The Raggisar Revolution

The Raggisar Revolution was a period of political and societal change in the Raggisar Republic, then still known as the Imperius Reich. It ended together with the end of the Grand War, with the signing of the Treaty at the Tower. The effects of the Revolution were felt across Minecraftia. The Von Dragestein dynasty that had ruled the Reich ever since its inception lost their throne and were forced to flee to Kythira, whilst in Kythira the aftermath of the Grand War resulted in the near collapse of the Kythiran crown and the ultimate signing of the Reforma Carta.

First Rebellions in the Reich

The Von Dragestein dynasty had ruled the Imperius Reich for over nine generations, ever since its inception during the early Third Era. During this time, the imperial family had maintained an iron grip on the Reich, whilst it had to maintain a fragile peace after since Borous IV Von Dragestein signed the Treaty of the King's Keep with the Kythiran Emperor Richard II Viromaro. Despite the occasional border conflict, this relationship blossomed, and the two superpowers maintained generally cordial relations.

Internally however, there had been a rising resentment of the absolute monarchy within the Reich. Any small uprisings were however easily crushed by the Kaisers formidable Große Armee, the largest land army in Minecraftia, thrice as large as all the Kythiran provincial armies and Imperial Legion combined. The Große Armee was however extremely expensive to maintain, using up most of the Reich's annual budget.

When the majority of the population consisted of peasantry, this was not a major problem for the Reich's government. However, as the generations continued, gradual rights were granted to increasingly large portions of the population, forming a middle class known as the 'Volksgenossen'. These enjoyed greater rights and wealth, and eventually started outnumbering the peasantry by the time of Kaiser Borous VIII Von Dragestein.

A popular uprising in Dorwall, that spread to the Reich's capital, Imperia, resulted in a political crisis in the Reich as the royal palace was stormed by a mob of rioters. After several weeks of negotiating, with the esteemed Kythiran Emperor Alexander Viromaro acting as a negotiator, Borous IX Von Dragestein ultimately formed the Imperius Senate, granted voting rights to all male Volksgenossen and removing himself as supreme commander of the Große Armee, creating the function of Grand Marshal instead.

Another problem that had plagued the Reich for generations was higher nobility hungry for more power and autonomy. The greatest of these was House Mace, the Grand Dukes of the Duchy of Lotric, the second largest region of the Reich. During the early Fourth Era the Grand Dukes of this Duchy betrayed their Kaiser by allying with the Kythiran Empire's Emperor Charles I Viromaro, betraying the great fleet Kaiser Borous V Von Dragestein had begun constructing, resulting in a great arms race between the two superpowers. Narrowly Borous V was able to stop a Kythiran fleet from reaching Lotric, preventing the secession of the Grand Duchy, and it remained a thorn in the sides of multiple subsequent kaisers. The Duchy had received informal protection of the Empire, making an invasion of the region a dangerous affair.

However, with the sudden deaths of the Kythiran Emperor Alexander Viromaro and Crown-Prince Amantis Viromaro within days from each other, causing the Chaos of the Coronation, the young Kaiser Borous X decided to use the chaos in the Kythiran Empire to finally remove Grand Duke Mace of Lotric from his position. A great invasion resulted in the near extinction of the noble house, with only the young Titus Mace surviving, whilst the capital and most of the region was destroyed in what became known abroad as the Lotrican Genocide.

The extreme violence and atrocities during the Lotrican Genocide became well documented and spread across Minecraftia, greatly aided by the new Kythiran Emperor Louis Viromaro, who had been a close friend to the deceased Grand Duke when he was just a prince. Emperor Louis used the great wealth of his House for the establishment of multiple local newspapers across Minecraftia, which publicised the atrocities of Kaiser Borous X, which were consumed by the literate Volksgenossen class. This resulted in great censoring efforts by the Kaiser's government, which made all foreign owned newspapers illegal, as well as the imprisonment and "accidental" deaths of several journalists by monarchist factions of the Große Armee.

House Von Dragestein, long seen as the more liberal of the Imperial Ancient Houses, certainly compared to the conservative House Viromaro, caused themselves great representational damage through this affair. Nevertheless, the majority of the population still supported the monarchy, seeing it as flawed but the one thing standing between them and the increasingly hostile Kythiran Empire under Emperor Louis.

The Dervich Incident & Twenty-Three Lords Affair

The Dervich Incident changed this. The fact that the Kaiser & Grand Marshal were effectively held hostage in Helmira for over two weeks, and that afterwards they agreed to ceding Imperius territory to the Kythiran Empire, made many question the leadership of the Kaiser. The Twenty-Three Lords, a group of high-ranking Imperius nobles, travelled to Imperia to present the Kaiser the Imperial Codex, a collection of legal reforms intended to make the Kaiser share some of his power, which would have reformed the Reich into the first constitutional monarchy of Minecraftia. More radical elements of the Twenty-Three Lords demanded the Kaiser to abdicate in favour of his son, the 12 year old crown-prince. The Kaiser rejected all the proposals, and ordered the arrest of all members of the Twenty-Three Lords. Four managed to escape Imperia, those captured were convicted of high treason and publicly executed by beheading.

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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.