Prothean Empire
From FABT
  At the height of its power, the Prothean Empire encompassed the entire Milky Way Galaxy.
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| Political information | |
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Type of government: |
Regicidal imperial absolute monarchy |
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Founding document: |
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Constitution: |
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Head of State: |
Ethnarch Jell Dis Farnuxia (first) |
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Head of government: |
Supreme Councilman Fedd Dis Teshi (first) |
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Commander-in-chief: |
Grand Marshall Masek Dis Graileann (first) |
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Executive: |
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Legislative: |
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Judicial: |
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Military: |
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| Societal information | |
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Capital: |
Citadel, Widow (primary) |
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Official language: |
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Currency: |
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Official religion: |
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Holidays: |
Malantor's Imperative |
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Anthem: |
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| Historical information | |
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Formed from: |
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Dates: |
20 July 76831 BCE - 6 November 58220 BCE
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Preceded by: |
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Succeeded by: |
 Citadel Council |
- "The Empire is fit, and so it should rule forever."
- — Motto of the Prothean Empire.
The Prothean Empire, simply known as the Empire, also known as the Malantorian Empire and as the Imperium of Malantor, was the representative body of Malantor, its provinces and prothean colonies, dominions and subservient races from 76831 BCE to 58220 BCE. Prior to the creation of the Empire, the protheans as a species had become the dominant species on their homeworld of Malantor after conquering the Croteans and driving them to extinction: before, the protheans and croteans had been the two dominant species on the planet and had existed together peacefully, both of them advancing technologically at an extremely high rate and mastering their planet as they extracted information from the Inusannon ruins spread across their world. The protheans came to adopt the principle of the Cosmic Imperative after intense research into translating the notes of an Inusannon scientist, the scientific theory that only the fittest survive, and that the strong are destined to conquer the weak, with nature following this concept, and that their co-existence with the croteans violated this principle, as there could only be one dominant species. This was a fundamental misunderstanding of the Inusannon findings, as the Inusannon were a race of nihilists, and their principles actually focused more on the inevitability of expiration and the Inusannon's constant search for immortality, having nothing to do with the survival of the fittest: in the end however, even after the protheans discovered this fact centuries later, it was largely squashed in favour of the new principle, arguing that despite the Cosmic Imperative being the result of a misunderstanding, the discovery was still valid. After wiping out the croteans, the protheans gained full control over their planet, establishing the Prothean Empire as they achieved interstellar travel in the same year. Masters of their own world, the Prothean Empire resolved to expand into the galaxy, settling new worlds and using their might to enforce the principles of the cosmic imperative upon any species they came across: if their enemies won, they would rule, but if they didn't, they'd become vassals of the Prothean Empire, becoming protheans themselves and subservient to their new masters. This campaign of conquest became known as the Great Galactic Crusade, which lasted 500 years as the Prothean Empire continued to expand, conquering species after species. As they annexed more and more territory, the Empire would stop and consolidate its new territory before expanding again, so the Crusade was intermittent. But in the end, the Prothean Empire was victorious, and the end result was the complete and total conquest of the entire Milky Way Galaxy, any and all potential challenges to its supremacy brought to heel and rendered servants of the new prothean imperium.
After the Crusade, the Prothean Empire consolidated its power and split the galaxy into numerous administrative dominions, all of them ultimately answering to Malantor and the prothean Ethnarch, the title given to the prothean emperor and head of state. During the Crusade, the Prothean Empire fought a war with the Synril Alliance, who were the first to discover the Citadel: early in the war, the Prothean Empire was able to capture the Citadel, and in awe of the station's splendor and its potential as a symbol of the Empire's strength, the Citadel was made the new capital of the Empire's government, as well as the seat of the Ethnarch. A prothean Ethnarch was chosen based on the prothean caste system, where a prothean's status in society was derived from their genetics and their avatar. Ethnarchs were chosen from "Avatars of Leadership", but these avatars had to prove they had the right to rule: as per the cosmic imperative, the strong were destined to rule the weak, and if somebody wished to rule, they must topple the strong and take their place. When it came time for a new Ethnarch, numerous candidates for the position would go through a grueling course of training, overseen by the Ethguard, the honor guard of the Ethnarch and the special forces of the prothean military, at the end of which the candidates would fight each other in an arena to determine the strongest: whoever survived would then have to fight the Ethnarch themself, and if they were successful in killing them, they would take the throne. The Ethnarch had supreme authority over the entire Empire, with the Grec Fal Tama, the prothean government, organizing the micro-administrative needs of the massive empire. As for the Empire itself, it divided the galaxy into four quadrants, known as realms, each of which was self-governing and essentially a micro-empire within the larger empire. These four realms were the Flarunium Realm, Vellanium Realm, Gelanium Realm and the Belsanium Realm, and each of these realms was governed by a governor, a Warden of the Realm, personally appointed by the Ethnarch and vetted and approved by the Grec Fal Tama. A cluster was known as an "empyrean", which was proda (the prothean language) for "province". These empyreans were governed by an empyrite, which were appointed by the Warden whose realm the cluster corresponded to, and vetted and approved by the Kos Veten Tama of that realm. This division of administrative authority allowed the Prothean Empire to more adequately manage the massive amount of territory it controlled as well as keep the subservient races in line. The prothean military was divided by the realms it operated in, with each realm possessing its own military forces. However, when the entire Prothean Empire went to war, all of these forces fought as one, as did all the realms. They were empires of their own in principle only. Knowing that the military could be a blunt instrument for dealing with rebellions, the Empire created the Archknight Order as a galactic secret police force, a monastic order of elite prothean warriors fanatically devoted to the Ethnarch and whose job it was to root out dissent, assassinate would-be rebels and protect prothean society. The Order operated in all four realms, possessing a chapter in each and that chapter would operate only within that realm unless a cross-chapter capacity was required. The Archknights were much like the Council spectres, mixed with the fanaticism, prowess and austerity of an asari justicar.
The Prothean Empire faced many tribulations during the many millennia it was in power. Many of the species under its rule attempted to rebel, and the prothean response to these rebellions was called a "march", referring to the massive mobilization and efficiency with which the prothean military responded to such events. In the entirety of its history, none of these rebellions were ever successful, with the massive and powerful prothean forces crushing any rebellion before it could truly take off. Most of the time, an Archknight would be placed in charge of such military expeditions, and after a rebellion was crushed, the species responsible would be punished by having half their population either put under intense hard labor, forcibly relocated or exterminated to discourage further rebellion. At least 36 of these marches took place, and not a single rebellion was ever successful. Early in the Empire's history, shortly after the Crusade had ended, the Empire dabbled in AI research, a decision that resulted in the AI they created rebelling against their creators. These AI, known as the Metacons (a proda term meaning "world destroyers"), would be the greatest threat in the Empire's history beside the Reapers, forcing the Empire to unite all of the races underneath it into a single army to stop them. After twenty years, the Metacons were defeated and fled into exile, bringing an end to the First Metacon War. The Metacons would return intermittently throughout prothean history at random locations and stronger each time, but the Empire was always ultimately victorious. Despite these conflicts however, the Prothean Empire remained strong and indomitable, and with its massive fleets and legions of elite warriors, not to mention their technological superiority, it seemed as though nothing could challenge their supremacy and the Prothean Empire would be eternal. Late in its history, the Empire set up observation posts in systems containing primitive, sentient species who were believed would eventually achieve space travel, with the intent being to eventually welcome those species into the Empire as subservient races.
Despite lasting thousands of years and never being defeated, the Prothean Empire finally met its match in 60101 BCE. Having wrapped up the Sixth Metacon War, and currently fighting a civil war with the New Malantor separatists (indoctrinated by Repentant), the Prothean Empire was in no way ready for what was to come. In a single and decisive attack, sudden and unexpected, the Reaper horde arrived in the Milky Way Galaxy, blitzing through the Citadel relay and wiping out the entire Grec Fal Tama and Ethnarch in one fell swoop, decapitating the prothean leadership within a single day. As a distress call was sent across the Prothean Empire, the Reapers shut off the entire mass relay network, crippling transportation and communication across the entire Prothean Empire, an act that would prove to doom it. Unable to coordinate its military might or talk with each other, the Prothean Empire was helpless as the Reapers began their system-by-system genocide of the entire Milky Way Galaxy. Over the centuries, prothean resistance, and that of their subservient races, was gradually worn down before the Reaper fleets, and by 58220 BCE the Empire had ceased to exist as a functioning state, considered to have truly collapsed with the fall of the prothean homeworld of Malantor, which the protheans gave up only after devastating the surface with antimatter bombs and neutron warheads, rendering the planet uninhabitable and wiping out all the Reaper ground forces. Cut off from the rest of the Empire, the subservient races descended into anarchy, either wiping each other out, being picked apart by the Reapers or surrendering to the machines in a desperate attempt to save themselves, only to suffer the same fate. In a rare circumstance of desperation, the prothean flagship, the Penumbra Apex, and a large prothean fleet teamed up with the Metacon remnants in an act of final defiance against the Reapers at the Battle of Tranbir 9, where both were utterly wiped out by the overwhelming Reaper fleets. With the extinction of the Empire in 58220 BCE, prothean resistance effectively disintegrated, and the rest of the war became a slaughter. By the end of it, the Reapers were victorious, and barely a trace of the prothean species remained, only a few scatterings of their architecture and technology left behind. While over a thousand protheans would survive the extinction into the next cycle and establish a new empire, it was an empire in name only, and the Prothean Empire would never again achieve the ascendancy it once had.