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I'm using this thread for the lore I'm currently creating for my planned StarCraft II project.
I'd really like to read your criticism and feedback - as long as a civilized tone is kept.
Please keep in mind that this is all still Work-In-Progress.
About the project itself:
It will be a campaign (maybe even a series, it depends, I don't want to plantoo much yet)
playing in an alternate universe, not related at all to the original StarCraft or StarCraft II.
The player will take control over one of the "Imperia", one of the major human factions,
and lead it through its conflicts.
While the story will be quite different from the original, gameplay-wise there will be many
similarities to the originial StarCraft universe campaigns - though I will focus more on the
simple "good, old, kill your enemy"concept.
In the campaign, the faction of Anarthon will be at your disposal.
For now, I will just use this to write some lore stuff.
Whether or not I will create content for SC2 using this is not decided yet.
Starting with the Human Nations:
The Imperia
Many centuries ago, long after humanity had successfully settled on other planets than their home planet of Terra, all contact to Terra, where the entire political system of the Terran Imperium had been situated, was suddenly lost. The planet and its system itself where just... gone. Scientists would later assume that a Black Hole must have been the reason of this.
The colonies were leaderless, the focus of their realm was just gone. As it is humanity's nature, panic erupted and they started waging war on each other for domination.
Years passed and the colonies turned into seven seperate and independent realms, later to be known as „The Imperia“, the remnants of the great Imperium. Every single realm had its own intentions, plans and idelogies.
As the centuries passed, the Imperia prospered, but only to be later destroyed by war again. At some point, a dangerous alien race appeared and attacked the Imperia. A few of them forged allianced to withstand the terrible creatures, others, like the Hordes of Mandark, stayed on their own.
Only after a centuries of war and destruction, the aliens were driven back – or rather, they stopped their invasion for reasons unknown. For a short time, peace endured. Humanity had to rebuild what had been lost.
However, the peace ended when the Deusian Syndicate attacked the Kingdom of Anarthon...
This is where our story starts, one year later.
Kingdom of Anarthon – Trade and Corruption
The planet Anarthon and the systems around it were the first real colonies of the Imperium.
Being rich in many ways, Anarthon became the pinnacle of trade after the fall of the Imperium. It was easy for the Anarthon nobles to get wealthy by buying and selling the goods at their disposal. Of course, the fact that they delcared themselves a kingdom with aristocratic structure, allowed the nobles to become even richer – at the expense of the others. The parliament of nobles that had a word in most of the king's decisions, didn't help at all. Many nobles became vain and arrogant, the social position of a person was directed by wealth soon. Anarthon had many kings and royal families, often forced to marry into another family that had more wealth or simply being removed completely for the lack of riches.
This corrupt system and internal unrest made it easy for the criminal Deusian Syndicate to attack and pillage the less defended planets, even conquer them. Ever since its foundation, Anarthon had to fight with the Deusian criminals that continued attacking them, stealing resources and even whole planets. As decades, even centuries passed, the two factions' hatred knew no bounds. Even during the alien invasion, Deusia and Anarthon continued attacking each other while also fighting the aliens. Only close to the end of the alien invasion, when the attacks became too strong to continue their war, Deusia and Anarthon stopped their own war to focus on their alien enemies.
During the last year, Anarthon kept losing ground to Deusia since the Syndicate was focusing on cutting the Kingdom's most important planets off.
The continued losses against Deusia made the last king of Anarthon commit suicide – some rumors say, though, he had been killed by angry nobles. However, now a new, young king has been crowned, giving promises to beat the Deusians and taking revenge for what they have done. However, there have been many promises like this before, only time will tell if this new king will fulfil his promises or if he too will „commit suicide“ one day.
Deusian Syndicate - Cunning and Murder
When it was first discovered by the Imperium, the planet Deusia was said to hold many valuable resources. However, after a few years it turned out that the scientists had been mistaken, the only resources on the planet were the ones on the surface – and their number was waning.
Therefore, the Imperium quickly lost interest and abandoned the planet after a few more years. The cities on the planet decayed, became monuments of what the fate of all resourceless planets was. However, the ruined cities quickly turned into new homes for those who were trying to escape Imperial law. Many criminal elements set up their bases there, using the planet as staging ground for their criminal business.
The Imperium never really tried getting rid of those criminals, in fact, they even used some of the criminal gangs for their own ends. Historians would later assume that the Imperium prefered having all criminals in one place instead of having them hiding everywhere.
However, after the fall of the Imperium, the number of criminal groups was increasing dramatically during the chaotic times. Without the Imperial enforces, it became much harder to put criminals to justice as it used to be. Deusia became more and more crowded, the number of fights between the different gangs increased and gang wars became even bloodier. For a long time, it was considered as luck not to be part of some gang war. Besides fighting each other, the Kingdom of Anarthon became the main target of the criminal's operations, simply for being the richest nation.
One day, the most powerful gangs of Deusia were told by unknown spies that Anarthon planned invading Deusia to put an end to their activities once and for all. In order to avoid being utterly crushed, the gangs left their grudges behind and created the Deusian Syndicate to face Anarthon's army. When the invasion started, Anarthon's commanders expected little resistance from the criminals and were suprised when all their enemies stood united against them. They had been misinformed by the very same spies that warned Deusia. Still, they managed to take billions of criminals with them before they either died or retreated. Both sides suffered greatly from this invasion and swore vengeance.
Instead of falling apart after this invasion, however, the Syndicate remained the ruling power of Deusia – its members had apparently realized how much power they had when they were united like this – and the Syndicate turned its whole attention on Anarthon. They no longer wished to only gain Anarthon's riches, they wished to make them pay – just as Anarthon wished to make Deusia pay ever since this great defeat.
Holy Realm of Farnor – Devotion and Fanatism
During the times of the Imperium, the planet Farnor used to be the center of religion and theology. The people there were completely loyal to the Pope, the head of the Imperial Church.
When the Imperium collapsed, the religious people of Farnor were the first to declare themselves independent. They saw themselves as the only faction that was pure, they believed that it was gods' will that now, with the fall of the terrestrial leaders, the spiritual leaders should take over and lead a new Imperium to true greatness.
Farnor quickly expanded by combining military crusades with religous preachings. The Holy Realm of Farnor was created.
The Farnorian people were devoted to their gods and fanatical followers of the Pope, the one person in power. They thought that people not sharing their faith and not joining them, had to be converted or to be burned alive, to be saved from their sins.
Ever since its foundation, Farnor has attacked every other faction with several crusades. The faith of its people made Farnor extremely strong, in both military and economical ways. Every attempt to defeat Farnor ended in a disaster.
The Larthon Union was declared heretical by Farnor and has suffered the most Farnorian Crusades. Larthon was known for its technological advantages and also for its theology that there was no such thing as gods. The ultimate insult for the Farnorians. Without its technology and without forming alliances and hiring mercenaries, Farnor would already have conquered and cleansed Larthon a long time ago – by burning all planets belonging to the Union until nothing was left.
Free Men of Regon – Honor and Stubbornness
Regon had always been a planet for people who weren't too fond of the Imperium and its whole government. The people there always wanted a democracy, they wanted to be able to choose their ruler instead of being forced to tolerate one they couldn't vote for themselves.
Since Regon was a rich planet, the Imperium allowed them to create their own small government for their planet as long as they paid high fees for it and accepted not being protected by Imperial law.
Due to this, Regon was the most stabilized region when the Imperium collapsed after the disappearance of Terra and many fled into its system of democracy. Shortly after Farnor and Anarthon declared that they wanted to rebuild the Imperium in their own ways, Regon did the same. Regons president declared that it was Regons honor and duty to create a realm of Freedom and Democracy, where the people, both rich and poor, would choose their own government. He announced democracy the only way to ensure freedom for everyone. Still, things like the so-called Mandark Incident proved that some parts of this democracy were utterly broken and that many were looking for power and riches, without caring for freedom.
After Mandark's foundation as an own faction, Regon's golden times were over. Mandark pirates, mercenaries and pillagers were the bane of the government and many presidents had been forced to retire for not being able to put an end to this, as many had promised. Ultimately, the government became absolutely paranoid, fearing a Mandark Invasion more than anything else. They ignored the spies who told them that the Mandark wargroups only wanted to pillage resources and had no interest in invading Regon.
Even during the alien invasion, when Mandark stopped any pillages to focus on its own defense, Regon still sent many troops to the wrong positions to be prepared for an eventual Mandark invasion – leaving them completely defenseless on other positions where the aliens attacked them easily. If Regon hadn't allied with other nations back then, it would've fallen. Regon politicans, of course, blamed Mandark pirates who had been the bane of their government for many centuries.
After the alien invasion, Regon lied in ruins due to all the tactical mistakes that had been commited by the politicans, ignoring both spies and generals. Up until today, Regon's government heavily relies on credits from Anarthon to rebuild their homes. The once great republic is close to its downfall, even though Mandark hadn't launched any big raid since the alien invasion.
Larthon Technocracy – Technology and Atheism
The planetary system Larthon had been settled by freethinkers, researchers and scientists a few years after Terra disappeared. They had escaped the Farnorian Crusaders and the regimes they didn't want to be part of. First, the settlers worked against each other, forming different groups of scientists. However, seeing Farnor becoming more and more powerful, they formed the Larthon Technocracy and worked together to defend against the invasions of fanatics and those who wanted to steal their technological successes.
Together, they managed to create real miracles of technology. However, they also required those to survive Farnor's attacks.
Religion is completely absent in Larthon's society, as they believe in science alone – since they even go so far to condemn everyone who believes in such a thing as a higher being as blind fools. For obvious reasons, Farnor is not pleased about this, but so far, the fanatics haven't been able to punish the Larthon people due to their technological advantages – they keep trying though and by doing so, they avoid Larthon to discover new technologies that might actually serve peace instead of war.
When the alien invasion erupted, Larthon did a good job at holding them back. Since the crusades of their enemy Farnor forced them to be prepared for an invasion all the time, the alien attack was - while still being unexpected - no "real" surprise.
First thinking that the aliens were Farnor's doing, Larthon continued its war with the other nation by attacking it - only to find out that Farnor was invaded by the aliens as well. While Farnor blamed Larthon for the aliens and prepared for another crusade, the Shadows of Erasur appeared and convinced both sides to stop their petty war while the aliens endangered mankind itself.
Many believe that it were the Technocracy's technologies that saved mankind by destroying the main bulk of the aliens with secret weapons. However, since Larthon never showed any interest in sharing its technolgies with other factions, it never became more than a rumor. Farnor, of course, claimed that it was their divine gods' doing that the alien invasion ended.
After the invasion, Larthon was afraid that the next Farnorian Crusade would be close, and attempted to create an alliance with the Shadows of Erasur. They wanted to exchange technology against information - a historical event that displeased most other factions since Larthon had always been unwilling to share anything, no matter what had been offered - and failed. The Shadows had no interest in an alliance, they only traded information as they saw fit.
Larthon attempted to ally with other factions, but with less success than it could have hoped. Years of political isolation and the unwillingness to share their technological wonders, had severly damaged the Technocracy's reputation. Additionally, no one wanted a war at this point, especially not with such a terrible enemy as Farnor.
This forced Larthon to spend enormous amounts of money to hire Mandark mercenaries - the Mandark weren't afraid of any crusader and their reputation was legendary after they had survived the alien invasion with no allies or diplomacy at all.
While most of Larthon trusts the Mandark mercenaries, some are worried that this alliance might need to difficulties in the future.
Shadows of Erasur – Shadow and Intrigue
The Shadows of Erasur are almost as old as the Imperium itself would be if Terra was still there. They were formerly known as “Shadows of the Imperium“, a secret service of spies and diplomats, serving the Imperium in whatever way neccessary.
When the Imperium started colonizing other planets, the Shadows moved to the waste planet Erasur, since the Imperium wanted an entire planet and its underground for the Shadows. The Imperium invested more and more money into the Shaodws because they wanted to ensure that their secret service could deal with anything on any planet when needed – and so they did. The Shadows of Erasur did whatever had to be done in the name of the Imperium.
When Terra disappeared, contact to Erasur had been lost for quite some time too. All records of the planets' very location were lost.
However, Erasur continued spying on the other factions, selling certain information for a price and also gifting some if they deemed it neccessary. They appear to work as a business company without the Imperium, though it is unknown to anyone outside the Shadows of Erasur who is actually in charge.
Out of all Imperia, the Shadows of Erasur are keeping the most historical knowledge from the times of the Imperium and seem to honor it in many ways.
Many believe that it were spies from Erasur that warned the Deusians of the Anarthon invasion – while also deceiving Anarthon into thinking that Deusia would be defenseless.
While there are no proofs for anything like that or other involvements, the Shadows are believed to have a hand in everything that is related to information, attempting to keep some kind of balance between the different human factions and avoid one of them getting the upper hand for unknown purposes. At the same time, it were the Shadows who made it possible for the different factions to form an alliance when the aliens attacked.
Hordes of Mandark – Pillagers and Warriors
The planet formerly known as Clyen is a lifeless, rocky planet with little to no natural resources. The colonists there used to depend completely on the other planets of the Imperium to survive. However, Clyen was a planet of very valuable metals, that's why the Imperium settled it. The metals there were worth enough to easily make worth the effort.
However, when the Imperium collapsed, the people of Clyen no longer wished to work for others – they didn't trust any of the other factions and knew they'd be abused by them.
They created the Independent Planet of Clyen faction, but it was quickly crushed by the other factions. Clyen was conquered and pacified by the Free Men of Regon. Unbeknownst to the Regon Capital, their new appointed governor of Clyen abused his power and turned the life on Clyen for all whose origins weren't Regonite to hell. He turned them into slaves, collected a huge amount of metals for himself and became very wealthy.
Years passed and the Regonites became more and more cruel towards the enslaved population. One day, a heavily armored figure appeared in one of the Regonite slave camps. Without using any weapons, only with his bare hands, he brought down the entire guard there, spitting on their corpses and taking their weapons, arming the slaves. He shouted at them, challenging them to stand up to "the surpressing Free Sons of Bitches of Regon". Impressed by his strength, the people followed him and camp after camp was being conquered by the growing resistance.
In the end, the revolution managed to get to the governor's estate and their leader tortured him, made him screamm for mercy for hours and finally teared off his head with bare hands. He was hailed as hero and the planet was to be named after the one man who started the revolution, called himself Mandark, emissary of true freedom and warrior of righteousness. His followers were to be known as the Hordes of Mandark.
The night after the governor died, Mandark disappeared, his last words were that his work was done.
His followers, the Hordes of Mandark, had lost the one who united them the day they gained their freedom. After a few months of chaos, an emissary of Regon appeared, bringing them an excuse from the Free Men of Regon, claiming not to have known what happened on Clyen. He offered them free supply in exchange for the metals. He was beheaded, his remains sent back to Regon. The Hordes organized themselves in several big warbands and started raiding the nearby planets. Their time as slaves and as followers of Mandark had turned them into strong warriors.
Today, the Hordes' warbands operate as individual groups, with only one common goal: Taking care of their homeplanet, supplying it with everything they can gather. Some of the warbands work as mercenaries, ready to fight to their death for money and supplies, others still pillage other factions – mostly the Free Men of Regon – to gather what they need. On Mandark, young men and women are prepared to fight from childhood.
The Hordes of Mandark, unwilling to work with any of the other factions as allies, were able to withstand the invasion of the aliens all on their own which made the demand of Mandark mercenaries shoot up dramatically. They themselves claim they can feel the call of their ancestor and saviour Mandark in battle, giving them strength to fight to the bitter end. Many of Mandark still believe that their beloved liberator is still somewhere out there, even after so many centuries, watching over them.
Since its liberation, Mandark had little to no peaceful interaction with any other faction except for the Kingdom of Anarthon. The merchants there were more than willing to supply Mandark with resources paid to a fair price. The good connections with Mandark make Anarthon the only realm being completely spared of any Mandark raids – just another reason for them to continue being fair.
Sinisa Society - Art and Advisability
After the fall of the Empire, when wars erupted as many wanted to seek domination through war, the planet of Sinisa, the center of art and culture during the times of the Empire, founded the Sinisa Society, a place that was supposed to remain free of the violence that seemingly controlled the other Imperia. Instead, Sinisa used diplomacy to achieve its goals and to grow. It didn't take them long until several systems had joined the society and it grew tremendously in power without using any form of violence.
In order to keep themselves safe from the other factions, the Society had its diplomats negotiate an enormous amount of contracts with other factions. In exchange for several different goods, diplomatic support and other favors, Sinisa managed to remain peaceful - at least for the most part, as they had been unable to completely put an end to Deusian sabotages or pirates from Mandark. All attempts to make a pact with Mandark similar to the one Anarthon had made had been unsuccessful as the people of Mandark didn't trust the Sinisa Society.
Sinisa, while appearing to be a peaceful place for culture and art, had countless dark secrets lurking below the surface. Not all of their contracts had been negotiated by "ordinary" means and not all of the tricks used by them have been as "peaceful" as they claim to be. Especially during the alien invasion, as it is said that Sinisa had lured several Mandark mercenary groups into their service with false promises about support that would be sent to Mandark even if the mercenaries died, but they never fulfilled their part of the deal when the mercenaries died while fighting the aliens - and the people of Mandark have a long memory, as the Free Men of Regon know all too well, and as the Sinisa Society would learn too.
After the alien invasion, no mercenarcy of Mandark would accept to work for anyone within the Sinisa Society. This caused the different groups within the Society to re-consider their allegiences since those mercenaries were highly sought after - often even simply as a status symbol. While Sinisa appears peaceful, united and focused on art on the outside, the conflicts within have already broken it apart into several independent groups that follow their own agenda.
Many centuries ago, long after humanity had successfully settled on other planets than their home planet of Terra, all contact to Terra, where the entire political system of the Terran Imperium had been situated, was suddenly lost. The planet and its system itself where just... gone. Scientists would later assume that a Black Hole must have been the reason of this.
The colonies were leaderless, the focus of their realm was just gone. As it is humanity's nature, panic erupted and they started waging war on each other for domination.
Years passed and the colonies turned into seven seperate and independent realms, later to be known as „The Imperia“, the remnants of the great Imperium. Every single realm had its own intentions, plans and idelogies.
As the centuries passed, the Imperia prospered, but only to be later destroyed by war again. At some point, a dangerous alien race appeared and attacked the Imperia. A few of them forged allianced to withstand the terrible creatures, others, like the Hordes of Mandark, stayed on their own.
Only after a centuries of war and destruction, the aliens were driven back – or rather, they stopped their invasion for reasons unknown. For a short time, peace endured. Humanity had to rebuild what had been lost.
However, the peace ended when the Deusian Syndicate attacked the Kingdom of Anarthon...
This is where our story starts, one year later.
Kingdom of Anarthon – Trade and Corruption
The planet Anarthon and the systems around it were the first real colonies of the Imperium.
Being rich in many ways, Anarthon became the pinnacle of trade after the fall of the Imperium. It was easy for the Anarthon nobles to get wealthy by buying and selling the goods at their disposal. Of course, the fact that they delcared themselves a kingdom with aristocratic structure, allowed the nobles to become even richer – at the expense of the others. The parliament of nobles that had a word in most of the king's decisions, didn't help at all. Many nobles became vain and arrogant, the social position of a person was directed by wealth soon. Anarthon had many kings and royal families, often forced to marry into another family that had more wealth or simply being removed completely for the lack of riches.
This corrupt system and internal unrest made it easy for the criminal Deusian Syndicate to attack and pillage the less defended planets, even conquer them. Ever since its foundation, Anarthon had to fight with the Deusian criminals that continued attacking them, stealing resources and even whole planets. As decades, even centuries passed, the two factions' hatred knew no bounds. Even during the alien invasion, Deusia and Anarthon continued attacking each other while also fighting the aliens. Only close to the end of the alien invasion, when the attacks became too strong to continue their war, Deusia and Anarthon stopped their own war to focus on their alien enemies.
During the last year, Anarthon kept losing ground to Deusia since the Syndicate was focusing on cutting the Kingdom's most important planets off.
The continued losses against Deusia made the last king of Anarthon commit suicide – some rumors say, though, he had been killed by angry nobles. However, now a new, young king has been crowned, giving promises to beat the Deusians and taking revenge for what they have done. However, there have been many promises like this before, only time will tell if this new king will fulfil his promises or if he too will „commit suicide“ one day.
Deusian Syndicate - Cunning and Murder
When it was first discovered by the Imperium, the planet Deusia was said to hold many valuable resources. However, after a few years it turned out that the scientists had been mistaken, the only resources on the planet were the ones on the surface – and their number was waning.
Therefore, the Imperium quickly lost interest and abandoned the planet after a few more years. The cities on the planet decayed, became monuments of what the fate of all resourceless planets was. However, the ruined cities quickly turned into new homes for those who were trying to escape Imperial law. Many criminal elements set up their bases there, using the planet as staging ground for their criminal business.
The Imperium never really tried getting rid of those criminals, in fact, they even used some of the criminal gangs for their own ends. Historians would later assume that the Imperium prefered having all criminals in one place instead of having them hiding everywhere.
However, after the fall of the Imperium, the number of criminal groups was increasing dramatically during the chaotic times. Without the Imperial enforces, it became much harder to put criminals to justice as it used to be. Deusia became more and more crowded, the number of fights between the different gangs increased and gang wars became even bloodier. For a long time, it was considered as luck not to be part of some gang war. Besides fighting each other, the Kingdom of Anarthon became the main target of the criminal's operations, simply for being the richest nation.
One day, the most powerful gangs of Deusia were told by unknown spies that Anarthon planned invading Deusia to put an end to their activities once and for all. In order to avoid being utterly crushed, the gangs left their grudges behind and created the Deusian Syndicate to face Anarthon's army. When the invasion started, Anarthon's commanders expected little resistance from the criminals and were suprised when all their enemies stood united against them. They had been misinformed by the very same spies that warned Deusia. Still, they managed to take billions of criminals with them before they either died or retreated. Both sides suffered greatly from this invasion and swore vengeance.
Instead of falling apart after this invasion, however, the Syndicate remained the ruling power of Deusia – its members had apparently realized how much power they had when they were united like this – and the Syndicate turned its whole attention on Anarthon. They no longer wished to only gain Anarthon's riches, they wished to make them pay – just as Anarthon wished to make Deusia pay ever since this great defeat.
Holy Realm of Farnor – Devotion and Fanatism
During the times of the Imperium, the planet Farnor used to be the center of religion and theology. The people there were completely loyal to the Pope, the head of the Imperial Church.
When the Imperium collapsed, the religious people of Farnor were the first to declare themselves independent. They saw themselves as the only faction that was pure, they believed that it was gods' will that now, with the fall of the terrestrial leaders, the spiritual leaders should take over and lead a new Imperium to true greatness.
Farnor quickly expanded by combining military crusades with religous preachings. The Holy Realm of Farnor was created.
The Farnorian people were devoted to their gods and fanatical followers of the Pope, the one person in power. They thought that people not sharing their faith and not joining them, had to be converted or to be burned alive, to be saved from their sins.
Ever since its foundation, Farnor has attacked every other faction with several crusades. The faith of its people made Farnor extremely strong, in both military and economical ways. Every attempt to defeat Farnor ended in a disaster.
The Larthon Union was declared heretical by Farnor and has suffered the most Farnorian Crusades. Larthon was known for its technological advantages and also for its theology that there was no such thing as gods. The ultimate insult for the Farnorians. Without its technology and without forming alliances and hiring mercenaries, Farnor would already have conquered and cleansed Larthon a long time ago – by burning all planets belonging to the Union until nothing was left.
Free Men of Regon – Honor and Stubbornness
Regon had always been a planet for people who weren't too fond of the Imperium and its whole government. The people there always wanted a democracy, they wanted to be able to choose their ruler instead of being forced to tolerate one they couldn't vote for themselves.
Since Regon was a rich planet, the Imperium allowed them to create their own small government for their planet as long as they paid high fees for it and accepted not being protected by Imperial law.
Due to this, Regon was the most stabilized region when the Imperium collapsed after the disappearance of Terra and many fled into its system of democracy. Shortly after Farnor and Anarthon declared that they wanted to rebuild the Imperium in their own ways, Regon did the same. Regons president declared that it was Regons honor and duty to create a realm of Freedom and Democracy, where the people, both rich and poor, would choose their own government. He announced democracy the only way to ensure freedom for everyone. Still, things like the so-called Mandark Incident proved that some parts of this democracy were utterly broken and that many were looking for power and riches, without caring for freedom.
After Mandark's foundation as an own faction, Regon's golden times were over. Mandark pirates, mercenaries and pillagers were the bane of the government and many presidents had been forced to retire for not being able to put an end to this, as many had promised. Ultimately, the government became absolutely paranoid, fearing a Mandark Invasion more than anything else. They ignored the spies who told them that the Mandark wargroups only wanted to pillage resources and had no interest in invading Regon.
Even during the alien invasion, when Mandark stopped any pillages to focus on its own defense, Regon still sent many troops to the wrong positions to be prepared for an eventual Mandark invasion – leaving them completely defenseless on other positions where the aliens attacked them easily. If Regon hadn't allied with other nations back then, it would've fallen. Regon politicans, of course, blamed Mandark pirates who had been the bane of their government for many centuries.
After the alien invasion, Regon lied in ruins due to all the tactical mistakes that had been commited by the politicans, ignoring both spies and generals. Up until today, Regon's government heavily relies on credits from Anarthon to rebuild their homes. The once great republic is close to its downfall, even though Mandark hadn't launched any big raid since the alien invasion.
Larthon Technocracy – Technology and Atheism
The planetary system Larthon had been settled by freethinkers, researchers and scientists a few years after Terra disappeared. They had escaped the Farnorian Crusaders and the regimes they didn't want to be part of. First, the settlers worked against each other, forming different groups of scientists. However, seeing Farnor becoming more and more powerful, they formed the Larthon Technocracy and worked together to defend against the invasions of fanatics and those who wanted to steal their technological successes.
Together, they managed to create real miracles of technology. However, they also required those to survive Farnor's attacks.
Religion is completely absent in Larthon's society, as they believe in science alone – since they even go so far to condemn everyone who believes in such a thing as a higher being as blind fools. For obvious reasons, Farnor is not pleased about this, but so far, the fanatics haven't been able to punish the Larthon people due to their technological advantages – they keep trying though and by doing so, they avoid Larthon to discover new technologies that might actually serve peace instead of war.
When the alien invasion erupted, Larthon did a good job at holding them back. Since the crusades of their enemy Farnor forced them to be prepared for an invasion all the time, the alien attack was - while still being unexpected - no "real" surprise.
First thinking that the aliens were Farnor's doing, Larthon continued its war with the other nation by attacking it - only to find out that Farnor was invaded by the aliens as well. While Farnor blamed Larthon for the aliens and prepared for another crusade, the Shadows of Erasur appeared and convinced both sides to stop their petty war while the aliens endangered mankind itself.
Many believe that it were the Technocracy's technologies that saved mankind by destroying the main bulk of the aliens with secret weapons. However, since Larthon never showed any interest in sharing its technolgies with other factions, it never became more than a rumor. Farnor, of course, claimed that it was their divine gods' doing that the alien invasion ended.
After the invasion, Larthon was afraid that the next Farnorian Crusade would be close, and attempted to create an alliance with the Shadows of Erasur. They wanted to exchange technology against information - a historical event that displeased most other factions since Larthon had always been unwilling to share anything, no matter what had been offered - and failed. The Shadows had no interest in an alliance, they only traded information as they saw fit.
Larthon attempted to ally with other factions, but with less success than it could have hoped. Years of political isolation and the unwillingness to share their technological wonders, had severly damaged the Technocracy's reputation. Additionally, no one wanted a war at this point, especially not with such a terrible enemy as Farnor.
This forced Larthon to spend enormous amounts of money to hire Mandark mercenaries - the Mandark weren't afraid of any crusader and their reputation was legendary after they had survived the alien invasion with no allies or diplomacy at all.
While most of Larthon trusts the Mandark mercenaries, some are worried that this alliance might need to difficulties in the future.
Shadows of Erasur – Shadow and Intrigue
The Shadows of Erasur are almost as old as the Imperium itself would be if Terra was still there. They were formerly known as “Shadows of the Imperium“, a secret service of spies and diplomats, serving the Imperium in whatever way neccessary.
When the Imperium started colonizing other planets, the Shadows moved to the waste planet Erasur, since the Imperium wanted an entire planet and its underground for the Shadows. The Imperium invested more and more money into the Shaodws because they wanted to ensure that their secret service could deal with anything on any planet when needed – and so they did. The Shadows of Erasur did whatever had to be done in the name of the Imperium.
When Terra disappeared, contact to Erasur had been lost for quite some time too. All records of the planets' very location were lost.
However, Erasur continued spying on the other factions, selling certain information for a price and also gifting some if they deemed it neccessary. They appear to work as a business company without the Imperium, though it is unknown to anyone outside the Shadows of Erasur who is actually in charge.
Out of all Imperia, the Shadows of Erasur are keeping the most historical knowledge from the times of the Imperium and seem to honor it in many ways.
Many believe that it were spies from Erasur that warned the Deusians of the Anarthon invasion – while also deceiving Anarthon into thinking that Deusia would be defenseless.
While there are no proofs for anything like that or other involvements, the Shadows are believed to have a hand in everything that is related to information, attempting to keep some kind of balance between the different human factions and avoid one of them getting the upper hand for unknown purposes. At the same time, it were the Shadows who made it possible for the different factions to form an alliance when the aliens attacked.
Hordes of Mandark – Pillagers and Warriors
The planet formerly known as Clyen is a lifeless, rocky planet with little to no natural resources. The colonists there used to depend completely on the other planets of the Imperium to survive. However, Clyen was a planet of very valuable metals, that's why the Imperium settled it. The metals there were worth enough to easily make worth the effort.
However, when the Imperium collapsed, the people of Clyen no longer wished to work for others – they didn't trust any of the other factions and knew they'd be abused by them.
They created the Independent Planet of Clyen faction, but it was quickly crushed by the other factions. Clyen was conquered and pacified by the Free Men of Regon. Unbeknownst to the Regon Capital, their new appointed governor of Clyen abused his power and turned the life on Clyen for all whose origins weren't Regonite to hell. He turned them into slaves, collected a huge amount of metals for himself and became very wealthy.
Years passed and the Regonites became more and more cruel towards the enslaved population. One day, a heavily armored figure appeared in one of the Regonite slave camps. Without using any weapons, only with his bare hands, he brought down the entire guard there, spitting on their corpses and taking their weapons, arming the slaves. He shouted at them, challenging them to stand up to "the surpressing Free Sons of Bitches of Regon". Impressed by his strength, the people followed him and camp after camp was being conquered by the growing resistance.
In the end, the revolution managed to get to the governor's estate and their leader tortured him, made him screamm for mercy for hours and finally teared off his head with bare hands. He was hailed as hero and the planet was to be named after the one man who started the revolution, called himself Mandark, emissary of true freedom and warrior of righteousness. His followers were to be known as the Hordes of Mandark.
The night after the governor died, Mandark disappeared, his last words were that his work was done.
His followers, the Hordes of Mandark, had lost the one who united them the day they gained their freedom. After a few months of chaos, an emissary of Regon appeared, bringing them an excuse from the Free Men of Regon, claiming not to have known what happened on Clyen. He offered them free supply in exchange for the metals. He was beheaded, his remains sent back to Regon. The Hordes organized themselves in several big warbands and started raiding the nearby planets. Their time as slaves and as followers of Mandark had turned them into strong warriors.
Today, the Hordes' warbands operate as individual groups, with only one common goal: Taking care of their homeplanet, supplying it with everything they can gather. Some of the warbands work as mercenaries, ready to fight to their death for money and supplies, others still pillage other factions – mostly the Free Men of Regon – to gather what they need. On Mandark, young men and women are prepared to fight from childhood.
The Hordes of Mandark, unwilling to work with any of the other factions as allies, were able to withstand the invasion of the aliens all on their own which made the demand of Mandark mercenaries shoot up dramatically. They themselves claim they can feel the call of their ancestor and saviour Mandark in battle, giving them strength to fight to the bitter end. Many of Mandark still believe that their beloved liberator is still somewhere out there, even after so many centuries, watching over them.
Since its liberation, Mandark had little to no peaceful interaction with any other faction except for the Kingdom of Anarthon. The merchants there were more than willing to supply Mandark with resources paid to a fair price. The good connections with Mandark make Anarthon the only realm being completely spared of any Mandark raids – just another reason for them to continue being fair.
Sinisa Society - Art and Advisability
After the fall of the Empire, when wars erupted as many wanted to seek domination through war, the planet of Sinisa, the center of art and culture during the times of the Empire, founded the Sinisa Society, a place that was supposed to remain free of the violence that seemingly controlled the other Imperia. Instead, Sinisa used diplomacy to achieve its goals and to grow. It didn't take them long until several systems had joined the society and it grew tremendously in power without using any form of violence.
In order to keep themselves safe from the other factions, the Society had its diplomats negotiate an enormous amount of contracts with other factions. In exchange for several different goods, diplomatic support and other favors, Sinisa managed to remain peaceful - at least for the most part, as they had been unable to completely put an end to Deusian sabotages or pirates from Mandark. All attempts to make a pact with Mandark similar to the one Anarthon had made had been unsuccessful as the people of Mandark didn't trust the Sinisa Society.
Sinisa, while appearing to be a peaceful place for culture and art, had countless dark secrets lurking below the surface. Not all of their contracts had been negotiated by "ordinary" means and not all of the tricks used by them have been as "peaceful" as they claim to be. Especially during the alien invasion, as it is said that Sinisa had lured several Mandark mercenary groups into their service with false promises about support that would be sent to Mandark even if the mercenaries died, but they never fulfilled their part of the deal when the mercenaries died while fighting the aliens - and the people of Mandark have a long memory, as the Free Men of Regon know all too well, and as the Sinisa Society would learn too.
After the alien invasion, no mercenarcy of Mandark would accept to work for anyone within the Sinisa Society. This caused the different groups within the Society to re-consider their allegiences since those mercenaries were highly sought after - often even simply as a status symbol. While Sinisa appears peaceful, united and focused on art on the outside, the conflicts within have already broken it apart into several independent groups that follow their own agenda.
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