Empire of the Queil

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The Empire of the Queil is the name of both a galactic civilisation, founded by the Queil species, and the region of space it occupies, which borders the Coreworlds Conglomerate's territories. The Empire is ruled over by an Empress and her numerous Princes. The planet Quen is the capital world of the Queil Empire, and is commonly held to be the original homeworld of the Queil species, which comprises the majority population of the eponymous Empire. Under Aler Genn’s treatise on “Galactic North”, the Empire of the Queil would occupy much of the ‘northwest’ segment of the galaxy, alongside the Coreworlds Conglomerate and its Exploration Zone in the ‘west’ and ‘south’, and the Ele Dominion covering functionally the entire ‘eastern’ half of the map.

The Empire of the Queil prides itself on its military prowess. The Queil military forces are collectively led by High Marshal Akonite. The standard Queil infantry unit is known as a Talon. Talons are organised into squads known as phalanxes. These troops are typically supported by technology such as light aircraft and armoured vehicles. While most Queil military power is concentrated in bases such as those on Quen, small garrisons are stationed on every world in the Empire, in facilities known as Roosts where support staff and the planet’s monitor are also housed. The academic institutions of the Empire observe that the presence of these Roosts is a reassurance to the planet’s population, rather than a source of fear.

In addition to its Roost garrisons and Eyrie orbital stations, the Queil military maintains a number of unnamed, secret facilities across the Empire focused on the development of new weapons systems. One such example of these is the compound on Yvyr, in the Tempest system, which is responsible for designing the Kalamus Devastator. The Empire’s arsenal of experimental weaponry also included the Martyr Protocol software, which was developed in the Zelkuun Eyrie orbital station. Both these secret facilities and the Queils’ on-record stations are each monitored by at least one watchwarden.

One staple food commonly found within the Empire is keemeal, which is derived from keeseeds farmed on worlds at the outer edge of the imperial territory such as Galeus, in the Fer Sinistra system.

Queil engineering is designed to be durable and withstand exposure to hazardous environments, such as radiation and extreme cold. The Queil military, much like the citizens of the Coreworlds, typically favours the use of fabricated metal components in the construction of its starships. Queil scientists have therefore been unable to replicate the unusual fabric weave which covers the hull of the Ele flagship known as the 'Arrowhead'.

Queil government and military officials used specialised Diplomatic Codes to confirm their identities when interacting with other civilisations.

The Empire established a presence in the Vire system in order to study military applications of the 'Living Wall' orchid, which is impenetrable by blades, bullets or energy weapons. The plant grows exclusively on the twin planets of Veden and Vodan, the only life-sustaining worlds in the system.

The Empire of the Queil sent an envoy, Prince Aster, to attend a diplomatic conference at the Threshold of the Ninth Plane on Andar Prime. This decision to negotiate with other galactic civilisations was unusual for the Empire, which was a fierce rival to the Conglomerate in its expansionist efforts. Gossip overheard by Ambassador Rayan Tiller at the event failed to reveal what the Empire wanted from the negotiations.

Following months of negotiations, the Conglomerate and the Queils signed the Trifold Union, which solidified the Empire’s existing borders while allowing for further expansion towards the outer galaxy. Ambassador Tiller leveraged the Conglomerate’s FTL travel technology to secure a peaceful coexistence with the typically militaristic Queils.

Citizens of the Queil Empire speak the Queil language. Among the peculiarities of this language is the belief held by Queil philosopher-scientists that there is no purpose in naming anything doomed to perish imminently. Hence, the Empire redesignated the Derth Cluster as [Terminal, Partial] and renamed its last surviving planet Forsaken Eighty when the region fell under the sway of a black hole known as the Voiceless Scream. This practice of renaming makes Queil record-keeping a challenge.

The Queils used an interstellar data network known as the Astronet to communicate throughout the Empire, via a series of orbital waystations. Among other purposes, the Astronet transports vast amounts of data across the Empire’s territories and links every starship in Queil space. One Astronet waystation was briefly established above the aforementioned Forsaken Eighty, but it was later removed when it became clear that the world was doomed.

The municipal infrastructure of the Queil Empire is particularly well equipped to accommodate flora and fauna with unusual requirements, which Curator Endelle Stroth noted was a great boon to the Aglostarros University Museum’s ARK Mandate initiative.

Press reports suggested that the appearance of Project Centennial's Centurions within the borders of the Queil Empire was one of the many threats to galactic stability to be addressed at a meeting between representatives of the Trifold Union’s member states and Curator Stroth, once more at the Threshold of the Ninth Plane. These same reports speculated that certain ARK Mandate, mercenary and Queil military assets could be merged into a unified defence force to solve such threats.

Certain assets from the Queil military later became incorporated into the Trifold Union’s new defensive force, the Union Defence Alliance. The Queils hosted the UDA at a headquarters on Kidan, from which high-ranking Queil officers such as General Stele operated.

In 2270, as the Centurions continued moving through the Empire’s territory, numerous reports indicated that the probes appeared to be targeting sensitive Queil military assets and facilities, and responding with lethal force when denied access to their targets. This led both Prince Aster and Empress Harke herself to speak out, demanding that the Coreworlds Conglomerate answer for the attacks. Among the Queils’ concerns, they noted that Centurions had intently pursued such targets as expierimental weapons, state secrets and black-box servers, targeting multiple outposts on the Queil frontier and causing destruction in their wake.

The Empire subsequently confirmed to the AlTime News Channel that it was developing new weaponry specifically to combat the Centurions. These anti-Centurion munitions seemingly proved successful at destroying Centurions 56 and 72 during a military operation in the Gordian Veldt. The Queils later conducted a digital autopsy on the remains of the probes, while the anti-Centurion weaponry was distributed to the other member forces of the Trifold Union. However, despite having been dismantled down to only their data cores, both Centurions 56 and 72 later broke out of containment by apparently rebuilding their entire bodily structures from components of the research station in which they were being held.

Following the Gordian Veldt incident, both the Conglomerate and the Queils began to relocate any sensitive targets away from the probes' projected flight paths. Ultimately, the Centurions moved out of Queil space and towards the Ele Dominion, at which point Prince Aster remarked that the Empire had successfully "weathered the storm", but still expected reparations from those responsible for the damage dealt by the probes. After the threat had passed, others in the galactic community began to question why the Queils had been developing the advanced weaponry discovered by the Centurions, to which the Empire responded that the projects were necessary to prepare for the possibility of humane warfare. AlTime's political analyst Merran Ward wrote that this statement was a deliberate lie. Meanwhile, the Queil military projects were ridiculed by the Dooth musician Tungrin Tarei in her single *Devastate Me, Baby*.

Upon realising the true power of the Ele Metanation, Endelle Stroth feared what would happen if the Queil Empire or Coreworlds Conglomerate ever learned of the abilities it conferred.

When, after learning of the Metanation, a large number of galactic citizens began to emigrate to the Ele Dominion, the Queil Empire and the Coreworlds Conglomerate attempted to stem this exodus by setting up checkpoints along the border with the Dominion. The Ele, in turn, took offence to this, with ambassador El-Deen noting that, while they had set few terms when joining the Trifold Union, free movement across borders was one of their main demands. In related coverage published by the AlTime News Channel, one Senator Stuur of the Kyrrest Nebula, a Vassal Territory of the Queil Empire, commented that "the Queil see threats everywhere, and the Conglomerate sees profit everywhere else."

Soon after, numerous unconfirmed reports emerged suggesting that the Empire had used the experimental Martyr Protocol software to defend against an attack on Quen by the Krolir State, a Queil vassal. The skirmish allegedly saw the Queil military remotely commandeer the starliner *Morithe's Promise* to provide cover for the planet and its deploying fighter squadrons. Some rumours following the attack suggested that the assault was a false flag operation staged to prove the continuing value of Queil weapons development research, after it had recently been questioned by other galactic governments.

At Veldt Star Industries' 2270 keynote event on Ourinia, in which it unveiled the new Eidolon Collection of more heavily armed and armoured starships, CEO Ardus Lyn cited the Queil Empire as a potential threat from which customers wanted to feel protected, along with the Ele Dominion and the Galactic Liberation of Wonder movement.