Dr. Hans Walden was the dictator of the Lave system from 3174 to 3265. Walden seized power amid the dissolution of the Galactic Cooperative, of which Lave was the capital. GalCop's economic destabilisation in the decades following the First Thargoid War created fertile ground among the population for Walden's brand of authoritarianism, but while Walden restored stability to the system, prosperity did not materialise. He circumvented this by using propaganda to further the illusion of contentment, presenting Lave as a progressive culture with an enlightened leadership that was remodeling itself as an independent power in the vacuum left by the corrupt and self-serving GalCop. This was reinforced every August 10th with "Walden Day", a holiday in which Lave's elite competed against each other in public demonstrations of fealty and affection for Dr. Walden. Slowly, the people of Lave realized that this was false propaganda, but those who spoke up were dealt with by Walden's regime.[1][2]
Walden ruled Lave for 91 years, and it is believed that he extended his life through genetic manipulation. His reign of terror was cut short in 3265, when he was assassinated during a live holovid broadcast. This sparked a revolution as Lave's population rose up against the remnants of the Walden regime. Fighting persisted for years afterward. By the 34th century, rumours persisted that Walden had survived his apparent demise or had been cloned and was residing in a secret colony on the planet Lave 2.[3][2]
Timeline[]
10 AUG 3301
- Today marks 36 years since the last 'Walden Day', the annual celebration of the great leader across all four continents of Lave, where prefects, primes and factors would try to outdo each other with how much love they could show the planet's ruler. Lave in 3301 does its best to forget the past. Years of relative prosperity and capitalist competition between the LFO, the Defence Party and the Workers of Lave reflect the different social classes of the planet's regions. Each formed out of different parts of the old regime and its adversaries. But the question remains, what actually happened to Doctor Hans Walden? The holovid footage of his execution has been replayed countless times on hundreds of programmes. Some preach conspiracy, others see tampering, but most agree that Walden's clone research, journals, and the numerous patents sold to Imperial contractors bearing his name point to his having experimented with the duplication of his own genetics. Since 3265, the government has released no evidence of hidden scientific laboratories on Lave or any of the plotted asteroids in the system. Rumours of a secret colony on Lave II have never been confirmed, either, but the rumours keep resurfacing. Yes, Walden was executed during a live vidscreen broadcast...but was that the only Walden? Could there be others, lurking out there on a nearby planet, waiting to return? If there are any clones left, forgetting the past won't help us deal with the future.[2]
Notes[]
- The events surrounding Hans Walden's death are featured in the novel Elite: Lave Revolution.