#Lore24 – Entry #349 – Sci-Fi Month IV #14 – The Great Elvish Imperium
Transcribed From the Personal Recording Implant of Andra Ganim, Chronicler of the Codex Infinitum
AG: “How did Halaxaes manage the remarkable growth of the Elvish Imperium during their rise? Why would so many worlds fall under his sway?”
RV: “A combination of factors, really. Initially it was plans that had been laid by the old Dominion upon Andyllion centuries before that the shorter-lived races simply wouldn’t be able to trace that would be the Great Houses’ way back into power. Destabilize a nation here, cause a crisis there, and have the solution ready to go and paint yourself as the hero. Rather standard operations, really. In spite of the advancement in technology and much further spread, the old ways of manipulating the races still worked, even on those worlds that had civilizations all their own, completely independent of Andyllion’s history.
Once sufficient wealth and resources had been secured, Halaxaes began working against his detractors through subterfuge and magic that had likely not been used for centuries, clouding or even breaking minds to his will, painting the image of a growing threat of an unknown attacker from deep space that would have to be dealt with, specifically a second demonic invasion from the Demon Sector, which had only been discovered recently back then, and only mapped out as far as finding seventy-two stars within, though our detection methods were hardly as sophisticated as what we possess today. As an aside, I dislike the name “Demon Sector”; the region is far too large to classify as a single sector, composed of thousands of star systems; we know today that it composes an entire arm of our galaxy, so it really should have a more accurate name in my opinion, but “the Demon Arm” just sounds rather lacking.
Anyway, once the idea of a possible demonic invasion had been firmly established and fear heightened through a massive propaganda campaign and said mind-altering magic used upon world leaders, Halaxaes had nearly everything he needed to see Elvish dominance over known space.
Truth be told, I am rather impressed with his success in building such a vast empire in a period when so many worlds were reaching out to the stars and seeking independence or to remain unbothered in their own regions. As I recall, we of the Andyllion sector had already encountered other space-faring worlds by this time, though none possessed the TK-Drives that we had developed, exploration beyond their own systems limited mostly to generation ships or the rare alternate high-speed engine that simply wasn’t nearly as fast as the TKD’s hyperspace traversal, so there had already been some minor conflicts here and there, so I imagine that Halaxaes had some greater difficulty convincing these worlds to join, but once they did, they received the secret of the TKD in return for loyalty.”
AG: “What can you tell me about the leadup and aftermath of the Massacre of Tollinda III?”
RV: “Oh, this was well-planned, no doubt, by Halaxaes and his loyalists. By this time, I’m sure they were looking for ways to secure their power in a manner that would insure it would be nigh impossible to break going forward. I do believe he had something of a chip on his shoulder about the dissolution of the former Elvish Dominion, for he would have likely been in charge of the Great Houses as that group was originally structured. He needed a verified example of the demonic threat to ensure his control would be unquestioned. For as slow as some races are on the uptake, there were rumors finally breaking through the propaganda wall that threatened his lofty position.
Chief among these was the Tollinda system, specifically the Tollinda III colony, well, it had become a properly functional world on its own by this time. It made the perfect sacrifice for the cause, really. One, it had a large aerian population, hence the high resistance to elvish control, two it was the most civilized system on the edge of known space at the time, placing it closest to the Demon Sector boundary, and three, the world had established a rather formidable defense force and had claimed that it was quite secure without the help of the Elvish Imperium. A devastating attack here would serve to eliminate challenges to Elvish rule and convince other worlds that the threat from beyond the Demon Barrier was indeed real.”
AG: “There has been some question as to the nature of the attack group that assaulted Tollinda, and of the weapons which they brought to bear upon the world. Do you have any knowledge of them?”
RV: “The ships were simply Elvish vessels that were heavily modified to look alien and demonic. Since the threat didn’t actually exist, the ships could look like anything, really, so they simply went with garish exoskeletons bolted to the hulls, and lots of red paint, then masked their drive signatures through higher radiation output while using magical constructs to spread “demonic foulness” into surrounding space which was little more than a smokescreen combined with a highly inefficient comms and sensor jamming field. It only had to look good for the long-range sensors and what camera footage they would allow to leak, after all.
Now, as I recall, the Tollinda defense force put up a rather impressive fight, and actually looked like they might have succeeded in fending off the “demonic” invasion once they had brought the aerian Star Sabers into the fight. Nothing quite like an aerian ship barreling toward you at full speed, piercing your hull, and deploying boarding parties into the heart of your ship to ruin your carefully laid plans. Those must have been newer additions to the Tollinda fleet, because it seems that Halaxaes’ forces weren’t aware of them. Had the decision not been made to scuttle the ships and destroy the aerian boarders with them, the secret may have been found.
As to the destruction of the world itself, it was nothing new, rather quite old. Halaxaes and his arcanists had simply recreated the transplanar bombs I had devised centuries before, altering certain properties of course, to limit the planar damage while making it look suitably terrifying. The attack on Tollinda III hadn’t gone to plan, so there might’ve even been a chance the plan would have failed had the devices, like had done before upon Andyllion, not already been smuggled into the cities on the surface. In the end, Halaxaes got what he wanted, that rallying cry to face the demonic threat that didn’t exist, and worlds clamoring to his side when footage got distributed of the Imperium’s fleets destroying the invaders in an act of revenge for the fallen world.
This was also the first instance in which Halaxaes would cross me. By destroying the world, he also destroyed several draconic ruins I had yet to study. I likely wouldn’t have found anything I hadn’t found elsewhere, but there was always that chance that the breakthrough I needed would have been there. It was the first strike he would earn.”