Secession Wars

The secession wars were a series of conflicts between the newly formed Coalition and League that ended the membership of many areas from the Restoration League. It represented the single largest political reorganization of the galaxy since the League's founding.

Federal Law Review
While the League policies leading up the the secession wars are multifarious and complicated but largely boil down to the tendency of the League to favor the Navine against the Latherians in border negotiations involving the unclaimed dead zone between the two and the Leagues insistence on secular policy. The Gallarn dominated League saw Latheria as a power base threat and wanted to secure both Estra and the Navine Territories as long term partners in containing and chipping away at the resurgent Heimater state. Using a federal law review first introduced in 489 to re-litigate border disputes between Heilegeterra and Latheria, the Ascal dominated hoped the tension between Latheria and Heilegeterra would turn Estra, a nominally pro-religious interests state, against Latheria, as Estra historically saw Heilegeterra as an ally.

Midonić Agreement
However, neither party felt inclined to abide the federal law review, instead choosing to sign the tri-partate Midonić Agreement which effectively founded the Coalition in 508. Realizing that they no longer needed to abide by League rulings for sovereignty issues and they could instead abide by the codes of further interstate relations set forth in the agreement as opposed to the layered and ossified legal precedents set by the Restoration League.

State Revolt
As the Lati-States and Greater Nikerea consequently became increasingly skeptical of the value of League membership, tensions grew. Signatories of the Midonić Agreement found themselves increasingly at odds with the ruling power block of the Restoration League. the situation came to a head when Emporer Hans Von Lather ordered League peacekeeping units out of Latheria's borders and Latherian citizenry discharged back to the Latherian Army in 2 months in 527. The League ignored the request for the first month until they found Latherian army units prepared to remove them by force. Heilegeterra and the Estran Empire quickly followed suit.

When Lati and Nikerea decided to join in the "popular revolt" as it was then termed and force League peacekeepers out of their territories the League decided to in a surprising move take action to force them to renege on their demands. The then belief was that the Nikerean and Lati armed forces were not prepared to face any numerically superior opponent for any length of time. When Lati and Nikerea were immediately and unanimously added to the Midonić Agreement, which was subsequently renamed to the Coalition, the secession wars had begun in earnest.

Gath-Sakan Involvement
Gath-Sako was drawn in several directions initially. The backbone of League Armed forces command originated from Gath-Sako or were Gath-Sakan trained. Any commissioned officer in Gath-Sako ranked higher than Captain had spent time in the League and the current head commander of League Armed forces was Ryman Cain, a member of Gath-Sako's influential Cain family.

Despite these ties, Gath-Sako supplied arms and arms design licenses to every Coalition state, and these deals were a source of great prosperity for the state, allowing the maintenance of its military. And despite the fact that Gath-Sako was by no means a theocracy its population retained an incredibly reactionary and religious stripe, even if the color of said stripe was never really 'uniform.' The final factors that pushed Gath-Sakan leadership, then in the hands of House Midsury, to join the Coalition were two. Firstly, the League government had decided to allow anarchistic and socialistic believers to the west of Lati to gain control of those areas and arm themselves, hoping to acquire an ally in the fight against the Coalition. Secondly, as the war began to gear up in the first few months, the conflict was localized in the Dead Zone, proximate to the Gath-Sakan protectorate.

Gath-Sako realized they wouldn't be able to choose neutrality, nor did they really feel compelled to morally. They threw in with their economic interests and requested inclusion in the Coalition, quickly granted.

Withdrawal of the East
As Gath-Sako considered entry into the war in the west, Toki and Huxia both decided that the war would be too costly to enter. They immediately withdrew any citizens they had in League armed forces and withdrew from the Leauge. Not wishing to encourage further fighting, the League allowed their withdrawal peacefully, realizing it didn't have the resources to force all states to comply.

However, without the ability to project force the the east, the areas between Toki and Huxia, and Latheria and the Navine Territories became ungovernable by the League, turning into the Fringe.

The Early Fighting
The bulk of the early fighting took place between the Navine Territories and Latheria and Nikerea within the dead zone. Free wheeling fleet battles and commando raids characterized this early fighting as the bulk of the League and Coalition began to mobilize and maneuver their forces into position to fight earnestly.

Gath-Sako and Gallarn
The Gath-Sako protectorate was quickly invaded, with occupied territory quickly fortified. Gath-Sako immediately assembled a combined force of Heilegeterran, Latin, Estran, and their own forces, which would proceed to fight a brutal campaign to liberate the territory, culminating in a Coalition invasion deep into Gallarn.

The invasion force would ultimately be cut off, and the resultant fighting would be some of the most brutal in the history of sentient beings. Gath-Sakan and former Gath-Sakan League loyal commanders and units would frequently kill one another on surrender, and the brutality would culminate in the razing of 3 cities by an embittered Gath-Sakan commander. By the end of the war more than 30 major cities in all areas would be destroyed, neither side had a clear majority on the brutality.

The Bronze War
In 336 the communitarian and socialist areas within the west began to invade all neighbors, including the League that armed them, to meet their 'Bronze Line' for border expansion. Their aggression towards Lati forced Latin forces to withdraw from the Gath-Sakan combined fleet, along with Heilegeterran and Estran forces to desperately defend their borders against Comgal, a conflict that wouldn't peter out until early 340, with minimal territory losses for Lati at the expense of horrific human casualties on both sides.

The Dead-Zone
The fighting in the dead zone was fast paced and blisteringly hard. The foundations of Navine, Nikerean, and Latherian naval skill and instruction trace their roots to this conflict, many of the mass fleet actions of this theater of war being legendary.

Latherian Commander Johan Von Hornisse would gain great acclaim for his particular efficacy as Latherian commander, and would be celebrated by many, including his enemies. The man himself would remain a somewhat controversial figure within Latherian noble circles, as he had a begrudging respect for his Navine adversaries.

Ultimately the forces would be largely evenly matched and would oscillate over the same territories.

Planet Crackers
With the withdrawal of many of the Coalition forces on the Gallarn front the League forces began to make swift gains against an outnumbered opponent. Gath-Sako found itself in a fearful position, with a large portion of the League military bearing down on them, with only a portion of the allied support they once enjoyed. Latheria sensed this, and sent Admiral Moritz Calits along with the planet cracker fleet to the front in a last ditch attempt to prevent the total collapse of the front. Their arrival did little to stabilize the front, and in a last ditch effort Calits would order 3 border planets that over the course of the war had become disputed and of mixed loyalty destroyed to deny the enemy staging points for invasion. The time bought by this horrifying act would allow Gath-Sako to regroup and prepare a vicious defense.

The Final Invasion of Gath-Sako
The final act of the war would involve Gath-Sako grinding the League forces and its own into a bloody pulp in mid 539 on 20 planets. The operation would last 6 months and would involve mass armored combat unseen until the Dead-Zone war. The horror of this prolonged combat and the expense of a decade of combat as well as the wholesale destruction of cities and even planets brought a collective will for peace.

The End
There was never a true end of the secession wars, different parties signed different peace accords, ensuring that neither power block would ever engage in mass combat with the other on such a scale for the foreseeable future. By 339 combat had ceased, leaving a changed galaxy, scared by war and filled with embittered people, weary by a full decade of brutal combat.

The Aftermath
The Bronze War would fail on the Lati front, resulting in a Silver war between Lati and Comgal in the future as Comgal fought to expand.

Ryman Cain would found the nation of United Hampton, hoping to rebuild somewhat personally and nationally after the war. His status as a "traitor" within Gath-Sako would lead to the disbanding of House Cain as a power broker and the end of Viccery as a large arms contractor.

The League would lose 2/3 to 3/4 of its territory, and ultimately would never recover. The institution that had brought civilization out of the calamity would bring about the greatest source of death and destruction since it through political hubris and maneuvering.