Forine (world)/Version 1

History of Forine (Version 1)

Forine, or rather, the Forine system, was first settled in 131 by a group of immigrants from several belter societies in the Imperial core. They were attracted to the system by a rich planetoid belt (named the Dragan Belt) and two groups of equally rich planetoids (the Deasil Trojans and the Widdershins Trojans) located at the trojan points of the otherwise unpromising world of Forine. Most of the population lived in the belt and the Trojan clusters, but a small starport was maintained on Forine. Eventually the population on and in orbit around Forine grew large enough to make Forine the politically dominant part of the system. Forine itself is a small, bitterly cold (average surface temperature is -146 C) planet with a trace atmosphere and no native lifeforms of any kind.

Forine has been ruled by authoritarian regimes for most of the past several centuries. Short-lived representative governments were established on a number of occasions, but all foundered on their inability to reconcile the conflicting aspirations of the system's planetary and belter populations. The authoritarian regimes have all justified their repressive rule on the grounds of necessity -- arguing that only an authoritarian regime can maintain law and order in such an overcrowded and impoverished system. Forinean history suggests that this argument is not entirely baseless, since civil strife in the past has sometimes resulted in huge numbers of fatalities when disruption of public utilities and trade caused widespread failure of life support systems. The ability to threaten disaffected regions and populations with potentially fatal embargos and blackouts has proven to be a major factor in sustaining Forine’s tradition of tyrannical rule.

Over the centuries, Forine’s various regimes oscillated back and forth between pro- and anti-Imperial stances in their foreign policies. The regime of charismatic dictator Chorni Norep, who ruled from 973 to 1081, had very poor relations with the Imperium arising from its colonial policies. In the late 900s, Forine established colonies on Elixabeth (Spinward Marches 1532) and Talchek (Spinward Marches 1631) both in order to secure sources of raw materials for the homeworld’s industries and to rid itself of some bothersome political dissidents. However, when Norep annonced plans to relieve overcrowding on Forine by ‘relocating’ millions of unwilling emigrants to Elixabeth in 989, unrest and then uprisings broke out there and on Talchek. Norep responded with brute force, killing hundreds of unarmed civilians in several infamous atrocities.

The Imperial authorities, horrified by the bloodletting and anxious to rein in Norep, imposed a peace settlement in 990. Under its terms, Elixabeth and Talchek remained colonies of Forine, but were given representation in a newly-established ‘Forine Assembly’ that was proportionally much greater than their relative populations in comparison to that of the homeworld. Moreover, in order to ensure that the Forinean regime abided by the terms of the agreement, both systems became Imperial clients and an Imperial naval base was established in the Elixabeth system.

Norep did not abandon her plans for the ‘relocation’ of Forine’s excess population. Instead, she merely shifted the destination from Elixabeth to Milagro, which had been the site of a Forinean penal colony for over two centuries. The rapid influx of ‘relocatees’ overwhelmed Milagro’s limited resources, and resulted in overcrowding, poverty and food shortages that were far worse than anything to be found on Forine itself. Starved of financing by the homeworld government, Milagro became virtually ungovernable by the late 1070s. Two years before her death by assassination in 1081, Norep (her lifespan augmented by use of anagathics) responded to Imperial complaints about the inhuman conditions on Milagro by renouncing Forine’s claim to the planet and abandoning the colonists to their fate. The sudden termination of food shipments and all government and law enforcement functions predictably led to utter chaos and massive loss of life on Milagro (estimated at 4.3 million fatalities).

In the chaos following Norep's assassination, the Sword Masters (the Forinean state police force) felt obliged to to abandon their long tradition of keeping out of politics. They restored order and their leader, the Sword Lord, assumed control of the government. Despite the archaic titles and overblown ambitions, they did an adequate job of providing services and maintaining public trust. In the decades preceding the Fifth Frontier War, the Council of Swords was quite friendly with the Third Imperium, but political tensions with the Sword Worlders prevented it from actually joining.