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The Imperial Triarchy
Alith comes from a ruthless, authoritarian and fundamentalist empire known as the Imperial Triarchy. Their people were — for centuries — the prey of a stronger species that dominated the surface of their planet, while they hid and dwelled in caves connected through an underground galleries system. The giant creatures that inhabited the surface were worshipped, feared and hated as punishing gods by those which dwelled underground.
This constant dread and fear for their lives was used by a group of individuals that, while trying to give meaning and logic to these harsh living conditions, also found a way to start accumulating power over the community by establishing strict rules of conduct and a strong religious hierarchy. The dogmatic following of these rules created a new way of life known as the Faith.
Those of The Faith started focusing on learning how these the anatomy of their surface overlords worked, and to replicate their capabilities in order to achieve perfection. They experimented with highly complex biomechanical implants to improve the bodies of their brave explorers, who were sent to the surface looking for resources and knowledge about these giant creatures.
After many centuries, the technology of the Faith eventually became complex enough for them to finally face their Gods in battle. A war began, lasting for decades and ending with the conquest of the surface. This created a massive shift in the prey mentality of the underground people known as "The First Foundation." They had become the predators now, and nobody was going to subject them anymore. Their religion converted to a new system with two main branches: Faith and War.
The Faith branch was the ancient way, and was concerned with the day to day ethics and morals of society. The War branch of the Church was born as the war against the Gods neared its end, and focused on militaristic development, social discipline and sciences. Guided by the memory of their past as a prey species, the next few centuries were focused on preventive conquering. They underwent the creation of a space fleet and started the systematic subjugation of less developed civilizations to consolidate their new mentality — becoming "Gods" amongst the stars.
With expansion came colonisation and impregnation from other cultures and societies. In the long run, this created religious tension among the Church as progressive individuals started to appreciate the diversity inherent to other species and forms of religion. These produced aberrant behaviors among pockets of populations that encompassed cross-species sexual intercourse, faith conversion and full-fledged heretical movements.
After a civil war engulfed part of the empire, to avoid heresy, criticism and opposition inside their society, the new Imperium became more authoritarian and less tolerant. As the Imperium conquered its self-doubt, the "Second Foundation" began with the creation of the branch of Truth. A branch concerned with dogma and belief. This foundation established the current state of political and religious affairs for the Imperium. The Imperium was now managed by branches of Faith, War, and Truth, as a Triarchy of power.
The branch of Truth destroyed all recorded history and banned the practice of keeping records of the past. The only holders of "truth" were the Triach of Truth and the Truthsayers. A Truthsayer was charged with holding established facts (or rewritten facts), and as such, the Truthsayers became a policing force among the administration of the Imperial Triarchy. This allowed them to justify any new conquest and aggression by claiming a "holy right" and a "divine quest" for the "universal truth." Despite all this, nowadays, the primary function of a Truthsayers is that of preventing, investigating, and purging heresy wherever it may spawn. To achieve that purpose, the Truthsayers would surgically remove leaders, sabotage whole planets and target individuals deemed dangerous. Those are known as truth-seeking protocols.
This sad, obscure and blind period was when O’Ree-Jin was first discovered by the civilization. The Imperium was the first to find the ruins and the power of the essence. Taking advantage of this fact, they rewrote their history again — claiming that this new planet was in fact their true point of origin and a lost paradise, so it was their right to inherit and exploit it. When the Triarchy achieves full dominance over the planet, the third and final foundation will take place.
As other civilizations reached the planet and became engaged in the process of extraction, the truth propagated by the Truthsayers began to crumble. As the conflict was not an option (due to mutually assured destruction), the branch of Truth quarantined all information on O’Ree-Jin. The only available personnel in orbit around the planet are personnel from the Truth branch of the church. They are deemed the only ones strong enough to mingle with other civilizations' falsehoods and with the events that take place on the planet’s surface.
As such, the Truthsayers dispatched to O’Ree-Jin are specialised in The Harvest ceremony. They are allowed to work with other civilizations... at least for the moment, as they gather enough truth about them.
Last modified 10mo ago