Lore

The System, which is the only formal name for the solar system in which the game takes place, has tens of thousands of years of history. Thick, myriad and labyrinthine - it only started to matter about 905 years ago.

Rebirth

The benevolent deity, Qahrmancia, is worshipped in a peripheral sense on Ishtar. All powerful, and responsible for the creation of everything in the universe, He was discovered by gospel-preachers thousands of years ago. He had sent many prophets, saints and messengers to Ishtar - but the Godless people refused him. They espoused self-determination and fierce warrior spirits; and so, they were broken. Year 1 of the Ishtaran calendar hosted the most terrible disaster the planet has ever suffered- an unknown, previously purely hypothetical object of some nature hit the planet at light speed.

Billions of lives were lost in what is called the Rebirth; for this figurative and literal cleansing of Ishtar prompted sweeping cultural and developmental changes. Previously a competitor to what is now the Core Planets- Ishtar became a hollow shell, only reminiscent of the planetary power it used to be. The people changed, too- independent accounts from Ysldara and Arukh confirm that the Ishtari people were bloodthirsty and warmongers, but seemingly humbled by the divine act, they became meek and compromising.

Qahr fanatics insist the Rebirth was a message from the furious God, but skeptics worry that Ishtar was caught as a "stray" in a battle between races much more powerful. This, in part, is the reason Ysldaran researchers have been fervently investigating the possibility of Faster-than-Light travel, as they fear there will come a time where they will be face to face with the entities responsible for what happened to Ishtar - or even worse, be subject to the exact same thing.

Timeline

Before Qahr

15658BQ. Evidence of paleolithic common ancestor between modern day Ishtari and Ysldarans on Ishtar. Anthropologists to this day mull over how the populations were separated.

8000BQ. "Classical Period" of Ishtar and Ysldara. Ishtari philosopher "Oq-Manaza" questions the source of Ishtari consciousness in the grand palace of the Emir, equatorial region.

4500BQ. Middle ages of Ishtar. A series of devastating global wars enveloped Ysldara after naval fleets took the planet by storm, forcing it to lag behind. Law of inheritance, royalty and fierce honor-driven customs instilled in Ishtar would not dissipate until much later; the Ysldarans would soon come off the high for blood, and begin to hold moralist values.

2000BQ. Late medieval Ishtari culture. Practitioners of unusual feats and mystical powers begin to crop up in historical accounts in abnormally high quantities.

500BQ. Advanced industrial age on both Ishtar and Ysldara. Intense but delayed communications swap between the two, as both planets revel at the prospect of first contact with an alien race.

230BQ. The Development Index is founded as interplanetary travel is revolutionized by Ysldara, soon to be transferred in a peaceful exchange of knowledge to Ishtar. Arukh is found, with the surface of their planet consumed by intricate ant colony-esque hive cities. An Consultation Division ship sent from Ysldara onto the planet is hijacked, with the crew of 80 killed. The technology is soon reverse-engineered, and an emergency embargo is placed around Arukh.

After Qahr

1AQ. THE REBIRTH.

398AQ. Normalized relations with Arukh result in an unprecedented level of information exchange between what is now referred to as the Core Planets: Ysldara and Arukh.

423AQ. A series of mysterious deaths amongst high-ranking government officials on Ishtar, Arukh and Ysldar opens up a popular conspiracy theory as to "Lodges" being responsible for strange decisions made by those in their respective planetary offices. These are dismissed and sometimes outright denied by elected figures and sworn heads of state.

501AQ. Illegal mining operations on Ishtar perpetrated by Arukhan authorities warrant outcries from the natives; Ysldara imposes strict economic sanctions on Arukh, to little effect.

512AQ. An organization with roots in a disbanded military branch of Ishtar forms. They target illegal Arukhan mining facilities on the planet, calling themselves the Terrorverbrecher, claiming responsibility for the attacks. The Arukhan fleet is denied military actions by the Ysldarans, despite heated debate in the interplanetary council.

757AQ. Subsidiarized corporations begin to engage in extra-solar mining efforts. Automated personnel for the long missions require more and more monitoring, and advanced research firms on Ysldara create sapient artificial automatons that can act as their own crew in the same capacities a Ysldaran would.

775AQ. The Terrorverbrecher claims responsibility for an attack on an Arukhan orbital installment around Ishtar, resulting in the facility's destruction. Military actions are again denied to Arukh by Ysldara. This is widely regarded as the catalyst for the System War.

777AQ. Ishtari locals are conscripted by Ysldaran infantries and interplanetary fleets. The planet is glassed repeatedly by Arukhan forces, but beaten back in time thanks to rapidly fabricated industrial sectors of Ysldaran make. The war goes cold.

805AQ. The war is primarily fought by automated crews that flag, fire on, board, and destroy enemy automatons. Ishtari locals are still conscripted enmasse for whatever efforts required direct manpower.

880AQ. Sneak attack on Ishtar by cloaked Arukhan forces renders 65% of the planet uninhabitable. Ysldarans forced to use 6th generation thermonuclear weapons on Arukhan homeworld- decisively ending the war, with Ysldara as the victor.

882AQ. A series of unsuccessful interim governments after Ysldara's total pullout of Ishtar resulted in a temporary return to establish the General Office of Restoration. Initially a puppet agency used by Ysldara to maintain the peace, it became more autonomous over time and helped to bring the Developmental Index of Ishtar from an appalling 0.7 to a 3.

897AQ. Attacks of Razak, an Ishtari term literally meaning "danger", crop up on the populated settlements of Ishtar. Consisting mostly of irradiated beasts and automated war-machines from a war gone by, it prompts the establishment of the Videra; a police-military organization that helps to keep the order on Ishtar.

905AQ. Present year.