What Austrins are to guns, the Fomalhautians are to melee weapons.

The Orions provided the central ideal. The Orlamus provided the Lighthouse. VoidCorp transferred the contracts on a half-billion sesheyans. But perhaps the most defining gift to the Concord came from a defeated and dissolved Nation: the tri-staff. Sultanate researchers have long been known for furthering the development of personal combat weapons. Pulse batons, chain swords and gravmaces are merely the most commonly seen of their advances. They have even shared notes with the Austrins on the development of exchangeable lanth cells so that a soldier would only need to carry one part. Thankfully for those who have to face weren in combat, the attempts to create a chainbladed chuurkhna have so far failed.

The Sultanate developed an extensive but thinly settled nation, governed from the desiccated husk of Fomalhaut. This was considered a blessing to the Sultanate, as it gave breathing room to a proud and contentious people and provided plenty of drivespace time for swordsmanship practice. With scattered settlements abounding, the Sultanate developed two useful institutions: an intelligence agency skilled at piecing together bits and pieces (The Eyes of the Vizier) and a large fleet of armed merchant craft with modular arrangements for adding extra weapons as needed. Both of these became lifesavers in the months leading up to GW2. As more and more fragmentary reports came in to Vizier Amel regarding the Taurean Star Republic, the Sultan Bayazeid IX ordered the navy to arm the auxiliaries for an extended anti-corsair campaign. When the Taureans attacked, they charged right into the teeth of a waiting Task Force in what came to be referred to as the Jebel 6 Turkey Shoot. Subsequent campaigns revealed that the auxiliary navy was exceptionally good and that it’s very hard to defeat a Fomalhautian in close combat. And then the Thuldans attacked. A Sultanate Task Group, built around the “Saleh-en-Din” escort carrier as flagship, served with the Austrins until the end of the war. The peace split the fleet, with most returning home to serve the new Galactic Concord (most notably in the Sanguine Outriders of the 145th Division at Hammer’s Star). A few, however, have either remained with the Austrins or moved to the former Sultanate colony in the Far Reach.

When the mass reactor was created, the nations of the Middle East lost their only great resource, energy. In the Middle East, a handful of powerful and wealthy families led a massive exodus of poor and desperate people from Earth to the Fomalhaut system. The new colony was set up and administered by the families who funded the expedition. In 2274, Earth was continuously strangling the colony for resources, and another exodus occurred, all but emptying the first colony. They fled more than 50 light years further from Sol, establishing themselves anew in the Najat system, but also settled a handful of neighboring systems, all ruled by the original families.

The newly named Sultanate of Fomalhaut acquired true independence during GW1, buffered from the Terran Empire by the Taurean Star Republic and StarMech Collective. With manageable neighbors, the Sultanate set about becoming a power in the region. They specifically specialized in the production of mass reactors, accumulators, and other energy research, competing in the same markets as the Dreth Commonwealth.

The Sultanate of Fomalhaut was an oligarchy, ruled by the founding families, but not an oppressive religious state, nor a cruel dictatorship. Their citizens were largely happy and extremely dedicated to whatever their work, be it science, agriculture, or even art.

When GW2 broke out in 2346, the Taurean Star Republic declared war, and the Fomalhaut military proved exactly how resilient and dedicated they were. The Star Republic underestimated the cunning of Sultanate commanders, as well as the level of their planetary defenses. Not three years later, the Sultanate had forced the Taureans to abandon the fight. Fighting Ships of GW2 rates the Fomalhaut military with a “D” grade navy of 5 fortress ships & “C” grade army. They were not enough to fight off the Thuldan Empire. After 6 years of skilled but futile defense, the Sultanate surrendered to Emperor Decret in 2355.

The people of the Sultanate of Fomalhaut were widely known for the steely resolve with which they resisted outside hostility.