Background history... New Orions, Antarans.

[Yodasplat]

Who are they?

in the Background history provided on the MOO3 official site, in this page, it says :

Antaran presence was unmistakable - amongst the guards, amid the delegates, and most noticeably as the President of the Orion Senate.

but then it later says:

The President of the Senate rose and gave the final speech of the Senate's opening session. He declared that they had broken off with the Antarans.

So, if in the first sentence it seems to imply that the President is a Antaran, in the second sentence it says that the President is breaking off from the Antarans and his faction is now the "New Orions".

So are New Orions really a dissident faction of the Antarans? Was that declaration a political move by the the President to make it look like they weren't really Antaran anymore? or is this something else? (after all later in the history it talks about the Antarans again as if they are a totally separate race from the New Orions).

What happened to the "old" Orions?

Do the Orions and Antarans have a face? What do they look like?

Just a few "dumb" questions from a Civ player that can't wait for MOO3 to come out

[Arnelos]

Yes, the so-called "New Orions" are a dissident faction of the original "Antarans".

You see, the Antarans and the Orions fought each other over several millennia and the Orions' progeny (the various MoO1 races) fought the Antarans in MoO2.

When the Antaran empire basically collapsed for reasons the designers have not yet made public, the remaining Antarans in the Orion Sector realized the Orion Sector races would likely rise up against them in the future. So these Antarans re-named themselves the "New Orions", rebelled from the Antaran empire, and set themselves up as the "nice friendly caretakers" for the various Orion Sector races (though undoubtedly remaining as evil as they ever were...).

Various Orion Sector races denounced these Antarans' attempts to recast themselves as the "New Orions" and the glassing of the Darlok, Mrrshan, Alkari, Bulrathi, Elerian, and Gnolam worlds was the result.

At least that's what I got out of the backstory that was published several months ago.

[Elenius]

"When the Antaran empire basically collapsed for reasons the designers have not yet made public"

Didn't they say the Antarans sort of had some fun converting themselves into energy thinking it was some form of transcendence?

Excerpt from the Background story at Quicksilver.com


The Antaran Mystery...

Life has a way of coming full cycle when given sufficient time, and that was what happened in the case of the Antarans. It was ironic that after spending over a thousand cycles manipulating the genetic codes of all the races of the Orion Sector that the Antarans would actually experiment on themselves, given the poor results of their prior genetic trials. However, that was exactly what the Antarans did when they decided to transform themselves into pure energy. Perhaps having played as gods for so long, they actually began to believe they were, and that was why they would risk everything to achieve a more divine state that would transcend all physical limitations.

This idea turned into a secret government research project that was carelessly revealed before it was thoroughly tested. A group of overzealous scientists, who felt the government was holding back this information for their use only, exposed their findings prematurely to the Antaran public. Once this was done, they were besieged by followers who desired to submit themselves to this "cleansing" transformation. The Antaran officials, hoping to cover up this incident, denounced these scientists and their research as a sham, but this reaction only succeeded in driving the rogue scientists "underground" where they were free to practice their "religious rites" unfettered. The outward defiance by this segment of Antarans was responsible for a new, defiant trend in Antaran Society that might never be reversed.

Before long, the cream of Antaran society was disappearing; its smartest, bravest, and most devout were all gone. Soon both high and low born followed them until most of their population was gone. Today, barely one Antaran in fifty remains within their racial enclaves.

[Elenius]

As for what happened to the 'Old' Orions another excerpt from Quicksilver.

The Ancient Orion Mystery
The Orions worked feverishly to fix the rift in hyperspace created by the Pocket Dimension for they held themselves responsible for this tragedy and all the devastation that followed because of it. They used all their resources and their newly achieved experience in dimensional physics to reverse the process, but no matter what they tried nothing seemed to work. There were times when the disruptions would calm for long periods and the Orions would become hopeful that they had finally brought the fluctuations under control. But just as suddenly they would start up again, sometimes worse than before. The Orions became increasingly distraught for they could not comprehend what was happening. Their scientific consensus was that, for all the steps they took to correct the problem, it should have resulted in success.

The once confident Orions began to lose all faith in themselves and their belief systems as years of disappointment mounted up. Their glorious triumph in the first Orion-Antaran War provided very little consolation, for they felt too much guilt over the Long Night brought on by their solution.

The Orion civilizationÃs inability to resolve a disaster that they created led them down the path to their own demise for their intellect would not allow them to accept failure. All those who recorded their accounts of these events asserted that apathy devoured the very souls of the once proud Orion civilization for they could not forgive themselves for the Long Night that had settled ominously over the galaxy.

The Ancient Orion civilization was only a fading memory when the new Orion Sector Civilizations rose up to claim their legacy.

[Yodasplat]

Humm... is this telling me that the Old Orions committed some kind of mass suicide becuase they were ... "depressed"?

That's a funny way to end a glorious civilization.

I must have missed all those paragraphs you quoted... gotta re-read my MOO3 history... while i wait to get the game tomorrow.

[Kc7mxo]

Humm... is this telling me that the Old Orions committed some kind of mass suicide becuase they were ... "depressed"?

Yep, they were tired of waiting for moo3.

[Arnelos]

@ Kc7mxo

[Vince278]

The Old Orions aren't entirely gone. I read that their descendants are still among us as one of the races still present in the universe......

[rhofman]

The Old Orions aren't entirely gone. I read that their descendants are still among us as one of the races still present in the universe......

And you heard this where Vince?

[Yodasplat]

Originally posted by Kc7mxo


Yep, they were tired of waiting for moo3.

ROFLMAOPIMP!!!

I know I already asked ... anyone knows what the Orions (original) or Antarans are supposed to look like?

[Grumbold]

The original Orions have been missing since pre-MoO1 so nobody knows what they look like. The Antarrans as they appeared in MoO2 and now transformed as New Orions in MoO3 are known.

P.S. Vince I'll start a new thread for discussing the history in the manual. It may be considered spoilerish..

[Kc7mxo]

And remember, that there's multiple "ancient orions." There's the REAL ancient orions, then there's the ancient human orions, then there's the not so ancient human orions. and now the antarans are claiming to be orions too. damn, sure is a popular place.

[Vince278]

rhofman:

Sorry, that was rude of me not to quote the source of my statement. It was fairly recent (from memory) and was presented by the source as a theory and not gospel. I'll try to locate and present it.

[Mellian]

Ummm, how about Loknar of Orion and his Battleship Avenger in Moo2? The Orions are obviously humanoid and were blue...like the star trek Orions

-Mellian