History of House Crux

The Age of Colonization

“Hiera taught us the way of the knife- chopping off what is incomplete and saying ‘Now it is complete, because it ended here."

Pre-Scream data gathered from available sources - logs corrupted, sections reconstructed. Accuracy not always known.

House Crux can trace its origins to one of the first colony ships to arrive in the Acheron Rho sector, known to the history books today as the CS (Colony Ship) Crux. The very oldest historical texts hint at places of origin: Tehran, Westphalia, Azerbaijan. Whatever meaning these names once held slipped from living memory centuries ago.

The histories say humanity came to Acheron Rho to escape some great calamity or persecution on their homeworld, seeking a new way and better way of life, a future for them and those that would follow.

The various colony ships that bore humanity to the Sector had diverse but specific purposes. Together, they could collectively create a fully functional inter-sector society. The purpose of the CS Crux was the law and security of the new human sector. They had been partnered with the CS Cygnus, the guardians of the gene vaults, who would assist the project by germinating human-compatible plant and animal life across the sector. The first task of the Cygnus was to begin feeding the sector. For Crux, their duty was to establish themselves on Hiera, a world of incredible metal and mineral wealth, but intensely cold. From Hiera, Crux would watch over, guard, and protect Cygnus as they did their work.

The initial settlement on Hiera was difficult for Crux, its unexpectedly cold climate and mountainous terrain difficult for establishing a permanent settlement.  Several smaller communities perished during the first and coldest winter. Strict regulations had to be drawn up and obeyed, rationing heat and resources to survive a winter far colder than anyone had expected. Only by enforcement of these strict regulations did the people of Crux survive the Hieran winter, and by the aid of their Cygnus neighbors, who supplied Crux with the fruits of the first crops born of their Terran supplies and seed vaults.

The people of Crux survived, growing stronger on their new homeworld. Crux and Cygnus soon came into contact with the other colonies, and Cygnus began to feed this growing interstellar nation. Those days were not without struggle, as the War for Human Prosperity responded to the foul alien menace, destroying and driving them back to make room for the expansion of the burgeoning human civilization. Crux spread far in those days, patrolling space for alien remnants and newborn pirate threats, mediating disputes between colonies, and helping establish a means of governance for humanity within Acheron Rho. Their most important duty, however, was assisting House Cygnus, leading convoys of Cygnus ships across the sector as they cultivated new life and established a viable subsistence.

Eventually, the colonies decided that a formal union would be solidified, and the Empire of Humanity was founded.

The Dawn of the Empire and the Golden Age

The Empire was an inevitable result of the rapidly growing power of humanity. However, the exact history and truths of the Empire’s formation and the first Emperox’s reign have long been lost to time. From what little details remain, we know House Crux was formed from the most affluent and powerful citizens of Hiera, and given control over the Empire’s laws and legal justice system. The Richters were officially instituted as the arbiters of Imperial Law, and the Imperial School of Law was founded on Hiera.

It was a time of peace and prosperity for the Empire, its wealth and technological development greater than ever before. During that time, Crux’s duties turned to vetting and protecting the people of Acheron Rho from outsiders, now arriving as the gate system spread ahead of the Terran Mandate’s expansion. The Empire, remembering their expulsion from Terra, did not accept the Mandate’s authority in the sector. This meant duties usually taken up by the Mandate’s security forces and perimeter agencies were instead taken up by House Crux. They policed the sector for maltech and alien incursions while also assisting in controlling the immigration of outsiders to the sector.

Crux and Cygnus prospered, their neighboring homes of Hiera and Gats jewels of the Sector. Both houses had grown wealthy from their work. Cygnus’ exports of hyper-nutritious meals and luxury foodstuffs netted them great wealth from across the Empire. Crux’s homeworld was too cold for many crops, but it did hold immense mineral resources, so common that vital industrial elements and even gold ran through the rock across the surface of the entire world. Crux mined this supply, exporting it for immense profit across the sector. Their exports across the Empire and beyond were also assisted by the Gate network, allowing vast superbarges full of gold, silver, and rare earth elements to travel far and wide, supplying all who could afford it with vast shipments of the treasured substances.

Assisted by their easy access to wealth, both Cygnus and Crux began to see themselves as political allies, though they were not as close as they had once been. However, they agreed that an Emperox taken from either Gats or Hiera would bring even greater status to their home system. Thus, Crux and Cygnus backed one another to repeatedly gain political favor on Imperial Prime.

The one black spot from this period was an event known as “The Schism”, a rift between the nobles of House Crux that took a decade to heal. The Golden Age saw steadily worsening decadence, corruption, and gross abuses of power by many members of the Crucian nobility, who had come to believe that their legal power and vast fortunes brought them beyond the reach of the law. An organization that called themselves the Knights of Mercy was formed under the leadership of Herzogin Crux Helena. They dedicated themselves to rooting out the corruption eating at the heart of the House, and with the backing of the High Church and several prominent Crux nobles began a four-year-long purge. Hundreds of nobles were imprisoned or executed on the steps of the Oberlandesgericht and thousands more killed in open combat.

When the dust had settled, Helena and her Knights of Mercy had seized control of the House. Weary of the bloodshed, they began to draft a new legal system to ensure that such corruption and the slaughter that followed could never again take place. With this new series of laws as their platform (along with support from the High Church and House Cygnus), House Crux handily won the election of Emperox. Empress Crux Helena ascended to the throne in 2515, the fourth Emperox since the founding of the Empire.

Empress Crux Helena bore four children during her time as Empress: Alexandron, Morthiel, Seria, and Asurien. Each was a spitting image of their mother, but only Alexandron carried her selflessness and dedication to justice in his heart. When Helena’s reign came to its end, Alexandron followed her, making House Crux the first in the Empire’s history to hold the throne for two consecutive terms. After Alexandron’s coronation, the jealousy of his siblings grew only more bitter. Their political maneuvering would prove a tiresome nuisance throughout his reign, but their rivalries would not truly blossom until after the Scream.  

Under Emperor Crux Alexandron, the House only saw greater days of glory. Peace and order were the watchwords of the empire, and even the lowliest commoner was able to achieve a level of comfort and security only dreamed of for someone of their class before. With such wealth, such power, such glory, House Crux dreamt it was leading humanity into a golden age that would last a thousand years.

And then, halfway through Crux’s second reign, the dream ended. The Scream came, and the Scream obliterated it.

The Dark Ages (Hiera)

Chaos.

With the coming of the Scream, the Empire descended into chaos. No one was prepared for the gates to fail, and when they did, the Empire was pulled apart at its seams. For House Crux it was a significant blow, as they were not only separated, but beheaded in one stroke.

Much of the House’s leadership was located on Imperial Prime, and when the gates failed the house was left effectively leaderless on Hiera. Cut off from Imperial Prime, which in its isolation had descended into anarchy, Hiera was paralyzed. There was little civil disobedience; the Hieran people honoured the Law as much as the nobles of House Crux. However, despondency was quick to set in. Hiera was an industrious planet, but was far from self-sufficient, and with billions of inhabitants and little harvestable land, it wouldn’t be long before the long winters claimed the Crucian people.

And yet, Hiera was not alone. House Cygnus and their homeworld of Gats shared the Ellis system with Hiera, and they also suffered in isolation, so close and yet so far. They would have no trouble feeding their people, but Gats had little manufacturing, and their economy was wholly based on exporting their massive food stockpiles. And without ready access to House Fornax’s technical support, much of Cygnus’ complex, automated harvesting and planting machinery started to fail.

Had either of these planets been left in isolation they would have quickly fallen to anarchy, chaos and death. Together, they were a lifeline for one another. Using their remaining supermassive cargo haulers, Cygnus was able to establish contact with Crux, and began to send the vast quantities of food Hiera needed to survive. In return, Crux paid, using rough metal coinage to pass for credits, their access to Eridanus and the Imperial bank cut off. Crux also had an abundance of people to send to Gats, supplementing Gats’ workforce and using sheer manpower to overcome the failing automation of Cygnus’ industry.

Together, the two Houses survived the months and years that followed the Scream, supporting one another as they each established their new leaderships without the Empire. New nobles from minor families rose to power. House Crux brought order to the Ellis system, and House Cygnus kept it alive. As House Crux was still technically the Imperial House, despite the situation, a new government was established on Hiera, and an Imperial Governor was elected. Nominally still beholden to the Emperox on Imperial Prime, the Imperial Governor was effectively the ruler in the Ellis system, and would remain that way until the reunification of the Empire. This was not a dictatorship, and both Cygnus and Crux swapped governorship of Ellis regularly over the years of isolation, holding themselves together through the darkness.

It would be false to say, however, that this was still a golden age. Without House Fornax or House Vela, travel beyond the Ellis System was impossible, and without Fornax or Triangulum much of the advanced technology that both worlds had relied on began to fail and break, with none left to adequately repair it. Development of new technology stalled as a need to maintain what was left prevailed. Without House Eridanus the financial market was constantly in flux, taxation erratic and financial crises a common occurrence. There was also widespread illness, diseases new and old appearing and festering without the help of House Serpens, and Cygnus’ specialty with genetics began to be applied to helping keep the people of both Crux and Cygnus healthy. Thankfully, Crux was able to maintain order, but without access to the strength, training or manpower of House Aquila, many avoidable conflicts devolved into ugly fighting or bloodshed. The greater Imperial culture stagnated and was overruled by local practices without House Lyra and their knowledge, and many traditions were forgotten without their guidance.

Ellis survived, but it was not a glorious existence. It was a survival Cygnus and Crux fought for, sometimes easily, sometimes painfully. Without outside help, there was a growing chance that the Ellis system would begin to stagnate and fail, lost to time and an uncaring universe.

But that was not the fate of House Crux. Nearly two decades after the isolation began, ancient Crux listening posts on the outskirts of the system detected something new arriving. It was a House Vela scout ship. Crux and Cygnus had survived the long night, and had been found once again.

The Dark Ages (Imperial Prime)

The Imperial Throne was isolated, cut off from home and much of the Empire. When the Scream destroyed the warp gates, the light of the Emperox disappeared from Acheron Rho. The ecumenopolis on Imperial Prime was plunged into darkness. It fell to the Firekeeper - Emperox Alexandron - to hold the planet together.

The first task was food. Without the regular supply of food from other planets, the billions on Imperial Prime quickly began to starve. It was the Firekeeper who implemented a food rationing program while he worked with the rest of the Noble Houses present on Prime to quickly scale up the existing gardens and vertical farms for sustenance.

The second task was order. Without the ability to call in Crux police forces from Hiera, the Firekeeper turned to his cousins on Maja, House Fornax, for mechanical robots that could assist what Crucian forces he had at his disposal. Crux patrols on the streets of Imperial Prime increasingly became accompanied by mechanized lupine and ursine police droids to help keep the peace. Riots and looting were quelled, leaving the Emperox free to try and govern the planet and to work with House Fornax on re-establishing ties with the rest of the Empire.

The Firekeeper would forge an unusual bond during these times with House Fornax. Cut off from the majority of the nobility, the Crucian Emperox became an ally of the flame with his Majan brethren - helping to stabilize House Crux, the world of Imperial Prime, and the Throne of the Emperox itself. While the unrest following the Scream made it hard to trust anyone—some in the Firekeeper’s own retinue believed that House Fornax had designs on Imperial Prime—both Houses knew that they would be stronger together. Indeed, between the help of House Fornax and the Firekeeper’s fiery personality, the noble power structure was almost effortlessly maintained. While the bond forged in those days may have grown dimmer by 3200, adherents of the Firekeeper’s will still hold a high amount of regard for their cousins on Maja.

The third task was to quell a mounting rebellion from Alexandron’s rival siblings: Morthiel, Seria, and Asurien. Together, they sought to dethrone Alexandron and rule Imperial Prime in his stead. They rallied what forces they were able to gather and marched on the Imperial Palace. A coalition of Noble forces gathered from what Houses held a presence on Prime met the rebellious siblings and their allies in Justinium Square on Imperial Prime, and in the ensuing battle Alexandron slew his three siblings. Furious at their betrayal, the Firekeeper ordered their bodies burnt and the ashes scattered.

The fourth and final task was hope, to keep alive the dream that the Empire could one day be reunited. To do this, the Firekeeper turned to his allies in House Lyra on Imperial Prime to re-inspire the populace, to hope that one day the Empire would be reborn anew.  The Lyrans on Imperial Prime, not yet touched by the Truth of the After, embraced the hopeful message of the Firekeeper. Works meant to inspire this image of the Empire, reborn and strengthened, become commonplace. Mythos of what once was was put into circulation. Tehuti openly theorized on what new greatness the reunited empire could create. Modern Lyrans look back on this era and lament the blind optimism, but still honor House Crux for giving purpose to their lost brethren.

The faith of those who dared to hope would very quickly be rewarded. A mere eight years after the Scream, House Fornax reinvented the Spike Drive, and the reunification of the Empire could slowly begin. Eleven years beyond that, and the Firekeeper would be reunited with his people.

Reunification and the Blood Eagle

The sector had fallen to chaos in the time between the gates falling and the re-emergence of the spike drive. House Crux was left in the position of trying to maintain peace in an Empire that was gripped by madness.

Crux was keen to reinstate itself as an Imperial power, Alexandron’s reign having been halted and cut off by the Scream. Few other Houses agreed however, the isolation and chaos of the Scream having changed the shape of many of them, and Crux found itself too busy with restoring peace and stability across the Empire as individuality won out. Years passed with no clear ruler, Alexandron immolating himself atop the Oberlandesgericht as death called to his weathered bones and leaving but one heir, Prince Luca. Though House Crux sought to see Prince Luca continue the line his grandmother, the Mother of Mercy had started, others firmly disagreed, Houses and alliances rising and falling as the Throne remained decidedly empty.

Eventually, a powerful new leader rose to power within the Aquilan Legions, her conquest reuniting the Empire by force, the only common language that seemed to still exist. House Crux, expressing concern at first, quickly became allies of Aquila Alejandra, viewing her conquest as an unfortunate necessity on the path to seeing the Empire whole again.

Records of Alejandra’s rise to power are complex, legions of propaganda pieces and false truths difficult to parse for the actual truth. Within but a single year of her reign beginning as the new Emperox, the Sector was again thrust towards war, the allegiance of the Houses split. It is a matter of historical record that House Crux was one of the last to join the rebellion against the Blood Eagle. Despite her methods, she had united the Empire for the first time since the Scream, and House Crux’s duty had always been to uphold the law of the Empire and its Emperox. Many believe that House Crux stayed loyal so long because of their almost religious devotion to the law and its upholdance. Even if Alejandra was divisive, cruel, and authoritarian beyond many of those that had come before her, she was still the Emperox.

Critics of House Crux’s actions during Alejandra’s reign point to the tangible benefits House Crux received as likely bribes to keep the House of Law loyal as well. She supported the establishment of the Scharfrichter order to serve as “executioners,” throughout the Empire. Moreover, the Alejandra ordered—and Reticulum provided—ten mastercrafted blades themed after the High Church’s Ten Virtues. These were given to House Crux Scharfrichter personnel, who used them to great and terrible effect under her legal orders.

In time, her forces driven further and further back, Alejandra’s end was clear. In the waning moments of the Second Imperial Civil War, House Crux turned against Alejandra and her Throne, pointing to cruelties real and mythologized that she was no longer fit to rule. Then...

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When the dust had settled, Alejandra, the Blood Eagle, had fallen, and the the Empire began to lick its wounds. House Crux, aware that their reluctance to act had lost them favour among many, recused themselves from the next election, seeking to rebuild their reputation as the other Houses rose to prominence.

The New Empire

Once the Blood Eagle was no more, the Houses signed the Accords for Peace, restoring order and allowing Crux to resume its law-keeping duties across the Empire, weeding out what few holdouts remained from the Second Civil War.

A true, formal election was held again for a new Emperox, the first since the Scream, and on a campaign of peace, prosperity, and self-reflection, House Lyra won the Throne. The Masked Emperox, a figure who to this day remains enigmatic, was crowned, reuniting the Empire once more under a banner of restoration and mourning.

The new Empire was not the technological marvel it had been before the Scream. Travel was much slower, and whilst the rediscovered spike drive and Velan maps allowed travel across the empire, the fall of the gate system meant that the bureaucracy of maintaining law across the Empire was far more complex. No longer would criminals be hauled to centralized courts on Imperial Prime or Hiera. No longer would new prisoners be easily shipped to Gleipnir, or new Imperial laws passed and spread in moments throughout the Empire. House Crux had to evolve and in some ways revert, finding new and very old ways to uphold the law of the Empire.

House Crux, long the sole law enforcement in the sector, had to delegate the day-to-day policing to local constabularies. In order to better keep the peace, Crux purchased a line of police cruisers from House Fornax. The sight of these ships entering orbit around an Imperial world signaled that the cavalry had arrived, and criminals were to be rounded up. Crux also began building new prisons with Gleipnir much more difficult to reach.

In the run up to the election of the Masked Emperox, the distinction between Houses Major and Minor was established to help greater organize the sprawling Empire. In a sector only hanging on to order by its fingertips, it was only natural that House Crux took its place among the Majors. This elevated position in the social hierarchy of the Empire was of tremendous benefit in restoring the indubitable fortitude of Imperial Law.

The Masked One’s reign was quiet for House Crux. The Formal Agreement for Noble Grievance was introduced to dissuade larger conflicts or wars from occuring again, and House Crux was bestowed the responsibility of adjudicating these duels and upholding the laws that bound them, working closely with House Reticulum, the masters of weaponry and single combat.

House Crux sought the Throne again in 3062, but the Shining Star of Vela proved the favorite, crowned as the next Emperox of Acheron Rho. Despite their loss, Crux remained busy as new forces began to take their place within the Empire, including the Church of Humanity Repentant, the Trilliant Ring, and House Pyxis, a young Noble House born of disagreements within House Vela’s nobility.

The Swan Ascendant

House Cygnus and House Crux were always close. But as the years wore on and Cygnus never garnered more than a passing thought during the Emperox election, a rivalry began to develop within Cygnus’ leadership. They looked out and saw their work of gene therapy and terraforming, and saw work that was largely finished within the sector. They looked at their in-system neighbors, and saw the holovids of Crux officers arresting criminals, eliminating pirates, and uprooting seditionists, and they wished for their time in the sun.

It was against this political backdrop that House Cygnus turned to developing what would come to be known as Synthetics - a technological marvel that only House Cygnus, in conjunction with the brightest minds at House Triangulum, could achieve. In 3006, the first Synthetic was revealed to the Sector, created in the image of humanity. At first, the Synthetics were only close to the production of a serf worker, but as Cygnus and Triangulum iterated on the designs, they quickly surpassed humans in strength, speed, and in some cases, intelligence. In what felt like moments, the sector had more labor than it knew what to do with.

Cygnus’ invention changed Acheron Rho, allowing humanity greater freedom as the mundane tasks of the Sector were passed on to Synthetics. When the Shining Star’s reign came to a close, House Cygnus impressed upon their old friends in Crux to campaign on their behalf. Some claim that House Crux agreed out of love more than anything else. The bond between them was ancient, having weathered the Scream and everything that had happened since. Cygnus’ work in helping the sector could not be denied, and with the backing of House Crux, Cygnus was elected in a landslide.

The reign of Emperox Cygnus was fruitful for House Crux; while the Emperox did not always rule in favour of the law bearers, they did advocate for an increased Crux presence on planets outside the core, and pushed for new ships to be developed to carry larger and larger police forces around the Imperial core.

Synthetic humans had been unveiled and released across the sector over a century and a half before the coronation of Emperox Cygnus. They unsettled many, with House Crux among those who voiced concern, but the results were undeniable. While many in Crux retained apprehensions, the trust they had with their cousins in House Cygnus was powerful. Some began to wonder if their concerns were simply jealousy, or a failure to understand the brilliance of their Cygnus cousins. After all, Cygnus had been at Crux’s side for hundreds of years. What reason could there ever be to break that ancient trust.

The War Against the Artificials

(Coming Soon To An Extended Theatre Near You!)