Those Eliria Days

The seat of Elwynnese government and hotbed of Republicanism. Often conquered, never subdued for long.

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Continuator
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Those Eliria Days

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  • "The white halls of Eliria get stained red with blood again and again like clockwork"
    - Nithi Kirenion, High Something of Raikoth

At the stroke of a pen the legitimacy of the three main political parties in Elwynn was finished forever; Ayreonist Independence Party, the Nationalist and Humanist Party, and the Verionist Union, disgraced themselves and earned lasting infamy by compounding the years of their misrule by carving an ancient and proud nation into seven truncated parts.

The storm of indignation broke first in Eliria. The Church of Elwynn, humiliated by the pornographic excesses of the fallen Vanic monarchy and now increasingly squeezed between the militant faith of the Divine Icebear and the Holodomatic Cedrozurvanism insisted upon by the Imperial court and army, was amongst the first to give the voice to the fury felt by the Elw. Clergymen attending the first impromptu demonstrations in the Eliria Bazaar on 08.I.1665 told the crowd who had gathered to denounce the resolution put forward by "Traitor Joonai" that there would be another protest march to the Senate Massacre Memorial on the 12th of Silnuai.

As the day approached there was some concern that there would be a military intervention, but the Prince of Modan had become embroiled in a bizarre three-way argument with the Kaiser and the Praetor in Shirekeep over posession of a vacant seat in the Landsraad. As a consequence the Imperial Forces remained in their barracks and on 12.I.1665 a vast multitude processed along the Avenue of the Workers' Revolution towards Eliria Castle and the government district situated on an islet between the banks of the Slovygh and the Qlyhm canals.

The only violence was limited to an attempt by panicky cudgellers to lay down a barrage of tear gas and smoke canisters to halt the advance of the mutinous Elw - to no avail. The mood of the protesters was grim, calls for reunification and democracy had been replaced by impassioned cries for independence and revenge. The cudgellers, either demoralised or sympathetic to the protesters, melted away into the back streets and by the end of the day the Senate Massacre Memorial, the Bazaar, the Hall of the Twelve Peoples, and the buildings of the People's Academy of Elwynn, had been occupied.

As the days passed the protest sites began to take on a more permanent aspect, becoming makeshift encampments which in turn gave way to makeshift fortifications.

By 20.I.1665 it had become apparent that no-one in Shirekeep was listening to the protests in Eliria, which were spreading to towns and cities in Araxion, Iserdia, and Utasia, and the Landsraad was proceeding to take a vote. A crowd numbering in the thousands gathered outside the Libraries Kalirion, threatening to burn down a symbol of the hated dynasty; statues of Elijah, Daniel, and Dâniyal Simrani-Kalirion, had already been toppled and smashed elsewhere in the city.

With the situation turning ominous red-coated Imperial Marshals made their first appearance, having ridden out from the Longships Citadel. The Legate of the marshals in the city, Rostom Kopitar, and the Kaiser's Lord Lieutenant, Theophil Ermenrich - who fancied himself as becoming Eliria's new Viceroy, rode at the head of the column, stopping short of the crowd and announcing - via loudhailers - that the mob was to disperse immediately, and in restitution for their defiance, all citizens and denizens of the city would be obliged to offer sacrifice and submission before the altars of the Kaiser and the gods.

The gods in question of course belonged to the Cedrist pantheon and uproar followed at once. Ermenrich and Kopitar were immediately pelted with stones and bottles. The marshals, a troop some fifty strong, charged into the midst of the crowd, scattering those caught in their immediate path and causing fear and consternation to radiate through the mob who fled away variously to their homes or to the protest camps where their tales stirred fresh currents of resentment.

Ermenrich however was not satisfied, indeed watching the citizenry flee from a few redcoats increased his scorn for the Elw into a furious hatred. Messages were sent to the priests known to be organising the protests, in which Ermenrich demanded that those who had abused him earlier in the day be handed over to him immediately for summary justice. The most eminent and venerable Abbot Symonion was dispatched to appeal to the Lieutenant for clemency for the community - citing that it was impossible to give names and imploring him to follow the example of the Landsraad with regards to recent conflicts and to grant a general amnesty to permit reconciliation.

Enraged beyond reason to be lectured on clemency by a "pratling prelate", Ermenrich had Symonion taken into custody and roused the LXV Legion, under the command of Legate Meyer, to furnish him with a regiment of lancers. Unimpressed with receiving orders from a civilian officer, Meyer lent to Ermenrich instead a junior tribune, a maniple of infantry and an old wheeled Horjin armoured personnel carrier.

The young tribune and his men, feeling cheated of their chance to shoot Cimmerian traitors by the precipitous peace, were only too pleased when Ermenrich commanded them to assault the protest camp situated in the bazaar district. With gusto they fixed their bayonets and, following behind the armoured personnel carrier as it burst through barricades of overturned cars, heaped tyres, and cobblestones, they set to work making a sack of the bazaar, shooting and stabbing any person - whether a rioter, a protester or a bystander - they encountered in the process. Their greed and their lust was encouraged by the Lieutenant who, along with his staff, rushed into the bazaar to join with the plundering and the wanton havoc. They not only ransacked the shops but burst into apartments above and the adjoining properties and murdered all whom they encountered. At the same time word spread amongst the legion garrisoned at Fort Eliria and the UDF Aerodrome that the city was being given over to plunder by order of the Lord Lieutenant. At this the legionaries and auxiliaries became uncontrollable in their excitement; the understanding that serving personnel of the Imperial Forces enjoyed the right to despoil rebel populations was practically an unspoken condition of service. There followed then a night of mayhem as legionaries chased Elwynnese civilians through the narrow streets of the old city, murdering and raping any they caught as took their fancy. The slaughter was without precedence in the modern history of Eliria, surpassing anything endured during the River War. Many peaceful denizens were seized from their homes and taken before Ermenrich who had them scourged and then crucified so that they would reveal the details of their savings and investment accounts. The madness only subsided when the Station Inspector of the Crypteia, head of the support detachment assigned to the Lieutenant, arrived on the scene and brought a halt to proceedings by emptying the clip of an OAH 9mm pistol into the Lieutenant's head at point-blank range. Other senior officers involved in the disorder were rounded up by the Crypteia's Rapid Response Group and transferred into the custody of the Office of Administrative Oversight.

By then however the damage had already been done. 3,183 men, women and children, had perished. The next day, as discipline was being restored in Imperial ranks through the time-honoured method of decimation, vast crowds swarmed towards Eliria Castle and the Krull Palace, their wailing lamentation interspersed with bitter curses against the Kaiser and his regime. Fearing that the castle, the seat of the last vestiges of Elwynnese Republican government, was about to be stormed, the cudgellers and public order troops fired over the heads of the crowds in an attempt to force them to disperse - instead the protesters rallied and surged forward, following the example of a young woman strode boldly up to a cudgeller and struck him to the ground with repeated blows from a fragment of cobblestone, before leaving a flower placed in the man's blood splattered collar lapel. She had not walked two metres before she was gunned down. A howl of rage went up from the protesters and immediately the public order troops began firing indiscriminately into the crowds as the cudgellers scrambled to retrieve their stricken comrade and retire towards the safety of Eliria Castle. Another 84 fell, with hundreds more wounded by bullet ricochets or else from being trampled as panic set in.

In the days that followed the connectivity of the Benacian Data Network in the Bailiwicks of Eliria county slowed drastically before finally crashing all together. The protesters, who still occupied the university, the senate memorial and all of the city's cathedrals, grew embittered and militant. Tear gas and automatic weapons fire was now met by sporadic gunfire and the ubiquitous "Florian Cocktail", a flaming bottle of petrol and tar flung at the government lines by slingshot from concealed positions.

As the 24th of Silnuai rolled over into the 1st day of Kuspor, new whispers began to take hold in the streets - posters were being put up by members of the Elwynnese Workers Party; a general strike had been called.


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