Normally, a timeline begins
sequentially, starting at "the beginning of history," and mine certainly does, but I'm going to break it up a little differently because I want to emphasize something to you, dear reader: put the most vital information in front of your players first, and bonus or reward information later, especially after some hunting. I also want to emphasize that "starting at the beginning of time" is generally overkill, and you always have to start
somewhere. You'll be missing a little context, but that's okay, we'll pick up a little earlier back tomorrow.
If you're a little lost on the calendar notation, check out yesterday's post on calendars.
The Modern Era
1359 AE to 1747 AE Interregnum: The
War of the Houses
(2432
to
2832 DC
Lithian; 206
to 218
gc U Eldoth)
The
death of Lucian Alexus did not result in the immediate dissolution of
the Dynasty. Instead, a long war broke out that turned into a
detente as the various houses all angled, first, for their preferred
successor (similar to the succession crisis a millennia earlier),
then for their own ascendancy on the throne, then for their own local
concerns.
The Reign of Shio Daijin:
Lord Shio Daijin reached Sovereign first after the death of Lucian
Alexus and seized it, proclaiming himself regent until a proper
successor could be found, or so he claimed. The other houses and
remnants of the Alexian Dynasty saw him as a usurper, and he was
slain by Alexian remnant forces as a Traitor Lord and his house
shamed.
The Hunting of the Traitor
Lords: the last remnants of
Lucian Alexus’s Immortals, his body guard, and aristocrats loyal
to the Dynasty, such as Kusari Kain, sought out those they felt
responsible for the death of Lucian Alexus or what they saw as
attempts to seize control of the Dynasty, including the last of the
Templars, the House Daijin, and others, until their efforts finally
collapsed.
The War of the Houses: The
last remnant of Maradon powers, absent the Alexian Dynasty, were the
aristocratic houses of Maradon themselves. Powerful houses like
Daijin, Tan-Shai, Sabine and Mistral vied for control, first of the
Empire itself and then, eventually, over the sovereignty of their
own domains. The majority of this war would turn to detente,
with shifting alliances preventing any one house from dominating.
As a result, regions of control slowly calcified into stable states,
and the war became a formal, ritual affair focused more on
negotiation, show of force and dueling rather than open warfare.
1693 AE to Present The Slaver Empire
(The Umbral Rim)
(2776
DC to
Present
Lithian; 217gc
U to
Present Eldoth)
The
Umbral Rim lay largely unprepared for the latest Mug incursion.
Scattered warlords and pirate kings cast about for allies as the Mug
War-Arks devastated their defenses and scattered their forces. The
Slavers, who had long supported the remaining, skeletal framework of
Tyrannic economic and political power as “servants” to various
warlords that seized thrones on worlds like Sarai or Rath, offered
their slave armies and their starships to defend against the Mug
raids. They quietly gathered up all their various favors and used
the war to position themselves well, until they had sufficient wealth
and power that they pushed out the Mug, seized Rath and installed
their own master there, and began to dictate the course of events in
the Umbral Rim. With a combination of addiction, corruption and
strategic brilliance, Slaver power waxed until it had united nearly
all of the Umbral Rim and managed to steal worlds from the Hydrus
cluster itself, eventually threatening even the Federation.
This resulted in the Slaver War (see below) at 2211 AE (3310 DC) when House
Elegans fought back and pushed them out of the Hydrus Cluster, though
suffered greatly for their victory. This pushed the Slaver Empire back to the Corvus Constellation and the Sanguine Stars. The rise of the Valorian Empire pushed them back even further, carving away most of the Corvus Constellation and liberating Sarai from their clutches. Never has the Slaver Empire been weaker. However, a new leader has arisen,
forging ties with the Sathran race, and corrupt elements within the
Valorian Empire in a bid to spread Slaver influence once again.
1747 to 2276 AE The Galactic
Federation
(2832
to
3377
DC Lithian; 218
to 235
gc U Eldoth)
The
effect of the detente
of the War of the Houses was such that diplomacy became a dominating
feature of aristocratic life. Under the vision of Valria Sabine, a
great Galactic Senate was called, first as a means to hammer out a
specific concord across the divided houses and then, again at her
patient and insistent urging, it slowly turned into a yearly forum
for treaties and discussing the direction of the Houses. Then,
finally, after the tragic death of her brother, Vance Sabine, and her
inspiring rhetoric, the Houses agreed to form a federation: no house
would rule over another and each would be autonomous, but they would
all sacrifice some of their sovereignty to the Galactic Senate,
agreeing to be bound by common economic, domestic and foreign
policies.
This era became an
era of peace and prosperity not seen for millennia. The aristocratic
penchant for diplomacy spread to all aspects of their reign, and they
expanded the Galactic Federation through negotiation rather than
conquest. This required them to actually have something to offer,
and most independent worlds that joined of their own volition found
themselves improved by commerce, tourism and technological exchange,
and granted religious freedoms and freedom of travel and commerce
that allowed them to live with a level of freedom and autonomy they
had not enjoyed under millennia of empire after empire.
Slowly but surely,
it heralded a golden age… but not a perfect one. The aristocracy
held special, unique rights over the rest, and they guarded their
autonomy carefully, often refusing to cooperate with one another.
Critically, the Federation had no centralized military power, for
each house feared whomever controlled the levers of military power
would use it to enforce their vision, turning the Federation into an
Empire.
Expansion and Stability: The
Galactic Federation expanded through negotiation. After the fall of
the Alexian Dynasty, only parts of the Glorian Rim, the Core and
parts of the Arkhaian Spiral remained under House control. As the
Federation expanded, alien races such as the Sparrial, the Asrathi,
Keleni enclave worlds like Covenant and even remote worlds, like the
Rogue Stars and the Spindel Web, agreed to join the Galactic
Federation.
The Rise of Corporations:
The Galactic Federation needed to remain an economic powerhouse to
maintain its appeal to its member worlds, and to do that, it needed
to grant more and more sovereignty to corporate entities. At
Tan-Shai bidding, the Senate recognized the Hyperium Guild, the
entire corporation, as an autonomous member. This opened the gate
to other powerful corporations, and given standing in the senate,
they could directly vote their interests. This often resulted in
greater economic prosperity, but that prosperity was often unevenly
divided, especially if the majority of the Galaxy would side with a
corporation against the interests of a minority of worlds...
2211 to 2219 AE The Slave-War and the Plague:
Not every encounter with aliens went well. The Slaver clans of the
Umbral Rim grew in strength over this era, and their raids resulted
in the enslavement of members of the Federation. The Galactic
Senate voted to allow House Elegans to go to war, and it brought
numerous allies with it, and managed to push back the more primitive
Slavers from their protectorate in the Hydrus Constellation, but the
deep press into the Umbral Rim exposed many members of the Galactic
Federation to new plagues that had long stewed in the confines of
the Umbral Rim, and a plague ripped across the Federation, killing
many and crippling more. While not a catastrophic loss of life, it
was nonetheless influential to the era.
The Rise of Robots: With
the death of many sapients, paired with rising corporate profits,
more corporations began to turn to the talents of the
Neo-Rationalists in the Arkhaian Spiral, including the Council of
Terminus and its intelligences, and the innovative designs of the
Primus system. Robots had already been a feature of the
human-dominated galaxy, but after the Slaver-Plague, their presence
became more pronounced and created economic disruptions, leaving
discontented populations who felt their needs were left unmet by the
increasingly isolated aristocracy and profit-driven corporations.
2237 to 2256 AE The Anacridian
Scourge
(3337
to
3357
DC Lithian; 234
gc U Eldoth)
Into
a galaxy struggling with internal tensions, a calamatous invasion
crashed in the Arkhaian Spiral. Originating in the Anacridian System
(or, at least, first encountered there), the Scourge tore through the
Arkhaian Spiral, devastating entire planets with its nightmarish
techno-organic warmachines. All life fed its engines and it devoured
entire populations to sate its hunger; those who did not die found
themselves infected and changed by a techno-organic plague. The
entire Arkhaian Spiral begged for help, but paralyzed by internal
struggles, each House refused to move, remembering the price House
Elegans had paid for its war.
Finally,
an honored naval officer of House Daijin, Leto Daijin, proposed a
unified military force that served no House, but the Senate itself.
Houses would contribute some amount to its fleets, but the
corporations would provide industrial support too, creating ships
designed specifically to handle the scourge. The gambit worked: the
corporations build the new fleet while Leto led a delaying action
with donated vessels, stopping the Scourge in
the Kybernian Cluster and
then, with the new fleet, pushing the Anacridian Scourge back out of
the galaxy after 20 years of grueling war that redefined the
Arkahaian Spiral.
2256 to 2269 AE The Hero of the
Federation and the Reform movement
(3357
to 3370
DC Lithian; 234
to 235
gc U Eldoth)
With
the war won in the Arkhaian Spiral, Grand Admiral Leto Daijin
returned a hero. He magnanimously stepped down from his position, to
the collective relief of the Galactic Senate, however, at the urging
of his soldiers, the people of the Arkhaian Spiral and the people of
the Galaxy, he turned to politics and was elected to the Senate as a
powerful new Senator. There, he urged military reforms and, based on
the treatment of his soldiers after the war, and his experiences
during his travels across the galaxy, he proposed several additional
policies, like an oversight ministry over corporations, making the
Federated military a permanent fixture and creating a substantial
welfare program for citizenry displaced by robotic labor. His
proposed policies, his stoic charisma, and his deeds all made him an
extremely potent political force to content with, and a polarizing
figure in the Senate with his threats to the status quo.
2261 AE The Cybernetic Union and
Unrest
(3362
DC Lithian; 234
gc U Eldoth)
With
such a great loss of human life, and the corruption of robotics by
the techno-organic plagues of the Scourge, the robots of the more
remote parts of the Arkhaian Spiral began to ran amok until the
Council of Terminus, absent human leadership, stepped in to control
the situation and created the Cybernetic Union, an empire governed by
a totalitarian version of cyber-rationalism that argued for the
supremacy of the robotic mind. It forced cybernetic implants on its
human subjects and began an aggressive expansion campaign while
the rest of the Galactic Federation looked on with horror.
2269 AE The Martyrdom of Leto Daijin
and the Galactic Civil War
(3370
DC Lithian; 235
gc U Eldoth)
Once again, a
great horror arose in the galaxy and the Senate did nothing. Some
senators even sided with the Cybernetic Union on their arguments
about the place of robots and suggested coming to some sort of
compromise with the Union. Leto lambasted the senate for its
inaction and then, finally, resigned his position and took up command
of his old fleets, and without waiting for orders, used them in the
defense of worlds in the Kybernian Cluster, holding the Cybernetic
Union back while the Senate decided what to do, an act widely hailed
by the populace of the Federation. Fearing a popular man with a
grand fleet as his back, the Senate recalled the Grand Admiral,
arrested him for treason and executed him.
The Galaxy
convulsed over the rash decisions, and his lieutenants in the navy
reacted with rage. His protege and “adopted son” Ren Valorian
gathered their fury and directed it back at the Galactic Senate. The
“Senate Fleets” charted a course for Sovereign, to march on the
very Senate it was meant to answer to. The Houses gathered their own
personal defenses to hold off the advance, except for House Tan-Shai
which saw which way the wind was blowing and threw its support in
with Valorian. The protege defeated the aristocrats and seized the
remnants of the Senate, executing for treason those who had bowed to
the Union, dithered before the Scourge, and seen to the execution of
Leto Daijin.
Then, sitting
himself on the ancient, long-absent Alexian throne of Sovereign, Ren
Valorian “accepted the call” to name himself Emperor, and
declared a state of emergency against the traitor lords holed up in
the Glorian Rim behind Caliban and the Maelstrom, and the genocidal
Cybernetic Union, and the monstrous Slavers and other alien threats.
Thus began the
Valorian Empire.
2276 AE to Present (2297 AE) The
Valorian Empire
(3377
to
3399 DC
Lithian; 235
gc U Eldoth)
The Valorian
Empire has endured for an entire generation. The Emperor begins to
grey, and his children, a princess and a prince born to him by the
Lady Zandra Tan-Shai, have grown into adulthood. Those who reach
adulthood in the Galaxy have known only the Valorian Empire their
entire life. The days of the Galactic Federation seem like a dream
clung to by the old and bitter, a fading reality that will never be
again.
The Wars initiated
by Ren Valorian simmer to a stalemate as he solidifies his power in
the Galactic Core and sends his Imperial Knights and other agents to
execute his machinations. Now, with his technological superiority
nearly complete and his psychic mastery of the Galaxy nearing
totality, he readies to break the stalemates between himself and the
Alliance and the Cybernetic Union. The detente with the
Alliance and the meat-grinder between the Empire and the Union cannot
last forever...
