In 1970 a
private detective named Herald
Childe became involved in finding the murderer of his partner who had
been
killed in a particularly gruesome snuff film and also finding his
ex-wife. His
investigation lead him to an odd assortment of people who were as it
turned out
shape shifting, extra-dimensional aliens named the Tocs and Ogs.
One of the
Tocs told an acquintance of Childe's much of their history. The Tocs
and Ogs
were beings that moved from energy to matter. In the far distant past
they had
moved throughout the galaxy by purely mental means. a Toc or an Og with
special
powers, called a Mover or a Captain, could use a metallic
cylinder called
a grail to move many others from one point to the next in the galaxy
instantaneously.
The Tocs and
the Ogs had clashed where ever they met. They had arrived at at truce
but when
a party of Tocs had visited earth, followed shortly by a party of Ogs,
they had
fought a fierce war for the truce did not extend to planets outside of
a
certain sphere of influence. Both had their grails destroyed and their
captains
killed and so were trapped on earth until a new grail and a new captain
could
be created.
The person
who was telling the story was not telling the entire story but was
rather
hiding certain facts. She was also playing to her audience, who was an
avid fan
of pulp science fiction tales. He had accidentally discovered
information on
his own and he was too well known to be summarily eliminated. So she
told him a
tale with grains of truth in it but with enough red herrings and
fantastic
elements that should he repeat it, it would be dismissed as the
workings of a
fantastic imagination.
According to
the Secret History of the Wold Newton Universe here is the true history
of the
Tocs and Ogs.
During the midst of the Third
Capellean/Eridanean war, a clone rebellion breaks out. In response
to this
a violent cult forms, believing that clones are souless creatures who
have
broken natural law by rebelling. The cult's response to the rebellion
is to
destroy all clones. They do this in the most violent and sadistic
manner that
they could devise. The Capellean Council of Nine is moved to put down
the cult
and punish the leadership. They vote to remove the Ogs from Capellean
society
forever. To this end the Tocs are exiled to the Phantom Zone.
During the
fourth Capellean/Eridanean War a portion of the Eridanean population is
infected with a neural virus courtesy of the Capelleans. The victims
become
violently addicted to sex. Violently to the extent that if the sexual
urge is
not immediately satisfied when it arises the victims will resort to
rape,
murder or other violent means to acheive satisfaction. The Eridanean
Council of
Nine feels that it has no choice but to exile the victims to the
Phantom Zone
until a cure is found.
After a few
decades of non-corporeal life, the exiles in the Phantom Zone discover that certain
individuals have the ability to travel huge distances by will power
alone.
What's more they can carry others with them. The exiles with the
ability are
known as Movers.
In the Phantom
Zone's surreal manifestation of the universe consisting of a vast chaos
of
quantum sinkholes, black holes estuaries, floating energy fields and
distortions, odd singularities and formless wastes many of the
imprisoned Tocs
and Ogs are drawn to the Gravity Well near the Andromeda Galaxy. Here
they
discover they can manifest themselves in nearly solid shapes. They
become adept
at changing their non-corporeal shapes. The Two groups of Capelleans
and
Eridaneans continue their war in the Phantom Zone. Athough they cannot
kill one
another they can cause each other great pain
After nearly two millenia
trapped in the
Phantom Zone, a large majority of the Tocs and Ogs, begin to
listen to a
charismatic Mover who wishes for them to travel en masse with him
through one
of the Quantum Sinkholes that permeate the Phantom Zone. He believes
that it is
an exit from the Phantom Zone and even if it is not, at least a quick
death
would be better than the existance they had. About two thousand follow
him into
the Quantum sinkhole. They are twisted, torn and confettied as they
pass
through the singularity. Their intellects and personalities were
destroyed,
leaving only pain, rage and a terrible hunger. They emerged in the
corridors of
Time, following their Movers like mindless pack animals. They
become
known as the Hounds of Tindalos.
Shortly
after the
Landing, in an experiment that did not work out too well for him, Juro
also
released the Tocs and Ogs from their Millennia of imprisonment in the
Phantom
Zone. Although there were less than 700 hundred left, upon manifesting
into
solid physical shapes, they immediately attacked one another. Half were
"killed" out right. Joru killed a dozen more restoring order. Several
of both groups escaped as Joru transported most of the living Tocs and
Ogs back
to the Phantom Zone. A few however agree to aid him in his plans in
gratitude
for having been released.
The Tocs
and Ogs soon
discover a bizarre phenmenon about themselves. Having existed in a
state of
energy (quantum probability) for millennia the Tocs and Ogs were sent
back into
the state of quantum probability upon the death of their physical
bodies, yet
they are not trapped in the Phantom Zone but remain in the physical
universe.
They also discovered that by feeding or rather absorbing the brain
energy that
humans gave off when they experienced rage, terror and sexual ecstasy
they
could eventually gather enough energy to manifest another physical
body. Also
their physical bodies were within certain limitations, malleable.
They
can shift shapes giving rise to some of the legends of were-wolves,
swan
maidens and other shapeshifters of note.
After nearly eight
hundred years of their newfound existance
of fluctuating between matter and
energy the Tocs and Ogs discover that is not necessarily permanent or
perfect,
for each "death" that an individual experiences makes the transition
between states more difficult to enact. Plus, after several years the
physical
form begins deteriorating, aging and losing cohesion. Some of the Tocs
and Ogs
become trapped in a state between matter and energy and become mistaken
for
spirits or ghosts. The Tocs and Ogs, each plan to created a Mover, one
of those
rare individuals who can navigate the swirling neutrino chaos of the
Phantom
Zone. They believe that a Mover can use the Phantom Zone to restore
them to a
permanent yet immortal physical state and use the Zone as a gateway to
search
through infinite quantum probabilities and discover a universe that is
a literal
Paradise.
The first such
candidate for the
Mover is born in 1788 and he is the Capellean/Human hybrid George Gordon,
Lord
Byron, a shielded Immortal. George Gordon Byron’s mother, Catherine
Gordon was
a Cappellean female. (And also one of the Ogs, a Capellean criminal
whose long
imprisonment in the Phantom Zone had given them the ability to move
back and
forth between matter and energy. However because of his other
genetic
abnormalities, Lord Byron never became the Mover the Tocs and Ogs
longed for.
Byron was a shielded Immortal and one which carried the vampire virus.
This all
became apparent in 1824 when Lord Byron suffered a fatal fever in Missougla, Greece and dies. His body
regenerates from the
disease proving him to be an Immortal. The Highlander Tv series
portrayed him
as an Immortal but since regular Immortals are sterile and we know that
Byron
had at least one child he must have been a shielded
or hidden immortal. The book LORD OF
THE DEAD by
Tom Holland
also portrays him as a vampire, leading to the conclusion he may have
suffered
from vampiric virus.
By the 1930s the Tocs and
Ogs physical
stability problems increased. Their physical forms start aging, the
shapeshifting became problematic. They at times shifted shape when they
didn't
wish to and at other times lost the ability to shift shape at all.
Their first
solution to this was to get killed and thus be sent back into an energy
state
where they could gather energy to form a new body. However
it was
soon discovered that in most cases they had to reform into the shape
they had
most previously taken. One theory that gained great credence among both
species
is that all the time spent in the Phantom Zone made them subject to
entrophic
decay. The only way to end the decay was to return to the Phantom Zone
and have
a Mover recharge them.
In late 1934 they artificially
inseminated a
woman with the frozen sperm of Lord Byron in an attempt to breed a
Mover. The
child was Herald Sigurd Childe
In the early
1960s the
instability situation among the Tocs and Ogs becomes desperate as they
are
compelled to force humans into releasing the energy that they need to
keep from
deteriorating and remain cohesive. A few pursue scientific methods to
arrest
their deteriorating, others become excessive, kidnapping and using
humans as
fodder by turning them into sex slaves and torture victims.
Others tried
even more desperate acts with nearly tragic consequences.
In 1966, a group
of Tocs
get wind that some of the Capellean adoptees have formed an alliance
with the Sarmak of Mars and with the Hive.
In a daring raid, they capture a couple of the saucers used by the
Sarmaks and
the Hive. About this time one of the Tocs also discovers that they can
temporarily halt the ever increasing degeneration of the physical
bodies by
using human bodies. They capture human subjects use a modified e-m
converter to
convert the captured human and the Toc into energy and combine
the the
two energy forms into one human body. The Toc personality will remain
dominant
but the Toc will have access to the human memories.
There were
however flaws with this procedure as well. First of all the converter's
software had a glitch in it that malformed the fingers of the
reconstituted
bodies. Also any serious injury would cause the reconstituted
body to
reconvert to energy. Also they reconstituted bodies underwent a
different sort
of degeneration that necessitated a massive jolt of electricity to
maintain
that form.
The biggest
flaw however came when one of the Tocs captured a hived human for its
body
template. The parasite was also reconsitituted making that Toc a member
of the
Hive. The other Tocs in their group soon followed.
The hived Tocs
began working
with the main Hive to dominate the earth.The captured humans were
either hived,
if they were susceptible or were used as base matter to give the Tocs
physical
stability. This was the true background of the Invader's
television series.
Later that year,
architect David
Vincent sees a Toc-Hive saucer and follows it to see human captives
being
ushered into the saucer. Following inside, to his horror he sees a
hideously
formed creature and the human being dissolve inside two cylindrial
chambers.
Then a human body is reformed. David Vincent's exploration into this
phenomenon
and his fight against the Toc-Hive Invaders are fictionalized in The
Invaders
televison show.
This
obsession evidently lead to an more through examination of the subject
of alien
infiltration and conspiracies in general in the Wold Newton Universe
leading
him to compile the esoteric A
Secret History of Our World. This work was continued by his
son, David
Vincent Jr. However the fates of either of those men is currently
unknown.
Three years
later, the Ogs manipulate events to bring the Mover, who has should
have
reached the prime of his powers, into their control as seen in the
events of
Philip Jose Farmer's Image of the Beast and Blown. Private
Investigator Herald Childe, while investigating the sadistic sex murder
of his
partner becomes involved in the secret struggle of the Tocs and Ogs.
***Spoiler****
Gordon is revealed
to be the son of
George Gordon, Lord Byron achieved through frozen sperm and in vitro
fertilization. He is also the culmination of the Tocs and Ogs dreams, a
Mover
who can navigate the Phantom Zone and take them to a paradisical
world.
In the end however, Gordon tricks the Tocs and Ogs, exiling them
in the
Phantom Zone once more.
The story told
to Forrest J. Ackerman was just that a tale that played on his innate
love of
pulp science fiction tales.
Some ten
years later Herald Gordon, now living under the name of Gordon Carfax
becomes
involved with the Medium project. This device can purportedly
communicate with
the dead and has the ability to make a representation of the afterlife.
I
believe in reality Medium actually contacted an alternate universe
which is for
all intents and purposes identitical except that in this universe
the
Preservers had planted wathan creation and collection devices as was
done in
the Riverworld series. The Medium, acting like a wathan reader, was
able to
make contact with the wathans in the collection chambers and so it
appeared as
though contact had been made with the dead. This however was not earth
of the
Riverworld but rather one in a differing timeline.
For a theory
about how the
Riverworld ties into the Wold Newton Universe see Ozdyssey
or How the Yellow Brick Road lead me to the Riverworld.
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© 2000
Dennis Power