The Feri World War

[rancke]

I'm writing some fluff TNS newsbriefs for my campaign newspaper (early 1105), and I've taken a look at the Feri World War which, according to BtC, begins in 1105. The idea is that I should be able to milk that story for a number of newsbriefs as time go by, beginning with pre-war tensions and incidents leading up to the breakout of the war towards the end of 1105.

Except... I'm drawing a blank when it comes to figuring out the reason for the war.

Here's what BtC has to say:

The Feri World War began in 1105 and quickly severed the X-boat link between Roup and Boughene. The war was started by an alliance of five nations in an attempt to destroy Imperial influence on Feri.

The Imperium retook the starport in 1106, but even with the support of several Imperial Army divisions, the two loyal nations -- Reill and the Katavian Republic -- have been steadily losing ground. The whole planet is a battleground, with areas of low-intensity guerilla conflict and occasional hotspots of open warfare. The situation seems unlikely to improve any time soon. [BtC:82]​

Note that this is as of 1120 in the GTU, 15 years after the war broke out.

The bit about severing the X-boat link is arrant nonsens; a standard X-boat can jump between Roup and Boughene. But be that as it may, apparently the Anti-Imperial Alliance attacked and captured the Imperial Starport first thing.

But why? Why did the AIA want to "destroy Imperial influence on Feri"? Did some Imperials (like a megacorporation) oppress them and the Imperial legate and the Marquis of Feri fail to do their duty and stop it?

The problem I have with that scenario is that if the Marquis of Feri didn't do his job, the Count of Roup (or whichever count Feri is under) ought to have backstopped him. And if HE failed to do so, Duke Norris should have. And that's where the chain breaks for me, because I don't see Norris as a man who wouldn't step in if one of his counts dropped the ball on something like that.

Anyway, the Imperium (presumably forces stationed in the Duchy of Regina) retakes the starport in 1106. That makes sense. But then it just allows the rebellious AIA to continue fighting with no more Imperial input than loaning a few paltry divisions to the two loyal nations. What self-respecting Imperial duke wouldn't land on the rebels with enough force to teach the rebels a lesson?

And after that the Imperium allows the war to drag out for 15 years (presumably the divergence between the GTU and the OTU doesn't affect Feri, except to reduce the Imperial forces available after 1117 in the OTU), even if the two loyal nations are losing ground. What on Feri is going on?!?

Any ideas?

BTW, I have a vague idea that the Feri World War is mentioned in passing somewhere in canon prior to BtC, but I can't remember where. Anyone know? Or is my memory playing me false?


Hans

 

[Reban]

The mention of an "alliance of five nations" suggests to me that 'destroying Imperial influence' might be a). the one aim that they all agree on or b). a useful hook for some of those nations to go to war on.

For example the First World War was sold to the general populations of Britain and France as being about "poor little Belgium" and "in defense of small nations" but the real reasons were many and each belligerent party had their own aims.

If there isn't any other material on the reasons for this war you could try assigning each nation a primary and secondary aim or reason for going to war. This would also apply to the two nations allied to the Imperium.

Some possible aims/reasons:

• Destroy Imperial influence
• Gain territory at the expense of an enemy/ally
• Position the nation to benefit in the post war settlement*
• Force the Imperium to make favorable terms on some point of law/tax/other
• Religion/race/cultural reasons

There are lots of others, and many that can be refined by knowing more about the background of the world and situation.


*In this case I'm thinking of a "Mouse that roared" scenario. If you haven't seen the movie; a small nation finds itself broke and so decides to declare war on the USA (who will certainly cause the small country to surrender in the first 24 hours) so it can benefit from post war "peace building" investment. Of course this being a comedy things don't go to plan and the war takes an unexpected turn....

Plus there are lots of colonial wars and uprisings from history that you could draw on for inspiration, including one or two where rebels gave Imperials a bloody nose. Its just not always possible for practical, logistical, political and public relations reasons to "land on the rebels with enough force to teach the rebels a lesson?".

Hope this gives some food for thought.

 

[Carlobrand]

I don't have Behind the Claw and have a limited supply of GURPS Trav resources, so I don't know much about the milieu out that way. There were a couple of TNS news items in 1105 briefly mentioning Ine Givar activity on Feri (JTAS #3 and #4). I have a notation about one of the random clues in one of the published adventures mentioning Feri "struggling with an uprising," don't recall what adventure that was from.

Feri is a TL11 balkanized world with a CT population of 600 million; I don't know what it looks like in GURPS world. I have to suspect that an alliance of five nations bent on destroying Imperial influence in a world at the core of an Imperial subsector, one which supposedly severed a space-based x-boat link and took a starport, would draw official Imperial attention and resources sufficient to put down that rising in short order if it were conducted through open warfare.

I have real trouble believing that a TL11 army is going to give much trouble to the Imperium. I can't see them even successfully contesting their own orbital space. I suspect you're dealing with asymmetrical warfare - an active effort by those hostile countries to support and encourage guerrilla warfare and to destabilize the governments of the targeted nations, with minimal use of their own national militaries so as to avoid the Imperial reprisal that would surely result. So long as those nations play that game adroitly enough, the Imperium is faced with a choice between continuing a whack-a-mole effort to stamp out the guerrillas those nations are clandestinely arming and a full-scale occupation of nations that have not overtly opposed Imperial authority.

In that picture, the local x-boat link gets closed by terrorist activity. The spaceport is briefly lost to a successful guerrilla uprising that manages to drive the host government's troops out of the immediate region, then the Imperium intercedes to retake the port and put down the uprising, but the guerrillas remain an ongoing, and apparently growing, threat. It becomes a "hearts and minds" problem instead of a purely military problem.

As to why - I haven't a clue. Whatever those hostile nations are doing and whatever Imperial angle there might be, there has to be some pretty strong local resentment against local authority for an active guerrilla operation to have much long-term success. I note that Feri has a rather high law level; there may be some oppressed minority population or some nationalist group at the core of it, explaining in part Imperial reluctance to take a firmer hand lest they be seen as taking sides in a local political dispute.

 

[Dulinor]

BTW, I have a vague idea that the Feri World War is mentioned in passing somewhere in canon prior to BtC, but I can't remember where. Anyone know? Or is my memory playing me false?

There's a mention of an uprising in rumor Z of The Kinunir.
Apart from Ine Givar activity in TNS newsbriefs (JTAS 3 and 4,as Carlobrand already mentionned), I don't recall anything else (but my knowledge of CT canon is far less exhaustive than yours).

 

[mike wightman]

CT Adventure 1 rumour:

A recent uprising at Feri (0405) has cut the Imperial communication jump
route from Regina (0310) to Efate (0105).

 

[Reban]

I have real trouble believing that a TL11 army is going to give much trouble to the Imperium.

... And that's how whole legions are lost :rofl:


I think you're right in that asymmetrical warfare will play a role in the war, but there will be several phases. The initial over run of Imperial defenses and the taking of the starport will most likely be by conventional warfare where the greater numbers of the five local armies will tell, even against Imperials.

Next the Imperial forces have to marshal their forces for a counter offensive the first phase of which, after achieving space superiority will probably focus on defense suppression and retaking the starport. Its unlikely at this stage that general offensive operations against the Alliance homelands, their defenses and infrastructure (unless your Imperium is an Evil Empire that can drop rocks from space and not worry how subjects on other worlds react).

Once the Imperium controls orbit and the Spaceport again the next phase should be degrading the enemy's ability to carry out operations by hitting forces in the field and strategic assets like communications, aerospace defenses, military targets. This will be more of a slow grind rather than a blinding blitz, because we want to make sure we hit everything and keep a tempo of operations that Imperial forces can maintain. Again I'm being cautious here and not crushing the civilian population.

In parallel the Imperium should be providing military assistance to its two allied countries. Advisers, equipment, training, operational support, to secure their borders and give the Imperium reliable allied forces and bases of operation.

Remaining cautious I'd plan for everything above to take about a year from the point where the Imperial Navy retake the orbital space.

Its at this point where the Alliance has been ground down in military terms that things should switch to asymmetrical warfare for them. They'll still have useful numbers of trained soldiers that they can use as guerrillas. They may even have useful amounts of TL11 infantry and support weapons with which to carry out their war. They'll also have local support and local knowledge unlike the Imperium. This phase might stretch out to several years.

The Imperium will have to counter the Alliance's guerrillas with small wars tactics, infantry heavy, intelligence led operations. At the same time they'll have to take apart the civilian governments of the five Alliance countries and then put them back together again in an Imperium friendly way.

As the Alliance exhausts its guerrilla phase, they may turn to resistance/terrorist tactics. At this point Ine Givar support from outside may appear if it hasn't been their from the start. For the Imperium this will be a period of low intensity military operations moving to policing operations. Again we're talking about long periods here so Han's figure of 15 years starts to look plausible if you consider it as a war of different phases. Ultimately a successful campaign to eradicate anti-Imperial resistance may take at least a generation.

 

[jec10]

I think the most plausible explanation for a conflict still going on in 1120 is an Iraq war type situation.

The Imperium launches a swift, fairly efficient blitz in 1106-7 to defeat the attempt by the five-nation alliance(?) to take control, but for a variety of reasons (Imperial overconfidence, rapid drawdown of Imperial troops, mistakes in dealing with the local population, etc) that simply degenerates into an insurgency fuelled from beyond Imperial borders from then on.

But open to more creative explanations!

 

[Quint]

This is one of those places where I see the difference between what the Imperium is technologically capable of vs. what the Imperial politics allow it to do vs. what Imperial military doctrine dictates what it will do.

Yes, we know that a TL15 Imperial marine strike force can and would steamroll over a TL11 polity. But what if it ended up being an Imperial Army battle from the start because someone convinced the planners that that should be the case? Or because there was already a significant IA presence on the planet for some reason?

I also think that breaking the X-Boat system suggests a far more significant space-focused war. What if one of the factions/nations fighting was a large, dispersed, and well-established Belter polity? Lots and lots (and lots) of small, little boats for mining that can take out a x-Boat with little problem but which are utterly incapable of any really stand-up fight. Now it's not even a problem the Imperial Navy can deal with easily - or they can, but tying a fleet to solve this is not what they want to do - especially since that might trigger something larger because, well, an Imperial fleet engaging in combat operations on the Imperial border makes people nervous.

Heck, make the WWF (World War Feri) primarily one spread out through the entire system and this explains why it dragged on so long. It's too small for the IN/IMC, it's not the sort of thing the IA is really designed for (even if they can do it with generous numbers of PROFORS troops), and it's too big for the IISS. Kind of the Imperial nightmare scenario, it's not an outright invasion and wartime (which means that the kid gloves are off) so all the normal doctrine of how to handle the issue is on it's head.

D.

 

[rancke]

Thanks to everyone for help with canon quotes and suggestions. I still can't get my head around how the conflict can drag out for more than a year or two past the end of the 5FW, but it occurs to me that I don't need to worry about that until I have to write newsbriefs for 1113 or 1114, which most likely will be never.

So I'm going to go with the corporate misdeeds driving the AI nations to revolt. Norris is being kept in the dark by some of his advisors, the Count of Roup and the Marquis of Feri have been bribed into conniving with the corporation in question (now all I have to do is decide on which megacorporation (or possibly sector-wide corporation) is the Bad Guy in the Feri case).

And here is the first newsbrief:

Regina/Regina (1910 A788899-C)........................................................................................................006-1105
¶ A Ducal commission that was formed in 1099 to investigate allegations of various corporate misdeeds, including strong-arm sales tactics and manipulation of local economies on Feri (2005 B584879-B) published its findings yesterday. The commission concluded that all the allegations were completely groundless. Ω​

Hans

 

[Limburger59]

Just look at the middle east on our planet and I have no problems with that time frame.

My first thought was to blame Ine Givar intrigue. Combine well placed Ine Givar agents, including a Zhodani able to make "suggestions" to paranoid government officials, and throw in religion; and the war is just starting. That Ducal Commission is an Imperial plot to unseat your government, corrupt your people, and turn your country into a strip mine for mega-corporations.

 

[rancke]

Just look at the middle east on our planet and I have no problems with that time frame.

It's not the inability to eradicate insurgents I have problems with. It's the ability of the Anti-Imperial nations to run guerrilla war against the Imperium while at the same time functioning as nation-states.

Still, that's a moot point since, as I said, I don't really expect to have to deal with it. Unless one day I get an idea for an adventure set on Feri around 1117-1120.

My first thought was to blame Ine Givar intrigue. Combine well placed Ine Givar agents, including a Zhodani able to make "suggestions" to paranoid government officials, and throw in religion; and the war is just starting. That Ducal Commission is an Imperial plot to unseat your government, corrupt your people, and turn your country into a strip mine for mega-corporations.

As I said, the Big Bad Corporation¹ is oppressing the five Anti-Imperial nations (and cooperating with the other two) and the Imperial bureaucrats on Feri are conniving with that. So is the Marquis of Feri and the Count of Roup, whose jobs it is to prevent just that sort of thing. And some of Norris' advisors are keeping him in the dark. The commision is one of their instruments. Norris was manipulated into setting it up and it took more than five years of foot-dragging to produce a report that completely whitewashes all the guilty parties.

¹ Sorry, timeover, those corporations are just so easy targets. :devil:​

Hans

 

[Hyphen]

OK, let's kick some numbers around.

Feri 2005 B384879-B S Ri 620 DD G4V M3 D (1120)
2005 B384879-B S Ri Rw:Z 720 Re G4V M3 D (1201)

That's 600,000,000 in 1120; 700,000,000 in 1201.

That's twice the population of the USA, at 318 million.

There's 26 million in Texas, more than the population of Australia (leading comedians to quip that Texas should have declared war on the 32 million in Iraq, just to make for a fairer fight!)

There's 38 million in California; 19.6 million in New York. That's 3 widely separated states.

Now let's throw in a few more across the world.

The entire EU has 509 million, so let's split that up. There's 80 million in Germany, 66 million in France, 63 million in the UK, and 61 million in Italy. That's 270 million.

Also, Russia has 142 million, Japan has 127 million.

So Feri is like WW2, but at TL 11.

Now imagine five of those countries allying together against two pro-Imperial ones. If you had roughly equal forces on both sides, and interesting terrain - it's only a size-3 world, how does it hold an atmosphere 8? - then you could have a war - even a pseudo-war, on/off war, phony war, or cold war - that drags on for decades.

Then someone gets sick of the impasse & decides to involve the Imperium.

Finn: "I am fighting the only war I can against an intractable enemy. Now I'm fighting a bigger war against a much more powerful adversary. Can't you see how that helps me?"
Crusher: "I'm afraid I can't."
Picard: "He's added another chair to the negotiating table."
Finn: "You added the chair, Captain. I am merely forcing you to sit in it."
- "The High Ground", ST:TNG

What do you think, Hans?

 

[Hyphen]

More stats:

Diameter: 4800km
Total Surface Area: 7.24 x 10^7 = 72,400,000sq km
Land Surface Area = 20% = 14,480,000 sq km

In comparison:
Russia: 17 million sq km (too big)
USA: 9.8 million sq km
Oz: 7.7

So you have the population I worked out earlier in an area the size of the USA plus half of Australia.

Interesting times. Would love to see the worldmap. Warlords, anyone?

 

[rancke]

So Feri is like WW2, but at TL 11.

Now contemplate the fact that the Imperium lets the situation go on for at least six yearr after it should have recovered from the 5FW, lending no more than "several divisions" to its Imperium-friendly member nations and calmly see those nations losing ground. That's on a world that can afford 360 divisions with the 3% average peacetime budgets of Imperial member worlds. And presumably budgets are going to be bigger than the average on a balkanized world, not to mention one that's engaged in a world war. So the Imperium is helping out with, what, 1% of the troops on one side? Equipped to a better TL than the locals, very likely, but still a paltry number in a situation where the opponnts want to SECEDE from the Imperium!!!

Now imagine five of those countries allying together against two pro-Imperial ones. If you had roughly equal forces on both sides, and interesting terrain - it's only a size-3 world, how does it hold an atmosphere 8?

Feri has recently been errata'ed to size 5. And yes, I mean errata'ed, not retconned.


Hans

 

[Hyphen]

Feri has recently been errata'ed to size 5. And yes, I mean errata'ed, not retconned.

Hooray! Slightly larger than Mars is much better than the size of Mercury.

 

[Dagrill]

As I said, the Big Bad Corporation¹ is oppressing the five Anti-Imperial nations (and cooperating with the other two) and the Imperial bureaucrats on Feri are conniving with that. So is the Marquis of Feri and the Count of Roup, whose jobs it is to prevent just that sort of thing. And some of Norris' advisors are keeping him in the dark. The commision is one of their instruments. Norris was manipulated into setting it up and it took more than five years of foot-dragging to produce a report that completely whitewashes all the guilty parties.
Hans

Hi,

it need not be a big bad corporation, but simple economics. The 2 'loyal' nations have access to the starport and are restricting trade to the other 5, who see their future as a terminal decline and are forced to launch a pre-emptive strike similar to Japan in WW2.

Regards

David

 

[epicenter00]

I think the best solution in this case is to adopt the view that mass media rarely gets the story right and often doesn't even try to.

The TNS is the worst of the worst for news services. It tries to write about events, even important ones, in a the span of a few sentences or easily digestible paragraphs. This is very bad for accurate communication of events. This doesn't automatically mean that the TNS is just spouting cartoony 1940s style propaganda - the TNS probably recognizes that newsbriefs are read by people who live parsecs away and, at best, only have a passing interest in the story.

We know of seven nations on the world. Apparently two are pro-Imperial and five are anti-Imperial.

The two pro-Imperial nations are weaker; perhaps they are spent empires like the Ottomans, once powerful nations now corrupt, or perhaps they broke free of the domination of the other five powers by kowtowing to the desires of the Imperials. Likely they are some combination of factors.

However, through aid of the Imperium, they've endured. Since many wars start because of resources, perhaps there's some sort of local resource (it doesn't need to be anything spectacular like megatons of Unobtainium, it could something that's vital locally like petrochemicals for industrial feedstock and has a reasonable value if exported off-world for large corporation with cheap shipping) that is the real bone of contention.

If you want the Imperium to be the good (or gray) guys: The pro-Imperial nations control the richest bed for these resources. They "legally" do - it is within their borders. They have a merchantile relationship with the Imperium - the nations sell natural resources (and the rights) and the Imperium pays in hard currency, which the local rulers use to buy whatever they wish. However, the only way for the five nations to get at these resources is to buy it from Imperial corporations. The five nations believe that they should have first dibs to these resources and feel the two nations are selling out their future to the Imperium and this has turned them against the Imperium.

If you want the Imperium to be the bad guys: With promises that the Imperium will pretty much look the other direction and provide mercenaries / financial assistance / arms, the two nations have moved to secure a large strike in some area (this can be a "neutral" area of the world or it might be outright annexation through legal pretense or naked aggression of some region of one of the weaker nations). This has caused the five nations, long resentful of Imperial favortism, to turn anti-Imperial.

The Ine Givar or some similar organization may be involved or not, if they are, they are likely to have "scholars" on world to crystallize opinion on the world to be anti-Imperial. They're particularly active in the two pro-Imperial nations, lining up support in the poorer segments of those societies.

The world is ostensibly TL11. However, taking a page from the real world, this doesn't mean that's all they have. The five nations have plenty of military hardware at TL12+ they've bought from the Imperium's arms markets; in a place as laxly governed as the Imperium, it surely cannot be difficult for nations with an interest in it to purchase TL13-14 arms, electronic warfare equipment, and secure communications totally legally; there's no nuclear or fusion bombs in this stuff. Many local rulers in the Imperium probably have a desire for a battalion or two of "parade ground" units with shiny Fusion Rifles, Battle Dress, and grav tanks, even if they're never used. Like in all of these cases, they cannot manufacture this stuff locally or only have some ability to via turn-key microfactories; if the spares or the autofactories stop working, the stuff stops working. Furthermore, it isn't totally common; so the TL can remain 11.

The five nations seized the starport because given the realities of their situation, it was the lesser of the two evils. "Everyone knows" that attacking the Imperial starport is tantamount to declaring war on the Imperium. "Everyone knows" this is suicide. The five nation alliance isn't stupid; they know it, too. However, sitting pretty in that zone of golden extraterritoriality are literally kilotons of military aid waiting to be distributed to the pro-Imperial nations. Hundreds of G-Carriers, tens of thousands of gauss rifles, thousands of tac missiles, hundreds of suits of battle dress, and mountains of ammunition for it all. If they didn't seize the starport, all that would go to the pro-Imperial nations which would end the war in their favor anyway. So they invade and seize the starport. It's an audacious move, nobody in the Imperium thinks anyone is stupid enough to do something like that, so the first sign the natives are restless is when the Imperials are unloading the stuff in their shirtsleeves hear a crash and see native G-carriers crashing through the chainlink fence.

Now the anti-Imperial natives have quite a bit of gear they captured, which makes them a bigger threat. They know they're in a pickle, despite this. Their big bid to seize the starport and force the Imperium into negotiations have failed. They most likely didn't stay to fight in the starport, for all the TNS talks of "retaking" the starport, the native armies probably abandoned it. Their only hope is to keep the conflict local enough that the Imperium doesn't feel obliged by dignity to justify the massive expense of total invasion and use of the Marines. If they can defeat the two pro-Imperial powers on the world, they can probably enter negotiations with the local nobles and get a somewhat favorable outcome. The Imperium for the most part doesn't really want to invest that much capital into this conflict either; it's not an economically or politically important planet. It's "just" deploying two army divisions which are mostly trying their best to stay out of the conflict by "patrolling" the area around the starport and providing "advisor" support for local forces.

 

[G. Kashkanun Anderson]

Hans, you appear to have forgotten a couple of very salient points about Feri (and I know you will remember when I mention them). To wit:

1) Feri is not known to have a Marquis, but it does have at least one Baron: Marc haut-Oberlindes.
2) It's a very recent appointment; Baron Marc only received his patent in 1101.
3) By 1105, Oberlindes Lines is involved in a very public (and vicious) tradewar with Tukera Lines.

Oberlines Lines had a remarkable run of bad luck in 1105, what with Ine Givar outbreaks amongst its key markets, the freighter Bloodwell getting 'accidentally' blown up by an Imperial cruiser, accusations of sabotage by General Shipyards, and now a war on the family fief. And that's not even mentioning yet the whole situation on Ruie with Sergei Oberlindes getting sentenced to thirty years hard labor!

OK, that last one may have actually just been bad luck, but still...

We know Oberlindes is a very young (by Imperial standards) and aggressive line. Being that it is so heavily involved in Regina Subsector trade, and from the role it apparently played in the Fourth Frontier War and aftermath, we can also surmise that it's got strong (but new and, perhaps, untested) connections with the power players of the Imperial Fringe.

Duke Norris, of course, comes to mind. In fact, if you look at the timelines of Oberlindes Lines and Norris together, you can almost see their fortunes rising in tandem. It's never stated outright, but I would not be surprised if both made good use of each other during their rapid -- and in some circles, shocking -- rise to power.

Going back to the original question: your assumption that the 'anti-Imperial' faction on Feri are secessionists is possible, not not necessarily true. 'Imperial' in this case could just as easily boil down to 'Marc haut-Oberlindes'. I could see someone like haut-Oberlindes using his newfound land and authority to effectively seize control of offworld trade, perhaps by expanding (or simply taking over) the main starport. That would certainly rub some people the wrong way. Also, for that matter, balkanized worlds are notoriously complicated; some of those nations may never have accepted his appointment to begin with. Heck, they might not even officially be part of the Imperium!

If you want to throw in a little more intrigue, there's the additional matter of the 'important Imperial noble' that was disappeared by Norris in 1102 and then left to rot in that prison hulk orbiting Pixie (as per Adventure 1: Kinunir). We're never told why he's there, but we do know his disappearance is a politically sensitive issue, and the timing of his roundup is somewhat suspicious.

As for why the war ran on for so long... I don't have a particularly strong answer to that. All I can offer is that if what's going down on Feri is wrapped up in Oberlindes, and Oberlindes is wrapped up in Duke Norris, then anything Duke Norris is up against may be providing aid and comfort to whomever is up against Baron Marc on Feri. And we know that (Arch)duke Norris has... adversaries.

And those adversaries do have more than passing connections with Tukera, as I recall.

 

[rancke]

Hans, you appear to have forgotten a couple of very salient points about Feri (and I know you will remember when I mention them).

You have some interesting and by no means inconcievable ideas here. Unfortunately, they don't fit with my notions.

To wit:

1) Feri is not known to have a Marquis, but it does have at least one Baron: Marc haut-Oberlindes.
2) It's a very recent appointment; Baron Marc only received his patent in 1101.
3) By 1105, Oberlindes Lines is involved in a very public (and vicious) tradewar with Tukera Lines.

1) There are very few high nobles that are documented in canon; that doesn't mean they don't exist. By my calculations, a place like Feri definitely rates a marquis for its high noble. Moreover, the existence of a high noble for Feri who isn't Marc hault-Oberlindes is how I explain how someone as relatively unimportsnt as Baron Marc got a high noble title. My answer: he didn't¹.

¹ I'm more than a little unhappy about having two titles with the same terrotorial component, but on the other hand, canon shows us other examples of such duplicate titles (e.g. Duke of Regina (Duchy of) and Marquis of Regina (System)), so the Imperium is evidently not as averse to such as European states were. Perhaps the Barony of Feri comes from the Continent/Island/Region/Valley of Feri on Feri. (I'd love a better explanation than that, but be that as it may, I'm not having Marc as the high noble of Feri).​

3) Well, with Akerut. And in 1105 it was just warming up. The tradewar proper doesn't break out until most of the events of TTA have played out, which has to take some time.

Oberlines Lines had a remarkable run of bad luck in 1105, what with Ine Givar outbreaks amongst its key markets, the freighter Bloodwell getting 'accidentally' blown up by an Imperial cruiser, accusations of sabotage by General Shipyards, and now a war on the family fief. And that's not even mentioning yet the whole situation on Ruie with Sergei Oberlindes getting sentenced to thirty years hard labor!

OK, that last one may have actually just been bad luck, but still...

I don't recall any mention of where Oberlindes' key markets are, nor do I recall any accusations that Oberlindes was involved in sabotage. Sergei's misadventures seems unlikely to be the result of enemy manipulations.

I'd love to know the story behind the loss of the Bloodwell.

We know Oberlindes is a very young (by Imperial standards) and aggressive line.

Well, no, the Oberlindes family goes back to before 487 when Roxanne Oberlindes established Oberlindes Lines. That bit is canon. I did a writeup of Oberlindes for JTAS Online back in 2001 that gave the family a big Import/Export company on Regina as a foundation, then had Oberlindes Lines go bankrupt and losing its Imperial charter in 994, then had Marc restore the company in 1084. Some of that article made it into GT:Nobles, but a lot (including the preceding bits) didn't, so that's not canon.

Being that it is so heavily involved in Regina Subsector trade, and from the role it apparently played in the Fourth Frontier War and aftermath, we can also surmise that it's got strong (but new and, perhaps, untested) connections with the power players of the Imperial Fringe.

Oberlindes is a medium company (subsector-wide/interface) as interstellar companies go. Probably in the upper range of such companies, but by no means sector-wide. Just how much its market share is depends on how many other Interstellar companies there are in Regina and Aramis subsector. My assumption is that there are quite a few companies we've never heard of (I've made up half a dozen on my own).

Duke Norris, of course, comes to mind. In fact, if you look at the timelines of Oberlindes Lines and Norris together, you can almost see their fortunes rising in tandem. It's never stated outright, but I would not be surprised if both made good use of each other during their rapid -- and in some circles, shocking -- rise to power.

That's certainly possible. Though the timeline is a bit tight for Norris to arrive on Regina in 1097 (before then he was busy elsewhere with his career in the IN), get involved with Marc and have him ennobled by 1101.

I could see someone like haut-Oberlindes using his newfound land and authority to effectively seize control of offworld trade, perhaps by expanding (or simply taking over) the main starport.

I'm afraid that doesn't work for me on more than one account. It's not how I see Baron Marc's personality, and I don't think he would be able to do something like that even if it was.

If you want to throw in a little more intrigue, there's the additional matter of the 'important Imperial noble' that was disappeared by Norris in 1102 and then left to rot in that prison hulk orbiting Pixie (as per Adventure 1: Kinunir).

As with Marc, I don't see Norris as a man who would stoop to such means, so I've always assumed that there was a cabal of mid-ranking duchy bureaucrats who practiced on Norris' inexperience and got away with all sorts of corrupt practices that Norris wouldn't have stood for if he'd known about them.


Hans