Terran Empire
The Alien Wars
The development of the Beta Hyperdrive in
1280 opened vast new vistas of exploration to
Humanity, allowing even small ships to travel far
faster than the speed of light. In the succeeding
decades, Terrans colonized hundreds of worlds.
Humanity soon had its first encounter with a hostile
species — the fearsome Xenovores. In 1301, the
deep space explorer the 'Cassandra' entered Xenovore
territory; the Xenovores captured it, interrogated
its crew, and then ate them. The Xenovores decided
Humanity was the next species they would conquer
and subjugate.
For the rest of the fourteenth century,
Humanity found itself embroiled in war. The early
years were marked by repeated failures and defeats,
as Terrans reacted to the Xenovore attack badly.
It took them decades to learn how to fight the foe
properly, in part because a civil war pitting the
United Antares against the Spinward Union distracted
many Terrans. In the early 2350s, Xenovore
offensives reached Antares itself, and nearly destroyed
it. If not for the brave efforts and noble sacrifices
of Antares defenders, the home of Humanity would
have fallen to the enemy, and then it would likely
only have been a matter of time before the Xenovores
conquered the rest of Terran space.
But such, thankfully, was not to be. After the
failure of the Xenovore offensives, the tide turned
and Humanity went on the attack. By 1369, the
Terran navy had pushed the Xenovores back to
their own territory... and then Humanity went on
the attack. Slowly but surely Terran forces fought
their way into Xenovore space, often suffering
massive casualties. In 1396, a suicide attack force
reached the Xenovore Throneworld and destroyed
it, shattering the Xenovore empire forever.
The Terran Empire
In the decades following the end of the Xenovore
War, the fragile alliance of Terran governments
collapsed, plunging Terran space into an anarchic
period. By the 1420s, Antares was the center of a
small group of systems called the Terran Union.
Admiral Marissa DeValiere, commander of the Centra
Defense Fleet, began a campaign of reunification.
Her fleet traveled from system to system, reconquering
worlds that had fallen under the sway of
mobs or petty warlords. By 1436, following not only
her successful military campaign but some brilliant
political maneuvering, she was made President for
Life of the Terran Union... soon to be known as the
Terran Empire, and her successors as Emperors.
The Empire existed for nearly 300 years,
weathering wars with the Thorgons and Ackálians,
a civil war, and various periods of internal Galactic
turmoil and other difficulties. By the mid-1600s, the
increasingly despotic Empire was experiencing
greater unrest than ever, and this eventually led
to several rebellions. Most of these were quashed,
but gradually feelings of dissatisfaction and revolt
spread. In 1703, a band of rebels boarded Emperor
Sigismund’s flagship and killed him, ending the
DeValiere line and the Empire.
The Galactic Federation
The two years following Sigismund’s death
were a time of tremendous chaos, as factions within
the rebel forces tried to become the new rulers
of one small piece of the Empire or another, and
other worlds and states that had been more or less
unwilling Imperial subjects declared their own
independence. However, the main rebel government
was strong, organized, honest, and well-supported,
and most of the subjects of the Empire
longed for stability as much as freedom. The Terran
Republic, as the new government called itself, handled
the transition with aplomb and a minimum of
bloodshed. It immediately drafted a new constitution
and negotiated diplomatic relations with the
Conjoined Civilizations Republic and the Mon’dabi
Federation, both of which continued the support
they’d provided during the rebellion.
Some Republic officials feared that enemies of
the Empire would take advantage of the confusion
and apparent weakness of the new government, but
fortune was kind to the fledgling Terran state. The
rebellion utterly surprised the Thorgons, but they
expected the entire Empire to collapse into anarchy
and war — a situation they could easily take advantage
of. The Hegemony militarized its side of the
Neutral Zone and hunkered down to wait for the
expected implosion. By the time it accepted that the
predicted collapse would not happen, the Republic
had already regained control of most of the former
Imperial Navy.
As for the Ackálians, any intentions they had
of creeping into the antispinward regions of former
Imperial space were derailed by their initial encounter
with the Roin’esh Union as the Ackálian Empire
expanded to antispinward. The first Roin’esh attack
on the Ackálian Border Fleet occurred in 1704, and
while generally ineffective, it focused Ackálian attention
away from Human space.
