Xai Ascendancy

"The Ascendancy stands as a testament to all that our people have accomplished. Let us take that great testimony with us wherever we may journey."

- Manawaki the Great

The Xai Ascendancy, also known as Xai'athus, the Xai Empire, Xai Space, or simply the Ascendancy is a major galactic power established in 1 AXU by Manawaki the Great. It was the first government to rule over all of the Xai, and established a planetwide government across Xyon for the first, and currently, only time in its history. Today it rules multiple star systems and dozens of worlds, and holds sway over more than a one hundred billion sentient beings. The Ascendancy is located within the region known as Xai'athus.

The Ascendancy has existed for some 2,942 years, having weathered numerous conflicts, civil wars, and political instability, and for the most part has grown stronger following each and ever crisis averted. It is currently the dominant galactic power, and has beaten back numerous invasions of its space over the last two and half thousand years. A strong centralized government with a powerful military force, the Xai Ascendancy is simply too powerful to challenge in a straight by any force known to the Xai.

The current ruler of the Ascendancy is Patriarch Shala Alla Tok, who rules as the spiritual leader of the Xai. However, true power is vest in the Supreme Commander, Malakai Madora, who inherited the title from his father Manawaki. The current policies of the Ascendancy have been to deal with the recent uprising of the subjected worlds belonging to the Elysian Federation. Their recent progresson in stopping a number of Xai offenses have been a constant source of trouble for the Xai government.

History
"The rise of the Ascendancy was foretold millennia ago. It was said that it would put an end to the great many wars and strife of our past, and so it did."

- Shala Alla Tok

Origin
The history of the Xai Ascendancy officially began in 1 AXU, when the planet of Xyon was united under a single banner, and led by Manawaki the Great. However, the history of the Ascendancy further back still, with the first mention of the empire by Xanus, god of the Xai, in 2298 BXU. He foretold, through the psionic priest Anava Tarka, that a young Xai would arise and united the many feuding nations and polities of Xyon into a single great power, which would rules the star in an unending conquest. That prophecy was given for two general reasons. The first was the most obvious, to make sure that the Xai would be ready for the unification of their world, and look forward to the Uniter. The second, and the least obvious of the two, was to spark the conflicts that would lead up to the formation of the Ascendancy.

Xanus sought to punish his children for the crimes and lack of faith, which occurred immediately after the Dark Ages of Xyon. While he wanted to give them something to look forward too and hope for peace, he also punished them for the wide spread of disbelief and attempts to attribute their creation to something else–such as evolution, which was disproven shortly thereafter. Many warlords and generals arose throughout the period known as the Age of Tribulation, in which many of these warriors sought to prove themselves the one foretold by Xanus to unite the planet under their rule. With so many warlords arising across the planet, Xyon entered into a second dark age of unending conflict, which saw the rise and fall of countless empires.

Eventually, the one truly foretold to bring the Xai together was born in Oxida Nova in 710 BXU. Manawaki Madora was born to a factory worker and a member of the Oxida Nova militia, and lived a very modest life by no uncertain means. This considerably lowly birth was planned by Xanus to ensure the status would not bring him undue attention, and drawing the warlords roaming the planet looking for him to his doorstep. Manawaki was told of his higher purpose by Xanus himself, and spent the next two hundred years keeping a low profile until he was given the order to begin his war of unification. Until then, Manawaki spent his years in military academies, law schools, economist classes, and studying religious texts, all in preparation for the time he would led his fellow people.

Unification Wars
Main article: Unification Wars

Manawaki was not looking forward to the killing that would engulf his planet, and at many times sought to give his burdensome duty to someone else, always stopped by a random priest, priestess or even Xanus himself, all of whom encouraged him for the times ahead. While he stayed in the city of Oxida Nova, Manawaki climbed the ranks, soon becoming warmaster of the militia, and recruiting Xai who had been waiting for his arrival to his side. Eventually, other leaders caught wind of the buildup, and soon began their own, especially when they discovered the new leader of the largest city on the planet was the Unifier that they had dreaded for centuries following the prophesy. With nothing to lose but his life and his home city, Manawaki initiated the start of the long and bloody Unification Wars, which would begin in 537 BXU, and last for the next five hundred years.

At the fore of his military forces were heros of hundreds of battles and scores of conflicts, refugees looking for a fresh start and an end to all of the killing, and faithful worshipers who felt it their duty to do all in their power to see Xanus' will completed. Countless died in the centuries ahead, beginning with the conquest of Metis, the dark and foreboding lands that had launched unnumbered crusades seeking to become the ultimate power on the planet. These people, the Metians, were unrelenting their desire to win, but during the Battle of the Fiery Plains, Xanus struck down tens of thousands of Metians who had surrounded Manawaki and his cadre of warriors, and knocked down the walls of two cities besieged by Manawaki's forces.

During the invasion of the Great Desert of Xyon, the people known as the Havasu allied themselves to the forces of Oxida Nova when they were rescued from a certain defeat at the hands of the neighboring Bahari. The two fought side-by-side, and ultimately defeated the Bahari incursion when queen of the Bahari was slain in combat with Manawaki himself. The Havasu pledged their allegiance to Oxida Nova, and followed their forces into battle throughout the rest of the conflict. The battles in the vast Jungles of Azakar against the feared Azaran Huntresses was one such battle that saw the two forces fighting with the aim of victory deep in mind. Many other groups such as Ixians and the Battlemasters of Xyon (later known as the Battlemasters of Aurora), also joined forces with Manawaki during the conflict.

However, the most destructive, and indeed, most gruesome part of the conflict was that involving the final Battle of Iconius in 1 BXU. Millions of Iconians had been fleeing to the mountainous empire, which following the Dark Ages of Xyon, remained the single-largest and most powerful empire on the planet. Attacking the empire involved alpine warfare, mountain to mountain shootouts, and aerial bombardments the likes of which rivaled many of those seen in the modern day. The never-ending the threat of an Iconian ambush and the grim and unwelcome thoughts of being tortured and raped in captivity, never left the minds of those fighting for Manawaki. Keeping the Iconians away from his men and women was of the utmost concern to Manawaki. The fear-induced nighttime raids and ever-present threat of a wholesale massacre, nearly cost Manawaki the war in Iconius.

However, Xanus ensured that his soldiers would make it though the battles ahead, such as when he caused the guns and artillery of the Iconians to malfunction, and disabled the controls on their aeroplanes in mid-flight. The final battle at Silexa was perhaps the crowning moment of the war. Several millions of soldiers and warriors were engaged in the middle of a battle, fighting from street, to house, to farms, and at the center of the battle was Manawaki and his opponent Aisha Icona. Manawaki, still an unchanged male at the time, was overcome by the superior strength of his Iconian opponent. Before Aisha could make the killing blow, the sword of n/a flew across the battlefield, and split Aisha in half through the waist before implanting itself into a nearby wall.

With Aisha bleeding across the floor and attempting to crawl away from Manawaki in fear of the death blow, Manawaki ordered his troops to cease fighting. He declared victory, and spared Aisha's life in exchange for a ceasefire. Manawaki acknowledged the sword's arrival, no doubt a divine message from Xanus, that his war was over, and that the killing was too stop. With his blessing, Aisha surrendered and the war came to an immediate end. Pulling the sword from the wall, Manawaki declared the time of the wars had ended, and that the time of the Ascendancy to begin. Thus, in 1 BXU, the Age of Tribulation came to pass, and the Age of the Ascendancy began, beginning in 1 AXU.

Formation and rebuilding
Having just bested the most powerful warrior in the world, conquered all the nations of the planet, and having the total backing on the Xai god, Manawaki fulfilled the ancient prophesy and became the first leader of a united Xyon. The time of peace and prosperity foretold to come after the war did indeed appear. Manwaki brought all of the leaders of the former kingdoms and governments to Oxida Nova, including Aisha Icona, and in a great celebration, declared the end of an era and the formation of a new government, that of the Xai Ascendancy. He told the people that the time to begin rebuilding was to start, and that the peace that had won would now have to be put to good use. The era of rebuilding and rehabilitation was then underway, and the Xai now had to prove to Xanus that they had earned their peace following the conflict. Manawaki changed the calendar to reflect the new era underway, switching from the old religious calendar a new state calendar, which would be easier to remember, and build up faith in the new government.

To keep the old leaders satified with their subordination under the new world government, Manawaki told them that they could return to their homelands, and that the Ascendancy would new regional leaders to enforce the edicts and laws of the Ascendancy across the planet. They did as they were told, and began rebuilding after the countless centuries of conflict. The Ascendancy advanced quickly following the wars, with new technologies and infrastructure in place within the first centuries of the global conflict. The moons of Xyon were colonized between 107 AXU and 126 AXU, as part of the new space program established as part of the divine prophesy that their conquest would spread across the stars. With a mandate from their god to fulfill, the Xai had additional motivation to continue serving loyally to the man who had brought an end to the tribulations of the past.

As new Xai were born and the population expanded, the dark times of the past were forgotten, and a new era of progress and expansion overcame the Ascendancy. Many wondered how these Xai would act under the new leadership that have been only recent for themselves, and how the untried and untested Xai, who had not seen any form of warfare unlike their parents, would serve in a new era of peace and tranquility. With a largely homogenous culture spreading across the planet, Xyon's youth came to complete the intergration of their civilization as a fully united species, much to the relief of their parents. As for Manawaki, he understood that he would be passing on soon for the final time, Xanus having promised to end his physical life so as to prevent a cult for arising. Thus, he married and had numerous children, one of which, Malakai Madora, would come to represent the new and united Xyon his father had built.

Expansion and colonization
With the global war at an end, and the hurdle of post-society overcome, the Xai began work under their leader to begin their colonization of the stars as part of their commission from their creator Xanus. With the first target of their efforts, the three moons of Xyon, Marza, Avalon, and Axon, all colonized under the new goverment, the Xai were determined to ensure that the stars fell before them, but first they need to get to them. Several scientists were recruited to begin work on developing a faster-than-light drive in 248 AXU, after they were brought back from their successful venture to terraform the moons of Xyon. Numerous resources were diverted from other projects to support the development of what the Xai research teams were calling the void drive, which would allow the Xai to ply space through the extradimensional realm known as Void Space. For years the Xai labored over the questions and mechanics as to how to utilize the Void for interstellar travel, finally making a breakthrough in 253 AXU.

The first FTL trip made by the Xai took place that year, when the first interstellar vessel produced by the Xai, the Winterblossom, departed the solar system for Xyon's nearest star, n/a. It discovered a habitable planet in the solar system, which the Xai named Onyx. It would become the target of Xai colonization efforts shortly thereafter, with several colony ships sent off to the planet in 257 AXU, making Onyx the first planet outside of the Ianthina system colonized by the Xai. With the victory under the arm of the government, Manawaki pushed for further exploration efforts, extending the mandate of the Winterblossom, which had discovered more than a dozen worlds in the span of only part of a decade. As news and locations of the new planets filtered back to Xyon, more and more colony ships were built and launched by the Xai to begin spreading their nation to each and every world they found. Soon however, they would run into another species which was beginning its own steps into interstellar colonization.

Until that day though, the Xai would focus on expanding the Ascendancy, and spreading the power of their god to every corner of known space they explored. Manawaki's successes were gaining him the support of the old leaders of Xyon, who were convinced to marshal their still defiant followers behind Manawaki, as he continued to prove that he alone had the backing of both the Patriarch of Xyon, and their creator Xanus, who was pleased with the developments of his children. As the Xai expanded, flaws in their void drive began to show. It was expensive, dangerous, and prone to breakdowns. The development of void gates were quick, but "querks" that screwed with genetics such as the diminutive Jarra and savage Azaran were just one of the few Xai to be altered by the gates. However, this would not dissuade the Xai from fulfilling their obligations to Xanus.

Economy
"These ships, these weapons, that suit of combat armor that girl's wearing over there; all of that cost money, and it doesn't just fall out of the sky. There's a whole system greater than you can possibly imagine paying for all of this stuff."

- Head Councilor Rho Cho

Military
Main articles: Obsidian Guard and Colonial Security Forces

"There exist a very good reason why we haven't lost a major war, that you know of that is, in the last two thousand years of Xai space-faring."

- Malakai Madora

From since before the time of the Ascendancy's formation and onward, the history of the Xai has been violent one, rife with conflict and scourges throughout their history. Thus was of no surprise that once he accomplished his goal of uniting the planet under his rule, Manawaki did not entirely disband his military forces. He transferred his most elite soldiers and bodyguards into the new military force his established in 1 AXU, known as the Obsidian Guard. At the time of its formation, the Guard consisted of three branches; the Obsidian Army, the Obsidian Navy, and the Obsidian Air Force. Following the development of first general usage void drives in 252 AXU, the Obsidian Army absorbed the air force as a division within its organization, and the planetary naval forces were placed under its command. The Obsidian Navy was rebuilt and reorganized into a space-borne military force, that now serves as the Ascendancy's starfleet.

Today, the Obsidian Guard consists of hundreds of millions of soldiers and automated soldiers with advanced A.I.'s, divided into the planet-bound Army and the space-bound Navy. Personnel drawn from military orders and tribal groups thoughout the Ascendancy, such the Azaran Huntresses, the Auroran Battlemasters, and the Knights of Xanus, form specialist units within the Obsidian Guard, while auxiliary units from allied nations and slave races, serve within the military as well. The military is well-train and equipped, and its forces are supplied with the best weaponry the Xai have at their disposal, ensuring that the Guard is capable of dealing with even the most dangerous of foes. The navy was designed using the most advanced technologies produced by the Xai, and ensure that the Inner and Outer Core regions of the Ascendancy are well-defended, and the colonial and frontier regions are supplied with the resources needed to ensure their survival.

The Obsidian Guard is not without its flaws however. The military was and still is dominated by the Iconians, who were responsible for starting the Xyon Civil War when the discrimination against them due to their role in the Dark Ages of Xyon, grew to such a point that the tension between the Iconian and non-Iconian populations pushed many Iconian military officers to forsake the Ascendancy and attempt to form a breakaway state for themselves. Given their role and size in the Obsidian Guard, accounting for near two-third of all units in the military, and upwards of 65% of commissioned officers, the Iconians rebelling sapped the power of the Guard, and nearly destroyed it during the civil war. Since then, better treatment of the Iconians, who make up a third of the Xai race, have been one of the major factors undertaken by the government as it rebuilt the military after the war.

With the changes made by the government to the Obsidian Guard, the military was rebuilt from the bottom on up, establishing the non-Iconian Verberan Corps, a special military unit who members, known as verbates, are assigned to all combat units within the Army and Navy as senior officers, and tasked with maintaining loyalty within each as a direct result of the Xyon Civil War. They may punish, arrest, or even execute members of their units to ensure loyalty to command, and are beyond the authority of the unit's commanding officer. A sign of their position are their nullium electro-staffs, used for beating their troops. The military is still weak from the conflict, and thus many wars aimed to taking advantage of the military's weakness, most notably the Elysian Conflict, have stretched the forces of the military, forcing the Ascendancy government to establish the Colonial Security Forces, who are tasked with serving as the military for the colonies not strategically important to the Obsidian Guard, freeing many troops for other important operations.

Astrography
"Space isn't two-dimensional. However, with all of the spacial anomalies floating around, it might as well be."

- Sophia Madora