Jezira Empire Options

[Kunin]

Before we get into the release I want to let you all know that we plan to release new information between Friday and Sunday each week, alternating between History and Features. This week it is story time!

Jezira Empire

On their homeworld of Elar, the Elaran species had come to a point of desperation. Ruled by hundreds of minute, aggressive city-states, the planet was slowly being torn apart by warfare. Nuclear weaponry was becoming widespread, causing greater and greater expanses of the planet to be made uninhabitable. Momentous events such as the impending extinction of the race, however, have a way of making their own breed of heroes and leaders, Izarin Jezira among them.

Born in a minor state away from the attentions of most on-going mercenary wars, he rose to prominence by, as a historian of the early empire said, "standing aloof over the storm of assassinations and plots that surrounded him." Firmly installed as the city's leader, he lead it toward solid victories in its region, gradually raising it to the status of a major state. While the Elaran always had a minor talent for prophecy, Jezira was truly prescient - he knew the movements of his enemies before they happened, winning battles with virtually no casualties on his side.

Keenly understanding the nature of the strange Elaran mind, Jezira developed the Stillness, a philosophy that would come to be practiced by nearly all of his people as a way of expanding their inborn prescience into mental prowess, at the same time curbing the species' aggressive tendencies. By the end of Izarin's life, he was certain that his empire would last, and he could see in his mind thousands of generations of Jezira growing and being trained in the disciplined ways of the Stillness.

When he died, he was known as a god-emperor, and the dynasty of his descendants leads the Elaran people and the Jezira empire to this day, although the Empire is now effectively a constitutional monarchy.

Izarin himself, however, knew the one true purpose of the Stillness - it closed the mind to prescience, making its adepts not merely invisible to precognition, but in fact causing them to obscure events from prescient vision. Over the generations, the continued usage of the Stillness lead to each generation of the Jezira dynasty being less prescient than the previous one. All worked according to Izarin's plan - early Emperors were formidable rulers who consolidated the empire by their ability to see threats to its stability before they even existed, and later emperors comfortably fell into the role of spiritual leaders and figureheads, preventing the rise of a hereditary tyranny.

Known as the last great Empress, the twelfth ruler of the Empire was responsible for leading the Elaran people to the stars. Fascinated by space travel, she distributed royal favours and gifts, filling her court with a cadre of scientists and engineers, causing the best scientific minds of the Empire to gather at her palace to form an impromptu university dedicated only to the dream of space travel. Merely ten years before her death, she got her wish, traveling in the prow of the very first faster-than-light ship. Her remains have been buried in the planet Elidor, at the time of her death the furthest one from Elar that could be reached by Jezira starships.

But space travel brings its own share of challenges. Soon, the Elaran made contact with the insect-like Velkin race, the capitalistic Delinoth, and the strangely humanoid Brotick. For a long time, relations were cordial; but the proximity of the species pitted the warrior culture of the Brotick, along with the economic expansionism of the Velkin, at odds with the exploratory zeal of the Elaran.

Tensions mounted as the range and speed of spaceships failed to grow to accommodate the expansion of the empires. The Elaran, unfamiliar with war for over five centuries, armed themselves again, and as the Velkin unceremoniously moved in on various habitable planets claimed by the Elaran, war broke out. At the start, it seemed like a momentary skirmish or incident; when the Brotick allied themselves with the Velkin, it looked like it would be over quickly; when the fleets of both sides nearly annihilated each other over the course of a few months, it became apparent that the war would last.

As the empires rebuilt their fleets and recovered their economies slowly, an entire generation of Elaran was born and died without seeing the end of the war, which lasted for nearly a hundred years, rising slowly from small skirmishes to larger and larger battles. The Elaran carriers with their masses of skilfully piloted flyers had trouble making advances over the great Velkin capital ships, but their constant mobility and harassment made it impossible for the Velkin to focus and make any gains themselves. All the while, the Delinoth profited enormously from both sides of the war. As their economy was unaffected by the conflict, they eventually monopolised shipping on both sides.

It would be the massive Bileath corporation, an enterprise that had become the Delinoth's excuse for a government, that ends the war. When a Jezira assault on the planet Davinia became a pitched standoff due to a surprise assault by Brotick ships that had been hidden in the planet's small moon, the Jezira Empire despaired, and made a deal with the devil - if the Bileath corporation would join them and allow them to win the war, they would be granted half of Velkin-Brotick space as their territory.

Although they had no warships, the Bileath corporation could single-handedly cripple the Velkin economy. Bileath freighters disappeared from their space, and when the Velkin leadership found out what had happened, it was already too late. Without supplies or means of moving troops around, political power broke down, and the various Velkin and Brotick planets gradually surrendered to an Elaran empire that promised better living conditions. Jezira space finally had peace.

Immediately upon gaining control of the planets they had been promised, the Bileath corporation stunned known space by declaring itself the Bileath Corporate Empire; the Velkin homeworld was evacuated of its people, and in the final humiliation of the Velkin, strip-mined until nothing but a gravitationally unstable husk was left. A long time of mild but unspoken suspicion, a cold war of silent espionage, began between the Jezira and the Bileath. And as trade routes and starship ranges expanded, new races made contact, bringing new challenges to the Jezira people.

[Hallen]

Hmm! I like it. Filled with teasers and hints about the other races, but I can wait a bit longer.

I'm also very curious as to how this all fits in with the history we've already seen involving the Juruno. Keep it coming, please!

This post has been edited by Hallen: Feb 8 2008, 04:26 AM

[LEO]

Nice. I rather like it, though the prescient stuff seems a lot like Dune.

[Hallen]

Nice. I rather like it, though the prescient stuff seems a lot like Dune.

You say that as if it's a bad thing.

[Arizte]

Very intriguing! Can't wait to see this all dolled-up on the official site.

This gives me the impression that this, as multi-faceted as it already is, is only the tip of the iceberg.

[Daermon]

You say that as if it's a bad thing.

Yeah, seriously. Dune is fantastic. Then again, this is too, whether or not they're similar!

[Gabranth]

The shipping guild taking over is very Dunish too, even if stopped by Paul in Dune. It will be interesting to see if the Bileath have such a subtle role elsewhere or later on, since buisness does make the world run. I need to read more though, but it looks really good so far.

[Soludra]

I'm so going to be an Elaran. I love exploring, and I saw you mention that they were avid explorers.

[He Stands Alone]

Having your homeworld strip-mined would suck. But it proves that it can be done!

So we now have two of the three galactic empires. I wonder what the third will be? Religious types? War-mongers?

And I wonder how a Corporate Empire is run? By a Board of Directors? Sounds intriguing!

Overall, great piece of history! It's like day two and I'm already foaming at the mouth.

This post has been edited by He Stands Alone: Feb 8 2008, 06:14 AM

Reason for edit: Sorry about that, I killed your double before you changed it.

[Talkan]

In all IRE muds previous, the major deciding factor was ones skill at combat. This teaser shows that economy and politics play a very large part in wars, however. Is this true with playable mechanics as well, or is it merely backstory? Not that I'm suggesting either would be a bad thing, I'm mainly just curious.

[Gaetele]

The history so far is turning out to be great. I loved Lusternia's histories and the detail that's put into these seems even better than that of Lusternia's. It's also interesting to note the context and vocabulary style change through the change of genre in the games, as well.

[Shadow]

the thought of finding historical items/documents from ages past for the empire especially for those of us who like to poke around in the ancient worlds

[hermaldo]

I kinda wanna be one of the bugs, I bet they have a huge chip on their shoulders...if they are a playable race that is

[Rilak]

This is awesome-another empire! With loads of trails of clues, that you'll just respond with "future information release" or something.

[Wedric]

Awesome. I love the detail and thought that's been put into backstories so far.

[Ordos]

Nice. I rather like it, though the prescient stuff seems a lot like Dune.

The Jaate on Junuto (correct me if I took the wrong name) looked a bit like the Melange as well..

Anyways I have no objections to that..


And kickass.. Dove features (espionage,intelligence,..) already appear in the first release of history!!

Anyways, great writing.. Lovely plottwists, and an awesome way to undermine an empire, almost all due to their own fault..

Ps. Note to self: Never allow Richter to get a corporation..

[Rhulan]

I'm eagerly awaiting more information on the Velkin.

[Vanan]

The stillness... interesting.

[lumin]

Great story, although the name, "Jezira" makes me think of an arab newspaper.

[Saggles]

First thing that came to me was an Arab palace complete with the pointed domes and such. Also, with Bileath sounding like a trading business, I can see my space ninja (Jurono) pirates dream slowly coming to fruition!