Volume XXXIII: Hatching Destiny—Birth of the Free Worlds League

United in their love for independence, yet divided against one another. Economically and socially powerful, yet strangled by a nightmarish entanglement of bureaucracy and conflict. These were the descriptions often made of the Free Worlds League, a nation that has ever been a study in contrasts. From its formation to its eventual collapse, and even into the present day, entire volumes have speculated on how this realm could have formed to begin with, with such severe differences among its member states. Scholars have marveled over its continued existence through almost eight centuries—much of that time plagued by near-constant warfare. Even after the League’s fall, experts have marveled at the remains of this once proud, yet hopelessly conflicted realm, and how many of its wayward offspring even now appear devoted to one day reclaiming the state they themselves sundered.

As with the other Successor States, the formation of the League began with the slow demise of the Terran Alliance. As more and more colony worlds declared their independence, the power of the Alliance deteriorated further, eventually leading to its inward turn, which all but cut off the young colonies from any support. In the chaos that followed, poorer worlds became victims of piracy and raids that sapped away their strength and destabilized their fledgling governments. To survive, alliances formed, like the Alliance of Galedon that would one day culminate in the creation of the Draconis Combine, or the economic powers of the Federation of Skye, the Tamar Pact, and the Protectorate of Donegal, which formed the Lyran Commonwealth. But before these alliances came those that led to the formation of the Free Worlds League—the Marik Commonwealth, the Principality of Regulus, and the Federation of Oriente.

The Marik Commonwealth, centered on the rich mining world of Marik, began as a single world, ruled by the family of the same name. Charles Marik, its ruler and a man who hailed from a long line of affluent leaders, declared his world’s independence from the Terran Alliance in 2238. Under his rule, the rechristened Republic of Marik united under a strong central government, bolstered by its formidable industrial capacity. Marik also raised an army from his Republic, an army that was eventually used in conjunction with his diplomatic acumen to help bring more worlds under his banner. By 2271, the Marik Commonwealth—the Republic’s name after it expanded beyond a single world—ruled a total of twenty worlds, sixty light-years from the edge of Terran Alliance space.

At almost the same time, the Principality of Regulus began to form as a consolidation of trading contracts between several rimward Terran colonies. Dominated by the wealthy Selaj family, whose core power base included five of the most developed worlds of the region, the Principality coalesced into a quasi-corporate political union of seventeen worlds by 2270.

The Federation of Oriente, meanwhile, formed around a core of diplomatic networks among the worlds closest to Oriente, which declared its independence from the Alliance under the rule of Tomàs Allison in 2241. A cosmopolitan mixture of ethnicities—in contrast to the mostly Eastern European Marik Commonwealth or the Indian- and Pakistani-dominated Principality of Regulus—the Federation was dedicated to its own freedom as well as the advancement of science and the arts.

Each of these three confederations grew under its own unique structure of government and culture. The Marik Commonwealth was a military-oriented realm with a powerful central government, if not absolutely so. The Principality was an oligarchy of wealthy families. And the Federation was ruled by a parliamentary democracy. But for all their differences, these three alliances soon saw their own rising prominence, as well as the inevitable decline of the Terran Alliance, as potential threats to their own stability. Allison, with a flash of insight, became the first to offer the option of alliance, together with his special envoy, Sir George Humphreys of New Delos.

Given the vast differences in the colonies established during the height of the Terran Alliance, it is rather amazing that more of the Great States did not encounter the problems the Regulans, Orientes, and Mariks did when attempting to forge their Free Worlds League. Language, a core element in any culture, became a focal point for the Treaty of Marik. Mindful of their recently won independence, and of the varied populations they ruled over, the leaders of the Commonwealth, Principality, and Federation argued over language and terminology as much as about the actual substance of their work. Eventually they settled on English, the only language spoken by all three leaders, though the majority of their populations did not normally speak this tongue. —Shaunna Verizi, Fractured States: Politics and the (Former) Free Worlds League, Republic Press, 3099

After years of debate over everything from their new state’s official language to the modes of government, the Treaty of Marik was finally—some might say, miraculously—signed in 2271, creating the first of what scholars today call the Successor States, the Free Worlds League. Its guiding principles: the mutual benefit of the Marik Commonwealth’s strong military with the economic power of the Selajes’ Principality of Regulus and the diplomatic skills of the Federation of Oriente’s diverse and independent-minded leadership. The Treaty of Marik granted all three realms internal autonomy, with their leaders established prominently in the parliamentary government. The post of Captain-General was created as an emergency title only, bestowing upon an elected military leader all authority over the League’s military during times of crisis. Built into this government was a further incentive to seek economic prosperity as well: the influence of delegations in Parliament was proportionate to the economic might of a world’s tax contributions to the state, rather than its planetary population, a fact which assured—for a time—the dominance of the Marik, Oriente, and Regulan states. True power rested with the Ministers of Parliament (MPs), rather than a central leader, but the voice of power blocs such as these resulted in a fairly cohesive government, most of the time.

Though fractious, and often slow to respond to change, the Free Worlds League did indeed prosper and grow after its formation. Several neighboring worlds and small federations eventually joined with the League for mutual protection, while others were annexed. One such conquest, the Stewart Commonality, a six-world military dictatorship that the Marik Commonwealth regarded as a sufficient threat to win a Parliamentary declaration of war upon, was assaulted in 2293. The crisis was sufficient to elect the League’s first Captain-General, Juliano Marik, setting the stage for a fundamental change in the League’s destiny that would take centuries to run its course.

That a Marik was chosen to be the League’s first Captain-General came naturally from the fact that the Marik family had forged the League’s most militarily experienced member realm, but the sweeping powers of the post, I think, delivered the most unexpected and far-reaching results. In its first implementation, for sure, the League swiftly absorbed the Stewart Commonality, a process that took only weeks to accomplish. Just twenty years later, however, the Captain-General would be called upon again, with Juliano Marik once more coming to the League’s rescue as the Terran Hegemony emerged on the scene. Rather than fight an unwinnable battle (with the armed forces of the Terran Alliance behind it, reorganized by the militarily astute Admiral James McKenna, the forces of the Hegemony outclassed those of the League), Marik instead used his broad authority as Captain-General to open a dialogue with the Hegemony, paving the way for trading relations that would lead the League to another economic boom. The League PMs did not object to this solution at all, even though it represented a heretofore unheard of combination of military command and state policy. For all intents and purposes, a Captain-General could assume complete authority over the guidance of the state during times of emergency. Naturally, this very early example paved the way for Resolution 288, and the longest running virtual suspension of the powers of the Free Worlds Parliament. . . . —Kevin Duelli,A Cynic’s Guide to Politics, 3rd Edition, Dark Skye Press, 3090

In the next installment of our special six-part look at the Free Worlds League, we’ll examine the latter years of the League, with a glimpse of the events that led to its final downfall. Join us as our tour of the stars continues! I’m Bertram Habeas.