Arcaea/Library/History/A Modern Look on the Past Part I

A Modern Look on the Past, Part I, The Fall of Ethiala

By Nihilus Orgauth
Dedicated to the most beautiful and graceful Lady Azrea Hyral

Who better than I to make a full report on Ethila's demise ? Me the last Lord General who sailed with his armies(or rather what remained of them) from the gates of Topenah to make one last charge into the enemy ranks and them say goodbye to my fellow nobles.
Well that does sound romantic doesn't it? But it wasn't that cool at the time, and then I was a much different person back them and didn't see how interesting this tale could be if told from the beggining, alas we're now speaking of the end, let us start from the beggining shall we?

The Beggining of the End

A key point to understanding the series of events that lead to fall of Ethiala is famine. Yes I know pretty much every writer, historian, and wannabe smart guy who knows all and never says anything wrong say that's where all the problems begun.
But the difference between me and those idiots is that I actually know what I am talking about and know the causes of the problem in depth(well not in depth, economy was never one of my interests and still isn't but I still belive I know better than anyone else who already wrote about this).
Anyway...I had quite a prestige in that realm, you know no one can resist me for long even back there in my boring days, upon arriving on Ethiala from my exile I quickly carved my way up to the top and gained a moderate popularity and trust among the nobility.
I was part of the councils that discussed pretty much everything and had access to accounts of the Imperial Treasurer Bastian Ruiri Woods itself on the matter, of course I didn't wrote it down, I never tought it would matter one day, and I was a terrible writer at the time mind you.
In case the main factors responsible for the famine were:

1: Drought, and overall bad harvest(the gods were in a bad mood, whoever they are)
2: Slow and overly bureaucratic government machine(aka pure incompetence)
3: WHERE IN THE HELLS WHERE THE DAMN MERCHANTS???!!! (Bastian put it in a more delicate way but that's what I basicly said to myself at the time)

Now in depth on each cause...
Cause 1 was apparently natural, and there was little we could do other than pray and ask for salvation(and good rains too of course)
Cause 2, now that's what really matters togethere with Cause 3, Bastian was slow to act believing it would be temporary that the harvest problems would solve themselves, but they only got worse, and then he was reluctant to find good offers and even slower to accept them, but when he did Cause 3 hit us
Cause 3: Those pesky miserable traders vanished! I believe we had 2 or 3 working for us at the time and apparently they were all on holidays all over the island doing nothing other than scratch their ***** and have sex with their lovers while their women and kids died of famine back home. As strange as it may sound that was our doom, suddenly our merchants stopped bringing food home and didn't answer our letters anymore, we even had to try to convince other nobles to become traders and take their places but it didn't work and so the end approched with Famine showing it's ugly head first...

The Twin Beasts of Incompetence and Chaos

Another leading factor that lead to the fall of Ethiala and that every ignorant who calls himself a sage never fails to point out is the incompetence of it's leaders, something I agree with but that needs a deeper look.(excluding me of course, even being dull at that time I was always competent, very competent and if you doubt that I'll teach you a lesson you'll never forget because you won't be able to have any sons after it...that is if you're man, because if you're a woman I'll just pretend you never said anything and send you some flowers instead)
By truly studying and understanding what I mean in this chapter and the next one is that one can fully understand the Fall of Ethiala.
Keffer Leonidas Archduke of Ethiala, and Primus Baraedor Lord General before I forced both of the bastards to resign(we'll see that later), both fanatic Ethialan nationalists so it's all good and wonderful right ? Wrong.
Their constant power struggle and ideological differences literraly divided the realm into two pathetic competing factions, but if they were aware of that ? Then the answer is no my fellow readers, this is the point many self-styled historians don't see nowadays, while they were guilt of their mistakes I can safely claim they never did them on purpose.
It was in their hearts in their actions, for them it they didn't see it as defending their own interests, they saw it all as defending the interest of the realm and the people of Ethiala, they acted really believing they were doing their best for it.
And so both clashed in moves of intrigue each trying to gain the favor of the nobility to have a stronger powerbase and overcome the other in the Senate, the ultimate goal being the complete removal and banishment of the other.
Things reached a climax when the war with Arcaea begun and the eastern regions were lost. Primus accused Keffer of incompetence and agitated the realm against him, Keffer in turn demanded that Primus resigned and ordered Chancellor Indiana Threepwood to banish him from the realm, both the Chancellor(who refused the order) and Treasurer Bastian threw their lot with Primus and demanded that Keffer instead should resign.
It was in this dark hour of despair that a Champion tried to save Ethiala from the hands of people with such despicable behaviour who were blind by their own ambition and do his best to restore the realm to it's former glory...that man was me dear readers...

A Ray of Hope

Yes my wonderful readers, Ethiala had a moment of hope as brief as it was and I am proud to say it was because of me.
Lost and confused with the chaos in the Palace, ashamed of their leaders a group of about half a dozen of nobles approched me seeking guidance, for I was the most popular man in the realm at the time with the sole exception of the Archduke and the Lord General which both lost their prestige in this fight, leaving me alone as a man Ethiala could trust.
Furthermore I was Duke of Ozrat and had vast knowledge of what happened in the palace, being one of the few to know the full extent of our shame, and so I accepted these visionary patriots under my protection and together we created a movement that we named "True Ethiala".
Once we were ready I began the plan that could have changed the course of history, I sent a protest to the Palace in which I DEMANDED the resignation of both Primus Baraedor and Keffer Leonidas for the inability to command and for putting their own interest above those of the realm even if not noticing it, saying I would refuse to follow orders and would burn all letters I received from the palace without reading until they did so.
To my great surprise they accepted, my protest along with those faithful Ethialans that had chosen to seek my advice in these troubled times had succeeded, victory was ours, we celebrated, beliving things would change, and I launched my campaign for the Crown of Ethiala with the absolute majority of the realm backing me.
Then...defeat, bitter and cruel defeat, apparently most of the voters' representatives had mental problems, since the election happened overnight only 35% of the realm could inform they would vote for me, while the other 65% percent that didn't manage to act in time automatically voted for Bastian Ruiri Woods, because he was the only candidate from the last election still around in this one, these poor peasants taht represented their masters didn't understand that things had changed, that this election wasn't like the other before.
And so for the sake of the realm not wanting to force Bastian to resign as well even if all the election was a fraud I accepted the mantle of Lord General instead. I feared for the stability of the realm if I had pushed for another election, even if a just one, and so I foolishly accepted that weak compromise between tradition of the old court and the inovation I would bring, but as you all know now it wasn't enough, only a full victory could have changed the fate of Ethiala and so the Ray of Hope was covered by clouds again, never to emerge anymore...

The End Itself

With Bastian on power and me as Lord General, well...not much changed, as I've said the only hope of real change was having me as Archduke, and so our foreign policy remained basicly the same while I was left with the most terrible and ungrateful of all duties...command the armies of realm and lead them to their deaths.
I pleaded for peace with General Aerywyn, I asked that it's armies stopped and tried to push for a peace agreement, but I am afraid my pleads were both ignored by Bastian and by my fellow general, in fact my discussion with Aerywyn quickly turned into a exchange of insults and so noticing that from the seat of Lord General I couldn't make peace I changed my tactics.
I pleaded for help, help from Aenilia, help from Cathay, help from Zonasa, help from Soliferum, help from anyone at least slightly interested in our survival, the results were disastrous, our dearest and dumbest Tony (yeah the Capo) was General of Sol at the time and after showing initial interest quickly put his tail between his legs and refused to speak anymore, then Zonasa, Zonasa PROMISED MILITARY HELP, yeah and I waited for until the realm fell never seeing a even a sign they were really coming, the same happened with Aenilia and Cathay, though they sent minor parties for minor skirmishes the big and earthshaking forces that they promised never came to our aid too and so...there was little left to do other than waith for our demise.
And so I did, we didn't have the power to stop the advance of our enemies alone and so we waited, waited until we could wait no more and by vote we decided that we should make one last glorious charge before the end.
And that's what happened, we charged right into the Arcaean main force and were crushed, we managed to cause enough damage however to call it a decent last stand, from there everyone began to say farewell, and most everyone dispersed with only a few fools remaining at Topenah to wait for Arcaea's final strike.

And this is THE END fellow readers, and if you really managed to read through all of this then you must've liked it, my thanks to you
Nihilus Orgauth