Y'LESTJA
race
Classification: Alternate reality (Reality-928; see comments) energy/consciousness collective extraterrestrial race
Location/Base of Operations: Mobile throughout space in Universe-928
Known Members: No individual beings were identified
Affiliations: Radian (unidentified extraterrestrial), Kazimierz "Kaz" Maksymilian Rosikon, numerous races with which they had communed (including the Eldrites of Va, the M'rglots of Drelys, the natives of Tsomnaia;
and Radian's unidentified race); virtually all of humanity briefly
communed with the Y'Lestja (most, with the notable exception of Feng
Huang) were positively affected by it; those shown to be positively
affected included Dana
D'Angelo, Doom, Lei Fong, Fortune, Miguel O'Hara (aka Spider-Man), Princess Okusana of Wakanda, Poet, Wire, and an unidentified team of geologists in the Savage Land;
they had a truce with the Phalanx Collective
Enemies: Feng Huang
First Appearance: (Behind-the-scenes, unidentified) Doom 2099 I#15 (March,
1994);
(Y'Lestja seen and identified)
Powers/Abilities: The Y'Lestja are an energy collective manifesting their collective consciousness. They can project their light and merge their consciousness with apparently all beings on a planet, sharing the collective knowledge they have gained. Beings communing with the Y'Lestja tend to feel warmth and peace. Those who experience a brief communion swiftly lose their memories of specific information, although the memory of the warmth and peace persists.
Certain beings, presumably those of malevolent and/or self-serving natures, gain nothing from the communion.
Traits: The Y'Lestja travel the universe, communing with other species and sharing the collective knowledge they have gained from their various communions. They typically select a member of one of the races (or perhaps it was only members of Radian's race) with which they have communed to serve as their emissary, taking the form of a race with which they seek to commune and speaking for the Y'Lestja.
Type: Energy collective/collective consciousness
Eyes: The collective had at least 10 structures that may have been ocular
Fingers: None (the collective had a number of tentacle-like structures)
Toes: None
Skin color: Inapplicable; the collective's energy is golden
Average height: Unrevealed (the collective was at least 4-5 times the size of the Chin Shan platform; so, perhaps 4 to 10 kilometers, or perhaps far larger)
History:
(Doom
2099 I#18 (fb) - BTS) - For untold eons, the Y'Lestja traveled the
universe, seeking other species with which to commune. They, at least,
considered that to be chosen by the collective was an honor of
celestial magnitude. Allegedly (according to Radian), the Ceremony of
Communion altered the course of many civilizations.
(Doom 2099 I#18 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, the Y'Lestja communed with the natives of Tsomnaia, the M'rglots of Drelys and the Eldrites of Va.
(Doom 2099 I#18 (fb) - BTS) - The Y'Lestja came to the planet of the being who would become Radian. From their communal exchange, the people of this world found the means to change their discordant existence into a harmonious one; in appreciation, some of this world's people became emissaries of the Collective, assuming the form of the chosen species to facilitate the arrival of the Y'Lestja.
The being who would become known as Radian served as the Y'Lestja's emissary on Earth.
(Doom 2099 I#44 (fb) - BTS) - At some point the Y'Lestja established a truce with the Phalanx Collective.
(Doom 2099 I#15 (fb) - BTS / Doom 2099 I#18 (fb) - BTS) -
Centuries (possibly millennia) ago, the Y'Lestja sent a giant metal sphere (beacon) to Earth, where it
crashed into the ground in what would become Kanchenjunga, Nepal where it was covered.
(Untold Radian story (fb) - BTS) - At some point, the Y'Lestja established another giant metal sphere in the Tibetan mountains.
(Doom 2099 I#15 -
BTS) - While exploring China and seeking to avoid border patrols, the Latverians Kazimierz "Kaz" Maksymilian Rosikon and
his sister, Fortune, walked into an avalanche in the Himalayas.
(Doom 2099 I#15 (fb) - BTS / Doom 2099 I#18 (fb)) - The sphere saved Kaz of Latveria, preserving him in metabolic stasis.
(Doom 2099 I#18 (fb) - BTS) - The beacon's computer performed neurological surgery on Kaz, altering his cerebral functions and programming in the intricate Y'Lestjan language.
(Doom 2099 I#15 (fb) - BTS) -
<2094 AD> - Seismic activity in the Himalayas unearthed a large,
metallic sphere of unidentified origin. An on-site research team
determined that the sphere had been buried beneath the snow for
centuries.
(Doom 2099 I#15 (fb) / Doom 2099 I#18 (fb)) - Gaining entry into the sphere, the team of Feng Huang's scientists found evidence of an incomprehensible alien technology. They also found Kaz held in metabolic stasis by the sphere's systems. When they revived Kaz, he spoke in an alien tongue, unrecognizable to linguists.
The scientists considered that the sphere had saved Kaz and turned him into a Rosetta Stone, the key to a civilization apparently preparing to make first contact with Earth.
(Doom 2099 I#18 (fb)) - Eager to ensure the economic and political advantages of first contact, Feng's scientists poked and prodded at Kaz.
(Doom 2099 I#18 (fb) - BTS) - Via their link to Kaz, the Collective determined that humanity was approaching a crossroads, and they concluded that this might be their last opportunity possible to fully join with humanity.
(Doom 2099 I#15 (fb) - BTS) - Feng Huang held Kaz aboard her zero gravity pharmaceutical manufacturing station, the Chin Shan platform.
(Doom 2099 I#15 - BTS) - Fortune worked with Lei Fong (Huang's sister) and Russian mercenary Vytali Morkovkin with the goal of recovering Kaz from Huang's clutches. To this end, they infiltrated one of Feng Huang's space shuttles, posing as repair workers and joined by Fortune's ally, Poet. However, they were betrayed by Morkovkin, taken into captivity, and confronted by Huang aboard the Chin Shan platform.
(Doom
2099 I#15 - BTS) - Investigating a transmission point responding to a
deep space signal (which he could not translate), Doom traveled to
Kanchenjunga, Nepal, where he unearthed the sphere. Entering the
sphere, he was struck down by Radian. 
(Doom
2099 I#17 - BTS) - After placing Doom within a stasis field, Radian
then transported to the space platform, and Doom replicated the energy
Radian used to follow him there. Radian then fired an energy back
through the gateway he had created, destroying the dome.
Radian then removed his helmet and introduced himself as Radian, of the Y'Lestja. Noting that preparing for the arrival of the Y'Lestja was his concern and that he had taken control of the space platform, Radian communicated with Kaz, who spoke and understood his language, after which Radian announced the arrival of the Y'Lestja, whose energy-collective form approached the space platform.
(Doom 2099 I#18) - After clarifying that a manifestation of the Y'Lestja's collective conscious was what they were seeing, rather than a ship, Radian clarified that he was not actually one of the Y'Lestja, but rather a servant of the collective, given physical form to interface with Earth's sentient bipeds.
Having been lying inert on the ground since receiving the stray blast, Kaz began glowing with energy and levitated into the air, and Radian noted that the Ceremony of Communion was beginning. Doom then asked why the Y'Lestja had waited until now to appear when the exploratory beacon had been buried on Earth for millennia, and Radian clarified that via their link to Kaz, the Collective had determined that this might be their last opportunity possible to fully join with humanity. Radian further clarified that the Collective understood humanity's capacity for self-destruction, but that they also recognized mankind's potential to transcend the cancers that plague their spirit.
The life force of the collective began to surround the Chin Shan platform, and those within felt something soothing and warm wash over them.
Glowing, Kaz awakened and spoke, "We are Y'Lestja. We dance the light transcendent. We sing the harmony constant. We celebrate the forever rhyme. We share the bond universal. This is the melding. The point at which all barriers of flesh and form are swept away. "
Despite his armor's failure to respond, Doom actively resisted having his will subsumed by the aliens.
Around the world, the presence of the Y'Lestja lit up the sky with a luminous burst that could not be ignored.
In New York City, Miguel O'Hara felt the Y'Lestja alongside Dana D'Angelo, and he sensed that they weren't dangerous.
Aboard the floating city of Valhalla, Wire disconnected from the worldnet, overcome by genuine awe.
At the Wakandan state observatory, Princess Okusana demanded an explanation for the stellar phenomena.
In the heart of Antarctica's Savage Land, a team of geologists sensed the phenomena, considering it at least equivalent to a sign from God.
Continuing to speak for the Y'Lestja, Kaz continued, "We offer the
totality of our travels, the poetry of our experience, the sensation of
thousands upon thousands of different life forms...each unique, yet
bound to another by the cosmic thread..." He further noted the
lifestyles of the natives of Tsomnaia, and of the M'rglots of Drelys
and the Eldrites of Va. Kaz continued, "This is the Y'Lestja's gift: A
momentary glimpse of the magnificence of the universe, an understanding
of the infinite diversity of life dusted across the cosmic plan. And
from you, who represent Earth, the Y'Lestja seek only to grasp that
which defines your existence, the symbols and metaphors and iconography
that give your carbon-based lives meaning and substance. "
"Your species capacity to draw strength from its empathic abstractions may be its salvation. No matter your final fate, the Collective will sing of humanity until it too reaches its ultimate conclusion. The Y'Lestja thank you for opening your minds and souls to its collective consciousness."
Respectfully reporting the completion of his duties, Radian returned to the Y'Lestja the power allocated for his task. The Y'Lestja noted their gratitude, as he had served them well, and they rewarded him with freedom, and they told him to follow his own destiny. Noting that they would meet again at the Hour of Ascension, the Y'Lestja bade Radian and the others farewell and rapidly departed.
(Doom 2099 I#18 - BTS) - As the others noted how they could barely comprehend/recall the things that seemed so clear during the communion, like an amazing dream, Radian advised them that they were shown many things and that they should remember what they could. Doom asked what Radian would do now that the Collective had left him to his own devices, Feng Huang interrupted, noting that he could rot along with "that blasted collective," which had offered her nothing, and she considered the communion to have been worthless.
Radian advised her that if she chose to ignore what the Y'Lestja had shown her, she was discarding diamonds in the sand; but, regardless, she should know that was not unchanged by the communion: She had been touched by the Y'Lestja, and their mark would soon be apparent. Doom questioned what Radian meant, but Radian advised that they would find out in due time, but that it was time he departed to find a place to consider his future path. However, with Radian having relinquished control of the Chin Shan platform, Feng Huang used her base's weapons to blast and apparently slay Radian. She then activated the station's self destruct sequence and departed.
Accessing the platform's blueprints, Doom sent Kaz, Fortune, Lei Fong, and Poet on an escape pod.
(Doom 2099 I#44 (fb) - BTS) - All present on the space platform where changed by the experience. Fortune's prescient abilities were expanded, while Kaz was given purpose and light.
(Doom 2099 I#44 (fb) - BTS) - Although Doom salvaged Radian's armor, he lost it when he crashed in the Savage Land. The armor then found Kaz; at first he thought he was hallucinating, but he slowly came to understand the nature of his gift.
(Doom 2099 I#44 - BTS) - As the Phalanx invaded Earth, Kaz told Fortune that the experience with the Y'Lestja had changed them all. He then summoned the Radian armor and flew to free Doom, who was in danger of being subsumed by the Phalanx.
Unharmed by lasers generated by the Phalanx, Kaz noted that he had not come there to engage in pointless battle. When the Phalanx asked if Kaz's masters sought to shatter the truce between the Y'Lestja and the Phalanx, Kaz clarified that the Y'Lestja had given him his power, but that while he was in their debt, he was not in their service. Kaz further pointed out that while the Y'Lestja celebrated the diversity of life across the universe, the Phalanx had no regard for the individuality of any other sentience.
Comments: Created by John Frances Moore, Peter David, Pat Broderick, and John Nyberg.
IF Reality-928 shares a common history with Reality-616, then it would stand that the Y'Lestja have a dome on Earth-616, but maybe the Y'Lestja encountered Galactus or the Ebon-Seeker or the Black Stars or some similar being/race that had slaughtered multitudes of beings and races in the past.
I'm unclear when Radian first came to Earth. Did he travel there along
with the dome centuries or millennia ago? Did he remain within the
dome, undetected, when Feng Huang's men first uncovered Kaz and took
him away with them? Did he only first reveal his presence when Doom
arrived (and if so, why?; just because the Y'Lestja were imminently
arriving then?)?
Or did Radian arrive at the dome shortly before Doom?
Doom says the rent in the dome was created "recently." I don't know
whether that is RELATIVELY recently, as in 5 years ago by Feng Huang's
men (compared to the dome being there for centuries or millennia)? Or
just days or weeks before by Radian? The dome was covered by snow and
Doom unearthed it, but I would think it could have been covered up by
recent snow in the preceding days or weeks.
There is an unpublished Radian story you can access here. I'll cover that when I profile Radian. The Y'Lestja were referenced, and a second dome was shown on Earth.
Doom ignored Kaz's advice, and he instead initially worked with the Phalanx in an effort to save Latveria from flooding, etc. The story continued in 2099: World of Tomorrow, but I don't think Radian appeared therein
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Y'Lestja should be distinguished from:
 (Doom 2099 I#15 (fb) - BTS / Doom 2099 I#18 (fb) - BTS) -
Centuries (possibly millennia) ago, the Y'Lestja sent a giant metal sphere (beacon) to Earth, where it
crashed into the ground in Nepal where it was covered.(Doom 2099 I#15 -
BTS) - While exploring China and seeking to avoid border patrols, the Latverians Kazimierz "Kaz" Maksymilian Rosikon and
his sister, Fortune, walked into an avalanche in the Himalayas. (Doom 2099 I#15 (fb) - BTS / Doom 2099 I#18 (fb)) - The sphere saved Kaz of Latveria, preserving him in metabolic stasis. (Doom 2099 I#18 (fb)) - The beacon's computer performed neurological surgery on Kaz, altering his cerebral functions and programming in the intricate Y'Lestjan language. (Doom 2099 I#15 (fb)) -
<2094 AD> - Seismic activity in the Himalayas unearthed a large,
metallic sphere of unidentified origin. An on-site research team
determined that the sphere had been buried beneath the snow for
centuries. (Doom 2099 I#15 (fb) / Doom 2099 I#18 (fb)) - Gaining entry into the sphere, the team of Feng Huang's scientists found evidence of an incomprehensible alien technology. They also found Kaz held in metabolic stasis by the sphere's systems. When they revived Kaz, he spoke in an alien tongue, unrecognizable to linguists. The scientists considered that the sphere had saved Kaz and turned him into a Rosetta Stone, the key to a civilization apparently preparing to make first contact with Earth. (Doom 2099 I#15 - BTS) - Investigating a transmission point responding to a deep space signal (which he could not translate), Doom traveled to Kanchenjunga, Nepal, Doom unearthed the sphere. He determined it to have a titanium shell alloyed with other non-terrestrial metals, and he assessed the stress patterns in the surrounding rock to indicate that an impact occurred, meaning that the construct had landed there. Entering through a rough-hewn entrance he determined to have been recently made, he wondered who had been there before him, and then his sensors registered an atmospheric disturbance just seconds before he was struck down by the armored Radian. (Doom 2099 I#17 - BTS) - Attempting to demonstrate his power to Radian, Doom blasted him with energy to no apparent affect; as Doom prepared to strike again, Radian instead formed an energy field around Doom before speaking in an alien language and then projecting an image of the Chin Shan platform. Radian then transported to the space platform, and Doom replicated the energy Radian used to follow him there. Radian fired an energy back through the gateway he had created, destroying the sphere.-- Doom 2099 I#15 Note: A second such sphere was shown in the unpublished Radian story. |
images: (without ads)
Doom 2099 I#15, pg. 10, panel 2 (dome)
#17, last page (arrival);
#18, pg. 6, panel 1 (main);
pg. 14, panel 1 (profile);
panel 2 (departure)
Appearances:
Doom 2099 I#15
(March, 1994) - John Frances Moore (writer), Pat Broderick (penciler),
John Nyberg (inker), Joey Cavalieri (editor)
Doom 2099 I#17
(May, 1994) - John Frances Moore (plot), Peter David (script), Pat
Broderick (penciler),John Nyberg (inker), Joey Cavalieri (editor)
Doom 2099 I#18
(June, 1994) - John Frances Moore (writer), Pat Broderick (penciler),
John Nyberg (inker), Joey Cavalieri (editor)
Doom 2099 I#44 (August, 1996) - John
Frances Moore (writer), Jeff Lafferty (penciler), Vince Russell, Joe
Rubinstein, Andrew Pepoy, Daniel Panosian (inkers), Suzanne Gaffney
(editor)
First posted: 09/02/2021
Last updated: 03/18/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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