Among the billions of celestial bodies scattered across the void, one planet holds a status that transcends mere geography. When the First Humans drifted into this sector eons ago, they discovered a world that mirrored the lost "Planet of Origin" with haunting precision. They named it Earth Alpha. It was here that the first foundations were laid, and the first Great Temple was constructed to house the fragments of the world that had died. As the millennia passed, more temples rose, and the planet was rechristened Hieros—the Holy World.
Hieros is the reliquary of the species. The artifacts brought across the stars—the "Holy Relics"—are kept within its deep vaults, and its very soil is considered sacred due to its resemblance to the ancestral home. The demand to stand upon its surface is so immense that the universe has seen nothing like it. To maintain the sanctity of the world, only one million sub-human devotees are permitted entry every three years, according to the local rotation of Hieros. These pilgrims are allowed a stay of exactly six months. For the vast majority of the 2.2 trillion sub-humans living across the empires, a journey to Hieros is a dream that remains unfulfilled; millions spend their entire lives on waiting lists, dying before they ever glimpse the clouds of the holy planet.
This vast demographic disparity is the fulcrum upon which the universe balances. While the sub-human population has swelled to 2.2 trillion, the number of true Humans has dwindled to a mere 70,000 across the entire span of the intergalactic empires. Humans are the rarest and most formidable species in existence. So scarce are they that many sub-human civilizations view them as myths, for a single Human possesses the cataclysmic ability to destroy entire planet.
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However, this divinity is not instantaneous. A Human born of two Human parents does not enter the world with their destructive potential active. The power remains dormant through childhood, requiring a specific, grueling ritual to awaken during the onset of puberty, typically between the ages of twelve and fourteen.
The ritual is held within the First Temple of Hieros. It is an undertaking of immense spiritual and physical stamina: 300 High Priests and seven Supreme Priests form a circle around a central altar, chanting ancient religious scriptures for seven days and seven nights without pause. On the eighth day, the child is placed upon the altar. If the ritual is successful, the child’s irises undergo a permanent transformation, turning a deep, vivid crimson. This red gaze is the definitive mark of a True Human; while some sub-humans evolved to look identical to their creators in every other physical aspect, the crimson eye remains the only biological signature that cannot be mimicked.
Yet, the bloodline is not infallible. There are rare instances where children born of two Human parents fail to awaken their powers during the ritual. These individuals are not discarded, but they are removed from the political and military hierarchies. They are sent to the First Temple to serve as Supreme Priests, spending their lives in service to the Divine. Within this caste, marriage is a strict requirement. In the eyes of Human society, celibacy is viewed as a dangerous taboo, and in certain sectors of the universe, voluntary celibacy is legally prohibited to ensure the survival of the 70,000.
Even rarer than the unawakened are those known as the "Miracle Children." These are the few who fail the ritual in their youth but spontaneously awaken their powers much later in life, an event the priesthood interprets as a direct intervention from God. The most notable instance of this phenomenon occurred two hundred years ago, involving a man who did not manifest the crimson eye until the age of twenty-one.
His name was Ali Ghazzawi.
