Halcyon (Collapse Era)

—Henri Angier, stage magician, about to debut Electricity to Halcyon's Valentine Hall, mere hours before his murder on 3 Ižte 1567.

**Halcyon,** the **City of Stars**, was the largest and most developed city in Indratera. It was a complex and modern city-state, with deep layers of history, social dynamics, technology, and more. This page concerns Halcyon during the Collapse Era (from 0 C or 1945 TE onwards) i.e. after the God Wars. In short, after the God Wars, Halcyon was a fascist constitutional monarchy until 252, when a violent overthrow led to the establishment of a communist republic**.**

## Brief History to Date

* The village of **Yurontoq** was founded in the ninth millennium before zero by the Anoquit people, ethnic Gildegrans originally from the arctic circle
* In the second milennium before zero, the Vreigardt culture settled the town of **Reimostek** on its site
* When the Lusken Empire arrived in the 3rd century TE, they colonised a large port town, **Felonil** (previously called **Waterdeep** during my earliest campaigns before I changed the name)
* Felonil was the capital of the Lusken Empire in the Danderillon for over a thousand years
* In the 1510s, Felonil declared independence, declaring itself capital of **Scarossar** (the name for the surrounding countryside).
* In the 1560s, the Lakayan Federation invaded Felonil, liberating it from a one-year fascist shadow cabal government, and annexing it as part of the Lakayan Federation, of which it became the *capital*. They hereby named it Halcyon.
* During the God Wars (1600s), Halcyon was able to declare independence as the **Mandate of Halcyon**.
* At the start of the Collapse Era once the God Wars ended, Halcyon became a **Constitutional** monarchy.

## Social & Political Conditions, and Fascism

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A deep dive is available on the page Politics of Halcyon Collapse Era.

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From the start of the Collapse era (0 C) onwards, Halcyon was maintained as a constitutional monarchy. It crept closer and closer to fascism over these two centuries. This is a brief but complete overview of the social and political conditions. In addition, there were many notable government leaders during the 240s and up to 252, which you can see on this page.

* Halcyon as a nation was exalted above the individual. There was a centralised autocratic government. There were severe economic and social strata in place (the 5 estates), and forcible suppression of opposition. The mages as a minority were being murdered, blamed for the nation's problems, and scaremongered-about. In other words, it was textbook fascism.
* Halcyon was a constitutional monarchy.
* The people of the city were split into five social classes: Nobility, Clergy, Ministry, Military, and Peasantry.
	+ People were only allowed to be part of one of the three middle estates (clergy, ministry, military).
	+ You could not run for Ministry (elected office) if you were a noble.
	+ The Military was formed of 3 groups: Army, Navy, and City (guards/police).
	+ 50% to 80% of people were in the peasantry. Among the peasants, the intellectuals ('intelligentsia') were emerging.
* Halcyon's government was bicameral (two-chambered).
	+ The Lower House was formed of the Ministry Estate - democratically elected representatives who served five year terms.
	+ The majority party in the Lower House chose a Prime Minister, who then chose their Ministers for things like war, commerce, transport, etc.
	+ The Upper House was chosen by the nobility. It usually contained a lot of nobles, plus some powerful clergyfolk and military leaders, appointed for life!
* The monarch technically had the **divine right of judgement** and could veto or decree anything, but this was rarely used.
* Halcyon had a large poverty gap. The north was more industrial and poor, whilst the south was more affluent and luxurious.
* Mages were a minority and scapegoated. They were executed, hunted, blamed, killed, scaremongered about, and worse. This stemmed from a commonly held belief that it was their fault for the loss of life and liberty experienced during the God Wars.

## The Winter Revolution

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A more in-depth dive is available at The Winter Revolution.

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In Lukaio and Luana 252 C, the kindling was set. The feverish fascism, the attempted genocide of the mages, the poverty among industrial and agricultural workers, the wealth disparity, class divides, and the rise of intellectualism all made for a ticking time bomb.

When Queen Volterra died on 24th Lukaio 252, the power vacuum was the penultimate nail in the coffin. The Lionhearts ('Lyvretniks'), communist terrorists, used bombings and spread their message (including some cool propaganda) of a violent uprising to change the social conditions - *now or never*.

The spark was finally lit when on 19th Luana 252, a massacre in the Narrows at a mage-hanging occurred when a Lionheart unleashed a bomb and Jackboots fired on the crowd in a panicked response. This led to sudden rioting and uprising which spread down south to Rix Park, the site of the second largest riot in the city ('the Rix Park Riot' only smaller than the fighting in the Narrows. Revolutionaries, workers, and peasants rose up, using whatever they could as weapons, burning down townhouses, dragging nobles into the street, and fighting the Jackboots.

The Chief of Police and the Palace Guard locked the King, several nobles, and several important elected Ministers in the palace throne room. The chief of police then betrayed them by allowing revolutionaries in, who held the nobles and ministers at gunpoint with an ultimatum - join the revolution or die with the king. The revolutionaries, and the defected nobles and ministers, then took the king to an abandoned gold mine a few miles outside the city limits and executed them by firing squad.

## The Halcyian Civil War

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Again, some more in-depth info will be available at Halcyon Civil War

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The next six weeks since late Luana (March) were wracked by civil war. Monarchists, backed by Vortic Mercatorium arms and Datrian support, fought boldly against the overwhelming majority of workers, communists, and revolutionaries. Simply put, the Vortics and Datrians feared that if Halcyon became a communist republic, then not only would they lose the largest economy and trade partner in the world, but the ideas might propagate to neighbouring countries and cause copycat revolutions there.

In the war, Halcyon was led by the **Proletarian Vanguard of Halcyon**, which was part of the communist theory laid out by the Lionhearts - a provisional government made to ease the aftermath of violent revolution into a peaceful communist utopia. It was led by the revolutionary **Tamerlane** and included the four ministers who betrayed the King (**Kerenka, Lantsov, Innëvov, Eleutheria**) as well as the ex-Chief of Police, **Fortalesku**.

The civil war was bloody and brutal, and overwhelmingly urban in nature. Much of the military defected to communism - they were workers too, of a certain nature. Some loyalist military factions held out for weeks, like the 9th Jackboot Company led by General Miko d'Oradova, and others like them who generally either fled, died, or defected. There were a couple sea battles between the Vortics and the Halcyian navy, and some land battles to the east of Halcyon when Datrian support arrived at the frozen farm fields, but Halcyon's communists prevailed largely. They simply had the support of 80% of the population, a factor that won them the war in six weeks.

After the war died down by the first week of Ekei (May), the Vortic Mercatorium and Datria both rescinded their arms and troops, and withdrew rapidly. The Halcyian monarchists, loyalists, and anti-communists who had survived the war mostly went with either the Vortics or Datrians, causing a notable population influx of Halcyians to both countries.

## The Communist Peoples' Republic of Free Halcyon

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More in depth information can be found at The Communist Peoples' Republic of Free Halcyon.

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The CPRFH was the name given to the communist republic set up after the civil war had ended, and peace had returned. Its government was known as the **Commissariat of the Proletariat**, a small group of officials who oversaw the workers without controlling them. The wartime Proletarian Vanguard was turned into this group, which took inspiration from the old Halcyian ideal model of government - having freely elected **Speakers** to represent the concerns of people of city districts, and then above them, **Commissars** who would concern themselves with ensuring certain areas of work (e.g. railways, farms, grain, iron) went smoothly.

The Lionhearts' goals had been successful - a communist state with strong borders, where workers owned the means of production, without social classes, nobility, or private property. Each gave according to her own ability, and each received according to her own need. Established religion was outlawed (but personal worship was permitted), in stark contrast to Fascist Halcyon's strong adherence to the state religion, Euluskan Maionanism. The Commissariat began trying to fix the social and housing conditions first.