The Celestial Dragons roam the stars, dancing and playing. The Great Wheel is constructed, inexorably turning in accordance with the play of the Celestials. As the Celestials dance and swim through the stars, the first hyperspace Rivers are created.
 
In time, many Celestials grow tired. Where they rest they give birth to the planets of the 10,000 stars.
 
Five Celestials remain to guard their brethren until the Great Wheel turns when all will awaken to reincarnate the universe and give birth to a new 10,000 stars. Each of the remaining Dragons takes a station at five points throughout the 10,000 stars: the four borders at the edge of the Primal Void, and the centre. They sing lullabies to their charges to keep them safe in their dreaming; these songs give rise to a new race in the universe: the Qilings.
 
One of the sleeping dragons grows implacably restless, plagued by nightmares. In fitful sleep he opens an eye and becomes the black sun on the edge of the 10,000 stars known as the Eye of Feng Du: the name of this Celestial. This star is a pure source of evil energy, Sha; this force is the antithesis of Chi also known as Devil Breath.
 
Fragments of potent stellar matter are willed by the force of Feng Du's nightmares from within the primal void beyond and into the 10,000 stars. Drawn to orbit the Eye of Feng Du where they become the blasted ruinous hinterland environs known as the Hell Worlds. As Feng Du howls in his sleep, treacherous storms in the region are formed, even giving birth to an equally hazardous local River (the River of Hell). Upon these worlds, Feng Du manifests himself as a humanoid avatar: the eponymous immortal king of the demons that spawn there. These worlds will forever more hold the lure of power unfettered to the ambitious.
 
Across the remainder of the 10,000 stars the distant worlds formed by the Celestials see the rise of the first, powerful, mortal empire. This is the empire of the Tao, a mortal race whose advancements and culture, harsh at times, have yet to be equalled.
 
The Star Ching is constructed on the Tao throneworld allowing for the Emperor to live forever. The Celestial Mandate is created to secure the belief in the Star Ching thus to order the flow of chi inexorably and constantly to flow on behalf of the Emperor. This flow, known as the Starflow, is the source of that immortality.
 
During this time men geing to feel the lure of Feng Du and many demonic cults are organised within the 10,000 stars. Others foolishly travel to find what power they can from the legendary ancient Hell Worlds. They follow dreamers and madmen on misadventures only to find a greater, more evil, power that enslaves them, and so the armies of Feng Du grow. A decisive, climactic, confrontation threatens the universe.
 
In anticipation the king of the five Celestials, the Jade Dragon, swims to the centre of the 10,000 stars. Within the boiling galactic core he expends phenomenal Chi to create from himself the Planet of Jade Eternal, calming the surrounding River waters. Upon this world a number of Temples appear, corresponding to his body, tongue, mind, heart and eyes. From within each, the first of the Gemsoulled are created with the assistance of the Qiling: their leaders, the Jadesoulled. The Gemsoulled, machine men created from the five (including the Jade of the Eternal Planet) materials of the 10,000 stars, will form the rank and file defence for the 10,000 stars.
 
Great mortal heroes from the Tao are chosen by the Celestials to stand and lead their own people against the rising tide of the Hell Worlds as conflict seems inevitable and immediate. Great Sha storms rage for light years around the Eye of Feng Du and the activity of demon cults plague the 10,000 stars as never before. The roar of the nightmare maddened Celestial can be felt in the minds and hearts of many throughout space.

tbc...

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I would love to see the background for this setting, if i ever get it into a finished format (pdf or, inhale, book), done in a concise form. I hate long winded background info dumps. I like it in movies like Superman Returns (and the original) where, during the intro credits and music, you are taken on a visual journey (all the way to Krypton across space with all the weirdo effects). I imagine each page moving visually in the same way with a couple of pieces of text covering each opart of the background, as opposed to a long winded thesis. It's precisely because of that I got broed reading Fading Suns ("then this happened...then that happened...then...that...yawn").