Ursula Liao

Ursula Liao
Ursula Liao
Character Profile
Born 3rd March 2551[1]
Died 25th June 2599[1]
Affiliation House Liao
Title(s) Duke of Liao
Position Chancellor
Profession Noble
Parents Terrence Liao (father)[1]
Victoria Matthews (mother)[1]

Ursula Liao was a Capellan Chancellor who joined forces with the Free Worlds League and Terran Hegemony to form the Star League.

History[edit]

Early life[edit]

Ursula Liao was the only child of Chancellor Terrence Liao and Victoria Matthews, born into a loveless marriage that effectively ended after her mother, who only sought to wield the weak-willed Liao’s power, was exiled by Liao’s closest circle of advisors. She was supposedly in touch with her mother, but evidence suggests it was falsified by Liao agents. As her father negotiated the Confederation’s inclusion in the Star League, Ursula steeped herself in the history and lore of her progenitors.

Chancellorship[edit]

She succeeded her father at the young age of twenty and had the task of leading the Confederation into the Star League Era before her.

It would be Ursula who finally signed the Star League Accords, but unlike many of her predecessors, Ursula played the dove rather than hawk. She argued against war with the Periphery, but time and again brokered her vote within the Star League Council to earn concessions for her Confederation. She willingly gave troops and equipment to the forming SLDF, but resisted pressure to provide additional House forces to fight on the Taurian or Magistracy fronts. She also issued "cattle tax" for every Star League soldier passing through the Confederation into the Periphery.

Instead, she took every advantage of membership in the Star League to expand her economy and advance her nation’s level of education and technology. She used her powers as Chancellor to bring educational and infrastructure improvements to nearly every Confederation world, and she made it her personal mission to leave the Capellan worlds better than she had found them.

There are many parallels between the social programs Ursula Liao instituted and the Xin Sheng reforms of today. Ursula took a direct interest in the Capellan educational system. With the Star League treaties resulting in hundreds of new technologies arriving on Capellan worlds, it was imperative that the citizens be trained and educated to take full advantage of them. She instituted a national system of weights and measures, creating a standardized set that replaced ancient systems like those of the Tikonov Grand Union and the Sarna Supremacy. Her administration also pushed for the use of a base-ten Confederation calendar, to supplement Terran Standard Time and each world’s individual time system.[2]

Her only true military challenge was the Freebooter’s War, the perpetrators of which she punished in true Liao fashion.

Like her father before her, Ursula died at an early age before she could complete her work.

Succession[edit]

Ursula Liao never married, nor gave birth to any children. This was most likely due to the broken relationship of her parents.

The selection of the next Chancellor was left to the Capellan Prefectorate.

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Historical: Reunification War, p. 49, "Ursula Liao profile"
  2. Handbook: House Liao, p.21, "Ursula Liao"

Bibliography[edit]