Alexandrian Covenant
Sarna News
| Alexandrian Covenant | |
|---|---|
| State Profile | |
| Founding Year | 2580s[1] |
| Capital world: | Pharos[1] |
| Demonym(s) | Alexandrians |
| Government | |
| Head of State | Alternates between Protectrix or Magister |
| Military | |
| Army | Alexandrian Armed Forces |
History
The Alexandrian Covenant was founded at some point during the 2580s by refugees from the Taurian Concordat and Magistracy of Canopus[1]. Both groups had fled the violence of the Reunification War and settled neighbouring worlds, which they named Eros III and Phaeton[1]. Originally uneasy allies, when a catastrophe forced the Taurian colonists to evactuate Eros III and take refuge on Phaeton, the two societies wound up merging to a new state, the Alexandrian Covenant[1]. A third population, the descendants of the Tikonov Galactic Rangers, may also have been present on Phaeton at this time; if so, it is unclear if the Alexandrians were aware of them[2]. Phaeton was renamed Pharos to symbolically mark the union of the two cultures, and the Covenant began to settle nearby systems[3]. The Covenant flourished with the growth of trade and colonization, and even covertly surveilled the member states of the Star League during this period[3]. Around this time numerous caches were constructed to preserve history, technology and culture, as the Alexandrians believed the Inner Sphere was destined to destroy itself or regress into barbarism[3].
Tragically, the union between the Taurian and Canopian halves of the Covenant dissolved in the early 2700s, when civil war broke out on Pharos[1]. What precisely caused the civil war is unknown, as centuries of coups and purges have heavily distorted the historical record, but victory by the Protectrix and her House of Dames in this First Upheaval resulted in the removal of Taurian institutions from the Covenant, a redrawing of it's constitution, and the banning of men from political or military leadership[3]. Across the Covenant cities were burned, hundreds of thousands were forced to take up subsistence lifestyles in the countryside to survive, and libraries or technological caches were accidentally destroyed in the fighting[3]. In the 2800s, a Second Upheaval erupted, this time reinstating the old Magister and House of Lords as the sole Covenant government while disenfranchising women[3]. The Second Upheaval proved even more destructive than the first, with political purges and hate crimes killing hundreds of thousands[3]. Over the next 250 years, at least two more coups of unknown cause toppled the Covenant's government, each revolution more brutal and destructive than it's predecessor[3]. At some point after the Second Upheaval, the Covenant lost the ability to maintain it's JumpShips, isolating the various worlds from one another[3]. The Covenant's population gradually came to worship the long vanished JumpShips as a kind of sky god[3].
In 3042 (believed to be the Fifth Upheaval by Interstellar Expeditions) a Magister-led government was toppled due to allegedly mismanaging the response to a plague[3]. In 3067, the Protectrix-led government was again toppled due to having failed to prevent a meteor strike from destroying a major settlement[3]. The government was again toppled in 3082 after a prominent member of the House of Lords blasphemously suggested that a DropShip recovered from a rediscovered cache be repaired so that the Covenant could reestablish contact with the Sky God[2]. Interstellar Expeditions discovered the surviving worlds of the Covenant in 3093 and began attempting to study their history[2] but the Covenant responded violently to all instances of contact, as the population had come to believe that visitors from the stars were deceiving demons[3].
Politics
Military
The Alexandrian Armed Forces has minor variation in rank or organization due to the prolonged lack of contact between member worlds, but these differences are mainly cosmetic[4]. The smallest unit of AAF organization is known as the chariot, which is roughly equivalent to a standard armor company and is led by a lieutenant[2]. Five chariots denote a squadron, headed by a captain[2]. Five squadrons form a division, led by a charioteer[2]. Among all chariot divisions, the foremost charioteer holds the title of first charioteer and reports directly to the current head of state[2]. Depending on whether a Magister or Protectrix is in power, officers ranks will be restricted to only men or only women, but enlisted personnel are mixed and usually majority male regardless[2]. Though always prepared to fight itself in the next Upheaval, the Alexandrian Armed Forces will put aside it's political divisions and defend the nation as a whole in the event of demonic incurison (as they term offworld contact)[2].
Due to rapid technological decline, the AAF fields no BattleMechs or Aerospace Fighters[4]. The infantry, conventional vehicles and conventional fighters the Alexandrians can produce use Autocannons as their main armament and Internal Combustion Engines for their power supply due energy weapons and fusion plants being rare relics the Covenant can no longer produce[4]. The AAF maintains crude surface-to-orbit missiles to attack 'demonic' DropShips with, a mission considered so important to national security that the firebases playing host to these systems are never attacked during the Covenant's frequent civil wars[4].
Economy
Technology has massively regressed in the Covenant due to its frequent civil wars, and interstellar travel or communication is no longer possible[3]. Despite this, the tendency of the various worlds to erupt into civil war around the same time they break out of Pharos implies that some unknown party must still be travelling between them, without the knowledge of Alexandrian authorities[4].
Culture & Society
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Interstellar Expeditions: Interstellar Players 3, p. 86
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Interstellar Expeditions: Interstellar Players 3, p. 88
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 Interstellar Expeditions: Interstellar Players 3, p. 87
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Interstellar Expeditions: Interstellar Players 3, p. 89