A relatively medium empire, the Monarchopods, are an ecologist based empire. They are wealthy, but have a relatively weak fleet. They don't really have many warships as they mostly devote their time to terraforming their own colonies, or helping others terraform. They control fifty-seven star systems, and compared to most empires in their region, this is rather large.
They have a high production of spice, but happiness is a problem. Rebellions often occur in the outer reaches of their empire. This can be problematic since they often lack the resources necessary to combat this oppositon.
The Monarchopods have a series of allies located in their immediate proximity who have long standing good relations. They have many trade routes. However, the farther you are from the Monarchopods homeworld of Tythanus, the more likely you are to find their enemies. Their population, is estimated to be close to three billion.
They claim to possess weapons capable of destroying planets, but it is unknown if this is true, or just a ploy to convince their enemies to cease attacking. This is however PROBABLY not true, considering the fact that they are a mostly passive empire, instead focusing on, as has been stated earlier, terraforming, and their economics. This leads to an empire that gains it's power from wealth and in sheer numbers, not due to a military strength. Not to see their weapons are outdated or useless, but are mostly just average.
They are known to be incredibly weak when it comes to space engagements, they do not have very well technology to defend their colony's, and as such, they are always prone to being raided from pirates.
Currently they are independent, not part of any union or coagulation. They have looked into joining them before but at their current state can't provide any real benefits to joining a union.
History:
Beginnings:
Not much is known about the Monarchopod's early history, it is known they originate from Tythanus in the Cleo-IV system. They were particularly crafty with stone, preferring it over wood and metal in their tools and architecture. Their Galaxy is The Milky-way, they are on the Milky-Way's outer reaches.
Starting as a space-faring empire:
The Monarchopods started out, not having a clue what kind of role they'd play in Milky-way history. However, it is known, that at some point, their empire was at least three times as large as it is presently, and sometime near the beginning, when it was that large. They had found an artifact, the Staff of Tru'Ku, that an ancient empire, the Frena, were willing to trade most of their incredibly large empire for. However, the Gremada, another incredibly large and military based empire, became aware that the Monarchopods had sold the staff to the Frena, and declared war.
The Schism: The Gremada assaulted the Monarchopods and in an incredible amount of force, the Monarchopods lost control of many systems to the Gremada. However, later problems reduced the population of the Gremada to a small portion (Their economy collapsed, leaving them in control of only a handful of systems). This left both the Monarchopods and Gremada both greatly damaged.
The Gremada fleet was devastated, leaving room for many other empires to come in and conquer what was once territory belonging to the Gremada, the Monarchopods' territory had a similar fate. However, some of the revolutionary weapon technology used in the battles during this time has been lost. For example, a Gremada weapon known as the T.D.A. or Terra-Disruption-Apparatus have been lost. It is commonly thought that this device worked by disrupting the atmosphere of the planet on which it was used, lessening the potential for life in the area. Like has been said, the exact specifications, how many were used, and how to replicate this technology have been lost to time. It is still possible of course to achieve the same effect but this exact method used is lost.
Of course, some facts of this war ARE desputed, since it is not known.
The Golden Age: Sometime after the Schism, it was thought peace would finally be in the Monarchopod empire, many scientific advancements were made. For example, for the first time in Monarchopod history, communication throughout the entire empire was possible (albeit complicated). This is commonly considered a golden age in the history of the Monarchopod empire, during this time, the fleet increased (Still a very small military power). It is estimated that only about one hundred thousand ships serve in the fleet of the Monarchopods. While this may sound like a medium navy, keep in mind that the ships are weak, because technology had not been researched for better weapons. Because of this, in ANY space engagement the Monarchopods are at a major disadvantage, thus a diplomatic method is preferred.
This age lasted for a few thousand years, then the Monarchopods created their first fully sentient AI, the Gremelin, which controlled the colony at the planet Dessiah. From there Gremelin ran that entire colony. This worked for a while, and then tragedy took place, Gremlin became self-aware, and decided that it would strategically attack the Monarchopod empire. It gathered what spare parts it could to assemble a fleet, since no autonomous drones were already available. (Most of the materials used were scrap metal and weapons found off of Gremada ships). The Machines proceeded to attack other Monarchopod colonies, seeking to wipe out all biological lifeforms.
The Machine Wars:
When The Elder Council caught word of the fleet of machines heading towards Juk, a major planet for manufacturing goods in the empire. This was largely troubling for several reasons, one of which being that Juk is only about ten parsecs from their home system. As an emergency response, the Elder Council assembled what ships they could, which was not much to combat the oncoming machines. So they also employed the only efficient part of the Monarchopod military, their ground forces, to station themselves in the city. They had implemented martial law based code until further notice.
When the machines arrived they started to kill as many as they could, the Monarchopod infantry fought back as best they could, but since the machines were made with spare parts from Gremada ships (Gremada ships' weapon systems were far superior to anything that Monarchopods had. As the Gremada primarily researched weapons and had cutting edge technology in this field.) the infantry could not hold back the machines.
The machines completely took over Juk. Killing all who stood in their way. The Elder council called on help from allies of the empire and they did recieve support, however, the machines took all the spare parts they could to construct more combatants. It was like a junk yard had come to life, the machines are make shift, ramshackle, run down creations that barely deserved the title of robotic.
After a long twenty seven years, all of the machines had been destroyed. This led the Monarchopods to despise all AI, even AI who actually do function. It is kind of a bias that the Monarchopods developed. And because of this all the machinery they since have produced is either manually operated or very simple autonomous machinery. No artificial sentient beings have been produced by the Monarchopods since the Machine wars.
Present:
Currently, the MCG finally managed to destroy the Gremada. They have reclaimed their lost territory, and are currently fighting in the Great Deciever.
They have found promise in terraforming for hire, which has gained them a bit of favor with newly starting out empires, as they can help these empires gain a quick foothold in the galaxy. However, they do not have a very efficient means of communication throughout their empire. This is due to their leadership being split locally. Each member of the elder console controls a few systems of the empire. With it's own governing legislations. This is why they refer to themselves as a coagulation, rather than a single entity. ____________________ General guidelines followed by their government:
-Never be hostile, until you are attacked
-Never permanently damage the universe, and spread life wherever possible
-Always treat empire's with respect, to ensure negotiations will go well
-Power is given, not taken
These guidelines are the core philosophy surrounding decisions made by Monarchopods. They believe that when crimes are commited the punishment should be equal to the crime (in severity, not literally),
___________________ M.C.G. Overworld
Speculation has been made that the Monarchopods did not evolve, but were created. This cannot be proven, but still remains popular among the civilians in the empire. M.C.G. Overworld refers to, if the rumor holds true, the planet on which they were designed, by unknown hands. This is, however, as has been said, not accepted entirely as no DEFINITIVE proof has been provided that this is true. However, attempts have been made by Monarchopod scouting ships to search for such a planet, if one exists.
However, little evidence has been found to back this up, except for ancient structures believed to be from the Monarchopods' creators. However, this could just as easily be summed up to a different ancient culture that has just died out. Or maybe even an abandoned colony belonging to another space faring empire.
____________________ The Elder council:
The Elder council is a group of Monarchopods selected at birth, they are chosen based on their families. When it is determined they are infact due to be in the elder council, they are not given names. Instead they are assigned numbers. Each number corresponds to part of the empire, that which they will oversee when they reach the age of two-hundred years (An average Monarchopod lives approximately three-hundred-fifty years).
This is intentionally done for two reasons, one, to set their goals, and to keep them focused, they are reminded that they do not represent themselves, they represent a piece of the empire, secondly, this stops them from forming social bonds, leading to a lack of corruption. This is why the law system of the Monarchopods is generally considered one of the fairest of any empire. However, there are times when this does not hold true, there have been scandals involving the council before.
Usually they are broken up, and in a case that an Elder Council member is found to be guilty, they will be removed from their position, and replaced by another Monarchopod belonging to the same family (If none is chosen, they are usually replaced by a Monarchopod who has been renowned for some reason, such as a large accomplishment or establishing several new colonies).
______________________ Misc. Statistics:
War-class ships:
150000
Members of the Elder Council at any one time:
8
Largest ship's crew capacity ("The Confession and Pennance" is the largest ship in their war fleet)
50000 crew members
