The region of space known as the Chaos March is held tight in the grip of unrest, squabbled over by powers large and small because of its strategic and emotional importance to many parties. The region was part of the Capellan Confederation for centuries, and much of it fell to Prince Hanse Davion's conquering troops during the Fourth Succession War. A small section of worlds from Hsien to Keid, cut off from the rest of the Capellan Confederation early in the war, briefly formed the Tikonov Free Republic under Pavel Ridzik, the Capellan Confederation's former top military commander. Upon Ridzik's assassination near the end of the war, the Tikonov worlds voted themselves into the Federated Commonwealth. For the past thirty-odd years, this section of the Capellan Confederation has existed as the Federated Commonwealth's Sarna March. Its location in the Terran corridor made the Sarna March the bridge between the two halves of the Federated Commonwealth.
Anti-Davion feeling in the conquered Sarna March ran high for many years, tempered only by the benevolent government of Archon Melissa Steiner-Davion, co-ruler of the Federated Commonwealth. Archon Melissa brought a certain amount of economic stability to the poor and troubled region and in the process won personal popularity among Sarna's people. That tenuous acceptance of Federated Commonwealth rule ended with Melissa's death in 3054. The Archon's assassination, coupled with the ongoing movement of premier military units stationed in the Sarna March to the Clan front that began in 3050 allowed the agents provocateurs planted in the region by Cancellors Romano and Sun-Tzu Liao to more successfully stir up trouble. They did not, however, manage to loosen the Federated Commonwealth's grip on the Sarna March.
Sun-Tzu Liao had dreamed for years of reclaiming his nation's lost territory, but lacked the military strength to take on the Federated Commonwealth alone. He had hoped for the support of his prospective father-in-law, Captain-General Thomas Marik of the Free Worlds League, but Thomas proved unwilling to back the military adventurism of an ally he distrusted. In addition, Thomas refused to move against the Federated Commonwealth as long as his son and heir, Joshua Marik, remained in that realm undergoing treatment for leukemia. Joshua's death, and the decision by Archon Prince Victor Steiner-Davion to substitute a double for him, gave Sun-Tzu his long-awaited pretext for invasion in mid-3057. The Captain-General, determined to punish Victor for concealing Joshua's death, joined Sun-Tzu Liao in a swift and deadly attack on the Sarna March. While Marik's own forces took back former Free Worlds League planets, Capellan troops and Marik-backed mercenaries assaulted former Capellan worlds, often aided by Liao agents who had waited decades for this chance. Contested by three Successor States, the Sarna March quickly collapsed into chaos.
The invasion stalled, however, when Thomas Marik chose to settle for a separate peace with Katrina Steiner-Davion, Archon of the newly formed Lyran Alliance. Having retaken his former possessions, Thomas was perfectly willing to end his conquest of Lyran territory, especially since Katrina had declared her worlds neutral. Without Thomas's backing, Sun-Tzu could not finish the war of conquest he had started. The disrupted Sarna March became a no man's land of conflicting allegiances, where no Successor State held undisputed sway. Thomas Marik's forces consolidated their hold on the worlds they had retaken; Capellan troops took other planets, and the Federated Commonwealth held on to or retook still others, including some claimed by the Lyran Alliance. On many planets that Sun-Tzu's troops had failed to take by force, Liaoist rebels aided by Capellan agents overthrew Federated Commonwealth governments and installed pro-Capellan regimes. On a great number of worlds, assorted political factions seized their chance to make names for themselves and joined the battle for control. Many of these worlds, no longer ruled by any Great House, have banded into alliances of their own in order to keep their new independence. Only the Draconis Combine has largely stayed out of the fray, as its Coordinator focuses all his efforts on finding ways to defeat the Clans when the Truce of Tukayyid expires.
Throughout the so-called Chaos March, only one thing is constant: the swift changes of power and allegiance as countless would-be leaders battle each other for supremacy.
The military and political upheaval created by the Marik-Liao invasion of the Sarna March has caused serious economic upheaval as well. Where once the Federated Commonwealth's kroner was accepted throughout the region and sometimes even preferred over C-bills, many worlds throughout the Chaos March no longer acknowledge its value, terming it "as worthless as the government that prints it." Even the presence of strong pro-FedCom elements on various March worlds has done little to make the common people accept the kroner as easily as they once did. Because neither the FWL nor the Capellan Confederation has kept a strong grip on any of the contested planets and systems in the March, the validity of their currencies is also often in doubt. Even the venerable C-bill has taken a beating in the Chaos March because of the ongoing warfare between ComStar and the Word of Blake. Adding to the problem, many of the HPG stations on March worlds that were once under ComStar's control have either fallen to the Word of Blake or are still in dispute between the two factions. HPG stations on contested planets make few, if any, offworld transmissions, deepening the isolation of those worlds. This isolation makes unfettered trade backed by a universally accepted currency virtually impossible.
To deal with their economic troubles, various leaders have begin issuing their own currencies against whatever vital resources they possess, thereby giving their money some offworld credibility. However, many of the powers in the March are not completely stable, and so their currencies are relatively weak. Most leaders also accept House scrip or C-bills, but at ruinous exchange rates. Some of the March's new governments have chosen to back one of the major House currencies; the Federated Commonwealth is the biggest beneficiary of this approach, because it binds the worlds of the Chaos March to the Commonwealth economically.
Some rulers have opted for a barter system, ignoring the chaos of currency entirely. Though this option makes for a certain economic stability and brings in the merchants, it can lead to sometimes violent altercations with those who feel they are not getting a fair deal. Most of the traders operating in the March prefer the barter system despite this risk, as it gives them tangible assets and full cargo holds.
Those realms that can afford to do so conduct business using precious metals. A few realms have begun minting gold and platinum coins whose value is stable enough that they can be used in other states. A few smaller powers have resorted to other precious items as a measure of currency. The newly formed state of Moetonla, which comprises most of the northern continent on the planet Sheratan, issues half-liter containers of pure water as currency, though Moetonla's ruler has promised to replace the water bottles with a smaller and less bulky form of currency once the situation on Sheratan stabilizes.
Because of the wildly varying economies on each word and the instability of most currencies in the Chaos March, prices for items like food, clothing, and shelter fluctuate dramatically. People can expect to pay different amounts of money for items on any world they visit in the Chaos March, even on the more stable planets. For example, on the world of Epsilon Eridani, a simple pistol can cost anywhere from 20 to 400 C-bills, though this particular fluctuation is due to cutthroat competition between merchants rather than a poor economy.
The numerous worlds in the Chaos March will remain so for at least a year. Though power struggles on and around them will continue, no major force will emerge with any substantial power base on any independent world except for the planet Hall. Because so many individual powers and factions are fighting on the various worlds of the Chaos March, it is virtually impossible to categorize them all. Employment with most of these forces is risky at best; many of these factions are poor and have limited resources, and most regard mercenaries with contempt and suspicion despite the fact that they need hired troops to win a battle or a war. Mercenary units will find dealing with these powers as varied and unpredictable as the universe itself.
