History of Hrydonia

In the Beginning...

The land that is now known as the Empire of Hrydonia was discovered in the mid 1600s AD by an English explorer, whose journey is only known due to its mention by a lower-class scholar. Scholars believe that Hrydonia derived its name from the name of the aboriginal inhabitants (or at least the aborigines that this explorer encountered), who called themselves Rydoniet, which was rendered in Latin as Rydonii, which became "Hrydonia".

From this, scholars have hypothesized that the Latinate name of Hrydonia shows that the discoverer of Hrydonia was educated enough to know Latin, which by extension shows that (presumably) he must have been a member of the nobility, or at least the son of a rich merchant. Scholars have also hypothesized that the native population within Hrydonia's present borders was around 50 million at the time of discovery.

Empire

Empire was declared in the early to mid 1700s AD, which scholars believe to be about 1720. However the exact date is unknown, as the records of the Hrydonian Emperors show that the first Emperors used a system in which the year was counted from a year after the first Emperor was crowned, so most lists say, for example: "Emperor Alexander I: R. 0-5".

After the Empire was declared, the bulk of Hrydonia's military and economic energies was devoted, for some 170 years, to the conquest of the aboriginals, and thus Hrydonia readily tested modern weapons, from the first rifled muskets to early machine guns, against the aboriginals. Another consequence of this was that Hrydonia cared very little about the outside world, devoting its energies instead to subjugating the natives.

The Empire Expands

About 360 years after the establishment of the Empire, a small spacecraft intended to start a colony on Mars was launched. Contact was lost, unfortuately, but in the time since then Hrydonia has expanded, forming small colonies in the Sol system (on Luna, Mars, and various bodies in the Asteroid Belt). After sporadic support from the Imperial Government, the Konstantinov Superluminal Engine was successfully tested in July 2376 by a two-way journey lasting approximately 2 months round trip between the asteroid belt in the Sol System and Barnard's Star. Once at Barnard's Star, the unmanned probe that undertook the journey gathered astronomical data on Barnard's Star and returned to earth. The probe returned in mid-August with the data, having successfully accomplished its mission. In April 2420, a colonization ship departed for a system discovered by an unmannned probe some years earlier, which was approximately 2000 light-years away from the Sol system. Some 38 years later, the ship arrived in the system. Terraforming on the third planet of the star Kingston began almost immediately, once the Government on Terra had been notified, and was completed in 2691. Elements of the Hrydonian Government had been gradually transferred to New Ursanton, the name of the third planet of the Kingston system, and the Imperial Family was officially transferred once terraforming was judged to be 95% complete. Several other settlements were established on various other bodies in the system, and gradually colonization of nearby star systems allowed the Empire to focus its energies.

Fall of the Empire

The Fall of the Hrydonian Empire is suspected not to have occurred overnight but to have been a gradual process caused by Hrydonia's general lack of elective government. Rumors that it was all engineered by AIDAN are widely considered untrue, except by small groups of religious fanatics that advocate the return to an agrarian existence, devoid of anything resembling an electronic computer - strangely, they seem to have no quarrel with steam engines. The last Emperor of Hrydonia, Alexander XIII, died in 2925 AD, without issue. The Duke of Kingston stepped in to avert disaster, and managed to rule, aided by the AI construct Weston until the bulk of the Imperial Armed Forces mutinied. Since the mutineers combined in the Imperial Army and Aerospace Force outnumbered the loyalists nearly 10 to one, the order was given to fall back to defend the Kingston System. The elements of the Imperial Aerospace Force that had remained loyal did manage to make it back to the Kingston system. However, a single battleship that had made it to the Kingston system was won by the mutineers aboard the starship and a fierce battle raged on the edge of the system, as mutineers aboard the ship clashed with loyalists. While the mutineers fought the loyalists for control of the communications room, other starships sent boarding parties to aid the loyalists. After several weeks, starships that had been won by the mutineers began arriving at the edge of the system and orders were given to the Starfleet to withdraw to defend the capital - orders generally ignored by most of the captains, who proceeded to do the opposite and roared off to engage the newcomers, and died in the process. Several did, however, follow orders, and withdrew to the orbit of New Ursanton - however, the two Dreadnoughts, 4 Cruisers, and 3 destroyers that did so were easily overrun, and mass hysteria over seeing the space battle overhead led to anarchy across the planet. The Loyalists attempted to keep order, but after electromagnetic pulses triggered by the nuclear bombing of major cities knocked out communications across the planet, and suddenly orders ceased coming from the Imperial General Staff and the Imperial Guard and other units attempted to keep order under martial law. Bombings gradually took their toll, and in some areas the COs of army units carved fiefdoms out for themselves. The Imperial Guard managed to maintain control of the neighborhoods around the Imperial Palace, and a platoon was sent to search for the Regent and Weston, and to recover them if possible. Weston was relatively safe, but the Regent could not be found. The highest ranking surviving officer of the Imperial Guard, a Major Christian Parsons, ordered the Guard to hold positions around the palace until further orders were issued, and so maintain a small amount of control over the capital and the surrounding area. In the years after communications were knocked out by the EMPs, people began to leave the cities for life in the countryside.