Barony of Letnev
Ten thousand years before the Lazax Imperium, the Letnev were ruled by a king whose oppressive edicts and ironfisted grip on power eventually led to an uprising. Scores of Letnev worlds rose against the Letnev throne, serf and noble alike united to depose their tyrannical ruler. There have been no monarchs since.
For a while all was good, until the serfs, who had fought on the front line alongside the nobles, saw that power was once again becoming concentrated into the hands of a few. That rebellion led to a century of bloody conflict, peace coming only through the incursion of outside invaders who easily decimated the infighting Letnev.
Faced with his people’s extinction, the Baron Kel Jun Torroz gathered what capital ships he could for a desperate final stand. Through innovative and elastic fleet deployments, the Baron managed to stretch seemingly impossible odds into victory after victory, and soon the Letnev were saved. Their victory was so absolute that all traces of their invaders (and the invaders’ identity) have been erased from the historical records as vengeance for their crimes against the Letnev.
When the Barony of Letnev was inducted into the Lazax Imperium, the Lazax used the Letnev’s reliance on food and medicine imports to keep them in check. The Emperors hoped that this dependence would keep the Barony docile, but instead, it radicalized the Letnev, and the Barony used the situation to maintain a fierce grip on its people. Faced with this constant threat of external destruction, the Letnev were forged into a people who believed they could justify any acts in the name of survival.
It was no surprise, then, that the Letnev were the first subjects of the Lazax to rise against the Imperium. While the uprising was crushed and the Baron responsible put to death for his crimes, the Letnev waited barely two generations before doing it again, constructing fleets in secret shipyards hidden deep within empty regions of space. This second war was so costly to the Lazax, and so nearly successful, that the Lazax installed Imperial questors to monitor the Letnev and forbade the Letnev from building warships larger than a destroyer.
Unfortunately, after millennia of slights and insults, the Lazax began to weaken. The questors sent to the Barony became more interested in lining their own pockets than in maintaining the Pax Imperialis, and they were easily bribed or sidelined. The Barony decided it was done chafing under Imperial rule, and it began to rebuild its fleets in secret. If the Letnev wished for glory, they would have to take it for themselves.
Nearly half of all galactic traffic passes through the Quann Wormhole, a major way station between one half of the galaxy and the other. When the Lazax Emperor announced higher levies on wormhole traffic, accusations began to fly about Lazax misrule. True to her people’s penchant for direct action, the Baron Dazie Allic Werqan ordered a full blockade of the Quann Wormhole, hoping to force the Lazax to admit their mistakes and provide compensation to the Letnev people. It was a move so bold historians reckon that only the Letnev could have gotten away with it—and they might have, had the blockade not brought them into direct conflict with their militaristic neighbor, the Federation of Sol.
During the ensuing Twilight Wars, the Letnev, unshackled from Lazax sanctions, embarked on a crusade of expansionism. They seized Archon Tau from the Xxcha, brought many Sol colonies to heel, and proceeded to exploit dozens of sentient species on scores of worlds for their resources. Only an eventual bitter stalemate with the Federation of Sol, plus the collapse of Jol-Nar technology, eventually forced them to retreat inward.
The Barony of Letnev Today
At the heart of the Barony is the cold, hard world of Arc Prime, hurtling through the darkness of space, orbiting no star yet remaining in the same general region of the galaxy. One joke goes that their ancestral star disliked the Letnev so much it simply expelled them; another maintains that the Letnev’s disdain for the rest of the galaxy is all that prevents Arc Prime from a devastating collision.
Like the perception of its residents, the planet is cold, dark, and inhospitable, which suits the pale, light-sensitive Letnev perfectly. Most life on Arc Prime subsists in the massive caves beneath the surface, heated by the planet’s core, or dwells in the pressurized domes of the single surface city, Feruc. The capital of Goz, seat of the current Baron, is a massive sprawl of black structures that span the length from cave floor to rocky ceiling. Its billion residents train ceaselessly in its massive military installations or help oversee the billions of robots that harvest Ao fungus, the omnipresent gray plant that oxygenates the cavernous internal structures of Arc Prime.
As one of their homeworld’s only life-sustaining resources, Ao is held in deep religious regard by the Letnev. It was Ao that allowed billions of Letnev to live through the brutal time of the Imperium and the harsh Lazax restrictions on food, liquids, medicines, and essential nutrients. Even now that the Barony maintains several tightly controlled vassal worlds, Wren Terra chief among them, that the Letnev can rely on for resources, Ao remains a cornerstone of Barony culture.
Since the rise of the first Baron, the Letnev have built a society based on discipline, strict order, and meritocratic elitism. The Barony’s bureaucracy and military are intertwined, many of the leadership holding rank in both branches of government. A system of rapid promotion and demotion (or forced retirement) ensures that the strongest and smartest rise to the top of both services.
Goals of the Barony of Letnev
The Barony has maintained a powerful fleet, even during the long stillness in the wake of the Twilight Wars. Now, with the reinstatement of the Galactic Council, it has redoubled its efforts to build up its military, constantly incorporating the latest strategic innovations through endless war games and growing technological research.
However, the Barony faces troubles at home. Werqan III’s dominion mirrors the challenges faced by his ancestors. Exposed to “new ideas,” many Letnev have joined the New Letnev Union, a small but seemingly uncrushable movement of democracy-wringers that proves an implacable thorn in the Baron’s side, especially its members who have sought refugee status among the other Great Civilizations. The Naaz-Rokha Alliance and Mentak Coalition both deny having anything to do with the movement, but the Barony can hardly fail to notice that its radical elements tend to be equipped with “stolen” weapons and technology from both factions.
Nevertheless, the Barony will not let internal or external threats sway it from its course. Werqan III has his sights fully set on completing his people’s ancient arc and being crowned Emperor of this twilight imperium.
The Cimm Fenn
Though the Barony of Letnev is best known for its mighty navy and disciplined soldiers, it also hosts one of the most ruthless intelligence and security forces in the galaxy, the shadowy Cimm Fenn. Infamous for its assassinations and other covert operations, it has infiltrated agents into all levels of the Barony’s bureaucracy. The Cimm Fenn is so secretive that no historians are sure when it was founded, but evidence of its actions indicates that the organization came into being well before the Twilight Wars. It might even be as old as the Barony itself.
Normally the Cimm Fenn and its mysterious masters operate under the oversight of the broader Barony government. However, in times of war, the agency reports only to the Baron. This ends up being lethally dangerous for the Baron’s rivals, as the Baron inevitably uses their direct control of the Cimm Fenn to arrest or quietly eliminate anyone in the Barony who might pose a threat.
Comments