The First Empire

For close to three hundred years the Unified Worlds has dominated the inner solar system and therefore the largest population of humanity falls under its aegis. And for three centuries the Commonwealth has worked tirelessly to ensure its citizens are shown the proper, government approved, history of humanity and its expansion into the solar-system.

Children are taught from the earliest age that before the United Worlds there was the Dark Time; a time of nightmare dominated by mysticism and forbidden sciences. This was the Age that gave us the bio-engineered horrors of the Tellan, the human-animal hybrids of the Pirate kingdoms and a slew of countless other abominations collectively known as the Adversary Race.

But worst of them, the one feared and hated above all, was the First Empire.

No records remains of the First Empire, and the United Commonwealth's secret services work very hard to keep it that way. So corrupt, so wicked, was the First Empire that the unwary could be corrupted by exposure to any trace of it centuries after its demise. Children are taught the First Empire used dark powers some would call magic and legions of genetically engineered super-soldiers, robot servitors that were fusions of flesh and steel and ships powered by esoteric entities. It was ruled by an abominable dynasty of incestuous aristocrats under a monarch who sought Godhood and would sacrifice billions to achieve it.

Ultimately, the First Empire destroyed itself in a brutal civil war triggered by the apparent assassination of its King by one of his sons. The resultant power vacuum allowed the Unified Worlds to rise and bring about the end of the Dark Time and in so doing secured a better, brighter future for the human race. Or at least those humans approved of by the United Worlds and willing to accept its beneficent rule.

Despite the best efforts of the United Worlds, not everyone believes the accepted history. Yet to delve into historical record is to risk attracting the attention of the omnipresent Security Bureau whose eyes are everywhere and whose agents could well be those closest to you. The UW is determined to keep knowledge of the First Empire restricted to vague history and a great many good citizens have disappeared over the years after questioning the narrative or seeking the so called truth themselves.

Whilst there appears to be no remnant of the First Empire, certainly within the inner solar-system, there could well be some trace of it out there in the outer system, beyond the reach of the UW. And maybe, it is not quite so dead as the UW would have its citizens believe.