Second Reich of Humanity

"Valdec arrives on Earth and outlines his plans to consolidate power, eliminate opposition, and establish a new Reich."
-- Events of 085 - Valdec's Return

The Second Reich of Humanity (German: Zweites Reich der Menschheit), commonly referred to as the Second Reich, is the authoritarian state established by Max von Valdec after his reconquest of Earth in 2504. Proclaimed in the wake of a meticulously planned coup -- combining clone infiltration, military seizure, and the assassination of opposition leaders -- the Second Reich represents the final and most extreme expression of Valdec's decades-long ambition to free humanity from its dependence on Drivers and psionic space travel, replacing the decentralized corporate oligarchy of the Council of Corporations with a centralized imperial government under his absolute personal authority.

The Second Reich is not a continuation of the old Star Empire but a wholesale reconstruction. The Council of Corporations is dissolved. The Gray Guards are counter-conditioned into the Kaiser Guard, a personal army loyal to Valdec alone. The economy is consolidated under the Kaiser-Earth Trust. Propaganda flows through the RMN broadcasting network. Political prisoners are held in the Dead Spaces beneath Berlin. And Kaiser Force technology -- the energy system that has already destroyed planets, devastated alien civilizations, and accelerated galactic entropy -- is deployed not merely as a tool of power but as the foundation of an entire civilizational model: a humanity that owes nothing to nature, to psionic gifts, or to alien benefactors.

The Second Reich endures for less than a year of saga time but dominates the final arc of Die Terranauten (Booklets 085--099). It is simultaneously the fulfillment of Valdec's vision and its refutation -- a state that achieves total control only to discover that the cosmos itself will not permit what it has built to stand. The Reich is ultimately destroyed on two fronts: Valdec himself is annihilated in the Duel of Dreams when his dystopian "Black" reality is negated by the Reality Switch, and on Earth, the Cosmic Spores released by David terGorden's plan transform the planet into a green world, dissolving the Kaiser Guard's conditioning and rendering the machinery of imperial power irrelevant.

Origins: The Road to the Second Reich

The Name: "Second" Reich

The designation "Second" implies a First Reich -- the original Star Empire of Humanity governed by the Council of Corporations, in which Valdec held the triple position of GeneralManag of the Kaiser Corporation, Lord Colonel of the Gray Guards, and Chairman of the Council. The First Reich was a corporatocratic oligarchy: power was distributed (unevenly) among the GeneralManags, mediated through the Council Assembly, and enforced by the institutionally independent Gray Guards under their own Cosmorality. When Valdec was exiled in 2502 (054 - The Fall of the High Lord) and the Council was subsequently dissolved during the War of the Castes (079 - Dying for Terra), the First Reich effectively ceased to exist.

The Second Reich is Valdec's answer: not a restoration of the corporate order but its replacement by a personal autocracy in which all power -- military, economic, technological, and ideological -- flows from a single individual who styles himself "Kaiser of Berlin" (Booklet 089).

Valdec's Exile and Preparation (2502--2503)

The roots of the Second Reich lie in Valdec's years of exile. After fleeing Earth in an Omega-class battle cruiser (Booklet 054), Valdec established Kaisergrad on Lancia in the Calina System, assembled a private fleet, raided colonial worlds for resources, and continued Kaiser Force research through his Master Builder Zarkophin. On Sarym, the Kaiser secret station continued the ALPHA-ORDER super-Driver breeding program, producing psionic weapons like Isis 31, Osiris 84, and Prometheus 107 (Booklets 061--068).

During this period, Zarkophin experimented with a modified Kaiser Force drive on the remote planet CC-9134/9, observing the formation of Entroper zones and Gray Holes -- confirming both the technology's viability and its continued catastrophic side effects. Frost, Valdec's intelligence manager, coordinated the infiltration of Earth using clone agents, while Chelskij, the GeneralManag of Terrestrial Chemical, served as a mole within the Reconstruction Committee that governed post-Council Earth (Booklet 085).

The Coup: Valdec's Return (2504)

The Second Reich's founding is detailed in 085 - Valdec's Return and 086 - Hunted on Terra. The operation unfolds in three phases:

Phase 1: Infiltration

Valdec's Clone agents infiltrate Earth, taking control of Gray Guards through PSI suggestion and smuggling a nuclear weapon into position. Chelskij betrays the Reconstruction Committee from within, providing intelligence on security arrangements and the political leadership. The Cold Rot -- a rare extraterrestrial viral disease -- serves as a cover for the infiltration, diverting medical and military resources.

Phase 2: Military Seizure

Valdec's forces launch a coordinated attack on key installations:

• Lunaport -- the Gray Guards' operational headquarters on the Moon -- falls to Valdec's forces.
• Berlin and the Kaiser Headquarters are seized.
• Key cities including Perth, Geneva, and Kilimanjaro City are brought under control.
• Gray Guard Cosmorals including Ansyn Crow and Oolga are captured.

Phase 3: Elimination of Opposition

The systematic destruction of the resistance follows:

• Chan de Nouille, the Great Gray and former Mistress of the Gray Guards, is driven underground and eventually hunted down and killed by Queen Lea, a genetically engineered "Killer-Queen," on Atlantica (Booklet 086).
• Manuel Lucci, coordinator of the F.F.D.E. and leader of the War of the Castes uprising, is captured on Atlantica and imprisoned in the Dead Spaces (Booklet 086).
• Ignazius Tyll, former interim Lord Colonel, is captured in Manhattan by a Clone Super-Driver (Booklet 086).
• Christin Dorf, Arbiter Representative on the Reconstruction Committee, is captured in Wolfsburg (Booklet 086).
• Zen Torstein, member of Commando Brak Shakram, is captured in Perth through PSI control by Osiris 84 (Booklet 086).
• The Shadows -- the Gray Guards' intelligence network -- are systematically destroyed. At Kilimanjaro City, a Shadow cell detonates a nuclear bomb rather than be captured (Booklet 086).

With the Great Gray dead, the F.F.D.E. decapitated, and the Gray Guard command structure shattered, Valdec arrives on Earth and proclaims the Second Reich.

Political Structure

The Second Reich replaces the distributed corporate power of the Council with a rigidly hierarchical imperial government. All authority derives from the Kaiser.

Government Structure

The Kaiser-Earth Trust

The Kaiser Corporation is restructured as the Kaiser-Earth Trust (German: Kaiser-Erde-Trust) -- a wartime administrative body that merges corporate, military, and state functions into a single organizational apparatus. Where the old Council of Corporations maintained at least a pretense of distributed governance among competing GeneralManags, the Kaiser-Earth Trust is a command economy directed by the Kaiser's inner circle. Chelskij manages the economic consolidation, absorbing the remaining corporations into the Trust's framework (Booklet 085).

The Reichscosmoralitat

The independent Cosmorality -- the governing doctrine and sovereign council of the Gray Guards -- is abolished and replaced by the Reichscosmoralitat (Reich Cosmorality), an ideological framework that derives its authority solely from the Kaiser rather than from Arda's founding traditions. The Reichscosmoralitat is described as "the moral code of the Reich" -- the institutional justification for the Kaiser Guard's existence as an instrument of imperial power rather than an independent civilization. The rank of Reichscosmoral, created specifically for the Second Reich, is held by Yazmin (Booklets 089, 098).

The Kaiser Guard: Military Arm

The Second Reich's military pillar is the Kaiser Guard (German: Kaisergarde), created by counter-conditioning the former Gray Guards into a personal army of absolute loyalty to Valdec. The transformation is overseen by Queen Myra at Lunaport using the compliance drug Lab-21, which suppresses the individual humanity of the soldiers and replaces their institutional loyalty to the Cosmorality with personal loyalty to the Kaiser.

The Kaiser Guard is organized into Legions -- the 238th Legion of the Space Forces of the Second Reich of Humanity is the only named unit -- and commanded by officers bearing titles that blend Gray Guard tradition with imperial nomenclature: Kaiserqueen (Kaiser-Queen), Cosmoral, Reichscosmoral, and Kaiser Guardist (Kaisergardist).

For the full history, structure, and dissolution of the Kaiser Guard, see Kaiser Guard.

Instruments of Power

Propaganda: The RMN

The RMN (Reine Menschliche Nachrichten -- "Pure Human News") is the terrestrial broadcasting network co-opted by Frost to serve as the Second Reich's propaganda arm. Staged events, manipulated information, and carefully orchestrated messaging convince the population -- particularly the Relax caste, who lack independent information sources -- that Valdec is their savior, ending hunger and restoring order. The lifting of food rationing, made possible by Yazmin's fleet of container tugs bringing supplies to Earth, provides material proof of the propaganda's claims (Booklet 086).

Political Imprisonment: The Dead Spaces

The Dead Spaces -- the underground PSI-shielded prison complex beneath Berlin, originally built to contain Drivers -- are repurposed as the Second Reich's primary political prison. The facility expands from a Driver-specific holding center to a general instrument of political repression, incarcerating resistance leaders of all kinds: Manuel Lucci, Ignazius Tyll, Christin Dorf, Asen-Ger, and other leaders of the F.F.D.E. and the Arbiter unions (Booklets 086, 099).

Super-Drivers

The Second Reich deploys genetically engineered Super-Driver clones -- Osiris 84, Isis 31, and others -- as psionic weapons. Osiris 84 is used to exercise PSI control over civilian populations, subduing resistance through mind manipulation rather than conventional force (Booklet 086). The Super-Drivers also serve as Valdec's personal psionic shield, protecting him from assassination attempts and enabling military operations that conventional soldiers cannot achieve.

Kaiser Force Technology

Key Events Under the Second Reich

The Emperor of Berlin (2504)

Valdec's consolidation of power is depicted in 089 - The Emperor of Berlin, where he declares himself "Kaiser of Berlin" and begins planning galactic conquest. His regime alienates even the galactic powers: the Pure Halvcwar, an emissary of the Varen Navtem (the governing body of galactic civilizations), arrives on Earth to warn humanity about Kaiser Force's destruction of the High Space. The Halvcwar effortlessly dismantles military forces and infrastructure in a demonstration of alien power, delivering a stern ultimatum. Valdec responds by launching a nuclear missile at the departing alien -- which has no effect. A Vacuum Squid is deployed as a final warning, but Valdec's resolve only hardens (Booklet 089).

Attack on Adzharis (2504)

Valdec orders the Kaiser Guard to attack Adzharis, a planet in the Barnum System that serves as the source of Mistletoe for the new Yggdrasil cultivated by the Terranauts. The attack targets the Urbaum -- the Primeval Tree -- to disrupt Driver space travel at its biological source. Morgenstern, a Steersman, intervenes and sacrifices himself to contain the psionic threat posed by Drivers who have been manipulated by Valdec's Clones (Booklet 089).

The JAMES COOK Mission (2504)

Valdec sends a delegation aboard the JAMES COOK, nominally a peace mission led by Frost alongside Llewellyn 709 and Terranaut representatives, to contact the Entities at Genessos. In reality, Frost secretly plans to locate the Entities' central worlds and transmit their coordinates to Valdec for a Kaiser Force attack. Super-Drivers Isis 31 and Thor 51, conditioned to Frost, serve as the mission's hidden weapons (Booklets 090--093).

The Preemptive Strike (2504)

The Second Reich's most grandiose military operation is Valdec's preemptive strike against the galactic civilizations. Acting on coordinates obtained by Frost's betrayal of Llewellyn 709, Valdec assembles the Steel Fleet -- funnel ships including the REGENT and the GLAUCEN, Starcruiser carriers including the SCT MAX VON VALDEC, and container tugs loaded with nuclear weapons -- for a Kaiser Force transit to what he believes is the center of galactic civilization. His intention is the annihilation of every alien power that has threatened humanity with a Final Strike over Kaiser Force emissions (Booklet 097).

But the target is an illusion created by the Reality Switch, a precosmic entity manipulated by the Old Forest and the Entities to trap Valdec. The multi-sun system vanishes. The fleet is frozen. Valdec is drawn into the Reality Switch itself, where he is designated "the Antagonist" -- a cosmic archetype, the necessary counterpart to David terGorden's role as the Heir of Power (Booklet 097).

The Duel of Dreams (2504)

The saga's climax unfolds across two alternate realities generated by the Reality Switch:

• "White": A hopeful future where humanity has abandoned Kaiser Force and embraced bio-technology. Space travel is conducted aboard Organ-Sailers navigated by Seed Masters. Humanity cooperates with alien races.
• "Black": A dystopian continuation of the Second Reich. Earth and its colonies are ruled by the Kaiser of Berlin. The Kaiser Guard enforces order. Kaiser Force powers all space travel.

The Duel of Dreams tests which reality's champion will make the choice that the cosmic order requires. On Cubus II in the "Black" reality, Valdec attempts to rescue the Paracletic Madonna -- an entity whose subpsionic vibrations sustain all life in the Milky Way -- but fails. He abandons her and plans an exodus of humanity's "best" to another galaxy. On Valneron in the "White" reality, David terGorden faces the same entity in mortal danger and sacrifices himself to save her.

David's self-sacrifice triggers the victory of the "White" reality. The "Black" reality -- and with it, the Second Reich -- is negated. Valdec experiences the complete dissolution of his reality, ending in nothingness, where Llewellyn 709 confronts him one last time. Valdec is destroyed within the Reality Switch (Booklet 098).

The Eco-Shock: Destruction on Earth (2504)

While Valdec perishes in the Duel of Dreams, the Second Reich's remnants on Earth attempt to maintain control. Zarkophin, left in charge as Reich Commissioner for Defense, and Cosmoral Cant, Yazmin's deputy, plan a preemptive strike against rebel planets and the execution of imprisoned F.F.D.E. leaders.

Their plans are overtaken by the Cosmic Spores -- genetically engineered organisms prepared on Shondyke by the Clone-Queens and deployed as part of David terGorden's plan to transform Earth. The spores blanket Berlin and the remaining imperial infrastructure. Bolter's Hausfreund, a psiotronics device, activates a Space-Time Stroboscope to free Manuel Lucci and the other political prisoners from the Dead Spaces, teleporting them to Ultima Thule.

Kaiser Guard armored gliders attack Ultima Thule but are destroyed by a protective shield generated by the spores. Cosmoral Cant is infected and transformed -- her conditioning broken, her humanity restored. On Pluto, Kaiserqueen Tian's garrison is similarly neutralized. Zarkophin and Chelskij attempt to flee Earth in a Ringo, but the spores disable the craft; Chelskij dies, and Zarkophin burns up in the atmosphere.

The spores contain "The Jin" -- tiny organisms that neutralize Lab-21 and restore the suppressed humanity of every Kaiser Guard. David terGorden arrives at Ultima Thule and announces three things: Valdec's death, the end of corporate rule, and the dawn of a new era of bio-technology. The Second Reich ceases to exist (Booklet 099).

Key Personnel

Opposition

The Second Reich faces opposition from multiple directions:

Terrestrial Resistance

• The F.F.D.E. -- the umbrella organization of Earth's resistance groups -- is decapitated by Valdec's purge but not destroyed. In Edinburgh, rebels use the anti-hypnotic drug Londrium B to resist PSI control and fight pitched battles against Kaiser Guard forces. The F.F.D.E.'s imprisoned leaders survive in the Dead Spaces until freed by Bolter's Hausfreund in the Eco-Shock (Booklets 086, 099).
• Chan de Nouille's Conspirative Net of Shadows -- remnants of the Gray Guards' intelligence service -- conducts sabotage and surveillance operations before being systematically eliminated. Chan herself is killed on Atlantica (Booklet 086).
• The Terranauts, led by Asen-Ger and later David terGorden, conduct operations from Sarym and other bases, seeking diplomatic solutions with the galactic civilizations while preparing the ecological transformation of Earth.

Galactic Powers

• The Entities -- the ancient supercivilizations -- threaten humanity with a Final Strike unless Kaiser Force emissions are halted. Their Executors, including Tscherta and Tserin, destroy Second Reich installations and deliver warnings directly to Valdec (Booklet 090).
• The Varen Navtem -- the governing body of galactic civilizations -- dispatches the Pure Halvcwar, a Sheyatsche of immense power, to demonstrate to Valdec the futility of military resistance and the reality of the alien threat to the High Space (Booklet 089).
• The Old Forest and the Reality Switch -- precosmic entities responsible for maintaining the Intercosmic Anti-Entropy System -- engineer the trap that captures Valdec's Steel Fleet and initiates the Duel of Dreams (Booklets 097--098).

The Second Reich as Alternate Reality

The Second Reich exists in the saga on two planes simultaneously:

Historical Reality (Booklets 085--099)

In the saga's primary timeline, the Second Reich is a historical political entity that exists for approximately one year (2504). It is founded by Valdec's coup, sustained by military force and propaganda, and destroyed by the combined effects of the Duel of Dreams and the Eco-Shock. Its key events are narrated across fifteen booklets.

The "Black" Reality (Booklet 098)

In the Duel of Dreams, the Reality Switch instantiates a "Black" alternate reality in which the Second Reich is not merely a short-lived authoritarian state but a permanent, galactic-scale civilization. In this timeline, Kaiser Force technology powers all space travel, Drivers have been eliminated or subjugated, and Valdec's inner circle -- Frost as Reich Security Commissioner, Yazmin as Reichscosmoral, Zarkophin as military architect -- administers a totalitarian state spanning the Milky Way. The Kaiser Guard fights wars against the Alliance of Alien Aggressors on distant worlds like Tonteran. The Second Reich is, in this reality, the permanent future of humanity.

The negation of the "Black" reality by David's self-sacrifice is the definitive cosmic rejection of this future. The Reality Switch -- an instrument of the Ancients' cosmological engineering -- judges Valdec's vision incomplete: a civilization built on Kaiser Force accelerates the very entropy it claims to overcome, and survival at the expense of the cosmic order is self-defeating. The Second Reich, whether as a one-year historical state or an eternal galactic empire, cannot stand because the universe's own architecture will not sustain it.

Appearances

Themes

The Culmination of Valdec's Vision

The Second Reich is the logical terminus of every thread in Valdec's career: the corporate power plays of the early saga, the Kaiser Force development program, the destruction of Zoe, the exile on Lancia, the clone infiltrations, the raiding of colonial worlds. Each defeat taught Valdec what his next attempt required. The Second Reich eliminates every weakness that brought down his previous regimes: the Council is not merely dominated but abolished; the Gray Guards are not merely commanded but chemically reprogrammed; the opposition is not merely suppressed but physically destroyed. It is the perfected authoritarian state -- and the saga argues that perfected authoritarianism is still not enough to overcome the fundamental wrongness of its premises.

Technology as Civilizational Choice

The Second Reich embodies one of the saga's two competing models for human civilization: a society built on Kaiser Force, technological self-reliance, and the rejection of dependence on biological PSI abilities. The "Black" reality of the Duel of Dreams extends this model to its ultimate expression -- a galactic empire that has eliminated Drivers entirely and replaced organic space travel with Kaiser Force drives. The saga's resolution permanently rejects this path: Kaiser Force accelerates entropy, and a civilization that refuses to work with the living cosmos will destroy itself. The "White" reality -- built on Organ-Sailers, Seed Masters, and symbiosis with nature -- is the one the universe sustains.

The Cost of Order

The Second Reich delivers what it promises: order. Food rationing ends. The corporations are consolidated. The military is unified. The streets are controlled. But the cost is total: individual humanity is chemically suppressed in the Kaiser Guards, political dissent is imprisoned in the Dead Spaces, alien civilizations are provoked into existential confrontation, and the fabric of spacetime itself is torn by the Kaiser Force emissions that power the entire system. The Second Reich achieves stability by destroying everything that makes stability worth having.

The Necessary Antagonist

The Reality Switch designates the Second Reich's creator not as "the Evil One" but as "the Antagonist" -- a cosmic archetype whose opposition is structurally necessary for the universe's own maintenance. Without Valdec's pressure, David terGorden would never have become the Heir of Power. Without the destruction of Zoe, the Terranauts would never have been forged into a force capable of saving the galaxy. Without the Second Reich, there would be no dystopian "Black" reality for David to reject, no test of character for the Reality Switch to adjudicate. The Second Reich is, in the cosmic architecture of the saga, as necessary as it is doomed.

See Also

• Max von Valdec -- Founder and Kaiser of the Second Reich
• Kaiser Guard -- The reconstituted military arm of the Second Reich
• Kaiser Corporation -- The corporate predecessor, restructured as the Kaiser-Earth Trust
• Kaiser-Earth Trust -- The wartime administrative apparatus of the Second Reich
• Kaiser Force -- The defining technology of the Second Reich
• Frost -- Reich Security Commissioner; intelligence and propaganda
• Queen Yazmin -- Reichscosmoral; Commander-in-Chief of the Kaiser Guard
• Zarkophin -- Reich Commissioner for Defense and Fleet Construction
• Duel of Dreams -- The metaphysical confrontation that destroys the Second Reich's "Black" reality
• Reality Switch -- The precosmic entity that adjudicates between the "White" and "Black" futures
• Cosmic Spores -- The biological countermeasure that dissolves the Second Reich on Earth
• The Jin -- The organisms that restore Kaiser Guard humanity
• Dead Spaces -- The underground prison complex beneath Berlin
• F.F.D.E. -- The resistance movement suppressed by the Second Reich
• Council of Corporations -- The predecessor government (the "First Reich")
• Gray Guards -- The predecessor military institution, transformed into the Kaiser Guard
• Steel Fleet -- The Second Reich's final military deployment
• RMN -- The propaganda broadcasting network
• Lab-21 -- The conditioning drug used on the Kaiser Guard
• 238th Legion of the Space Forces of the Second Reich of Humanity -- Named military unit
• Cosmorality -- The governing body dissolved and replaced by the Reichscosmoralitat
• Relax -- The caste most susceptible to Second Reich propaganda