When exploring a planet, a player could discover an ancient rune artifact which reveals story of a previous round's events / stories that explain the workings of changes made to the game over its development / stories about famous players and their IC gaming career / stories showing strategy tips / etc. 

The stories would be a fictional sci-fi / fantasy account based on and representing the development of IC.  It would be based on discussions held in various threads on this forum, PVCs, IRC chats, and of course, round events.  The context involves Stefan as the Emperor of Heaven; mods as Galactic Overseers or Galactic Overlords / developers as ascended beings aligned with various Orders (Order of the Sentinels for instance), and players represented as semi-ascended immortal beings.   All would be aligned with either the Xentia or Xenox faction, and the development of IC, its changes and round events would unfold in the context of a inter-galactic, inter-temporal war between the Galactic Overseers and Galactic Overlords.

Those who are in favor of making changes to the game which provide more opportunities for small fams and new players to thrive would be aligned with the Galactic Overseers and the Xentia Faction.  Those mods / developers / players who don't want to change anything about the game or those who only want to make changes that benefit large families and venteran players would be aligned with the Galactic Overlords and Xenox Faction

Example of such an Ancient Rune Artifact story:

"Document recovered from archeological site 242309hjy on planet 78,32:9 of the Milky Way Galaxy

Week 44, 2, 47th Revolution of the Universe

The Establishment of the Sentinel Order
----------------------------------------------

The rise of Xentia and Xenox factions had caused rifts between the Overseers and Overlords and had resulted in sweeping changes to the Emperor Stephen's mandates over the universes.

These changes were in response to a daring, swift and sudden campaign by the Xentia, who had usurped the Overlord-controlled Xenox from the Milky Way and Pinwheel galaxies.   

The Xentia had made incursions into core systems of Xenox-controlled families, doing so with minimal fleet and net worth so that Xentia forces could be under the protection of the Galactic Overeers and not be attacked.  This allowed them to erect portals undeterred in Xenox systems.

In the Milky Way galaxy during the 47th revolution of the universe, and in the Pinwheel galaxy during the 67th revolution of the universe, the Xentia jumped their forces en-mass in a highly coordinated attack which rid the Xenox from their core systems in both galaxies simultaneously.  Traditionally, these galaxies had been cornerstones of the Galactic Overlord's power base in the universe.  That they had effectually come under Xentia control was a shock, even to the Emperor.

The protests by the corrupt Overlords at Emperor's Stephen's court were deafening, and whispers of a new rising power against the corrupt Overlords reached the ears of prominent family leaders in the farthest realms of the galaxies.

Alarmed by the Xentia's quickly-growing power in the galaxies, and so as to quieten the annoying pleadings of Galactic Overlords at the Imperial Court, Emperor Stephen relented to their request to reinstate the long-forgotten Order of the Sentinels.  The Sentinels were permitted to combat what had become extremely successful tactics of the Xentia underground movement.  Thereafter, no longer could the Xentia make incursions into Xenox systems with minimal fleet and net worth under the protection of the Galactic Overseers, for in their inherently cowardly nature, the Xenox would call upon the Sentinels to abolish the intruding forces.

The result was disastrous to the Xentia, whose new-found power in the galaxies was rendered destroyed just as swiftly as it had risen.   The Sentinels were a farce in the eyes of the Xentia, a ploy by the Overlords to retain their power over the realms.  The Sentinels, with their hypocritical air of self-righteous pomposity, became the Xentia's most hated arch enemies."

More details and examples of stories here in this thread:

http://www.imperialconflict.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=148825