Confederacy of Duncinae
The Confederacy of Duncinae was founded by refugees from the First Civil War (309 to 328) in the Principality of Caledon.
- It has since reestablished close relations with the mother nation and enjoys cultural and economic ties that benefit both.
- The Confederacy is ruled as a loose hegemony of states where individual freedoms are highly valued (where conditions permit) and local governments enjoy considerable independence.
- The capital at Duncinae (Reaver's Deep 1624) rules over seven other worlds in the Ea and Drexilthar Subsectors.
History & Background (Dossier)[edit]
There are really three major phases to Caledonian history:
- Liberation from the Iltharan Empire
- The influx of Caledonian refugees and the founding of the Confederacy
- The reconciliation with Caledon
Currently tensions are running high between the Confederacy and the Grand Duchy of Marlheim due to the MacBeth Affair. Roger Vane, the former ambassador to Marlheim (Reaver's Deep 1230) is expected to win the election as President of the Confederacy Council. He is expected to take a much stronger stance with regard to relations with the Grand Duchy than the current administration.
The Iltharan War[edit]
The human and other sophont populations of the systems now known as the Confederacy of Duncinae were a polyglot and dispersed lot before they were annexed between -800 and -500 by the Iltharan Empire. The empire treated their spin-coreward territories as vassal possessions, subjecting the residents to confiscatory taxes, mercantilistic trade policies, and military conscription.
Unrest in the territories -- including a mutiny among indigenous troops on Fort William in -107, which was brutally suppressed by the Iltharan Secret Police and Navy -- led the resistance to the attention of the Caledonians, who fed judicious amounts of money and supplies to the resistance for many years.
The Iltharans considered the assistance a provocation -- one of many launched from the upstart Principality -- and in the early -80s began planning a coup de main to eliminate the pesky Caledonians as a threat. They began massing forces for a full-scale invasion. This invasion plan was, however, discovered by the Caledonian intelligence agency, which led to an epic pre-emptive strike at the beginning of the Iltharan War in -86.
The war was short, sharp and bloody, and left the Iltharan garrisons on the systems in the Duncinean chain cut off and isolated.
Combined Caledonian intelligence and military assets, coordinated by Lady Ingrid Harris (an intelligence operative who would go on to found the Caledonian Special Service), instigated general revolts on Duncinae (Reaver's Deep 1624), Ranald (Reaver's Deep 1526) and Fulton (Reaver's Deep 1524), starting in -85, using a combination of mercenaries, Caledonian Army and Marine special units, and Naval forces (as well as units of a nascent Duncinean fleet) for fire support.
Ranald fell within months with the quick surrender of a demoralized Iltharan garrison, and became a staging post for the rebellion (as well as a Caledonian fleet forward operating base for several years). The Iltharan Marines on Duncinae were made of sterner stuff, and fought a brutal defensive battle that left tens of thousands of civilians (and 90% of the garrison) dead, with hostilities finally declared finished in -84. The Duncinae Provisional Government began on that date, and within the year launched an invasion of Fulton, where the garrison dispersed and carried out a largely fruitless guerrilla war until their final surrender and repatriation in -81.
The Treaty of Tsaneer-Kekhiliphar in -80 put an end to the war; Iltharan forces evacuated Just and Invermory. The Iltharans intended the treaty to set up a buffer between them and Caledon, and buy them time to rebuild and take another run at reconquering the Duncinaeans and Caledonians -- but the defeat the Duncinean chain led to a political and economic slide that led other states, like sharks, to start parcelling out the Iltharan state.
Finally, the former Iltharan base at Vincit -- a rich trade center, and a Caledonian scout base, left vacant by the Iltharans -- was ceded by Caledon to Duncinae in 0.
The First Caledonian Civil War[edit]
The systems that would become the Confederacy of Duncinae were for the next three centuries independent, scattered Caledonian client states.
During the First Caledonian Civil War -- when Prince William II (MacDougall of Cruikshank) launched an extended low-intensity campaign against insurgent nobles on a number of the Principality's spinward systems -- a sizeable group of Caledonian refugees, supporters of the insurgents, fled the Principality. They brought with them technology and some clan-based political cohesion, but not nearly the numbers it would take to sway political forums on the scattered worlds.
But they also brought with them George Muir, a former Caledonian general from Rob Roy and firebrand political intellectual, whose book, "Our Mutual Future", laid out a vision for a unified Duncinaean confederation built around principles of personal freedom and distributed authority, organized for mutual defense.
The first Congress of Ranald, in 332, enacted the first National Code, which laid out a representative republic with very little centralized non-military power.
For the next century, as those who remembered the Civil War and their immediate descendents held sway, the Confederacy's relationship with the Principality was chilly but progressively more civil.
Reconciliation[edit]
Finally, in 503, under the Caledonian reign of Laurence V, of the house of McIntee of Inverharrow (which strenuously abjured the excesses of the MacDougal of Cruikshank reign), the Legation of Warwick met with the Caledonian Foreign Minister at Castle Caermorghain on Victory, and signed the Treaty of Caermorghain, cementing a reconciled relationship between the two states.
Government & Politics (Leadership)[edit]
The Confederacy is ruled as a loose hegemony of states. Individual freedoms are highly valued and local governments enjoy considerable independence.
Technology & Trade (Economy)[edit]
The Confederacy has no significant manufacturing base of its own and is limited to the construction of jump-2 ships, but its agricultural products of the Confederacy are highly desirable for export.
Military & Intelligence (Force Projection)[edit]
An example of their naval architecture is the Dulcinae Class Destroyer.
Worlds & Sectors (Astrography)[edit]
References & Contributors (Sources)[edit]
- Author & Contributor: Mitchberg
- External Link: External Link
- Mongoose 2nd: The Deep and the Dark