[quote=@Darkspleen]
<Snipped quote by Drunken Conquistador>

I am intrigued. Also what ARE the Enlightened teachings and whatnot?
[/quote]

Part of my backstory is that we've just got out of the "Great Reorganization", a period of wide reforms that came after we became too overextended. This failed invasion would be one of the consequences of this overextension. The thing that would finally force the State to realize they had to stop, absorb their conquests and rebuild before thinking of further conquests

As for the teachings:

The souls of every living thing are parts of the same ultimate entity existing in a dimension/state/universe beyond our comprehension. The material world is an illusion that traps these souls into an endless cycle of death and rebirth. The Enlightened State wishes to help the Galaxy reach Enlightened and escape the cycle by causing oppression and suffering because that is the best way to achieve an Enlightened state of mind. 

Feel free to throw a bunch of pseudo-Buddhist stuff around (along with other religions), mix with Fascism, some stuff about how families and individuality are bad alongside death worship and you got the State 

Essentially its their justification for being a totalitarian regime. "It's not that we're power hungry assholes, we just want to help. For real, now go back to sleeping on the cold floor and be glad your life sucks"

And somehow when I first envisioned them, they were supposed to be Space Communazis.