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I am the Lord of all the Stars! It is my voice that carries the dominion over all worlds and colonies! It is -my- will that sculpts the destiny of over a billion souls. -Not- some spider weaving a web of lies!
~Emperor Atreus Ulgan, The Mad
The second Dynastic Era would begin with the ascension of Yarsil Ulgan to the Ancestor Throne after winning an election among the nobility of the House Senate. The early rule of the Ulgan family would be marked by their status primarily as figure heads to the ruling Great Lords of the Rook System. For centuries the power of the core worlds would be one of the oldest sticks in the craw of the colonized planets and space colonies of the Rook system. Being the battleground for the Homunculi Wars which in turn left the center system of teh Triad completely ravaged. In the ensuing years the push and pull featured between the unrecognized lords and ladies of Rook and those of the Core System would nearly break the peace set forth by the Ulgan (also known as the Puppet’s Dynasty).
The Emperor is Dead, Long Live the Emperor
The Ulgan Dynasty arose in 2,528 Starfall with the ascension of Yarsil Ulgan, a minor noble from the Rook planet of Erlik. The first man to be acclaimed as Emperor he came to the Ancestor Throne in a period of tumultuous disagreement and fear. The once powerful legacy of the House of Aken was broken and the Nobles of the Faerin Houses were in constant disagreement. During his rule the Anapa Cabal would form and come to power on the planet of Aru and become the first true political power for the Arashic peoples. Yarsil’s successor, his son would attempt to take power from the ruling great Lords and have his hopes dash. In the end Yarsil’s legacy would be one of powerlessness.
It was not until an Empress took the throne that a true sense of Imperial Rule came back to the blood of Ulgan. The young Althea would use her own marriage Betrothal to force the hand of many a powerful Noble Lord and lady and gain newly received privileges for the Imperial Family. Next only a few years later she would confront the Sénann itself and demand more executive power. However, Althea’s actions would only be the ground work for future for the only known Imperial Ruler to be dubbed “The Mad”.
Atreus was a young man who would ascend to the Throne at the age of ten and under the Regency of his uncle, Jamkha. While the Anapa assist the House of Orisai in expanding their understanding of Cybernetics further. Atreus would order his own servants to be executed for attempts at assassination (these servants later turned out to be Gwagaruh agents). The man would then “disappear” his own uncle; proceed to create the infamous Knights Imperial Order; and he would undo years of peace.
The End of the Mad Reign
In the year 2,740 SF the growing megalomania of Atreus finally causes the fracturing the Empire itself. His golden-eyed super soldiers, the Knights Imperial, rally the Imperial Guard and Legions to his banner to face off in a series of minor skirmishes in the early period of the war. Much of the raged behind the United House forces leads back to what is known as the “Senate Massacred” an event where Atreus ordered the mass execution of the House representatives of the Sénann itself! So horrendous was this act that even the Knights Imperial came to question their Sovereign Lord.
During the light pitched battles of the Second Systems War, the Mad Emperor would come to have a series of eldritch blades etched in Elder Tongue, “Woe to thy soul”. These are named the “Sorrowful Souls” and become heirlooms among the Knights Imperial and those later claiming descent from them.
The end of the Second Systems War would come with a whisper when Atreus orders the razing of his own capital city of Athélann. The Knights quickly turn upon their lord and master and end his life. After the end of the War the Knights survived through battles and the civil war that erupted in its ranks when they slew their liege. In the end only one hundred souls survive and they along with the Sorrowful Swords fall back to their secret places on the moon of Tatara. Atreus life and his subsequent war would come to be called simply the “Mad Reign” as a reminder of the power of the Ancestor Throne.
Order of the Triad
The period of time after the Mad Reign is known as the “Ordering of the Triad” and documents the rise of the modern layer of Houses that appeared after the Second Systems War. For centuries the citizens of the two Outer Systems and their respect space colonies had lobbied the Throne-Held Lords for recognition for their fiefs. This in turn led to the established of the Sector Barons and the Starborn Lords known as the Lords Declarant. The plight of many self-proclaimed Nobles would end when three of the Sector Barons drew blood against the Knights Imperial in the Sovereign Trials in the year 2,783 SF. This was also the period of time that the Tourmaline Palace would be uproated from the city of Athélann and moved to the grand space station known as, Star-Crown.
With the influx of new nobility further gains were made as Lords of Rook and later Sentinel came to join the Hosue Senate. This grand gesture of their addition is made official in the Second Amendment of Blood Declaration. And yet, this period of peace and expansion would only last for so long. Strange stories begin to appear on the Borders of the Empire as Star-Crown becomes the de facto capital of the realms of Avalon. Soon the people of Mishlen break years of silence to warn the Emperors of the danger of the growing threat of what many Astralines of the Sea of Stars come to call, Void-Stalkers.
This all proves too late that even when Empress Bortea orders increase defenses everythings is for naught. A mysterious fleet of ships appears out of the Marches and blockade the routes between the Systems. The Void War thus begins as several mysterious assassins destroy the Emperor’s Ship.