Daryen History Page

Brief History
Daryen itself was originally an Edenic garden-world whose human population was left behind by an Ancient, named Onsorik.  The Ancient had created self-sustained gardens which housed the Daryens in a cocoon of safety.  Eventually the gardens failed, forcing the Daryens out and driving the development of civilization and technology.  They eventually reach a plateau of TL 3, and remained there for centuries.

A small Solomani fleet fleeing the Long Night came to the Spinward Marches and chose Daryen to colonize.  Rather than coming as conquerers, the Solomani refugees came as equals and within a couple of centuries had fully integrated into the Daryen society.  The fusion of the two groups fed a technological fire that, after bringing the Daryens to the TL A of the Solomani, progressed to TL G incredibly quickly.  Unfortunately, that technological explosion came at a cost, the end of which was the Maghiz: a gigantic violent stellar eruption that devistated Daryen and its colonies.

Their modern history began in Imperial year -275 as the Daryen colony, Mire, returned to the stars after recovering from the catastrophic Maghiz.  They quickly set about recontacting all of the other colonies, including Daryen itself, and, various treaties and agreements rebound the various worlds to each other.  The lead to an informal association that is now known as the Daryen Group.  The Daryen Group was completely run by Mire, with little input from the other planets.  The primary focus of the Daryen Group was the reconstruction of an interstellar between the surviving colonies.  The secondary focus was establishing new colonies.  The Daryen Group was simply the base 11 worlds that are still known by that name.  Two other surviving colonies, Zamine and Entrope, were too far away for formal inclusion.  Zamine functioned as a client state; Entrope operated independently.

The Daryens were disappointed to find that the space around them had filled up during their centuries of recovery.  The Sword Worlds were trailing and the Zhodani were coreword.  While some of their former colonies were now beyond their reach, they still tried to expand out enough to claim what they felt was at least a reasonable sized area.  Much of this was driven by the bad relationship with the Zhodani, and the hostility shown by the Sword Worlds.

The Daryen Group remained fairly static until -148 when the Sword Worlds unified for the first time under the Sacnoth Dominate.  The Daryens then formally included Nosea into the Group and established military bases on Nosea, Zbume, and Mire to help serve as a defense against possible Sword World agression.  This configuration then continued until contact with the Third Imperium.

Contact with the Third Imperium in 148 invigorated the Daryens.  Seeing the economic possibilities caused them to reorgranized from the loose, paternalistic Daryen Group into the formal Darrian Confederation.  While there have been some minor variations in membership since that forming (most notably the worlds of the Entropic Cluster), the Darrian Confederation has been amazingly stable for its nearly 1000 years of existance.

Another result of the contact with the Imperium, was the further deterioration of their relations with the Sword Worlds.  Both polities viewed relationships and trade possibilities with the Imperium as competitive.  They both believed that a favorable relationship with the Imperium for one group meant a poor relationship for the other.

Once formed, the Darrian Confederation contented itself on its situation.  They quickly decided that they had little opportunity to expand, with the Zhodani coreward, Zhodani clients spinward, the Sword Worlds trailing and Imperial colonies rimward.  While there were expansionistic voices within the Confederation, the more conservative voices won out and the Confederation charted a course of defensive neutrality.  The centerpiece of this strategy was the rediscovery of the Star Trigger and the formation of the Special Arm of the Confederation Navy.

This strategy served them well, until the Fourth Frontier War.  During that war they lost the Entropic Worlds to the Sword Worlds for the second time.  Unlike the first time, where Entrope effectively jumped ship, this was a pure conquest.  And while Imperial influence prevented a full integration of Entrope into the Sword Worlds, the Imperium was not willing to allow the Confederation to disrupt the status quo in an attempt to reclaim the worlds.

The lost of the Entropic Worlds, plus the defections of Nonym and Condaria, was a huge blow to the collective psyche of the Confederation.  Their long term strategy of defensive neutrality had failed them, and they were left in a considerably weakened state.  Great debates raged throughout the Confederation halls on Mire as to the correct response to their predicament.  And while the long ruling Conservative party maintained control, their influence was maintained only because opposition groups had no answer that would gain enough support to dislodge the Conservatives.

The advent of the Fifth Frontier War provided the opposition the opportunity they were looking for.  A moderate group of Progressives was able to use the currently raging war to craft a new compromise that the Conservatives were no longer able to answer.  And while many groups within the new coalition felt that the Progressives were not being aggressive enough, they all decided that it was more important to take advantage of the situation, than to argue over the end goal.

This conflict took most of the Fifth Frontier War to resolve.  Once the new consensus was reached, however, action was quick.  Portions of the Entropic defense force was coopted, and, once infiltration was complete, a massive assault liberated Entrope from almost three decades of Sword World occupation.  The severe losses the Sword Worlds suffered in their attacks on the Imperium significantly muted their response.  The Confederation was easily able to beat back the Sword World counterattacks and hold the Entropic Worlds and fend of surprise attacks at Cunnonic.

Flush with this victory the Progressives started to chart a new path for the Confederation.  They came up with a four-fold plan for the immediate future.  First, reintegrate Nonym and Condaria.  Second, reestablish Confederation influence over the rest of the subsector.  Third, aggressively investigate expansion opportunites to spinward in Foreven.  Fourth, aggressively pursue their lost technology.

Within four years of the end of the 5FW, the Confederation has accomplished the first goal, and, with the exception of Garoo enclave, has done the second.  The third and fourth goals are in progress.

Interstellar Governments
There have been three Daryen interstellar governments:

• Daryen Confederation
• Daryen Group
• Darrian Confederation

For the most part they can be thought of as a single entity, but there are some subtle and important differences between the three.

Daryen Confederation
The Daryen Confederation is what existed pre-Maghiz.  It was completely dominated by Daryen and the other worlds were purely colonies or outposts in every sense of the word.  All ships and technology were made on Daryen.  The other worlds, except for Mire and Rore, simply supplied resources, be they agriculture or mineral/ores, or were scientific outposts.  It is likely this would have changed over time, but any such plans were stopped short by the Maghiz.

The Daryen Confederation constisted of Daryen and all of the worlds it had colonized.

Daryen Group
The Daryen Group was not really a government at all; it was more a loose association.  The Daryen Group was run completely by Mire, with little input from any of the other worlds, including Daryen itself.  When the Sword Worlds briefly unified, the Daryen Group formalized a military structure to guard against Sword World aggression.

The Daryen Group consisted of the classic twelve planets, with the later addition of Nosea.

Darrian Confederation
The Darrian Confederation was created in 148 after contact with the Third Imperium.  There was great dissatisfaction with the way Mire was running the Daryen Group, and all of the worlds realized that if they were to benefit from relationship with the Imperium, they had to get their own house in order.  The Darrian Confederation was organized such that all worlds had input into its operation and, while Mire remained the capital, its voice was no longer preeminant.

When created, the Darrian Confederation consisted of the worlds in the Daryen Group, plus Trifuge, Terant 340, Zamine and Nonym.  Over time, the Entropic worlds were added, followed by Stern-Stern.  The Entropic worlds were then lost to the Sword Worlds during the First Frontier War, then regained between the Second and Third Frontier Wars.  The Entropic worlds were again lost during the Fourth Frontier War, and Nonym and Condaria seceded; Cunnonic was gained.  The Entropic worlds were again regained during the Fifth Frontier War.  Shortly after, Condaria returned, Nonym was coerced into returning, and Kardin was taken over as a protectorate.  Finally, during the New Era, Karin was released and Ator joined.

Finally, note that while "Daryen" is the proper local spelling, the name of the Confederation uses the Imperial spelling instead.  This was a calculated decision intended to help with their relationship with the Imperium.

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