The Union

The Union is a confederacy of several alien races and the chief rival of the Tymon. Initially a loose alliance, the races of the Union have since merged into a federated republic out of necessity in order to survive further attacks by the Tymon, as well as the innumerable other threats lurking in the galaxy. The Straal, by virtue of possessing the most territory and being both technically and militarily inclined, serve as the face of the Union.

Pre-Contact Era
The Union was initally a much larger entity, with each race controlling at least fifteen worlds apiece; the Straal themselves held thirty worlds alone. The time before coming into contact with the Tymon was a golden age of peace and progress, both technologically and economically. The races enjoyed relatively blissful lives, ignorant of how hostile the galaxy truly was. Unfortunately, though the galaxy is a massive place, true peace is almost nonexistant, and it was almost inevitable that something would come along and put an end to their golden age.

Eldar Machinations
The Eldar, as many have come to understand, are a hubristic and self-serving race. In their minds, the only beings worth anything are other Eldar; the rest of the sentient species populating the galaxy are little more than pawns to be manipulated as they see fit. The Union was no exception and the Eldar of Craftworld Catu-Belah schemed to use it to serve their own ends.

For millennia, the Tymon had regarded the Eldar as their sworn enemies, and vowed that they would one day exterminate all Eldar. Over the long centuries, they had become very effective at culling Eldar, with Catu-Belah having been the most recent recipients of their ire. Upon discovering the Union, the Eldar found a way to exact their vengeance. They lured the Tymon into the Union's area of space, counting on their xenophobic mentality to cause them to wage war against the members of the Union.

When Tymon ships entered Union territory on 861.M37, the aliens sent representatives to greet them. Though they were far from primitive, the diplomats and indeed the whole Union were awed by the levels of technology the Tymon had at their beck and call. They offered promises of friendship and wealth to the Tymon and invited them to join their alliance. With such an advanced and powerful new ally, the Union would prosper even further than ever dreamt. As for the Tymon, centuries of xenos hostility made them distrustful of aliens, particularly those who came offering friendship. Past experience said that such aliens would offer one hand in peace, and arm the other behind their backs. Still, the Tymon were content to humor the diplomats, if only to have the satisfaction of denying them directly.

The Catu-Belah Eldar, however, were not about to have the Tymon ally with the Union and become even stronger. Discreetly, they managed to bend the minds of the crew of a Union cruiser and forced them to arm the self-destruct mechanism and attempt to ram a Tymon battleship. The cruiser was destroyed before it even came close to the battleship, but the damage was done. For the Tymon, this was just another confirmation that aliens could not be trusted. Though the Union pleaded innocence and argued as to why they would be foolish enough to try such an obviously futile attack, their words fell on deaf ears. The Tymon subsequently declared war on the Union and within a year, they had marshalled a massive armada, brimming with weapons of mass destruction and carrying hundreds of thousands of soldiers and vehicles, and millions upon millions of bio-soldiers. The Eldar of Catu-Belah were satisfied, convinced that the Tymon would now enter a long and bloody war.

First Tymon-Union War
Unfortunately, it soon became clear that the Eldar had both overestimated the Union's military capabilities and underestimated the Tymon's. Though the Union was far from ill-equipped for warfare, the Tymon had the benefit of superior weapons' technology and millennia of experience, as well as numerical superiority thanks to their bio-soldiers. The Tymon crushed the Union's forces in one battle after another, destroying all resistance and taking no prisoners.