Warning: Major Spoilers Ahead!
Okay I have finished the universe backstory, which when combined with what I posted above (which starts right where this ends) basically forms the game's plot. So if there are no objections, I think next I will begin work on the campaign(s) story flow. Then it is time to fill in all of the little details that will be needed to make this work.
So as follows is the nexuiz universe backstory first draft. Feedback is appreciated.
Alert: Near Total Spoilage Past This Point!
Primordial Era
Over 2,500,000 years ago a now extinct, powerful spacefaring alien civilization called the Primordial created the largest and most advanced construct of the galaxy, a place that would eventually be known only as Nexuiz. A colossal dyson sphere encompassing a small solar system, Nexuiz used the constant flow of energy from the local solar emissions collected from the intermediate surfaces between its poles and equator to power its equatorial array of vastly faster than light one-way passageways that dotted its “Habitation Belt”. Controlling these passages, or “Tunnels”, and the direction of their one-way “Flow” were the Nexus Matrixes within moon-sized sensor complexes called Poles, which likewise resided at the poles of Nexuiz. Working together, the Poles could create a “Convergence Point” almost anywhere in the galaxy that would establish the other end of a Tunnel.
But the power of Nexuiz allowed the Primordial to reach into space too much farther than they could see and somewhere in the darkness beyond the galaxy they pulled in something even they were unprepared for. The “Intruder” at first attacked the Primordial and then their technology, expanding quickly and stealthily as it did so. For centuries they fought it while it scattered through the sphere until its adversary was spread too sparsely to subdue it any longer and then it parted itself in two and rushed at once for both of the Poles. Taken by surprise the Primordial were too many steps behind to fully counter, so they concentrated on the Northern Pole and held it, then annihilated the attacking force and all that remained in the equatorial Habitation Belt. But the Southern Pole was lost and could not be retaken, so the Primordial locked it down and severed its energy connections to the southern hemisphere and it eventually went dark and the remains of the Intruder along with it.
The loss of the Southern Pole control center ultimately meant the end of the Primordial’s galactic civilization, since without it continued expansion and long term maintenance of the Tunnels would not be realistically feasible, and many of the Tunnels had already been shut down to avoid the risk of the Intruder spreading beyond Nexuiz. As one last effort to restore the system, the Primordial launched an enormous fleet of “Beacons” to their disconnected colony worlds in the hope that they could hold out over the vast timeframe it would take for the Beacons to arrive at their distant destinations and reactivate the Tunnels. But the Primordial were too optimistic, long before almost any of the Beacons arrived, their civilization collapsed under its own weight, their many xenoformed worlds eventually returned to their naturally uninhabitable states and the crippled power of Nexuiz was forsaken.
Rediscovery Era
Millions of years after the demise of the Primordial galactic civilization, an aggressive and intelligent exotic species, called the Crusilex, evolved on the first world from Nexuiz’ sun. After an unsteady period of technological development, they finally achieved interplanetary spaceflight, which culminated with their discovery of “the edge of the universe”, the inward surface of Nexuiz.
They made landfall first on the equatorial Habitation Belt, a frigid wasteland by their standards especially, infested with innumerable swarms of an intelligent but still relatively slow minded species, the Hallurchin, that were much better adapted to the local environment and that wielded weapons and other technologies the sub-surface factories of Nexuiz continued to manufacture autonomously. Early attempts at colonization of this region usually failed and those that succeeded proved unrewarding. Then the Poles were discovered, and while no entry to the Southern Pole was ever located, they were eventually able to penetrate the Northern Pole all the way to its Nexus Matrix. There they slowly came to understand how to command its intermediate level functions well enough that they could reform the Pole’s internal life support into the much hotter, sulfur-centric environment they were comfortable with, as well as raising the Habitation Belt surface temperature to the maximum the safety regulators would allow (240º K). Then they applied the advanced polar infrastructure to industrial purposes, harnessing for themselves power orders of magnitude beyond the combined output of their fledgling intra system empire. Eventually their capital was moved from their world of origin to the northern pole of Nexuiz.
Encounter Era
With no route for further expansion, little changed for millennia afterwards until strange activity was noticed at a few locations along the equatorial Habitation Belt. The Tunnels were beginning to become active again, triggered from around the galaxy by encounters between the ancient and forgotten Beacons and newly emerging intelligent species. Each provided its opener with unlimited entry to Nexuiz, but no direct access back. The first waves of trapped alien travelers only clashed with the local Hallurchin, which did not capture the attention of the Crusilex.
But then came the ancient Cephidarian, the only species since the Primordials to independently achieve faster than light travel and that subsequently possessed a far spanning interstellar empire in their distant corner of the galaxy. As more of them emerged from their Tunnel, their presence became more obvious, with their shroudships taking and consuming lone Crusilex transports and more and more of their probes scouting the Northern Pole. A naturally aggressive species already, the Crusilex were now preparing for war, but first they needed to know where to take their fight. Using the two species’ mutual knowledge of Nexuiz’ basic interface as a bridge across the thick language barrier, the Crusilex made contact with and then established a war pact with the Hallurchin. The Crusilex provided military support against Tunnel openings, while the Hallurchin reported Tunnel openings as well as fighting as Auxiliaries. Thus the Crusilex were able to locate the Tunnel of the Cephidarian and from the Nexus Matrix they reversed its Flow, so that no further reinforcements could arrive. The Crusilex armada then crushed then the local Cephidarian, but seeing no reason to stop there, proceeded through their Tunnel and with the infrastructure of Nexuiz behind their war machine, proceeded to subjugate nearly the entire Cephidarian interstellar empire. To prevent further advances against them, the Cephidarian established a constant flow of tribute in the forms of resources and Auxiliaries.
From then forward, whenever the Crusilex received intelligence from the Hallurchin of a Tunnel opening, they reversed its Flow and sent through an armada to secure and conquer the other side, using the local Beacon to signal when they were ready to return. In this way any who activated a Beacon artifact, were subjugated into the Crusilex empire, even capable and clever species like the Arthrolid were not able to hold out for more than a few years.
Trial Era
After millennia of expansion, the Crusilex empire was reaching a breaking point. The Crusilex now managed more interstellar provinces and their rebellious inhabitants than they could dominate and were taking on still more. An orderly means of downscaling their empire was needed, so on the second world orbiting Nexuiz’ sun, the Arena was created. Here all subjugates were to send their greatest examples of technological and martial prowess, to try out for and maintain their positions as Auxiliaries. Those who refused or who failed the trials were entirely crushed militarily into a pre-civilized state. The Arena solved the problem.
Over the next millennium the game became more competitive with fewer and fewer remaining Auxiliaries, until only three remained- the Hallurchin, Cephadarian and Arthrolid. With each of these now very battle-hardened species positioned over sizeable swathes of the Habitation Belt and no longer kept in check by the diplomatic complexity created by their crushed competition, the Arthrolid and Cephadarian began a revolution against the Crusilex and their only remaining Auxiliaries, the Hallurchin.
The Arthrolid and Cephadarian each took almost total control over about a sixth of the Habitation Belt around each of their Tunnels, as well as the upper surface of another third of it and fought the Crusilex for supremacy of the vacuum above/within it. Then they assailed the Northern Pole by siege to try to break the deadlock, but were repulsed. At the same time, attempts by the Crusilex to change the balance of power in their own favor by acquiring new Auxiliaries were buried by the chaos and suppressive action taken by the Arthrolid and Cephadarian on the Habitation Belt, including the destruction of anything that emerged from newly opened Tunnels as well as all nearby Hallurchin that could have witnessed the opening.
