BHH

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A May 2016 version of this article from the original BHH Wiki is available at (2016) BHH

BHH was a science fiction shared universe that became the first of the eight cycles of Glastieven mythology, where it was sometimes known as the BHH Cycle. It centred on the Fourth Army, a small team of clandestine, morally-grey vigilantes who worked behind the scenes to defeat malign forces in an interstellar network of civilisations descended from humanity, the species-nations, which included the Evon, the Helltunans and Olympa. BHH had a long history, over which its genre drifted from fantastical action-adventure towards a grittier blend of techno-thriller and cyberpunk. Important characters included Ro Elluna, Ciarraí Teagwyn Kavanah, Raven Olympia, Ajax Inuta Krassen, Gru Rasu and Mala Dzumach Kavanah.

After it was integrated into Glastieven mythology, BHH was placed at the far end of the timeline, in the late After-Human Era (its exact position relative to the other cycles was not consistent). It was immediately followed by Ultrix stories and the end of the timeline. BHH was the oldest and most developed tradition in the mythology, and was one of the two original shared universes that provided the basis for linking roleplaying worlds together to create one "Glastieven mythology". Robert sometimes called the whole mythology "BHH+", viewing it as "background to BHH", whereas Tom saw "BHH-centrism" as a problem. The Maiestas, Starlight, Crossover and Suijing Cycles all began as offshoots from BHH.

The earliest version of BHH was "the game", starting between 2012 and 2014 and ending in July 2014, which was followed by the Oburron and Jenner paracosm from 2014 to 2016, the Acteriendian BHH roleplays from November 2015 to autumn 2016, revived BHH roleplays in early 2017, and the integration of BHH into Glastieven mythology in July 2017. It also has the distinction of being the only cycle to have been roleplayed after the end of Glastieven history, with one BHH RP taking place in May 2021.

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Setting[edit | edit source]

Species-nations[edit | edit source]

Main article: Species-nations

The planets and stars of BHH's world were divided between "species-nations", which emerged as humanity branched out into different sub-species in the course of exploring outer space. By the time of BHH, humanity's original planet had been lost, and the species-nations' common origin was rarely mentioned.

Most species raised their children on a home planet but worked in a shared inter-species community where different species-nations had different stereotypical roles—for instance, the Häftiägen were musicians and entertainers. These nations were governed by a Central Galactic Congress (CGC). A minority of species-nations were not part of the CGC and operated more independently, including the influential Three Great Powers and the Celtic-themed Monaloe Congress.

Cat's key character, Ro, was a Helltunan. Helltunans saw themselves as warriors who valued skill, violence and bravery, and Helltuna was the most powerful species-nation in the universe, largely on account of its military prowess. Kerry and Tom's characters, Ciarraí and Ajax, were Evon, and another important character, Mala, was an Evonian exile. The Evon were communist scientists who prized curiosity and reason. Robert's character, Raven, was raised by the Ravensgate away from the species-nations, but biologically he was an Olympan.

The name "species" was technically a misnomer, as two adults from different species could still have healthy children together. Those children were not hybrids: they were wholly one species or the other. An interstellar rule called the Euphorbia protocol provided that children had to grow up on the "correct" planet for their species. In rare cases, known as the Morganite anomaly, two parents of the same species could have a child of a different species, and the child would be taken away and put up for adoption on their own species' planet. This should have happened to Ro's sister, Lily, who was an Evon born to two Helltunans, but her parents concealed her genetic identity from the authorities and raised her on Helltuna.

Dark Network[edit | edit source]

Main article: Dark Network

Many BHH stories focused on the politics of an elite criminal underworld that wielded secret and unauthorised political power, influencing history from the shadows. Known as the Dark Network, it was constituted by a mixture of self-interested career criminals and Machiavellian vigilantes with ostensibly principled objectives, together known as "deratas", from the Evonian word for "agent". All deratas were intelligent, ruthless, and exceptionally skilled at navigating complex webs of power. The Network was dominated by Mafia-style organisations called dark corporations, though other deratas operated independently, and some formed small independent alliances with dramatic nicknames, like the Silver Knife or the Flying Gang.

Story[edit | edit source]

Over nearly a decade, the underlying structure of BHH's narrative was that it followed the Fourth Army, which came together before the main events of the cycle. Initially, it constituted Ciarraí, Ro and Gru. This group was reimagined after 2015 as a predecessor to the Fourth Army, and the new protagonists became Ciarraí, Ro and Raven. In 2017, the composition of the Fourth Army changed again, with Ajax being added. This time, rather than the previous version of the group being pushed further back on the timeline, the old lore was overwritten, so that in-universe there was a group of Ciarraí, Ro and Gru that got replaced by a group of Ciarraí, Ro, Raven and Ajax. Between 2017 and 2020 various fleeting keys were also added.

In all versions of BHH, the trigger for the backstory was Ro, who was General of the Helltunan army, being exiled from Helltuna for assassinating the emperor. Modern versions specified that an anonymous actor—who turned out to be Mala—paid her to assassinate Emperor Imperium Adshek, and that Ro was only caught because she tried to steal his jewels after assassinating him. Ciarraí and Gru protected her from being killed by Helltunan agents and the three began working together; Ro and Gru later married. Years later, the group were separated by a calamitous event. Versions after 2015 specified that this calamitous event was Ciarraí and Mala siding against Ro in a Dark Network conflict, creating a stand-off that risked interplanetary war; the group separated because Ravensgate—specifically agent Raven Olympia—intervened to suppress Ro's memories of the Fourth Army and alter Ciarraí and Mala's memories to believe that Ro and Gru had been killed. Raven was later captured by Mala and expelled from the Ravensgate after he tried and failed to assassinate her for his own reasons. Ciarraí later discovered that Ro was alive and brought her to Mala as she would be able to use Raven to unlock Ro's memories. Ciarraí and Ro then freed Raven and the three began working together. Ajax was a scientist with connections to the Dark Network who published a paper on a topic that was the subject of rumours and espionage among deratas. At least two topics were accepted as equally canonical for this paper: the Jenner Gate and teleportation using travel through a fourth spatial dimension. Ciarraí, Raven and Ro offered to protect him from those who would torture him for information, and he subsequently joined them.

Alongside the primary focus on the Fourth Army, there was a consistent secondary strand of stories created by Kerry which focused on Mala and/or Ciarraí's careers in the Dark Network or pursuit of arcane secrets in the absence of the other protagonists. These were often set after the rest of the Fourth Army had been killed or broken up. The habit originated in the Oburron and Jenner paracosm (2014–17), when BHH was Kerry's personal project rather than a shared universe, but continued through the Glastieven era.

Name[edit | edit source]

BHH was just called BHH. The three letters were not an acronym.

That said, BHH was originally an acronym for "Black Hole Hulk". Black Hole Hulk was the proper name of "the game", which was imaginative play at primary school. In "the game", the key character of Cat and Kerry's friend Kian was a member of a species called Black Hole Hulks (renamed to Rasunians in the later canon). By May 2016, after BHH had been revived for the Acteriendian BHH roleplays, the view was that the name BHH had been "officially short for Black Hole Hulk until 2015" but was now just a name unto itself rather than an initialism. By the time Glastieven mythology began in July 2017, the three letters by themselves had been BHH's common and official name for over a year.

In January 2020, connected with the 'New-style BHH' proposal, there was a somewhat half-hearted attempt to devise a new acronym. The most promising suggestions were considered to be "Brilliant Hadean Hypernovae" and "Brilliant Heroes in Hyperspace".