During the Empires period -
especially the Conver War - the Solar Dominion often found
itself needing to consolidate its hold on newly captured systems, as
well as in need of a propaganda tool that would help sway the
allegiance of neutral worlds. The result - the Empire Ship
Basically a combination of Corporate Ship, System Control
Battleship, Linelayer, sub-ISO, and Temple Ship, the Empire Ship
announced to those worlds that had never heard of the Dominion, the God
Emperor or the Lord of
Rays, or had only passing knowledge, the glories of the empire, and
provided an invitation to join. As the Empire Ship was far bigger than
anything the locals had ever seen (the exceptions were those old-timers
and relativists who remembered the days of the Federation Company Ships, but these
were few)
The Empire Ship - several kilometers long at its long axis and
massing many tens of millions of tonnes - would serve as a capital ship
(in case the nearby hostile polities or fleets), orbital culture
platform, memetic base, factory, gift-shop, embassy, and more. They
provided the locals with gifts (mostly luxury items of no strategic
value), artwork, and other consumables, and conduct guided tours for
visitors. The locals would be shown around huge biospheres filled with
all sorts of marvellous plants and tropical birds, the mighty Diametric Drive engines, the awesome
weapons platforms, the magnificent Temple Rooms, the sumptuous
Lifestyle Modules. Although the crew of the Empire Ships would never
attempt to convert anyone (at least not in a way that a <S1 sapient
could tell), gradually these magnificent vessels inevitably would make
an impression, along with all the gifts they provided (hence the
popular alternative name - Cornucopia Ships), and their crew
would help with local development projects and building up of
infrastructure. After a few decades the system would be pretty well memed, the wormhole would be established
(although it might take another century for it to be inflated to full
size) and the empire ship would move on to the next port of call.
In subsequent centuries the Empire Ship became enshrined in Dominion
culture, their calling card to other polities. Of course not every
system or polity was or is lucky
enough to get a visit from an empire ship. Empire Ships are big,
expensive to run and maintain, and are generally only sent to favoured
or strategically important polities. Lesser important polities may get
a visit from a smaller ship like a corvette, or perhaps a linelayer
corps of engineers might establish a stargate in their system, if they
are strategically or economically important enough to qualify.
The development of the Triumvirate Civilization
Ship (or CPNC Ship) was quite a blow for the Dominion. For
centuries their Empire Ships were the most magnificent vessels of the
space lanes. Although mobile ISOs, worldships, and some MPA megaships
were often in part much bigger, these were always one-off affairs,
interesting for a while, certainly, but then moving off to undertake
some obscure agenda of their own. But the magnificent Empire Ships were
always there, unmatched in their splendour as the greatest single
design-type.
With the launch of the Evergreen Future - the first CPNC Ship - in 7561, the fad-hungry sentients of
the galaxy suddenly lost interest in the Empire Ships. The Dominion
responded by building even bigger, more expensive, and more sumptuous
Empire Ships, although this could also be seen as an ongoing trend
towards greater magnificence and ostentatiousness, especially in the
optimistic post Paradigm containment war era. The H. H. Daniel
Borde (the 15th vessel to bear that name) for example was an
enormous 53 km in length, the Fons Luminis 68 km, the Shamesh
at 81 km, and finally the Amen Ra 112 km in length, the
largest and most expensive vessel ever constructed by the Dominion. But
not only did these vessels not match the Civilization Ships in size,
but - despite some notable successes, such as the conversion of the
entire Wu B-Som Combine to the Dominion following the extended visit by
the Fons Luminis in 7864-65 - their ostentatious memetic
was still hardly comparable to the grand selfless purpose of the CPNC
ship, and their success rate among undecided polities was only a little
better than that of standard empire ships. In any case the 7812
economic recession in the wake of the Qugaun scandal meant the Dominion
was forced to cut back on its grand scale ship building, and no more
Empire Ships were launched for another fifty years. The next Empire
Ship, the Rays of Glory, was a "mere" 6 km long.
In times since, the fates of the Empire Ships have been various. In
the early 8000s the most gigantc empire ships, being far too expensive
to maintain, were converted into orbital habitats and temple complexes,
where they remain happily to this present day. From that time on no
Empire Ships have exceeded 30 km in length, and many are less than half
of that length. At least five Empire Ships have been captured by the Amalgamation in the last few
centuries, much to the discomfort of the Dominion. Currently the
Dominion fields some 51 Empire Ships, the largest, the Pride of
Aton, being 29.2 km in length. The oldest currently active
Empire Ship, the 8 km long Great Helios (upgraded from
its original 3.8 km), was commissioned during the middle Consolidation period. These
beautiful vessels continue to ply the space ways of the middle regions
and the outer volumes, and the arrival of an Empire Ship is always an
event of great excitement and importance. Many polities have national
holidays based on the arrival of an Empire Ship centuries or even
millennia ago. A number of decommissioned empire ships have been give
their freedom and each has been awarded The Crest of Honor for Long
Service to the Empire by the God Emperor Himself. These vessels make a
living touring the galaxy and entertaining sentients with tales of
their adventures and life as an empire ship.
