War Canto - Earth Hegemony
A long series of unfortunate events
Last time we discussed the origins of the Earth Authority out of the clashing of Geoeconomic blocks of the Second Cold War. This next War Canto will be how the Authority fell into internal strife and was transformed by ambitious, shrewd, and virtuous men into the Earth Hegemony, as a consequence of Earth’s victory over the Siru Zirka, the Great and Bountiful Dynasty of the Zhan; parasite worms pretending to be gods stealing faith and sensual pleasure from the possessed bodies of men. The Zhan Star Dynasty fell apart into bloody civil in AD 2257, at which point the Earth Alliance found itself the lone great power in local space. But, within a short few decades of collapse of the Zhan, the Earth Authority was itself becoming increasingly unstable.
All too predictably, the limits of growth reached, the low hanging fruit plucked, no longer growing, but shrinking, the formerly young and dynamic up and coming new kind on the block Alliance, grew old, tired, curdled, and stale. As the Authority stagnated, rifts began to form in the body politic; colonist versus core-worlders, optimates vice populares, men of finance versus men of industry, Earth-men versus the men of other worlds, nonhumans and humans, and so on, all struggling for their share of economic pie, a pie that had began to shrivel and mold as post-war recession deflated markets long blown up by expansionary, inflationary emergency spending. Principle became reduced to politics, which became reduced to power, pure and simple; who had it, and who did not.
Soon incoming administrations began bringing criminal charges against their predecessors, and then predictably enough, transfers of power were done only feet first. Political parties gained armed militias, then the militias became armies, then actual generals and admirals with regular forces joined the great game; rule or die. An era of civil war, coup and contrecoup, junta, dictator, revolutions, rebellions, and general war, lit the expanses of the Authority afire.
In AD 2316, one man ended the chaos, and was hailed by all as the strongest, as the the one ruler, one singular Hegemon; Director-General of the Earth Republic, First Citizen of the Solar Republic, President Pro Tem of the General Assembly, Archon of the Grey Council, Consul of Rhomulanus, Emperor of Centaurium, etc., ave Imperator. That man, John Fitzgerald Stuart Shepherd didn’t live long enough to rule as Hegemon of Earth, but his nephew and adoptive heir David Sinclair-Shepherd did, ruling as August I Stuart, Hegemon of the Solarian Sphere, and so began the second peace, the Pax Solaris, all throughout the sphere of man.
The Republic, or more accurately, the Megacorporate Technomancers and their artificially intelligence demonic Aidolon idols who controlled the Corporate Congress therefore and the Earth Republic with golden chains of finance, ruled the Solarian Sphere for five long, lifespan extended, genefixed, and meme-frozen generations. The Solarian Republic itself waxed and waned, eventually culturally splitting into two, nevertheless technically unified blocks, the culturally ‘Solarian’ Sword Worlds to trailing, and the ‘Viril’ Padishah Worlds to spinward, the cultural influences of Earthmen being subsumed by the heritage of the ancient Villein caste of the fallen Siru Zirka.
In AD 2549, in a moment of maximal crisis — a deep and abiding economic recession, a rebellion in the provinces, a lost legion, a succession dispute, scandals aplenty, and the outbreak of the latest corporate civil war — House Shepherd loses the confidence of the Technomancers — secret controllers of the Earth Republic — along with the Republic Military, and the aristocratic noble houses of the Solarian Sphere. A charismatic military leader, sick of the constant state low level civil war between the megacorporations and their stinking corruption, Grand Admiral Ian Stirling leads the "September Revolt" of the Republic Navy against the Republic, with the support of noble houses of the colonial administrations.
With the former Republic Navy in orbit of Earth herself, Ian Stirling dismisses the Corporate Congress and declares himself Grand Duke of Earth and Hegemon of the newly founded Solarian Hegemony. His supporters, the aristocratic great houses of the colonial administrations are recognized as the territorial states of the newly declared Solarian Hegemony, peers to the Earth Duchy itself instead of mere colonial possessions. The Heads (or the delegates thereof) of the Great Territorial States, together with the reigning Duke of Earth, form the Executive High Council of the Solarian Hegemony. The power of the megacorporations and their Technomancers is finally broken, and their remnants flee into the darkness between the stars.
All things end however, and with the Occultation of the Stars and the coming of the Filth-Tide, the old Solarian Hegemony nearly died in an orgy of blood and fire. Terrible New Men, descendent of breeds created as a disposable soldier caste, burn world after world, proclaiming that life was a disease, and death was the cure. N’Khai ‘Iadja’ or ‘void-vikings’ raid at will from their invisibly cloaked terror-birds, and from the shadows past the rim comes rumor of a vast multi-species horde, a Necro-Covenant, a black-mass Worm-Army, waging unholy war and proclaiming ‘there are no gods but the Old Ones, and Great Xoth’ulu is their prophet who will lead us on the great journey to Underverse come, IA Xoth’ulu!’ Worse than all of this chaos and upheaval however, is civil war within the Earth Duchy. A succession dispute for the Grand Duchy throne sparks a wide raging civil war.
Out of the ashes rose Karl Hiroshi Hammer-Rhomanov, a legendary figure, who forged the remnants of the Hegemony Defense Forces into an Imperial Fleet and an Imperial Army, and that Fleet and Army into an Empire, a Holy Solar Empire. By AD 2777 he has defeated Solomon Ulrich Stuart-Analis, former mayor-domo of the palace, secured the Earth system, and is finally crowned by the Pontifex Emperor of Man and married to Mathilda Hapsburg-Hohenzollern Stirling of the old Stirling ruling House on Christmas day in a triumphal procession in Armstrong Dome on Luna, overlooking bombed and burning Earth herself. His rule was a glorious but brief beacon of light and hope. Karl was assassinated only 14 years later, the Imperial title passing to his only remaining son, the remarkably less able Nicholas, whose short reign saw the newborn Empire functionally carved up by his own numerous sons and bastards and rebellious subject lords.
The death of Alexandyr Rhomanov-Stirling, called ‘The Mad’, in AD 3866, alone and imprisoned by a traitorous usurper, Tubal Analis Khan, descendent of Solomon Ulrich Stuart-Analis, left the Imperial title claimed by every major faction, the rump Hegemony on New Earth, and each of Alexandyrs' surviving heirs, and the throne of Man itself empty while the successor states prepare themselves to clash in a nihilistic war of all against all. For a moment however, it appears as if the worst might be avoided. Forces loyal to Grand Duchess Elise Hapsburg-Hohenzollern Rhomanov-Stirling and Infante-Hegemon Arcturius Pendrakul Rhomanov-Stirling defeat Tubal Khan's Solar Khaganate and reclaim the Earth Duchy in brutal fighting that leaves the Earth Duchy itself lying in near complete ruin.
However, having liberated the Earth Duchy, Grand Duchess Elise is faced with the terrible certainty that she cannot hold, not without the cooperation of the Great Territorial States, who are all obviously preparing to simply take Earth for themselves. The child Boy-King Arcturius Pendrakul is far too young to inherit Alexandyr's throne and the proposed Regency of Elise Rhomanov-Stirling the Queen-Mother rejected by the High Council Lords each proposing himself or herself as the boy’s protector. Accordingly, Elise, still the formal commander of the Royal Army orders Operation Megaroad, the evacuation of former Solarian Hegenomy space of all Rhomanov-Stirling loyalist forces, just as the first of the Succession Wars breaks out.
The first of the succession wars were terrible things, but one can only smash things for so long before one runs out of things to smash. Society and the economy became so degraded by the end of the third Succession Crisis in AD 3879, that the wars simply petered out into a peace of mutual exhaustion.
It is into this mess that the High King of Zindar in Exile, sends forth his embassy, lead by his daughter, seeking the Great King of the Atani, with whom he seeks make alliance against the power of the Rising Darkness, the Fading of the Stars, and the Revolutionary Supervision Council that has captured all Elf-Cosmos of Undying Aman and corrupted it to the worship of Thasaidon, servant of Mornghroth.