At the end of the 20th century, the unification of scientific and esoteric knowledge, which had long been separate and antagonistic, occurred. This was initiated by certain human Spirits who achieved transcendental contact with powers resembling an Infinite Mind. The Infinite Mind had long been foretold and anticipated by some; denied to exist by others.

The time was right, and the information gained from the contact-the theoretical principles of which were completely unknown-could be used successfully in real life.

The technology that had the most dramatic impact on human evolution was the permanent tunneling of space: the creation of so-called Passages which enabled travel to alien worlds. Humanity's age-old dream of traveling to the stars became reality.

A cosmogonical model of the universe, with its planets, stars and galaxies, became unnecessary. The Passages opened ways into zones whose formation was completely unrelated to the scientific concept of metagalaxy. Building and activating a Passage required enormous amounts of energy and its destination point was impossible to predict. After activation, a Passage became virtually autonomous, connecting two worlds.

Humankind rushed headlong to the new worlds, exploring and colonizing, unthinking and heedless of any consequences. While the finest minds assimilated knowledge from the new worlds, others bent on conquest rushed forth with vehicles of mass destruction.

These explorers were uncaring of the philosophical aspects of contact with other civilizations. Secure in the knowledge of their superior intellect, humans expanded and conquered new worlds for a hundred years. The entire human culture was significantly distorted under the impact of the rapidly growing Chain of Worlds. Without even completing the reconnaissance and development of one world, the explorers would start building a new Passage to the next. Fortunately, only a minority of the new worlds became part of the Chain, since the environment on many of them was extremely hostile to humans.

Inevitably, the explorers' disregard and conceit reaped their just rewards.

First Contact

The Cryspo were entirely unfamiliar; nothing like the ugly little humanoids flying UFOs of 20th century imagery. The collective mind of a Cryspo colony was totally unintelligible to the humans with their individual psyches. The colony's flawless mechanism closely resembled earthly nests of insects. The appearance of the explorers from the Passage was initially overlooked by the colony, preoccupied as it was with its primary function of territorial control. Conversely, the advance guard of explorers immediately started slaying these strange beasts, as they had done in similar circumstances so many times before. The consequences of this slaughter were catastrophic.

By the time people realized their technological inferiority to the new enemy, the Cryspo had managed to enter the Passage and had discovered the new, unclaimed territories. Initially they ignored the human settlers, although they did exterminate anyone foolish enough to get in their way. Disunited and defenseless, the settlers managed to seal off major cities, leaving the rest of the world to the Cryspo. Events progressed rapidly, and the Passage to Earth was destroyed, leaving millions of the Softie (as they were later to be known, owing to their physical helplessness) isolated with the Cryspo. Soon, the Cryspo sprang a new surprise: the human body served extremely well as biomass for their larvae.

The Clash

The rapidly decreasing Softie population attempted a last counter-stroke inspired by the Infinite Mind: genetic intrusion. This successfully drove the Cryspo back and, as the epidemic threatened to harm the Queen of their colony, the Passage to the Cryspo home world, Cry, was blocked.

The genetic intrusion unleashed during the clash between the Softie and the Cryspo resulted in a combined genetic structure. In the following generations, biomolecular chaos erased all the original Softie and Cryspo and formed the sinister Bouillon of Spawn. The majority of them had no chance of survival but after a while, three basic varieties of the species-the bios-began to form from the diversity of mutant Lostie. They were all characterized by a similar metabolism and psychobiological uniformity.

The Cryspo anatomy proved to be more advanced and better suited for the local habitat; the Softie complex nervous system proved superior in terms of versatility. The Lostie inherited these characteristics from their ancestors. The four basic worlds of the Chain are now inhabited by the three bios, whose diversity traces back to the functional division of a Cryspo colony.