MYSTERIOUS SPECIES
Tagline
Immortality is more than a dream for some.
MYSTERIOUS SPECIES
Synopsis
A young woman's body is found in Topčider Park, drained of blood. The discovery alarms the public. If the other cases, and the serial killer's signature of leaving bodies without a drop of blood, were made public, panic would follow.
Dr Gergelji, an anthropologist who has spent years searching for proof that vampires exist since his son disappeared, joins the investigation. He is certain they live among us.
One sunny morning, twenty-year-old Ljubica wakes from a strange dream feeling that disturbing changes have taken place in her body. She no longer needs the glasses she has worn since childhood. Suddenly she can hear, see and smell things from a distance, and she feels unnaturally strong.
An ancient vampire prophecy says that the child of a vampire and a mortal will be born to unite vampires and humans. Another prophecy warns that such a union could bring the apocalypse. The conflicting prophecies divide the vampire community, and its members know that war is coming.
THE WORLD OF MYSTERIOUS SPECIES
‘Mysterious Species’ is a story about vampires. They look exactly like us and live among us in hiding. Their senses, speed and agility are heightened, and drinking blood triggers regeneration and rejuvenation in their bodies, making them almost immortal. They rarely have children, whether with humans or with one another; when they do, the children usually grow up to be ‘mortals’, as they call humans. The longevity gene becomes active only after physical maturity, generating new stem cells and repairing damaged organs. Even more rarely, a new vampire is created by ‘turning’ a human. Their numbers are therefore small, and secrecy is essential to their survival. They themselves transformed mortals' memories of them into myths, convincing people that vampires do not exist. They call themselves the long-lived and humans the mortal. There are only about 2,000 of them worldwide.
They have a secret organisation called the Circle. It has twelve members, the twelve most powerful vampires, and only they hold the title Boros. Membership and the title are lifelong; a place opens only when a member dies or voluntarily leaves. A departing member may, however, retain the title. The Circle's emblem is a red ouroboros. The vampire hierarchy also includes distractors and nuods, usually attached to a Boros. Each member of the Circle has twelve nuods, while there are only about ten independent distractors. Those who are not nuods tend to be solitary individuals who chose not to join the Circle, but they have their community's respect. The distractors and nuods chiefly conceal the existence of their species by removing traces of it. They can be replaced, and new Boros are usually chosen from among the nuods.
Their informal ruler is the Red Lady, the Circle's most respected member and the ‘mother’ and protector of Luka and Dagmar.
Their long lives give them intellectual and financial advantages. They control many of the world's important forces, from military power, funds and treasuries to major scientific projects.
Luka is close to decoding the genome of the long-lived. He believes it is the human genome with only minor differences. He has identified an unstable hormone in vampire blood that is released after foreign blood is consumed and stimulates stem-cell production regardless of age or physical condition. He has also found a virus that accelerates their growth, enabling organs and the body as a whole to regenerate and rejuvenate. The same virus is fatal to humans unless they carry a latent vampire gene. That is why ‘turnings’ are rare and usually end in death. The vampire gene and hormone production activate only after physical maturity, generally around the age of twenty, though the timing varies between individuals.
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The spaceship ‘ark2eternity’ travels through the universe on a mission to preserve and spread intelligent life. Its crew, the Aions, are immortal. They are led by Krona, the Mother, an avatar of the central computer. Special digital stores hold millions of digitised human souls. From time to time, some are given avatars and physical lives: these are the Aions. Their memories are stored continuously, so if a body dies, an identical new avatar is created with all its memories up to the moment of death. The Aions can communicate telepathically, read and control thoughts, and implant memories of experiences that never happened, even dreams.
The Ark travels faster than light. Time travel has been developed, but influencing the lives of others in the past is expressly forbidden and punishable. The Ark has also solved the problem of obtaining and using energy.
Attempts to enter parallel worlds, and any contact with them, are forbidden. The world of the dead is considered a parallel world. Experiments have shown that every change made to the past creates another parallel world, and that the Ark and the Aions immediately find themselves in that new world. The Ark cannot control anything connected with parallel worlds, which is why such contact is prohibited.
Dreams and visions have a special place in the story. Once thought to be prophecies, they can be influenced by the crew of ‘ark2eternity’, explaining many prophetic accounts. When an Ark crew member falls asleep, their spirit joins that of a baby born on Earth at that moment. Their dream lasts for the whole of that person's life. In this way they gain life experiences that become part of the ship's library, valuable in building happier civilisations in the future.
With the vampires and the Ark, history—the teacher of life—gains new layers, and some events take on another meaning. The long memories of vampires, the dreams of the Ark's crew and Ljubica's research into vampire history reveal much that was previously unknown.
Politics is the art that gives its ‘players’ the privilege of governing the present and shaping the future. It is decisive not only among humans but also on the Ark and among vampires. The powerful fight to advance their ideas and impose their projects. Political manoeuvres determine the outcomes of their campaigns: through ‘democratic’ procedures among us, and by the Others' own methods elsewhere.
‘Mysterious Species’ is conceived as a saga: a series of films with a television counterpart, each telling a complete story while leaving room for a sequel.
The stories weave together past and future, dreams, memories and visions.
In genre, it is a thriller, mystery, drama, science-fiction story and adventure set in a parallel, fantastical world.