Empire of Sudaetti

*"Once they were promoters of peace and stability across the galaxy with the knights protecting the masses but now they have become conquerors and enslavers doing as they please when they please, it has been eons and millennia's since the Empire stood for something good so now we must put our foot down and say no! We must fight!* - Strasian Consortium declaring war on the Empire

The Empire of Sudaetti or referred to by many as the Centre Empire was an Empire that once spanned across the entire known galaxy being the biggest known faction and largest known civilisation to have ever existed, the Empire was formed in the Centre Core of the galaxy on the planet of Sudaetti around 500 years after the first ever Knights of Procyon had traversed the galaxy providing a full navigational map from the Centre of the galaxy to the Outer Ring. The Empire was founded by a high ranking Knight called Vero Tillo who believed in bringing about peace to a galaxy that had no law and ran wild with criminals, whilst the idea was noble and for approximately 400 years with many successful Emperors this idea would prevail and the galaxy thrived under one rule. By the time of 1922 A.G.C the newly appointed Emperor Jakorr Kilian who was the first of the Kilian Dynasty would turn the Empire in a new direction due to a long line of lazy Emperors who let corruption and greed set in to their civilisation and instead would turn the Empire into conquerors and rulers taking over the Centre Core by force making it the centre of their power. After this conquest the Empire began to fragment with a small group of Knights who saw the Empire turning into a bigger evil than what they were trying to prevent, these Knights would gather enough support from outside of the Centre Core to begin an open rebellion to overthrow the Emperor and bring a better leader into power which led to the Astral War which ended in 1933 A.G.C with many of the remaining Knights remaining loyal to the Empire rather than their own ideology which in turn resulted of the reorganisation of the Knights of Procyon to serve the Empire and Emperor solely and some of the rebelling Knights to flee into the Outer Ring far from the reach of the Empire. Many other wars would occur over the 3000 years which led to the Empire to go into seclusion within the Centre Core until the most recent years where the Empire under Orron Halcorr has reclaimed the Centre Core and the Inner Ring setting them as once again the galaxy's ruler.

## History

### Origins

It was approximately between 800-900 years after the galaxy was created that the galaxy had been relatively explored by the first few Knights of Procyon and many planets all across the systems and sectors began trading and forming relationships with each other, within the 500 years of galactic civilisation the planet of Sudaetti had become the centre of trading and wealth within the Centre Core with the planet being run and overseen by the wealthy Tillo Dynasty who were a wealthy merchant noble family. With their wealth grew their power forming their own Sudaetti Protectorate which acted as a security force for the planet and for the trading ships travelling through the Centre Core and Inner Ring preventing any pirate attacks or other criminals seeking to rob merchant ships, having their own security only gave the people on Sudaetti more reason to praise and like Vero whom they had already praised due to his astral powers with him being a Knight. Whilst the Centre Core was believed to be the most civil sector within the galaxy there were other sectors such as the Outer Ring which was one of the furthest sectors from the centre of the galaxy was still very untamed with criminals, pirates and syndicates all fighting for territory with the Knights of Procyon protecting the planets that were in the Outer Ring defending themselves. This bothered Vero as he became disillusioned with the idea of the order that he had joined and so he sought to bring peace across the galaxy by forming a unified faction that could rule the galaxy in a fair and equal way, Vero would voice his idea to the entire order of Knights and was met with a lot of success and many of the Knights agreeing with his idea whereas some of the other Knights still believed in each system and planet the right to their own freedom.

As many of the Knights agreed the order would join Vero in creating the Empire of Sudaetti with the Sudaetti Protectorate making up the bulk of the regular military with the Knights becoming the Justicar Knights which served as the elite forces of the Empire and military commanders alongside enforcing the law on the planets they directly ruled, the Knights of Procyon would become split with the majority of the Knights serving the Empire and the few who didn't believe in the Empire would go into hiding in the Outer Ring in fear of their own lives while still trying to protect people where they could. By the year of 1505 A.G.C the Empire was formed by conquering the Centre Core making it the main territory for the Empire that supported their rule, eventually the Empire would conquer up to the Orion Expanse leaving the Outer Ring as the only territory in the galaxy that was relatively untouched leaving smaller criminal organisations to carve up their own turf.

### Tillo Dynasty

#### Slow Decline

Around the year of 1510 A.G.C the Empire of Sudaetti became the most powerful and largest galactic civilisation to have ever existed allowing peace and order to flow through the galaxy whilst maintaining their border near the Outer Ring ensuring that anyone who travelled from their into Imperial territory was not a criminal however many smugglers would manage to bypass checkpoints by either dangerous hyperspace routes or bribery, whilst the majority of the Empire was stable it wouldn't last forever and with each new Emperor the Empire's slow decline would begin growing lazy off of their own power which led to corruption and bribery to happen from criminals and other major crime syndicates. For the following 400 years the Empire would go to war with many armies hailing from the Outer Ring from Warlords to Kings who sought to get rid of the Empire but were ultimately crushed by the Empire's military and fleet while the Emperors of this time sat in the centre of their power growing lazy choosing to let their soldiers fight whilst they profited off of the rewards that the victories gave them.

#### War of Dynasties

At the height of their power in 1922 A.G.C the Empire would also be at its lowest in morale as the public began turning on the Emperor for his greed and laziness for his lack of care for the worlds he claimed to protect which not only began lowering morale for the citizens but for the military and government as well, it would be during this time that Odon Kilian who was the Grand Vizier leading the Empire's military had garnered a lot of support and respect from within the Empire so much so that he would overthrow the Emperor declaring war on him to become the new ruler in what would be a civil war being deemed the 10 Year War ending in 1933 A.G.C resulting in Odon's victory crowing him as the new Emperor reorganising the Empire and being the first of the Kilian Dynasty which acted as a long line of rulers all the way to the current ruler Shan Kilian who like his ancestor seeks to ensure the Empire's domination of the galaxy.

### Kilian Dynasty

#### New Empire

Having assumed power over the Empire Odon would reorganise the structure of the military within to train both soldiers and Knights more effectively turning the Knights into legions making them an actual military force rather than just royal guards to the Emperor's family, with this reorganisation came extreme success in combatting many of the Empire's enemies making Odon one of the Empire's great conquerors having subdued or defeated many opposing rulers of rebelling systems. Since the new Empire was reorganised Odon would have his first competitor who sought to vanquish the Empire and rule the galaxy themselves being the Arczon Kingdom in what would lead to the Arczon War, this war would see the Empire fight their very first organised enemy that controlled more than one planet which would put their new military to the test in what would be known as the first brutal war in the Empire's domination of the galaxy. The Empire would fight the armies of the large primal lizard species who even without the armour that many of their current descendants have were hard to kill as their skin acted as armour plating to them, alongside the tall stature of these lizards and their armoured skin during the early stages of the war the Arczon Kingdom would gain ground and significant advantages over the Empire until Odon Kilian would order a bulk of new armours to be built for his military Knights to reinforce his base infantry acting as a countermeasure for the Arczons and their species advantage. With this new armour the Knights would now be officially recognised as a military force to the general public and not to just the Emperor in which he now utilised within the war which saw massive success as the armour was nearly as durable as the Arczon's skin, the war would end in 1951 A.G.C with the Arczon King becoming the Empire's vassal and having a place within the Imperial senate to represent his system and world.

By the year of 1980 A.G.C the Empire began to work on economic reforms in hopes of stabilising their economy across the galaxy whilst also helping numerous planets and systems outside their borders in hopes of giving them supplies and equipment for mining or other types of work these corporations did which was also done to entice and give incentives to new planets within the Orion Expanse and the Helius Zone to join and live under the Empire however whilst this worked for many planets and corporations certain companies who had assets and operations both in and outside of Imperial territory refuted their help, one of the companies that openly spoke about this was the Jackal Guild being the largest non Imperial funded mining guild having some of their mining operations being inside of the Empire's borders did not want to be restricted to the Imperial tax as the company operated on their own payment and taxes. Despite the mining company refusing to acknowledge these reforms the Empire would continue to do these acts in hopes of tightening their grip on the many systems in between the Mid Ring and Inner Ring having controlled the latter, the following 3 years would be lively and active within the Imperial senate with many senators advocating for a tax bill on every company within the Imperial territory in order to establish a better economy and stability while some disagreed and wanted their profits to go straight into their own pockets. Around approximately 1983 A.G.C the Imperial senate would put forward a bill of taxation on corporations profiting within the Empire's borders which would pass however this would also spark many companies and corporations to actively defy the Empire with the Jackal Guild rallying many smaller companies beneath it to form their own security to combat the Empire defending their assets, this would be the beginning of the Corporate War which saw the Empire's funds suffer a severe cut due to the many organisations having left the Empire. As the Jackal Guild and its other companies that had allied with it did not have anything outside of their corporate security army they would utilise their funds to hire many mercenaries to help reinforce their security and smugglers to go in and out of Imperial borders to conduct their business that they couldn't do, this mass hiring of independent spacers would give rise to some of the underworld organisations who profited from loaning their mercenaries and smugglers whilst also giving birth to some galactic legends. One such legend was Thaddeus Burcham who was a spacer that had gone head to head on his own with two large Imperial cruisers destroying them both with his small vessel, by the year of 1990 A.G.C the Corporate War would come to a close with the Jackal Guild being officially disbanded by the Empire and the following smaller companies would fall into line aligning with the economic bill and operated within Imperial territory.

#### The Knights of Dusk

Entering the new millennia of the galaxy the Empire would receive many reports of strange sightings and symbols on ruins or holo writings all linking to a faction calling themselves the Knights of Dusk which the Empire itself alongside the Knights of Procyon would write off as some random cult, these reports in the following 2 years would become increasingly violent with attacks on Imperial owned mining operations alongside several of the Knights training outposts near the border to the Outer Ring. Due to these attacks the Council of Six being the 6 best and highest ranked Knights known as Lords would agree to push the Imperial senate to help them act on an investigation into this new threat, a vote would be called and the senate having many of their own planets targeted would win a majority vote and the investigation across the Mid Ring would begin in hopes of finding the culprits. This investigation would go on for the following six years where the Empire uncovered little to nothing in terms of solid evidence of either a location or identity of any of people that were associated or involved with the Knights of Dusk which to the planets and places the Empire visited would be left either being constantly watched and checked or ruined as their searching became more ruthless, this would eventually backfire against the Empire with many senators and some corporations venting their frustrations at the next senate meeting however the vote would still remain as the majority to keep the investigation which only further angered the systems that it affected. After 7 years of investigating having turned up nothing in the year of 2015 A.G.C many systems and companies would band together forming the Darzon Federation whose goal became to free themselves from the Empire and have their own sovereignty in their own systems, whilst it started off as just a political faction within the Empire it would slowly gain traction and in the following year it would declare its independence from them which would begin the Dusk War.

During this war the Empire and Knights of Procyon would learn and uncover the Knights of Dusk who secretly backed and helped the Darzon Federation acting as advisers and generals for them in combatting the Empire's legions which proved effective in the beginning, the war would rage across many systems within the Mid Ring as many planets and systems became battlegrounds and warzones both planetside and in orbit which left casualties on both sides. The war would eventually end on the planet of Daatar in the Battle of Daatar which formed the Narox Vicinity which took up a large portion of the Mid Ring acting as territory and space belonging to the Darzon Federation to then rule over neutrally from the Empire, this end of the war would satisfy all parties except for the Knights of Dusk who began turning on each other for not getting their revenge and destroying the Empire leading to a Knight from the Order of Dusk Holden Lavigne to leave and venture into the Outer Ring exploring unknown or other cultures in hopes of rebuilding the order into something else.

#### The Vulkid Problem

Having it been nearly 70 years of peace between the Darzon Federation and the Empire the galaxy would once again have progress and prosperity which allowed the Empire to continue in maintaining internal problems such as finance and their economy whilst the Knights of Procyon continued in their research of the galaxy and it's properties, one of the major problems for the Empire and in turn the Knights was the large portions of space regions that were unknown in the navigational maps which was deemed Wild Space as there was little to no true knowledge of what was outside of the galaxy map aside from different rumours from a wide variety of people. One of the current Lords on the council named Ferris Morgan oversaw a large research space station that hoped to expand the geographical maps that the Knights of old had originally put together but since then the order had expanded on it extensively, Ferris lead the charge on expanding the known galaxy however within the year of 2106 A.G.C the research station would come under attack to which despite the defences that Ferris and the Empire had it would fail with the station being destroyed and Ferris killed. Trying to re-establish contact with the station the fellow Lords would send a small contingent of Knights alongside some Imperial troopers to see if the station had simply lost its communications or much worse, the following 4 years would be years of silence as the team that was sent would not return until a singular Knight would eventually manage to return to the Lords explaining to them that their team was attacked by an army of savages wielding armour that was able to deflect a Knight's saber attack which was said to cut through anything. The Lords and Grandmaster would go directly to the Emperor to relay the information in hopes of the Empire being able to fend off this new threat, due to the fleet having to pass by the Mid Ring and the Narox Vicinity it would only be allowed if the Darzon Federation allowed it as it was their territory and to fly a fleet through there would mean an act of war. To attempt to get the Empire's fleet through they would organise a meeting between the Darzon Federation and several ambassadors of the Empire, while both factions had known peace for many years the Federation still were reluctant to so easily letting the Empire fly their fleet through their borders as they had no visible proof of a threat from Wild Space.

In order to get permission from the Federation the Knights of Procyon would hire Ezra Vangelos who he and his crew were known as one of the galaxy's greatest pilots and smugglers to venture into Wild Space and uncover this threat bringing them proof, for the following 4 years the Empire and Knights would hear of nothing from Ezra or his crew once again suspecting that they had been killed or captured however the Empire would be contacted by the Darzon Federation to once again meet to speak about the threat. Upon arrival the ambassadors this time with the Lords and Grandmaster behind them would be met by several leaders from the Federation alongside Ezra, the privateer would go on to explain that he was saved by people who wielded similar sabers like the ones that the Knights held however the Lords would deny that they did not have any other Knights outside the Imperial territory aside from Ferris. Ezra would go on to explain that the group in Wild Space would be known as the Vulkid Collective who as he knew were a tribal sort of people from different planets that had united with 3 separate leaders who sought nothing but to conquer, with now a compelling story the Federation would agree to a temporary alliance with the Empire in hopes of stopping the Vulkid Collective from expanding on the Mid Ring. The Ravaging War would begin in 2117 A.G.C where the Vulkid Collective would begin conquering the Outer Ring whether it was by claiming systems for their own or by allying themselves with smaller criminal organisations and syndicates, the following 20 years would consist of the Empire reinforcing the Darzon Federation with their borders which would be known as the Mid Ring Defense as the Vulkid Collective would begin invading territories owned by them. By the year of 2127 A.G.C the Empire would recall what remained of their forces as they had lost a lot of Knights and soldiers to defend territories that weren't theirs which would only anger the Federation leaders who would manage to defend from the Vulkid in the following year finally pushing them back, whilst the Empire assumed the group were now dead they would in fact retreat to a reclusive system in the far reaches of the Outer Ring.

### Serpent Order

#### The Endless Emperor

The following 3 years after the Ravaging War the Knights of Procyon would once again begin fracturing but this time with many Knights questioning their role within the Empire being that they should be more directly involved in both military leadership and senatorial leadership but seeing that only a small amount of them believed in this they would begin taking assignments towards distant systems from the Centre Core so that they could eventually leave the Empire, this would culminate in the small group of Knights venturing into a portion of uncharted space to a tribal primitive planet named Zaamia where they came across numerous tribes that all worshipped a singular being on their planet deeming him a god known as the Herald of Zaamia who the Knights would figure out to be another person called Orron Halcorr who possessed similar astral powers to them but in a darker aura. The following 5 years Orron would help train these Knights in using their darker energy to manipulate the astral power to their will with all of them becoming the first members of his new Serpent Order directly learning under him whilst Orron secretly formed his own army behind their backs as a backup plan, continuing on another 5 years combining up to 10 years Orron and his new Serpent Order would begin his plan of taking over the Empire by infiltrating both senate and military including the Knights themselves. After nearly 60 years of consistent infiltration and swaying over politics the Serpent Order would begin taking major steps in their plan with Orron having finally courted favour with the current Emperor being one of his closest advisers now being able to manipulate events surrounding the Empire at a much more bigger and quicker rate than before, utilising his new position he would begin his first stage of his plan to destroy the Knights by having them sent on missions to specific hostile or warring planets indirectly getting them involved in conflicts that otherwise would not of concerned them to which he would then use the Serpent Order to begin pushing many senators into accusing the Knights of being warmongers which other various senators agreed with.

By 2213 A.G.C the Council of Six would begin noticing the fact that they were being sent on either pointless missions or operations that they shouldn't of gotten involved with in the first place and so whilst publicly they began asking questions they would also conduct their own personal investigation as they had started losing trust with both the Emperor and the Imperial senate, for about 5 years the Knights would not uncover any clue revolving around the senate or the Emperor himself which caused them to authorise an operation in sending a few trusted Knights to tail and report on certain senators that were pushing the notion to restrict and demilitarise them. Around the year of 2220 A.G.C the Knights would uncover from one of the senators they followed about the existence of someone who wielded astral powers alongside using a saber similar to that of a Knight although the blade itself was of a crimson red colour, realising that there was a new potential threat to the galaxy but unknown to the Knights not attacking them openly but instead from the halls of power would worry them and so for the next 30 years they would continue to push the Emperor into launching his own investigation into a conspiracy currently happening within senate however this would not come to pass likely due to Orron advising him against this. Realising that the Knights were gaining more information on the Serpent Order quicker than he thought Orron would travel to a far region in unknown space having killed a Knight in the process to use his communications in order to lure a large portion of Knights to his position, whilst this was a quick and efficient way to massacre a lot of them this was not his sole intention as he had been researching more and more into rituals and studies surrounding his astral power. With his newfound knowledge Orron would lure large amounts of Knights with evidence of a large base containing the red saber wielding warriors even going as far as to leak the name being the Serpent Order which gave the Knights enough probable cause to warrant a large response, this plan would turn out in Orron's favour where he utilised his knowledge of a new ritual in which he could sap the power and astral energy of the large amounts of Knights that were sent to bind it to his own power which not only made him more powerful but was able to preserve his life for an extended period of time whilst destroying all of the Knights that were there. In 2254 A.G.C after not hearing anything from the Knights that had ventured to this location the remaining Knights would plead their case to both the senate and Emperor to help them destroy this new named threat being the Serpent Order to which the senate would at least send their own investigative team comprising of the Imperial military and fleet however upon arriving to the planet there would be no clue or any piece of evidence that what was claimed had even happened let alone any evidence of this group that the Knights had claimed to exist which Orron had physically destroyed the bodies of the Knights by binding their power.

Out of respect the senate would conduct this investigation for 4 years straight but turned up nothing and became annoyed as it was a waste of both military and naval resources which they already did not have to spare due to the past wars and conflicts, the senate would officially order the Knights of Procyon to stop their suspicions and continue on with their regular work and patrols helping the Empire and it's military which for the most part they did however the majority of the Knights sought justice for their fallen brothers and sisters and so would unofficially declare war on the Serpent Order in hopes of eradicating them using only their own forces and not the Empire's. This conflict would be branded as the Shadow War as it was conducted behind the Empire's back mainly taking place within the Outer Ring outside of the Empire's borders so that they had no jurisdiction but despite their efforts at destroying many hideouts and members of the Order these skirmishes would all be orchestrated by Orron who had the Knights chasing his leads that whilst caused him to lose valuable allies and assets would also cause the Knights to lose even more of their members all the while he was pushing anti Knight propaganda to the Imperial public. The war would end within the year of 2300 A.G.C but the following 20 years after simply allowed Orron to continue slandering the Knights through senators and other key Imperial planets that openly resented them, by 2400 A.G.C the Knights would have found no other signs or evidence of the Serpent Order left believing them to have been fully wiped out.

#### The New Emperor

In what was thought to once again be peace within the galaxy would not last long as the destruction caused by the Knights in the Outer Ring would have dire consequences to many other worlds within the bordering planets inside the Mid Ring who economically suffered which only gave them more reason to hate the Knights, this would spark outrage in nearly every senate meeting until the year of 2449 A.G.C where the Trade Alliance declared independence from the Empire mainly due to the Knights but also the Empire's lack to punish them. In the following year the newly formed Trade Alliance would then declare war on the Empire believing them to be taking liberties with the Knights in the year of 2450 A.G.C the war known as the Knights End would commence and for the next 550 years the Knights would slowly decrease in number and public opinion as the Trade Alliance would ally secretly with Orron Halcorr who used them to make his eventual takeover of the Empire much easier, over the course of the war the growing disillusion within the Order of Knights grew at a rapid rate with many Knights adopting a more pacifist outlook some going as far as never using their sabers ever again and other Knights began leaving the Order no longer supporting the war and beliefs that they once supported. The war would eventually climax after numerous successful and unsuccessful campaigns in the year of 3000 A.G.C the war began to come to a close and Orron Halcorr would enact his plan to get both the Imperial senate and the public to fully turn on the remaining Knights by murdering the Emperor and pinning the death on the Knights, the murder alongside the countless years of hatred towards them would be enough to cause an uproar from which Orron could use to enact an Imperial contingency plan to disband the Knights and imprison or (in this circumstance) kill. The event that saw the Knights mass purge would be known as the Knights Exodus in which many were killed while a few who were stationed on outposts and other planets far from the capital would go into hiding to avoid capture, after the majority of the Knights were taken care of Orron being one of the Emperor's closest advisers assumed the role as the new Emperor promising to vanquish what was left of the Order. Alongside becoming the new Emperor Orron never trusted his other members in the Serpent Order and so began having each member covertly killed whilst leaving a few alive to become the Imperial Zealots however some were also able to leave Orron after feeling betrayed, with the war over the Empire has now consolidated its power and now seeks to establish true dominance over the galaxy exterminating any remaining former Knights that are left.