OBT Forum

To me, he looks like a Roman Senator.

Quote from: Takiro on January 09, 2012, 06:27:16 AM

Yup trade in your 5 or 6 Houses for 20 or so states but that isn't all. The Cameron society that gave us Neo-Feudal Lords, Mechwarriors, their honor code, and a limited warfare setting is likely a goner. The universe you get maybe far more "realistic" than the "fantastic" BattleTech we all love.

The large states had formed in response to James McKenna's campaigns, not the rise of the Camerons, so I think the 10 states would have still formed in similar ways.

Of the ten large states in the 26th century, only the Capellan Confederation, Outworlds Alliance and Magistracy of Canopus were created after the proposed election. Given that the Capellan Confederation formed in response to being caught between the expansionist FWL and FS (particularly the latter) it's likely that the Capellans will unite more or less per canon although if House Nellas is more aggressive than House Cameron it's possible that the Ducy of Liao might have been conquered by the Terran Hegemony, which would throw quite a wrench into that chain of events.

The OWA and MoC would almost certainly be butterflied depending on the Nellas actions through the Age of War although it's entirely plausible that similar states might emerge.

One chain of events is:-
The Nellas succeed in annexing the Duchy of Liao; leading to Franco Liao not attending the St Andre Conference; leading to the Capellan Confederation; leading to Reynard Davion successfully seizing control of Capella and by extension the Capellan Commonality. A scramble by the TH, FWL and FS to carve up the Capellan sector could readily kick off the Age of War thirty years earlier.
Other consequences of this would be that it might well avert the first clash between the Taurians and the Federated Suns (which was inadvertantly sparked by the Capellan Confederation) and avert the entire Magistracy of Canopus since the campaigns that disenchanted Kossandra Centrella would take place under different leadership. Finally, with the Terrans looking 'south' that might grant more freedom of action to the Lyrans and Draconians. There's no knowing what that could cause.

Rereading the SLSB, the description of Nellas's character always struck as the post-Alliance's version of a professional politician. Keep in mind the definition of a "professional politician" by Hegemony standards is nothing compared to that in the Alliance or even before. So Nellas was probably no fiend by our measure, but certainly a fellow who knew how to "play the game."

I always likened this election to Nixon/Kennedy. With Nixon actually winning.

Regardless, if Nellas had been elected (and I like drakenis's outline) the future of the Hegemony's scientific lead might have been fundamentally different. With Nellas at the helm a closer parity between the Inner Sphere's states is likely to occur. I still believe the Hegemony would have an edge (population for one, and infrastructure - i.e. Terra, another), but certainly not the 30-50 gap.

 

Why would House Nellas lead to a less stronger/advanced Terran Hegemony?

Maybe a less powerful, centralized government leads to it?

On the exact oposite note why would it lead to a strong/more advanced one? I don't know which one it would be just wondering people's justifications.

I get the sense that Nellas was much more "conservative" than Cameron. Perhaps he may have followed McKenna's Campaigns of Persuasion with his own adventures to expand Hegemony authority. Not to the extent of the early McKenna regime but more of a carrot and stick join us approach that incorporated diplomacy as well as military conquest to this endeavor.

If he had worked along the political lines of McKenna, I think the Star League would have been a lot more interesting than the whitewashed version the Camerons cranked out in the initial matter. (To be fair, later material has worked hard to show how shallow that perceptions is, which is a good thing). McKenna wasn't exactly the nicest fellow.

Succession Wars but without any Succession