The Keeper of Feathers

[Wolfgang I]

I am the Keeper of Feathers.

I carry no name.

I stay planted and plant no seeds.
The white birds nest in my leaves.
I take their old feathers and shorten the barbs.
Listen to a tale of my people.

I'm reading from the Feather of Warp today.
As my tendrils feel the different lengths of the barbs, cut by one of my predecessors, pictures and words form in my mind.

During the rule of the Peacelord Petals of Gold scientists of the Mandate of Arcetemecon discovered faster than light travel.
The people rejoiced and many dreamed of planting their seeds in the soil of another world.

Petals of Gold was a strong proponent of exploration and industry and the construction projects during his rule reflect that philosophy.
Thus the fields were tilled, the mines worked and ships embarked into the void.
It was the year 0 of the new calendar.

Our explores were quickly rewarded for their curiosity and discovered habitable world but also signs of sentient xenos which were found in a neighboring system.
Fear and curiosity were equally present at that time.

As one of our ships entered the Mihil system it discovered something humbling.

No sign of active xenos was found but our people realized that it was too risky to keep all seeds in one basket if such theoretic xenos were not friendly.
Construction of our first seed-ship was started in the year 3.

Hostile non-sentient beings were discovered shortly afterwards.

Living standards approached a new high during those years as wealth was distributed fairly.

Many new and exiting things were discovered in the year 3.

The most exiting thing discovered was however the homeworld of the Uva-Xavani.
Living xenos withing range of one warp!
The Uva-Xavani had not even mastered the atom at that point and offered no threat.
A small number of our people suggested changing our ways and taking their fertile world from them.
Their pollen found no sigma however and they did not gather enough votes to have a voice in the assembly.

Rules and setup for this game.

I expect to die against the crisis.

 

[Wolfgang I]

Today I'm reading from the Feather of Exploration.

The tale begins with the story of our first colony.
It was a glorious day when the first seedlings were planted in the soil of Lavandula II in year 4.

It was an age of exploration and science as one Vultaum relics after another was discovered.
Some were too taunting for our fledgling science fleet but our explorers quickly gained experience and the first big project was completed in year 6.

An observation post was built in orbit of Jem-Kaquused.
The issue was debated in the assembly and those in favor of abduction missions lost the vote.
The barbarian xeno nonintervention act made such operations illegal.

On another world the copies of xeno minds were found and our scientist could not resist the temptation.

The colonization of our 2nd colony was begun shortly afterwards as it became clear that spreading our seed among the stars was of utmost importance to avoid a similar fate.

Meanwhile ancient terraforming equipment was found on on Lavandula II.
Our people realized that our part of the galaxy must have held a large number of advanced civilizations in the past.

Early in the year 9 our mining operations in the Hyshma detected strange movements in the local asteroid belt
A few of our probes were destroyed but safe routes for our transport ships were quickly discovered and our small fleet refrained from attacking those creatures.

I did not know that this bug was still around.

It was a great era for our scientist and our survey fleets explored our neighborhood with lightning speed.

The ancient terraforming operation on Lavandula II was continued in the year 10.

The scientific community had just gotten used to the idea of spaceborne lifeforms as a creature of incredible power was dsicovered.
Its power signature was incredible high and the Polaris system in which it was discovered was declared off limits.
Luckily it faced away from the entry point of our science ship and our explores managed to retreat in the nick of time.

 

[Wolfgang I]

Today I'm reading from the Feather of Tree

We made first contact with another star-faring society in the year 12.
These robotic beings were incredible advanced but as we ignored them they ignored us.

One of our science ships stumbled upon something magnificent in the year 12.

The protectors of the Tree quickly realized that we were plants ourselves and aborted their attack run which allowed our scientists to study the tree.

Our leaders were tempted by the offer of an increased lifespan.

But in the end common sense prevailed and the sap was used for the common good.

Not all our endeavors where successful however in the year 13 we lost our first colony to mutant monsters after our attempt of restarting ancient terraforming equipment had some side effects.

I encountered a bug which made it impossible to land troops on that planet after I lost it to the mutants...

The mutants died quickly after they ran out of food and we recolonized the planet shortly afterwards.

Another project was however successful. If only in a limited way.

The robots settled on a colony that was still under development which increased its growth significantly.

A lot of us were not happy with that decision and the colony of Viola Prime was plagued by conflict in the early years post colonization.

An explorer found an ancient treasure hoard on an asteroid in the year 16 .
This windfall allowed us to colonize more planets than otherwise possible us such operations were a huge drain on the budget of the Mandate.

Multiple discoveries were made every year and most of them were highly beneficiall.
Some examples from the year 18 include the discovery of crystalline spaceborne entities, ancients energy reserves and strange ship wrecks.

 

[Wolfgang I]

Today I'm reading from the Feather of Trade.

Evidence of another advanced species was found in the Pleione system in the year 19.
As one of our sciences ships scanned the perfect garden world it found in that system information designating it as an holy world appeared in its database.
How it got there nobody knows.

We refrained from colonizing that world just in case.

In the same year an asteroid was destroyed by our fleet near Lavandula II.
Not an ill omen in the end as its core contained valuable ressources.

Pest control was also necessary.
Nothing is as shameful as being a member of the warrior caste but sadly its a necessary evil in the universe we live in.
Nowadays our synths carry that burden for us and we are eternally grateful for that.

In the year 21 an unidentified vessels was detected by one of your ships and we made contact with a strange entity.

After much debate in the assembly a team of special conditioned diplomats was sent to its homeworld.
There they learned that the Unity was at war with another star-faring nation.
Most of us wanted nothing to do with that being and its drones but rationality prevailed and to goal of the mission was to establish peaceful relations as our people wanted to avoid war at all costs.
Our team quickly discovered that the farming techniques used by the Djunn Unity were not very efficient at all.
We offered it regular shipments of nutrients in exchange for a pact of non-aggression.
It agreed and an automated shipping line was established.

In the following years contact was established with three other star empires.
Those xenos were not quite as alien as the Djunn Unity and soon enough, in exchange for peace, we started feeding them too.
Contact with xenos was and still is a disgraceful task.
The contaminated diplomats have their own sector on spacestations and they are not allowed to set tendril on the homeworld again after their first mission.

In the year 25 we discovered xenos on one of our colonies.

The assembly was still discussing our options when they attacked.

They were not match for our forces but its a shame that they did not ignore us as we ignored them.

With most xenos we traded only food in exchange to peace, research and sensor data.
However we traded other things with the ancient but inward focused machines which were our direct neigbours.
We also made contact with those that consider the garden worlds we discovered holy.
Again we were pleasantly surprised because they warned us and ignored us afterwards.

The Djunn Unity lost its war and perished.
Thankfully we had already established a treaty of non-aggression with the Moij-Huxgan Clans which absorbed its territory.

 

[Wolfgang I]

The Feather of Reward.

Exploration was very fruitful for our people and the Vultaun homeworld was discovered in the year 31.

The foolish nature of these ancient beings showed us once more that xenos were better kept at tendrils length.

No all of us agreed with that decisions however and a smuggler settlement was detected on Jem-Kaquused.
Those malcontents were dealt with decisively and their profits sized.

The secrets of the ancient mining drones were also discovered.

These unexpected windfalls allowed us to colonize planets at a rapid pace without emptying our treasury.
In the year 35 we colonized 4 new colonies at the same time.

In the year 38 we discovered something just as impressive as the void dragon.
Thankfully this giant was peaceful.

While we were busy exploring the galaxy and minding our own business our neighbors continued to fight each other.
In the year 35 the Moij-Huxgan Clans declared war against the Vrinn Alliance.

By the year 40 we had discovered eleven alien empires.
Some were incredible powerful and ancient and we ignored them and they ignore used.
The others we supplied with food in exchange for pacts of nonaggression and research treaties.

 

[Wolfgang I]

Today I'm reading from the Feather of Ore.


In the year 46 we colonized and world that was formerly the home of a warlike species.
It is a joy to walk among the remains of beings that would kill their own kind knowing that such vermin never reached the stars.

In the year 49 our government started focusing even more on minerals.
According to a well know conspiracy theory "Not enough minerals!" is the motto of a secret organisation called the "Seeds of Auir" which controls our government.

It was a time of steady growth and all available planets inside our territory were colonized as fast as possible.

In the year 56 the xenos on Jem-Kaquused exterminated themselves.
We were glad that they never reached the stars.

Our fleet was deployed to destroy the void dragon and succeed in the year 58.

In the year 63 a strange creature entered our territory but the Dragonslayers took care of it.

By the year 64 most of the empires of the galaxy were fighting in one war or more.

We on the other hand signed non-aggression pacts with all of our neighbors and with most other empires too.

 

[Wolfgang I]

Today I'm reading from the Feather of the Worm.

In the year we revived signal from black hole and our scientists deciphered it.

A number of scientists vanished in pursuit of the worm.

In the year 74 we hatched a dragon age.

By the year 78 all major active powers of the galaxy were at war.

Only one power in the galaxy was hostile to us and our fleet served its main purpose as a deterrence.

The worm remained elusive and in the year 49 a copy of one of our admirals committed suicide and left his, rather pathetic, ship behind.

By the year 83 all habitable planets inside our territory except the holy worlds of the Zydran Protectors had been colonized.

In the year 84 the Lok Archivist requested one of our scientists.
His sacrifice is still remembered as the alternative might have been war.

Sadly the other empires of the galaxy refused to follow our example of peaceful coexistence
.

In the year 86 we lost our oldest non-aggression pact.

The assembly voted for further expansion of our deterrence fleet.

In the year 87 the main enemies of the Moij-Huxgan formed a Federation.

By the year 90 we were getting closer to the worm.

In the year 95 the Blorg demanded part of our population.
Sacrificing one scientist was one thing but giving xenos part of our population was out of the question.
We refused.

Something strange happened to the minds of some of our people.
We had started building sentient machines and for some reason they thought those machine people made in our image were aliens.

These deluded morons still hold seats in the assembly.

Another Federation was founded in the year 102.

In the year 112(2312) part of your fleet was deployed near the Moij-Huxgan Nation border to demonstrate that our fleet was ready and that declaring war against us was the worst possible decision they could make.

 

[Wolfgang I]

I am the Last Keeper of Feathers.

I carry no name.

I am wilting.

No seedlings listen to my tales.

No seed was given to me.

My people have changed.

We celebrated the year 200 in the name of eternal peace.
Diplomats from our overlord the Blorg Arbitrators celebrated with us.
They had just lost another war to the Blessed Quvarian Order and they needed something to celebrate.
Since more than a 100 years our power was unmatched and no foreign power had ever challenged our peaceful ways.
The only sentients our fleet had ever fought were our own pirates at the dawn of our interstellar age.

In the year 213 strange subspace anomalies heralded the end of our way of life.

Our request for peaceful coexistence was answered with an incomprehensible response.

Those strange beings arrived with vast fleets.

In the following years one fleet after another penetrated our territory.

Suicide missions kept most of their fleets occupied as our main forces protected our worlds.

Our forces took significant losses which were replaced as fast as possible.

One xeno world after another was conquered by the invaders.

Genetically modified warriors battle xeno monsters on a regular basis as our fleet jumps from system to system destroying one fleet after another.

My people have changed.
There is talk about ending our association with the Blorg by force.
There is talk about allying with the other powers of the galaxy against the new threat.

Our people live on but the last Feather has been cut.
To record one tale battle after another is too disgusting.
I won't shame my predecessors and our most noble an ancient order by doing it.

I will burn this Feather together with all the others and I will burn with them.