Difference between revisions of "Deep Sky"

From Sphere
Jump to navigation Jump to search
m
Line 13: Line 13:
 
*Gunslinger
 
*Gunslinger
 
*Pilot
 
*Pilot
 +
 +
==History Blurb==
 +
===THE LEAGUE===
 +
 +
The League has its roots as a primarily merchantile organization, dating back five centuries to the First Charter signed between several of the largest states on Lusitania and the Princedom of Ophiussa.  Lusitania had already been a major trader for two centuries, its merchants fairly exploding out into space with the dispersion of the waystorms that had intermittently but commonly rendered star lanes impassible throughout the Eastern Branch.  Ophiussa was a relatively poor world, but one rich in natural resources and with a mild, agriculturally-friendly climate.  The economic ties between the two worlds became the axis around which the League revolved.
 +
 +
While the chaos of the Dusk Era was not in living memory, the cultural scars remained and the League was not a militant organization.  While there were certainly dangers aplenty in a galaxy still mired in a dark age and it was quite common for League merchant ships to be armed, the League proper preferred to avoid the use of force when possible.  Indeed, a nascent trade war between the League and Madeira was averted by treaty and the Second Charter, adding that world to the League.  In other cases, such as against pirates, the League used a small corps of professional and sometimes mercenary troops to score successes.
 +
 +
After somewhat more than a century of dynamic trading with various worlds across the Eastern Branch, the League faced its first significant military threat.  One of the collapsed Hyperborean realms was consumed by a power-seeking cult.  Using demon-summoning and other banned magics these former Hyperboreans now dubbed Iblisans launched themselves across space to raid the distant riches of the League with both magic and ship.  Something had to be done; the League was simply not set up to engage in major war, especially not on a wide front.
 +
 +
The solution was to prove both in line with the liberal ideals of the League and enduring over the centuries.  League ships had long carried arms for self-defense in the rougher parts of visited space and there was no particular shortage of skilled captains, veteran armsmen and learned magi, many of whom unfortunately had more skill then credit.  Monetary subsidies from the League's deep pockets in exchange for a period of military readiness and future callup gave the League a force of deep sky militia.  While against the Iblisans they did not perform as well as was hoped, they also did not perform as poorly as feared; the League continued to maintain a small force of professional troops but the militias became a cornerstone of military defense.
 +
 +
In the vernacular, Federal ships are those directly operated by the League proper, Nation ships are operated by the individual planetary or national government and Militia ships are those under private ownership but serving under League authority.  The former two are what is generally considered the "professional" military, but that said, it was not uncommon for militias to be equally professional.  This was particularly common during the four century when it became common for large merchant houses to have dedicated war-spec vessels doing continual militia service in lieu of their own merchant ships which were optimized for profit-making.
 +
 +
While the sky militias were a key military component in keeping the League's trade interests safe - and occasionally loyal - another major element to the League's long history of trade successes was their early partnership with the Vox.  While the Vox took some pains to maintain neutrality, it is undeniable that the long-range communication ability of the Vox played a great part in tying the League's merchant empire together while the volume of League message traffic gave the Vox a bedrock to build upon.  By the second century of the League's existence, the Vox held extraterritories on almost all worlds touched by the League, tying them together with a network of astral communication.
 +
 +
In addition to the continual if intermittent problems with Iblisan raiders, the late second and early third century of the League saw several other crisis of note.  The Particular Six plot was internal and the gravest political threat the League had suffered since its founding.  A series of scuffles along the nebulous border with Viteliu saw a number of ship losses both federal and militia until several treaties were signed and in later years the League and Viteliu became significant trade partners then, over the centuries, friends and allies.
 +
 +
Iblisan raids were an intermittent problem for two centuries, but were pushed into irrelevance not by the League, but by the expanding Rigairyan Empire.  The southern empire was fueled by a sense of manifest destiny to reconnect the lost Rutasan worlds.  This paradoxically meant they were both aggressive in taking what they felt was rightfully theirs but were not interested - officially - in conquest simply for the sake of conquest.  Abutting Iblisan space, their series of wars and eventual victory against the Iblisan warlords gave the League a half-century respite from significant organized military actions.  This state of affairs was ultimately not to last as the Rigairyan Empire itself expanded towards the League, laying claim to various intervening systems.
 +
 +
The Rigairyan Empire was quite willing to sign various border treaties, but unfortunately their government was a complicated organization of sub-units; principalities, duchies, counties, Free Imperial Cities and other domains, each of which with their own militaries and ambitions.  The central government only had so much ability to reign them in and so long the various principalities didn't make too many waves in the process, was willing to turn a blind eye to most cross-border pinprick reaving.  This reached its epitome in the Gunsar War, a three-year border conflict that eventually saw the Rigairyan Empire's imperial government step in and force an end to the spiralling conflict.
 +
 +
While the Rigairyan Empire was never considered a truly good neighbor - and with reason - they were also interested in cross-border trade which could be quite lucrative.  In fact, it was not uncommon for different principalities to trade across the border at different times and sometimes even working to sabotage each other.  It has never been proven, but it is generally accepted wisdom that the Rigairyan Empire's imperial government allowed this to keep the various border statelets busy with each other as opposed to unifying into a potential alternate political center.  It is by the grace of the Hidden Gods that long association had quieted the Rigairyan border when the greatest threat that the League has faced began to manifest itself: the Khanate.
 +
 +
Like many other successful empires the Khanate was expansionistic, moving into the power vaccum of surrounding hinterspace.  What set the Khanate apart was that it was all but alone in having (re)discovered an ability to open Godspaths.  Having used this intermittently to bypass cumbersome star lane junctions and waystorms, the Khanate eventually found itself with a direct route to the immediate League border.  It did not take long for tensions to explode into conflict, the first of several on the border.
 +
 +
A history of the Khanate Wars would (and has) filled many volumes.  In briefest, the League proved unexpectedly resilient and, once a generation or so, proved this against Khanate aggression.  The League was not always the hapless defender though, in two instances conflicts started by militia ships crossing the border and attacking Khanate targets.  Most of these wars were short, as one historian put it, "mostly so the Khanate could show to itself that the League still could not be easily defeated on the field of battle".  The periods of peace - interbellum periods, really - were longer than those of open conflict, but were still marked by the occasional border scuffle, baiting and proxy struggle.
 +
 +
This situation changed for the worse in the Seventh War.  While most of the wars to date were relatively inconclusive affairs, the the Seventh War dragged on for several years and ended with a bang; the Falco Offensive.  This massive push by carefully-hoarded federal warships pushed deep into Khanate space and threatened several important worlds.  Faced with unexpected military reversals and disorganized defenses, the Khanate sued for peace.  Cognicent of their own limits, the League halted in place in what became known as the Falco Ceasefire.
 +
 +
Later historians have generally cast the Falco Ceasefire as the great missed opportunity.  With the Khaganate thrown back and in a position of vulnerability after the Falco Offensive, it may have been possible to extract an honorable and/or durable peace.  Unfortunately, several smaller League states were determined to extract their 'pound of flesh' and pushed for a hardline position, something that the leaders of Santo Ouro were willing to accomodate in their triumphalist warmth of victory.  This resulted in slow and unserious peace efforts with excessive demands tabled and continual breakdowns, though with no outright return to shooting conflict.
 +
 +
What truly killed the peace though and doomed both powers to another generation of industrialized war was the covert support by the League for the Rouans, a Khanate dominion that was becoming increasingly at odds with the central government.  The Rouans eventually tried to seize power in the Khanate, influenced by League agent provocateurs and supported by League money and intelligence.  With much of its military spread across the border to protect against a potential renewed attack by the League, the Khanate only had so much resources to deploy against the uprising.  Scratch squadrons were formed up from individual ships pulled out of all corners of the empire and the skirmishing continued for most of a year.  The Rouan fleet was eventually defeated by newly-formed squadrons of Khanate dragonships at the Battle of Chuluut.  With their internal borders secured and with evidence of League perfidy, after a short period to consolidate their fleets and territories the Khanate tore up the ceasefire and began a heavy assault on the occupied zone.  The next decade would be the Eighth War.
 +
 +
By the end of the war - three decades long with less than a decade of peace interspersed, a situation without precedent in the League's five century history - many of the internal boundaries in the League had been weakened or washed away.  More than one small state was ultimately absorbed into Santo Ouro, sometimes before they were even liberated.  Many others took their politicial cues from Santo Ouro, becoming de facto satellite states.  A minority maintained more independent policies, but ultimately the peace was shaky and long bonds of amity meant that any differences tended to be relatively limited.
 +
 +
The long war had normalized many traits that were to be less than salutory in the fresh peacetime environment.  While the League states were still (generally) democratic, it was many elections since anyone who wasn't a ranking officer or technocratic industrialist had been elected to high positions.  Legislative assemblies had become rubberstamp institutions for the plans cooked up by the military-industrial complex powerbrokers.  Entire generations had grown up and come to age when the military was preeminent and uniforms had become ubiquitous across all sectors of society.  Civil liberties were curtailed due to the demands of secrecy and warfighting.  It would be wrong to say that there was malice or even a deliberate choice, but many of the League's democracies had become somewhat illiberal democracies in practice even as they loudly proclaimed otherwise.  Social pressure to conform saw to that.
 +
 +
On objective analysis, postwar Santo Ouro (and most other League governments) had become fundamentally corrupt and undemocratic, essentially turning into 'managed democracies' as the engrained habits of a wartime democracy continued - few voters even remembered a time before the war when talk was looser and control less stringent.  A war record - and often an [i]impressive[/i] war record - was all but required for high officials in both government and business and the latter had long been operating hand-in-glove with the military.  The postwar drawdown had dealt a huge blow to many industries dedicated to making arms and huge fortunes were made as the quickest or best-connected snapped potential competitors up for peanuts.  Unofficial backroom channels were the main channels of power as many of the relationships forged while in uniform endured even after the uniforms were retired.
 +
 +
The post-war situation the League finds itself in with its Khanate enemy slow-walking into a warring states period is, surficially, one of local preeminance.  Unfortunately, this is a structure built on sand.  For example:
 +
* Viteliu is under threat by the Duilio Fleet.
 +
* Khanate occupation zones are restless.
 +
* The Rigairyan Empire has reconsolidated itself after several generations of relatively weak central governance and general malaise.
 +
* Profitable long range League trade through the Godspath to the Northern Leaf has been supplanted by local Northern Leaf powers.
 +
 +
All of these problems both domestic and foreign are masked by the genial post-war glow and relatively tame public politics that are more about consensus and a unified front than a heated oppositional style.  Continuity and stability was the zeitgeist in the public sphere and, as they say, a rising tide lifts all boats.  A few voices have been raised against the lack of truly effective democracy in the League, but most citizens are simply content with getting on with the business of not being at war.  It is an open question how long this will last though; will this be the League's new golden age as the peace dividend pays off or will it get mired in corruption and stasis?
 +
 
 +
===SKY MILITIAS===
 +
 +
The Sky Militias are one of the defining institutions of the League, having existed in one form of another since soon after the Second Charter was signed, four centuries ago.  As mentioned, the sky militias are civilian ships (IOW, freighters and other merchant shipping) built with government financing.  In return for this, they include various features of use for combat such as reinforced hull structures for fitting armor and weapons, robust or redundant power conduits and engine rooms that can be expanded.  The crew and/or owners are also registered, typically serving a period primary call-up for seven years and secondary call-up for a further fourteen.  Some extend this even longer, taking a stipend to continue on the reserve rolls.  Other minor (or not so minor) benefits accrue to members of the sky militia to further incentivize it, such as preferential docking and regulatory access.
 +
 +
While the sky militia ships are not equal to a dedicated and purpose-built warship, this is not seen as critical.  They can be used to bolster federal/national warships or take their place in lower-priority sectors.  Plus, from a budgetary perspective they are only a modest individual outlay and are revenue sources during peacetime.  And it must be remembered, there are a lot of them.
 +
 +
In addition to the combatant power of the militia ships, they provide a large pool of spacemen who have gotten at least the basics weapons handling, damage control and other vital skills.  This provides a ready reserve and skill nucleus for wartime expansion.  More than one captain has brought his entire crew to leap into action in a newly-commissioned raider for fame and prize money.  As a less-publicized side to this, the implicit threat that a posse of League Freeships is but a couple days of hard work in a pirate port away from bombarding an uppity's potentate's palace has contributed to a measure of stability and safety for League merchants in hinterspace.
 +
 +
Of course, freely arming tens of thousands of merchant crews with the skills (and more than occasionally the weapons) to wage their own private wars is not without consequence.  While there is a long-standing understanding that Leaguemen do not battle Leaguemen - that just cuts profits for everyone - this is not nearly so understood when it comes to non-Leaguers.  While no notable atrocities have occured within living memory, in the aftermath of the Khanate War there is an all-time number of militiaships plying the starways, all full of battle-hardened men and all in pursuit of profit.
 +
 +
===VITELIU===
 +
 +
An ancient empire though one substantially diminished even before the start of the Great War, Viteliu has long been on the League's border with a mutual relationship that can be characterized as "friendly neutrality".  The expansion of the Khanate also brought into mutual contact and unlike that with the League, Viteliu and the Khanate managed decent relations and stable borders.  However as the seventh war began to drag out and expand, a secret pact was signed between the League and Viteliu by the pro-League Imperator Alfonso II.  This saw the exchange of intelligence and then, four years into the grinding conflict with the Khanate, the unexpected entry of Viteliu into the war on the side of the League.
 +
 +
While the Khanate was aware of the pro-League drift of Viteliu, until the declaration of war they (and it must be said, most Vitelans) they were seen as an armed neutral who continued to trade with both sides in the conflict and intermittently even tried to broker a ceasefire.  As such the Vitelan border was relatively lightly defended and primarily used as a rest and refit area.  The sudden transit of multiple League numbered fleets through what was until then a non-belligerent territory took the Khagante by the surprise; the Falco Offense smashed deeply into the Khanate, hastily assembled front-line forces stiffening the barely prepared second-line and recovering forces.  The loss of significant territory forced them to the bargaining table and a ceasefire was called.  This lasted for six years, during which time no durable peace was reached.  See the entry on FALCO CEASEFIRE.  While there was a not-insignificant amount of questioning regarding throwing away their traditional neutrality and relationship with the Khanate, the acquisition of several Khanate border provinces by the Vitelan flag was a salve and 'proof' of the power of Viteliu.
 +
 +
The re-ignition of the war saw the Viteliu front come to preeminence.  While hardly a weak force, the Viteliu fleets were spread thinly over the territories captured during the Falco Offense nominally ceded to them and even with additional warships from the other League powers supporting them they could not properly defend the massive bubble of captured territory against a renewed Khanate assault.  Within a year the front line had collaped back to the pre-Falco borders, the Viteliu fleet having suffered not-inconsiderable losses in the process.  At that point the offense stalled, but only long enough for fresh forces to be brought up on both sides - and over the next six years the Khanate pushed forward and seized much of Viteliu, including the capital.  For the remaining years of the Eighth War, the Viteliu forces were almost always on the defensive, grimly struggling to simply hold their remaining systems against Viteliu pushes.  The few successful offenses were matched by retreats and steadily they were ground down into a client state of Santo Ouro.
 +
 +
The Second Ceasefire was not much more than a respite for Viteliu.  With both the League and Khanate facing internal problems and war fatigue Viteliu was no longer under immediate threat, but the reduction in aid from the League states also meant that their economy could not meaningfully recover from its wartime tatters.  Populist movements grew strong and while there was nothing as extreme as an overthrowing of the Imperator, his control over the state was progressively sidelined by the military.  With the mutual collapse of the second ceasefire the Great War entered its third and deadliest phase.
 +
 +
By the Ninth War Period, the demands on Viteliu had caused the draft net to be spread so widely that many women were not just enlisted into combat positions, but even began to hold combat officer ranks - something otherwise unknown in the various League forces.  Vitelan armed resistance continued to be heavily subsidized by League resources, though with the main locus of the war being elsewhere this half-decade was marked mostly by smaller scale back-and-forth and attempts to gain local advantages as opposed to the massive fleet engagements happening elsewhere.  Several mid-sized campaigns were mounted over the years, but the only major campaign was the offense led by Admiral Duilio, an operation undertaken almost entirely with husbanded Vitelan assets.  This turned out to be one of the last offensive efforts of the war, and came very close to liberating the Vitelan capital worlds only to be brought short by the sudden ceasefire between the Khanate and the League as the Ilkhan was slain on the bridge of his dragonship while observing a battle while the Duilio offensive was recouperating for its final push.
 +
 +
While this ceasefire brought an end to the fighting, the situation was fundamentally unstable on the Vitelan front.  Despite the destruction done by both sides during Duilio's offense, neither side had managed to get an enduring military advantage and the massive sacrifices undertaken in the total war stance of the final phase of the war had dropped domestic stability and military morale to rock-bottom levels.  Having fought almost to their symbolic victory and then with backing from their allies removed as both armed blocs froze in place, the Vitelan fleet under Admiral Duilio found itself suddenly facing two unpalatable choices; carry on and essentially abrogate the shaky ceasefire when it came to Viteliu or return home to the rump Viteliu state.  It was believed that Duilio would accept the order to do the latter.
 +
 +
It is widely rumored that the reason Duilio chose this extreme path was a deep and abiding antipathy between him and Prime Minister Mazeri, with who Duilio had sparred publically for several years.  Many believe that the admiral was going to be swiftly removed from any position of power to ensure that a popular war hero would not cause problems for the PM.  From private interviews, Duilio even admits that he considered calling for a march on the new capital and only the existence of a large League defense force that was sure to come to the aid of the 'legitimate' government stayed his hand from a civil war.  Instead, he ejected the League soldiers from his fleet and took his fleet - and much of the rest of the Viteliu military, which followed his calls for 'all true Viteliu patriots' - and vanished into the purlieu on the edge of wild space.  To this day, Viteliu has been unable or unwilling to muster the forces to bring the rogue admiral to heel.
 +
 
 +
===THE KHANATE===
 +
 +
The Khanate has its origins in the discovery of a Hyperborean relic by the inhabitants of a former slave world.  Unlocking even the most basic of its functions took a century, but both the relic's power and the various technomagical advancements that came of the long research were more than worth it.  Deep in hinterspace the proto-Khanate had nothing but room to expand, and expand it did.
 +
 +
After the initial wave of local conquests that solidified its position in the solar system of Xia, the young Khanate began to expand, eventually adopting the strategy of assimilation that served it well for the subsequent centuries.  This generally followed the model of nibbling away at the edges then demonstrating overwhelming force, finally followed by selecting a client group who would be elevated to the status of 'Khans' and treated as if they were true-blooded Khanates.  Others not of this group were encouraged both subtly and overtly to adopt Khanate culture.  This, however, was not a one-way street, and the Khanate showed surprising flexibility in likewise diffusing conquered cultures, in essence 'flavoring' the original Xian culture.
 +
 +
Bonds between the Khanate and their new additions were further cemented by military actions against enemies on behalf of the new fiefs.  A popular strategy was to turn the warmaking abilities and troops of the most recent conquest against the next one, conveniently dealing with the problems of demobilizing the wartime force of a newly-conquered realm.  This gave the Khanate a reputation for 'barbarism', particularly in more distant locales that had contact only with the border troops.
 +
 +
Both the League and Khanate were aware of each other long before they rubbed up against one another, but distance and general lack of reliable communication meant that both sides misestimated the other.  This played directly into the eventual wars, as the Khanate arrogantly thought that the League was just a larger version of the 'barbarian' kingdoms it had taken over the preceeding centuries, one made of merchants that would collapse in a real fight.  Unfortunately for the Khanate, this was not to be.
 +
 +
The death of the Ilkhan at the BATTLE OF PLACE was an unexpected blow to the Khanate, throwing the imperial government into turmoil.  A relatively young man, the Ilkhan still sought to burnish his position and encourage his troops by being near the front lines.  It was misfortune that saw a heavy League raiding force slip into what was thought to be a secure system and further misfortune that saw the dragonship Tai Wang take a plasma torpedo into its upper decks.  The Ilkhan was merely one of more than a dozen VIPs slain in the attack.
 +
 +
Less difficult times would have likely seen the Khanate forge through the sudden upset, but the long war had strained various long-hidden faultlines.  Power abhors a vaccum and ambitious Khans stepped in where the imperial government was paralysed.  Two years after the death of the Ilkhan, the imperial court removed itself from the ancient capital of Xia, precipitating a further collapse in Khanate central power.  It is an open question how long it will take before an ambitious lord moves against another.
  
 
==Other Stuffs==
 
==Other Stuffs==
 
[[Haydee Chronicles]]
 
[[Haydee Chronicles]]

Revision as of 19:15, 2 March 2017

Overview

You are the (important) crew of a Freeship (which the PCs can name), off having Traveller-esque misadventures.

Characters

Brief description here so I can start filling in relevant bits of rules.
Any personal giga-elements (civilian-grade mecha for fighting monsters, small fighters, magic, etc) should be mentioned.

100thlurker

Whaler-and/or-monster-hunter, aesthetic as yet indeterminate.

  • Dinghy/smallcraft
  • Lackeys
  • Chocobo?!!!

Desolation Williams

  • Gunslinger
  • Pilot

History Blurb

THE LEAGUE

The League has its roots as a primarily merchantile organization, dating back five centuries to the First Charter signed between several of the largest states on Lusitania and the Princedom of Ophiussa. Lusitania had already been a major trader for two centuries, its merchants fairly exploding out into space with the dispersion of the waystorms that had intermittently but commonly rendered star lanes impassible throughout the Eastern Branch. Ophiussa was a relatively poor world, but one rich in natural resources and with a mild, agriculturally-friendly climate. The economic ties between the two worlds became the axis around which the League revolved.

While the chaos of the Dusk Era was not in living memory, the cultural scars remained and the League was not a militant organization. While there were certainly dangers aplenty in a galaxy still mired in a dark age and it was quite common for League merchant ships to be armed, the League proper preferred to avoid the use of force when possible. Indeed, a nascent trade war between the League and Madeira was averted by treaty and the Second Charter, adding that world to the League. In other cases, such as against pirates, the League used a small corps of professional and sometimes mercenary troops to score successes.

After somewhat more than a century of dynamic trading with various worlds across the Eastern Branch, the League faced its first significant military threat. One of the collapsed Hyperborean realms was consumed by a power-seeking cult. Using demon-summoning and other banned magics these former Hyperboreans now dubbed Iblisans launched themselves across space to raid the distant riches of the League with both magic and ship. Something had to be done; the League was simply not set up to engage in major war, especially not on a wide front.

The solution was to prove both in line with the liberal ideals of the League and enduring over the centuries. League ships had long carried arms for self-defense in the rougher parts of visited space and there was no particular shortage of skilled captains, veteran armsmen and learned magi, many of whom unfortunately had more skill then credit. Monetary subsidies from the League's deep pockets in exchange for a period of military readiness and future callup gave the League a force of deep sky militia. While against the Iblisans they did not perform as well as was hoped, they also did not perform as poorly as feared; the League continued to maintain a small force of professional troops but the militias became a cornerstone of military defense.

In the vernacular, Federal ships are those directly operated by the League proper, Nation ships are operated by the individual planetary or national government and Militia ships are those under private ownership but serving under League authority. The former two are what is generally considered the "professional" military, but that said, it was not uncommon for militias to be equally professional. This was particularly common during the four century when it became common for large merchant houses to have dedicated war-spec vessels doing continual militia service in lieu of their own merchant ships which were optimized for profit-making.

While the sky militias were a key military component in keeping the League's trade interests safe - and occasionally loyal - another major element to the League's long history of trade successes was their early partnership with the Vox. While the Vox took some pains to maintain neutrality, it is undeniable that the long-range communication ability of the Vox played a great part in tying the League's merchant empire together while the volume of League message traffic gave the Vox a bedrock to build upon. By the second century of the League's existence, the Vox held extraterritories on almost all worlds touched by the League, tying them together with a network of astral communication.

In addition to the continual if intermittent problems with Iblisan raiders, the late second and early third century of the League saw several other crisis of note. The Particular Six plot was internal and the gravest political threat the League had suffered since its founding. A series of scuffles along the nebulous border with Viteliu saw a number of ship losses both federal and militia until several treaties were signed and in later years the League and Viteliu became significant trade partners then, over the centuries, friends and allies.

Iblisan raids were an intermittent problem for two centuries, but were pushed into irrelevance not by the League, but by the expanding Rigairyan Empire. The southern empire was fueled by a sense of manifest destiny to reconnect the lost Rutasan worlds. This paradoxically meant they were both aggressive in taking what they felt was rightfully theirs but were not interested - officially - in conquest simply for the sake of conquest. Abutting Iblisan space, their series of wars and eventual victory against the Iblisan warlords gave the League a half-century respite from significant organized military actions. This state of affairs was ultimately not to last as the Rigairyan Empire itself expanded towards the League, laying claim to various intervening systems.

The Rigairyan Empire was quite willing to sign various border treaties, but unfortunately their government was a complicated organization of sub-units; principalities, duchies, counties, Free Imperial Cities and other domains, each of which with their own militaries and ambitions. The central government only had so much ability to reign them in and so long the various principalities didn't make too many waves in the process, was willing to turn a blind eye to most cross-border pinprick reaving. This reached its epitome in the Gunsar War, a three-year border conflict that eventually saw the Rigairyan Empire's imperial government step in and force an end to the spiralling conflict.

While the Rigairyan Empire was never considered a truly good neighbor - and with reason - they were also interested in cross-border trade which could be quite lucrative. In fact, it was not uncommon for different principalities to trade across the border at different times and sometimes even working to sabotage each other. It has never been proven, but it is generally accepted wisdom that the Rigairyan Empire's imperial government allowed this to keep the various border statelets busy with each other as opposed to unifying into a potential alternate political center. It is by the grace of the Hidden Gods that long association had quieted the Rigairyan border when the greatest threat that the League has faced began to manifest itself: the Khanate.

Like many other successful empires the Khanate was expansionistic, moving into the power vaccum of surrounding hinterspace. What set the Khanate apart was that it was all but alone in having (re)discovered an ability to open Godspaths. Having used this intermittently to bypass cumbersome star lane junctions and waystorms, the Khanate eventually found itself with a direct route to the immediate League border. It did not take long for tensions to explode into conflict, the first of several on the border.

A history of the Khanate Wars would (and has) filled many volumes. In briefest, the League proved unexpectedly resilient and, once a generation or so, proved this against Khanate aggression. The League was not always the hapless defender though, in two instances conflicts started by militia ships crossing the border and attacking Khanate targets. Most of these wars were short, as one historian put it, "mostly so the Khanate could show to itself that the League still could not be easily defeated on the field of battle". The periods of peace - interbellum periods, really - were longer than those of open conflict, but were still marked by the occasional border scuffle, baiting and proxy struggle.

This situation changed for the worse in the Seventh War. While most of the wars to date were relatively inconclusive affairs, the the Seventh War dragged on for several years and ended with a bang; the Falco Offensive. This massive push by carefully-hoarded federal warships pushed deep into Khanate space and threatened several important worlds. Faced with unexpected military reversals and disorganized defenses, the Khanate sued for peace. Cognicent of their own limits, the League halted in place in what became known as the Falco Ceasefire.

Later historians have generally cast the Falco Ceasefire as the great missed opportunity. With the Khaganate thrown back and in a position of vulnerability after the Falco Offensive, it may have been possible to extract an honorable and/or durable peace. Unfortunately, several smaller League states were determined to extract their 'pound of flesh' and pushed for a hardline position, something that the leaders of Santo Ouro were willing to accomodate in their triumphalist warmth of victory. This resulted in slow and unserious peace efforts with excessive demands tabled and continual breakdowns, though with no outright return to shooting conflict.

What truly killed the peace though and doomed both powers to another generation of industrialized war was the covert support by the League for the Rouans, a Khanate dominion that was becoming increasingly at odds with the central government. The Rouans eventually tried to seize power in the Khanate, influenced by League agent provocateurs and supported by League money and intelligence. With much of its military spread across the border to protect against a potential renewed attack by the League, the Khanate only had so much resources to deploy against the uprising. Scratch squadrons were formed up from individual ships pulled out of all corners of the empire and the skirmishing continued for most of a year. The Rouan fleet was eventually defeated by newly-formed squadrons of Khanate dragonships at the Battle of Chuluut. With their internal borders secured and with evidence of League perfidy, after a short period to consolidate their fleets and territories the Khanate tore up the ceasefire and began a heavy assault on the occupied zone. The next decade would be the Eighth War.

By the end of the war - three decades long with less than a decade of peace interspersed, a situation without precedent in the League's five century history - many of the internal boundaries in the League had been weakened or washed away. More than one small state was ultimately absorbed into Santo Ouro, sometimes before they were even liberated. Many others took their politicial cues from Santo Ouro, becoming de facto satellite states. A minority maintained more independent policies, but ultimately the peace was shaky and long bonds of amity meant that any differences tended to be relatively limited.

The long war had normalized many traits that were to be less than salutory in the fresh peacetime environment. While the League states were still (generally) democratic, it was many elections since anyone who wasn't a ranking officer or technocratic industrialist had been elected to high positions. Legislative assemblies had become rubberstamp institutions for the plans cooked up by the military-industrial complex powerbrokers. Entire generations had grown up and come to age when the military was preeminent and uniforms had become ubiquitous across all sectors of society. Civil liberties were curtailed due to the demands of secrecy and warfighting. It would be wrong to say that there was malice or even a deliberate choice, but many of the League's democracies had become somewhat illiberal democracies in practice even as they loudly proclaimed otherwise. Social pressure to conform saw to that.

On objective analysis, postwar Santo Ouro (and most other League governments) had become fundamentally corrupt and undemocratic, essentially turning into 'managed democracies' as the engrained habits of a wartime democracy continued - few voters even remembered a time before the war when talk was looser and control less stringent. A war record - and often an [i]impressive[/i] war record - was all but required for high officials in both government and business and the latter had long been operating hand-in-glove with the military. The postwar drawdown had dealt a huge blow to many industries dedicated to making arms and huge fortunes were made as the quickest or best-connected snapped potential competitors up for peanuts. Unofficial backroom channels were the main channels of power as many of the relationships forged while in uniform endured even after the uniforms were retired.

The post-war situation the League finds itself in with its Khanate enemy slow-walking into a warring states period is, surficially, one of local preeminance. Unfortunately, this is a structure built on sand. For example:

  • Viteliu is under threat by the Duilio Fleet.
  • Khanate occupation zones are restless.
  • The Rigairyan Empire has reconsolidated itself after several generations of relatively weak central governance and general malaise.
  • Profitable long range League trade through the Godspath to the Northern Leaf has been supplanted by local Northern Leaf powers.

All of these problems both domestic and foreign are masked by the genial post-war glow and relatively tame public politics that are more about consensus and a unified front than a heated oppositional style. Continuity and stability was the zeitgeist in the public sphere and, as they say, a rising tide lifts all boats. A few voices have been raised against the lack of truly effective democracy in the League, but most citizens are simply content with getting on with the business of not being at war. It is an open question how long this will last though; will this be the League's new golden age as the peace dividend pays off or will it get mired in corruption and stasis?

SKY MILITIAS

The Sky Militias are one of the defining institutions of the League, having existed in one form of another since soon after the Second Charter was signed, four centuries ago. As mentioned, the sky militias are civilian ships (IOW, freighters and other merchant shipping) built with government financing. In return for this, they include various features of use for combat such as reinforced hull structures for fitting armor and weapons, robust or redundant power conduits and engine rooms that can be expanded. The crew and/or owners are also registered, typically serving a period primary call-up for seven years and secondary call-up for a further fourteen. Some extend this even longer, taking a stipend to continue on the reserve rolls. Other minor (or not so minor) benefits accrue to members of the sky militia to further incentivize it, such as preferential docking and regulatory access.

While the sky militia ships are not equal to a dedicated and purpose-built warship, this is not seen as critical. They can be used to bolster federal/national warships or take their place in lower-priority sectors. Plus, from a budgetary perspective they are only a modest individual outlay and are revenue sources during peacetime. And it must be remembered, there are a lot of them.

In addition to the combatant power of the militia ships, they provide a large pool of spacemen who have gotten at least the basics weapons handling, damage control and other vital skills. This provides a ready reserve and skill nucleus for wartime expansion. More than one captain has brought his entire crew to leap into action in a newly-commissioned raider for fame and prize money. As a less-publicized side to this, the implicit threat that a posse of League Freeships is but a couple days of hard work in a pirate port away from bombarding an uppity's potentate's palace has contributed to a measure of stability and safety for League merchants in hinterspace.

Of course, freely arming tens of thousands of merchant crews with the skills (and more than occasionally the weapons) to wage their own private wars is not without consequence. While there is a long-standing understanding that Leaguemen do not battle Leaguemen - that just cuts profits for everyone - this is not nearly so understood when it comes to non-Leaguers. While no notable atrocities have occured within living memory, in the aftermath of the Khanate War there is an all-time number of militiaships plying the starways, all full of battle-hardened men and all in pursuit of profit.

VITELIU

An ancient empire though one substantially diminished even before the start of the Great War, Viteliu has long been on the League's border with a mutual relationship that can be characterized as "friendly neutrality". The expansion of the Khanate also brought into mutual contact and unlike that with the League, Viteliu and the Khanate managed decent relations and stable borders. However as the seventh war began to drag out and expand, a secret pact was signed between the League and Viteliu by the pro-League Imperator Alfonso II. This saw the exchange of intelligence and then, four years into the grinding conflict with the Khanate, the unexpected entry of Viteliu into the war on the side of the League.

While the Khanate was aware of the pro-League drift of Viteliu, until the declaration of war they (and it must be said, most Vitelans) they were seen as an armed neutral who continued to trade with both sides in the conflict and intermittently even tried to broker a ceasefire. As such the Vitelan border was relatively lightly defended and primarily used as a rest and refit area. The sudden transit of multiple League numbered fleets through what was until then a non-belligerent territory took the Khagante by the surprise; the Falco Offense smashed deeply into the Khanate, hastily assembled front-line forces stiffening the barely prepared second-line and recovering forces. The loss of significant territory forced them to the bargaining table and a ceasefire was called. This lasted for six years, during which time no durable peace was reached. See the entry on FALCO CEASEFIRE. While there was a not-insignificant amount of questioning regarding throwing away their traditional neutrality and relationship with the Khanate, the acquisition of several Khanate border provinces by the Vitelan flag was a salve and 'proof' of the power of Viteliu.

The re-ignition of the war saw the Viteliu front come to preeminence. While hardly a weak force, the Viteliu fleets were spread thinly over the territories captured during the Falco Offense nominally ceded to them and even with additional warships from the other League powers supporting them they could not properly defend the massive bubble of captured territory against a renewed Khanate assault. Within a year the front line had collaped back to the pre-Falco borders, the Viteliu fleet having suffered not-inconsiderable losses in the process. At that point the offense stalled, but only long enough for fresh forces to be brought up on both sides - and over the next six years the Khanate pushed forward and seized much of Viteliu, including the capital. For the remaining years of the Eighth War, the Viteliu forces were almost always on the defensive, grimly struggling to simply hold their remaining systems against Viteliu pushes. The few successful offenses were matched by retreats and steadily they were ground down into a client state of Santo Ouro.

The Second Ceasefire was not much more than a respite for Viteliu. With both the League and Khanate facing internal problems and war fatigue Viteliu was no longer under immediate threat, but the reduction in aid from the League states also meant that their economy could not meaningfully recover from its wartime tatters. Populist movements grew strong and while there was nothing as extreme as an overthrowing of the Imperator, his control over the state was progressively sidelined by the military. With the mutual collapse of the second ceasefire the Great War entered its third and deadliest phase.

By the Ninth War Period, the demands on Viteliu had caused the draft net to be spread so widely that many women were not just enlisted into combat positions, but even began to hold combat officer ranks - something otherwise unknown in the various League forces. Vitelan armed resistance continued to be heavily subsidized by League resources, though with the main locus of the war being elsewhere this half-decade was marked mostly by smaller scale back-and-forth and attempts to gain local advantages as opposed to the massive fleet engagements happening elsewhere. Several mid-sized campaigns were mounted over the years, but the only major campaign was the offense led by Admiral Duilio, an operation undertaken almost entirely with husbanded Vitelan assets. This turned out to be one of the last offensive efforts of the war, and came very close to liberating the Vitelan capital worlds only to be brought short by the sudden ceasefire between the Khanate and the League as the Ilkhan was slain on the bridge of his dragonship while observing a battle while the Duilio offensive was recouperating for its final push.

While this ceasefire brought an end to the fighting, the situation was fundamentally unstable on the Vitelan front. Despite the destruction done by both sides during Duilio's offense, neither side had managed to get an enduring military advantage and the massive sacrifices undertaken in the total war stance of the final phase of the war had dropped domestic stability and military morale to rock-bottom levels. Having fought almost to their symbolic victory and then with backing from their allies removed as both armed blocs froze in place, the Vitelan fleet under Admiral Duilio found itself suddenly facing two unpalatable choices; carry on and essentially abrogate the shaky ceasefire when it came to Viteliu or return home to the rump Viteliu state. It was believed that Duilio would accept the order to do the latter.

It is widely rumored that the reason Duilio chose this extreme path was a deep and abiding antipathy between him and Prime Minister Mazeri, with who Duilio had sparred publically for several years. Many believe that the admiral was going to be swiftly removed from any position of power to ensure that a popular war hero would not cause problems for the PM. From private interviews, Duilio even admits that he considered calling for a march on the new capital and only the existence of a large League defense force that was sure to come to the aid of the 'legitimate' government stayed his hand from a civil war. Instead, he ejected the League soldiers from his fleet and took his fleet - and much of the rest of the Viteliu military, which followed his calls for 'all true Viteliu patriots' - and vanished into the purlieu on the edge of wild space. To this day, Viteliu has been unable or unwilling to muster the forces to bring the rogue admiral to heel.

THE KHANATE

The Khanate has its origins in the discovery of a Hyperborean relic by the inhabitants of a former slave world. Unlocking even the most basic of its functions took a century, but both the relic's power and the various technomagical advancements that came of the long research were more than worth it. Deep in hinterspace the proto-Khanate had nothing but room to expand, and expand it did.

After the initial wave of local conquests that solidified its position in the solar system of Xia, the young Khanate began to expand, eventually adopting the strategy of assimilation that served it well for the subsequent centuries. This generally followed the model of nibbling away at the edges then demonstrating overwhelming force, finally followed by selecting a client group who would be elevated to the status of 'Khans' and treated as if they were true-blooded Khanates. Others not of this group were encouraged both subtly and overtly to adopt Khanate culture. This, however, was not a one-way street, and the Khanate showed surprising flexibility in likewise diffusing conquered cultures, in essence 'flavoring' the original Xian culture.

Bonds between the Khanate and their new additions were further cemented by military actions against enemies on behalf of the new fiefs. A popular strategy was to turn the warmaking abilities and troops of the most recent conquest against the next one, conveniently dealing with the problems of demobilizing the wartime force of a newly-conquered realm. This gave the Khanate a reputation for 'barbarism', particularly in more distant locales that had contact only with the border troops.

Both the League and Khanate were aware of each other long before they rubbed up against one another, but distance and general lack of reliable communication meant that both sides misestimated the other. This played directly into the eventual wars, as the Khanate arrogantly thought that the League was just a larger version of the 'barbarian' kingdoms it had taken over the preceeding centuries, one made of merchants that would collapse in a real fight. Unfortunately for the Khanate, this was not to be.

The death of the Ilkhan at the BATTLE OF PLACE was an unexpected blow to the Khanate, throwing the imperial government into turmoil. A relatively young man, the Ilkhan still sought to burnish his position and encourage his troops by being near the front lines. It was misfortune that saw a heavy League raiding force slip into what was thought to be a secure system and further misfortune that saw the dragonship Tai Wang take a plasma torpedo into its upper decks. The Ilkhan was merely one of more than a dozen VIPs slain in the attack.

Less difficult times would have likely seen the Khanate forge through the sudden upset, but the long war had strained various long-hidden faultlines. Power abhors a vaccum and ambitious Khans stepped in where the imperial government was paralysed. Two years after the death of the Ilkhan, the imperial court removed itself from the ancient capital of Xia, precipitating a further collapse in Khanate central power. It is an open question how long it will take before an ambitious lord moves against another.

Other Stuffs

Haydee Chronicles

Retrieved from "https://swiki.fancruft.com/index.php?title=Deep_Sky&oldid=63380"