[Chanak]

The minds of the Makers were ever conceiving new ways of attaining mastery over themselves, and their world. They were spread across the surface of their beautiful planet in every clime, living in domed cities, in metropolises sprawling across the ocean floors, and gathered together in nations spanning entire continents. They established mining colonies on the sister planets of their world, having escaped the confines of planetary gravity long before. Not even the passage of time could hold the industrious Makers for long...for that, too, was subdued in themselves. Disease no longer claimed their lives, nor could age gnarl their limbs and rob them of the vigor of their youth easily.

Yet for all of their magnificient achievements, the Makers were restless and searching for more. Generation upon generation had built upon that which had been built before, improving, creating, and discovering. Their greatest minds bent their wills, opening new vistas of experience and wonder, bringing the Makers to the very limits of their confinement. There they looked upon the stars in full glory, revealed at last as being without number.

The primordial dream of the race lie in the infinite reaches of interstellar space, within their grasp but as of yet unattainable. The fusion-powered space craft of the Makers, while theoretically capable of traveling the unimaginable distances between the stars, were not fit for the task. In a planetary council their greatest scientists sought the key to unlocking the door of their prison. Even with improvements and innovation, it would take their ships millions of world-years to reach the closest star beyond their own. Though exceedingly long-lived, such a span of time would encompass countless lifetimes of the Makers.