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Sixty years later, the advent of second-generation subwarp engines on Tarsonis allowed these three disparate colonies to develop relations. As commercial treaties were formed, a mining and manufacturing boom took Moria by storm. Dozens of small family-run guilds scrambled to claim as much land as possible, and soon hundreds of refineries, factories, and mining facilities sprouted up on Moria and its two moons. Over time, the larger guilds used a variety of shady tactics to eliminate competition until two organizations came to dominate the planet’s economic activities: the Morian Mining Coalition and the Kelanis Shipping Guild.

These two powers gradually gained political influence over Moria and its associated operations on nearby planets, moons, and asteroids. Elsewhere in the sector, the Terran Confederacy, a powerful government formed by Tarsonis and its colonies, began extending its influence to other worlds. Fearful that the Confederacy might use its military strength to regulate their profitable operations, the Morian Mining Coalition and the Kelanis Shipping Guild eventually merged to form the Kel-Morian Combine. This corrupt corporate partnership pledged military aid to any mining guilds threatened by the Confederacy. From that day forward, the thin line that had once existed on Moria between commercial entities and independent government vanished.

Rising tensions between the Confederacy and the Combine later led to the outbreak of the Guild Wars. This brutal conflict raged for nearly four years, and it eventually ended with a skewed peace agreement that granted the Confederacy control over nearly all of the Combine’s affiliated mining guilds. Moria itself, however, was unscathed by the wars, and despite the crooked terms of the peace treaty, the planet remained under Combine control.

When chaos erupted in the Koprulu sector following the emergence of the zerg and the protoss, the Combine went to great lengths to stay out of the conflict. During the Brood War, however, the planet was raided for its rich mineral stores by an odd alliance of protoss and renegade zerg. The invaders departed after pilfering a large amount of resources, but the attack had weakened some of Moria’s defenses and destroyed a number of military and manufacturing facilities.

Since the end of the Brood War, the Kel-Morian Combine has retained control over Moria and focused on building up its commercial empire. The rise of the oppressive Terran Dominion has caused concern among the Combine’s leaders over the safety of their far-flung mining operations, but they are intent on claiming more worlds for plunder nonetheless. To this day Moria is still considered a productive trading, manufacturing, and mining hub, and its vast stretches of barren, strip-mined landscape are reminders of the Combine’s willingness to turn a profit at any cost.