The New Mahnekan Revolt
The 'New Mahnekan' movement is a populist group native to Western Gwalan. It is a coalition of regional populists united by their desire to redistribute lands back to local communities and to end exploitative labor contracts. Membership ranges from secessionists to theocratic fundamentalists to egalitarian populists, but there are two main camps based around the two charismatic leaders of the rebellion:
The Konuro Camp gathers around the charismatic Kobold priest Piltin Konuro. The Konuro Camp is the most radical in its rhetoric and the most vague in its political position, making it incredibly appealing among the disenfranchised and those on the political fringe. Pitlin Konuro is a member of the Konuro family and has established themselves as the "direct heir" to the famous Mahnek Konuro. To back up this claim, Pitlin bears the enchanted bow Mahnek once held that was retrieved from the battlefield by Mahnek's daughter after their death. By positioning themselves as Mahnek's heir, Pitlin has connected themselves to a revolutionary populist legacy, affiliated themselves with Gwalan's culture heroes, and also won over the monarchist fringe. This monarchist fringe, while uncommon, flourished under the Calazen occupation and has not entirely died out.
Geographically, the Konuro camp has focused on offensive pushes and recruitment, and has moved beyond the region of Ezeluri. They are the most mobile, the most popular, and the most spread out. While numerous, the Konuro Camp's rebels are not well trained or equipped. Due to their tolerance of fringe politics, they are often branded as heretics, fanatics, monarchists, and foreigners.
The Akinu Camp gathers around the veteran politician Adapo Akinu. Governor Akinu is theoretically the head of the regional government of the Western state of Ezeluri, and their camp claims to be the legitimate government. The Akinu camp attracts moderates and conservatives upset with the Gwalan government's unequal treatment of the various regions, but have no problems with the system as a whole.
Adapo Akinu has been a representative for the republic of Ezeluri for 30 years, and has made a living on appealing to local discontent. They have long played on the boundaries of acceptable politics, threatening secession to join the nearby Republic of Akatlan and actively hostile to the other Republics. Now that they are in fully rebellion, they stay near the Akatlani border, dodging between the two republics to avoid capture. Their forces are relatively professional and well-funded, a combination of Gwalan military and mercenaries. It is an open secret that Akinu is close with Akatlan and is receiving near-open support from their military.
History
The sources of the Mahnekan discontent lie in the regional mistreatment of the region of Ezeluri, in Western Gwalan. Over a century ago, when the region was invaded by foreign troops, it was Ezeluri that worked with the invaders rather than hopelessly resist. When the Republic of Gwalan was rebuilt in 1903, Ezeluri was left out of the political talks for land redistribution. Huge strips of 'disloyal' Ezeluri were granted to loyal rebels- particularly the wealthiest of those rebels. Those same cliques went on to use the Ezeluri population for work contracts at particularly cheap rates. Aid money was also not funneled into the region, leaving it comparatively wartorn, overtaxed, and poor. When the population was redistributed, parts of Ezeluri were used to dump "excess" population from other Sunekan states.
The tumultuous period of 1900 to 1920 saw a number of armed rebellions over all of these issues, but these rebels were disjointed and quickly crushed as "foreign sympathizers". Following the relative stability of the 1920s, there have been a handful of protest movements, attempted reforms, and the like. For moments, it has even seemed like it was getting better: in 1960, a reform bill targeting voter suppression in Ezeluri passed in Congress, along with a minor Western Aid Bill.
But social mobility has simply never followed. And to make matters worse, many of the problems of economic exploitation occuring in Ezeluri seemed to be popping up across Gwalan. Hope began to fade as waves of reform were shut down and economically downtrodden areas were once again pillaged for money and labor to economically improve already-flourishing high-population provinces. This trend towards "beautification" in the 1980s and 1990s saw Ezeluri increasingly isolated, downtrodden, and mocked as backwards.
Ezeluri politicians, despite often coming from the landlord cliques that were the source of their problems, stirred public resentment strategically for their own gain. As witch-hunts and reactionary movements, inflammatory figures raising money and votes became commonplace in the West in the early 1990s, escalating in the early 2000s. One of these figures was the rabble-rousing firebrand Adapo Akinu, who consolidated political and economic control over the most economically prosperous parts of Ezeluri through inflammatory politics from 1990 to 2017. Along with politicians came other opportunists, such as mystics. Enter the mystic fringe priest Pitlin Konuro: heir to the famous populist Mahnek Konuro.
In the early 2000's, Pitlin began touring Ezeluri with their entourage. Claiming to be reigniting the ancient Revolutionary Populist movement through holy channeling of ancient populists such as Mahnek, Pitlin was a voice for the voiceless. Their rallies were riotous, often involving manic "mass possession experiences" that allowed common folk to strike back at those who exploited them while escaping legal consequence. In 2008, they formed the New Mahnekans as a formal protest group. They half-heartedly attempted to enter formal politics, but their main goal was also stirring trouble. While the Ezeluri government was their first and most vicious enemy for their early years, Governor Akinu reached out in 2012 and brokered a deal: Pitlin would avoid destroying their properties, and in exchange Pitlin would gain de facto legal immunity. While it seems astonishing at first, the truth is that the Konuro family was not exactly poor themselves, having great estates in the North. While the Konuros formally distanced themselves from Pitlin, the connection was enough for them to be acceptable by elites.
No longer afraid of arrest, Pitlin was able to go "mainstream". For five more years, the Mahnekans caused trouble and raised support. Eventually, things boiled over. Rumors that Pitlin had been acquiring weapons in 2017 led to the Gwalan government sending troops in to arrest them regardless of Governor Akinu's compliance. Pitlin escaped arrest, and instead the central government and the local government of Ezeluri entered into a firefight. And so, the movement became a rebellion.
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