#but yeah Lor Starcutters are fun space monsters who disguise as ships because it’s a fun concept

[what-is-love-babey-dont-hurt-me]

My brain keeps on lingering over various bits of world building for my sci-fi Kirby au. My previous post might be helpful for context.

The idea of starships so advanced that they can talk to you is fascinating, no?

The old Halcandran language is still spoken on the planet today by small groups. They claim to be descendants of ancient Halcandrans, and with their cooperation, the old language had been translated with accuracy.

“Lor” translates to paradise.

The Paradise Starcutter.

The Lor Starcutter is a paradise, according to the few remaining records talking about the starship. But is it? Other scholars argue that the records of Starcutter ships are meant to be interpreted differently, that they take you to a paradise. This topic has become something of a debate ever since the ruins of Halcandra have become a popular point of interest.

But only the ruins of Halcandra.

There is still life on the planet. New societies have risen in the ashes of the old, many aliens have descended from the stars and found a home amongst volcanoes. The planet is remarkably peaceful compared to others, with a emphasis on technological progress and the pursuit of knowledge. If you didn’t mind the hot weather and storms of ash that can block the sun for months, Halcandra is a nice planet to live on.

This is largely ignored.

Visitors are sparsely receptive to the idea of staying in one of the modern cities, and many are ignorant to Halcandra being more than its ruins and legends.

This galaxy and the people who inhabit it have a blind adoration for tales of long-gone civilizations. Ancient civilizations are put on a pedestal—a pedestal which casts a shadow over any modern accomplishment. Stories of their capabilities take any seed of truth and become embellished facsimiles.

Unlike the tales of the bored Fire People who became gods, stories about Halcandra are more based in truth. To a degree.

Experts who specialize in history of The Ancients say that Halcandra split into societies of magic and technology. This makes sense, of course, since many artifacts suggest that ancient Halcandrans idolize the Fire People, who they called the Fire Gods.

It makes sense that these that they pursued the path to paradise, which modern men seek to retrace. It makes sense that there are no more of The Ancients because they built ships that can reach paradise. It makes sense that The Ancients were capable of magic, even though such feats have not been repeated since. How else did they able to create technology that could reach the Fire Gods?

Modern researchers are sure that if they can learn the magic-technology of the Fire People, of The Ancients, that anyone can ascend into paradise as well.

Ignore how the Fire People never developed advanced technology, and that they died when their planet crumbled. Ignore the overwhelming evidence that The Ancients were locked in a brutal civil war, and that their technology was their own demise.

But there is a seed of truth in these stories.

Technology and engineering were—and still are—heavily valued, and Halcandrans did worship the Fire Gods. At one point their society wished to abandon their volcanic planet to follow in their footsteps.These are two things that historians got correct.

Ships were certainly built to be vessels to a better place, but not to paradise. The idea of paradise meant something different to them than it does to off-planet visitors: in the eye of a Halcandran, Paradise is only achieved through death.

New Halcandrans could tell you as such, and will warn anyone to never board a Lor Starcutter. Paradise is not worth it.

The Ancient Halcandrans named those vessels after paradise to serve as a warning, and it is not unwarranted. Locals have passed down story after story of bright minds who approach paradise and never come back the same. They say that a Lor Starcutter can poison a person’s mind after one encounter. The accounts all note their behaviors become dangerous, their minds falling apart as their bodies waste away.

It is unknown if the side effects are exaggerated or not, but there is one certain truth to the tales. Anyone who boards a Lor Starcutter will eventually never come out.

Visitors who do hear the warnings suspect many things of them. Some take the knowledge of people never coming out as confirmation. Those disappearing passengers must mean that a Lor Starcutter will indeed take its passengers to paradise. Others suspect the warnings are out of greed, that the told tales of doom are spread to keep them away from a treasure. Most often however, warnings are simply passed off as folk tales.

These warnings are disregarded easily.

See, the warnings do not make sense when anyone thinks deeper of them. Why would The Ancients build ships that are paradise, that will take someone to paradise? Why build a passenger ship that is a death trap?

Perhaps that question is best answered with additional knowledge. The important thing to know about Lor Starcutters is this: Halcandrian scientists never developed artificial intelligence.

The idea of a starship so advanced that it can talk is fascinating, yes. However that was—and still is—well beyond the Halcandran scope of possibility. Talking machines have been experimented with, and the crowning achievement in that regard had been a star-blessed clock. One that replied based off a word bank, one that only responded to prompts. Creations like this have no will of their own.

This fact is not well known.

Perhaps if those ambitions visitors, researchers, treasure hunters, and fools had every piece of the puzzle, they would have realized the truth sooner. Unfortunately, it is a well recorded fact that Lor Starcutters do indeed talk. Lor Starcutters have a will of their own.

If The Ancients had not been capable of building machinery with a will of its own, then the conclusion is simple. Lor Starcutters are not starships built by The Ancients.

So what are they?

As mentioned, records consistently note the starships talk to them. The starships indeed have a will of their own. Detailed logs mention Lor Starcutters asking the passenger to leave as little as possible. The early steps on the journey to reach paradise is well known.

Information from people who have boarded the ships and tried to record the experience becomes inconsistent eventually. There is a point where the passengers start to guard any information with a vicious jealousy.

Scholars who try to make sense of the Lor Starcutter interactions speculate that this is out of greed or necessity. This must be the point where they discovered the secret to how to become immortal, how to reach paradise, how to join the Fire Gods. Those people who have encountered a Lor Starcutter must have found whatever the legends had promised them. Passengers who live on the ships are never seen again after this point, so that must be what happened to them… And if you like to live in an idealistic world, perhaps that is all you need to know.

What is a Lor Starcutter exactly? If The Ancients did not build those starships themselves, then who did?

Everyone works under the assumption that they are starships, which is exactly what a Lor Starcutter wants you to think. Calling them starships is incorrect, however. There is no starship so advanced that it can talk to you, and Lor Starcutters built themselves.

Cunning creatures who are made of metal-like plates, who can talk through the mind, who can shift and mold their body into any shape, who can survive the depths of space in a slumber, who feed off of like energy. Creatures such as these already exist in the form of Parasites, and have existed again.

Parasites, of course had key differences from these creatures. These creatures are ambush predators with wings that can sail the stars and eyes that can see past atmospheres .

Long ago outside of the atmosphere of ancient Halcandra, such a creature had been observing the planet when it hatched a plan. This creature noticed starships that were always leaving the planet. The creature noticed that people would walk on board without a second thought, and it wondered if it could simply get prey to walk into its mouth.

The creature contorted it’s body into a mockery of those passenger starships, and it’s brethren watched with interest.

The cunning creature had been correct, because it was boarded without question. In order to keep its prey entertained, to keep them from leaving the jaw of the beast, the creature had to be diligent.

The creature, ever so clever, It created illusions of paradise inside the vessel. It talked to each passenger like a friend. In their minds, the inside of the ship was infinite, and they could open any door to a new world as long as the the secret was never revealed. In their minds, the passengers had ascended to the live with Fire Gods.

Reality would reveal that the creature had been slowly leeching their life force, taking them to paradise. The passengers are never seen again.

The creature’s brethren change their form and descend as well, a fleet of deadly starships to lure anyone who dared to dream of a better place into a slow death.

Stories of Paradise Starcutters were soon whispered across that volcanic planet. At one point Halcandrans had wanted to join the Fire Gods and find a better place, but surely the ships which killed their passengers were a sign of their rejection. The Fire Gods had shunned the Halcandran people, they would never find that better place, and this was the beginnings of a civil unrest that would eventually turn into war.

Knowing the truth of the Lor Starcutters might be helpful for someone like Magolor.

He had a troubled life, and believed he deserved a better place. This cat-like alien is enamored with the tales of Halcandra, he is willing to claw his way to the top and ascend to the throne of the Fire Gods.

One of the New Halcandrans, a four headed reptilian adorned with a sharp golden crown jeweled with a moving eye, had tried to warn Magolor.

Landia had been ignored.

Magolor disregarded everything, of course. Landia, who knows the truth of everything, did not take it well. The alien felt all four of their heads simmer in anger as Magolor left to pursue his doom.

On top of those four heads was another alien who watched the foolish man leave to his paradise. The crown blinked as she contemplated the situation.

Years ago, Landia had met a massive golden creature with many eyes and a hunger for life force that was buried under volcanic rock for eons, simply sleeping time itself away. The creature had been confused at waking up in a time so different, but Landia had been so helpful, and so she decided to make an offer to the four-headed alien. The golden creature would give guidance and power to them, if they agreed to give her energy and a companion.

Two became One, and Landia had been strong enough to establish a symbiotic relationship rather than waste away like most would when merging with a Parasite. The two shared minds, and Landia realized the Fire Gods did not exist and never have. The search for paradise was a fool’s errand.

Landia knew more than he ever would.

Their Parasite, who was named Master Crown, noted how upset their companion had been, and she urged Landia to stop the foolish traveler before it was too late.

Landia had listened, and set off across the volcanic wasteland to the cursed site they had been warned to never approach. The Lor Starcutter should have been dark and cold, it should have been impersonating lifeless metal, but it was pulsing with life, about to ascend into space. Landia knew they were too late. In frustration, they used Master Crown to lash out at the hull of the deceptive creature.

Their outburst left a deep, bleeding gash across the hull of the Lor Starcutter. Master Crown had leeched as much life force as she could as her companion struck, and the most she could do it hope that is enough for the creature to cough up the poor passenger.

There is one less Lor Starcutter littering the volcanic landscape of Halcandra, but Landia had learned something valuable. Their whole life, Lor Starcutters seemed untouchable, but the cursed ships could bleed. After loosing Magolor to his ambition, Landia would set off on a journey with Master Crown to stop it from ever happening again. No more Lor Starcutters would be left to trap unsuspecting victims

Landia’s mission to remove these invasive creatures from the planet was the ire of many ambitious researchers, but would eventually earn them the title of a Hero. There had not been someone to earn such a high title in Halcandran society since ancient times, and it was only reserved for people who are seen as saviors to the planet.

Sometimes Landia would think back to the traveler Magolor, and they hope that someone managed to save his sorry soul.