Royal Family Succession Conflict

The Royal Family Succession Conflict (女王家の内紛, Joō-ka no Naifun) was an event that happened in the Queendom of Falena some years before Suikoden V.

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The death of Queen Olhazeta in SY 438 saw open conflict break out between the two sisters even before the mourning period for the Queen was over. With no Queen yet on the throne, Nether Gate was commanded by both sides, committing assassinations for both factions, in order to maintain their own favor and grip on power.

However, the conflict's roots stretch back to the late 420s. Princess Falzrahm, second in line to the throne, began maneuvering to win over the majority of the Senate, wanting her sister, Princess Shahrewar, to give up her right of succession and take it for herself. Rumor has it that the Barows family was the real force behind all this scheming, as they had married one of their members to Princess Falzrahm and were obsessed with maintaining their power given that both Queen Olhazeta's and Princess Shahrewar's husbands were from the Godwin family. However, how true these rumors are is unclear.

With the elderly Queen Olhazeta no longer possessing the strength to resolve the situation, matters devolved into a cold war between the two factions. The height of these plans was the Sacred Games of Falzrahm's daughter, Princess Arshtat. Even though Princess Shahrewar's daughter, Haswar, was older than Arshtat and therefore had a higher priority of succession, holding the games for Arshtat first would lend credibility to the idea that Falzrahm herself was the predominant successor.

Ironically, the unexpected outcome of Ferid winning the Sacred Games would cool tensions as this allowed neither side to gain a decisive upper hand in the power struggles. But then, when Queen Olhazeta finally passed away, the reality of the situation meant that things quickly broke down into open conflict. The resulting conflict saw countless victims, as many from both the Godwin and Barows factions were slain. In the end, even the husbands of the two Princesses themselves were assassinated.

Eventually, sickened and tired of the bloodshed, Princess Shahrewar lost the will to fight and gave up the throne to her younger sister. Fearing this was a trick, the now-paranoid Princess Falzrahm had her sister assassinated by Nether Gate in the last killing of this grizzly conflict.

As fate would have it, Queen Falzrahm would pass away due to illness only two years later. The Princesses Arshtat, Sialeeds and Haswar were determined to never repeat their mothers' mistakes, with Sialeeds and Haswar choosing never to marry in order to prevent another catastrophe such as the one that had engulfed their parents.