Protectorate

Protectorate Crest by Rin Garnett

Protectorate

Restoring humanity's golden age.

Status

Operational (3000-present)

Location

HQ in Mithorous orbit
Ships across the sector

Summary

The Protectorate is the governing body behind the Talos Sector Protectorate Alliance. They seek out surviving human colonies and maintain interstellar peace between alliance members.

However, the organization is struggling to maintain legitimacy after a few key failures. Many now question how useful the alliance really is.

Hope for the Future

Year 3000. The title of films, albums, and other works of art with aspirations for the future. The founding of the Protectorate was full of those aspirations. They were explorers and diplomats on a mission to reconnect humanity across the galaxy, to one day climb back to the golden age we had before The Scream. With the newly-redeveloped Spike Drive, they could finally begin to live up to those hopes.

Discover

• Find and share metadimensional rutters
• Reconnect with surviving human colonies
• Uncover valuable resources for alliance members

Uplift

• Share knowledge and technology
• Upgrade underdeveloped colonies
• Support each other through disasters

Protect

• Defend transit routes from pirates and other dangers
• Avoid war through peaceful diplomacy
• Establish and enforce ethical galactic laws

Stuck in the Past

The Talos Sector wouldn't exist without the Protectorate, but today, most see the organization as ineffectual at best and obstructive at worst. There are still pirates, still interplanetary conflicts, and some planetary governments flaunt disregard for galactic laws and processes. Further, if the Protectorate's laws can't help planets like Rada, or stop events like the Razing, then how can they claim to be ethical?

Protectorate supporters would argue these flaws are natural limitations to any galactic government. When working at such a large scale, both in terms of distance and time, even 99% efficacy still leaves a significant amount undone. The effects of many Protectorate decisions are only visible in data decades later, or might only become apparent in their absence.
Those with the loudest calls for improvement are often Protectorate employees themselves. They see the value and potential in the organization, while also experiencing the flaws and shortcomings personally. The longer someone remains with the organization, however, the more likely they become complacent with status quo.

Key failures:

• Ongoing Livonia/Janus war
• No repurcussions for the Razing
• Didn't stop the Legion Incursion
• Isn't helping free Rada
• Struggling to uplift Talmar
• No new systems discovered in decades

Timeline

3000

Founded on Mithorous as interstellar re-exploration begins

3010

Despite concerns from Mithorous, Livonia joins the alliance

3020

Janus joins the alliance under pressure due to their ongoing war with Livonia

3040

The ocean planet of Torm becomes the first net-positive alliance member

3050

Astronius joins the alliance hoping for evacuation solutions

3080

Xeros joins, bringing psionic expertise and instruction

3096

Devali joins as a cultural marvel

3130

Nisora agrees to neutrality with the alliance, rather than joining

3209

Talmar joins the alliance amid uplifting negotiations

3212

Despite the danger, the Protectorate adds Rada to official maps

Related Historical Events

• 1-5 Nov 3228
  Facing Trial

Connections

The Protectorate has a fraught relationship with most other sector-wide organizations. Their laws and regulations, no matter how necessary, add bureaucratic obstacles to law-abiding interstellar organizations. Most of these regulations are impossible to enforce, allowing less conscientious orgs to get away with figurative and sometimes literal murder.

Mercenary groups like the Invincibles are notorious for their extra-legal methods. Though they flaunt the Protectorate's inability to police them, they more often protect civilians than cause them harm.

The Emerald Legion's invasion was made possible through spies inserted into Protectorate ranks. Twenty years later, the Protectorate still suffers lingering information leaks, preventing them from acting against remaining Legion cells.

Though less directly lethal, the Syndicate's focus on tech is of major concern. The Protectorate has tried to educate the populace against risky black market sources, but these sources can be the only way to get certain items.

To improve their ability to defend the sector, the Protectorate revived the Perimeter Agency. Though officials claim it's been a great success so far, the secrecy around those successes leaves many in doubt.

Only the exploration group, the Astronius Collective, tends to have positive experiences. The Protectorate enables their continued travels in hopes of adding a new colony to the sector.