Crystaria (planet)

## Description

Also commonly known as Zyyntoria, Crystaria is the homeworld of the fearless and ultra-pious zyyntoreans, Crystaria is the beacon of goodness, justice, and religion in all of the galaxy. The zyyntoreans are renowned as the unofficial galactic police, traveling the galaxy searching for injustice and dishonor wherever it may hide.

The planet is divided into 66 ethnic regions, all of which act as states of the Holy Zyyntorean Empire. The states are governed by a Holy Viscount Palatine. Viscount Palatines are also members of the Holy Zyyntorean Empire’s Sanctified Parliament, in which all 66 Viscount Palatines and the other hundreds of others from the other imperial worlds oversee the laws of the empire and assist in the electing of the High Bishops that govern each of the non-capital worlds of the empire alongside the Count Palatines, the Imperial Governors of each planet. However, the High Priest, while the highest authority in the empire, is not its leader, that role goes to the Holy Emperor, whose capital is on the planet Zyyntorier.

## Geography and Ecology

Crystaria gets its name from the rest of the galaxy for its crystalline core, which houses beautiful luminous crystals of purple and violet that the zyyntoreans use as light sources and decor. The surface however is fairly typical for a habitable planet; there are deserts, mountain ranges, expansive oceans, and jungles and forests. Along with this, ancient zyyntorean holy monuments and holy cities dot the landscape, with the Holy Cities of Valeez acting as the capital of the grand planet. The planet's strong gravity, which is nearly 50% that of Earth's, which has led to much of the planet developing various forms of gigantism, even the smallest animals on Crystaria are remarkably large. The planet's large forests, thus leading to more oxygen in the atmosphere, has also contributed to this phenomenon.

## History

The zyyntorean religion was originally founded over 16,000 years ago in the year 9981 BCE, which in turn began the Holy Zyyntorean Empire. Before this religion, the zyyntoreans were still using bronze and primitive iron weapons, however the Script of Valeez, its holy text, was transferred orally. The codes affirmed that the zyyntoreans were a master race and deserved to own the universe, it demanded education and rapid increases in technology to further the betterment of their race and make their gods proud. Unfortunately, the religion also dictated that any who deny the religion should be killed for heresy, and thus the Spread of Zyyntorism began, a one thousand year long process that spread the religion through trade, war, and the invention of a zyyntorean paper called Malcata. Malcata books were written to help spread the ideas even faster, innovations in gunpowder and printing spread these ideas even more, by the time of 8981 BCE. the entire planet had been converted to the glorious ideals of Zyyntorism. A few years later however, this empire was plunged into a brutal civil war after the First Revision was written.

The First Revision was written by a cabal of zyyntoreans in 8979 BCE who sought to reform the original’s intolerant ideals about race and religion. The new script demanded respect for all, while still retaining pride. It is also most famously known for bringing about the concept of the famous Zyyntorean Honor Code, or Urizan. This code put a heavy focus on honor, honesty, bravery, and exceptional swordsmanship. While the zyyntoreans were most certainly swordsmen, at the time it wasn’t the focus of their society.

However, this revolutionary new writing was met with much resistance from the original believers, called Koederati. The reformers, called Raederati began to spread the new Script, this began the Wars of Revision, beginning the First Age of Intolerance (then called the First Age of War), a collection of four civil wars that nearly tore Crystaria asunder in 8975 BCE. The wars finally ended after Koederan, the holy city of the Koederati, was sacked in 8960 BCE. Due to the Script’s new ideas, the Koederati were allowed to continue their worship peacefully.

As the new religion took hold and flourished, technology advanced even further, and in only two hundred years the zyyntoreans had achieved the gift of space flight. Now that the stars were theirs, the new Holy Zyyntorean Empire could begin the spread of Zyyntorism throughout the stars. They started with Suron and Tysoria, then Zyyntorier and later they began to colonize outerverse planets. As their technology began to even further advance, so did their education and literacy, and soon other denominations of Zyyntorism began to sprout up from the many ethnic regions of Crystaria and her colonies. Soon, ethnic pride and religious fervor began to take hold and the Holy Zyyntorean Empire looked like it was ready to fall apart once again. It began with the Sonderati, a reformed religion from the region of Sonderous that had grown tired of Second Script Dominance.

Fueled by zeal, the Sonderati attacked the Holy Cities of Valeez, beginning what would be the First Zyyntore-Crusade in 3001 BCE, called the Second Age of Intolerance by zyyntoreans today (then called the Second Age of War, the first was the expansion of Zyyntorism in the first place). This war lasted until 2996 BCE when the Sonderati capitulated. Because of Second Script ideals, the Sonderati were allowed to live, but had to be punished for their blasphemy against the Zyyntorist Church. Their punishment was to leave Zyyntoria, but they had the right to choose. The Sonderati elected to settle an area of Tysoria, where they would be allowed to flourish and practice their own beliefs.

Following the end of the First Zyyntore Crusade the zyyntoreans continued to innovate, creating advanced plasma and arc firearms and further upgrading their spacecraft, finally mastering FTL travel, allowing them to more easily colonize and advance their fringe planets of Vaxez Gai Zakera, Tal Androes, and Cybez Gai Molum. However, as they further colonized the stars, they encountered the other empires of the galaxy at the time, namely the dreaded Zunni Empire in 2895 BCE, a vicious technocratic and fascistic interstellar empire that was infamous for their genocide and experimentation of several other alien species.

When the Zunni encountered the zyyntoreans, they at first resolved to destroy them for standing their way, occupying and massacring the populations of Cybez and Vaxez, defeating the Harbinger at the time, Vaxez Gai Zakera, forcing him to retreat back to Crystaria to regroup. Despite defeating the zyyntoreans on these worlds, the Zunni were impressed and bewildered by their martial prowess, as there were several bloody battles where the zyyntoreans inflicted horrific losses on the Zunni using just their swords.

The Zunni then altered their motives, instead choosing to enslave the zyyntoreans and utilize them as a warrior slave caste. To accomplish this, the Zunni ceased their genocidal operation of Vaxez, which was still currently rebelling against their occupation, and instead began kidnapping zyyntorean children to be experimented on to learn zyyntorean weaknesses. Intent on resisting, the zyyntoreans fearlessly threw themselves at their lost worlds, eventually retaking Vaxez Gai Zakera in November of 2889 BCE.

By this point, the Zunni generals in the war had grown tired of the zyyntoreans. The stubborn saurians were beginning to win more battles, which was having a devastating effect on the morale of the Zunni soldiers, who had been brainwashed and propagandized to believe themselves invincible. After nearly 8 years of stalemate, the Zunni leadership no longer cared about the financial or political losses of losing to the zyyntoreans, but instead it had become a matter of pride. The idea that such a primitive species had cost them so much infuriated the fragile egos of the Zunni, so they resorted to their greatest creation; the Blights. Originally only utilized as servants and engineers, the Zunni instead engineered them for war, creating a powerful synthetic life form that was capable of warping and assimilating living tissue and psyches, creating horrifying black creatures that turned on their own kind.

In the final year of the war, the Blights were unleashed, corrupting hordes of zyyntorean warriors and nearly retaking Vaxez, though the planets namesake continued to hold them back ruthlessly, becoming increasingly desperate and committing acts that at any other time would have made him a traitor. In this age of uncertainty, the zyyntoreans believed that they were fighting the essence of hell itself, and the Blights were demons on the hunt for souls to consume.

However, seemingly from a miracle and pure luck, the Blights relented, instead they began turning on their Zunni masters, destroying the Zunni Empire and leaving the Holy Zyyntorean Empire to put itself back together. In reality, the Blights turned after the Protomind, the commanding mind of the Blight hive consciousness, turned on its Zunni masters, which was in part due to meddling from the Memrisk Empire, a foreign empire that was staunchly against the Zunni Empire. In fact, the memrisk, who believed the zyyntoreans to be potential protectors of the galaxy, were planning to intervene in the war if Crystaria became threatened, instead choosing to warp the Protomind in a killing machine, causing it to rebel once it was implanted into the Blight hivemind. Though they saved the zyyntoreans, they simultaneously are responsible for the continued pandemic of the Blights in the galaxy, a pandemic which has been fought by the zyyntoreans since the very beginning.

With the Zunni destroyed, Vaxez Gai Zakera was regarded as the savior of the Holy Zyyntorean Empire, though it was known by his closest confidantes that he was forever changed by the conflict, often drinking away his depression brought on by the trauma and guilt he suffered during the Black War. In this period, the zyyntoreans rebuilt and prospered once more, improving their battle tactics and their navy, which was one of the keys to Zunni success early on in the war.

The prosperity did not last, however; in the year 1239 BCE, the definitive Second Revision of the Script of Valeez was written. Like the First Revision, this revision started a war, this time between the Raederati and the new reformers, the Gaemonati. Like the one that came before, the Second Revision sought to bring about social change. While the First Revision was certainly progressive with some of its ideals, its views on the plight of women and alien races were less evolved. The new reformers sought to change that, they kept the Zyyntorean Code of Honor, but also added new codes, such as the Zyyntorean Code of Suffrage, which allowed females and alien citizens the right to vote for new High Priests and Emperors. The Second Wars of Revision were not as destructive as the first wars, and are known as the Third Age of Intolerance (again called Third Age of War at the time). The end of the war not only put the Second Revision at the forefront of zyyntorean society in the end, but also created the famous zyyntorean saying; “It is futile to resist change, the reformation always succeeds.” The war, though more advanced weapons were used, was less bloody in part due to Harbinger Zakera’s tactical genius. A reformist Gaemonatous himself, Zakera was viewed as a peacemaker by both sides, and he brought the war to a swift and decisive end, usually bloodlessly.

Nowadays, the zyyntoreans still hold these progressive ideals in incredibly high esteem, and their love for it is what has fueled their empire for thousands of years. The other two Scripts are still published today, though their followers don’t number nearly as much as the Third Script of Valeez’s followers do. The First Script’s followers are still called Koederati and the Second Script’s followers are still called the Raederati, however the Third Script’s followers are now called Zyyntorists, as the Third Script is technically the true imperial religion, but still allows worship of other denominations in a peaceful manner. Zyyntorism is arguably the most popular religion in the galaxy, as its accepting viewpoints and malleable ideals make it a very popular faith, the religion also has a great appeal to soldiers and warlike cultures, as the martial practices of the zyyntoreans are renowned by the rest of the galaxy as the best of the best. Even predominantly irreligious cultures such as the spravac, xamon, and tayrigos have small populations of zyyntorist denominations.

This however wasn’t the end of the wars on Crystaria, during the Crystal Wars, in 3582 CE (a year before the war ended), Crystaria was invaded by the Gorgon Empire, killing over 64 million zyyntorean warriors and civilians in the process. However, the zyyntoreans still prevailed in the end.

## Military and Government

One thing that certainly hasn’t changed at all since the beginning of Zyyntorism is their adherence to combat skill and bravery. The Crystarian Legions, and all other legions of the Holy Zyyntorean Empire (a legion for each continent of each planet) contains some of the most honorbound, fearless, and proficient warriors in the galaxy. The zyyntoreans are trained from the beginning of childbirth to become warriors. As a result, much of Crystaria is sparring grounds, military bases, museums of ancient weapons and armor, and vast holy places like cathedrals, monuments, and ancient battlefields.

Throughout history, these legions have become involved in many different conflicts in history. The Second Revision also demands a call to arms when dishonor and injustice are present. The zyynotreans do not believe that they are more qualified for defeating evil, but rather they see it as a civic duty for the galaxy, a great service. Unlike most other alien races that get involved with other aliens’ business, the zyyntoreans are actually thanked and welcomed by the galaxy for their good deeds and works. These services of the galactic community are also viewed by some zyyntoreans as repentance for their ancestors, whose intolerance and constant fighting kept them from being truly righteous, and thus, they feel they must repent for those who never repented for their sins.

Famous landmarks include Valeez’s Holy Sepulchre, a gargantuan cathedral and city (93,657 mi squared) which houses a chunk of the cave that Zyyntorism allegedly first came to fruition in, a gigantic tapestry illustrating every single verse of the nine thousand page long full (all three versions) Script of Valeez, and the Grand Hand of Valeez, the tallest and first of the Prayer Towers. Prayer Towers are the homes of the High Bishops, who govern all zyyntorean worlds. This tower houses the High Priest, who is the ecclesiastical ruler of the empire, who oversees the religious, social, and part of the militaristic endeavors of the entire Holy Zyyntorean Empire. Every morning, afternoon, and evening he comes to his balcony and leads the masses on huge television screens, reciting prayers and verses from the holy scripts that he allegedly hears from Valeez himself. The current High Priest is His Holiness Venturous Kathkious Gai Lindul Repreiv.

Temples similar to Valeez’s Holy Sepulchre dot all of Crystria’s landscape, with multiple extensive Cathedrals and metropolitan centers that go on for miles in every ethnic region.