War of the Lions

The War of the Lions (獅子戦役) was a civil war that took place in Erebonia from S.947 to S.952. It was fought by five princes all vying for the Erebonian throne, and it remains as the largest scale civil war in Erebonian history.

Rising Tensions
Emperor Valius V of the Erebonian Empire was said to have countless wives and concubines. As a result of this, he had many sons who would become eligible for the throne. Shortly following his death in S.947, Crown Prince Manfred was assassinated, and the fourth prince Orthros seized the capital by force. The families of each prince, all having different mothers, supported each one for the throne. This led to a large scale civil war between multiple factions.

Course of the War
Shortly after the start of the war, Orthros discovered Testa-Rossa, which had been sealed beneath Heimdallr for centuries. Using the Vermilion Knight's outstanding power, he quickly decimated the army of Gunnar, the fifth prince. The sixth prince, Lucius, then found the Palatinate Knight in an unspecified location, and by using the knights power, he would be able to stand against Orthros and his Vermilion Knight.

In S.949, The Third Prince, Dreichels Reise Arnor, entered the war along with Lianne Sandlot, the leader of the chivalric order known as the Eisenritter, 17 warriors from the Nord Highlands that considered Dreichels their friend and Roland Vander, a close friend of Dreichels since childhood. They were guided by a witch named Roselia Millstein to an unknown location, where Dreichels became the awakener of the Ashen Knight, Valimar.

The war raged on, and in S.952, Testa-Rossa awakened as the Vermillion Apocalypse, and brought with it the Infernal Castle. At this point, all but Dreichels and Orthros had been defeated, and the army of Prince Lucius joined with Dreichels, bolstering his forces. On the first of July S.952, Dreichels marched towards the Infernal Castle, and three days later, it vanished, signaling Dreichel's victory in the war.

Aftermath
As a result of the war, Dreichels became the 73rd emperor of Erebonia. The bloodline of Orthros became the lords of House Cayenne, and Lianne Sandlot was promoted to the rank of Count. Shortly after the war, Lianne Sandlot died mysteriously, and Valimar was sealed away in the Old Schoolhouse.

While Lianne's death was a mystery to many, the truth behind the matter was that she had died during the battle against the Tessta-Rossa and her body was taken back to Eryn by Roselia and Shion Arseid, her second-in-command for the Eisenritter. After watching her body for months, Lianne was resurrected as an Immortal due to the Erebonian Curse and decided to leave Eryn. To honor Lianne's death during the war, Shion's family decided to have the middle intial S to honor Sandlot's role in stopping the war. Following the war however, Roselia decided to wipe any memory of the Divine Knight's used in the war to keep them secret.

Roland's bloodline continued to serve the royal family as their bodyguards after his death in the war with his duel wielding sword style and blades being lost to the rest of his bloodline until they were eventually rediscovered by his descendant Kurt Vander.

Over two hundred and fifty years after the war, Orthos's descendant Duke Croire de Cayenne formed the Noble Alliance in order to settle his family's grudge against the empire and the royal family. After creating the Panzer Soldat's based on the Divine Knights, Croire and the Noble Alliance eventually overtook Erebonia and started the October War. After reaching the Tessta-Rossa and using Cedric Reise Arnor to pilot it, Cayenne was eventually stopped by Class VII and arrested by Dreichel's reincarnation Chancellor Giliath Osborne and the Ironblood's while Cedric was cursed by the Divine Knights and needed to recover.

Trivia

 * The War of the Lions and Emperor Dreichels were first mentioned by Klaudia von Auslese in during a conversation with his descendant Olivert Reise Arnor.