Daffyd Ap Brendan
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Daffyd Ap Brendan (b. ???? - d. ????) was a Baron on the Periphery world of Gwynedd during the late Age of War and the Rim Worlds Republic civil war.
Contents
Biography
Daffyd Ap Brendan was a local Baron and political figure on the Rim Worlds Republic world of Gwynedd[1] in the Apollo Province of the Rim Worlds Republic when civil war erupted in the Republic in 2575.[2]
Stationed on Gwynedd at the time were the Fourth Amaris Legionnaires, a regular line regiment from the Rim Worlds Army. Daffyd Ap Brendan used the chaos of the civil war's beginnings to have the senior officers of the Fourth Legionnaires assassinated, and replaced them with officers loyal to himself. This included installing Colonel Samuel Baraou as the new Commanding Officer of the regiment.[3]
First Consul Gregory Amaris had appealed to the Star League for support when the Rift Republican Army subverted half of the military forces on Apollo and formed a new government, the Rim Provisional Government; the Star League eventually decided to intervene in the civil war in support of Gregory Amaris, and in 2579 assembled Task Force MAILED FIST to help secure Amaris' control over the Rim Worlds Republic. A multinational force headed by the Star League Defense Force, Task Force MAILED FIST was responsible for executing Operation MAILED FIST, the name given to the military intervention. The operation began with the intent of securing the worlds around Apollo and then Apollo itself,[4] but the Star League Defense Force was forced to change plans after events such as the destructive raid on Alarion conducted by the vengeful Fourth Amaris Fusiliers.[5]
In April 2590, fifteen years after the civil war began, the Sixteenth Mechanized Infantry Division landed on Gwynedd to secure the world.[6] The Sixteenth arrived on Gwynedd in April 2590 to discover Daffyd Ap Brendan in control of both the planet and the Fourth Amaris Legionnaires and professing his loyalty to the Amaris family. However, despite Baron Ap Brendan's protestations to the contrary, the local population was actively rebellious; Ap Brendan insisted that he wasn't willing to fight against the SLDF, but the arrival of the Sixteenth quickly caused fractures to appear amongst the population of the planet and the personnel of the Fourth Legionnaires, shortly followed by open conflict as both split along various factional lines. The net result was an eleven-month peacekeeping operation to try and seperate the various warring camps and restore order.[1]
Notes
Daffyd Ap Brendan appears to be a Welsh name, but there is no "Daffyd" in Welsh; there is the name "Dafydd", but the Welsh alphabet makes both sound completely different despite the apparent similiarities in spelling in English. Dafydd sounds like David (day-vid) whereas Daffyd sounds like Dafith (da-fith or possibly da-fifth), but the spelling mistake when written is extremely common among English speakers. It is therefore possible that Daffyd is actually a typo for Dafydd. The surname Ap Brendan means "son of Brendan" and is an old-fashioned and unconventional form; Brendan is not a Welsh name - making Ap Brendan sound as odd to Welsh ears as "de Johnson" or "de Smith" but Brendan is an Irish name, indicating that Baron Ap Brendan may be from a mixed Welsh/Irish family.
When asked, the BattleTech Line Developer endorsed the idea that Gwynedd was populated by enthusiasts of Welsh or Welsh/Irish culture who may not necessarily have had any access to actual Welsh speakers. The Ask The Writers thread Historical: Reunification War - Daffyd Ap Brendan refers.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Historical: Reunification War, p. 135-136, "Illium to Barcelona (March 2589 - August 2591)
- ↑ Historical: Reunification War, p. 130, "The Spark"
- ↑ Historical: Reunification War, p. 131, "The Rim Worlds Army Loyalties"
- ↑ Historical: Reunification War, p. 132, "Case Apollo"
- ↑ Historical: Reunification War, p. 133, "Island Hopping (2582 - November 2590)"
- ↑ Historical: Reunification War, p. 153, "Rim Worlds Republic Front (2588-2596)"