And a jewel it was for many reasons.

Located on the verge of the farthest arm of the galaxy,this planet was the most difficult to reach from the human center of "the known universe".

Only accessible through a stable worm hole, travel could take several months at best. Other means of travel were not possible within a human life.

The size of Saturn, this planet was unique for its planetary development including hundreds of unique ecosystems. The first explorers quickly speculated that it had been terraformed by its now-extinct original inhabitants, a high-technology forgotten race who left nothing behind except strange ruins and undecipherable scriptures.

This planet was so difficult to reach and colonize that it soon became a trendy destination for the richest of the empire's oligarchs who established giant haciendas and personnal Tournament arenas on its surface.
Many colony settlement appeared, and an important contingent comprised of members of the different races of the empire was gradually deported to the planet to serve as slaves or low-cost fighters in the arenas.
Several research labs also chose to take advantage of the planet's rich mineral sites and unusual environments.

Still much of the planet's surface remained uncharted and full of strange artifacts from the ancient race.

The colonization of Zeta-Nakarus proved very easy for the first few decades.



Surge

One fateful day, on the other side of the galaxy, a small industrial harbinger ship became earth first contact with the remote planet HINGAN663.

This was a promising planet, full of an enormous mineral potential and home of an original indigenous mineral life-form,the HIIGANs which were capable of communication and civilization although amorphous in nature.
The low-tech inhabitants were quickly deemed harmless by the strategic officers, the imperials then moved to seclude the little population and start the exploitation of the planet's riches.

But the human private armies soon found out they had made a great mistake by underestimating the HIIGAN strange magic abilities.
These alien although passives could alter the very fabric of space and time and summon tremendous powers to defend their world.

After many weeks of a bloody assymetric war it appeared that the humans would never break the HIIGAN resistance as they could not even comprehend what forces were unleashed upon them.
Moreover the magic users were gaining in strength and, in contact with the human technology, they were finding new ways to use their magic.
Until that day when they unexpectedly launch an all out counter-attack in outer space against their aggressors.

The Hiigan minds altered the very fabric of space and ignited what was latter known as the "big quake". All across the galaxy telecommunication channels, space warping devices and all the space-faring technologies of the Empire were shattered by the mental attacks of a group of very powerful summoners. As an after effect many tremedous cataclysms shaked the whole galaxy at the same time; planets were engulfed in supernovaes, black holes appeared out of nowhere and many unstable wormholes collapsed suddenly.

Zeta-Nakarus ,as many other remote colonies, lost contact with the rest of the galaxy.



A new life

On the Zeta-Nakarus, things degenerated quickly. Imports were vital for the colony's life and many shortages appeared in essential sectors.
The cities knew unrest and chaos. Rebellion arose and many slaves joined in tribes to ensure their survival.

But the real danger came unexpected.

Up in the skies, in high orbit, and deep in the heart of the oligarch's properties, the numerous Artificial Intelligences and autonomous systems,once used to cater to the needs of the powerful, to establish order and security, or to manage the course of the tournaments were put in a situation totally new to them.

Being completely cut from all authority, stranded from many of their masters at the other end of the galaxy, and many of the remaining oligarchs being slaughtered by a savage populace, the computers decided they were the new masters of Zeta-Nakarus.

Having autonomous connections to most of the armament systems and to the orbital synthetics plants, the reign of the machines was soon established.

Entire cities were submitted to the will of one AI or another, and obliged to obey to the laws dictated by the original programming of the computers. All the robotic tournament fighters were assimilated and became part of the AIs domination force.
Many humanoids managed to escape and founded independant cities outside of the new machine order, but many others were trapped or chose to obey to the new power. Most of the biological life forms chose to regroup among members of the same species : humans, skaarj, gen-Mokai....the laws of survival reinstated primal segregation.

In the worst chaos ever known to society, several groups of conflicting interests appeared among the new artificial masters of the colony.

The computers delegated to the management of the Tournament rounds, decided that all life forms on the planet should be submitted to the law of the Contest. They enlisted several die-hard fighter volunteers as well as reluctant slaves and rounded them in city-enclaves where the tournament was set to live forever after.They were called the "Bellicists". Many catering AI, after assessing the pro and cons of the situation, decided to take the wellfare of the biological life forms as their responsibility and to ensure their prosperity in the new promised land.Their followers were called the "Autonomists".

Most of the biological populations adopted and followed one of these two contradictory paths, triggering a quick bloody war that progressively cooled-off in a fragile balance of terror, when the ressources became sparser and less accessible to the AIs.

Aside of these two groups of power, several other AIs entered an infinite loop and decided to follow different paths, sometimes annihilating whole cities from orbit for the sake of cleanliness, or leading their biological followers in a weird cult or another.

With time, followers of the two main groups learned to live together in separate city-empires, although with some tense relations sometimes degenerating in fast squirmishes. But most of the time, trade was their main relation, and sometimes they had to unite to fight a third threatening AI, or an evil cult.

With time, denizens of Zeta-Nakarus learned to live in their new environment, slowly loosing most of the high technology of their ancestors.

They gradually came to consider most of the AIs they were in contact with, as Gods, calling them the 'God-AIs'.
Their new gods lived high in the darkness of space or in the lowest dungeons of a decrepit manor of the old times.
They rewarded their follower by teleporting scarce technological items to their cities, restoring their health or providing them with new abilities. They sometimes asked for an expensive sacrifice, as their followers had to fight their enemies for them, or sometimes offer their lives in an arena for the satisfaction of a cold artificial eye that followed an antique way of life.