Fiction:Sacred Melam Empire

"A dead man once said that hidden beneath our facade of civilisation and nicety is a - that the angry rage of unrestrained ambition, the uncontrollable desire to dominate, the addiction to the feeling of being feared is solely what drives a species. Perhaps some of us thought this was true, though our fears subsided when we thought of the Vanara. Beneath those calm, understanding eyes lay the all-consuming fire that had driven the Dominatus, and in their hands lay the capacity ot visit unfathomable agony and terror upon those they judged worthy of their interest. But they had civilised such urges, binding this unfettered, destructive chaos into restorative order. This was not the order of megalomaniac hegemony, but of shepherding, nurturing, and growing - seeking to cooperate with the rest of the Gigaquadrant to advance all life itself to enlightenment. However, it is an unwise species that confuses this kindness for weakness, for as much as they deny it, the Vanara merely seek an excuse to shed the veil of civility and order to make their opponents wish for a fate as sweet as death"

- Unknown

The Sacred Vanara Empire is a newly formed nation within the confederacy of the Stellar Outreach Sovereignty and is by far the largest and most powerful of them. The SVE is a feudal empire with a constitutional monarchy ruling over various vassals (called exarchies) via indirect means. The nature of these exarchies varies from different Vanara states to other species that were conquered or assimilated into the empire. The Empress is the central authority of the Empire and rules for life with their heir taking their place after their death. However, the Empress has limited power and below her is a consul of elected officials. Wile not as of yet a major power the Empire is rather ambitious and sees it as their destiny to claim hyperpower status and willing to take the steps necessary to do so. The capital of the Empire is the planet of in the Milky Way, but a good chunk of their power base is also in Mirus, and the primary species is of course the.

History
The Sacred Vanara Empire was first formed as the Vanara Coalition when all five Reefs united to fight against the machinations of the Galactic Empire of Cyrannus, and then latter fully unifying in the aftermath of the full manifestation of Qliphoggr in the material world (and its subsequent defeat) the Vanara would fully unite and become the Vanara Commune. The Commune quickly grew in wealth by opening up trade with their allies and other neighbors, as well as get their share of the Former Drakodominatus Tyranny Factories up and running along with the Mors Black Hole Foundry.

The War of Aggression
However, all was not well with the Commune, for several of three of neighbors, the Gryphl Kingdom, the Thrak Clans, and the Doroth Legion, sought to overthrow the Vanara and claim the Commune's new found prosperity for their own. A Gryphl King named Olron united the three into the Maelstrom Alliance and began to conquer several outlying Vanara subspecies and enslaving them. The final straw would be pulled though when Olron used Doroth infiltrators to poison a Reef Queen.

The Vanara response was quick and brutal, launching an attack into MA's expansion towards Vanara territory and securing spaceborne dominance of the area. The Thrak Clans attempted to strikee back from planet side, but the Vanara successfully defeated them a siezed full control of the region. Olron regrouped the MA's collective forces and launched a counter attack. After a pitched battle the Vanara drove back the attack and took control of the MA's collective boarder. They then invaded Thrak territory and were met with little resistance so they move forward to the Gryphl Kingdom. After the Vanara defeated the boarder army they move forward into a battle for the Gryphl capital, which the Vanara successfully captured. Olron was forced to flee to Doroth Legion territory. The Vanara, instead of simply just invading, coordinated their invasion with a uprising of unsatisfied Doroth and successfully took control.

Olron the fled back to the Gryphl Kingdom and managed to retake it from the Vanara forces (who had their resources directed elsewhere) along with Thrak territories. However, when the Vanara returned to reclaim Thrak territory, many Thrak sided with the Vanara seeing them as stronger then Olron. Thus the Vanara were able to advance directly into Gryphl territory and recapture the Kingdom, Olron burning to death as his castle was leveled by quagma fire.

After the war the members of the former Maelstrom Alliance were vassalized by the Vanara as Exarchies. The Vanara then began to make the outlying subspecies of their own kind into vassals as well through diplomacy and trade allowing for peaceful assimilation. The same techniques were used to vassalize the Trahoxi Imperium alongside all its vassals, allowing the Vanara power projection into the east without having to go through the trouble of directly governing it. Thus the Sacred Vanara Empire was born.

Organization
The Sacred Vanara Empire rules primarily via indirect means being divided up into administrative provinces called Exarchies that owe fealty to the central authority of the Empire. The exarchies are allowed to rule themselves however they please other then levying certain taxes, keep internal peace, and providing soldiers in times of war. Thus granting them strategic depth and additional man power without having to go through the trouble of actually running vast amounts of territory. Still the central authority of the Empire is quite large having colonies under their direct control in every galaxy the SVE has influence in.

The Central Authority of the Empire is considered both stratocratic, meritocratic, and democratic. Citizenry is tiered, with different tiers gaining more privileges but also more responsibility. Everyone, regardless of background, starts out on the bottom tier and must work their way up, and tier ascension is not restricted, one must merely prove themselves capable of handling the responsibilities involved and keeping the confidence of their fellow citizens. Becoming a full citizen and thus earning the right to vote is gained by entering compulsory military service (though one does not need to serve in a combat role), and the next tier is gained by completing a half a year service. The top tier is the Vanara parliament who one gains entry to by ascending to the tier just below that and then being voted in by the citizens.

The Sacred Vanara Empire is ruled over by two Empresses with limited power and who represent the whole of their people. First is the Empress of the Sun who oversees the civilian aspects of the administration. Then there is the Empress of the Night who oversees the military administration. When the two administrations duties intersect (which happens fairly often) the two Empresses must reach consensus if they are to act on the matter. The Empresses also act as the heads of their religion seen as gods themselves who represent the balance between light and dark.
 * The Duel Empresses

The Council of Five are directly below the Empresses, but above the Parliament. They are composed of the five leaders of the five Vanara Reefs. The Empresses need their approval in the form a majority vote in none crisis situations (though the Council of Five must declare it a crisis situation and can take back said declaration with another majority vote). In the case that either Empress dies or retires then the Council will elect another to take their place.
 * Council of Five

Culture
The Vanara tend to live in very close knit communities, generally inhabiting citadels built into the natural landscape of their planets. Big cities are largely unknown to them as they tend to keep their planets wild. Other then that many Vanara. Other then that many Vanara tend to live on orbital station or in wandering fleets, and often times groups of Vanara will take to an existence in the wilds of their planets. Vanara prefer to live dark places that are often hot and full of steam due to high humidity. The hiss of biomechanical machinery is a common sound as everything the Vanara make is living and in constant motion. Due to preferring to adapt themselves to the environment rather then adapt the environment to the, the Vanara frequently use genetic argumentation and alteration to better adapted themselves to new planets.

Despite being somewhat hedonistic, most Vanara live very plainly and tend to prefer indulging in simple pleasures. In food though they go all out, holding massive feasts whenever they can which entire communities are gathered to participate in preparing. Chocolate and honey are especially loved and no Vanara meal is complete without these two key ingredients. Honey is usually lathered onto the main dish in copious amounts, while chocolate is often used a drink, usually spiced and alcoholic. Sex is also seen as important and the Vanara are fairly tolerant of most sexual orientations (they have no words for things such as heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual as it was never a concern of theirs). Couples are encouraged to have sex as much as they both feel appropriate and pornography is considered legitimate art.

Military and martial prowess are highly important as well, and every member of Vanara society is taught to fight and kill from the moment they are able to. Friendly sparring is fairly common and often times it is easy to find two friends having a friendly bout. Indeed sparring is one of the most popular sports alongside pterodactyl racing. But by far the most beloved activity is hunting with Vanara organizing large hunts with friends that will take them all across a planet. Hunts are melee weapons only and only against creatures that have as much potential to kill you as you them, "the bigger they are, the better the prize", as the old saying goes. Trophies are always harvested from the kill of a hunt or off enemies kill in battle. Vanara officers are never given metals but rather wear the skulls of their enemies to signify rank.

Despite this militancy, the Vanara are actually very open a warm to the close allies that they have. The frequently hire mercenary forces from said allies to help guard their planets, allow allies to make use of their rabbit hole network, share star chart data, and other things. This tendency has made the Vanara heavily popular among their allies, but their vengeful tendencies and practice of sentient sacrafice have an equal but opposite effect when it comes to their enemies, and makes others often leery about getting close to them.

Education is also of high importance and all Vanara citizens are educated at least to a level comparable to an associates degree, no exceptions. Generally speaking money is considered of very little importance to the Vanara, personal skill and combat prowess are much more important. A poor, but expert warrior will be more influential then a rich man that has never seen combat. Though their society is matriarchal to a degree, thus females tend to hold higher positions.

Religion
Religious freedom is guaranteed right within the Sacred Vanara Empire, with exceptions being made with certain religious such as Darkling Worship, Judicator Worship, and Cuthernism being banned. Significantly populous religions from outside powers are Zaraturaism, Waptoria Pantheon, Volver Pantheon, One God, and Spodism. By far the most common form of worship is Avaruhiisim, and animistic religion lacking any form of dogma or centralized worship that venerates an odd collection of angels, demon, fairies, and other beings as gods. Avaruhiisim frequently blends into other religions making the most common form of worship various forms of mixed theology. There are many who regard them Empress and here descendants as of a divine bloodline and thus god-like in someway.
 * Link to Avaruhiisim

A more disturbing aspect of Avaruhiisim is the practice of the sacrifice of sentient life. While at one point in Vanara society this was very common and happened frequently, thanks to influence from outsiders the practice is farmore limited and less common in present times. While once any prisoner of war would have been sacrifice, now a days only prisoners of war taken from those that commit war crimes are sacrificed as are their leaders. Those taken from armies that act honorably are treated fairly well and usually allowed to go home once the war is finished or allowed become citizens of the Empire.

Technology
Vanara technology is considered rather strange in comparison to the rest of the Gigaquadrant for its is built upon the Vanara's understanding of the One Elements of Accel Space (effectively a form of magic). The One Elements are born from the emotions and thoughts of those who wield it thus giving the Vanara the advantage of access to an almost unlimited energy supply, but carries the disadvantage of needing a feeling, thinking entity to provide that energy, limiting the Vanara's ability automate and create anything self running. Getting the Mors Black Hole Foundry running again was a colossal effort, and while worth it, will likely never be replicated and the Vanara will likely never create superstructures. It is for this reason that everything the Vanara make is alive, as even a none sentient mind reduces the amount of magical input needed by a sentient lifeform to make something run. Luckily this trade off has allowed the Vanara to make and maintain machinery, devices, etc with far less skill, effort, and resources. This also results in the Vanara lacking certain devices and infrastructure as it becomes unneeded. For example personal communicators due to telepathy, and power grids are non-existence.

Coming from former space nomads the Vanara are able to use their larger ships such as Avatars, Fortresses, Dreadnoughts, and Titans as mobile cities and shipyards. This has also made them very good at shrinking things down to the point where they have telepathically control nano-automatons which they use for a multitude of domestic and military purposes. Due to their connection to Accel Space the Vanara wield unparalleled mastery over its functions granting them powerful sensors, communications, the ability to created Looking Glasses for instant transmission, create Accel Space pockets that entire fleets and orbital structures can be hidden in, created mobile starbases, and become almost invisible when moving through Accel Space.

Military
The Vanara have always valued martial prowess, and despite the Empire's generally peaceful attitude, they keep a large and powerful war machine for in the event they are attack. Their military is divided up into several branches, each with a different purpose. The Nocturnal Legion is main army of the Vanara forces, used for planetary combat with legions of infantry, cavalry, WiGEs, and mechs. The Chiropteran Aerospace Force is the branch of the military for inter and outer atmosphere combat with small aerospace fighters and bombers, and larger aerospaceships. The Nightmare Armada is the Vanara's navy of powerful biomechanical naval ship and orbital structures. In general the Empire focuses on affordable, easy to produce units and equipment of fairly decent quality. Their units as a whole are light, fast, equipped with rapid fire high impact weapons, and advanced sensors, targeting systems, and other support systems.

Then there is the Lunar Inquisition, a semi-secrete service that deals with more domestic threats, often of a supernatural nature. Finally there is the DaiDrasil, kaiju genetically engineered by the Vanara to guard and level cities, as well as offensively terraform planets to their liking.

Allies
Be welcome friends.
 * Green face.png - Fellows in our quest to restore harmony.
 * Green face.png - Heh, tree huggers.
 * Green face.png - Brothers of sword and shield.
 * Blue face.pngMultus Esse Remnant -
 * Green face.png -
 * Blue face.pngStates of Tyris Mayor -
 * Green face.png -
 * Green face.png -
 * Green face.png -
 * Green face.png -
 * Green face.png -
 * Green face.png - We're more alike then at first glance.
 * Green face.png -
 * Blue face.png -
 * Blue face.png -

Trade
Let the wealth flow.

Neutral
Hmmmm.
 * Yellow face.png -
 * Orange face.png
 * Yellow face.png
 * Yellow face.png -
 * Red face.png - Boorish fundamentalists, the only their kind is good for is a good meal.
 * Yellow face.png -

At War
Submit to our rule or be forced into compliance!
 * Red face.png - Monstrous Machines.
 * Red face.png - Utterly despicable.
 * Red face.png - Our Empress is far more divine then your emperor.
 * Red face.png - How about we rip your precious, logical brains from your skulls.
 * Red face.png
 * Red face.png
 * Red face.png -
 * Red face.pngBrotherhood of Darklings -
 * Red face.png -

Quotes
"you seem big and proud but the thing you don't really get is that we are both nowhere and everywhere-, Sender council of 4"
 * add your own!

"PLEASANT BEINGS, THE VANARA. THEY ARE CERTAINLY NOT UNINTERESTING. WHAT WITH THEIR LOVE FOR ALL THINGS HONEY AND CHOCOLATE ALONG WITH THEIR MATRIARCH GOVERNMENT. THEY ARE ONE OF THE LUCKY FEW WHO KNOW OF A SURETY THAT OUR EYE IS UPON THEM."

- The Void's Eye.

Trivia

 * Their Theme - History In The Making
 * War Theme - Alliance Is The Only Way
 * Peace Theme - Diplomatic Envoys
 * Primarily based off the historical Aztec Empire with elements of the Achaemenid and Mongol empires thrown in, and the Vasari Rebels from Sins of a Solar Empire as well as the Turians from Mass Effect.
 * A certain well known element of the Aztec Empire was SIGNIFICANTLY toned down in order to keep the SVE sympathetic.