Prologue.

To this day, nobody knows what triggered the Cataclysm.

That’s what it came to be known, a word synonymous with both the massive trans-space shockwave, and the wholesale destruction that it caused.

That shockwave hit the mass shadows of planets, stars, and a host of other celestial bodies as it raced at superluminal speed through an area of densely populated worlds. Anything with a substantial mass shadow that dimpled into the realm of trans-space was smashed to pieces. People living on planets had nowhere and no time to run as the shockwave shattered their worlds like balls of soft earth and clay. Even large starships weren’t spared. Many of the super-liners and super-sized military fortresses perished when the trans-light shockwave struck their presence within trans-space.

Racing out from an epicenter near the center of humanity’s centuries old galactic civilization, the shockwave wiped out billions in the span of a day. Millions more died in the days that followed.

The Cataclysm brought humanity’s First Golden Age to a finale.

It set the stage for the survivors to lay the foundations for the Second Golden Age, and the remains of those scores of shattered worlds, moons and stars became the material that fueled the expansion of the Hurakan Nebula.

Nobody noticed the Aventis until decades later.

Most certainly nobody knew where they came from.

Everybody was too busy rebuilding their fallen civilizations following the Cataclysm, that the existence of humans that were more than human went by unnoticed until eventually it was impossible for the Aventis to hide. That was because they were everywhere and anywhere.

From the very beginning they had infiltrated the newly founded United Systems Alliance and the neighboring Coalition of System States.

The problem was that the Aventis looked just like a regular human because they were human, but they were also something more. They were hosts to the Symbiote, and it was the Symbiote that made them strong, fast, and hard to kill. So despite their lack of numbers, they quickly made inroads into humanity’s territories, until humanity began to earnestly fight back.

The War of Supremacy would last two decades between humanity against the Aventis – who fell into eight distinct clans known as Prides. In the end, humanity gave up and raised the white flag. Those that didn’t surrender packed their bags and left this region of the galaxy forever.

Unchallenged, the Aventis ruled supreme and yet they ruled well such that more than two centuries after the Cataclysm and the war, people had all but forgotten the point of fighting against these superior humans. And the truth was, the Prides only went to war to ensure their own survival, but afterwards they managed – dare we say ruled – humanity with a deft and steady hand.

No wars. No conflicts. On the whole, a fairly stable economic and political environment.

Of course, the Aventis remained at the top of the food chain, and Regulars – those without the Symbiote – remained one step below. They had preferential treatment in business, education, sports, and pretty much everything else. But it wasn’t all bad for the rest of humanity, just not as good as it was for those that belonged to the Prides.

However, the door to joining a Pride wasn’t closed.

During their teenage years, a Regular human was tested for compatibility with one of the eight strains of Symbiote that uniquely characterized the eight Prides. If they scored higher than seventy percent they were bonded with a Symbiote and admitted into a Pride. Those that failed to score above the minimum threshold were relegated to mediocrity and remained Regulars.

Then there were those that demonstrated they were different from the rest, and they were chosen to serve the Aventis in a different capacity. They were known as Familiars, neither Regular nor Aventis, and they were gifted with a handful of unique talents, foremost of which was the ability to wield the Remnants – artifacts from an unknown time and place discovered after the Cataclysm. It was because of this and other abilities that Familiars found themselves one step above the Regulars on the social pyramid.

Had things been fair, they would have found themselves ruling the Aventis.

After all, if not for the thousands of Familiars who sided with the Aventis and chose to wield their Remnants in battle against humanity, the Aventis would never have won the War of Supremacy, and society would be quite different to what it is today.