THE ZENTRAEDI

The Zentraedi history is a story of cruelty and manipulation at the hands of beings who had grown alien to their own humanity. Eons past, a race known as the Robotech Masters needed an inexpensive labor force to excavate planets with heavy gravity and environments far too harsh for ordinary human life. Using their own body cells and unsurpassed knowledge of genetics and cloning, they created the Zentraedi. However, the Robotech Masters soon found a more daring use for their artificial race of giants. With the alien, Invid, threat becoming ever more annoying, they decided to turn the Zentraedi into a warrior race. Warriors who would devote their lives to defending them against the Invid and conquer new worlds to add to their empire.

Through the mastery of genetics and cloning, the Zentraedi were grown from human cells. These clones were slightly modified; adjusting body and bone structure to support their great size and mass. To add a new wrinkle, the Robotech Masters found a way to encode the Zentraedi DNA so that they could be micronized, or shrunk down, to normal human size and then restored to giant size at a later time. This provided the giants with even greater versatility. As giants, they were formidable soldiers. When combined with the secrets of Robotechnology, they would become almost invincible.

The problem now was how to keep the servant from usurping the master? The solution was easy for a race grown cold and unsympathetic to the human condition: psychologically impair the servant. A challenge the Robotech Masters welcomed with enthusiasm, for it was a new game to occupy their time for at least little while.

The conditioning of the Zentraedi must be complete, so it begins at the very conception of their artificial birth. The rudimentary blocks of learning are implanted as the beings gestate within their clone chambers. When they awake, a few short years after conception, the slumbering giants are fully grown, adult specimens, at the peak of physical maturity. Already they possess a full comprehension of languages, basic syntax, images, motor responses, and a false sense of history and purpose. The clone is quickly absorbed into society, eager to learn and prove itself. Sadly, it's indoctrination is into a twisted mockery of society which breeds aggression, mind control, and complete and utter dependence on the Robotech Masters.

Male and female are segregated always. Never cohabiting, never communicating, never interacting, except for fleeting moments on the battlefield, combating a common foe. Male and female exist in separate fleets, miles apart. The natural biological attractions are squashed, and replaced with underlying feelings of suspicion and arrogant disdain toward each other's gender. The Zentraedi men and women are so far removed emotionally and physically that they actually think of each other as being similar, but alien beings. All sense of history and identity are lost. The Zentraedi do not even realize that a man and woman can bond and create new life. They have no understanding of biology or science. They have no parents, no racial memories. They are born in a sterile clone chamber and nurtured by trials of combat. The Robotech Masters are the creators. It is they who give life, and then give that life purpose. War.

To insure the Zentraedi's total loyalty, they are made to be completely dependent upon their masters. The giants are taught no sciences, no mathematics, no theology, nor art. Self- expression, creativity and individuality are systematically crushed where ever it may surface. Only the fine arts of combat are learned, to the exclusion of all else. So purposely ignorant are the Zentraedi that they can not repair their own weapons, vehicles, machinery, or even clothes. The Robotech Masters provide for EVERYTHING!! Food, clothing, shelter, power and life purpose. Thus, the Robotech Masters hold all the power while the Zentraedi are little more than the vessels with which that power is served.

The average Zentraedi soldier is three years old, emotionally retarded, and thrives on aggression. But not mindless aggression. No, the Robotech Masters have trained their subjects well. They follow the orders of their superior officers, do not fight amongst themselves, and strive to fullfill their destiny; to conquer. Seeing the Robotech Masters as almost legendary, god-like beings, the Zentraedi serve them without question. Sadly, the Robotech Masters view their creations as inexpensive, mass produced, flesh and blood robots. Human in orgin and design, because it is far easier to manufacture Zentraedi than robots of metal. Because even the best robot is not as effective as a properly developed and programmed, biological unit such as the warrior giants. They are more versatile, intuitive, resilient, driven, and infinitely more aggressive than any robot could ever be. In the final analysis, it is the human factor that makes the Zentraedi the deadliest war machines possible.

The Zentraedi soldier is the ideal warrior. Bred to war, they are conditioned to obey orders without question. They fight to the death against overwhelming odds without fear, hesitation or regret. A Zentraedi does not mourn when a fellow dies in combat, for it is the fate of all Zentraedi. Love and friendship are replaced by cool aloofness and fierce sense of purpose; to fight and be victorious as a whole, as a race, not just as an individual. The thrill of combat is like sweet nectar to these giants. To dance with death and prove victorious, an unparalleled high. It is their life purpose, their destiny, to seek and destroy. Victory means destruction. Death and annihilation are viewed with cold indifference, not out of cruelty or callousness, but because they are simply the anticipated by-products of war. In war there is always death. Death in combat is fulfillment. Death by combat is inevitable. This is the proud achievement of the Robotech Masters.

However, the Zentraedi war machine suffers several flaws inherent within their emotional make-up and artificial society. Though powerful and fearless, they lack compassion or insight. To win is to destroy. There is no growth. No change. No assimulation of other cultures or ideas. Indeed, mercy and compassion are seen as weaknesses. Concepts contrary to the Zentraedi way of life are viewed as contamination, and often, irrevocably deadly. This is as the Robotech Masters want things. Yet, it is also what subverts their loyal instruments of destruction. Although clever and cunning, the Zentraedi lack true inventiveness; a trait discouraged except among the elite officers, and even then it must be directed toward strategy and tactics. All Zentraedi warriors are instilled with arrogance and disdain for all other life. A trait that, while lending itself to heroic bravado and self-sacrifice, also leads to the underestimation of one's enemy. This same arrogance, coupled with the overwhelming need to win and total obedience to authority, can lead to senseless bloodshed and lemming-like destruction.

Only the officers reach any great age and wisdom. They are encouraged and nurtured to develop an intellect and imagination for combat. Yet, like the ordinary Zentraedi soldier, the officers have no true, individual identity. They are simply bigger cogs in the same machine. It is their responsibility to direct and keep the smaller cogs moving smoothly and efficiently. Only the top ranking officers possess rudimentary skills in reading and mathematics. Only they have a, specifically tailored, sense of history. And even among the oldest and greatest officers, only a tiny handful have ever actually met their makers, the Robotech Masters.

Surprisingly, the Zentraedi are not all doomed to be social miscreants, forever devoid of knowledge or compassion. These are not a stupid people, nor aliens. They are human beings who have fallen victim to a maniacal plot by the decadent and, perhaps, insane Robotech Masters. With proper stimulation and cultivation, they too can learn the value of friendship, caring, creativity and self-expression. This is clearly evident by Breetai and his soldier's changes as their world view grows and alters through their prolonged contact with the humans of the SDF-1. Mental and emotional changes that happen rapidly, for the Zentraedi are as clever as any Earth- born human. New concepts, once viewed with terror or disgust soon became acceptable, even pleasurable. Once free in an open society, the Zentraedi discovered a bold new world before them. However, ages of conditioning and false history make these changes difficult and, for many, repugnant.