The Brothers Civil War

The Brothers Civil War was a succession civil war between Magnus and Justus, children of the late Emperor Tertius. It was fought mainly in Revia but there were some minor skirmishes outside Revia as most loyalty outside Revia was Magnus’s.

## Background

Starting his reign in early 69 IE, Emperor Tertius was a wise and cautious emperor. With wars and crisis looming everywhere, Tertius decided to only observe all of them to maintain the solidarity of Grevia.

Tertius fathered two children, all of them male. There was Magnus, a warlike and strong-minded person, and there was Justus, a wise but weak-willed person. Although both siblings have differentiating traits, they maintained a strong and bonding relationship during their childhood. All of this was to end when both siblings were married into families that rival one another.

Magnus was married to Amatia of House Pertinax, and Justus married off to Flatillia of House Decima. Both House Pertinax and House Decima were old rivals, with their rivalry as long as when Cyrille I first landed in Revia. The old story goes that both houses once sported at hunting wolves until one of the members of House Decima murdered one from House Pertinax over a hunting dispute as to who killed the wolf they were hunting. It is because of this that House Pertinax’s sigil resemble that of a grey wolf and Decima’s as a white wolf.

## Prelude

With both families having considerable political power, they conspire to manipulate both children into fighting one another, ironically they started as soon as both sons were married. Using their influence, Amatia and Flatillia swayed both Magnus and Justus into thinking that they were both trying to get influence over Emperor Tertius on succession.

Tensions arose so dramatically that Magnus sent soldiers to capture Justus, only to be stopped by Tertius who blocked the doorways of Justus’s Palace Section with his own Imperial Guard. With tensions on an all high, Tertius held council with both families, achieving little to no success as both families shouted and insulted each other during the entire council session.

Then on 80 IE, Emperor Tertius died due to unknown causes. Some speculated that one of the houses conspired against the emperor or that he just died from natural causes, albeit oddly young. In the aftermath and during the succession, both houses became very aggressive to both eachother and the Imperial Government. The succession meeting went so badly that the Senate was forced to delay the meeting to avoid conflict.

The following days after Tertius’s death, Justus was in Rechester overseeing financial reports while his brother Magnus was visiting troops off-planet in Rhodon. This gave Justus the opportunity to seize the crown from his elder brother, and so with the support of the Imperial Guard that was bribed by him, he stormed the Imperial Palace and took the crown for himself, killing any loyalists inside the palace grounds.

## Force Dispositions

### The Whites

Being a major house in the politics of Grevia, House Decima possessed enough political influence to sway most of The Senate into proclaiming Justus to emperor. In the aftermath of the coup, many loyalist senators fled off-planet with the rest either detained and executed together with any loyalist soldiers unfortunate enough to be in Rechester. With most of The Senate under control, The Whites under the pretense of security ordered that all Imperial Legatuses bend the knee to the new Emperor Justus. Out of the supposed 300 or so Legions active in the Grevian Empire, 240 of them bended the knee with them being ordered to Revia with all haste.

### The Greys

During the initial shock of the coup, House Pertinax wasn’t able to recover from the shock quick enough and following the coup they only had 60 legions that were loyal to the rightful emperor Magnus. Even with the disadvantage on terms of numbers, House Pertinax had many highly trained and battle-hardened legions that came from the Second Imperial Crusade. Although they possessed highly trained legions, they were all scattered in various systems with the most concentration of legione being Rhodon with 45 loyalist legions, therefore they are forced into a defensive stance until they get enough strength to mount any offensives.

## The Civil War

### Black Year (80 IE)

Having enormous strength over The Greys, The Whites started an offensive in February to eradicate all loyalist influence in Revia. With only two loyalist legions during the start of the offensive, the Greys were pushed back from most of the planet and into the Vitreon Islands. With two legions and 120.000 men trapped in Vitreon, Magnus commited most of his loyalist fleet to evacuate the survivors. Although the evacuation was a success thanks in part for Magnus arriving with three legions to bolster the defence, the loyalist fleet suffered extensive casualties, most notably their capital ships who took the brunt of the artillery and many were destroyed.

With the foothold on Revia gone now, the Greys prepared for the worse and began making defensive preparations in Rhodon. Magnus arrived back on Rhodon in April, bringing back the two legions he had rescued in Vitreon. By June, reinforcements had arrived from loyalist held systems such as Farrador and Tertius, bringing the total strength to 45 legions. Defences on Rhodon were also bolstered and the old fortresses made by his ancestors rebuilt and repaired.

In July, Justus and 120 legions broke through the loyalist blockade on Revia and set off to attack Rhodon and capture or kill Magnus. Justus’ force landed in Rhodon on various cities and successfully captured several of them. With several bases to launch their offensive, they continued their offensive, pushing back the outnumbered loyalist Greys. In the brink of destruction, Magnus made several rearguard actions to save his army that is withdrawing through the Frostpike Mountains but he was captured in the process. Chained in the cells of the flagship of the White Imperial Navy, he was tortured and was almost killed in the process. His death would be sure until some Grey warships disobeyed orders to stay in harbor and made a near-suicidal rescue mission to save Magnus, which was successfully done.

Having more hope than he had previously have, Magnus commanded the first ever offensive conducted by the Greys in November. Even though outnumbered, the highly trained and disciplined loyalist legions advanced across the Frostpike Mountains to meet their enemy, which they crushed on all fronts. Now with the tide turning in the Rhodon Front, Justus with his army fled Rhodon in December, losing most of his force when 90 White legions defected to the Greys when all hope was lost.

### Bloody Year (81 IE)

Now having more manpower when most of Justus’ force defected, Magnus now in command of 135 legions can oversee some minor offensives outside of Rhodon. His first ever plan was to recapture Hearth System, which was lost during the middle of the Battle For Rhodon. In January after a month of rest, Magnus sent his most trusted general Antius together with 10 legions to recapture it back. Antius arrived in Hearth on March and the garrison of 5 legions there defected without a fight to Antius when he landed.

While Antius was away Magnus wasn’t just slacking, for he was overseeing the relief army of 25 legions to Farrador, which had by now been under siege since the start of the civil war. Arriving in Farrador, Magnus easily knocked out the White presence there of just 5 legions, forcing it to defect to avoid annihilation.

With both tasks completed, Magnus had only one task, rebuilding his navy. Soon enough, shipyards in Rhodon began pumping out warships, far exceeding output of that of Revia itself. Even though he had started to produce a massive navy that far exceeded those from the pre-civil war navy, he had run short of sailors, and so he placed several of his legions to man the ships.

### Year of Ashes (82 IE)

By the end of 81 IE, the entire plan had been accomplished, the Greys now had sufficient force, a large enough navy, and had crushed the morale of the Whites by foiling their plans left and right. Magnus now has 140 loyalist legions in his command, together with 1400 ships to carry his army, and experienced generals in his stead. In February, he departed Rhodon, bringing the entirety of the Grey legions to bear upon Revia and most importantly, Justus.

Magnus landed in Vitreon in March, suprising the garrison there of 10 legions. In a week, he had mostly captured the islands and had won the support of the garrison who defected to his side. Back in the mainland, Justus was already prepared to face an amphibious invasion from Vitreon and had positioned most of his legions there, expecting that the warlike Magnus would invade there to win glory.

Instead of invading the mainland through Vitreon, Magnus just simply embarked on his fleet and landed on the now undefended Rechester, thus seizing the capital without any bloodshed. Fooled by himself, Justus embarassingly marched his army north but was then struck in the rear from the Grey legions that had now invaded from Vitreon after Justus had left it wide open for attack. Following the clever maneuvers his brother had done, Justus was pincered from both Magnus in the north and the force from the south. Fearing the possibility of encirclement, Justus led an attack on the force to his south but was repelled with heavy losses when Antius arrived just in time to command the force.

With all hope simply lost, the White legions that had bent the knee to Justus simply gave up and defected to Magnus’ side. In the end, Justus only had his loyal contingent of Imperial Guard that was there when he first took the crown. Fearing wrath from his elder brother, Justus fled to the small town of Antly just south of Tarbor. He had made plans to hide there but was foiled when Magnus met up with Antius’s force and surrounded the town.

Magnus then attempted to negotiate with Justus, three times he was rejected and three times he was threatened to be murdered by the Whites. So, when Justus didn’t want to be talked into surrendering, Magnus reluctantly gave the decree that all inhabitants of Antly be evacuated and that the city was to be burnt from the ground by aerial bombardment. So on the 5th of March, thousands of aircraft circled over Antly waiting for the signal to attack, and that signal was given from Magnus, who had by now retreated to his quarters to sob about his brother’s impending death.

Justus, now accepting his fate, looked from the balcony of the now deserted governor’s palace surrounded by his ever most loyal guards. There the signal was given, and soon bombs were raining from the skies as the ground beneath trembles from the shockwave of the blasts. The bombing lasted for a full day, when it was over only ashes and some remains of destroyed buildings. By the end of the day, Justus’ body was discovered all surrounded by white-cloaked guards that had protected his body from the rubble above them. It is said that Magnus grieved for months on end, crying “Why ye must die for a lost cause!” While repeatedly banging his head on the wall.

## Aftermath

The civil war had terrible consequences for it had wrought the planets of Grevia of death and destruction for its people. The wrath of Magnus consumed him with anger and fury that he outlawed House Decima and that every living member must be hunted down and executed without trial for the death of his brother. Although his wrath was fire, he forgave all legions that took the white banners but he rebranded their banner to have the battle achievement of “traitor” in it. This had terrible consequences for the legions that had joined Justus’ cause for they were forever shamed for joining not the rightful heir to the throne.

Magnus also gave out gifts to staff that had shown courage or had shown loyalty to him when they didn’t bent the knee to Justus. For the faithful loyalist legions, he gave out a grey symbol of a crown to be placed on the aquila and made a text that is inscripted “faithful” on the battle achievements list.