In 2878, centuries after man’s diaspora to the stars began, 50,000 colonists left
Earth aboard the sub-light hibernation starship Jason, bound for the Manticore Binary star
system.
This was the unassuming start to a nation that would one day stand amongst the mightiest
powers in known space; the Star Kingdom of Manticore.
Yet dreams of future glory were far from the minds of the initial settlers, forced to endure
a tedious journey that lasted 640 years.
Suspended and preserved through cryonics, the colonists were only occasionally woken
to perform repairs aboard the Jason, while the expedition’s leader, Roger Winton, used
the centuries to invest their remaining funds so as to support the development of a new
colony when they arrived and guard against any unforeseeable complications.
Developments in spacefaring technology meant that the Jason was not the first ship to arrive
in Manticore, and the colonists were pleasantly surprised to learn that centuries of prudent
investment had allowed Roger Winton to purchase some initial infrastructure and the use of
four frigates to guard against piracy that had sprung up across the centuries.
With this unexpected boon, the colonists quickly set to work establishing their holdings on
the primary planet Manticore, namesake of the system.
By 3525 they had expanded their efforts to Sphinx and Gryphon, the other two habitable
– though less comfortable - planets in the system.
The colony prospered across the decades, its growth interrupted only by intermittent skirmishes
with the Free Brotherhood, a loose confederacy of pirates who had come to prowl the vulnerable
systems of the frontier.
The greater danger however was the outbreak of a unique alien plague on Manticore itself.
The epidemic, while severe, was overlooked as a serious health risk until it mutated
into a far deadlier variant and spread to neighboring Sphinx and Gryphon.
Successive mutations prevented any vaccine from easing the crisis and by the time a truly
effective cure had been developed and the plague eradicated, nearly sixty percent of
the Manticoran System’s population had been lost, including many of its key technical
experts.
In dire need of more colonists, Roger Winton, endowed with widespread support and respect
amongst the Manticore citizenry for his reliable leadership, proposed rewriting the constitution
to encourage a new wave of immigration, while ensuring the original colonists would retain
the influence they had worked and bled for.
In 3588, the peerages of the Star Kingdom of Manticore were born under a constitutional
monarchy, with Roger Winton crowned as the first reigning monarch.
The Kingdom was bound to the Manticore Constitution which clearly defined the monarch’s limits
of power, included a declaration of universal rights and carefully balanced the role of
a monarchy with the will of the people.
This latter aspect of the state was enforced through the bicameral Manticore Parliament,
which consisted of the upper House of Lords and the lower House of Commons.
Members of Parliament were elected every four years from a variety of political parties
and independents.
Officials from the leading party were appointed to the Royal Council, which itself was led
by a Prime Minister and responsible for advising the Crown on matters of state.
But the most critical reform implemented during the establishment of the Star Kingdom was
a tiered citizenship program which helped alleviate the devastation brought about by
the Manticore Plague.
Depending on how much capital they were willing to commit to their new home, perspective immigrants
were granted one of three levels of citizenship: secondary shareholders, yeomen, and zero-balancers.
Secondary shareholders could purchase noble patents which included titles to either planetary
or orbital property.
Most of these new shareholders chose terrestrial estates, but a select few instead opted for
the industrial rights to mineral dominions in the nearby Pegasus Belt.
Some of these industrial shareholders would later grow into the most wealthy and influential
members of the hereditary aristocracy.
For those unable to afford such titles, yet able to travel to Manticore by their own means,
the Star Kingdom granted yeoman status.
These citizens were given land and credit upon arrival and became eligible to vote after
one year of residence.
Even for those who were unable to afford the journey, yet dreamed of a new world full of
possibilities citizenship was possible.
In exchange for travel to Manticore, so called “Zero-balancers” were allowed to find
employment and were granted full citizenship status after 5 years of residence.
All residents – full citizens and landed immigrants – had equal human rights, but
differences in voting status upon arrival led to three disparate social groups.
Prejudice based upon the immigrant status of a citizen’s ancestors became entrenched
throughout the Kingdom’s society on all three planets, regardless of an individual’s
current economic status.
Intermingling between the three classes was socially discouraged.
Feuds grew commonplace and could last for centuries.
Despite these social idiosyncrasies, fresh waves of immigrants allowed the exploration
of the system to continue, bringing with it remarkable new discoveries.
On the world of Sphinx, contact was made with a shy arboreal species known as treecats.
These creatures were originally estimated to have a low sentience rating, but as more
humans acquired strange, lifelong empathic bonds with treecats, a conspiracy of silence
grew to obfuscate the true nature of their underlying intelligence in an effort to protect
them from exploitation.
Eventually their nature was revealed and the treecats were recognized as a sentient race
by the Manticore government, given the rights inherent to such a lifeform as well as ownership
over a third of Sphinx in perpetuity.
Greater still however was the discovery of a massive wormhole junction within the Manticore
Star System.
Having already revolutionized interstellar travel through much of human space, this discovery
made the Star Kingdom one of the most valuable trade hubs in the sector almost overnight.
Manticore was soon amongst the wealthiest systems in the galaxy, rivalling even Sol.
The tremendous advantage afforded to Manticore by this development drew the frustration of
several other star systems and accusations of high-handedness and arrogance often sounded
amongst the Kingdom’s economic and military adversaries.
In order to administer the massive volume of traffic that flowed through Manticore,
the Royal Manticoran Astro-Control Service was established shortly after the discovery
of the junction.
This uniformed civilian service, responsible for traffic control and customs inspection,
operated bases stationed at the central node and at each of the six terminus points; Basilisk,
Beowulf, Gregor, Hennesy, Matapan, and Trevor’s Star.
It supplemented the already formidable Royal Manticoran Navy which had likewise benefited
from the systems economic rise, and together with the Royal Manticoran Marine Corp and
the Royal Manticoran Army, constituted the Kingdom’s armed forces.
These were stationed across the star system operating in fleets or independant task forces
and tasked with the protection of the wormhole junction.
These forces prioritized initiative and aggressiveness, a doctrine pioneered by the legendary Edward
Saganami, widely regarded as the father of the modern Royal Manitcoran Navy.
The nations consistent economic stability paired with egalitarian financial opportunities
resulted in an unusually low amount of internal unrest throughout its history.
The only exception to this occured in 3824 when rising tensions on Gryphon between the
highly conservative aristocracy and the fiercely independent yeomanry led a prolonged period
of civil disobedience that became known as the Gryphon Uprising.
For two years the conflict raged across the planet until the Crown finally intervened.
The Royal Manticoran Army was deployed in support of the yeomanry, ending the rampant
corruption of the local nobles.
Beyond the occasional confrontation with small local pirate elements, the Star Kingdom enjoyed
no genuine threat to their sovereignty until the 3950s, when the Republic of Haven embarked
on a policy of conquest as a means of propping up its bloated and crumbling welfare state.
With the foresight long associated with the House of Winton, King Roger III - the 15th
reigning monarch, directed a policy of military rearmament, quickly making the Manticore Armed
Forces the most advanced in the galaxy, as a counterweight to its smaller manpower base.
Renewed efforts were also made to locate any undiscovered termini linked to the Manticore
Wormhole Junction.
The discovery of such a terminus in the Basilisk System would lead the Star Kingdon to annex
Basilisk outright, leading to a military standoff with the Republic of Haven.
The Star Kingdom of Manticore has long enjoyed a place of superiority over its neighbors
and rivals, owed first to its economic forethought and later to its control over a critical wormhole
junction.
The newly anointed Queen Elizabeth the 3rd, while young, recognizes the stark realities
of her Kingdom’s position, for all across the galaxy, the Star Kingdom of Manticore
is looked upon with envious eyes.
In Audio Log, the Templin Institute describes the nations, factions and organizations of
alternate worlds the lack the visuals for a traditional investigation.
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