The Resurgent Era

6203-6400CE

Overview

The Resurgent Era represented renewed development and expansion in many regions and states.  The period witnessed events ranging from greater openness and expansion in the Khalifate to the birth of interstellar governments in the Coreward Region.  It was also an era of failed expectations, marking a decline of the Merchant Guild, a failure of the Federation of Orion to achieve a post-materialist economy and growing piracy in independent regions of interstellar space.

The gradual decline of Merchant Guild influence and control over the civilized regions of Coreward Space produced a vacuum from which a number of interstellar states emerged.  The largest and most enduring of these states was the Realm of Antares, centered on the old regional capital of Nachen.  The Realm, essentially a federal state with a unified military force and economic policy, was ruled by the Major family, initially installed as Lord Presidents by the Merchant Guild, but soon determined to create an independent sphere of influence under Nachen dominance.  Led by Tanik Major and his able son, Admiral Kolin Major, the Realm grew to encompass sixty systems by 6400CE and established itself as a major interstellar player.  Elsewhere, the decline of the Merchant Guild led to a resurgence of pirate and privateering activity, especially in the 64th century, as independent starships and worlds preyed on their weaker neighbors to gain power and wealth.  The border region with the Grand Federation of Races became more rigid as the Merchant Guild lost access to Grand Federation markets and rigid Grand Federation patrols prevented the theft of technology and the passage of pirates and rouge traders across their border.

Khalif Hussein took firm control of the Terran Khalifate and presented a more tolerant external face to the Khalifate, forsaking external militancy and forced expansion but promoting expansion though aggressive, though peaceful missionary activities.  The Khalif repaired and improved relations with other interstellar states, visiting the Star Kingdoms, Dominions and Federation of Orion and even sending ships to aid the Mendam Codominium in conflict with the Dragons.  Hussein proved his commitment to peaceful coexistence by ruthlessly suppressing the Jihadi movement that tried to force the Khalifate into war by killing millions of Promethean Alimeen Confederacy citizens and Vulcan residents.  Despite, or perhaps because of this peaceful demeanor, the Khalifate nearly doubled in size by 6400CE.

The Bengali Dominions also continued its expansion in a gradual and non-threatening manner, tacitly acknowledging the shrinking influence of the Nobilis on many worlds and struggling to control the influence of more radical "Evolutionists" such as the Society for Order and its radical offshoots.  Bengali Space, stretching across over a thousand systems, became a generally peaceful, prosperous polyglot society with formerly strict racial castes gradually diminishing in influence.

On the Rimward frontier, the Federation of Orion also expanded, but much more slowly.  Political and economic concerns related to attempts to create a post-materialist society dominated politics and discussion.  The Federation of Orion failed to achieve the post-materialist transition, but after periodic economic instability, did manage to adopt neo-Donnerist reforms that provided a stable and prosperous economy.  Throughout the period, the Federation remained both a beacon of liberal democracy and tolerance and a cultural nexus for all of Human Space. 

On the Spinward frontier, conflict with the Dragons continued to dominate events.  The Dragon leader Djufszh'tar founded the D'zugmar Conclave, the largest Dragon state since the Nova of Draco, in 6252CE and proceeded to establish peace with his Human neighbors before taking his fleets to the Dragon core in Djufszh'tar's War, which ended only with his death in 6285CE and the subsequent dissolution of the Conclave.  After a period of renewed raiding into Human space, the Dragon Coalition Wars occupied most Nations and Prides from 6305 to 6335CE, allowing the Mendam Codominium to expand against the weakened Dragon frontier.  The end of internal Dragon strife led the dominant Dragon leadership along the frontier to combine against Mendam as the T'far Horde, which launched the bloody Thirteenth Dragon Frontier War in 6349CE.  Within three years most of Human space had rallied to the Codominium's side and the resultant peace brought dissolution to the Horde and marked the end of the last major Dragon War to date.  The Recontact Service maintained some independent patrols against Dragon raiders and continued to reestablish communications with worlds in the Spinward, Rimward and Southern Regions, abandoning their reach into the Northern Region as the Service became overstretched.

In the Trailing Region, the Star Kingdoms continued to prosper, though mediocrity and stagnation was beginning to set in on many worlds, stalled like the Federation of Orion short of post-materialism.  The External Services of the Outward Kingdoms continued to battle pirates and raiders of Humans, B'dr'rak and Rootjalik origin, but all attempts to formally expand the Kingdoms fell on the deaf ears of the established monarchies and bureaucracies.  In the far trailing region, the enclave of interstellar civilization centered on Hortense suffered through two wars with the aggressive Hruli and in the aftermath of the second bloody conflict, contact with Hortense essentially ended.

The nearer sectors of the Southern Region continued their gradual assimilation into the Terran Khalifate or Bengali Dominions and the further, especially more coreward sectors became more connected to interstellar society through trade or occasional piracy, though the far South remained generally uncontacted.  A similar situation remained true for the nearer Northern sectors, but the mid and far North remained locked in isolation and remained unknown to general society.

Across all of Known space, the League of Independent Races, numbering sixteen races by 6400CE, became a mature political and economic force, allowing the less populous races to maintain a viable interstellar presence independent of the Humans and of the more populous or established Major Races.

Political

The Resurgent Era was free of major political upheavals or revolutions.  The main theme for the two centuries of the period was growing tolerance and interdependency punctuated by failed attempts at radicalization.  Only in the Coreward Region did the political situation change dramatically, mostly as a long suppressed reaction to faltering Guild dominance.

The Merchant Guild suffered from three declining trends during the period.  First, its monopoly on Interstellar Age technology in the Coreward Region was already fractured and essentially abandoned as policy by the early 63rd century.  Dozens of worlds gained interstellar capability during the period, some like Ocelot expanding to dominate a local area of space, at least temporarily.  The Guild's faltering control of technology was one factor that led Nachen Lord President Tanik Major to proclaim the Realm of Antares and carve out his own economic and political sphere of influence.  A second factor for decline was the Guild's worsening relations with the Grand Federation of Races.  The growing isolationism of the Grand Federation was not directly related to Guild activity, but the Guild's efforts to restore access to Grand Federation markets via smuggling and industrial espionage effectively contributed to the closure of the border region and a considerable decline in the Guild's revenues.  The third factor in the Guild's decline had only begun to affect its fortunes at the end of the 64th century with the development of Viata as a substitute for the longevity drugs based on tsrill.  Though the Guild had long managed to maintain its monopoly on the substance and had fought to control Tation in the previous century, it proved unable to counter Bengali biological technology and the Guild's continuing declining influence was assured.

The Terran Khalifate under Khalif Hussein proved to be much less oppressive and insular than it had been since its founding in the aftermath of the Wars of Disintegration.  Though Hussein was by no means a reformer or particularly enlightened, he was a pragmatist and understood the limits and realities of power.  Hussein's century of military service also lead him to understand the fallacy of contiguous interstellar borders across the vastness of empty space and unoccupied systems.  Therefore, the renewed expansion of the Khalifate under his realm, while following established spheres of influence and borders, was more based on incorporating willing or impressionable worlds than incorporating the closest neighboring systems, and the expanding Khalifate frontier was marked by the incorporation of widely scattered systems.  The Terran Khalifate became a full participant in interstate politics, establishing true embassies for the first time and participating in cultural events such as the Orion Expositions.  Even when provided by the Jihadis, the Khalif stuck to his pragmatic and constructive approach, ruthlessly putting down the radical insurgency, but focusing only on the offenders and working hard to keep relations with neighboring states civil.

While Emperor Talon remained the leader of the Bengali Dominions, true power was in the hands of the Regent, King Malcolm Hu-Ve’eri-Stark and his Domikal descendants, Prince Aaron and Earl Malcolm, especially after the death of Talon's wife, Empress Sandra, in 6245CE.  Shear demographics continued to erode Nobilis dominance and the shifting influence of newer worlds and former Servant Races, mainly Goblins and Casaps, left the caste philosophy of the Altaran Golden Stasis sect a social structure followed in superficial form, if at all.  The Society of Order and its splinter groups tried to supplant the Nobilis order with its own form of racial superiority, but the trend in Bengali society was toward relaxations of caste and race structures, not revisions.  While the more open society provided greater opportunity for the Sapien majority, it also lessened the identification of society with its traditional norms and sowed the first seeds of dissolution among the formerly privileged castes.  The Dominions remained the largest state in Human Space, but the fact that it was spared Donnerist economic turmoil during this era only underscored that its worlds remained fairly underdeveloped and its economy highly stratified.

The Federation of Orion remained the most diverse, liberal and advanced Human state, besides perhaps the Zhantlas Union, which had become nearly a client state of the Grand Federation of Races.  While the Federation of Orion struggled with cycles of economic turmoil long associated with the limits of a highly advanced materialist economy, it lacked the tools to break though the technological barriers that prevented an effective post-material economy.  Each crisis brought the Federation closer to a neo-Donnerist stability, with the economist and banker Karlomar Shurga finally able to complete the transformation during his presidency in the 6370s.  Culturally, the Federation of Orion continued its dominance, hosting the Orion Expositions and various diplomatic conferences.  Its tolerance and diversity was tested by the candidacy of Landium Horse, a Risen of non-humanoid form, for presidency.  Twice a Vice President, Landium Horse became President only through a resignation and then suffered from the first attempted assassination of an Orion President in three centuries, but did win a reelection campaign in 6346CE, cementing the right of all Federation citizens to attain any office.

Technological

The Resurgent Era represented a complete stagnation in technological progress.  However, Interstellar Age technology continued to spread to recontacted systems across Known Space and the civilized regions reached a higher level of average technological development.  It was during this era that the Terran Khalifate finally reached a mature Late Macrojump technological base.

Elsewhere, the major technological trend was toward the increased acceptance and adoption of biological based technologies.  Consumer goods of Timbuktu and Bengali origin were often entirely biologically based, down to the communications and processing subsystems.  Likewise, development of Variant transformations continued on some Bengali worlds.  Of lasting economic importance, the Bengali corporation Kallibantra Biogen perfected a viable synthetic tsrill, which became the life extending drug Viata.

Plague-induced limitations continued to prevent the development of viable of "post-material" technologies such as rapid fabricators and the Grand Federation of Races proved determined to maintain a competitive advantage in its mastering of Early Microjump Era technologies.  Even Zhetra and T'zet groups especially friendly to Humans were unwilling to break the embargo on such advanced technologies.

Cultural

The era represented a period of growing tolerance across large segments of an increasingly connected expanse of Known Space.  Reactions against this tolerance, whether from New Crusaders, the Greater Race or Jihadis, were generally met with swift and demonstrative condemnation and suppression.

The New Crusader movement of Jordo Kudak arose in the 6350s as a response to the mellowing of the original Crusader movement, which had abandoned its attempts to regain Karinsky though violence against the Khalifate and had become reintegrated into the mainstream of Mechanist society.  Kudak targeted the Heretics and the Risen with the zeal of a fundamentalist and attracted a cadre of violent followers, "thugs" in the words of the Primal, but failed to mobilize widespread support.  Most Mechanist considered Kudak's obsession with the technology behind non-Mechanist intelligent beings to be misguided or "out of scope".  Within little more than a decade, Kudak was dead and his movement degraded into sporadic bouts of terrorism and piracy, little different from the rouges already populating systems beyond the reach of interstellar legal norms.

The Greater Race and other radical offshoots of the Society for Order represented logical extensions of Altaran philosophies of racial elitism, but Bengali society was moving away from these beliefs, and violent action, including the murder of the popular Crown Princess, did little to increase support for such movements.  It just weakened the influence of the Society for Order's mainstream organization.

The Jihadis were radical Ibrahimites who considered themselves followers of the expansionist and intolerant policies of Khalif Ibrahim.  Hoping to force Khalif Hussein's hand, they effectively and bloodily declared war on Human settlements in the Alimeen Confederacy and on the League of Vulcan, killing over six million people.  Khalif Hussein and the majority of his still quite conservative clerics were appalled by the Jihadi actions and the movement was quickly and permanently suppressed.  Khalif Hussein had spent his first centuries in office building bridges to other societies and proving himself and his religion to be capable and willing to coexist with other cultures, and by the late 64th century, his subjects generally believed the same.

Overall, the sense of belonging to a common interstellar society across recivilized Human Space grew during the era, with all states, including the League of Independent Races, becoming more intertwined in commerce and culture.  The frustrations of economic and technological stagnation had begun to show, but the more extreme extravagance, degeneracy and malaise of the coming age was not yet dominant.  The resurgence of the Betelgeuse Antares Rally proved that civilized peoples could travel between those two stars with relative security and frequency.  Though political and social integration remained an impossibility, the beginnings of an intertwined interstellar economy and culture were a reality.

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