Lyran Alliance

The Lyran Alliance is a state in the BattleTech universe. Many of the Alliance's institutions are descended from those of the Lyran Commonwealth. It's capital is known as the Triad on the icy world of Tharkad. While the Commonwealth was the realm of House Steiner, the Lyran Alliance is ruled by the Steiner-Davion family.

History

Genesis

The Lyran Alliance was created when Katherine Steiner-Davion invoked Emergency Powers and seceded the Lyran half from the Federated Commonwealth. She used her brother's apparent duplicity and the war that followed as her rationale. To prevent the Free Worlds League from discontinuing supplies for the war against the Clans to the rest of the Inner Sphere, Victor Steiner-Davion had substituted a double in place of Thomas' son, Joshua Marik, since the boy had died of leukemia despite his treatment in the New Avalon Institute of Science. When Thomas was informed of the deception, he launched a war, allied with Sun-Tzu Liao and his Capellan Confederation, to retake worlds he lost to Victor's father, Hanse Davion, in the Fourth Succession War. Victor directly controlled the half of the Federated Commonwealth formerly known as the Federated Suns, while Kathrine was his regent in the half formerly known as the Lyran Commonwealth. Thomas sent a message to Kathrine reassuring her that he had no quarrel with her, and accordingly would not attack any of her worlds, though he would understand if she sided with her brother and would bear no ill-will. Instead, Kathrine decided to give Victor no support and to effectively sever her half of the realm and christen it the Lyran Alliance (not reverting completely to the original name of Lyran Commonwealth because she claimed Victor's actions had tainted the word 'commonwealth.') Almost immediately, however, there was opposition. Victor still had supporters in Lyran half of his realm, the most powerful of whom was Morgan Kell. Kell used his title as Duke of Arc-Royal and his position on the Clan Jade Falcon border to create what was effectively an independent state known as the Arc-Royal Defense Cordon. Grand Duke Morgan Kell paid lip service to Archon Katherine, but ran his affairs to his own liking. The ARDC became a haven for military units, House and mercenary alike, that did not approve of Katherine's secession and maintained loyalty to Archon-Prince Victor.

Politics

Like the Lyran Commonwealth before it, the Alliance was basically a feudal monarchy with an assembly that served in a largely advisory capacity. This does not mean, however, that the people do not have rights and freedoms. The Steiner Archons have traditionally been rather liberal rulers, allowing their people the right to assembly, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. Indeed, occasions in which these rights were taken away have been cause for crisis in and of themselves.

Archon

The head of the Lyran state is known as the Archon. The Archon is the head of the Lyran Alliance Armed Forces (LAAF) and has the authority to make any and all decisions relating to domestic and foreign policy.

Nobility

There was a very powerful nobility in the Alliance. The state was divided into five provinces named for their capital worlds, Alarion, Bolan, Coventry, Donegal, and Skye. The Duke or Duchess of these planets also served as provincial rulers for those areas. They could essentially serve as head of state in their province so long as they did not override the authority the Archon. Indeed, some of these rulers were powerful enough to challenge the central authority.

Other noble rulers existed at every possible spectrum. Some owned multiple worlds down to a city or tract of land. For every layer of nobility, a ruler could exercise his or her authority so long as he or she did not infringe upon the rights of the people or go against what a higher authority decreed.

Estates General

The Estates General is perhaps the oldest institution of the Lyran Alliance, owing to the fact that it was integrated into the governance of the Federated Commonwealth rather than subsumed, like most other governmental institutions of the Lyran Commonwealth. The Estates General is an assembly that meets on Tharkad and is theoretically composed of one individual from each world in the Lyran state, but in fact the least populous worlds are not represented. A member of the Estates General is elected to a six-year term and cannot hold a title more powerful than Baron.

The primary function of the Estates General is confirming the Archon, though this is often little more than a rubber stamp that grants legitimacy to House Steiner. In fact, it was orignally created in 2376 by Robert Marsden in order to grant his coup legitimacy. Despite that, the Estates General has taken a leading role in determining who holds position of Archon, as it did in 3007 when it voted no-confidence in Alessandro Steiner, paving the way for his niece Katrina to take power.

Military

The Lyran military has traditionally been the laughing-stock of the Inner Sphere. The Federated Commonwealth Alliance did much to change that, as the Federated Suns tried to help the Lyrans bring their military up to par with theirs. Much of that work was undone when Katherine seceded the Lyran Alliance and removed many of the quality officers because they remained loyal to her brother.

In addition, Katherine brought back the so-called "social generals." Social generals are not unique to the Lyrans, but there is a preponderance of them compared to other nations. These individuals are officers (not necessarily high-ranking, despite the term) who received their position through networking as opposed to martial talent. They have long been the scourge of the Lyran military, responsible for many a bad decision and their poor battlefield skills are reflected in the performance of their troops.

To compensate for this, the Lyrans are known for their use of large 'Mechs. Using their well-established industrial base, the LAAF fields a higher ratio of Assault 'Mechs than any other nation in the Inner Sphere. This has not always been a boon to them, however, as their enemies have been able to use a more balanced force to outmaneuver and defeat the Lyrans on many occasions.

Notes

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