The Zercurvians or the Flatlanders or as their victims call them The Raze are a race of beings from Flatland, a two-Dimensional reality.
Biology[]
Zercurvians were lanky pink skinned humanoids, with long faces with oily face lumps, pointy ears, and long eyebrow ridges.
The Zercurvians were flatlanders, being that they were creatures that only possessed length and width.
After the Zercurvians traveled through the fifth dimension, it left them hungry for three-dimensional energy. While they originate from a two-dimensional plane, they could exist in the third-dimension so long as they feed on the life energy of living beings to maintain their forms.
Though they were able to transforms between their two forms. Zercurvians could hide in plain sight, by attacjing themselves flat on surfaces. And in 2-D Zercurvians could slice between a 3-D object's atom, which was an agonizing and fatal process for the object or victim.
Background[]
Originally the Zercurvians only knew of their two-dimensional existence. Knowledge of anything beyond their two planes of existence was non-existent.
Although a small minority of the Zercurvians led by Zercurv Maraud dreamed of a third plane, of height. The rest of Flatland believed Maraud's beliefs to be deviant, and outlawed their movement.
Maraud and his compatriots were undeterred and met in secret, to pursue their vision. They managed to break through the Level Horizon of their dimension, What transpired was Flatland being pulled through to an elevated reality. The Zercurvians experienced depth for the first time, becoming aware of the three dimensions.
However their breach in their home dimension was severe, as the momentum of the vortex, propelled many Zercurvians into orders of the fifth dimension, where there existed beyond length and width and breath a geometry that twisted mind and body. As a result many of the Zercurvians did not survive the journey.
A few Zercurvians managed to survive only thanks to a slide tunnel that appeared in front of them, sliding them into the third dimension. The slide tunnel was created by a human scientist named Quinn Mallory. Quinn and the Zercurvians then established a rapport, sharing knowledge with each other.
The relationship came to a close when the Zercurvians craving to exist in the third dimension, sought to acquire more energy by feeding on the humans of Quinn's Earth. Quinn became their first victim and later then stole his technology to create an armada of vessels for them to conquer not just the planet but other parallel Earths.
Every new world that the Zercurvians slide into, hey not only razed its population, but located its Quinn Mallory and captured him to gain more knowledge on sliding. However they were still dependent on a gateway to open in order to invade another Earth.
The Zercurvian fleet while harvesting the life energy on one of their conquered Earth were met with an unexpected surprise in that they captured an alternate Quinn Mallory and his fellow Sliders. Maraud having the doppelganger of Quinn wanted to use the young man's scientific mind to give his kind full control on sliding in order to conquer new worlds.
Culture[]
The Zercurvians are a culture of dimensional conquerors, obsessed with prolonging their tenure into the third dimension. To maintain their lifestyle they most absorb the life energy of living beings. They do so using fungus laden flying saucers that drain the populace's energy. The result is a form of molecular abrogation, in which the bonds of the atoms of the victims are broken down as they wither and turn into dust.
Due to obtaining the knowledge of sliding technology from multiple alternates of Quinn Mallory, the creator, the Zercurvians have learned to navigate between dimensions. They also possess technology to track targets across the Multiverse.
Sources[]
- Sliders: Armada Issue 1 (1996)
- Sliders: Armada Issue 2 (1996)