AUTHOR'S NOTE: Welcome to the third section of "War Stories". Before getting to the final battle of the Lylat War, this encyclopedia entry will give you a little history lesson on the Lylat System itself, and how the Cornerian Empire laid the groundwork for a lot of what continues to plague Lylat. It just goes to show that Andross isn't the only one with an 'evil empire'. No one is totally good, not even the good guys. See you guys on Venom-TU
Excerpt from the Encyclopedia Corneria, 18th Edition
Cornerian Empire/Commonwealth: Though the planets Zoness, Fortuna, and Aquas all had intelligent, advanced life, the rich and industrious world of Corneria was the first to develop warp engines that made interstellar travel throughout the Lylat System a feasible option. Barely a century passed after the invention of warp drive engines before a Cornerian colony was located on Katina, the Church of Lylatianism was founded, and interstellar trade between Corneria and the planets of the Triton Sub-System (Zoness, Fortuna, and Aquas) was underway.
Nearly two hundred years passed, during which time a colony on the mineral-rich world of Macbeth formed, becoming even larger than the colony on Katina, the Lylatian belief grew exponentially in power, and the Cornerian and Triton Sub-Systems were joined into the Lylat Alliance. After a century of development and internal squabbles, along with the heavy need for manual labor in the colonies and on Corneria, an aristocratic group of noble canid families on Corneria began to entrench themselves in public office, conspiring to form the Cornerian Empire in less than half a century. With a view of Lylatian religion that Corneria was the greatest planet in all of Lylat, and that the ruling species of Corneria (made up primarily of canines, vulpines, felines and leporids) were the chosen leaders of the system, the Cornerian Empire dissolved the Lylat Alliance, annexing Zoness, Fortuna, and Aquas as colonies under its direct control.
The Church of Lylatianism, led by a clergy of priests that heavily supported the Cornerian Empire, swayed much of the populace in favor of the slightly authoritarian government, which enforced its will on the Triton Sub-System, Katina and Macbeth with a massive Starfleet and Army. A political purge was conducted on all three of the Triton planets, most thoroughly on Fortuna, in which almost all native-born politicians in favor of independence or resistance from Corneria were imprisoned or executed. These politicians were soon replaced by puppet-officials that gave rubber-stamp support of the Cornerian Empire's every decision. Though the Cornerian aristocracy had succeeded in seizing power, the issues of labor shortage and dissent threatened to undermine the Empire's religious influence and political and socioeconomic authority.
Rather than polarize the colonized planets against Corneria, the Lylatian Church began to perform large amounts of missionary work on the colonies, in hopes of ingraining the faith into the other planets. Singling out several groups as inferior or dangerous, the Church preached against primates, reptiles, rodents, and wolves, describing them as 'less than people' and 'dangerous', also warning against practitioners of the Krazoa Faith, describing them as 'heathen savages'. The Cornerian Empire, in dire need of indentured servants, a working class, and an enemy to fight, began a rigorous official campaign of speciesist discrimination against reptiles, rodents and wolves, singling these groups out as a vermin, criminal class. The most intensely victimized were the primates, who were legally barred from any form of employment except as indentured servants or government laborers. The Church of Lylatianism, with the unofficial support of the Imperial government, began to meticulously persecute practitioners of the Krazoa Faith, on several occasions resulting to assault, property destruction and murderous lynch mobs.
The speciesist discrimination, religious intolerance, and military authoritarianism of the Cornerian Empire would continue for nearly five hundred years, with the Imperial Cornerian Starfleet gaining more and more political control until, finally, several generals and admirals of the Cornerian armed forces attempted to forcibly take control of the Empire from the Cornerian nobility (see article: Mayfair Conspiracy). What ensued was a violent, but brief civil war that left Corneria City in ruins and the entire Empire in a state of disarray. News spread about to all of the colonies, the most dissatisfied of which, Zoness and Fortuna, deciding to revolt.
By the time that the factions of the Imperial Cornerian Starfleet loyal to the nobles managed to defeat and execute the traitorous members of the military, the colonial militias of the two colonies were nearly overrun. Zoness was home to a large number of indentured primate servants, forced to mine and drill for much of Zoness' underwater resources, as well as a population of aquatic immigrants and native enhydras that disagreed with their environment being violated. These Zonessian rebels managed to storm the governor's mansion and take the Colonial Governor of Zoness hostage. Fortuna, meanwhile, was much more divided, species-wise and idealogially. Being the home planet of the primates and the reptiles, it was a source of much anger towards the Empire's speciesist policies. However, much of the avian races of Lylat were also native to Fortuna, and, though they were not singled out for negative treatment, they retained a strong sense of independence, from both the Empire and from the Church of Lylatianism. Fortuna developed into a three-way conflict, with the avians on one side, the primates and reptiles on the other, and the Imperial forces on the other side, both species groups rebelling against Imperial authority but distrusting the other at the same time.
The Cornerian Starfleet dispatched an armada to Zoness that quickly put down the rebellion, despite its quick success. Fortuna, however, would remain in a state of war, with both the Empire and itself, for another 75 years. Even after the near eight decades of planetary war, after Imperial forces regained hard-fought control of Fortuna that included a near total extermination of the chameleon sub-race of reptiles, the planet remained hostile towards the Cornerian Empire. Over the next century, fights and skirmishes would break out against the Imperial government on Fortuna and amongst the native avian and primate populations. The volatile state of the planet led to a mass exodus of the avian population from Fortuna, many of which immigrated and assimilated to Cornerian culture, trading their cultural heritage of independence for an escape from the conflict.
During this time, the prosperous planet of Macbeth, once one of the Empire's most loyal and autonomous colonies, began to resist several Imperial policies. The expansive, profitable industries and corporations that were thriving on the resource-abundant world grew offended by the steep taxes levied by the Empire, in dire need of Liat in order to expand its colonial reach to the icy world of Fichina, further develop the colony of Katina, and strengthen its military. The people of Macbeth, both the regular citizens and the business owners, disagreed with the Empire's expansionist ambitions, and with the fact that their planet was footing most of the bill. Macbeth's desire to go into business for itself, coupled with Fortuna's thirst for independence, planted the seeds for a 50-year long military buildup between the planets of the two neighboring systems. After half a century of continued demands for lower taxes from Macbeth and more autonomy from Fortuna, neither of which were answered, the two planets formed an alliance and declared war on the Cornerian Empire.
What ensued became known as the Lylat Civil War, a conflict fought not only amongst the three combatant planets, but on almost every other colony in the Empire. For the next 150 years, the conflict would rage across the Lylat System, punctuated by several periods of a few years worth of ceasefire, only to have the conflict begin again anew. As the Cornerian Empire fought to maintain its two most profitable colonial properties, the citizens of Corneria itself grew dissatisfied with the Empire. Protests and complaints arose over several civil issues, including the position of the Lylatian Church in the government, the political influence of the Imperial Cornerian Starfleet, the financial gap between the rich and poor that had been steadily widened by generations of aristocracy, the absence of civil rights for many and the lack of civil liberties for all. As the Civil War took a toll on the Empire and protests all over Corneria intensified, several citizens noted that the government no longer had the power to instantly silence the people as it once did. The authority of the Empire was beginning to crumble.
After one and a half centuries of stalemate between the two sides, with Corneria itself on the brink of revolt and Fortuna and Macbeth on the brink of collapse, a peace treaty was drawn up between the three planets that would end the Lylat Civil War (see article: Treaty of Solar Station). At the insistence of Fortuna, Macbeth, and the populace of Corneria, the treaty would also be the first stepping stone to a restructuring of the government of Corneria and its colonies from the ground-up.
Over a period of 25 years, Fortuna and Macbeth were declared completely independent of Corneria, and the Cornerian Empire was dissolved after 900 years of rule. The new government, known as the Cornerian Commonwealth, would be run under new rules. The Cornerian aristocracy was dissolved, replaced by a bicameral parliament staffed by officials elected by the people and led by a Prime Minister that represented the political party with the majority vote.
The Church of Lylatianism was officially separated from the Commonwealth government, and no current member of the clergy could serve in Parlaiment. The Church was also no longer under the protection of the government for criminal acts against whoever it saw fit to persecute. A Bill of Rights was passed that guaranteed every citizen's rights to expression, religion, assembly and fair criminal procedure.
The official speciesist policies of the Empire were repealed, however Corneria and Macbeth both agreed to continue unofficial speciesist policies and neglect civil rights abuses by private employers against primates and other races formerly targeted by the Empire's labor laws, possibly out of both imbred speciesist beliefs and continued need for a cheap hard labor force. These unofficial practices, which continued quietly for the next 200 years until just after the Lylat War, became known as dehorseri.
The Imperial Cornerian Starfleet was broken up and downsized, divided into the Cornerian Defense Force, which was devoted to the protection and preservation of planetary order on Corneria and the settled colonies of Zoness and Aquas, and the even smaller Cornerian Army, which handled the security of Katina, Fichina, and larger threats to the Lylat System such as space pirates. These two military branches were under the command of a single General of the Armed Forces, who answered to the Prime Minister.
For the next 200 years of history, the Lylat System would exist in a state of relative peace, until the formation of the Venomian Empire of Andross and the beginning of the Lylat Wars that laid waste to all of Lylat.