Koan Empire

After having ruled the system for three hundred years, The Koan Empire has fallen for all intents and purposes. But some Koa in the Republic still yearn for the day when their people might rule the system once again. Many are older families whose wealth was able to evade or wheather reparations they owed to the system. A few knights, paradoxically, openly declare allegiance to the fallen empire. Others take more active steps to bring about Koan rule again. A secret society known as the Blue Frogs--purportedly remnants of the first Empress's own secret police--actively scheme to undermine the republic by manipulating public opinion and capturing officials to brainwash and act as secret agents.

Formation

The Koan Empire's authoritarian rule began with the consent of its people. A massive attack by Vandal tribes on Koan cities, which resulted in the loss of one of their three floating metropolises, set the Koan people in a panic. While technologically superior to their tribal enemies, the Koa had organized their government in a loose, decentralized republic. Military, technology, and resources were controlled by a growing number of knights, each beholden to different interests and responsible for defending their territories. The only centralized government that oversaw the knights' fiefdoms was a bicameral legislature comprised of the House of Patricians (representing the upper class) and House of Plebians (representing the people). Travel across Sera and its moons was slow in those days, and the Koan knights were plagued by the same sluggishness and infighting that afflicts many legislative bodies, rendering them ill-suited to deal with a fast-moving, existential threat.
Deciding decisive action was needed to save the Republic, a celebrated knight convinced the Senate to entrust her with a consulship that would place control of all the Republic's assets and military in her hands to mount a counter-offensive against the vandals. With organized leadership, the Koan navy beat back the Vandal invaders. As the consul's military victories mounted, so too did her popularity among the Koan people. Eventually, she pushed the Koan forced deep into the Great Mangrove Barrier and crushed the tribes responsible for the attack, assuring they would never rise to attack the Republic again.
Upon her return, the people greeted the consul with adulation while the knights greeted her with suspicion. Despite an explicit understanding that they had bestowed her authority on an emergency and temporary basis, the consul showed no signs she intended to give up her power by declaring an end to the war. As the years rolled on with little sign of Vandal threats, a group of knights took action against her, martialling support for legislation that would wrest control of the nation from her and place it back in the hands of the senate.
The Consul, however, came prepared for such resistance. During her military conquest, she had captured an infant whom she named Corvus Vile. A Vandal with rare blue skin, Corvus was a sacred figure among the Tribe of the Crow, one of the most feared and deadly Vandal tribes. After raising Corvus Vile to serve her, the crow tribe hunters also did her bidding. She struck her opponents swiftly and with little warning. Her crow warriors, donning hunting masks depicting the blue face of their leader, assassinated all of the consul's opponents in a single night that historians called The Night it Rained Blue Frogs. Without any opposition in the Senate, the Consul solidified her power through legislation and installing the crow tribe as a sect of secret police called the Blue Frogs or, in their Vandal tongue, the Koa Ta. The Consul came to be known as the Unyielding Empress, and in a single night founded a dynasty that would last three centuries.

Conquering the Spheres

The Unyielding Empress did not stop at defending the Republic's cities and borders. Throughout her military campaigns she came to appreciate the military superiority her people possessed. Once the home front fell safely under her control, she set her sight on worlds beyond her own. The civilizations of the spheres had warred for control of Source for centuries before the empire's rise, but none had ever conquered the entire system. Yet, the spheres were littered with ruins of great peoples who had seized control of the system--ruins that provided a blueprint and many cautionary examples from which the Koa would take lessons.
The Koa conquered the spheres systematically and strategically over several generations. Few kingdoms could stand against their military might, but the early empresses were careful not to overexert themselves. Capturing a new sphere was always an event to be celebrated back at the homeland, but never one that should be pursued at the cost of losing what their forebears gained. The Koa adopted a carrot and stick approach to conquest, sharing their artificers' technology with those who submitted to their rule and unleashing their navy's full prowess on those who didn't.

Jotun

Militaristic and divided into autonomous clans, the Geit proved difficult and stubborn foes for the Koan Empire. The Koa leveraged their naval superiority, and many clans soon learned the folly of pitting their longships against Koan submarines. Parts of Geit warrior culture, such as their interclan rivalries, hastened their fall to the Koan empire. However, their proud warrior culture proved stubborn in other ways, notably their worship of warrior saints, who emboldened them to fight to the death in battle and encouraged wasteful sacrifices when conquered. The empire rewarded those who submitted to Koan Rule, abandoned the Old Ways, and aided the conquest of other clans by repairing and refueling their embermuurs--alowing them to expand and warm their cities.
Jotun's South Sea quickly fell to the empire, with most of its clans joining early in the conquest of the spheres. The North Sea, with its harsher climates and more traditionalist clans proved more difficult. The Koan Navy struggled for dominance of northern Jotun right until the day it fell, with the northernmost clan, the Habroks, never bowing to Koan rule.

Sera

One might not think of the Koan homeworld as being occupied by the Koan Empire, but in several ways, it was the first sphere they conquered. To prevent popular revolt, the empire left the Koan Senate in place to control domestic affairs. However, they merged the House of Plebians and House of Patricians into a single body, ensuring patrician knights--as more trained and well equiped for the Senate's gladatorial combat--would control the legislative process and follow the empress's directives. While members of the same race as the empire's people, the empire treated members of Vandal Tribes like any other conquered specie--in some cases worse. At best, a Vandal tribe conquered by the empire could expect to be stripped of their culture and, at worst, completely eradicated.

Source

Controlling Source and its nectar was a vital part of the Koan conquest strategy. Its orbit near Sera's two moons during the empire's rise and reign proved a substantial boon without which the empire might not have succeeded in its aims. The Koa's technologically-based military superiority required a constant supply of nectar to fuel. Gaining acccess to the artificial planet's nectar wells--and denying others from the same--was crucial to maintaining control over the system. Like most who conquer Source, the Koa built a city atop the nectar wells to maintain their control. As the Empire's reign continued, the seat of power increasingly shifted from Sera to the Imperial City on Source, which resulted in the empire's upper brass becoming increasingly alienated from the Koan people themselves.

Tyrant

The Scalfi of Tyrant proved difficult opponents for the technologically superior Koan Navy. Powerful warriors who had tamed exotic beasts and cavalry, at least ten koan soldiers fell for every Scalfi. But the numbers still favored the Koa in the end, with Tyrant's largely underpopulated and isolated tribes simply lacking the manpower to fend off an extended occupation. Even after Tyrant fell, the Empire adopted a reluctant respect for the Scalfi. The Unsullied Empress was even reported to have taken a Scalfi as a consort. They were still treated as second-class citizens among the Empire, but in a society as stratified and hierarchical as the Koa's, a person could do a lot worse than second class.
Of course, when a monster from beyond the stars threatened the system, the Koa's respect for the Scalfi didn't stop them from ordering the planet to be destroyed to spare the rest of the system. Still, in thanks for their sacrifice, the Koa awarded the Scalfi three of Io's moons--which is at least more thanks than the current residents of the spheres seem to be willing to offer the noble tortoises for their sacrifice.

Io

Io's many moons promised many resources for the empire to exploit, but also many dangers for it to overextend its reach. The Homyn far outnumbered the Koa, especially when counting the vassal races they controlled, and--while not as technologically advanced--proved to be the Koa's equal in intelligence and sophistication. However, their large kingdom was controlled by a few noble families that adhered to a strict cycle of primogeniture inheritance. With their enemies so graciously announcing their line of succession, the Koa were able to shift the balance of power and place pressure among the ruling families to suit their ends and conquer the Kingdom with little collateral damage.
Even in their avarice, the Koa recognized the dozens of vassal races that the Homyn controlled as a quagmire that could drain all of the Koa's resources if they saw the conquest as an opportunity to rebel. In order to ensure a smooth transition of power, the Koa left control and dominance of the vassal races in the hands of the conquered Homyn. This created an imperialist "sandwhich" of sorts, where the vassal races submitted to Homyn authority while the Homyn themselves submitted to the ruling Koa. The system proved effective, and most Homyn were happy to bend the knee to foreign overlords if they could still rule and exploit the natives and commoners who lived on their moons.

Mong Bal

From both a military and technological perspective, the Mong Bal proved a challenge unlike any the Empire faced. Their fleet of dreadnaughts and submarines would avail them little in a planet overtaken by desert. Unlike the other spheres, the Mong Bal had their own supply of Nectar through the Great Basin constructed during their prior reign over Source. The empire attempted to adapt their tactics by constructing a fleet of airships, who they hoped would rule the skies in the same way their submarines ruled the seas. But the invasion proved unworkable in practice, with the airships unable to fly above the warlords' city walls and the fleet requiring so much nectar that it would leave the Koa's other conquests vulnerable.
With all the other spheres under their thumb, the Koa couldn't bare to stop one short of a complete set. So, they resorted to a tactic that proved as surprising as it was effective, asking nicely. The Empire approached the ruling Great Basin Council with a proposition, the Koa would provide the Mong Bal with the airships they had constructed as well as other technologies that might benefit the warlords. In exchange, the Mong Bal would pledge fealty to the Empire. In matters of interplanetary politics, the Mong Bal warlords would recognize the Koa as their ruler. On the homefront, however, the Mong Bal would be free to communicate the change in regime to their subjects in whatever manner they chose.
The Mong Bal, ever talented at internalizing multiple contradictory truths, accepted. They displayed all the decorum of obeisance when their supposed rulers visited, while doggedly professing Mong Bal's superiority among their own people. The expression that the Koa sit atop the Mong Bal like a flea sits atop a dog became a popular aphorism for Mong Bal aristocrats to recharacterize their relationship with the Empire. The foreign "occupation" simply became another strand in webs of lies that the Mong Bal Warlords used to control their people. If a political dissident expressed support for the empire, the ruling class could justify their execution by saying they were a traitor to Mongbal. Meanwhile opponents who opposed Koan occupation would meet the same fate under the rationale that they were a traitor to the empire. The Koa were cautious not to disrupt their two people's mutually exclusive delusions of superiority. They rarely took action to enforce their rule against their Mong Bal subjects, and when they did they always made sure to have the approval of the Great Basin Council.

The Rim

Having conquered the inner-system, the Koa showed little interest or ability to conquer the Rim or subdue its pirate warlords. They mostly adopted a policy of containment, taking efforts to ensure that their citizens could not flee to the Rim to escape imperial rule. Rather than keep a permanent militay presence, the Koa opted to enforce their laws against fleeing citizens by funding bounty hunters to capture or kill those who they cared to chase. To make sure the pirate warlords or far-off kingdom of Andur didn't get ideas about disrupting Koan rule of the system, the Empire would occasionally showcase its military power to the outer system by sending their navy on ceremonial hunts to kill lions or space serpents.
Only in the Empire's later stages, during the rule of The Undying Empress, did the Koa place significant interest in holding the Rim. Even this conquest was not motivated by resources or control, but to feed The Undying Empress's insatiable desire to find the mythical Orphan Sphere.

Life Under the Empire

While the Koan Empire's reputation for being a cruel and brutal dictatorship was well-earned, the reality was a bit more complicated when viewed across the span of three centuries and dozens of worlds. For all the Koa destroyed, they also made valuable contributions to interplanetary society, providing a unified calendar, currency, and language to a system previously fractured by cultural differneces. To some, the Koan occupation meant unity and prosperity. To others, life under Koan rule was an oppressive struggle for survival.

Class Divisions

Social hierarchy in the Koan Empire was highly stratified along class and racial lines. At the top sat the royal family, descendants of the Unyielding Empress that passed on control of the empire through the female line. Beneath the Empress's family were the Patrician families, oligarchs who benefited the most from the Empire's conquest. A Patrician lifestyle entailed receiving the finest education, eating the finest foods, and the authority to severly punish anyone of lower caste who crossed you. However, the empire placed steep expectations for such priviliges. The Patrician ideal was one the upper class strived for, meant to be constantly improving, rather than a badge of honor that let the recipient sit back on their laurels. Patricians were expected to use their privileges to contribute to the Koan Empire, both through their achievements and strategic breeding. Patrician families who failed to impress the empire or brought shame upon it could have their status revoked and--on a few rare occasions--a lowborn Koa who accomplished great deeds could found a new patrician family.
Beneath the patrician caste were the lowborn Koa known as the Plebians. While Patricians were born from carefully arranged marriages, Plebians were mass produced through external fertilization in egg farms. Each farm produced citizens bred for specialized task, and while each of them were individuals with their own hopes and dreams--society as a whole viewed them as fungible parts to a greater machine. Plebians only enjoyed rights insofar as they were measured against non-Koa. Still, the Plebians were afforded token representation in the Senate, and the possibility of ascending to the ranks of a patrician was always dangling just close enough on the horizon to keep them complacent.
Below all the Koa were the other races of the Empire. A foreign race could never exceed the social status of even the lowest-born Koa, but among one another there was room for hierarchical shuffling. Non-Koa citizens' status varied depending on how the Empire valued their contributions and how complicit their governments were in submitting to Koan rule. The Koa preferred to leave the power structures of foreign powers in place in conquered territories when they could, and the life of a foreign noble under Koan rule could be quite comfortable depending on whether the imperial officials above them took a lackadaisical approach to oversight.

Industry and Technology

Koan technology elevated the quality of life of many civilizations under their rule. They often used industrialization to rationalize their conquests, arguing that they were uplifting lesser civilizations from primitivism through their conquest. However, Koan technological advancement did not stem from pure innovation so much as simulacrum. Their engineers' strength excelled at adapting ancient artifacts for modern use and mass production moreso than advancing scientific progress through research.
The Board of Artificers carefully monitored and prioritized which technologies the Empire would develop. However, unlike its modern incarnation, it functioned less as a check to ensure mass produced artifacts would not harm society and more as a check to ensure mass produced artifacts would not pose a threat to Koan rule. When it came to the replication of artifacts that would benefit the Koan Empire itself or its military, the Board usually threw caution and restraint to the wind. With access to a steady supply of nectar, the Koa were able to completely industrialize their homeworld through artificing. They outfitted their navies with mechs and submarines, automatons that could perform chores and simple task became consumer goods, knowledge and propoganda were easily disseminated through the use of printing presses and even films.

Culture and Religion

Like most aspects of life under the Koan Empire, culture was a feast or famine affair depending on where one stood in the social hierarchy. For those whose ideas fell out of step with Koan ideals, the Empire was a cultural ghetto plagued by censors constantly breathing down their necks. For those whose creations found favor with the Empire, they found substantial resources at their disposal to complete great works. The Empire certainly played favorites in the marketplace of ideas, elevating artists and creators to positions of great status. The favoritism became more apparent as Koan reign progressed. The Undying Empress constructed the Ziggurat Lofts, a luxury full service apartment meant to house the Empire's greatest minds. She crowned three individuals, called the Luminaries, who resided atop the tower--the chef, Hortensia; the propogandist filmmaker, Voden; and the engineer, Cid Graysmog.
While the Empire itself was a secular society, abroad, the Koa preferred to leave religious and cultural practices of their early conquests in tact so long as they didnot impair disrupt imperial affairs. However, their tact changed when a daemon called the Bride of Terrors led an invasion of the Waking World. Realizing the power The Dream World held--power that the Empires artificers wielded little power or understanding over--the Koa invested heavily in suppression of spiritualism. They heavily supported the daemon hunting organization called the Blades of the Morning, and did everything in their power to weaken The Dream World's hold over their charges.
Rather than turn to dreams, the Koa preferred to direct peoples' faith into the instutions of the Empire itself. Propoganda extolled the achievements of Koan scientists and artists. Generals of the Koan Armada took the place of gods and saints. Those that served the Empire particularly well were rewarded with a Triumph--a ceremonial hunt across the Empires territories, culimating a parade across the capitol to impress its citizens with trophies of slain monsters and leviathans.

Eugenics Programs

As the Koa solidified their rule over the system, they became increasingly preoccupied with eugenics. The empire firmly believed the Koa were the superior race on the spheres--they had conquered them after all--but they did not believe in their own perfection. Rather, the Koa saw their gene pool as a work in progress, one that would require many generations to finish. Part of these programs were accomplished through breeding, often using standardized tests and phrenology to measure the value of any given individual or family to the Empire's stock. However, as technology progressed, the Empire flirted with more direct interventions to the gene pool. An organization called the Eugenists became a font for the creation of powerful mutagens that would supposedly elevate the Koan race. Often using criminals and political prisoners as test subjects, the Empire's abuses of mutagenical sciences is likely the reason why they remain outlawed in the Chimera Alliance today. Perhaps the largest folly in the Koa's quest for genetic perfection was the outbreak of the Alteri Virus--a mutagenic plague that rapidly mutated any who came in contact with it. Alteri Island remains one of the most dangerous places in the spheres to this day, but also one that provides unparallleled insights into mutation and evolution.

Law and Order

As a nation ruled by a single person with unlimited power, how heavily the empire's boot weighed on the necks of its citizens and subjects depended on which empress sat the throne. Some were benevolent rulers, most famously the Unsullied Empress, who used Koan law to curb human rights abuses throughout the system--providing oversight and baseline protections for various groups in the spheres often subject to mistreatment like the Homyn's vassal races. The Koa also prided themselves on providing trials to any accused of crimes. While these proceedings were rarely impartial, they provided more due process than many members of the system were accustomed to seeing under the rule of governments without republican foundations.
More common were the empresses who kept order across the Empire through fear and brutality. Punishments for dissent were often swift and brutal. Sedition was a broadly defined crime that swept in any dissent against the Empire or its favored subjects. While the Koan Empire executed some criminals, it was not their favored punishment for individuals engaged in rebellious activities. A prison tower called the Spike loomed over the city of Balphuran where the Empire kept its political prisoners, who were subject to indefinite sentences in squalid conditions, but still kept alive to deter their followers from attacking Koan territory. When crime escalated from individuals to more widespread unrest, the Koa abandoned their judicial processes in favor of military ones. Particularly in the Empire's later reign, entire cities even suspected of engaging in rebellion would often be leveled by mortar fire.
While the Empire's laws were harsh, they were at least somewhat consistent in their application. A Patrician family could be brought up on charges just as easily as a low-born foreigner. Even the Empresses needed to watch their behavior, as the Blue Frogs were not above instigating a change in regime if they found an Empress's actions detrimental to the Empire's survival.

The Empire's Fall

Cracks began to form amidst the Empire's holdings during the reign of their last ruler, The Undying Empress. Afflicted by avarice and paranoia, she took many steps to preserve her own safety and power at the expense of the Koan Empire's well-being. She was infamous for rarely visiting the Kona homeworld, instead she spent her time on Source in the Imperial City as she grew increasingly alienated from her own people. Disregarding her forebears caution to avoid overextension, the Empress spent untold resources sending expeditions to the Rim due to her growing obsession with the Progenitors in an effort to find the mythical Orphan Sphere. She also garnered the hostility of subjects who had long remained loyal to the empire by levelling cities at the slightest whiff of dissension. Perhaps the Empire could have survived a regime under a cruel and paranoid Empress, but The Undying Empress proved stubbornly long lived, ruling the Empire for over sixty years. By the time she reached her centenarian years, her callous actions had lined up the dominoes for the Empire's entire collapse.
The person who ended up pushing those dominoes was an unlikely traveller from the Rim named Nasser Graham. Perhaps he was that rare individual gifted with the charisma to sway the course of history, or perhaps the system needed the perspective of an outsider to realize just how bad things had grown. In the course of seven years, Nasser and his crew--known as the Pride--united all of the spheres against the Empress. Even the Koa themselves, led by the famous knight, Sir Reglas, threw off the shackles of their would-be rulers to join the battle.
Eventually, Nasser rallied a navy to his side that rivaled the Koan Armada. As the two forces squared off for a climactic battle, Nasser again opted for an unconventional approach. Before the fighting commenced, Nasser and the Pride snuck into the Imperial City alone to defeat The Undying Empress in one fell swoop. Inside the Imperial City, Nasser defeated The Undying Empress's pet space serpent, Atrabaxis, and took the royal palace. Just like that, the three-hundred-year-old Koan Emprie had come to an end.

Remnants and Legacy

While the Imperial City fell swiftly, parts of the Empire still clung to life. Most notably their armada still patrolled the system along with their fleet of dreadnaughts. It took decades to dispatch their last remnants--a task which prompted the formation of the Corsairs. The fall of the Empire did not equate to the fall of the Koan people themselves. Much to the chagrin of some of the other nations, Nasser Graham's new regime recognized the Koan Republic as an equal to the other spheres in interplanetary politics--receiving as much nectar as the other nations.
That is not to say the Koa did not face reprecussions for their actions. The Republic has spent decades attempting to repatriate their people's crimes, hamstringing their naval power and voluntarily paying reparations out to the Empire's victims across the system. With nectar being more equitably distributed across the system, the Koa were forced to sink one of their two remaining floating cities--the technological and cultural hub, Bella Magnikar.
But while the ruling government worked toward peace, the Blue Frogs still waited in the shadows. With centuries to plan for the Empire's eventual fall, they plotted and martialled their resources in Koan cities. Many of their assassins, wealthy patrician families, and even their founder, Corvus Vile, cryogenically froze themselves to be awakened when the Empire returned. While they wait, the Blue Frogs' agents have subtly influenced the course of Koan society and politics, like poison building in an animal's bloodstream.
A generation after its fall, the Blue Frogs have been bolder introducing pro-imperial rhetoric back into public discourse. With many Koa suffering under the Republic's self-flagellating regime and witnessing the destruction of their moon Aspidie at the hands of the Homyn Prince Lucas, the Blue Frogs' message is attracting more listeners than ever.