The Age of Action

3411-3595CE

Overview

Rogar II held the Imperial throne longer than any other emperor.  The first half of his 370 year reign is known as the Age of Action, a period dominated by conflicts with the Grand Federation of Races, a renewed era of bold exploration and the rise of reality-based activities at the expense of the virtual.

The Heshar War of 3413-3418CE, though considered epic at the time, was a frontier war between the Empire and the Grand Federation, mostly concerning access to Heshar, now deep within Imperial territory, and to Antares, sitting on the edge of contiguous Grand Federation Space.  Orlan D'Juma rose to prominence and high command after his brilliant victories at First and Second Heshar, First Antares, Sapphire Rock and Nowhere's Fork.  In each of these battles, he defeated superior Grand Federation forces with tactical and strategic genius.

After the war, military exploratory and settlement bases spread though fifteen full or partial Sectors within the expanded coreward Imperial border and the "Coreward Bulge" proved a larger distortion from a spherical expansion than the Taurus-Orion Trail to the Rim.  An undercurrent to the Heshar War was the continuing scourge of Static smuggling from the Grand Federation and the war settlement did little to resolve the issue.  Continued enforcement actions, Imperial trade restrictions and growing lawlessness in the Bulge contributed to the start of the Federation War in 3462CE.

The interwar period saw a return to deep space exploration, including two lost expeditions to the Orion Nebula.  The Empire encountered the Khruzi along the Spinward frontier and established good relations with the expanding race.  Contacts with the Khald'aron increased along the Rim.

Emperor Rogar's relations with the Nobility suffered as he continually purged civilian and military ranks of DeBeer's supporters.  The Old Colony Nobility reacted with hostility to their decreased bureaucratic and legislative influence, bringing Rogar in direct conflict with the Atlantian House of Turki, costing him another wife.  To placate the Great Houses, Rogar married into the Paradisan House of Kamarov and established the Council of Advisors from high population worlds.

The First Federation War of 3462-3489CE was a pivotal struggle that saw full mobilization of the Empire's resources against the much larger Grand Federation.  The war started after an Imperial raid to retaliate against a B'dr'rak strike on a suspected pirate operation on Satyr, but soon spiraled into general warfare.  The full mobilization of the Grand Federation did not occur until 3472CE as Operation Coherent Purge unleashed bio-warfare agents against chundas, the source of Static, on dozens of Khabadera worlds.  As Zhretra raiders penetrated the Solar defenses to attack Titan, the Emperor placed the entire economy on war footing and with brilliant military victories and shorter supply lines, the Empire stemed the Grand Federation offensive.  After fighting off a second surge of Grand Federation Primary Race fleets in 3476CE, the war settled into a period of sieges and commerce raiding. 

By 3482CE, though stymied by economic strain, growing public war weariness and increasing piracy, the Emperor, with Orlan D'Juma as his resolute Grand Admiral, continued to press forward, authorizing offensive operations, including Operation Infidel, where D'Juma drove his battle fleets deep into Federation Space.  In 3486CE, D'Juma's advance led to the full mobilization of Grand Federation reserve fleets and the concentration of their battle fleets into the Great Armada.  Outnumbered and outgunned five to one, D'Juma trapped and destroyed the Great Armada at the Battle of Nachen in 3488CE, forcing the Grand Federation to begin armistice negotiations.  In the terms of the 3489CE armistice negotiated at Antares and signed at Nachen in 3491CE, the Grand Federation ceded over 33 million cubic light years and gave the Empire suzerainty over the B'dr'rak and Cargomen Secondary Races and the Bird, Orm and !Tak Tertiary Races.

Imperial war dead numbered over one hundred million, of which two-thirds were military personnel in this war fought mostly in the frontier and New Colonies.  Grand Federation dead numbered half a billion; they lost twice as many soldiers as the Empire and suffered many B'dr'rak civilian dead in the sieges of their home systems.

From 3489CE-3500CE, the Empire conducted the Annexation Campaigns, an often violent struggle against B'dr'rak resistance, to occupy the hundreds of inhabited worlds and outposts of the absorbed races and to establish a band of military outposts on the new frontier.  In 3500CE, Emperor Rogar II finally declared peace.  The five conquered races formally entered the Empire of Humanity as Major Races, but they remained restricted under a century of martial law and Imperial redevelopment. 

The 36th century saw the Empire return to normalcy, though Rogar's execution of his wife Lynda in 3500CE began a feud with House Kamarov and his retaliation against against Aphroditian and Delphian nobles after a failed assassination attempt essentially destroyed the emperor's relationship with the Great Houses.

Economic activity benefited from the return to peace and Howlan Chin's economic theories and subsequent financial reforms.  In the renewed prosperity, the Emperor accepted Europan plans for a revival of the Jovian Collapse Project and authorized the successful test detonation of Marx in 3508CE and the subsequent collapse of Jupiter in 3526CE.  Terraformation proceeded rapidly on all four major Jovian moons, greatly increasing economic activity in the Solar system and finally stirring the moribund Belt economy.

The end of the first half of Rogar II's reign was marked by a gradual slowing of pace, both for the energetic Emperor and for his realm.  The Annexation Occupation was costly and increasing B'dr'rak piracy had begun to disrupt trade.  Deep explorations ended after the Spinward Expedition encountered hostilities and funding for the Ministry of Science fell as contracted survey work tapped funds.  By the late 36th century, Ibrahimite Islam was enjoying a revival, and issues of cyborgization and artificial sentience began to dominate the social agenda.

Political

Emperor Rogar II was a flawed man who made a very capable emperor.  His marital relations clearly bordered on the homicidal and he engaged in bitter feuds with major Nobilis families, including House Kamarov and House Turki.  Despite his personal shortcomings, he guided the Empire through a century of warfare and two major demographical crises without defeat, collapse or civil war.  A proponent of the Huist and Novan philosophies of governance, he surrounded himself with capable people and awarded achievement without jealousy or favoritism.  Failure or betrayal, on the other hand, he ruthlessly punished.

While still purging the government of DeBeersians, Rogar faced the challenge of the Heshar War by rapidly promoting the lowly born Sapien Orlan D'Juma to effective command of the war effort, advancing the career of arguably the best military leader in Human history.

The early 34th century saw the Empire's first demographic crisis, when the four billion New World colonists finally gained a majority in the Imperial Council, outvoting the seventy-five billion residents of Terra and the Solar and Old Colonies.  In 3435CE, Rogar essentially fudged this crisis by appointing the Council of Advisors from worlds of over a hundred million residents.  Counting Terra's continental kingdoms as separate entities, this body of ninety mostly Nobilis Old Colony diplomats had limited advisory and economic powers and served to solidify Rogar's influence with favorable Minor Houses and Central Region constituencies.

The twenty-seven year Federation War against an interstellar government that was a hundred times the age, fifteen times the size and ten times the economy of the Empire represented a triumph for Humanity and the Emperor.  While D'Juma and other brilliant commanders fought and won the battles, Rogar mobilized the economy, rallied support and managed the growing strains on society and morale, essentially maintaining a total war economy from 3475CE until the armistice fourteen years later.  Despite protests, mounting hardships and endless casualties, public support lasted until Rogar felt Imperial forces had reached their limit, and he gladly accepted the Grand Federation's generous peace offer.

While the economy returned to normal footing after the armistice and the Coreward Command began a basically peaceful occupation of the Cargomen, Bird, Orm and !Tak worlds, the B'dr'rak were not as cooperative, and eleven years of Annexation Campaigns ensued until the B'dr'rak finally reluctantly accepted Imperial occupation. 

The inclusion of 146 Alien Member worlds and nearly eighty billion residents dramatically altered the demographics of the Empire, a condition exacerbated by the inclusion the Khruzi and Cubics as Major Races and the Natani as a Minor Race in the early decades of the 36th century.  While Humans still dominated over 90% of Imperial worlds, the ninety-two billion Humans of the 3500CE census comprised barely 40% of the Imperial population, a mere plurality.  The B'dr'rak alone accounted for nearly a quarter of the Imperial population.  The Emperor realized that the Grand Federation was willing to cede the B'dr'rak and the other races precisely because this would challenge and absorb the Empire for centuries.  Rogar managed the problem by instituting a century of martial law and a settlement ban on the new Major Races, pending "imperialization".  By 3600CE, Humanity had settled another thousand worlds and increased almost twenty-four billion in numbers, while the B'dr'rak population had increased by less than two billion and they remained restricted from new settlements.

In 3500CE, Rogar murdered Lynda, his tenth wife, in a fit of rage, an act hastily sanctioned as an execution for treason by the Emperor's loyal Minister of Justice Sir Danal Brome.  This action created a permanent rift with House Kamarov.  The Emperor's earlier rifts with House Turki and a host of minor Houses were at least justified by independently verifiable acts, but Lynda's death was a clear stain on Emperor Rogar's reputation and it contributed to the depression and probable suicide of their eldest son, Crown Prince Rogar in 3560CE.

Technological

Despite the decades of struggle in the 35th century, no great strides of technological progress occurred during the first half of Rogar's reign.  The period saw a number of incremental advances, particularly in real-time fabrication, hyper-quantum computer integration and biocybernetic synthesis, but no true breakthroughs.  The major technical accomplishment of the era was the Jovian Collapse Project, evidenced by the successful collapse and ignition of Marx and Jupiter.

Improvements in manufacturing and interface control allowed the construction of over two million three person strike escorts during the Federation War.  Squadrons of these 20m microjump fighters, with their heavy armor, clusters of attack drones and fast performance greatly contributed to the Imperial victory by conducting scouting and commerce raiding missions across the hundred thousand systems in the conflict area.  After the war, surplus strike escorts saw use as private survey vessels well into the late 37th century.

Advancing hyper-quantum computing and the economic extremes of the war allowed Howlan Chin to formulate his theorems, providing predictive algorithms and limits to support an advanced interstellar Post-Material society.

Cultural

The Age of Action was marked by wars, travel and adventure.  During this era, the popularity of simularium entertainment decreased, even as the technology continued to mature.  Most Humans became more concerned with real world events than with their virtual pastimes and communities.  Though the Empire never instituted a draft, well over two billion Human, Swarm, Khzraut and Khaddahl soldiers served in the Federation War and subsequent campaigns and their experiences and travels shaped wartime and postwar society.

In 3502CE, the Ministry of Culture developed the rotational scheme for the Imperial Expositions, a combination of the Imperial Olympics and Fairs that became a benchmark of high society for the remaining Imperial period.  Most Expositions attracted hundreds of millions of visitors.  The nearly yearlong events occurred every four years, rotating through a sequence of Terran, Solar, Old Colony and New Colony venues, ensuring a major social event on Terra every sixteen years and at another Solar location four years later.  The Imperial Expositions helped the Imperial home system remain relevant and encouraged the continuation of Empire-wide cultural trends as populations and worlds became more dispersed.

By the 36th century, the emphasis on true reality also led to a mild religious revival, especially as Ibrahim continued to develop his new brand of "Old Book" religion, absorbing most Solar Christians into his growing movement.  The Technologist Church also continued to gain adherents, especially with its support of the growing cyborgization movement, an outgrowth of the enhancements developed for the Federation War.  The cyborgization movement led to some conflict between traditional and technological religions and brought back controversies over both mechanical and biological beings, issues aggravated by fears over the Zhretra mechanical race and by old conflicts over Artificial reproduction. 

Chronology Table

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