Editing Conrad Toyama

{{Update Needed|[[MechWarrior First Edition]]|[[Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2]]|[[Second Succession War (sourcebook)]]}}
{{InfoBoxCharacter
| image               = Conrad Toyama 2.jpg
| caption             = Conrad Toyama at age 25
| name                = Conrad Toyama
| birthdate           = 9 September [[2752]]<ref name=HLoTV2-25>''Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2'', pp. 25–26: "Conrad Toyama"</ref>
| died                = 17 April [[2837]]<ref name=HLoTV2-25/><ref name=CS-27>''ComStar'', p. 27</ref>
| affiliation         = [[ComStar]]
| rank                = 
| title               = 
| profession          = [[Primus of ComStar]]
| parents             = 
| siblings            = 
| spouse              = 
| children            = 
}}
'''Conrad Toyama''' assumed control of [[ComStar]] following [[Jerome Blake]]'s death in [[2819]].<ref name=CS-4>''ComStar'', p. 4</ref>

==History==
===Early life to the First Circuit===
Born and raised on the [[Terran Hegemony]] world of [[Styx]], Conrad Toyama had a relatively mundane childhood, but his life immediately changed at age fourteen when [[Stefan Amaris]] launched his [[Amaris Coup|Coup]]. Described by his high-school classmates as something of a charming and fast talking rogue, the young Toyama prospered during the Amaris occupation as a fixer and fence, orchestrating black market deals and trading in valuable items, while bribing the [[Amaris Empire Armed Forces]] troops to turn a blind eye. Toyama's business suffered when the [[Draconis Combine]] took control of Styx in [[2772]], followed by the [[Star League Defense Force]] in August [[2773]]. With both parties far less willing to ignore his shady dealings, the twenty-year-old suffered beatings from the [[Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery]] and stiff fines from SLDF forces.<ref name=HLoTV2-25/>

While the SLDF troops were disdainful of him, Toyama soon became invaluable to the [[Department of Communications]] team tasked with restoring Styx's disabled [[hyperpulse generator]] in [[2774]]. His ability to acquire rare components and his notable skills at jury-rigging helped the team finish the work in half the expected time. While working with the team, Toyama's eyes were opened to a different life, and was seduced by the team's stories of danger and daring in the HPG restorations during [[Operation LIBERATION]]. He ultimately won a place in the Department, now led by Jerome Blake, in late [[2780]]. Toyama's mix of commercial and technical knowledge, along with his natural charm, soon earned him the respect of Blake, who selected the young man for the important post of chief administrator of the restored [[Dieron]] hyperpulse generator in [[2785]]. This earned him a position on Blake's newly created political [[First Circuit]], the decision making council for the Department made up the HPG First Circuit's chief administrators.<ref name=HLoTV2-25/><ref name=CS-11>''ComStar'', p. 11: "The Birth of ComStar - The First Circuit"</ref>

Drawing from his trading background, one of Toyama's first actions in his new position was to suggest that a rebranding was in order to reflect Blake's efforts to reform the Department into an independent communications conglomerate. He suggested "ComStar", a combination of the names of two companies that formerly sold their services to the Department: Communications Enterprises Inc., and Starlight Broadcasting Ltd. Toyama would later claim his inspiration for the name came after he suffered a high voltage electrical shock while working on the Dieron HPG. After recovering from the shock he claimed that he was visited by the shade of Richard Cameron who whispered the name to him. No matter its origin, Blake backed the proposal and the Star League Department of Communications was thereafter known as ComStar.<ref name=HLoTV2-25/><ref name=CS-11/>

At first one of Blake's many advisers, Toyama's talents and charm soon saw him become Blake's principal aide and confidant. Despite their differences in age and personality, the introvert Blake and extrovert Toyama saw each other as kindred spirits, united in the belief that ComStar could save humanity from the abyss. Never previously of a religious bent, Toyama was so impressed by the older man's steely drive to restore the HPG network (and make a profit while doing so), his manipulation of the Great Houses into signing the [[Communications Protocol of 2787]], and the success of [[Operation Silver Shield]], that he came to regard Blake as a kind of holy prophet. Toyama followed his every command with an almost religious fervor.<ref name=HLoTV2-25/><ref name=CS-11/><ref name=CS-18>''ComStar'', p. 18: "A New Order - The Death of Blake"</ref>

While some on the First Circuit questioned his fanatical level of devotion, Toyama remained on the body for the remainder of the hard years of the [[First Succession War]]. By [[2812]] however that devotion began to weaken as the ideologies of Toyama and the aging Blake began to drift apart. In his attempts to preserve ComStar, Blake had openly borrowed aspects of the churches of old, trying to maintain the organization's purity by keeping it separate and neutral from the "outside world", while also protecting its assets and the technology it guarded. Toyama saw other aspects of the religious institutions of the medieval era as also worthy of emulation, and suggested that ComStar use its transnational position to actively influence the secular world; he likened the organization's [[interdiction]]s to religious excommunication, and promoted their use as a means of forcing events to ComStar's liking. Blake however believed staunchly in ComStar's neutrality, and was steadfast in the belief that such involvement in politics would threaten both ComStar's neutrality and its profitability.<ref name=HLoTV2-25/><ref name=CS-18/>

As the elderly Blake began to increasingly withdraw from the day to day running of his organization as his health declined from [[2814]], despite the increasing gulf between them, Toyama would continue to visit him regularly, most frequently at Blake's private retreat in the foothills of Green Mountains. Toyama's hero worship of Blake would shatter permanently however in [[2819]] when the Prime Administrator proposed to the First Circuit that ComStar contract with the [[New Earth Trading Company]] to sell low-grade nonmilitary goods taken for granted prior to the maelstrom of the First Succession War to now desperate and depleted Great Houses, leveraging ComStar's technological advantage for financial gain. Toyama considered this a betrayal of all Blake had once professed to uphold, with some circumstantial evidence indicating he may have worked to hasten what came next.<ref name=HLoTV2-25/><ref name=CS-17>''ComStar'', p. 17: "The Birth of ComStar - Creation of ROM"</ref>

Less than a week later, on May 11th Blake collapsed and fell unconscious during a meeting of the First Circuit, though initially there was only mild concern, particularly as the workaholic Prime Administrator seemed to recover swiftly. Four days later on 15 May however he collapsed again and it was discovered Blake was in the terminal stages of [[Ultorson's Disease]], a rare and fatal genetic disorder. Little could be done save to ease his pain as one by one the members of the First Circuit met with Blake on his deathbed, the last one being Toyama. Taking steps to muffle listening devices and block the security cameras hidden in Prime Administrator's bedchamber, Toyama spent three unmonitored hours together before emerging to announce that Jerome Blake had died at the stroke of midnight and bearing a writ naming him as successor to the position of Prime Administrator. None questioned Toyama's claims and the First Circuit confirmed him immediately.<ref name=HLoTV2-25/><ref name=CS-18/>

Though Toyama is commonly said to be the architect of the techno-mystical ComStar of the [[thirty-first century]], it is a tightly kept secret that Toyama was persuaded to take the Order down that path by the dying wishes of Blake himself, who outlined his reasoning and goals to Toyama in his last hours. During that time, Blake explained to Toyama that he feared ComStar collapsing after his death and that transforming the organization into a religion was the key to its survival in the years to come. Blake, having given up on Kerensky's return, saw it as the only way to preserve the knowledge of the Star League. Though Toyama was reluctant at first, he agreed with Blake's plan and followed through with his friend's plan to catalyze their transition into a religion by making a Saint out of their founder.<ref name=2SWp4f>''Second Succession War'', pp. 4–9: "Intentions"</ref>

===Assumption of power and the Purification===
Toyama took over the leadership of ComStar following Blake's death in [[2819]], replacing the previous corporate structure with a hierarchy based upon religious trappings and mystic rituals in accordance with Jerome Blake's final plan.<ref name=2SW-8>''Second Succession War'', p. 8</ref> Along with the change came a new title for the highest authority within ComStar: [[Primus of ComStar|Primus]]. Toyama's intent behind the cultish change was to encourage the belief that the future of humanity lay in technology and communication between the realms and that only ComStar could presently provide that protection. By bestowing the employees of ComStar with a mythical aura of knowledge, Toyama hoped to protect the organization's control of the technology. If only ComStar's [[adept]]s could operate ComStar's technology, then even the "greedy" states would work to protect his people. The [[Star League]]'s legacy would then be safe under ComStar's aegis.<ref name=CS-4/>

By [[2820]] and content with his full control of the Order, Toyama embarked on a public tour of the capitals of the Great Houses to meet with each of the leaders of the [[Inner Sphere]]. While the professed goal was to explain ComStar's new religious based organization and structure, it also allowed Toyama to explain personally how he had prevented Schwepps' renegade First Circuit from launching attacks against the Great Houses at a heavy cost, requiring a 15 percent increasing in transmission rates to rebuild the organization's damaged infrastructure.<ref name=CS-20>''ComStar'', p. 20: "A New Order - The Word of Blake"</ref>

Save for [[Archon]] [[Richard Steiner (29th c.)|Richard Steiner]] of the [[Lyran Commonwealth]], the other house lords grudgingly accepted the increase with minimal resistance. The Archon however refused to make public appearances with Toyama and only agreed to new terms after what he claimed amounted to diplomatic blackmail. Tensions between the Commonwealth and the Blessed Order only increased after this, with the Archon often openly questioning ComStar's neutrality and Toyama's motives, hinting that he suspected the organization was a front for an eventual takeover of the Inner Sphere.<ref name=CS-20/>

Matters reached a head when Richard's son [[Marcus Steiner|Marcus]], convinced the Lyran [[Estates-General]] to pass his father's Reclamation Act of [[2823]], which required that ComStar's profits and property be taxed like any other business operating in the Lyran Commonwealth. Toyama knew he had to act swiftly to ram home that ComStar was not just a business, and lest any other leaders decided to follow suit. Calling a special session of the First Circuit, Toyama convinced the body to pass the [[Exclusion of Tharkad|Exclusion of Tharkad Act]], ComStar's first [[Interdiction|Communications Interdiction]] against one of the Successor States.<ref name=CS-20/>

Shortly before the first tax bill was due, on October 3rd [[2823]] a copy of the act was transmitted to [[Tharkad]] and delivered to the Archon, followed by the shutdown and disabling of the capital's hyperpulse generator.<ref name=CS-20/> Before the Archon could even respond, all ComStar personnel were safely evacuated off world. In one fell swoop Toyama had shown all the House Lords that he was not afraid to use ComStar's power. The Interdiction lasted almost a full year with little communication between the Commonwealth and ComStar before Marcus eventually bowed to public pressure in the fall of [[2824]] and asked the Estates General to rescind the Act. Within 72 hours of the announcement, the Tharkad HPG was reactivated and processing messages.<ref name=CS-21>''ComStar'', p. 21: "A New Order - The Word of Blake"</ref>

Basking in the success of his political showdown with the Commonwealth, in the fall of [[2824]] with several members of the First Circuit in tow, Toyama made another series of diplomatic visits to the governments of the Inner Sphere. This time the goal was much simpler, a recruitment drive to counteract the massive decrease in applications triggered in response to ComStar's transformation into a quasi-religious organization. While few in the Inner Sphere proper and even Terra itself were willing to make a lifelong commitment to what many saw as a mystic cult,<ref name=CS-21/> Toyama had much more success on the more marginal worlds of the [[Periphery]], the year and half trip being considered a great success.<ref name=CS-22>''ComStar'', p. 22: "A New Order - The Word of Blake"</ref>

===Operation DIVINE INTERVENTION and the ComStar War===
With only low level rumbling of armed conflict as the Great Houses hurriedly attempted to rebuild, an increasingly dismayed Toyama saw no way for ComStar to reach its full zenith of power unless the Successor States went to war again. To this end when [[Jinjiro Kurita]] launched his [[Chain Gang missions]], Toyama ordered the [[ComStar News Bureau]] to sensationalize the damage and losses hoping it would escalate matters. Unfortunately save for [[Chancellor]] [[Ilsa Liao]]'s death during a thrust into [[Federated Suns]], the tensions never reached the point of open warfare and Toyama's patience ran out. Recognizing he would have to more overtly force the matter, Toyama proposed [[Operation DIVINE INTERVENTION]] to the First Circuit in early [[2827]].<ref name=CS-23>''ComStar'', p. 23: "The Word of Blake"</ref>

He was reportedly very concerned when reports of the Minnesota Tribe began to circulate around, concerned they were some sort of advance troops of the SLDF and their successors. He would send a force of JumpShips and other assets to try to make contact with them. The ComStar mission to make contact with them failed and eventually lost contact with them in the periphery.

At Toyama's direction, ROM began to filter information with regards the inner workings, composition and movements of both the [[Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery]] and the [[Internal Security Force]] to agents of [[Loki (Intelligence agency)|Loki]], the Lyran Commonwealth's intelligence agency, while the ComStar News Bureau played up the extent of the raids and tension along the Free Worlds League and Lyran border. With the LCAF consistently outmaneuvering the Combine thanks to the leaked information, by [[2830]] an enraged Jinjiro launched an all-out offensive against both the Commonwealth and the [[Federated Suns]] to restore the honor of his troops, marking the formal start of the [[Second Succession War]].<ref name=CS-23/>

The masterstroke of Toyama's efforts to expand the conflict would prove to be the [[ComStar War]]. When Captain-General [[Charles Marik (29th c.)|Charles Marik]] attempted to overcome intelligence blind spots due to the poor condition of [[SAFE]] by asking his sister to use her ComStar ties to provide Lyran and Capellan military in [[2830]], he did not realize that Jeannette would immediately inform the Primus of his request.<ref name=CS-24>''ComStar'', pp. 24–27: "ComStar War"</ref>

Recognizing he had an opportunity beyond merely dragging the League into the Second Succession War, Toyama provided her with a document supposedly from the Lyran high command containing plans for the invasion of [[Graham IV]], [[Castor]] and [[Callison]]. Jeannette passed on the seemingly important transmission to her brother in mid-June, never questioning its authenticity Charles refused to accept Lyran denials that such attacks weren't planned and ordered his troops into a state of readiness to launch his own attack against House Steiner, forcing the LCAF to respond in kind and create the threat the faked documents claimed.<ref name=CS-24/>

Thrilled at the success of this plot, Toyama revealed to the First Circuit his eventual goal. With their shattered intelligence network, the Free Worlds League would be desperate for the secret intelligence ComStar could provide, and Toyama believed this could be used to damage the [[FWLM]] and Charles to the point where Jeannette would again be the only choice for the Captain-Generalcy, making the Successor State a de facto ComStar protectorate.<ref name=CS-24/>

Between [[2831]] and [[2836]], House Marik won a series of grand military campaigns against Houses Liao and Steiner thanks to information supplied by ComStar, but also a number of setbacks and losses which Charles realized could only be due to his enemies receiving similar leaks. Suspecting ComStar was providing similar aid to his enemies, Charles leaked intel about an SLDF base discovered on [[Cursa]] via ComStar and directly to his sister in an effort to expose the Blessed Order's duplicity.<ref name=CS-24/>

When Capellan troops attacked the unimportant and deserted Cursa with three crack [[regiment]]s searching for the nonexistent storehouse in early 2836, an enraged Charles responded by ordering a [[WarShip]] strike force to destroy the hyperpulse generator on Oriente and kill all ComStar personnel, including his sister. Caught completely by surprise, the First Circuit was appalled that instead of breaking the League that their actions had triggered Marik into open war against the Order. Safe nobody save Charles suspected their double game, Toyama refused a military strike against the League, instead choosing to play the wronged party and order a complete Communications Interdiction of the Free Worlds League until it admitted its crime and paid three times the cost of rebuilding the station.<ref name=CS-24/>

Seeing a message publicly confirming the Interdiction was sent to every station in the Inner Sphere, Toyama followed this with a private message to all ComStar personnel in the Free World League, ordering them to selectively cripple their HPGs and go into hiding. As SAFE and ROM engaged in a desperate shadow war to capture or protect ComStar personnel, House Liao and House Steiner mounted full offensives against the hamstrung Free Worlds League.<ref name=CS-24/>

As Houses Davion and Kurita also entered the fray and Charles lost all internal support, Toyama was overjoyed when the Captain-General finally caved in [[2838]] and sent his youngest son Garth to [[Terra]] to discuss terms. Unfortunately despite Primus Toyama's hopes that the League was on the verge of a complete collapse and would request direct ComStar aid, Garth was simply ordered to communicate that Charles was ready to accept responsibility for destroying the Oriente HPG and pay damages. Even with Toyama's best efforts to force matters to ComStar's benefit and secure a "victory", House Marik merely agreed to pay costs.<ref name=CS-24/>

===Death and legacy===
As the ComStar War concluded in compromise and his support on First Circuit suffered, Primus Toyama gave consideration to retirement and handpicked [[Raymond Karpov]] as his successor. When Karpov was named Primus upon Toyama's death from a massive stroke in April [[2837]], his first act was to name Toyama a saint of the Blessed Order.<ref name=CS-27>''ComStar'', p. 27</ref> Toyama's death, so soon after he named Karpov as his successor, led some to believe he had perhaps hastened the older man's demise, a belief that was only fueled when Karpov proved to be even more extreme than Toyama.<ref name=CS-28>''ComStar'', p. 28</ref>

The ''[[Toyama (BattleMech)|Toyama]]'' [[BattleMech]] used by the [[Word of Blake]] was named in his honor, as well as the [[Word_of_Blake#Politics|Toyama faction]] that was part of the Blakist Conclave.

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==Philosophical and political views==
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==Quotes==
{{Quote|''"The truly ambitious do not seize the throne; they push others to do so and then rule from the shadows."''
:-Excerpt from ''Commentaries'' by Conrad Toyama<ref>''Jihad Hot Spots: 3070'', p. 4</ref>}}

{{Quote|''In many ways, we must fear what we have sworn to promote. Even though we fervently pray for the candle of knowledge to relight our dark souls, we must all be well aware that it would mean the end of ComStar, unless we manage to control the spread of knowledge, unless we can control the light and on whom it falls.''
:-From the private journals of Primus Toyama<ref name=HSTLC-133>''House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth)'', p. 133: "Sociopolitical Structure - Interstellar Relations - ComStar and the Lyran People"</ref> }}

{{Quote|''The Free Worlds League has been placed under a full Communications Interdiction for violating the terms and agreements of the [[Communications Protocol of 2787]]. Until the League admits its violation and makes proper reparation to ComStar, in an amount equal to triple the cost of rebuilding the Oriente relay station, all communications into or out of the Free Worlds territories or protectorates are hereby suspended. So it is done in the name of the blessed Blake.''|Public message to all ComStar HPG stations, late March 2873.<ref name=CS-26>''ComStar'', p. 26: "History of ComStar - The ComStar Wars - Dark Hours, Dark Deeds"</ref>}}

{{Quote|''This is a dark hour to test our souls and the belief in our blessed Order. All ComStar personnel in the Free Worlds League are ordered to shut down HPG transmissions immediately. Remove all key holy software and data dumps and extract the principal communications code boards from their transmitters. These devices and software will be passed on to Precentors, who will assign the proper agents to conceal the items. All personnel will abandon their stations and travel to the appointed safe houses established in Emergency Protocol 201 A. Remain hidden until further notice. Consult the ''Word of Blake'' and seek his divine guidance against any evil that seeks to corrupt and destroy our Order. The Peace of Blake be with you.''|Private message to ComStar Precentors operating in the Free Worlds League, late March 2873.<ref name=CS-26/>}}

{{Quote|''If they sign a lasting treaty then Blake's Vision will be for naught. Their efforts must be stymied, and any provisions must be so onerous that renewed warfare and death are preferable.''|Primus Conrad Toyama, Private diaries, 2823.<ref name="FSWp121">''First Succession War'', p. 121: "Eye of the Storm (2821-2830)"</ref>}}

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Conrad Toyama.jpg|Conrad Toyama in his later years
</gallery>

==References==
<references/>

==Bibliography==
* ''[[ComStar (sourcebook)|ComStar]]''
* ''[[First Succession War (sourcebook)|First Succession War]]''
* ''[[Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2]]''
* ''[[House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth)]]''
* ''[[Jihad Hot Spots: 3070]]''
* ''[[Second Succession War (sourcebook)|Second Succession War]]''


[[Category:ComStar Characters|Toyama, Conrad]]
[[Category:Primus|Toyama, Conrad]]