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History

Three hundred years after humanity fled a devastated Earth, the Intergalactic Federation of Systems has begun to crumble. As criminal syndicates, ruthless corporations and new autocracies amass their power on the fringes of known space, the IFS loses ground to enemies within and enemies without. The exies wait as their longtime oppressors’ federation collapses.

The fate of humanity has never seemed bleaker...

Welcome to Refuge.

Timeline of Events

The timeline of the Refuge universe spans several hundred years of future history, from the near-destruction of the human race during the Massacre at Earth, to humanity’s campaign of conquest in the First Terran War, to the holocaust at Avis in the closing hours of the Second and the opening years of the Great War between Ienet and the IFS.

Early Human Colonization

In the beginning of the twenty-second century, the first pioneers into the vast expanses of space left Earth in search of new inhabitable systems and planets. This blind, grasping exploration sowed the seeds for the catastrophic devastation of Earth in 2337 CE, an event colloquially known as The Massacre.

A large strike force of Tau OBPs arrived at Earth on the 26th of July in 2337 CE, having previously encountered belligerent human colonies on Aile, in an attempt to eradicate the fledgling interstellar power. The vast majority of Earth’s population was killed in the initial orbital bombardment. Fewer than two million survived, and the United Nations immediately began efforts to leave the environmentally-devastated planet.

Made possible by the massive and unharmed fleet of mining craft in orbit around the gas giants, the Exodus from Earth was quickly initiated. Hundreds of thousands of survivors were evacuated from the planet over the next eight years, beginning with the First Exodus in 1 MR and terminating in 8 MR with the final relocations to Icre. Upon establishing an industrial presence on the planet, preparations were rapidly made for a violent confrontation with the forces that had sought to destroy humanity.

First Terran War
(21 MR - 23 MR)

The first wide-scale engagement with exies, a pejorative abbreviation of “extraterrestrial,” occured in 21 MR, with the First Battle of Meyek Prime. A vicious series of hit-and-run military strikes upon the planet secured the planet’s unwilling cooperation in the greater conflict. The human forces established a Terran Federation of Systems with the inhabitants of Meyek Prime, Icre and Avis.

With only the waning Solari Ascendancy, the Avis and Tau remaining as threatening interstellar powers, the TFS united with the SA in the latter's hope for the creation of an interstellar federation of equals. Both moved on the Amas and quickly secured their surrender.

In 23 MR, the TFS moved to engage the Tau in the bloody, retributive First Battle of Tau. The TFS double-crossed their SA allies and quickly moved to occupy their home planet of Solari. The extraterrestrial interstellar powers were subdued, more due to the shock of such a violent, maurading force, and the TFS, now with the tacit agreement of the inhabitants of Amas, Solari, Tau, Meyek and Avis, reformed as the Intergalactic Federation of Systems with the forces of humanity at its head.

Early IFS Dominance
(23 MR - 46 MR)

The first years of Terran control over the galaxy were marked by rapid expansion by human forces and a consolidation of human interests in known space. The Amas and Tau attempted to recover from the devastating IFS attacks during the First Terran War, and the IFS presence on Solari precluded a reassertion of Solari Ascendancy power. The IFS’s relationship with the Avis and the residents of Meyek was far more cordial, and offered the IFS their only major allies.

In 27 MR, the Tau began demanding reparation for the First Battle of Tau-11, a claim that was dismissed by the IFS, setting the stage for the Tau Insurrection in 46 MR. The Eza Syndicate first makes an appearance on the Federation stage in an infamous piracy incident, but disappeared almost immediately.

Tau Insurrection
(46 MR)

Twenty-five years after the conclusion of the First Terran War, the Tau sent a strike force to Aile and held a colony of two hundred humans hostages, and demanding recognized independence from the IFS and threatening execution of the hostages. An attempted rescue operation on the part of the IFS failed catastrophically, and both the members of the rescue operation and the hostages were executed by the Tau.

The IFS reached Tau in the last months of the 46 MR. A strong ground defense prevented the IFS from pursuing another bombardment, and the Tau retreated to the planet’s surface after two days’ fighting in orbit.

Geological and climate activity on Tau-11 was at a high point, making fighting particularly difficult for the IFS’s largely human ground forces. They suffered heavy casualties, but managed to destroy enough of the ground defenses to permit an orbital assault. They withdrew without warning and began to carpetbomb the planet with thermonuclear weapons. The Tau surrendered within hours of the first barrages.

Peace and Stability
(46 MR - 116 MR)

A relatively long expanse of time during which there were no major conflicts. The usually-belligerent Tau remained quiet and made little overt opposition to IFS authority. While the IFS remained largely human-centric, it began to reach out to the Amas and Avis, with varying levels of success. Meyek Prime bcame an important cultural center, representing perhaps the greatest cooperation between humans and exies seen. All in all, the galaxy saw a time of great technological and cultural advance.

Second Terran War
(116 MR - 127 MR)

In 116 MR, a highly virulent strain of Variola was introduced to the human population of Meyek Prime. The virus spread rapidly through the human population, and those humans who did not immediately perish left the planet.

Within a year, the epidemic had been traced to a vocally anti-human and anti-IFS organization based on the nearby Avis.

The IFS, in an attempt to prevent another crisis like the Tau Insurrection, immediately declared martial law on both Icre and Avis, an action that was faced with immediate, violent revolution. Nearly all members of the IFS political authority in the system were executed, and the IFS military routed. The human populace was split, with some quickly taking steps to move offworld, with others fully supporting the revolutionary governments.

The Tau, left the IFS weeks after entering talks with the newly-formed Interim Republics of Icre/Avis (IRIA). The IFS quickly moved to threaten Tau-11 with an invasion force, only to be rebuffed by the combined forces of the IRIA and Tau, armed with a number of planetary EMP cannons. The IFS craft were quickly disabled and destroyed.

The catastrophic Third Battle of Tau started a chain of secession: the Amas seceded, followed quickly by the Aile and Keth systems. The IRIA, along with the Tau and new systems, formed the Second Insurrection, or SI.

Again summoning the assistance of the Eza Syndicate to disrupt SI supply lines, the IFS began scouting outlying planetary systems for military resources while refraining from engaging in direct conflict with the SI.

Their limited expansionary success—Call, Ulread, Ienet and Selus joined the IFS ranks and began to be populated by colonists—did not prevent Renve from seceeding after an Eza attack upon a passenger craft less than a year later.

The first major break in the temporary peace between the SI and IFS took place at Telren, the sole IFS stronghold between the SI and Solari Theta.The Seige of Telren took place over a year, a nearly-continous blockade of the planet broken only by sporadic appearances of IFS and Eza fleets in attempts to deliver supplies and break the blockade. After the year and with no surrender from Telren, the SI invaded. The colonists were miraculously able to rebuff the SI, and were rescued with the timely appearance of a well-armed IFS fleet.

In 2459, the SI broke through at Alcesar, capturing the planet at an enormous risk. Alcesar sat between the two spheres of influence the IFS possessed - the first, centered at Solari Theta and encompassing its immediate surroundings and its larger sphere of territorial influence in the mining sector. Alcesar quickly became a SI stronghold- the already present industrial strength resulted in its being put to use as another industrial center, as well as a chokepoint for IFS trade lanes. The IFS, at the urging of Eza, began to adopt hit-and-run tactics - striking at trade routes and even destroying civilian targets. Telren was established as a foothold for the IFS within SI territory, and Alcesar was established by the SI as a foothold in the IFS’s.

Land campaigns quickly became the new format of war - ground-to-space technology had advanced too quickly to make sustained orbit bombardments an effective option against heavily industrialized worlds.

The Eza Syndicate managed to break through with a lengthy series of land battles on Keth, liberating the planet and leaving Solari Theta undefended against only Alcesar and Icre/Avis. The SI began a length siege of Caal in an attempt to capture one of the more valuable planets of the mining sector. The IFS, sensing the SI’s preocupation with its attack on Caal, lashed out at Alcesar in 122 in an attempt to recapture it. The misguided attack failed dramatically, with a relatively small group of SI cruisers and carriers managing to beat back the IFS attack fleet.

The IFS sent another attack fleet in 123, again failing to break the enemy lines. Late in 123 the SI, after sending a large fleet to bolster their already-present forces at Caal, managed to capture it within the time frame of several extensive battles. The IFS struck again at Alcesar, capturing it in a show of military might. After successfully capturing Alcesar, the IFS sent a fleet of orbital bombardment platforms to Caal.

The attack fleet opened fire on the planet with the assistance of eight new Advent Horizon-class frigates armed with superheavy rotary Gauss cannons. The land forces of Caal were almost entirely decimated. The sheer brutality of the attack triggered geological activity on the surface, sparking several earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. With Caal suitably pacified, the IFS regrouped at Telren and prepared to strike out at the weakened SI.

The Eza Syndicate turned against the IFS in early 125 before news of the loss of Alcesar had reached the ears of the mercenary guild. It has been suggested that in exchange for assistance from the Eza Syndicate, the SI had indicated its willingness to offer the Syndicate control over several planets—likely Keth and Ulread—following the dismantling of the IFS.

By 125, the Second Terran War had reached a temporary stalemate. It would take a massive campaign on either side to take even a single of the border worlds, and the resources of the IFS and SI were too few to carry out the attempt.

It was only with a long-term IFS covert operation on Avis’ surface involving some of the humans who had elected to stay on the planet following its secession and initiated by the infamously ruthless and newly-promoted Telrenese Admiral Hermann Koch, that the IFS was able to open up a momentary window in the SI’s planetary defense systems.

No orbital defenses were active when no twelve Advent Horizon-class cruisers arrived at Icre, flanked with several IFS battlecruisers and dozens of smaller craft. Virtually every living thing on the surface of Avis was killed in the thermonuclear fire that consumed the planet’s surface. The massive civilian and military casualties, including virtually the entire SI command hierarchy, resulted in the dissolution of the SI immediately after word of the obliteration reached the ears of other SI member systems. All were reintegrated with the IFS in 127, marking the end of the Second Terran War.

The treacherous Eza Syndicate was outlawed, but political attentions were turned to reconstruction rather than destroying the Syndicate. The Terran Wars were over, and the IFS’s control over the galaxy was solidified.

The Great Calm
(127 MR - 270 MR)

After the horrifying bloodshed of the Second Terran War, the galaxy enjoyed a period of relative calm and reconstruction. Despite grumblings and the occasional minor insurrection from the planets subjugated under a solidified IFS hegemony... lorem ipsum...

The Great War
(270 MR - )

As the Refuge RPG proper takes place in the opening days of The Great War, the remainder of the chapter primarily concerns the people, places, technology and events surrounding the year 270 MR.

Factions

Each planet in the Refuge RPG is affiliated with at least one of four political factions.

Intergalactic Federation of Systems

The most powerful of the four major factions, the IFS has existed in some recognizable form since the early years of the First Terran War. The IFS was originally intended to be a federation de jure, with a central human authority maintaining dominance over its constituent systems, but the vast distances separating them and the IFS’s loosing grip on centralized power largely dictated its transformation into a less-regulated confederation. That the IFS has in the last centuries begun to loose its grip on the unimpinged authority it enjoyed in the years following the Second Terran War has little bearing on the IFS’s absolute power—a powerful force in its own right, the IFS maintains a powerful military, and factions within it are unwilling to see its dominion over known space further dissolve.

The IFS is structured as a federation—each of the systems in civilized space are represented on the IFS Council on Solari Theta. A chairman of the council, typically a prior representative of an IFS system on the Council, is elected every five years by the representatives on the IFS Council. The IFS Chairman’s primary authority lies in his position as the sole source of accountability for IFS Internal Affairs. The IFS maintains a standing Army, Navy and Marine Corps, alongside an internal affairs force.

IFS Military
IFS Internal Affairs

IFS Internal Affairs seeks to maintain the authority of the IFS in civilized space, at nearly any cost. They answer only to the IFS Chairman.

Olea Corporation

Certainly the most powerful corporation in known space, the Olea Corporation has transformed over time into a vast conglomerate of military and ordnance manufacturers, craft development and manufacturing firms with further subsidiaries in bioengineering and transhuman experimentation, the latter strictly frowned upon by the IFS.

In recent years, the Olea Corporation was given control of Geatine on account of its invaluable help in correcting the planet’s near-total ecological collapse. Rumors that Olea had a hand in the creation of the parasite that effected the collapse are unsubstantiated. Olea Corporation’s CEO currently serves on the IFS Council as the sole representative for both systems. In 245 MR, the Olea Corporation acquired the abandoned Meyek system, and began to firmly branch into the Caal system.

Eza Syndicate

The Eza Syndicate has had a troubled and chaotic existence since its loose establishment during the First Terran War, when several TFS cruisers and their crews deserted the TFS in December of 22 MR and began to colonize the Eza System. Twelve years later, after the pirating of a trader convoy in the Olea system, the IFS declared the Eza Syndiate a rogue political body and sent a strike team to Eza, finding little sign of the defectors. They remained submerged until the Tau Insurrection, where they accepted an embattled IFS’s plea for military assistance and served in the pacification of Amas, Olea, Aile and Tau. Upon emerging victorious, Eza began to colonize the nearby Lerua system, remaining legal under the permissive eye of the IFS.

The Eza Syndicate served in a similar capacity for the IFS during the opening years of the Second Terran War, but eventually turned to assist the forces of the Second Insurrection. It came too late to assist the SI, and upon reasserting control over civilized space, the Eza Syndicate was again outlawed, though reconstruction prevented the IFS from pursuing the Syndicate. Various skirmishes with IFS forces occured through the following centuries, with little effect on either side.

It has been suggested that the Eza Syndicate has begun to collude with Ienet forces, but those assertions have not been proven beyond any reasonable doubt.

Ienet

Ienet is a newcomer on the Federation stage, only discovered in the heat of the Second Terran War in 121 MR. Its relatively temperate climate and wealth of natural resources led to its prominence as an industrial center of the Mining Sector. Ienet was colonized in the aftermath of the conflict and remained a faithful member of the IFS for many years.

In the last decades, concurrent with the declining economic fortunes of the IFS’s member states, a nativist populist movement on its surface in Ienet’s becoming an increasingly divisive voice in the IFS. The system seceeded in 268 MR. Ulread, a fellow Mining Sector system, quickly joined suit, leaving in 269 MR.

While Ienet has not taken any violent action against the IFS, political tensions between the fledgling interstellar power and IFS diplomats have lead to escalating military preparation on both sides of the conflict.

Regions

Core Region

The Core Regions were the first to be inhabited by intelligent life. Solari Theta was, even before the Terran Wars, the epicenter of cultural and political power throughout the region. Eza was unpopulated and mostly undiscovered until a splinter group colonized it during the latter half of the Terran Wars. The widespread corruption and gangster politics spread to Lerua.

Systems: Solari, Keth, Eza, Lerua, Alcesar, New Haven

Colonial Region

The Colonial Region was the last to be colonized by alien cultures, and the first to be invaded by the Terran during the first days of the Terran Wars. Meyek and Aile were largely forgotten after the war, but Icre/Avis became a cultural epicenter following the holocaust on it sister planet’s surface.

Systems: Aile, Renve, Meyek, Icre/Avis, Olea, Geatine

Old Region

Mining Region

Planetary Systems

Aile: A frigid, barren wasteland of a planet, the colonists of Aile endure brutally cold temperatures and toil in the planet’s ore mines for metals integral to the creation of AMD.

Alcesar: Alcesar is a large, earthlike world inhabited soon after the First Terran War by human refugees hailing from Earth’s nation of France. As such, the planet is one of few Terran worlds to hold anything other than Late English as an official language.

Amas

Caal

Eza: Home to the Eza Syndicate, Eza is a dim, unruly world where the rule of law is more of a technicality than an ideal with any real inforcement. Guarded from IFS intrusion by a staggering array of planetary EMP cannons, the planet itself is shrouded in mystery to those not privy to the Syndicate’s secrets.

Geatine: An agricultural world, Geatine was saved from the brink of ecological disaster by the bioengineers at the Olea Corporation, who were gratefully given a majority stake in its representation in the IFS.

Icre/Avis: Renamed to accomodate the refugees from its sister planet in the aftermath of its destruction, Icre, or Icre/Avis as it came to be known, is a large, verdant colony world home to a number of individuals of varying species.

Ienet

Keth

Lerua: Terraformed from the rusty red moon of a gas giant barely within its star’s habitable zone, Lerua is a seedy and unpleasant colony world of the Eza Syndicate, something of a secondary home to deals and operations considered to indelicate for the Syndicate’s homeworld.

Meyek: A devastated colony world, Meyek has been repeatedly depopulated in incidents of terror and violence since its inhabitation before the First Terran War.

New Haven: A recent, secret discovery of the IFS, New Haven has only begun to be populated by settlers relocated under the auspices of the IFS’ Internal Affairs.

Olea: Home to the vast Olea Corporation, Olea is an earthlike planet of surprisingly little geopolitical interest since its violent overthrow of Second Insurrection forces during the Second Terran War. The titular corporation has long since supplanted the planet in reknown.

Renve

Selus

Solari: Solari has been the center of politics and cultural since well before the arrival of humanity onto the stage of known space. Home to the Solari, a race of avian exies, and the First Solari Empire, the planet was quickly taken during the First Terran War and instated as the seat of the Intergalactic Federation of Systems.

Tau

Telren

Ulread

Corporations and Manufacturers

There are dozens of corporations throughout the Refuge universe that manufacture equipment for both profit, political and social clout and technological achievement. Several of the larger ones are vast organizations that run entire planets and serves as governing bodies of their own, while others have fit into niches as their fortunes have waxed and waned. Alliance Defense The Tau Alliance’s nationalized fabrication plants produce extremely accurate and powerful weapons. They are not, however, built with human users in mind - Alliance Defense firearms have staggering recoil and abysmal ergonomics. Eberhard & Stafford Eberhard & Stafford have produced top-tier weapons since the Second Terran War. Their reputation for high-power, accurate, ergonomic and controllable firearms comes at a cost - E&S products are extremely expensive. Ienet Defense Materials Ienet Defense Materials produces high-damage, accurate and cheap weapons. However, they tend to fire slowly and nearly uncontrollable when firing automatically. IFSF IFS Fabrication produces middle-of-the-road weapons fitting with the IFS military ethos, with middling damage and low accuracy. However, their weapons are fairly cheap in secondary markets. Imperium Arms Only one of the Amasian firearms manufacturers exports to non-Amasian markets, the venerable Imperium Arms. Its weapons are sleek, controllable and powerful, but are fairly expensive and fire slowly. Paragon Horizon, Inc. A fairly new manufacturer founded by a , PH produces extremely adequate firearms. PH firearms fire quickly with controllable recoil, but are otherwise unspectacular. Olea Corporation The majority of the Olea Corporation’s weapons and products are marketed to civilians; its weapons are accordingly cheap and user-friendly. They do very little damage, are fairly innacurate and more or less unusable for military purposes. Strelnikov Mechanical Founded by a long-line of firearms makers, Strelnikov’s weapons are cheap and powerful, with otherwise middling performance. Vasquez Fabrication Though more well-known for their ammunition, VF manufactures a small collection of premium-quality match-grade weapons - powerful and accurate weapons with good egronomics, but high cost and poor controllability.

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