|
E
Empire,
Earth
See Empire, Old.
Empire,
New
Declared in 4808 by Councillor Xerxes Abrohamin of the New League, crowned
Tsar Abrohamin I, 'Abrohamin the Bright', in close orbit around the star
Magenta in 4809. The New Empire was the ultimate result of the increased
militarisation of the New League in response to the Sha'Har threat and
the scandal following the Celeste Affair of 4699, the ramifications of
which took over a century to be fully realised. Inheriting the mantle
of the Empiret, based in the Magenta system since 4596, the New Empire
prosecuted the protracted, cynical and bloody War of Tears for several
centuries until a succession of defeats and the reemergence of Sol's economic
power at the heart of a new wave of colonial disaffection finally fragmented
human rule and led to the Black Ages of interstellar collapse, regression
and Sha'Har exploitation. See Empires and Leagues, Volume IV (4810-5001)
for a detailed account of the period.
Empire,
Old
See Old Empire, The.
Empires
and Leagues, history
The four-volume definitive work on pre-Black Ages interstellar politics,
Volume I (4274-4397) first published 5413, followed by Volume II (4398-4587)
in 5441, Volume III (4588-4809) in 5466 and Volume IV (4810-5001) in 5472.
Several lifetimes' work of a team of historians based from across human
and Sha'Har space known as 'The Edict', such is the morass of scholarship
on the period that Empires and Leagues had entered it's ninth edition
by the centenary of first publication.
Empiret,
The
A frontier hegemony, initially the colonial industrial concern Empiret
Magenta Mining, which colonised the Magenta system from 4594 and was declared
a 'Free Imperial Affiliate' of the League in 4596 with the accession of
the already aged and quite possibly surgically dead Empiret Dowager. Profits
from the mining of Dionite on the moon of Dendray enabled the Empiret
to establish a firm grip on the local stretch of frontier, which by 4632
had extended to the Gulf of Tears. It was in or about this year that the
Sha'Har initiated contact with the Empiret ruling chamber, and over the
course of the following half-century several newly colonised frontier
worlds were 'sacrificed' to form a Sha'Har bridgehead over the gulf. In
exchange, the Empiret received highly advanced technologies which culminated
in the Red Sun beginning construction in 4666. Anxieties generated by
rumours of this bargain prompted limited and ultimately easily suppressed
resistance in the form of the Rebellion. Some commentators have cited
fragmentary evidence of contact between the Empiret and League Intelligence
throughout these years, and claims have been made that this was part of
an elaborate plot to capture Sha'Har technology for the League, or even,
under this guise, to enable the Empiret to gain political currency by
forestalling an imminent Sha'Har attack. After the Red Sun Incident, it
should be noted, there was no punitive action against the Empiret by the
League. It should also be noted that the Empiret outlasted it's parent
quite considerably, surviving to form the seed for the New Empire in 4808.
|
