Zahamana Commonwealth (A1-0)
Zahamana Commonwealth Collowe Zahaman Zahamana | |
|---|---|
| Zahamana | |
| Motto | "By the People's Will, it is done." |
| Founded | 723 BBT |
| Capital | Tiranhold |
| Key worlds |
|
| Population | 10.2 Trillion |
| Head of state | King Zolahan III |
| Head of government | Prime Minister |
| Major species | Humans Zehans |
| Language | Zehkran
Zomaran Human languages (English and latin as lingua franca) |
| Military | Zahamana Conglomerated Forces |
| Intelligence service | Zahamana Special Services |
The Zahamana Commonwealth Is a star nation located in the rough center of A1-0, bordering the Tiyanki Territories. It was founded by a union between Humans and the Zehans native to the area after the War of the Hunters. It is most famous for its lush worlds, democratic attitudes, and resilient nature, as well as its role in gaining widespread access to the Tiyanki Territories.
History
Primitive Zehiraka
The first sapient species within the territories of the modern day Zahamana Commonwealth were the Zehans on their planet. They were a purple, bipedal species that had extremely flexible and strong tentacles, which allowed them to achieve similar tool use to humans. They faced little challenge rapidly dominating their planet.
Information Age and beyond
Zehiraka as a planet had relied mainly on static infrastructure for energy, with solar panels being common, but energy from geothermal vents which were very common on the planet was the primary source of energy. With the advent of submarines, the Zomar Empire sought to damage the critical infrastructure of several weaker states, attempting to force them to submit, starting the war known as the Fool's War. Zomari forces clashed with forces from Zehka and their allies, and eventually, the Zomari empire was defeated and assimilated with the help of several internal rebellions, as the populace had little to gain from the war.
The Zomari had taken up a large portion of both the population and landmass of the planet, and their assimilation into the global system put the world of Zekiraka in a perfect place for planetary unification. This is how the first iteration of a Zehani state, the Council of Zehiraka, was born.
First Steps into Space
The Council of Zehiraka made one of its primary goals the exploration and colonization of space. Advancements to make up for resources lost during the war had included widespread asteroid mining, and profiling of neighboring star systems told them that there was a potentially habitable planet in a star system only 10 lightyears away from them, a momentous find. Many Zehirakans were eager to be able to explore and populate an entirely new star system and planet, and scientists pushed for this, hoping to gain knowledge from the colonization effort. However, at current speeds, 10 lightyears would have taken several hundred years, and there was no way to facilitate FTL communication between Zehiraka and this new system.
FTL discoveries and first colonies
Scientists in Zehiraka were able to develop two FTL technologies that enabled the colonization of that planet. Scientists were able to discover that, by bending space, they could circumvent causality and the speed of light, and use it to propel an object "faster than light" in terms of distance traveled. This shortened the time to the planet to mere weeks. However, having weeks between communications could have proved disastrous for the new colony if a resource shortage happened; for this reason, scientists developed a gateway technology. This allowed them to essentially create a controlled wormhole that allowed for near instant travel once the two gates were set up. With this technology, they could ensure the success of this colony.
Around 850 BBT, the first colony, Zelarasta, was founded on the planet of the same name. The new technologies helped the colony thrive, and once the gateway technology was created Zehans were able to move freely to safely populate the planet after the initial wave of colonists. All of the work flooded the market with millions of new jobs in farming, terraforming, managing robots and mining operations and ferrying goods between the worlds, and the waves of resources led to a flourishing economy that paved the way for new expansion in the decades following. By 780 BBT, the Zehans had around 15 planetary colonies, and many of those planets had started developing regional cultures already, and thus the Council of Zehiraka reorganized, renaming themselves the Grand Consortium and restyling the nation as Zeha-na-Maka, or Zehans Among the Stars, and consolidating in law that all of the colonies were equal and not subordinates of Zehiraka. With little to no military power as ships of those designs had not been created yet, this served as a unifying factor that prevented any powerful colonies becoming breakaway states.
Terran arrival
Around 750 BBT, Humans arrived on 10 surviving sleeper ships to a planet they named as Nova Gaia, New Earth. They were remnants of a human nation apparently beyond Sector A1-0's territory, and thus already had some basic terraforming technology that was able to give them a jump-start in development. Using the sleeper ships as industrial hubs and home bases, they quickly spread across the planet, and the last sleeper ship was left in the atmosphere with unmanned vehicles that mined asteroids. After gaining a population of roughly 2 billion, the humans traveled to neighboring systems, beginning to colonize and spread out around 700 BBT.
Unrest in Zeha-na-Maka
Zehan expansion was continuing at a steady pace, and by 690 BBT it had picked up rapidly, with a new system explored every few months, and Zeha-na-Maka had around 600 inhabited planets under its control and a growing number of uninhabited mining systems. However, due to the almost nonexistent military presence and the aging FTL technology, the Zehan planets became increasingly disgruntled with the inefficient governance. In response, the close systems, which held the greatest proportion of the population and thus the biggest numbers in the Grand Consortium enacted trade laws to attempt to force the outlying colonies to become economically dependent and thus unable to fight against the Consortium. In response, the colonies ignored the laws and halted exports to the central planets, cutting them off from their trade network. The tensions made Zeha-na-Makan freighter ships and asteroid mining ships enter rebellious space and use their weapons on ships transporting goods in a massive surprise attack. This sparked similar attacks from the rebels, who organized and formed a unified front, calling themselves the Outer Front.
The Grand War of Oppression
The Grand War of Oppression was a particularly scrappy and bloody conflict as neither side had sophisticated military technology at the beginning of the war. Freighters and asteroid mining ships used their weapons meant to destroy asteroids and debris on ships, and the crews had little to no military training or doctrine, leading to haphazard battles near systems with ad-hoc tactics and formations. The planets loyal to Zeha-na-Maka had significantly more mass in merchant ships to conscript and thus made significant early leads.
Batlle of Mekala
The Battle of Mekala was where the Outer Front revealed a new ship-type made specifically for military use, with stronger guns, less crew due to less cargo space, and better shields. Revolutionary at the time, a contingent of 100 of these ships was able to defeat 500 of the ad-hoc ships of Zeha-na-Maka. This marked a turning point in the war, and this early technological win proved vital for the Outer Front to gain momentum.
Siege of Zehiraka
By 600 BBT, the Outer Front had surrounded Zehiraka with a contingent of 2000 ships. They prevented any resources from getting to the planet, and after 2 months of sieging, the Grand Consortium surrendered and the Outer Front gained control of the government.
Greater centralization in Zehan space
After the Grand War of Oppression, the Outer Front took control of all of the Zehan planets and established a new system of governance stemming from Zehiraka. Seeing the decentralized nature of Zehan space as the principle cause of war, the Outer Front restyled the nation as the Zehan Union of Planets, and enacted several policies to centralize the nation. These policies included trade regulations forcing certain planets to allocate resources to others, eliminating a planet's ability to have the sole claim on a mining system or world, and the two most radical and contriversial reforms- They began taking a small tax from all of the planets. This money would be held in case of emergency and would be used to fund the second reform- a national military. Utilizing the new designs they had created, the Zehan created a fighting force whose main purpose was to keep order and enforce the law. These reforms greatly angered the first colonies who could no longer horde resources for themselves, but these colonies had significantly reduced influence after the War of Grand Opression, and thus grew used to the changes.
Human issues and the rise of piracy
The humans from Nova Gaia had expanded massively due to their already expansive spacefaring knowledge, and controlled roughly 2,000 inhabited planets by 550 BBT. However, due to inefficient administration, Nova Gaian society failed to create a cohesive government. Without explicitly defining the relation of newer colonies to Nova Gaia, many of these states became effective breakaway states and some opportunistic ones turned their ships on each other's goods, getting tributary planets and raiding others. These planets became a scourge on humanity and eventually started colonizing space of their own. These states became known as pirate states or warlord states.
The Conqueror of Worlds
Bemoaning the rise of warlord and pirate states that made trade extremely dangerous, the humans nearest to Nova Gaia took matters into their own hands and put their faith in one man called Xoraias. He led fleets of ships in an effort to conquer all of the warlord states, and his military genius defeated even the largest warlords- thus, piracy was reduced to small groups hiding out on fringe worlds and in deep space by 525 BBT. Xoraias refused to become an emperor and instead created a system of governance that relied on representation from codified districts of similar systems. He was still revered by his people and gained the title "Conqueror of worlds," and he led several military reforms that strengthened the new human nation against a pirate resurgence.