Custodian history lesson.
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A brief summary of the Valdari history and their interaction with the Alliance, by professor of psychohistory Roths dam-Cordesta. //// Approved and amended by the Custodian Commissioner for clarity of Information for public viewing. ////
The Planet Valdar lies within an area of space close to the fringes of what we call known space, at the edge of the Custodian sphere of influence and the Oondodie borders. The people of that planet only began their first tentative exploits into interstellar space as the Alliance was reaching it's peak, placing them several hundred years behind even the youngest civilisations within the Alliance. For some time they stayed around their home star, establishing a small stellar empire with their homeworld at it's centre. They remained at this point for some time, as the area of space that they originally inhabited was quite sparsely populated with planets, limiting their level of expansion. Even though they were a reasonably advanced race technically their social structure had remained primitive, still centered around an almost absolute religious monarchy and an emperor who had overall power on the running of government. In Valdari society there was a ruling family, at it's head is the Emperor and his nobles. All major decisions came by the imperial seat of power on Valdar, or by imperial decree from Valdar. The majority had little or no say in how their lives were run.
Despite this, a relatively short time, in civilisational terms anyway, they began to expand further. Eventually getting close enough to the Alliance's sphere of influence to start to receive the radio traffic coming from there. The first official radio contact was made with the Valdari Empire over 100 years ago by the Alliance. Since then the Valdari made contact with a few other races, most notably the Oondodie, although at the time this was not considered to be significant. The Empire contrasted hugely with the Alliance, one being an autocracy and the other being a democratic alliance of many races. The Alliance began as the combined strength of several large and wealthy trader civilisations that combined their collective resources and power to protect their interests from piracy and invasion. Since it's initial foundation, the Custodian Alliance has incorporated many other civilisations, some by it's economic power, some by choice and few by invasion or force.
The Valdari continued their tentative expansion across space, their population growing faster than they could find accommodate for living space and food. Naturally, our great and generous Alliance offered to trade them technologies in space travel and medicine in return for what little resources they could offer. This was came as a slight surprise to Valdar; as a people they had always favoured the rule that the strong must survive, this was shown in their predatory nature and backward belief in a religion. This was not the only thing that surprised the Valdari about our great Alliance. The thought that leaders were chosen by the people, and that different races could elect one leadership to govern them was something totally alien to them. Even that people in the Alliance disagreed and sometimes even went against their government. They saw it as a weakness.
Using the added spaceship technology from the Alliance they began to travel further from their homeworld, greatly expanding their empire and their knowledge of the other races. They also found that it was possible to acquire advanced technology through much less diplomatically controlled means. They saw that, as there were those in the Alliance who thought differently from their official rulers, they could acquire other technologies, ones that the Alliance wisely chose not to share. Thus as the Empire grew, illegal technology trading began along it's ever increasing borders. The Emperor was willing to pay a very good price for any technology, most notably weapons, that the Alliance didn't want to share. The Emperor of Valdar could pay for all this because he had at his disposal the entire treasury of the Valdari people and one of the largest stockpiles of gold mined from the 8th planet of the Valdari home system (which was unusually rich in the metal). All that gold inevitably attracted pirates, thinking that their superior ships would give them the upper hand. They were right, the Valdari ships were no match in the early days of the expansion and trading, but once the bandits set foot on the ground they found the Valdari foot soldiers were not the same. Although they were less well armed, they were fanatical in their devotion and fierce in combat. Every time a Valdari world was pirated the story was the same, the ships would have no trouble in space, but once they landed the crew was over run by ground forces, either being boarded or being forced to leave empty handed. Most pirates soon gave up the attempts, preferring black market trade to costly attacks.
With this influx of new technologies the Empire grew rapidly, undergoing one of the fastest technological changes ever witnessed in any civilisation. This expansion was driven by a growing famine within the Empire. All of it's efforts continued to focus on military and scientific development, rather than caring for it's rapidly expanding population. Food riots were common, for the first time there was actual talk of revolution on Valdar. This all reached a tipping point when the Emperor of Valdar, Ismth the 8th, was assassinated by a lone dissident. It was at then the remaining Valdari government acted to preserve the Empire. The first thing they did was to use their new medical science to bio-mechanically revive the Emperor after he was killed, that staging a theatrical revival that was broadcast across the entire Empire. The effect this had on the Valdari people, already deeply religious and superstitious despite their level of advancement, ended any planned revolution. Across the Empire of Valdar the cry rose up "Aye'an Lactah Praeh" translated into standard as "All praise to the Immortal Emperor". The Valdari people now knew that they were the strongest, other peoples changed their leaders only they had the strength of the immortal leader behind them. The Empire was ready, technologically and most importantly psychologically for another great expansion, even a war. They sent out their fastest ships to seek out new areas to expand into, they knew that our great Alliance could easily resist even a surprise attack, but there were others who were weaker.
The Oondodie are an old race, older than any other know to still exist, though they are at a technological level similar to the Alliance. In appearance they are cervine, silvery in colour and delicately and elegantly framed. They are one of the more graceful races in known space and are very proud of their appearance. Their civilisation was vast and sprawling, with little military other than the usual police force and no real tight control from their central goverment. Their attitude to the other races, even the Alliance, is one of polite disdain and aloofness. They considered themselves above all others because their culture was so ancient, and were a people of romantics, adventurers and socialites. They had little interest in trade or conquest considering themselves to b above such things and being far too ancient and respected to be attacked. The Oondodie military was powerful, with one ship easily out-matching any Valdari craft in speed and firepower, but they were few and most were simply used to keep pirates at bay or for show. Overall the Oondodie were not ready for any sort of major conflict, their command structure being outmoded and the bulk of military might being used for posturing to the other races.
When the first Valdar scoutships entered Oondodie space, they were largely ignored and politely asked to leave. When they continued to survey the area they were threatened with destruction and did eventually leave to return to Valdari space. Once they returned to the empire they reported to the military commanders and to the Immortal Emperor. This is a short extract from that report. "The prey known as Oondodie, their civilisation was extremely large and populated with fertile, verdant planets. Their military was un-prepared for any sort of conflict and the raw materials extracted from there would end the starvation in our Empire. They are so sure of their superiority they will not expect an attack of this magnitude, we will show them who is the superior race... All praise to the Immortal Emperor!"
Within the years that followed, very little was heard from Valdar and all wormhole gates leading to there were kept under strict control by the Valdari military police. They resisted all attempts at diplomatic discussion and only traded through third parties, buying large amounts of raw materials and equipment. The populations on the outlying planets seemed to decrease sharply, and some wondered if the outlying colonies were succumbing to starvation. What had actually been going on inside Valdar was made clear to the entire of known space not long after. All the incoming wormholes to the Valdari Empire were blockaded by newer more powerful military craft. The missing population had all become soldiers, every member of Valdari society committed themselves entirely to the war effort, either becoming the soldiers and navy of the military or the workers that built the ships in the great shipyards. The Immortal Emperor himself had committed the entire of his civilisation to this one goal, all others were unimportant. Almost all of the natural resources of the empire were used to build up the military to a level never before seen in such a new civilisation. The first wave of the Valdari Imperial navy set off towards Oondodie space.
The initial stages of the invasion went well, the Oondodie were taken aback, unprepared and affronted at the idea that someone could think of attacking them. Any initial resistance to the Valdari invasion was barely effective, the Oondodie ships were outgunned and un-coordinated. The ground invasions were equally as one sided, the fanatically religious and zealous Valdari soldiers easily overwhelming the mostly civilian population of the first planets they took. The Valdari did not think they were cruel or unfair when they attacked civilians, it was the right of the strong. To them it was only natural, simply a means to an end to save their people from starvation. They had the will of the Immortal Emperor behind them, they had what they considered to be divine right.
The sweeping success of the Valdari did not last long, the Oondodie soon revived their aging military and began to hold the line at more systems. Their ships were now more equal in number to the Valdari, and still technologically superior in terms of speed and maneuvering. The war that both sides thought was going to be a sweeping victory turned into a long and drawn out conflict. The casualties on both sides were high, but the Valdari had the weight of effectively their entire population behind them and were still pushing the Oondodie back, defeating them on the ground and being able to match them in space. The Valdari also used illegal cybernetics, much like the techniques used on their 'Immortal Emperor' to resurrect soldiers bodies only and return them to the battlefield. These soldiers, known as 'Praehtors', although uncommon, were the most deadly on the ground and in space. They were heavily augmented to become the ideal weapon. Little is known about them as very few were recovered, but it is not believed that the mind of the dead soldier is saved, only their body. These partly mechanical soldiers gradually started to turn the tide further in favour of the Valdari.
The Oondodie were losing ground fast, they had run out of options and had to petition our great Alliance for military help. They justified this by revealing that the Valdari had been committing war-crimes such as executing prisoners of war and the mistreatment and killing of non-combatants. The Alliance agreed to aid the Oondodie in the conflict after a price had been settled, but refused to invade from it's own border with Valdar. With the help of Alliance ships and resources the Oondodie were once again able to repel the invasion. However the arrival of the second wave of ships from Valdar prompted the alliance to act directly, giving military aid to the Oondodie fleet in the form of the 2nd Custodian fleet.
When the second wave arrived at one of the central worlds of the Oondodie, the combined strength of the Alliance and the Oondodie fleets totally destroyed over two thirds of the invasion force, the rest returning to Valdar or scattering. One of the ships destroyed was the Imperial flagship, on board was the Immortal Emperor. His final death, coupled with the total loss of the Valdari army and navy caused the remaining officials to order a retreat from Oondodie space. The Empire of Valdar was broke, leaderless and on the brink of starvation. When our great Alliance sent the 2nd Custodian fleet to offer to assimilate them into the alliance, they had to accept. All of the old Valdari military hardware was seized and placed under Custodian control or destroyed. However many ships are still unaccounted for, their crews fleeing into the depths of space to join pirate forces or form small militias of their own. The number of soldiers who left the Empire or are unaccounted for is much higher, many form gangs in the rougher parts of space, still hateful to the Alliance. More still roam the slums of Valdar, declaring a sort of mob rule and resisting the integration into the Alliance. Most disturbingly of all, there are rumored to be a few surviving pieces of the military hardware known as 'Praehtors' still in hiding. //// The rest of this report has been deemed unfit for public viewing. The Custodian Commissioner for clarity of Informationwould like to take this opportunity to remind you that if you know of any illegal military hardware, report it immediately to your nearest Custodian official. There will be a reward for any information leading to it's acquirement. ////