[h1]10. Rebellion[/h1]

Not everyone is happy with the rule of the Emperor. Some misguided citizens, lead by disloyal noble houses can start a rebellion. This is a constant threat represented by rebel points. When a certain threshold of rebel points is reached a rebellion will start. While rebellion in itself will not endanger you directly, it needs to be crushed swiftly since a prolonged rebellion will cause Stability drop and eventual collapse of the Empire from within.


[b]Rebels preparation[/b]
Rebel points are generated each turn caused by numerous factors. Major of those factors is loyalty of imperial officials, especially high rank ones, noble houses relations and political agendas, planets rebel support. There are also audience events which can add/remove one time rebel points.


[b]How to prevent a rebellion[/b]
It might be tricky but doable, depending on the game mode, extra rules selected and the difficulty level. The key factors are promoting high loyalty courtiers to positions of power, appointing a competent Internal Affairs minister and not letting noble houses relations escalate to hostile. Keeping a happy population and decent network of broadcast towers to fight of rebel propaganda could work as well.


[b]What happens when rebellion starts[/b]
First, noble houses decide sides. While it's theoretically possible all houses would stay loyal, it's very unlikely. Typically at least one house would try to grab the opportunity and attempt to usurp the throne, such house is the leader of the rebellion. Other houses might join rebellion as well. Next, all imperial officials make a treachery test, which is affected by loyalty and if the house they support decided to stay loyal or join rebels. Officials who decide to rebel get a Traitor role. Traitors are quite dangerous to the Empire, especially if they are ministers and even more dangerous if they happen to hold power ministry (War or Internal Affairs). Note that getting rid of officials during rebellion is much more difficult and expensive than under normal circumstances, so sometimes you might even decide to keep them in their position and deal after rebellion.

The overall support of the rebellion, along with difficulty level, determines the starting rebels power. Your goal is to drive this number to 0, when it happens rebellion is crushed. If it takes too long Stability penalty will be applied over time which would lead to collapse of the Empire from within.

Each turn rebels power will be decreased by imperial SpecOps value (so it's recommended to improve it by passing appropriate laws and researching counter rebel technologies in preparation to the rebellion). In addition, each audience you will be presented with various options which let you accelerate reduction of rebel power.

The Empire will still run as one organism during rebellion. Some planets will join rebels, which would affect the efficiency of the industry and taxes, but overall all planets are still considered imperial planets and are defended by the imperial military from external threats. Military will invoke paragraph 33 of the Great Imperial Charter, since the founders of the Empire prepared for such situation, and will declare they stay neutral and focus on protecting the Empire from aliens, regardless of who rules it at the moment. That being said, having loyalist Admirals on your side can greatly affect the rebellion. In theory, conquest can still progress as usual, but considering the hefty penalty to ships manufacturing (both rebels and loyalists will try to use as much forces as possible for the civil war), it would be unfeasible in practice.


[b]How to crush rebellion[/b]
To crush the rebels you need to reduce the rebels power to 0. All other considerations, like who control which planet, is of importance to overall well being of the Empire only and will not directly affect the rebellion outcome. Terra is guaranteed to stay loyal till the last moment, so in theory, one could crush the rebellion even if all other planets joined rebels.

The determining factor is time and Stability. Overall, the rebel power will fall each turn due to SpecOps and thanks to audience events. So, given enough time you are guaranteed to crush them. But the question is how long it will take and if you have enough Stability to survive this. After a few audiences Stability will start to fall due to prolonged rebellion. So, your option is to either end it quickly or to have enough Stability to survive the long rebellion.

How well you can do against rebels is greatly determined by preparations you made before the rebellion. Like SpecOps modifier which can be gained from laws and technologies). Also the starting situation, how many officials and houses decided to join rebels, will greatly affect it.

During rebellion your main tool is audience events, where you will be selecting appropriate actions against rebel forces.


[b]What happens when rebellion is crushed[/b]
When the rebellion ends, all rebel noble houses will be summoned to the audience where you can decide their fate. Similarly, a tribunal to judge all traitors will gather. All traitors will be summoned to an audience where you can decide who will be spared and who not.

After the rebellion is crushed, all future rebellions will have a harder time. From now on the threshold of rebel points to start a rebellion will be greatly increased.