Stardust And Feathers

The Feder’Feld Empire, or The Feld Strand, is primarily the domain of the ikars. Feder’Feld as an empire has the most star systems claimed, though does not boast a defensible presence in all of them. However, they mobilise at the drop of a hat and are viscous in protecting what they consider theirs. The primary identity of Feder’feld is its expansionism and military, both of which are unmatched by any other single strand. Having been the first to claim the Khel, the empire uprooted réoux natives and spread them across the Strand, working brutal manual labour tasks. All manual labour is conducted by slaves, who are treated… less than politely, to put it mildly. There is constant pressure from other Strands to grant sovereignty to the réoux, which Feder’feld is all too glad to brush off, indifferent.

There is a tremendous patriotism that is seeded throughout the empire’s worlds, including its least fortunate communities. Money is funnelled into their military more than anything else, which also helms their expansion programs into the ink, ready to subjugate anyone or anything they deem to have an iota of value. There is a saying amongst the militaries of other Strands: “The Empire doesn’t paint its ships.” Often, fresh-faced marines ask for further elaboration. But when allied imperial cruisers drift by the view port, dressed in shades of furious crimson red, the answer becomes plain.

The empire is more than willing to fight other strands, and they also have the most political power in the DUSC. For Atlas, what many consider the antithesis of the empire, this meant that when they went to war with each other three years ago, Atlas as a Strand and their representatives were ejected from the DUSC, and therefore the power to influence the wider galactic zeitgeist. 

The war was fought due to the empire encroaching upon and attempting to claim already claimed, registered, and inhabited planets belonging to Atlas. In the end, the empire relinquished their hold of these planets in order to reintroduce Atlas into the DUSC, so they could collectively combat the Chorus Crisis. Currently, the Strands are pulled too thin with their own expansion to fight each-other and this armada of droids.

History

When star travel was first becoming viable and commonplace, it was in no small part thanks to ikar-kind, who eagerly took to it as a spiritual process - the ultimate flight. The brave men and women who took the dangerous prototype ships to the stars, many of whom died in the pursuit, were ikars who understood the risk and took it for the chance to further the possibility of success.

That is what dawned Feder’Feld, where a great many ikars saw the stars as the ultimate, final conquest, and the vessel to get there as a great spiritual pilgrimage. The planet-side state of Ayr’razor, and all its many territories, could not subside its infighting long enough to ascend to the stars as one complete whole - so those who did seek the glory and conquest in the star-scape did so by assimilating into Feder’Feld. King-killers, always in search of a bloody crown to take, have reached for the crown of stars instead.