Citadel/Thoramin

Spoiler Warning
The following details are about a player-created storyline, or is information currently unrevealed about a character.
Please do not use this information ICly unless given permission to do so.

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The Beginning

Thoramin was a small planet in a system near the edge of the Milky Way that was, at first, uninhabited. It was discovered by a nomadic fleet of highly-advanced humanoids known to the civilization of the planet's future simply as the "Makers" -- their identity, at large, unknown. Using Thoramin, this wandering race began to experiment on terraformation and advanced evolution before they had, very suddenly and mysteriously, vanished. What they left behind were the still-evolving, seeded life-forms collected from other worlds that would eventually shape into the planet's first native civilization, as well as the still-functioning terraformation devices that they had set to run until the process was completed. This, in turn, began to evolve all of the planet's species beyond their original intent. What came of the terraformation process was two-fold -- a lush world compatible with sentient life, and the life-forms to serve that purpose. It gave rise to its first anthropomorphic race of bipedal animals reminiscent of Earth's red fox species. When they could develop the capabilities for speech, they would call themselves the Volxari.

The Volxari began in a primitive state much like humanity -- what can be considered the equivalence of "neanderthals" for an anthropomorphic species. It can be said that bipedal evolution on Thoramin ran parallel to Earth's humanity, though that is where the similarities would end. In comparison to Earth, civilized life began several thousands of years prior to the first cave men on Earth.

The Volxari developed themselves into a capable civilization and organized into a monarchial republic. They were a society founded deeply on religion, believing in the eternal existence of their "Prophet-Goddess," Aurora, and adapting her teachings to day-to-day life. Civilization would continue to develop, with an "industrial revolution" giving way to steam-powered technology. It is from here that Science would have its foundation. Countless generations would continue the evolutionary rise of the future, and several thousands of years would pass until the first native Volxari would traverse into the endless void of space. New opportunities would await the fledgling race. The Volxari civilization would have reached its apex, and advanced into what it can consider the "Nano-age" -- an advanced period of scientific evolution that would last for thousands of years.

Formation of the Kindred Coalition

When the Volxari first achieved the capabilities of space travel, the first stepping stone on the road to intergalactic colonization, they feared what they would find in the vast expanse of stars and endless darkness. Though they had no means of faster-than-light FTL interstellar travel at the time of their first atmospheric breach, they were eager to begin the exploration efforts that would soon define them. As each generation carried on the research of their predecessors, eventually their vessels were upgraded -- and as a result, widespread space travel became reality. Colonization efforts did not begin until well after two-hundred and fifty years after the Volxari's first venture into space.

During said efforts, however, they came into contact with other races in their immediate solar system.

The first to make contact with the Volxari were the Loxeni, a similarly bipedal race of wolf-like beings hailing from Thoramin's neighboring planet, Darios, who were in a relatively-primitive state before the Volxari arrived. They had developed the capabilities for speech, and for the years following their discovery they would learn the native Thoram language and join the Volxari. The Loxeni were a strong warrior-class race that reveled in battle more than anything else, but knew their limitations -- as such, they did not attack the Volxari despite being encroaching aliens to their culture.

The next were the Yssiris, a female-only collective of various lizard-like species rather than a single species that populated the planet Scelios. Unlike the Loxeni before them, the Yssiris were a highly advanced civilization that had yet to discover the means of space travel -- they were also very spiritual and traditional, a trait that the Volxari respected deeply; the Yssiris worshipped a serpent-goddess that they believed created them in her likeness. The Yssiris were brilliant thinkers and innovators that were more than welcome into the established coalition.

The last to be assimilated were the Shiksen, a race of anthropomorphic land-based sharks of varying types hailing from, quite simply, the planet Shiksen, who joined the coalition with open and violent reluctance. They had already mastered the science of space travel and by the time the Volxari arrived with their own ambassadorial fleets, the Shiksen had a crude strike force ready and capable for open combat -- and thus began the first hostilities the Volxari would ever encounter. The Shiksen had proven themselves a violent, yet proud and strong, race but were lacking in any true innovation -- thus, given enough time, the Volxari overpowered and forced the Shiksen to surrender and join the coalition without much choice.

Eventually, as the four races were consolidated into a singular, organized entity, the first Kindred Coalition was formed in order to regulate commerce and ideologies -- but as time passed, the Coalition became obsolete due to various economical reasons. First, and foremost, the Loxeni had fully harvested their planet's natural resources, in due part to the Volxari trade of ecological and mining equipment, and was forced to leave their home planet to ruin, as the other member-races of the Coalition could not keep up with the trade as a result of it. They were welcomed on Thoramin to live in peaceful coexistence with the Volxari, who had, centuries prior, developed the technology to terraform their two moons -- a process that was completed in time for the planet's conversion into a massive city-world, providing endless resources.

The Yssiris ran aground with environment problems on their own home planet Scelios -- which was mostly a desert world that was in its worst dry seasons in its history. After pleading for help from the remaining members of the Coalition, the Volxari made room on Thoramin for them to re-settle. Scelios was left wholly abandoned, withonly the bravest and foolhardy to remain and to die.

The Shiksen were the most stubborn, even though they knew their planet's resources were finite, having survived on the trade with the Volxari. It took many years after the realization hit that their home would no longer be able to sustain them for the Volxari to convince them to re-settle on Thoramin, and after an intervention from the Shiksen's highest leader, they reluctantly accepted the offer.

All four races were then united on a single, self-sustaining world. The Kindred Coalition, which was formed to maintain trade and protection between four different worlds, was rendered obsolete.

The United Thoram Republic

A centralized government was established not long after the Shiksen re-settled on Thoramin, but it was met with heavy opposition when the Volxari proposed that only they lead the new government -- believing that they held sole rights, only because Thoramin was their home world. The Shiksen, most especially, began to resist the idea of a central governmental power headed by those that they considered rivals -- a tenuous alliance held together solely by necessity -- and as time passed, the Loxeni and Yssiris would come along the same frame of mind. With no answer to the largely-vocal resistance to the idea of a centralize government under them, the Volxari made the first mistake of oppressing the public opinion, enacting the system without any chance for resistance to stop them. Civil war erupted, and the Volxari found themselves surrounded by the other three races -- though the Volxari, themselves, were numerous in number and strength. The "Reformation War" lasted for five years before the total surrender of the Volxari government, a treaty and agreement between all four races was signed and the first stages of the United Thoram Republic was put in place

The initial proposal was for a democratic republic, led by an elected official from each race and a representative council underneath the executive branch to be responsible for enacting policy. Eventually it was agreed upon by all four participating races and put to use immediately, but there were certain complications that would have come from having a representative from each race -- being that no one trusted the other on policies and decisions made.

The Volxari were distraught, being the supposed "hosts" of the other three races that would form the Republic -- a position which had prevented them from taking full charge again in the aftermath of the Reformation War.

The resulting period of bickering and in-fighting amongst the racial representatives kept them oblivious to the issues plaguing their citizens. The Shiksen, more especially, were constantly antagonized for being the ones to stall the formation of the new government to the point of a racial culling. Almost to the brink of extinction, the Shiksen were hunted down and slaughtered by the other races and by the time the leaders would come to a decision, it would come too late to save the Shiksen. Those that remained were segregated and sent underground to the newly-established "subterranean prison" that would later be simply called the Underlevels.

The established government would be the final, led only by a large council that equally represents each and every race and would be split, in the future, between a central government as well as a colonial administration body.

Meanwhile, society was undergoing a massive shift. With the new government, citizens were provided for with several stimulus programs that ensured that all basic necessities and some luxuries would be available to anyone who paid taxes. The pursuit of wealth and fame was replaced by a general pursuit of knowledge, and the capitol city of the entire civilization would be the heart and launching point of such a pursuit. The city of Drekkosath eventually covered the surface of the entire planet with enough food being grown on the two terraformed moons to sustain the entire population. The upper plate was mostly home to medium-wealth citizens and the "core" of the city -- a massive spire -- provided better living for the more well-to-do households. Underneath the city was the aforementioned subterranean prison, which was eventually turned into a city on its own. The Underlevels, as it was known, were first set aside for the criminals and undesirables of society -- but when the Culling occurred, and the Shiksen were forced underground, the sublevel was changed entirely into what was simply an underground city -- what was considered the "Slums" of Drekkosath.

The Underlevel district was officially lawless, lacking any sort of representation in the governmental structure. This allowed many of the larger gangs and criminal organizations that were formed in the Underlevels to take control, which resulted in an unending "turf war" between the major crime syndicates.

Exploration and Colonization

With the Republic fully formed and fully united -- with prejudice and stigma giving way to acceptance and cooperation -- efforts were made to push the Thoram civilization back out into the wide open expanse of the void. It was not very difficult, as the technology to do so had advanced beyond experimentation and into widespread use. Rather than sending a few experimental ships to test whether it was possible, engineers from many different homeworld corporations began work on a massive colonization fleet that would be pushed out, thanks to mass production and the evolving industry, within a full decade. It would take several more (three, at most) for colonization to take place, and another decade for all settled worlds to be fully terraformed if they were not already habitable to begin with.

Thoramin had been expanded to include countless systems surrounding its own, and had stretched out to the edge of its own nebula. Unsurprisingly, there was a steep population increase. Republic census records estimated that around nineteen billion Thoram were conceived throughout the massive colonization efforts, of various races and even mixed births.

Efforts hadn't stopped there, as fleets were being repurposed to explore rather than blindly colonize. There were numerous incidents of colony ships falling under attack from indigenous species of the planets they sought to settle, and as the Republic had no standing military the government had wanted to avoid any sort of conflict.

This brought about a significant change -- the drawing and outfitting of a standing military. On the home world, manufacturing facilities were hard at work on building a sizable combat fleet. The Yyrnis (Yeer-ness) Corporation -- a massive industrial conglomerate -- were responsible for the development and manufacturing of an entire armory for use with the new military; this included small arms, armored vehicles, null-gravity fighters and bombers, and combat armor for the new troops to be outfitted in.

Within another decade, the First Thoram Armada was fully formed, with a standing strength of well over forty-thousand Marines under the command of their Naval superiors. The fleet, itself, was composed of mainly ships up to battlecruiser-class vessels, with more being added constantly over the course of several years. The Thoram Space-Naval Armada (TSNA) was completed and it set out to enforce colonization -- planets that were suitable for settlement would be scouted by Marines on the ground, and any indigenous life that would threaten said colonization efforts would be exterminated.

With a booming economy, taxation across the colonies, and a standing military the Thoram Republic was on the brink of a new golden age of prosperity and discovery -- but such a peace would not last for as long as anyone had hoped.

The Koribin Outbreak

What was considered the "golden age" for Thoramin and the Republic lasted for well over two-hundred years before the first incidents of what would eventually be known as the Koribin Outbreak. In the outer ridges of Thoram-controlled space were the mining colonies that were depended on to provide resources for manufacturing and development back home. When said resources were cut off, though, it had sparked a war that would last for ten years.

The name is derived from the leader of the rebellion, Ensig Koribin, who himself took the surname from the world he was on at the time of its start. With taxes running the miners dry of their funds and their very livelihoods, Koribin had vowed that the working population of the entire Republic would rise up against the "corrupted and monetary-focused" government. The future rebels had managed to take control of an entire battle fleet that would go up against the best in this sector of space -- and they would hold out against the best.

By this time, the TSNA fleets had expanded, with millions under each of ten different command structures. Each fleet had hundreds of new and advanced ships made to replace what were considered relics by this time. Ship classes had advanced, as well, with each fleet having been augmented by numerous new classes of battlecruisers, upgraded battleships, and there were reports at the time of a new, devastating capitol ship being constructed.

The Koribin rebels only had access to a single fleet of old, run-down ships but had the means of constructing more. They would not have enough time to outfit a fleet large enough to stand up to the Republic.

Instead, the rebels resorted to guerilla tactics on many different worlds and were numerous enough, on their own, to pose a threat to the Marine divisions that were sent into each engagement. The TSNA Marine Corps, at this time, had numbered well into twenty-six million as a total -- but the rebels, all of which were the miners that took up arms against the Republic -- had outnumbered the Marines considerably. It was considered fortunate for the Marines who took part in the fighting that the rebels had no sense of tactics and organization, and were easily cut down in each battle -- though there were plenty of losses and defeats for the TSNA.

Koribin had decided early on that fighting the Republic in the void would be suicidal and so kept his fleet constantly on the move throughout the ten years the war would drag on. He kept his focus on ground engagements, where his people were proven experts in guerilla-style fighting. Jungle worlds proved to be the most detrimental to the Marines, where the fighting was up-close and personal, and largely unexpected.

Spies and infiltration units would, towards the end, eventually bring about the downfall of the rebellion. A successful assassination of Ensig Koribin was all it took for the entire leadership structure to collapse and the rebels to surrender. Many were provided for by the government while those who still spoke out against it were executed as an example.

The Worbolg Conflicts -- The End of the Republic

Clean-up after the conclusion of the Miners’ Rebellion lasted for ten years, during which the armada bolstered their ranks in both its naval and Marine forces. It seemed that peace was fully restored before a new threat would push the Republic back to war. From the edge of known space came a massive armada of war-hungry bio-mechanical creatures that would eventually be known as the Worbolg. First, colonies on the edge of Thoramin space would be cut off from communications before eventually being overwhelmed and ravaged by ground forces that would leave as quickly as they had arrived.

When the threat was made clear, the fleets were mobilized and moved into a position thought suitable to intercept the approaching fleet, but eventually it was discovered that tactics and technology would give way to overwhelming numbers. Several of the fleets were utterly destroyed in the chaos, along with it millions of casualties on the Thoram side alone -- both military and civilian.

The conflict, itself, would press on for five years. The Thoram desperately fought back against the Worbolg threat, but with each battle it seemed that the enemy numbers would only swell and rise. Eventually it all culminated on a relatively brief siege of the home world, itself -- the conclusion of which was the utter destruction of the planet -- the event referred to as the “Wake” -- scattering its survivors and its now-disorganized fleets. Whatever remained had rallied on a repurposed colony-station deep within what was still considered Thoram-controlled space.

An unofficial “cease-fire” was called as the Worbolg remained in its conquered and dominated space.

Continued engagements with the Worbolg were relatively small. Patrols along the established borders would regularly contend with raiding parties, but there would not be a large-scale battle between the two sides until five years following the total razing and destruction of Thoramin.

For the five years after the destruction of the home world, the remaining survivors remained spread out, with few remaining on colonies closest to the Thoram-designated “neutral zone” of space, which was put in place as a reference to their own patrols (the Worbolg recognized no such zone, and attacked across the marked zone at will). What was left of the armada had cut its command structure to only having one Admiral, and several Rear Admirals leading small strike squadrons whenever it was necessary, but maintaining full loyalty and subjecting their own command to the self-appointed High Admiral. It is by the High Admiral’s direction that the defense of the remaining Thoram is secured for the five years following the Wake. This lull in combat, however, was taken advantage of by the Worbolg to harass the Thoram at every available opportunity, with more colonies being raided by the week, now allowing the defenders time to rally and fight back. These hit and run tactics were seen as the most frustrating, as they came at random intervals, and were over so quickly that no chance of retaliation could be given. The High Admiral then ordered the full evacuation of the new “border colonies” to the colony-station Paros, which was quickly repurposed to serve as not only the rallying point of the whole Armada, but as the “last bastion” of Thoramin’s civilization. Originally, Paros served as a major trading hub between the core worlds of the Republic and the outer mining colonies. Following the Wake, Paros underwent a massive reconstruction effort to be repurposed to a colony on its own, with multiple levels and bays allowing for housing for up to five billion residents (the Thoram population at the time of completion had been steady at around one-point-two billion, compared to the former census of twenty-eight billion prior to the Wake).

During this “downtime” the Thoram fleets had attempted to rebuild, but as time went on they had diminished what remained of their resources -- and the resolve to go on the offensive became more clear. The High Admiral ordered a muster of all available ships to push from the Paros jump node to a cluster of former (still active and rich) mining colonies that were within Worbolg-held territory; this was a risky endeavor, as the High Admiral had decided to endanger what was, essentially, the remainder of his defensive options. The attack, however, was successful and with the liberation of the mining colonies, production began once again and the manufacturing wing of the Paros colony station was built to restart the development of a much larger, and better-prepared fleet.

The war continues to rage even as Garret Brennar, an "orphan" of the Thoram, assumes the identity of Citadel on the planet Earth, around twenty-three years later.

Where does Garret/Citadel fit into this?

Garret Brennar's father was a lower officer of the command ship presiding over the whole Thoram Armada following the Wake, his mother an on-board medical officer. By an order enacted following the Wake, children were forbidden to be born on naval vessels (which did not stop it from happening, but curbed it at the very least); the reasoning behind such was to ensure the safety of the future generations of Thoram, to allow them to safely mature. Life on a naval vessel, especially following the Wake, was stressful and oftentimes erratic, preventing any sort of stable family life. When Garret was born onboard the command ship, it was ordered that he would be ejected out of the cryogenic escape pods and sent to Paros, where he would be tended to until his parents could return to him.

As they put him into the pod their ship came under attack. It is not known if whether or not they survived the resulting skirmish.

The child's pod, however, continued to travel swiftly through space, but it never reached Paros. Instead, its course eventually brought it to Earth, months after being launched. It breached the atmosphere on the morning of April 24, 1985 and hurtled towards the northern United States.

It was discovered by an ordinary suburban family out on their afternoon drive just outside of Detroit, Michigan. The child within the pod didn't look like any sort of inhuman creature -- and instead looked as if it were just a newborn human child. Concerned, the family took the child in and gave him a home, taking with them a bracelet that played a short voice recording when activated that spoke in the Thoram language.

The name "Garret Brennar" was all that could be interpreted from the recording. The couple decided that it was the child's name. Since then, they had kept the nature of his "adoption" a secret and took him in as their own, leading him to believe that they were his birth parents.

The Years Following

Despite his true origins, Garret was raised in a normal environment and developed a normal personality, living in the picture of American suburbia. His foster mother and father had brought him up alongside an older brother who cared very deeply for him. His youth was as normal as any regular American child would have been.

Then at the age of twelve, he and his family went on vacation down to the coast of California. On a fast ride out into sea, Garret was suddenly pushed off of the boat by the strong force of wind. His family desperately tried to get their boat turned back around as soon as they realized seconds later the he was no longer on the boat, but as they began to turn Garret had felt something rough brush against his skin. He was surrounded by two sharks that kept circling him, their dorsal fins breaching the surface, though they made no effort to attack the boy as he was thrashing about in the waves.

Soon after, due to the water crashing against him and for other unknown reasons, Garret fell unconscious. He would not wake up from this coma until a month later. By then, his physical appearance had changed -- drastically.

The doctors and scientists studying and tending to him attributed the change to a mutation hidden deep within his blood cells, but could not find anything else extraordinary -- concluding that the mutation was only cosmetic with a few physical attributes added in the accompany the mutation. In actuality, the camoflage protocol that had given him the form of a human being was finally deactivated as he slipped into a coma, reverting him to his original, intended form - a sort-of "self-defense" mechanism that kicks in whenever the camoflaged person is in a life-or-death situation.

After a few months in the hospital, under close and careful study, he was returned home to his family, who initially didn't know what to make of his "mutation."

It was then that his parents had told him the truth -- that he was found in a small vessel not far from their home, and that those he was convinced to have been his birth parents, were not his real parents. Before they urged him to leave (despite loving him, they feared for his alien appearance and that it would attract undesired attention on them and everyone they'd known) they gave him what were the contents of his escape pod, recording -- which even he couldn't fully understand, having not grown up on his true racial language.

Even with the knowledge of his "true" origins, he was not entirely convinced. Instead, he had kept to heart that he was, in fact, "mutated" in some way and decided to stick with this belief until he discovered evidence to the contrary.

So at the age of thirteen, with enough knowledge to protect and guide him, he struck out for the city to find a new home. The rest is, as they say, history.

As a Result of His Origin...

A quality of the Thoram is that intelligence is inherited, no matter the occupations of the parents. This allows the Thoram to, effectively, be able to continue the previous generations' works at a relatively young age -- with their intelligence manifesting at a certain age depending on pre-existing conditions. Garret, however, had not inherited the full extent of his parents' knowledge, and most of what he would have known was replaced by attending school on Earth. However, what he was gifted with was an expansive mind and near-perfect eidetic memory.

Garret also sees himself as somewhat of a leader, though he strongly prefers to follow rather than lead.

Can the Thoram be used in RP?

• Yes, but not until such a storyline has progressed enough for the creator to allow for it. All inquiries concerning the Thoram must be sent to @Kurama0900 before approved.
  
• Wandering space-travellers will have seen the Thoram if they were well-traveled. Very few exist outside of the boundaries of the former Republic.
  
• To an inquisitive eye, and if the character is such a well-traveled space-wanderer, they would possibly be able to recognize Garret's appearance as being from an alien race hailing from the edge of the Milky Way. Garret, himself, does not know his heritage as of yet. Any attempts to try and convince him otherwise will be met with nothing more than skepticism. The storyline to have him discover his parentage will progress when Garret is firmly rooted in roleplaying story arcs..