Sunday 1 June 2014

Fun with Family Trees #5

This is a history of Miazan Subsector from the perspective of House Mahuran, Siridar-Counts of Bromus. It draws upon elements I developed during 2013 as I looked at family trees and ties in to the current adventures of players in my Traveller campaign.



The Duchy of Miazan was established by Order in Council under the seal of Sector Duke Leonid I Trumer on 093-906. This is the same date as the official accession of House Trumer as Sector Dukes of the RimWorlds and represents one of the first official acts of Sector Duke Leonid's reign. It is also the date of the establishment of the County of Bromus, set up to protect the Coreward/Spimward frontier of Miazan Subsector.

Sector Duke Leonid I Trumer had begun his campaign to reunite the RimWorlds several years prior to the official inaugural date of his reign. The establishment of Miazan Subsector as a Duchy marked a major expansion Rimward by the Sector Duchy, pushing the Imperial frontier beyond the existing Miazan Subsector Military District centered around Celephais. It was an indication that the new regime intended to drive a wedge between the Spinward states of the Outrim Alliance and the Rimward polities of the Rimward Coalition, and bring order and stable government to a fairly lawless region.

Chi'leur I Geyukthi, 1st Duke of Miazan, had served as an aide de camp to Sector Duke Leonid I during his initial campaigns, and as Leonid's son-in-law and supporter, he was considered a safe pair of hands to secure and hold the new frontier subsector. To Sakkan Mahuran, Chi'leur's Fleet Admiral, fell the task of defending the Spinward frontier at Bromus and Exxilon, as Siridar-Count of Bromus, and securing the Coreward communication lines from the Rimward Counties of Miazan and Nakaya.

Sakkan I proved very tenacious in his duties. 118 years old when he died, Sakkan outlived his eldest son, Anton, and his grandson, Piero. Both Oscaran, Sakkan's second son, and Susannah, his daughter, served as Fleet Admirals in the Miazan Subsector Navy during the 2nd Outrim War (954-962).

Remaining active and in good health well into the teens of his second century, it was later rumoured that Sakkan I had discovered a secret stash of anagathics in an ancient ruined Purvion base located either on the House Mahuran estate on Bromus, or on one of Bromus' three small moons. As none of his descendants lived to such an advanced age, it was assumed that the secret of this stash was lost when Sakkan eventually died.

Sakkan II, Sakkan I's great-grandson, became 2nd Siridar-Count of Bromus in 990. In 999 Sakkan's immediate overlord, Duke Mah'dainraian I of Miazan became Sector Duke of the RimWorlds. This elevation seemed to raise House Mahuran's political stock as well as Sakkan II's daughter Susan subsequently married Edenar Ulanor, later Duke Edenar I of Nolgor. On the surface, this marriage appeared to draw House Ulanor into the orbit of House Geyukthi of Miazan through an alliance with an important client but, if this was the intention, it failed. Edenar I was only Duke of Nolgor from 1042 - 1044, but it was the anti-Geyukthi ground work carried out by Feodorus X, his father, and more importantly by his son, Olgarthi Ulanor, that resulted in the fall of the badly weakened Sehlemarl-Geyukthi Sector Dukes in the aftermath of the Rimbaud War in 1044 and the ascension of Olgarthi Ulanor as Duke of Nolgor and Sector Duke of the RimWorlds.

Count Giovhanhi II Mahuran of Bromus came of age during a period of great change in both the RimWorlds and in Miazan Subsector. Born in 1017, and inheriting the family title of Lord Sherck, he became 4th Siridar-Count of Bromus in 1041. His sister Stefani married Pahran Juharl-Zarquestuir who became Duke of Gamelea in 1065, while his second sister, Elemyl, married Mah'radys Geyukthi who became Duke Mah'radys IV of Miazan in 1085.

The 3rd Outrim War broke out in 1025 and House Mahuran weathered the initial assaults by Nutharal forces pushing across the Imperial frontier from Cabria Subsector into the County. Young Giovhanhi joined the Planetary Navy as a Midshipman in 1033 and saw action both in Bromus low orbit, and around Sertan VIII, the system gas giant.

Following disastrous Imperial losses in 1030 and 1031, and the deaths in combat of three House Geyukthi Sector Dukes in quick succession, Sector Duke Yuri Sehlemarl's strategy was to reinforce the fortress worlds in the frontier subsectors and suck the Outrim forces into a series of sieges that would bleed their fleets white. By the time his strategy succeeded and peace was signed in 1038, Giovhanhi's father, Count Giovhanhi I, was ailing and the younger Giovhanhi was finding himself more and more involved in the running of the Bromus planetary government. When war broke out in 1025, Giovhanhi I had suspended the Bromosian civil government and declared a state of emergency. With the end of the war in 1038 and the beginning of a massive rebuilding project, the populace of Bromus voted overwhelmingly for the continuation of the emergency government under House Mahuran with Count Giovhanhi I as Head of State and his son, Lord Giovhanhi of Sherck, as First Minister.

The cessation of war did not automatically mean peace. During the course of the 3rd Outrim War, the Rivokul War had seen the extermination of House Rivokul of Kamperel, the family of Giovhanhi II's grandmother, Eschen. The Republican government that replaced House Rivokul swiftly fell under the influence of Torvor Van Zaquerl, who methodically shot all opposition to his rule as First Consul of the People's Republic of Kamperel. With House Geyukthi of Miazan crippled (four Dukes and three generations of the senior line perished during the 3rd Outrim War, along side various cousins and other relatives), House Rivokul of Kamperel extinct, and House Sehlemarl-Geyukthi of Celephais diverted by their attempts to hold on to the Sector Duchy, it fell to House Mahural to attempt to contain the Van Zaquerl clan of Kamperel even as they sought to secure the Ektra and Floranna systems of the County of Kamperel for themselves.

Count Giovhanhi II spent most of the rest of his life locked in a Grey War with Torvor Van Zaquerl of Kamperel. It was only with the accession of his demi-cousin, Li'iatain Geyukthi, as Duke Li'iatan II of Miazan in 1044 that the full force of the Duchy was brought to bear against the recalcitrant Siridar-Barony of Kamperel. Even then, politics intruded as the new Sector Duke, Olgarthi Ulanor of Nolgor, Giovhanhi's cousin, sought to secure his advantage in the feud between House Ulanor and House Sethlemarl-Geyukthi by hamstringing House Geyukthi's efforts to bring the Van Zaquel's to heel. Starved of resources, and with its best units and service personnel drafted to Sector Fleet, Miazan Subsector Fleet lacked the strength to deliver the Kamperelians a knock-out blow.

Sector Duke Olgarthi died in 1050 and the feud died with him. The following year, the Ektrans rose up against Kamperelian Merchant Factors attempting to buy their government. The Kamperelians retaliated and, much to Giovhanhi's despair, seized Ektra with overwhelming force. For the next thirty years Count Giovhanhi fought to contain the Kamperelians, and to keep the peace along the Imperial Spinward/Rimward border.

The 4th Outrim War broke out in 1080 and, while most the fighting took place along the Spinward border of Gamelea Subsector, Miazan Subsector saw its share of conflict. Left out of the loop regarding the elaborate warplan developed by Siridar-Lord Elmar Hendrian for Sector Duke Kanus II, which was designed to cripple the Geithurian Republic and break up the Outrim Alliance, the local commanders in Miazan Subsector battled on the best they could. In the midst of the struggle, the Kamperelians swooped on Floranna and could not be dislodged. At war's end in 1085, the task of rebuilding began again.

In 1087, worn out and disillusioned, Count Giovhanhi II died. He was succeeded by his son, Sakkan III, who had seen his father slowly worn down over forty years of difficult service. Sakkan retained House Mahuran's active role in the Bromosian government, serving as both Head of State and First Minister, but his natural reserve and shyness distanced him from his people. Sakkan's insistence that a company of Vargr from the settlement on Lo Taisang be included within his honour guard, to the discomfort of his more xenophobic subjects, acted to further isolate him and it was into this political breach that his Interior Minister, Phorgan saVasparan, began to thrust himself.