Causes of civil wars in fantasy worlds

[bluedude21]

I'm currently writing a story where the antagonist starts a civil war to overthrow the present ruling order. I need to ask, what would be powerful enough to cause people to start a civil war? I've considered a magical explosive going off in a government building but perhaps that might not be enough to cause a full blown magical civil war. Help anyone?

The ruling classes there are two fractions Mages and Common(warriors, blacksmiths) people but the ruling order is neutral and the antagonist is a mage.

 

[FatCat]

All there needs to be is enough tension between the factions to make a war plausible, so I would think it's not the trigger, it's the build up. With that in mind, almost anything can set off a conflict, so yes, I think an explosion would definitely work.

 

[MadMadys]

I had a similar situation where I had to start a war between two sides but that was sort of the plot of a whole book rather than just a small part.

How I worked it was by going at it from several angles to make the war more believable to the reader. One side has some war-mongers in charge, is building a navy to keep themselves occupied, and has some long standing beefs with parts of the opposition. The other side doesn't have a real problem with them but is clearly fearful. Things progressed towards war by cloak and dagger sort of operations where one side was seemingly prodded by the other until there was an assassination of a key figure (who is held in high regard by soldiers in the navy/army so if they're calling for blood then that's a lot of motivation) along with a kidnapping.

Of course all of this was secretly orchestrated by a third party for their own ends but I thought a series of events leading to one big one is more sensible for starting a war than just one big one.

 

[wordwalker]

Besides your climactic trigger, you want to build the impression that it isn't just one thing causing the war, or if it is it's one thing that's already had a lot of effects. The people need to look around and already see a lot of signs that the world's against them, that it isn't just one problem to fix or one enemy to stop.

For ideas for the trigger, and probably some of the symptoms of the buildup, a few are:

• which of these power groups is older, and does that mean as the other group rises in influence one or both can be caught doing devious things to get/retain power? or has one or the other started wars in the past, and is still under suspicion for it?
• a beloved member of one class is killed suspiciously, and/or embarassed or arrested
• a magic accident, or a widely used spell/talisman with a defect, causes damage -- and/or tighter laws limit magic's study and use "for public safety"
• magic fails to solve a problem (drought, disease) and people demand mages do more -- and/or laws "draft" mages for a certain amount of public service
• anything to do with the Hostile Neighbors; who's accused of treason?

 

[Telcontar]

The civil war in Tunisia was touched off by the death of a single man, and he wasn't even murdered. He committed suicide.

In Libya and Egypt, the government change was caused by the revolt in Tunisia.

Inciting events can be almost anything that expose the underlying tensions that actually cause the civil war. What is most unjust about the current rule? Where are the people most abused? What recourse did they have other than war?

Generally speaking, if you don't want to get too in-depth with the history and the culture, the simple "oppressed lower classes" bit is easy to play out. We've seen it over and over again in the world, so nobody has any reason to doubt that it causes wars.

 

[johnsonjoshuak]

For my story, I established a history of neglect by the ruling king. And then he orders his nobles to sail their soldiers thousands of miles away to fight a war that will have little direct effect on their well-being.

 

[Penpilot]

The trigger can be anything. The important part is the set up. What's the dividing line? What's the history behind this dividing line? What puts the two sides in conflict and what are the events that build things to a point of tension where one thing (the straw that broke the camel's back) can trigger the civil war?

A singular point of conflict and tension is like a firecracker. If it goes off it may cause damage but not a whole lot. If you want the civil war you're going to have to find lots more firecrackers and bigger ones, so when they go off all hell breaks loose. So for the most part, it doesn't matter about what lights the fuse, a match, a lighter, a flint, a sparkler, two keys sparking off each other... etc.

If you set up the tension in the conflicts right, something as simple as spitting in someone's face or making fun of a persons hat could trigger a crap storm of civil war.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Look to real history. Using history as a loose framework lends the imaginary turmoil greater believability. Many wars have started with the death of a person or two.. Even world wars.

George Martin based his Fire & Ice books on the War of the Roses. The book has, at it's core, a civil war brought on by the deaths of a few prominent characters.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I agree with Penpilot, there needs to be an entire underswell of dissatisfaction to be tapped before any single act could start a revoloution. So look at the Arab spring and you'll see that while a man may have committed suicide, he was only the match that lit the fuse. Underneath that you have dissatisfaction with the government, poverty, a feeling of powerlessness among the people, coupled with tyranical authoritarian rule. If these things weren't there the suicide would just have been another tragedy.

It would also help to have some sort of organization there. People who in time will become the backbone of the rebellion - rebel leaders and so forth. At the start though they may simply be a bowling league for example, where members get together and gripe.

Cheers, Greg.