My thoughts on how the Trade Order originated (as they had to come from humanity somehow). Also the creation of the Advent, but I don't go into them much.

So of course this has to be staged on Earth. This is perhaps 50-100 years before the creation of the Trade Order, instead, this is the creation of the Endeavors Party. This political party had radical new expansionist policies it wanted enacted, and it was based in the North American Union (that being the country the U.S., Mexica, and Canada combined to form a long time ago). Its ideas were appealing to a lot of people, and it quickly grew in strength. The two other major opposing parties (no names yet) joined together to form the Originals (trying to discredit the Endeavors in the minds of the voters as being crooked or liers). Quickly these became the two major parties of the world (like democrat and republican on a HUGE scale). The two parties entered a political stalemate, and so war erupted on Earth and its surrounding colony-planets. This is the first Worlds War, or WsW1 (pronounced "W"-"S"-"W" 1). During the war a radical faction of the Originals took control of the party and rebranded themselves the Optimus Terrans, meaning noble Earth. The Endeavors, now known almost exclusively as the Traders, an insult given by the Originals that went back to the old debate before WsW1 between the two parties, where the Originals accused the Endeavor Party of being willing to deal with the Enemy, to trade and bargain with them, although who this "enemy" exactly was they never said, made a truce with the OP Terrans, as they called themselves, and settled on a peace treaty. (wow long sentence) The Traders were to abandon Earth and live only in Mars and the various moon outposts in our solar system, while the OP Terrans would have Earth and would gratefully never leave it. Simply put, the Traders were forced to abandon humanity and the OP Terrans made space flight illegal, and neither side looked back on the other. Earth was now in truth a single-party system, run by radical Originals-made-OP Terrans.

Now the Traders lived content on mostly Mars for the next few years, and any lingering contact between the two parties finally trickled to a complete stop. For all the OP Terrans know, the Traders could very well be still living on Mars and the several moon outposts orbiting around the solar system. But that's not what actually happened. The Traders discovered a planet that could, with some infrastructure and terraforming processes, support human life. They left the Milky Way then, and never looked back. Unfortunately, during the next 20 or so years, the Trader party (as even they now called themselves) split into three factions. There were the Traders, who kept the original ideas of expanding a solar empire throughout the universe, there were the Illumis, a deeply religious sect that broke from the Traders to find their own planet where they could meditate and find spiritual release, and the last group, which consisted of mostly the scum of the Traders. Whatever name this group once had was lost to history, and now they are known simply as pirates, and they have spread out to almost every corner of the universe where there is human life.

The Traders stuck to their original beliefs, and went about colonizing as many planets as they could get their hands on. At first, in the rush of expansionism, only a few million people actually lived on each planet, but as the distances between these planets grew, colonization slowed down and population began. Each planet, one by one, split off from the Trader Party to pursue their own desires without having to confirm them with a higher government that never really had anything to do with them in the first place. The Trader Party split into a hundred different smaller parties, and even smaller ones as different factions formed in every planet, and the unified Trade Order was far off. But this was a start.

I think what C.I has is a good foundation to a beginning history for the TO but it definitely needs to be more defined in certian areas to better fit what we already know about the TEC.

As well heres an online copy of the SoaSE manual:

http://issuu.com/pparas/docs/sins_of_a_solar_empire_manual  Also as I mentioned in the Advent Thread, We should post the lore established already in the manuals about the ships as they hint to some lore.

Yeah, Carbon, post the TEC ship summaries on your thread here. Me and Allegiance are doing that for our threads too

Will work on that tonight.

Let's think about the prehistory of the Trade Order. As we know from the manual, the Trade Order was founded some 1000 years ago after some sort of ancient war. What could of brought the likely systems of warring nations to a standstill?

What I'm thinking is that the Trade Order came into existance directly because of the great wars of anquity. For what we know, these wars brought enormous devastation to the planets and people. This is why multiple religious groups, including the original practicions of the Unity, left what is now Trader Space. So let's say the warring systems were devastated by war. I'm thinking that a number of neutral worlds would have started trade routes with the wrecked worlds, in order to help restore them... at a price, of course. So in more time, these trading worlds would have extended into the Trade Order, who's sheer amount of commercial worlds would of been able to attract new clients by their wealth.

@Swordsalmon - Definitely something to consider. Here's my opinion though.

Maybe another 20-30 years after what I mentioned above, maybe longer, some individual Trader worlds are attacked by large groups of pirates, intent on carving out a base in a nearby asteroid. Unable to hold back the pirates, the Traders on those planets retreat to the safety of the surface, as pirates don't have siege frigates yet. The other Trader worlds, outraged at this incident, send a joint military force to wipe out the pirate base. And so starts a long, arduous war between the Traders and the pirates. Maybe the war forced the Traders together, and they found that they liked it better that way, so a simple Trade Order was set up (not called that), and after many years and countless revisions to the original document, the Trade Order is born with the Victan Tabellen (part latin, part honoring Victor something who did numerous heroic things during the Great Pirate War. we can work on that later), the Trader's constitution.

Or maybe long ago the People of Earth expanded out into space shortly after discovering phase space technology. Because of the great distances between these star systems. The original countries of Earth that controlled these colonies lost their control maybe 30-50 years after their initial settlements were established. Eventually Earth fell to a single government.  And of course the notion that planets held many nations of many cultures fell to the wayside. At first these planets would have been independant with little contact other then trade between other planets for atleast the first 100 years. But eventually as populations grew and the needs for more resources became prevailant. The individual planets began wars between themselves and other planets of their system, only looking to further their own agenda through out the system they inhabitated. This would have caused countless wars. Some of which that lasted decades and even found themselves spanning a number of star systems as the fight for control expanded.

At some point, multiple star systems would come under control of an one government using their military might to enforce themselves. To keep these planets under their control they would be governed by individuals from the Home planet of the government that ruled that sector.

Within 1,000 years so many wars would be waged over unclaimed systems that it would be hard for anyone to count them. But at the end of this 1,000 years the multisystem factions would begin to use politics and trade as a way to influence their neighbors. As each faction would be strong and large enough to fend off any invasions. After years of mistrust and paranoia the different groups began creating alliances and treaties.

But it wouldnt be long before war was on the horizon. Near the edge of the cluster of factions came reports of a faction much larger then the factions alone. Ill call this super faction the Confederate Planets of Avidan. The factions homeworld was Avidan Prime.  A planet that prides itself on war, these people pushed out looking to bring everyone into the fold. Their leader a dictator that passed down his place as ruler of Avidan Prime to his first born child. This would ensure that politics didnt get in the way of the vast empire the first dictator imagined for Avidan Prime.

The CPA was ruthless and wouldnt even waste time enslaving the people of any planets. These were the first people to use bombardment to annihialate entire populations. And the first to use colonists from planets already under their control to colonize newly conquered planets.  For the first 4 years of the war only the planets sharing a border with the CPA threw their militaries at the CPA in a desperate attempt to push back the invaders. But this did nothing to stop the CPA from gaining control of these smaller factions. After a number of diplomats had been sent by each faction and had died at the hands of the CPA, they decided to send delegates to an emergency convention to discuss a unified front against the Confederates. After the terms were hashed out the individual planets sent the majority of their Military forces to serve under the newly formed United Planets Defense Force. A strictly military organization that had a strict code of laws that only allowed them to use their forces against the CPA.

The CPA for the first time now faced a force equal to their own. The war would last 100 years, with entire star systems changing hands multiple times. Some star systems were abandoned entirely by both sides after planetoids were sucked dry of any resources needed for the conflict. Individual planets populations up and left disappearing into the vastness of space never to be heard from again.

Eventually the CPA fell under its own pressure unable to continue funding the war as well keep their planets from rebelling. This came to be known as the 1st Great Phase War. or GPW1

With the fall of the CPA the UPDF should have shut down all operations and the individual factions fleets should have returned home. But after 100 years of fighting the UPDF had become its own faction. Holding a number of systems, a size that rivaled even the largest of the remaining factions.

Again war came to the factions when the UPDF didnt relinquish their control over the fleets that were now manned by UPDF loyal troops. But by this time the factions had built up large enough defensive fleets to hold off the UPDF. This would become the 2nd Great Phase War. It would last another 10 years. Finally ending when the different factions focused their operations on the UPDF and overwhelming them from all sides.

 With the fall of both the CPA and UPDF the factions went back to realitive peace. And decided that they would only deal with outside factions on the means of trade.

After 150 years of peace a faction known as the Terra Corporation, A multi star system controlled by a corporation instead of a political government began sending envoys to other systems in the hopes of uniting the factions into a peaceful empire that would lay down their weapons and begin trading with each other.

This would be the start of the Trade Order. Which wouldnt come about for another 100 years.

Out of all this discussion, there is no mention of the Aluxite Dynasty?

The Opening Cinematic does mention this era of humanity's existence, though briefly. The reference goes along the lines of: "When the Aluxite Dynasty fell, the Trade Order suspended its agenda and rebranded itself as the Trader Emergency Coalition."

In fact, if you pay attention to the faction names of neutral militia, one of them is called the Aluxian Refugees.

and a faction in the game is called Aluxian Resurgence

the TO has to be a monarchy. something along the lines of Asimov's Galactic Empire in the Foundation series. though there would be almost complete autonomy on the part of indivdual planets. just a few laws that they had to follow.

the TEC is a complete restructuring. i'm guessing that the TO would have had to create a unified military relatively quickly, though it would be utterly disorganized, and units from different planets wouldnt fight very well together, with five different commanders giving orders. a bunch of admirals probably got together with some members of the legislative body (why does everyone assume a Congress? Parliamentary-type legislatives are much more common today) and launched a coup. thus, martial law was probably put into effect, and although it might not be completely enforced on every planet, its still rule by the military. thats the only way it would make sense for the entire industrial output to be converted to war production.

to be perfectly honest, there is very little actual history here. how it was founded, really, and how it ended. the only thing in between you would care about would be the expulsion of the advent. unless you enjoyed endless red tape and the minutae of the smallest, least important laws

@Allegiance86 - that could very well be what happened, excluding the first five sentences . It seemed like you were describing the next stage of what I had spoken about, after a separation from Earth and the foundation of new planets. But I didn't like how they just lost communication with Earth, and that's how they split. It just seemed too "easy." I'd like to think there was a falling out between two groups (doesn't hav to be my idea, just this general scenario ) and have that be the reason why they lost contact with Earth. Not because they just grew so far apart, but because they really didn't like each other, and for a good reason. Idk, neither of us can really say the other's idea is wrong, this is purely opinionated. (i cant get steamrolled like I was in the Vasari thread ) I guess its up to the community.

Maybe not, but lore doesn't always have to be history (though thats usually what it is). We can fill up that huge empty hole of time with our ideas

well honestly i thought that instead of focusing on Earth id focus on how things spiraled into the Great Wars of Antiquity. Or as i call them the 2 Great Phase Wars. But as far as Earth goes, it just lost its influence, it was still there and was still apart of the warring factions. probably should have included that but with so much in my head and trying to put it down to make sense i kindof shot around that fact. for all we know Earth is very well apart of the Trade Order or the TEC now but they dont have the standing power they once held. theyd be more like a planet sized museum where they live off of tourism from other planets. tourists would want to come see where their ancestors branched out from. Anyway yeah the first five sentences did seem the same simply cause its kindof hard to imagine another way to explain how Earth lost its standing and other Terran Factions came to power.

As far as the mentioning of the Dynasty. Really theres no proof that that statement actually means an actual "Emperor". in todays society you might say that Mcdonalds is a Dynasty. it might just be eluding to how the central government of the TO was dominated by a primary Corporation or Political Party.  So really theres still space for us to fill in the empty space left by the lore.

I don't think there's any one person with the powers of an emperor in the TEC, or Trade Order, as we've decided they're two separate things, right?

I think there would be something like a committee of people, can't remember the word for some reason, who run each planet, a committee above them to run a region of planets (around one star), a committee above that and so on and so on. All elected. Things would still be streamlined because the committee on the planet level would focus on its planet issues, the system committee would focus on things the affected the system as a whole, as so on. Each group could give an opinion for an action that is decided by another committee, but they have no real say in any matter that goes beyond their committee's power. So instead of an emperor-type person, there's a committee of about 9-19 people (keep it uneven so there's never a tie) who discuss matters for the Trade Order as a whole. That would include a liason to the TEC heads (no name for them yet), who manage the entire war effort. Either way, nowhere is there a single person with all the power. There are groups that decide everything, and there are time restrictions for every issue so that no branch gets clogged up with a mountain of issues. They have say a week to decide on an issue of this importance, a day to decide on an issue of that importance, and a month for an issue of so-and-so importance. Do you get what I'm trying to say?

Well right now we're at the point where we're discussing how the Trade Order was created. The Aluxite Dynasty seems to be, in my opinion, a nation or group of planets that were taken by the Vasari on the Western perimeter of the Trade Order. So when the Aluxite Dynasty fell, along with perhaps all the strings they had tied around politicians, the Trade Order immediately sanctioned the creation of the TEC to fight of the alien threat. Even if that's not how we agree it'll actually have turned out, the Aluxite Dynasty is part of the formation of the TEC when the Vasari come, not the Trade Order. There is at least more than a thousand years of Trade Order time before this happens, because the TO discovers the Advent planet and banishes them, and the TO had been around for I'd like to think at least 500 years before that, at minimum.

[quote who="C.I." reply="18" id="2385628"]Yeah, Carbon, post the TEC ship summaries on your thread here. Me and Allegiance are doing that for our threads too
[/quote]

I asked Carbon for permission to do some of this