In the earlier days of their species, the Balorim were like so many other galactic denizens: mundane land-dwellers concentrated on their own planet. Shyaloum, in the Qualstreit system, is a rather unpleasant chunk of swampy rock with a sulfuric atmosphere that every species save the Balorim finds at least irritating and at most toxic. There is little to recommend it: few resources, no scenery, and only the quality of its inhabitants to ensure its place in the galactic spotlight. The Balorim were later into space than most, perhaps because of their homeworld: Shyaloum is well-known for the paucity of its mineral wealth and the high-grade materials required for even a cursory shot at spaceflight were lacking.

Therefore, the Balorim were the discovered rather than the discoverers: a Captab sleeper ship, acting on false astronomical data indicating an appropriate oceanic planet in the Qualstreit system, puttered into the homeworld of the Balorim about eight hundred years ago. Lacking the resources for a return trip, the Captab were forced to land on Shyaloum and rely on the generous nature of their mysterious hosts. Luckily, the Balorim had the good sense to cultivate peaceful relations with the Captab: in exchange for shelter, assistance, and fuel, the Captab left a few volunteers to help the Balorim through getting into space.

Like they did with anything they felt so strongly about, the Balorim excelled at spaceflight in short order. Their own sleeper ships were leaving Shyaloum within twenty years, and the Balorim leapt into galactic expansion with unparalleled enthusiasm. The Captab, happy to have such an industrious ally, guided the Balorim at first, but the students soon outpaced the masters.

It took the Galactic War, however, for the Balorim to truly come of age. When the Twis'rin encountered the Balorim, they viewed the fat slugs as more easy prey in their ongoing quest to rule the galaxy. They were mistaken: five hundred years had passed since the Balorim first touched the stars, and in those five hundred years they had never ceased improving themselves while the Twis'rin had long grown decadent. The Twis'rin had the advantage in numbers and in technology, but the Twis'rin viewed it as another casual war while the Balorim were intelligent and facing the very extinction of their kind. So when a Twis'rin war fleet arrived at a Balorim colony to easily wipe out the population with atomic weapons, the Balorim won.

When it became clear that the Balorim were not going to simply roll over but were actually going to fight back, the Twis'rin finally took the war seriously. Long-idle fleets were activated, almost forgotten technologies and projects were hauled out of the memory banks, and their military academies finally lost their country club atmosphere. Too late. The Balorim were able to enlist the logistical assistance of the Captab and the Doggei, both of whom had had dealings with the Twis'rin in the past and both of whom were ancient space-faring races of great power who were reluctant to directly fight the formidable Twis'rin but happy to supply someone who would. With propulsion technology so primitive that it could take a generation for a war fleet to move between the two capitals, however, the war inevitably devolved into a stalemate.

Only the invention of faster-than-light travel by the Twis'rin threatened the stability of the war. When they successfully opened the first jump gate, victory beckoned: the Twis'rin could strike Balorim colonies with no possibility of retaliation or defense. But the Twis'rin were robbed of easy victory here too: over the century of war, Balorim intelligence had managed to infiltrate Matul'it. In a daring mission, Balorim intelligence officers and Twis'rin sympathisers managed to get a faster-than-light transmission to Shyaloum with complete technical information on the new designs. This data was quickly shared between the Balorim and potential allies: failure to duplicate this technology, after all, led to certain defeat and probable extermination. It was the promise of this technology that finally drew the Captab and Doggei in as full military partners.

The alliance did crack the mystery, and while the Twis'rin tried to refit their ships to take advantage of faster-than-light travel the alliance banded together and constructed the first large-scale jump gate network to try and survive. The war raged on, bloodier than ever, but the Balorim held: the support of their new allies meant that not even the Twis'rin could breach their defenses. Finally, in 2590, both sides acknowledged the obvious stalemate and peace broke out. The Balorim, however, were the true victors: a century and a half of war had successfully narrowed the technological gap and forced the Twis'rin to treat the other species in the galaxy as something like equals.

The Balorim were the heroes of the galaxy, and dozens of species which had previously feared the Twis'rin flocked towards the Balorim banner. But the Doggei and the Captab were not among them: their relations with the Balorim soon took a chillier turn. But, newly confident in their position as the galaxy's newest great power, the Balorim merely soldiered on: one war down, but who knew how many left to go?