The History of Nations in G-S16

The Hollow Era:
A time relatively void of advanced civilizations, the Hollow Era was one of the growth and expansion of the Vox’Urah self-designated Superior Nations of the Spiral. The Vox’Urah created a vast empire driven on an esoteric fuel known as ‘Kotrajnk’, divine essence. They experimented heavily during this era and saw potency in developing intelligent species. Their many terraforming projects led to an abundance of worlds adapted to be able to develop highly intelligent humanoid forms. With goals of ascension and a tendency for playing God, the Vox’Urah seeded multiple civilizations that they intended to restrict and harvest. However, they would vanish long before their experiments could develop space travel.

The First Age:
After the Vox’Urah disappeared, their presence was no longer felt in the galaxy. Without the interference and control of the Vox’Urah empire, nations were now capable of reaching an advanced state of spacefaring and developing into interstellar empires. Among the first nations were the Keepers of Light and the Bloodcult. The Bloodcult were devourers of flesh, with their ships of black and red flesh infused into metal. Not long after the inception of galactic relations, the Keepers and their allies launched a preemptive attack against the Bloodcult which triggered the KoL-Bloodcult war. The war ended with the Keepers and their allies being driven back and destroyed, establishing the Bloodcult as a powerful threat to whoever may challenge them. The alliance SPAPEC was an important component in galactic politics at this time. They were the first grand alliance in the recorded history of G-S16.

The Founding:
The age after SPAPEC was one of the rise and fall of major alliances. The Intergalactic Worlds Organization (IWO) was a collection of elite nations that were supremacist in nature. However, IWO had opposition, a rival alliance known as the Shadow Agreement. IWO was short-lived and many factors caused its downfall. One of these factors was external pressure from a faction called the Hegemony. There was also some degree of Bloodcult manipulation. The final cause was IWO’s leader’s descent into insanity, causing her to attempt an act of major terror. This caused IWO’s member states to rebel. With no opposition left, the Shadow Agreement lost purpose and dissolved. There was now an enormous power vacuum that would be filled by a new grand alliance: the United Galaxies (UG). The UG grew swiftly in size and power, quickly gaining a third of the galaxy's factions as its members. However, the UG was not without internal conspiracy and conflict. The discord eventually led to the Quorum, which had pledged allegiance to the UG, launching an orbital attack that laid waste to the capital of the United Galaxies. The UG was now severely weakened and turned its attention inwards, leaving them vulnurable to an external threat.

The Aeon War:
TIE, a faction that came from an entirely different galaxy, launched an attack on a backwater faction as a show of force. The UG secretary-general gave the orders to intervene in the conflict. This small skirmish would explode into a full scale war between TIE and the UG and lay the groundwork for one of the most important battles in history: the battle of Parendam Beta. Parendam Beta was a border world of the UG where a fortress was located. Parendam Beta would be the entrance to which TIE would invade UG territory. TIE forces landed and rendered the planet uninhabitable by using nuclear weapons. In space, fleets were arriving by the hour as both sides lacked coherent leadership. A UG member state known as the High Imperium (HI) was crucial in the battle. A High Imperium fleet arrived that locked down the battlefield with interdiction. The battle was drawn out to two weeks, and an armistice was proposed, were TIE took the opportunity to withdraw its fleets just before firing a superweapon at the systems star, detonating it in a supernova that engulfed and destroyed all the remaining ships locked in the interdiction field. This atrocity at Parendam Beta would be known throughout the galaxy, and the Aeon War had now truly begun. The war was one of the longest in history, with many skirmishes between TIE and the UG over the span of 200 years. It eventually ended when the High Imperium, as a UG member state, took the fight into TIE’s home territory, and into TIE’s home galaxy. The campaign failed but caused irreparable damage and a peace treaty was signed between TIE and the UG. However, many member states of the United Galaxies were dissatisfied with the overall leadership of the UG and claimed it had strayed away from its ideals of peace. The High Imperium and three other UG member states seceded and declared themselves as the Stellar Assembly.

Assembly:
Like the Intergalactic Worlds Organization before it, the UG was now falling apart as its own members turned on it to join the Stellar Assembly (SA) with the High Imperium at the helm. The Stellar Assembly sent an ultimatum to the United Galaxies: disband or face annihilation. This declaration coincided with an attack on the UG by a threat that called itself the ‘Fleryg’. This attack weakened the UG to the point that it was unable to crush the SA with its overwhelming forces. After a series of offensive skirmishes by the SA, they massed their fleets for a major attack on a United Galaxies stronghold. Led by the High Imperium, the SA forces slammed against the stronghold for a month. With even more intervention from external powers, the UG weakened until the fortress fell and the secretary-general was captured. And so fell the United Galaxies. After the war the Stellar Assembly grew and gained more members, replacing the United Galaxies.

Era of Crisis:
TIE, being an enemy of the former UG, was accepted into the Stellar Assembly. However TIE could not restrain its warmongering tendencies and attacked the Hegemony. TIE had underestimated the Hegemony’s capabilities and did not expect their counteroffensive into TIE’s home galaxy. The counterattack devastated TIE and ended its reign as a superpower. Additionally, in an unexpected turn of events that would change the galaxy, the Bloodcult hivemind was killed. The Bloodcult suddenly saw huge activity as they fought amongst themselves. A civil war between a major bloodcult warlord and a creation of the bloodcult hivemind called the Oracle, had broken out. Nations raced to take advantage to learn of the technologies and knowledge that were locked away in cult territory. This was put into use by the High Imperium when their senate decided to declare war on the Kel’shir federation. They used nano-virus attacks to kill billions of Kel’shir civilians. This warcrime caused the Stellar Assembly fleets to force the HI to stand down. The attack made the HI fall out of favour with the Assembly and the HI lost its chairmanship in the SA.

War in Heaven:
The High Imperium built machines and weapons of extreme power after the incident against the Kel’shir. Among them were the ludicrously potent reality editors and machines styled after the MAK nanoswarm. In a statement of power, the High Imperium constructed the megastructure known as the Star Forge. A massive shipyard that would regain dominance for the nation as a galactic superpower. Instead, it only further drove the High Imperium closer to its demise. Essentially they engineered devices of unseen destruction. A grave mistake. At the eve the forge was to be revealed the High Imperium house of Vakorian attacked both the Star Forge and the capital, Taros, starting the High Imperium civil war. Taros was burning. Even worse, the nanomachine swarm threat known as the MAK was looming over, and the first battle against the MAK was a devastating loss for the nations of G-S16. The Star Forge was attacked and eliminated by a collection of fleets, including factions of the SA. During the battle the HI commander saw no escape from the unrelenting enemy forces. He decided to flip the black hole which the Star Forge was built around turning it into a white hole. The resulting radiation destroyed every fleet in the system. The subsequent warping of reality threw the Star Forge across the galaxy to an unknown location, occasionally shifting its position in space. It is yet to be found and multiple expeditions to find it have been made since. Shortly after Star Forge was lost, in the second major battle against the MAK nanoswarm, the Imperium AI known as the Contemplator took control of a HI fleet and attacked the Stellar Assembly fleet that was supposed to fight the MAK from the rear. This started the war in heaven, the most chaotic war of G-S16 history. The internally devastated High Imperium fought against the Stellar Assembly that it had formed long ago. Among the Stellar Assembly nations was the German Space Regime (GSR). A growing nation that would become a superpower and the rival of the High Imperium. GSR launched fleets of immeasurable size against the HI’s border and started advancing into their territory. Eventually GSR ships streamed into the capital system, Gelos Mal. In the battle, the HI used the devices of extreme destruction that it created. 15 reality editors deep inside the capital world Taros were utilised at once, which obliterated the planet. The HI had previously overloaded their FTL gate. The gate unravelled violently as many FTL bubbles were pushed into a tiny volume of space and when it impacted the surface of the planet it released hyperspace energy straight into the unstable reality editors within the cracked planet. This created a rapidly expanding anomaly, an FTL storm known as the maw. It expanded so far that it swiftly consumed the entire High Imperium territory and the GSR fleet, throwing them into hyperspace at speeds which hyperdrives weren’t capable of. Most of the population was killed, the rest were trapped inside a hyperspace prison in stasis. The superpower of the High Imperium had been completely annihilated in only a few hours. The Imperium would still live on in other galaxies. A few ships fled to safety through an intergalactic portal during the last hours of the Imperium.

The Syndicate:
At some point, The Maw would dissipate and shrink, revealing the ruins of the High Imperium. Its legacy was not yet lost though. Notably, HI survivors had travelled to a dwarf galaxy where it had turned into the Ascendant Dawn (AD). Upon returning to G-S16 after the maw’s total dissipation, the AD was met with militaristic seizings of galactic trade routes by the Stellar Assembly. The Stellar Assembly was stagnating trade for the sake of security which was an issue for the Ascendant Dawn and its liberal economic ideas of free trade. The AD reached out to nations of similar interests and formed the Syndicate to eliminate the SA. The Stellar Assembly was significantly weaker than previously, consisting of three key members: the German Space Regime, the Illateri Sovereignty and the Kel’shir Federation. Another factor that would tip the scales in the Syndicate's favour was the construction of another Star Forge by the AD. However, the Syndicate suffered a decisive loss at the GSR world of Schwalbe early in the war. The tides were about to be turned again though. The remains of the High Imperium, surviving in a state of stasis within deep hyperspace, emerged back into real space. The Imperium threw itself into the war on the side of the Syndicate, disregarding its economic situation. The Syndicate, supported by the High Imperium, launched attacks against both the Kel’shir and the GSR. Most of these attacks revolved around the impregnable GSR fortress worlds.

Denouncement:
The war primarily turned into a battle between the HI and the GSR. The HI failed to break through the fortress worlds and had a suffering economy. They were forced to go on the defensive. The GSR turned around the war with the following invasion. Both powers pushed their economic and military boundaries to the brink in the 50 years that the invasion lasted. Imperial lines crumbled and the GSR reached Gelos Mal where the High Imperium would be defeated. The remaining HI population became refugees in other factions or fled the galaxy. The territory of the HI was reduced to unlivable wastes and Taros suffered heavy damage to its surface and was abandoned. The Ascendant Dawn remained and distanced themselves from the High Imperiums ideology in time.

Return:
Without any major power to fight, the Stellar Assembly was falling apart shortly before the Bloodcult would return with a disturbing telepathic transmission with a haunting threat. Black mist covered Bloodcult territory in the core and aggressive shadow-like Bloodcult ships would attack any ships that went to the mist. Many nations took the threats seriously and shortly after a couple of powers would organise themselves into what the Bastonians called the first coalition. It was during this time that two small powers emerged from insignificance into the galactic scene. The first was the Vaiaelon War Pact (VWP), a xenophobic, loose federation which spanned a large number of star systems. The second was the Bastonian Empire (GBE), a social democratic state that broke a long lasting political silence when it sent a call for a coalition to deal with the bloodcult threat. Both nations having unproportionally large navies due to the VWP’s fear of outside threats and the GBE’s tendency to see violence as a solution. The coalition made multiple advances into the mist and managed to take one strategic point of interest before the identified ‘darkcult’ disappeared for unknown reasons. However, the core remained shrouded in mist. The bloodcult wasn’t the only power to return. With the Stellar Assembly weakening, the remnants of TIE reemerged on the galactic scene as a military superpower. With the two growing superpowers, TIE and GSR, both being supremacist, it was only a matter of time before the fragile peace shattered.

End of the Old Blood:
Total war broke out between TIE and the GSR when TIE launched an attack on the GSR fortress of Südhausen. This war came to be called the TIE-RSC war. Factions quickly flocked to both sides. Südhausen was the longest battle of the war and lasted until the end point. On the side of the GSR was their long time ally the Kel’shir and the newer and weaker GBE and Redford Republic. Due to the dissolvement of the Stellar Assembly the nations aligned with the GSR formed the Reich Shield Coalition (RSC) consisting of the GSR and its smaller allies and mercenaries. On the side of TIE was the also young Vaeailon War Pact. While TIE and the GSR, and to some degree the Kel’shir Federation, were the dominant powers, at the end of the war they would be significantly weaker than a weaker opponent nation punching above their weight-class. Südhausen was started by TIE as an attempt to break through the GSR’s defensive line. However the battle was ended and won by VWP forces that arrived as reinforcements and eventually smashed the GSR fleets there shortly before the end of the war. The GBE on the other hand had suffered from a surprise terror attack by TIE forces on their capital. The response was for a large Bastonian fleet to finish the offensive against TIE by spearheading right into their capital, Yashinda, and destroying the bulk of their forces there. While both the VWP and GBE were preparing to eliminate their respective enemies the unexpected return of the High Imperiums remnants and the resulting bioattack completely crippled the RSC. The High Imperium arrived at Yashinda and forced a retreat from the inferior GBE forces. The moment the High Imperium arrived at Yashinda bioattacks targeting military personnel and civilian targets were unleashed on the entirety of the RSC. The outside threat known as the Deltas had planted and unleashed the biobombs in the RSC after making a deal with the High Imperium. The attack forced the remaining RSC to surrender to the already crumbling TIE who did not have much negotiation power considering their own situation. This caused a significant number of RSC nations to go into an economic crisis. Meanwhile the GSR, while being pushed back by the Vaiaelons, collapsed in its entirety. The High Imperium was however not done with their conquest. They prepared and initiated an invasion against the VWP that ended swiftly when they made the mistake of betraying the Deltas. The Deltas prepared and activated multiple traps set for the HI from the start that wiped their newly established territory off the map and forcing them to retreat out of the galaxy once again. The result of the war was a weakening of all powers and annihilation of some. Superpowers were reduced to minor economies. The only remaining superpower was MISE, a nation of lizardfolk who housed many successful corporations and industries.

The Cross-quadrant War and Great Recession:
As the GBE, the Redford Republic and other nations recovered from the resulting recession caused by the delta crisis, the VWP supported them in the rebuilding efforts. This relationship eventually developed. When the VWP and a couple of other powers realised they had similar goals they banded together into the Union of Judgement, whose objective was to fight supremacist nations and protect lesser nations from the reach of warmongers. Falling on the Bastonian Judgement Day, the Union of Judgement launched a full offensive against TIE’s Imperial Remnant and its ally, the Viridian Remnants. Durings operation Eternal Flame, a massive part of the Imperial population migrated to their home galaxy, leaving the remnant short on manpower. The hostile attitude the Imperial Remnant had, the collateral damage from the previous war and the lack of farmers left a large part of TIE starving and short on supplies. The VWP attacked TIE due to its supremacist nature, while the GBE never considered the TIE-RSC war ended. The Redford Republic, who had jurisdiction over the Sun Singed Trade Route, primarily attacked Viridia. The resulting war was called the Union Cross-quadrant War. The Bastonians swiftly took the border systems but struggled pushing further into Imperial territory due to an enormous interdicting megastructure in imperial territory. This caused the war to stagnate, allowing for the Imperials to recover. They were allowed more breathing room when MISE, as the most powerful economy in the galaxy, erupted into civil war. All but isolationists such as the TIE Remnant suffered from the Great Recession. Powers of the galaxy went to support one of three major factions in the civil war: the MRIS with strong ties towards the GBE and VWP, MURF supported by TIE remnant factions, and lastly the loyalist core of MISE. With support from major powers at the time, MRIS managed to destroy the core and establish itself as the new government over MISE. However it was not nearly as powerful as MISE had been before the crisis.

The Dominion and the end of TIE:
Ezekiel, a former TIE admiral, made a break off faction of TIE with support of a High Imperium remnant faction. The new nation was named the Infinite Dominion. Using the last immensely powerful reality editor to restore Taros, though in an unstable state, and secure the core of old HI space. They gathered with old TIE allies and the GSR remnant to form the Pact of the Old Blood in order to combat the Union of Judgement. The pact was short-lived. The Pact began with initiating skirmishes in GBE border systems, most notably Vulcan. They struck at strategically important facilities such as the Vulcan dockyards but failed to pierce the outer worlds. The Pact of the Old Blood fell apart when the Infinite Dominion’s homeworld, Taros, was hit by a hyperspace anomaly, likely caused by the unstable nature of the reality editor used to restore it. The Infinite Dominion, as a relatively new nation, split into smaller fractions all under their own new leaders. While they made efforts to reclaim the Imperial Remnant they made little progress. Once the Old Blood was weakened and the Union powers economically recovered from the Great Recession, the Bastonian reckoning fleet made a push against the bulk of imperial space forces and the FTL magnet. The Bastonian victory broke the stalemate and allowed the Union to pave the way to the imperial capital: Yashinda. Once it was taken, the Imperial Remnant was unable to fight and surrendered. The GBE annexed it into one of its territories and reformed it into the Interstellar Republic of Catamaria. However during this time tension between the two primary members of the Union of Judgement arose. The VWP and the GBE were both in a power struggle over the young Alsinan Defence League, employing political warfare through propaganda, arms deals, paramilitary groups and bribery. The VWP were brought close by mutual goals as being minority species in the galaxy. The influences of the VWP were hindering the ADL from coming under the control of the GBE who wanted a stable trading partner.