LATE HISTORY

            Recent discoveries in modern times have clarified the course of the Soroteth, rather than thinking of their civilization as being in decline after the revelation, new discoveries have opened up a new chapter in the Soroteth civilization, showing a new time of discord.

            The Soroteth civilization was in part held together by the peculiarities of Trenoc biology, and parliament system that developed out of it became as fundamental as life itself. As their civilization advanced a true parliament emerged whose representatives were responsible for speaking on part of the Soroteth colonies. Though one may think that this civilization had stumbled upon democracy early, the situation is not as clean cut. Though in theory each settlement had its representative it did not stop communities threatening and blackmailing each other, and so despite the concept of representation, the parliament was really a power struggle where your opinion could be enforced by making other states bow to your opinion by threatening them. This kind of inequality among representatives hallmarks many different historic episodes, generally when one single power becomes dominant across the many and the Soroteth Empire effectively became under control of a single tyrant. This sort of cycle can be seen repeated throughout Soroteth history, tyrants coming to power, their usurpation and the re-establishment of freedom, as well as a continuous jostling of opponents. The Parliament then was more of a continuous power struggle than a harmonious democracy as was once thought.

            These problems of representation were only increased a magnitude when the Soroteth started to move off world. Though all decisions of the Soroteth civilization should occur through the parliament, the increasingly separated communities on Trenoret and Soret, and later the asteroid colonies, started behaving more autonomously, though an all-encompassing parliament was still held. This power divide only grew when nearly all Soroteth had been transferred from Trenoret, which eventually led to a schism that would change Soroteth history.

            Most Soroteth on Soret considered this new planet to which they called home was just another stop on the way of their epic journey, contact with the Pholi had sort of developed a spiritual journey for the Soroteth, in which they would, as a race, journey through the galaxy. It is thought that the Soroteth’s journey was more than just a spiritual exercise, the Pholi had alluded to what the Soroteth called the ‘fount’. Federation archaeology is uncertain to what exactly this means, it is thought that the fount is more than just a spiritual concept, but an actual physical object. Despite the question of the fount’s existence, the majority of the Soroteth wanted to commit themselves to this journey.

            There were of course Soroteth who thought differently, as a whole this group of the Soroteth were those who worked out in the asteroid belt. Over the Soroteth space age, these initial colonies had expanded to effectively form their own thriving culture. Though in terms of population the asteroid colonies made only a small fraction of the total Soroteth population, they had the most resources and the most sophisticated technology.

            After a few centuries post revelation the Soroteth had become increasingly divided the Parliament had fractured in two, one for the asteroid communities, and one for those on Soret and its attendant asteroid facilities, the link between these two cultures became increasingly tenuous.

            The Soroteth on Soret were committed to start the next stage of their journey, they started ambitious starship building projects to house their population on their journey to the fount. The asteroid colonies however were in favour of waiting for the development of their siblings of Trenoret, and as a whole race, united, prepare for their physical journey.

            The Soroteth population at this point had been on the decline, the total population of the Soroteth was estimated to have only ever been in the tens of millions. In addition an increasing trend in neural/machine interfaces had encouraged the next stage in Soroteth development, the beginnings of a machine society where the citizens and their machinery began to blur. From the archaeologists view point Soroteth society started to get much more spiritual and mystic, ideas of transcendence and saints in the silicon started to emerge, this development had started to divide the Soroteth not just in the ideas of their ultimate goals but there day to day philosophy.

            Even after the first wave of starships, most Soroteth activity was still focused in their home system. Those who wanted to wait, they saw themselves as protectors of the Trenoc, built giant caverns filled with liquid helium in which to store their bodies, or computer constructs to which they could transfer their minds and await for the rise of the Trenoc. Those who wanted to move started to build another generation of starships, and most importantly developed wormhole gate technology, which changed their concept of their journey, rather than having to build a fleet of ark ships, instead they could keep most of their population planet based but open wormhole gates between successive planets to move their population closer to the fount.

            There would be in time a partial reconciliation between these two factions, the wormhole gates would help heal the divide between those wanting to stay and those wanting to journey, and at this point Soroteth culture begins to decline in local space, and therefore our knowledge starts to decline also. It is thought that by the time the Soroteth begin to disappear in local space that the two factions were still very much present, but nonetheless worked together towards an ultimate goal, laying ahead the path for the Trenoc, and pursuing their own fate. It is thought that this strange enigmatic culture has still a great influence over Trenoc civilization, and now of course, the Federation’s fate. It is thought that a sect of the modern Trenoc, the Valenen are still very much in contact with the Soroteth, and that some of their asteroid colonies were those that were built to store Protectorate Faith in their guard over the Trenoc, it may therefore be possible that citizens who have seen the real Soroteth civilization may still walk among us.