The Julian War
The diplomatic overtures from 166 on being unproductive, in 175, Emperor
Martin I ordered Imperial fleets into Mendan sector, in an effort to
accomplish by force what couldn't be accomplished by negotiation.
The region was divided into a number of small polities, but these rallied
to the Asimikigir Confederation, the Menderes Corporation and family, and
in particular Julian Menderes, the family head, when he became Regent of
the Asimikigir Confederation in 178. Julian commanded the respect and
loyalty of both humans and Vargr in the Confederation, and he proved an
able leader as well. Taking advantage of Vargr resourcefulness and human
determination, Julian Menderes was able to create a protectorate organization
whose military arm, the Star Legion, was able to repulse the Imperial forces
by 185, and to capture most of the Antares region by 191, when the Imperium
was forced to come to a formal peace agreement.
Julian Protectorate Forms
With the peace treaty in 191, Julian Menderes was able to convert
the wartime protectorate organization into a permanent authority, the
Julian Protectorate, with the Star Legion as its armed forces. This change
was more nominal than actual, as its primary purpose is to resist Imperial
expansion, rather than act as a governing state. As part of the peace
agreement of 191 with the Imperium, a cluster of worlds in Antares sector
was granted autonomy as the League of Antares, and Julian Menderes was able
to ensure that the people in positions of power were from families that had
come coreward as refugees during the Pacification Campaigns. The cluster is
today largely sympathetic to the Protectorate, and, although Imperial
domination of the cluster is complete, no attempt to revoke autonomy or to
reintegrate the cluster by force has been made, largely because of the
certainty of a response from the Protectorate.
Decline
With peace between the Protectorate and the Imperium, the Protectorate's
defensive alliance against the Imperium waned as a binding force between
the members. Members went their own way in foreign relations and trade,
with the Protectorate doing little more than establishing standards for
interoperation (to ensure that, if the Star Legion were again needed,
maintenance and communication between various worlds' and confederations'
detachments would not suffer).
First Resurgence: The Imperial Grand Survey
In the late 380s through the early 400s and 410s, Imperial scouts attempted
to survey the worlds of the Protectorate for the Imperial Grand Survey.
These attempts caused concern that the information was to be used for
military or intelligence purposes, and presaged another war. The
Protectorate "beefed up" the Star Legion and ordered it out on patrol, and
many worlds refused cooperation with the Scouts, resulting in soured
relations between the Imperium and the states of the Protectorate. The
Imperium resorted to clandestine operations in Protectorate space, and in
spite of Protectorate efforts to prevent it, most of the area had been
surveyed to Imperial Class III standards by the time of the publication of
the Survey, in 420.
Second Resurgence: The Vargr Missions and the Hidden War
In 382, Emperor Martin III of the Imperium ordered a series of Alien Missions
to learn about the alien races with whom the Imperium had contact. These
missions included xenologists and other researchers, journalists, and
diplomats. The Vargr Mission, from 486 to 499, met a cool reception from
Protectorate worlds, and, althout anti-Imperial feeling had ebbed since the
Grand Survey, radically anti-Imperial factions attempted to incite worlds of
the Protectorate to turn away the Imperial emissaries. When these attempts
failed, the radicals resorted to terrorism and corsair raids, hiring bands
of pirates and corsairs to attack the Imperial ships.
Cleon IV, unwilling to tolerate continued harrassment of the study mission,
ordered Imperial Naval Intelligence to counter the anti-Imperial activity in
the area, in a "Hidden War" lasting from 488 to 494. Although the Naval
efforts were largely successful, they were widely publicised in the
Protectorate, and anti-Imperial feeling surged. In spite of the cessation of
harrassment, the Imperium elected to terminate the Vargr Mission early, in
499, and move on.
Third Resurgence: The Second Imperial Survey
As with the original Grand Survey in the 380s to 410s, the Second Survey
prompted fears of espionage directed at a possible war to incorporate the
Protectorate area into the Imperium. While the Imperium did not resort as
heavily to clandestine operations as during the Grand Survey, and relied
more on diplomacy, there were nevertheless some incidents between the Star
Legion and clandestine Scout operations that contributed to the damaging
of relations with the Imperium.
Fourth Resurgence: The Utovogh Tirades and the Rebellion
A charismatic Vargr leader, Utovogh, was responsible for inciting anti-
Imperial feeling among Vargr outside the Protectorate. While he has had
little effect within the Protectorate, the growing hostility to the
Imperium has been coupled with an increase in support for the Protectorate.
Concerned about possible belligerence, the Protectorate increased the size
of the Star Legion to its highest levels since the Julian War, and patrols
have been intensified.
With the assassination of Strephon and the fragmenting of the Imperium, the
Protectorate has emerged as a force for stability in the Antarean region and
the Vargr Enclaves. Archduke Bzrk of the Imperial Domain of Antares has
shown himself to be a leader who has earned the support of both Humans and
Vargr in the region, and he is generally trusted to guide his Domain through
the problems of the Rebellion.
In 1117, Archduke Bzrk announced that the Domain of Antares would be forced
to "operate independently [of the Imperium] for a time", and renamed his
Domain as the League of Antares. The following year, at Bzrk's request, the
League was admitted to the Protectorate as a member confederation, and Star
Legion detachments were soon in action against Imperial fleets under Lucan's
control. Antareans and Julians were comrades-in-arms throughout 1118 and
1119, but resentment started to grow against Antares, for involving the
Protectorate in a war not properly theirs to fight. The admission of two
confederations formerly part of the anti-Vargr Second Empire of Gashikan
provided a pretext for Bzrk to renounce the membership of the League in the
Protectorate, and non-Antarean detachments of the Star Legion were at the
same time withdrawn from the wars of the Rebellion. The condition of
Lucan's forces had deteriorated to the point where the League of Antares
could stand on its own, and good relations between the League and the
Protectorate remain.
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Navigation
The Julian Protectorate
Alien Races
Campaign Setting
Chronology
Julian War
Member States
Menderes Corporation
Star Legion
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