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The seven races of the Votanis Collective fled their dying worlds in the Arkships, built by the technologically-advanced Indogenes.
The Votan are: Castithan, Indogene, Irathient, Liberata, Sensoth, Gulanee and Volge.
The Votans traveled, in cold-sleep, for hundreds of years.[1]
Earth's governments had seen them coming and, without ever revealing it to the general populace, formed the Earth Military Coalition (EMC) of all the earth's armies.
April 15th, 2013 - The Ark Ships arrive at Earth and the world learns we are not alone.
The Votanis Collective was accepted into the United Nations council, laying the groundwork for the first Votan colony in South America.[2]
While initial contact was peaceful and embassies were established to facilitate communication, a faction among the Humans, called Echelon, with possible collusion from Votan groups opposed to peace, plotted and killed the Votan Ambassador, thus triggering the Pale Wars.[3]
Earth's military developed a synthetic performance-enhancing drug called Adreno. The soldiers who used it called it "Blue Devil". During the war supplies of Blue Devil ran low and some addicted soldiers turned to outlaw chemists who used kidnapped humans, terrifying them and extracting adrenal fluid to fill the demand.
In January of 2030 the Arkships, which were still in orbit, mysteriously exploded forming the Ark Debris Belt that continues to decay from orbit and fall into the atmosphere to this day.
When the Arks were destroyed, many large ships crashed to Earth with active tech. The worst of this tech was the terraspires. Upon impact they activated and began the terraforming of Earth.
The larger pieces and the crystallized power cores (gulanite, mostly) continue to fall to Earth in Arkfalls. Many rush to these arkfalls to scavenge any tech that may have survived entry.
A large piece of one Arkship apparently crashed (or landed hastily) in the area formerly known as St. Louis. It is unknown whether this Arkship's crew and complement were of the pro-peaceful-co-existance faction or the war-of-extinction faction, but the ship carried an artifact of immense power called the "Kaziri". The gold-swirly artifact Luke found in the L7 shaft is apparently one half of the Kaziri's "key". It is highly likely that the cave paintings seen at the end of episode 104 were made by the last survivors of this ship.
When the Arkfall triggered the terraforming blast in the St. Louis area, some force field protected most of the old city, causing the terraforming to layer over it forming a huge bubble of rock. The town of Defiance is built on top of this bubble.
In San Francisco, on Dec 23, 2030, something unusual happened. The battle lines had trapped a large number of civilians of both sides within the combat zone. When ordered to advance some of the soldiers, of both sides, refused to obey their officers and, instead, worked together to evacuate all civilians from the area. The Human and Votan soldiers that began the "revolt" became known as "The Defiant Few".
Ara Shondu's brother, Nim, was a loyalist and was believed to have perished in the terraform blast that ended the battle.
This single act of Defiance echoed around the world and, faced with the mutiny of a large portion of their armies (the Volge never refused to fight) both sides came to the negotiation table and the Armistice was signed.[4]
As part of the fighting between the Voulge and The Defiant Few, a Terraspire was activated, releasing a terraforming wave that destroyed most of both armies and altered the San Francisco Bay Area of North America forever. This is why the Defiant are Few.[5]
In April of 2031, the Pale Wars Armistice was signed.
To commemorate that day, so that none will forget the heroes who died, of all races, and the reasons they stopped, each April all the peoples, Human and Votan, celebrate Armistice Day.
During this time, Josh Nolan kills Irisa's parents (apparently they really needed killin') and adopts her to raise as his own daughter. [6]
By the time of the Armistice, most if not all of the pre-Ark governments of Earth had fallen. From the rubble arose the Earth Republic (E-Rep), with it's capitol in Manhattan.
Residual poisons and radiation from the Pale Wars eventually affected former EMC soldiers in the Bay Area who never stood down, mutating them into monstrous, insane killers.
The community of Tranquility, in the Mount Tam region of Madera County, was a multi-cultural social experiment in inter-species harmony. Eventually, when the mutations began, the community was overrun from within and without, and utterly destroyed.[7]
The community of Paradise is formed, comprised of most of Madera, Marin and Sausalito counties. Varus Soleptor was instrumental in its founding, and its primary commodities are gulanite and petrohol.
The game and the show begin.