A to Z: O is for Outrim Wars

The Outrim Wars are a series of four wars fought along the Spinward borders of Miazan, Gamelea and Daltharmai Subsectors as Imperial expansion to Spinward in the RimWorlds Sector has run into an increasingly resistant alliance of small, non-Imperial polities.

1st Outrim War 925 – 930
In the face of rising resistance, Imperial forces launched an attack upon the Geithurian Republic in Lymethius Subsector. After some initial successes, the war bogged down. In 929 Sector Duke Leonid II was killed at Jul’ni/Lymethius. As the Imperial Fleet was wracked by mutinies, his successor, Leonid III, arranged a hasty peace.

2nd Outrim War 954 – 962
Seeking to avenge the death of his father, Sector Duke Alexuv II, brother and successor to Leonid III, began preparations for a second campaign against the Outrim Alliance. Upon his sudden death in 954, just weeks into the campaign, his son Karl succeeded to both the Sector Duchy and to leadership in a war that he had little understanding of. The sudden succession caused a command crisis as Karl switched the main theatre of operations from Daltharmai Subsector to Gamelea Subsector. Following his grandfather’s invasion plan, Sector Duke Karl took Jul’ni/Lymethius, but was killed in the Alliance counterattack.

This war was to claim the lives of four members of Alexuv’s family – Alexuv, himself; his sons Karl and Leonid IV; and Leonid’s son Joln-Karl – as well as the careers of two Sector Admirals and five Fleet Admirals. In 962, Sector Duke Alexuv III, son of Leonid III, concluded a peace with the Outrim Alliance that restored the pre-war borders. Major weaknesses in the Imperial Armed Forces, and particularly the command structure, were identified – some dating from the mutinies in 930 and others due to weak oversight of the officer corps – and Alexuv’s reforms were to stand the Imperial Navy in good stead over the next forty years.

3rd Outrim War 1025 – 1038
The Imperial colonisation of Auru/Lymethius alarmed the Geithurian Republic. While the Geithurians were actively attempting to revive the Outrim Alliance, they launched a massive shipbuilding programme. This, in turned, alarmed the Imperium. The assassination of Sector Duke Mah’radys I at Auru unleashed a raider war as Geithurian forces attacked into Gamelea Subsector and Huiha Esoyatre forces battled the Kalar-Wi. Other Alliance task groups eventually crossed the Uedhkinthuez nakhae Rift and swept into Miazan Subsector. The Imperial forces could beat the Alliance Fleets, but they couldn't stop the raiders and commando units. After their initial successes, the Alliance discovered that they could seize low population worlds but could not take high population worlds. Eventually, the Alliance forces were worn down by Yuri Sethlemarl, Admiral in Command, Celephais/Miazan’s policy of Hold and Wait. A negotiated peace brought the war to a close in 1038.

4th Outrim War 1080 – 1085
It was brought to the attention of the President of the Geithurian Republic that there had been an alarming increase in the number of secessionist movements on various Republican worlds over the preceding decade. It was later revealed that this was part of a plan by Imperial Intelligence to force the Geithurian Republic into a war they were not ready for and let them wreck their Navy against prepared Imperial positions. The political implosion in the aftermath of such loses, it was reasoned, would tear the Republic apart and allow the Imperium to absorb systems at leisure. The death of the Sector Duke and the Duke of Gamelea in quick succession almost derailed the plan as the new Sector Duke, Edenar of Nolgor was much more cautious than his predecessor. Dragging on longer than planned, the 4th Outrim War eventually ended in an Imperial victory, largely due to Imperial Intelligence persuading the Kalar-Wi to reactivate their alliance with the Imperium and enter the war. While the Geithurian Republic was not destroyed outright, it was paralysed from within by dissention. With one of the driving forces of the Outrim Alliance neutralised, the Alliance itself lost focus and direction.

Four different campaigns, each with a slightly difference twist, that have influenced the current Border Worlds area of the RimWorlds.