Astreus is a science fiction, space opera story. Set in a distant future of an alternate Earth, after a particularly eventful government reorganization, the Aegis Coalition has expanded its reach to the outer edges of the Astreus galaxy.
Created on February 17, 2017, Alexander Cooper and Izari were the first characters of this setting. Initially an alien hunter, Alex hunted down Izari (at the time, called "Aethull") in a manner much more comedic than the main story would evolve into. Fuyuko (at the time, "Faheema") and Kai Morgan joined the story soon after (March 7, 2017). Many characters were added to Kai's pirate crew, but had to be cut in later versions of the story (the constantly expanding cast of more relevant characters couldn't allow for them to stay relevant), and only Knimsoeo Toxxarc II (at the time, "Knim") remained. In that version of the story, both crews (Alex's and Kai's) were considered criminals.
On July 22, 2017, Valérie Blais and West were created, and added to the cast, Valérie being a xenobiologist on Alex's crew, and West being their captive. A subplot was added to the story of their budding romantic relationship. On November 9, 2017, a version of the story was drafted for NaNoWriMo and Everly Reed (at the time, going only by the moniker of "The Director") was created to give the Coalition a name and face. She was kept as the Speaker of the Coalition in all future versions of the story.
In March 2018, Aera and Eidraq were created for a highschool project. A duo of detectives, they investigated the disappearance and murder of an android in a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk Chicago. They were eventually integrated into the main story in 2020 as a security guard and genetic experiment for the Coalition.
On August 26 2018, Nebula, Alex's ship's AI, was given a design. It changed considerably over the years, now taking the form of a more anthropomorphized hologram, created on August 18, 2021. Many more main story elements were created that year, such as Kai's limb loss to hypothermia, Alex's rebellion against the Coalition, and Izari's discovery of a crashed human spaceship.
In 2019, KATSUMI was created, posed as an absent antagonist to Fuyuko. She eventually developped a story of her own, and took a much smaller role in the main story, only being present in advertisements and media of the universe. 2019 also saw the addition of Alex and Kai's dinner date and meeting, as well as Alex's new design.
In 2020, the redesign of Kai, the death of Alex's mother as a major character motivator, and the heist plotline were added to the main story. Fuyuko also got a new name and design, reflecting an updated lore to the NexOS. In between working on the main story, Red Angel (at the time, "Red Seraph") was created to provide a break from the space opera, to work instead on a story featuring many less anthropomorphized aliens.
2021 added more worldbuilding elements to the main story, such as development of Izari's species. On July 18 2022, the Clicks were created as an opportunity to worldbuild an eusocial insect species.
The main story of Astreus has inspirations from Eos 10, Star Wars, Space Sweepers, as well as various other space operas, space westerns, and science fiction media.
By contrast, Red Angel has taken inspiration from military science fiction, such as DOOM, Halo, and Starship Troopers.