History and Origins of the Revenant Imperium
Two centuries ago, there was a great nation beyond the frontier. It was called the Shadowstar Imperium. It was a place of achievement and prosperity, ruled by the best and the brightest. A meritocracy where anyone could rise to the top if they had the skill to do so. It was a realm of heroes and legends, guided by a code of honor based on the ancient concepts of Chivalry and Bushido. Their warriors were greater than any the greedy Federation or the decadent Empire of Achenar could hope for. And that is why these corrupt superpowers destroyed the great nation of my ancestors.My grandfather, Xenon Shadowstar, was the unacknowledged son of Emperor Argon Shadowstar, an inconvenient truth covered up and forgotten. The one great mistake my great grandfather, Argon Shadowstar the First of His Name, made in all the many years of his reign. As he never had an heir of his own, he intended to adopt a great hero, whom he would name as heir. This hero had proven herself in many battles for the Imperium and had distinguished herself as a great warrior, well respected by his people and beloved across the Imperium. She would have made an ideal successor. But she left and never returned. As his health failed, the old fool held out hope that she could be contacted and brought back to receive the honor he would bestow upon her, but she never did, and he died to the foul poison of the Achenarian assassin Akila DeVoe with no declared heir. His death was covered up, declared natural causes, but my grandfather knew the truth. He tried to claim the throne, but the Federal spy Zachary Slaine had manipulated the people to attempt to elect a new leader in a disgusting popularity contest, ignoring the merit system that ensured only the worthy would succeed, and my grandfather was ignored.
Agent Slaine never expected his election to succeed. It didn't. The point was to tear the Imperium apart from within, and so it did. As claimants to the throne appeared from all corners of the Imperium, conflict broke out. Honor was the first casualty. Respected heroes soiled their names for promises of power and glory. Rebellions broke out and factions appeared as society fractured into a dozen, and then a hundred individual power groups. Soon, these groups themselves shattered and it was every man for himself. Anarchy reigned in the wake of total social collapse, and the Achenarian and Federation agents returned home, their mission a total success. My grandfather was nearly killed in the chaos, but escaped. And little by little, the greatest nation humanity had ever known crumbled into dust.
In the decades to follow, the Superpowers buried all knowledge of my ancestors and their great nation. They rewrote history to remove us from it, and hunted down and killed the survivors. But my grandfather was smart, and hid well. Perhaps in his old age he lost his nerve, and raised my father under the name Xanthium Nova to pursue a peaceful life, avoiding politics and the family name, hoping that his descendants would never taste the sting of betrayal and ignominy that he suffered throughout his long life. And so my father lived a peaceful life, and tried to pressure me into such a life as well. But some part of him still respected his ancestors, so he gave me my name. The name of the greatest of our line: Argon. And now I have abandoned the Nova name for my true surname: Shadowstar. Nova was the name of the hero who abandoned my people. Her name has no honor to us anymore.
Now, the nation of my ancestors, the long-dead Shadowstar Imperium, forgotten by the corrupt nations that destroyed it out of fear and jealousy, will rise again, but in a different form. We are no nation. We are no people. We are a force of nature. We bring justice and destruction to those who deserve it. And now, as they face the greatest threat they have ever faced, the result of their ancient greed, we strike. In the midst of the Thargoid War, the damnable consequence of their utter failure as leaders, they face us, come to reap the harvest of death from the crop of discord they have sown. And if the bubble burns as a result, then so be it. Only the worthy will emerge from the ashes.
We are no nation. We are the Revenant Imperium.