The Coming Race · Chapter
Chapter IX: The History and Government of the Vril-ya explained
The narrator learns the history of the Ana, who descended from a race that fled a great flood into subterranean caverns.
What happens
The narrator learns the history of the Ana, who descended from a race that fled a great flood into subterranean caverns. He describes their evolution from primitive states to a civilization that discovered vril, a powerful fluid that ended war and transformed society. The Vril-ya now live in small, peaceful communities with a simple government headed by a Tur, no crime or poverty, and a culture of voluntary obedience and mutual aid.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
In this excerpt, the emotional and psychological peak occurs when the narrator realizes that Zee’s protective…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Utopian Society and Its Costs
The Vril-ya have achieved a peaceful, crime-free, and poverty-free society through the discovery of vril, but this utopia is maintained by strict population control and voluntary emigration.
- Technology and Power
Vril is the ultimate technology that renders war obsolete and transforms all social and political structures, as its destructive power makes force-based government impossible.
- Critique of Democracy and American Politics
The narrator contrasts the Vril-ya's simple, autocratic government with the democratic experiments of the upper world, which the Ana view as primitive and chaotic.
- Colonialism and Extermination
The Ana's ancestors are described as having exterminated the animal inhabitants of the subterranean world, and the Vril-ya distinguish themselves from 'barbarian' Ana who do not use vril.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
The narrator gathers details about the history and social structure of the Vril-ya through conversations and observations.
- Zee
Zee, as an erudite professor, provides the narrator with detailed accounts of the discovery and properties of vril.
- Aph-Lin
Aph-Lin, the narrator's host, recounts the early history of the Ana with contempt for their primitive practices.
- Tur
The Tur is described as the supreme magistrate of the Vril-ya, elected for life but with light duties and no special honors.
Key passages
“No happiness without order, no order without authority, no authority without unity.”
Happiness depends on order, which requires authority, which in turn depends on unity.
A Vril-ya proverb emphasizing the importance of unified authority for social harmony.
“It is requested not to do so-and-so.”
The Vril-ya express prohibitions as polite requests rather than commands.
Illustrates the mildness of their governance, where laws are phrased as requests.
“The fire lodged in the hollow of a rod directed by the hand of a child could shatter the strongest fortress, or cleave its burning way from the van to the rear of an embattled host.”
A child wielding a vril rod could destroy the mightiest fortress or annihilate an entire army.
Demonstrates the immense destructive power of vril and how it made war obsolete.
