Name of Nation: The Marzon Empire
Species: Pax-Humans, near-Humans
History:
The first recorded history of the Marzon people comes from around five thousand years ago, of time called ‘the Fall’. The myths and legends of this time tell of the War in Heaven, a great and horrible battle between god-like entities that sundered the stars themselves that would decide the fate of existence itself. The old tales say the ancestors of the Marzons were once among the stars themselves, and through a terrible accident were sent hurling through the heavens (and some say time) to land upon the world they now call home. These legends are supported by the ancient Iron Mountain, a cloud piercing hulk that Marzons now recognize as an ancient starship, but was once called “the Chariot of the Heavens”.
Since then, the descendants of those ancient Chariot-Riders spread themselves across the plains, mountains, and forests of Marzon. During the first four thousand years or so the need for industry, homes, and resources drove conflict among the new tribes and proto-nations. It wasn’t until 4290 AF that the first Nations began to emerge or consolidate themselves. The most notable of these were the imperious Teran Reich, the aggressive Rasian Consortium, the progressive Lunite Federation and the infamous Jedab Syndicate. The various minor states were allied amongst the two blocs, the Allied Nations of the Teran and Lunite, and the Union of the Rasian and Jedab. As technology advanced, rare earth metals, plastics, and most importantly gas and oil caused these two forces to come head to head, turning into the Twenty Year Stalemate, which was marked by skirmishes and wars between the puppet nations of the four.
Eventually, however, the Jedab Syndicate escalated the conflict in 4310 AF, invading the Neutral League of Nations directly, resulting in the Great War. The Syndicate and Consortium held onto various League Nations for several years, using terror tactics and outright genocide to reduce moral and resistance. The atrocities alone compelled the Allies to intervene, and trench warfare soon took hold, killing ten million men and women globally. It wasn’t until 4315 AF that the industry and technology sector exploded, due to exploration of the Iron Mountain (not that it hadn’t been explored before, but it wasn’t until recently that people were able to understand what they were finding) that tanks, aircraft, and automatic weapons began major production. The killing fields of the trenches were replaced with the shattered glass of cities, as Union forces began hiding in urban areas to bog down the Allied advance.
Another three years of war eventually resulted in the first nuclear bomb. It was successfully tested underground at a facility in the Reich, unbeknownst to their Federation allies. The Terans would debate about its use until the Jedabs forced their hand. During an assault on a heavily populated Syndicate city, the Union forces decided that rather than lose the city, they would destroy it. Three million civilians and soldiers died in the largest use of explosives, artillery, and firebombs to date. To this day, the city is in ruins. Filled with a new resolve, the Reich informed Allied command of the weapon and, on 26th Augustus 4321 AF, the first fission bomb was dropped on a Syndicate Military Base. It would take another bomb, deployed on a heavily fortified city in occupied territory two days later to convince the Consortium to surrender unconditionally. Abandoned by their allies, the Syndicate was forced to surrender.
In the years since, the Allied governments asserted their dominance, rebuilding the nations ravaged by war and bring the war criminals to justice. It was during a summit in 4330 AF that the Allied Forces proposed a new world order, led by a council of the leading nations. The Consortium eagerly agreed, greedy for Allied technology, and the Syndicate High Command was forced at gunpoint to accept. Thus, they thought, a new era of peace would come about.
Technology rapidly accelerated in the post-war period, with space shuttles being launched ten years after the war’s end. By 4398 AF, the first colony was set up on the moon of Io, closer to the planet than the smaller Galio. As Marzons began exploring the stars, searching for new life without and within, they made a few discoveries. Firstly, they were in fact descendants of a crashed starship crew, which wasn’t met with much shock. What was shocking was that their DNA showed signs of artificial manipulation, and there much concern over what those changes were doing to them.
Driven by a need for answers, the Ark was heavily searched, any piece of scrap or still-functioning machinery carefully extracted and examined, looking for any clues. They would find it in the form of a set of coordinates, of a nearby star system. Thinking they had found their home (or those who knew of it) the new Marzon United Nations built and prepared an expedition using salvaged technology and even a functional faster-than-light drive that utilized sub-dimensional travel. Launched in 4400 AF, the M.U.N. Icarius flew on its maiden voyage towards what might be answers about their existence.
Unfortunately, it was also be its last journey. Upon their arrival, the crew of the Icarius was taken prisoner by the reptilian aliens known as the Anjians. Tortured for information, the Anjians were a multi-system empire that could be described as barbaric as best; downright malevolent at worst. Killing the crew and using the extracted information, the Anjians launched an invasion force to conquer Marzon.
The invading fleet, catching the planet unaware, struck hard and fast, attacking population centers and massacring civilians and soldiers alike. Countless died within the first week of the attack, the Syndicate and Consortium bloody and beaten, while the Federation could barely hold its own territory from the invaders. Oddly enough, the Reich was the least worst off of the four, having deterred the initial landings using high-orbit fusion bombs. Organizing the last remaining military forces, the Reich marshalled them together and began advancing on occupied territories. The Anjian forces were equipped with terror weapons and fast skimmers, and this would be their downfall. Unprepared for an organized, armed and armoured ground force, the Anjians began taking heavy losses as the new Allied forces advanced across the planet, seizing captured cities and urbarn areas. What they found were millions of people dead, shot, stabbed, and brutally murdered without reason. Horrified and angered, the Allied forces took no quarter; every Anjian would die for the lives taken. Ten brutal years of warfare ended in 4011 AF, where the fleeing Anjian troopships were intercepted by nuclear warheads in orbit. At the end of it all, a quarter of a billion Marzons were dead, uncountable injured, and a world driven mad with rage swore revenge at any cost.
It would take nearly twenty years, but the new unified Marzon Empire rose from the ashes of the war, given a new purpose and desire for revenge, the rest of the solar system (three terrestrial planets, two gas giants) were colonized or orbited, while mining of the asteroid belt was in progress. The first warships, the Harbinger-class Corvettes and the Avenger-class Gunships, both being small and easily constructed, rapidly expanded the Marzon Imperial Navy from a pitiful orbital to a full blown combat force, numbering nearly a hundred vessels. In 4042 AF, utilizing advanced jump drives, the Marzon Navy began their first raid against the Anjians, a small refueling station for the sector. Like the Marzons had been once caught unaware, so too were the Anjians now, the orbital destroyed without serious resistance. Thus the Great Purge had begun.
Eight more years of war would follow, supplemented by the introduction of the new Deliverance-class Frigate, a true anti-capitol ship and, eventually, the first Savior-class Destroyer and it’s deadly armament; the Nuclear Siege Cannon. An anti-planetary weapon, it was tested on an Anjian colony in 4049 AF, and was a complete success, obliterating the colonies capitol and surrounding area. The introduction of this weapon brought about the end of the war, over the Anjian capitol of An’jai. Ten Savior-class Destroyers scoured the planet of life using the Siege guns, and none escaped. After nearly fifty years of bloodshed and slaughter, the Great Purge ended.
Now it is 4095 AF, and the Marzons have expanded their domain, much of it former Anjian-occupied worlds who were slaves to the Anjians, and were near-human enough to be accepted. Finally at peace about the invasion, the Marzons have focused on expanding their Empire and assisting the victims of the Anjians, and what was thought to be the Marzons last hope for peace, became its last hope for victory.
Description of Government: Fascist Autocracy
Head of State: The Lord Imperator of the Marzon Empire, Wilhelm Albrecht
Head of Government: Head Councilmember, Adrian Scalfani
Commander-in-chief: The Lord Imperator of the Marzeron Empire, Wilhelm Albrecht
Executive Branch: The Lord Imperator of the Marzeron Empire, Wilhelm Albrecht
Legislative Branch: The Council of Four Nations
Description of Military:
The Marzon Military is broken into two parts. The Imperial Navy and Imperial Army.
The Imperial Navy boasts almost three hundred active warships, alongside support vessels and almost another hundred or so mothballed or dry-docked vessels. The Imperial Army consists of nearly a hundred and fifty million soldiers and support staff tasked with defending their home worlds and acting as the spearhead for planetary assaults. They are supported by a robust armored division of tanks, artillery, and aircraft.
Other (Culture and the like):
While the original four nations were a diverse mix of various cultures, the Post-Anjian culture exhibits a strong distrust of non-human aliens, a sense of pride and a desire to see Marzon stand above the stars and find out who they really are in the universe. Some might call them arrogant, but none question their capability and ability to endure hardship.
