The Ophidian Revolution

A note on dates: The current calendar in use by Spiritists marks the enthronement of Emperor Ivan Aloutia as the beginning of Year 1. The previous year was retroactively named Year 0, and all years before that go -1, -2, etc.

The Ophidian Revolution occurred in the year -20 (20 years before the Age of Spiritism). Before that time, the Orochi plane was ruled by a single king and his eight advisors known as the Heads of Orochi. It was a very patriarchal society where women were subservient to their fathers, husbands, and even their sons.

“Ophidia” was the name of a woman of minor nobility married to a man for a small political union. His name has been erased from historical record and he is known now only as “the First Slave.” They had a few sons and a single daughter, Lira.

Being full-Orochijin, Ophidia’s husband and sons required blood to drink. Many noblemen refused to drink from servants or animals, thinking that was ‘beneath them’ and would only drink from their wife. His sons, likewise, were allowed to drink from their mother and sister so as not to pollute their bodies with ‘commoner blood.’

Ophidia wasn’t treated any worse than any other woman of her age, though having numerous sons drinking her blood wore her down. Worse, they would tease and bully Lira when they wanted to drink her blood instead. When Lira refused or fought back, her father would strike her with a switch, wrap her in his tail, and let his sons drink from her. As Lira grew older, her father arranged a marriage for her. She would become the bride of a particularly nasty and sadistic nobleman, but one who was expected to become a Head of Orochi.

But Ophidia *was* a noblewoman, taught to read, and had access to books from her husband’s library. She learned how to summon Demon Lords, most notably Queen* Lilith, who had also been an abused Orochi noblewoman when she was alive. She also summoned Princess* Hira, Prince Farnel, and Lord Selfishness.

*Demons would go by Lady/Princess/Queen in those days, if they felt the title fit them. Only after the Ophidian Revolution and the redefining of titles did all Demon Nobles switch to being called Lord/Prince/King

Ophidia made deals with these demons. Originally her goal had merely been to save her daughter, who was betrothed to an evil man. But Lilith suggested more. She suggested an outright revolution. Ophidia thought this was absurd. She was just one powerless woman. How could she do all this hard work? Lilith wanted it to happen, though. She planned the entire revolution with other Demon Lords. Hira was the Princess of Cruelty and would agree to anything that increased the amount of cruelty in the world. Two of her subordinate Lords were the Lady of Torture and Lord of Punishment, so she felt enslaving men was the best way to harness energy for all of them. Farnel was Prince of Slavery, and at the time, slavery was not actually that common. Lord Selfishness got on board because she was a woman and always supported women gaining power. Although she didn’t like the extremes Lilith, Hira, and Farnel wanted, she felt it was better than the status quo. Lord Selfishness was friends with Williford, Lord Ignorance, who felt similarly, even though he was a man. He didn’t think the extreme changes would come to pass. He thought the Revolution would end in gender equality. So he joined the plot, and since he and Selfishness joined, so too did Prince Valanier and Lord Emberdyme, the other two members of the Circle of Friends.

Lilith and Hira gathered troops. Farnel could create chains and manacles from nothing, so she started creating them in excess for preparations. Lord Emberdyme could create a gun and bullets from nothing, and so he started doing that, too. The Circle of Friends spread word of the Revolution to other women in Orochi. Valanier, Prince of Megalomania, would cause the women to *want* to revolt and overthrow the men. Williford would swear them to secrecy. Any woman who knew about the plot was magically prohibited from talking or writing about it. They would be given a gun and a few bullets created by Lord Emberdyme (a few years later, the Head of House Higangaoka would reverse engineer the gun he’d given her and learn how to make it herself. She lived close to the world’s only supply of saltpeter, too, and thus began Ophidia’s gun and gunpowder industry.) The women would wear bullets like jewelry to signify to other women that they were involved in the plot, and the men just assumed it was ‘the newest stupid fashion.’ The guns were kept hidden. A few women were caught and interrogated, but Williford’s magic prevented them from sharing any details, even under torture. However, even the men who suspected something was about to happen didn’t realize the scope of it. At most, they thought a handful of women were planning to kill their husbands. They didn’t realize it had spread to almost every woman in the country, and many demons in the Makai.

The night of the Revolution occurred on Razum 23, which correlates to October 10th on the Terran Calendar. A chill autumn night. Ophidia chained her husband to the bed using manacles given to her by Farnel. She sneaked into her sons’ bedroom and did the same to them. Lira (about 15 years old and involved in the plot) helped out. All across the planet, women did the same. Many chained their husbands to their beds. Many shot them with their guns. Lord Selfishness created portals linking the Makai to Orochi so the demons of the Makai could help out. It was a massacre. Overnight, men were killed, beaten, tortured, and enslaved.

The King of Orochi did not have a wife, but rather several concubines. The concubines waited until demons distracted the guards, then they ganged up on him. They tore off his golden crown and jewelry. A few days later, they would melt it all down and reforge them into golden manacles and collars. Noblemen from across Orochi were gathered in the capital, Ophiuchus, and forced to run down the streets while women beat them with whips or whatever they had handy. Those who survived to the end of the gauntlet were usually executed, but Ophidia kept the ex-king chained to below her throne until his death a few years later. Her husband (the First Slave) was also chained there for the rest of his life. Rumors say Ophidia would force her husband and the ex-king to give each other oral sex, but there’s no evidence for this being true. Some other rumors state their penises were cut off, so it would have been difficult to do that. The gauntlet became a yearly tradition called the Royal Parade, though since there are no more noblemen, they just use slaves who have committed grievous acts.

The God now known as Windesoar was a 4-year-old boy living in Orochi when the revolution happened. He was declared unfit for breeding, and so his penis was cut off. He escaped from Ophidia about a year later.

Ophidia was declared Empress of the new country, which was named after her, and Lira was her Heir Apparent. Lira was, unfortunately, mentally ill. She’d been abused all her life, and then when she was suddenly given power overnight, she abused that power. Her cruelty was so legendary it was rumored that Hira would feed *just* off her cruelty to gain energy. Rumors of “Lhira” (Lira+Hira) spread even to the enslaved men who believed that when Lira became Empress, their slavery would involve mandatory torture.

Side note: A scientist working for Lira discovered a magical acid (hydroiodic acid where the iodine atom is saturated with Death elementrons). It was named after Lira because she enjoyed using it to torture men.

Lira was killed by a man, who was then, of course, tortured and killed brutally. Lira’s death broke Empress Ophidia, who became sullen, silent, and ‘lost her wits’ according to historians. With no heir and no governing ability, power transitioned to the Heads of Orochi, who declared the country would become a Republic after the Empress’s death. Ophidia had been going slowly insane already, however. Lord Emberdyme was the Lord of Insanity and one of the deals Ophidia made to get his support was that he'd slowly make her insane. She was insane *before* Lira's death. But her death only made it worse.

In the year 0, the nation of Ophidia converted to Spiritism. Here’s an account by St Ancognidel:

Empress Ophidia died in the year 8. She often went on walks alone in the forest to get away from court life and . Since she was a Water elemental, she went to the Water Realm, where the Goddess Liqua showered her with praise and love, because Liqua herself became a female supremacist after she learned about Ophidia.