Carnivorous Space Elves AKA The Guardians
Before you skip, because others did: the Lore discovered in the ruins points at the Guardians being humanoid (not reptilian or insectoid) - please read your lore before you start reading this thread, by reading the evidence first:
LINK
Before I start: I posted this in the main Canonn thread, but it was being over-run with posts on the ruins - therefore, since this is a lengthy thread, I thought it would be fine as a stand-alone.
Other contributions I have posted: check out my post on the ruins being an Interstellar Temple,
HERE. (In light of new evidence in the ruins about religion, I may not have been far off).
START OF THIS POST:
After reading through the lore gathered so far (here:
link), I expect everyone is wondering what the Guardians may have looked like. I set about doing some designs, though you'll have to forgive me as it is done on paper - and I only had my 4yr old daughter's pencils and crayons on hand to work with
(I have Photoshop, but no art tablet to draw with *sad times*).
However, this did not deter me!
I took into account the facts now known in the Lore, and expanded on some aspects slightly by using evolutionary theory as a potential base to work from.
These are the facts I used as a base:
1) "It is also interesting to note the genetic break that occurred at the time of the north-south split, with the appearance of a redder skin in the members of the northern clan, suggesting a racial element of division."
2) "Politicians were the first to react to this new concept of social landscape, but very quickly, the resistance to the technological revolution took a religious turn."
3) "The relationship between the audio data and the constructs used, namely the written form, proves to be very complicated… it would seem that their spoken language had a tonal form, similar to certain human languages, which means that the meaning of a word was determined by the manner in which it was pronounced."
4) "The written form of the Guardians’ language is based on glyphs, each glyph representing a word. Glyphs seem to be able to be associated to describe complex concepts, while the integration of movements can also be used to add additional meaning."
5) "Some details about the physical appearance of the Guardians and the fact that the species had two distinct sexes. There did not seem to be taboos about sex because this database is full of images and recordings … just like some of our data networks!"
6) "This data contains more details about the Guardian’s sexual behaviour and reproduction. Their body form encouraged sex while standing, but although this was the most comfortable pose, they entertained a variety of positions. I’ve concluded that sex was a recreational behaviour and not only for procreation. They didn’t use birth control as they could manipulate their bodies to become temporarily sterile at will, although Ram has not yet identified the precise mechanism for this. It’s clear their biological-manipulation technology was quite sophisticated. This data has huge applications for Medical treatments if we can unlock the secret."
7) "New details on procreation and reproduction with the Guardians. Procreation was a matter of personal choice, although they were obliged to be parents at least once in their existence to ensure the survival of their species. It seems that the gestation period was long enough to allow sufficient development of the newborn before birth. Indeed, the children were frail for a certain period after their birth."
8) "Regarding the education of children. The community had the responsibility to take care of the little ones. Newborns were placed in communal crèches instead of staying with their parents. Pre-natal care included genetic manipulation to remove all hereditary diseases and other complications."
9) "Recordings on their foods: The Guardians are carnivorous, since they used to hunt in a pack. Their forearms are not only sharpened to kill their prey, but also to cut their meat into pieces more suited to their small mouth."
10) "Rules of decorum relating to hunting. The need to kill has always been preserved, despite the evolution of their society. The food killed during a hunting game was considered a refined dish. For the guests, it was an honor to give a prey hunted to their host, but it was customary for the latter to do the same. The food that had been hunted by a single person was even more valuable. It had to be done without a weapon. Weapons were only used in the context of civil protection or law enforcement."
11) "Given the physical similarities between us and them, I’m amazed at the cultural and societal differences and the speed at which they rose to become part of their lives."
Alas, here is my sketch:
And here is my very first sketch, if the southern tribe had a green pigment (a bit like the UAs):
Here are some plain sketches of the red Guardian:
My Thoughts & Reasons
So, they are humanoid - they have sharp for-arms - have many physical similarities.
I decided to go with pointed ears as, like on earth, cats and other carnivorous mammals have pointed ears (improved hearing while on the hunt and for danger senses) - given this fact, I would assume the Guardians to also have finer senses (pointed ears), given that they are carnivorous humanoids that still retained their hunting method, despite evolving to the point of space travel. I would argue that because they kept this practice, they would retain these more animal-like features.
Like humans, they would probably be slightly more frail than other animals in the animal kingdom, but they evolved larger brains (probably larger than a humans). As such, I did not expand too much on the head, but if the eyes were smaller, it would (the cranium) appear much bigger.
On the design of the eyes, I reasoned they would have two, like a human (depth perception is a mark of hunters), but their pupils may in fact be more like a snake or a cat - one could argue this would give them much better sight advantages and, considering they kept their hunting instincts over the course of evolution, it could be a sound hypothesis. I also made them much larger than a humans' eyes (three times larger) - part of this reason is to differentiate them from humans slightly, and the other is that larger eyes are much better for, potentially, low-light vision.
The mouth is not much bigger than a human's, in my opinion. In the animal kingdom on earth, humans do have "small" mouths when comparing them to other species on the planet relative to their size. As such, I saw no reason to give the Guardians in the drawing anything smaller than a human's.
Being carnivorous, their teeth will be slightly sharp and pointed - looking at the evidence of carnivores on earth, most carnivores don't use their teeth to chew - but to kill and shred meat. The Guardians used their sharp for-arms in order to do this, so their teeth may not have evolved to the point of shredding, like a cat, for example. Therefore, I drew small pointed teeth - they would appear like modern-day human "vampires" if they were to open their mouths. Their digestive system would probably be more alkaline in nature, like the carnivores on earth, with smaller intestinal tracts as a result. The Guardians may have swallowed strips of meat whole after shredding it (no chewing), and they may do, what carnivores do on earth, drink the blood of their kills as a source of liquid/water.
The "bones" of the models in the drawings are more angular, as to create a distinction between the Guardians and humans - and may even be another reason as to their obsession with geometric shapes. As such, I drew their jaw-lines and cheek bones as slightly more rigid and angular, like a triangle. This is easier to see "face-on" in the second picture with the green Guardian - the face down to the hips are very sharp and angular to promote some semblance of difference.
The hands are potentially more rigid and angular, perhaps longer - they may have had claws in place of finger nails, though this has yet to be discovered. What we do know is that they had "sharp" forearms. Therefore, I did two versions. On the green Guardian, I drew two small bony ridges - one for stabbing, one for cutting. I wasn't too sure about that version, so on the second version (red Guardian), I drew a single, much larger and curved bony implement coming out of the forearm. It would be sharp at the bottom, at the top, pointed, and thick in the middle - it would also be curved, like a tooth, to serrate the wounds of the pray they hunted. This shape would therefore be devastating and strong - it's like having a sabre cat's two large fangs strapped to your arms as weapons with which to pierce, serrate and slice.
When it comes to the female form of a Guardian, I deliberately chose to draw naturally large "chests" - the reason for this is actually a cultural one. As it states in the lore, the Guardians duties are to their responsibilities in the various tribes. Because of this, parents who breed have their off-spring, but then leave them at communal creches (as it states in the lore) - so who is going to feed the babies full time? The Guardian's nurses, of course - and, considering their culture prefers to go along the "natural" route, they would forgo, potentially, the technology of feeding through milk supplements (powdered milk). Therefore, if it is your duty in the tribe to feed and rear kids, you'll need the assets to do it (if this is the case, I seriously feel sorry for those nurses - but the lore is what it is).
The only thing I cannot suitably explain is the red skin (and what it was before - I chose green simply because of the Unknown Artefacts). Therefore, the Guardians may not be the development of mammals, but could be more reptilian - so the colour may actually be from very small, fine scales than actual skin. However, the lore states "skin" not "scales", so they are probably mammalian.
I also added in some little easter eggs on the clothing.
If anyone is a much better artist and has the utilities to do much better on these designs, please feel free!
Anyone else got any sketches to show?
Masters of Cybernetics and Genetics
As we have read so far, the Guardians loved to integrate their technology (eventually) into their own culture. This meant that each person was connected to the Interstellar Network (no longer the Internet or www. more like Interstellar Web) and could communicate to either their neighbours next door or indeed to some friend or relative that is 120 light years away (much like Galnet). Such a network would need many, many hubs - and I believe the "Ancient Ruins" or "Interstellar Temple" (depending how you want to look at it), could have both served as a religious sanctuary and as an Interstellar Comms Booster to secure the network over the vast light years.
The Guardians turned to religious routes later on, however, because of this communications explosion and that of faster-than-light travel through Witchspace.
It appears that rather than worshiping "Gods" of fabled legend or other aliens, they appear, from the evidence at the ruins, to have worshiped the very AI they created as a millennia passed. By this point, the Guardians were masters, apparently, of cybernetics - not too dissimilar to the fictional animation
Ghost in the Shell:
However, it would appear that the Guardians, once they had developed AI and began to integrate themselves with it, that they were either dependent on the AI systems or worshiped the Interstellar Network as a "God" or "Paradise" (however, until we know more, we can only speculate).
Now, with the recent explosion of sightings of the "Thargoid" ships, I do wonder if the Thargoids themselves were an Artificial Intelligence created by the Guardians. They do appear to be "insect-like" and this has led many people to believe that the Thargoids are insects, yet they are also mechanical-looking, or are, at the very least, described as being Bio-Mechanical.
I would hypothesize that the Thargoids are creations of the Guardians - it is a long stretch, I agree, but from what we seen in previous Elite games, perhaps this is the new direction Frontier want to take us.
Considering the Guardians had a natural affinity with the environment, and they were not shy about using genetics to wipe out illnesses (probably various cancers) during pregnancy with advanced medical knowledge, while integrating subtle technology as they further evolved (to become one with the AI), it would not be a stretch to consider they also applied this mode of thought to their AI creations - as in, Bio-Mechanical creations that respected the environments on any world.
If they had both mastered genetics, space travel, and cybernetics, then perhaps they created ships that suited their culture.
But what of the Guardians now?
Well, as we have seen in many movies now, ranging from Terminator to Battlestar Galactica, perhaps the AI Thargoids decided that their creators had outlived their purpose?
And if any Guardians still survive today? Perhaps they have been the ones inside the ships hyperdicting commanders, scanning us, in their breathable gel environments.
Could they still be on the run from their creations, hiding in Witchspace? Or could they already be a long dead species...
I hope we find out...
