Let's kick this A to Z challenge off right and dive right into Ancient Aliens. This will be one of my bookends for this challenge since I plan to use Zecharia Sitchin as my Z entry.
Now while there is a ton I could say about these theories today and the rest of this month, I do want to make it 100% clear that I do not buy into any of these notions. They are good for RPG material though.
Ancient Aliens is the notion that ancient people were visited by aliens (extraterrestrial advanced lifeforms) and not only did these ancient people regard them as gods they shaped the cultures of these people and even, in some theories, shaped their DNA.
I want to address the biggest issue with ancient alien ideas. They are all notoriously racist. There is an underlying notion that "white people couldn't figure it out, so brown people must have had help from an advanced species." Which is pure bullshit. We do have better ideas on how the pyramids were built and why. We know how the stone heads on Easter Island were transported. We even have better hypotheses on how places like Stonehenge were built. None of these involved magic or alien technology. Renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass has been particularly critical of these ideas saying they take away from the ingenuity of the Egyptian people. I agree.
Once you start reading into this (and I even found a couple of questionable documentaries) it opens a whole rat's nest of crazy topics. I am not going to go into any of these topics in detail. No room here and way off scope. But I am going to link some of the more *interesting* ones and the ones that had the most effect on my work here.
This all makes one think about the movie and TV series "Stargate." And it was looking into all of this that made me realize how much stuff I can use here.
For NIGHT SHIFT
Most ancient alien/god "theories" are centered around Egypt and the Pyramids. But many also pull in myths, legends, and stories from ancient Babylon, Sumeria, and the Fertile Crescent. Others also involve American cultures like the Mayans, Aztecs, and the Toltecs. While Egypt and the Fertile Crescent certainly had interactions, the Central and South Americans had no contact with them. In fact, that is a central thesis of these theories; "They had no human contact but there are similarities, therefore they must have had divine/extraterrestrial contact." Ok, technically that is not a theory but more of a poorly worded research position trying to move to a hypothesis. I am going to suspend my years of doing and teaching research design though for now. This is for a game, not a grant.
In NIGHT SHIFT Ancient Aliens DID exist, but they did not give humans high-tech materials or help them build the pyramids. Humans were slaves and many times they were food. To quote Dr. Peter Venkman from Ghostbusters II, "And that is the whole problem with aliens, is you just can't trust them. Occasionally you meet a nice one: Starman, E.T. But usually they turn out to be some kind of big lizard!"
The ancient peoples feared them, but I am going to say they mostly tried to fight them. There were organizations created then to combat this alien invasion and some still exist to this day.
These ancient aliens were those lizards. They invaded ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and gave gods like Set, Apep, and Tiamat. Then they went over to Central America and gave Queztcoatl. The world of NIGHT SHIFT is absolutely overrun with alien lizards and their genetically modified lizard people.
The ancient alien theories claim they are "reptoids" and are from stars in the constellation Draco. IT doesn't matter it seems that some of the stars in Draco are only 20 ly away (σ Dra) and others are as far as 7,000 ly away (V571 Dra) and everything in between. But for NIGHT SHIFT let's pick Thuban (Alpha Draconis) as their homeworld. It is 303 ly away, so a good distance. It could explain the gap in time between visiting Ancient Egypt and Meso-America, they had to go back home.
I will get into the details of these lizards and what they can do. But this is a start. They have been here since the beginning and are still here now. Maybe they are connected to the dinosaurs and responsible for all the myths about dragons.
Who knows.
I guess we all will soon.
The NIGHT SHIFT RPG is available from the Elf Lair Games website (hardcover) and from DriveThruRPG (PDF).
Be sure to visit all the A to Z blogs this month at the Blogging from A to Z blog.
Wow, I'm curious if there are conspiracy theories for every letter of the alphabet. Well, there must be, right? I'll keep my eyes open.
ReplyDelete"Occasionally you meet a nice Alien: E.T. Awww, yes! ♥
Happy Blogging!
You're off to a strong start, my friend. Excellent take on the idea and applying it to your game.
ReplyDeleteFascinating information. Looking forward to the rest of you posts.
ReplyDelete@Pun, THANKS! I am certainly looking forward to your comments to these.
ReplyDelete@Tamara, OH there are SO many. I had all my topics picked in about an hour or so once I had decided.
@Harvey, Thanks!
Ah, Zecharia Sitchin. We have some of his books in our home library, being interested in crazy, but we'll only buy them secondhand, because of the whole massively-racist thing.
ReplyDeleteA strong start to your A to Z! What a fun idea! I can't wait to see what you cover! My boyfriend and I are now sitting at our dining room table, trying to predict what topics you will pick.
Oh goodness, I find conspiracy theories fascinating from the outside, so this will be so fun to watch out for this month! <3
ReplyDeleteInteresting topic. Looking forward to your A2Z.
ReplyDeleteGreat choice for a topic - I'm amazed you managed to find one for each letter though. A lot of conspiracy theories boil down to, we don't get it so we need to make up an explanation, don't they.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes
Tasha
Tasha's Thinkings: YouTube - What They Don't Tell You (and free fiction)
Lol, I love your theme :D
ReplyDeleteIn Hungary we have a whole fringe theory that Hungarians specifically came from Sirius... So, we are the ancient aliens! Lol. As an archaeologist, I come across these... um, ideas all the time.
Are you going to do the one about the 300 years of history that allegedly never happened? :D
The Multicolored Diary
I've loved the Ancient Aliens theory since I was a wee lad, however, I admit that I'd never thought about imagining these contributions could take a way from a ethnic group's culture and achievements. Thanks for addressing that topic.
ReplyDelete@A Tarkabarka Hölgy,
ReplyDeleteI thought you might like this given all the folklore you write about!
Well, Sirius must be cool since every Hungarian I have ever known has been! And close by, relatively speaking (8ly).
I am glad everyone is enjoying!
This really cool. And yeah the Ancient Aliens/Astronaut theory definitely can be racist. However I do believe that there are ways to handle it like the game Ankur: Kingdom of The Gods without being racist.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great theme. I adore these theories as fiction, but tend to get a little depressed when confronted with the fact that some people believe them. Oh well, I look forward to seeing all the conspiracies you choose.
ReplyDeleteA is for Anthropophagus
I used to read a lot of ancient alien conspiracy books like Chariots of the Gods. They were the kind of things I especially enjoyed when I was in college and later discussing them with my friends. I don't take much stock in these, but they are fun to contemplate.
ReplyDeleteI'm always up for hearing a new conspiracy.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out Battle of the Bands
I was just thinking this morning while I was drying my hair (ADHD probs) that you never hear about aliens abducting people anymore. It was such an 80s thing in the tabloids!
ReplyDeleteAnd we never seem to hear about the Bermuda Triangle anymore. I guess conspiracy theories fall out of favor as new ones move in and take their place!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the point about this conspiracy having racist roots. I'm always on the lookout for those because they shock my brain into a better place. This was a new one for me.
ReplyDeleteJoy's Book Blog
Conspiracy theories are always fascinating! Years ago, I read Chariots of the Gods and also watched the documentary. Compelling stuff but you make some good points and of course, these ideas have been discredited. Never thought of the racist angle, but it makes sense.
ReplyDeleteGreat research! I love how many theories are there about aliens building pyramids and creating the ancient civilizations! looking forward to reading all your posts!
ReplyDelete