History of Titania

From ElanVital

The Terran Empire was growing overcrowded and fractious, with increasingly brutal powerplays between the noble Houses that threatened to destabilize the entire political system. As a last-ditch effort, Empress Titania deputized some of her most faithful vassals (also known as some of the most outspoken and vicious power-seekers) to colonize distant worlds in the name of the Empire.

The ESS Starfall was sent out under the joint command of nobles belonging to Houses Petakova and Stocklin. After 50 years of searching among the stars, it found the planet Voltumnus. It settled down and the colonists enjoyed a few centuries of peaceful expansion. They lost contact with the Terran Empire surprisingly soon after landing, but were able to establish an acceptable standard of life. However, they soon ran up against a culture preliminary surveys had missed due to its nomadic nature – the Sessuyan. These aliens appeared primitive, doing everything with animal labor and enjoying few of the conveniences of ‘modern’ life.

When the humans were left with nowhere to go but onto Sessuyan land, they attempted to make diplomatic contact, but neither race could find a way to communicate or reach common ground. An attempt was made at sharing land, but repeated incidents eroded the truce until war broke out. No one saw who started it, but in the end the Sessuyan wiped out nearly an entire town.

This was when the humans learned that the aliens’ ‘animal labor’ was in fact an array of sophisticated organisms bioengineered for every purpose – including battle. The aliens themselves also appeared to possess inexplicable powers that the humans took to calling magic. Assuming the Sessuyans had attacked first thanks to their utter victory, the humans struck back and pushed into the land they forcibly cleared. Centuries of halting expansion and on-and-off war ensued, with the Sessuyan often giving up ground but only after inflicting heavy damage to the settlers. Sometimes they would retake it, too. Peace was whenever everyone was happy with the borders, but it rarely lasted for long.

The settlers’ society became focused around war and survival, even as cultural exchange began to take place. Some few bold individuals on either side learned the other’s language, particularly during those periods of peace. Further attempts at diplomacy were made, but the bad feelings lingering from so much killing were difficult to surmount. Both sides were certain the other had struck the first blow.

Everything came to a head when a man named Jacob Linden discovered that humanity was also capable of using magic. He secretly taught it to others, and this provided a sudden and drastic advantage to tip what had been an equal playing field.

Newly armed with magic, the humans took on the Sessuyan directly. Alarmed, the Sessuyan responded by gathering all of their nomadic tribes together, resulting in several years of pitched war with incredibly high death counts. This mutual slaughter at last provided the impetus for peace, and the two sides arranged a treaty in 693.

Now, in 711, the peace is uneasy but holding. Cultural exchange has picked up; the human capital city of Titania and the newly established island settlement allow Sessuyan in, while humans visit the nomads’ camps. Technology is flourishing, as the Sessuyan gain secrets of mechanical engineering from the humans and the humans study their advanced bioengineering. Cybernetics are taking off precipitously as the union between the two. Magic is a shared art, though the Sessuyan remain the masters and hint at lore behind it no human yet understands. Most notably, the two cultures have begun an ambitious new project of unity: Concord, a colony on the moon designed with human technology and populated with lifeforms developed by the Sessuyan to thrive in low gravity.

Exploration is the word of the day, but the direction differs based on who you talk to. House Petakova encourages adaptation to Voltumnus as an independent culture; House Stocklin encourages relocating the Terran Empire and becoming a loyal part of it once more. The power of the two Houses waxes and wanes depending on the popularity of their policies.