Katherine Steiner-Davion

Katherine Morgan Steiner-Davion (3032- ) was the second child of Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner. She ruled the Lyran Alliance from 3057-3067 and the Federated Commonwealth from 3060-3067. She was named after Katherine Steiner, who brought the Steiner family to power in the Lyran Commonwealth and Morgan Hasek-Davion, who became the Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth's Marshal of the Armies.

Biography

Early Life

Like all of the Steiner-Davions except for Victor, Katherine was raised on both Tharkad and New Avalon. She attended the New Avalon Institute of Science and seemed set to take her place as regent of the Federated Suns on New Avalon when Victor's court was on Tharkad. Her father died in 3052 and her mother privately offered to step down so that Victor could become Archon-Prince, but he refused and Melissa Steiner ruled both halves of the nascent Federated Commonwealth.

Seizing Power

Katherine made a series of long-term moves to ensure that she would be more than her older brother's regent half of the time. She became an ally of Ryan Steiner and Galen Cox's lover. She then contracted an assassin to kill her mother, which he did by means of a bomb in 3055. Katherine attempted to subtly implicate Victor and ascribe to him the motivation that he wished to become Archon-Prince. This did not play well with the few who knew the truth about Melissa's offer to abdicate, such as Morgan Kell. She was also able to manipulate her brother Peter into moving into a monastery on Zaniah, though she did not know where he disappeared to.

Katherine's next step came with the Skye Rebellion led by Ryan Steiner. Victor had Ryan assassinated, but he left the Lyran half of the nation in the hands of Katherine, while he permanently moved his court to New Avalon. This move was especially ironic considering that Victor was raised on Tharkad and highlighted his lack of political acumen. Simultaneously, Katherine began to publicly play up her Lyran heritage and downplay her Davion half, often leaving the "Davion" of off her surname. She also took upon herself her maternal grandmother's name of "Katrina," leading to much confusion over which Katrina Steiner was being discussed. During the FedCom Civil War, this became a quick way to tell supporters of her and her brother Victor apart. The former would call her Katrina, the latter would call her Katherine.

Lyran Alliance

In 3057, Joshua Marik, who was undergoing treatment for leukemia at the New Avalon Institute of Science, died. Archon-Prince Victor instituted Operation Doppelganger, a plot originally hatched by his father to replace Joshua with a double. Victor never planned on using the double as a ploy to institute a pawn into the succession of the Free Worlds League, he simply wanted to be sure that the needed refit packages would continue to flow into the Federated Commonwealth. An agent from the Capellan Confederation discovered the ruse and Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao soon brought the news to Captain-General Thomas Marik. Together, the two launched an punitive invasion aimed at regaining all territory they had lost during the Fourth Succession War.

Katherine took advantage of the news to great effect. Citing her brother's duplicity and facing an invasion, she invoked Emergency War Powers and ceded the Lyran half of the Federated Commonwealth, naming it the Lyran Alliance because she claimed that Victor had tainted "Commonwealth." She simultaneously recalled all traditionally Lyran military units to withdraw to the nation's pre-4th War boundaries, in essence ceding the world that Marik wanted to him. With the completion of his goal, Marik stopped his invasion. Unfortunately, things were not well in the Sarna March. Since the 4th War, Melissa Steiner insisted that Lyran units garrison the territory that was largely conquered from the Capellan Confederation since the March was, in fact, Hanse's wedding present to his wife. In the run-up to the invasion, Sun-Tzu had actived terrorist cells on the Sarna March worlds that resulted in a destabilization of planetary governments. This, coupled with the withdraw of most defending units, compounded by Marik's decision to quit the war early, resulted in a no-man's land in the center of the Inner Sphere that became known as the Chaos March.

Katherine faced a challenge to her rule almost immediately. The first came from Morgan Kell, co-founder of the famed Kell Hounds and a close, personal friend of Archon Katrina Steiner. Soon after the formation of the Lyran Alliance, Kell ceded a group of worlds along the Clan Jade Falcon border and formed the Arc-Royal Defense Cordon, in essence creating his own private fief, though he publicly stated that it was to ensure the security of the border. Katherine was incensed at his actions, but allowed the public to believe he had done it with her blessing.

She soon decided that she was in need of an ally against Clan Jade Falcon besides the Kells, who she knew did not support her. She decided to leave on a diplomatic mission in person. She left Nondi Steiner and Tormano Liao in control of her fledgling nation while she went off in search of an ally in secret. While she was attempting to make contact with another Clan, forces from the reborn Clan Wolf captured the flotilla she was in. During this time she met with Wolf Khan Vlad Ward and the two found an instant attraction to each other. They were then able to conclude a mutual defense pact aimed against Clan Jade Falcon.

Both of these incidents proved fortuitous as the Falcons launched an invasion in 3058, while Katherine was off on her secret mission. She returned to Tharkad to find the Falcons poised to strike at her capital, an action that would have simultaneously decapitated the Alliance and broken the Truce of Tukayyid, prompting a renewal of the Clan Invasion with the Falcons already in possession of a head-start. While the Falcons were embroiled in the fighting for Coventry, she allowed Victor to strike at the Falcons there at the head of an international task force that had originally been headed to Tukayyid for war games. She hoped that Victor would die in the fighting, showing her strange desire for Victor to destroy himself without it being directly caused by her. She was surprised and enraged when he arranged for a peaceful settlement that allowed the Falcons to retreat with their honor intact, a move that was necessitated by an invasion of their occupation zone by Clan Wolf.

Star League

The cooperation that was fostered at Coventry led to a broader discussion concerning ways in which the Inner Sphere forces could strike back at the Clans. Katherine offered to allow a conference to be held on Tharkad that became known as the Whitting Conference after a city on Coventry. At the first Whitting Conference, the leaders of the Inner Sphere decided to resurrect the long-dead Star League with a First Lord elected from their number every three years. Katherine attempted to gain the position of First Lord by nominating Sun-Tzu Liao, whom she believed would be voted down, leaving her as the logical compromise candidate. What she did not expect was Victor's increased knowledge in political dealings, which backfired when he cast the deciding vote for Sun-Tzu.

She later took control of the Federated Suns' half of the Federated Commonwealth when Victor Steiner-Davion left for the Clan homeworlds, by misleading and then deposing her younger sister, Yvonne. When she had attained her goal, she proclaimed herself the Archon-Princess.

This action led to the FedCom Civil War, when her brother Victor, having returned from the Clan homeworlds, sought to reclaim the throne from her, following the murder of Arthur Steiner-Davion and Victor's presumption of her guilt. After five years of fighting, Katherine and her loyalist forces surrendered to Victor's Allied forces on 20 April 3067.

Following her removal from power, Katherine was handed over to Khan Vlad Ward of Clan Wolf for his promise not to attack the Inner Sphere.

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