((
Lore from previous game))
Government System: The leading meritocratic power in both the Harthus and the Tylorisian Galaxies, the latter being the Oligarchy's name for the Novus Galaxy. Orthodox Meritocracy, as it is commonly known, maintains that a fair society can only be achieved through a rigidly defined and operated Pillar system, that has members of society placed into roles based on their aptitude, and advance purely as a result of successful fulfillment of their duties. The family unit, omnipresent in most other civilizations has been dissolved in the Oligarchy, as the idea of inheritance is seen as inherently unfair in Orthodox Meritocracy. The three Pillars that dominate life in the Oligarchy are the Military, Economic, and Cultural Pillars. Every citizen is a member of one of these Pillars, with a clearly defined rank within them. At the top of each Pillar is a single leader, and the three of them are the Triumvirate, the ultimate leadership in the Adrallan Oligarchy.
The Triumvirate: Exarch Genin Relacy, Arcarius Fellinas Retin, High Counselor Junnitev Presthith
Capital: Wegulj, on the planet Pa'anet'is'vomtu'sssn, in the Rrycuh system
Official History of Recent Events: Forty years ago the Adrallan Oligarchy saw the dawning of a new era. Colonization of the Tylorisian Galaxy had begun, and for the first time the Oligarchy spanned multiple galaxies. To fully appreciate this profound change, the Triumvirate declared that the new era demanded a new dating system, for no longer was the Oligarchy merely Extrasolar, but it was now intergalactic. And so year 560 of the Extrasolar Oligarchy Era was followed by year 1 of the Intergalactic Oligarchy Era.
In this same year, the Oligarchy embarked upon a war against the Solesian Republic, for its incalculable crime of attempted genocide in the Ahbrazz system. Though protected by their allies in the Communist State of Terran, the supremely skilled Admiral Relacy inflicted astounding losses against the Solesian-Terran Armadas. Fearing that the moral stand taken by the Oligarchy, combined with its military success, would allow it to dominate the Middle Galaxy, the Kingdom of Francia and Republic of Baekdu staged an intervention in the war, hoping to carve out their own take of the spoils from the Solesian and Terran states.
Though ultimately victorious, Admiral Relacy's battles against the vast armadas of the Solesians and Terrans took their toll on the much more limited Adrallan Navy, which had never had the need to grow to a large size, unlike the expansionist and war mongering regimes that dominated the galaxy. With the Adrallan Navy needing to recover from repelling the Solesian and Terran invasion, it was helpless to take the charge towards liberating the worlds held by the Solesian and Terran dictatorships. Instead it would be the Francians who first landed on Solaru, where the began to indiscriminately slaughter the local population for not being of the right faith. Baekdu forces soon joined them on the planet, and turned a blind eye to the slaughter since the Solesians weren't "real" republicans.
For several years the Francians and Baekdu fought a bloody war of attrition on Solaru, and the combined Baekdu-Azeratii fleet failed to dislodge the Solesian homeworld defense fleet (the Terran State had by this point fallen into civil war, an inevitability of a communist regime). It seemed as if the Solesian War would drag on for decades at such a rate. Fortunately, Admiral Relacy and the Adrallan military had by now recovered, and in the fifth year of the Intergalactic Oligarchy, the face of warfare changed, forever. General Xeben Bernin used the first produced Landing Spire to deploy his army well behind Solesian lines on Solaru, which allowed him to destroy three Solesian field armies in a matter of weeks. General Bernin's forces needed only a year to mop up the rest of the planet with light casualties, while the Francians slogged on to fight for the last city, losing millions of their soldiers in the process.
The Resurgent Adrallan Navy also began to conduct a blockade of the Solesian Homeworld once their final fleet was destroyed. Once Solaru was cleared, General Bernin's army, combined with Admiral Relacy's fleet, began the final assault against the Solesians, and soon had killed the Solesian dictator and accepted the surrender of the Planet, which was uplifted as a new Oligarchy, fully embracing the ideals of Meritocracy.
Those days were the height of meritocracy. Across the galaxy Meritocracy was rising as a power, with the Meritocrats in Soria moving to unify their system, the Azeratii Republic and Uksugun League having substantial parts of the government controled by Meritocrats, and even the Duke of Australias had embrace Meritocracy, even if purely out of political pragmatism. But this terrified the traditional powers of the Galaxy, Baekdu and Francia. They feared being encircled by the "Green Tide" as they derisively called it. In particular they feared the Azeratii Republic, near totally dominated by Meritocrats and possessing a powerful navy, would be a danger to their nepotistic regimes. Through secret agreements, Baekdu and Celtia would support the communists of Azeratii, and Francia would support the monarchists, and between them they would topple the Meritocratic regime.
However they greatly underestimated the ability of the Azeratii Popular Front. Never popular, even with heaps of foreign funding, the communists and monarchists never were more than fringe activists, easily kept in line by the government. Frustrated by this, Baekdu and Celtia declared that by defeating would-be rebels, the Azeratii were oppressing their citizens, and so invaded Azeratii, seeking to impose a communist government. The powerful Azeratii fleet kept them at bay for many months, until the Francians also invaded, hoping to impose a monarchist government instead. Faced with such an invasion, many members of the Popular Front lost their will to uphold their principles, and instead defected to support the Baekdu and Celtians, fearing the restoration of the monarchy. Friction over promises made in ill faith caused the Francians and Baekdu to quickly turn on each other during the war.
At this point the Adrallan Oligarchy, a power that more than anything else desired peace, entered the conflict, after diplomacy was time and again rejected by the haughty Baekdu and Francians. The Francian puppet state of the Kingdom of Solesia was toppled near instantly by a combined Adrallan-Solesian force, while Adrallan fleets engaged with Baekdu forces at Asadal, where they had been preparing for a preemptive invasion of the Oligarchy, had the Oligarchy not acted when it did. The Baekdu warmongers had accumulated a huge fleet by this time, able to simultaneously fight Azeratii, Francian, and the Oligarchy. However they were not alone, as the communist Celtians were even more eager than the Baekdu to spread their vile ideology at the barrel of a gun, and even the Uksuguns backed the Baekdu invasions, after having overthrown and outlawed their own Meritocratic party.
Beset upon by ambitious expansionists, the Oligarchy surely would have met its end if not for the sheer brilliance of Grand Admiral Relacy. Time and again he repelled the Republican armadas from the Oligarchy's space. Dozens of battleships fell before his fleet's might. Even as Francia and Azeratii fell to the Republican scourge, the Oligarchy fought on, and even the radical baekdu populace cried out for peace. But the Baekdu government, overwhelmed in the euphoria of expected victory, refused to accept defeat, and cast aside all morals and restraint in their desire to see Meritocracy burn. They developed a terrible new weapon, that disabled planetary shields, allowing their fleets to directly attack civilian populations.
The Baekdu were swift to use this atrocious new weapon against the Adrallan Homeworld, which they used to gleefully destroy the capital Naseban, wiping out the Triumvirate in the process. Fully aware that they had destroyed the leadership of the Oligarchy, the Baekdu sent out a mocking demand for the Oligarchy to surrender, with a time limit far too short for the Oligarchy to process the evil conducted by the Baekdu, let alone form a new Triumvirate. As could have been predicted, no surrender came within their ultimatum, and so the Baekdu began firing indiscriminately on other Adrallan cities. Four more cities were annihilated, and nearly a billion Montadonians killed before Admiral Relacy, acting on his own authority and no one else's, informed the Baekdu that the Oligarchy would agree to surrender.
The saving grace for the Oligarchy in the subsequent peace negotiations was that even the Baekdu people were appalled by the atrocities committed by their government, so they were "only" able to inflict crippling reparations upon the Oligarchy, rather than stripping away territory as well. To add insult to this injury though, the treaty of Asadal also proclaimed that the war was entirely the fault of the Adrallan Oligarchy, a profound lie, but one that had to be accepted, least billions more Adrallans perish for the pride and hypocritical morality of the Baekdu.
Both at the signing of the peace, and ever since, many in the Oligarchy have decried it, calling it a gross injustice, and demanding it be overthrown. And indeed, these are true statements, with a great deal of reason behind them. However, sometimes justice and morality must take a backseat to reality. Had Admiral, now Exarch, Relacy not made peace when he did, countless more would have died to the terrible new super weapon brought to bare by the Baekdu. However morally right it would have been to oppose Baekdu despotism to the end, the price was set to be unfathomably high, and it was increasingly unlikely that continuing the war would have brought even a modicum of victory once the Baekdu began targeting civilians.
Since the end of the Great War, the Oligarchy has been dominated by Exarch Relacy, with the other two Triumvirs, while still theoretically his equals, primarily following his lead. Much internal dissent has come from those who chafe under the weight of Asadal. Even the location of the treaty is an insult to anyone who knows their history, for just a few years before the end of the Extrasolar era, nearly a hundred million colonists from the Oligarchy had been killed by Baekdu colonists for the crime of existing, with war only being avoided by the tolerance and peace-seeking of the Triumvirate of the time. Particularly the youngest members of the Oligarchy hate the Treaty of Asadal, since they don't remember the deaths of nearly a billion of their citizens under the guns of the Baekdu.
Hatred for the Baekdu is near omnipresent in the Oligarchy, with the primary force holding them back from another war with the Baekdu is Relacy's brilliant mind and pragmatism, which sees the disastrous consequence of rushing into a war with the Baekdu and their cronies. There are a great many factions within the Oligarchy that plot and scheme for a renewal of hostilities, for the desire of revenge burns deep within their hearts. If Relacy were not the beloved war hero he was, these shadowy groups would have surely turned their knives on him by now, as they do on any soul foolish enough to even broach the possibility of increasing relations with Baekdu. Even Relacy has come under their ire since the ascension to the Pan-Galactic Community, even if the Oligarchy only joined after being promised and given a veto power.
The prevalence of these groups only grows larger, as products of the Cultural Pillar continue to emphasize the evils committed by Baekdu, and portray the Oligarchy as an unbeatable power, which encourages many young and impressionable minds to believe the Oligarchy should strike now against the hated Baekdu enemies. While the Military Pillar remains largely under the influence of Relacy, a growing number of younger officers are pushing for a more confrontational approach with the Baekdu, surely a result of influence from the Cultural Pillar. In contrast, the Economic Pillar is the least infiltrated by Cultural Pillar propaganda, and also less affected by the influence of Relacy, instead seeking a moderate approach to the galaxy, using the Oligarchy's economic potential to support the rise of meritocracy organically in other polities. This can be described by many as naive, considering that the other nations of the galaxy have repeatedly proven their willingness to use military force to crush potential meritocratic support.
Currently the Oligarchy has poor relations with most foreign polities, besides those within the Organization of Meritocratic States, which presently consists of the Adrallan Oligarchy, the Solesian Oligarchy, the Sorian Union, and the Popular Front government in exile of the Azeratii Republic.
Political Factions in the Oligarchy
Loyalists/The Relacy Faction
Leader: Exarch Genin Relacy
Other Prominent Members: Arcarius Fellinas Retin, High Counselor Junnitev Presthith
Ideologies: Orthodox Meritocracy, patient expansionism, gradual military build-up
Notes: The leading faction in the Oligarchy, most of the population in theory is a follower, and it can generally be assumed that any random citizen of the Oligarchy publically supports Relacy. Though not organized in any official fashion, the long standing praise heaped upon Relacy has de facto shifted into a cult of personality since his assumption of power. Relacy has personally denied any effort to engender this advancement of his status over the other triumvirs, but he has also done nothing to check it either. Public criticism of Relacy is virtually non-existent as a result. The greatest concentration of hardline Relacy supporters is in the Military Pillar.
Revanchists/The Heivia Faction
Leader: Director-General Beunia Heivia (of the Cultural Pillar)
Ideologies: Orthodox Meritocracy, Ultranationalism
Notes: The most powerful "Anti-Relacy" faction, though they would never adopt that label themselves, and many members hold Relacy himself in high esteem. An actual organized (though secret) group unlike the loyalists, directed by Director-General Beunia Heivia, who is the current lead member of the Cultural Pillar on the planet of Skyheart. She has a very popular following in the Cultural Pillar, and has significant pull over many media companies, which she's used to push the general message of the revanchists many times. A very ambitious Montadonian, she has gathered her support by pushing for a more expansionist foreign policy, to bring the Baekdu down through direct confrontation. Though she claims to support the traditional structure of the Oligarchy and has supporters from the Military and Economic Pillars, most of the membership of her faction, and virtually all of her major subordinates, are of the Cultural Pillar. The faction is suspected to be involved in many assassination attempts against moderate Loyalists.
Revanchists/The Yularin Faction
Leaders: Inspector-General Yularin Neiro and Overseer Yularin Tunsse (both of the Cultural Pillar)
Ideologies: Orthodox Meritocracy, Ultranationalism
Notes: The second largest Revanchist faction, which split from Heivia's faction when many members felt that she was drifting away from Orthodox meritocracy towards Cultural supremacy, though Heivia claims the split really occurred because of ambitions by the Yularins. The Yularins, who only share a first name by coincidence, proclaim support for a balanced triumvirate, even criticising Relacy for his de facto dominance of the current Triumvirate. Still, like Heivia's faction, they support coming into more direct confrontation with Baekdu, wanting to bring down the Republican scourge. This faction is also suspected to be involved in many assassination attempts against moderate Loyalists, as well as competing revanchist factions.
Revanchists/The Deduja Faction
Leader: Commandant Huissth Deduja (of the Cultural Pillar)
Ideologies: National Meritocracy, Ultranationalism
Notes: A more fringe offshoot of the general Revanchist movement, The Deduja faction repudiates the necessity of a balanced Triumvirate, claiming that the Cultural Pillar, as the largest and thus most important Pillar, should be dominate over the other two. Whereas the other leading Revanchist factions at least pay lip service to the idea that the Oligarchy should cooperate with meritocrats abroad, Deduja scorns all alien interactions, declaring all non-Montadonians as inferior races to be crushed underfoot. Alone of the Revanchist factions, Deduja speaks derisively of Relacy near constantly, in private at least. His dream is one where all other polities and races have been crushed and absorbed into a Greater Adrallan Oligarchy, as slaves to the master Montadonian race. This faction is even suspected to have orchestrated assassination attempts against Relacy himself.
Revanchists/The Officer Clique
Leader: Colonel Jikika Federu (of the Military Pillar)
Ideologies: National Meritocracy, Ultranationalism
Notes: Another fringe branch of the Revanchist movement, the Officer Clique is near entirely made up of (low ranking) members of the Military Pillar, unlike the Cultural Pillar preponderance of membership in the other factions. Also unlike the other factions, the Officer Clique hold Relacy in high regard, even privately. Their sole criticism of him is that he has not gone far enough to consolidate power and confront the Baekdu openly. More than a few members have even tried to contact Relacy and ask him to seize power and make the other Pillars de jure subordinate as well as de facto. Though he has refused every time, many members hold out hope he'll change his mind, though a minority, including leader Colonel Federu, are making plans for a forceful seizure of power for themselves. The practicality of these plans remain ephemeral however. Unlike the other Revanchist factions, the Officer Clique is not suspected of conducting assassinations.
Anti-Revanchists/The Influence Faction
Leader: Numerius Regun Weevin (of the Economic Pillar)
Ideologies: Orthodox Meritocracy, ceased military build-up, financial support for international Meritocracy
Notes: An open and public organization, though fairly informal in its structure, the Influence Faction cautions against wasteful military spending and costly direct confrontation with Baekdu. Instead they support a more careful and patient strategy of financially supporting meritocratic groups around the galaxies. Near solely made up of members of the Economic pillar, the Revanchists widely deride the Influence Faction as naive and cowardly. This faction is generally supportive of Relacy, and non-violent in their means of expression.
Society for the Restoration of Traditional Pillar Balance
Leader: Exchequer Tyrdale Bristine (of the Economic Pillar)
Ideology: Radical Orthodox Meritocracy
Notes: An open, public, and well structured organization, the Society is an extremely fringe group that believes Relacy has consolidated too much power, and a radical restructuring of the Oligarchy is needed to restore balance between the Pillars, which is a requirement for success in every field. They seek to replace the Triumvirate with a larger body of many high ranking members of each Pillar, to open the highest seats of power to more expression, reducing the concentration of power to just three individuals, who can be susceptible to external pressures, as seen currently. While extremely fringe, there is some overlap in membership between the Society and the Influence and Yularin factions, both of which are the least centralizing factions currently active. Due to the Society being solely focus on one political issue, the stances of its various members on other issues, such as militarization, vary widely.
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