The Cycle

The Cycle is a process undergone by the Entities, whereby they visit different planets and grant superpowers to the inhabitants. The cycle has been repeated over three thousand times.

Prelude
As the Entities approach new planets, they look into the future to observe how the Shards they shed from their mass will interact with the local life-forms. Modifications are then made to the Shards in response to the observed future, in order to make them compatible with their soon-to-be hosts. Modifications are also made to prevent some Shards from being used against the Entities.

The Shards are cast off across alternate realities, sometimes targeted towards specific individuals. Once the Shards are cast off from the Entity they are largely independent, although the Entities retain the ability to connect to and modify their Shards. Once a host is chosen the Shard is sequestered in an alternate, barren, world where it processes the complexities of the power and serves as an energy source. By doing so the Shard remains safe from damage, with its only connection to the host existing through the Corona Pollentia.

Beginning
At the beginning of the cycle, the Entities create artificial avatars in the shape of the host species. Scion is one such avatar. They are designed with the psychology and societies of the host species in mind. These avatars retain a small fraction of the Entity's power and a few particularly powerful and flexible Shards, enough to overwhelm the entire host species and all their powers if need be, adopting complementary roles.

Middle
The cast-off Shards connect to hosts, raining down steadily over the course of three hundred years. When hosts die, they reconnect to a new host. In addition, once they have accumulated enough information, they fragment and send off the bud to connect to a new host.

Each host the Shards connect to is granted powers, a small fraction of the Shard's true potential. Some Shards are specifically targeted to individuals who will cause conflict or prop up a collapsing host species if need be.

The avatars watch over the cycle, posing as particularly powerful hosts and intervening in society to prevent events that could disrupt the cycle. They act to shape the host society to maximize the information gathered. Events they act to prevent include:
 * Mass emigration into space.
 * Large-scale loss of life.
 * Realization of the Entities' role in things.

On at least one occasion, the Entities intended to prevent long-distance communication on the target planet, divide them into factions engaged in endless war, and place powerful "superweapons" in key locations.

If the hosts end up wiping out all life on their planet, the Entities move on to another reality.

End
Toward the end of the cycle, most of the host species are parahumans and multitriggers are much more common, stress-testing subtle variations in the powers granted.

Once the cycle is complete, the Entities take back their powers and exterminate the host species. This requires both Entities.

There then follows a period where they stress test the powers they have gathered, and incorporate information gathered from the host species. The information will be used in later cycles.

They then channel all the energy from every reality they exist in into a single reality, obliterating the planet. This explosion echoes through the connections between realities they've formed and destroys every possible version of that planet. The Entities separate into hundreds of armored Shards, which ride the shock wave in pairs toward new destinations. The energy of this explosion is absorbed and stored, and will form their power source for the next cycle.

The Entities then travel in pairs through space toward new destinations, looping in double-helix patterns through space by manipulating gravity.

Past Examples

 * Plant creatures
 * Molluscoids
 * Bean People