Aetherite Empire

The Aetherite Empire is a major interstellar power located in the galactic northwest of the Aleph Sector, bordering the Pax Galactica. It is a theocratic realm structured around the Aetherite Faith, which is the sole legal state religion and whose head is the ultimate authority within the Empire.

History

The Aetherite Empire arose from the ashes of its predecessor realm that had been caught in the cataclysmic wakes of a failed wormhole project. Had it not been for the fact that the Aetherite species as well as most of its homeplanets biome are subterranean, this would have likely spelled doom for the entirety of the species. Likewise, it has been argued that, had the wormhole in their home-system not collapsed during construction, the Aetherites would now be the dominant species in the Aleph sector and possibly beyond, having achieved this technology centuries before any other species.

The cataclysmic failure of the Atherites first attempt at interstellar space travel had thrown their society into disarray and from those ruins arose a new faction centered around the newly proclaimed Aetherite Faith. Proclaiming salvation for the Aetherite species by ascencion to godhood, the faith managed to unite their homeplanet both by word and by force, eventually proclaiming the Aetherite Empire and setting out to reclaim the galaxy that had once been within their grasp.