(6x01) The Magic of Antiquity: Part 1, Episode 1
On the first colony of the Nurbal exiles, Amouch telepathically mediates with Daria as she teaches him how to access their shared inherited memories from Keius Meij. Through that meditation, Amouch reflects on the events that lead to the invention or discovery of the "magic" he is now learning from Daria:
Many thousands of years ago, in a distant part of the galaxy, an alien race called the Ehrban has grown an empire across the galaxy they call "Quelouva" – the "Spiral of Lights". They have spread from their homeworld of Ehrba, transforming and colonizing new worlds, all connected via a network of artificial wormholes. Though they have grown much more peaceful than earlier eras of their history, misunderstandings and conflicts still arise; and now, the fledgeling empire is threatened by civil war, as the fringe worlds struggle for independence from the rule of the imperial government on Ehrba, and the core worlds it largely represents.
Though Ehrba itself is internally democratic, the other worlds the Ehrban have spread to have no seat in the galactic ("Quelouvan") senate, though they are free to make and enforce their own additional laws, so long as Quelouvan law is obeyed. The core worlds, now well-established and independent, have resources and services to offer the homeworld, and thus may influence legislation in their favor through unofficial channels; but the fringe worlds, still developing and heavily dependent on aid from the core worlds, have little influence at all. The older of these fringe worlds, bordering on self-sufficiency now, were settled many generations ago by the ousted royal families of the old empires of Ehrba, seeking to re-establish their lost power. And now that they have established it, they turn against the empire in the name of "independent" sovereignty, though in truth merely making a bid for further power.
Amidst this brewing strife, xenobiologist Keius Meij comes to work in an imperially-funded laboratory under head researcher Tatia Wieg, on one of the outermost fringe worlds, Asira. (On a transport ship on his way there, he speaks with another passenger who is on his way to a rebel world, and they discuss the state of the galaxy along the trip). Asira is a rural backwater in the most distant reaches of the portal network, and their small facility is the biggest thing in the biggest settlement on this mostly-unpopulated planet. The governor of this world, Goran Sveren, is the agent of the Quelouvan empire sent from Ehrba to represent the Ehrban government on this world; but despite his imposing role, he is quite close and amiable with the science team here, for they are virtually the only reason anyone is on this world to begin with.