The Alliance of Mutual Species is the interplanetary governing body overseeing the Ardent’s mission. Founded 400 standard cycles prior to the launch of the AES-Ardent, the Alliance has been a beacon for cooperation and mutual productivity in all regions of the galaxy, bringing all willing species and their territories into a bond of protection that is much stronger than its individual parts.
The strength of the Alliance is its people. Common goals and legal structures allow wildly different governments to coordinate, trading expertise and resources for the betterment of all. From the automated corporatists of Viront Z85 to the anarcho-syndicalist research groups of Geostation Kessler, as many ideologies thrive within the Alliance as there are individuals to hold them.
Many species and many planets are represented by the Alliance. The crew of the Ardent are a representative sample of the biodiversity within the Alliance’s population – the best and brightest, casting their light into the unexplored recesses of our galaxy.
Each planet within the Alliance is free to set its own agenda and craft its own laws according to the needs and wants of their population. These legal systems must, however, be compatible with and subordinate to the Alliance’s constitution, which defines the duties of the Alliance to itself and to others. If there is a conflict, the Alliance’s laws come first.
Some key tenets of Alliance law include: respect for the freedom and autonomy of others, prevention of harm, creation of opportunity, respect for difference, and making a fair contribution to the success of the Alliance as a whole.
Measuring Time
There is no single set time in The Alliance; each planet uses its own timekeeping, and the Ardent is the same, using its own timekeeping system starting from its launch date. Because it is a primarily human mission, each Ardent year is 365 days just like an Earth year. BA refers to “Before Ardent”, and A is “Ardent Time”. The first of the Ardent’s missions will be during the year A1.
On Earth, the current date is 2525 at the start of the game, exactly 500 years in our future.
A history of the Alliance
1500-411 BA, the Span Behind (Era 0)
It is understood that the MOTHER empire that preceded SHADOW developed and expanded across the stars in this time period. However, the secrecy with which SHADOW and its predecessors operated, along with the destruction of much of their records during MOTHER’s collapse, makes it difficult to pinpoint a timeline for their period of expansion and conquest.
- 1500-1000 BA: pre-Alliance astronomers across the galaxy definitively identify the presence of a civilisation within and around the galactic Core. These beings, distant and unknown during this time, would come to be called THRONE.
- ~600 BA: first recorded contact between THRONE and another species, when a Skala probe entering the Core region is scooped up by a THRONE drone-swarm. The probe manages to beam back a record of its greeting, and of THRONE’s handshake protocols, before it is dismantled. The exact date of this altercation is unclear – when the message is received on Ok Yator, it is degraded beyond what would be expected from the distance travelled.
- 455 BA: the Omdua achieve crewed extrasolar flight through primitive manifold collapse drives. After a few decades of expansion into the Vista arm, they begin to explore the neighbouring Forest.
410-281 BA, the Birth of the Alliance (Era 1)
- 410 BA: first contact! The Omdua encounter the Tever on the planet Arliris.
- 400 BA: Omdua and Tever dignitaries sign the Alliance Constitution on the 10th anniversary of first contact, forming the Alliance of Mutual Species.
- 343 BA: Alliance scouts enter the Core region and physically encounter THRONE for the first time. Diplomacy is polite, but cold – and comes to an abrupt end when it becomes apparent that THRONE have been capturing (and/or destroying) any vessel that breaches their blockade. This incident stirs up stigma against synthetic species – so much so that the initial drafts of the Convention on Non-Biological Personhood, later overturned, largely prohibit the creation of intelligent artificial life.
280-201 BA, the War of the Spur (Era 2)
- 280 BA: the Alliance’s settlement of Core-adjacent systems causes conflict with THRONE, who are themselves expanding outward. Relations, already icy, deteriorate – and Alliance politics increasingly pivot towards strategic maneuvers against THRONE.
- 277 BA: the nascent Alliance expands into the Spur arm and encounters warships belonging to MOTHER – a star-spanning empire, with a hostile and extractive approach to its tributary planets.
- 250 BA: after more than two decades of mutually disastrous engagements and strategic retreats, the Alliance and MOTHER engage in formal relations. While MOTHER is disinterested in overtures of friendship, it does acquiesce to a ceasefire between the two polities.
- 235 BA: the “scare” of averting conflict with MOTHER pushes defensive development in the Alliance, especially as tensions with THRONE mount. Basil’s Cluster, a sector in the Vista arm close to the Core and home to independent civilizations, becomes a target of Alliance military interest.
- 234 BA: Battle of Glittering Gulf. A cascade of errors and miscalculations leads to the first – and only – full military engagement between Alliance and THRONE vessels, which rapidly spirals out of control. Losses on both sides are great, and the damage to local neutral systems is catastrophic. The conflict only ends when cooler heads within the Alliance and an unknown faction within THRONE collude to stand their ships down, preventing an escalation to system-scale weaponry.
- 229 BA: an Alliance fleet commander defies protocol to fend off a MOTHER attack on Ok Yator, bringing the Alliance into contact with the Skala for the first time.
- 220 BA: Alliance intelligence indicates the rapid reconfiguration of MOTHER’s economy, as the empire pivots to catching up with the Alliance’s technological advantage. MOTHER holds more planets and controls more space within the Spur than the Alliance does across the three galactic regions it has explored – but the Alliance has better guns and faster ships. The cold war continues.
- 201 BA: Day of Accord. A much-delayed ceasefire agreement (originally set for the 10th, then 20th, then 30th anniversaries of Glittering Gulf) is ratified. THRONE and the Alliance commit to strategic restraint, and the shattered moon Hester in Basil’s Cluster is established as a permanent shared memorial. Though conflict with THRONE formally ends, competition continues.
- 219 BA: the Skala sign the Alliance Constitution, cementing the precedent for 10 year probation periods on new species joining the Alliance. This sparks retaliatory strikes from MOTHER, with hostilities threatening to boil over into a full-blown war.
- 213 BA: after a failed internal coup, MOTHER recalls and executes many of its generals, and begins to consolidate its core of highly-developed planets in the Spur. Alliance scholars generally mark this year as the beginning of MOTHER’s end.
200-53 BA, the Joining (Era 3)
The Alliance consolidates its holdings during this period, and further planetary developments occur across Alliance territory. Progress is bottlenecked by the need for land and resources, as habitable planets are few and far between (and, usually, already inhabited).
- 200-186 BA: visible fractures emerge in MOTHER’s society as oppressive measures mount. The Alliance’s offers of assistance, or relief for stricken tributary worlds, are rejected – ultimately, these attempts at intervention only increase the paranoia of MOTHER’s ruling elite.
- 185 BA: THRONE launches a surprise incursion on the Successor’s Estate, the heart of MOTHER’s empire. Their intentions are, as ever, unclear, but the imperial guard fleet manages to fend off the more advanced interlopers with sheer firepower. Geostation Kessler is reclaimed by the Alliance from the aftermath of the battle.
- 103 BA: Viront Z85 is discovered and swiftly colonised by private corporations, who see opportunity in the planet’s rare bimodal climate.
- 101-96 BA: interest in the Helium Lanes’ abundant resources drive Alliance explorers to the Horizon arm, where they discover the planet Chetom and the Vari who evolved there. After a mere five years, the vari are fast-tracked to Alliance membership – on the grounds that conditions on Chetom are so brutal that a full probation would constitute cruel and unusual treatment. This characterisation of their lifestyle is disputed by some Vari groups, but the species by-and-large jumps at the opportunity.
- 90-61 BA: the Antediluvium. Authoritarianism in MOTHER peaks, as the imperial sovereigns and their vassals desperately try to secure their positions. Research into new forms of planetary, solar, and system-scale weaponry begins, as well as a number of dark science initiatives. These are poorly conceived and frequently unintentionally dangerous. Alliance consensus is that such undertakings mainly consist of desperate attempts to curry favour within the ruling class.
- 71 BA: the scientific minds of the alliance converge on a workable method for terraforming a planet to a habitable state within a generation – a necessary technology, given the Alliance’s booming population and relative lack of developed worlds. They are offered the young but barren planet of Sultonia in the Horizon arm, on which they will test their process at the intended scale.
- 63-53 BA: a spacecraft crewed by Humans and Anthroids from Earth follows an Alliance signal to a rendez-vous in the proximity of the star Orion, introducing both species to the galactic community. After extensive debates over synthetic personhood and the retroactive applications of Alliance law against signatories, humans and anthroids are permitted to join the Alliance.
- 60 BA: years ahead of even the most pessimistic Alliance projections, MOTHER disintegrates into violent conflict – as social contradictions surface, and local uprisings cascade into full-on anarchy. Among other territories, the planet later known as Marzion IX falls into Alliance control.
- 59 BA onwards: In the aftermath, the Alliance becomes aware of a new threat – survivalist remnants and rebels who have survived MOTHER’s collapse, and who prefer to live as bandit-lords rather than negotiate with their old enemies (or chattels). These forces are swiftly codenamed SHADOW.
52-20 BA, the Age of Plenty (Era 4)
SHADOW corsairs continue to harass Alliance settlements and undermine their rival’s efforts. The development of FABREP is heralded as the salvation of billions, but the emergence of new threats from the dark corners of the galaxy gives the Alliance a new heading.
- 52 BA: fabrication/replication technology (FABREP) develops from the reverse-engineering of Kessler’s onboard recyclers and the combined efforts of the Alliance’s scientists, allowing food and common materials to be created from mere energy.
- 51 BA: the Marz Union takes control of Marzion IX, adding the gas giant to their portfolio of industrial working worlds. Securing this source of RC, the gaseous compound needed for FABREP machines to function, allows the technology to proliferate across the Alliance extremely quickly.
- 50 BA: the Alliance high council agrees, after much deliberation, to the Ardent Initiative – the creation of a sophisticated scientific vessel which can travel into the unexplored recesses of the galaxy and discover whatever dwells there. Some acquiesce to the plan in the hope that the Alliance will be prepared for invasion, others are motivated by scientific curiosity.
- 49 BA: the Ardent Initiative is formed, and begins to discreetly recruit highly skilled individuals from the Alliance at large.
- 40 BA: the first Testing/Observation Matrix is created.
- 38 BA: the first CIRCUS manifesto is published – a call to arms for artists across the galaxy to shed their previous allegiances and join in the creation of something “marvellous”. It is generally dismissed as the fancy of an extranet troublemaker.
- 37 BA: the first CIRCUS performance ends with hundreds of thousands dead, and several continents obliterated. The charismatic individual codenamed LEADER swiftly becomes public enemy #1 within the Alliance.
- 35 BA: Alliance politics and the ongoing threats from THRONE stymie attempts to intervene in what is now dubbed SHADOW-space. Conflict overspills into Alliance and neutral systems, and is contained at great cost. The cost within SHADOW space is greater as MOTHER’s infrastructure is plundered, people are displaced, and political geography is constantly reconfigured.
- 30 BA: construction of the AES-Ardent begins.
- 23 BA: MOSAIC life forms are identified for the first time, recontextualising the composition of the Forest arm of the galaxy. Citizens who witness the emergence of MOSAIC entities are asked to contact their local or planetary authority as soon as possible, while maintaining a safe distance.
- 20 BA: the Ardent Initiative becomes public knowledge.
19 BA – A0, the Long Voyage (Era 5)
- 5 BA: SHADOW has remained a great intractable problem for decades. Alliance politics has focused primarily on containment of criminal elements and overspilling externalities, while new and dangerous elements form and SHADOW’s populations resort to desperate measures for their own survival.
- 2 BA: the Ardent’s final mission goals are announced. THRONE are not mentioned directly, but working with, against and around them is clearly in the mission’s DNA.
- A0 – after a decade of clandestine development, and on the 400th anniversary of the Alliance’s formation, the AES-Ardent prepares for launch from Sultonian space. She awaits only the confirmation of her crew manifest before she takes her maiden voyage…