Vulcanian Empire

> "*To be a citizen of such a Divine Imperium is to have a great weight upon one's shoulders - a subject under Vulcan has all eyes upon it, and should act accordingly, as to disobey would be the greatest mistake they will make,*"
>  - *The Imperial Code*
>
>

The **Vulcanian Empire** is a near Universe-spanning interstellar empire, the most powerful governing body in all the observable universe from the year 3 Million B.C.E. to 2250 A.D. (0.C0 - 2250.C26). It is ruled by ascended god Vulcan, worshipped among the **Nema-fars** who populate the empire.

Other species and races did populate the empire such as the Feigrsinn or the **Gods of the Infinite Pantheon** but the vast majority are lab-grown Nema-fars called the **Thráke** whose only purpose is to toil in labor to continue the empire's expansion.

Vulcan, the empire's current ruler and that which the empire's name is based off of, is the most powerful god to have ever lived. After his arrival in **Universe B-12** in 3 Million B.C.E. (0.C0), the **Great Unification** of the first world Valhalla became the foundation for the new empire before the **Malmiric Revolution**. Due to his near-divine power and impeccable strategic and political abilities, Vulcan was hailed as The Great Savior to the Nema-fars.

After the **Malmiric Revolution** and the greater **Catatronic Revelation**, the empire entered a state of constant expansion, exploring first their solar system, then expanding exponentially outwards with the help of a newly created Exploration League. With the growing power and the increasing wealth of Valhalla, **Gods from the Infinite Pantheon** flocked to the planet for their own duties and lifestyles, which would soon be strictly controlled by Vulcan. This tight authoritarian control coming from the **Office Optar** and Vulcan Himself would lead to the **War of the Infinite Pantheon**.

Because of the growing administrative strain across the empire with revolts, civil wars, and corruption, Vulcan creates a council named the **Eight Barons** to control eight main administrative districts of the empire, with Valhalla being the focal point of them all. The Eight Barons were not composed of other Gods, but rather a hand-crafted group of creatures built specifically for the task of government.

The Nema-fars lifestyles are on one of two extremes - either disgustingly wealthy or horrifically poor. The rich partied in interstellar yachts while the impoverished toiled away in factories. But to be a citizen of the Vulcanian Empire was to be a first-class citizen of the Universe. No matter how insignificant each Vulcanian may seem, no matter how small their job, their fight, their death, each one knows that they serve the greatest empire that will ever exist. They will not be missed, but they will certainly miss the empire.

The largest-spanning government in any timeline, at its peak, the Vulcanian's had claimed over 65% of the observable universe. Its territories were split into millions, if not billions of provinces and counties, each hosting an innumerable number of stars and even more inhabitants. While the number is impressive, most people who hear it find it hard to wrap their heads around. Sextillions of planets encountered, Quadrillions with established camps, Trillions with small towns, with only 10,000,000,000 of those being large industrial powerhouses.

The economy of the Vulcanian Empire is best described as a mix between Imperialism and Capitalism. The **Office Optar**, a group of government agencies responsible for regulation and enforcement of Imperial Law, owns all interstellar territory and leases it to companies for a fee, and places restrictions on material flow as to not devalue to price of precious materials. Alongside this, the **Office of Revenue** was responsible for all taxes levied on planetary colonies, the percentage of which depended on the colony's behavior towards their governments. Most provisions from these colonies go into the Exploration League or the **Bifrost Protection League** to secure trade routes and create new ones.

Nema-fars in the empire have little contact with the Office Optar unless they serve in one of its **Hær** or are an officer of the Optar themselves. Most petty crimes such as tax evasion are handled swiftly by the planet's own government to prevent total restructuring of their chain of command.

The empire, surprisingly, had an extremely unstable government despite the amount of officials. The future of quadrillions of Vulcanians was in the hands of 9 people`. This fear was later realized when all eight Barons and Vulcan were killed in the **Earth-Vulcanian War**, where **Baron Greya** was assassinated and Vulcan is killed in battle by the **Allegiance of Man**. The subsequent turmoil led to the Collapse of the Vulcanian Empire after the greatest power vacuum in interstellar history.

Thousands of smaller kingdoms were created from the ashes, and Valhalla was torn apart into a wasteland by the kingdoms bidding for control of the planet. One group called the **Ginnungs** reunified the surrounding kingdoms and conquered Valhalla temporarily, but the Vulcanian Empire would never be reunified, and its successor states would never reach its glory.

## **History**

> "*Calling the Vulcanians divine is disparaging. Not to the Gods, but to the sheer might of the Vulcanians,*"
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> -  *Druidian*
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>

Deep in the Valhalla Kunnüstabók lies tomes from millions of years ago, untouched by the wars that destroyed the rest of the utopian planet. The battles, atrocities, genocides, all kept under lock and key, written in ink to be preserved forever more. While the folklore of the Vulcanians is long gone, the languages dead, and the stories warped beyond perception, historians and ancient **Catatronic Computers** write, sort, and modify historical documents to keep the Vulcanians' divine odyssey alive.

The knowledge kept here spans the great ages of the empire. But just like on the cities above, the Kunnüstabók is collapsing. Its hallowed walls cave, the Catatronics dim, historians rot in the darkest corners of the library's labrynths; yet just those fragmented records that remain would take many lifetimes to study, and contain secrets enough to blast the reader's sanity and alter the perception of the fallen empire for millions, if not billions, of years to come.

Only the civil wars raging above have kept its famed doors, located deep within the former **Office of Knowledge's** halls open. Few former Vulcanian citizens know of its existence, and even fewer know the way in.

### Primitive & Reformation Age, -0.C50 - 25000.C0 B.C.E

The Primitive Ages of the Vulcanian Empire remain relatively unknown. The Nema-fars that populated the planet at that time had no system of writing, and all the knowledge gathered is from old weapons and tools.

From the information gathered, we know that the Nema-fars were a hunter-gatherer species living on Valhalla on the brink of becoming an agrarian society. They had sharp tools made of rock, and some metal tools, but they were poorly smithed. Because focus was primarily on food and shelter, the tribal groups on the planet constantly fought over ever-decreasing food supplies to last the winter. Many died from these conflicts, and even more from the starvation that came later.

During the Primitive Age, technology was stagnant. Later historians would suggest that without interference, the Nema-fars would've either regressed further or gone completely extinct. Divine intervention was what the Nema-fars needed, but the prayers to their gods have been met with a deafening silence. Until Vulcan arrived.

Vulcan descended onto the planet with such force, it's said the ground cracked and shattered underneath. He donned long hair, an unkept beard, and the same war-torn suit from all those billions of years ago. He was a walking relic, and a newly adorned God at that. Vulcan's powers have become almost limitless from his adventure across the multiverse.

Despite being able to exterminate the inhabitants like He did in the past, Vulcan, in His Divinity, spared the **First Generation** and all their potential putting them forever in his debt.

Vulcan aimed to Industrialize the Nema-fars, but the constant warring and hunger prevented them from evolving further. Thus, the **Unification Wars** began.

#### Unification Wars

Lasting the next 150 years and leading into the Second Generation, Vulcan began his journey to unify the Nema-far's home planet, now named Valhalla as an act of righteousness. His original territory was just a small strip of land from his original Nema-far tribe, but quickly annexed other small tribes to their cause.

Endless fighting and suppression of outside thought led to an eventual occupation of half the planet. Other tribes have failed to catch on and unite, so the rest of the world became easier to swallow. The last surviving tribe was the **Haettite**, which continued to resist Vulcanian occupation and refused to negotiate annexation. The **Battle of Lake Wrathnir** marked the end of the Unification Wars, with only 500 troops lost on the Vulcanian side and 10,000 lost on the Haettite side, or over ninety percent of their population.

The Unification Wars, while not the bloodiest, were the most important wars in Vulcanian History for the impact it had on the political landscape. Transitioning from a divided tribal planet to a unified agricultural state in one generation took its toll, and the population almost halved due to a lack of births. The culture, in response, shifted towards an Imperial-centric lifestyle, where Nema-fars focused more on the prosperity of the whole planet rather than themselves and their tribe. Children were born not to continue a singular bloodline, but to continue the empire.

For the next 10,000 years, urban centers grew and agriculture was made more efficient. Cities originally built from thatch and twigs were reborn as cities of marble. Inventions such as the **Multi-plow** - a soil primer that can plow entire fields in a matter of minutes - led to greater food output and rose the standard of living in urban centers. Now on the verge of industrialization, Vulcan oversaw the process and fine-tuned their evolution.

### Industrialization Age, 25000.C0 - 50000.C1

Industrialization took place over the course of 125,000 years, and was the largest and most expansive period of technological growth within the empire. The age turned the empire from one of Wood and Bronze to one of Marble and Iron. The creation of machinery and the rise of Classical Vulcanian Culture are the defining events in this time period, and would set the foundation for later revelations in the empire's history.

The technological improvements the empire gained from this age are divided into two main revolutions: The Malmiric and the Catatronic Revolution, both hosting life-altering changes within their time frames.

#### Malmiric Revolution

The **Malmiric Revolution** was the first stage of full industrialization for the Vulcanian Empire.

### Earth-Vulcanian War, 2245.C26-2250.C26

While not the largest war in Vulcanian History, it is certainly the most impactful. The Earth-Vulcanian War was a conflict between Humanity's home planet Earth and the Vulcanian Empire in **Dregnic**'s Octile, or the lower half of the empire. Although it is called a war, not many battles were fought and it only truly culminated in The Battle of Java, in which Earth emerged victorious by the defeat of Vulcan.

## Culture

Vulcanian Culture is a deep, complex web of ideas and rituals stretching back millennia ago.

## Economics

### Currency

With all this new technology and the rise of a mixed Neo-Imperialist/Capitalist economic system, a currency called the Rial (*Ree-all*), forged of a precious Catronic-TItanium alloy and about the same size as a quarter, began to be minted to suppress the overwhelming barter economy. The coins were manufactured at the mint plants found on the planet **Penninheim** in the Asgardian Sector, where cloned workers and Catatronic Computers forged the coins at a steady rate. A subdivision of the **Offices of Economics** named the **Forge Office** controlled the supply of precious metal entering the empire so as to not cause inflation. Such a vast amount was available in the space they conquered, the government had to take control and conservatively lease the land out to companies to prevent overmining and economic collapse. Multiple companies attempted to introduce the idea of credit to the Vulcanians, but the amount of tangible coinage and the empire's social values prevented such an idea of borrowing money for what they thought of as excessive spending.

The effects of this currency are questionable at best. The Office of Economics found it hard to enforce such a currency across billions of lightyears.

### Legal Activities

#### Plantations

Clustered on **Plantation Worlds**, their only true job is to produce enough food to feed the empire. **Plantations** in the millions of square miles stretch endlessly across flat plains. Plantations do not require much regulation, as the empire doesn't care how the food is produced as long as it's nutrient-packed and appetizing. The lack of regulation has led to some of the most horrific living conditions in the universe, with slaves working endless days in the **Agripens** and sleeping through horrific nights in their **Housing Towers**.

#### Mass Cloning

Mass Cloning Projects were extremely common. It is not rare to see **Dropships** carry thousands, if not millions, of tightly-packed **Thrákes** dump the clones to be processed and turned into workers. While cruel, it is one of the pillars keeping the empire up on its feet. The want for clones to speed up the population process has become a need, and has created an empire dominated by emotionless biological machines. Was this Vulcan's true intentions? That will never be known.

### Illegal Activities

#### Piracy

**Piracy** was a large problem across the Vulcanian Empire. Although the government owned and controlled all conquered space, it was hard to maintain and manage every lightyear. The rise of Piracy, more specifically Organized Piracy, grew into a massive threat which still plagues the Empire. The Pirates' main goal is to illegally mine resources from valuable asteroids or planets not yet settled or set aside for later use and sell this material on the **Afterlife Market**. This greatly devalued minerals such as **Catronium**, leading to inflation and economic instability which disrupted trade routes.

#### Material Theft

Organized Piracy wasn't the only entity robbing the empire of material. Multiple small groups of thieves and aliens

#### Heretical Ship Modification

In the Vulcanian Empire, it was considered **Heresy** to modify any **Military Cruiser** or **Reverence Class Freighter**. Pirates and Thieves alike notoriously hijacked and stole freighters and cannon-ships to use in their fleets, modifying them with scrapmetal armor or stripping superfluous details from the ship's exterior. The finished product was typically an unsightly starship which prioritized function over form. However, these modified starships were vastly superior to their Vulcanian counterparts, with some taking an entire fleet to destroy.

### Káupskyps

Trade was facilitated by large spaceports named Káupskyps (*Cope-skips*), which acted as buffer zones for taxation and the recharging of Catatronic Batteries.

### Trade Routes

As the empire expanded, it became harder to transport goods from planet-to-planet due to changes in orbit and longer travel distances. Companies and Management Firms such as Forrað Firm (*Forr-ayeth*)() were created by both Vulcan’s administration and private entities to calculate loading and shipping timing and dates to leave Káupskyps. These firms used a mixture of astronomy, manual computing, and Catronic Computers spread across large plots of land to time shipping times between planets with near-perfect accuracy. To aid in the quick moving of goods, multiple Káupskyps were built in star systems and could be travelled between to make travel more efficient. But it still didn’t solve the problem of travel times, thus the Cosmic Pinholes were created.

Trade routes were prevalent across the entire empire, with there being billions of interstellar highways from the size of one Astronomical Unit to spanning multiple galaxies. The largest trade route led to Valhalla, despite it being more of a political seat than an economic powerhouse.

## Government

### Early Government

The early Vulcanian Government was controlled by the Office Optar, the first official government group of the empire. Vulcan was the head of all five offices, each

### Government Under the Imperial Code

Legend tells that Vulcan, in order to create a perfect government, locked himself in his office for 1000 years and wrote up the Imperial Code: A document so rich, so divine in its language, it brings tears to the eyes of anyone privileged enough to read it. It lays out the foundation for an Imperial Theocracy, and gives specific instructions for succession, division of power, law enforcement, and land management.

The document was "almost perfect," according to Baron Vaetog, the brightest political mind in the empire. However, after reading and wiping tears from his eyes, Vaetog finds that no line of succession was named. Vulcan's reasoning was written in the pages himself; He did not think he would, or could, die. Thus, Vaetog kept this to himself for fear of disrupting Vulcan's ego despite their closeness.

This era, known as the Imperial Age, was one of mass prosperity for most citizens in the Empire. After thousands of years of attacks, corruption, and vies for power, peace was finally restored to the empire.

#### The Eight Barons

The Eight Barons, also known as the Eight Magistrates or the Hallowed Hilmirs, were the eight highest positions in the empire. Their primary duties is overseeing the **Eight Imperial Sectors** and managing the **Office Optar** in addition to their sector. Each Baron had their office and **Divine World**, which was theirs to rule within the bounds of the Imperial Code. For the Barons, though, the code's rules were extremely relaxed, allowing Baron's to shape their planet to their desire.

The Eight Barons were not originally great minds of the empire, but rather genetically engineered geniuses with only their future role in mind. Their strategic and political power surpasses that of anyone in the empire and their freedom of thought was beyond all bounds, but Vulcan designed them to diligently fear his wrath, which slowly erodes their free-thinking until they become mere puppets of Vulcan.

Baron **Vætog** (*Vay-tawg*), **Greya** (*Gray-yah*), **Dregnic** (*Dreig-nick*), **Havlorian** (*Have-lore-ian*), **Göthfe** (*Gawth-fay*), **Matogur** (*Mate-o-gurr*), **Noritus** (*Nawr-ie-tus*), **Brodyr** (*Brode-eer*), were born in a lab deep within a Manufacturing World in the Asgardian System, where they were transported to Valhalla and given Demigodhood and acquainted with their new near-divine positions in 101.C4, or the dawn of the Imperialization Age.

The Barons were extremely efficient with their policy making, bettering the empire as a whole and shaping it to Vulcan's image. Trade became stable, exploration became less dangerous, and the outer regions had more contact with Valhalla. But still, the empire was too large for a mere nine people to govern. Vulcan planned for this truth in his Imperial Code as well.

#### The Provincial Pyramid

Vulcan recognized the massive size of the empire, and its increasing scale. It would be impossible to manage each individual planet and put it towards His direct command. Therefore, the Provincial Pyramid was formed to ease administration across the empire, and surrender power to the provinces and away from Valhalla. The rules Vulcan described on His Imperial Code specifically lay out the government at each level, with their privileges, powers, and responsibilities listed. Later, **Baron Greya** drafted a visual model for the Provincial Pyramid, which was later prescribed for use in the **School of Imperial Codex** and in government offices to make learning the Imperial Code easier.

Below the Eight Barons was a chain of command from each Galactic Cluster to each planet, with every portion controlled by an administrative office and an appointed **Viceroy**. Each Viceroy, no matter how small their holdings, was sworn into oath on Valhalla inside the **Office of Justice**. They swore to protect the interests of the Imperial Code and uphold the principles of Vulcan, which should be reflected in their superiors and their subordinates.

Each Viceroyal office was located on a chosen **Divine World**, with each world decorated with **Tower Cities** and populated by biological Nema-fars. These served as outposts and contained one Káupskyp in orbit, a nearby **Military World**, and a **Cosmic Pinhole** leading directly to the **Bifrost**. This gave little excuse to Viceroys for not reporting to their superiors on Valhalla. Other, smaller Cosmic Pinholes were scattered across the star system for Viceroys to report to specific worlds or regional offices.

The system benefitted from the extremely rigid structure. It gave little room for freedom of office and with regular maintenance checkups ensured that most personal agendas were handled swiftly and brutally. It's been proven throughout the history of the Vulcanian Empire that personal goals can impede or collapse the empire, such is the case with the **War of the Infinite Pantheon**.

#### Corruption

Despite the Imperial Code's strong government system and tightly woven guidelines, corruption still seeped through the cracks in abundance. Because there was no system of fast, interstellar communication it was easy to change messages or not deliver them at all.

Vulcan, even with the Eight Baron's oversight, cannot report to each Viceroy appointed, let alone meet all of them. During the later years of the Empire, this allowed many personal agendas to seep through the cracks of the Imperial Codex, and even more so in the regions too far from Valhalla's control. Many distant viceroys took bribes from companies and enacted coup d'états on lower officials that support their goals.

Assassinations were extremely common among the lower-tier viceroys, with instances such as the Assassination of Viceroy Itagirr, which broke open the deep state to Vulcan's wrath and was a contributing event for the War of the Infinite Pantheon.

## Interstellar Communication

### Long-Distance Communication

#### Cosmic Pinhole Travel

Cosmic Pinholes are a type of space station built to accelerate interstellar travel and make communication faster. The stations have thousands of long needles with tips less than an atom wide along its circumference. The tips, imbued with a classified substance, rotate around the portal entry at close to the speed of light and cut a hole through the fabric of space like glass.

Inside the new portal lies an ascended dimension so far above the third dimension it's impossible to see anything but the fractals surround the entering spaceship. Routes have been walled off from the rest of the dimension, known as the Plane of Insanity after the eldritch horrors which lie beyond the Astral Cage.

The main trade route leads to the three primary Divine Worlds of the Vulcanian Empire, and is called the **Bifrost**. **Valhalla**, the capital of the Vulcanian Empire, lies at the centermost wormhole in the Bifrost. Time and space is an abstract concept in the Plane of Insanity, so travel times, while being only a few short hours in the third dimension, can take weeks in the plane. Passengers travelling through pinholes were essentially living carcasses, not needing to breathe, eat, or drink, and not aging. Due to these factors and the lack of such tech, communication between those travelling between pinholes and those in the third dimension was impossible.

Navigating the ever-expanding branches of the Bifrost is a complicated task now done by computers. When the first pinholes were, such brainpower couldn't fit in a spaceship of realistic proportions, so navigation leagues were created to calculate these equations manually, some with many errors. Getting lost in the Bifrost is essentially a death sentence, since it's extremely hard for the **Bifrost Protection League**, a fleet of rescue and protection ships which guide and pull spaceships out of the Bifrost, to reach these lost ships. And due to the aforementioned time dilation above, it can take centuries in their time for a rescue ship to reach them. Some spacecraft somehow find their way beyond the Astral Cage, and are driven past the brink of insanity by what they find.

#### Bifrost Marathon Routes

Wireless, long-distance radio communication had not been invented by the collapse of the Vulcanian Empire. Most messages and communication was done through fleets known as **Marathon Fleets**.

## Vulcanian Military

> "*Even a soldier with nothing can still offer [his] life.*" - *Captain Gjormandur II*
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Vulcanians have always been the greatest warriors in the universe. Constant threats from **The Eldritch** and foreign empires make the military ingenious and cheap, desiring to cut as many corners as they can before revolts start. War is a harsh reality for every citizen of the empire, and no soldier goes to waste. To be part of the Vulcanian Hær was to be part of the greatest military to ever soak the stars in blood. It's to be a servant of the Divine and Harbinger of its downfall at the same time. Only in death does your duty to Vulcan end.

* **Vulcanian Army** - The largest army to ever exist in the universe, the Vulcanian Army swears allegiance and surrenders supreme command to Vulcan.