The first Hyperions (also known as transhumans, genemods, exotics, genefreaks and enhanciles) were created as an aid to human efforts to colonise new solar systems during the Great Diaspora. They were engineered to be stronger, faster, tougher, more able to survive the harsh conditions of frontier worlds. They were also smarter in certain ways - including the abstract intelligence required to understand the science of genetic engineering. Thus, the first generation of Hyperions were able to improve upon their design in the second generation beyond the scope of their own creators. And the second were likewise able to make a third generation that exceeded the comprehension of the first. By the current seventh generation, the Hyperions were barely classifiable as human any longer, so far had they ascended from their origins.

The Gen-VIIs refused to serve as colonial labour or supersoldiers for ordinary humans any longer. They declared their independence, their superiority, and their destiny to overthrow their 'wretched living fossil ancestors' and assert their rule over the stars. War was inevitable, and bloody. The Hyperions were strategic geniuses, and every one was worth a dozen or a score of human soldiers, but they were arrogant, disunited and overconfident, allowing humanity to slow their advance and score several crucial victories.

Ares Maasai is the leader of the Zarathustra Clade of the Hyperions, leading the battle against the tenacious human insurgency on the planet Tarsus. He stands a full seven foot tall, all lean, toned muscle and burnished dark skin, with a mane of dreadlocks. His space-black eyes can be as cold as comet ice, or as hot as a supernova depending on his mood, which can likewise be cool and commanding or passionate and furious. As a Gen-VII, he possesses near-superhuman abilities; his muscle density is twice that of a human; his blood is saturated with stem cells, allowing him to heal quickly and fully; he can feel electromagnetic fields and see radiation; his immune system repels all diseases and poisons; and more besides. He can be both sardonic and passionate, treacherous and honourable - Hyperion morality is not human morality. When he makes war it is without mercy; when he makes love it is without inhibition.