Emperor's Benediction: A 40k-Trek Crosssover

[PaperJack]

Aren't the Eldar pretty obviously alien physiologically despite their humanoid appearance? I seem to remember there being some old fluff about a human-Eldar hybrid but I also remember NecronLord posting some stuff about Eldar having a seriously alien internal physiology.

the space marine librarian human-eldar is OLD and has since been retconned because it wasn't grim and dark enought.
Eldar have a radically different physiology, and so do the tau.
For all we know, all the Star Trek aliens are similar on the outside, but very different inside.

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

Aren't the Eldar pretty obviously alien physiologically despite their humanoid appearance? I seem to remember there being some old fluff about a human-Eldar hybrid but I also remember NecronLord posting some stuff about Eldar having a seriously alien internal physiology.

the space marine librarian human-eldar is OLD and has since been retconned because it wasn't grim and dark enought.
Eldar have a radically different physiology, and so do the tau.
For all we know, all the Star Trek aliens are similar on the outside, but very different inside.

Except that they can't be that different, because most of them interbreed just fine.

[Junghalli]

Aren't the Eldar pretty obviously alien physiologically despite their humanoid appearance? I seem to remember there being some old fluff about a human-Eldar hybrid but I also remember NecronLord posting some stuff about Eldar having a seriously alien internal physiology.

the space marine librarian human-eldar is OLD and has since been retconned because it wasn't grim and dark enought.
Eldar have a radically different physiology, and so do the tau.
For all we know, all the Star Trek aliens are similar on the outside, but very different inside.

Except that they can't be that different, because most of them interbreed just fine.

Beat me to it. Humans probably can't even breed with chimps, no way we could breed with something that was radically alien on the inside.

[ChrisWWII]

On a quick subnote, cause I'm heading out for the day soon and can't write a full response....even if we assume that Trek aliens have the same evolutionary origins as humans, and can interbreed you have to note that the Imperials don't know that. In fact, they didn't even realize Troi was alien. They were freaked out by her, yes, but they didn't think 'foul xenos!'. So, until our little battlefleet decides to stop and think about what its doing, we can be reasonably sure they will stay on the 'purge the xenos!' route.

[Junghalli]

On a quick subnote, cause I'm heading out for the day soon and can't write a full response....even if we assume that Trek aliens have the same evolutionary origins as humans, and can interbreed you have to note that the Imperials don't know that. In fact, they didn't even realize Troi was alien. They were freaked out by her, yes, but they didn't think 'foul xenos!'. So, until our little battlefleet decides to stop and think about what its doing, we can be reasonably sure they will stay on the 'purge the xenos!' route.

Them being ignorant of the similarity of Romulans to humans would be a little hard for me to swallow honestly. You would think they would have examined and dissected some Romulans at some point, simply to evaluate their biological capabilities if nothing else. The weird organ structure (apparently Vulcans have hearts in the abdomen as I remember) and copper substituted for iron in hemoglobin might have fooled a casual examination but broad physiological similarities should quickly become obvious to any proper detailed examination, and a DNA test would have shown them to be closely related to us (and maybe even allowed them to take a stab at when the two species diverged based on mitochondrial dating).

[MysteriousDarkLordv3]

It just occured to me ...

The Federation has a lot of humanoid races that (whether by genegineering or "parallel evolution" voodoo) interbreed with humans and each other.

The Imperium has humans. That's it.

If they exist in the same reality, then where did all the humanoids go? The obvious answer is that they interbred over the millennia into a homogenous race.

So the Imperium's "humans" are nothing of the sort. They are a mongrel race composed of the genetic material of hundreds of near-human races.

So the Imperials attacking Picard are, by their own lights, abhumans and mutants threatening Picard and the other Earthborn pure humans.

[DKeith2011]

Now that's an interesting thought.

Wouldn't that concept just set some Impy heads asploding?

[PaperJack]

It just occured to me ...
If they exist in the same reality, then where did all the humanoids go?

Ever heard of the Great Crusade ?

[Junghalli]

It just occured to me ...

The Federation has a lot of humanoid races that (whether by genegineering or "parallel evolution" voodoo) interbreed with humans and each other.

The Imperium has humans. That's it.

If they exist in the same reality, then where did all the humanoids go? The obvious answer is that they interbred over the millennia into a homogenous race.

So the Imperium's "humans" are nothing of the sort. They are a mongrel race composed of the genetic material of hundreds of near-human races.

So the Imperials attacking Picard are, by their own lights, abhumans and mutants threatening Picard and the other Earthborn pure humans.

That thought had occured to me too. In fact it gets better when one considers the possibility that traces of the original DNA of the planetary populations may still be detectable in the 40th millenium. Now say some biologist looking at Romulan DNA thinks to compare it to the 40th millenium population of that planet, and finds that a number of unique genetic markers in that population are also found in Romulans. Even better, the 40th millenium population has some recognizably Romulan mitochondria and Y chromosomes floating around in it (albeit perhaps distorted by 40K years of genetic drift). Perhaps he would also find some recognizable traces of Romulan traits in things like skull shape and the like in the 40th millenium population.

Now imagine he has to present that report to his superior. Even better the superior is from that planet, and his genome was part of the comparison, and it has Romulan DNA in it. Oh would that be entertaining to watch.

This idea must be used. The irony is far too delicious to pass up.

Ever heard of the Great Crusade ?

Which would have been preceeded by 30,000 years of the various spacefaring humanoid races intermixing and interbreeding. Either way, I'd be very surprised if the Imperium's population is not contaminated with massive amounts of filthy xeno DNA.

It gets better when you consider all those planets of the week in TOS that were populated by people who looked just like humans. It's highly likely the Imperium would have incorporated a lot of them without it even occuring to them that they might be "aliens".

[ChrisWWII]

Junghalli: Thing is, the Imperials have only done a cursory medical examination. The medical personnel they have are mainly combat medics and doctors, and have been focusing more on how to treat distruptor wounds and the like. They're not an explorator fleet, and as such don't carry the people or resources for thorough xenia examination. if anything, they've done a cursoryexamination only. Additionally, the Techpriests they do carry are also not from the biological division of ad mech. Just FYI.

Additionally, I really like that genetic similarity idea, but taking it rings too much of stealing others ideas...May I steal it and credit appropriately?

[Junghalli]

Additionally, I really like that genetic similarity idea, but taking it rings too much of stealing others ideas...May I steal it and credit appropriately?

I have no objection, go right ahead.

[Eternal_Freedom]

This is gonna be good. The General slaughters his own ancestral race. Hmmm. I smell a paradox approaching.

[MysteriousDarkLordv3]

Sounds good to me.

[StrikaAmaru]

This is gonna be good. The General slaughters his own ancestral race. Hmmm. I smell a paradox approaching.

It just occured to me ...
The Federation has a lot of humanoid races that (whether by genegineering or "parallel evolution" voodoo) interbreed with humans and each other.
The Imperium has humans. That's it.
If they exist in the same reality, then where did all the humanoids go? The obvious answer is that they interbred over the millennia into a homogenous race.
So the Imperium's "humans" are nothing of the sort. They are a mongrel race composed of the genetic material of hundreds of near-human races.
So the Imperials attacking Picard are, by their own lights, abhumans and mutants threatening Picard and the other Earthborn pure humans.

... that is a terrifying idea, and so painfully delicious. Why didn't I think of it? The best I came up with was "nutcases destroy current pseudo-human races, and throw Humanity into a new Dark Age; nobody cares, since it's either a parallel universe, or a stable time-loop", but this is so much better.
EDIT: well, it's worse, but better story-wise... screw it, you know what I mean.