Polkanian Empire

The Polkanian Empire
''"We where blinded by our own arrogance. We couldn´t see the Truth. In our folly we believed the Polkmasters of old to be the supreme beings, worthy of our worship. But we where wrong. The power we have witnessed today is the true might of a god." ~The later Polkmaster Pogun Tidecaller declaring his alliegence for Aqua after her demonstration of power.''

Blessed with many artifacts of the Earth Civilisation on Polkania, The Polkanian Empire already begann FTL travel in the year 1748 AR. They colonized most of the area that makes up the modern Polkanian Empire in the frame of a few decades. Higher Nobleman of Polkanian society, mostly blood related to the Polkanian High King, the Polkmaster, where put in place of the colonies to serve as planetary Lords. However in 1814 Polkmaster Polkur Pogun died without a clear succesor, leading to the Second Interregnum. The Polkanian Star empire split into 3 nations: The Polkanian empire, led by the Tidecaller Dynasty, which claimed to be the true succesors of the Polkanian Empire and sought to unite all Polkings under a new Polkmaster. The Polkanian League of Nobles, who wanted to gain more power and used used slavery to an extent considered extrem even by Polkanian standards. And the Polking Liberty Front, which mostly consitsed out of escaped slaves and rebels. The three nations battled each other for centuries.

The end of the second interregnum only came when the Axis Order begann involving itself with Poking politics. The Axis Order offered help to the Truthbringer Dynasty in exchange for joining their Covenant. They resisted at first, but after a short conflict and and a demonstration of power by Aqua Pogun Tidecaller beend the knee and joined the Covenant. The following Polkanian Baptism of Fire lasted for five years from 2275-2280 and ended with the victory of the Polkanian Empire.

After the Andromeda Crisis the Polkanian Empire proved itself to be the backbone of the Covenant as the collapse of the other empires meant that the weight of the entire covenant now lies on the shoulder of Polkmaster Shoolk Tidecaller, who saw this a challenge imposed on him by the Goddess Aqua to prove his devotion and the faith of his people. Eager to prove himself and save the covenant his fiery spirit soon affected his subjects. The Polkings begann working extra hard to aid their allies in military and economic affairs. The Charge of the Polks during the Prikitiki-Ti attack on heavens throne serves as the best example of their sacrifices during this time.

History
First signs of sapiens such as the usage of tools or cave paintings on Polkania can be found dating as far back as 90.000 B.R. . However written records of Polk society emerged for the first time in 10.000 B.R. These records tell of a fierce war fought with seemingly magical weapons, artfiacts left by the Earth Civilisation.

Age of the first Polkmaster (~9.400 B.R.)
After Polkus Primus Maximus conquered all of Polkania and was worhipped as a living god due to his psyonic powers the Polkings entered a rather peacefull age. During this time the noble Polkings who were born with psyonic powers and were blood relatives of Polkus begann to seperate themselves from the common polking, essentially creating not only a new ruling class, but also a ruling race biologically different from the rest of the Polkings whom they beliefed were born into an existence of subservience.

Zervoolk´s Uprising (~ 4.000 B.R.)
Zervoolk was a common Polking, born to a poor family of farmers. However he had powerfull psyonic abilities despite not being related to the Polkmaster royal bloodline in any way. After this became known the royal family tried to make him one of their own, but Zervoolk refused. He sought to end the suffering of his people and begann an uprising. It was doomed fromn the beginning. The Polkmaster inherits the power of all his predecesors upon becoming the new ruler, as such every Polkmaster is more powerfull than the last. Having 5.000 years of Polkamster power united within him the ruling Polkmaster crushed the rebellion. But in his last breath Zervoolk cursed the Primus Maximus bloodline. Records speak of him vanishing into the cloud after the curse, others speak of him turning into a vengefull spirit. Fact is that Polkus Primus Maximus XXIV was not able to create an heir for his throne. All of his children died, no matter with how many woman he made them. And so he who crushed the uprsising became the last true Polkmasterm with his death the collected power of five millenia vanished. No other Polkmaster Dynasty would ever come close to achieving such a long reign.

First Interregnum (~4.000 B.R - 1.000 A.R.)
The first interregnum, also known as the greater interegnum, was a 5.000 year long age of war and conflict. Different factions of Polkanian Nobles, Peasant rebels and bandit groups where warring for supremacy on Polakania. Several Polkamsters Dynasties where established, most only lasting for 3 generations maximum and never ruling over the whole planet. This age of bloodshed was only ended after the great warlord Pogunaba Pogun mamaged to retrieve an ancient artifact of the earth civiliation, allowing him con defeat all of his foes and establish a secure dynasty for the first time after the death of Polkus Primus Maximus XXIV.

Enlightened Millenia (1.000 A.R. - 1748 A.R.)
The enlightened millenia is the name the Polkings have given the reign of the Pogon Dynasty, for its rule marked the only peacefull and progressive age after the fall of the original Polkmaster Dynasty. The Pogun Dynasty made great use of the abundance of Earth Civilisation artifacts on their homeworld to achieve great scientific breakthroughs. Many traditions and ideas even today are able to be traced back to this era. It ended with Polkamster Polur Pogun commanding the first FTL jump in polkanian history in 1748 A.R., turning the Polkings into a spacefaring race.

General Physicality
The Polkanians have a magnitude of phenotypes and lesser physical distinctions throughout their race. These mark the differnt Polking families, as Polkings who are related to each other have atleast one similar physical sign. Despite helping to recognize relatives and stangers, thoose signs dont have any real function. some families might be physical stronger than others while some might have harder skin, but these differnces don´t really amount to much.

A racial divide exists however, between the common Polkings and the Polkanian noble men. Polkanian nobles are born with psyonic powers and are thus always put into positions of power and leadership. No common Polking could ever hope to become an admiral, as he lacks the psyonic abilities that make noble men superior at most tasks. The power of the noble men varies greatly, as distant relatives can sometimes only lift some rocks with their minds, while those close to the Polkmaster are among the galaxies most powerfull beings. Becasue of this the purity of ones heritage is extremely important to polknian nobles, as mating with a commoner might result in a child with weak psyonic powers.

Polkings at large are extremely resilliant and great workers that can outmatch most other races with working in the mines, generators or farms of their overlords. They are mediocre scientists and craftsmen, but the naturall resource rich Polkanian planets combined with their work ethic and physiology lets the Polknaian Empire produce ressources like only few others can.

Gender and procreation
Polkings have a very family based structure, which can also be observed in their mating rituals. Polkings choose one partner with whom they spend their entire life, which can be up to 170 years. Polkanian females lay one egg in cycles of 4-6 years, which is watched over by the whole family until it hatches, which can take between 11 and 16 months. Polkings mature relativly slowly, reaching adulthood with 35, allthough they often beginn working long before that. A Polking couple often has between 15- 20 children, allthough the rate of children that manage to reach adulthood can vary wieldly depending on the social situation of the family.

Polking noble men usually have one noble wife with whom they concieve their legitimate child and, depending on their power, a harem of common woman whose children ore often somewhat psyonic and thus usually recruited into the army at an early age to serve as elite soldiers on the frontlines. The lesser noble men usually don´t have more than 3 common woman, while the Polkmaster has between 800-2400 in his palace at all times.

Psyonic Abilities
The common polkings do not posess psyonic powers, however polkanian nobles almost always are blessed with latent abilities. While strong, they pale in comparison to the powers Axirians can display.

Family and Children
Polking children are surprisingly self suficiant after hatching, and thus do not require a lot of attention from their parents. Watching over the egg ist mostly a cultural remnant from the times where predators would hunt polking eggs, today some families even leave their eggs unatended. The young polkings need a lot of time to learn and grow up, which is mostly done by grandparents and elder siblings for life skills and the schools for work skills. While the family itself has a high value in polkanian society, the individuals and children do not and are expected to put the wellbeing of the clan before their own.

Day to day life
The daily life of Polking can vary wildly depending on their social position. The polking workers tend to spend most of their lives working and only spend very few time at home, not to mention any kind of holiday. Allthough the end of the Civil War and the integration into the Covenant has begun to significantly increase their living standards, polking workers are still frequently seen as one of the worst examples of galactic living standards. The situation is significantly better for specialiced jobs, allthough these are not very common throughout polking society.

Noble Polkings are the exact opposite of their lessers. They live in abundance of everything they could ever want. Wealth and power are concentrated in their hands, and is not uncommon for them to develop extrem exentric tendencies. Such as Lori Goldchild, the ruler of Polgamia III, who cloned his deceased wife deveral hundred times and eventaully completely isolated himself in his palace. However as time moves one it appears that more and more of the younger nobles are drawn to a more modest lifestyle, not to be served by their people, but to serve them.

Religion
The Polking religion is an integral part of their society. It was originally used to support the authority of the Polkmaster who was worshipped as a living god. As the original divine bloodline died out their faith was forced to adapt, no longer calling the Polkmaster a god himself but rather a choosen ruler of the divine. This change would play in favour of the Axis Order, who would evtually subjugate the Polkanian Empire. By declaring Aqua to be the one who chooses the Polkmaster the future balance of power was set in stone while the Polkmaster remained in his position of power. As the Proxy of the Goddess the Polkmaster is still somewhat worshipped by his people, but it is always made sure that in the displays of Polkmaster divinity he is portaited as subordinate to Aqua.

Government
The ruler of the Polkanian Empire is the Polkmaster. He resides on Polkania and has full executiv, legislativ and juristical power. However the rule of the colonies, habitats and stations is left to the local noble elite. They have complete controll over their dominion and answer to their supirior lords. After the Covenant annexation a significant amount of power has been collected by a new class of administrativ buroucrats, who are often the ones really in charge of the governance.

Leader
The Polkmaster is the ruler of the Polkanian Empire. He is assisted by other loyal noble families and his family to carry out his will. Upon his death the current Polkmaster transfers his power and that of his ancestors to his succesor. This way, the longer a polkanian bloodline exists the more powerfull it becomes.

Critique
Nobles are often called incompetent and ignorant of their peoples needs. As this no empty statement the Covenant has tried to improve the governance and stability of the Polkanian Empire, but it is still pretty much subject to the whimms of their rulers.

Military
The Polkanian Military is, much like their society, slpit into two parts: The Nobles who lead and the commoners who serve. Commoners can be conscripted at any time by their lords, making the Polkanian Army very big in times of need, but not very powerfull. The true army consists out of voluntary full time soldiers and nobles. While not drafted into service, nobles who did not serve in the army or did not have a good reason not too are treated with disgust by nobles and commoners alike.

Technology
The rise of the Polkanian Empire can in large parts be contributed to the reverse engeneering of earth artifacts, not their own science. As such, polking ships are realtivly easy constructed and their doctrine is one of mass assault. Polking capital ships are a rare sight and they mostly focus on smaller ships which can be build and manned as well as deployed very quickly. They are focused on Armor and rockets in their ship design.

Ground Forces
Polkanian ground forces can vary greatly in strenght. While conscripted commoners are easliy dealt with, an battalion of nobles is almost impossible to defeat. They are mostly equipped by Schwebtron Manufactoring, but most nobles demand to follow ancient tradition and forge their own weapons. Ground forces have relativly few support units or vehicles and mostly rely on numbers and shere force to break through. However they posses a large artillery segment, used to obliterate enemy fortifications if numbers dont suffice.

Psyonic
Polking Nobles are powerfull psychics and often good leaders. However there are significantly more nobles than there are leadership positions, especially with the large number of bastard children nobles create. As such there are a number of temples spread across the Empire, where those gifted can train and study. These temples fullfil a multitude of tasks, nut most focus on battle. Polkanian Knight Orders are a force to be reckoned with, and an elite group of noble warriors serve in the knights of Aqua, those bodyguards are the pride of polkanian warrior culture.