I decided at the beginning of this project not to use aliens, but there are still going to be some ‘aliens’ in the story. The whole concept of alien life is both fascinating and complex. There are some that argue that we would not be able to communicate with an alien life form, that we might find them hideous and them us, that the differences between us would be so vast that nothing meaningful could come of the contact. Star Trek’s answer to the problem was, in most cases, to represent aliens as humanoids with cosmetic differences only. I still think that it is a cop out! Star Wars tried to be a little more adventurous, but the humans remained front and centre in every respect and none of the themes that might arise from humans being only one of many intelligent species in the galaxy were never explored. I have always seen this as a missed opportunity.

Not so long ago, about 40,000 years, there were two species of hominids on this planet; Homo sapiens and Neanderthals. If you go back only 300,000 years, there were nine (correct at the time of writing) species of humans alive. The physical differences between them were significant enough for each species to be identified accurately. If we met them today, we would have little problem telling them apart from ourselves at least. So, my thought was what if the galaxy contained several different species of humans as distinct from each other as our ancestors were? When I say distinct, I am not talking about silly ridges put on the bridge of someone’s nose to mark them out as different, or a shock of purple hair, or spots on their face and hands. These humans are different species and therefore not only look different to each other but also act in different ways. My idea is based on the origin story that somewhere a hominid species was a common ancestor to all those who followed. This species developed interstellar flight capability and colonised several different star systems, but something happened, and their civilisation collapsed. The populations on the colonised worlds evolved in isolation of each other and developed into distinct species. Eventually, one of them rediscovered interstellar flight and brought all the species back into contact with each and so began a new galactic civilisation. It is a significant length of time after this occurrence that Should Iolos Fall takes place. The different species of humans are not intended to be just window dressing, they have different psychologies as well. There is a certain amount of crossover, no one race is entirely one thing or another, but some are better suited to physical activity and some to cerebral pursuits. There is one race, however, that seems to be all the things that the others are and that is not as good as it might appear to be. Well, it would not be a genuinely interesting story without a little conflict.