Glorious Rebellion

> "*The greatest weapon we can use against the Dragons is unity. Divide and rule, that is their strategy - they want us to hate and fear each other, they want us to come grovelling to them for protection from dangers that they themselves created. The only way we can possibly hope to free ourselves is to come together as brothers and show the Dragons that their tricks shall work no longer.*"
> ― King Royard III
>
>

The **Glorious Rebellion** is the popular name for what some academics prefer to describe as the **Roulonnais Uprising** or the **Roulonnais Civil War**, a large-scale and multi-racial uprising led by King Royard III of Loquienne against the Dragons and their loyalist supporters, fought from 140-141 AD (or 1640-1641 INC). It ended in rebel victory, with Royard being recognised as High King of Roulonne by the Dragons, subsequently leading to the abolition of slavery and the caste system and the eventual integration of Roulonne into the Nesarian Empire.

Compared to other uprisings against the Dragons, the Glorious Rebellion was the only one which united multiple races together as equal allies - which, some historians claim, is the reason why it was the only one to succeed. All other revolts consisted of a single race rising in rebellion, or a single race rebelling and forcing their subjects and/or slaves of other races to follow them. Royard's revolt was also the largest in scale, combining several of Roulonne's historic kingdoms in one united effort, thanks to Royard's political machinations and long years of planning. Other historians have suggested that the key reason why Royard succeeded where others failed was the mass defection of the Pinkscale caste to his cause, ensuring that he had Dragons on his side to fight other Dragons - even if they were the smallest and weakest race of Dragon.

## Course of the War

The Glorious Rebellion began with King Royard declaring the independence of Loquienne and abolishing the caste system and slavery within his realm, which very rapidly led to uprisings from the enslaved across Roulonne. The Dragons immediately sent all the forces they had at their disposal to Loquienne under the command of Governor Saaken, and began mustering an even larger army to put down the rebellion. When Governor Saaken arrived at Louignon (the capital of Loquienne) to demand Royard's surrender, promising leniency if he gave himself up, Royard appealed to Saaken's honour and demanded a duel to settle the dispute, to which Saaken agreed. Royard won the duel against all the odds - the exact means of how are totally unknown, but Asarebian sources consistently put it down to divine intervention - and forced Saaken to concede, imprisoning him in Louignon before making a speech to his army which won them over to his cause.

After this victory, King Royard was joined en masse by rebels from across Roulonne, most prominently from the deeply oppressed Ruawi Orcs and the vehemently anti-slavery Black Elves, though many Humans remained loyal to the Dragons and most Vampires remained neutral, favouring their splendid isolation. By this point, the conflict had drawn the attention of Empress Rixa, who took an army to Roulonne to enforce the peace, but had not yet made her mind up on which side she supported; she opposed the harsh Draconic rule on principle, but saw the Dragons as valuable allies and desired to integrate them and convert them to Elvetan principles of governance rather than overthrow them and make them enemies. By the time Rixa arrived, the Dragons had mustered their grand army, but King Royard had also assembled a powerful force and he had received a pledge of allegiance from King Avierre of Serrou, who similarly abolished slavery and the caste system within his realm.

Several battles followed, the details of which are unclear and not recorded by the historical sources, but which were all either tactically inconclusive or resulted in rebel victories; the Dragons were unable to win a decisive victory. Angered by the incompetence of their servants, the Dragons then resolved to take to the field themselves and obliterate the rebels with dragonfire, but this decision came too late as the apparent weakness of the Dragons won the rebels the allegiance of King Boyemand of Auvonde and the support of the Vampires. Governor Saaken appealed to King Royard and pledged himself to his cause, and predicted that if the Dragons themselves could be bested in battle, the ruling Goldscales - who were already falling in popularity - would lose favour entirely with the lower castes. With numbers, magic and even a Dragon on their side, the rebels were now capable of putting up a proper fight against the Dragon army coming their way.

The two armies clashed in the Battle of Curonne in autumn of 152 AD. The loyalist servants of the Dragons on the ground were defeated and broken easily, with most fleeing and the rest surrendering, but the Dragons themselves proved much harder to fight; though the Dragons were falling, the rebels paid heavily for each one they killed. It was the intervention of Empress Rixa which ultimately won the day for the rebels; though her army did not directly kill any Dragons, they succeeded in wounding King Narek - the King of the Dragons and commander on the field - who decided to retreat his army after suffering wounds and realising that he now had the entire Nesarian Empire against him. He called for a meeting to discuss peace, and a treaty was agreed upon early the following year, which relinquished Draconic control of Roulonne to King Royard - who in turn swore fealty to Empress Rixa - but went out of its way to not cause humiliation to the Goldscales, who were greatly fearful of being rejected entirely by the lower castes.