"You are soldiers of the Sekari Empire; the greatest army to ever march across the galaxy! Today, the Leviathan faces the true strength of the Empire - it faces you!"
— Agsarouyeh Khoglai a-Amronai
Lord Admiral of Battlefleet Aruzmon during the 7th Century Crisis
(2950)
THE SEKARI EMPIRE
The Sekari Empire is an interstellar empire located in the Inaius sector of the Milky Way galaxy. Founded in the Tellusian standard year of 2283, the Sekari Empire rapidly grew from a collection of human settlements on its capital planet Cyrn to a planetary state, returning to space to create an interstellar dominion. Today over six centuries later in 2957, the Sekari Empire has grown and evolved to encompass dozens of star systems with twenty in particular having become highly developed and populated centers of industry, commerce, and trade. The interstellar neighbors of the Sekari include the Greater Siezon Union, the Cimmerian Republic, the Kuvori Republic, the Nova Terran Confederation, the Ottan Republic, and the Kyaal Remnants.
The Sekari Empire can trace its existence back to the first human settler flotillas to arrive in the Inaius sector. A civil war erupted onboard the ships in the fleet. After the fighting had turned against these early Sekari, they took what ships they still possessed and split off from the flotilla. They made a faster-than-light jump into uncharted space and wandered between systems for several years before finding and settling on the planet Cyrn, located within the Rhea-Ushur binary star system in 2280. Cyrn, orbiting the star Rhea, was found to be amicable to human life. In 2283, Khosrou Shahram, leader of the renegade Sekari settlers, proclaimed himself "emperor" as Khosrou I and that he and his people would lay the foundations of a new civilization.
Over the following fifty years, Khosrou I and the fledgling Sekari Empire rapidly expanded across Cyrn and developed the planet. Khosrou I's son and heir, Dalahmaseb I, continued to drive initiatives to claim Cyrn from the indigenous flora and fauna so that the growing Imperial City could have room to flourish. The Sekari Empire finally returned to space in 2436 under Dalahmaseb I's great-grandson, Emperor Sellah I. It was under Sellah I's reign that Cyrn's moon Argeyus was settled, as well as Celnilles; another habitable planet in the same system, in orbit of the star Ushur. The Sekari Empire would not go interstellar until Sellah I's grandson, Dalahmaseb II, became emperor in 2477. What followed was a rapid interstellar expansion across the succeeding two centuries. The Sekari came into contact with various primitive alien civilizations indigenous to nearby worlds. Some of these races, such as the veihans and the lerrins, willingly joined the Empire out of a sense of beneficial partnership. Others, such as the j'noru and the ottans, were incorporated by way of military conquest.
The outbreak of the First Siezon-Sekari War in 2673 initiated a cycle of conflict that scarred the Sekari Empire. After three wars had been fought against the Greater Siezon Union, the Sekari Empire entered a state of heightened militarization and diplomatic vigilance. The Sekari rebuilt and repaired the damage from the Siezon wars over the following years. The period between the end of the Third Siezon-Sekari War in 2714 and the Leviathan War in 2948 was marked by internal unrest within the Empire and the ever-looming specter of civil war. To resolve the internal crises, maintain traditional authority, and satisfy the growing popular demand for reform, the imperial government summoned public and aristocratic representatives to negotiate and draft a constitution for the Empire. In 2839, after three years of negotiations and conventions, the Writ of Cyrn was ratified and adopted by the newly-formed Imperial Parliament; signed into law personally by Emperor Chaghadeh III.
When the Leviathan War erupted across the sector in 2948, the Sekari Empire was caught woefully unprepared. It was also during the same time as the Leviathan crisis that a j'noru rebellion erupted in the southern reaches of the Empire in 2949. The j'noru, dissatisfied with the concessions given to them by the Writ of Cyrn, pushed for full independence from Sekari authority. Over the past two centuries, the Empire had been steadily cutting down on its military spending and now needed a vast army on short notice. The development of an imperial army of cloned soldiers purpose-bred for combat was the imperial government's settled solution to the issue. Though more expensive, this clone army could be sent into battle far sooner than a force drafted from the Empire's civilian population. By the end of the war, the parasitic Leviathan had been thoroughly eradicated from Sekari space and the j'noru rebellion was defeated by 2953. With the end of the dual wars, known together as the 7th Century Crisis, the Sekari Empire entered a period of peace and rebuilding, though the Inaius sector remained as contentious as ever. The surviving imperial clone soldiers were sent into retirement, as the costs of maintaining the clone army had grown too large. The Imperial Parliament attempted to secure a safety net for its retired clone veterans known as the Belguriya-Prolahpore Initiative. However, the initiative was only moderately successful. By 2957, an estimated 117 million clones out of the post-war personnel count of 340 million were living in poverty on various Sekari worlds. As the clones were pushed into retirement, the regular forces returned to military prominence.
As of 2957, the Sekari Empire is governed as an imperial semi-constitutional monarchy. The executive is split between the hereditary Emperor (currently Vissarion II) and the elected Grand Vizier (currently Asupar Sepadad a-Irabi). The legislative branch is the Imperial Parliament, separated into the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The Sekari Empire possesses an estimated population of around three trillion citizens of various races.
The Sekari Empire spans 137 star systems within the Inaius sector, spread between subsectors 007, 008, 011, and 012. Almost all of the Empire's star systems possess at least one populated settlement on a cosmic body therein—be it on a planet, a moon, or a large asteroid—or on residential space stations.
(right: a map of the Sekari Empire, displaying twenty of the Empire's most populated and developed star systems)
Most Sekari space is dominated by unary star systems—or star systems with a single star. Unary star systems account for 78 of the Empire's systems. Binary systems—star systems with two stars—account for 35 systems in the Empire. Trinary systems with three stars account for 16 systems. Quarternary systems with four stars account for 5 systems and quintuple systems with five stars account for 3. This means that there exists a total of 231 individual stars within the Sekari Empire.
Most individual stars within the boundaries of Sekari space are classified as main sequence stars, including Rhea around which Cyrn orbits; main sequence stars make up 114 of the individual stars in the Empire. Red dwarf stars are the second most common, with 72 individual red dwarf stars in the Empire. Red giants account for 23 individual stars, blue giants account for 11 and red supergiants account for nine stars. Only two white dwarf stars are known to exist within imperial space.
Additionally, there are also the spectral classes of the Empire's stars. The spectral classifications go through the classes O, B, A, F, G, K, and M with O-class stars being the hottest and M-class being the coolest in terms of surface temperature. In descending order of population within the Sekari Empire, the most common star classes are:
G-class stars, with 74 individuals.
K-class stars, with 33 individuals.
M-class stars, with 57 individuals.
F-class stars, with 27 individuals.
A-class stars, with 19 individuals.
B-class stars, with 14 individuals.
O-class stars, with 7 individuals.
Sekari space, politically, is split into seven administrative zones. The first of these zones is known as the "Imperial Core" which is considered the "heartland" of the Sekari Empire. The Imperial Core is by far the most populated, developed, and politically influential section of the Sekari Empire. It plays host to the Empire's throneworld of Cyrn; as well as the vast fleet yards and military industries of Celnilles, Paudu, and Jhuliapala. The Imperial Core is predominantly populated by the Empire's human citizens.
There exist also six other administrative regions of Sekari space—alien "satrapies" that maintain varying degrees of local autonomy. They are, in descending orders of population:
The Lihyazah Satrapy, dominated by the j'noru.
The Dhujh Satrapy, dominated by the veihans.
The Khabawrah Satrapy, dominated by the lerrins.
The Sulaphon Satrapy, dominated by the srasaurins.
The Andinab Satrapy, dominated by the meddeys.
The Mhardah Satrapy, dominated by the kraegans and the aennars.
Imperial satrapies, with some notable exceptions, are largely left to govern their own internal affairs. "Satraps" are appointed to these administrative regions to represent the interests of the Emperor, the Imperial Parliament, and the Empire's authority. While satraps may be nominated by the ruling Emperor, it requires parliamentary approval to confirm their appointment. Great effort is made to ensure that satraps have the knowledge and expertise to execute their duties on alien worlds and not offend the local alien leaderships. Sekari satraps should not be confused with traditional governors, however, as satraps are only empowered to act directly in specific circumstances such as imperial taxation, the enforcing of the Empire's laws, and instances that directly affect a satrapy's relationship with the wider Sekari state.
When the Sekari Empire was in its infancy and still bound to the Rhea-Ushur binary system, imperial scientists faced the problem of rediscovering faster-than-light technology. The Sekari had by the 2450s effectively established its dominion over the Rhea-Ushur system. Still, though, the emperor demanded further expansion—expansion into the interstellar void to carve out a galactic Sekari dominion. When Emperor Dalahmaseb II came to power in 2477, the interstellar problem was at the forefront of his mind. Not only would the Empire need the technologies to create an interstellar territory but it needed the technologies to support it as well. Thus, his reign was focused on this ambitious project for three decades.
Deep within an underground cave on Cyrn, an exploratory team found the decaying hulk of an ancient alien ship. Dalahmaseb II jumped at the opportunity to study and reverse-engineer alien technology, believing that this ship held the secret key to unlocking his dreamed-of interstellar empire. He thereafter ordered that the ship be excavated and studied. Sure enough, he was right. Imperial scientists managed to learn from this alien vessel the underlying technologies for slipspace travel. By the end of Dalahmaseb II's reign as emperor, the first prototypes conducted successful jumps to neighboring star systems, and the Sekari Empire's fate was forever altered.
Slipstream Space Slipstream space is a known collection of eleven intertwined superluminal dimensions that exist "above" the one temporal dimension and three spatial dimensions perceptible to humans and various other species in the Inaius sector.
These dimensions possess a wholly different set of physical laws separate from those of "realspace," or the aforementioned one temporal dimension and three spatial dimensions. Slipstream space is non-spatial and the matter of our dimensions cannot exist within slipstream space. [wip]
(left: a Sekari vessel entering a slipspace vortex)
Slipspace Drive & Slipspace Travel That's where the slipspace drive comes into play. [wip]
"These golden fleets are the torchbearers of civilization; the vanguard of Sekari glory and righteousness that lights the way."
— Alchira Opikhali a-Adauyar
Lord Admiral of Battle Fleet Vitusnejadh during the 7th Century Crisis
(2951)
IMPERIAL SEKARI NAVY
The Imperial Sekari Navy (ISN) is the branch of the Sekari imperial military responsible for space-based warfare and operations, defending imperial colonies, and facilitating and executing interstellar campaigns.
History The ISN began under Emperor Dalahmaseb I's military expansion programs as a terrestrial maritime service on Cyrn made to deter acts of piracy on the planet's oceans. The reign of Sellah I saw the Sekari finally return to space in 2436, establishing colonies on Cyrn's moon Argeyus. However, merely colonizing Cyrn's natural satellite wasn't enough to satisfy the emperor. With the development of new and advanced sub-FTL propulsion systems by imperial scientists, the Empire's spaceships could glide across the vast distances of the Rhea-Ushur system more quickly and efficiently. Still, though, the ISN remained largely confined to Cyrn's oceans.
(left: an ISN procession accompanying then-Prince Vissarion to his coronation on the Imperial Citadel, orbiting Cyrn [2906])
The first great expansion beyond Cyrn and the growing Argeyus colonies targeted Celnilles—another habitable planet in the system, though orbiting Ushur instead of Rhea, covered in dense jungles and teeming with dangerous wild plants and raging beasts. Though the first plans and preparations were made under Sellah I, it wouldn't be until the reign of his daughter and successor, Empress Soroyeh I, that the Celnilles campaign could finally begin. The Imperial Sekari Army (ISA) had been expanded, standardized, and professionalized by Dalahmaseb I's military initiatives, and the plan for the Celnilles campaign called for the ISA to land on the planet in force before clearing out sufficient room to start establishing colonies.
There was, however, a problem: the Empire did not possess a proper, large space fleet to transport so many ground forces as needed. The ships it used to ferry supplies between Cyrn and Argeyus were not designed to carry large amounts of soldiers, or rather, soldiers at all.
To solve this issue, Soroyeh I instructed that the ISN would begin to construct a spaceborne fleet of dedicated warships and troop transports. Over the next twenty years, the ISN quickly expanded from a terrestrial-based maritime military service to a space-based one. By 2458, the first proper Sekari space fleet was ready to play its part in the Celnilles campaign.
The Celnilles campaign began in 2459 and lasted five years. Imperial soldiers cleared jungles and chased off hostile wildlife, clearing a large enough area on the planet for the Empire to properly establish its presence. When the Sekari finally established a proper settlement in the planet's northeastern hemisphere in 2473, Empress Soroyeh I was present to appoint the colony's governor in person before naming it "Myndathon."
Empress Soroyeh I passed away in 2477 and her son, Dalahmaseb, was crowned Dalahmaseb II. Soroyeh I is fondly remembered as one of the greatest sovereigns of the Sekari Empire's early history, having taken the Imperial Navy up from a mere anti-piracy ocean force to a space-based maritime service. It would be during Dalahmaseb II's reign, though, that the ISN would truly take center stage in the Empire's efforts to expand its dominion.
Early in Dalahmaseb II's reign, a caving team discovered the remains of an ancient alien starship deep underground in a facility that had been rotting away for perhaps thousands of years. That ship is now known to have once belonged to the ancient, long-ago-lost yviiri interstellar empire. The emperor ordered the ship to be recovered and studied in 2479 and it was from those efforts to study the ancient yviiri vessel that the Sekari rediscovered faster-than-light travel; slipspace. After the first Sekari slipspace drives were constructed and mounted on ships destined for the stars in 2485, the Empire sought to create and rapidly expand a new interstellar dominion.
Over the succeeding centuries, the Sekari Empire committed itself to just that. Colonies were established, alien species and their civilizations either conquered or incorporated, and other spacefaring civilizations were encountered; the United Stars in 2550, the Non Sola Directorate in 2589, the Greater Siezon Union in 2592, and more. Through all of it, the ISN was at the forefront of both exploration and conquest. In those early wars to incorporate less advanced alien worlds, the ISN was unmatched when compared to the civilizations that the Empire had conquered. It would be in three wars against the Siezons that the ISN would have a chance to prove its metal against a force to match it.
The First Siezon-Sekari War began in 2673 after GSU intelligence had discovered imperial efforts to prop up rebellions and uprisings on planets to which the Siezons had restricted non-human existence in their space. Imperial intelligence had hoped to destabilize the GSU's border systems and open a door toward a Sekari invasion, allowing the Empire to conquer the Siezons, but the plan backfired. Siezon fleets began flooding to imperial space and the Empire was caught off guard. Though the heroic actions of naval heroes such as Faso Sactor a-Muunodai and Argarvan Akhulagun a-Caendar managed to hold off the Siezon advance and inflict staggering casualties, the GSU slowly but surely pushed its way to Cyrn.
Organization & Doctrine There are three types of fleets within the Imperial Sekari Navy: home fleets, battle fleets, and strike fleets.
Home fleets are relatively self-explanatory; their purpose is the defense and security of Imperial Sekari space in and of itself. They defend Imperial worlds, installations, shipyards, bases, etc. The home fleets vary in size—Cyrn, of course, has far more security than some backwater handful of systems on the fringes of the Empire. A home fleet may thus be dedicated to any breadth of space from a single planet within a system to whole sectors of Sekari space. Thirty of these fleets exist to guard Imperial space. The core of a home fleet is an Abidaiji-class Star Dominator and either a pair or trio of Shiragadhur-class carriers, with further escorts of various other ships such as battleships and battlecruisers, cruisers, destroyers, and frigates.
Battle fleets, or expeditionary fleets, are those fleets that go out to engage and defeat the enemies of the Empire.
[wip]
"We fight because we've already won; because we are that rightful order. It's written in our blood and that of our brothers and sisters. We've spilled that blood into the soil and sand and snow of countless worlds. We are the Empire's fist."
— Unknown
(2950)
IMPERIAL SEKARI ARMY
The Imperial Sekari Army (ISA) is the branch of the Sekari imperial military that is responsible for planet-based ground campaigns and occupying enemy terrestrial territory.
(left: ISA forces land in a combat zone, art by Sebastien Hue)
Cyrn (pronounced like "concern") is an ecumenopolis and the capital planet of the Sekari Empire.
(right: Cyrn today)
Cyrn is located within the Rhea-Ushur binary star system, orbiting Rhea—a G-class main sequence star. Of the four planets that orbit Rhea, Cyrn is the third closest behind the planets Arsawan and Nishyar but is closer to Rhea than the planet Jelucan. Cyrn possesses one natural satellite, or moon, named Argeyus.
History Little is ultimately known about Cyrn's history from before it was settled by the Sekari. Ancient alien ruins of varying designs and technological levels seem to suggest that the Sekari were not nearly the first to inhabit the planet. The most advanced and recent of these sites and the artifacts they contain seem to suggest that Cyrn was once an outpost of an ancient Yviiri empire that long predates the modern Non Sola Directorate.
Cyrn was first discovered and settled by humans in the Tellusian calendar year 2280ce. These humans, the early Sekari, had followed one Khosrou Shahram through uncharted portions of the Inaius Sector for several years prior. These early Sekari, mostly of Middle Eastern and Indian descent, used to belong to a larger flotilla of human explorers, settlers, and refugees fleeing destruction on humanity's ancient homeworld. However, a rift had grown between Khosrou and many of the other leaders of the flotilla. Khosrou and his followers attempted to seize control of the fleet. The attempt at a takeover failed and seemed to foreshadow a devastating civil war for the flotilla that would almost certainly end with the Sekari being imprisoned or thrown out to space. To avoid total defeat, Khosrou and the Sekari took what portion of the flotilla they controlled and split off from the fleet, jumping into uncharted reaches of space.
The Sekari wandered in deep space for many years thereafter before finally coming upon a planet that could naturally support human life. The Sekari ships touched down in a large valley between mountain ranges. They named the planet "Cyrn," though historians still debate the actual etymology of that name.
Khosrou proclaimed that he and the Sekari would be the first generation of a new people and a new civilization, destined to return to the stars and dominate the galaxy. Khosrou proclaimed he and his followers "the Sekari," and declared himself emperor. The Sekari Empire was thereby born.
Over the succeeding centuries, the Sekari continued to build up their new civilization. The valley they had initially landed in was turned into the center of an ever-growing imperial city. The ad hoc nascent imperial military cleared out vast swathes of native flora and fauna, making room for the urban heart of the Empire to flourish. By the time the Sekari had returned to the stars in the late 25th century, Cyrn had been thoroughly tamed. [wip]
