The Gate Builders

The Allied States of The Gate Builders is a huge, safe nation, notable for its barren, inhospitable landscape. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 581 million are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

The enormous, corrupt government juggles the competing demands of Defence, Healthcare, and Education. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 22%. A large private sector is led by the Soda Sales industry, followed by Uranium Mining and Woodchip Exports.

Jails have become colloquially known as 'vampire houses', The Gate Builders's army is full of two-metre tall super-soldiers, same-sex marriages are increasingly common, and naturists are jailed regularly for indecent exposure. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is well under control, thanks to the all-pervasive police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. The Gate Builders's national animal is the clone, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its currency is the credit chit.

Birth and Exodus

The Alteran race evolved millions of years before life on Earth, in a galaxy far removed from ours. They developed a sophisticated culture and the most advanced technology the galaxy has ever seen, period. At some point, before the ascension of the Alteans, they split into two factions: Alteran and Orii. The Orii believed that they should be as gods, the Alterans believed in non-intervention. The Alterans fled their old homes, and came to our galaxy. Once here, they constructed a system of artificial wormholes or Stargates (known to the Alterans as Astria Porta), which allowed them to build colonies in far-flung worlds. Eventually, they found their way to another galaxy, founding another stargate network. Unfortunately, this new galaxy was rife wtih a great threat: the Wraith. Although the Alterans had superior technology, and won nearly every engagement, the Wraith were so numerous that they kept on coming. The Alteans could not keep fighting, and gradually retreated to their Pegasus Galaxy capital, Atlantis. They fled through the Stargate, sinking the great city-ship.Once more in their Milky Way empire, the Alterans had a long period of further advancements, creating almost god-like technologies. It was a new renaissance, or more accurately, a pre-renaissance, being many thousands of years before humans had evolved to that point. It would not last.

Plague and Ascension

A mysterious plague swept the Milky Way, killing all life in it's path, including the Alterans. Millions died, and with no cure or natural end in sight beyond death, the Alterans focussed their attention on evolving beyond the physical form. They left the Galaxy in ruins, a lifeless place of daed worlds and empty cities. However, the Alterans would fix that. They developed what would become known as the Dakara Superweapon. Using the Gate network, it was used to repopulate the Galaxy, most likely creating humanity in the process as a kind of 'souvenir' of the Alterans, their second evolution. The Alterans left, for the most part, evolved into forms of pure energy and unending power. Some remained behind, but in the end, they all died out.

Returns

As Ascended beings, the Alterans refused to dabble int he affairs of motrals, and this grated on some of them. They had mostly been scientists and politicians, and longed for the universe they knew, where they could once more live as physical beings. They got their wish. In unison, millions of Ascended Alterans returned to the physical universe, taking with them all their knowledge as ascended beings, maintained by a massive effort of will and enormous levels of self-engineering before descension.

SeaQuest

Shortly after the return of the Alterans to this plane of existence, they came into contact with a group of hominids claiming to be Alterans. The false Alterans assaulted the Lantean system, but were repelled, and left the system. Ever since the two states have had no official relations.