The Soul Crisis

The Soul Crisis

The Soul Crisis was an event that began in late 721 AA and was resolved in 722 AA. Sparked by a diplomatic row over a series of assassinations, it eventually evolved into a full-scale conflict with the decision of Orialian leader Bishop-Protector Orius to resort to soul magic and genocide to resist Iciarosian attempts to remove and replace him as leader of Orial. The crisis ended with the defeat of Orius, and the death of almost 20 million people.

Background

Related Article: The Valkyrian Crisis

Following the Valkyrian Crisis of 704-706 AA, Fonto, Arenios and Orial came under Iciarosian control as autonomous protectorates. Though Iciaros took a nearly absolute hands-off approach when it came to the internal affairs of its protectorates, there remained dissatisfaction among hardline pro-independence groups in all three nations. This was especially so in Orial, where its then-leader, Bishop-Protector Orius, resented the loss of Orialian sovereignty and feared an invasion of Iciarosian culture and secular thought, which was diametrically opposed to Orial’s dominant culture of religious absolutism.

The Crisis

Prelude

In 721 AA, a string of high-profile assassinations and assassination attempts rocked Iciaros, including the successful murder of Rowan North, a prominent Orialian defector from before the Valkyrian Crisis. Investigations conducted by Iciarosian intelligence services concluded that Orial was responsible for these deaths. Crown Princess Ceriss, then acting head of state while Empress-Valkyria Azalea was absent on a diplomatic mission, made a formal request for Orial to accept and cooperate with Iciarosian detectives as they investigated Orialian documents and searched for the assassin(s), suspected to be hiding in Orial or somewhere on its planet. Orial refused, and turned away investigators when they arrived the day after.

Acting on instructions from Empress-Valkyria Azalea, Crown Princess Ceriss then mobilised portions of Iciaros’ Imperial Army and reiterated the request (now as an order). Orial continued to refuse. Iciaros then attempted to land its investigators outside Orialian spaceports to bypass checkpoint control, but under orders from Bishop-Protector Orius the investigators’ transports were shot down, killing most of their crew, and the survivors were arrested.

Despite urgings to the contrary from her council of advisors, Crown Princess Ceriss was unwilling to immediately retaliate with force. She repeated her demand, accompanied now with the threat of replacing the Bishop-Protector if he continued to be belligerent. This demand went unanswered, and by the end of the week troops were dispatched to relieve Orius from his leadership.

Genocide and Hostilities

Orius, determined to be defiant, conducted a magic ritual the details of which are undisclosed. It is unknown how he discovered this ritual, but its effect was to imbue him with powerful magic, in particular soul magic, which allowed him to take and manipulate the magicka of the souls of the recently deceased. Armed with this power, he began a rampage through his own capital city of Orion, committing a genocide of his own people to gather the souls needed to mount an effective resistance against an Iciarosian incursion.

This greatly alarmed Crown Princess Ceriss, whose troops were still en route and too far away to intervene. She pleaded with Orius to spare his people, even offering herself as hostage in exchange, but he refused. He was able to massacre approximately 2 million people within two days, granting him an equivalent number of souls, and the majority of these were transformed into soul golems to form his own personal army.

While conducting his massacre, Orius also called the Orialian armies to his side, claiming that his actions were sanctioned by divine instructions and necessary for the victory of a holy war against Iciaros. Though some refused, most of his conventional forces responded to his call and marched to Orion, where they were instructed to hold position and defend the city. Having thusly secured his position in the capital, Orius led his soul golem army out of the city to murder the surrounding people, focusing on population centres where his reserve of souls would be most greatly boosted.

In the meantime, Empress-Valkyria Azalea had returned from her diplomatic mission and she took command of the situation, including what Iciarosian forces had managed to arrive and enter orbit of Orial. This group, whose purpose had been to relieve Orius of leadership, was not great enough in number to fight a war. They were deployed in and around Orius’ path of rampage, instead, to slow down his advance and buy time for civilians to evacuate.

In the meantime, a small detachment was landed just outside Orion with the intention of retaking the city. Crown Princess Ceriss, who was personally heading this detachment, delivered the famous Speech of Orion to the non-soul-golem Orialian forces garrisoning the city. In doing so, she managed to persuade the majority of these forces to defect and turn against Orius, allowing her detachment access to the city. The cooperation of the Orialian forces allowed Iciaros to keep the fall of Orion a secret.

In the meantime, Orius showed no intention of halting his quest of genocide, cutting down as many people as he could and growing his soul army to a size where it posed a significant threat to even the full strength of Iciaros’ military, which was still not ready for deployment on Orial. Under Grand Admiral Aldaine's command, the first frigates that could be mobilised and brought to Orial attempted an orbital strike directly against Orius, but he was so inundated with soul power that he managed to magically shield himself and escape the devastation. He then took a lower profile and hid amongst his soul golems, allowing them to do the dirty work of mass murder while remaining hidden from aerial scouts.

Soon, working under a then-secret plan among Iciarosian High Command, Crown Princess Ceriss publicly announced that Iciaros had captured Orion, that Orius had conducted a ritual to gain his power, and that, once her researchers understood how to replicate the ritual, she intended to use the resources he had left behind in Orion to undergo the same ritual and gain the strength to oppose him. This was alarming enough to Orius that he abandoned his campaign of genocide and led his soul army back to Orion.

While Orius travelled back to Orion, Crown Princess Ceriss was evacuated from the city and reinforcements were landed from orbit, led personally by Empress-Valkyria Azalea. Iciarosian troops elsewhere on the planet were airlifted to Orion for the upcoming battle; Iciarosian High Command intended this battle to be the final one of the crisis.

Two days later, Orius and his soul army reached Orion and commenced their attack. Managing to overwhelm both the city defenses and the Iciarosian forces by sheer strength of numbers, Orius’ army was nonetheless greatly weakened in the process. Orius himself was personally confronted by Empress-Valkyria Azalea, who was (by virtue of her position) the most powerful black magic user known. Though ultimately, Orius managed to overwhelm and fatally wound her with his soul magic, his own reserves were depleted in the process. The Iciarosian Interstellar Navy then carried out the final phase of the plan, coordinating several frigates and dreadnaughts in a combined orbital strike on Orion itself. Orius, too weakened by the prior fighting, was unable to protect himself and was finally killed.

With Orius’ death in 722 AA, the Soul Crisis finally came to an end. The death toll of the entire ordeal came up to nearly twenty million, almost entirely Orialian civilians.

Aftermath

With the death of Empress-Valkyria Azalea, Crown Princess Ceriss took command. She postponed her official coronation, however, in favour of coordinating humanitarian aid efforts and on-the-ground work to identify the dead and arrange funerals in the Orialian custom. She acted as Orial’s interim leader until, following consultation with the high-ranking officials of Orial who had not participated in Orius’ genocide, new Bishop-Protector Asiel was appointed in late 722 AA.

Crown Princess Ceriss would eventually ascend officially to the throne in 723 AA, taking the title of Empress and becoming Iciaros’ 22nd sovereign.