While relations between the two species deteriorated, Khonsu II was taking counsel with a new power in the Vasudan court. The demonstration of massive Shivan power that was Capella triggered a resurgence of the dormant Hammer of Light ideology in a number of (variably militant and virulent) forms. Khonsu II moved to discourage this type of thought, seeing in it an echo of the Terran ideological collapse. During this ideological normalization, he encountered a very unusual new figure: the Jester Nabirasul.

The Vasudan species had always taken a different attitude towards mysticism than the Terrans. Vasudan society had, from its earliest days, failed to make a significant distinction between science and religion, not because religion was allowed to dictate scientific findings, but the reverse. Mysticism was simply viewed as a less precise tool for measuring the cosmos, one that blended neatly into science as new discoveries were made.

Terrans often found (and continue to find) this aspect of Vasudan society difficult to understand. In Terran circles, science was viewed as a useful, rigorous, 'hard' way to achieve answers and results, whereas mysticism (including the belief in 'ascended life' or 'energy beings') was simply a form of self-deception combined with coincidence. Vasudan society, however, was built on myths of a powerful ancient race that had visited and touched their homeworld ages ago, myths that were largely substantiated by the discovery of the Ancient civilization. To the Vasudans, the existence of higher powers in the universe had always been a given, and the belief that communication with them might be possible was seen as reasonable rather than mad. The Vasudans did not believe that 'any sufficiently advanced technology was indistinguishable from magic'. They believed that magic had always been sufficiently advanced technology.