Vibian Coup

Background

The Crossing of the Nocibur River was a military coup carried out by Lord Vibius de Sola, then Imperial Marshal of Oren and humankind. Commanding enormous power within the realm at his fingertips, no doubt manufactured to his liking and made possible by his numerous conquests against the Dwarven Bloc, and disgruntled against what he saw as a weak imperial monarchy "fond of too many concessions to Dwarfkind", the Traitor-Marshal, involved in a plot to depose the Chivay dynasty, raised a massive force of imperial military regiments called "the Caesar's Host", reinforced his ranks with heavy foot knights of the Order of St. Amyas, then proceeded to march on the ancient imperial capital of Petrus, the gates of which were opened to the invaders by several agents planted as disloyal gatekeepers, among them the Marshal's thirdborn child, the young lieutenant Caius de Sola. Vibius' firstborn son and heir, Titus de Sola, was not present during the occupation, his whereabouts at the time unknown.

One of the reasons for the coup's success lies with the independent Order of Saint Amyas' aid, being helmed by Richard de Bar. Richard, the Grand Master, was a pious man who saw the Emperor as unfit to lead, having treated with the Clan Orvar and going so far as to outright endorse them. Richard refused to let this stand and thus pledged his aid to Vibius' cause. When confronted by a loyalist for his actions, he remarked famously, "You break no laws by saving a nation." His righteous intent and independent staus has made him a notable and well-reputed figure in Atheran history, seen by contemporaries as a beacon of zealotry and iron-will. Events of the Coup

Once inside the city, all Chivay loyalists, gentry and servantry were put to the sword without mercy by the treacherous and infidelious Caesar; decades of history lost, numerous ancestral buildings damaged, and the Gates of Oren griefed. However, the Emperor and his family were able to flee the carnage of the Traitor-Marshal by swift flight through the mountains, and hapless civilians and commoners who opposed the coup were allowed to leave the city unharmed. In the final hours of the military occupation of the capital after some untold months, the Marshal was stabbed in the palace of Petrus by two Chivay loyalists hidden in his ranks, Ser Lazare Brunswick and Brother-Sergeant Brannon Lowedge. Despite receiving medical attention on point, Lord Vibius died the following day, presumably of internal bleeding; his death caused the rigid yet fresh military dictatorship in place to crumble and the House of Carrion to rise to the throne once more, leading to a dark age within Oren.

Aftermath

Despite his earlier exploits championed as heroics of Humankind, such as the conquest of Fenn, the Fringe War and the fall of the Dwarven city of Kal'Arkon, his final acts in life sullied his legacy and Vibius is a name not spoken kindly in households; he is commonly referred to and referenced by local commoner sources as Vibius the Damned, the Whoreson Vibius, Vibius the Wicked, Vibius Gate-Griefer, Vibius Aversatrix (a term referring to his ultimate disloyalty) and of course the Traitor-Marshal. However, his name remains also immortalized and feared, and is viewed as almost a "boogy man" of Monarchs. Previous epithets such as Vibius the Mustang or Vibius the Conqueror were forgotten. No one knows what drove the Marshal to completely overturn all he had worked for and championed for so long; some say his enormous status corrupted him, or that a daemun did so; some say he went insane. Most say that some men simply want to watch the world burn, and the world he left them certainly did.

Recently, historians have shed more light on the Marshal's actions, pointing out the various unstable factors present under Robert Chivay's Imperium that led to a rebellion against his rule. His blatant interference in the military of his subjects such as public demotions (crippling the morale of Orenian men), floggings and various specific appointment of officers no doubt gave rise to such a coup happening in the first place. Rumors were also spread that Emperor Robert Chivay had planned to appoint Mirtok DeNurem of Hanseti as a chief member of the Imperial privy council, which is one of the apparent reasons Vibius' troops agreed to march with him (a hatred for Hanseti). The validity of these rumors has never been confirmed nor denied.

Written by Abdullah, a foreign scholar.