First Aurelian War

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The First Aurelian War is the name given to the largely uncontested series of conquests of human colonies by a post-human species and civilization known as Aurelians.  These conquests began circa the 68th Solar Century and continued until the 72nd Solar Century. 
==Aurelians==
The Aurelians were a post-human species. Through generations of selective breeding and genetic manipulation under the control of an alien race called the Aenagh, the Aurelians had developed superior size, strength, resilience and intelligence. The Aenagh had dominated Aurelia for nearly a thousand years; culling the weakest members of their society and genetically modifying them to produce a superior species.
The Aurelians eventually overthrew the Aenagh. Using the spacefaring technology they acquired from their former masters, they set out from their system to make contact with other human colonies and set them free, but they found no other worlds under Aenagh domination. They were disappointed that other human worlds were inhabited by humans who were genetically inferior and still subject to irrational religious superstitions. They set about to enlighten those worlds, but met with resistance. As a result, they changed their objectives from enlightenment to conquest.
The Aurelians believed their culture to be superior to all others. The Aurelians were philosophically atheistic; but they revered a collection of deistic figures called ‘The Arcana,’ who were said to both physically and symbolically represent their Aurelian ideals. Their culture was organized into castes. The Wands Cast was the highest, serving as leaders and directors of their society. The Pentacles were a technical and service cast. The cups performed menial labor. The Swords were their warrior and security forces.
According to their history, the Aurelians originally sought to spread their social order peacefully to nearby colonies. After meeting strong resistance, the Aurelians revised their goal to conquest, and adopted a strategic methodology that minimized resistance from targeted worlds.
==Method of Conquest==
Before conquering a civilization, the Aurelians sent advance agents into the targeted systems to begin preparing the world for subjugation. Agents would seek to acquire power in the political, economic, and social institution of society. They would use these positions of power to promote policies that would soften worlds up for Aurelian conquest. These policies included:
·         Disarming or reducing the capabilities of any military establishment on the planet.
·         Seeding criticism of the planet’s dominant culture so that inhabitants would be less willing to defend it.
·         Undermining social mores and spreading discontent among the population to cripple their ability to respond to alien conquest.
Usually, an Aurelian invasion would be preceded by an artificial calamity. On the planet Bodicea, for example, the planet was subjected to orbital bombardment that destroyed most of its cities. On Park and Coriolis, massive earthquakes destroyed many major cities in the weeks and months before the Aurelian conquest.
The Aurelians arrived in the Aftermath of these catastrophic attacks offering relief and reconstruction assistance. In reality, the Aurelians acted as an Occupation Force, fundamentally transforming the culture and society of each planet while simultaneously stripping its resources and gradually eliminating its population.
==Aurelian Occupation==
Upon conquering each world, the Aurelians immediately began stripping the planet of resources in order to construct another ‘Megasphere’ – the artificial worlds on which Aurelians lived and traveled through space.
The Aurelians would also systematically evaluate the planet’s population, designating a small number, usually <3% as being worthy to serve Aurelia. These would be trained and indoctrinated to serve in one of the four castes: Cups, Pentacles, Wands, or Swords. They, or more often their children, were eventually evacuated to the newly constructed megasphere.
The remaining population were sterilized and permitted to live out the rest of their days under Aurelian rule. Prepubescent children, however, were harvested for the pituitary secretions in their brains, which acts on the Aurelian physiology in the form of a narcotic and aphrodisiac.
When the newly built megasphere was complete, the Aurelians departed the system en route to the next world to conquer.
==Resistance==
The Conquest of the galaxy had been going on for at least four centuries before meeting resistance, which occurred in three primary confrontations:
·         The Bodicea system which, though conquered, had a highly effective resistance movement. Defensive action by the Pathfinder Ship Pegasus blunted the Aurelian assault. Pegasus crew members stranded on the planet after the initial attack became the nucleus of a planet-wide resistance movement. Sabotage severely damaged the Aurelian megasphere while still under construction in that system; forcing it to ultimately be destroyed. The Aurelians retreated from the Bodicea after the Treaty of Coriolis Peace Accords were settled. [Worlds Apart Book 3: Bodicea]
·         The 12 255 Crux system where an Aurelian megasphere was destroyed by a Nemesis Cascade-Effect Warhead fired by the Pathfinder Ship Lexington Keeler. [Worlds Apart Book 6: Crucible]
·         A Lynx colony in the vicinity of the Lynx Cluster. The Aurelians regarded the Lynx as subhuman and fit only for extermination. A force of Lynx battle cruisers successfully destroyed a Megaship through the use of anti-matter weapons and sustained assaults.
==Resolution==
After the destruction of an entire fleet and world ship at the Battle of 12 255 Crux (the Crucible System), the Aurelians sued for peace. The New Commonwealth learned later that another Aurelian World Ship had been destroyed about the same time in another part of the quadrant. The ability willingness of their enemies to wipe out entire world ships convinced the Aurelians that direct conflict was not in their best interest. They sent an envoy ship to the Chapultepec StarLock to sue for peace and negotiate with Sapphire, Republic, and the other emerging Major Worlds of the Quadrant.  The Peace Talks were held on the occupied colony of Coriolis in the Solar Years 7198-7199.
Goneril Lear had been appointed Commonwealth Peace Ambassador, and led the team that negotiated the Peace Treaty; the broad outline of which was that the Aurelians would cease conquering worlds aligned with the New Commonwealth or the Free Worlds Affiliation. (They retained the option of conquering non-aligned worlds) In return, no weapons of mass destruction would be deployed against them and the most deadly weapons in the New Commonwealth’s arsenal… the cascade effect anti-matter weapons like those that had destroyed the Megasphere… were outlawed entirely.
Following the Treaty of Coriolis, the Aurelians voluntarily pulled back to the system of Aurelius Maxima, recalling all battle fleets and world-ships to that system; whose location was unknown to its opponents.Write the first paragraph of your page here.
Category:History
Category:Background
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