Kono'iwae Revolution
An uprising against Bjerian occupation of Kono'i, led by Auali'i Keao. The revolutionaries used the long-established mountain garden to hide and feed themselves, resulting in the destruction of large parts of the forest by Bjerian troops trying to hunt down the revolutionaries.
The Conflict
Prelude
Following several unsuccessful attempts to settle and, later, colonise islands along the Aeho'aiwae southwest chain, the Bjerian occupation of Kono'i's Ke'ao Waoki officially began in 5.664. In 5.830, the discovery and subsequent destruction of an ancient forest garden brought years of protests and minor rebellions to a head.
A new administrator, Auali'i Keao, was brought in to quell the rebellion, but he immediately began to replenish the forest garden in secret in order to prepare for a full revolution. In 5.834, with the forest gardens reestablished and the Bjerian stranglehold on food supply broken, Keao used the mobilisation of the Bjerian navy against the neighbouring island of Wahuhe as his opportunity to move against the Bjerian Governor.
Deployment
Mobilising at dusk, by dawn, Keao's revolutionaries had captured the Bjerian administrative capital of Hygesward (now Kahamoana) and the major port town of Nymuncstildi (now Auuiki), taking the govenor's family hostage and blockading the port.
The Bjerian empress, Angengearda Wilbeorht (Angengearda Iron Chest), refused to negotiate with the revolutionaries, instead sending troops to retake the island. In order to attempt to libreate Nymuncstildi, the Bjerian navy was forced to pass through the channel between Maiden's Hair Peak and Lonely Ridge (Maoʻu ʻAuʻouvāikī), where Keao's militia were lying in wait with cannons procured from the fortress at the tip of Lonely Ridge. Many of the Bjerian ships were sunk or fouled in the narrow pass. Despite this, Bjerian marines managed to land on the western side of the island.
The Engagement
The Bjerian forces were ill-equipped to combat the guerilla warfare emplyed by the revolutionaries and they were driven down into low-lying swampy areas. Here, the Bjerian forces suffered tremendous loss of life, losing more to disease and animal attack than to direct combat, and were ultimately forced back to the beach. Although many of the Bjerian marines were rescued, the revolutionaries offered captured soldiers medical treatment in exchange for their surrender. Captured officers, however, were executed in view of the waiting navy and their bodies displayed in gibbets at the harbour mouth as a warning.
With the ground offensive an unmitigated failure, the navy began a bombardment of the coast that destroyed four cities and swathes of jungle, but produced minimal loss of life or industry at the cost of the Bjerian munitions and morale.
Aftermath
Arcane war and the Grat Blight
Following the military defeat, Empress Angengearda and her war council debated plans to deploy Kingsmagen to the island, but the cost and difficulty in maintaining order in the rebellious colony was deemed too great and the effort of containing hostilities in Sroia was occupying the bulk of the Empire's few trained Kingsmagen, and the decision was made to cede Ke'ao Waoki to the revolutionaries. Following negotiations for the release of Bjerian personnel from the island, a coven of Bjerian Kingsmagen under the instruction of the new emperor Iaenwald Angenmaer (Iaenwald the Pious) designed and cast the Great Blight: a matrix of interlocking curses centred on the imperial summer palace in Hygesward - which was still dedicated as soverign Bjerian land - and which would spread, eventually rendering the island uninhabitable. The curse took two decades to contain, killing or injuring thousands of Kono'iwae citizens and blighting acres of forest that are only now beginning to recover.Impact on the Bjerian-Sroian war
With the revolution occupying the attention of the Bjerian navy, the simmering conflict between Bjeria and occupied Sroia Marches came to a head. Though the summer palace on Ke'ao Waoki was considered a favoured holiday destination of the Emperor, it was not a profitable colony - especially when compared to Sroia. The subsequent imposition of Bjerian rule on Sroia was unusually harsh, intended as a show of force to discourage similar revolutions elsewhere, and contributed a great deal to the ongoing resentment between the two countries.Belligerents
Bjerian Empire
Kono'i Revolutionaries
Strength
Casualties
Objectives
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