1358-2381 AU
The Nebulans spent the next few years conquering petty successors to the Orian Empire that had broken away following its collapse. Then they turned inward and began consolidating their enormous gains. Trade and communication reopened in eastern Aesgar for the first time in over fifty years. Terran and Graedian explorers, entrepreneurs, and colonists fanned out once more under the freshly minted peace. But these feelings of harmony were not shared amongst the governments of these three major powers.
During the war, Graedius had initially flirted with the possibilities of aiding the Nebulans, but Terra Nova had not, and a rift briefly opened up between the two over the spoils of the dying Orian Empire. Whereas Terra Nova felt the region beyond their immediate sphere of influence and too volatile regardless, the Confederacy saw an opportunity for future expansion and exploitation. The ideological differences might have resulted in more serious struggles but for news of the Battle of Mezar and the Siege of Salzus. Neither Terra Nova nor Graedius had foreseen such a decisive victory for the Nebulans; both sides had predicted chaos in the region for decades, if not centuries. The fall of Salzus and the subsequent stability of the fledgling Nebulan Star Empire raised alarm in Terra Nova – in Graedius the victory was celebrated.
Graedian diplomats treated with the Nebulans, offering alliance and trade agreements, and the Nebulans took the proffered olive branch, themselves in need of time to reorganize and acclimate to the galactic stage. The Terra Nova government took this as a flagrant act of aggression by the Graedians, and slightly deteriorated the relationship between the two powers. 1359 is acknowledged as the unofficial beginning of the long-standing cold war between Terra Nova and the Nebulan Star Empire, during which the Borderworlds became heavily fortified bastions unlike any worlds before or since. However, traffic between the three powers remained largely undisturbed and even increased as the Nebulans healed the wounds of war.
During the mid-to-latter second millennium AU, the Nebulans and the Elan tribes began skirmishing. Of all the races in Aesgar, the Nebulans hated the Elan the most, due to legends of war between their ancestors and periodic Elan harassment of Nebulan interests.
However, little serious conflict emerged for centuries, and Aesgar experienced a prosperity greater than its first golden age. This has been deemed the galaxy’s renaissance period, which would continue for another thousand years before major wars would again cause stability to waver.
