Ril Dyara Rebels ('Pikestaffs')

A hundred stories exist as to the exact location and identity of the belligerents, but the one thing they all agree upon is that the first skirmish in the rebellion was an impromptu one: a mob lashing out with wooden staves at royal soldiers armed with halberds. This gave rise to the colloquial names for the two sides of the war, disfavored as they were by many among both high commands.

The Pikestaff rebellion did not spring from the bare earth as many at the time thought. It was a long-sleeping giant awaiting an awakening; a coalition of concerned citizens who had come together in the wake of the first unsuccessful invasions south, determined to pool their resources and avert the national disaster they saw coming. Wealth was on their side: many of these future rebels were men and women of means (and sufficiently free of the Velvet Court's influence), which allowed them to stockpile materiel, purchase favors, and hire mercenary free-companies to stiffen their front lines. It was, therefore, also the natural order of things that Clath Slye, the great trade hub of Ril Dyara, became their base of operations.

The Blinding Thaw furnished the tinder they needed to finally light their fire. The public backlash from King Yagon's death, at the end of a costly, bloody, failed expedition, drove many to answer the Pikestaffs' call to build a better Ril Dyara — among these not merely smallfolk but some disillusioned survivors of Yagon's host, and even a few knights and lords. Reinforced by well-paid sellswords, and aided by advisors and suppliers from Leikonsir and other southern nations, the Pikestaffs began their crusade in earnest. They aimed to defeat the royalist legions in the field and threaten Mai Dyr with investment, forcing the Halberds to the negotiating table; thence, they would abolish the monarchy, transition the realm to a 'government of the people', and repair relations with Ril Dyara's southern neighbors.

But not all that begins with noble ideals may end well. As the story of In Sunder begins, the rebellion has been raging for the better part of a year with no end in sight... and worse, the Pikestaffs are beginning to realize that not all who enlisted with them did so for the right reasons.

(Image source: Siana Dimitrova via ArtStation)