After the technician was successfully escorted to the Stronghold at Prestige Park, a trickle of news started being sent from the Imperial Palace, which had its own connection to the fleets beyond the city. Regarding the City: The Regalian fleet had held up the blockade, so no Vampires could leave the island, and no malicious elements could enter the island save for those who did not need to use the mundane physical means to travel. Demetrius had prevented any soldiers from landing on the island, as even though the many ships were positioned, it had already sunk two Nautknights and presumably killed many sailors and soldiers onboard, and the Regalian navy decided not to order an all-out assault with the risk of sinking half the fleet. Airships had been considered, but were eventually declined on the notion that they neither had the speed nor armaments to take on Demetrius, which could down a single airship with a single shot to the balloon. Nothing much else was known. Regarding the North: Two more Dreadforts had appeared, the Dreadfort Megazara and Minerva, controlled by the Desprincesses Valzaam and Vantessem, descending on the Isldar and the Kade armies who were fighting in the Isldar civil war alike. There was no implication that these Dreadforts had anything to do with Demetrius, as the Lich Lord was acting on his own, and Desprinces had a habit of not co-operating with outsiders, however it was peculiar that two Dreadforts had teamed up to attack both the Isldar on either side of the civil war and the Kade armies who were aiding the rebels. The Kade Army reported heavy casualties with the advance of Vampiric Armies in the north, and had to resort to Urlifying vast portions of their army to give them a resistance to infection from Vampirism. The Emperor expressed his displeasure at this many of his feudal soldiers being turned Url, but was powerless to affect the war far away while Regalia was occupied. Regarding the West: Against all odds, the Allorn Empire had not abused the situation the Regalian Empire was in, and held firm with the non-aggression pact that was made with the Ailor. Altalar armies still stood at the borderlands of Daenshore, but had not moved, and showed no signs of mobilizing to move anytime soon. The Allorn Empire was quiet, the border war with the Suvial Altalar and the Dread Empire continued with neither side making any progress due to all possessing some form of magical super weapon and essentially devolving into a cold war of staring over oceans and high walls. Ithania had seemingly defeated the strange demonic invasion that had occured in Havensreach, but more questions arose than answers were given. The Dragon disappeared at around the same time the black Dragon appeared in Regalia, and the Armee de Chevaux de l'Air charged from the clouds down to the city on their winged horses, purging the street. The army reported that none of the locals had been killed, many had actually been encased in obsidian-like structures and seemingly put to sleep, while others had fallen to some sort of corruption. The army was able to clear out the infestation, but it reported many of those who had been corrupted fled into the countryside and into the caves under the city, where the army chose to simply block off the tunnels to prevent them access to the surface. Regarding the South: The Allorn Empire had launched an invasion of Sendras, with mixed results, though information was scant as the Allorn had a very tight counter-espionage ring serving their army. Supposedly, the initial landing of the Allorn was a complete disorganized mess, and they faced several Dragons which took considerable firepower from their Soul-Cannons to disperse, but that had seemingly been able to send a few Dragons fleeing. Further incursions into the inland turned to cost them heavy casualties, while immense forces of slave labor were used to cut down trees and set up infrastructure through the dense jungle. Regarding the East: All is quiet in the east, though rumors of a coup against the Massya of Farah'deen grew ever louder, and the Regalian intelligence services presume that a coup is not far off, if the signals are to be believed. Other News: Explorers who tried to test the Southern Expansion theory several years back returned to the fringes of the Regalian Empire, surprised that the Zenithian Forts had been abandoned, and that they could not find any advance fleets. Naturally, the Empire had changed much since before Cedromar even became Emperor, and the explorers had trouble adjusting to all the news they had to be caught up with. When all was said and done, the following was told by them: They encountered a landmass they named Justinia, but could seemingly not get close to. They reported the landmass looked lush, green and fertile, but ominous rose-quartz statues of Dragons stood all along the coastline, and they could vaguely make out armed patrols of humanoid figures in heavy sets of armor stalking their exploratory excursions. They eventually chose not to approach, as these figures seemed very hostile and intent on fighting as soon as they made a landing. They encountered a landmass they named Valadia, though quickly found that it already had people living on it, Ailor in fact, who had already named this landmass Sunnan. The explorers reported that the locals resembled: "Velheim people, as if they had never met an animal clad in wool, and instead decided to decimate the local lizard population for their clothing. They appeared as if completely shaven, though some had replaced their natural hairline with tattoos, and some even shaved off their eyebrows, their face adorned with tattoos that reminisced more of Kathar than the usual Velheim contours. They spoke an ancient dialect of Proto Velheim which was difficult to translate, if not for the luck that the expedition had a Velheim onboard who could piece together some of their language by combining Tunge, Skodje, and Zenithian dialects. Their existence seemed far more tribal and violent than even the habits of the White Skaggers of Nordskag, or the most rural tribes of the Drixaghers. They were in the middle of a multi-clan war, which the Regalian explorers chose not to get into, though witnessed from a distance with their spyglasses and local emissaries, watching these people wade through waist-high swamp waters with spears, adorned with green feathers and face in war paint. Their faith seemed similar to that of the Old Gods, however they worshiped two additional Gods, those of the Union of Humans, the Flesh god Bod, and the Metal god Malmrid. They seemed interested in meeting some of their distant Velheim cousins" Since the clans were still in an ongoing war however, the Explorers chose to move on and explore other islands. Smaller populations and other strange races were found in other islands, a people called the Sorvaar were found on a small island, lizard-like humanoids who also had canine and even feline features, and a dimuitive pygmee bird race called the Fuvrattaam, who unfortunately all died as the Regalians accidently unleashed a disease among them through close contact that they had no resistance to, and within months the entire population died out despite the Regalians's best efforts to ease their suffering. More news was yet to be released, but the travelers would wait until Regalia was retaken, before announcing all their findings to the public.
