The Thynenvelve Coup was an attempt by the established elite including senior military officers and clergy to depose Tyrana Zinafae. They enjoyed widespread support among the major Zannyr factions and had broad objectives, including saving the empire from military collapse, restoring the position of the Church of Lolth, and saving old Zannyr values.

Historical Context

The Zannyr Empire, though at its most powerful point in history, was not in good shape. Militarily, it had exhausted its stock of citizen drow officers and elite soldiers over decades of war, and was presently engaged on many fronts: there was war against Tsseh, against Gezneth, and against Manezheim. In addition, the army had to deal with multiple insurgencies in its provinces, and there were troubles in the capital as well. After a short civil war in 93 - 95 OW, Zinafae had imposed martial law on the capital itself, to the great annoyance of the noble houses and the church. Zinafae's personal involvement in commanding battlefield armies, which officers saw as her encroaching into their authority and which they saw as foolish because Zinafae was a poor military commander, further antagonized them.

As a result, the atmosphere in 98 OW Zann'Elth was heated. Soldiers of the considerably augmented District Guard patrolled the streets, and the Reserve Army was deployed around the capital, manning checkpoints along the main tunnels and patrolling the farms. The matrons were locked in and angry, trade had become more difficult, and the Old Clade - the faction supporting the traditional Church of Lolth against foreign cults, heretic religions, and the brash new Unity religious movement - was fuming, silently augmenting its numbers of Church Guard and considering openly denouncing Zinafae's lack of faith and moving against her.

Coup Attempt

The failure of peaceful opposition to Zinafae, which had sparked the civil war five years earlier, had made it clear that if people wanted change, they would have to effect it violently. It was clear to many that Zinafae was the main source of Zann'Elth's troubles, and some of the established elite - mostly the major house matrons and senior military officers - believed that if they took over and ran things the old way, they would be able to restore peace and order and reduce the losses in drow lives on the borders.

Gathering the Plotters

The roots of anger at Zinafae in the military establishment went some decades back, to the Vallenel Army's campaign at least, but the decisive moment that marked the shift from silent disapproval to active plotting was Zinafae's treatment of her well-respected opponents in the aftermath of the civil war. Senior officers would grumble and occasionally whisper in private meetings about how bad Zinafae was for the nation. Still, they were very afraid to take action against the merciless and well-protected Tyrana, so the group of plotters that finally formed was relatively small. Perhaps the primary instigator was Azke Zakkerz'Ein, the First Daughter of House of Widows, one of the new second houses founded by an amalgamation of minor houses. She was a priestess from Zinith-Lolth and had served in the Vallenel Army, and now was an archaness in the Reserve War-Magic Command, an administrative group that handled the transfer of spellcasters into combat units. She was a friend of Uzziliza To'Fezzen, a zenfia in the Thynenvelve operational staff who was intimately familiar with the core military bureaucracy.

They looked for allies, and found some promising ones. The prevalent feeling among senior officers was one of contempt for politics, meaning there was little risk of them intervening against the plotters. Arachness Zinnaneza of the Reserve Army was tentatively on board, which was great news. Heiress Tuleine herself, who was close to the Old Clade and the matrons, said she would support them if they took action, but did not participate in the planning out of fear of the Inquisition. And the Church of Lolth, with its considerable religious authority and its own Church Guard, also appeared to be an ally.

Thynenvelve Occupation

Choosing to move as soon as possible, fearing being found out by the Inquisition and believing that popular discontent was so widespread that a tiny spark would suffice to bring Zinafae down (an impression reinforced by the ease with which rebellions in the provinces seemed to emerge), the core group of plotters took action in 98 OW, while the Tyrana was away visiting Seath and the other heiress, Tuzzaei De'Marno, was off at war. Being part of the military family, they began their operation by taking over the core of the Zannyr military: the small cave complex of Thynenvelve, with its hollowed-out stalactites and sprawling staff buildings. Being officers, they commanded the garrison to lock the place down, and utilized Thynenvelve's operations rooms to command the rest of their operation.

Soon after they took over, they cleared things up with Tuleine by magical communicators; she was on board, she would stand as the regime's new Tyrana. They also sent out orders to the various military District Guard centers, ordering them to lock down the city and recognize their authority; and they sent orders to Zinnaneza of the nearby Reserve Army to move into the city and reinforce them.

Declaration of Martial Law

Having taken over the exisiting channels of public communication, and sending speaker over to the two main public addressing spaces, the plotters announced that Tyrana was deposed and that the army would now see to the nation's well-being. They proceeded to organise a Council of Matrons in Thynenvelve (its regular venue was in the Tyranaen Palace, whose sizeable garrison had refused to lay down their arms), which was attended by some prominent matrons: Mal'Maern, Zizze, Dolbreza. There were many more matrons from the lesser houses, who had suffered much more under Zinafae's harsh rule. The matrons agreed, after some tense discussions and bout of violence on the side of the plotters' soldiers, to appoint Heiress Tuleine as the new Tyrana.

The plotters' lockdown was initially effective: commanding the large city guards of Mazzenkyr, the political and noble center; Lazzenkyr, the religious center; and Ifenkyr, the economic center, there was essentially no faction that could move against them. However, they were far from having control over the city. The Tyranaen's main assets were its special military units guarding government buildings in Mazzenkyr, which initially stayed put as they did not have any orders; and the large mercenary force of the Crimson Company, garrisoned in the residential Manufenkyr below the main city occupied by the plotters, which was fanatically loyal to the Tyrana. To the plotters' great worry, within the first tenday, they failed to secure most of the additional manpower they'd planned with: the Old Clade refused to announce its support of Tuleine and kept its Church Guard defending its estates; only a few City Watch commanders sided with the plotters, the rest of them and the other District Guard commanders choosing to keep their forces put as they waited to see how things developed. And only one regiment and a few scattered principons of the Reserve Army came: few soldiers dared to break the rule that no armed units could enter the inner citadel without Lolth's approval, while apparently Zinnaneza had ordered her officers to stay put and was trying to communicate with the loyalists to receive and share orders.

Undoing of the Coup

The plotters failed to build up real legitimacy. The church did not support them, and most houses were afraid to announce their support. They had also overestimated the support the population would show them: far from preferring the elite establishment over Zinafae, the majority of drow citizens belonged to alternative movements led by younger individuals, such as Unity and the Aimehzenyr youth. Heiress Tuzzaei and the Thylvunnyr were fashionable and popular; senior military commanders and matron mothers less so. Failing to gain the support of the people or take control of a significant part of the armed forces in and around Zann'Elth, the plotters were in a very vulnerable position. Even the mercantile elite were not interested in the coup, because they were doing good business as far as the surface and the capital's lockdown mostly affected insignificant local guilds and merchants.

When finally word came of Zinafae denouncing the plotters as traitorous putschists and enemies of the nation, and that Tuzzaei was double-timing back to the capital with a force of Thylvunnyr to relieve the loyalists, the plotters knew their coup was over. The officers and nobles who had sworn their support disappeared, trying to hide in the city's many tunnels and hoping their role in the coup would be forgotten. Loyalist units finally understood the situation and rallied together, eventually moving against the few forces that still stood with the plotters; a squad of Imperial Inquisition and Church executors finally followed in after a Crimson Company unit into the Thynenvelve building where the plotters waited for them, resigned to their fate.

Zinafae's response was brutal and sweeping. She doubled down on the martial law in the city, ordering the Inquisition to round up anyone who had participated in the coup or dealt with Tuleine, refusing to spare even matron mothers or clerics and ignoring customs such as requiring holy sanction to move units into the citadel proper, or the inviolability of house property; Zinafae said that traitors did not deserve holy rights of any kind. She was less meticulous in her punishment than she had been during the civil war, however, preferring to get things done quickly and silently; whereas rebels would face years of meticulous humiliation as punishment, now Zinafae ushered them through interrogation by the Inquisition to find other traitors and then straightforward punishment: incarceration in deep dungeons for more prominent individuals, or either exile into the provinces or selling off into slavery on the surface for the rest.

The Tyrana proceeded to engage in a lenghty campaign of repression. Whereas the coup's leaders were captured early, some traitor matrons had fled, and there were many more potential threats to her regime around. She declared a situation of martial emergency which would last four years, during which time the entire empire was locked down under martial law and the Inquisition and military investigators tracked down any traces of troublemakers. The conservative elite was relatively easily dealt with, either arrested or forced back in line; but Zinafae also carefully worked to reduce the power of the Old Clade (sending off most of its militia to the war) and the youth movements which supported Tuzzaei, out of fear of overthrow from these other demographics.