Orion Diaspora
| |
| (Second?) Orion Diaspora | |
| INFORMATION | |
| Quadrant(s): |
Beta |
| Governments Involved: |
Varies
|
| Affected Systems: | |
| Timeline: |
First wave began around 208,100 BCE; concluded in 207,700 BCE |
| Status: |
Concluded |
| Outcome: |
Spread of the Orion civilization across the Borderlands; initiation of the Orion Dark Age; eventual rise of the First Thakolarivaj |
| END OF BRIEFING | |
| Template:History | |
At a Glance
The Orion Diaspora is a series of immigrations, displacements, and acts of exile which ultimately led to the colonization of the Borderland sectors by Orion civilization. It was not a single, mass event but happened over a series of centuries. At the core, the climate-fueled political turmoil on Orion forced poorer Caju to cede territory and resources to more powerful Caju which created crises of famine and further conflict. Secondarily, the forced exile of minorities and dissident groups, deportation by powerful corporations or influential Caju, and an overburdened penal system played a role. While many of the largest migrations were forced (such as the Partreidi Exile), some immigrations were voluntary (such as the Vondem charter). The Orions' reasons for leaving their homeworld were as myriad and complex as their species. Not all Orions left their ancestral home, either because they were too poor or technologically incapable, or because they had hoarded enough resources to see it through.
The Orion Diaspora is historically broken up into three major events, but exile and immigration from the home planet was sporadically constant throughout the timeline. It accelerated in the Third Wave as Orion's Ice Age set in and more wealthy Caju began to flee.
Precipitating Events
Climate Change
Natural and Orion-accelerated climate change coincided with a fundamental change in the output of the Beta Orionis star. As it entered a period of solar maximum (which abated only some 5,000 years ago), solar flare activity decreased but temperatures rose by about 1.8°C planetwide. THis, coupled with increased pollution and heat output from the planet increased temperatures a further 1.1°C before Orion science began to come to grips with the problem.
The initial effects were found in the temperate zones where freshwater lakes and rivers fed by what minimal glaciation Orion had, decreased. The Temperate South in particular was peopled by powerful, wealthy Caju with the highest technological sophistication. They made increasing demands on their poorer, tribute Caju around the equatorial zone, insisting water rights be re-negotiated. The northern Temperate Caju, marginally less influential, turned to the oceans and desalinization techniques- but they too pressured the equatorial Caju under their nominal control to relinquish some control of tropical water sources.
Equatorial vs. Temperate Caju
Social Strife
Extreme Wealth Divide
Overharvested Resources
Resource Wars
"Vandi" Contact
Orions have legends of previous alien contacts just as many other civilizations do. But the first recognized, modern Orion contact with alien intelligence took place as Orion was grappling with "dirty fusion" as a power source. The species that initiated contact with the Orions is unknown- but Orions seem to agree that the Vandi initiated contact. Up until that time, Orion media lacked interest in the idea of otherworldly beings. The Orions labeled these newcomers as "Vand" or "Vandi" - "foreign." And their presence as foreigners was an unwelcome one among many of the Qaju.
Identity of the Vandi
Any physical or digital record of the Vandi have long since been lost or obscured by 2,000 centuries of time. While it is likely that these aliens sought trade goods and resource exploitation from the Orions, some limited evidence suggests the Vandi came in force, and used force. Some extremely ancient ruins around the Tenda subcontinent of Bunzol, excavated in 2371, found carbon scoring and damage done to some spiritual and political structures that did not meet with understood Orion technology at the time. They were likely made from hand weapons, and have been ruled out as being modern vandalism. Whatever the case, these aliens did not practice any kind of Prime Directive or hands-off approach to pre-warp civilizations.
Lack of Viable (Known) Candidates
In the area overlapping Federation, Romulan and Klingon space, there is a lack of powerful, interstellar-spanning civilizations that existed 200,000 years ago- at least any that are known of. Iconia was the most recognizable power in the area and even that is some eighty light-years coreward. The stars in the area that have gone nova and are white dwarf or neutron star remnants may have once held civilizations around them. But if so, those explosions likely scoured any planet close enough for inhabitation of their evidence. Many of the classically known ancient civilizations- the Debrune, Hurq', or the Promellian culture came many millennia after the Diaspora.
T'Kon Empire
The incredible might of the T'Kon Empire has been pointed out as a possible candidate for Orion contact, but it is highly unlikely. The T'Kon Empire did stretch into territory that primitive Orions would have been a part of. But the T'Kon Empire collapsed 400,000 years before the Orion Diaspora- the Orions were still in their Mesolithic Era at the time and, as "Savage Barbarians" to T'Kon eyes likely offered the Empire nothing of value. While outposts of the T'Kon endured for millennia beyond the supernovae of their stellar factories, these outposts were interested in imperial preservation, not any kind of alien contact.
Iconian Empire
One of the more plausible candidates put forward by theorists that believe the Orions were exploited by alien contact, is the Iconians. The scant Orion sources about Vandi contact curiously make no mention of ships or vessels landing on their planet. Could the Iconians have used their gate technology? Around the time of the Diaspora, the Iconian Empire was in its final state of collapse. Thousands of Iconian elites were using the gates- and their more traditional faster than light traveling ships- to escape the death of their civilization.
It is understood that Iconians used their gates to raid, enslave and subvert alien planets by suddenly appearing like "ghosts in the air." It is circumstantially plausible- but unproven- that some Iconians may have sought refuge on Orion- or the localized enslavement and exploitation of some Orions. Iconian factions elsewhere set up strongholds to "wait out" the loss of their homeworld. But in all of those cases, the Iconians eventually faded, were hunted down, or were deposed.
More conservative historians point to the odds- and ask why: Why would these few Iconians seek to flee to one unimportant, inhabited, and already troubled planet among millions of options across an entire galaxy? Why choose a relatively adjacent planet that could be reached by their enemies? And if they did, where are the remnants of Iconian technology on Orion? Why don't Orions possess similar technology if they traded with- or reverse engineered- Iconian machinery? Where are the Iconian loan words in the Orion languages that would have been used to describe and label pieces of technology the Orions had no names for? How does an Iconian exploitation fit into the theory that the Iconians were not hegemonic conquerors but peaceful colonists? To these historians, the grandioseness of Iconians as the Vandi contact is an egotistical and exceptional fiction based on what was probably a much more mundane, local alien contact event.
A favorite conspiracy theory is that the mythical Orion civilization of Alnilam used Iconian gate technology for their own, earlier diaspora from Orion. The theory points out that the Alnilam had a higher level of technology than the rest of the planet. There is zero evidence for this theory.
Enemies of Iconians
Iconian contact or not, the Orion civilizations spread out into a wider interstellar medium during one of the most violent and tumultuous times in the quadrant's history. Orions were fleeing their world as the largest empire in the area was collapsing under internal strife and external conflict. Whether they were conquerors or not, their technology drew the attention of species that would like to possess it. The collapse did spread across dozens- even hundreds- of star systems. The loss of Iconian power- either as a political vacuum because a hegemony was gone, or because a protective empire was no longer in place- would have affected billions. The Orions were moving out into a dangerous and uncertain quadrant.
The identity of the "Vandi" may have been not the Iconians themselves, but species either hostile toward or wanting to exploit the survivors of the collapsing Iconian Empire. Some Orion myths- all secondary or tertiary source accounts and retellings- claim that the Vandi came to "hunt an evil." Others claim that the Vandi were the aforementioned evil and were trying to escape justice. The latter story is almost certainly colored by contemporary Orion distrust of the alien.
A Nausicaan Connection?
One Federation think tank has put forward an interesting theory: were the aliens who contacted the Orions the same empire who transplanted the Nausicaans to Nausicaa? The idea has some theoretical merit- the Nausicaans seemed to have arrived on their current homeworld around 200,000 years ago. There is a dearth of other known, local interstellar civilizations in the historic record (as the Iconians were a major power in the area). While this is an interesting theory it does nothing to solve the question of the identity of the Vandi themselves. The Nausicaans also do not know who relocated them to their world.
Vandi Numbers
A Lack of Plague
Origins of Slavery
Technological Advances
Vand Impact on the Diaspora
Major Phases of Diaspora
Phase One: The Vondemi Schism
Vand Contact and the Vondemi
Phase Two: The Partreidi and Qolaadi Wars
Qolaadi Banishment
Phase Three: Flight of the Tha'qadi
Minor Phases of Diaspora
Banishment of the Xo-a Kulkaadi
Jeyci Diaspora
Failed Orion Two Venture
Xo-a Kulkaadi Moon Conflicts
Retaining Pax
For'tuli and Fallendi Colonization of Chi Orionis
The For'tuli and Fallendi were Jeyci allies and all three were freed tributes of the Qolaadi. Their convoy was dispersed by a large ion storm and most of the For'tuli and Fallendi lost the Jeyci fleet. The For'tuli and Fallendi remnants found themselves in a trinary star system.
Koalai Failed Colonization of Tavar
The Tandi and Xendi Resource Wars
The Tandi and Xendi were affluent, temperate-region Caju, but they lacked the sizeable military presence of their neighbors. Despite this, they controlled a vital source of deep freshwater in a crater lake called the Oxcultnal. The Tandi and Xendi feuded over the resource frequently and had been rivals for millennia despite frequent diplomatic intermarriage. As water resources dwindled and the Orion Ice Age began to fall squarely over the region, the Tandi and Xendi found themselves frequently attacked by their neighbors, whilst warring with themselves.
Unification of "Tendi"
The Bilati and Sirrudi Immigrations
The continent of Sirruk on which lies the Bilat Peninsula and Islands, dominated the southern-eastern equatorial zone of Orion, and were peopled by the Bilat, Sirru and Tilar Cajus- along with dozens of small Caju-in-Tribute to these major equatorial groups.