The Dark Age

The name given to the period following the "Great Chaos" of 2290-2315 triggered by The Severance of 2290; an era of decline lasting for over a century (2315-2440), which ended less than five decades ago. (Just as with the Dark Ages on Earth, Raana's "Dark Age" was named so by a group of historians after it had ended; historians who had begun to experience a stabilization that hadn't been seen in Ikaanos for several generations.)

The 25 years societal collapse of "The Chaos" ended around 2315, when the Great Houses had fully consolidated power, and with the newly-formed Space Marine organization, and threat of orbital bombardment from the ion cannons of the space-station they controlled, forced all Ikaanos' population to follow the will of The Council. The once-thriving colony had now transformed into a feudal kingdom that bore little resemblance to the glorious Republic of a generation before.

The next 125 years were a difficult period, in most respects gradual deterioration, slowly choking what was left of Earth's humanitarian views, and forming Ikaanos into the unstable society we see today. This decline was contributed to by the The Council members succumbing to the temptation to retreat into lives of ease in the luxurious space station which met all their needs, insulating them both physically and psychologically from the hardships on Raana's surface below. As they became more and more out of touch, their rule became more callous and their lives more decadent. The surface dwellers they treat with contempt began referring to them resentfully as "the Spheremasters", and the once esteemed space-station as "the Mastersphere", or just "The Sphere".

This period is deemed to have come to an end five decades ago in 2440, with the stabilizations brought about by ambitious Spheremaster Mordecai Adler.

After becoming Chancellor in 2416 at "only" 66 years of age, and driven by a religious fervor to "spread humanity's influence beyond the Beryll Mountains", he began the task of revamping the hopeless structure of The Council, centralizing his and The Council's power enough to strengthen the Spheremasters' limited influence over Ikaanian daily life. Mordecai knew that an alliance between all the Great Houses could easily topple the Sphere's hegemony - as his forces were outnumbered almost 1:100. The other Spheremasters, whose median age was well over a century, called Mordecai "a hopeless boy", and urged him to be satisfied with his harem of teenage sex slaves instead of pondering "unimportant matters down on the planet's surface". Their laughs and complaints did not hinder Mordecai, however, who strengthened the Space Marines (from a meager 150 soldiers up to an impressive 950), overthrew the Hemmel family from their inherited assignment as Mayor of Ikaanos, and seized lands that in his view had been wrongfully given to corrupt landlords.

It was soon afterwards (2444) that Mordecai had enough power to re-declare Ikaanos and its Sphere a Second Republic, and to reconstitute the Council into a Senate to make this organization more explicit. Though this is mostly just a change in name: this second Republic remains an oligarchy not a democracy like the first, and mostly the same Councillors remain in place on the Senate.