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The story of Twilight Mirage centres around the Divine Fleet, a utopia in decline and facing possible extinction. At its peak, it contained three hundred Divines, but about a thousand years ago that number started to dive as Divines either died or left the fleet as a result of attacks by the New Earth Hegemony and the Iconoclasts, as well as the influence of the Pleroma Hypothesis. The original creator of the Twilight Mirage, the Divine Empyrean, is the last remaining Divine of the Fleet.
The people of the Divine Fleet send a scouting party to the nearby planet of Quire to ascertain if it is suitable for refugees and to spread the Mirage across the planet. They encounter its existing residents, many of whom are former members of the Divine Fleet who departed generations ago. A powerful artist-city, the Crown of Glass, commissions a new body for the fabled Divine Independence from a member of the scouting party. Shortly after the planet of Quire sends out a warning recounting how the Divine Independence devastated its original inhabitants, the Qui Err, but with plans already decades in motion, it is too late, and Independence is revived.
The Divine Fleet is brought to a breaking point by combined attacks from the Divine Independence with its followers the Iconoclasts and Axioms, as well as the New Earth Hegemony-funded Sui Juris. While they are able to thwart Sui Juris’ coup attempt and bring down Independence, in the aftermath the Divine Fleet is forced to break apart and make emergency landings to the planet of Quire below, calling into question the leadership of the current Cadent, and the future of the Divine Fleet as a society. These events trigger the Miracle of the Mirage, where in an attempt to avoid further conflict, the living planet Quire splits itself into eight separate planets, where the last remaining City-Ships of the Divine Fleet are able to crash-land. In its final act, the planet of Quire revives its lost people, the Qui Err, based on its memories from before their encounter with Independence.
After the Miracle
In the aftermath of the Miracle, the people of the Twilight Mirage are largely split between:*The Advent Group, a group of “treasure hunters” (tomb raiders) and “business leaders” (fascists) seeking to exploit the magic of the Quire system.
- The Divine Free States, the remains of the Divine Fleet holding onto their old principals and beliefs even as their civilization comes to an end, becoming more bureaucratic and authoritarian in the process.
- The Qui Err Assembly, a coalition of the Qui Err, other residents of Quire, and many former Divine Fleet members who reject both the Advent Group and the Divine Free State’s authorities.
- Seneschal's Brace, which exists as an uneasy coalition between the current Cadent and the New Earth Hegemony, as represented by Declan’s Corrective.
- The court of the competing Cadent called the “Waking Cadent”, who seeks to create a new Divine Fleet where the Divines are under her control.
- Waves of arriving colonists from Earth led by Our Profit, seeking to settle on the new resource-rich planets. They are supplemented by the Argosy, Spliced, a networked fleet from Earth intent on creating a perfect digital utopia.
- The Rapid Evening, who have infiltrated the Quire System and its factions and are empowered by the all knowing Crystal Palace, a machine so advanced in its surveillance and processing it can tell the future.
All of these groups are under threat from Volition, which continues to produce new Axioms even without Independence’s guidance.
Futura Free
The season ends with Volition calmed by taking one of it's own former Axioms as an Excerpt, the Rapid Evening in retreat after Crystal Palace is effectively nullified by the creation of the Divine Arbit, and the Advent Group forced out of the Mirage entirely. Meanwhile the splintered Divine Free States, led by Aram Nideo, choose to leave the system, the consequences of which weight heavily on later generations of the Mirage.
Inside the Mirage, the Waking Cadent’s fleet remains intact while Our Profit’s Argosy, Spliced continues to offer access to the digital network of the Splice, though it is now overseen by the Divine Anticipation and their Excerpt. The Qui Err Assembly retain their home system and right to self-govern and rebuild their society, with many former members of both the Divine Fleet and former Earth colonists choosing to stay within the Qui Err System under their leadership.