Sekowo Civil War

The decade-long civil war which began in 2406 was one of the bloodiest and ideologically-charged in Terran history. The instability was not the fault of two competing sides, but many separate factions which came and went during this turbulent period. Some 1.4 million are thought to have died as a result of the chaos and carnage, and the infrastructure of the nation was greatly damaged. To understand the complex forces at work, a background of the war is necessary:

The Avatars
When the Aretist movement first came to power in 2402, a massive cultural and economic change was initiated intended to bring the country under strong Aretist sway. As mentioned earlier, the Avatars, the priestly class, became rulers of the nation. However, their power had negative effects on that very class and the nation as a whole.

In 2402, the installation of the power system was not ideal and The Avatara became absolute rulers through manipulation of the monetary and military resources of the nation. During the transition from Solentia to Sekowo, the brightest and most ambitious Acolya were purged from the movement. The modern Acolya were mere servants and the Dema was insignificant.

The Avatara was as reclusive as ever. Hidden from the public eye, many of them began to use a psychoactive drug known as "flavian" in order to "connect with the Theos. Flavian is a type of rare mushroom that releases fumes when heated over a flame. The Avatara were known to sit around the flavian fumes and enter catatonic states for days on end. Perhaps on account of these practices, their perception of the Theos moved from an abstraction to a physical being known as "The King in Yellow." The King in Yellow has never been completely described, but he is known to wear either a marble white mask or a yellow veil, or both; he represents the excess and abuse of wealth, the ruin of power, the pain of contact with the Theos, and the decay of the physical self with the ascent of the spiritual. This represented in many ways the current state of the Avatara. Flavian causes rapid physical deterioration that includes the yellowing of flesh, the rotting of teeth, the loss of hair, and various skin conditions.

Rise of the Acolya
Flavian is the rarest of all sought-after substances. It takes several tons of a rare type of grass to grow enough mushrooms to produce just an ounce of the dried mushroom extract. The Avatara, in their addiction, required vast amounts of the substance; this was something that only the Acolya could provide. Thus, the administrative class had an ever-growing power over their rulers. This influence had grown recently, with the Acolya taking their places as provincial governors in 2404. The head provincial governor was known as an Exarch. There were five of them, each ruling somewhat independently over a given province.

However, the Avatara were not entirely powerless, and although the flavian had made many of their bodies sickly, it had made their minds more keen than ever. They realized their dire situation in 2405, and began to plan a means of returning the country to their control. The Concilium Avataron, a council of the top avatars, was the highest legal power in the country; it contained 12 major members at the start of the war. Five of them were "moderates," who used relatively little flavian and who were content being mere figureheads. The other seven were overtaken with the drug, and they had the thought to reclaim what was supposed to be theirs.

The Heptarchy
This group of seven, referred to as the "heptarchy," planned to use a civil conflict to oust their enemies from power; these enemies were principally the Exarchs and Acolya holding power in the Exarchies of Bizena, Lorrod, and Hikhala. The two southern Exarchies were friendlier to the Avatara and supported them thoroughly. In Lorrod, the sea port of Taros was a center of international trade and commerce. Its wealth and cosmopolitan outlook were in direct opposition to the principles of the Avatars and of Aretism. Thus, the avatara took steps to eliminate the wealth of this province, but to no avail. In return, the Exarchy and Exarch had become ever more unfriendly. The northern Exarchy of Bizena was rich in raw resources, but very underdeveloped. They had never been fully converted to Aretism, and the Acolya there were difficult to reach and to regulate; thus, Bizena and its Exarch had become quasi-sovereign, even making trade deals with Gishoto independent of the national government. The Eastern Exarchy of Hikhala was where the Avatars resided, but the Dema had grown unhappy with their rulers due to the use of huge swaths of land for growing grass for flavian cultivation. The Acolya, as usual, supported the popular cause, and the Exarch of Hikhala had often acted against the wishes of the Concilium.

Major Players Before the War
The Exarchs

In Lorrod, the Exarch Dimitri Peras;

In Bizena, the Exarch Arisdod;

In Hikhala, the Exarch Kamatian;

In Hasowar, the Exarch Tiberian;

In Undarro, the Exarch Domitian.

The Avatars

The Heptarchs:

Hyriston; Maekalos; Istenius; Varistes; Paerylion; Malvolian; Sistenus.

The others:

Arrhenius; Caelon; Tauristos; Byzenius; Rhaekon

Tensions Mount
On August 14, 2406, the Exarch Peras was being escorted by a large convey through the financial district of Taros, which he had made his seat of government. A carbomb went off only seconds after his car, which was disguised as a police car, had driven by. Many were killed, but the Exarch survived with only minor wounds. The bombing was intended by the heptarchs to heighten tension between the Avatars in Carcosa and Lorrod; this succeeded, an in only a few days, Peras was gathering his army together, had accused the Concilium of the attacks, and announced:

"This attempt on my life is beyond a doubt evidence of a plot to undermine my implementation of Aretic Law in the exarchy of Taros. By doing so, they have sealed any possibility of a negotiated or peaceful outcome--they have made their intentions clear, and so will the good Dema of Taros will soon make theirs."

Carcosa, of course, exaggerated its response and called on the other Exarchs to condemn Peras’ actions; they did, but in some cases it was completely insincere. But Peras did nothing. He simply stayed put in Taros and fortified strategic points in his province. The heptarchs wanted him to do just the opposite. If he had marched right away, his weakened armies would have faltered and been crushed; but now, he neither put himself at risk, nor gave the Avatars any legitimate reason to attack him.

And so on September 2nd, mores bombs exploded, but this time, it was in Carcosa. The attacks centered around the Templa Aretia, where the non-heptarchs were praying. One was killed and two others wounded. The heptarchs were elsewhere at the time and were, of course, uninjured. They intended the attacks to both give them the pretext to invade Lorrod and to rid themselves of the moderates in the Concilium. They failed mostly on the second count, since four of the five non-heptarchs survived. These four were unaware of the treachery, and, not knowing any better, they acted with the heptarchy. However, they did feel secure enough in their cause to announce the arrest warrant and bounty for the Exarch Peras. The Avatar Hyriston, leader of the heptarchs, was made head of the Eastern Armies.

Only the following day, Peras was proclaimed "Archon" of the West by his generals. This title originated from Tarosian trade contact with Solentians during the rule of the Archons in that country, and the title had come to mean a strong, morally upright military leader. Wearing an iron crown, Peras announced that his government was the only legitimate one in Sekowo. The Exarch of Hikhala, Kamatian, pledged fealty to Archon Peras and split with the Avatars. He sent for their arrest, but they had already left Carcosa and were heading south. They had predicted that this would occur; the more rebellions, the more disloyalty they would purge out.

The confidence of the Avatars had to do with their strategic advantages. They had strong allies in the industrialized South, which accepted them with open arms. The South had benefited greatly from the rule of the Avatara, and they were the mightiest, most populous regions in Sekowo. Most of the military-industrial compounds were centered in Hassowar and Undarro, and these provinces already had massive standing armies when the Avatars arrived to command them.

The Southern Campaign
The Archon marched East to meet Kamatian. By November, both armies had joined at the small town of Kalamai in southern Hikhala. From there, they proceeded South, intending to confront the Avatars and end the war. They split the armies into three forces, once under Peras, one under Kamatian, and one under their trusted advisor Kailetes. Peras and Kailetes went South-west, hoping to capture the industrial centers of Calena and Katanus, while Kamatian went South-east to intercept the Southern armies which were said to be gathering near Kyme. In short, the Avatara were brilliant military commanders; their years with flavian had sharpened their minds and removed doubts and fears and recklessness. They drew Kamatian farther and farther south and cut off his supply lines. When Kamatian decided to turn back from this Southward pursuit, the Avatars slaughtered him and his army at the Battle of Raesirian. Hearing of this defeat, Peras and Kailetes regrouped and captured Katanus. Utilizing the city's resources, they made a stand against the approaching armies of the South. Here was the Battle of Katanus. The forces of the Archon were defeated, but many, including Peras and Kailetes, were able to flee north back to Lorrod.

The Short Peace
When the news of the Archon's defeat reached the rebel provinces, they were sent into panic and fear. The Avatars offered amnesty for anyone willing to surrender; the rebel Acolya surrendered in droves. The Archonate died, and Peras would eventually be killed during the siege of Opeiru, unknown and alone. In victory, the Avatars marched through Carcosa. They consolidated power at first by moving most of the educated elite and the Acolya to Carcosa for close watching.

The North Rises
But on March 20th, 2407, the Heptarchs set out what they had first intended to do. Using a black list of rebel names compiled earlier, they executed everyone who had been disloyal to the Concilium. Everyone who had been given amnesty was slaughtered in a blood bath that lasted for three days. In the end, some 12 thousand were killed in only 72 hours. This action became what was known as "The Great Purge." It gave weight to many of the future anti-avatar movements and was etched in the memory of all Carcosans. The Purge was also intended to wipe out once and for all the non-heptarch Avatars. Tauristos, Byzenius, and Rhaekon were murdered, but Caelon escaped to the North with an escort of loyal retainers.

The North, which is the province of Bizena, had stayed neutral during the Southern conflict; none of the sides threatened the Northern Exarchy lest they scare it into going to the other side, and the neutral strategy had worked perfectly during the fighting. But now, the Avatars in Carcosa were planning to finalize their grip on power, and a neutral North would simply not do. Thus, there was great fear in Bizena that an impending invasion would occur. The arrival of Caelon set a resistance in motion. There were problems, however. When Caelon arrived in Opeiru, the Exarch of Bizena, Arisdod, was unwilling to head the rebel's warnings, and he refused to openly oppose Carcosa. And so Caelon and his allies among the Acolya had Arisdod assassinated. The assassination hardly went unnoticed. Arisdod's supporters raised some of the Dema in Opeiru in an attempt to oust Caelon, who had taken the seat of the Exarch in the city's fortress. The rebellion was put down, but not before Caelon learned the great usefulness and strength of a people's army and how easily the Acolya could raise the Dema in armed rebellion.

On May 26th, with the North now in his control, Caelon established a rival Concilium Avataron strictly under his command. He claimed that his Council alone was legitimate and that the Carcosan avatars were illegal. Bizena, under Caelon's command, then declared war on Carcosa. Caelon was hoping that the rest of the disgruntled nation would rise with him.

The Northern Campaign
But he soon realized that he would need to win battles before he could hope for any further aid. And battles he would have. The Concilium in Carcosa immediately tested the loyalty of the newly installed Exarchs of Lorrod and Hikhala and called on their military aid. They consented, and by May, Hyriston was again leading a massive host, but this time he was going to Bizena. The other Avatars stayed in Carcosa while Hyriston marched unopposed past the border of Hikhala and Bizena; he then divided his forces in several parts. According to the official plans, which were only a cover for Hyriston’s true intentions, the Western force, commanded by Hyriston himself, was to march along the coastal flatlands and take Opeiru. The central force would stay by the border and prevent Caelon's forces from marching south. The first Eastern force would move to the capital while the second would begin securing the precious mineral resources of the North-east.

Caelon's plan was to cut off the supply lines to the Carcosan armies so that when winter came, they would be stranded and weak enough to confront directly. In the Battle of Sail-Dal, he ambushed middle forces and won a major victory. He now proceeded to secure the border region and end all movement into the North. A portion of his forces were left to guard the major roads while the rest marched to fortify the capital. Meanwhile, Hyriston, who had intended for the middle forces to break, marched East while the Eastern forces marched West. Their goal was to pincer Caelon's army and smash it to pieces. This was effectively what happened in the Battle of Maren's Crossing. But it was not a major victory, as was hoped, and Caelon himself and a portion of his forces escaped into the mountains. But with major resistance out of the way, the newly recombined forces of Carcosa marched on Opeiru. It was not taken so easily, however, and with winter drawing near and the supply lines cut, a large portion of Hyriston's forces moved back South to re-secure the borders and the supply lines. Hyriston needed the supply lines the most: without fresh flavian, his health would rapidly decline and he would probably die during the withdraw.

This was the beginning of the guerrilla war. This expedition was harassed the entire time by quickly-dispersing bands of militia. Caelon had remembered the usefulness of the Dema in the Opeiru rebellion, and he utilized them for this purpose here. Weakened and demoralized, the expedition was finally snuffed out at a minor battle 100 miles north of the border. With still no food, supplies, or siege equipment coming, Hyriston was in a desperate state. Foraging bands mysteriously disappeared, and the few with radios were known to have been attacked and annihilated by bands of Dema militia.

The Archonate Reborn
Simultaneously, a series of extraordinary events occurred in Lorrod. Caelon had sent envoys there months earlier to raise the Exarchy in rebellion against Carcosa once again. But, just as in Opeiru, the rulers were initially opposed to such things. But there was party there which strongly admired Caelon's actions, and under the leadership of the only 19 year-old Aremius, they seized power in a bloodless coup on October 2nd, 2407. However, they did not simply rebel against Carcosa, they claimed that Aremius, one of the only surviving descendants of Dimitri Peras, held the dead Archonship of the West. Thus, the Archonate was reestablished the Aremius declared ruler of Lorrod.

During this period, the heptarchs had still used enormous amounts of flavian. Even Hyriston took large amounts of the substance with him on the Northern Campaign. Caelon had never used much and he had stopped altogether after fleeing to Opeiru. Flavian must be fresh; it decays in only a few weeks, and the physical effects of withdraw are often fatal and always horrifying. And so when Aremius marched East to Hikhala and started burning the only fields in the world capable of producing flavian, the Avatars were at their knees. The South was in its own civil conflict, and Carcosa had few forces of its own; neither could save the yellow grasses

The Fall of Carcosa
Hyriston sued for peace from the North. At the town of Nolst near the border, an armistice, termed the Treaty of Nolst was signed between Opeiru and Carcosa. Hyriston gathered their forces together and went South, but it was too late. The fields of yellow grass were burnt. In only a matter of weeks, there would be no more flavian. And so, accepting their fates, the Heptarchs did one of the their few heroic gestures: on February 5th, 2408, all but one of the them committed suicide. Paerylion had alone foreseen this fate. When the Northern Campaign began, he slowly withdrew from flavian, until only two weeks before Lorrod rose, he was using none of it. But he had not intended for his colleagues to know of this. In fact, he encouraged them to use more, to sharpen their minds, to drive home the victory. And he was the one who suggested suicide, but he was the only one who never drank the hemlock juice. He faked his death very convincingly, such that most believed that all of the heptarchs were now dead. Paerylion fled South, abandoning Carcosa to the Acolya. It would be a whole year before he would resurface.

The God Incarnate
With the victory in the North, Caelon paraded through Opeiru triumphant. The Dema were especially on his side, to to point that he had somewhat of a personality cult. His Concilium was now the only one in Sekowo, generally recognized as legitimate. The heptarchs were dead, so most believed, and he was the sole successor to the rule of Sekowo. But Caelon was even more ambitious. During the Northern Campaign, he had gained the love of the Dema and a religious following; by Aretic custom, he was now the sole gateway to the Theos. Caelon took this one step further on February 28th, and in the jubilation of the Opeiru parade, he was proclaimed the "Theos Incarnatus," the "Theos Incarnate," the "God on Earth," the "Living God." Enthroned in the vast Temple of Theos, he was hailed as divine.

The Southern Affair
During the reestablishment of the Archonate and the burning of the yellow grass, the Southern Exarchies were undergoing a tremendous amount of political strife. The Southern Armies were unable to aid the Heptarchy because they were fighting among themselves. The Lorrodians, led by Mattias Arthoe, wanted to merge with the Archonate and re-unify most of Sekowo in the process; the Loyalist party wanted to rescue the heptarchy from the Archonate; the Militarists wanted independence for the South; and the Acolysts wanted a centralized government in Carcosa run by the Acolya. When news of the suicides reached the South, the parties were thrown into confusion. The Loyalists, defeated, merged into various other parties, and the Acolysts were torn apart by internal strife. A new party emerged led by the old advisor of Peras, Kailetes, called the Archonists. He claimed Peras had made him heir to the Archonate and that Aremius was a pretender.

The Militarists merged with this quickly-growing party. The main opposition was now in the Lorrodians, who wished to merge, not fight with the Eastern Archonate. But the Archonists won in the end, and Arthoe went into hiding in the deep South. With this new consolidation of power, Kailetes was proclaimed "Archon of the East and South." He denounced Aremius and declared war on Lorrod. When he heard this news, Aremius stopped his march for Carcosa and turned South before ever taking the city.

The Battle for the West
Kailetes and Aremius prepared to clash in July 2408. Lorrod sued for peace initially, but Kailetes demanded unconditional surrender, which Aremius would never give. And so the rival Archonates engaged in a massive struggle, the details of which are unnecessary to give. What is important is that the war ravaged the South. Aremius marched deep into the Southern lands, and Kailetes' scorched earth policy resulted in famine and disease among his populace. For most of the war, Lorrod was strongly winning, and victory seemed to be theirs until the tragic death of Aremius.

Ultimately, the most important factor of the war was Aremius' personal life. He was young, handsome, and charismatic, and he was engaged in a political marriage to the daughter of an influencial Acolya, Natalya Sestinus; but his affairs were well-known and numerous, and he expected Natalya to accept the other women as simply part of her life. But the mentally unstable girl, only 17, was not willing to endure what she perceived as outrageous slights. And so one night, when Aremius was dining with his generals, he suddenly fell ill. His health rapidly declined over the course of the next few days, and he died in excruciating pain, only 20 years old. Natalya had confessed to him on his death bed that it was she who had poisoned him, but he died without speaking a word of the matter. A cook had been arrested instead of Natalya for poisoning Aremius, and the truth would only be revealed by accident some 20 years later.

But with Aremius' death (on October 9th), the Lorrodian claim to the Archonate was undermined. Aremius had a brother and a very young bastard; the brother urged the generals to kill the child, but nearly half of them sided with the son over the brother, since the child's claim to the Archonate was, ironically, more legitimate. And so as the Lorrodian war effort faltered and failed from internal strife, Kailetes pushed back North and invaded the Eastern lands. The brother Claudian and the allies of the child Alfenus managed to unite forces temporarily and defeated and killed Kailetes at the Battle of Taros. Following Kailetes death, the South fell into further chaos and anarchy ruled.

The generals protecting Alfenus eventually defeated and killed Claudian at the Battle of Pike on December 18th.

The Avatar in the South
In the South, Paerylion, who had been in hiding during the Western conflict, now reemerged with the aid of Mattais Arthoe. The Avatar gathered together the wealthy Acolya who had prospered during the dominance of Carcosa, and with their aid, he started to congeal support in the South. The rise of the new Avatar and his state was meteoric. It took all parties by surprise, since it was generally believed that Paerylion had committed suicide with the other heptarchs. By January of 2409, Paerylion was proclaimed the "Archon-Avatar" of Sekowo. He never created a new Concilium, but instead took the monarchical aspect of the Archonate and combined it with the spiritual authority of the Avatars. He reunited the South rapidly and rebuilt the region's war machine. He claimed dominance over all of Sekowo, and first he set his eyes on Lorrod.

The Expansion of the North
After being declared the God Incarnate, Caelon watched with joy as the South erupted in violence. With no opposition, the whole of central Sekowo was open to conquest. Bizena was plentiful in raw natural resources, but it lacked the infrastructure to produce massive amounts of war machinery and equipment. An expansion to the south would fulfill this need. And so with a force of 70 thousand, Caelon the God marched south to take Carcosa. The Acolya there had established a weak government that could only rule over the city and some surrounding land. They put up no fight and surrendered on August 5th, 2408. With Carcosa and much of Hikhala in his control, Caelon spent the next few months raising larger armies and consolidating his power further. The Dema had a profound respect for him, and he encountered no popular resistance.

When Aremius died in October 2408, Caelon marched West with a massive army. He started at the North-most part of the region and moved South, slowly mopping up resistance. By the Battle of Pike, Caelon had taken half of Lorrod. But this could not be sustained: Paerylion had risen the South, and now Sekowo was firmly split into two parts.

The War of the Avatars
Paerylion moved North with his newly assembled army and rapidly took southern Lorrod. Alfenus and his loyal retainers went into hiding with the Gishotoi peoples past the Eastern border of Sekowo. Caelon and Paerylion engaged in a series of massive but mostly inconclusive battles. The war was at a stalemate. The South's attempts to invade Hikhala had failed and neither side was able to break the other's lines. This went on from March to October 2409. Finally, the Acolya left in charge of Carcosa in Caelon's absence proposed that a peace settlement be made. Both sides consented. The Treaty of Aerion fixed the borders and made Carcosa a "free city." It would be under the jurisdiction of neither side and would act as an arbiter in disputes. The borders were set such that Caelon was given Bizena, all of Hikhala except for Carcosa, and the northern half of Lorrod, including Taros. Paerylion was given the Southern Provinces and the Southern half of Lorrod.

The Long Peace
Sekowo was tired of war. The division set by the Treaty of Aerion was satisfactory, and it allowed for a two year peace between the North and South. But the period was not without tension and important events. The peace allowed for the Acolya to gain influence and power. Both sides needed them in order produce more war machinery and in new administration.

Reunificiation of Sekowo
As part of the Treaty of Aerion, an armistice line was established from the Sekowan coast on the Bay of Lodo all the way to the eastern border and the foothills of the Barrier Range. Security was extremely tight along this border, and it created huge problems for the increasingly technocratic and commercial Acolya to move goods between the two sides. In addition, while each side committed to a joint project to rebuild areas of Sekowo devastated by war, quality of life for the Dema on both sides was miserable and squalid. In many areas, contaminated water and lack of food from the razing of vast swaths of farmland led to famine and deaths from dehydration. Disease was rampant. Many of the Acolya felt repressed by what they perceived to be an impotent and restrictive regime, and their growing independence  only complicated matters.

Out of this millieu, a new figure emerged in the city of Carcosa. Despite its involvement in large parts of the Civil War, it had been spared from the destruction felt by other areas and boasted a thrivingly devout community. At the Aretic monastery in Carcosa, however, one young Avatara, born Turvin Separo, stood out. He energized Dema and Acolya alike with his charisma and persuasive calls for a return to the Sekowo's glorious, unified past, and quickly rose in the public spotlight. The Dema named him "Turvin Dhala," "dhala" meaning "savior" in Aretic, and he began exposing himself to flavian at an unprecedentedly young age, 14. It endowed him, strangely, with great physical and mental vitality, contributing to the vigor his passionate sermons. Many who watched his speeches spoke of his eyes turning yellow as he became inhabited by the radiance of the Theos. Caelon and Paerylion each saw him as a threat to their separate domains, and despite their mutual loathing agreed to "remove him from the sight of the impressionable," as Caelon phrased it. However, his message disarmed even the most disciplined of armies from fighting, and both leaders, devoid of followers, were forced to accept his terms.

On May 25th, 2411, Turvin Dhala appointed himself Rex Flavus in a grand ceremony before a gathering of hundreds of thousands in the Templa Aretia in Carcosa. The Second Sekowan Theocracy as he termed it was quickly established, but it incorporated several new elements to reflect changing times. Turvin realized one of the reasons for the fall of the First Sekowan Theocracy was the detachment of the Avatara from the Dema. Each hand-picked by Turvin, the Avatars were no longer a secretive and clandestine body but rather appeared openly in public, whether visiting the Sekowo's isolated north or addressing the Dema in sermon. He carefully distanced himself also from the populist attitudes adopted by Caeylon during the civil war and the title of the "Theos Incarnate"; Turvin was adamant that he himself was not divine.

To accomodate the needs and secure the support of the mercantile Acolya, he embraced a laissez-faire policy toward their activities. This allowed the Acolya to engage in an array of commercial activities previously unheard of in an Aretist state and greatly enriched them as a class. Turvin Dhala's sway over the Dema, however, kept the Acolya in check. His closest followers, the Dhalastya, were formed into an organization of the same name combining elements of a personal militia, religious cult, and a service group, and served as his direct subordinates. Thus, even under a unified Sekowo, the delicate balance remained.