Chapter Summaries

Humanity spread across distant planets while Orsaga quietly removed alien civilizations and strengthened his power in the Physical Universe. As the Eldar reveled in their dominance, Nurgle offered Orsaga his soup, and Orsaga improved the recipe so much that Nurgle began asking him for cooking advice.

• Humanity expanded across the stars, with pioneers spending generations turning distant planets into Colony Stars.
• Orsaga used his Abyssal Contract with Ra to send alien races and planets into Warp Space as material for Ozhaki Derivatives, while keeping his increased power hidden from the other Chaos Gods.
• The Eldar grew more powerful and arrogant after nearly two thousand years at the pinnacle of the Milky Way Galaxy.
• The four Chaos Gods gathered in Warp Space and watched the Eldar, while Nurgle stirred a soup made from projections of planets and races.
• Orsaga tasted Nurgle's soup, praised its flavors and nutrients, then criticized it as lacking and added a special race to improve it.
• Nurgle tasted the improved soup, delighted in its new flavors, and asked Orsaga for culinary advice.

Orsaga, Tzeentch, Khorne, and Nurgle discussed what they would take from Slaanesh when the Fifth Chaos God awakened. They agreed to claim parts of the Eldar and their heritage, leaving Slaanesh's eventual arrival more than ten thousand years away.

• Orsaga finished Nurgle's soup and ate the bone bowl while Tzeentch put away his book of knowledge.
• Tzeentch said Slaanesh was nearing awakening and proposed dividing up what they wanted in advance.
• Orsaga planned to take some Eldar followers from Slaanesh so they could survive.
• Khorne claimed the Eldar God of War Kain, and Nurgle claimed the Eldar Goddess of Life Aisha.
• Tzeentch claimed the Eldar scholars and libraries for the knowledge hidden in their inherited Old One legacy.
• The four Chaos Gods agreed on their plans to rob Slaanesh before his awakening, which was still over ten thousand years away.

In 18225 CE, Orsaga sensed that Humanity was approaching a turning point but dismissed it and continued enjoying himself. A gifted Psionic boy grew up hiding his powers, struggling to relate to ordinary humans, and eventually married his childhood sweetheart while becoming a corporate president.

• Orsaga sensed that Human Civilization was about to undergo rapid growth and face hardships, then turned his attention back to the maid troupe and his wine.
• A male infant was born in a hospital on Earth with powerful psionic talent, though his parents and doctors mistook his unusual health and intelligence for natural gifts.
• The boy learned rapidly and secretly used increasingly powerful abilities, hiding them because he feared being captured or experimented on.
• As an adult, he excelled at an elite institution but felt alienated from ordinary humans, whom he considered far less intelligent and with whom he struggled to communicate.
• Near the age of forty, he married his childhood sweetheart, who ran a noodle shop, while serving as president of a large corporation.

Delico celebrated his fiftieth birthday as a powerful business owner, then learned his wife was pregnant and found new purpose in his life. Ten years later, his son’s wish to visit a distant planet inspired Delico to consider developing Warp Jump Drive Technology.

• Delico learned from his wife that she was pregnant, sensed the child in her womb, and struggled to smile before promising to return home.
• Delico gave every company employee a week of paid leave to celebrate, dismissing his secretary’s concerns about the cost and an important contract.
• Delico went home and discussed names with his wife while Ra, investigating Delico’s Psionic Power, confirmed that the people in the house were pure-blooded humans and decided to warn him later.
• Ten years later, Delico’s son asked to visit Thalassa Planet, but Delico explained that the journey would take at least twenty-two years.
• Delico recalled his teacher’s lessons about Warp Space and considered researching Warp Jump Drive Technology to make travel to distant planets possible.

Delico pursued Warp Jump Drive Technology despite learning that an earlier experiment had been banned after attracting a dangerous creature from Warp Space. Ra eventually allowed the research under strict oversight, and he and Delico developed the Warp Jump Engine, though they still struggled to control how far and how long a journey through Warp Space would take.

• Delico discovered that the Horizon project had tested a similar drive around 2040, but authorities had abandoned and prohibited it after deeming it dangerous.
• Ra confronted Delico over his project, but Delico argued that Warp Jump Drive Technology could help prevent the Human Federation from fragmenting and sparking a seventh internal war.
• After a psionic premonition that Warp Space was unusually stable under Orsaga's influence, Ra approved the experiment and promised resources while requiring real-time monitoring and total destruction if an accident occurred.
• In Earth year 18287, Delico enabled human equipment to detect and use psionic power, allowing Human Civilization to scientifically confirm psionic power and Warp Space.
• In Earth year 18315, Ra and Delico completed the Warp Jump Engine, which moved objects through Warp Space to cross vast distances, but its chaotic nature left them unable to reliably control travel distance and duration.

The Warp Jump Engine unified the Human Federation and propelled humanity into rapid interstellar expansion, despite frequent disappearances during jumps. Meanwhile, the Eldar’s growing depravity nourished Slaanesh, while a few foresaw danger and began preparing arks to escape.

• Ra and Delico accepted that the Warp Jump Engine could not be made fully accurate, and Delico was publicly credited as its primary developer.
• The flawed engine spread widely, allowing the Human Federation’s core fleet to reach distant colonies and restore the Federation’s authority.
• Humanity expanded across planetary systems at unprecedented speed, though many ships vanished during Warp jumps.
• The Eldar’s pursuit of increasingly extreme pleasures fed Slaanesh and deepened a cycle of corruption among them.
• Some clear-minded Eldar foresaw a looming threat and began building mobile arks stocked with supplies and knowledge.
• The Eldar gods failed to recognize that Slaanesh was manipulating their people’s decline.

In 19694 AD, Humanity’s expanding civilization struggled to explain why its predictions of inhabited planets kept failing, while Ra knew Orsaga had likely devoured the missing worlds and their inhabitants. Concerned that Humanity’s growing arrogance would leave it unprepared for the galaxy’s dangers as Orsaga’s time drew near, Ra headed to a place on Earth.

• The Zerg and Ozhaki continued their vast war, while Shi Tiankong had grown into a colossal solitary devourer roaming distant star systems.
• Humanity expanded to more than five thousand Colony Stars and a population of trillions without encountering an Alien Race or many life-bearing planets.
• Human experts blamed flaws in the Life Planet Coordinate Prediction Algorithm, but Ra knew Orsaga had likely devoured the worlds and their inhabitants.
• Ra worried that Humanity’s belief that it was the galaxy’s only sentient civilization would cause trouble as the time Orsaga needed to fulfill drew closer.
• Ra set out for a certain place on Earth.

Ra visited Orsaga to ask him to spare some nonthreatening Alien Races and let them communicate with humanity; Orsaga agreed after Elsa asked him to. Elsa then questioned whether she still belonged to humanity and chose to stop interfering in its affairs before leaving with Orsaga as their palace vanished.

• Ra asked Orsaga to spare some Alien Races that posed little threat so they could communicate with humanity, offering Void Dragon fragments in exchange.
• Orsaga initially refused both the request and Ra’s offer, but changed his mind after Elsa asked him to agree without demanding payment.
• After Ra left, Elsa apologized to Orsaga and reflected on how different she and modern humanity had become.
• Elsa decided she would no longer interfere in humanity’s affairs and told Orsaga they should go home and never return.
• Orsaga agreed, and the pair departed as their palace and its dimensional space collapsed into nothingness.

Humanity expanded into interstellar contact and fought a decades-long war with the Huaien Civilization, initially learning through heavy losses before gaining the upper hand. On a colony world, officials and residents panicked as a huge fleet arrived, only to recognize it as the badly battered First Fleet, leaving the governor wondering whether the Federation had lost the war.

• Human Civilization discovered alien life and later encountered the interstellar Huaien Civilization, with whom it eventually fought a decades-long war over interests.
• Humanity suffered early setbacks against the Huaien Civilization but adapted and gradually gained the advantage.
• A garrison captain on a colony star detected thousands of incoming spacecraft and alerted the planetary governor.
• The governor sounded the alarm, prompting residents to seek shelter and combat-capable adults to form militia teams.
• The arriving ships proved to be the Human Federation's First Fleet, whose flagship and accompanying vessels were severely damaged.
• The governor recognized the fleet and wondered whether the Federation had lost despite recent reports of success.

Ryan Hainde believed the Human Federation was close to defeating the Huaien Civilization when twelve unidentified warships arrived in the middle of the battle. Their advanced technology and sudden attack destroyed ships from both sides, leaving the war at the mercy of a powerful new civilization.

• Ryan Hainde considered how the Human Federation would divide the Huaien Civilization’s territory and resources after victory.
• An adjutant reported Warp Space fluctuations and identified roughly ten incoming ships that did not belong to the Huaien Civilization.
• Ryan ordered the unidentified ships to be warned away from the battlefield, assuming they posed little threat.
• The incoming ships emerged from Warp Space far faster than Human Federation technology could manage, and explosions destroyed warships across the battlefield.
• Twelve enormous red metal warships appeared in the cleared center of the battle, dwarfing the fleets of both civilizations.

The Eldar leader Glaethuser Ulanna demanded that the Human Federation and Huaien Civilization surrender as slaves, then demonstrated the vast technological gap by devastating their fleets. Ryan sensed that surrender would bring a terrible fate and secretly signaled his adjutant, leaving their next move unresolved.

• Glaethuser Ulanna identified the newcomers as the Eldar and ordered the humans and Huaien people to submit as a slave race.
• Angry front-line forces from both fleets opened fire, but Glaethuser used Otherdimensional Barriers to divert every attack.
• Ryan sensed danger as the Eldar warships fired beams that destroyed more than one-third of the human and Huaien vessels.
• Glaethuser offered the survivors one last chance to surrender and privately decided to sell the captured slaves to the Blood Puppets of the Lustful Sect.
• Ryan sensed that surrender would lead to suffering and secretly gestured to his adjutant, who nodded in understanding.

Orsaga ordered Glaethuser and the Eldar fleet to leave the region, ending their pursuit of the Human Federation fleet. Later, he offered Golanel and the others six mysterious light dots, the results of his recent research, for them to try.

• Glaethuser pursued the fleeing Human Federation fleet, intending to destroy its heartland after catching it.
• The God of Art appeared through the Gods' Talisman and ordered the Eldar to leave the region for two thousand years.
• Glaethuser and the Eldar obeyed, and the Human Federation fleet later reached a Human Federation Colony Star after several days of cautious travel.
• In Crimson Heaven, Orsaga told Golanel that Glaethuser's performance had disappointed him and that he had intervened because of the Abyssal Contract.
• Orsaga presented Golanel and the others with six dimly glowing dots from his recent research and invited them to try them.

Orsaga gave Golanel, Allison, Philala, Elsa, and the others access to a system he had developed, granting them enormous daily Evolution Point allowances. He also revealed and ate the Evolution System he had possessed since birth, warning them that its enhancements were only a tool and had to be used carefully.

• Golanel recognized the light dots in Orsaga's hand as the system he had described, and Allison agreed to test one.
• Allison received a system panel showing her attributes and infinite Evolution Points, which Orsaga changed to a daily allowance of 1,000,000,000,000,000.
• Golanel worried that Orsaga was sacrificing his own progress for them, but he explained that the energy was trivial to him now.
• Orsaga showed the crystal Evolution System he had possessed since birth and said he still did not know how it had come to him or whether it carried risks.
• Orsaga chewed and ate the crystal, then advised the others to enhance themselves gradually because the system could not make them Demon Lords.

Eldar seers sensed an unknowable malice threatening their race, and the High Priest of the Art Sanctuary learned from Orsaga that the Eldar Empire would fall when Slaanesh awakened. Orsaga promised to save his believers, and the High Priest began planning to gather them before the collapse.

• Several Eldar seers awoke from a vision after sensing a hidden, predatory malice watching their race.
• The High Priest of the Art Sanctuary prayed to Orsaga for guidance about the approaching calamity.
• Orsaga showed the High Priest the Eldar’s decline and the souls of Eldar and their gods feeding a terrifying presence in Warp Space.
• Orsaga told the High Priest that Slaanesh’s awakening would destroy the Eldar Empire and that his believers would enter Orsaga’s realm.
• The High Priest rejoiced that Orsaga had not abandoned his believers and planned to gather them before the empire fell.

The Eldar gods struggled over power as Slaanesh’s influence drove most of them and the Eldar toward further degeneration. Asuryan and a few clear-headed gods tried to restore their people, but Orsaga watched from Crimson Heaven, convinced the Eldar could not escape Slaanesh’s coming emergence.

• The Eldar evil gods challenged Asuryan’s authority, and Kain nearly attacked them before Asuryan restrained him.
• Xilegao warned that an unseen force was guiding the gods toward disaster, while the God of Conspiracy and a few others also sensed the danger.
• Slaanesh’s influence boosted the God of Sadism and other evil gods while steadily diminishing their intelligence.
• Asuryan and the clear-headed gods issued Divine Decrees to help the Eldar abandon their twisted beliefs, but the evil gods obstructed them and sometimes fought them.
• Orsaga watched the Eldar and their gods struggle in Crimson Heaven, judging that Slaanesh’s emergence and the Eldar’s fate could not be changed.

The Human Federation’s leaders assessed how helplessly their fleets had been defeated by the Eldar and considered whether to seek their goodwill. A report that the Huaien people had been conquered and enslaved left the Federation fearing it would be next, while Ryan was tasked with comforting the families of the human casualties.

• Ryan told the Federation’s officials that humanity had little chance against the Eldar and suggested the ships that defeated them might have been civilian vessels rather than regular military forces.
• The Federation Chairman asked why the Eldar had left, and Ryan speculated that some sudden event had interrupted their pursuit.
• An emergency report revealed that the Eldar had destroyed the Huaien home planet and fleets and were transporting the surviving population to unknown locations, possibly as slaves.
• An official proposed that the Human Federation show goodwill toward the Eldar, and the officials tacitly accepted the idea.
• The Federation Chairman asked Ryan to comfort the families of the soldiers killed and wounded by the Eldar, and Ryan reluctantly agreed.

After Glaethuser demanded thirty billion people in exchange for two thousand years of peace, the Human Federation hid its humiliating defeat and erased the memories of those who knew the truth. Fearing the Eldar and other advanced civilizations, the Federation restarted its forbidden Half-Mechanical Bionic Human Experiment, leaving its experts to resume the dangerous research.

• Glaethuser read the Human Federation's message and demanded thirty billion people for two thousand years of peace.
• The Federation Chairman, unable to resist, arranged to surrender people from several border Colony Stars.
• The Federation concealed the Eldar's involvement, covered up the losses with false news, and erased the memories of Soldiers and civilians who knew the truth.
• The Federation's leaders revived the forbidden Half-Mechanical Bionic Human Experiment despite the risk that its creations could outpace and escape human control.
• The Federation gathered top experts and equipment from across its factions, and the researchers began verifying and completing the old research materials.

The Human Federation learned that the Eldar dominated the galaxy and that its own strength was modest by comparison, so it redirected its ambitions away from the Eldar-claimed central region. It launched a rapid colonization drive into neglected territories as Warp travel spread and human psionic talents began to emerge.

• The Human Federation mass-produced bionic humans, which helped it advance technologically and expand its territory.
• Federation leaders learned that the Eldar were ancient, immortal Psionics who had crushed every rival and could destroy other civilizations with ease.
• Alarmed by the Eldar's overwhelming power, the Federation High Command accelerated technological development and turned away from the galaxy's central region.
• The Federation Chairman declared that humanity would transform the barren lands the Eldar disdained into a paradise, launching an even more intense era of colonization.
• Cyborgs upgraded to meet demand, Warp Jump Engines became affordable, and humans increasingly traveled between Colony Stars.
• As Warp travel became routine during a period of stability in Warp Space, more newborn humans developed psionic talents, while human lifespan and power increased.

In 22031 CE, the Human Federation slowed its expansion to avoid provoking the Eldar Empire, and in 22047 CE it rejected a proposal to create Strong Artificial Intelligence as too dangerous. Beyond the Milky Way, the Void Legion and Zerg continued their immense war, consuming star systems and driving other civilizations to flee.

• The Human Federation reached nearly sixty thousand Colony Stars, but its leaders slowed expansion and focused on settling and developing existing territory to avoid the Eldar Empire's attention.
• The Cyborgs submitted a proposal for a Strong AI Experiment, which experts and Federation leaders rejected and sealed away because Strong Artificial Intelligence could become a powerful new civilization.
• The Void Legion and Zerg expanded their battlefront and consumed more than a thousand Milky Way-sized star systems over nearly twenty thousand years.
• The Ozhaki Derivatives and Zerg swarms devastated other civilizations, prompting even rival races to form alliances and flee.
• The Ozhaki and Zerg pursued only civilizations they considered valuable, while the few that escaped were judged not worth catching.

After the Abyssal Contract expired, Orsaga withdrew his protection from the Human Federation while Ra searched possible futures for a way to save it. Every future he saw ended in disaster, so Ra pushed the government to begin the dangerous Strong AI Experiment.

• On June 30, 22052 CE, the Abyssal Contract between Orsaga and Ra expired, and Orsaga withdrew his power from Human Federation territory.
• Ra used classified Federation data and his psychic power to forecast possible futures, where he saw five immense shadows at the end of every path and was pulled into a future Timeline.
• After several days, Ra returned to his body and concluded that all 117 futures he had witnessed ended with the Human Federation's destruction.
• Ra considered the sealed Strong AI Experiment proposal and, after a lengthy call, helped set it in motion.
• One month later, the Federation government officially began the Strong AI Experiment despite widespread opposition and debate.