Dracian Refugee Crisis

The Dracian Refugee Crisis was a major political, demographic, social and economic crisis in the Kronian Multiverse starting in the year 1.320 AET and ending in 1.500 AET. The crisis had such a major effect on the politics, culture and economy of the planets of the former Planetary Alliance that it resulted in a change of the very foundations of galactic society itself. The effects of the Dracian Refugee Crisis were so profound, in fact, that many of the after-effects are still felt today.

Prelude
In the light of his findings about Darkness, Zirix, a Dracian Combat Apprentice, became ever more interested in the Six Holy Elements, seeking to take control of those to change the universe for the benefit of all. Hendrax, his Master, forbade him any of the knowledge, and instead took him into the Royal Castle of Dracia, where he would receive private training from Hendrax. Believing Hendrax was doing this to disadvantage him, Zirix grew angered at his Master, and opened his Heart to anger and resentment.

This ultimately culminated in him being confronted by a dark being, who offered the young Toa of Iron the ability to win from his master, promising the Toa unlimited power and the guarantee of becoming Combat Master. Without any doubt, the Toa accepted it, not knowing that, in doing so, he opened himself to being slowly taken over by the dark being. He embraced the darker powers he was given, using them during training to get even better results than before.

But, when Hendrax found out, he summoned Zirix to his own room, confronting him on his usage of Darkness and condemning it as utterly apprehensive. The Toa of Darkness, taken aback by how his master still refused to accept him, became enraged, and attacked his master. A duel ensued, in which the two were very evenly matched. When Fyxan confronted the two in the middle of the duel, Zirix instead dealt with him, until Hendrax brought back the attention to himself, forcing Fyxan to gather the rest of the population of the planet and leave.

In the resulting duel between Zirix and Hendrax, Zirix began to envelop himself in Darkness. Though it gave him even more power, it also resulted in the creation of a black hole inside of the room where the two were fighting. With everything being slowly sucked into the realm of Darkness, the black hole grew stronger and stronger, eventually strong enough to swallow walls whole, while Hendrax and Zirix continued duelling under the severe pressure of being sucked into the black hole. Before the castle was sucked in, Zirix jumped through the portal, and Hendrax followed him. What happened to them afterwards is not known.

During that same final duel, Fyxan and Lev, another apprentice of Hendrax, were warning the population of Dracia that Darkness had returned. In the ensuing panic, many beings either resorted to using their own spacecraft, joined cargo craft, or joined Fyxan and Lev on-board of their battleship. With the duel in the castle intensifying, and the black hole growing bigger, the spacecraft also alerted the small Combat Masters' League headquarters at Arcturus Magna that a major crisis was going on. Ultimately, the majority of the population of Dracia were evacuated from their homes, but they were left without any home to go to again.

Planetary Alliance Collapses, Crisis Begins
In the emergency Planetary Alliance session that had been called on, the vice president of the Alliance Council, Filius, warned that a great danger had returned to the galaxy, and that Dracia was under the threat of being consumed by Darkness. Once the beings in the room heard that Darkness had possibly returned, they made sure to evacuate themselves from the Planetary Alliance headquarters on Estron as soon as possible.

The news of the Dracian Crisis, later known as the Fall of Dracia, spread like wildfire across the galaxy, starting on the Estronian bazaars and ending up in the vast mountain ranges of Azzilat, the sinkholes of Moni and the steppes of Kubran. The panic that ensued caused the Estronian government to collapse, unable to withstand the rise of warlords calling for a stable, stronger government to prevent the rise of Darkness on Estron. With the Estronian government having fallen, the remaining agents of the government called for the resignation of Estron from the Planetary Alliance.

Though Estron resigned, the Planetary Alliance was determined to provide a safety net for the refugees, calling upon the planets of Azzilat, Moni and Kubran to help Arcturus Magna spread the refugees evenly across the planets. When the Azzilati leadership heard of this plan, they refused to accept it, citing the potential dangers that those refugees could bring with them, and threatening to secede from the Planetary Alliance if the plan was to be set in motion anyway.

This vocal stance of the Azzilati government led to the governments of Moni and Kubran to join them in their crusade against the "Refugee Plan". Though the Planetary Alliance attempted to negotiate with Moni, Kubran and Azzilat, the conference resulted in the three planets declaring their secession from the Planetary Alliance, and the closure of their borders.

With the Planetary Alliance collapsed, no safety net for the refugees from Dracia could be provided on a galactic scale, the negotiations having ended altogether for the plan.

Though the Planetary Alliance itself had collapsed, there were a couple of planets in the same system as Dracia, which agreed to help the refugees even if it posed an extremely large risk to their own societies. Kraka Minor and Kraka Major began to take Dracian refugees in the limited numbers, but sent away multiple ships full of refugees on the grounds that they could not cope with such a huge change in population numbers at once.

The result of these ships being sent away was entire fleets of ships wanting to enter the planets of the former Planetary Alliance. Many ships ended up at either Estron or Arcturus Magna, while a few ended up stranded at Moni and Kubran, forcing the two planets to accept the ships either way. The Azzilati's guarded their borders sternly, hunting down any potential ships with refugees mercilessly.

With many refugees suddenly popping up everywhere in the galaxy, the Estronian Civil War's nature changed from a political conflict into a social one, with the Estronian refugees becoming increasingly targeted for persecution and, later, genocide. The Arcturans, therefore, started accepting more refugees, accepting the security risk it posed to them.

Arcturus Magna intervenes, Refugee Help Plan is written
Although the Arcturans began accepting the refugees in limited numbers, Filius and Acritus realised that the Dracian refugees could, by no means, continue to stay in space for prolonged amounts of time, given the dangers of the Azzilati patrols and the Estronian Civil War.

Thus, Filius and Acritus met in secrecy with the leaderships of Azzilat, Moni, Kubran, and the most prominent leader on Estron, Rex. Rex agreed to accept refugees into his territory, citing that Estron was a planet for everyone desiring freedom. The governments of Azzilat, Moni and Kubran, though, were less than happy to accept refugees, especially the Azzilati's. But, once realising that an even worse disaster would occur if the refugees were not appropriately given a safety net, even the deviant governments accepted the terms, though reluctantly.

The resulting Refugee Help Plan that was established resulted in a major reform of the Arcturan system of government, establishing a formal governmental structure, with an established hierarchy and political rights for all citizens. The Constitution of Arcturus Magna was also written in this period, becoming the galaxy's first actual lawful legal document, documenting the rights and duties of all beings and citizens present on Arcturus Magna.

As per the Refugee Help Plan, the Arcturans had to accept the greatest number of refugees, far greater than the amount of refugees any other planet would take. Their number of refugees was followed by Estron, who had about 50% of the number of refugees that Arcturus Magna accepted. Azzilat, Moni and Kubran accepted even less refugees altogether, but still cooperated in the plan.

With the refugees on the planets and becoming lawful citizens, the extremely large population growth of Arcturus Magna resulted in an overhaul not only of its governmental system, but of the very foundations of its society. The capital of Arcturus Magna, Arcturus City, expanded at an unprecedented rate, quickly becoming the greatest city in the galaxy, and expanding outwards from its original valley.

The result of this was, though, that a major process of suburbanisation took place in Arcturus City, with a tremendous amount of suburbs rising where the refugees were being settled. This forced a major reform for the infrastructure, including the establishment of the SkyTrain transport network across the entirety of Arcturus City, and the establishment of bus services.

Arcturus City's unprecedented growth also came with a downside, though. The suburbanisation that had resulted in suburbs emerging left and right in the city, led to the creation of a so-called Upper City, where the wealthy elites lived. The Lower City became the suburbs, where all the refugees and the other citizens were being settled. The socio-political divide between the Upper and Lower Cities became a major point of contention, and crime in the Lower City started to emerge shortly after. But, Arcturus Law Enforcement Organisation (ALEO) actions to bring down the crime rate were a major success, and the government started to provide more services for the refugees.

Aftermath
In the direct aftermath of the Crisis, many refugees were still living in squalid poverty in poorly built suburbs and abandoned parts of cities, resulting in a high crime rate among the refugees. This major crime rate became a major argument for many political parties to argue for deporting the refugees or walling off their districts because of the social dangers that they posed.

The Arcturan government, though, started to establish a plan to better care for the refugees and to start improving the accomodations of the refugees as well. The result was a major rise in living standard across the board, with even the people in the lower classes able to feel the results of the accomodation improvements. The policing in these districts also became more strict and, as a result, the crime rate started to decrease, too.

A more long-term effect of the refugee crisis was the sudden boom in the economic activity of the formerly small Arcturan society. Arcturan society transferred from a secluded scientific community to a fledgling economic powerhouse, producing the greatest amount of industrial goods in the entire galaxy. The economic growth of Arcturus Magna resulted in a major power shift, enabling it more political and economic leverage, eventually enabling it to establish the Galactic Council to succeed the defunct Planetary Alliance.

Trivia

 * The Dracian Refugee Crisis was based upon, amongst others, World War II, the Spanish Civil War and, most importantly, the modern European refugee crisis.