Space Race

The Space Race is a conflict between various nations of Rathnir over the militarization of space. It began on March 10, 2021, when the Huitca Federation announced its plans to blow up the moon. The situation grew tense on the morning of March 12 when the public became aware of the launch of the Huitcan rocket, The Founder, which already entered orbit. In response, the nations of Uldarash, Shiny, and duchy Baykonia, planned to destroy The Founder.

The Founder
The rocket named after The Founder of Tlahatl was built by Toronto Dougwald of the Huitca Federation with the goal of blowing up the moon. On the evening of March 4th, Toronto, received word from the city of Farafin that, his friend, Tlatoani Infinick, started acting unusual, muttering about Ghosts of Warriors and a 'Noble Conquest'. Upon hearing this, Dougwald rushed to Tlahatl to aid his friend. By the time he got there, Infinick's mental state had completely deteriorated and Ticitl P'hila, Infinick's personal physician and spiritual guide, announced that he was slowly going insane.

Upset knowing that he could not help his dear friend, Toronto returned to Zoquiyo where he proceeded to meditate and take walks among the Wilderness to clear his mind. While wandering through the remains of his ancestral hometown of Bradecblight, he asked the Gods what he could do to help his friend. When the sand in front of him was blown away and revealed a cave that emitted a glowing light, Dougwald ventured inside. Upon arriving at the bottom, he fell into a ruined library, In the center of which he found a mysterious looking book on a pedestal. Inside the book was an ancient recipe for a Hiarllii dish called 'Gilamer Nayd'ek&f' (pronounced 'Glah-more Nay-deck-ang-ef'), which roughly translates to 'Moon Cheese Soup'. The book told the story of a meteorite that hit the Zoquiyo region thousands of years ago. This meteorite was filled with Lunar Cheese, and another mysterious material known as 'Briqasterank' (which roughly translates to 'Burning Sun Mineral'). The Hiarllii people, which are Doughwald's ancestors, found this Lunar Cheese to have magical healing properties, and found this new mineral to have the ability to produce tremendous amounts of energy. He took the book, and traveled back over to Farafin in an attempt to make the soup. However, according to the book, the Lunar Cheese Ingredient he needed was no long around due to overused by the Hiarllii.

Toronto fell into a state of depression knowing that he could not save his friend. During this time, Rex Fernand, The Huitca Imperium Leader, and Toronto's second personality who had been going through extensive therapy, entertained him. Fernand eventually talked Dougwald into working again, and to continue improving his town. During a midnight stroll on the night of March 7th, Dougwald realized that if Lunar Cheese was correctly named, Rathnir's moon must be its source. With the help of GLIMO, a robot he build during his depressed state, he scavenged all of northern Huitca in search of the 'Briqasterank'. On the morning of March 8th, Doughwald discovered a small quantity of Briqasterank, which the locals referred to as to as 'Sneedistanium', in an underwater cave off the southern coast of the Tsar's Folly Peninsula. GLIMO, Fernand, and himself spent the rest of the day drilling for the material. Later that day, while Toronto was back in Farafin experimenting with this new rock, the town of Regnum notified him of a series of attacks. Angered by the attempt to take advantage of Infinick's weak state, Doughwald vowed to save Infinick with his Lunar mission to demonstrate the capabilities of the Huitca Federation to the aggressors.

The next day, on March 9th, Toronto returned to Tlahatl to check on Infinick. While he was unsure whether Infinick could hear him clearly, he told him about his plan to bring back Lunar Cheese from the moon. Infinick started muttering to Toronto about the 'Noble Conquest', and told him to blow up the moon to get all of its 'Healing Cheese'. Despite Spacebeing and Ticitl P'hila trying to convince Dougwald that this was a horrible idea, Toronto stayed adamant on wanting to blow up the moon, aiming to make the alleged healing properties of Lunar Cheese available to all and to more effectively prove the capabilities of the Federation.

That night, in his apartment in Tlahatl, Dougwald claimed to have two seperate visions. One from Dadrikra and Calibrius, the Gods of the Bradecarashirist Religion, and the other from Entropy.Dadrikra and Calibrius who showed him the design for the Sneedistanium engine, which makes the rocket run, and Entropy, who showed him the design for a 'Cylidrical Vehicle' with the capabilities of reaching the stars. Dougwald called that vehicle the 'Flying Boat'. The next morning, he rushed back to Farafin to begin construction. From March 9th to March 11th, Dougwald, Fernand, and GLIMO started the construction on the rocket. During this time, Dougwald discovered the ability to harness just a fraction of the power of Sneedistanium, which was enough to power his rocket for up to 22 days in Space, with backup power, and extra power left over to destroy the moon, and to fragment it into pieces that will head towards Rathnir. The rocket, was to be named 'The Founder', after the founding story of Tlahatl. The rocket's original scheduled launch time turned out to be filled with unfavorable weather which led to a three hour delay. After the weather passed, The Founder was successfully launched into space and began to orbit around Rathnir in order to build up enough energy to reach the moon.

Tea Othin stole Toronto's blueprints as well as small amounts of Sneedistanium and quietly distributed them to multiple nations across Rathnir, beginning the Space Race. At roughly 10:30 EST on March 12th, Toronto Dougwald announced that the rocket had built up enough energy, and was set to arrive at the moon between March 14th and March 16th.

Foreign Response
Less than two hours after the launch of The Founder, Coffeeccubus, the leader of Aurlûnor, issued a condemnation. The Celestial Elves were outraged by the fact that the Huitcans were attempting to destroy a body in the sky that they considering sacred. Borders between the Huitca Federation and the Celestial Empire of Aurlûnor were closed, furthering tension between the two countries.

Seven hours after the launch,Fluito-Shanian Federation / Uldarash announced that they were building a rocket of their own. Rather than try to reach the moon, this rocket was instead intended to prevent The Founder from destroying the moon, presumably by crashing into it. This announcement was the first recorded use of the term 'Space Race' to describe the ongoing situation.

Overall, general public opinion of the Founder's launch was quite negative, with both Dougwald and Huitca receiving serious amounts of backlash and criticism.

Destruction of the Moon
About sixteen years prior to the launch of the Founder, Rick Harrison threw a coin into The Pit of Gruh. In a surprising turn of events, the mystical pit actually turned out to be a wormhole through space and time. The very same coin reappeared in space, striking the side of the Founder. This resulted in a hydrogen leak, and the Founder exploded.

While some initially rejoiced, believing the Moon to be saved, it quickly turned out to be too early for celebration. Debris from the Founder had exploded in all directions. Some of the debris flew onward to the moon at an even faster speed than before, while other chunks hurtled downward into Rathnir.

Continuing onward with his plan, Dougwald constructed a second rocket, named "The Founder 2", in order to guarantee the destruction of the Moon. Despite the best efforts of Fluito-Shania/Uldarash, all debris continued on their course and met their marks unimpeded.

The debris that hit the moon turned out to be insufficient to entirely destroy it. Instead, it was merely fragmented, and blood began to seep out. Blood began to rain down out of the sky and fill the rivers, lakes, and oceans of Rathnir. Meanwhile, about ten or so Sneedistanium asteroids began to pummel the world over the course of about an hour, the explosions from their impact heard everywhere.

Effects
On March 14, it was announced that Donklas Tise, the Count of Remtal, had committed suicide. According to the message, he had become so distraught with the state of the moon that he "hurled himself off a rampart". His body has not yet been recovered.

The Rathnir Gladiatorial Council decided to postpone the Gladiatorial Games, pushing the date of the event from April 19 to May 1.

Several nations were so incensed that they declared war on the Huitca Federation. The city of Regnum was defeated, and a good deal of Huitcan infrastructure was destroyed.

Involved Parties

 * Huitca
 * Fluito-Shania/Uldarash
 * Baykonia (Sterling Crownlands)
 * Shiny
 * Ryzan

Quotes
"Blowing up The Moon is a terrible idea, but I'm not about to say that to a guy who can blow up The Moon"