Council of Gargat

The Council of Gargat was a council conveyed at the city of Gargat by a group of 150 noblemen and politicians to resolve the succession crisis suffered by the late Gargat Empire. The council was a turning point in late Samorite history, with the council resulting in the official dissolution of the Gargat empire, paving the way for the future Bersuan Empire to conquer Samor.

## Backgroundd

Following the death of the *Kish-Badarema,* the last of Chief of the Gargat Empire, the state entered a period of turmoil as he left no heir for the throne. The instability caused by the empty power vacuum caused the northern Samorite states to rebel against the state. Gargat was to unstable and weak to properly deal with the rebellion, so only a year after the rebellion was started, it ended with the independence of the northern Samorite states.

Although the problem with the northern states were resolved rather quickly, a new problem sprang up for the empire: Pretender rebels and usurpers. Several generals, in control of small armies loyal to them attempted to seize the throne for themselves, as the empire was on the verge of a devastating civil war. To try to solve this, the *Tût* (Assembly) of *Kish-Badarema*'s court called in various noblemen and officials of the remaining Gargat Empire (as well as some of the former) to convene at the courtyard of the Gargat Royal Palace. The *Tût* wanted to find a resolution for the trouble facing the empire, and saw it fitting to assemble many of the (former) empires most skilled and powerful men to agree on a solution, although the *Tût* knew that there was one big problem with that idea.

Although the vast majority (139 out of 150) of the nobles and officials called to the council were located either in the city of Gargat or its surroundings, the *Tût* knew that many of the noblemen and officials (especially from outside of Gargat) invited would be extremely sceptical of this; suspicious that it was a plot to kill them. Due to this acknowledgement of the wariness that many of the nobles would have, the *Tût* encouraged the people invited to bring their own bodyguards or small mercenary companies to protect them, and the event was held outdoors for the express reason of quelling anybody's suspicion of the building being burned down with them inside. Surprisingly, even to the *Tût,* all of the invited to the council agreed, to attend.

## Council

The council lasted for 9 days, and by the end of it, after several proposed plans for the future of the empire, such as creating a "vassal swarm" which would grant the cities autonomy under a much more decentralised state or the idea to reinstate the empire as a republic of sorts, it was finally agreed to dissolve the empire and grant full independence to the former territories of the empire.

Following the decision, the process of dissolving the empire started immediately after, with each of the newly independent states being led by republican assemblies instead of the typical chiefs. To deal with the still roaming pretenders and rebels, the remaining armies loyal to the *Tût* were assembled, alongside some support from the northern cities of Barisi and Maragûti, to finally defeat the remaining rebels. The various insurgencies were put down after about 1.5 years, and the region was finally at (relative) peace again.