Introduction (cribbed from a work by Ken Bearden) The year is 1105, by the calendar established at the dawn of humaniti’s third attempt at an interstellar empire. For over a three thousand standard years, man has pushed out into the galactic arm, conqueror of all in his path, dominator of planets and solar systems alike, stretching his reach over 200 parsecs from Terra. Charted space is but a fraction of the entire galaxy, but the Third Imperium is one of the largest empires in known space - the largest interstellar empire in existence. It is one of three human-dominated empires, and together, these three human dominated regions account for over a fourth of every solar system that has ever been explored. Humans are the most numerous beings known to exist. Humaniti Reaches the Stars A blue planet, lying far out in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way, is the birth world of Humaniti. Some refer to this world by its ancient name, Earth, but most beings today call it Terra. Humans from this world are no longer referred to as Terrans or Earthlings. They are known as Solomani - meaning “Men of Sol” (”Sol” being the name of Earth’s sun). And, if you count the current year by the ancient Solomani calendar, the year is 5623 AD - the 57th century, in ancient Earth terms. For an age, the Solomani believed themselves to be the only intelligent life in existence. They experienced a rude change in their culture when they discovered otherwise. As they took to the stars, the Solomani, like so many species before them, began to colonize other worlds. At first, they settled their solar system, and then, as their technology developed, allowing them to push out into the void, they set foot on worlds in other star systems. They discovered other intelligent life - alien life. And, they discovered that some of the aliens were human! First Encounter The Solomani year was 2096 AD. Terran explorers - men from the small, fledgling grouping of Solomani planets - made contact with another race of humans around Barnard’s Star, humans calling themselves Vilani. But that shock - carrying with it ramifications in religion and eons of scientific theory that the Terran society and culture would barely overcome - was reflected as a simple Solomani facial tic when compared to the discovery that the Vilani already controlled an interstellar empire. The Vilani called their empire the Ziru Sirka, meaning “Grand Empire of Stars”, and it was so vast and awe-inspiring that it took years to travel across, even in the fastest jump-capable starships of the time. The Ziru Sirka - what history refers to as the First Imperium - predated the Solomani jump out from Terra by some 1500 standard years. “When the Solomani were just beginning to explore the use of iron, the Vilani were exploring the galaxy.” The Vilani interstellar empire had existed since 473 AD on the Solomani calendar, and the Grand Empire of Stars stood poised to swallow the pitiful number of systems the Solomani had settled as a river swallowing a few pebbles that fall in its path. The Interstellar Wars The Solomani and the Vilani became co-habitants in the space around Earth. The Vilani made initiatives to draw the Solomani into the Ziru Sirka, and the Solomani resisted. War broke out. Fiercely independent, the Solomani defied efforts to have their culture swallowed by the humans-not-from-Earth. But, the Vilani leaders on Vland, the Ziru Sirka capital, looked at the Terrans with little more than mild curiosity. The pitiful number of Terran systems were but just one more client state of the great, star-spanning empire of the Vilani. For close to two centuries, the relations between the Vilani and the Terran Confederation (as Solomani Space had come to be known), were typified by a number wars fought along the Ziru Sirka’s rimward border. Communication within the Grand Empire of Stars was slow, and Vilani culture emphasized decision by committee - a stark contrast to the culture of the Solomani, where individual initiative is lauded and communication distances within the much smaller Terran Confederation were much shorter. The Solomani fought a guerilla war, on many different fronts, followed by peace, then war, then peace, then war again. The Vilani leaders regarded the Interstellar Wars as little more than a regional problem - where issues in other parts of the enormous empire drew priority. This turned out to be their downfall. Internal byzantine political schemes and social stagnation and military calcification led to the Terran problem being allowed to fester and grow out of hand until it was too late. Soon the Terran Confederation was taking star system after star system until less than 200 years after encountering the Ziru Sirka, the Solomani were in charge of it. They were spread extremely thin - to the point of the apocryphal tales of “ensigns in charge of worlds”. The Rule of Man A Solomani empire referred to as the Rule of Man was born. It was the same empire - just under new leadership, even though Solomani rule is referred to, in history, as the Second Imperium. The men of Earth, from the tiny collection of stars, had defeated the might of the Grand Empire of Stars. It was during these next generations that the Terrans moved out to the stars in great numbers. A great diaspora from Earth ensued, and Terrans, like the Chosen People, spread out from Earth, planting themselves on distant planets. The Solomani and Vilani peoples and cultures began mingling. But a few hundred years weren’t enough to overcome the problems of the Vilani stagnation culturally. The Long Night The Rule of Man was characterized by rebirth but little growth of the Second Imperium. Under Vilani rule, the First Imperium had floundered, stagnated, in both growth and technological development. The Solomani fought to change that characteristic of the empire, but it was a difficult battle. The Vilani system had been entrenched for close to 1800 years. The Solomani experience with governing an interstellar government was under 200 years - and never had the Terrans ruled an empire as vast as the Imperium. It was a miracle the Solomani became governors of the largest star-empire in existence. And, it was inevitable they would lose it. Nobody foresaw just how bad the new rulers would be for the Second Imperium. Where the Vilani were stagnant and rigid, the Solomani were inexperienced and naïve. The first indication of the inability of the Solomani came when it was apparent the new nobility would be unable to persuade their own brethren to accept membership within the Second Imperium. Solomani and Vilani people merged during the 428 year period known as the Rule of Man. Over the generations, Solomani/Vilani culture became one - to the point where a distinction between the two races of Humaniti was no longer made on some worlds of the Imperium. The Solomani of the Terran region of space despised what some of their people had become - losing themselves in an alien culture, and the Terran Confederation remained independent (albeit sympathetic) of their cousins of the Second Imperium. But the men of the Terran Confederation could not prevent what would befall all of Humaniti at the hands of the new inexperienced Imperial rulers. Over the four centuries of Solomani rule, technological growth subsided. Regions of the Imperium gradually lost touch with the rest of the whole. Border wars were dealt with by persons inexperienced with interstellar government. The Second Imperium fell apart. The Rule of Man was over. And, the Long Night had begun. For over 2000 years, the Imperium existed. Created and guided by Vilani for 1600 years, the Solomani destroyed it in just over 400 years. The following 1800 years, there was no Imperium. The Solomani government crumbled. Pirates fed on interstellar shipping like never before because of inept Solomani policy and enforcement. Interstellar trade eventually came to a standstill. The net growth of industrial output throughout the empire was negative. Factories closed faster than new ones could open. This black time marked a pull-back from space by virtually all humans in Vilani-dominated space. The self-defeating nature of interstellar piracy eliminated itself as a major threat - eventually, there just were no cargo ships to prey upon. What was left of Imperial interstellar trade was taken over by other star-faring races, although only on an intermittent basis. Aslan traders wandered through the rim ward sectors of the former Rule of Man territory. Vargr traders visited - and sometimes raided - the core ward sectors. Some small human governments retained their starship technology and served their own worlds, but other Imperial planets fell into dark ages. Some were plagued by wars brought on by massive inflation, scarce food, nil purchasing power, and non-communication outside their solar systems. Eventually, though, light dawned on the Long Night. Dawn of the Third Imperium Over the multi-generational period of the Long Night, worlds did reach out to contact their neighbors. Federations, Republics, and other small interstellar unions emerged. Interstellar trade within one union of star systems merged with new markets in other interstellar unions. Small human governments emerged, connected themselves, grew bigger. Until one - the Sylean Federation - reached out its hand, provided by a man of vision who established the Third Imperium. That was over 1000 years ago. By the Terran calendar, it was the year 4518 AD. Cleon I declared himself emperor, established a new dating system (the one we use today), and a campaign was begun to recapture all of the member worlds lost after the fall of the Rule of Man. Today, after 1105 years of membership in the Third Imperium, Vilani and Solomani are almost indistinguishable, though their individual cultures are still strong around Vland and Terra. In the middle classes, traditionally both geographically and socially mobile, the Vilani/Solomani distinction has become meaningless. Extensive intermarriage has blended the two, and the tendency, during the Rule of Man, for wealthy Vilani to adopt Solomani surnames has further made fine distinctions of lineage difficult to define and trace. Today, most citizens of the empire refer to themselves as Imperials, members of the species known as Humani. After the fall of the Second Imperium / Rule of Man, the Terran Confederation withdrew upon itself. And over the intervening 1800 years of the Long Night had gradually developed the belief that humans of Solomani descent were the true Terrans and superior to all the other genetically identical human races found throughout Charted Space. The Terran community was incorporated into the growing Third Imperium, but their mistreatment and oppression of ‘aliens’ eventually forced Empress Margaret to grant them semi-autonomy and formed the Solomani Autonomous Region. But friction between the Solomani and Imperials continued to grow until the Imperium decided to forcibly reintegrate the region. The Solomani resisted which led to the Solomani Rim War (990-1002). The Imperium succeeded in taking Terra and bringing the Solomani to the peace table, but at such cost that it ended as a stalemate. Terra is now a member-world of the Third Imperium, but the Terran Confederation still exists, as an independent empire, now calling itself the Solomani Confederation. When the term Solomani is used today to describe a being, it is understood as a term describing a human from this independent state - not an Imperial citizen. The Solomani have moved their homeworld to a planet called Home, and there is much friction between the Third Imperium and the Solomani Confederation over the ownership of Earth. The Ancients & The Solomani Hypothesis Since first contact was made with the Vilani, the collective Solomani consciousness wondered at the impossibility of another human race developing on a planet other than Earth. There were many types of species within and beyond the Imperial borders, but the chance that an exact species had evolved on two different worlds was mind boggling. Scientists were stymied for over 2500 years. About 100 years after the establishment of the Third Imperium, during the growth and recapture period, investigations were made on Vland, homeworld of the Vilani and the former capital of the Ziru Sirka. The Imperial scientists found that it was an impossibility that the Vilani had evolved on Vland. The planet’s ecological system ensured that a human could not have come from the world. In addition, Solomani archeologists discovered that pyramids, like the Egyptian structures on Earth, had been found on other planets in the Imperium. The Vilani had always known this, but it was not until the Solomani came to power that notice was taken of the galactic coincidence. Until the Third Imperium was established, there existed no satisfactory explanation for the many interfertile human races found on different worlds (many races other than the Solomani and the Vilani). Numerous theories on man’s origins had been proposed, but none had gained complete acceptance. It was commonly assumed by many species of humaniti, that theirs was the homeworld of all humaniti and some ancient spacefaring race or an earlier lost generation of their kind had spread humans to the stars and then disappeared. But definitive proof was ever found until early in the Third Imperium. Evidence was gathered, and a startling revelation was unleashed upon all Humaniti, Solomani and Vilani alike: An ancient, star-faring race did indeed visit Earth before humans recorded history. Earth was indeed the birthplace of Humaniti. And the Ancients took some unknown interest in the species and seeded humans throughout this section of the galaxy - where humans have adapted, and thrived, and thought themselves evolved on the worlds on which they were planted. This theory was unleashed on the galaxy in 114, by the Imperial calendar, and it has become known as the Solomani Hypothesis. Not much more has been discovered about the Ancients since that revelation a thousand years ago, but evidence of the Ancients’ existence has been found. It is known that the Ancients wielded the power of extremely high technology - technology much higher than any attained by any species known to exist today. The Ancients are actually credited with genetically uplifting species - actually forcing evolution on a species artificially! It is even hypothesized that the alien, canine-descended Vargr are a product of Ancient genetic evolution. Vargr DNA measures, almost exactly, as DNA from various species of dogs on Terra (although a Vargr would never agree to that finding). What little evidence of the Ancients that has been found indicates that the pre-historic aliens dominated this section of the galaxy - and that they destroyed themselves in a genocidal interstellar war. For what purpose, it is not known. Present Day This is the time, the universe, the culture that the game is set in. The year is 1105, and your characters are citizens of the Third Imperium.
The Frontier Wars
(589 to 1105): Frontier Wars
A series of interstellar wars fought between the Imperium and the Zhodani Consulate for control of the Spinward Marches.
Frontier Wars First Frontier War Second Frontier War Third Frontier War Fourth Frontier War
The known Frontier Wars include:
The First Frontier War (589 to 604) was the initial clash between the Imperials and the Zhodani and expelled Imperial settlers from regions spinward of the Spinward Marches. The first of the border clashes between the Imperium and the Zhodani, which sparked the beginning of a continuing antipathy between the two major lines of Humaniti. The armistice in 604 gave the Imperium much of Vilis and Querion subsectors while the Zhodani receive Chronor subsector, formerly Imperial territory.
With the conclusion of the war, Olav hault-Plankwell returned to the Imperial core with his war fleet and took the reins of government, dispatching Empress Jaqueline and thus starting the Civil War and the reign of the Barracks Emperors.
The Second Frontier War (615 to 620) resulted when the Zhodani saw the Imperium paralyzed by its Civil War; and seized the opportunity to profit by its diversion.
Fought between the Outworld Coalition and the Imperium during the period of the Barracks Emperors. Arbellatra (b. 587, d. 666) was named Grand-Admiral of the Marches and led the combined local and Imperial forces to defeat the Coalition, and then proceeded to reestablish the central Imperial authority. She was named Regent in 622 as a result, and Empress in 629.
The Imperium fought holding actions until local shipyards could complete a battle fleet, which then forced an armistice, but only by ceding more Imperial territory to the Zhodani.
The Third Frontier War (979 to 986) saw surprise Zhodani attacks followed by years of deep penetration attacks against high population worlds, and commerce raiding by both sides.
The long period of uneasy peace between the Imperium and the Zhodani Consulate erupted into war in 979 with simultaneous blows by the Zhodani in the Querion and Jewell subsectors. Imperial reaction was deficient, and the hostilities continued for nearly six years with little to show for it. The armistice finally signed in 986 gave each side little, and it brought about the abdication of Emperor Styryx in 989.
It resulted in the creation of a demilitarized zone between the two sides, and the loss of several more Imperial worlds to the Zhodani.
The Fourth Frontier War (1082 to 1084) has been called the False War because of its brevity and lack of conclusion. Apparently started by accident (in a meeting between Imperial and Zhodani fleet elements) its conclusion saw the exchange of several worlds and little else.
Short inconclusive war fought primarily in the Jewell Subsector (Spinward Marches sector) between the Imperium and the Zhodani Consulate. The war began with initial assaults by the Zhodani against Jewell and Regina subsectors stalled at the borders. Its final battle the Battle of Two Suns, 1084, was waged in the vicinity of Yres and Menorb and resulted in Imperial victory. The armistice was signed before instructions for the conduct of the war were received from Capital.
In the years after the Fourth Frontier War, and the problems it presented from lags in communication, Emperor Strephon felt that a strengthened archduke position could enable the Imperium to more quickly respond in the defense of the realm. Against the protests and opposition of prominent members of the Moot, Strephon has reinstituted a number of powers to the domains, most notably the right to collect taxes.
The Third Imperium
Spreading across a vast expanse of stars is the Imperium (more accurately, the Third Imperium), ruling more than 11,000 star systems grouped into 7 Domains, 28 Sectors, and 448 subsectors. Each subsector holds 10-20 star systems on average. The core sectors are long developed, densely populated, with high technological levels and economic power; outer sectors less so, and the fringe sectors are still developing. It is more accurate to say that the Imperium rules the oceans of space between the islands that are the star systems and worlds than to say that it rules the worlds themselves. But a common “Imperial” culture is strong on many worlds (especially in the Core, less so on the fringes), knit together by the communications framework, military protection, and dissemination of knowledge provided by the Imperium, and the trade, education, and social intercourse promoted by the Imperium. But many worlds, especially on the frontiers have and retain their own cultures, interacting with the Imperium at varying levels - from barely acknowledged overlord in what is viewed as a trade protectorate, to loyal and energetic part of the Imperial whole.
The Imperial Navy guards the borders against foreign attack - and their are many interstellar polities surrounding the Imperium, keeps trades routes free of piracy (thankfully only really seen anymore on the frontiers), and protects member worlds from aggression by other members worlds.
The Imperial Marines are the elite military force of the Imperium. The front-line troops in battledress (powered armor), that can land on worlds (or be dropped in drop capsules) and make the first impression and take swift action where necessary.
The Imperial Interstellar Scout Service (IISS or Scouts) encourages trade by publishing accurate planetary and interstellar charts, exploration and contacting new markets beyond the borders, and administering the express boat service which provides the basic communications framework of the Imperium.
The Grand Army is an overarching command structure for the collected ground forces of the Imperial member worlds and nobles. It is the occupation force that holds onto a world after Imperial Marines have made the beachhead. During peacetime, they provide assistance to worlds in distress, train and guard important worlds and facilities.
Other services of the Imperial government include the enforcement of a basic framework of laws, regulations and imperial edicts, administered by Imperial ministries, that govern interstellar commerce, funding of basic research in all branches or science, economic and military aid to member worlds whose internal stability is threatened, and many others (colonization aid and development, natural disaster assistance, e.g. though these vary greatly in intensity, commitment and efficacy from subsector to subsector). In return for and in support of all the Imperium provides, its member worlds pay taxes.
X-Boats and Interstellar Communication
One significant and ever present aspect of the Imperium is the network of communications routes that carry business, government and personal correspondence at the speed of jump. Similar in nature to the poni express of old Terra, this express boat system stations small, fast message-carrying boats (”xboats”) along major trade routes. Always ready to take a laser spurt of data from an incoming xboat and immediately leave for the next system, the xboat sacrifices everything for speed and data capacity. An incoming xboat refuels and refits until the next arrival and then it too is on its way down the xboat routes the next system. (Xboats have room for one pilot only typically, and the duty is long and lonely.) Paralleling this xboat system are the major trade routes of the Imperium. Trade goes where there is adequate communication to carry orders and confirmations, to carry information and feedback, and to allow the transfer of funds. Worlds on the xboat routes are blessed with solid trade contacts as well as communications.
Express boats, however, do not touch every world with the Imperium; many planets lie well away from the mainstream of communications and commerce (more so on the frontiers than the core). These backwater worlds depend on less efficient means of information transfer and trade. The xboat service sends along messages by scout/courier whenever one is going that way or once enough messages build up. Transport companies service lesser trade routes to worlds that can furnish goods, ore, or products that are in demand. Other worlds must wait for the tramp freighters, the free traders, the carry goods to contracted destinations or on speculation. The problem of delay is ever present. To travel from one end of the Imperium to the other could take up to two years and upwards of a million credits. The Imperium’s government reels under the strain of governing, protecting, and developing its territory when orders from the capital take nearly a year to reach its borders. However, all is not dark in the Imperium. It has lasted , grown and thrived for over a thousand years. Its citizens both personal and corporate, enjoy reasonable lives and reasonable expectations of improvement. Its trillions depend on the Imperium for life, stability, and economic well-being. Its rulers, the nobility, are for the most part honorable and do a reasonable job of balancing the needs of their citizens with their own interests, and while not necessarily swift, egregious behavior or violations of sophont rights and decency are most often met with justice. The same cannot be said for all the other interstellar polities in Charted Space.
The Imperial Calendar
When the Third Imperium was first formed, out of the ashes of the thousand-year Long Night after the fall of the Second Imperium (also called the Rule of Man), one of the first acts taken by the first Emperor was calendar reform. Cleon I used the fact of acceptance of his new calendar as a measure of a new world’s integration into the growing empire. Those who resisted were subjected to a little more pressure. The calendar remains with us today. The founding year of the Imperium is numbered the Year Zero (or Holiday Year). The first day of that year is Day 1; each year has 365 days. A week is a universally used time period of seven standard days (reinforced by the happenstance of jump taking about a week); the term month is also used referring to a period of four weeks. Dates under the Imperial calendar are expressed as a three digit day (padded with zeros if necessary) followed by a dash and the year number. Years before the founding of the Imperium are negative numbers. For example, Cleon I, first emperor of the Imperium, was born in -57. The Imperium was founded on 001-0, the first day of the Holiday Year. The date 365-998 indicates the 365th (last) day of the 998th year since the founding of the Imperium. The current year is 1105.
Life in the Third Imperium
The 3I in 1105 is a relatively orderly area of space - people on the 11,000 worlds of the Imperium working at jobs and growing, engaged in business or industry, colonizing or taming worlds (more so on the fringes than the core), playing sports like Grav Ball or Grav Bike Racing or a thousand others, performing artistics works, communicating with friends and family on nearby and sometimes distant worlds, watching events unfold in the 3I at large. But while the stable imperial worlds may predominate, especially in the older, more established core sectors, there’s still plenty of action and intrigue.
Many individual worlds (mostly on the fringes like the Spinward Marches) have wildly differing cultures and situations and there’s plenty of unusual stuff happening all over; from simple civil wars using mercenary units to repressive religious dictatorships still tolerated by the local nobility (while surreptitiously working to make things better there behind the scenes).
Most Imperial citizens do live their lives on their home world, occasionally visiting others for business or pleasure, but not going far, just living usually happy lives. But Travellers aren’t most Imperial citizens - they are those people that yearn to see other worlds and have adventures or do great things. They sign up with the Imperial military usually (Navy, Army, Marines) or the Scouts, or merchant companys or the megacorporations, and get to see and do things most others never will beyond their books and multi-media entertainment centers.
High political games and machinations on Capital (the capital world of the 3I, duh) among the nobles, and megacorp executives; various internecine “conflicts” between megacorps using the security divisions and shadow ops that can happen all over the 3I not just on Capital.