Part One: The One Million
When man finally took to the stars it was not for the purpose of scientific curiosity and knowledge but for the basic needs of survival and profit. Mother Earth’s bounty was exhausted and those who robbed her set off to find more sources of wealth for the 20 billion inhabitants of Earth to consume. Though China had long ago eclipsed the United States as the prime world power, America still held the title in space exploration. The ‘home of the free’ sank its meager resources into exploring the galaxy to find new sources of wealth and hopefully prosperity. It was rewarded with the breakthrough of inter-dimensional travel, known as ‘slipping’ to its inventors. Slipping entailed passing into a dimension where the physical barriers of our dimension do not exist. In the case of space travel the important missing component was distance. The tenacity of the US to keep the secret of slip travel was amazing especially considering the porous security of the internet; it was 20 years after the discovery of slipping that the rest of the world became aware of America’s advantage. America also held another advantage. The world’s leading environmental recover company, Environ, Incorporated, was in the final stages of developing breakthrough terra-forming technology. By this time the world became aware of America’s advantage ten planets had been rendered habitable and colonized, each adding immensely to America’s wealth.
Once the secret was exposed America bowed to the financial and military pressures of the Middle Kingdom. The stars were opened to the world and Earth experienced a second Renaissance. Goods and minerals streamed to Mother Earth from the newly terraformed worlds. Environ became the world’s wealthiest corporation. Poverty became virtually non-existent as national competition diminished in view of such abundance. The dream of a global nation finally coalesced and the United Nations expanded into this new frontier. However as always, this wealth was not evenly distributed among Earth’s inhabitants.
During the initial covert expansion, a small company with surprisingly deep pockets put in its bid for its own planet. This company, Cassidy Enterprises, was one of the few remaining African American corporations in America. Its founder, Cornelius Cassidy, was known as a generous man with a true empathy for his people, whose lot in America had decreased horribly during the country’s economic decline. Cornelius saw himself as a modern-day Moses and was determined to deliver his people from their endless plight. He secretly established the Exodus Project, a plan to move every African American from America to his new world, Cassidy.
Cassidy was disappointed in the response. The fear of leaving the country and the planet was too much for the average black person. Of 50 million African Americans only 1 million answered Cornelius’s call. These 1 million men and women were the foundation of the Cassad Empire.
Part Two: War
It is said that the only thing that can stop greed is death. For Earth the saying rings true, for despite the unlimited prosperity of every nation-state from the off-world plunder tensions grew. That tension reached the breaking point with the collapse of Environ. The corporation’s collapsed brought terraforming to a halt, making a seemingly infinite opportunity suddenly finite and eventually scarce. Countries that sat in harmony at the UN table fought tenaciously for control of planets and asteroids. The conflicts of space finally spilled onto the planet and the First Intergalactic War began. The planets burned and the stars blazed as economic blocs fought for control of the resources that kept their populations in decadence. Throughout it all the inhabitants of Cassidy built their new home into a formidable economic and military powerhouse. Fearful of the racial retaliations that had destroyed black economic prosperity in the past, the Cassidites worked hard to preserve their future. Years, decades, and centuries passed but the war continued. The planet once known as Cassidy became Cassad and the family once known as benevolent corporate leaders became compassionate emperors.
But compassion ended at the rim of their atmosphere. The Cassads watched patiently as the planets fell from grace, drained by a war that lasted far too long and took too many lives. Their airspace buzzed with ambassador ships from every economic bloc seeking their assistance. Promises were made that would make Cassad a giant among equals but Cassad’s emperors shrugged them away. The truth was clear to those who could see unobstructed by conflict. The fruit was ready to be picked.
But it was not to be. The Known was struck by a cataclysm which destroyed the technology of every single planet. The origins of the catastrophe have been debated continuously up to the time of the Interregnum, but the result went without question. The Known spiraled into a millennium of decline known as ‘The Dark Age.’
Part Three: The Dark Age
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Part Four: The Age of Discovery
After the Dark Age and the slow crawl back out of their individual worlds gravity wells, came the Age of Discovery, where the civilizations of the Known began to discover one another. Most worlds, having lost nearly all of their history, were ignorant to the fact that their own societies had not evolved on the planet on which they now lived. This gave rise to several “Origin” world wars. Even to this day, millennia later there is still conflict and debate over whose world is the original Earth.
The Age of Discovery was a wild time as worlds encountered each other both peacefully and violently. It is here that the seeds of the current Dark Universe begin, with the Cassads beginning their campaign to conquer all.
The vestiges of the Pre-dark age universe are clearer though they begin to fall away as worlds conquer worlds and re-write and erase histories.
However, the most significant discovery was made on Cassad. The Cassads still ruled the world despite the Dark Age but like others had lost most of what they once possessed. Ziara, daughter of the Alaafin, grew up on the stories of her ancestors which were told to her as fiction. She believed them to be true, and as a teenager set out to find the lost tomb of Cornelius Cassidy using an old map her father had hidden away. Two years later she found the mausoleum buried under dense vegetation on an island in an unnamed river. But there was more. Waiting within the crypt was Samake, AI djele/historian of the Cassad dynasty. The AI was reactivated by her touch, recognizing Ziara’s lineage from her DNA spoor. It was then Ziara’s true education began. For five years she studied under Samake, relearning what her people had lost. Ten years after leaving home she returned a different woman with one purpose; to resurrect Cassad and to claim its dominance of the Known. Ziara took over as Alaafin then immediately put her plan into action. She spent the remainder of her life rebuilding Cassad, yet passed away a few years before her plan was complete. That fell into the hands of her eldest son, Shaka Cassad, later known as Shaka the Conqueror. It was he who led the Cassad fleets into the stars to realize the dream his mother envisioned.
And thus, the Cassad Empire began.
Part Five: Ascendance and Decline
The conquest of the Known was a complex operation. For some planets, the Cassad arrival was considered a miracle, as the technology they brought with them lifted the worlds from Stone Age like conditions. For others, the Cassads negotiated alliances that would soon be betrayed. For others still, such as the Brython Theocracy and the Alien Worlds, it was all out war. In each case the Cassads prevailed due to their technological advantages, tenacity and deep resources. Soon most of the Known worlds were under Cassad control. Administrators selected from the One Million were placed in control of each world; each world was required to pay a ‘rehabilitation tax’ which paid the cost of the Cassad technological innovation. Soon the Known worlds possessed comparable technology but the payments were still required. This was the time of the Cassad Alifia, The Cassad Peace, which lasted for approximately one thousand years. The description was a misnomer. While the Core Worlds and worlds near the Gates experienced peace, those on the Rim of the Empire and near the Unknown existed in constant turmoil and served as a training ground for the Cassad military. Cassad, now called Ziara in honor of Ziara Cassad, experienced a prosperity that bordered on decadence. The One Million administrators, now generations into governing their worlds, began to despise the Empire as their Worlds deteriorated attempting to keep up with Ziara’s increasing demands. The covert dissension culminated with Kujuinga Na Conference, during which the disgruntled worlds formed the New Regime and formally declared war against the Empire.
Logic would predict a long, bloody war. However, the Empire fell quickly. Ziara’s Alaafin refused to take the rebellion seriously and continued to trust administrators that were now his enemies. The Cassad military was committed to fighting a growing conflict against the Alien Worlds which weakened the military response in the Core. The final blow was the coup on Ziara itself, in which the entire royal family was assassinated. Only Khalid Cassad survived. The heir to the Stool was leading a military operation against the Alien Worlds during the coup. He was captured by bounty hunter Pack Loren on his return to Ziara and made to stand trial for ‘crimes’ against the Known.
The New Regime’s victory was short lived. Without a common enemy the Coalition weakened as the various Worlds broke away to fight for the spoils of the Empire and carve out their own empires from the disputed territories. And despite the New Regime’s claims of victory, the Cassad Empire was not quite destroyed. A few Imperial worlds far from the Core continue to resist, clinging to the rumor and hope that Khalid Cassad still lives. The Interregnum begins.
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