Milky Way

"It is ours to take, so long as we are willing to pour enough souls into it."- Galactic General Bob

Summary
The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye.

The term Milky Way is a translation of the Latin 'via lactea', from the Greek γαλαξίας κύκλος ('galaxías kýklos', "milky circle"). From Earth, once the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within. Currently however due to Melvin's Gaze, astronomical observations from Earth and nearby planetoids have come to a halt, the anomaly hindering most wavelengths of light, making observation impossible.

The Milky Way still contains the origins of most factions, and is suspected to be filled with the remanants of ancient cultures much like those found near the Solar System. However not all these relics could be explored due to countless threats that lurk within and without.

Early Galactic Era
The Early Galactic Era is pinpointed as the general time frame from the formation of The Milky Way to the creation of first intelligent life on Earth. The term is universally used by Republic Historians and Lexian Timeseekers as a way to refer to the timeframe when ancient civilizations were born and went extinct.

The most notable events generally include the birth dates of long-extinct alien civilizations and the interstellar critters that lingered the galaxy long before Humans had existed.

Post-Genexian Era
Post-Genexian Era begins with the first alien invasion on Earth, undeniably leading a series of events that led way to the self-uplifting of mankind.

The interdimensional aliens known as Genexians emerged into the Milky Way in an effort to escape their impending doom, soon finding themselves in the Perseus Arm they slowly made their way towards The Sun to eventually make first-contact with mankind in search of their goal.

After the Genexian invasion mankind caressed their home system, clutching its resources to the heart of their industry. Which upstarted a stellar undertaking to conquer the nearby neighbours using Sublight Travel. With the momentum of exponential development by the fourth millennium all arms of the Milky Way was long home to human cultures and the human civilization had begun to spread onto the Local Group.

Alongside Humans however were two other sapient species who were spared by the relentless xenophobia of the Post-Genexian mankind. Petram Sapients and Lacertus Sapients had seated themselves as a herald to the ascension of the mankind by their merit of looking similiar to that of popular animals within Earth's biosphere, the former being a humanoid silicon lifeform the average height of which is two meters tall and the latter taking the form of a bipedal four-armed lizard respectively.

The Advent of Mechanicum
After the initial colonies made way towards intergalactical infrastructure in the form of Gateways that utilized The Warp for instantenous travel, yet another interdimensional threat appeared. Much more alien than Genexians were the ARDENT, mechanical constructs that soon wroke havoc upon the galaxy by establishing a terrifying influence over The Warp through the use of powerful psionics and cutting edge technology.

This hostile presence that simultaneously appeared all over the Local Group finally ended the Post-Genexian Era and isolated all intergalactic colonies from each other. While interstellar travel through acclimated means was still possible, without any outside support the distant colonies that lingered in the many other galactic objects have been presumed consumed by alien threats.

With the Human presence dwindling countless alien threats awakened to consume what remained of humanity for their own pursuits.