Solurian Civil War of 1717

Solurian Civil War of 1717
Date 1 January 1717 - 11 January 1720 (3 years and 10 days) Location Territory of the Solurian Empire Result Solurian Empire victory Collapse of Avetissmens party Dissolution of major Avetissmens corporations Beginning of Unity Movement Union of Solurian Empire with Gribban Compact Rapid technological gain of Solurian Empire Gateway to Antarian Dimension opened
Participants
Solurian Empire			Avetissmens
Commanders and Leaders
Solurian Leaders Markous Neebo III Siberius Neebo Grohn Velti Vohrmann Sciel			Avetissmens Leaders Dohl Riflat Malter Whits Torgal Siemot Varon Bar Etorn
Strength
Solurian Land Forces 6,556,000 Solurian Naval Forces 457 Vessels			Avetissmens Land Forces 7,562,000 Avetissmens Naval Forces 542 Vessels
Casualties and Losses
Military dead: Over 4,337,000 Military injured: Over 987,000 Civilian dead: Over 2,781,000 Civilian injured: Over 871,000 Total casualties: Over 9,043,000 (1717-1720)			Military dead: Over 3,757,000 Military injured: Over 831,000 Civilian dead: Over 591,000 Civilian injured: Over 716,000 Total casualties: Over 5,831,000 (1717-1720)

The Solurian Civil War marked a turning point in the history of the Solurian Empire. This war was the first and only major conflict between different factions of the Solurian Empire. During the war, which lasted from 1717 to 1720, over 11 million soldiers and civilians of the Solurian Empire died. This civil war marked the end of the imperial era for the Solurian Empire, and heralded a new age of diplomacy and culture in its citizens.

Socio-Political Conflicts

The difference in mindsets for the two sides of the civil war was vast, and it has been surprising to many historians just how unified the Solurian Empire was before the civil war began in earnest. If it were not for the multiple conflicts and buildups of military and economic strength in the empire prior to the 1700’s, it is likely this conflict would have occurred at a difference date and with a far different result.

The population in the Solurian Empire had been seen as fairly skewed up until the turn of the 16th century. Prior, to this, the human side of the population chart had always outnumbered the primalian and the solurian sides, but due to the high fertility rate of the solurian race compared to the primalian race, the solurian population expanded at a rate much higher than any one party could have predicted, as explained in the Population Growth section of the main Solurian Empire page. As such, when the number of solurians suddenly overtook the number of humans in the empire, the culture shift was noticeable. The change in population percentage caused by the invention of a form of penicillin and the development of selective cauterizing to prevent blood loss during childbirth of solurian women, a technique which became extremely successful when used by priests of the Solurian Sect.

Thus, the cultures of the two halves of the Empire came into conflict. On one side, the primalians and the solurians, and on the other, the humans. Primalians and solurians had a tendency to focus on the long term effects of their actions, due mostly to the near immortality of the primalians and the extended lifespan of the solurians. As such, they often went into military avenues of work, both combat and non-combat in nature. Due to the ebb and flow of conflict the Solurian Empire participated in, those who worked in development of weaponry or building of ships or airships would often be busy repairing or creating in the short periods between conflict, and paid little attention to the going-ons of the political sphere of the Solurian Empire. Often solurians without such professions would return from war to find what little they had done to their land or their business had withered in their absence or had been taken over by human-owned businesses and groups, and in general would find temporary work in physical or menial jobs that had little potential for improvement before their next military campaign.

Primalians, on the other hand, were somewhat detached from the Solurian Empire as a whole, as most of them could remember times before the empire and the foundings of the empire. Often, upon return from a military campaign, the primalians would mourn the few of their race that had died and would cherish the short time they had with their large families of solurians before returning to conflict. As such, being focused mostly on extremely long term investment and land development, primalians were partially blind to the short periods of poor living conditions solurians had between military campaigns. Due to this, each campaign became increasingly important to solurians, as the living conditions on ships or in military forts and stations were a large improvement over their normal living conditions back in the Solurian Empire.

Humans, with the shortest lifespan out of the three races in the Solurian Empire at the time, were focused heavily on economical gain and on economical business that benefited the short term. As such, they used vicious business tactics which would later become illegal to take whatever profit they could. Often, this came at the plight of solurians, whom they used as a source of easy labor since solurians were often tired or weary from their recent campaign. As 1690 neared, conflict between humans who approved of this business tactic and humans who disdained it began rearing up, and when the Governing Council was established, both halves used it as a stepping point for their moral points. While there were obviously outliers in each of these three parties, up until 1690 and the Governing Council, these outliers had not yet come into the light.

Prelude to War

The buildup to the Civil War of 1717 was a slow, steady increase in pressure across the entire Solurian Empire. Since the early 1500’s, the decrease in the population gap between the solurian and human races in the Empire became increasingly noticeable, and 1701, the latest imperial census put the population of solurians to humans at near equal number. Feeling increasingly in danger, multiple major human families whose ancestry traced back to the founding days of the Solurian Empire formed a specialized political party to protect their holdings and earnings across the empire. This party was called the Avetissmens, and it quickly gained traction in the human population of the Solurian Empire.

In the 1550’s through the 1600’s, prior to the party’s invention, trade and regulation laws had been in place to avoid domination of markets by groups or corporations belonging to one race, but these laws heavily stifled growth and prevented many starting companies from getting on track before they failed and were bought out. Unfortunately, due to the nature of these laws, solurians rarely had the initial capital amounts to successfully begin businesses, as compared to humans, who often had the monetary capital and the political influence to insure their business could grow and expand.

Help was shortcoming during 1647 to 1689, as most solurians and primalians were focused on various campaigns in the north against the undead, including Emperor Titus Neebo IV and his royal retinue as well as other royal family members. Often, the emperor would not return to Sol for eight to nine months on end, and when he did, it was for extremely short time periods or for gathering new recruits upon transport vessels. When the stagnation of laws and regulations became too obvious for him to notice, and with rampant discrimination in these businesses leading to intensifying protests and riots by union groups, Titus Neebo IV established the Governing Council of the Solurian Empire. Besides the campaign in the north was a military achievement, this was likely the single most important political act Titus Neebo IV accomplished before his death. In the Siege of the Boneyard in early January of 1690, not seventeen days after the establishment of the council, Titus Neebo IV was killed shutting down the final ziggurat and sealing the boneyard, leading to a power vacuum in the Solurian Empire.

This, plus the brand new establishment of the Governing Council, led to a rush for power unlike any seen before in the Empire. Human political parties, some uniting under the Avetissmens and some under the newly-formed Solurian National Group vied for power within the civil portion of the Governing Council, while solurians and primalians mostly filled the military portion. These two halves of the Governing Council both had equal amounts of power, further increasing the number of humans who flocked to the Avetissmens promise of protection against the rising number of “non-humans” in the Solurian Empire. When the proverbial dust had settled from the elections, the ten year terms of the Governing Council of 1690 had been filled as such:

’’’Civil Portion’’’

• 21 Human Avetissmens Members
• 9 Human Solurian National Group Members

’’’Military Portion’’’

• 13 Solurian Military Veteran Members
• 10 Solurian Military Members
• 4 Primalian Military Members
• 3 Human Military Veteran Members

While this election was going on in the Governing Council, conflict on the throne was also occurring, with a power struggle between Markous Neebo III and Siberius Neebo, the two eldest sons of Titus Neebo IV. Markous Neebo III, while the firstborn, did not have a solid claim to the throne as he was born of a solurian mother, while Siberius Neebo was born of a primalian mother. While ordinarily this would not be an issue, humans in the empire raised fuss over the small difference, and Siberius and Markous had vastly different ideas for the governing of the empire. Siberius, being a man focused primarily upon economical development of the Solurian Empire, believed in a far more hands-off regulation of the economy, and instead wanted to focus the Solurian Empire on the acquisition of colonies and other lands which could be developed and used for raw materials and resources. Markous, on the other hand, was mindful of the plight of the solurians, and as a military man who often fought on the frontlines, was despondent to see how fellow veterans were living once returning home. As such, Markous wanted to push for the dissolvement of various market monopolies and heavy regulation and restructure of the economy to bring both the solurian and the human races into balance.

Human businessmen in the Avetissmens thus began the cry for Siberius to take control of the throne, so that they could use his policies to further increase their wealth and power. Enough humans unknowingly followed along that the notion could not be ignored, granting the Avetissmens precious few months to solidify power within the Empire. By the time Markous Neebo III was coronated Emperor of the Solurian Empire, the Avetissmens had established enough roadblocks to stall his policies until, at minimum, the next election cycle in the Governing Council.

Unfortunately, due to an oversight in the establishment of the Governing Council by the late Titus Neebo IV, the civil portion of the council could establish trade and regulation laws if it was determined these laws did not affect military development or spending. The same went for the military portion of the council, but due to the connected nature of military spending and collection of raw resources for use in warship and airship building and development, the military portion was crippled from the start.

In 1691, when the civil portion of the council realized the loophole within the council’s laws, they began exploiting it for commercial gain. The land Taxation Act of 1691 and the Importation Regulation Act were quickly passed by the majority vote of 21 to 9, and became law. These two laws laid massive strain on solurian landowners and business owners, and laid human landowners on a gentle cushion of money. As economic strain mounted into the next 9 years, along with cultural strain and the growing population gap, further harsher laws were passed by the civil portion of the Governing Council in order to prevent a rise in the living condition of solurians in the Solurian Empire. Since the lifespan of the primalians was indefinite unless killed, these laws had little effect on them, but an increasing number of primalians began taking notice of the vast gap between living conditions of most solurians and some humans.

By the time Markous Neebo III was coronated in 1692, the Avetissmens had coalesced their businesses in multiple hundreds groups under the umbrella companies of the Solurian Trading Company and the West Merchant Guild. Due to loopholes in the laws passed during 1691, these companies could not be dissolved as they technically did not lead their subcompany groups, as the lower levels all had their own administrative systems which were “autonomous” but all members of the Avetissmens. The military portion of the council and the Solurian National Group portion of the civil council began rallying under the new emperor, and by 1699 the Avetissmens had real reason to expect heavy opposition in the coming Governing Council election term.

Rapid Escalation of the Avetissmens

In the short time prior to 1700, Dohl Riflat of the Avetissmens party rose into prominence amongst the party’s leadership. Being from a wealthy family whose roots traced back nearly to the time of the Solurian Empire’s foundation, Dohl became a man who people listened to. Dohl began recruiting members of the Avetissmens under increasingly racist ideology, and as his following grew, he became the de facto leader of the party as a whole. His influence, backed by his family’s power and “pure” lineage, made him the leading of the Avetissmens internal election five days before the next Governing Council’s election occurred. In these five days, three members of the Avetissmens who used to be in high standings died under mysterious circumstances, allowing Dohl to quickly put his followers into control. Conflict within the Avetissmens quickly died off from that point, as the party members who did not approve of his ideology and methods left for the Solurian National Group. Despite this, Dohl used the fears of the human population to play people into the Avetissmens in rapid order, quickly gathering support during the election term.

During the election term of the 1700 Governing Council, the Avetissmens resorted to vicious tactics to ensure their control over the civil portion, ranging from having mercenaries scare off voters of the opposing party, tampering with vote results, and supposedly killing opposing politicians seeking election. While this last one was never specifically confirmed during the pre-war period, the fact that seventeen of the opponents seeking positions in the civil council for the Solurian National Group died in a massive building fire during a meeting of the party was extremely suspicious. Despite this, the elections continued and the results were as to be expected:

’’’Civil Portion’’’

• 30 Human Avetissmens Members

’’’Military Portion’’’

• 7 Solurian Military Veteran Members
• 16 Solurian Military Members
• 7 Primalian Military Members

In a last ditch effort to establish some form of blockage between the civil portion of the Governing Council and the growing numbers of dissident solurians, Markous Neebo III and the military council in coordination with the Solurian National Group established multiple companies to compete with the Solurian Trading Company and the West Merchant Guild that were basically under the ownership of the military. Since the new contracting companies were under de facto military control and funded by the empire’s military funding, they prevented the civil portion of the council from laying down new laws or regulations without the full council’s vote as they would interfere with military spending and development. Despite the rush to establish these companies, the civil council was able to pass multiple laws before 1702, when the slew of companies were made official.

Shortly after news of this blockage by Emperor Neebo III, extremists traveled to Gosd and burnt three lily pads in an attack that killed dozens of gribbans and solurians. The Gosd Lily Attack was the first major action of violence that is attributed to the Solurian Civil War of 1717. When caught, interrogators learned that these extremists were members of the Avetissmens party and supposedly under orders from subordinates of Dohl Riflat to begin sowing seeds of fear across the empire. Wishing to prevent civil war, or at the very minimum stall it, this information was kept secret and the possible outrage of the people at the actions of the Avetissmens never occurred. Due to this, Dohl Riflat could not use the “targeting” of the humans in the Avetissmens to gather the remaining humans of the Solurian Empire to his side, though this was not known until later on. In an attempt to keep the peace, a new military fort was established in Gosd by the Solurian Empire.

In the meantime, Dohl continued solidifying his power amongst the Avetissmens party, using his subordinates and place on the Governing Council to begin drafting laws that favored only the Avetissmens party itself. As these laws were drafted, an intense legal battle took place between the Civil and Military portions of the Governing Council over the temporary block on the economic laws and regulations the civil portion could pass. In the time between the establishment of the block and the block actually occurring, however, the Avetissmens was able to sway or blackmail three of the nine judges on the Solurian Supreme Court, allowing them to block any possible judicial outcomes. As the legal battle stalled, Emperor Neebo III began solidifying his power within the military, gathering forces and supplies in the event the Avetissmens attempted to forcefully apply their laws. In response, the Avetissmens party began hiring former military and mercenary groups that had been previously operating under military contract to protect merchant vessels.

In early 1709, seeing a rise in pirate attacks on their vessels and a rise in non-government affiliated ships capable of warfare under control of the Avetissmens, the Gribban Compact commissioned a new slew of naval ships to combat the issue. This spike in ship production caused a halt in immigration from the Gribban Compact to the Solurian Empire as workers no longer had to leave to find valued work. In response, discrimination against gribbans, primalians, and solurians in the Solurian Empire began to rise as the immigrants could no longer be blamed for economic instability. Production in Grib continued at a rapid pace until the new gribban naval forces were christened in late 1710.

When 1713 began, Tibeth underwent heavy rioting and political unrest, worrying officials of the Solurian Empire as Tibeth was a major source of iron at that point, and one of the steadiest suppliers of iron in the empire as a whole. As rioting increased, fueled unknowingly by whispers of the Avetissmens, the Solurian military entered the area to try and establish control. Before the mayor of Tibeth could declare martial law, however, he was killed by rioters. Protests and riots continued far into the evening, until most major political figures and leaders not in the Avetissmens party were killed before midnight. Without declaration by the former mayor, and with the newly appointed Avetissmens mayor publicly denouncing the encroachment of military forces onto a supposedly peaceful civilian protest, the Solurian military was forced to return to their stations. Vicious discrimination began in Tibeth, without any political opposition due to fear of targeting.

Outrage across the Solurian Empire swelled, and counter protests and riots against the Avetissmens began lumping non-affiliated humans in with humans of the party. Often, humans who disliked or feared the Avetissmens were forced to go to them for protection when particularly violent riots broke out. Meanwhile, the Avetissmens pointed to these riots and protests as well as increasing amounts of piracy amongst the seas to excuse the buildup of private mercenary groups, warships, weapons, and armor. The Solurian military, seeing this private military buildup by high ranking officials and powerful companies of the Avetissmens, once again increased the rate of production of arms and weaponry of their own.

This slow buildup continued until mid-1715 when four of the remaining six Solurian Supreme Court justices suffered various natural deaths within the span of two weeks. Suspecting foul play, Emperor Markous Neebo III made an imperial decree that appointment of new justices would be stalled until the causes of death were confirmed to be natural and not foul play. Using this decree, Dohl Riflat began rallying his people to riot against the dictator that stalled the progression of justice. Hoch, fully under Avetissmens control, stalled its payment of taxes and imperial fees and halted its exportation of goods to non-avetissmens sections of the Solurian Empire in protest. Protests and rioting spread throughout the empire through the remainder of 1715.

In early 1716, as part of the investigation into the death of the four justices, Sol police raided the estate of Dohl Riflat under warrant granted by the chief justice of the Sol Judiciary Court. Upon entering the estate, they encountered heavy resistance by members of the Avetissmens party, and musket-fire broke out. The police were forced back into the streets, where violence erupted as Avetissmens protesters began aiding the escape of Dohl from the law of Sol. Violence continued for thirteen days, with intermittent gunfire and clashes with the police, until eventually it settled down, and Dohl had safely escaped the city and the surrounding territories.

Using this police raid, Dohl began spreading word that the police and justice system in Sol were corrupted by the emperor, and encouraged active fighting against the police and military by citizens of the empire. Since the Avetissmens were a human only party, the conflicts which ensued were very split along racial lines, leading to an eruption of violent, discriminatory crimes by both sides. With increasingly violent and treasonous rhetoric by the Avetissmens throughout the rest of 1716, it seemed the civil unrest was coming to a breaking point. However, during the last three days of the year, unrest seemed to suddenly quiet. Even in Tibeth, where discrimination and violence towards non-Avetissmens humans and other races was rampant, things became oddly peaceful.

The Solurian Civil War of 1717

Mobilization of the Avetissmens for the Solurian Civil War began on the day before new year’s eve of 1717. Nearly on the dot as the new year began, the first battles of the civil war erupted around the Solurian Empire. In general, historians agree that the civil war had four main offensives which split the war into four parts: first, the Central-Sol campaign; second, the Gribban campaign; third, the Northern campaign; and fourth, the Hoch campaign. All four campaigns began on January 1st, 1717, as the Avetissmens launched a wide-scale, multi pronged attack on territories across the Solurian Empire. The main focus of the assaults were to split the focus of the Solurian Empire’s military while simultaneously forming multiple fronts and points of attack, so that when the military was fully mobilized it had to face multiple lanes of offensives.

The first wave of attacks were closely coordinated by leadership of the Avetissmens, despite the relatively small lack of military knowledge present in the top commanders at the time. The plan was to launch a sudden assault on various cities throughout the Solurian Empire to split up and destroy stationed forces of the empire’s military force before mobilization could occur. Attacks on Mar, Helmholme, Mothat, Estrella, Tibeth, and Zvez occurred, with Helmholme, Estrella, and Tibeth falling almost immediately due to widespread civilian support for the Avetissmens. Zvez, being home to a joint military base of the Solurian Empire and the Gribban Compact, was able to fend off the attack. [[Storm’s Wind] and Rigel were supposed to be attacked at the same time, but heavy civilian opposition slowed the Avetissmens military forces, and the attacks ended up happening months too late.

Meanwhile, Avetissmens forces from Helmholme met with forces from Estrella, and quickly moved to defeat the Solurian Empire’s garrison in Hoch. After a one sided battle where the Solurian Empire’s eastern fleet was destroyed, Hoch was quickly taken by the Avetissmens, and forces from there moved south to meet up with invading forces from Mothat. Mothat, however, had not yet fallen, so the Avetissmens army was forced to split up as half moved to supplement the attack on Mothat while the other half moved on Grib. In theory, had all the initially targeted cities been taken without issue, this offensive would have been a devastating first blow to the empire, but valiant stands by forces stationed in Mar, Zvez, and Mothat prevented total success. Though Mothat eventually fell to the Avetissmens, the delay in its capture prevented a successful Avetissmens attack on Grib, the capital of the Gribban Compact.

The Avetissmens’s land and sea forces that attacked Mar, having failed to take the city against stationed Solurian Empire forces, met up with Avetissmens forces and attacked Sol directly. After slight defeat against the Solurian naval forces stationed at Sol, a third of the land force broke off to assault Mar once again, with the hope that forces there would be too weak from the prior attack to fend off the bolstered Avetissmens force. The remainder of the Avetissmens naval force moved to attack the Solurian Empire’s naval force stationed in Solentse. After a failure to destroy the Solurian navy in Solentse, the Avetissmens navy moved north to Sol to evacuate ground troops from the losing battle for Sol. The Avetissmens ground force, unable to hold its position, moved north into Nilseth and began battling Solurian ground forces. The Avetissmens force attacking Mar for the second time failed to take the city, and retreated to meet up with the naval force moving north to Sol and Nilseth.

Instead of meeting up with the force, they instead arrived too late, and followed a day behind, meaning when the naval assault on Nilseth began, the Solurian navy moving north from Sol was able to fully wipe out the Avetissmens naval force moving in from Solentse, and then fend off the late reinforcements from the failed attack on Mar. This naval victory wiped out the naval force the Avetissmens had in the empire’s central territory. The Avetissmens ground forces, seeing their retreat route to the sea destroyed, moved inland and spread out amongst the forest and farmlands of the plains between Nilseth and the heavily fortified Peak’s End. As this was occurring, Avetissmens forces, bolstered by their arriving naval force from Hoch, finally managed to overcome the dual civilian and military opposition. The naval force headed the attack on Rigel, with the land force following suite soon after.

In the southern empire, near the Gribban Compact’s territory, Avetissmens forces were unable to gain traction due to the newer gribban naval force and heavy opposition from the populace. Enraged by the lack of success, the Avetissmens forces in Tibeth began killing non-humans and enslaving humans who did not support the Avetissmens, resulting in the Massacre of Tibeth. At this time, in the large plainlands south of the Solurian Mountains between Nilseth and Peak’s End, remnants of the Avetissmens army began entrenching and raiding various settlements and laying siege to single farmhouses and lands to try and eliminate the main source of food going into Sol. In the far north, the first attack on Rigel was broken, though at massive cost to the Solurian Empire’s naval force stationed in Rigel.

Avetissmens forces, having not taken large losses at Rigel like the Solurian Empire had, moved south and attacked Storm’s Wind, easily taking the city after a prolonged battle wiped out the Solurian Empire’s forces. In the meantime, as land forces took Storm’s Wind, the large naval force that had retreated from Rigel moved south to Sol, in an attempt to blockade the city to prevent food shipments. As the Second Naval Battle of Sol began, the Avetissmens land force split, and half moved south from Storm’s Wind to attack Uldite, the city just north of the Solurian Mountains. The other half moved north to attack Rigel once more. Facing heavy losses in the Second Naval Battle of Sol, the Avetissmens navy could not meet up with the land forces assaulting Rigel, and thus this second offensive failed. However, Avetissmens forces successfully took Uldite shortly after, allowing them to lend support to the forces laying siege to the Nilthian Plains between Nilseth and Peak’s End.

In the east, Avetissmens land and sea forces had fortified their defenses and regrouped from the losses in the Gribban Compact, and sought to begin chipping away at the outlying cities in the gribban territories. A dual assault on Aqim'Raj and Zvez was planned, but Aqim’Raj fell much faster than expected, giving advanced warning to Solurian and Gribban forces in Zvez. Using the movement of Avetissmens forces into the south, the Solurian Empire advanced into hostile land and assaulted Mothat, taking the city back. In a daring move, the Solurian Empire advanced directly to Hoch, launching an attack on the heart of Avetissmens power. At the same time, the defending forces in Zvez successfully fended off the invasion, and split the land and naval forces of the Avetissmens offensive. The naval force moved west, while the land forces retreated back to Aqim’Raj, harried by ambushes by the Solurian-Gribban fleet in the south-east.

In an attempt to split the Solurian Empire’s focus, Avetissmens forces from Uldite and the Nilthian Plains moved to the southwest, and attacked Sol by flanking past Nilseth. At the same time, the remnants of the Avetissmens naval force from the attack on Zvez began assaulting the Solurian fleet stationed in Mar. As this was occurring, the Solurian and Gribban fleet from Zvez met up with military forces from Grib and assaulted Aqim’Raj, taking the city after a short battle with wounded and tired Avetissmens defenders. As Solurian forces fended off the attacks on Mar and Sol, retreating Avetissmens forces from Aqim’Raj were able to take Solurian forces attacking Hoch by surprise, routing the offensive and forcing the Solurian Empire back to Mothat. Now able to move out of Hoch, the eastern Avetissmens naval force launched a joint invasion of Mothat, defeating the Solurian naval force and taking the city. Ferrying half of the land force, the strong Avetissmens force moved west to lay siege to Rigel, the last Solurian-held city in the northern empire territories.

In a desperate attempt to regain ground in the east, retreating forces of the Solurian Empire attempted to take Estrella, but were caught between the defenses and the second half of the offensive from Mothat, and were killed or captured. This land force the moved to reinforce the siege on Rigel, allowing the Avetissmens naval force to begin blockading the city. Seeing the heavy losses of the Solurian Empire in the east, a joint force of the Gribban Compact’s naval and land forces laid siege to Hoch, quickly establishing a perimeter around the city. This siege was easily established due to Avetissmens forces moving to retake Aqim’Raj, unknowingly fed the information of weakened defenses by Gribban intelligence agents. In late 1717, as Gribban forces surrounded Aqim’Raj, trapping the Avetissmens force inside, Avetissmens forces from Storm’s Wind and Uldite began assaulting Solentse.

The Avetissmens attack on Solentse was broken on the second day of 1718, splitting the Avetissmens force. Half moved north to attack Gosd, while the second half gathered reinforcements from Tibeth and moved to attack Solentse once again. Both attacks were fended off, and the remnants of the Avetissmens force scattered to the north of Gosd. Emboldened by the successful repelling of the assaults in the central empire territory, the Solurian Empire launched a quick offensive into Avetissmens land, taking Mothat once again. In the short time before Mothat fell, the remnants of the Avetissmens force that attacked Gosd and Solentse attempted to take Alwasy, but were defeated and captured or killed. As 1718 carried on, the Avetissmens force in Aqim’Raj, panicked from decreasing food and water supplies, attempted to break out in a sudden battle against surrounding Gribban forces. As this carried on, Avetissmens forces in the Nilthian Plains and Uldite attacked Sol directly, in a bid to force the Solurian Empire to recall forces from Mothat.

Forces from the Gribban Compact successfully prevented the Avetissmens force in Aqim’Raj from escaping, and trapped them once more in the city. Meanwhile, Gribban forces from the capital moved with a force of Solurian land regiments and attacked Storm’s Wind, using the same tactic the Avetissmens were using. This attack was the factor that forced the Avetissmens offensive on Sol to break off in an attempt to reinforce Storm’s Wind. In a genius tactical move, Solurian Empire troops in Nilseth intercepted the retreating [[Avetissmens] land force, having successfully predicted the path from information on the previous attack on Sol. At the same time, Gribban forces had recovered enough to fully lay siege to Aqim’Raj, solidifying their previous positions to fully strain the Avetissmens forces inside the city. Solurian forces from Nilseth and Sol decimated the retreating Avetissmens force, and moved north to assist in the battle for Storm’s Wind. Successfully taking the city, the Gribban forces began moving back to the Gribban Compact’s territory, while Solurian forces fortified the city of Storm’s Wind instead of chasing the retreating Avetissmens troops.

The retreating Avetissmens forces met up with the forces laying siege to Rigel, and were able to fully cut off all contact Rigel had with the rest of the Solurian Empire. Gribban forces in the southeast, meanwhile, had managed to successfully take Aqim’Raj from the weakened, starving, and dehydrated Avetissmens defenders. With the recent smoke clearing, both the Avetissmens’s land and naval forces and the Gribban Compact’s land and naval forces were spread thin.

Critical Developments in the War

The Southern Offensive

At this point in the war, roughly halfway through 1718, victory for the Avetissmens over the Gribban Compact was possible. In a widespread offensive campaign, naval forces from the heavily-fortified cities of Helmholme and Estrella to attack Grib and Maraud. At the same time, the large Avetissmens naval force which had resorted to piracy instead of remaining stationed at Aqim’Raj returned to Aqim’Raj to pick up the emaciated defenders as the Siege of Aqim’Raj was drawing to a close. Grib, lacking a serious naval defense, quickly lost the small defensive naval fleet to the invading Avetissmens fleet, forcing the battle to the land of the city itself. As this was occurring, Maraud faced the first attack in the war, and its naval forces were well prepared. The healthy and fully functioned naval force easily broke the backbone of the invading fleet, and then moved north to support the rest of the Gribban fleets in Aqim’Raj, having heard of the intense naval battle from prisoners of the broken Avetissmens fleet.

In a sweeping blow to the Avetissmens naval fleets, the Gribban ships from Maraud took the force in the seas of Aqim’Raj by surprise, decimating the Avetissmens fleet there. From Aqim’Raj, the Gribban naval force moved to the capital itself, breaking the invasion of the city and decimating the Avetissmens fleet at that location also. Suddenly, the Avetissmens naval force at Tibeth found themselves to be the only remaining Avetissmens fleet in the entire southern territories of the Solurian Empire and the Gribban Compact.

Moral in the Avetissmens military was low, so insurgent forces began intensifying their search for valued information on the movements of the Solurian Empire’s military forces. In a stroke of luck, Avetissmens forces from Uldite and Helmholme congregated to launch an offensive on Storm’s Wind, having intercepted information on an upcoming attack on Helmholme itself. Solurian Empire forces from Mothat launched the predicted attack on Helmholme, and were quickly defeated and sent back to Mothat. They were given no respite, as part of the Avetissmens northern naval fleet quickly attacked the city and broke the defending fleet, then launched an offensive on the city itself. Both Storm’s Wind and Mothat fell to the Avetissmens. Faced with two cities brimming with enemy forces, the remnants of the Solurian Empire’s northern military met up with reserve forces moving north out of Sol and Nilseth]]. There, they learned that these reserves were moving to flank the attacks on the Nilthian Plains by laying siege to Uldite.

At this point, the major push to take Tibeth by the combined Solurian Empire and Gribban Compact militaries in the south began. Unknown to them, however, the Avetissmens military forces were preparing for the wave of offensives in the south-west. Even further unknown to both major parties, the subjugated miners in Tibeth were preparing for a massive revolt, hoping to either gain their freedom or die in the effort. Within the span of three days, the Tibeth Iron Revolution, the Naval Battle of Tibeth, and the Siege of Solentse began. As Solurian and Gribban forces decimated the Avetissmens navy outside Tibeth, the massive civilian uprising in the town itself easily opened the way for the Solurian and Gribban victory. 1718 ended with the breaking of the Solurian siege on Uldite, as Avetissmens military forces heading to Rigel made a quick detour and fought off the sieging troops.

1719 began with the Second Battle of Gosd, as Avetissmens forces attempted to regain some stronghold in the southern territories. As forces from Tibeth broke the siege on Solentse, what little land military the Avetissmens had left in the entire southern Solurian Empire laid siege to Mar. In a snowball effect of victories, the Solurian and Gribban joint force defeated the Avetissmens force attacking Gosd, ended the Siege of Mar, and decimated the remnants of the Avetissmens in the southern Solurian Empire in the massive naval battle off the coast of the Panau nature reserve, in what became known as the Panauan Skirmish. With this wave of victories for the allied Solurian Empire and Gribban Compact, the leadership in the Avetissmens became split. Two major military leaders, Varon Bar Etorn and Torgal Siemot, wished to end the war. They, backed by their many followers in the Avetissmens, proposed that they lift the siege on Rigel in return for the lifting of the siege on Hoch, then established their own country with the territory they held. This would have given them nearly all the northern and eastern holdings of the Solurian Empire in return for a ceasefire and peace treaty.

Dohl Riflat, in a rage, had the two executed for treason, and began threatening execution for their followers who continued advocating for peace. At this point, a split in the Avetissmens began appearing, as the rebel force began finding itself weakened by the massive losses in the south and the prolonged siege on their capital city. Some members began claiming that without even having chosen a name for their new country, and just going by the name of their old party, they could not win because they were not unified. In another fit of rage, Dohl had these speakers executed also. Moral in the Avetissmens reached the lowest it had been in this war so far. During this period of extended internal conflict, the Solurian Empire and the Gribban Compact had been preparing for the movement they hoped would end the civil war once and for all; the Northern Campaign.

The Northern Offensive

The Northern Campaign was to be split into two massive offensives, the Northern Offensive and the Hoch Offensive. The plan by Solurian and Gribban leadership was to re-established contact with Rigel, and push back Avetissmens forces from the northern territory of the Solurian Empire. Once this had been completed, the Hoch Offensive would begin, and the combined force would push the entire remaining Avetissmens military force to Hoch, where the Avetissmens would all fall as one.

The Northern Offensive began on May 25th, 1719, with a large scale assault on the Avetissmens stronghold of Uldite, with massive losses of life on both sides. Panicked by the sudden intense attack, some Avetissmens forces laying siege to Rigel broke off to reinforce Uldite, but the Solurain and Gribban militaries retreated before they were caught between the two forces. However, the plot by the allied leadership was successful, and the siege on Rigel had been disrupted enough to allow contact between Rigel and the rest of the Solurian Empire. Using a renewed, secretive line of contact, military units in Rigel launched a heavy push against the sieging military of the Avetissmens, preventing them from reinforcing Uldite and Storm’s Wind when Solurian and Gribban forces laid siege to both cities. Both cities fell under the intense sieges, and the allied force turned its attention on the Avetissmens forces laying siege to Rigel.

In an intense naval battle, Solurian and Gribban ships defeated and destroyed the Avetissmens naval force in the north, breaking the Blockade of Rigel and ending the Siege of Rigel, after nearly two years. In a desperate attempt to retreat from the looming forces of the Solurian Empire and the Gribban Compact, the broken Avetissmens forces engaged in a drawn out battle outside Rigel, eventually being defeated and killed or captured. With the defeat of the last Avetissmens military forces in the north, and Rigel freed once more, the Northern Offensive drew to successful close. Next, the allied force turned east, towards Hoch itself, and the Hoch Offensive.

Hoch Offensive

Avetissmens forces, panicked by the inability to move south or break the Gribban siege on the capital, Hoch, began fortifying and reinforcing the last few cities they held: Mothat, Helmholme, and Estrella. When the attack began on Helmholme on the 7th of July, 1719, the Avetissmens forces were prepared. A dual naval assault and land assault on Helmholme began, with Solurian military units focusing their efforts on that city alone. In the meantime, the Gribban forces attacked Estrella, hoping to split the Avetissmens military between the two incoming attacks. As Solurian naval fleets fought off the Avetissmens fleets at Helmholme, allowing the land force to take the city, Gribban land units were forced to retreat from [Estrella]], after inflicting massive numbers of casualties on the defending Avetissmens military.

Avetissmens forces from the surrounding countryside and Estrella then laid a short siege to Helmholme, hoping to take the stronghold back, but were defeated by the Gribban Compact’s military retreating north from [Estrella]]. From there, the allied forces harried the retreating Avetissmens force, preventing them from taking shelter in Estrella and instead forcing them to Mothat. Then, an attack was launched on Mothat in an effort to take the city before the new defenders could settle in. The attack failed, as support from the Avetissmens navy stationed in Mothat and the returning fleet from the failed Siege of Helmholme were able to shell inbound land forces from the Solurian and Gribban militaries.

However, the Sixth Battle of Mothat and the Siege of Helmholme had weakened the Avetissmens naval force enough to allow for direct confrontation between them and the attacking Solurian and Gribban naval fleets. In a daring midnight assault, the Solurian and Gribban naval forces engaged amidst a sudden siege by their land-bound counterparts. When the allied fleets forced the Avetissmens navy into retreat, the land militaries were able to take Mothat for the Solurian Empire. However, since Hoch was still under siege by the Gribban Compact, the remnants of the land military from Mothat fled to Estrella, further fortifying the Avetissmens forces entrenched there. The Avetissmens naval forces from Mothat slipped into Hoch under cover of darkness and fog.

Despite failing to corral the entire Avetissmens force into Hoch for the final push of the Hoch Offensive, allied leadership decided it would be best to strike Hoch before the bolstered navy could break the Gribban siege, and return to take Estrella afterwards. In a massive naval assault, the Gribban and Solurian navies met the last of the Avetissmens navy in the waters outside Hoch, in a massive sea battle that lasted seven days. At the end of it all, the Avetissmens navy was destroyed, and the Avetissmens force in Hoch surrendered to the invading Gribban and Solurian military. During the long naval battle, however, Dohl Riflat and other high ranking military officials that followed him were found to have escaped to Estrella.

The allied force of the Gribban and Solurian militaries then moved on the last city the Avetissmens controlled, Estrella, in order to end the war once and for all. They laid siege to the city, hoping to prevent the escape of Dohl Riflat once again, but a surprise attack by remnants of the Avetissmens military still plaguing the Nilthian Plains, disrupted the siege enough for the Avetissmens defenders to retreat. The Solurian and Gribban military then took Estrella with relatively little fuss. However, despite holding no territory besides the Nilthian Plains, the Avetissmens had not been defeated, as they still had a sizable military land force moving under the control of Dohl Riflat. Despite the success of the Hoch Offensive, and thus the Northern Campaign, the Solurian Empire and the Gribban Compact had not yet won the war. With no vies for peace from Dohl Riflat or Malter Whits, the last two of the highest ranking military leaders of the Avetissmens, the Solurian and Gribban forces prepared for a long, drawn out fight against a remnant army.

Looming End of the War

During the time it took to successfully take Estrella, however, Dohl Riflat had not been idle with the remnants of his army. Utilizing military knowledge from Malter Whits, Dohl developed a final plan of attack to cement his place in history. The majority of his followers, obsessed with the ideals he preached, were prepared to follow him to his death. As the 22nd day of December in 1719 approached, forces moved into place for the last offensive of the Avetissmens army.

On December 17th, Avetissmens forces launched a coordinated offensive on multiple cities in the Solurian Empire, all near Sol, with one intention. As intense battles were underway in Alwasy, Sol, and Nilseth, Dohl launched a massive assault on the fortified Solurian base of Peak’s End. Survivors of the siege all attest that the fighting was some of the most intense seen in the war. Soldiers of the Avetissmens fought and died with a near zealous fervor, until Peak’s End was overrun and fell. While one of the shortest sieges in the civil war, more died in this siege than nearly all other battles. In Alwasy, the force led under Malter Whits surrendered and turned over battle formations and tactics in exchange for fair trial, once learning that Dohl was holed up in Peak’s End. Using this, the battles in Sol and Nilseth were quickly finished, and the Solurian/Gribban force was able to move into the Nilthian Plains and wipe out Avetissmens remnants which had been wreaking havoc to the area since early 1717.

With the end to the Siege of the Nilthian Plains, the Solurian Empire and the Gribban Compact had successfully contained the last remnants of the Avetissmens military to one location. Unfortunately, Peak’s End at that point in time was one of the most heavily fortified positions in the Solurian Empire’s territories. The fact that the Avetissmens had managed to take it at all was astounding to survivors of the war, as they would come to tell. With this final battle, a final, resounding end to the Solurian Civil War of 1717 was in sight.

Battle of Peak’s End

On December 20th, 1719, the Battle of Peak’s End began, and turned out to the be hardest fought battle in the entire history of the war. More soldiers on either side died here than in any single battle of the war, likely due to the fact that this battle had the most soldiers from both sides participating. It took nearly two days for the combined forces of the Solurian Empire and the Gribban Compact to advanced to the point where Peak’s End was broken off from the landscape. Since no naval support was available, with Peak’s End being for all intents and purposes landlocked, the cannons used to assault the city’s defenses needed to be manually moved by horse and cart with every advance. Slowing the movement even further was the fervent fighting by the Avetissmens forces, knowing the option for surrender had long since passed.

In the meantime, surviving citizens of the city were forced by Avetissmens forces to begin constructing a massive stone dias and circular frame, through which Dohl hoped to achieve a final victory. As the battle raged on, with the portal completed rapidly due to a massive about of forced labor, remaining members of the Avetissmens leadership began realizing that Dohl might have lost his mind. In a plea for peace and survival, some sent word out through trusted soldiers to the hands of the Solurian and Gribban leadership stating that they were willing to kill Dohl and surrender Peak’s End to the joint force, in exchange for fair trial and treatment for themselves and their forces. They described the odd behaviour and the building of the dias and frame, and pointed to this as reasoning for their betrayal, hoping their words would encourage Solurian and Gribban leaders to have mercy. Emperor Markous Neebo III, recognizing a possible similarity to stories told by his grandfather about crazed men opening portals to the former realm of the primlians to summon undead, accepted the offer and urged his forces to redouble their efforts to take the city.

In a desperate bid, the emperor gathered the strongest of his forces and royal guard, and launched a covert operation to enter Peak’s End and cut off the ritual before it could begin. Despite not having a way to power the portal, Markous Neebo III did not want to risk such an incursion of the undead so near to the heart of the Solurian Empire. As dawn broke on the 22nd of December, his elite force broke through Avetissmens lines and entered the city, fighting their way to the city center and the location of the portal. Heavy resistance slowed their progress, and by midday they were barely in line of sight of the dias.

On the midday of December 22nd, the winter solstice, when Dohl revealed that he had been accumulating the souls of the soldiers dying in the surrounding battle, the last of the living Avetissmens leaders realized he had gone mad, and attempted to kill him. Instead, surrounded by cultist followers and soldiers, Dohl overpowered the would-be assassins. Dohl Riflat then killed the last of the Avetissmens leaders and began the ritual to open the portal. As allied forces began pouring in through the break in the defensive line formed by the emperor, Dohl opened the portal and began expanding it using the souls he had accumulated. Once the portal’s edges reached the edge of the stone circular form, the portal would become permanent. Undead began pouring out of the forming portal, killing all in their path including Dohl Riflat himself. Survivors of the event later stated that he died laughing as his head was chopped from his neck.

Facing a critical threat, survivors of the Avetissmens military crumbled against the frantic onslaught of the Solurian and Gribban forces. As the massive army surrounding Peak’s End began fighting their way into the city proper, the elite squadron headed by Emperor Markous Neebo III managed to reach the dias where Dohl Riflat had opened the portal. Without a way to stop the portal from fully forming since Dohl had been killed, the emperor took a chance and figured that the energy released from the death of a primalian would cleanse the energy of the undead and shut the portal down before it could fully form. Thus, in a desperate bid to save the Solurian Empire and the rest of the Shire, Emperor Markous Neebo III and the surviving members of his force leaped into the portal and took their lives.

The influx of energy did not close the portal, but it did shut off the seemingly endless flow of undead. Instead, their deaths purified the portal, and drawing upon the energy of hundreds of thousands of souls, the portal instead opened to the dimension of the God of the Primalians, the Antarian Dimension. Though being utterly astounded by the sudden available exit from their dimension, primalians of the original Primalian Empire were quick to arms, and rushed to aid in the fight against the undead. Even though they possessed far superior weapons and skill, the new primalian force and the less advanced forces from the Solurian Empire and Gribban Compact took over fourteen days to finally cleanse Peak’s End and the surrounding lands of undead presence.

Thus, as January 5th, 1720 drew to a close, the Solurian Civil War of 1720 came to a close.

Aftermath of the Civil War

Much of the civil war’s aftermath came in massive cultural changes in the Solurian Empire as a total. Even not counting the sudden racial tension from prior to the war and the residual feelings after the war, a massive amount of the Solurian Empire’s population was suddenly very advanced, very powerful, and very large beings who were, prior to the war, very rare to see. This whole group came with their own ideals and beliefs, as primalians living in the empire prior to the war had integrated into the culture over the course of over 1700 years. Thankfully, due to the origin of primalians, differing religious beliefs played no part in the integration process required for a stable empire. Indeed, due to the widespread belief in the Solurian Sect, religion came to be a large unifying factor when it came to the newly immigrated primalians and the solurians, gribbans, and humans of the Solurian Empire.

Massive changes in culture also came from the horrors of going through a civil war and the violence and mayhem resulting from rebuilding after such a war had occurred. When faced with the violence racial division could lead to, most citizens of the Solurian Empire became vastly more tolerant of lifestyle choices and of factors such as race, sexuality, and religious belief. This was further enhanced by the Unity Movement and the new number of primalians who were much more open minded than many in the empire. The amount of citizens of the empire who were not tolerant quickly died off as time progressed, either from societal pressure or overarching cultural reformation.

Though it was not widespread before, the enslavement of people took on a far worse tone, as the Avetissmens had taken to doing so to build up fortifications or gather raw materials for the war effort. All prior slaves were released and given land and resources, including slaves from prior religious wars. Due to these factors, and the newer teachings from the primalians, the religious fervor of the Solurian Sect and its followers also decreased vastly, as war was not something sought by the population. While a follower of the Solurian Sect might still fight someone on the street over a perceived insult to their religion, holy wars or religious cleansing of population centers became vastly disliked, even if it was done to combat the undead. Instead, efforts were put forth into the scouting and gathering of information on where the undead originated instead of simply combating them where they popped up.

Of course, the technological advancement itself brought about massive change in the Solurian Empire. The advancements developed by the primalians and the sheer number of primalians and solurians who could manipulate raw energy due to the power of their god, Antares, both lent huge advantages to research and development. Odd new technological advancements centered around the burning of extreme plasmas and high temperatures rapidly derailed the Solurian Empire from the usual technological route of advancement, leading to wildly different technologies in the modern age.

Living and working conditions across the empire began improving radially from Peak’s End and Sol. Once these conditions took hold, however, they began developing at exceedingly rapid paces to come up to the standards of the primalians spreading throughout the empire. This was further enhanced by the Unity Movement and its efforts to improve the living conditions of those in the empire as a whole. Despite this, most primalians settled in the major cities of Hoch, Rigel, Grib, and Sol. Following the rapid development of the technology’s foundations, foundations for further research and development began taking hold. Siberious Neebo, brother to Markous Neebo III, took his place on the throne of the Solurian Empire, and began implementing wide reaching economical changes regarding the regulation, trade, and technology diffusion throughout the empire. When he stepped down mere months after taking the throne in 1720, as part of the agreement with the Gribban Compact and their integration into the Solurian Empire, these efforts continued on through the Governing Council and the Department of Technological Distribution. With the help of those from the Antarian Dimension, these efforts rapidly brought the Solurian Empire up to a high standard of living roughly equivalent to human technology in the early 2000’s.

Despite this rapid cultural development, one thing which did not change was the general aesthetic of the Solurian Empire as a whole. Due in part to the rest of the Shire’s condition and the difficulty of fully rebuilding every building in the Solurian Empire, most cities began taking on medieval and colonial facades to buildings. This spread through the cities and buildings and into clothing, ships, and products, allowing citizens of the Solurian Empire to trade with and move about in the Shire with freedom. Oddly enough, this facade became something of a cultural landmark for most of the empire, barring Rigel and Hoch.

Both Rigel and Hoch had been heavily affected by the war, and the additional costs and effort to rebuild in a medieval facade would have likely ruined the regional governments. As a result, these two cities were rebuilt in the scheme of the antarian primalian cities, resembling a much more modern design. Thus, even as the remainder of the shire built and rebuilt their lands in an increasingly modern look, parts of the Solurian Empire continued to develop with a colonial facade on the outside, with an advanced technological inside while others developed at a rate far ahead of the rest of the shire.

Military Doctrine

The most important shifts in military doctrine were learned in this war through massive loss of life and devastation of the land. Many of the smaller villages and towns in the Solurian Empire disappeared over the course of war, with some never to appear again. Prior to the civil war, ranged weapons such as muskets and cannons had never been used en masse, with the overwhelming bulk of the Solurian Empire’s past conflicts relying on crossbows or longbows for ranged attack. Indeed, up until the civil war itself, cannons had not even been used on land for the various conflicts and skirmishes the Solurian Empire had taken part in.

As a result, the first few battles of the civil war were testing grounds for tactics and the new phase of warfare which would be utilized over the next years of the war. With these battles, both sides experienced devastating casualties and losses as a result of the new weapons.

Shift In Wartime Tactics

Prior to the invention of the musket, the Solurian Empire’s ground military strategy can be generalized into a simple series of tactics. It was centered around a slow moving core force comprised of primalian and solurian ground forces augmented by a fast moving solurian and human cavalry force which would outflank and corral enemy forces towards their counterparts. With this, the main chunk of the enemy force would be pushed into engagement with a terrifying main force of primalian and solurian power, where superior plasmic weapons and strength would overwhelm whatever enemy force was being engaged. From there, the cavalry force would whittle down the remnants of the opposing army while the non-mounted units would search and destroy opposing holdouts. On uncommon occasions, primalian commanders would lead their melee forces into charges with devastating effect as primalian forces would serve to break the lines while their faster and smaller solurian counterparts would take advantage of the gaps in the enemy defense.

Both sides had garnered the majority of their large-scale ground engagement experience against the hordes of undead and rarely their demonic commanders, against whom their previous tactics had devastating effect. Against these foes, the primalian and solurian ground force could easily hold their ground as the cavalry whittled away at enemy lines from behind. Most major engagements with other nations or empires occurred on the sea, where the Solurian Empire’s naval force was largely superior.

With the popularization of the musket and cannon, however, these tactics very quickly resulted in overwhelming losses on the battlefield. For the [[Solurian Empire]’s army, the typical close-range weaponry was useless against the range and stopping power of musket lines and for the Avetissmens army, cavalry charges were easily decimated by cannon embankments. Similarly, the primalian commanders used to shrugging off lightweight projectiles such as arrows or bolts were suddenly faced with musketballs which could pose a very real threat to their previously impenetrable armor and shielding. What was once a very efficient and perfected method of warfare became unsustainable as soon as the war saw its first major battles.

On both sides of the civil war, tactical shifts were constant and unpredictable, and even by the end of war a dedicated core of combat strategy was nonexistent. As a result, casualties were expected to be massive on either side as no set strategy seemed to cement itself as superior to any other. Avetissmens forces attempting to use guerilla tactics would easily be overwhelmed and wiped out by single primalian soldiers when springing ambushes, and Solurian Empire forces attempting melee charges straight into the enemy line were shot down by the thousands. Avetissmens mounted cavalry units attempting quick hit and run strikes with musket fire would be suddenly faced with large primalian forces wielding hand-cannons which could often wipe out large swathes of cavalry. Solurian Empire sieging armies would set up camp near a besieged city and be faced with a hail of long-range cannon bombardment as rapidly improving cannon technology suddenly rendered previously safe distances well within firing range.

These examples of war go on and on as the war progressed, with some lessons being costly enough to learn from their mistakes after one occurence, while others took the course of the war to learn. Due to the influx of primalians from the Antarian Dimension and the long-ranging echoes of the technological leap they brought with them, whatever tactics for musket and cannon centered warfare were abandoned as they became quickly irrelevant. As such, a primalian and solurian doctrine based on such levels of technology was never developed, much to the chagrin of some historical and military scholars.

Unity Movement

One of the critical changes in the Solurian Empire as a result of the civil war was the Unity Movement. This movement began early in 1713, as a response to the spread of the teachings of Dohl Riflat and the increase in racial tension which resulted. At this point in time, up until 1716, the Unity Movement was small and centralized in the few small towns outside of Sol proper. In 1716, however, the movement began seeing exponential increases in support, as solurians and gribbans flocked to it to show their disagreement with the growing amount of Avetissmens supporters. Often, prior to the war, counter protests would be organized and gathered by the members of the Unity Movement to combat protests or riots by the Avetissmens in Sol, Rigel, and Hoch.

While it began as a civilian movement, as tensions increased and the war began, the Unity Movement focused further on keeping the peace and protecting citizens of all races rather than trying to avoid conflict. During the war, members of the movement would often transport enslaved people of all races to free areas to save them from worse fates. When such transport was impossible, some members of the Unity Movement fought against Avetissmens forces in small civilian ambush attacks on supply trains or ammunition and arms depos, often delaying the Avetissmens forces. Early in 1717, however, the members of the Unity Movement in Hoch, alongside many solurians, were executed for treason or imprisoned by the Avetissmens.

Major focuses of the movement were the dissolution of avetissmens party and the breaking down of the major companies the Avetissmens used to gain economical and military advantages over the Solurian Empire. This began in 1718 and continued until the major war trials in 1720, when the efforts were taken over by the Solurian Empire’s government itself. Prior to this, the Unity Movement’s members often risked their own safety to drive out or reveal the Avetissmens influences in companies and businesses in areas which were controlled by the Solurian Empire in name only. Often, small skirmishes and battles whose participants numbers below the hundreds would take place between members of the Unity Movement and the Avetissmens. Many thousands of these such tiny skirmishes occurred during the course of the civil war, and these efforts were not acknowledged until late 1720, when those skirmishes were recognized by the solurian Empire for their contribution to the war effort.

As a whole, the Unity Movement began snowballing in traction during later years of the civil war, as efforts to stop the Avetissmens spread to the entire empire. In mid to late 1718, with the Tibeth Iron Revolution, followers of the Unity Movement spiked as they significant progress could be seen in the turning of the war. Those who were reluctant or afraid to pick a side prior to this point rallied around the efforts of those responsible for the Tibeth Iron Revolution and the Unity Movement saw a measurable difference in success. In the small skirmishes and battles, members of the movement saw more victories, and their seizing of ammunition and arms began having a measurable negative effect upon the Avetissmens ground force. Often when marching in the Solurian Empire’s territory, the Avetissmens found themselves marching through a hostile land whose inhabitants would poison food supplies or water and make small poking attacks upon their main force multiple dozens of times a day.

In late 1720, when the efforts of the Unity Movement were both acknowledged and subsumed by the Solurian Empire, multiple primalian commanders credited successful battles or sieges to these skirmishers. Often, the constant wear upon the minds and bodies of the Avetissmens led to mistakes in battle or a tired and worn force that fought at a lesser quality than defending solurian forces. The slowly decreasing quality of the Avetissmens force allowed the Solurian Empire to refocus its naval force and begin the sweeping line of victories which ultimately resulted in the end of the war.

A secondary surge in the movement’s involvement came after the Avetissmens party lines split when Dohl Riflat executed nearly half the leadership of the months prior to the Northern Campaign and its two offensives. Members of the Avetissmens who had been forced into it due to geographical location or living conditions found themselves able to finally split from the party and find refuge in the welcoming arms of the Unity Movement. The members of the Unity Movement, in turn, acted as a line of information from their new members to the Solurian Empire, allowing a change in the tides of war.

When Hoch fell and a large amount of the Avetissmens military leaders and political leaders were captured, the Unity Movement played a huge role in aiding the gathering of evidence or capture of escaped war criminals. Unity Movement members assisted police in capturing hundreds of war criminals pretending to be released prisoners for as long as until 1753. Even before then, the Unity Movement really earned its importance when it played a huge role in the reunification of the Solurian Empire directly following the civil war. Members of the Unity Movement would hold communal discussions and debates between former members of the Avetissmens who were civilians and citizens of the Solurian Empire who had remained loyal. They also assisted in protecting former members who were unable to break from party lines in fear of their lives or the lives of their families.

Even further than that, the Unity Movement played a huge part in integrating the immigrated primalians with the normal citizens of the Solurian Empire as a whole. The sudden shift in culture from the vast number of primalians resulted in a societal change that none in the Solurian Empire had prepared for. However, as communication and cultural exchange was fostered between the mass of primalians and the remainders of the solurian and human populations, the effort of rebuilding began en masse. The primalians from the antarian dimension took the lead in the efforts, and soon found themselves in leadership positions of the Unity Movement. From 1721 until 1823, the Unity Movement played a large part in the fusing of the Solurian Empire’s culture and the culture of the antarian primalians.

Part of this movement also included the integration of the superior primalian technology with the technology of the Solurian Empire. Finding a stable base in the Unity Movement, many primalians utilized the communities fostered in wartime as centers for technological development, allowing them to spread the technology evenly throughout the empire. Members of the Unity Movement also helped unify the primalians who had lived in the empire for all these years and the primalians who were new to the empire. Some even began tracing bloodlines and developing or modifying family trees so primalians could meet their families and their solurian descendants. Many family gatherings took place and many more funerals or memorials occurred. Despite any hardship from finding out your grandchildren died decades ago, primalians grew into the Solurian Empire as a whole, and could be considered perfectly integrated by as early as 1796. Often, primalians would find their bloodlines had been impacted or wiped out as a result of the war, giving them a point of similar foundation for relationships with those who had survived.

The last, and possibly largest, contribution the Unity Movement made to the Solurian Empire was definitely the union of the Solurian Empire with Gribban Compact. Indeed, members of the Unity Movement were some of the largest advocates for a joining of forces, seeing as the Gribban Compact and the Solurian Empire had acted in such close alliance during the war itself. This, plus the changes in population and the close-knit communities of gribbans, humans, solurians, and primalians, led to a weird mingling of cultures which made it hard to distinguish one empire from the other. When public opinion of this rose to a pitch shortly before July 18th in 1720, Emperor Siberius Neebo met with Prime Leader Grohn Velti of the Gribban Compact to negotiate a joining of the two nations. On July 20th, 1720, the two leaders came out of negotiations, happily announcing the formal joining of the two nations into the Solurian Empire. Governmental changes, such as the Emperor and the Prime Leader stepping down from ruling roles to representative roles, and the development of the Governing Council into the true ruling body of the Solurian Empire were a result of these negotiations. The capital of the Solurian Empire remained in Sol, though Grib was made into the capital of the entire southern governance of the Solurian Empire.

As a whole, the integration of the primalians utilizing the Unity Movement allowed the Solurian Empire to temper its pre-war ways. The fervent following of the Solurian Sect cooled as the antarian primalians taught peaceful ways to the followers of Antares. The past history of violent conflict was halted as the Solurian Empire found new focus in the protection of the world from the newly invigorated threat of the undead. Instead of fighting for land or riches, the Solurian Empire focused its efforts on utilizing their newfound technological advantages and rebuilding and growing on the vast swathes of land it had claimed over 1500 years of violent conflict and battle with the neighboring empires. The isolationist tendencies of the empire were banished as primalians wished for interaction with the new world, and the Solurian Empire began trading and negotiating with its neighbors for the first time in its history. While the past of violence was not forgotten, a new era of the Solurian Empire was dawning, and few would not take advantage of the new start to make something new.

Population Shifts as a Result of the War

The most lasting change from the pre-civil-war era to the post civil war has to do with population shift which occur over the course of a war on this scale. In 1715 prior to the war, the Solurian Empire and the Gribban Compact had over 33,662,000 citizens residing within their respective territories. Once the war had ended, without counting in the population of primalians from the Antarian Dimension, the total population of the Solurian Empire and the Gribban Compact was under 22,157,000. Total population in 1716 and 1717 prior to the beginning of the civil war is estimated to be somewhere around 34 million. However, no specific data was collected and if there was any, it was lost to time. Thus, over the entire course of the war, it can be generally stated that one in three citizens of the Solurian Empire and Gribban Compact lost their lives.

With the primalian immigration from their prior dimension and the increasing post-war numbers, total population in the Solurian Empire increased to over 37,249,000 by the time the census was taken in 1720. Unfortunately, with projected population numbers unaffected prior to the war, it is surmised that anywhere between 300,000 to 500,000 people of the Solurian Empire disappeared or were lost among the remains over the course of the civil war. These numbers have no records or names but plaques were dedicated to these lost thousands in 1823, to be placed amongst the many civil war memorials dotting the lands of the Solurian Empire.

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  The human population far outnumbered both gribban and solurian populations. The primalian population can barely be seen due to such small numbers

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  The solurian population outnumbered the human population, with shrinking percentages of gribban and primalian populations due to the rapid solurian population increase.

From 1600 to 1715, shortly before the war began, the solurian percentage of the population spiked rapidly as high fertility rates saw themselves reflected in larger family, and by result, clan sizes. By comparison, human population began making up proportionally less percent of the Solurian Empire’s total population. Meanwhile, gribban and primalian populations were quickly overtaken by their human and solurian counterparts due to their lesser number and lower birth rate. The rapidly increasing number of the solurian population and their dramatically different culture compared to the human sections of the population likely added to the tension between the two racial factions of the empire.

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  The change and growth of all populations, with solurians overtaking humans by 1715.

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  The drop in solurian, gribban, and human populations due to the war and the sudden jump in primalian population following the war can be seen.

While exact numbers of the populations prior to the civil war are rough, the estimated values for each race were collected through the efforts of multiple historian groups. As can be seen in the first graph, populations for most races increased at a noticeable rate when compared to an earlier time in the Shire. At this point in time for the Solurian Empire, however, primalians numbered in the low 30 thousands, and usually acted as commanders or leaders in the empire’s society and military. As a result, their numbers are far outweighed by the other races in the Solurian Empire. Solurians, on the other hand, had much larger families on average when compared to humans or gribbans, accounting for the giant increase and near tripling of their population numbers by 1715. The gribban population at this time saw very little increase, resulting in the Gribban Compact finding themselves increasingly overshadowed by the Solurian Empire. Groups led by Avetissmens members found themselves easily capable of pressuring gribbans into difficult or negative trade deals, driving them towards the non-human members of the Solurian Empire who often relished trade and agreement with the gribbans.

In the second graph, the drops in population for all races can be easily seen, as losses from the war numbered over a third of the total Solurian Empire’s population prior to the war. The jump in primalian population is also easily visible, as the total number of primalians residing in the Antarian Dimension from their escape from their previous home dimension had steadily increased for the roughly 300 years, in addition to the already massive population of the primalian empire prior to its fall. The resulting leap in population pushed the primalians to make up the highest percent of the Solurian Empire’s population, allowing them to spearhead cultural and technological changes which would make the empire into the geopolitical powerhouse it is today.

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  The populations of the solurians, humans, and gribbans are far outweighed individually by the population of primalians immigrating into this dimension.

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  The populations of the solurians and humans are no longer vastly outweighed by the primalian population, but no growth in the gribban percent is visible compared to their counterparts.

By 1720, deaths and injuries from the war and the sudden influx of primalians from the Antarian Dimension resulted in massive shifts in the population division. With this, the large amount of primalians had a massive effect on the cultural and technological shifts of the Solurian Empire, as primalians were relied upon heavily following the war. Coming from a place which had not endured such warfare but had instead focused heavily upon advancement and preparation for war in the future, these new primalians were faced with the task of bringing their brethren and newfound allies up to speed in technology and cultural changes. As such, in the time following the civil war and the Battle of Peak’s End, the new primalian population had a massive role in shaping culture and technology. This, combined with the Unity Movement’s ongoing efforts, resulted in an unparalleled shift in te Solurian Empire’s culture and history.

By 1800, however, the solurian and human populations had recovered from the war and come nearly equal to the primalian population, due to the low primalian birth rates. As such, from this point onwards, humans and solurians had an increasing importance in the development of the culture and society of the Solurian Empire. The gribban population, while not having as low a birth rate as the primalian race, dropped in percent due to the vast increase in solurian and human populations relative to both them and the primalians. Some of the rapid population gain can be attributed to the massive technological boost in all areas, due to the primalian immigration. Medical advancements and a rapid increase in living conditions lended help to the growing number of all races in the Solurian Empire, resulting in a much higher population increase from 1720 to 1800 compared to the pre war 1600’s through 1715.

An effort to reclaim past culture and honor the lost numbers was made in early 1820, resulting in legislation and research done throughout 1820 until 1823 which resulted in the majority of this data and the setup of memorials to the fallen in each graveyard. The war had a lasting impact on the Solurian Empire which is still felt in small towns and villages, and is used as a lesson in history that is never to be forgotten.

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Major Battles of the War

Central-Sol Campaign

Major Land Engagements

• First Battle of Mar: Solurian victory
• First Battle of Sol: Solurian victory
• First Battle of Nilseth: Solurian victory
• Second Battle of Mar: Solurian victory
• Siege of the Nilthian Plains: Avetissmens victory
• Second Battle of Nilseth: Solurian victory
• First Battle of Alwasy: Solurian victory
• Second Battle of Sol: Solurian victory
• First Battle of Solentse: Solurian victory
• First Battle of Gosd: Solurian victory
• Second Battle of Solentse: Solurian victory
• Third Battle of Sol: Solurian victory
• Tibeth Iron Revolution:Civilian victory
• Siege of Solentse: Solurian victory
• Second Battle of Gosd: Solurian victory
• Siege of Mar: Solurian victory
• Third Battle of Nilseth: Solurian victory
• Siege of Peak’s End: Avetissmens victory
• Second Battle of Alwasy: Solurian victory
• Fourth Battle of Sol: Solurian victory
• Battle of Peak’s End: Solurian victory

Major Naval Engagements

• First Naval Battle of Sol: Solurian victory
• Naval Battle of Solentse: Solurian victory
• Naval Battle of Nilseth: Solurian victory
• Second Naval Battle of Sol: Solurian victory
• Naval Battle of Mar: Solurian victory
• Panauan Skirmish: Solurian victory

Gribban Campaign

Major Land Engagements

• First Battle of Tibeth: Avetissmens victory
• First Battle of Zvez: Solurian/Gribban victory
• First Battle of Grib: Gribban victory
• Second Battle of Zvez: Solurian/Gribban victory
• First Battle of Aqim’Raj: Avetissmens victory
• Second Battle of Aqim’Raj: Gribban victory
• Third Battle of Aqim’Raj: Avetissmens victory
• Second Battle of Grib: Gribban victory
• Fourth Battle of Aqim’Raj: Avetissmens victory
• Siege of Aqim’Raj: Gribban victory

Major Naval Engagements

• Naval Battle of Grobbub Bay: Gribban victory
• Naval Battle of Maraud: Gribban victory
• Naval Battle of Aqim’Raj: Gribban victory
• Naval Battle of Tibeth: Solurian/Gribban victory

Northern Campaign

Major Land Engagements

• First Battle of Rigel: Solurian victory
• First Battle of Storm’s Wind: Avetissmens victory
• Second Battle of Rigel: Solurian victory
• First Battle of Uldite: Avetissmens victory
• Siege of Uldite: Avetissmens victory
• Second Battle of Storm’s Wind: Solurian victory
• Siege of Rigel: Solurian victory
• Second Battle of Uldite: Avetissmens victory
• Third Battle of Storm’s Wind: Avetissmens victory
• Second Siege of Uldite: Solurian victory
• Siege of Storm’s Wind: Solurian victory
• Third Battle of Rigel: Solurian victory

Major Naval Engagements

• First Naval Battle of Rigel: Solurian victory
• Second Naval Battle of Rigel: Solurian victory
• Blockade of Rigel: Solurian victory

Hoch Campaign

Major Land Engagements

• First Battle of Helmholme: Avetissmens victory
• First Battle of Estrella: Avetissmens victory
• First Battle of Hoch: Avetissmens victory
• First Battle of Mothat: Avetissmens victory
• Second Battle of Mothat: Solurian victory
• Third Battle of Mothat: Avetissmens victory
• Fourth Battle of Mothat: Solurian victory
• Fifth Battle of Mothat: Avetissmens victory
• Sixth Battle of Mothat: Avetissmens victory
• Siege of Mothat: Solurian victory
• Second Battle of Estrella: Avetissmens victory
• Second Battle of Helmholme: Avetissmens victory
• Third Battle of Helmholme: Solurian victory
• Siege of Helmholme: Solurian victory
• Third Battle of Estrella: Avetissmens victory
• Siege of Estrella: Solurian victory
• Second Battle of Hoch: Avetissmens victory
• Siege of Hoch: Solurian/Gribban victory

Major Naval Engagements

• First Naval Battle of Hoch: Avetissmens victory
• Naval Battle of Helmholme: Solurian victory
• First Naval Battle of Mothat: Avetissmens victory
• Second Naval Battle of Mothat: Avetissmens victory
• Third Naval Battle of Mothat: Solurian victory
• Second Naval Battle of Hoch: Solurian/Gribban victory