Editing Leonard Kurita

{{Update Needed|[[Historical: Reunification War]]|[[Über dem Gesetz]]}}
{{InfoBoxCharacter
| image               = 
| name                = Leonard Kurita
| birthdate           = [[2550]]<ref name=HKDCLS>''House Kurita (The Draconis Combine)'', foldout: "The Draconis Combine's Line of Succession and Partial Kurita Family Tree"</ref>
| died                = March [[2605]]<ref name=HHK-33>''Handbook: House Kurita'', p. 33</ref><ref name=HKDCLS/>
| othernames          = 
| affiliation         = [[House Kurita]]
| rank                = 
| title               = 
| position            = [[Coordinator of Worlds]]
| profession          = Noble
| parents             = [[Hehiro Kurita (26th c.)|Hehiro Kurita]] (father)
| siblings            = [[Martin Kurita]]<ref name=HKDCLS/><br/>[[Sanethia Kurita]]<ref name=HKDCLS/><br/>[[Elaine Kurita]]<ref name=HKDCLS/><br/>[[Raymond Kurita]]<ref name=HKDCLS/>
| spouse              = 
| children            = [[Blaine Kurita]]<ref name=HKDCLS/><br>[[Urizen Kurita (27th c.)|Urizen Kurita]]<ref name=HKDCLS/> (disputed)
}}

'''Leonard Kurita''' was the fifteenth [[Coordinator]] of the [[Draconis Combine]], succeeding his father [[Hehiro Kurita]]. Leonard was known as a corrupt playboy who was more interested in fulfilling his carnal desires than attending to matters of state.

==History==
The eldest son and heir of Coordinator Hehiro Kurita, Leonard was totally unlike his dignified father. Wilful and erratic to the point of being mentally unbalanced, Leonard was an alcoholic and libertine who delighted in abusing his high station in life.<ref name=HKTDC-44>''House Kurita (The Draconis Combine)'', p. 44: "History - Star League Era - The Prodigal Son"</ref> <ref name=SL-53>''The Star League'', p. 53: "History - Postwar Era - Leonard's Folly"</ref>

===Coordinator of the Draconis Combine===
Following his father Hehiro's death on October 11th [[2591]], Leonard was inaugurated as Coordinator. However Leonard was nowhere to be found at his father's funeral, with his grandmother [[Siriwan McAllister-Kurita]] instead leading the mourners. Immediately after becoming Coordinator the middle-aged Leonard skipped out on [[New Samarkand]], leaving a note that indicated his intention to sow Kurita heirs throughout the nation, celebrating his new power with a two-month orgy of women and drink. That this occurred in the midst of the [[Reunification War]] greatly angered [[First Lord]] of the [[Star League]] [[Ian Cameron]] who proceeded to censure Leonard in the [[Star League High Council]]. Leonard's only response was that the siring of an heir "worthy of Leonard Kurita the First" took precedence above all other concerns.<ref name=HKTDC-44/> <ref name=SL-53/>

His excesses and vices only growing, Leonard did not seem to have any interest in actually ruling. Descending into debauchery for weeks at a time, the Combine's District Military Governors had to assume responsibility of the Combine's involvement in the Reunification War, allowing them to amass ever more power even after the conclusion of the conflict. Indifferent and uncaring, an almost mentally deranged Leonard preferred to instead provoke the First Lord by redeploying troops intended for the Reunification War to worlds along the Combine/Hegemony border, enraged at the waste of vital troops Cameron was forced to respond in kind. Rather than be intimidated, in [[2601]] the unmarried Leonard announced he would now initiate a search through the Combine for the bastard children he had sire ten-years before.<ref name=HKTDC-44/> <ref name=SL-53/>

Locating a few, an increasingly obsessed Leonard vowed to find all his children and became convinced that Ian Cameron had spirited some of his children into the Terran Hegemony. This culminated in [[2602]] when a small group of Combine troops landed on [[Asta]] in contravention of the [[Jointly-Owned Worlds]] agreement with orders to comb the planet's schools and orphanages for any heirs. By the time the [[Star League Defense Force]]'s [[91st Heavy Assault Regiment]] arrived, the Combine troops had withdrawn with fourteen children they believed resembled Leonard Kurita. Medical tests would ultimately prove than none of these children were related to Coordinator and all were returned home, but tensions between the Hegemony and Combine only increased as all feared what scheme the erratic Leonard would enact next. <ref name=HKTDC-44/> <ref name=SL-53/>

The low point of Leonard's reign was the fall 2604 sessions of the High Council, when the drunken and enraged Coordinator spat in First Lord [[Nicholas Cameron]]'s face before again blaming Cameron for hiding his heirs and accusing him of a deliberate attempt to cripple the Combine military during the Reunification War. Launching into a winding and nonsensical tirade, he threw his half empty bottle at the First Lord, only to strike his personal guard Sergeant [[Tanya Kerensky]]. Instinctively shooting, Kerensky superficially wounded the out of control Leonard's arm, but before she could react the Coordinator had stabbed and fatally wounded her with a concealed dagger. While the Cameron and the other Council Lords attempted to aid the mortally wounded guard, enraged Leonard fled both the chamber and Terra.<ref name=HKTDC-44/> <ref name=SL-53/>
   
Upon reaching the safety of the Combine, Leonard immediately began assembling both an army and fleet to launch an invasion of the [[Terran Hegemony]], refusing to listen to the pleas of his generals and even the normally timid civilian population of the Combine to reconsider. Having now crossed the line from embarrassing to genuinely dangerous, Leonard's younger sister [[Elaine Kurita|Elaine]] begged him to step down. When he refused, she committed ''[[w:seppuku|seppuku]]'' in December [[2604]], her suicide disk specifically implicating her brother as the cause.<ref name=HKTDC-44/> <ref name=SL-53/>

===Death and Legacy===
By February [[2605]] as war between the Combine and Hegemony seemed all but a forgone conclusion, the humiliated Kurita family had had enough, secretly trying the hopelessly corrupt Leonard and ordering his assassination after finding him guilty. Publicly Leonard Kurita was said to have contracted a "mysterious" illness, eerily similar to one that affected his grandfather [[Warren Kurita]] almost ninety years earlier, and died within a matter of days. As both the Star League and the Combine breathed a sigh of relief, the Kurita family stood down the DCMS forces as Leonard was succeeded by his son [[Blaine Kurita|Blaine]] as Coordinator. <ref name=HKTDC-44/> <ref name=SL-53/>

==Quotes==
{{quote|''In the grand and everlasting debate on which is more vital for a man, a well-built slut or a slug from a bottle, one thing must be said in defense of the bottle: it's always willing.''}}
- Remarks attributed to Coordinator Leonard Kurita.<ref name=SL-53/>

==Notes==
In [[Handbook: House Kurita]], the Nineteenth Coordinator [[Urizen Kurita (27th c.)|Urizen II]] is said to be the eldest son of Sanethia Kurita, while in the [[House Kurita (The Draconis Combine)]], he is the son of [[Leonard Kurita]].<ref name=HKDCLS/><ref name=HHKp36>''Handbook: House Kurita'', p. 36: "Urizen Kurita II"</ref>

==References==
<references/>

==Bibliography==
* ''[[Handbook: House Kurita]]''
* ''[[House Kurita (The Draconis Combine)]]''
* ''[[The Star League]]''


[[Category:Draconis Combine Characters|Kurita, Leonard]]
[[Category:Coordinators|Kurita, Leonard]]