Fiction:Argexantine Warrior Alliance/History

"Our story certainly is not that of constant triumph, but after all, knowing the sting of defeat makes the glory of triumph that much greater."

With approximately 400 years of collective history, the history of the Argexantine Warrior Alliance is one rife with conflict, revolution, and reformation. Against catastrophic events and forces that have threatened to unravel the very fabric of the Alliance, AWA still stands strong to this day.

As a member of the Allied Bunsen Galaxy and signatory of the Nivelia Convention, AWA employs the Spore Year system for all official record-keeping and historical functions. Prior to the adoption of the SY system, however, AWA ran a standard solar calendar, based off of the 375-day year of Laureles. The Bibiulor calendar divided the year into ten months instead of twelve, with five 37-day months and five 38-day months, with one 37-day month gaining a 38th day every six years, the equivalent of a leap year. The months, in order, were titled Varok, Hara, Kosso, Sevelt, Kiyash, Nyos, Tiyen, Okso, Sitela, and Hossiya.

The current date is Februn, 1900 SY

Origins
The Argexantine Warrior Alliance was, in some ways, an expansion of the alliance between the Bibiulor and Volonaw Empires of the Argexantine Star Cluster in the northern Sola Sector. The mutual-defense and trade alliance, established in 127 SY by the young Bibiulor (who entered space in 18 PSY) and the older Volonaw (who had entered space long ago in 1056 PSY), would become the basis of the greater Alliance to follow. In 324 SY, the leaders of both the Bibiulor and the Volonaw agreed to make their ties more intimate, as well as to extend a hand of cooperation to other militant nations of Argexantea in the interest of common defense and prosperity. This new organization would be called the Argexantine Warrior Alliance, and soon the young union would begin sending out diplomatic missions to the nations of the Sola Sector in search of potential allies or members.

Prelude Era (324 SY - 506 SY)
The experience of the Volonaw and the vigor of the Bibiulor proved to be a marketable combination, and within the Alliance's first ten years it had gained a considerable amount of territory and influence through memberships. The two most important of these early new members were the Metedarl Dominion and the Minor Federation, two strong military states of the bordering Narusa Star Cluster who would become irreplaceable assets to the Alliance later on. In addition, the Alliance gained the Altos and the Zimazi as allies, two empires who would become important soon in the Alliance's history as well as valuable members.

By 404 SY, twenty years after the Alliance's foundation, the Alliance had proven itself to be a formidable growing power in the Sola Sector, with many neutral nations in Argexantea, Ixiona, Narusa, and Macrusa becoming worried about the potential military might of so many allied militaries, especially as the Warrior Alliance often treated poorly those nations that it thought had weak militaries. However, the Alliance had a glaring weakness: the constituent nations had little sense of cultural unity and were competing for influence within the Alliance under the surface. Seeking to defuse the potential threat of their neighbor, the Bordooshio, Salazan, and Verden nations of east Ixiona formed a secret counter-alliance called the Prelude Tripartite and began to conspire to sow discord among the allied nations. With covert assistance from the Ploogal and the Talatrim, the Tripartite succeeded in staging a political scandal within the Alliance in 463 SY, known as the Tolio-Athender Affair, an orchestrated confrontation between the Altos, Volonaw, and Zimazi that would potentially threaten the Alliance's stability in Ixiona and Argexantea.

What the Tripartite didn't expect, however, was the quick resolution of the Tolio-Athender Affair after suspicions arose that the incident was indeed caused by external forces. Quickly realizing that a target was soon to be painted on their heads, the Prelude Tripartite rapidly armed itself as the AWA investigation came closer to tracing the Affair back to the Tripartite. The Tripartite eventually initiated a preemptive surprise attack against the Altos and Minor in 475 SY, starting the war known as the Prelude War, uniting the once-divided nations of Argexantea against the Prelude. The Prelude represented a legitimate threat to Argexantea, with quality military technology as well as financial backing from the deep-pocketed Ploogal and Talatrim, but ultimately they lacked strength in numbers. The overwhelming size and raw power of the Alliance would prove to ultimately win out in the end, the final battle ending eight years later in 506 SY. While a combination of Prelude tactics and disorganization within the AWA military helped extend the Prelude's numbered days, it was mainly delaying the inevitable as the Prelude had started a war with the odds stacked well against them.

Reactionary Era (506 SY - 824 SY)
In the wake of the Prelude War, the uniting force needed to keep the Alliance together as one cohesive unit seemed to be intense xenophobia. As a result of the sudden Prelude attack as well as the Talatrim-Ploogal conspiracy, the Alliance began to take on an even more hostile tone towards its neutral neighbors in Macrusa and Narusa. Using their new-found local power status, the Alliance bullied the Ploogal into becoming essentially a client state of the Alliance, while the Talatrim fared slightly better and preserved their sovereignty through careful diplomatic maneuvering. Contact with the Chevaste Cluster and the Sola Rim led to the Alliance gaining new members and allies in those regions, such as the Kaprin and Derodenians, some through legitimate friendship and others through intimidation.

The Alliance's new aggressive tendencies drew the ire of a number of independent nations just barely a safe distance outside of the Alliance fold, especially the Kourano and Hiranoa, both of whom happened to be theocracies following a sect of Spodism known as Shi-In-Kou. Elements within the Alliance were also becoming displeased with the Alliance's new policies, namely the Ploogal state and Bibiulor liberals. These factors would lead to the infamous Ixione Incident in 630 SY, in which a group of domestic terrorists calling themselves the Argexantine Liberation Front bombed government buildings on the trading world Ixione. When the group responsible for the attack fled to the safety of Kourano space, the Alliance government declared a purge against all Spodists, beginning a period known as the Pazu'Mir Inquisition.

First contact with the Grand Spodist Church would complicate matters.