Creatures Caves

Our knowledge of the Shee is limited to a Shee-friendly description or the testimony of the Lone Shee. At first, it seems that the Shee society is depicted as somewhat perfect or at least a scientific ideal.

The Shee are depicted as an intelligent yet naive species which, though irresponsible, is capable of brilliant things and open to knowledge. They seem to have a high potential, are capable of creating genetically engineered lifeforms, machines that are partially alive and were willing to explore the universe to settle in a better world no matter how long it took or what they might get in the end.

The Shee society is a mixed between the Absent-minded professor archetype and a stereotypically old-fashioned Britishman. As we know, the name Albia refers to the so-called "Perfidious Albion" (England) but also to "Alba" (Scotland in Gaelic), plus they have a definite love for tea and biscuits as well as a stereotypical Victorian attitude toward sex (of course, the British aren't like that at all, but the stereotype still exists) which is why they invented kisspopping.

For these reasons, their society, at first, does not seem to be based on ethics but rather on science. Now, some people might say that science without ethics is nothing, but this is not what the debate is about. Stereotypically, scientific minds are less likely to think about ethics than others due to their need for knowledge and intellectual stimulation. Genetical engineering, biotechnology, colonisation of new worlds: the Shee society is obviously driven by exploration in most fields except for ethics and spirituality. We have yet to hear about a philosopher or a potential religion on Albia.

This is probably why they do not see any harm in creating new lifeforms for slavery. Grendels, Ettins and Norns were all experiments made for utilitary means rather than knowledge only. The Shee aren't just interested in getting new knowledge, they are, as Humans are, interested in making their life easier and controling their environment, thus they created slaves. Contrary to what we may have thought at first by describing the Shee archetype, they are not purely driven by their thirst for knowledge, they are driven by a common laziness when it comes to secondary needs and jobs. They clearly aren't as naive as one may think they are, or at least, not innocent.

I would argue that they aren't amoral creatures either, they seem to have some kind of ethics which isn't purely based on science or logic considering their aversion for openly sexual acts (though they do not seem to mind inbreeding and polygamy among their creations, we could easily say that it was easier for them to create haploid lifeforms as they needed a stable population and probably started with "Adam" and "Eve". Plus, polyamoury could easily be a lifestyle for them and a normal mode of reproduction, they do not need to follow the human emotional and sexual norms to be a sentient or moral species, it is subjective) but moreso for their aversion of reptilian lifeforms and more or less official laws concerning experiments.

We know the Banshee for being outcast among the Shee, they are implied to be violent or monsters... yet, this story has only been told for the Shee point of view. For all we know, the Banshee have been banned for doing different kinds of experiments than those allowed by the common doctrine and for liking reptilian lifeforms (Grendels).

While Grendels are being ostracized for being violent and carrying diseases, we know for a fact that Norns can also be terribly violent and that Grendels are being raised in dangerous ecosystems (full of bacterias, unwelcoming, etc.) which would easily make any species become violent to adapt and justify the "carrying disease" myth. Many players raise Grendels happily without a problem no matter their violent nature. It should be noted that while the Hardman display the same violent temperament (argually, they are even worse), they haven't been truly ostracised by the Lone Shee who collected their DNA (though, arguably, the Lone Shee truly is a naive Shee driven by knowledge). Additionally, the Ettins are seen positively even though they are depicted as rather stupid while they also tend to live in unwelcoming areas and have an annying kleptomanic tendency that surely created problems to the Shee.

Now, perhaps the Shee were closer to mammals (note that we can't state that any Albian lifeform is truly mammalian, especially not norns or ettins since they lay eggs) than they were to reptilians which may justify their aversion for scally things and preference for furry things ("cute"

but this still doesn't really justify logically their prejudice or the reason why the Banshee are depicted like evil figures.

Speaking about evil, the Shee are logically seens as deity by their creations, but they also seemed to have either a huge ego or some kind of deity themselves considering the way their statues looked (especially in Creatures 2, this game give us a good representation of a Shee idol, almost cruel or terrifying giant in a room filled with what could be presents).

The opposition between the Banshee and the Shee doesn't seem to make much sense either. The Banshee's only fault, apart from liking Grendels, is to be "more materialistic" than the Shee, though we have no evidence of this fact in the games or mythology. Their love for gadget is said to be unnatural for most Shee, though we know for a fact that the Lone Shee was still interested in them (as well as in genetics) and that the Shee society created dozens of machines and gadgets. One may argued that it was out of necessity, but the Shee archetype started out as the engineer (in general) rather than the genetician. Plus, the Banshee's interest in gadgets and machine may seem materialistic, but it opposed to the Shee's interest in creating slaves. What the Shee do with slaves, the Banshee might do with machines. Basically, the Shee doctrine consider it more ethical or natural to use lifeform to serve them rather than technology.

(Now, we could also note that Grendels, Ettins and Norns are all sentient creatures capable of speech and will, they weren't truly engineered to become slaves and the games pretty much show that they followed orders out of fear and admiration for their god-like figures rather than because they were programmed to do so. The Shee have never created slaves, they have created lifeforms that are halfway between "Shee" and "Pets", intelligent enough to work, survive and comprehend orders but not enough to be able to compete with the Shee or be on an equal footing.)

It seems obvious to me that the conflict between the Shee and the Banshee is purely ideological rather than truly based on the typical opposition of a good and evil lifeforme.

The Shee society seems to have elvoved from a science-based to religion-based. The Shee share the belief that life is natural, therefore creating life is the natural way to control their environment, improve their life and create, which is why most of their machines and technologies are life-based. Their belief lead them to reject anything that isn't lifebased such as gadgets or non-bio machines. The Banshee, however, share the belief that the doctrine is wrong and that non-life based technology should be explored and experimented on to improve life, as well as that the Grendels were an interesting experiment that shouldn't be left aside and has some potential. Of course, this lead them to create the terrible Banshee Grendels, but I wouldn't say this is all because the Banshee are violent, I think this is mostly because the Shee and Banshee live some kind of ideological war leading to extreme behaviours.

For these reasons, I think the Shee society isn't as nice and naive as it has been depicted. They probably aren't even that irresponsible but were caught in a war between to main ideologies because their society had become authoritarian throughout the years. The Lone Shee would be a different kind of outcast, being the archetypal Shee before society went wrong.