First Guardian Civil War

The First Guardian Civil War was a pivotal conflict in the history of the ancient Guardians that united their civilisation under a single, global government. It occurred on the Guardian homeworld approximately one thousand years before the Guardians developed spaceflight technology, and marked the culmination of several centuries of warfare that had been sparked by the advent of electronic computers, airship-based flight, and biological weapons. A number of Guardian clans from the north of the homeworld's main continent formed an alliance, then embarked on a campaign of conquest of the rest of the planet. When the war ended, the Guardians' disparate city-states stabilised, and the time of peace and prosperity that followed eventually gave rise to their desire to explore the stars.

Background

Millions of years ago and centuries before the onset of the First Guardian Civil War, Guardian civilisation existed at a pre-industrial level. Technological development was driven by advances in genetic manipulation, which in turn spurred gains in medical science and engineering, but these new technologies were not evenly distributed among the Guardians' clan-based society. Disputes were initially resolved through duels between representative champions, but this gave way to warfare as the clans realised they could resort to numbers to overwhelm opponents. Biological agents became the weapon of choice and an arms race began. Technologies such as computers and airships emerged to increase the effectiveness of biological attacks. This state of seemingly perpetual conflict between and even within Guardian clans across their homeworld threatened to destroy the species.

Events

A turning point for Guardian civilisation came after hundreds of years of violence, when a number of Guardian clans residing in the northern region of their homeworld's main continent reached an accord. This northern alliance proceeded to launch a swift war to conquer the southern clans, bringing the entire species under their leadership and ending the early warfare period. Though few details of this First Guardian Civil War are known, it effectively laid the foundation for all future Guardian cultural and technological growth.

Impact

With the unification of the Guardians through the civil war, the species entered a millennium-long period of peace. City-states continued to exist, and under a social system that advocated balance with nature and cooperation between clans, the Guardian population swelled steadily. This era segued into the Guardians' space age when the population reached the point where the planet could no longer easily support it, and the species began to look to the stars and other habitable worlds, leading to a surge of interest in astronomy and spaceflight.