BACKSTORY
ISHKUR PRIME
There was a stirring deep within the subterranean chambers of Ishkur Prime. The long sleep of its Guardians is interrupted by a wailing electronic keen. Dim red lights flare to a pulsing bright yellow and the sleeping denizens of Ishkur
awake from absolute stasis to see flickering warning glyphs pulsing in alarm.
The Fallen Men have escaped from their tomb and found their way to the Royal Court.
The Vasari base surges to life...a compressed tachyon burst is fired at the last known coordinates of the Dark Fleet remnant and to the High Court at Gashidda. The core A.I. announces that the Genocide borders remain unchanged from
Ishkur's hibernation date and Ishkur's matter resource facilities are re-activated. No time for more...there are Men to contain again...to put back in submission...to return to the Tomb.
TERRA
It was the beginning of the golden age of man--when He stood at the edge of solar space and prepared to make his first leap...then they came and nearly ended it all. Centuries have passed since the last of the hated aliens had been driven away. No one ever knew why they retreated--Terra had lain in ruins and all that remained was to await occupation. The solar colonies had already reported slaving raids that had decimated the surviving populations and every orbital support and construction facility in Sol system had already been reduced to ruins. Somehow, they failed. The following decades...the Long Dark...had seen men scramble to survive. Beyond earth only a small remnant had managed to survive on Mars--all the other colonies were silent and populated only by the dead. Men and women fought for salvage, for scrap and for food water and clean air warring and murdering to keep and protect these scarce commodities.
Amongst the scrap and salvage of the Great War lay treasure. Treasures of knowledge and alien power that had never been known before by man. Alien devices and machinery that could be brought back to life with careful study and
experimentation. In time, bands of these salvagers and scrappers began to amass their own power...their own wealth and influence. They formed the great pos-war Zaibatsu--the mega corporations. It was not the government that brought
industry and resources back to society--it was business that brought those things back...and along with them, their own form of government. The Great Corporations--each with their unique alien knowledge and assets: Weyland-Yutani,
Soylent, Massive Dynamic, Tyrell, Umbrella and the others.
The Terran Economic Coalition--also known as the TEC Confederation--was the means by which each of these individual companies was able to to network and collaborate with the others. Even within the greed fueled machinery of the
mega corps was the desire for Man to be more than He had been. Mankind was lifted back on its feet by the driving desire to avenge itself on its ancient enemy--not by destroying them but by becoming better than them. New technologies were developed, alien concepts were taken by human scientists and applied in ways their originators had never considered. Mankind in fact and deed returned himself to glory. The jewel of mankind's crown was a secret found deep beneath the surface of Terra itself. Centuries after it had been planted sleeping beneath the soil of ancient earth, the alien ship--with its crew still intact, was taken unawares. The secret of travel between the stars--through tears in the
very fabric of space and time--was finally in the hands of men.
Now their enemy had a name--the Vasari and it was the Vasari Imperium that had so long ago brought humanity to the edge of extinction. Now that very enemy had given its strength to Man and mankind was determined to take the stars for
their own, never again to stand helpless before anyone or anything.
THE FALLEN
Fallen Men they called us. Our ancestors were ripped from their homes and torn from their parent's arms to serve the Great Imperium. Our self styled alien lords demanded servitude and submission without question and offered release
only through death. We were entombed within Dur'Himm Dur'rha...the Great Wheel of Stars. Isolated within a system from which there was no escape, we were forced to tear the earth with our own hands and only the most primitive of
tools. Breathing foul air and drinking liquid food we picked and scratched and pried every resource we could find from the barren rock beneath our feet and our masters would return taking it all and leaving only enough food, water and
air for the strong and healthy to survive.
But the visits of our masters became less and less frequent. On their last visit, the great and terrible Valkura--The Egg--simply stopped. Decades passed and it neither moved nor tore through our world with its Great Vortex. Finally,
some of the Fallen arose and with their tools began to work upon the great ship--to crack its shell and to take from it as it had so often taken from us. After a century of effort, it was torn open and within our hated masters were
murdered in their sleep. The Egg hummed and pulsed as it tried to waken but we smashed and tore at its entrails until it finally passed into permanent sleep. Deep within it, men found a chamber and a chair--the Throne of Consciousness--and those who sat upon it became Nephilim...our giants of legend, the true offspring of man and our other-worldly masters. They gained the knowledge and power of our former lords and the Great Egg was once more returned to life and then offered up to serve our needs. In a cataclysmic release of energy, it was sacrificed to re-open the star bridge to the center of our Master's realm.
Years within the Wheel have made us strong. The labor of our hands has built us our own ships from the shell of Valkura and the rocks where we dwell. Now we will return for vengeance...now we are the Lords.
THE NEW IMPERIUM
A revived mankind arises from Terra and at last manages to reach a new star...but the first expedition is nearly lost when it passes the gateway of the Fallen. Men of old, taken from us by the Vasari now stand before terra and they have no wish for reunion--no bond of fellowship. They wish only to take all from it. The great companies now bind themselves together completely as the TEC Confederation and the race begins to rebuild the TEC worlds before the barbarians at the gate are strong enough to return.
The Vasari juggernaut groggily revives itself and quickly takes steps to contain the Fallen. The Great Wheel of Stars at Ishkur has been made degenerate and the Fallen are massing to invade the Royal Court of Ishkur itself. It is the Fallen's place to serve the Vasari by offering their own lives upo before any invaders. They will not be allowed to escape. Ishkur's greater sister, Gashidda has also awoken within its Wheel and while secure finds itself besieged. Vasari forces must reunite and take back the Imperium here before the Whisper of Darkness is heard again here. Time is short.
The Fallen...Pirates...are loyal to none aside from themselves. They no longer care for the affairs of man or Vasari and consider themselves a race apart. Serving the highest bidder and striking those who are weak, they are a force to be reckoned with.
Will mankind push past the Fallen to the stars? Will it meet and defeat the Vasari there? Will the Vasari rebuild their ancient power and break free of the Fallen? Will they rediscover mankind? These things will be decided by you in the long battle between the TEC Confederation and the Vasari Imperium. Taking the map and core worlds of GDW's 1977 scifi board game Imperium, the New Imperium provides a Sins of a Solar Empire back story and game engine to play out this epic strategic battle between two re-emerging empires. This is a long multiplayer game with multiple maps and a future mod that allow for solo, 1v1 or up to 4v4 locked team play. Thanks to the Sins community for the help that made this possible and enjoy!
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