Date: 1992-1996, 21st Century

A group of Human scientists' attempted to improve the race through selective breeding and genetic engineering. They created a race of "supermen," popularly known as the Augments, who were mentally and physically superior to ordinary Humans. One of the Augments' creators realized the error, writing that "superior ability breeds superior ambition." That same scientist was ultimately killed by one of his own creations. Many Augments quickly rose to positions of power within governments, militaries, and economic institutions across the world. As Augments consolidated control, rival factions emerged, each led by powerful warlords who ruled vast territories through force and fear. Among the most infamous of these leaders was Khan Noonien Singh, who controlled much of Asia and the Middle East. Although some Augment rulers claimed to bring order and stability, their reigns were marked by authoritarianism, mass violence, and widespread human suffering. Opposition to Augment rule eventually united unmodified humans and sympathetic forces. Prolonged warfare, sabotage, and internal conflict led to the downfall of the Augment regimes. By the end of the Eugenics Wars, most Augments had been killed, imprisoned, or driven into hiding, and genetic engineering of humans was outlawed worldwide. The devastation left Earth politically fractured and socially scarred. Survivors such as Khan and his followers fled Earth aboard the sleeper ship Botany Bay, disappearing into deep space. The legacy of the Eugenics Wars profoundly shaped human civilization. Fear of genetic manipulation led to strict prohibitions on human augmentation, influencing scientific ethics for centuries. Efforts by various temporal factions to stop the rise of Khan and the events that followed shifted the dates of the war.