Backstory

The Starium XCV Story

The Concordium was glorious. Supported by the discovery of "Quantum Gates", ancient orbital structures that artificially created wormholes connecting together distant star systems, the Concordium emerged from the ashes of the Pantheonic Era to claim dominion in the known Galaxy.

For over two thousand years the Concordium grew, fought and prospered to establish itself as the premier interstellar power in known space.

With scores of primary worlds and species working together in a vast web of interstellar trade, nearly every inhabited world was filled with citizens of the Concordium. What was once worlds of vast natural beauty were now despoiled by layers and layers of buildings and infrastructure to support hundreds of trillions of sentient beings.

The might of the central government was bent on solving this overpopulation problem and at last, a scientific solution was discovered that offered an answer.

The existing Quantum Gates could be modified to send small ships to unexplored star systems in the hopes that colonies could be created and new gates built that would fuel the desperately needed expansion of the Concordium.

Pioneers and explorers lined up to be part of these one way journeys to find and colonize new worlds on the arms of the galaxy.

The Mission was simple: Upon arrival, the colony ship would scan the star system for a suitable planet. They then would land and unpack the crew and colony founders, while the drone ship would begin construction and transformation into a Quantum Gate that would establish a permanent link to the core worlds.

The main colony ship would serve as a science station and would clone and raise thousands of new citizens to create the first colonist wave, the "Founders." And with the newly constructed Quantum Gate, thousands of citizens would relocate from their crowded lives on the central planets to create new lives and livelihoods on the colonies.

The colonies became the new frontier where people could claim land, use the natural resources of the new world to create farms, mines, ranches and then ship their goods back to the core worlds and make a good living for themselves and relieve the pressures back on the colony worlds.

Every freighter arriving through the Quantum Gate would bring new people eager to make a living and explore the new worlds. Also, each freighter would carry news from the core worlds and other colonies as well as manufactured goods, spare parts, luxuries and those goods that the colonies could not make for themselves. Every freighter would leave carrying foods, minerals, various exotic goods, raw materials, animals and of course, personal correspondence, news and reports for those who lived in the core worlds.

For several years, this worked very well with thousands of new star systems being colonized by the various races and factions of the Concordium.

Then, things started to change. The trade ships began arriving less frequently. Some brought stories of unknown star faring races appearing at the core worlds. Rumors of war began to be whispered at first, and then within months was openly discussed with each trade ship arriving through the Quantum Gate.

Then without warning, like a light being turned out, the Quantum Gate ceased responding. Initially there was panic, and a shuttle was launched to repair the Quantum Gate. What was found was a broken heap of twisted metal and wreckage floating in space. Once a bastion and symbol of Concordium's presence and technology, the gate now rotated around the planet as a useless piece of scrap metal. The scientists could not determine whether the Quantum Gate had malfunctioned, was destroyed by the Concordium engineers or if it had been done by something or someone else.

Panic ensued on your colony. Birth was given to wild theories and ideas and fueled panic and insurrection. There was talk of imminent invasion by an unnamed alien race. There were power plays by local factions to take control of the colony. Anarchy reigned for weeks that stretched agonizingly into months.

Slowly, the months turned to years and there had still been no word from the core worlds.

Surely they would have sent a vessel to investigate? If not, then why not? What happened? Are we alone? Are there others? Why haven't they come?

Finally, after five years of uncertainty and preparing for something to happen, it did. Explorers on your new home discovered, in the far reaches of the colony the remains of an alien ship that had crashed landed long ago.

Upon investigation by your scientists they concluded that what had been found was a space faring probe, unmanned, and it was mostly intact. There was no indication or markings on the probe to determine where it had come from.

What had your scientists excited and your military cautious was that it was equipped with a technology that allows a star ship to "jump" from star system to star system as well as attain near speed of light travel. The other piece of interesting and somewhat alarming news is that the probe is over 5000 years old. This means that the probe was launched several thousand years before the Concordium was founded.

In the months that followed, your scientists became confident that they could adapt and reproduce the technology. It would take a great deal of time, however to create the necessary infrastructure such as research facilities, industrial complexes, mining complexes, and a shipyard to assemble ships and launch them.

For once, your colony was of one mind and with this shared vision pulled together to build what was necessary to raise your low technology, agricultural colony into a self-sufficient space faring race.

What happens next is up to you…

Starium XCV. Not just a game, but a shared experience of galactic proportions.