A Backstory to Roswell That Makes Everything Makes Sense
(Sawn is the planet of Max Evans' origin. The Sawnians are the people that occupy this planet.)
About 40,000 earth years ago, there lived a prosperous and religious people on a planet called Sawn. Their race was knowledge hungry, and although religious, their religious beliefs were based on science.
About their religion.
A council of thirteen High Priests or Priestesses governed the Sawnian Religion, known as Nececis. Because Nececis basically was the worship of science, these High Priests or Priestesses were the head of thirteen different branches of science. These branches were Astronomy, Archeology, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Psychology, Geology, Mathematics, Sociology, Art, Music, Political Science, and Technology. Each of these thirteen branches had thirteen sub-branches. For example, Biology had the sub-branches of Molecular Biology, Marine Biology, Anatomy, Genetics, Medicine, and so forth. Each sub-branch consequently had thirteen smaller sub-branches. For example, Medicine had the sub-branches of Neurology, Dentistry, Gynecology, Chiropractics, and so forth.
It was about this time that a group of Sawnian High Priests and Priestesses developed and carried out plans for a device that came to be known as the Granolith. It was believed that only because of their extreme reverence and respect for the Higher Power the Granolith was created. Although the plans for the Granolith were extremely well documented no one was ever able to duplicate this device. It was believed that the Higher Power not only communicated with these High Priests and Priestesses, but that the Higher Power directly assisted in the Granolith's construction.
Prophecies of the Granolith
The first generation High Priests and Priestesses knew the Granolith had amazing power. Although the Sawnians were mostly a trust worthy race of sapiens, these High Priests and Priestesses knew that if power hungry Sawnians were to get their hands on the Granolith that terrible and disastrous things could happen. Because of their foresight, they hid the Granolith.
For some unknown reason, the Granolith had the power to call forth prophets or Speakers for the Granolith. These Speakers had the innate ability to hear the song of the Granolith. The song, which was only heard by these Speakers, was described as being so faint that no matter how hard they strained their ears, the song never became louder or more comprehensible. The Speakers followed the song to where the Granolith was hidden. After their initial trek to the Granolith was complete, they no longer heard the song. It was within the Granolith that the Speakers got their prophecies. Unlike the song, these prophecies were specific, almost audible and completely comprehensible. It was said that when the Higher Power spoke to these Speakers, there was no mistake about what the Higher Power wanted to say. Over the generations, only these Speakers and the High Priests and Priestesses knew the Granolith's location.
During the first 100 years after the Granolith's construction, numerous Speakers were called. Although these Speakers never had any direct governing power in the Sawnian religion, their prophecies were closely documented, and well published. A majority of these prophecies were geared toward specific areas of the Sawnian religion. These prophecies often helped the High Priests and Priestesses with specific breakthroughs regarding their scientific research. It wasn't until a hundred years later that the prophecies took a different turn.
At this time, a Speaker called Yurich spoke of the prophecies of what was to come. Yurich and his predecessors mostly spoke of the Chosen One and his Companions. Since these prophecies were so hard to understand, they became known as the Cryptic Prophecies.
Branching Out
The Sawnian race began to be so prosperous and so numerous that despite all their scientific advancements, life on their planet began to be crowded, and the people were unhappy. This is when Ilia, High Priestess of astronomy, suggested that they colonize the four inhabitable planets of their star system. The Sawnians had often visited these other planets, but never considered moving to them on a permanent basis because of their deeply embedded patrioticity. The High Priests and Priestesses held a conference with the ruler of planet Sawn. Together, combined with specialists of the Cryptic Prophecies, they set forth the best way possible of dividing people and assets to these four planets.
The initial severance was hard for the Sawnian colonists, but they eventually overcame this hardship and began to prosper even more than before. During the next 5000 years, communication and visitation between the planets was frequent and friendly. Speakers were called not only from Sawn, but from the other four planets as well. A majority of the Cryptic Prophecies were spoken of during these 5000 years. Without warning, and for no apparent reason, visitation slowed down. It eventually ceased completely. For about 15,000 years there was hardly any interaction between the five planets.
Because each planet was atmospherically and geologically different, the Sawnian colonists began to evolve differently than the Sawnians from the Mother planet. When communication and visitation resumed, there were five different races of Sawnians. It was said that communication and visitation resumed because more Sawnian colonists were hearing the Granolith's song. Surprisingly, during the period of no communication all four planets still remained true to Nececis.
The Voyages
After communication and visitation were re-established, the five planets sent ambassadors and explorers on missions to discover new life and new civilizations. These voyages lasted about 17,000 years. During the latter parts of these voyages, an interesting planet was discovered. Although intelligent life existed on this planet, their technological skills were seemingly crude. Ambassadors tried to interact with these sapiens who were astounded by the Sawnians. When it became apparent that nothing more could be learned from these people, the Sawnians left. And the voyages discontinued.
Although no scientific information was extracted via communication, samples of lifeforms were gathered and taken back to Sawn.
Danger in a Nearby Galaxy
1,000 years later, a Speaker identified a problem with a planet in a neighboring star system. It seemed that this planet's sun was in its last stages of existence. This red giant could explode at any time, causing death to all the inhabitants of a planet. An interplanetary summit was called, and it was decided that they would rescue these inhabitants. Each planet sent their biggest and best transports, and after much persuasion the inhabitants were rescued.
The typical Sawnian reached middle age at about 100 earth years old. On planet Sawn, just before this red giant emergency, the population was steadily declining. Because of their long lives, Sawnians were postponing procreation until sometimes (actually, in most cases) it was too late. Since planet Sawn had the fewest inhabitants, this new group was invited to establish residency there.
The Cryptic Prophecies
After the inhabitants (Skins) were rescued more focus was devoted to the Cryptic Prophecies because as prophesied, the time was getting close at hand for the arrival of the Chosen One and his Companions.
The Chosen One and his Companions were important to the Sawnians. It was prophesied that the Chosen One and his Companions would save not only planet Sawn and the Sawnian Star System, but Also the Universe. The Chosen One would have three main Companions: the sibling (or sister in some Cryptic Prophecies writings), the guard (or best friend), and the third Companion, which was highly disputed among Cryptic Prophecy experts, called the wife, the betrothed, the love, or sometimes, the one who would love him. Some of the older Cryptic Prophecies, dating all the way back to Yurich himself, speak of a fourth Companion. However, the language surrounding the prophecy was so confusing and unclear, that some believe that the fourth Companion is actually the third Companion. In other words, they don't believe in the existence of a fourth Companion.
Although the Chosen One and his Companions were key to the survival of intelligent life everywhere, their deaths were certain in the Cryptic Prophecies. However, unless they were reborn, the universe was doomed. Since the prophecies regarding their rebirth were fuzzy, at best, the High Priests and Priestesses worked on a way that this could happen. The clearest detail regarding the rebirths was that the rebirths would be one of scientific splendor. Based on this, geneticists worked on the solution for thousands of years.
The Final Solution
There were many problems with the rebirths. Geneticists tried everything: from reanimation to cloning. Cloning was nearly impossible because of the delicate nature of the Sawnian unit of heredity. Once any part of the Sawnian body was left dead, its decomposition was swift and exponential. This included all parts that contained the Sawnian unit of heredity. Reanimation was possible; but only under a limited set of circumstances regarding the death of the Companion.
Once the explorers returned with samples of the sapien lifeforms they encountered, geneticists were intrigued by the ease in which the genetic information was obtained. They had no trouble cloning the human body. Although cloning humans was easy enough, geneticists weren't sure how to apply this new technology to the rebirths of the Chosen One and his Companions. It wasn't until about forty years later that the Sawnian lifeforce or essence was discovered.
When the Sawnian body decomposed the last thing left was the lowest lobe of their brain. This lobe, which contained no DNA, was about the size of a golf ball. This lobe contained the Sawnian's personality; it was almost like their spirit. It was discovered that this life force could be extracted and injected into embryonic human fetuses. However, there were two main problems. If the entire lifeforce was injected into one human fetus, the frailty of the human fetus would often not survive the initial lifeforce injection. On the other hand, if just half of the lifeforce was injected into the human fetus, the human fetus would survive, but none of the Sawnian essence would live. It was discovered that the lifeforce could live once seperated only if both halves were saved. The only way that the lifeforce could be saved was to inject both halves of it into human fetuses.
However, this created one problem. Although the lifeforce was split exactly in half, one half contained dominant traits, and the other contained the recessive ones. Even with years and years of scientific experimentation, there was no real way to discover which half was the recessive, and which was the dominant.
Lifeforce sidenote: it was discovered that this lifeforce, once spread throughout the human organism, sped up the synaptic nerve cell reactions in the human brain stem. Not only did the lifeforce change the rate of reactions in nerve cells, but eventually changed the appearance of blood cells. (Eventually, because during the first ten years of the human/alien life, the blood cells appear as normal human blood cells. It was concluded that the cells changed appearance due to the being's use of their alien power, which was harnessed half from the sped up reactions in the brain stem, and half from the presence of the lifeforce within the humanoid.)
The High Priests and Priestesses had now conquered almost all of the problems surrounding the deaths of the Chosen One and his Companions. However, one problem remained. In the Cryptic Prophecies, it was never ever certain that any of these Companions or even the Chosen One were going to be of Sawnian origin. If all of them were of Sawnian origin, whether of the Mother planet or of any of the colonized planets, then the High Priests and Priestesses had their bases covered. If any of them were of the Skin origin, they were still in trouble.
This led to the genetic experiments involving the Skins. In these experiments, it was discovered that the Skins lifeforce was similar to the Sawnian lifeforce in almost every way. During the Skins experiments, numerous things were developed concerning human spacesuits for the Skins. For, the Skins were only able to exist in their natural state on planet Sawn. Visitation to any of the other colonized planets was toxic, and even fatal. With these new human-looking genetically engineered spacesuits, visitation to any other colonized planets was now safe.
Conflict on the Mother Planet
Since the Skins had arrived and began living on planet Sawn, conflict and contention, like nothing the Sawnians had ever experienced, sprung up like weeds in a flower garden all over the planet. At first, the Skins were timid, and cautious in their new environment. Assimilation into the Sawnian culture was very difficult for them. Whereas the Sawnians craved knowledge, and depended greatly on their religion, the Skins craved power, and leisure, and had no centralized religion uniting them.
Over the thousand or so years that the Skins coexisted with the Sawnians, the Skins population was dramatically increasing, while the Sawnian population was steadily declining. In just 1000 years, the Skins were about three times as numerous as the Sawnians on the Mother planet. The power hungry Skins were upset that the political rule was still with the Sawnian race, who were then accused of apartheid.
In order to quell this rebellion before it started, King Vart'nyan decided that every King should have a Skin adviser. This adviser would be second-in-command should anything happen to the King or his heir. Consequently, the King's heir would also have a Skin adviser. This seemed to please most of the Skins, and rumors of the rebellion were quieted. Kivar was selected as the King's adviser. This seemed unusual to many Sawnians because of Kivar's age. When appointed, Kivar was only 20 years old, practically an infant.
Only a short time after Kivar was appointed, it was discovered that that the Skins had found the location of the Granolith. These Skins were doing dangerous experiments with the Granolith. One such experiment caused the entire city of Napomm to vanish from the planet. Action was taken. The Granolith was moved. Then the Skins found the Granolith again. Over the next eight years the Granolith was moved five times. Every time it was moved, the Skins would find it again.
The Chosen One and his Companions
In accordance to the Cryptic Prophecies, the Chosen One was born. Zan, son of Vart'nyan was decidedly the Chosen One. He was born aboard a spaceship when his mother Plendra was traveling back from a visit from one of the Sawnian planets. This was quite unexpected, because he arrived nearly two months early. According to cryptic prophecy, the Chosen One would be born early, and far above any land's soil, signifying the need to get a head start and also his birthplace being the universe, signifying his allegiance to save it.
Zan and his family did not know that he was the Chosen One at the time of his birth. It was not until 13 years later, on Zan's birthday that he was confirmed the Chosen One. On this day, a new star was born in the sky. This was also the very same day that Zan heard the song of the Granolith, making him the youngest person ever to hear the Granolith's song. Both these events fulfilled Cryptic prophecy.
Zan's sister Vilandra, according to the Cryptic Prophecies, was exactly one and a half years older than Zan. Making her the first known Companion. Before Zan's confirmation as the Chosen One, he went to school (which was more like church to their society) and in this school, he met his best friend Rath, who just happened to be a Skin. And, according to prophecy, Rath had saved his life when they were only six years old. Zan was only seven years old when his father, Vart'nyan, executed the law that there would be a Skin in second-in-command. Zan, with the approval of the council of 13 and his father, chose Rath as his adviser, and second-in-command. The highly disputed third Companion was Ava, whom Zan also met in school. As soon as they met at ten years old, they felt an instant connection to each other. One year after the confirmation of Zan's chosenness, when Ava was 14, she also heard the Granolith's song. This confirmed her as the third Companion.
When Zan was just 15 years old, the Council told him and the Companions that they were destined to die. When the geneticists explained to them the process under which they would be reborn, all four insisted that they choose the human donor from which they would get their DNA. The four of them made their first journey to earth to choose their human donors. During this journey, they took with them the Granolith. They needed to hide this powerful device far from the Skins. The trip took only four years.
War at Home
Kivar had always strived to overthrow the monarchy, and to make himself the Supreme Ruler of Sawn. He, like most Skins, did not believe in Nececis. Kivar had played by the Sawnian rules for all of his life, by pretending to be converted to the Sawnian religion. This was one of the main reasons Vart'nyan chose him as the Skin adviser. In secret, he was a leader of a group called the Malevolists. This secret organization of Skins and Sawnian nonbelievers had a very well-laid out plan.
First, Kivar had his brother Rochain pick a fight with the King. He had told Rochain to kill the King. Kivar, however, knew that there would basically be no way that Rochain would be able to kill Vart'nyan. Vart'nyan's powers were simply too strong for Rochain. To ensure Rochain's defeat, Kivar had given Rochain untraceable poison that would kill Rochain if Vart'nyan failed to. News of Rochain's death at the hand of the King would shock the planet. The Skins would demand a rebellion to overthrow Vart'nyan.
Kivar was not a fool; he knew that if the Skins were to have a rebellion, that Vart'nyan could easily call on his allies in the Sawnian colonies. With so much resistance, the Skins would never have the chance at a clear-cut victory. So, Kivar forged documents in Vart'nyan's name to have the Sawnian colony embassies searched. Such invasion of privacy, not to mention the laws forbidding such searches, would be enough to anger the colony planets against Vart'nyan's cause.
Vart'nyan, when aware of the circumstances at hand, planned a trip to the colony planets to personally apologize for the misunderstanding. Kivar took advantage of this opportunity to plan a little accident that would take
Vart'nyan's life. Kivar had the Malevolists sabotage Vart'nyan's space transport. The Transport exploded minutes after takeoff, leaving Kivar the ruler of the planet Sawn, until Zan returned from his Earth voyage.
Kivar ruled as supreme ruler of Sawn for two years. He was charismatic and smooth, and because he was the leader of the Malevolists, he was also able to keep them under control and retain a semblance of peace. Meanwhile, he moved the Malevolist cause forward, converting Sawnian and Sawnian colonists alike. Sawnians still true to Nececis were aware of this new contention, but had no clue about what they could do to stop it.
When Zan returned to these volatile interplanetary circumstances, he was unaware of the danger that was in store for them. He thought that in order to be a good leader, that things should happen quickly. As a result, he took the crown and got married to Ava. Zan thought that moving things forward at a fast rate would be enough to throw his enemies off. He, like most of the more religious Sawnian people, did not know that Kivar was a Malevolist, or the cause of the widespread interplanetary Malevolists movement.
Vilandra
On the four-year voyage to and from Earth, Vilandra and Rath became very close friends. Although their friendship was more of a brother/sister love, they decided to become engaged to be married. They both agreed that it would be the best thing for their planet's good.
When Vilandra returned to Sawn, she was a different person than when she had left. Vilandra left at 16 years old, and she returned as a 20-year-old princess, and was one of the most attractive Sawnians in history. The Sawnians as well as the Skins were very taken with her. Many competed for Vilandra's attention, both Sawnian and Skin. Her engagement to Rath kept many of the more polite suitors away; this, however, did not stop Kivar.
Kivar had always had his eye on Vilandra, even though he was nearly 12 years older than she. He often spied on her, both in the waking world, and in the dreaming non-reality. Vilandra felt his attraction to her as if she were a paper clip being pulled toward a much more powerful magnet. At Sawnian religious functions, they were often seen making eyes at each other.
In the middle of the night, Vilandra sat straight up in her bed. She did not know why she was awake, or what she was doing. She just followed the energy that compelled her. Vilandra went out of her room, out of her royal apartments, and into the basement of the royal Sawnian library. Here, she heard voices. Vilandra got close enough to hear conspirators, Malevolists, plotting the death of her brother Zan. As she tiptoed slowly to the door, she turned a corner and ran right into Kivar.
Vilandra could not believe her eyes. Kivar held her, promising not to hurt her, and proclaiming his undying love toward her. In order to save her life, and possibly the life of her brother, she pledged to Kivar and became a secret member of the Malevolist's movement, a move that later proved fatal to her.
Kivar knew that Vilandra would never betray her brother, not even for their love. He knew that Vilandra would warn Zan of the conspirator's plans. However, Vilandra did not know that the pledge she took was so binding (the technology used to make the oath binding was similar to having a chip in the brain), that even if she wanted to tell Zan that Kivar was a Malevolist conspirator, she couldn't. Instead, she warned him not to go to the event where the murder would take place.
After only six months of being King, civil war broke out, not only on planet Sawn, but on the colonist planets as well. Basically, (although the details were very far from basic) it was a religious war, Nececis believers against Malevolists. Zan tried his hardest to stop the wars, and violent outbreaks, but there was only so much that a new king could do. Malevolists, despite warnings from Kivar, decided the best thing they could do was expose Vilandra as a traitor in order to gain ground for their movement.
Vilandra's exposure caused a new uproar. Within a week, the royal four were all killed; the brokenhearted Sawnians conceded soon after the murders. Kivar, now openly Malevolist, assumed the throne. Even though Vilandra was a supposed traitor, since her rebirth was vital to the salvation of the universe, she was included to be reborn with Zan, Rath and Ava.
According To Cryptic Prophecy
The geneticists involved with the royal four's rebirths worked quickly. They knew that they would be exiled or even executed, as were several of the High Priests and Priestesses, if they were caught. A team true to the Nececis beliefs took it upon themselves to watch over and hide the embryonic eight. When Kivar heard of their attempts, he burned the genetics lab. He learned that they were not destroyed, so he hired groups of Malevolists seek out and destroy the embryonic eight.
In light of these new dangerous circumstances, the team acquired a space transport in order to get as far away from Kivar and his seek-and-destroyers. Their destination was earth, since any of the other four planets were still experiencing the after-effects of their violent civil wars. Also, it seemed logical to put as much distance between the embryonic eight and Kivar.
Queen Plendra, living in exile, was deeply grieved by deaths of her young children. She really wanted to send her children reborn a message. However, because she was in exile, Plendra lacked sufficient technology to do so. Grappling at whatever technology she could get her hands on, she made a dual orb message construct. Although the technology for these orbs was literally thousands of years old, it was sufficient enough for Plendra. Before the team left for Earth, Plendra gave them the dual orb message construct.
Their Arrival
The team of Sawnian sentinels was making excellent time in their space transport. They planned on landing on earth close by the place where the Granolith was hidden. Because most of the transport's energy was focused on the speed of their mission, they had surprisingly little control over their entry into Earth's atmosphere. They would have been fine had not a human aircraft crossed their path of entry. This aircraft was actually a United States top-secret Black Project. Both the aircraft and the space transport plunged toward Earth, crashing.
This was good and bad for them at the same time. Because the United States aircraft was such a big secret, news of their arrival was covered up by the government. However, two members of their team were captured by the government. Usually, humans would have no chance at capturing a Sawnian. The two captured were very badly injured, which was the reason they were captured so easily.
When the space transport crash-landed, two members of the sentinel team were expelled from the spacecraft. Using their alien powers, they landed safely on Earth, unharmed. They landed about two miles away from their transport. Boggled by the experience, and exhausted from using their powers, they didn't make it back to the crash site in time. One of Plendra's orbs had landed where they had landed. Intending to come back for it later, they buried the orb in the dirt so nobody could find it.
The team of Sawnian sentinels consisted of six Sawnians. When they crashed, two were killed, two were injured and captured by the government, and two were safe from harm. Fortunately, the embryonic eight were also unharmed. But, they too, were captured by the government. The two unharmed Sawnians rescued the embryonic eight from within the United States government's base. One of the injured Sawnians did not survive the experiments done to them by the government. The other Sawnian was held for a time, but eventually escaped.
The Sentinels Revised Plan
The sentinels knew that the two sets of royal four needed about 40 or so more years to properly develop. The initial plan was to separate the two sets and raise them as humans until they were ready to return home. One sentinel took four of the embryonic eight and hid their pods in the same place as the Granolith. The other sentinel took the remaining four and hid them on the other side of the country. According to prophecy, they were to let the royal four know little about their origin; the sentinels were only to provide protection to the royal four.
Back on planet Sawn, Kivar had learned of the sentinels' escape to Earth. He dispatched one of his groups to immediately find and kill the sets of royal four. Because of Kivar's destruction of the Sawnian genetics lab, he had no idea that the pods needed 40 years to develop. Perhaps if he knew this, he would have dispatched the group at a later date, instead of immediately.
During the 40 years of hibernation, the Sawnian in charge of the Granolith podsters mysteriously disappeared. It is unknown whether he was captured by the government, killed by the enemy Skins, or is living somewhere unbeknownst to anyone else. The Sawnian who escaped the government periodically checked on the Granolith podsters. One day, when visiting the Granolith podsters, he discovered that three of them had hatched. This is when he knew that the other Sawnian in charge had disappeared. He waited around until the fourth pod hatched and appointed himself her protector.
Subsequently, the three that had hatched were taken in by the humans living in that area. Two were adopted by Philip and Diane Evans and given the names Max and Isabel. The other was taken into foster care and given the name Michael Guerin. The other set of podsters was well looked after, and living altogether in New York. Their Sawnian protector had just recently disappeared.
That's all folks!
(Sawn is the planet of Max Evans' origin. The Sawnians are the people that occupy this planet.)
About 40,000 earth years ago, there lived a prosperous and religious people on a planet called Sawn. Their race was knowledge hungry, and although religious, their religious beliefs were based on science.
About their religion.
A council of thirteen High Priests or Priestesses governed the Sawnian Religion, known as Nececis. Because Nececis basically was the worship of science, these High Priests or Priestesses were the head of thirteen different branches of science. These branches were Astronomy, Archeology, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Psychology, Geology, Mathematics, Sociology, Art, Music, Political Science, and Technology. Each of these thirteen branches had thirteen sub-branches. For example, Biology had the sub-branches of Molecular Biology, Marine Biology, Anatomy, Genetics, Medicine, and so forth. Each sub-branch consequently had thirteen smaller sub-branches. For example, Medicine had the sub-branches of Neurology, Dentistry, Gynecology, Chiropractics, and so forth.
It was about this time that a group of Sawnian High Priests and Priestesses developed and carried out plans for a device that came to be known as the Granolith. It was believed that only because of their extreme reverence and respect for the Higher Power the Granolith was created. Although the plans for the Granolith were extremely well documented no one was ever able to duplicate this device. It was believed that the Higher Power not only communicated with these High Priests and Priestesses, but that the Higher Power directly assisted in the Granolith's construction.
Prophecies of the Granolith
The first generation High Priests and Priestesses knew the Granolith had amazing power. Although the Sawnians were mostly a trust worthy race of sapiens, these High Priests and Priestesses knew that if power hungry Sawnians were to get their hands on the Granolith that terrible and disastrous things could happen. Because of their foresight, they hid the Granolith.
For some unknown reason, the Granolith had the power to call forth prophets or Speakers for the Granolith. These Speakers had the innate ability to hear the song of the Granolith. The song, which was only heard by these Speakers, was described as being so faint that no matter how hard they strained their ears, the song never became louder or more comprehensible. The Speakers followed the song to where the Granolith was hidden. After their initial trek to the Granolith was complete, they no longer heard the song. It was within the Granolith that the Speakers got their prophecies. Unlike the song, these prophecies were specific, almost audible and completely comprehensible. It was said that when the Higher Power spoke to these Speakers, there was no mistake about what the Higher Power wanted to say. Over the generations, only these Speakers and the High Priests and Priestesses knew the Granolith's location.
During the first 100 years after the Granolith's construction, numerous Speakers were called. Although these Speakers never had any direct governing power in the Sawnian religion, their prophecies were closely documented, and well published. A majority of these prophecies were geared toward specific areas of the Sawnian religion. These prophecies often helped the High Priests and Priestesses with specific breakthroughs regarding their scientific research. It wasn't until a hundred years later that the prophecies took a different turn.
At this time, a Speaker called Yurich spoke of the prophecies of what was to come. Yurich and his predecessors mostly spoke of the Chosen One and his Companions. Since these prophecies were so hard to understand, they became known as the Cryptic Prophecies.
Branching Out
The Sawnian race began to be so prosperous and so numerous that despite all their scientific advancements, life on their planet began to be crowded, and the people were unhappy. This is when Ilia, High Priestess of astronomy, suggested that they colonize the four inhabitable planets of their star system. The Sawnians had often visited these other planets, but never considered moving to them on a permanent basis because of their deeply embedded patrioticity. The High Priests and Priestesses held a conference with the ruler of planet Sawn. Together, combined with specialists of the Cryptic Prophecies, they set forth the best way possible of dividing people and assets to these four planets.
The initial severance was hard for the Sawnian colonists, but they eventually overcame this hardship and began to prosper even more than before. During the next 5000 years, communication and visitation between the planets was frequent and friendly. Speakers were called not only from Sawn, but from the other four planets as well. A majority of the Cryptic Prophecies were spoken of during these 5000 years. Without warning, and for no apparent reason, visitation slowed down. It eventually ceased completely. For about 15,000 years there was hardly any interaction between the five planets.
Because each planet was atmospherically and geologically different, the Sawnian colonists began to evolve differently than the Sawnians from the Mother planet. When communication and visitation resumed, there were five different races of Sawnians. It was said that communication and visitation resumed because more Sawnian colonists were hearing the Granolith's song. Surprisingly, during the period of no communication all four planets still remained true to Nececis.
The Voyages
After communication and visitation were re-established, the five planets sent ambassadors and explorers on missions to discover new life and new civilizations. These voyages lasted about 17,000 years. During the latter parts of these voyages, an interesting planet was discovered. Although intelligent life existed on this planet, their technological skills were seemingly crude. Ambassadors tried to interact with these sapiens who were astounded by the Sawnians. When it became apparent that nothing more could be learned from these people, the Sawnians left. And the voyages discontinued.
Although no scientific information was extracted via communication, samples of lifeforms were gathered and taken back to Sawn.
Danger in a Nearby Galaxy
1,000 years later, a Speaker identified a problem with a planet in a neighboring star system. It seemed that this planet's sun was in its last stages of existence. This red giant could explode at any time, causing death to all the inhabitants of a planet. An interplanetary summit was called, and it was decided that they would rescue these inhabitants. Each planet sent their biggest and best transports, and after much persuasion the inhabitants were rescued.
The typical Sawnian reached middle age at about 100 earth years old. On planet Sawn, just before this red giant emergency, the population was steadily declining. Because of their long lives, Sawnians were postponing procreation until sometimes (actually, in most cases) it was too late. Since planet Sawn had the fewest inhabitants, this new group was invited to establish residency there.
The Cryptic Prophecies
After the inhabitants (Skins) were rescued more focus was devoted to the Cryptic Prophecies because as prophesied, the time was getting close at hand for the arrival of the Chosen One and his Companions.
The Chosen One and his Companions were important to the Sawnians. It was prophesied that the Chosen One and his Companions would save not only planet Sawn and the Sawnian Star System, but Also the Universe. The Chosen One would have three main Companions: the sibling (or sister in some Cryptic Prophecies writings), the guard (or best friend), and the third Companion, which was highly disputed among Cryptic Prophecy experts, called the wife, the betrothed, the love, or sometimes, the one who would love him. Some of the older Cryptic Prophecies, dating all the way back to Yurich himself, speak of a fourth Companion. However, the language surrounding the prophecy was so confusing and unclear, that some believe that the fourth Companion is actually the third Companion. In other words, they don't believe in the existence of a fourth Companion.
Although the Chosen One and his Companions were key to the survival of intelligent life everywhere, their deaths were certain in the Cryptic Prophecies. However, unless they were reborn, the universe was doomed. Since the prophecies regarding their rebirth were fuzzy, at best, the High Priests and Priestesses worked on a way that this could happen. The clearest detail regarding the rebirths was that the rebirths would be one of scientific splendor. Based on this, geneticists worked on the solution for thousands of years.
The Final Solution
There were many problems with the rebirths. Geneticists tried everything: from reanimation to cloning. Cloning was nearly impossible because of the delicate nature of the Sawnian unit of heredity. Once any part of the Sawnian body was left dead, its decomposition was swift and exponential. This included all parts that contained the Sawnian unit of heredity. Reanimation was possible; but only under a limited set of circumstances regarding the death of the Companion.
Once the explorers returned with samples of the sapien lifeforms they encountered, geneticists were intrigued by the ease in which the genetic information was obtained. They had no trouble cloning the human body. Although cloning humans was easy enough, geneticists weren't sure how to apply this new technology to the rebirths of the Chosen One and his Companions. It wasn't until about forty years later that the Sawnian lifeforce or essence was discovered.
When the Sawnian body decomposed the last thing left was the lowest lobe of their brain. This lobe, which contained no DNA, was about the size of a golf ball. This lobe contained the Sawnian's personality; it was almost like their spirit. It was discovered that this life force could be extracted and injected into embryonic human fetuses. However, there were two main problems. If the entire lifeforce was injected into one human fetus, the frailty of the human fetus would often not survive the initial lifeforce injection. On the other hand, if just half of the lifeforce was injected into the human fetus, the human fetus would survive, but none of the Sawnian essence would live. It was discovered that the lifeforce could live once seperated only if both halves were saved. The only way that the lifeforce could be saved was to inject both halves of it into human fetuses.
However, this created one problem. Although the lifeforce was split exactly in half, one half contained dominant traits, and the other contained the recessive ones. Even with years and years of scientific experimentation, there was no real way to discover which half was the recessive, and which was the dominant.
Lifeforce sidenote: it was discovered that this lifeforce, once spread throughout the human organism, sped up the synaptic nerve cell reactions in the human brain stem. Not only did the lifeforce change the rate of reactions in nerve cells, but eventually changed the appearance of blood cells. (Eventually, because during the first ten years of the human/alien life, the blood cells appear as normal human blood cells. It was concluded that the cells changed appearance due to the being's use of their alien power, which was harnessed half from the sped up reactions in the brain stem, and half from the presence of the lifeforce within the humanoid.)
The High Priests and Priestesses had now conquered almost all of the problems surrounding the deaths of the Chosen One and his Companions. However, one problem remained. In the Cryptic Prophecies, it was never ever certain that any of these Companions or even the Chosen One were going to be of Sawnian origin. If all of them were of Sawnian origin, whether of the Mother planet or of any of the colonized planets, then the High Priests and Priestesses had their bases covered. If any of them were of the Skin origin, they were still in trouble.
This led to the genetic experiments involving the Skins. In these experiments, it was discovered that the Skins lifeforce was similar to the Sawnian lifeforce in almost every way. During the Skins experiments, numerous things were developed concerning human spacesuits for the Skins. For, the Skins were only able to exist in their natural state on planet Sawn. Visitation to any of the other colonized planets was toxic, and even fatal. With these new human-looking genetically engineered spacesuits, visitation to any other colonized planets was now safe.
Conflict on the Mother Planet
Since the Skins had arrived and began living on planet Sawn, conflict and contention, like nothing the Sawnians had ever experienced, sprung up like weeds in a flower garden all over the planet. At first, the Skins were timid, and cautious in their new environment. Assimilation into the Sawnian culture was very difficult for them. Whereas the Sawnians craved knowledge, and depended greatly on their religion, the Skins craved power, and leisure, and had no centralized religion uniting them.
Over the thousand or so years that the Skins coexisted with the Sawnians, the Skins population was dramatically increasing, while the Sawnian population was steadily declining. In just 1000 years, the Skins were about three times as numerous as the Sawnians on the Mother planet. The power hungry Skins were upset that the political rule was still with the Sawnian race, who were then accused of apartheid.
In order to quell this rebellion before it started, King Vart'nyan decided that every King should have a Skin adviser. This adviser would be second-in-command should anything happen to the King or his heir. Consequently, the King's heir would also have a Skin adviser. This seemed to please most of the Skins, and rumors of the rebellion were quieted. Kivar was selected as the King's adviser. This seemed unusual to many Sawnians because of Kivar's age. When appointed, Kivar was only 20 years old, practically an infant.
Only a short time after Kivar was appointed, it was discovered that that the Skins had found the location of the Granolith. These Skins were doing dangerous experiments with the Granolith. One such experiment caused the entire city of Napomm to vanish from the planet. Action was taken. The Granolith was moved. Then the Skins found the Granolith again. Over the next eight years the Granolith was moved five times. Every time it was moved, the Skins would find it again.
The Chosen One and his Companions
In accordance to the Cryptic Prophecies, the Chosen One was born. Zan, son of Vart'nyan was decidedly the Chosen One. He was born aboard a spaceship when his mother Plendra was traveling back from a visit from one of the Sawnian planets. This was quite unexpected, because he arrived nearly two months early. According to cryptic prophecy, the Chosen One would be born early, and far above any land's soil, signifying the need to get a head start and also his birthplace being the universe, signifying his allegiance to save it.
Zan and his family did not know that he was the Chosen One at the time of his birth. It was not until 13 years later, on Zan's birthday that he was confirmed the Chosen One. On this day, a new star was born in the sky. This was also the very same day that Zan heard the song of the Granolith, making him the youngest person ever to hear the Granolith's song. Both these events fulfilled Cryptic prophecy.
Zan's sister Vilandra, according to the Cryptic Prophecies, was exactly one and a half years older than Zan. Making her the first known Companion. Before Zan's confirmation as the Chosen One, he went to school (which was more like church to their society) and in this school, he met his best friend Rath, who just happened to be a Skin. And, according to prophecy, Rath had saved his life when they were only six years old. Zan was only seven years old when his father, Vart'nyan, executed the law that there would be a Skin in second-in-command. Zan, with the approval of the council of 13 and his father, chose Rath as his adviser, and second-in-command. The highly disputed third Companion was Ava, whom Zan also met in school. As soon as they met at ten years old, they felt an instant connection to each other. One year after the confirmation of Zan's chosenness, when Ava was 14, she also heard the Granolith's song. This confirmed her as the third Companion.
When Zan was just 15 years old, the Council told him and the Companions that they were destined to die. When the geneticists explained to them the process under which they would be reborn, all four insisted that they choose the human donor from which they would get their DNA. The four of them made their first journey to earth to choose their human donors. During this journey, they took with them the Granolith. They needed to hide this powerful device far from the Skins. The trip took only four years.
War at Home
Kivar had always strived to overthrow the monarchy, and to make himself the Supreme Ruler of Sawn. He, like most Skins, did not believe in Nececis. Kivar had played by the Sawnian rules for all of his life, by pretending to be converted to the Sawnian religion. This was one of the main reasons Vart'nyan chose him as the Skin adviser. In secret, he was a leader of a group called the Malevolists. This secret organization of Skins and Sawnian nonbelievers had a very well-laid out plan.
First, Kivar had his brother Rochain pick a fight with the King. He had told Rochain to kill the King. Kivar, however, knew that there would basically be no way that Rochain would be able to kill Vart'nyan. Vart'nyan's powers were simply too strong for Rochain. To ensure Rochain's defeat, Kivar had given Rochain untraceable poison that would kill Rochain if Vart'nyan failed to. News of Rochain's death at the hand of the King would shock the planet. The Skins would demand a rebellion to overthrow Vart'nyan.
Kivar was not a fool; he knew that if the Skins were to have a rebellion, that Vart'nyan could easily call on his allies in the Sawnian colonies. With so much resistance, the Skins would never have the chance at a clear-cut victory. So, Kivar forged documents in Vart'nyan's name to have the Sawnian colony embassies searched. Such invasion of privacy, not to mention the laws forbidding such searches, would be enough to anger the colony planets against Vart'nyan's cause.
Vart'nyan, when aware of the circumstances at hand, planned a trip to the colony planets to personally apologize for the misunderstanding. Kivar took advantage of this opportunity to plan a little accident that would take
Vart'nyan's life. Kivar had the Malevolists sabotage Vart'nyan's space transport. The Transport exploded minutes after takeoff, leaving Kivar the ruler of the planet Sawn, until Zan returned from his Earth voyage.
Kivar ruled as supreme ruler of Sawn for two years. He was charismatic and smooth, and because he was the leader of the Malevolists, he was also able to keep them under control and retain a semblance of peace. Meanwhile, he moved the Malevolist cause forward, converting Sawnian and Sawnian colonists alike. Sawnians still true to Nececis were aware of this new contention, but had no clue about what they could do to stop it.
When Zan returned to these volatile interplanetary circumstances, he was unaware of the danger that was in store for them. He thought that in order to be a good leader, that things should happen quickly. As a result, he took the crown and got married to Ava. Zan thought that moving things forward at a fast rate would be enough to throw his enemies off. He, like most of the more religious Sawnian people, did not know that Kivar was a Malevolist, or the cause of the widespread interplanetary Malevolists movement.
Vilandra
On the four-year voyage to and from Earth, Vilandra and Rath became very close friends. Although their friendship was more of a brother/sister love, they decided to become engaged to be married. They both agreed that it would be the best thing for their planet's good.
When Vilandra returned to Sawn, she was a different person than when she had left. Vilandra left at 16 years old, and she returned as a 20-year-old princess, and was one of the most attractive Sawnians in history. The Sawnians as well as the Skins were very taken with her. Many competed for Vilandra's attention, both Sawnian and Skin. Her engagement to Rath kept many of the more polite suitors away; this, however, did not stop Kivar.
Kivar had always had his eye on Vilandra, even though he was nearly 12 years older than she. He often spied on her, both in the waking world, and in the dreaming non-reality. Vilandra felt his attraction to her as if she were a paper clip being pulled toward a much more powerful magnet. At Sawnian religious functions, they were often seen making eyes at each other.
In the middle of the night, Vilandra sat straight up in her bed. She did not know why she was awake, or what she was doing. She just followed the energy that compelled her. Vilandra went out of her room, out of her royal apartments, and into the basement of the royal Sawnian library. Here, she heard voices. Vilandra got close enough to hear conspirators, Malevolists, plotting the death of her brother Zan. As she tiptoed slowly to the door, she turned a corner and ran right into Kivar.
Vilandra could not believe her eyes. Kivar held her, promising not to hurt her, and proclaiming his undying love toward her. In order to save her life, and possibly the life of her brother, she pledged to Kivar and became a secret member of the Malevolist's movement, a move that later proved fatal to her.
Kivar knew that Vilandra would never betray her brother, not even for their love. He knew that Vilandra would warn Zan of the conspirator's plans. However, Vilandra did not know that the pledge she took was so binding (the technology used to make the oath binding was similar to having a chip in the brain), that even if she wanted to tell Zan that Kivar was a Malevolist conspirator, she couldn't. Instead, she warned him not to go to the event where the murder would take place.
After only six months of being King, civil war broke out, not only on planet Sawn, but on the colonist planets as well. Basically, (although the details were very far from basic) it was a religious war, Nececis believers against Malevolists. Zan tried his hardest to stop the wars, and violent outbreaks, but there was only so much that a new king could do. Malevolists, despite warnings from Kivar, decided the best thing they could do was expose Vilandra as a traitor in order to gain ground for their movement.
Vilandra's exposure caused a new uproar. Within a week, the royal four were all killed; the brokenhearted Sawnians conceded soon after the murders. Kivar, now openly Malevolist, assumed the throne. Even though Vilandra was a supposed traitor, since her rebirth was vital to the salvation of the universe, she was included to be reborn with Zan, Rath and Ava.
According To Cryptic Prophecy
The geneticists involved with the royal four's rebirths worked quickly. They knew that they would be exiled or even executed, as were several of the High Priests and Priestesses, if they were caught. A team true to the Nececis beliefs took it upon themselves to watch over and hide the embryonic eight. When Kivar heard of their attempts, he burned the genetics lab. He learned that they were not destroyed, so he hired groups of Malevolists seek out and destroy the embryonic eight.
In light of these new dangerous circumstances, the team acquired a space transport in order to get as far away from Kivar and his seek-and-destroyers. Their destination was earth, since any of the other four planets were still experiencing the after-effects of their violent civil wars. Also, it seemed logical to put as much distance between the embryonic eight and Kivar.
Queen Plendra, living in exile, was deeply grieved by deaths of her young children. She really wanted to send her children reborn a message. However, because she was in exile, Plendra lacked sufficient technology to do so. Grappling at whatever technology she could get her hands on, she made a dual orb message construct. Although the technology for these orbs was literally thousands of years old, it was sufficient enough for Plendra. Before the team left for Earth, Plendra gave them the dual orb message construct.
Their Arrival
The team of Sawnian sentinels was making excellent time in their space transport. They planned on landing on earth close by the place where the Granolith was hidden. Because most of the transport's energy was focused on the speed of their mission, they had surprisingly little control over their entry into Earth's atmosphere. They would have been fine had not a human aircraft crossed their path of entry. This aircraft was actually a United States top-secret Black Project. Both the aircraft and the space transport plunged toward Earth, crashing.
This was good and bad for them at the same time. Because the United States aircraft was such a big secret, news of their arrival was covered up by the government. However, two members of their team were captured by the government. Usually, humans would have no chance at capturing a Sawnian. The two captured were very badly injured, which was the reason they were captured so easily.
When the space transport crash-landed, two members of the sentinel team were expelled from the spacecraft. Using their alien powers, they landed safely on Earth, unharmed. They landed about two miles away from their transport. Boggled by the experience, and exhausted from using their powers, they didn't make it back to the crash site in time. One of Plendra's orbs had landed where they had landed. Intending to come back for it later, they buried the orb in the dirt so nobody could find it.
The team of Sawnian sentinels consisted of six Sawnians. When they crashed, two were killed, two were injured and captured by the government, and two were safe from harm. Fortunately, the embryonic eight were also unharmed. But, they too, were captured by the government. The two unharmed Sawnians rescued the embryonic eight from within the United States government's base. One of the injured Sawnians did not survive the experiments done to them by the government. The other Sawnian was held for a time, but eventually escaped.
The Sentinels Revised Plan
The sentinels knew that the two sets of royal four needed about 40 or so more years to properly develop. The initial plan was to separate the two sets and raise them as humans until they were ready to return home. One sentinel took four of the embryonic eight and hid their pods in the same place as the Granolith. The other sentinel took the remaining four and hid them on the other side of the country. According to prophecy, they were to let the royal four know little about their origin; the sentinels were only to provide protection to the royal four.
Back on planet Sawn, Kivar had learned of the sentinels' escape to Earth. He dispatched one of his groups to immediately find and kill the sets of royal four. Because of Kivar's destruction of the Sawnian genetics lab, he had no idea that the pods needed 40 years to develop. Perhaps if he knew this, he would have dispatched the group at a later date, instead of immediately.
During the 40 years of hibernation, the Sawnian in charge of the Granolith podsters mysteriously disappeared. It is unknown whether he was captured by the government, killed by the enemy Skins, or is living somewhere unbeknownst to anyone else. The Sawnian who escaped the government periodically checked on the Granolith podsters. One day, when visiting the Granolith podsters, he discovered that three of them had hatched. This is when he knew that the other Sawnian in charge had disappeared. He waited around until the fourth pod hatched and appointed himself her protector.
Subsequently, the three that had hatched were taken in by the humans living in that area. Two were adopted by Philip and Diane Evans and given the names Max and Isabel. The other was taken into foster care and given the name Michael Guerin. The other set of podsters was well looked after, and living altogether in New York. Their Sawnian protector had just recently disappeared.
That's all folks!