The World of Ymir - Empyrean
Nyx
Head of the Pantheon
The people of the world of Ymir are born, live, toil, fight, and die under the rule of a pantheon of tyrannical false gods. These false gods, collectively, are called “Empyrean.”
But where do the false gods come from? Well, they come from our own future. Around the year 3000 A.D., humans began to colonize planets all over the galaxy. They developed technologies that could allow them to travel faster than light and live for thousands of years without ever growing old.
Factions formed in the vacuum of space, and groups of humans went to war with each other, fighting over this and that piece of the galaxy. One of the many factions to arise was Empyrean, named after Aristotle’s concept of Heaven.
This faction, led by Dr. Gabriel Nyx, searched the planets in its territory for some resource that could give them an upper hand against their enemies. In time, they found it: adonium.
This mysterious metal was only found in a particular solar system and had mostly gathered on a particular planet. One of Empyrean’s top physicists, a woman named Dr. Jaleah Liita, was the first to experiment with adonium. In time, Dr. Liita found that when the metal was properly refined, it could be used to alter the world according to the user’s will. Dr. Nyx decided this was what they needed to win the war once and for all. They named the planet “Ymir,” after the giant from Norse mythology, and made plans to mine the world for this priceless resource.
Jastin Montu, one of Empyrean’s admirals, led an armada of starships to eliminate the native creatures of the planet Ymir: the dreaded vernert. These vicious arthropods had hives all over the surface of the planet and had gained strange abilities from their contact with adonium. Admiral Montu had the surface of the planet scorched, until it was nothing but ashes and glass. Those few vernert who survived, did so by fleeing deep underground, or across time itself.
Axtin Seth, one of Empyrean’s chief judicial officers, pointed out the danger of sending any of the corporation’s workers to Ymir. “Anyone we send might well simply pocket what they dig up, or even sell it to our enemies.” Thus, it was decided that they needed an alternative way to mine the metal.
Bentom Shun, who was head of Empyreans robotics division, sent mechanical workers to Ymir. They soon found that contact with the strange metal caused their robot workers to gain self-consciousness. Before they could do much to react, the robot work force had taken over the planet, and claimed the adonium for themselves. Once more, Admiral Montu stepped in, using immense firepower to annihilate the rebellious machines.
Despite all setbacks, the people of Empyrean were determined to mine the adonium of Ymir one way or another. Dr. Adryan Nebo, a genetic engineer with a love for mythology and fairy tales, proposed an idea which he dubbed “The Genesis II Project.” Using genetic engineering, he would create a race of human beings who were far smaller than them and put those people on Ymir as the work force. To keep them in line, the leaders of Empyrean would pose as gods over these people and keep them from technologies that might make them formidable.
To aid in this charade, and to ensure that the “gods” would not need to micromanage this new work force, Nebo proposed the engineering of two other races of beings. The first were the archons, who would serve as the gods’ immortal servants and messengers. They would enforce divine will upon the denizens of Ymir. However, knowing that mere tyranny would not keep the work force under control forever, Dr. Nebo suggested that they also needed an adversary. Something from which the gods protected the faithful.
Thus, Dr. Nebo created the fiends: monstrous people supposedly born of darkness itself. These fiends would stand as a constant enemy of the gods and of mankind. Born to be the enemy. Made to strike fear into the hearts of the faithful and die at the hands of the sky-dwelling archons.
The Genesis II project proved successful, and may have remained so for all of time, had one of the false gods, Seth, not defected from the false gods and started the Rebellion on Ymir.
