Fiction:The Great Halt

One of the largest and most mysterious dynamics to the Arcanium's expansion as an empire is the current phenomenon of "The Great Halt".

A closely guarded secret and a great mystery is related to the danger and very power of the empire itself. One of the most threatening parts of the Arcanium's past is a period of time between the end of The Aldawlwa First Contact War and the recent past where the Arcanium's territorial gain and conquest reached a number of 40 to nearly a hundred a year to barely a star a year in the present day. Understanding why the Arcanium's territorial gain was at an unprecedented high and has now slowed down to a pathetic crawl is essential and deemed by many of the Galaxy's races and empires to be of great importance if the threat of the Arcanium is to be contained.

**"This empire had at some stage one of the largest expansion rates we'd ever seen, How they coordinated and fueled the effort a conquest this enormous would require is a mystery. All we know for sure is that it has stopped, and if Galactic Security is to be upheld, we must at all costs make sure it remains that way." - Unknown

The Arcanium's Position on the Great Halt
The Arcanium refuses to comment to any emissary on the reason for the Great Halt and appears to hold a great deal of aggressive censorship on the subject, Despite this aggression towards an answer on the topic what can be taken from this is that The Arcanium Central Government does in fact know of and potentially why their Territorial expanse has slowed down to a crawl and simply refuses to answer.

Potential Reasons for The Great Halt
A number of reasons and theories as to why the Great Halt has occurred are often given with varying degrees of reliability.

Some have included simply a desire to slow expansion, potential insurrection, instability of the Rimworlds and simply too large a border to control and protect. However none of these issues the Arcanium seems to deal with and these theories seem to hold little reliability.

The most likely reason for The Great Halt is -{INFORMATION WITHHELD BY HIVE INCONTINIUM}- which occured within a realtivly similar time as the Halt began slightly after the events of -{INFORMATION WITHHELD BY HIVE INCONTINIUM}- and the stress this put on the Arcanium would explain why not only does the Arcanium no longer expand at such a rate but has toned down its aggression to its neighbors, if only slightly.