Gfiewish republican revolution

The Gfiewish republican revolution refers to the 1852 revolution that dethroned the monarchy of Gfiewistan and created a republic. It had its origins in corruption and nepotism at the court that had led to economic mismanagement, unpopular tax hikes, and a costly war with the Saruan Empire.

Empire of Ystel

Administrative reforms of the 1810s that were supposed to modernize and purportedly streamline the Kingdom of Gfiewistan were instead used by the royal court to create a bloated state structure that massively worsened nepotism, led to increased taxes across the board and deepened economic mismanagement, plunging the country into crisis.

By the 1830s, this systematic corruption and widespread rampant mismanagement had become much more apparent and thus increasingly hard to deny for the central government.

A fear, partially real, partially manufactured by the Royal Chamber of the Security of the Sovereign and Their Lands (the precursor to the modern Department of Security and its spy agencies) surrounding the possibility of incursions into royal territory by the Saruan Empire was used to deflect from these issues and create a scapegoat.

To further prove the power and glory of the kingdom, the Sovereign promulgated a new "driving force" for the realm (i.e. a new ideology), the idea of Pan-Ystelism, that was supposed to entail the unification of all of Ystel under one headscarf (the Gfiewish crown equivalent), which led to the reorganization of the Kingdom of all Gfiewish people into the Empire of Ystel in 1841, and in 1847 the begin of the attempt of "liberation" of the Ystelian territories currently under the rule of the Saruan Empire, which was occupying much of present-day Mermelia and South Jute.

Despite all propaganda claims about the supposed "natural superiority" of Ystelian (i.e. Gfiewish-Lufasan) forces on Ystelian soil due to their supposed familiarity and "eternal connection" with all of Ystel, and despite having the element of surprise, they racked up a large number of embarrassing losses, to a large degree due to corruption, embezzlement and mismanagement, especially in the Royal Navy.

Only the River Fleet on the Ersaj and Ohnaucan-speaking troops managed to win any battles, and while this prevented a utterly humiliating complete defeat in the first days, it quickly became seen as a quagmire by the public in Gfiewistan, particularly Lufasa, and as further proof of the inability of the kingdom to govern and the incompetence and hubris of the sovereign. This fueled republican sentiments in Gfiewistan proper and nationalism in Lufasa.

Secret resistance in print

Secretly printed magazines that circumvented the censorship of press that had become particularly strict during the war, called out the supposed bottomless corruption at the court, especially in the large town of Hatariew in the north, where dissenters enjoyed support by the local university and nobility.

These magazines, often ran by young students and disaffected writers, railed against the war, writing about what they saw as the hubris of the king and his declaration to be emperor of all of Ystel, and then use that to justify starting a war with the much stronger Saruan Empire which was leading the country’s military, sovereignty and society into an abyss. But the administrative reforms of the 1810s were also the subject of much criticism, being identified as having led to what was generally perceived to be an overbearing, nepotic and corrupt state that according to the writers only succeeded in making the life of every citizen much worse. Censorship was said to be the suppression of both the past of the country and its traditional culture as well as any hopes of a better future.

Public protests begin

A slogan often repeated in these magazines was Erwaa tebirkwo, exnruu welordig ("Light the night, light a candle"), and this call was followed by many readers. Demonstrations putting candles into public places, in front of governmental buildings, military barracks and law courts began. At first, it was barely noticeable, and gusts of wind would frequently extinguish them fast.

Soon, the demonstrators with candles numbered, dozens, then hundreds, and then thousands in Hatariew, and began to spread to other cities, eventually reaching towns as far as Dillariewis in the south, now unified behind the owl as a symbol, as the protests were piercing the silence of what had been come to be called Brobozwjahew tebirkwo ("Night of the State").

Official response

Law enforcement was hesitant to suppress these protests as they had regularly done before, as the protesters were peaceful, were large enough to frequently include relatives and friends of police officers, and many of the buildings targeted by the protesters were wooden and with the candles growing in size and number, they feared a wrong move or panic could easily set them ablaze. The situation wasn’t much different in towns with administrative and military buildings made of stone, as these tended to have equally easily burnable interiors and gas lamps outside.

Even just carefully guarding these locations against such a growing mass movement proved increasingly difficult, especially amidst a shortage as much of the police force had been called up as reservists to fight in the war against the Saruan Empire, and so protesters were able to breach into some of them, overwhelm those inside with their numbers and subsequently occupy them, using them to control local official communication channels, gather evidence of corruption and prompt reversal of unpopular policies.

Results of the protests in various towns

Hatariew and Dillariewis

However, while in some towns, like Dillariewis, protesters encountered barely any resistance, and in Hatariew the local government even openly sided with them, other towns saw tense confrontations, and in a number of key towns, mostly in the west, these also turned violent.

Xelsamt

People of Xelsamt, home to regime loyalists due to having enjoyed a special status with the royal court in Slakkariew throughout history, mostly regarded the protesters as marauding vagabonds, reinforced by some houses suffering fire damage following clashes.

Tanlariewis

Tanlariewis, home to the headquarters of the secret police of Gfiewistan, the Department for Security, was placed under lockdown and saw several deaths due to shoot-outs instigated by the “Seccies” called agents of the department.

Slakkariew

Slakkariew saw the fiercest fighting. Days of increasingly vocal protests all over town were suppressed by similarly increasing violence by the king’s personal guard, and many protesters were forcibly deported to other countries. As protesters started arming themselves in defense, clashes occurred in front of the royal palace, the main courthouse as well as the city government fortress and barricades were created around them and key streets.

Iovist temples, motivated both by their tradition of tending to the sick and injured, but also to avoid becoming a target themselves, provided a sanctuary for protesters, where they could sleep and plan their next steps in relative peace, as the legitimacy and support of the royal court was contingent on being seen as the worldly allies of the spiritual and divine, which made raids or attacks impossible to justify.

On the eleventh day of protests in Slakkariew, a group of republican radicals had switched tactics and split off to attempt to overrun the local law enforcement center. While this eventually failed, the ruse worked in that it led to much of the royal guard independently coming to assist their colleagues as reinforcements, leaving them stretched thin across the other sites of protest. Barricades were now circumvented by jumping out of windows of adjacent buildings, or destroyed using burning planks, alcohol-filled barrels and rubbish bags, the blockades.

Many of the remaining royal guards died or let themselves be taken away by protesters or law enforcement officers sympathetic to them. Finally, after the wooden bailey gate of the royal castle had similarly been reduced to ash, the protesters, now armed with the weapons of the guards, were running up the stairs of the palace and demanding entry, threatening a siege. After hours of tense waiting amid silence, when it was already dark outside, the king let the doors be opened and promised negotiations if the weapons were dropped. However, there was widespread distrust regarding the honesty of this promise among the revolutionaries. and after ensuring all staff as well as the children and women of the royal family were evacuated, one of them grabbed the keyring left behind by the head servant and stormed upstairs to the conference room, and opened the door.lat

Before the king could say anything, he was reportedly greeted by a single, unisonal Erwaa tebirkwo, exnruu welordig, had a burning plank thrown at his large wooden table, and was then locked up in the room. His shouts went unanswered and he remained trapped. As the revolutionaries began moving to the exit, they began burning every curtain, every wooden table, everything that could light up with bright flames, and once outside, let the palace burn out behind them.

This marked the end of the monarchy, and the following day parliamentary elections, for the first time under universal suffrage. The new parliament recognized the independence of Lufasa and established the office of the president to replace the king.