Aloria Story Progression End Of The Second Songaskian War And Imperial Announcements

It started with a distant cracking, growing louder and louder as the sound carried across the ever-shifting sands of Farah’deen, only to reach the ears of Pip and Rodger, Tenpenny tentmates in the Third Ostmark Regiment.

“Oi, Pip. Wake up, you lout.”
“You can’t fool me again, Rodg. T’aint dawn, yet ”
“I know. Shh.”​

Pop. Pop. Pop.
Pip oozed out of his sleeping bag and slowly rose to his feet, while Rodger poked his head out of the tent. Other soldiers were doing the same, expecting some sort of attack. Instead, they were met with the sight of the night watchmen and scribes alike peering over the battlements of the town, Rodger began sliding on his gamberson, while Pip merely settled for grabbing his iron helmet and sword. The two made their way outside and up to the walls to see what the commotion was about.

As the sun rose above the horizon, so too did the distant images of towns burning, as war-cries echoed across the sands. Songaskians all across Farah’deen had risen up against the rule of Kusamanu Massya Songel, the usurper Massya. Several loyalist factions grew in popularity, and while at one point in time, the Songaskians felt that they could overpower Regalia with a strong leader such as Kusamanu, they now realized the eventual truth: That the true Massya, Musamansa Massya Song, was right in trying to appease Regalia with relative peace.

Almost overnight, the entire Masaya descended into a full-blown civil war. Even small fights broke out in the streets of Regalian-occupied towns, though they were quickly stamped out. It seemed that as the Songaskians turned their attention inwards, they completely ignored the Regalian invaders, as mutineers became desperate to remove the usurper from power and restore peace. Later that day, Emperor Cedromar came forward with an announcement: A formal end to the Songaskian War, in no due part to the resoundingly successful performance of the Lieutenant-Generals.

“Chin up, Pip. You might see your mum after all.”
Pip returned a smile to Rodger. “I fancy I might get to see yours, too.”​

This was not all, however. The Songaskian Massya, after being estranged away from his home for so long, returned to Farah’deen to begin a campaign of reclamation, spearheaded from Regalian-occupied territory. Upon his return to his homeland, Musamansa Massya Song was greeted by none other than Emperor Cedromar.

“There is no gift under the sun that I can give to repay you, Emperor Cedromar,” the boy said with a bow.
“There is, but that is a conversation for another day.” Cedric replied.
​

With that, the Emperor returned to Regalia almost as immediately as the Massya arrived, leaving the Inspector Admirals and Lieutenants a final missive: While Regalian forces are free to expand, they must protect the civilian population at every cost. .

On Vampires...
Upon returning to Regalia, the Emperor made short work to announce his next plan. While supporting the further escalation of the industrial military complex, the Emperor also announced his intentions to change public perception of Vampires. Upon consultation with his court confessors and personal contemplation, the Cedromar came to the conclusion that Vampires, while vilified for their curse and lot in life, are not as irredeemable as originally thought.

“Demonic forces unleashed Vampirism unto Aloria as a weapon against mankind; to split and divide Humanity. To give into this division is weakness on the part of Humanity.” He further iterated that, “All forms of Vampiric prosecution have been legal and righteous in the past, but perhaps it is more beneficial to redirect the attention of Vampires towards the enemies of Humanity.” ​

Many citizens misinterpreted his words to believe that Cedric meant to call for Vampires to be used as weapons in hunting for other Vampires. The Emperor then continued, stating:

“Simply purging Vampires had been a weak solution made by weak men who sought no further to find a better solution. With the support of the Qadir and Allar within the Crown Alliance, Humankind has grown much stronger than it had been in the past. We are now more capable to than ever to deal with the Vampiric Curse, and as such, I am announcing the ‘New Sanguine Law’”
​

This law, when closer examined, didn’t actually do all that much in terms of granting greater protection and freedom, but certainly made some headway in setting the stage.

“The smaller inner district of Hoogblicken, an area that had long been abandoned due to the agglomeration of the city, will become what will be colloquially called ‘Vampire Town.’”
​

This small district was once home to an asylum for mentally ill, but following the Scholar Court’s conclusion that mind sickness was incurable, the area was abandoned. The location seemed perfect; a few residential buildings remained and the district was tightly packed with high walls adorned with battle towers and strong gates. Inside this district, Umredd Vampires would be able to live legally, Emperor still decreed:

“The deceptive traitor Ombratore will remain heretics, and the savage Tresmisae should continue to be hunted to extinction.”​

Within this district, various medical buildings were also still in a somewhat operable state, giving any would be alchemist or doctor the perfect facilities to commence research into the psyche and state of Vampirism. After all, the Emperor also clarified that the ultimate goal of this move was to find a more suitable and effective curing method to forcibly cleanse Vampirism without actually killing them all. The New Sanguine Law further stated that some exceptions of Umredd Vampires could even have the ambition to become part of a night-time war group, but the exact specifications were left unclear in the wake of the Regalian Government resolving that matter without the Emperor’s personal involvement.

On Nobility...
The Emperor furthermore commented on the Nobility, their rights, and the titled peerage. He held a long speech in which he laid out of his plans to announce the “New Standard Nobility,” to do away with the old Feudal systems that had been part of the Empire’s aristocracy for nearly 300 years. While he urged the Nobility to keep in mind that he was not going to alter the status of noble blood, he did expressly mention that he intended to strip all titles and re-divide them “Based on the necessity of political power, not on whose loins someone had sprang from. The Emperor clarified that the Empire and Humanity was moving to the ideals where both state and people should “shed excess weight and baggage that does not speed up the arrival of Paradise.” He explained that the titles would follow much of the old peerage rankings, but would be granted based on the actual projection of power of an individual as opposed to what they were born with, and may not entirely be able to exercise. He professed ill will over weak-minded nobles who commanded thousands of idle soldiers, and irritation over strong men hampered by the lack of resources by which to fully utilize their worth to the Great Way of Humanity. As such, his aim was to increase the leadership efficiency of the Empire by ensuring that only those who have power to project could gain their hands on noble titles to further the goals of the Empire, yet he still respected the blue blood status of the Nobility as a whole. The Nobility could rest assured that the divide between them and the common people would remain, as Aristocracy was one of the cornerstones of the Empire.

The Emperor didn’t wish to clarify his full intent to what titles would be given to who yet, so most of the Nobility was left pondering their fate for at least a little while longer. Furthermore, the Emperor made some announcements effective to his own personal circles that required a bit of context to fully understand. He firstly reiterated the need for suitable consorts, citing the desire of the Imperial Spirit to have more suitable hosts for succession. He stated this distinctly in the direction of Amelina Peirgarten who should have ideally started searching for viable candidates weeks ago, or at least reported her lack of finding suitable candidates. His further statements were a bit more cryptic however, without an Imperial history book to clarify the perspective. The Emperor in as little words as possible granted the title of Consort Sur-Sable to his husband Percival Kade, while also restoring his family title of Ravenstad to him. This seemed like a trivial matter to outsiders, but when applying the context of Imperial polygamy (Emperors frequently engaged in it) this title was often granted to consorts which were no longer considered the prime consort. With this appointment and name-return, the Emperor essentially marked himself as a bachelor, thus allowing Amelina Peirgarten to also recruit members of the male gender to the Inner Court.

The court responded with a very mixed bag of emotions to all these changes. Some of the older families cried outrage, while other more ambitious families finally saw some movement in the deadlock they had been in for many decades. Similarly, the removal of House Ravenstad as a court favorite and the Emperor essentially being broadly open to courtship caused a bit of a speculation race on what this all could mean for the composition of the inner court, and whether any of the notable houses would try to seize the position once held by House Ravenstad. Overall, the good balanced the bad, but the court could all agree on one thing: this was probably one of the most politically active Emperors in the history of the Empire who seemed more than dead set to change the entire Empire from the bottom to the top.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, the Emperor made one final appeal particularly to the nobility on the subject matter of the Undercrown. The Emperor had always been fairly quiet whenever there was any issues between the Nobility and the Undercrown, but he chose to make a specific statement, particularly in light of Norrvakt’s recent movements. He specifically announced first that Norrvakt had told him “If you don’t deal with the Emperor, I will”. The Emperor went on to say that such insubordination had led to Einarr Norrvakt becoming an Imperial Guard, tied to repent in a life of servitude for his doubt of the Emperor’s law and words. The Emperor stated that the Undercrown had been appointed by him, and that he would reject any attempts to overthrow the Undercrown by force, that the Undercrown would speak and act in his name and in the name of the Crown in his absence while he would direct his efforts to the military of the Regalian Empire. He stated he would only consider even remotely replacing the Undercrown if an equally or greater competent man could be found among the peerage, and very strictly stated that he felt none had presented themselves to be suitable in between now and the time when the Undercrown was first appointed. He further iterated the need for the Nobility to work with the Undercrown instead of against him. They could resist the Undercrown’s directives in the framework of whatever they were legally permitted to ignore, but he said very strictly that any Nobility using their own vendetta with the Undercrown to double cross or sabotage the Emperor’s personal plans and commands for the Undercrown to get back at the Undercrown would lead to “Einarr Norrvakt-esque solutions to problematic people.”

While not expressly stating that the Emperor was in favor of the current Undercrown, it went a long way to indicate that the Emperor felt replacing him at this point was out of the question, and that anyone seeking to obstruct the Emperor’s plans just to get back at the Undercrown for perceived slights would feel the short Emperor’s great wrath. How the nobility would respond to these sentiments, and indeed advancements in terms of the development of the realm, only time could tell.

• This post was written by both MonMarty and Shayin