The Scorn: Part I

The Scorn:


The Scorn are humanoid aliens with several settlements on The metal Earth in the vicinity of the Burning Peaks. How long they have been on Earth is unknown as are their ultimate aims.
The Scorn are masters of Technology. They posses a full gamut of high tech items including a fleet of space worthy flying saucers.

Although they are apparently mammals the Scorn have distinct physical types associated with the types of work they do, not unlike insect castes. The Scorn come in four basic types or castes: Leader, Technician, Warrior and Drone. Of these types only the Leader and the Technician castes have sexual differentiation. Individuals of the Drone and Warrior castes are sexless brutes. Their is a fifth type of Scorn, the Imperial, of which only two adult individuals exist for each major settlement at one time.

Scorn children, known as waifs, and borne only by females of the Leader and Technical castes, effectively comprise another caste. Raised in creches by Drones, waifs nearly always grow into adult Drones, unless, however, some catastrophe has thinned the ranks of the upper casts; in which case, they will grow in such a way as to fill the gaps. In the normal course of things, birthrates are low, and Drones will actually change to fill any gaps in the Warrior class, Warriors will mutate to fill gaps in the Technician castes, and Technicians will transform into leaders. It is the task of the Imperials to decide which individuals are worthy for the transformation; these decisions are as a rule, based upon merit, but favoritism can play a role. If one of the Imperial pair dies, the surviving Imperial chooses their new mate. If both Imperials perish, their replacements are determined by a series of trials involving all members of the Leader caste.
However, death is not the end for members of the Imperial caste. If it is possible their brains are preserved in a huge tank with all those that have come before them. This tank acts as sort of living computer, known as The Collective. The collective rules over all the various Scorn settlements on a given world. It also what the Scorn consider the afterlife and the highest reward one can earn.