Of ancient history, little is verifiably known. What persists are only vague echoes of the memories of great civilizations — Rome, Carthage, Persia, Qin — that ruled over sprawling domains on Old Terra, the cradle of humanity.

Over time, those domains extended into space, with colonies emerging across the Terran solar system and, eventually, beyond. In surviving data, reference is made to the 2112 Convention of Titan – a treaty that established the Terran home system as a safe harbour, ensuring the hostilities that plagued Old Terra would not find their way into the stars above. Some decades later, this peace was overshadowed by humanity’s first encounter with alien species.

This first contact revealed the existence of a grand alliance of multiple space-faring species across the galaxy. This Galactic Concord welcomed humanity into its fold, and the nations of Old Terra concluded their entry into the college of galactic nations with the signing of the Caelum Concordia.

Though many records from this and the subsequent period are now lost, there are references to an event known as the Topolian Intercession. The specific details of this moment are not known, but the decisions made subsequently would pave the way to an eon of galactic darkness and chaos.

In the aftermath of the Topolian Intercession, the superpowers of Old Terra realized just how underdeveloped their societies were relative to the elder species in the Galactic Concord. Although the Concord established mechanisms for joint research partnerships and technology transfer agreements, it was clear that humanity was desperately behind the technological curve and needed a way to catch up quickly to their new allies and emerging interstellar rivals.

As a result, the ancient superpowers began working on a joint initiative aimed at rapidly accelerating genetic modification science and applied technologies. If they could not compete technologically with the other Concord species, the superpowers would prioritize creating biological weapons to help even the power imbalance. However, the provisions of the Concord created strict restrictions on the use of advanced gene editing and artificial intelligence technologies — restrictions borne from lessons the elder species learned from ancient conflicts that long preceded humanity’s emergence into the galactic community. So the superpowers, believing their very existence hinged on achieving power parity with other species, committed to their collaboration in secret.

Within a decade, gene editing was being used to evolve certain select human germlines, creating a new class of superhumans capable of extraordinary feats, such as energy manipulation, psionic senses, flight, and more. For a time, Old Terra was able to leverage these elite scions in secret, operating them behind the scenes of the galactic stage to influence interstellar affairs through espionage, assassination, and covert warfare. Eventually, however, a subset of scions began manifesting far more hyper-advanced abilities. The emergence of this new class of ascended scions sent shockwaves through the social structures of Old Terra, upending old power structures and calling into question the very nature of humanity. Old Terra was no longer able to hide the scions’ existence, and the very fabric of human society, already under immense strain from the new political paradigm established by humanity’s entry into the Concord, began unraveling.

As civil unrest began spreading across its interstellar dominion, Old Terra was simultaneously confronted with the diplomatic fallout of its violation of the Concord’s sacrosanct provisions. But the superpowers’ standing within the Concord was the least of their worries. The scions and their ascended cousins, recognizing their boundless powers made them something more than human, began questioning their loyalty to their less-evolved masters. The rebellion was inevitable.

What followed would be almost two centuries of interstellar war, and the carnage and devastation that ensued would undermine the very foundations of the Galactic Concord. As the Concord War progressed, a technological arms race eventually equalized the playing field between the scions and other races, resulting in a grinding attrition that would slowly, and at immense cost, close the power disparity. By the end of the war, the galactic political landscape had changed forever. After serving as a bulwark against chaos and conflict for over two thousand years, the grand galactic union collapsed. The power vacuum that materialized awakened vicious frictions on a scale unknown for thousands of years, and would last for almost two millennia.

As the Concord collapsed, the galaxy descended into an unprecedented dark age about which little is known. Old enmities between elder Concord species were reignited, resulting in wars that devastated the galaxy’s more advanced civilizations as others isolated themselves from the unfolding chaos. This great collapse is often referred to as The Genetic Legacy — a derogation that highlights the role the scions played in undermining humanity’s progress.

During these centuries, vast knowledge of technology and history faded into the void. Scraps of information and technology were preserved in small dispersed enclaves, which clung to the hope that one day the galactic turmoil would abate and a new era of stability and prosperity would emerge. Many of these enclaves would not survive to witness that new dawn, and many more were lost to time. In the meantime, a nearly constant state of war and despoilment ravaged all corners of the galaxy.

After a millennium of this “Long Unknown,” the worst effects of the Genetic Legacy slowly subsided, leading to a slow stabilization of the broader galactic political order. Even the scions, whose role in the great collapse was never forgotten, eventually became a normalized sub-variant of humanity, splintering into numerous distinct societies and peacefully integrating among their less-evolved kin. Time may not heal all wounds, but it certainly cauterizes them.

Among the remnants of humanity, bits and pieces of historical knowledge of Old Terra’s glorious past began proliferating. The spread of these old legends inspired a belief that humanity could rekindle its lost glories. New traditions emerged that would help reestablish political equilibrium among nation-states seeking to reclaim the legacy of those ancient empires that once defined humanity’s place among the stars.

Slowly, small states and system alliances began to awaken to the memory of humanity’s prior Golden Age, and enclaves previously disconnected from one another regained a general awareness of the vast galactic landscape. This reconnection — to both the galaxy and the past — rekindled a desire to reclaim the lost glory that existed prior to the Long Unknown. This birthed the concept of the Trials of Succession, whereby nation-states would vie — through conquest, diplomacy, cultural domination, economic primacy, or other means — to prove themselves worthy of inheriting the mantle of dominion over the fractured remains of humanity.

The First Trial of Succession began with this spiritual and religious awakening, leading to an inter-human crusade of bloody conquest that began expunging the chaotic darkness and reviving the severed linkages among human worlds and systems. This crusader fervor gave rise to competing interpretations of what “succession” actually meant. Some viewed it as a right of genetic superiority, others as an institutional legacy tied to distant glory. The early days of humanity’s emergence from the Long Unknown were defined by how various factions began settling on these concepts as the foundation of political legitimacy. Eventually, the First Trial ended with the acceptance that Succession was the right to rule earned, in part, by showcasing fidelity to the institutions of Old Terra — reconciling the past with the present to preserve humanity’s legacy.

As the tumultuous upheaval of the First Trial of Succession began subsiding, a new era of pan-galactic detente resulted. Dozens of human nation-states jockeyed to establish themselves as heir-claimants to the ancient empires of Old Terra, and a new calendar was established to celebrate humanity’s emergence from the Long Unknown. Year One, “After Trial”, was marked by the coronation of the first Humayun of the Nabarene Dominion, which at that time ruled over the largest domain of human worlds.

This period was marked by an endlessly fluid ebb-and-flow of territorial conquest and loss among various political entities vying for supremacy over the remains of the interstellar human community.

The Isterian Magistracy focused on expanding its mercantile power, joining with numerous smaller states to create the economic powerhouse of the Atlassian League (523 AT).

The Nabarene Dominion embarked on numerous religious crusades against its arch-rival, the Shutathian Ascendancy, before a legendary prophet united the realms into a quasi-theocratic, multinational imperial superpower under the line of Shah-Humayuns. Their Chimeran Throne would become a famed symbol of the might and power of the vast nation-state of the Empire of the Shutath-Nabar (770 AT).

The Nexonian Free Systems prioritized cultural influence, eventually becoming the preeminent political polity to embrace republicanism and later merging to become the Nexonian Republic (831 AT).

The Precentor Assembly gained prominence as great law-bringers of order and stability before collapsing into an autocratic dictatorship known as the Arsian Despotism (900-1190 AT). Eventually, the Despotism was supplanted by a coup led by the Four Legates, resulting in the creation of the Precentor Tetrarchy established by the Tetrarchic Partition of Arsia after the Battle of Arsia (1190 AT).

The emergence of these great powers ushered in a new galactic order and laid the foundation for the modern galactic landscape.

Nearly two centuries after its founding, the Precentor Tetrarchy stood on the verge of a disastrous civil war following the assassination of then-Primarch Titus Arcadius. The other Tetrarchs prepared to mark their claims to the Primarchy, drawing various household legions into a brief conflict before the Primarchal Praetorian Guard thrust Arcadius’ grandson, Titus Acheron, onto the throne. With Praetorian backing, Acheron brought the civil war to a swift close. However, the Tetrarchs perished in the fighting, leading the new Primarch to seek replacements to restore stability across the Tetrarchy.

As his first act as the new Primarch, Acheron elected to elevate his grandfather’s Praetorian Prefect, Deldric Tetricus, to the role of Comital Tetrarch, charging him with planning a Trial of Succession against the Nexonian Republic. The plan was for this Nexonian Trial of Succession to help galvanize support for, and secure, the new Primarch’s position while creating a proving ground to identify worthy Tetrarchs that would be forged in the fires of war.

Over the next decade, the Precentor Tetrarchy would wage a hard-fought war, but eventually emerged triumphant. From the conflict, two war heroes — Titus Teuthus and Artem Belisarius — emerged, and were rewarded for their exploits with promotions to Margrave Tetrarch. Teuthus, the Primarch’s own son, would be additionally enjoined with the powers of Praetor — a powerful position that granted a Tetrarch supra-jurisdictional martial authority over other Tetrarchs’ legions and domains. Acheron thought this grant of power would help further solidify his post-war position and ensure his family’s reign long into the future.

Unfortunately, the Primarch was unaware of the forces influencing his son.

During the Nexonian Trial of Succession, Teuthus had been taken with the teachings of Erastus Drake — a Nexonian Archon who evangelized the pro-republican sentiments of the Sullan Order — and eventually rebelled against his father, desiring an end to the Tetrarchy and a return to the old ways of the Precentor Assembly. The Titus Rebellion would last a further 10 years until another hero of the Nexonian Trial — Teuthus’ own friend and disciple, Tavarus Ultimo — eventually defeated the renegade Praetor, extinguishing his life in single combat during the Siege of Arsia (1400 AT). For his service, Ultimo was rewarded with Teuthus’ former holdings and elevated to the rank of Margrave Tetrarch.

In the aftermath of the rebellion and his son’s death, Acheron retreated from public life. The remnants of the Nexonian Republic dissipated into the Antares Reach — a border region that separated the now-expanded Precentor Tetrarchy from the Isterian Magistracy — where they reformed as a decentralized and distributed collective of enclaves known as the Nexonian Diaspora.

It is now nearly two decades since the end of the Titus Rebellion. The Precentor Tetrarchy has become an ascendant superpower, potentially even rivaling the sprawling hegemony of the Empire of the Shutath-Nabar. It exists in uncertain tension with its new Isterian neighbour as smaller political entities along other borders, eyeing the Tetrarchy’s expanding influence and strength with wariness, enter into mutual defense compacts.

Acheron remains isolated from the public eye, giving rise to rumours regarding his health and fueling political intrigue among competing heirs to the Tetrarchy. Chief among these would-be rivals is Tetricus, who now functionally rules the day-to-day affairs of state.

Meanwhile, Archon Drake rules an Antares border world, Gregos Alpha, where he oversees a famed academy popular with Precentor elites. But despite this prevailing popularity (or perhaps because of it), many harbour a lingering resentment towards the Archon’s role in swaying Teuthus’ loyalties away from the Tetrarchy — perhaps none more so than Ultimo, who blames Drake for forcing him to take up arms against his former mentor and friend.

The Isterian Magistracy, recognizing the strategic importance of the Antares Reach, is rumored to be funding a large network of proxy mercenaries and spies, disrupting Precentor efforts to extend the Tetrarchy’s influence closer to Isterian space.

Political turmoil has also begun rippling across the Empire of the Shutath-Nabar. The reigning Shah-Humayun’s age and diminishing mental capacity has created a power vacuum that is increasingly filled by his many sons and daughters, all of whom have designs upon the Chimeran Throne.

But humanity is not alone in the universe. Elsewhere, resurgent alien dominions are reclaiming their places on the galactic stage.

Until recently, the Chazrak Union, a decentralized nation-state of commerce-focused quasi-pacifists, had been isolated from the larger interstellar community, forever unnerved by the lasting memories of the Genetic Legacy. Although the Union remains largely autarkic, in recent years their Arbiters — the hermetic and peripatetic governing caste that adjudicates disputes among various Chazrak enclaves — have been sighted wandering outside the Union’s space, though rarely interacting with other species.

In contrast, the Topolian Entwine has opted to pursue a policy of aggressive reintegration with galactic society, hoping to lay the groundwork for a new Galactic Concord that can help marshal the galaxy’s strength and provide unity in the face of unknown threats that may lurk beyond known space.

The galaxy stands at a crossroads. Great powers are primed to rekindle the flames of interstellar war as unseen forces put long-awaited plans into action. The galactic landscape is shifting, and individuals great and small are about to be flung into an epic journey that will redefine humanity’s place in the universe …