Froturnish Civil War (108-109 AEKE)

The Froturnish Civil War of 108-109 was a civil war - or more precisely, a succesfull coup d'état - in the Kingdom of Froturn that resulted in drastic changes in the country's political landscape, and is widely considered to be the end of the kingdom's previous eight-centuries long Golden Age of peace, stability and prosperity.

Background
After a three-centuries civil war, Froturn was unified in the late 9th century BEKE. What followed as a reformation, and a Golden Age of philosophy, science, trade, peace, stability and prosperity... or so the overly-nostalgic historians say. In reality, "Golden Age" Froturn was an over-bureaucratized quasi-theocratic police state. Because the country prospered so much due to the maritime trade with the East, and because living stnadards were higher than ever before, no one noticed the copious amount of government spending - spending that was required to finance the overbloated state apparatus.

The collapse of the Jing dynasty in the eary 1st century AEKE triggered a minor economic depression in Froturn, from which the country not only seemed to recover quickly, but in fact turn into the number-one supplier of silk to Artograch. Despite this, Froturn's economical situation was never the same. To maintain the standards of living, the state apparatus, the employment of so many bureaucrats, and the large army, Froturn's budget under the rule of King Caelferus started going into deficit - so everything was financed by a mixture of increasing taxes and taking loans from certain foreign entities, namely Gabyr.

In late 105 AEKE, Froturn launched a war to depose King Hereric I of Etrand and replace him with a puppet King Osric. While the war was rather brief, it did put considerable amount of strain on Froturn's already knee-deep-in-deficit budget. Setting up garrisons in Etrand to defend the puppet-king from the impending rebellion was also an expensife affair.

In late 108, rumours were spread that the government was preparing to reduce the wages of the soldiers. While famous for their loyalty and professionalism, this rumour (which ultimately turned out to be untrue) was the straw that broke the camel's back for the already dissatisfied and disgruntled Froturnish soldiers stationed in Etrand that would go on to commit mutiny. The mutineering soldiers - as a way of showing the middle-finger to King Caelferus and his Etrandish puppet-king Osric - event went on to free the deposed Etrandish king Hereric from the prison, who would rally the Etrandish nobility around himself to depose Osric.

After receiving news of the mutiny, the army that was originally sent to make order in Etrand and punish the mutineers, led by General Helviatha decided to disobey orders and attempt a coup d'état to depose the government. Hence, the civil war would start. The returning mutineers would ally with Helviatha's faction and join him in his campaign to overthrow the government.

Aftermath
After General Helviatha won the war, the first course of action of the temporary government was to default towards all loaners, domestic and foreign alike. King Caelferus was forced to abdicate the throne in favor of his unmarried daughter Ypsela, who would be forced to marry General Helviatha. In the ensuring purge, a large number of senators - including the two consuls at the time - were arrested and exiled to Dragoc - King Caelferus decided to voluntarily join them in their exile. Much of the wealth and land held by the exiles was apropriated by Vaclus himself, who would go on to divide the spoils amongst his soldiers as a reward.

The bureaucracy was downsized significantly, the provinces were granted more autonomy, the army was also downsized - since the idea of giving retired soldiers pension from the state's treasure would have went against the whole idea of a more balanced budget, soldiers previously loyal to Helviatha were instead compensated with wealth and land previously appropriated from the exiled politicians. General Helviatha himself appointed himself as the military consul, and then started giving important positions within the senate to his own cronies.

General-turned-Consul (as well as king consort) Vaclus Helviatha was the de-facto ruler of Froturn, ruling as a military dictator until his assassination in 248. After the event, his wife Ypsela abdicated in favour of their son Euvalus and retired to a monastery. The rule of King Euvalus the Thinking would see rise to prominance again.

The new Helviatha-regime's relations with Gabyr were fairly cold, as Gabyr was angry towards Froturn for daring to default. Relations with Etrand were mixed. On one side, Consul Helviatha and King Hereric I of Etrand were natural political allies, as they practically fought on the same side during the war, while on the other side, the hot-blooded humans of Etrand weren't so quick to forgive the High Elves for invading their country, even though highly-professional High Elven troops barely commited any atrocities, if they commited atrocities at all to begin with. Nevertheless, the leadership of both sides worked on normalizing relations between the countries, and trying to convince the common populace to see things the way the political leaders saw things.