Aletheian Civil War

The Aletheian Civil War lasted for nearly twenty years and
during that time destroyed all of the previous nation-states in the Lethi and
surrounding regions but led to the rise of the new Aletheian state.

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parties were still vastly popular in all the Ruthellian communes. The government
in Holkiskstad was simultaneously considered highly effective and immensely unpopular.

The start of the Great War on the Rumian continent combined
with Antetand’s surprising levels of success united most of the western Lethi
peoples under their hatred for Antetand and galvanized the nation’s response to
join the war. However, most of the nomadic peoples (the Mashkents, Ashkets,
Ulbatanis, and most of the population east of the Lethian Spine) were not
overly supportive of joining the war as they saw it as a way to ignore the
domestic issues going on in the nation and were more concerned with those and
the looming threat of the fairly powerful Ashketovan Horde, Red Horde, Galgamid
Khaganate, and other nomadic forces.

### **Antetand Sparks the Fire**

1908 saw the cataclysmic defeat of the Aletheian Army at the
battle Horschorn Forest which was for many of the fringe elements in Eastern
Aletheia finally enough. The Eastern Communes demanded an immediate armistice and
withdrawal from the conflict. The government in Holkiskstad refused and the
East went into full panic mode as massive armies from the surrounding hordes
began to pour across the Aletheian border. These hordes had been provided arms,
training, and tactical intelligence from Antetandi spies and black operations
teams and promised Tandi support during an invasion of Aletheia. Simultaneously,
Antetandi espionage elements had entrenched themselves in separatist groups in
all of the border regions and similarly promised military support if the groups
declared independence. While that support would never manifest, Antetand was
successful in starting mass rebellion all across the Aletheian frontier.

Aletheia was forced to immediately withdraw its armed forces
from the war to handle the rebellions. By the time the army could be redeployed
however the hordes and rebels had seized nearly all of the steppe and southern
drylands.

### **The Civil War Begins**

*While the official*
story as to what exactly marked the start of the Aletheian Civil War or who is directly
responsible varies greatly from historian to historian the following is the
official story supported by the Aletheian Government.

While conflict had been going on for nearly two years, the
Civil War only officially began on September 7th, 1909, when Derik Hellinson
and the Relik Party declared a vote of no confidence in the government in Holkiskstad
and ordered the arrest of the old guard elements from the Ruthellian era whom
they blamed for the chain of events that had led to the current state of the
nation. The Relik Party and their allies got within three blocks of the Rathaus
(parliament building) before loyalist elements of the army cut them off.
Official sources claim the Old Government were the ones to fire first.

Over the course of the following months the nation quickly
divided between supporting the Relik Party, the Old Government, and those who
simply wished to see their state independent. At this time the Aletheian Army
of the North, code named Project North, seized control of the entirety of the
Perkunis Mountain range and shut down all travel through and barricaded themselves
in.