Imperial History - Modern Era

The Mari Dynasty: Backlash

In its last years the government of the Juba Dynasty had grown so corrupt as to be ineffective. The Masons figured prominently in exposes, and appear to have traded favours freely in the Senate. Conservative groups in the aristocracy marshalled support to clean it up, replacing committees of elected senators with ministers appointed directly by the Emperor. The ministers in turn depended on career bureaucratic staff, creating a more technocratic government. When the process was done, the Senate had voted away all the powers it had gained during the Juba Dynasty, and more.

In general, the Marian efforts at reform were a success. Corruption was curbed and the Masons marginalized for a time. The hidden cost of the reform became evident with time; the bureaucratic state they had created, although more fair and less corrupt, grew with time and became unwieldy. By the reign of Hakon III it was not only unwieldy, but unworkable. Key policy decisions could be delayed for decades. Problems were rarely dealt with decisively or in a timely manner. Dissatisfaction grew and planets started to group themselves together in smaller associations.

The Second Schism

At the same time as this bureaucratic process was happening, the Empire was growing at a high and accelerating rate. A new problem developed then, which has remained ever since. Expansion followed spacefold routes, usually beginning from the Royal Approach, and spacefold surveyors concentrated their efforts on the easiest spacefolds. Thus new expansion tended to come in chains and networks of systems with only single points of attachment to the rest of human space. As settlements grew on the planets in these systems, they would naturally find more spacefolds and become better connected. Even so, there developed a pattern of subnetworks, systems more connected to each other with only a few points of contact outside.

The combination of these two factors - physical disconnection and a lack of responsiveness from the bureaucracy - led to the second schism. A large network of spacefolds formed their own governing council, calling themselves "Second Space." Hakon III, trying to maintain order, appointed his cousin Vilus as viceroy to the Second Space Council, but this proved inadequate and Vilus declared independence in 4715. Several other smaller networks of systems also left the Empire at the same time, some remaining independent ever since.

Two were particularly noteworthy. The New Core Federation has its origins in this period and, indeed, was never wholly reintegrated into the Empire. Their motives were chiefly physical; in the areas of space with which they concern themselves, spacefold surveying is difficult and direct-drive travel relatively easy. Because of this, they were naturally disconnected from the Empire to a large degree, and remain so now.

The Reborn Human Federation was another significant separatist league. The name is misleading; although overlapping largely with the old Human Federation, their network extended out towards the edge of the galactic disc, and their motivations were clearly more political than practical. The key leaders of the RHF were Tauran in origin and remembered the glory days of the early Juba Dynasty. Working their business connections and wielding considerable economic power, they took the chance to set themselves up as a newer, smaller empire. Politically, they justified their actions and attracted further support by appealing to the pride of other Tauran and Drylander worlds and stirring them with polemics about Imperial neglect. They similarly attracted various long-settled worlds which had seen severe degradation and devastation, often from the time of the Great War. The RHF movement gained significant weight when Sol itself joined them, the most ruined of the "ruined systems."

Vilus ruled Second Space until 4789 and his son Amin carried on. However, both were little more than figureheads for the Second Space Council and upon Amin's death in 4853, the Council declined to name a new Emperor, ruling directly. Life in Second Space was peaceful and uneventful during the millenium-long schism. Trade proceeded normally with the empire, although tax rates and tariffs varied between the two. With the passage of time, the spacefold network was extended further and the gaps between the two parts of the empire slowly filled. Finally, connections between the two increased till the original reasons for separation had become irrelevant and there was a newer and much greater need for coordination and mediation.

When Second Space rejoined the Empire, pressure mounted on the smaller networks to return as well. Only the NCF and RHF held out to any significant degree. Both managed to negotiate a significant degree of autonomy; in the case of the NCF this was little different from actual independence.

The Krasta Dynasty

Within the main body of the empire, the second schism did not proceed quite as peacefully. The departure of Second Space destroyed Hakon III's credibility and brought about the end of his dynasty. The next emperor came from a completely different clique of the aristocracy. Upon his death in 4735, his daughter took the throne, starting the only dynastic chain which consisted chiefly of Empresses.

The Krastas fought many battles to maintain their dominance, but these rarely involved visible conflict and only erupted into actual battles on a few occasions. For the most part, they became notorious for dirty tricks such as blackmail and assassination. Most infamous of all was the first Empress Arisa, who consolidated power by marrying and executing three prominent faction leaders in succession. A rumour of the time posited that Arisa II was actually Arisa I's brain transferred to a body which had been cloned and genetically altered. Although these have never been confirmed, many factors give credence to the theory. Arisa and Arisa II did have remarkably similar personalities and Arisa II did die young, from an undisclosed ailment. Also, the name of Arisa II's father was never revealed.

The end of their battles coincided with the end of the dynasty, when John 14th took the throne. His predecessor, Tawin, had planned to place her daughter Anik on the throne but Anik died in an accident at the age of 26, and Tawin soon after. Although suspicion naturally fell on Tawin's enemies, no foul play was ever proven and most historians believe that Tawin herself simply lost the will to live.

Whatever the truth behind these events, John 14th came to power by accident, a cousin of the former Empress. He inherited the benefits of his predecessors' purges and neither owed any debts nor did he need the support of any other groups at court. Fortunately for history, he rose to the occasion, becoming one of the greatest Emperors. From the beginning of his reign he aimed to modernize the Imperial bureaucracy, making it more accessible and efficient. In IY 5582 he opened the Imperial Encyclopedia to the public, allowing access for research to any citizen of the Empire upon payment of a fee. With the funds raised from this he set out on a program to expand the archives, purchasing records and details of stellar cartography from other famed collections. In IY 5620 he launched the second Imperial Survey, collecting and cross-referencing map data and using the results to discover and chart many new starfolds. One practical benefit of this was that it helped build an inarguable case for Second Space to rejoin the empire, and in 5648 John marked perhaps his greatest achievement of all by ending the second schism.

The Smith Dynasty

Despite his many achievements, John 14th's rule is marred by one significant mistake: he named no successor, leaving a void which came to be filled by an ambitious and political family from Barrett. The first Smith Emperor, taking the name Magnus 10th, was capable and efficient. However, his successors were mediocre and had the misfortune to rule during the nanobot crisis. Vassilys Ko I took direct and effective military action to stem the spread of the Nanobots, but fumbled the political management of the crisis. Panic erupted on many worlds throughout the Empire and he was besieged by requests for protection. These came at a singularly bad time; the reforms of John 14th had created a new wave of expansion just then reaching its peak, and the resources of the Empire were tied up. Scrambling to protect dispersed worlds as best he could, Vassilys Ko I muddled through his reign.

Vassilys Ko II inherited the throne upon his father's death, and found himself faced with an impossible task. Like his father, he stumbled from one panic to another, managing local political crises as he went. All this came to nothing when the Nanobots continued to spread and infestations were confirmed on several new worlds. Public resentment of his mishandling boiled over and Vassilys Ko II was assassinated by prominent members of the Senate, one of the few Emperors to die violently. The ineffective handling of this crisis by he and his father had led to the downfall of their entire family, having achieved little or nothing of note during their couple centuries in office.

The Second Smith Dynasty

Emperor Simonides

Emperor Simonides was a distant cousin of the previous Smith emperors, and carried on the Smith line with the same family succession policy. Unlike his predecessors, however, he was a capable leader and his descendants were similarly talented. Where Vasillys Ko I and II had dithered over proper handling of the Nanobots, Simonides decreed a widespread military mobilization. Technical and military production quickly reached a height unseen since the Great War. With the full support of all the major factions, Simonides instituted sweeping inspection regimens. His admirals blockaded entire systems at the slightest suggestion of Nanobot infestation, and he mounted active survey efforts to locate and destroy Nanobot worlds.

Although the military mobilization made little difference to the actual war against the Nanobots, it did effectively end the outbreaks of panic. When Simonides died decades later, the Nanobot crisis was effectively under control. Succeeding Smith emperors maintained the long slow search for the Nanobots. No new infestations were reported from the time of Emperor Mos onwards, and gradually the old Nanobot systems were isolated and blockaded.

While the Nanobot Crisis was winding down, something entirely new took place. In the reign of Emperor Akelin, rumours reached court of a newly-discovered system with lifeforms possessing a strange and unprecedented psi ability; the Demon homeworld. Interest grew for years, then exploded when it was discovered that the psi ability of the Demons transcended normal hyperspatial limits and allowed instantaneous communications at apparently any distance. Virtually every faction powerful enough to do so sent an expedition off to investigate and exploit. Akelin quickly wielded the military machine that had been built to fight the Nanobots, and put in place strict and harsh access controls around the Demon system. He also decreed restrictions on the flow of information related to it, which remain in place to this day.

A later Smith Emperor, John XV, saw both the end of the Nanobot crisis and the beginning of human psi technology. His creation of the Human Psi Institute would ultimately tear the Empire apart and destroy the Aristocracy, but this could not be foreseen at the time. The judgement of history is that the Second Smith Emperors were among the most effective of all the Dynasties . When John XV's successor Mos II died heirless in 6556, the Smith Emperors had raised the bar for rulers so high that no acceptable replacement could be found for thirty years.

The Har Dynasty: Downfall?

The latest or last of the Imperial Dynasties, the Hars, has been remarkable for being unremarkable. While no great failures can be laid at their feet, they likewise managed no great achievements. The first Har emperor, Smin, began well but quickly became notorious for his personal eccentricities. This marked the beginning of a trend, as succeeding emperors and the Aristocracy in general grew more decadent. The most notable of the lot was probably Akruetes III, who was murdered early in her reign by an Inlooker advisor suffering a fit of pique.

It is an open and much-debated question what the role of psi was in the decline of the aristocracy. Certainly many members had joined "virtual psi" networks and spent more time in mindspace than real space. The planets and people most affected by the disappeared are strongly correlated with those where psi activity was most common, and the former Emperor Apleim (a noted student of psi disciplines) was numbered among the Disappeared.

Given the lack of achievement of the Hars and the growing decadence of the aristocracy, many have stated openly that the Disappearance was a good thing. While history will be the judge of that, it is clear that the old structure of the Empire has been destroyed. In much the same way the second schism arose because of disconnections between spacefold networks, the Empire has now split into different groupings. The New Core Federation has once again declared total independence, and the RHF has been reborn as the Ghost Rim grouping. The Spartans have dissociated themselves from the old aristocracy and Spartan Hold is now independent, although they continue to uphold treaties and negotiate new agreements with other factions.

The outer reaches of the empire, spreading along the galactic disc in both directions, consist of many smaller networks of lightly-connected systems. Even where these have not proclaimed independence, they have practically achieved it because of the collapsing Imperial infrastructure. Some have grouped together and the two regions have come to be known as the Western and Eastern Reaches. These are merely descriptive terms; although the systems of the Reaches negotiate treaties with each other they have formed no overall alliance.

The inner core of old settled worlds has split into two parts, Ancient Space and the Inner Realms. Ancient Space is led by members of the Founder clan, who declared independence stating that the old aristocracy had lost its natural mandate and that the interests of its members would be better served by self-rule. The Inner Realms are the remaining loyal systems of the Empire, led by the nominal Emperor. The current claimant to the throne, Rokin, hails from the Spacer clan and ascended the throne by gathering the support of faction leaders in the reduced Senate. His title is disputed by numerous other claimants and largely ignored by the other groupings.

In the time since the Disappearance, no military conflicts have arisen between the groupings although there have been numerous disagreements over trade policies. If war were to erupt, it would most likely occur between the Inner Realms and Ancient Space, and the outcome would depend critically on whatever position the Spartans took. Perhaps recognizing this, Spartan leaders have been careful to present an image of neutrality.

While some of the old Great Clans are obviously behind the new empires and groups, others are dispersed among them. The Spacers and Aquans, whose systems spread across human space, have negotiated treaties with all the new groups and their role in the power balance of each is unclear at this time. The Pilgrims are mostly based in Ancient Space but with considerable settlements in the Inner Realms and other groupings, and they have become actively and openly expansionist. So far they have maintained nominal allegiance to the groupings in which they operate but many believe they will soon declare independence themselves or seek to rule where they extend. Empaths remain thorns in the sides of every new grouping, except in Spartan Hold where they control no worlds and have no official power. The Inlookers and Clones have seen a modest gain in power, positioning themselves as commercial entities selling services to the new empires. It is unknown to what extent the two factions are operating in the Reaches, but they are known to be actively settling at least some dozens of worlds there. The last of the Great Clans, the Masons, have retreated into the shadows once again and have made no public announcements of policy whatsoever.