Volume XXXIV: The Eagle’s Flight—Rise and Fall of House Marik

In 2398, the world of Andurien was assaulted by forces from the neighboring Capellan Confederation, marking the beginnings of the Age of War. From that time forward, the League—and the rest of the Inner Sphere—would find their borders under almost constant assault, at least until the formation of the Star League. It also marked the end of the Free Worlds League’s good years, as the coffers began to run dry from the expense of ongoing fighting. But more than that, it also initiated the longest single term of the Captain-Generalcy to date, and led to a political struggle between the Marik family and the League’s Parliament.

Peter Marik, appointed in 2396 to handle the Andurien crisis, not only managed to reclaim the worlds assaulted by House Liao, but also turned the League’s formidable strength against the Lyran Commonwealth, riding high on a wave of popularity as a hero to the Free Worlds’ peoples. When Parliament, in an effort to rein in their Captain-General, ordered Marik to call an armistice with the Lyrans, he defied them and continued a campaign of conquest, claiming several Commonwealth worlds before ending his campaign in 2418. Parliament struck back with the War Powers Act, establishing government oversight of the Captain-General and vastly limiting his authority, only to find Marik unwilling to return to the post just two years later when war against the Lyrans resumed.

Joseph Stewart, of the Stewart Commonality, became the League’s next war leader then, but demonstrated lackluster performance in dealing with the Lyran front, losing five worlds to Steiner advances in the 2420s. Considering Stewart a disastrous failure (the League had grown accustomed to martial success under the Mariks), the Parliament begged Peter Marik’s son, Terrence, to assume the Captain-Generalcy, only to find him unwilling to accept as long as the War Powers Act remained in place. The political standoff ended in compliance to Terrence’s demands, releasing the new Captain-General from the chains of Parliamentary control.

And so did the Marik family all but cement its dominance over the League’s military and politics, a dominance that held with minimal challenges into the Star League era, when the post became the recognized head of the Free Worlds state in the Star League Council.

The deal to enter the Star League was probably one of the Marik clan’s biggest coups to date. Not only did they receive the support of the Terran Hegemony in ending the longstanding conflict over the Andurien region—Liao was on its third campaign to seize control over the territory—but they also assured that the post of Captain-General would remain active even when a lack of wars should necessitate that the post be vacated. Of course, while technically it never guaranteed House Marik would always hold the post, the fact that Mariks have always been the best military strategists and leaders in the Free Worlds’ history all but assured that Mariks would sit on the military throne of the Free Worlds League as a member of the greater Star League. —Kevin Duelli, A Cynic’s Guide to Politics, 3rd Edition, Dark Skye Press, 3090

After the Star League’s fall, of course, came the Succession Wars. No longer protected by the recognition of the League’s central government, House Marik might have faced the end of its virtual reign over the Free Worlds, had the universe not suddenly erupted in warfare. With the departure of Kerensky’s troops into the unknown, Kenyon Marik, the standing Captain-General, persuaded a panicked Parliament to pass the famous—some might say, infamous—Resolution 288, granting the Captain-Generalcy sweeping discretionary powers “for the duration of the crisis.” Curiously enough, few Parliamentarians thought to question the definition of “the crisis,” and conditioned by centuries of Captain-Generals dictating state policy, the resolution passed, legally granting open-ended control of the Free Worlds League to the office of the Captain-General. It was thus that the Marik clan assured its control, as successive Mariks—chosen by their outgoing forebears and friends of the family—each assumed command from their predecessors, invoking Resolution 288 without fail.

Through the centuries of the Succession Wars, though challenges to the Captain-General rose time and again, the Marik family maintained its grip on the helm of the Free Worlds League. Yet this grip was tenuous at best. By the mid-twenty-ninth and early thirtiethth centuries the various minor states of the League—such as the Duchy of Andurien, the Duchy of Orloff, and the Border Protectorate—had managed to pass the Home Defense Act, allowing them to retain up to three-fourths of the troops raised in their provinces regardless of the Captain-General’s desires.

This balkanization would eventually lead to the Marik Civil War in 3014. Led by Anton Marik, brother of the sitting Captain-General, Janos, the rebels found support among more than a few regional dukes. While some larger provinces, like Andurien and Regulus, declared their neutrality, the Marik brothers waged a bloody war across the realm that ended almost as quickly as it had begun, but left behind lingering divisions among the League’s member states.

Imagine having a bunch of close friends together in one room, when one of the more popular suddenly accuses another of something horrible, something like, say, theft, or rape, or murder. Now, imagine the others taking sides, hurling insults, trading blows, drawing blood. Now imagine that some outsider comes along and shoots the accuser, leaving the others alone to contemplate the shock. The accusation dies with the man, perhaps, but all the bad blood that these friends could only suspect was there all along—all the secret jealousies and resentments toward their most popular friend—have now had their voice. Now, all the “I’m sorry”s and “Please forgive me”s in the world can’t fix it; those friendships won’t ever be the same again. As high schoolish as it sounds, such was the state of the Free Worlds League after the Wolf’s Dragoons killed Anton Marik and effectively ended the Civil War. Suddenly, House Marik saw who its real friends and enemies were, and there were damned few of the former and too many of the latter. In fact, were it not for the threat of the united Lyran Commonwealth and Federated Suns, it is quite likely that the League would have gone through another civil war, one much more final than Anton’s revolt. —Shaunna Verizi, Fractured States: Politics and the (Former) Free Worlds League, Republic Press, 3099

Indeed, the League’s fragmentation did begin soon after the Fourth Succession War, when the Duchy of Andurien announced its secession and launched a campaign against the Capellan Confederation with its allies in the Magistracy of Canopus, a nearby Periphery realm. Janos Marik, the aging leader of the League, reacted by moving for the passage of his Emergency Act of 3030, formally curtailing the powers of the League’s provinces “for the duration of the emergency.” An echo of Resolution 288, this law allowed the Captain-General to consolidate his power further to handle the Andurien crisis, but also angered the smaller provinces that were its target. This crisis would culminate in the assassination of Janos during a strategy meeting, and the eventual—apparent—return of his son, Thomas, some months later.

History, of course, knows that the Thomas Marik who claimed the throne was an impostor placed there by ComStar in its darker days, but that impostor proved to be perhaps the most gifted leader in the history of the League. Repealing the Emergency Act in favor of his Addendum to Incorporation, a law that allowed the provinces their autonomy and strength in exchange for the Captain-General’s veto power, he won over those provinces tired of being “Marik doormats.” With near absolute political and military authority, Thomas went on to win the Andurien War, reclaiming the renegade province under a newer, stronger central authority.

In the years that followed, this false Thomas Marik would work not only toward strengthening the central government, but for rebuilding the League’s military and industrial base. Yet it was not until the Clan Invasion in 3048 that the League’s greatest opportunity to seize its destiny would arrive. In a power deal with the other Successor Lords, Thomas Marik made the League the premiere military manufacturer and supplier for the embattled Inner Sphere, and forged a close alliance with the Capellan Confederation to assure its security against the Steiner-Davion alliance. At almost the same time, however, he also played host to the Word of Blake, the breakaway faction of ComStar that would one day consume his realm in fire.

Thus did the Free Worlds League assure its place as one of the Inner Sphere’s most potent and respected powers, while simultaneously sowing the seeds of its own horrific demise.

In part three of this special series on the Free Worlds League, we’ll take a closer look at the alliances that made up the League and how they stand today. Our tour of the stars continues. I’m Bertram Habeas.