Nicoletta Calderon

Nicoletta Calderon.jpg
Nicoletta Calderon
Character Profile
Born 4 January 2708[1]
Died 29 November 2801[2]
Affiliation House Calderon
Rank Protector of the Realm
Title(s) Duchess of Taurus
Keeper of the Veil
Profession Noble
Parents Hampton Calderon (father)[1]
Children Semyon Calderon[2]


Nicoletta Calderon became Protector of the Taurian Concordat in 2726 after the assassination of Hampton Calderon.

History[edit]

Nicoletta was only 18 years old at the time when she became Protector, after her grandfather retired and her uncle was killed.[2] She would go on to lead the Concordat through the death of the Star League and was one of the major architects of its demise. Nicoletta spent most of her long tenure as Protector defending her nation from the increasingly severe burdens that the Star League was then piling upon the Periphery states. She also cultivated closer ties to those same states long before the Inner Sphere powers noticed her actions. The rest of her foreign policy was simply focusing on improving affairs within the Concordat to clear the way for her to seize any opportunities the Star League and the Great Houses might give her to benefit her people. In this fashion Nicoletta was able to better prepare the Taurian Concordat for the breakdown of interstellar cooperation. No other nation or state was as well-prepared as the Concordat when the Amaris Crisis arose.[3]

It was Nicoletta who initiated efforts to bring the Periphery nations together in a unified political block to counter further Star League depredations. She was often allied with Janina Centrella of the Magistracy of Canopus. Even so, they could not slow Richard Cameron's Taxation Edict of 2763. After receiving tepid (at best) responses from the High Council for relief from unfair taxation and trade barriers she knew that her nation would have to one day fight for freedom. Nicoletta first carefully built up the TDF as well as the planetary militias. With the most of the 20 known weapons manufacturers outside of the Inner Sphere located in the Concordat, she was able to siphon off production to her own forces slowly and secretly. Janina was hiring every mercenary she could get. It was these efforts that gave Stefan Amaris the cover he needed to launch his coup. Though much of the New Vandenberg Uprising seems to have been solely Nicoletta's work, Amaris had convinced her that there was much greater opposition to Richard Cameron's rule among the Great Houses, especially after Cameron's Executive Order 156 in 2762.[4][5]

The New Vandenberg Uprising was focus of the SLDF and General Kerensky. With the whole of humanity watching as 18 worlds seceded from the Taurian Concordat in 2765 Nicoletta did ... nothing. By allowing the Uprising to stand as an internal matter to be decided by the Concordat, Nicoletta tied up any political or military action by implying that Richard would send the SLDF into any Great House internal matter whenever he chose to intervene. Nicoletta met personally with Richard Cameron for the second and last time in 2765; her disdain for a man that kept both his sisters bound to incestuous relationships made for a "colorful" exchange that only infuriated the First Lord and amused the jaded High Council. Though the Civil War ravaged the Inner Sphere and the Rim Worlds Republic with over 100 million dead, the Taurian Concordat, the Magistracy of Canopus and the Outworlds Alliance suffered very little. Nicoletta kept a strict neutrality to both Amaris and Kerensky, giving no aid or support to her old "ally" in his battle with the Great General.[6][7]

Nicoletta Calderon's other great work was the establishment of ComStar in 2781. The ravages of the Civil War and the callous jockeying for power among the High Council clearly showed that there had to be a neutral body to run the HPG network without bias. Led by Nicoletta and aided by General Kerensky, the High Council appointed Jerome Blake to organize and operate the newly created ComStar. This would be the last time the full High Council would meet; Nicoletta and Janina returned to their realms two days after that vote and, shortly after that with very little fanfare, declared independence from the Star League on August 12th, 2781. Not much later the Great Lords voted to dissolve the Star League that same year.[6][8][9]

Death[edit]

Nicoletta died in 2801, after which her son Semyon became protector.[2]

Notes[edit]

There is no source that details Nicoletta's parentage. It is stated that she was Hampton's niece, and Brandon's granddaughter.[2] Please see the family tree notes on the House Calderon page for further details.

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Era Report: 2750, p. 94: "Nicoletta Calderon profile"
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, p. 66: "Nicoletta Calderon"
  3. The Periphery, p. 51
  4. The Star League, pp. 65, 71, 76
  5. The Periphery, First Edition, p. 53
  6. 6.0 6.1 The Star League, p. 95
  7. The Periphery, 2nd Edition, p. 9
  8. The Periphery, First Edition, pp. 54, 56
  9. ComStar, p. 9

Bibliography[edit]