The Morte Imperium

**Name:** The Morte Imperium, Das Mortereich, The Morte Empire

**Species:** Morteans (outwardly almost human)

**Government:** Elected Centralized Totalitarian Monarchy

**Homeworld:** Mortis, Todestern System

**Holdings:** 12 star systems, 3 habitable planets and 12 colony clusters

**Total Population:** 85,569,242,144 (according to last year's census)

## General Introduction

The Morte Empire is a relatively small civilization with troubled past, found at the edge of the uncharted space, referred as the Stormlosweg Sector. They are a humanoid race forced to live in death worlds and locked in war with many of its neighbors. In order for them to survive they adapted cold logic and utilitarian view. Their worlds are highly industrialized and with specific focus for military. While the Morteans themselves are no warmongers their enemies are and thus the Empire was constantly forced to defend itself.

## Technology

After experiencing their paradise rapidly turning into a radioactive hell the Morteans doubled their efforts toward technology. Their first priorities were shielded homes and developing means to grow food in their changed environment. Over the centuries as Mortean society transformed, their affinity towards technology grew further. Advanced medicine, gene engineering for special plants that grow in radioactive environments, robotics, self-improving computers and so on. The achievements of the Morteans were impressive, especially compared to its neighbors within the uncharted regions. On the other hand with no contact with other advanced civilizations, their scientific development could be overall be described as average compared to the better known factions in the galaxy.

The development of Mortean technology also demanded them to accelerate their industry. Asteroid resource bases, orbital mining installations around gas giants and large scale strip mining operation on rock planets were all serving one purpose. To fuel the tiny giant of the Mortean industry. Surrounded by enemies from many directions, for centuries their focus was to raise their military. Almost a thousand orbital shipyards were constructed in several star systems.

Advanced technologies and growing industry also require better power sources. Fission energy got rapidly replaced by fusion reactors then after IR327 antimatter reactors gained rising popularity. It helped that the ancient kilonova disaster altered the sector's stars in such way they became a natural source of antimatter. Large installations collected the positron-filled solar winds at some distance from the star's magnetic poles.

Of course controlling the sector would've been impossible via conventional propulsion means. In IR348 they've invented the Warp drive. At first it only allowed more efficient propulsion and vessels traveling at almost the speed of light but after 50 years of innovation and reverse engineering from neighbors they created the true Warp Drive. Turned out the theory of relativity was wrong, or at least only valid within certain conditions. This new approach allowed them to pass the light barrier, reaching other star systems in months or even weeks instead of years. The heart of Warp Drive was an improved antimatter reactor called Warp Core. These compressed space-time which allowed both improved efficiency and this so-called "warp phenomenon". It took centuries but Morteans also learned to apply this phenomenon for their weapon technologies, replacing their more conventional arsenal with something faster and more efficient.

## Military

Mortean military doctrine reflects their society completely. They follow utility and precise organization. Laws explicitly determine the number of soldiers protecting the Empire and their count is reviewed every weekend. During "peacetime" (defined by the lack of major campaigns instead of the absence of any military action or hostilities) this quota was determined to be 2.5 billion, calculated to be just appropriate to keep the hostile neighbors at bay. During major military actions the Kaiser has full authority to raise this quota anywhere. All Morteans receive combat training before reaching adulthood and they're obliged to refresh it on every 4th year. In the Mortean Empire there are no civilians, just active soldiers and those who stay in reserve. The duty of the empire's protection is shared with everyone. The military branch of the Morteans is called Reichswehrmacht.

**Related Pages:**

* Reichsgrenadier
* Kriegpanzer IX Main Battle Tank

Mortean Space Navy (Mortenkriegsflotte) doctrines concentrate on numbers and heavy long range firepower. Their primary propulsion systems are large antimatter impulse engines which provide reasonable acceleration at minuscule reaction mass spent. Their efficiency is further enhanced by the mass-lightening and space-folding effects of Warp Drives which are also their method of interstellar travel. Albeit slow compared to many other civilizations but its reliable economic nature allows ships to use them for constant travel with only moderate impact on the ship's power budget. Using similar theories the ship's main weaponry are superluminal **PASER** (**P**ositron **A**ccretion by **S**patio-antimatter **E**xplosive **R**eactions) and Grav Lance/**QuASAR** (**Qu**ark **A**cceleration by **S**patio-stimulated **A**ntimatter **R**eactions), the latter attacks with raw mass particles at FTL velocities, thus penetrating shields and armored hulls more efficiently than regular beams. They also have torpedoes that can be launched from warp catapult to temporarily gain FTL speed until reaching close to the target. Overall these weapons extend the Morte Fleet's range greatly and it isn't rare for them to target enemies from a few astronomical units away. Said weapons are assisted by hypercomms, hyper-radar and hypercameras which are all based on the Warp mechanism thus free of light-lag. For protection the Morte ships use thickly armored Durachrome composite hulls combined with their Force Shields, the latter generating a bubble of rapidly circling gluons and quarks, essentially covering themselves with multiple layers of pseudo-mass. While potent on its own the Force Shield's true purpose is to intercept attacks and attenuate them from afar (as they're usually projected 10-100km away depending on ship size and power), effectively rendering them harmless to the ship's armor thereafter.

The Mortenkriegsflotte is currently restricted by the "peacetime" law which limits them to 2500 warships, at least 70% of these must be the fast attack and individual patrol ships AKA frigates in order to secure the borders. The Morte Empire currently occupies the space of 46 cubic lightyears with their borders spreading for the area of 47 lightyears squared. With their warp drives usually only capable of crossing 1-3 lightyears a day they require at least this many patrols to keep their empire safe.

**Known Spacecrafts:**

* Tannhäuser-class Battlecruiser
* Sennenhund-class Cruiser
* Mittelschnauzer-class Attack Frigate
* Warp Carrier
* Schwertjager-class Rapid Destroyer
* Sturmjager-class Destroyer
* Sturmvogel IV Fighter

**Known Fleets:**

* 1st Imperial Morte Expeditionary Fleet

## Foreign Relations

Prior to IR1211 the Morte Empire encountered four other civilizations and ended up locked in war with them. Anyone besides the Morteans within the Stormlosweg Sector changed mentally for the worse and became xenophobic warmongers. As such the Empire's history is filled with various wars.

* **Kharan'esh:** Insectoid aliens who prior to the kilonova event were the most advanced race within the sector. After the catastrophe their planet became uninhabitable and they were forced to become space nomads. They were the Morteans' first contact with alien life and the origin of the Warp technlogy. They lacked numbers to sufficiently threaten the Morte but their pirates are a reoccuring annoyance even now.

* **Dorvec:** The Morteans second contact with alien life after 300 years of peace. The Dorvec were a formidable enemy at the time and fought several wars. The Empire's second planet Tannerbald used to be the Dorvec's homeworld.

* **Luxon:** Scheming race of weird tentacled aliens. Their use of organic technology and much faster hyperdrives gave them a great advantage. Yet the Morteans prevailed and took their former homeworld which they now dub Krugern. In spite of that the Luxons are still their mortal enemies although severely weakened after the 13rd Luxon War.

* **Ix:** Enigmatic alien race specializing in telepathic manipulations. During the First Ixian War they took control over half of Morte's military and disguised it as an internal conflict. For the duty-bound Morteans this was an offense they could never forgive and during the Second Ixian Wars they were all to eager to exterminate them. Whether the Morteans were succesful or not is unknown.

During IR1211 the 1st Imperial Morte Expeditionary Fleet accidentally made contact with multiple civilizations and opened up the Empire to the galactic community as a whole.

* **Fay'Ran Jik Democracies:** TBA
* **Holy Dominion of C'ran:** TBA