Occan Civil War

The Occan Civil War is an ongoing conflict in the continent of Occa. After two decades of Organship within the republic of Nova Aquila, the Occan provisional government declared independence from Xolumir in 4848 with the intent to form a confederation free from foreign domination, citing the failure of the central government to provide for its constituent states in the face of the ruinous War of the Sunflower. The so-called "Loyalist" faction arose shortly after, claiming that reviving the traditions of the fallen Kingdom of Medriaas was the surest road to true independence. Nova Aquila and Khotan are also participating in the conflict to attempt to reorient the archipelago to their own respective spheres of influence.

Background and history
The Kingdom of Medriaas had been the premier military, economic, and political force in the continent of Occa in southeastern Aquila since the mid 4650s. Their first king, the noble Lysander, established a royal bloodline unparalleled in Aquilan history apart from the gods of eld, and through his wise and benevolent rule built the humble Audaxian town of Providence into a prosperous citystate in its own right, replete with its own loyal military and citizenry. By the time Lysander perished, the microstate of Providence had evolved into the Kingdom of Medriaas, encompassing nearly all of Occa largely thanks to the seemingly generous aid of the monastic order of the Knights Thash and their immortal commander.

By the dawn of the 4800s, Medriaas was slated to become the dominant power of mercantile era. While the citystates of Kilran were powerful, the guilds of Audax were wealthy, and the prospectors of the new world were on the cusp of a new era of resource domination in the global south, few could match the dauntless military might of noble Medriaas, led by their philosopher-king Puffin. Though Puffin was beloved by his subjects, by the twilight of his rule, he had grown to resent his own status as monarch; long had he bent to every whim of the increasingly powerful Knights Thash, and his personal hand in the wholesale slaughter of the Acolytes of the Beyond in Abaddon weighed heavily on his spirit. The return of the Mad King’s presence to Aquila and the subsequent obliteration of Providence was largely a merciful and swift death blow to the rotting colonial empire of Medriaas.

With its center of commerce and politics decimated, Medriaas quickly fell into chaos, with its remaining government officials scrambling to maintain order in the frenzied populace. Try as they may, Puffin’s well-meaning remnants ultimately did little to quell the ensuing pandaemonium. The Kingdom disintegrated, with the next largest cities, Humberto and Thaddeus, both claiming legitimacy as its successors. The subjects of the former empire flocked to both cities in droves, with the Knights Thash no longer available to protect the dangerous rural countryside. In the ensuing interwar period, neighboring Audax assumed control in the east, filling Occa’s power vacuum and filling the hearts of the forgotten subjects of Medriaas with bitterness and resentment.

Eventually, a new movement arose in central Occa in a bid to restore order to a continent now dominated by lawless criminals and neo-feudalists. Calling themselves the Confederals, this new generation of separatists rose to test the unchecked authority of the landlords and the pirates by seizing vast swaths of arable country and redistributing it to the farmers who worked it, crippling the ability of the oligarchs in Humberto and Thaddeus to hold sway over the commoner. In 4813, Humberto was destroyed by the Ancient Fear, cementing confederalism as the new dominant ideology in Occa. Shortly thereafter, the Confederals hesitantly signed a pact which brought them into the pan-Aquilan Alliance as a show of solidarity in a post-Aether world.

In 4822, the member states of the Alliance were assimilated into the republic of Nova Aquila. Though the Confederal movement were loath to sign away their sovereignty to the Kilranians, they had little choice in the matter as the all-pervasive lend-lease program established in the wake of the war by the Senate had strategically crippled any semblance of economic independence for the majority of the Organs.

The Confederals remained in de-facto power in Occa throughout its membership in Aquila, though around 4830 a new faction emerged calling themselves the Loyalists. Encompassing a coalition of citizens who yearned for the days of prosperity under Medriaas, landlords, and Neo-Thashists, the Loyalists opposed the land reforms of the Confederals and argued for a stronger pan-Occan union independent of Nova Aquila, compared to the current status quo of relative subservience to Xolumir. Their infighting reached a head when the War of the Sunflower broke out, prompting the old Alliance to reform under the Nova Aquilan banner to snuff out the Khotanese threat. When the secret Khotan base in Providence was exposed, Loyalist forces seized the ruins of the city - an action perceived as an act of aggression by the increasingly paranoid Confederal council. Violence broke out, and by 4848 Nova Aquila no longer held any measure of thrall over the continent of Occa, once more embroiled in internal strife.

Presently, the Loyalists hold the line steadily in the outskirts of Providence, the former capital of Medriaas which they have slowly but surely began to formally rebuild as a symbol of their resolve; the Confederals, scattered but resolute, make their home in the deep interior of the continent, carrying out sporadic attacks on over-extending Loyalist divisions. Outside observers seem to agree that neither side are clearly within sight of victory, especially as Nova Aquila and Khotan seem to be waging a proxy war on the continent even after the end of the War.