The Dragonlands

The King had been quiet for too long. The rumours of King Callistin’s demise bolstered the rebel forces better than supplies or aid could do.

But they were only rumours. And silence was not absence. Many of the Houses to the North had become increasingly aware of their growing peril as the rebellion gained ground – plans grew quietly. And the day came like a thunderclap, with little heralding it but a quiet distribution of supplies and the forgettable movements of various small and ill-armed groups, some claiming to be defectors to Hadar A’Vin.

In Ridanya, when the day came, it was poisonings. By the time the poisoned wells were realized, hundreds were dead or dying, and prominent rebels first among them.
In Saffingwell, a building which housed significant traitors was sealed and set alight with them inside. Those fleeing were seized and killed or captured.
In Darvin, there were ‘horrors’ which furres struggled to describe – unspeakable monsters. No physical evidence corroborated these stories, but the many prisoners taken, subject to fits, were proof that something had happened.
In Moorim, rebel pirates were slain by soldiers hidden among their cargo.

All this in one day – and other smaller incidents besides. A colossal blow back. The King had spoken after all – and so, as it happened, had Giovarri, Balsamud, and Moon.

The rebellion was thrown into disarray. Those who remained feared attack from eachother, and violent infighting followed– giving some Loyalists cause to believe:
"We did nothing. The brutes killed eachother."

The fight against the rebellion started up again suddenly. Out of nowhere, the king once more commanded his troops. It seemed that the assassination attempt had done very little to the king. Healthy as ever, he appeared quite fine.

Callistin's troops beat down the rebellion with newfound vigor, even in places which had previously held a decisive victory over the King's troops. Rebellion scouts swore they saw maimed furres, even missing limbs, back fighting for the King within days, whole. The Rebellion couldn't stand against the relentlessness of the King's troops that seemed unable to die. It eventually snuffed out the fire that had been burning for too long. The leaders that had survived were brought before the king. A series of executions took place, each more grand than the last. Their heads and lands were forfeit to the crown.

Even the once-queen Dillandra had been captured. During the grand feast following the end of the rebellion, Callistin unveiled her remains to the public, carved upon a silver platter. The king stood before them, his arms spread out as he announced a change to the 'Natural Order' to the waiting public. "Herbivores are henceforth food." A cheer rose from the king’s men, and they feasted.

This was the great evil of Callistin the Devourer: the blackest stain upon Kasuria.

One whisper from a tortured soul was all it took. With it, the Mad King possessed the kernel of knowledge he needed. The traitors had spread across his precious Kasuria like a cancer. They sought to kill him. They failed. Now, the lion was vengeance reborn.

He brought the North to heel in early Spring; Leejis fell to the siege that took advantage of resources depleted after a long Winter and a late resurgence of cold weather.

His spies slithered through the South, capitalizing upon the rebels’ moral natures and foolish compulsion trust those who shared their dreams. One by one, he snuffed out their cells, leaving his own men to maintain a façade of support.

He reserved his prime tactics for Darvin, seat of the rebellion and home of she who spurned him. The king’s men swept through the county, surrounding its largest communities by land and sea. The fruits of his alchemical experimentation fell from airships hovering above the rooftops, blistering skin and burning lungs. When the gaseous poisons cleared, half-starved ferians shredded survivors in the streets as the Mad King loosed his men upon the countryside.

After weeks of raucous victory celebrations, a cheery campaign flooded Malgrave and the other county seats, announcing the formation of new noble houses proud to take over the reclaimed Darvin and promising land and a five-year annuity to those loyal Kasurians willing to resettle in the newly vacant land.