1.00 Praxium: Dead Empire Intro

Many millennia after humanity reached the stars, built, and rebuilt many empires, federations and regimes, the Great Imperium arose from the ashes of what was left, fashioned by the Five Founder – Five of the most power races in the galaxy. Multiple human factions unified with various allied aliens united to form the Praxium Imperium. The unification agreement took place on the world that eventually became the capitol – Praxius.

The Five Founders were:

• Humans of the Terran Sovereignties
• The feline Kalians of the Kalian Empire
• The gaunt humanoid Zagosians of the Zagosian Regions
• The reptilian Haskarians of the Confederation of Haskar
• The insectoid Krek’ik’kar from the Collection of Krek

This massive Imperium was the pinnacle of history for all races involved. Technology had reached almost magical levels. FTL was perfected after many years of using lesser technologies. Matter manipulation, programmable matter and medical sciences had all but solved all sentient species’ problems and challenges. Most disease was a thing of the past. Planetary terraforming was nearly an exact science. Cities in space were common through out the Core, as were floating cities in gas giants upper atmosphere.

However, like all major empires, the Imperium collapsed under the weight of it’s own hubris. After many thousands of years of prosperity, advancement and expansion, the Imperium began to crumble. Some predicted this fall and those that did were imprisoned or executed for heresy. The Imperium’s own greatness was it’s downfall.

The Collapse

It started on the Outer Rim worlds as old rivalries and grudges arose after millennia of dormancy. The Emperor was forced to choose sides and this only spread further hatred of the imperium. The Imperium began to fracture, with local wars spreading to sector wide wars and further. The Imperium Authority was powerless to stop it.

The Imperium did what it could but it was spread too thin and the wars had grown so savage that whole worlds were being rendered uninhabitable, whole peoples were being wiped out, and whole sectors were forgotten. All looked hopeless until the Back Rifts opened up.

The Black Rifts

They became known as the Black Rifts and out of them came hordes of ships that collectively became known as Ravens. Like a raging black flame, these rifts in space opened and the ships with powerfully strange weapons, piloted by alien creatures with strange abilities randomly attacked major points of the Imperium Wars, destroying both sides abilities to wage war any further. Like burning out the edges of a forest fire, the Black Rift Ravens seem to know just where to hit to slow the flames of war. Slowly, the wars died out and the factions retreated to their corners of the galaxy. Many of the major players were bombed back to a virtual stone-age by the Ravens.

The last Rift Raven attack was on Praxius itself and they showed no mercy. The once great jewel of the galaxy became a wasteland of ruin and flame. Great cities of the Praxius lay in ruin, some continents sunk beneath the ocean, and even the moon was even split in half. This was known as the Wrath of the Rift.

Magic Arises

As what many assume was a side effect of the Rifts opening (or perhaps a side effect of their weapons), signs of strange magical things occurring including new magical creatures arose on the worlds touched by the Rifts Ravens. Over the millennia after, people even began to show an aptitude towards manipulating this Magic. Many believed thsi was Magic returning to the universe to save them from the new Dark Ages while others think it’s an infection from the Rift Ravens.

Post-Praxium

The Imperium is a thing of the past, long forgotten. Time is measured now in Pre-Rift and Post-Rift. The time is now 3021 PR and there is nothing left of the Imperium and it’s greatness, except ruin, lost tech and legends. Worlds were left to fend and rebuild for themselves. Some interstellar starships still exist. However, many ships get lost when they travel too far, and many fear they were swallowed by the Black Rifts.

Prax

The great capitol of the Imperium is now called Prax by it’s people. It is a ruined world, populated by the descendants of the original inhabitants. Most every major race of the Imperium was represented on Praxius with a significant population. Now they only number in a few hundred thousand each, factionalized into kingdoms or city-states fending off the new savage dangers and creatures that now populate the planet.

Prax is a holy grail to many who remember. Now, three thousand years later, few remember the jump route and the few that do fear the Rifts. However, there are those that try and some occasionally make it. Some represent aliens that never knew the Imperium. Others seem to come from other worlds perhaps from the other side of the Rifts.