Dwilight University/History/Reflections on the Aquilegion Civil War
Contents
Reflections on the Aquilegion Civil War
This essay is dedicated to Bustoarsenzio Peristaltico out of gratitude, respect, and friendship. I know few others who possess such dignity and honour. May you make his qualities your goals.
Foreward
Acknowledgments
I would like to first give thanks to my opponets, the Theocrats, Pasha Blatkovetchkin, Caxias Flowres, Maximus Westfall, and Terivus Enodscopia. Moreover, I must thank my allies, the Viper Legion, Asriel Octavius and Kratos Wolff. The glory and immorality of history belongs to all of them. I would also like to thank Gregory De La Fere.
During the Civil War, these nobles held the following positions:
Maximus Westfall was the Archbishop (ruler) until the Viper Legion won the first rebellion. He never returned to the realm.
Caxias Flowres was the Duke of Flowrestown until the Viper Legion won the first rebellion. He became the Lord Banker and the Lord General after the Theocrats won the second rebellion. The Viper Legion protested him out of those offices. He became the Usurper and Lord Judge after the Theocrats won the third rebellion.
Pasha Blatkovetchkin was the High Inquisitor until the Viper Legion won the first rebellion. He became the Usurper after the Theocrats won the second rebellion, and then was protested out of office by the Viper Legion. When the Theocrats won the third rebellion he was made Lord Banker.
Terivus Enodscopia was a knight of Flow and then became the Lord Judge after the second rebellion. He was deposed by protests from the Viper Legion and was then appointed Lord General and Duke of Flowrestown after the Theocrats won the third rebellion.
Asriel Octavius was the Marshal of the Viper Legion and the Marquess of Flow until the Viper Legion won the first rebellion where he became the Lord General. He was protested out of office, then elected Usurper by realm wide elections, and was then deposed by the Theocrats before the third rebellion.
Kratos Wolff was a knight of Turbul until appointed Lord Judge and Duke of Flowrestown after the first rebellion, but was then deposed from his government position by the Theocrats and persecuted out of his city and the realm by zealot Astromancers.
As for myself, I was the Holy Minister of War and the Cardinal of Finances until the first rebellion where I became the Usurper (ruler) and the Lord Banker. The Theocrats deposed me, but when Asriel won the election I was appointed Duke of Flowrestown. Then the zealot Astromancers persecuted me out of the realm.
Clarification
Before I begin my account, I must clarify the term I have been propelling. To one perspective, this event might be labeled the Third Aquilegion Rebellion. However, I feel that if we are to use the term Rebellion with a numerical counter, than we must include the two rebellions that took place after my own, and so we could possibly call this the Three Rebellions of Aquilegia. I find the plural redundant since we already know we are speaking about the rebellions that occurred within a short span of time over the same issues. Moreover, two of the rebellions were counter-rebellions, making them directly caused by the first rebellion. Plainly, in this event we have two factions fighting against each other for control of the government. That is the definition of civil war.
Pretense
Being one of the main antagonists of this great historical event, I find it difficult to approach this writing impartially and unbiased; such is my responsibility as the Dean of History. It has taken me a little over one year after my escape from Aquilegia to decide on how I am going to settle this event for the History Department. I sincerely hope that you do not judge this work as slander against my opponents, or a glorification of my own involvement, or a glossing over of significant facts. I retain full respect for many of the Theocrats who now reign in Aquilegia. I assure you that though I was the Usurper of Aquilegia, I was not the sole rebel but merely the leader of the Viper Legion, the army that decided to take command of Aquilegia and install a new ruling order. If you are only interested in the facts of this event, please see my Chronology. Rather, I wish for you to treat this either as a memoir of my experience and sentiment during this calamitous occasion or as a lesson dedicated to future rebel leaders. For them, the Aquilegion Civil War reveals the possibilities and pitfalls of open rebellion.
As I remarked in my work on the Dragon Rebellion of D'Hara, the path to rebellion is not easy or common and the tempest of change brings about the separation of friendships, the agony of choice, and the surfacing of deep doubts. All of this was present at the outset of the Aquilegion Civil War.
Turbul
The major issue for this whole event was the region of Turbul. Turbul was a resource pit without a solution. It was the cause of poverty, famine, and the stagnation for our whole realm. The military core of the realm routinely attempted to quell the region’s needs. The military core consisted of the Holy Minister of War (me), Marshal Asriel and Vice-Marshal Kratos. Whether it was starvation, unrest, or monster hordes, the Viper Legion constantly tended to Turbul. Turbul was the most serious issue for the entire length of time I had a position of power in the realm. Despite the difficulty, we, the military core, believed we could save the region with coordination between the military, the courtiers, the traders, and the priests to fortify the region. If successful, we hoped for stability and expansion. The time and effort the Viper Legion put into Turbul was significant, so much so that we felt deep resentment over the Turbul Incident.
The Turbul Incident occurred earlier in the Winter of 10 YD and involved the ejection of Viscount Gregory De La Fere from the Astromancer religion and his resignation as Lord of Turbul. According to my notes from the time, Viscount Gregory was attempting to remove Astromancy from his region by closing the temple and barring all preaching. I believe that the religion reprimanded him for this and he reacted with malice. I have no clear facts as to what originally caused Lord Gregory to want to purge the religion from Turbul. He told me that the religion expelled him for no reason, then misinterpreted one of his letters, and then he decided to destroy the temple. Considering that he said he believed a region Lord had full ownership of his region, including the decision to disallow certain temples, perhaps the argument was over that opinion. Perhaps, since he was not a member of that faith, his wish to remove the temple caused the entire congregation, including the members of the faith in our realm, to denounce him. Whatever the reason, the Astromancers’ strict treatment towards Lord Gregory on this matter was the cause for his resignation from the realm.
This incident brings in two key elements to the cause of the Aquilegion Civil War. First, although the Viper Legion constantly requested a region Lord replace Lord Gregory after he left, one was never appointed and the region went rogue in short time. We saw how uncommitted our peers were to the advancement of our realm. Turbul would not have gone rogue if a Lord was appointed. The fact that they did not act made us question their commitment to the realm. The loss of Turbul at the moment when we were trying so hard to keep it was the spark that ignited the rebellion. Second, and more concerning, the severe treatment of Lord Gregory caused a shudder within us nonbelievers. We realized that should any issues develop in the future involving Astromancy, the Theocracy would always side with the religion over us. This was especially unnerving for me as I held two important positions in the realm, General and Banker. The Viper Legion were not members of Astromancy nor were we devoted to theocracy.
The significance of Turbul for the understanding of the Aquilegion Civil War is vital. If Archbishop Maximus or Duke Caxias had appointed a Lord for Turbul, or High Inquisitor Pasha had routinely preached to ease the peasants of the region, and if they allowed me the time to develop my trade contacts in the south, then we most certainly would not have rebelled. If we did not realize, by witnessing the Turbul Incident, that because we were nonbelievers (“heretics”) living in a Theocracy that would inevitably force us to subject ourselves to their faith one way or the other then we would not have had our great cause.
Contra Theocratism
The next major issue that caused the Aquilegion Civil War was the theocracy itself. I already established the heightened sense of danger we felt living amongst Astromancers, and that we already had a clear demonstration of their devotion on our own nobles. At the time, I did not believe Aquilegia was a properly functioning theocracy.
Theocracy was not present in the Aquilegia I lived in. First, the fact that we “heretics” occupied positions of power contradicts the validity of the realm existing as a theocracy. Moreover, I had trouble understanding the way theocracies were supposed to interact with each other considering Aquilegia’s relations with other theocracies. We were at war with Xinhai, and the realm deemed capital of the faith, Corsanctum, was a dud of an ally. I discuss more on the war with Xinhai further below.
As for Corsanctum, they offered only a one-sided relationship. The root of that relationship was that Corsanctum was to be considered the central realm of all of the theocracies and it would have the executive authority on certain internal matters. At least this is how I understood it as part of my rationale for leading the Civil War. Anyway, for me, if Corsanctum holds hegemony over the Astromancer theocracies why did they have no desire to mediate a peace treaty between Aquilegia and Xinhai? I requested the Archbishop to ask for their assistance and they said they do not get involved in secular wars. Is it not their purpose to seek stability and prosperity for their devoted realms? Xinhai could have overrun Aquilegia at any time and Corsanctum would be a mere spectator. More troubling, how come each winter when our realm was starving and suffering they did not put any effort into relieving us with food, or at least putting us into contact with other theocracies who could contribute charitably? I made the request to the Archbishop often and they bothered little to assist us. My issues were, what use was it to belong to a community of theocracies if none of the other members contributes to your persistence? What benefit did we gain from complying with the rule of the religion when it was never in our favour, such as the Turbul Incident? What use was it to be a theocracy when half of our realm was nonbelievers? A clash was inevitable whether it was the Astromancers finally putting the sword to us, or we to them.
The Aquilegion-Xinhai War
Being the predominant chronicler of the war between Aquilegia and Xinhai, I had a fundamental understanding of its origins and span. The Viper Legion and I agreed that the war with Xinhai was unnecessary and detrimental to the stability and expansion of our realm. Despite all efforts, Xinhai would not agree to any ceasing of hostilities. Granted the war went cold towards its end, but the threat was always present. We felt that if the Viper Legion succeeded in its coup d’etat, maybe Xinhai would treat us as a new governing body with absolutely no connection to any of the prior governments. If we ended the war with Xinhai, we could focus ourselves entirely on the quagmire Turbul. It is ironic to note that though we lost the Civil War, our actions led to the achievement of this goal for our successors.
The Viper Legion
Considering all of the previously stated issues, the Viper Legion spent some time deliberating on what to do. Prior to the loss of Turbul due to roguery, we discussed a few options. We discussed leaving the realm to form a colony somewhere else. However, we decided that we would be in a worse situation having to start all over again and that there were few areas left for us to colonize. We also discussed deposing the government via protesting. The problem with that solution was that it would only solve a few of the many problems we faced. In order to change the realm completely we had to break it and reform it to our policy. After this, the realm would begin on a new path under our rule. This decision came right around the time when Turbul fell to the peasants.Thus, with swift tempers, the Viper Legion decided to launch the coup d’etat.
The Civil War
When Turbul went rogue the Viper Legion turned on the theocracy. I launched the rebellion and we entered five days of intense civil war. The Viper Legion had military superiority and the advantage of surprise, and so we won the capital. The factions were equal in number after the Archbishop was knocked out by defeat in the first rebellion. Our coup d’etat was a success and we began to settle into governance, but very quickly the winds pushed in the other direction and our triumph became a landslide of turmoil.
The next day the real war began when the Theocrats deposed Asriel and I from our government positions by protesting. Kratos got it the worst on the first day as zealot Astromancers persecuted him out of his Dukedom and the realm. When he returned it was as a new noble and thus he was weakened greatly. As a means to recapture their realm, the Theocrats, led by Pasha, launched their counter-rebellion against our empty government. They succeeded despite our military victory and began to restore their theocracy. The Viper Legion was fined gold and I was sent into exile, but we were not defeated yet. In retaliation, we protested them out of their offices and best of all due to a mechanic that launches elections after a ruler is deposed, a draw at the end of the election made Asriel the ruler of Aquilegia. This election occurred because I was protested out of office earlier. Once Asriel took power, albeit for only one day, he appointed his government and gave me Flowrestown, but this was to be my ultimate undoing. In his short reign, he tried to negotiate with one of the Theocrats and terms were put, but the third rebellion ended all of that. Even though Asriel exiled Pasha and Caxias, they still deposed him out of office. There were still two Theocrats in power after the success of the second rebellion, and so the Viper Legion protested them down until Caxias launched the third rebellion and finished the war. During this last rebellion, Pasha and his zealots persecuted me out of Flowrestown and out of the realm. Having won the rebellion, the Theocrats consolidated their power by appointing their government and the Duke and outlawing the Viper Legion. Really, the Viper Legion could have remained in the realm with the Theocrats until foreign armies removed us, but once we lost our ability to fight back, we disbanded. Of course, if we did win the Civil War we would have lasted as long as it took the Warders to mobilize their crusade against us. That would have been a momentous event even more notable than this one and I would have the pleasure of writing the history for that too.
After a grueling five days of battle, the Aquilegion Civil War ended in favour of the Theocrats. Just before the winter ended, I dissolved the Viper Legion and each of us went our separate ways.
Reflections
As the leader of the defeated party, I have to examine this event with scrutiny so I may learn from our mistakes. Our first mistake was to assume that military domination was the only way to win. Our enemies, we quickly learned, had the power of religion. We did not consider that at first because we had no idea the strength it really possessed. From now on, never underestimate the influence of religion. If a realm ever views a religion with even the slightest bit of threat, they would be much better off to ban that religion outright. As sensitive an issue as this might be, it is better to keep them out of your territory than to let them burrow in. Aquilegia suffered because of its religion, and we lost the Civil War because of it. If in the future one decides to launch an offensive against a deeply rooted religion, make certain you neutralize their priests. If we disabled High Inquisitor Pasha early on, the Theocrats would have no way of defeating us. He was the sole factor to their success. Lord Caxias would have been unable to harm us except for protesting, but we could do the same to him. The only advantage they had against us was Pasha. He was their most potent weapon. We had no way of combating Pasha’s hold over the peasantry, and we did not expect the furious mob to drive us out. We also learned how things change at a snap due to a variety of circumstances. We held our positions only for one day, as did they, and in the end both sides exhausted all options.
May the valour of the Viper Legion be remembered forever as the army who upheld the virtues of strength, devotion, and worthiness.
Winter of 11 YD (or the 29th of July, 2010)
