Editing No Sharper Spur (section)

===The Civil War===
*The Hill Princes rebelled because they used to have a lot more power, basically. The nobility used to run things, but the Imperial government had been chipping at them for a long time, and eventually the last empress took them out entirely. Lots of nobles still had power, but they had to be appointed or actually run for election (gasp!) to participate in the government. The princes up in the hills took that the most personally, in part because they were the most insulated from earlier changes and in part because (truly) the Authority hasn't been great at respecting the needs and unique challenges of the mountain communities. Also commercial spike drives gave them the ability to bail if things went south (things did go south and they did bail, hence the rebel pirates).

*So, from one angle, the civil war was nobles vs democracy. From another angle, it was a struggle for dominance between the heavily industrialized mountain regions and the advanced and prosperous domed cities off the coast. And while the rebels were obviously messing with maltech and killed Cortez' dad in cold blood, it's also the case that the Authority used orbital bombardment and nuclear warheads on civilian targets. Like, dozens of them.

*That the government was overtaxed and vulnerable was just the spark, really. The tensions had been there for decades.