1706 Akhidian Crisis

The 1706 Akhidian Crisis is an ongoing political conflict in the Kingdom of Akhidia.

Background

Zremlan Palace, the site of King Edward's disappearance

On the evening of 20.IX.1706 AN, King Edward of Akhidia went missing from his suite in Zremlan Palace following a private drinking party. News of his disappearance was immediately suppressed by palace authorities, in the hope that the 67-year-old monarch would eventually resurface, as had been the case in similar circumstances six years previously. Increasingly desperate attempts to contain the situation completely collapsed in early XI. 1706 AN, when leaked reports of the strongman monarch's mysterious absence hit the country's media; the resulting outpouring of popular speculation, accusations and counter-accusations lifted the lid on the barely suppressed personal and political tensions at the heart of the regime.

The crisis intensifies

The rising political tensions finally boiled over when Edward's sister, Princess Caryl, publicly blamed "elements close to the throne" of abducting or even murdering her brother. Although she declined to identify those she believed responsible, supporters of Edward were quick to accuse Queen Befra, wife of Edward's co-monarch Neil, of desiring to remove both Edward and King Matthew so as to ensure the uncontested succession of her newborn son, Prince Ivar. Although both Neil and Befra categorically denied any involvement in Edwards disappearance, the rumours refused to go away, as angry partisans of the three monarchs gathered outside public buildings in the major cities.

This growing power struggle at the heart of the Akhidian state emboldened other disaffected elements within wider society. The Fentoian ethnic group, long marginalised by the predominantly Batii elites, became increasingly restive, with Fentoian leaders openly calling for the abolition of the monarchy and Akhidia's restructuring as a federal state. On the island of Gera, terrorist organisation Al-Ramo took advantage of the chaos to renew its guerilla campaign, swiftly isolating the provincial capital.

Flight of the kings

With the situation spiralling out of control and fearing repercussions from Edward's supporters, King Neil and Queen Befra fled New Paris on the night of 23.XI.1706 AN. Narrowly escaping the city, the pair, accompanied by Prince Ivar and a small cadre of senior staff, flew from Domansk Airport to Befra's hometown, the northern city of Finch. When news of the royal couple's flight broke the following morning, rioting mobs took to the streets as law and order broke down.

Similar scenes occurred in the eastern capital of Mighi, where a large mob stormed Zremlan Palace; trapped inside, King Matthew and Princess Caryl had to be smuggled out in disguise by their security personnel.

Mondo intervenes

The deteriorating situation in Akhidia was viewed with mounting concern by the government of the neighbouring Grand Duchy of Etzeland, who feared that the instability might destabilise the entire region if allowed to progress unchecked. Although appeals for Etzeland's absentee Grand Duke, Mondo, to respond to the developing crisis had hitherto proven unfruitful, the Drosselmeyer regime found a much more sympathetic ear in the person of Mondo's wife, Anastasia. The widow of the late King Ytro I and stepmother to Prince Şahangökbaharx, Anastasia had been exiled by King Edward in 1702 AN, but had continued to take an active interest in both her stepson and native land.

Aerial battleship MGS Gravnought

Another interested party was Mondo and Anastasia's daughter Lystasia. Half Akhidian by birth, the youthful but ambitious Grand Duchess of Steerswick saw in the unfolding crisis an opportunity to recover the former Steerish lands lost to Akhidia's dependency, Dunaria.

With his wife and daughter adding their voices to the increasingly insistent requests for intervention, Mondo was eventually persuaded to act, and on 8.XII.1706 AN, deployed the experimental airborne battleship Gravnought to New Paris. Transporting a battalion of cybernetically-enhanced soldiers, the gravship was ordered to rescue Prince Şahangökbaharx and reimpose order upon the city.

Lystasia intervenes too

Shortly after the Gravnought departed its base, Lystasia ordered her own troops into action. Having spent much of the preceding month conducting pacification operations in the newly-annexed region of West Steeria, Steerish forces were less than a hundred kilometres from the city of Regina, and later that day, a column of grav vehicles from the Steerswick Guard Hussars crossed the border into Dunaria. Travelling west at high speed, the column reached the outskirts of Regina in the early hours of the following morning.