End of Hope War

The End of Hope War refers to the war between House Goratrix and the Empire in 29 CE, and to the various conflicts that arose over nearly a year in the political aftermath. It was caused by Constantine Roma's escape from The Void and takeover of House Goratrix, and resulted in the division of the Empire of Eridanus; it would remain divided until early 34 CE, and Roma was finally defeated late in that year.

Patricius Slick Ink opens a Void Portal on Syrma Prime. Terrible creatures are released, ending many lives before they can be destroyed. Patricius Goratrix finally enters the Void and faces Constantine Roma, but is defeated and possessed; the powerful villain returns to Eridanus and leads House Goratrix in seceding from the Empire. In the aftermath, the entire Empire crumbles and the galaxy is thrown into chaos.

The Patricius Slick Ink Manhunt and Battle of Syrma Prime

On (DATE), in a surprise move, the renegade Voidcrafter Lord Patricius "Pat" Slick Ink left hiding and traveled to Syrma Prime. As he left his shuttle's beacon on, he was closely pursued by bounty hunters from Houses Houraisan, Von Carstein, Boudicca, and Nukem. Somehow, Pat made his way to the centre of the Chantry of the Void and the great Void Portal of Syrma Prime that resides there — and opened it.

What happened next is well known. A black "fog" began to fill the Chantry and the surrounding city. Within the fog, creatures which came to be called Void Spectres — unkillable, regenerating humanoid monsters with translucent skin, sharp claws and faces described variously as "monstrous", "a mockery of humanity", and "horrible... oh, gods, horrible" — hunted down and swarmed every living person. The number of casualties, both military and civilian, caused by the Spectres is uncountable; according to some reports, the Spectres incorporated the flesh of the dead into their own forms.

This otherworldly invasion provoked further response. Godwinson and Quest forces joined the existing bounty hunters and the local Void Engineers in battling the Spectres, while the Void Incarnate Lord Patricius Goratrix and three clerics of the Order of Light (an organisation only recently rumoured to have returned, after House Goratrix's crusades) made their ways to the Void Portal. Patricius Goratrix, Pat Slick Ink, and the cleric Sealgair Throckmorton physically entered the Void, but the other two clerics (Toireann Throckmorton and Clémence Dawdy) remained behind and were met by Heulfryn and Captan Boudicca, and Oscar Quest.

Napalm carpet bombing by Houraisan forces finally stopped the Spectres and dissipated the fog — for a while. But soon the scorched and shattered remains of the Spectres began to pool together again, and this time they formed a single, massive abomination. As one babbling soldier described it afterward:

The flesh and bones and blood and guts of the monsters began to come alive again into tiny little squamous clumps that crawled and slithered along the ground towards each other. The minuscule abominations, driven by a will to gather and emitting a vile sound reminiscent of a man holding back vomit with every step, huddled together and became one. A massive swelling of the foul flesh, oozing red ichor from teethed orifices and white humor from burst pimples, bulged from the ground and began to form features. First, long and lanky limbs of muscle and bone, the skin having forgotten to form save for a few scant scraps hanging from the appendages. Then, a set of eight stumpy legs, covered in the faces and arms of crying infants, whose mouths, dripping with acidic and diseased saliva, never closed except to eat whatever organic matter it could clutch in those disgusting hands. And then, from what could laughably be called the chest of the creature burst the giant form of a long-haired woman of a seductive figure from the waist up; its arms insulted goodness and decency by shielding its breasts - as if it had any modesty or dignity to preserve in the first place - and from its mouth, once stitched together, spewed a sticky, inky black substance that was not quite liquid, but not quite solid either. Finally, a mockery of a face sprang from the summit of the evil mountain of meat; a worm-like neck with a round, anus-like orifice lined with a myriad of teeth, which wheezed and coughed out contagious phlegm with every labored breath.


The creature surveyed its surroundings and spotted the Von Carstein and Godwinson forces. A hideous roar of the worm wheezing, the harpy shrieking, and the screeching howls of a million crying infants signaled its intentions well as it made its way towards them.

The Abomination immediately became the focus of all the present militaries, and they appeared to make some progress in wounding it, but like the Spectres from which it was birthed, it had the ability to regenerate damage as quickly as it could be caused. Oscar Quest escorted the two Order of Light clerics to the feet of the Abomination, and while an unidentified winged figure distracted the creature, Toireann assaulted it with a powerful wave of Light, stripping its protections away. This allowed a concentrated attack by all seven militaries to destroy the Abomination.

Oscar Quest was recovered from the devastation, badly wounded, and escorted away by Boudicca medics along with a mysterious girl calling herself Ginger Forge, who had been discovered near the Portal by Heulfryn and Captan. Sergio Von Carstein, Toireann Throckmorton, and Clémence Dawdy were also all recovered from the crater alive.

What occurred within the Void is known only to those who were there. None of them could return to Syrma Prime (see below), but Pat Slick Ink and Sealgair Throckmorton emerged from a Void Gate on Acubens a short time later. It isn't known how the Void Incarnate returned to Eridanus, but he was soon leading House Goratrix again.

Fearing for more otherworldly invaders, the Eridani Coalition decided that the Syrma Prime Void Portal needed to be destroyed. On the last day of Hope, Coalition forces began to assault the Void Engineer heartland, and in a remarkably short time the stronghold was destroyed and every Engineer facility demolished.

Controversially, these attacks were outside the bounds of feud law but were immediately pardoned by the Prime Minister and Emperor.

Keturah Goratrix went missing after the battle.

Within days of the Void Incarnate's return, it was common knowledge that something had happened to his mind in the Void. Realising the threat he posed, House Quest soon launched another attack on Goratrix facilities. This attack, too, was outside the bounds of feud law and rendered House Quest a renegade house. Refusing to bow to Emperor Godwinson, the Void Incarnate demanded one third of Eridanus for his own domain, independent from the Empire. Almost simultaneously with House Quest's attack, House Goratrix made a series of attacks on Coalition holdings. He was quickly joined by House Slick Ink, led by Goratrix's former enemy, the Voidcrafter Pat Slick Ink. Both houses were declared renegade. Coalition forces responded, and a galaxy-wide war broke out.

In mid-Faith, the Void Incarnate made a startling admission: he was no longer Patricius Goratrix at all. He was Constantine Roma, the legendary tyrant of Eden, whom the Void Engineers had long warned lurked in the Void and intended to invade Eridanus. Constantine denied the claims, assuring the nobles that, though (in a continuation of one of Patricius' wishes) he refused to subject his stolen House to the will of an antagonistic Emperor Godwinson, he had no intentions to conquer the rest of Eridanus, and that thousands of years trapped in the Void was sufficient punishment for his crimes.

After the 22nd and 23rd of Faith, when House Goratrix executed a vast purging of northern Coalition holdings, Premier Joseph Quest surrendered to House Goratrix and joined Roma's side, being named Seneschal of the Domain. Shortly afterward, armistice was reached and ongoing attacks were recalled.

Houses Boudicca and Quest, formerly close allies, soon erupted into brief hostilities due to Quest's betrayal of the Coalition.

House Slick ink's requirements for peace included the resignation of Prime Minister Erina Boudicca. Ethelinda Invernigon nominated herself to the Senate to be the replacement, but this motion failed by default (see below).

The Coalition reluctantly ceded 27 planets to Goratrix's independent government, which came to be called the Northern Domain. Roma demanded that all Imperial facilities within the Domain be demolished; in return, no Domain citizen would have facilities within the Empire. Similarly, Domain and Empire houses could not stand for government of each others' planets. This caused vast political and economic upheaval over the following months, and several houses were forced to choose which nation they would side with based on economics alone.

On the 16th of Virtue, Emperor Cuthbert Godwinson abdicated the Throne and unilaterally dissolved the Empire.

"It has become clear to me that, quite simply put, my late-brother was right. You're all swine. Lie in the bed of your own making." - Cuthbert Godwinson

Immediately afterward, Godwinson forces began destroying nearly every non-Godwinson facility on Mebsuta Magna. Godwinson proclaimed that planet an independent nation — the Duchy of Mebsuta Magna — with Cuthbert as its Duke and sole ruler. Meanwhile, the Duke's relations with the Falconeers took a turn for the worse. A lack of communication resulted in most of the Falconeers, save for House Houraisan, not realizing the declaration of the new state and interpreting the attacks as entirely unprovoked, threatening to escalate the war to beyond just merely Mebsuta Magna. Fortunately, a few communications between Godwinson and Dekara through Houraisan later, and the situation was mostly defused, although the Dekaran military did destroy the Arx de Voivocus Aedes, while remaining adamant on maintaining their facilities on Mebsuta Magna out of pure principle.

House Godwinson also publicised the coordinates of the previously unknown planet Kitalpha.

With imperial law gone and many senators resigned, a number of houses began forcibly seizing governance of nearby planets.

With the Eridani Coalition abolished due to House Quest leaving for the Northern Domain, and its short-lived replacement called the Empire of Eridanus dissolved with Godwinson's abdication, House Pershing looked to seize the day and established the Guardians of Eridanus. Their intention is to reform the Empire, as much as possible. The fact that House Slick ink appears to be willing to cooperate may point to the next Emperor of the Eridanus Empire...

On an mostly unrelated note, House Houraisan had contracted House Boudicca to perform some demolition work on their assets in Domain space. Unfortunately, this grew to become a rumor that Boudicca was on the warpath, prompting a small panic amongst Lunarians before their Queen was able to explain the situation on galactic TV. A few weeks later, in the month of Fates, House Goratrix contracted House Boudicca to demolish their non-Domain assets.

Final borders of the Empire and Domain. Click for full size.

On the 24th of Fates, Lazarus Pershing, leader of the Guardians of Eridanus, was formally named Emperor of Eridanus. He quickly began reconsolidating the remains of the Empire.

Meanwhile, House Godwinson revealed a second discovered planet - Phact. The Duchy of Mebsuta Magna merged with the recently-formed Alkaidi Neutral Zone as of 1st Glory, and House Godwinson, in betrayal of its earlier stated intentions, joined the Northern Domain. However, Emperor Pershing later annexed Mebsuta Magna for the Empire.

In mid-Glory, Domain houses began forcibly clearing the holdings of Imperial houses in the North. It was at this time that the Blackbird disappeared.

Over the months of Glory to Tributes, the Domain houses gradually demolished Imperial holdings in the North. A small spat arose between the Domain and the Houses Dekara and Raptor over this action. The first 'spectral' sighting of the Blackbird was recorded in late Vigilance.