The Caelona Crisis

The Caelona Crisis
On April 3rd, 1985 the Treaty of Aldria was official signed by officials from the Kingdom of Elsaria, Kingdom of Esteria, and the United Aldrian Duchies which brought an official end to the devastating Grand Campaign, often called the Human Invasions by the High Elven people. This treaty, while finally bringing an end to the violence, left the nation practically cut in half territoriality with approximately a fourth of it's population inside of the territory lost. Ontop of that the territory left was badly damaged by the fighting, even the once shining capital city of Caelona was deeply scarred by damages done by aerial bombings, left drained of manpower due to the over 300,000 High Elves who lost their lives in the Battle of Caelona which also left all of the land within a 30 mile radius of the city completely scorched and devoid of resources.

The aftershocks of this were felt all around the country. The immediate refugee crisis as millions of High Elves fled back into the borders of Elsaria caused settlements all around the new border region to become crowded, a problem exacerbated by the poor food supply, which on it's own created a wave of banditry as the military was left in tatters and unable to effectively police the country as it had before. King Talimar II called upon his best advisors to find the best way forward from this crisis, and set into motion rebuilding plans within weeks which would seek to alleviate the suffering within the kingdom. However, these rebuilding plans would take time, and the material conditions combined with the anger and humiliation of defeat drove many people away from the king's ideals of peaceful, slow and steady rebuilding. Even only days after the treaty, political organizations would send demands that the king abdicate by the thousands, and while these demands were often simply dismissed by the aristocratic powers that be higher powers elsewhere saw opportunity. Faljan V of House Callic-Hjarumaa, the head of one of the High Elven royal family's many branch families, would make his bid to the people of Elsaria that he is the most suitable member of the royal family for the throne, claiming that if he were in charge he would seek wicked retribution for the sleights done to their people and would not meekly sit in his throne room while the people suffer.

Meanwhile, further to the south within the fortress of Akum Castle, where the Aldrians were defeated by the renegade military group Agelinde's Raiders, served still as a headquarters for the group. After the armistice with the Aldrians was signed their group's membership still numbered 20,000, and King Talimar still had to decide what would be done about these simultaneous heroes and traitors. After careful consideration, on April 13th it was declared that Virran Faelogran, current leader of the Raiders, and the rest could return to Caelona not only as free men, but also be given a hero's welcome so long as they came unarmed. However, Virran did not consider throwing away all of the arms they had stolen from the Aldrians a wise decision, and so deliberately chose to ignore that part of the order. Soon, reports reached back to Caelona that an army of 20,000 men was marching directly to the gates of the city. This sparked immediate and fierce disagreement in the city, where some viewed Virran as a liberator from the incapable regime and others viewed him as a usurper of tradition. The series of conflicts that would be created as a domino effect from this would be known as the Caelona Crisis.

Virran's March from Akum and the Battle of Salic Wood
News of the armed forces marching towards their capital city created a delay in the important decision which needed to be made to demobilize the armed forces. Conscript soldiers were still fielded by the hundreds of thousands and were left with bases to stay on with not enough space and not enough food, as well as a lack of proper supply making it nearly impossible to act as an efficient armed force. These soldiers were growing more restless by the day, and many would be swayed by the words of of Faljan while others simply wished to be relieved so they could return home. King Talimar insisted that the army needed to be demobilized as quickly as possible before they had a mutiny crisis on their hands, and that as well these men were much more needed as civilians in order to help the rebuilding efforts. However, many others within his court insisted that demobilizing now would only make dealing with the seemingly inevitable internal conflict coming their way even more difficult. Among the most vocal was Elsarian general Liisu Leeian, who was revered for her effective command in defending the capital city. Liisu stalled the king for days on the decision, but when he officially declared on the 16th that conscripted soldiers would be relieved of duty within a week she decided to take action on her own. Through her own influence Liisu gathered men from all of the divisions that were under her command, forming a new renegade army of approximately 35,000 High Elves. On the 20th of April she would begin to march south in order to destroy Virran's army before he could even reach Caelona. During this time Virran and the rest of Agelinde's Raiders marched approximately half way to their destination, having moved significantly faster than expected. The two forces would first spot eachother within the Salic Woods, and Virran immediately demanded his men pull back and begin to fortify in case of an attack. The Raiders dug in quickly and efficiently, erecting simple wooden barriers and digging trenches within hours. When Liisu gave her army the order to attack, she ordered a head on assault on a fortified position without even knowing it. While Liisu's army had a significant advantage in manpower, the Raiders had more guns, more spell casters, and held

better ground. The fighting was up close and bloody, representing an odd amalgamation of old fashioned line warfare and the newer guerilla style of fighting used to fend off the attacks of The Grand Campaign.

The dust would settle after hours of fighting within Salic Wood, both sides haven taken an extraordinary amount of casualties, Virran personally ordered an all out counterattack which would end the battle with the Raider's small units of cavalry charging down the retreating army that opposed them and cutting them down with sabers as they fled. Liisu retreated, having lost 9,000 men in only 10 hours of fighting, while the Raiders lost 4,000. While Virran and his forces were not destroyed, they were greatly slowed.

Violence in Caelona Begins
Political discourse within the city of Caelona itself would become extremely divided within all the various walks of life inside of it. Faljan quickly found mass support amongst the noble caste and within the educated class of the Wizardry, they would use their influence to rally many of the cities commoners into action, creating a faction within the city called Faljanists. However, simultaneously a reactionary movement would be spurred into action, anti-war activists would conglomerate into loyalist factions who believed factions such as the Faljanists would hurl them into yet another war right after the disaster they just experienced within the Human Invasions. On the more extreme end were those who were fed up with the monarchy in general, Kerrism quickly found a home within Elsaria as the Grand Campaign progressed. Spurred on by ideals of equality, community and freedom the High Elven Kerrists formed partisan groups who would begin offering mutual aid to the most downtrodden communities, which by the time of the Caelona Crisis resulted in them being a very popular faction among the poorest groups. Mass protest would begin on the 10th of April and continue day after day, in almost every section of the city. While for the most part these protests would remain peaceful, occasional incidents of looting would quickly cause various factions of protestors to hurl accusations at each other. On the 16th of April, King Talimar would declare that protests within the upper city of Caelona must be stopped and sent forces of the Elsarian army to deal with them. While initially they saw success, quickly the clashes between protestors and the army would

turn violent. Barricades were erected by Faljanists and Kerrists against the army, and then the Loyalists would begin erecting barricades from the other two groups. On the 21st the armed forces were ordered by Talimar to stand down, seeing how the escalation of violence only made matters worse. However, by this point it may of been too late to de-escalate, as on that same night a group of armed Loyalists with the assistance of city guards broke into a Faljanist partisan headquarters and gunned down 18 unarmed people. This prompted the new night the firebombing of an Elsarian guard barracks by two Faljanist sorcerers, leaving 7 dead.

From here on occasional bursts of violence, swiftly retaliated to with more violence, became commonplace. The Caelona Palace was shut off and both city guards and armed forces were inefficient at maintaining law and order despite their best efforts. During this time figures such as Elsas Kusik would rise to prominence, Kusik being a relatively young and energetic High Elf military officer who would begin creating a larger Kerrist organization within the Caelona protests, which he'd eventually become the de facto leader of.