The Louthian Uprising

... and it is with this letter that we, the common people of Louthia, declare Marian Frait and his counsel illegitimate, on the basis of their genocidal belief that those who are considered less than human - that being all other sapient creatures - are not deserving of life. Thus, we stand against what the Louthian Empire represents, and will do so with open force if we must...

A section of Ernest Mitfield's Letter of Intent, 1597

"My beloved people, hear the voice of your Emperor! The rogue known as Ernest Mitfield has allied with the disgusting elves and now fights for their freedom, at the cost of our own! We must stand firm and together against those who would dare take humanity's rightful place as the rulers of Vinesia! Join me, and we shall rid the Empire of this filth, and elevate humanity to the stars themselves!"

Emperor Marian Frait, addressing the Louthian Empire in response to Ernest Mitfield's Letter of Intent, 1597

The Louthian Uprising, later to be renamed the Louthian War, was a continent-spanning conflict that engulfed the continent of Louthia from 1598. to 1633. Considered the largest uprising of non-human sapients, the Louthian War was a massive continent-spanning conflict that sought to overthrow the Louthian Empire's heavy-handed reign over the continent - particularly after the revelation of its racial sentiments towards the non-human races, and the invective that had been stirred up by the Purity Commission's black propaganda in the decade leading up to the conflict.
The conflicts that have arisen have seen the birth of mechanized vehicles in war usage, the diminishing role of the traditional knight as a paragon of offensive and defensive prodigy, and the easing of restrictions in the overt usage of ethereal crafts in public and in the battlefield. The Louthian War also saw the first interracial units working side-by-side to counteract human-only stratagems and to exploit weaknesses that are found in a human-centric military force. Offensive arcana was deployed en masse for the first time, exposing the rest of Vinesia to the horrors that unchecked ethereal prowess can bring to the battiefield, and how quickly a trained archmagus or conclave of archimagi working in synchronous fashion can tilt the balance of the theater of battle.
The Louthian War permanently altered the geopolitical landscape of the Louthian continent, and spelled the ultimate demise of the Louthian Empire. The nations that have risen from the ashes of the Empire have inherited the lion's shares of the former Empire's problems, which has spurned further race-based and religion-based conflicts. Many noble bloodlines were extinguished in the conflicts throughout the Louthian War, altering the power and authority the remaining aristocratic families retained when the conflict settled to a close.

The Conflict

Prelude

Political Posturing

The rise of The Louthian Purity Commission's pro-human propaganda program in the early 1500s laid the groundwork to make racism acceptable, commendable, and in the last days of the Empire's reign, required. In the years prior to the Louthian War's official declaration, the Purity Commission had already ramped up the attacks on non-human settlements, including the bulldozing of the Arlayne Forest - killing hundreds of Praxel pixies in the process - a move that was poorly received by several of the territorial Lords, including Ernest Mitfield himself.
Having already sent messengers to the Louthian West and South, Ernest Mitfield was already in close talks with Lady Victoria Bellamy regarding the Purity Commission's latest "conquests" - finding a kindred soul in that the Purity Commission, and the Empire as a whole, were finally a sign of the corruption of other's narrow-minded views that are mutating into murderous action. However, her hands were tied - her father, Senator Julius Bellamy, was an ardent supporter of the Empire's transformative vision, and thus any formal assistance she would hope to render would be stopped by him. She would take up Ernest's vision in the heart of the Empire, and began writing up letters to their peers, seeing who else is also unaffected by the Empire's toxic rhetoric.

Deployment

The Lines are Drawn

With the formal declaration of uprising signed, forces available to the Louthian Alliance (a term coined by the four) immediately established a line of control that stretched across the northern Louthian continent, immediately forming a front that was reinforced by the Inaran mages casting large wards. With the Seraxi forming natural threats in the oceans to the East and West, the Alliance Militarized Zone (AMZ) was firmly established, with thousands fleeing the Empire's retaliation passing through the Zone every day to safer lands.

The Fifth Intercession

With the formal declaration of hostilities, we, as the collective states of Vinesia, are appointing the raising of the Fifth Intercession to supervise the incoming conflict.

An excerpt from the Letter of Intercession, 1599

With the outbreak of hostilities, the nations of the Fencover and Harlia continents feared that the fighting would spill out beyond the borders of Louthia, and instigate cascading conflicts in areas already considered vulnerable - particularly the Thaxtedian Strait. In response, letters of intent were forwarded via official couriers to both the Alliance and the Empire - states representing the rest of Vinesia would be acting as observers and containing the fighting, as well as to protect those who want no part of the fighting. The Kingdom of Cleolinia, the Kingdom of Sherland, and the Sorenian Empire have formed the Fifth Intercession, and their patrols and bases would be established just outside of the borders of the Louthian continent. The Fifth Intercession would also assist both parties in handling the threat of the Seraxi Depths that would surely take advantage in the soon-to-be vicious combat.
Marian Frait was furious - the formation of an Intercession means that the other group is being seen as legitimate, and thus a threat to his rule. Under the advisement of Imperial Marshal Caras Seely and Purity Commissioner Benson DiSane, the Empire wrote a strongly-worded letter that decried the formation of the Intercession, claiming that Mitfield's "dredges and dogs" were not a formal state, and were clearly an internal civil dispute that the Empire sought to police and control, without the need for international eyes.
On the other side of the conflict, Ernest Mitfield and Carlton Strixel could only roll over in laughter at the receipt of such message. For them and the other two that formed the central command of the Alliance, it meant one thing - the rest of Vinesia recognized the Alliance as a potential state in the making, and thus have implicitly lent their support, establishing an air of legitimacy to their actions. The four, with Victoria being the primary writer, have responded in kind, welcoming the Fifth Intercession and advising them of the civilian situation, including permitting Intercession forces to establish camps and medical facilities in the North, alongside the Order of St. Ashe, who would be setting up field hospitals closer to the front of the fighting.

Battlefield

The entirety of the continent of Louthia would turn into a battlefield - including land, air, and sea battles being fought, all at once. Certain areas were considered off-limits to battle, including:

• The lands bordering the Thaxtedian Strait (protected by the Fifth Intercession)
• The City of Manhesto (HQ of St. Asha's Institute of Health)
• The Forest of Dasev (impassable to all non-Croxwie)
• The Louthian fringes of the Seraxi Depths (impassable due to heavy Seraxi presence)
• The Moume Lake (presence of the White Wyrm and feared Seraxi retalilation)

Outcome

Immediate Outcome

With the death of Emperor Marian Frait and the destruction of most of the Imperial loyalist forces in the former Imperial Crown City of Gessel, the Louthian Empire was effectively destroyed as a power, and as a state.
With the conflict beginning to abate, the forces of the Fifth Intercession began moving into the area through the Southern Pass and the Thaxtedian Strait, acting as international peace officers as the formal motions of surrender were underway.
Intercessor aid groups and refugee camps were protected by standing army units of the Louthian Alliance, as Intercessor military forces enforced terms of surrender upon reluctant Louthian Empire army units that were forced by their commissars to keep fighting to the bitter end. Most Louthian Empire army elements stood down after their commissars were captured or killed by Intercessor forces, or killed/handed over by mutinous soldiers who sought to end the fighting after it was clear they would not gain any means of victory.

Massive Medical Aid

"Now is not a time to get frivolous with doling out the usual potions! These people may be horrifically sick, but overdoing it will only kill them! Listen to your section commanders, and keep these people comfortable as we try to figure out what to do next!" -Unnamed Sherlandic medical officer, dealing with the Liberation of Camp Sysif, 1633

With the discovery and subsequent liberation of the Purity Commission's concentration and death camps, a humanitarian crisis was unfolding before the Alliance and the Intercession's eyes - hundreds of thousands of beaten, starving, and diseased people who needed shelter, extensive medical care, and rehabilitation.
Immediately, the rest of Vinesia mobilized - with the finest apothecaries and their goods being sent from the Fencoverian Empire, excess nutritious foods forwarded from Alleland, and construction supplies for the building of makeshift shelters from Porfodia - arriving via express freight into the Pehamber South. With the quick deployment of resources, the Alliance and the Intercessors began the long process of healing, as well as seeing to the proper exhuming and formal burial rites of the deceased.

Aftermath

Geopolitical

As the "victors" of the continent-shattering conflict, the Louthian Alliance was called forward by the Intercessors to oversee the repatriation of displaced citizens, the formal disarming of surrendering Louthian Empire units, and the stable transition to the new states that was proposed by Ernest Mitfield, Carlton Strixel, Victoria Bellamy, and Yeil Fieldcopper.
The entire Louthian continent was divided into the four new states - the The Kingdom of Mithambe as led by Ernest; the Kingdom of Pehamber as led by Victoria; the Principality of Whitlexia as led by King Carlton, and the Duchy of Withamia led by Yeil. With the recognition of the new states by the Intercessors, the groundwork was formally laid out, and borders were determined by natural leylines, geographic boundaries, and existing ethereal boundaries such as the Dasev Forest.

Casualties

"We've never seen so many bodies. They were all dumped and mangled together - as if they weren't even worthy of a proper death and burial. It is less a mass grave and more an abattoir - a literal grinder of blood, flesh, and shit." -Anonymous Medic, uncovering the mass graves of Labor Camp Maybelle, 1631

With nearly three million confirmed dead in the span of 35 years of flighting, in addition to the hundreds of thousands who went missing due to massive civilian displacement and the Purity Commission's labor camps, the Louthian War proved to be bloodiest conflict in all of Vinesia. Even with the assistance of the Intercessors and the usage of Goddess Tio's time manipulation arcana, hundreds of thousands of persons could not be identified, and are formally listed as missing.
Among the military dead, a staggering amount of military casualties were through diseases - particularly as medics, healers, and apothecaries were in short supply on both sides of the conflict. Louthian Empire army units had nearly a third of their deceased labeled as "unknown" - over half of these "unknown" deaths were later attributed to unlawful execution by their unit commissars as a form of positive punishment.
Over half of the civilian deaths were ruled by Intercessor forces to have been as a direct result of the Louthian Empire's "purity" purge - including those who were killed off in the concentration camps that have been located, as well as those who were unfortunate enough to have been caught in the fighting and utilized as meat shields by advancing and retreating Louthian Empire forces. The rest of the civilian dead were accounted for in the heavy fighting, including losses inflicted on both sides by mass shelling near war fronts.

Reshaping the Nobility

With the majority of the old nobility of the Louthian Empire having been permanently destroyed through the fighting, or disbanded from Intercessor involvement, the reshaping of the noble classes was left to the new states as to how they wanted to do so.
With most of the nobility north of the Moume territories wiped out to the last, there was little of the old structure for Ernest to have maintained for the Kingdom of Mithambe. Instead, new members of the nobility were raised - rewards for those knights who have fought alongside him through thick and thin.
In the Pehambian South, newly minted Queen Victoria had most of the remaining Louthian nobility - the moderates and the progressives - flock toward her, having supported her financially and through the donations of the soldiers of their houses to bring her vision into effect. Titles and ranks were handed out according to the worth of their contributions to the war effort - houses that brought forth little received little in return, and those who gave almost everything received everything in return and more. Houses that supported the old regime were treated with suspicion, and a few houses that attempted to spur up disturbances were forcibly disbanded and banished from the new Pehamber realm under pain of death.

Included Conflicts

• The Camp Maybelle Uprising
• The Dasev Front

Conflict Type

War

Start Date

1598

Ending Date

1633

Conflict Result

The Destruction of the Louthian Empire

Location

Louthia

Belligerents

The Mithambian Alliance

• The Mitfield Family
• The Strixel Family

Led by

• Ernest Tawn Mitfield

Strength

Casualties

• Military Dead: Over 200,000
• Civilian Dead: Over 400,000
• Total Dead: Over 600,000

Objectives

• Overthrow the Louthian government
• Destroy the racial superiority ideology
• Fair representation of all the sapient races

The Louthian Empire

• The Louthian Empire

Led by

Strength

Casualties

• Military Dead: Over 700,000
• Military Executed: 36% (252,000)
• Civilian Dead: Over 1,700,000
• Camps: Approx. 1,100,000
• Extrajudicial: Approx. 300,000
• Total Dead: Over 2,400,000

Objectives

• Maintenance of legitimacy in the international sphere
• Eradication of all insurrectionist elements

The Intercessors

Led by

Strength

Casualties

Objectives

• Protection and evacuation of non-combatants
• Confinement of active hostilities to the Louthian continent