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| Five hundred thousand years ago, the city state of A’r’ven stood in the region of what is now South America. A’r’ven was the home of the H'v'ler'ni, a race of beings who had created a highly advanced civilization while the rest of humanity remained at a primitive level. The origin of the H'v'ler'ni and the reason why they advanced culturally so much more quickly than Earth’s other human beings are as yet unknown. |
| In at least some areas H'v'ler'ni science and technology was advanced beyond the levels that exist on Earth today. The science council comprised of leading H'v'ler'ni scientists, held great authority in A’r’ven. The H'v'ler'ni kept primitive humans as slaves. |
| The H'v'ler'ni were remarkable for their physical condition. However, remaining in their city-state amidst the rarefied air of the Andes Mountains, the H'v'ler'ni were isolated from the rest of the world. This isolation would prove to be their downfall. |
| The H'v'ler'ni thrived there for ten centuries, but were then suddenly struck by a terrible plague. Within 10 days 40, 000 H'v'ler'ni died from the disease. During the past ten centuries the bodies of the H'v'ler'ni had been free of disease-carrying micro-organisms due to their city’s isolation. But now, as the Science Council discovered, the H'v'ler'ni had been infected by germs carried by their primitive slaves. The slaves had an immunity to the germs, but the H'v'ler'ni did not. The H'v'ler'ni slaughtered all the slaves, but did so too late to safeguard the surviving H'v'ler'ni as long as they lived on Earth. |
| Hence the Science Council decided to leave Earth to avoid further infection. Twenty million of the race did so, existing in suspended animation as they journeyed in a great spacecraft. The fate of these H'v'ler'ni is at yet unknown. |
| But five hundred H'v'ler'ni remained on Earth under the leadership of A'x'iar. They transferred their minds into the gigantic robot body the Host, which would monitor the development of human culture. When the humans achieved a level of technology approaching the H'v'ler'ni, they planned to transfer their minds into the humans and take over the world. |
| Recently the Host was accidentally discovered and reactivated by Clark Kent (Superman), Lois Lane and the archaeologist Dr. Estvez. |
