I'm planning on making my own Zero-K custom campaign (in a mission format fashion similar to the Sunrise series that Histidine made) and was wondering if I could get some constructive feedback on the backstory. From my understanding, Zero-K has been flexible with its lore, with the main campaign offering its own take on events and the solitude of the player, while Planet Wars indicated there were numerous factions and superpowers and seeming to take on a life of its own (maybe I'm getting it all wrong, if so please correct me). I was planning on making my own alternate-timeline scenario and came up with the following backstory to kick off the campaign. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions I could use?
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First Steps
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By the end of the 24th century, Earth’s civilizations were pushed to their limits with local and international tensions breaking down any sign of peace and ravaging the world with what would later be known as the Gaia Wars. Following the aftermath of the war, the majority of the planet was rendered uninhabitable. The surviving nations banded together to form the Terra Union, an authoritarian government seeking to save the human race from extinction. They created the Terra Union Space Endeavors (TUSE) organization for the purpose of developing and facilitating interstellar travel so that the human race would be able to escape a dying world. By the middle of the 25th century, TUSE developed a light sail that could carry colonists to a nearby habitable world (dubbed Gerrator). TUSE sent the first wave of colonists along with some robotic drones (for the assistance of establishment of a colony base of operations on the alien world) and a security contingent to maintain order.
The expedition was a success, and with its success brought new hope for the people of the Terra Union. Further colonization efforts were made to adjacent star systems with habitable worlds, and in time the Terra Union spread throughout the sector. As the population grew, however, so too did the number of ideologies and philosophies the people came to adopt as they traveled to different worlds and landscapes. TUSE had also advanced the robotics technologies to form combat machines known as automata which helped to secure the peace no matter how far the Terra Union spread. With the advent of black hole drives, and eventually lightspeed travel, the distance they traveled to was quite far. While the Terra Union could avert straining their human military this way, they could not do the same for their political leaders and civilians. People occupying varying types of worlds lead to a plethora of cultures, many of them holding opposing practices or views with one another. This led to stigmas between people and unspoken rivalries between worlds, despite the same banner flying in their capital cities. This, in time, led to the birth of separatist movements who sought to break free from the Terra Union which bound them to their despised neighbors.
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Terra Rebellion War
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Out of the separatist movements that were spawned from this discord, some strong armed or coerced TUSE scientists to lend their research and used sympathetic military figures to access the automata in order to prepare for their inevitable rebellions. Others made lucrative deals to corrupt politicians who could see the oncoming storm. One way or another, however, the Terra Union was broken apart when the Terra Rebellion Wars commenced. Numerous planets or groups of planets fought both to break free from the Terra Union authority and also to crush their former neighbors-now-rivals. The bloodshed was incalculable, and the use of automata only expedited the accumulation of fatalities. By the end of the war, the Terra Union had maintained control over several planets and systems close to their capital world of Gerrator (the Earth now only a husk and grim reminder of their past). In the outlying regions, however, the more crafty rebel leaders were able to repel both Terra Union automata legions and also their rival rebels.
When the carnage came to a close, there were three major superpowers now fighting for control of the sector. The Terra Union, still in control of numerous planets close to their homeworld, now sought to reunify the dissidents by any means necessary for the survival of the human race, the memories of the Gaia War still fresh in their minds and the recent rebellions confirmation that if this conflict continued, it would only end in total annihilation. The second faction was the Col Khanate, named after the First Great Khan, Hoktar Col, a former Terra Union general gone rogue when the chaos started. After securing several planets and systems with the utmost brutality (both to the horrors of those who witnessed it and the awe of those who respected his might), he established a khanate that valued survival of the fittest to the highest degree and felt that conflict was necessary for the accelerated development of humanity.
The final superpower to rise was the Reyklast Kingdom, named after former social elite Henry Reyklast. During the Terra Rebellion wars, he used his excessive wealth accumulated through his family’s generations to provide relief to war-torn planets in his region of space, while paying off mercenary groups and rogue Terra Union commanders alike to help secure the neighboring planets. Believing that order was absolute and a requirement for a functioning society, and that hierarchies solidified order, he brought about a nobility system where he himself was declared the monarch when the war came to a close. He has managed to convince all people under his empire, both peasants and elites, that the strength of the Reyklast Kingdom lies in each and every individual and the roles that they play are all vital to the kingdom’s prosperity, and prosperous it has become.
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Sector Supremacy War
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The Terra Union, the Col Khanate, and the Reyklast Kingdom were the three major superpowers to arise from the ashes when the fighting was finished, but humanity’s conflict with itself was far from over. In fact, the decade of peace that ensued was only achievable because the remaining factions had to deal with repairing their own territories from the after-effects of war as well as rebuilding their forces (thus known as the 10 Years of False Peace). The Col Khanate was the first to launch an attack on the Terra Union, the succeeding Great Khan Regstak joining the initial strike force to seize control of Planet Povet and the still-under-construction Terra Union defense platform. Meanwhile, the Reyklast Kingdom built up its defenses in its outer-lying colonies to defend from incoming attacks.
In the Errui System, the Terra Union came across artifacts and technological wonders of alien origin, first discovered by TUSE Researcher Andrew Teer. TUSE immediately went to work setting up multiple research facilities for the purpose of studying and reverse-engineering the alien findings; however, discord arose when the Terra Union authority pressed them to apply militaristic uses to their research. Growing ever-more fed up with the authority breathing down their backs and hindering their research into more universally-beneficial applications to the technology being discovered, the TUSE scientists in the Errui system and other neighboring planets orchestrated a rebellion of their own. Aided by the alien tech, which they ironically repurposed for the sake of their own separation, as well as several hijacked automata garrisons, the technocratic Teer Collective was born. Despite being in-between both Terra Union and Col Khanate territories, they have done a miraculous job of holding their own, in no small part to the significant advantage their technology yielded them.
As it stands now, the Terra Union and Col Khanate frequently engage in heavy skirmishes for control over the sector, while the Reyklast Kingdom has begun to push towards Terra Union space following the completion of their defense platform network while fending off against Col Khanate interlopers and raiding parties. The Terra Union, pushed on both sides, has increased military presence both abroad and at home with more restrictions being set in place and moving ever-more toward a totalitarian rule. With the three major superpowers seeking domination over the sector, only time will tell which one will reign supreme.
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The campaign will follow a Terra Union general who starts out pushing into Col Khanate territory and trying to retake the planets originally conquered by the Khan.
