Of the four supercarriers that transported terrans to the Koprulu sector, two crash-landed on the strange and vibrant planet of Umoja. One ship, the Sarengo, suffered critical systems failures and was destroyed on entry, cleaving a massive canyon into the planet and killing all 8,000 passengers aboard. The Reagan, however, landed safely. When the crewmembers awoke from their cold sleep chambers, they found themselves on a truly alien world: Umoja’s skies were a coppery-orange hue; the air was tinged with a faint spicy aroma; and myriad alien life-forms roamed the planet’s fertile grasslands and plains.
As Umoja’s settlers spread across the planet, they quickly adopted a method of fair and democratic governance that later became known as the Umojan Ruling Council, and the council’s philosophy of leaving nothing to waste kept the planet’s flora and fauna unspoiled. When Umoja first came into contact with Tarsonis and Moria, two other terran colony worlds that had been settled by the Nagglfar and Argo supercarriers, a productive period of open communication and trade was born. Relations among the colonies began to sour, however, as Tarsonis repeatedly pushed Umoja and Moria to unify under the banner of a conglomerated government. These two colonies steadfastly refused, and eventually Tarsonis and its affiliated worlds formed the Terran Confederacy, a corrupt government dominated by an elite minority known as the Old Families.
The Umojan Ruling Council was immediately wary of the Confederacy’s growing influence in the sector, and two major events would further solidify the council’s fears. One was the Guild Wars, a bloody conflict between the Confederacy and the Kel-Morian Combine. The wars ended with a skewed peace agreement in which the Confederacy appropriated nearly all of the Combine’s associated mining guilds. Umoja’s leaders saw this outcome as utterly abusive, and much to their dismay, the end of the wars secured the Confederacy’s supremacy in the sector.
The other event was the assassination of Angus Mengsk, a Confederate senator on Korhal IV who was opposed to his government’s tyrannical modus operandi. Aside from having close personal ties to Angus, the Ruling Council had secretly pledged to aid the rebellious senator’s fight against the Confederacy.
As a result of the Guild Wars in particular, the Ruling Council held an emergency sitting and formed the Umojan Protectorate, a political entity composed of Umoja and nearby independent colonies that would stand united against Confederate expansionism. As capital world of this new organization, Umoja remained home to the Ruling Council, which invited members from allied colonies into its ranks and became the governing body of the entire Protectorate.
The Protectorate openly opposed a number of Confederate encroachments on its territories, but war was never declared. This was due in part to other threats facing the Confederacy, most notably a crippling guerilla war led by Arcturus Mengsk that eventually led to the ironfisted establishment’s collapse. When the Terran Dominion came to power after the Confederacy’s fall, the Protectorate rallied to the new government’s side. The Dominion’s emperor, Arcturus, was well-known on Umoja: his father was the late Angus Mengsk, and Arcturus’s son, Valerian, was also the son of Umojan citizen Juliana Pasteur. Over time, however, the Dominion’s heavy-handed tactics began to resemble those of the Confederacy, and the Umojan Protectorate distanced itself from Arcturus’s increasingly oppressive regime.
The Protectorate has since remained ideologically opposed to the Dominion and is widely considered a safe haven for individuals seeking refuge from persecution by Arcturus’s forces. Cognizant of this fact, the Dominion has taken measures to undermine the sovereignty of Umoja and its affiliated worlds by imposing trade embargoes and making assassination attempts against dissidents pursuing asylum in Protectorate territory. Fully aware of the Dominion’s unparalleled military might, the Ruling Council has embarked on a more covert route to uphold its independence. Over the past few years, the Protectorate has funneled resources into advanced technological research, established a far-reaching network of anti-Dominion separatists, and stationed elite espionage agents throughout the sector to keep tabs on Arcturus’s empire.
Whether or not the Dominion will ever make more forceful moves against Umoja or its allies is still debated even among the Ruling Council’s members. Regardless, they have unanimously agreed to continue their subversive activities and are prepared to take any action necessary to preserve the freedom of Umoja and other Protectorate worlds.
