When the First Interstellar War concluded between the former Royal Lykan Kingdom, the Novus Initium Republic, and the Camino Star Empire, the reformed Lykan government now called the Holy Lykan Republic was required in their surrender to release all the slaves still being held in their charge. The intent of this was for them to return to the United Vitam State and hopefully ease their aggression towards the Lykans to the point that the State would stop their war. However, an unexpected dilemma had occurred as well as some insight as to why not all or at least more of the slaves would have left during the Slave Revolt decades ago. Apparently not all Lykans treated their slaves harshly. It turned out that out of all the remaining slaves in the former Kingdom, almost ninety percent of them were treated very well by their masters. Those Lykans found that if one applied a softer touch when it comes to the work of their slaves, they ended up being more productive and far less hostile. This practice had been ongoing for a while and was why the slaves did not want to leave their masters. Why would they leave when they were provided adequate housing, food, and clothing when they did their tasks with little to no trouble?

When it came time for the freed slaves to leave in the reformation of the Lykan government, some wanted to stay with their masters. However, most of their masters, now forced to pay their former slaves if they worked for them, could no longer afford to employ their former slaves. However, their former masters did allow them to keep the things they were provided such as clothing and hygienic tools as they sent them on their way.

However, the former slaves soon found themselves in a dilemma. They harbored no ill-will for their former masters while they were slaves and understood that they were forced to be released with the intent of returning to their people in the State. However, the former slaves found the State’s position of wanting to exterminate the Lykans proved to them that the State’s interests and position did not align with their own. Because of this, the former slaves did not want to return to the State at all, much to the surprise of all the known galactic powers. The former slaves, now knowing that they don’t want to go to the State, requested the Lykan government along with the Novus Initium Republic for assistance in settling systems that were outside the State, possibly within either Lykan or Human territories. Representatives of both Republics got together in an emergency summit with an elected official of the former slaves to work out the details which did not take much time at all. It was decided that the star systems that were returned to the Lykans by the Humans after the war would be converted into a semi-autonomous nation that was answerable to the Holy Lykan Republic government. This nation would be called the Liberigi Mandate, Liberigi meaning “set free” in the ancient Human language of Latin.

The Liberigi Mandate would be governed by a consulate that is only answerable to the Holy Lykan Republic government. Since none of the former slaves had ever held political positions, it was best to educate those on the bare aspects of government. The currency used within the Mandate would also be the Lykans to make trade and commerce easier. Much of the education in the Mandate would be provided by the Lykans with an emphasis on each of the former slave races’ histories that could be found and in creating their own culture. The former slaves had long since adopted the religion of the Lykans including the recent interpretations that led to the Lykans reforming themselves. In many aspects, the Mandate was designed more as a means for the former slaves to be taught in ways to self-govern themselves sometime down the line, though it is not known when this would happen.

However, while there is a significant amount of Lykan influence in the Mandate, there were also aspects of the Novus Initium Republic found as well. A lot of the Humans’ influence comes from the structures and bases left behind by the Republic when they gave the territory they occupied during the war back to the Lykans. Some of what was left behind included music, movies, and literature that moved the races of the Mandate much like their brethren in the State. Because of this cultural influence, the Mandate began talks with the Novus Initium Republic to allow more of the Human culture to be imported. The Lykans had no objections of this cultural import into the Mandate and soon the Mandate felt like a mix of Lykan and Human cultures that have been intertwined to create a rather unique culture.

The military of the Mandate is not too different from the Lykans at first glance. The new designs of the Lykans (created by Human designers) and the technology involved are also seen in the Mandate with two very noticeable exceptions. The first of these exceptions is the fact that the Mandate ships exchanged the gold hue of the Lykan ships for a blue hue to distinguish them from their Lykan counterparts. The second of these exceptions are the weapons and this is where the Mandate ships combat abilities is drastically different from the Lykan versions. While the Lykans intend to stick with the projectile cannons they have been familiar with for ages, the Mandate wanted ships that did not require ammo due to the slow reload times of artillery cannons or missiles like what the State uses. While hybrid cannons were faster to reload, the Camino Star Empire that makes them has gone back to a pseudo isolation since the war and thus was not a viable option. Seeing that the Human laser weapons did not require ammo and that the guns were on average smaller than that of their Lykan counterparts, the Mandate chose to purchase the laser weapons of the Novus Initium Republic for use on their ships adding even further the mix of Lykan and Human influence in the Mandate.

To accommodate the power requirements for laser weapons, the cargo holds that were designed to store ammunition was converted to hold additional capacitors and reactors to help power them. This conversion was rather easy since the modular aspects of the design based on what Human engineers designed made adding the new power systems that much easier. Because the weapons were smaller in size than artillery and autocannons, more guns could be fitted on the ship. While the Novus Initium Republic ships don’t have as many guns on their ships compared to Mandate ships, this is due to the power consumption of shield boosters and armor repairer systems. Since the Mandate ships only have armor repairer systems, that allowed for more power to be supplied for the number of guns that the Mandate installed on all their ships. However, to ensure that the Mandate ships don’t run out of available power, the weapons systems were designed to generally fire at one target per size at a time with the available guns it can use depending on the size target (i.e.: using the anti-battleship guns at a battleship while using the medium guns to attack a cruiser and so on). While they may have more guns, Mandate commanding officers are more mindful about their power usage during prolonged engagements. The Novus Initium Republic was initially concerned with the larger number of guns on each of the Mandate ships, they quickly realized that the Mandate’s enemies would be neither their Republic nor the Lykans, but instead the State ships that threatened the Lykans. The increased laser weaponry was essential for use against the shield boosters (now considered “stolen” by the Novus Initium Republic after the State cut their ties) that the State was using on all their ships.

The last distinction between the Lykan and Mandate ships were the names used for each class. Much like how the Lykans came up with the Sacrilege, a missile launcher variant of the Omen Battlecruiser, the Mandate did something similar with their versions of the ships. Thus, the ships were called the Retribution based on the Punisher Destroyer, the Zealot based on the Omen Battlecruiser, and the Absolution based on the Harbinger Battleship. Many of the qualities of these variants remain the same with their Lykan counterparts with the only differences being the laser weapons, the colors, and the number of ships deployed.

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Many of the base capabilities of the Absolution, the Mandate’s laser turret version of the Holy Lykan Republic’s Harbinger Battleship, remain the same when the Mandate started to produce the ships. The parts that are different is the number of laser turrets found on the ship. The Absolution is by far the most heavily armed vessel in anti-battleship combat rivaling the State’s Golem and the Empire’s Kronos Battleships. It has a total of 36 large laser turrets for anti-battleship combat, 64 medium laser cannons for anti-cruiser and anti-battlecruiser combat, and 74 light laser turrets meant for anti-frigate and anti-destroyer combat. The Absolution can target up to 18 large laser turrets to the side, 12 above and below, and 6 front and back. It can bring up to 6 medium laser turrets to bear on a target to the sides but it can fire 16 front and back and up to 32 above and below. The light laser turrets are a different story by comparison as the ship can only bring 8 turrets to bear on the sides, but 14 front and back and finally 37 above and below. Also, the forward firepower of the Absolution is supplemented by two heavy laser cannons that replaced the two 800mm heavy artillery cannons that were originally found on the Harbinger. These cannons were designed for long-range and anti-cruiser combat. These ships are the smallest in number in the Mandate with up to 12 vessels currently compared to three to four times that number among the Holy Lykan Republic’s fleet. These numbers are not due to resource issues but rather the number of Mandate citizens found in their military due to their small population count compared to other nations.