Andoria

**Andoria**, also known as **Andor**, was the homeworld of the Andorian species and capital of their empire—a founding member of the United Federation of Planets. It was a moon of the gas giant Andor in the Beta Quadrant. In 3186 CE, it had a population of 2.5 billion Andorians.

## History

### Early history

The Andorian's early history consisted of wars of attrition between various feudal societies. In 1818 CE, Thalisar the Last succeeded in conquering the other tribes on Andoria and unified the moon under her throne. Over the next several centuries, the Andorians rapidly progressed to higher stages of technological development. By 2100 CE, the Andorians were a Tier 6 civilization. They had their first contact with an extraterrestrial species, humanity, in 2428 CE, when the Andorians were in the midst of a period of planet-wide industrialization, having transitioned to Tier 5.

### Human-Covenant War

Relations with humanity started off relatively peaceful. However, the governments of Andoria were angered at mankind's reluctance to share with them various Tier 3 technologies, including faster-than-light travel, and by their intentions to colonize and terraform several planets in the system. However, there was little that the Andorians could do to influence the more advanced species. By 2429 CE, humanity had established a colony on Andoria's neighboring world of Arcadia. Human domination of the system increased dramatically now that they possessed a permanent base of operations there.

With the outbreak of war between humanity and the Covenant Empire in February of 2525 CE, Andoria was put into a difficult spot. Though they were not mankind's staunchest allies, the Andorians were aware that their relationship with the humans could be interpreted as hostile by the Covenant. In February of 2531 CE, the Covenant began a brief invasion of the Procyon system, but were largely repelled by the UNSC. The UEG enlisted the Andorian's assistance in their war against the Covenant.

When the Covenant returned to the system in 2549 CE, Arcadia was lost and glassed. Nearly all human and Andorian resistance in the system was quelled, and all humans in the system were either killed or captured. The Andorians were spared destruction largely due to their low level of technological development. When the Covenant finally made official contact with the Andorians in March of 2549 CE, they offered a simple ultimatum: join or die. Andoria ceased all interactions with the UEG and began working to support the Covenant war effort in various ways. Much of the planet became devoted to farming to support the Covenant's large population of Unggoy.

### Post-war isolation

Andoria continued to support the Covenant until the end of their war with humanity in 2552 CE. Official Covenant doctrine required any client species to adopt the Covenant's state religion, but due to the chaos of wartime this was barely enforced. Most Andorians stayed true to their own cultural beliefs during this time. Though the Andorians were considered for official membership in the Covenant, the Covenant Hierarchs decided to postpone an official declaration until the war with the humans was ended. With the Covenant Empire now collapsed due to the Great Schism, the various constituent species within its ranks were now left to their own devices. Many were re-conquered by Covenant remnants and splinter factions, while others established their own individual governments.

The Andorian Empire was officially established in September of 2554 CE. They were now a fully independent interstellar state for the first time in their history. However, fearing future violent interactions with alien races, including both humanity and the former Covenant species, the newly-established Parliament Andoria adopted a policy of strict isolationism, restricting Andorian affairs to the Procyon star system and forbidding any significant interactions with aliens, including trade. Their military, the Andorian Imperial Guard, was formed to protect Andor and fight for it.

To boost their own scientific development, Andoria took to studying the many Forerunner artifacts on the former human colony of Arcadia, which greatly augmented the Tier 4 species. In the next half-century following the end of the human-Covenant War, the Andorians progressed from Tier 4 to Tier 3, a very remarkable achievement. Their policy of strict isolationism eventually devolved into a severe sense of xenophobia regarding any and all alien species, particularly the former Covenant races, such as the Sangheili and the Jiralhanae.