War of the False Pharaohs

The War of the False Pharaohs is a civil war that occurred in the year 461 AA between the Aquian Empress Celestia and Princess Riala of Aquias. The war was waged over the title of Pharaoh, which both claimed, and ended with the death of Riala and the ascension of Celestia to the position of Pharaoh by the Council of Surket.

## Causes for the War

When Emperor Alexias III ascended to the Aquian Throne in 448, he was only 4 years old and thus did not have a wife, nor was he betrothed. His mother, Pharaoh Tethys, died the very next year from what we now believe to have been a brain aneurysm. Alexias's older sister, Princess Riala, assumed the duty of regent for him until he was of age.

When the Pharaoh dies and there is no present candidate for the position, it transfers back to the Emperor. After Riala became regent, she moved from the Isle of Aquias to Surket and declared herself the acting Pharaoh, living in the Citadel and making offerings at the Temple of the Sun in the same way the Pharaoh normally does. She argued that the faithful of the Aquian Church could not afford to be without a religious head while Alexias grew up, so she would assume the position until then. She had already been one of her mother's closest Handmaidens, so the people generally accepted this and became loyal to her over time.

Riala continued to govern the Aquian Empire and act as Pharaoh of Surket until the year 460, when Alexias turned 16 and was now considered an adult and able to rule on his own. Riala readily submitted to Alexias and allowed him to take control of the Empire, but she continued to act as the Pharaoh in all but name. At first, nothing was done about this. Alexias III is known for being terrified of confrontation, which Riala was no doubt counting on when she continued to act as Pharaoh, even being so bold as to use the title publicly.

Near the end of the year 460, Alexias III married Princess Celestia of Ramora, a fiery woman who already had a reputation of being ambitious and cruel by then, and who would soon be dubbed "The Dragon" by the people. After the wedding, which Riala did not attend, Celestia had Alexias declare her the Pharaoh. She sent an ultimatum to be read publicly in Surket demanding that Riala denounce all claim she might have to being Pharaoh and to swear fealty to her upon her arrival to Surket.

## Siege of Surket

On the first day of the new year 461, Celestia set out by ship to Surket to claim the title of Pharaoh. Meanwhile, Riala rallied the Aquian Church to support her. When Celestia reached the port, Riala was waiting with a massive crowd of followers, outnumbering the few ships worth of men that Celestia had brought. Celestia got off the ship and approached Riala, who bowed cordially. Riala then made a rousing speech about how she was an imposter, a false Pharaoh claiming what isn't hers to claim. The mob surrounded Celestia and her bodyguards and began to attack, but the ships fired upon the crowd and gave Celestia the opportunity to flee aboard and make an escape. Her ships were haressed all the way out of the port by local fishermen and the private navy.

Upon her return to Aquias, Celestia denounced Riala and the city of Surket, declaring that their branch of the Aquian Church were heretics and traitors to the Empire. She assembled a sizeable military and navy and deployed to Surket. She marched her armies from the west to Surket by road and blockaded the city by sea. She amassed her troops outside the city and appeared to dig in for a siege.

Riala meanwhile had amassed a massive force within Surket and dug in for defense, planning to wait out the enemy for the harsh desert summer until they were exhausted from the heat. After the heat wore out the enemy, the Surketian army would rout them and Riala would claim her victory.

Celestia had a different plan than just a conventional siege, however. She ordered the Crimson River be dammed upstream of the city and that the army would cycle between the siege and rest in the temporary lake they made. As the summer began in earnest, the city of Surket grew unbearably dry without a source of water and the Surketian people grew restless. The summer carried on and the city drought became so intense that hundreds were dying of thirst each day. Despite this, however, Riala refused to surrender.

Near the end of the summer, Surket caught fire. It is debated today whether the fire was accidental or if was started by Celestia's forces, but common legend within Surket claims that Celestia fired the flaming arrow that kicked it off herself (with some especially robust tales claiming that Celestia transformed into a dragon and breathed fire). Whatever the case, this fire spread from the Gardens to the rest of the city in the cataclysmic fire that is now known as the Great Burning. The fire raged for 54 days and touched every corner of Surket and killed an estimated 100,000 people, including Riala. According to legend, she spent her final hours inside the Temple of the Sun praying to the gods for the fires to end. The heat from the fire was enough to render the outer stone of the temple completely smooth, which it still is today. The inside got so hot that Riala baked alive, leaving only a charred corpse behind. This is considered by some to be the origin of the legend of the Queen in Rags, a popular figure in Surketian folklore.

## Aftermath

After 54 days of constant fire, it rained for 4 days straight and Celestia either broke the dam and allowed the Crimson River to flow again or was forced to abandon the dam from the overwhelming surge of water depending on the source. Celestia's forces entered the remnants of the city and she claimed victory, rounding up the Council of Surket and having them declare her Pharaoh.

The Aquian military may or may not have ransacked what remained of the city before rebuilding began, but regardless of whether they did, tensions between Surket and Celestia remained high in the years that followed. Surket slowly rebuilt atop the ruins of their old city, but never was fully under Celestia's control throughout the next six years that she remained in power.

The war is considered by strategists to have been a masterstroke on Celestia's part. This remains the only time in modern history that Surket has succumbed to an enemy force, and the tactics Celestia used to weaken the city are seen by many as either incredibly lucky or the work of a master strategist. Despite the relatively quick speed that this rebellion was quelled, the cost of moving so many troops and the financial burden of Surket's destruction led to some of the most unstable times in the Aquian Empire's history, eventually leading to its dissolution in 763. The constant rebellions that followed this one throughout the empire would mar Alexius III's reign and is considered by many to be the beginning of the collapse of the Aquian Empire as a whole.

Celestia's conquest was short lived. She ruled in Surket as Pharaoh for only six years until 467, when she was finally ousted by an angry mob and burned alive in the Bazaar.