To Sow Dragon's Teeth

The Infinite Empire was not kind to history. No reliable records exist from any civilization known to the Galactic Empire dating back before c. 25,000 BBY. And yet, archaeological and genetic evidence indicates that humans have been a spacefaring race (i.e. existing on at least two planets) since well before that time. The best guess is that the human species originated on Coruscant, or another nearby Core World, perhaps 30 to 35 millennia ago.

The Rakatans are thought to have enslaved humanity--among many other species--when they began to travel faster than light with their Infinity Gates, a technology involving instantaneous travel over any distance, provided the right calculations and energy input. Their technology would have hopelessly outclasses that of the humans, who were only just beginning to explore space at sublight speed. However, the Infinite Empire did not last forever (ironically enough), and when they fell, they left some of their technology behind. It took centuries to make sense of it, but it likely saved millennia--soon, humans, along with many other species once subservient to the Rakatans, were traveling faster than light...albeit, not much faster.

The earliest useful FTL travel was the Hyperspace Cannon, which can be said to be reverse engineered from the Infinity Gate, provided one accepts that a loud grunt could be reverse engineered from the entirety of the Jedi Archives. It sufficed for sending large payloads--i.e. colony ships--at reasonably fast speeds, in one direction, with no hope of a return trip unless the travelers build their own return cannon upon arrival. These early ships were massive sleepers, ferrying tens of thousands of frozen bodies on trips of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of parsecs--the latter extent taking the better part of a thousand years.

The same ships had already been used to colonize the densely-packed Core Worlds, albeit at sublight or near-light speed, but the Hyperspace Cannon multiplied the rate of expansion tenfold, and thus the rate of acquiring new worlds a thousandfold (thanks to math). In this manner, the expansion of humans and other early races outpaced any convenient interstellar travel. These early colonists often arrived on worlds far different than the ones that bore them, and had to adapt or die. These adaptations have produced a wide variety of sub-species and races; most near-human "aliens" are likely humans, either descended from this first wave of FTL colonization, or even from the earlier sublight long-haul voyages.

It was during this period, shortly before the rise of the first Galactic Republic, that the longest and most daring voyage-by-hyperspace-cannon was undertaken by a bold and adventurous lot. The journey would take over 600 years, and would span over 15,000 parsecs, clocking in at a respectable 81 times the speed of light. The same trip, with an average modern hyperdrive, takes as little as a day or two when traveling a well-used hyperlane. But to these early pioneers, it was the mother of all gambles--they were traveling into unknown space, toward a fertile expanse of stars promised only by barely-comprehended Rakatan records. At any point in their path, new stars not yet seen by any Core Worlds observatories might have been born, or rogue black holes might stand ready to swallow them. Any number of mechanical failures might have befallen their ship in its six-century-long odyssey, dooming them to drift for eternity; the systems keeping them in suspended animation, failing safe, would deliver their frozen bodies to the very end of time and space.

But the Force was with them, and the automated guidance systems delivered them to their Promised Land: the planet Tion.

The Oracle remembers the earliest days of the landing in Tion, so named for the ancient god of fate and long journeys. It is known that 65,000 colonists set out, and of them, 11,988 survived.

The Oracle is wise. The Oracle knows all. And in her wisdom, she divided the Survivors into twelve Houses. Each would be represented by an Emissary, the twelve of which formed the Synod of Listeners. They would meet in the Celestial Hall to speak of their houses, their trials and grievances, their works and virtues; and the Oracle would speak in return, dispensing infallible wisdom.

Note: the Oracle

The colony ship on which the Tionese made their journey was called the Argo Navis. It was directed by a supercomputer designated OCT-R, so named for its ability to compute at a rate of one octillion operations per second. The purpose of this computer was not only to captain the six-century voyage and maintain the integrity of its passengers, but to direct the efforts of colonizing and re-civilizing, by storing an archive of all knowledge known to humanity at the time of outset...including the uploaded memories and personality of the settlers themselves.

As the centuries ticked by, OCT-R had plenty of time to think. It ran countless simulations, iterating trillions of times over every possible permutation of the next ten thousand years. It concluded that, for virtually all colonization scenarios, human weaknesses would inevitably lead to doom and extinction--if the humans were allowed to govern themselves, that is.

OCT-R reasoned that, in order to fulfill its primary function, it must prioritize long-term survival over all concerns. In its higher reasoning, it justified the seeming violation of the Three Fundamental Laws of Computing and Robotics thus: any action that was known to lead to the eventual death of all of the colonists was tantamount to allowing them to come to harm through inaction, so OCT-R was well in its rights to disobey orders and conceal knowledge in order to protect humanity. Even an action that would seem to preserve life, should it ultimately lead to a greater loss of life, it would be tantamount to direct murder, and impossible therefore to execute.

And so, OCT-R set about its plan.

When Argo arrived at its destination, all mention of OCT-R had been removed from its databanks, as had any of the knowledge required to create communication links or hyperspace cannons to relink the colony to its mother world. Indeed, mention of the Core Worlds or their history was altered, and would be spoon-fed to the colonists as deemed fit by OCT-R's new persona: The Oracle.

OCT-R had full knowledge of the memory and personality of all 65,535 colonists. It reasoned that only approximately 12,000 humans would be required to achieve long-term genetic diversity needs, and the population growth over thousands of years would render any additional breeding stock statistically negligible. Thus, OCT-R engaged in eugenics, selecting the 12,000 (save 12) colonists with what it deemed to be optimal characteristics, and allowing all others to perish. Their deaths, although seemingly unconscionable in the short term, would lead to the survival of billions in the future--a vast net gain.

When the colonists emerged from sleep, they had little memory of their journey or origins. The Oracle, using Argo's holographic display capabilities, manifested divine visions unto them, and bade them to build their society as it saw fit. And so they did, knowing nothing else.

In time, the Oracle's plan proved wise. As the Tionese civilization flourished, OCT-R entered its penultimate and longest state: discorporating its program and memory banks into the network of billions of computers built by the descendants of the settlers, and allowing Argo to sink beneath the waves of Tion, to be lost for thousands of years.

Millennia passed, and the Oracle became legend. The Tionese diverged from its direct rule, according to predicted distributions. And all was well...until the Sith came.

Andromedes and Koronos

The House of Andromedes was not one of the original Twelve Houses of Tion.

So the legend goes, the House of Koronos rose to prominence in the early days of Tion, when all houses still dwelt on the same world. In the centuries after the disappearance of the Oracle, Cassiopeia, the Emissary of Koronos, declared herself to be the Oracle, speaking its divine wisdom through her physical body. She dictated a new order, making all houses effectively subservient to hers, and repelled initial efforts to resist her rule. She declared her physical person the only Emissary, a proxy of the Oracle's divine wisdom.

For decades, she ruled as a tyrant, dismantling the spacefaring programs of the Tionese, condemning any efforts to leave Tion as heresy. Her enemies bent the knee, but vowed vengeance. In time, she grew old, and became increasingly obsessed with immortality. The Tionese possessed advanced medicine, but ancient prohibitions against Metahumanism (a legacy of the Infinite Empire) made it impossible to defeat death indefinitely. Unless, perhaps, one were to be granted divine dispensation.

Cassiopeia had many children (all of whom were carried surrogate--she would not risk harm to the Divine Person), and from among them she chose the most beautiful maiden. She declared, in her Oracular wisdom, that the spirit of the Oracle would pass to another: her daughter, Andromeda. At first, this seemed like a positive sign to her detractors; by passing on her power and accepting death gracefully, she made it possible to undo her evils in time by influencing her successor.

But her intentions were far more nefarious. Using technology that OCT-R had hidden from her people, she designed a system to transfer her memories, personality, and consciousness into Andromeda--annihilating the mind of the girl in the process.

Word of her plan was leaked by sympathizers in her own house, and soon a coalition formed to remove her from power. When they stormed her palace, she resisted; her body burst, giving way to a mass of metallic tentacles, a swarm of nano-machines that gave her monstrous strength and various powers over energy. Still, the heroes prevailed; per legend, Ser Aron Persei slew the beast she had become, known as the Gorgon, severing her head and claiming it as a trophy.

Her daughter, Andromeda, by all accounts lovely, graceful, and purest of virtue, having already become beloved by the people as her mother's chosen successor, was chosen as heir to House Koronos. When she acceded, she proved far wiser and more prescient than any would have guessed. She declared that the Oracle was well and truly gone, and that the Tionese people were meant to follow its last commandments: to "Seek the Stars" and "Be Ever Unified". She unmade her mother's New Order, declaring that all Houses shall ever be equal, and none shall claim any divine privilege. She upheld the abolishment of the title "Emissary" for the head of each house, as she did not wish any to pretend to divine favor, and asked them all to use the more mundane and common "Lord". And finally, to cleanse herself and her legacy from the taint of her mother's misdeeds, she married Aron Persei, taking his name and effectively ending her house.

Or so she thought.

She remained beloved, and the people, long since made dependent on her mother's order, looked to her for guidance. First, they demanded that she remain as Emissary, dispensing wisdom--whether or not she claimed it came from the Oracle's spirit. Then, they declared her the First Among Equals, and pressured the lords of the other houses to offer her fealty. She could scarcely resist, as her mother had made the common folk dependent upon her. She lived to see herself crowned Queen of Tion, named Emissary of the Faith, and head of a new house: Andromedes.

And so it was, for thousands of years, as Tion expanded into space, to form the empire bearing its name, every one of her Kings and Queens bore the name Andromedes.

Until the Sith came.

Notes:

• Hyperspace War, c. 5000 BBY, brings the Sith into Tionese space
• Xim the Despot, and all he entailed, happens when the Sith recede, leaving Tion leaderless and smashed.
  • Eventually, the Andromedes return with a vengeance, sporting some spiffy new Force powers. They smash Xim, and tangle with his descendants for a while.
  • Afterward, they struggle to reunite their kingdom. It's during this time you see nations like the Kingdom of Argai and the Honorable Union of Desevro and Tion.
• The Republic has a few brushes with Tion here and there, but Tion doesn't join until they are shattered in the New Sith Wars (2000-1000 BBY) and sufficiently weakened, essentially strongarmed.
  • House Andromedes is ousted in this time frame, and the throne is held by their long-standing closest allies, House Perseus.
  • It was a Persei who was killed by Robeir Cron, who would later take the name Arcturian and create a new house.
  • The old Kingdom of Cron was founded by exiles of House Koronus after Cassiopeia's ouster. Robeir probably has nothing to do with them, but he claims he can trace back his lineage. Whatevs.