Around the time we were learning it was easier to grow food than to catch it, the rift between the Kurian Lifeweavers and the other eight planets widened. The secret preparations of the Kurians began to grow more and more open, but the rest of their civilization, having tried reason without success, was at a loss about what to do next..

Open warfare was inevitable, but it seemed that both sides had more or less forgotten how to go about it. They fought by proxy: the Lifeweavers for the simple reason that they could not do otherwise, and the Kurians because their newfound "immortal" existence made their lives all the more precious. The Kurians began with a great advantage: the Reapers. Because the actual process of killing to obtain the required vital aura requires physical contact with the source, a messy and sometimes dangerous task, the Kurians developed powerful familiars to do their dirty work. Each Kurian could control up to thirteen of these Myrmidons, sensing what it senses and controlling its actions through a psychic link.

Once the killing began there was no stopping it. Luckily for the Lifeweavers, the first assault by the Kurians was poorly planned because of the initial ease of their first triumphs, they became overextended, and ultimately failed in the attempt to destroy their foes (see "The First Incursion"). A great part of the credit is due to the Lifeweavers on Kur who tried to resist their vampiric brethren. The died to the last, but their sacrifice delayed and diverted the Kurians long enough for the Lifeweavers elsewhere to adapt and plan.

Then it was the Lifeweaver's turn to err. In an attempt to cauterize the Kurian cancer they shut, and destroyed, all the doors between their worlds regardless of whether they were currently winning or losing the various battles for control of the nine planets. Any chance of a unified response was doomed in this "devil take the hindmost" panic that spread across their civilization. Kur was cut off, but not destroyed. And while the gates on the nine other planets were shut, the ones on Kur were still open...