Dealings in Drixagh once again turned into a mess. With the Kaisermark soldiers moving around and seemingly abandoning their positions, the North seemed free, albeit for a while. Just a short while. Immediately upon being affirmed temporarily in his position, the ruler Eirik Valdemarr started mass producing weapons and siege equipment locally. Then, he spent large quantities of cash for food, especially to feed the more remote villages and people up in the north. His crucial mistake however, was announcing that his rule was only temporary, stating that the Barons would be handed back control over their land after the war. When news of this got out, an angry mob surrounded Eirik and beat him to a pulp sending him back to the capital with a broken leg. Also immediately, once again like a domino effect, the tribes revolted one by one and rejected Valdemarr’s temporary rule as just another one of those Northern traitors licking the bootheel of an Imperial oppressor. The rebellion was now back on, worse yet, due to Valdemarr’s drive to produce weapons and siege equipment, they now had more effective weaponry to actually pose a threat to the surrounding lands. The Calemberg Council immediately voted unanimously to raise the Calemberg Standing Banner as more and more tribesmen started moving south, threatening to invade the Ober Calem region for the re-establishment of a greater Northern state extending south. Rejected and back to a Count, Eirik Valdemarr was now non the more powerful, and had lost a considerable sum to boot while arming a rebellion. In Regalia itself, the Kaisermark experienced some problems down the chain of command. The Lieutant General Dietricht Drache issued commands to the soldiers to take up positions to enforce and secure the rule of the Undercrown of Regalia. Furthermore, The Lieutenant-General issued a command to the Kaisermark fleet to take defensive positions around Regalia and to deny any troop movements, even of other Mark Armies entry into the city. Count Nathaniel Bigge immediately rescinded that order saying it wasn’t insubordination on the reason of “I wasn’t directly ordered”, which was legally speaking true, but did cause confusion among the soldiers. He overruled the order and instead sent the ships around to deny troop movements from the Archipelago lands themselves. This resulted in a most peculiar run-in with House Birkwood. House Birkwood sent their troop levies from Anglia onto ships, sailing west with the intention of going to the Farahdeen frontline, but their ships were stopped by the Kaisermark fleet. Seriously outgunned by the Kaisermark battleships, Birkwood’s ships relented and were boarded, where Nathaniel Bigge ordered the full confiscation of all weapons belonging to Birkwood’s troop levies. Having taken all the cannons and weapons from Birkwood’s men, the ships were sent back and the levies were ordered to stand down, while Bigge took the weapons back to Regalia to stockpile in the naval armory. In the Southmark, the Lieutenant General issued wartime drills to issue preparations for the troops to be combat ready. No further orders were issued however. The Commerce minister seemingly sprung into action also, but found some resistance to his movements. His attempts to charter potential new markets for merchandise resulted purely in a potential investment chance in Hadar, the southern most region of the Empire which after the alliance with the Allar was suddenly no longer under economic blockade. Furthermore, he attempted to find technological inventions useful to the Empire, but was rebutted and sabotaged in his attempts to find anything useful by the Imperial Court of Scholars and the Technological Institute ran by the Qadir, claiming the Commerce Minister had no right to impede on their jurisdiction and that they had everything under control. In the government, The Undercrown Charles Montagaard issued a directive to seize wealth from the Drache family to compensate the dispossessed barons with accommodations while they were landless and while no replacement compensation was found for their lost titles. This posed a serious strain on the personal finances of the Drache family, operating all their businesses at a flat loss, though they were able to maintain some semblance of a banking account befitting of a low noble. Furthermore, the Undercrown suspended Law 4 and 1 from the Government Legislation being: All official meetings related to government administration, with intent to either deal in government business or discussions thereof, by Curia Regis and Leges members and leaders must be recorded in documentation, time stamped and with a full transcript of all statements, to be sent to the Hoherichter for legal oversight. The Hoherichter may under no circumstances be criticized, questioned or otherwise diminished in their position by any other person besides the Amtsrichters in private, and the lawful authorities that overrule the position by default, referring to the Holy Seat and the formative head of the Regalian Commonwealth and Empire. With these laws no longer in place, the Hoherichter’s position was degraded back to its previous position of merely a legal oversight to Regalian Law, instead of the all-encompassing quality check it had been on the government. Still, the staged removal of anti-Montagaard government officials started to concern members of the Bureaucracy. There was no clear definition of where these purges would end, and some would express discomfort at the Undercrown reshuffling the Emperor's appointed Ministers, implying that the Undercrown should have consulted with the Emperor over such re-appointments. They remained but small whispers however, as the Emperor seemed woefully disinterested in the shuffling of government members. At the Imperial Palace, movements of the Emperor had caused some moderate concern in and of themselves. Over the past few days the Emperor moved between Farahdeen, the City, to the countryside, back to the city, then to the Black Tower Prison, then back to the Palace and finally back to the countryside before returning to the Palace. Speculations ran high as to what the meaning of this all was, but none were any the wiser. What all did agree upon, was that the Emperor appeared more worn out with each trip, both physically and seemingly mentally as his expression grew more and more defeated. Some strange noises were heard inside the Palace’s Academic wing during the last night’s stay of the Emperor, though the Tenpenny soldiers on the walls knew better than to investigate, as only the Imperial guard were permitted in the inner corridors of the Palace. The next day, the Emperor rode out of the Palace with a long line of 200 new Imperial Guards, recruits that seemed similar, yet different. They had not been taken from the regular population of Imperial Guards, in fact the regular Imperial Guards were all ordered to stay behind in Regalia and were replaced with these new Guards on the front line duty. They did not wear the usual Imperial Armor but a strange Black Steel which lacked all the usual gold decorations save for a single claw-like decoration with a golden eye in it, while the Emperor himself was also slightly off. He had shaved his head bald save for his beard, and that defeated expression that had occupied him days before had made place for an intense and fiery gaze that beamed purpose and power, yet masked a darker complexion overall, an angrier one. The Emperor finally boarded the nearest Nautknight in the harbor and sailed directly for the Ostmark where he took executive command of the soldiers out of Typhonus’s hands, before directing them to land at Shaaq-Turnaal, the closest Pearl city on the Songaskia to the western coast. Upon landing and having the general staff assembled, to which the Lieutenant General was presumably also present, the Emperor stated: “We’re going to breach that city and make an opening statement in this war. Tear down that wall and then exterminate every single man woman and child you find in that city that is not an Ailor. I want the Songaskians to know that surrender is the only option, and if they fail to comply to my demand, they shall face a wrath worse than death itself. You have the reigns back Typhonus. Get it done.” Word of this sentiment would eventually trail back to Regalia through the rumors of soldiers, making many wonder what could have caused the Emperor to take such a hostile and aggressive stance all of a sudden, but many would be preoccupied with the other events inside the Archipelago.
Matthias Heinrich When word reached him of the numerous events that had taken place over the days gone by, Matthias was simply sitting next to the fireplace, burning a letter that was bestowed upon him by his admirer ( @GoldenGamer37 ). He was still dwelling on the past week, many things had happened, the most noteful being the exit of his Aunt to the Yang-Tzu Isles, leaving his cousin ( @TutiDias ) the patriarchy of his family and the title of Count of Lutherstadt. He looked down at the summary of the events that had been written up for him, sighing "I thought dark times had already befallen us... I suppose I was wrong." And then it hit him... This was the chance he had been waiting for, a chance to prove himself. "Eric! Fetch me some parchment and a quill, quickly!" The slizzar butler ( @Ghirko ) rushed back to the man, handing him the supplies that he had requested. Matthias then went on to prepare a letter addressed to his Imperial Holiness. That would hopefully be delivered as soon as possible.
Ella was sitting around when the news hit of what the Bigge's have done. "Johnathan will be so upset- I wonder if he knows. Someone, get me something to write with! And get a messenger to Anglia, please! Thank you!~"
Juliette upon returning home after the discovery of what had happened to Eirik - to be more exact, the man's broken leg - made her way into the sitting room, but didn't sit quite yet. Instead, she tapped her chin with her finger before saying, her eyes directed at the ceiling as if talking to it, "Now Eirik has a broken leg, I wonder if the brute will still have it out for him - probably not, but who am I to assume." She shrugged to the empty air, moving to now sit along with kicking her feet up on the low table in front of her.
As with news of such scale, it eventually made it's way to the ears of Legate Carthas of the Ironwolf Legion. A vast majority of the news seemed to pass over with much disinterest on matters of the State and the Marks abroad. What did instill a sense of great satisfaction was the actions taken by His Imperial Holiness on Shaaq-Turnaal. The heretic smiled to himself, "So, the Grand Revain denied me entry into his Mark due to my combat school. Yet he expects his 'trained' men to fulfill orders such as these from the Crown? He does not require men to fight this war, what they need are monsters." The Legate moves up the spiral stairs to his personal offices of the Legion. "And monsters relish in war."
Tanoro Tanoro now seemingly out at sea, finally gets some time to rest. A shouting crew member would now tell about the news and Tanoro would go and hurry out and go to kick the chair that the man was standing on beneath him. As the man fell he turned around and shouted: "Aren't you all sick and tired of the same Fu--ing news?! We're going to war we already know this. And I for one don't need to be reminded every five seconds." at this the captain would march towards Tanoro with a toothbrush and order him to clean the whole deck with it for his outburst.
Recently demoted back to field commander, Edmure was once again duty bound to fullfill his role in the military. He was assigned in his home turf, the cavalry. He admittedly had missed his old officers, being reunited with them in Ostmark. He spent a good couple nights updating himself on the progressions of their lives. His closest officer had a child in the making with his wife, waiting for him at home. Others had started smaller businesses and were slowly climbing their way to succes, one had even secured himself an aldermannship. That night they drank, they danced, and they dreamt. As the day of the attack approach however, their smiles faded and expressions turned to stone. They knew what had to be done. They prepared to never again feel the touch their loved ones or the embrace of their children, praying that death would overlook their sins to come. But war is a place of death. And where there is death, there will always be death.
The Northerner took slow steps around his cozy Regalian home. His gaze grazed against the wooden planks that held him up, before muttering, “Valdemar. As usual.” His steps became quieter, and quieter. The Northman's face scrunched up, a scowl present. “And he dares to shit on my name.” ✻ ✻ ✻ The Northerner, now sat on a couch, nestled his head with his hand. “Another war?” the brute questioned an invisible audience. “Another war.” He stood up from the couch, making his way upstairs to the balcony that had a good view of the White Tower. While he was accustomed to skirmishes and battles, a little knowledge and experience in war, this was surely going to be one of the bloodiest he's been in. “I've got this, anyways.”
Eirain knew it. Grinning to herself in content. Even despite the seemingly strong moves by the emperor the government seemed just the slightest bit weakened. After all. One crack in a sword may shatter it to its hilt. And in its place could be reforged a stronger blade. She smiled and thought something to herself before writing a letter to her bff Lottie. "Let's meet tommarow at the park. Bring those lemon squares, dear."
After ripping Birkwood banners of the walls on his way to his bedchambers in moutburg, he could be heard if anybody was in the hallway, but nobody was for that manner, yelling about Bigge, to nobody but himself. "my cannons!" He said as he scribbled down new plans to send to local barons. "My motars! I worked long days in the family farm as a boy, everybody told me to stop dreaming about leading an army and to learn how to tend to the crops! Well now that I have an army the same man that framed me for heresy stops my ships and takes my weapons!" he splashes ink across the paper, rips it to shreds and grabs another piece if parchment. The next day Johnathan gathered 100 of his best troops, who were his "body guards" and again set sail for farahdeen on a ship with no weapons, except for the bodyguards' swords. As he stood In his cabin staring at a map of farahdeen, he thought "There is no way Nathanial Bigge-a-s-s can stop me from protecting myself as I go to farahdeen.". Johnathan did not even stop to consider how little damage 100 troops could do. He was overtaken by desire to lead men into battle, after all he dreamed of doing this type of thing as a small boy. "Try and stop me now bigge, try and stop me now."
When Iritu would hear the news the words that would grab him the most were, as he repeated it to himself: "Every person except Ailor will be exterminated.." The Altalar would slam his head onto his desk, causing some of the objects on it to shake. Only to think back to how almost every major bad thing that has happened to him, had something to do with Ailor. From the time he witnessed one of his friends (that was also an Altalar) become burned nearly to ash, because some drunken Ailor threw something inside a bottle at them. To the time he witnessed his guardian's death, by the hands of some Ailor's blade. He would raise his head and say:"Well, I guess I know what Ailor really are. Racist, ignorant, and an actual mystery worth solving. But yet again, we're VERY similar." He would grin to himself before standing up and getting back to his work.
