Selanta Amaris
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Selanta Amaris | |
|---|---|
| Personal | |
| Born | 2620 (or earlier)[1] |
| Died | 2687[2] |
| Affiliation | House Amaris |
| Profile | |
| Position(s) | President[2] |
| Profession | Noble |
| Family | |
| Parents | Amanda Amaris (mother) |
| Children | Bertram Amaris |
Selanta Amaris was the fourth President of the Rim Worlds Republic.
History
In 2620, Selanta Amaris' mother was assassinated in a botched coup attempt and she was appointed as a baby in 2622 to become the next president when her uncle Jeffrey Amaris developed a serious dislike for statecraft. During Selanta's youth, power was exercised by a triumvirate of Protectors: Jimmy Siever, Honor Chan, and George Wong, though Wong was replaced a few months later by Jonofra Marcus after having died mysteriously in an air crash. When Selanta was nineteen, her secret service discovered that each Protector was privately plotting to retain power upon her coming of age and officially becoming president. As none intended violence upon Selanta, she simply honored each with a distant ambassadorial post as soon as she reached her majority.[1]
In the late 2640s, Selanta was struck by a rare form of cancer and she spent much of the rest of her reign ruling from her sickbed, relying upon her younger cousin Tadeo Amaris to act as her regent starting in 2649. This allowed her deniability in the early 2650s when Tadeo, supplied in secret by the Draconis Combine,[3] began building up military forces along the Lyran Commonwealth border at an alarming rate. After Archon Sarah Steiner-Dinesen protested and the Star League sent five BattleMech regiments on extensive, well-publicized maneuvers complete with infantry, aerospace, and artillery support in early 2651, Tadeo scaled back his forces.[4] Still, Selanta was left with a stronger military than had previously been the case, and Tadeo's political position had been tarnished, should he had entertained any ambitious ideas of becoming the next president.[1]
Shortly after Tadeo's humiliation, Selanta Amaris oversaw the implementation of the Rim Royal Guard Act which permitted a rapid expansion of the Rim Worlds Republic military on short notice. While still in compliance with the Council Edict of 2650, over the next hundred years the Rim Royal Army had triple the forces available than on paper—a major factor contributing to the Amaris Civil War.[5][6]
Selanta Amaris took note of the Star League Defense Forces' 500th BattleMech Brigade as a recruitment and PR tool and was interested in creating her own demonstration regiment to increase the interstellar reputation of the Republic's MechWarriors.[7] With an estimated seven regiments worth of additional BattleMechs available in the wake of Tadeo's military buildup,[3] Selanta reestablished the Third Amaris Legionnaires on Apollo (see Notes), a unit which had previously been destroyed on Sterling in 2583 during the Reunification War.[8] The Third was staffed solely from the top ten percent of graduates from the Apollo Military Academy and they continually sparred against the best brigades in the Rim Worlds Army, as they were also meant to serve as a frontline command. A few years later, the Third put down an anti-Amaris rebel bombing on Vulture's Nest while minimizing civilian casualties, providing Selanta enough battlecam footage to showcase their professionalism all across the Republic for decades.[7]
Selanta finally succumbed to cancer in 2687 after battling for almost four decades, triggering a power struggle within House Amaris.[2]