# Chapter IX: The History and Government of the Vril-ya explained — The Coming Race > Chapter companion for The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. ## 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. ## Themes 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. ## Character check-ins ### 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 lines > 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._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_coming_race_se/chapters/ix - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_coming_race_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_coming_race_se/chapters