropes had an interesting mixture of human and "alien" genes and the ability to control the most advanced sedronic nanite technology that the positronic robots had developed. Gohrlay selected and trained one particular Asterothrope female (Trysta) and sent her back in time to fundamentally alter the relationship between the Huaoshy and the humans of Earth.

Eventually, after much effort, the Huaoshy and Gohrlay found a way to put an end to the Time Travel War. That "solution" involved a complex Reality Change and the design and creation of several more primate variants: the Ek'col, the Kac'hin and the Buld. The Ek'col were specifically designed to make possible Ek'col-Asterothrope hybrids. Genetically, Parthney is such a hybrid primate.

Similarly, the Kac'hin were designed to be interfertile with hybrids like Parthney. For example, Parthney and Kach have a son, Boswei. In turn, Boswei is interfertile with Earth humans and he fathers children with Hana including Izhiun.

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Kach and Parthney are sent on a space ship to the Andromeda galaxy. In Parthney's account of that quest, Kach's search for the Creators was depicted as being unsuccessful. However, after they reached Andromeda, Kach was lost to Parthney and the ending of the Andromeda Saga was not included in the collection of infites that I received from Izhuin.

And now, the rest of the story.....
Eventually, Kach found her way to the Solar System and she played a role in First Contact (the arrival of the Buld spaceship at Earth). As far as I can tell, Kach, Anna and Anney all left Earth on the Buld ship together. Like Izhiun, Anna and Anney are primate hybrids: part human and part Preland.

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Anney and her clone sister Angela were the first humans on Earth who were ever allowed to fully escape from the influence of Brake Nanites, allowing their brains to work with their endosymbiotic nanites to allow access to the Sedronic Domain.  Their access to the vast information resources in the Sedronic Domain is what is allowing the secret history of Earth to be revealed to we Earthlings. Apparently Anney spent some time away from Earth, but she later found a way to return to this world.

Previously, I've received hints that there is a "new type of Overseer" on the Moon. Ivory insisted on that in her transmissions from the Moon, but she never explained the motives and mission of the new Overseers.

I've now received an account of what the new Overseers take to be their mission. This new story is told by Anney and includes a description of the goal of Kach's new space journey.

Frontman

See Black Cat 9 and ReBORN

Not long ago, I was asked by Ivory to create a new website about the Dead Widower Society. The members of that secretive group are living on Earth, but due to the fact of their unusual genetics (Earthlings would classify them as human-alien hybrids) they are reluctant to reveal themselves and be exposed to public scrutiny. They are using me as their "frontman".

A big THANK YOU to Miranda Hedman (www.mirish.deviantart.com) for the DeviantArt stock photograph "Black Cat 9 - stock" which I used to make the illustration shown to the left.

I've been given access to a "memoir" that seems to have been written by Anney. I've never met Anney (as far as I know), so the illustration shown above for Searching Earth is rather whimsical.

In Searching Earth, Anney describes her interactions with Kach and what she has learned about the Nereids. I'm not sure if Kach and Anney met physically or if they interacted by way of their shared access to the virtual reality of the Hierion Domain.

Kach

In any case, Anney says that Kach has been able to learn the true nature of the Creators, although she has recently gone off on a new journey into deep space in a second attempt to actually meet them.

Apparently, 7,000,000 years ago the pek took some primates from Earth to other worlds of the Galactic Core. There, by using genetic engineering, artificial selection and a healthy swarm of nanites, a new species of primate was crafted. Anney refers to them as the "Sedronites". The Sedronites had the ability to transcend into the Sedronic Domain.

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According to Kach, the primary function of the pek is to visit worlds like Earth, find promising species and move them into the Sedronic Domain where they can continue to evolve as artificial life forms. As far as the pek were concerned, they had done there job and they had little remaining interest in the primates of Earth.

However, there was a dissident faction of the Sedronites who wanted to continue their existence in the Hadronic Domain. Those Sedronites took it upon themselves to create a "de-evolved" primate variant that we Earthlings refer to as the Nereids. Thus, in some sense the Nereids were aliens, but they were an Earth primate off-shoot group.

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The Nereids took on the task of transferring some of their gene combinations into the primate population of Earth.  Thus, the Nereids became what are known as the Interventionists and their efforts were countered by the pek who enforced the Rules of Intervention.

The Nereids also continued their efforts to de-evolve and they gradually created a new kind of primate that Kach calls the O'typ.

Even more startling is Kach's suggestion that the Fru'wu are also not a true alien species, but rather, they are another descendant lineage of the Sedronites.

The twelve tribes: the Sedronites, Nereids, Fruthwa,
O'typ, Fru'wu, humans, Buld, Prelands, tryp'At,
Ec'kol, Kac'hin, Asterothropes. The Pla are Buld.

The images that I provide are fanciful depiction of the Fruthwa and the Nereids. Apparently we humans have only ever had interactions with their "descendants", the Grendels and the Fru'wu.

Until recently, the Overseers who lived at Observer Base on the Moon were Humans and they were actually the puppets of the Orbho. According to Kach, the current Overseers at Observer Base "on" the Moon (actually located in the Hierion Domain) are members of another primate variant called the tryp'At.

The tryp'At were created from the O'typ by means of transferring human genes from Earthlings into the stem O'typ population. Genetically, the tryp'At are very similar to we Earth humans. However, they have advanced nanite technology and they have taken charge of Observer Base on the Moon. 

art by Boris Vallejo

According to Anney, they intend to enforce the terms of the Trysta-Grean Pact and keep Grendels from returning and further accelerating the pace of technological development on Earth.

I'm still struggling to cross-check this tale of the Sedronites and the tryp'At with other available sources of information. I wonder how Kach was able to learn about the Sedronites and their descendants without actually meeting them. According to Anney, Kach and Parthney recently went off in search of the O'typ or what ever they have now become. They also hope to learn the location of the tryp'At home world.

Related Reading: Origin of the Nereids

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Black Cat 9 - source

Image credits. Of course, I have no idea what the Sedronites looked like. I used two stock images from deviantART to make the cover illustration for The Sedronites (above). I modified Black Cat 9 - stock by Mirish (Miranda Hedman) to make the imaginary Sedronite and I used ReBORN by Ponnavoy Guillaume for the background.

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