Velorenkan Revolution

The Velorenkan Revolution was a period of and  change and instability in the former Holy Veloren Empire following the end of the First World War. It is generally agreed upon as beginning with the Saint Yazdoikakh Massacre in 1915 and concluding with the ratification of the Constitution of the Reborn Velorenkan Arekh in 1923. The initial phase of the revolution saw Velorenkya abolish it's monarchy and form a weak republican government wrought with political violence, economic turbulence, and ethnic conflict. The second half saw the institution of a deep-blue coalition government spearheaded by Revivalists after the March on Saint Yazdoikakh and the subsequent bloody civil war.

Background
The Holy Veloren Empire entered into proxy hostilities with Haksarad and Ventora in 1905 at the height of a budgetary crisis and growing social and economy inequality. Anti-war and anti-government sentiments reached a boiling point when Imperial Trade and Labor Union affiliated workers at the Zwaelchik Armaments Plant in the Dutchy of Fyodithesir, despite not receiving union support, declared a general strike. The duke of Fyodithesir ordered the factory reopened and a bloody confrontation between the workers and ducal militia. The second most popular union in Fyodithesir and syndicalist influenced Brotherhood of Labor ordered a general strike in solidarity with the Zwaelchik workers.

The aging Emperor at the time XXX, entered into talks with leaders of the general strike but died of mysterious circumstances leading to the coronation of XXX, who refused negotiations. A further attempt by the ducal militia to reopen the Zwaelchik Armaments Plant was repulsed after heavy casualties and the new emperor decreed the Brotherhood of Labor an illegal organization. This action caused a national spasm of violence and protests and radicalized the workers at Zwaelchik, who declared an insurrectionary commune and called for. The commune was violently put down by the arrival of imperial troops but the resulting national bloodshed and banning of the Brotherhood of Labor created an erosion of public trust in the new emperor and loss of support among urban workers.

Emperor XXX was staunchly conservative and a firm supporter of the autocracy and sought to centralize authority around the crown. The liberal reforms launched by his grandfather XXX that allowed for limited social expression and democratic representation saw a retreat following the nationalization of major newspapers and suffrage within the imperial diet was restricted. Policies heavily favored his supporters among the nobility, military, and merchant class who saw their wealth and political power increase at the cost of the general Veloren masses.

To ease the empire's budgetary crisis and stave off depression the emperor and imperial diet began to pass a successive amount of taxes that targeted the peasantry as well as Veloren's growing middle class. In 1907 the imperial diet launched an ambitious program to further industrialization and infrastructure development by opening the empire up to foreign investment and selling vast tracks of peasant owned land to wealthy investors or the aristocracy. These programs spurred the growth of the economy and rapid urbanization, but failed to provide adequate housing and living conditions leading to overcrowding and resentment among the swelling working class. Opposition to these policies was suppressed by the empire to promote stability to foreign investors and the Imperial Armed Police was expanded to quell internal dissent and put down peasant revolts such as the 1909 XXX Uprising.

However a number of Velorens began to organize resistance against Emperor XXX. Among the most well known was the Society of Free Patriots, an underground clique of liberal officers and intelligentsia who sought to restore the reforms of Emperor XX, resist imperial taxation, and advance the rights of workers. Political agitation by the Free Patriots included the dissemination of newspapers critical of the Emperor, firebombing of taxation offices, and the occasional slaying of imperial administrators. Perhaps most importantly the Free Patriots aided in the politicization of workers and peasants alike, who were increasingly radicalized as repression and a failing standard of living increased.

September Revolution
In August of 1915 there had been sporadic strikes and mass protests within the capital and other regions due to the introduction of food rationing due to a historically low crop yield within the country. These strikes continued well into September when on the 8th outlawed organizations like the Free Patriots and the National Passionist Party organized a mass demonstration for the ten year anniversary of the Zwaelchik Commune. Striking workers joined with the demonstrations seeing them as reason to continue the strikes, marking this one of the largest demonstrations in Veloren history and closing down nearly every major industrial and service related business in the capital. The Emperor ordered the suppression of the protest and the Imperial Armed Police responded in kind, opening fire on unarmed crowds and killing over 200 in what is known as the Yazdoikakh Massacre.

Included among the protestors was famed actor XXX and his fiancé in what is known as the Yazdoikakh Massacre. Having occurred in the center of the capital and with such high profile persons slain by imperial security forces, the emperor was unable to censor newspapers from reporting on the event. The massacre was seen as a last straw by opposition elements and also caused a general outpouring of violence within the capital and other major urban centers from spontaneous protestors. The central guiding committee of the Free Patriots met with leaders from the Syndicate Federation, National Passionist, as well as buff groups like the Constitutionalists and issued a decree calling for the immediate abdication of the Emperor and "patriotic Velorens to resist unjust government and safeguard the motherland". Armories inside the capital were stormed and distributed to workers who formed militias which would later provide the nucleus for the "Blue Guards". The Imperial Armed Police proved unable to contain the rioting and were reinforced with nearby ducal militias. When ordered to fire upon their countrymen the ducal militiamen remained hesitant and due to pay cuts several units shot their officers and mutinied or refused orders. `

News of the general chaos in the capital spread to the countryside and incited peasant uprisings across the Empire. Characteristic of these was the looting of aristocratic grand estates, seizing of ducal armories, and the slaying of imperial officials who had overseen the redistribution of rural land. With the crisis unfolding in the country the Emperor sought to quickly quell the riot and restore order to the countryside and ordered a general deployment of the Imperial Guard. When inspecting an Imperial Guard barracks on the night of the 13th a bomb was detonated, killing the Emperor along with his wife and two children. The centralization of authority around the Emperor and the lack of a heir apparent left the imperial government with a power vacuum at a critical time. Without the Imperial Guard to march on the capital Saint Yazdoikakh fully fell to revolutionaries and a provisional republican government was declared by liberal representatives in the general assembly.

The nobility who held the real power in the imperial diet along with members of the imperial military's general staff refused to recognize the provisional government and on the 20th formed a regency council. That next day Grand Duke XXX who commanded the Imperial Guard crowned himself Emperor and Autocrat and decreed that the regency council was illegal. The result of three competing governments led to a general disintegration of the unity of the imperial military as units either mutinied, deserted, or received conflicting orders. The collapse of coherent authority and conflicting imperial governments only increased the legitimacy and inertia of the provisional republic based out of the capital. At the same time it encouraged separatist movements in XXX and XXX that evolved into full scale insurgencies by 1918.

However the biggest effect of the Emperor's death was the cause of mass panic among aristocrats who feared the same. The regency council began by withdrawing loyal units, persons, and the majority of the imperial treasury north in order to consolidate. Grand Duke XXX ordered the interdiction of train shipments carrying imperial gold bullion by the Guard, imitating hostilities between the two competing factions. For what remained of the military this marked the final straw and army units that had mutinied or stayed neutral sided with the provisional government.

In the aftermath of the Saint Yazdoikakh Massacre and Emperor's the provisional government in Yazdoikakh sought to gain legitimacy and the support of both workers and peasants by promising land reform, an expansion of civil rights, and an end to draconian taxes. Led by liberal Constitutionalist XXX, the provisional government was formed around a nucleolus of buffist republicans who now presided over a loose coalition of revivalists, trade unionists, social democrats, and conservatives.

Duel Government
The months following the decree of the provisional republic would see the general collapse of Grand Duke's army and it's consolidation under the regency council or defection to the republic. The imperial government was largely fixed to the north of Veloren, where it maintained a traditional base of support among the conservative religious but lacked the manpower to undertake an offensive on the capital. The republican government meanwhile was hesitant to fully commit to an offensive and dislodge the imperials and

The Revolution and the World
Future Lazh Raes Khosravi would join the organization in 1911 and quickly rise to a leadership position, becoming under-secretary in 1914. Khosravi was radicalized after being ejected from the Imperial Air Service for accusing a superior officer of sexual assault against herself and another woman. She became chairwoman of the movement in 1915 and