Post by Lorpius Prime on Jan 9, 2011 23:01:20 GMT -5
The first Empire of Man is remembered throughout civilized space as one of the greatest star nations in recorded history. Humans tend to focus on its glory and glamour, while other races are not so nostalgic. In either case, the memory of the Empire is almost universally respected, if not cherished. Much of the history of the Empire's foundation and its early rule is murky. Many independent records were destroyed by the Empire itself, and the surviving history has been colored by the efforts of Imperial censorship and the great passage of time. Even students in the Integrated Systems are taught to be skeptical of the historical accounts as they are presented in schools. Historians know that much of their knowledge is suspect, often based on wildly exaggerated rumor, but lack a credible alternative.
According to tradition, the Empire first emerged nearly 12,000 years ago. At the time, humans were almost unknown in local space, which was dominated by a menagerie of bickering alien fiefdoms, none ruling more than a dozen star systems. The humans appeared as wanderers, far from a lost homeworld somewhere in the Northern quadrant of the galaxy. Their possession of an impressive fleet of starships, however, found them quickly embroiled in local politics.
Shortly after their arrival on the galactic stage, the humans—either on their own initiative or employed as mercenaries—defeated and conquered one of the more powerful and ruthless alien states, known as the Kingdom of Nox. The aliens were exterminated, and the only remaining trace of their existence at all is the name of the star Nox itself. The humans renamed the alien homeworld Terra Main after their own original home, and made it their new capital. The first Emperor—either Tykonus or Halian Zet depending on the historian—was crowned shortly thereafter.
Over the next several decades the Empire grew at the expense of its immediate neighbors. No documentary evidence exists to provide insight into what the surrounding states made of this expansion; but it is often speculated that the humans were simply regarded as more of the same. Another petty kingdom in a crowded field, perhaps on the brutal end of the spectrum as far as its methods went, but hardly alone even in that. Alliances were formed, used, and betrayed when convenient for Imperial purposes. After a few centuries of conquests, the Empire of Man was indisputably (according to itself) the most powerful single nation within known space, though not overwhelmingly so. Yet.
The first serious threat to the Empire's survival emerged around one thousand years after its foundation. At that point, the Empire found itself at war with a united coalition of nearly all of its immediate neighbors. The Empire's histories refer to this enemy as the Alliance of 90 Stars, though the reason is unknown as it contained far more than 90 star systems. Regardless, the Empire's expansion had finally managed to generate enough fear for its rivals to put aside their differences and attempt to stop humanity for the sake of all.
Apparently, the Alliance had some early successes, rolling back a few of the Empire's recent conquests. But rather than discourage the humans, this only seems to have enraged them. The Empire's tactics changed, becoming even more brutal. Rather than fighting for precious habitable planets, the Imperial Fleet bombarded them from orbit, annihilating populations and ruining climates, before simply moving on to do it again. The Empire also deliberately targeted valuable strategic installations, destroying nearly a dozen irreplaceable hyperdrive factories in the course of its rampage.
Even after the Alliance itself was effectively shattered, the war continued for some time. The Imperial Fleet mercilessly hunted down and destroyed every world and every species which had fought against the Empire. Over a hundred intelligent species, as well as countless billions of others, were wiped out. The Empire was left at the center of a denuded, lifeless volume of space.
Thus began the Empire's Golden Age. The barren, pulverized worlds of the dead Alliance were conquered a second time, not by Imperial Marines, but by human colonists. Terraformers were sent out by the hundreds, each taking half a dozen starships to transport. Those behemoth machines are perhaps the first Empire of Man's most recognizable lasting contribution to galactic technology. The volume of space contained within the Empire's boundary nearly trebled. And, as terraformers began to see use on lifeless planets within the Empire's original territory as well, the number of worlds settled by humans increased by an order of magnitude or more.
After two to three millennia of relatively peaceful expansion and development, however, the Empire had once again filled out its borders, and once again began to look to the space outside. The Fleet was built up, and the Empire began to expand once again.
Though at its final, largest extent, the Empire occupied a space nearly twice the volume of its boundaries at the end of its war with the Alliance; this phase of its expansion was nowhere near as rapid or brutal as earlier. For one thing, the Empire's neighbors were better prepared. After watching so many others trampled by the humans, those races distant enough to have been given time to prepare in the interim, did so.
More importantly, however, the Empire's own attitude had changed. The vast majority of its population was sated, no longer as bloodthirsty and expansionist as their distant ancestors. The Imperial Fleet was also no longer the overwhelming force it once was. Still huge beyond comparison, it was scattered across thousands of systems, with little force to spare for invasions. Even the Emperors, near-divine rulers of their realms, were no longer as committed to victory over all enemies at all costs. After two half-hearted invasions of the Skree systems were defeated, the Empire simply gave up; further expansion along the southwest frontier was abandoned entirely.
So the Empire grew, but slowly, and only in fits and starts. Conquered races were more often enslaved or vassalized than exterminated, and the ordered, regular system of Imperial law became a patchwork around its fringes.
And then, just over five thousand years ago, the expansion simply stopped.
The origins of the Fall are nearly as murky as the origins of humanity itself. To this day, no one has any idea what became of the final Emperor, Metamares, nor why the Imperial Guard or the Crown Prince acted as they did. Whatever the case, within two decades of the start of the Fall, the Empire was effectively dead.
Records surviving from the Imperial Fleet station on Pax Eternity (now Centrum) do provide some information on the initial events. On the first day, utterly without warning or any indication as to reasons, soldiers of the Imperial Guard exited the Emperor's palace on Terra Main in full battle dress and began attacking the surrounding city, killing everyone within reach. Shortly thereafter, they were joined by Imperial Guard warships (separate from the Imperial Fleet) in orbit, which began a merciless bombardment of the other inhabited areas of the planet.
Imperial Fleet ships in the home system, without any official instructions and unable to elicit any meaningful responses to their queries of the Guard units, were paralyzed. Their captains sat and watched helplessly as the Guard warships seized an orbital terraformer factory and began deploying its nanomachines in their destruction of the capital's surface.
Only after a week of this was the Imperial Fleet finally moved to action by the sudden reappearance of the Emperor's heir apparent. There is no historical consensus as to Crown Prince Iolanus' location prior to this point, with some records claiming he had escaped from Terra Main, while others claim he only just arrived from outside the system. Regardless, Iolanus persuaded the Fleet captains to attack the Imperial Guard and stop the bombardment (though nearly the entire population of Terra Main had already perished). After receiving an ultimatum, the Imperial Guard warships turned on their former cohorts and were destroyed, their crews slaughtered to a man. No explanation for their behavior was ever given.
Despite pleas to immediately take up the throne, the Crown Prince, after briefly visiting the surface of Terra Main and his father's palace, refused. Instead, he took a small flotilla of Fleet cruisers and departed for an unknown destination, heading towards the galactic southeast. No sign was ever found of Emperor Metamares.
Stunned by the sudden inexplicable destruction and now leaderless, Imperial authority survived on pure inertia for approximately one month. After that, civil war erupted. Dozens of distant imperial relatives attempted to claim the empty throne, while hundreds of Imperial governors and Fleet commanders attempted either to keep order at all costs, or to build up their own power bases to make a claim. The conflict was of relatively low-intensity and hushed for nearly two years. After that, with still no sign of Prince Iolanus, all signs of restraint were lost.
With central authority nonexistent and the Fleet cannibalizing itself, whole clusters at the Imperial fringe began to declare independence. Many non-human races asserted themselves once more, ordering Imperial troops and warships out of their systems. Many regretted such decisions as the humans, falling back on old ways, chose to raze the worlds from which they withdrew. "Imperial" territory shrunk rapidly, and became more divided all the while.
Bizarrely, Crown Prince Iolanus did eventually return from his mystery voyage, ten years later after he departed and now commanding a powerful fleet. Unfortunately, he no longer seemed to have any interest in preserving his Empire. Instead, he began a campaign of hit-and-run strikes against various Imperial worlds. Like the rogue Imperial Guard, these attacks went unexplained and seemed to serve no purpose at all. Iolanus' forces deployed biogenic and nanomachine weapons against dozens of Imperial worlds in the inner systems, causing the deaths of billions, before vanishing again. The common assumption at the time seems to have been that Iolanus' fleet was destroyed in battle and the Prince killed, though there is no direct evidence to that effect. In any event, Iolanus was never seen or heard from again.
After another decade, nearly all the original warships of the Imperial Fleet had been destroyed. Few of the surviving warlords bothered to claim the mantle of Imperial legitimacy anymore. Only four of the Empire's original ten hyperdrive factories were still operational, and nearly a quarter of the population of the Core Worlds had been killed. Exhausted, most humans were ready to abandon their loyalty to a unified Empire simply to have peace. The Fall and the civil war stumbled towards an uneasy truce. Divided and devastated, the human worlds of the galaxy entered a dark age from which they would not emerge for another two millennia.
According to tradition, the Empire first emerged nearly 12,000 years ago. At the time, humans were almost unknown in local space, which was dominated by a menagerie of bickering alien fiefdoms, none ruling more than a dozen star systems. The humans appeared as wanderers, far from a lost homeworld somewhere in the Northern quadrant of the galaxy. Their possession of an impressive fleet of starships, however, found them quickly embroiled in local politics.
Shortly after their arrival on the galactic stage, the humans—either on their own initiative or employed as mercenaries—defeated and conquered one of the more powerful and ruthless alien states, known as the Kingdom of Nox. The aliens were exterminated, and the only remaining trace of their existence at all is the name of the star Nox itself. The humans renamed the alien homeworld Terra Main after their own original home, and made it their new capital. The first Emperor—either Tykonus or Halian Zet depending on the historian—was crowned shortly thereafter.
Over the next several decades the Empire grew at the expense of its immediate neighbors. No documentary evidence exists to provide insight into what the surrounding states made of this expansion; but it is often speculated that the humans were simply regarded as more of the same. Another petty kingdom in a crowded field, perhaps on the brutal end of the spectrum as far as its methods went, but hardly alone even in that. Alliances were formed, used, and betrayed when convenient for Imperial purposes. After a few centuries of conquests, the Empire of Man was indisputably (according to itself) the most powerful single nation within known space, though not overwhelmingly so. Yet.
The first serious threat to the Empire's survival emerged around one thousand years after its foundation. At that point, the Empire found itself at war with a united coalition of nearly all of its immediate neighbors. The Empire's histories refer to this enemy as the Alliance of 90 Stars, though the reason is unknown as it contained far more than 90 star systems. Regardless, the Empire's expansion had finally managed to generate enough fear for its rivals to put aside their differences and attempt to stop humanity for the sake of all.
Apparently, the Alliance had some early successes, rolling back a few of the Empire's recent conquests. But rather than discourage the humans, this only seems to have enraged them. The Empire's tactics changed, becoming even more brutal. Rather than fighting for precious habitable planets, the Imperial Fleet bombarded them from orbit, annihilating populations and ruining climates, before simply moving on to do it again. The Empire also deliberately targeted valuable strategic installations, destroying nearly a dozen irreplaceable hyperdrive factories in the course of its rampage.
Even after the Alliance itself was effectively shattered, the war continued for some time. The Imperial Fleet mercilessly hunted down and destroyed every world and every species which had fought against the Empire. Over a hundred intelligent species, as well as countless billions of others, were wiped out. The Empire was left at the center of a denuded, lifeless volume of space.
Thus began the Empire's Golden Age. The barren, pulverized worlds of the dead Alliance were conquered a second time, not by Imperial Marines, but by human colonists. Terraformers were sent out by the hundreds, each taking half a dozen starships to transport. Those behemoth machines are perhaps the first Empire of Man's most recognizable lasting contribution to galactic technology. The volume of space contained within the Empire's boundary nearly trebled. And, as terraformers began to see use on lifeless planets within the Empire's original territory as well, the number of worlds settled by humans increased by an order of magnitude or more.
After two to three millennia of relatively peaceful expansion and development, however, the Empire had once again filled out its borders, and once again began to look to the space outside. The Fleet was built up, and the Empire began to expand once again.
Though at its final, largest extent, the Empire occupied a space nearly twice the volume of its boundaries at the end of its war with the Alliance; this phase of its expansion was nowhere near as rapid or brutal as earlier. For one thing, the Empire's neighbors were better prepared. After watching so many others trampled by the humans, those races distant enough to have been given time to prepare in the interim, did so.
More importantly, however, the Empire's own attitude had changed. The vast majority of its population was sated, no longer as bloodthirsty and expansionist as their distant ancestors. The Imperial Fleet was also no longer the overwhelming force it once was. Still huge beyond comparison, it was scattered across thousands of systems, with little force to spare for invasions. Even the Emperors, near-divine rulers of their realms, were no longer as committed to victory over all enemies at all costs. After two half-hearted invasions of the Skree systems were defeated, the Empire simply gave up; further expansion along the southwest frontier was abandoned entirely.
So the Empire grew, but slowly, and only in fits and starts. Conquered races were more often enslaved or vassalized than exterminated, and the ordered, regular system of Imperial law became a patchwork around its fringes.
And then, just over five thousand years ago, the expansion simply stopped.
The origins of the Fall are nearly as murky as the origins of humanity itself. To this day, no one has any idea what became of the final Emperor, Metamares, nor why the Imperial Guard or the Crown Prince acted as they did. Whatever the case, within two decades of the start of the Fall, the Empire was effectively dead.
Records surviving from the Imperial Fleet station on Pax Eternity (now Centrum) do provide some information on the initial events. On the first day, utterly without warning or any indication as to reasons, soldiers of the Imperial Guard exited the Emperor's palace on Terra Main in full battle dress and began attacking the surrounding city, killing everyone within reach. Shortly thereafter, they were joined by Imperial Guard warships (separate from the Imperial Fleet) in orbit, which began a merciless bombardment of the other inhabited areas of the planet.
Imperial Fleet ships in the home system, without any official instructions and unable to elicit any meaningful responses to their queries of the Guard units, were paralyzed. Their captains sat and watched helplessly as the Guard warships seized an orbital terraformer factory and began deploying its nanomachines in their destruction of the capital's surface.
Only after a week of this was the Imperial Fleet finally moved to action by the sudden reappearance of the Emperor's heir apparent. There is no historical consensus as to Crown Prince Iolanus' location prior to this point, with some records claiming he had escaped from Terra Main, while others claim he only just arrived from outside the system. Regardless, Iolanus persuaded the Fleet captains to attack the Imperial Guard and stop the bombardment (though nearly the entire population of Terra Main had already perished). After receiving an ultimatum, the Imperial Guard warships turned on their former cohorts and were destroyed, their crews slaughtered to a man. No explanation for their behavior was ever given.
Despite pleas to immediately take up the throne, the Crown Prince, after briefly visiting the surface of Terra Main and his father's palace, refused. Instead, he took a small flotilla of Fleet cruisers and departed for an unknown destination, heading towards the galactic southeast. No sign was ever found of Emperor Metamares.
Stunned by the sudden inexplicable destruction and now leaderless, Imperial authority survived on pure inertia for approximately one month. After that, civil war erupted. Dozens of distant imperial relatives attempted to claim the empty throne, while hundreds of Imperial governors and Fleet commanders attempted either to keep order at all costs, or to build up their own power bases to make a claim. The conflict was of relatively low-intensity and hushed for nearly two years. After that, with still no sign of Prince Iolanus, all signs of restraint were lost.
With central authority nonexistent and the Fleet cannibalizing itself, whole clusters at the Imperial fringe began to declare independence. Many non-human races asserted themselves once more, ordering Imperial troops and warships out of their systems. Many regretted such decisions as the humans, falling back on old ways, chose to raze the worlds from which they withdrew. "Imperial" territory shrunk rapidly, and became more divided all the while.
Bizarrely, Crown Prince Iolanus did eventually return from his mystery voyage, ten years later after he departed and now commanding a powerful fleet. Unfortunately, he no longer seemed to have any interest in preserving his Empire. Instead, he began a campaign of hit-and-run strikes against various Imperial worlds. Like the rogue Imperial Guard, these attacks went unexplained and seemed to serve no purpose at all. Iolanus' forces deployed biogenic and nanomachine weapons against dozens of Imperial worlds in the inner systems, causing the deaths of billions, before vanishing again. The common assumption at the time seems to have been that Iolanus' fleet was destroyed in battle and the Prince killed, though there is no direct evidence to that effect. In any event, Iolanus was never seen or heard from again.
After another decade, nearly all the original warships of the Imperial Fleet had been destroyed. Few of the surviving warlords bothered to claim the mantle of Imperial legitimacy anymore. Only four of the Empire's original ten hyperdrive factories were still operational, and nearly a quarter of the population of the Core Worlds had been killed. Exhausted, most humans were ready to abandon their loyalty to a unified Empire simply to have peace. The Fall and the civil war stumbled towards an uneasy truce. Divided and devastated, the human worlds of the galaxy entered a dark age from which they would not emerge for another two millennia.