The theme of Beyond War centers on a large-scale war spanning the entire known Universe, with evidence of Intergalactic conflict and an arms race using genetic engineering in conjunction with cloning.

In addition, weapons of vast energy were utilized to create interstellar vessels capable of bypassing the speed of light through extra-dimensional means and also destroying planets and solar systems utterly. The impact of these technologies, and their obvious applications in military conquest, push the players to increasingly adopt new strategies in dealing with the concept of resources and fixed strategic targets in a fluid battlefield.

This metaphor is paramount to modern nuclear, biological, and high energy research being conducted in the United States, Europe, and China. What would seem to preclude war or military application ultimately ends in the use of such technology to carry out conquest and enforcement of authority.

Players, facing this sort of weapons technology, must elect where they stand on the use of such weapons and the consequences of engaging in the arms race or seeking to remain outside the struggle despite contest of rich resources.

Like similiar real-world weapons, the overall impact of an escallation can destroy the resources and populations which would otherwise utilize the strategic target - and in the case of weapons in Beyond War: the strategic target itself. This 'destructable Universe' model, in which even planets and stars can be utterly destroyed, creates a new form of resource model for most strategic players. One that involves stealth, subterfuge, and political diplomacy on both sides.

Use of genetic weapons, such as retroviral infections with horror causing side effects, augment this threat: making even large planetary populations subject to conversion and potential 'pacification' by their own species in an effort to preserve strategic control of key sectors from invading forces. Struggles to purify such worlds are futile, and rescue of key personnel prior utter extermination are common operations of field military units.

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