“I’ve looked at the alphabet, or at least what I’ve been able to get access to. Every single character unique unto itself, no repetition or apparent pattern within any of the texts, not one of these characters has ever been translated by the greatest of scholars. I spent the better part of my first hundred years at the academy studying interspecies cryptology, and even lost a decade down a black hole trying to see if I could decipher it for myself. Eventually, I realized that their understanding of language was beyond me and the best cognitive enhancers I’d been able to get assigned. What majesty that language must have been to be heard, or felt, or expressed however it was!”
-Tutor Sandra O’Malley, private tutor to Council Nobilis families on human language

Millions, possibly billions, of years before any known sentient species in existence had evolved to make contact with their stellar patron, one species had achieved a massive galactic level of civilization. Their technological achievements appear to dwarf even those of the Quaakk’Rii, with planet sized complexes found floating in dead space between star systems, fully operational as though simply waiting for their original inhabitants to return.

While their technology remains, no corpse or genetic piece of the species mostly referred to as the Incipients has ever been found. Their technology is nearly incomprehensible, and no scholar has yet been able to decipher their strange language.

Known sites of Incipient remnants are closely guarded by whoever claims the territory in which they are found. Constantly working to unravel the technology, the Quaakk’Rii have made some minor progress over the millennia. Many believe their creation of Universal Back-Up came from these studies, but none are sure and UBU has been in the galactic society long enough that few can remember a time before. The Quaakk’Rii have an open agreement with any civilization that if allowed to examine Incipient sites, the Quaakk’Rii will share all knowledge gained with that civilization. Only members of the pure league have not fully taken that deal.

The scope of the Incipient civilization is larger and grander than any the galaxy has seen since. They seemed to have influence in nearly every area of the galaxy. In present times, rumors of undiscovered Incipient ruins attract a wide variety of adventurers, state actors, and profiteers all seeking untold technological riches left behind.

“The history of the modern galaxy starts with the Quak’rii. It was they who invented UBU, then Wormhole technology, and then brought those things to the galaxy at large. No civilization who had developed upon their arrival was their equal. Had they been conquerors, they would have been our immortal overlords. Instead, they come as knowledge seekers, though their price is often high.”

-Danny Ramirez, Human Hegemony Ambassador

History for most of the galaxy is considered to have started roughly six thousand years ago, when the Quak’rii developed both Wormhole Drives and Universal Back-Up. While they have freely shared their knowledge of Wormhole technology, they refuse all questions about UBU other than those about its results to prospective worlds.

For the first several thousand years, the galaxy was largely at peace. The dominant conflict was between the Pure League and all those who took UBU. The Pure League’s members, for reasons based on each species beliefs, oppose the use of UBU and feel it is to the detriment of the galaxy. Members of those species that do use UBU are usually exiled.

That conflict simmered for nearly two millennia, when a threat to the entire galaxy appeared. The Korruk began advancing like a plague in one quadrant. By the time the larger forces of the galaxy noticed this advance, it was too late to crush the beast.

The Korruk were an army of cloned warriors made from one single member of the species, a conqueror only known as Oagan. After hundreds of years of debate, the Pure League agreed to temporarily put aside their differences with those who had agreed to UBU in order to address this menace that threatened them all.

In the more than a millennia since that pact was made, few victories have been had, and all the galaxy’s efforts have done little more that slow the advance of the Korruk scourge.

“I’ve sat in my ship just looking at the Monument and staring out at the stars beyond them waiting for a Drift. It’s a wonder to behold. I’ve often maneuvered my ship in such a manner as to be looking directly across the galaxy from the same angle I am seeing the Monument from. Truly, it is breathtaking and awe inspiring. People think I’m crazy for the dangers I take Drifting, I think I’m lucky to just be able to have permits that let me come and look at this Incipient creation whenever I want. Few even on the Nobilis Council have such privileges.”

-Captain William Koch, Horizon Drifter

Thirty years after the humans joined the Ilchari’s coalition, the Quaakk’Rii announced the discovery of a new Incipient site near the bright core of the galaxy, and that they had figured out at least one purpose of this amazing device. They called it the Monument.

The Monument displays and tracks what the Quaakk’Rii have come to call Event Horizons. These are pivotal events for the galaxy, where the results will have an impact on a galactic scale, though the effect is not always obvious. To do this, the monument is a scale replica of every star in the galaxy located in the middle of the Monument System controlled by the Quaakk’Rii at a consistent though non-orbiting distance from its star, Luhlixran (named after the Stellar Patron of the system).

When an Event Horizon begins to take place, that star on the Monument lights up with a special glow, and will remain glowing until the Event Horizon has passed.

Whenever an individual or group travels through a single wormhole, the destination system splits into a new reality to accommodate that incoming wormhole. Thus, many people may enter the same system but each individual or group experiences a separate reality of that system and those events. Then, after the event has passed, all of those realities collapse back down into one. While those who left remember their time there uniquely, the people of the system only remember one actual probability that seems to be randomly chosen among the decision points most chosen.

The Quaakk’Rii started an organization, the Horizon Drifters, that they could send into these Event Horizons in the hopes of keeping the galaxy from descending into further chaos, while outside forces now attempt to persuade the Horizon Drifters to act based on their interests while in these places.

For over twenty years the Horizon Drifters have been one of the center forces for change in the Milky Way Galaxy.