Editing Romano Liao

{{Update Needed|[[Era Report: 3052]]|[[Handbook: House Liao]]}}

{{InfoBoxCharacter
| image               = Romano Liao BTLegends.jpg
| caption             = Romano Liao
| name                = Romano Liao
| birthdate           = [[2992]]<ref name=BT:Lp32>''BattleTech: Legends'', p. 32</ref><ref name=ER3052-77>''Era Report: 3052'', p. 77, "Romano Liao Profile"</ref>
| died                = 8 May [[3052]]<ref name=LDc36>''Lost Destiny'', C. 36</ref>
| othernames          = 
| affiliation         = [[House Liao]]
| rank                =
| title               = [[Duchess of Liao]]<br/>[[Duchess of Highspire]]
| position            = [[Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation|Chancellor]]<ref name=BT:Lp32/>
| profession          = Noble
| parents             = [[Maximilian Liao]] (father)<ref name=BT:Lp32/>
| siblings            = [[Candace Liao]]<br/>[[Tormano Liao]]
| spouse              = [[Tsen Shang]] (lover)
| children            = [[Sun-Tzu Liao]]<br/>[[Kali Liao]]
}}
'''Romano Liao''' was the second daughter of [[Chancellor]] [[Maximilian Liao]]. Romano succeeded her father as leader of the [[Capellan Confederation]]. She was considered by many to be insane, and was almost the image of the insane despot, putting people to death for no apparent reason. Romano was known for her skills with the oboe and violin, as well as being an accomplished microgravity acrobat.

==History==
===Military career and life on Sian===
Romano was a major and commander of the [[Confederation Reserve Cavalry]]. She hated her older sister [[Candace Liao|Candace]] because Candace was more intelligent and more attractive. Despite the fact that she commanded troops in the regular army, Romano became enamored of the [[Warrior House]]s and was a firm supporter of Karl Yadi.<ref>''House Liao'', p. 124</ref> Exceptionally loyal to her father, she constantly tried to show that to her father to get in his good graces.

While on Sian, she strived to study the ways of Master Yadi to put his teachings to use in her own style of command.  She joined the Capellan military on the [[Confederation Reserve Cavalry]], overseeing five regiments. She developed a pathological hatred for [[House Marik]] after their troops murdered her first lover. Searching revenge, she and her unit cut a swath across the League for eight years, attacking [[Menkalinan]] and [[Berenson]], where she personally murdered the planetary baron which commanded the planet's garrison and ordered all captive MechWarriors to be burned alive into a pile, whithin their 'Mechs.<ref>''House Liao (The Capellan Confederation)'', p. 124, "Romano Liao profile".</ref><ref>''BattleTech: Legends' p. 32.</ref>

In [[3028]] she seduced [[Maskirovka]] analyst [[Tsen Shang]] while he was assigned to the Davion Section of the Maskirovka. This was her bid to gain personal access to intelligence.  Through him, she was put her own spin on espionage.  First in attempting to kill Davion officers on Kittery,<ref>''Warrior: Riposte'', pp. 64-72, "Redburn and officers of the Kittery Training Battalion repulse assassination attempt and find House Liao's local safe house".</ref> and later in attempting to kill [[Quintus Allard]], [[Justin Allard|Justin Xiang]]'s father during Davion's Wedding.<ref>''Warrior Riposte'', pp. 210-211 - "Justin confronts Romano for attempting to kill Quintus and calling her an idiot for risking [[ComStar]] [[Interdiction]]".</ref>  All of these were attempts to gain her father's favor by pushing policies she believed he favored. However, Justin Xiang had pointed out these events were, in fact, counterproductive and damaging to the Confederation.

She personally assigned her own agent to have Justin assassinated during his mission to [[Bethel]].<ref>''Warrior: Coupé'', p. 75, "Romano's Agent strikes and fails to kill Justin Allard/Xiang".</ref> Her father, by this time had been suffering doubt and uncertainty. Romano encouraged this disintegration of her father's mental capacities to guide him to her whims. When she learned that her stepmother, [[Elizabeth Jordan (Capellan Confederation)|Elizabeth Jordan]], had betrayed her father, Romano used her to open a way to kill Senior Colonel [[Pavel Ridzik]].<ref>''Warrior: Coupé'', p. 179, "Romano's assassin tells the dying Pavel that Romano murdered Chancellor's used step-wife to kill him".</ref> By the time of the arrest of [[Alexi Malenkov]] for treason, Justin Xiang was referring to both of them as "leaders" of the Confederation.<ref>''Warrior: Coupé'', p. 282, "Romano guides the Chancellor's decision making when confronted by Justin Xiang (Allard) in him deferring his order for execution".</ref> Justin made Romano realize her rash move to eliminate former Lord Colonel Ridzik may have opened up the Confederation to attack.<ref>''Warrior: Coupé'', p. 281, "Romano's elimination of Pavel Ridzik opens the way for Free Worlds League forces to take worlds from House Liao".</ref>  Romano, still haunted by the death of her first lover at Marik hands, forced herself to convince her father that Justin was right, going along with his plan to have Alexi put on trial instead of death.

===Chancellor===
Romano consistently tried to turn her father against her sister, but all her attempts failed. When the [[Capellan Confederation]] was left devastated after the [[Fourth Succession War]], it fell to Romano to pick up the pieces. The shattering of his nation broke Maximilian's mind, and with Romano's siblings gone from the Confederation, she took over as Chancellor in all but name. She did not even have two years to rebuild her demoralized military when war came again, this time in the form of a joint invasion by the [[Duchy of Andurien]] and the [[Magistracy of Canopus]]. Though they had been beaten, Romano was determined to show that Liao was still a Great House and not to be trifled with. The victories the [[CCAF]] earned gave them their confidence back.

On 21 April [[3036]], Maximilian Liao committed suicide. Romano was inducted as Chancellor on 12 May that same year. Now vested with the full authority as sovereign of the realm, Romano reorganized the Confederation as she saw fit. She purged the [[Maskirovka]] and appointed [[Tsen Shang]], her longtime lover, as its director. All those known to have associated with [[Justin Allard]] or any other Davion spies were put to death, including former Director [[Chandra Ling]]. With an iron grip, Romano consolidated power in the Confederation and tied the military, intelligence service, and assassins guild to her so that they would not be used against her.

Chancellor Liao was extremely paranoid, perhaps in part because of the ease in which spies like Justin Allard infiltrated the Confederation during her father's reign. It was not unknown for her to implant tracking chips in the heads of palace staff, or even have them all killed and replaced during a bout of paranoia. It even became so bad that she alienated Tsen Shang, though he never left or betrayed her.

===Marriage and children===
Though Romano never married, she had two children. It is generally accepted that the father was her lover, [[Tsen Shang]], whom she later appointed [[Director of the Maskirovka]], though this is not absolutely certain.
* [[Sun-Tzu Liao|Sun-Tzu]] succeeded Romano as Chancellor and reclaimed many of the territories that Maximilian had lost.
* [[Kali Liao|Kali]] became the leader of the [[Thuggee]] cult. It was in this role that she perpetrated the Black May attacks during the [[Capellan-St. Ives War]]. She is also somehow linked to [[Cameron St. Jamais]] and the [[Sixth of June]].  It is rumored that her biological father was [[Chad Jackson]], a MechWarrior of [[House Imarra]]. <ref name=JSTBD>''Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents'', Page 113</ref>

===Late Chancellorship===
The Confederation stayed out of the [[War of 3039]] and was barely affected by the [[Clan Invasion]]. Nonetheless, Romano traveled to [[Outreach]] in [[3051]] with the other leaders of the [[Inner Sphere]]. There, the healthy paranoia Romano nursed showed in her general disdain for [[Jaime Wolf]] and his pleas for peace and cooperation against the [[Clans]]. Romano angrily left the summit before the others did, but not before being challenged by her sister, Duchess [[Candace Liao]] of the [[St. Ives Compact]].

Romano did what she usually did when somebody challenged her authority: she directed an assassin to kill Candace and her husband, [[Justin Allard]]. The assassin did kill Justin, but only succeeded in wounding Candace. Justin killed the assassin before succumbing to his wounds.

Romano continued to aggressively pursue her vengeance against the rest of the [[Inner Sphere]] while they fought the Clans. She sent a task force to Outreach while the majority of Dragoons were deployed to Luthien to defend against the Clan onslaught. Apparently, she expected to eliminate the Dragoon presence and even retake the planet, but the Capellans were defeated by the young warriors left behind by Wolf.<ref>''Wolf Pack'' ch. 3.</ref>

===Death and afterward===
Candace traveled in secret to [[Sian]] and slipped into the palace with the help of [[warrior House Imarra|Imarra House]] Master [[Ion Rush]] and assassinated both Romano and Tsen Shang in their bedchamber, though she allowed Romano's son Sun-Tzu to succeed her.

Romano's legacy is her refusal to allow the [[Capellan Confederation]] to die. She arrested the downward spiral that had begun in [[3028]] and lost no more ground to other powers. With this foundation to work from, Sun-Tzu could retake what his grandfather had lost.

==BattleMech==
Though Romano preferred to pilot a ''[[Highlander]]'' during her time with the Reserve Cavalry, she felt a particular fondness for the first model of the ''[[Cataphract]]'', making it her machine for the rest of her career, so much that citizens associated the 'Mech with their state's resilience. She only used it for propaganda broadcasts and personally executing enemies of the state. Mothballed by her son, it was rumores it was spirited away from Sian by members of the [[Thuggee Cult]].<ref>''BattleTech: Legends' p. 33.</ref>

==Quotes==
''Creating havoc among the masses in the Inner Sphere is easy. We prey upon mutual distrust and bide our time.'' - [[For the Chancellor! (CCG - CommandersEdition)|CCG Commanders edition]], [[3050]]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Romano Liao_BTLegends.jpg|Romano Liao from ''[[BattleTech: Legends|BT:Legends]]''
Romano Liao HBW.jpg|Romano Liao at age 38 from ''[[Historical: Brush Wars|Brush Wars]]''
Romano Liao ER3052.jpg|Romano Liao at age 58 from ''[[Era Report: 3052|ER3052]]''
Romano Liao - Zina Saunders.jpg|Art by [[Zina Saunders]]
Cataphract (Romano Liao) BTLegends.jpg|Romano's [[Cataphract|CTF-1X ''Cataphract'']] from ''BT:Legends''
</gallery>

==References==
<references/>

==Bibliography==
* ''[[20 Year Update]]''
* ''[[BattleTech: Legends]]'' (sourcebook)
* ''[[Blood Legacy]]'' (novel)
* ''[[Era Report: 3052]]''
* ''[[House Liao (The Capellan Confederation)]]'' 
* ''[[Lost Destiny]]'' (novel)
* ''[[Warrior: Coupé]]'' (novel)
* ''[[Warrior: En Garde]]'' (novel)
* ''[[Warrior: Riposte]]'' (novel) 


[[Category:Capellan Confederation Characters|Liao, Romano]]