Over the centuries since the dawn of spaceflight, Humanity mapped both the physical and mental architecture of their existence and learned to recreate and remix it.
The Alliance core worlds developed effective immortality long ago through cloning, bodily rejuvenation, and mental transcription.
But not everyone embraced these possibilities of mutable or non-corporeal existences.
Some still hungered to venture outward, pushing beyond the reach of the massive social and technological infrastructures necessary to provide and sustain endless regeneration of existence.
These restless explorers risked their existence chasing experiences and answers to questions others in the core worlds barely considered bothering with in their pursuit of endless abstract leisure.
Among the stars, the availability of the knowledge how to avoid or postpone death exists, but not necessarily the means.
On the frontier, rumors and stories circulate of those with access to caches of advanced Alliance core technologies.
Even wilder stories tell of discoveries among the xeno-archeological wrecks and ruins which surpass even Alliance capabilities.
The wildest whispers of all describe metaphysical abilities of a few who can simple reorder existence to their will in ways science cannot begin to describe.
A common thread to these stories claims that even those killed can be restored to life under unclear circumstances.
These claims vary on what technology or mystical abilities may reverse death and resurrect the slain with memory and personality intact despite lack of clone samples or previously stored mental transcriptions.