Kings of Orion

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====== The Succession of Kings of Orion (RY 0 to 536) ======

===== Wilson I (0-45) =====


The kingdom was founded 300 years ago when the galaxy was in the grips of a devastating interplanetary war against a "race" of robotic conquerors and destroyers. The first king, a human admiral named Wilson McBride (Wilson I) rallied the shattered forces of a score of planets to victory, at the same time founding the legendary Knights of Orion to give his forces the needed advantage to overcome the ruthless machine enemy.

===== Mason the Stout (45-68) =====


Following Wilson's death after 45 years as King of Orion, Mason McBride was elected king to continue his father's legacy. In the 23 years of peace and prosperity that followed Wilson's work carving out a chunk of the galaxy, Mason managed to help his people colonize fifty worlds. From the Amethyst Throne in the new palace on Orion, Mason oversaw the building of the naval shipyards that encircle the moons of Thromghast III. Thromghast III remains one of the kingdom's most productive naval systems in the kingdom. Mason was also known for his "husky" frame and ravenous appetite, from which his nickname "The Stout" was derived.

===== Edward the Pious (68-102) =====


Edward McBride was Wilson I's youngest grandson and was elected to the throne when all three of Mason's children were passed over as being wastrels or unbalanced. It was Edward who founded the Established Church of Orion as the state religion of the Kingdom and who outlawed all forms of Satanism and devil worship. During his reign the fleet fell into disrepair, and several outer planets fell under the control of Mavorian invaders (the so-called First Mavorian War), but he held on to life and the throne for 34 years. Mason's eldest son Thurstan (otherwise an infamous gambler and drunk) led the opposition party at court, but he himself died a year before Edward did.

===== Otto I (102-113) =====

Following Edward's puritanical reign, no obvious heir was available. Edward never took a wife and had never fathered any children out of wedlock. Young Otto was chosen for his interest in returning the Kingdom to the military power it was under Wilson I. Otto was Edward's nephew serving as a knight errant in the Order of the Knights of Orion just before he was elected king. Otto rebuilt the Royal Navies to push back against the Mavorian threat. It was at the battle of Rygel that Otto personally led the Death's Head fleet to cripple the Mavorian war machine. Otto continued to use his marvel crystal throughout his reign. He was known for traveling throughout his kingdom to provide a more "hands on" style of rule. It was Otto who built the Knight's lodge on Orion and he was the first to use the Knights as a personal bodyguard. Although he never married, Otto was a famous womanizer. Many modern nobles can trace their royal heritage back to the reign of Otto I. Otto died in the prime of his career, poisoned by an unknown assassin. The culprit and motive behind Otto's death was never found.

===== Otto II (113-115) =====

After the death of Otto I there was a three month period when no candidate could win the majority for the election. The surviving sons and grandsons of Mason the Stout were bitterly contesting with one another "to restore the true royal line." At last Otto the II, a grandson of Mason's youngest brother was chosen in preference to any of the "Masonites." Otto the Second's reign was short and uneventful, but he had already been married three times and had over a half dozen legitimate children. Otto's death in a shuttle accident usually has been blamed on Mavorian commandoes, but there was enough suspicion to keep any of Mason's brood from the throne.

===== Wilson II (115-130) =====

Wilson Quaid was chosen to be king as a compromise candidate. Wilson II was the grandson of Wison I's youngest daughter, and was clearly in the camp of the Royalists. However, he was newly married to the crafty and scheming grandaughter of Thurstan McBride. These divided loyalties proved to be a challenge during Wilson II's reign, and many times royal decrees were rescinded within hours of being drafted. Wilson II did manage to establish the Royal Naval Academy on Orion, but its association with the "Masonites" gave it the reputation for just being a "country club for the elites" rather than an actual place to train better naval commanders. Wilson's reign was also marred by near-constant scandals of graft and treason within the highest levels of government. Wilson died young, some say from the constant nagging of his now middle-aged battle axe of a wife. Wilson II was survived by his two young sons Tristan and Arthur.

===== Lothar I (130-160) =====

Since Wilson's sons were of a tender age, the assembly turned to Otto II's third son Lothar Both the Quaid and Masonite factions were bitterly disappointed. Otto purged favorites of both lines from the government and court and established a policy of meritocracy. The early years of his reign were seen as a golden age of prosperity and good order, the middle section was marked by a short successful war against a Span-kee/Mavorian alliance, but the last years were only a shadow of what had gone before. Economic dislocation caused by the war, and discontent from the factions of the royal lines caused a sense of drift to overcome the kingdom. Several outer planets attempt to rebel against the fleet-tribute dues, but these revolts were never serious. Lothar died as a result of a bacterial infection gotten while hunting on the forest moon of Chilbert.

===== Tristan (160-180) =====

Tristan, son of Wilson II took power after Lothar's death. In his acceptance speech he vowed to return the kingdom to prosperity, but early into his reign a fleet of Span-kee ships attacked and experimented on the inhabitants of the industrial world of Wagner IV. Untold horrors were inflicted on the inhabitants of Wagner, leaving all of them scarred and insane. To this day, Wagner IV remains a broken world full of miscreants and psychopaths roaming a crumbling, nightmarish landscape. Tristan took this attack as a sign from the allmighty and incorporated the power of the Church of Orion into his own to clean out rogue elements of the kingdom. At first, satanists and alien sympathizers were tried and put to death by firing squad. But over the years, the list of those satanists included scientists, artists, teachers, musicians, the Church of Orion itself, and players of role-playing games. Eventually any who spoke out against the throne was accused of being in league with Satan. Entire local world governments were executed and replaced with servants loyal to the crown's interests. Meanwhile, the actual Span-kee menace had struck again, blighting the collective consciousness of all those on the rootmarm-rich world of Antigua VII. The kingdom crumbled under the staggering taxes levied to fight a war against the Span-kee, but the king never allowed the Royal Navy to engage the alien menace. The Representative Assembly called an emergency meeting to remove Tristan from power, but word of the meeting reached Tristan in advance. Citing emergency powers that the king could claim in times of war, Tristan moved against the assembly. Only those Representatives late to the emergency session were spared the events of the "Murderous Meeting" where all the Representatives were put on mock-trial and executed on the spot. Those surviving Representatives went into hiding as Tristan solidified all power beneath himself. Just as things were looking as though Tristan might drive the kingdom into ruin, a palace coup ended Tristan's life.

===== Lothar II, a.k.a. Lothar the Old, (180-247) =====

After the death of Tristan, there was a kingdom-wide spasm of reaction against his memory, policies, likeness, and even speech patterns. There was widespread nostalgia for the reign of Lothar I, even the gloomy end years of Lothar seemed better by far than any point of Tristan's. Consequently Lothar's 30 year old son Brian was proclaimed king, and he cunningly took the name Lothar II to capitalize on the nostalgia and the real sense of relief. The first five years of his reign were marked by constant warfare against the Span-Kee invaders. Lothar shut the Naval High Command on a fortified moon and only allowed trustworthy Knights to bear fleet orders and intelligence. This turned the tide against the invaders and their mysterious sources of intelligence and the constant treachery and inaction of Royal Forces stopped. What followed was "the long space of normal". Lothar clung to life and the throne for 67 years. When he finally died no one was alive who could really remember the days before his rule. Most of the institutions of today were established as precedents during Lothar's long tenure. The current balance between Naval and Knightly powers and responsibility, the current place of the Established Church, bound and limited by the True Charter Against Satan and the practices and powers of the assembly are all relics of Lothar's reign. Although the death of Lothar was greeted more with excitement than grief, ever since people have looked back on his reign as the "most normal" span of history.

===== Otto III (247-254) =====

Young Otto was awarded the Amethyst throne following his great-grandfather's death in 247. Otto capitalized on his youth and energy, and during his brief rule managed to achieve much for the Kingdom of Orion. Trade routes past through the system of Urlyamspyr were opened by stationing a permanent naval garrison based on Urlyamspyr XII to stop menacing pirates and Mavorians. These trade routes allowed nearly twenty productive agricultural worlds downspin of Urlyamspyr to grow and profit from closer ties to the kingdom. Otto signed a treaty with the insectoid races that populated the system of Eggwyrm which gave Mantids citizenship to the kingdom (albeit second-class citizenship since racial hatred of invertibrates goes deep within the kingdom). With Lothar's naval fleet crumbling Otto personally oversaw the mothballing of the older dreadnaught and battlecruiser class ships and the building of the Broadsword class light cruiser, a modular craft that has proved to be the workhorse of the newer, faster fleet. Only the "Reaper", the battlecruiser personally commanded by Otto's namesake during the first Mavorian war remained active as a relic of the kingdom's power. Sadly, Otto III was killed by a Mavorian strike fleet as he traveled to oversee the opening of the power generation planet of Omicron V. That unprovoked attack killing the King also marked the beginning of the Second Mavorian War.

===== Henry I (254-256) =====

Henry was a nephew of Otto III and an active fleet commander when he came to the throne. He aggressively devastated a large number of Mavorian colonies and outposts. He was ruthless in hunting down every single Mavorian who tried to escape from any of his battles. Henry won the Victory of the Twelve Suns, an immense space battle near Deneb VI, in which the Second Mavorian War was brought to a close. Unfortunately the Royal Battle Cruiser "Otto's Vengeance" was destroyed with all hands, including King Henry, during the pursuit of Mavorian survivors afterwards. It was during his reign that the Mavorians inserted large number of Grundorian shock troops onto planets across the kingdom. The Span-Kee had first introduced the Grundorians as mercenary foot soldiers, but the Mavorians bred a huge horde of them and used them for general devastation on a broad scale. Even today, Grundorian tribes occupy mountainous and remote regions of scores of planets in the kingdom.

===== Otto IV, a.k.a. Otto the Hero, (256-285) =====

Following Henry's death there were many Royals for the Assembly to choose from. Otto Rayneman, grandson of Lothar II's daughter Matilda had made a name for himself as a fighter pilot and Wing Commander throughout the Second Mavorian War. His intention was originally to join the Knights following the Mavorian's defeat, but his candor, class, and credentials made him the clear choice to be the next king. Otto made the best of his reign, and the kingdom prospered during this period of relative tranquility. Otto IV faced several issues during his time on the throne, the largest being that the last of the marvel crystals was pulled from the Royal Crystal Mine on Orion. The vein of crystals which the Knights of Orion psychically tune themselves to in order to transport themselves instantly across the kingdom had finally run out. Orion scientists speculated that since the crystals could only be found on Orion that perhaps the crystals were not natural formations at all as much as they were an artifact left behind by a sentient race that had lived millenniums before. It was during Otto's reign that this paucity of marvel crystals forced the Order of Knights to drastically limit their number and range of operations. The mysterious "space madness" virus was also first contracted during Otto IV's reign. Many xenobiologists worked to contain the virus that travelers through the long, systemless "Phabus Corridor" section of space began to contract. It took nearly two years and the permanent quarantine of the world of Therbim III to finally get the virus under control. To this day, there is no known cure for this disease that drives nearly 65% of its victims into bloodthirsty, homicidal rages. Otto IV also facilitated some notable achievements during his reign. An interplanetary network of communication buoys was built speeding communication between the most civilized worlds from months and years to weeks and days. The Interplanetary News Network (INN) was founded, with young cub reporter Gerardo Mendales (now the network's most senior news anchor) scrounging for stories across the galaxy. Finally, two prosperous trade planets named Denebah III and Denebah IV grew exponentially in a boom of commerce with the newfound peace. The two planets' names were eventually auctioned off to corporate giants, giving us the now familiar "eBay World" and "TobyMart Alpha". Otto IV died a hero, leading a rescue mission into a doomed spacecraft when the Royal Battlecruiser arrived on the scene of a distress call.

===== Henry II (285-320) =====

“Young Henry” is the grandson of Henry I and was chosen quite unexpectedly when the leading candidates were found to be involved in a bribery scandal. He was raised in secret on an isolated planet by an order of Sybokian monks, only to rejoin society a month after Otto’s death. Henry takes a very mystical attitude towards most major affairs, but is very strictly formal and self-controlled in regards to minor affairs. His administration has been effective and popular in the kingdom at large, but he is very difficult to get to know personally. Some of the mysticism of his upbringing makes some of his decrees and decisions seem peculiar and bizarre, but none have caused fear or outrage. His principal trusted advisors are Archbishop Eusebius of the Established Church, (known to some wags as the Space Pope) and the mysterious Sybokian known only as the Brown Monk. The king travels very rarely, staying in the palace on Orion nearly constantly, with one great exception, he disappears entirely for one week every year and is completely unreachable for that time. 

===== Lothar III (320-340) =====


===== Lothar IV (340-349) =====


===== Otto V (349-378) =====


===== Mason II (378-399) =====


===== Otto VII (399-401) =====


===== Mason III (401-427) =====


===== Mason IV(427-440) =====

 
===== Mason V (440-441) =====


===== Mason VI (441-441) =====


===== Mason VII (441-443) =====


===== Lothar V (443-446) =====


===== Mason VIII (446-448) =====


===== Mason IX (448-451) =====


===== Mason X (451-462) =====


===== Lothar VI (462-462) =====


===== Lothar VII (462-489) =====


===== Lothar VIII (489-505) =====

===== Great Civil War (505-510) =====

===== Uneasy Armistice (510-536) =====