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The Second Emperor of Man was born in Morno System, in the year 2476, to an overworked starship mechanic named Anna Maria Cristos. Julio San Sebastian Cristos never knew a father, and obediently learned the art of working on Total Conversion Engines from his mother. He was a station rat, born to zero gravity, but unlike most of the population of Morno Alliance Highport, he and his mother were devout Catholics who attended services regularly. The local Priest, Maxwell Alderson, took the young fatherless Julio under his wing and taught him the lessons that his Mother would never be able to teach him -- the lessons that had nothing to do with Engines or Hull Integrity. Two things happened during Julio's childhood that would guide his later life and the Empire that he would create. The first was when, driven to keep up with the competition, his Mother experienced complications during a Brain Augmentation Nanoboost and was blanked out. The doctors were able to reload her mind from an earlier backup, taken from before Julio had been born and when his Mother was only in her early 20s. The second happened only seven months later, when his "Mother" hopped out on a Star Freighter to serve as a Ship's Mechanic, abandoning him when he was only 14. Julio tried to take over his mother's job, to support himself, but nobody wanted to trust their sensitive equipment to a quiet looking teenage station rat. By the time a year had passed, various Space Adapted Parahumans and Bioroids had driven him entirely out of business, as they'd always tried to do to his mother. The only thing stable in his life was Maxwell Alderson, his father figure and mentor, who had taken him in after his mother left.
When Julio turned 18, Father Alderson encouraged him to take a pilgrimage to Sol, and visit the Holy Land.
Very little is known of the Emperor's Pilgrimage. Julio doesn't truly appear on the history books until Age 35, in 2511 AD, when he appeared at an interfaith Symposium on the Decline of Religion throughout the Galaxy held in Orion. The crux of the Symposium was how to adapt and change Religion to better fit into the new Pan-Galactic Society, but, Father Julio Cristos claimed that it was not Religion that was barren of meaning and relevance in the modern day but rather Pan Galactic Society that needed to adapt and prove its worth in the face of obsolesce. "What has Science truly given us? We twist our flesh away from God's Image, requiring the use of a prefix prior to "Human". We program Machines that think and reason but have no souls, that can tell us nothing about what it truly means to be human, if we even deserve the answer to that question anymore. We explore the extents of the Galaxy, set foot in every corner of God's Creation, and the only thing we learn is how well and truly alone we are. How unique we are in all the cosmos. If that is not proof of God, I don't know what is." He spoke at length of his views, and afterward entertained responses, of which there were many. Even those that spoke to him unkindly, he treated softly, but in the end he couldn't stop what happened. The Symposium splintered, and fell into infighting and petty bickering. Most expected that this strange Fringer Priest would fade away and not be heard of before. They were wrong.
Immediately after the Symposium, Julio attracted a few followers who had heard what he had said. Almost as if some small part of it had been spoken directly to them. This Inner Circle numbered Twelve, and together they traveled to many worlds throughout the Alliance. Everywhere they went more people heard Father Cristos' words and his following grew, as did the rumors that spread about him. The rumors that said he was not born of man, but woman alone. That he could work miracles; healing the sick, curing mental disease ("casting out Demons"), sensing the hidden sins of those around him, even such things as walking on water and controlling animals and machines even as Adam was given dominion over Beasts. That he was the long awaited return, the Second Coming, of the rightful King of All Mankind. Those that merely heard the rumors didn't believe; those that saw him in person...
The Church of Man, a small branch of the Christian Faith, was officially recognized by the Pan Orion Alliance by 2517 AD. It spread, not like wildfire but steadily, until by 2563 it was the largest denomination of the Christian Church in the entire Galactic Region and its leader was not merely a man but the Son of a God. Then, in 2570, three things happened which finally set the Pan-Orion Alliance aflame and began the Imperium of Man. First, the Vatican officially denounced Father Julio Cristos, proclaiming him neither the Second Coming of Christ nor a Saint nor any kind of Miraculous Being at all. Second, a small fanatical faction of the Church of Man planted a Antimatter-Matter Conversion Bomb on the Pantropic Collective Observation Base over Xeno, annihilating the base entirely and killing well over a million humans, parahumans, bioroids and aliens. Third, the Pan-Orion Alliance proclaimed the Church of Man a prohibited Cult and Terrorist Organization and outlawed its operation within their boundaries. The very same day, the Patrol arrived to take Father Cristos into custody. He frowned, told them they were making a horrible mistake, but went quietly into their custody. The Civil War started that very same day.
Fully half of the Pan-Orion Alliance's Navy were devoted members of the Church of Man. Many of them believed that Father Cristos was not merely a man, but the Son of God, returned to guide them through these chaotic times. Only about a third of the Patrol were similarly devout; two members of the self-same team sent to take the Father into custody backed out at the last minute, unable to go through with what they saw as a profane act that would damn their soul. The word that their leader had been taken into custody traveled fast. Several crews immediately mutinied against their commanders; an even larger number didn't have to, as their Commander was a card-carrying member of the Church of Man as well. The entire system of Sirius attempted to succeed from the Alliance, a fact made much easier when several former Alliance Battleships rallied to the system's defense. Over the course of a week, more and more ships found their way to Sirius, gathered by Rear Admiral Kelarus, one of the Father's earliest converts. The Alliance tried to negotiate with their rebel military assets, and recalled a few picket ships to Orion as a Home Guard, but adamantly refused to turn over Father Cristos out of fear for what would happen at that point.
The standoff lasted a month.
Then, the "Empire of Man" launched an attack on Orion. The Picket Ship's tried to talk the intruding ships down, the Imperials refused to back off. Someone fired the first shot; the Imperials always claim it was one of the Pickets, or Orion's Orbital Defenses. The Orion's always claim it was one of the Imperial ships. Regardless, after the first shot, everyone was soon firing upon everyone else, and at that point there was little doubt what would happen next. The Alliance had never really expected war over something as outmoded as Religion, and hadn't assembled nearly as much defenses to hold back the Battle Group. The Imperials suspected that, if they were being fired upon, their leader's life was in danger and they bit their tongues and landed marines on the capital of their former central government and hoped they got to Father Cristos before he was dealt with by the Government. The story goes that when the Marines first found their future Emperor, he was crying, and his tears only flowed more steadily as they led him out through the battle scarred compound where he'd been held. By the time they got him back to Orbit, of course, the Alliance had called in reinforcements. Nothing was held back this time: Fully half the Battle Group was destroyed before it reached the jump point and by the time they reached Sirius it was being attacked by the Alliance Navy as well. The Imperial Forces managed to win the battle, if barely, but everything had spiraled so terribly far out of control.
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