The Legend of Old Earth

In a desperate bid to regain control over the distant colonies, the UEG ordered the construction of a massive hyperdrive, one capable of jumping the entire planet earth. The plan was to jump earth from system to system and take the colonies back by military force.

It took more than a century to build the drive and when activated the earth did disappear as planned, but whatever system was intended to be its destination it did not arrive and was never seen again. No one knows what exactly happened to the earth, and many stories and rumours float around the universe regarding its fate. Some believed it had not jumped but had simply been destroyed while others believed that it had jumped not to another part of space, but into another dimension, one from which it could never return. As the centuries came and went the earth gradually passed out of history and then became a legend of a distant past.

The Dark Times

By the 30th century, without a single governing body, wars raged across the Dominion. Colonies fought each other for the same resources as they expanded from their original planets. During this time nations and empires rose and fell and whole planets were laid waste by greed. The hyper-beacons continued to decay and the paths between the stars began to once again become impossible. In isolation whole worlds degenerated and regressed as technologies became forgotten or unusable.

The Trade League

At the turn of the 40th century twenty four of the most developed worlds in the Dominion united into the Trade League. The League aimed to repair the network of hyper-beacons and once again bring the Dominion back together. Isolated planets paid the League to be re-connected to the rest of humanity and the League’s wealth escalated as new lines of trade were established.

Within a century the hyper-beacon network had been restored to over one third of Dominion space and those within the League’s influence flourished. Not all planets welcomed the League’s ever growing power and distrust and unease was not uncommon. With the huge trade between systems pirates multiplied, ambushing ‘space caravans’ between far off worlds.