Internecine Period
| Internecine Period | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Volatile Century | |||||||||
 Lazinatoese ships firing upon Baermali fortifications in Antia, 1904 | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Leikungzia | Warlords | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Lazinato | |||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
| 4.87 million men | 12.24 million men | 10.12 million men | |||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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Military deaths:
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| 24 million excess deaths | |||||||||
The Intercernine Epoch (Classical Akai: 內亂時代 (Niaftōng Ghöftöɡt), Vernecular Akai: Nòjlwan Ziadaj ) otherwise known as the Second Warring States Period or the Unification Wars is a period of Akai history when the control of established order of the Five Kingdoms ended, and a period which saw the rise of military and aristocratic cliques and the rise of Leikungzia syndicalists who seized large parts of the country. It marked the end of the traditional post-Dituate successor states which had dominated Akai since 1202 CE.
It is also regarded to have been the period which caused the unification of Akai. It is widely considered to be one of the defining moments of Akai history and lead to the Lazin domination of the continent. Widely regarded to be second to the Qiakra Regency led by Daslö Jietsiu in terms of bloodshed, with some higher estimates suggesting 32 million total deaths.
The resulting ascent and coronation of Ditu Lunkian lead to what is often described as the Lunkian Palingenesis leading to crucial reforms of Akai society - involving the large-scale industrialisation of the Xuan and Yaosai regions of the continent as well as vast medical and technological improvements.
Background
As the 19th century was noted to be one particularly turbulent for the Five Kingdoms who each faced different challenges due to the nature of the period. The five Hegemon-Kingdoms historically were created in the failure of any one dynasty
Lazinato
Lazinato was facing the contemplation of reform at the start of the end of the reign of Emperor Mangtö in 1823 where he invited several influential members of the Self-citizen School - the closest approximation of the liberals in Lazinato - were introduced as important courtiers. Men such as Sau Dzaw, who was appointed Grand Preceptor and his son Ngɑng Dza who was appointed Minister of rites. They began to implement a program of political reform, creating a council of aristocrats and a council of the merchants, to represent the main interests in Lazinatoese society. The Self-Rule or Dzaw school was largely influenced by liberal political thought imported from Sjealand, something made easy by the presence of the Westerisles company and the strong trading links between Akai and Sjealand. This infuriated the Daslö Kawtsyhi who saw this as an embrace of what he described as “barbarian ideals” - in particular the increasing pseudo-democratisation of government and thusly took measures to undermine the Self-citizens, using his ties to the Kunshisho to implicate its members in corruption and assassinations. Kawtsyhi, ordered the This culminated with the Xokhæ incident in which on the eve his grandfather, Emperor Mangtö’s death, Kawtsyhi launched a preemptive purge of Self-rule faction’s allies and supporters and used his new powers as Emperor to purge the faction - arresting is aristocratic members and ordering the nine-familial exterminations on the Dzaw family.
Kawtsyhi decided to take on the regnal name of Gangslu (Padongmun: 𩖐𩠐, Syodungmun: 強首) meaning unyielding or strong chief, symbolic of his absolutist ambitions. He unlike many conservatives in the court did not disregard foreign technologies and instead advocated for continued military modernisation - in particular, the advancement of the Order of the Seas and the expeditionary capabilities of Lazinato. He appeased much of the aristocracy by enabling them to invest in the new industries in place of their already fading feudal powers. He began a series of small invasions to further the expansion of Lazinato’s increasing influence in the Zhaoze region. First occupying the islands of Disandao and Legenai and eventually forcing the vassalisation of the duchy of Haihema and the Sutu Clan and greatly destabilizing the Tawtak region.
During this time period, historians, philosophers and scholars among the bureaucracy of state slowly began a process of rediscovering the classic texts from the regenesis period where Akai’s initial legalist tradition was created. Sunpalka or Sinhuatka or Neolegalism (Phadungmün:薪灋家, Semrökvom: ꡛꡞꡋꡜꡟꡝꡈꡀꡝ) is a form of radical authoritarian monarchism, characterized by monarchism, totalitarianism, and control of industry and commerce. It describes a grouping of thinkers with an overriding concern for political reform, the Sunpalka was crucial in laying the "intellectual and ideological foundations of the modern Akai bureaucratic empire", remaining highly influential in administration, policy and legal practice in Akai today. Largely ignoring morality or questions on how a society ideally should function, they examined contemporary government, emphasising a realistic consolidation of the wealth and power of autocrat and state, with the goal of achieving increased order, security and stability. Neolegalists came to prominence in mid and late 19th-century Lazinato and Akai to a lesser extent. The first neolegalist groups, the Black Orchid Society emerged in the court of the Gangslu Emperor after the war of unshackling, where several Neolegalist advisors such as Lang Shang and eventually his son Lord Gieke Tang
The Sunpalka Clique began to shift the Akai perspective away from Colonialism, despite having recently colonised Khokarsa and Guadec and reorganised it into Prōngan Bāknun opinion shifted to the more open and exposed Akai which increasingly lay before them. In the mid 19th century, opinion began to favour greater intervention in the region. Tsang Zinpaw, the Count of Esoteric Wisdom was one of the central philosopher’s of Sunpalka wrote an extensive memorial to the throne which would later evolve into his letter text, On Lahuborean Affairs. It placed great emphasis on the need for Akai’s unification and stressed it in geopolitical terms. It’s argument went along the lines that Lazinato, in order to remain competitive, should instead of looking to colonies which it has little ties to it should embrace irredentism and unify the resource-rich and culturally similar Akai so that it can reassert itself in the coming century as a centre of stability and power — a home for the divine Detu and his subject. It also was pointed out as well that Akai should not become the dominion of another power as it would be a geopolitical disaster for the Lazin dynasty. Regardless Gangslu was very much affected by the reports and his attention shifted towards preparing and organising Lazinato to be fit for the task of Akai unification in 1865.