The Divine Cycle

The Divine Cycle is the broad terminology grouping together the podcast's science fiction seasons. It so far includes COUNTER/Weight, Twilight Mirage, PARTIZAN and the upcoming eighth season, PALISADE. The term was not coined until the Road to PARTIZAN sessions leading to the sixth season. The core connection between the seasons is the presence of Divines and the different roles played by the semi-autonomous intelligent machines.

## Timeline

### Twilight Mirage

The saga of the Twilight Mirage starts with the conflict between the Divine Fleet and the New Earth Hegemony. Eventually, all but a few of the Divines of the Fleet died. In search of a new home, the Divine Fleet sends an expeditionary force to Quire. Meanwhile, the Fleet encounters a group called the Iconoclasts, followers of a deceased Divine, Independence, who create a new Divine called Volition, which can create its own divines called Axioms. The conflict between these three factions ultimately leads to the Miracle of the Mirage, in which the living planet Quire using the material of the Mirage to create a new system of 8 planets called the Quire System. The Divine Fleet and New Earth Hegemony come to an agreement, splitting ownership of the 7 planets.

The conflicts on the system still continued, along with several discoveries. The original people of Quire were revived and formed the Qui Err Coalition and the Divine Fleet turns into the Divine Free States with some of the ships joining the New Earth Hegemony. The events culminated with the arrival of the Rapid Evening and the Crystal Palace.

### Road to PARTIZAN

Following the events at the end of the Twilight Mirage, the Rapid Evening and the Divine Free States form the Divine Principality, starting the Dawn Millennium with Aram Nideo as the leader. The two groups would become the two founding Stels; Stel Kesh and Stel Nideo. As a part of this, the Crystal Palace is named the Divine Past and Nideo pens what would be known as *The Nideo Thesis*. This thesis would be the founding document of Asterism, the primary faith of the Divine Principality.

After the early conflicts, the Divine Principality enters its expansionist era, starting the Ascendant Millennium. During this era, the Principality conquers and assimilates many of the smaller cultures such as the Hypha.

The Miraculous Millennium is also referred to as a Time of Fables. Many fantastical events occurred during this time culminating in a massive fight at the core of the galaxy. The Divine Perennial takes over the Power of the Galaxy, launching the Perennial Wave that starts a decline for the galaxy. FTL technology is disrupted, forming rifts between the Stels. Meanwhile the Columnar Tabulary is disrupted by their now-broken technology.

After the time goes on, the Principality encroaches on OriCom that forms the Divine Collaborate Alliance. The war between the two sides goes on until OriCom develops EDICT which can take opposing Divines. OriCom then uses EDICT to betray its allies and form Stel Orion, starting the Victorious Millenium.

The Divine Principality eventually courts Columnar Tabulary into becoming Stel Columnar. In doing so, the Principality ends Columnar's Assimilated Perspective system with a representative democracy. The Assimilated Perspective system gets integrated into the "Palace News" service, the main communication system between planets with Perennial Wave present.

Being the Perfect Millennium, the prophet Kan'tel Logos speaks to God and performs the First Miracle, creating an ocean on a desolate moon around a gas giant, which would be known as Partizan. Stel Nideo attempted to manipulate the prophet but, discussions failed. Instead, they orchestrate a schism in Asterism which leads to the formation of Progressive Asterism, a competing faith that incorporates the Progression Mantra. The Tranquil Princept then decides now Stel could expand past this moon.

Eventually, the Divine Principality confronts the Branched, who take over the planet Kesh. The Audacious Princept then declares whoever can reclaim Kesh could expand past the Prophet's Sea. Meanwhile, Apostolos is integrated into the Principality as a Stel after a failed assassination attempt by the Apokine.

The inciting events of Partizan start when Stel Nideo seemingly kidnaps the young princept from Stel Kesh in a power play. The princept is rescued by current Apokine of Stel Apostolos, who adopts the princept themselves. The Princept grows up deciding to become the next Apokine as well, with the backing of the Apostolosians, revealing that Stel Kesh had replaced the old Apokine and tricked the Apostolosians into joining the Principality. Stel Kesh comes up with a counter-narrative declaring that the Princept is a fake one with the real one living on Kesh. This Anti-Princept takes de-facto control over Stel Kesh leadership. The other Stels stayed neutral in this matter, citing the war against the Branched as the biggest concern.