First Empire

Idara Engelbach of Lekeis attempted to stir up support for a galaxy-wide labor strike on 1 Jan TE 197, in protest of Maj Thovold's rule. On the eleventh day of the strike, Thovold sent all leaders (about 30,000) to the Tarantula Nebula as prisoners. Strike ended.

Historians view the Engelbach Rebellion as evidence that Thovold's power was still largely dependent on the Imperial Navy. However, it set the precedent that the Throne was more powerful than the Idara. The Imperial Council learned quickly . . . and resented.

Thovold's reign was a peaceful and successful time for the Empire. The economy boomed, as the number of inhabited planets nearly doubled. She worked tirelessly to curb the power of the Idara and to integrate the separate parts of the Empire. A wholesale reorganization of the Civil Service (190-196) was quite successful in breaking down regionalism and separatist feelings.

On Empire Day 187, with the Imperial Council in recess, Maj Thovold placed Navy garrisons around the homeworlds of the major opposition Idara, then appeared on a galaxy-wide broadcast to address the Empire. Her stirring speech, which lasted a bare fifteen minutes, dwelt on the dangers of fractionalism and the benefits of unity, and she finished:

    "If we continue along our current path, our great Empire will splinter into eight or more little Empires. We will become hounds squabbling over our meat; jackals, fighting over a pitiful corpse.

As representative from Rockwell Interstellar.

Appointed to fill vacant Geled seat on Imperial Council