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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DM_Matt" data-source="post: 4059875" data-attributes="member: 1213">"Affir--Yes, I mean.  Come on in."  Unfortunately, the older data comes first, starting not with the 21 years but a summary of Ares' early years until the that time.  The information is part of his plea to return from exile.You first discover that the Geldarans are not allied with the race from which Barrington found technology in Egypt.  In fact, the creators of that technology, the Dao-Lug, were and remain rivals of the Geldarans, and Ares stole the idea of getting people to worship him from them, not from the Geldarans, who conquer in the conventional manner.It seems that Ares is the last survivor of the planet Pax, inhabited by a spiritual and pacifist species also called the Pax with powers allowing them to commune with nature and derive powers from it.  They could regenerate through channeling natural energy, combine their powers to resurrect the dead, and through sufficient meditation transcend their physical bodies and move on to some kind of paradise even greater than their very well-kept world.  They were also adept at cloaking and phasing technology in order to avoid fighting.  A Pax named Aron, however, believed that they were highly vulnerable to attack from more expansionistic races, especially on account of their extensive natural resources, and told everyone who would listen that they must develop weaponry to defend themselves.  When they did not listen, Aron betrayed them to the Geldarans, hoping to teach those who scorned him a lesson, but hoping also that he could convince the Geldarans to show mercy and turn Pax into a protectorate.  He taught the Geldarans how to defeat the Pax's passive defenses.When the Geldarans attacked, the Pax refused to surrender and join the Geldaran empire, forcing the Geldarans to kill them all.  Aron, now Ares, worked his way up through the Geldaran ranks and eventually ruled a moon called Taranas, until enemies drove the Geldarans from it and he was exiled as punishment.Blaming the Pax for their own destruction, and finding himself quite good at warfare, Ares vowed to help spread the tools of defense to those who, unlike the Pax, desired to stand up for themselves and put their faith in might rather than spirit or philosophy.  For the last 2500 years, Ares has played the role of deity, warlord, arms dealer, and strifesower, altering power balances to encourage wars and revolutions.  Not only did this serve his own values, but this strife could, as Ares emphasized to the Geldarans, facilitate Geldaran conquest of earth.</blockquote>

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