The actinic glare of the carriers boosters cast an odd flickering light over the landscape surrounding the starbase. Ghostlike shadows flitted across the jagged, blasted rocks and craters that ringed the horizon. Aris longed for the lush jungles and meandering rivers that once covered his homeworld. In his lifetime he never thought possible the destruction and depravity that erupted during the great breaking of the universe. Once a peacfull man, Aris was now all but consumed by the martial mantle inherited from his late father. Clad in a non-descript zero-G combat suit, Aris considered what could have been: state functions on the homeworlds of the great houses, pioneers who intrepidly left Sol behind for either greatness or failure. Fine wines and finer company. Long conversations among his peers about the great statesmen and philosophers of humanity. All of that peace and prosperity had now come to an end. The great houses reformed their ancestral alliances, trying to attain their former greatness. With the forging of alliances and rekindling of age-old familiar hatreds came the new state of the universe, where life was short and brutish. Allready too many lives had been lost, too much progress had been forever rendered lost to the evils of man. With despair in his heart, Aris chose to walk the path of darkness, foresaking his ancient family name and dedicating himself to destroying the forces of man that threatened to forever damn all of humanity and its boundless promise. Aris walked the path of shadows and death, and his legions named him Aris of the Darkpath.