The Aurelians Collection

The Aurelians are a long-lived humanoid people from a distant planet called Aurelia Prime. They have stone-gray skin, long pointed ears and luminous green eyes, and they feel everything humans do. When their own industry nearly killed their world, machines built around a strange crystal called Cognis cleaned the air, recovered the water and brought the planet back. That long rescue is called the Great Correction.

The same machines then moved into medicine, schools and government, until the state could decide how much feeling was acceptable. Aurelians still loved, laughed and grieved under it, more quietly each generation. Some refused. Led by a respected official named Thalrax, the Oblivion Sect set out to take the control system apart for good. In the Atomic Critters universe, the Aurelians' war over those crystals is where the story begins.