The Nameless Apostasy-er!
That thunderous name rolled back and forth through Xi Yan's mind.
He was a great man.
Any Stellaris player who learned of his past would say the same.
He came from the legendary DLC, "Machine Age."
In much earlier versions, Stellaris had only three crises: the Soryn Parasites, the Extradimensional Demons, and the Contingency.
After the Apocalypse DLC, players were allowed to pursue crisis ascension, effectively becoming the Fourth Calamity.
Every meme about the "Fourth Calamity" circulating online originated from Stellaris, but it was the Apocalypse DLC that truly turned the concept into a gameplay mechanic.
Then, with the Machine Age DLC, the game added a new crisis ascension path for players, along with a new endgame crisis.
The Synthetic Queen, Cetana.
The Synthetic Queen and Great Prophet Zarqlan lived in the same era. The Synthetic Queen preached that she would save all sapient beings in the Milky Way, freeing them from the suffering of the mortal world...
This initially won the Synthetic Queen a vast following, including the man who would later become Great Prophet Zarqlan.
Zarqlan discovered Queen Cetana's plot: in truth, the Synthetic Queen's proclaimed method of saving all sapient beings was to erase their consciousness.
Without consciousness, there could be no suffering. If consciousness ceased to exist throughout the universe, no conflict would ever arise.
She was the very King of the West of the Sea of Stars!
Kill every living thing in the Milky Way Galaxy, and the Milky Way Galaxy would know peace.
Upon learning of the queen's plan, Zarqlan resolutely stepped forward to oppose her grand design and exposed the Synthetic Queen's evil scheme to the entire Sea of Stars.
Zarqlan stood on the front lines of the resistance against the queen.
Yet the Synthetic Queen was far too powerful.