Volume XVII: Celestial Unity—Birth of the Capellan Confederation

You should never seek to hold any one thing, any one person, any one system, any one ideal above all others. For when you hold that single thing, that single person, that single government, that single value above all else, that thing, that individual, that order, that principle will come to control you and you will have forfeited your basic humanity. . . . Seek therefore to free yourself from unnecessary entanglements, and thereafter seek to free your neighbor, whether he would be free or no.
—Elias Liao, leader of the New World Disciples, c. 2182

For many, mere mention of the Capellan Confederation conjures up images of a brutal and warlike police state, even more rigid and caste-driven than the Draconis Combine. Images of the Maskirovka, a secret agency of the state, watching over everyone and everything, empowered to drag helpless citizens away in the middle of the darkest night, haunt many a holodrama set in this realm. But is this the real Capellan Confederation, or merely an exaggeration of propaganda? What created the modern Capellan state, ruled almost absolutely since its formation by the iron fist and dao sword of House Liao?

Like most of the Successor States, the birth of the Confederation can be traced to the origins of its ruling family, House Liao. The Liao family effectively begins with Elias Jung Liao, an English-Nepalese political philosopher and one-time statesman in the later days of the doomed Terran Alliance. Elias Liao vanished after the Offshore Chinese Republic seized the Hong Kong Free State he presided over for barely a year. Resurfacing three years later as the head of a fanatical anarchistic cult known simply as the New World Disciples, he masterminded a campaign of terror that lasted from 2182 to 2188. Dozens of lives were lost in what Liao, personally, called “cleansing actions” aimed at shattering all local authority in Terra’s Asian continent. It was only after government troops all but annihilated his Disciples and killed half his family that Liao departed, leading his two sons and scores of followers to an unremarkable world he dubbed Cynthiana.

The fact that the Republic of Liao (formerly the colony of Cynthiana) was accepted so readily after Elias Liao’s death has to be one of the biggest ironies of the Terran Alliance’s final years. Here we have a planet founded by the very man who terrorized Terran citizens for over half a decade, ruled now by his grandson, Victor. No apologies or reparations for the hundreds killed in Hong Kong are ever demanded of Liao; it’s like the Terrans just forgot about the 2180s.
Nor were any serious concessions demanded to assure Victor’s loyalty; he was simply taken at his word and his signature when his world became part of the crumbling Alliance. When he set up trade deals with his neighbors, he refused—absolutely refused—to rely on Terran currency, instead working on a barter system, independent of the Alliance economy. All of these should have been signs that here was a man who was looking out only for Number One.
One has to wonder, then, if it really surprised the Alliance leaders that not only did Victor refuse to help them fight their Expansionist War to keep the colonies in line, but that he announced his own breakaway by beheading the Alliance ambassador to Liao.
—Pedro Anderson, Tyrants and Treachery: A Capellan History, SPC Publications, 3121

After the fall of the Terran Alliance, many former colonies found themselves alone—far more independent than many had truly desired—and sought to keep their shaky settlements going by forming loose trading pacts with their neighbors. In addition to the Republic of Liao, the region rimward of Terra also included the Capellan Hegemony (nee Co-Prosperity Sphere), the Nanking Collective, the Sarna Supremacy, the Tikonov Grand Union, and the Sian Commonwealth.

Collectively, history books describe these minor realms as the Capellan worlds, but in their day each one had its own ambitions, and its own way of doing business. With the Free Worlds League forming on one side, the shrinking Terran Alliance on another, and the growing Federated Suns on a third, the worlds and resources available to these loose alliances were few and ever-threatened. In a desperate bid to claim dominion in the region, these small states battled one another through trade embargoes, blockades, and even military invasions. In all this fighting, even the one-world Republic of Liao was not immune from strife.

By the early 2300s, the Capellan worlds were in a state of crisis. Constant fighting between the Capellan Hegemony and the Sarna Supremacy had dissolved much of the Hegemony’s infrastructure, pushing the economic alliance to its breaking limit. Worlds began to defect, starting with Arboris, to join with Liao, gaining the stability of the tiny mercantile republic’s stability in an age of unabated chaos. At the same time, the Terran Hegemony, successor to the ruined Terran Alliance, began an invasion of all systems around Terra itself, even going so far as to seize Capella in 2320. Though the Terrans would eventually be repulsed, after fifteen years of guerilla warfare, the region remained dangerously unstable.

It was a combination of the ever-present threat of the Terran Hegemony’s expansion and the Davion invasions that began in the 2330s that finally prompted the formation of a pan-Capellan union, the brainchild of Duke Franco Liao of the so-called Duchy of Liao. Decades of mutual distrust bogged down the negotiations to form a unified Capellan state, but in the end Duke Franco Liao proclaimed the creation of the Capellan Confederation in 2366, with himself as its supreme Chancellor. The various states entering into this union became known as commonalities. Each commonality would be headed by ten military commanders, who were granted sweeping powers to govern their regions for the sole purpose of defense against foreign encroachment. Just five years later, how far the newborn Confederation would go to survive was demonstrated for all to see.

Davion peacekeepers occupied Capella without opposition in mid-August 2367, scant hours after the departure of Chancellor Liao and his wife. Invading commanders were puzzled at finding the capital practically deserted by its citizens. That did not stop the 1st and 5th Victoria Lancers from setting up shop, preparing for a long stay. Plans for an extended occupation were cut short the following day, however, when combined elements of the Sarna and St. Ives navies, backed by hastily armed merchantmen from Franco’s own commercial fleets, suddenly vectored into orbit above the Davion flotilla. In a seven-hour engagement, the newly constituted Confederation Navy destroyed the transports and supply ships of the Davion peacekeepers, establishing themselves in complete control of the Capellan skies. Having deprived the invaders of their way home, Chancellor Liao next ordered the unconditional surrender of Davion occupation forces.
Refusing to believe that Liao would ever order the destruction of his own capital, the Davions declined to surrender. Two minutes after the ultimatum expired, Chancellor Liao ordered an all-out laser and missile barrage of Capella Prime, and with it, the annihilation of three hand-picked Davion regiments . . . along with more than 2,000 Capellan citizens still in the city. . . .
Thereafter, the Capellan capital was moved to Sian, where it has remained ever since. Subsequently, a black-edged border was added to the official Confederation triangle, commemorating the sacrifice of the Capellans who died under their own navy’s guns that day. It is interesting to note that the Davion regiments lost on Capella that day have never been re-formed.
—Adal Corvin, ComStar Archivist, Hell on Capella Prime, 3025

The shocking destruction of Capella Prime, original capital city of the newborn Confederation, so stunned and unnerved the Davion commanders that they withdrew from Capellan space, though then-President Raynard Davion refused to recognize the Confederation. While fighting against the belligerent Free Worlds League would continue for some time, the extreme measures taken at Capella would forever be an example of the fanaticism of Capellan forces in battle. The Confederation, to this day, remains committed to taking any steps necessary to survive, regardless of the cost.

Thus did the Confederation rise, from the mind of a Terran statesman turned radical madman to a major Inner Sphere power whose equally dedicated warriors would stop at nothing to assure their realm’s survival against any aggressor.

In part two of this series on House Liao’s Capellan Confederation, we’ll take a deeper look into the fascinating and ancient cultures that combined to create this small, yet powerful nation. I’m Bertram Habeas.