| AQUA Civil War | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||
| Combatants | |||||||||
| Children of Kina followers Deceiver Cult |
Grant family loyalists Shamans of the Wild | ||||||||
| Commanders | |||||||||
| Opus Petrichor | Unknown | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties | |||||||||
| 7,000 soldiers and ships' crew | c.11,000 civilians | ||||||||
The AQUA Civil War was a struggle for power in the Ancestral Quill Unification Alliance following the assassination of two regents in rapid succession and a resulting breakdown of political authority in the region.
Background[]
Before 400, the Jewelled Cities had been ruled by Jonas Grumby and his daughter Amber for over sixty years. In the 360s Tar had joined the Cities in the Ancestral Quill Unification Alliance. While popular internationally, Amber faced increasing opposition at home towards the end of her reign, particularly from the hardline Deceiver sect led by the deformed Quill Tupelo Cornus.
Tupelo manoeuvred his way onto the Senior Council with support from Samhell "Junior Black" Bellami and his ally Opus Petrichor and began undermining Amber's authority. On the last day of 399 his assassins struck, killing Amber, her allies on the council, and targetting their families. The surviving councillors did not challenge Tupelo in taking the titles of Regent and Sagamore for himself.
Allies and family members of Amber abroad were horrified and organised a retaliation against Tupelo. A group of adventurers and assassins, led by Dagr of Hrathan-Tuor and including Inigo of Guilder and Marrik Sunder, infiltrated Tupelo's barge and killed him. Details of the assassination are poor, but it took place at some point between 402 and 404.
Conflict[]
On Tupelo's death, a power struggle erupted in AQUA between his followers, those loyal to the older regime, various other factions allied with or opposed to each of them, and pirates and mercenaries seeking personal advantage.
Central authority in AQUA completely disintegrated. Pirates and raiders roamed freely around the archipelago and the coast. There were no clear or defined battle lines, and the conflict was largely a free-for-all. Confusion about the situation meant there was a negligible amount of international involvement.
- "People call what came next a civil war. It wasna. The Deceivers, they knew that the Shamans helped the assassins get to Tupelo. They knew the ship captains smuggled them in and out. They knew the Priests of Atur were involved. They spread their version of the story everywhere. Tupelo, he became a martyr, a symbol for all the problems. Five years, of this gang going after that one, this ship attacking that one. Old folks, they tell me it was like the bad old days before the cities united." - Verdo Collino[1]
Aftermath[]
Almost the entire AQUA military was lost in the war, killed or deserted, including its previously formidable navy. Around eleven thousand civilians are also believed to have died.
Eventually, Tupelo's former confederates Opus Petrichor and Junior Black were able to secure control of the region, and formed a triumviral leadership council along with former councilmember Verdo Collino. Opus became the new Regent and Sagamore.
The Children of Kina became the official and largely unchallenged religion of AQUA and rapidly began spreading outside the Alliance's borders, especially into Celero and Faedas.
The governments of Raaneka and Jarrland refused to recognise the regime of Opus Petrichor, giving shelter to the exiled members of the Grant family and supporting the claims of Jonas and Tempest Grant and Martin Grant-Tremblor. A state of undeclared war existed between the Crown of Jarrow and AQUA for nearly thirty years. Only with the death of Opus in 436 were they finally reconciled, and some members of the Grant family able to return.