Respublican Civil War

In attempt to enforce the laws of Respublica, geko96 began to distance himself from Senatorial advise. Shortly thereafter, disgruntled Senators plotted to take action to right the perceived abuses and general failings of the laws written by geko96. Though geko96 heard whispers of unrest among Senators, he was surprised when on 15 January 2018, rudytudy14 revolted and took with him several other officers and territories. This conflict would continue until 30 March 2018, when the union within Asterreich dissolved and the successor state of Stahlreich established peace with Respublica.

## History

**Walle01 Affair**

*Introduction*

During Fourth Era, Respublica became the most important faction within the server. Their rise to power rested on the Respublica-Zakuul merger, the general inactivity among competing factions, and the Respublican government system. Although all three of these factors were of equal importance to their rise to becoming masters of the server, the government system had always been a double-edged sword. The government of Respublica was formed gradually over many different iterations and it came to a conclusive order with the Second Republic of Zakuul. Within this system, the Respublican founder, geko96, found a way to permit Respublican citizens to be as engaged or as isolated within the empire as they so chose. This was done through his three Codexes which codified the powers, duties, and liberties a citizen of the faction had. Although the rules were rather simple at first, the ability to add on Amendments to the Codexes to supplant old and unpopular laws made the great number of rules and laws confusing and hard to keep up with.

Regardless of this confusion, the system enjoyed widespread appraisal and, as old Respublican enemies and allies joined the faction, it won over the hearts of many people. In fact, this positive reinforcement was strengthened by the willing participation of the new citizens in this political system. With civic participation up, the number of Senate Meetings and Amendments also increased as new players offered and proposed new legislation to help improve the status of the empire.

This initial positivism towards the system began to weaken as player activity decreased and laws increased. This disheartened many within the faction and made the laws seem overly complicated and redundant. These complications rose to a climax with the Walle01 Affair.

*The Affair*

Upon rejoining the server after a long period of absence, walle01 entered the faction as a regular citizen. Given the reputation of walle01 and his status as server administrator, his joining Respublica represented the final death of the old worlds' politics and the continued hedgemony of Respublica. Furthermore, with the faction power walle01 offered by his own account and his alt accounts, walle01 officially ushered in Respublica into the status of empire.

This status was unexpectedly lost on 12 January 2018 when walle01 left Respublica, with all his alts, and joined the vassal state of Astroika. Unbeknownst to walle01, his choice to leave without prior consent from an officer of Respublica was an illegal act, which would have merited disciplinary action, and was doubly damaging because it costed Respublica the much desired empire status. In addition, Astroika's choice to invite walle01 broke the vassal's implied promise to Respublica to avoid acting against Respublican interests. Although Respublica understood these misunderstandings could have been resolved diplomatically, an informal meeting between the Consuls and Duces concluded a military intervention would have resulted in the greatest results for the faction.

In the short time after Respublica lost her empire status, her leadership insisted that Astroika remove walle01 from the faction and that they also pay a tribute to Respublica as a reestablishment of the vassalage. Given Astroika's disinterest in war and the more immediate problem of having a weak military, Astroikan leaders accepted the peace terms and provided the tribute on the condition that walle01 be removed from Astroika only after a proper trial. Respublican leaders accepted this condition and peace was, temporarily, secured.

The following morning walle01 was informed of the events and consequences of his actions. Despite now being fully aware of the law he had unknowingly broken and the small conflict which ensued, he rejected the opportunity to be vindicated at a trial. For reasons unknown, perhaps mostly out of personal pride and arrogance, walle01 was offended by the carelessness Respublican leaders reacted to this incident and, as a result, chose to make his own faction for the express purpose of warring against Respublica.

*Consequences*

These results had surprised, to one degree or another, most of the leadership which were involved in this affair (including Astroikan leadership). Given they had paid their tribute and walle01 was removed from the faction, Astroika was returned as a vassal to Respublica and walle01 was declared an enemy of the state on the ground of breaking the law which stated all faction citizens must receive permission before leaving the faction.

The Walle01 Affair demonstrated to many how the confusing and numerous laws were arguably impossible for the average citizen to abide by and that the Duces, who were responsible for creating and enforcing these laws, were not lenient should there ever be a misunderstanding of the rules. This dichotomy of impossible rules and unforgiving leaders led to the conclusion that the Respublican system had changed into an oppressive dictatorship.

**The Great Betrayals**

*Introduction*

Throughout all previous forms of Respublican government, there had been political divisions. Since the Respublican Uprising, these divisions filled the faction citizenry with a strong passion and a desire to assert their own views into the affairs of governing the republic. In instances such as the Fourth Great War, Respublican citizens were divided on the legitimacy of the conflict and some took extreme steps of civil disobedience against the Senate and other leadership. However the Respublican Civil War was different from these previous conflicts. Although the Duces never claimed to be infallible, their cults of personality (especially that of geko96) gave a different impression to some faction citizens. Among some, this cult was embraced as patriotism, while others were always cautious of it. Upon the advent of the Walle01 Affair, this cult of personality ultimately worked against the Duces, as their grandiose behaviour laid the groundwork for a multiplicity of interpretations, the worst of which inspired notions of rebellion which had never before been carried out in Respublican politics. Furthermore, due to the speed at which the conspiracy was carried out, it is understood that these sentiments against the Duces were legitimate but also never discussed.

*The First Conspirators*

Although the Duces were equally unhappy with the results of the Walle01 Affair, they failed to realize how unpopular this event had made them. The unpopularity which the Walle01 Affair caused began to intensify as this brought greater attention to rules which immediately effected the lives of players within the faction (i.e. land laws and taxes). By connecting the Walle01 Affair to the long-standing dislike for taxes, Consul rudytudy14 managed to exploit the growing tensions between various Senatorial and military officials and the Duces, especially Dux geko96. By establishing the figure of the enemy and inflaming the dislike for the Respublican rules, rudytudy14 began to successfully orchestrate a rebellion by collaborating with other notable Senators and Respublican military officials.

The second in command in this rebellion would be SwiftLock. SwiftLock was a seasoned fighter and Legate of the First Legion. Although warfare had been maintained against lesser powers, the conflicts never truly exercised the full abilities SwiftLock possessed. Furthermore, the Legate was as equally shocked as many other Respublican citizens by the militant decision to attack a vassal state to Respublica. Although it is unclear whether SwiftLock was aware of rudytudy14's collaboration and involvement in deciding to attack Astroika, rudytudy14 still managed to win over SwiftLock - thus providing the soon-to-be rebels with all the resources available to the Legate.

*The Final Traitors*

By maintaining the number of conspirators to a small number, rudytudy14 ensured the plot to overthrow the Duces would be carried out in a quick and efficient manner. Additionally, to strengthen his claims that the Duces had become tyrannical, the Consul unclaimed little and kicked out none of the citizens who were yet to involve themselves in the upcoming war. Upon declaring war and placing under rebel control the Senate Hall and the center tower, the seemingly lack of belligerence against Respublican citizens drew out more Senators who saw opportunity and power by following the more war-ready rebels.

The first Senator to take this opportunity was ColdVenam. ColdVenam had always held a better relationship with rudytudy14 than the Duces. However, this did not mean he was opposed to the Duces. Quite the contrary, ColdVenam frequently allied himself with the Duces during Senate Meetings and openly supported the unpopular tax policies, which he also carried out as leading Quaestor. However, perhaps hungry for more than the revenue of taxes and sensing greater security under the Consul's protection, ColdVenam defected to the Kaiserreich and was subsequently made an officer of the new regime.

Scottliame was similar to ColdVenam in the sense that he too had shared good relations with both rudytudy14 and the Duces, but differed in that he was not as moderate during Senate Meetings. Scottliame opposed the tax policies and at times refused to comply with the mandates of the Senate, which impeded him from performing his favorite duties as an Aedilis. Yet, despite the promises of power and freedom, Scottliame would defect to the rebels only to act as a spy for the Duces. Unfortunately for the Duces, this insurgency would be almost immediately uncovered by rudytudy14 and would result in Scottliame retiring from being an active participant in the conflict, choosing to instead build for Kaiserreich lands which were stolen from Respublica.

Shortly after ColdVenam and Scottliame had left Respublica, many citizens, who were already either part of another faction or were never fully integrated within Respublican culture left. Although there were some notable names, these people were never particularly active before nor during the conflict. However, their combined exodus cut the Respublican population in half, causing massive amounts of land to be unclaimed in order to keep more important strongholds such as Treve, Atacama, and the Spire.

*Consequences*

The events immediately following the unclaiming of various Respublican territories was an attempt to make peace with the rebels in hopes that, by satisfying their demands, the faction could reunite. Unfortunately, the obviously weakened Respublica no longer offered the same sense of power that it had with its great population, furthermore Astroika saw an opportunity to establish itself at a far superior footing compared to Respublica by merging with the Kaiserreich and creating Asterreich. This inspired other allies of Respublica to abandon her call to arms and preferring to either stay neutral or join the rebels. Additionally, Dux Seanslayer soon left Respublica after a mutual agreement was decided between him and Dux geko96, which provided Seanslayer immunity from the devastation of the war and allowed the faction to migrate away from the Spire (which was an unpopular location for the faction to have its capital).

**Asterreich Merger Dissolution and the rise of TheFederation**

*Introduction*

Once the Rsspublica began creating a new capital, Asterreich did likewise. During this time, Asterreich were unclear as to where this new capital was - leaving both sides an ample amount of time to construct the major sections of their new cities. Soon, however, Asterreich did locate the new capital of Respublica and a series of attacks were launched against the settlement. During this time, TheFederation was recruited by Asterreich to assist in these series of attacks. As the frequency of the attacks increased, Respublica continued to lose more power. Unexpectedly, however, TheFederation began to attack independently of Asterreich requests and were soon the majority of attackers leading charges against the relatively defenseless Respublicans.

*Civil War to World Conflict*

During the same time that TheFederation attacks increased in frequency on Gekoli, the Respublican capital, multiple other events were taking shape.

Firstly, Respublica began to see a fair spike in population despite the attacks and losses from the war. Through cunning diplomacy, Respublican leadership merged with various small factions and recruited new people to their ranks. Ironically, this population increase did little to stop their enemies and, instead, offered an infuriating incentive to TheFederation and Asterreich so to prove the era of Respublica had come to an end.

In addition to the increase in Respublican numbers, the decrease in Asterreich citizens was also an unexpected and interesting development. As Asterreich citizens stopped participating in the war, the population began to decline somewhat, leaving Asterreich as the supporting faction to the much less militarily adept TheFederation. Between the desire to prove itself superior to Asterreich and the new hegemonic power to Respublica, TheFederation launched a relatively aggressive propaganda campaign declaring itself to be the greatest military strength in the world.

Exhausted by the lack of involvement within his own faction and annoyed by the growing arrogance of his allies, the leading Asterreich military official, rudytudy14, left the faction he helped create. Although it can be speculated this move was because Asterreich was no longer taking its revolution and crusade against Respublica as seriously as he anticipated, rudytudy14's personal motives for making this decision are not publicly certain.

*Consequences*

Regardless of whatever the personal motivations were for making the choices he made, rudytudy14, the strongest voice calling to continue the civil war, left the Asterreich with little to no reason to continue the war. In addition, the decreased activity of her players caused Asterreich to rapidly go through a short period of instability. This moment was exploited by Respublican leadership as a major raid was launched known as the Pillage of the Asterreich and a subsequent request for peace was accepted by the Asterreich leader, Bolsheviks - marking the end to the Respublican Civil War.

## Battles

**Battle of Old Lethegarde**

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**Siege of The Spire**

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**Siege of Gekoli**

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**The Pillage of the Asterreich**

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