The Illuminated Imperium - My sci-fi universe

[HemlockGrey]

Taking a page from SirNitram, I decided to post a brief synopsis of the universe of an upcoming sci-fi fic. Comments welcome and appreciated.



By the twenty-third century, centuries of warfare had united the globe under a coaliation of democracies. This coalitation, named the Coalition of Mankind, realized that for humanity to flourish, it must expand into the great void; Earth was host to twenty billion people; it's resources were strained to the breaking point. The Coalition, working closely with the masive, global corporations that flourished in the wake of the wars, mobilized Earth's massive industrial capability in a reach towards the stars.

Space travel had not lain entirely stagnant during the wars; at least two dozen large stations existed in high Earth orbit. Weapons platforms and military satillites were stripped down to equip new vessels of exploration and discovery. The Moon, already home to a host of domed cities, became the center of the new solar expansion.

Within a hundred years, man had spread to nearly every planet in the Sol system. Antimatter reactors fueled the great star-ships of the Coalition; their vast fleet and standing army kept the peace and enforced the increasingly stringent laws.

The Sol system colonized, scientists turned their minds toward discovering a method to travel faster than light, in an effort to leave their galaxy behind. After many, many years, the citizens of the Coalition became to grow discontent under the increasingly oppressive government. Attempts to discover a method of faster than light travel proved fruitless. The Coalition cracked down on massive corporations, brutally enforced trade regulations and began to censor the media. Several worlds rose in revolt, and the Revolution began.

The Revolution was a horrific and bloody war that was waged for decades. At the climax of the conflict, Earth was in the hands of the Revolutionists, but the Coalition had gathered a massive fleet. The leadership of the Revolution was trapped at the Moon; their battered war fleet was no match for the massed might of the Coalition Navy. But as the leaders of the Revolution opened their eyes the day of the Coalition invasion, they saw their salvation.

High above Earth sat ten majestic warships. Massive beyond anything mankind had been capable of procuding insofar, they bristled with weaponry previously thought impossible. There was no hatch, or door, or any way of controlling the ships - or so it seemed.

The Revolutionists only had ten hours to stare in awe at the behemoths, for soon the Coalition forces struck. They easily overpowered the Revolutionist forces. Though the site of the ten warships filled the commanders of the Coalition with dread, the ships did not interfere - they just sat there, waiting. Victory seemed at hand.

Down on Earth, rebels loyal to the Coalition struggled with Revolutionist ground forces. In New York, on the top floor of the Interhumanity Palace, the magnificent structure where the Coalition was first formed hundreds of years ago, a Revolutionist officer named Andrew Lynstar and his men took refuge. It was he who spotted the throne.

It was unlike anything known to mankind. It seemed crystalline, like glass; it caught the light and reflected it in every color of the spectrum. Compelled by some unseen force, the officer took a seat. His men were reported to have seen what could only be described as glass snakes slither out of the throne and wrap themselves around the officer.

Up in space, the behemoths began to move.

The officer had never experienced anything like this before, but it seemed as though he could control the ships; control every aspect of each, individually, coordinated; all with the barest whisper of a thought. Guided by instinct alone, he moved the ships into an attack formation. The Coalition and Revolutionist forces did not know what was happening until a burning salvo of incandescent death surged from the warships and shattered the Coalition fleet. The Coalition Navy swarmed about the warships, discharging every weapon they had, all in vain. The warships were fast, incredibly mauneverable, and bore weapons the likes of which humanity had never seen. The Coalition Navy was utterely annhilated.

In the following weeks, the warships struck again and again, routing Coalition forces. Andrew acquiesed the throne to Revolutionst leaders, but when it was found that the throne would not respond to them, the officer was granted full control and leadership of the fleet.

The ships bore technology never thought possible - ion cannons, antiparticle torpedoes, particle shielding, and, most importantly, a method of faster than light travel.

Dubbed 'FoldSpace' the warships apparently bore tunnels through space-time, tunnels between two points. When a ship entered this tunnel, it did not actually travel faster than light, but a much shorter distance.

The Coalition was promptly defeated and disbanded. In it's place, a dictatorship was set up, and Lynstar installed as emperor. He was given the title 'Illuminarch', lord sovereign and protector of all humanity.

Thus was the Illuminated Imperium born.

Now knowing that such advanced technology was possible, Illuminum scientists began to strive for their creation. The oppressive policies of the Coalition were cast off and all of humanity was behind the effort to develop a FoldSpace drive. During this time, Lynstar, now adept at commanding the massive warships, schooled an heir; his nephew, in the use of the throne. The warships were dubbed the Imperial Stars, the throne was named the Lynstar Chair.

Shortly after Lynstar's death, the FoldSpace drive was perfected. Research continued on ion cannon and particle shielding technology, and branched out into study of medicine, robotics, and other varied fields. The matter of succession to the Lynstar Chair was settled - each Illuminarch picked an heir, and trained him in the ways of the Chair. The Chair only accepted the person picked by the Illuminarch; to everyone else, it was simply a beautiful and uncomfortable seat.

In the centuries that followed, mankind spread like a flood. Though the Imperial Stars were never matched, warships of a size and granduer never before seen were created and sent forth; wealth and population exploded. Over a period of six hundred years humanity conquered the Milky Way; and the question of 'Are we alone?' was finally laid to rest, for humanity encountered numerous and varied aliens in it's quest for domination. Some brokered deals with the fledging empire; others petitioned for entry; some resisted with steel and fire. The might of the successive Illuminarchs, and the ever-exanding Illuminated Fleets, drove the expansion; the Imperium was invincible, it's mighty fleets headed by the Imperial Stars, warships unmatched by anything ever encountered. The FoldSpace drives grew vastly more powerful; the Imperium stretched out it's hand and took the Andromeda galaxy by storm. Trillions upon trillions of humans and their alien allies raced to the new galaxy. There the Imperium encountered numerous spacefaring nations, and drove them all before it. Curiously, it encountered one constant among all the myriad civilizations - they all used some form of FoldSpace, though details and theories varied.

The conquest of the Andromeda galaxy was well underway. Great generals and brilliant tacticians spread the flag of the Imperium to thousands of planets - until they met the Syndyr.

First contact came without warning. A thousand alien ships Folded into a forward Imperium outpost with no warning. The Imperium forces drew back and attempted to defend the planet from this sudden attack. The Syndyr attempted to bombard the planet, but the bombardment was thwarted by the planetary shield.

A dozen of the largest and most powerful warships moved into a tight sphere. Eyewitnesses later reported seeing some sort of massive energy fluctuation gather in the center of the sphere and lance forward in a constricted beam. The planet expoded immediatly.

The Imperium mobilized it's fleet to defend against the new threat. The alien language, like many other non-human dialects, was impossible to speak using the human tongue and impossible for the human ear to understand. Gradually, though, with the help of their provincials and allies, the Imperium managed to piece together enough of it to program their ship's translators.

The aliens called themselves the Syndyr, the Undefiled Ones, the Worldless. The Imperium was tainted; it did not roam free. Negotiations proved impossible. The Syndyr would not compromise. Their culture was unknown. Their technology was alien, though their weapon systems resembled Imperium weapons. In every engagement, they seemed to abandon all other objectives in a suicidal attack on whatever planet they were striking at. Their resources seemed limitless; the high command of the Illuminated Fleet could find no base, no supply line to strike at. The Imperial Stars proved as effective against the Syndyr as they had against other races, but they could not be everywhere, and each new Illuminarch began to keep them from the front more and more, for they needed them to put down the occasional rebellion, for shows of force, political schemes, the defense of Earth against possible Syndyr invasion - the Imperial Stars factored into a whole host of schemes and plots.

Over many years the Imperium managed to contain them; gradually, they erected a massive wall to keep the Syndyr out of Imperial space. The 'wall' took the form of thousands of outposts, FoldSpace disruption fields, task forces, and star stations. Thus was the line drawn in the sand; the Illuminated Wall would defend all the members of the Imperium from the ravaging Syndyr. The Illuminated Wall was self-sufficent, left to it's own devices. In time it developed a command structure entirely independent from the Imperium.

The Illuminarch was, by this point, an imposing figure indeed. Medical technology had advanced so much that even a dirt-poor beggar could expect to live at least 80-100 years; middle-class citizens could hit 150, the wealthy might even make it to 300.

The Iluminarchs never died before 400.

The Imperium prospered. Decades of peace and prosperity followed. The fleets were kept up-to-date under the keen eye of Illuminated High Command. War broke out occasionally, but it was always swiftly ended, and the Imperium always victorious.

Until the day the Illuminarch Andrias Laxin was assassinated.

In front of the renamed Intergalatic Palace, the Laxin was giving a speech when a wing of Shredfighters suddenly spiraled down into the parade grounds. Chaos ensued; a bomb went off in the parade grounds, scorching six acres of ground. The Intergalatic Palace was badly damaged, but the Lynstar Chair was not scathed.

The heir to the Chair vanished in the confusion.


The resulting chaos was predictable. Civil war broke out. The Princes of the Veil-a network of mighty governers who held sway over a vast swath of territory in the Andromeda galaxy-secceeded. Government forms dormant for eons rose again; the Union of Sovereign Soviet Planets was formed and a republic named the Coalition rose to power. Millions of planets left the Imperium or were left undefended and gobbled up by opportunistic warlords. The Mining Oligarchy, a mighty industrial corporation spanning the galaxies, declared it's independence and set about the process of building up it's grand fleet. Corporation afer corporation, from the Free Merchant Shipping and Goods Company to the Intergalatic Trade Association, declared themselves neutral powers, not subject to the laws of any single nation. Alien civilizations long under the rule of the Imperium broke free.

All was not lost for the Imperium, however. A band of loyal commanders still held a large swath of space. Dubbing themselves the Resurgents, they swore to find the heir to the Chair, to reclaim the galaxies, and to reestablish the Iluminated Imperium.

Through it all the Illuminated Wall stood, ignoring the petty squabbles of the galaxies, safeguarding them from the neverending Syndyr raids and strikes.

War consumed the galaxies. Space was torn by strife. No planet was spared and no system left untouched. The Strifewars had begun - and they would not end soon.

And in high Earth orbit, useless, sat the Imperial Stars, impartial observers of the carnage that swept the universe.

[Mr Bean]

Nice set-up but then maybe I'm just on a bit of a high as I read this listening to Klendthau drop

[HemlockGrey]

Heh. Any specific thoughts? The fic will start about ten years into the Strifewars.

[HemlockGrey]

Heh. Any thoughts/comments?

I realize it wasn't exactly exciting, but I'm saving the 'exiciting' for the actual story.

[Crom]

I like the world set up. I'm particularly interested in the variety of cultures that would be brought together under the Imperium. There's also the mystery of the origin of the alien battleships and the everpresent threat of the outsiders.

The only comment I can think of is something I picked up while reading something Ian Banks wrote on the Culture. The gist of it was that a spacefaring culture would develop a new way of governing. It's something inherent in the environment. Forgive me if I've misunderstood Banks, and feel free to correct me. The point being I'm not sure if an Imperial setup, even backed by FTL technology, would be the best type of government. And yet it appears quite often in sci-fi...

[HemlockGrey]

It's probably right, but the Imperium is slightly differant than a standard empire. Every Illuminarch has been benevolent and intelligent - no hrash tyrants or cruel dictators, for example.

[Falkenhorst]

this kicks ass as well. I'd like to see alot more of it soon.

[HemlockGrey]

Space Combat in the Known Universes


In the ancient past, war in space was simple; satillites and platforms carried missles, warheads, and powerful lasers, all of which could be targeted at other satillites, enemy space shuttles, or enemy assets on the ground. With the advent of the Coalition, warfare began to change; as battle began to take place well and truly in space, nuclear missiles became the order of the day, as heavily armored battlecruises exchanged shots while well within visual range.

By the end of the Revolution, things had begun to change. Instead of barrages of nuclear missles, ships would exchange broadsides of antimatter torpedoes. The massive, lumbering cruisers of that era were analogous to 18th and 17th century ships-of-the-line; victory was usually given to whichever captain could squeeze off the most shots.

The birth of the Imperium gave way to submarine tactics; empowered by the FoldSpace drive, ships would manuever cautiously about space, unleashing devestating volleys of torpedoes. The first side to score a hit was almost always victorious.

Gradually, however, that technique became obselete; particle shields replaced heavy armor, and volleys of the new Interceptor missles could halt a torpedo barrage in it's tracks. Improvements on the FoldSpace drive allowed for microfolds and sensors began to become capable of tracking indivual missles, allowing computers to target and neutralize each one. New advances have rendered the antimatter torpedo obselete and replaced it with the newer and more powerful antiparticle torp.

Space combat as utilized in the Strifewars has changed very litte since the development of long-range ion cannons and fighters. Now, snubcraft carry torpedoes; to be delievered at close range where Interceptors cannot have time to operate. As they race to and fro; guarding and delievering their deadly payloads, they are challenged by enemy craft; the dogfight has become a delicate ballet where each ship in each squadron is indespenable as far as the battle is concerned.

Combat between capital ships still occurs, of course; for the ion cannons of today can stretch across half a million klicks and still deliever devestating blows. The agile warships of the many dissident factions dodge and spin and duck and blaze away at warships their captains can see only through use of highly advanced sensors. Combat involving the defense of a planet tends to take place at closer ranges, however, but visual contact is almost never maintained. The grand warships may fire a volley of missles or a string of gravity bombs, hoping a few get past the myriad defenses, or they may engage with their but there is nothing more majestic than seeing space lit up with the brilliant blaze of a heavy battery of ion guns.

[Falkenhorst]

this Rocks! I demand more!

[Peregrin Toker]

Sounds very promising. However, I see some sort of lack of originality in the social structure - I would like to see a sci-fi universe with a large society which lacks a sort of hierarchy.

On the other hand, the stuff about the throne sounds very original.