BTA Developer Blog 10 BTAU History The Rim Worlds Republic

BTA Developer Blog #10: BTAU History: The Rim Worlds Republic

This is one in a brief series of pages discussing how the history of the BattleTech setting has been adjusted for BattleTech Advanced Universe. This page discusses the Rim Worlds Republic.

The point of divergence from the timeline sits at the Amaris Civil War. In canon, General Aleksandr Kerensky used the SLDF to obliterate the RWR in revenge for Stefan Amaris taking over the Terran Hegemony and then post-war the RWR had no military or government to hold itself together and so collapsed when the Lyran Commonwealth decided to claim many of its worlds while the remaining worlds starved and died. In the BTAU, this did not happen. Instead, General Kerensky conquered the RWR swiftly as when he ordered the RWR to surrender, the sitting regent of the realm, Mohammed Selim, agreed under duress from the civilian government. Kerensky, unwilling to simply obliterate the realm, left the Twelfth Army to pacify the RWR while he took the rest of the SLDF to the Hegemony to defeat Amaris's new "Empire" after stripping the RWR of much of its military resources and personnel. Between 2767 and 2772, the SLDF remained in the RWR building its strength and preparing to move towards Terra.

In the wake of the SLDF invading the RWR in 2767, the RWR's government largely collapsed due to infighting. The people of the Republic were unwilling to support Amaris and overthrew his remaining supporters in the government (such as Regent Selim, who was eventually executed for his ties to Amaris). The Twelfth Army largely watched and made sure that the infighting did not get out of hand. After a frought period of infighting, a new leader emerged who unified the various factions wrestling for control of the RWR: Mikael Amaris, who had changed his name to Mikael Helius after Kerensky conquered the realm. Mikael had no taste for rulership and detested his cousin Stefan but realized that without a firm leader the RWR was destined for oblivion and so took on the burden of leadership such that his people would survive. By 2774, Mikael Helius, at the head of the newly formed House Helius, had solidified his control over the RWR's government.

Mikael formed a new government, the Rim Republican Party, and established a new system of rulership whereby each world in the Republic would send one representative to Apollo where they would collectively form the Rim Congress with himself at its head as President of the Republic. The President would designate his successor upon stepping down after 12 years of service and would serve as a mediating force to help Congress pass laws and dictates by which the nation would be led. Mikael's most foresighted action as President however would come when he petitioned the commanding general of the SLDF Twelfth Army, General Eliud Felischhauer, for permission to build a militia on the worlds of the RWR for protection against what Mikael believed was the inevitable invasion by the Lyran Commonwealth. After tense negotiations, General Felischhauer agreed to let Mikael form his militias, with the provision that should any raise even a finger against the Twelfth Army they would be completely annihilated. President Mikael agreed to the general's terms and set to work building his militias.

In 2775, General Kerensky issued orders to the Twelfth Army, calling them into action in the Hegemony to continue the assault on Amaris' forces. Their withdrawl left the RWR alone and ungoverned for the first time in nearly a decade, a situation which President Mikael Helius capitalized on immediately. He mobilized his militia forces and began rebuilding what military production facilities the RWR had before Kerensky's invasion. Mikael knew that an attack from the Lyran Commonwealth was only a matter of when, not if, and wanted the RWR to be as unified and prepared as possible when it came. And came it did, when the Lyrans invaded the RWR with the aim to absorb its worlds in 2776. However, Archon Robert Steiner II was unprepared for the stiff resistance his forces encountered from the Republican Provisional Army (as Mikael had named his defensive force). Though the Archon trusted that his forces could crush President Mikael Helius' militias, he recognized that the effort would be much bloodier than he expected. After over a year of solid fighting after which the Lyrans had made relatively little progress, the Archon recalled his forces into the Commonwealth and accepted that the RWR was no easy target. President Mikael was, if not pleased, at least satisfied that his plan to defend the realm had worked.

Starting in 2778, the Rim Worlds Republic began a period of slow contraction as its industrial base struggled to maintain the needs of the realm. Much of Erdvynn and Timbuktu Provinces were abandoned to their own devices as the RWR could no longer afford to support them. Apollo and Finmark Provinces had lost several worlds to the Lyran attack the year prior but largely survived the slow decline intact. By the First Succession War in 2786, the RWR had shrunk to its current borders as both Erdvynn and Timbuktu Provinces were fully abandoned to the decay. By this point, President Mikael Helius had stepped down from leadership and turned over the office to his son, Petrovich Helius. Petrovich proved an able if uninspired leader and managed to keep the realm from falling into anarchy as the Inner Sphere began to tear itself apart in the chaos of the Succssion Wars. Over the next several centuries the Rim Worlds Republic would combat the Lyran Commonwealth along their shared border multiple times, though the RWR's continued focus as a defensive military proved effective at forestalling Lyran aggression. Additionally, the RWR would open discussion with the other major Periphery realms during the Third Succession War with the intent of forming a Periphery Alliance (a topic discussed in a different report).

In 3036 when the ComStar Protectorate was declared as the Terran Hegemony reborn, the Rim Worlds Republic was among the first nations to acknowledge the Hegemony as a legitimate state, which stood in stark contrast to the Great Houses. ComStar and the Hegemony accepted the acknowledgement and even opened an embassy on Apollo out of respect.

The RWR faced its greatest challenge since the SLDF in 3049 when the Clans invaded the Inner Sphere. Clan Jade Falcon's invasion path cut straight into the Republic and was pointed squarely at Apollo, the capital world of the Republic. However, centuries of defensive wars with the Lyran Commonwealth and defending against raids by the Draconis Combine had prepared the Republic to fight the invaders. While outlying worlds were less well-defended and fell quickly to the Clan menace, the Rim Republican Army put up such a spirited defense of Apollo (and even held the world against the Falcon's invasion) that the Clanners were impressed by their prowess. Though the RRA had no realistic chance of taking back their worlds, the Clan willingly withdrew from the Apollo system in respect for the incredible grit the defenders displayed, leaving the capital standing free (though devastated from the onslaught). However, the Jade Falcons did not withdraw from Republic space and instead simply conquered a number of worlds around Apollo before driving further into the Lyran Commonwealth and the Free Rasalhague Republic. Even to this day, the Rim Worlds Republic maintains heavy defenses on Apollo and dreams of a day when they can reclaim their worlds from the fierce Clan.

For their part, the Clans recognized that the Rim Worlds Republic was not the realm of House Amaris anymore (thanks to advance recon performed by Wolf's Dragoons) and conquering or destroying the RWR was not a priority for the Falcons. In truth, withdrawing from Apollo was a tactical decision made to ensure that the Falcon's drive towards Terra would not be slowed due to stiffer-than-expected resistance from an irrelevant Periphery realm. The Falcon Khan, Elias Crichell, saw an opportunity to pursue his true purpose while also retaining honor in the face of the other Clans judgments. However, this would eventually backfire against him as it was used by Vlad Ward many years later as further proof of Crichell's lack of worth as a true warrior, leading to the Trial of Grievance in which Crichell was killed. After Crichell's death, the new Khan of the Jade Falcons, Marthe Pryde, considered once and for all conquering Apollo and dealing a deathblow to the Rim Worlds Republic but was quickly distracted by other matters such as the Harvest Trials against the Homeworld Clans, the Great Refusal on Strana Mechty, and other such issues.

As of 3062, the Rim Worlds Republic remains, standing proud in the face of existential threats. Though Apollo remains the recognized capital world, the RWR has spread much of its command structure across worlds deeper in the Republic such that if Apollo should fall the realm can fight on. The current President is Ivan Helius II, a distant descendant of the now-legendary Mikael Helius.