“In the Lone Galaxy, they are not alone.”

In an indeterminate eon in the far future, Humanity had traversed the intergalactic void, beginning anew in the Canis Major Overdensity. An intergalactic war had left the civilizations of the dwarf galaxy the only remaining galaxy in the universe. Subsequently, the Great Distortion prompted the expansion of extradimensional rifts that sundered space, gave birth to the eldritch beings known as Shifters, and rewrote and transmuted the laws of the universe itself. This led to the discovery of Sphase, the dimension outside reality. Traversing this extradimensional realm became the newest form of faster-than-light travel. Soon, Humanity forgot that they were once a single species, and their history was lost to time.

Millennia after several wars and expeditions, the galaxy now enjoys an era of peace and prosperity under the peacekeeping organization of the Starwatch, an organization sponsored by the five largest stellar empires ruling the cosmic region known as “Civil Space”, preventing another galactic war from happening again.

Every inhabited world in civil space is as diverse as the number of stars in the galaxy. Every world also has its nations, some capable of participating in galactic socioeconomics, while many remain under the thumb of those who can traverse the stars. Many societies also thrive within their space stations' confines or interstellar freighters' fleets.

The ideal envisioned norm for a society in the Starwatch Era is where people are free to work, pursue their passions, and believe in any ideology or religion, as well as be formally educated and have the ability to participate in the government. These people should be also free to traverse the stars via private starships or public starliners.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

However, many nations within their worlds and their off-world colonies are oppressed under the dictatorial or autocratic rule of their governments or have their resources exploited by interstellar corporations. Unnumbered planets and moons were lost to the star charts and had also regressed into pre-industrial or pre-starlight societies. Countless cultures, ideologies, and religions had been destroyed or oppressed by dominant powers.

Despite the peace touted by Starwatch, many worlds still suffer from war and strife. Hundreds of worlds do not know they are part of a greater galactic society, nor under the vigil of the Starwatch's peacekeeping mission.

This is the status quo that Starwatch maintains, for better or for worse.

Beyond their vigil, there are uncountable civilizations, groups, and cultures in the cosmic area called “Frontier Space”, where the interstellar infrastructures, laws, and conveniences of civil space are little more than fantasy. Beyond Frontier Space is “Wild Space”, entire swathes of the galaxy long forgotten or still undiscovered. To be a single person is to be among quintillions, a grain of sand unaware of its insignificance in a stellar ocean.

Beyond the interstellar illusion set up by the status quo are threats that may consume civil space or even the galaxy. The invasions of the nomadic Arpeggian Choir from wild space, malicious magic cults linked with the gradual uptick in Sphase Anomalies and Shifter activity, the remnants of the Dreaming Scourge, the waking Vbastet Empire, the mysterious aliens collectively known as the Hunt, and the Yggdrasilian Growth beneath the galactic plane.

Soothsayers and priests of the more spiritualist societies whispered of star-gods waking from their slumber, and rumors of eldritch invaders had spread via starship. These pieces of information that would cause riots across thousands of worlds are heavily regulated and falsified to maintain the status quo, yet they are widespread in wildspace.

This era may be a prelude to an event that may devour the galaxy.