The First Tevarin War was an intersystem conflict between the Tevarin and the United Planets of Earth (UPE). The Tevarin declared war with Humans in 2541, shortly after first contact. The motivations behind the war were complex; it was both a bid for the Tevarin to claim UPE-controlled territory to assuage their overpopulation problem and a consequence of the high cultural value the Tevarin as a people placed on combat. The war was responsible for countless advances in spacecraft technology. Ivar Messer, then an officer in the UPE Army, was propelled to power following the Battle of Idris IV, a key conflict in the First Tevarin War. The Tevarin were defeated in 2546.