The Lokansa: At its peak, the Lokansa Union spanned thousands of terraformed worlds and hundreds of member species. Its technology and culture were extraordinarily advanced, and the remaining functional Lokansa relics are the Empire's most valuable possessions. Around 18,000 BE (Before Era, i.e. before the coronation of the current Emperor), an event recorded as the War of Ascencion led to the seeming total collapse of the Union and a 2,000-year break in the historical record. The exact nature of the collapse is unknown.
The Lorganian Empire: The Lorganian Empire claims to be a direct successor of the Union, and nominally extends over most of the Union's former domain. It maintains its power via a monopoly on dragons, and by extension on fast Weave travel (see 'Weave Travel' below). The Empire itself is controlled by an aristocracy of hundreds of dragon families, with brutal and often violent competition between families for taxable territory and for military and administrative positions. Through their Seal of Heaven and the powerful Imperial cult known as the Kindling Church, the Emperor maintains a balance of power between the families. In particular, the Emperor's office must authorize all procreation so as to maintain control over fast weave travel (see below). One level below the aristocracy, the Imperial bureaucracy allows some non-dragon citizens to accumulate power rivalling that of the lesser families.
The Empire's territory can be loosely divided as follows:
-> Imperial core worlds: Administered directly by the Empire, these ~24 worlds house the Empire's central administrative and economic hubs. Residents typically have full citizenship, and enjoy advanced technology and a relatively high standard of living.
-> Imperial ring worlds: These worlds house the military and production resources of the great families, and serve as crucial links in Imperial trade routes and supply chains. While each family maintains a private military force, much of its wealth will be taxed to support the central Imperial army. Standards of living are somewhat lower than on the core worlds, especially for laborers with only partial citizenship, and devastating military conflicts between families are common.
-> Imperial periphery worlds: These worlds are generally owned by lesser families or quasi-independent licensed guilds, and fill in less crucial roles in the Imperial machine. Access to advanced technology is limited and most people are not wealthy, although partial-citizens still have many rights.
-> Independent worlds: Run mostly by industrial megacorporations, these worlds interact regularly with the Empire while existing outside its direct control. While these corporations cannot directly challenge the Empire or refuse its taxation, they compete violently with each other and frequently test the limits of their Imperial charters. While the corporate elite live in comparable luxury to the great families and people on non-corporate worlds may have decent lives, most people live in extreme precarity. Many corporations have ties with families, and families often use allied corporations to fight proxy wars.
-> Outer Reach: Worlds outside the de facto limits of Imperial influence. Some slide under the notice of greater powers and maintain independence, while others are snapped up by corporations or petty warlords and converted into hellish serf worlds. Technological advancement varies wildly, and most people live in relative cultural isolation.
Weave travel: There are two forms of faster-than-light technology, allowing 'slow' and 'fast' travel through the Weave. Slow travel can be performing through relatively widely available jump machines, although the size and power requirements of these machines limits them to large starships. Almost all routine trade and travel, as well as corporate and independent militaries, rely on slow travel. Fast travel is only possible via dragons or the few remaining Lokansa warships, and as such is restricted to the fleets of the Imperial families and the main Imperial military. Travel from the outer edge of of the Imperial periphery to a core world takes about four months via slow travel, and a voyage to/from the outer worlds can take years. Fast travel is essentially instant, allowing the Empire to maintain military supremacy over thousands of independent-world powers simultaneously.
Dragonrider Knights: Before the Lorganian War, dragons that failed to find a place in the family system could join the Dragonrider Knights and be paired with a non-dragon 'rider'. These pairs became diplomatic teams capable of journeying throughout the Empire, backed up by the threat of calling in an Imperial fast response subfleet. Riders were selected as older teenagers through rigorous examination, although anyone with even partial citizenship could apply. These Knights were charged with maintaining peace (or at least preventing disruptions to taxation) and curbing the worst abuses suffered outside the Empire's control. Over time, the Knights became a powerful independent faction within Imperial politics, often standing up against the depradations of the families. Many Knights also became involved in religious mysticism, and the families decried the organization as an anti-Imperial cult.
The Lorganian Civil War: As the Empire weakened and conflicts between families, corporations, and would-be separatists intensified, many Dragonrider Knights came to the conclusion that the Empire, and in particular its Emperor, was no longer capable of protecting the people of the known universe. Together with a sympathetic and powerful lord known as Ram, they planned to use forbidden sigil-craft to both kill the Emperor and prevent her reincarnation, abolish the family system, and gradually reassert Imperial control over all of Lokansa space.
After decades of preparation, the assassination took place in 17 BE. The Emperor was killed, but their soul was not fully destroyed, reincarnating in the Outer Reach on a serf world. Ram then turned on the Knights, using the assassination as a pretext to force them to flee or face execution. Some corporations used the chaos to attempt to throw of Imperial control, and the conflict quickly devolved into a brutal civil war. By the time of Ksiti's and Marek's story, the civil war has reached all but the most isolated worlds, and the various factions have coalesced into a few sides:
-> Path of Light ("Hawks"): Racial supremacists seeking to turn a newly expansionist and revitalized Empire into a vehicle for exterminating 'lesser' races. Led by Ram and a cabal of great families, who plan to eventually exterminate all non-dragons.
-> Loyalists ("Cranes"): A few families that were doing well before the civil war, together with much of the non-dragon Imperial citizenry. They seek to restore the old systems of Empire.
-> Independents ("Shrikes"): A constellation of corporate alliances seeking to use the chaos of war to expand their positions. Just as likely to fight each other as to cooperate against the Hawks and Cranes.
-> YANA ("Crows"): A group founded by former Imperial administrators sympathetic to the Dragonrider Knights, now seeking to organize an alliance of humanitarian-minded worlds capable of riding out the war.
Timeline:
~19,000 BE: The Lokansa Union reaches its peak extent and stops expanding.
~18,000 BE: The War of Ascension and the collapse of the Lokansa Union. Death(?) of High Lord Ayamira.
~18,000-16,000 BE: The Empty Millenia. Almost no archaeological evidence.
15,348 BE: Founding of the Lorganian Empire and ascension of the first Miroku Emperor. (Possibly apocryphal).
13,765 BE: First solid archaeological evidence for the Lorganian Empire's existence. Third core world is captured.
6,992 BE: Lorganian victory over the Ikhikh Resonance in the Second Genetic War, leaving the Empire in control of the entirety of the Union's former domain.
17 BE: The Miroku Emperor is assassinated, and the Dragonrider Knights are forcibly disbanded.
15 BE: The Lorganian War begins.
13 BE: YANA is founded.
3 BE: Marek's homeworld falls into war after being struck with an Imperial bioweapon.
0 BE: Vijay travels to the Imperial core and ascends the throne as the 289th Miroku Emperor. He is manipulated into supporting the Path.
4 EEV (Era of Emperor Vijay): Marek meets Ksiti.
6 EEV: Vijay leaves the Path.
8 EEV: Death of Satya. Marek, Ksiti, Hani, and Bhairava join YANA.
10 EEV: Vijay joins YANA.
15 EEV: Battle of the Asuras and deaths of Hani and Bhairava.
16 EEV: Battle of Heaven's Gate and death(?) of Ksiti.
17 EEV / 0 NUE (New Union Era): Lorganian Empire is abolished and replaced with the Lorganian Union. Inaugeration of High Lord Anjali.
4 NUE: Death of Vijay.
298 NUE: Death of Anjali.
14,442 NUE / 154 AE (Alliance Era): Marek and Ksiti reunite.
Religion: The Lokansa spread a form of Buddhism throughout their Union, influencing local religious practice across known space. In the present, 'Orthodox Lorganian Buddhism' is the state religion of the Lorganian Empire - in essence, Mahayana Buddhism with a strong focus on worship of the Miroku Emperor as a bodhisattva and future Buddha.
Language: The three most important languages in Lorgany are High Lorganian, the official court language of the Empire and the language spoken by most dragons, Low Lorganian, the native language of most people born in the core, ring, and periphery, and the Given Tongue, the constructed universal language spoken across the Empire.