The Olive Wars

The Olive Wars was a series of five civil wars fought between 1367 and 1409 within the Sultanate of Chorene, sparked by a dispute of olive taxes, which cost the sultanate much of their international influence and greatly weakened the integrity of their state.

### First Olive War

In 1360, an incredible drought laid the many olive fields of the Magnian Horn scorched and barren. The peasants, having foreseen their devastating lack of produce earlier that summer had struck a deal with the lords of the region, who promised they would be exempt from tax until the following year.

However, for the past three years, Sultan Kakar II had faced an uprising led by a popular Red Priest named Damon Baiju. In late 1360, when he finally quelled the revolt, his footholds in Magnia were lost and the sultanate’s army had weakened greatly. Fearing that Vichin or the Ayyubid Empire might act on his weakness, he demanded all taxes be paid, disregarding the promises of his vassals. The angered peasants rose in bloody revolt, which was quickly ended by a large mercenary force under the sultan, marking the end of the first olive war.

To prevent further treason amongst the region’s peasants, Kakar ordered the construction of four new fortresses in the region, which was to be built by the treacherous peasants in forced labour camps.

### Second and Third Olive Wars

It was not only the peasants who had begun to dislike the sultan, however. Many nobles had grown unhappy watching power be increasingly lessened in favour of the throne, whilst having to supply increasingly higher taxes, and soon the second olive war was declared by his cousin, Krushaw Khan, at a council for several viziers of Chorene. The forces took Ezurum in 1371, and in 1372, the sultan was crushed by the viziers.

The sultan fled to Zis where he died in 1374, and after lengthy and heated discussions, the viziers divided the realm among his son and two daughters. The eldest, Kakuros II, assumed the rule of Pendosis, the Chorene capital, and the Flatlands. His sisters, Kaya and Kilij were set to rule the Magnian Horn under his administration. Feeling his claim to the throne had been ignored, Lord Krushaw held Kakar’s children in contempt, while another distant cousin of the former sultan, Karaman Yazi, marched his forces home without swearing fealty to the new sultan.

Karaman, who had also participated in Damon Baiju’s revolt years earlier, wasted no time in capturing the castles of loyalist lords in lands bordering his own. The third olive war began in 1281, when Karaman and his brother and sister, Zeyn and Perciva, under the pretext of supporting Kakar II, living in exile in Zis, marched towards Pendosis with 20.000 men. Here, they were met by loyalist forces who slew Karaman, defeated his army, and captured his brother and sister.

### Fourth Olive War

After Karaman’s death, his eldest son, Memet I, immediately negotiated alliances with mountain clansmen and petty nobles who were gliding away from Chorene control, to raise an army against Kakuros II.

In October 1386, Lord Krushaw declared war against the sultan. He defeated Kakuros near Pendosis and Kaya fled from the country where she died in 1399. Kilij was executed in 1388 and Krushaw I made himself sultan of Chorene. Taking advantage of the general confusion, Memet I captured Pendosis on May 13th and placed on the throne a pretender called Jirij, who claimed to be the son of Kakuros II. In the end, however, Memet was defeated by Krushaw’s forces and was executed in 1389, virtually ending the fourth olive war.

The Chorene state had started to split into factions, increasingly distancing themselves from the control of the sultan. In 1396, responding to a call from Chorene, the Emir of Ayyubid, raided Chorene and defeated Krushaw’s forces at the Battle of Maraz, but since the native forces who had called to him did not show themselves, he turned home, and Krushaw’s administration was re-assumed, officially and more severely than ever.

### Last Olive War

Near the end of his reign, Krushaw could only claim nominal sovereignty over his defiant subjects. Upon his death in 1404, his children garnered no love nor inspired loyalty from nobles and masses alike and a fifth war was brewing. A son of Kakuros II, Assana I, established herself as sultana in Kapan, but she was murdered in 1408 and her daughter Assana II soon afterwards. A distant relative to the dynasty, Cuphan Pitch-Black, momentarily installed himself as Emir of Pendosis, castrating Krushaw’s sons and marrying his daughters.

Rising against this cruelty was the granddaughter of Kakar II Yazi, Elyria II, who captured Konaya in 1409 and attacked Pendosis twice. She was driven out the first time by Cuphan, but on her second siege of the city, the locals opened the gates to let her in and as her army slew Cuphan’s, the two fought a legendary duel. It is said that every time their swords clashed, it could be heard all over the city until Cuphan finally fell. The fifth olive war ended there, and Elyria established a peaceful reign until her death in 1428.