The Five Years War is the name given to the struggles between Commoner and Noble Changelings after the Resurgence in most of Europe.
Overview[]
I have spoken to scholars who witnessed the Restoration in other parts of the world and come up with some very different stories. The jumble of Leagues, Unions, and Alliances that make up the Galacian Confederation didn't take the nobility's return with very good humor, nor did they need a tragedy like the Night of Iron Knives to get their blood boiling. Right away, the commoner kith denied the sidhe's right to rule. When the nobles moved to assert their claim, they met with a united front, an assembly of kith armed with the most fiendish array of weaponry the nocker guilds could design. For all their might and skill, they couldn't defeat the Galacian commoners. Of those who survived the Five Year War, a few agreed to settle down and live under commoner leadership; however, the majority left their homelands rather than submit to commoner rule.
Contrast this with the Kingdom of Neustria (mundanely known as France); if you ask me, they have taken the Royalist view a bit far. Imagine this... the sidhe outnumber the commoners! A bit top-heavy, don't you think? There was bloodshed to be sure, and periodic uprisings are not uncommon even now. But by all accounts, the antimonarchists never stood a chance and were punished rather brutally.
Scandinavia was a model for all the fae; as far as can be seen, the nobles were welcomed and their rightful thrones returned. The transition of power was a product of two points: first, the kith of those lands have always been pro-monarchist, and second, the ever-honorable trolls make up the largest part of the population.
The Low Countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, were largely neutral during the Five Years War, although, to be perfectly frank, they abhorred the excesses of Neustria, taking in many commoner refugees. The Iberian kingdoms to the west, while embroiled in sidhe-commoner fighting for two years, spent the next two years in an interkingdom struggle.
As to "down under," there was much the same effect as in Concordia. The war in Australia and New Zealand had no starting point analogous to the Beltaine Massacre; rather, it grew slowly, as small skirmishes between noble and commoner begat larger battles.
Timeline[]
- July 21, 1969: The Resurgence
- Fall, 1969: Major fighting breaks to in Heidelberg, Paris, and Berlin.
- Spring, 1970: Siege of Munich; founding of the Silver Rose.
- September 21, 1970: Battle of the Black Forest, a narrow commoner victory.
- October 1, 1970: Second Siege of Munich; the city falls to the sidhe.
- November 3, 1970: Battle of the Don, another sidhe victory.
- Winter, 1971: First nocker war machines appear, with devastating results.
- April 30, 1971: Munich retaken by commoners.
- Summer, 1971: Neustria becomes a haven for the nobles and their official base of operations.
- Fall, 1971: Oktoberfest Massacre kills a number of sidhe.
- December 3, 1971: Truce of the White Mountains, lasting until the commoner siege of Heidelberg.
- August 6, 1972: Battle of Heidelberg, which remains a sidhe stronghold.
- September 20-27, 1972: Siege and fall of Cologne to commoners.
- October 31, 1972: Second Truce of the White Mountains; ends with sidhe siege at Prague.
- December 11, 1972: Battle of Prague.
- March 15, 1973: Battle of Krakow.
- May 29, 1973: Battle of Strasbourg, which remains in Neustrian territory.
- August 25, 1973: Battle of the Rhine, a major naval engagement and commoner victory.
- January 1, 1974: Beginning of Galacian Armistice, which holds firm.
- May 1, 1974: The official founding of the Galacian Confederation; end of the war.
References[]
- CTD. Fool's Luck: The Way of the Commoner, pp. 44-45.