House Marik (The Free Worlds League) - Alula Australis

[BrokenMnemonic]

The entry on Captain-General Geralk Marik's campaigns against the Lyran Commonwealth in 2452-2459 on page 16 has him concentrating on Bella I and Alula Australis up until his death on Loric; it also has the Commonwealth using BattleMechs to recapture Alula Australis in 2468.

However, according to numerous sources including various maps, Alula Australis was a core world of the Terran Alliance and Terran Hegemony.

Should the Alula Australis mentioned on page 16 actually be Alula Borealis, which is only 10 LY or so from Bella I and seems to have been a border world between the Commonwealth and League for much of its history?

[HABeas2]

Hello,

Have you cross-referenced the event with the material in the newer Handbook: House Marik? In a few cases, we found data in the old House books were outright messed up, given the later, more sophisticated understanding of the universe (it's arguable that, at the time of those books' writing, the maps just weren't done, or planets/planet names were moved for some reason). The result are some astonishingly weird events that we just couldn't make fit, and had to correct in the newer Handbooks.  (We deliberately did not edit the original FASA-era books to retain their FASA-era authenticity--beyond removing the non-proprietary art, that is.)

Hopefully, that helps.

Thank you,

- Herbert Beas

[BrokenMnemonic]

Unfortunately, Handbook: House Marik also refers to Bella I and Alula Australis as the worlds being fought over. The section on Geralk Marik in HB:HM is more interesting - it explains the tactics he used that earned him the moniker "the bloodthirsty" - but it's still citing the same planets in the war as House Marik (TFWL).

I suspect you're right about the maps not being in place - looking at the old 3025 maps, Alula Australis is in a great place for the League and the Commonwealth to fight over, but its inclusion in the boundaries of the Terran Alliance on the 2271 map on page 16 contradicts the text in both books if the text is accurate - it might've had some interesting repercussions on that Treaty of Terra between the Free Worlds League and the Hegemony if Geralk Marik was apparently carpet-bombing a Hegemony Core world in a fight with the Lyrans ;)

The FASA house books are a great piece of boardgaming history and I love them to bits, but there are definitely some interesting errors in there, and I completely understand wanting to keep their authenticity intact.

Would it be acceptable for me to list the mentions of Alula Australis as errata against the later Handbook: House Marik, with the suggestion that with confirmation of what the Hegemony's borders looked like at various points in the Age of War from various sources conflicting with the text, the references to Alula Australis should be changed to Alula Borealis if there's a future printing?

Thank you for your time, it's much appreciated.