History of the Astral Web, Part 9

This is the ninth in a series of articles covering the in-world history of the Astral Web. I originally wrote the history as 15 or so eras of history. Rather than make one long post, each era is getting its own post.

In many ways, I consider this era to be the “true” beginning of the campaign’s history. The importance of these events affect the history of the world more than any other.

The Story so Far

The First Step: Mankind had terraformed Mars, and established settlements there.

The Departure: Mankind decided to send a million settlers to establish life around distant suns.

Left at Albuquerque: The fleet leaves Earth and is scattered far and wide by some unknown event.

The Awakening (Years 1 - 167): 20,000 humans settle on the planet Dearborn.

Expansion & Empire (Years 168 - 431): Scientists on Dearborn developed the first working Nexus drive. Dearborn makes contact with the other settlers spread out over 74 other planets. The Empire is formed, the pirates rise, and the Interstellar Sentinels are formed.

The Great Revolution (Years 432-478) The Duke of Schellenberg leads an accidental but successful rebellion against the Dearborn Empire. The Empire is split and the Schellenberg Republic is formed.

The Two Nations (Years 478-608): A period of cold war.

The Fall of Dearborn & The Interstellar League (Years 608-852) The cold war leads to the collapse of the Dearborn Empire.

Milthrani Invasion (852-905)

Even before mankind left Earth there had been a question whether or not there was other intelligent life in the universe. Stories of sightings and strange occurrences always circulated. If there was any scientific evidence, it was drowned out by the noise of hoaxers and madmen.

That question was violently answered in the year 852.

The Milthrani, an alien race race, surprised the everyone when they suddenly invaded the planets of Skive and Phoenix in the Schellenberg republic. While the Milthrani seemed to be strategically weak, their technological superiority gave them the advantage. In a two year war, the Milthrani pushed their way south and were finally halted after conquering Falster and all the Phoenix Constellation worlds to the north.

By 854, the invasion had reached a stalemate. Engla Waldend was a natural “pinch-point”, and the Schellenberg navy established a huge fleet there to prevent further Milthrani expansion. It worked. The population of Engla Waldend was further boosted by caravans of refugees escaping the conquered planets that settled there.

The stalemate continued for nearly a decade. Skirmishes were nearly constant, but nothing really changed. The Milthrani could not breach Engla Waldend, and the humans could not push the invaders back. The Milthrani ruled their conquered territory with an iron fist, using the worlds and their populations as industrial captives. Millions of humans perished or were carted off to Milthrani space as slaves.

Retrospective

This is 100% a playable era. This is a time of struggling humans fighting against a technologically superior alien invasion. What more could you ask for in space opera?

At the end of this era, the world looks like this:

• The Mithrani Dominion (12 worlds)
• The Schellenberg Republic (24 worlds)
• The Dearborn Confederation (22 worlds)
• About 20 independent worlds