Garmillans

This article describes the Garmillas species as depicted in Space Battleship Yamato 2199 and its sequels. For the homeworld of the species, see Garmillas. For their language, see Garmillas (language). For the species' counterpart in the original Space Battleship Yamato and its sequels, see Gamilas (species). For the similarly named half of the hive mind consciousness in the live action film, see Gamilas (live action film).

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Our blue blood and skin are truly unique in this vast universe. We're proud of our blue blood. Because of that we've maintained our pure bloodlines.

—Abelt Desler^[16]

Garmillans (GARMILLON, Garmillon),^[17] also referred to as Garmillas (GARMILLas, Garmillas),^[18] are an ethnic group of the Galman human species that emigrated to the planet Garmillas. As the founders and leaders of the Greater Garmillan Empire and the Garmillas Grand Duchy that preceded it, the species has become the dominant race in the Large Magellanic Cloud and territories beyond.

Biology

For the Garmillas' biology, see Galmans

History

Early History

The Garmillans originally lived on planet Galman, where their biological evolution was influenced by an ancient alien civilasation known as Archelias, which discovered the species' homeworld and seeded it with its own genetic material.^[15][19]

Thousands of years before 2205, the people of Iscandar's empire decided to abandon their physical bodies to crystalize themselves inside of the Sanctel. To continue their military campaigns in their absence, they selected the Galman people to do their bidding in the physical realm. The Iscandarians surreptitiously abducted a group of Garmanns. This group, led by a king of their own, was sent on a harrowing, brutal journey through space. They suffered many casualties before arriving at a seemingly perfect copy of their homeworld that was Iscandar's twin planet. The Garmanns are unable to live for extended periods of time outside of the unique habitat of their home planet, thus the Iscandarians had used the Cosmo Reverse System to recreate a copy of Galman on Iscandar's barren twin. This natural attachement the Garmanns had to their new world effectively rendered them unable to leave Iscandar's side, additionally, the Iscandarian manipulated their new servant species to have an almost fanatical reverence towards them. They promptly named their servants and their planet "Garmillas", which in the Iscandarian language meant "Galman apes".^[15]

For many years to come the Garmillas would play the role Iscandar assigned to them, bringing war throughout the Large Magellanic Cloud, initially, this was done on Iscandar's behalf, but eventually the Garmillas began to assert themselves, beginning their own expansion into the cosmos.^[15][20] In addition to conquering other races, the Garmillas worked to "Garmillasform" uninhabitable worlds into life-sustaining planets, and used large sections of the crust of their homeworld and the native life on them as supply bases for their efforts.^[21][22] No later than the year 1800, Garmillans discovered the Subspace gate network, allowing them to make use of corridors through subspace and to greatly expand their influence into the Small Magellanic Cloud and parts of the Milky Way Galaxy.^[23][24]

Recent History

For more details, see Garmillas Grand Duchy and Greater Garmillan Empire.

Planet Garmillas was divided among aristocratic and royal families up until the unification of the species under the Garmillas Grand Duchy in year 2170. The nation however remained highly unstable and broke out in a bloody civil war in year 2184. Abelt Desler, young scion of the noble Desler family, which had ruled over the Grand Duchy, set out to reunite the planet under his rule. His reign began in year 2188 with the foundation of the Greater Garmillan Empire, and was driven by secret knowledge that the planet Garmillas was dying. He courted Queen Stasha of Iscandar, proposing the unification of his empire with the small but still powerful remains of hers to bring order and "salvation" to the universe under his banner.^[16][25][2] The empire's campaign of conquest also grew harsher, and control of the Garmillan people tightened considerably under the empire's secret police force, the Imperial Guard. The old aristocracy of the empire was greatly marginalized under Desler's rule^[26][27][28]

In the year 2199, the regime of Abelt Desler came to an abrupt end during the Battle of the Imperial Capital, when it was revealed that he had fled from the capital to the orbital fortress Baleras II, and had planned to drop a section of it onto the capital city in order to destroy the Yamato, he had announced it as a necessary sacrifice. It was only when the Yamato had used its Wave-Motion Gun in order to blast apart the falling section in order to prevent the deaths of innocent civilians that all public support for Desler was revoked, with many believing that he had been killed when Baleras II detonated.^[29] The transition to a more benign and democratic government commenced, along with a cessation of all conflict between the Greater Garmillan Empire and Earth in-gratitude for saving them.^[20][30]

By late 2202, the Greater Garmillan Empire had entered into an alliance with the nwewly founded Earth Federation along with establishing a Garmillas Embassy on the Lunar Surface. With the promise of helping the Terrans to rebuild and expand into space by giving them several colony worlds that they had terraformed. Unofficially, the rationale behind this was due to the discovery of the time fault that was inadvertently created on Earth, which the Garmillas Empire managed to procure usage rights of in-exchange.^[31] Among the colony worlds established by Earth, there was a noticeable presence of Garmillas citizens on them. During the midst of the Gatlantis Campaign, a former leader of the Imperial Guard carried on a conspiracy to undermine and replace the new government, and Desler himself, rescued and armed by the Gatlantis Empire, began his own quest to return to power.^[16]

Following his reappacification with the new Garmillan government, Desler shared information regarding the incoming physical collapse of planet Garmillas, and together the two factions began working on a plan to evacuate all Garmillan citizens to a new hospitable world. Their quest would eventually led them to their forgotten homeworld, Galman, which Desler's forces liberated by the brutal occupation of the Bolar Federation.^[32][33][34]

While the planet Garmillas' population was being slowly emigrated out, millions of Garmillans were abruptly killed by the mysterious Dezariam during the Iscandar Incident, which saw both the planet Garmillas and the planet Iscandar completely destroyed, along with the extinction of all remaining Iscandarians. Only a third of the planet Garmillas' population migrated before the planet's destruction, with a mere other 100,000 citizens surviving the destruction of the empire's capital world.^[35]

After the Iscandar Incident, the survivors completed their emigration to planet Galman and the Garmillans as an entire people once again stood on their original homeworld, rejoining their Galman kinsfolk that they were abducted from thousands of years ago.^[36]

Culture and Society

Many facets of Garmillan society have come to be dominated by the authoritarian Garmillan state. Under the regime of Abelt Desler, daily life has come to be oriented toward the greater glory of the empire, its policies, and its leaders. Military activity is routine in Baleras, with soldiers and warships becoming a regular sight in the imperial capital. Children learn from an early age to celebrate and emulate the military that fights to expand the empire's frontiers. The grave markers of deceased civilians, even children, are adorned with the emblem of the empire.^[25][2][37] The Imperial Guard has contributed to these conditions through pervasive surveillance of the public, and through ideological programs carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Propaganda.^[24][27] The centrality of the empire in Garmillas society is built upon a widespread--but far from universal--belief in the superiority of the Garmillas people over other races.^{[38][37][39][40]}

Ironically, Garmillans show great reverence for the alien people and culture of Iscandar, making the planet into what an Earthling observer once described as an "object of worship." Garmillans demonstrate unquestioning respect in their infrequent interactions with the few surviving Iscandarians; this includes use of the ritualized phrase "Rüd Iscandar" ("Noble Iscandar")^[41] in welcoming and taking leave.^[25][29]

Following the aftermath of the attack on Baleras; where Desler had tried to use a section of Baleras II in order to crush the Yamato with, only for the Yamato to use its Wave-motion Gun to destroy the fragment before it landed. The Yamato along with its crew were seen as great heroes, leaving the people eternally grateful for the ship saving them, and bringing about an end to the Garmillas War.^[29]

By the year 2202, Earth and Garmillas has entered into an alliance with Earth, the Garmillas people having managed to give Earth several colony worlds where the two people have managed to assimilate aspects of their cultures; one of the more notable examples of this being the celebration of Christmas where it was shown that children of Terran, Garmillas, and possibly even Zaltzi origin happily gathered around a Christmas tree in order to decorate it, indicating that there is no bad blood at all between the colonists.^[31]

Some colors have certain meanings in Garmillan culture: dark blue (referred to as "noble blue"), is held in reverence as the color of Garmillan skin;^[27][42] Green is the color of national defense, and is used in the hull of most Garmillan spaceships.^[43]

Technology

Garmillan civilization has achieved one of the highest levels of technological advancement in its region of space. Even with such accomplishments, the Garmillas have come to rely in part on acquired alien technology, as in the case of the Pormelia-class carrier.^[44] The Archelias network of subspace gateways, built in the distant past by a long-vanished race, has become a key element of the empire's expansion beyond its home galaxy.^[24] Cloning is used for the Garmillas Imperial Guard to mass-produce one loyal, astute model of soldier, as well as smaller numbers of other personnel such as senior officers.^[38] Robotics technology appears to have been shared between Garmillas and Iscandar, and Abelt Desler's quest for closer ties with Iscandar has recently enabled the empire to begin building its own wave-motion engines, one of the most potent and potentially destructive sources of energy known to science.^[25][45]

Spaceships' bridges and other interiors feature patterned yellow panels made from a material called Garmillas marble.^[46] Military spacecrafts are coated in migobueza coating, a protective layer that allows them to repel weaker beam weaponry.^[47] Almost all hulls are also equipped witheye-shaped light-emitting devices. They glow light green when cruising, and yellow to red during combat. They turn off when the engine stops.^[48]

The Garmillans sometime used concealment devices to change their skin, hair, and eye colors. By the end of the 22nd century, these kind of devices had to be worn as a choker around the neck, but by 2202 a new model that could be worn as a bracelet had been developed.^[49][50]

Architectural design is relatively uniform throughout the empire. Buildings on the planet Garmillas itself and on the frontier world of Pluto tens of thousands of light years away both have a partially organic look that appears to have been grown as much as built. Many such buildings fill the city of Baleras, and are similar in shape, color, and size.^[2][29][51]

Language

For more details, see Garmillas (language)

A single spoken and written language is used by all Garmillans. The language bears some similarities to the Iscandarian language, but time, distance, and circumstances have magnified differences between the two. The Garmillas language has spread widely with the territorial expansion of the empire, and some portion of the empire's alien subjects have adopted it as their own. Alien languages have had their own influence, introducing greater linguistic variety and irregularity into Garmillan.^[44][52][53]

Religion

Concepts of gods and Heaven exist in Garmillas society. They may be invoked by a speaker as a way of declaring that a momentous or difficult action is the right one.^[54][55]

Notable Individuals

See Category: Garmillas Characters

Behind the Scenes

Leiji Matsumoto has stated that he named the Gamilas of the original Space Battleship Yamato series after the 1871 vampire novel Carmilla.^[56] The official English spelling used for most of the 2199 series would seem to reflect this.

References

Japanese language information

• ガミラス人 Gamirasu-jin (Garmillans)
• ガミラス Gamirasu (Garmillas)