Fiction:Phero Ecumene/History

Formation and Early History
The concept of the Phero Ecumene as both a united coalition of many species and the covert successor to the Symmetry was first envisioned by Vi'taupheon, the strategist and technical leader of the Quintet. Upon realizing the Symmetry itself could no longer be saved, Vi and his fellow Pentarchs escaped the fall of their civilization by temporarily exiting the universe in their Thought-Ship, and settling in the orbit of one of their fortress worlds upon return. While the others awaited their reawakening in stasis, Vi sat in perpetual meditation and watchfulness over the evolving, mentally constructing what would in 1742 become the Phero Ecumene.

First Convergence War
In 1736 CE, the began relentlessly assaulting multiple civilizations native to the Pal-Xalakk, Khauiz-Tok, and Ton-Yato sectors of Tuuros, searching for the  that possessed the AI Kzejjyt, the only known Tvolin AI capable of fully comprehending and using  and thus a valuable asset to the Convergence. Their first strike in Pal-Xalakk fell on the -held system of Voltrove, forcing the Oslun Empire to mobilize rapidly in retaliation against this new threat, with the militaries of both often resorting to torture to extract information on the Convergence out of the scattered Tvolii. While the knowledge gathered through this slowed the advance of the biosynths, both empires continued losing worlds at an unacceptable rate, forcing them to pressure the nearby Twin Stars Coalition into aiding them. However, the Coalition's capital world of was attacked in a surprise mass-assault by the Convergence, forcing it to pour all its forces into removing the biosynthetic corruption from the system. The Moonweb, however, entered the war quite unexpectedly on the side of the Oslun, forcing the Convergence to spread out its forces as it searched for Kzejjyt.

Unbeknownst to the Convergence and most of the factions now embroiled in the war, Kzejjyt was possessed by the former Tvolin admiral Xiaulzhos, who was guided by the almost undetectable meddling of Vi'taupheon to the unclaimed and uninhabited planet in 1737, a former fortress world of the Psal'Jinnai (a fact much of the galaxy remained unaware of). The entry of Xiaul's ship into the Xao system alerted the Thought-Ship sitting at the core of planet's largest moon, and thus awakened four of its five occupants, the last of their species and the group that would come to be called the Quintet. Azh'auvix began whispering to Xiaul through the Zemblite on board his ship, instructing him to land on Phero, where Azh had awoken a Nycotium (a device used to communicate with and uplift lesser species) through which he could guide and speak to the Tvolis.

Many parsecs from Phero, the loose Nech-Oslun entente began construction of the Pal-Xalakk Wall, a semilinear array of planetary and deep-space installations that would use artificial gravitational fields to pull down anything attempting to cross into the sector along the Oma-Khauat border. However, the project was abandoned as the three empires were forced to divert the majority of their assets toward defending their home territories. At this point, Nech research teams on the fortress world Axolvol appeared to have broken the Psal'Jinnai seal on it, allowing it to be controlled by the Moonweb's military. In reality, the Quintet had remotely unlocked it for use by the Nech, whose Moon Council had been offered the strength of the Psal'Jinnai Symmetry in exchange for total subservience and secrecy. Their entry into the war had been a test of their civilization's innate strength, and despite the dramatic losses the Quintet deemed them and their allies worthy.

Xiaul, meanwhile, was informed of his role in the grander scheme of the Quintet: he would be the head of a new order designed to ensure the loyalty of numerous races, primarily those embroiled in the war with the Convergence, while granting the Quintet total but covert control, exercised primarily through the central leader Xiaul would become. Easily swayed by promise of authority and power for him to exercise within the boundaries of their design, Xiaul was granted access to Phero's ship-forges, with which he produced an incredibly powerful fleet, which would then be staffed by the various Atriants, Lieschi, and Tvolii that had also been called to Phero by Vi'taupehon. When the fleet finally left the Xao system in 1740 CE, also taking two mobile war-moons with it, Kzejjyt was placed in stasis deep within Phero, far beyond the Convergence's reach.

The arrival of Xiaul's fleet at the Siege of Coelyss, the nearest fragment of the war to Phero itself, turned the tide in mere hours, breaking the Convergence forces surrounding the unaffiliated world. Though grateful for his intervention, the governing Tribunal was reluctant to sign a pact of temporary submission which granted Xiaul total control over their military assets and system-wide resources, though Coelyss itself was deemed off-limits for mining. Taking what he could, Xiaul moved on, carving a path of devastation through the Convergence line until he reached Vortrove, where even after four years the Oslun had held out against the relentless onslaught. Coincidentally, the Strategic Mind in charge of attacking and searching Pal-Xalakk chose this as the perfect moment to strike down Xiaul, who had become the greatest threat to the Convergence's objective. The Liberation of Voltrove would go on for nearly a year, with Xiaul's armada facing an overpowering threat that likely would have ended his campaign, were it not for the intervention of the Nech. Brininging their own fleet outfitted with deadly Psal'Jinnai weaponry, they tipped the scales enough for the Pal-Xalakk natives to destroy the majority of Convergence forces in their sector, including the Strategic Mind before it could flee back to Xalakk-Xittan. Subsequent skirmishes over the next year would finish off the remainder of the invaders.

Tyle'an Invasion
As one of the dominant powers in Pal-Xalakk at the time, the Tyle'an Dictation had been able to easily fend off the Convergence assault relative to the rest of the sector. Seeing many of their neighbors weakened by the war, they quickly sent a massive invasion force to establish their sovereignty over the rest of Pal-Xalakk's species. Succeeding in their conquest of much of the broken Twin Stars Coalition, the Tyle'ans pushed into the Oslun Empire and Nech Moonweb with great confidence. However, the still-mobilized armada of Xiaul and the Nech, both of which the Tyle'ans were largely unaware of, routed the new invaders in six months. And with the recalcitrant Coaliition and numerous provinces within the Dictation rebelling in this moment of federal weakness, the Tyle'ans were effectively held hostage by the technologically superior flotilla which had proceeded to blockade their capital.

Dawn of the Ecumene
At this point, Xiaul and the Nech Moon Council presented their outline for the establishment of the Phero Ecumene, a massive interstellar government which outwardly appealed to the desires of all involved parties as best it could. Seeing that their disorganized and divided state had lead to their near-fall to two threats over the past decade, the Dictation, Enpire, Moonweb, Coalition, and Hegemony gave their sovereignty over to the new system. Xiaul, as luck would have it, was elected to be the first Prime Magistrate. At the protest of the Tribunal of Coelyss, he created the Ministry of Autonomous Worlds, allowing the planet more autonomy alongside the security granted by the Ecumene. Phero, naturally, was designated as the capital of the new state, and a Capital Spire constructed to house the offices of the Prime Magistrate and the then-bicameral Parliament of Phero.

The young Ecumene was rapidly confronted with numerous challenges to its stability, both internal and external. The Caldatine Coven, a sprawling pirate faction plaguing the Pal-Xalakk sector, became a constant threat to the Ecumene's outer systems shortly after its formation, and served as the first true test of its decentralized Contention Forces. Fleets from nineteen of the thirty-seven enclaves began raising Caldatine strongholds and hideouts across the sector, with the exact location of their headquarters eventually being uncovered by the C'cysa Enclave's unique Cyberwarfare Legion. Using this information, the Ecumene forced the Coven to accept a non-aggression agreement after three years of conflict.

In addition to piracy, the Ecumene faced a crisis regarding the illegalization of slave labor that had been implemented by Xiaul during the Ecumene's formation. Numerous Oslun and Lieschi continued to indulge in illicit sapient-trafficking networks, many of which were formerly legal markets that went underground when the Ecumene was formed, and allowed to continue by the lax attempts of many magistrates to tackle the problem. Xiaul eventually pressured Parliament into passing the Talorossa Protocol, the first federal law to apply directly to magistrates by requiring them to comply with a minimum level of enforcement of antislavery laws.

Internal Strife and Expansion
In 1849 CE, the Ecumene's territory expanded to meet that of the Berraka Empire, which within a decade was peacefully assimilated into the Ecumene. This increased its size by 30% and marked the first total absorption of a foreign power into the Ecumene.

Settan Genocide
In 1870 CE, the Ecumene followed a very different path with the Settan Federation, which proved much more territorial and belligerent than the Berraka and was militarily subjugated in 1876. By 1879, the Federation had been completely dissolved and its territories absorbed into the Phero Ecumene as a military-administrated region. The subsequent Settan Genocide saw occupying forces under Capital Archpraetor Xectamora divide the diverse Settan subraces and eradicate those seen as unsuitable for assimilation into the Ecumene, with their "suitable" brethren often being enlisted to pull the trigger. Though most in the Ecumene were not explicitly informed of the genocide, knowledge of it quickly spread. However, few actively stood against Xect's "campaign."

In 1883, a group of Settan rebel attempted to strike back against their oppressors, waging a short-lived guerilla conflict that culminated in the arrival of Mentem Discordiæ I, and with it the Eye of Vastu-Ux. While the rebels celebrated the overthrow of occupiers on the planet Oxol, the Eye was used on its star, igniting a supernova that wiped out all life in the system, breaking any hope of standing against the Ecumene.

By 1890, the genocide was deemed complete, though the process of reprogramming Settan society continued. The event has long been cited as a testament to the unyielding brutality of the Ecumene in its treatment of non-compliant worlds, as well as its ruthless efficiency in assimilating new species. And while initially seen by the Ecumene's citizens with apathy, several magistrates saw the use of the Eye as a sign of the central government's overextension; such a devastating weapon, to them, showed the need to increase the power of the feudal magistrates over the actions of the Prime Magistrate and Parliament.

First Ecumene Civil War
The closing days of 1941 CE saw the completion and proposal of the Otathes Directive, a package of laws and amendments to the Ecumene's governmental structure that would grant the enclaves near-autonomy with little to no power being retained by the Prime Magistrate or Parliament. Both the Magnus and Modus Synods passed the Directive, and in response Prime Magistrate Kateur Tov Bavorusk appointed himself Master of Legions, declaring martial law in the entirety of the Ecumene. The forty-nine enclaves which had backed the Directive, however, retained authority over their militaries and ignored all federal orders to cede control to Bavorusk. Following a suicide bombing of the Capital Spire on Phero, supposedly perpetrated by one of the rebellious enclaves, Bavorusk began a blockade of all forty-nine, which were now deemed insurgents and their governments no longer considered part of the Ecumene.

Now little more than outcasts, the forty-nine insurgent enclaves began operating under an alternate version of the Ecumene government in which the Otathes Directive was in effect. The majority of their minsters in the Parliament of Phero defected to the Grand Parliament of Enclaves, and Xabakan Tyxurl was elected as their relatively powerless Prime Magistrate. This new system was deemed the Grand Pheroene Consortium of Enclaves.

The first true battle of this civil war was fought in 1942 CE in the orbit of the gas dwarf Juilium, in which Consortium forces from several of its enclaves began relentlessly assaulting Ecumene installations of both military and industrial nature. While the more cohesive Ecumene defense was initially successful, the sheer numbers the Consortium wielded, in part thanks to its inclusion of the populous and militaristic Tzaiel Enclave, toppled the defense after days of struggle, paving the way for further attacks on Ecumene strongholds. Because the Consortium was even less centralized in its functions than the Ecumene, its attacks were much harder to predict and trace, and the Ecumene was quickly exhausted attempting to combat the beast the Consortium had become. Noticing this, the enclaves of the Consortium began the next phase of their conquest.

Meanwhile, the Quintet looked on with great interest. This was the first true test of their Ecumene's ability to survive. If it could not put down internal rebellion, then it was flawed and worthless to them. Bavorusk knew he and the Ecumene were being tested, and in parallel with it he became exhausted by the constant conflict.

In 1945 CE, after years of crippling the Ecumene's military assets and strongholds, the Consortium's legions began invading and occupying loyalist enclaves, forcing their magistrates one-by-one to adopt the Otathes Directive. The Mentem Discordiæ I was fielded against the Consortium the same year, and was crippled beyond repair, though the Eye of Vastu-Ux was returned to Phero intact. By 1947, the Capital Enclave itself was almost completely occupied, with Phero itself being the stage of the war's last major battle. What forces remained loyal to Bavorusk fought to the last ship to keep the Consortium off of Phero, but did so in vain, with Bavorusk and what remained of the Parliament of Phero fleeing aboard the recently completed Mentem Discordiæ II, an act accepted by the Consortium as surrender.

Consortium Age and Second Civil War
The rule of the Consortium lasted for nearly a century, and it is widely regarded as the dark age of the Ecumene, or more specifically, its population and territories. Many enclaves that had been loyal to the original government hired mercenaries and coaxed pirates into attacking the original Consortium enclaves, which retained a number of military and representative privileges in the war's aftermath and responded in kind. Some magistrates that had formerly been on the same side turned on each other, both politically and militarily, with a web of arms races developing between them. The safety and security the Ecumene had prided itself on was lost to the disorder and sometimes extreme danger of living under the Consortium, fueling public distaste.

Despite this, the Consortium was able to expand its territory significantly, and in 1996 CE created the Amaxi Enclave to govern a large swath of newly colonized systems. However, this enclave quickly became a haven for anti-Consortium activity due to its developing infrastructure, and Bavorusk returned to Consortium space in 2004 to begin gathering supporters under the nose of its magistrate. This attracted the interest of the Quintet, who had yet to reveal themselves to the new Prime Magistrate and planned to abstain from doing so while Bavorusk remained alive.

The Second Ecumene Civil War began in 2041 CE with an event known as the Vogue Resurgence, in which armed citizens and disgruntled soldiers of thirty-six enclaves, Amaxi included, stormed their capitals and took control of their governments by force. Bavorusk chose this moment to reveal himself and his involvement in triggering the mass public coup, declaring the rebirth of the Ecumene in the process. The unstable Consortium-loyal enclaves became easy targets for Bavorusk's "Resurgents", who now had both the cohesion and numbers to tackle the Insurgent forces. Enclaves fell and defected over the course of the next six years, until the Resurgent Fleet made it to Phero in a striking parallel of the battle that ended the First Civil War. As Ecumene forces descended on the planet, Prime Magistrate Tyxurl ordered an official surrender and committed suicide, ending the war.

Age of Recovery
The recovery and reconstruction efforts following the fall of the Consortium lasted from 2059 to 2104 CE, elongated by the sheer level of damage and resource depletion caused by the two wars and interstellar chaos between them. In addition, much of Contention Forces were spent hunting down several rogue magistrates. These magistrates had benefited under the Consortium government and fled during the war, taking their supporters with them and returning in the Age of Recovery to cause disorder in the rebuilding Ecumene.

Numerous political reforms were implemented as a part of the recovery, intended to prevent the rise of another Consortium-like entity in the future. The Ministry of Contention was created to oversee, but not command, the Contention Forces of individual enclaves, ensuring they would not act against each other or the central government. The Ministry of Information was granted the authority to implement mass surveillance systems to monitor all activity within the Ecumene. In addition, in order to streamline the functions of the ministries, the enclaves were remapped and reduced from seventy-four to twenty-eight. Even the Parliament of Phero itself was modified, with a Vogus Synod being added to reflect the desires of the Ecumene's entire population. In secret, the Quintet made plans to restructure Ecumene society into a racial hegemony, successfully doing so over the course of the next several centuries.

In 2227, an isolated Lieschi civilization known as the Esu Star Republic was encountered, and peacefully absorbed a decade later.

Expansion to Pal-Tala
2257 CE saw the Ecumene's first forays into Tuuros' Pal-Tala sector, beginning with the colonization of the Kione system. The entrance into Pal-Tala resulted in something of an economic boom, as its proximity to Imi-Xal (and thus the original territory of the Psal'Jinnai) meant Zemblite caches were both larger and less spread out compared to those in Pal-Xalakk.

Modern Era
2609 CE is generally accepted as the beginning of the modern era for the Ecumene, with the first reports of massive organized crime rings in the Ecumene's outer rim coinciding with the first sightings of Convergence ships in Pal-Xalakk since the Ecumene's establishment. In addition, this era saw the dawn of formal relations with the due to attempts by both to fend off marauding Mbrothall.

Rise of the Underground
The sector of Ecumene society that would become known as the Underground was first recognized and nicknamed in 2609, as Civil Security operatives began uncovering extensive webs of illicit goods traffickers and organized criminals throughout the outer and mid rims of the Ecumene, with a high concentration existing in the former. In the years since, numerous attempts by Civil Security Legions have been made to combat and eradicate the Underground, with limited success given its entrenchment and decentralization.

In the later 2700s, Prime Magistrate attempted to cripple the Underground by covertly recruiting long-term sleeper agents who would be activated at varying times over the next several decades, with some still waiting for their time. These agents would burrow into the Underground and gain enough influence to cause serious damage to the structure of the underground, often by building their own organized crime rings. However, this plan has had little success, and several agents have been absorbed entirely into the Underground, much to Umbyrvraxa's frustration.

New Conflicts with the Convergence
In 2700 CE, Magistrate Shunor Vo-Kavan of the Temulos Enclave began sending small naval battlegroups to the Xalakk-Xittan sector in response to the increase in Convergence activity. The few that returned revealed a massive buildup of the Convergence's destructive power. In response, Vo-Kavan and nearly sixty other magistrates began preemptive strikes on Convergence-controlled worlds, triggering the modern. The war has turned the massive space between the Ecumene and Convergence into a warzone, as ships shoot each other down mid-jump in the Pal-Tala and Oma-Khauat sectors. However, the Ecumene appears to be making progress in pushing back the Convergence.

Social and Cultural Change
The modern Ecumene has notably seen an extreme rise in anti-machinism—that is, the belief in the inferiority of machine life relative to organic life, no matter how intelligent or advanced a mechanical lifeform may be. The spreading of this view is in part attributed to the Convergence War and the incredibly amoral actions of the Convergence due to its purely logical and algorithmic nature. Many rising politicians, including Umbyrvraxa herself, have played off this stigma against machine life in order to win the support of the general population.

Also of note is the rise of the Coelyss Counterculture, a cultural phenomenon promoting freedom of body, pacifism, and conservation of planets that have naturally developed life. While many magistrates see those who follow this phenomenon as little more than troublemakers, Umbyrvraxa has often defended the movement despite their criticisms of her semi-authoritarian style of rule.

Preparing for War
The 2800s CE have brought increased tensions between numerous factions within the Tuuros Galaxy, with the Ecumene being no exception. Umbyrvraxa has taken note of the loose blocs forming across the galaxy and has begun preparing for the likely explosion of tensions into open war. These have involved keeping both a standby Master of Legions and named successor in the event of her incapacitation, which she fears is a significant possibility in the current galactic climate.

In 2825, Umbyrvraxa resurrected the concept of the Vend Legion, an elite power projection force from the pre-Ecumene Oslun Empire, and placed it under the command of Beurahl Goh Djazor, High Consul of Talorossa and Director of Contention, in preparation for conflict.