In the far south, a sudden and unexplained mass-retreat of the Sendrassians occurs in a very abrupt yet organized fashion. From one day to the other, while they were seemingly still patrolling and preparing an invasion of the next islands, the Sendrassian fleets simply packed up their troops and left in a hurry, leaving artillery pieces and defensive structures behind unmanned. Whole islands suddenly became deserted, with Regalian spies and scouts traveling to them to find out what happened, but being dumbfounded when they find nothing to draw conclusions from. Whole stretches of land seemingly deserted in a hurry, no locals found in any of the occupation zones, and logistical supplies simply abandoned. After a full survey, the Hadar Allar cannot find a single Sendrassian ship on any of their islands anymore, with all camps and occupation zones completely deserted. In Regalia, the war is called a great victory as the Sendrassians have seemingly retreated, but the matter is less optimistically treated among the Allar and the southern Ceardian Kingdoms who claim the whole war was botched by the Marshals and that the Allar lost tens of thousands of civilians to bad tactics and terrible coordination. Noise about inaction and ineffectiveness of the central State government starts bouncing from the south, resounded in the west, though absent in the east. The diplomatic corps also reports that many of the fringe states have lost faith in the Regalian Empire being able to actually protect them from incursions. Far from as bad as the season of secession some years back, it has simply caused these states to rely more on their own budgets to afford military expenses, decreasing their state contribution to the Empire in exchange for military protection they deem wholly ineffective. While the state was effectively broke and breaking even with income and expense, with the sudden and domino decrease of tax contributions from particularly the southern fringe states, the Empire’s finances dipped into the minus for the first time since the beginning of the von Drachenburg Chancellorship. Even among the more collected and slow moving states, there is some concern over what they now call “The Lame Fox” Chancellor, who in their purview only won the Election not on his own merits but the spite of nobles towards each other, and who has yet to make a single Imperial decree, which is traditionally seen as a kick-off point from which the states and the nobility can measure the political acumen and policy set by the new State Chancellor. Weeks after being elected, many states are still waiting for the Chancellor’s opening moves, and lacking moves, faith in the central government is currently weak among the Suzerain states of the Empire. Lee Ming Qie visited the sihai lands and picked up Xian'ghua-fem's brother. (Geo politics orders are not meant for family leisure trips, they are designed for foreign politics and state interactions.) Ayas Selfina and friends travel to Dorkarth with money scammed out of House Keen to the great coastal city of Zaltar. Just as they do, overhead, the Dread Fort of Demetrius arrives carrying Mirabella and friends on a similar mission to treat with the Dorkarthi Princes. Both groups investigate the local landscape, discovering that Dorkarth is covered in a complex network of noble Vampiric Families and lesser plugging crews that manage lands that strike a strong resemblance with a feudal system, with plenty of non-Vampires living in the lands, but being acutely aware of their Vampiric overlords, and being controlled for the sake of good blood cattle supply. Ayas Yelfina’s group eventually makes contact with the Manth family that represents the local governance, using a supply of blood wines to gain favor to offer their services to find the other Dreadforts, just as Mirabella’s group also arrives to ask what the Dorkarthi need from the Regalian Vampires. The Dorkarthi Vampires presume comedy from the situation, making idle commentary that sewer-snugging Vampires have nothing to offer the great state of Dorkarth, and that the Desprinces here are too good and powerful to be meeting with low-level scum in their eyes. Essentially, the Dorkarth Vampires end up acting snooty and indignant with the visitors because unlike them, they have to hide away from the government back in Regalia to survive. While the groups both gain information on the make-up of the Dorkarthi State, it turns out that since the Vampiric Wars and the years of recovery, their state has become much more complex, and they seemed uninterested in dealing with Vampires that they consider beneath them, believing they had nothing to offer, as to these Vampires, infamy means everything, and the visitors had no infamy to bring to the table. Erethysia Massëlda visits Loresse to inquire about their parents and friends. While they have an easier time traveling to the Allorn Empire than other groups do, they equally get stumped on finding information. Their parents turn out fine, as do most of their friends, but their parents warn them of the so called “Blue Moon Society”, a Black Order equivalent in the Allorn Empire that is tightly watching and listening in on dissenters across the Empire. Erethysia’s mother warns them not to ask too many questions, because the “Blue Moon has magical eyes and ears”, and any attempt to dig deeper on account of Erethysia results in silence from their friends and family out of fear of overstepping the control of the Blue Moon Society. Essentially left with little to no information besides this fact, Erethysia leaves again. Klaus von Falkenreich meanwhile uses the Ceroscope of Cadar to scout out the Daendroquin coastal states. Taking considerable time to scout as many states as possible however, Klaus is unable to find any supposed armies. Daenshore looked imminently mobilized, with soldiers camped in vast military encampments outside of the cities, but no Allorn armies were anywhere in sight near the coastlines, and there appeared to be no actual military movements for a wide area on the Ailor state borders, besides the Asha fleets patrolling the coastlines. Gwyneth Zylmoira and friends travel on von Duerr’s expense to Ellador to make contact with the Isldar Rebels fighting against the control of the Shiva’s Cavern Elders. After giving out the necessary medical supplies and food supplies, Gwyneth inquires as to the status of the Civil war. The locals reply that the situation has become far more complicated, that Asaph has returned, but actually taken pity/sides with the Rebels, while the Shiva’s Cavern Elders have made contact with a set of Black and Brown Dragons that seem to have taken up Asaph’s position and supported them against the Rebels. Needless to say with Dragons on both sides, the civil war seemed to not go in any particular direction, but they also say that the actual amount of fights between them have been decreasing, as the boundaries of Rebel holds and Loyalist holds seemed to be consolidating into a clear border as opposed to a chaotic insurrection. Talisin Oruisin traveled to Solmarse with friends, arriving at Öma-Sul. Attempting to break into the interior of the Allorn Empire fails however. While the dockworkers originally believe the “merchant” cover story, one of the border officials becomes suspicious of the fact that Ingemar is not clad in chains like a Slave would be, as Url stand out like a sore thumb in the middle of a group of Altalar, Avanthar, and Cielothar. With the border official suspicious, but not yet outright hostile, the group is declined entry on suspicion of being spies, and the group is forced to offload their carried merchant supplies at a bottom price so that “other Allorn Merchants can carry the goods further on the next leg of the trip”. They make it obvious that the Allorn Empire has seemingly closed the borders to foreign merchandise, and only accept goods for sale on the coast and borders, for their own merchants to carry the goods further along the way. Violante de Azcoissia travels to Daenshore to speak with the Governor Sebastian Savdelo about the state of Daenshore. As being married to the Finance Minister of the Regalian Empire and with her own powerful Daendroquin Duchy in her own right, Violante is given priority meeting with the Governor, and fast-tracked through the diplomatic corps. With a warm welcome, Violante inquires about the needs of the Daendroquins, who are all too quick and eager to say they need the Finance Minister to release more funds for local defensive construction, stating the bastion walls of Daenshore and Hallonq have been mothballed for too long, and are too weak to resist sustained artillery fire that they expect from the Altalar, should they attack. After finishing their pleasantries, Violante travels to the noblewoman Madeleine de Santovesi, who tells a radically different story. She is of the opinion that the governor of Daenshore along with various other Viscounts is involved in a conspiracy to remove republican institutions across the Daenshore shelf. She claims that the governor has no actual credible evidence to support the idea that Daenshore is about to be invaded, and that he is using the pretext of an invasion to declare martial law, disband the civil watch government, and essentially establish a dictatorial control backed by the militia of the city. Similar things are happening in other Daendroque cities where leaders and criminal organizations are using the fears of an invasion to graft more power onto themselves, and that any money that is sent to them will likely disappear into a black hole of corrupt officials and gambling dens. With news, Violante returns to Regalia.
