Rebellion in the Province of Sindaire

Military action

Rebellion brews in the Province of Sindaire. Emperor Drakus Coaltongue takes the First Acheron Army to Castle Korstull via the Torch of the Burning Sky, and the rebellion is put to an end.

For years, wealthy noble families throughout the region, especially in the Province of Sindaire, suffered under Emperor Coaltongue’s rule. In the summer of 999, Lord Pietr Gorquith organized this disapproval into an outright rebellion. The rebellious nobles were smart enough to realize, however, that Coaltongue’s military might surpassed anything they could field, so instead of warring outright, they fought with subterfuge and politics. Shipments were delayed or rerouted from military garrisons to disgruntled peasants, threats were made to Coaltongue’s supporters, and pledges were made to stand together when the time came; soon even the Exarch – the provincial leader installed by Coaltongue’s orders – feared that she could no longer tell whom he could trust. The Old Dragon’s foes assumed his only strength was in martial warfare, but in truth he was also cunning: he decreed that every noble family would offer up a son or daughter to serve in the armies of Acheron's heartland, far from the safety of Sindaire. The loyal noble families readily complied, whereas many among the rebellion hesitated or balked. Confident he had weeded out enough of his opponents, the emperor ordered his garrisons to arrest the rebels. Some tried to fight, and they fled in force to the highly defensible Castle Korstull in the badlands of central Sindaire, which had itself once served as a Acheron fortress when Coaltongue first attacked Sindaire sixty years ago, before the nation pledged fealty to the Acheron Empire. On a morning in late fall, Emperor Coaltongue called together his loyal First Army and mustered the ten thousand men and their many beasts of war on a broad field outside the Acheron capital. With him he had brought the son of one of the Sindairese rebels, shackled and held fast in the clawed grip of two armored inquisitors. Holding aloft the Torch of the Burning Sky, the emperor roared to his men that they would put down this challenge to their authority, this insult to their invincible might. The tip of the Torch began to flicker with fire, and then, with a strike that caved in the skull of the rebel son, the flames flared to blinding brilliance. The sky roared, and an inferno descended upon the army, engulfing them and carrying them through the burning sky to the gates of Castle Korstull. Emperor Coaltongue dined that evening in the castle’s throne room.