Brad Wardell's views about technology, politics, religion, world affairs, and all sorts of politically incorrect topics.
Conquering the galaxy through faith
Published on December 5, 2007 By Draginol In GalCiv Journals

The sad narrative of our galaxy is that races seem inclined to commit genocide against other races on their home worlds. The Altarians and Drath once shared a home world. The Yor and Iconians once shared a home world. The Drengin and Korath once shared a home world. The Arnor and Dread Lords used to share a home world when they were known as the Precursors. Even the diplomatic humans shared a home world with the Neanderthals who were exterminated prior to the rise of modern human civilization.

But the Krynn are different. The Krynn home world started out with multiple sentient races. The Krynn, you see, are not a race but rather a people made up of many different sentient species. Tied together with a unifying culture, the Krynn (which loosely translates into "the way") believe they have unlocked the secrets to the universe and are on a holy mission to share these secrets with the universe.

The Jihad of Krynn is split between two technological branches. The first branch outlines the laws and order of the Krynn. These allow the construction of powerful centers for indoctrination which uniquely increase morale while spreading influence. The second branch spreads the way into the galaxy in extremely powerful influence modules for starbases. 

What the Krynn may lack in technological sophistication they make up for in their ability to convert other species to their way. They can, after all, make the case that the Krynn have learned to share their world successfully for eons. With the galaxy full of evidence that other species, even the peaceful Altarians, ultimately fall into genocidal tendencies, the Krynn way of life has a growing appeal in a hostile galaxy.

The power of the Krynn lies in their ability to work together. This is best shown in their technological advantages in fleet combat where the whole is really greater than the sum of its parts.  As the recent intelligence analysis from the Terran Alliance indicates, one could easily imagine a future where The Krynn dominate the galaxy without a shot fired.

The religion explained

The Way represents the ultimate direction for people to live their lives. The Krynn believe in a supreme being (what humans would call "God") who created the universe and then sent 4 guardians to safeguard the universe.

These guardians looked over the a massive crystal that the creator has put into the universe for the time when life would be added to the universe. The crystal would be used at a time when the universe was ready for life to exist. However, a 5th entity, a demon, came into the universe and attempted to corrupt the crystal. In doing so, the crystal was shattered and every tiny fragment of the crystal that came into contact with the right conditions began life across the universe.

The Krynn have put this belief to the test and have proven to their satisfaction the existence of what others call "dark energy". It is the invisible energy that the Precursors use. Their belief also predicted the existence of a "big bang" long before the science existed to provide rationale for that theory.

The Krynn believe that only through intensifying their sentience can they achieve salvation. Salvation, to the Krynn, means being able to exist as a sentient being of energy after the body has perished. The only way to intensify ones sentience is through converting others to The Way. The Krynn believe that all Krynn are connected and thus the more Krynn there are, the more intense the connections between them.

The existence of machinery that can harness the sentient energy of creatures (such as what the Drengin and Korath have) helps prove (according to the Krynn) that The Way ultimately requires no faith once one has full understanding.

Therefore, the Krynn must convert all sentient beings into being the Krynn even if it means bloodshed. The very afterlife of the Krynn is dependent on bringing the universe over to The Way. Even those who have long perished in body gain in sentience when new converts are added. Thus, the Krynn do not convert merely to save their own souls but to save the souls of all the Krynn who have ever lived.


Comments (Page 1)
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on Dec 05, 2007
Sounds great. When can we play 'em?
on Dec 05, 2007
Good back story
Finally i have found my race!!!Seeing that influence is the hardest peaceful way of winning,(because it pisses people off), it should make for interesting situations.
Fellow Krynn let us work to reintegrtate the shattered crystal and drive the demon from the universal order!!!!!We will show the Universe The Way!!!!
Will this be released Thursday?
on Dec 05, 2007

Will this be released Thursday?

Yes, tomorrows 3B will have the Krynn, 3C will have the Drath and Korx, and a new Beta 3D will unlock the last two races, the Thalan and Altarians.

on Dec 05, 2007
Awesome!. It's great to get some backstory on what has become one of my favorite DA races.
on Dec 05, 2007
If the Krynn are made up of many sentient creatures, why do we only see one of them? Better yet, wouldn't their race be separated into classes? Put the best warrior race on the transports, get the brainiest race in research centers, the best sales men on trade ships, and the charasmatic race in the empassies. No sense to put a nerds on transports right?
on Dec 05, 2007
If we had them made up of separate classes that are specialized they'd be far too like the Tau. Not that thats really a bad thing. Interesting backstory, I've long been wondering about the Krynn.
on Dec 06, 2007
Yaay!! Cool way to make the Mithrilar into part of a religion. So would we ever get to see the supreme being in the francise or do we just imagine that it looks like the Abrahamic god. This being due to the fact that the Mithrilar appear human.
on Dec 06, 2007
Sounds like the Krynn will be the super cultural race.

The AI definitely will need updating in my previous experience of the game to counter cultural starbases and use them more offensivly.

I havn't built a cultural starbase in the game for a very long time becuse you could flip a whole empire with them planet by planet without the AI batting an eyelid even at masochistic or higher levels.

Hope this is no longer the case or if it is it will be rectified, think i'll start buliding culture starbases again in the next beta to see how the AI's fair.
on Dec 06, 2007
Interesting stuff. I was always curious what the story behind these guys was, as they didn't get any coverage in the DA campaign.

If the Krynn are keeping their current super ability, I'd like to see some kind of backstory justification for it. Espionage doesn't really seem to mesh with what you've written here.

Then again, Super Spy is one of the weaker super abilities, so maybe it can be replaced with something more thematically appropriate. Perhaps you could give them an increased ability to influence/manipulate the minor races, due to both their religious creed and their inherent multiculturalism.
on Dec 06, 2007
I like their back story very much, but it would be nice to know some more physical details for all races. Are they bipeds or not, number of hands, possibly wings...
I would like to see some more originality, I like the uniqueness of Iconians ("mouth" part and small thin head, eyes), Yor (robots), Thalans (bugs), Torians (ET?), Drengin for funny ape look, even Altarians because of their unknown connection to humans. They are all somehow..creative and have body parts with purpose that i can think of. Krynn just looks silly to me with that eyes on something, something on their mouth, that net on them, that funny nipples or something... It looks like some great power-ranger-enemy-in-a-funny-costume...
on Dec 06, 2007
Krynn just looks silly to me with that eyes on something, something on their mouth, that net on them, that funny nipples or something... It looks like some great power-ranger-enemy-in-a-funny-costume...


Maybe the one depicted is a half-breed, the combination of the worse genes his parents had to offer

on Dec 06, 2007

Super Spy is one of the weaker super abilities

Well, they get freely the tech that allows to build the counter espionnage center which can be an invaluable building on key planets

on Dec 06, 2007
Super Spy is one of the weaker super abilities
Well, they get freely the tech that allows to build the counter espionnage center which can be an invaluable building on key planets


They still have one of the weakest abilities. Even whn i have th tech, as any race, i seldomly build the center. Its not really worth the loss of a tile for the ocassional AI spy presence. Not sure if thy'll still have the same super ability in TA but if they do, it needs to be tweeked. HAlf price spies? Or as omeone else said recently (somewhere on this site) maybe they can start off ith a lo espionage rating with everyone.


on Dec 06, 2007
I do agree I think it would be interesting to see a more thematic super ability. Maybe supper cheerful or something along those lines.

Although now I come to think about it supper spy does fit well after all they may have followers of all races who can easily blend in to those other cultures and gain positions of power.

Also since their own people would have a tendency to be very loyal to the cause that would explain why they are so good at defensive spying.
on Dec 06, 2007
Spies don't bother me much. In fact, I don't bother with them too. Espionage is beneath me.
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