Click on the Amalgam Universe map to get a preview of the empire layouts. Note that the empire names in red are projected to be neutral (non-expansive) empires, while the gray, blurry areas represent chasms or rifts, where travel will be limited or restricted altogether. In SE IV, neutral non-expansive races don't need custom ship graphics, so creating their files is a lot easier.

Obviously this is subject to what the scenario editor can actually do and what kind of custom races I end up getting here in this archive.

And yes, this was inspired in part by VGA Planets.

Galactic History

Dim legend speaks of a time when a great war was fought in this Galaxy between an ancient sentient race and their machine servants, but the origins and result of this conflict was lost in time, and the destruction that followed laid waste to all intelligent life in the region.

Millions of years later, an ancient race known as the Predecessors seeded this part of the Galaxy with their genetic seed, a bipedal, humanoid stock that evolved on many different worlds and different conditions, before fadng away into the mists of history. But this action has given rise to such diverse Predecessor civilizations as the Humans, Ferengi, Minbari, Romulans, and Shi'ar. What's unique about all these races is their ability to interbreed, even after such a long period, and the natural affinity they have for each other.

Of these races, one of the most important is the Humans, who have spread farther and faster through the quadrant than any of the others. In fact, tens of thousands of years ago, an early Human civilization left Earth and crossed the Coreward Chasm, settling a vast stretch of isolated space and establishing the legendary Galactic Empire with its capital at Trantor.

But Successor Races aren't the only starfaring civilizations in this quadrant; there are native sentient species such as the mineral-based Tholians, the gaseous Hydrans, and the mysterious and deadly Dire Wraiths. The ancient reptilian empire still has its descendants, including the Narn, their distant cousins the Gorn and Rodians, the reptilian-humanoid hybrids the Skrulls, and the legacy of the Cylons, a reptilian race that was eventually supplanted by their own robotic machines.

Nor have the sentient machines spoken of in legend disappeared entirely. The dreaded Borg, a hive-mind of machine-like intelligence, continues to grow and dominate in a distant corner of the quadrant, while some of the races towards the Spinward Marches tell of a race of sentient killing machines known as the Berserkers, who are bent on eradicating all biological life from the universe.

Current Events

The Federation is at peace, but interesting times are ahead, and recent scientific explorations have suggested it may now be possible to cross the Coreward Chasm into previously undiscovered sectors of the Galaxy, as well as through the newly formed wormhole at Bajor, while the Babylon 5 station reports sightings of unknown alien vessels in a neighboring sector. Meanwhile the Cardassians are getting restless, feeling backed into a corner, and have been eyeing Tholian and Gorn territory.

A new emperor sits on the Romulan throne, and Shal'Tiar intelligence has brought word of a possible new First Contact situation with a culturally similar empire across the Coreward Chasm called the Centauri, with whom trade and alliance and could prove fruitful. That may be necessary in the years ahead, as the five races ringed around the so-called Battle Worlds -- the Romulans, the Klingons, the Tholians, Hydrans, and Lyrans -- have entered an uneasy period of no permanent alliances and no ongoing wars, but tensions are mounting as the growing populations need new systems to settle and exploit. Most intelligence services expect general war within five years.

In the reaches of Old Vorlon space, an uneasy peace has settled between the Centauri Republic and their ancient enemies, the Narn, while the Minbari remain aloof and independent as always. Both the Centauri and the Narn have been eying the non-aligned worlds as possible allies or subjects in the upcoming struggle, while reports out of Minbari space suggest that both the Vorlons and the Shadows have returned.

Meanwhile in the Mar-Vell star cluster, the age old balance of power between Skrull, Kree, and Shi'ar races has settled once again into an uneasy, three-way general peace, with all three cultures rearming for an expected further round of combat.

The Galactic Empire is the largest political entity in the quadrant, but it's short of resources, many of the subjugated races within its borders are chafing under the yoke of Imperial rule, while the decades-old Rebellion has grown strong enough to confront the Imperium on the battlefield and powerful enough to rule half a dozen remote worlds under its own government with impunity.

Disaster has struck the so-called Lost Colonies of Man, a peaceful human republic that split off from the Galactic Empire a thousand years ago. The robotic armies of the Cylons have destroyed the Colonial civilization and conquered its home worlds, and the remnants of the fleet have taken off into unknown space, towards a legendary planet known only as Earth.

And finally, in the little known Delta Sector, the inimical Borg and cruel Dominion are gearing up for a final confrontation, having destroyed or assimilated almost every other race in the sector. Whomever emerges victorious will likely then turn their combined might towards the rest of the quadrant.