Catastrophe.
As the Sultan sat on his throne drinking his tea and admiring the beauty of his twenty-one wives (who are actually rather old and thus not all that beautiful) he suddenly experienced a strange fit of coughing. Upon inspection, he discovered to his horror that flecks of blood could be found among the spittle he produced. With a cry of horror, he fainted, spilling his tea on the rich, tremendously expensive Arabian rugs, and falling upon the floor. Presently, a doctor came to help him to his bed and see to this mysterious illness.
Thirty-six hours later, the Sultan died, in his sleep and with the culprit still unidentified. Rumors spread that it may have been the Plague.
Forty hours after the Sultan first took to bed, his nephew, Aaima Faateh Nabeel, is approached by a group of Royal Guards, Duneshifters, and Generals who gift him the golden saber of his uncle (washed more thoroughly than any sword before it ever has been) and swear him in as the new Sultan of Qarir.
With the change of regime shaking the foundations of its society, a paranoid general named General Jin Al-Hazari, a man who was strongly suspicious of Giorgi-Muscovy relations from the very start, decides to act. He orders his men to accompany him on a suicide mission into the heart of Muscovite territory as a sort of terrorist attack, a mission which he does not reveal to anyone other than his men. Some agree, others don't. Those that don't agree with Hazari tell the new Sultan of this madness, and he is furious. However, before drastic measures can be taken, a large portion of the Qariri Fleet's ships are stolen as well as some siege equipment and Hazari and his rebel band head North. Sultan Nabeel has no time to arrange a force to pursue him, but he does send a messenger atop his swiftest horse North to warn Muscovy and inform them that Nabeel's own forces will soon give chase. He highly doubts the messenger will arrive in time, though. Several hours later, he assembles a sizable force of nigh ten thousand men (Hazari has about fifteen thousand) and sends them North to give chase. All of the Duneshifters, Elite Halberdiers, and Royal Guards remain loyal to the Sultan.