The Platyrian Empire (Invisible Ducks)

        The Platyrian Empire is a huge, multi-systemed network of colonized worlds, space stations, and mining outposts. More commonly known as the Duck Empire, its citizens consist of various species of ducks. While the exact dimensions and span of the empire are unknown to all but the most informed Platyrian scholars, it is generally held to be at least five times the size of the combined Alliance territories, and shares part of its sizeable western border with the Alliance. Though willing to exist peacefully with the Alliance, their relations do so more of convenience than of loyalty, and have had a number of skirmishes with both SpaceFleet and the Arellian navy. Still, while a far cry from a friendly neighbor, the empire more often than not abides by Alliance law, and occasionally contributes to a hostile society’s decision to leave the Alliance alone. This tedious balance with the Alliance is meticulously maintained – and further relations are encouraged – in the interests of having a ready guard on their western flank should the Platyrian Navy be called to battle the Bagels in the empire’s northeastern quadrants.

        Based out of their home planet, Platyria, the Invisible Ducks – so known for their Stealth drives, which mask their ships from view and hide them from ships’ sensors – have little use for the worlds of the Alliance. Commerce is allowed but hardly needed in an empire already teeming with hundreds of worlds and cultures, and many technological offerings are ultimately outperformed by their Stealth technology. They maintain a sizeable standing army and formidable navy, which consists of thousands of ships – many new and quite powerful, and all meticulously maintained – which travel faster and farther than Alliance craft and possess enhanced shields and weaponry. Moreover, technology banned by the Alliance – phase-modulating torpedoes and other such devices that slip through shields – are routinely stocked in the Platyrian battleships.

        An ancient race, Platyrians do not like to have their actions called into question by outsiders, and have often turned a deaf ear on Alliance protests, confident that their superior forces are capable of carrying out their wishes regardless of Allied objections. This is due, in part, to the ruthless nature of the Radioactive Bagels, their enemies for so many millennia that any memories of the reasons behind the conflict have long been lost. The Bagel Empire abuts the far eastern border of Duck territory, and the two civilizations have since time untold been locked in a continuous state of war. Truces and ceasefires are occasionally called – and, for a time, honored – but the fighting never really ends. The exact nature of their rivalry long forgotten, the empires carry on the fight now out of determination not to be the first to blink. Hatred and distrust run too deeply for thoughts of compromise.

        Border worlds are largely uninhabitable wastelands or besieged fortifications, often changing hands from one empire to another and back again by the decade. The militarized no-man’s-land between the borders is in a constant state of flux as well; populations flee as the borders draw near, and their abandoned planets are immediately annexed by whatever side reaches them first. Over the years, a spate of defeats and resulting civilian panic have cost the Platyrians several dozen border systems; in an effort to put a stop to the shrinking and fluctuations of its borders, Platyria has placed restrictions on migrations for border worlds. This policy has helped stabilize its borders somewhat, but has led to dozens of local skirmishes, several civil wars, and drawn loud protests from its neighbors in the Alliance.