History of the Free Worlds League
House Marik and the Succession Wars
Albert Marik, hero of the Second and Third Andurien wars, brought the Free Worlds League into the Star League in 2556. By 2575, the infant Star League had launched a massive assault on the Periphery, determined to unite all humanity at any cost. Albert Marik's daughter Marion served ably as Captain-General throughout the Reunification War, conquering the Magistracy of Canopus in a long and hard-fought campaign. The conquest of Canopus was the last external conflict fought by Free Worlds armies until the end of the first Star League era.
For better than the next century and a half, Marion's successors would contend with occasionally bitter internal troubles. Despite an early recession in the 2620s and the outbreak of a nasty civil war in the first half of the twenty-eighth century, the Free Worlds League generally prospered during the time of the first Star League. The realm's greatest trials did not begin until the final two decades of the twenty-eighth century, when the Star League's collapse and the brutal wars that followed it shattered the Free Worlds' economic base. The Free Worlds League managed to hold on to most of its territory throughout the long years of the Succession Wars, but internal quarrels frequently divided its military and kept it from seriously damaging its rivals. In more than one instance, the Free Worlds' fault lines allowed rival nations to cut deep into League territory. Regaining this lost ground cost the Free Worlds League incalculable amounts of money and blood that came near to mortgaging its future.