Marius O'Reilly

Marius O'Reilly
Marius O'Reilly
Character Profile
Born 2986[1]
Died 3048[2]
Affiliation House O'Reilly
Title(s) Imperator
Profession Noble
Parents Gaius O'Reilly (father)[3]
Children Sean O'Reilly[4]
Livia O'Reilly[5]

Marius O'Reilly was the third ruler of the Marian Hegemony.

History[edit]

Early Reign[edit]

Born on Andurien and the grandson of Marian Hegemony founder Johann O'Reilly, Marius assumed the title of Imperator in 3009 when his father broke his neck in a horseback riding accident.[3] Shortly after taking power, he made an attempt to conquer Logan Prime, a Lothian League world with rich ore deposits on the border with the Hegemony. The Marian troops, however, had more experience in piracy than assault and were repelled by the planetary militia.[6]

While Marius O'Reilly never ruled out trying to conquer worlds from the Lothians, Niops Association, or even from the Free Worlds League, he spent the next several years honing his small but effective military into a raiding force notorious for fast, disciplined strikes.[7][8] At the same time, he attempted some diplomacy with the further-away Circinus Federation and considerably stronger Magistracy of Canopus—the latter likely because the Marian Legions stood no chance against them[8]—but made no progress with either and believed it was because the Hegemony had not expanded enough to be taken seriously.[1]

Domestically, O'Reilly presided over changes in Hegemony society that included introducing smaller denominations of cash currency in 3012[9] and authoring the Declaration Concerning Patricianship in 3013 that made membership in the patrician class strictly hereditary. This had been a point of growing legal tension as owning land was a prerequisite for wealthy plebs to move into the higher class—and there simply wasn't any more viable real estate to be found at the time.[10]

Respectable Nation[edit]

Over the course of his reign as Imperator, O'Reilly turned the Hegemony into a respectable nation.[2][7] The raids had been so successful that they were expanded to target Marik worlds and trading lanes during the Fourth Succession War and the Magistracy of Canopus while they were preoccupied during the Andurien Crisis.[8] O'Reilly then used the proceeds from these raids to develop a more uniformly educated citizenry—building military academies such as the Collegium Bellorum Imperium, which opened in 3032, and establishing a universal public school system for the plebs—while also investing in light industries and raising soldier benefits, all of which contributed to higher literacy levels and living standards.[7][8]

In 3035,[11] Marius O'Reilly narrowly escaped an attempt on his life by an assassin whom during interrogation claimed to have been hired by a Free Worlds League agent operating out of the independent world of Astrokaszy. Furious, O'Reilly sent the First Marian Legion to smash their small, unorganized planetary garrison and proclaimed the world a Hegemony possession, but forces from four nearby nations almost immediately descended upon the planet—ostensibly at the invitation of various Astrokaszian city-states—and O'Reilly withdrew his troops as well as any claim to the system.[12]

Colonization Program[edit]

The Marian Hegemony had encompassed twelve star systems by 3040 and continued to grow.[7] At the end of that year, O'Reilly announced plans to further expand the Hegemony through colonization and placed his son Sean O'Reilly in charge, who had just become a father to Julius. Within five years, three more nearby worlds had been colonized.[2][13]

Marius O'Reilly made a groundbreaking trade agreement with the Taurian Concordat in 3042 in which the Hegemony acquired a supply of Pontiac 50 Autocannon/10's to arm the newly commissioned Gladius hovertank. In exchange, the Concordat received twenty-five percent of the tanks equipped with the weapon.[14]

In late 3046, Marius would discover that Sean had been embezzling funds from the colonization program to pay for his many mistresses and gambling debts. Marius came close to naming his grandson Julius his heir, though relented when Sean made overtures of change. In 3048, Marius died in a climbing accident while on a visit to one of the new colonies, Herculaneum. Amid speculation he was somehow responsible, Sean renamed the world "Marius' Tears" and instituted a ten-day mourning period, after which he took over as the Hegemony's new leader.[2][4][15]

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 The Periphery, p. 147: "Marius O'Reilly"
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Field Manual: Periphery, p. 70: "Nova Roma"
  3. 3.0 3.1 Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 154: "Spotlight: The Caesar"
  4. 4.0 4.1 Era Report: 3062, p. 90: "Sean O'Reilly"
  5. Handbook: Major Periphery States, pp. 161–162: "Alphard Trading Corporation profile"
  6. Handbook: Major Periphery States, pp. 7–8: "Local Color"
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 42: "Bandit Kings and Pirate Nations"
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 The Periphery, Second Edition, p. 54: "Foundation and Early History"
  9. Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 162: "Cash and Credit"
  10. Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 155: "Spotlight: Citizens and Slaves"
  11. Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 8
  12. The Periphery, Second Edition, pp. 54, 56, 88
  13. The Periphery, Second Edition, p. 56: "Rise of Caesar Sean"
  14. Technical Readout: 3060, p. 20: "Gladius Medium Hover Tank"
  15. The Periphery, Second Edition, p. 56: "Rise of Caesar Sean - Sean's Accession"

Bibliography[edit]