The story of Parallel takes place thousands of years into the future, but it starts on Earth during the present time or near future. Planet Earth is running out of resources and energy is a scarce commodity. Scientists, desperate for a solution, try a new type of fission reaction that uses anti-matter. The experiment is a failure, causing a global disaster called “The Event”. A new type of radiation begins to spread across the planet, resulting in billions of humans as well as animals dying.
Humanity faces an extinction level event. What little time remains is spent building three spaceships, known as the Genesis ships, to mass exodus survivors off planet. One ship is headed to Mars, one to Europa (Jupiter’s moon), and one to the asteroid belt.
Thousands of years later, humanity is still able to avoid extinction as five separate groups known as “Parallels” managed to survive. “The Event” is now known as “The Priming” to those that survived. Earth has become habitable once again. Across the planet a new energy source is found known as “Prime.” This leads to all five Parallels being in conflict for the control of Earth, since every group sees themselves as rightful heir of the planet.
The Earthen: During “The Priming,” it was discovered that some humans had a natural immunity to the radiation. While billions died, the immune were live through it. The Earthen are the descendants of the survivors left behind on Earth. They are nature-oriented and have a deep connection with the environment. After hundreds of years of living on the highly radiated planet the Earthens have evolved such that they can manipulate the energy source Prime using only their bodies.
The Marcolian: During the Exodus event, the ship called Soleil Rouge (Red Sun) travelled to Mars where there already existed a scientific research colony. The refugees from the Red Sun joined with the Mars colonists, forming a new scientifically-minded and military-oriented society. The Marcolians are their descendants.
The Kathari: Artemis Proxima was a spaceship destined for Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. On Europa, the refugees built a city underneath the icy shell of the moon. An act of terrorism destroyed the colony’s ability to grow crops of any kind. The Kathari turned to genetic engineering for survival, replicating food and even human bodies. The Kathari are the clone descendants of Europas refugees.
The Augencore: The third ship to leave during the Exodus event was The Fortitude. The Fortitude’s mission was to never bind the ship’s survival to one planetary body, so the ship moved from asteroid to asteroid for mining resources. Over decades the low gravity environment took a toll on the crew’s aging bodies, so the grew began experimenting with elective surgical augmentation. Eventually mechanical body augmentation became a standard way of life on The Fortitude, which was renamed “Caine-1.” The Augencore are the descendants of The Foritude’s original crew.
The Shroud: Long before “The Priming,” there was a mission to an Earth-like exoplanet called Kepler-1649c. The ship sent on this mission was The New Dawn. During the mission, The New Dawn was endangered by a black hole. The New Dawn escaped the black hole, but where it ended up in space is a mystery to all but the crew themselves. When the New Dawn returned centuries later, the inhabitants were forever changed in incomprehensible ways. They became known as „Shroud“.