Sentient Milieu

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The Sentient Milieu was a fictional alliance of races featured in the Star Control computer game series.

The Sentient Milieu was an association of starfaring races that was dedicated to the mutual enrichment of its member cultures and to the assistance of emerging sentient species. It is generally agreed that the Milieu was founded around 30,000 years before 2155, the year Star Control II begins, and gradually formed over the course of several thousand years.

Approximately 5,000 years after its establishment, the Milieu spanned 500 light years and had more than 100 member-worlds. Seven of the member-races were well-known throughout the Milieu: the Drall, the Faz, the Mael-Num, the Taalo, the Ur-Quan, the Yuli, and the Yuptar. None of these races are still active (although there are speculations of Melnorme being Mael-Num or having some close relations to them) with the exception of the Ur-Quan subspecies: the Kohr-Ah and the Kzer-Za.

Precursor ruins and relics had been discovered on many worlds throughout the Milieu. It was the search for such things that led to the rapid dissipation of the Milieu. About 22,000 years before 2155, anomalous energy readings led an Ur-Quan scout to make planet-fall on an unexplored world he believed may harbour a Precursor installation. Before he could find the installation, he encountered the Dnyarri, who took control of his mind. The Dnyarri forced the scout to transport hundreds of them to the Sentient Milieu's capital planet. Within a month, the Dnyarri had spread across the entire Milieu, enslaving every member race except the naturally-immune Taalo. As the Taalo rushed to complete a device that would provide similar immunity to the other Milieu races, the Dnyarri compelled those other races, spearheaded by the Ur-Quan, to destroy the Taalo; the Taalo were annihilated before they could complete their work. Without the Taalo Device, the end of the Sentient Milieu was assured.

As it transpired, the Taalo actually did complete their Device, but not in sufficient time to utilise it to prevent the other races from annihilating them. The Device was used approximately 22,000 years later by the Captain to maintain control over a captured Dnyarri which played a crucial part in the destruction of the Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah's battle-platform, the Sa-Matra.

The Sentient Milieu was in contact with the Slylandro, and some information on it may be gleaned from them in Star Control II.