Belmar
"The war solved no problem. Its effects, both immediate and indirect, were either negative or disastrous. Morally subversive, economically destructive, socially degrading, confused in its causes, devious in its course, futile in its result, it is the outstanding example... of meaningless conflict"
- C. V. Wegdwood
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Overview
Belmar is a generally pleasant and summery world in the Tyrolean Starzone with three inhabited continents separated by wide turquoise seas. It is largely controlled by the Belmarian Empire, a state that was established over a millennium ago by refugees fleeing out of the destruction of neighboring Tyrol shortly before the closure of the starways. Although blessed with a mild climate, Belmar has been devastated over the past fifty years by several cataclysmic wars and a lengthy period of military anarchy that have left the planet's population decimated and its environment deeply scarred. This long series of domestic troubles was followed by a number of ill-advised and ill-fated foreign campaigns launched shortly after the reopening of the starways by the then rump empire that nearly saw Belmar overtaken by triumphant rebel forces backed by off-world interests.
The destruction of the Belmarian Empire, which had reached the nadir of its fortunes, and the installment of a foreign puppet regime over Belmar as a whole was averted when following the death of the regent Fredrick II in 1004 and the ascension of King William III to the throne of the Royal Imperial stronghold of Carthinia-Pomerania. Rallying around their new and capable leader, the empire's armies were able to, with the aid of mercenary forces and a bit of luck, launch a counter attack and eventually overcome their weakened and increasingly disunited enemies completely. The occupation of the rebel capital and the exposure of collaboration between elements of the renegade Deldan Senate and foreign powers allowed for the signing of a peace settlement that for the first time in almost fifty years saw the whole of the empire at least nominally united again.
That is not to say that the Belmarian Empire that has emerged from the long crisis is nearly as centralized or as strong as the one that entered into it; The northern continent, which escaped the worst of the wars under the leadership of the self proclaimed independent city of Rehrersburg, won recognition in the peace settlement of its complete autonomy with only vague commitments to the notion of a unified planetary defense. In the west, the former rebel provinces united in the Republic of Deldan have once again been brought under the empire's flag and authority, but they have managed to retain for now no small amount of autonomy on a local level and the process of reunification will be a long one. In the east, much of the loyalist stronghold of Carthinia-Pomerania remains in ruins and the task of rebuilding its broken cities will take many more years.
But the Belmarian Empire is once again an empire, and not the broken and tired remnant of one it was when it entered into the thousandth year of the New Era. And for the first time since the death of Fredrick II's older brother, it has an emperor. In a solemn ceremony in the ancient capital of Mala Nedelja, King William III took up the long neglected Imperial Crown as Emperor Francis William IV. For now at least it appears that Belmar's further decline has been, if not reversed, at least for a time delayed.