THE GRAND CULL
A Grand Cull is one of the key methods that the elves use to maintain an ample supply of drones needed to sustain their civilizations across the multiverse. Elves cull – or harvest – orbs on different worlds to turn into drones – the mindless, subservient class of slaves that perform all work in elf societies. A Grand Cull is distinguished by the size and scope of the harvest – instead of the dozens or hundreds of drones obtained in a local cull, a Grand Cull will result in up to a billion drones obtained from locations across a world over a period of ten to twenty years.
Elf societies are extremely stratified. Attaining a privileged status is of paramount importance. At the top are the females – elf mothers – who live a life devoted to sadism and carnal pleasures. There are many different genetic lines among the mothers leading to a special ability or heritage, such as healing, empathy, or coercion; these are associated with differing levels of status within an elf community. Next are the male elves; if they are bonded to a mother, they are part of that mother’s clutch, and are called clutchmen. At the bottom of the society are the drones.
Almost all drones are harvested from the orb race and are considered no better than animals. Drones provide all the services needed by the elves, from simple farming tasks to highly complex technical work. Drones are programmed to be completely devoted to satisfying the needs of the elves. The elf civilization could not operate without drones, but any individual drone is completely expendable.
The elves have planted orb herds on different worlds throughout the multiverse; the herds are managed by herder elves. When the herd has reached the proper size, generally five to ten billion orbs, the elves perform a grand cull. Over ninety percent of the wild herd is processed for harvest. Orbs are collected and sorted; about twenty percent will be suitable drones. The others are either terminated or put to temporary use.
In the Grand Cull described in this Chronicle, the cull-mothers conducting the cull use various methods to collect wild orbs. The hydra monsters are used to terrorize an orb herd and send the orbs to an evacuation center. Then they are collected and taken to a central sorting facility, called a ‘House of Servitude’ or ‘House.’ In addition to the hydra, small groups of orbs are collected locally, such as through a police station, restrained, and brought to the House. At these centers, the orbs come under the influence of a coercion stone and are unable to resist the elves. Then they are sorted and the obviously unusable ones – those that are too old, too young, too weak, or physically unfit – are eliminated.
From the many Houses, the orbs are sent through a portal to one of several dozen regional sites, generally located in airport hangars at large airports. From these sites, the orbs are again ported to a large regional collection site.
The regional collection site was constructed adjacent to a mountain. A tunnel connects the regional collection area to a large central processing site, constructed within the center of the mountain. This area is always busy and remined our travelers of Grand Central Station. The central processing site accepts food supplies grown on Earth, equipment and personnel transported to Earth from off-world sites, and a central terminal to receive orb recruits and ship finished drones to their new assignments.
The drone training site is a large facility located on an island off the coast of Africa. Here tens of millions of orbs are trained to be drones, and broken of their free will. Drones are selected for specific services, such as technicians or artisans, and cross-breed females are identified for specialized uses.
After training is completed, the new drones are ported back through the central site and then to the transport site located somewhere in Turkey near Mt. Ararat. The transport site is the end point for the two large transport tunnels that connect Earth to the off-world site. The new drones are transported off-world and the apportioned to elves on many worlds who will complete their training for specific functions.
Grand culls are one of the key methods that the elves use to obtain an ample supply of the drones they need to maintain their civilization. The foundation of elf civilization is the drone. Drones maintain all parts of elf technology, and provide all of the services the elves need. Without drones, elf civilization would collapse. Drones are completely devoted to satisfying the need of the elves.
Elf civilization requires a continual influx of drones. Almost all drones are members of the orb race, expendable, subservient, and inferior animals. A few orbs are grown by the elves on their home worlds, but only for specialized uses. The elves do not like to clutter their home worlds with herds of wild orbs. The majority of new drones come from orbs grown on herd worlds. The elves maintain vast herds of wild orbs on their many herd worlds. On most of these worlds the wild herd is not aware of the existence of the elf overlords.
It requires several hundred herd worlds, to sustainably support the needs of a single dragon-mother and her home worlds. Tens of thousands of herd worlds exist to support the needs of all the dragon-mothers, as well as the dragon-Queen. Each of these worlds are managed by herd-mothers, but do not belong to any single dragon-mother. Orbs are occasionally culled on these worlds, as the herd ripens. When the herd is ripe on a world, a Dragon-mother stakes a claim. The claim provides her exclusive rights to cull the herd for a hundred year period. During that time, she establishes the infrastructure to perform a grand cull on the world. When the infrastructure is completed, the grand cull is performed. A successful grand cull will harvest a billion useable drones.
It requires three or four thousand years after the grand cull for the wild herd to recover, so a typically herd world will have a grand cull once every few thousand years.
In general, the wild orbs on a herd world are totally unaware of the elves and not aware they are being ripened. The elves keep the herds unaware, through the herd-mothers. The herd-mothers are elves that live among the orb herd and observe the rituals of the herd. In general, they allow the herd to grow on its own, and only interfere in issues that affect the ripening of the herd.
When the herd has reached the proper size, generally five to ten billion orbs, the elves perform a grand cull. A grand cull usually takes twenty years to process the crop. Over ninety percent of the wild herd is processed. Orbs are collected and sorted. The ones with the correct age and physical characteristics are banded, their will broken, and trained. The unacceptable are disposed of, usually in a permanent manner. Usually only twenty percent of the collection is in an acceptable age, and physical condition to become useful drones. Drones with marginal characteristics are often put to use helping to perform the cull. Those that are not useful are repurposed as feeders, or eliminated.
The collected drones are banded and taken to a training site, where their will is broken and they receive basic drone training. Once the basic training is complete, the drones are sent off-world to receive advanced training and spend the remainder of their lives submissively meeting the elves needs. The best and most physically pleasing are reserved for serving the mothers. Many of the others are trained to perform the specialized services that are required to maintain the complex elf society. Those that cannot perform specialized services are used in menial activities such as field drones or sewage collection drones.
The key to a grand cull is the orderly collection of the wild herd. A well organized grand cull produces a steady stream of a hundred million new drones a year for twenty years. The methods to initially collect the orbs differs from world to world, depending on the technology levels and the rituals of the wild herd. Occasionally, the collection uses direct coercion, augmented with coercion stones. Generally the collection use an intermediary, such as the hydra to start the herd swirling. Once the swirling begins, the elves use the herd rituals and leaders to direct the herd to collection points. Although the collection process various from world to world, after the collection, the process is the same.
A grand cull is a major undertaking. it requires a significant infrastructure to process the harvest. Preparing and performing a grand cull requires most of the hundred year claim duration. Additional herders are sent when the claim is made to ensure the crop ripens properly. Establishing the infrastructure for the grand cull starts two decades before the cull. Three major facilities are required. At the first facility, the off-worlding site, two or three transport tunnels are established to move large numbers of drones from the world. Logistics and supply facilities are established at the off-worlding site, as well as Cull-mothers headquarters. The cull provides all of the supplies that it needs. Everything is made locally, and no consumables are brought from off-world. The consumables range from bands and chains for the new harvest, to dark energy logs that power the collection portals.
Transport tunnels are one of the most sophisticated items of elf technology. Like all elf technology, they were developed by orbs on an orb world. Most transports between different universes are by transporter. A transporter is a limited, but straightforward way to move between universes. A single transporter can only be used a few times a day, and it can only transport ten or twenty people at any time. It is not limited to transport to only one location.
A transport tunnel is a permanent link between worlds in two universes. It can be used to move tens of thousands from the world in one universe to the world in another universe. It is the single innovation that makes grand culls feasible. Transport tubes are difficult to create. They are unstable creations of dark energy, and can fail catastrophically, so they are rarely used close to major elf cities, but are idea for grand culls.
The second major facility is the training site. This site accepts the orbs from the cull and then sorts them. The good harvest are banded and processed. The others are either trained to help with the cull, or used as feeders. The good harvest’s minds are broken and given initial training. When they are suitably obedient and trained they are sent off site for advanced training and for distribution to elf worlds.
The training site is a major city. In the Earth grand cull, the plan was to off-world two billion good drones over a twenty year period. That requires one hundred million drones off-worlded every year, and five hundred million drones processed every year. A million and a half drones per day processed. The training base operates as a twenty four hour a day operation, receiving sixty thousand new captives every hour.
The third major facility is the transport center. This site handles the transportation of the drones, just like a major airport. The transport center is the hub for a series of portals that connect all of the sites, as well as the collection points. It has one pod of portals that go to the training site, a second pod connects to the off-worlding site, and a third pod connects to the collection points. The advantage of this structure is that only the collection points change from one grand cull to another. The rest of the facilities are identical on every grand cull.
A few herd-mothers are always present on a herd world, but until close to a cull their number is small. When Earth was selected for a grand cull, eighty years before the grand cull started, the herd-mothers were increased. Herd-mother is one of the lowest status roles in elf society, so most herd-mothers are malcontents that do not fit in normal elf society. The additional herd-mothers prepare the crop. The herd-mothers learn the herd rituals and identify the herd leaders. They coerce and control the key leaders, so that the herd will respond to the elf needs. Working with a large herd is a dangerous undertaking. If the leaders lose control, the herd often becomes destructive and lashes out at itself.
Cull-mothers arrive on-world as the cull ramps up. Some cull-mothers are on the world for the duration of the cull. Others are only there for a few years. Cull mothers serve on a grand cull to increase their status. Drones provide everything that an elf mothers requires on her home world, and the concept of money does not exist. Instead status is the most important thing in an elf mothers life. All mothers are expected to perform services, with different services adding different amounts of status. There are only a few high status occupations on a mother’s home world. Low status mothers have few ways to gain status without leaving to serve on expeditions. Grand culls and cleansings are common expeditions that allow a low status mothers to return home with increased status.
A swirling starts a grand cull. The swirling takes into account many things, including the herd rituals, the technological status of the herd, and the degree to which the herd follows its leaders. The purpose of the swirling is to cause a major relocation of the herd. Once the relocation starts, a fraction of the herd is sieved through the collection points for processing. A good swirling distracts the herd, so the portion of the herd that is missing does not raise undue alarm. Hydra are commonly used as the swirling mechanism, but many other methods are also available to swirl the herd.
The hydras are controlled by hydra-mothers and directed along precise routes. The hydra are infected with a disease called the blight. The blight is spread by the hydra and their birds. The blight stays after the hydra leave, so the herd cannot return to the locations where the hydra has traveled. That forces the herd into relocation camps that can be methodically processed.
On Earth, facilities called Houses of Servitude were used to collect the swirling herd. A portion of the herd was processed in the houses and then banded and chained before they were sent through portals to the transport center, and from there to the training center.
Performing a cull is inherently risky. The herd must be excited enough to cause it to swirl, but not excited enough to cause it to stampede. In the best culls, the herd is unaware of the processing and swirls placidly.
In unsuccessful grand culls, the herd stampedes. Occasionally the wild herd becomes spooked. In that case, the herd reacts and follows new leaders. This new leadership often results in strife that destroys most of the herd and the herd’s infrastructure. A few herd-mothers are killed in the stampede, but that is not a major loss. The major loss is that a large fraction of the ripe herd is killed in the stampede, resulting in a poor harvest, often not even large enough to justify the infrastructure.
At the end of successful grand culls, a final gleaning picks the remaining ripe orbs from the residual herd. This gleaning ensures that the herd rituals and structure collapses. The herd mothers prune the residual herd back to a few starts. Those starts are watched to ensure they have lost all knowledge from the previous herd, and that the history of events before the grand cull is enshrined only in myths. Then the start are allowed to grow. After a few thousand years, when the starts have ripened into a new herd, the elves will perform another grand cull and start the process again.
The last step is for Cull-mother to disassemble the cull infrastructure, and moves it to another world in preparation for the next grand cull.
There are many free worlds of orbs that are not elf herd worlds.These free orb worlds are bonded in loose confederations to oppose the elves. The elves are aware of these orbs, but not the location of their home worlds. The orbs use sophisticated devices to keep their locations hidden. Whenever the elves find one of these orb worlds there is a prolonged struggle to turn the world into a herd world. The struggle is rarely a major clash of arms. Often the struggle is between the elf coercive powers, and orb technologies to counter those powers. The elf coercive powers often is successful in collapsing the civilization of the world. Many of the remaining orbs flee, with the residual becoming the starts for a new herd world.
Insurgents from free orb world, hang around the edge of grand culls, looking for opportunities to stampede the herd and disrupted the cull. The elves know the free orbs are present, but view them as minor annoyances, not major concerns. The free orbs have become proficient at making herds stampede. To counter that, the elves have developed a process called a quench. The details of the quench change depending on the cull, but the essence is that the elves kill a portion of the herd, typically a quarter, in order to stop the stampede and save the other three quarters of the wild herd.