Alphard (MH)

This article is about the Marian Hegemony system. For the Free Worlds League system, see Alphard (FWL).


Alphard
Alphard (MH) 3151.svg
System Information
X:Y Coordinates−405.914 : −298.395[e]
Spectral classG3IV[1][2][3][4]
Recharge time184 hours[1][2][3][4]
Recharge station(s)None[1][2][3][4]

The Alphard system is the location of the habitable world Alphard IV, and as of 3145 was the capital world of the Marian Hegemony.[5][6]

System Description[edit]

Alphard is located near the Stafford and Suetonius systems. By the thirty-first century, the Alphard system lacked any recharge stations.[1][2][3][4]

Political Affiliation[edit]


Alphard IV[edit]

Alphard IV
Alphard flag.png
Astrophysical
System positionFourth[1][2][3][4][36]
Jump Point distance8.53 days[1][2][3][4]
Moons1 (Romulus)[1][2][4]
Geophysical
Surface gravity1.0[1][2][4]
Atmospheric pressureStandard (Breathable)[1][2][4]
Equatorial temperature33°C (Temperate)[1][2][4]
Surface water55%[1][2][4]
Highest native lifeMammal[1][2][3][4]
Landmasses3 (Alba, Gaul, Ostia)[37][1][38]
History and Culture
Population3,110,205,000 (3067),[1]
3,110,192,000 (3076),[2]
3,112,075,000 (3079)[4]
Government and Infrastructure
Noble RulerCaesar of the Marian Hegemony (formerly Imperator)
CapitalNova Roma[4]
HPG ClassB[1][2][3][4]
HPG RepresentativePrecentor Laura Trin (3025)[39]

Alphard IV, commonly referred to simply as Alphard, is the fourth planet in the Alphard system and has been the capital of the interstellar nation known as the Marian Hegemony since that nation was founded. Alphard was host to at least two major manufacturers—Alphard Trading Corporation and Marian Arms Incorporated—as well as an aerospace training academy and the Senate House.

Planetary History[edit]

Recolonization[edit]

Alphard was the capital world of the Marian Hegemony. In 2920, Johann Sebastian O'Reilly discovered a hidden storehouse of germanium on Alphard that had once belonged to the Alphard Trading Corporation. He used the wealth from this lode to found the beginnings of the Marian Hegemony.[40] Johann O'Reilly had been searching for Star League technology left behind by the Alphard Trading Company, but having found 50 billion C-bills' worth of germanium, Johann instead recruited several small mercenary bands to defend the planet and invited war refugees to settle. He also named his fledgling colony after the Roman Consul Gaius Marius.[37] With the stored germanium quickly converted to cash, Johann was able to open Alphard up for germanium mining and within a few years the population had grown enough to allow Johann to establish control over seven other nearby worlds.[41]

The Succession Wars[edit]

By 3025, Alphard was a world that offered a reasonable standard of living and some nominal creature comforts, in part due to the modest industrialization that had taken place, and it was considered likely that if the Hegemony government could protect the industries on Alphard from predation or retaliation at the hands of the Hegemony's neighbors, Alphard could become a stable economic force in the Periphery for generations.[3]

The Word of Blake[edit]

In 3058, the Word of Blake sent a delegation to Alphard to treat with Caesar Sean O'Reilly. The Blakists made an offer that proved impossible for the Caesar to turn down; in exchange for an exclusive contract to operate the HPG systems within the Hegemony, the Word would upgrade the Marian Legions to use more advanced technology.[42] In 3059, O'Reilly went on to establish the Alphard Air Academy on Alphard.[43]

Caesar's End[edit]

In mid-3063, Julius O'Reilly, son of Caesar Sean O'Reilly, returned to Alphard in command of the victorious II Legio and IV Legio, fresh from their conquest of the Illyrian Palatinate. Julius had returned to Alphard to depose his father, exposing the Caesar's various misdeeds from embezzlement to atrocities against the population of the Lothian worlds; the bulk of the population already detested Sean, and needed little reason to turn on him. Those members of I Legio who stayed loyal to Sean—less than half the legion, all told—were quickly dispatched by the forces loyal to Julius, and when Caesar himself was dispatched at the point of Julius' sword, Alphard and the rest of the Hegemony had a new Caesar.[44]

Caesar Julius O'Reilly had a noticeable effect on Alphard; over the next few years, he revoked or curbed many of the excesses his father had put in place, including having a number of buildings and other architectural features reworked to remove many of the excessive self-promoting tributes Sean had established. Julius' reintroduction of the previous system of patronage, where a member of the pleb class could buy his way into the patrician class by purchasing landholds in the Lothian and Illyrian worlds gave successful plebs a way upwards and off Alphard.[45]

Circinus Federation War[edit]

During the unsuccessful 3066 campaign against the Circinus Federation, Federation forces launched a counterattack that included a destructive raid on Alphard itself. A number of prominent families on Alphard lost valuable real estate in the resulting battle, generating a certain amount of ill will towards Caesar Julius O'Reilly.[46]

The Jihad[edit]

On 6 June 3071, the Word of Blake detonated a series of neutron bombs which had been hidden throughout Nova Roma, the capital city of Alphard and the Marian Hegemony, annihilating the population of the city and killed the Caesar Julius O'Reilly and most of the Marian Senate.[47] This had a dramatic negative effect on Alphard's development, largely undoing forty years of industrial growth, growth which had been boosted by the addition of mineral resources from the worlds of the former Lothian League. The Blakist attack not only destroyed factories, it also destroyed Alphard's university and trade school system, as well as financial records, contracts, tax records and all of the people who worked in the factories, in further education, and in finance. Alphard lost both its key workers and the infrastructure to train more, and economists estimated that the planetary economy wouldn't recover from the damage until the 3120s.[2]

The nature of the weapons used by the Blakists left the fabric of the city of Nova Roma largely intact; a silent mausoleum filled with buildings in the Classical style, with the buildings combining golden sandstone with white Alphard marble facings. The remains are guarded by an elite honor guard from the Prima Auxilia Alphardensis, and a dedicated corps of civilian workers who were still working during the Jihad to bury the dead and monitor the radiation levels and environmental effects left by the attack. The civilian corps is manned on an entirely voluntary basis and each worker is only allowed to work for a month in the city; despite these strict requirements, in the six years after the attacks no post was ever unfilled. For years, mourners flocked to what became known as the Silent City in numbers reaching hundreds of thousands, wearing yellow plastic suits and black respirators to visit graves and familiar places too radioactive to enter. There was a strict ban on anything being removed from the city by any of these mourners, as to do so is considered grave robbing; visitors are thoroughly searched, and anyone from the lower orders who attempts to remove anything faced stiff penalties.[2]

In the aftermath of the attack on Nova Roma the city of Lugdunum on the continent of Gaul became the planetary capital pro tem, despite being a sleepy continental capital ill-suited to being the capital city of an interstellar nation. Lugdunum's primary role had been in the sale, trade and processing of agricultural products, and the transition to planetary and national capital was a difficult one. The change was only temporary, however; the new Caesar, Cassius O'Reilly, declared that a new capital city, also to be named Nova Roma, would be built in the shadow of the silent remains of the original city. The skeleton of the new Senate building was to be built using steel taken from the original Senate building and decontaminated.[2]

Military Deployment[edit]

3079[edit]

- At this point in time, the III Legio were deployed across Pompey and Alphard. The III Legio was at 85% of full strength.

3085[edit]

3145[edit]

Geography[edit]

Alphard is a dry, arid and desolate world, dominated by box canyons, mountain ranges and rocky arroyos. While Alphard is possessed of considerable untapped mineral wealth, there is relatively little arable land; what land there is that is suitable for farming is located principally on the two northern continents of Alba and Gaul.[1][37] The southernmost continent on Alphard is the island continent of Ostia.[38] One notable inland sea is the Stella Maris, a giant freshwater sea located several kilometers from the planetary capital of Nova Roma and home to the Alphard Mudskipper.[51]

Planetary Locations[edit]

Industrial Centers[edit]

Map Gallery[edit]

Nearby Systems[edit]

Closest 20 systems (8 within 60 light-years)
Distance in light years, closest systems first:
Stafford 18.6 Suetonius 19.0 Pompey 32.9 Baccalieu 36.3
Addhara 37.8 Niops 47.8 Ballalaba 54.5 Horatius 56.2
Stettin 64.3 New Venice 64.5 Revel 66.5 Romita 69.7
Izmir 72.0 Islington 74.0 Lahti 76.5 Cerignola 79.2
Hednesford 80.4 Corbeanca 83.8 Marius's Tears 86.0 Paulinus 86.8

References[edit]

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 166: "Alphard Profile"
  2. 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 Masters and Minions: The StarCorps Dossiers, pp. 199–200: "Marian Hegemony Key Worlds"
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 The Periphery, p. 146: "Marian Hegemony"
  4. 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 Objectives: Periphery, p. 25: "Alphard"
  5. 5.0 5.1 Era Report: 3145, p. 38: "Inner Sphere - [3145] Map"
  6. 6.0 6.1 Field Manual: 3145, p. VI: "Inner Sphere - [3145] Map"
  7. Handbook: House Marik, p. 24
  8. Historical: Reunification War, p. 158
  9. Era Report: 2750, p. 36
  10. Field Manual: SLDF, p. xi: "Inner Sphere - [2764] Map"
  11. Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, p. 10
  12. Field Report 2765: Periphery, p. 38
  13. Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, p. 104
  14. Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2, pp. 122–123
  15. Handbook: House Marik, p. 34
  16. Handbook: House Marik, p. 38
  17. 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 163: "Marian Hegemony at various dates"
  18. The Periphery, First Edition, pp. 156–157
  19. Handbook: House Marik, p. 42
  20. Handbook: House Marik, p. 51
  21. Historical: War of 3039, p. 132
  22. Era Report: 3052, p. 10
  23. Era Report: 3052, p. 22
  24. Era Report: 3062, p. 10
  25. Handbook: House Marik, p. 54
  26. The Periphery, 2nd Edition, p. 112: "Illyrian Palatinate & Marian Hegemony"
  27. Era Report: 3062, p. 28
  28. Inner Sphere, p. 98: "Near Periphery Kingdoms"
  29. Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 42
  30. Handbook: House Marik, p. 56
  31. Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents, p. 64
  32. Field Report: Periphery, p. 23
  33. Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 63
  34. Field Manual: 3085, p. vii: "Inner Sphere - [3085] Map"
  35. Era Report: 3145, p. 10
  36. The Periphery, p. 62: "Bandit Kingdoms"
  37. 37.0 37.1 37.2 Masters and Minions: The StarCorps Dossiers, p. 195: "The Marian Hegemony"
  38. 38.0 38.1 Handbook: Major Periphery Status, p. 154: "Spotlight: The Senate"
  39. The Periphery, p. 146: "World Name: Alphard"
  40. Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 42
  41. Handbook: Major Periphery Status, p. 42: "Bandit Kings and Pirate Nations"
  42. Handbook: Major Periphery Status, pp. 71–72: "Ave, Imperator - Rise of the Marian State"
  43. 43.0 43.1 Handbook: Major Periphery Status, p. 158: "Aerospace and Conventional Forces"
  44. Handbook: Major Periphery Status, p. 72: "Conscience of the King"
  45. Handbook: Major Periphery Status, p. 143: "Marian Hegemony"
  46. Handbook: Major Periphery Status, p. 157: "Bad Break: The Caesar and the Word of Blake"
  47. Jihad Hot Spots: 3076, p. 16: "Timeline of the Jihad"
  48. Field Report: Periphery, p. 15: "Marian Hegemony Regimental Status"
  49. Field Manual: 3085, p. 150: "Deployment Table - 3085"
  50. Field Manual: 3145, p. 202: "Marian Hegemony Armed Forces"
  51. 51.0 51.1 Handbook: Major Periphery Status, p. 178: "Alphard Mudskipper (Amphibius Alphardis)"
  52. Handbook: Major Periphery Status, p. 161: "Alphard Trading Corporation"
  53. Objectives: Periphery, p. 25: "Alphard Trading Corporation"
  54. Handbook: Major Periphery Status, p. 162: "Marian Arms, Inc."
  55. Objectives: Periphery, p. 26: "Marian Arms, Incorporated"

Bibliography[edit]