Devlog 5: Setting the Stage for Edition 1

Part 1: The Beginning

Hey everyone, welcome to Dev Blog 5. It’s going to be a long one today. We’ll be diving into some lore and talking about what the setting for Edition 1 will look like.

A few of you have been asking for this for a long time, and honestly, I’ve been looking forward to it too. I’ve spent the last three to four years building this world, tearing it down, rebuilding it again, and repeating that process more times than I can count. I’ve remade Beyond Space four or five times now, each version teaching me something I needed to learn before I could land on the direction I’m finally confident in.

This is not going to be a giant lore dump or a full timeline. We’re not doing character rollouts or encyclopedias today. What you will get is a first look at the setting, a better understanding of the universe Beyond Space takes place in, a small glimpse at the major powers, and a general idea of what the plan looks like for releasing the lore properly.

Before we go any further, I want to be clear about one thing: the lore is still in active development. Names shift, ideas get refined, and sometimes entire concepts get reshaped to work better with the rest of the universe. If something changes by the time the Lore Book comes out, don’t be surprised. That’s just the process. Everything is being tightened, aligned, and polished behind the scenes.

That said, I feel good about where things are now — good enough that I’m ready to finally share the world you’ll be stepping into for Edition 1.

Let’s dive in.

Part 2: Creating the Vibe

When I first started building Beyond Space, I knew I didn’t want a traditional fantasy setting, and I didn’t want a clean or conventional sci-fi setting either. I wanted something that felt like it could have begun as a classic fantasy world, with knights, demons, and angels, but then evolved over thousands of years until it reached a far-future state without ever losing those roots.

The goal was to create a universe with room to grow, a setting that could support long-term storytelling, new armies, new eras, and the kind of themes that can keep expanding for decades. Beyond Space is something I plan to work on for a very long time, so the foundation needed to be strong enough to carry whatever comes next. A world that feels a little different from what you typically see in a wargame setting.

I wanted a setting that feels medieval where it matters, even though it exists far into the future. A place where knights stand on starships, where holy shrines, demons, ritual, and advanced weapons all belong together. Nothing should feel stitched together or random, it should feel like a world that naturally grew into this state over a long and turbulent history.

Every system in Beyond Space was built with that mindset. Even the familiar ideas are rebuilt from the ground up so they make sense inside this universe.

Take the Hyperians, for example. I needed warriors who could survive long enough to matter across centuries of conflict — not just because it’s cool, but because the world itself spans massive timelines. You might compare them to Spartans from Halo or Space Marines from Warhammer at a glance, but those similarities are surface-level. Hyperians in Beyond Space are something entirely different, shaped by their own systems, history, and purpose. I’m excited for the day I can reveal them in full.

The same is true for every race in the setting. Beyond Space has humans, elves, dwarves, and more, but none of them exist just to fill a trope. Humans can live up to three hundred years here, not because it’s a fantasy cliché, but because the laws and physics of Alterra allow it. Everything has a reason. Everything connects to something larger.

I could talk for hours about the early development process and the versions that didn’t survive, but gist is I needed a universe that felt different, that felt lived in, and that had the depth to keep expanding. Something strong enough to carry the stories I want to tell.

Now that you have a sense of the philosophy behind the world design, let’s step into the setting itself. Welcome to Alterra.

Part 3: The World of Alterra

Beyond Space takes place in a universe called Alterra, sometimes referred to as the middle realm. This is the primary setting of Edition 1, and it is where the four major powers exist and collide.

Alterra is enormous and mostly uncharted. The reason is simple. There are no natural suns here. Almost the entire universe is dark. Life only survives because of mana stars — massive, metal-rich celestial bodies that absorbed ambient mana over long periods of time until they generated enough heat and light to sustain life around them.

Wherever a mana star ignites, a lit region forms. Nearly all civilization in Alterra gathers around these pockets of light. Across the universe are millions of worlds, some thriving under a mana star, others abandoned in darkness, all shaped by how close they are to stable light and warmth.

To get a clearer idea of what this looks like:

Imagine a star map where almost everything is black. That black is not empty. It is the Void, a cold expanse full of layers, depth, old history, and dangerous unknowns.

Scattered throughout it are spheres of light from mana stars. Inside each sphere, you find fleets, colonies, and empires fighting to survive. Outside those zones is the Void, and it is more than darkness. It holds ruins from civilizations that existed long before the current age, mineral fields that certain factions depend on, abandoned constructs, and regions where space behaves in ways no one has fully explained.

There are those who venture into the Void for resources or exploration, but every mission is a risk. Not every expedition returns. Some of the dangers are well known, like the creatures that hunt by sound, heat, or movement. Others are stranger, such as pockets of distorted space — and the unknown threats that wait in the dark, including the Urryk'Kaan who watch from afar.

The dark shapes everything about life in Alterra. It determines how far a fleet can travel safely, how empires expand, where wars are fought, and what risks leaders are willing to take. Lit regions are fragile islands of safety surrounded by an ocean of cold, hostile space.

Alterra is meant to feel medieval in spirit despite its advanced age. It is a frontier shaped by fear, survival, and limited light, where powerful armies clash and entire civilizations struggle to hold their ground. War is only one danger out there. The dark itself is another.

It is time to introduce the forces that shape it. Let us take a look at the current and known major powers of Alterra.

Part 4: The Major Powers of Alterra

Now that you have a sense of what Alterra is like, I want to introduce the four major powers that shape its current era. These factions are the dominant forces within the lit regions, each driven by its own belief system, its own vision of survival, and its own idea of what this universe should become.

Together they answer a single question: what is worth sacrificing for?

Order. Faith. Blood. Preservation.

Below is a high level introduction to each of them.

United Emperium — Order

The United Emperium is a civilization built on structure and order. Its foundation rests on six Great Knight Orders, each powerful enough to stand alone, yet bound together they form a unified wall against the threats surrounding them. Their worlds sit deep inside the lit regions of Alterra, holding the ground they carved out across generations of conflict. What began as separate powers became a single Emperium under Knight Emperor Leoric Valosar, formed out of necessity and strengthened through purpose.

The Knight Orders drive the entire civilization. Layers of law, logistics, command, and civic expectation interlock into a system where everyone understands their role and its importance. Life inside the Emperium is shaped by structure: clear chains of responsibility, disciplined routines, and a culture that views order as the backbone of survival in a hostile universe.

The Emperium is defined by these Orders. Each maintains its own fleets, its armies of knights and Order Guard, and its fortress worlds built to withstand sieges that would break most civilizations. Their codes and traditions were shaped by centuries of war, reconstruction, and hard lessons. The Emperium endures because order is worth defending in a chaotic place such as Alterra.

Eternally Faithful — Faith

The Eternally Faithful is a theocratic empire built entirely around the Faith, a belief system that defines identity, law, purpose, and destiny for its people. The Church serves as the empire’s governing body, but even it answers to the divine: the All Father and Holy Mother, whose revelations and visions guide every part of life. The Church, the people, and the Crusades operate as parts of a single structure moving toward the expansion of the Faith.

Inside the empire, authority flows from Revelation, enforced by the Church and interpreted through the Book of Faith. Communities live by ritual. Leaders rule through doctrine. Soldiers take sacred oaths before marching to war. Every system, from education to justice, exists to keep the empire aligned with divine will. Devotion to the faith is the structure life is built on.

The Crusades are the Faith’s outward reach. Crusader hosts travel across Alterra carrying doctrine into new regions as truth. Acceptance brings protection; refusal brings fire. Worlds that embrace the Faith are welcomed beneath its banner. Worlds that resist are judged, corrected, or purged. Purification preserves the soul, and expansion fulfills the path laid out by the divine.

The Fallen — Blood

The Fallen is an empire built on corruption, hunger, and absolute devotion to the Old Blood. Where other civilizations seek stability, the Fallen embrace transformation. Their society is shaped by the belief that flesh, power, and sacrifice are the true currencies of existence, and that the Old Blood will one day reshape Alterra in its image.

The empire is ruled by God King Azaren and the Thronelords beneath him, each commanding their own throne worlds and vast legions devoted to the Old Blood. Their authority is maintained through ritual dominance and the strength required to uphold it.

Every system within the Fallen exists to fuel the same purpose: to ready Alterra for the coming of the Old Blood. Their forges, rituals, conquests, and sacrifices all feed an unholy empire preparing for what they believe is inevitable. Blood is power, sacrifice is progress, and corruption is the tool that shapes their future.

Everything they build, destroy, or reshape moves them closer to that goal. The end is coming. The rest of Alterra simply has not realized it yet.

Urryk Kaan — Preservation

The Urryk Kaan are an ancient civilization that lives in the Void. Their origin lies in a hidden region known as the Deep Worlds, far beyond any charted space. To the light-dwelling empires, they appear as pale-skinned, towering beings with pitch black eyes adapted to the dark. Their clans mark themselves with carved runes that trace lineages no outsider has ever deciphered.

What most empires understand is their intent. The Urryk do not fight for territory in the traditional sense. They fight to preserve what they come from. Every mana star ignited and every lit region expanded pushes the dark back and shifts the balance of the space they call home. To them, the spread of light is not progress. It is a growing disease.

Their fleets strike at expansion before it takes root. They disrupt outposts, halt colonization, and target regions where the light threatens to grow. Their oldest stories speak of an age before the stars existed, and whether those memories are history or myth, the Urryk treat them as truth.

The Urryk are divided into great nomadic clans that act independently, but they are bound by purpose. They move through the Void quietly, patient and deliberate, searching for something unseen. What they seek, or what they fear, remains unknown.

With the setting and the major powers in place, the next step is understanding where the story of Edition 1 actually begins.

Part 5: Where the Story Actually Begins

Now that the setting and the major powers are in place, I want to talk about where the actual story of Edition 1 begins. The start is about establishing the present day of Beyond Space. It is the foundation layer, the starting point, the moment where all four armies collide in a universe already crumbling under its own weight.

The goal with Edition 1 is not to zoom into individual characters or tell long narrative chapters right away. That will come with time. For the launch of the game, I am focused on introducing the universe as it exists now: the systems that hold it together, the rules that shape it, the armies that define it, and the conflicts. Think of Edition 1 as stepping into the story at the moment the tension finally breaks and all out war starts.

Fifty years before the current timeline, the Eternally Faithful declared a crusade against the United Emperium for refusing the faith and launched a massive offensive deep into Emperium territory toward the core. That campaign tore a path through the lit regions and left a wound across the map that still has not fully healed. The Emperium survived, fought back, and after decades of rebuilding, they are finally regaining momentum. They are preparing to take the fight back to the Faithful.

But that is only one part of what is happening.

While the Emperium and the Faithful prepare to clash again, the Fallen have declared the Esh'varim, the Harvest of Flesh. It is one of the most sacred and dangerous call to arms in their culture and it only happens when the Thronelords and God King Azaren stand aligned in purpose. The Esh'varim has pulled their entire empire into motion, uniting their legions into a massive warfront aimed at the already bleeding Faithful and Emperium.

Both sides are preparing for another round of war.

Neither of them realizes that something far worse is rising in the dark.

This convergence of events the crusade, the counter offensive, and the Fallen rising in unison is where Edition 1 begins. It is the current state of Alterra. It is the baseline. This is the universe you step into when the game officially launches.

With that picture set, the next thing I want to talk about is how the lore itself will release and what the rollout looks like once we hit beta.

Part 6: How the Lore Will Release

That is everything I wanted to cover about the setting itself for now. My goal was not to go deep into lore today, but to give you a clear sense of what Alterra feels like and the four major powers that shape Edition 1. With that foundation in place, I want to shift into something a little more practical: how the lore for Edition 1 is actually going to release once the beta begins.

Edition 1 is planned to launch with six rulebooks and one lore book:

• Core Rulebook – the universal rules.
• PvP Game Format Rulebook – the structure of PvP play.
• Four Army Books – each army’s rules and each army’s lore section.
• Lore Book – the full setting overview for Edition 1.

The Core and Format rulebooks are strictly gameplay. The Army Books introduce the worldview, tone, and flavor of each army alongside their mechanics. And the Lore Book is the big one: the full picture of Edition 1’s setting, timeline, and cosmology.

Here is the issue. If I try to finish all of the lore the Army Book lore and the full Lore Book before the beta launches, the beta will be delayed by several months. The Lore Book alone is large, and I want to write it properly rather than rushing through it just to hit a date.

That leaves two clear paths:

1. Release the beta with all the lore completed. This would mean delaying the beta so everything including the Lore Book is polished and finished on day one.
2. Release the beta with the Core Rulebook, Game Format Rulebook, and the first Army Books, then add the lore during the beta cycle. This allows the gameplay to launch sooner, and the lore releases during the first major beta update all at once.

Right now, I am leaning toward the second option. The gameplay is ready to move forward, and I would rather keep the momentum than freeze development for half a year just to line up everything at once. The world of Beyond Space is big, and it deserves the time it needs.

I am still thinking this through, so I would love to hear your feedback. Do you prefer everything at once even if it means a significant delay, or would you rather see the beta arrive sooner with the lore unfolding throughout the beta cycle?

Next, I want to talk a bit about the long-term direction of the setting and what comes after Edition 1.

Part 7: The Future of the Setting

The truth is, everything in this devlog is only the surface. Beyond Space has years of pre-lore already written: the eras before the current age, the rise of the major powers, the origin of mana stars, the old wars, the lost civilizations, and all the pieces that eventually lead to the state Alterra is in today. That material will release after the foundation of Edition 1 is in place, because its purpose is to explain how we got here, not distract from the present-day starting point.

There is also future lore planned for later editions. The arcs, the conflicts, the turning points, and the long-term direction of the universe are already mapped. Some pieces will evolve naturally as the game grows, but the backbone is set. Edition 1 is only the introduction. Everything else builds on top of it.

With that in mind, here is what the current release timeline looks like:

1. Beta Launch (No Lore Yet)

The beta will most likely launch without the Lore Book and without the lore sections inside the Army Books. The focus of the beta is purely gameplay: refining the core rules, expanding rosters, balancing units, and making sure Beyond Space plays the way it is meant to.

2. Beta Updates: Army Expansions

During the beta, I will be adding new units and expanding each army’s playable roster. This will be the main focus through the early beta period as the game stabilizes.

3. First Major Lore Release

Once the gameplay core is solid, the first major update will introduce:

• The Lore Book – the complete Edition 1 setting overview.
• Updated Army Books – now with their lore sections added.

This will likely be only a couple of months after the beta goes live. I want the lore to be strong and properly formatted, not rushed.

4. Preparing for the Edition 1 Launch

After the lore is added during the beta and the gameplay stabilizes, the next step is the full Edition 1 launch.

5. The First Urryk Kaan Great Clan

The first major content drop after Edition 1 will be the introduction of the first Urryk Kaan Great Clan as a new playable army. Their design and lore are already mapped out, but they will arrive after the core four armies have had their time to stand on their own.

6. The PvE Expansion

Once the Urryk Kaan release is complete, the next major milestone will be the PvE expansion. PvE is something I am extremely excited for, but it needs to come after the full PvP foundation is fully stable.

Like all things in game development, details may shift, timelines may flex, and priorities may adjust, but this is the direction the project is moving right now. Beyond Space is something I am building for the long run, and Edition 1 is only the beginning.

Next, I want to close this devlog out with a few final thoughts.

Part 8: Closing Thoughts

That’s everything I wanted to share for this devlog. My goal here was simply to give you a clearer picture of what Beyond Space actually is: the world you’re stepping into, the armies that define Edition 1, and the state of the universe when the game begins. There’s a lot more coming, and much of it is still shifting as development moves forward, but I hope this helped set the stage.

This one was fun to write. It’s been a long road getting the setting to where it is now, and being able to finally talk about it openly feels good. If anything here raised questions, sparked ideas, or made you curious about something, feel free to drop it in the Discord. I read everything, and your feedback genuinely helps shape the direction of the project.

One last note before I wrap up: with the holidays coming up and a lot of travel on my end, there’s a good chance I won’t have time to get a devlog out in December. So the next one will most likely land in January. I’m not sure what the topic will be yet, but I’ll keep you updated once things settle down.

As always, everything you saw here is still subject to change. The universe is big, the systems are deep, and I’m still refining how all the pieces fit together. But Edition 1 is getting close, and I’m excited for you to experience it.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting the project. More soon.