Pillars of the Weak
Observation from Dr. Hamilton 1797-1798
Civil War is a misnomer in all honesty in regards to the conflict that occurred from October of 1797 to 1798. There was no real war that occurred; it was a one-sided slaughter. Common modern day movies, literature, comics, etc. like to portray that the good common people will win despite the odds. That is false. In war, there is no good or evil--even if you can debate whether or not the Old Technocrats of Eraphalia are villians. The conflict also showed to the world that even with popular support, a faction can still crumble.
The beginning move was from the technocrats with the slaughtering of Argena-Hersa nobles on October 15th, 1797. Captain Williams, a controversial war hero, started the beginning move by performing the chaotic slaughtering of innocent lives. From room to room, from house to house, to street to street, the captain eliminated the nobles and "cleansed" the streets of filth. By filth, what I mean is the slaughtering of noble supporters. From October 15th to the 16th, the death tolls racked themselves up. It is rather bloody in how Captain Williams managed to perform a large-scale blood cleanse.
Following that in a week, the First Army commandeered by technocratic-general Ben Pillips made the first opening move towards the northern provinces. With skillful movements, the general managed to split the hastily-formed Noble Army into two and systematically tore them apart. Splitting his own army into two parts, the general focused his main group on the southern noble army with a small task force sent to delay the northern bulk.
While General Phillips was unable to successfully defeat the northern part of the noble army, he landed a crucial opening blow against the Nobility. Even before the war began in full motion, the northern provinces were pushed into defensive tactics. The reason for the slow recovery of the northern provinces was due to the fact that the central provinces, controlled by the technocrats, held the vast majority of industry. Per weapon the north produced, the central provinces produced thirty. The disparity of industrial might became very apparent at the Battle of Sorviska where General Luck faced against Duke Corin. General Luck had, at his disposal, over forty-thousand soldiers while the duke only managed to form a small army of ten-thousand. Using the size of his army to his advantage, General Luck pressured Duke Corin into defensive positions. Unable to perform any significant action, the duke was forced to withdraw before he was surrounded.
The loses at the Battle of Sorviska were light, but they were harsh against Duke Corin. This is the key part of the industrial disparity. While Duke Corin lost four-hundred men with the capture of another hundred, General Luck only lost sixty men. Why? Quality, weaponry, quantity, and size. General Luck's army were professionals while Duke Corin was a mixture of veterans and militias. Remember the 1:30 ratio? General Luck was equipped with the latest weaponry and each of his men had easy access to munition, supplies, and weapons. On the flip-side of this, Duke Corin was forced to equip his men with outdated weapons and several of them were also forced to use civilians tools and melee weaponry.
Proceeding onwards from this, General Luck and General Phillips cooperated in the northern front against the ailing nobility. Using the industrial disparity, they forced the enemy forces to engage in heavy combat. It was attrition with one side having a sever advantage. By June 3rd, 1798, the nobles were grinded down to a single pitiful force of four-thousand against seventy-thousand soldiers. With obvious advantages come obvious conclusions. The technocrats had guns, the nobles only had pitchforks. Not even a single hour into the battle, the nobles were pushed into a corner and forced the hand. By the second hour, the northern provinces surrendered.
The southern front was different in regards to how the war proceeded. Unlike the north, the south actually had some industrial abilities, even limited. The ratio was more light being 1:4. Per one weapon and soldier the south produced, the central provinces produced four weapons and four soldiers. What the south lacked to even the fight were trained soldiers to fight. The Army of Eraphalia was firmly under the technocrats even before the war began. While the nobles had the navy on their side, it helped little in the ground battles that occurred.
Battle of Horst began in November 11th where General Yorck (Technocrat) squared off against General Hilsberg (Noble). Charged with bringing down the capital of Horst and gaining the initial momentum over the south, General Yorck moved to capture Horst before being intercepted by General Hilsberg, the only defecting general of the army. There the evenly-sized armies fought in combat. While General Hilsberg utilized his terrain and tactics more effectively than the younger General Yorck, he couldn't overcome the sever quality advantages his rival enjoyed. By the third hour of the battle, General Hilsberg was forced to retreat and allow Horst to fall under the technocrats.
To argue why General Hilsberg retreated, we must analyze the quality issue. Even though General Hilsberg was the better commander, the lack of coordination in his army made any seizing of the moment impossible. This is opposite for General Yorck whose soldiers overcame the tactical troubles they experienced. This kind of situation played itself out as the war dragged on and by the mid of 1798, they became more evenly matched. Indeed, General Hilsberg managed to form up a formidable army by June 27th of 1798 that was able to score the only victory of the Civil War against the technocrats. Forcing General Yorck to retreat from his string of victories, General Hilsberg seemed to manage to bring fresh air to the nobles.
However, the capitulation of the northern provinces brought pressing issues on the southern lords. While they have a trained army under their command with a second one being quickly rushed into battle, the technocrats freed their main two armies in the north. It didn't help hearing the stories of the northern lords being beaten and tortured before being executed as a result of their resistance. On August 13th, 1798, the southern nobles communed with the technocrat leaders in Argena-Hersa to debate a treaty.
By August 20th, 1798, the short Civil War drew to a conclusion as the southern lords laid down their weapons. One may think that the southern nobles had to sacrifice their lives, but they were clear in discussing the terms. They knew that they couldn't force anything on the technocrats as their enemy held the cards, but they also knew that the technocrats would prefer to end the war soon as discontent began to mount. And so, they struck a deal which is summarized below:
The Southern Nobles will relinquish their titles.
The Southern Nobles will be guaranteed immunity from harm.
The Technocratic State will assure the nobles of monetary payment, enough to survive an upper-middle class life.
The Southern Nobles will use their influences to enforce peace on the southern provinces and force them to accept the technocrat's rule.
They will sacrifice their estates, with exceptions, to the state and vow to release their claims to said estates if they were sacrificed.
The Southern Armies will be disarmed and to be dissolved immediately.
The Eraphalian Navy will surrender arms and be under sever investigations.
Pretty good terms right? Indeed, the southern nobles were the only nobles except for the children and the several lucky families of the north to survive slaughter. To this day, you can still find the dissolved houses thriving in their upper-middle class lives. Turning back to the subject at hand, the Civil War lasted less than a year and the most the nobles ever did was drawing a victory and surviving long enough to deal a decent deal that protected the remaining nobles from death.
There, in random chaos, you have the dumb summary of the Eraphalian Civil War. Is that all there is to it? No, definitely not. Please continue to read the accounts and observations from more coherent historians on how Eraphalia proceeded onwards towards the modern era and how the Civil War really proceeded. Even if the nobles were being slaughtered left and right, there are stories to tell.