Civil War

Civil War (政変政, seihen) may refer to the recent Sovereignty power struggle and subsequent political purge (粛清, shukusei), which resulted in the reign of the current king and a critical mana shortage in Yurgenschmidt.

The civil war began when the first and third princes of the previous generation of the royal family came into open conflict.

Although the first prince ultimately lost the war, the third prince and his entire family were killed by an assassin who poisoned their food. The only survivor was prince's unbaptized daughter Eglantine, who was later adopted as an archduke candidate of Klassenberg for her protection.

With both claimants to the throne dead, the conflict reignited between the fourth and fifth princes. The fifth prince won the struggle and became the current king. His son, the first prince Sigiswald, is expected to inherit the throne. (The second prince Anastasius revoked his right to the throne in order to marry Eglantine.)

Embittered after the long struggle, the new king immediately enacted a large-scale purge against the fourth prince, his immediate family, and the web of nobles who had provided him with support.

As a result of the purge, both the nobility and royal family diminished greatly and size, and both view increasing the size of their houses as a top priority.

In order to ameliorate the critical mana shortage, many of the blue priests and shrine maidens young enough to enter the Royal Academy were recalled to their noble families. Among these were Christine and Shikikoza in Ehrenfest. They were able to obtain schtappes and begin lives as full-status nobles, a privilege which would usually be unheard of.

The blue priests and priestesses in duchy temples who were too old to attend the Royal Academy were recalled to the Sovereignty temple, to address the mana shortage there. As a result, many middle and lesser duchies suffered a near-total loss of all clergy with any degree of mana. Only those with the bare minimum of mana remained.

In Ehrenfest, that resulted in Ferdinand becoming the High Priest just a few years after entering the temple. Despite having very little seniority, his education and mana capacity made him the only qualified candidate.

The mana shortage continued to plague Yurgenschmidt, and was among several reasons why Rozemyne was accepted as a blue shrine maiden and later an adopted daughter of Aub Ehrenfest.

In duchies like Frenbeltag and Ehrenfest, the lack of mana caused poor harvests in local provinces and made life extremely difficult. In the Sovereignty, many magic tools became defunct due to not being supplied with mana, including the Royal Academy Library magic tools Schwartz and Weiss.

To overcome the shortage, Ehrenfest began sending its archduke candidates on Spring Prayer. While initially criticized for this decision, the practice was picked up by other duchies, including Frenbeltag. When Rozemyne invented her mana compression method, Ferdinand and her guardians asked her to teach it to other nobles in Ehrenfest for the same reason.