History
Pre-Mantid Era
Several tens of thousands of years ago, humanity fell victim to its deadliest creation: nuclear warfare. With the extinction of humans and most of land-based species, the smallest and most resilient survived. Insects, primarily.
Many would think roaches would reign after their pest controllers were gone, due to their rapid reproduction and resilience to radiation. However, it was their thin-limbed, colorful distant cousins who took the throne. They began to prey over roaches like never before, and due to the fallout, diverse mutations allowed for fast evolution, earning them a place at the top of the food chain on post-human Earth.
Dawn of the Mantids
As they grew larger in size, so did their intellect. Eventually reaching levels similar to a human (Mantis pleonexia), they began to rediscover old technology and human artifacts (which still influence them to this day), giving them a headstart in civilization.
As the millennia passed and they grew more sophisticated, they learned of the atom bomb, and how its use resulted in the downfall of humanity. However, it wasn't feared as weapons of mass destruction, but thought of as the polar opposite. They were revered as miraculous relics who made life flourish, and accelerated the growth of mantid society.
After the rediscovery and reverse engineering of thermonuclear weapons, they quickly turned to the stars, aiming to use powerful fuel and rockets to visit other planets, maybe even other solar systems. In no time, they established several offworld colonies, and after several thousands of years, managed to achieve interstellar travel.
Mantid Empire - Rise and Fall
As they fared through the stars as untouchable gods, they met aliens which seemed much more primitive in comparison, and quickly set up what they did best: trade and commerce, albeit in a much more one-sided way. They often scammed the extraterrestrials for massive profit, and whenever they met resistance, utilized atrocious tactics to get ahold of their goods, be it through addicting the masses to substance abuse, or installing puppet leaders to play as dictators.
For a good while, this earned the mantid empire great wealth and control over a sector of the galaxy. However, the constant stream of insurgencies and onslaught disguised as battles resulted in quickly dwindling alien life, and this near total extinction made the mantids take even more extreme measures. They turned to exploiting their own kin.
It started as segregating the lower class folks into hard labor workers, and then became eugenist breeding for them to further specialize as tough, strong and dedicated slaves (Mantis pleonexia proturia). It amassed the empire more wealth than ever before, but this didn't last long.
The slaves adopted ideals of freedom, egalitarianism and anarchy, and it spread throughout the bottom classes of civilization like wildfire. Through their very bodies, bred for strength by those who ruled over them, they managed to cut off travel from each planet to the other, and overthrow governments. These planets, now free of tyranny, became egalitarian societies, valuing voluntary work over all else.
With the empire quickly collapsing, the few remnants of the nobility fled in spaceship colonies, but near none survived the cold void of space, save for one. This is the fate of the Heaven Forsaken.
the Reinvention of Warfare
The Heaven Forsaken was a massive, fortified ship carrying a couple hundred of those high class mantids, and it was so successful, the society inside lived comfortably for thousands of years. They even evolved, growing taller and thinner, adapting to the extremely low gravity (Mantis pleonexia astrologia). However, despite its sturdiness and longevity, neglect of care got the best of it. The ship began presenting several issues beyond repair, and they were forced to emergency land on a small, peculiar exoplanet. With the ideals of the empire, rooted in principles of non-aggression and peaceful trade, long gone, it was a race of the colonies, with the mantids quickly scurrying around and settling their own provinces as soon as possible. With several small clans established across the planet, wars for territory began as soon as they got in each others' way. Thus began what would unfold into the Global War.
Due to the exoplanet's strange, varied and difficult terrain, accompanied by its low gravity, warfare was reinvented in a way like never before. With their technological prowess, a new, unique line of weapons was created: MUSAs (Maneuverable Universal Scenario Artillery). Equipped with a great deal of movement options and devastating armaments, they spread and progressed quickly; as if fauna evolving to fill in niches, various models were produced to better carry out specific tasks, such as stealth, direct warfare and reconnaissance, for particular biomes and seasons. And as they have proven to be extremely devastating in battle, they now serve mostly as deterrents of war between nations, although black ops are still often carried out with them.
3rd Generation MUSA of the Bloodrust Clan, used in the later period of the Global War
Falsa Pax
With the establishment of "peaceful" international relations after several hundred years of incessant warfare and the military occupation of those defeated in such wars, the growth of cities was unprecedented, turning the whole world into a comercially "united" "utopia”, built on the blood and carcass of veterans and the opressed. This false peace has led to rebellious organizations of veterans, active combatants and alike to revolt against their higher officers, hijacking MUSAs in order to dismantle militaries and their governments.
Bellum Civile
With many quickly becoming disillusioned at the drop of a hat, and others seeing opportunity to establish their own radical thoughts, various small armies of similar thought as their drive were soon established, with these then uniting and dissipating as alliances were formed and broken, until they eventually settled onto organizations similar to those primordial clans as the people rediscovered their roots by learning of their history.
MUSAs, while they made a brief return to warfare as they were, quickly shrinked in size to only a few meters tall, compared to the dozens they used to tower during the Global War, to accomodate for the urban environments built during previous era. Instead, this age was to be dominated by infantries and tactical squads.