Eau Claire was involved in several different problems the first several months after founding. The Quake Moon - Belle Terre's largest resource center - was found to have the very rare mineral olivium buried in its core. However, the olivium was unstable, and it was plugged in the core by a huge boulder. The boulder was taken out by the Federation starship Enterprise, as well as many of the Belle Terre Expedition's ships, but the olivium blasted into Belle Terre, causing weather problems and, eventually, mass destruction. The forests were destroyed in the Burn, as it was called, and the Eau Claire River Valley was flooded by mass rainfall. To make matters worse, two alien species, the Blood and the Kauld, were battling each other, the Orion pirate cartels were striking at the Expedition, and Billy Maidenshore - a renegade who was accused of hijacking three of Admiral James T. Kirk's private, coded shuttles a few months before the Expedition left Earth - was planning a takeover.
Eau Claire has gotten through these problems to rise as a powerful city in the Republic. It served as the capital of the Directorate during the early parts of the Reydovan Civil War, and became the most powerful city in the Republic until First City was captured. The population of Eau Claire, at last count, is 117 million people, not including the suburban areas.
The Monolith, the tower-fortress of Joshua Underwood, was built in the mountains surrounding Eau Claire shortly after the Eau Claire River Valley revival in 2320. Surrounded by metal forges, which make the armor, weaponry and jewelry for his Terran medieval and Renaissance battle reenactments, the Monolith's design was based on Orthanc, the tower of the evil wizard Saruman in J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. This particular design was based on the films made for that trilogy in 2001-2003 (295-293 PED). The Monolith is located at 19,000 feet above sea level, and the tower itself is over 4,211 feet tall. Because of Belle Terre's somewhat thicker atmosphere, lack of oxygen doesn't really affect a person's system until about 26,000 feet.
Underwood addressed the Directorate Army, commanded by Field Marshal Daniel Longstreet and General Jeremiah Neill, from the high balcony of the Monolith on April 21, 2501, shortly before the Directorate invasion of Reydovan Prime. "The Empire has oppressed us for too long!" Underwood said. "Once Reydovan Prime, that festering, stinking sphere of Imperial power, falls before the might of the People of Reydovan, we will sweep the entire Empire beneath our feet! TO WAR, DEFENDERS OF FREEDOM!!!"
Joshua Underwood's throne room was built on the highest inside level of the Monolith when he was the Imperial Regent of the Occult system in 2321, before he was appointed to be the first - and only - Grand Regent of the Reydovan Empire by Emperor Joshmaul and Empress Natalya in 2417. The Staff of Occult, which is shown here next to the throne, was crafted for him following the completion of the tower, and was used to battle Joshmaul I, renegade "Emperor" Garien Wraith and finally Joshmaul II. The Chancellor brought the Staff of Occult rather than the Staff of Reydovan (which was destroyed with Emperor Joshmaul following his death in 2501) to L'nhraei, as a symbol of the Reydovan people for the official merger of the Reydovan Democratic Republic and the L'nhraei Commonwealth of Planets on January 1, 2503.
In the final quarter of 2502, Eau Claire was placed under high military alert in light of the Tzenkethi raids in the Occult system.
