Difference between revisions of "Unity City (city)"
Sarna News
(→Gallery: updated image address) |
|||
| (40 intermediate revisions by 12 users not shown) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| + | {{otheruses|the Star League capital|other uses|Unity City}} | ||
| + | |||
Though more formally known as the '''Court of the Star League''', the so-called '''Unity City''' was once the capital of [[Terra]] and of the [[Star League]]. | Though more formally known as the '''Court of the Star League''', the so-called '''Unity City''' was once the capital of [[Terra]] and of the [[Star League]]. | ||
==History== | ==History== | ||
| − | Located near the newly pristine [[w:Puget_Sound|Puget Sound]] of the | + | Located near the newly pristine [[w:Puget_Sound|Puget Sound]] of the Terran continent of North America, construction of Court of the Star League and its surrounding city was initiated in the years prior the formal signing of the [[Star League Accords]]. |
| + | |||
| + | ===Construction=== | ||
| + | The city's location was decided by [[Charles Chaffins]], the Count of Seattle and CEO of Boeing, who lobbied, blackmailed and threatened his way to Terran Hegemony High Council to ensure than the Star League's new capital would lie within his fiefdom. He spent three months under house arrest for his crimes, but he succeeded in his goal.<ref name=UCVp98>''Unity City with a View'', p. 98</ref> | ||
| + | |||
| + | As befitting the center of Humanity, the city was huge, elaborate and awe-inspiring, incorporating materials from all the [[Great Houses|member states]] in its construction. The marble for Unity City and the Court of the Star League was imported from [[Sadurni]].<ref>''Handbook: House Marik'', p. 67</ref> Funded by taxpayers and designed by visionary architect [[Hanna Crawford]], employing hyper-advanced technology. Every Inner Sphere state has a magnificent embassy, the most impressive that of the [[Draconis Combine]]. Once built, the Court of the Star League was hailed as an architectural marvel, with one visiting architect calling it "a fairy-tale place, where parking garages are as beautiful as the [[w:Tah Mahal|Taj Mahal]]."<ref name=TSL-40>''The Star League'', p. 40</ref><ref name=UCVp99>''Unity City with a View'', p. 99</ref> | ||
| + | |||
| + | It was also the location of the Royal Court, which met for two months during the spring and winter Council meetings. Somewhere near the city was [[Fort Cameron]], the military base of the [[First Lord of the Star League|First Lord]]'s bodyguard unit: the [[Royal Black Watch Regiment]]. | ||
| + | |||
| + | As the Star League grew and prospered, so did Unity City. In [[2762]], the city entered its fifth of ten planned expansions, including new waterfront parks along the eastern shoreline, and an expansion of the museum district.<ref name=UCVp100>''Unity City with a View'', p. 100</ref> | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===The Amaris Coup=== | ||
| + | On 27 December [[2766]], the [[Amaris Coup]] put an end to that. [[Stefan Amaris]] murdered [[Richard Cameron]], the last First Lord of the League, in the Audience Chamber, and the city and its environs became a battlefield between the Amaris forces and the Star League defenders. | ||
| − | + | The hardest battle, part of Operation APOTHEOSIS, was fought beside the city: after an atomic strike launched from Amaris' fighters destroyed Fort Cameron, effectively wiping out those elements of the Watch that were still mobilizing. Only two [[lance]]s of Black Watch 'Mechs survived and were able to escape the traps. They were then confronted by the [[Fourth Amaris Dragoons]] at Gorst Flats, protected on one side by high forested hills and [[w:Puget_Sound|Puget Sound]] on the other, which forced the Dragoons to confront them individually. | |
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | After | + | Both efforts, however, were ultimately doomed. After losing ten 'Mechs to the entrenched Black Watch soldiers, all of whom had been graduates of the infamous [[Gunslinger Program]], the Dragoons' commander withdrew his forces and wiped them out with a nuclear explosive.<ref name=HLOT1-73-BFUC-2>''Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1'', p. 73: "Battle for Unity City", Schmitt leads a company to meet the advancing Fourth Amaris Dragoons</ref> |
| − | |||
| − | + | More than a third of the nearby Unity City went up in flames as consequence of the blasts, happened only a few kilometers from the city. The Star League Court was charred black in some areas. | |
| − | + | But the worst consequence was the burning of all the forest in the nearby hills. Few days later, a torrential rain turned these hills into a massive series of mud slides over the city. More than half city was covered by the mud, burying buildings up to two stories.<ref name=CSp10>''ComStar'', p. 10</ref> A swamp formed in the rest of the city, until it was completely drained by ComStar in the mid-2800s.<ref>''Unity City with a View'', p. 101</ref> | |
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | |||
| − | == | + | Amaris ordered the Stellar Court repaired for the day he would be hailed as First Lord by the High Council, but that never happened. After Stefan Amaris murdered the rest of the Cameron family in the Audience Chamber, he ordered the room sealed. The radioactive fallout and orbital strikes of the destruction of ''the Citadel'' and Tacoma's [[Castle Brian]] turned Unity City into a ghost town. |
| + | |||
| + | The SLDF Liberation of Terra saw more combat in and around Unity City. Amaris had ordered the construction of concentric [[SDS]] batteries around it. [[Aleksandr Kerensky]] forces attacked the city, believing it was Stefan Amaris' headquarters. They were wrong, but saw more devastation wrought on the city. Remaining buildings, like the BSLA's headquarters, suffered tremendous damage.<ref>''Unity City with a View'', p. 102</ref> | ||
| + | |||
| + | No one opened the Throne Room gates until Earth was liberated, eleven years later. When the Chamber was opened, the mortal remains of all the Cameron family were found there. After this discovery, Kerensky ordered the execution of Amaris and all his family. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===Succession Wars=== | ||
| + | After the High Council of the Star League disbanded and the League was de facto dissolved, [[Jerome Blake]], last ministry of the League and head of all Hegemony reconstruction, decided the efforts to restore the Court were a waste of resources, and ordered the work stopped and the Court sealed in the spring of [[2783]].<ref>''Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2'', p. 117</ref> | ||
| + | |||
| + | Two centuries later, Unity City was still one of the most visible wounds on Terra. ComStar kept Earth safe from the battles but left Unity City as it was, as the populace had abandoned the area.<ref name=CSp10/> | ||
| + | |||
| + | In [[2901]], however, the "mad Primus" of ComStar [[Dwight Kurstin]] transferred the headquarters of ComStar to the Court of the Star League. He also reopened the sealed Throne Room and established himself there. On 3 January [[2902]], he was killed in that very place by a mysterious ROM agent codenamed "[[Julia Hartford|Saber]]."<ref name=ACtA03>''ComStar'', p. 36</ref> | ||
| + | |||
| + | Only a few years before the [[Clan invasion]], the group worked to unearth some of the ruined city. | ||
| + | |||
| + | After the [[Battle of Tukayyid (3052)|Battle of Tukayyid]], the new Primus [[Sharilar Mori]] planned to revitalize and rebuild the city and restore the Court of the Star League, which had been systematically stripped by the previous Primuses over the centuries, and open it up to academics. [[Operation ODYSSEUS]] apparently put an end to that project.<ref name=ACtA04>''ComStar'', p. 87</ref> | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===Dark Age=== | ||
| + | Unity City survived the [[Jihad]] intact, becoming a tourist attraction during the [[Republic of the Sphere]]'s existence. [[Devlin Stone]] opened the city fully to academics, researchers and civilian education tours. During the Clans' race to Terra in [[3151]], it became a priority target for [[Clan Wolf]], who took it without any fight. The Wolf Khan, [[Alaric Ward]] ordered the removal of any tourist posts, as, for the Clans, it was a holy place. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===IlClan Era=== | ||
| + | After defeating [[Clan Jade Falcon]] and the Republic of the Sphere in the [[Battle of Terra (3151)]], Alaric established a new Star League, under the command of the [[ilClan]], with Unity City as capital. The Wolves made a massive construction effort to restore the Stellar Court and erect a striking white-marble tomb to honor [[House Cameron]], near the sealed and unmarked location in which the murdered Cameron were buried. There, on the 28th of April, the body of the ''Great Father'' of the Clans, [[Aleksandr Kerensky]] was buried.<ref>''Hour of the Wolf'', p. 354</ref><ref>''Unity City with a View'', pp. 102–103</ref> | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Locations== | ||
| + | * ''The Citadel'': Fortified complex that housed SLDF High Command | ||
| + | * [[Bureau of Star League Affairs]] headquarters | ||
| + | * [[Fort Cameron]] (destroyed): Headquarters of the [[Royal Black Watch]] | ||
| + | * Court of Star League | ||
| + | * Aleksandr Kerensky's tomb | ||
| + | * People's Botanical Garden | ||
| + | * Royal Palace: Residence of House Cameron | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Notes== | ||
| + | During [[Operation Revival]], the capital of the [[Periphery]] world of [[Von Strang's World]], named ''Amaris City'' in honor of Stefan Amaris by one of their general's descendants, was taken by [[Clan Jade Falcon]] forces and renamed Unity City, in honor of the original one.<ref>''Jade Falcon Sourcebook'', p. 23</ref> | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Gallery== | ||
| + | <gallery> | ||
| + | BloodRibbon ceremony at tomb of Kerensky.jpg|Kerensky's tomb in Unity City. | ||
| + | </gallery> | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||
| Line 26: | Line 69: | ||
==Bibliography== | ==Bibliography== | ||
| − | *[[ComStar (sourcebook)| | + | * ''[[ComStar (sourcebook)|ComStar]]'' |
| − | *''[[Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1]]'' | + | * ''[[Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1]]'' |
| − | *''[[The Star League]]'' | + | * ''[[Hour of the Wolf]]'' |
| − | + | * ''[[Jade Falcon Sourcebook]]'' | |
| + | * ''[[The Star League]]'' | ||
| + | * ''[[Unity City with a View]]'' in [[Shrapnel (magazine)#Issue 9|''Shrapnel'' #9]] | ||
[[Category:Places|Unity City]] | [[Category:Places|Unity City]] | ||
Latest revision as of 22:22, 16 January 2024
- This article is about the Star League capital. For other uses, see Unity City.
Though more formally known as the Court of the Star League, the so-called Unity City was once the capital of Terra and of the Star League.
Contents
History[edit]
Located near the newly pristine Puget Sound of the Terran continent of North America, construction of Court of the Star League and its surrounding city was initiated in the years prior the formal signing of the Star League Accords.
Construction[edit]
The city's location was decided by Charles Chaffins, the Count of Seattle and CEO of Boeing, who lobbied, blackmailed and threatened his way to Terran Hegemony High Council to ensure than the Star League's new capital would lie within his fiefdom. He spent three months under house arrest for his crimes, but he succeeded in his goal.[1]
As befitting the center of Humanity, the city was huge, elaborate and awe-inspiring, incorporating materials from all the member states in its construction. The marble for Unity City and the Court of the Star League was imported from Sadurni.[2] Funded by taxpayers and designed by visionary architect Hanna Crawford, employing hyper-advanced technology. Every Inner Sphere state has a magnificent embassy, the most impressive that of the Draconis Combine. Once built, the Court of the Star League was hailed as an architectural marvel, with one visiting architect calling it "a fairy-tale place, where parking garages are as beautiful as the Taj Mahal."[3][4]
It was also the location of the Royal Court, which met for two months during the spring and winter Council meetings. Somewhere near the city was Fort Cameron, the military base of the First Lord's bodyguard unit: the Royal Black Watch Regiment.
As the Star League grew and prospered, so did Unity City. In 2762, the city entered its fifth of ten planned expansions, including new waterfront parks along the eastern shoreline, and an expansion of the museum district.[5]
The Amaris Coup[edit]
On 27 December 2766, the Amaris Coup put an end to that. Stefan Amaris murdered Richard Cameron, the last First Lord of the League, in the Audience Chamber, and the city and its environs became a battlefield between the Amaris forces and the Star League defenders.
The hardest battle, part of Operation APOTHEOSIS, was fought beside the city: after an atomic strike launched from Amaris' fighters destroyed Fort Cameron, effectively wiping out those elements of the Watch that were still mobilizing. Only two lances of Black Watch 'Mechs survived and were able to escape the traps. They were then confronted by the Fourth Amaris Dragoons at Gorst Flats, protected on one side by high forested hills and Puget Sound on the other, which forced the Dragoons to confront them individually.
Both efforts, however, were ultimately doomed. After losing ten 'Mechs to the entrenched Black Watch soldiers, all of whom had been graduates of the infamous Gunslinger Program, the Dragoons' commander withdrew his forces and wiped them out with a nuclear explosive.[6]
More than a third of the nearby Unity City went up in flames as consequence of the blasts, happened only a few kilometers from the city. The Star League Court was charred black in some areas. But the worst consequence was the burning of all the forest in the nearby hills. Few days later, a torrential rain turned these hills into a massive series of mud slides over the city. More than half city was covered by the mud, burying buildings up to two stories.[7] A swamp formed in the rest of the city, until it was completely drained by ComStar in the mid-2800s.[8]
Amaris ordered the Stellar Court repaired for the day he would be hailed as First Lord by the High Council, but that never happened. After Stefan Amaris murdered the rest of the Cameron family in the Audience Chamber, he ordered the room sealed. The radioactive fallout and orbital strikes of the destruction of the Citadel and Tacoma's Castle Brian turned Unity City into a ghost town.
The SLDF Liberation of Terra saw more combat in and around Unity City. Amaris had ordered the construction of concentric SDS batteries around it. Aleksandr Kerensky forces attacked the city, believing it was Stefan Amaris' headquarters. They were wrong, but saw more devastation wrought on the city. Remaining buildings, like the BSLA's headquarters, suffered tremendous damage.[9]
No one opened the Throne Room gates until Earth was liberated, eleven years later. When the Chamber was opened, the mortal remains of all the Cameron family were found there. After this discovery, Kerensky ordered the execution of Amaris and all his family.
Succession Wars[edit]
After the High Council of the Star League disbanded and the League was de facto dissolved, Jerome Blake, last ministry of the League and head of all Hegemony reconstruction, decided the efforts to restore the Court were a waste of resources, and ordered the work stopped and the Court sealed in the spring of 2783.[10]
Two centuries later, Unity City was still one of the most visible wounds on Terra. ComStar kept Earth safe from the battles but left Unity City as it was, as the populace had abandoned the area.[7]
In 2901, however, the "mad Primus" of ComStar Dwight Kurstin transferred the headquarters of ComStar to the Court of the Star League. He also reopened the sealed Throne Room and established himself there. On 3 January 2902, he was killed in that very place by a mysterious ROM agent codenamed "Saber."[11]
Only a few years before the Clan invasion, the group worked to unearth some of the ruined city.
After the Battle of Tukayyid, the new Primus Sharilar Mori planned to revitalize and rebuild the city and restore the Court of the Star League, which had been systematically stripped by the previous Primuses over the centuries, and open it up to academics. Operation ODYSSEUS apparently put an end to that project.[12]
Dark Age[edit]
Unity City survived the Jihad intact, becoming a tourist attraction during the Republic of the Sphere's existence. Devlin Stone opened the city fully to academics, researchers and civilian education tours. During the Clans' race to Terra in 3151, it became a priority target for Clan Wolf, who took it without any fight. The Wolf Khan, Alaric Ward ordered the removal of any tourist posts, as, for the Clans, it was a holy place.
IlClan Era[edit]
After defeating Clan Jade Falcon and the Republic of the Sphere in the Battle of Terra (3151), Alaric established a new Star League, under the command of the ilClan, with Unity City as capital. The Wolves made a massive construction effort to restore the Stellar Court and erect a striking white-marble tomb to honor House Cameron, near the sealed and unmarked location in which the murdered Cameron were buried. There, on the 28th of April, the body of the Great Father of the Clans, Aleksandr Kerensky was buried.[13][14]
Locations[edit]
- The Citadel: Fortified complex that housed SLDF High Command
- Bureau of Star League Affairs headquarters
- Fort Cameron (destroyed): Headquarters of the Royal Black Watch
- Court of Star League
- Aleksandr Kerensky's tomb
- People's Botanical Garden
- Royal Palace: Residence of House Cameron
Notes[edit]
During Operation Revival, the capital of the Periphery world of Von Strang's World, named Amaris City in honor of Stefan Amaris by one of their general's descendants, was taken by Clan Jade Falcon forces and renamed Unity City, in honor of the original one.[15]
Gallery[edit]
Kerensky's tomb in Unity City.
References[edit]
- ↑ Unity City with a View, p. 98
- ↑ Handbook: House Marik, p. 67
- ↑ The Star League, p. 40
- ↑ Unity City with a View, p. 99
- ↑ Unity City with a View, p. 100
- ↑ Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, p. 73: "Battle for Unity City", Schmitt leads a company to meet the advancing Fourth Amaris Dragoons
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 ComStar, p. 10
- ↑ Unity City with a View, p. 101
- ↑ Unity City with a View, p. 102
- ↑ Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2, p. 117
- ↑ ComStar, p. 36
- ↑ ComStar, p. 87
- ↑ Hour of the Wolf, p. 354
- ↑ Unity City with a View, pp. 102–103
- ↑ Jade Falcon Sourcebook, p. 23