Founder:	Lucien Davion
Year:	2317
Worlds:	475
Capital:	New Avalon
Military:	Armed Forces of the Federated Suns (AFFS)

The Succession Wars

The Star League Era was a time of relative peace and expansion through colonisation, rather than military conquest. During this period a total of 750 new worlds came under the Federated Suns banner and economic prosperity came through research and development, rather than the production of war materiel. The only major military action came during the Davion War of Succession, which required intervention from the Star League Defence Force (SLDF) to save over-extended and poorly-prepared Davion forces from defeat. To avoid a repeat of this humiliating scenario, Prince Richard Davion passed the Preparedness Act in 2735, which cunningly by-passed limits imposed on the size of military forces by the Star League Treaty, by creating large militia forces that could be called up at short notice.

This was just as well, as sixteen years later, the sudden death of First Lord Simon Cameron left his eight year-old son Richard as the Star League's titular ruler. The actual business of governance fell to the Council of Regents, made up of the heads of each member state. This did not bode well, since they had spent decades engaged in petty squabbles, while secretly building up their armed forces. Unable to trust any of his Regents, Richard turned to Stefan Amaris, ruler of the Rim Worlds Republic for guidance. Unfortunately he was no better than the rest and had ambitions of his own. After gaining the boy's trust, in a cruel act of betrayal, he then had Richard and the entire Cameron family murdered, afterwards proclaiming himself the new First Lord. With the other House Lords too busy protecting their own interests, it fell to General Alexander Kerensky, commander of the SLDF, to take the fight to the Usurper. By the time his troops finally defeated Amaris' forces in 2779, the Star League existed in name only. The Council Lords had spent the time deploying their own forces and formulating strategies, waiting for the moment to make their own claims to the First Lord's throne.

The Federated Suns was no different to the other states in this respect. With the Terran Hegemony now leaderless, its worlds were fair game for anyone with the military might to take them. Unfortunately the Suns and AFFS had been weakened by the same economic downturn that had plagued the Star League during its final years. Regional loyalties had also begun to reassert themselves. As a result the effectiveness of its combat units was severely weakened, resulting in a disastrous campaign to take the world of Towne, where the AFFS came off second-best to units from the Capellan Confederation and Draconis Combine, with the Combine eventually taking overall control. Determined to avoid any repeats of this debacle, Prince John Davion initiated a re-militarisation program, aimed at strengthening the AFFS and the Federated Suns economy. While this initially delivered on its aims, during the Succession Wars that followed, the nation found itself increasingly poorer and its infrastructure more damaged, with each round of rebuilding between conflicts offering only temporary respite.