Empire of Hidalgo
| Empire of Hidalgo | |
|---|---|
| State Profile | |
| Controlled system(s): | 0 |
| Government | |
| Head of State | God-King Antonio Hidalgo[1] |
| Military | |
| Army | Brigada de Dios[1] |
The Empire of Hidalgo was one of the Pentagon Powers, a collection of warlord states living in the ruins of the Star League in Exile. The Empire occupied a portion of Circe's northern habitable zone.[1]
History
The Glorious Imperial Dominion of the God-King Hidalgo more commonly referred to as the Empire of Hidalgo, was one of the most brutal regimes on Circe. The Empire was the creation of Antonio Hidalgo, a devout but mentally unstable veteran of the Amaris Civil War. Prior to the Pentagon Civil War, Hidalgo was a preacher whose apocalyptic rhetoric and sizable following were already of concern to Star League in Exile, but Generals Alexander Kerensky and Aaron DeChavilier were too occupied with other crises to deal with him. When the League-in-Exile collapsed, Hidalgo's followers were free to establish a theocratic empire around him and begin purging those who didn't adhere to their faith. While a lack of records makes it impossible to know the precise total, it's likely that these purges killed between 20 and 40 thousand people over the next 20 years.[1]
The Empire received advanced warning that Clans Snow Raven and Wolverine would be invading them due to the amount of time it took to subdue the nearby Sand Confederacy, the first target of Operation Klondike on Circe. The time the Brigada de Dios, the Empire's military, had to prepare made the Empire difficult to conquer. The Ravens were unwilling to risk damage to civilian infrastructure, so the Brigada, which had dug in among the Empire's settlements, had to be carefully and tediously reduced. The Brigada took advantage of the Ravens' moral scruples by using civilians as human shields and suicide bombers.[1]
Nicholas Kerensky considered the Ravens progress unacceptably slow, and considered reinforcing them with another clan, but this became unnecessary when the Ravens received unexpected aid from the Kerensky Dominion. This gave the Ravens the advantage in manpower and material necessary to bring the campaign to a speedier conclusion. As the Ravens stormed his capital, Hidalgo ordered his troops to fight to the death. His capture and suicide effectively ended the Empire.[1]