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We began on Terra, millions of years ago. Today, mankind stretches out among the stars of the Milky Way, touching thousands of worlds, as far from our home as Clan space, more than 2,000 light-years distant. Yet who are we, really? What have we become in our relentless push outward and onward? I’m Bertram Habeas, and tonight, let’s find the answers to these and many other fascinating questions together, as we tour the stars!
Volume XXXVI: Legacies of the League—Marik-Stewart and Regulus
Fact Sheet: The Marik-Stewart Commonwealth
Founding Year: 3082 (2238 as Republic of Marik)
Capital (City, World): Dormuth, Marik
National Symbol: a black eagle and banner before a golden disc and purple rectangle
Location (Terra relative): Rimward-antispinward of Terra, interior
Total (Inhabited) Systems: 31
Estimated Population (3130): 91,200,000,000
Government: Parliamentary Democracy (currently operating under military rule)
Ruler: Captain-General Anson Marik
Dominant Language(s): English (official), Slovak, Czech, Romanian
Dominant Religion(s): Judaism, Islam, Christianity (Orthodox)
Unit of Currency: Eagle (1 eagle = 0.52 C-Bills)
Dormuth, capital of Marik and of the Marik-Stewart Commonwealth, is a remarkable urban sprawl with a skyline of exotically angled towers, domes, and spires that gleam in the orange light of the noontime sun. Orbiting close to that star, Marik is a hot, dry world, but one rich in metals and active in manufacturing. Much of the world has been rebuilt in the decades after the formation of The Republic. Thus, much of what the casual observer sees in the sprawling metropolises astounds those historically astute, who expect a trip back in time on this birth world of the Free Worlds League. And yet, for all the changes, there is much that remains the same here on Marik. The government and military command buildings in Dormuth and Malkent are Spartan in nature, nothing like the grand palaces of other realms. And the biggest tourist draw is the annual races out of the Burlingrad Hoverdrome, which locals proudly say inspired the hover-derby races on Solaris VII.
The largest of the former Free Worlds League member-states, and including the former capital of Atreus, the Marik-Stewart Commonwealth is actually the fusion of the original Marik Commonwealth and the Stewart Commonality, plus several neighboring systems and minor alliances either annexed or brought into the alliance in the years following the Word of Blake Jihad. Once the power base of the Marik family’s dominance over Free Worlds politics and the core of the Captain-General’s power, today it is one of the most fractious of the former League states, an echo of the fallen League itself, if you will.
Duchess Alys Rousset-Marik of Augustine, who actually called for the repeal of Resolution 288 (and with it, the title of Captain-General), in 3067, ironically was in the running to be this realm’s first Captain-General after the League’s final collapse in 3078. But when even this state began to erupt in internal conflicts, she instead ceded her world and several others to the nascent Republic of the Sphere. Corrine Marik instead would claim the Captain-Generalcy over the Marik Commonwealth in 3082, and lead the battered nation in a military effort to secure its sovereignty against The Republic, the Capellans, the Lyrans, and even its former fellow League members, such as Oriente and Regulus.
Nominally, the Marik-Stewart Commonwealth claims to be a parliamentary-style democracy, but a Captain-General has sat upon the throne since the state went independent in 3082, citing a state of emergency in an eerie reminder of the old House Marik tradition. This democratic basis has given voice to many of the Commonwealth’s subject worlds, many of which chafe under Marik leadership not because it is heavy-handed so much as because it has made minimal effort to reclaim lost ancestral worlds today claimed by House Steiner and The Republic of the Sphere. Other political factions within the Commonwealth also call for military action against Regulus and Oriente, many with an eye toward rebuilding the Free Worlds League as a stronger, more unified realm than ever before. Understandably, these vocal political factions and the ongoing rule by a military hierarchy “for the duration of the crisis” have led to many confrontations and frosty foreign relations, but have also contributed to the strength of the central government and the military that protects it.
The people of the Marik-Stewart Commonwealth, however, are a more cosmopolitan society. Claiming many of the former League’s most industrialized worlds and thriving with trade—even to hostile neighbors—the Commonwealth is the wealthiest as well as the largest of the former League states. Having been an interior realm for much of the reign of the Free Worlds League, the Commonwealth suffered little damage during the Succession Wars, allowing it to flourish as an industrial and cultural power. Many of those hailing from the original Marik Commonwealth are among the former League’s greatest patrons of the arts, literature, and entertainment. And despite their realm’s current political strife, many of the people here are remarkably friendly and trusting, hardly a picture of the warlike state many of their neighbors paint in the mass media.