NKR insurrection
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| Belligerents | ||||||
| Nü Krantisk Rapskaff |  Lac Glacei
|  Mala
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 Order of the Holy Lakes
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| Commanders and leaders | ||||||
| Units involved | ||||||
| Glaceian Army Reserve Department (GARD) | ||||||
The NKR insurrection is an ongoing internal armed conflict within the Grand Duchy of Lac Glacei, beginning in 1752 AN, following the radicalisation and militarisation of the Nü Krantisk Rapskaff (NKR). What initially emerged as a political and cultural movement advocating Crandish primacy escalated into a sustained armed challenge to the authority of Monte Glacei, and is now widely characterised as a civil war. The conflict is concentrated in the western cantons of Anglien, Balduvien, Saksenlant, Jutien, Kloss, Lorelei, and Heathersland, with sporadic violence reported elsewhere. While not directly part of the conflict itself, the far-eastern territory of Mala is at a focal point within the context of the conflict.
Background
Following the Karmic Collapse of 1744, Lac Glacei experienced increasing regional divergence. Western cantons with large Crandish populations suffered disproportionate economic disruption, while government policy under Grand Duke Augustin prioritised fiscal stability and infrastructure investment in the lake and eastern regions. This imbalance fuelled perceptions of neglect and political marginalisation.
During the late 1740s, political writing and local activism increasingly portrayed the Lac Glaceian state as an alien, pluralist administration imposed upon historically Crandish lands. These ideas coalesced into the Nü Krantisk Rapskaff, which rejected constitutional governance in favour of enforced hierarchy, cultural homogeneity, and permanent mobilisation.
By the end of the decade, NKR-affiliated "study groups" (Liznerrgang) had evolved from cultural societies into disciplined paramilitary formations. Although NKR leadership publicly denied the existence of armed units, by late 1752 AN multiple study groups were confirmed to be covertly armed, drawing on private stockpiles, sympathetic cantonal guards, and illicit procurement networks.
Outbreak and expansion
Open conflict followed the death of Grand Duke Augustin and the accession of Orion III in late 1752 AN. Early efforts by the new, young but highly inexperienced, grand duke to reaffirm constitutional order were met with coordinated resistance across the western cantons, and the incapacity of an antiquated grand ducal bureaucracy to react in a speedily manner.
NKR-aligned local administrations refused to implement directives from Monte Glacei, obstructed state officials, and asserted control over policing and public order through study groups and cantonal guards operating outside legal command structures. Municipal buildings were occupied, courts ceased functioning, and state insignia were removed from public spaces.
By early 1753 AN, armed clashes between NKR militias and the Glaceian Army Reserve Department (GARD) had been reported in Heathersland, Lorelei, and Kloss. Roadblocks, seizures of administrative centres, and attacks on infrastructure marked the transition from political crisis to sustained insurrection.
Conduct of the conflict
By mid 1753 AN, the imbalance between the Lac Glaceian state and the NKR in the western cantons had become pronounced. Despite numerical superiority on paper, GARD proved unable to reassert control beyond isolated strongpoints, major transport routes, and short-lived operations.
GARD had been structured primarily for border defence and emergency response, not counterinsurgency within a culturally familiar population. Units deployed to the west relied on local logistics and intelligence networks that had already been penetrated by NKR sympathisers. Movement plans, patrol schedules, and supply routes were routinely leaked, enabling ambushes or withdrawals ahead of state operations.
In several cases, GARD detachments failed to advance at all. Orders to secure municipal centres were delayed or abandoned after cantonal guards refused cooperation or warned that NKR forces were prepared to respond. By III.1753 AN, internal assessments acknowledged that GARD could no longer guarantee the safety of state officials west of Eesdeheito border with Anglien and Lorelei, while the NKR exercised effective control over large areas of the west. Study groups functioned simultaneously as military units and political authorities, embedded in local communities and sustained by a mixture of ideological support and coercion. Road networks were controlled through layered checkpoints, night travel was prohibited, and movement between towns required permission issued by local NKR commanders.
Arms and supplies flowed through resilient informal networks. Agricultural cooperatives, transport guilds, and sympathetic industrialists provided food, fuel, and equipment, while confiscated state depots and cantonal armouries supplied weapons. In several cantons, NKR authorities collected "voluntary contributions" in place of state taxes, issuing stamped receipts bearing Crandish symbols that became the only documents recognised at checkpoints.
GARD reprisals, when undertaken, proved largely ineffective. Lacking actionable intelligence, units conducted broad cordon-and-search operations that alienated civilian populations without disrupting NKR leadership. In Jutien, a failed operation in III.1753 AN ended with a GARD platoon withdrawing under fire and abandoning vehicles later paraded by NKR supporters. In Balduvien, an attempted arrest escalated into a street battle that left three civilians dead after state forces fired into a crowd, further eroding public confidence in the government.
By mid-year, fear rather than allegiance governed daily life in much of the west. Compliance with NKR demands was immediate and enforced locally, while the state appeared distant and unable to protect its supporters. Observers increasingly described the conflict as a war of exhaustion, in which the erosion of state legitimacy and the normalisation of coercive violence formed the core of NKR strategy.
Life under NKR occupation
By mid 1753 AN, daily life in areas controlled by the Nü Krantisk Rapskaff bore little resemblance to ordinary civil administration. In much of Anglien, Balduvien, Saksenlant, Jutien, Kloss, Lorelei, Heathersland, and Edelweiss, NKR study groups had displaced state institutions and assumed direct authority over movement, employment, education, and public expression.
Local governance was exercised through cantonal committees and study group commanders, whose authority rested on armed presence rather than law. Curfews were imposed, night travel was prohibited, and residents were required to carry locally issued movement papers. Homes and businesses displayed NKR insignia as proof of compliance; refusal marked occupants for further attention. Municipal records, where they had not been seized, were quietly rewritten or destroyed.
Public life became ritualised and compulsory. Mass assemblies, loyalty oaths, and marches were held on a regular schedule. Attendance was recorded. Children and adolescents were enrolled in youth formations affiliated with study groups, where instruction combined Crandish history, physical training, and ideological discipline. Teachers who refused to participate were dismissed, detained, or forced to flee east. State-approved curricula disappeared from classrooms, replaced by locally produced materials emphasising obedience, sacrifice, and national destiny.
Religious life was tightly controlled. Alpine Temple sites in Heathersland, Lorelei, and Edelweiss were desecrated, shuttered, or repurposed as meeting halls. Clergy who spoke against violence were beaten or publicly humiliated. In one widely reported incident near Zeivsbuurg, a priest was forced to recant before a crowd while an NKR commander declared the Temple an obstacle to national renewal.
Violence against civilians intensified as NKR control consolidated. Individuals identified as "collaborationists", including civil servants, teachers, clergy, and union organisers, were subjected to night raids, public detentions, and enforced disappearances. In Edelweiss, five municipal clerks attempting to evacuate tax records were executed near Trappsbruck in II.1753 AN following a summary "people's tribunal"; their bodies were left on display for two days.
Religious institutions associated with the Alpine Temple were targeted in Heathersland, where priests were beaten and at least one temple was burned after refusing to display NKR insignia. Non-Crandish minorities were disproportionately affected: Hurmudan-owned businesses were vandalised or seized, and Mala'anje workers on the mainland were expelled from housing, education and employment under threat of violence. In Kloss, an entire Mala'anje fishing community relocated east after repeated harassment and the disappearance of two men.
State prosecutors later documented at least forty-six cases of enforced disappearance in the western cantons between I and IV.1753 AN. No NKR-affiliated suspect was successfully detained.
Militarisation was visible even in civilian spaces. Armed patrols operated from farmsteads, temples, and municipal buildings. Checkpoints controlled roads and mountain passes, and night-time training exercises were audible in surrounding villages. In the southern cantons of Edelweiss, Heathersland, and Lorelei, NKR units conducted joint drills near mountain passes leading toward the Hurmu realm of Lontinien. Observation posts were erected, routes mapped, and rhetoric increasingly framed the southern frontier as an unresolved historical boundary rather than a settled border.
For most residents, survival depended on compliance rather than belief. Open resistance was rare and quickly punished. The Lac Glaceian state, distant and intermittent in its presence, offered little protection to those who defied local commanders. By mid 1753 AN, NKR control had become normalised in daily life, sustained not only by ideological commitment but by fear, habituation, and the steady erosion of alternative authority.
Border shootings and displacement
Refugees and displacement
By mid 1753 AN, population flight had become a defining feature of the conflict in the western cantons. As NKR authority consolidated in Edelweiss, Lorelei, Anglien, Jutien, Saksenlant and Balduvien, large numbers of civilians sought to escape conditions characterised by political coercion, ethnic exclusion, and arbitrary violence.
Those able to flee first were disproportionately individuals and families with resources, education, or external connections. Civil servants, professionals, merchants, academics, and skilled workers departed early, often using personal networks or pre-existing routes to leave NKR-controlled areas before movement restrictions tightened. Foreign nationals and dual citizens likewise exited at an early stage, assisted by consular channels or commercial transport.
Subsequent waves increasingly consisted of members of non-Crandish and non–Anglo-Saksen ethnic groups, who were subjected to systematic intimidation under NKR rule. Ethnic Gralans, Hurmudans, Lontinians, Glaceians, and smaller foreign communities reported harassment, loss of employment, confiscation of property, and threats framed in explicitly civilisational terms. Many were labelled "transient elements" or "non-contributing populations" in NKR discourse, making continued residence untenable.
External refugee flows followed three principal routes. To the south, civilians attempted to cross into Order of the Holy Lakes realm of Lontinien through mountain passes along the border with Edelweiss and Lorelei. To the north-west, refugees moved into Meckelnburgh Proper, often via forest tracks and minor roads to avoid checkpoints. Some attempted to flee to Iselande, but the knowledge of the high security around the Nurthaven and Antruusbuurg Canal dissuaded many from even attempting.
Internal displacement, however, exceeded external flight in scale. Tens of thousands moved eastward into Glacei, Jardinais, Jacaringia, and Cognito, transiting through Eesdeheito (where many also chose to stay). Temporary settlements emerged along rail corridors, road junctions, and disused industrial sites. Local authorities struggled to provide housing, food, and medical care, while schools and clinics in receiving areas became overcrowded, and repurposed as temporary refugee camps.
Conditions for internally displaced persons were precarious. Many arrived without documentation, having had identity papers confiscated or destroyed during NKR inspections. Employment opportunities were limited, and assistance was uneven. GARD lacked the capacity to secure evacuation corridors, and in several documented cases NKR patrols intercepted refugee columns, forcing returns or detaining individuals accused of evasion. Confiscation of property and enforced separation of families were repeatedly reported.
By mid 1753 AN, displacement had become self-reinforcing: flight reduced the presence of groups least aligned with NKR ideology, while the visible departure of neighbours heightened fear among those remaining, prompting further movement.
Border skirmishes with Lontinien
Following an assembly held at the Darbar Palace in IV.1753 AN, Lontinien responded to the appearance of rebel forces along its northern frontier by mobilising the Keshik with orders to conduct wide ranging patrols and to identify and pursue intruding armed groups.
The most violent incidents associated with refugee flight occurred along the southern frontier with Hurmu's Lontinien. As escape attempts increased, NKR study groups established observation posts, patrols, and ad hoc fortifications along known crossing points, including herding routes and seasonal mountain paths.
Refugees consistently reported that NKR patrols treated attempted crossings as acts of betrayal rather than civilian flight. On 3.VI.1753 AN, an NKR unit opened fire on a group attempting to cross near the upper Valdreich passes in Edelweiss, killing at least four civilians. Hurmudan border authorities later confirmed that multiple rounds struck rocks and trees on the Lontinien side of the frontier, marking the first verified instance of gunfire crossing the international boundary.
Further incidents followed in Lorelei, where tracer fire was reportedly used to deter night crossings. Survivors described being forced to abandon wounded companions to avoid continued fire. Hurmudan patrols recovered bodies near the border in subsequent weeks, though formal investigations proved impossible due to lack of access to the Lac Glaceian side.
NKR leadership denied responsibility, describing the shootings as "anti-smuggling operations" and accusing Hurmu of inflating isolated events. Testimony from defectors and intercepted communications, however, indicated that local commanders had received instructions to prevent population loss by “decisive means,” and that unauthorised departure was framed internally as sabotage of the national struggle.
Within Lac Glacei, the shootings underscored the central government's loss of effective control over the southwestern cantons. Monte Glacei acknowledged "serious incidents" along the border but offered no concrete measures to protect civilians attempting to flee. By this point, it appeared that the southern frontier had become one of the most volatile theatres of the conflict.
In response to the reported instances of cross border gunfire, twelve regiments of peacekeepers from the Hurmu Fyrð garrison at Khojinacinggha were ordered to the section for the frontier facing Edelweiss, whilst the 2nd (Apollonian) Guards Division was instructed to begin concentrating forces at Vadimbaatar.
Situation in Mala
In early 1753 AN, Mala's House of Nobles convened an emergency session in the capital, Qorali. The session was prompted by growing concern that the escalation of NKR ideology and violence on the mainland posed indirect but serious risks to the Mala'anje people and to the constitutional guarantees underpinning the First Nation's status within the Grand Duchy.
Mala'anje leaders cited three principal causes for alarm. The first was the explicitly anti-pluralist character of NKR ideology, which framed political legitimacy in terms of Crandish civilisational primacy and rejected multicultural or federal arrangements. While NKR rhetoric had focused primarily on Monte Glacei and Hurmudan populations, Mala'anje officials noted that the movement's conception of belonging left no clear place for non-Crandish peoples or autonomous territories.
The second concern involved reports of discrimination and intimidation directed at Mala'anje residents on the Lac Glacei mainland. Mala'anje students and workers in Anglien, Saksenlant, and other western cantons reported harassment by NKR-aligned study groups, denial of services at NKR-affiliated establishments, and unauthorised inspections by cantonal guards operating outside state authority. None of these incidents resulted in effective intervention by local or central authorities.
The third, and most destabilising, factor was the perceived silence of Monte Glacei. Since the accession of Orion III, the central government has issued no direct communication to the Mala First Nation regarding the NKR crisis or its implications for peripheral and non-Crandish populations. Mala officials noted that consultation mechanisms mandated under the 1732 AN Memorandum of Understanding had not been activated since 1751 AN, raising questions about the grand duchy's capacity to uphold its obligations amid internal conflict.
In response, the House of Nobles adopted a formal resolution requesting written clarification from Monte Glacei on the continued validity of Mala's constitutional protections, safeguards for Mala'anje living on the mainland, and the future of joint governance arrangements should the internal situation in Lac Glacei deteriorate further. The Grand Duke's Council acknowledged receipt of the resolution but did not provide a timeline for a substantive response, being busy dealing with the actual violent insurrection in the western cantons.
Although no armed mobilisation had occurred in Mala, observers noted a marked shift in political tone. The decision to make the House of Nobles' resolution public, rather than pursue quiet diplomatic channels, was interpreted as a signal that Mala's leadership was preparing for prolonged uncertainty. Economically, the territory had begun reducing its reliance on the Glaceian Blanc, with businesses and households increasingly conducting trade in the New Alexandrian Ecu and Imperial Guilder.
As of 1753 AN, Mala remains formally loyal to the Grand Duchy and has not indicated any intention to alter its constitutional status. However, analysts have described the territory as entering a phase of strategic hedging, seeking reassurance from Monte Glacei while quietly assessing alternatives should the NKR insurrection further weaken central authority.
