Unathi History: различия между версиями

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===Pre-Hegemony===
While most records were tragically lost in the later years of the [[Contact War]], Unathi and human scholars theorize that Unathi lifestyles were predominantly nomadic in their early history. Up until 100 CE Unathi clans consisted of small villages usually numbering no more than 500 following the large herd of Threshbeasts across the savannas that dominated the planet’s surface. Clans at the time weren’t accustomed to using weapons, as their natural talons served well enough to kill enemies in battle, leaving most early Unathi warfare being brutal hand-to-hand affairs.


Around 300 CE, many clans had settled down after discovering the benefits of aquaculture, or the mass husbandry of fish, as well new innovations in preserving meat. The population swelled, and the first true cities had established themselves.
==Pre-Hegemonic Unathi==


The planet was still divided amongst several hundred different clans, all of which were nearly unanimously hostile towards one another. Trade between clans was limited, leaving the balance of wealth and technological advancement severely stratified.
===The Nomadic Era===
The ancient Unathi were believed to be primarily organised into nomadic hunter-gatherer societies, largely consisting of small clans following large herds of threshbeasts across the savannahs of [[Moghes]]. The earliest signs of permanent settlement date back to around 12500 BCE, as larger clans began to migrate towards the shores of the Moghresian Sea - developing primitive forms of aquaculture and animal husbandry to sustain their settlements. This is around where the earliest signs of faith resembling modern [[Th'akh|Th’akh]] begin to emerge, with ancient shrines believed to be dedicated to various spirits having been unearthed by Izweski archaeologists.


Early Unathi societies, before the creation of paper currency in the 20th century, would measure their wealth in salted fish, with trade and transactions using salted fish. A village could quite literally eat themselves into bankruptcy.
===The Warring Cities Era===
The transition from nomadic to settled life was a slow one - as many of the ancient proto-clans would frequently wage wars over the bountiful food supplies of the early settlements. Eventually, however, the populations of these early settlements would swell faster than their rival clans could dream of, leading to rapid growth and progress - development of writing, metalwork and more advanced shipbuilding techniques drove the settlements around the Moghresian Sea into some of the first cities of Moghes. The earliest currencies began to develop during this period, with dried and salted fish forming the backbone of these ancient economies.


=== The First Hegemony ===
Other Unathi civilisations would arise during this period, known as the Warring Cities Era by modern historians. The ancient city of Darakath, in what is now the [[Broken Coalition]], is believed to have been first settled around this time, and some of the oldest historical sites in the [[Tza Prairie]] are believed to have been built by exiles from the city-states of the Moghresian Sea.
What few surviving records remain show that by 1000 CE, most of the planet’s surface was dominated between a dozen clans, each holding vast swaths of land. The Kres'ha'nor Clan is shown to have been the most powerful, controlling a population base of twelve million and a professional army, including the first recorded use of War Riders. They ruled over numerous Lords, all of whom lived in a system of feudalism, owing the Kres’ha’nor clan their loyalty and armies in exchange for protection and land.


The Kres’ha’nor Hegemony lasted from roughly 920 CE - 1500 CE, benefiting from the brutal War Rider shock troops wielding steel glaives and heavy maces. It was the unquestioned power of the world, owning land and wealth which allowed it the industries necessary to forge steel, levy taxes, and even build walls around their cities to protect from raiders. This lasted until Clan Leader Kresshi Kres’ha’nor had died, his many sons fighting over who would rule the Clan in his place. The Hegemony fractured and collapsed into a dozen smaller, feuding clans with the Kres’ha’nor dynasty itself disappearing completely after the war ended.
For centuries, the regions now known as the [[Southlands]] and [[Izweski Heartland]] were ruled over by collections of city-states, each ruled by a single clan. As these states clashed with each other for territory and resources, the Unathi martial culture began to develop. Though there would be periods where one city-state dominated the rest, none of these ancient attempts at empire lasted long. While some historical documents refer to “The League of Nine Cities”, as a persistent presence in the region, archaeological evidence indicates that this was more of a temporary alliance, designed to deal with invading forces crossing the [[Zazalai Mountains]].


The Kres’ha’nor Hegemony had subjugated its neighbors for many years, and with it collapse the rest of Moghes began to gravitate away from one another and back to their isolated way of living.
The Warring Cities Era is generally considered to have ended around 920 CE, with the rise of the First Hegemony.
====Growth of Guilds====
The 1600's saw a new phenomenon develop, originating within the divided kingdoms of the former Kres'ha'nor Hegemony. When merchants found they could accomplish more as a group rather than through individual effort, they banded together to form '''guilds'''. Guilds formed for bakers, butchers, grocers, millers, smiths, carpenters, weavers, mason, shoemakers, in fact, nearly every trade had its own guild. Standards such as just weights and measures evolved from the guilds, and guild inspectors would inspect shops to ensure rules were being followed. Guilds would help members that were sick, or in trouble, and would sometimes take care of families after the member died.
[[File:Moghes Pre-Contact.png|thumb||A map of Moghes before the Contact War.]]
'''Apprenticeship''' was how most started in a particular trade, which they would follow the rest of their lives. After completing an apprenticeship, the appropriate guild would examine his work and see if he could be elevated to a '''Craftsman'''. A Craftsman was required to create a "masterpiece" in the presence of judges to be elevated to '''Master''' status, which would allow him to join the leadership of his guild.


Guilds also built and ran the first '''universities''' on Moghes, the first known being the '''University of Ma'ha'rem''' which opened in 1602. Originally trade schools, they slowly expanded to become centers of learning for apprentices of every field. A doctor would have to first become a "Master" through a university to be allowed to practice his trade within towns or cities controlled by a guild of doctors, and the same for any other brand of skilled work. A Master's certificate also distinguished someone as a professional with few peers, giving their holders immense prestige and trust. A fully credited and certified doctor on Moghes would be (and are still) known as a Master Doctor. Typically they are known as [Rank] [Craft], so you can also be a Master Weaponsmith or Master Engineer.
===The Sinta'Mador===
There is one culture of particular note among the pre-Hegemonic civilisations of Moghes - the fabled Sinta’Mador. While much of their history is steeped in superstition and mysticism, modern scientists have made a study of the ancient culture of the Moghresian North Pole - though this has been frequently undermined by the efforts of [[Aut'akh|Aut’akh]] cultists, who often steal Mador relics and artefacts for religious purposes.


Eventually these guilds managed to form powerful monopolies and they spread their trade and influence across Moghes. Most of the landed elite feared the growth of the guilds, who were creating a new middle-class of urban worker. That a peasant could rise to gain prestige and vast wealth with no land, titles, or martial victories under their belt was an idea bewildering and frustrating. The late 1600's and the beginning of the 1700's saw many Kingdoms across Moghes cracking down on the power of guilds, stripping them of privileges or banning craftsmen from meeting in groups. Other nations ruthlessly suppressed private enterprise. Many laws were passed that strictly limited how many members a guild could possess, as well as requiring all craftsmen to register with their local Lords before being allowed to sell any goods or services.
Factually, the Sinta’Mador are known to have been a culture that dwelled in the north polar region of Moghes, between the early Warring Cities Era and the rise of the First Hegemony. While it is unclear if the Sinta’Mador were a genetically distinct species to the Sinta’Unathi, or simply a name for a different culture, they were at the very least close relatives of the wider Unathi species. Very little reference can be found to the Mador in contemporary records, though some scraps of ancient poetry from the Tza Prairie do refer to “the children of Travakh”, and “corpse-scaled devils" - referred to as a somewhat mythical race of beings in the uninhabitable north, who brought cold and death in their wake. Whether this referred to some long-forgotten war with the ancient Sinta’Mador, or is simply a mythologised retelling of a particularly deadly cold season, remains unclear.


Guilds also developed another innovation: minting and issuing coinage. Because it was rather difficult to do large transactions with giant piles of dehydrated fish, the first Guilds in the 16th century began minting coins made of steel that would be backed by that amount of fish, similar to bank notes. They could be turned in, theoretically, at any time for an equivalent amount of salted fish. This saw Moghes begin to gravitate away from measuring wealth by fish stocks, and towards a more familiar economy, though the Fish Standard remained for quite some time.
The Mador settlements were largely built around volcanic hot springs, which are believed to have been used as a primitive heat source. While the reason for the extinction of the Mador remains uncertain, the common theory is a period of global cooling on Moghes rendered the land beyond their cities uninhabitable, leading to a slow death for their inhabitants. Many of the ancient Mador cities which have been explored showed signs of impressive technological advancement for the time - some of the oldest steel tools and weapons in Sinta history have been found in the polar region, and some of the largest settlements seemed to have developed elaborate heating systems using the local hot springs. The Mador treatment of the dead is also noteworthy - corpses would seemingly have a piece of volcanic glass inserted in a primitive surgery, placed behind the eyes prior to their burial. This is believed to have been a way of preventing a restless spirit from possessing their old body, though due to the lack of translated Mador writing it is impossible to be sure.


=== The Second Hegemony ===
The Mador have taken on a somewhat mythical status among followers of the Aut’akh faith, with the researcher [[Notable_Unathi#Emzal_Paossini,_Creator_of_Paradigms|Emzal Paossini]] having attributed many of the foundational principles of Aut’akh to ancient Mador rituals. This has led to stories spreading across the Spur, treating the Mador as everything from ancient and mystical sages to a race of cybernetically-enhanced demigods possessing technology beyond that of the modern Spur. While some Aut’akh, most notably Paossini themself, have actually made a study of the Mador, to most followers of the faith this ancient culture is little more than a distorted myth.
In 1823 CE, records show the first use of a steam engine by the Ras’iks Clan in S’th. The technological breakthrough sparked industrialization amongst the urbanized clans, but the developments weren’t felt beyond the new industrialized nations. It was even rejected with outright hostility in many areas outside the city, with many unathi resenting the upsets to traditional ways of life. Surviving records have numerous accounts of uprisings and attempts revolutions in industrialized nations, while the more primitive neighbors continued to aggressively raid their more advanced, and thus wealthy neighbors. It’s unclear if these events were random violence, or the first global war amongst the Unathi clans.


The growth of industrialization also threatened the major '''Guilds'''. In the centuries before industrialization these organizations were associations of artisans or merchants who control the practice of their craft in a particular town or city. The introduction of factories and growth of unskilled labor disrupted the entire concept of skilled labor; many skilled craftsmen found themselves outpaced and outproduced by a single factory. The consequences of industrialization also saw an explosion of urbanization, with large populations of unskilled workers migrating from rural areas to get jobs in the cities. Unathi society transformed itself from a primarily '''aquaculture''' (the mass farming of fish) society into one based on the manufacturing of goods and services.
==The First Hegemony==
''“You ask of me, o mighty, who comes hence?''<br>
''Know, and tremble, for I am''<br>
''Hegemon Eternal,''<br>
''Master of all beneath the Mother’s eye.''<br>
''-Spear-Shattering King, an ancient [[Torn Cities|Kopesk]] poem describing the rise of the First Hegemony''


It's shown with limited surviving records that, by '''1922''', the Sarakus Clan rose to power following a war amongst the industrialized nations and created a Hegemony. They ruled most of the land around the Moghresian Sea and the vast planes to the east of the sea. Their clan ruled harshly, and forced technological advances into the cities and towns in order to increase the wealth of their clan and loyal Lords. The Sarakus abolished the private Guilds and consolidated their associations and enterprises to be controlled directly by the throne. The Sarakus leased out titles to factories, businesses, and other enterprises to landed Lords of the realm. This allowed the ruling elite to continue to directly control the lower class of unskilled labor just as they did before industrialization.  
The First Hegemony, also known as the Kres’ha’nor Hegemony, arose around 920 CE. While records are sparse from this time period, the Kres’ha’nor are believed to have been a minor noble dynasty originating in what is modern-day Baandr, who rose to power and conquered several of their rival city-states. The War of the First Hegemony, as modern historians have named it, lasted nearly a century, as the once-independent city-states of the Moghresian Sea were absorbed under the banner of the Kres’ha’nor.  


====Industrialization====
Around 1014 CE, the reigning King [[Notable_Unathi#Tryazali_Kres'ha'nor|Tryazali Kres’ha’nor]] addressed a group known as “The High Twelve of Sskel”. Sskel was known to be a powerful nation of the time, though its location is unknown as all recovered literature from the period seems to assume knowledge of its location as something that would be obvious to any reader. As such, who the High Twelve were or where this conversation took place is entirely unknown to modern historians.  
In '''1931''' the Sarakus also embarked on several ambitious projects to modernize the empire, all under the ambitious plan called the '''"Great Endeavor"''', the brainchild of '''Hegemon Azyi Sarakus'''. While electricity had been known and produced on Moghes since the 1800's electricity was still rare and limited to the capital and a handful of other major cities. Using vast amounts of unskilled labor the Sarakus built hundreds of coal and hydroelectric power plants, all leased out to be operated by loyal nobles. Cities all found themselves with access to electricity within 10 years. Light-bulbs replaced candlelight, and street lights lit up the roads and sidewalks even on the darkest of nights.


Ambitious infrastructure projects were also embarked on. The concept of gasoline-powered cars had been known, but the vast majority of roads across the Sarakus Hegemony were dirt roads unfriendly to mechanized travel. Travel was exclusively done by walking or, if you had the money, riding on Threshbeasts. A vast stretch of cobblestone roads was built between every major city and within them. While the streets within cities were being torn up, the Sarakus also had the ancient, decrepit sewage systems modernized and improved in a massive sanitation project.
Kres’ha’nor is believed to have proclaimed the First Hegemony at this time, though accounts of this event are limited and often dating several centuries after the fact. The most well-preserved source, a Kopesk poem called Spear-Shattering King, quotes Tryazali  Kres’ha’nor as proclaiming himself “Hegemon Eternal, master of all lands beneath the Mother’s eye”. Under his reign, the precursor to modern feudalism would come about, with many of the current titles of Unathi nobility dating back to the Kres’ha’nor Hegemony.


Radio coverage was expanded across the globe as the Sarakus expanded radio coverage and built telephone lines, allowing every corner of the Empire to have direct and quick communication with the capital.
The Kres’ha’nor came to rule a vast empire, controlling the modern Izweski Heartland, Southlands and much of what has now become the Northern Wasteland. With a population of around twelve million and mass production of steel armor and weaponry, the Kres’ha’nor were the undisputed power of the ancient world.


The Great Endeavor took 20 years, and '''Azyi Sarakus''' died of old age at 62 before being able to see it finished. The project was symbolically finished with a grand opening of the Sarakus Castle after it had gone under renovations to modernize it with electricity and modern plumbing.
This dynasty would last for nearly five hundred years, until the reign of Hegemon Kresshi Kres’ha’nor. Hegemon Kresshi was known as a brilliant military commander, who waged highly successful wars against nations now lost to time. Mention is made in historical sources of “the conquest of the black-eyed Jazir” and “the raiders of the western shore”, but the specific nature of these peoples has been lost to time. He is recorded to have ruled from Kres’ha, a city that is frequently mentioned as the capital of the First Hegemony. The location of Kres’ha is unknown, with several claims to have found its ruins all having been disproven.


In the end the Great Endeavor ruthlessly modernized Moghes. While the benefits to the state were immense, there was also significant uprooting of traditional Unathi society. With the modernization of factories and growing industrialization skilled labor was becoming less valued. While the wealth of the Sarakus Hegemony increased, many within and outside the empire began to resent the growth, feeling that the Sarakus had urbanized and industrialized the empire at the expense of its soul.  
Kresshi also sired many children, who fought against one another almost immediately upon his death. The empire was shattered into warring factions, each supporting one of the many claimants to the throne. Kres’ha is believed to have been burned during this period, which would last for decades, and outlive all of the original claimants. Some apocryphal sources refer to this time as “The War of Eight Tyrants” - though this number is frequently disputed among modern historians.


The rest of Moghes was divided as it always had been, between non-industrialized unathi nations. Technology and innovations from the Sarakus slowly trickled into their Clans and kingdoms, but life existed much as it had for a thousand years. Most Clans still fought with steel weapons and armor while the lower classes acted as manual labor in aquaculture farms or mines beneath the wealthy elites of skilled craftsmen.
By the time the war ended, the First Hegemony was irreparably broken, fractured into dozens of smaller kingdoms. Several of these kings would call themselves Hegemons, but the title quickly fell out of use, as it spoke of ambitions of conquest. Moghes would remain divided, with no one daring to claim rulership of the world, for centuries. This period of divided kingdoms is when the modern [[Sk'akh|Sk’akh Church]] was formed, though the religion had existed in various forms for an uncertain amount of time prior. Fragments of ancient church records indicate that at one point, the Church ruled much of the Heartland directly, prior to an event only referred to as “The Apostate’s War”.


===The Third Hegemony===
===Growth of Guilds===
We do know without a doubt that in 1994, the Sarakus Clan ceased to exist after a sudden coup by a group known as the Traitor Lords. They stormed the Sarakus castle in Ma’ha’rem and slew the entire family and contingent of Clan Guard, establishing Lord Neeziah Izweski as the new ruling Clan Leader. The sudden, brutal coup sent shock-waves through the nation. It was almost unthinkable that Lords would turn on their Clan Leader in such a way.
[[Unathi Guilds|The guild system]] began to emerge after the fall of the Kres’ha’nor, among merchants who saw the need for mutually beneficial relationships among the fractured and frequently warring kingdoms. Guilds formed for bakers, butchers, grocers, millers, smiths, carpenters, weavers, mason, shoemakers - nearly every trade had its own guild. Standards such as just weights and measures evolved from the guilds, and guild inspectors would inspect shops to ensure rules were being followed. Guilds would help members that were sick or otherwise endangered, and would sometimes take care of families after the member died.


Immediately most Lords rebelled, forming the Honored Alliance. The civil war lasted for decades, spreading to include most of the planet and Clans. It was a new type of war, with ballistic weapons first used by Izweski infantry. The bullets are most similar to 21st century Earth anti-tank rifles, but due to Unathi armored plates became a standard infantry weapon. Heavy, unwieldy, and expensive to make with the limited industry, no more than a few thousand were ever fielded. But when they were used, it’s recorded that they were devastating. Wielding melee weapons and charging into battle as they always had, War Riders and infantry would be whittled down from unheard of distances.
Apprenticeship was how most started in a particular trade, which they would follow the rest of their lives. After completing an apprenticeship, the appropriate guild would examine his work and see if he could be elevated to a Craftsman. A Craftsman was required to create a "masterpiece" in the presence of judges to be elevated to Master status, which would allow him to join the leadership of his guild.


The war lasted until '''2079 CE''', when the Honored Alliance signed a cease-fire with the Izweski Nation. The war had seen many cities razed and looted, and deaths in the millions. The entire planet of Moghes was wounded, and would not recover for decades. Until First Contact, the surviving Clans and Izweski Nation rebuilt and consolidated their power.
Guilds also built and ran the first universities on Moghes, the first known being the University of Ma'ha'rem which opened in 1602. Originally trade schools, they slowly expanded to become centers of learning for apprentices of every field. A doctor would have to first become a "Master" through a university to be allowed to practice his trade within towns or cities controlled by a guild of doctors, and the same for any other brand of skilled work. A Master's certificate also distinguished someone as a professional with few peers, giving their holders immense prestige and trust. A fully accredited and certified doctor on Moghes would be (and are still) known as a Master Doctor. Typically they are known as [Rank] [Craft], so you can also be a Master Weaponsmith or Master Engineer.


Once their control of the empire was secure, the Izweski embarked on several ambitious projects that completely reversed the policies of the Sarakus. The Izweski abolished the control of the nobility over the Guilds while encouraging the concept of '''free trade'''. Regulations over the Guilds vanished within a few short years, and the 2100's saw a rebirth of these associations. They eventually evolved into trade unions in the '''2120's'''. Industry and business was privatized as the nobility lost their privileges over the economy and workers. Many of the established elite resented these changes. Anti-union violence exploded in the '''2120's''' and '''2130's''', with Lords and Clan Lords using their troops to brutally suppress union strikes or meetings. Many lords also revolted against the Izweski in the same period,demanding their privileges be returned. The uprisings were met with brutality, with victorious Izweski commanders often decapitating rebel leaders.  
Eventually these guilds managed to form powerful monopolies and they spread their trade and influence across Moghes. Most of the landed elite feared the growth of the guilds, who were creating a new middle class of urban workers. That a peasant could rise to gain prestige and vast wealth with no land, titles, or martial victories under their belt was an idea bewildering and frustrating. The late 1600s and the beginning of the 1700s saw many kingdoms across Moghes cracking down on the power of guilds, stripping them of privileges or banning craftsmen from meeting in groups. Other nations ruthlessly suppressed private enterprise. Many laws were passed that strictly limited how many members a guild could possess, as well as requiring all craftsmen to register with their local lords before being allowed to sell any goods or services.


====The Modern Economy====
Guilds also developed another innovation: minting and issuing coinage. Because it was rather difficult to do large transactions with giant piles of dehydrated fish, the first guilds in the 1600s began minting coins made of steel that would be backed by that amount of fish, similar to bank notes. They could be turned in, theoretically, at any time for an equivalent amount of salted fish. This saw Moghes begin to gravitate away from measuring wealth by fish stocks, and towards a more familiar economy, though the Fish Standard remained for quite some time.
Despite the unrest and turmoil industrialization and free trade had brought to the Izweski Hegemony the process continued. By the turn of the century in the '''2200's''' an early form of globalization and mass media had developed within Moghes. The growing middle class within the Izweski Hegemony had grown to be a sizable economic and political force, but interestingly the innovations and reforms drastically changed the cultural and social spheres of Unathi life there is very little evidence of radical political change.  
 
==The Second Hegemony==
''“It is such a wretched thing, this business of empire.”''<br>
''-Ayzi Sarakus, immediately following the Siege of Skalamar''
 
The 1800s marked a period of rapid technological development on Moghes, as the Ras’iks clan of S’th began producing steam engines. This advancement was rapidly adopted by some of the guilds, though many saw it as a useless curiosity or a threat to their established market. However, it would be the beginning of an industrial revolution for the Unathi people - the consequences of which would lead to the rise of the Second Hegemony.
 
The cities of the Heartland rapidly industrialised, as the ruling clans of the region began to grasp the possibility of this new age of invention. The Heartland’s skies were choked black with the smoke of factories and forges, but the divided kingdoms of the region meant that technological advancement was slow to spread. Each of the region’s monarchs wished for the benefits of new technology, but none wished to allow their rivals to gain an advantage from it. Several wars marred the region in the 1800s, as mass production had made gunpowder weapons more than a noble’s amusing curiosity. Early firearms, cannons and explosives are all reported to have been developed around this time.
 
Rapid industrialisation also led to another war - this one, among the guilds. To many of the existing guilds, industrialisation was a threat to their power - skilled craftsmen would find themselves displaced and out of work, thanks to the introduction of factories and growth of unskilled labour. Others thought to embrace this new upheaval, changing nearly their entire business models to ride the industrial revolution to riches. Conflict between guilds is mentioned in records from the period, with some cities having devolved to guild members actively fighting in the streets. Several modern guilds have their roots in this period, including the Fishing League and Junzi Electric.
 
The industrial revolution was well and truly underway by the time the Second Hegemony rose. In 1916, the Sarakus Clan rose to power, following a brutal war among the industrialised nations. Seizing control of the wealthy Southlands and Heartland regions, the Sarakus rapidly launched a campaign of bloody conquest against their neighbours. In 1922, this war finally came to an end as the reigning Queen of Skalamar surrendered to the Sarakus forces. Following his victory, King Azyi Sarakus did what no other had done in centuries, proclaiming himself Hegemon of Moghes. The Sarakus took rapid advantage of industrialisation, using technological advances across the nation to enrich themselves and their loyal vassals. Private guilds were outlawed, and their resources brought under Hegemonic control - though in practice, many of the guilds continued to operate as before, just reporting to a state official instead of a Guildmaster. The Sarakus leased out titles to factories, mines and other enterprises, transforming many of the former leaders among guilds into lords of the realm - allowing the nobility to keep control over unskilled labour, just as they had prior to industrialisation.
 
===The Great Endeavor===
''“Progress is a wild hegeranzi. You ride it to glory, or you are trampled beneath its hooves.”''<br>
''-Apocryphal quote, often attributed to Azyi Sarakus''
 
In 1931, Ayzi Sarakus proclaimed the ‘Great Endeavour’ - a massive effort to modernise the entirety of the Hegemony. As part of the Endeavour, electricity would become widespread throughout Sarakus territory, road and railroad networks would connect every city in the empire, and radio coverage would expand across nearly the entire world.
 
The Great Endeavour took twenty years, and Ayzi Sarakus would not live to see its conclusion. The project was finished with a grand opening of the Sarakus Castle in Skalamar, having been outfitted with modern plumbing, electricity, and every luxury the new age could afford. By the time the project was done, Moghes had been transformed, with even lands outside the Hegemony having begun to adopt the advances of the Sarakus - though to a much lesser degree.
 
The Sarakus were ruthless in this project, however - with much of traditional Unathi society having been uprooted as advancements in factories meant that skilled labour became less and less valuable. While they had brought the Hegemony into a new age, many whispered that it had come at the price of the nation’s soul. To others, however, it was a golden age - a time of opportunity and advancement. Many of the great scientific institutions of Moghes were established following the Great Endeavour, and Unathi understanding of the world around them progressed immensely. But, like many golden ages, it would come to a sudden and violent end.
 
==The Third Hegemony==
''“You ask by what right I call myself Hegemon? The only right that matters. Come and challenge it, if you can.”''<br>
''-Lord Neeziah Izweski, marking the beginning of the War of the Honored Alliance.''
 
In 1994, a group referred to by contemporary sources as the Traitor Lords seized Sarakus Castle, wiping out nearly the entire clan in a single night. Surviving Sarakus across Moghes were killed, many of them before news of the coup even spread beyond Skalamar. Before the blood was even cleaned from the throne, the Traitor Lords crowned Lord Neeziah Izweski as the new Hegemon, and proclaimed the birth of the [[Izweski Nation|Third Hegemony]].
 
Here is where records differ enormously. The modern Izweski account of history refers to the reigning Hegemon Sarakus as a bloody-clawed tyrant, who was driving the nation to ruin. Historical pro-Izweski accounts refer similarly to Sarakus as a cruel and sadistic tyrant, with some claiming that he performed unnatural rituals to summon dark spirits upon his enemies. Though the Sk’akh Church claims that their High Priest at the time could tell the Izweski were the rightful rulers of Moghes, fragmented records claim that a brutal and secret civil war was fought among the Archpriests, with the pro-Izweski faction eventually achieving victory.
 
Regardless, many Sarakus vassals refused to accept this, rising in rebellion against the Izweski. These lords called themselves the Honoured Alliance, and immediately began a brutal civil war. The War of the Honoured Alliance would last for nearly a hundred years, and would see the birth of modern Unathi warfare - widespread use of ballistic weaponry and early armoured vehicles marked the battlefield, and the first Unathi aircraft were developed and deployed to rain death upon the battlefields. It was, for centuries, regarded as the most devastating war in Unathi history.
 
Eventually, in 2079, the Izweski and the Honoured Alliance signed a cease-fire - neither side was capable of effectively waging war any longer. Nearly all the lands east of the Zazalai Mountains were aligned with the Honoured Alliance, while the Izweski secured their grip on the regions surrounding the Moghresian Sea. The Honoured Alliance would eventually divide into its own kingdoms, as both the Hegemony and the Alliance rebuilt their sacked and ruined lands. Millions had died in the war, and the planet would not recover for decades.
 
With the war over, the Izweski began to reverse many of the policies of the Sarakus. Their strict control of the economy was abolished, leading to a rebirth of guilds in the Hegemony. In the 22nd century, many of these guilds would evolve into trade unions, which would come into conflict with the nobility as more and more of their control over the economy vanished. This is reported to have led to several rebellions, though most of the details of these have been excised from the Izweski historical record. The move towards free trade greatly destabilised the nation at first, but it would eventually prove beneficial to the nation’s economy, leading to a rapidly growing middle class.
 
===The New Economy===
''“Steel won this nation, but silver built it.”''<br>
''-Gukha Rozalt, guildmaster of the Merchants’ Guild (2195)''
 
Despite the turmoil that the new policies had brought to the Hegemony, the process continued. By the year 2200, the Izweski had presided over the growth of mass media, leading to an increasingly globalised society. The growing middle class within the Hegemony had become a sizable economic and political force, largely channelled through the guild system. Though much of the guilds’ leadership was made up of commoners, by the turn of the century the major guilds had vastly more power within Hegemonic society than most of the nobility.


Major cities across Moghes were filled with clunky cars navigating traffic as stoplights replaced traffic cops, and most homes had access to televisions, radios, and other modern amenities. Guilds owned monopolies over specific goods and services. Powerful merchant families owned hospital chains, pharmaceutical companies, car companies, television networks; a dynastic control of private enterprise had developed. An urban, middle-class Unathi found themselves with all the modern luxuries and basic goods that were available to the average human in the 21st century.
Major cities across Moghes were filled with clunky cars navigating traffic as stoplights replaced traffic cops, and most homes had access to televisions, radios, and other modern amenities. Guilds owned monopolies over specific goods and services. Powerful merchant families owned hospital chains, pharmaceutical companies, car companies, television networks; a dynastic control of private enterprise had developed. An urban, middle-class Unathi found themselves with all the modern luxuries and basic goods that were available to the average human in the 21st century.


However there was also a significant population of the lower and under-class in urban Unathi society. Nearly every major city had '''sprawling slums''' that surrounded the industrial districts, filled with underpaid factory workers who ironically found their rights curtailed by the powerful trade unions. Guwans specifically were ruthlessly exploited, forced to work as street sweepers or maintain the sewers. Orphans found themselves cared for in boardhouses owned by a Guild until they turned 16, when they were forced to work for the Guild to pay back the debt they incurred caring for them.
However, this system was held up by a vast underclass in urban Unathi society. Nearly every major city had sprawling slums that surrounded the industrial districts, filled with underpaid factory workers who ironically found their rights curtailed by the powerful trade unions. Guwan specifically were ruthlessly exploited, forced to work as street sweepers or maintain the sewers as payment for their crimes in a situation that critics of the Izweski described as little better than slave labour.. Orphans found themselves cared for in boardhouses owned by a Guild until they turned 16, when they were forced to work for the Guild to pay back the debt they incurred caring for them. The Izweski are recorded to have made little effort to alleviate the abject poverty many Unathi were suffering from the rampant abuse of the major guilds, believing that the consequences were necessary to maintain a modern, functioning empire.
 
The one change that the Izweski made to curtail guild power was the centralisation of currency - since the origins of the guild system, individual banking guilds had minted and issued their own currencies, in a massively decentralised system. In 2212, the Izweski outlawed guilds producing their own currency, nationalising all resources for such under the Hegemonic Reserve Bank.
 
This bank became the only institution that could mint coins, called Zikis. The bank also began issuing paper money, called Zakas. Both the steel coins and paper notes were backed by salted fish until 2251, when the currency was taken off the Fish Standard. The Zaka became the reserve currency of Moghes by 2290, and continued to be so until it was replaced by the Biesel Standard Credit.
 
===The Nuclear Age===
''“With this, we have brought an end to war.”''<br>
''-Apocryphal quote, often attributed to an Izweski nuclear scientist''
 
The first Unathi nuclear test took place in 2345, funded by the Izweski Hegemony and carried out by scientists of the [[Unathi_Educational_Institutions#Skalamar_Academy_of_the_Natural_Sciences|Skalamar Academy of the Natural Sciences]]. The bomb was detonated in the freezing climate of Moghes’ north pole, at a research installation far to the north of the city of Guzari. Though the project was highly classified, word eventually spread - that the Izweski had a weapon unparalleled by any other nation of Moghes. The Izweski began constructing more nuclear weapons - first to be dropped from aircraft, and later to be launched via missile, with advances in rocketry making both the usage of ICBMs and the newly-formed [[Unathi Spaceflight|Izweski Space Program]] viable.
 
The Izweski nuclear arsenal became a point of pride - no foe could threaten the Hegemony without risking total annihilation. Following the confirmation of nuclear weapons’ plausibility, some rival kingdoms began their own nuclear projects - though without the wealth and resources of the Izweski, only a few had any successes. The most notable of these was the Azarak Kingdom, in the region now called the [[Broken Coalition]] - who invested much of their nation’s wealth and power in their own nuclear program. While not as advanced or widespread as the Izweski’s nuclear weapons, the scientists of the Azarak were able to field a significant number nonetheless. While other kingdoms engaged in nuclear research, there was no report of anything beyond the smallest of successes among them.
 
For a time, however, the presence of nuclear weapons enforced a kind of uneasy peace over Moghes - the Izweski would not dare to attack the few kingdoms capable of rivalling them with the prospect of mutual nuclear devastation, and no one on Moghes would even think of war with the Hegemony when they wielded such terrible power. It was a delicate peace, but it was a peace - and would remain that way for nearly a century.
 
===The Beginnings of Space Travel===
''“The stars themselves will belong to the Hegemon - and he needs your help!”''<br>
''-Recruitment slogan for Ouerean colonists, 2386''
 
The Unathi took their first steps into the stars in the year 2339, with the formal establishment of the Izweski Space Program. Largely, this came in the form of unmanned communication and observation satellites, many of which have been refurbished for the modern day. The first manned Unathi missions came in 2343, when an Unathi named Kseok Hizra made history - becoming the first Unathi in space. Manned missions continued, with Unathi setting foot on Chanterel in 2361. The Hegemony space program received drastic upgrades in 2372, when [[Ouerea]] was discovered to be inhabitable. The Izweski poured money and resources into the colonization of Ouerea, establishing a population of a few thousand on the planet, as well as establishing orbital installations for resupply of their crude and slow shuttles. This led to the creation of what was at the time designated Izweski Station - the first space station put into the orbit of Moghes.  


The Izweski are recorded to have made little effort to alleviate the abject poverty many Unathi were suffering from the rampant abuse of the major trade unions, believing that the consequences were necessary to maintain a modern, functioning empire.
The colonisation of Ouerea was viewed as a massive victory for the Hegemony, with propaganda from the late 2300s claiming that “The Hegemon’s rule extends to the very stars”. To rival kingdoms, however, it was a great concern - if the Izweski Hegemony could become a truly spacefaring power, they would have an insurmountable advantage over the other nations of Moghes. Many feared that with the first colonists setting foot on Ouerea, a second global war had become inevitable.


===== Pre-Contact Moghean Currency =====
==First Contact==
The Izweski also made one last major change by centralizing the currency. Since the 16th century private Guilds had issued their own steel coins, and it was all massively decentralized. The Izweski outlawed the Guild's former inherent right to print and manage money, placing it instead under the Imperial Bank, which was created in 2212.  
In 2403, a Solarian exploration vessel entered the Uueoa-Esa sector, marking first contact between humans and Unathi. This marked a rapid period of debate among humanity, as to the ethics of making contact with a species that had yet to develop faster-than-light travel. Eventually, the [[Sol Alliance]] and [[Nralakk Federation]] sent a diplomatic mission to make contact with the Izweski, who had been identified as the rulers of Moghes - in order to welcome the newly-discovered Unathi into the wider Spur.  


This bank became the only institution that could mint coins, called '''Zikis'''. The bank also began issuing paper money, called '''Zakas'''. Both the steel coins and paper notes were backed by salted fish until 2251, when the currency was taken off the Fish Standard. The Zaka became the reserve currency of Moghes by 2290, and continued to be so until it was replaced by the Galactic Credit following contact with humanity.
Naturally, the discovery caused shock among the Unathi population - priests and scholars secluded themselves in intense theological debate as to the spiritual nature of the aliens, nobles schemed to gain advantages from this historic event, and some called for war to prevent these mysterious visitors from invading Moghes. On the human side of things, meanwhile, the megacorporations of the Orion Spur saw an opportunity for an entirely untouched market, and rapidly began working to expand their business into Uueoa-Esa.  


===First Contact===
The Hegemony worked carefully to keep alien contact controlled at first, only allowing visiting humans and Skrell in highly-restricted areas under heavy guard. Eventually, this was relaxed, as [[Einsten Engines]] was contracted to build the first spaceport on Moghes, in the city of Skalamar. Access to more advanced space travel allowed the fledgling colony on Ouerea to undergo a rapid boom, with humans, [[Skrell]] and Unathi mingling freely on the planet's surface.
In 2433, a human exploration team discovered Moghes. Shortly after, first contact was made. Humanity established contact with Clan Izweski, which proved to be controversial amongst the Sol Alliance. Many people questioned the morals of interacting with a pre-warp race that had only reached the technological level of Earth in the 21st century. But unheeding the warnings, Sol Alliance merchants and scholars flocked to Moghes, living under very careful observation and guard in Izweski cities. Skalamar, the second largest city in Izweski, became the first Unathi city to have a shuttleport constructed. Owned by Nanotrasen, it served to transport people to and from the planet’s surface.


It should be noted that before First Contact, Moghes had the technological level equivalent to Earth in the early 21st century. However this was extremely stratified and mostly constrained to the major cities in what is now known as the Untouched Lands. Other areas of Moghes, namely in the countryside and outside Izweski control, were equivalent to Earth in the 20th or 19th century. The Unathi had access to modern medicine, universities, and other modern amenities, if they were a member of the middle class or nobility. However most of the wealth was concentrated in the hands of landed vassals, and few unlanded Unathi had the ability or means to advance in society. A complex global trade network was also present. Unathi at this time had mechanized, with access to clunky, open-top cars powered by traditional gasoline. Power generation was utilized mostly through natural gas and hydro-electric dams along with other biofuels. All major cities had modern infrastructure and civil services, electricity, and plumbing.
Trade with humanity proved a great boon for the Hegemony, granting access to advanced technology beyond the wildest dreams of even the greatest scientists of Moghes. But with this opportunity came upheaval, as many Unathi saw a chance to break free of the highly stratified society that existed prior to contact. The first [[Unathi Piracy|Unathi space pirates]] emerged in 2417, leading to the earliest beginnings of the Izweski Navy - though it was a ramshackle force, largely dealing with decades-old Hephaestus designs purchased cheaply.  


===The Contact War===
Outside the Hegemony, however, first contact was a sign of all the worst fears that the other nations of Moghes had harboured. The aliens had treated the Izweski as if they were the rulers of Moghes in truth, and the technological superiority the Hegemony possessed would now only grow further beyond their rivals. Various meetings among the rulers outside of Izweski territory were held, in the hopes of forming some grand coalition to stand against the Izweski and their dreams of empire. Though it would not break out for decades to come, the Contact War was already set in motion.


In-depth information: [[Contact War]]
==The Contact War==
''See also: [[Contact War]], [[Unathi Military Structure]]''


====Prelude====
===Prelude To War===
In 2437, the Izweski Nation had established the Izweski Space Program, and with bootlegged Sol Alliance technology constructed a rocket intended to carry 300 unathi colonists to their system’s second habitable planet, Ouerea. The launch was a disaster, with a yet-unidentified failure causing the rocket to explode after reaching 2,000 feet and the death of all hands. The failure sends shockwaves through all of Moghes, with the Izweski Nation suddenly besieged by scattered, angry neighboring Clans outraged by the unnatural use of technology leading to the loss of so many lives.
''“They come with arms outstretched in friendship, but their intention is to reach out and snap our necks!'”''<br>
''-King [[Notable_Unathi#Don'zai_Azarak|Don’zai Azarak]], during his infamous address to the Firebrand Summit.''


The Sol Alliance partnered with the Jargon Federation to help Izweski construct a second rocket, with Nanotrasen engineers and scientists helping construct it. Its launch was successful, and Ouerea was colonized by 350 Unathi under the guidance of the Sol and Skrellian Alliances on '''February 3rd, 2438'''.
As the colony on Ouerea grew, and alien trade further enriched the Hegemony, the Izweski sought to secure themselves as the first and only interstellar power among the Unathi. Under the reign of Hegemon S’kresti Izweski, the Hegemony’s best and brightest scientists worked with human and Skrell researchers to create the first Unathi-manufactured warp-capable ship. Named after the lead scientist on the project, the HRV ''Uezwik’s Hope'' was launched in 2437, a bright beacon that would lead the Sinta’Unathi people to glory among the stars.


The other Clans of Moghes were horrified on this turn of events, seeing the entire Unathi way of life being turned upside down so quickly. They blamed the Izweski Nation of coddling “alien invaders”, and formed the Traditionalist Coalition, which invaded the Izweski Nation. Izweski itself began to see civil unrest from angry commoners and Lords.
However, when the time came to spool up the warp engines, a catastrophic malfunction led to the ship being lost with all hands. The failure sent shockwaves through all of Moghes, with public outcry about how this experiment had led to the tragic loss of dozens of Unathi lives - some of the brightest and most respected Moghes had, no less. In January 2438, a second attempt at warp travel would prove to be successful - creating massive unrest among the independent nations of Moghes. The fact that the Hegemony had now access to not only Ouerea but also faster-than-light travel, while the rest of Moghes was attempting to catch up, only aggravated fears of an absolute supremacy of the Hegemony.


====The Contact War 2438 - 2449====
Many of the independent nations of Moghes were horrified by this turn of events, seeing the entire Unathi way of life being turned upside down so quickly. Whether out of fear of an age of unstoppable Izweski imperialism, or out of suspicion that the humans and Skrell had deliberately sabotaged the development of the ''Uezwik’s Hope'', a grand meeting of the rulers of Moghes was called. This would become known as the Firebrand Summit, which would lead to the formation of the Traditionalist Coalition - a loose alliance of independent nations, united solely in their desire to destroy the Izweski before they came to dominate all of Moghes.


The Izweski colonization of Ourea was the final catalyst for the [[Contact War]], which began with the sudden invasion of Izweski lands east of '''Res'karum''' by the Traditionalist Coalition three days after the Izweski Colonists landed on Ourea. Conventional fighting lasted a year, from February 6th 2438 to September 5th 2439.
===The Contact War(2438-2449)===
''“Weep for us, who have no more tears left,''<br>
''Pray for us, we who are damned alive.”''<br>
''-Yzteka Khanak, celebrated Mudki poet''


[[File:Unathiatom.jpg|thumb|alt=Gun emplacements.|It's unknown how the Coalition acquired atomic weapons, but many conspiracy theories persist.]]
The Uezwik Incident was the final catalyst for the Contact War, which began with the sudden assault of Izweski cities in the Zazalai Mountains by the Traditionalist Coalition. The assault was launched three days after the first Unathi crew successfully left Uueoa-Esa with a Moghean ship, while the Hegemony was still celebrating. Conventional warfare lasted a year, from February 6th 2438 to September 5th 2439. After vicious fighting, primarily in the Zazalai Mountains and the borders of Traditionalist kingdoms, the Coalition realised they lacked the ability to breach the Hegemony’s borders in conventional battle. On September 6th 2439, a Traditionalist atomic bomb was dropped on the Izweski city of Da’ha’den, nearly completely obliterating the city.


On September 5th, 2439, the Traditionalist Coalition suddenly dropped an atomic bomb on the Izweski city of Da’ha’den, obliterating it and sparking a global nuclear war, with the exchange of atomic and nuclear weapons continuing for an entire week.
The Traditionalist Coalition’s use of nuclear weapons came as a surprise - though the Azarak and a few other kingdoms did possess nuclear weapons, the Coalition used them in enormous numbers, almost comparable to the Izweski’s. To this day, the question is often raised when discussing the Contact War - how did they get so many nuclear weapons, and how did the Izweski not know about it? Theories range wildly, with some suspecting a decades-long plan for a global war from the Azarak - discreetly arming their fellow independent kingdoms for when the time came to strike the Izweski. This is a fringe theory, however, with the more commonly accepted belief being that the kingdoms of the Coalition received aid from Izweski scientists and rapidly began the production of nuclear weapons in the hopes of providing a deterrent against Izweski power when it became clear that the Traditionalists would not be able to win the Contact War conventionally. When the first nuclear weapons were fired, however, the idea of mutually assured destruction vanished - and all of Moghes would pay the price for it.


The origin of the Coalition's access to atomic weapons remains a mystery and subject to countless conspiracy theories. Whereas the Izweski Hegemony had atomic and basic hydrogen bombs with missiles to deliver them world-wide, no nation in the Traditionalist Coalition had any recorded successes with atomic or hydrogen bombs, nor the capability to mount any on rockets or bombs before the war began. The prospect of the Coalition managing to rush a nuclear weapons program in under a year and mass produce over a hundred atomic bombs is one that many Unathi have a difficult time accepting. Conspiracies range from defecting Izweski scientists leaking secrets to the Coalition, to human or skrell involvement.
Though some of the wealthier and more powerful kingdoms of the Coalition possessed atomic weapons, the Izweski were unprepared for their use in such numbers, with both sides beginning a continued nuclear exchange - launching hundreds of nuclear weapons. It is reported that observing alien vessels had their viewing shutters lowered constantly to prevent eye damage to the crew, as Moghes burned below them. The nuclear exchange lasted for one week. By its conclusion, nearly two billion Unathi were dead, and over sixty percent of the planet’s surface was rendered uninhabitable wasteland.


The War continued on after the nuclear exchange, but it became a desperate war of attrition and survival. The war's formal conclusion is widely accepted to be when exhausted Izweski forces captured the Coalition capital city of Darakath ten years after the bombs fell, on December 4th, 2449, signalling the defeat of the last organized force left to oppose the Izweski, ending the 11 year long conflict.
The War continued on after the nuclear exchange, but it became a desperate war of attrition and survival. The war's formal conclusion is widely accepted to be when exhausted Izweski forces captured the Coalition capital city of Darakath ten years after the bombs fell, on December 4th, 2449, signalling the defeat of the last organised force left to oppose the Izweski, ending the eleven year long conflict.


====Aftermath====
===Aftermath===
''“Another such victory, and I will rule an empire of ghosts.”''<br>
''-Hegemon S’kresti Izweski, upon being informed of the victory at Darakath.''


In retaliation for the war crimes preformed by the Traditionalists, being the atomic detonations and multiple other accusations, every single Traditionalist leader was decapitated whenever they were captured without any form of trial. At the start of the war the population of Moghes was 8 billion, and by 2458 it stands at 6.2 billion.
With the capture of Darakath, the Contact War came to an end. For the devastation wrought upon Moghes, the entire Azarak clan was sentenced to death by the victorious Izweski - though it was a hollow victory, that had seen billions of Unathi perish and over half the planet turned into irradiated desert.


In addition, nuclear weapons have become utterly despised nearly universally by all Sinta'Unathi. The surviving elements of the Izweski Hegemony have made clear and concerted efforts to find and dismantle any remnant of nuclear programs across Moghes while they themselves have dismantled nearly their entire stockpile, with the goal of total disarmament by 2460.
The Contact War has had a lasting effect on Unathi society and culture - notably, in the near species-wide disgust felt towards nuclear weapons. The Hegemony has invested significant resources into finding and dismantling every nuclear weapons stockpile they can reach, having finished disposing of the last of their own nuclear weapons in 2460.


===Unathi Today===
==Unathi Today==
''“And to survive, one must adapt, for change is the only assurance of life.”''<br>
- Lord Tuscacun, Commander of Izweski Military Forces at the beginning of the Contact War.''


By 2458, most of the interior of Moghes is uninhabitable. While the yields were lower than thermonuclear weapons, the fallout is still posing massive problems for Moghes. Most of the planet is now engulfed by a single desert, which is aptly named “The Wasteland”. During the Contact war and after it, the Izweski Hegemony has found itself facing a catastrophic collapse of the eco-system. The sole remaining cities still functioning exist in the Untouched Lands; shielded by the massive mountain ranges from the fallout and encroaching desert sands.
As of 2465, Moghes is still a sundered and bleeding world. The Wasteland has expanded steadily, leading to more and more refugees fleeing into the Untouched Lands as the fallout renders more of the world uninhabitable day by day. The best projections of Izweski scientists indicate that, should nothing be done to mitigate or reverse the damage caused, Moghes will be unable to support life by 2500.  


The Izweski Nation exists as a shell of its former self. Its influence extends around Skalamar and Ma’ha’rem in the Untouched Lands, with Hegemon and Clan Leader S’kresti ruling it unquestioned, but the rest of the planet has devolved into the feudal system of Clan-ship, with ideologies, technology, and economies varying wildly. Moghean Unathi find themselves faced with the choice of continuing to do little more than etch out an existence on the home planet, or take lucrative offers from Nanotrasen and other megacorp to join their workforce. In addition, the Hegemony finds itself facing massive swarms of refugees spilling through its borders. Many Lords and Clan Lords have tried to shut the gates to the refugees, as millions of them continue to seek refuge in the Untouched Lands, overwhelming the already stressed support structures of the Izweski state. Since the end of the Contact War the Hegemony has tried to deal with these refugees by shipping them off to space as fast as possible, many of them being former Traditionalist or even Izweski warriors that returned home to find their clans had ceased to exist. This accounts for the large number of Unathi raiders present in knwon space. The population remains at 6.5 billion Unathi, and remains in a steady decline. It is estimated by human scientists that Moghes will be rendered completely uninhabitable to Unathi life within 100 years unless the planet is terraformed to mitigate the damage, though terraforming inhabited planets remains incredibly dangerous.
In addition, the Hegemony has been rife with political and economic instability in recent years. The fall of Hegemon S’kresti and rise of his successor Not’zar was marked by power struggles, civil war and bitter conflict. The old religions of Moghes struggle against one another, and new subversive cults have arisen that seek to tear the Hegemony down in its entirety. As the Spur’s phoron scarcity worsened, famine gripped Moghes as the economy threatened to collapse entirely, only to be saved by the last-minute intervention of [[Hephaestus Industries]] - a move which has infuriated many.  


[[File:Space refugees by thirteen dogs-da00teb.jpg|thumb|alt=Refugee Crisis.|The Izweski Nation finds itself struggling to accommodate refugees trying to escape the growing Wasteland.]]
The Hegemony today occupies a precarious position of hard-won stability. Though the arrival of the [[Vaurca_Hives#K'lax|K’lax Hive]] has granted the Unathi access to advanced technology, it remains to be seen whether it will be enough to save Moghes from the slow death that currently grips it. The nobles plot and scheme for greater power, the other megacorporations seek to disrupt Hephaestus’s key position in the nation’s economy, and unrest seems to grip the nation more and more with each passing day. The future of the Unathi race remains uncertain, and opinions differ on the events of recent years - whether they are the last gasps of a dying Hegemony, or a period of adversity that will precede an unparalleled golden age.


The Ouerean Unathi are faring far better. Though it was jointly administered by the Sol Alliance and Jargon Federation, it was restored under the direct control of the Hegemon during a series of diplomatic incidents in the summer of 2457. Now it faces an influx of immigrants from Moghes placing stress on its institutions and shaky transition back to the Hegemony, and an upset away from the more liberal lifestyle they enjoyed under the Skrell and Human administration...
More information on major events in Unathi society following the end of the Contact War can be found [[Unathi Recent Events|here]].

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  • Pre-Hegemonic Unathi

    The Nomadic Era

    The ancient Unathi were believed to be primarily organised into nomadic hunter-gatherer societies, largely consisting of small clans following large herds of threshbeasts across the savannahs of Moghes. The earliest signs of permanent settlement date back to around 12500 BCE, as larger clans began to migrate towards the shores of the Moghresian Sea - developing primitive forms of aquaculture and animal husbandry to sustain their settlements. This is around where the earliest signs of faith resembling modern Th’akh begin to emerge, with ancient shrines believed to be dedicated to various spirits having been unearthed by Izweski archaeologists.

    The Warring Cities Era

    The transition from nomadic to settled life was a slow one - as many of the ancient proto-clans would frequently wage wars over the bountiful food supplies of the early settlements. Eventually, however, the populations of these early settlements would swell faster than their rival clans could dream of, leading to rapid growth and progress - development of writing, metalwork and more advanced shipbuilding techniques drove the settlements around the Moghresian Sea into some of the first cities of Moghes. The earliest currencies began to develop during this period, with dried and salted fish forming the backbone of these ancient economies.

    Other Unathi civilisations would arise during this period, known as the Warring Cities Era by modern historians. The ancient city of Darakath, in what is now the Broken Coalition, is believed to have been first settled around this time, and some of the oldest historical sites in the Tza Prairie are believed to have been built by exiles from the city-states of the Moghresian Sea.

    For centuries, the regions now known as the Southlands and Izweski Heartland were ruled over by collections of city-states, each ruled by a single clan. As these states clashed with each other for territory and resources, the Unathi martial culture began to develop. Though there would be periods where one city-state dominated the rest, none of these ancient attempts at empire lasted long. While some historical documents refer to “The League of Nine Cities”, as a persistent presence in the region, archaeological evidence indicates that this was more of a temporary alliance, designed to deal with invading forces crossing the Zazalai Mountains.

    The Warring Cities Era is generally considered to have ended around 920 CE, with the rise of the First Hegemony.

    The Sinta'Mador

    There is one culture of particular note among the pre-Hegemonic civilisations of Moghes - the fabled Sinta’Mador. While much of their history is steeped in superstition and mysticism, modern scientists have made a study of the ancient culture of the Moghresian North Pole - though this has been frequently undermined by the efforts of Aut’akh cultists, who often steal Mador relics and artefacts for religious purposes.

    Factually, the Sinta’Mador are known to have been a culture that dwelled in the north polar region of Moghes, between the early Warring Cities Era and the rise of the First Hegemony. While it is unclear if the Sinta’Mador were a genetically distinct species to the Sinta’Unathi, or simply a name for a different culture, they were at the very least close relatives of the wider Unathi species. Very little reference can be found to the Mador in contemporary records, though some scraps of ancient poetry from the Tza Prairie do refer to “the children of Travakh”, and “corpse-scaled devils" - referred to as a somewhat mythical race of beings in the uninhabitable north, who brought cold and death in their wake. Whether this referred to some long-forgotten war with the ancient Sinta’Mador, or is simply a mythologised retelling of a particularly deadly cold season, remains unclear.

    The Mador settlements were largely built around volcanic hot springs, which are believed to have been used as a primitive heat source. While the reason for the extinction of the Mador remains uncertain, the common theory is a period of global cooling on Moghes rendered the land beyond their cities uninhabitable, leading to a slow death for their inhabitants. Many of the ancient Mador cities which have been explored showed signs of impressive technological advancement for the time - some of the oldest steel tools and weapons in Sinta history have been found in the polar region, and some of the largest settlements seemed to have developed elaborate heating systems using the local hot springs. The Mador treatment of the dead is also noteworthy - corpses would seemingly have a piece of volcanic glass inserted in a primitive surgery, placed behind the eyes prior to their burial. This is believed to have been a way of preventing a restless spirit from possessing their old body, though due to the lack of translated Mador writing it is impossible to be sure.

    The Mador have taken on a somewhat mythical status among followers of the Aut’akh faith, with the researcher Emzal Paossini having attributed many of the foundational principles of Aut’akh to ancient Mador rituals. This has led to stories spreading across the Spur, treating the Mador as everything from ancient and mystical sages to a race of cybernetically-enhanced demigods possessing technology beyond that of the modern Spur. While some Aut’akh, most notably Paossini themself, have actually made a study of the Mador, to most followers of the faith this ancient culture is little more than a distorted myth.

    The First Hegemony

    “You ask of me, o mighty, who comes hence?
    Know, and tremble, for I am
    Hegemon Eternal,
    Master of all beneath the Mother’s eye.”
    -Spear-Shattering King, an ancient Kopesk poem describing the rise of the First Hegemony

    The First Hegemony, also known as the Kres’ha’nor Hegemony, arose around 920 CE. While records are sparse from this time period, the Kres’ha’nor are believed to have been a minor noble dynasty originating in what is modern-day Baandr, who rose to power and conquered several of their rival city-states. The War of the First Hegemony, as modern historians have named it, lasted nearly a century, as the once-independent city-states of the Moghresian Sea were absorbed under the banner of the Kres’ha’nor.

    Around 1014 CE, the reigning King Tryazali Kres’ha’nor addressed a group known as “The High Twelve of Sskel”. Sskel was known to be a powerful nation of the time, though its location is unknown as all recovered literature from the period seems to assume knowledge of its location as something that would be obvious to any reader. As such, who the High Twelve were or where this conversation took place is entirely unknown to modern historians.

    Kres’ha’nor is believed to have proclaimed the First Hegemony at this time, though accounts of this event are limited and often dating several centuries after the fact. The most well-preserved source, a Kopesk poem called Spear-Shattering King, quotes Tryazali Kres’ha’nor as proclaiming himself “Hegemon Eternal, master of all lands beneath the Mother’s eye”. Under his reign, the precursor to modern feudalism would come about, with many of the current titles of Unathi nobility dating back to the Kres’ha’nor Hegemony.

    The Kres’ha’nor came to rule a vast empire, controlling the modern Izweski Heartland, Southlands and much of what has now become the Northern Wasteland. With a population of around twelve million and mass production of steel armor and weaponry, the Kres’ha’nor were the undisputed power of the ancient world.

    This dynasty would last for nearly five hundred years, until the reign of Hegemon Kresshi Kres’ha’nor. Hegemon Kresshi was known as a brilliant military commander, who waged highly successful wars against nations now lost to time. Mention is made in historical sources of “the conquest of the black-eyed Jazir” and “the raiders of the western shore”, but the specific nature of these peoples has been lost to time. He is recorded to have ruled from Kres’ha, a city that is frequently mentioned as the capital of the First Hegemony. The location of Kres’ha is unknown, with several claims to have found its ruins all having been disproven.

    Kresshi also sired many children, who fought against one another almost immediately upon his death. The empire was shattered into warring factions, each supporting one of the many claimants to the throne. Kres’ha is believed to have been burned during this period, which would last for decades, and outlive all of the original claimants. Some apocryphal sources refer to this time as “The War of Eight Tyrants” - though this number is frequently disputed among modern historians.

    By the time the war ended, the First Hegemony was irreparably broken, fractured into dozens of smaller kingdoms. Several of these kings would call themselves Hegemons, but the title quickly fell out of use, as it spoke of ambitions of conquest. Moghes would remain divided, with no one daring to claim rulership of the world, for centuries. This period of divided kingdoms is when the modern Sk’akh Church was formed, though the religion had existed in various forms for an uncertain amount of time prior. Fragments of ancient church records indicate that at one point, the Church ruled much of the Heartland directly, prior to an event only referred to as “The Apostate’s War”.

    Growth of Guilds

    The guild system began to emerge after the fall of the Kres’ha’nor, among merchants who saw the need for mutually beneficial relationships among the fractured and frequently warring kingdoms. Guilds formed for bakers, butchers, grocers, millers, smiths, carpenters, weavers, mason, shoemakers - nearly every trade had its own guild. Standards such as just weights and measures evolved from the guilds, and guild inspectors would inspect shops to ensure rules were being followed. Guilds would help members that were sick or otherwise endangered, and would sometimes take care of families after the member died.

    Apprenticeship was how most started in a particular trade, which they would follow the rest of their lives. After completing an apprenticeship, the appropriate guild would examine his work and see if he could be elevated to a Craftsman. A Craftsman was required to create a "masterpiece" in the presence of judges to be elevated to Master status, which would allow him to join the leadership of his guild.

    Guilds also built and ran the first universities on Moghes, the first known being the University of Ma'ha'rem which opened in 1602. Originally trade schools, they slowly expanded to become centers of learning for apprentices of every field. A doctor would have to first become a "Master" through a university to be allowed to practice his trade within towns or cities controlled by a guild of doctors, and the same for any other brand of skilled work. A Master's certificate also distinguished someone as a professional with few peers, giving their holders immense prestige and trust. A fully accredited and certified doctor on Moghes would be (and are still) known as a Master Doctor. Typically they are known as [Rank] [Craft], so you can also be a Master Weaponsmith or Master Engineer.

    Eventually these guilds managed to form powerful monopolies and they spread their trade and influence across Moghes. Most of the landed elite feared the growth of the guilds, who were creating a new middle class of urban workers. That a peasant could rise to gain prestige and vast wealth with no land, titles, or martial victories under their belt was an idea bewildering and frustrating. The late 1600s and the beginning of the 1700s saw many kingdoms across Moghes cracking down on the power of guilds, stripping them of privileges or banning craftsmen from meeting in groups. Other nations ruthlessly suppressed private enterprise. Many laws were passed that strictly limited how many members a guild could possess, as well as requiring all craftsmen to register with their local lords before being allowed to sell any goods or services.

    Guilds also developed another innovation: minting and issuing coinage. Because it was rather difficult to do large transactions with giant piles of dehydrated fish, the first guilds in the 1600s began minting coins made of steel that would be backed by that amount of fish, similar to bank notes. They could be turned in, theoretically, at any time for an equivalent amount of salted fish. This saw Moghes begin to gravitate away from measuring wealth by fish stocks, and towards a more familiar economy, though the Fish Standard remained for quite some time.

    The Second Hegemony

    “It is such a wretched thing, this business of empire.”
    -Ayzi Sarakus, immediately following the Siege of Skalamar

    The 1800s marked a period of rapid technological development on Moghes, as the Ras’iks clan of S’th began producing steam engines. This advancement was rapidly adopted by some of the guilds, though many saw it as a useless curiosity or a threat to their established market. However, it would be the beginning of an industrial revolution for the Unathi people - the consequences of which would lead to the rise of the Second Hegemony.

    The cities of the Heartland rapidly industrialised, as the ruling clans of the region began to grasp the possibility of this new age of invention. The Heartland’s skies were choked black with the smoke of factories and forges, but the divided kingdoms of the region meant that technological advancement was slow to spread. Each of the region’s monarchs wished for the benefits of new technology, but none wished to allow their rivals to gain an advantage from it. Several wars marred the region in the 1800s, as mass production had made gunpowder weapons more than a noble’s amusing curiosity. Early firearms, cannons and explosives are all reported to have been developed around this time.

    Rapid industrialisation also led to another war - this one, among the guilds. To many of the existing guilds, industrialisation was a threat to their power - skilled craftsmen would find themselves displaced and out of work, thanks to the introduction of factories and growth of unskilled labour. Others thought to embrace this new upheaval, changing nearly their entire business models to ride the industrial revolution to riches. Conflict between guilds is mentioned in records from the period, with some cities having devolved to guild members actively fighting in the streets. Several modern guilds have their roots in this period, including the Fishing League and Junzi Electric.

    The industrial revolution was well and truly underway by the time the Second Hegemony rose. In 1916, the Sarakus Clan rose to power, following a brutal war among the industrialised nations. Seizing control of the wealthy Southlands and Heartland regions, the Sarakus rapidly launched a campaign of bloody conquest against their neighbours. In 1922, this war finally came to an end as the reigning Queen of Skalamar surrendered to the Sarakus forces. Following his victory, King Azyi Sarakus did what no other had done in centuries, proclaiming himself Hegemon of Moghes. The Sarakus took rapid advantage of industrialisation, using technological advances across the nation to enrich themselves and their loyal vassals. Private guilds were outlawed, and their resources brought under Hegemonic control - though in practice, many of the guilds continued to operate as before, just reporting to a state official instead of a Guildmaster. The Sarakus leased out titles to factories, mines and other enterprises, transforming many of the former leaders among guilds into lords of the realm - allowing the nobility to keep control over unskilled labour, just as they had prior to industrialisation.

    The Great Endeavor

    “Progress is a wild hegeranzi. You ride it to glory, or you are trampled beneath its hooves.”
    -Apocryphal quote, often attributed to Azyi Sarakus

    In 1931, Ayzi Sarakus proclaimed the ‘Great Endeavour’ - a massive effort to modernise the entirety of the Hegemony. As part of the Endeavour, electricity would become widespread throughout Sarakus territory, road and railroad networks would connect every city in the empire, and radio coverage would expand across nearly the entire world.

    The Great Endeavour took twenty years, and Ayzi Sarakus would not live to see its conclusion. The project was finished with a grand opening of the Sarakus Castle in Skalamar, having been outfitted with modern plumbing, electricity, and every luxury the new age could afford. By the time the project was done, Moghes had been transformed, with even lands outside the Hegemony having begun to adopt the advances of the Sarakus - though to a much lesser degree.

    The Sarakus were ruthless in this project, however - with much of traditional Unathi society having been uprooted as advancements in factories meant that skilled labour became less and less valuable. While they had brought the Hegemony into a new age, many whispered that it had come at the price of the nation’s soul. To others, however, it was a golden age - a time of opportunity and advancement. Many of the great scientific institutions of Moghes were established following the Great Endeavour, and Unathi understanding of the world around them progressed immensely. But, like many golden ages, it would come to a sudden and violent end.

    The Third Hegemony

    “You ask by what right I call myself Hegemon? The only right that matters. Come and challenge it, if you can.”
    -Lord Neeziah Izweski, marking the beginning of the War of the Honored Alliance.

    In 1994, a group referred to by contemporary sources as the Traitor Lords seized Sarakus Castle, wiping out nearly the entire clan in a single night. Surviving Sarakus across Moghes were killed, many of them before news of the coup even spread beyond Skalamar. Before the blood was even cleaned from the throne, the Traitor Lords crowned Lord Neeziah Izweski as the new Hegemon, and proclaimed the birth of the Third Hegemony.

    Here is where records differ enormously. The modern Izweski account of history refers to the reigning Hegemon Sarakus as a bloody-clawed tyrant, who was driving the nation to ruin. Historical pro-Izweski accounts refer similarly to Sarakus as a cruel and sadistic tyrant, with some claiming that he performed unnatural rituals to summon dark spirits upon his enemies. Though the Sk’akh Church claims that their High Priest at the time could tell the Izweski were the rightful rulers of Moghes, fragmented records claim that a brutal and secret civil war was fought among the Archpriests, with the pro-Izweski faction eventually achieving victory.

    Regardless, many Sarakus vassals refused to accept this, rising in rebellion against the Izweski. These lords called themselves the Honoured Alliance, and immediately began a brutal civil war. The War of the Honoured Alliance would last for nearly a hundred years, and would see the birth of modern Unathi warfare - widespread use of ballistic weaponry and early armoured vehicles marked the battlefield, and the first Unathi aircraft were developed and deployed to rain death upon the battlefields. It was, for centuries, regarded as the most devastating war in Unathi history.

    Eventually, in 2079, the Izweski and the Honoured Alliance signed a cease-fire - neither side was capable of effectively waging war any longer. Nearly all the lands east of the Zazalai Mountains were aligned with the Honoured Alliance, while the Izweski secured their grip on the regions surrounding the Moghresian Sea. The Honoured Alliance would eventually divide into its own kingdoms, as both the Hegemony and the Alliance rebuilt their sacked and ruined lands. Millions had died in the war, and the planet would not recover for decades.

    With the war over, the Izweski began to reverse many of the policies of the Sarakus. Their strict control of the economy was abolished, leading to a rebirth of guilds in the Hegemony. In the 22nd century, many of these guilds would evolve into trade unions, which would come into conflict with the nobility as more and more of their control over the economy vanished. This is reported to have led to several rebellions, though most of the details of these have been excised from the Izweski historical record. The move towards free trade greatly destabilised the nation at first, but it would eventually prove beneficial to the nation’s economy, leading to a rapidly growing middle class.

    The New Economy

    “Steel won this nation, but silver built it.”
    -Gukha Rozalt, guildmaster of the Merchants’ Guild (2195)

    Despite the turmoil that the new policies had brought to the Hegemony, the process continued. By the year 2200, the Izweski had presided over the growth of mass media, leading to an increasingly globalised society. The growing middle class within the Hegemony had become a sizable economic and political force, largely channelled through the guild system. Though much of the guilds’ leadership was made up of commoners, by the turn of the century the major guilds had vastly more power within Hegemonic society than most of the nobility.

    Major cities across Moghes were filled with clunky cars navigating traffic as stoplights replaced traffic cops, and most homes had access to televisions, radios, and other modern amenities. Guilds owned monopolies over specific goods and services. Powerful merchant families owned hospital chains, pharmaceutical companies, car companies, television networks; a dynastic control of private enterprise had developed. An urban, middle-class Unathi found themselves with all the modern luxuries and basic goods that were available to the average human in the 21st century.

    However, this system was held up by a vast underclass in urban Unathi society. Nearly every major city had sprawling slums that surrounded the industrial districts, filled with underpaid factory workers who ironically found their rights curtailed by the powerful trade unions. Guwan specifically were ruthlessly exploited, forced to work as street sweepers or maintain the sewers as payment for their crimes in a situation that critics of the Izweski described as little better than slave labour.. Orphans found themselves cared for in boardhouses owned by a Guild until they turned 16, when they were forced to work for the Guild to pay back the debt they incurred caring for them. The Izweski are recorded to have made little effort to alleviate the abject poverty many Unathi were suffering from the rampant abuse of the major guilds, believing that the consequences were necessary to maintain a modern, functioning empire.

    The one change that the Izweski made to curtail guild power was the centralisation of currency - since the origins of the guild system, individual banking guilds had minted and issued their own currencies, in a massively decentralised system. In 2212, the Izweski outlawed guilds producing their own currency, nationalising all resources for such under the Hegemonic Reserve Bank.

    This bank became the only institution that could mint coins, called Zikis. The bank also began issuing paper money, called Zakas. Both the steel coins and paper notes were backed by salted fish until 2251, when the currency was taken off the Fish Standard. The Zaka became the reserve currency of Moghes by 2290, and continued to be so until it was replaced by the Biesel Standard Credit.

    The Nuclear Age

    “With this, we have brought an end to war.”
    -Apocryphal quote, often attributed to an Izweski nuclear scientist

    The first Unathi nuclear test took place in 2345, funded by the Izweski Hegemony and carried out by scientists of the Skalamar Academy of the Natural Sciences. The bomb was detonated in the freezing climate of Moghes’ north pole, at a research installation far to the north of the city of Guzari. Though the project was highly classified, word eventually spread - that the Izweski had a weapon unparalleled by any other nation of Moghes. The Izweski began constructing more nuclear weapons - first to be dropped from aircraft, and later to be launched via missile, with advances in rocketry making both the usage of ICBMs and the newly-formed Izweski Space Program viable.

    The Izweski nuclear arsenal became a point of pride - no foe could threaten the Hegemony without risking total annihilation. Following the confirmation of nuclear weapons’ plausibility, some rival kingdoms began their own nuclear projects - though without the wealth and resources of the Izweski, only a few had any successes. The most notable of these was the Azarak Kingdom, in the region now called the Broken Coalition - who invested much of their nation’s wealth and power in their own nuclear program. While not as advanced or widespread as the Izweski’s nuclear weapons, the scientists of the Azarak were able to field a significant number nonetheless. While other kingdoms engaged in nuclear research, there was no report of anything beyond the smallest of successes among them.

    For a time, however, the presence of nuclear weapons enforced a kind of uneasy peace over Moghes - the Izweski would not dare to attack the few kingdoms capable of rivalling them with the prospect of mutual nuclear devastation, and no one on Moghes would even think of war with the Hegemony when they wielded such terrible power. It was a delicate peace, but it was a peace - and would remain that way for nearly a century.

    The Beginnings of Space Travel

    “The stars themselves will belong to the Hegemon - and he needs your help!”
    -Recruitment slogan for Ouerean colonists, 2386

    The Unathi took their first steps into the stars in the year 2339, with the formal establishment of the Izweski Space Program. Largely, this came in the form of unmanned communication and observation satellites, many of which have been refurbished for the modern day. The first manned Unathi missions came in 2343, when an Unathi named Kseok Hizra made history - becoming the first Unathi in space. Manned missions continued, with Unathi setting foot on Chanterel in 2361. The Hegemony space program received drastic upgrades in 2372, when Ouerea was discovered to be inhabitable. The Izweski poured money and resources into the colonization of Ouerea, establishing a population of a few thousand on the planet, as well as establishing orbital installations for resupply of their crude and slow shuttles. This led to the creation of what was at the time designated Izweski Station - the first space station put into the orbit of Moghes.

    The colonisation of Ouerea was viewed as a massive victory for the Hegemony, with propaganda from the late 2300s claiming that “The Hegemon’s rule extends to the very stars”. To rival kingdoms, however, it was a great concern - if the Izweski Hegemony could become a truly spacefaring power, they would have an insurmountable advantage over the other nations of Moghes. Many feared that with the first colonists setting foot on Ouerea, a second global war had become inevitable.

    First Contact

    In 2403, a Solarian exploration vessel entered the Uueoa-Esa sector, marking first contact between humans and Unathi. This marked a rapid period of debate among humanity, as to the ethics of making contact with a species that had yet to develop faster-than-light travel. Eventually, the Sol Alliance and Nralakk Federation sent a diplomatic mission to make contact with the Izweski, who had been identified as the rulers of Moghes - in order to welcome the newly-discovered Unathi into the wider Spur.

    Naturally, the discovery caused shock among the Unathi population - priests and scholars secluded themselves in intense theological debate as to the spiritual nature of the aliens, nobles schemed to gain advantages from this historic event, and some called for war to prevent these mysterious visitors from invading Moghes. On the human side of things, meanwhile, the megacorporations of the Orion Spur saw an opportunity for an entirely untouched market, and rapidly began working to expand their business into Uueoa-Esa.

    The Hegemony worked carefully to keep alien contact controlled at first, only allowing visiting humans and Skrell in highly-restricted areas under heavy guard. Eventually, this was relaxed, as Einsten Engines was contracted to build the first spaceport on Moghes, in the city of Skalamar. Access to more advanced space travel allowed the fledgling colony on Ouerea to undergo a rapid boom, with humans, Skrell and Unathi mingling freely on the planet's surface.

    Trade with humanity proved a great boon for the Hegemony, granting access to advanced technology beyond the wildest dreams of even the greatest scientists of Moghes. But with this opportunity came upheaval, as many Unathi saw a chance to break free of the highly stratified society that existed prior to contact. The first Unathi space pirates emerged in 2417, leading to the earliest beginnings of the Izweski Navy - though it was a ramshackle force, largely dealing with decades-old Hephaestus designs purchased cheaply.

    Outside the Hegemony, however, first contact was a sign of all the worst fears that the other nations of Moghes had harboured. The aliens had treated the Izweski as if they were the rulers of Moghes in truth, and the technological superiority the Hegemony possessed would now only grow further beyond their rivals. Various meetings among the rulers outside of Izweski territory were held, in the hopes of forming some grand coalition to stand against the Izweski and their dreams of empire. Though it would not break out for decades to come, the Contact War was already set in motion.

    The Contact War

    See also: Contact War, Unathi Military Structure

    Prelude To War

    “They come with arms outstretched in friendship, but their intention is to reach out and snap our necks!'”
    -King Don’zai Azarak, during his infamous address to the Firebrand Summit.

    As the colony on Ouerea grew, and alien trade further enriched the Hegemony, the Izweski sought to secure themselves as the first and only interstellar power among the Unathi. Under the reign of Hegemon S’kresti Izweski, the Hegemony’s best and brightest scientists worked with human and Skrell researchers to create the first Unathi-manufactured warp-capable ship. Named after the lead scientist on the project, the HRV Uezwik’s Hope was launched in 2437, a bright beacon that would lead the Sinta’Unathi people to glory among the stars.

    However, when the time came to spool up the warp engines, a catastrophic malfunction led to the ship being lost with all hands. The failure sent shockwaves through all of Moghes, with public outcry about how this experiment had led to the tragic loss of dozens of Unathi lives - some of the brightest and most respected Moghes had, no less. In January 2438, a second attempt at warp travel would prove to be successful - creating massive unrest among the independent nations of Moghes. The fact that the Hegemony had now access to not only Ouerea but also faster-than-light travel, while the rest of Moghes was attempting to catch up, only aggravated fears of an absolute supremacy of the Hegemony.

    Many of the independent nations of Moghes were horrified by this turn of events, seeing the entire Unathi way of life being turned upside down so quickly. Whether out of fear of an age of unstoppable Izweski imperialism, or out of suspicion that the humans and Skrell had deliberately sabotaged the development of the Uezwik’s Hope, a grand meeting of the rulers of Moghes was called. This would become known as the Firebrand Summit, which would lead to the formation of the Traditionalist Coalition - a loose alliance of independent nations, united solely in their desire to destroy the Izweski before they came to dominate all of Moghes.

    The Contact War(2438-2449)

    “Weep for us, who have no more tears left,
    Pray for us, we who are damned alive.”
    -Yzteka Khanak, celebrated Mudki poet

    The Uezwik Incident was the final catalyst for the Contact War, which began with the sudden assault of Izweski cities in the Zazalai Mountains by the Traditionalist Coalition. The assault was launched three days after the first Unathi crew successfully left Uueoa-Esa with a Moghean ship, while the Hegemony was still celebrating. Conventional warfare lasted a year, from February 6th 2438 to September 5th 2439. After vicious fighting, primarily in the Zazalai Mountains and the borders of Traditionalist kingdoms, the Coalition realised they lacked the ability to breach the Hegemony’s borders in conventional battle. On September 6th 2439, a Traditionalist atomic bomb was dropped on the Izweski city of Da’ha’den, nearly completely obliterating the city.

    The Traditionalist Coalition’s use of nuclear weapons came as a surprise - though the Azarak and a few other kingdoms did possess nuclear weapons, the Coalition used them in enormous numbers, almost comparable to the Izweski’s. To this day, the question is often raised when discussing the Contact War - how did they get so many nuclear weapons, and how did the Izweski not know about it? Theories range wildly, with some suspecting a decades-long plan for a global war from the Azarak - discreetly arming their fellow independent kingdoms for when the time came to strike the Izweski. This is a fringe theory, however, with the more commonly accepted belief being that the kingdoms of the Coalition received aid from Izweski scientists and rapidly began the production of nuclear weapons in the hopes of providing a deterrent against Izweski power when it became clear that the Traditionalists would not be able to win the Contact War conventionally. When the first nuclear weapons were fired, however, the idea of mutually assured destruction vanished - and all of Moghes would pay the price for it.

    Though some of the wealthier and more powerful kingdoms of the Coalition possessed atomic weapons, the Izweski were unprepared for their use in such numbers, with both sides beginning a continued nuclear exchange - launching hundreds of nuclear weapons. It is reported that observing alien vessels had their viewing shutters lowered constantly to prevent eye damage to the crew, as Moghes burned below them. The nuclear exchange lasted for one week. By its conclusion, nearly two billion Unathi were dead, and over sixty percent of the planet’s surface was rendered uninhabitable wasteland.

    The War continued on after the nuclear exchange, but it became a desperate war of attrition and survival. The war's formal conclusion is widely accepted to be when exhausted Izweski forces captured the Coalition capital city of Darakath ten years after the bombs fell, on December 4th, 2449, signalling the defeat of the last organised force left to oppose the Izweski, ending the eleven year long conflict.

    Aftermath

    “Another such victory, and I will rule an empire of ghosts.”
    -Hegemon S’kresti Izweski, upon being informed of the victory at Darakath.

    With the capture of Darakath, the Contact War came to an end. For the devastation wrought upon Moghes, the entire Azarak clan was sentenced to death by the victorious Izweski - though it was a hollow victory, that had seen billions of Unathi perish and over half the planet turned into irradiated desert.

    The Contact War has had a lasting effect on Unathi society and culture - notably, in the near species-wide disgust felt towards nuclear weapons. The Hegemony has invested significant resources into finding and dismantling every nuclear weapons stockpile they can reach, having finished disposing of the last of their own nuclear weapons in 2460.

    Unathi Today

    “And to survive, one must adapt, for change is the only assurance of life.”
    - Lord Tuscacun, Commander of Izweski Military Forces at the beginning of the Contact War.

    As of 2465, Moghes is still a sundered and bleeding world. The Wasteland has expanded steadily, leading to more and more refugees fleeing into the Untouched Lands as the fallout renders more of the world uninhabitable day by day. The best projections of Izweski scientists indicate that, should nothing be done to mitigate or reverse the damage caused, Moghes will be unable to support life by 2500.

    In addition, the Hegemony has been rife with political and economic instability in recent years. The fall of Hegemon S’kresti and rise of his successor Not’zar was marked by power struggles, civil war and bitter conflict. The old religions of Moghes struggle against one another, and new subversive cults have arisen that seek to tear the Hegemony down in its entirety. As the Spur’s phoron scarcity worsened, famine gripped Moghes as the economy threatened to collapse entirely, only to be saved by the last-minute intervention of Hephaestus Industries - a move which has infuriated many.

    The Hegemony today occupies a precarious position of hard-won stability. Though the arrival of the K’lax Hive has granted the Unathi access to advanced technology, it remains to be seen whether it will be enough to save Moghes from the slow death that currently grips it. The nobles plot and scheme for greater power, the other megacorporations seek to disrupt Hephaestus’s key position in the nation’s economy, and unrest seems to grip the nation more and more with each passing day. The future of the Unathi race remains uncertain, and opinions differ on the events of recent years - whether they are the last gasps of a dying Hegemony, or a period of adversity that will precede an unparalleled golden age.

    More information on major events in Unathi society following the end of the Contact War can be found here.