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--- Warbwunian Library Datum 98605874 ---

The Overthrow (Core World)

In the Human Core Worlds, the Overthrow refers to the defeat of the Silent Kings, the philosophical descendants of the Five Courts of Man, by a combined force of political revolutionaries and the Enchanters, a group of Human mystics.

Though the Silent Kings officially relinquished power on the 42nd day of Year 1188 (21st Eon), their power had been dwindling for several centuries. The Silent Kings, a group of hidden, powerful individuals who controlled the Five Courts of Man after the Thin Years, starting around Year 740, used a combination of traditional moral and religious authority and socioeconomic acumen to maintain control over the Core Worlds and several Colonies. Despite their savvy in dealing with other species and moving Humans to a position of power in the Kabacta Rift, Human experts fault the Silent Kings for dealing poorly with two elements in their society: the proliferation of "industrial" glyphic magic, and the rise of a non-hereditary capitalist class.

Though increasing pressure by these parts of Core World society eventually forced the Silent Kings to abdicate, they had lost most of their power to Enchanter manipulation several years beforehand. These carefully-orchestrated activities, called the Tynosynic Tallies, isolated the Silent Kings from their bureaucratic, military, and economic assets so thoroughly that they were unable to respond effectively to increased aggression from the groups agitating against them, which prevented a true civil war. Instead, after most of a Tellus Year of constant pressure (now called the Year of Broken Stones), including demonstrations, riots, and political maneuvering, the Silent Kings abdicated as a unit, scattering to distant parts of the Imperium or unknown space and completing the Overthrow.

Though their deliberate sabotage of the Core World economy and industry, called the Venom-Tail Acts, resulted in social instability for several years after the Overthrow, the Enchanters' direct access to vast reservoirs of glyphic power, combined with the liberation of huge segments of the Core World population, led to a swift restructuring of government and society.

The Overthrow marked the formal end of the Five Kingdoms of Man as a meaningful political organization. The Enchanters named their new nation the Core World Union, a name that had been used previously to refer to the league of economically independent major worlds, and which afterward included almost all previous holdings of the Silent Kings. They took as their symbol the broken star, after the Silent Kings' sundering of the star Beinyann during the Venom Tail Acts and the Enchanters' subsequent protection of the worlds orbiting it.