====== The History of the Lorath Matriarchy ======

==== Early History ====

The [[:lorath_matriarchy|Lorath Matriarchy]] begins its history in the on the planet [[planet:Lor|Lor]] orbiting the [[System:Lor|Lor System's]] red star. Here the [[species:lorath|Lorath]] and [[species:helashio|Helashio]] evolved side by side and developed their civilizations and cultures, warring back and forth for their planet's resources.

The turning point in Lor's history came when following an age of warfare the Lorath had turned toward an agrarian lifestyle tired of the fighting and suffering. Parallel to this, the Helashio managed to push toward the cusp of their industrial age beginning what they viewed as the beginning of their golden age. This golden age was cut short by a pestilence that killed crops and threw both the Lorath and Helashio into chaos as famine ravaged their people's.

Using the famine as a rallying cry the Helashio leadership blamed the famine and their suffering on the Lorath people and managed for the first time in history to cohesively unite the entire Helashio people in a crusade against the 'black winged devils' beginning a campaign of genocide to punish the Lorath for their perceived crimes. This campaign was largely successful owing to the Helashio's new industrial capacity and the Lorath's desire for peace, burning Lorath cities, slaughtering their population and driving them from their lands with little opportunity to rally.

In the 6,761st Year of the Goddess, as the end of the campaign drew near, the few Lorath defenders did what they could to stem the tide of the Helashio advance to allow for the desperate flight of their people into the extensive cavern system beneath Lor's surface. As the final battle drew to a close, the mouth of the cave that the Lorath had fled into collapsed and the Lorath were believed to have been vanquished.

Celebration among the Helashio turned to infighting as new crises and a depletion of resources over the course of the war led a once united people to turn on each other placing blame for their continued suffering without the unifying scapegoat of the Lorath. As the Helashio on the surface tore apart their civilization, the Lorath people struggled to learn how to survive beneath the stone without the caress of the sky and the capability to spread their wings.

==== Exile ====

Over the years the Lorath mastered their surroundings, building towns and eventually cities in the great caverns their survival, growth, and relative prosperity to allow them to learn, and eventually fight. With limited resources always coveted the Lorath people fragmented and reformed into factions based upon their outlooks and beliefs for the best course of action for their species. These factions fought, dissolved, and reformed before finally stabilizing into three large groups. These powers once stabilized would spend years in fighting each convinced that their vision for the Lorath was the true path that should be followed. This conflict bred dissent in the people tired from centuries of warfare eventually leading to a secret alliance between members of all three factions. After years of preparation and refinement, the Tur'lista revealed themselves staging a simultaneous coup removing the most belligerent elements of each faction and working as a middle ground to bridge and unite the three ideologies into a single people.

This would be the beginning of the modern Lorath Matriarchy as the Tur'lista began to implement the policies and practices that would become the core of the Lorath civilization. At the same time, the caste system was implemented and the Lorath began in earnest their efforts to prepare their people for the eventual reclamation of the surface of Lor, a dream that many acclimatized to the warring in the caverns had forgotten.

Technologies used to sustain life in the underground were improved, new schools of learning were founded, their religion was refined and guided into a beacon for the Lorath people. As well the eugenics programs were instated working to cultivate and maximize the capabilities, talents, and quality of each Lorath citizen making the most out of their limited resources by ensuring that each Lorath would be as useful to the whole as possible.

Early in the Year of the Goddess 11,761, after five thousand years spent locked away beneath the surface of Lor, the Lorath people had their day of reckoning. The Lorath returned to the surface in force, the Fyunnen caste's superior soldiers forming the vanguard, shock troops that poured forth out onto the surface followed by the Lmanel in support, re-learning and recording the land above while also working to capture and learn what they could from their Helashio oppressors. While the other two castes lead from the front the Occhestia followed and built infrastructure in the wake of the Lorath forces, ensuring that supply lines were established and ensuring the security of reclaimed lands.

Commanding from the front the Xiiah, and the Tur'lista guided their people and led them to victory by example using their combined prowess to cut into the heart of the enemy, defeat their leadership, and strip the Helashio of their morale.

==== After Exile ====

Following their return to the surface, the Matriarchy spent the next nearly five hundred years pacifying, collecting, and re-educating the Helashio populace who the Lorath had discovered to be disorganized and uncivilized. Using their experience with the development of their own species, the Lmanel began instituting breeding programs for the Helashio cultivating them and molding them into their modern species.

This time became a golden age for the Lorath, as they reclaimed the surface, they built magnificent cities, peerless cathedrals in honor of the Goddess, and once again focused on developing their society pushing their knowledge and mastery to new heights as for the first time in millennia the Lorath truly new peace.

This peace was abruptly shattered in the 545th year Post-Exile by the arrival of a belligerent space faring species, that despite a heartfelt attempt at a warm reception put forth by the Lorath people, turned violent and coerced the Lorath into cooperation. On the tail of this first encounter came another enemy that had been at war with the Lorath people's new unpleasant acquaintance forcing the Lorath people to rapidly adapt, adopting new technologies, and forming the LSDF in a mad bid to defend themselves from both an unknown enemy and the careless actions of a negligent foreign empire masquerading as a friend. This would lead to a time of crisis for the Lorath people, as magic seemed to flee from their world, and even the voice of the Goddess grew distant.

The conflicts of their reluctant ally would lead to the destruction of one of Lor's moons, the alien conflict leading to the satellite being used as a weapon against the Lorath people forcing an evacuation of over half the planet, the death of millions, and an ecological disaster the likes of which the Lorath had never seen.

In the wake of this catastrophe, the Lorath once again were forced to re-evaluate and work to survive enemies that seemed unstoppable and struggle against allies who were set on erasing and molding the Lorath's culture. This period of turmoil forged few fast friends, felt the bite of many nebulous enemies, the betrayal of the Occhestian leadership, the heart of one of their own castes, and eventually resulted in the reluctant evacuation of Lor due to a lack of allies and an inability to fight against interstellar powers on their own.

==== First Exodus ====

The preparations for the evacuation of Lor would coincide with a project headed by the Lmanel in conjunction with the loyalist remnants of the Occhestians known for a time as the New Tur'lista as a show of solidarity. This project led to the compilation of a library of every species present on Lor as well as a backup of the entire living populace, with the intent of acting as a safeguard in the event of another catastrophe.

Forced to settle and rebuild on a new planet, the Lorath steeled themselves and vowed to never again allow their people to be oppressed. Still forced to bow to the whims of outside parties masquerading as friends, the Lorath quietly built up their forces and prepared for a time that they would once again throw off the shackles of oppression.

Tragedy struck once more as one of their few allies succumbed to a sudden assault from one of their many enemies and the Lorath were forced to act quickly to save those that they could, securing the worlds previously held by their ally as they worked to try and rebuild for a war-ravaged populace.

Not wanting to risk being the recipient of a sudden attack twice, in Post Exile 549 the Matriarchy mobilized its newly refurbished LSDF fleet in a campaign to storm the worlds held by the Occhestian traitors. A swiftly brutal campaign was held, the Matriarchy bled to quickly cut through the Occhestian forces and ultimately sterilizing the Occhestian held worlds. Leaving behind the newly cultivated beginnings of pristine garden worlds the LSDF returned home to face a new crisis, one that would once again cause the Matriarchy to weep.

In an effort to defend refugees the Xiiah commanded a small Lorath fleet to meet one of their enemies and though successful in destroying the enemy forces lost her life in combat taking one of the Matriarchy's most prized figures in a time where the Lorath were beginning to wonder what else the universe would take from them.

Following this tragedy the conflict in the Lorath's area of space simmered down to a cold war between themselves and their initial oppressors who believed that the Lorath people should return to being a vassal of their belligerent empire. During this time the Matriarchy began to weigh its options, and after the sudden dissolution of a hard-won peace treaty, the Lorath were convinced that they would know no peace until either they or their oppressors were erased.

Unwilling to bleed his people in a fruitless, long lasting war, the High Priest initiated one of the Lorath's contingency plans and set in motion the exploration and creation of a doorway for the Lorath people. A doorway through which they would escape and their enemies could not follow. A desperate bid for a better, more peaceful life.

Upon the construction of the multi-stellar portal, and the dispatch of a vanguard ship to ensure their arrival, the Lorath prepared once more to leave everything they knew behind in hopes of forging a brighter future.

==== Second Exodus ====

The Current Recorded Lorath Year is the 12,316th Year of the Goddess, Post Exile 555, and equivalent to PA 269.
Now.

Details TBD

===== OOC =====
To do: Revise history.

Origins => Pre-Exile (may subdivide as developed) => Exile => Reclamation Era => Opression Era => Post Exodus