Editing Abaddon (section)

===Deep Background===
The [[Entity|Entities]] first arose on a gray, silty world, which they destroyed and rode the explosion out to new worlds.<ref name="I26">[[Interlude 26]]</ref>

Abaddon's line had remained a singular traveler of space and it had visited fewer worlds than the [[Warrior Entity]] or the [[Thinker Entity]].<ref name="I26 e2">Its ancestors had traveled a different path, easily hundreds of cycles ago, before the entities had begun traveling in pairs.  This new arrival had encountered different worlds, less worlds, and it had developed differently. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/08/10/interlude-26/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 26]]</ref>

Before Abaddon traveled relatively close to [[Earth]], a previous cycle took place on a planet where everything was alive.<ref>“Can we go back?” I asked.  I made it declarative.  “Go back.  Uh… earlier in this thing’s history.”<br><br>“It’s a life cycle,” Five said.<br><br>“Previous life in the cycle,” I said.<br><br>The image changed.<br><br>What I saw was chaos.  A dense world, where everything was moving and alive.  There were things that resembled spiders, there were things that looked like slugs.  Some were small, some were as big as buildings. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2020/02/04/infrared-19-8/ Excerpt] from [[Infrared 19.8]]</ref> [[wikipedia:Traumatic insemination|Traumatic insemination]] and [[wikipedia:Horizontal gene transfer|horizontal gene transfer]] was strongly prominent even in complex and intelligent organisms, and "every species could breed with every species".<ref>And they were using what looked like built in spears to puncture one another, fluids pouring out.<br>[...]<br>“No.  A cape,” Number Five said.  “Traumatic insemination.  Traumatic egg-laying.  It looks like natural trait across this species.”<br><br>“They’re different species,” Chris said.  “A planet where every species can breed with every species.  It looks like a good number are intelligent.” - [https://www.parahumans.net/2020/02/04/infrared-19-8/ Excerpt] from [[Infrared 19.8]]</ref> Ten years before Abaddon ended their world, the hosts appear to be fighting [[Endbringer]] or [[Titan]] equivalents.<ref>“What is the species of this life cycle fighting, near the end?  Ten rotations around their sun prior to the world ending,” I asked.<br><br>It was a similar scene.<br><br>But they were fighting something that looked like a conch shell, with holes running through it.  Tentacles flowed out and through the massed ‘warriors’, that I would have likened to animal predators on our earth.  Spider-like, wolf-like, cat-like, but streamlined down, sleek, without the key traits I would point to in a spider, wolf, or cat.  Incredibly varied, from one to the next.<br><br>“Endbringer equivalent or Titan equivalent?” Byron asked.<br><br>“Looks like,” I said. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2020/02/04/infrared-19-8/ Excerpt] from [[Infrared 19.8]]</ref> In the final significant fight, the world appears to be cracked open<ref>“Looks like,” I said.  “Show us the end.  Last significant fight of that particular life cycle.”<br><br>The scene changed, and it was chaos.  The world was cracked open, and the cracks glowed. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2020/02/04/infrared-19-8/ Excerpt] from [[Infrared 19.8]]</ref> and the massed hosts were webbed together so that one mob of creatures fighting were extensions of one another.<ref>The massed ''things'' were interconnected, webbed together, so that one mob of creatures fighting were extensions of one another.  Some or all had powers. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2020/02/04/infrared-19-8/ Excerpt] from [[Infrared 19.8]]</ref>

The cycle before this cycle took place on a planet that, ten years before Abaddon ended their world, was shrouded in constant rain and had "poncho-wearing snakes" as hosts.<ref>“Previous cycle,” I said.  “Tenth-to-last rotation of their planet around their sun, a fight.”<br><br>The world was shrouded in constant downpour, and the things that moved through it were low to the ground, with skin coverings or something that hung off of them like drenched cloaks or ponchos, masking all features.  I saw glows here and there as they drew on powers. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2020/02/04/infrared-19-8/ Excerpt] from [[Infrared 19.8]]</ref> These hosts appear to be ganging up against their [[Endbringer]] equivalents.<ref>A great beast lurched through the rain, pursuing those glows.  In the process, it scattered what I’d thought was uneven ground, and was actually a horde of the slithering life, piled atop one another.<br><br>They swarmed up the great thing.<br><br>“It’s entirely different from what we’re doing,” Sveta said.  “We all fight one another.  They’re ganging up against… Endbringers?” - [https://www.parahumans.net/2020/02/04/infrared-19-8/ Excerpt] from [[Infrared 19.8]]</ref> In the final fight, the hosts were interconnected and tied into one another, more like a net than a pile of snakes.<ref>“This cycle, final fight,” I said.<br><br>Again, they were interconnected, tied into one another, the slithering things more like a net than a pile of poncho-wearing snakes that were barely visible in the rain. - [https://www.parahumans.net/2020/02/04/infrared-19-8/ Excerpt] from [[Infrared 19.8]]</ref>