Vo'lach

Vo'lach
Place of origin:	Vo'lach Prime
First mentioned in:	Down
First appearance:	Ghost Devices
Appearances:	PROSE: White Canvas

The Vo'lach were an advanced ancient race who originated from Vo'lach Prime.

Biology

The Vo'lach were four feet tall and six feet wide, covered with bright coloured neon fur and with quizzical faces. Each one had its own unique plush antenna. Though they had an aura of "friendly podgy babyness", they were strongly muscled and could bend most building materials with their claws. (PROSE: Ghost Devices)

Culture

Vo'lach typically lived in spacious arched domes surrounded by vast meadows which were partially holographic. Giant telephones were capable of rising out of the grounds of these houses. Parts of the surrounding garden were in anti-gravity boxes that bobbed up and down in a "green ballet" that could entertain a human such as Bernice Summerfield for about half an hour. (PROSE: Ghost Devices)

History

Before the Spire

The Vo'lach travelled around the galaxy and mapped it in the distant past. (PROSE: Ghost Devices)

In In Search of Ancient Mu, 25th century "archaeologist" Frans Nils Kryptosa claimed the inhabitants of Vo'lach Prime had visited and influenced the human race in the distant past. (PROSE: Down)

The Spire & ensuing chaos

Circa 10,000,000 BC, the Vo'lach built the Spire on Canopus IV to try to balance the universe and prevent its heat death, but after activating it, they received a vision of the future so horrible that they collectively committed racial suicide.

However, due to the actions of Bernice Summerfield millions of years later, planetcracker missiles came through the Spire at its opening. Upon studying the molecules of the bombs and realising they were sent by their descendants, the Vo'lach concluded that actions must have led to disastrous consequences; to preempt these consequences, they abandoned science and returned to nature. By exploring the powers of the mind they gained the ability to mentally project their images of peace and joy, educating species such as the Veltrochni and having incredible effects on the politics of the galaxy, even making suns smile. One accidental effect was the destruction of Earth before its discovery of space travel.

In this timeline, no missiles were sent back in time to destroy the Spire. This resulted in a new timeline much like the original, but due to subatomic randomness, the planetcracker bombs were slightly more efficient, and no molecules were left to analyse. The Vo'lach concluded that they were being attacked by an unknown future power from another planet, so they built super-efficient war machines that, over a hundred thousand years, circled the universe and destroyed every species, including the Vo'lach themselves.

Since in this timeline no missiles were sent back in time to destroy the Spire, a new iteration was created, over and over again, until there had been over a thousand timelines of varying silliness. The catastrophe was observed by David Foreman and another Watchmaker from behind walls of solidified time; finally, Foreman changed the timeline so that the bombs were never sent, restoring the Vo'lach's original fate. (PROSE: Ghost Devices)