Listen up, folx.
The following is my admittedly hazy remembrance of what was, for a while,
the most interesting bit of political intrigue in Traveller, from a time
when the Spinward Marches were the only part of the Imperium about which
anyone outside GDW knew anything (the Solomani Rim still being under prep):
When the Fifth Frontier War began in 1107 (That's about 1981 or so), the
Imperial Navy was under the command of a sleaze bucket known through the
Traveller News Service as Grand Admiral hault-Santanocheev. He proceeded
to lose the Jewell Cluster, the Lanth Subsector, and most of the rest of
the frontier regions of the Marches, in a stunning series of Zhodani wins
that ended up threatening Rhylanor itself!
Norris was not amused, and he told Santanocheev as much.
Santanocheev did the only sensible thing: he had the Duke assassinated.
Or tried to, anyway.
(Insert sound of flung wad of excrement striking rotary air blower here)
It took until after the War was over for us poor readers of the JTAS to
piece everything together, but as nearly as I can work out, what happened
was that Norris's death was reported to the News Service, only to be
followed by a statement that the Duke wasn't dead, just resting |-> .
The rumors of a coverup persisted until Norris himself came on the scene and
forcibly removed Santanocheev from power. He couldn't trust any of the
chiefs of staff, and he needed to be in firm command of the situation
when the Corridor Fleet arrived on the scene looking for someone to kill,
so he took command of the Navy himself. Under his command, the Zhodani were
driven back, Lanth was recaptured, Jewell was freed (it never fell), and
the Zhodani negotiated a ceasefire, followed by an armistice on 001-1111.
No territories changed sides, and that was that. (Oh, by the way, the
other members of the OUtworld Coalition, the Sword Worlds and the Vargr,
got chewed up and spat out nearly a year before the ceasefire. They didn't
negotiate a ceasefire-- they SURRENDERED! Can you say, "Please don't hurt
me?" You can? Well, SAY IT LOUDER! AND GROVEL!) The upshot of the whole
business was that Norris, as the real architect of the victory, came out
smelling better than any Admiral since Arbellatra Alkhalkoi stomped the
Zhodani in the Second Frontier War, then took her fleet to the Core and
established the dynasty whose latest child is lying on the floor of the
Iridium Throne Room with Dulinor's slug in his forehead....
But I digress. |->
The point is, Santanocheev was stripped of command, tried, courtmartialed,
cashiered, and exiled. He wasn't killed, nor was a public reading of the
charges made, to hide the depth of the corruption in the Imperial Navy,
which resembles the bad guys in the Star Wars movies more and more as you
learn how they REALLY operate.... (HISS! BOO!)
Norris has been an immensely popular and charismatic leader ever since.
He knew that with the proper stamp of authority, he could avoid a lot of
hassles when the assassination became public knowledge. so he made himself
Archduke of Deneb. Simple, wasn't it? It'd be a lot easier to prove if he
could explain why, by the time his appointment was announced, the whole
Corridor Fleet (which was ostensibly his to command) was on its way to the
Imperial Core, leaving the sector defenseless.... Oh, well, nobody's perfect.
Oh, and Leonard Bolden-Tukera, the Marquis of Aramis, is married to a woman
who's a full-blooded Tukera family member. He has a lot of vested interests
in Tukera, and in Akerut, its local feeder line serving the Aramis subsector.
His chief rival is Marc hault-Oberlindes, Baron of Feri, whose Oberlindes
Lines are making life difficult for Akerut these days. Oberlindes is a sharp,
hardworking businessman whose reputation for taking care of his employees
is nothing short of legendary. Bolden-Tukera is a fat, stupid slob who
couldn't inspire loyalty in a tribe of Orcs. ("Orcs? What're they?" "Oh, some
minor race from the Hinterworlds. Currently fighting with something called
the Bobbits, or Boggits, or something like that....") The tradewar between
Akerut and Oberlindes of 1105 and 1106 came to an abrupt end when Oberlindes
was able to prove that Akerut's security chief was selling meson guns to a
Vargr corsair band for use against his own country's shipping, and lining
his own pockets with the commission. (See THE TRAVELLER ADVENTURE.) The Duke
wasn't too pleased about that, either.....
Any other questions?
yatta yatta,
metlay
PS. Yes, what the HIWG does becomes gospel. That's why they're so controlled.