Civil War on Karte

Preface

The Kartian society has been stirred up to reach the breaking point for a long time.
Karte, an island full of societarians of scaly race, has been under the rule of a powerful aristocracy of deers (a kind of societarians of furry race) for the last 400 years, with varying degrees of mistreatment and degradation of the scalies by the government.
The current king of Karte, Rastapuj, was crowned on 2972 E.Alz. In the 49 years of his rule, Karte saw a slow but steady decline on their economic power and quality of life for their citizens, paired up with an increase on the numbers and quality of their military.

The fall: The War on Pirates

Flag of the Irates by Naelin

During the decade of 2990 E.Alz, pirate activity increased exponentially in the coasts of the Archipelago, and they saw the west coast of Karte as an especially profitable area to raid.
Rastapuj spent several years preparing his response, building ships specially designed to trick pirates, keeping track of each of merchant ship's comings and goings, etc, in a manoeuvre that was known as the War on Pirates.
The War on Pirates had at first good results at stopping piracy and improving Rastapuj's political favour, but it came to an abrupt end on 3006 E.Alz, as the pirates organized to get revenge in an event known as the Irate invasion of Dia. A large group of them stormed the capital, the City of Dia, raided the palace and kidnapped Rastapuj's heir, his 14 year old son Kuja. They tortured and beheaded the kid, and kept his skull as the Symbol of Power of their new organization known as the Irates.

The breaking point

King Rastapuj by Naelin

The violent loss of his son dissolved any semblance of mental stability on Rastapuj. His commands became erratic and usually contradicted one another, as the economy of the island started a rapid decline. The only thing he managed to maintain stable was his loyal military which he put a lot of effort into keeping content, even more than the aristocracy.

At this point, several groups started to form and organize around the goal of ending the king's rule, with various degrees of interest on going further to abolish the monarchy, the aristocracy, or the entire political system.
Civilian protests grew on numbers and volume, and as they did, the guards and the military started retaliating with increasing force and taking many of the protestors as prisoners.
The most notorious group that pushed forwards these goals are the Raised Bakers Resistance, a professional guild of bakers severely affected by the economic decline that united towards the goal of an anarchic, horizontal state with no powerful rulers whatsoever.

Revolution

Ararak by Naelin

While they differed greatly on their final goals, the various subversive groups started working together, gathering intelligence, recruiting people, acquiring weaponry and people with useful skills.
A folk called Ararak, spokesperson of the Raised Bakers, rapidly shown their incredible leading skills, finding a compromise between the groups' ideologies, assigning objectives to the guerrillas and moving the general population towards the uprising.
On the 5th day of Swimming, 3010 E.Alz, before sunrise, two groups infiltrated Dia's barracks and stole several caches of weapons. Afterwards, they did a hit on the underground dungeon in it to release the political prisoners. Two guards and three members of the resistance died in the conflicts, but the rest were able to escape successfully, as most of the people in the barracks were sleeping, and several others couldn't find spare weapons after realizing they were robbed.
Since that day, the fight became each year more open and violent, with many casualties on all sides. Ararak immediately became a public figure, giving out public speeches to the Kartians, and had to go into hiding, travelling from one place to another using safe-conducts provisioned by the other revolutionaries.

Unbalanced Powers and Dirty Combat

While the active revolutionaries have so far done a great job at protecting the civilians as much as possible and of making smart, quick moves, the military still had an astounding advantage on training, equipment and resources.
Skirmishes have turned into full-fledged combats, the armed revolutionaries started using guerrilla tactics against the military, with the military retaliating in even crueller fashion. Peaceful protests have devolved into massacres and lots of civilians were raided, imprisoned, separated from their families or killed just on the basis of suspicions.
As Karte was the island where the tradition of rich people living in towers or hills was less common, the High Rust didn't affect its aristocracy nearly as much as the revolutionaries would have wanted, though it still put a strain on them and the military enough to level the fighting ground and push the aristocracy to start requesting the king to allow negotiation.

Present date

Seven years after the Rust, the revolution is still ongoing. Ararak has turned into a living legend and the most wanted person on the whole island, appearing suddenly in the middle of a crowd of civilians to deliver their messages of hope and endurance and then disappearing again, leaving only a trail of hope and strength on the people.
Things seem to have picked up their pace until the year 6 E.Ru. Rastapuj, cornered, continues going back and forth between good and terrible decisions, and, after 11 years of turmoil, he is getting more and more on the losing side. Many members of the aristocracy have picked up their riches and fled.

Over the last year, however, little has been seen or heard from the revolutionaries. Ararak has not made any public appearance. No buildings have been raided by organized groups. The population and the military are restless. Something big seems to be growing on the shadows, waiting for the right moment.

Flag of Karte by Naelin

"The people of Karte are looking to the past trying to find light in the darkness, trying to convince themselves that this fight is not worth fighting.
We want to find something that makes us think that it is better to give up, to stop all of the death and suffering and go back to the time before all this.
And we can't find it. We must continue fighting."

— Ararak, leader of the Raised Bakers Resistance

Included Conflicts

• Night of the Unlit Candles
• The Deer is Dead

Conflict Type

War

Start Date

Decade of 3000, E.Alz

Ending Date

Ongoing

Location

Karte Island

Belligerents

Karte's subversive organizations & guerrilla forces

• Karte's Raised Bakers Resistance

Led by

• Ararak

Strength

Casualties

Objectives

Abolish the Kartian monarchy.

Improve the working conditions in the country.

Remake the economic and political systems of the island into more horizontal, workers-leaded ones.

Kartian Crown

• Kingdom of Karte

Led by

• Rastapuj
• Texakae

Strength

Casualties

Objectives

Maintain the status quo.

Preserve the safety of the royal family.

Preserve the interests of the aristocracy.

Karte's common folk

Led by

Strength

Casualties

Objectives

Remove Rastapuj from the throne.

Improve their quality of life.

Put a stop to the aristocracy's blatant racism towards scalies.