Rebellion
The Rebellion, also known as the Second Civil War (to distinguish it from the First Civil War) and the Final War, was the undoing of the Third Imperium.
Description (Specifications)
The conflict known as the Rebellion was instigated by Dulinor Astrin Ilethian of Dlan, Archduke of the Domain of Ilelish. Dulinor believed Imperial policy was overly focused on preserving the status quo and unresponsive to the needs of its people. He believed the only effective way to change this was to seize the throne himself. In 1116 he executed a carefully prepared plan to assassinate Emperor Strephon, expecting to have a claim to the throne through Right of Assassination be recognized by the Moot. As a backup, he secured the loyalty of the Imperial military forces in his Domain and planned to dominate any rivals militarily.
Dulinor killed not only Strephon, but Strephon's heir Ciencia Iphegenia as well; the succession passed to Strephon's mentally unstable nephew Lucan, who was rumored to have killed his older brother Varian to gain the throne. Hostilities then began between loyal forces under Lucan's command and Dulinor's forces. Attempting to defeat Dulinor with overwhelming force, Lucan ordered sector fleets from peripheral regions of the Imperium to reinforce the fleets from the core areas. This left those border regions open to attack by Vargr corsairs, Solomani forces bent on recapturing Terra and other Imperial-occupied regions, and Aslan ihatei. These attacks cut off the Domain of Deneb from the main body of the Imperium and led other high-ranking nobles to split off and form their own factions, who were then subjected to attacks both by outside invaders and to punishment actions by Lucan. One of these factions was led by an individual who claimed to be the actual Emperor Strephon (claiming the assassinated Strephon was a clone acting as a court double).
From 1117 to 1122 the war was a more-or-less conventional military conflict, primarily with Lucan and Dulinor attempting to achieve absolute military superiority while the other factions mainly acted in self-preservation; none were able to decisively defeat their rivals. From 1122 onward the factions, believing that outright superiority was impossible, switched to a strategy of asset denial and started a period called the Black War. Black War actions started a set of mutually-reinforcing trends that decreased interstellar trade and travel, degraded infrastructure, and reduced populations, leading to a period known as the Hard Times, where the notion of a reunited Imperium died in the minds of its citizens.
Dulinor started one last attempt to seize Capitol in 1129, but in 1130 his Coronation Fleet inadvertently released a superweapon developed by researchers working for Lucan, the Virus. Virus worked far too well and essentially destroyed interstellar civilization over most of the space of the former Imperium and beyond, an event called the Collapse. Only the Domain of Deneb remained as an interstellar state, by imposing a strict quarantine at its borders.
History & Background (Dossier)
No information yet available.
References & Contributors (Sources)
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- Hard Times
- Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
- Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science