Farscape: Cultures: Sebaceans

Sebaceans have a physical appearance practically identical to humans (presumably you shouldn’t need a guide to them), yet are in almost every other way totally different.  A large part of the Sebacean people form the Peacekeepers – the crew of Moya’s most dangerous enemy.  Moya herself is a Leviathon, and was once a Peacekeeper transport – forced to wear a Control Collar which…well, controlled her, restricting her movements so she could not escape – it didn’t quite work though, Moya escaped at the beginning of ‘Premiere’.

Known weaknesses are…well, few and far between.  They have a massive intolerance for heat – it has this nasty habit of killing them.  When exposed to heat for too long, they develop Sebacean Heat Delirium – they get irritable, run a fever, then short and eventually long term memory goes, then they enter the Living Death – the only time Sebaceans ever kill their own out of mercy.  Real nice don’t you think?

Crichton & Crais - Face off

Face to Face with a Peacekeeper. Crichton and the Sabacean, Crais

The Peacekeepers are basically one huge army, convinced, as are most Sebaceans, that they are the superior race in the universe, and they use their impressive firepower and technology to enforce this.  From birth it is instilled in Sebaceans to keep the bloodlines pure – any half Sebacean is treated even worse than someone who just isn’t Sebacean.  D’Argos’s son is half Luxan (D’Argo’s race), and half Sebacean.  It is for this reason that D’Argo’s wife was killed by her own brother, a Peacekeeper, and D’Argo is now wanted for her murder.  The only apparent exception to this rule is Scorpius – half Sebacean, half Scarren, he is known and feared throughout the Peacekeeper ranks, and is John Crichton’s greatest enemy.  Scorpious is constantly torn between his Scarren side, which craves heat, and his Sebacean side, which is destroyed by it.

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Tip

Don’t invite your new Sebacean partner to a sauna

Peacekeepers consist of the highly trained soldiers – our very own Aeryn Sun belonged to this group (she was a fighter pilot and flew prowlers), and the techs – they basically fix anything that needs fixing and are treated as lower life forms by other peacekeepers (Gilina from ‘PK tech girl’ and the ‘Nerve’/‘Hidden memory’ Season 1 finale was one of these).  Most Peacekeepers are born on a Command Carrier (think really big ships with enough firepower to blow up practically anything), and never leave until they have grown up, finished Peacekeeper training, which usually begins in the early teens, and are sent on their first mission.

Not all Sebaceans are Peacekeepers, though.  There are many Sebacean colonies on various worlds, which are generally peaceful, but children, for example our favourite Captain Crais and his brother, are drafted into the Peacekeepers.  There are also ‘rogue colonies’ – people who did not believe in the warlike manner of the other Sebaceans, and basically ran off to the Unchartered Territories and mostly were never heard of again.  The three part ‘Looking at the Princess’ took place on a planet colonised by one of these groups of Sebaceans – Aeryn comments that it’s the only one she’s ever heard of that survived.

Race Rating – Sebaceans
Personality 1 (rancid butter) – 5 (cool dude) 3
Attractiveness 1 (requires paper bag) – 5 (Drop-dead-gorgeous) 4
Humour 1 (stomach-turning) – 5 (sidesplitting) 2
Dress Sense 1 (laughable) – 5 (hip) 4
Aggression 1 (big/little softy) – 5 (hard as nails) 4
Social Standing 1 (scumbag) – 5 (god) 2

SadGeezer Race Rating (out of 30) = 20           

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he Sebacean Culture review is ©2001, Jenni.
Not for reproduction without the authors express permission

The FARSCAPE names, characters and everything else associated with the series are the property of The Jim Henson Company, Hallmark Entertainment, Nine Network, and in association with The Sci-Fi Channel and the BBC.

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