[Inaius] Histories of Asteron

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The Terranids​

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Ancient Terranids
Terranids, as the species is called, evolved from primates on their home planet of Terranov approximately 800,000 years ago. They went through the evolutionary phases from hunter-gatherers to farmers to organized states. Their exceptional physical endurance and problem solving skills allowed them to become the dominant species on the planet, either defeating or assimilating other early sapient life forms that rivaled them.

Their physical biology gave them certain advantages that lead to them becoming the apex species on their homeworld. Terranids have dense bone structure and greater muscle mass, giving them higher strength and resistance to physical damage. They have an increased metabolism and require a very high caloric diet to maintain their physicality. They remain susceptible to malnutrition, starvation, and many diseases as well as having less tolerance to extreme heat and cold.

Early Terranid advancements were limited by the lack of available resources to exploit. Much of their planet is covered in ocean, with land usually being extremely mountainous or densely forested. It wasn’t until roughly 600,000 years ago that land cultivation and animal domestication started thinning out the forests. Yet significant civilizations did not occur until about 250,000 years ago. The first writing system appeared on the continent of Arkanna about 100,000 years ago and marked the beginning of recorded Terranid history.

The first Terranid proto-states were often highly aggressive and conquered huge swaths of lands before collapsing into smaller fractured states based on clan or tribal affiliations. The first nation states started appearing about 50,000 years ago and were often at war with one another. There was no inter-Terranid peace among the species and violence grew in intensity as their technology advanced.

Their conflicts culminated in a great, planetary war, that left over a third of their population dead. The conflict was so deadly that the Terranids, afraid of the destruction that future conflicts would bring, united into a single world government called United Terranov in the year 2120. Surprisingly Terranids never used, nor had, atomic weapons until after heading out into space, despite them having discovered atomic energy about 100 years before first contact. Had they unleashed nuclear energy as a weapon, they likely would have destroyed themselves.

The culture that came to dominate this new United Terranov, were the Vletshlandesh, who had come out as the undisputed super power in the wake of the great planetary war. Their nation of origin, Vletshlan, had been able to escape the worst of the conflict, and their economy boomed during the postwar reconstruction. Though Terranid cultures and languages remained diverse, even as they later spread to the stars, the language of Vletshlan came to be the lingua franca of the entire planet. Two decades after the war ended the Terranids put their first man on the moon, and a century after that they put someone on the surface of their nearest neighboring planet. The Terranids were beginning their journey into space, sending probes and radio waves out into the void, looking for life beyond their home planet. Luckily for them, someone out there was listening.

 

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Early Space Settlement
First Contact with an extrasolar species occurred in 2427 when an exploratory mission from the Trivanion Corporations landed on Terranov. Their ship had stumbled upon a Terranid radio signal and, curious, they’d followed it to its source. The Trivanions were significantly impressed with the Terranids, and in only a few short years they had set up long term relations with them. The Terranids for their part were exceptionally friendly to the Trivanions, and some Terranids were even transplanted to the Trivanion homeworld, forming the first offworld colony.

First Contact lead to rapid advancements in Terranid technology, some freely given to them, and others stolen and reverse engineered. The Terranids proved adept at re-engineering technology to their own ends, and the Trivanions found this trait endearing. In fact they promoted Terranid innovation of established tech, as they were able to put technologies to work in ways they’d never would have even thought of. In a short time the Terranids has become the favorite associates of the mercantile unions.

Within a few short decades the Terranids were colonizing other planets within their home system. The first colony was founded on Lunderjavan in 2452 and the planet would be completely terraformed by 2570. They’d settle another planet in their solar system next, and their first extrasolar colony was founded in 2626 on Coarin. Others would swiftly follow.

The earliest Terranid settlers spread out across the numerous nearby star systems, founding new colonies. Many of these new planets were far richer in natural resources than Terranov and some would even surpass the homeworld in population and technology by the start of the Century War two hundred years later. Terranids remained unassuming of the dangers that space held and worried only about spreading out to different worlds. These new colonies were often too far away to reliably maintain communication with each other. Terranids would not acquire FTL technology for some time yet, relying instead on slower sublight methods to traverse space. Terranid colonies became self sufficient out of necessity.

Terranids by nature are a friendly and curious species, and despite their lack of technological advancement, were constantly exploring and making new discoveries. Like the Trivanions, the Terranids even made first contact of their own with another alien species, the rodent-like Jehrlambra. The Jehrlambra were nearing early space exploration on their own when contact occured. They and the Terranids were of similar technological development, the two species were facing similar ordeals. The shared struggles of space exploration and colonization led to a close and friendly bond between the two species which lasts even to this day.

 

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The Cralizar-Terranid Wars
In the early 2500s Terranid vessels were mostly exploratory or commercial, with only a few vessels capable of mounting a military response. The Terranids had known nothing but peace since venturing out from their homeworld, being watched over by the Trivanion Corporations. They were unaware of the dangers that the galaxy held. Even their home cluster was not as safe as they believed. By this point there were dozens of Terranid colonies founded on planets, moons, and asteroids, spread across the local cluster. They were all too far away from each other to be able to mount an effective defense in the case of attack. So when the first Cralizar's attacked the small colony on New Calimund in 2509, most Terranids weren't even aware afterwards that the attack had occurred.

The Cralizar are an aggressive species, their homeworld located on the planet of Cralaiz. Their homeworld is a very harsh swampy environment and the Cralizar evolved to reflect that. Carnivorous and exceptionally territorial, the Cralizar saw Terranid colonization as not only an incursion into their brooding grounds but also as a new source of food. The first colonies attacked were decimated, and the surviving inhabitants were taken back to Cralizar planets where they suffered unspeakable horrors and were likely slaughtered and eaten like cattle by their captors. It took another three attacks on other Terranid worlds before the Cralizar incursion was noticed and word soon spread throughout the Terranid colonies, causing a panic. They were unprepared.

The Terranids looked to the Trivanions for aid, but the corporations could not spare enough ships to protect every Terranid colony. The Trivanions had become embroiled in their own internal conflict, and only a few ships could be spared. With little hope of outside help, the Terranids began to retrofit their civilian vessels into a defense force. A hodgepodge fleet of retrofitted warships and armed commercial vessels began to patrol the colonies near the Cralizar’s brood-space. But this proved ineffective. Cralizar ships had FTL capabilites so they could strike a colony and be gone before help could arrive. The Terranids needed faster ships.

The Terranids had been aware of the Sindaxo and their advanced technologies for some time, but they steered clear so as to avoid a conflict they would undoubtedly lose. The Sindaxo were aloof and arrogant, and refused to recognize Terranids as anything but primitive. Their technology surpassed even the Trivanions. It was their complete lack of interest in the Terranids that would prove to be exploitable. The Sindaxo had no idea what was happening until it had happened.

A group of Terranid adventurers snuck aboard a Sindaxo research station and without setting off any alarms, which didn't see them as a threat, the Terranid's manged to steal what they needed. The technology for the Sindaxo Phase-Drive was beyond the rest of the species of the cluster, maybe even beyond the species of Inaius, but the Terranids were able to convince the Trivanions to help them reverse engineer the device. While the Sindaxo threatened to destroy Terranid colonies in retaliation, the Phase-Drive was taken apart and studied. As a Sindaxo warship arrived over Terranov, fully prepared to attack, the device was returned. The Sindaxo backed off, but by now the technology could be duplicated by the Terranids.

With the new technology installed on their ships, and new warships having been built to accommodate the new technology, the Terranids took the war to the Cralizar. The battles that followed were brutal; retribution for those that had been taken, enslaved, and eaten. The fury of the Terranids was terrifying to behold. Numerous brood worlds were destroyed by bombardment and many Cralizar fleets were utterly destroyed. At last the Terranids besieged the Cralaiz itself. They gave their enemies one choice: surrender unconditionally or be destroyed.

The Cralizar capitulated, freeing their Terranid captives, and disarming their forces. Their remaining starships were seized and dismantled by the victorious Terranids. Their planet was placed under a fifty year quarantine. They were stripped of their advanced technology and forced to stay on their homeworld, where they resorted to cannibalism. Their defeat was utter and complete. And though the Cralizar would eventually return to spacefaring and raiding under one wannabe Brood-Lord or another, they would never again be the threat they'd once been.

 

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Spoiler: Terranid Interstellar States

The Octarchy
The Terranid victory over the Cralizar and the acquisition of Phase-Drive technology ensured the eventual push for unification under a handful of interstellar states. The Phase-Drive was still a new tech and the Terranids had yet to find a good source of energy that would provide the power outputs required. They'd been using nuclear fusion but it was only good for very short phase jumps. Unification of Terranid states would provide the answer, though in a round-about way.

Out of the different colonies spread throughout the cluster, eight intrasolar nations formed. While there still remained quite a few independent colonies, most were willing to join together for increased protection and better commercial opportunities. The eight nations that formed were United Terranov, the Sorvaet Republic, the Kingdom of Vorg, the Kingdom of Corral, the Veridanska Union, the Tristar Republic, the Korrev Confederacy, and the Selaeocid Caliphate. Togehter they're known to historians as the Terranid Octarchy. Inevitably the Octarchy saw conflicts between each other as they expanded their territories and advanced their technology. Looking on, the Trivanions gravely watched the infighting among the species they had raised up and wondered if they’d unleashed a new threat onto the cluster.

But the Terranids weren’t fighting for dominance, merely for resources, and the most important resource of all was Triveridium. Miners on Veridanska had discovered the first deposits of Triveridium and dismissed the element as having little use. But unification had lead to greater need of resources and a scientist was able to isolate one of the element’s isotopes, which was highly reactive to antimatter. Triveridium crystals are formed during an extreme fusion reaction, and the scientist who discovered the properties of them also created a safe way to turn the base element into its reactive isotope. When exposed to antimatter it begins to decay, producing vast quantities of energy. It didn't take the Terranids long to realize that Triveridium was the perfect source of energy to power the Phase-Drives of their starships. This discovery revolutionized space travel. Where once only short phase jumps of about two or three light years was the max they could accomplish, with the triveridium, phase jumps of thousands of light years were now entirely possible.

The only problem was the rarity of the element, and at that point in time, Veridanska remained the only known source of the element. As the lifeblood of FTL travel, its rarity lead to a disparity in technological advancement between those who had access to the element and those that didn’t. Veridanska had the richest source in the cluster and thus became the undisputed masters of trade and commerce, second only to the Trivanions. On top of that Veridanska unfairly favored the Terranovians (Terranids of the homeworld) in trade deals and unfairly penalized those that were ideologically opposes to them.

This created ill feelings among Terranid colonies, generating a period of distrust and strained relations. Fighting broke out intermittently throughout the cluster and new alliances came into existence as war loomed. The region was soon divided between those who had access to Triveridium sources and those who did not; the Grand Compact and the Allied Systems respectively. The Grand Compact was a commercial and military alliance made up of United Terranov, Veridanska, the Sorvaets and the Kingdoms of Vorg and Corral. The Allied Systems was a defensive alliance between the Tristar Republic, (itself an alliance between Calima, Ethidox, and Fulkayn) the Korrev Confederacy, and the Selaeocid Caliphate. Both interplanetary alliances began an arms race, increasing their military might while putting pressure on colonies to join their alliance or become protectorates. Most systems chose one side or another based on political or economic leanings. By the 2340s the cluster was near completely split between both power blocs.

 

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Spoiler: Triveridium War Power Blocs

The Triveridium War
The Triveridium War started on a small planet contested between the two blocs, Nikolaej in the Sekluva Sytem. Nickolaej was originally settled by colonists from Terranov—though a good number of Calima immigrants had settled there as well—and the government overall favored Terranovian interests, but the majority of the planets inhabitants wanted closer relations with the Tristar Republic. As negotiations became more intense, both nations began to fortify positions along their borders. The Republic's warships began to gather around Harklan and Dereloc. United Terranov hired ships from Vorg to bolster their overstretched fleets, least a preemptive strike leave them vulnerable.

As diplomacy broke down on Nickolaej, the Terranovians finally annexed the planet-state, following a heavily influenced referendum which voted in favor of Terranov annexation. Immediately Terranov fleets moved into orbit and troops were landed to subdue pro-Republic riots. The Tristar Republic denounced Terranov’s actions as illegal and fraudulent, demanding that they pull their forces from the planet and return independence to the system. The members of the Grand Compact declared a state of conflict and officially put their individual militaries under the supreme command of the homeworld. This move had the effect of pushing many nations which were on the fence between the two powers to ally themselves with the Republic out of fear of annexation or invasion. The Republic, the Korrev Confederacy, and the Seleocid Collective soon cut off all trade with the members of the Compact as diplomacy broke down. The Allied Systems further responded by sending their own fleets to Nikolaej in an attempt to force the Compact to withdraw their forces.

The war was long, it was brutal, and it was devastating. The Allied Systems gained significant advantages early on in the war, breaking Compact defenses in the Cryanic Frontier and the Borderworlds. Allied fleets threatened Vorg, Kollanas, Corral, and Terranov itself. The Compact reeled from the aggressive advance of the Allies. But things would turn around at the Battle of Terranov. The Allies, attempting to bring a swift conclusion to the conflict, threw the bulk of their fleet against the Homeworld but were soundly defeated.

The Jehrlambra, who had been sitting on the sidelines of the war, at last decided to back the Compact, and joined the fight. The Allies were still reeling from their defeat at Terranov and now found themselves on the defensive, their early gains slowly lost. Soon they were driven out of the Borderworlds, but they were not yet defeated. A renewed campaign saw them take Corral and shortly after their fleets poured into Starglow, taking Pegosis, the Calka’s, and striking at Tythan and Stragossa.

The Compact knew that these victories were the desperate strikes of a failing beast, and so instead of focusing on retaking their lost worlds, they attacked the heart of the Allies Systems. Sanctuary fell in the largest starship battle that any Terranid had ever witnessed. This was followed up by the bloody victories of Ethidox and Gorba. Soon after the Ally’s ship yards at Dereloc were also lost. Finally the Compact met the last significant Allied Force at Calima and ended the war in one glorious battle. The Allied Systems, broken and defeated, surrendered. The Triveridium War, the bloodiest chapter in Terranid history, came to a close.

 

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Terranid Unification
The following decades were transformative ones for the Terranids. The war had left many worlds shattered, and United Terranov found itself picking up the pieces. The worlds of the Tristar Republic undoubtedly had it the worst, and what semblance of government they had at the end of the war soon fell apart as starvation and privation spread. The Terranovians stepped in, offering aid and reconstruction. Whatever remaining grudges were left soon faded in the face of reconciliation.

The victorious members of the Grand Compact were mostly willing to reconcile, taking on the burden of rebuilding. The Veridanska Union however continued to be protectionist in their trade policies, which would come around to bite them when Triveridium was discovered in an asteroid belt near Ryujek. The loss of their monopoly lead to economic collapse and instability. They would eventually require the assistance of some of their former enemies to restore order.

For most other Terranid nations, rebuilding and reconciliation was absolutely necessary. If the Kingdom of Corral had not helped to rebuild the former Tristar Republic’s worlds, they likely would have been overwhelmed by a Cralizar resurgence. Instead a fleet from Calima came to their rescue and helped crush the upstart brood-lords rebellion.

And at the center of all of this United Terranov continued to bring closer relations among the disparate colonies and nations, establishing a new policy to create a unified state for all Terranids. And it was quite successful. The former Tristar worlds one by one chose to be governed by Terranov, followed after by a number of Korrev worlds.

The Sorvaets and the Salaeocids, after saving the Veridanska Union from its internal issues, divided up their worlds between themselves. Vorg and Corral unified their monarchies in 2691, and annexed what remained of former Korrev worlds. The momentum for unification was now unstoppable. The Sorvaets unified with United Terranov in 2703, giving the homeworld undisputed power in the Asteron cluster. In the year 2717 the last three remaining Terranid powers signed the charter for the first Terranov Republic. While a handful of worlds and colonies still remained independent, the Terranids for the most part had completely unified.

 

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Angel of the Republic​

The 1st Terranov Republic

We Terranids, watched over by the faces of our forebears, intent to put aside our grievances and embrace our differences as a species, recognizing our shared destiny, and confirming our right to spread to the stars, join together in Compact from now to the end of time, do declare ourselves in unity with each other, and hereby ordain and form the Terranov Republic.

With those words as preamble, the Terranov Republic was formed, unifying all Terranids under a single banner. Though there still remained a handful of Terranid colonies outside of the Republic, they were now the exception not the rule. The Terranov Angel flag now flew over 36 planets, twice as many moons, and numerous asteroids and starbases. Second to the Trivanion Mercantile Confederation, the Republic was now the most powerful entity in the Asteron Cluster.

The next hundred years was a time of unprecedented peace. The Republic faced no outside threat, aside from the occasional Cralizar uprisings, against which they’d need to defend themselves. Uprisings and instability happened from time to time, especially in the middle of the 2700s, but the Republic weathered each of those threats without having to resort to authoritarian practices. Democracy and rule-of-law were the order of the day.

Despite this prosperity, the Republic did not expand very much. There seemed to be no great need to spread out further into the stars. The Terranids had come to know more of what was out their, the threats and challenges, and were likely content to live in their little pocket of relative peace and stability. The more adventurous sorts could sign on with a Trivanion commercial expedition if they absolutely felt the need to travel beyond the cluster.

By the start of the 2800s the Republic entered into a decline. Culture was stagnating, and the governments of the central worlds had become corrupt and complacent. The colonies on the frontiers began to grumble against the central authority and discontent was becoming rampant. There was fears of a coming conflict, perhaps even a war of secession. And for a time, that was the greatest fear facing the Terranov Republic. But something else was stirring. A slumbering enemy was waking, and it would threaten the whole of the Cluster.

 

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The Century War
Before the Trivanions had first contacted the Terranids, before the first Terranid had even left their home planet, the Drovakt slumbered. As the Trivanions waged the ideological Tech Wars for dominance of their homeworld, the Drovakt ended their last hundred year path of destruction and fell into hibernation. On the edge of the Asteron Cluster, spread out over many lifeless worlds and countless asteroids, the Drovakt slumbered awaiting the biological cue that would awaken them for the next cycle.

In 2827 they at last awoke, their larva hatched, with a genetic urge to swarm and devour rose inside them. The Drovakt Swarm had arisen and directly in their path was Asteron and the Terranov Republic. Despite their need to hibernate, the Drovakt were a technologically advanced species capable of building starships, the largest of which were the mighty War-Behemoths. Capable of decimating entire fleets and fielding massive ground armies, the Behemoths were a terror to behold. They also maintained a slave population of caretakers, a species called the Affey, who watched over their slumbering masters during their long sleeps. In 2839 the first Drovakt forces descended on Asteron.

Whatever squabbles the Terranids had among themselves was quickly forgotten. The Trivanions, a society built on greed and gain, freely shared their resources to halt the onslaught. The Sindaxo, notoriously isolationist, sent emissaries to Terranov to offer their technology. And the Jehrlambra and Terranids, the most numerous of the five species, took on the brunt of the fighting. The Cralizar remained out of the fight, except when their worlds were threatened.

The war was not one long conflict, but a series of incursions as more and more Drovakt awoke. Yet the defenders were able to hold the line, pushing back assaults at heavy cost. They would lose a world, but annihilate an entire enemy fleet in exchange. For nearly a century, the Terranids and the Jehrlambra, backed by Trivanion and Sindaxo technology.

For entire generations, the war was fought. The Drovakt refused to negotiate, demanding immediate surrender only. A joint Terranid and Trivanion force attempted to engage the Drovakt in their own space, but it soon became apparent they did not care if their occupied lifeless worlds were attacked. They would uproot and move somewhere else. The worlds that fell to the Drovakt were stripped bare. These were fringe planets, usually under late stage terraforming. The populations that weren’t evacuated before the planets were lost, suffered the same fate as all organic life that the Drovakt claimed: they were broken down into their base forms and turned into food for the swarm.

The final battles of the war were the bloodiest. The Drovakt, long held off from harvesting these rich worlds, had grown desperate as their next sleep cycle approached. Terranid worlds were devastated as the Drovakt attacked in full force. Terranid fleets were obliterated, planets left devastated. The Drovakt threw their might against Terranov itself and in the battle that followed the Terranids fought a desperate last ditch effort to save their home. In the end they were victorious, but at a heavy cost.

At the battle of Terranov, 60 million Terranids alone died. But the Drovakt had been held back, and the war came to an end. Retreating back to the worlds they’d previously slept on, but undoubtedly planning their return, but this time they would be ravenously hungry, this time more than they ever were since they were denied their harvest.

 

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The New Terranov Order
During the war the Republic had become increasingly militarized, as entire generations grew up under the threat of annihilation. The Terranid admirals held near absolute authority, the goal being to do what was necessary to win the war. Now that the war had ended the Republic tried to demilitarize and go back to the prewar government, but the admiralty were not pleased. A stalemate ensued, with the civilian government being unable to do anything against the military leaders.

The admirals decided that they needed to play the political game. They preached about a new way of governance where those who had fought and bled in the war could only truly understand what it meant to lead. The central tenant of this new system would be that only those who had served should be able to be elected to any office or position of significant power. Most of the admiralty met together and decided to back a new sort of political movement.

Under the leadership of the Grand Admirals, the New Terranov Order was founded as a political party with the intention of pushing the political interests of the military. They chose a strong leader for their party when they picked former Fleet Admiral Sasuke Nakashima. The NTO, though barely holding a third of seats, became the single most influential party in the government, blocking nearly all legislative powers of the civilian leadership. Yet they were unable to win the seat of the First Consul in the elections of 2940, so more radical means were needed to grab control.

That came in the form of a political dissident movement on Calima. Unhappy with the deadlock, the movement attempted to overthrow the local government and the local military was forced to declare martial law on the planet to quell the riots. While the Republic’s government condemned the military’s actions, their condemnations proved impotent. All that remained was for the NTO to have an excuse to declare the rightful government illegitimate so they could install their own faction.

More dissent on numerous worlds followed after, likely spurred on by the NTO itself. The Republic could not effectively counter the wave of protests and rebellions. The military had to step in each time and restore the peace by superseding the government’s authority. With the government being unable to act decisively, Sasuke Nakashima demanded the resignation of the entire governing body, and when they refused, the NTO stormed the Astroconsul Hall on Terranov, arrested the delegates, and executed the legitimate First Consul. Nakashima was named as the new First Consul and all opposition parties were forcefully disbanded. The military now had control over the Republic.

 

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The Terranid Civil War
As the NTO settled in as the new leading faction they began cracking down on descent hard. Yet there was still a rift within the military itself. Not everyone was willing to throw away centuries of democratic rule. The Fleet Admirals of the 3rd, 6th, and 7th fleets had never supported the NTO in its quest to take control of the Republic. Instead they’d remained loyal to the legitimate rulers. When the Astroconsul was stormed and the First Consul executed, the three fleets openly declared their opposition to the new order.

The loyalist fleets and their commanders gathered in Starglow and the Trivanion Verge, driving out the forces that were sympathetic to the NTO. Allying with any world that still remained loyal to the Republic, the resistance league was formed. The NTO however was not in a forgiving mood. They sent their fleets against the resistance, and once again Asteron was locked in the throws of war.

A decade of fighting followed. The resistance fought both openly and in the shadows. Fleets clashed, armies struck at each other, and spies and assassins plotted in the shadows. Over the Core Worlds and the Colonies the NTO’s grasp tightened as they worked tirelessly to root out the resistance’s agents. And ever they struggled to bring to heal the old territories of the Republic under their new vision of order. The monarch of Vorg-Corral was deposed and executed, his children fleeing to join the resistance.

The resistance in the mean time tried to convince the Trivanions to side with them in their cause, but decisive defeats at Straktengraad and Calla Astaria convinced the Trivanions that the cause was lost. Still the resistance fought on, a desperate fight to restore the Republic and overthrow the ever more authoritarian NTO. But they continued to lose ground, to lose battles, and to lose leaders. Veridanska, the capital of the Resistance fell in 2945 and they had to move their leadership to Syfax.

The NTO however continued to press their advantage and they soon had the entirety of Starglow under their control. By 2946 the resistance was crumbling. Entire armies surrendered as the NTO promised complete absolution for anyone who chose to return to the fold and recognize the New Order as the legitimate government. Many took up the offer, and the resistance lost more and more ground.

At last with most the Resistance leadership surrounded, the NTO launched a final assault against Syfax. Outnumbered ten to one the resistance fought valiantly but their fleet was utterly decimated. Only a handful of ships escaped. But on the ground the battle raged. Even as NTO ships rained fire upon the surface the most fanatic of the resistance fought on, choosing to perish instead of surrendering. Syfax was left scarred and broken when the last of the Resistance at last gave in and surrendered after a week of holding off the inevitable.

The captured leaders were publicly executed, though the NTO pardoned nearly everyone else. At last they were truly in charge, as the last former Republic worlds fell in line. Though a handful of resistance leaders and fighters had escaped, the new order was secure in their authority. A new age for Terranids was dawning. The NTO repealed the former charter of the republic and drew up a new one. This charter reorganized the Republic into military directorates, revoked citizenship for all who had not served in the military, and gave full and complete authority to the First Consul of the Republic.

 

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The Trivanions​

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Origins of the Trivanions
In the ancient Trivanion texts it speaks of a great pilgrimage across the stars, of a dying star scorching their world, and of the long sleep the Trivanions slept as their worldship searches for a new home. Where the Trivanions originated is unknown, but what is known is that Trivais was settled around the year 565, and that the Trivanion culture, based on commerce and mercantilism formed later.

The Trivanion species has four arms, the top pair being stronger and more dominant, while the bottom pair serve the purpose of counterbalance and support. Trivanions have lifespans well in excess of two hundred standard years, and are resistance to nearly all diseases, except for a handful of genetic ones that can leave them disfigured. The females are smaller than males, and can give birth to twenty plus offspring at a time. The Trivanion population does not increase very much over time as most of their children will die in adolescence from complications due to the aforementioned genetic diseases.

Their society is heavily patriarchal. Males dominate and hold all positions of power. While females have many civil rights and liberties, including self determination and property ownership, they are restricted from gaining Tech Barony titles, though this does not stop them from performing in commerce. Females are the ones responsible for negotiating marriages and men are excluded from having a say in the matter, which gives them significant power in shaping companies via familial mergers.

Trivanion politics are dangerous, and few Trivanion males live into old age. Murder, assassination, and stress are the leading causes of death for a male. Gaining a Tech Barony requires only finishing their education and filing the requisite paperwork, but holding the title for long can be impossible for all but the most cunning. Tech Barons are expected to provide a service or product and expand their operations. Anyone who can’t meet those expectations can have their Barony revoked. That is if they survive long enough and avoid the blades or poisons of their rivals.

Yet despite the cutthroat nature of their society, the Trivanions are quite outgoing when dealing with other species. They’re very fond of Terranids, and xenophobia is all but nonexistent among them. As long as someone is willing to do business with them they’re willing to look past nearly all differences. So it’s not unheard of for Trivanions to have their hands in multiple pots, legal or illegal. As their motto goes: For Everything There's a Cost.