Lore Day 2 - A Complete History of the Empire
In today’s installment I wanted to go through and give you the complete history of the empire. Much of this I have plans for in later installments of the Eternal Sun Trilogy, and some of it is explain in Humanity Defined. When I was writing, I found that I didn’t have a good understanding of where the empire came from, who shaped it, and how it came to exist in its current iteration at the start of the book.
So, when I started writing the second draft of the novel, I decided that I would map out the entire history. Four coffees, one adderall, and six hours later I came up with a full eight-thousand year timeline of the Empire of the Eternal Sun. This helped me ground the empire and its characters into something real and tangible. I wanted to make it expansive enough to feel lived in, and I can say it really helped me flesh out the details of why the world is the way it is.
If anyone is reading this and trying to write something themselves, I can say that sitting down and asking yourself why the world looks and acts the way it does can go a long way in helping your writing be consistent, clean, and immersive.
The History of the Empire of the Eternal Sun
From the ashes of a nuclear Earth to the crowning of the first commoner Empress, this is the chronicle of humanity's Empire, era by era.
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Mid to Late 25th Century
The Fall of Earth
Climate change and political turmoil, driven by conflicts between Earth and the growing colonies of Mars, Luna, and Ceres, led to a prolonged nuclear war that sent humanity back to the Bronze Age. Contact with the colonies across the solar system was lost, and their inhabitants died as Earth was nearly destroyed.
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Early 45th Century
The Lost Starport
A large kingdom, stretching from the far north of what used to be Canada to Venezuela, excavated a long-forgotten starport in the Pacific Northwest. Zainin Revario rediscovered the lost technology and used it to conquer the rest of the planet over a quarter century.
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Mid 45th Century
One Banner
Earth was once again united under one banner, that of Emperor Revario I. The kingdom, now an empire, took shape as the nuclear fallout and climate devastation of the long-forgotten wars cleared. What had been a cold, polluted hellhole saw the light of the sun again.
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Late 45th Century (SD 39)
The Lost Worlds Return
The first starships in two millennia were constructed to reestablish contact with the lost worlds of Luna, Mars, and Ceres.
Rather than grant them autonomy, as the governments of old had, Emperor Revario kept them under the banner of the Empire of the Eternal Sun.
The first royal families of the reestablished colonies were founded, and they held staunch loyalty to the Emperor, who had shared with them his secret technology for extending life.
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Mid 46th Century (SD 110)
The Gate at Neptune
Emperor Revario I, nearing two hundred years old, had ruled the Empire of the Eternal Sun in relative peace and prosperity. The colonies had expanded to include nearly every terrestrial body in the solar system, as well as the first cloud city on Jupiter.
Far out near Neptune, a large structure appeared. The outer solar system was poorly surveyed and uninhabited at the time, so how the structure entered the system was never known.
Shortly after its discovery and activation, it was revealed to be a gateway to another star system.
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SD 144
The Apsu Drive
Ships entered the portal, but none came back, and probes sent through returned no data to Earth. That changed when Finneas Apsu discovered alien technology on Mars.
He learned that it mimicked a frequency emitted by the gate, and this discovery led to the functional use of the gates. He would later go on to develop the Apsu drive, humanity's FTL drive.
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SD 145 to SD 2340
The Flourishing
The Empire of the Eternal Sun flourished as it grew outward from Sol. On his deathbed, Emperor Revario I passed the Sun Throne to his most trusted nephew after failing to produce a blood heir (SD 162).
For two thousand years the Empire grew from one solar system to thousands across much of the Orion Spur carried by the Apsu gates.
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SD 2341
First Contact
Contact with the greater galaxy was established when the northern imperial state of Kurdurru made contact with a vessel exiting an Apsu gate. It was later identified as an expeditionary vessel of the Centauri Trade Consortium. Soon afterward, humanity was contacted by the Uglog Tribes to the east and by the enslaved peoples of the Grungr Principality.
Emperor Hekarte II was open to diplomacy with the Trade Consortium, but he was assassinated by a faction of anti-alien zealots.
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SD 2342 to SD 2443
The Hundred Year War
After the death of Emperor Hekarte II, the Empire of the Eternal Sun fought a series of brutal wars over the Sun Throne. Two factions emerged: one believed the aliens to be among Sol's many children, while the other viewed them as demons.
During the Hundred Year War, the Uglog Tribes attempted to seize territory in the southeast. Ironically, the attacks allowed the pro-xeno factions to gain the upper hand over their anti-xeno counterparts, and the war culminated in the ascension of Empress Sevara I to the Sun Throne.
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SD 2444 to SD 2510
Empress Sevara
Empress Sevara used the Uglog attacks to bolster her image, leading the assault on the Uglog border worlds herself. Hundreds of millions of Uglogs were killed and many worlds were burned. The Empress secured a lasting peace on the Eastern Front that held for thousands of years, until the Septid Invasion of SD 5201.
Turning to domestic matters, Empress Sevara quickly guided the Empire into the embrace of the wider galaxy. The Institute for Galactic Prosperity was discovered, trade with the Trade Consortium was established, and alien wealth and technology poured into the Empire.
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SD 2510 to SD 2906
The Oracles of Light
A series of Empresses led the Empire of the Eternal Sun. This period came to be remembered with great reverence, as many followers of Sol believed that Sol herself had guided the Empire to greatness through these women.
Known as the Oracles of Light, the Empresses led humanity through almost four centuries of peace and technological advancement. Advances in warp technology, nanites, and quantum communication came during this period.
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SD 2907
The Plea of the Trader States
Emperor Da'am, the first man in five hundred years to sit on the Sun Throne, soon proved to be one of the most destabilizing figures in the history of the Empire (until Empress Lania I).
The western trader states had grown quite close to the enslaved Grungr nation. Far from the Sun Throne, they enjoyed much more freedom than the closer noble houses, and they found the Empire's relationship with the Trade Consortium morally reprehensible because of what the Consortium was doing to the Grungr. They made a formal, public plea to the new Emperor to cut ties with the Consortium.
Emperor Da'am refused and instead sent the imperial fleets to the region to reestablish the Sun Throne's dominance. This kicked off the Trader States Independence War.
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SD 2907 to SD 2999
The Trader States Independence War
Emperor Da'am underestimated the toll the war would take on the Empire, as well as the Trade Consortium's response to it.
Shortly after the war began, the Grungr Principalities rose up against the Trade Consortium. The Empire was quickly blamed for these events, and the Consortium placed an embargo on the Empire for the duration of the war.
The embargo brought complete economic catastrophe to the Empire and led the Trader States to negotiate a peace agreement with the Throne, one that granted them unprecedented independence while maintaining their allegiance to the Sun Throne.
Decades later, the Grungr won their war with the Trade Consortium. The Empire's relationship with the Consortium never returned to its prewar state.
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SD 3000
The Silence
With his position weakened, Emperor Da'am turned to violence to secure allegiance and stability. He blamed the Trade Consortium for his defeat at the hands of the newly established Federated States, and he cut off contact with the greater galaxy for the first time since contact was made almost 700 years earlier.
This decision was credited with ultimately leading to his removal from power during the Reestablishment Wars.
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SD 3000 to SD 3148
The Reestablishment Wars
The Reestablishment Wars were a series of smaller-scale conflicts between the Sun Throne and the large houses of the Revario Dynasties, the royal houses that could trace their imperial titles to the famed First Emperor of Sol.
Five official conflicts and two unofficial ones consumed the imperial core worlds for a century and a half, leaving the outer colonies to languish and the inner worlds decimated.
The last official conflict was the shortest, lasting only three months, as the Revario Dynasties banded together to force Emperor Da'am to abdicate, allowing Emperor Vorax to take the Sun Throne. Unwilling to risk the fate of humanity on the whims of one soul, Emperor Vorax established the Imperial Senate as a small but important check on the Throne's power.
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SD 3150 to SD 3870
The Age of the Senate
The Imperial Senate served as an important check on the Emperor's power for more than seven centuries.
Through this new institution, the Empire once again entered a prolonged period of stability, with minor political upheavals scattered throughout.
The Senate expanded the rights of the Federated States and created several interstellar trade conglomerates in the eastern sectors to rebuild the Empire's industrial capacity.
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SD 3871
The Dying Star
Empress Hemanis was forced to move the Sun Throne from Oy'Raishi to Earth after the star Esh grew too unstable and threatened the habitability of the planet.
This decision kicked off another period of instability, driven by fanatical groups. Terror attacks and assassinations tore across the Empire as devotees of Sol were warned that the “demons from the void” could not be trusted and were causing Esh's death.
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SD 3977 to SD 4209
The Prophet of Sol
After the death of Empress Hemanis, Emperor Arwen I ascended to the throne. A self-proclaimed prophet of Sol, he made a name for himself with speeches on the floor of the Imperial Senate.
The Senate wanted a solution to the religious strife bubbling up across the Empire, and it placed the Prophet of Sol on the Sun Throne. He led the Empire down a path of religious piety and founded the longest hereditary dynasty in its history. That dynasty would end with the murder of his great-grandson, Arwen IV, at the hands of Lania Rosfara.
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SD 4209 to SD 4380
Arwen II and the Great Palace
Emperor Arwen II was crowned following the death of his father. The Imperial Senate's power was weakened as Arwen I became more widely accepted as a religious leader.
It was not typical for the children of an emperor to take the throne after a parent's death, but Arwen I had persuaded the Imperial Senate to go along with his plans.
Arwen II continued his father's legacy and was seen as an extension of his father's will. He constructed the Great Palace on Earth, in what is now Seattle.
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SD 4380
The Shadow Network
Arwen III took power after his father, but he had a harder time securing his place as the Imperial Senate pushed back against the idea.
In one of his last acts as Emperor, Arwen II had planned the assassination of several prominent members of the Senate, who were subsequently replaced with Arwenic loyalists.
The shadow network of assassins and spies used in the secret operation became the precursor to the Yeli Sai’ait.
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SD 4381 to SD 4499
The Yeli Sai’ait
Arwen III, less politically and spiritually adept than his father and grandfather, found himself with less and less control over a system that viewed him as a conduit of Sol.
In an attempt to regain control, he announced in SD 4385 that the Empire of the Eternal Sun would no longer trade with or harbor aliens within its borders, and he called on the Imperial Senate to outlaw any use of alien technology or communication.
With the Church still behind him, many in the lower castes fell in line. The aristocracy, accustomed to the luxuries brought by the alien trade networks, viewed the move differently.
Fearing the worst, Arwen III established the Yeli Sai’ait and gave them the full power of the Sun Throne. A series of killings and close encounters sent shockwaves of fear through the noble houses, and soon they too fell in line.
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SD 4499
Arwen IV
Emperor Arwen IV ascended to the throne with little effort. The Yeli Sai’ait had firmly established itself in every shadowy corner of the Empire. Their existence was a myth, though their power was real and recognized.
Arwen IV had been driven to paranoia by his late father. Convinced that he was a direct descendant of Emperor Revario I, and thus of Sol herself, he pushed the Empire to its breaking point.
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SD 4500 to SD 4550
The Void Demon Purges
Arwen IV continued his father's legacy of anti-alien sentiment and pushed for stricter punishments for those who colluded with aliens or “dirtied their souls” with alien technology.
Many smaller provinces and lesser nobles were accused of siding with the Void Demons and were publicly executed for treason against Sol. Like his father, Arwen IV slowly descended into madness as he aged.
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SD 4551
The Hazar Gem Massacre
Zainin Landra Ventis IX, sovereign of Sanhathos, was put to death for demonic collusion, making her the most powerful noble executed by the Emperor in living memory.
Along with Landra IX and her husband, tens of thousands were imprisoned or put to death for their use of alien technology in the mining of Hazar Gems. Many of the killings were orchestrated by the Yeli Sai’ait. The planet's population was forced to mine the gems in impossible conditions, and many thousands more died in the years that followed.
Landra IX's daughter, Landra X, escaped the ire of Arwen IV and took the throne. She set in motion what would become the second most deadly conflict in human history, surpassed only by the long-forgotten nuclear war that nearly ended humanity entirely.
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SD 4552 to SD 4563
The Shadow Fleet
Zainin Landra X and Imperial Admiral Xavier Venihan began constructing a fleet of warships deep in the Federated States, away from the ever-open eye of the Yeli Sai’ait.
Meanwhile, rebel recruitment offices opened across the Empire in every run-down fishing market, dive bar, back alley, and any other place where the common folk found themselves.
Lania Rosfara enlisted in SD 4563, only weeks before the onset of the Great Schism.
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SD 4563 to SD 4573
The Great Schism
The Great Schism began with a surprise attack on House Mencase and their throne on Leis, an attack the Mencase nobility called the Winter of Treachery.
From there, Zainin Landra X declared Arwen IV unfit to rule and an affront to Sol's will. The shadow fleet, led by the newly appointed Sword of Sol, Xavier Venihan, pressed its advantage after the success on Leis.
The rebel cells were activated and began to tear through the Empire from every direction. Painted as terrorists, the revolution found itself on the wrong side of public sentiment. It was saved by noble infighting, and within months the Empire fractured into three major groups: the Revolutionary Forces, the Arwenic Loyalists, and the Imperial Purists. A revolutionary splinter group, the Devotees of Entropy, also emerged, a terrorist organization devoted to destroying everything and building human civilization from scratch.
Ten years later, after an estimated four and a half billion lives had been lost, the Revolutionary Forces reached Earth. There, Lania Rosfara, the Shield of Sol and leader of the Revolutionary ground forces, personally led a raid on the Imperial Palace.
The war ended the moment Lania Rosfara was photographed limping out of the palace, bloodied and carrying the corpse of Arwen IV.
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SD 4574
Empress Lania
After a long series of negotiations and political maneuvering, Lania Rosfara was placed on the Sun Throne and crowned Empress of the Eternal Sun.
She was the first person since Emperor Revario I who was not of noble descent to sit on the throne. That fact, paired with her reputation during the war, made her beloved across the Empire.
