The Kraanicher kings of Vegas reigned in relative security and stability until King Julian II abdicated the throne in Fyrmont (Colors, in the modern calendar) of LY 1596, 238 years from the founding of Katraal. Julian had six heirs, but made no arrangements for succession. As a result of the Fyrmont Abdication, the kingdom was embroiled in a contest for the throne that lasted four years. King Julian's son, Harold, assumed the throne over the bodies of two of his brothers. The excesses of the nobility had driven most of them into debt. These debts were held by the increasingly powerful bankers, later to become the Lord Guilders of Smeisserand. Five years into the reign of King Harold, the monarchy was overthrown by the bloodless Bankers’ Revolution. Elizabeth Cato was elected the first Premier of Vegas in 248vS (LY 1606).

Vegas in this period was a conservative country extending its reach to its colonies and allies across the sea and on the continent. The territory of Vegas extended over most of the lands of present-day Smeisserand and Kyriabor. Its military complex was efficient, but more given to pomp and parade than to battle, since the kzinti had been fighting at home for the past thirty years. Magical study was rare, and the province of the landed and merchant middle classes, for whom education was easily attainable and of high quality. Indeed, there was a suspicion of any magic that didn’t come from either the druidic priesthood of the Earth Mother, which was the state religion, or from the politically reliable Katraal Theosophical Society. At the time, psionics were publicly unknown, although a secret and widespread lever of power among the Kraanichers. Knowledge of the existence of psionics and psionic powers was supressed by the Kraanicher gentry and nobility.

The two primary factions in the civil war were the Supers, the conservative ruling party in the Congress, and the Kykes, an upstart party of progressive nature. From about 372vS (LY 1730) the Super majority attempted to form a foreign trade union with the colonies and other foreign powers. Their policy granted many concessions, aid, and support to these overseas governments, and supported them with high taxation at home. In 375vS, these policies sparked demonstrations from a groundswell movement of the lower middle classes, sympathetic to the Kykes and demanding wider access to the privileges of the wealthy.

Premier Garth Algosonn ordered the demonstrations ceased and imposed martial law as the Plenary Act was passed by the Super majority in the Congress. The Plenary Act granted special tax relief to trade and craft houses that cooperated with the trade union and placed the tax burden on un- and semi-skilled tradesmen, while reducing support for education for those less able to pay for it (i.e., those people hit with the tax).

In reaction to the Plenary Act, a slap in the face of the Kykes, the lower and lower middle classes revolted, with help from sympathizers sprinkled throughout the social strata, and were violently put down by the military. The factions became armed camps, each advocating the overthrow of the other. They concentrated where they were politically strongest, the Supers in the capital and along the west coast and the Kykes throughout the farmland of the interior and the rocky north. Several areas seceded directly, and the Super government was unable to prevent the fracturing of the nation.

The foreign trade union collapsed as the kzinti attacked the member nations and colonies. Within the year, each of the former human nations had been destroyed and enslaved by the kzin armies. At home, the battles between Supers and Kykes were too inconclusive, and the kzin threat too dangerous, to allow the luxury of the factions "knife-fighting" each other to death in military conflict. The factions withdrew to their own lands and consolidated their power under a de facto cease fire and attended to their own affairs and defense.

Several years later, the Super government of Vegas attempted to overthrow, by subversion and military adventure, the Kyke government of what was then called the Republic of Free Vegas, but failed miserably. The Kyke military had concentrated on techniques borrowed from the Elven Isles and had become fierce and capable wilderness warriors with very flexible lines of supply. The defeat was the last straw for the citizens of Vegas, and they ousted the Premier and most of the Congress in special elections. As a result of the attempted coup, the Republic of Free Vegas resolved to further distance itself from Vegas and took the name of its great prairie, Kyriabor, as its new name.

Twenty years passed before Vegas reopened official contact with Kyriabor, and it took many more years before relations were normalized. The government of Vegas was overthrown again in (663vS /LY 2022), and changed into a monarchy. The land was renamed "The Grand Dominion of Smeisserand." Until the War of Falling Stars and the dissolution of both nations in LY 2143, the two countries were wary trade partners and rivals in different ways—Kyriabor concentrated on education, art and magic while Smeisserand continued to develop international trade and a strong standing army. The Kingdom of Lebensbrüke adopted many traditions from both countries, but with a distinct Landish cultural flavor.