The Story Thus Far...
Politics in the Alpha Quadrant have been stable for a decent stretch of time. The Romulans, Klingons, and Federation, despite jockeying for power, have settled most of their conflicts and exist at relative peace with one another.
However, when the Romulan starship Melak enters the Neutral Zone and attempts a highly secretive weapons test, the balance of power in the Alpha Quadrant is forever altered. With a brilliant flash, void space is torn open, and the Tabula Rasa begins to spill into realspace.

Comprised of nearly 50 systems, the Tabula Rasa represents a game changing amount of resources and settlement area for any race powerful and aggressive enough to stake their claim.
The Klingon Empire, running out of dilithium, sees a great opportunity to replenish their diminishing resource stores and to gain more honour.
Meanwhile, the Romulan Star Empire views the entire Tabula Rasa as theirs, having been the ones to bring it into real-space with their weapons test, and because the Tabula Rasa lies on their side of the Neutral Zone. Finally, the Federation comes seeking knowledge, new species, and to prevent either the Klingons or the Romulans from gaining too much power.

But the Tabula Rasa hides a darker secret. Ancient races, long thought extinct, are waking from stasis. The Metar and the Hubrin Brotherhood, two rivals locked in a war of extermination, are now free in real space once more. Re-emerging after being dormant for a millennium, both sides are ready to resume their eternal conflict.