Virgo Cluster

"This is our home, which our forefathers – spurned from their homeworld of old – settled down to establish for themselves a new life carved out of the sweat, blood, and tears of their brow."

- Lord Cicero, telling of the Virgo Cluster colonization by the Exiles

The Virgo Cluster, known to the local population as the Cluster, is where all the Maikalian nations are located and the majority of their population reside. Accounting for the majority of what is collectively known as Known Space, the Virgo Cluster was settled in 21 ATE by the Exiles under the leadership of Xanus, all of whom were created by Michael the Great, the father of Xanus and the man from whom the Maikalians took their name. Took, the cluster is home to more than thirty billion denizens, all of whom are divided into numerous organizations and affiliations. Beyond the cluster, little else of the space around the Maikalians is known with the sole exception of Old Earth, from which their ancestors hailed.

Currently, the cluster is dominated by four governments who control nearly all of the worlds within. These are the Xanian Empire, which dominates most of the cluster as the leading power; the Unified Nyr Federation, which is the second-largest power in the region; the Serene Republic of Metia, a breakaway sector of the Xanians led dissident nobles; and the Kordanian Assembly, a pirate state that was established from a string of penal and mining colonies on the fringes of Xanian and Nyr space. Because of the great political, economical, and ideological rifts that divide these nations, conflicts between them are commonplace. The most recent was the Sixth Hyperion Conflict, which took place only ten years ago.

History
"Many perished in the effort to locate and settle a new homeworld, with many colony ships lost during the Great Voyage from Old Earth. However, their pains and hardships would not go unrewarded, as they soon discovered."

- Lord Cicero

Early history
The Virgo Cluster was discovered in 21 ATE by the Exiles, a collection of physically and biologically altered superhumans created and initially led by Michael the Great, one of the fabled warlords of Old Earth. He and his creations were expelled from their homeworld in a violent conflict that saw the destruction of many of their cities and the collapse of the empire which they had established during their time on Earth. Building a total of twenty colony ships, some ten thousand Exiles left their homeworld in a now historically important migration from Earth known as the Great Voyage, which began in 1 ATE. The voyage took some twenty-one years to find a world suitable for permanent habitation, as well as avoid countless interstellar phenomenon, which claimed the lives of some three thousand people during the voyage. Michael himself did not several the voyage, dying three years in the journey after a small asteroid collided with the ship he was on, trying to save another group of exiles at the time.

In 21 ATE, the Exiles finally discovered a habitable world which they christened Xania, in honor of Michael's son, Xanus, who would out-grow his father as a major historical figure in Maikalian history. From their new homeworld on Xania, the Exiles, now calling themselves the Maikalians, established the Maikalian Empire. and rebuilt their society in accordance with the new religious laws given them by Xanus, known as the Ten Truths of Xanus, which stipulated the belief that the Maikalians had an inherit right to all the worlds within the cluster and those beyond. For a hundred years, the Maikalians would expand as a single people, with an unparalleled era of peace not known since as the Golden Age of Maikal, which lasted from 21 ATE to 158 ATE, when the Maikalian Civil War broke out, ending the only age of peace the cluster ever witnessed. The ruling Priest Emperor of Maikal, Morgan Xania II, refused to grant a collection of nobles from Yasuda known as the Conclave of Fifty, named after the fifty dissenting nobles; waged a war against the Priest Emperor to overthrow him.

Era of war and unrest
The civil war, ending in 169 ATE ultimately saw the victory of the House of Xanus and the execution of the rebel leaders, as well as the installment of the of House of Xanus as the sole political power in the cluster, establishing the Xanian Empire in 171 ATE following the Declaration of One. The universal peace and prosperity the Virgo Cluster had known was now gone. A period of unrest struck virtually all of the planets which held a sizable population of people within the new, yet fragile empire, unhappy with the declaration which tightened control over the worlds of the empire. The nail in the coffin in peace was the First Hyperion Conflict in 514 ATE, which saw the rise of two interstellar powers; the Xanian Empire in the galactic north, and the Unified Nyr Federation to the galactic south, both waging an endless war for interstellar hegemony. As far as all others were concerned, the Virgo Cluster was to enter into an age of war and unrest. For the next two and half centuries, the Nyr and the Xanians – and by 547 ATE, the Metians, were waging on and off battles of supremacy which raged all across the cluster, leading to economic instability and social decay. In 593 ATE, a number of penal colonies in the Kordan sector, as well as a number of young, yet neglected mining worlds, established the Kordanian Assembly, which was to thrive on piracy.

By the 7th century ATE, the Virgo Cluster was a nightmarish place to live, which the ever-present threat of a major incursion or full-blown invasion hovering over the border worlds of the major power, and the constant pain of having to deal with Kordanian pirates and criminals literally looming overhead as the pirate industry boomed to an all-time high during the Fifth Hyperion Conflict in 681 ATE. With Xanian, Nyr, and Metian attention diverted from the pirate worlds of Kordan, the Kordanians had a party hunting down and attacking lone ships and unprotected convoys headed to the war front laden with all kinds of military-grade hardware and high-tech goods. This unhampered raiding would ultimately end with the beginning of the Pirate Wars in 710 ATE, in which the Nyr and the Xanians put aside their differences to deal with the Kordanian threat that harmed both of them equally. The Virgo Cluster saw some peace from piracy following the end of the war in 733 ATE, but also saw the unification of several Kordanian worlds under the leadership of Kiman Madora, the eldest daughter of Nyr leader, Malakai Madora. It has since been assumed that this was no mere coincidence, as a new ally in the Kordanians could tip the balance of power in the cluster to the Nyr from the Xanians, already struggling on multiple fronts.

Period of stabilization
Following the Sixth Hyperion Conflict in 753 ATE, the Xanian Empire and the Nyr finally acknowledged that neither side could immediately resume hostilities, and both needed a period of rest to recoup their assets for next conflict. Likewise, the Metians, dealing with a host of problems all their own, needed to rebuild before their continued their resistance to the Xanian Empire yet again. Finally, the Kordanians could not take the Xanians on blow for blow, and simply opted to continue their raiding Nyr and Xanian colonies until such a time another war began. This brief period of peace allowed for a window of trade and espionage to begin, as well as all sides to tend to their wounds, thus beginning what is today known as the Hyperion Cold War. The cluster remains fragile as every, but with the Xanians on the defensive, and the Nyr looking to end the cycle of warfare once and for all, it can only be assumed that the cluster may yet see another war in the near future if the Nyr have their way. Despite this, many see the cold war as a period of stabilization, a time to down what needs to be done quickly, before another war breaks out, a reality no one disputes.