Loris Empire

The Lorisian Star Empire, more commonly known simply as the Loris Empire, has one of the most unorthodox beginnings of all the governments in the galaxy.

= History =

== Paradox of Time ==

The true history of Loris begins some ten years after the destruction of the second death star, despite the Lorisian peoples colonizing of Loris several hundred years prior to the formation of the New Republic.

The growing unrest between the Imperial Remnant  and the New Republic caused the Lorisian navy to commission the creation of a three kilometer long battleship; these ships would form a strong defense against an incursion. Whilst on a patrol of shipping lanes between Loris space and Sword Worlds Alliance  space, the Warspite encountered an ion storm of immense magnitude. The storm caused the ships gravitic power plant to behave unexpectedly; it formed a rip in space and time throwing the massive warship back through time and across the vastness of space. The crew found themselves in the past and in a completely different galaxy. It would be another sixty years before the eventually multi-generational crew would find their way home again.

Things did not run smoothly for the crew of the Warspite upon their return. Whilst trapped in another galaxy the Warspite had forged an alliance with a closely related human race known as the Cal’ric. Eventually many found themselves in relationships with the cousin species; those who did not mix species denounced the unions.

=== The Great Crossing ===

The ship was forced to land and despite the crew’s best efforts, the ship landed/crashed in the southern deserts some three thousand miles south of the T’lana River. At first the crew prospered as they attempted to carve a life for themselves around the ship and built the first true city of Loris. However many attempts were made to make the Cal’ric vessels air worthy, all failed. Eventually they stripped all the ships for useful parts and began to construct a new vessel. However several dissident factions conspired against the construction. The ship was sabotaged by one group in an attempt to kill as many of the mixed breed as possible. A second group plotted to steal the ship for their own ends and promptly died half way to the T’lana River. Archeological research of the Warspite city would refer to the end of this stage of Lorisian civilization as the great crossing.

== A Tale of Two Cities ==

Ten years of hardship passed and the art of sand sailing was learned and mastered. Just prior to the launch of an expedition to the T’lana River and its fertile river banks, the ship's power core suffered an irreparable failure and the city's inhabitants were forced to abandon the city before the next big sand storm. A rather hurried evacuation took place, yet unlike earlier plans at the time of the crash, most of the travelers survived. The green lands of the T’lana region offered the first real sanctuary for the weary trans-galactic travelers.

Over the course of several decades a great city was built centered around a grand library containing the sum knowledge of the survivors, this would prove invaluable as sand storms and volcanic activity would prevent a return for the equipment they left behind. Unfortunately the relative peace did not last. Several rich businessmen commissioned the founding of a second city on the north bank of the mighty T’lana River thirty years after the great crossing. It would end in bloodshed as the solely dissident inhabited Lepowa city plotted to dam the T’lana River and force the great city of Sal’tlana into a crippling draught. It was the first time in fifty years that Lorisian soldiers took up arms and it would begin an era of war that would last for several thousand years.

With the two cities at constant war and the great library eventually lost, the outlying settlements were cut off from the supplies and knowledge that Sal’tlana had always offered. Many scientists unhappy with Sal’tlana policy towards the dissidents and unhappy with the dissident’s immoral actions took flight. They and many others from several near crippled settlements headed north, stopping only to resupply or take advantage of easily gatherable resources. Eventually they settled far north in an area that would eventually become the capital city Loris.

Loris prospered in secrecy for almost three hundred years and made significant progress in regaining the lost knowledge and technologies. However space flight whilst theoretically possible to the Lorisians was impractical. The war had continued and those settlements that survived did so only by raiding the two great cities. Though attempts had been made at upholding civility, barbarism to an extent had set in. Lepowa and Sal’tlana had been reduced to shells of their former glory and the populace fractured into their own territorial groups. The clans as these groups and settlements began a race to secure resources and tactically viable positions whilst waging war against each other.

== Contact from the Stars ==

The Infinite Empire  had long fallen and the core worlds and surrounding areas had formed the Galactic Republic. It was not the Republic who came to the Loris system, but the Corellians. The city of Loris detected the familiar ship and contact was made. Confident in their new trade pacts and the agreement to keep Loris a secret, the Lorisians bought mostly freighters and few armed vessels. There were unscrupulous members of the crew who sold the information to even more unsavory characters.

Loris did not see the clans attack until it was too late.

The city was captured quickly but ownership would be contested for four hundred more years before the great uprising. In a bloody yet well executed coup, the descendants of the original royal family of Loris retook their lands and many of the Sander clan’s vessels intact. Loris itself had remained mostly undamaged purely because the clan lords wished to pervert the Loris city technology and science to their own ends. It was in the end this wish that brought death to the Sander clan and the eventual birth of the Loris Alliance.

War had become civilized; it was no longer necessary for everyone to fight. Children (with the exception of those born in Loris city,) were still raised in the way of the warrior even as the great clans reached out to control the local planets and those in the surrounding systems of the declared Loris sector. It was this constant battle for resources and power that lead to each clan turning a blind eye to galactic events in the near by empress Teta system and the subsequent sith incursions hence forth. Though Loris stood as technically advanced as the Republic the clans still held to the myth of the great war spirit. The wars had started over race arguments and the right to salvage the power of the Warspite. Once the great library had been destroyed and the memory of the Warspite faded into myth, the mighty warship had become the now warrior race's god, one who could only be appeased by the total victory of a single clan. Most clans viewed this myth with some skepticism and fought purely for their own ends. However the most dangerous clan proved to be those driven by a zealous fanaticism for the war spirit.

== Greatax ==

It was this clan that the warlord Greatax became heir to. Clan Gre’ta was the last to stand against the Loris Alliance and did so for several centuries before the Clone Wars that swept the galaxy. It was during this period of galactic unrest that Greatax unleashed his armies against an unsuspecting alliance that had long since stopped focusing on the art of war.

The royal family had moved its holdings to the lush world of Galore. Greatax saw an opportunity to wipe out the royal family and took it, the move was supposed to break the spirit of the Loris Alliance and force a quick surrender as Greatax laid waste to the northern continent of Galore from orbit. Instead of fealty Greatax was faced with insurmountable odds as thousands upon thousands of angry armed civilian vessels descended upon his fleet. The prospect of certain death did not sully Greatax’s day, he would die as the last of the great clan lords and as the last true warrior of the war spirit. For him and the remaining clan lords of the alliance, there was no greater honor. Though he committed a great act of genocide by obliterating the northern continent, Greatax would go down in history with great respect from the Lorisian people.

The clan lords quickly formed the first senate to fill the power void left by the utter annihilation of the royal family. However disagreements between senators often ended in bloodshed on the open forum. Over the next few decades the senators would replace the tang of a blade with the poison of a tongue, the art of politics shown in the Imperial senate would quickly influence the Alliance senate. The eighth president would be the first to placate local moffs and governors with bribes and patronage. Loris’ history of ambiguous neutrality and their apparent inability to pose a threat kept the Empire from showing a great interest in the Lorisian people. That was until a practitioner of the dark side of the force under Palpatine attempted an ill-fated coup. He thought to use the Lorisian people as an army against the Galactic Empire, fodder to allow him an opening to remove Emperor Palpatine and his dark lord, Vader. It was his own apprentice that ended his short lived career and marked the beginning of a young Esran Croft 's interest in Loris.

== Esran Croft ==

When Esran became director of Imperial Intelligence, he created many businesses as fronts for his covert operations. Several of these operations were based out of Loris and the most famous of these was ECE. Loris became a center of trade and recreation. The rebellion took marked interest in the teachings of the then meager military academies of Loris whilst many took note of the universities and libraries of Loris.

Esran used his own influence as director of intelligence to keep the Imperial navy from attacking rebel ships in the area. This allowed the intelligence services to garner large amounts of information on rebel movements. However there was an exception to this. The Red Star Alliance  commissioned  Kuat Drive Yards  to construct a  Super Star Destroyer  named Justice. This ship was hunted down by the Empire and eventually cornered at the Midnight Nebula Casino and Resort. The Empire however did not win as Rebel vessels and ships from across the galaxy had raced to head off the Imperial fleet and make a stand against them. Loris would also be the theater for the embittered war between Esran Croft and his mother, the disposed Imperial Regent.

Prior to the death of Palpatine and the destruction of the second death star, Esran faked his own death at the battle of Tarsonis. Esran had seen past his master’s folly to the true potential of the Lorisian people, he had spent his time in the Empire wisely and set himself and Loris up quite nicely. Once the Empire thought him dead, he quickly moved to bribe enough people or use his influence as a leading Lorisian business man to install himself as senator for business. It took him less than two years to manipulate a vote of no confidence in the existing administration.

Esran was more than happy to accept the office of president. The Loris Alliance was not transformed overnight, though subtly the change was not unnoticed by some. Esran’s long standing friend Merix Coloth stirred the hearts of the repressed miner’s guild and lead them into open revolt cutting the inner planets of the Loris system off from the rest of the galaxy. This blockade was ended swiftly by Esran and lead to the Alliance ratifying the creation of a standing military, something unheard of since the days of the clans. Merix and his staunchest followers were exiled.

== Birth of an Empire ==

Esran had made a friend of a rebel commander known as Coret Trobane. Trobane controlled CEC  and by proxy controlled the corellian government. It was through this friendship that the two would form a pact between Loris, Corellia and the Swords Worlds Alliance. This pact would be known as the Triad. It was through this Triad that Loris began to aid the New Republic and it was soon apparent that the Lorisians were fierce fighters capable of producing warships comparable to the larger governments; this gave the Lorisians a reputation money could not buy. The New Republic even moved its headquarters to the Loris loyal system of Kelderis after they were forced to evacuate the water world of Mon Calamari.

=== Civil War ===

This move did not last more than a few years before the New Republic took control of Coruscant. The move to Coruscant left the Kelderis system in a state of economic ruin overnight. Esran instituted the draft to relieve unemployment and brought in new military industries to Kelderis. This was not a popular move by many and Coloth saw this as a chance to remove Esran from his position. It lead to open civil war, a war Esran himself had orchestrated.

Coloth once again had been used as a patsy for Esran’s ambitions. He had been given emergency powers to deal with the situation and for the past year been building up forces in the secret system known as Seier. The final battle of the civil war lasted all but a day, Coloth had thought Loris open to attack only to find him trapped between the planet and a Seier built fleet. Coloth and his forces fled to Loris city where once again it would be fought over for supremacy. Esran’s elite strike troopers and the mysterious cadre lead by Esran himself drove a wedge deep into the rebel lines leaving them open for attack by the regular armies of Loris. Esran’s negotiation by lightsaber brought the battle to an end with a ceasefire called by Coloth himself and his wife Shira. Once again, they found themselves exiled as the condition of an easy surrender.

Esran moved quickly this time. Rebel sympathizers in the senate were executed, senators loyal to Esran were forced to install him as Emperor. Unlike the clan lords before him, Esran did not covet the city of Loris. Instead he left it as a hollow shell to remind the people that unrest would be met with an iron fist. Those of great importance in the galaxy arrived for the coronation of Emperor and Empress Croft, though the famous Jade Croft remained mysterious and aloof. The only exception to the line up of impressive names was an envoy of the now hated New Republic. Though the senator for Naboo was present in the Queen of Naboo’s entourage.

The Lorisian Star Empire has grown to be a powerful force in galactic politics. Its enigmatic leader continues to inspire his people to do his will whilst his wife continues to stay illusive. Not much is known about Jade Croft, she has ties to many businesses. Most contribute to a vast array or charities. Though she holds a soft face for the hard lined empire, she is known to be shrewd and a master of the force. These two rulers compliment each other in a way that keeps Loris from falling to the banalities that had crippled Palpatine's government.