HISTORY OF GALATEA

nce upon a time, there was a planet spinning in space. A wonderful Garden World, it was uninhabited except for plants. Then the Ancients came from a distant galaxy and landed on the planet and spread their civilization upon it. Thus began the Golden Age of the planet Galatea.

The Ancients soon decided that they will spread human life among the Galaxy, and began so. Exploring the Galaxy, they seeded the galaxy with human life on garden worlds like Galatea. Two planets in particular -- Archaeron and Arborea; were seeded with human life. However, the Ancients that seeded them took life in different directions. One group believed in Perfection of Beauty, the other group believed in Perfection of Survival. The group that believed in perfection of Beauty perfected the human form according to beauty and set their creations upon Arborea; the Forest planet.

The group that believed in perfection of survival redesigned the human form to survive on Archaeron. And placed that group of humans upon Archaeron. While the group that believed in beauty left their creations to propagate themselves; the one devoted to survival soon found themselves underseige by their creations within 30 years of creation. Few of the ancients left Archaeron alive -- they dubbed their creation "Orc." While the Arborea group dubbed their creation, "Elf."

The Golden Age of the Ancients was for two thousand years -- until a brown dwarf star crossed the orbit of Galatea. The chaos that ensued forced the Ancients to leave Galatea, while some Ancients stayed to survive the Long Night. The Brown Dwarf was dubbed "The Destroyer" by the Ancients and then the Brown Dwarf star completed it's perihelion in its orbit and swung forward to continue on it's way.

Two hundred years, the Ancients returned to Galatea, and began the Silver Age.


The Silver Age

The Silver Age of Galatea was when the Ancients expanded again. The Ancients created new wonders, and helped their fellow Ancients understand the high technology that they had. The Silver Age continued until Ancient Expansion uncovered an alien force of a most evil intent. This alien Empire has been expanding into the Ancient Human Realm for the past five thousand years and has proved a threat to the Galactic Community. The alien force were creatures that looked like humanoid mollusks -- with ten tentacles around their beak like mouths. And they possessed powerful psionic powers.

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The Ancients had to fight a war with them, and they were insidious as they spread. Many people fled their power. Their enemies invaded many planets forcing many races to Galatea: Merfolk, Lizardfolk, halflings, centaurs, gnomes (which came under their own power, scary!), dwarves, giants, kobolds, and of course -- the Elves (who called themselves the Eladrin) and orcs that retained their shamanistic ways.

The war took two thousand years, but finally the Ancients made it to the homeworld of their molluskian enemies. They razed the planet, burning it and sterilizing it of all life. Finally, they exploded the planet by altering it's orbit so that it plunged into one of its Suns; making sure that all of the enemy was destroyed.

Their resources exhausted, the Ancients blasted off many colony ships to their home galaxy in case they lost. Indeed, they did. The end of the Silver Age came and again came the dark ages. After the survivors learned how to smelt copper the Destroyer came, flipping Galatea's axis again so that South became North and vice versa. It was this event that signaled the coming of the goblins.


The Goblin Invasion

The Goblin Invasion was an invasion of a species that bred itself into three castes: Those who make and sell (goblins), and those who war (hobgoblins), and those who shock others into war (bugbears). Along with them are ogres -- big muscled brutes that had one head or two. The copper aged humans and other races were no match except for the application of magic.

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But the goblins captured most of the orcs and most Eladrin territory. Then they transformed them by introducing the orcs and elves to demon worship and altering their minds. The goblins then taught the elves and the orcs the secrets of Steel Making. They dubbed their new creations the Makonde horde, which changed their skin color from brown to green; and the Eladrin the Pelagasir Elves after their leader. Then they released them.

The Pelagasir descended on Eladrin lands, conquering and enslaving all before them. Unable to conquer all the Eladrin, the Eladrin who were left lived in colonies that their nation had established that were beyond the reach of the Pelagasir. While the orcs fought the humans and harried them and caused much consternation.

It took an alliance of Men, Free Orcs, and Elves who marched on the goblin capital to break their power. The final battle of the invasion was decisive, as the Free Races destroyed the goblins capital city and most of their technology and forced them to disperse through out the land. Thus was the end of the Bronze Age of Galatea.

THE IRON AGE

The Secrets of Smelting Iron and Steel spread among the people. The humans expanded this knowledge and soon learned the Riddle of Mithril from the Dwarves. Conversely, the demon worshipping orcs learned the riddle of Thorium. Although many orc miners and smelters died from handling Thorium, they managed to improve their steel with small amounts of the metal.

Then came something that changed everything. Well, SIX somethings. Six large ships crashed on Galatea coming from a distant Galaxy. They were: The Bretonia, the Ys, the Rhineland, the America, the Hiroshima, and the Hispanola.

The people on board came from Earth -- in a far distant galaxy called the Milky Way. The Hispanola, Ys, and Rhineland crashed on Hyperia. The Hiroshima landed on Ashera; the far eastern; and no one knew where the America had landed. The Brettonia crashlanded on the island of Anglesey in the Caithness Isles. In no time, the new humans conquered the lands around them. They also integrated into society, their technology having become "lost."

The Brits had conquered most of the Caithness Isles. The French of the Ys formed a new country dubbed Occitania, the Hispanics created Espania, and the Germans recreated Rhineland. They all brought their religions with them, supplanting the worship of the Ancients in many areas. They created a new empire that lasted 700 years. And that was the end of the Iron Age.

The Middle Ages -- the Present

Using the power of the Church, the nations that broke away from the Empire suppressed learning, science, and all knowledge; plunging the world into a new Dark Age. The technology was stagnant, learning was stagnant. The secrets of steel and magic was all that they knew. War became incessant, and the Doctrine of the Church could never be challenged. Until now --

On Angland, which was a penal colony of Caithness for those who were disbelievers or new agers; came a new faith -- the Sacred Light. The brave who stood up for common values started fighting their enemies. The orcs, to maintain their culture, broke away from demon worship and fled to Killyronde and started their own nation. Elves from the ancient land of Massalia conquered Anglesey and made it their new home. And new thoughts arised in human thinking. Thoughts of freedom and exploration to challenge the Church.