Complex sentence: Soon the story notes that "the Shivans are the great destroyers but also the great preservers", being not necessarily evil or expansionist, their role instead was to exterminate other species who advanced beyond their ordained place in the cosmic order.
Split into simpler sentences: Soon the story notes that "the Shivans are the great destroyers but also the great preservers". Not necessarily evil or expansionist, their role instead was to exterminate other species who advanced beyond their ordained place in the cosmic order.