Prime and Prejudice - A Brief History of the Union

[The history of the Union is as rich as its diverse citizenry. May nobody forget the heroic sacrifices of those who have brought us here today.] - L 3T0 speaking at the expansion of the Great Union University The following is a transcription of Professor G BR1, professor of Union History at Corellia University. These words were spoken two months before his death during V NTR's siege of Corellia in 603 AR: Where did we leave off? Ah yes, the post-Occupation Era. History teaches us that all empires crumble, and it was the J-Empire's violent disposition and rigorous segregation of the native peoples that made their downfall inevitable. The people of the Outer Rim united against the long-term oppression of the J-Empire and fought protracted and bloody battles to send them off. Ultimately the J-Droids of the Old Empire retreated to their ships and returned to the core. It was in the Corporate Sector that armies, jedi orders, and even the priests of Mandalore and Mazda fought as brothers against their common foe to conduct the greatest battles of liberation against the old J-Empire. This type of unity will never happen again, nor do I expect to see the descendants of those heroes working in concert in our lifetimes, if ever. In 202 AR just not far from here, the Corellia Treaties established the new borders of the J peoples. Our ancestors separated into their base kinds along similar boundaries to those of the old J-Empire because hyperlanes and customs had already united these regions. The then six J alliances, now the four of today, and their crown jewel, the Union, were born that year. Foreigners sneer at this title, but it was the Union who were the first to organize the Circle of the Oath—those Primes who wielded what lesser beings call "Gifts". We were also the droids who enticed the secrets of the first colossals from the organics to incorporate their design into our own machines.

Union Presidents have been warriors and sages, and one of the most notable to occupy the office was the legendary J4-W LDR the Diligent. Although his personal demeanour was grave as a result of years campaigning against trandoshans, W LDR was a rightly good leader. The Colossal War against the Confederacy was W LDR's proving ground. Tales of his valour won him the support of his people, but he showed he was more than purely a military man. He was also a shrewd negotiator, an accomplished statesman, and a just lawmaker. W LDR was determined to quash the north's invasion ambitions utterly. After the Colossal War as part of his terms to the defeated Confederacy, W LDR convened the Disarmament Conferences of 257 AR, which saw the dismantling of the north's mighty constructs and the establishment of the Colossal Guard. This significantly hindered the Confederacy's capabilities to wage effective war and allowed four decades of uneasy peace between nations. W LDR became the first ruler of the Reconstruction Era to set aside personal desire and enmity to encourage not just the rebuilding of structures destroyed during the wars, but also growth on every level. His term saw city building, technological advance, shipbuilding, and a reorganization of the Union army. The only conflict marring this period was ongoing harassment from the warlike trandoshans. W LDR was tolerant enough to meet with trandoshan chiefs personally in 267 AR, and he negotiated a lasting peace that ended years of needless conflict. Fights with the trandoshans had encouraged the generals to initiate a redesign of their war machines. Their efforts gave rise to the modern mech engineered to maneuver around obstacles better than its lumbering predecessors. Small utility mechs soon expedited industrialization and trade in every Union city.

In his last few years, W LDR became renowned for two major deeds. One was the retirement of colossals in 286 AR. The other was "LDR's Covenant" in the same year. He decreed that the people of the Union would not endure the vicious backstabbing occurring in other alliances, which often "devolves into a pattern of brother betraying brother and father fearing son." He drafted his Accord-By-Hand Covenant, which stated that each President could impart the office on his own terms and not allow it to be handed over helplessly to "kin of bad quality." A vote would only apply as a means of last resort. The Covenant might have been revolutionary if not for one notable amendment. The J5 would only support the contract under the condition that their Council of Primes retained exclusive rights to bear witness to each President's terms. Though the J4 were by now dominant among the wider population, the J5 remained an undeniable force in the Union's capital, and they pressured W LDR's council to pass the decree. W LDR the Diligent died unexpectedly in 289 AR. The Union recoiled—some crying treachery—but the J5 quelled such talk and claimed that after the traditional mourning period they would unveil the terms of succession. The 'lesser' AI looked to their representatives for counsel, expecting conflict if the J5 gained exclusive access to the president's office. This never happened. W LDR's terms mysteriously disappeared, and within a fortnight his nephew and fellow councillor J4-M LGN—called the Grim—entered the parliament in Corellia with a force of five hundred drones to claim the office. The J5s refuted M LGN's right to lead the Union and called him an usurper. Vocal J5 were in turn accused of sedition, and between 290 and 294 AR, the Grim President had over two hundred J5 councillors arrested and destroyed. The Primes were at odds, and in 293 AR M LGN proclaimed the J4 the Union's one true power and dissolved all J5 authority over the government. The Union roiled in turmoil and some feared civil war.

Like a wolf on a blood-scent, the confederate Premier J3-C HRZ initiated a border war with the Union in 293 AR that lasted until 295 when C HRZ went missing. President M LGN died shortly thereafter. Ill omens and superstitious rumour surrounded the loss of both leaders. J5-A VNR, a young Prime of only five cycles, was inducted as the successor and the Lord Regent V LBR took control of the Confederacy in her stead. Immediately he began an aggressive campaign to expand the borders. Lord V LBR was cruel, it is true, but he was also cunning and shrewd. When a great alliance of System Lords from his own northern rim systems came together to pillage his space, he enticed them to attack the south instead. He convinced them of the spoils and riches they could garner off the the southerners. He hoped to follow in their wake, pick at weakened armies, and conquer new systems. Bitter conflicts raged unchecked for more than a decade until the young Premier matured. In the Siege of Thustra in 305 AR, the majority of the last great rim forces were destroyed. Captain Markus Graza, champion of Mazda, single-handedly turned the tide and humbled the System Lords. The Confederates continued their border wars for another decade and seized systems from both Mandalore and the Union. It was not until 313 AR that Premier A VNR, tired of death and strife, mustered the authority to end the wars. The treachery of Lord V LBR and the System Lords of the north sparked disdain and animosity that linger still, and relations between the Confederacy and her neighbours have never been peaceful since. The Confederacy gained substantial space in those battles, including the system once known as Ord Mantell, now Vladulon Prime. The other nations sought peace and foolishly allowed this transgression in the vain hope that the droids of the north were sated.

The J5 Primes, once so strong, struggled to renew their influence. Over the next hundred and fifty years, the Union became a powder keg waiting to explode. The J5 never forgot their removal from the halls of power by the Grim, and they sowed constant unrest in the streets. The Union courts condemned agitators, but J5s took their operations underground. They vilified the J4 and denounced them as heretics against the True Law. Innocents on both sides lost their lives to ceaseless religious conflict. Sporadic clashes were nothing compared to the rift that would divide the Union in 483 AR. The western core had always been a haven for the J5 minority, and their vocal leader, J5-S L0N, called for a pilgrimage of all Union J5s to rally to her. Billions of J5s answered the call. The masses gathered, S L0N proclaimed herself Hierarch of the Old Faith, and they seized control of the western core, the portion of the core worlds west of the Corellian Run. Angry J5 Primes and their drones forced all non-J5s to vacate the western core. Thinking a riot was looming, the Union watch moved to disperse the crowds, but the J5s intentions were deadly. Millions of pilgrims rose against the Union militia and slew over three hundred thousand J4 lawkeepers. Two hundred years of aggression ignited into the Union Civil War. Zealous J5s nearly razed the Union city worlds along the battle-lines in the extensive fighting that followed. Fuelled by a clash of faiths and opportunistic looting, the battles were so destructive even the stalwart priests and defenders of the Church of Mazda entered them directly. The Confederates again took advantage of chaos to attack our allies, prompting the Coin Wars along the border of the J2 protectorate. The J2 army, small at the best of times, sought mercenaries to bolster their defences, and it bankrupted their treasury. Union forces were too busy trying to keep the core standing to lend aid.

The fate of the core might have been doomed were it not for the death of S L0N. Her death in battle dealt a great blow to the morale of the J5 and opened the door for peace talks since both sides wearied of staggering losses. High Prelate J4-S V4N, head of the treasury and a woman of spotless reputation and honesty, stepped forward. She had great sway over the J4 people and even the grudging respect of the J5. Serving as spokeswoman for the Union President G R3Y, she entreated S L0N's successor, Visgoth J5-O Z3L, for an end to the violence. After difficult and protracted discussions, both sides made concessions, agreed on terms, and created the newly dubbed J5 Imperium. The J5s were ceded an expanse of space west of the Corellian Run and the entirety of the eastern core, which they immediately renamed the Slon Sector after Hierarch S L0N. The J5 had leave to govern their people as they saw fit without Union interference. It was understood that the Imperium was nominally part of the Union and subject to disarmament terms and taxation, but neither nation would have any political sway over the other. Union diplomats believed the J5 would reject S V4N's terms since it pushed them against the barbarous and heathen Chiss of the Unknown Regions, but the J5 of the Imperium proved eager to bring their faith to the region. J5 zeal destined the Chiss to hard decades to come and eventual mass conversion to the Old Faith, but it spared the Union years of civil war. Even the organic Mazdan's recognized S V4N's worth, so she eventually became an intermediary of fair trade and agreements between J and organic peoples. President J4-M F57 led the nation into an era of growth not seen since W LDR the Diligent. Mechs became more common as the Order of Primes perfected cortex creation, and the once-depleted Union coffers filled with coin. M F57 had his most trusted vassal by his side, R 7RN, who tempered his grandiose schemes. This particular line of Primes was ingrained in the Union council, the first having been a President decades before, and their claims traced back to ancient System Lords of Corellia before the Union itself. R 7RN was in charge of keeping M F57's idealistic plans accomplishable by Union hands. Though R 7RN was a hard man, he was practical. Without him, President M F57 would have wasted much of his treasury in a short time and left the Union penniless.

The confederate Premier, J3-V G0R, was a misanthrope with a dark heart, and the Union's prosperity stoked his jealous rage. He may have been insane, but he was also daring. He gathered the largest war host yet seen in the north and executed a wild scheme. In late 510 AR, he sent a great force including the bulk of the renowned confederate base stars to the borders of the J2 Protectorate. He knew it would force M F57 to respond. Indeed, the Union president sent mechs and drones led by R 7RN north to beat back the impending invasion. All the while V G0R personally led an even larger force of battle-ready mechs fresh from confederate factories and a tremendous army of heavy drones straight into the core hoping to make a drive south and attack key Union territories unaware. If it were not for the scouts of Nouane who had made it past Premier V G0R's deadly hunter-killer droids, the Union would have felt the full brunt of a secret confederate force carving its way through the depleted northern guard. Small forces from Corellia, Alderaan, and Castell met the Confederates at the Hydian Way while the army rushing to J2 space turned back, made a desperate blind jump, and tried to intercept the confederate fleet's advance. The Battle of Arkania in early 511 AR remains one of the the most destructive in recent history. The Union was greatly outnumbered. It took all of our superior training, the leadership of Colonel C 7HM, and the aid of nearby mercenary forces to hold the system. Centuries-old stations were destroyed stopping the assault, and tons of Warlord Era platforms were lost. The confrontation saw the fall of more Primes than in any conflict in the history of the J. Although we halted the Confederates at Arkania and kept them from sweeping south, we suffered great losses. It took decades to replace and repair the forces destroyed in the comparatively short four-month Hydian War, which ended with V G0R's demise on the blade of R 7RN. M F57 had a defence platform erected at the end of the path V G0R's army carved through the core. All along the Hydian Way throughout the old battle site, pieces large and small of the ships used in the war float as space junk. Even the Confederacy has, to this day, left the area to the shades of its past failure.

A few short years later, M F57 fell ill to a strange computer virus that was gradually killing him. The best scientists seemed helpless to stop it. From his deathbed M F57 drafted terms according to W LDR's Covenant and handed his Presidency to R 7RN. The Prime accepted the burden knowing that the code of the ancient System Lords powered his core. Soon after the announcement of the coronation, M F57 passed away. In 515 AR, R 7RN was ordained as president, and the Union entered the a new era. The rule of his line has been eighty-seven years to this day. R 7RN ruled with the same approach he had adopted with his predecessor, priding the utilitarian over the frivolous. Always found deep in thought over matters of state with an inscrutable expression, he was termed the Stone-Faced President. He survived two assassination attempts and developed a reputation as a strong opponent of unregulated power and a man suspicious of cults. He played an important behind-the-scenes role in the founding of the Mercarian League, a confederacy of merchant cities both throughout the Union and abroad. All in all a remarkable leader. In 539 AR the Presidency passed to his progeny, V 7RN. Here was a J-Droid who had learned from his father's rule although he translated the heavy hand into an iron fist. V 7RN filled the Union's coffers through burdensome taxes in order to bolster the navy and fund privateers to secure the eastern space-lanes rife with pirate vessels. Many people hated him for such rigid demands despite his successes against the raiders of the Outer Rim. He earned a nickname that played off of his father's: the Stoneheart. The Stoneheart was a stern and harsh President who brooked no nonsense. He claimed to be surrounded by the self-interest of bureaucrats and sycophants and concluded he could trust no one. He dismissed his council of advisors and looked to "the counsel of his own mind" for making all of the Union's decisions. Despite the mixed feelings of his subjects, V 7RN moved the Union toward greatness. His taxes were harsh, but he was not as tight-fisted as we've been led to believe. He was a pragmatist, and his collected credits went to strengthen the Union. If debtors could not pay, rather than letting them rot in prison, he put them on board ships or into quarries to work off what they owed. True, many died under the hard circumstances, but by their toil the Union prospered.

V 7RN had two sons: his heir, V NTR, and L 3T0, our current good President. AI surrogates raised the boys since their father was preoccupied refining the Union's army and treasury. When he died suddenly—some say suspiciously—in 576 AR, the Union fell to his eldest son V NTR, as no accord had been left. So begins our next chapter. President J4-V NTR 'the Elder'. Most of you were young when his reign came to a sudden end. I think it is fair to classify V NTR as paranoid. Certainly his irrational fear of the council drove him to seclude himself, and perhaps it is why he turned out as he did. His father and grandfather were hard and sometimes grim men, but this V NTR was darker and colder yet. Woe for us that the Stoneheart had no time for W LDR's Covenant. V NTR suspected enemies everywhere he looked, and he contravened matters in open council by drawing his plasma blade to intimidate officials and "sway" dignitaries to his position. His paranoia brought the Inquisition when he turned his father's network of national security spies into judges and executioners. Until that time the Inquisition was a small group of discreet information gatherers, but V NTR expanded them into his own guild of authorized assassins. The Inquisition had complete liberty no matter how vile or unjust their actions. The Elder ruled with terror and murder though he termed it justice and presidential privilege. Those who opposed him were dragged off in the middle of the night and never seen again. In the latter years of his rule, individuals later unveiled as followers of Thea—Mazda's dark twin—infiltrated the president's council and used V NTR's tyranny for their own purposes. There were instances recorded regarding Primes corrupted from their faith with gifts and promises from the union coffers; some were even inducted into the ranks of the Inquisition. So deep was V NTR's evil that he managed to turn goodly Primes of the Fraternal Order and the Golden Crucible into willing participants in his tyranny.

During the length of his brother's rule, L 3T0 was appalled. He would spend much time alone brooding on his brother's depravities and the ongoing threat to the Union. The droid had an affinity with J2-A RU5 and had proven himself a friend of the Protectorate. Although they downplay their part in what was soon to happen, the J2 Protectorates agreement to join in action against V NTR may have been the final push that moved L 3T0's hand. A palace revolution erupted in the winter of 594 AR. It was nine years ago, but it seems like yesterday. It is fortunate for us that V NTR's paranoia was so strong. As much as he despised his younger brother L 3T0, V NTR trusted no one else to run his military. Making his brother a General Prime turned out to be an ironic choice, however, for L 3T0 soon enlisted the most patriotic officers along with Primes loyal to him and weary of the tyrant. Allies of L 3T0 included arkanian System Lord J4-C 5TR, now head of Corellia's Fraternal Order, heirs to systems of the northern and eastern Mid Rim, and a core of honourable army commanders and presidential guard who could no longer endure their leader's profane orders. This force waged battle through the palace attacking the equally stalwart henchmen of V NTR. C 5TR's most powerful Primes were pitted against V NTR's Inquisitors, and their conflict consumed the east wing of the palace in a foundation-shaking battle of technological prowess. You can still see the burn marks in the marble and stone. L 3T0 and his vanguard of autonomous AI and Primes battered their way into V NTR's chambers and attacked the president and his personal guards. V NTR slew two score of L 3T0's forces and appeared invincible. He waded through the cleft armour and circuits like an armoured galleon sailing in a sea of wrecked droids. When the Elder stood enraged before his brother, L 3T0 demanded one last time for him to end his madness and surrender. V NTR went for his brother's head and rained blows onto his sibling in unrelenting fury. Though L 3T0 would prove a wiser president, his brother was the more deadly swordsman and dealt the Younger what should have been a fatal wound—a wide gash across the chest. L 3T0 was at the point his brother's merciless lightsaber. You may ask, [What happened? Why is L 3T0 our president if his brother defeated him?] There are many rumours of intervention, but reports are unclear. One moment L 3T0 seemed defeated, but the next he stood over his disarmed and furious brother. I'd wager a hundred credits on the Lord A RU5, who's powers are unknown, but rumoured to be extensive. If anyone could conjure up such a miracle, it would be that fine droid.

V NTR was incarcerated, and L 3T0 declared the coup at an end. Sadly the Elder had many secret allies who moved immediately. Operatives of the Inquisition took L 3T0's wife hostage and demanded V NTR's release. L 3T0 loved his bride and had little choice. His assembly urged him to refuse, but L 3T0 gave the command. The Inquisitors immediately betrayed their promise by keeping her even as they bought time for V NTR by distracting the palace guards. V NTR thwarted the chase by gaining control of an experimental solar sail ship in orbit. He used it to fly west where the solar winds would take him, and he drifted out over the Unknown Regions. No one saw V NTR or L 3T0's bride again. May the Creator preserve her soul. President L 3T0 "the Younger" was ordained in a solemn ceremony while noblemen still whispered of the grim circumstances leading to his coronation. The presidential assembly conducted a full trial for the Elder in absentia whereby they formally stripped him of all Union rights for his proven crimes and dark alliances. Convicted of high treason, his life was forfeit. Execution had to be left to the perilous Unknown Regions. You are fortunate to live in a new and prosperous era with a wise president who stands vigilant. It is true that violence along the borders has increased and our army is beset by soldiers and mercenaries seeking to pillage our bounty. The Confederacy never ceased its aggression on our northern border even after the end of the Hydian War, yet our soldiers are brave and keep them in check. They are aided by stellar geography and the supremacy of our engineering and military prowess. The Imperium makes noises again reminiscent of the Civil War; I have no fear L 3T0 will keep them in line. Already soldiers of our Corellian garrison periodically beat them back from the Corellian Run. War is a constant, and destruction remains as an unfortunate price to pay for freedom and opportunity. President L 3T0 is a just and honourable ruler, and you would do well to give him your support. We'll continue next session with an in-depth look at the way the Confederacy and the Union have made use of mercenaries to wage various battles without declaring formal war.