Heroes are different from the rest of their societies in their capacity to use Dust, the partially-sentient nanoparticles created by the Endless. To master it requires great emotional stability as well as an intimate knowledge of and control over one's own strengths and weaknesses. As a general rule, when a sentient being is 'infected' by Dust they end up dead or insane, as they are emotionally or physically incapable of absorbing and controlling it.



The effect of the Dust is particularly difficult for hive-like races or factions that suppress the individual identity within the group (Craver, Horatio, ...). The being who is affected is no longer one of a group and an entity whose character is based on their society, but a unique and different individual with enormous and unusual power. The odds of surviving this psychological tsunami is proportionally more difficult for these types of 'hive-mind' beings.



For all of these reasons, Heroes often become misfits in their previous lives and their own societies, and easily make the transition to being independent consultants (or mercenaries -- there is a fine line between those two in space).



That is the basic reason why Heroes can come from and work for any faction -- they are almost a race apart in and of themselves. The galaxy is large, distances are great, time moves quickly, and identifying oneself with a particular faction becomes less and less important to a Hero.

It's amazing then that Heroes can be cloned by the Horatio, I would imagine the dust would make things much more difficult.

I don't see cloning as a problem, as Horatio copy ones unique physical and mental abilities, which allow said person to control the dust. Very advanced cloning is pretty much same as copying.



I thought that some more religiously oriented races (maybe one of the three remaining races) could even view heroes as some kind of mythical beings and revere them greatly. More bonuses for heroes on their tech-tree, perhaps? Only time will tell.