Andromeda: Cultures: Nietzcheans

Tyr Anasazi is the most obvious example of a Nietzschean and our first impression of him in the opening episode was of a geezer who looked menacing, could be VERY aggressive… erm.. but not much else. As the series developed, he was seen to be a total git! Self conscious, arrogant, and a complete jerk (with everyone except other Nietzschean’s).

…. but Nietzscheans are cool! (erm… tell every one of them that I said that ok!) They are a genetically engineered subspecies of humanity created by a biologist committed to social Darwinism and the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.

They evolved through cloning from an isolated space colony to be a major force in the Commonwealth. They are ruthless, but it would be wrong to make them out as the baddies – at least not always.

If you were to meet a Nietzschean in a pub you would either be chatting-one-up (or being chatted-up) or being beaten up by one of them (because they fancied your partner – or simply looked on you as competition).

Nietzschean physiology is very, very cool! (… women glow and men thunder, that sort of thing). The geezers tend to be built like brick toilets and the women are all attractive (even the older ones) and not at all worried about sharing their husband with other women – in fact it is normal for a Nietzschean to have many wives.

Nietzscheans can breathe poison gas or water, they are very strong, they are aggressive and trained to be almost impossible to beat in hand to hand combat. But most menacingly of all, they have bony spurs at the base of their wrists which extend when they fight. These spurs can inflict serious amounts of damage to their opponent.

Nietzschean’s most important goal in life is to raise perfect little Nietzschean’s. It’s a very lordable goal, but they seem to take their heritage waaaay too seriously. Family (or more importantly, Pride) is all important and probably the worst thing in life for a Nietzschean is to be alone, wifeless and without a family. This almost NEVER happens.

Each Pride has a name (such as Orka, or Tyr’s Pride, Codiac), and is always lead by an Alpha. The Alpha is the most successful male of the Pride and as such, has his choice of the most suitable women. It’s not unusual for a Nietzschean Alpha male to have more than 10 wives and father more than 20 children. Listening to each other’s lineage is an important part of introducing oneself in Nietzschean society

They are most noted for being responsible for the Time Slide that caused the Andromeda to be caught in the event horizon of the Black hole in Episode one AND as the race that started the war against the Commonwealth.

They of course, would tell you that they had good reason. The Commonwealth were behaving like complete wimps in allowing the Magog to become members. The Magog are/were a race of murderous raping carnivores that would eat you if they were hungry, rape (or sew their spawn in your still warm body) if they were erm.. inclined or basically rip your head off and spit in the hole rather than let you in front of them in the queue at the supermarket.

They Had To Go! and the Commonwealth was seen as an obstacle rather than an allie…. they had to go too.

The great war started when the Nietzschean armada attacked one of the key battleships of the Commonwealth, the Andromeda Ascendant (Captained by Dylan Hunt). It was a surprise attack and he was quickly overwhelmed. He managed to issue a command for his crew to abandon ship, but he stayed on board and inadvertently caused the ship to beach on an even horizon of a local Black Hole (nice trick if you can do it).

The Nietzschean’s then went off to fight a bloody and costly war against the Commonwealth. They had plotted and schemed years before and were more than able to take them on. Nietzscheans are loyal to their respective families (called Prides) and had already infiltrated many areas of Commonwealth Society. But despite their organised offensive and the surprise that the Commonwealth suffered, their victory was not complete. In fact, the last battle (though won) was an unmitigated disaster.

The last great battle of the war was fought at a Nebula called WhitchHead. The remnants of the High Guard Fleet (approximately 100 ships) were due to be ambushed by a Nietzschean Armada of 1500 ships. The Nietzscheans expected a total victory and as a result, outright control of the Systems Commonwealth (and all the spoils of war that would bring).

Unfortunately for them, the Andromeda Ascendant returned (300 years too late) to change things – confused, you will be! – The Andromeda and it’s crew managed to accidentally jump back 300 years to just before the great battle and Harper was able to fabricate an awesome weapon that would ignite part of the nebula and destroy 1000 of the Nietzschean ships.

The Andromeda departed before the battle commenced (they sort of ran out of time) and eventually the High Guard forces were completely destroyed, but not before they had inflicted heavy casualties on the Nietzschean fleet, particularly on the ships of the ruling Drago Katsoff Pride who were left vulnerable.  The Jaguar Pride and their allies launched a surprise attack on their leaders in a late coupe and the ensuing civil war shattered the entire Nietzschean alliance.

As a result the Nietzschean’s weren’t strong enough to take over after the war and all hope for a United Nietzschean Alliance after the war was lost.

Since the war things settled a little, the Nietzscheans managed to infiltrate many areas of society in the many worlds left in chaos after the fall of the Commonwealth.

They didn’t enter into any alliances and fought either themselves or other races. There isn’t a single ruling Pride as yet, but it’s safe to say that there are a number of contenders.

Robert Hewitt Wolfe believes that we shouldn’t view Nietzscheans as war mongering thugs (much as I’d like to portray them as such) … actually gave a pretty good description of them…

He compared the “ideal day” of a Klingon and a Nietzschean: “… while the Klingon’s ideal day would be to kiss his wife good-bye, find his mortal enemy, and die in glorious combat, killing his enemy with his dying breath.”

“The Nietzschean’s ideal day would be a little different: have sex with his wife (the Nietzcheans are dedicated to procreation), go to his enemy’s house, get invited in (because the enemy has no clue that he is in fact an enemy), slip the enemy an untraceable but lethal neurotoxin, go home, have sex with his other wives, and live a long, full life, fathering as many children as possible and carrying the secret of his enemy’s murder to his grave.”

“Still, the Nietzscheans are a reliable ally, if they feel that their best chance of survival and success is with you; and the Nietzscheans WERE allies of the Commonwealth before the Andromeda Ascendant fell out of time, and a Nietzschean was Dylan Hunt’s first officer; but with the restraining influence of Commonwealth gone, they are a much more sinister culture.”

The “Nietzscheans” Culture Review is © 2000 Tony Fawl.
Not for reproduction without the authors express permission

The names, characters and everything else associated with Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda TV series are the property of the Tribune Entertainment Company. All rights reserved.

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