‘I doubt this is the future your forefathers imagined,
child. I’ve been told of you humans. You evolved on a planet in a distant
sector, now part of the Corvosphere.
Your achievements were many, but war ended up destroying
you. When the Corvo came out of the network of wormholes called the Labyrinth
over your planet, there was little left, just roaming clans of savages. In the
blink of an eye, your Earth was part of the Corvo dominions, the Corvosphere.
Funny bunch, the Corvo. Vaguely insectoid, a civilization
obsessed by technology, and ran by Mega Corps. They are, however, masters at finding
value in things. And you humans were so adaptable; you became elite mercenaries
for the Corvo. And they needed all the help they could find, the Labyrinth
isn’t empty.
As a sort of cosmic counterbalance to the Corvo, we have the
Iz’kal. Descendent from marine mammals, they have a latent telepathy that
allows them to link together. Their species is all about sharing, and the
greater good, but don’t think them weak. Their combined civilization, The
State, might not be as advanced as the Corvo, but they take an attack on one as
an attack on all.
Then you have my kind, child, the Raag. Not much to say,
really. We were enslaved for centuries by another race, the Korian. There were
mean and cruel. Then the Uprising happened and we killed them instead. All of
them. We then converted ice asteroids into our Ice Fortressed and with them we
roam the Galaxy looking for resources. Humans and Raag were simply clinging on
to the Iz’kal-Corvo cold war.
The two species wouldn’t – couldn’t – see eye to eye, but after
a couple of engagements, they quickly saw that an all out conflict would wipe
them both out. There was, and is, tension, with both sides doing shadow-y ops,
trying to bring the other down from the inside, damaging resource collection,
destroying facilities, and so on.
And then, 20 of your years ago, another player joined the
field. Izuan Tai, Persaius, planets that no longer are, so we could know the
Harvesters. What they are, where they come from are questions we still ask.
They are as varied as pebbles in a stream, with towering beasts, humanoids
indistinguishable from you or I, and everything else in between. All they want
is to consume all organic material and preserve their Hive and their Queens.
The Corvo and Iz’kal created the Coalition, a joint army, answerable to none,
with total authority over Harvester infected systems.
So here we are, little one. 5 races, as many as the fingers
in your hand.
Each of them wanting to survive and
thrive, even if it has to go over all the other 4.
All travelling the stars
using the Labyrinth. And all slowly encroaching on each
others’ territory.
We live in interesting times, young one….’
Kwoonshy ‘Onshy’ Treeg, Clan Taber, Raag Soryteller.
No comments:
Post a Comment