In 2870 a battered jumpship carrying transport dropships arrived over Gwynedd, a world that had once been part of the Rim Worlds Republic. Over the last century, Gwynedd had been in constant decline with the shattering of the Republic and the region's collapse into anarchy as the early Succession Wars raged.
Disembarking from their transports, the few thousand passengers and crew rapidly took over one of the abandoned cities that dotted Gwynedd and established it as their new home. It quickly became apparent that the new colony had the capacity to restore fusion reactors and water filtration systems that had been failing the existing population, due to Star League policy of keeping such expertise in the distant Hegemony. This aroused admiration and envy among the leaders of Gwynedd's cities and one hardened warlord gathered enough support in 2877 to invade the new enclave.
Confident in the warlord's leadership, hundreds of armed men and his possession of a Shadow Hawk battlemech - the only 'Mech still operating on Gwynedd - his army reached the new city's perimeter before they faced any opposition, but that opposition was astounding: no less than five BattleMechs in perfect working order. While the mechwarriors were clearly less experienced than the natives, their firepower was enough to break the back of the attack and force a retreat.
Building on existing tentative approaches by more cautious Gwynedd settlements, the new arrivals began building an alliance with the open goal of uniting Gwynedd under their leadership. The combination of the technical support they could offer and the threat of their 'Mechs was a potent combination and by the late 2880s a startling large second generation from the colonists added to their power. Many cities eagerly joined the alliance, accepting the laws and customs indoctrinated in the education offered to those who could pass competitive examinations. By the end of the 29th century, the Gwynedd Administration had united the planet.
The Administration imposed a caste structure on Gwynedd. Based on the results of examinations between the ages of 10 and 16, all children were passed into a particular caste and sub-caste. While re-testing is open to adults, it's extremely rare. The three castes were formally known as Primary (Unskilled Labor), Secondary (Skilled Labor) and Tertiary (Administrator) castes, although these quickly dropped out of use, respectively becoming Workers, Technicians and Merchants. While there were many sub-castes, the most notable are the cross-caste sub-castes of the military and nobility. The military draws personnel from all three castes, although predominantly from Technicians and Merchants.
The noble caste is made up of students who qualify for the upper tiers of both the Technician and Merchant caste and Nobles count as members of both castes. While the nobility welcome any child who qualifies, the majority are members of one of forty noble houses, who proactively incorporate outsiders via adoption or marriage. Nobles can't expect lives of idle comfort, they receive preferential advancement in their careers but only possess limited privileges. The privileges of the nobility are: the right to vote (and be a candidate) in both Technician and Merchant elections to the Representative Council; the right to compete for a baronial position over a new enclave; the right to compete for any vacant titled seat held by their House; the right to be a candidate in election of a Duke.
The leadership of the Administration is made up of two Dukes, elected from the nobility to head day-to-day administration, the Ruling Council which includes all titled nobles, and the Representative Council who are elected from the Technician and Merchant Castes (Workers are politically disenfranchised). Legislative measures are passed only with the approval of both houses, which assemble for at least two months of each year. Each settlement or enclave was headed by a titled noble, originally a baron.
Using their jumpship and hiring periphery traders, Gwynedd began gradually incorporating neighbouring worlds into its Administration. By 2970, eight more worlds had been recolonised and protected (and/or oppressed) by Gwynedd's military or 'tuman'. As prosperity of the worlds increased, military production had reached the height of manufacturing copies of the Merkava Mk.VIII heavy tank, the Eagle medium aerospace fighter and the QKD-4G Quickdraw heavy BattleMech. This capacity had begun to draw attention from neighbouring realms. While the Lyran Commonwealth was content to ignore the Administration so long as it didn't engage in piracy and did allow Lyran merchants to trade there, the Tuman had to fight off both pirates and raids from Oberon and Circinus.
2970 was a landmark year for the Administration for two reasons - firstly, although they had cobbled together a few primitive jumpships in the past to supplement their fleet, this was the year they first launched a fully capable Merchant-class jumpship. While this was publically claimed to be restoration of a salvaged vessel, in fact it represented a significant increase in the ability of the Adminstration to project their forces. They also felt it was necessary to adjust their governance as barons from enclaves off Gwynedd were an increasing source of conflict within the Ruling Council. To address this, it was agreed that worlds not yet self-sufficient would elevate a single baron to the rank of viscount, giving them a planetary ruler. Self-sufficient worlds such as Gwynedd itself would elevate one baron to a Count and up to one fifth of the other Barons to become Viscounts that would represent regions. After appeals by less powerful houses, it was agreed that no one of the forty houses could have two Counts, and if a noble from a house that already claimed planetary rule managed to secure such a position they would be allowed to form their own noble house.
Between 2970 and 3017 the Gwynedd's expansion accelerated, more than doubling the size of their holdings. With a number of jumpships able to make 30 light year jumps, they even reached out to set up bases in the former Finmark province, gambling that Archon Katrina Steiner wouldn't treat this as a threat that had to be addressed. While they were correct in this, the Administration had over-stretched its resources and miscalculated another state's intentions. In 3015 Gwynedd had set up a new factory complex to build copies of the ancient Typhoon aerospace fighters and the HER-1A Hermes light Battlemech.
Irian BattleMechs Unlimited owned the design of the latter and Gwynedd hadn't licensed it from them. Unwilling to allow this on the part of an upstart periphery state, they pressured the Captain-General to enforce their rights and punish Gwynedd. While the FWLM was still recovering from their Civil War, they had recently taken the Wolf Dragoons under contract - a mercenary force who had jumpships sufficient to carry out an immensely long-range strike on Gwynedd. In 3017 a battalion of Gamma Regiment, Wolf Dragoons along with supporting forces arrived on Windhoek and launched an all out attack on Gwynedd's new Mechworks there.
The result was the most intense battle fought by Gwynedd's tuman and despite excellent independent performances they were defeated, with three of their over-sized combined arms battalions savaged and severe damage done to the MechWorks. Although the Dragoons didn't manage to carry out the secondary objective of seizing the tooling of the factory, they withdrew and Irian appeared satisfied. Sensing weakness, as news of the defeat circulated, Gwynedd came under attack by opportunists from Circinus, Oberon and even a rogue mercenary command that had been debarred by ComStar.
The Gwynedd Administration spent the next ten years struggling to hold their ground, the difficulties reflected in a regular cycling of Dukes being appointed and then replaced as they failed to address the issues involved. In 3025 with the Third Succession War winding down, Adrian Kovács was elected as Duke and successfully secured the resources to launch an offensive on Circinus. Three successive raids in 3026 knocked the Black Warriors back on their heels and secured vital supplies for Gwynedd, winning badly needed breathing space for them. Duke Kovács was confirmed in his position, unlike his fellow Duke, at the next annual Council meeting and moved his focus from military to diplomatic efforts.
Kovács visited Tharkad and Hesperus II in 3027, offering Gwynedd's expertise with fusion powered tanks in the form of the Merkava MkVIII, in putting the Lyran's new Patton and Rommel tanks into production. While this shifted Gwynedd's position into being loosely affiliated with the Federated Commonwealth, the implication gave them greater security. From here Kovács was able to negotiate with Irian on a more level playing field and made a one-off payment to them for the Hermes license. Declining an invitation to Melissa Steiner's wedding, Kovács returned home and dominated Gwynedd's politics until 3034 when he stepped down as Duke, quickly winning a titled position as Viscount of Megiddo, which became the centre of operations for Gwynedd's efforts in the region.
Although Gwynedd continued to expand on their existing bases, from the Fourth Succession War onwards the Administration didn't seek additional worlds, focused on building up the worlds they'd already claimed and trying to build up their economy in hope of supporting a military that might be able to repel attacks such as that they'd faced in 3017. One example of this was licensing the Flashman 'Mech for production in 3040. Their confidence was on the rise until 3049 when the first news arrived of the Clans. Even then, the Administration seemed more than happy to stay out of such business until an envoy from Jaime Wolf arrived to invite them to participate in the Outreach Conference. Duke Katherine van Belkum initially declined the invitation, citing that the Tuman couldn't contend with the Clans.
To this, Mackenzie Wolf gave a simple two word message from his father that left the Duke little choice but to participate:
"Clan Mongoose."
