Timeline: From Velonnian Imperium to Modern Day

[GuestGuest]

EDIT

Consider the bullet bitten and the nettle grasped. I've revised the timeline a bit and put together a basic timeline graphic to hopefully make it a bit more understandable. Input is welcome. On the graphic, ignore the day/month parts of the date; I can't get rid of that with the free version of the software I'm using. I've cut down the time elapsed between the beginning of the Civil War to the MSI's foundation to about 30 years, and added some details and things like that as well.

1520-1528
Clatius’ War
Emperor of the venerable Velonnian Imperium, which has ruled Velonna and its colonies and satellites for hundreds of years but has been recently plagued with corruption and unrest, launches a disastrous and unpopular war of expansion against a coalition of neighboring systems. The war lasts 7 years and results in Velonna losing valuable frontier territory and taking on massive debts.

1530-1534
Velonnian Revolution

Weak government, a crumbling economy, and a fed-up population leads to mass civil unrest. After four years of increasingly violent revolution, the Imperium is overthrown and a group of revolutionary leaders declare the Velonna Republic, led by a populist People’s Congress and claiming to embody the will of the masses. Despite its idealistic constitution, however, the People’s Congress maintains a stranglehold on power brutally suppresses opposition to protect the revolutionary government from reactionaries and other internal opponents.

1534-1543
Velonnian Civil War

The Velonna Republic proves to be short-lived, as it can keep neither the radicals within its ranks nor the Imperialists and separatists opposing it at bay. In addition, the Republic is unable to pay off the debts inherited from the Imperium, and earns the enmity of many nobles and corporations—some of which had supported the Republic because of the Imperium’s own inability to pay its debts—by first attempting to pay off their loans with worthless currency and then voiding the debts altogether. After just three years of Republican rule, Velonna and its realm fractures, leading to a long and bloody civil war between innumerable sides as every noble family, revolutionary demagogue, and military commander attempts to seize control of either the nation or a part of it. The Republic of Velonna is soon ousted from its capital in Urbis Magnus, and fades into insignificance as more and more factions join the fight. From this chaos eventually emerges the Minotaur Mercenary Force, led by Admiral Markus Calinius, who consolidates the planets relying on his navy-for-hire for protection into a resource base and conquers much of the fractured Imperium.

1543
Fall of Velonna

Calinius and the MMF take Velonna, declare the restored Velonnian Imperium, and gain the support of many nobles and other factions. This marks the official end of the Civil War, though consolidation continues far into the future in various parts of the Imperium.

1545-1552
Republican Rebellion

Simmering unrest under the new Imperium erupts into the Republican Rebellion as numerous factions, mainly remnants of the Revolutionary government which started the conflagration, attempt to secede or resist the Imperial government through guerrilla warfare. Calinius is unable to quell the violence, and it continues to spread.

1550
Calinius Assassinated
Calinius is assassinated on the 20th anniversary of the outbreak of the Velonnian Revolution. Cecilius Calvert, a politician from a wealthy noble family, is next in line for Chancellor. Under his indecisive leadership, the Republican Rebellion only worsens, with the Republican factions linking up and declaring a new Republic over large portions of the Imperium.

1553-1555
Year of Tyranny

After 2 years of seeing the Imperium crumble, Maxwell Augustus Damirius, a senior Naval officer, joins a conspiracy among top military commanders and nobles and seizes power, claiming the long-dormant office of Tyrant and leading rapid and sometimes ruthless campaigns to expunge opposition to Imperial rule from the Imperium. This is later referred to as the “Year of Tyranny,” though historians will point out that it lasted longer than a year.

1555
Damirius Elected Imperator

Having crushed organized opposition and rooted out much of the dissent to Imperial rule from the nobles, corporations, and local governments, Damirius declares the Imperium reunited and at peace with itself and steps down from the position of Tyrant, only to be elected Imperator by the Assembly of Lord-Generals (which some will later point out is by this time packed with Damirius’ supporters). From this time forward, the Velonnian Imperium remains unbroken by major insurrection or secession, though rebellion will continue to linger throughout.

1555-1558
Consolidation Period

Damirius continues to consolidate his hold on the Imperium, setting up the government and rebuilding infrastructure. To centralize power and gain the loyalty of the nobles, much of the debt of the various noble houses accrued during the Civil War is taken on by the Imperial government, and this, along with the Imperium’s significant pre-existing debt, is payed off through the sale of colonization charters in the Eastern Reaches, the vast expanse of habitable worlds to the Galactic East of Velonnian space. In the rapid expansion which ensues, the Imperium comes into contact with a number of other races and governments, many of which are already beginning to fight a war against an expanding insectoid race.

1558-1563
Noble War

The Imperium joins together with a number of new allies in the Torium Pact, which officially begins the Noble War against the invading insectoids, which are commonly referred to by Velonnians as the Shellterrors, after the insectoid armies of Velonnian legend. This legend plays a major role in the Imperial effort to boost nationalism, as Damirius and his military leaders evoke the ancient tales and traditions of war to rally the public and the military. The aliens are eventually defeated and largely exterminated. Their homeworld, ravaged by orbital bombardment, is renamed Triumph, and on one of the glass deserts is built the City of Triumph, an impressive collection of monuments to the war and the various combatants. Triumph becomes a communal monument world, jointly administered by the Torium Pact and the home of first tombs and obelisks but later great libraries and even universities.

1565
Formation of the MSI

Following its great victory in the Noble War, the Torium Pact nations continue to grow closer and more interdependent, and in 566 consolidate themselves into the Majestas Sempiternus Imperium, or MSI. The new nation quickly becomes a galactic power as it begins making contact with other factions in the civilized galaxy.

Spoiler:

[TetrahedronCaptain (PCG)]

Nice... seems to hearken back to revolutionary France a lot. I like.

I also thought the MSI's situation was interesting, in that it's effectively a loose confederacy of highly-centralized imperium-esque states. This description really sheds light on some of those aspects; nice job there.

Keep it up!

[Lord Admiral AriklegoLord Admiral (MSI)]

It all sounds great.

Do you think you'll be able to get dates for the different events sometime soon? If only so I can get any backstory of my own underway and have some idea of how long different events are.


Also, do you think we could do some small roleplaying/stories based on the War of Unity?

[GuestGuest]

MM: That's the idea.

Arik: I'll see about getting that done; I think I have some rough dates somewhere already. Since I have no idea how the PCG-verse dates things, for now I think I'll base it off of the founding of the modern Imperium, since it seems likely that such a momentous event, especially administered by someone like Damirius, would be an occasion for resetting the galactic calendar.

As for roleplaying and stories, sure. I don't have any real details for that, so if you have any ideas, go for it.

[TetrahedronCaptain (PCG)]

As far as I'm aware, no one really has any solid dates; J-red did post his timeline a while ago, but based on discussions in the chat, those probably aren't applicable.

By my understanding, we have a "prime" lego-based PCG-verse about 400 years after TNG --so around the early 2600s-- a non-lego scondary PCG-verse about 150 years after TNG, and a third non-PCG-centric one for everyone to have their individual subfaction backgrounds without having to worry about reconciling it with with the "Prime" universes. Then there's a few minor alt-universes for the stories that need them, a persistent-RP universe, and... I think that's it. Of course, I don't think any of that got solidified, and I could've been misinterpreting/misremembering all of that, but still.

[Grand Minister Dyma AlcelLord Commandant (MSI)]

MAD, this seems really well put together. The Torium Pact is a nice touch as well, and once I get a chance (outside of homework, attempting to get a media server running, and other stuff) I'll incorporate that into my subfaction's history.
On PCG dates: I don't think anyone other than J-Red understands all the different PCG-verses, and dates, and which thing occurs where, and all that. Working from the modern Imperium's founding is a good idea.

[Dino27Captain (PCG)]

This is a fascinating and well thought-out history. Well done! Reminds me a lot of ancient Rome, nicely done!



I can shed a tiny bit of light of universes. 

Spoiler:

[TetrahedronCaptain (PCG)]

...Yeah, Dino pretty much nailed it.

Don't remember if I mentioned this previously, but J-red also mentioned having a subfaction-only universe. Basically, in the "Prime" and Trek-based universes, any part of PCG canon trumps whatever other canon there is- so, for example, if the foundation of the MSI here is in the 2300s, but the Prime PCG canon has PCG peacekeepers in the conflict in the mid-2400s, then the War of Unity is getting moved to the mid-2400s for the purposes of official "canon". In the subfaction-focused universe, however, this is reversed: to use the previous example, the War of Unity would stay in the 2300s and the PCG version would get retconned to fit.

TL;DR- In the prime universes, PCG canon trumps any subfaction canon; in the subfaction universe, it's reversed, so everyone can keep their awesome headcanon.

[GuestGuest]

Okay, I think I get it. Since I'd like the MSI to be geographically relatively isolated from the "center of attention" in the Prime and Trek universes (e.i., far from Earth, where the Federation and other Trek factions wouldn't have had a significant impact on its development), most of our history shouldn't conflict with either of the stricter universes. I would say we simply put the Velonnian Civil War, which was when the MMF was at its height as a mercenary/paramilitary organization, at around the "early PCG" era, when we were based on the Creation Lab and the MMF was an active player faction. So I guess that would put the Velonnian Civil War maybe 10-20 years or so before present day in the Prime and Trek universes, which would work pretty well with what I'm thinking as far as time frames go.

[Grand Minister Dyma AlcelLord Commandant (MSI)]

Sounds good. Do we have a map of where all the systems in the MSI are in relation to each other, or would you mind if I threw one together quick?

[Lord Admiral AriklegoLord Admiral (MSI)]

I've sorta got a map of the general regions, according to my own opinions/perceptions of the MSI's backstory, which doesn't really include the extra factions anyway.

If you'd like it... Uhh, I'm chaotically busy for the next... a few days at least. So honestly probably just go ahead, mine's not official or anything anyway.

[Grand Minister Dyma AlcelLord Commandant (MSI)]

Neat. I'll start working on it then procrastinate horribly for weeks.

[Lord Admiral AriklegoLord Admiral (MSI)]

Awesome. Me too probably.

(There needs to be a name for this. Collaborative Procrastination? Synchronized Lazing? Man, us PCG-forum-goers could get gold medals in the Olympics if this were a sport... )

[Grand Minister Dyma AlcelLord Commandant (MSI)]

I'm going to try and base mine off of this beauty:

WARNING: large image:

[TalmidCommander (PCG)]

I'm going to try and base mine off of this beauty:

WARNING SUPER LARGE IMAGE 600000000000x560000000000:

Fix'd.


To be safe, open in a browser tab, since browsers (at least my browser) resize images and things.

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/starmaps/media/winchhabhyg/HabHYG50lyHab_Large.png

[Grand Minister Dyma AlcelLord Commandant (MSI)]

Alright, so this is what I came up with last night:

Large image, recommend opening in new tab:

https://i.servimg.com/u/f21/19/09/30/90/msi_ma10.png


I'm probably going to try some other star mapping tools I've found to get a better handle on the different clusters, systems, etc.

[EDIT: Whoops, wrong image.]

[Lord Admiral AriklegoLord Admiral (MSI)]

Wow, cool. Yeah, definitely go for it.

The only thing is maybe to base it off of regions. Like instead of just sprawling planets around randomly have areas that they're in.

Aaand found that map.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f21/17/53/85/97/cheesy10.png

The idea behind it is that over the course of Velonna's history colonization efforts would've mostly gone to the right. ("East", so to speak )

-So the blue region is sort of the main "Core" worlds, to borrow Star Wars terms. They're the earliest-colonized worlds of the MSI, and also the most well-developed. A lot of them would probably be Coruscant-esque ecumenopolises with cities that cover most or all of the planet. The orange dot is where I figured Velonna would be.

-The orange region would be the next sector of well-colonized space after the blue one. If you notice the teal-blue dot in it, I was thinking that might be some sort of central point to a big circular cluster of colonize-able planets/systems that would form the main body of the MSI's territory, with both the blue and orange regions being included in the planet-sprawl of this galaxy-esque "cluster". Planets in this region would be very tightly packed the closer they get to the teal dot.
Essentially the orange region is the not-quite-as-old worlds of the MSI. They'd still be well-developed and well-populated, but not as much as the blue region.

-NOTE: This map assumes a few things with the MSI's history. One, that Velonna was colonized by somebody else. Probably a colony ship came in from one direction, found the first easily-inhabitable planet, and landed there. So Velonna would most likely be on the "edge" of its territory, with few if any nice, habitable planets in the direction that the colony ship came from.
Two, that they started sprawling after that. So after that first assumption, the whole map is basically just a big steady spread of colonization outward in one direction. The trend is that each region afterward is new, less developed, and less populated.

-Now, the green region is something different. Assuming Velonna is off to one side of its territory, and that the majority of the MSI's most important/earliest-colonized worlds are surrounding Velonna, that puts them in a bad position. Namely, the most important stuff is right on the edge of what is probably another, possibly-hostile faction's territory.
So this green sector is a big "barrier" of sorts. It would be lightly populated with civilians, but probably be very well defended, with a strong military presence, lots of military bases, regular patrols, lots of outposts, and so on. This would form a wall against any would-be invaders.

-Anyway, the yellow region's just the next step outward. Unlike in the map, it'd probably be sort of a ring (and thinner than I made it) around the blue/orange regions (thinning out the closer it got to the green). These would still have a few well-populated worlds, but for the most part they'd either be industrial worlds or agricultural worlds, with their purpose being to supply the inner worlds of the MSI.

-Ignore the red I think. It's supposed to be sort of an "industrial" sector, controlled mostly by the big-name megacorporations as a place to hold the bulk of their industry and resources.

-And lastly the purple region is the newest region of colony worlds. If the blue is the big city, the orange is suburban, and the yellow is the rural communities, the purple is the Oregon Trail.
Most of the worlds here would have just been colonized by ordinary people "looking for a simple life". Most worlds would probably have a city or two, or at least some kind of major spaceport, but for the most part they'd be lightly populated agricultural worlds designed only to support their own populations rather than other worlds.
Think Halo's colonies, Nik.


Anyway, I think that's all my ideas for the MSI's territory. I don't know where our sub-factions would be located, but I think it would just depend on how recently they and the MSI "first met".

[Grand Minister Dyma AlcelLord Commandant (MSI)]

Awesome. I found the "It's Full of Stars" tool (http://reocities.com/CapeCanaveral/7472/ifosweb/index.htm), so I'm putting systems into that. I just wrapped up Velonna (conveniently enough at 0, 0, 0 in the tool ) and I'll use the map you posted when making the other systems.
By the way, this tool is crazy detailed, so if any of you guys have data like planet mass, surface gravity, other planets in the systems, star type, stuff like that offhand I'd gladly take it and plug it in. I already have it all for my subfaction, conveniently enough. ;P Otherwise I'll just leave it all at default values and input it as more is revealed.

[Lord Admiral AriklegoLord Admiral (MSI)]

Coool...
I'm a lousy map-maker, so I might give that thing a try. Maybe if I ever get time to keep the Pirate RP going I'll try it out on that.

[GuestGuest]

The topic has been edited. The dates I'm using are based on standard years after the foundation of the original Velonnian Imperium.

We still need to figure out our name, as well. Any ideas?

[Lord Admiral AriklegoLord Admiral (MSI)]

Awesome. Looks great.

I better get to work revising my own backstory stuff, then... And I'll probably pick over the stuff with a fine-tooth comb in the process, so I'll update you on just how good it is.

As to a name, I had an unoriginal idea and thought of the "Minotaur Sector Imperium", almost like a spin on the current Minotaur Space Imperium, re-portraying it as if the "Minotaur" part refers to the region rather than our faction's "mascot" of sorts. But honestly I wouldn't mind if we tossed the Minotaur part, so I'll keep thinking. Maybe I can find some cool Latin word that starts with an M...

EDIT: Well, here's a list. Dunno what to pick though. http://comp.uark.edu/~mreynold/recint1.htm#M

[Grand Minister Dyma AlcelLord Commandant (MSI)]

The Ms that stuck out to me: Magnalis (Great), Maniamentum (administration of justice), Marearchus (admiral, fits with Damirius being supreme admiral), Millenarium (thousand, could be interesting if MSI had a "thousand" worlds - or thereabouts), Miscuare (to mix - if I find the noun mix, could be better, but refers to how the MSI is a mix of subfactions), Multoties (many times - refers to the many revolutions/wars?), Mundare (to purge by ordeal - refers to revolutions), Murale (a wall - the way it's been described in maps thus far, the MSI looks to be a wall along the frontier)

[GuestGuest]

I like Murale, and Mixturam could work for "mix." We could also just drop the "sector" part of the name and use Latin for all three words: messing around with Google translator, I came up with Majestas Sempiternus Imperium, which should (very) roughly translate to something like "Empire of Eternal Majesty," which I think is a name characters like Imperator Maxwell Damirius and Grand Admiral Meikall Greylark would approve of.

[Grand Minister Dyma AlcelLord Commandant (MSI)]

Yeah, that sounds good. Whatever you come up with, I'll follow, you're the Supreme Admiral after all.

[Lord Admiral AriklegoLord Admiral (MSI)]

Honestly, I really like that, MAD. "Sempiternus" sounds slightly odd, but the meaning makes it worth it in my opinion, and Majestas has a nice ring to it.

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