Desler family

Your lineage truly is blessed!

—Lutz Kazette, to Ranhardt Desler^[1]

The Desler family is a Garmillan aristocratic family, once considered the most powerful throughout the entire planet. Initially the rulers of a mere territory, they became the grand ducal family of the Garmillas Grand Duchy and remained prominent even after the abolishment of the aristocracy. The family would be effectively wiped out over the years by various tragedies, but to this day, its influence continues through its last living member, Eternal Supreme Leader Abelt Desler. Due to Abelt's highly divisive actions as the Supreme Leader of the Greater Garmillan Empire, the Desler family is itself a very divisive topic between Garmillans, with some considering their lineage blessed^[1] while others deem it cursed.^[2]

History

Origins, rise to power and crisis

The Desler family was one of the most influential aristocratic families on planet Garmillas, where they were the rulers of a territory named Deusura.^[3] In 2096, seeing how the planet was in constant turmoil due to the fighting between the many aristocrats and royals squabbling for power, the then-head of the Desler family stood up for unification.^[4]

The Unification War would last for almost a century, only ending in 2170 with the founding of the Garmillas Grand Duchy at the hands of Grand Duke Erich Vam Desler.^[4] During the conflict, the young Mathius Desler, nephew and heir apparent to Erich, gained much popularity and raised to prominence within Garmillas' political landscape, becoming a member of his uncle's entourage and earning the nickname "Hero of the Unification War".^[5] At the height of their power, the Deslers were struck by tragedy. In 2174,^[4] Grand Duke Erich discovered that planet Garmillas was approaching a cataclysmic planetary collapse and would cease to exist in no more than 100 years. He revealed this fact to his inner circle, but before any concrete plans could be set in motion, in 2180,^[4] Mathius would lose his life in battle during one of the many civil conflicts within the unstable Grand Duchy. His death caused his mother, Adelcia, to lose her mind due to her heartbreak, and would only further the instability within the country. The nobility didn't hold Mathius's brother, Abelt, in high regard, and with Grand Duke Erich dying in 2184,^[4] another civil war would erupt over the rights of succession, tearing the Grand Duchy apart.^[6]

The Eternal Leader's reign

Being the last living scion of his family, Abelt stepped up for unification at the head of his faction.^[4][6][7] In 2188,^[4] he completely reconquered Garmillas and declared the Greater Garmillan Empire with himself as Eternal Supreme Leader. He abolished the aristocracy^[8][9] and began to arrange plans to find a new home planet for his people.^[6]

During the reign of his uncle, some aristocrats had begun building Baleras Tower, the new seat of power of the Desler family and made it into a superweapon^[10] directed at planet Iscandar. They planned to blackmail Garmillas's twin planet into gifting them a Cosmo Reverse System, an environmental control device they hoped could save their planet. Abelt disagreed with their plans. Not only did he not believe the device could work on a world naturally decaying like Garmillas, but he also had feelings for the Queen of Iscandar and refused to threaten her. Instead, he declared the Desler Doctrine, a military and political philosophy that called for Garmillan expansionism. Abelt hoped that by expanding his empire's borders, they would eventually encounter a world that could meet the criteria needed for long-term garmillan emigration.^[6][9]

Despite his initial noble ideals, Abelt grew complacent and capricious,^[11] he established the Imperial Guard, a paramilitary organization that acted as his secret police, crushing any opposition by increasingly brutal means.^[12][13] Seeing her brother-in-law had turned into a petty dictator, Elsa Desler, Mathius's widow, tried to assassinate him. Her attempt failed, but Abelt did not have the heart to execute the last living members of his family, so he instead decided to exile her and her son Ranhardt while maintaining the facade of having killed them. Adelcia would die in poverty years later.^[6]

In 2199, Abelt was dethroned in a battle above the imperial capital, Baleras, fought between his forces and the Earthling battleship Yamato. In a moment of complete madness, amid the fighting, the Supreme Leader escaped from Baleras Tower to a space station in orbit of the planet and tried to drop a section of said structure on the city below.^[14] This was done to destroy both the tower and the aristocrats hostile to him who still hid themselves within the top echelons of his military. However, it would've cost millions of lives. Years later, Abelt himself would still question what exactly he was trying to achieve at the time.^[9]

Whatever the case, the destruction of his space station would lead many to believe Abelt to have been killed action. A new provisional government replaced the fallen Desler administration and began a democratization process throughout the empire.^[15][16]

After Abelt's fall

Following the end of his regime, Abelt tried to attack the Yamato with his last remaining loyalists, but he was defeated in battle and was left drifting through the corridors of a subspace gate.^[15] He was rescued by the Gatlantis Empire and was granted a fleet. He began serving the Gatlantean Emperor, Zworder, while secretly establishing contact with those within the empire still loyal to him.^[17][18]

In the meantime, the thought-to-be-dead Hydom Gimleh, former leader of the now-dissolved Imperial Guard, came to lead the Desler Regime Revivalists, a group of political criminals aiming to restore the dictatorship. At that time, Ranhardt Desler came to serve within the ranks of the Garmillas Security Intelligence Agency under the alias Klaus Keyman. Knowing his heritage, the Security Intelligence Agency high-ranking member Loren Burrell ordered Keyman to infiltrate the revivalists and gain their trust. He was to wait for their mysterious leader to reveal himself to arrest him.^[9] To keep up his alibi, in December 2202,^[19] Keyman boarded Yamato as it undertook a new journey to the planet Terezart.^[20] His mission was to sabotage the battleship from within, to take revenge for its role in dethroning Abelt years prior.^[1][2]

All pieces would come together on Terezart in March of 2203,^[19] where Abelt, now free of Gatlantis's influence and heading a massive fleet made out of his Garmillan supporters, imposed a blockade. Keyman caught the occasion, sabotaged Yamato's engine, and met up with his uncle. Having been informed of Abelt's reappearance, Gimleh exposed himself by contacting his flagship directly, making Keyman aware of both his location and identity as the Revivalist Faction's leader. He immediately gave Burrell this information and liberated Yamato from the blockade.^[6][9]

With Gimleh now in the custody of the Garmillas National Security Police, Abelt's chance to retake his throne on Garmillas disappeared, and he was forced to once again work with Gatlantis under the promise they would help him reinstate his authority over his lost empire.^[21] On June 1,^[19] Yamato faced off against Desler's forces in the inner solar system. While boarding his flagship, Keyman came face to face with his uncle once again, but the two were interrupted by the Gatlantean Mil, an observer for Emperor Zworder and his future heir. He promised that if Keyman killed Abelt, he would make sure Gatlantis granted the Garmillans a new home planet identical to the one they were about to lose and that both the Earth and Garmillas would be spared from Gatlantis's destructive campaigns for the next ten millennia.^[22] However, under suggestion from one of Yamato's officers who had faced Zworder in the past, Keyman decided not to kill his uncle. Mil was faced with the reality of human emotions and tried to convince the Great Emperor to stop his path of destruction, but in the middle of his appeal to Zworder, he was shot to death by a Garmillan rescue team that had come to save Abelt.^[23]

Now fully aware of the futility of his past actions, Abelt chose to ally himself with Yamato in the last battle against Gatlantis.^[24] During the attack, Keyman was killed in action.^[25] In the following months, Abelt's forces made peace with the new government and revealed to them the truth about Garmillas's incoming demise.^[26][27] For the next two years, the two factions worked together to find a new planet for their people to migrate to, eventually discovering planet Galman , the lost ancestral homeworld of the Garmillas species.^[28] Desler's actions during this time made him regain much of the popularity he had lost during the latter parts of his reign.^[29] He also gained the respect of many Galmans for liberating their planet from the oppression of the Bolar Federation in 2205.^[28] Following the end of the Iscandar Incident and the premature destruction of Garmillas,^[30] Abelt is now leading the surviving Garmillas to their new home planet. His future within the new political landscape that will be born on Galman remains to be seen.^[31]

Named Desler family members

• Erich Vam Desler: Grand Duke of the Garmillas Grand Duchy.
• Abelt Desler: Eternal Supreme Leader of the Greater Garmillan Empire and last living Desler family member.
• Mathius Desler: Erich's nephew and heir apparent to the Grand Duchy.
• Elsa Desler: Mathius's wife.
• Ranhardt Desler: Mathius and Elsa's son, also known by his alias Klaus Keyman.
• Adelcia Desler: Ranhardt and Abelt's mother.

References

Japanese language information

デスラー家 Desurā-ka