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The overlord was bound to protect his tenant, a valuable right for the latter in the days before the existence of police forces and universal access to royal justice, and when armed bands of robbers roamed the countryside.
Now that the generation of humanity that was holding on to its memories of freedom has died and been replaced by a generation that has never known life without the Overlords, humanity is ready to accept them as rulers without the looming threat of retribution hanging over every city.
The first is that Clarke takes the concept of an alien invasion, already a cliché in 1953, and turns it on its head: the Overlords come down in their ships over all the major cities and, instead of blowing them up, they turn Earth into a utopia. The second conceit is that these friendly aliens look exactly like a medieval conception of Satan.
Due to their rationalism, they are unable to join the Overmind, who figures as both a god-like entity and a transcendent, non-religious version of heaven. The Overlords, like the Devil and his aides, are cut off from “God” and barred from entering “heaven” for eternity, doomed to die in darkness.
I heard from one source that some Overlords practiced dark, forbidden art in life and that power was amplified when they became demons. Another source said that their starting power level depends on how evil they were in life and how much blood was left on their ledger.
Jan Rodricks, aboard another Overlord ship, is on his way back to Earth. He stands behind the three Overlord pilots watching their screens and thinks about how he now understands why the Overlords have prohibited humans from entering space.
People also ask
How did the Overlords get their rights back?
Did overlords practice dark art in life?
What was the original idea behind the Overlords?
Why are the Overlords unable to join the Overmind?
Why do the Overlords appear?
What does the Overlords symbolize in childhood's end?
When there was a lesser need for their services the overlords used their powers in trying to get some of these rights back. From the 11th century onward, we slowly start seeing the power moving back to the newly emerging kings of France and Germany with Burgundy holding its own in the middle.
