As man left the cradle of earth, he exported not only his creativity, courage, and virtues, but also his greed, bigotry and violent nature. No longer forced to promote the illusion of cooperation necessitated by sharing a planet with limited space and finite resources, mankind had launched his darker nature into the void of interplanetary space. He used his newfound wealth to construct societies that glorified and magnified all the things that had historically separated humans from one another — race, religion, ethnicity, and political ideology. Entire worlds were colonized by formerly great nations, at great expense and loss of life. Some smaller colonies became refuges for persecuted minorities, religious sects, and communities of like-minded artisans, scientists, and philosophers. Struggle was a universal constant in this new age of space colonization.
However, Remus Arin had no need of the quaint social groupings scattered among the planets and asteroids of the solar system. He was exactly where he wanted to be. He always was.
Remus was a special envoy of the Emperor Wan Sui Ye — literally the “Lord of Ten Thousand Years” — and was by all reasonable measures outside The Law and untouchable. He was free to travel to any Imperial territory, and indeed any independent or corporate colony. His visa was irrevocable and his passage was guaranteed.
This privilege was not earned however — it was manufactured. He had spent many years carefully crafting his present identity, working through the tedious layers of Imperial bureaucracy, suffering one insufferable fool after another until he had finally earned a private audience with the Emperor himself. This was an honor reserved for only the highest ranking members of the Imperial Court, and a few useful members of the ruling class from trading partners among the independent worlds and corporate colonies.
On that fateful day five years ago, Remus had told the Emperor a secret that would captivate his imagination and inform all of his actions from that day forward. As is the way of his kind, Remus spun a tale that seized the Emperor’s heart and gave him a vision that made his current reign seems small and insignificant. He set Wan Sui Ye on a path that he believed would make him the greatest conqueror in human history, magnifying his glory and honor greater than any king or emperor who had ever ruled on Earth.
The Emperor made Remus Arin his Ambassador-at-large, an office created by Imperial decree, with no official duties other than those proscribed by the Emperor himself. Remus had no human in authority over him, save for the Emperor — and even that was by Remus’ design. He would manipulate this small and simple man like the hundreds of others he had bent to his Master’s will throughout ages past. He had only one true Master and His will would be done in the end.
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