KOSSUTH, Noah Elster. Second Duke of Fugue. K.B., C.S. Born 099-1020 on Orichalc/Massilia, second issue of Count Solon Kossuth of Orichalc and Lady Nicola Aelia SEROVA of Keum. Inherited the Duchy of Fugue in 1074, abdicated 1096. Succeeded by Duke WEEBAS of Adni.
Married (on 094-1061) Dame Camilla Kristina RIGBY of Beta. By this marriage he had issue:
- Joanna Rigby KOSSUTH (b. 261-1062)
- Lydia Rigby KOSSUTH (b. 261-1062)
- Marcus Rigby KOSSUTH (b. 294-1071)
- Valens Rigby KOSSUTH (b. 159-1072)
from Urquhart’s Peerage, 232nd Edition (Capital: 1102).
The House Kossuth Coat of Arms.
Noah Elster Kossuth, the former Duke of Fugue, embodied the anxieties over Imperial corruption in Magyar sector. The Kossuths were an old noble family of Solomani descent, originating in Massilia sector and enjoying numerous ties to the Ling-Standard Products megacorporation. Duke Noah’s paternal grandfather, Lyman Kossuth (946–1031), was confirmed by the Emperor Styryx in 977 as the Count of Orichalc (Massilia 0539 B78A974-E). While Lyman was a quiet, unassuming man his wife Juliana, descended from a lesser branch of the Hortalez family, proved far more ambitious. A natural schemer with many connections within the Massilia nobility, she lobbied incessantly for her husband to be promoted to a subsector duke, but to no avail.
Their son Solon Kossuth (b. 987) inherited his mother’s ambition. He was confirmed as the new Count of Orichalc following his father’s death in 1031, but he and Juliana continued to agitate for a dukedom. In 1038 the Emperor Paulo III awarded Solon with the newly-revived Duchy of Fugue, located in New Mars subsector of Magyar—some 80 parsecs distant. Fugue was a war-ravaged duchy captured in the Solomani Rim War, with its capital at Wicker (Magyar 2728 A541843-C): a poor, frozen hellworld on the very edge of the Imperium. The promotion was considered a humiliating slight, perhaps compelling the Lady Juliana to commit suicide in 1039.
Solon was a cold and resentful man who turned his energies toward bringing his new duchy fully under Imperial control. Many worlds of Fugue were still under martial law, and several harbored ongoing insurgencies. In addition, piracy had grown endemic to the subsector. The Duke quickly raised a brigade of huscarles, the 1st Fugue Grenadiers, which included an elite battalion of Llyrian marines that he had brought with him from Orichalc. Calculating and meticulous, Duke Solon attempted to play up his Solomani heritage as he cultivated allies and methodically crushed opposition. The Duke tirelessly promoted the interests of Ling-Standard Products in the subsector, fully supporting aggressive legal actions to regain LSP property that had been seized centuries earlier by the Solomani Party.
The Duke had five children: Solon (b. 1018) and Noah (b. 1020) with his first wife Nicola, and Kenan (b. 1029), Joshua (b. 1033), and Susanah (b. 1035) with his second wife Marava. The younger Solon was greatly favored by his father: handsome, athletic, and intelligent, he received an Imperial Navy commission with the Daibei sector fleet and was rumored to be a potential candidate for admiralship. But the younger Solon was killed in a training accident in 1047, leaving Noah Kossuth as the next in line.
Duke Solon, who enjoyed pitting his children against each other, regarded the impulsive and entitled Noah with contempt. Noah was considered cruel, prone to violent outbursts, and often fell afoul of the law. Duke Solon openly toyed with naming another one of his other children as his heir, but he died suddenly in 1074 before he could make good on this threat and Emperor Strephon confirmed Noah as the new Duke of Fugue.
Duke Noah soon revealed himself to be both erratic and inept. He saw his office as little more than a means to enrich himself and his family. Kossuths were appointed to several corporate boards and obtained positions in planetary and Imperial government. The duke’s eldest child and heir Joanna (b. 1062) acted as his seneschal, while his sons Marcus (b. 1071) and Valens (b. 1072) were drawn to a series of disreputable—and usually unsuccessful—business ventures. Marcus was murdered under mysterious circumstances in 1093, reportedly by members of the Jarslavi Cartel. Meanwhile the Duke’s brothers Kenan and Joshua were rumored to have dabbled in radical Solomani politics.
In 1094 several members of the Kossuth family were caught up in a corruption investigation conducted by the Imperial Ministry of Justice and the Kline Security Directorate. The resulting scandal, which quickly became known as The Union Affair, involved a complicated scheme to move the Xboat link from Beta (Magyar 3128 C576ADA-9) to Union (Magyar 2927 C974AA8-A). Instead of upgrading the Beta starport to Class A in 1110 as planned, LSP would have received a lucrative contract to construct a new starport and associated shipyards at Union. Justifying such a change required falsifying IISS trade data as well as Imperial Starport Authority reports. Millions of credits changed hands, and many ended up in accounts controlled by various members of the Kossuth family.
Although unsightly, bribery is not actually illegal under Imperial law—but falsifying Imperial documents certainly is. What’s more, the investigation uncovered even more nefarious activities: the Duke’s brothers Kenan and Joshua had been selling TL15 meson gun designs obtained from LSP to agents of the Solomani Confederation. Kenan and several LSP executives were arrested on charges of treason, while Joshua fled to Aldebaran. The investigation also ensnared the hapless Baron of Dirramu, who had married Duke Noah’s daughter Lydia (b. 1062).
The activities at the heart of the Ministry investigation were certainly unseemly, but the associated public uproar was vastly worse: the Union Affair seemed to confirm the very worst suspicions about the Imperial nobility and prompted anti-Imperial riots on Union, Beagle, and Beta.
A more savvy noble might have been able to recover from the Union Affair, but Duke Noah made the situation worse by failing to accept any responsibility. He also refused to acknowledge a summons from his superior, Sector Duke Shulgi Inaari of the Solomani Rim. For many months Duke Noah blamed his troubles on Solomani Confederation agents, and in defiance even mobilized the Unified Army of Fugue to put down the riots and “defend the subsector against foreign incursions.”
The Duke only changed course with the arrival of Duchess Shanika Kerana Adelbert of Walpurgis. She entered the Wicker system at the head of the 413th BatRon and accompanied by several companies of Imperial Marines from the 1,670th Line Regiment. In the face of the inevitable, Duke Noah stood his forces down and surrendered to the Duchess.
She carried a simple offer: Duke Noah could stand trial at Eleusis (Solomani Rim 2109) for various high crimes, including perjury of his fealty oath, abuse of office, dereliction of duty, moral turpitude, and conduct unbecoming an Imperial noble. Even if acquitted the Kossuth family would be ruined. But if found guilty Duke Shulgi would recommend the death penalty as well as revocation of the title of Fugue along with all other noble titles associated with Noah’s children and siblings.
Alternatively, Duke Noah could plead guilty and abdicate his title. And in exchange Duke Shulgi would issue a pardon and would not pursue further action against the Kossuth family. In 1096 Noah Kossuth abdicated and fled Wicker; his current whereabouts are unknown. Emperor Strephon moved quickly to install the Bwap Duke Weebas, a reformer who is expected to clean up the subsector.
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