History

Road to New Horizon

The Icarus spaceship set off, using the star drive to span time and space, its crew mostly stored in stasis capsules. It was four decades later that they emerged from their sleep to behold the brilliant shining blue moon that would become their new home.

New Horizon

Year 2325 - Landfall; The Perianth Expedition

Decades of travel through the stars comes to an end, as the Epsilon Indri Star System hovers into view, and the colony vessel Icarus discovers a new habitat for humanity. In orbit around the massive desert world six times the size of Earth, orbited by two over sized moons, one cold and dead, the other lush and eden like. The paradise world was aptly named by the statement youngest awakened survivor, and she called it 'The New horizon'.

After orbital pass exploration, determining it possessed a compatible atmosphere and had no immediately harmful organisms, a test colony was landed on the second largest continent, which had originally been chosen because of its ore-rich mountain formations and relative defensibility on a high mesa. Professor Taggert Perianth, the colonies most preeminent biologist dubbed the region Neo Titania, because of the vegetation and fauna there which looked like "something wondrous, just out of fairy tales, truly a home worthy of the gods".

Indeed, he wasn't too far off the mark. As the wafans and human colonists began to explore their new world to gather the resources they would need to thrive, the differences they were faced with were plain to see. The vegetation, the fauna, the weather... even the night sky offered sights like no one had ever seen before. The planet was both familiar and alien at the same time, an amazing new blank slate from which to draw on.

It took less than two months to discover that the native life forms were extraordinarily deadly. Bizarre dual-base life forms, mostly carbon based, but also born with symbiotic silicone based life forms, so closely entwined that they share DNA. The resulting life forms are incredibly resilient to attempts to destroy them. Indeed, some of the dominant life forms are capable of killing, devouring and even digesting wafans due to their incredibly powerful digestive tracts. Over a hundred colonists perished at their hands in the first year, most to the vicious pack predators called Ravager, described as the bastard offspring of wolves and crocodiles.

As a result, hunters become extraordinarily well paid individuals, as the workers build the massive prefabricated city, preparing for the final landing of the Icarus, and the awakening of the remaining colonists.

Year 2327 - Waxen Wings

Flying from space like an angel with wings afire, the Icarus comes to rest on the planet surface, tying the fate of this far flung nest of humanity irrevocably to New Horizon.

Torn apart to finish the colonies clean cold fusion facilities, as well as its medical facilities and advanced machine shops, much of it is left as a hollow shell, but the truly important parts which remained were left as a museum for future generations.

Year 2328 - Unpacking and settling in

After only three years on the Neo Titania continent the wafan and human settlement was already flourishing. The wafans had been the first out exploring, due to the hazards the human might have met from the fauna, but now that they had come to become medically familiar with their environment, the humans could come out of confinement and explore further.

A second settlement was built on the eastern shore of the Neo Titania landmass. Lorelia was originally intended as a science outpost, but it quickly had a life of its own as the first major airstrip for travel by via the colonies Gyrocoptors.

2330 - The Good Life

Humans and wafans experience almost twenty years of uninterrupted prosperity. Mining carefully, and expanding their colony outward through the desert and the coastal mangroves, a new sort of home for man is forged, built on exploration and peace. And the occasional attack from life forms as aggressive as anything a sci-fi author ever wrote up, and twice as homely.

2332 - All good things must come to an end

The first native illness adapts to human beings, ironically on the fifth birthday of the colonies first human child. An individual named Sheqita Smith came to the local medical facility, complaining of increased fatigue and nausea for a period of over a week, and was seeking a routine pregnancy examination.

What was discovered was not the usual bundle of love most women were carrying by this time, (women not interested in having large families were rejected from colonial candidacy as they wouldn't be able to help increase the population), but instead she began to suffer from what appeared to be some sort of previously unknown native Prion that caused her body's cells to physically reject her own mitochondria. Essentially, her body was slowly committing suicide, one inch at the time.

Unable to treat her, because the source itself was unknown, over the course of a week, the woman began to suffer from necrosis to regions too grossly affected to keep up autonomic function, and became so psychologically blighted that she was unable to maintain her identity, and became in many ways like a zombie.

In the end, she was unable to interact socially, and became dangerously violent, unable to control the exercise of her remaining body capabilities, giving her hysterical strength. Her last days were spent alone, dying from blood toxins brought on by gangrene and necrosis, and eventually slipped away silently after a month like torturous ordeal. There could only be one name for this occurrence, they called it 'The Blight'.

2333 - A sickness for all takers

Discovered just three miles from the city border, was a wafan whose entirely body had been ravaged by some form of corrosion, which had eaten through the safeties of his power cell, and completely devours all silica in his superstructure, leaving behind only an oxidized shell, devoid of any of a wafans usual semblance life. In essence, everything that was silicone based, or had any silicone seemed to have simply been eaten, and all the exposed metal rusted at an accelerated rate.

While its Lucid Codex had been de-siliconized, leaving only carbon and other base impurities, they were able to determine the identity of the individual as a male Vanir easily enough. No individuals had been reported missing from the colony for more than 72 hours, and this amount of corruption would normally take several years. But his power cell had clearly been ruptured, and he'd been on fire for a time as a result, but regardless, the only individual who met the criteria was a Vanir explorer named Ramsey.

Placing the body in decontamination, they discovered his body was completely contaminated with some sort of silicone based Microbial infection, which had already infected many other wafans. The cure was not difficult, as all it took was submerging any affected wafans in boiling water for a period of time. Fortunately the disease, which was named Ramsey's Victus Venaliter seemed completely uninterested in Humans, as the treatment would have a number of unpleasant side effects for them. Any Human enduring a treatment would end up less patient, and more heart soup.

2334 - The Great Expansion

With the industrial base necessary to create prefabricated city walls, and automated security systems capable of keeping small secondary colonies safe, expansion became possible, and indeed mandated by the need to make sure all the colonies eggs were not kept in one basket.

Over the course of one year, fifteen satellite colonies were created, ranging fifteen to 75 miles from the main base of operations, and each people by the appropriate specialists and educators necessary to insure both colonial growth and education for human and wafan occupants.

2335 - The Graves of Darwin

The colony experienced its first solar flare activity, putting it out of radio communication for a week. However, while all other colonies had checked in, there was still one which had not. After two weeks with no communication, a recon team was sent via Gyrocoptor to investigate the newest and furthest flung colony, Darwin's Row, a biological research station stationed a hundred and fifteen miles from the landing site. What they discovered when they arrived was shocking.

All the wafans in town were dead, and preyed on by scavengers, or Ramsey's Disease, and strewn around the town and its wall. But there were one hundred and thirty two graves dug outside, each filled with human remains, put to rest with obvious love and care and then interred beneath stone cairns of exquisitely patience construction of different colored stones.

The town itself was damaged, but not beyond a week's worth of repairs. In fact, it was virtually ready for a move in, as if whatever happened happened in a matter of hours as opposed to it being a long continuous attack.

Theories abounded as to the nature of the stone cairns creation, the demise of the humans, and that of the wafans. The only theory that seemed to fit was that something had killed the humans, and the wafans had given them funerals, before succumbing to whatever fate had already befallen their human compatriots.

The only thing to do was to enhance the defense grid, and leave a small garrison to attempt to discover the life forms or natural phenomena which had caused this catastrophe. However, three months of surveillance yielded nothing. With the financial and scientific pressure to resume residency before the new season began to observe it's effect of Flora and Fauna on the plain, volunteers were sent along with a heavily armed guard.

Year 2342 - Cry of the Devils

Incidents of The Blight were uncommon, though utterly horrific, and Ramsey's disease introduced wafans to the horrors of disease... But it was only a matter of time before something truly horrible of nature was discovered.

It was discovered in, as is typical, the most unlikely of places. The Grimes Quarry was responsible for providing the other colonies with the dense marble like stone called Serpentine Limestone. After examining some fossils discovered in the surrounding sedimentary cliff faces, it seemed that they had unwittingly awakened something very old, and very dangerous.

A terrible silicone based disease finally found a foothold in the human genome, leaping out from across the eons to seize humanity. This new disease, long speculated, seemed to clearly be the descendant of, or perhaps even in itself the progenitor of whatever silicone based life form had originally altered the local life forms into their current composite state.

Its effect on humans was absolutely grotesque, as it attached itself to their nervous systems, and from there trying to rewrite them into composite silicone/carbon organisms. Within a matter of days, an infected humans bones growth had created calcium deposits throughout their muscular structure, piercing the flesh and creating massive bone spurs, and increasing the density of their tissue dramatically, making them appear withered, and giving their skin an inhuman woody texture.

Few humans survived more than a day or two, the transformation being almost exclusively fatal, especially to the one cyborg infected. However, a few unlucky survivors seemed to have survived their descent into their new forms. These individuals were extraordinarily aggressive, and psychologically deformed. The only individuals strong enough to restrain them one on one were Jotuns.

The site was closed, and immediately buried, but the attempted transfer of the patients was foiled by inclement weather conditions caused a crash in a canyon. The ship was scavenged too thoroughly by predators to determine much of anything, but those infected with what became called The Descent of Grimes were presumed destroyed.

Year 2343 - Laying down the Law

The first murder trial of New Horizon is held. Arthur McCleary stands accused of murdering his wife, Crystal McCleary over issues of marital infidelity. His guilt is almost a foregone conclusion with the amount of evidence, and killing a woman, especially a pregnant one, is especially harmful to a society that wants to grow in an environment as harsh as New Horizon.

Establishing his guilt takes little more than twelve hours, however, punishment was another matter entirely. Deliberation of sentence was much lengthier, more than three months. Finally it was decided that execution was out of the question. No human or wafan hands would kill him, it was decided. Instead, at the farthest reaches of a Gyrocoptors possible range, five hundred miles, he was left alone with a high powered rifle, a prefab walled home, and enough ammo to hunt for several years and three months of startup food. Locals called it the 'prolonged death sentence'.

Year 2344 - I think we're going to need a bigger gun

Though they had been observed on occasion, the colonies had thus far experienced little known trouble from what appeared to be the planets alpha predator, the massive chimeric creatures which baffled their scientists so. These creatures had been observed stalking their prey for days at a time, despite being roughly the size of an elephant, their ability to blend in with their surroundings is uncanny due to their narrow profiles, and the ease at which they can lay down and blend in with the dusty golden plains.

The Grim Stalkers themselves were a macabre, impossible perversion of natural laws. They walked on their enormous and durable curled fore-claws, which seemed to approach diamond on the durability scale. Additionally, their large shaggy mammal bodies seemed to have an overlong neck for a predator, topped by an eyeless and skull-like countenance. However, they seemed to have no interest in humans, or wafans, and didn't even stop to give them a proverbial glance.

However, this all came to an end rather abruptly during the observation of a Grim Stalkers hunt when a Jotun observer working with two human companions somehow came, over the distance of a thousand feet, to the Grim Stalker's attention. It diverted from its prey and slowly, very gingerly made its way to the hunter's camp, disappearing and reappearing many times, until it was upon them.

The Grim Stalker blocked their escape, but did not attack, observing them with its ears and smell for almost an hour. The human survivors swore up and down that at the end, it whipped its head towards the Jotun and 'looked' at him. The Grim Stalkers observed him closely for another full minute before snatching the Jotun up in a fore paw like a stone, and smashing him repeatedly upon a rock, showering the camp with stone shrapnel, until the hunter ceased moving. Than, unhinging it's lower jaw like a python, it swallowed the damaged wafan whole, shrugging off the automatic weapon fire from his coworkers like it was nothing. After finishing the process, the creature walked away uninterested in anything further in the camp, though it paid close attention for a moment to their radio equipment and field computers before departing with a snort.

From that day forward, Grim Stalkers all across the known planet somehow became alerted to the presence of wafans, and seemed to consider them food. Beating or mutilating them and swallowing them whole, they digested the bits which seem most appealing, and left the rest as enormous steaming piles on the plains and hillsides.

Year 2345 - Laying down the Hammer

Over a hundred Wafans were killed by Grim Stalkers since they first acquired a taste for Wafans, and not a single one had been killed. It was decided unanimously that the time for reprisal had come, that these enormous beasts needed to be taught the fear of mankind. To that end, they opened the colonies stockpile of Earths most lethal weapons. Gauss Canons and high velocity rocket rounds.

Fifty Humans and Wafans were sent into the wilderness in Gyrocoptors, in a bid to exterminate any Stalkers within fifty miles of the primary landing site. Fifty men and women left, three returned to the colony alive.

The first batch Grim Stalkers discovered was a breeding pair, with a young adult. Even with their concentrated firepower, they were only able to kill one Grim Stalker before the casualties started. The two adults managed to kill virtually every single member of the assault party before the male succumbed to multiple HV rocket Rounds to the chest and neck and died of blood loss.

The three humans who escaped only escaped because they played dead, and managed to walk back to the colony, over ten rough kilometers of terrain. With the description of the deadly hardiness of these creatures, it was decided they'd need to develop entirely new weapons to deal with their threats.

To that end, they turned to a grotesque chapter in history and resurrected and ancient weapon of terror crafted by the wafans in their darkest hours of depravity in their original war for independence, the .75 FRR round machine guns. Terrible guns, which deliver enormous rounds which split into three inch long razor like shards which explode outward radially from the impact point and mutilate the internals of organic targets.

Taking precautions, they spent two months manufacturing and distributing the weapons, heavy defensive turrets modified for the rounds, and a healthy supply of ammo to every conceivable colony before striking.

The next month, a dozen gyrocoptors were armed with mounted turrets, and sent out to go hunting. Over the course of the next day, three hundred and fifty Grim Stalkers were killed, which took almost one hundred thousand rounds to accomplish. Four hundred and seventy five humans and Wafans died during this time, and four colonies were completely wiped off the map. However, there was not a Grim Stalker to be seen anywhere on the continent, at least nowhere where the colonists had eyes and ears.

Year 2346 - Baby Boom

The population growth of New Horizon was far below projections, and the last two years it had been a negative growth. So a special financial incentive was offered to those women willing to be artificially inseminated with twins, instead of single live births, to accelerate the human population growth.

Additionally, all wafans were encouraged to actively participate in the creche process to accelerate Wafan population growth as well.

Year 2347 - Footsteps in the snow

A new generation of children who had never seen Earth now head the colonization initiative, and seek new placed to live beyond the safe walls of their familiar home. Surprisingly, many turn their eyes to the frozen north.

The colonization proceeded on, with another science outpost built in the low-hazard Perpetua Glacier in the northern snowy wastes which offered difficulties of their own because of the cold climate and forbidding terrain, but such hazards were more familiar to humans. The colonists built a city in the western part of the Perpetua Glacier which they named "Glacier Run City", with the foresight of considerable underground storage for emergency reasons. In time however Glacier Run City became more and more important and served a wholly different purpose in the decades to follow as the influx of colonists gradually forced use of that space as living room.

Year 2348 - Darwin Rising

With the onset of a rare wet season, the Darwin mystery is laid to rest as the many funeral cairns are torn open, and swarms of enormous scarab beetle like creatures emerge, and skitter for the distant hills.

Capturing one, scientists were able to extrapolate the events of the Graves of Darwin. The Wafans had been slaughtered by the as yet unseen adult forms of these beetles had laid their eggs in the humans like digger wasps, and their offspring had survived in the dried out husks for years, dried out like Brine Shrimp until the rainy season, surviving by cryptobiosis. Even though they only vaguely resemble scarabs, especially with their hideous, almost human faces, they came to be called Crypto Scarabs.

Year 2349 - The Fruited Plain

Not to be outdone, many of the hardiest young folk travel west, to the distant major continent, staking claim to a colony region by mineral rights, fully as large the continental United States, Canada, or Russia had ever been. No one cared, though, there was plenty enough to go around on the rest of the planet.

The primary town was settled by the surliest hard boys the colony had to offer, a group of hunters hardened in the Hammer War by Grim Stalker hunting had little problem with the still deadly, but far less voracious plains creatures of this new continent.

Year 2350 - Breath of the Beast

The colonization process came to a crawl as the settlers paused to consider where they could properly terraform to make another settlement. An alarming incident though happened in Glacier Run City: Somehow a portion of the local wafan population seemed to have gone berserk, unable to tell friend from foe, and began attacking the humans in their midst, as well as unaffected wafans. There seemed to be no discernible pattern to this series of events. There were harsh battles and the city's inhabitants were forced to seek shelter in the underground storage area.

Startled from the news of this odd rebel-like behavior, Glacier Run Cities defacto leader exerted his influence to have a police force drafted to deal with the threat.

Year 2351 - Animus Stalkers are born

The renegade wafans were called Animus, wafans whose Waveform had been damaged and warped by means unknown.

The newly created police force was named the Animus Stalkers. These Stalkers set out to attempt and eliminate the new threat and free the scientist hostages up in Glacier Run City. This unit hunted down the renegades and hoisted them from their position, but apparently, the Animus hadn't been sitting on their hands. They retreated to a fortress which they had built for themselves on a large rocky island found to the south of the Perpetua Glacier in the Landsdale Ocean. The fighting was fierce and the new and inexperienced Animus Stalkers could not oust The Animus of their new stronghold. With dwindling supplies and high casualties, they were forced to fall back.

Year 2352 - Shadow of the Beast

In light of the new stronghold of the Animus, the colonists were forced to invest more resources in military materials. When they were ready, the Animus Stalkers went forth and finally managed to defeat the Animus resistance at their stronghold, though they could not hold unto the criminal settlement and were forced to fall back to protect Glacier Run City from further predations.

In order to examine the Animus outbreak more closely, a team of elite researchers assemble within a newly established scientific laboratory on Neo Titania to keep track of the events and try to determine how such a thing came to be.

Year 2353 - Getting cozy

The Glacier Run City science outpost was restored from the massive damage it had incurred while under the Animus occupation. The refugees whom had hidden away in the underground sections had done surprisingly well for themselves considering the small scale of the supply they had hoarded in case of other emergencies.

In fact, they had become quite cozy and created many very comfortable ad-hoc subterranean living areas which in many ways surpassed the comfort their surface dwellings were capable of. As opposed to a total surface rebuild, much of their efforts were focused on digging deeper into the tundra, to reach the fertile ocean beneath the glacier at cliffs edge. They dubbed this 'The Aquilon Project'.

Year 2354 - Founding of the Owl's Club

In light of Glacier Run City's recovery, four men of wealth from the city came together and used their resources as a combined unit to advance philanthropic ends. The man who proposed the idea of the club was its de facto leader Eliot Constantine, who also set down a variety of laws for the club members to follow including hand-picking their successors, and making sure only appropriate charities were donated to.

Year 2355 - Filling the larder

The "Aquilon" project was a slow endeavor. The settlers, whom had come to love their new impromptu home, made every effort to make their new underground dwelling place a sweeping exotic affair. However, funds were lacking and they made even slower progress. In an effort to help with the global expansion project (and thus perhaps receive more funding from the colony's top officials in Neo Titania) Glacier Run City had the first naval shipyards built in a place called Beloreas Port just southeast of the city.

Due to the "Aquilon" project the whole continent was starting to be called Aquilons Reach, stretching from the icy city in the western part of the continent all the way to the far eastern coast of the Snowy Waste. The name stuck and remained so ever since.

The citizen of Glacier Run City began to explored around the edges of the Perpetua Glacier and then they begun exploring the rest of the massive offshore island, now named New Crete, especially the areas around the former Animus stronghold.

The furthest eastern reaches of New Chania yielded an amazing discovery. A forest of entirely alien origin which seemed to be expanding at a slow rate and gradually terraforming the island into something alien and amazing. The properties of the bizarre fungus like jungle were amazingly corruptive and toxic, but the possible pharmaceutical benefits were beyond all calculation.

Additionally, there was an odd benefit to the forests runoff. Apparently the plains of the island were exceptionally fertile as a result of whatever waste chemicals the forests indigenous life forms produced.

Quickly building on their discovery, they pruned an area on the islands opposite extreme end to construct new agrodomes and exploit this valuable new resource.

Year 2356 - One bad gone good

The new agrodomes on New Chania proved to be wildly successful. The growth of new foodstuffs and genetic re-engineering of human food gained great popularity. The "Aquilon" project, as hoped, received additional funding to support the newest food mainstay on the colony. They built around the agrodomes the settlement of New Chania and then devoted their earnings to building the underground complex of Aquilon.

Year 2360 - Sight of the Ancients

Study of the Glacier Run City 'Animus' incident in 2350 went on, but with little success. The Neo Titanian investigation team reported that most of the Animus involved in the outbreak had been formerly a science detachment surveying strange ruins on the Perianth Peninsula. Those ruins were mostly hidden within the dense vegetation but they had these sweeping tall spires throughout that had once been described, by Professor Taggert Perianth, as being "a sort of underwater city from a time when New Horizon must have been covered with water". A claim which seemed mostly to be a comment of the aesthetics as opposed to a real claim. That notion of his was dismissed by most other scientists with the belief that the second moon's biosphere was not well developed enough to be that old.

Still, the said ruins had a startling architecture to them that did support Professor Perianth's theory, as well as etched runes across their sweeping length that did confirm that intelligent life must once have been active on New Horizon. Lacking necessary data to make a more involved study, the investigation team began to look around the globe's more forested areas for ruins similar to the one on the Perianth Peninsula.

Year 2366 - The rise of the Kingdom of Ice

The construction of its level tiers complete, "Deep Aquilon" began to thrive on its own. A massive wall of quadruple plated glass, which covered many miles of the undersea cliff face and extending many hundreds of feet back into the cliff. Looking over the distant volcano which dominated the sub-glacial sea, it was a home like few humans had ever known. Deep Aquilon's exotic setting and climate earned its nickname: "The Kingdom of Ice".

A small council of elected aristocracy was drafted, and convened under the name of 'The Rhinesman Council'. Duke Redmond presides as the 'Patriarch' of the council of his peers, the Barons. He holds executive veto in matters of external politics, and presides over public events, largely a figurehead. Titles are elected inheritances, their heirs will have pass rigorous political study courses before gaining any direct political power, or they may opt out and public elections will be held.

Year 2367 - The Ferryman revealed

A new and immensely productive fissionable substance named Charonium is discovered in the Walk of Man. Its radiation is completely benign to carbon or silicone based life. The energy yield from Charonium drastically outstrips all previously known fissionable materials. Mining and exportation begins within six months.

By the end of the year, environmental pollution begins to decline by a full percent. It's estimated that human pollution of their environment may till never reach zero, but industry appears to be heading towards a far cleaner direction than previously anticipated.

Year 2368 - Roving the depths of the ocean

With the inception of Aquilon's new exploratory submarines, the sea floor became a matter for study for many scientists hoping they could find more information about the world's evolution. The Cain Ocean was a vast sea separating Neo Titania from its larger counterpart, the Youzem continent. It was spanned only by a set of jagged islands.

The seafloor offered two startling discoveries. One was that it had suffered massive tectonic activity barely more than two centuries before - catastrophic tectonic activity that indicated that the Cain Ocean between Youzem and Neo Titania might have been land not so long ago. That discovery was supported by an even more startling one: on the sea floor, exploratory submarines found the remains of another city ruin, not unlike the known jungle ruins.

However, the investigation team, once they came on the site, saw that this ruin had nothing in common with the one previously found on Perianth Peninsula. Where the Perianth ruins had sweeping arches and graceful spires, these ruins were made of metal and not stone. There were no alien markings, but they recognized the blocky framework of buildings built not unlike human architecture. It even seemed that some particular facilities there might closely parallel a mining facility.

They concluded that somewhere in the past, more than two centuries ago, another advanced alien culture might have once claimed New Horizon as a mining colony. Perhaps due to some great ecological disaster, the earlier settlers were forced to abandon their holdings. This particular insight was startling, as it was the second incident confirming that other intelligence life existed in the cosmos.

In light of those discoveries, the island chain spanning the ocean was named "The Chain of Tears" due to the immense loss of life researchers figured must have occurred there.

Year 2369 - A quaint little town born

The Aquilonian Exploration Navy establishes a refueling point for their nautical assets. The port town Tilaya is funded and serves as a springboard for long-range sea exploration, though the town is not self-sufficient and relies purely on imports to sustain itself. Tilaya manages to prosper by having geo-thermal stations built in the Chain of Tears and then building a vast power station to help recharge the depleted power cells of exploration submarines.

Year 2371 - Aquilon's Knights unveiled

Aquilon's current Matriarch, The Duchess of Thompson, decrees with unanimous support, the creation of a grand military of Aquilon, based upon the ideals of terrestrial European chivalry. Duke Redmond becomes commander of the newly minted Templar Aquilonia. Scientists begin developing new high-energy weapons and combat vehicles. The world at large was not impressed.

Year 2372 - A jungle with teeth

After extensive exploration of the Youzem shorelines, a new research project is engaged. New settlers are drafted from the Neo Titanian, Aquilonian and New Chanian settlements to create a research station within the Narehl jungles, which covered the south and southwest part of the Youzem continent. Built within less than a year, Port of Narehl was established as a research station, but it was fully planned to become another settlement in its own right.

The gains to have a Youzem city state were great, as Youzem was largely unexplored. The researchers appointed to Port of Narehl had the hard task of taming the wild dangerous jungle while being assisted with Animus Stalkers handpicked for the task. These jungle warriors were redubbed 'Rangers' and had the hard task of securing the settlement and its environs from the harsh local wildlife.

Year 2373 - The jungle without, the jungle within

Many human and wafan explorers to the deepest regions of the jungles came back sporting horrible parasitic infections of local plant life which rooted into soft lung or stomach tissues of humans, or rubberized internals of wafans. Within a day or two, it fatally compromised the body structure so completely, than even wafans were left as little more than florally animated Zombies.

Though outbreaks were rare, much like those afflicted with the Blight, or the now presumable contained Descent, those infected become quite violent towards the end, and rather violently attack any animals which come across them, attempting to attack them, and scratch them with the thorns from their vicious canopy to infect them with their deadly parasite.

The end of an infected individual was simple death by exhaustion, as they collapse and are completely devoured by the parasite within, and become a beautiful, but deadly flowering tree called The Hells Orchid. This disease spread by these trees was simply called The Flowering.

Year 2374 - One man's woe is another's blessing

One unfortunate human engineer found himself unemployed after the construction of the Narehl research station came to a halt. He was eventually forced to relocate along with his family to seek better employment, but he found a way to redress his financial situation. He drew inspiration from his children - whom enjoyed the beach and the general climate of the region. In fact, many of the workers often spent their free time along the idyllic beaches of Port of Narehl.

Calling on a few contacts whom owed him favors, the man managed to find the funding necessary to build a resort, which turned out to be rather more successful than they had imagined it might be.

Year 2378 - To the Moon. The other one, actually.

The first tentative probes to the moon of Nifelheim show enormous deposits of Charonium, as well as other radioactive isotopes of all manner of types. Long term plans are laid down to transfer all extensive mining operations for heavy radio actives to the moon, but little comes to fruition as colonial expansion is still underway, estimated time to be able to take advantage of the resources was fifty years.

Year 2378 - Touch of the Ancients

The Port of Narehl resort's fortunes improved when an official in charge of the Lorelian spaceport came in contact with the owner and made a partnership with him. A new airline was created for the Lorelian spaceport and investments were made to create a sister spaceport in Port of Narehl.

Meanwhile, exploration parties spent much time in the Narehl jungles, learning about the fauna. They eventually stumbled upon some small ruins that were similar to those found on the Perianth Peninsula, though it only elevated more questions about their origins rather than answering any of their questions.

Year 2379 - The rattling of sabers

The Templar Aquilonia unveils its first military submarines, little more than exploration vessels with torpedo tubes. The world is not impressed with Aquilons 'military genius'. However, Aquilon promises that while their intentions are peaceful, their means of defending themselves against native and earthly threats is very real.

Year 2380 - New Horizon's premier vacation spot

The Narehl spaceport is complete. Its completion is accompanied by the opening of 'Princess Land', the Horizon's first amusement park. Vacationers start swelling the Port of Narehl population as the new airline, beach resort and amusement park meets wide success. The parties responsible profit from it greatly and start on other projects to better the quality of life on the entire colony.

Year 2382 - Work and Office Space

A series of carefully constructed factories were created to the far west of the Neo Titanian compounds, conceptualized as an industrial and corporate headquarters for the many far flung businesses. The centralized textile production centers increase the amount of available jobs, and helps the problem of planetary trade still being largely barter based. The biospheres are presided over the Xanadu Oversight committee, and their corporate president elect, Trias Mosphin.

Year 2382 - Voice of the West

The many disparate cities of The Walk of Man create a local ruling council with elected representatives. Levying small taxes from imports and exports, they use their small war chest to fund local law enforcement. Across the face of The Walk of Man, dozens of new sheriffs posts and marshal's retreats begin construction.

Year 2384 - There can be such a thing as too much money

For the Narehl Beach Resort's 10th anniversary, the 'Gold Mountain' casino sees its first opening. It, like everything else in Narehl, becomes instantly popular.

However, the overall colonial economics start to suffer from the Port of Narehls stunning rise. New airlines have to be made to ensure that all the citizenry can reach the resort city, not mentioning that the cashflow going to Port of Narehl was generally used to better their own entertainment facilities. New Horizon faced its first economic crisis.

Year 2386 - The Hypocrites Oath

Breaking away from Aquilon financial concerns, the Kos Medical Trust bought out their controlling interests in order to focus their medical research towards affordable health care, as well as advanced medical treatment for the planets more dangerous indigenous diseases.

To fund themselves, they create the planets premiere medical research facility, The Encephelon Hippocratia. Admission is outrageously expensive, but the demand for advanced doctoral degrees was enormous, so their salary draw generally appeared to be enough for almost any individual to have paid off the financed portion of their schooling.

Further funding came from their robust medical insurance, they invested sizable capital into the founding of many Asklepieion Clinics across the globe in any city with a population greater than one thousand.

Year 2387 - Fury of the Animus

The Animus Stalkers of Neo Titania are taken off guard as one of their own, a powerful Jotun named Lucius becomes an Animus. He'd hidden his condition well for many months and destroyed their current headquarters using powerful demolition grade explosives.

As all the Animus Stalkers were being kept there due to low activity, their ranks were reduced to a fraction of their original numbers. Lucius escaped with records of all known Animus.

Year 2390 - Dream made reality

The answer to the colony's economical problem could be solved through the continued exploration and settling of the Youzem continent. It was determined by the colonial administration that a central hubs for their transport, government and economics needed to be created if they were to administer overall colonial resources adequately. New Titania served as main administrative structure, but it stood too far apart of the other city-states to allow for proper administration.

So, it was decided that New Horizon needed a capital to centralize the administration of political, economical and transitional matters. It took six years to build 'Avalon'.

Avalon was made on a secure plateau of rock over the Azuremar Plains, the city's architecture and layout already planned and organized from the beginning to include a spaceport, brand new Trans Server facilities (which were quickly linked to other cities), central facilities for the government and the military as well as a large amount of space reserved for residential, commercial and industrial areas.

The transition to government control to Avalon went much more smoothly than expected. Its planet wide computer network was supported by new orbital communication satellites launched before the city's christening and the massive network operation were successfully micro-managed adequately by new interactive software called O.P.E.R.A.S, (O.P.E.R.A Software which are developed on New Chania).

Setting Avalon as the central capital also forced the city-states to adopt an equivalent currency unit. After much debate about how their resources held up and were really worth to the colonies whole welfare (to which Port of Narehl's economic was ably repressed and adjusted) the Geodite common currency unit was created and distributed. Small crystals with one facet stamped in gold.

Each branch of the new central governmental ruling body was given an appropriate name for the corridor of the Arbiters Citadel they occupied, each branch labeled Corridor I - Corridor XII respectively. Corridors I - VI political in nature, VII - X economic, and XI - XII for military applications.

Year 2395 - The Birth of Fire

For several years, a small group of mercenaries named The Fist, had been operating out of The Walk of Man, selling their services to the highest bidder. Having no steady home base, they often were nomadic, moving their equipment with them to whatever job site presented itself.

Though they worked at the absolute edge of the law, they never directly attacked settlements. However, hungry for power, their leader Bolzen had been skirting closer and closer to the edge of outright criminal behavior. However Bolzen takes it to a whole new level when he accepts a commission to completely exterminate the town of Ruby's Rest from a renegade internal department of Xanadu.

With the destruction of Ruby's Rest, and the slaying of the Marshal Tannith at the hands of Bolzen, The mercenaries from The Fist were declared renegade.

Year 2395, Fall - The Challenge of Lucius

The Avalon project had been, up until this time, completely undisputed. The world had known almost five years of complete peace. The Avalon Guard, while weak by the standards of even half a decade later, could only be challenged even on a small scale by The Fist.

Avalon, having focused its efforts entirely on The Fist, gradually whittling away at the superior, but drastically outnumbered foes safe and secure in the knowledge that all outside threats were about to be eliminated. This proved to be a costly error.

Long thought dead, Lucius returned, leading an army of Animus of proportions never before dreamed, all but destroying the Animus Stalkers in a single bloody stroke, leaving only the command regiment, led by the state of the art Vanir commanding officer Telias. With only a small handful of remaining elite Stalkers, Avalon faced a war on two fronts.

Lucius publicly vowed to bring an end to humans 'fake eqaulity,' which held back all wafans from reaching their true potential, and the return to humans rightful place beneath his heel. He declared his army the Lucent Bane, and all humans and all wafans in collusion with Humans to be his enemies, spreading Poisonous Memes, false memories which corrupt the perceptions of the infected.

Year 2396 - Death rides the Streets, by the Light of the XIIIth Corridor

Hit harder than any other region, The Walk of Man sees unprecedented causalities as entire towns human populations are exterminated by The Lucent Bane and the wafans either converted, or destroyed.

The Fist continues to harry the Avalon Guard to no end, pushing them further and further back, disrupting supply lines and stealing advanced new weapons bound for the Lucent Bane Warfront. The world seems to stand still for almost a year, as nearly 50,000 humans and wafans die. On a colony world of five million, that's the extermination of ten percent of the world's population.

When all seemed too late, Avalon unveils its newly minted final solution to the problem of The Animus, Corridor XIII. Wafans of all three species specially designed to be immune to the Poisonous Memes by using a unique memory system which utilized a dozen smaller Lucid Codexes, with individual memories stored in pieces randomly assigned across the different memory units.

Taking the battlefront, Corridor XIII proved to be able to slow the advance of the Lucent Bane, but they were too little, too late. For the hour was already too dark, and the dawn too far away for Avalon to weather the night with things as they stood.

Year 2397 - The Lucent Oblivion

But the Weather is well known for being consistent only in its inconsistency. Bolzen pressed harder and harder, the ranks of The Fist swelling, until both The Fist and The Lucent Bane were in sight of Avalon from both the north and the south, while Telias and the last remaining Stalkers fought a desperate pitched battle inside the Lucent Banes camp backed by all the fury Corridor XIII's new commander, Valdes the Viridis. The battle was a Mexican standoff, with no one making any progress.

Bolzens attack on the opposite flank was ruthless, his tactics heinous and distasteful. Bolzen was poised to take everything, not only destroy Avalon, but with his elite core units, he'd more than likely be able to take down the Lucent Bane as well. It seemed New Horizon was doomed to a future of iron fisted, until at a single decisive moment, Bolzens second in command, a cyborg nicknamed 'Juggernaut Jace' due to his resolve in the face of danger, changed the future forever by putting an armor piercing round through Bolzens Luminous core, leaving him a brain dead husk. Telling his men "enough already, we may be rich in wealth but we'll bankrupt in spirit if we go through with this" they about faced on the field, marching to the south and around the city, and began to assault the Lucent Bane.

When all seemed lost for the defenders, The Fist wrapped it's forces around the Lucent Banes throat and squeezed. Jace personally reportedly killed over a hundred of the enemy, as the combined forces of Avalon and The Fist.

With the added confidence of the fists turn, Telias and Valdes were able to defeat Lucius once and for all. With the titanic wafan dead at their feet, Telias having succumbed to his Poisonous Meme, begged Valdes to kill him. Valdes, having considered the Stalker his mentor, was unable to comply, and orders him to flee, and live as long as he's able, and never to forget the pride of the Stalkers.

Year 2398 - The Township of Warhead

The Fist was cleared of all charges, and was given a special commission as autonomous mercenaries whom were allowed to operate outside the bounds of normal laws of engagement, when hired by legitimate faction's top aid in their defense, or attack of illegitimate factions. Land grants for a patch of real estate the size of Texas were given to The Fist to found their own independent nation, under the Avalon Accords.

Jace became General Jace, of the fortified nation of Warhead, ruling from Warhead hold, atop a high rocky peninsula, and he personally challenged the young of New Horizon to put their patriotism to good use. Many young men and women answered his call.

Year 2398 - The Cultural Reclamation Project

Much of Earth culture was lost, and while a lot of New Horizon had developed some new culture of its own, many individuals chose this year to begin a long planned, but never actualized cultural reclamation, and begin to revive some of the long lost earthly heritages.

The Port of Narehl unveiled its newly minted French Quarter, and expanded upon its world famous reputation for excellent cuisine.

The populations of the northern coast of the Youzem continental landmass showed their pride with their cities becoming 'tribes,' in honor of the long forgotten Native American heritages, the expanded on their already naturally harmonious way of life, and adopted many of the old customs, insofar as was appropriate in the modern day and age.

Year 2417 - New Horizon Conviction

The year is 2417 when a government agency integral to world security is compromised, and turns renegade, taking much of its military power with it, civil war is inevitable.

As the former government organization, Corridor XIII, begins an aggressive bid to wipe out all other wafans on the planet of New Horizon, the wafans and their human Allies are forced to recruit progressively younger young humans and wafans to fight for their survival.

This is the story of a young wafan who runs away to join the military against his father's wishes, and narrowly survives a car crash which kills almost all of his fellow squad members, stranding him deep in enemy territory, and his struggle to overcome his fear, and escape from the clutches of his enemy. As he struggles, the player learns more, and more of his background story and the background story of the world at large, as he unlocks new powers, and progresses through the enemy territory towards his ultimate goal of freedom. As time goes by, we learn of his tragic past, and estranged relationship with his father, and his own unknown connection to the civil war, as a mysterious observer watches his every move he makes on his way to freedom.

Year 2419 - New Horizon Subversion

The year is 2419 and Hubart has become a Lieutenant. The war with Corridor XII has been slowed to a halt, as they have hidden from sight for almost fourteen months. However, an unexpected surge in their activity heralded the beginning of a new offensive. Given a new second in command for his team, the covert tactical expert, Selaya, Hubart is sent to try and uncover Corridor XII's current plot, even as his mysterious watcher, and perhaps benefactor, urges him to stand back.

But Hubarts greatest challenge turned out not to be the challenge outside, but conquering his own demons in order to effectively lead his men to victory, and uncover the mystery of the Dragons Teeth project.

Year 2421 - New Horizon Vindication

In the year 2421 the War of the Core Stealers comes to a thrilling climax as the Core Stealers unveil their ultimate weapon, Rapture Station. A deadly space station which will over 24 hours bathe New horizon in deadly EMP which will destroy every single living Wafan on the planet.

The mission was simple, invade the satellite before it became operational, ad destroy the Core Stealer commander, Valde. What could possible go wrong?

Year 2425 - The turn of a century

The New Horizon colony's 100th anniversary. Within the span of one century, the human settlers had swept through their new world, made new homes and were now thriving. Each city-state operated independently, but under the benevolent rule of the Avalon government, some truly believed a golden age had come.

Animus activity was restrained to a few isolated areas such as the forbidding Azuremar Mountains, but proved to be only a minor annoyance.

Year 2426 - The garden of Zen

After being lost in the mountains for nearly three weeks Kazuki Hijiri, surviving only with the greatest of skill, luck, and a .75 FRR rifle which put a healthy fear into the mountain predators. Coupled with the knowledge that certain parts of the mountains indigenous Ravagers are quite delicious, this allowed him to somewhat enjoy his time away from civilization.

To his surprise, he stumbled upon a hidden mountain paradise, roughly the size of the state of California, winding between craggy peaks along a valley seven thousand feet above sea level, with many fresh water streams and a lot of abundant mineral wealth.

Returning to Trapper Town, Kazuki filed for the establishment of a new heritage colony, calling it The Garden of Zen.

Year 2427 - Medical Miracles

With a new, and more advanced filtration method, deeper penetration into The Tulgey Wood are possible. As a result, many new plant and animal species are evaluated for pharmaceutical uses, leading to the development of humans new Battle Potions. Specialized chemical performance enhancers which can, for limited periods of time, immensely boost the physical and psychological performance of a human.

Year 2435 - The Roar of the Beast

While New Horizon was fraught with dangers coming from the alien environment or the exotic creatures inhabiting it, the colonists were fairly certain that they had tamed their new home.

A devastating earthquake, which struck across the Perianth Peninsula, proved them wrong. Through a nightmarish evening, the earth shook, completely ruining the Neo Titania settlement and leaving the colony battered and all but destroyed. Thousands died and those few whom survived were left mewling and bloodied in the ruins of the greatest natural catastrophe seen on this new world.

Several of the wafan survivors lost it, many mysteriously turning into Animus and turning against their fellows. Avalon engaged rescue operations, but the refugees would have been long wiped out by the Animus if it hadn't been from the intervention of the Oracles. The Oracles, a clandestine group following a mandate of "protecting the colony, even from itself" quelled the Animus outbreak at great personal risk to themselves.

The Neo Titanian refugees were ferried back to Avalon and given proper housing and funding so that they could go on with their lives. Unfortunately, there was no way their former homes could be reclaimed. Everything was now but ruins and would never again see its former glory.

Year 2439 - The Eye of the Beast

A sudden loss of communication from Lorelia caught the attention of the Oracles, whom had noticed increased Animus activity around the city-state. Not many of the Oracles had any fears, as communication hardware was known to fail from time to time - why worry anyhow? Wasn't Lorelia the strongest city-state in all of New Horizon?

Two of the Oracles left for Lorelia: the White Oracle Hubart - a hero of the recent catastrophe in the Earthquake incident; and the Black Oracle Selaya - one of his close friends. An odd pair that had been through much together, but each had a role to play that complemented the other.

Their arrival to Lorelia confirmed their fears. A large number of Animus had invaded the place. The Lorelian spaceport had been taken over and all communications to the outside world had been severed. The heavily fortified city saw its strong defenses turned against itself and things were obviously going downhill.

Hubart, a good fighter in his own right, proceeded to shape up the battered Lorelian military and led a counter-attack while Selaya was to investigate the Animus activities. Hubart held off the Animus well enough and proceeded to try regaining control of the communication facilities so they could send out a message for help. Selaya, on her side, mingled discreetly with the Animus and tried to understand their motivations. Her proficiency in controlling electronics helped her considerably track down the source.

Selaya rejoined Hubart and explained that the problem was unlike any other they had faced before. Understanding that the city's forces were almost overwhelmed, Hubart rallied his troops and made a final push for the communication facilities.

However, everything went wrong. Hubart's forces began to turn on each other and Hubart was soon left to fend for himself. While he should have won, he realized that Selaya had betrayed him. Hubart was forced to use his Personal Trans Server to escape.

With the Black Oracle leading them, the Animus' completely overran Lorelia. Knowing that they somehow had to be stopped, the last of the Lorelian military used a nuclear bomb to destroy their own city. The blast destroyed thousands of Animus and not only did it wipe out the city, but also heavily irradiated the surrounding land.

Selaya survived. She had the foresight to prepare several vessels in the spaceport to escape the city before the nuke was lit. Hubart quickly learned of his partner's survival and feared the worst - Selaya, being an Oracle and his friend, was about the last person he wanted as an enemy. He reported to the leader of his organization, the Gray Oracle, and then was sent to Avalon to warn the government of the coming menace.

The Animus were no longer just a mere irritant, but it appeared to be the Lucent Bane all over again. What history would call The Great War had begun.

Year 2440 - The Beginning of the Great War

Selaya landed her vessels by the Vertigo Mountains and enlisted the Animus there, led by the ancient Animus Stalker Telias to her cause. She quickly assembled her forces and led an offensive into the Azuremar Plains, destroying several Animus Stalker watch posts and making her way steadily for Avalon.

Hubart had since then warned the Avalon government. Measures had been taken to assemble the best warriors Avalon, Glacier Run City and Port of Narehl had and to crush the Animus once and for all, now that they were acting openly. Since Hubart was the most familiar with the enemy leader and was also a renowned hero, he was put in charge of the army.

Selaya announced there would be no mercy, and no quarter given, this would be the Great War that would change the world.

Year 2442 - The Great War Ends

It turned out that The Great War had not been precisely what it appeared. And thought it lasted two years with lightning raids on almost every single major city, with more engagements in shorter periods of time than any previously recorded war, there was surprisingly little in the way of atrocities that one would typically associate with the Animus, except where Telias was concerned.

Although history would never show the real truth, the Arbiter, Titania, had been manipulated from the start into framing Selaya as a distraction for her own schemes; the revival of an ancient alien machine which identified itself as Oberon, perhaps to stroke her ego.

Oberon had been imprisoned several hundred years before the Humans had arrived. His people were a voracious, omnivorous cybernetic pestilence that spread across the stars. Horrific sentient Von Neuman devices which lived only to spread their vile aristocratic empire. But Oberon was the last of them, some as yet unknown local force had destroyed them on this planet, and abroad on other worlds, they had met some other equally unknown fate.

With Oberons death, along with the Arbiter, history would sadly be forced to use the now dead Selaya, whose goal had been to destroy the arbiter and slay Oberon, as a scapegoat. The knowledge of the deadly, unknown secrets which lay on the planet would need to remain a carefully concealed secret. The government had a difficult time accepting that a being of Oberon's immense power, and countless others like him had been simply exterminated by a force as yet unseen which dwelled among them. How would the public react to such knowledge?

Year 2442 - The Children of the third helix

A species of quasi-sentient jellyfish-like creatures was discovered in these woods, which seems to defy gravity despite weighing nearly a hundred pounds. Countless sub-species were observed, which seemed to incorporate traits from many different phylums of life. However, it was soon discovered that infants would attack another predator and absorb its organic material to genetically alter itself. It would gain traits of the absorbed organism, to aid it in hunting new prey, each new generation returning to baseline.

A group of Human researches managed to create a serum, which would allow the grafting of foreign, and even silicone based DNA into the human genome. These horrific appearing, but marvelously powerful new beings retained virtually all of their humanity, but were far hardier than a baseline human, surpassing even Vanir physical prowess, and bordering on that of the Jotuns.

However, before their existence was public knowledge, tests between two willing candidates showed that their offspring were completely normal humans, with no trace DNA whatsoever, that the vestigal third helix was not a hereditary trait.

Humans across the world are appalled to discover the existence of the self styled Medeans, and they're shunned the world over, finding common ground only with other outcasts, like Cyborgs. However, despite all political objections, there's no inherent danger to the medical procedure.

Year 2445 - The eye of the storm

With the Biosphere city in full expansion and Avalon's airlines restored after the Great War, economics picked up. And while there was still much reconstruction to be done, the colony as a whole enjoyed a well earned reprieve from world crisis for an extended period of time.

Year 2447 - The conception of the 'Brain Trust'

Hubart retires from the Oracles to settle down in the Biosphere city now named Xanadu. Knowing that human minds had a capacity to forget pain and, as time passed, to repeat the mistakes that were once done in 'Neo Titania', he endeavored to build himself an institution to the goals of keeping them on the right path.

His new organization, the 'Brain Trust', was officially an offshoot of the Oracles that gave a much greater emphasis on teaching and counseling instead of chronicling and meddling in the affair of others. Hubart having close ties with Dolly, whom was part of the governmental council, the Brain Trust became an active organization in Xanadu's economics and politics. The Jotunheim Laboratories, the Brain Trusts state of the art new home compound, was built on the nearest island offshore from Xanadu.

Year 2455 - The foundations to a bright future

Xanadu's development and expansion continues, now having a total of 5 biospheres habitats. The mostly human city-state boasts of good living conditions and citizens gradually convince themselves that Xanadu's way of life is the ideal one in all the settlements on New Horizon.

Xanadu also gained some considerable renown from their various academic facilities (with no small thanks to the Brain Trust).

Year 2457 - Hubart retires

On the Brain Trust's 10th anniversary, Hubart retires as head of the Brain Trust, leaving his more politically minded offspring Ruttnick as his successor. He brings closure to a few projects before totally disappearing from public spotlight.

Year 2458 - Dolly leaves as well

After settling a few loose ends herself, Dolly resigns from her position as President of the Xanadu Governmental Council and nominates Rudrick Babel as her successor. Babel, a stern but fair man, assumes presidency and Dolly, like Hubart, leaves the public spotlight altogether to leave the humans in charge of their own 'paradise'.

Year 2465 - The Dragons Teeth

Xanadu, wishing to get in on the ground floor of the bio technologies seen in Medeans without using alien DNA, attempts to use genetic samples acquired from a raid on the ancient ruins of Neo Titania, which date back to pre-colonization records.

Amidst the genetic records, they discover an ancient genetic sampling of individuals from the Wafan war of Independence. The genetic profile was virtually perfect, even by Olympian standards. However, the DNA was slightly degraded from the centuries, even in cryogenic stasis.

Forty children are created using the genetic base, and implanted in female Xanadu government volunteers.

Year 2465 - The Pearls of the Tulgey Wood

The latest wave of New Chanian medical advances allow the imbiber a short period of precognition, approximately three seconds. The drug is called Pearl Dust, and is derived from powdering and inhaling the dust of the seeds of a rather hideous plant called an oyster tree.

Hideously expensive, it sees very little practical use, except for the fabulously wealthy. It's impossible to synthesize without enormous expense.

Year 2474 - Enmity building

While Avalon still presides as the political and economical hub between the city states, having all relationships shunted toward Avalon gradually begins to culturally isolate each city-state - metropolises like Port of Narehl, Glacier Run City and its underground city complex Deep Aquilon, and Xanadu, grow more and more independent, though all remained on more or less friendly terms.

A popular fad of Aquilon using cybernetic implants as part of their fashion eventually reaches Xanadu. Most parent react in shock as their children suddenly trivially turn to cybernetic implants for casual reasons into off as a mean to overcome health problems and handicaps.

Despite parental protests, the fad gains in strength and Aquilon makes a surprising profit in their textile exports as well when Aquilon-cut outfit start to appeal more to Xanadu youths. Complaints eventually reached the governmental council, which has Babel respond by drastically increasing the taxes for Aquilonian good to discourage the current practices. While the fad died shortly afterwards, it left a sour taste to subsequent Xanadu/Aquilonian relations.

Year 2478 - Tension rises

Aquilon tries to renew trade with Xanadu a few years after the 'cyber fad', appealing for better import/export rates. After a few concessions made by both governments, President Babel was about to settle the trade agreement but died in a hovercar accident before the official signing.

Kern Denvers takes charge as presidential head of Xanadu. However, Denvers held a much more prejudiced view of Aquilon since his youngest nephew had succumbed to the 'cyber fad' and was still recovering from the extensive surgery he had underwent to remove the cybernetic implants, including having entirely replaced an arm. However Denvers either failed to, or did not care to take into account that his nephew had used cheap retro-grade components, and had the procedure performed by an unaccredited local doctor. Many believe that Denvers may have been just as angered by Aquilon upsetting his unusually antiquated world view.

He refused to sign and declared that there would be no signing until Aquilon agreed to the inclusion of several other clauses making Xanadu benefit much more from the said trade agreement. Though Aquilons navy was powerful, it was quite small, Denvers vowed that if Aquilon did not agree to contracts making sale of their cybernetic technology directly to any Xanadu citizen and to cease their lobby of weapon and textile sales to both Warhead and the Avalon Guard they would begin a full embargo. This was against the advice of all his political advisors.

Aquilon eventually gave in, though they were none too gracious about how Denvers had treated them, and told Denvers the situation wouldn't remain the same indefinitely. Denvers scoffed, and called them a vulgar race of profit mongers, who attempted to profit at the expense of others. The irony was not unnoticed by the rest of the Council.

Year 2480 - Urge to kill, rising...

Denvers has had a two year long political campaign, slandering the lifestyle of the Aquilonian citizenship, and lionizing their own society, setting himself up as a man of manners and culture, trying to keep his society free of corruption and filth inherent in those outside the system. Television shows started to change the view of Xanadus place in the world, and even began to reinsert long abandoned sexist social behaviors. Ironically, his approach was far more successful than could be hoped.

Aquilonian citizen traveling on business trips to Xanadu are treated with much disdain - in fact, even the Xanadu Peace Keeping Force act in a biased manner by being considerably harsher on Aquilonians than Xanadu citizens in any of their interventions, Aquilon citizens are often searched repeatedly for weapons, or refused service.

Xanadu citizens coming back from Aquilon return disgusted by how Aquilon society is libertine and shallow compared to their own more 'proper' Xanadu sensibilities. Eventually, both governmental parties meet in the yearly Avalon conference to settle their grievances to the colony council, but the discussion dissolves into a shouting match. The talks were concluded with each respective politicians returning home without the issue being settled.

Year 2481 - From misunderstandings...

Growing increasingly suspicious (and hateful) of Aquilon, President Denvers orders the Xanadu navy to send out one of the new Merced submarines to scout for Aquilon navy deployment.

As the Merced makes its way close to the Perpetua Glacier, it meets up with another unknown submarine model wearing Aquilonian colors. The Xanadu captain panics at the sight of an unknown submarine and opens fire.

The skirmish is short lived as both parties disengage after a few passes to return to their respective territories. The Merced is damaged, and is forced to limp back to harbor, but the unknown Aquilonian vessel seems considerably better off than its Xanadu counterpart. Denvers stance toward Aquilon becomes more aggressive as he grows convinced that Aquilon is preparing an attack on Xanadu.

Year 2483 - ...to fear...

In fear of Aquilonian reprisals, Xanadu builds Fort Mile-High at the edge of the Azuremar No Fly Zone, enforced by The Walk of Man. Their original pretext is initially to watch over Animus activity around the ruins of Lorelia, but that argument was thin, and politically suspect at best. Bald faced public lies and blatant bullshit in actuality. The airstrip fielding with a complement of Perseus fighters hints at them preparing an offensive on Glacier Run City.

Aquilon, under the same pretext build their own stronghold, Fort Horus, to keep the Xanadu forces in check.

Year 2485 - ...to hatred

The ice finally breaks as President Denvers orders the first offensive on a Templar Aquilonian shipyard set in the Chain of Tears - despite the Brain Trust's best effort to keep the conflict from becoming all-out war.

Several Merced submarines are sent to destroy the shipyard mainly meant to build deep sea exploration submarine - Denvers claiming it was a cover up for a spying outpost.

The Xanadu navy manages to destroy the shipyard before Aquilon could send reinforcements - in fact, they expected no reinforcements due to how remote the shipyard was to Aquilon, but the Templar Aquilonia came on the battlefield with their new amphibious fighter crafts.

The Xanadu would have had been utterly defeated if it had not been for an especially clever general who fought off the Templars long enough to allow the Xanadu forces an orderly retreat.

The Brain Trust makes contact with the Xanadu military begging them to forestall any further offensives on Aquilons Reach. The White Oracle Beretend does the same thing in Glacier Run City, cooling things down somewhat after the battle.

Year 2486 - ...to genocide

Denvers mental state is in serious doubt, and many believe that he's running a private agenda. Though the public never becomes aware of these events, Denvers had secretly begun construction of a weapon of mass destruction, a nuclear powered stealth submarine with no other purpose than the destruction of Deep Aquilon, whose collapse would Destroy Glacier Run city as well, utterly destroying the Aquilonian civilization.

Aquilon manages to catch wind, and with their secret Red Templar brigade are just barely able to end the threat with a well timed and expertly executed raid.

Year 2487 - The King is dead, long live the King

With the retirement of Professor Hari, The Brain Trust appoints, as its new head the distinguished Professor Sucher and his 'wife' Daedra presides with him as the administrative assistant.

Some unknown parties murder President Denvers in his sleep. Unknown to most, this was the work of one man, Xanadu national, Cadmus Rose, an up and coming member of the ministry of war, having taken it upon himself.

Aquilon politicians breathe a sigh of relief as the mild-mannered Carlin Attacus is appointed for presidency. Many conservative factions cry 'Aquilonian Assassins'.

Sucher maneuvers so that the hothead at the command of the Xanadu military retires in favor of the general who helped the Xanadu forces two years back to the position of military governor. A wise choice at the time, as the general proves to be very protective of the country, opting Xanadu to take a more defensive stance. The cold war settled down somewhat. Things are kept quiet for a few years, but there's an anxiety in the air, just like the calm before a big storm.

Year 2490 - New Horizon code T.A.U

The year is 2490. The leader of the Nation/Conglomerate of Xanadu was assassinated a few years back. The new president's son, Carlin Attacus, suffered from severe shellshock in the previous war with Aquilon, ten years prior, and his father Cornelius Atticus took care of him during his convalescence, but Carlin is permanently deranged by it.

He thinks that it is Xanadu's birth right to rule New Horizon, and that the rulers of Avalon are just pretenders, and in his insanity, he remembers Aquilon as devils, vile deceivers who seek to keep Xanadu down.

He, and many other shellshocked well to do children spent about ten years secretly embezzling money from all corners of Xanadu, creating fraudulent government departments and ministries to cover their trails, to create a hidden organization, Villes Apex, 'Hollow Crown,' with the intent of framing Aquilon for atrocities against Xanadu, by creating a fleet of lethal submarines to bombard Xanadus coastal cities.

His father, the current president, is left with no choice but to assume that Aquilon is at fault, and declares an ever escalating war, while Villes Apex's force stay in wait for Aquilonian spies, with their own secret military forces of decommissioned aircraft ready to join the assault and lay waste to Aquilon, thus jump start a conquest of New Horizon.

Xanadu could never defeat Aquilon in a naval war, so Xanadu is now seeing fit to destroy Aquilon in a massive air raid. Aquilons air force is small, and they're forced to fight a defensive war. Their only hope for a decisive strike is to insert their only T.A.U prototype aircraft called the Manta Bomber...

Lieutenant Molly Thompson is sent on deep recon. She discovers a secret group called Villes Apex, and is contacted by a Xanadu citizen who is actually Hubarts 'grandson' Hari, using the code name Deep Blade, who is willing to give over information. He tells her of the existence of secret group called the Villes Apex as those that are framing Aquilon. He also tells her that this group is tightly linked to the prominent families of Xanadu.

Year 2495+ - Crimson Fall, Golden Storm, Blue Dawn

TBD, currently in progress; general story outline is as follows, nifty almost magical artifacts created by the creators of New horizon are discovered, and over the course of three games, the heroes defeat villains, claiming them for themselves, and some even become villains in their own right. In fact, the final villain of the third title is currently looking to be none other than Longshadow.

Beyond the New Horizon

More to come...

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