Prometheus Unbound: A Unified Theory of Space Jockeys,Engineers,Black Goop,Xenos
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JamietheBastard
MemberOvomorphOct-11-2015 12:11 PMPrometheus Unbound. My Unified Theory on: Space Jockeys, Engineers, Black Goop, Xenomorph Origins, Alien, Prometheus.
Writing my Alien prequel story I began to see where my ideas could fit in with Prometheus and this is my take on how this could all tie in together.
The Xenomorph species are a naturally occuring life form.
The Xenomorph homeworld is an Evolutionary Nightmare: A massive world; Gravity 2.5 times Earth; Toxic Atmosphere; Violent Storms; All life on this planet is extremely hostile, vicious and predatory. The Xeno species have evolved in response to this hostile environment: Acid blood as a defence against predators; The ability to survive in toxic atmospheres/vacuum and extremely hostile ecosystems; Parasitical reproductictive cycle; Alternative reproductive traits; Massive strength.
Xenomorph Morphology.
1.The Progenitor: A vast worm/maggot like creature. A cross between the Queen's Egg Sac from Aliens and H.R. Giger's "Maggot" Facehugger design for Alien. This creature produces Eggs and the mutagenic black Royal Jelly (The Black Goo).
1. King: Nearing the end of its life a Progenitor's reproductive cycle is geared to producing a single Egg: A King Xenomorph. The King mates with a specially produced Queen that has been further mutated with the Royal Jelly. After mating the Queen kills and devours the King and then gestates a single Egg: A Progenitor.
2. Queens (Mutated Drones).
3. Warriors.
4. Drones/Workers.
5. Proto - Queens.
6. Facehuggers.
The Progenitor resides in the main hive producing Eggs and Royal Jelly. When the main hive reaches a certain size, contigents of Drones and Warriors are sent out to form new hives. When a suitable location is found a Drone is mutated into a Queen using the Royal Jelly.
As a survival trait the Xenomorph species has also evolved a triple redundancy reproductive cycle. In circumstances where there is only a single Drone, the Xeno has a stinger in it's tail with a Venom Sac containing a small amount of Royal jelly. The Drone can sting a victim and thus mutate them into an Egg containing a Queen Facehugger. In the absence of hosts a Drone can undergo a Hormone storm combining the Royal Jelly from its venom sac and become a Proto Queen capable of producing a limited supply of Eggs. In the absence of host creatures the Xenomorph can hibernate for a period of a few hundred years and the Eggs remain fertile for thousands of years.
Facehuggers have limited metamorphic abilities to deal with difference in host size/biology.
The Xenomorph inherits limited genetic traits from the host creature (a Xeno incubated in a flying creature might have vestigial wings but wouldn't be able to fly).
The Xenomorph "see" much the same way that a Shark "sees" its prey's electrical field. They can "see" in a variety of spectrums: Infra red; X - Ray (They can see if an intended host is already infected). They have senses approximating sight, smell etc.
They have problem solving intelligence equivalent to Crows, Otters etc.
The Space Jockeys/Engineers.
The Space Jockey race are an ancient species, they were unimaginably old long before life arose on Earth, colonising many systems throughout the galaxy. The Space Jockey race was divided into two "Factions". One I will describe as "Benevolent", the other "Cruel and Vengeful". These descriptions are vague approximations only as their true motivations and agendas are entirely unfathomable by any human frames of reference, they are far beyond human concepts of good and evil.
They are Bio - Engineers (but I will continue to call them Space Jockeys to distinguish them from the Prometheus Engineers). The "Benevolent" faction use genetic modification, Biomechanical technology and powerful mutagens to evolve suitable lifeforms to higher states. The "Cruel" faction use the same techniques to produce Bio - Weapons.
Countless millennia ago these two factions began waging a galactic civil war. The "Cruel" faction discovered the Xenomorph homeworld and began experimenting on the creatures and adapting the mutagenic Royal Jelly for their own uses, in Bio -weapons facilities such as the one on LV 223.
The "Benevolent" faction evolved the Promethean Engineer race from primitive primates. Genetically modifying them for strength, size, speed, intelligence and the ability to interact with the Space Jockey biomech technology (the Engineers suits are modeled on the Space Jockey' s physiology so that they can pilot the Juggernaughts). They are a slave race with many classes: soldiers, pilots, servants etc. Unable to reproduce, the Engineers are a clone race with 15 different variants.
The Engineers on LV 223 were a rebel force of escaped slaves, soldiers, pilots who discover the abandoned weapons facility and take it over for use in their uprising against the Space Jockey race. They intend to liberate their slave brethren.
There is a Progenitor on LV 223. In another Pyramid in a special "Milking" chamber the Progenitor is producing Royal Jelly, though being in captivity the creature does not produce Eggs.
The Engineers on LV 223 discovered Earth (A planet very similar to the homeworld of the Engineers primate ancestors). The Prometheus Engineer sacrifices himself to kickstart humanity for the purposes of breeding test subjects in the Engineers quest for the ability to reproduce themselves, as well as a supply of hosts for breeding a supply of Xenomorph Eggs to use in their uprising.
2000 years ago the Space Jockeys discover the rebel Engineers on LV 223 and unleash a Xenomorph infestation to eradicate them. Two Engineers survive, one by going into stasis and the other escapes in the Juggernaught that contains all the Eggs the rebels have produced so far. He intends to pilot his craft to "Paradise" the Space Jockey's homeworld (which is anything but what we would think of as paradise, it is a Gigeresque, biomechanoid hellhole) and "bomb" it with the Eggs. He is infected somehow and crashes his Juggernaught on LV 426.
The Space Jockeys have a viral weapon which, once a Xenomorph infestation has sterilised a world, eradicates the Xenos and leaves the world ready for colonisation. Once the Engineers on LV 223 were destroyed they released this virus, which is why the Prometheus crew don't encounter any Xenos.
The Hammerpede isn't related to the Xenomorph. The worms are an organism native to LV 223, accidentally mutated by the Royal Jelly.
The Deacon is an offshoot of the Xenomorph species which shares common traits with its Xeno cousins but due to infusing human DNA with Xeno DNA from the Royal Jelly Holloway ingests, as well as its Engineer host, the Deacon is an organic creature not Biomechanoid. Its blood is not acidic.
The last surviving Engineer in Prometheus, unaware that his colleague had failed to bomb Paradise, is enraged when he awakens to find humans on his ship. The Engineers had no fondness for their "children" we were only lab rats and Xeno hosts to them, and finding humanity evolved to the point of interstellar travel and daring to question their "Gods" offends him. He kills the humans and takes off in his Juggernaught to "bomb" Earth with the Royal Jelly. A whole ecosystem mutated by the Royal Jelly would be a terrifying, nightmare apocalypse.
What will Shaw and David find on Paradise?
Does this theory make sense in fitting Prometheus and Alien together? Could they be going somewhere like this with Alien: Paradise Lost? It works for me, let me know what ya think.
120124
MemberOvomorphOct-12-2015 10:51 AMI like where you're going with this. I've always thought of the Engineers as a race of "creators" that are seeding the universe and creating life (Humans, Xenos, Yautja, etc); however, I've also thought that there's another faction that doesn't believe in this and is doing what it can to stop the "benevolent" Engineers.
Anyways, keep it up, sounds interesting.
Dark Nebula
StaffXenomorphOct-12-2015 10:56 AMVery interesting theory.
JamietheBastard
MemberOvomorphOct-19-2015 3:33 PMCheers for the feedback.
Some of the finer details of this theory still need working out:
Does the Progenitor fit naturally into the Xenomorph lifecycle?
(I think so but a bit more thought needs to go into this to ensure it fits organically and logically).
The franchise has established that the Xeno has a back up reproductive method (Egg Morphing) as this was in the 2003 Alien director's cut means it's canon, so would a triple redundancy reproductive cycle be out of the question for a species evolved for survival/reproduction?
I like the idea that the Xenomorph is a naturally evolved organism rather than being "created" by the Space Jockeys. They can't create life only Bio - engineer existing life forms with gene splicing and mutagens, does this make sense?
The Black Goo being Royal Jelly harvested from the Progenitor, a mutagen they use possibly with different experimental variants for different purposes?
Would the Space Jockeys evolve/clone a servant race (Engineers) and then train them as pilots, warriors etc who would have the power to rebel against their masters? Or did the rebel Engineers discover forbidden knowledge which enabled them to use their Master's technology?
I surmise they keep them under control with a form of religion, the Space Jockeys are the "Creators", the Engineers are unable to reproduce so they worship them as "Gods".
What would the catalyst be for the rebel Engineer uprising?
Why would the Space Jockeys abandon the outpost on LV 223?
Why wouldn't they reclaim the facility after wiping out the Engineers with the Xeno infestation?
I think with a bit more thought I can make this theory work logically.
Does it work as bridge between Alien and Prometheus?
All feedback negative or positive, ideas and constructive criticism welcome.
oduodu
MemberXenomorphNov-07-2015 2:51 AMIs there any possibility that you could consider the space jockey (as in alien) as a distinctly different species to the engineers in prometheus ?? That the engineers hijacked space jockey tech and created suits to use space jockey tech ?? Some nice ideas.
JamietheBastard
MemberOvomorphNov-09-2015 7:00 AMCheers oduodo, your reply seems to have got cut off:
"Is there any possibility that you could consider the space jockey (as in alien) as a distinctly different species to"
Trevorl314
MemberOvomorphNov-11-2015 9:14 AMI disagree with the last paragraph, that the engineer's on LV-223 were headed to bomb paradise. David discovers they were headed to Earth before the engineer is awakened (remember he sees the Earth hologram and it fades?).
Let's go back to the recording that David activates the recording of the engineers in the navigation room. They are casually walking around as if nothing is wrong. Does this happen before or after the outbreak? Notice that the other engineer recording shows them running through the corridors in the same mound being chased by something. Go back to the other engineers in the navigation room. Two of them are dead. It's obvious that something burst out of their chests, as you can see the damage to the cryo-sleep unit. Why not the other engineer? Did he not get infected? The whole infection scenario doesn't make sense in a way, because many of the dead engineers had holes in their abdomen/chest indicating they gave birth to a Xeno or some other type creature. In order for this to happen they would have to have had a facehugger impregnate them, right? Is this an error with the screenwriting?
Also, remember when the hologram is activated by the engineer, David is overwhelmed by the display of stars and planets. He notices the Earth near the seat, and then it desolves. It is clear to me that they were headed for Earth. The question is, what were they hoping to create? Look at what happened to Holloway. He had only a small drop of the goo and his dna started to break down. The engineer at the beginning had a little more of it and he broke down much faster. The purpose for his break down was to create new life on whatever planet they were on, possibly Earth. So, logically it makes sense that the engineers were not setting out to create more Xenomorphs. They were going to unleash the goo, maybe into the water supplies on Earth, and infect all of humanity. Humans would break down and then create something new, just as the engineer did in the beginning.
This is what I think happened in Prometheus.
1- The Engineers are a very old species who have created and destroyed life on many planets. They don't have the same morals as we do. Their thinking is "alien" to us. They're more like cold-hearted scientists who are experimenting and learning how to do new things with the goo. They're biological engineers.
2- The Engineers on LV-223 could possibly be a rogue group who did not like the fact that other Engineers gave humans knowledge ("fire"). They wanted to destroy us to create something for themselves.
3- The Engineers were once very much like us. They probably did start out as primates and were upgraded by another more advanced species that they considered to be god. This rogue group may have destroyed their creator, just as David wants his "parent" dead. By doing so, they take the throne and become god.
What I think we'll happen in Prometheus 2 is that Shaw and David will find "Paradise". They won't find any Engineers there. Instead, they'll find the remains of the gods. It will be a very scary place. I like your idea that it will be Giger'ish. It could be that the creators did themselves in, but for now I'll go with the rogue group being responsible.
What I'd like to see in P2 is more of the dialogue between David, Weyland, and the Engineer. I'm sure there is much more to the story than what we've seen so far. I'd also like for David to divulge more info on what he's learned by reading all the symbols/letters in the mound, and the information he absorbed by allowing the hologram to run through him. Hopefully, Ridley will answer some of these questions in the sequel.
