CELESTIAL REMNANTS

When the first arkships arrived in Centauri they discovered a blank canvas – hundreds of densely packed star systems hosting thousands of empty but habitable Eden worlds. Over the next 20,000 years, the early settlers spread across the Cluster. Empires rose and fell, technology advanced, human colonists evolved and changed until they became what we now call Celestials – beings so far removed from their Earthly origins that it’s hard to remember we were all once the same.

There are still arkships arriving in the Cluster; vessels launched from Earth long ago that became lost in the vast ocean of space. Somehow, we survived and made it here, just as our predecessors did millennia ago. But the blank canvas is no more. The Celestial Dominions control vast swaths of Centauri… and they despise us. They look down on us as primitive, lesser beings. They mock us for what we don’t understand. But in their arrogance, they refuse to acknowledge that they too are ignorant.

The greatest Celestial Dominions of this age – like the Crown – are mere shadows of the sprawling empires that came before. Centauri is a graveyard of countless civilizations; their secrets and achievements long buried and forgotten. But the glorious creations of these ancients are still out there somewhere, just waiting to be discovered.

This is the true purpose of the Travelers; the one hope humanity has of surviving against a far superior enemy. We must seek out the lost marvels and treasures of the past – these Remnants - and use them to level the playing field. By combining advanced technology and weapons with human resourcefulness and ingenuity, we will give ourselves a fighting chance. We will steal fire from the Gods and use it to raise ourselves up to their level!

But such missions are fraught with danger and peril. Travelers exploring the ruins of long extinct civilizations are as likely to find nightmares as miracles. Any Remnant powerful enough to save us also has the power to wipe us out. Such was the fate of many ancient Celestial civilizations, like the Détenir who once ruled our homeworld of Lidon. The Détenir vanished, suddenly and without explanation. In their pursuit of ever greater advancements, what horrors did they accidentally unleash upon themselves?

Remnants are a double-edged sword… if that sword was created using science and technology ten-thousand years more advanced than our own. But even if we can’t understand how a Remnant was made, we can often figure out a way that it can be used. We can adapt, modify, and build on the Remnants to advance our own society, taking us down unexpected new paths and unlocking branches of scientific discovery we didn’t even know existed.

Take the fearsome Apocalypse Titans – massive, automated war machines used to decimate entire planets during the Formation Wars. The Titans went into hibernation fifteen thousand years ago, vanishing beneath the surface of the planets they ravaged. Unearthing one of these slumbering giants on an abandoned world could change the course of our entire planet. The knowledge gained from studying its weaponry and construction could revolutionize both war and industry. And finding a way to actually wake the slumbering Titan could give humanity a guardian even Celestials would fear… assuming we don’t unleash a monster that would obliterate us all.

This is the knife’s edge Travelers live on. Sometimes our reach exceeds our grasp, and the consequences of what we discover are tragic and deadly. Many Travelers have given their lives searching for Remnants, many more perished by daring to use the Remnants they found. But the risk is worth the reward. Remnants allow humanity to advance in great leaps and bounds, instead of crawling slowly forward, forever trailing behind the Celestials.

But these lost treasures are not the only reminders of the civilizations that once were. On virtually every world Travelers explore, we encounter Ghosts – mechanical constructs built by the Celestials to function as servants, laborers, guardians, and soldiers. The Celestials mass-produced these constructs by the trillions, often unleashing them in massive numbers against enemy worlds. Though they are not sentient – lacking self-awareness and complex thought – Ghosts operate with the precision of intelligent soldiers. They adapt to enemy tactics, organize into coordinated units, and follow simple orders with deadly efficiency. Built from corrosion-resistant alloys and powered by fusion, they can lie dormant for thousands of years, only to reawaken with minor software glitches and mechanical stutters. Celestials still employ these Ghosts across the Cluster, remnants of a time when war was waged on a scale we can scarcely imagine.

With every Exodus, Travelers make a leap of faith – throwing ourselves into the unknown; braving the dangers of the ancient past to try and secure humanity’s future. Used properly, the Remnants can be our hope, our salvation. Used carelessly, they could be the cause of our extinction. This is the burden all Travelers bear. Our decisions ripple through time and across generations. Our actions will irrevocably change the course of humanity.

What future will you create for our world? What path will you lead humanity down? Salvation? Extinction? Ultimately, this is the only question that matters.

Our fate is in your hands, Traveler. The choice is yours.