Editing Second Xiomeran Civil War (section)

==Background==

An assassination attempt on the Xiomeran Emperor, [[Topilpopoca]], on September 8th, 2019 by a disgruntled former Cabinet member would lead to his death on October 3rd, 2019. Following Xiomeran tradition, a new ruler was selected on November 3rd, 2019 in a process known as the Great Selection. [[Yauhmi]], the wife of the assassinated Emperor, was chosen over [[Tepilcayotl]], the Empire's Secretary of Security. In accordance with tradition, [[Tepilcayotl]] committed ritual suicide after his defeat.

During her bid for the Obsidian Throne, [[Yauhmi]] had promised that she would reign as a typically conservative, right-wing Xiomeran leader. Prior to her taking the throne, Xiomera had been run as an autocratic regime with little tolerance for dissent or reform. The new Empress, after taking power, broke with tradition and began implementing democratic reforms. She also implemented a social welfare system, pardoned opposition activists, and began increasing taxes on the powerful Xiomeran upper-class elites and corporations to fund an ambitious platform of change. Her reforms began to alarm, then anger, the elites of Xiomeran society, who began a plot against her.

===April 2020===

On April 10th, as [[Yauhmi]] was inaugurating a new Assembly meant to kick off her intended democratic reforms, the Xiomeran military launched a coup to overthrow her. Led by General [[Xōchhuitl]], the Chief of Staff of the Xiomeran Armed Forces, the coup quickly resulted in the arrest of the Empress and the toppling of her entire government. General Xōchhuitl took over leadership of the Empire, declaring a Provisional Government until a new Great Selection could be held to select a new Emperor.

On April 11th, in a military operation widely seen on both television and online, the [[Palace of Flowers]] was seized from its palace guards, the [[Shorn Ones]], who had remained loyal to the Empress. The bloody seizure of the Palace served to greatly encourage opposition to the coup.

As the coup began, the Crown Prince of Xiomera, [[Texōccoatl]], was out of the country, on a state visit to [[Laeral]]. The Crown Prince launched a government in exile on April 12th, declaring himself as acting Sovereign until his mother could be restored to power. The government in exile asked other nations to revoke recognition of the coup government and transfer any assets held overseas by the coup plotters to its control. That same day, the government of [[Milintica]] recognized the government in exile and offered its support.

On April 13th, the Telopec Palace in Huaxtumba was seized by Imperial soldiers seeking to capture Princess [[Tlalmaxxi]] and her son, [[Tonauac]]. A last stand by the Shorn Ones guarding the Palace allowed the royal family to escape.

On April 19th, after a secret conversation between Shuellian and Xiomeran leaders, mercenaries with the Shuellian PMC Watchtower arrived in western Huenya to assist the Imperial military in enforcing the coup. That same day, Imperial soldiers captured and either imprisoned or executed any members of the Cabinet of the deposed Empress who did not agree to support the coup. A new Cabinet was declared in their place. Also on the 19th, the government of [[Eiria]] formally switched its diplomatic recognition from the coup government to the government in exile, sending a strongly worded letter to the Provisional Government.

On April 22nd, Imperial forces began rounding up and arresting Xiomeran opposition activists who had been protesting the coup. That same day, the 1st Fleet of the Xiomeran Imperial Navy switched sides to the government in exile, becoming the first Xiomeran military unit to break ranks and oppose the coup.

On April 25th, Imperial forces overthrew the ''tlatoani'', the tribal leaders, of the other Huenyan tribes in the Empire - the Necatli, Itotemoc and Tepiltzin. The tribal domains were abolished, and military districts with governors imposed by the central government put in power to replace the ''tlatoani''. This would lead to a surge in unrest in the western half of the Empire. In response, Imperial troops and Watchtower mercenaries were dispatched to the city of Necuatexi on April 28th, where they would use brute force to suppress a revolt by local policemen and residents.

The government of [[Legionas]] severed diplomatic relations with Xiomera on April 29th.

===May 2020===

The government of [[Laeral]] severed diplomatic relations with Xiomera on May 3rd, followed by that of [[Lauchenoiria]] on May 4th.

After the brutal repression of the uprising in Necuatexi, Necatli under the leadership of [[Huacue]] began a mass uprising in the Necatli region. In response, on May 8th, the Provisional Government ordered additional Imperial soldiers and mercenaries into the area to try to stop Huacue's revolt.

On May 16th, a new Great Selection was held, crowning [[Xochiuhue]] as the new Emperor of Xiomera. His formal coronation was held on May 18th.

On May 19th, Necatli rebels in the city of Acalan were forcibly suppressed in another action by Imperial forces and Watchtower mercenaries. The incidents in Necuatexi and Acalan would later be widely considered war crimes. During this period, Xiomera would work with Watchtower to also set up segregation camps to detain opponents of the government.

On May 31st, the Xiomeran state network XIN declared that Empress Yauhmi had agreed to sign an abdication document, and had committed ritual suicide. The former Empress was actually alive, and being held prisoner by Xiomeran forces.

===June 2020===

On June 16th, unrest spread to the Xiomeran tribal region, when a massive protest in Xochiatipan was harshly suppressed by Imperial forces.

On June 23rd, major protests against the regime broke out at multiple universities, colleges and secondary schools throughout the country. These were also suppressed by Imperial security forces.

===July 2020===

Throughout July and August, unrest and opposition to the Emperor and his increasingly brutal reign would continue to grow despite the best efforts of Xiomeran security forces to suppress it.

On July 2nd, Manabí rebels and Lauchenoirian activists with the group Watchdogs of Our Earth began a revolt on Manabí Rive against the Xiomeran government.

On July 12th, the 21st Battalion of the Imperial Army launched a raid on an [[ASI (Xiomera) | ASI]] facility where the former Empress, Yauhmi, was being detained. Led by Major [[Huatli]], a former Kerlian Aurora of Xiomeran descent, the assault succeeded in rescuing the former Empress.

On July 13th, in retaliation for the growing role of [[Eiria]] in supporting the government in exile, agents of the Eirian group MIDGARD (aided by ASI) launched assassination attempts on Eirian Chancellor William Lancaster, as well as the Eirian Minister of Defense and Senator Alexander Dukov.

On July 14th, a special black ops team from [[ASI (Xiomera) | ASI]] attempted to assassinate Texōccoatl and other members of the government in exile in an attack on their headquarters in Laeral. They failed in their attempt on the Crown Prince, but Secretary of International Affairs [[Nōlinyauh]] was killed in the attack.

On July 28th, in retaliation for the attempted assassination of Texōccoatl and the death of Nōlinyauh, Xiomeran naval aviators loyal to the government in exile launched cruise missiles at the motorcade of Emperor Xochiuhue as it was traveling near the city of Xochiatipan. The attack failed to kill Xochiuhue, but did eliminate General Xōchhuitl. The retaliatory strike is considered by many to be the official beginning of the Second Xiomeran Civil War, as it marked the beginning of combat between the two competing governments.

===August 2020===

On August 1st, the former Empress Yauhmi emerged from hiding in the city of Chuaztlapoc. In a speech that was widely broadcast both internationally and at home, the former Empress denied that she had abdicated her position. It was also revealed that she had been detained, and tortured, by the government of Emperor Xochiuhue. Yauhmi declared that the government in Tlālacuetztla was not legitimate, and that she was taking control of the government in exile. Chuaztlapoc was declared the temporary capital of the country until the coup was defeated.

In response, Emperor Xochiuhue executed the head of Xiomeran Military Intelligence, Yāotlah'lotl, on August 13th for providing the intelligence to Huatli that allowed her to free Yauhmi. He then gave a televised speech on August 19th, declaring Yauhmi's claims to be null and void and accusing her of being a tool of foreign interests. The Emperor threatened both Yauhmi's supporters and foreign countries backing her with retaliation, and tried to rally Xiomerans behind him. The same day, the Xiomeran government was forced to withdraw from the Netlcoātl Islands by a revolt of the native residents there. Also that day, Xochiuhue placed all Xiomeran industries under government control and ordered them to focus on manufacturing war materiel. Two CEOs who were opposed to the plan were arrested.

Xochiuhue then ordered a massive attack on Chuaztlapoc, aimed at capturing or killing Yauhmi and ending the rebellion against him with a decisive strike. 50,000 Xiomeran troops were ordered to attack the city on August 25th, with a total of 27,254 rebels defending it. Despite a massive advantage in numbers, technology and equipment, the Imperial attack failed after a personal appeal from Yauhmi, coupled with elements of the Xiomeran Air Force switching sides and destroying the Army corps headquarters, caused a massive drop in morale among the mainly western Huenyan troops in the attacking force.

The failure of the Chuaztlapoc assault would mark the turning point in the war. Increasingly, Xiomerans would lose confidence in both the legitimacy of Xochiuhue's government, and in his own capabilities as a leader. Throughout the rest of August and into September, revolts in western Huenya would coalesce around Chuaztlapoc, taking control of much of western Huenya out of the control of the government.

===September 2020===

In a desperate move to regain momentum, Xochiuhue would order ASI to capture Olivia Pierre, the daughter of Kerlian Councillor Pauline Pierre, from a secret location where she was being held in Lauchenoiria. On September 6th, a deepfake video produced by ASI and the Xiomeran corporation ISTC was sent to Councillor Pierre. The video made it appear as if her daughter was being held by [[Libertas Omnium Maximus]]. Kerlile had agreed to join the coalition of nations which was backing Yauhmi, and Xochiuhue was hoping the video would distract Kerlile or even cause another war to pull nations away from the situation in Xiomera.

On September 12th, the government in exile, with support from Eiria, Legionas, Milintica and Kerlile, would launch an invasion at the city of Zapotlán. The invasion was aimed at splitting the Xiomeran Empire in two, and allowing the growing revolt in western Huenya to seize control and provide a base for the government in exile to topple Xochiuhue's regime. The invasion was initially successful, but eventually bogged down in fierce urban fighting.

On September 29th, the Netlcoātl Islands would formally declare independence, the first part of the Xiomeran Empire to do so.

===October 2020===

The Zapotlán invasion would not finally take the city until October 10th, when the last Imperial forces in the city were defeated. At the beginning of October, the Itotemoc region of western Huenya had fallen out of Imperial control, and the Necatli and Tepiltzin regions were not far behind. Only the original Xiomeran homeland, in eastern Huenya, remained firmly under regime control. By the end of October, all Watchtower mercenaries had withdrawn from Xiomera, and the detention camps that had been set up in western Huenya had either fallen to internal revolts or been liberated by rebel forces.

On October 14th, a meeting of the leaders of the rebelling Huenyans and the government in exile took place in Chuaztlapoc. At this meeting, the foundations were laid for a fundamental change in the revolt against Xochiuhue's regime. Prior to this meeting, the rebellious western Huenyans and the Xiomerans fighting to restore Yauhmi to power had two different, and contradictory, purposes. It was not entirely clear that the two sides would be able to come to an agreement on what they wanted to achieve. However, the talks were saved by the intervention of High Priest Tlocuauhtoa, the leader of the Chuaztlapoc temple of the Huenyan indigenous religion. Tlocuauhtoa convinced the different leaders that the Huenyan gods had placed them in position to win the civil war because of their desire to see the different tribes of Huenya united as one people, building one nation together. 

The intervention of the High Priest placed all of the opponents of the Xiomeran regime on a new course. Instead of putting Yauhmi back on the throne of the Xiomeran Empire, they adopted a new cause - the elimination of the Xiomeran Empire, and the creation of a new Huenyan state.

While this was occurring, events in Xiomera itself would also dramatically change the course of that state. On October 17th, with the war going badly against him, Emperor Xochiuhue ordered the Xiomeran military to conduct tactical nuclear strikes against the rebels, as well as strategic nuclear strikes against Eiria, Legionas, Kerlile and Milintica. Realizing that such an order, if executed, would spell doom for Xiomera once the other nations retaliated, Security Secretary [[Calhualyana]] and General [[Zinahue]], the new Chief of the General Staff, overthrew the Emperor with help from Iskirami forces led by Brigadier General Sadak. Calhualyana would assume Xochiuhue's place as the ruler of Xiomera later that day, giving a televised speech to the nation in which she promised to bring an end to the civil war.

On October 26th, Xiomeran security forces staged a general retreat from western Huenya, ceding it to the emerging state there. That same day, the people of western Huenya would declare themselves to no longer be part of the Xiomeran Empire. Yauhmi would officially abdicate the Obsidian Throne, taking up leadership of a new state. Initially calling itself the United Empire of Huenya, the new state would later change its name to the Huenyan Federation in order to remove any tinge of the Xiomeran Empire from itself.

On October 30th, while attending a function of the Xiomeran Business Association, the new Empress Calhualyana would be poisoned by an Eirian agent posing as a servant. The poisoning was not intended to permanently harm Calhualyana, but to send her a message.

===November 2020===

Rather than hiding the poisoning incident, Calhualyana would announce what had happened to her publicly on November 1st, using the incident to generate sympathy among the Xiomeran people and bolster her claims of foreign "conspiracies" against the Empire. While the government openly blamed unnamed foreign powers for the attack on Calhualyana, Eirian involvement in the incident was never discovered by the Xiomeran government.

On November 6th, while preparing for proposed peace talks in Laeral, Calhualyana shocked both the emerging Huenyan state and the rest of the IDU by launching a massive counter-attack at Zapotlán. The same day, she forced the leader of Manabí Rive, Tanqui, to accept a deal allowing Xiomerans to remain on the island in exchange for a Xiomeran withdrawal. The Empress threatened massive retaliation against Manabí Rive if Tanqui refused, so he was forced to accept her terms. Manabí Rive officially declared independence on November 8th, the day the last Imperial forces withdrew.

Prior to the November 6th counter-attack, Huenyan and allied forces had received a warning from a Xiomeran defector. General Cuauh'ez, the head of Xiomeran special forces, had quit his post and fled to Zapotlán out of shame at his role in the war, especially the attack on the Palace of Flowers and the massacres at Necuatexi and Acalan. The General had tried to warn the defenders at Zapotlán that Calhualyana was about to attack with a newly formed set of special forces, but was unable to deliver his message in time.

The Xiomeran Jaguar and Eagle Warriors, along with the Shorn Ones, had mostly defected to the other side following the Palace of Flowers attack. In their place, Calhualyana had assembled two new units, the Warriors of Huītzilōpōchtli and the Warriors of Tezcatlipōca. With these forces as a spearhead, Xiomeran forces and their Iskirami allies launched a counter-attack that sent the Huenyan and allied forces into a desperate retreat west. Both the Huenyan rebels and the allied forces had assumed that Xiomera's military capacity and will to fight had been spent by their defeats in western Huenya, and were stunned by the ferocity of the counter-attack.

The goal of the counter-attack was to regain control of Zapotlán, and the [[Intra-Xiomera Canal]] which was considered a vital trade and strategic asset. The Canal was also a major point of national pride for Xiomera, ranking as its most impressive engineering accomplishment and the signature of its rise from a backwater state to a modern industrial power. 

===December 2020===

By December 7th, almost all of Zapotlán had been retaken by Imperial forces. The situation had grown so desperate that both Eiria and Legionas sent reinforcements, as did Milintica and Huenya. After a huge pushback of their own, the Huenyan and allied forces managed to force the Xiomeran offensive to a halt, and then into retreat once more. On December 8th, facing a total stalemate, Xiomeran forces agreed to a cease-fire with the Huenyan and allied forces. This marked the end of combat during the civil war.

On December 13th, peace talks began in Jinyu, Laeral. The talks were led by President Liu Mei-han, with the goal "to resolve the current conflict in Huenya and the surrounding islands and to ensure security, prosperity and equitable self-determination for the peoples of the region." Delegates from Huenya, Xiomera, Eiria, Kerlile, the Slokais Islands and the [[ANAN]] states attended.

===January 2021===

On January 1st, the remaining portion of the Xiomeran Empire staged elections which were meant to shore up the position of Empress Calhualyana and her government during the Jinyu talks. In a shattering blow to Huenyan aspirations of uniting the entire island of Huenya under their Federation, Xiomerans voted to remain a separate state by a 71% margin in elections which international observers deemed fair and legitimate. In the same elections, they approved Calhualyana as Empress by a 68% margin and elected her preferred political party, the Xiomeran Citizens' Party, to a commanding position in the new Imperial Parliament. The defeat of Huenyan advocates running as the [[Unification Party]] was widely attributed to Xiomerans' shifting opinions after Yauhmi abdicated the Obsidian Throne in favor of leading Huenya, as well as Xiomeran war weariness and anger over the prospects of permanent partition from the Jinyu talks.

On January 10th, disgruntled members of the Imperial Glory Party attempted a coup against Empress Calhualyana. Their desire was to abandon the [[Jinyu talks|Jinyu Peace Conference]] and continue the war in hopes of regaining control of western Huenya. The coup was easily defeated by forces loyal to Calhualyana. In response to their attempt, the Empress stripped the IGP of all of their seats in the Imperial Parliament, banned the party, and ordered the arrest of hundreds of IGP leaders and activists. She also launched a purge of the Xiomeran government and security forces to remove both Xochiuhue loyalists and IGP members. To further suppress any loyalists to the former Emperor Xochiuhue, Calhualyana had him publicly executed on January 16th after a show trial.

On January 16th, Yauhmi and the other Huenyan tribal leaders agreed to public demands for elections in Huenya as well. It was announced that elections for a head of government, as well as an elected legislative branch, would take place on December 1st, 2021. This would mark the final split between the two halves of the original Xiomeran Empire, into a Huenyan Federation in the west of Huenya and a "new" Xiomeran Empire in the east.