Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Locked Topic
History of the Galactic Empire
Topic Started: Aug 30 2015, 10:45 AM (18 Views)
Aleksandr
Administrator
History of the Galactic Empire

Posted Image

Precursors to Empire

The history of the Galactic Empire began with the Golden Age of Humanity: under the supervision of the Galactic Federation, humankind spread out across the galaxy: exploring, settling, discovering. For two centuries humanity enjoyed an age of unprecedented peace and prosperity. But it was not to last. By the third century of the Universal Calendar, the galaxy had entered into a period of stagnation. The great Galactic Federation was decaying, rotting from the inside.

Desperate to restore their nation to its former glory, the people of the Federation turned to a war hero-turned-politician to guide them. In 296 UC, Rudolf von Goldenbaum was elected to Parliament. He founded the National Reform Alliance, a radical right-wing political party that gained complete control of the Federation government in a single decade. The NRA propelled Rudolf to the heights of Federation power: by 308 UC he was both the Prime Minister and the President of the Federation — and the single most powerful man in human history, due to taking advantage of a loophole that did not explicitly forbid the same person from holding both positions at the same time.

Rudolf's determination and will became the guiding light of the Galactic Federation. His reforms curtailed many basic freedoms of the Federation citizens, yes, but crime and delinquency rates fell to unheard of lows. In 308 UC Rudolf declared himself "president for life," and the people cheered. Two years later (in 310 UC he proclaimed himself the first emperor of the Galactic Federation, and there were endless parades in his honor.


Laying the Foundation

The vestiges of democracy did not die quietly. Upon his ascension to the throne, Emperor Rudolf von Goldenbaum immediately set to the task of reforging the Federation into a true Empire. For an entire decade, he consolidated his power, and in 318 UC Rudolf announced the Inferior Genes Exclusion Act, a galaxy-wide policy of mass-murder and persecution based on his social Darwinist views. People with lifestyles or genetic conditions deemed unhealthy to the state were sterilized, imprisoned and executed. Most social welfare programs were abolished. The Department of Social Discipline was founded — a secret police force that enforced Rudolf's reign of terror, brutalizing the people and executing any deemed enemies of the state.

From his allies, Rudolf formed an Imperial aristocracy — the Nobility — to serve as the backbone of his Empire. These plutocrats would soon come to control virtually all of the wealth and power in the Galaxy. It was noted that all of the newly created nobles were of white Caucasian background and they were all granted Germanic names, perhaps reflecting Rudolf's own biases. The old Imperial Senate, which had been formed from the parliament which had governed the Federation for centuries, was permanently dissolved; freedom of speech rescinded. millions perished in the fires of Rudolf's revolution: and those who survived kept quiet, for fear of their own mortality.


Uprising and Revolt

When Rudolf von Goldenbaum died in 351 UC, the people of the Empire rejoiced. The civilized worlds of the galaxy erupted in democratic revolution. Finally, it seemed the Empire's reign of terror would disappear and the worlds would once more regain the freedoms they had lost. With Rudolf's death, the dream of freedom was rekindled in the heart of every citizen on every world.

But such dreams seldom come true. Rudolf's aristocracy was powerful. Rudolf's heir and grandson, Kaiser Sigismund I aided by his father and Prime Minister, Joachim von Neue Stauffen, brutally quelled each revolt one after another. To punish them for their vain hopes, the free citizens of the Galactic Empire found themselves stripped of what few rights they had remaining. No longer citizens, they became serfs. Forced to live servile lives to the plutocrat nobles, no longer capable of commanding their own destinies.

Sigismund I's reign was brutal, and despite all of the blood spilled (or perhaps because of it), it was instrumental in consolidating the Empire's power and firmly establishing it as the sole and permanent government of all humanity. Though there was still widespread discontent among the Empire's population, most now reduced to serfdom, the oppressed found themselves too terrified of the Kaiser to even consider opposing him. This constant state of fear would ensure the Empire's survival through the succession of rulers who would succeed Sigismund I to the throne, and ensure the unquestioned authority of the Empire for centuries.


The Great War

In 640 UC the Galactic Empire made first contact with the Free Planets Alliance, and began the Alliance–Imperial War. Founded more than a century prior in 527 UC by the exiles of Arle Heinnesen, the Free Planets Alliance was a democratic nation, founded in direct opposition to Imperial ideology. Refusing to recognize the Alliance government and decrying the Alliance as rebels mounting an insurrection against the throne, Kaiser Friedrich III dispatched an Imperial fleet under the command of Grand Duke Herbert through the Iserlohn Corridor to invade the Alliance. From the time of Rudolf I, the Empire had been undefeated in battle, and since the reign of Sigismund I, the Empire had never faced any legitimate threats to its authority; the high nobles therefore naturally assumed that their invasion of the Alliance would be no different — and were stunned when the Alliance forces, under the command of Admiral Lin Pao, defeated the Imperial fleet in what would later be known as the Battle of Dagon.

The defeat would trigger a mass exodus of refugees, dissidents, disaffected nobles, and criminal elements to the Alliance, swiftly increasing its size and power. The war itself soon stalemated with the front line located in the Iserlohn Corridor. The Empire remained on the offensive at the strategic level, but its attacks were either defeated by the Alliance or failed to make any lasting gains.
Edited by Aleksandr, Aug 30 2015, 10:48 AM.
Offline Profile Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Imperial Archives · Next Topic »
Locked Topic