Aloria Story Progression No Apathy Among The People

The rioting in various Regalian noble lands would certainly continue to provide much headache for the Ministers of the Empire. The Interior Peace Minister’s efforts to quell the riots receive mixed effects. The riots in Typhonus and Peirgarten lands cease, seeing the locals return to their lives and normality return. Several rioting groups however are encouraged by a mysterious hand into the d’Vaud lands, where riots burst out at similar lack of finance grievances against house d’Vaud. Meanwhile, the riots in Reinard and von Duerr lands continue regardless of the Interior Peace Minister’s words which are deemed hollow and without compromise.

Worse affected yet is the House Black Lands. With an official stance from House Black’s family to use a stricter penal code that harkens back to the days of house von Leberecht and Lampero condemning their citizens to the mines if they did not comply to their one-sided demands, the riots intensify. After a speech made by a local demagogue by the name of Jan Huswyck, the Old Fayth riots start overflowing and galvanize into a full fledged rebellion. Old Fayth worshipers from all over Dragenthal start amassing in House Black lands in what they see as a do-or-die scenario for them to save themselves from being delegated to second rank citizens and reduced to eventual nothingness. The memory of the destruction of the north and how desolate Drixagh remains to this day remain fresh in the minds of the locals, while other faiths like the Old Gods worshipers who continued to live locally suppressed lived south of Drixagh also joined them.

It was in that moment that Jamie Rosendahl at the head of 30,000 Black levies would face off against the rebellious army that had swelled to twice his size, and forced him to retreat to Cambre while the rebel army marched on to Narlas. The gates of Narlas itself were practically defenceless against the mob, largely due to the Emperor’s past legislation that banned heavy fortifications in the Regalian heartlands. The first estates to be plundered and torches were the House Black properties, followed with a massive assault on the Narlas shipyards. The main objective of the Old Freedom (as they called themselves to represent both Oldt Fayth and Old Gods), was to cause as much damage as possible. Hopes were put on the idea that the people of Dragenthal would recollect the traumatic events of the Drachenwald crisis, the massive loss of life and Regalian pessimism that followed afterwards, and would panic thus allowing the Rebels to enforce their demands of minority protections and more specifically punishments for House Harhold.

The people of Narlas indeed struck into a wild panic, thousands of them fleeing to the docks as the Rebel army crushed through the flimsy city gates and marauded through the streets. A whole flotilla of fishing ships and civilian vessels attempted to flee the wall of arson that approached them, some boats sinking in the river as they were overloaded with goods and people. House Black’s 2 ships of the home defence fleet were insufficient to halt the attack, even when Kehlen and Drache ships arrived to assist. The ships instead focused on rescuing the sinking fishing vessels that tried to flee the city, ferrying as many citizens to safety as possible while a squadron of 10 Imperial Battleships arrived with the Imperial dragon hovering above. The arrival of the Dragon allowed a quick setup of emergency evacuation, the rebels having been taken back by its sudden arrival to the scene.

This engagement, unlike previous ones however, would prove to be a failure. As the Imperial Dragon descended on the dockside, the local rioters had already anticipated its arrival and sprung a trap on it as it approached. When soaring low over the warehouses and storage piles to pick off archers taking pot shots at the retreating civilians, one of the warehouses which was filled with black powder for production into battleship ammunition was promptly ignited, seemingly by the act of an Elemental mage, sending an explosion that was so severe that the splintering debris sprung like shrapnel into the Dragon’s wings, causing it to crash down to the ground and smash through numerous buildings. The Dragon eventually managed to climb back to its feet, stabbed and slashed at by enraged Skaggers, limping to the water and eventually taking hold of the chains which two of the battleships had lowered to drag the wounded dragon out of the fight.

Narlas was eventually surrendered, with a quarter of the city being ablaze and citizens being seemingly randomly murdered in the streets to cause as much terror as possible. Narlas was not the only location hit however. A true form of guerilla tactics had erupted in the Harhold lands, not through active rioting or rebellion, but through anti propaganda. Seemingly out of nowhere, dogs were being taken from their homes at night, beheaded, and their heads littered into the streets of the major cities. Even Vlissinghelm which had recently been declared fully Unionist saw a sudden influx of brigands that imitated the actions in an attempt to scare house Harhold into submission. The damage of this rebellion had still been relatively light. While the Black Army was forced to retreat, the rebels had essentially cornered themselves in the Barony of Narlas. With Cambre blocked off and the Drache troops guarding the border to Dragenhurst, the only route for retreat for the rebels would have been Fidston.

In the wake of the Rebellion, and despite the Interior Peace Minister’s words, Wulffram Kehlen continues to try and galvanize the lesser barons to his side. While the vast majority of them refuse to join up with Kehlen on account of the other Dukes not acting against them, the Baron of Oxen decides to subject himself under Kehlen’s smaller union, galvanizing his title weight. The Baron of Oxen was particularly motivated to make this choice on account of the rebellion taking place but a mere province south from his homeland, seeking safety in numbers in the hopes that it would ward off the Old Rebellion from reaching his lands, showing once more that the small birds always profit from chaos.

The war front did not fare much better. With the sudden resignation of Ulric Typhonus and his retirement to Calemberg, the Typhonuis army was forced to retreat. Garth Viduggla sent his army to the Elven Moors in the hopes of being reinforced by Wulffram Kehlen’s troops and Typhonus’s already present troops. Unfortunately, Typhonus troops had already retreated out of the Elven Moors, and Kehlen Troops (while having assembled in Regalia) never received any orders to move out. Garth Viduggla’s army suffers numerous crushing defeats against a numerically superior army that eventually ejects him from the Elven Moors with less than a third of his original troop count after facing a final battle where he is outnumbered three to one. His army is eventually evacuated by Christopher Black and Erwald Ravenstad’s fleets which were on support duty in Hadar, though the troubles at the front were not quite done yet. Once back in Regalia, Garth Viduggla is blamed by the greater military complex for calling upon the disfavor of the Spirit by either ignoring or brushing his soldiers’ open worship of Oldt Fayth and Old Gods stating that an army permitting such heresies would surely call down the judgement of the Spirit, thus explaining his colossal losses on the front.

Admiral Christopher Black continued to promise improvements for his fleet that suffered a crushing blow during the previous movement. He promised the captains and officer corps another additional 15 ships, even though he just received two thirds of that from the Logistic Minister. While not openly mutineering against the Admiral, the Officer corps lodges severe complaints at the Admiral that their navy got chafed and that the Admiral failed to deliver on his promises, when equal numbers of ships are given to Erwald Ravenstad whom the Officers have resorted to calling Eagerly Apathetic Erwald, on account of his ships doing nothing more than rotating patrols and pointless military ventures with no contribution to the war.

Not all was disaster however. There were numerous points of somewhat good news. Alferi Domenico’s 150,000 man army finally landed in the Elven Cities to relieve Hamelin d’Vaud’s beleaguered position, and managed to drive back the Elven Armies. The Elven Armies were eventually reinforced by the Elven Moor Armies that had finished cleaning up the Viduggla Army, causing a halt to the momentum of Alferi’s army, though the Regalian force had penetrated deep into the Elven cities and occupied nearly three quarters of the landmass, eventually being slowed to a halt on account of logistical issues. Such a single massive force was unable to control a border that stretched for hundreds of miles from west to east, even when the Allar Armies arrived under the allied Digmaan did the borders not truly move. The majority of the Elven Cities was now in Regalian hands, secured and stable, though the military was unable to push through the Elven lines with how concentrated and clumped up the army had become.

Back in Regalia, there was good news from an unexpected source. The High Pontiff of the Vultarin Hegemony (which was still in hiding somewhere in the mountains of Montania) had come out of hiding to announce that his conclave had decided to surrender themselves to the mercy of the Spirit following an internal vote. The Pontiff went on to explain that it was only ever the Vultarin’s intention to pray to the Spirit for a sign of divinity of the Emperor, and that mortal assumption was not sufficient to serve the Emperor. Now that the Spirit (in their eyes) had provided the providence they had prayed for in the form of the Imperial Dragon, as well as the Dragon heirs, the Vultarin Hegemony declared that they accepted the ascension of the current Emperor, and would adhere to any further inheritance from Dragon-blessed Princes. The Vultarin Hegemony offered to integrate into the Unionist Sancella as a sub-sect, to be subject to the common judgements of the Synod, as long as they were allowed to continue freely exercising and proselytize their faith in its newly branded Vultdragon Hegemony, whose major tenet was the belief that Dragon Emperors would continue to inherit the Imperial Spirit, as long as the Emperor and the Synod would show them clemency and amnesty from the inquisition. Since the Imperial Dragon’s injury and the Emperor’s subsequent absence from politics, the Imperial court charged the Synod with formulating a response in its name. The Diviner Heresy did not come out onely in a similar manner, but officials in Naserna and Forriesta Natal noted that there was a sharp decrease in abductions of non-Humans, leading many to conclude that the crazy and bloodthirsty Diviners deep in the forest had come to a somewhat similar conclusion and agreed that sacrificing non-Humans to pray for a sign from the Spirit that it was still alive was no longer necessary with the providence of the Imperial Dragon.

The Etosian Church would also send a treaty proposal to the Sancella Synod for approval. The treaty was an essential proposal to mend the schism between the two church entities, though the demands were rather severe. They were as followed:

• The Unionist Sancella and Etosian Church would merge into the Unionist Divine to represent a mended church body.
• The Etosian Church would submit itself to policy decisions by the Synod, but be permitted to maintain its own Synod over Etosil for local semi-autonomy over domestic decisions, though respect foreign stances and clastic laws and decisions.
• The Etosian Church and Unionist Sancella would combine their financial and military forces, while deferring most of the military to the Regalian Synod. The Etosian Synod would maintain a basic minimum of Helerians for self protection, and spend their own domestic tithe, but send all other tithe earned outside Etosil to the common Unionist Divine.
• The Unionist Church would accept living Herons from this point onwards and permit worship of them in the City of Regalia (allowing them to not acknowledge living Herons declared up until this treaty).
• The Etosian Synod (thus not the Regalian Synod) would retain the sole right to declare living Herons (alongside the Emperor who would also have this right by default).
• The Supreme Patriarch of Etosil would continue to exist as a position of the High Reverend of Etosil and thus lead the Etosian Synod.
• Both Unionist and Etosian Seminaries would add to each other’s respective deficiencies to create a common curriculum for future priests.

The Patriarch of the Etosian Church identified that this was a deal or no deal situation, offering no negotiating space or room for talks. He simply said to take it, or accept that no Schism mending would occur while the current High Reverend rules in the Synod.