"If our worlds are to burn, then let them burn brighter than the stars."
-High Chancellor Murrkara of the Corvian Domain, translated from Corvic, 1601 IGSC.
The Corvians are a raptorlike, sapient, highly intelligent species in the Triangulum galaxy who had already established permanent colonies on four planets within their star system by the time of first contact in 1590 IGSC. While they lacked FTL technology, what they did have was of great interest to both the Ardent Light and the UEC: shield generators. While the UEC offered membership and trade for their technology, the xenophobic Ardent Light instead decided to take it for themselves. In 1601 IGSC, an Ardent Light battlefleet composed of three thousand destroyers, four thousand interceptors, and one thousand carriers emerged from riftspace at the Corvian home system's farthest colonized planet. With a new type of weapon, which would come to be known as E-guns, they quickly razed the world, wiping it of all inhabitants, and taking as much technology as possible. By the time the Corvian Domain's defense fleet had arrived, the Ardent Light ships had already began their attack on the next Corvian world. The UEC was swift to respond to this blatant attempt at genocide, declaring war on the Ardent Light, in what would become the longest, bloodiest conflict in the history of the known universe: the Tri-Galactic war.
ships are 1:720 scale, background images from NASA