TOURING THE STARS: LÜBECK
To: ZarKhan Emmy Line
From: ReKhan Darius Elam
ZarKhan,
As requested, I have assembled a brief historical overview of Lübeck, as part of your recently-commissioned review of all worlds currently in the Scorpion Empire as of 1 June 3151. Beyond providing details on Lübeck proper (that is, Lübeck V), I have also provided a brief reference to the neighbouring world of Quarantine (or Lübeck VI), which played a key role as an intermediary between Lübeck and the rest of known space prior to the Hanseatic Crusade.
My predecessor as reKhan faced many challenges in terms of establishing Scorpion rule on this world. Fortunately, the Empire had learned many valuable lessons during the prior decades of rule in Nueva Castile, providing her with the means of making significant – though by no means total – progress during her time in office. With morale among Lübeck’s civilian population high in the wake of your accession to the post of zarKhan, I am confident that the potential is there to further cement this world’s place as a key part of the Scorpion Empire, just as it had been for the former Hanseatic League before it.
LÜBECK
Star Type (Recharge Time): G6V (187 hours)
Position in System: 5
Time to Jump Point: 7.01 days
Number of Satellites: 1 (Holstein)
Surface Gravity: 0.97
Atm. Pressure: Standard (Breathable)
Equatorial Temperature: 26°C (Humid)
Surface Water: 47 percent
Recharging Station: None
HPG Class Type: None (3140), A (3151)
Highest Native Life: Fish
Population: 61,200,000 (3140)
Socio-Industrial Levels: B-C-C-B-C
INTRODUCTION
Named after the ancient Terran city known as the “Queen of the Hanse”, Lübeck was referred to as the Second World of the former Hanseatic League, behind only the capital planet of Bremen itself.
With large quantities of germanium, silicon, and other high-profile minerals, Lübeck played a key role in the League’s domestic economy as a resource site and manufacturing hub. As one of the three worlds opened to foreign trade in 3011 (alongside Bergen and Bruges), Lübeck – and the adjacent world of Quarantine – were among the most well-known of Hansa worlds to outside visitors and traders, with perhaps the largest population of expatriate residents in League space. The establishment of the Lübeck Military Academy in 3116 only helped to raise the world’s profile, as well as leveraging its access to the Inner Sphere in order to acquire the technological specialists and military experts needed for the Academy to flourish.
Targeted in Wave Three of the Hanseatic Crusade, Lübeck faced two bouts of major conflict in the space of a month. The first strike was carried out by Seeker Galaxy, which sought to defeat the militia and mercenary forces defending the world. A counter-offensive launched a few weeks later saw Regional Defense Force 1 and Convoy Defense Force 1 drive the Seekers off-world. Both actions left major infrastructural damage in their wake; reconstruction efforts had only begun to make any headway when word arrived by courier JumpShip of the fall of Bremen later that year.
In the decade since the formation of the Scorpion Empire, Lübeck’s progress in adjusting to this new reality has been strong, yet far from complete. On the one hand, its integration into the Goliath Scorpion hyperpulse generator network has transformed the means by which Lübeck is connected to the wider realm surrounding it. Further, the mass emancipation of Lübeck’s serf populace has provided the Empire with a large number of loyal and diligent subjects, so long as the promise of social advancement within the expanded Clan caste system is upheld. However, not all of those within the former ruling merchant class have taken to their new status as part of the Empire’s merchant caste kindly. Further, while the world is a stronghold of the Imperial movement among the Clan’s warrior caste, Lübeck has not been without its share of trouble caused by those in the Preserver movement.
Only time will tell if the establishment of the office of zarKhan, as well as news from Terra regarding the potential emergence of an ilClan, shall succeed in furthering this world’s integration into the Scorpion Empire going forward.
AN ILLUSTRIOUS NAMESAKE
The Free and Hanseatic City of Lübeck is located in Germany on Terra. In the pre-spaceflight era, the city played a leading role in the formation of the original Hanseatic League: a maritime confederation of city-states covering most of Europe’s Baltic and North Seas. Despite a subsequent decline as European trade shifted towards the Atlantic coast in the latter half of the second millennium CE, its status as a “free” (as in, self-governing) city would not be lost until 1937. This status was restored in 2316, when Lübeck was severed from Schleswig-Holstein as part of the transition from the Terran Alliance’s Federal Republic of Germany to the Terran Hegemony’s administrative region of Germany.
While much of the “brick Gothic” medieval architecture in the city’s Innenstadt (or historical quarter) was destroyed during Terra’s Second World War, the subsequent reconstruction efforts have survived the Amaris Coup, Operation LIBERATION, and later conflicts waged on humanity’s home world, remaining standing at last reporting. Although the “Fortress Republic” reportedly raised around the Sol system, and the potential for a Clan Wolf (and/or Clan Jade Falcon) invasion of Terra, leaves the current status of this city as yet unknown.
FORMATIVE YEARS
Like many other worlds in the modern Hanseatic League, Lübeck was established by settlers fleeing the Lyran Commonwealth in the midst of the Succession Wars. The system was first discovered in 2821, while the first batch of colonists made planetfall in 2840. However, unlike the nearby world of Braunschweig, which was settled by exiles from the Tamar Pact region, Lübeck’s colonists arrived from the Protectorate of Donegal’s Coventry Province: a mix of exiles from long-standing Lyran worlds and from former Rim Worlds Republic planets seized during Operation ALMARIC.
While Lübeck’s oceans cover only forty-seven percent of the planet’s surface, the average depths of these oceans (and thus, the overall volume of water overall) is much greater than is typically found on such worlds. This, plus strong tidal effects from the Luna-like moon of Holstein, makes weather systems somewhat more volatile than is the norm on such “dry” worlds. Even so, the early settlers established the planetary capital of Schleswig as a port city, where the New Trave river meets the north-eastern shores of Lübeck’s largest continent of Lauenburg, facing the immense Baltic Ocean. (Despite Lübeck no longer being a part of Schleswig-Holstein on Terra, the colonists were not fussy about using place names from the latter when colonizing a world named after the former.)
Unlike the fierce katzenwulf and the deadly tree anemone of Braunschweig, the surface life forms of Lübeck posed little threat to human colonization. The most advanced forms of native life are giant fish-like creatures, akin to oversized Terran whale sharks, found in the depths of Lübeck’s oceans. Thus, imported Terran (and Lyran) plant and animal species have taken root on Lauenburg. However, much as is the case on the Weser continent on Bremen, Lübeck’s more distant Dithmarschen continent – along with large portions of the adjacent Frisian Ocean – were declared to be nature preserves.
While the surrounding area of Lauenburg surrounding the capital were well suited to agriculture, the interior of the continent was found to have vast quantities of germanium and of silicon. This led to the establishment of Rangendorf, a mining town turned major industrial hub, as well as leading a major commercial district of Buntekuh to emerge in the suburbs of Schelswig along the main rail line leading into the interior.
A limited amount of JumpShip traffic enabled trade and diplomatic contact between Lübeck, Braunschweig. And other nearby worlds. However, it would not be until the subsequent colonization of Bremen, and the push by that world’s merchant leaders to form the Hanseatic League, before Lübeck truly began to integrate itself into a broader interplanetary commercial – and later, military – network.
THE SECOND WORLD
When the Hanseatic League was formally established in 2891, several of the highest-ranking merchants on Lübeck took their seats on the Council of Merchants over on Bremen – but only after they failed in their bid to have their world designated as the League’s new capital, to echo old Lübeck’s role as the “Queen of the Hanse”.
Despite this failure, the merchants of Lübeck set out to ensure that, if they could not be the League’s First World, they would at least be its Second. Their merchant rivals on Antwerp had other ideas, however: their success in establishing the first BattleMech production facility in League space on their home planet made them a fierce rival to the claim of Second World. Fortunately for both planets, the Hansa had established a strict veil of secrecy over the Star League-era BattleMech Repair Facility discovered on Braunschweig, preventing that world from openly challenging either Lübeck or Antwerp for prominence… for a time, at least.
A more pressing issue was the matter of access to – and from – trading opportunities beyond Hansa-controlled space. Initially, the Council of Merchants sought to restrict, or at least to strongly regulate, all outside contact to worlds within their space. However, the difficulties in enforcing this across three hundred light years of Hansa space – not least when several local merchant councils were happy to look the other way when outside traders did show up – encouraged the merchants of Lübeck to successfully lobby the Council to change course. Thus, in 3011, Lübeck, Bergen, and Bruges were designated as “open worlds”, free for outsiders to visit and do business.
At this point, the merchants of Lübeck made two significant adjustments, in preparation for such arrivals.
On Lübeck proper, they established Niendorf, a new municipality in the vicinity of Schleswig: this would be a residential enclave for non-Hansa residents to settle. High-spending foreign tourists and expatriates would also be provided for at Travemünde, a nearby seaside resort which already catered to the wealthiest local merchants.
While on Quarantine (the desert world otherwise known as Lübeck VI), the control facility hitherto used to process agricultural goods from other Hansa worlds was expanded and re-established as Quarantine City, where new arrivals into the system from beyond League space would be processed and screened prior to arrival at Lübeck V. (In principle, Hansa citizens had been, and remained, exempt from this procedure. In practice, however, those importing foodstuffs often found themselves stuck on Quarantine alongside their produce until the latter was cleared for import.)
A key concession the Lübeck merchants made in these regions was to allow a bespoke series of exemptions under which outside residents could operate. While long-term residents could apply for (and in some cases be granted) Hanseatic citizenship, they were otherwise permitted to operate with a certain degree of local autonomy in Niendorf.
Crucially, this meant that any foreign expats who fell into difficult financial circumstances could not be reduced to serfdom – as was the fate of any locals who were unfortunate enough to drop below the same poverty line – so long as they stayed within the boundaries of Niendorf itself. Since few dared to leave these boundaries for fear of enserfment, this effectively turned the poorest part of Niendorf into a ghettoized slum district. This also meant that, on occasion, escaped serfs would flee into Niendorf and attempt to hide themselves amongst the urban poor of the city.
For the most part, the Lübeck merchants did their best to ignore the matter, so long as it remained out of their direct view: the situation would not be directly addressed until the 3140s.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Prior to the 3050s, the frequency and number of visitors to the three open worlds was relatively small. That changed in the wake of the Clan Invasion, as interest in the coreward Deep Periphery increased exponentially. As knowledge of the League’s existence was made public in the Inner Sphere for the first time, envoys from ComStar (and, after the Schism, the Word of Blake) were joined by traders from the Great Houses and from private corporations such as Interstellar Expeditions.
More surprisingly was the first set of arrivals from the Clan Homeworlds, most prominently in the form of merchant caste envoys from Clan Diamond Shark. Other Clans, not least those who had not taken part in Operation REVIVAL, began to take a closer look at the Hanseatic League: the first Seekers from Clan Goliath Scorpion began to appear in-system during this time period.
This rapid increase in contact led the merchants of Lübeck to increase their presence at Quarantine City, and to assign a larger portion of funds towards the Niendorf governing council – which, with the arrival of so many Inner Sphere and Clan residents, became a much more diverse place… and one more complicated for its municipal council to govern.
Despite the reduction in funds allocated to ComStar’s Explorer Corps once the location of the Pentagon Worlds and the Kerensky Cluster were verified, and despite a drop-off in trade to and from Nueva Castile once the League’s long-standing efforts to stir up conflict between the Castilian and Umayyad factions were revealed to both sides, business remained quite brisk at Lübeck well into the 3060s. However, the outbreak of total war in both the Inner Sphere and in the Clan Homeworlds would mark the onset of a new and more turbulent era.
TIMES OF TURMOIL
The remainder of the thirty-first century marked a series of trials for the Hanseatic League.
The hard-fought Ice Hellion raid on Antwerp; the disastrous battles with the Diamond Sharks in the Chainelane Isles; the conquest of Nueva Castile by Clan Goliath Scorpion; and the months-long occupation of four coreward systems by Clan Star Adder: these marked an unprecedented series of external threats to the League at large. While the dreaded follow-up attack from the Clan Homeworlds did not materialize, the rise of the “Escorpión Imperio” was deemed by the Council of Merchants to be a clear and present danger to the League’s very survival.
This was reflected by dramatic outbreaks of violence in Niendorf. Expats aligned with ComStar and with the Word of Blake turned on each other, with the former joined by a growing cadre of Great House residents as news of Blakist atrocities across the Inner Sphere reached Lübeck via courier JumpShip. Meanwhile, those merchants still aligned with the Homeworld Clans either left abruptly, with no explanation as to the suddenness of their actions, or found themselves joined by disaffected Clan soldiers and MechWarriors who had been unceremoniously drummed out of the RDF at Captain-General Albert Snow’s orders. By the onset of the Republic Era, the demographics of this expat municipality had changed markedly – as had its long-term economic prospects.
The Council’s reaction to these threats itself led to further turmoil on more than a dozen of the League’s worlds, as directives aimed at turning profits towards military expansion saw the RDFs deployed to quell the mercenary and personal security forces acting on behalf of disaffected merchants. Lübeck was no exception: seven powerful merchant families from across Lauenburg rose in revolt, only to be crushed by forces deployed from RDF 1, RDF 5, and Lübeck’s loyalist militia and mercenary groups.
One of the most striking changes to Lübeck’s landscape took place when Helga Bauer was installed as the first Captain-Marshal of the re-branded Hanseatic Defense Force. Rather than simply re-allocate the seized lands of three of the most prominent rebel merchants to their loyalist counterparts, she successfully lobbied to have these lands assigned to the newly-established Lübeck Military Academy, which opened its doors for the first time in 3116. The Academy had a purpose-built campus constructed on the site of a former rebel merchant manor that had been razed during the revolt. Meanwhile, the surrounding endowment lands were used for training manoeuvres and life-fire exercises for BattleMechs, vehicles, and aerospace fighters (for whom a new series of runways were constructed).
In tandem, a renewed push was launched to encourage Inner Sphere military veterans and technical specialists – most prominently from the Lyran Commonwealth – to both join the faculty and to aid in upgrading the League’s industrial output. With the Sphere-wide military drawdowns in the Republic Era leaving many ex-soldiers out of work, and without the luxury of Devlin Stone’s Pax Republica to discourage the threat of invasion by Clan Goliath Scorpion, the Hansa recruiters found more than a few willing to aid their cause.
Meanwhile, the situation of the Clan (or formerly Clan) residents of Niendorf was revisited. Long-distance trade with Clan Sea Fox remained active, so residents affiliated with (or absorbed into) that Clan inherited their old Diamond Shark trading prerogatives. While war with the Imperio was feared to break out at any time, JumpShips belonging to Clan Goliath Scorpion were still liable to arrive in-system, carrying merchant caste traders and/or MechWarriors on Seeker quests. Thus, the doors to Niendorf remained open to those arrivals as well.
This still left may “orphaned” ex-Clan residents, who longer had a Clan of their own to affiliate with. While some of those blended into other expatriate communities in Niendorf, others took advantage of Captain-Marshal Bauer’s rescinding of Albert Snow’s ban on their serving in the HDF. Those still alive in Niendorf with the relevant military experience were encouraged to join the faculty at the Lübeck Military Academy, so as to aid in the training of new cadets in anti-Clan tactics. Others were recruited more directly into the new RDFs and CPFs raised in the thirty-second century, or into planetary militia companies across the Hanseatic League.
Another pressing issue was how to pivot the planetary economy to the new circumstances. With the establishment of new military production facilities at Braunschweig and at Falsterbo, as well as the expansion of the ground and space facilities at Antwerp (to include the commissioning of the League’s first JumpShip construction yards), demand for Lübeck’s raw materials and industrial output increased significantly. This, coupled with the technical advancements which brought the League’s industrial base from a Third Succession War level to one close to that of the Inner Sphere during the Federated Commonwealth Civil War, boosted the world’s economy and made up in large part for the reduction in external trade during this era.
SERFDOM ON LÜBECK
As with the other worlds of the Hanseatic League, Lübeck was no stranger to the practice of large-scale serfdom.
Initially, the merchants planning their flight from Lyran space to Lübeck intended – or, perhaps, made a show of such – for destitute migrants, often from worlds which were abandoned by the Commonwealth during the Succession Wars, to pay for their one-way journey to their new colony world with a temporary form of indentured servitude. Once the “debt” to the merchants was paid, the story went, the migrant would then be free to establish themselves as they saw fit.
Indeed, while the prospect of individual emancipation was never entirely closed off (if only to reduce the risk of serf rebellion), only in the early decades of colonization on Lübeck, when much of the planetary infrastructure was being established, did a significant number of migrants successfully buy their way out of servitude. However, once things “settled down” to the point where the governing merchants felt secure enough to secure their long-term rule to turn what was supposed to be temporary servitude for those yet to be freed into generational serfdom for all but a select few.
Unlike on Braunschweig, where the need to keep the BRF a secret led to the unexpected emergence of “Serftown”, no such settlement was required – or tolerated - to exist by the merchants on Lübeck. Instead, the merchants held an unspoken agreement to look the other way at the trickle of escapees to Niendorf, so long as it remained a trickle. Such an escape was only an option for serfs living close to the capital, however; in other areas, far from the eyes of Lübeck’s foreign residents, it was a very different story.
That said, not all of Lübeck’s merchants were of one mind. One group favoured abolishing serfdom outright in a mass emancipation. Another group favored a more gradualist approach, seeking to prepare what they saw as the necessary conditions to maintain a free populace. Such groups were not unknown on other Hansa worlds, though usually the local merchant council kept the airing of such thoughts in check through various forms of political pressure (or outright coercion). On Lübeck and on the other two open worlds, however, each local council made a show of tolerating a limited amount of discourse on the matter in certain circles, at least in venues where expats from “free” (though by no means equal) realms in the Inner Sphere might be in attendance.
In the wake of the Scorpion threat, a series of limited reforms would affect those serfs who were recruited into the military.
In the old HSF, marines and infantry of Soldier rank had few opportunities for advancement in the ranks, though they were granted their freedom after their first term of service. There was no such grant to family members who were still enserfed, though veterans often used part of their savings to buy their loved ones’ freedom.
In the reformed HDF, ex-serfs were emancipated upon entering service (or, in the case of serfs already in service, were granted their freedom at the same time). Enserfed immediate family members (spouses and children) would be freed after the first turn of service. Further, an expanded range of enlisted ranks were established, based on Inner Sphere established practice. This led to a new range of ex-serf sergeants and NCOs, as well as a higher retention rate of such experienced veterans.
Ultimately, however, a critical mass of merchants refused to countenance bypassing this issue entirely by emancipating their serfs themselves, or even by offering a pathway to gradual emancipation. As a result, no amount of anti-Scorpion propaganda could forestall what would happen when Lübeck found itself on the front lines of the Hanseatic Crusade.
LÜBECK AND THE HANSEATIC CRUSADE
Khan Magon Scott assigned Seeker Galaxy to the conquest of Lübeck, as part of Wave Three of the Hanseatic Crusade. Four Clusters and Seeker Keshik made planetfall on the outskirts of Schleswig on 11 April 3140. With no RDF or CDF on-planet, the Seekers were opposed by Lübeck’s planetary militia and mercenary units.
The fighting was brutal, not least since the Seekers exterminated the mercenary “lucrewarriors” to the last soldier. Those from the planetary militia were treated differently; those who proved their worth in battle were taken as isorla, thus given the opportunity to be made a part of Clan Goliath Scorpion.
This first Scorpion occupation proved to be surprisingly brief: a full-scale counter-attack was launched by Captain-Marshal Rudolf Schmidt, commanding RDF 1 and CPF 1. Landing on 30 April 3140, his forces destroyed the Fourth Scorpion Seekers and soon drove the remainder of the Galaxy off-world.
The amount of collateral damage was severe, however. Much of Schleswig and Niendorf were reduced to rubble; vast swathes of the surrounding farmland had been devastated; and the forests into which the last mercenaries had fled were consumed in vast conflagrations.
Further, Loremaster Yeh had declared that, as subjects of the Imperio, all serfs on Lübeck were to be freed immediately – in preparation for being processed into the Clan caste system. Other conquered worlds had seen similar declarations, and had led to similar results: namely, the immediate creation of a vast and loyal segment of the planetary populace.
However, the elimination of the prior defenders of Lübeck, coupled with Seeker Galaxy’s subsequent defeat, left the status of the planet’s serfs in the hands of Captain-Marshal Schmidt. However, rather than speak on the matter one way or the other, he deferred the question until after the broader threat to the realm was resolved. Further, he refused to leave any of his forces to hold Lübeck upon departing for Bremen: as he saw it, every last soldier was needed for the defense of the capital.
In the following months, this left an unprecedented power vacuum, in which a large number of emancipated serfs (and their abolitionist and gradualist merchant allies) on the one side, and the recalcitrant (yet powerless) merchants on the other.
Remarkably, this did not lead to a final confrontation, in part due to high levels of mutual apprehension. After all, if the Scorpions won the war, the abolition would stand. But if the League held on just enough to keep Lübeck at the end of the war, the ex-serfs feared the kind of retribution a vengeful Council of Merchants might inflict if things were to spiral out of control.
Because of this, only the most basic of reconstruction efforts had begun when, near the end of the year, a JumpShip arrived with the fateful news from Bremen: the war was over.
From this time forward, Lübeck would belong to the Scorpion Empire.
LÜBECK AND THE SCORPION EMPIRE
On 1 December 3140, a long-delayed JumpShip flotilla carrying reKhan Eunice Solheim and the Second Khanquest Provisional Garrison Cluster (henceforth the First Lübeck Provisional Garrison Cluster) emerged at the system’s zenith jump point. Upon landing at Schleswig eight days later, she immediately set about re-establishing Scorpion rule.
Her first order of business was to organize the local reconstruction efforts in earnest, cutting through the inertia that had fallen upon the planet hitherto.
Her public pronouncements, in both German and in English, made it clear that the reforms which had been implemented over time on the Castilian worlds regarding language, the production of consumer goods, and equal treatment for freeborn and Trueborn alike would be in place from the outset.
Further, she assured the Clan Sea Fox merchant caste envoys in Niendorf that their right to reside and to trade would be respected as before. Those of Clan Goliath Scorpion affiliation were expected to act as guides and tutors for the freeborn ex-Hansa – be they merchant, peasant, or serf –making the transition into citizens of the Empire. While those “orphaned” Clan residents were assured that no old prejudices would stand against them: they were as welcome as any other citizen of the Empire to test into, and once there to excel in, whichever caste their own talents and determination could take them.
This marked the effective end of Niendorf as a “foreign” enclave – save for those of Clan Sea Fox afforded their long-standing privileges. Niendorf’s slums were torn down and replaced with housing apartments, gymnasiums, sporting arenas, and other amenities due a citizen of the Scorpion Empire.
Other parts of the world saw major changes as well. Perhaps the most transformative was the installation of a class-A hyperpulse generator, which for the first time connected Lübeck to a trans-light communications network. The Empire’s JumpShips and WarShips set about establishing HPGs on other ex-Hansa worlds within range, as well as placing QR 243 HPG relay satellites in deep space in order to link these planet-side HPGs with the pre-existing Scorpion HPG network.
Even the Clan Sea Fox merchants on Lübeck were permitted to use this network in order to communicate with any JumpShips, CargoShips or ArcShips making the journey into Scorpion Empire space. By this time, of course, the Scorpions had learned of the Blackout crippling the Inner Sphere and near Periphery; their offer was in part a show of good faith and in part a demonstration of strength, showing that they remained immune to such concerns.
One question was what to do with the Lübeck Military Academy. After all, it had failed in its initial mission: the Clan its graduates had been trained to fight now held the campus in their pincers. Yet there remain many uses for such a facility. The aerospace faculty has been expanded, so as to train the future officers and crewmen of the Empire’s three surviving WarShips. The training grounds provide a venue by which sibko trainees could face an opposing force using Inner Sphere tactics. While the campus now offers what the academies of Terra might refer to as “post-graduate” studies: to cover the operational and logistical demands of war, as had been practised during the Hanseatic Crusade. For these reasons and more, the Academy has become a key resource for furthering the needs of the touman going forward.
Yet, while many of the ex-Hansa merchants on Lübeck have made the most of their situation, there remain those who are opposed to the new order. On the other side, while the vast majority of ex-serfs are committed to the Empire and determined to further their lot within it, there are those who are cautious, if not distrustful, about whether the promises of the reKhan shall play out in practice.
NEW REKHAN, NEW ZARKHAN
Ten years after taking office, reKhan Solheim passed control of Lübeck to her hand-picked successor, Darius Elam, on 1 January 3151.
A few months later, HPG broadcasts from the new capital of Braunschweig announced the ascension of Galaxy Commander Emmy Line to the role of zarKhan: head of the Empire’s civilian government.
News of zarKhan Line’s success has galvanized support for the Empire among Lübeck’s civilian populace, as she provides living proof of the Empire’s promise of fairness and opportunity for all of its citizens, regardless of their origins.
This marks a further victory for the Imperial faction among the Empire’s warrior caste, those who support and encourage the further integration of the many peoples of the realm on a mutually respectful footing. Conversely, it marks a double defeat for the Preserver faction, which disdains freeborns and seeks to install what they see as a more “traditional” view of Clan society. Many of the most prominent Preservers lie dead on Braunschweig, having failed in their Trials of Grievance against the rise of the zarKhan. Most who remain have been as shocked as their Imperial faction counterparts at the prospect of an ilClan – be it Wolf or Jade Falcon – on Terra.
Whatever the outcome on Terra might be, the people of Lübeck shall play a key role in driving the Empire forward... so long as it ultimately succeeds in reaching its fullest potential.
