Aloria Story Progression Falling Statues And Rising Kings

Virathus Krupp commences his legacy plans with a diplomatic attempt to woo the Queen of Lusits, to make up for lost diplomatic contacts after the previous encounter. Much to the delight of the central government, Krupp’s less than conventional approach to dealing with the Queen of Lusits appears to be very effective, resulting in her positive enamorment of his person. His behavior is described as:

“Speaking with her, he would act erratic fashion to mirror her own sensational style; nearly weeping and pleading with her in apology for the Typhonus woman the Empire had mistakenly sent, confident and self assured when speaking about the new government, bombastic and happy when speaking about the war, and humbled - almost shy, when speaking about the Queen herself, or her possible contributions. He would note her as almost too beautiful to look in the eye, and avert his gaze dramatically unless she bid otherwise.”

Ragnhild Ulfurtonn’s attempts to contact the Dwarves however, fall on deaf ears. She is unable to reach either Dwarven hold, one under siege by Isldar who refuse her entry, and another who simply refuses to speak to her on account of Regalia not assisting the Dwarves in their plight against the Isldar. Defeated, she returns home.

When Krupp’s diplomatic actions resolved themselves, he commanded his fleet and army to Teled Methen, Rië Riviella to be precise, with the intent to invade the Elven lands. No official or formal declaration of war had been made by the Regalian Empire against the various Elven Kingdoms, but with Regalian troops landing on Elven shores, any such official declaration would prove unnecessary. Virathius’s massive army, supported by Kolton Typhonus’ much smaller force, landed on the north-east coastline, close to the capital of Rië, but far enough to avoid direct confrontation with the fortifications. Krupp sent out various lesser commanders to do his bidding in the field.

Hengest Harhold was sent into the countryside, pillaging and destroying and looting wherever he went. Elven homesteads were attacked and decimated, the local wildlife slaughtered, crops trampled and centuries old buildings set ablaze. The invasion was not unexpected, though the violence in it was. The Elven commanders and rulers did not react as chaotically and unprepared as the Regalian commanders would have expected. Rather, they fortified themselves behind the massive bastion walls of the Elven citadels, cities whose walls had only ever been breached during the Orc-Elven war. Massive streams of refugees fled from the countryside to the major cities, while Elves countered the Regalian war rhetoric with the rhetoric and virtue of survival of the Elven race. To them, it was do or die to preserve the legacy of the Elven Empire whose resurgence had yet to come.

Gustavus Bangsius Ostrokrupp was less fortunate than the successful Harhold raids. His Skagger attempts to wage guerrilla warfare from the forests of Rië proved to be a fatal mistake; these forests were filled with Elven rangers who had mapped every tree, turn and twist for centuries. Unexpectedly, Ostrokrupp’s force found itself hailed with arrows and other vile magics from the treetops, far outside of their range. None of the Regalian artillery or skirmish capabilities had any effects in these densely grown forests, through which the Regalian troops turned to a complete route. Ostrokrupp’s force lost nearly 1800 men of the original 7500 before returning to the fortified base camp, having failed their objective to start a harassment campaign against the Elves.

News of the invasion in Rië spread quickly, resulting in Precaëlle sending its own armies north, albeit delayed. The delay offered enough time for Virgil Buhr and the Unionist fanatics to start their campaign of terror on those who hadn’t already fled to the major cities. They went from town to town, rounding up the survivors and inflicting horrors of torture and death on them, justifixes, nailed to vertical wooden beams they stood as ravens and rats tore at their flesh. They brought pestilence wherever they went, and worst of all in the holy temple site of Käell Temple, an ancient thousands years old temple to the Nelfin deity of Pride. Even though the temple’s original purpose had been abandoned centuries ago, the temple was still used as a house of Estel worship by Cielothar, Altalar and Yanar alike. When Buhr’s zealots arrived, they first descended on the priests, who were burned alive, quartered and beheaded. The Yanar were rounded up in pens and set ablaze in large numbers, while the Cielothar pilgrims were used as target practice for the Regalian archers. Finally, the great statue of Kathyar, the vice demon of Pride, golden and bejeweled, was torn down and smashed, the remains brought back to Regalia as war bounty. This thousands years old temple was desecrated and violated in ways that the Elves had not even considered possible, as Regalia had always silently ignored the Elven temples during the Ranger Crisis.

The savage destruction of the temple of Käell did not go unnoticed in the Ullaren Wastes or even the South Wolden forests. The Wolathar in particular were outraged at the destruction of a temple of their most important deity, while the Avanthar were particularly enraged by the senseless eradication of Cielothar and Yanar in the temple. While the Wild Union and the Shadow Pact had not formally engaged in any hostilities against the Regalian Empire, both now formally declared war on the Crown Alliance, the Regalian Empire and all its allies. The Wild Union did not formally engage in any hostilities yet, this was to be expected, after all their lands were vast and their armies preoccupied with the Saivalthar who were a member of the Shadow Pact. The Wolathar and Shendar however, immediately launched an invasion of the L’Elvellen Principality and the southwestern border of Lusits. The Lusits Junistas and Daendroque Allies were able to hold the line, but with Regalia facing off three major geopolitical alliances (who were all also at war with one another), the situation was expected to become very complicated and messy.

Krupp’s further attempts to seize upon the major coastal cities ended in no results. The Elven forts proved too large and strong for his fleets to engage, their coastal batteries magnificent, even for old age siege weaponry. Their bastion walls were massive and their coastal harbor defenses ingenious. Much of the Elven fleet remained at large and chose not to engage Krupp’s superior numbers, albeit for now.

Christopher Black’s Armada succeeded in its goal to map out the Elven coast and make note of all major fortifications. They chose further not to engage any defences, nor were they engaged by any Elven fleets. They reported back to Regalia with a detailed map of all surrounding areas in Rië.

Back in the Regalian Archipelago however, trouble was brewing. Krupp’s choice to remove all troops from Drixagh once again flared up local rebellious sentiment. While it did not spill out into actual rebellion, many Opper Calem settlers vanished, were killed or simply driven out of their homesteads while the Velheimer people took back their lands. Aside from that occasional killing however, nothing was apparently anti Regalian in sentiment or anti Imperial. The case had simply become that without military assurances to their protection, the Opper Calem people were threatened and outnumbers by the locals who re-asserted their dominance on their land. They were still broken as a people and loyal to the state, but not friendly to the new settlers. Just across the pond, House Viduggla also engaged in mobilized defense and training excersizes, citing reasons that House Viduggla would be prepared to face down any invasion of their lands.

On the other landmass, in the heartland of the Leutz-Vixe people, the self proclaimed Ravenstad Duke mobilized his personal army and marched on the Peirgarten lands, south of the much larger and richer Ravenstad holdings. Peirgarten’s troops (which weren’t even mobilized) faced odds fifteen to one, and simply just surrendered, but did not join forces with the Ravenstads as they had hoped. The Ravenstad Duke’s decision to further start trampling and pillaging Peirgarten lands confused the locals and caused considerable anti Ravenstad sentiment to form, most notably the local resistance spell: “Nesse pas min Roi”, or simply just “Not my King”, in light of the pretense of the Duke to claim Peirgarten lands under the guise of being the King of Brissiauds, a non-hereditary title given to the late Percy Ravenstad by the Emperor. The Ravenstad forces destroyed most of the Peirgarten’s local industry and crafts, causing an immediate crash in the local economy, and as such, unemployed, many of the locals took to active resistance. With Peirgarten’s lands fully occupied, the family founds itself destitute in Regalia, cut off from all their income, troops and estates and properties. Some of their distant relatives were also in captivity in their homeland. The Rosendahl Family’s commanders immediately mobilized their forces in anticipation of the Ravenstad troops turning on them, digging in defences around the much smaller and hopelessly indefensible capital of their realm. Clearly, the Ravenstad family had violated the Emperor’s peace, though the Emperor seemed to not get involved at all, citing his concerns were with the wars in the west, not some petty backdoor squabble between two families whose trivial support for the war made them not a priority. That being said, the Noble Assembly would yet have a say on the matter, ruling and deciding in the Emperor’s stead.

Map created by Christopher Black
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