Background: Empires in Focus
One thousand years ago, the Fevarian people became a spacefaring society. Brave explorers departed the planet Aix and started to explore the star system around them. One of these adventurers discovered a dormant gateway at the edge of the system, constructed and left behind by an advanced and now-extinct precursor society millions of years ago.
After an incalculable effort, Fevarian scientists activated the gate. What they discovered would change the course of history forever. The long-dead precursors had constructed a network of Gateways, interconnecting the galaxy to such a degree where vast interstellar distances could be crossed in mere days or weeks.
The Fevarian people seized the opportunity laid out before them and began to explore the Hyperspace network. Science ships dispatched to explore the galaxy discovered dozens of alien civilizations, none of whom had been able to unlock the mysteries of Hyperspace. Enjoying an immense technological advantage, the Fevarian nation embarked on a series of conquests, using the Gateway Network to travel the cosmos at speeds previously unheard of.
This conquest came to its zenith at the Battle of Blorg, where Fevarian soldiers entered the Blorg capital and proclaimed the HOLY FEVARIAN EMPIRE.
After that, the Holy Fevarian Empire embarked on a thousand-year conquest of the galaxy. Alien civilizations were subjugated one by one. The Galactic Emperor established a feudal society: each alien civilization conquered by the Empire was granted limited self-rule, provided their leader swore an oath of vassalage and obedience to the Galactic Emperor.
Over ninety-five percent of the galaxy is now under the rule of the Galactic Emperor himself or one of his thirty vassals. Only a few small pockets of “uncivilized space” remain. Aside from occasional battles against spaceborne monsters, deep-space leviathans, pirate fleets, and the occasional uprising or revolt, large-scale warfare is now a thing of the distant past.
The State of Alaria was created as the result of the Imperial Uplift Program, a mission to uplift primitives sanctioned by the Galactic Emperor. Over the course of about thirty-five years, the Humanoid Alari people were advanced from the stone age all the way into a spacefaring species.
Naturally, Imperial scientists attempted to indoctrinate the Alari into following the same ethics and civics as the HOLY FEVARIAN EMPIRE, but this effort failed for reasons unknown. The naturally argumentative Alarians developed an affinity for democratic forms of government, chafing under the rule of despots and strongmen. Fortunately, Alaria’s distant location in the Galactic Rim prevents the small vassal state from being anything more than a mild annoyance to the Empire.
Now in the modern times, Alaria is a fully-fledged member-state of the HOLY FEVARIAN EMPIRE, and the Galactic Emperor often commissions warships from the grand shipyards at Alar Station.
The central hero of our story is an Alari woman named Cali D’Kara.
She is a member of the Alarian aristocracy, a social class that did not exist until the HOLY FEVARIAN EMPIRE came along and will probably cease to exist as soon as they leave. She is a descendant of the notorious space pirate Vaki D’Jir and her family may be hoarding the pirate’s legendary treasure hoard, which is inconvenient for Cali, as she is currently on bad terms with the rest of her family.
Like most Alarians, Cali abhors violence, but is capable of it all the same. She loves democracy, but abides the current status quo because the Galactic Emperor is too powerful.
This is the story of how she and a few of her friends were swept away on a sudden whirlwind adventure across the galaxy…
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