So, in a homebrew setting that is pretty much the starfinder 'verse with the Stellaris setting. I've added the notion of Elder empires, or empires that have developed their own FTL and were fully functional and highly advanced spacefaring civs prior to the gap. The the magical-plotty-mystery thing of the gap had caused them to collapse somewhat and are in varying stages of decay/recovery, and due to their isolationist behavior (mostly from trying to sustain themselves and thus ignoring the galaxy around them), most have fallen into obscurity or are unknown to most of the relatively young starfinder world until they announce themselves.
And if you know anything about fallen empires from stellaris, each personality has it's own berserk button. The elder empire I have in question is modeled after the fanatic xenophile one, thus are quite egalitarian, and view those that abuse their citizens quite poorly. They are gentle and generally peaceful with lofty ideals. However, their advanced age has diminished their naivete, and that they recognize that there are some threats words alone will not reach. And given the Azlanti's first contact policy, and infamous reputation, this elder empire recognized them as such very quickly when their diplomatic ship returned moderately damaged - not destroyed (due to this empire having great defense in their ship builds.) carrying tales of similar vessels.
In the following months the elder empire sent another vessel to deal with the Azlanti belligerents. However, things did not go the way they did the last time for the Azlanti, for the elder empire had shown that their ships poor offense and great defense was not a limitation of design, but of philosophy. And the Azlanti bore witness to what happens when this gentle giant decides to take off the kiddie gloves; for they had diverted the resources form their ringworld production to mass produce proper combat ships instead of their using their piddly civil defense ships.
Things went about as well for the Azlanti as it would for 1940's Germany if they were to somehow end up fighting the modern United States. Because for all intents and purposes, they were now facing down fleets of ships that outnumbered them in addition to having superior offense and defense against a nation that can outproduce them. Any stellaris players that have fought against an awakened empire knows this feeling very intimately.
After a couple of weeks, anywhere from 60-80% of Azlanti navy and naval infrastructure was destroyed or rendered non-functional, with a following invasion of the capital homeworld, that was more or less trounced like their navy. The ultimatum to their leader was quite simple; Reform their vile ideology and government and ban slavery, purging, etc... or lose their sovereignty entirely.
From the Azlanti's perspective, they were essentially invaded outside force that are now demanding that they change their way of life to something contrary to their air of human superiority - something they'd never EVER do, but their opponent is overwhelmingly strong and are pretty much at their total mercy. This could cause some brewing or deep seeded hatred to take root, but they can't act on it because if they do, they'll lose everything and they would be powerless to stop it. Would they cow to the elder empires's wishes, or would they kinda implode and attempt to fight to the bitter end. Not to mention, the elder empire would be seen as a huge liberator and hero against the Azlanti rule, a hero that shows that these foes CAN be beaten and overcome, and now is the time for payback against all those years of tyranny. So now there would also be civil unrest everywhere from the oppressed. And at that point, would the empire just outright collapse from internal rebellion now that the Azlanti no longer have the power to keep it together?
Firstly I love Stellaris and so this is a yes. Now, as for the Azlanti well. I think that given the example we've seen of how the Azlanti react to overwhelming opposition (Xin and his Runelords) I think we can safely say that the Azlanti would probably give the appearance of being wiped out, sacrificing their ultimately expendable subjects, but secretly move into some safe location where the Fallen Xenophiles can't reach (or likely don't KNOW about).
This escape location would likely take the form of a Demiplane in which they can regroup and hide while they pick apart the weaknesses of their opponents until they feel they are confident they can defeat the fallen empire. The result being likely a series of guerilla strikes against these Fallen Empire ships so they can probe their defenses and locate weak points, leading up to a meticulously planned assault in which they attempt to destroy the leadership and homeworld of the empire entirely (whether they succeed or not is your decision, and this entire series of events would likely make a GREAT campaign).
Thank you for your input. The guerrilla tactics plot sounds like a great idea for a future setting, but problem is here that kinda already happened, and it failed spectacularly for a few reasons listed below. But before that, I should have been more clear on this, but the term "fallen empire" was more of a catch-all. In reality, the Xenophile would be better classified as an awakened empire as they have more or less have bounced back from the gap, and have been mostly keeping to themselves and developing/refurbishing their infrastructure. For the five I have created, there are three true fallen empires, the awakened empire, and an ascended empire (An empire that never really "fell" and thus has not only maintained their zenith, but have progressed since, and is assumed to be fallen because almost nothing is known about their status as they have little reason to interact with the galaxy).
But back onto the Xenophiles vs the Azlanti. To get this part out of the way, The Azlanti getting their butts kicked was mostly for narrative purposes to establish a few important things to the PC's of this setting. 1) The idea that there are societies with a wide disparity power levels, and that the universe as they knew it are no longer the biggest fish in the pond. 2) To establish that with even the "nice" one, elder empires are forces of great change/destruction that are not to be fooled around with. Even in-universe, the Xenophile empire makes a warning to the pact worlds that they were incredibly lucky that the Azlanti only pissed [i]them[i/] off, as due to the power disparity, there really isn't anything stopping and elder empire from going full destruct-o mode and wiping out known space other than their lack of desire.
As for how the Azlanti lost the guerrilla war, besides the whole "awakened empire" issues of fighting a foe that outnumbers and produces you in addition to wielding superior technology, the xenophile empire is the king of turtling with their fancy shields that have innate damage reduction and the fact they throw these around like a city would actual police cruisers, with at least a couple of these at every station. The other is that the elder empire as non-drift based FTL. (In this case, it's a combination Warp drives and stargates like EVE online) Can't really hit and run when average response time to a distress signal is 2d4 rounds when -like EVE online- you can get to anywhere in a system within minutes...
I can keep going, but think you get the idea already. I didn't really intend for the Azlanti to bounce back from this. As stated above, I was in need of a Worf for narrative purposes. The way I envisioned them in this setting elder empires are really only are threatened by other elder empires... Which then could interesting narrative point, as the Azlanti in their bid for revenge end up angering the xenophobic fallen empire and after they wipe out the azlanti, decide to finish the job on humanity and go after absalom station, prompting the awakened empire to intervene for the same reasons they fought against the azlanti, sparking a war in heaven with the starfinder 'verse caught in the middle.
Ultimately the Azlanti system is apparently based on over-awing and enslaving subject peoples; in essence something close to a form of interstellar helotage. Any such system that loses the whip hand is doomed. The best fate the Azlanti in this scenario could hope for is to fade into obscurity (much like the actual Spartans did) as their domain is reshaped. At worst, depending on how much blood they spilled in going down -- which given their evident nature one could expect to be a lot -- they might face a wrath from their former subjects much like, say, the French colonists did after the unhinged savagery French troops inflicted during the Haitian Revolution, in which case most of them are wiped out or chased into exile.
A potential x-factor is that the Azlanti seem to have some kind of relationship with Outside forces, to judge by the "Aeon" styling that runs through their self-concept (Aeon Throne, Aeon Troopers and so on). If the Aeons being referenced here are bound Aeons with anything like the kind of powers available to Aeons in Pathfinder, the Azlanti have access to exceedingly abstruse knowledge about the multiverse and are themselves a millennia-old spacefaring society. So it is likely that some fraction of Azlanti society survives and escapes the debacle and may even present itself as potential allies-of-convenience to the Pact Worlds. (The latter are already noticeably un-fussy about making common cause in the face of overwhelming threats to judge by the protectorate status of Aucturn and the inclusion of Eox, Apostae and the Aspis Consortium in Pact World membership.)
I think that the premise here breaks so many underlying assumptions of the setting, in terms of history and cosmology, that your basically in "homebrew from scratch" turf.
More or less. By the way, the gap is a great narrative device in the CRB just for situations like this. Where if you want to re-jig something, you don't have to toss out a lot of baggage to do so.
I'd advise to look into German 20s and 30s and not 40s and 50s since the pecualiarities of the Cold War created a rather strange mix there. After the first world war you may notice the civil war like tension that follows almost all national defeats all over history and over the world.
Its like when something goes wrong in your life. You may attribute everything as personal failure or put the blame entirely on someone else.
The hardest part is to walk the thin line between those two extremes.
A potential x-factor is that the Azlanti seem to have some kind of relationship with Outside forces, to judge by the "Aeon" styling that runs through their self-concept (Aeon Throne, Aeon Troopers and so on). If the Aeons being referenced here are bound Aeons with anything like the kind of powers available to Aeons in Pathfinder, the Azlanti have access to exceedingly abstruse knowledge about the multiverse and are themselves a millennia-old spacefaring society.I think you're reading too much into this. Ioun stones were a thing in old Azlant too.
It's possible. Am I? An Aeon connection would go a long way to explaining the Azlanti Star Empire's degree of power in the setting. Ioun stones and Aeon stones: are they similar things? (Yr Pathfinder lore could easily be stronger than mine, I dunno.) Is there another plausible reason for everything Azlanti to consist of Aeon-this-and-that aside from some connection to actual Aeons?
Ioun stones were used to enhance magical abilities in a magic-heavy setting, aeon stones are used to enhance tech in a tech-heavy setting. There's obviously a continuity there. From what I recall, what the ioun stones actually were was left a bit ambiguous, and although the Azlanti used them it wasn't 100% confirmed that they actually created them. So who knows, maybe Paizo will run wild with the aeon stones and create a backstory for them, but there's definitely a link between the two.
I believe you're thinking of weapon fusions to enchance tech. The currently published aeon stones are nearly identical to ioun stones, such as the clear spindle aeon stone which relieves the user of the need to eat or drink.
I'm ok with this project. It's like the spaceships. There is a framework(Any world rules) and slots to be filled. They could have come up against a tiger people empire like in Outlaw Star. You don't just offend them. As long as the treaty praises them a lot and awards them lots of reparations(such as medical advances and such) they will sign it.
You could go Q on them like crazy. You could throw one of their most arrogant warriors into some sort of arena with a Captain Kirk type. Maybe they will act like the Timelords and isolate their capital planet. "Azlanti Prime is Missing" might be a fun module.
Personally, when a mouse invades my home I put out sticky traps. I don't go out in the woods and try to destroy all mice.
Depending on exactly how evil you want to portray these guys, there are some possible ploys. While the fallen empire may be well protected, their motives are to free the oppressed of the Azlanti Empire. If the Azlanti found that out, they would use that against them. Rig bombs to their cities or threaten to fire on them from orbit with their ships to prevent the others from attacking. If already conquered, bomb events where the fallen empire is helping the local citizenry, make them afraid to accept help from the invaders. Or just kill citizens for every day that the invaders occupy the planet.That is exactly why the awakened empire allowed the Azlanti to retain their autonomy and not dismantle their government for exactly this reason, (thus the invasion of their homeworld was mostly a demonstration) and gave them an ultimatum instead, so they'd have everything to lose should they decide to get cocky and act out of line.
Also what ships? By the end of the "war" the azlanti had lost over 80% of their entire navy and star yards.
The pragmatists are also the most likely to stifle their pride, and potentially try to redirect two fallen empires to attack each other. They believe in their superiority as a whole, that ultimately they will win, despite any missteps on the way. And the best way to kill a giant is to convince another giant to kill it.
That may be their best bet. At least that's what they'll think. Problem is of the four other elder empires around, the most powerful one (the ascended empire) is completely disinterested in normal galactic affairs. And the other three are true fallen empires, meaning that their ships and structures are very much not replaceable. Though they actually would be able to do meaningful damage, they have the exact weakness that would make attacking the awakened empire extraordinarily unappealing, and even if they didn't a war still be a painful slugfest with heavy losses on both sides.
The elder empires as I envision them are really meant to hulking monoliths that remain mostly constant relative to each other, only things changing if at all. And in any case, the most dramatic incident I have planned (for the PC's to witness anyways) for this setting is one of the fallen empires picking a fight with the pact worlds and the awakened empire intervenes and the fallen empire has to back down.
The galaxy is a big place. There is always a worse boogie man. Q introduced the federation to the Borg. All the quibbling interstellar governments united against The Borg, then the Dominion.
What if the Xenophobic fallen empire caught on and planted some advanced drift beacons that show where each lesser homeworld or whatever was now. Here's the Swarm, The black fleet, ect.