Karan Nijibutu

It wasn't until the final year of Karan's university career that hostility sufficient to be permanently recorded occurred. Karan was an excellent student, at or near the top of all her classes in university. Her chief academic rival was a T'ka'an student whose name is lost to memory.

With graduation near, Nijibutu and her rival apparently both applied for a single open position with the Nusaperu Planetary Authority - a position that promised significant advancement. The T'ka'an rival was offered the position; Nijibutu settled for a corporate position that, at the time, would have been no less prestigious. Within two years, however, that corporation, details about which are also mysteriously missing from records of the time, filed for bankruptcy and dissolved. Her reputation tarnished by association with this (for no good reason, according to her diaries), she found it difficult to obtain a new, good job.

The Declaration and the Preservers of Human Destiny

In her bitterness, she found companionship with a small group of Humans who all had hardships that managed to blame on T'ka'an individuals. Nijibutu convinced herself that her problems all stemmed from her alien rival in university. Soon, she was expounding beliefs that she - and all other humans - would be better off if their T'ka'an "friends" had never found them in the first place.

In standard year 630PE, the bitter 27-year-old Nijibutu found herself living in squalor on the capital world of New Terra. She decided to commit her thoughts to digital recording in the form of a brief manifesto which she called the The Declaration of Destiny. Digitally shared among her friends at first, the declaration started to spread as those friends shared it with others as well. Within a year, it had reached enough like-minded humans - humans who found it easier to blame the "different" T'ka'an for their hardships rather than themselves - that an organization began to form. This organization grew, spreading its anti-nonhuman beliefs to any who would listen.   Registered as a political party under the name Preservers of Human Destiny, they even managed to start getting individuals elected and appointed to key government positions, and in the year 649PE, successfully executed a (mostly) non-violent coup to take full control of the government of the New Terran Confederacy. Karan Nijibutu, the leader of the Preservers, referred to as the "Mother of the Movement", was installed as First Citizen.

First Citizen - First Human

Nijibutu's first official actions made clear to all the direction the government would be taking. Her very first action was to declare that the polity was in a state of emergency - a state of invasion - that demanded immediate action. This decree dissolved the Confederation Assembly, replacing it with an "Legislative Council" that would act as the legislative body of government. Its members would all be appointed by Nijibutu.

The Council's first "law" passed was to replace the authority of the Confederation's constitutional document with a new, hastily drafted constitution legalizing the actions of Nijibutu's first decree. It declared the polity would henceforth be called the New Terran Hegemony, Nijibutu's office would carry the title of First Human; the term of this office was to be "lifetime". The Council itself would be called the Advisory Council to the First Human. These actions put an end to any doubts as to the intent of this new order, particularly toward non-humans living in the region. New elections were announced to fully institute this new Council, but few had any doubt as to what the results of those elections would be.

Nijibutu served for 60 years until her death. During that time, the Hegemony expanded along both the Scasalean and T'ka'an regional borders. In the latter case, independent worlds that had any significant human colonization at all were assumed into the Hegemony "for their own protection". T'ka'an were stripped of citizenship and increasingly degraded in status and privilege. Laws were enacted that made it illegal to use any sort of psionic abilities - laws clearly targeted at the T'ka'an.

A new hierarchy of governance was instituted to distribute administrative responsibilities down to individual worlds; effectively turning the Hegemony's governance into a feudal system. Governorships were granted by the First Human, but effectively became inherited positions.

Legacy

The zealous members of the Preservers of Human Destiny likely represented no more than 10% of New Terran population at the time of their rise to power, but their hold on government administration was thorough and iron-tight. Within years of her ascent to power, primary schools were teaching the "manifest destiny" of Humans. By the time of her death, Nijibutu was revered by a generation for being the person to remind Humanity of its destiny; the "Mother of the Movement" appellation slowly morphed into "Mother of Destiny", or simply "Mother". Today within the Hegemony, Mother Nijibutu is revered as a larger-than-life historical figure. Her birth and death days are official holidays on all worlds within the Hegemony, and her life and "glorious accomplishments" are displayed for the public in the Mother of Destiny Memorial that stands in Nubuwaires on New Terra.