Zottyan Conspiracy

The Zottyan Conspiracy was an infamous coup which took place during the Years of Blood and Iron. The coup had its origins in the misrule and madness of Shahanshah Pelegon III. After Pelegon II was slain in battle against the Beldonians, his twenty-one-year-old son Pelegon became Shahanshah Pelegon III. A spoiled and frivolous man, Pelegon III was considered a poor leader and mishandled the military situation of the Imperium, severely weakening the Throne's chances at victory. Things only became worse when, shortly after he ascended the Golden Falcon Throne, his wife Princess Tauquea Pineblood was assassinated by Beldonian agents. This caused Pelegon III to fall into a deep and all-encompassing depression and into madness and paranoia. He increasingly left the governing of the realm to his Imperial Conclave and to his younger sister, Princess Zottyah Pelegon, who (despite her youth) showed a keen political acumen. On the rare occasion that Pelegon III did sit the throne or attend conclave, his commands were foolhardy, contradictory, and spiteful. 

As the war continued and gradually developed worse and worse for the Legitimists, growing voices in the Imperial Conclave and court began to look to Zottyah as a stronger leader. Meanwhile, Pelegon III became enamored with a prostitute named Robi. In V 190, Pelegon III married Robi in an expensive and grand ceremony, and shortly after the Imperial couple announced that they were pregnant. In the meantime, Pelegon III's madness grew. It was known that he forced Robi to act as if she was his late wife, to the point of refusing to allow her to shave her legs (an attempt to emulate Tauquea's Satyr features). 

Facing the prospect of a common prostitute being the mother of the heir to the Imperial throne, Zottyah and the Conclave (with the exception of Grand Vizier Samwell Sweet, the grandfather of both Pelegon III and Princess Zottyah), planned to dispose of Pelegon III and his "peasant bride." Just over a month after the child was born, a son who Pelegon III named Pelegon and declared to be his heir, Princess Zottyah and the Conclave struck. Zottyah led a force of loyal soldiers through the Golden Palace, killing those loyal to the Shahanshah. She and her troops then broke into the Imperial apartments, where they found the Imperial couple, the infant prince, and the Grand Vizier. It is written in the histories that Lord Sweet was the first to fall, run through with a spear as he reached for a dagger. The soldier who did this, Sir Ganzibar Foret, was then slain by a Yrsh'hadin. This caused Zottyah herself to step forward and advance towards her brother and stab him in the back while he pled for the Yrsh'hadin to stop her. Then Zottyah advanced on the Shahanshah-consort, who was run through with a spear as she attempted to rise from bed. The infant Prince Pelegon was the last to die. Because the Yrsh'hadin would kill anyone else who motioned to harm the heir, Princess Zottyah killed Prince Pelegon herself. After this, she strode across the room to where Pelegon III lay bleeding and finished him off by striking off his head. 

The Zottyan Conspiracy, while removing an incompetent monarch from the Golden Falcon Throne, proved to be an irrecoverable blunder for the new Shahanshah Zottyah II Pelegon. By starting her reign with the blood of infants and family members on her hands, she immediately became a reviled and despised figure across much of the Imperium (while she tried to hide the truth of what had happened and blame the massacre on Beldonian agents, this cover story was not widely believed). She quickly became known as "Zottyah the Thrice-Damned" for her three acts of kinslaying (having murdered her grandfather, brother, and nephew) and "Zottyah the Kinslayer." While her more competent leadership meant that the Legitimist cause would survive for four more years, the Legitimists only grew weaker under her reign. 

Ironically, or perhaps fittingly, Zottyah II herself would be assassinated by her conclave in V 194. During the Great Siege of Arcanopolis her advisors poisoned her as she grew increasingly erratic and paranoid so that her more pliable son, Pelegon IV, could be placed on the throne, a pliable son whom they shortly after murdered as well in an ill-fated attempt to appease the Beldonians. 

One of the lasting legacies of the Zottyan Conspiracy was the establishment of the Falcon Guard. The Yrsh'hadin had been present in the room during the massacre, and Pelegon III had even begged them to intercede and stop the slaughter. However, due to their conditioning, which prevented them from harming a member of the blood, they were unable to intervene, as doing so would require them to attack Zottyah. After the war was over, the new Shahanshah Pelegon V and his Grand Vizier Abbos Pelegon established an order of ten knights who would serve as Imperial bodyguards without undergoing the strict conditioning that the Yrsh'hadin did, allowing them to make judgement calls in situations that left the Yrsh'hadin powerless.