Planetary Alliance

The Alliance for Interplanetary Cooperation, Development and Friendship, mostly simply known as the Planetary Alliance, was an interplanetary cooperation organisation in the Kronian Multiverse.

Originally founded by Hendrax after the Great Migration out of Infina Magna to the Realm of Light, the Planetary Alliance was built by Hendrax as an organisation of interplanetary cooperation, trust, friendship and simultaneous development. Unlike its successor, the Galactic Council, the Planetary Alliance was not nearly as strict an alliance of planets, relying primarily on the voluntary cooperation between the planets to ensure a maximum spread of welfare. Also, unlike the Galactic Council, the Planetary Alliance strived to protect the dignity and equality of all planets.

The Planetary Alliance eventually collapsed in the wake of the Fall of Dracia, with the Dracian Refugee Crisis eventually sealing the Alliance's fate as a doomed organisation.

Prehistory
Shortly after the Great Migration out of Infina Magna to the Realm of Light, millions of beings poured onto a myriad of planets in the Realm of Light. As a result, Dracia, Azzilat, Moni, Kubran and Estron became the first populated planets outside of Infina Magna, which shortly thereafter disappeared off the map.

The memories of the Second Great Infinus War were then partially removed from most beings, with most only remembering a deadly conflict shortly before they arrived at the planets. Only Hendrax, Filius, Acritus and several other Combat Masters who had belonged to the League were allowed to retain their full memories of the war.

With these memories of war and devastation fresh in their heads, Hendrax, Filius and Acritus sought out to establish a more peaceful governance, first on Dracia, then in the entire galaxy. Hendrax, despite being the youngest of the three Combat Masters, was elected by the League as the Guardian Combat Master of Dracia, the planet they first inhabited.

As life on the planets gradually began to grow, Hendrax began developing the first technique to create spacecraft as a means of transportation between the various planets, taking previous water-bound vehicles as his example. Through this technique, the Toa of Light managed to spread out the population of the galaxy even more, eventually also prompting Filius and Acritus to go on their own way to search for a planet where they could establish a Combat Masters' League temple.

Establishing of the Planetary Alliance
Shortly after Filius and Acritus left to find their own planet, Hendrax took a new apprentice under his wing; a young, energetic Toa of Air who would later become the warlord Rex. While training the Toa of Air in becoming proficient in the arts of Combat, Hendrax and his apprentice thought of ways to ensure galactic peace would become a reality.

Eventually, the two came to the idea of establishing an interplanetary cooperation pact, in which all members were equals and none was allowed to profit over the backs of other members. With the idea born, Hendrax quickly suggested it within the Combat Masters' League, where Acritus enthusiastically received it. Filius was more sceptical, however, and declared that "such an organisation can only devolve into a lawless wasteland".

Hendrax, undeterred by the words of the old Combat Master, decided to go ahead with his plans anyway, and invited the representatives of several planets. In the meantime, his young apprentice had graduated and become a fierce proponent of Hendrax's plans himself, becoming the eventual representative of Estron. Alongside the later Rex, Hendrax proposed the idea to the rest of the galaxy. Despite their scepticism, the leaders of Moni and Kubran quickly agreed to help in establishing such an alliance. Only the Azzilati's, led by the stubborn former Combat Master Zarorhk, refused at first, until he too was swayed by his populace.

Creation of the Titan-I
As a result of the successful negotiations to create the Galactic Council, Hendrax ordered for the engineers of the Dracian Royal Shipworks to build a vessel that was faster, more agile and more efficient than any other vessel had been before.

The result became the Titan-I Battleship, which began to serve as a symbol of the Planetary Alliance's prosperity. Its maiden voyage was a voyage to Estron and back, and it was heralded across the galaxy as a great victory for galactic cooperation, friendship and unity.

In the meantime, Hendrax had taken up three new apprentices, in the form of the Toa of Air Lev, the Light warrior Fyxan, and the Toa of Sonics, Zirix. The three apprentices almost by themselves became symbols of the Planetary Alliance's willingness to protect and preserve peace and galactic unity.

Zirix' Betrayal and Downfall
After several years of training under Hendrax, Lev was declared Combat Master after finishing his Mastery exam. The Toa of Air, despite his newfound position and power, opted to remain with his fellow warriors, and continued to help the Combat Masters' League and captain the Titan-I.

Shortly after Lev had graduated to become Combat Master, Zirix had developed a growing interest in the Six Holy Elements, believing that the usage of these elements could help him attain more power and more proficiency in Combat than any Combat Master previous to him. When this curiosity was discovered by Hendrax, however, the Toa of Light scorned his apprentice, telling him it could potentially harm the entire galaxy, and so much more. Besides that, Hendrax decided to postpone Zirix's Combat Mastery exam until he had gotten rid of his interest in the Six Holy Elements. This, however, served only to anger the Toa of Sonics more, who became more and more interested in the "forbidden" subject.

When Fyxan became a Combat Master as well, despite the fact that he was on equal terms with Zirix in terms of power, the Toa of Sonics got angered with their Master. Hendrax, however, told his apprentice once again that "interest in these Elements could potentially alter the future of not just us, but of everyone we know, and of all we hold most dear." Disappointed, Zirix left the room, and began to learn using Darkness to alter his powers more and more.

Upon realising his student's usage of Darkness, Hendrax called for his student to arrive in the throne room. When Zirix did, however, a duel broke out after a severe argument, and Zirix began to utilise his Darkness powers to envelop the room. When Fyxan intervened, Zirix's anger manifested itself in the form of a Dark entity that started to fend off Hendrax, so Zirix could focus on Fyxan. In the ensuing battle, Zirix nearly mortally wounded Fyxan, cutting out the warrior's left eye in revenge.

Keeping his former Master off, the darkened Toa blasted his way into the Energy Reactor chamber behind the throne room, where he proceeded to absorb the Energy of the Reactor to turn into a massive blast of Darkness. As Zirix did this, Hendrax ordered for Lev and Fyxan to evacuate Dracia and alert anyone and everyone possible.

As the evacuation of Dracia began in earnest, Zirix's power grew, and the Toa duelled his former Master with ease. Eventually, the Reactor collapsed on itself, and the Energy started pulling inward, creating a black hole into the Realm of Darkness. This black hole slowly began to encapsulate and swallow Dracia, until the entirety of the planet had been sucked into the Realm of Darkness, leaving nothing behind.

In the wake of the fall of Dracia, Rex attempted to call the Planetary Alliance's council to convene. During the convention, however, Rex was called a "traitor" and a "weakling", being scorned for his attempted coverup of the involvement of dark powers with the fall of Dracia. As panic broke out, the Planetary Alliance slowly collapsed onto itself.

Aftermath of the Collapse
After the collapse of the Planetary Alliance, an attempt was made to assassinate Rex, which, though unsuccessful, rendered the former "Representative" completely incapable of performing the job as he once did. Without any staunch supporters left, the Planetary Alliance Council no longer convened.

Shortly thereafter, Azzilati Emperor Zarorhk declared the Planetary Alliance to have been "a farcical attempt at suppressing the Combat-oriented nature of Azzilati society", and subsequently announced that the Planetary Alliance was "finished". Zarorhk then declared the creation of the Azzilati Imperium, an empire that would spread the "glory" of the Azzilati society to other societies. In aggressive but short wars of conquest, the Azzilati starfleets breached through Monian and Kubrani defences, and conquered the planets with little resistance.

In the meantime, a crisis was mounting as refugees from Dracia were left stranded on board of a large fleet of vessels, with nowhere to really go. While Estron slid into a devastating civil war, the Azzilati Imperium refused to allow the "cowardly" Dracian refugees entry into their territories.

Arcturus Magna, the planet on which Filius and Acritus had once started their mission of a new League temple, was the only planet that had not yet taken sides in the mounting galactic conflict. As a result of the crisis, however, the icy planet's leaders were soon forced to either allow the refugees, or see them be slaughtered by Estronians and Azzilati's. Faced with little other choice, Filius and Acritus allowed for the refugees to land on Arcturan soil on the condition that they, too, help build up a new Arcturan society.

Organisation
Unlike the Galactic Council that succeeded it, the Planetary Alliance was loosely organised. Its supreme organ was the Planetary Alliance Council, a Council of representatives of each of the member planets. Despite its grand name, however, the Alliance Council had little in the way of legislative power, and acted more as a conference of the planets to come together, than as a coherent governmental body.

Membership
Membership of the Planetary Alliance could be attained by any planet and simply required an application to be sent by the candidate planet in question. Otherwise, the Alliance could extend an invitation to a planet to send a representative to one of the Alliance Council's sessions, which was usually seen as an invitation to membership.

All members in the Planetary Alliance were equals, and all agreements between these planets were required to be completely transparent and open to all citizens to view. As such, no one planet could profit over the back of another planet.

Guiding Principles
Like the Galactic Council that came after it, the Planetary Alliance had a set of guidelines that were central to every decision it made. These were known as the Guiding Principles of the Alliance, and were as follows:


 * 1) The Alliance for Interplanetary Cooperation, Development and Friendship, henceforth referred to simply as the Planetary Alliance (PA), shall be an interplanetary cooperation organisation dedicated to building economic, social and cultural cooperation between the various member planets. This is done to engender mutual trust and establish mutually beneficial relationships that work for the greater good of the collective membership;
 * 2) As an organisation dedicated to peaceful building of social, economic and cultural cooperation, the Planetary Alliance is and shall remain an entirely voluntary organisation for its membership.
 * 3) The Planetary Alliance's central organ is the Alliance Council, a council of representatives of all member planets;
 * 4) While it is the central organ, the Alliance Council may under no pretenses or conditions expel any member planet, nor may it overrule any sovereign planet's individual decisions on its own territories.
 * 5) Any and all members of the Planetary Alliance are free to make mutual agreements with one another in any area, be it economic, cultural, or social. These agreements may be established so long as they are mutually beneficial;
 * 6) Should a non-mutually beneficial agreement be created, the Alliance Council has the right to revoke the legitimacy of this agreement as soon as it is created.
 * 7) Any planet desiring to become part of the Planetary Alliance is welcome to sit in with the Alliance Council meetings;
 * 8) Also, the Alliance Council is free to invite any planet they see fit to come sit in with their meetings. As all Alliance activities, these are completely voluntary.
 * 9) Trade between Alliance members must always be mutually beneficial. Should unbeneficial trading situations arise, then the Alliance Council has a right to order intervention;
 * 10) Intervention may come in the form of intervention through representatives, or military intervention. Military intervention must only be seen as an absolute last resort.
 * 11) Leadership of the Planetary Alliance is a collective good. No one being may ever be described as "leader of the Planetary Alliance";
 * 12) During Council meetings, the presiding member of the meeting (a President) will be elected before the start of the meeting.

Legacy
Despite its messy downfall, the Planetary Alliance left behind a legacy of peace and prosperity for most, if not all, of its member planets. Both Acritus and Filius expressed their sincerest admiration of the way the Alliance dealt with both internal and external affairs, and expressed their desires to rebuild this legacy with the Galactic Council.

When the Galactic Council was founded, it was declared to be the successor to the Planetary Alliance, and the leaders of the Council declared their intention to make the Council as much like the Alliance as possible.