How the First Empire Fractured After the Kurai Coup

The War of Sundering was not a single conflict, but a cascading series of rebellions, civil wars, retaliations, secessions, and political schisms that tore the First Empire apart in the decades following the Kurai Coup. What began as shock and outrage over the imperial assassinations grew into a continent-wide unraveling of authority.

Within one generation, the Empire that had endured for centuries shattered into a constellation of warring states—precursors to the Free Kingdoms of the Fifth Age.

This war marks the definitive end of the First Empire and the beginning of modern Arcasia.

Prelude: A Crown Shattered

The Coup left the Empire spiritually wounded and politically unstable:

• the Emperor and multiple heirs were dead
• the palace was breached for the first time in history
• provinces feared both Kurai ambition and imperial weakness
• the Mandate of Harmony was widely believed broken
• nobles blamed each other as fervently as they blamed the Kurai

A surviving heir reclaimed the throne after the Coup, forming a Restoration Regency, but the realm was already cracking beneath the surface.

The War of Sundering began quietly—with refusals, not battles.

Phase I: The Fracturing of Allegiance

(0–5 Years After the Coup)

The first stage of the Empire’s collapse was political rather than military.

1. The Border Provinces Declare Autonomy

Provinces far from the capital—particularly in frontier regions—declared they would “govern temporarily” without imperial oversight until the realm stabilized.
This temporary autonomy quickly hardened into independence.

2. Noble Houses Reject the Restored Crown

Several powerful houses refused to accept the surviving heir as legitimate:

• some claimed the bloodline was spiritually tainted
• others argued the Mandate of Harmony had chosen a new age
• a few simply saw an opportunity to rule their own territories

3. The Bureaucracy Collapses

Couriers stopped receiving unified instructions.
Tax routes faltered.
Archivists fled with records.
Regional magistrates began applying laws inconsistently.

Infrastructure that depended on central coordination began to fail.

4. The Public Turns Against the Palace

Citizens, shocked by the Coup, demanded justice, reforms, or revenge.
Protests erupted in major cities.
Several governors were assassinated by mobs or rival factions.

By the fifth year, the Empire existed in name only.

Phase II: The Rise of Claimants and Pretenders

(5–15 Years After the Coup)

As authority weakened, various factions attempted to fill the void.

1. The Asterfall Loyalists

Supporters of the surviving imperial heir declared themselves the true defenders of the realm.
They held:

• the capital (on and off)
• the eastern river provinces
• the Hall of Judgment

However, their influence dwindled as other factions gained strength.

2. The Provincial Thrones

Major houses crowned their own rulers, creating:

• the Crown of West Faenas
• the Sapphire Principality
• the Marquess-Seats of the Southern Marches

Each claimed to be the “true successor” of the Empire.

3. Religious Movements

Prophetic orders emerged, arguing that the moons themselves had cast judgment on the imperial line.
These groups destabilized regions by urging citizens to reject all secular authority.

4. The Merchant Coalition

Major trade guilds formed private militias and seized control of key trade hubs, establishing neutral city-states that no faction could afford to antagonize.

Phase III: The Sundering Wars

(15–40 Years After the Coup)

These were the most destructive decades, defined by open warfare. The wars gained their name from the way the Empire split along geographic and political fault lines.

1. The Northern Wars

Border provinces, long neglected by the capital, fought both imperial loyalists and neighboring houses.
Cities changed hands repeatedly.
Refugee movements reshaped demographics.

2. The River Wars

The fertile heartlands became the most contested territory.

Battle highlights included:

• the Siege of Selukar Crossing
• the Burning of the Sapphire Terrace
• the Battle of Seven Ferries
• the Month of Ash (a wildfire used as a weapon)

Whole generations grew up knowing nothing but war.

3. The Western Secession

Western nobles declared the Empire “broken beyond repair” and formed their own kingdoms.
These states would eventually evolve into the Free Kingdoms known today.

4. The Fall of the Restoration Regency

After decades of resistance, the imperial loyalists were reduced to a ceremonial enclave in the capital.
The last Asterfall monarch abdicated voluntarily, declaring:

“Better to release a broken crown than let it cut us further.”

This ended the final remnant of unity.

Phase IV: The Final Dismantling

(40–60 Years After the Coup)

This period is marked not by war, but by abandonment.

1. Abandonment of Imperial Sites

Citizens left:

• the Grand Observatory
• the Hall of Concordance
• the western barracks fortresses
• multiple river palaces

Some became ruins; others were repurposed by new kingdoms.

2. Dissolution of the Imperial Legions

Without a unifying command:

• some legions became mercenary companies
• others became local militias
• a few formed outlaw warbands

The most disciplined units were absorbed into successor states.

3. The Shattering of Roads

Imperial roads, once the arteries of the continent, fell into disrepair.
Bridges collapsed.
Tolls became extortion or taxes depending on the region.

4. Cultural Divergence

Provincial identities solidified into national ones.
The idea of a unified Empire faded from memory.
Scholars declared the Empire “historical” rather than “political.”

Consequences of the War of Sundering

The End of the First Empire

No treaty ended the war.
No formal surrender was made.
The Empire simply stopped being.

Rise of the Free Kingdoms

From the ashes rose:

• independent Faenian realms
• Zareemi federations
• coastal merchant dominions
• forest principalities
• warlord territories that would later stabilize

Each built governments influenced by imperial precedent but shaped by local needs.

The Kurai in Exile

Though the Kurai had no part in the wars following the Coup, they remained the symbol of its beginning.
Their permanent exile became a cautionary reminder of what ambition and paternalistic intervention could destroy.

Memory of the Empire

Even centuries later:

• imperial ruins attract scholars and treasure-seekers
• imperial calendars remain in use
• nobles claim distant ties to old dynasties
• idealists whisper of reunification under a new crown

The Empire is gone, but its shadow influences every corner of Arcasia.

Why the Empire Truly Fell

Historians agree that the Coup accelerated the collapse, but did not cause it alone.
The deeper reasons include:

• overcomplex bureaucracy
• noble factionalism
• failure to adapt to changing economies
• spiritual loss of the Mandate of Harmony
• geographic sprawl too vast for unified control
• the people’s eroding trust in leadership
• moral exhaustion across provinces

The Coup was the fracture that revealed the rot.
The Sundering was the inevitable separation of weakened pieces.

Legacy in the Fifth Age

The War of Sundering left Arcasia with:

• multiple nations instead of one
• cultural diversity born from divergence
• a shared mythic past but no shared political future
• lasting suspicion of centralized, absolute power
• ruins that serve as reminders of ambition both noble and tragic

Few desire a return to empire.
Many seek to learn from its fate.