[hider=History]
[center][img]https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/_ie0jIs03wvdjxjPZ7tlZaMcRPA=/900x605/media/img/photo/2011/09/world-war-ii-the-eastern-front/w33_30326042/original.jpg[/img]
[i][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7avPl6jB5w]Farewell, Fatherland
Remember us
Farewell, familiar faces
Not all of us will return[/url][/i][/center]

The Imperial Commonwealth is in flames. 

After the death of Emperor Ignatius the Glorious, Prince Arnaud, Count of the Outer Stars, raised his banner in Rebellion against the rightful Emperor, his own brother, Honorius Norbanus Antius. The system of Alpha Centauri, one of the core systems of the Empire, was the first to support him as the Prince called the Galaxy to arms on the steps of the White Fort on Gelasia, the capital of the system. Soon, dozens of other systems would join the insurrection against the Emperor.

That was six years ago.

The Empire and the Rebellion have been fighting a grueling war across the stars for control of the Galaxy. The Empire is fighting to preserve the Union of Man which has persisted through other rebellions and threats for twenty centuries, to protect the Holy Kingdom that the Holy Procas had formed through sword and conquest in the ashes of the Deluge. The Rebellion is leading a Revolution, to totally cast away the chains that were forced upon man two-thousand years ago, to lead Man into a New Order of dignity and respect. 

The Empire, at its height, controlled most of the Galaxy. It had grown so large, that out of the Terran Race grew many sprouting branches of different folks, spread out across the stars. Separated by custom, slight differences in language, and by the stars themselves, they were united by the Emperor and their shared racial heritage. Even the Martians, that Race of seven-foot copper giants, pledged their undying loyalty to the Emperor, who reigned simultaneously as the Universal Emperor of Man but also as the High King of Mars. 

But the Revolution has set folk against folk, man against man, brother against brother. Originally intending, and still secretly, the Bloody Prince sought to claim the Rosy Throne from his brother, who he saw as an unfit Emperor. But the cost of the War has forced him to change the succession crisis into a Crusade against all that is Holy: Order, Aristocracy, and Truth. Lying when it suits him, telling the truth when it doesn't, Prince Arnaud has conscripted half the Galaxy in a quest for blood against his own family. Mobilizing them into an army of bloodthirsty beasts, he would strike at the very heart of the Empire and topple the false Emperor, and tear down the whole rotten system with him.

In the third year of the War, Commodore Simon d'Bocher (known to the Terrans as Simon the Butcher, and for good reason) led an Armada against the home system of the Terran Race. After a long and hardfought struggle, the Home Fleet of the Empire was annihilated and the twin worlds of Terra and Mars fell victim to the vengeance of the beasts. Terra was conquered ruthlessly, most of its cities reduced to ash, but Mars was not given such a treatment. The entire Martian Race was annihilated, their planet stripped of the atmosphere that Man toiled to build before the Deluge. What little of the Martians that remain fight in the ranks of the Imperial Army, fighting for revenge against their slain Race.

In this sixth year, the War has ground into a bloody stalemate across a widefront, stabilized relatively along the Galactic Axis. Trillions of men are locked in deadly combat across the Galaxy, on planets far from their home. Only a miracle can save the Empire, and only a miracle could bring the Revolution to deliver the final blow against their sworn foe.
[/hider]