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IntroductionThe Tnuctipun Plot (TTP) started out as a post to the larryniven-l list, and to alt.books.larry-niven. Part 1 of this text is pretty much the original text of the post, with only minor corrections. Part 2 consists of a number of elaborations on the plot.Part 1: The Basic Plot
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 "Thrint" by Bonnie Dalzell Copyright © 1975 |
This post is not intended to be the last word on the Thrintun plans. It's all simply a series of unsubstantiated hypotheses and theories. I'm sure there are holes in my arguments, and I'm not claiming any particular authority or expertise in the study of known space.
I came up with this theory long before reading "Down in Flames", but whereas DiF relies on discarding or modifying 'known' facts about known space from some of the novels, I have worked as closely as I can within the accepted known space corpus of material.
I openly welcome comments on the following article, either supporting or rebutting any of the points raised. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I had dreaming it up.
2. The food yeast evolutionary programs are designed to simultaneously (in evolutionary terms) produce sentient life forms on many different worlds throughout the galaxy.
3. Precipitate a galaxy-wide civil war against the Thrintun, but secretly put the Tnuctipun homeworlds into stasis in the galactic rim, out of harm's way.
4. Set the homeworld stasis fields to switch off after the development of sentient life forms, but before the life forms have had time to develop more than rudimentary interstellar technologies (by comparison with the Tnuctipun, anyway). Say, about 2 billion years. This also leaves enough time for the suicide command to fade, including any echoes off nearby galaxies.
5. Seed the galactic core with anti-matter bombs timed to trigger a core explosion at about the same time as the homeworlds are due to come out of stasis.
6. Run a planetary shield technology 'protection racket', saving a selection of the evolved species. This will place them in debt to the Tnuctipun, the new 'saviours' of galactic civilisation. An ideal starting point for a program of total galactic domination.
7. Rule a galactic empire, populated with slave and prey species.
8. Game Over.
This is why the Outsiders are so interested in the starseeds. The starseed nesting sites in the rim are a clue to the locations of the Tnuctipun homeworlds. Perhaps the Outsiders developed the starseed lure in order to interfere with the Tnuctipun plans?
2. The Tnuctipun must be aware of the dangers presented by Thrint that survived the great war in stasis. Indeed, one of their strategies was to force Thrint warships into stasis, thus taking them out of the fight during battles. Some of these warships are bound to have survived. Perhaps the Tnuctipun have a method of safely destroying stasis field boxes, without opening them? After they bring their homeworlds out of stasis, they could trigger a device that collapses all the stasis fields in the galaxy into singularities— bye, bye, Thrintun!
3. The Tnuctipun designed many strains of food yeast, tailored to the conditions on different worlds. Even the yeasts for similar worlds were sometimes varied to minimise the damage done if a particular strain proved to be flawed. The food yeast nuclei contained vast libraries of genetic code designed to activate in a programmed sequence. This accelerated the evolutionary process, and guided evolution in certain desirable directions. This is why we have so many seemingly redundant genes— the 'extra' genes are actually the libraries of Thrintun designed code. Pakhome and Terra must have been seeded with the same yeast strain, this is why human (Pak) molecular biology is so compatible with terran biology.
Unexplained mass extinctions in prehistory were caused by the timed release of viruses from the DNA libraries. Each phase of evolution is allowed to continue until certain species have evolved to a particular stage, then the viruses wipe out undesired species, freeing up evolutionary niches for the next phase.
I'm not suggesting that the Thrintun could control evolution to such an extent that they could control the specific characteristics of the 'end product' species beyond general biological parameters. Their aim was probably just to accelerate the evolutionary process, and make sure it resulted in sentient species within a desired time frame. This is just enough to ensure that terran and Pakhome biochemistry will be highly compatible.
The Tnuctipun would have spread individual strains widely apart, to prevent a star faring species from finding biologies that were too similar for it to be a coincidence. The fact that the Pak colonists found Earth was pure luck. (!)
The Trinocs are a bit of a problem because their biology is so different from anyone else's. Perhaps their world suffered a catastrophic trauma such as an asteroid impact or a geological event that wrecked the Thrintun tailored gene program. Perhaps the Trinocs were designed to be the way they are after all. Who knows?
1. The Tnuctipun — These guys are a possibility, but why would they build the ring? It's certainly not two billion years old and the idea that some Tnuctipun would come out of stasis and build a ring then go away again is bizarre. However, it may well have been built using Tnuctipun technology.
2. The Pak — Favourite contenders with many, The Pak are resourceful and ingenious. They also certainly colonised the ring at some point, though breeders may have been seeded there by an external agency. Still, why would they do it? No particularly brilliant reasons spring to mind. There are at least six good reasons why not.
 Outsider, by Alan Michaud copyright © 2001 by Xlibris Corp. |
3. The Outsiders — What is it with these guys anyway? What yanks their chain? Jayson Vantuyl has some ideas. If I'm right about the Tnuctipun planning on conquering the Galaxy, I can't see the Outsiders being very keen on the idea. We know they follow star seeds around and I suspect that the star seeds are part of the Tnuctipun's nefarious schemes. The star seed lures would be a possible way of interfering with them.
What are the Outsiders going to do about the Tnuctipun threat? They don't exactly look like born warriors, so presumably they want someone else to do their fighting for them. Who's up to the task?
Kzin are ferocious fighters, but humans have got their measure. What's tougher than humans? — Human protectors of course!
 A human protector attacks art by Cortney Skinner copyright © 1980 by Galileo Magazine |
If you want an army to fight the Tnuctipun, protectors make ideal troops. They're smart, resourceful, tenacious, fearless, long lived and robust. But Pak protectors have many disadvantages too, they're just too single minded and not very creative. Also, you can't really reason or negotiate with them.
So, you want protectors and lots of them. To do that, you need lots of breeders. In fact, you need enough breeders to make a galactic army of protectors. You need trillions of them, and you need them in one place so you can monitor and control the project— having them scattered on hundreds of worlds is not a viable option if you want to keep control. Also, you need to have a way of wiping them all out if the project goes wrong.
Finally, you don't want to have protectors all over the place messing around with your plans, you just want breeders. Of course, without protectors the breeder population will diversify. This is good, because it makes your protector army more diverse and flexible.
So, what do you do? You build a Ringworld, seed it with breeders, eliminate all the protectors, keep a stash of tree of life handy for when Armageddon day comes and you watch, and wait.....
Perhaps the Outsiders have their own Project Cherubim [see A Darker Geometry, in Man-Kzin Wars VII —ed.].
Perhaps simply the threat of a trillion protectors would be enough to force the Tnuctipun to negotiate, after all it's really a doomsday weapon. If it was ever used, the galaxy would never be the same again. If anything goes wrong, you use the solar laser to wipe out the breeders, or sever the scrith wire holding the shadow squares together. The impact of the shadow squares on the ring should do the trick. I wouldn't be surprised if there's more than one Ringworld— one is too vulnerable and it would be hard to co-ordinate simultaneous strikes against two rings in different parts of the galaxy at the same time.
The Outsiders inhabit most of the nearby galaxies. They were around in this galaxy at the time of the Slaver Empire, and when the Thrintun discovered them, they ordered the Tnuctipun to wipe them out (they couldn't stand the fact that Outsiders are immune to the Power). This the Tnuctipun dutifully did, but some of the free Tnuctipun got some ideas from the Outsider physiology. They used what they learned to breed the starseeds, which they would later use as a mechanism for monitoring the conditions at the galactic core. The Slaver war happens, and for a billion years there is nothing but evolving food yeast and starseeds in the galaxy. Then some more Outsiders show up— the Tnuctipun never knew that they were an intergalactic race.
They spot the starseeds, and realise that something very strange is happening in this galaxy. So, they follow the starseeds, and over the course of a billion years, work out what they are up to. This puts the willies up the outsiders— something wiped out their kin in this galaxy, and it's still around! This won't do. So, they set about preparing to deal with these impertinent hotlife when they show up again. They notice the Pak, and their colony world (Earth), and have the idea that these protectors can be used as an anti-Tnuctipun device. They build the ring, and populate it. In order that their precious plan doesn't get disturbed, they monitor any traffic going towards or away from the ring, and make sure that no protectors are among them.
They spot the Home protectors heading off on a genocide mission towards the core, and this distracts them from the ring long enough for the inhabitants to sneak off with a load of attitude jets. Maybe the Home protectors defeat the Outsiders, and this screws up their plans in a big way. The remainder of the Outsiders decide to abandon this galaxy to its fate, maybe drop in for a look in another billion years, and stop worrying about the ring. They therefore allow the Puppeteers to find it. The stage is set for a four-way battle between:
When did the Pak come to Earth? Niven tells us that they came this way three times:
1. The colony ship that came here two million years ago, bringing our ancestors, which failed due to the tree-of-life (TOL) crop failing.
2. Phssthpok's rescue mission, based on an ancient laser message in an obsolete language, which says that they found what they thought was a suitable planet, but that TOL would not grow properly.
3. The Pak fleet that Brennan-monster discovered, and Truesdale and the Home protectors went off to intercept.
We only have Truesdale's word for this last one, there has been no corroborating evidence since. I'm unsure whether the warning message that comprises the last couple of pages of Protector ever got to humanity.
This still leaves unexplained the overwhelming similarity between Earth and Pak biology. Garner and Sohl said to Brennan that there is considerable evidence that we evolved here alongside everything else, and all that Brennan says is "I have a few ideas about that". That is absolutely typical of protector mentality, he presumed that we would not understand, or it would take to long to explain— we're like children to them.
In my opinion, there must have been a prior pak expedition to Earth. Lets presume it was 65 million years ago. They had no idea what they were going to find out here, there might not be anything that was remotely edible to a breeder. So, they would bring along a potted ecosystem— everything from viruses and bacteria, through plankton, plants, insects, fish, scavengers, herbivores and maybe the odd carnivore, but maybe not. Plus, of course, breeders.
They found Earth, full of dinosaurs, and decided that it was probably the best bet. It may have started from the same food yeast strain, which would help. They seed the environment with all the enabling lifeforms, which begin adapting the atmosphere, reducing the oxygen content towards a comfortable level, and killing off the dinosaurs as it did so. Once the place was getting towards being suitable for habitation, they established a base on the planet, and moved out of orbit. The protective wrapping of an atmosphere is better than any shielding device that they had.
However, something goes wrong. An enormous meteor suddenly appears, and BOOM— all their breeders get wiped out. They do the decent thing, and send a laser message back to the Pak homeworld, telling them that there's a planet here that will soon be ripe for colonisation. The library protectors file it away, and it is lost for sixty million years.
A tiny fragment of this message, almost entirely illegible but just enough can be decoded to work out that is contains instructions on how to get to a particular planet, is found— and the second expedition is launched. By Phssthpok's time, no trace of the original mission can be found, it is all lost in among the details of the second mission.
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Like many readers, I count the Puppeteers among my favorite Niven aliens. From the basic concept of an herbivore developing sentience out of a need to avoid predators, to their surprising physical makeup, Puppeteers are truly unique.
When I read Ringworld for the first time, long before the sequels, long before the Ringworld Role-playing Game, I was truly surprised that the identity of the builders was never revealed. It was a great question for Niven to leave us. The Puppeteer psychology that the novel revealed told us a lot, but left a huge number of questions as well, particularly since Nessus declared himself to be insane. I read most of the remaining Niven canon of the time— Protector, Tales of Known Space, All the Myriad Ways, World of Ptavvs, everything extant up to the mid-seventies. Of all the facts and history I learned, two came together in my mind. The Tnuctipun had genetically engineered the Bandersnatchi, stage trees, sunflowers and other species. The Puppeteers manipulated the evolution of humans and Kzinti, if not other species. The similarity was intriguing. We know less about the Tnuctipun than we do about the Puppeteers (or so we think). They were a slave race. They were enslaved for their technological capabilities, including a major talent for genetic engineering— Stage Trees, Sunflowers, Bandersnatchi. Some of their artifacts have been found inside stasis fields. Physically, the Tnuctipun were small, toothy and very, very carnivorous.
Thrintun domination was so complete that the Tnuctipun were enslaved despite their technological capabilities. From various clues, we’ve gleaned the idea that a successful revolt against the Slaver Empire was only accomplished at the expense of all sentient life in the galaxy. The Tnuctipun also presumably spent generations formulating and executing their plan, and it probably involved turning all of their genetically engineered tools against the Thrintun. Of Puppeteers: We know that they are fleeing the core explosion with their entire population aboard the Fleet of Worlds. We know that they have dominated Known Space through an economic empire that sells high technology. We know that they’ve manipulated human evolution with the birthright lotteries in an attempt to create the Teela Brown gene. They’ve done the same with the Kzinti, with the aim of pacifying them. All of this presumably to insure greater safety for their race, an expression of their herd-herbivore need to clear the grasslands of predators. There are a great many similarities between the Puppeteers and the Tnuctipun— high technology, genetic manipulation. I started thinking about these similarities and where they might lead. Just how deeply were they connected? Consider: What sentient species would revolt at the expense of all sentient life in the galaxy? That’s not revolt, it's suicide. The Tnuctipun must have developed a plan that would allow for their victory and survival. Maybe the death of everyone is just good propaganda. There’s a need for good propaganda. If you had just successfully revolted against a galaxy-spanning empire of Slavers with telepathic mind control, you’d hope desperately that none have survived. And if they have, you don’t want them looking for you. In fact, it would be a pretty good idea if any survivors believed that your entire species had been utterly eliminated. And just in case, wouldn’t it be wise to put on a disguise? If anyone does come looking, you don’t want to be recognized. |
Now, what kind of creature would never, ever, literally in a million years, be mistaken for a short, bipedal, meat-eating carnivore? How about an herbivore? How about a three-legged, two-headed one? That's right— the Tnuctipun turned themselves into Puppeteers.
If the Tnuctipun can engineer Bandersnatchi, I certainly think they’d be capable of altering their own species. Perhaps they secretly did so while they were plotting against the Thrintun. Even if the Thrintun discovered the Puppeteer colonies, what would they do with them? Turn them into gardeners? Original Puppeteer colonies would not be aware of their true history; if they don’t know who they really are, they can’t give anything away. Presumably some mechanism existed that would reveal their identity under special future circumstances. Maybe this has already been revealed to the species we know now as Pierson’s Puppeteers, or maybe it hasn’t. Maybe the Dead Sphere Scrolls are waiting to be found in a stasis sphere somewhere. What do we really know about ancient galactic history? Where does our information about Slavers and Bandersnatchi and Sunflowers come from? Could it be yet more Puppeteer propaganda? Hmmmmm. The Puppeteers have self-admittedly been moving worlds for at least half a million years. Their true origins have never been revealed. Puppeteers seem to be in the habit of giving up only enough information to achieve a desired result. In the grand scheme of their flight through Known Space there is no effective difference between ‘half-a-million’ and ‘half-a-billion’. General Products hulls are so far beyond any other Known Space technologies that no one has yet discovered their secret. Stepping Discs are revolutionizing transportation. These don’t strike me as technologies that were developed by a race just slightly ahead of other regional sapients. In "The Soft Weapon", Nessus claims that the stasis box was purchased from the Outsiders. Inside the box is the Tnuctip spy weapon we’re familiar with. Its shape provides one of our major clues to the physiology of the Tnuctipun. But how can we trust any of this information when we have no way of verifying Nessus’ claims? The stasis box and its contents could have come from anywhere. Perhaps its destruction was necessary to concealing its actual origins. Why are the Puppeteers really running? Sure, sure, the core is exploding. More than likely, Beowulf Shaeffer only saw whatever the Puppeteers wanted him to see. Who knows what they were looking for in those tapes of the trip to the core? What’s the real reason for their paranoia about what lies ahead of their path? Maybe they’re really searching for Slavers. From what we’ve seen, Tnuctipun-created animals and plants are all over the Ringworld… (and the Puppeteers seem to know an awful lot about it.) And, of course, there’s Larry. Larry seems to like red herrings. I’m always looking for the real explanation behind the explanation. And then I wait for the other shoe to drop. Who doesn’t expect to find out that everything they’ve come to believe is just another cover story when it comes to Known Space? So far as I know, nothing in the canon contradicts this theory. If the new information found in Fleet of Worlds has taught us anything, it is that the Puppeteers have many secrets. Maybe a few more than we suspect. |
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Assuming the Tnutipun Evil Plot ["The Tnuctipun Plot"] and that Outsiders were not a power in the Galaxy at the time of the [Tnuctipun-]Slaver War (they seem to likely be of extragalactic origin): Problem: Outsiders recognize Tnuctipun as possible threat. Solution: Eliminate threat Problem: Outsiders don't want to do the dirty work. Solution: Get the races of Known Space to do it. The Puppeteers are the only sufficiently developed race in / about Known Space. Give them the technology to make the species of Known Space sufficiently spacefaring that they'll be ready for the war. Likely similar other programs elsewhere. Wait for races to discover / trade with the Puppeteers. Build the Ringworld to become a headquarters in the war. Seed it with races isolated on the maps with plans to move them to more breeding room when the time comes. Problem: Discovery of the Pak Solution: Wipe out fleeing Pak from Pakhome. Use the information gained to supercharge your army. Problem: Protectors are really, really mean. Solution: Soften them. The Earthers seem less aggressive. This is likely due to a more advanced breeder stage, cultural differences, and a long greater independence on protectors. Genetic manipulation is best done passively. Seed the Ring with hominids. Work them to be more dependent on each other, so their protectors might be able to cooperate. Presumably we caught the breeding plan before it complete. Why? Problem: Ring is being interfered with by hominid civilization that developed. |
Implications: Assumption that low raw-material would prevent appreciable civilizations was wrong.
Solution: Have Puppeteers eliminate the civilization. Problem: Ring is off balance due to lack of attitude jets. Solution: Have Puppeteers send an expedition that might repair it. The Outsiders have always appeared to have little interest in other races because they are just so darn powerful. Perhaps they realize that it is easier to get someone else to do it. The best motivation is self interest. Put the humans in a situation where they, who accidentally have proven to be a very good warrior, in a situation where they don't have a choice. The Outsiders tipped their hand in Ringworld Throne. Why was their ship there? The core explosion will eventually force humans off of Earth. When we let them "discover" the ring, it'll be the perfect place for all of the Races of Known Space to prepare for the coming war. What comes with them? The basic infrastructure of a Ringworld space fleet and the Teela Genes. When it comes that the humans are indistinguishible from the natives and the ways of space lanes are established with the Ring at its center, the war begins. What do the Outsiders care? It's hotlife. The only thing special about the Tnuctipun is that they made the starseeds. Start messing with things on a galactic scale, you're in Outsider territory. Why else would the Outsiders eventually make the Ring population so diverse? Fragmentation. A galactic civilization composed of all the races of Known Space will be too fragmented to ever be a unified threat. To make sure they're all being made docile. The Humans Teela Genes, the friendly protectors of the ring, the newly docile Kzin— all made docile (but not impotent) by the first race we made so docile yet quietly dangerous, our first henchmen, the Puppeteers. —Jayson Vantuyl |
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1. The idea that Pak protectors would suddenly decide that their non-sentient, essentially helpless breeder stage is better off wthout protectors to look after them is ludicrous. They'd also know that the breeders would mutate from studying the Earth breeder colony. Letting that happen is simply unthinkable to a pak protector.
2. The Protectors would have known about the Kzin, Grogs, Humans, Martians, etc. and rather than wipe them out, as Brennan-monster and Phssthpok wiped out the Martians on Mars, they brought them to the ring and gave them a nice cozy home to live in, right next door to the breeders, and withing spitting distance (in ring terms) of the command centre for the entire ring. Yeah, right, good move! 3. The theory presupposes that the Ringworld engineer protectors found the records of the failed Earth colony and followed its path in secret. If it was a secret, why did they leave records of the Earth expedition in the great Library on Pakhome? Suppose some protector decided to go on some fool errand to rescue them with a load of thallium oxide, or suppose a Pak family decided to conquer Earth for itself? They'd have a planet full of protectors from Earth right on the doorstep of the ring! 4. Pak protector technology doesn't use automated control systems. Phssthpok flew all the way from the galactic core on manual, without so much as a rudimentary autopilot. They just don't trust automatics, yet the ring is completely automated, from the flup dredges and recycling system, to the attitude control jets and the meteor defense laser. |
5. Why only build one ringworld? When you finish one, why not just build another, and another, and another? You've got something better to do? Suppose there are other ringworlds aout there, would they let this one alone, knowing it's packed with a trillion potential protectors of radicaly different bloodlines?
6. Who keeps killing off the protectors that sporadically get created on the ring? Somebody must be doing it. Why are there any attitude control jets still in place? If I were a new protector on the ring, the first thing I'd do it put a bunch of juvenile breeders of my species on an attitude control jet ramship, with one adult and a time released store of tree-of-life. Launch the ramship and let the timer release the tree-of-life and turn the adult into a protector. When he wakes up he's already on a fast trajectory away from the ring. His mission is to establish the species on new worlds away from the ring, helping guarantee the long term survival of the species, whatever happens on the ring. It's simply the optimum survival strategy. (Your mileage may vary on this, any other ideas?) |
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