The age of the Universe has been placed at more than fifteen billion years. When the first Star Gate was discovered on the fringes of Sol we had no idea that it was one of the countless Gates that linked the oldest and most distant of the galaxy's planets. The scientist-monks of the Jenquai had tried to keep their discovery of the Star Gate a secret, fearing the other two factions incapable of grasping the significance of their discovery. But the Terrans, watching from the boardrooms of their star-spanning corporations, had spies everywhere. Seeking to prevent a Jenquai monopoly of this discovery that allows near instantaneous travel across vast distances of space, the Terrans forged an alliance with the aggressive Progen, an ordered and warlike clone culture.

So it came to pass - the Gate War.

Humankind fell upon each other in an epic war, fought for the same reasons wars were fought since the beginning of civilization - territory. With the weapons of mass destruction that technology has wrought, we almost destroyed ourselves completely this time.That was well over a century ago. Now, with the 23rd century nearing its end, a tenuous state of Cold War exists between the Three Factions of humankind. Each of the factions has claimed a portion of the Human Sphere as its own, linked now by the same Star Gates that broke them apart.The Peace is maintained - only just - by fragile treaties and the creation of neutral peacekeepers, a byproduct of the War that nearly plunged the human race into extinction. But the Universe is large. Danger stalks the darkness between the stars. There exists countless worlds, countless discoveries, all drifting through the cold vacuum that spreads outward from Earth and Beyond.