A/N: If any of you readers not satisfied with these fictional descriptions of the Empire's history and other planetary developments, then send messages or reviews to me for potential corrections or guidance... voluntarily, notwithstanding.
Chapter 7
Ahem... Year "Zero" of the Imperial Calendar.
The Empire of Sadera was born; by the dominant voice from its first emperor at the end of his grand speech.
Centuries prior, it's used to be a city-state republic centering around that distinguishable metropolis of 'civilization' and led by a senate of privileged officials through nobility and/or merits — plus the plebeian assemblies. (To go back even further, this community was once a kingdom ruled by several monarchs for many decades. Its transition to a "property of the people" was caused by the overthrow of the monarchy's last ruler; described as tyrannical and cruel toward his own subjects.) Most of Sadera's human population born there were granted citizenship by default. For immigrants: via participation into the city's military legions or other public services. Hostile neighbors, human and otherwise, once attacked the republic quite frequently for its riches... along with retaliations against this city-state's expansionist ambitions. However, the armies' adaptability in organizations, equipment advancement, and battle tactics gradually stopped these assaults and later decimated the aggressive barbarians. Which were evidently followed by further acquisitions of more land, financial treasures, and slaves. Other sovereign kingdoms noticing the conquests of Sadera decided to ally this upcoming power by adapting Saderan ways of life and swearing allegiances to the strong nation.
As a few centuries gone by and its territories expanded thru conquest however, the economic gap between the wealthy aristocrats using 'cheaper labor' and common citizens in poverty widened — in addition to the gradual ineffectiveness of this city's republican government. Societal crises troubled the republic: politicians demanding reforms in need were either humiliated or assassinated; urban gangs patronized by competitive senators disrupted voting periods for particular citizens; ideas and priorities ran rampant without solid commitment; etc. Over time, civil turmoils became increasingly intolerable to virtually everyone of Saderan citizenry... until the prominent rise of a powerful man. Proven himself with brilliance on both politics and military calculations during this human male's lifetime, he clearly won the hearts and minds of many inhabitants of Sadera and its provinces; alongside his shrewdness to subdue assassination attempts from political rivals.
Which brings back to the closure of a grand coronation ceremony consisted of many people — who were mainly flesh and blood of Mankind, though. After hearing their city's long history of civilization, battle victories and losses, political infighting, and the eventual restoration of peace and order through the voice of this Imperial leader in his important speech, the crowds cheered their savior with thunderous clasps and shouts of his name for their newly-established empire's promising future.
Unbeknownst to the Imperial citizens congratulating their Imperator... alien surveillance were eyeing on this entire event on Falmart/Falmarius. Terran. Eldar. Invisible. On land. In the air. And even from satellites in orbit. In effect, the high-tech visitors maintained their observations on the mythological (and technologically stalled) continent for many centuries — like always. Thus, the formation of this Saderan Empire was rarely intriguing enough for the space-faring surveyors to see how the overall social development would unfold in the next several centuries. Particularly to the inter-dimensional Terrans witnessing a living replica of the ancient Roman Empire in progress from their history archives (despite the many subsequent interpretations concerning those bygone accounts about that Latin-speaking imperium long ago).
Speaking of infrequent changes, the elongated yet large continent of Pandora... remained somewhat stuck in a strange irony of anarchy and horror (even with the technology over there being more 'advanced' than Falmart's slowpoke on science). Remember everyone: this landmass of mayhem had been inhabited by multiple introduced species from the mystical landscape — through 'controversial' means; the Terrans' origin universe — accidental or otherwise; the adventurers themselves coming from Eldar-controlled continents; and Orkish war-bands traveling from their archipelagoes for many centuries. So far, the persistent towns surviving across the rather lawless regions of Pandora were still working hard on the precarious balance between life and death. The deadly diversity of faunas, including the Zergs, living on that mainland continued to prosper. Dwarven sanctuaries carried on doing their business of utilizing exotic minerals mined from the dwarves' excavated caverns. Orks picking any fight they could get, even among themselves for internal brawls unsurprisingly. Human bandits surviving the unregulated badlands by raiding supplies and people across the Pandoran landscape; with their employment of mechanical transports and insane mutants that shouted out very confusing declarations: such as "Strip the flesh, salt the wound!" or "Fresh meat puppets to play!"
...Oh wait, perhaps it would be prudent to deliver explanations about those 'freaks of nature' derived from humanity. It evidently started a very long time ago with mining dwarves and human competitors discovering strange rocks in the deep earth that emitted unknown energy. The short-stature yet robust humanoids didn't seem to experience visible mutations from these 'radioactive' substances for countless decades; as proven thru their constant experimentation on this unique element for potential applications for architectural construction or warfare. In contrast however, prolonged exposures of the violet-glowing material onto these unexpected hominids for that same amount of time had led to physical and/or psychological changes.
For example: hundreds of human brigands were endowed with larger body sizes, muscular increase, and resilient skin layers to resist multiple bullet impacts from their adversaries — while also retaining the intelligence to coherently communicate their raiding pals and use several types of heavy firearms. Yet many bandits had their bodies shrunk or stunted to dwarfish proportions. Additionally, a large number of anthropoid plunderers had their brains completely... mental. In essence, the mutagenic influence upon these bandit clans has further added the dangerous nature within them on Pandora.
Nevertheless, over several dozen species of territorial animals were also exposed to these mutagenizing stones. Affected traits included physical strength, armored protection, appetites, and elemental prowess. Of course... several groups of those introduced organisms from their native reality (at the other side of the inter-dimensional gateway in outer space) were no strangers to environmental subjection by 'extraordinary' forces; as well as the Pandoran Zergs who didn't seem to mind the unregulated mutations around them. In any case, more 'headaches' for an already chaotic continent.
On the topic of 'mutating' inconveniences however... the advanced elvish inhabitants of Zerus were having quite a quandary on one growing segment of their population in the Zerun frontier for a couple decades. Apparently, these Eldars living in the wilderness had shown varying degrees of phenotypes and/or psychological traits that were usually associated with the ever-evolving creatures nearby: armor-like protrusions, muscle magnifications, pregnancy periods shortened to eight months, amplified aggression, etc. Through meticulous examinations upon thousands of their affected 'patients' (volunteered and apprehended) in fact, the elvish scientists were fairly shocked to find Zerg-related DNA inside the 'gene-contaminated' citizens; similar to the capabilities from viruses. All of which were traced towards a 'theoretical' combination of both continual exposure to a Zergoid bio-agent and the generational consumption of meat from those hyper-changeable neighbors — despite the precautions made in fully cooking these food items for many centuries. Consequently... any individual, settlement, or even an entire region displaying these troublesome mutations were to be quarantined for extended periods of time.
A lot of those Eldar mutants honorably obliged the bio-hazard edicts; for they sought any cure or treatment regimen that would let them remain 'ordinary' members of their kingdom at least (not to mention having no desire in letting their minds go insane as several extreme cases via genetic transmutations running amok). And yet many more bluntly refused such dissipation efforts upon their newfound capabilities delivered by this evolutionary phenomenon — thence the exodus of these biologically-altered folks toward deeper territories of the Zergs. Sometimes brute force or smuggled weapons were used to breach out of government-sanctioned quarantine; while others applied stealthier methods to aid their migrations into the extreme wilderness of Zerus. As it stands at this moment being observed, the self-exiled population of these peculiar abnormalities were estimated at best to be no less than ten thousand; it didn't also help that the dense vegetation (and dangerous distractions from hyper-evolving Zergs) of the uncultivated Zerun regions had done a terrific job in obscuring the exact number or progress on those 'distorted' outcasts. Thus, plenty of questions remain uncertain over how much mutations of Zergish origin would compromise the sanity belonging to these 'independent patients'... even when newer Eldar settlers of clean health immigrated into the enforced areas of isolation; with sensible hygiene precautions in their minds.
Speaking of cleanliness anyhow, the overall public welfare on the elven federal republic had stayed excellent for the last several centuries — alongside a robust biodiversity of wildlife, relatively peaceful dynamics of this democratic society, and balanced developments of every scientific and technological spectrum across their continent (aside from the rare storms of meteorology and geology that these foremost point-eared residents had always adapted for over a few millennia). Still... scouting operations beyond the constitutional government's terrestrial borders for both current turmoils and potential issues worldwide continued and many individuals seek out adventures of variable risks on their own or under military bureaucracies (as usual). Including the prospective dangers locked inside the Terran-built mega-laboratories under the deep oceans; particularly on the hazards manifested by ADAM substances and those violet-colored minerals from Pandora. Hopefully, the organized staffs within those enormous underwater cities of experimentation would keep the dangers at bay and pursue viable recovery developments for diminishing the deleterious symptoms from administering such volatile materials — regardless of other controversial probings that continued around the same time down there.
While at the topic of non-breathing environments in any event, the giant amount of interstellar fleets, space-borne facilities, and space colonies within the whole solar system remained more or less the same for the past several centuries (Eldars and humans alike). That familiar dimensional gateway still existed with all the renovations for the previous experiment of extended activation many decades ago; which therefore could only be allowed to open its artificial wormhole for one year per closing gap of five more in the following — unless special permissions for any extraordinary event to ever happen are necessary. Then again, there were now multiple Eldar-made portals in outer-space anchored only to this galactic realm. These 'local' star-gates were connected with their identical door-frames located in the nearby star systems; where a growing number of elvish colonies were gaining steady influxes of trade and immigrants through those high-tech entryways for developing their civilizations there (and vise versa in a beneficial manner).
Kinda think about it... Much of the Falmarian inhabitants back on the mythological continent didn't appeared to have any audacity to commit sea voyages beyond the familiar waters adjacent to their 'known world'. One exception occurred a couple centuries ago; when several migrating fleets containing homo sapiens and diverse species of humanoids sailed eastward to the 'untouched' archipelagoes that were distantly isolated from Falmarius, Zerus, and Pandora. Once they arrived, the new settlers casually made homes across this large collection of islands — without obviously seeing any technological signs and anomalous facilities completely removed or very well-hidden from those science-enhanced elves and synthetic aliens that either vacated or continued surveying the vast area. Right now, this colonized archipelago was given the name "Avion" by the ruling dynasty currently controlling that particular real estate.
Then there's the floating arrangement of sailing vessels traveling closer toward the southwestern landmass at present.
"Keep our sails wide open, lads!" Shouted the human captain of this specific ship resembling Greco-Roman ship construction. "This rumored land of greatness for our opportunities should be within our sights for the last two weeks of our voyage!"
One sailor asked, "Sire, are you sure that we will find anything at this rate? We may not have enough supplies to navigate back home!"
"Ha! Where is your sense of adventure ever since we left, boy? It will work out in the end! Consider this a chance to find a new, exciting home for your future wife!"
Before others could spew out some sort of retort, one seaman inside a lookout structure onto the top part of this naval vessel's mast spotted something on the oceanic horizon. "Unknown objects straight ahead, my lord!"
"Unknown? Are they ships, beasts, or islands?"
"I am afraid I cannot inspect them further from here."
"Well... nothing ventured, nothing gained. Alright everyone, set our course for those curiosities!"
Likewise, the rest of this naval expedition traveled in that same direction for these remote 'oddities.' As they got the distance shorter however, additional details of the unknown entities were visibly observed: grey colors that shine like metal, towering structures above the aquatic surface, no indications of sails on them. Monolithic statues? Questions yet to be answered while the medieval fleet gradually move closer for further descriptions. Thus far, the mortal crews could now see multiple curving features on these metallic 'monoliths' that appeared to be floating on the high-seas.
Quite frankly... they're in fact Eldar warships of the federal republic's oceanic navy being obviously aware of this adventurous incursion upon their aqueous turf. Their energy-based cannon-turrets took aim at the 'primitive' visitors, but the guns had not roar death upon them at this instance. As the arrived adventurers slowly noticed how ominously uncertain their situation had become, a few airborne squadrons of Nightwing fighter aircraft flew fast above their naval comrades toward these uninvited sailors. Although the aerial formations didn't stop flying over the rather outclassed group of Classical-based vessels, the Nightwings soon turned around and begun levitating at higher altitudes than those archaic explorers stuck in their seaworthy transports. Instead of attacks from the Eldar airplanes in hover mode, they simply broadcasted their audible commands in the voyagers' familiar language:
"Attention to all unidentified travelers on your sailing vessels! You must kindly cease all nautical movement for your own safety, as our navy's soldiers board your ships for inspections. Failure to comply these edicts three times in a row will grant you all heavy penalties for such disobedience!"