Lokelian Revolution

Painting by Aeli Darith, titled "Empire in Flames", depicting the Sacking of Lokeli

### Outcome

Dissolution of the Lokelian Empire
Founding of the:

Lokelian People's Republic

Silonian Democratic Republic

Second Alekan Republic

Thesolian People's Democratic Republic

The Lokelian Revolution was a sixty year long period in Andromedian History that featured years of conflict, political upheaval, genocide, and destruction. Historians agree that the start date of the revolution was 2620, the beginning of the causal stage, even though that was before any true revolutionary activity had begun. Across the sixty year long period, human controlled Andromeda went through a maelstrom of conflict and political revolution. The revolution is broken up into eight stages.

The seeds of revolution began in 2620, when newly crowned Emperor Aeron of the Lokelian Empire, proclaimed the Damnation Policy, an imperial decree that ordered the mass execution of over fourteen million Golics, and the creation of Hell Camps. This action was so because of Aeron being an Ameronist. Ameronism had been created thirteen years prior, as an ideology that focused heavily on the superiority of Frethics to Golics. This extreme show of the radicalism of Aeron just two years after his coronation, prompted many Lokelians rich and poor, liberal and conservative to show concern for the future of the empire. This is known as the causal stage.

In 2625, the first retaliation against Aeron's genocidal regime took place. An attack on the Aeroni Hell Camp startled the empire. The liberation raid was conducted by twenty-eight unorganized radical liberals, who freed all Golic prisoners and executed all guards. This is the beginning of the reactive stage. The only response Aeron mustered was an increase in the security of the camps. Doubling the amount of combat skinned troops, and arming all guards with projection weapons. Aeron wanted to make sure, that when the next liberation raids happen, they would not succeed.

The political stage of the revolution started in 2629, when Aemoni Gamonsith founded the Graveyard Party, a new political faction within the empire. It was according to Aemoni, a ". . . gathering of concerned liberals of the empire." And nothing more. However, this was the first and only organized resistance against Aeron at the time. Radical liberals had no recourse other than themselves, and liberation raids remained unorganized and arbitrary. The Graveyard Party was founded for the specific purpose of making the empire worry about Aeron.

Unfortunately for the party, Aemoni would die of health complications in 2634, leaving the political stage behind, and sending the empire into the dangerous volatile stage of the revolution. Aemoni left his leadership position to Aerath Terongal, a close friend and advisor. However, Aerath had a much larger reputation. He was a dedicated revolutionary socialist, being a member of outlawed Free-Peoples Party. And Aerath was determined to transform the Graveyard Party into the frontline for the end of the empire. Just a year after his rise to power, he merged the Free-Peoples Party and the Graveyard Party to make the Revolutionary Party of Socialists and Liberals in 2635. Afterwards, he would seriously restrict liberals within the party, making it clear that he wanted the radicals in command. In these years, Aerath would instigate many incidents in the empire while trying to spread revolutionary socialism. The largest incident was the Angerae Crisis. This was an unintentional revolt in the Mideastern colony of Angerae. Revolutionary socialists had overthrown the local government and proclaimed a revolutionary state that did not recognize the authority of the imperial crown in 2636. Aeron's response was swift, but bloody. Eight million people died in the following invasion by imperial forces to retake the planet. In 2637, Aerath would make the Revolutionary Party of Socialists and Liberals into the Revolutionary Socialist Party.

In 2638, the revolutionary stage begun when Aerath proclaimed the Lokelian Revolutionary Council, a proto-state that broke away from the empire. The entire eastern portion of the empire joined the council. Not a month after, the Silonian revolutionary socialists proclaimed their Silonian Revolutionary Council after the so-called Glorious Purge. Fighting would break out immediately between the empire and the two councils. A year later, the Thesolian Republic and the First Alekan Republic declared independence from the empire without causing any conflict. However, the Alekans would not be safe from the revolution, as in 2640, the republic collapsed in the Alekan Civil War. The Silonian and Lokelian revolutionaries would fight a relatively swift war against the empire, capturing Lokeli in 2651. In what is known as the Sacking of Lokeli, Lokelian revolutionaries invaded the planet and set Vae-Lokel ablaze. During the battle, Emperor Aeron was defenestrated at his own palace. His body hung upside down and desecrated by crowds of revolutionaries.

When the empire was effectively eliminated in 2651, the revolution entered the anarchy stage. The effects of war and devastation hit the Silonians and Lokelians hard. Their newly formed states licked their wounds, as other powers grew around them. The Alekans ended their civil war in the Paerithian Treaty, making the highly unstable Second Alekan Republic. Special nations called splinter nations broke away from the immediate powers during the Pretenderist Revolt that lasted throughout the stage. The largest one of these was the Imperial Federation, an amalgamation of colonies that still held a considerable amount of ex-imperial troops and personnel. The largest event that happened during this time was the Four Year War. The Thesolian Republic fell to revolutionaries in the Winter Insurgency, quite unexpectedly. In a panicked response, the Federation went to war with the Winterist Thesolian Republic in 2660, who was able to pull the Lokelian Revolutionary State and the Silonian Provisional Democratic Government into the war. The war ended in 2664 with the Imperial Federation being annexed into the LRS, and the Thesolian People's Democratic Republic being founded.

The end of the Four Year War signaled the start of the reform stage, where the four immediate powers began to solidify their power. In these years, the LRS and Silonian PDG invaded many planets who claimed to be another nation or power. By 2668, the Pretenderist Revolt ended with the last splinter nations being absorbed into the immediate powers. Then two years of negotiation between all four powers ends with the Dissolution Treaty of 2670. In this treaty, the Lokelian Empire was officially dissolved into four states: the Lokelian People's Republic, Silonian Democratic Republic, Second Alekan Republic, and Thesolian People's Democratic Republic. This is called the end stage, where the four powers became legitimate. The revolution was deemed over in 2680 by Grand Councillor Agerae of the LPR, who stated that ". . . we have triumphed over tyranny, and we have come out of the fire as a glorious people united by a common cause."

## Seeds of Conflict

Ever since the Lokelian War of Unification, the Lokelian Empire was a shadow of its former self. Plagued by massive overextension and poverty, the empire seemed to be destined to fall to revolution. Luckily for the empire however, Emperor Aserae launched the New Work and Development for Outer Colonies Program in 2606. The idea was relatively simple, create a workforce for impoverished and underdeveloped colonies by using the ostracized Golics within the empire. By using the heavily restricted and policed population of four million Golics, Aserae hoped to revamp the economic power of the empire, as it was quickly deteriorating due to debt. But this was not the only problem the Development Project hoped to fix. The further and further one got away from Lokeli, the more poor the empire became. As Lokelians lived a lavish lifestyle in Lokeli, the rest of the empire suffered. The Development Project sought to reconnect the crown with the colonial people.

Surprisingly to Aserae, the Development Project was hated by the public. It was the idea of using the Golics as a paid workforce that startled the Lokelian people. And there was one man who expressed these views in a detailed manifesto, the *Golic Problem* by Ameron Amderae. Ameron expressed the idea that Golics should not be allowed to get paid, or else they may attempt to overthrow the crown with their new wealth. As the Golics migrated to the colonies, feelings got stronger for the new Ameronists. Unexpected levels of violence, rejection, and slavery prompted Aserae to forcefully stop the Development Project in 2609. The results of the project's three year life was the dissemination of the Golics from Lokeli. By 2610, over 2.5 million Golics were living in the outer colonies, working for small wage, no wage, or not working at all. Overall, there was no increase in colonial development, and the projects secondary objective of making the crown look strong and caring about its people failed.

Ameronism stayed as a lingering effect of the Development Project within the empire. Thought it was concentrated in the eastern colonies where most of the Golics were sent, there were people even in Lokeli who were swayed by the ideology. The most notable Ameronist was none other than the Prince himself, Aeron. He openly proclaimed himself as a "follower of the ideas of Ameron" in 2614, and an ardent believer in further radical positions against Golics.

## The Causal Stage (2620-2625)

In 2618, Emperor Aserae passed away, leaving his son to the imperial throne. In his coronation speech, Aeron promised the Lokelian people the long-sought solution to the Golic problem, but did not fully announce what he had planned. Two years later in 2620, Aeron announced the new Damnation Policy, which was the supposed solution. The policy was an imperial decree, and ordered that the current population of Golics in the empire (around 14 million) be reduced to exactly 500,000. That small remainder was to be placed in isolated "Hell Camps", where they would ". . . experience hell on earth like we all did so very many years ago." according to Aeron. Within two weeks of its proclamation, imperial death squads were sent out to the outer colonies to begin the genocide. They worked their way backwards to Lokeli. In total, the genocide (commonly called "initial executions") killed 14,067,653 Golics, reducing their population to exactly 500,000. As planned, twenty-five Hell Camps were constructed, there only ever being one on any planet, holding at most 20,000 inmates.

This breathtaking show of Aeron's radicalism shook the entirety of the empire. Never before in Andromedian history has such a genocide took place, and all sides of the political system were outraged. Conservatives who would normally always vouch for the Emperor, censured the policy, while liberals (who normally always challenged imperial ideas) treated the policy with revile. But even with the attitude towards the policy, nothing was immediately done. As Lokelian death teams moved across the far east, burning and killing, reactions remained minimal. The lack of physical opposition resulted in the policy accomplishing its goals of reducing and detaining the Golic population of the empire.

The activity of the Hell Camps on each planet was what made the impact. The camps were made to be discreet, not entirely unknown, but not necessarily in the public eye. No one that did not work at the camps were allowed within a five mile radius of the facility. This was for many reasons, including public safety and secrecy. Security was lighter than expected as well. Only twenty combat skinned guards were at each camp, and all twenty of them were armed with projection weapons, the other eighty guards were regular infantry. Inside the actual camps, torture was a daily occurrence. It is important to recognize that these were not work camps, or simple prison camps, these were vast swaths of land dedicated to the torture of Golics. And because of this, it is surprising to find out that medical care was quite common. Treating the inmates with utmost medical attention and stellar aid and care was at first comforting, but then disheartening when the reason for that is to prolong the suffering in the Hell Camp.

As information of the conditions in the camps leaked out to the public via guards, workers, or even mailmen, the general public became aware of what was happening in their country. This became a call to arms for some, and in 2625, the empire was shaken to its very foundations.

## Reactive Stage (2525-2629)

In 2625, twenty-four unaffiliated radical liberals attacked and "liberated" the Aeroni Hell Camp. The attack took place during the night, and all twenty-four successfully eliminated sixty-three of the hundred guards, freeing about two-thousand Golics. This was the first Liberation Raid. It was also the first form of violent opposition to Aeron's regime, and therefore a wake-up call for the regime.