Homeworlds: Capitol, The Core; Earth, The Reach (Destroyed)
Physiology: Humans vary on average between five to seven feet, with sexual dimorphism favouring the males. They are bipedal humanoids with two manipulatory appendages (hands). They are mostly hairless or thinly haired, except for atop their heads, beneath certain joints and at the genital region. Males sometimes sport facial hair. Hair is considered of great social import and tends to come in various colours, with many dying them bright or unnatural colours for effect.
Society: Human society is very much the society of the Imperium; feudal, militaristic and vaguely xenophobic. Although humans were once noted for their great flexibility as a species, only certain subsets and colonies are now sufficiently specialised to produce anything other than soldiers and tacticians. The Lesser Empire changed humanity's goals and outlook to one of extreme imperialism and militarism, and the true social mobility of humanity's early days is long gone. Much like the Wraithers, social mobility is semi-meritocratic beneath the ruling caste, but the highest echelons of society are restricted to feudal dynasties of noble birth.
History: Humans have had a colourful history, arising on the planet Sol III (Earth) and spreading rapidly to form the Lesser Empire. Their wars with the Elder Races resulted in the destruction of Earth at the hands of a Doom World (leading to any research into such worlds to be banned forevermore within the Imperium) and the extinction of nearly all the Elder Races. Humans went on to conquer much of the Galaxy and are generally considered the founding race of the Imperium. No other race experiments quite so freely with genetic manipulation or has suffered so heavily at its hands, to the point where full-scale genetic modification is now outlawed entirely.
Notable Sub-Races - The Grey Guard
Homeworld: Grue, The Reach
Physiology: Radially symmetrical creatures with a central 'head' containing most of their organs and many individually specialised limbs emerging from the base. Probosces jut from the underside for feeding and excretion purposes and sensory antennae are found atop the head.
Powerful psions, usually of the Hivemind caste, are able to read and interfere with sentient and animal minds and even exercise limited telekinesis. Classical Pra'Grue civilisation involved animal herders controlling their flocks through psionic pressure rather than by crook and carrot, and weak-minded client races still serve as servants to the Pra'Grue to this day. Hiveminds can also 'enchant' items by secreting fluids with psionically active micro-organisms, then attuning their effects afterward. This has led to a belief among lesser races that the Pra'Grue are somehow magical, a concept at which any self-respecting Archon would scoff at. Scoff, I tell you!
Society: Caste-based, with different fashions of clothing demarcating different castes. Caste progression does not appear to be biologically mandated, but infants are separated out based on their psionic talent, size and intellect into different castes. Four castes seem to stand out; Hiveminds (ruling psion caste), Medics (doctors, with an emphasis on psionic healing), Soldiers (selected for toughness) and Servants (the unwashed masses). The slang term for any Pra'Grue is "paggie".
History: The Pra'Grue were originally one of the Elder Races who ruled the galaxy during the days of the Earthmasters. Almost nothing is known about these glory days due to the ravages of time, but preserved Pra'Grue artefacts and installations occasionally discovered on dark or barren worlds indicate that their empire once covered much of the Reach and even parts of the Rift and Cluster. Social mobility was once much more prevalent, and there are tantalising hints of psionic weapons able to shatter whole worlds in their heyday. Their empire was shattered by the war with the Earthmasters and the Warp Shift (a theorised incident that put an end to hyperspace travel for hundreds of thousands of years), leaving them with only their homeworld of Grue. Social pressures and overcrowding caused an horrific civil war and ancient Pra'Grue society was reduced to ruins and glassy wastes.
Over the next two hundred thousand years the Pra'Grue slowly rebuilt themselves upon the ruins of their ancestors, forming the caste system that defines their society today. Their civilisations rose and fell many times until around 4,000 B.E. when they achieved global unification and reinvented a form of the hyperdrive based on their ability to 'enchant' items. The Pra'Grue expanded back out into the stars, clashing in minor disputes with the other Elder Races until the fateful arrival of Humans some 3,500 years later and their war of imperialistic extermination against the Elder Races.
Aided by their psionic ability and Gol'Lemm shock troops (enchanted psionically-controlled mechanoids) the Pra'Grue were the most successful at holding off the expansion of the Lesser Empire, but even they were ultimately unable to compete with Human aggression and tactical brilliance. The Pra'Grue infiltrated the Lesser Empire throughout, sabotaging its key worlds and harrassing the Empire until it became clear that they were the last Elder Race and resistance was ultimately futile. The Human Emperor determined that the cost of pursuing the war would be prohibitive, so the Treaty of Zork was signed and the Pra'Grue were incorporated peacefully into the Empire, retaining most of their territories. They are considered one of the Founder Races.
There are three calendars used in the reckoning of the Empire's past, each in Galactic Cycles. B.E. Stands for Before Empire, L.E. stands for Lesser Empire and I.R. stands for Imperial Reckoning and the calendar of the current (Greater) Empire.
250,000-200,000 B.E. - The Elder Wars. The various Elder Races of the Galaxy are engaged in some sort of colossal struggle. Little direct anecdotal evidence remains from this time, but occasional artefacts found from the period indicate technologies undreamed of by modern races - the power to destroy and create worlds and stars, to mind-control whole worlds, to bend time and bring forth life from dust in a matter of weeks. Of the Elder Races, the greatest and most terrible were the Earthmasters. Scant records indicate that the Earthmasters continued to grow stronger and stronger, dominating the galaxy and exterminating many Elder Races while driving the rest into submission or flight.
200,000 B.E. - At the height of their power, the Earthmasters disappear. Overnight their fleets, worlds and every single Earthmaster and even depiction of Earthmasters vanishes as if they never existed. At the same time, the Warp Shift occurs and for some unexplained reason all hyperspace travel ceases to work. Records and designs that have survived from this period and before show hyperdrive designs that under the laws of physics as they are today should not work. The Elder Races and their empires are cut to pieces by the death of warp travel and most of their colonies die, leaving them to their homeworlds or extinction.
5,500 B.E. - The Elder Race known as the Breen create the Silicon Oni as a client race, spreading them to other worlds within their system.
4,500 B.E. - The Silicon Oni rediscover the hyperdrive on the Breen's behalf. The Breen as a culture have fallen into a period of stagnation and become increasingly reliant on their mechanical servants. Under the auspices of the Breen, the Oni begin expanding to other systems.
4,000 B.E. - The Pra'Grue unify and develop a psionics-based hyperdrive system. They began spreading out and reclaiming their old Empire.
500 B.E. - Humanity, after a particularly turbulent history, develops the hyperdrive. Intense overcrowding and social pressure leads to massive expansion and a hunt for habitable worlds, though most discovered worlds are barren and terraforming among humans is still in its infancy.
450 B.E. - Humans encounter the Drath, a militaristic and xenophobic Elder Race holding several habitable worlds. Despite early attempts at diplomacy, the Drath exterminate several Human outposts. Popular outrage leads to a full-scale invasion of the Drath Empire. Despite being outclassed in terms of production capacity and fleets, the Humans manage to subvert and capture key Drath worlds, swelling their war machine in time to capture the remainder of the Empire.
445 B.E. - Millions of Drath are exterminated by unscrupulous Human warlords to make way for Human colonists. Although severely chastised, they are not punished by Earth's leaders and the populace are glad for the living space.
400 B.E. - Social shifts among Humans lead to several more successful wars against other Elder Races and soon an imperialist power bloc develops. Earth and the core worlds flourish at the bitter expense of their new colonies.
0 B.E. - President Maldevious I coups Earth with his fleet of warships, forming the Empire of a Thousand Suns, known historically as the Lesser Empire. After four hundred years of warfare and expansion, this is more of a recognition of the true state of Humanity's empire than any real societal change.
20 L.E. - In its growing campaign for the extermination of the Elder Races (and subjugation of their client Younger Races), the Lesser Empire faces off against the Breen. By this point the Breen worlds are ruled in all but name by the Silicon Oni, and after Humans wipe out the Breen homeworld this distinction becomes irrelevant. The vast Oni territory, although numerically and technologically superior to the Lesser Empire, is not united. Many smaller Oni nations fall.
80 L.E. - The remaining Silicon Oni nations join together under the banner of the Carrow Shogunate, and Humanity's expansion is halted seriously for the first time since the Drath. Several mutually ruinous battles draw the war out into a cold state as both sides prepare. It is around this time that the Lesser Empire begins experimenting in full-scale genetic manipulation, while the Shogunate starts to develop seriously advanced Oni chassis and intelligences.
170 L.E. - The Supreme Oni are created by the Shogunate, vastly superior in intelligence and processing power and with extremely advanced chassis designed purely for interstellar war. The cold war heats back up, this time with a heavy advantage to the Oni. Several Lesser Empire worlds are lost in the advance and the Shogunate starts to reclaim the old Oni territory.
175 L.E. - Seizing the opportunity of the Shogunate's advance, the Pra'Grue form an alliance with the handful of remaining Elder Races and take the fight to the Lesser Empire before their stated plan of genocide can take place. The Lesser Empire starts to crumble under the weight of a two-sided war.
190 L.E. - The Supreme Oni revolt against their 'outdated' precursors, having developed a culture of superiority and a belief that they should replace the obsolete models that created them. A fierce thirty-year civil war erupts among the Oni that leaves the Supreme Oni completely wiped out and the Shogunate severely weakened. The Lesser Empire, dealing with the threat of the Elder Alliance, does not rebound as readily as expected.
200 L.E. - The Greyguard, first of several genealtered races, is created by the Lesser Empire to aid in their war against the Shogunate and the Elder Alliance. Although this helps even the field, many Humans feel this is not enough and more drastic experiments take place.
220 L.E. - The Wraithers are created by the Lesser Empire, intended to serve as elite field technicians and designed to have improved intellect and speed with a suitably docile nature. Development is mostly contained to one research world.
243 L.E. - A Doom World dating back to the Elder Wars is discovered by the Elder Alliance and used against the Solar system, destroying Earth and striking a terrible blow to the Lesser Empire. Three more systems are obliterated before the Lesser Empire is able to destroy the Doom World. Research and development of such weapons is banned by Imperial mandate.
The Lesser Empire undergoes a serious restructuring, relocating its capital to the Core and abandoning many worlds in the Reach and Core to the Elder Alliance or their own devices. The research world of Phalanx I is so abandoned, leaving the original body of Wraithers to their own devices, although those Wraithers already trained as technical specialists are retained.
300 L.E. - The Lesser Empire regains much of its glory in the Core worlds, while the Shogunate limps back to strength in the Cluster. The war between the worlds has once again slowed to a cold war, but occasional conflicts favour the Lesser Empire. The Elder Alliance starts to break apart from infighting and differences in opinion.
311 L.E. - The Wraither colony on the extremely harsh Phalanx I produces its first hyperdrives and begins scouting out nearby worlds to relieve its population troubles.
315 L.E. - The Year of Thunder. Empress Skyrunner launches a full-scale invasion of the fractured Elder Alliance, destroying one Elder Race outright and sending the rest reeling. Her decision to bombard worlds rather than capture them is much frowned upon, but the tie in the war is broken and the Lesser Empire is once again on the advance.
329 L.E. - A minor outpost on the edge of Human space is seized by an opportunistic Wraither warship. The Empress dispatches a handful of ships to retake the world, thinking it a result of pirates. The fleet is unsuccessful against the advanced Wraither warships and the incident provokes a violent retaliation by the Wraithers against a more populous nearby world. The Empress responds in kind, and soon enough a third war has begun.
350 L.E. - The three-way war is not faring well for anyone, but worst of all for the Elder Races. Only the Pra'Grue remain, fighting a largely guerilla-based war and using their psionics and infiltration talent to sow dissent among Imperial systems and sabotage key worlds. Their campaign of resistance delays their eventual surrender for some time.
Anti-Wraither sentiment leads to domestic Wraithers being terminated en-masse, with a handful escaping to the Wraither Kingdom for asylum. Political sentiment nearly leads to the Greyguards and other deviant lines being wiped out as well, but they prove essential to the war effort and the Greyguard form many of the front line soldiers. Wraithers seize world after world, storming the Empire with only rudimentary tactics but vastly superior equipment. The Empire takes some back through strategy, but loses them again. The war with the Shogunate goes more favourably for the Empire, but most troops are dedicated to stopping the Wraithers and so little advancement is made into Oni territory.
377 L.E. - The Pra'Grue sign the Treaty of Zork after it becomes clear that they are unable to win the war and that fighting a third front is impossible for the Lesser Empire. The Pra'Grue are incorporated into the Empire with their territory intact and given governorship over many of the client races of the old Elder Races.
402 L.E. - Half the Lesser Empire has been lost to the Wraithers, but the Shogunate is falling steadily. The Treaty of Valk is signed under semi-duress, integrating the Oni into the Empire under unfavourable terms and severely restricting their forms of development. Research into artificial intelligence is banned outright, a law already in effect among the Oni since the Supreme Oni incident. Despite this, the Oni retain their worlds and several conquered Oni worlds are placed under the control of loyal Oni administrators to keep the peace.
433 L.E. - The Wraither War, even with the full resources of the Lesser Empire devoted to it, fares poorly. Both sides suffer from severe war exhaustion and the ravages of invasion and bombardment have taken their toll on the Empire and Kingdom alike. The 'Mad' Emperor Maldevious III challenges the Wraither King Merik to a personal duel for his throne as permitted by Wraither custom and bests him in unarmed combat. The victory allows both sides to save face and the Wraithers to accept extremely generous terms for their 'surrender'. King Merik is made an Archon under the new Imperial administration and control of the Wraithers remains in the hands of his Dynasty, the Carnelian Wraithers.
The end of the Wraither War marks the end of the Lesser Empire, as part of the terms of the peace were the restructuring of the Empire under the Archonate system and the shift from Dynastic to Elective succession for the Imperial throne. The Empire of a Thousand Suns gives way to the Empire of a Million Suns, the Galactic Empire of today.
20-150 I.R. - After the death of the Mad Emperor, the throne passes from Dynasty to Dynasty and changes between Human, Wraither, Pra'Grue and Oni hands. The Empire experiences several minor revolts and insurgencies, but otherwise continues to expand across the galaxy, settling new worlds and subjugating lesser races where found.
58 I.R. - The first Mothership is created, a blend of Pra'Grue psionics, Wraither engineering, Oni structural knowledge and Human military designs. Motherships are more than warships, they serve as semi-sentient mobile bases for entire fleets; a single mothership is capable of slagging an entire planet if not met with serious resistance. They immediately come to form the backbone of the Imperial fleet.
157-160 I.R. - The Dread Guard Incident. A battallion of super-engineered Grey Guards seize Capitol and attempt to coup the Empire. Unable to defeat them in ground combat, the Emperor orbital strikes all of their worlds with Motherships, including Capitol. Billions are killed, and Capitol is resettled by Imperial mandate. Research into genetic manipulation and full-scale genetic engineering of races is strictly forbidden on pain of extermination. Strictly regulated exceptions are made for the permitted human deviant lines such as 'vanilla' Greyguards.
246-258 I.R. - The Carnelian Insurrection. The Carnelian Dynasty, Archons of the Wraithers, rebel and attempt to secede from the Empire with a massive fleet of motherships. Their many shipyard worlds give them a clear advantage, leading to heavy losses on the Imperial side. A lengthy campaign of sabotage followed up by careful tactical strikes eventually disables or captures the Wraither shipyards, allowing Imperial victory. The Carnelian Dynasty is put to the sword and several new Archons are created to divide up the Wraithers; control of the capital of Phalanx I is given over to the Jade Dynasty.
To prevent further insurrections of the same nature, the Emperor institutes the law banning non-Imperial shipyards.
389 I.R. - The Barrois Empire (Empire of the Barr) is discovered in a remote corner of the Rift, settled by ancient colonists from the first wave of Human colonisation and expansion. The Barrois Empire managed to hold its own as a semi-independent entity for a hundred and fifty years mostly by being too inoffensive and useful for the Empire to devote the Imperial fleet to conquer or destroy them. Barrois mercenaries became famous throughout the Empire for their fighting spirit and the unique Barrois weapons they employed.
448 I.R. - The Rogue Fleet Incident. Illegal experiments into placing Supreme Oni-like intelligences into mothership chassis result in several autonomous AI motherships being created. The Emperor catches wind of this and sends the Imperial fleet to wipe them out before they can do more than orbital strike a couple of worlds, but fear of artificial intelligences takes root again and the legends of the Supreme Oni and the horrors they conducted return to the collective consciousness. Heavy anti-Oni sentiment persists for several generations and restrictions on chassis designs become even tighter.
547 I.R. - The Empire of the Barr is formally incorporated into the Galactic Empire as an Archonate under House DisBarr.
600-1000 I.R. - The Withering. A succession of strong and particularly control-heavy Emperors stamp out the vestiges of independent power among the Archons, weakening the Galaxy as a whole to prevent further revolt. By the time the millenial anniversary approaches most of the specialist worlds of days past have been reduced to agricultural and light industrial colonies, more aimed at supporting happy population and raising taxes than being ready for war.
1000 I.R. - Emperor Rubus Carrowspiel VIII is assassinated by orbital lance from an unknown ship. At the same time a dozen worlds are seized by warships emerging from unknown bases and massacring the Imperial fleet. Word spreads of a mysterious new player called the 'Conclave' intending to replace the Empire. An Imperial Council is convened to elect a new Emperor and defeat the Conclave, restoring peace and order to the Galaxy.
Emperor Eldred Crow is elected to the Throne of a Million Sons on a platform of military dictatorship. The Emperor enacts several emergency taxes and legalises genetic research and shipyard construction under Imperial mandate. Within the same quarter, Conclave armies seize Capitol along with most of the other Imperial shipyards and Emperor Crow is slain.
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Topic: Galactic Emperor - Game Thread - Early Q2, 1000 IR (Read 9465 times)