Tessian Hegemony
"The Hegemony" redirects here. For other uses, see Hegemony (disambiguation).
Tessian Hegemony Tessia Henyymka (Fillorgiar) | |
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| 1998–2122 | |
  Flag
 Coat of arms
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Motto: "Long live the Hegemony!" "Igna lii Henyymka!"[1] | |
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Anthem: Hegemony Remains Forever! | |
 The Tinaria System, the capital system of the Tessian Hegemony. | |
 Tertan, the capital planet of the Tessian Hegemony. | |
| Capital and largest city | Ovzeria, Tertan, Polytinaris System |
| Official languages | Fillorgiar |
| Ethnic groups | Aerlons (dominant) |
| Religion | State atheism |
| Demonym(s) | Tessian, Benevolent |
| Government | Totalitarian socialist herrenvolk dictatorship |
• Benevolent Premier |
Tessia von Gretolia (April 17, 1998 - March 20, 2119) Hanelia Siaena (March 20, 2119 - September 10, 2122) |
• Chair of the Gretolian Order | Teagonia Evelon Gretolia |
• Greatmost Benevolent Admiral | Hanelia Siaena |
| Legislature | Opulenciliom |
| Establishment | April 17, 1998 |
| History | |
• Established | 1998 |
• Disestablished | 2122 |
| Population | |
• 2110 estimate | 1.91 trillion |
| GDP (nominal) | 2110 estimate |
• Total |
7.93 quintillion krans $5.9475 quintillion USD |
• Per capita |
72,390 krans $54,292.50 USD |
| Currency | Tessian krans |
| Today part of | Stellar Commonwealth |
The Tessian Hegemony, also known as the Tessian Star Hegemony, the Star Hegemony, the Benevolent Hegemony, or most frequently as the Hegemony, is an interstellar hyperpower controlling a total of 47 star systems across the Far 3 kpc Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. It is well-known for its supremacist rhetoric towards the Aerlon species, a race of sentient humanoids from the habitable terrestrial planet Tertan, the fifth of many planets orbiting around the K-type star Tinaria. From its rise on the interstellar stage at the turn of the millennium all the way to the early 22nd century, the Hegemony was the dominant nation of the Polytinaris Spur, projecting massive influence across its hundreds of inhabited planets and moons.
Before the rise of the Tessian Hegemony, its capital system of Polytinaris was controlled by a nominally fair albeit troubled democratic state known as the Polytinaris Commonwealth. The Commonwealth controlled the three component subsystems of Polytinaris and their respective inhabitants - the Aerlons, Rorks, Gesmians, and Iphilians - relatively peacefully between its foundation in the year 1329 and 1747, when a violent uprising led by the aerlon Ixmeria Salvanio rocked it to its core. Though Ixmeria's rebellion would be quelled, it left a permanent scar within the Commonwealth's society and economy that sent it on a terminal decline for the next two and a half centuries, compounded by the effects of further natural disaster events during the early 20th century. Significant reform occurred to strengthen the Commonwealth into a proper federation after the failed revolt, though at the same time this restructuring also allowed widespread political corruption and democratic backsliding within the newly created Commonwealth Council, which soon became a breeding ground for bickering between the separate species of Kalagors and Tinaria, at the expense of everyone but especially the Genenians, who faced economic recession and famine by the 1960s.
Tensions within the Commonwealth would rapidly increase after a young aerlon woman named Tessia von Gretolia made an astounding discovery in late August of 1995: an extremely advanced precursor civilization known as the Palaeroni, who ruled over Polytinaris and several of its surrounding star systems over two billion years ago and possessed intriguing technologies such as artificial intelligence, faster-than-light travel, and wormholes. The most stirring aspect of the Palaeroni however was their uncanny anatomical similarity to the aerlons, so much so that the two were even purported to be the same species. For reasons not publicly disclosed, Tessia underwent a radical conversion to extremist ideology within the Tertanian People's Fairness Party (a notable far-left socialist organization she was quite influential within), channeling her charisma to sway much of the aerlon populace to her side. Alas, not everyone supported her, including a splinter faction of the PFP led by Jalian Halenia and some of the more right-wing rorks within the Commonwealth Council.
Things finally boiled over with Tessia, who had been secretly organizing a clandestine militia with massive warships covertly procured or stolen from the Commonwealth military, the UPAF, after February 2, 1998, when her openly lesbian romantic partner Yelenia Halenia was murdered by the Jalianites. In furious vengeance, Tessia declared sovereignty within Tinaria just a few days later and began a revolution against the Commonwealth. The UPAF fought valiantly, but it plus a second, smaller front hastily organized as a last stand by Jalian could not stop her, and the Star Navy quickly spread across the star system, mercilessly destroying all opposition in sight. In the course of only two months Tessia’s forces secured control over all three systems of Polytinaris, culminating their efforts in a final siege against the habitable moon Kebo on April 16 that wiped out the Commonwealth’s head of state; upon doing so, Tessia proclaimed the Tessian Hegemony, seating herself as its Benevolent Premier in earnest.
The Hegemony quickly set about vastly restricting the rights of the Polytinaris System’s non-aerlon inhabitants, outlawing numerous social programs designed to help them and forcing them into a segregated society with speciesism as the norm. The Hegemony also transformed into a communist state, nationalizing all forms of industry, manufacturing, and agriculture under control of the government. It also sponsored several follow-up plans to study the Palaeroni at this time and ended up reverse engineering some of its tech, most notably in 2001 when an FTL starship drive called the Ghorghosca Star Drive was developed. After this, the Tessian Hegemony began a century-long period of interstellar imperialism, exploring and settling dozens of new solar systems. Many of these were already home to native life, with a few even hosting their own rival civilizations to oppose the Hegemony. If the latter was the case, Tessia would ensure their destruction, and would subject their inhabitants to the same, if not worse xenophobia as it did the non-aerlon Polytinarians through enslavement, torture, and deportation to detention camps where their cultures were forcibly erased. As the years progressed, the Tessian military grew ever larger, developing increasingly more powerful superweapons that could decimate whole solar systems and conducting special weapons development through its military police and surveillance agency, the Gretolian Order.
All that glory came to a close in 2113 after the Hegemony made contact with the Kingdom of Ironia-Ursonberg, a nation composed of exiled Polytinarians who had escaped to the Taebol System. As done before, Tessia declared war on the kingdom and began a military campaign to annex Taebol, but unexpectedly her forces were repelled after the activation of a Palaeroni electromagnetic force field artifact, eventually leading to a peace treaty in 2114. The failure of invading Taebol sent a shock across the Hegemony’s numerous stars that instigated a series of uprisings and rebellions chiefly spearheaded by Morganelle Mindyrette, with the billions of non-aerlons that had suffered under its tyranny demanding liberation and independence. War broke out again in 2117 after Ironia-Ursonberg refused to extradite Morganelle for criminal punishment; the internally disgruntled Star Navy again failed to take Taebol during this and was forced into a defensive retreat by a newly formed coalition under Morganelle’s leadership.
Tessia died in March of 2119, passing the torch as Benevolent Premier to the eccentric Hanelia Siaena, who out of sheer desperation immediately began pouring all of the nation’s resources into the military. To no avail, the shrinking Hegemony threw everything it had at the rebellion, frequently with severe civilian casualties such as in the 2121 destruction of the Hantis System. Buckling at the seams, the once great Tessian Hegemony was reduced to only Polytinaris by September 2122, and in the face of the Morganite rebellion it collapsed entirely on September 10. There was some subsequent minor infighting within its former territories after the fact, though it officially ceased to exist after the formation of the Stellar Commonwealth on October 10, 2122, a liberal democracy aimed at repairing the relationships between its member species, ensuring equity and just treatment for all.
The Tessian Hegemony is a left-wing socialist dictatorship with its leader, the Benevolent Premier, holding supreme authority over the entire government. It practices a command economy system with its functions managed by massive state-controlled conglomerates that regulate all means of resource and consumer good production; privately owned businesses are illegal. Most of the Hegemony's industrial output is derived from non-aerlon slave labor; these workers are forced by the government to work extremely long hours with almost no food or water, inadequate sanitation, and frequent verbal/physical abuse from their managers. A few slave masters claim to see their subjects as "real people", though in actuality treat them like animals and see them as inferior anyway. The few who aren't enslaved are ostracized from society, segregated to sub-par facilities and experiencing frequent brutality and repression from local and planetary authorities as well as from the general public. They also hold virtually no civil freedoms: particular minorities such as disabled, mentally ill, homosexual, and transgender nn-aerlons face extra difficulties and hostilities from the society of the Hegemony. Surprisingly, despite its mistreatment of non-aerlons, aerlon citizens within the Hegemony enjoy many civil rights - racial minorities are protected from discrimination, extra accommodations are provided for disabled and neurodivergent individuals, women have full access to abortion and birth control, and the LGBTQ+ community is able to fully express itself with same-sex marriages, name changes, and gender-affirming care all being completely legal.
History
The history of the Tessian Hegemony is a long and intricate tale spanning hundreds of years, from long before its formation in 1998 all the way to its demise in 2122. The vast majority of the Hegemony's history revolved around its interstellar conquests and colonizations, with it spending only a brief time bound to one star system.
Pre-formation (before 1995)
Before the rise of the Hegemony, the Polytinaris System and its three component stars - the yellow dwarf Kalagors, the orange dwarf Tinaria, and the small, dim red dwarf Genenia - were ruled by a democratic federation known as the Polytinaris Commonwealth. The Commonwealth was home to three major spacefaring member races: the Rorks of the Kalagors System, the Aerlons of the Tinaria System, and the Gesmians of the Genenia System. There also existed a fourth, less advanced alien species known as the Iphilians, who were native to the supergiant terrestrial planet Hyparspynar in the Kalagors System. It was founded on January 10, 1329, after the two prior nations of the Kalagors and Tinaria-Genenia systems agreed to form a union between themselves, signing a treaty known as the Ragauno Accords (named after the planet that it was ratified on, the fourth of the 18 within the Genenia System).
Above all, the mission of the Commonwealth was to uphold the rights of its member species and keep the peace throughout the system; initially, its central government was not very strong, and the nation acted more like a confederation of several. All of its member worlds had significant autonomy, in many ways functioning like independent nations within a supranational union that could self-regulate their internal affairs and laws. The Commonwealth of this period served as a mediator for interplanetary disputes, and as a vessel to encourage increased cooperation between the inhabitants of its worlds. Despite its decentralized nature, the Commonwealth for many years prospered under this system, creating immense engineering marvels such as Ovzeria City and Station-47 and harboring a society filled with cultural diversity, echoed throughout countless works of art, literature, and film of virtually every genre and style.
Ixmerian Rebellion and decline of the Commonwealth (1747-1995)
However, in mid 1747, an aerlon named Ixmeria Salvanio, who had recently just become the leader of the Ozhnovoye Sovereign Socialist Union, a communist state located on the planet Tertan, started a devastating rebellion that would change the course of the Commonwealth's history forever. Using advanced space-based weaponry, ranging from kinetic orbital bombardments to high-power laser beams which could devastate an entire small continent in one shot, Ozhnovoye conducted a series of surprise attacks on Tertan's fifteen other sovereign nations before sending out ships to attack the other inhabited planets and moons of the Tinaria System. The Commonwealth at the time had only a small military used primarily for peacekeeping and policing; this was no match for Ixmeria's formidable warships, larger and stronger than any before built within the Polytinaris System. Her forces may very well have taken over the entire Commonwealth had she not been assassinated by an Ozhnovoyan political dissenter in 1750. Without a leader to coordinate its efforts, the Ixmerian Rebellion rapidly crumbled, retreating back to Tertan within just a few months as its participants surrendered or gave up fighting the Commonwealth.
The Ixmerian Rebellion prompted significant change within the Commonwealth. After it had concluded, on October 26, 1750 several political delegates met on the habitable natural satellite Kebo and agreed upon a new constitution that gave much more power to the federal government than before; to balance this conversely, less freedom was granted to individual planets and moons within the system. Any prior national governments established on Polytinarian worlds were abolished, replaced instead by a state authority that answered to the Commonwealth. A new legislature known as the Commonwealth Council was formed to function as the main method of proposing, ratifying, and regulating laws and legislation within the Commonwealth. Though the Council had true control over the government, there was also a president position created to function as its public head of state; the Commonwealth President had limited powers initially, but as time progressed its executive authority grew more important in the government. Civilian reception of the reforms was very positive, with all but a small handful of radicals supporting the changes. The Iphilians were also somewhat skeptical of the reforms at first, concerned that this new government would ignore its prior commitments to non-interference with their species, but the Commonwealth reassured them that they wouldn’t be harmed by the new systems.
These sweeping changes would soon however prove to be problematic. The rorks of Kalagors still held significant resentment towards the aerlons for the Ixmerian Rebellion, accusing them of being discriminatory against them and of committing war crimes. These negative feelings soon morphed into severe ideological divisions - over the latter half of the 18th century into the following 19th, the rorks became progressively more right-wing, supporting laissez-faire capitalism and social conservatism; the aerlons meanwhile leaned towards the left-wing, being in favor of civil rights and a socialist economy for the Commonwealth. These stark contrasts oftentimes hampered the Council from functioning effectively, especially in its later years where it became commonplace for debates to devolve into petty bickering oblivious to the actual issues at hand. This governmental struggle sent the Commonwealth on a terminal decline starting around 1800, some time after the foundation of the radical aerlon People’s Fairness Party in 1784. The gesmians of Genenia suffered most from this: often faced to sort out their own problems with less and less support from the Commonwealth as time went on, the gesmian population grew impoverished and riddled with famine and unemployment. Particularly after the Six Great Disasters of 1907-1924, many gesmians emigrated to the Tinaria System to escape these subpar living situations, establishing a diverse culture of immigrants on the moon Kalei. Kalagors and Tinaria also suffered from the Disasters, receiving long-lasting aftereffects from them out of lack of government support. An example was the Ovzeria megacity on Tertan, which was almost totally destroyed by a massive tropical cyclone in 1911; it was repaired but never restored to its original glory for decades, until after the rise of the Hegemony.
Formation (1995-1998)
Discovery of the Palaeroni
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On August 28, 1995, the young aerlon woman Tessia von Gretolia, a notable political figure of the PFP who enjoyed archaeology as a hobby, unexpectedly stumbled upon a subterranean chamber of ruins on the Tinarian moon Fera constructed by the enigmatic, extremely ancient Palaeroni species, who controlled the Polytinaris System over two billion years ago. She kept the information to herself at first, so as to not attract unwanted press attention. The Palaeroni secret eventually became public after Tessia revealed their existence in a conference on the space station Station-47 on November 7, 1995, sending a shock throughout the Polytinarian scientific community. Soon hundreds of professors and historians began flocking to Fera, as well as to the neighboring worlds Saneya, Tertan, and Svorda, in a search for more details about the mysterious civilization’s history and society.
Data recovered from all of these places showed that the Palaeroni were anatomically very similar to the extant aerlons, but had a few distinct differences, most notably a set of broad wing-like appendages extending out of their shoulders, implied to have been used for courtship or other display purposes at some point in their evolution. The Palaeroni's home world was known to them as Zlanas, and they controlled the entirety of the Polytinaris System (known to them as the Teptar System) and many more under a monarchist nation known as the Palaeroni Union in relative peace for several centuries or millennia until suffering a phase of political turmoil toward the end of their rule, likely brought on by their last known ruler, Floren Lyprien. Records showed that Floren was in the midst of conducting a political purge of the Union's legislature when a gamma-ray burst shot out of the Acahaye System some sixty light years away sterilized Zlanas and the rest of Teptar in a catastrophe known as the Ipolyka. After this disaster, information on the Palaeroni became very scarce, but most scientists concluded that the Union fragmented into several warlord states that fought each other until totally annihilating themselves. Researchers were keen to take claims about the Palaeroni with care, as Tessia made several comments claiming that the aerlons were direct descendants of the Palaeroni and that Zlanas was Tertan in the weeks that followed her landmark announcement.
Many members of the PFP came to rally behind Tessia's beliefs, voicing their opinions strongly in favor of her views and statements. The general aerlon public also came to support Tessia, especially after she entered a relationship with the PFP's leader Yelenia Halenia, the PFP's leader and a household name for much of the aerlon population. Nevertheless, Tessia made enemies in the Commonwealth's government; one of the most influential rorks in the Commonwealth Council, Hytar Jomnozale, denounced her as a "petty no-hoper who wouldn't get anywhere". She also found a staunch opponent in Jalian Halenia, another member of the PFP and the older brother of Yelenia who was highly vocal in opposition to their combined partnership.
Tessia vs Jalian
Jalian was quite vocal in his opposition to Tessia's beliefs and his supporters were much the same, aggressively shaming pro-Tessia politicians and vandalizing their property. Jalian himself chiefly focused on attacks against Tessia, his most significant and widely viewed of which was a live television broadcast from the Tinarian moon Gaganzin on May 2, 1996, where he demanded that she and Yelenia both be removed from the party and imprisoned on corruption charges. Tessian followers by contrast made few direct accusations against Jalian, mostly ignoring his campaigns until an incident at the September 16 Torwellia Convention held on a moon orbiting the gas giant Ruby. Both Tessia and Yelenia had intend to appear at the convention, but through shady manipulation of the event's security guards he was able to bar the two women from entering. Tessia remained silent about the issue, but Yelenia was infuriated after learning from another party member that Jalian had intentionally planned to keep them out of the convention and had plotted other, more violent acts against her. To ensure her safety, the following day on September 17 Yelenia resigned from her position as the PFP's chair, handing it down to Tessia, who accepted the role in earnest.
The Tessian Revitalization and development of the Dezirius-class battlecruiser
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A few days after taking control of the PFP, on September 19, 1996 Tessia put into action the Revitalization, a collection of plans that together would ultimately bring about the end of the Commonwealth. To mitigate suspicion from the Commonwealth's government and military (the Unified Polytinaris Armed Forces (UPAF)), most of the Revitalization's strategic aspects involving military technology were kept under wraps from all but a select few of her closest confidants involved with the PFP or the UPAF. The four most influential of these were the Great Quartet, who would eventually go on to become some of the most powerful people in Tessian society. The Quartet consisted of Hanelia Siaena, an eccentric, no-nonsense individual and a brutal fighter who also became the youngest general in the UPAF's history; Thyosius Tigran, a veteran spacecraft captain who had experience commanding his own ship, the Zerreum, for decades; Quevestin Garmania, a personal friend of Tessia's who proved invaluable for their[2] expertise in science and technical engineering; and finally Tessia's older sister Evelon Gretolia, a rational, highly intelligent negotiator and a fond supporter of her younger sibling's beliefs.
All four members of the nascent Quartet would pour their combined efforts into a top-secret military construction project codenamed the Iana Scientific Development Center, located around the dwarf planet Iana, a small icy body orbiting at the edge of the Tinaria System. Hidden under the cover of a civilian mining project and backed by the Valsserian Engineering Society, a large, predominantly aerlon-owned and operated shipbuilding company which had experience constructing ships for the UPAF, the fruit of the ISDC was a fearsome new type of warship known as the Dezirius[3], the largest and most heavily equipped vessel ever built in Polytinaris up to that point. Disguised to the Commonwealth as a mobile asteroid mining base, the Dezirius was a true menace, 1,500 meters in length and armed to the teeth with hundreds of heavy cannon batteries, electromagnetic warheads, and a massive central world razer cannon capable of incinerating the entire surface of a terrestrial planet in one shot. Work on the Dezirius began shortly after the ISDC project was initiated on October 9, 1996, and it was built and fitted out in record time, officially launched by Tessia herself on February 23, 1997 to much applause from the PFP and VES. The Dezirius would not be the only one of its kind built: by the end of 1997, the engineers and technicians at Iana had built three more Dezirius-class vessels known as the Acahaye, the Minoveya, and the Buhermia, all of which were just as large and powerful as the first.
As the construction of the four battle cruisers was underway, Tessia realized that they would be of little use without an organization to control them. Therefore, on March 24, 1997 she formed the Benevolent Star Navy, an armed militia of commanders and their warships to serve her during the rebellion which now loomed. Utilizing the front of a civilian mining company in tandem with the Dezirii, the Star Navy's headquarters was Station-47, the largest interplanetary outpost within the Tinaria System. Over the next few months, thousands of dissatisfied UPAF aerlons would join the ranks of the Star Navy, and it acquired dozens of Commonwealth ships through a variety of means ranging from bribery to forced mutiny. One of the more notable incidents was that of the heavy cruiser Otovis, whose commander Utenicca Inovii destroyed two Commonwealth-aligned ships in a run towards Station-47 that December.
The Jalianite schism and death of Yelenia Halenia
Though the developments in the Dezirius and the Benevolent Star Navy throughout 1996-97 would be rousing successes for the Tessians, they were not without their share of sabotages from the Jalianites, who continued their opposition just the same, if not more intensively, as they had done before. The relentless fighting between the two sides spilled over into the neighboring Kalagors System on January 4-5 of 1998, when mass riots broke out on the ice moons Feorxia and Unorbia. Local police forces and even the UPAF struggled to contain the hostility, instigated by a Jalianite attack on another personal friend of Tessia's, Rayne Bingiza, who at the time was taking time off from work on Feorxia. Her narrow escape from death at the hands of Jalianite mobs attracted significant attention from not only news outlets but also the Polytinarian government for its apparent suddenness and location outside of the Tinaria System. Panic rang through the Commonwealth Council as its members scrambled to impeach several PFP members including Jalian and Tessia, though none of these charges got anywhere and they would be dropped later that month as the shock of the riots wore off.
In response to the attack, on January 7 Tessia formally expelled Jalian and his supporters from the PFP in an emergency party meeting held on Station-47. To counter this, Jalian created his own political party, the Tinaria Freedom Front, on January 11. Little happened over the next month until February 10, 1998, when Yelenia, who had just recently announced her romantic engagement with Tessia two days prior, was tragically found dead in a hotel on the planet Saneya. Tessia was utterly devastated upon hearing this news, and several of her allies - Hanelia, Quevestin, Teagonia, and her younger sister Leialennia Varuna Gretolia - pointed fingers at Jalian for the death of her lover; he denied all of these accusations, claiming Yelenia had died accidentally. Throughout this time, membership of the PFP and Benevolent Star Navy swelled into the hundreds of thousands, and many aerlon media personalities expressed their sympathy for Tessia and Yelenia.
Tessian invasion of Polytinaris
Conquest of Tinaria
With her feelings of sorrow quickly morphing into vengeful rage, Tessia made a proclamation of sovereignty for the entire Tinaria System on February 22, 1998, promptly assembling the entire might of the Benevolent Star Navy - 124 combat-capable warships in all, including the four Dezirius-class battle cruisers - at Station-47. On February 27, her forces departed the station and embarked on a mass charge across the star system. The UPAF had a fleet of 78 ships commanded by the rork Idrian Farriona stationed around the gas giant Darhe, including two Potanabes-class war cruisers, the largest ships within their military, when Hanelia Siaena and the Minoveya arrived at the planet on March 1. Idrian's forces were able to keep Hanelia at bay for a while until the Dezirius and Buhermia arrived on March 3, forcing him to surrender to the Tessians. The entire outer Tinaria System fell to the rebellion on March 6 after the pivotal Battle of Norbidia Station, a fierce fight around the ice giant Tess that culminated in the destruction of a mining outpost located on one of its moons.
On March 10, the Benevolent Star Navy reached the planetoid Calgoier, a small dwarf planet that orbited in a Lagrange point trojan orbit of Ruby. Calgoier was home to a massive UPAF base, with 89 warships (including six Potanabes-class vessels) stationed around it. The commander of the Calgoier fleet, the gesmian Ieya Irchaida, held firm over Calgoier for several days, throwing everything her fleet had at the Star Navy. To finally defeat Ieya, the Star Navy initiated Operation Eltakar, putting the world razer cannon fitted to the Dezirius class into action on March 15, when Teagonia fired the weapon of her ship, the Acahaye, at Calgoier. Though the cannon was designed to only incinerate a planetary surface, the blast from the cannon traveled straight through little Calgoier to its core, completely vaporizing the dwarf planet. Millions of soldiers and their families were killed in the destruction of Calgoier, which was broadcast all across the Polytinaris System. Despite this, Ieya survived and retreated to the moon Kalei; her fleet meanwhile was obliterated in the explosion or damaged to the point where they had no option but to surrender.
After they learned of Ieya's survival, the rebels powered on towards Kalei, where to their surprise they found that Jalian and the UPAF were waiting for them. Both the UPAF and TFF, which were apparently working together now, had amassed a fleet of 175 ships under Jalian's command, just slightly larger than the 168 Tessia had upon arriving at Kalei on March 17. Jalian's personal flagship was a modified Potanabes-class vessel named the Dyspeldia, which had received improvements to its armament to give it almost as much firepower as the main battery of a Dezirius, as well as upgrades to its energy shielding that drastically increased its survivability. The ensuing Battle of Kalei leaned in the UPAF-TFF's favor until March 19, when Thyosius's Buhermia blew up two war cruisers and damaged the Dyspeldia with a shot of its world razer cannon. The combined fleet's second in command, the aerlon Arilim Vela, surrendered to the Tessians a few hours later; in spite of this, Jalian rammed the Dyspeldia into Arilim's ship, the critically damaged Alfetan, destroying both of them. What was left of the defensive force collapsed after that point: some captains offered their support to Tessia, some attempted to flee, and others simply scuttled their vessels by activating their internal self-destruct systems. With little resistance remaining in Tinaria, Tessia ordered her forces to move out and head onwards to the nearby Genenia System.
Conquest of Genenia
It took over a week for Tessia's fleet to reach Genenia as the two stars were over 10,000 astronomical units apart. The fleet met little resistance upon their arrival on March 28 as a result of Genenia's isolation from Kalagors-Tinaria; the UPAF stationed relatively few ships within the system, leaving it as the outer frontier of the Commonwealth's domain. The Star Navy swiftly moved through Genenia's ten outer gas giants, encountering resistance only around Hellevenia on March 30, where a relatively small, disorganized force of 35 Commonwealth-aligned ships made a futile attempt to stop the fleet with chunks of ice and rock taken from the planet's wide ring system.
The eight-limbed spider-like gesmians of Genenia rarely took sides in the disputes between the inhabitants of Kalagors and Tinaria, but their political stance in actuality leaned slightly towards the latter. This was because of the Rubions, a group of gesmians populating the Tinarian moon Kalei, who generally retained positive relations with their relatives back home despite being at odds on certain issues, most particularly the Rubions' acceptance of body modifications seen as taboo in Genenian society. Many of the Rubions were sympathetic to Tessia, seeing her as a liberator who would end the poverty and famine rampant within Genenia, allowing them to return back to the worlds they once inhabited. The gesmians in Genenia had similar feelings as well: their leader, Rirsmo Merolo, being displeased with the Commonwealth to the point where he wanted Genenia to govern itself as an independent nation. Rirsmo, a pacifist who supported nonviolent methods of protest, offered up control of the entire Genenia System to Tessia on March 31, asking only that she would guarantee fair treatment of gesmians. Tessia accepted Rirsmo's deal, though she overlooked his statement about fairness toward the gesmians and later discriminated against them anyway.
Conquest of Kalagors
The Benevolent Star Navy pressed onwards toward the heart of the Commonwealth, the Kalagors System, shortly after they had integrated Genenia. Even before their arrival on April 7, 1998, mass panic spread throughout its planets and moons as its citizens braced for a battle they knew they wouldn't win. The UPAF began mass evacuations of citizens located near major military bases in order to minimize civilian casualties. In transit to Kalagors, Tessia and her Great Quartet devised the Ovectrion Plan, where they would divide and conquer the four remaining strongholds of the UPAF: the binary ice giants Urson and Blair, the ringed ocean moon Delpelagus, the supergiant terrestrial planet Hyparspynar, and the aquatic ecumenopolis planet Oveno.
Commander Thyosius Tigran reached Urson and Blair with the Buhermia and 37 escort ships on April 8, to find a modestly sized UPAF defense fleet of 48 vessels led by the rork Kaeron Varol, a short-tempered general notorious for his unorthodox yet effective all-out fighting tactics. Even though it was superior to the enemy, the Buhermia was significantly damaged after Kaeron orchestrated several suicide attacks in which small shuttle craft were loaded with explosives and crashed into the battle cruiser. Thyosius quickly found that these bomber ships were too small to effectively hit with conventional artillery; he therefore activated the rapid-fire longitudinal bombardment system on the Buhermia, which proved vastly more effective at neutralizing these attacks. Kaeron’s fleet soon suffered heavy losses, and in a fit of frustration he intentionally crashed his warship into the small irregular moon Orgenia on April 10, thereby ending the battle of Urson-Blair.
Quevestin Garmania and the Dezirius arrived in orbit of Delpelagus’s parent gas giant Moreus early on April 10, surprisingly finding no defending UPAF ships in the area as they were all concentrated elsewhere. Regardless, the local governor of Delpelagus, a hardline conservative rork named Doanh Turpim, still expressed significant opposition to the invaders and threatened to use military force against them if they provoked his moon. Quevestin had initially intended on splitting their task force of 40 vessels into two groups and flanking Delpelagus from behind Moreus and around its other large habitable moon Calaro but instead opted for an unconventional tactic: cyberwarfare. On April 11, Quevestin hacked into the network of direct broadcast satellites orbiting Delpelagus and turned Doanh's anti-LGBTQ rhetoric against him by hijacking a televised homophobic speech with several clips of Tessia and Yelenia kissing each other. Doanh was furious at this, though he was left powerless to stop them as these triggered a series of protests from the Delpelagian LGBTQ+ community known as the Rainbow Spring, many of which were violent in nature. He tried to forcibly quell these uprisings until April 14, when he was shot and killed by a Rainbow Spring protester; his deputy governor transmitted surrender to Quevestin shortly thereafter.
The fleet of 33 ships spearheaded by Hanelia Siaena and the Minoveya got to the planet Hyparspynar on April 11, at which point they were greeted with open arms by the planet's governor, Pit Gnilraw. Hyparspynar was the home world of the iphilian race, an exotic, reclusive species whose bodies came in unique spiral-like shapes. Not all of them lived on Hyparspynar however - a significant population existed on the Force Thirteen, an O'Neill cylinder colony orbiting high above the planet. The Force Thirteen was initially created by a group of rebellious iphilians who had been exiled for shunning their society's isolationist policies, instead wishing to join and interact with the greater society of the Commonwealth. In recent times, Pit Gnilraw had been trying to mend relations between Hyparspynar and Force Thirteen with mixed success. Pit offered their[4] people's full support to Hanelia, but she did not respond to them and early on April 12 fired the world razer cannon of the Minoveya at the Hyparspynarian surface with disastrous results. The planet's extremely fast rotation of only 22 minutes meant that the blast spread across the surface as opposed to landing in one place, and the extreme heat it generated combusted its very thick, hydrogen-rich atmosphere, essentially setting the entire planet on fire. Billions of iphilians would die in this planetary scorching event later termed the Incineratas, which lasted for over three days and left Hyparspynar uninhabitable. Hanelia decided not to destroy Force Thirteen Station, fortunately preventing total extinction of the iphilian species.
Teagonia Gretolia, in command of the Acahaye and 34 support vessels, reached the last remaining Commonwealth bastion, the ocean world Oveno, on April 13. Oveno was ruled by the aerlon Avianah Hollande, a Kalagors native who was one of the few aerlons who remained loyal to the Commonwealth. Though she did not support Tessia or the rebellion at all, Avianah submitted to Teagonia fairly quickly after learning of the atrocious Incineratas on neighboring Hyparspynar. She gave full political and military support to the rebellion, handing over a total of 90 UPAF vessels (among them seven Potanabes-class war cruisers) to the rebellion without bloodshed.
After regrouping at Oveno the prior day, the Benevolent Star Navy (which by now had amassed a fleet of nearly 300 warships) arrived at the capital and sole remaining bastion of the Polytinaris Commonwealth: Kebo. The UPAF had gathered a force of 91 ships, most of which were elderly, unfit for combat, and taken out of its reserve fleet in dire desperation. The current president of the Commonwealth, the rork Alexandros Nodecam, had assumed acting command over the remainder of its military, instructing his ships to defend Kebo to the death. Tessia von Gretolia, who had been escorted in from the outer Kalagors System aboard the war cruiser Henaris, sent an ultimatum threatening that Kebo would be blasted with a world razer cannon unless Alexandros backed down and submitted to her revolution. He refused three separate demands from Tessia but did not open fire until the evening of April 16, when an UPAF-aligned frigate began frantically attacking the Acahaye. Chaos ensued after that as Tessia directed her fleet into two halves: one focused on eliminating the UPAF and the other attacking the surface of Kebo with relentless barrages of weapon fire. By early on April 17, this last-stand Siege of Kebo had killed tens of thousands of UPAF crew and millions of civilians on Kebo's surface. Alexandros Nodecam made his last recorded transmission that day, just before the Commonwealth's executive residence was obliterated by the attacking Tessian fleet.
Escape of the C.C.S. Ironia and Ursonberg
While many citizens of Kalagors worlds heeded the Commonwealth's shelter in place orders, some were defiant and attempted flee the Polytinaris System. Two captains within the nation's inter-system public transit service, Ezanathan Seneth Ferlacio and Uhrarilley Daszrus Lhan, decided to organize an unsanctioned escape using a pair of passenger liners, the Ironia and the Ursonberg, as the Tessian revolutionaries were enroute to Genenia on March 25, 1998. They coordinated efforts between them and heroically carried out an evacuation of over 17,000 people from the Kalagors System, starting on Kebo and making stops at the inhabited worlds Lielo, Oveno, and Delpelagus before heading out on April 6, just ahead of the Benevolent Star Navy. Loaded with supplies to last them several months in space, Ezanathan and Uhrarilley decided to set a course for the gravitational barycenter of the Polytinaris System; they got there on April 15 and used a previously unknown Palaeroni-built wormhole gate to travel to the distant Taebol System over sixty light years away.
Tessia's victory speech
Good day to all who call the Polytinaris System home. I am Tessia von Gretolia, and I'm here to announce that today is the start of a pivotal new era in the history of our star system.
For far too long, the Aerlons have languished at the mercy of deplorable, inadequate policies promoting so-called "interspecies cooperation" between them and the other inhabitants of Polytinaris. That ends right now, as today we take charge. No more shall we be stifled of our dignity and pride by this bogus Commonwealth; starting now we shall govern on our own terms, and if any of those "non-aerlons" decide they shall conspire against us we will deal with them swiftly and surely. Today is the day of the Tessian Hegemony.
Under this new banner, we will strive to bring a fulfilling life to all aerlons, regardless of their social class. We will dismantle the system of capitalism practiced by the Commonwealth, as through prior experience we've learned that the economy cannot be trusted in the hands of anyone but the state. We will restore Polytinaris's industrial capacity to a scale far greater than it ever was before. Opponents will tremble at the sight of our massive warships, so tremendously powerful that they can render entire planets lifeless in minutes. And if the Hegemony is to fall in a fight, may it not go down without great struggle for the enemy.
Many of you are probably in awe of how fast my consorts and I took over our star system. Frankly, I'm a little surprised myself as well. I want to personally complement all of my comrades, including those that have fallen in honor of the Hegemony - you have done us a great service in assisting this triumphant rebellion. Especially a certain someone who I once held in high regard; she is no longer alive today, but I could not have carried out this revolution without her devotion and support. Thank you, thank you very much.
Emotions notwithstanding, our actions conducted over the past few weeks shall ring proudly in the memory of the Aerlon race even a thousand years from now. Someday, your own grandchildren will read fabulous tales of the battles that we have so bravely fought and won. And one day our banner shall shine across the entire Polytinaris Spur in its righteousness! Long live the Hegemony! All hail to Tessia!
—Tessia von Gretolia, April 17 1998
Early years (1998-2003)
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After the Siege of Kebo, Tessia declared herself Benevolent Premier of the Tessian Hegemony and assumed the position of its supreme head of government. Ovzeria City, the largest and most populous city on Tertan, was designated as the capital of the new nation. She wasted no time in laying the fundamental groundwork that the Hegemony would operate on: one of her first acts was to restructure the Benevolent Star Navy into its official space force, working with the Great Quartet to establish a proper chain of command and ranking system. The highest of the new ranks within the Star Navy was the Benevolent Admiral. Having the most authority and influence of anyone in the nation except Tessia herself, Benevolent Admirals were a highly elite group within the Hegemony who had the power to do whatever they wished with the Star Navy. Hanelia, Thyosius, Quevestin, Teagonia, and Leialennia would be the first five Benevolent Admirals; more would come as time progressed. A separate unit called the Benevolent Army was also created at this time to act as an adjunct to the Star Navy; it had command of all the nation's planetary combat units and would later develop its own advanced technology in the form of specialized combat mechs and enormous landship-like mobile fortress vehicles.
Socialization and crackdown on non-aerlon rights
After reforming the military, Tessia set about converting the Hegemony into a fully communist state with a government-operated economy. On April 21, 1998 she passed the Workers of the People Decree, a reform that nationalized all privately-owned businesses existing within the previous Commonwealth, bringing them under control of the Tessian government. Most were also completely dissolved, though a few major aerlon-operated companies like the Valsserian Engineering Society, which itself was merged with every other shipbuilding and spacecraft construction company in the nation, retained their distinct identity despite now being under state control. The creative arts also remained independent, though they would now be heavily censored and policed by the Hegemony. The decree also directed vast amounts of funds towards the reopening or setup of factories throughout all three component systems of Polytinaris, and put millions of capable yet unemployed aerlons to work through job assignment incentives. Thanks to the Workers of the People Decree and the subsequent One Nation One Production and Equal Economic Opportunity Acts passed later that year, which restructured the new state-run industries and created an equal distribution of wealth amongst Tessian people, an economic boom known as the Post-Revolution Miracle ensued, lasting from the end of 1998 well into the mid-2000s.
Protection of the aerlons’ civil rights became codified into law after Tessia ratified the Better Together Accords on July 26, 1998, but the Polytinaris System’s non-aerlon inhabitants - the rorks, iphilians, and gesmians - would have almost all of their freedoms in the prior Commonwealth taken away from them. The first two orders to restrict them were the People’s Fairness Act and the Equivalent Care Act, passed by the Benevolent Premier on December 19, 1998. The People’s Fairness Act decriminalized all forms of public discrimination against non-aerlons and delegated them into separate, poorer-quality schools, housing developments, and public transportation, while the Equivalent Care Act specifically targeted the medical field, stripping non-aerlon physicians of their qualifications and banning them from getting certain treatments like abortions and gender-affirming care. Some of the economic reform legislation enacted by the Hegemony during this time also harmed the non-aerlons in less direct ways: for instance, they were ineligible for the Equal Economic Opportunity Act’s wealth distribution scheme and instead were forced into poverty by outrageously high tax rates imposed upon them by the government. By mid-1999, all these acts developed into a system of speciesist apartheid where non-aerlons were ostracized, silenced, and harshly punished for stepping out of line.
Creation of the Opulenciliom
The People's Fairness Act also created a new legislative body within the Tessian government known as the Opulenciliom. The Opulenciliom was initially created as a judiciary system to "settle disputes and ensure equality between the Hegemony's members" (obviously untrue: non-aerlons were barred from participating in it, and it upheld the policies of segregation mandated by the Hegemony.) The Opulenciliom eventually functioned as a more conventional parliament, though one with very limited power - it was dominated by Tessia and the Benevolent Admirals, who reserved the power to veto its actions or immediately dismiss any of its members at any time.
Gesmian uprising of 2000
While the rorks and iphilians submitted to the disenfranchisement propagated by the Hegemony by the beginning of 2000, the gesmians, who had been promised equity by the Tessia-Rirsmo deal during the revolution, were not so complacent by that point. Rirsmo himself was most displeased, beginning a campaign of civil disobedience on January 16, 2000 in an attempt to get the Benevolent Premier's attention. He initially started this on the gesmian home world of Etezan, though by the end of January it had spread to other planets in the Genenia System. Most gesmians who followed Rirsmo's practice were peaceful but proactive in their defiance of Tessian xenophobia, coordinating sit-ins in aerlon-only public facilities and voluntary demonstrations outside of Tessian government buildings and factories. Nevertheless, the gesmian protests turned violent when Rirsmo was arrested and sentenced to the death penalty by Tessian authorities on February 17, 2000 - within hours of his arrest angered gesmian citizens staged a raid on the Tessian government headquarters in Bolinal, the largest city on Etezan, in retaliation. Arming themselves with weapons, Etezan's inhabitants quickly overpowered Tessian police and the planet's Benevolent Army divisions, who enacted a full planetwide lockdown in an attempt to quell the revolt. Ultimately, Tessia was forced to intervene with the Star Navy's newest Dezirius-class vessel, the Menagh, on February 21. The rebels refused to stand down after her arrival at Etezan on March 2, and so she authorized the Menagh's commander, Zekrahe Grazoria, to fire a warning shot skimming its upper atmosphere. Said show of force damaged the planet's ozone layer and brought an end to the riots on its surface.
In the aftermath of the failed gesmian uprising, Tessia passed the Indefinite Servitude Act on March 4, 2000, which convicted Etezan's entire gesmian population of inciting insurrection, sentencing them to a lifetime of forced labor as punishment for rebelling against her rule. The Benevolent Army rounded up billions of gesmians during the following months, deporting them to work in penal colonies located on some of the Polytinaris System's barren, rocky planets and moons. Tessia also restricted what little freedoms the gesmians had even more, aggressively promoting anti-gesmian propaganda encouraging both the military and aerlon civilians to treat them with especial distaste and repression. The Indefinite Servitude Act also marked the beginning of the Hegemony's state-sanctioned slavery, which would eventually grow to encompass many more non-aerlon species as well as the gesmians.
Subsequent investigation of the Palaeroni and the Ghorghosca Star Drive
While in its socialization phase, the Tessian government authorized follow-up expeditions to study the Palaeroni. While the investigation was carried out in similar fashion to how it had been done before the revolution, the researchers were now searching for technology that the Hegemony could exploit and make use of itself. These research and development projects began in the spring of 1999 and soon produced great advancements in cybernetics, biotechnology, and communications that made things thought to be impossible before a true reality. However, the definitive groundbreaker was uncovered by the Valsserian Engineering Society on May 3, 2000: plans for a faster-than-light spaceship engine known as the Ghorghosca Star Drive, which operated by creating wormhole gates to send a ship light years away in a very short time. Tessia was impressed when the VES’s chairwoman Candissia Valsseria presented news of this incredible discovery to her a few days later, awarding her organization a contract and the resources to produce a working copy of the drive as soon as possible, one that could be easily installed on existing Star Navy ships without requiring major modifications to them. This development program, named the Ghorghosca Project, came to fruition on March 26, 2001, when the VES unveiled the Panjantor, an experimental ship fitted with a prototype Ghorghosca Star Drive, and sent it almost instantaneously from low orbit around Tertan all the way to the Kalagors System. The project was a rousing success for the Benevolent Star Navy, which retrofitted Ghorghosca Drives onto all of its ships in the subsequent months. The modular design of the drives sped up the conversion process, though it still took time and wasn’t fully finished until late 2002.
First steps to the stars - Lanaia, Zamael (2001-2003)
By the end of summer 2001, the Ghorghosca Drive conversion project had been completed across enough of the fleet to allow the Star Navy to mount expeditions to other star systems. The first two targeted for settlement were the Lanaia System located 3.3 light years away from Polytinaris, and the Zamael System located 4.8 light years from Polytinaris. The Benevolent Admirals had collectively agreed upon these systems both for their proximity (the earliest Ghorghosca Drives had a maximum range of only five light years and took several days to recharge from long jumps like this) and for their already present planetary systems: Lanaia, a close binary star with components of spectral types F9V and M4V, was known since the 1940s to have a large super-Jupiter gas giant around it; Zamael meanwhile, an M9V ultracool dwarf with a mass barely above the hydrogen-burning limit, harbored a close-knit system of six rocky planets - two of which orbited in the habitable zone.
With a small vanguard squadron in tow, experienced Tessian captain Isa Paka warped to the Lanaia System with the famed and recently upgraded Minoveya on September 24, 2001. Upon arrival, scans from her fleet detected an ocean world within the system’s habitable zone, later named Laniakea. They also found that the already existent gas giant, named Zayin, had an astonishingly large planetary ring system measuring 155 million kilometers wide, by far the largest known to exist within the Polytinaris Spur. Isa’s fleet later found several icy moons orbiting within Zayin’s titanic rings, the closest being as big as the planet Mars. After charting the Lanaia System, Isa and her fleet returned to Tertan on October 1. She was regarded as a hero within the Hegemony and the title conquestalia (“conqueror”) was ceremonially bestowed upon her by Benevolent Admiral Hanelia.
Surveying of the Zamael System began on October 8, 2001, when an exploratory fleet led by Hithum Xito and the battle cruiser Galileus warped from the Tinaria System to its outer edges. Three super-Neptune planets with ring systems were soon discovered to orbit beyond the terrestrial worlds, bumping the system to a total of nine planets. Particular attention was given to the system's third and fourth planets (named Usah and Leilei upon Hithum's arrival in the system), which were found to have liquid water and breathable oxygen-rich atmospheres. Zamael's exploration was not as momentous as that of Lanaia's, and it didn't take as long thanks to its compactness - Hithum and his ships returned to Polytinaris only five days later on October 13, 2001.
Colonization of both star systems started at the beginning of 2002, when the Tessian Hegemony began permitting emigration between them and Polytinaris. Lanaia's settlement would mostly come in the form of space habitats orbiting around the binary stars or their planets, or dome-shaped atmospheric colonies on the major moons of Zayin. Ultraviolet radiation exposure posed an early problem: Lanaia's primary was significantly larger and hotter than either of Polytinaris's larger two stars and consequently put out more high-energy radiation. Most flora species imported from Polytinaris also refused to grow in the strong light, necessitating the development of special succulent plants genetically modified with increased UV tolerances and bluer chlorophyll. Despite these early troubles, Lanaia would later grow into one of the Hegemony's largest industrial colonies, supporting dozens of mining stations within Zayin's gigantic rings. Zamael attracted a larger population of civilians than did Lanaia, as it already had worlds which were habitable. The majority of these settlers would go to Leilei, a ringed terrestrial world with large oceans and abundant native life. Usah was a less favorable eyeball planet heavily defined by its tidally locked nature - sweltering desert on its star-facing side and frozen wasteland on its dark half, with water existing only in a thin strip along its twilight zone. However, the star's feeble light made solar electricity an inefficient power source, requiring alternatives such as geothermal energy from beneath planetary surfaces or fusion reactors on orbital stations.
Creation of the Interstellar Domain System
Though the settlement of Lanaia and Zamael was regarded a success for the Tessian Hegemony, for a time the nation struggled to maintain authority over these outlying systems - at that time considered the frontier fringes of Tessian space. The Benevolent Star Navy mounted only minimal patrols of Lanaia and Zamael at first, and communications infrastructure connecting them and Polytinaris was limited. Despite these shortcomings, neither Tessia, the Benevolent Admirals, nor the Opulenciliom expressed interest in improving facilities for their inhabitants until an incident on May 30, 2002, when Teagonia Evelon Gretolia's personal yacht was damaged in an ambush attack by pirates in the Zamael System. This brought attention to the issue of law enforcement in the Tessian Hegemony's acquired systems to the national scale, finally prompting a response when Tessia ratified the Interstellar Domain Act on June 5, 2002. The Interstellar Domain Act created the Interstellar Domain System, a system intended to streamline government for systems outside of Polytinaris by assigning each one of them a governor-general, who would act as the provincial leader of a system. The governor-general would also be delegated a small subsection of the Benevolent Star Navy to act as a defensive force for their star system. They still had to answer to the nation's government however and could be immediately removed from office if they were deemed unfit for the job.
Under the new system, Isa Paka and Hithum Xito became the rulers of the Lanaia and Zamael Systems respectively; following this initial action, it became Tessian custom for the commander of the first exploration fleet into a system to be designated its governor-general, though this was not always the case.
Interstellar era (2003-2113)
Tessian conquest of the Kenario Imperio (2003-04)
The next star that the Tessian Hegemony turned attention towards was Dremar, a solitary K0.5V orange dwarf located about 6.5 light years from Polytinaris. Interest from both the public and the Benevolent Admirals was low at first, as even the star wasn’t known to have any planets at the time. It would not be until March 21, 2003 that the Benevolent Star Navy would send a vanguard fleet to the system, led by commander Teledra Tessarosa and the battlecruiser Sakuya. Upon their arrival, Teledra’s ships found a compact system of seven planets - three terrestrial and four gaseous - in a configuration slightly similar to the Kalagors System. The fourth planet of the system and two large moons orbiting the system’s largest gas giant instantly became desirable worlds amongst the inhabitants of the Hegemony after analysis from Teledra’s researchers found they were habitable and could support substantial aerlon populations. An interesting trait of these worlds, Teledra would remark after she returned to the Polytinaris System on March 27, was their anomalous abundance of electromagnetic radiation whose origins could not be traced to natural causes.
Intrigued by these unusual signals, Tessia authorized a follow-up scientific expedition to the Dremar System on April 6, 2003. Upon arrival, they were greeted by inhabitants of the Kenario Imperio, a nation that laid claim to the entire Dremar System (known to them as the Kenarito System). The Imperio consisted of two sentient species: the quadrupedal, gesmian-like Kenarions native to the moon Kenarios, and the stocky, pig-like Sanquans native to the terrestrial planet Sanque.
Almost immediately after first contact with the Imperio, Tessia traveled to the Dremar System and arranged to meet with the nation’s governing body, the House of the People, to formally establish relations between the two civilizations. In this initial exchange, the Hegemony learned much about the political history of the Dremar System: long ago, its two species had been separate, until the Sanquans developed spaceflight technology and aggressively grew into an empire called the Sanquo Imperio, which at its largest extent controlled almost the entire star system. Around a century prior to contacting the Hegemony, the Imperio encountered the Kenarions and went to war them; the conflict that ensued scarred the Sanquans into giving up their imperialist ways for a more peaceful albeit still somewhat arrogant way of life. The Kenarions meanwhile picked up many of Sanque’s former colonies and incorporated them as the Kenario Imperio, retaining its old name but adopting a system of direct democracy as a way to ensure completely fair decisions on social and political matters.
Over the next few months, the Tessian Hegemony mounted multiple excursions into the Dremar System to size up the Kenario Imperio's technological capabilities. The military of the Imperio was much smaller than the Benevolent Star Navy and had vastly inferior space weapons, so weak as to barely put a dent in the energy shielding equipped on Tessian starships. Benevolent Admiral Hanelia saw great potential for the Kenarions as slave laborers - their bodies had developed stronger muscles and bones in their home moon's stronger gravity, which on smaller worlds gave them exceptional strength and endurance compared to rorks or gesmians. The Kenario Imperio welcomed most Tessian ships, who covered their true intentions under the guise of scientific study, with open arms and allowed them to freely traverse the Dremar System. Despite this cordiality, the Hegemony made little effort on their end to improve relations with the Imperio during this time.
Primos Award
The next move between the two nations was made on November 12, 2003, when the House of the People invited the Tessians to a banquet on Primos, the neighbor world to the Kenarion home moon Kenarios. Tessia von Gretolia accepted their offer but declined to personally attend, starting brief debate over who would represent her as ambassador to Dremar. Eventually, she and the Benevolent Admirals decided upon experienced diplomat Aubela Zene, who travelled to Primos aboard the battle cruiser Elantium on November 27. This political meeting, referred to as the Primos Award, saw her convince the Imperio into a tentative alliance, promising them that the Hegemony would be happy to lend its two less advanced species any equipment they may need in the future. Alas, this was merely a ruse and a distraction for the Imperio's government: in advance of the talks, the Benevolent Star Navy amassed a fleet of 183 warships under command of Elmann I Lurbulg Vezrok[5] at the outer edge of the Dremar System. Once the Primos Award began on November 28, Elmann I's fleet moved in and attacked a space station orbiting the ringed gas giant Ranbov, quickly overpowering its rudimentary defenses and destroying it, leaving thousands of kenarions dead. The Kenario Imperio did not learn of the attack on Ranbov until well after the Primos Award had ended, as Aubela's ship covertly deployed a fleet of communications jamming satellites around Primos to intercept distress signals received from the station. Their token raid a great success, Elmann I's ships pulled out and returned to Polytinaris along with Aubela and the Elantium on November 30.
Invasion of the Dremar System
Subsequent colonizations - Cerana, Ekeka, Prunau (2004-2007)
Creation of the Gretolian Order (2007)
WIP
Geography
Main article: List of star systems colonized by the Tessian Hegemony
At its peak extent around the year 2113, the Tessian Hegemony controlled a total of 47 individual solar systems.
THIS SECTION IS A WIP
Government
The Tessian Hegemony is an autocratic totalitarian dictatorship: its ruler, the Benevolent Premier of the Tessian Hegemony, exercises total and complete control over all aspects of the nation's government and society. She[6] reserves the right to veto or overturn any decisions, rulings, or sessions of legislation done within the Hegemony's government. The position of Benevolent Premier is arbitrary and held for life upon ascension. Although it was never done during the Hegemony's existence, the Benevolent Premier could resign from her position at any time if the need arose. There were only two Premiers: Tessia von Gretolia (1998-2119) and Hanelia Siaena (2119-2122).
The next four most powerful individuals within the Hegemony were the Great Quartet - initially consisting of Hanelia Siaena, Thyosius Tigran, Quevestin Garmania, and Teagonia Evelon Gretolia. These four individuals were historically close friends and colleagues of Tessia herself, and for much of the Hegemony’s existence they all exerted a pivotal amount of influence on its society, politics, and military.
The state legislature of the Tessian Hegemony is the Opulenciliom, a body consisting of roughly 100 members from all forty-seven of the Hegemony’s colony systems. It functions similarly to any other national legislative body, having officials elected to consecutive terms in cycles every five Tertanian years (approximately every four Earth years) and hosting sessions & votes on a variety of Tessian issues. However, the Opulenciliom holds much less true governing power than not only the Benevolent Premier and the Great Quartet, but also to some high-ranking individuals of the military. Additionally, it has no political parties, unlike other multi-party legislatures. Furthermore, instilling the Hegemony’s speciesism the Opulenciliom only allows aerlons to participate in it and it is strongly supporting of the nation’s discriminatory policies towards non-aerlons.
WIP
Society
Economy
Military
 | This section needs to be updated. |
The military of the Tessian Hegemony is widely touted and publicized as the most powerful within the Polytinaris Spur. At its peak during the late 21st century, a combined total of nearly 2 billion aerlons (non-aerlons, which mostly held either extremely low-ranking positions or were used as unpaid slaves, were excluded from this count) enlisted in either of the two major Tessian military divisions, the Benevolent Army or the Benevolent Star Navy. Over 135 million more also joined its military police and special weapons force, the Gretolian Order.
The Hegemony's military on average accounted for approximately one-quarter of its entire annual government spending per year during peacetime and could rise to nearly triple this amount when the nation was at war. Most notably, although the military possessed large amounts of superweapons, it also relied on advanced tactics and skill to complement its immense brute strength. This combination of powerful weapons and intelligent commanders is regarded to be the main reason why it excelled so well in battle, at least during Tessia von Gretolia's premiership.
Benevolent Army
Star Paladins
The Star Paladins are a group of 10 highly skilled military officers, tacticians, and soldiers who were some of the Hegemony’s most important and most influential individuals during its later years. Formed in 2062, the Paladins operated as a joint subdivision of both the Gretolian Order and the Benevolent Army. They fulfilled many roles: as personal guards for the Premier and her Quartet, as commanders of planetary battle units, as Gretolian Order law enforcement officials, and even as high-ranking admirals in the Star Navy who commanded entire fleets.
Star Paladins were selected and chosen for their roles by the Benevolent Premier herself, all of them being picked particularly for their tactical experience, high intelligence and ability, and their deep inherent pride for the Hegemony itself. When the Star Paladins were established as a group, there were only five of them, but as time went on the number grew to a total of ten. Their assigned numbers had no relation to their actual strength or ability, although some Paladins were stronger than others.
At their greatest membership in 2113, there were ten Star Paladins: Autarchia von Nallonia, Danica Esau, Doramania von Florazelvia, Elmann Schezerien Vezrok, Lukeneum Kewell, Procyon Alpha Canis Minoris, Onictar Ollindari, Telpaena Tevelexina, Zaina Tigran, and Rhenepheus Kakt.
The Benevolent Star Navy (also commonly referred to as the Star Navy) is the Hegemony's space force and was the nation's primary military division due to its spacefaring interstellar nature. Their operations were vast and far-reaching, fulfilling many tasks conducted within star systems themselves or in the interstellar space located between them. The Star Navy predated the Tessian Hegemony itself, being founded in early 1997 over a year before its creation. At its peak during the late 21st century, the Benevolent Star Navy operated approximately 6.4 million starships and had over 1.7 billion enlisted personnel.
Benevolent Admirals
There are several officer ranks one can hold within the Benevolent Star Navy, with rank ascension being determined by a number of factors such as technical expertise, combat prowess, tactical & strategic intelligence, and loyalty to higher leadership and to the Tessian Hegemony itself. The highest rank of these was the venerable title of Benevolent Admiral, who were along with the Star Paladins some of the most powerful people in the entire nation aside from the Benevolent Premier. Benevolent Admirals carried out a variety of special duties specific only to themselves - most importantly, they had the task of commanding invasion fleets of Star Navy ships into enemy star systems, being primary commanders of the Hegemony’s wars against other civilizations.
The Great Quartet were the first Benevolent Admirals, and they were also the only ones for the Hegemony’s earliest days until the year 2016, when a series of reforms significantly overhauled the command structure of the military. After that, the rank was opened to other admirals individually hand-picked by the Benevolent Premier. In the year 2113, there were a total of twelve benevolent admirals: Hanelia Siaena, Quevestin Garmania, Teagonia & Leialennia Gretolia, Autarchia von Nallonia, Nexzius von Keppen, Dege Hecanier, Pai Forgelica Cordellica, Nor Uric, Genevievia Anggrek-Alvaro, Elmann II Schezerien Vezrok, & Bellonia Liura.
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Corvettes
Frigates
Destroyers
Cruisers
Heavy cruisers
Capital ships
Carriers
Starfall Stations
Star shatterers
Ultra-heavy weapons
Gretolian Order
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See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Fillorgiar
- ↑ Quevestin is nonbinary and uses singular they pronouns.
- ↑ plural spelling: Dezirii
- ↑ Iphilians are inherently genderless and all use singular they pronouns.
- ↑ Elmann Schezerien Vezrok's father.
- ↑ The Tessian Hegemony never had a male Benevolent Premier; as such, feminine pronouns will be used.