A bloody conflict that took place in the streets, sewers and gutters of the towns and cities of Kelbonnar, the rule of whose underground life is disputed between
The Scarlets and
The White Fangs criminal organisations, the Kalott Apple War was sparked by the most innocuous of things, a barrel of apples.
Though the conflict was far from the joke its light hearted name would suggest, the original incident that set the gears of conflict in motion has been immortalised in the name, partly to demonstrate the stupidity of the conflict and partly because both sides still feel very strongly about those apples.
The Conflict
Prelude
As its name suggests, the lightening rod for the conflict was in the town of Kalott on the western shore of Ultaru Province. Like many large settlements in the Empire of Turelion, supremacy over its underground life and activities was contested by two of the largest criminal factions in Kelbonnar The Scarlets and The White Fangs.
The exact incident of conception was an argument that erupted between two groups, one representing each faction over a barrel of apples. Though the exact individuals concerned have been lost to time, and were probably killed either in the incident itself or shortly after, the crux of the dispute was which faction owned the apples.
The Scarlets argued that they had just bought the offending fruits from a fence well known to both sides, who had stolen the apples from a provincial warehouse, whilst The White Fangs countered that the fence had in fact stolen the barrel and its contents from one of their caches the fence had been given access to, not a provincial warehouse and that the apples by rights belonged to them.
Unfortunately for all concerned, no one with a level head was present at the time, and the argument took place outside a tavern in the small hours of the morning, so it is fair to assume that most of the belligerents were intoxicated. Suffice it to say that argument soon turned into harsh words, which soon turned into violence. Most of the original protagonists were slain in the brawl that followed, but enough of each side escaped to spread news of the engagement to cause both factions to leap to their own defence.
What followed was days of rampant violence in Kalott that became so bad that Ultaru's provincial army was called in, but by the time the troops had brought peace to the streets again, the conflict was already spreading like wildfire though the underbelly of the Empire of Turelion.
Whilst the initial engagement of the conflict was focused in and around the city of Kalott in
Ultaru Province, it quickly spread to the other major towns and cities of the
Empire of Turelion where neither
The Scarlets nor
The White Fangs had full control over the settlements’ underworld activities. Factional fighting between the two was even experienced in the Imperial Capital,
Meltaro.
Almost all of the fighting took place in urban environments, almost entirely, though not exclusively in the poorer districts and slums of contested towns and cities, though fighting did spill into more affluent districts as well.
Apart from one or two isolated examples, none of the fighting could be called a ‘pitched-battle’. Instead the whole conflict was a series of bloody skirmishes between small bands loyal to each side, targeted assassinations and raids and arson attacks on properties claimed by both sides.
Though peace was eventually brokered between the two sides, it was not an amicable peace, mutually agreed to the benefit of both. In fact it was a peace forged out of necessity for the survival of both criminal organisations, when it was realised that the slow moving mechanism of the Imperial system was finally taking notice of the spat, and would soon move to crack down on all involved. As the
Empire of Turelion would clearly view both
The Scarlets and
The White Fangs as an equal menace, a ceasefire was called before the operations of both sides were irreparably crippled by the Imperial authorities.
This meant, however, that the original grievances that caused the Kalott Apple War were never resolved, with both sides feeling that they still have a score to settle. To this day, tensions run near boiling point between the Scarlets and the White Fangs, with skirmishes regularly breaking out, lynchings organised and ordered murders taking place. However, both sides are very careful to stop the situation from spiralling out of control again, and great pains are taken to heal new wounds, causing an enormous administrative headache for the higher-ups in both organisations.
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