The Magdamolia

The **Magdamolia** was an extended period of political instability and social unrest that culminated in the demise of the Dinamid Republic, the end of the Caliphate of Perth, the destruction of Espios, the Cultural Cleanse, and the rise of Gaius Olivius and subsequent Goodfellow rule.

The exact dates of the Magdamolia are unclear because, according to the High Pontiff Velzar, "the Dinamid Republic was the sick man of the Tomyrian for many centuries."

Likewise, the causes and attributes of the crises changed throughout the decades, including the forms of slavery, brigandage, wars internal and external, land reform, political violence, the invention of excruciating new punishments, the expansion of Dinamid citizenship, and even the changing religious composition of the Dinamid armies.

Modern scholars also disagree about the nature of the crisis. Traditionally, the expansion of citizenship, with all its rights, privileges, and duties, was looked upon negatively by the initial Anti-Parish, because it caused internal dissension, disputes with Dinamid regions, slave revolts, and riots. However, other scholars have argued that as the Dinamid Republic was meant to be the essential thing of the people, the poor and disenfranchised can not be blamed for trying to redress their legitimate and legal grievances.

Though there is disagreement regarding when it truly began, it is usually accepted that between the end of the Second Perthic War in 131 NCE and Gaius Olivius becoming Emperor in CE 34 encompasses the Magdamolia.

## Etymology

The Magdamolia is named for a rare type of magnolia tree that perishes during its first winter unless it is cultivated in the art of *bonsai*. This particularly type of magnolia was believed to be magical and give its *bonsai* master good fortune. Though it is difficult to properly take care of, after approximately a year of work with little feedback, the first blossoming of the magnolia blossom in spring will be marked with thousands of petals to the relief of the tender. The display is known as the Magdamolia.

The magnolia tree was one of the symbols associated with the Virilo genus, and Gaius Olivius chose the act of the Magdamolia as a metaphor for the pain and ugliness of the past century as the work needed for a new, more beautiful world to flourish in his memoir *I Bring Peace*. The name has since been used extensively, though it is also sometimes referred to as the "Fall of the Dinamid Republic," despite the broader global context.

## The role of Kaiser and *quaestor*

Since the beginning of the Dinamid Republic, the Cult of Melakesh has played a critical role in its founding myth and its institution. The two offices that held the most influence, and which are critical to the Magdamolia, are the offices of Kaiser and *quaestor*.

### Emergence of the Kaiser

The office of Kaiser was an annually elected office in Dinam that governed who would control the Dinamid military. After the disaster of the last Dinamid king Rivec, the establishment of the Republic forbade any one man to rule Dinam, and also forbade any man who creates laws to manage the military. As a result, the Senate was created, as well as the sub-Senatorial office of Kaiser, both of which were to be voted on annually.

The Kaiser was the master of all Dinamid legions, and had certain responsibilities while appointed as Kaiser. These included not entering Lenorum after the initial rites making him Kaiser, not bringing any legions into *Solernia* except a quarter-legion kept as retainer, and not running again after losing an election. The Kaiser was the most powerful single position in the Dinamid Republic, but was the most fatal at times. Kaisers who committed crimes against Dinam or mishandled their legions were often executed in brutal fashion.

The fear of tyranny was strong in Dinam, and because of this, any individual who ruled as Kaiser was kept in check by the Senate, and the people of Dinam often did not vote for a Kaiser more than once. Only in outstanding circumstances would a Kaiser be named *dictator*, in which he was given certain Senatorial rights only to protect Dinam for a short period of time, usually during war.

The Kaiser was a much-sought duty and office, and though there is a long list of hardly notable Kaisers, many of the legendary figures in Dinamid history were Kaisers at some time.

### Role of the *quaestor*

The Dinamid Inquisition was used in two main ways: a role to keep the Senate in check, with inquisitive power able to remove Senators from office, leading investigations into prolific crimes such as murder or grand larceny; and to suppress the voting rights of lesser Dinamid regions.

One alleged oversight of this position was that the Senate was the organization the *quaestor* was set to monitor, but it was also the organization that selected the *quaestor*. The belief of one *quaestor*, Tiberius Garo, was that if corruption occurred, the Senators could be voted out. However, this earned criticism from later Senators, who agreed that this rendered the position of *quaestor* useless.

After the acquisition of Perepolis and the dissolving of the Perthic Caliphate, a slave revolt occurred and the Tanabur Conspiracy was uncovered: the *emir* of Lonen had attempted to support Perepolis against the slave revolt, and several Senators of Dinam deliberately foiled their attempts in order to help the revolting slaves. One of the revolting slaves, Tanabur, was set to gain power in Perepolis as he was loyal to the Dinamid Senate.

Dinamians, especially Kaiser Horace Tigrios, were furious, despite the fact that the tieflings who were subjected to the worst of the conspiracy were also their greatest foes. The Kaiser announced in the Lenorum Common Forum, "as Dinamians, we hold our vows of peace. This will not stand, or we are no longer Dinam, and no sons of Melakesh."

After the Senators were crucified in Lenorum, among many other changes, the Senate made the role of *quaestor* a popular election instead of a Senatorial one. This would set the stage for the Saturninus brothers.

## Cornelius and Tiro Saturninus

### Background

Pereglius describes 116 NCE, "[...] as the gears of a greater Republic were beginning to turn." With the resolution of large-standing conflicts such as the Perthic Wars, there were a few apparently minor problems, such as "the annoyance of a disobedient, but irrelevant *Illyria*," under the Poison King.

At the same time, Dinamid society had arrived at is destined conclusion: a highly stratified class system whose divisions were bubbling below the surface. This system consisted of noble families of the senatorial rank, the knight or equestrian class, land-owning citizens, commoners, and at the bottom, slaves.

By law, only men who were citizens could vote in certain assemblies, and only men who were entered into the Cult of Melakesh could enter the military, where their honor and claim to Dinam could be trusted by the Senate and Kaiser. In addition, the Senate was to be composed of representatives of two elected Senators from each region by popular vote, and only one due to *quaestor* interference. The number of regions under Dinamid control had now expanded to the point that *Solernia* no longer held the majority in the Senate even with Senatorial suppression, and the non-noble patricians in the satellite regions were now in a place of relative power. This also decreased the relevance of the Cult of Melakesh, a previously unattested majority in the Senate and military.

The government owned large tracts of public farmland that it had gained through conquest or *escheat*, acquisition from owners who had died without heirs; this it rented out to large landholders who used their slaves to till it or who sub-leased it to small tenant farmers. It was also occasionally divided among notable soldiers and statesmen, such as Brutus Draco. There was some social mobility and limited suffrage.

There was also particular disparity in terms of religion; descendents of the Masagatae and Senerite peoples in the south have long since worshipped the sun and moon in the Cult of Saclis, as well as many minor mystery cults. Conversely, the heartlands of *Solernia* and its nearby cultural influences were where the Cult of Melakesh was strongest. Consequently, the stratification of the classes also meant that religions became tiered. This played a major role in the Magdamolia and its outcome.

### Cornelius Saturninus

After being elected as *quaestor* by popular vote in 116 NCE, Saturninus tried to redress the grievances of displaced small-landowners. He employed the use of rhetoric to turn the position into a political pulpit. As he could address the Senate and commoners in the Common Forum, he could directly accuse the Dinamid Senate of crimes that were more metaphorical; rather than accusing a Senator of murder, as an example, he would accuse them of "ignoring the wills of the common folk in their woes." Saturninus applied such pressure to the Senate that they were heavily pressured into passing a law limiting the amount of land belonging to the state that any individual could farm. This would have resulted in the breakup of the large plantations maintained by the rich on public land and worked by slaves.

Saturninus' moderate plan of agrarian reform was motivated "to increase the number of Dinamians who owned land and consequently the number who would qualify as soldiers and even Senators." The plan had a goal of increasing the efficiency of farmland, while doling out small parcels of land to tenant farmers, his populist constituency. Saturninus used a law that had been in place since the role of *quaestor* was founded, which was that they could remove Senators from their position as well as call for popular votes on issues to bypass the Senate. This political pressure forced the Senate to review his laws. Another *quaestor*, Taritus Mandus, scuttled the plan, however. It is believed he received a bribe from the Senate to do so.

The crisis escalated: Saturninus impeached Mandus successfully and removed him from office; the Senate denied funds to the commission needed for land reform; Saturninus then tried to use money out of a trust fund his father left him from his service in the Perthic Wars; the Senate too blocked this attempt. At one point, Saturninus "struck a Senator in the assembly with a closed fist, raving about the commoners in the Forum, who too joined in the fray." Saturninus sought re-election to his one-year term, which was unprecedented in an era of strict term limits, and he gained significant support and it was clear he was going to win, and by the end, he was running unopposed.

The oligarchic nobles responded by murdering Cornelius Saturninus in the streets. Because Saturninus had been highly popular with the poor, and he had been murdered while working on their behalf, mass riots broke out in the city in reaction to the assassination.

The role of the Cult of Saclis in acting as a patron and protector of the poor and the needy was reinforced during this era to great effect. These roles were "exploited for the purposes of political propaganda during the crisis of the Saturninus brothers [...]" according to Pereglius. Qemuel asserts that he, "fears what would ever to happen should the pagans in the temples dedicated to Saclis should take hold of power."

The Avarine Temple near the Common Forum in Lenorum as cult center, legal archive, treasury, and court of law for many of the lower class. The lives and property of those who violated the laws of Saclis were forfeit to the cult, so long as they were committed to the cult prior. While the laws of Melakesh were immutable and structural to the Dinamid Republic, the official decrees of the Senate were transcribed in temples to Saclis. Antarch bluntly states this was done so that the Senators could not arbitrarily tamper with the laws of Dinam.

The murder of Saturninus, having taken place so close to the Avarine Temple, embroiled the rage of the common class, and further strengthened the relative strength of the Cult of Saclis.

### Tiro Saturninus

About nine years later the younger brother of Cornelius, Tiro, passed more radical reforms as *quaestor*. In addition to settling the poor in colonies on land conquered by the Dinamid legions in the east, he passed a law which gave the poor the right to buy grain at subsidized prices. The Senate feared that the former would certainly result in their replacement in the Senate; the latter would cripple the margins of their own grain plantations.

In the past, the Senate eliminated political rivals by influencing a *quaestor* to coordinate judicial hearings for distasteful Senators or political powers. Alternatively, their political clout allowed them to simply make baseless accusations against opponents, which were almost always held as true by the public, forcing resignation.

Some of Tiro's followers rioted after the Common Forum was blocked by a wall of mercenaries hired by the Senate. Without the popular support in the Forum, the Senate believed Saturninus would flounder and lack political leverage. Instead, the commoners rioted, and caused the death of one of the hired men, Cissus Miro. The death was used by another *quaestor*, Peritus Optemus, to call for the capture of Saturninus to be tried for murder.

Saturninus fled Lenorum, helped by commoners along the way. However, he too was slain in front of the Avarine Temple, his head filled with lead, and brought to the Senate for payment. According to Antatch, Tiro was not killed directly by the Senate's mercenaries; he instead ordered his slave Theowyn to do the deed in a murder-suicide.

## Gaius Draco and Black Cato

The next major reformer of the time was Gaius Draco in 110 NCE, who like the Saturninus brothers, was a populist. Unlike them, he was also a Legate, and had existing renown as being the son of Brutus Mandus Draco, the man who killed Kulshedrex, as well as being the grandson of Horace the White Tiger, the most legendary of the contemporary Kaisers. Draco himself was known for his skills as Legate, often outshining the Kaiser.

Draco abolished the religious requirements for becoming a soldier. The common folk and venerators of Saclis enlisted in large numbers. This opening of the Army's ranks to the lower class enfranchised lesser mystery cults and commoners. Some elites complained that the army now became unruly due to the commoners in its ranks, but this is without good source. In fact, Antarch describes the armies as being far superior to those previously, especially with the Draconian reforms that made the military a much more cohesive entity.

Draco employed his soldiers to defeat an invasion by the Nodians of the west as a volunteer legion, and himself slew the dragon Nengaraxes in the War for *Velusia*. His political influence and military leadership allowed him to obtain six terms as Kaiser in a row from 107 NCE onward, an unprecedented honor.

However, on 10 December 100 NCE, a Senatorial-backed *quaestor* called for the arrest of a priestess and self-styled *quaestor* Gesabella Appella, who had been inciting violence in Lenorum on behalf of the Kaiser's interests. The Senate ordered Kaiser Gaius Draco to put down Appella and her supporters, who had taken defensive positions in the Common Forum. Draco besieged the Forum, but imprisoned Appella inside the Forum's courtyard intending to keep her alive. However, a Senatorial mob lynched the priestess regardless, by climbing atop the Senate House and throwing dislodged roof tiles down onto Appella and her supporters below.

The mysterious Black Cato, who was elected as Draco's *quaestor* in 97 NCE, later contested with Draco for supreme power. In 88 NCE, the Senate awarded Black Cato the lucrative and powerful post of commander in the war against Mithridates the Poison King. Draco, meanwhile, was too entrenched in Nodia to contest this decision made on his behalf. However, Draco managed to ride from Nodia to Lenorum in a few days time to secure the position.

Black Cato initially went along, but finding support among his troops, user black magic to deceive the Senate to give him the command of several legions, marched to *Illyria* with his soldiers. There, he fought a largely successful military campaign and was not persecuted by the Senate. Draco himself launched a coup in Black Cato's absence and put to death some of his enemies. He instituted a populist regime, but would find reproach shortly thereafter.

In the ensuing Crisis of Cato, Black Cato moved his entire army back to Lenorum in less than a single day using black magic. He also laid down a curse upon Gaius Draco and his close allies, who all began to perish suddenly. Their properties, forfeit to Black Cato, were also shared with those that informed him of their allegiance to Draco. Black Cato had positioned himself as an unquestionable ruler of Lenorum, until his sudden disappearance in 31 NCE.

Black Cato was joined by many aristocrats including Knight and Castor Trucidus Carnifax, and defeated all of his political opponents within a year. He began a dictatorship and purged the state of many populists through magical means, including divination. A reign of terror followed in which many innocents were denounced just so their property could be seized for the benefit of Black Cato and his cabal. Black Cato's coup resulted in a major victory for the oligarchs. He reversed the reforms of the populists, including the Saturninus brothers. Black Cato finally stripped the *quaestors* of much of their power and returned authority over the courts to the Senators.

## Cas the Spider and Horace Virilo

Cas the Spider was the next major leader who aggravated the crisis. Castor Trucidus was often called Cas the Spider by his political opponents, a jab at the Trucidus *genus* being linked to strange cults to spiders and scorpions. Castor as a young man was allied to Black Cato, but after his disappearance in 31 NCE, took up the position of Kaiser in his stead and began instigating the same conflicts Black Cato had sought to suppress. Kaiser Castor Trucidus suppressed revolts and rebellions in the years following by Black Cato's former generals, and the Senate bestowed the cognomen "Carnifax" as testament to his swift, successful military victories.

Kaiser Castor Carnifax's career was driven by desire for military glory and disregard for traditional political constraints. Pompey served next to Knight and Horace Virilo as part of the Dinamid Kabal, after the young, popular and successful Kaiser was ousted by the Senate. Cas the Spider refused to disband his legions until the Senate either allowed him to run as Kaiser again, or granted his legions estate along the Salissan Sea. They relented on the latter, and here his veterans retired in one place with great support for the general.

Knight and Cas the Spider infamously grew to hate each other, with Horace Virilo being the sole thread holding the Kabal together. Cas the Spider was granted Legate status by Horace Virilo during the initial campaigns in Prace, which ended right before the Iron Crusade and led to a triumph for the Legate. The Legate's brutal destruction of foreign temples across Numendor and Lorendor, in addition to his enslavement of more than eight out of ten elves in northern Prace, led to a massive diaspora that drove many elves into Tethryndor and Selendor. This discord was only possible thanks to Cas the Spider's actions.

While many of Cas the Spider's reckless actions ultimately increased the unstable nature of the Magdamolia, his split with Knight and Kaiser Horace Virilo is cited
as being especially dangerous to the stability of the Republic. Cas the Spider, who was courting Eurydice of the House of the Asp, was distraught to find that Horace Virilo's success in the Iron Crusade had won her favor and that the two were wed. Knight led an ill-fated campaign into Arcadia that led to his horrific defeat and death. The Kabal was split by these two actions, and Cas the Spider vowed vengeance.

Horace Virilo gained massive public acclaim with his serials detailing the "Iron Crusade," though the Senate and Cas the Spider worked together to have the records of the campaign stricken from the Erudition. Later editions were destroyed by the Rosicrucians, and no copies remain today. Edica has proposed evidence that it was almost certainly the conquering of Prace as a whole, though later historians have reservations with this conclusion.

Horace Virilo was able to use his wife's position to influence the Wayfinders of Espios to select puppet rulers that would heavily tax *Lydia*. In turn, the funds generated by Espios were used to subsidize the taxes of the Dinamid Republic, which led to Kaiser Horaxe Virilo's popularity soaring to even greater heights. Cas the Spider, in turn, had the Senate incorporate *Lydia* as an official province and region of the Republic, which would wipe out Kaiser Horace Virilo's subsidies. In addition, the waning support of the Emirate of Lonen was reignited with the promise that the territory would be under their own *emir*, and that they too would receive representation in the Senate. This was simply a ploy: the belief was that Kaiser Horace Virilo would be forced to abandon his position as Kaiser, Lonen would be divided up by the Senate as to not be a threat nor have any Senators in Lenorum, and Espios would remain a polity and grain source.

Unexpectedly, Kaiser Horace Virilo issued the Castigation of Espios: the Kaiser installed his legions in Espios, claimed it as his own, and attempted to bring his wife and child to rule Espios as an independent state. This simultaneously enraged the Senate and Lonen: the *emir* learned of the plot through the issued decree and redirected an army meant for Cascadia to *Solernia*. This began the Thirty Years' Siege. Horace Virilo had his longtime friend and sometimes rival Visello prepare plans to leave the city and get his family to safety, though Horace Virilo was lured to the Senate by Cas the Spider and murdered before he could escape himself.

Eurydice, Virilo's wife, remained in *Solernia* to direct plans away from the ensuing chaos in Espios and the siege by Lonen, which day by day was taking a toll on the residents as they slowly trickled out of the city. Eurydice plotted and schemed with friendly Senators in Lenorum during this perilous period, eventually leading to the attempted capture of Cas the Spider (though he would kill himself while in captivity).

## Gaius Olivius

The resentment of the cult of Saclis toward the ruling class had manifested in the Rosicrucians, who were Catalani serving a subversive "emperor" Saturn. Claiming to be the actual celestial body, Saturn began a process called the Cultural Cleanse in which his Catalani supporters slowly destroyed, burned, and vandalized any culturally significant locations or icons. This occurred in Lenorum and in virtually every settlement in Dinam. Saturn also attempted to create "wedges" that would leave gaps in knowledge regarding both Themyscria and the Republic, though covering the history in its totality was less than effective than stripping its culture.

The Erudition was at risk of being destroyed, but a number of Senators and an *equites* named Velzar helped prevent this by having it relocated to *Madelia* in secret. This group of patricians formed a coalition called the Anti-Parish, which allied with Eurydice in attempting to stop the Cultural Cleanse as well as eventually ending the Thirty-Years Siege. The hope of the Anti-Parish was to groom a new leader, Horace Virilo's son, to take over the Republic and reform it under a new government, as the Republic itself was effectively useless and could not enforce its own edicts.

The Cultural Cleanse was so effective, that the only information known about "true" Dinamid Culture comes from outlying settlements untouched by the Catalani, the City of Marble warded by Anti-Parish leader Velzar, and culture implied by accounts disseminated in non-Dinamid territories (such as Qemuel's memoirs attested to in documents found in Perepolis).

Gaius Virilo arrived in Lenorum with his 1st Legion in CE 30, and quickly earned the support of the Anti-Parish after the Battle of Scorpions. The battle, the first of the Olivian Wars, was a lopsided battle of less than 500 veteran legionnaires and over 10,000 Lonenites, in which the Lonenites were slain to a man. Though contested by Velzar at the outset, Gaius Virilo wrote his introductory memoir *I Bring Peace* to a war-weary and receptive population; the memoir was widely copied and spread across the former state of Dinam. Gaius Virilo also had supportive veterans carry copies into the former towns and villages and read the memoir to the illiterate populations there, spreading his message and earning him widespread support.

Intensely popular, the Senate (now a shadow of itself) declared Virilo to be Emperor, and officially ended any semblance of the old Republic. Though he did everything in his power to oppose it, once Velzar disappeared along with his wealth and influence, Gaius Virilo ascended to his new status and began his campaigns across the Old World. This concluded the Magdamolia.