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.

Accidents in Astrography: Gamelea Subsector #2

Gamelea Subsector actually consists of several discrete regions; the Julnar Reach, the Gamelea Cluster, the Kalar-Wi Cluster and the Nolgor Run.

The Nolgor Run is a band of stars lining the edge of the J-3 Rift and stretching across Nolgor Subsector to include Gilanda and Canblyne at the Trailing edge of Gamelea Subsector. Canblyne has an A Class Starport, a Naval Base, and a Tech Level of 13. Canblyne’s small population has precluded it from becoming a fortress world, but its economy is still built around heavy engineering.

The Gamelea Cluster is separated from the Nolgor Run by the J-2 gap between Canblyne and Syndon IV, on the Trailing edge of the cluster. Syndon IV is a Red Zone and has been posted as such since the initial exploration of Gamelea Subsector in the early-to-mid Sixth Century. The Red Zone classification, and designation of the planet as an Imperial Reserve, was to protect the native humanoid inhabitants who have a late Iron Age culture. With sensitivities over access to the Syndon system already running high, most traffic between the Gamelea Cluster and the Nolgor Run is carried in J-3 capable vessels, staging out of either Ventura or Vanvlack VII. Vanvlack VII, a notable tax haven, is probably one of the most corrupt planets in the subsector and has little to recommend itself, apart from its almost non-existent regulatory system. Ventura’s Civil Service Bureaucracy on the other hand, is very efficient. With a B Class Starport, a Tech Level of 12 and an extensive naval base, Ventura suffered from several heavy assaults during the Kalar-Wi War of 1103 – 1105. Gamelea, subsector capital, is a rosette system with three world masses equipoised in the same orbit. The origin of this artefact is still unknown, even after nearly six centuries of study. With an A Class Starport, a Tech Level of 15 and the primary Naval Base of the subsector, Gamelea dominates the subsector economy. As seat of the subsector Duchy, Gamelea should also dominate politically, but under the weak and corrupt rule of House Juharl-Zarquestuir subsector government has become lethargic. Feor is a mineral-poor system and was not settled until 975, after the 2nd Outrim War. With an A Class Starport, a large population and a Naval Base, Feor has become one of the fortress worlds of the Gamelea Cluster in under 150 years. Technologically, Feor still lags behind most of the rest of the Cluster with a Tech Level of 9. The little ice world of Kalath has always been used as a refuelling point on the J-3 route to Leminkainen.

The Kalar-Wi Cluster extends across the borders of the Gamelea, Lymethius and Cabria Subsectors. Kalar-Wi, the capital of the Kalar-Wi Pocket Empire and homeworld of the Kalar-Wi Minor Race, lies within Gamelea Subsector and was occupied by Imperial forces after the Kalar-Wi War of 1103 – 1105.

The Julnar Reach is actually a broken Reach. Leminkainen and Julnar, a water world and homeworld of the amphibious Julnari, are separated from Kerak and Tulvan, within Gamelea Subsector; and Ouron, Finduil and Por’via in Lymethius Subsector by J-2 gaps. Kerak has been largely abandoned and Tulvan has suffered severe economic recession since the Odinite mines closed in the mid 1070s.