Okay, let's try this response thing again. Hopefully, there won't be any maintenance today.
I see that I was probably a bit more vague in my presentation than I intended. I'll try and answer some of the questions presented in an effort to clear up some of the fog.
First thing I want to say is that I haven't actually nailed down a number of individuals in this collective. I say 5 million for easy math, but I'm considering anything from 5 million to 15 million. Just haven't come to a final decision, yet.
Anyway . . . .
What is it this 5-mil strong entity lacks? What do they need in order to sustain their collective?
What do they lack? In terms of survival needs, not much.
Like I said, money is a non-issue. The way I figure it, since we are talking about a collective all acting as a single unit (actually, they technically
are a single unit, being that they're sharing one giant superbrain, so-to-speak), the financial resources of one are he financial resources of all. Are you with me? Even in an absurd example of each one only coming into a single dollar per year, that's still 5 million dollars a year! The realistic number would, of course, be considerably greater than that. So, money isn't a problem.
That, in my opinion, means shelter is also not an issue.
Food . . . well - and pardon me for this, but since I'm new to the site, I'm trying to play some of my more outside-the-box ideas close to my chest, lest everyone here think I'm completely insane - that's not nearly as difficult to come by as you'd think. There are plenty of willing volunteers. It's still something that has to be managed carefully, but there's really no chance of them going hungry without some sort of apocalyptic event.
So, the point of that was: They're not lacking anything in terms of survival needs. The only thing I can think of them lacking is the trust factor. The way I'm writing this, there is a considerable segment of the underworld (meaning: non-human circles) that believes there is some grand conspiracy being orchestrated by the collective and that they simply cannot be trusted. As author and all-knowing lord (of my writing I mean; please no one be offended
), I can tell you that
there is no conspiracy. But, try proving it. Naturally, there's nothing wrong with having some things going on that, falsely of course, lend some validity to the rumors.
Still, that's the only thing I can think of that they're lacking - being trusted by the society in which they must live.
What do they need in order to sustain the collective? That's easy.
All they need is for at least one of them to remain among the living (and, yes, I did just side-step saying 'alive'). In a nutshell, even in what I would call an almost impossible scenario where the entire collective was killed off except one, that one is sufficient to begin the process of rebuilding the numbers . . . which wouldn't take nearly as long as you might think.
So long as one exists, they all will exist - forever; even if one of them is killed (or otherwise perishes, though I can't see very many accidental deaths), their contribution to the collective still remains with the collective.
I don't really understand what a being/entity/whatever that could destroy worlds in a day, would actually want? If they wanted something they could just take it.
I think having some kind of all powerful character like this would be detrimental to the story, some kind of weakness would be better.
As an example ( a poor one at that too ), the entity needs to enslave the entire planets population as it needs a specific hormone, that only that planets race produces, to feed on.
The less it has, the more it separates from the "collective" and its powers weaken etc or something.
Oh darn, I just rambled a bit, I fear.
They're not gods.
They have vulnerabilities.
For example (and there are less complicated ones), you weren't far off in your scenario.
To oversimplify, the larger the collective gets, the more powerful it is. Good, no? Good no. See, that power has to be fuled by something, and in this case, that something is feeding. Now, like I said, feeding is not normally a problem. However, if the collective were to get too large, there would come a point where their need to feed would become a serious burden. And there is a significant moral issue that is not lost on them, no matter what the naysayers may tell you. So, they do try to keep the size of the collective within a reasonable limit, so as not to upset the balance.
And, like, I said, there's more obvious vulnerabilities as well.
So, don't fret.
Doesn't the answer to that depend upon the answer to this: “Powerful in what way?”
Ugh. The definition of the word 'power,' in my writing, is so abstract, I dare say words don't exist to describe it. It's basically a combination of mystical power, physical power, presence, the old hierarchies, and other factors that defy description.
Sorry I can't give you a better definition than that.
1) How is the collective held together? I'm assuming that it is non-human entities since if you get enough (roughly 2-3) humans together you start to get factions and the goals of the individual faction would differ.
2) How does the (human or not) collective think of the non collective human race? Rivals for resources? Lesser beings? Equals? A nice snack?
Yes, they are not human.
This is an abstract concept, but all 5 (or whatever) million of them add up to 1 being. It's an oversimplification, but they're basically all sharing a single mind that's a combination of everyone who is or has ever been in the collective. Now, there is
some individuality that's necessarily retained, but it's not much. So, what I'm saying here is: It's hard for a single being to form factions for and against itself.
What do they think of humans? Do you have a couple of months for me to explain all that? LOL.
Seriously, a lot plays into it, and I can't go into all of it in this thread without going way off topic.
The Cliff's Notes version: 'Humans are necessary, but the fact that they have near complete rule over the world goes against all of the old hierarchies and the laws of nature. That said, there's not a whole lot that can be done about it now without starting a war that likely wouldn't accomplish anything other than destroying the world as we know it. So, while it doesn't have to be necessarily liked, human rule does have to be tolerated - and respected to a certain extent. (PS: Run with that snack remark . . .
)
Does the collective necessarily operate in the foreground? Are they perhaps some shadow group, controlling things from the background? Maybe they lurk in the shadows, and they play games against each other. Like a global version of Risk: each member has a territory, and they use it to screw with each other.
Or each member has a group of humans that are theirs. Breed the humans, make them worship one as a god, start wars, teach them to evolve, slaughter them like sheep.
It's just way less fun to be all powerful in the open. It's more fun when humans don't know they're being messed with.
I'm not sure if I'm answering your question or not, but . . .
The setup for my writing is (in a surprise to no one) very similar to the setup of Buffy - most humans have no idea that the underworld exists (much less any sort of collective) and the ones that do are expected to keep their mouths firmly shut.
There's only one real "entity" in a true collective race like the vyca. But otherwise, good suggestions.
True.
That's why there is no plural for the word 'vyca.' Technically, there's only one of them - broken into many millions of parts.
As I said before, thanks to everyone that's responded.
I do appreciate it.
