Prologue

In the standardized star charts used by the Confederation the planet is listed as "Lyranell"...

...though its proper name in the original Her-Galad is L'r'änel', which translates as either "longingly" or "with longing". When the Yangae Empire invaded and conquered the system a little over two centuries ago, they found the capital planet's name annoyingly hard to pronounce. They therefore did what they tried to do with everything; namely, they Yangized it, producing the more tongue-friendly "Lyranell". The Yangae Empire is now extinct, having been replaced with the (debatably) more benign Foldorian Empire decades ago, and the system is back under Ergothei control. "Lyranell", however, is still the familiar name.

By all standards, Lyranell is a backwater world at best, significant only in that it is one of those rare gems among worlds that have breathable atmospheres and conditions hospitable to life. The Ergotheia terraformed it over a millennium ago, turning its barren wastelands into highly productive farmland. Its fields became a valuable source of the fruits, nuts, legumes, and grains that form the principal staples of the Hergoth diet. It was neither the largest such agricultural project nor the most productive, but it still helped supply an entire stellar province. Unfortunately, both its location near the Yangae border and its lack of advanced infrastructure meant that it was the first system to fall when Emperor Kal'Yangae decided to absorb the Ergotheia into his bloating realm.

The Hergoth farmers and Farbett laborers that lived on Lyranell at the time could do nothing. By the time they were even aware their system had been invaded, what few real cities there had been there had already vanished under mushroom clouds. Soon they were told to return to work, but under new directives with Yangae guns pointed at them. The simple folk figured there was little point in trying to resist, so they did as they were told, unaware that their system was being used as the primary command center and staging ground for the rape of their entire civilization. Weakened after many centuries of decadence and overconfidence, the Ergothei Nation and the Farbett Republic, a proud alliance thousands of years old, soon succumbed to the Yangae tide. For over two hundred years afterward the Yangae brutalized the Hergoth and Farbett people, consuming their resources, plundering their treasures, all but enslaving their people, and trying to refashion a rich and ancient culture in their own image, all as part of the misguided Yangae ethic of trying to "civilize" the galaxy.

As it turned out, Lyranell had another unexpected role to play in the scheme of things. Centuries of interstellar conquest and brutal oppression had stretched Emperor Kal'Yangae's forces dangerously thin. Now plagued with several rebel uprisings within his core territories as well as pressure on his outer borders, he was forced to cut his occupation forces to a bare minimum. In the case of the occupied Ergothei nation his command and control network was reduced to a single base, conveniently the original one created during the invasion. In other words, Lyranell was once again the source of the foreign fist that gripped the Ergothei throat. The Yangae had tried to keep that fact a secret, well aware of the dangers it represented, but they had failed. Once the news had reached the resistance, the choice was obvious. A quick, decisive strike could be made against the command center, knocking it out and scattering the occupation forces. A rag-tag fleet of old, pre-occupation Ergothei warships was assembled and, under the command of Ganneth, last of the Heroes, approached Lyranell...with the aim of bombing it into a burnt-out cinder.

But it didn't happen as planned.

For the Yangae had, through their machinations, seen to it that Ganneth's scandalous lover, herself a Yangae, had been brought to Lyranell. Ganneth knew this, and in the end his heart overwhelmed his resolve. Unable to give the order to attack the planet, he set out instead in his own ship to try to rescue his love. He knew he was doomed before he got there, so he chose instead to plunge his ship into the Yangae base. The resulting explosion destroyed almost an entire continent and set off a chain of geological events that devastated much of the planet. The base was obliterated, the Yangae occupation was disrupted, and the Ergothei quickly rose against their oppressors.

In less than a month not only were they free, but the Yangae Empire itself was gone. The Emperor had been assassinated and replaced. And the newly-created Foldorian Empire, as its first act, gave the Ergothei Nation and the Farbett Republic their freedom again.

Several decades have passed since then. War is in the air again, but it is against a different enemy. Now the Yangae/Foldorians are allies of the Ergotheia. However, they are still not quite friends. The relationship is a very complicated one, and the situation on Lyranell shows this all too well. Most of the population is ethnic Hergoth, but it is divided between the "old" L'r'änel' descendents and the "new" Ergotheia that have come to reassert the newly-sovereign rule of distant Gotheia. The second largest group is the Foldorians, who are also divided into the old Yangae loyalists, the new Foldorian progressives, and the so-called "Hertressk", who are ethnic Foldorian but have accepted Hergoth culture and Ergothei rule. Then of course there are also the Farbetts, who are loyal to the Hergoth but would rather not be bothered. With the exception of the shattered continent known as Ganneth's Grave (or, among the Yangae loyalists, as "the Fool's Target"), most of Lyranell has been recovered. The scars have been soothed, the cities repaired, the farms put back in production, but things are not as quiet and peaceful as they seem.

The current War is far, far away. This tiny, insignificant, green world has far bigger enemies to fight, most of them within its own heart and soul.