Bakura

The first colonists arrived on the world of Hyperion more than 400 years before the start of the first book in the Hyperion Kantos.

Among the colonists were the Bakura, though they were not called such at the time.

These settlers were brought to the planet by way of conventional space travel.

But the drop ship carrying them ended up crashing on the planet's surface.

But this was also a curse.

Once bonded to the parasite, the host was also forever bonded to the area.

The Bakura could not leave the mountainous region they inhabited.

And also with each successive resurrection, mental capacity was diminished.

We move from an evolutionary hijacking on an uncharted jungle world to a situation where the entire political apparatus of a planetary government might be experiencing a systemic hijacking.

Let's look at the Bakura crisis.

Bakura is a fascinating world.

It's a beautiful, verdant, blue-green planet, heavily reliant on agriculture.

But its true value is geographical.

It sits right on the absolute edge of known space.

Exactly, diametrically opposite the galactic corridor where the Yuuzhan Vong invasion first breached the galaxy.

So while the rest of the core worlds are burning, Bakura is sitting on the quiet edge, making it an incredibly strategic, uncorrupted stronghold.