Civil War

Civil War (政変, 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 came into open conflict.

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

Because Klassenberg was the home of the third prince's wife, the duchy put its support behind the fifth prince. Meanwhile, those who had supported the first prince moved to support the fourth prince. The conflict dramatically intensified between the fourth and fifth princes.

The fifth prince Trauerqual won the struggle and became the current Zent. His first and second sons, Sigiswald and Anastasius, became heirs to the throne.

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.

Among those targeted in the purge were:
 * All men with a claim to the throne.
 * A princess of the previous generation reputed to have many affairs.
 * The three archnoble librarians at the Royal Academy Library.
 * The previous Aub Frenbeltag, Florencia's father.
 * Aub Werkestock and his immediate family, including Aub Ahrensbach's second wife.

With so many nobles dead, the survivors began working to fill the gap that they left behind. They began adopting noble children who were high in mana, marrying more, and reaching out to estranged family members, including those in the temple.

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.

After that, many blue shrine maidens too old to go to the Royal Academy but young enough to get married were also called home, where they were placed in political marriages and had children.

Eventually, there was order to send all remaining priests and shrine maidens with significant mana to the Sovereignty's 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.

Ehrenfest, the temple lost about half of its blue priests, leaving the only those with the least amount of mana. As a result, Ferdinand became the High Priest not long after he entered the temple. Despite having very little seniority, his education and mana capacity made him the only qualified candidate.

With drastically fewer donations from the noble families of the priests, the temple began operating in the red. Gray priests were sent back to the orphanage due to lacking blue priests to serve, and the orphans suffered from a dwindling supply of food.

The High Bishop sold about thirty gray robes to reduce expenses and earn extra income. Most of those sold were shrine maidens, in hopes of limiting the number of new births in the orphanage. He also began executing any gray shrine maidens who became pregnant. As a result, the youngest children were left largely unattended. The youngest ones soon died.

The critical lack of mana, money and personnel were the main reasons Rozemyne was accepted as a blue shrine maiden about a year and a half later.

After the civil war and purge, the subsequent mana shortage caused serious problems throughout Yurgenschmidt.

In duchies like Frenbeltag and Ehrenfest, the lack of mana caused poor harvests in local provinces and made life extremely difficult. 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.

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.

Many members of Ehrenfest's Knight's Order were summoned to the Sovereignty, causing nobles with far less mana than usual to be accepted as knights (such as Shikikoza.) As a result, Ferdinand was allowed to continue serving as a knight when needed, despite being a blue priest.

The civil war gave rise to a faction called the Biblical Fundamentalists that believe the bible to be the ultimate authority over everything and that even the kings should adhere to its teachings. It is not clear just how powerful and wide-spread this faction is, but since few nobles in Ehrenfest - including the Ehrenfest temple - even heard of them before, their spread is apparently somewhat limited at least in the outermost duchies. The only people who have so far been confirmed to have any knowledge of the movement are Rihyarda and the now deceased former high bishop Bezewanst, who briefly suspected Myne to be one of them, based on her immense reverence to the bible, before discarding the thought again.

Following the announcement of Sigiswald's confirmation as the definite successor, the biblican fundamentalists have been causing some kind of trouble, though this appears to be almost entirely limited to the temples in the opinion of Rozemyne's music teachers.


 * Judging from Eglantine's age when Rozemyne entered the Royal Academy, the Civil War happened around 9-12 years ago, which is roughly the time when Myne and Tuuli were born.