The year is 2748, and humanity has taken its first tentative steps into deep space. The acquisition of faster-than-light travel technology has led to the expensive and risky colonisation of Earth's first deep-space habitation: Epsilon Indi III, better known locally as "Persephone". The air is toxic, the pressure unbearable by humans. But the soil is rich, the water is drinkable, and the plants won't kill you. By interstellar standards, it's heaven.

Unfortunately, hell is other sentients. Besides its strategic value, Persephone is also the centre of human diplomacy: aliens are banned on Earth, so they gather on its one extrasolar colony to represent their interests. The well-established powers of the galaxy have their eyes on the humans as potential allies in their endless rivalries, while an army of diplomats and emissaries wage their paper war for Earth's assistance. Not to mention the traders, explorers, and wanderers of the space lanes who have little regard for fleshy pink aliens and no regard for anybody's interests but their own.

From the Cradle is an originally-themed science fiction MUSH set as the human race finally extends its grasp to the stars. It is a political game, with ambassadors, governors, and bureaucrats competing to get their will. It is a military game, with the officers of a fledgling space force trying to defend their people from civilizations with a thousand years of spacefaring tradition. It is a social game, with farmers, merchants, bankers, labourers, tourists, and wanderers gathering on the first new frontier for humanity in centuries. It is a game with large-scale plots and enough room for characters to make their own stories.