The Ruffling of the Feathers

The Ruffling of the Feathers was an act of rebellion against the Arch Baron of the city of Quarowl in 3387 APC.
An alliance known as the Quarown Separatists sought to forcibly wrest control of the government of the city from Grandalia Coltan, the Owlblood ruler who had assumed power in 3386 APC.

The Conflict

Prelude

By the middle of the 34th century APC, politics in the city of Quarowl had been significantly affected by changing demographics, as a consequence of the opening of the Noctaliyan Gate at the start of the 31st century. Although they had initially only played a role within the Quarowl High Guard, Owlblood settlers from Noctaliya were now integrated into many aspects of city life and several of them had risen to positions of power within the Baronial Moot, including Grandalia Coltan who took the position of Arch Baron in 3386 APC.
Grandalia Coltan was not the first Owlblood to lead the city. That honour belonged to Flavius von Skrald when he was appointed as Arch Baron in 3294 APC, over ninety years earlier. But Coltan's rise to power was more controversial since his commericial operations in shipping and air transport were in direct competition with a number of other powerful interests in the Baronial Moot, represented by the Purple Party.
Some of the traditional city aristocrats saw that their commercial interests were weakened by the profitable relationship between Magicians' End and Noctaliya which the Noctaliyan Gate had made possible. Whilst the city as a whole prospered, there were many who resented the spread of the Owlblood into the plutocratic hierarchy and sought ways to oppose their growing influence.
The Quarowl First party, which was formed in 3308 APC began as a legitimate organisation, operating within the Baronial Moot but soon became an altogether more sinister force, stiring up racial hatred against the Owlblood amongst the poor and the manual labourers. It was proscribed in 3338 APC but it went underground and remained a threat to law and order. Some in the Purple Party maintained clandestine links with Quarowl First and when Grandalia Coltan became Arch Baron in 3386 APC, the two parties were operating as one, in secret.
Within a year, Theosophat Woldman, the leader of the Purple Party, had devised a plan to usurp the Arch Baron and strike out at the Owlblood in the city, an action he called "the ruffling of the feathers".

Deployment

The plot for the rebellion consisted of four separate elements. Firstly, the Quarowl High Guard was to be neutralised in an act of carefully timed poisoning designed to prevent them from offering military resistance. Secondly, the Noctaliyan Gate would be attacked on both sides by a crack unit of specially trained mages, aiming to destroy it so that reinforcements from Noctaliya could not come to the aid of the Arch Baron. Breaking the gate was a primary war aim in its own right, since it would isolate the Owlblood from their home world. Thirdly, a group of Quarowl First activists were tasked with the kidnap of Grandalia Coltan. When all these three actions were complete, Theosophat Woldman planned to declare himself Arch Baron at the Great Assembly Hall of Quarowl where he would accept the surrender of Grandalia Coltan.

Conditions

The plotters had intended that the Quarowl High Guard would be unable to come to the aid of the Arch Baron due to a poison administered in their food. Had this plan succeeded, the course of the short civil war would undoubtedly have been changed in their favour, but it did not.
Separatist agents in the warehouses of the Eastern Saranjum fields dosed a regular scheduled delivery of Saranjum berries, which was sent to the barracks of the Quarowl High Guard on the second Lumday of each month, with a bacterial contaminant that was known to induce stomach cramps, vomiting and a general debilitation when ingested by Owlblood.

Magicians' End - Saranjum Bunch by DMFW with Midjourney

Fortunately for the Quarowl High Guard and unfortunately for the plotters, the batch of fruit was never distributed. A sharp eyed quartermaster spotted the bodies of two bistrelle, who had burrowed into the storehouse in an attempt to steal a share of the berries and perished. Immediately suspicious, he had samples tested and then the entire shipment was condemned.

The Engagement

Magicians' End - Matteus Colbrech by DMFW with Midjourney

The insurrection "proper" began at the 10th bell on 19th Tuzlle 3387 APC. Matteus Colbrech led a small hard core group of violent Quarowl First thugs on a successful mission to capture the Arch Baron, catching him by surprise on his way to the Great Assembly Hall. By all accounts, Colbrech was a ruthless and effective leader, far more dangerous than his simple minded followers. They succeeded in overpowering and slaughtering the small duty of Owlblood bodyguards accompanying the Arch Baron and took Grandalia Coltan prisoner but they had not waited to learn whether the poisoning of the Quarowl High Guard was successful and this proved to be a major mistake in the long run.

Magicians' End - Parul Braltoth by DMFW with Midjourney

Shortly after the 16th bell, a secret cell of Purple Party rebels working inside the Institute of Magical Analytics, and led by Parul Braltoth attacked the Noctaliyan Gate from both sides, simultaneously. They succeeded in killing the Owlblood defenders and disrupting and finally destroying the Gate within less than ten bars, leaving the authorities disorganised and the city dismayed.
The day ended in confusion and Theosophat Woldman considered it a success, despite the failure to subdue the Quarowl High Guard.

Akari Kaa by DMFW with Midjourney

On the morning of the 20th of Tuzlle, Woldman led his supporters into the Great Assembly Hall to make a public claim to take the role of Arch Baron of the Baronial Moot. This is the point where the rebellion faltered. It turned out that Woldman had overestimated the extent of the passive support he had expected to receive from uncommitted members of the Moot. Rather than accepting the coup, they rallied round the charismatic leader of the Quarowl High Guard, Akari Kaa, who carried the day with a passionate speech in defence of the orthodoxy.
The 21st and final day of Tuzlle was another day of turmoil and confusion with the authorities unable to locate the Arch Baron. On the streets, armed members of Quarowl First emerged to clash with the Quarowl High Guard. The Institute of Magical Analytics declared for the loyalists and there were struggles between the Proctors and some of the radical students who belonged to the Purple Party, but the authorities remained firmly in control of the institute.
For two days, there was turmoil in the streets but a stalemate in public as the Quarowl High Guard and the Baronial Moot refused to yield to the demands of the Purple Party and the Quarowl First rioters, facing down the threats made to the life of Grandalia Coltan.
Finally on the 3rd of Pruth, reliable intelligence came from neighbours of the house in the suburbs where the Arch Baron was being held hostage. In a daring raid, the Quarowl High Guard freed Coltan and then arrested Theosophat Woldman, bringing the uprising to a decisive end.

Outcome

The Quarowl First activists were soundly defeated and the organisation fractured into numerous minor splinter groups, none of which ever presented much of a threat to the security of the city in later days.
Theosophat Woldman, as the ringleader of the rebellion was tried for treason and executed on 28th Tivith, 3388 APC.
The Purple Party, heavily implicated in the plot even where all the members were not directly involved, was proscribed in 3390 APC.

Aftermath

Although the Ruffling of the Feathers failed to isolate and remove the Owlblood from power and also failed to stir up the kind of widespread racial hatred which Quarowl First had hoped to kindle, the destruction of the Noctaliyan Gate inevitably weakened the Owlblood on Magicians' End. It weakened Quarowl too. In the Time of Terrors when the world was fractured and subject to the whims of dangerous sorcerors, Quarowl, the original epicentre of the crisis precipitated by Zemdath the Terrible had paradoxically become one of the more stable centres of civilisation, the Noctaliyan Gate helping to make it wealthy and the Baronial Moot and its Arch Barons providing a secure framework of government which had successfully integrated the Owlblood into the life and society of Magicians' End. After the Ruffling of the Feathers, Quarowl lost even more of the influence that had slipped away after the end of the Moderators' Council, three centuries earlier. It would remain as a relatively minor and unimportant city for more than two and a half thousand years.

Historical Significance

Legacy

Contact between Noctaliya and Magicians' End has never been so secure and easy after the loss of the Noctaliyan Gate but a thriving Owlblood community still remains to this present day, living in and around Quarowl. In the centuries to come it would make an important contribution to the defence of the realm as part of the Loyalist Thaumatic Army Council.

In Literature

A well known comic local song, "Two fat Bistrelle" is a reference to the unfortunate creatures whose theft and death alerted the Quarowl High Guard to the attempt to poison them.

Conflict Type

Rebellion

Battlefield Type

Land

Start Date

19th Tuzlle 3387 APC

Ending Date

3rd Pruth 3387 APC

Conflict Result

The Separatists were defeated and Arch Baron Grandalia Coltan restored to his position at the head of the Baronial Moot.

Location

Quarowl

Belligerents

Quarowl Separatists

• Quarowl First
• The Purple Party

Led by

• Matteus Colbrech
• Parul Braltoth
• Theosophat Woldman

Quarowl City Loyalists

• Quarowl High Guard
• The Institute of Magical Analytics

Led by

• Akari Kaa
• Grandalia Coltan

Strength

7 Human First Fighters from Quarowl First assigned to the kidnapping of Grandalia Coltan.
18 Human Mages assigned to the destruction of the Noctaliyan Gate.
200 armed Purple Party members and sympathisers, charged with taking control of the Great Assembly Hall of Quarowl.
400 armed Quarowl First rebels to directly oppose the main force of the Quarowl High Guard.

10 Active Service Owlblood Gate Guardians.
10 Owlblood Bodyguards to the Arch Baron.
200 Owlblood Defenders of the Baronial Moot.
500 Owlblood from the Quarowl High Guard, designated as the Quarowl Keepers of the Peace.
30 Human Proctors of the Institute of Magical Analytics.

Casualties

The 7 Quarowl First Fighters in the small cell of kidnappers were all killed, including their leader Matteus Colbrech.
4 Mages were killed in the assault on the Noctaliyan Gate, and 10 more were cut off in Noctaliya, including their leader, Parul Braltoth.
5 members of the Purple Party were wounded in the battle for the Great Assembly Hall and restrained. Another 63 were arrested.
The Quarowl First forces that directly assaulted the Quarowl High Guard were all either killed or melted away.

All 10 Gate Guardians perished defending the Noctaliyan Gate which was destroyed before they could call on reinforcements.
4 of the Arch Baron's Bodyguards were killed.
5 of the Defenders of the The Baronial Moot were injured in the scuffles in the Great Assembly Hall of Quarowl, but only one seriously.
29 members of the Quarowl High Guard perished in conflicts with Quarowl First rebels.
3 Proctors at the The Institute of Magical Analytics were killed during the uprising.

Objectives

The destruction of the Noctaliyan Gate. The removal from power of Arch Baron Grandalia Coltan and his replacement by Theosophat Woldman from the Purple Party. A long term realignment of power in Quarowl to reduce the influence of the Owlblood.

To put down the rebellion, restore order in the city and support the legally accepted Arch Baron of the Baronial Moot.

Magicians' End - Grandalia Coltan by DMFW with Leonardo AI

Theosophat Woldman by DMFW with Midjourney