15mm sci-fi universe background (oh go on, there's pictures!)

Me and Phyllion have been making progress with our 15mm armies and the time has come to lay down the basics for the universe we plan to fight over! We've written up some of the background in the form of short extracts penned 'in character' by members of our universe. This first piece tells the story of the 'Confederated Systems' which our factions inhabit (mostly), the reason why the 'The New Vedithians' (Phyllion's faction) are 'New' and the origins of my 'Arbiter' faction. Enjoy! Its worth the read and has plenty of pretty pictures!

Extracts from Horatio Dios (2411), A Concise History of the Confederated Systems (Illustrated edn)

The period now commonly known as the Great Disorder marked one of the bloodiest chapters of mankind's history. However, the roots of this calamity lay far earlier, in the Dispersal.

Technological and theoretical development, exploding in the 21^st century, resulted in the development of a prototype Rosenkind drive in 2119. Consequently, faster than light travel became viable and interstellar exploration and colonization a realistic proposition for the first time. 

Rosenkind's state of the art laboratory in Tokyo, Japan.

Huge stresses on the earth's rapidly diminishing resources - exacerbated by an uncontrolled population explosion - placed extreme political pressure on Earth's destabilised national governments to present a solution to the expanding resource crisis. These stresses led to the refinement and mass production of the new drive during the 2120s and 30s and the dispatch of scout ships to find suitable new worlds for colonization.  

Scoutship Marco Polo discovering Damas and its moon Gorvan. 

Large portions of the earth's population clambered for an escape from a planet torn with shortage, petty resource warfare and intolerance. Seeds ships were manufactured on a huge industrial scale, colonists embarked, and humanity dispatched to a new life on the galactic frontier. This, the greatest migration of humanity in history, later become known as the Dispersal. By 2230 over 9 billion people had been dispatched to an ever-expanding constellation of distant colonies.

The first colony ship, Endeavor, leaves its launch cradle in 2133 bound for Serentum Major.

These colonies were not only geographically remote but grew increasingly divergent from Earth in their respective societies, religions, cultures and politics. National government's retained sovereignty over their colonial provinces and, along with private megacorporations, orchestrated this great movement of humanity.

The crowded megacity of New York, Earth, in the 22nd century.

However, by the middle of the 24th century the developing and increasingly autonomous colony worlds desired full independence. The profits from their deposits of valuable raw materials, such as unobtanium, were siphoned off by national government's and megacorporations and little benefit flowed in return. A series of political movements, each reflecting the new world from which it emerged, began to campaign for the severance of governance from Earth. 

The export spacetowers of industrial giant Deltari-Beta.

Resistance among Earth's national governments varied, most respected the colonies' right of self-determination. Nonetheless, some nations, such as the Russian Empire, Pan-Asian Alliance and the fragmented governments of the former U.S., resisted the the attempts of their colonial empires to break away. Colonial insurgencies developed and long, dirty and bloody wars of liberation were fought across the stars, choking the once verdant atmospheres of many planets with the wreckage of starships. 

Republic of California warships subjugate insurgents on Seraph III.

These conflicts continued intermittently for over 40 years, marked by concessions, false ceasefires and betrayals, and entangled almost all of Earth's national governments. War raged across both earth and across the stars as the new regional leagues manoeuvred for power and resources. At the close of what became known as the Liberation Wars 49 systems had successfully declared themselves independent of rule from Earth. In 2396 they formed the Confederated systems, an alliance of cooperation, which sought to protect hard-fought freedoms from the avarice of Earth's rapacious empires and megacorporations.

The prosperous colony of Xin-Chi.

A flawed peace endured for only 20 years before, in one last cast of the dice, an alliance of Earth's remaining superpowers declared war on their former colonial possessions in 2416, drawing the entire Confederation into the conflict. It was in this decades long crucible of fire and strife that the original Confederation was shattered and reforged anew. Loyalties were divided by Terran manipulation and the worlds of the Confederated Systems turned upon one another in what what was later termed by historians, the Great Disorder. Vedith, Seraph III and Kareshi-Sudah burnt, their civilisations shattered by the detonations of atomic warheads. 

Nuclear weapons devastate Vedith and poison its atmosphere.

After years of bitter struggle Confederation fleets, augmented by xenoc technologies, jumped into Earth's orbit and, catching their foes unprepared, forced the Terran Alliance to its knees. The Confederated Systems' president, Musad al-Suri, determined that there could be no end to conflict until all of mankind was united under one political order, either by consent, or force. The existent Confederated Systems was expanded to include all of the worlds inhabited by humanity at that time and the belligerent and divisive national governments of Earth forcibly conglomerated. 

The Confederated Systems Assembly on Serentum Major. Earth was deliberately not chosen as the new seat of the Confederation government. Memories of colonial oppression remained.

Even al-Suri, idealist as he was, realised that such a disparate union would face huge challenges and that powerful systems would retain a large degree of autonomy. However, an independent political commission, the Conferated Systems Arbitration Authority (CSAA), was formed in order to prevent an outbreak of large-scale conflict between Confederation worlds. It became apparent over the next half-century that the CSAA would require military forces of its own to enforce its rulings - it could not always rely upon the timely participation of key Confederation worlds. Patrol fleets were expanded into full battlefleets and police forces into fully mechanised and spacebourne forces. 

CSAA forces 'liberate' Charon II after 10 years of Enlightened Path rule.

By the beginning of the 26^th century wars within the Confederation were largely conducted in the shadows, the boardroom or on the galactic frontier. Peace, or at least a good approximation, endured. For a time...

Arbiter heavy armour carries out manoeuvres on the deserts of Kareshi-Sudah.

(Note: none of the artwork here is mine(I wish!), its all the work of the respective artists, please follow the picture urls if you wish to find the original artwork. These artists are incredible and they take all the credit!)