COMPENDIUM

The Sovereignty Wars were the longest and most devastating wars in human history, technically a series of interconnected conflicts between rival planetary colonies vying for territory, resources, and future control of colonized space. 

 

Following the birth of interstellar travel, mankind enjoyed a period of relative peace and stability. At first, just getting to another planet was a difficult task; waging war between them was an impossible proposition from a time/cost standpoint. Later, after the invention of Terraforming Spires, there was ample space for everyone - large planets would routinely launch state-funded colonist missions to spread their reach and these super powers rarely bumped into each other.

 

Over many millenia, however, it became clear the vastness of space wasn’t as infinite as it first appeared. Even after terraforming, there were only so many nearby planets capable of supporting human life. Even more important, the market for rare minerals and resources used in interplanetary travel made the ownership of certain mining planets and asteroid belts essential for lasting power. Before long, colonies were jostling for strategically important territories, with small skirmishes breaking out on the outskirts of civilized space.

 

These inevitable logistical pressures were paired with the dangerous impulses of human nature. Dreaming of an interstellar human civilization united under a central government, and separated from their enemies by light-years, human politicians on the major colonies of Titania, Hyacinth, and New Earth began pursuing the goal of interstellar domination. With further expansion outward from these central colonies an increasingly expensive undertaking, the galactic cluster was becoming a powder keg, ready to light at the smallest provocation.

 

Most historians now recognize the Spiring at Sitir as the spark that began the true conflict. Sitir was a valuable planet, rich in resources despite its mediocre liveability, and had been claimed by all three of the major colonies, though by this point communications between them was infrequent and tense. New Earth was the first to settle a human colony on the planet and rapidly expanded civilization there with a surge of colonists (perhaps in an effort to strengthen their claim of ownership). 

 

It’s unclear whether what happened next was intentional, an oversight, or simply a tragic miscommunication. On one fateful morning, Terraforming Spires, launched from Titania but built on Hyacinth, appeared on Sitir’s long-range scans. With mere days until they broke atmosphere, a mass evacuation of the planet was attempted, but there simply weren’t enough ships to remove the several million people who were already living on the planet. After three days of desperation and chaos, the terraforming spires blasted into Sitir, killing everyone on the surface. The death toll was never confirmed, but is agreed to be in the millions.

 

Terraforming Spires were supposedly programmed such that they could not deploy on a settled planet. Titania claimed Hyacinth had sold them sabotaged spires, Hyacinth claimed user error and strongly implied tampering on the part of Titania, New Earth demanded justice from both parties. All three began outfitting their interstellar ships for combat.

 

In a matter of days, battle fleets were deployed from each colony to secure their “rightful property” across the galaxy. Several smaller, opportunistic colonies also joined the fray as this aggressive expansion became normalized, and the remaining colonies were forced to claim alliance with one side or another to survive.

 

Conflict escalated from interstellar dogfights, to massive armada clashes, and finally to full assaults on planetary civilizations. Though the time between battles was often lengthy due to the long travel time between fronts, the bloodshed was massive and the situation ongoing for tens of thousands of years (from the perspective of a stationary person). The total human population of the galaxy was reduced by roughly 15%, with a death toll in the billions.

 

But as the wars dragged on, many colonies (originally settled by the major powers) began to question their allegiance to these distant leaders, many of whom had never even been to the planets whose lives they were sacrificing. Though the first settlers to a planet may have been loyal to the government which sent them, one could hardly expect their 20th generation of progeny, hundreds of years later, to feel the same. Titania, New Earth, and Hyacinth increasingly found themselves fighting two wars: one against each other, and one to maintain control of the colonies they had begun the fighting for.

 

The balance of power began to deteriorate. Even as their weapons became more and more powerful, the economies of the major powers were collapsing without subservient colonies to support them. For the first time in centuries, the prevailing sentiment among the major powers was that the war must end, and soon. But who would emerge from the destruction a winner and who would carry nothing but an unfathomable death toll into the future?

 

The answer came unexpectedly when, on a day just like any other, a strange weapon was activated by an small, unmarked ship outside Titania’a solar system. The nature of the weapon, the identity of its operator, and the government who ordered its deployment, have never been discovered. What is known is that, from the relatively small unmarked ship, a beam of energy was deployed and struck Titania at light speed minutes later. Within seconds, the planet was completely atomized, its population and eons of history dissolved in a heartbeat.

 

This terror, unprecedented in human history, shocked the colonies to their core. And with no colony claiming responsibility for the genocide, it forced all parities to do the unthinkable: enter peace talks to ensure nothing like this would happen again to any of them.

 

The treaty, which ensures that every human colony has the right to self-governance, has held a tentative peace in place ever since its passage, though the specter of the Sovereignty Wars, the folly that began them, and the horror which ended them, continue to haunt humankind.