Kinslayer War

The Kinslayer war was a civil conflict between Siphel Solethinian, last Emperor of Soleil , and Sito Solethinian , his younger brother, with their half brother Titos Solethinian joining Sito's side later in the conflict. While Siphel eventually emerged victorious, the conflict devastated an already greatly weakened and destabilized the empire and cost both brothers their lives.

History
Background

In the period proceeding the war, Soleil was in a greatly weakened state. Even before the years of war caused by Alacia's Rebellion, Soleil was in crisis due to warfare and a numerous years of famine as well as a plague that would eventually resurge and become known as the Black Death. It is possible that, had it not been for Soleil's state at the start of the Kinslayer War, it may have been better able to survive the conflict.

Early Conflict
In their early lives, the Solethinian princes Siphel and Sito got along well and were quite close. Furthermore, despite growing problems within the Soleilian Empire, both Siphel and his father Siberius before him remained quite popular with the people of Solstice. Therefore, Sito's rebellion may have come as a surprise to Siphel.

The rebellion is said to have begun while both Siphel and his half brother Titos were out of Solstice; Siphel was visiting Altarion Litheon, his primary admiral, in Navis, and Titos was attempting to contain Alacia's Slave Rebellion. During this time, Sito took a company of guards and very publically seized the Palace of Stars. Siphel assumed Sito had some petty grievance and was simply being very dramatic and Siphel responded by sending Sito a letter saying they'd speak when he returned (having decided a more public response would be a poor idea). Siphel was remiss not to return promptly, however, because with Alacia's recent death at the Field of Fire, Sito saw an opportunity to rally her faction to his side and began making immediate preparation to do just that.

When Siphel did eventually return to Solstice he found that his brother Sito, though having surrounded the palace, had left the city with no explanation. It would seem no one in Solstice had any better idea where he went except possibly north.

War Breaks Out
Sito did eventually return however, and when he did, he returned with demands: an immediate end to slavery in the high region, a definite plan to end slavery throughout Soleil, a return to the popular representation of the early empire, and seemingly least importantly, but most importantly for Siphel, that Siphel divorce his low born wife and exile her because their marriage was an affront to Soleilian tradition. Negotiation may have been possible had it not been for the very public nature of Sito's demands and certainly had it not been for Sito's last clause, which seemed, in Siphel's eyes anyway, to have been expressly placed to force Siphel to refuse.

When Siphel refused Sito's demands, Sito proclaimed that Siphel no longer represented the will of the people and therefore had lost his divine right to rule, essentially declaring open rebellion. Sito then marched on Directus hoping to use it to quickly strike at Solstice and end the war before it could truly start. Things did not go as planned however,and Directus, which maintained a notable garrison, was able to repel Sito's forces. The battle was not wholly a loss for Sito though as he gained a great many new followers after the siege, enough to replace those he had lost, albeit inexperienced ones.

Sito next moved east hoping to gain slaves and other followers from lands mostly unaffected by the rebellion as well as possibly getting help from Erusia. Siphel, having realized after Directus that Sito was serious, called what few legions he could gather back to Solstice and sent one last letter to Sito calling for negotiations to prevent further bloodshed. Sito did not grace Siphel with a response.

In the east Sito managed to score his first major victory by taking the lightly defended Lyon which consequently secured him an eastern foothold. Sito then moved south, winning his crossing across the Viridia at the cost of many lives. Once again luckily for Sito he was easily able to win back these numbers by gathering the slaves that worked the Goldcoast as well as win the allegiance of the lords of the Reach (the region which is now the eastern half of Aurelia ) who wanted to rejoin the Soleilian Empire, but in the process he made an enemy of Erusia.

Titos Joins the War
Meanwhile, Titos Solethinian had largely finished defeating the remnants of Alacia's armies when Siphel called him back to Solstice to defend against Sito's rebellion. Titos, who had long argued to Siphel that slavery was an evil Soleil did not need, decided to contact Sito instead and offer him his allegiance. Sito gladly accepted and informed Titos he should capture the city by surprise after Siphel had let him enter through the gates. Titos refused and instead openly announced his allegiance before marching on the city.

Siphel was now outnumbered and under siege in his capital. Rather than joining Titos directly, who greatly outnumbered Siphel, Sito decided to move on the western bank of the Bay of Belfast before joining Titos in the seige. Unfortunately this turned out to be a great mistake: a faction within Titos's forces still loyal to Siphel coordinated a joint night attack on Titos's army decimating it and causing Titos to surrender his arms promptly afterwards. Simultaneously Sito's siege of Palanthas was repelled by another joint surprise attack, this time by the Palanthas' extremely heavy garrison and reinforcements from Erusia. Sito, whose armies were now almost nonexistent, decided to retreat south to Digne in hopes of crossing over into Took and gather what few followers hadn't already died in Alacia's rebellion. Unfortunately for Sito, Erusia's forces reached Digne first, which at the time had little in the way of fortifications, in an attempt to capture Sito and offer him as a gift to his brother. Sito managed to escape however, thanks to a double, but was gravely injured. The Erusians believed themselves to have the real Sito Solethinian and so organized for Sithel to come south to Digne to collect him. Neither party realized however that not only was the real Sito Solethinian alive, but also, much in the vein of Field of Fire, was preparing an ambush for his brother.

End of the War
When Siphel arrived at the ruins of Anoridia, Sito sprung his trap and massacred Siphel's troops. When Sito saw that Siphel himself had fallen in battle he attempted to make his escape but was caught by the arriving Erusian forces. Sito retreated into the ruins but was now outnumbered and trapped with no means of escape. Sito attempted to negotiate his surrender but was killed by Erusian forces, leaving Titos Solethinian the last Solethinian alive and ending the Kinslayer War.

The bloodshed had not ended with the death of the Solethinian brothers, however. After news of their deaths reached Solstice, some of Titos' troops broke him out of prison so that he could press his claim to the throne. Unfortunately, most of Soleil opposed a bastard who was so recently in open rebellion to become Emperor, and so, further bloodshed ensued.