Hyperion Saga

The ***Hyperion* Saga** is a British-American space-opera franchise created by EDStudios, which began with *Hyperion: A Space Adventure* in 2019. The franchise has been expanded into the COSMOS anthology series, three upcoming spin-offs, a prequel and a sequel series, creating an all-encompassing fictional universe. The saga follows several generations across a period spanning more than 3000 years as they each face cosmic threats that put civilization as a whole in danger. Each series in the saga is intended to consist of three or more installments.

The original series, *Hyperion: A Space Adventure*, follows scientist Erron Rayes as he commands the crew of the CS *Olympus* on a mission to safeguard the newly-colonized Whirlpool Galaxy from the Titans, a race of gargantuan creatures hailing from a distant part of the Universe. *Hyperion* consists of *Part I: A New Frontier* (2018), which was followed by the sequels *Part II: The Shield of Asgard* (2019) and *Part III: Leviathan Falls* (2019).

The sequel series, *Hyperspace: The Cosmic Gospel*, is set more than 2500 years later after a large number of galaxies have been colonized with the aid of the Nexus, a celestial body that amplifies FTL travel, and individuals of multiple races have gained abilities termed "bioenergenics". The various races of the Settled Systems are divided into three superpowers: the Intergalactic Commonwealth, the Confederacy of the Great Attractor and the Alliance of the Great Wall; the Commonwealth and Confederacy are allies via the Nexus Council. The series follows Elijah Rayes, the son of Erron Rayes, who discovers that he may be the "Special One" mentioned in the Cosmic Gospel, a Remnant doomsday text, and assembles a ragtag crew to take on the Calculator, a genocidal artificial intelligence that commands an immense hive mind termed the Egregore. The series currently comprises of two installments, *Part I: Darkened Heaven* (2021) and *Part II: The Battle of Borealis* (2022), with three more to follow: *Part III: Age of the Scourge* (2022), *Part IV: Hadron's Throne* (2023) and *Part V: The Traveller's Light* (2023). Two spin-offs are in development, titled *Kestrel* and *Resistance*.

A prequel series, *Horizon: Mankind's Odyssey*, is in development. Set in the late 21st century, the series will follow humanity's discovery of the Remnants and their subsequent conflicts with the other, more developed races of the Milky Way.

A fourth instalment, titled *Heterodyne: The Edge of Space*, is in the earliest stages of planning.

Aside from the main trilogy, the *Hyperion* Saga includes the COSMOS anthology series, a collection of standalone spin-offs set between *Hyperion* and *Hyperspace* that explore the political, technological and societal changes between the two series. The first of these, *Ad Astra*, was written in 2021; the second *EXILES: The Interstellar Gunslingers*, in 2022; and the third, currently under the working title *Reach*, is in development for 2023.

## Story, Lore & Setting

### Setting

The *Hyperion* Saga is set in an alternate universe where modern civilizations have colonized entire galaxies after developing incredibly advanced technology based upon that of the Remnants, an extinct race of aliens who mysteriously disappeared billions of years ago. In the case of humanity, the Dark Ages never occurred, and so by the mid-20th Century humanity had developed advanced technology that allowed them to colonize the Sol System. In 2081, humanity made contact with intelligent alien life, catapulting them into the position of an intergalactic superpower. By the 30th Century, humans and other sapient races have colonized three galaxies: the Milky Way, Andromeda and the Whirlpool; by the 55th Century, the Settled Systems has expanded to at least thirteen galaxies and thousands of dwarf and satellite galaxies.

Methods of faster-than-light travel are commonplace and widely used, enabled thanks to several methods. These include foldspace, a four-dimensional plane of pure chaos where the laws of special and general relativity do not apply, and warp drives.

By the beginning of *Hyperspace: The Cosmic Gospel*, technology has advanced enough for it to be near-indistinguishable from magic, with nanotechnology and intergalactic travel being common concepts. Some people are also now born with a set of abilities known as bioenergenics, allowing them to generate dark energy fields due to small deposits of element-C in their body.