Concourse Wars

The **Concourse Wars** were a series of modern conflicts which centered around the Kingdom of Orbitritum's attempts to recreate the Aoshanti Empire.

## Events

### Pre-War, the Conflicts of Religion

**53 BNE -** Leontus Karathon Priphonus, the young son of King Leontus XXVI of Orbitritum, a principality in the Concourse region, claims to have found the shards of Oriksul, the blade of the ancient Aoshanti Emperors, and returns to his kingdom with the artifact.
**52 BNE -** Oriksul is appraised by members of the Prelate of Orbitritum and is declared to be the original sword. The sword excites great interest among the princes and Aoshanti of the Concourse, many of whom flock to Orbitritum. Some do so out of curiosity, others do so to see the miracle for themselves, and much is made of the spontenaity with which masses of Aoshanti templars, some lords, and other believers throw themselves at Leontus' feet, praising him as the second coming of the spirit of the Emperors.
**51 BNE -** A council is held among the religious authorities of the Concourse, and the shards of Oriksul are presented. The council splits acrimoniously and leaves without an agreement.
**51 BNE -** Driven by enthusiasm, zealotry, and newfound conviction, those who believe in the artifact form a new order called the Order of Rhya, patterned after the old Order of Rhya which was the religious authority in the Aoshanti Empire. They look to revive the Aoshanti's ancient traditions and begin to criticize the extant Lessoan faith.
**49 BNE** - The Patriarch of the Rhyan faith denounces the sword as a fraud and attempts to call errant worshippers to abandon their idolatry and return to the fold. Instead, his declaration splits the church into two and leads to three decades of religious war and insurgency in the Concourse.
**49 BNE - 25 BNE -** From a single mega-alliance intended to fight against the Tesar, the Concourse splits into two Leagues: the Lessoan League on the one hand, and the Reformed League on the other. A few minor wars occur, and the Order of Rhya gradually and ably, using spies, assassins, and other tactics to undermine the courts of their adversaries and install reformist leaders in key principalities throughout the Concourse, while publicly maintaining that they are a persecuted minority and preying upon the sympathies and good intentions of Lessoans.
**46 BNE - 42 BNE -** Orbitritans invade Dylastrova-Trielum to the south of the Ecumene and establish the Kingdom of Priphonia, a client kingdom, which lasts until 4 NE.
**43 BNE -** Orbitritum intervenes in the Vallic Revolutionary War and provides Vallis with 𝔛1.9 trillion in military aid.
**25 BNE -** Leontus Karathon ascends to the throne of the Kingdom of Orbitritum, which had grown in military power and territorial extent during the crises of past years as powers attempted to appease it.

### First Concourse War

*See also: First Concourse War*
**24-19 BNE -** Orbitritum unilaterally annexes Concatum, attempting to provoke the Lessoan League into war, but the Kingdom of Karstedt (predecessor to the current Karian Republic) attempts again to reach a compromise. Orbitritum pretends to entertain the negotiations but then launches an attack on Herrath, the capital of Karstedt, destroying Karstedt's warfighting capacity in a single blow. The whole Concourse descends into war and civil war between the Lessoan and Reformed Leagues, often fought station-by-station and planet-by-planet, and Orbitritum was largely master of this chaos. At the end, Orbitritum is master of the Aoshanti part of the Concourse, has annexed a third of Karstedt, and begins marching east.
**19 BNE -** Orbitritum invades and annexes the Kingdom of Aengelia.
**19 BNE -** Orbitritum proclaims a new Empire and Leontus Karathon is crowned Veritas III Imperator.
**19 BNE -** Karstedt undergoes a revolution, kicks out all the royalists, and is now a Republic.

### First Interwar Period

**19 BNE - 1 NE -** The Empire proceeds east, entering into an alliance with Titian. Together, the two conquer Ur-Tesar, the Orientine region, as well as Andrak Mor.
**19 BNE - 1 NE -** Karstedt and the Ecumene form the GCTO to defend against the Ascendancy, but keeps the alliance from committing to the regions east of the Empire because there is no way any of the allies can defend them.

### Second Concourse War

**1 NE - 2 NE -** The Empire attacks, cripples, the Republic of Naer'si (a great power to the south, and a member of the GCTO). The GCTO responds by mobilizing all their forces, though Karstedt holds off its attack. The Empire secretly negotiates a secret deal with them for their territories back without bloodshed. Karstedt takes it and drops out of the war, abandoning the Naer'sians to their fate.

### Second Interwar Period

**3 NE - 5 NE -** The GCTO goes on without Karstedt and Naer'si. They blockade the Aoshanti Concourse and dismantle the Empire's network of alliances. Then, they plan a massive invasion force to liberate Naer'si. Karstedt gives its assent to the invasion and promises to mobilize its forces to attack the Empire on its front.

### Third Concourse War

**5 NE - 9 NE -** The GCTO attacks and liberates Naer'si. Though Karstedt declares war and mobilizes its troops, its forces stay inert for two years due to the presence of an overmatching imperial fleet on its border. The Karian Karstmarine, after a few skirmishes, refuses to sally out to do battle against a superior foe and remains in spacedock until the invasion of Naer'si is over and allied fleets reinforce it. Together, they defeat the Empire and Karstedt provides most of the armies invading Orbitritum, becoming in a single six-month long battle the country that took the most casualties in the entire two conflicts. Karian leaders decide, as revenge for inflicting three wars on the galaxy, and for refusing to surrender when it became clear that they had lost, to utterly destroy Orbitritum, which was composed of a giant ring orbiting a planet. They evacuate the ring over six months and crash it into the planet.

### Occupation

**9 NE - 11 NE -** Once the Empire is defeated, Karstedt occupies half of the Aoshanti Concourse with its massive three-million man army. A third is occupied by other GCTO countries and the rest is left to fend for itself.
**9 NE - 11 NE -** In the north, a rising among mixed populations creates the Orientum Compact, which fights the Kingdom of Titian until the latter sues for peace, having lost most of their colonial territories.
**12 NE -** A new government forces Karstedt to withdraw its forces from occupations from the Concourse, leaving the parts which it had occupied reconstructed with Lessoan leaders, organized into a new, weak empire referred to as the Naissian Empire. Veritas III Imperator continues to rule, although he is completely powerless. The other part, which Karstedt had not touched, is left under the control of Orbitritan elites who were installed there during imperial rule (this will become important later).

### Naissian Empire

From 12 NE to 22 NE, the two halves of the Nassian Empire don't get along. The Lessoans control the Senate while the Orbitritans protest that the Lessoans hate them and want to unseat them. In 18 NE, the Orbitritans form a new Reformed League to defend themselves against an external invasion, almost leading to another war.

### Veritas Crisis

In 22 NE, Veritas III Imperator dies. The Lessoans are faced with how to replace him, and they choose not to. At all. They abolish the monarchy and declare a republic, leading the Reformed League to secede. The Reformed League declare Honil Karathon Pomarius, one of Veritas III's relatives, Emperor.