Sagittarius Eye Feature (Q1, 3306)
This article was taken from Sagittarius Eye, an independent quarterly player-run magazine featuring a wide coverage of various topics. Thanks to Misaniovent of the Praetorian Curiate Assembly for the original text, and OrangePheonix for editing.Please support Sagittarius Eye by clicking here and viewing the article as originally published.
The Fall of Nova Imperium
Lavigny’s Legion was one of the first and most powerful squadrons to support then-Senator Arissa Lavigny Duval’s claim to the Imperial throne after the murder of her father in 3301. The Legion’s support continued after her ascension to the throne made her banner that of the Empire.
Arissa Lavigny-Duval has struggled for legitimacy since before she ascended to the throne.
Many years of support for the Lavigny family, and the patronage of the Emperor that it won them, paid off. With a reputation as a leading Imperial organisation pulling commanders into her service, the Legion, led by Admiral Lucius Lavigny and a council of commander praetors, has grown from a military organisation to a true government in control of twenty-one systems and over 26 billion imperial citizens. The Legion’s influence is broad: they, alongside other factions and squadrons pledged to the Emperor, like the Chapterhouse of Inquisition, have empowered Imperial governments, expanded the Emperor’s holdings, rebuffed Federal incursions, exterminated Thargoids by the thousands, and most recently, silenced rebellion.
“When Imperator Mordanticus started Nova Imperium, Lavigny’s Legion, like the Emperor, waited for the right moment to strike,” explained Praetor Michael Brenton Lee, known to the Pilots’ Federation as Commander St. Michael. “This culminated in the major battle in Paresa, led by Denton Patreus and Yupini Limited against Nova Imperium’s armada. Many [Lavigny’s Legion] pilots fought relentlessly day and night until Nova Imperium were de- stroyed the following week.”
While the Battle of Paresa in early January of 3305 culminated in the capture and death of Imperator Mordanticus, it was not the end of Nova Imperium nor of Hadrian Duval’s controversial claim to the throne. Still, in the wake of the battle, forces across the Empire refocused on human conflicts with the Federation and pirates, while Lavigny’s Legion in particular cast its attention the then-escalating war against the Thargoids.
Lavigny’s Legion’s reputation in 3305 grew beyond a faction in service to the Emperor to a faction in service of humanity. Its EDGE (Extraterrestrial Defense Guard of the Empire) fleet was built into one of the most effective anti- Thargoid forces in the Galaxy, and its successes were numerous. When the Thargoids retreated from humanity’s core systems, the Pleiades, and the Witch Head Nebula in August 3305, the Legion had played no small part.
The Return of the Imperium
Yet while deployed against an inhuman threat, a past victory of the Legion had come undone: Nova Imperium, un- der the force of Hadrian Duval’s Nova Navy, had reversed the Empire’s success in Paresa and had gone well beyond its initial holdings to capture four additional systems: He Xincians, No Cha, Wayahukulha, and Yupini, defeating Yupini Limited in their home system.
Imperator Duval had taken Mordanticus’ title and adopted his isolationist purpose. Demanding hostility between the superpowers in the name of the Empire, Hadrian Duval undermined the security of an Empire focused on the preservation of all humanity in a bid for his own power. While that power never extended beyond Paresa and its surrounding systems, it was wielded effectively with a stable force, a stable government, and a population large enough to make the destruction of both no small prospect.
The Paraesii Empire Consulate, empowered by the ambassadors and agents of the Empire’s Imperial Diplomatic Corps to govern the region and curb the resurgent Nova Imperium, had failed. “Originally, it was thought that even though they had come back, they were still little to no threat,” said Praetor Michael of the Legion’s initial response. “I, on the other hand, knew what an ideology like this could do if left unchecked.”
A quiet but steady campaign was planned. The Legion, through its support of the Paraesii Empire Consulate and other local loyalists, began a push, system by system, to undo the renegade Duval’s gains. In mid-October, the first stage of the campaign began: the Legion would begin in Yupini, fighting to restore Yupini Limited. This did not take long: resistance collapsed and order was restored to Yupini on the 4th of November.
The Legion’s next target would suffer greater consequences than Yupini: in No Cha, a system of 6.5 million, the Legion chose to employ criminals and assassins. Supported by the Consulate and the Legion, pilots of the Temurt Drug Empire were sent against Nova Imperium politicians and leaders, driving Imperator Duval to declare war on the Drug Empire. The war lasted four days, with Imperial pilots replacing criminal agents in a wave of force that swept Nova Navy aside.
“The Temurt Drug Empire was the easier power to back in that system. Peraesii Empire Consulate had no presence and we could tackle Nova’s influence faster by backing the Drug Empire,” explained Vexillarius Hassod. “Ultimately, I’d rather have an anarchist government be in control of a system than that of a failed usurper... we can always fight it when circumstances make it necessary.”
Commander Rainbro, a now-retired supporter of Nova Imperium and leader in Nova Navy, described the Empire’s support for Temurt Drug Empire as opportunistic: “As far as I can tell, that was intended as a distraction to stop us expanding from another system... We had been using the system for bounty hunting.”
While the Empire’s victory in No Cha deprived Nova Navy pilots of hunting grounds to destroy criminals, it also de- prived the system of law. No Cha remains free of Imperial control, whether in the name of the Emperor or her attempted usurper. Responding to questions on the fu- ture of No Cha’s significant population, Lavigny’s Legion stated an intent to eventually install the Paraesii Empire Consulate in the system “when the time is right.”
He Xincians, a system of merely 3,300 souls, and Paresa itself fell shortly after. War in He Xincians was short and swift, with its sole station, Oosterhoff’s Claim, claimed quickly by Yupini Limited at the end of November. Con- flict came to Paresa days later. In Paresa, however, Nova Imperium’s defeat came in a different form. Instead of war, Paresa was won through peace, as the Legion and the Consulate rallied the system’s loyal citizens, clients, and patrons to make their allegiance to the Emperor clear in a rebuttal of Hadrian Duval’s claim. His base of power lost, the Imperium failed in Wayahukulha on the 7th of De- cember, 3305. Duval had become an Imperator without an Imperium.
A campaign report written by Vexillarius Hassod described a jubilant scene on Paresa:
“On the 31st of December, the Legion conducted a military parade in Paresa 3. A multitude of Lavigny’s Legion ships could be seen flying over the night sky in a hue of purple engine trails. Smaller fighters flew lower in formation and turned in sequences. On the ground, hundreds of soldiers marched representing various factions such as Peraesii Empire Consulate, Lavigny’s Legion and elements of the Imperial Navy Marines. Dressed in their resplendent white battle gear, they cheered while remaining in perfect formation.”
It seemed the Legion’s victory was final, and Duval had been defeated. The report continued:
“With Hadrian Duval on the run, Nova Imperium, having become bankrupt and having no systems under their control, has effectively been annihilated. The Peraesii Empire Consulate has taken charge of ensuring that they will never rise again.” Duval had become an Imperator without an Imperium.
Yet they did. Barely two weeks after the victory parade of Lavigny’s Legion and Peraesii Empire Consulate in Paresa, the loyalists had once again lost. Nova Imperium’s flag was raised again over Paresa on the 14th of January — followed by an overt declaration of war by the Admiral Lucius Lavigny one week later:
“These traitorous scum have once more reared their head in the same place it was squashed a while ago, with what seems to be a renewed spirit. The Legion will personally see to it that that spirit is crushed!”
Imperator Hadrian Duval had not made any public comments in weeks. Nova Navy and the Imperium were both leaderless, with Commander Rainbro still retired. The Legion called it a hostile takeover, but whether through guile or force, Nova Imperium had retaken the system. And true to Admiral Lavigny’s word, the emperor’s forces retook it less than two weeks later, this time with commitments by the Legion and its Praetors to ensure Paresa would remain of the Empire and not the Imperium forever.
Following this commitment and victory, Praetor Michael announced a new campaign to oust Nova Imperium from any system where it has a presence, if practicable. He and his comrades have developed a plan to remove the Imperium from any station it still controls. The Empire and its loyal squadrons and factions will doubtless support him, but there can be no doubt: what has fallen may still rise.
Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval’s reign is not secure, and may never be.
Imperial Challenges
If Nova Imperium endures far beyond the anniversary of Mordanticus’ death, it would not be a new challenge for this Emperor. Arissa Lavigny-Duval has struggled for legitimacy since before she ascended to the throne. There was no doubt at her coronation that her father, Hengist Duval, had intended to marry her mother, Florence Lavigny, legitimising Arissa in the process. But this did not come to pass, with the old emperor’s assassination by Brendan Paul Darius forcing the Senate to select the new emperor by choice, rather than accept her by succession.
The Senate’s decision was called by Emperor’s Dawn, for whom Darius was an agent, “a desecration of the traditions of the Empire.” Like Nova Imperium, Emperor’s Dawn had presented an ultra-traditionalist view of the Empire and had built a network of powerful contacts. Like Nova Imperium, Emperor’s Dawn decried Arissa as false and female, arguing that the true emperor should be male. And like Nova Imperium, Emperor’s Dawn proved incredibly durable.
Yet where Emperor’s Dawn was a network of dispersed cells executing terrorist attacks and assassinations, Nova Imperium sought to govern systems directly and to present a clear alternative to Emperor Lavigny-Duval beyond the
faceless leader of Emperor’s Dawn.
Dakshmandi and Maausk in September of 3301. Namarii, Tabaldak, LTT 874, Shambhala, and Svari in October. Kausalya in December. Cell after cell of Emperor’s Dawn forces and operatives were discovered and destroyed, breaking its back as an insurgent organisation. No true leaders were ever found, and no new emperor was ever named or offered by the organisation — nor captured by the Empire. With the unnamed usurper it upheld never uncovered, it is impossible to say whether Emperor’s Dawn was truly destroyed, or if it was instead driven underground.
It is impossible to say whether Emperor’s Dawn was truly destroyed, or if it was instead driven underground.
When Emperor’s Dawn first surfaced, before Arissa had even been crowned, Imperial commanders in high halls whispered that perhaps it was Harold Duval who Emperor’s Dawn intended to place on the throne. Harold had been declared insane by his father and cut out of the succession in response to his hedonism and, allegedly, his unorthodox views on slavery matching those of his daughter, Aisling Duval. Little is known of what an Empire led by Harold might have looked like, and his personal views are rarely on record. If rumours that he would have led a more liberal Empire were true, he would have been an unlikely match for the extreme conservatism of Emperor’s Dawn — yet as the only known living male Duval at the time, there were few alternatives.
This is no longer true. Harold Duval still lives, but so does his nephew, Hadrian. The isolationist ultra-traditionalism espoused by Imperators Mordanticus and Duval are familiar. Networked, nameless insurgency failed for Emper- or’s Dawn, but only after many campaigns. Direct governance of Imperial populations failed for Nova Imperium, but only after bloodshed in the Senate and constant effort in Paresa.
The truth is that Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval’s reign is not secure, and may never be. Marriage and issue may make succession from her line clear, but as long as Hadrian Duval lives, the risk of civil war remains. Whether one and the same or not, Emperor’s Dawn and Nova Imperium both posed credible threats, and while loyal command- ers like those of Lavigny’s Legion have made solemn commitments in support of the emperor, they may find themselves defending those commitments against challenges from within the Empire for as long as
she — and Hadrian — both live.