Davion Civil War

Property "Update Needed From" (as page type) with input value "Handbook: House Davion]], [[Inner Sphere (sourcebook)" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.

Timeline

Prelude to War

The Davion Civil War erupted as a result of the machinations of the Council of Regents while the legal heir to First Prince William Davion, the young Alexander Davion, was too young to rule. However, the origins of the war began somewhat earlier.

William Davion had been groomed to rule by his aunt, Ellen Davion, who had reigned as First Prince from 2467 to 2502. Ellen's claim to the throne had nearly been defeated by Richard Varnay, Chancellor of New Avalon and Constable of the Crucis March; to neutralize Richard, who had overreached himself in the attempt to seize the throne, Ellen promoted him to the post of Prince of the Capellan March, moving him away from New Avalon. Varnay's descendants would continue to lust after the throne of the Federated Suns, with tragic consequences.

William had a single son, Edward Davion, who was serving as a young officer in a BattleMech unit within the Federated Peacekeeping Forces (FPF) during one of the border wars with the Capellan Confederation when he was killed in action on Royalston. Although Edward and his unit were killed by Capellan raiders, accusations of treachery on the part of the Varnays ran rampant because a nearby FPF unit loyal to the Varnays was in position to support Edward's unit, but somehow failed to arrive in time. While the commander of the unit was exonerated by a subsequent investigation, Edward left behind a two-year-old son, Alexander, and his wife, Sondra Black Davion, also a serving FPF officer.

Sondra was killed in action when her DropShip was destroyed in battle above the world of Avigait in 2511. Her death left Alexander as the direct heir to the throne of First Prince, with his aunts, Cassandra and Laura Davion as possible alternatives. The same year Alexander was orphaned, Cassandra married David Varnay, the heir to the Capellan March - and a man every bit as ambitious as Richard Varnay had been. While the throne seemed secure at the time - William Davion was only 43 years old, with plenty of time to father more heirs - William died during an outbreak of a virulent plague on New Avalon in 2512. Immediately complicating the succession was William's final action - having regained consciousness briefly before his death, William reaffirmed Alexander as his successor, but passed the signet ring of the First Prince to Cassandra Varnay, and his seal to Laura, the older of the two sisters. This was taken to indicate that William intended for Cassandra and Laura to serve as Regents until Alexander reached his majority.

Council of Regents

The Council of Regents was formed in accordance with what were believed to be William's wishes and in line with the Act of Succession passed into law during the rule of Ellen Davion. Under the terms of the Act Laura and Cassandra would serve as the heads of the Council of Regents, and each was entitled to appoint another Regent. The fifth member of the Council was then selected by the Federated Suns High Council. Cassandra appointed her husband, David; Laura Davion chose to elect a powerful and popular FPF General, Nikolai Rostov. The fifth and last member of the Council was duly elected by the High Council, who chose Carmen Estevez Davion, widow of William Davion.

The latter appointment was largely honorary, as the Dowager Princess had been crippled by a series of strokes suffered after the deaths of her son, her daughter-in-law and then her husband. Carmen never mustered the strength to oppose the machinations of Cassandra and Laura.

Council Machinations

The various factions within the Council began jockeying for power on the day William Davion was buried; the first to act was David Varnay, drawing on both his vote and his wife's; David tabled motions suggesting that the young Prince Alexander be betrothed to the Varnay's niece, Cynthia Varnay, and that Cynthia be named Heir-Apparent in the event of Alexander's death. The latter motion was rejected, but with Nikolai Rostov supporting the betrothal proposal the first motion passed. Rostov's instinct was that the Varnays would be less brutal in their actions if they felt they had a clear route to power, thereby buying time for both himself and Laura to gain influence.

The Dowager Princess retired to live in seclusion on New Andalusia, destroying the High Council's hopes of moderating the actions of the various Regents; before retiring, Carmen passed her vote to Laura, effectively splitting the Council. With Laura controlling two votes and the Varnays controlling another two, the deciding vote invariably lay with General Rostov, but each member of the Council began openly exercising the power of their positions for personal gain.

When Prince Vladimir Kerensky of the Draconis March died childless, Rostov supported Laura Davion's bid for the Principality, giving her access to a power base of her own comparable to the Varnay's influence. When the Prince of the Terran March, Charles Leighton and his immediate family were killed in a raid by the Hegemony Armed Forces on Robinson in 2515 the Varnays nominated Rostov as his successor; Laura had to support the nomination or risk alienating the General, but his rise to rule the Terran March also made him a direct competitor to both factions, reducing Laura's ability to trust him - although Nikolai would spend the next five years repelling a Terran Hegemony offensive into the Terran March.

With the Prince of the Outer March determinedly steering a neutral course, Laura became increasingly isolated as Rostov began securing his own power base; the Council made one last attempt to restrain the various Regents using the Dowager Princess, but her death in 2518 rendered the effort moot. The Varnays responded to the High Council's efforts by using secret service agents in their employ to produce evidence purportedly demonstrating an active plot to overthrow the Council of Regents originating with the moderate faction within the High Council. From 2518 to 2520 infamous Treason Trials ran, purging the High Council of both the majority of the moderates and many supporters of Laura Davion, although they were careful to avoid harming anyone with connections to Rostov, as they hoped to secure him as an ally.

Davion Versus Varnay

Threatened by both Rostov's power base within the military and the political influence by the Varnays, the High Council felt unable to name a replacement for Princess Carmen; this left the Council of regents effectively deadlocked, although Laura continued to argue that Carmen's delegation of voting rights had been permanent, rather than limited to her own lifetime, a position the High Council was again reluctant to take a view on out of fear of both Rostov and the Varnays.

Rostov's influence within the military had been cemented by his brilliant five-year campaign against the Terran Hegemony, but when David Varnay attempted to establish his military credentials in actions on the Capellan border in 2521 he not only failed, but highlighted Rostov's abilities in the process. The Varnays then found their position undercut when Laura used Rostov's successes to suggest the creation of a new post - First Marshal of the Federated Suns - commanding all of the military posts across the five Principalities; with David still in combat, Cassandra made the mistake of opposing the motion, an action that not only failed but also alienated Rostov.

With tensions mounting rapidly, the Varnays were forced to play a waiting game until an opportunity to act presented itself; that opportunity was the eruption of a border clash with the Draconis Combine that Marshal Rostov was forced to devote his attention to in 2523. With Rostov distracted the Varnays abducted Alexander and transported him to New Syrtis under the pretence that he was performing a grand tour in the style of his grandfather, Simon Davion.

Alexander was sixteen when he was abducted by the Varnays, disliked his aunt Cassandra and actively hated David Varnay. At an early age one of Alexander's nurses had hinted that David was complicit in William's death, and Alexander had chosen to devote himself to both the study of military disciplines such as warfare, strategy and tactics, but also the memoirs of the most successful of his ancestors to hold either the Presidency of the Federated Suns or who had ruled as First Princes, including Reynard Davion, Paul Davion, Simon Davion and his great-aunt, Ellen Davion. The teenage Alexander had decided that he would avenge his father and remove his power-hungry relatives, a plan that he kept secret but worked towards with the same single-minded focus and drive that characterised many of the Davion line. To protect himself, he continued to act the role of the fop, even while he was being kept a prisoner on New Syrtis.

In 2524 the Varnays married Alexander to Cynthia Varnay, hoping for an heir to be born that would secure their route to the throne. News of the marriage forced Laura to make a separate peace quickly with the Combine, to allow both her and Rostov to mobilize for a conflict between their forces and those controlled by the Varnays Where both factions errored was in their estimations of Cynthia's character; not only had Alexander and Cynthia discovered that they did in fact love each other, but Cynthia lacked the ambition typical to the Varnays but shared their strong will. When it was discovered in August 2524 that she was pregnant, Cynthia learned that her aunt and uncle considered Alexander to be a disposable asset, and reacted by actively working to save Alexander from her own family.

With Prince Rostov working to resolve the conflicts plaguing the Terran March alongside his son Dmitri, a dynamic and skilled military leader in his own right, and Laura marshalling her forces, the Varnays became increasingly distracted, giving Cynthia and Alexander the opportunity to begin working on Alexander's escape.

Laura surprised the Varnays when she arrived on New Avalon in late 2524, escorted by an elite strike force; supported by Marshal Rostov and still claiming control of the Dowager Princess' vote, she denounced the Varnays, claiming that they had abducted Alexander and were enemies of the state. Laura used the charges and the support of those members of the High Council who hadn't already fled to strip the Varnays of their respective Regencies; the Varnays responded by assembling a rump High Council of their own on New Syrtis and declaring that Laura was illegally occupying New Avalon, an act of treason, and began building a militia army within the Capellan March to oppose Laura's forces.

Alexander was still too young to be of direct use to the Varnays at this point, as by Federated Suns law he wouldn't reach majority until his twentieth birthday in 2527; the Varnays decided to use him as a symbol of the legitimacy of their claims, at least until his heir was born, and began by countering the stories of him being a prisoner through David taking him on a tour of several worlds within the Capellan March where Varnayist forces were being mustered while Cynthia remained on New Syrtis with Cassandra. Although he had little choice, Alexander went along with the tour, as he and Cynthia knew that their enforced separation would also present the best opportunity for Alexander to escape.

When Cynthia learned of the route that David's procession would be taking, she made contact with anti-Varnay elements within the Capellan March, preparing for Alexander's escape. She and Alexander had decided that the signal for him to escape would be the news arriving of the successful birth of their child, which occurred in May 2525 when Cynthia gave birth to Vincent Davion. The arrival of the news coincided with Alexander's stop on Sekulmun, the third stop of David's tour; unable to restrict Alexander's movements as completely during the inevitable popular public celebrations around Vincent's birth, David couldn't prevent Alexander's escape. By the time David learned that Alexander was missing, he had already been smuggled off-world - and as Alexander was escaping, Laura launched the first open attack in what would become known as the Davion Civil War, an assault against the world of Kluane which if successful could potentially sunder the Capellan March into two halves.

Opening Offensive

Leading the combined forces from the Crucis, Draconis and Terran Marches was Marshal Rostov; in addition to the strike on Klaune, units under Rostov's command struck at a number of other worlds with Rostov demonstrating his grasp of tactics and using the abilities of his trained regulars to good effect against Varnay's troops, which were often simply militias lacking in training.

Talcott

One of the more famous battles of the initial campaign took place on Talcott; Rostov and his forces struck at the world of Salem, but pretended to retreat to Talcott in the face of superior forces. Once grounded on Talcott, Rostov's forces dispersed into the farmlands arrayed across the planet. Varnay's forces arrived on the planet but had no luck finding Rostov's troops, and settled for foraging to replenish their rations and sending a message to David Varnay notifying him of the disappearance of Rostov's forces.

Varnay's response was predictable; given the significance of Rostov's forces, he ordered the troops on Talcott to continue searching for Rostov's forces. Rostov kept his troops concealed in deep cover with their equipment powered down, making them as difficult to detect as possible, waiting for indications that Varnay was coming to lead the search in person. When his forces intercepted an enemy transmission indicating that Varnay was en route, Rostov went on the offensive, launching a strike directly into the Varnayist camp, using the combination of the Varnay forces' exhaustion from extended searches and their distraction over Varnay's impending arrival to achieve complete surprise.

Rostov's forces promptly overpowered the Varnayist troops, crippling their forces and destroying all of their newly-acquired provisions before vanishing back into the wilderness. When Varnay did arrive he found his forces decimated and in complete disarray, forcing him to withdraw from Talcott.

Quittacas

Rostov's forces made significant initial gains, easily carving through Varnay's troops, although neither side knew that Alexander and the anti-Varnayists responsible for his rescue were passing through the Barrier Rift at the time - the Barrier Rift being an astrogeographical feature that marked the boundary between the Capellan March and the Crucis March.

Nikolai Rostov's luck ran out on the world of Quittacas, deep inside the Capellan March. During the assault on the planet Nikolai was killed, and his death had a devastating effect on the morale of the FPF. Nikolai was the grand old warhorse of the Terran March, and loomed large in the minds of his troops; David Varnay quickly seized on the opportunity while Nikolai's forces were still reeling, and began offering bribes to a number of key figures within Nikolai's forces. The net result was a series of mutinies and the desertions within the ranks of his forces, and within weeks Laura Davion's offensive had ground to a halt.

The loss of Nikolai Rostov and the wave of defections left his son, Dmitri, and the troops under his command cut off in enemy territory. Dmitri was a brilliant tactician in his own right, and wasn't willing to surrender to the Varnayists; rather than be captured, he disbanded his forces and fled with a handful of personal troops in 'Mechs, avoiding being caught up in the sudden swell of support for the Varnay cause.

The Varnays had managed to stall the initial offensive, leading to a virtual stalemate; Laura was unwilling to back down, and had a large body of FPF troops under her command, along with the loyalty - at least nominally - of everyone outside the Capellan March. Varnay lacked the trained troops needed to launch an offensive of his own into the territory held by Laura, and combat continued at a low level on the worlds bordering the Barrier lift in a largely unchanged fashion for almost eighteen months before the next major shift in the Civil War occurred.

Nahoni

Alexander and his immediate supporters had gone to ground on the world of Nahoni, one of the worlds bordering the Barrier Rift, while both the Varnayists and Laura searched for him in secret. Having been declared dead by both factions, it was obvious to him that his days were numbered if either faction was able to find him, but he was determined to reclaim the throne he was born to in defiance of those hunting him.

One of the units deployed to Nahoni by Laura was the First New Avalon Dragoons, a light armor unit commanded by Colonel John Gordon. The First Dragoons were unpopular with Laura, due to Colonel Gordon making no secret of the fact that his allegiance and those in his unit lay with New Avalon and the Prince of the Crucis March, not with her. Laura had therefore decided to use the First Dragoons as bait, and had deployed them to Nahoni, a largely unimportant world, and then kept them on short rations and receiving minimal supplies while she waited for Varnay to respond to their presence by attacking and wiping them out; Laura planned to then hit Varnay's forces with a counterattack.

What Laura hadn't counted on was the presence of Alexander on Nahoni. While he was ignorant of Laura's plans, he had heard details of both the low morale within the regiment and where their loyalties lay. In a daring plan intended to test the power that the Davion family name supposedly held, Alexander set out for the Dragoons headquarters on the 24th of January 2527 with just ten companions for support. When he unfurled the starburst banner of the Federated Suns on a hill overlooking the camp and proclaimed himself to be the rightful Prince of the Crucis March, his gamble paid off - Colonel Gordon and his troops promptly declared their loyalty to him.

The First Dragoons were ill-supplied, but they were still a regular FPF regiment and were eager to serve under Alexander; Gordon and his forces had just that opportunity to prove themselves when Varnay finally responded to the bait, landing two divisions of Capellan March militia forces and two BattleMech regiments with the intent of capturing the world for himself. Varnay's forces outnumbered the First Dragoons dramatically, but found themselves struggling with Nahoni's terrain; much of the planet was dominated by vast bogs, and those bogs hampered the movement of both 'Mechs and infantry.

The First Dragoons were nowhere near as badly constrained by the bogs; the Dragoons had both jump infantry and hovercraft in their forces, scout and support elements that could move largely unhindered. The First Dragoons were also regular forces, not militia - and they had their lawful Prince on hand, a figure who provided a boost to morale that far outstripped his limited military experience.

Alexander and his forces fought an inspired guerilla campaign against the Capellan March troops; withdrawing steadily deeper into the marshes and bogs, elements of the First Dragoons repeatedly struck out at isolated enemy columns attempting to pursue them. The hit-and-run attacks continued for two months before Colonel Gordon struck the decisive blow when he led two hovertank companies around the main strength of the advancing enemy forces and launched a surprise attack on the enemy base camp and landing zone. Gordon's forces destroyed both, leaving the enemy commander short on supplies; that commander, General Boefers, found himself with little choice other than to surrender.

Boefers' surrender brought Alexander more than just a victory - when the troops under Beofers' command learned who Alexander was, the better part of a regiment of troops promptly switched sides, including four units of MechWarriors. Alexander then dispatched Boefers to New Syrtis with a message for the Varnays; he was willing to exchange the men and equipment captured by his forces at Nahoni - and what he demanded in return was the release of Cynthia and Vincent. This was a demand that David Varnay would never have accepted, but David was busy on campaign; the terms of Alexander's demand were delivered to Cassandra, who promptly came under pressure from her Council, many of whom had relatives amongst the captives on Nahoni. Where David would have replied with an ultimatum insisting on Alexander's surrender backed up by threats against his relatives, Cassandra decided that she could ill-afford to lose more resources, and agreed to the exchange. Boefers was dispatched back to Nahoni with Cynthia and Vincent in tow and orders to salvage as much of his command as he could and retreat from Nahoni.

Boefers arrived back on Nahoni just two days ahead of Laura Davion's forces, which had learned of the Varnayist occupation of the planet and automatically launched their pre-planned counter-attack. Laura's forces remained oblivious to the presence of Alexander on the planet and the First Dragoons' victory over the Varnayists; Alexander swiftly concluded the agreed exchange with Boefers before leading his troops back into the marshes ahead of Laura's troops making planetfall, leaving Boefers to try and assemble some form of defense for his remaining forces.

As Laura's forces went into battle with Boefers' forces, Alexander led an attack on a column of Laura's forces, winning another victory - and causing more Crucis March units to learn of his presence and defect from Laura's cause to his. Alexander soon had the beginnings of a reasonably large force, albeit one that was critically short of 'Mechs, but for undetermined reasons two weeks into the campaign he accepted a full-scale battle against Laura's forces on ground that gave her 'Mech forces and advantage. In what became known as the Battle of Davion Hill Alexander's voices squared off against Laura's forces in a pitched battle that was interrupted when General Boefers launched his troops on an attack targeting the rear of Alexander's forces.

Whatever chance Alexander had of winning the battle evaporated with Boefers' attack, but with the Varnayists as keen to attack Laura's troops as they were Alexander's allowed Alexander to pull some of his forces out of the vice, salvaging his senior officers, his 'Mechs and 250 assorted infantry and armor troops from his disintegrated battle line. Fortunately for Alexander, those DropShips in Laura's force manned by crews from the Crucis March were every bit as eager to join Alexander's cause as their forces on the ground, and he and his followers were able to flee the Nahoni system while Laura's troops and the Varnayists continued to fight on the ground.

While Alexander had been unable to win the battle on the ground, the victories he had won on Nahoni far outweighed the losses he had taken - news of his appearance travelled throughout the Federated Suns, along with accounts of Boefers' defeat and his treacherous actions. When Dmitri Rostov learned that Alexander was alive, he and those who had managed to escape with him quickly transferred their loyalty from Laura to Alexander, and six months after the battles at Nahoni Dmitri raised Alexander's banner on the world of Farwell. With Nikolai Rostov having been beloved by the FPF, the news that Dmitri had joined Alexander's cause swept through the Crucis March life wildfire, bringing many of the regular forces to his banner.

Alexander wasn't idle during those six months, however; he travelled from world to world, accompanied by Colonel Gordon and the other survivors of Nahoni, promoting his claim. In the early stages they had to dodge troops loyal to Laura, but by mid-2528 Laura's forces were pulling out of the Crucis March because of how strong Alexander's support had become.

Whereas the Crucis March joined Alexander wholesale, the Draconis March was still loyal to Laura, and that was where she retreated too; the Terran March was split, with some remembering Laura's close ties to Nikolai Rostov, whereas others were swayed by Dmitri's authority as his father's son. Had the Rostov's ruled the Terran March for longer, loyalty to the name migth have been greater.

Bibliography

• House Davion (The Federated Suns)