The Aberrants are variously tricked, threatened, chased and dragged from Earth by Æon and its nova and government allies. A scant number of novas and Aberrants remain hidden on Earth. Unable to return to Earth, Aberrants and novas use their incredible powers to find and settle a few worlds in deep space. These planets serve as bases from which to launch their attacks on one another, and become home to many. The largest group of Aberrants denies its fate, though, and works ceaselessly to reclaim Earth.

This band is led by The Colony, a rival of Divis Mal himself. The Colony’s intensive breeding and sustained taint influence swells the ranks of the creature’s forces. It decides the time has come to return to Earth. The Colony learns from past mistakes, though. It wants to return home, but the victory won’t mean much if Earth is a cinder. The Colony also hopes to use its mutational ability to transform all of humanity into either full-fledged Aberrants or sub-Aberrant breeder stock.

The Colony plans to cripple humanity’s defenses while making sure that novas aren’t around to help. It sends forces to harry known nova worlds, keeping them distracted. Back in our Solar System, the Aberrants start to draw a noose around Earth, attacking orbital locations and near-space colonies. Once those are subjugated or destroyed, the Aberrants will concentrate fully on Earth without worrying about outside influence.

The proxies are potent psi users, the first of each psi-order. The proxys are subjected to visions of the Aberrants’ impending return and are chosen as humanity’s defenders. Each proxy has a strange container that pulses with subquantum energy – a Prometheus chamber. Each tank triggers psi in latent humans, reconfiguring the individual’s genetic structure so that she can channel psi. The psion remains human, but shares the proxy’s restriction to a single Aptitude.

Æon is at the height of its power when the orders first form. Its extensive intelligence network learns quickly of the secret organizations. Seeing the potential inherent to the psi orders, the Trinity offers to help in their development and to coordinate efforts between the groups. Æon loses much of its direct control once the orders go public, but manages to maintain a great deal of influence over each order.

The Æon Trinity’s influence is felt throughout each Trinity supplement. The group has an active role in the Darkness Revealed adventure series and is covered in detail in the Trinity Players Guide and Trinity Storytellers Guide.

The Chitra Bhanu focus Quantakinesis techniques. That potential is unique to – and exceedingly rare in – humanity. The Aptitude uses psi to tap quanta, duplicating many nova abilities (though at a much lower power scale).

Panic spreads among the populace – including the psi orders – about the Chitra Bhanu. Æon tries to assert its influence, but the orders summarily block its efforts. The proxies call for an investigation that Bhurano resists at first, forcing them to demand one backed by force. Meanwhile, Bhurano betrays her followers: She restricts normal lines of communication, calls all chib psions who can be located in from the field, and insists that they welcome the other orders with open arms.

When the other orders arrive, Bhurano allows the human form to be slain. This throws the rest of the order into panic and a massacre results. Only a handful of chib psions escape. The order's Prometheus chamber is dismantled and most of its parts are destroyed. The few remaining chibs go into hiding. Some meet with psions not loyal to the orders (or to Æon) and a few secretly join the Norça.

The Trinity Storytellers Guide takes a closer look at the Chitra Bhanu purge.

A collection of individual Æsculapians and Orgotek personnel secretly begin research similar to that pursued by the Chitra Bhanu and the Norça. The Huang-Marr conspirators leave morality and conscience by the wayside, though, exposing psions and bioware to taint in hopes of creating more powerful weapons with which to fight Aberrants. The project is exposed, but the rogue psions’ efforts cast a shadow over all Gifted.

The Darkness Revealed trilogy and Shattered Europe cover the Huang-Marr conspiracy and its aftermath.

Fearing a repeat of the Chitra Bhanu purge, Atwan sets about relocating the entire Upeo Order. Cassel, Bue, Solveig Larssen and Matthieu Zweidler marshal their own forces to Africa. The proxies keep the situation under wraps – not even their troops know the whole truth, only that the Upeo Proxy is under Aberrant influence and that the teleporters are to be held (using bioware dampeners that drain psi) "for their own safety."

Through moles in the Æon Trinity, The Colony learns that the proxies have been embroiled in secret meetings, and that all manner of psion combat forces suddenly converge on the Upeo base. Believing that the psions prepare for a massive attack against one of the Aberrant worlds, The Colony stages a pre-emptive strike. It orders an attack on the Esperanza. At worst, the diversion will occupy the psions long enough to warn the worlds. At best, the massive orbital station could crash into Africa and take out thousands of psions!

The Aberrant attack does surprise the psi orders – even the ISRAns, who sense massive subquantum flux but mistakenly assume it’s due to the Upeo. Atwan thinks the Esperanza attack is a ruse staged by the proxies to trap the Upeo. She comes to a difficult decision: It’s in humanity’s best interests for the Upeo to enlist the novas in the fight, and leaving now is the best (possibly only) chance the teleporters will have. Thus the Upeo vanish. Ascent into Light and Stellar Frontier explore the Esperanza tragedy in greater detail.

Qin, aliens recently subjected to Aberrant assaults. Aberrants there have nothing to do with The Colony’s forces, having stumbled across Qinshui entirely by accident.

The Qin live in a kind of caste society, split into different "houses" with different roles in society. One house, Lle-ji, sends most of its influential members to Earth to act as diplomats. Once the Upeo vanish, these Qin are cut off from home. The power balance back on Qinshui shifts dramatically and just settles when humanity sends its jump ships to re-contact the extrasolar colonies. Political influence shifts yet again as the returning members of House Lle-ji make a play for leadership of all Qin. Deception, the second book in the Alien Encounter series, draws characters into this struggle.

The Qin had already evolved to their fullest psionic capability.

The aliens have a potent inherent capacity for Photokinesis. Yet the Chromatics need means by which to reach Earth in order to wage war against humanity. The difference is dramatic. The Chromatics leap from a Bronze Age to a Space Age in a matter of years.

The Darkness Revealed adventure trilogy covers the first raid the Chromatics make on our Solar System. Invasion, the first book in the Alien Encounter series, covers humanity’s counterattack on the Chromatics’ homeworld.

On the surface, the Coalition is a mix of many different aliens with different breeds or "phyles" created to fulfill various roles. The aliens are ruled by a dominant phyle that has the genetic capacity to bond to any other race through a kind of genetic virus. This explains why the initial encounter with humans is "equated with rape."

Unknown to the populace at large, Aberrants (or "novas" as they were originally called in the early 21st century) and psions sprout from the same divergent evolutionary track. Aberrancy originates from the Mazarin-Rashoud node in novas. Psionic latency derives from the genetic sequence of psions – both products of human genes gone mad. However, the groups diverge wildly from that point. Aberrants manipulate "quanta," the fundamental force of the universe – nuclear forces, quantum energy; the building blocks of reality. Psions handle "psi," or subquantum energy, which exists between the known particles of the cosmos.