Second Secession War: The Retribution War

Eighty-eight years. It was much longer than anyone ever expected.  

Retaliation for the Sunfire Calamity

The tragedy had only lasted mere moments. The sound of lightning as it licked the tower twofold. And the fetid smell of burning flesh that hung in the air there after. Clinging fervently to the hearts of many imperial citizens. There was no doubt that many in the Luminous Empire hungered to wipe San Rànkiel off the face of the mortal world. Erase the mistakes of their fathers in the Black Hand Trials. Answer the fury of their grandfathers before them, who fought in the First Secession War.   But in doing so, had they gone too far?  

Rànkierd Genocide: The Shift in Public Opinion

Rànkiel just collapsed. With so much ease. There, the skies were pitch black. The air? Drowned by the stifling smog of entire cities razed to sputtering embers. Crystal-blue lakes and running rivers ran dry. Empty pits of despair dwindled to near-nothingness in days. Through nexus-keys, many saw the gnarled roots that lay twisted up and broken amongst dead, graying grass.   Guardians and monks fell by the hour. Their corpses, like withered coal, crumbled to piles of ashen dust.   It fell into the palms of the imperial army so swiftly. Their rivers and coasts, divorced from them. Cutting away their supply routes. Their armies outnumbered, 3-to-1. Their people haggard by hunger and fear. It was as if the Rànkierd had stumbled upon a leviathan. A titan whose head broke the clouds and hung among the stars. Their petty swords snapped against ancient skin. And, martial sorceries swallowed whole by the ebb and flow of gilded fury.   From the beginning, everyone knew.   That beneath all of the outrage and fury, the bluster and bloodlust. The truth stood at the back of their minds, picking and clawing at the public conscience. The Rànkierd peoples, they were done. Dangerously outmanned, terribly underfunded. They were utterly alone.   And as the days turned to weeks, and the months to years. Public opinion shifted and soon turned slightly in their favor. Not wholly out of righteousness, but pity and shame. The Rànkierd were no longer the rabid aggressors but a small hapless group on the brink of eradication.   A genocide. Yes, the Empire could see it all.   San Rànkiel's actions not only resulted in the deaths of more than 2,500 priests. But many Hréna, Ir'valashina, Green Noble Ynellian, Aylgodd, and Hyassigáli. And yet the imperial army's retaliation birthed a bloodbath so thick that it ended the lives of nearly 390,000 Rànkierd. It completely eradicated the Capital of Chimetie and shut down the River Isásyá. Many began to realize. No, remember that maybe Luminous Empire was more dangerous than they thought.   When did this war become no longer worth the bloodshed? When did the retribution become tyranny?  

Fellowship Intervention: Beginning of the End

In 832 V.O., on the month of Ephemeral Heavens' Moon, a fellowship of races was born. The largest dissident faction in the Empire's history. This fellowship of North and South, Hyyl and Tiveshyyl, witch and cleric, stepped in and forced the Imperial Family's hand. There were to be strict sanctions placed on all members of the Imperial Synod. The First Commandment of Saffron was issued, forcing all high-ranking members of the Church of Luminous Dawn to abdicate their positions.  

Last Day of the Empire?

The Treatise of 850 V.O. tied San Rànkiel to the Wildwoods of Duskland, making the region a protectorate state for their supposed hand in the Cráddscon Calamity. While the Treatise of 856 V.O. forced the Imperial Family to offer a public apology. To atone for their actions before Avená and Hendál. It thus ordered the Imperial Synod to pay reparations for the Rànkierd Genocide, while lastly fully stripping the Luminous Empire of its monopolistic ownership over the River Isasyá.

  860 V.O., four years later, would be the last appearance of Saintess Ceyóse Caatoben̂ sitting upon the imperial throne as she was struck blind by the divine will of Avená.