Politics is a nasty business...

[Tiberius Anar]

Taken from The Imperial Sovereingty: A History by Dr. T. B. Colas of the University of Couruscant.

The Imperial Sovereignty came into being as a military body dominated by Grand Admiral Desaria and his subordinate commanders. In the early days of the Imperial Sovereignty the planets and people served to feed a war against the Rebel Alliance. Whole worlds were stripped of their resources as the Grand Admiral sought to rebuild the old Empire. It was not until some time had passed that the Grand Admiral realised the futility of this war making, and by then he had lost control of much of the Imperial Sovereignty’s wealth to another- Baron Mikell de Nostradaum.

Mikell de Nostradaum had served under the Diktat, Viscera, rising to senior posts in the Imperial Bureaucracy prior to the Great Fragmentation. He was a man of limitless ambition whose thirst for power was insatiable. During those days of campaigning, when Desaria’s attention had been focused upon the wars he was fighting, de Nostradaum had assumed responsibility for administering the expanding empire. After two years he had assumed total control of the Imperial Sovereignty’s mining, processing and construction facilities and of the wealth that they produced. When Desaria returned his attention to the Imperial Sovereignty itself he found that he had lost control of much of it to a civilian. His actions show how ill prepared he was for this turn of events.

The following note was found amongst the files recovered from Baron de Nostradaum’s mansion after his death.

Desaria continues to fight me. In his latest attempt to resume control here [Thyferra- ed.] he deployed five SD’s [Star Destroyers- ed.] in orbit. The effect was minimal. I announced that our victorious Navy had returned to our skies once more. The people believed me.

Indeed, the deployment of star destroyers caused much delight in Xucphra City. The people, instead of running for cover, held a vast celebratory rally in the square outside the Imperial High Command. Petre Deloi, a resident of Xuchphra City recalled:

“We were cheering and waving banners. After so long our ships had come home. I had an uncle on board one of those ships and I was happy to see him back. Baron de Nostradaum came out on to a balcony and we all waved and cheered. He waved back and smiled…At one point a great cry went up “We want Desaria! Desaria! Desaria!” the Grand Admiral did not come out. He must have been too busy.”

This did very little to help Desaria, had he appeared before the cheering crowds it is likely that he might have been able to parlay their adoration in to political ammunition. Instead he was left out of the ‘celebrations’ and de Nostradaum was the only public figure to be seen at the rally. His appearance there meant that the people began to associate him with military victory not just the highly efficient airbuses of Thyferra.

After this propaganda victory de Nostradaum felt confident enough to bargain with Desaria. Over the next month there were a series of meetings between the two leaders. The details of their conversations are unknown but their result became clear when Grand Admiral Desaria appeared on the Sovereignty News Network. In his brief address the de facto ruler of the Imperial Sovereignty ceded much of his power to Baron de Nostradaum. We reproduce the text of the speech below below:

People of the Imperial Sovereignty I speak to you today from my office at the Imperial High Command. I wish to make a brief statement to you all. Since our beloved Diktat vanished from our midst I have striven to carry on his work for the New Order. In doing so I have neglected you, the Imperial subjects who I serve. But this is not a deliberate act on my part, merely a consequence of my calling as a warrior. I must devote all my energy and my attention to the task of making war, and whilst I do this I cannot pay due attention to the needs of Imperial Subjects. I am therefore delegating my civilian responsibilities to a Civil Administration to be headed by Baron Mikell de Nostradaum. May the New Order prevail.”

In this two minute statement Grand Admiral Desaria essentially gave Baron de Nostradaum control of everything that was not military in nature. At the time this seemed to count against the Baron rather than the Admiral, after all “the glory is in war” to quote one ancient writer. Whilst the Grand Admiral would get the credit for every Imperial victory, the Baron would be credited for every power outage and every failing school. As one of Desaria’s aides remarked: “The Grand Admiral has won out after all.”

[Tiberius Anar]

Initially it was true that de Nostradaum was the weaker of the weaker of the two. This weakness stemmed from the nature of his appointment, rather than what it meant. Desaria's concent had been necessary for de Nostradaum to assume create the Civil Administration. The Grand Admiral's continuing approval seemed necessary if the Civil Administration, and de Nostradaum were to survive.

His first official act was the appointment of ministers to oversee the major work of the Civil Administration, which was carried out by their ministries. Initially there were five cabinet posts: Ministers of External Expenditure, Civil Production, Civil Construction, and Resources, along with the Prefect of the Treasury. The first cabinet was:

Count Varr (Civil Production)
Baronet Lucrius (Civil Construction)
Lord Vorru (External Expenditures)
Duchess Heerst (Resources)
Duchess Lartiera (Treasury)


De Nostradaum appointed five conservative aristocrats as his ministers rather than his more radical friends and allies. In my opinion the traditional teaching that these appointments represented cowardice on the part off de Nostradaum is flawed. It is true that the ministers were chosen to please Desaria, yes, but this was not cowardice but prudence. Had de Nostradaum appointed radicals it is likely that the Civil Administration would have fallen. His actions show how astute a politician Baron de Nostradaum was.

[Tiberius Anar]

The early years of the Civil Administration were filled with success. Under de Nostradaum’s guidance the Imperial Sovereignty flourished domestically. The Cabinet followed conservative, but popular, policies. Public works schemes were begun to improve life on planets through out the Sovereignty- libraries and museums were built, and weather control systems erected on the more inhospitable planets. The Ministry of Resources began a programme to exploit the mineral deposits in the asteroid belts of several systems, creating more jobs and wealth, whilst the Ministry of External Expenditure trading with the neutral worlds on the borders of Sovereignty space. These policies increased de Nostradaum’s popularity greatly, so much so that Desaria was obliged to confirm the Civil Administration in its position by decree.

A decree to formalise the powers and position of the Civil Administration

1. The Civil Administration has proven itself a successful means of handling the domestic affairs of the Imperial Sovereignty. So that it may continue its good work the Civil Administration is hereby confirmed as an organ of the State.
2. The Civil Administration shall have control over all matters of domestic policy and shall exercise that control for the good of all Imperial Subjects.
3. To carry out this task the Civil Administration shall have control of all Ministries and Agencies as are deemed necessary.

Desaria

With his position secured by this decree, de Nostradaum began to take more radical steps. He created the Ministry of Health (eventually renamed the Ministry of Welfare) and set about creating the Imperial Health Service. This new government agency used money to buy or to build hospitals and health centres which were then staffed by doctors employed by the state to provide free medical care to all Imperial subjects. The idea was well received through out Sovereignty space and brought de Nostradaum considerable praise for his efforts.

This humanitarian effort was to have political repercussions. The creation of the Imperial Health Service coincided with Desaria’s demand for additional funding to build new ships for the Imperial Navy...

[Telan Desaria]

An Excerpt from Papers by Lieutenant-Colonel Artemis Malik, Former Personal Guard to His Excellency Grand Admiral the Baron Telan Desaria


Today the Baron rants again. It is my duty to sit and watch, pained listening though it is. I have guarded my charge for five years but nothing in that time of battles and rebel assassination attempts did I ever see him so pained. When hidden in his office on the flagship or below in High Command, he skulks about like a genius whose ideas were stolen.

I cannot pretend to understand what was being said then, and even now I can barely grasp the political musings the Grand Admiral tried so hard to vent. I took them down so that posterity might better know the man I served - the man we all served.


" I'm not a damned politican, I'm an officer. My job is leading fleets into war, not fighting battles on some unseen stage with cloaks, daggers, debates, and speeches! I've lost a few engagements in my time, but none this vexing. They were simple. Here - I am outclassed. I've stumbled into a war I couldnt win. Mikell de Nostradaum was supposed to help me in running the civil aspects of the Empire while we brought the Fleet to the gates of Coruscant.

But where are these gates now? Five times I could not attack Kuat and open the way to a domination of the Core. Why? I have had to settle for worlds such as Virmeude and Praestylin because they are closer to home. Every minute that passes, my fear that this man, this disdainful man, wants little more than civil war grows stronger and stronger. I have had to fight the Remnant, and that hurt. The Fragmentation hurt more still. I will not survive another."


He went on to wonder why things were happening as they were, why funds of the lauded Imperial war machine, the funds that were its grease, were being syphoned away. The Admiral feared that machine would grind to a halt, and every being with a ship would arrive to exploit such a grevious mistake on the part of the Ministorium Fiscales - and its henchmen appointed by none other than the Baron de Nostradaum.

[Tiberius Anar]

These thoughts were not disclosed to the public until long after Desaria's death. At the time all that he could do was watch as de Nostradaum channeled funds into the Imperial Health Service and other civil programmes, rather than the expansion of the Navy.

The reader may wonder how this was possible, given the military rather than civil nature of the Navy. The Imperial High Command had a massive budget but it was sorely over stretched at this time due to the large number of military commitments that it was obliged to undertake. The Military Treasury was, under law, to recieve set amounts every year off the top of revenue and this could not be prevented by de Nostradaum. The funding that Desaraia requested would have to be taken from the Reserve Funds which fell under de Nostradaum's jurisdiction. It was therefore possible for him to withold that money without incurring the Grand Admiral's rath.

[Tiberius Anar]

At this juncture it is necessary, I feel, to diverge from the main topic of the present discourse- de Nostradaum/Desaria- in order to discuss a figure who was shortly to gain prominence within the Sovereignty, and in the Galaxy as a whole. His name is well know to students of this subject, and to the lay-being as well: Tiberius Anar.

The early life of Anar is shrouded in mystery, making an accurate account of his involvment with events prior top his rise to the Chancellor-ship all but impossible. This task is made harder by the rumours that circulate concerning his rise to power- many of which are unsupported by evidence. The plain facts are these:

Tiberius Anar was born into a wealthy new rich family on Esseles some years prior to the death of the Emperor. His family took advantage of the opportunities for gain presented by the New Order, in sharp contrast to the majority of the local population. His father was Augustus Anar, a member of the Esseles New Order Party, his mother was Dravira Anar. He was privately educated before attending the University of Couruscant. At the age of twenty-five Anar joined Filtov & Brager a stockbroking firm and, when this company acquired a controling share in Xaltin Bacta, Anar transfered to it as an executive.

During his time at Xaltin Anar served in various areas- marketing, legal, finance- before becoming a negotiator. He rose to become the Principal Negotiator. His finest achievement was the exclusive contract to sell Bacta to the Imperial armed forces which he brokered prior to the Fragmentation of the Empire. He joined the Executive Board at the age of fourty-five.

These are the bare facts relevant up to the present point in this discourse. You may wonder why I choose to mention Anar, a minor executive, at this point? It is true that most texts on this period deal with his master Antoly Filtov, the Chief Executive of Xaltin, but I feel that Anar is of equal importance to the events that follow.

[Tiberius Anar]

Since his acquisition of the controlling share in Xaltin Bacta, Antoly Filtov had been working to build up the company. He had invested a considerable effort in buying out smaller bacta producers in an effort to increase his market share and, thus, his profits.

His desire to expand his company led him into negotiations to buy the Rayner Medical Labs, a small company that produced barely point two per cent of the total bacta per annumum. Comapred to a leviathan like Xaltin it was insignificant, but it was vital to Filtov for reason: it would boost Xaltin to the largest single producer of Bacta in the Galaxy. This would give Filtov considerable personal power not to mention wealth.

[Tiberius Anar]

The question of how he would use this wealth was to cause considerable strife within the Sovereignty's ruling classes. As has already been seen the Civil Administration was engaged in a war of sorts with the Imperial High Command, a war in which credits were to be the principle weapon. Filtov was, to continue this analogy, about to become an armsdealer. Whoever he sided with would gain the upper hand because they would possess a near limitless supply of money. The two side began to vey for his support and his pocket book.

[Tiberius Anar]

The implications of Filtov siding with the Grand Admiral and his supporters are obvious. Liberated from his dependance upon the Treasury for all his funding Desaria could reasert his independence from de Nostradaum, possibly even take back control of the Imperial Sovereignty. The reader will no doubt understand that de Nostradaum was unhappy about this possiblity. As he wrote to one member of the Cabinet:

He [Filtov-ed.] threatens to ruin everyhting. He could bring down the whole structure thaqt we have laboured so hard to build...reverse our good work. Any alliance must be stopped.

[Tiberius Anar]

De Nostradaum's strategy for dealing with Filtov was two fold. During the next two months Filtov was invited to numerous parties by the Baron and by his ministers. He was welcomed into the homes of aristocrats like the Duchess Lartiera, who would normally have ignored him.

Yet, even as he courted the CEO, de Nostradaum was also attempting to threaten him. At his behest the Prefecture of the Treasury began to consider introducing legislation to limit the size of corporations- supposedly to prevent manopolies- but in reality to prevent Filtov's purchase of Rayner Medical Labs.

[Tiberius Anar]

It seems that during the three days prior to the signing of the deal with Rayner Medical Labs Filtov got wind of this plan. How is not known, it can only be assumed that the plans were leaked, but to whom is the greater mystery...

[Tiberius Anar]

[Scene: A restraunt in Xuchprha City. It is lunch time and the place is packed. Waiters weaver in and out of tables at which sit businessbeings of every shape, size, and species. At a table in a corner sit two men. One is Tiberius Anar, thin and elegant in an immaculate grey suit. His companion is a larger man wearing an equally immaculate, though cheaper, suit of brown. He is Justin Unvarch an Under Secretary from the Treasury. Next to Unvarch is a small stack of datasheets. They are just finishing off their drinks.]

Unvarch: So you are set then?

Anar: Yes. We sign off in a month or so. Soon Rayner Medical Labs will be no more.

Unvarch: And you will be responsible?

Anar: Yes. I am fully responsible for every aspect of this one.

Unvarch: What will this do for your career?

Anar: Boost it. I'm looking at a serious share option on this one. [He pauses as if consideriong something.] May I ask why you are interrogating me?

Unvarch: [dismissivly] Interrogation? I am merely asking how my friend's career is going.

Anar: Justin, you have not asked out my career except to discover my salary. And once it rose above yours you stopped asking even about that. What are you up to?

Unvarch: [defensive] Nothing. Nothing. Just curious that's all.

Anar: [laughing] You are a civil servant. You are not supposed to be curious!

Unvarch: [smiling] You wound me, Tiberius!

Anar: My apologies.

[A waiter appears with the bill]

Thank you. [He signs. The waiter moves away.]

Unvarch; [glancing at chrono. I suppose I had better be off. Goodbye, Tiberius. [He stands and gathers up his files. One sheet falls from his fingers. He walks off.

[Anar finishes off his drink and rises to leave. As he does so he notices the sheet lying on the floor. He stoops to pick it up and freezes, his eyes fixed on the sheet]

[Tiberius Anar]

...The source of the leak has never been conclusively identified not has the recipient of it. It seems likely that the leak came from a low level official hoping to benefit from aiding the Xaltin Corporation. As with much of this period there seems that no resolution will be reached on this matter.

[Tiberius Anar]

Whatever his reasons, Antoly Filtov joined de Nostradaum the day before he bought Rayner medical labs. The reaction of senior members of the High Command, including Desaria, was one of anger.