Hephastion the Great

**Hephastion the Great** is the legendary poet and mythologized founder of Hyperion, the world settled and named by Rimmer colonists hailing from the moon of Saturn of the same name. He kept a detailed diary throughout his life and serves as a firsthand eyewitness to many incredible events in outer Sol System. Hephastion was a devout and initiated member of Architecture's Order of Eluvius.

## Biography

Born in Sol System, his birth name has been lost to history. He became an expert in metallurgy and educated himself to a degree vastly exceeding that of many of his Rimmer contemporaries. As one of the few scholarly historians of the Rim, he prospered under the benevolent patronage of the Sons of Andromeda.

In **SY 855.5,** the *Dominion* arrives in the Rim and he chronicles firsthand the meeting between Joshua and his crew and the Sons of Andromeda on Io, in orbit around Jupiter. During this long period, Hephastion regales the Dominion crew with the history of Sol System since their ancestor's departure some seven centuries earlier, even while learning the fantastic fate of the long-forgotten *Progress* fleet.

Hephastion enters a period of deep meditation and prayer within a temple of Architecture in response to meeting the *Dominion*'s crew, and particularly the Watcher. Therein, he undergoes a profound spiritual experience in response to a long period of meditation and fasting. He described the experience as "instantaneous gnosis", as if the knowledge he gained in that moment he had actually known all his life. He foresees the fate of the *Dominion* crew, but no further than their deaths. Deeply troubled, he seeks counsel from his fellow Order members but finds no peace for his soul. He takes it upon himself to warn against traveling further into Sol System, claiming that Earth and the inner planets have fallen under the sway of terrible superstition.

At the advice of the Watcher, the *Dominion* gifts the incredible lightdrive technology to the Sons of Andromeda. In response, he pens the epic mythologized retelling of Solar history known as the *Heracliad* and convinces the Sons of Andromeda that it is their true destiny to colonize the galaxy as the Dominion fleet travels further towards Helios. For the next seven years, he serves as an itinerant oral teacher of this epic poem and continues his deep contemplative life.

With Advent in **SY 862**, his visions are both realized and transcended. The Order of Eluvius proclaims him to be a Hero within his own lifetime, and he takes on the name Hephastion. At the same time, he begins teaching what would become the foundations of Sibylline Religion.

Using the lightdrive, several thousand spacers traveled Galactic North West West into unexplored space in increasingly larger jumps through space and charting their course as they go. The discover a habitable world in the far end of the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy in **SY 867**.

Hephastion himself was the first man to set foot on the world and remained a shaping force through the rest of his lifetime for the world known as Hyperion.

## Teachings

While not interpreting himself as a Maker, he was hailed within his own lifetime as a Hero of Architecture and his insights became canonized writ by those he taught. Never wielding real political power, his massive influence came through his unique interpretation of Architecture. He taught that the Architect and humankind exist in a single, unbroken continuum of consciousness and that it was the particular destiny of this people to participate in Divine Design by working out a greater portion of the burden of humanity.

He also taught that the actual consciousness (i.e. souls) of the planets and stars themselves underwent a cosmic process tied to the fate of humanity, and related their mythopoeic history as far as he himself understood it.