BTA Developer Blog 9.5: The Actual Story of the Sanctuary Worlds

BTA Developer Blog #9.5: The Actual Story of the Sanctuary Worlds

WARNING:

This Dev Blog contains spoilers for Sanctuary World content. If you care about that sort of thing, don't read this!

For those who are interested, here's the Sanctuary Worlds Timeline, in its entirety, with their entire history laid out. Patrons on Patreon have already seen this but I figured other people might want to see it too, so here you go:

Pre-Exodus:

• 2451: Dane Computing is founded in the Terran Hegemony on the world of Procyon.
• 2477: Jacobson Arms is founded in the Terran Hegemony on the world of Dieron.
• 2479: Mallard Robotics is founded in the Terran Hegemony on the world of Ingress.
• 2501: All three companies are major military contractors for the Hegemony Armed Forces by this point and are considered critical infrastructure by the HAF.
• 2501: Deborah Cameron is elected Director-General of the Terran Hegemony. Her rule, from 2501 to 2542, is marked by an era of so-called aggressive diplomacy and sees a reduction of the HAF's budget and influence in the government.
• 2549: Ian Cameron declares himself Director-General of the Terran Hegemony after the current Director-General, Joseph Cameron, is assassinated, kicking off the events of the September Revolt. Ian puts down the revolt swiftly and begins to turn the Hegemony towards his eventual end goal, the Star League.
• 2569: The final Great House, House Kurita, signs a treaty with House Cameron, paving the way for the Star League after 20 years of effort. Elements of the HAF's industrial-military complex, which had been quietly voicing grievances about Director-General Cameron's plan for years, become further concerned and begin making their own plans.
• 2570: The families behind three major HAF suppliers, Dane Computing, Jacobson Arms, and Mallard Robotics, hold a joint meeting to discuss Ian Cameron's nascent Star League. They agree that, in their view, the HAF's power and authority would wane under the Star League and they would be cast aside. This proved intolerable and so they began a plan to leave the Hegemony that was spurning them.
• 2571, June 9th: Director-General Cameron officially signs the Star League Accords, forming the Star League and became First Lord of the Star League.
• 2571, September 10th: Dane Computing, Jacobson Arms, and Mallard Robotics load up several warship hulls and dozens of dropships with all their assets as well as their families and several large batches of colonists and set out to form their own colony in deep space. The Inner Sphere never sees the three corporations, nor any of their colonists, again and the exodus is largely forgotten in the wake of the Star League's founding as a historical oddity.

Exodus:

• 2572, early in the year: After several months of travel, the corporate fleet has left known space rimward past the Terran Hegemony. They spend some time flailing around in deep space, mostly lost and finding nowhere habitable.
• 2572, late in the year: The corporate fleet discovers an as-yet-unknown batch of worlds that appear largely habitable. With morale low and only now realizing precisely the magnitude of what they had set out to do, the corporations call a halt to the journey and begin to set up camp on the new worlds.
• 2575: After more than 2 years of hard work, the colonies in what the colonists came to call the Sanctuary Worlds were largely up and running. Each corporation split off to nearby planets to found their own fiefdoms. The Dane Hegemony (2572), Jacobson Haven (2573), and Mallard Republic (2575) are officially founded between 2572 and 2575, though they would not take on their final forms for some time yet.

Settlement and Growth:

• 2576: The Jacobson Haven government, pressured by elements within its population, engages in the first military action in the Sanctuary Worlds, a raid against a Mallard Republic planet to steal food. The Republic strikes back by destroying one of the Haven's dropships as it tries to escape with its cargo, leading to several months of tense negotiations and debates.
• 2577: Mediated by the Dane Hegemony, the Haven and Republic come to an agreement over the incident. The Haven makes reparations for the lives lost during the attack and the Republic replaces the destroyed dropship with one of their own. More than the material though, the loss of lives is keenly felt throughout the Sanctuary Worlds, as the populations are still very small and largely consist of those who came with on the exodus.
• 2581: After several years of further negotiations, the three powers sign the Sanctuary Accords. These accords stipulate that all conflict between the powers is to be done in a ritualized manner as to minimize loss of human life. Combat is to first blood only and space combat is outlawed entirely as to avoid losing the few ships that came with on the exodus before facilities could be constructed to replace them.
• 2588: The Mallard Republic introduces the first drones to the Sanctuary Worlds and goes on to use them during a territory dispute with the Dane Hegemony. The Hegemony, unsure of the new drones, is quickly defeated by them and surrenders the planet in question.
• 2602: The Jacobson Haven manages to steal drone technology for itself and begins to experiment with it.
• 2607: The Dane Hegemony finally acquires drone technology for itself and starts exploring the abilities of the drones in earnest.
• 2644: The Dane Hegemony, after decades of civilian unrest and political upheaval, collapses into a brutal civil war as the population fractures into several groups based on political and religious lines. The Haven and Republic largely stay out of the conflict, content to watch and possibly claim the Hegemony's former territory if possible.
• 2651: The Dane Civil War ends in a fiery conclusion, as one of the separatist factions deploys a miniature nuclear device in the heart of the capital city of Vedovis, incinerating thousands of people. Enraged, the remaining factions band together under the direction of House Dane and wipe out the separatists responsible. In the aftermath, House Dane re-establishes the government and founds the Dane Sacellum, a government based around House Dane's personal brand of spirituality rooted in ancient Terran beliefs from the Roman Republic.
• 2653: The Jacobson Haven and Mallard Republic formally recognize the Dane Sacellum as the successor state to the Dane Hegemony. The Sacellum officially signs the Sanctuary Accords.
• 2701: Historians recognize this year as the year that the Jacobson Haven “officially” became controlled by the crime families instead of the nominal government established in 2573. While the government continues to exist, all actual authority is vested in the various criminal families behind the scenes.

The Quiet Years:

• 2702 to 2980: Over these 278 years, the Sanctuary Worlds quietly expanded their populations, developed new military technologies, and colonized new worlds in the Sanctuary. While minor conflicts happened frequently, no major shifts in the landscape of the Sanctuary Worlds took place and historians largely regard these as The Quiet Years in Sanctuary history.

The Inner Sphere Returns:

• 2981: An unknown jumpship materialized in the Haven system of Pinzolo. It was quickly captured by Haven aerospace fighters and dropships and the crew of the attached dropship interrogated. The crew turned out to be ComStar adepts and members of ComStar's Explorer Corps. The crew explained their mission to explore outside the Inner Sphere and make contact with anyone they discovered. The Haven officials, unsure what to make of this story, contacted Sacellum and Republic officials for a gathering. After several weeks of discussion with one another, as well as discussion with the ComStar adepts as to their purpose and the disposition of the Inner Sphere, it was decided that the Sanctuary wanted nothing to do with the Inner Sphere and wished to remain secluded. The ComStar adepts agreed to keep their location secret and all records of their visit to the Sanctuary were erased from the jumpship's memory. With that, the ComStar vessel was released back to the Inner Sphere. However, unbeknownst to the Sanctuary powers, the ComStar vessel suffered a catastrophic misjump as they left the Pinzolo system and were completely destroyed. ComStar recorded the vessel as lost in action and made a note to follow up on it at some point.
• 3001: Twenty years later, ComStar sent a second ship along the first one's course to determine its fate. This second ship once again materialized in the Pinzolo system. This time, the Haven officials did not believe ComStar's cries of innocence and believed it to be the prelude for an invasion, destroying the jumpship with all hands to prevent them from returning to the Inner Sphere with their location.
• 3002: The Sanctuary powers hold a summit on the Sacellum capital world of Minerva. The topic is what to do about the Inner Sphere. Believing there is the threat of an invasion by the Inner Sphere, the powers agree that their isolation is no longer protection. Clearly, something needed to be done. To that end, they form the Sanctuary Alliance, an independent military command that would serve as the unified army of the Sanctuary Worlds. The Alliance's first task is to establish a cordon of worlds to serve as a front-line against invasion, the so-called Shield Worlds.
• 3026: The Sanctuary Alliance begins long-range reconnaissance of the Inner Sphere. It discovers the borders of the Taurian Concordat based on old maps cross-referenced with ComStar maps shared by the first expedition to visit the Sanctuary. After listening to transmissions throughout the Inner Sphere and after observing the Fourth Succession War, the Alliance becomes convinced the Sphere is barbaric and warlike, reinforcing their belief that an invasion is only a matter of time.
• 3031: The Shield Worlds are finally fully established and the Alliance has been putting the resources of the Shield Worlds to work bolstering its own military output as well as funneling resources back into the Sanctuary proper to prepare their armies as well.
• 3045: The Sanctuary powers, including the Alliance's leadership, hold a second summit to discuss future actions. Though no invasion, nor further intrusions into their territory, has materialized the powers generally believe that it is still only a matter of time. They resolve to strike the first blow and form a bulwark in the Inner Sphere that can be used to defend themselves. However, political disagreements forestall any efforts towards beginning the invasion for more than a decade. The Sanctuary Alliance takes this time to further its own goals and further establishes the Shield Worlds and its own military.

Events in BTA's Time Period:

• 3062, March: The Sanctuary Alliance, having received the green light from the Sanctuary powers, commences its invasion of the Taurian Concordat's outlying systems. The Taurians are swiftly and totally overwhelmed by the invasion from beyond the stars and multiple worlds are conquered quickly.
• 3062, July through November: The war between the Sanctuary Alliance and Taurian Concordat grinds to a halt. The Protector mobilizes the Taurian Defense Force (TDF) and halt the Alliance attack before it reaches the Concordat's core planets. The front-line becomes a brutal battlefield with no one able to make progress. Though the Concordat attempts a diplomatic solution, the Sanctuary Alliance initially refuses to open communications, though they become more communicative as the war grinds to a stand-still.
• 3063, February: There are several raids on border planets of the Aurigan Reach by Sanctuary Alliance forces. Officially, these are decried by Alliance leadership as rogue elements without official backing and the Alliance offers formal apologies to the Reach. Lady Arano, seeing that the Concordat is struggling with the Alliance's forces, chooses to accept the apology in lieu of entering the conflict. After these raids, there are no further open conflicts between the Alliance and the Aurigan Reach.
• 3063, June: After more than a year of open conflict, the Sanctuary Alliance and the Taurian Concordat reach a negotiated peace with the Treaty of Micros, mediated by the Magistracy of Canopus and the Aurigan Reach in concert. The Alliance agrees to halt its offensive and to return roughly half of its captured planets to the Concordat. It also agrees to share starmaps to its home systems (the Shield Worlds) so that trade and diplomacy can take place. The Alliance also agrees to several refit programs to help restore the depleted TDF. The Concordat in return promises no formal retaliation against the Alliance's territory, though the fate of several Concordat planets that were taken by the Alliance remain in dispute even after the treaty.
• 3063, September through December: The Taurian Concordat and Sanctuary Alliance have reached an uneasy peace after six months under the Treaty of Micros. The Alliance is true to its word and returns several captured worlds to the Taurians as well as completing several refit programs for the TDF using Sanctuary technology (only very basic weapons, the more advanced Sanctuary weapons remain in Sanctuary hands alone). Trade between the Concordat and the Alliance has bloomed, with traders from the Inner Sphere coming great distances to see what they can acquire from the Shield Worlds. Word of the actual Sanctuary Worlds themselves has spread throughout the Inner Sphere and many visitors have made inquiries about visiting them, though the borders have not opened just yet. For its part, the Concordat makes no formal military actions against the Alliance, though mercenaries and other deniable assets do engage in actions in the Shield Worlds.
• 3064, February: The Sanctuary World powers officially open their borders to traders and mercenaries looking for work, with all three powers offering clandestine work against their neighbors as each power senses an opportunity for political advancement.