Centaurans...where do they come from?

[AslanC]

Okay and anyone who makes the Alpha Centauri joke is a dingus

Seriously though, I have poured through my encyclopedia and searched the web and I cannot find any official calim that Alpha Centuari being it's own culture and not, say a colony or outpost.

What I want to know is, where did the idea first get its' legs so it has carried through Star Trek RPG for years?



Anyone?

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Aslan Collas
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Ferengi Rule Of Acquisition #76: Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.

[qerlin]

If you use the LUG stuff, they're a separate race. To pull together some semblance of continuity between TOS and First Contact, I say Alpah C is a colony; Cochrane was one of the first settlers. Seems it would be fitting.

[AslanC]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by qerlin:
If you use the LUG stuff, they're a separate race. To pull together some semblance of continuity between TOS and First Contact, I say Alpah C is a colony; Cochrane was one of the first settlers. Seems it would be fitting.</font>

That makes some sense I guess. The idea being that he is Zephram Cochrane of Alpha-Centauri means he lived out his life there for the most part as one of the Earth's first colonists.

This does not however work with LUG, FASA or SFB

And it still doesn't tell me where the idea of Centuari being a planet with almost humans on it comes from either



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Aslan Collas
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RPG_Trek; http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rpg-trek
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Ferengi Rule Of Acquisition #76: Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.

[SIR SIG]

They are definately there own race/species/planet.

Because in every instance they are one of the founding 5 members.

It wasn't until the colony that got the statuets <sp>; was able to become a member world.

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SIRSIG
AKA: SirPostalot
AKA: The MapMaker
AKA: The Trek Cartographer
AKA:...Well I could keep going forever

[Lancer]

The only thing about Alpha-C being their own civilization (apart from the RPG stuff) I ever read was in that old Franz Josef technical manual (can't remember the correct titel right now, guess you know what I'm talking about).
It had a flag for the "Alpha Centauri Concordium of Planets" with cyrilic letters and Centaurs depicted on the flag, which suggested they are a separate political entity apart from earth.
But I never found any canon evidence about the Centaurans being a race of their own.

I've been toying with the idea of some fan-written Centauri sourcebook project for some time now.
Would anybody of you be interested in starting something like this with me?

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"To seek, to strive, to find and not to yield" - Alfred Tennyson

[qerlin]

Just 'cause they're a founding member doesn't necessarily mean they have to be a separate race. Colony worlds of various are members...they get to vote in the council, so that's not a valid argument for them being their own species.

But you might be right...

Me, I go with the above suggestion I made.

[Antonio Cabañas]

As I have read some non-canon material about it I have some answers:
1- If I remember well FASA said that the Centaurians were descendants of Greeks transported by the Preservers.
2- The novel "Federation" presents Centaurians as native from that systems and mention later human colonies on Alfa Centauri B.

[redwood973]

They are actually little green men from Mars!

[Homer]

In addition to the Franz Joseph tech manual, I think the Franz Joseph Medical manual has some material, if you can find it. I don't have it here with me. (It also advises the proper way to give mouth to mouth with a Gorn, good luck.)

The biggest, yet hardest to find is the now apocryphal Spaceflight Chronology put out about the time of Star Trek the Motion Picture, it has contact logs, descriptions of the differences between humans and Centaurans, and of course the mathematical formula used by the alien scientist Zephram Cochrane to outfit Earth and Centauan ships with warp drive.

At least it they don't really confuse the fans by giving them really big hair.....

[lone wolf]

Well, you have a daddy Centauran and a mummy Centauran and the dady gives the mummy some sweet loving and bingo-bango-bongo, a little time later you have another Centauran.

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Mama-san I'm not sure, but I think they call it a catapult.
Kid Boy, I'm glad I didn't have to say that line...

Samurai Pizza Cats

[Legate Legion]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Homer:
The biggest, yet hardest to find is the now apocryphal Spaceflight Chronology put out about the time of Star Trek the Motion Picture, it has contact logs, descriptions of the differences between humans and Centaurans, and of course the mathematical formula used by the alien scientist Zephram Cochrane to outfit Earth and Centauan ships with warp drive.

At least it they don't really confuse the fans by giving them really big hair.....</font>

You guys are really going to hate me. I have a copy of the Spaceflight Chronology that I got as a kid along with the Franz Joseph Tech Manual & Medical Manual.

But, I have always been of the belief that the FASA idea is right. They are Humans, but from another culture. Everything is in the same place as it is in us & they are geneticly Human, though they do have big hair if they are a civilian, though they keep is short in the Centauri Defense Force or Starfleet, at least in my STU.

~LL


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"Resistance is futile...say baby that is a nice tight skirt you have on." --President Clinton of Borg.

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[Viola Kor]

On ST-RPG Next Generation, their handled as their own race

[Aedh Rua]

I developed quite a bit of background for the Centaurians, though I had to play a bit fast & loose to do it. I used the statement in LUG's "All our yesterdays" that the Centaurians were transplanted from Earth ca 400,000 years ago as my background, then just created them as a multi-ethnic race much like humans.

I used the map and history from "Worlds of the Federation", to give me the names of ethnic groups and early kingdoms, and then gave them languages, to boot. Now, "Worlds of the Federation" says that Alpha Centauri IV is tropical, but the drawings I see of Centaurians in all of the LUG books show a lot of blonds, which doesn't fit. So, I tweaked the climate a bit, and made it a lot like Earth, only with less seasonality, and VERY slightly warmer, thus allowing every race present on Earth to also live somewhere on Alpha Cent. I also created about five religions for the Centaurians, which break down loosely along geographic and ethnic lines.

Players who want an "alien" who is basically a somewhat exotic human are really the target audience for my version of the Centaurians. The multi-ethnic nature of the Centaurians means that almost any style of culture found on Earth is also found somewhere on Alpha Centauri, with local variations.

If you're interested, I could post some more details...........

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Slan agat!

[This message has been edited by Aedh Rua (edited 06-28-2001).]

[Lancer]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Aedh Rua:
I developed quite a bit of background for the Centaurians, though I had to play a bit fast & loose to do it.
...
If you're interested, I could post some more details.
</font>

Sure, go ahead and post your Alpha-C background!

I am still toying with the idea of writing up some more detailed background stuff on the Centaurans, maybe in the style of the Cadet's Guide to Sector 001 from the SF-Academy box. A 'Tourists Guide to Alpha Centauri' if you will.

This little project, if I ever finish it, will probably draw heavily on the Planets of the UFP entry on Alpha-C and only expand this stuff.
Everybody who wants to throw in their 2 cents worth is of course welcome to do so!

Which in turn leads me to the question of copyright. If I really do this and want to share it with others, even on a strictly fan-based, non-profit, not-widly-distributed basis, how much information from Planets of the UFP could I use ?

Thanks in advance for any advice

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"To seek, to strive, to find and not to yield" - Alfred Tennyson

[Imagus]

Centaurans as more-exotic humans is definitely an interesting way to go.

I came up with the related idea of basing them on the Naram from Renegade Legion. The idea of a race that is genetically identical to humans but can prove they evolved on their own world (thus creating the mystery that ultimately led to Galen's project) strikes me as a very Star Trek concept. The Naram concept as presented in RL also resembles what we "know" about the Centaurans - peaceful, art-oriented, regarded as exotic and attractive by earthers etc.

Of course, they might also dress in modified 19th century military uniforms and be the masters of a now extinct empire - the men might raise their hair in huge crests, the women shave their heads... No, wait, I think that's been done somewhere before



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Slartibart-Jon