This distinction became very important during the early 23rd century, when a series of major conflicts between several planets in a remote star system called Ecko-Kameka were decided through a number of hotly contested chess matches. After years of tensions and disputes between the governments of the planets over laws, representation on the system council, trade agreements, immigration, and currency regulations, the 16 planets decided, in lieu of all-out war, they would decide the fates, futures, and rules of their star system planets through chess. All resulting outcomes would be upheld to the strictest degree, with the next tournament set to take place approximately 10 years later, and so forth.

Each world sent a select number of representatives to a massive luxury spacecraft, to participate in the month-long tournament and competition. The idea was, the planets that could produce the strongest and most skilled strategists should have the most say in how the star-system operated. The event came to be known as The Caïssa Conferences, and during that time the goddess was inundated with an almost overwhelming amount of prayers and petitions.

And thus, she became an integral part of the Echo-Kameka tradition and history. Of course, no actual member of the star system had any definitive proof that she existed; and of course, there were those who scoffed at the idea of an ethereal goddess of chess, but still, Caïssa took her role very seriously. She never played favorites or directly influenced the outcomes of matches, though she literally had the power to do so; instead, she committed herself to assuring that the tournament was always fair and above reproach, mostly using her powers to prevent tournament participants from cheating.

Other than that, she remained as neutral as possible, and spectated the tournament, as well as many other strategic encounters throughout the multiverse and across the space-time continuum. In her life, there were only two instances in which she actually physically participated in an event. The first time she was forced into action was when she fell into a trap, set up by the goddesses of the 5th Oblivion, Sedah and Nevaeh. They had devised a plan to imprison her, for the purposes of forcing her to imprint her essence on their young protegé, Slate, so that she could add the power of an incredibly strategic mind to her wide repertoire of abilities. Caïssa’s initial attempts to escape were thwarted, for despite her status as a goddess and master strategist, she was still at the mercy of three goddesses – and in most cases, three goddesses will easily overpower one. Fortunately, Caïssa had been in contact with a powerful telepath from Earth, who was sympathetic to her situation. The two of them had been involved in a decades-long cosmic chess match against one another, and after Caïssa had failed to make her next move in the allotted time, her opponent came looking for her. The telepath found her in the 5th Oblivion, and they used the combined power of their strategic minds to outmaneuver Sedah, Nevaeh and Slate, thus allowing Caïssa to escape from the realm.

Her next foray into action was more voluntary, and took place on Earth, in New Orleans, in the 23rd century. Two otherworldly villains – War Chess and Queen Immortal – set out to kidnap the young hyper-human orphan, Kina, with the goal of absorbing her immense chronokinetic energy, thus increasing their own powers to nearly god-like levels. The pair arrived at the special group home where she stayed and proceeded to wreak havoc. Francine Fray (aka Placebo) was the governess of The Home, and a powerful telepathic hyper-being. She, along with her old friend Magnanimous and his hero squad, the Phenomenals, consisting of Anamorph, Kaneita Rain and Peter Philadelphia, had managed to barely thwart a previous attack by the Queen Immortal. But now, with War Chess by her side, this attack was infinitely tougher to deal with.

The battle was devastating! Magnanimous exchanged thunderous blows with War Chess, as Kaneita attempted to keep The Queen at bay with astral energy blasts. Anamorph at the time was still recovering from the previous encounter, and was of little use, and Masao, Kina’s older brother, was game for the fight, but ultimately unable to have much effect on the villains. Placebo, in the past, had been one of the most powerful psionic beings in the universe; in her prime, a simple thought could bring the entire ordeal to an end. But after a couple of centuries, her hyper-abilities had diminished to that of a more average telepath, and thus she was helpless to stop the onslaught. She and Magnanimous gave each other a knowing look… they knew it was only a matter of time before War Chess and Queen Immortal would defeat them, and take Kina’s powers for their own.

It was at that point of desperation that Caïssa decided to shake off her spectator status, and jump into the fight. And it wasn’t because she felt it necessary to stop a pair of villains from gaining more power, and potentially taking over the world; and it wasn’t because she had some innate obligation to see to it that Earth didn’t fall into chaos; and it wasn’t even because she wanted to save a little girl from certain death. Caïssa made the decision to jump into this fight, because she did not want anything to happen to her chess partner, before they could conclude their game…

That’s right – Placebo was the powerful telepath who had challenged Caïssa to a match, and later saved her from Sedah and Nevaeh. It was now Placebo’s move, and Caïssa was very eager to see what that move would be. To that end, she interjected herself into the battle in New Orleans. She did not have the physical strength to directly confront the villains, but what she WAS able to do was infuse Placebo, Magnanimous, Kaneita, Peter and Masao with the perfect battle strategy to stop the perilous pair. As the battle raged on, the heroes suddenly found themselves coming up with ideas and angles of attack that they could not have possibly imagined. Conversely, War Chess and the Queen Immortal found that every move they tried to make was perfectly anticipated and countered by the Phenomenals; every weak spot exposed, every hole in their defense exploited. Before long, the villains were forced to retreat, lest they be destroyed.

In the aftermath of the battle, the heroes celebrated, but Magnanimous was confused by the presence of the mysterious ethereal being, and how she’d managed to help them win the battle, despite barely lifting a finger. That was when Placebo told them all about Caïssa, and how she had assisted them with her psionic battle strategy abilities. The others all gathered around to thank her, but Caïssa remained completely silent, simply nodded in acceptance of their gratitude, then vanished.

Moments later, Placebo heard Caïssa’s voice in her head: “Your move”.

‍