Erlan I rebellion

**The Prelude and Restored Reign of Rogier IV 463-469**

## Erlan's Rebellion

### Performers

Loyalists: King Rogier IV, High Priest Ahoda, other minor Nobles and Priests.Rebels: Prince then King Erlan I, Lord Tristan Greenstone, Lord Laurens Bluestone, Lord Adarn Blackstone, other minor Nobles.

### Location

Draga

After the long Bastard's rebellion and the restoration of King Rogier IV Draga to the throne the Lords of the Kingdom were at their height of power since the Redsword Rebellion. Prince Erlan had made sure his brother, the King, had given them generous concessions thus leading to a stable first year. However by 464 the King once more fell under the influence of the still prominent High Priest and started revoking all that he had given to the Lords after some of them pushed for a little bit more. This started off gradually and the Nobility were fine with it, Ahoda had helped them in the Bastard's rebellion after all, however by the year 468 it was increasingly obvious the civil war had been for nothing and Rogier was just going to go back to his Priest-Loving ways. Many times in late 468 the major Nobles, Tristan Greenstone, Laurens Bluestone and the newly prominent Adarn Blackstone whom had been given rewards by his counterparts for finding the pretender Adenn III after and during the war, partitioned Rogier IV to honour his concessions after these Nobles helped him oust the very pretender to the throne they created. The King ignored them. In early 469 the King and his brother Prince Erlan, a prominent supporter of the Nobility and Rogier's right hand man whom was being increasingly threatened by Ahoda's growing prominence, argued about him spurning the Lord's partitions. When the King called in guards to remove the Prince, Erlan had had enough of his brother. He left the palace that night and would never speak with his brother again, as that night Rogier IV died of poison. Many at the time and afterwards suspect it may of been Erlan's doing however this has never been proved and therefore it may of been any of the Nobles or even someone completely unrelated. With Rogier's death his 6 year old son Caranor was crowned King Caranor IV.

**The Regency of Caranor IV 469-476**

With the last ruler being murdered and the new ruler being a child Draga was in chaos. The Priests and the Nobles both grabbed for power over the boy at the same time and many were killed in the ensuing struggle. While the fight for guardianship was not properly a war Noble retinues and Priests clashed in the streets, most commonly in the Western district, and many were killed on both sides. The Western district was the most common for it was the poorest and therefore the lowliest usually lived their, eating scraps from the fishermen. This meant that the most liable to be hired to murder someone were there and often times Priests or Nobles would be dragged from their homes and be found dead in an alleyway there a week later. With all of these anarchy the King grew up, watching how his advisors and ministers squabbled and how most times they lasted little longer than a month before mysteriously 'disappearing' and eventually he concluded that out of the Priests and the Lords the Priests were the lesser of two evils, for at least they pretended to care for the people with all of this terror. Claiming Perzys would deliver them and such, right? Regardless of whether he was truly right or not by the time Caranor was old enough to make proper decisions for himself, which in his case was 13, he fired his Noble advisors and kept his Priestly ones. This made it seem as if the Nobility 'lost' the political civil war that had been going on, and this heavily hurt the leaders prestige, along with their families life expectancies. High Priest Ahoda finally 'officially' lifted the regency and guardianship of the King in mid 476 and the King's first move was to re-invite his uncle to the palace as to try and mend relations. He knew that Erlan would absolutely hate his support of the Priests and also knew he would have to neutralise this threat if he ever wanted to rule semi-securely.

**Caranor IV's 'Peaceful' Reign, 476**

Erlan accepted his nephew's invitation to the palace despite their differences and the MANY rumours he had murdered Rogier IV, soon after the regency was lifted he returned after his self imposed exile with the different Noble families. However this apparent making up did not last, soon after he came back Erlan got into a major row with Caranor about the Lords and how they should be treated. This lead to Erlan storming out of the palace again swearing that he would 'bring town the tyrannical Priests for good.'

**The Siege and Battle of the Temple of eternal flame, 476**

In late 476 Erlan returned to his Noble friends, most notably the Lord Greenstone, and would request their aid. The majority honoured his call to arms and they marched upon the Temple of Eternal flame with a force of about 10,000 men, surrounding it and demanding the Priests unconditionally surrender to them. The Priests of course said no and so the army stormed the Temple. The ensuing battle was very bloody, with commoners off the streets joining in trying to defend the Priests or get a bit of loot from the temple. Many Priests and Noble guards died that day, and while the upper level of the Temple was completely sacked and all within it slaughtered the main members of the Priesthood fled to the lower levels too ridden with traps and magics for the retinues to advance further. However a constant guard was placed here until the fighting stopped all over the city, just so the Priests could not try to strike back. Immediately after the temple fell the King heard news of this and sent a force of about 6000 Loyalists to try and retake the Temple with Priest help, this small skirmish known as the Battle of the Eternal Flame saw the Loyalists beaten off with minimal casualties on both sides. This open defiance greatly angered the still practically a child King and with it he raised all loyalist forces to him. When hearing of this mobilisation the Nobility chose their sides and also began raising their armies to fight for whichever side they were on. Prince Erlan now became the Leader of the Rebellion as it had become and he denounced the King calling him illegitimate and a pretender for betraying the Lords he had sworn to protect the interests of for their fealty. He was then declared 'King' Erlan I by his supporters and they began to take control of the Districts. Notably the Western, for the Port and Northern for the Supplies. They already controlled the Northern portion of the Eastern District as most of the Nobility lived there and the Southern District was far too Loyalist to take easily at the start of the Rebellion.

**The War within the City, the Southern District, 477**

As the year passed into 477 the Rebellion was fresh. The North and West were under their control and they outnumbered their foe, however they did not take into account the will of the commoners. Them openly attacking the Temple highly angered most and this caused many problems into their initial advance into the Southern District. The Rebels sent around 15,000 of their newly raised army into the District leaving 5000 to guard the others, while the King sent only 8500 men. However the people helped the King and many militias boosted the army thus holding back the rebels and giving them many casualties. In retaliation the occupying force looted and destroyed anything they came across, by the end of the fighting many neighbourhoods were completely destroyed with people slaughtered or worse, making the public opinion even lower. There are no major battles to speak of as the majority of fighting was hit and run skirmishes by either soldiers or militias on both sides however by the end of it the Rebels had around 9000 casualties and the Loyalists had around 20,000 dead including civilians. If you take away the commoners slaughtered by the occupying force only around 5000 Loyalist Soldiers and freedom fighters were killed and around 8000 more were wounded and pulled back. In mid summer of 477 the Southern District began to Starve with the fishing routes cut off and the abundance of people, and while the Western district was going through the same with the lack of farmed food they were not the ones fighting on the front lines. They surrendered soon after and the King's forces were pushed out.

**The War within the City, the Eastern District, 477**

While at the start of the war and throughout it there was obviously some fighting within the Eastern District it was highly contained until the South fell. When the South fell the only obstacle still in the way to the Palace was what remained the Loyalist owned Eastern district, taken by the King at the start of the war when the Rebel Nobles fled to their stronghold in the Northern Eastern District. As soon as all fronts were secure the Rebels sent in their entire army, bar some guards to keep order, of 20,000 men remaining. Most of these levied farmers and fishermen highly hurting the Nobles funding, though they had been saving up for years now expecting some armed conflict to arise. The King only had around 4000 able men left, not including the militias as he had told them to disband not wanting their deaths. The fight was short and one-cided, the King's men were slaughtered with only 1000 Rebels dead. Now the Palace was open to Assault, and the end of the war in sight.

**The Fall of the Palace, 477**

Now the Palace was stormed in Early Autumn, the only Loyalists left inside being High Priest Ahoda, whom was there when the rebellion began, and the Palace Guards. However these guards were far less experienced than their counterparts in the Bastards Rebellion and were therefore broken through by sheer will of arms. With his last men dead the High Priest urged the young King, only 14, to surrender and be granted some form of chivalry given he was still a Prince even if Erlan became King. However Caranor rejected this and refused to surrender upon the steps of his throne, where he was slain. Ahoda tried to surrender against his King's wishes but was butchered by Erlan's men for all that the Priesthood had done in the last 20 years. And so with his young Nephew dead Erlan was Crowned King Erlan I Draga, and a new Branch of the House of Draga ascended to the Throne.

**Aftermath**

Erlan's Rebellion would highly effected the political balance of power in Draga for centuries to come. With Erlan's ascension and reforms the Priesthood was put back in power decades, though still not as much as before Aen. He also gave the Nobility much more power than they probably should of had, for their help in both civil wars. He began a new age of Expansion within the Kingdom and while he took back little himself given he had to mend relations with the people his successors would begin the slow healing of the wounds Aen created. His line would last for four hundred years until Caranor VII died without an heir, but that is another story altogether.