djamelameziane
MemberFacehuggerOct-22-2013 3:56 PMI always thought the space jockey had stored them down there and the lazer mist was a way of knowing if any face huggers decided to hatch. But now prometheus is here and the engineers dont look quite like the SJ and other things its all got a bit messy but still think it was the engineers or SJ if they are the same thing.
"It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D
oduodu
MemberXenomorphOct-22-2013 4:04 PMFrom spaihts draft it seems that the engineers weaponised the original squid like facehuggers that grew in musculoids in holes in the rock. Maybe they altered the dna then cloned them and alloed them to grow in the stasis fields ???
Necronom 4
MemberNeomorphOct-22-2013 5:39 PM@Djamelameziane and Oduodu; I suppose what i'm asking here is;
What explanation do YOU prefer? If they make a Prometheus sequel, that explains the origin of the eggs, which one would you prefer to see? Or should it be kept a mystery?
The poster was good though!
Anunnaki50
MemberOvomorphOct-22-2013 5:52 PMI think the eggs are basically manufactured by some dna-engineering process like how a factory makes guns and other weapons. Remember the pseudo-prego bellies in the hull of the ship?...I think thats where they are manufactured and the blue lazer is just a way to detect if the eggs have been disturbed or moved. I do not believe that a Queen came in and layed all of those eggs because to me it looks as if they were placed there on purpose. I just do know if the Space Jockey was the only one on the ship or if they were all killed...
The Anunnaki were on the earth in those days--and also afterward--when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, mighty men of high reno
Necronom 4
MemberNeomorphOct-22-2013 6:26 PMHello Anunnaki; Great theory. I think the pseudo-prego bellies only exist in the Giger paintings, not in the actual film. However, just because they kept them out of the film, it doesn't necasserily mean that they are not in the derelict. So it could be possible.
The poster was good though!
Anunnaki50
MemberOvomorphOct-22-2013 9:56 PMI hope that Ridley brings them back for Paradise when I saw the Giger painting I thought man thats weird and cool all at the same time. Maybe they have an older ship model that does have those but I didnt see them in the movie but they are cool looking.
The Anunnaki were on the earth in those days--and also afterward--when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, mighty men of high reno
oduodu
MemberXenomorphOct-23-2013 1:26 AMNecro
I don't want to see a queen in p2. Then rather hammerpedes causing egg morphing .
pulserifle187
MemberOvomorphOct-23-2013 6:02 AMThe eggs where people from a planet (like earth). Their home world was destroyed by the alien creature. The alien then died off leaving the eggs unguarded. The engineers used some sort of device to harvest the eggs from the 'hives'. The eggs were then loaded on to the derelict and transported to a place for further processing ( to extract the DNA) . But during the transportation a egg hatched and killed the spacejockey.
Thats my 2 cents.............LONG LIVE THE TRANSFORMATION METHOD!!!
"how do you feel?"-" great, next stupid question"
Necronom 4
MemberNeomorphOct-23-2013 6:21 AM@Anu and Odu, I agree. @Pulse; "LONG LIVE THE TRANSFORMATION METHOD!!!" Defo!
I always wondered what the rest of the egg silo looked like. It would be great to see in a sequel! Maybe there are murals down there that explains the origin of the eggs?
Also, I always thought that the silo was too big to be the hull of the derelict. I had an idea that it might be a underground storage facility, or maybe, some kind of container, like when the big Chinook helicopters carry those big metal containers.
The poster was good though!
Gimm-e
MemberOvomorphOct-23-2013 6:32 AMI don't think a queen laid those eggs there; it looks too 'organised'. I always thought that they held a queen as a prisoner as the predators did in avp, and that the SJs carried the eggs aboard of their ship.... then they put the protective mist over it that regulates temperature and moisture and of course...detects motion. just my 2 cents.
You don\\\'t see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage!
cuponator3000
MemberChestbursterOct-23-2013 9:20 AMYeah i think that the engineers found the eggs on, maybe the Xeno home world, or wherever they found a hive and took the eggs. It doesn't seem likely that a queen laid these ones
BigDave
MemberDeaconOct-23-2013 9:35 AM@pulserifle187
That is the same theory that snorklebottom had on here....
Indeed the Egg Morph method to then obtain DNA via a Harvest could sound a plausble explanation.... provided we eleminate Aliens onwards.
As the Alien DC is plausble as we dont fully get to see how fast this organism can spread and procreate we do not know if the Egg Morph would hatch if their was no Host near it, so they could be collected somehow, and then some how broken down via Sacreficial Goo to Harvest the DNA....
But then this process is a bit risky, and i am sure such a advanced race as the Engineers could find other ways of obtaining DNA. The Sacreficial Engineers body provided all the genetic material to kick start advanced life/evulution on Earth.
Surely they could have visited us in the past and taught us stuff and in return taken with them Humans, that they then can extract there DNA from by other means.
And when we add Aliens to the Canon then a Queen that can lay Eggs and how the Xeno acted and procreated would provide a unknown number of Eggs, and we do know from Alien and Aliens etc how Hostile the Xeno Egg is..
Just as Kain and the Space Jockey lol.
@Necronom 4
Good point about the Derelict and i made the same on here a long time ago with regards to the size of the Derelict and the cargo Hold beneath compared to lack of space seen under a Juggernaught and i made a reference to Thunderbird 2.
Similar to your Helecoptor theory.
I also said that you have many uses for a 747 Plane, be that passenger, radar or Cargo plane...
And whats to say a Juggernaught can not be modified, it could made more sense that the craft can have a attachment underneath that is a Cargo of Eggs and the Ship just lands somewhere and loses the whole Cargo Hold containing Eggs.
[img]http://www.keithmcneill.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/TB2%20hangar.jpg[/img]
Pretty much like Thunderbird 2 image above...
You see if the ship is a Bomber and drops Eggs we know the Eggs are Organic and how can they survive being dropped from a height?
Where as the Goo in canisters is different it would not get destroyed from being dropped the Urns would smash and the substance would contaminate the Water and Food supplies. etc etc.
R.I.P Sox 01/01/2006 - 11/10/2017
BigDave
MemberDeaconOct-23-2013 9:53 AMNow back to the actual Topic...
You see it depends what we use as proof to what is most likely outcome...
By that do we use Canon only.... by that i mean maybe Movie Franchise so exclude Video Games, Comics and AVP etc etc.
Then if by movies do we only include the theatrical releases etc...
Because looking at the movies in full cuts or using deleted scenes adds to ambiguity and basically allows for many other explanations and theories....
When trying to connect the dots, you can draw a much different conclusion with Alien DC and unused Prometheus extra scenes and ones we not shown.
Further more to add to the debate...
What if we added concept work for the movies, that was not used or changed for example Fifield had various looks, some more Alien than others and we ended up with a Fifield that had little Xeno connection compared to 3 others that was way too much connection.
Then do we use drafts?
Because again while Lindeloffs (dont mean draft 17 that may be fake) while his final draft is pretty close to the movie, well if we inc the deleted scenes.
Do we take the draft that was edit from... i.e original idea and i mean Spaights, because Spaights draft then draws and gives more clues to whats going on and connections than being Ambiguous.
Likewise with Alien, if we take the Dan Obannon Star Beast then this also is far less Ambiguous than Alien.
Then we have Giger.... and his concepts made for Alien again they add stuff and i think that STAR BEAST.... and GIGER CONCEPT work if we used them as basis for conclusion they give us the clearest answers....
But do we ignore those...
so before we can get a real answer we need to know what we can use or throw out when research for our answers.
The only real answers would be how the franchise chooses to cover the subject... And then its a BIG IF they even explain the origins, they may hint at it like Prometheus has but then leave more questions than answers again like Prometheus.
Also replied today about the evolution of the Deacon in two post and how i think maybe it could change the whole Procreation of this new species.
Maybe some of them ideas could not be far off what originally occurred.
R.I.P Sox 01/01/2006 - 11/10/2017
BigDave
MemberDeaconOct-23-2013 10:20 AMAnyway i am going to go answers some stuff....
I cant say where and how the Xeno came about.... only that if i use Gigers Mural for Prometheus it gives us a clue to something more connected to Star Beast inc ritual purpose of the movie, where Star Beast and Giger Xeno Life Cycle seemed to indicate in the race that we now know as Engineers Ritually Sacrificed themselves to produce Xenos...
Did they create us, because there numbers was small and so why Sacrefice themselves when they could create a race in their image to become the Sacrefice...
Star Beast showed us these Engineers well the beings in Star Beast did not create the Xeno, they came across some ancient organism and due to the nature of its life cycle for some reason they worshiped this cycle and they used the temple they found to perform sacrificed to the organism..
Why? we never know...
These beings then was trying to carry the leathery urns to their ship when they got infected by the Octpoid Face Hugers.
Now Prometheus Mural again shows some Ritual significance to the Deacon/Xeno Organism in the Mural, and we see what looks like a cross between a Face Huger and Shaws Baby that is Face Hugging a Engineer, this appears twice as mirrored image.
This looks like Shaws baby when it was young but also like a Face Huger but the fully grown Shaws Baby Trillobite actually looked identical to Main Mural Image of the Organism in the Temple of Star Beast yet the end result in Star Beast is described different to what is seen in the Mural.
Likewise the Deacon in the Mural looks different to Xeno and more like the Deacon at the end of the movie.
Now we cant use Star Beast as Canon, but even so Prometheus either shows us a depiction of events to come... i.e prophecy.
Or its shows us events from a past that these Engineers worshiped for some reason, if thats the case then we have to ask does it show the Deacon as the end and desired result? does it show they either Worshiped something that one time came from a Engineer who got Face Hugged by some Face Hugger/Squid like creature.
Or is the Deacon the Ancestor of these creatures... we cant be sure but i would say the prior.
This is just a stab at how and why the connection to the Xeno and Engineer and their ancestors...
Now if we move on and look at the Derelict and Eggs, and for this we can take Aliens as Canon and i dont mean the Queen although i am not throwing it out as i do like the Queen...
What i means is watch how Xenos acted in Aliens, they was controlled by the Queen, by some kind of Hive Telepathy, basically the Queen may be able to remote control and give orders to the drones...
Back to Prometheus the one Fresco that we never saw fully as it was part breaking down... but images are around of the full image and it shows a traditional Xeno hand... (not Deacon) holding a tradition Xeno Egg...
There is your answer..... A Xeno can carry a Egg maybe without setting them off....
How did Engineers get Eggs into Cargo Hold? Maybe they somehow could control the Xenos to get them to carry and load the Eggs...
But they can not control Face Hugers....
And on LV 223 it was a outbreak of the stuff in the Urns and not Eggs that got to those Engineers, so maybe they experimented with the Xeno Genome and Eggs to create the Goo as a safer way to store and transport as they had difficulty transporting Xeno Eggs by Hand or they had to use Xenos to do that, and for some reason they had a way to manipulate and control the Xeno but could at times lose control.
Hense re weaponized Goo but as the found out, spill that stuff and you in a pile of poop..
For the above i never used some stuff to base it off, such as Star Beast and others.. or never mind Gigers concept which clearly showed the Derelict/Juggernaut i.e Space Jockey Craft was actually more Biological than we know and it actually was a flying Egg Making Facility.
As far as the Hammerpede goes, well yes laying Eggs could be a good idea, and we dont see what became of Milburns body so we could assume that Eggs are laid inside that will feed on Milburn when Hatch.
I would knot now how such Eggs could evolve to grow large that way, only if they are laid on the floor and maybe the goo mutates them, but we have to assume once the substance as mixed what ever DNA it carries with a Organism that Organism while it can Evolve it cant be radically mutated twice...
But then thats not to say it could happen...
Also as far as using the Hammerpede or Deacon to be a progenitor to the Xeno, i think clues and comments around suggest the Xeno Eggs on LV 426 had been around at least thousands of years before the events of Prometheus.
R.I.P Sox 01/01/2006 - 11/10/2017
djamelameziane
MemberFacehuggerOct-23-2013 11:15 AMIve always liked the idea that the aliens come from a harsh world and are basically way way more evolved in the defence / dna type way not the technological way. unfortunately Prometheus changes all that so I guess I would like to see maybe the black goo coming from a demi god type thing and all the off shoots - i.e. xenos have the strength but not the intelligence of the original thing that the goo comes from and we get to see this demi god thing in the next one or at least parts of it then see it in the last one. So this means it wouldn't matter about not seeing what the alien silo was about but if it was in the next one it could be used with recordings of engineers and maybe an elder (want the elder to be the SJ so they look more similar) like in prometheus to help explain a bit about what was being done there and throughout the engineer empire. In this case I would have the eggs being put there by engineers and in other parts of that place being studied and experimented on - they were trying to work out the black goo - it had the answers to the origins of life and god or something extremely important to them or so they thought...
"It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D
BigDave
MemberDeaconOct-23-2013 11:32 AMWell Ridley did say he would like to maybe do a Alien 5 after he has finished with Prometheus franchise....
This tells me we will not get many Xeno Answers in Paradise... Ridley did say he deleted Engineer Elders scene as they did not look as awe inspiring to him and the Engineer scenes was cut down as they wanted to portray them as just aggressive £!$"$!
This to me says they are redesign the Elders, and that they wanted to take away some of the emotion seen in the Engineers so all we get is just well aggressive beings towards us..
Where as the deleted scenes show a sense of bewilderment, emotion and intrigue on the part of the Engineer and he actually conducted a conversation as opposed to just go Postal, and also the way he looked at Shaw and the Violin Girl in deleted scenes.
Ridley said the cut we saw is the Final Cut and Only and there would be no more, this means he does not want to consider the deleted scenes as Canon to Paradise..
Why delete them...
1) Maybe the Elders looked to frail and they never seems as physically impressive in size compared to sacrificial Engineer.
The Engineers never fooled us and we could all see they was not over 10ft tall which means Elders would be smaller, and what of the 15ft Space Jockey then?
2) Removing of the Last Engineer extended scenes and replaceing one shows him to be basically a Grunt, Performing a task and having hatred towards us.
Gives the impression they are not the ones in control.
To me this hints they may redesign the Elders to be more awe inspiring and that Engineers are merely a servant class of workers created by the Elders to perform tasks.
So there is hope for a 12ft+ race in Paradise...
Also when Ridley said Alien 5 he said he would like to had explored the Alien Homeworld and what a dark place that would be.
So this indeed could hint the Xeno are not created by the Engineers at all.
R.I.P Sox 01/01/2006 - 11/10/2017
pulserifle187
MemberOvomorphOct-24-2013 5:10 AMTa for the defo.
Yes the DNA harvest idea did originante from snorkelbottom. I think its probably one of the best idea for the purpose of the xeno. I don't really like the idea of it being an animal or species. The queen for me is too much of a 'expected idea'.
With the rate of growth of the xeno, I think its life span will be pretty short. Perhaps maybe if it hibernated or just lay dormit, it could possibilitly last longer. After the xeno has consumed all of the 'resources, I think they just die off. Leaving the eggs with the stored DNA unattented.
Once the eggs have been collected, the engineers use another compound to render the harmless, neutralised if you will. From disection DNA is removed from facehuggers.
"how do you feel?"-" great, next stupid question"
meshuggah
MemberOvomorphOct-24-2013 10:16 AMAs far as the film's relationship to A L I E N is concerned, there are two 'tracks' in the film according to Lindelof. Track 1 are the worms.
Remember these worms are the ONLY 'terrestrial' organisms we see in the film, indeed, worms that are native to a hostile environment of frequent silica storms. Any native organism would have to be a tough son of a bitch, a survivor. In A L I E N, Ash establishes that the facehugger replaces its cells with polarized silicon - silicon is derived from silica - giving it prolonged resistance to [i]hostile conditions[/i]. Hmmm, track 1 seems to be shaping up rather well as far as connecting to the classic xenomorph. What is more, classic xenos are worm-like at their larval stage and shed skin like worms...Notice how the Deacon, which was derived from a human mode of reproduction, featured no worm-like traits such as a tail and was born attached to a pulsating placenta?
Ridley suggested the insectoid-like nature of the alien in the past, going as far as calling it a hermaphrodite. Worms are hermaphrodites and egg layers, thus it is easy for one to go down a path as far as the worms are concerned, even right down to explaining how a Queen inherited the capability of laying eggs.
Quite simply, the engineers experimented on the worms with the mutagen eventually leading to what we know as the classic facehugger. Since the engineers seed numerous worlds it makes sense that they would first experiment on primordial creatures such as worms, which are among nature's most resilient survivors.
During transit an outbreak occurred.
djamelameziane
MemberFacehuggerOct-24-2013 10:45 AMI remember people talking about the DNA harvest before snorkel correlated it in a big thread...
I think the hammerpeade will possibly merge with the deacon some how - a rape or something to give us something more like the alien we see in alien. Maybe thats how the tongue comes about - symbiotically ?
The origin of the xeno I bet will be no race or creature like we have ever seen there will be only one of them and it will be the demi-god like thing that ridley has talked about - I reckon and the black goo is from it / part of it.
Yes the elders were awful thank god they took that out - they need to awe inspiring and much more evolved than the engineers.
And yes the inspiration was insects deep sea fish nature etc etc married with phallic objects and mech etc.. - basically all stuff we fear or was good for the design to imply things to us (so we can relate to it) - it doesn't mean it has anything to do with what the alien is in the end its supposed to be unlike anything we have ever seen - alien you could say :P !
"It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D
meshuggah
MemberOvomorphOct-25-2013 12:40 AMI just think there is a tremendous amount of evidence in regard to the worms being the missing link in regard to the reproductive traits and features of the classic xeno life-cycle. And as a terrestrial organism native to an adverse environment of frequent silica storms, this gives me reason enough to infer that the engineers did experiment on them in creating bio-weapons. Since Lindelof has stated that there are two tracks and that he's stated that there is human DNA in what we know as the 'human' xenomorph, ala, the Deacon, implies that there is worm DNA in what we know as the classic xeno. It doesn't make it any less alien; the black goo just exploits the reproductive capabilities of what ever organism it touches.
meshuggah
MemberOvomorphOct-25-2013 12:54 AMThe Deacon clearly could not have inherited the capability of egg laying from human beings, some other creature is responsible for that and as the only hermaphroditic creatures in the film, I think it is safe to say that the worms are enough of a clue to lead one down a path.
BigDave
MemberDeaconOct-25-2013 6:03 AMWell my basis for that idea, is well the Goo if it was derived from something connected to the Xeno, we do not know how this could affect a Organisms Reproductive System. And hints are the Engineers have no Sex.
So it does not have to conclude that it would be impossible for the Deacon to be able to procreate by producing Embryos and as its part Human it could be female, but the Xeno DNA could allow the Eggs to become Xeno Embryos well the Embryo similar to what Shaws Baby implanted into the Deacon.
As far as Prometheus and Alien connection goes again here is where Lindeloff and Ridley contradict each other a lot...
Lindeloff does hint that the Xeno origins could have something to do with Prometheus, yes the Worms could be a good explanation and the Silica etc..
Lindeloff also said that he always thought the Original Xeno had Human DNA, well something about connection to Human. Now we all know the Alien and Aliens Xenos had Human DNA maybe because the Face Hugger Embryo takes on traits of its Host, thus Alien 3 would have Dog/Bull DNA etc.
But Lindeloff i think is hinting in the Origins containing Human DNA and thus not a case of a Xeno has Human DNA because it gestated inside Human Host.
So yes it could hint to some connection to the Deacon and Hammerpede...
But then Lindeloffs explanations to most things he works on simply defy what we see on screen and make no sense at all.....
In this case things could make sense yes!
However the movie has a Fresco of the Traditional Xeno holding Traditional Egg, and a Mural of the Deacon and Engineer being Face Hugged by some Face Huger that is not like the traditional one, but also not like Shaws Baby....
But these dont have to mean the Xeno was around in past, it could be a prophecy a depiction of things to come.
Now Ridley has made comments that appear to lead us down the path the Xeno is much older than Prometheus, he said the Derelict had landed on LV 426 with its Cargo around a few hundred years of the events of the LV 223 Outbreak thus what 1800-2200 years ago?
He also suggested the Xeno Organism as Ancient, and one of his latest interviews he hinted he would like to had done a Alien 5 and he would have set it on the Xeno Home world...
Ridleys comments to me suggest the Xeno is old very old, and he even went on to say the Deacon was a Evolution.
So thats where confusion occurs as Ridley and Lindeloff dont seem to be on the same page as in there explanations.
Spaights however implies the Xeno or its ancestor is a Organism the Engineers came across and that they then dried to reproduce and Re-Engineer it in many forms as a Bio Weapon.
R.I.P Sox 01/01/2006 - 11/10/2017
Necronom 4
MemberNeomorphOct-25-2013 6:43 AM@BigDave; I agree with you about the contradictions! Very confusing!
The poster was good though!
djamelameziane
MemberFacehuggerOct-25-2013 7:33 AMYes it is all over the place too many creators taking it in different directions. This is what disappointed me most -I though ridley had all the ideas in his head from alien to part 3 of prometheus and beyond but it seems hes been winging it -hardly a 30 year build up that most of us were looking forward to.
"It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D
BigDave
MemberDeaconOct-25-2013 10:38 AMWell Ridley is waiting to start work on Paradise he has other projects at the moments and maybe they are looking for Writers if they have not already done so...
You see the thing is maybe when Ridley talked with Spaights they had ideas of what would follow Prometheus, Spaights seemed to had used his draft to explain to a great degree the Xeno connection and would leave a 2nd movie to explore the Engineers and why we was created etc.
You would assume that while Ridley was talking with Lindeloff that had flashed out a few ideas of where they would want to take the Story next, which is Paradise the place these Engineers came from.
But maybe they have allready discused what will happen, well the back bone of the plot...?
But then depends on who they bring in to do any drafts and how many people work on it as we can see from Prometheus that there is a fair number of differences from Spaights to Lindeloffs work and also some things are similar.
So who knows how much of a influence on the Xeno and Engineers etc and more clues we get, we shall have from who ever is chosen to work on any draft for Paradise.
R.I.P Sox 01/01/2006 - 11/10/2017
djamelameziane
MemberFacehuggerOct-25-2013 12:20 PMDid you see the art of prometheus book at the end ridley says : " I am thinking what the hell I do for prometheus 2 " . Reading that my jaw just dropped ...there was me thinking ridley and maybe others had had this whole plot planned out and had padded it out over 30 years. Were as reality is they are making it up as they go along and it shows.
"It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along" :D
Anunnaki50
MemberOvomorphOct-25-2013 6:01 PMI have no problem with that because hes not George Lucas but hes trying the best he can for todays highly distracted audience. Its hard for a normal teen just to pay attention to anything lasting more than 30 seconds. Thats why when I saw the Prometheus movie back in June 2012 when it was released, the kids came out all confused and with dumb looks on their faces. I NEVER left the theater wondering anything since I study ancient myths and history it never bothered me at all. The space jockey I always suspected that they are aliens with suits on and merging technology with there own bodies when they go and fight.
The Anunnaki were on the earth in those days--and also afterward--when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, mighty men of high reno
Anunnaki50
MemberOvomorphOct-25-2013 6:03 PMBada-bing bada-boom
The Anunnaki were on the earth in those days--and also afterward--when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, mighty men of high reno
Lone
MemberPraetorianOct-26-2013 1:14 PMI am loving this thread guys! Great thought processes!
Juggernaut picks up huge silo, just like Thunderbird 2, said silo filled with colonial marines, engineers, a Queen, a newborn, some AVP bastardised Aliens and Predators, Brandywine producers and various franchise directors who have been morphed by the organic fallopian walls and dumps the cargo on Fox studios!
Seriously though, I would love to see that unused Giger concept in a sequel!
Visionary Alpha
MemberOvomorphNov-03-2013 3:47 AMThey're entirely different species. The hammerpedes do not lay the eggs, and they're not xeno's. The queen xeno is an invention of Cameron's, not Scott's, but rather than choose one or the other, I'd welcome both. Originally, the eggs were people, which the xen breks down in cocoons transforming them into the eggs. In this way, it was a much more self-sufficient creature--"the perfect organism" as the android in Alien said.
A queen was a good idea for some fun, but the other idea is scarier. They both might exist if there are "natural xeno's", and "genetically engineered xeno's", each with different characteristics.
The eggs on the crashed ship would be some of the latter, engineered to be "super-xeno's". This also shows a little by how much bigger the original xeno was. Not as big as a queen, but very big.
As for the xeno's age, I think there is no reason to think they are the first aliens in any way. Bacterial life was probably first, and xeno's can still be ancient if you want.