Principality of Rasalhague

The Principality of Rasalhague was a minor interstellar nation formed in the mid-2200s. A small and peaceful state, it was attacked in 2330 by Shiro Kurita's Draconis Combine and eventually subdued. The Principality remained a vassal state for the next century and a half before it was formally united with the Combine, becoming the Rasalhague Military District. Though brutally repressed Rasalhagian nationalism never died out, and in 3034 the Principality found new life as the Free Rasalhague Republic.

The Rasalhague Consortium
The beginnings of the Free Rasalhague Republic lay in the chaos of the Second Soviet Civil War. Located close to or on the borders with the Soviet Union, the Federal Democratic Republics of Finland, Norway and Sweden found themselves having to deal with more than a million refugees from the war, and once the war ended, the three Scandinavian countries faced an additional burden in the form of payments to help rebuild the various Soviet states. It was the mid-Twenty-third century before the War Damage Tax payments finally ended, at which point many of the residents of the three nations who had stoically dealt with the rebuilding chose to emigrate. Interstellar travel was still new enough that only the adventurous would risk it - or the desperate - but many Scandinavians chose to risk it, choosing a world far from Terra and the oppressive bureaucracy that went with it.

Within sixty years of the first colonists leaving Scandinavia the new colony world of Rasalhague had been both colonized and heavily populated, along with its eight closest neighbors. This led to the formation of the Rasalhague Consortium in the late Twenty-third century, as the population of the nine worlds created a joint government to oversee the future development of their worlds. The highest government official was the Prime Minister and the government included all of the valdherren or "world lords" and members of powerful families. The Consortium evolved as it came into contact with other states nearby, becoming the Principality of Rasalhague, headed by an Elected Prince. The Principality deliberately maintained an isolationist and neutral stance in interstellar politics during its independent existence, the isolationism being a natural result of the Principality's people being more interested in developing their own worlds in ways that were the least damaging to their natural environment.

Conquest
After harassing the Principality for an indeterminate period of time, in 2330 Coordinator Shiro Kurita decided to expand the Draconis Combine's borders and chose Rasalhague as his next target. His brother Urizen Kurita began the assault that year, and initially the Combine campaign resulted in the conquest of several Rasalhagian worlds. In 2334, however, a Rasalhagian victory on New Bergen ended with the seizure of a massive Combine stockpile of arms and equipment; this windfall ensured that resistance to the Combine would continue for another three decades. In 2367 Tenno Kurita finally proclaimed the Rasalhagians defeated and withdrew most of the Combine forces in the region.

The Dragon's Vassal
Though officially an independent state, the Principality spent the next century and a half as a subjugated ally of the Combine. Military governors, usually drawn directly from House Kurita, ruled over the Principality from the Governor's Palace on Rasalhague. The Rasalhagians did not tamely submit to the Combine, however. In December 2375 native terrorists killed the governor Vladimir Kurita, almost his entire family, and Tenno's sister Omi Kurita. When Vladimir's surviving son Jason assumed the governorship, the vengeful ruler ordered random executions to avenge his family. Jason's actions heralded many years of brutal repression against the Rasalhagian people.

In 2421, when Nihongi Von Rohrs seized power in a coup, Jason Kurita wholeheartedly supported the usurper against the legitimate branch of House Kurita. Jason's actions finally convinced his illegitimate nephew, Daniel Sorenson, to raise a popular rebellion against his uncle, deposing and killing him. As the son of their former High Chieftain, Daniel received the support of Rasalhague's population and he pledged to end all oppression of his subjects. Until his death in 2487, Daniel spent his reign in opposition to the Von Rohrs dynasty, but in other respects was completely loyal to the Combine.

Unification with the Combine
Rasalhague continued balancing opposition to the Von Rohrs family with its loyalty to the Combine after Daniel Sorenson's death. His grandson Blaine would go on to play a key role in restoring the legitimate branch of the Kurita family to power.

In 2494 a young envoy from the Combine, Martin McAllister, met Blaine and his daughter Illiyana on Rasalhague, and became smitten with the latter. After Martin and Illiyana were married, the two men began preparing to both unify Rasalhague with the Combine and end the von Rohrs' reign of terror. Throughout the 2500s, Martin, who had moved to New Samarkand, passed on information to Blaine and laid the groundwork for a coup. Meanwhile Rasalhagian troops were prepared for a diversionary attack into the Combine. Finally, in 2510, the Rasalhagians struck across the Combine's border; the subsequent diversion of units from the Combine's interior weakened the defenses at the Von Rohrs' palace. Martin and his troops then stormed the palace and executed the entire Von Rohrs family, after which Martin publicly revealed his genetic credentials as a legitimate member of House Kurita.

On Pesht the new Coordinator met with Blaine Sorenson and in a grand ceremony the two nations were formally united, ending Rasalhague's history as an independent power for over five centuries.

Politics
Each of the Principality's worlds was organized into a loose structure of clan-oriented families, from which a single varldherre was elected annually to rule the planet. In turn, these "world-lords" nominally owed allegiance to the Prince of Rasalhague, who was elected every ten years. In reality each clan was practically autonomous, and the Prince held little real authority. In interstellar affairs, the isolationist Principality was famously "conspicuous by its absence."

After its conquest by the Draconis Combine, the Principality was ruled by a military governor appointed by (and usually drawn from) House Kurita. Nonetheless, the Principality was still considered an independent state in political affairs; its governor, Adam Kurita, signed the Ares Conventions in 2412 on behalf of Rasalhague. Rasalhague also maintained its own army and was strong enough to serve as a haven for exiles from House Kurita during the Von Rohrs family's reign.