Right, I should probably mention the updated history.

First, go read [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/53518/posts/ooc?page=6#post-1656132]this.[/url]

WHAT'S NEW: The Graal are a relatively young spacefaring nation, having just begun to reach out beyond their own star system a mere 100 years ago. Less than 20 years later they are rapidly expanding and haphazardly colonizing the surrounding space, conquering a few incidental budding-factions along the way. Around this period of time they make initial contact with the Stoor, who initiate their standard shenanigans - engaging in border skirmishes, seizing vessels, and making a mocking spectacle of documented diplomatic negotiations while attempting to make private deals with the Graal military hierarchy. 

The Graal take some exception to this behavior and send massive fleets to Stoor territory, seeking a single, decisive military engagement with Stoor fleets in order to crush, break, and ultimately defeat their enemy. They arrive in Stoor space just to find thousands of empty lightyears holding nothing but utterly inhospitable planets devoid of life, lacking any developed infrastructure, and with no Stoor or any opposing fleets to be seen. Quickly recognizing that there's not much glory or productive ends to seize, the Graal withdraw their forces without a single engagement.

Years later, the Stoor have finally learned enough about the Graal through observation to start making the right offers. Noting that the Hegemony had significant troubles with famines, undeveloped civilian infrastructure, and internal power struggles, the Stoor cut a deal with the military hierarchy. The Stoor would enter into a false state of war with the Hegemony, sending Excursion fleets to target agreed upon sites and targets in order to help the Graal stabilize and consolidate their power in the region in an arrangement akin to the Orwellian triumvirate in 1984. The succeeding 20 years, referred to as the Stoor wars, result in the Graal Hegemony spreading even further and securing their power base. 

60 years ago, turning with envy to the Federation across the stretch of void known as the Fuze Void (as an extension of the region's nickname, 'The Powerderkeg Stars'), the Graal launch a surprise military blitz along the Eastern borders of the Federation. Once news of the invasion reaches the Stoor Manifold, they immediately join the conflict on the side of the Hegemony, using the surprise of the swift-turn-of-alliances from warring with the Graal to allying with to further throw Federation defenders into a state of confusion. In the initial days of the war, the Stoor extorted the Federation government with an unofficial agreement to not use biogenic or radiological weapons, or to salt Federation planets, if the federation supplied the Stoor manifold with 3000 inducted slaves every Galactic month. The Federation ultimately caved in and agreed to the arrangement, at which point the Stoor turned right around and went to the Graal Hegemony looking for a better deal. The Hegemony refused, and the Stoor immediately withdrew their Epiplasm soldiers and radiological munitions from the frontlines of the war within the Federation itself - although the Manifold continued to supply the Graal with significant starship and fleet support for the remainder of the war. Over the course of the 40-year war, the Federation ultimately supplies the Stoor Manifold with nearly one point three million slaves forcefully inducted from their population.

Approximately 39 years later, or 11 years ago, the death toll for humans in the Federation began to exceed a billion in count. The Sphere to the North took note of this, and sent forces into the Graal Hegemony to wage a campaign of extermination against them. For six months, the Sphere strike force tore through the lightly defended border worlds of the Hegemony while fleets began to pull out of the Federation proper. The Commonwealth of Valyncian, which had been carefully surveying the conflict from the sidelines while providing supplies to the Federation as a neutral party, informed the Federation of the heavy attack on the Hegemony and that a mass recall of Graal fleets was imminent. The Federation immediately stopped sending shipments of slaves to the Stoor Manifold, who immediately withdrew from the Federation and ran back to their territory, leaving the Graal to deal with the Sphere by itself for the next ten years, up until the present day.

Fortunately for the Hegemony, once the bulk of their forces had been drawn back to their territory, their massive and experienced fleets managed to drive back the Sphere forces. While they were confident they could destroy the remaining Sphere forces with a decisive thrust into their territory, initial scouts were rebuffed completely by the Sphere's extensive dispersion of FTL-jamming arrays. Realizing they could not pierce into Sphere space, the Hegemony instead turned their attention to their treacherous ex-ally, the Stoor Manifold, seeking vengeance for their abandonment.

And that's the Graal war in a nutshell.