The Keeper-Pedia
The Official Guidebook to The Keeper’s Universe
By: Matthew Mangum aka The Keeper
Copyright 2012 Matthew Mangum
Selections by Drew Eckhardt, Selected illustrations by Ben McElroy, and Cory Dugger
Special Thanks to Jonelle Edwards and other members of The Keeper’s Universe Forum
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: History of the Galaxy
Chapter 2: Essential Planets
Chapter 3: People of the Galaxy
Chapter 4: Essential Ships and Vehicles
Chapter 5: Ground Vehicles
Chapter 6: Military Personal and Soldiers
Chapter 7: Weapons
Chapter 8: Essential Technology
Chapter 9: Publishing Stories in The Keeper’s Universe
Introduction
Hello there and welcome to a world of wonder and imagination known as The Keeper’s Universe. My name is Matthew Mangum; some just call me the Keeper. I am the omnipotent bard chronicling the glory and adventure of the galaxy at large, not to mention the heartaches, love stories, tragedies and happy endings. I welcome you to our universe and look forward to the additions that you will make to our ever expanding canon.
The point of this guide book to The Keeper’s Universe is to give you a place and back-story to drop your characters and story into. I recently ran into an old acquaintance of mine on the train coming home from work. He asked me how my book sales were going and mentioned that he too was writing a book, and had been working on it for five years. I thought that was great and asked him if he had a rough draft finished yet. He responded no, he hadn’t written any of the book yet; he was still developing the world. I was a little shocked, till I realized that I had spent over two years developing my universe and characters before I had begun drafting my first novel. Since that time fifteen years ago I have continued to develop the universe with the help of a number of people, maybe even you. The Keeper’s Universe has become such a rich and diverse science fiction universe that I believe it could stand up with the best of the competition.
As you tour The Keeper’s Universe through this guide book I hope that the worlds, characters, technology and history will inspire you to set your science fiction stories in our universe and help us continue to enrich and expand this universe. Again, welcome to The Keeper’s Universe!
Chapter 1
Section 1: Galactic History, from a Galactic Republic point of view
Hello there. My name is Brian Higgins, communication specialist with Guardian Force; The Galactic Republic’s elite starfighter combat team. I have been asked to give you a basic history lesson of the galaxy. History 101 if you will. I hear that you’re not much of a history buff and I have to fill you on three thousand years worth of history. I’ll do my best not to bore you.
Late in the 21st century an elderly woman named Jonelle Edwards completed her lifelong work. She perfected a hyperdrive, a device that allowed a ship to enter a dimension where it could travel faster than light. With pollution and over-population problems several major corporations sponsored the construction of six exploration vehicles. The ships with small crews were dispatched to six solar systems were planets were suspected to exist that could support life. Five of the ships met with success. The planets were dubbed Galantos, Kronsk, Balsavis, Deseret, and Pangea. Two of the explorers, Pahoran Hardy and Amos Parson’s became quiet famous and went on to discover many additional planets. They were always competing against each other to have discovered the most planets.
Within a few years colony ships were built and crewed. Mankind had spread beyond its cradle and found new homes. The exploration ships continued and with time found many other planets, as well as a few other groups of intelligent life, some capable of space travel, and others not. As there was no profit in sending colonists the ships were funded by governments as well as a few religious groups.
Late in the 22nd century the colonies lost contact with the home world of Earth. The last known news was that the world was locked in war and that nuclear weapons were being used. There had also been a message of the moon’s orbit becoming unstable. Once contact was lost ships were sent, but nothing was ever found. Christians decided that the second coming of Christ had happened. Some claimed that the nuclear war got so bad that earth was completely incinerated and others decided that some advanced alien race attacked and destroyed the home world of mankind. No matter what had happened the colonies were on their own.
A variety of governments ruled over each planet. Some had monarchies, some republics or democracies, Deseret had a theocracy, and Balsavis was governed under a socialist hierarchy. Over the course of a few hundred years most of the planets formed under two major galactic governments, the Galactic Republic, centered on Galantos, and the Socialist Alliance, centered on Balsavis.
Over the next couple thousand years these empires would expand to approximately a hundred planets each. Exploration slowed as more than enough food and living space could provide for the entire human race. For the most part the two major governments ignored each other. Eventually their borders expanded and wars over territory and philosophies began to be fought.
Alright I can see you glazing over, that’s a very brief overview of a couple thousand years. I’m sure that there are lots of stories and more exciting things I can tell you about during the centuries of exploration, expansion and unification. But frankly I have the most fun with the history of the last 100 years or so. Let me tell you a bit about The Great War.
The Great War began when the Socialist Emperor Zarahemnah Zaragoza invaded the Galactic Republic. Republic intelligence was aware that an attack was coming but they did not know the target. The Socialists had been building up a massive fleet but kept the target very quiet. Republic Admiral Coglistio Boronaught along with aging General Moroni Monson quietly built up defenses along all of the border planets.
Then in a surprise move the massive Socialist forces attacked the Republic capital at Galantos. The defenses were crushed and resistance forces could never muster enough strength in one body to do any good before they too were destroyed. Every member of the President’s cabinet was killed along with senate leaders. A few senators escaped but the vast majority were rounded up and sent off to prison camps. All high ranking military officers on Galantos were also killed, General Monson among them. Admiral Boronaught managed to escape but Socialist forces were attacking many other Republic planets as well. There was not much of a fleet to retaliate with. Within a month Socialist forces occupied half of the Galactic Republic. At this point the Socialist forces began to be spread too thin to effectively control anymore territory. Two years passed somewhat uneventfully. The Socialists did their best to stamp out rebellions and the remaining Republic planets did what they could to build a fleet that could strike back at the Socialists.
One woman, Opharah Mariposa, the wife of a young senator refused to accept the fact that there was nothing she could do while her husband was in prison on Rio Querino. She managed to locate a pirate group, the Choneus gang which operated off of Rio. It took a great deal of persuasion as well as all that remained of her family’s fortune but she managed to persuade the gang to help her liberate her husband and his fellow political prisoners. In a daring prison break the gang freed all of the political prisoners and returned them to the core of the Republic revolution. This infusion of leaders and great minds became the turning point of the Great War. Privateers were commissioned to harass the Socialists.
One of these privateers was Marcus Griffin from the planet Pangea. He quietly interrupted food convoys bringing supplies to Socialist forces. In turn he made a huge fortune selling the food to the Republic troops.
; Also at the heart of this revolution were two young brothers, they wanted to be bounty hunters, but accepted the privateers commission. Their names were Middoni and Muloki Giagua. Their biggest contribution to the war came when they helped lead a team of Special Forces that assassinated Zarahemnah Zaragoza in an explosive way when he came to visit Galantos. They also single handedly liberated the planets of the Menchet Region and claimed the Socialist Shipyards of the system for themselves. Using their spoils of war they formed their own corporation and in a matter of years were some of the richest men in the galaxy.
Once the Republic troops had killed Zarahemnah, assault forces took control of all the ground based defenses and turned the weapons on the Socialist ships in orbit. Just as the ships realized what was going on the Republic’s fleet arrived and attacked, quickly decimating the Socialist forces which soon surrendered.
In the power vacuum that followed with many Socialist leaders clamoring for the reigns, the Republic forces were able to regroup and drive out the remaining Socialist forces and push them back to their original territory. The Great War was essentially over evolving into a cold war that would last for decades.
Javis Zaragoza, Zarahemnah’s son, eventually convinced most of the Socialist military to support him as the rightful ruler of the Socialist Alliance. But feeling his power somewhat threatened by the government officials at the traditional capital of Balsavis he chose to direct the Socialist Alliance from the military headquarters at Pangea.
Around this time I was born. Not that most of the galaxy cares about Brian Higgins, but I like to think I made my mark during this pivotal time in the history of the galaxy.
Seventeen years after the liberation of Galantos a young man named Robert Griffin escaped the socialist world Pangea. His parents, Marcus and Arianna Griffin, had been executed by Javis Zaragoza. Robert found refuge on the Republic world of Deseret and later went to the Republic’s military academy on Kronsk. Upon graduation he was inducted into Guardian Force, the Republic’s elite fighter pilot and paramilitary group. A new squadron was formed, Liberation Squad. The squad was made up of a unique and talented group of men and woman who had a passion for freedom, and one experiment, a genetically modified gorilla named Bubba. And of course, yours truly, communications specialist extraordinaire.
The squadron’s first mission, help the rebels on the planet Adaven free themselves from the crime lord Rifgok who ruled their planet. We of course succeeded with flying colors. It was extra special for me since my parents were from Adaven in the time before Rifgok took control of the planet.
Around this time on the socialist world of Minus Tenu a genetic experiment there began to go very wrong. In order to stop the spread of the mutated monsters that had been created the Socialist government ordered the planet exterminated. A Socialist fleet, disguised as a Republic fleet bombarded the planet for days. They thought that they had succeeded in destroying all life on the planet. Time would prove them wrong.
Eliar Meine was one of the few men who had been genetically modified in a successful socialist experiment. He was known as their wraith and striker. Returning to his home world and finding it destroyed sent Eliar on a mission that would one day lead to the assassination of the Republic’s highest ranking military officer, Supreme Commander, Coglistio Boronaught. Eliar Meine should never be underestimated, and take care not to ever cross him.
After much convincing Robert Griffin persuaded the Republic senate to support an invasion of his home world Pangea. Their goal was to overthrow the tyrant Javis and return Pangea to the Republic, a position that the world had not had for two hundred years.
What a great picture of Robert and I! Robert of course used his hero status on Pangea to get himself elected as the youngest senator ever to serve in the Galactic Senate. But he’ll tell you all about that himself if you ask him to.
With Javis dead, tensions ran very high between the Republic and Socialists. Fontana D’or, one of Javis’s generals declared herself the Director of the Socialist Alliance. She also groomed a new poster child for her dictatorship, Emily Giagua. Emily is the daughter of Middoni Giagua, a republic businessman and war hero. As a rebellious teenager she was easily persuaded to the socialist point of view and Fontana used her to help persuade others. Emily eventually ran away from home to join Fontana’s government and became her first assistant.
During this period a man by the name of John Strife also became popular. He was one of the galaxies finest bounty hunters and only governments and very wealthy individuals could afford him. He did a number of missions for Fontana before one mission took him to the planet of Atlantis II. He fell in love with it, helped organize a stable government and became their president. In a galaxy of superpowers it was one of the few individual planets to maintain its neutrality and have a role in the future of the galaxy.
Also during this time a new threat arrived in the galaxy. Somehow a large fleet led by Admiral Tonin Meine found a way to transport themselves from one universe to another and arrived in our universe. They set up home on a newly discovered solar system that they dubbed the Kasian Sector. The solar system had a record high of eight habitable worlds. I’ll let someone else fill you in on them later.
The Socialists were the first to discover these new arrivals and recognizing their superior ships were quick to make friends. Tonin Meine traveled to Rio Querino and met with Director Fontana D’or and her staff. A loose alliance was formed, conditional on a display of power. Tonin Meine and his newly founded Alltradeuin Empire chose the Republic worlds of Galantos, Kronsk and Pangea to be attacked.
The attack was almost devastating to the Republic, but at the last minute they were saved by a new technology, incendiary weapons. And while the burning fireballs blasted into space did save the Republic from the invaders the collateral damage was immeasurable and forced the Republic to never use the weapons in such a way again.
With the bulk of the Alltradeuin Empire nearly destroyed the Republic launched a counter attack on Kasian, and burned their home base to the ground. Years later they wished they had been more thorough. A cloning facility had survived and before the Republic even knew that the Alltradeuins were back they had turned their solar system into an impenetrable fortress with thousands of defensive space stations.
Meanwhile back at the Socialist Headquarters on Rio Querino a spy let the Republic know that the Socialist Director Fontana D’or had orchestrated the Alltradeuin attacks on the Republic. The Republic senate decided that it was time to take Fontana out before she could do anything else like it. The largest fleet that the Republic could muster was dispatched to Rio Querino. It was a difficult battle and many great men and women died. Once Republic ships had cleared a path through space for ground troops to land on Rio, Fontana D’or lifted off from the planet in a small shuttle trying to escape to hyperspace. She would have made it to, but that one of the security forces on her team was a spy. Mathoni Griffin, a cousin of Robert Griffin’s, shot Fontana and got off of the shuttle in an escape pod just as it was going to hyperspace. He was hailed as a hero, but of course wasn’t any good for field work anymore as an intelligence agent. Rio Querino made a successful and fairly peaceful transition to being a Galactic Republic planet. It helped that Louis Bacca, a famous Republic starfighter pilot, had died in the battle for Rio. The people there saw him as a martyr trying to free them. I still miss my friend Louis. He truly died a hero in the cause of Freedom.
Section 2: History of the Socialist Alliance
Excuse me while in interrupt this Republic brat and his one sided view of history. Just because someone titles you a communications specialist does not mean that you can talk about something that you don’t really know anything about. And the history of the Socialist Alliance from this point on is far more interesting than that of the Galactic Republic. After the fall of Rio Querino it seemed mostly business as usual for the Republic. But let me introduce myself. My name is Admiral William Mayhew, yes that’s right; I am
the Admiral of the Socialist Alliance Fleet. No need to salute now, we’re not in a formal setting and you haven’t been conscripted, at least not yet.
There were a surprising number of officers in the SA that were happy to see Director D’or dead. I had no love for the woman, but she had done a good job of holding the alliance together during a fragile time. With her gone new leadership was needed. General Davis Kayne wasted no time in gathering the senior officers of the military. We unanimously agreed to support him as Emperor, believing that there was strength in restoring the old title and returning the capital to the historic site at Balsavis.
All seemed to be going well for the Socialist Alliance. We were growing and a tentative peace seemed to be holding in the galaxy. The only internal problem we had was with Emily Giagua, Fontana’s former first assistant. She was furious over the assassination of Fontana, particularly because she had fallen in love with the man who had shot Fontana. Despite some misgivings of mine she did convince me that she was an excellent commander and I promoted her to Commodore and gave her command of Fleet D. The decision would bite me later when she renamed her fleet the Death Fleet and took some rogue actions against the Republic.
But this was nothing compared to the internal threat of Eliar Meine once he got his hands on data that pointed him to the fact that the destruction of Minus Tenu wasn’t a Republic attack, but secretly an act of the Socialist Alliance trying to cover up a mistake at a bio warfare facility. Eliar Meine decided that Emperor Kayne was to blame for the death of his family, friends and world and set off to kill him.