So, here we are, again, in space, but not in Star Wars, we are in the future of mankind, didn't though I would be reading a book like this one, but here we are, pretty good story. I don't think I need a presentation for this one, we all know what this is about. And if you wonder, next week I will make the next Spawn proposal, not worry. Let's start with these, nomad god-like creatures.
What's The Work?[]
All Tomorrows is a science fiction and speculative evolution book created by C.M. Koseman. This is a book about the story of the future of humankind, and how our species would change and evolve in different ways, while also having different events changing humanity. The story pretty much starts with a good amount of humans getting to Mars, and from there, years later, humans there would evolve differently thanks to the how different is Mars from Earth, with that, a civil war between Earth and Mars would ocurr, which would end with a lot of deaths, with it, the humans of mars and the humans of mars would decide to pretty much unite, creating the Star People, in a way that in the future, all of the species would be united and stop a civil war that harmful. Humans would explore the stars and go beyond planets...until finding a discovery that would change everything...a dinosaur, in another planet, a dinosaur from our planet, millions of years later, alive, in another planet. This revelation got the humans to prepare, in the event that the possible ancient intelligent species that lived even before the dinosaurs, and that bringed it to another planet, was dangerous....sadly...the preparations weren't enough. And that's how it continues the story, with the exterminion of all humanity as we know it, and the creation of more in base of them...but who was it? who did this? Well...it was the candidate of today, I present, the ancient god-like species behind humanity's extinction...The Qu.
"They didn't see them as people, they were just objects to be changed into whathever shape the Qu wanted" jeez
Who Is It? What Has It Done?[]
The Qu, is the main antagonist of the story, being an ancient alien species, that before the events of the book, got a lot of technology even beyond to the ones of the humans of those times, improving themselves with genetic to the point of being a hive mind now, whose plan was to remake the universe, humans included, with genetic as they see fit.
So the Qu is presented after humanity discovers the dinosaur that was in another planet, and even when they prepared with weapons that could get to destroy solar systems, the Qu were even above all of that, pretty much causing the extinction of humanity as a whole, which is a lot more than what we are now, as the humans of those times were in multiples planets that were a light distance from one another. Sadly for humans, the Qu didn't just killed billions of them, but it also manipulated their genes to create new species, just because of their fanatical religious thoughs of wanting to remake the universe. So now, let's talk about some of the worst species that the Qu created, to see how bad can they be:
The Hedonists were one, the Qu pretty much left these humans with a mind of a three year old, only having them as pets, while also getting them to be in constant wanting of mating with others of their species, so yeah, the Qu forcefully destroyed the minds of the humans and made them have as the most unique behaviour of wanting to always sexually reproduce between them, great.
One that I think needs to be mentioned are the Mantelopes, which were left as quadruples by the Qu, while also leaving their sapient in tact, sadly, this sapient would only serve for them to lament for their own existence and situation, singing songs about their suffering until evolution decided that it would be better for them to loose that sapient.
Of course, we need to mention the worst of the worst that the Qu did...The Colonials, these ones were a group of humans that resisted the most against the Qu's plans, so the Qu decided to pretty much get all of their rage on them, creating the colonials...which the whole usage for the Qu was to filter their waste products, and to make them suffer even more, the Qu left them with a bit of sapient, enough to know what was happening to them, and for them to suffer the most in their situation, being now, bricks made of meat with one or two eyes, and some holes.
As the last species I want to mention, created by the Qu, is the parasites, which were created for the sole purpose of making the other humans suffer because of them, as the Qu didn't really like humans if you people didn't notice, these parasites would only attack humans, generally being bloodsuckers, but also could sterelize people by getting inside of their wombs. All of this being something that the Qu wanted, as it specifically got them to survive, so they would make the other humans suffer.
Besides the ones that I mentioned, the Qu created multiples more, just for the sake of it, as they see themselves as above humans, seeing how they did something similar but not as horrible as an insult to them, as they are the ones supposed to recreate it all. After being like that for a lot of years with these new species, using them as they wanted, the Qu eventually will leave to continue in their mission, causing multiples species, that lived dependant of the Qu, to go extinct, and the ones that survived, would lost a lot of members.
Later on in the story, when now the species created by the Qu, evolved in different ways and united, it is mentioned that they got to finally subdue the Qu, finally stopping the plans of these monstrous species, although it is not revealed more than that, so it is not known if the Qu were actually exterminated or just trapped forever, and it seems we will never know.
Mitigating Factors[]
Let's start with the one that we need to clarify: Isn't the Qu an species? welp, practically, although thanks to word of god, it was revealed that the Qu is in fact, a hive mind, which means, that each one of the members of this species, share the same consciousness, and so, they should be treated as one character. But, cause I don't like to rely solely in Word of God, I will say that we can say that this statement, is not just something that the creator made up from nowhere, as in the story, the Qu is never presented as an species with different opinions, with different groups or anything like that, which is make clear with the, also vile species, Gravitals, which are said to have their own normal lifes beyond their own goals, having each one of them their own family to come back, which is interesting, as the Gravital seem to be more indicated to be an actual group of minds, than the Qu, which seems to act as an individual being more than a species. So yeah, with all of this, I think there's enough to say that the Qu, is in fact, a hivemind, just one mind with multiples bodies, so it can qualify as pure evil.
With therms of characterization, although the Qu never speaks, it is make clear to have a fleshed out personality, as it is shown to be vengeful and somewhat sadistic (shown with their attacks to the colonials, and how horrible they were with them), intelligent, and a lot of other signs of personality, shown in how the narrator describes them, as well as their motives and actions, and of course, one of the most obvious part of it's personalities, being completely indiferent to all the pain that they have caused to humans, even leaving that galaxy, not caring that their own creations would end up dying for being too dependant, including their favourite, the hedonists.
Other thing is that the Qu, are somewhat indicated to be extremists...but I don't think they actually are, but they are more just very vile beings that see themselves above everything else, and think that they can manipulate everything as they fit, not caring to causing pain or even trying to just because they are pretty petty towards people that resist them. We even have that they, supposedly, want to erradicate intelligence in the universe, so that everything can be in peace...but they still leave some species with sapience, just cause they hate them so much, that they want to make some suffer the most. In conclusion, I think their supposed good intentions, is just a facade of hypocresy, as the Qu don't actually care about peace or good stuff, they just want to, pretty much, remake the universe as they wish, just cause they see above everything else, and they think that they have the rights to do it.
I don't think I need to mention anything else, obviously they didn't care at all about the species they created, they don't seem to have moral agency issues, as they seem to be even more intelligent than the humans of those times (and of course, having in account that they can have fanatical religious goals and being a hivemind, I think they have enough in that regard). Although they seem to be loyal to life compared to Gravitals, the Qu still don't seem to care into killing millions or even leave the species they created by years of torture to die either way, so yeah, I think I don't need to mention anything else.
Heinous Standard[]
I think...that even with a good competency, the Qu are amazingly good in this regard, the Qu killed millions of humans, even destroying multiples planets in their war, and with the remaining, they tortured them and modified their dna to create multiples species (that pretty much look like abominations), species that didn't have any type of intelligence that the humans had, or species that were in agony as they were left with some sapience just for them to suffer as part of the punishment that the Qu wanted for them, like....there's even an species that was left blinded just because they hide from the Qu, and of course, we have the colonials which were left as living filters for their waste products...like...that is incredibly horrible. And of course, we have how millions or even billions of them died, just cause the Qu left them after millions of years of being with them, causing a lot of species to go extinct.
Even compared to the genocidal Gravital, that wanted to destroy all other post-human, even being said to be somewhat worse than the Qu in that regard, and that they also genetically transformed an species (being the Bug facers), I still think that the Qu does more than enough to stand out, as the Qu genetically manipulates the whole human race, that they didn't kill, in occasions giving them fates a lot more horrible than death (ask the Colonials), while going in a higher scale than the Gravital, cause the Qu wanted to do this to all intelligent species of all the universe, while the Gravital pretty much just focused in the Post Humans, and as I said, the only species that they did this to was the Bug Facers, while the Qu went beyond that. We also have how the Qu, was even more cruel in those types of creations, just for the sake of it, like blinding people, keeping their creations with sapience just for them to suffer and stuff like that, at the end, the Qu surprasses the Gravitals in therms of scale and in therms of cruelty, getting them to easily stand out at the end. We could even say that the Gravital's existence is the fault of the Qu, they were the ones to make their previous species and give them that personality of believing that they were the true descendants of the humans, that would pretty much bring them to do all of those genocides, but I think that would be too much to say. In conclusion, I think the Qu, passes easily the heinous standard, thanks to their cruelty, torture, horrible fates that they gave and how far they wanted to go in therms of scale compared to all the rest.
Final Verdict[]
I think an average or an easy yes is good for the Qu, as they ended up killing billions, torturing and manipulating the genetic of the humans remaning, created abominations with them, some without sapient and some in suffering, got a lot of them extinct by leaving them after millions of years just to do the same to other species that were in other galaxies. Being revealed to be a hivemind, while also being farly intelligent and vile, I think the Qu qualifies as a pure evil, but let's see what you people think.