New Terran Hegemony
After reaching the star systems of the Perseus Arm, and after a third of the original Terran colonists decided to settle on the world that is now known as the capital of the Firstfall Collective, the reminder of the ships carried on. After about a year of traveling further rimward and spinward, half of the remaining colonists decided to lay claim to a world even more earthlike than that which the Firstfall colonists chose. Naming it "New Terra", they embarked on a history that would eventually become the capital world of a polity whose founding principles suggested that it was humanity's destiny and right to eventually become the masters of the galaxy: the New Terran Hegemony.
It was easy, therefore, for a belief that the omnipotent, omnicient "powers that guide the universe" had intended for humans to find and settle this world. And with this belief, the first philosophical seeds of the Hegemony took root.
Two years after the establishment of the colony, the New Terrans discovered they were not alone in their chosen corner of the galaxy. Having discovered the remnants of their dismantled colony ships in orbit around the planet - ships clearly not of any design they were familiar with, a scout ship from the T'ka'an Federation decided to land and see what sort of space-faring creatures had settled here. Landing in Noboterra, the only significant settlement yet established, they were met with great trepidation at first, but tensions relaxed among the New Terrans when they realized their visitors were not invaders and were, in fact peaceful.
It wasn't long before trade between the humans of Noboterra and the T'ka'an was established, and through this trade and the friendly exchange of technology that Noboterra avoided the technological regression or "dark age" that the Firstfall humans were living through. Populations quickly expanded, and humans began settling worlds in surrounding star systems, often in collaboration with the T'ka'an. This friendly cooperation continued for about 650 years.
The status quo began to unravel with the first hostile encounter with the Scasalesean Empire. Another intelligent, spacefaring species, the Scasaleseans did not believe in interspecies cooperation. After a few initial setbacks, the combined forces and technologies of humans and T'ka'an were enough to keep the Scaleseans at bay along the edges of their expanded territory, but back in Noboterra, a movement had begun to spring up in response to these encounters with "hostile aliens".
The Preservers of the Destiny of Humanity, as they formally called themselves, also extracted passages from diaries and documents of the first Noboterran colonists that expressed belief in that humans were, in fact, destined to own at least this piece of space, if not the whole galaxy. The movement began to twist these bits to form the idea that Humanity's slide began when they let the T'ka'an "interfere" with their destiny hundreds of years before.
Ardent followers of the movement were relatively few, likely no more than 10% of the population. But, as human nature has demonstrated so often in the past, the majority, who were not affected by Scalesean incursions, and who had no reason to want to break off mutually beneficial relations with the T'ka'an, simply kept quiet and ignored the "noise of those extremists". But they could no longer ignore them when the violent coup began.
A Brief History
The first two years after the founding of the New Terra colony were uneventful. The colonists had little difficulty establishing the systems required to provide basic food, water, and shelter requirements as this world was earth-like in almost every way. With a hydrography and atmospheric makeup nearly identical to those of Earth, climate and weather systems were predictable and similar. Plant and even animal evolution seemed to have taken essentially the same paths on this world as they had on Earth as well. Indigenous trees could be used for construction materials and fuel; indigenous leafy plants and tubers proved to be edible and even quite nutritious for humans. Animals had also evolved along recognizable lines, with very close analogies to Terran fish, reptiles, avians, and even mammals having evolved.It was easy, therefore, for a belief that the omnipotent, omnicient "powers that guide the universe" had intended for humans to find and settle this world. And with this belief, the first philosophical seeds of the Hegemony took root.
Two years after the establishment of the colony, the New Terrans discovered they were not alone in their chosen corner of the galaxy. Having discovered the remnants of their dismantled colony ships in orbit around the planet - ships clearly not of any design they were familiar with, a scout ship from the T'ka'an Federation decided to land and see what sort of space-faring creatures had settled here. Landing in Noboterra, the only significant settlement yet established, they were met with great trepidation at first, but tensions relaxed among the New Terrans when they realized their visitors were not invaders and were, in fact peaceful.
It wasn't long before trade between the humans of Noboterra and the T'ka'an was established, and through this trade and the friendly exchange of technology that Noboterra avoided the technological regression or "dark age" that the Firstfall humans were living through. Populations quickly expanded, and humans began settling worlds in surrounding star systems, often in collaboration with the T'ka'an. This friendly cooperation continued for about 650 years.
The status quo began to unravel with the first hostile encounter with the Scasalesean Empire. Another intelligent, spacefaring species, the Scasaleseans did not believe in interspecies cooperation. After a few initial setbacks, the combined forces and technologies of humans and T'ka'an were enough to keep the Scaleseans at bay along the edges of their expanded territory, but back in Noboterra, a movement had begun to spring up in response to these encounters with "hostile aliens".
Humanity's Divine Right
Initially called, somewhat derisively, "Divine Righters", a small core of humans proclaimed that Humanity not only deserved to be the dominant species of the galaxy but were actually destined to become so. Reports, often broadly exaggerated, of Scalesian atrocities helped them spread their message and grow their followings. It wasn't long before accounts of T'ka'an indifference or even betrayal also appeared in their propaganda streams - all of which were either total fabrications or gross misrepresentations of cherry-picked "facts".The Preservers of the Destiny of Humanity, as they formally called themselves, also extracted passages from diaries and documents of the first Noboterran colonists that expressed belief in that humans were, in fact, destined to own at least this piece of space, if not the whole galaxy. The movement began to twist these bits to form the idea that Humanity's slide began when they let the T'ka'an "interfere" with their destiny hundreds of years before.
Ardent followers of the movement were relatively few, likely no more than 10% of the population. But, as human nature has demonstrated so often in the past, the majority, who were not affected by Scalesean incursions, and who had no reason to want to break off mutually beneficial relations with the T'ka'an, simply kept quiet and ignored the "noise of those extremists". But they could no longer ignore them when the violent coup began.
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