The United Empire

The United Empire developed from a fleet of Mezari settlers on a temperate, resource-rich world. For decades, commercial and industrial effort went into the conquest and development of the planet. Once the planet was largely colonized and controlled, a more or less inevitable event occurred: The Great Continental War. This planet-wide military conflict occurred at a technological level that might have led to total extermination of life, and the rulers were wise enough to pull back from the brink of this collective suicide. The dominant force at the end of the war, known as the Alliance of Nations, imposed its will across the entirety of the planet through a mixture of rebuilding loans, military threats, and moral persuasion.

Advanced space technologies have thus been developed under a single body that put a great deal of effort into it, and space exploration occurred at a rapid rate. The Mezari–now calling themselves Raians–launched manned probes to distant bodies within their solar system, and as technology advanced, the next steps back to the stars were inevitable.

The current emperor is Emperor Zelevas, and the unification of diverse national entities into the Empire as it is today can be attributed to his visionary, if brutal, leadership.

During this process of consolidation, a number of powerful family groups formed in support of Zelevas's project. Deeply entrenched in Empire society, they built up economic and political power bases to the point where they could declare themselves as Dukes, Barons, and Counts. For decades, they have constituted an unofficial court that acts as a check and balance on the power of the Emperor. One critical right that they have wrested from the government is to have their appointees act as governors, with full imperial backing, on star systems that they develop. They can therefore create, ex officio, small empires of their own. As the Empire grows, as new systems are discovered, and as the dominion of the Empire expands, these nobles are in a position to create viable, competing mini-empires.

The first Mezari starships arrived millennia ago, landing on a green, virginal–and empty–planet of breathtaking, fecund wildernesses. Today, Raia proudly shows its pioneering, frontier past as it tamed the wild lands and storm-wracked seas, its landmasses now brimming with mighty industrial swathes and vast urban powerhouses. On the oceans stand huge mining platforms, Raia's riches now the United Empire's riches. Above, half-built starship yards orbit the conquered world, as the Empire prepares to take its glorious civilization to the rest of the galaxy.

Ancient legends mention that the Mezari originated in the long-lost planet of Mezan.

The pursuit of wealth and the belief in science and industrial development have replaced most traditional forms of religion. Forms of meditation–stemming either from mysticism or martial arts–still exist, though they are not widely practiced. Frankly, the government of the United Empire prefers that it be worshiped, not some imperceptible deity.

The Empire's society is oriented towards creating ever more powerful machines of conquest and control. The reasoning is that, within a given arm of a galaxy, viable planets and available resources are limited. If the Empire doesn't seize them, another race will, thereby gaining the upper hand and putting the future of the Empire at risk.