The story of Sins of a Solar Empire begins more than 10,000 years ago in a remote area of the galaxy controlled by the Vasari Empire….
10,000+ Years Ago
The Vasari Empire ruled over countless worlds and sub-species at the height of their power. Relentless and unstoppable, their Dark Fleet sought to eclipse ever more civilizations into their growing empire. Those that would not serve would be enslaved and their development curtailed. Technological advances during this time were rampant and often of a martial nature.
10,000 Years Ago - The Vasari Exodus Fleet
Exactly what happened remains a mystery, but something brought the once unstoppable Vasari Empire to an abrupt end. In only a few short months, the Vasari were brought to the brink of extinction. With their worlds destroyed, the survivors began a desperate race to outrun their adversary in a mass exodus fleet. Every ship was hastily converted to hold as many of the surviving Vasari as possible as they escaped on their long trip across the galaxy.
~7,500-5,000 Years Ago - The Great Schism
While the Vasari Exodus Fleet traveled across space, the Great Schism saw the end of human civilization in the galaxy, and the start of a long dark age. During this period anarchy reigned, with worlds ravaged, technologies lost, and history forgotten. Billions were killed in the conflict and billions more died after, as each planet became isolated. With each planet left to fend for itself, they had to rebuild with the scars of racial memory which would pass into legend, and then into total obscurity.
1,500 Years Ago - Formation of the Trade Order
From the ashes of the now forgotten conflict, the Trade Order is formed by a group of economically driven settlers. Each planet in the Trade Order would operate as its own sovereign entity, but with free trade across the member worlds. Over the next several centuries, the Trade Order would grow to encompass hundreds of members. However, despite the amount of autonomy allowed in forms of government and culture, a strict set of laws were enforced across members against un-natural augmentation.
1,000 Years Ago - The Exiled
Roughly 500 years after the founding of the Trade Order, an expansionary mission discovered a single desert world orbiting a red giant. Located on the periphery of what would become Trader Space, the people of this desert planet were found to practice the utmost in scientific and social deviancy! Shocked and disgusted, the Trade Order worlds conspired to exile the people of this forgotten planet far outside Trader territory. This action would have serious repercussions in the distant future.
1,000 to ~30 Years Ago - The Age of Prosperity
For nearly a millennium the Trade Order would experience widespread growth and peace. Major conflicts would be avoided via economic means and only piracy would pose a real problem to security.
35 Years Ago - The Vasari Exodus Fleet Arrives (War Year 1)
The Trade Order’s age of prosperity would come to a quick end with the arrival of the Vasari Exodus Fleet. Stories of their ancestor’s wars had long since passed into the depths of history; the methods of machines by which they were fought long since buried. Consequently, when the Vasari fleet arrived, the outlying Trader Worlds paid dearly.
32 Years Ago - Formation of the Trader Emergency Coalition (War Year 3)
Caught flat-footed by more than 1,000 years of peace, the Vasari easily wiped aside Trade Order defenses that were only meant to deal with pirates. Fearing annihilation, the Trade Order member worlds agreed to set aside some of their autonomy to form the Trader Emergency Coalition (TEC). This new unified organization would coordinate defenses in order to drive back the Vasari.
25 Years Ago - Return of the Exiled (War Year 10)
The sins of the Trade Order’s past returned to haunt them with the return of the exiled, now calling themselves “The Advent.” Arriving with a vast fleet of advanced warships and mysterious weapons, the Advent quickly brought a number of worlds under their control. Now caught in a two-front war, the already struggling Trader Emergency Coalition finds itself in an utterly hopeless situation.
20 Years Ago - Stalemate (War Year 15)
After nearly 15 years the war nears a stand-still. Thanks to the manufacturing power of the Trader worlds, the TEC has managed to fend off both the Advent and the Vasari invaders. With the fronts temporarily stabilized, each race began to regroup and entrench in their respective territories. Great defensive battlestations were deployed and critical choke points fortified in preparation for the next great offensive action.
10 Years Ago - Diplomacy (War Year 25)
With more than a quarter century of constant warfare behind them, the three factions finally began to look for alternative solutions to the conflict. Many in the Trader Emergency Coalition feared that their people were losing their identity to the war, with younger generations never knowing peace. Others in the TEC began to feel as though their leaders had failed to provide them with the safety they had promised. Some within the Advent started to question if their course of vengeance was the right one to follow, while the Vasari simply wanted to escape as soon as possible.
Such conditions lead to the opening of talks between the three major races for the first time, in the hope that their envoys would finally bring peace.
5 Years Ago - Civil War (War Year 30)
In the 30th year of the war, the hope placed on diplomacy shattered as internal divisions within each race led to civil war - a split between loyalist and rebel factions.
With the TEC the loyalist members adopted a policy of isolation, with the intent to focus on enhanced defenses to ride out the rest of the war behind their walls. Those of the rebel faction adopted a purely militant view. Unable to reconcile the brutality of the past 30 years, the TEC rebels decided that peace would only come after crushing all who opposed them - especially the Vasari.
For the first time in their history, the Advent Unity found themselves split in their courses of action. The loyalist faction wanted to continue their policy of revenge against the Traders and assimilate all others into the Unity’s influence. However, those of the rebel faction began to suspect that some form of corruption was diverting the Unity from its proper destiny.
Within the Vasari Empire the split was less divisive but no less severe to their people. With the Vasari now frantic to move on to new space, the loyalist faction embraces their imperialistic nature and decides to take the resources they need by any means necessary. This leads to the deployment of a weapon of destruction not yet seen on the battlefield…. The rebel faction takes an opposing view and felt that their best chance for survival was to work with the other races and flee the approaching enemy together.
Present Day - War Year 35
It is a time of many unknowns for all the factions as everyone seems to be stuck in a cycle of reprisals. Despite the constant infighting, the Vasari have become desperate to move on from this region of the galaxy and suffer from an almost paralyzing dread. Whatever the future holds, time has nearly run out.