The Story of Nexus

the new Cold War

In the year of 2162, Jens Rasmussen piloted a test craft developed secretly by the European Union and became the first human to travel faster than light speed, sparking mankind's largest controversy since the development of the atomic bomb. The main problem was that the drive developed functioned by using gravity waves. While that, in itself, was not a problem, the fact that the drive could easily be converted into a terrible weapon capable of destroying entire planets was a problem. The People's Republic of America demanded that the technology be suppressed and that faster than light travel was not needed. In any case, in a politically embarrassing episode the People's Republic of America got their hands on the original designs for the drive and began building their own. As a new Cold War began, the European Union defiantly sent exploration missions powered by the new drive, and the People's Republic of America secretly did as well.

During this period, mankind found itself once again balanced on the brink of destruction. Once liberated from the destruction that could be wrought by simple nuclear weapons, the new devices were capable of destroying entire planets. Of course, it was generally ignored that it would take so much energy to destroy a planet, even with this new technology, that the likelihood of it ever happening was pretty small.

In the otherwise forgotten year of 2179, a mineral-rich planet was found by the secret PRA missions. Found in a binary star system surrounded by black holes, this planet contained more natural resources than any other three planets put together thus far known to mankind. It was a valuable prize, but would be extremely risky to capitalize. While it was only accessible from two directions, the PRA moved in and settled this planet, ruthlessly driving their astronauts inward and losing hundreds to the black holes that surround it. By the year 2187, this planet, known as Nexus, had started producing weapons that would shift the balance of the Cold War in the PRA's favor.

While the PRA was off diddling around black holes, the EU discovered an intelligent, space-faring race known as the Empire of Kand. Making a quick alliance, the EU felt that if war were to break out between itself and the PRA they would be in a superior position due to their alliance with Kand.

In the year 2201, war broke out between the EU and the PRA. In 2204, as a result of certain losses taken by the PRA during this war, contact with Nexus was lost.

Nexus, on its own

On its own, Nexus was incapable of supporting the technology base enjoyed by other planets settled by mankind and was forced to revert back to steam power in order to survive. The reversion didn't go smoothly, entirely, either. The PRA had always been plagued by factions competing for power including several groups poised to overthrow the totalitarian government, and when Nexus lost contact with the PRA various factions revolted. The result of the revolts found Nexus largely held in anarchy, and most of the technology known to Nexians fell into disrepair and disuse.

A small group of intrepid settlers gathered together any and all literature they could find on the planet and founded a city high up in the Mountains of Tiaer. In this city they created a library that stored the collective technological knowledge of all of Nexus. The city was named Allantha.

The next 400 years, reckoned by Nexus's revolutions around its own primary, found Nexians more or less in a state of anarchy. Governments were thrown out quickly, boundaries redrawn frequently, and stability was unheard of. In a year mostly unmarked, one woman rose up to a state of respect and love by most of the population of Nexus. In the midst of a brutal battle, Jani Vers called for peace amongst Nexians, and throughout the remainder of the war, this native of Allantha rose ultimately to the title Empress of Nexus. As Empress, Jani made two important decisions. The first decision she made was to make an effort to contact the rest of the human race. To this end, she commissioned the building of three observatories in various locations. The second decision was to start numbering the years of Nexus from the founding of Allantha, reasoning that the founding of Allantha was the single most important event to happen to Nexus, since it signified Nexian independence and represented the birth of the finest culture of Nexus.

The Empire of Nexus stood for 500 years, and during the time of the Empire Nexus entered a golden age. Some technology that had been lost had been rediscovered, and towards the end of the Empire the Nexians developed technology comparable to the 20,,th,, Century of Earth. Eventually, the Empire came to an end, leaving as its sole memories the dating system and the observatories. The city of Allantha itself was overrun, and in a great avalanche, disappeared, possibly forever.

Nexus split off into many small principalities after the fall of the Empire, and for the next 200 years experienced more anarchy and instability. When the period finally ended, much technology had been lost again. The planet finally started to stabilize into territories that would, for the most part, not change again. Governments would continue to change periodically, but for the most part stability was finally achieved. This stability would remain for 130 years, the end of which saw Nexus in this configuration:

In the East, the Kingdoms of the East developed as a series of city-states ruled by hereditary monarchs. The Island of Tyarin continued as a totalitarian nation, but unlike the PRA, adopted capitalism as its economic model. To the south and west of the Kingdoms of the East, the nation of Kerlo developed as a democracy using communism as its economic model. The western portion of the continent adopted a series of democracies not unlike the European Union of old.

Peace was enjoyed throughout Nexus broken by occasional warfare. Governments changed, regimes changed, but the same borders were kept, more or less. Contact was never reestablished with the outside world of man, and the Nexians had come to believe they were the only life left in the galaxy and that mankind had finally blown itself up. Knowing how dangerous space travel around the Nexus primary's system would be, the Nexians decided not to try to develop space technology until they could be sure not to get sucked into the black holes. They prospered and went through the proceeding ages of technology, once again developing nuclear technology, armored warfare, robotics, genetic engineering, and others.

The Crisis of Tyarin

In the year 2473, the Island of Tyarin invaded it's nearest neighbor, Kerlo. Forced by environmental and population pressures, the citizens of Tyarin truly believed they had to conquer or die, and they weren't willing to give up their way of life. They quickly tore across the continent, capturing cities until they reached the Kingdoms of the East in 2475, where they struck a treaty of mutually assured destruction and broke off the war. It was just as well, since the former democracies were seeking already to overthrow the new totalitarian masters. Facing a civil war of epic proportions with many citizens calling for 'ethnic cleansing', the Tyarins began a series of ethnic cleansings of their own. Seeing this barbarism, the Kingdoms of the East decided it was time to intervene, but crippled by their own sharply factionalized society, they quickly became entrenched in a war that wouldn't reach its conclusion.

The turning point in the war came when the former People's Republic of Kerlo managed to overthrow their Tyarin overlords and establish a new democracy. They went on to conquer the Island of Tyarin, where they were able to solve most of the problems that had originally motivated the Tyarins to war in the first place. Claiming to know that the fabled city of Allantha existed within its borders, although not specifying if they referred to their old borders or their new ones after taking Tyarin, they declared themselves to be the sole government of Nexus. This new force began moving across the main continent towards the Kingdoms of the East. When the two armies finally defeated the last of the Tyarins, they faced each other across the battlefield.

The New Nexian Republic

Seeking to end the war quickly, both sides struck a treaty to end the war. Under the treaty, the Republic of Nexus was born and the Kingdoms of the East got to keep their way of life. They had to join the Republic of Nexus and maintain their own representation within the Republic, but they could keep their hereditary monarchies in place for regional control.

While the claims of Allantha never materialized, Nexus began to stabilize itself again as the war finally ended in the year of 2437. Looking forward to another period of prosperity, they restored one of the ancient observatories, built two more, and once again began looking to the skies, wondering if there were any surviving humans left in the galaxy.

In the year of 2483, the Kandelians arrived.