Recaps

Norton’s peaceful order began to buckle under humanity’s growing unrest and the appearance of Soul Matter in reality. As the Human Federation prepared for war, the first Subspace jump returned a ship overrun by monsters, leaving humanity’s colonies divided over expansion, immortality, and the Pale God.

• Norton massacred the Holy See’s believers, established a new era in his name, and the Pale Church became humanity’s state religion as the population evolved under his influence.
• After three millennia of peace and expansion, Norton judged humanity’s society unstable and sought an external enemy, while researchers discovered Soul Matter appearing in reality and learned that entropy threatened intelligent life.
• Norton ordered the Human Federation to prepare for war as Soul Matter began corrupting cities, turning objects into monsters that Pale Church forces and residents fought.
• Franklin led fourteen Church knights into the first Subspace jump, where Soul Matter infected their spacecraft, transformed John into a monster, and overwhelmed the squad.
• Knight Commander Xinuo’s fleet recovered the silent spacecraft, found its crew dead, and received Franklin’s warning that Subspace jumps carried Soul Matter back into reality.
• In 3211 of the Norton 3k era, colonies debated the newly discovered Subspace Jump technology and humanity’s future as reports of the invasion exposed how fragile its peaceful society had become.

Norton manipulated humanity into war to turn people back toward him, while the Pale Church and Human Federation devastated each other. As the war opened a bridge between reality and Heaven, monstrous mutations overwhelmed the battlefield and the Pale Church suppressed the resulting panic.

• Norton told Abraham and Duoxia that he would create suffering so humanity would depend on him, then staged his own sacrifice in the sun to become a distant god.
• Norton arranged for the Pale Church to surrender political power, while Abraham and Duoxia helped the Church appear persecuted and the Human Federation reclaimed authority.
• After Norton’s death, Marcus formed a rival College of Cardinals and declared a crusade, while the Federation exploited the ensuing conflict and ordinary people endured worsening hardship.
• Norton showed Abraham how he could erase entire populations, and Abraham later declared holy war after the Federation recognized the rival Church and rejected restrictions on childbirth.
• The Pale Church and Human Federation fought for decades, until Norton gave Abraham Holy Blood and Abraham transformed into a giant creature to lead the Church’s assault.
• As the invasion spread across the Federation, Norton saw that deaths were strengthening a bridge between reality and Heaven and declared that humanity would cross it as nourishment for God.
• Artificial suns devastated the battlefield, then mutations erupted across the star system, forcing Church and Federation forces to stop fighting each other and battle the monsters.
• After the Adam Three Star System fell, the Pale Church halted its resistance war, suppressed panic over leaked footage of the apocalypse, and blamed the Federation for the catastrophe.

Humanity fought the spreading Aberrations for centuries as the Pale Church tightened its control and Norton watched faith and suffering grow. Duoxia eventually accused Norton of creating the crisis, and the revelation plunged the Federation into chaos.

• Norton declared himself a true god as the Pale Church praised him and the Human Federation fell into riots.
• Abraham announced that soul infestations had begun, and Regent Duoxia placed the Pale Church and Human Federation on a total-war footing.
• Duoxia and Malahān united their governments and launched the Endless War, sending vast forces against the Aberrations.
• As human deaths worsened the infestation, the front collapsed and the Church imposed mass mobilization, compulsory births, and brutal production measures.
• Norton watched humanity’s growing faith and suffering, considering whether it could summon God, while Abraham suspected his withdrawal was another scheme.
• The Great Crusade evacuated people as Aberrations overran star systems, and researchers found evidence that the creatures acted in coordinated ways.
• Duoxia discovered that he and Abraham occupied different times or spaces, then concluded that Norton had used the apocalypse to gather faith and preserve his power.
• Duoxia returned to supreme authority and publicly accused Norton of creating the Aberrations, triggering widespread despair, suicide, riots, and attacks on the Church.