Synopsis

Epoch Star is a cross genre space combat and sci fi RPG videogame for PC where the player is a Freelance space vessel, destined to both converse and combat with numerous alien races as he travels the universe and learns about its rich ancient history. It follows a top-down view point that is similiar in feel to Diablo II, by Blizzard games. It employs real time space combat, a multi-layered storyline, and is in accordance of the genre of older sci fi videogames for the PC, like Star Control II. RPG is an abbreviation with several different meanings: Rocket propelled grenade (from Russian Ruchnoj Protivotankovy Granatomiot) RPG-7 Soviet Cold War rocket propelled grenade launcher RPG-29 Modern Russian rocket propelled grenade launcher RPG programming language RPG, a band from Richmond, Virginia. ... Diablo II Diablo II, sequel to the popular Diablo, is an action-oriented adventure with role-playing game elements in a hack and slash style. ... The Star Control series is a trilogy of computer games with a cult following. ...

The Beginning

The story of Epoch Star begins with a crumbling Galactic Union, composed of numerous sentient alien species, that is struggling to survive from the outward pressures of the universe. "The Union" is the first and only inter-species republic that the Epoch Star universe has ever seen, and it has just begun to repair itself from the aftermath of the Neo Ignus War: a widespread conflict where some two-thirds of all known sentient life forms were erradicated. Sentience is the capacity for basic consciousness -- the ability to feel or perceive, not necessarily including the faculty of self-awareness. ...

The Races

The Epoch Star universe is composed of a dozen different unique alien species, each with their own features, proclivities and motives. Some of these are openly hostile to the Union, others are friendly, and some others, still, are simply indifferent to its existence.

The Ignus:

The Ignus are a race of giant, centipede-like monsters. They crawl upon scores of razor-sharp talons, one pair sprouting from every segment of their elongated bodies. Their huge, gaping mouths are crammed with innumerous fangs, specially designed to lacerate raw flesh. They are amongst the oldest of the known universe’s sentient creations, and their exerted influence over the galaxy dates back to the days of the Ancient Ignus War (one of the dawning chapters of recorded history itself), where they immediately earned the notoriety of being ruthless instruments of Chaos.

Special Note: Since then, the word Ignus has become synonymous with that of unspeakable agony and death. Their story is one of unmitigated carnage and disaster to the more "civilized" races of the known universe, and, for that reason, will not appear in these pages. It is of too much emotional pain for the typical Union citizen to be discussed so informally. Those interested in scholarly appreciation of the Ancient Ignus War should seek reference in The book of Krad. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

The emphasis upon their evolution has been that of predation, and this is the driving purpose of every Ignus’s existence. As their bodies absorb nutrition, they rapidly grow into larger, more lethal killing machines. More talons sprout from an ever increasing number of segments lining the underside of their armored bellies, and their brains develop to higher levels of neurological sophistication. The smallest of them are only able to follow simple, instructional procedures, while the largest possess an intensely shrewd, almost genius cunning.

Their society follows a strict, hierarchical order, and manifests little more than a loosely knit collection of self-sustaining feudalistic communities. Each Ignus starship operates as an individual, self-sustaining “city” that spends its time lurking about the galaxy in its insatiable hunger for blood and fresh meat.

There is never more than one individual in command aboard an Ignus vessel; for, if there are ever any two Ignus of near-identical size within relative proximity of each other, ferocious territorial instincts enflame into savage violence until one finally rests within the other’s belly. Even their young are forced to feed upon another, as they hatch from their eggs [that were implanted in the unconsumed carcasses of organisms overwhelmed with hunger.

The largest amongst their immediate society (generally ranging between 50 and 100 meters in length) always gets the lion’s share of every plunder. He exercises absolute authority over his underlings, which are smaller and mostly haven’t yet matured into fully sentient organisms. In this fashion, the Ignus civilization is almost completely stagnant: those largest and most well fed only continue to grow larger, while those last in the picking order of every successful hunt remain largely undernourished inferiors.

Though the Ignus never die of age, nor reach any maximum of size, their most gargantuan specimens have long since burrowed beneath the surfaces of their many planets. Having secured their positions of authority, and with no further need to grow any larger, they lay in a dormant state of perfect hibernation, awakening only once every few centuries to feed their massive bodies.

In the Neo Ignus war, their race arose to a whole new tier of destructive potential. Through duplicitous means, they acquired a vast armada of powerful war ships bristling with devastating weapons. Because of their highly aggressive nature and well-armed battle cruisers, it is notoriously unwise to travel through Ignus space. Countless tales circulate amongst Union freelancers depicting the horrific fates of those who’ve succumbed to the brutal feasting rituals of their species.

The Legion:

Since their fist arrival in Union space, there has been much debate as to whether or not the Legion are even sentient. They are called the Legion because they act, and appear to even think, as one giant entity. Like locusts, they travel in huge, nebulous swarms, consuming every available resource that crosses their path.

Their origin is unknown, but what is known is that the Legion do not pilot their space craft. They are their space craft. Some have hypothesized them to be mindless, wandering automatons. Others believe this to be incorrect, because there seems to be some organized motive to all their destructive madness. For when the Legion speak, they make reference to only one thing: the inevitable arrival of someone—or something—that they call "The Epoch Star."

The Mandrala:

The Mandrala are a race of hot-tempered religious zealots. Every member of their ancient species swells with pride with the knowledge that they are, indisputably, a direct descendent of God Himself. Their name is derived from their greatest prophet, Mandralor, who is believed to have been alive during the foundation of the Galactic Union itself!

The Mandrala joined hands with the Enlar to form the Union approximately two millennia ago. It is said that their deity, Mandralor, gained his god-like status shortly afterward, during the Ancient Ignus War. Little is known of this dark period in Galactic history, for less than 1% of the fledgling republic's population lived to tell the tale.

There is but one truth that survived the Ancient Slaughter. When the Ignus spread like wildfire throughout the Union, multiplying as they feasted upon the helpless Enlar and Mandralor colonies, they were stopped by a lone being. The prophet Mandralor, who sacrificed himself to bring an end to the Ignus onslaught, containing them for nearly two thousand years.

In the modern era, contact with the Mandrala is inconsistent and sparse. They rarely care for the "company" of the Galaxy's "lesser races," preferring to spend their entire lives training for battle. It is for this reason that they have become renowned as the guardians of the Union. Their mere presence brings peace of mind during times of strife; and without them, all is lost.

The Anthropites:

The Anthropites are a race enshrouded in darkness and mystery. They first became known to the Union shortly after the Neo Ignus war, and have been considered the scourge of the Galaxy by all other "civilized" life forms ever since.

Hesitant to reveal themselves, the Anthropites are said to be ashamed of their physical appearance. In reality, no outsider race has ever truly seen their species—left to ponder the possibilities of their repugnance with an imagination fueled by hatred and disgust. The Anthropites have no known allies, but rely on their strength in numbers and strictly clandestine nature for survival and, unfortunately, undeniable prosperity.

Their invisible space ships decloak in droves, taking their quarry by surprise blasting them to space dust before they are even given opportunity to defend themselves. The Anthropites plunder whatever they can salvage, never hesitating to utilize their powerful close-range weapons over diplomacy, as they use the materials to construct bigger and more numerous space vessels for their unknown “ultimate purpose.” And even though the Anthropites appear to have little or no cohesion amongst themselves—merely banding together time to time to raid helpless outsiders en masse—it is undeniable that their religious ramblings about the ominous “epoch star” manifests some deeply fanatical organized religion…

But while the Anthropites are never seen in the friendly presence of another species, there have been strange reports of their unique affinity to the Enimanga. After nearly a century of observation, it has become quite clear to the races of the union that the Anthropites share some mutual bond with these esoteric, purely crystalline beings. No one truly understands this bizarre and seemingly unlikely relationship, but where the Enimanga have been notoriously protective of their territory in the presence of all other species, they still have yet to be seen to attack an Anthropite vessel—even in self defense.

The Gallite:

The Gallite are a race of paranoid and distrustful creatures. Their society is arranged in a strict hierarchy in which the only way to move up in society is through murder and assassination. Their lives are spent in perpetual anxiety, keeping constant vigil upon those below while always waiting for the proper moment to strike those above.

Because of this, the Gallite have assumed the role of the Union's "intelligence gatherers." Though their methods are unknown, their ruthless efficiency makes them seem naturally, almost genetically suited for this necessary task. The Gallite provide a constant stream of reliable information that often leads to the detaining and punishment of dangerous criminals and Union terrorists—even before they've had chance to commit any crime.

The Enimanga:

The Enimanga are a highly mysterious race of, what appear to be, crystalline organisms. Little is known or has been seen of them, and their existence has come to be generally regarded as a rare phenomenon in the universe... though, recently, they have become far more numerous.

They are mostly seen lurking around Anthrapite space, pursuing some sort of covert special agenda. Being highly secretive creatures, they only rarely abandon what they are doing to communicate with members outside of their own species. Their minds do not seem to function with the typical mechanics of organic life, and their unintelligible words are mostly spoken in rambling riddles.

Every one of their "vessels" appears to be an autonomous organism: an entity composed almost entirely of unknown materials that discharges an eclectic spectrum of exotic energies. Because of this, popular myth has caused many to believe that their giant space cruisers are stock-piled with an assortment of precious cargo. But, though many have tried, very few have ever lived to tell the tale of surviving combat with even a single Enimanga starship.

Being of monolithic proportion and bristling with a lethal armada of strangely potent weaponry, they are completely harmless when left alone—but become explosively aggressive when attacked.

Though they keep almost exclusively to themselves, it has long been speculated that the Enimanga would be a great boon to the Union in these perilous times of ravaging pirates and mysterious alien invaders. And though the Union has gone to extensive lengths in their attempts contact and befriend the wayward Enimanga, their ambassadors have made astonishingly little progress....

The Lagionites:

Where the Lagionite people are lacking in mental prowess, they are more than compensated for with brute physical strength. Born on the swampy planet of Lagionite 4, their people evolved huge and powerful limbs to support their own tremendous weights. Their thick skins are impervious to most forms of modern weaponry, and their behemoth bodies are larger than most modest-sized starships. They become an indispensable part of the Union's armed forces as soon as their species was discovered during the Ancient Ignus War.

They communicate like whales, bellowing loud and sonorous moans into the air. During conversation, each individual creates his own unique flavor of sound, until their speech gradually adapts to match the same melody. Their communal decisions are always met with perfect unanimity. And it is said that the Lagionites' sense of unity transcends far beyond what is even conceivable for most other sentient creatures.

The Ymorpha:

Little is known of the Ymorpha, except that they are of the most exotic sentient species to in the known universe. Every Ymorpha possesses the unique ability to diffuse his gaseous body and, in effect, turn completely invisible. When this occurs, the only portion of his body that remains visible to the a naked eye is the solid organ floating about the center. And although it is known that this organ is an Ymorpha's only physical vulnerability, no one truly understands its exact function or nature.

The Ymorpha were born into apex-predation upon their gaseous home world of Ymorpha V. They thrived in the hunt, and with an unrivaled intellectual capacity, arose to dominance of their planet. As they ascended into the stars, they adopted a similar mentality when interacting with the other races of their known universe…

It is for this reason that the Ymorpha were of the last races to join the union and, perhaps, it is also why they continue to thrive upon the predation of their enemies. They travel alone, never more than a single commanding Ymorpha aboard his ambush skiff, waiting for the moment to strike. Even their technology reflects the dark side of the Ymorphas’ past, as they are the only union race in possession of the cloaking device.

Their small, yet powerful spacecraft are well known to manifest the pinnacle of destructive capacity. Long-range, explosive projectiles seem to materialize from nothingness when their vessels decloak to strike their helpless, and usually unwary, targets. The Ymorpha reveal themselves for only the briefest of moments—rarely staying long enough to even collect the cargo from the debris of their victim’s space ship—before they vanish, once again, into the black emptiness of space.

The Toiran:

The Toiran are a race of organic-minded machines. Reclusive by nature, they did not join the Galactic Union until they were discovered, shortly before the Neo Ignus War. Since then, they have become the backbone of Union industry. Toiran are selfless proliferators, and seek only to repair, rebuild and to make everything more efficient with their own clockwork organization.

Centuries ago, in an attempt to increase their own productive ability, the Toiran unwittingly devised a method of cheating death. As their natural organs wore from age, they were gradually replaced with mechanical counterparts. Even their brains were eventually replaced with their mechanized—and, therefore, more efficient—equivalents. And so, piece by piece, the Toiran people evolved, until they were no longer recognized as a “species” in its most fundamental of senses. Their bodies, once flesh and blood, no longer possess any possibility of biological reproduction.

But after centuries of existence, their original members became few. Though old age was never the cause of a Toiran ’s death, the natural disasters of the universe ever dwindled their numbers. And since their metal bodies did not allow for any further offspring [except for the construction of their mindlessly toiling factory-bots] their species is but the forlorn remainder of an old and dying race…

The Goth:

The Goth are not a single sentient race, but a classification of what the Enlar and Gallite have called semi-sentient. When the Union was formed at the start of the Ancient Ignus War, all space fairing races where asked to join the Union and fight to contain the Ignus threat. At that time there were many races in the Galaxy that had not yet discovered a means of inter-stellar travel. Those races were not invited to join the Union after they had progressed technologically to the point of interstellar travel. These races became the focus of oppression by the Union races, and in lieu of a true threat, the Union focused it's attention on preventing the Goth from becoming a threat. The doctrine of "Preventative Action" was first proposed by the Gallite, but was soon adopted by all Union races as a means of preventing the Goth from becoming the "next great threat to the Union."

The Enlar:

The Enlar are believed to be the eldest race in the known universe. Their existence dates to before the Ancient Ignus War—even further back than the stretches of recorded history itself. They were the first to ascend to the heavens in vessels capable of interstellar travel, and the first to explore the vast abyss beyond the safety of their home world. Since then, it has been their technological ingenuity that has brought the majority of the Union’s races to the freedom of space.

Anatomically, an Enlar is little more than a throbbing mass of dense neurological flesh supported by hollow crablike appendages: its brain composes nearly two-thirds of its body mass. A single large eye provides it with a powerfully acute sense of vision, and the sixteen tendrils protruding from the base of its cerebral cortex vibrate to emit high-pitched squealing sounds that act as its voice. Using these same tendrils, an Enlar can directly “jack into” and control their starships and other technologies, via the transmission of electrical impulses that behave in accordance with the its thought processes, without the need of hands or any analog devices.

They evolved on a hostile planet wrought with a nightmarish variety of natural predators that thirsted for the delicious taste of Enlar flesh. Since their sense of touch is extremely receptive to pain, it is impossible to even comprehend the sheer agony that an Enlar experiences during death. And because they were helplessly easy prey to the much larger and faster creatures of their ancient worlds, the Enlar civilization was founded upon a compulsive, almost neurotic paranoia of all other living creatures.

But the Enlars' abhorrence of physical violence is more than duly compensated for by their quick, calculating minds and a seemingly uncanny ability to create structure and order. As their society progressed through the ages, their incredibly potent minds led them to the development of numerous technological achievements. They contrived powerful weapons to protect themselves, and ultimately vanquished the predators of their native planet with nothing but their own ingenuity. While most of the galaxy’s other races were still struggling to overcome the feral beasts of their individual home worlds, the Enlar had already begun to construct a nation that would one day stretch to the very reaches of the known universe. They were the founders of the Union itself, and to this day remain its most prominent and influential administrators—deep within the relative safety of the its most safeguarded territories.

The Xengar:

The Xengar are a race of intelligent rodents, each being about the size of a huge rat. They have a single pair of dexterous, long-fingered hands, disproportionately large black eyes, and powerful rabbit-like hind legs. They were permitted into the Union shortly before the conclusion of the Neo Ignus War. They gained the respect of their newfound Union allies by assisting the jeopardized republic contain the Ignus for the second time in Galactic history. And though very few understand the events surrounding this phenomenon, it is rumored that there is more behind the success of the Xengar than simple fate...

Xengar are neither male nor female, as their reproductive spores linger within every hair follicle upon their furry bodies. They procreate via “superficial contact.” By an action as simple and unintentional as brushing up against one another, any two Xengar can exchange the appropriate genetic information required of “cross-fertilization,” causing both to become impregnated.

Needless to say, the Xengar procreate at an alarmingly exponential rate. Their gestation period lasts for only a few short weeks, and they reach full sexual maturity within a month after birth. In less than a year, a mere handful Xengar will multiply into thousands. Within a decade, billions more will be born. And, if left to accrue at their own natural pace, their numbers will continue to swell until every last available resource in their environment has been consumed.

Xengar neglect their progeny upon birthing, abandoning their litters like most other races do their own bodily excrements. Not that a Xengar would ever understand such an analogy, as their digestive tracts are engineered by nature to recycle all metabolic wastes, processing every last nutritional resource upon ingestion into energy and bio-matter. They simply eat, grow, and then multiply; although, most of their kind never live to see their second day.

There once was a time when the Xengar were confined of their native planet, Xengar VII. There they remained relatively contained, as the much larger predatory creatures of their homeworld restricted their population size by consuming the vast majority of the Xengars' offspring. They were a staple to the food chain of the planet’s ecosystem, and only about one in every 10,000 Xengar infants live longer than a single standard year.

To compensate for their relatively short life expectancy, the Xengar evolved so that their young learn at a greatly accelerated rate: their small albeit compact and powerful brains are almost fully formed upon birth. The Xengar learn and soak up new information like a dry sponge placed in warm water—and it is for this very reason that they caught the attention of the Union’s Enlar administrators.

The Enlar, seeing their potential, generously introduced the Xengar to the miracle of spaceflight, allowing the volatile race of rodent-like organisms to expand beyond the bounds of their homeworld for the very first time. The intelligent Xengar quickly mastered the art of interstellar travel and, almost overnight, spread like wildfire to every hospitable planet within their reach. Introduced to new resources and now beyond the ravenous clutches of their natural predators, the Xengar species thrived and multiplied until they soon became the most populous species in the known universe.

Today, quadrillions of Xengar live across scores of hellishly overpopulated worlds. Within mere months after colonizing a new planet, its natural resources already become so scarce that its capacity to sustain life is stressed to the breaking point. Food is the most valued commodity to Xengar civilization, as most of their species die from simple starvation.

Xengar also constitute the bulk of the Union’s living resources, making up the vast majority of the Union's interstellar flight crews. Their vessels are enormous to accommodate for its ever-expanding onboard population, and are always commanded by a committee of Elder Xengar. Nevertheless, their massive volumes are usually crammed tightly packed with its myriad crewmates, and so their countless offspring are often “recycled” into the life-sustaining foodstuffs provided to the ship’s older crewmates.

Though the average life expectancy for a member of their species is less than a single standard day, an adult Xengar can live for centuries. The longer a Xengar lives, the more distinguished he becomes in society—and, because of their prodigious capacity to learn, Elder Xengar are also amongst the Union’s most distinguished scientists and administrators. Some of them, namely the Legendary Xengar Precotix, are said to even surpass the intellect possessed by the most brilliant Enlar minds.

Sources

Epoch Star main website for the game.

Battleline Games home page for the developers of Epoch Star.