Doctrinal Conflict

The Ur-Quan Doctrinal Conflict or Doctrinal War is the conflict between the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za and Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah to prove which Doctrine (the Kzer-Za Path of Now and Forever or the Kohr-Ah Eternal Doctrine) is superior.

The Conflict began when the two Ur-Quan subspecies first started enforcing their Doctrines, immediately following the revolt against the Dnyarri. The Kzer-Za had already enslaved the Faz and the Kohr-Ah had burned the worlds of the Yuptar. The two great fleets met above the homeworld of the Mael-Num, the last free race of the Sentient Milieu. The Kohr-Ah had come to destroy it, the Kzer-Za to imprison it.

In the tense moment, one of the fleets opened fire and the standoff suddenly became a fierce civil war. During the ensuing conflict the Mael-num managed to escape. With both the Kzer-Za and the Kohr-Ah fleets nearly evenly matched, the civil war would likely have resulted in the complete destruction of the entire Ur-Quan race had the Kzer-Za not found a mysterious Precursor warship. This vessel, later called the Sa-Matra, broke the stalemate and ended the decades long war in a matter of days. The Kohr-Ah fleets were reduced to a fraction of their original numbers as the Sa-Matra devastated their ranks.

The Kzer-Za, victorious, were still uncertain that their way was the better one, the one that would guarantee their freedom. Because of this, rather than enslaving the Kohr-Ah, they sent them out into the unknown of the galaxy and instructed them to carry out the Eternal Doctrine as they orbited it. The Kzer-Za moved out in the opposite direction, taking the Sa-Matra with them. It was decided that when they next met, the two subraces would fight a ritual war to discover the true superiority between the Doctrines. The loser would step aside and the winner would take the Sa-Matra as a prize and use it to enact their will upon the galaxy.

It is during this Second Doctrinal Conflict that Star Control II occurs.