Horizon - Full Lore and Backstory
Mary Somers was born in the year 2609, 114 years ago. She grew up to become a renowned astrophysicist and at some point had a son: Newton.
Dr. Somers hired an apprentice: Ashleigh Reid. Over time, Reid became more than just Somers’ assistant, joining family dinners and babysitting Newton.
Lilian Peck, the founder of Olympus, made a troubling discovery: all energy in the Outlands would be depleted by 2700. Unfortunately the people didn’t care about anything that would affect them in the distant future, and nobody listened to Peck. Over time, her theory was proven to be true, and the Outlands were in a major energy crisis.
Peck invited Somers to move her family (including Dr. Reid, the assistant) over to Olympus to help solve the crisis. Somers and Reid had to work hard day and night, and often Somers had to sacrifice time with her prepubescent son to focus on her work.
Eventually, Somers and Reid discovered Branthium: an element that can only be found within the gravitational field of a black hole. Somers was sure that Branthium was the key to limitless energy and could save the Outlands. Somers and Reid prepared for a journey into space to extract the Branthium but before she left Olympus, Somers promised her son she would return safely and spend more time with him after her work was complete.
The promise made Mary determined. She would go to the ends of the universe and return with the Outlands saved. Mary put Reid in charge of the ship while she would go into the black hole and extract the Branthium. Mary managed to collect the Branthium crystal, and certain she had kept her promise, she retracted the tether, ready to go home.
But that’s not what happened.
Dr. Reid: Horizon’s assistant she spent years mentoring, researching with and spending time with her family with, had, for some reason, planned to betray Horizon’s mission.
The retract failed, and Mary heard the words “Sorry, dearie” before being plunged into the black hole.
Horizon spent 246 days in the black hole, but due to relativity and time dilation, that meant 87 years back home. Her son grew up, lived life and died: all without her. She was stabbed in the back by her assistant, and more importantly to her, she broke her promise. She thought she was going to die.
But, she managed to get another crystal, and created a wormhole to jump drive back to Olympus.
When she returned, the Olympus she had once known was destroyed, abandoned and her family and friends were long gone.
Now, Horizon is fuelled by her motherly determination to keep
her promise. She competes in the Apex Games to fund her research and find a way to time travel and be with her son.
