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On the old Wikia, I used to use the blog function to document retcons and other announcements to my personal lore. As far as I am aware, our much-improved new wiki has no such feature. As such, I will now use the "discussion" tab of my user page to publicly document my retcons. It's less clean than the blog function, but seeing as how it's exactly as functional, this does not bother me. With that out of the way, here are all of the drastic changes I've made to pre-existing content in my lore thus far:

Changes to Lore: February 2, 2018

Humanity

Most of the retcons in this entry pertain to the Keilicaela; however, I had to make some changes to humanity in order to accommodate said changes. To begin, humanity had only one minor war with the Keilicaela. This conflict did not see humans touch Namine's soil. Likewise, no recorded Keilicaela incursions were made against Earth. This sets the two species on more neutral ground, which better reflects their standing with each other as seen in most Unbroken content. Furthermore, this means that humans did not destroy Cryorcia. In hindsight, I find it nigh-impossible to believe that humanity had the technological or military prowess to destroy an entire moon, much less one in orbit over the homeworld of a civilization much more advanced and capable than they. Additionally, if they hypothetically could shatter Cryorcia, the Keilicaela backlash should have seen the so-called "Terran Empire" (a name that I loathe and is in the process of being changed) annihilated from the face of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Keilicaela

Cryorcia

Seeing as how humanity never destroyed Cryorcia, I am introducing a retcon that makes Cryorcia into a celestial entity that has been shattered since before recorded Keilicaela civilization. This solves another problem; were Cryorcia to be destroyed, Namine's tidal patterns should have been altered to catastrophic effect; an event that did not occur in the lore. Removing the destruction event removes the necessity for a global, civilization-threatening natural disaster. Cryorcia has forever hanged in the sky as a sundered testament to the wrath of some irreconcilable cosmic Ragnarok. There was no Cryorcia colony. This is how Keilicaela-kind has always known it, and it is how they will forever see it.

Timeline

A look back upon events in the history of the Keilicaela reveals to me that too much happened too quickly. Overhauling the timeline will allow me to space events further apart from each other, making the duration of said events more realistic. Furthermore, it gives me the opportunity to completely adopt the Keilicaela Empire's Reformation Epoch Calendar, which will keep the Gregorian dates of Keilicaela history ambiguous and lessen the likelihood of the timeline overhaul conflicting with another writer's lore.

Before the Reformation Epoch

This epoch lasts 5,244 years, starting at 0 BRE.

  • ???? BRE: Ner-Keilicaela driven to extinction by interbreeding and war
  • ???? BRE: Cult of Namine emerges, rising to prominence amongst the entire species
  • 3,740 BRE: Thutria, the first city-state, is founded
  • 4,000 BRE: City-states emerge to compete with Thutria, becoming the most prevalent form of civilization
  • 4,780 BRE: Cult of Namine loses influence as the last few tribes are consumed by city-states
  • 5,000 BRE: Imperium arrives on Namine
  • 5,123 BRE: Kycelid is born
  • 5,125 BRE: Cythrek is born
  • 5,240 BRE: After years of persecution, the Cult of Namine is all but destroyed by the Imperium; 240 years under the Imperium yoke has elevated the semi-primitive Keilicaela societies to levels of technological advancement yet unseen
  • 5,240 BRE: Descendants of Thutria created by Cythrek
  • 5,244 BRE: Enlightened Ones turn their sights to Namine; final year of BRE
Reformation Epoch

This epoch lasts 573 years, starting at 0 RE.

  • 0 RE: Namine formally freed from Imperium oppression
  • 0 RE: Cytrhek reorganizes the Descendants of Thutria into the Seething Sting
  • 0 RE: Suddenly-independent Keilicaela societies, left with advanced technology that has existed less than an average Keilicaela lifetime, begin to update their infrastructure, vehicles, weapons, and other such installations
  • 0 RE: The city-state Verikron enters into a nonaggression pact with the city-states Skopida and Thyste, forming the Verikron Federation
  • 2 RE: A state of almost-perpetual war between the city-states of Namine begins, not to conclude until 573 RE
  • 3 RE: The Verikron Federation begins reverse-engineering Imperium spacecraft technology
  • 5 RE: Kycelid is cryogenically frozen
  • 99 RE: Federation reverse-engineering efforts bear fruit with a fightercraft prototype
  • 100 RE: First AI prototype
  • 101 RE: Cythrek dies
  • 110 RE: Keilicaela spacecraft technology becomes viable and is under a Federation monopoly
  • 115 RE: City-states hostile to the Federation succeed in espionage efforts and secure the blueprints to construct their own fightercraft
  • 117 RE: The city-states of Namine now war in the solar system, competing for asteroid mining rights
  • 393 RE: Ferkanid Trinalak is born
  • 431 RE: Ferkanid becomes Commander-in-Chief of the Verikron Federation
  • 433 RE: Ferknaid begins his push to end the 431-year-long war with the intent of conquering Namine
  • 450 RE: The Verikron Federation begins studying faster-than-light travel, opening the door for the advent of Tearstream 154 years later
  • 499 RE: Zyrexis Scendtherinae is born
  • 570 RE: A grand fleet of Federation fightercraft is constructed under Ferkanid's orders
  • 573 RE: The Verikron Federation is the dominant power on Namine; final year of RE
Post-Reformation Epoch

This epoch has been ongoing for 986 years, staring at 0 PRE.

  • 0 PRE: Having conquered Namine, the Verikron Federation reorganizes into the Keilicaela Empire
  • 20 PRE: Ferkanid Trinalak dies; Zyrexis Scendtherinae declared Supreme Commander
  • 31 PRE: Tearstream technology emerges
  • 34 PRE: Universal Tearstream Solutions, a company comprised of the minds behind the Tearstream drive, is formed
  • 50 PRE: Nymerris becomes weaponized
  • 51 PRE: The Empire initiates its agenda to colonize different planets
  • 113 PRE: Zyrexis Scendtherinae is assassinated by the Seething Sting; his successor is currently undocumented
  • 200 PRE: The Keilicaela Empire expands to 20 star systems and grows to around 60 before the Fall of Namine
  • 500 PRE: Keilicaela AI become self-aware
  • 812 PRE: Cavthiex Aristoptera is born
  • 885 PRE: Cavthiex Aristoptera is declared Supreme Commander
  • 921 PRE: Cosula Underwater Base constructed
  • 929 PRE: Philanthix Sivintalica is born
  • 930 PRE: Eternal Solace constructed; Kycerida is born
  • 931 PRE: Vespid is born
  • 933 PRE: Thisposa is born
  • 940 PRE: Acid Rain undergoes manufacturing
  • 942 PRE: Thegalet undergoes initial development
  • 945 PRE: Angen-2 colony is wiped out by the Death Plague event; Eternal Solace disappears
  • 948 PRE: Universal Tearstream Solutions begins manufacturing the Chasmstrider
  • 949 PRE: Corruption emerges; Fall of Namine; Empire displaced; Cavthiex deposed
  • 949 PRE: Vespid arrives on Terreki
  • 950 PRE: Imperial colonies balkanize while the sundered Namine enters the Reconstruction; four systems enter into a pact while the other three form the Qualdron Alignment
  • 950 PRE: Keilicaela worlds manage to defend themselves against Corruption incursion; some smaller and more remote systems fall prey and are annihilated
  • 951 PRE: In a bloody coup, Philanthix Sivintalica ascends to the head of the Qualdron Alignment
  • 951 PRE: Vespid founds the Terreki Conglomerate
  • 960 PRE: Stormbound Coalition anti-Alignment insurgency group founded
  • 962 PRE: The Corruption invade Terreki and the Terreki Resistance rises from the ashes of the Terreki Conglomerate
  • 975 PRE: All known Corruption instances become extinct
  • 979 PRE: Reconstruction efforts come to a close with one final, grand push from Vespid's allies and the Ashderian Regime
  • 980 PRE: Second Empire forms with Vespid at the helm; non-Alignment colonies join the Second Empire
  • 980 PRE: Alignment declares war on the Empire
  • 981 PRE: Alignment reverse-engineering revitalizes the Corruption using the Death Plague genome; Vespid sends Imperial war machine into overdrive
  • 982 PRE: Kycelid is unfrozen and recovered by the Ashderian Regime
  • 983 PRE: The Alignment is crushed and the second Corruption driven to extinction; Philanthix Sivintalica dies; Stormbound Coalition remains a lasting power on Qualdron
  • 985 PRE: Crysek arc
  • 986 PRE: Boundary Cataclysm; Princefall; present year

Corruption

I don't like the way the Corruption are portrayed. They're a rather nebulous species. Frankly, it makes no sense to me how a parasitic mutagen that perpetuates itself by infecting other species has, within its family, species that only occur within the Corruption. I am removing "Corruption-exclusive" species from the canon. Any species within the Corruption can be found in an "un-corrupted" form outside of the Corruption. Furthermore, I want the Corruption to be more than a run-of-the-mill space infection that mutates whatever it touches. I don't know what I'm going to do yet, but I am toying with the idea of making "Corruption" an ironic name, as the parasite speeds the evolution of its host to its logical conclusion, creating a "super-organism" that is, for reasons undetermined, unforgivingly hostile. Another idea I am considering turns the Corruption into a semi-machine race that grotesquely fuses whatever it touches with alien, organic robotic components. Whatever I decide, the Corruption will not remain as it is now. Count on it.

Other Notes

  • "Keilicaela" is now the preferred term over "Waspcaela." I intend to comb the Wiki and replace most instances of "Waspcaela," save for those that mention "Waspcaela" as a less-common slang term.
  • With the changes to humanity's relationship with the Keilicaela, Vespid's father did not die fending off invading human soldiers. Rather, he perished against the Death Plague on Angen-2.

Redefining the Corruption: October 4, 2018

As I mentioned in my previous post, I find myself rather dissatisfied with the Corruption as they exist in Unbroken's current lore. I have outlined a potential overhaul of the species that molds them into something I think is unique, memorable, and, most importantly, threatening. I am yet to decide if this will be fully implemented; this idea has problems I will get into once I have laid out its substance.

A Plague of Nanites

A gray storm consumes the Milky Way, converting all organic life it touches into mechanical approximations of what they once were. Fleshly anatomy keeps its structure, but is remade into something utterly metallic and artificial. Hordes of automatons, once people and animals, become unliving hives, manufacturing and spreading infectious nanites from within their own bowels. The android and AI children of organic species are not immune--indeed, they may be even more susceptible--as the nanites transmit their intelligence through comm networks, digitally corrupting organic-produced AI and using them for their own ends. Any passing notion of a cure is whimsical at best; the transformation from biotic matter to metal is complete and irreversible. Through advanced neuroscience and artificial intelligence engineering, it is thought possible to rewrite the consciousness of an infected individual into something resembling what they once were, but their original body would be lost forever and the individual would find himself trapped within a synthetic and twisted mockery of himself. Outside of this, there are no great resurgences of populations lost to the nanite plague. All who are lost belong to the swarm, until the swarm is burned away. Perhaps an individual could be only partially infected--say, with merely a limb of their body converted--but this would require a way to somehow halt the conversion process before it is finished. It is unknown how the remaining organic body would react to the corrupted limb; perhaps outright rejection would occur and it would need to be amputated. Maybe the individual would lack full motor control over the limb. Radically, the limb could be actively hostile toward its host, scratching, clawing, and attempting to replicate nanites until the rest of the host is converted. There can be no surefire conclusion, as even reaching the stage of partial conversion would be a tenuous prospect; the nanite swarm would be nigh-impossibly difficult to halt in the process of conversion and the individual would likely suffer complete transformation rather than a mere partial one. Larger biomass clusters--such as the forests of a planet--would be more easily contained simply due to the sheer volume of matter that the swarm would need to convert, and even then, a forest-sized nanite production factory would easily spell doom for a whole world.

Roadblocks

The first and most obvious barrier to canonizing this would be the origin of this nanite-based Corruption. I have my doubts that the Singularities, known for simply pushing the domino that gave birth to organic life, would give birth to this breed of Corruption. What we consider organic, the Singularities consider synthetic. What we consider synthetic, the Singularities consider to be a byproduct. This is not something that arises of natural causes; rather, a mover from within our universe must have somehow brought this plague upon the Milky Way. What or who that is eludes me. I know it would not be the Keilicaela Empire, who gave their sentient AI full rights and protections under the law. They would have no need of this, and would indeed find it profane. In fact, this Corruption would likely change their perspective on AI and shake their faith in holding solidarity with an AI, which is something I find myself leaning against. I find the Keilicaela acceptance of AI endemic to their society, and the nanite-based Corruption threatens to shatter that. Furthermore, unless they had some way to contain and neutralize the converted matter that produces nanites, Namine (and any other exposed planet) would be completely rendered into a machine world. This clearly did not happen, so either I would have to divine some way for our characters to halt such a process, or I would have to modify this idea. Furthermore, in the current Unbroken lore, the Corruption has been driven to total extinction. With this incarnation of the Corruption, such an event would likely be utterly impossible. We all are aware that once something finds its way onto the Internet, it may as well be written in stone once it begins to spread. Apply the nanite Corruption's AI-infecting quality to a sci-fi Internet on a galactic scale, and you begin to see the issue with the Corruption supposedly becoming extinct. In any case, I still think this is much more distinct than the typical, generic, Flood-like "space disease" that we know the Corruption as now. This is a good starting point.

What the Hell Was I Thinking?: April 15, 2019

This is about the Reformation Epoch Calendar. It eludes me how I could make an epoch called "Before the Reformation Epoch," yet the year numbers in this epoch increase rather than decrease. Somehow, 5,244 years before the Reformation Epoch is further in the future than 3,740 years before the Reformation Epoch. In short: what the hell was I thinking? The BRE epoch of the Reformation Epoch Calendar has hereby been updated to go in reverse, as it should have from the start. I think, previously, I was establishing "Before the Reformation Epoch" as the name of an era, and the years in that era progressed normally, ignoring the true name of the epoch. I never did read "5,244 years before the Reformation Epoch" out loud until now. I'm ashamed that it took me this long to catch this, but I'll admit I didn't give the calendar much work past the initial burst of inspiration I had.

Keilicaela Reboot: October 20, 2019

The following is information I wrote specifically for the fifth gathering of the Tribunal, where the writers of Unbroken discuss lore. The theme of Tribunal V is, ultimately, the overall direction of the project. With that in mind, I revisited the Keilicaela lore and created a basic outline for the species and its most major factions. I'm primarily putting this here so I have something to read off of during the event. If you find and read this before the meeting, shame on you.

Species/Faction History

Before the Keilicaela, there was only the Eternal Worm. In its fathomless hunger, the Eternal Worm impacted with and burrowed into the core of a planet called Namine. From within the depths of the planet, the Worm began to feed, consuming the planet from the inside-out, welling up in size and eventually coiling around Namine's core, growing fat from the planet's power. In the time it took for the Worm to grow, the first signs of civilization on Namine emerged, and over countless years, one civilization would become a flourishing republic with the technological wherewithal to detect the Eternal Worm and declare it a threat to Namine's very existence. In turn, the Worm too saw this civilization as a threat to its own existence and began to raise an army to shake the fleas from its back.

From within the writhing womb of the Worm were constructed the Keilicaela, a hive of hulking insectoids armored with impenetrable chitin, armed with stingers, claws, and mandibles, and gifted wings with which to swarm over the Worm's enemies. For each of Namine's climes was built a unique breed of Keilicaela: the Chi-Keilicaela for the forests, the Aen-Keilicaela for the savannas, the Tvi-Keilicaela for the volcanic wastes, the Ret-Keilicaela for the deserts, and the Ner-Keilicaela for the swamps. United under the Eternal Worm's hivemind, the Keilicaela clawed their way to the surface and set about the grim work of annihilating a civilization.

Over the course of a bitter and bloody century, all civilization on Namine was driven into extinction, devoured and demolished by the unrelenting Keilicaela horde. For every swarm burned away, the Eternal Worm had already manufactured five to replace. The Keilicaela's purpose soonthereafter shifted into altering the planet to better suit the existence of the Worm. Indeed, all they knew was the drive to enforce the Worm's will. Had they even the capacity to question it, they would not. They were artificed specifically to kill and devour for the Worm.

It was this very fact—the purpose for which the Keilicaela were brought into existence—that attracted the eye of the Currai Imperium. The Imperium discovered Namine during their conquest of the Milky Way Galaxy, and concluded that such biological tanks as the Keilicaela would be perfectly suited for their war efforts. They sat in wait, sending probes to Namine and scanning the planet, gathering enough information to know that to control the Keilicaela, they would have to control the source of their hivemind: the Eternal Worm.

After a protracted campaign to establish a military presence on Namine and burrow to the planet's core, the Imperium succeeded in reaching the Eternal Worm. Using their advanced technology with sadistic intent, the Imperium succeeded in torturing the Eternal Worm into submission. Now that they controlled the Eternal Worm, the Imperium had an unending swarm of voracious insectoid monsters at their disposal.

This, however, was not to last. Understanding the destructive potential of what the Imperium now had under their control, the Enlightened Ones acted swiftly to wrench control of the Keilicaela away from the Imperium. They would soon determine that the only way to do this was to destroy the Eternal Worm. A covert team was dispatched to the bowels of Namine, where they infiltrated the Imperium's underground perimeter and sabotaged the devices used to keep the Worm enthralled, destroying its brain and putting an end to the Keilicaela hivemind. Simultaneously, the Enlightened Ones staged a successful attack to drive the Imperium off of Namine outright.

With no sentient life but themselves on Namine, the Keilicaela, free of the Worm's control, began to emerge as sentient, independent beings themselves. Clawing their way from animalistic intelligence to spoken language, the Keilicaela formed tribes, mostly segregated along geographical (and therefore racial) lines. Primitive religions based around ancestral worship began to form; this would be the Cult of Namine, first prominent in the Tvi-Keilicaela, who sought to make the other tribes see the glory of their ancestors and Mother Namine through bloodshed.

All the while, the Aen-Keilicaela began to inhabit the abandoned megalithic structures of the people they once consumed countless aeons ago, remembering nothing of the Eternal Worm or what they themselves had wrought upon the planet. As time marched on, the Aen-Keilicaela began to scavenge the ruins of the fallen civilization, learning from their doctrines, translating their language, and adopting their ways. It was from this that the advent of the city-state was born—a sharp contrast to the tribal ways of the other Keilicaela races. Though they learned the fate of this civilization and their place in it thanks to their translation efforts, the Aen-Keilicaela persisted, unfazed by their nature as killing machines and discarding the notion of having any loyalty to the long-dead Eternal Worm.

The Aen-Keilicaela city-state, named Verikron, rose to prominence as it absorbed neighboring tribes and became what was easily the only civilization of note on the planet. To compete, non-Aen-Keilicaela tribes began to reorganize into proper city-states in order to have a chance to maintain their independence from Verikron. However, given that Verikron was the oldest city-state with the most time devoted to harnessing the technology of both the original fallen civilization and what could be found of the Imperium's war machines, the city-states closest to Verikron's borders quickly fell and were captured.

The age of Verikron was where the Keilicaela were forced to reconcile their antithetical biology: that being their nature as creatures built to be weapons and their newly-developed personalities and individuality. Indeed, being weapons and having nothing else to fight, the Keilicaela plunged themselves into war against one another. Their lack of a unifying hivemind was, in some estimations, the direct cause of perhaps the greatest period of strife in post-Worm Namine's history: the 573-year-long war of the Reformation Epoch. Over the course of this war, Verikron would declare itself the Empire of Namine, initially conquering the neighboring city-states of Thutria, Thyste, and Skopida.

As an attempt to fill the gap left by the hivemind and to have a degree of insurance for when their hunger was sated, the Empire of Namine declared an Imperial Cult as its state religion. The Imperial Cult defied the Empire's fallen Emperors, enshrining them as supreme authorities in death. Followers of the Cult of Namine were forced at the tip of a sword to convert, and, as the wars dragged on, the Cult of Namine died a slow, dwindling death. Only isolated tribes, such as the Tvi-Keilicaela Sootshrouded, were left to practice their ancient customs. Similarly, the Ret-Keilicaela tribes who had retreated to the underground of the Sharazdi Desert would resist the Empire's advances, retaining their savage ways and their permutation of the Cult of Namine. The Empire would come to see little value in the barren wastes of the Sharazdi, and, eventually, give up on their incursions into Ret-Keilicaela territory. To this day, the Ret-Keilicaela continue their barbaric practices in the Sharazdi Desert, bereft of any notion of civilization.

The Empire's conquest would be slowed by new technologies discovered and reverse-engineered by enemy city-states. The advent of firearms changed the nature of warfare, as too did mechanization and the advent of primitive AI in 100 RE. The arms race between the Empire and its enemies drew to a stalemate, selectively fueled by corporations that had emerged to profit off of all sides of the conflict; this would set a precedent for corporate influence in Keilicaela society for generations to come. Almost a century into the Reformation Epoch, the Empire made a breakthrough with spacecraft technology in 110 RE. With an exclusive monopoly on spacefaring vessels, the Empire began to mine the mineral-rich asteroids in Namine's orbit, throwing their war machine into overdrive. This, however, would only last for a scant few years before opportunistic corporations “acquired” the knowledge required to manufacture spacecraft and sold it to the Empire's enemies around 115 RE. Just two years later, the first non-Imperial spacecraft were manufactured, bringing the war to the stars over Namine, where mining rights became hotly contested, putting a damper in Imperial production and sending the war back into a stalemate.

This stalemate would last until 431 RE, when a Keilicaela known as Ferkanid Trinalak took the Imperial throne. Just two years into his reign, Ferkanid resolved to put an end to the war that had engulfed Keilicaela-kind by conquering the whole of Namine. He began devising ways to raise a mighty army, larger than any force the planet had ever seen, and, being a student of history allowed access to knowledge the Imperial Cult kept locked away, learned of the Eternal Worm. It was then, in the year 433 RE, that Ferkanid gave the Empire a far-fetched goal: somehow, someway, invoke the ages-dead Eternal Worm into manufacturing an Imperial army. Ferkanid dispatched an elite taskforce into the bowels of Namine, where they secured a perimeter within the Eternal Worm's womb. Using vile technology reverse-engineered from the Currai Imperium, Ferkanid's bid for power succeeded, bringing the Eternal Worm's organic factory back online. In 550 RE, for the first time since the fallen civilization's age and after over a century of work on the Empire's part, the Worm was once again giving birth to Keilicaela—each one spirited away to Imperial training facilities to be indoctrinated into the Imperial army and trained to use the weapons of war they would need to conquer Namine.

In 570 RE, a grand fleet of Imperial ships was constructed on Ferkanid's orders; a fleet much more vast than any of the Empire's enemies had been able to raise due to lack of population alone—a problem which Ferkanid had solved 20 years earlier, giving his newly-born soldiers two decades to hone their skills. In much the same way their enswarmed ancestors did at the dawn of the species, Ferkanid's fleet overran known civilization on Namine, forcing the Empire's enemies to bend to his will. By 573 RE, there was no Keilicaela on Namine who was not an Imperial.

With the closing of 573 RE, the Reformation Epoch came to an end, ushering the Post-Reformation Epoch: the age of a united Namine ruled by a single Empire. Just 20 years into the Post-Reformation Epoch, Ferkanid Trinalak died of natural causes. His final orders were to shutter the “blasphemous” facilities they had created within the Eternal Worm, that no enemy of the Empire would ever have a chance to use the Worm's power against them. Furthermore, he abolished the position of Emperor, declaring himself the one, true, only, final Emperor and God of the Empire; there could be no other. To this day, Trinalak is the only Emperor worshiped in the Imperial Cult. All other figures the Empire deems worthy of worship are far beneath the rank of Emperor.

With Trinalak dead and ascended into godhood, the Empire set its sights on the stars. Though faster-than-light technology was prototyped as far back as 450 RE, it would not become viable until 154 years later with the advent of Tearstream in 31 PRE. After twenty years of extensive testing and negotiations with Universal Tearstream Solutions, the corporation in control of the technology, the Empire began its initiative to colonize other planets in 51 PRE. This proved to be a resounding success, as by 200 PRE, the Empire had claimed 20 star systems and became a notable player in the Milky Way. By 500 PRE, the seeds planted 600 years ago finally sprouted, and the Empire of Namine sired in artificial intelligence that could be described as self-aware.

The Empire would see a period of relative peace from the years of 500 PRE – 949 PRE. In this time, the Empire would grow to 60 star systems, cementing itself as a staunchly independent force within the galaxy and drawing the ire of the Compact of the United Civilized Systems of the Milky Way Galaxy, a conglomerate that sought to draw all sentient life underneath its influence. Despite this, Keilicaela history was quiet until 949 PRE, when the Corruption emerged and devastated civilization on Namine. With the head of the Empire of Namine crippled, the Imperial colony worlds soon balakanized, each forming its own autonomous planetary nation and bracing against the tide of the Corruption. However, three planets: Qualdron, Parand, and Symonah, signed a pact, unifying their governments into the Qualdron Alignment. From 950 PRE – 983 PRE, the Qualdron Alignment remained the only multi-planetary Keilicaelaac government. In 951 PRE, a Keilicaela known only as Philanthix staged a bloody coup within the Alignment, claiming to be Ferkanid Trinalak reincarnated. Under his rule, the Alignment morphed into a brutal military dictatorship deadset on bringing all formerly Imperial worlds under its rule. However, the with growing storm of the Corruption raging, the Alignment found that survival—let alone, conquest—was an arduous river to cross.

From 949 PRE – 975 PRE, the Corruption tore a bloody swathe across the Milky Way. A fleet of Imperial ships once stationed over Namine, the Armada of Namine's Fire, made it their personal crusade to extinguish the Corruption's flames from the galaxy. During their 26-year-long campaign, they would link up with fleets from the Ashderian Regime, Vigilant, and Dominion of Ilan as they waged a desperate battle across the galaxy. Due in part to their efforts, the Corruption was driven to extinction in 975 PRE. Civilization on Namine, which had been in a painful state of recovery since 950 PRE, was joined by the Armada of Namine's Fire in 975 PRE, which donated manpower into helping the world heal. By 979 PRE, Namine had entered a state of relative repair—suitable enough for Vespid Heterodonyx, a war hero from within the Armada, to declare the Second Empire of Namine just one year later. The former Imperial colonies (save for the Alignment worlds) found themselves desperate for resources and direction; seeing little other choice, they pledged allegiance to the Second Empire, much to the chagrin of the Qualdron Alignment. The very same year the Second Empire formed, the Qualdron Alignment declared war, sending the Second Empire into wartime production almost instantly following its birth.

The non-Keilicaela factions within the Armada withdrew their ships from the Armada, which fell into the direct service of the Second Empire. All factions involved with the Armada—the Second Empire, Ashderian Regime, Vigilant, and Dominion of Ilan, formed a military alliance known as the Syndicate in order to bolster their forces between the four of them and to stand more stalwart against the yet-remaining threat of the Compact, which had endured through the age of the Corruption. The war with the Alignment, sparked in 980 PRE, ended in 983 PRE, with all Alignment planets conquered by the Empire. To this day, elements within the Alignment planets that wish to cling to their 26-year-long stint of independence campaign for an independent, peaceful Alignment.

Principal Characters

  • Vespid Heterodonyx: Vespid was born to a soldier and a comms technician in the year 931 PRE. Though he had an interest in artificial intelligence at an early age and sought to pursue a career in the field, fate had other plans for him. By 945 PRE, he found himself as a commercial pilot assigned a Chasmstrider-class freight shuttle, hauling cargo for whatever company to which he was delegated a contract. It was the very Chasmstrider he piloted as a part of his employment that he would use to escape Namine upon the Corruption's invasion in 949 PRE, crash-landing it on Terreki, where he and other displaced aliens fought for survival against the Corruption. Over the course of the next 23 years, Vespid would be molded into a formidable warrior, gaining mastery over dreadful weapons in his fight against the Corruption. When the Armada of Namine's Fire arrived on Terreki in 962 PRE and purged Terreki of the Corruption, Vespid and his allies pledged themselves to the Armada. Vespid's ship was salvaged and retrofitted for war, gaining the moniker Dreary Contingency. From 962 PRE – 975 PRE, Vespid made a name for himself in the Armada, gaining the rank of Field Admiral before the Armada arrived on Namine. With the endorsement of the Armada's Grand Admiral, Sardoniryx, Vespid was chosen to be the Supreme Commander of the Second Empire with the intent of choosing a leader that could guide the new Empire through the times to come—times to come that were sure to be fraught with war.
  • Thegalet v1.09 Rendition 2: When Vespid learned he would be assigned a personal AI for the duration of his employment as a commercial pilot, he didn't realize a computer ostensibly placed into his ship specifically for inventory-keeping purposes could be so irritating. Thegalet is often adversarial, lackadaisical, cavalier, caustic, critical, and sarcastic. Throughout Vespid's entire life from his employment onward, Thegalet would act as Vespid's foil, second-guessing him, keeping him on his toes, and looking out for him—in his own twisted way.
  • Thisposa: Thisposa was born into a secretive group of assassins known as the Seething Sting and raised from birth to kill. She killed for whatever reason her masters asked of her; be they political or for pleasure. When the Seething Sting inevitably collapsed, she found herself drifting and killing, once more, for whatever reason. Her thirst for blood would see her cross paths with Vespid Heterodonyx, who, for reasons beyond our knowledge, she stalked and watched over from afar beginning with his days hauling cargo and all the way through Terreki and the Armada. When the Second Empire was inaugurated, she successfully applied to act as one of Vespid's many “Phantoms;” the personal guard of the Supreme Commander who would risk life and limb to ensure no harm would come to him. Though Vespid scarcely knows, Thisposa has been with him in this manner for years, and now that her talents were able to be displayed in an official capacity, she became, in Vespid's own words, his most trusted Phantom. It is often that Vespid will send her as his personal operative on the field of battle when he requires a dirty deed to be done correctly.
  • Cyonyx Dicephelidae: Cyonyx was the mastermind behind some of the Qualdron Alignment's most destructive weapons until he defected to the Second Empire over the course of the Empire-Alignment war. Though he was looked at with scorn, suspicion, and outright loathing by the populace of the Empire, many of his war apparatuses were key in securing Imperial victory over the course of the Empire-Alignment War and beyond. He genuinely believes in the cause of the Empire—even if most of the Empire reviles him and is not grateful for the life-saving contributions he made to the various Imperial war efforts. As of recent, Cyonyx has been working ceaselessly on the Hatchling initiative, which he claims will bridge the gap between organic and mechanical and make any standard foot-troop equivalent to a genetically enhanced supersoldier.

Command Hierarchy

At the top of the Empire's pyramid of command is the Imperial Synod (a name that implies connection to the Imperial Cult). The Synod is comprised of three components: the Tribunal, the Supreme Ordinator, and the Convocation.

  • Tribunal: The Tribunal is a gathering of officials, called “Tribunes,” that serve as a political foil to the Supreme Ordinator. A handful of Tribunes are former Ordinators of varying specialization. The Tribune checks the power of the sitting Ordinator, vetting his orders and directives against their best judgment—most notably against the prior experience of the former Ordinator whose specialization matches that of the current Ordinator. The Tribunal also has the unilateral authority to declare war against other powers without the sitting Ordinator's input; the same goes for making trade deals and other sweeping policies.
  • Supreme Ordinator: The Supreme Ordinator is the highest-ranking individual role within the Empire. The Ordinator has authority over the Imperial military, granting him the ability to deploy fleets at his discretion and handle threats to the Empire as he sees fit. Balancing this power is the Tribunal, which carefully vets the Ordinator's decisions. In truth, the term “Supreme Ordinator” is a blanket term. An Ordinator is placed into power according to what the Tribunal and Convocation feel is necessary at the time of the Ordinator's election, granting them a specialization. If the Empire is faced with times of wartime strife, a Supreme Commander is put into office; if the Empire needs an economic rejuvenation, a Supreme Magnate is elected; if the time has come for internal law and order to be upheld, the Empire will see a Supreme Adjudicator; and so on.
  • Convocation: The Convocation is a gathering of representatives from the planetary colonies of the Empire, each speaking for the good of their respective planets. They exist to make sure the voices of the colony worlds are heard in equal measure to the voice of Namine. Many Tribunal members, and, historically, Supreme Ordinators once sat on the Convocation. The Tribunal and Supreme Ordinator are cautioned to take the Convocation's counsel in each decision they make, lest the Convocation invokes their long-held right to Scour the Synod.