STORY    |   Race: P.O.M   |   Race: Hyperion   |   Race: Jucati

Hyperion:

The origin of the Hyperion race is murky, submerged in shadows. For millennia their oral history echoed down the ages, twisting and turning, mutating with each retelling. By the time their writing system had developed into something sophisticated enough to chronicle events, rather than merely catalogue weapons or wealth, history had blended with mythology to such a great degree as to make their separation impossible. If their most prominent legends are to be believed, the Hyperions were created by the gods in an attempt to produce great warriors to whom they could bequeath the galaxy. The tales say that the Hyperions were bred for strength, the weak culled and the mighty left to continue the species. Then the gods withdrew, leaving behind powerful beings ready to conquer the universe. Scholars from other races scoff at such lofty notions, and instead argue that the Hyperions were really a slave race bred as beasts of burden, until they finally managed to rise up against their masters. But wherever the truth may lie, there is no question that the Hyperions’ legends have shaped their civilisation. Believing that they were created by the gods and bred for supremacy, the Hyperions regard the mixing of bloodlines as both blasphemous and treacherous – an insult to the gods as well as an attempt to weaken their species. Thus Hyperions only breed with other members of their family dynasties. These familial groups are known as the Houses, and represent the fundamental units of Hyperion society. Each House is a potent political and military entity, ready to fight for the Emperor and earn glory both for themselves and for the entire Hyperion race. The Hyperions see the galaxy as theirs by divine right, each system and every world theirs to conquer. And so they have always gazed longingly towards the black heavens, and from the moment they developed efficient spaceflight they began to carve out their empire. It was not long until their expansion brought them in contact with another form of intelligent life, the Jucati. Once considered the most dangerous race in the galaxy, the Jucati were in the waning of their power when the Hyperions encountered them. Their race had been ravaged by forces well beyond the understanding of the Hyperions, who were but infants when it came to interstellar affairs. Even so, the Jucati were fierce fighters, their strange technology allowing them to stand against the brute force of the Hyperions. So the great Houses of the Hyperion race gained their first taste of inter-species warfare, and became stronger for the experience. At last the Jucati vanished, leaving behind millions of corpses, and the Hyperions bellowed a cry of victory that seemed to echo amongst the stars. The Hyperions went on to take many worlds, spanning the systems with their empire. They encountered other enemies in the void, though after their hard fighting against the Jucati none was a true challenge, and their opposition was crushed. It was after millennia of such campaigns that the Hyperions came across the Jucati once more. On a distant frontier of their empire, one of their garrisons was overrun by a force of bizarre biomechanical creatures which seemed to pour out of the very bowels of the planet. It soon emerged that these were the Jucati, strangely altered from their appearance in the ancient archives, but still with the same ravenous ferocity. A new war began, and once again the Hyperions found an opponent worthy of them. As the war with the Jucati raged at one end of their empire, at the other an even greater threat would arise. Mankind, once a feeble and insignificant species, had in what seemed no more than the blink of an eye made great leaps in technology. Now they were expanding their own empire, the so-called Protectorate of Man, and it seemed as if the two powers would soon collide. Curious about this species with its rapid development, and wishing to test their mettle before a full-blown war erupted between their races, the Hyperions attacked a human colony just beyond the periphery of their dominion. Their warships smashed through its orbital defences as if they were paper, and their troops invaded the surface. The Colonial Guard was quickly overwhelmed, and the Hyperions celebrated as they anticipated the conquest of the entire human empire. The Hyperions had made a grave error, however. Their own method of expansion was to set up heavily defended colonies on the frontier, and they had expected the same behaviour from man. But the Protectorate often sent lightly defended groups of colonists to distant regions, that they might gain some understanding of that territory and its dangers before committing valuable battle groups. Thus the Hyperions were premature in their celebrations, and had brought the full attention of the Protectorate of Man upon them. The Lord Martial of the Protectorate mobilised his Fifth Battle Group, and from the Hour of Reckoning, his massive flagship, he led over a hundred ships to avenge the colony. The ensuing battle was more like a massacre. The human armada tore the Hyperion fleet apart, dealing with them as easily as they had dealt with the colony’s orbital defences. Then their armies landed on the planet, vast columns of men wearing war suits the likes of which the Hyperions had never seen before, and wielding energy weapons which cut through their muscular bodies effortlessly. The Hyperion forces were slaughtered down to the last warrior. The Protectorate of Man did not stop there. The Hyperion Empire had incurred their wrath, and so made themselves the next target for the expansion of the Protectorate’s own empire. Human fleets and armies swept across Hyperion space, seizing their worlds in a series of brutal battles. The Hyperions fought well, and no planet was relinquished without the shedding of much blood on both sides. But they knew that they were overmatched. Their empire now faced annihilation. With this existential threat before them, the Hyperions were forced to end hostilities with the Jucati, withdrawing their troops from that area of space that they might help fight against the Protectorate. They expected the Jucati to gobble up some of their territory in that region, accepting this as a price they must pay to continue their defence against mankind. Instead the Jucati offered not only peace, but an alliance. For their own inscrutable reasons, the Jucati wished to join the Hyperions in their battle against the Protectorate of Man. The Jucati’s proposal was received with incredulity and suspicion by the Hyperions, but they had little choice in the matter. If they stood alone, their empire would fall. The alliance was made, and to their surprise the Jucati proved true to their word, and began to fight side-by-side with them against the humans.