Tortuga Dominions

The Tortuga Dominions is a Bandit Kingdom in the Periphery from which occasional raids are launched against the Federated Suns and the Taurian Concordat in search of plunder.

Crest of Tortuga Dominions
Tortuga Dominions
State Profile
Founding Year Reunification War[1]
Capital world: Tortuga Prime[1]
Controlled system(s): 6
Government
Military
Army Various pirate bands[1]

History[edit]

Founding[edit]

The beginnings of the pirate realm known as the Tortuga Dominions were laid during the later stages of the 20 year campaign against the Taurian Concordat conducted by the Star League as a part of the Reunification War. A unit from the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns, the 237th Light Cavalry Regiment, was all but destroyed as a result of a wasteful raid against the Taurian world of Sterope. The survivors of the 237th found themselves unable to hold their position and generally unwilling to return to Federated Suns space only to be thrown back into the fray again; instead, the members of the 237th decided to head out further into the Periphery.[1]

The group found a small, pleasant world well outside the borders of both the Federated Suns and the Taurian Concordat and settled there; shortly afterwards, they began raids against Federated Suns worlds as the newly-formed Pirates of Tortuga.[1]

Star League Era[edit]

Buoyed by equipment snatched, stolen or captured from a half dozen different Federated Suns worlds, the Tortugans began to expand their holdings on their new homeworld, Tortuga Prime, and within a century the pirate band had reached a point where they were self-sufficient enough to begin efforts to colonize worlds beyond Tortuga Prime. By the early twenty-eighth century the pirates had expanded into five additional systems, and the resources found on those worlds - particularly raw materials and radioisotopes - fueled the rise of a pirate nation, the Tortuga Dominions.[1]

Succession Wars[edit]

As the Succession Wars engulfed the remains of the Star League, raiding forces from the Dominions would conduct raids that stretched deeply into the Concordat and the Federated Suns, earning a reputation for utter depravity, cruelty and ruthlessness; towards the end of the 3rd Succession War these raids were driven by a lack of easily-scavenged resources on the various worlds of the Dominion, and although the pirates had been forced to cannibalize elements of their navy, the Jolly Rogers fleet of roughly fifteen vessels constituted the largest pirate navy in any of the bandit kingdoms of the era.[1]

First Prince Ian Davion of the Federated Suns used the Wolf's Dragoons mercenary brigade to teach the Tortugans and their leader, Lord Kalvin Bar-Dyness, a punitive lesson in 3007. Gamma and Delta Regiments landed on New Hati in September, with Delta Regiment concentrating on wearing the pirates down while Gamma Regiment to encircle the brigand positions. The pirates managed to stage a breakout, but took heavy losses before escaping, and the attack effectively discouraged the Tortugans from raiding the Federated Suns for several years afterwards.[2]

The Jihad[edit]

During the early years of the Jihad the pirates of the Dominions were raiding as far afield as the Outworlds Wastes, striking at worlds such as Ddraig and coming into conflict with forces like the Brotherhood of Randis.[3] The pirates also found themselves in the unusual position of being invited into a number of former Federated Suns worlds; in a fit of irony, the newly-independent Malagrotta Cooperative sought to defend itself from increasing pirate activity by issuing Letters of Marque to any pirate band willing to sign on to defend the Cooperative. This led to some of the more famous and numerous bands including the Death's Consorts relocating to the Cooperative.[4]

By 3079 pirate activity out of the Tortuga Dominions was at its lowest ebb since the fall of the Star League; with the destruction of Tiqualme's Consorts - formerly Death's Consorts - and the large number of fellow Tortugans and denizens of the Pirates Haven the Consorts had recruited during their efforts to rule the Malagrotta Cooperative, morale among the surviving pirates in the region was correspondingly low.[5]

IlClan Era[edit]

In 3151, lack of AFFS presence in the Periphery March allowed the pirates of Tortuga to run rampant in the region[6]. Pirate king Alastar Firebeard even managed to conquer the world of Sherwood, forcing Duke Bernard Marsin to entreat the Filtvelt Coalition to help drive him out[6].

Politics[edit]

Rank Name Command
Rulers of the Tortuga Dominions
Major Frederick "Krasny" Koloniv 2589 - 2604[7]
Duke Mitch Hibbert 2604 - ????[7]
Lord Kalvin Bar-Dyness ???? - 3015[2]
Dame Paula "Lady Death" Trevaline 3015 - 3042
Major Twyla "The Major" Sumeral 3054[8] - 307?
Word of Blake Precentor William Derer 307? - ????[9]
King Ravannion 3080[10]
King Kevin "Black Kevin" Langstrom 3080[10]
Duke Ian "Shank" Scoli 3127 - 3130[11]
King Alastar Firebeard ???? - Present[6]

Notes[edit]

Befitting a pirate kingdom, all of the planets in the Dominions are named after either locales or personalities famed from the classical age of piracy in the Caribbean, with the exceptions of Fletcher's Feast, which seems to commemorate Fletcher Christian, the leader of the mutiny aboard HMS Bounty in 1789, and New Gascony.

Historical Maps[edit]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 The Periphery (sourcebook), p. 154 - "Tortuga Data"
  2. 2.0 2.1 Wolf's Dragoons (sourcebook), p. 11, "String Of Victories"
  3. BattleCorps Scenarios: Lost Souls
  4. Masters and Minions: The StarCorps Dossiers, p. 41, "Garman Doucett"
  5. Field Report: Periphery, p. 17, "Pirate Forces"
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Dominions Divided, p. 72
  7. 7.0 7.1 Touring the Stars: Tortuga Prime, p. 4
  8. Field Manual: Periphery, p. 130 - Tortuga Fusiliers - Twyla Sumeral and her former mercenaries take over control of the Dominion in 3054
  9. Masters and Minions: The StarCorps Dossiers, p. ?? - Word of Blake Precentor is left in charge of Dominion after Cohorts leave for the Malagrotta region of FedSuns[citation needed]
  10. 10.0 10.1 Ravager
  11. Touring the Stars: Tortuga Prime, p. 6

Bibliography[edit]