Kilrathi Evolution

Delance

Victory, you say?
Yet another chapter on the endless probing of every single detail of the WCU, which makes us such a great community

The Kilrathi say:
"You pathetic descendent of monkeys!"

Also, Confed Intel on the Victory Streak WC3 Manual claims that the Kilrathi evolved from some feline race.

This means that the Kilrathi accept the theory of evolution? But they didn't even have a renaissance to begin with. Was there Darwin Redclaw aboard the IKS Monkey? Is the cult of Sivar OK with the whole thing?

We can of course dismiss evolution and Kilrathi for the lack of enought oceans on Kilrah to produce breathable eartlike atmosphere, but that's just one of those sci-fi conventions.
 
We can of course dismiss evolution and Kilrathi for the lack of enought oceans on Kilrah to produce breathable eartlike atmosphere, but that's just one of those sci-fi conventions.

Earlier iterations of Wing Commander (WC2, End Run) present Kilrah as a green planet with oceans... the whole magma thing must be a fairly recent change (or some form of seasonal change that we just don't understand).

Also, Confed Intel on the Victory Streak WC3 Manual claims that the Kilrathi evolved from some feline race.

This means that the Kilrathi accept the theory of evolution? But they didn't even have a renaissance to begin with. Was there Darwin Redclaw aboard the IKS Monkey? Is the cult of Sivar OK with the whole thing?

Erm, perspective - the document was written by a human for humans, so it doesn't have anything to do with what the Kilrathi do or do not accept.

(That said, there's no reason to assume any other species would be as stupid about evolution as we've been -- it's a cute little human niche hangup, not something that there's any reason to assume would trouble anyone else.)
 
Delance said:
This means that the Kilrathi accept the theory of evolution? But they didn't even have a renaissance to begin with. Was there Darwin Redclaw aboard the IKS Monkey? Is the cult of Sivar OK with the whole thing?
Interesting (and slightly amusing, to be honest) question.

A few (somewhat contradictory) points, to get the debate started:
1. It could be that by calling humans "descendants of monkeys", the Kilrathi are in fact mocking the human belief in evolution.
2. Given that the data we have about the Kilrathi evolution comes from Kilrathi sources (yes, Hobbes was a construct and all that... but this doesn't seem like something the Kilrathi would need to falsify, so he was probably telling the truth), it seems that the Kilrathi do indeed believe in evolution.
3. In the case of the Kilrathi, the belief in evolution may in fact not have come about through secularisation - quite the contrary, it may be a part of the religion. As we know from WCP, the Kilrathi have spent the last few thousand years preparing their race for a final confrontation - that's evolution. Furthermore, the Kilrathi are descended from hunters. To them, the idea of evolution might have been much more acceptable than it was for humans - after all, it's one thing to be told that you're descended for a creature that dominated the natural world, and another thing entirely to be told that you're descended from a monkey. To the Kilrathi, it could have made perfect sense - their ancestors were great and powerful beasts, so the gods rewarded them with intellect and stuff. Of course, I'm extrapolating a lot here, but it seems reasonable.
 
Re: the magma thing, it could well be that the areas of Kilrah portrayed in the earlier games were simply different parts of the planet than what was seen in WC3... given the Kilrathi love of hunting, it'd be difficult to think that a significant portion of their homeworld was not given over to hunting activities, and greenery houses the tastiest game, yes?

You dont even have to believe in evolution sans gods to have the descendant aspect of belief... try this one... "and so did the gods take the hunter cats, and stand them upright, and mold them into the Kilrathi"
 
a green planet can be tectonically unstable anyway.
And evolution is there, even if people do not believe in it. It has nothing to do with belief ;)
 
Bandit LOAF said:
Earlier iterations of Wing Commander (WC2, End Run) present Kilrah as a green planet with oceans... the whole magma thing must be a fairly recent change (or some form of seasonal change that we just don't understand).

WC3 makes it clear it's the former, considering Thrakkath didn't much care for water. He's a cat, remember.

Bandit LOAF said:
Erm, perspective - the document was written by a human for humans, so it doesn't have anything to do with what the Kilrathi do or do not accept.

But they must have got the info from Kilrathi sources, or did they figure out an evolutionary theory for the Kilrathi race just for the fun of it.

Bandit LOAF said:
(That said, there's no reason to assume any other species would be as stupid about evolution as we've been -- it's a cute little human niche hangup, not something that there's any reason to assume would trouble anyone else.)

I agree with that.
 
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