A Very Brief History of the Empire

Historians have debated the origins of humanity for thousands of years, yet the question remains unanswered. The most widely believed history has humans spreading from the ancient Terran Sphere, but nobody knows if we originated there or arrived there from an earlier and forgotten civilization. Alternative theories put human origins at wide-ranging points - from Safe Harbour in the old Human Federation to somewhere in the galactic core. Some of these theories are considered to be politically inspired. For example, it is unlikely that the old Imperial capitol is the home of humans. Other theories are just short of lunacy, such as the belief that we originated deep in the galactic core on a planet orbiting the central black hole. One view, which has gained considerable credibility since the Disappearance, is that humans were seeded into the galaxy from somewhere outside, by some unknown beings who would necessarily be advanced far beyond our technology. Most adherents of this theory hold that human origins should then be found in many places from roughly the same time, but other historians have found little evidence to support this.

The Terran Union was the first known human interstellar civilization, a volume of space around fifty light years in diameter centered on the star Sol. Its limits were set by the difficulty of early travel; without spacefolds or c-tunnels, even simple journeys between stars would take decades. Practically, the Terran Union was a collection of independent worlds which traded and exchanged knowledge at long intervals. There may have been planets settled at the same time outside the Union, long since lost to history.

With the discovery of the first C-tunnels, the Terran Union expanded and became the Human Federation. Worlds gained importance if they were lucky enough to be close to a collapsar. Trade routes changed and alliances formed. The Human Federation had a degree of central control. In this period of history, mankind also made first contact with alien life. The Ferrets became our first and oldest friends, soon after the Crucians became our deadliest enemies.

The Great War

The Great War began early in the expansion of the Human Federation and lasted for many thousands of years, again due to the slowness of c-tunnel travel. The Crucians, who had physical requirements similar to ours, also settled on some of the same planets. At first this contact was peaceful; the two groups traded and learned from each other. With time competition grew and tension developed. Then the war began, with a co-ordinated surprise attack which exterminated human settlement on the planet Five Canal.

News of the battle gradually reached the rest of the Federation: starships of the Spacer Clan arrived at Five Canal. They were attacked and sometimes destroyed, but a few sent messages. Clan leaders met and decided to fight. To aid their efforts they recruited the help of the Spartan Clan, although what deal they may have made has been long lost to history. Five Canal was reclaimed but the Crucians counter-attacked and fighting spread. Within a hundred years total war had erupted and humanity had formed the Great Alliance.

In the early days of the war, the Federation was led by the forces of the Terran Sphere. A giant fleet was mounted at Sentinel, a gateway planet connecting the Terran Sphere with the war zone. While this was happening, human forces far away lost a minor battle with the Crucians. Their leader, Commander Walker, ran back to Sentinel for reinforcements with Crucian forces in pursuit. Thus the Crucians discovered the massing fleet and route to Sentinel, and the greatest tragedy in human history followed too soon after.

The Battle of Sentinel raged for 13 years and ended with the complete destruction of Sentinel and the human fleet. In the aftermath Crucian forces raged through human space, completely destroying civilization within the Terran Sphere and in a large area of the Human Federation. The destruction endured for eighteen centuries, as they sought out and destroyed human worldss throughout the spheres in the war zones. It only slowed to a halt when the Spartan clan seized control of the war effort and instituted a ruthless scorched-earth policy of retreat behind a single well defended c-tunnel, with destruction of all facilities left behind.

For over two thousand years after this, the war endured as a border conflict at Tunnel, the only remaining point of contact. Human civilization continued behind the front, although expansion was severely limited because of the inherent danger. This near- stalemate ended when the Crucians won control of Tunnel. News of the loss mobilized the human war effort, and unlike at Sentinel human forces were now well-organized and prepared. With their will to fight revitalized, human forces surged from their lines and regained Tunnel, then over a span of 2200 years won back all the territory that had been lost and more.

This stage of the war also ended in a near-stalemate. Just as the Crucians had been unable to penetrate well-defended gateway worlds earlier, human forces reached a point where they could not progress farther; Crucian space was far from the Federation and only one c-tunnel was known to connect the two. Despite repeated attempts, this crossing was never taken.

The Great War finally came to an end after the discovery of the spacefold drive on the planet of Safe Harbour. This gave an inestimable technical advantage to human forces, who took prompt advantage of the fast transport to build a new war fleet and explore, finding folds that took them into Crucian territory without the need for slow c-tunnel travel. The day of battle arrived and they struck, catching the Crucians by surprise far away from their fleet positions. The human fleet devastated Crucian territory, razing every settled planet they found. The conquest was slowed only by the sheer volume of worlds. After some six hundred years, it ended with the extermination of the Crucians.

The Empire

The destruction of the Crucian home world marks the beginning of the Empire, and its date is the year zero of the Imperial calendar. Human civilization had reshaped itelf, adapting to the needs of the war. Their war leaders became the ruling class of the new Empire, and they celebrated their victory with an explosion of human life. Settlers spread across the galaxy faster than they could be tracked.

This expansion has been relatively stable although not completely quiet. The ruling dynasty has changed eight times in seven thousand years, along the way moving the capitol inwards from Safe Harbour to Indo. Small wars have erupted on the frontiers, against alien races and human rebels. However, these have surely been of less significance than encounters with friendly aliens for it is our friends who taught some humans the secret of psi.

The Disappearance

In Imperial year 6894, the face of the Empire changed literally overnight when the citizens on many of the richest and most advanced worlds suddenly disappeared. In a few cases the entire planet disappeared, but in most the people simply vanished, leaving their buildings behind. The few people left behind provided details but no explanation; on all the planets involved people had been quick to embrace the latest advance in psi technology, a cerebral implant which allowed instantaneous communication across light years with large groups of people. One day the entire mass of such implants had stopped whatever they were doing, collected together in large groups at central places, then simply vanished.

The Imperial Capitol, Indo, was one of such planets hit - and most of the ruling class were among those to disappear. Thus, the Disappearance left a power vacuum as well as numbers of developed and advanced planets with few humans. The government of the Empire fragmented into different factions based on Clan and location and need, and psi technology was lost to humans along with the disappeared.

Two major themes in the breakup were the split between established and expanding areas of the Empire, and the split between areas of commercial rivalry. The Eastern and Western Reaches occupy the biggest volume of the old Empire, at opposite ends of Imperial space in the galactic disc. The New Core Federation is similarly expansionist, but thrusting into the galaxy's central bar, towards the core. The richest and most developed areas suffered most from the disappearance and have reformed themselves into two rival domains; the Ancient Space and Inner Realms. In the old reaches of space, the Spartan clan has proclaimed independence for the former province of the Spartan Hold, and beyond it remains the Ghost Rim, including the ancient home of the Human Federation.

In the forty years since the Disappearance there has been little friction between the different factions and no war. Trade conflicts do arise, most often between the Ancient Space and Inner Realms. The military power of the NCF grows constantly while the Eastern and Western Reaches struggle more every year to maintain law and order in a vast volume of space which their armies can not police constantly. The future of humanity is less certain now than at any time since the Great War.