In the aftermath of the One Week War, the Principality of Amidonia would undergo a period of unrest and rebellions, once the capital city of Van was given back to the country and the short-lived rule of Julius Amidonia began.
Attempts at Returning to the Status Quo[]
After the death of the previous ruler, Gaius Amidonia, his son Julius became the new head of the country, (albeit unofficially since there was never a coronation ceremony). At this point, his younger sister, Princess Roroa Amidonia, had gone into hiding, along with Gatsby Colbert, and most of the bureaucrats. Following the 'military-first' policy of his father, Julius sought to erase all of Elfrieden's influences, on the people a month earlier during its occupation of Van. This included the following:
- Forbidding the watching of any of Elfrieden's Jewel Voice Broadcast programs. However, since Amidonia's only Jewel Voice Broadcast Orb was confiscated by Elfrieden, he can neither stop the receivers from broadcasting Elfrieden's shows nor prevent any of the cities other than Van from watching.
- Destroying all of the vendor stalls near the receivers in Van. Again, this is a moot point since the merchants had long departed once Van was in Amidonian hands.
- Restricting/Denying all fashion and artistic ideas. This included clamping down on fashionable clothes, entertainment venues and even razing buildings with the faces of the loreleis painted on their walls.
- Destroying all bridges that were built by Elfrieden. This is considered to be a bad error in judgement as this would also disrupt supply lines and cause damage to the recovering economy.
- No food aid. Technically not Julius' fault, since his government did not have the same capacity to feed the nation like Elfrieden.
Citizen Response[]
As a result of these efforts to return Amidonia to what it was before the One Week War, the general populace -Van in particular- became very resentful towards Julius at having their freedoms suddenly being taken away. In addition to the resentment in Van, the nobles viewed their new ruler as inexperienced and undeserving of any respect. Since they believed that Julius could not be relied upon to keep the nation safe, they began amassing their own personal armies for self-defense. Furthermore, many kept on watching the Jewel Voice Broadcasts, regardless of Julius deeming it as forbidden.
At this point, Julius missed this opportunity to bring the nobles under his rule and solidify his foundation as the ruler of Amidonia. He instead took a lax approach to this potential danger. This oversight would come back to bite him a month later.
Northwest Rebellion[]
One month after Van was returned to Amidonia, a major uprising occurred in the northwest region. Although the cause of this revolt is not clearly known, it is suspected by Roroa, that it was caused by the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria by inciting their followers to rebel due to the food shortages. Unlike the rest of the country, this event exploded into a violent conflict after hundreds had died due to starvation, with many more attacking the region's noble.. The lord found his home under attack by these people and the private army he had was overwhelmed, with many deserting. The lord then fled to Van and demanded that Julius lead his army to put down this rebellion.
Julius, seeing that this was an opportunity to show his strength and his ability to lead, decides to come to the lord's aid, and goes with his army to fight the rebellion. However, this leads to massive casualties among the rebelling citizens, thereby increasing the animosity between Julius and the people of Amidonia. Furthermore, this resulted in Van being left on its own, giving the citizens an opportunity to rebel themselves.
Revolt of Van and Other Rebellions[]
After Julius had left to quell the unrest in the northwest, the citizens of Van decided to revolt and declared their allegiance to Elfrieden. This gave Kazuya Souma a valid reason to re-occupy the city again. Even more surprising was the fact that numerous other revolts began simultaneously happening all over the country, though this was later to be revealed to be the machinations of Roroa. The reasons behind these revolts include the following:
- Oppression of a lord and ousting him and his family from the city
- A major noble decided to rebel against Julius to replace him
- A noble decides to shelter those who were trying to escape Julius' oppression
- Supporters of Roroa and raising troops to resist Julius
- Cities who had watched the Jewel Voice Broadcasts wish to become annexed like Van
Exile and Annexation[]
After putting down the rebellion in the northwest, Julius found himself being surrounded by hostile forces on all sides, with many of his own soldiers deserting. With no way of fighting any of them, Julius and a small retinue fled the country and later sought asylum in the Union of Eastern Nations. This abandonment of his lands led to a buildup of forces from the Orthodox Papal State of Lunaria and an invasion from the south from the Republic of Turgis. The Republic of Turgis was stalled at Nelva and later withdrew, while the Papal State ceased its buildup when Elfrieden absorbed Amidonia.