The Triconian Empire

By Travis Hewitt, 1995

Government: Good question, and one we've been trying to answer for as long as there's been a Triconian government. Administrative policy is created and wielded by the Council of Thirteen, a small but elite congress appointed by the people's will and attending to civil matters of state. Note that the Council's power and influence affect only the population of the Empire. They make the laws which all Triconian civilians abide by: the internal welfare of the nation is their purview. Laws are made by majority vote.
On the other hand is the executive branch of government; the so-called emperor. The person inhabiting this title is unrestrained bythe Council, is the commander-in-chief of all Triconian armed forces,and speaks for the nation to all foreign/alien governments. The executive also wields limited power as a sort of fourteenth councilmember and is allowed to approach the council with bills of his own.
So essentially the Triconian government can be termed as a military dictatorship with a parliamentary counterbalance. Both the Council and the Emperor are traditionally bound by the Libertarian Foundations, which is a modernized, highly liberal and absolutely irrefutable assertation of the rights and privileges of the Triconian citizen. The Triconians take this code of basic laws, adapted from the American Constitution, with utmost seriousness. We won't get intoparticulars here.
Enemies of the Empire: Few Triconians will utter the cursed name of the Armex without pausing to spit into the dirt. The Armex, a race of near-mindless cyborgs led by malevolent and highly developed artificial intelligences, were responsible for the subjugation of the human race on Urth and for the devouring of that world's resources. Humanity wasdelivered by the arrival of DeathSmith technology (now denied to the Triconians by Jel-O White, the man who provided humanity with the savior technology to begin with); the Armex were driven from Urth andthe Triconians were allowed to rebuild. However, the Armex were not destroyed or defeated by any stretch of the imagination, and it is common knowledge among the higher levels of Triconian military commandthat the Armex will be back.
The Triconians have no other enemies near them on the level of the Armex. The Orisian Empire certainly qualifies as a threat to bereckoned with, as does the Cyran Nationalist Empire, but for the mostpart these two juggernauts are more concerned with battling each other. The Triconians have taken this galactic lull for everything it's worth, and have used the time to restore and surpass their former strength.
Resources: The Triconian Empire loosely controls the vast Markham-Gillian production facilities left across this sector vicariously through the Blackthorn Empire and some neutral parties. These factories were left behind by their Earth ancestors, dead for several millennia. These mammoth shipyards and refineries give the Triconians staggering production capability, far more than they would possess on their own.
Also the Triconians have the mineral-rich systems of Trachnia, Tellar, and Alpha Centauri II, which they strip of allvaluable resources in the style of their worst enemies, the Armex. Most of their raw materials (92%) come from these three systems.
Another priceless resource is the knowledge and technology housed on Cyrus' Star. Ancient medical knowledge promises to increase the average human lifespan to 110 years! The Triconianshave a long process ahead of them, implementing the overwhelming libraries of knowledge left by their ancestors into their own lives. This will elevate their technology and power to equal that of the Orisians and Cyran Nationalists (or at least even the score up some).
Races: The Triconian Empire holds reign over humans, Cyrans to amuch lesser degree, the humanoid survivors of the planet Trachnia, and the shattered remnants of the Tellarite people.
Scope: The empire controls fifteen solar systems, including the nearby systems of Trachnia, Tellar, Alpha Centauri II, Cyrus' Star, and Gamma Canaris.
I should ask Trav about this: and both Terran solar systems.
The goals of the Triconian Empire focus mainly around survival in the face ofmassive and well-established space nations surrounding them on all their borders. To do this, the upper echelon of Triconian military command are very desirous of rejoining the recently-discovered Blackthorn Fleet (see Blackthorn Triconians) to the Triconian whole, with whatever means are necessary. The main goalis not unlike the old Manifest Destiny attitude of the old American settlers---they want to expand their boundaries; they don't care how this is accomplished; they don't care who gets inthe way.
Origin: OK, here we go. Hope you have some time on your hands. The Triconian Empire was conceived under very humble circumstanceson the planet Urth, in the year 1989. This was the year in whichan earthquake of unrivaled magnitude (9.1 Richter) tore apart the West Coast of North America in an awesome display of nature'swrath. Of course, the people of the West Coast were sadly unprepared for such a grave calamity.
The death count was estimated near 750,000, ranging along the coastal states and asfar east as New Mexico and Montana. Mexico and Canada were ravaged to a fairly equal extent. The earthquake drastically altered Western America's geography; volcanos sprung out of geo-thermally dead areas, vast sections of new coast were created while others were eroded by tsunamis, new mountain ranges were raised, and the surface of the western part of the continent was essentially shaken clean.
After this intense four day stretch ofcarnage, the survivors picked themselves from the wreckage oftheir homes and--- did nothing. The pervading shock of this incredible natural holocaust left most people numb.
A massive relief effort was predictably organized by thegovernment, which was left intact on the East Coast. However, there was a great deal of trouble left on the horizon for the U.S.of A. On the other side of the globe, the Soviet Union was literally electrified by this news. Nature itself had stepped inand crippled the USSR's arch-enemy, and the Kremlin was not about to let this golden opportunity pass. With the accursed USA destroyed, the Stalinist creed of world domination could finallybe realized. After a brief but heated debate amongst the Politburo as to the use of nuclear weapons (which fortunately was decided against), a great portion of the Warsaw Pact's military strength was mobilized and hurled against the eastern seaboard ofthe United States.

[Jed's note: Travis and Jason talked quite a bit about what followed after this point, and Travis has since taken back everything that he has written after this point. I am tempted to present it here to spite his writing folly and bruise his pride, but I'm bound by the greater good of the Game to not present it because it would only confuse you, the reader, with false fiction, misleading mistruths, and hyperbolic illusions. If Travis had email, you could flame him, but he doesn't and is all that much happier because of it. You should see how many thousands of bytes he did write after this which he now thinks is mostly bullshit. A writers work is never done.]

[Back to the RRPG Homepage]