Paladins (Labyrinth)

The "Paladins", known to the inhabitants of the Milky Way as the Children of the Architect, are a mystery even to themselves. Their earliest history recalls their arrival in NGC 4414, known to its inhabitants as the Patrian Galaxy in the wake of a catastrophy that engulfed the stars - likely a reference to the Forerunner-Flood War. They attribute their survival to a figure known only as "The Architect", a Forerunner who built the Labyrinth Array, and who sent ships filled with sentient life through the superluminal Nexus facilities into a galaxy far from the Milky Way to avoid both the Flood and the impending activation of the Halo Array. Beyond this, the Paladins' origins are a mystery.
While they use technology developed and used by the Forerunners, have adopted pre-war Forerunner styles and aesthetics, and follow the Mantle of the Forerunners they believe was passed to them, the Paladins do not believe themselves to be directly descended from the Forerunners themselves. Genetically, they seem to be an offshoot of humanity, splitting off approximately 250,000 years ago, evolving separately despite retaining aesthetic similarities. This may not be an indicator of offworld relocation - many human species coexisted for many hundreds of thousands of years - but they lack evidence of genetic exchange with other Homo species, as with modern humans. It may be that they were prevented from interbreeding by social and geographical factors, or by other isolating factors. This does not discount their being related to the Forerunners - the many hints of their relationship to humanity notwithstanding, they are also considered to be Reclaimers by Forerunner technology. An offshoot of the Paladins, the Sovereigns disagree, believing themselves to not only be descended from the Forerunners directly, but that the Mantle gives them authority to dominate all other lifeforms.
Isolated from the Milky Way for more than 100,000 years, the Paladins have only recently reestablished some small measure of contact with their original home after rediscovering The Noumenon, though not before the Sovereigns sent a small force through. Currently, they are engaged in a large scale conflict against the Sovereigns in their home galaxy to prevent further use of The Noumenon, with a small Paladin force sent to the Milky Way to counter the Sovereign force.
==History==
===Prehistory===
Genetically, the most recent common ancestor between the Paladins and humanity is Homo heidelbergensis, which lived approximately 600,000 years ago, but the species share much greater similarity to another human species that is currently extinct on Earth - H. neanderthalensis, the Neanderthals, who inhabited much of Eurasia before being displaced by H. sapiens. Modern theory acknowledges that some genetic exchange occurred, with Neanderthal DNA contributing to between 1% and 4% of the European and Asian gene pools. Interbeeding with other species is also acknowledged, such as the Denisovan hominin, and other early human species. The Paladin genome bears no such evidence, remaining at least genetically isolated for approximately 250,000 years, long before the activation of the Halo Array, possibly due to geographic isolation - the spread of H. sapiens sapiens was not as fast as popular culture would like to think, and it started much later than would be needed to impact the Paladin gene pool.
No cultural or social remnants remain to associate the Paladins, so it is unlikely that their early history will be known to humanity. Paladin archives stretch back for millenia, but their earliest records begin soon after their transplantation to their home galaxy. Further back, they have only mythology, speculation and rumour - the Sovereigns believe their species to be direct descendants of the Forerunners, giving them a right to the Milky Way as their inheritence, superceding the right of the native Reclaimers. The Paladins, on the other hand, have no such pretensions of certainty - some speculate that they may be related to the Forerunners, while others disagree, insisting that they have merely adopted the Forerunner culture and technology out of intense respect for their predecessors.
===Departure===
Given their genetic isolation, it is difficult to pinpoint the point at which they left Earth and split with the wider Homo genus. Historically, it is likely that they were removed from Earth by the Forerunners as one of many contingencies meant to pass on their "Mantle" to humanity in some shape or form. For their own part, the few Paladin sources made available to the UNSC relate only their conflicting beliefs on the subject - that they are direct descendants of the Forerunners, or that they are merely their successors. There is little in their rich mythology that can be used as evidence - the arrival of humans native to the Milky Way was as much a surprise to the Paladins as it was to the UNSC, and it has caused much consternation among their own civilisation.
Regardless, the history of the Children of the Architect as a people in the Patrian galaxy begins approximately 100,000 B.C.E., shortly after the activation of the Halo Array in the Milky Way. Paladin mythology holds that they fled to their new home from an unspeakable catastrophe, which in hindsight is likely to have been the galaxy-devastatin Forerunner-Flood War. The fact that the only way to access the Patrian galaxy is by finding a Labyrinth Nexus indicates that the Forerunner known as the Architect engineered their escape to Patria, possibly separate to the plans of the rest of the Forerunner species. Exactly what this means, regarding H. sapiens as the "Reclaimers" of the Forerunners remains unknown - Forerunner technology certainly seems to recognise them as such, but if the Architects plans were independent of the Array then they may be outside of any considerations the Forerunners made for the future of their former home.
The early history of the Paladins in the Patrian galaxy, as with most human cultures, is characterised by conflict. Initially "seeded" on a single planet, known as Patria, a Forerunner dialect word for "home", this planet would be home to a large number of conflicting tribes of Paladins before they achieved even Tier Six civilisation. Only the discovery of a Forerunner Cryptum erected by the Architect stopped these tribes from wiping each other out through tribal warfare, and under the gentle and careful guidance of the local artificial intelligence, 238 Reticent Exposition, the Paladins would rapidly progress from Tier Seven to Tier Four. Deeming the time finally right, Reticent Exposition finally allowed the Paladins full access to its archives - with the full sum of Forerunner knowledge and technology at their disposal, as well as a detailed record of their history and sacrifice, the Paladins elected to become the successors to the Forerunners' legacy, assuming the same role their saviours played in the Milky Way. Lessons were learned, and modifications were made - the Paladins would maintain a policy of extreme noninterference to prevent the stagnation of galactic sentient diversity, while responding to threats with care and deference. While they never encountered the Flood, they would remain vigilant, and run into their fair share of monstrous species. Assuming the social structure and role of the Forerunners was followed by the adoption of their technology, and with a fleet unparalleled by any, the Paladins would remain their new galaxy's unseen but omniscient guardians.
All of this took place within a mere four thousand years, a rapid development compared to that of their Milky Way brethren, guided by the ancient machinations of the Architect. For much of their history, the Paladins have served as stewards of their home galaxy, indirectly guiding some civilisations toward spaceflight while ensuring others remained terrestrial until deemed culturally ready, fostering a galactic community of sentient beings capable of defending themselves and their own interests. The legacy of the Forerunners, their arrogant contempt for non-Forerunners and utter conviction in their own abilities, had led to the Milky Way's near consumption by the Flood, and they were mistakes the Paladins were determined to avert. Unfortunately, these actions had consequences - interstellar balkanisation would lead to factions and wars between rival species or power blocs, into which the Paladins would find themselves forced to intervene, become a galactic arbitrator. This role has earned them a reputation as meddlers, despite their deliberate efforts to avert such actions.
===Schism===
Though the Paladins pride themselves on being fierce pacifists, involving themselves in conflicts only when thousands or millions of sentient lives are involved, there have been periods of warfare and internecine strife that have threatened to shatter them as a faction. The Vesha'aqa Multiplicity, the Shu'ush Conspiracy, and the Indrasal Unification Wars would be major conflicts with sentient species declaring war against the Paladins themselves: in the case of the Vesha'aqa and Shu'ush, some species hoped to capture Paladin technology to gain their benefits for themselves; others, like the Indrasa, objected to the Paladin's methods of determining a civilisation's readiness to reach the stars and methods to prevent this, objections that seem valid - planetary devastation, reducing a budding interstellar war machine to Tier Seven status, has been inflicted on more than one species, a fate the Paladins deem regretably neccessary - the vast legions of the Oldarazh, or the Formenastaran fleets, would certainly have swept away hundreds of other inhabited worlds, wiping out dozens of species in unprovoked attacks, though the Indrasal insisted that a species that cannot endure such threats should be allowed to fall to strengthen the whole community - a policy which the Paladins objected to in no uncertain terms, reducing the Indrasal to a Tier Four state, forcing them to reachieve spaceflight - the merciful option, compared to the fate of the treacherous Vesha'aqa or the scheming Shu'ush.
Nevertheless, the greatest threat the Paladins have ever faced to their sovereignty, and their existence, was an internal one - a radical extremist faction of Paladins that disagreed on theological grounds with the mainstream views of Paladin society, and harboured a fierce xenophobia. Their claims that the Paladins were descendants of the Forerunners themselves, not just successors, initially fell upon deaf ears as the High Council ignored them, dismissing the threat. The sudden strikes on the Chaste Purity and Inducted Volition colonies, cultural centres of non-Paladin cultures, would finally force the Council to recognise the threat and give it a name, one which the extremists were all too happy to provide - the Sovereigns.
==Culture==
The most important aspect of Paladin culture is a strict adherence to the Mantle, which they hold was passed on to them by a Forerunner known only as the Architect, the builder of the Labyrinth Array. At its core, the Mantle (as the Paladins interpret it) is a dedication to preserving all life, encouraging the growth of sentient species, and facilitating their entrance into the galactic community. To this end, they have limited both their occupied territory and extended external scout patrols, "seeding" some worlds with bacterial lifeforms and others with lifeforms from their own homeworld, as well as terraforming uninhabitable planets to encourage natural abiogenisis. Like the Forerunners, the Paladins maintain a distinct Lifeworker class, though its importance in Paladin society is much greater than it was to the Forerunners. Unlike the Forerunners, the Paladins prefer to take an indirect role in the affairs of the few sentient species that have arisen under their stewardship, serving as mediators in disputes and very rarely mobilising their fleet to crush offensive actions. The one interventionist policy they have is that, while species are free to govern their own affairs, both on and off their world, they do not have the right to interfere in those of others without the willingly given permission of the other, and strictlyen force this rule. It is a statement of their success that the only large-scale interstellar conflict to break out since their rise to prominence has been between themselves and an offshoot of their own species.
Also unlike the Forerunners, the Paladins do not possess a familial caste system, and do not engage in brevet mutations. The Paladin public is free to choose whatever professions and life choices they wish, although many families are well known for engaging in specific roles, such as Lifeworkers, or military service.
Otherwise, little can be said of the Paladins, other than the fact that they try to, if not imitate, then emulate the Forerunners as well as they can. Architecturally, their ships and structures bear extreme similarity to known Forerunner configurations, and their personnel wear similar personal exoskeletons, colloquially referred to as "skins". Paladins speak a number of languages, some with linguistic connections to known Covenant and Forerunner dialects, all unique to the Patrian Galaxy. Since coming into contact with the UNSC, SAF and New Covenant, the Paladins have added the languages of these young powers to their repertoire, and diplomatic envoys have spoken them fluently.
==Military==
The Empyrean maintains a large standing fleet of thousands of capital ships, composed of various warship classifications, ranging from medium-tonnage long-range scouts, escorts and support ships, to vast dreadnoughts and carriers, to small, short-range but fast and nimble unmanned drone fighters. Usually, interventions of Paladins between other forces consist of the blunt but effective tactic of placing the fleet between two opposing forces and simply waiting as both sides' weapons prove futile, establishing contact, and forcibly beginning diplomatic negotiations. Until a dispute is resolved, the Empyrean will maintain a small standing force to enforce non-aggression, while otherwise maintaining their own neutrality.
In conflicts with Sovereign forces, however, Paladin and Sovereign ships are of similar sophistication and use similar methods. A fleet will usually attempt to destroy the other at long range using directed energy weapons, maximising the effectiveness of their own shields. Smaller ships will close in, bringing powerful drone weapons to bear - unmanned, partially intelligent reusable weapons designed to puncture shields and decks using a highly charged plasma shell. At close range, warships engage in passive warfare against each other, vying to disable the other's navigation, propulsion, targeting, offensive or defensive systems, leaving their enemy vulnerable. Doctrinally, Paladins usually operate on the defensive, and correspondingly usually possess the numerical advantage, and the benefit of planning, setting up astronomical traps. During the Battle of the Nexus, the Paladin fleet allowed the Sovereign fleet to gain the upper hand, retreating into slipspace - and then remotely destroying the star system's sun, annihilating hundreds of ships.
==Territory==
The Paladins are endemic, though likely not native, to the Patrian Galaxy, designated NGC 4414 by human astronomers since its discovery. Although related both genetically, technologically and culturally to the Sovereigns, they maintain radically different territorial spaces. The Paladins refer to their territory as the Empyrean, a translated word roughly meaning "of the fire," a reference to their belief that their home galaxy, the Milky Way, was metaphorically purged by a cleansing flame, although its phonemic similarity to "Imperial" leads UNSC translators to refer to it as "the Paladin Empire". Paladin colonies are marked by extensive urban occupation, often in multi-level arcologies with marked canopy, understory and ground layers, analogous to a rainforest, and with all layers exhibiting social variation. On a stellar scale, the Empyrean possesses fewer inhabited star systems than their rivals the Sovereigns, but maintains higher population densities and better orbital protection, and fosters extensive inter-system trade networks, policed by the Empyrean Fleet in a role analogous to a Coast Guard, regulating trade and transport. As far as the UNSC knows, the Empyreans have shunned the Forerunners' fondness for megastructures such as Ringworlds, Alderson Discs and Dyson Shells, though given how little contact they have had with them there may be equivalents scattered throughout the Empyrean.
==Remarks==
* "They're so close to living Forerunners that they might as well be. Is this what they wanted "Reclaimers" to become? Or is this just yet another misinterpretation of their real intentions?"
* "The Architect may not have lived to see the final result of his achievements, but I hope that we have done him proud - two races rejoined in kinship, two galaxies at peace, and the Flood threat once again contained, all thanks to him."
* "They may imitate the Forerunners, but they're not identical. There are subtle differences, the most glaring of which is their policy of non-interference, a "prime directive" if you will. Unfortunately, the Sovereigns have no such restrictions."
07/306: Insufficiend Data Available. Labyrinth Network Breach Detected - Noumenon Alerted. The Labyrinth Awakens - Please Remain Calm During The Duration of This Emergency.