Fiction:Aoshtai Galaxy

"It is no easy matter for a foreigner to understand our galaxy. For millennia, the Golden Throne was all we had ever known: we lived and died for it for untold generations, our civilisation bound together by tradition, honour and justice. Now, traditions are broken, honor is meaningless, and justice is nowhere to be found – and the Throne itself is now just a chair. For the races of Aoshtai, one question has remained forever since: 'What do we do now?'"

- Duchess Carnio of the Bound States of Os

Aoshtai, the Golden Realm (also known to Gigaquadrantic cartographers as Aegis-AO51, or to some as Rhya) is a large spiral galaxy located in the Aegis Cluster of the First Gigaquadrant. Isolated for billions of years by sheer distance and inadequate technology, Aoshtai became home to thriving and dynamic civilizations. Over the course of time, empires rose and fell, until one race calling themselves the Aoshanti, or Throneborne, united under a single ruler, conquered the galaxy, and gave it its name.

For a thousand generations, the Aoshanti Emperors ruled in overlordship over the galaxy's many races and creeds from their capital of Abzu. The galaxy was prosperous and at peace until the covenant that Priphon the Conqueror had made with Rhya, the Guardian Soul of Aoshtai, expired. The Empire's slow decline into decadence and dysfunction was well advanced by that point, and two enemies from without––the galactic invasion of the machine consciousness Jinohl and the raids of the barbarian Nibbairu race––precipitated the gradual collapse Golden Throne. After the sacking of Abzu, known forever as start of year 0 of the new galactic calendar, the galaxy was cast into an age of darkness and violence.

Fourteen millennia have since passed and the galaxy still lives under the shadow of these ancient giants. New civilizations have emerged from the ashes of the old, some attempting to recapture the glories of the past––others seeking to put it behind them so they can meet the future with open arms.

Prehistory (9 billion AR - 1,000,000 AR)
Among the great galaxies of the First Gigaquadrant, Aoshtai is comparatively young. The Aoshanti believed that the galaxy was formed 9 billion years ago when the great being Rhya and her brothers made the Aegis cloud her home. Under Rhya's steady stewardship and supervision, the galaxy ordered itself around her. From disparate clouds of dust, stars were formed, debris coalesced into planets, life emerged in the unlikeliest of places, and the galaxy was shielded from the forces of chaos and disorder.

Whether it was because of its sheer distance from the rest of the Gigaquadrant, or by Rhya's agency, the galaxy would not fall under the sway of the great precursors of old, though evidence exists of their visits to the galaxy. The Aoshanti of the old empire had greater knowledge of this period, but much of this was lost in the sacking of Abzu and the fall of the Empire. Much of what is known about Aoshtai's history is therefore shrouded in myth and legend, with some characters living for hundreds of thousands of years, others speaking to inert stellar objects, and others still engaging in feats that should have been impossible without the intervention of a higher power.

What can be inferred is that life incubated and developed naturally in Aoshtai, giving rise to a diverse and dynamic array of thriving minor societies. Many cities and early wonders were built and destroyed before the records that survive began, laying the foundations for galactic civilization. 

Rival Realms Period (1,000,000 - 60,328 AR)
By the year 1,000,000 before the Fall of Abzu, Aoshtai had entered a new phase in its development. As interstellar societies developed and grew larger, as distances shrank due to the invention of new technologies, as cross-pollination increased as a result of war, competition, and commerce, there emerged the galaxy's first true galactic civilizations. At first, conflicts were infrequent, short, and inconsequential. Societies possessed neither the means nor the interest to wage full-scale galactic war. These contacts, and the shifting alliances and networks that emerged from them, created norms and habits of statecraft and diplomacy which survive to this day.

However, the general amity of galactic politics began to dissipate when Aoshtai's great realms began to develop centralized, efficient states in response to the threat posed by eldritch hordes, which invaded the galaxy from neighboring Tyvus beginning in the 960,000's AR. The galaxy's first great alliances were forged in order to repel these invaders, but when the danger lessened the great realms turned their newfound military strength on one-another. They found their conflicts more fraught with danger, more costly, and more total, to the horror and detriment of all.

For hundreds of years at a time, peace prevailed, preserved through one system or another. But as powers rose and fell and then rose again, peace inevitably broke down and galactic war once again ensued.

Age of Heroes (60,328 - 60,000 AR)
It was in the wake of one of these conflagrations that the eldritch horrors of Tyvus are said to have returned to the galaxy, devastating the exhausted and broken states of the Rival Realms period. It was in the midst of this chaos that Rhya is said to have spoken to Adloros the Second, the Duke of young Aoshanti state of Abzu. On the eve of a battle against the Tyvianites, she instructed that if he devoted himself and his line to her, and answered her call when the time came, she would save his people, and his sons would be kings and emperors.

The Aoshanti King, then a leading light among a young, energetic, and noble race possessing a spark that few nations had before them, accepted her terms. As she promised, Aldoros and a coalition of Aoshanti realms fought off the Tyvianites from the Concourse. Then, when Aldoros the Second died, his son Prigem broke the back of hegemonic state of Lessos whose interference had prevented the Aoshanti states from unifying under a single crown. On the night before Prigem's crowning as King of the Aoshanti and his wedding to the beautiful Ulysa of Lessos, his father is said to have appeared to him and reminded him of his family's vow to Rhya, and conveyed her summons.

The morning after the coronation, Prigem and his following left the capital and journeyed to the galactic core, where Prigem renewed his vows to the goddess. It is said that she asked him to lead an army of the faithful to purge Tyvus' rot from the galaxy. In return for his assent, she named him and his descendants Protector of the Golden Realm, and his people Throneborne. If they succeeded in defeating the Tyvanites, she promised, Prigem's descendants would rule the galaxy in her name for a thousand generations.

Led by Prigem and his descendants over two hundred years, the Army of the Light fought many battles, liberated many states, and drove the Tyvanites back to the very gates of hell: the black hole at the center of Tyvus itself. However, when the Army of the Light returned to the galaxy, they found it battered, disunited, and preparing once again to descend into another cycle of internecine conflict.

Mandatum Galaxium (60,000 AR - 0 PR)
The Army of the Light returned from its expedition to Tyvus in triumph, led by Priphon the Black Prince, arguably the most talented military commander the galaxy had ever known. Priphon was brother to Aldoros V, the weak King of the Aoshanti, and was considered by the royal court to be a danger to the crown. Even as galactic tensions escalated as a result of the petty grievances and inattention of bad rulers, Aldoros V ordered that the Army of the Light be disbanded and its brothers disarmed.

Government and politics
Aoshtai has not bowed to a single galactic authority since the time of the Abzu Emperors. However, a corpus of symbols, laws, languages, and traditions from that time have survived to the present, and serve as the basis for galactic relations. While the nations of Aoshtai may be unified by this common heritage, they are divided by most everything else. Conflicts over legitimacy, resources, forms of government, ideology, competing claims to the Golden Throne, and survival force the galaxy's great powers into alliances and conflicts in what is commonly referred to as "The Great Game" in the courts and capitals of the galaxy.

Civilizations
"The civilizations of Aoshtai are built upon a giant’s tomb."

- Unknown

Concourse (The Old Core)
Dense with ruins, including the Imperial Seat and the Monad Gate, the Old Core is said to be deeply haunted. Ghost stories abound: sensor readings identifying ships where no ships exist, pristine derelicts identical to those used by the ancient Realm drifting utterly lifeless through space, mysterious transmissions found bouncing endlessly between collapsed megastructures.

Deeper inside the Old Core, it's said, one finds even stranger things. A dead world covered in perfectly spaced meter-high blocks, each one carved with an Aoshanti face. A mountain made of golden thrones that have melted and run together under the pitiless heat of a dozen orbital mirrors. A transmission frequency broadcasting a voice that does nothing but endlessly repeat numbers.

Explorers who delve too deep into the Old Core usually never return. Those who do return often appear to have committed suicide, coming back in undamaged ships completely vented of atmosphere, their databanks wiped clean.

Regions
Aoshtai is, being larger than the Milky Way, capable of harboring an extremely large amount of species. The species of Aoshtai are highly diverse, ranging from the insectoid warrior Korinaeya, to the degraded and rotting Drupvarix, to the nightmarish Merosian, to the mere Lembede, and the powerful Lorem. The most notable species of Aoshtai is arguably the species that shares the name of the galaxy - the Aoshanti precursors, of who, unlike other precursors, still exist today in various states, the largest of which existing in 4 different Aoshanti successor states. There is no dominant race in Aoshtai, though the age and influence held by the Aoshanti means that the race of avian precursors come close to being the dominant race, and were the dominant race until the Fall of Abzu. While races in the typical regions are quite tame and normal, it is the races from the Void, also known as Kaos, that highlight the potential instability of the galaxy beyond. From the parasitic and hated Tyakaira, to the feared and enigmatic Corvarin, the region of Kaos has looked increasingly bleak in the recent years, with the K’kani race being the example of the anarchy raging in the galaxy beyond.

Calendar
The dominant calendar of the Aoshtai Galaxy is the one used by chroniclers and historians of the Age of Darkness. They used the Fall of Abzu as year 0, making all dates before it as "ante ruinam," or "AR" and all dates after it as "post ruinam," or "PR."

For the sake of simplicity, every Aoshtai year corresponds with a Christian calendar year. The year -11,759 B.C. corresponds to year 0 PR. Since the fall of Abzu, fourteen and a half millennia have passed.

Quotes
"It is no easy matter for a foreigner to understand our galaxy. For millennia, the Golden Throne was all we had ever known: we lived and died for it for untold generations, our civilisation bound together by tradition, honour and justice. Now, traditions are broken, honor is meaningless, and justice is nowhere to be found – and the Throne itself is now just a chair. For the races of Aoshtai, one question had remained forever since: 'What do we do now?'"

- Duchess Carnio of the Bound States of Os

"We came to Aoshtai to escape the persecution of our brothers in the Milky Way... We wanted independence - and we will fight for it if we must."

- Chancellor Kuuruan, Ankoran Confederacy

"Time is passed. The Empire is gone.. but we remain on its decaying bones. We remain.. and we will rejuvenate. Rejuvenation is possible, but the harsh memories of ages past must be wiped away, cleansed and able to bring back the order that was, and always will be, Supreme. The Aoshtai Galaxy will return to its place as a united power, and the Aoshanti will be at its helm again."

- Tendentious Mind

"The age of empires is over, now we must face greater difficulties. The Eye of the Miter will ensure our seat on the Golden Throne."

- Aacherask

"This home of our forefathers lies barren and divided without its true masters. Our Ascendancy will restore the dignity and future of this proud galaxy."

- 094 Disordered Acceptance

"I smell opportunities here!"

- Unknown

"I will bring back the glory of our lost empire! Aoshtai will glow with power again! The Aoshanti will become the center of the universe once more! And I will be the one to do it!"

- Infinite War

Community

 * Aoshtai is a collaborative project by Charles Murray, MadmanLava, Parazrael, DrodoEmpire, Luxor, InfestedThunder, Shiznasty, Imperios, and many others. Its primary purpose is to provide a respectful, open, and collaborative writing environment where everyone can contribute.
 * Aoshtai, and its Discord, is coordinated primarily by Charles Murray.
 * Decisions regarding Aoshtai's history, theme, makeup, and mechanics were taken through consensus. When disagreements occurred, matters were put to a community vote; compromise then ensued based on the results.
 * The Aegis Cluster was created by Fwasd (Irra) and named by Mainblaggery.
 * The galaxy has its own Discord, shared with writers of other galaxies of the Aegis Cluster. This is our link.
 * Aoshtai fictions use the following tag: