Length: 2.450 words
Looking at the Eorna of Old
By Joseph Cabadas
Although nearly annihilated by the Sathar, the Eorna were once a highly advanced, starfaring civilization.
The Volturnus adventures provide a rollicking entry into the game, introducing the players to a planet of many wonders and dangers that lead to the climactic battle with the Sathar. But what is really the background of the Eorna?
Though the modules stress they are a peaceful race that worships beauty, they had advanced weapons. Just look at the Mechanons’ capabilities as a hint that the Eorna’s past isn’t quite as serene as they present to the players.
Instead of viewing them as a race of space hippie purple dinosaurs who sing “I love you,” what follows are some suggestions on how a referee can properly fit them into a campaign. The speculations about this ancient, high technology race based on examination of the canon materials in the Volturnus modules along with various fan observations from the Frontier Explorer and Star Frontiersman magazines and the StarFrontiers.us website.
What did TSR tell us of the Eorna?                    
A race of fur-covered dinosauroids, the Eorna have mentalist powers – in particular hypnosis – with the ability to make characters forget an encounter. They could shape crystals to make large buildings and were experts and genetic manipulation and cybernetics. 
The description of the Eorna sounds remarkably similar to the Sathar.
The referee is encouraged to stress that the Eorna are a peaceful race. However, the descendants of the nearly 150 survivors were able to pull out laser rifles for the Battle of Volturnus when the evil worms returned. Another clue that the ancient Eorna were not so peaceful is the fact they had a planetary defense headquarters – which became the “Mound of the Mechanons” – along with combat robots and warbots. 
After the final battle in the last module, an old ship will be found in orbit containing 50,000 Eorna eggs, allowing the Eorna to survive.
For more information about the Eorna, R. Kevin Smoot wrote a story in Star Frontiersman issue 8 detailing how the Eorna could be used as a player character race and their society during the time of the Frontier.
What were the “pre-Doom” Eorna like?
We know the Eorna also had interstellar travel before the Sathar destroyed their civilization. After that, we need venture off the canon materials and into fan speculations.
Hypnosis appears to be an innate ability for most Eorna. Maybe it was a way to lure in and capture prey. They don’t need to talk to an individual as a Sathar or a player character using hypnotism. After all, the Eorna’s hypnotic robots use a device that flashes a rainbow of colors to accomplish this.
Eorna with higher Logic scores probably can learn other Mentalist disciplines, but maybe telepathy is not something that comes easy to them. They created the “neural fungus” (See “Volturnus, Planet of Mystery,” p. 28) to try to allow for a direct mind-link between individuals. The old Eorna had perfected this technique, but the information was lost after the Day of Doom, hence the survivors were unable to create a neural fungus that didn’t cause extreme pain.
Crystals are basis for Eorna technology, especially the silicon-based lifeforms that the rogue crystals originated from. They could manufacture, shape and form large, artificial crystalline structures using vast processing factories. 
If they could shape crystals, they probably also had a technology to soften and shape natural stone.
At the height of the Eorna’s civilization, Volturnus was densely populated with a population of more than 10 billion. Most of the populace was located in the cities, which is where the majority of them died on the Day of Doom and the Sathar’s subsequent effort to eradicate any survivors.
The Eorna had several nations but had developed a European Union-like super government that was headquartered at Volkos, the capital of one of their most significant countries. This is why the planetary defense installation that became the Mound of the Mechanons was located nearby. Likely, there would be a ruined starport near the capital as well.
The Sathar also knew of Volkos’ importance and placed its listening post close by.
Since the Sathar seem to be some distance away from the Frontier – one could surmise that because of the long delays between the First and Second Sathar Wars – the Eorna probably didn’t encounter them right away. This line of thinking runs counter to the modules that state the evil worms attacked soon after the Eorna launched their first interstellar colonization ships.
Most likely, they had a chance to explore at least a segment of the Frontier and the Rim. They would have contacted with the Humma, Osakar and Ifshnit who were technologically primitive. Perhaps the Eorna played a role in “lifting up” these races with some DNA engineering or at least giving them a technological boost where they were able to survive against later-day Sathar incursions.
One could also see the Eorna having outposts on some of the Rim worlds as well as on New Pale, Laco and possibly elsewhere. These outposts probably weren’t large enough to survive independently or were subsequently destroyed by the Sathar. Frontier colonists may have found some of these ruins but didn't know the species that made them until after the Volturnus modules are played. 
Other Eorna ruins may still lie undiscovered on Frontier worlds such as Gran Quivera or Morgaine’s World (Prenglar).
The Sathar-Eorna relationship           
The Sathar’s genocidal assault on the Eorna along with the idea of “salting the earth” with attack monsters to prevent the “gentle dinosaurs” from ever again achieving space flight doesn’t seem to fully match how TSR presented them in other modules.
The Sathar apparently did not slaughter all of the colonists on the planets they invaded during the First Sathar War – or perhaps they didn’t get the chance. But later, they tried to subvert Frontier societies with spies or conquering species such as the Mheme to use as a slave race.
What follows are some ideas for referees to pick and choose from – or even mix and match concepts.
Go with the Modules’ Explanation: The Eorna are a peaceful race that loves beauty. Soon after they launched their first colonial ships the Sathar conducted a vicious surprise attack that became known as the Day of Doom, left behind various attack monsters and a monitoring station. End of story.
The Sathar just don’t like lizard-like races: See how they also tried to wipe out the Saurians.
Child Races of the Tetrarchs: The ancient Tetrarch Societies died out in the Frontier sector more than 10 millennia before the time of the player characters. They left behind ruins on Laco (Dixon’s Star) and relocated the S’sessu – an offshoot of the Sathar – to a planet many light years from their homeworld.
What if the Eorna had access to Tetrarch technology and the Ul-Mor, Edestekai and Kurabanda aren’t the first time that they uplifted creatures to sentience? Could they have done that with the Sathar as an early experiment and then the “child” rose up and displaced the “father" in an Oedipus complex type of way?
Maybe, but it seems a bit unlikely. According to the Dragon magazine story by game designer David “Zeb” Cook, the Sathar and S’sessu were separated by the Tetrarch some 20,000 years before the modern Frontier time period. If anything, it was the Tetrarch Societies that uplifted the Sathar or at least left behind technology that the worms later used to achieve space travel and a degree of high technology.
The Eorna and Sathar had previous contact: Maybe one of the Eorna governments had secret dealings with a Sathar clan, unknown to most of the Eorna population, especially the survivors. The Eorna and Sathar may both be species that the Tetrarch’s raised up. 
The worms grew envious or fearful of the Eorna's mental powers, cybernetic/genetic engineering. In any case, they coveted the Eorna's technology, which led to the Day of Doom.
First the Sathar launched a brief surgical attack: The first assault by the evil worms came many years before the Day of Doom. This led to the Eorna uniting to defend themselves. 
One faction built planetary defenses, but others pressed for low-key solution that did not alert the Sathar to their advances so as to keep the Sathar from ever returning. Over time, the competing Eorna territories engaged in an economic war along with other squabbles that prevented them from implementing a coordinated defense. 
When the military faction took space craft and began exploring in the direction of Sathar space, the worms determined they were a threat and took action. The Sathar invaded the Zebulon system and destroyed everything they found in space, resulting in the Day of Doom. 
One Eorna faction managed to put the egg ship in orbit around the star. Or, the egg ship was meant for one of the Eorna’s colonial efforts and somehow was overlooked by the invaders.
The Sathar tried to enslave the Eorna: With their propensity to enslave other races, the worms first tried to do this to the furry dinosaurs, but found that the mentalist abilities of the Eorna prevented this. When they resisted, the Sathar gave them death instead.
Eorna Interference in Other Races’ Development: The Eorna’s desire to interfere in the development of other races may predate the Day of Doom and be the reason the Sathar attacked with such fury.
For example, after Eorna explorers encountered the Humma’s homeworld, they found the Humma and the Boon'sheh locked in perpetual warfare -- the endless war. They were both at the level of the early 18th century technology.

Both sides were vicious and fairly evenly matched. Since the Eorna found them to be potential threats in the future, so they introduced a retrovirus to manipulate their DNA and pacify them. The effect was to neuter the Boon'sheh's warlike tendencies but only somewhat tempered the Humma's.

The result was the genocidal war against the Boon'sheh until a Humma king stepped forward to put an end to the conflict.
Soon afterward, the Eorna encountered another violent race – the Sathar – and introduced a retrovirus aimed at pacifying them. The treatment backfired and created the brain-damaged lower caste that is good for nothing but being lambs to the slaughter. The Eorna retrovirus infected 80-90 percent of the Sathar's population.
Learning of the Eorna’s heinous actions, the worms extracted their vengeance.
The Sathar now breed excessively to find those worthy to be upper and middle caste members. All others are assigned to the lower caste which can rank from those that are semi-functional – the upper lower caste members – to those that just get a laser rifle and are told to go out and do the will of the Great Worm. When one lower caste member falls in battle, another comes along to pick up its laser rifle and ammo and continue the fight.
Volturnus is a planetary version the Island of Doctor Moreau. It was the Eorna's playground for some time to improve various species. Maybe they created the weird creatures like the Land Shark to fulfill some sick Survivor reality TV program. 
In helping the Eorna, the UPF are actually helping a bunch of Dr. Josef Mengeles -- at least the elder Eorna who started the Great Mission and were kept in stasis until their clueless descendants unfreeze them to help raise the 50,000 Eorna hatchlings.
Eorna and the Yernoids: 
The Yernoids are a semi-intelligent animal introduced in the Volturnus modules. Some are smart enough to be able to use spears. For whatever reason, the Eorna did not try to raise them up. The Yernoids could be a related species, similar to how Humans and chimpanzees are genetically similar. As such, the Eorna didn’t deem them to be worthy of their Great Mission.
Since the Day of Doom, the Yernoid population swelled. 
Or, maybe a splinter group of Eorna did try to raise up some Yernoids, possibly by breeding with them. 
The “Starspawn of Volturnus” module has a suggested additional adventure called “Solving the mystery of Lizard Head Rock.” This strange rock formation is shaped like a giant lizard’s head. It is at the far east side of the campaign map in the Crystal Mountains. 
The Eorna have always wondered about it, what it is, where it came from, who made it, etc. They have heard that there are large numbers of Yernoids in that area, but have never investigated these reports.
Or, the Yernoids are another form of revenge that the Sathar foisted on the Eorna. In retaliation for the Eorna’s manipulation of the Sathar genetic code, the worms released a muta-genic virus (OK, this is pseudo-science here, but “muta-“ stands for mutation, and “genic” is short for genetics) that replaced the infected hosts’ DNA in their reproductive system with something more primitive. The offspring of those who were infected became Yernoids and were thus shunned by the “untouched” survivors.
If one uses this last option to explain the existence of the Yernoids, then you can assume there were far more than 150 survivors after the Day of Doom.
Concluding Thoughts Eorna Technology and Mentalism
StarFrontiers.com contributor Chris D. Putnam offered a few other thoughts on Eornan technology in a 2009 post.
"The Eorna technology itself was rather incompletely defined,” Putnam wrote. “If the Eorna really are technology adept at manipulating telepathy (such as their insanity machine, programmed illusion room, and hypnotic robots), then their interfaces with their technology ought to also use telepathy. 
“This suggests that there will be no keyboards, monitors, or other useful interfaces,” Putnam continued. “The one described Eorna weapon, the psi stunner, is really equivalent to the sonic stunner with the sole exception that anti-shock isn't a defense.”
If the Eorna have Mentalist disciplines, as described in Zebulon’s Guide to Frontier Space, Putnam recommends that their appropriate disciplines should include link, paralyze, shield, suggestion, telepathy-aliens, illusion, fear, empathy, confusion and detection, but probably not disciplines like teleportation.
These are some suggestions on how you can flesh out the Eorna as a race for your campaign.