In the time before Cael, the Dro'Xaren Ephex was a nation of glory. Dromi Kahsoon, one of the valiant heroes of the Legion Wars, ruled the Ephex in the longest peaceful time since first contact. The only war to soil his reign, the First Imperial War, was thrust upon him by the Black Fist, a group of fanatics that proclaimed him a false god and attempted to assassinate him with aid from political adversaries of the League of Drathonis, blaming the attack on the League and resulting in its conquest. However, Kahsoon was assassinated and his son, an arrogant, hot-tempered, and paranoid man named Cael, took the seat of Dromi. Cael's reign was characterized by the excessive use of brute force to satisfy his desires, conspiracy against many of the other Takisi Garden nations, and a short-sighted selfishness that earned the Ephex the scorn of the rest of civilization. Under Cael, the drathonians were abused and enslaved, turned into a scapegoat for Cael's feelings of hatred over his father's murder. Under Cael, the leaders of the Coratis Sector were murdered and their deaths blamed on the innocent. Under Cael, the renjiri were attacked without mercy and put under Imperial domination. Even after Cael was assassinated by Chylia and his son Duranis took the throne, the Ephex was regarded with suspicion and enmity. Duranis, taught to hate non-xaersi by his father, was only too eager to fight his father's enemies, helping Chylia conquer Nur'Tan in the War of Shards and then attacking the Terran League. In the Third Imperial War Duranis' forces conquered Earth, and for a time it seemed that the Dro'Xaren Ephex would rule all of Takisi Garden, but for the heroics of the human, braken, and zhintaui who fought to reclaim Terran League sovereignty. After Duranis' death and Ahreis Khral's eventual rise to the throne, the Ephex's foreign relations began to improve, as Ahreis struggled only to quiet internal unrest within his realm, leaving the other nations of Takisi Garden to do as they pleased. He even seemed to retain his great-grandfather Kahsoon's spirit, yielding pride to honor and gallantry. Despite his belief that Kathra Noor was responsible for the death of his son in the Khursinhi Uprising, he saved her life when presented with the new and dangerous threat to them all, the tanu emissary Daera. But Ahreis' call to peace would not last. Zartran, an enigmatic man attempting to prevent the tanu virus' spread into Takisi Garden, assassinated Ahreis to attempt to gain the da'si's favor and trick it into agreeing with his plans. After Ahreis' death, the Ephex was plunged into turmoil, Ahreis having no son, daughter, or even brother or sister to take the throne. Two camps emerged, one led by Sector Lord Rilan Kerse, who advocated aggressive policies against any who would oppose the Ephex, and the other led by Triani agents Noani Olan and Raejan Irres, asking the xaersi people to put aside their stubborn arrogance and act alongside their bretheren races to save Takisi Garden from external threats such as the ha'nai and the tanu. Unfortunately, Rilan Kerse, in control of the military, took advantage of the chaos and the recent deprivation of Triani forces in the Battle of Ryi to launch the Fourth Imperial War, a blitzkrieg assault that saw an attack on nearly every system in the Terran League, the Eforan Commonwealth, D'Ka, and the coreward Coratis Sector. Though the tokin turned back Kerse's fleets, its was only after massive damage had been done, and as penance, the Triani Alliance dissolved the Dro'Xaren Ephex, confining the military forces, led by Kerse and his True Imperials, to the Xarsil System and ceding control of the rest of the Ephex to the various Triani Alliance nations. At the same time, Kiril Noor and Melissa Consair, agents for Triani and heroes of the Khursinhi Uprising and the Ryi War, are contacted by their old ally Dalia, asking them to assist her in finding the closest possible relation to the Imperial family, Cael's great-grandson, Cron Retka, hidden somewhere in the demilitarized zone of the vanquished Ephex. Harboring his own dreams of a return to the glory days of old, a retired Seeker veteran named Marus Tvuren waits at a table on Tarsis for a young friend of his, a man who could reunite the Dro'Xaren Ephex in either its last desperate vengeance against the Triani Alliance or a gesture of courage and forgiveness in joining the Alliance against the tanu. The Search for the Dromi, Cron Retka, begins here.