The Green Sash Uprising

The Green Sash uprising was a period of widespread civil unrest in the Celestial Empire of California which lead to significant political changes.

Imperial Weakness
As the ancient wisdom of Guru Guan holds for all things in the world, that which is long united must divide; long divided, must unite. Thus it has ever been.

In the twentieth year of the Brave and Sixth Filial Emperor, Hetch Yudkow the First, the Imperial Court ordered the grand coalition to pacify the northern Cascades. The heretic-Queen Ellen had defiantly refused Imperial commands, and she posed a direct threat to Imperial authority in the Northern Protectorate. This would be the climax of the Northern campaigns - the general Kirk Gable had been stationed awaiting imperial orders, and the Emperor personally took command of the campaign, leading the vanguard forward to the frontlines.

The campaign ended in disaster. The Brave and Filial Emperor, while in the midst of a great battle, was struck by one of the tree-dwellers weapons - his leg caved in and his ability to fight on the front forever destroyed, the Emperor ordered the frontlines guarded and retreated to the eastern capital. The wound had come as a great shock to the great Emperor – for days he insisted it was a minor wound and would soon heal, but as time went on his attempts at walking grew more pained and his moods often turned darker and darker, until he found solace in gifts of Valleyan wines. After his impairment, he grew more interested in drink and idle fancy rather than governance, relegating many of his traditional tasks and responsibilities to courtiers and his Governatus. Thus began the many excesses of the Bureaucracy.

Power Fills a Vacuum
The Governatus, Jeff Madonna, had envisioned this as a chance to cement his authority, and he ordered his most loyal into positions of governance over the various prefectures of the Celestial Empire. In the following scores of years, courtiers abused their power, as the local despots levied exorbitant taxes, seized property, pillaged coffers, and violated the common folk. The Northern Protectorate was left isolated, as attacks from the followers of the Tree increased tenfold. The Governatus ruled that the Protectorate was less important than the empire itself, and eventually, Kirk Gable and his men abandoned their stations, fleeing southward to guard the northernmost border of the empire. Thus, the imperial roads in the north were abandoned, and Gaian pilgrimages to the Redwoods increased in intensity and in fervor, as many Druids began claiming of revelations from the Earth.

One of these visionaries, who called himself "The General of Gaia", claimed that the Brave and Sixth Filial Emperor would perish soon, from a fall caused by his wound. None believed him, and all were in shock when, in the thirty-seventh year of his reign, the Sixth Filial Emperor fell down the entrance to the Imperial Hall - a fall no doubt caused by his wound. Overnight, political squabble overtook the imperial court, as factions fought to push their favored prince to inherit. The Bear Throne sat empty for a week, as the struggle grew more intense. Finally, the Prefect of the Motherlode, Will Steely, crushed his opponents, including the former Governatus. With his rule secure, the new Governatus placed forth the prince Chad, the Steward of the Northern Palace and Emperor Hetch's fourth son, on the throne. Emperor Chad, now known to many as "the Boneless", ruled from behind a screen, as he delegated tasks to the Governatus and his ensemble while he immersed himself in indulgent amorous activities with his youthful consort, Empress Amanda.

As the realm slid further into chaos, disasters struck - the raids from the north increased, the ground shook asunder, and crops failed for five years on end. The citizenry struggled on the verge of starvation and death as the bellies of the officials grew wider. As the ability of the court decreased, the duties of the prefects and officials increased. One official in particular, James Gearhart, had been zealously promoting a tithe on the Gaian processions, which he felt had now overwhelmed the Redwoods. Many of those who conducted the pilgrimages refused to pay the tithe - dissidence turned into anger when pilgrims were seized at random by James' order, and the area grew unstable with contempt for the court. In the fourteenth year of Emperor Chad, James Gearhart, angered at the lack of tithes, decided to force the pilgrims to pay, and punish those who refused. Sources are unclear on what followed exactly afterward - but by the end of the day, thousands of pilgrims lay dead among the burning remains of the Great Redwood trees. The very symbol of the Celestial Empire was laid ablaze, and the empire itself was responsible.

Open Rebellion
The General of Gaia, who had made himself untraceable since his prophecy regarding the Brave Emperor, appeared once more, urging the common masses of the North to rise in revolt. With the cry of the Redwoods, dissidents began turning to rebels, shouting out that "Old is the heaven and necessary are the changes". The General bided his time, growing his following from a few social outcasts to many thousands within a year. Finally, he announced to all his followers – "In the Fifteenth Year, all is auspicious".

Thus it was, that, at the beginning of the fifteenth year of the Emperor, 2611 AD (American Dating), large droves of people, who had long been abused and extorted, began to rise up in rebellion. Thousands upon thousands of the starved and disaffected began to take arms against the court, waving their green sashes high. The uprising seized and razed the offices and homes of local authorities, killed Imperial officials and captured city after city. The revolt spread like wildfire, and within five days the entirety of the Northern prefectures had fallen, as the court was shocked to the point of inaction. An emergency meeting of the court was declared, as the various armies of the empire were too scattered about to effectively respond. With urging of the Governatus Steely, the Emperor lifted one of the laws that the Emperor Lawgiver had laid down - that no prefect or governor may raise their own army. He ordered the prefects and governors of the realm to recruit from their citizenry and fight the rebellion, as more joined the cause of the rebels.

One of these new rebels, Yuk Kuan-Yin, had been a nobleman - he became increasingly convinced of zeal for his faith, and rose up with the followers of the Sacred Heart in Baja to overwhelm the province. Within six months, most of the empire had been conquered - but the rebels had a major weakness, as they no longer shared a common ideology or goal. Rebellion infighting became common, and the divided rebels were easily put to the sword by the might of the Empire. In an epic showdown outside of Reno, Kirk Gable slew The General of Gaia, who promised his followers before his death that he shall return as a champion of the Earth-Goddess. Yuk Kuan-Yin was slain by the Prefect Caballero, and the few remaining rebels ran to the hills.

The Future
With the rebellion crushed, the Empire should have experienced prosperity, but problems immediately arose. During the rebellion, several Prefectures were permanently lost to barbarian forces - as the Eastern Protectorate was abandoned, Yimby soldiers took over the Grand City of Vegas, and in the north, the Paiute lord Tagotoka claimed his own revelation. What's more, the victorious Prefects began turning on one another. In these battles, the Governatus was slain - but his daughter, Ann Steely, quickly consolidated the rest of the Valley and had the Emperor proclaim her as Governatus of the realm. Many loyal officials were slain, and the authority of the Emperor reached a nadir.