Helghan Empire

The Helghan Empire is the main autocratic government of the Helghast people and is the main governing body on the planet of Helghan. It was founded by Scolar Visari as the country's Autarch and the supreme ruler of the nation. Pyrrhus City was its capitol until its destruction by the hands of Visari and the Red Dust nuke. Admiral Orlock became the second and last Autarch (though short lived) following Visari's death during the ISA invasion of Helghan. Around 2360 the Helghan Empire collapsed after a weapon called the Terricide completely whipped out the planet killing over 1 billion helghasts leaving the survivors as refugees and the empire's utter collapse. It is the main antagonistic faction of the Killzone series and it is succeeded by New Helghan in 2390.

History
Following the defeat of the Helghan Corporation during the First Extrasolar War, the Helghan Corporation was dissolved and all resources and assets went to the United Colonial Nations and seized full control over all of Helghan Adminitration owned colonies. The UCN rule over Helghan resulted in ethnic tensions between the Helghan Corp. majority and earth colonial minority as earth loyal citizens were killed by Helghast resistance fighters in various terrorist attacks which resulted in the ISA govenor installing new economic sanctions  military punishments putting the planet into even more debt and failure. This soon led to all Helghan colonists leaving the former Helghan Corp. colonies and fleed to planet helghan and were declared an independent state due to the ISA and UCN not wanting to fund the Helghan colonial exile around 2220. After arriving on Helghan, the new colonist were soon forced to deal with hardships such as a harsh enviorments and former Helghan authority was corrupt and the ISA had blockade around the entire planet. By 2305 the Helghasts had fully evolved to deal with such conditions though many of them required breathing masks to live on the planet.

Great Depression and Birth of the Helghasts.
From 2330-2350 Helghan was under a massive economic failure as the economy had collapsed and the widespread poverty and famine leading to a deeper economic depression all across the planet. The ISA was soon used by the UCN to enforce unfair trade raites putting more economic failure into the planet. This soon led to the rise of Scolar Visari as in 2347 after a popular coup, Visari took over and declared himself Autarch of the Empire and created the term Helghasts.

Seeking to further transform the Helghasts into his own vision. Visari began to reform Helghan culture into Helghast supiriority and created a military dictatorship (similar to Nazi germany). Eventually Visari had instagated a complete media takeover of Helghan and soon redeclared hostilities with the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance and launched a suprise attack on the ISA planet of Vekta starting the Second Extrasolar War and led to an allout ISA invasion of Helghan a few years later.

Second Extrasolar War
In effort to take over and launch a successful invasion of Vekta, Visari used two spies to infiltrate and disable the ISA Orbital Defense Network (ODN) on Vekta allowing the Helghast Third Army to attack Vekta and land without space resistance. The strategy worked until the Helghasts were pushed off the planet despite nearyl conquering it. Around 2360 the ISA began to launch Operation Archange, a massive full-scale military invasion of Helghan with the goal of capturing Visari and create an easily controlled puppet regime on the planet. Visari warned that the invasion would be repealed and by the time the ISA Fleet began to land on Helghan planetary defenses began to retaliate and soon ISA Marines  began to crashland on Helghan's beach shores due to intense defenses of troops and Arc Pillars led by Colonel Mael Radec of the Helghast Army fighting off the invasion. The ISA began to push forward despite heavy casualties and intensifying resistance from the Helghasts. Eventually the "Red Dust" nuclear bomb stolen by the Helghasts on Vekta was used for the first and last time on the capitol city of Pyrrhus killing many ISA and Helghast troops alike. Helghast Armadas bega to destroy many ISA crusiers including the main flagship the New Sun. The New Sun soon crashlanded into the Petricide Gri daffectivly disabling the Arc Pillars' defenses and allowing the fleet to progress deeper and deeper into Helghast territory. Finally Alpha Squad made it to Visari's palace and killed both Radec and Visari but the war did not end there.

Following the disaster of Operation Archangal, the remaining ISA troops began to evacuate the planet as the Helghast military began to launch a massive counter attack to avenge Visari meanwhile the Helghan Senate oversaw orlock and his troops moving in on the fleeing ISA troops only to have Chairman Stahl interupted noticing an advancing ISA tank convoy and claiming that overwhelming numbers won't defeat the ISA despite heavy losses on both sides. Eventually the ISA Forces fled Helghan leaving the Planet in war torn ruins and returning home with no acheived goal.

After Visari died, Chairman Stahl and Stahl Arms battle Admiral Orlock over control of the Helghast Government as Stahl with his private army and vast amounts of resources began to convinve members of the High Council to crown him Commander and Chief of the Helghast Military but failed after a failed attempt at executing Commander Jason Narville leaving Orlock as the newly declared Autarch. Meanwhile Helghast military forces and Stahl Arms personal had managed to capture Captian Jason Narville and Sergeant Sevchanko as Sev was saved by Rico but Narville was sent to Stahl Arms deep south compound where Stahl was preparing to execute him for leading the ISA Forces during the invasion of Helghan and started an invasion of earth. After Narvill was rescued and Stahl found out that Orlock became Autarch, the two fought in a space staiton over Helghan and soon the earth invasion fleet was destroyed and STahl's cruiser plummeted towards helghan releasing the Terricide and killing over 1 billion people leading to the collapse of the Helghan Empire.

Government
the Helghan Empire is an Authoritarian State due to the fact that Visari's rule was created through propaganda, suppression of opposition, and with support from the military leading to a Totalitarian Military Dictatorship as the country's de fact government. The Empire is also an autocracy because the ruler (Autarch in this case) has full authority and the final say over the entire country. The Autarch is the official Head of State and the Head of Government and often anyone who either opposed or denied the Autarch's reule was declared and enemy of the state and was to be



executed by orders from the High Council. Fascism seems to have a large influence in the Helghan Empire being the main political ideology as there are many real world references to past fsscist regimes most influence was Nazi Germany for an example where the Fuhrer was the absolute ruler just like the Autarch and both nations invaded their neighbors out of revenge for their defeat in a major war.

Military
Years of bitter hardships, conditions, and evolution have turned the Helghasts into hardened battle ready soldiers. In the Killzone universe the Helghast Military has overwhelming numbers and appears to be one of the most powerful and largest military force in the game's world. Helghast forces rely on strength through numbers with massive amounts of troops and tanks and use a series of viciouse surgical strikes against their enemies. Military tactics are mostly  offensive with endless waves of ground troops supported by multiple battallions. The Helghast are alos experts at defensive tactics setting up mines and other traps and using large amounts of hidden troops to attack unsuspecting ISA troops. The most well armed and advanced unit of the Helghast militray had to be the Helghast Third Army and usually relyed on light armoured tanksand APCs to cover their advancing troops. Third Army soldiers use the standard issue StA-52 assualt rifle like other forces but used underbarrel shotgun attachments not used by any other unit in the Helghast military and were also used to kill anyone who questioned Scolar Visari and his reign over Helghan. Due to the intense firepower and mere size of the Helghast Armed Forces the majority of the country and planet's resources and money went to the military due to military first policiesleaving little for domestic development. After the empire collapsed and survivors fled to New Helghan, the New helghast military relyed on highly trained and well equiped soldiers due to a massivly deepleted population making it impossible for there to be an oversized army and now acts more as a self-defense force.

Culture and Society
Helghast society is very warlike and bloodthirsty as shown due to the ISA victory in the past. The majority of the population serves in the military and is the main reason for the Helghasts aquiring such a massive army. Civilians that don't are hardley seen in the game series however are shown in Killzone Shadowfall where they live under harsh conditions like before and have an even deeper hatred of Vektans. Helghast Society for the most part seems to be very military-like with most of the people listed in it and is very imperialistic.

Collapse and Retreat to Vekta
After the terricide rained over Helghan killing over 1 billion people, the Helghan Empire had completely collapsed leaving the survivors in conditions worse than before and with weak leadership and the planet reduced to a lifeless rock. Days after negotiations a settlement was reached and the Helghast refugees were given the eastern half of planet Vekta as their new home. Vekta, the home responsible for helghan's destruction has led to increasing anti-vektan sentiments. In the intro of Shadowfall, the newly established Helghast forces use brute force to force the Vektans out of their homes and have shot runners on sight. By 2390 the Helghasts live on the planet that destoryed their home and are forced to live in slums and poverty striken areas as despite massive amounts of wealth from industry, the New Helghan government has full control over the country's wealth and money is possible scarce leaving currency worthless and is at odds with the terrorist group known as The Black Hand led by Vladko Tyran.

Trivia

 * The Helghan Empire has a similar backstory to Germany during the first two World Wars with both starting the conflict (Germany took the most blame) and soon both have inefficiant, corrupt governments that lead to the rise of Facsist Dictators (Germany with Adolf Hitler and Helghan Empire with Visari) and start another major war but loose again and suffer heavy consequences.
 * Many Killzone Fans view the Helghasts has heroes due to the dark backstroy with the United Colonial Nations oppressing planets owned by the Helghan Corporation with constant economic regulation and the ISA for forcing Helghan to become the military empire it had became and years of hardships from both sides.