The Raggisar Revolution

During the final days of the Fourth Era, as peace talks were held to solve the international crisis caused by the Dervich Incident, tensions were running high in Villa Altojardin, in the Kythiran capital city of Helmira. In the middle of one of the conferences, a battalion of the Helmiran Imperial City Guard rushed into the Villa Altojardin, neutralised the Kaiser's bodyguards, and formally arrested Kaiser Borous Von Dragestein for breaking the Treaty of the King's Keep. A different battalion of the Helmiran Imperial City Guard surrounded the Hotel Ye Olde Tower at the same time, and arrested the Kaiser's staff as well as the Grand Marshal of the Imperius Reich.

All arrested parties were brought to the dungeons of the White-Gold Tower, to await further action.

The purpose of this action was to negotiate, through having the leaders of the Reich hostage, with the Imperius Senate directly, forcing them to give large swaths of land to the Kythirans, including Dorwall as well as much of the eastern coast of the Narrow Sea. However, these demands never would be fulfilled.

When the Imperius Senate heard of the capture of the Kaiser, chaos erupted. Though support for the Von Dragestein dynasty was strong, ever since the Lotrican Genocide the call for an end of the monarchy had begun to gain support, especially within much of the elite of the Reich. For they saw what Von Dragestein had done with Prince Mace of Lotric.

Because of this, over the years a strong Republican faction had formed in the Imperius Senate. When the government received the demands from Kythira, this faction decided this was the best opportunity to take control of the Reich for their cause. City officials in Dorwall declared themselves supporters of the Republican faction, fearing the monarchists to give in to the Kythiran demands in order to free their kaiser. Soon, most wealthy cities across the west of the Reich followed.

With the capture of the Grand Marshal, a famous Von Dragestein loyalist, the most powerful member of the Imperius army became General Von Wolfswald, the son of an industrialist who had served under Prince Mace during the latter's more prosperous days, and who had, after the Genocide, been promoted to lead the Raggisar Army, the largest army of the Reich, hailing from the largest province. Von Wolfswald was however a secret Republican, who now decided to pledge his full support for the Republican cause. Soon his army began to travel across the Reich, "converting" towns to the Republican cause or otherwise destroying them. Soon Imperia became a Monarchist stronghold, surrounded by Republicans. Monarchist supporters meanwhilst began to lynch people whom they suspected to be Republican, and most of the eastern provinces pledged their loyalty to Von Dragestein. As the Monarchist and Republican armies met in the fields of battle, the mountain snows of Imperius soon began to glimmer in the crimson of her fallen sons and daughters.

Although taken aback by the absolute chaos erupting in Imperius, the Kythirans did respond. First, fearing rescue attempts, they moved the Kaiser and his staff far into the west. The Grand Marshal and the Kaiser's staff were forced into an Ardoraghi prison, whilst the Kaiser himself enjoyed a slightly more comfortable stay in a castle in Kreonix, though still under heavy guard by the Detention Squadron or D.S., the same military unit that had guarded and executed Corporal Dervich of Neurvikstad during the Dervich Incident.

Secondly, they mobilised the Imperial Legion and much of the Mediori Fleet, and sailed into the Narrow Sea. After a brutal siege, they managed to capture Dorwall. Although promoting themselves as liberators, they soon accused Dorwall's miller, an old man in his late 80s, of spying, and had him publicly executed in the city's docks. After capturing Dorwall, they moved south, capturing Chesterfield and from there pushing deep into the Imperius mainland. At the farthest, they managed to capture all the way south to the sea, and all the way east till they reached the kaiser's former summer palace in the Black Forest.

This enslaught forced the Republicans and Monarchists to work together, and they united their banners to repel the Kythiran invaders. The Kythiran Imperial Legion managed to withstand against the counter offensive for some time, but ultimately they were forced back all the way to the Narrow Sea, bunkering down in the city of Chesterfield as it was put under a prolonged siege. The blame for this has been tossed around over the years, but according to the Kythiran High Command at the time it was mostly due to reinforcements from the Province of Ardoragh not arriving in time. According to High-Lord Whazajottom this was simply due to it taking longer than expected to call up all his banners and move east towards Imperius. But many of the Legion's High Command have accused the High-Lord of deliberately delaying his forces in order to spare his men in a war outside of the Empire's borders.

Having neutralised the Kythiran threat for the time being, the Republicans and Monarchists wasted no time to start fighting one another again.

The Kythirans, due to their numerically larger fleet size, managed to maintain their grip on the Narrow Sea, supplying Dorwall and Chesterfield whilst ensuring no fleet of the Imperius Navy would try to invade mainland Kythira.