Supreme Commander Profile Preview - Aeon Characters and Worlds

While early real-time strategy games were built on the repeated harvesting of resources so you could buy up a base of buildings and churn out an army to crush your enemy, the 1997 game Total Annihilation, created by designer Chris Taylor and his colleagues at the defunct developer Cavedog, brought this kind of gameplay to an epic scale. Arguably, no other strategy game since then has attempted to model humongous, all-out war with that kind of scope. At least not until Taylor's new company Gas Powered Games announced Supreme Commander, the successor to Total Annihilation--a game that will use impressive 3D graphics and humongous battlefields to model full-scale wars, rather than tactical skirmishes between a handful of military units. Supreme Commander will take place in a far-flung sci-fi universe and will chronicle the struggle between three powerful factions, each equipped with powerful, futuristic weaponry and armies and navies of armored vehicles. In this profile preview, we'll catch up with the homeworlds and key characters of the Aeon faction.

Aeon Characters and Worlds

Princess Rhianne Burke
Age: 27

Princess Rhianne Burke is a mysterious figure. Little is known about her outside of what's mentioned in highly classified files. It is known that she possesses a strong and charismatic personality and that she has a great deal of support among her people. It's also known that she was born of noble lineage, specifically into a line of seers, which means that she was a strong candidate to the throne, regardless.

However, recent reports suggest that the new princess may be attempting to steer her faction into a new direction: one of lasting peace, rather than the Aeon faction's traditional agenda of cleansing. These reports have not been substantiated.

Evaluator Abigail Toth
Age: 72

Evaluator Toth has been an advisor to the last three princes of Aeon Illuminate, as well as the faction's current princess, Rhianne Burke. Though she appears to be a harmless grandmother figure, she has actually exerted a surprising amount of influence on the direction of the Aeon.

Seraphim II
Terrain: Tundra

Seraphim II was discovered in the 25th century but was dismissed at the time as being uninhabitable. In the following century, the planet was determined to be habitable by humans and to possess conditions similar to those of Earth. A vessel known as the ESS Starjourner, piloted by Captain Trent Smith, was sent to the planet to investigate in 2453.

It isn't clear what happened after the ship landed, though Aeon lore--undoubtedly skewed in favor of the faction--suggests that the crew encountered alien life-forms known as "Seraphim," which were befriended by biologist Dr. Jane Burke and attacked by Captain Smith. What is known is that this race is now extinct, thanks to a biological weapon that Smith created, and that the captain himself was later murdered by Dr. Burke (a fact that the Aeon recount with pride). As a result of the biological weapon, much of the indigenous life has been wiped off the face of the planet--and most of the planet has frozen over completely.

Orionis
Terrain: Blackrock

Orionis is one of the Aeon faction's most highly revered planets within its space because the harsh, volcanic world serves as a perfect environment for military training. The planet was discovered in 2680, and although it seemed barren and desolate, further probing revealed the shocking fact that the Seraphim had at one point inhabited Orionis and had apparently even built structures and researched technology beneath the planet's molten surface.

After the monumentally important discovery was made, Aeon scholars and priests--and even the princess herself--hastened to the planet to extract technological artifacts from the planet and to erect religious shrines. The planet was rapidly colonized and became one of the faction's most significant holy sites. To preserve the sanctity of the world, nothing was done to change its hostile climate. The Aeon instead used ventilators to provide breathable air. Although the Seraphim had apparently been capable of space travel, the Aeon found no evidence that the race had ever attempted it, perhaps because it simply wasn't interested. So a question remains for the Aeon philosophers and scholars--if the Seraphim never bothered with space travel, how did the race make the jump from Seraphim II to Orionis?

The planet is currently home to small settlements and religious structures, which support the constant influx of pilgrims that visit the planet in search of enlightenment. The exact purpose of the Seraphim technology remains a mystery, though there are many among the Aeon who hope that discovering the secret behind these ancient relics will put an end to the Infinite War.