Silverwind

• Drulailmon, Feyrinth, Aldon, Aer'bueari, Evalon and Aeda'lyn travel to SIlverwind to try and commune with the Vasil and the researchers. The group attempts to speak with the Vasil, but it seems far too young to be able to communicate with them, only producing giggles and child like noises. The Yanar researchers say they have just been studying it and keeping it safe from outside encroachment while it was allowed to grow, under the expectation that eventually it will bear seedpods to allow more Vasil to be grown under the Empire's watch.
• The request for a backdoor entrance to the sanctum is sternly declined. The Emperor has sent a full army to Silverwind, and the Yanar say that the Emperor has pushed the paperwork to annex Silverwind into Crown territory, expelling all the locals who are already packing up. Not only will reaching the Sanctum become impossible without an army, they will have to pass through the docks that are going to be controlled by admittance papers only. The Emperor is under the impression the Vasil is under threat from terrorists and as such has chosen to annex the land.
• The excavation in Ithania found that the Vasil's "mother tree" was found in a massive cave complex in the Jungle plateau in south Ithania. Beyond that the Emperor didn't inform them much of what happened besides that the Emperor was working with a bunch of Nelfin whose identity is unclear. They propose that there wasn't any excavations, but that the group entered the cave spelunking on a hunch or directions.
• Regarding the Va'sil tree, the Yanar researchers say that the tree was already relatively sized, and that Arahael Bancroft simply planted the sapling and the tree grew from there. It is unlikely that another seed was preserved anywhere due to how they were told this particular seed was found, and how in the span of 300 years not a single Vasil tree has ever been found besides that one, and the fact that this one also stated it was the last tree left before it died.
• The Yanar researchers do not know what to say on the questions regarding memories, as the Vasil tree does not speak yet.
• The Yanar researchers confirm that the Vasil was grown from a seed in Regalia but was moved because the Emperor considered the hole in the ground it was stored too small for its eventual growth, and did not think he could protect the Vasil tree from the outside elements or terrorism.
• The group eventually leaves, and sure enough, they witness several battleships arriving, and smaller vessels of the Silverwind locals departing as the Emperor's soldiers unload and essentially evict Silverwind, prepping the small Pirate enclave for demolition. Some of them would have put up a fight but there were hundreds upon hundreds of soldiers, and as they were already in a severe economic downturn, most of them just accepted and got on with it. Some of the service staff remained to feed and cook and bed the soldiers, but the majority of the privateers left and sailed west, until they hit the blockade of Rutgher, requesting that the Regalian military let them pass and settle in Rutgher, assuming that Rutgher was going to be annexed into the Empire or made part of its sphere.

Regalia

• Antoinette, Andriy, and Yeva travel to the Sorenvik-Dragic border to cleanse any potential migrants. However, nobody has come across, the Oprichnyy was quickly on the scene before Aleksandra even closed the border, and backed off when the border was closed, so there is nothing to cleanse.
• Masuki, Baskoro, Xabi and Eric travel to the Regalian Ecological Academy where they inquire about the Dakkar. The scholars indicate that the Dakkar have not been sighted for years, and that the presumed airborne substance or material that caused their petrifying disease is still airborne. They say that preliminary scouting has not sighted even a single Dakkar leaving the occupied Dwarven holds in Ellador. They then try to travel to inquire about Dakkar biology, intelligence and Allar relations. The researchers return very basic data that isn't super helpful, they never got their hands on a live specimen of Dakkar to study, but assume that its intelligence was about the same as other sentient species. They report no recorded historical, racial, religious, sociological or geographical relations between the Allar and Dakkar. Dakkar exclusively live in an area referred to as Gana-Isha, in the depths beneath Ellador, and all worship a Void God. If there is a hypothesis to be made about Dakkar and Allar racial links, they are more likely to do with the Sendrassians than Hadar Allar, though they say this theory is flimsy at best, because Allar do not live in Ellador, they have never gone to Ellador. And they also aren't cave dwelling. They state that any speculation to racial relations is purely based on the surface level scale-appearance of the Dakkar which is purely a biological assumption that could just as well apply to Songaskians and Isldar. The scholars report no sightings of Dakkar in the Archipelago since the outbreak of the disease, though they should note that the disease was unlikely actually an instant. They speculate that the Dakkar have some sort of microbiological issue with living on the surface, because it happened to all of them at once, after a certain amount of time had passed with them coming to the surface, and that this implies a substance build up caused an immune system collapse in their biology. They say it could literally be as simple as Dakkar immune systems collapsing when they build up yeast bacteria that don't exist in the more sterile Gana-Isha caves.
• House Nordhjem closes the borders with House Sorenvik, but does allow Urlan to cross borders.
• House Novak pays the cost for Baldmark's slavery abolition. However. Since most of the slaves (if not exclusively) are owned by the Szabadok, the Szabadok just take the money and then write a very elaborate "no thanks" message in return, keeping both their slaves, and the money, thanking House Novak for their suggestion. They say they will only get rid of the slaves if House Litvinova wants them to (and only that is predicated on the fact that House Litvinova can hold onto their favor).
• House Delmotte's army returns to Regalia to quell any potential unrest from the removal of slaves.
• House van Hal rallies their troops on the borders to safely guide any Urlan into their territory. While Urlan would likely be rough witht he locals if just let in without any sort of guidance, the presence of van Hal soldiers to ensure safety, essentially a show of force, means the Urlan back down and safely and peacefully settle in van Hal lands, adding to the population. The Anglians seem a bit apprehensive with them at first, but eventually settle with their presence as they keep wild animals away from the animal farms and are very useful when it comes to the physical labor on the fields.
• House van Hal also attempts to coach the magnates into wanting to get rid of so called child labor, but the Anglian magnates just respond that there is no such thing as child labor in Anglia, because children under age 13 do not work, and above 13, they are no longer children by Anglian law. The Magnates also make it somewhat clear that if van Hal expects to extend the automata onto wheat fields, that she can expect her entire lower class population to become unemployed which will be very /very/ bad. Surveys are also done for abandoned buildings in towns and what not. Obviously every town has a few abandoned houses, this goes without saying, but the Emended Unionists seem content to preach from small tents on the edge of town for now.
• House Valloaan mobilizes its army to deal with any potential abolition unrest, but no payments are made yet, so they just kind of chill.
• Duchess Amelina travels to the Grand Magistrate Dianne Black at the Palace to discuss the ongoing situation in the Songaskian Masaya. The Magistrate alludes to the idea that the situation in the Masaya is far more complex than anyone has been willing to admit, or willing to share. She states that, now that the Massya is an adult, and has shown more politically apt than thought, he is actively creating the impression that his state is suffering financial difficulties that aren't really there because the underlying export market is flourishing more than ever. There is something strange happening in the Songaskian lands. The Massya himself who was often depicted as a Regalian puppet, has far more independent subtext than Regalia was able to appreciate, and that the Massya's uncle who was always so staunchly anti-Regalian has suddenly started courting Regalian businesses more and more. This is also coupled with the fact that there recently was a complete purge of the Songaskian Embassy to Regalia. The Massya silently recalled all of the ambassadorial staff to Farah'deen and sent replacements, which is unusual since the Embassy was the largest of any nation in Regalia, with dozens of staff. The good contacts house Black had in Farah'deen have also mostly gone silent, admitting she also has no idea what is going on, but that there is something far more secretive happening than just an income issue that is Regalia's to solve, remarking that perhaps it is time to stop disregarding Farah'deen as a puppet they can forget about.
• House Abbansadi mobilizes their troops and safely guides Urlan settlers into their territory, dissuading any unrest by a show of military force. The Urlan settle just fine. There's some intriguing exchanges between the Eronidas and Urlan, with some Eronidas becoming Urlan voluntarily, but no major conflict or forced Symbiosis occurs anywhere and the matter is resolved peacefully.
• Fabienne, Lisette and Cadwyn travel to several Caisfars in the Archipelago to inquire about the status of the Emerald Mines. While some of the Caisfars are still operational, they find the vast majority of them have been shut down save for a few janitors that keep the place somewhat tidy, stating that the personel has all been recalled to their homeland. They say whether or not they pay homage to the High King doesn't matter, their families are all still in the Aontaithe homeland, and so choosing to secede from them is not really an option. They expect that Regalia will soon just take the Caisfars here, because it cannot afford to have the Allorn Empire own military and trade outposts in the middle of the Regalian Archipelago. The shipment of gifts to the petty Kings is not cleared through customs by the Allorn who control their homeland, and sent back. The High King is presumed still "secured for his safety" in the Allorn Empire, while the Silver Moon Society seem in charge of the Aontaithe homelands.
• Enheduanna, Mother ALexi, Galinthios, Aos and Koko travel to Kappados, arriving in the coastal city or Eretos from where they travel in land. The mild coastal climate quickly makes way for the arid plains of the Kappados interior, just endless dunes of brown sandy hills and jagged red mountains. When breaching the first plateau, the chimney rocks were visible from many miles away, Mother Alexi correctly judging that these unnatural octagonal shaped pillars stood taller than the main body of the All-Beacon Temple in Regalia, which curiously was also octagonal in shape. When they came closer, the sheer size of them was even more staggering, It would take full minutes to even sprint down the full lenght of a single face, let along travel the full circumference for up to an hour. Their tips would have easily touched if not surpassed the clouds, had the climate in Kappados not been incredibly arid and dry. In the shadow side of the pillars were rock-carved houses, or at least the implication of windows and doors, just black holes in the stones with hollow areas behind them. Whatever once existed on the surface level had long been sand-blasted away with any detail or paint on the walls completely missing. Reaching up there would prove very difficult, if not nigh impossible. The group reasoned that perhaps once in the past, the native peoples built these villages high up in these rocks for safety, as any attacker would find it impossible to scale up these vertical stone pillars that were as wide at the base as they were at the top. There was no way left to get back up there, only some rotten pieces of wood on the ground nearby, implying there had once been a staircase. They can find no other traces of anything, no pottery or items left behind and so the group eventually returns home again. (seeking Ordial Magic through Progs is not possible unless [USER=15171]@Finlaggan[/USER] communicates something about it to me, so I just treated this as an expedition prog).
• House Guentyr blocks any Urlan from reaching Kintyr, stating they should settle somewhere else instead. The Urlan however indicate there was probably a mixing of the communication lines somewhere, as some of them were intended for Guentyr lands, just not Guentyr lands owned in Kintyr, but in Anglia. However, since House Guentyr showed a show of force and paid money for a smooth integration, these Urlan all settle in the Dorinn region (in Guentyr sphere of influence) without any issues.
• Godrun, Enheduanna, Aman, Eric and Bryo travel to the Dwarves in the Nordhjem lands to help them develop hydroponic farms not specifically built in the rock itself. It turns out to be an expensive test, requiring a lot of machining parts to even get the water purified and clear to where they need to go, but it effectively works. The problem arises in their response. While it is true that they have found a way to properly feed themselves, they were duped with the promise of lands. Whatever Ailor prospectors sold them the information to these islands just deceived them and ran off with the money they paid for the prospect records. The land is poor, there is nothing in the soil worth digging up, and without an export produce to trade with the Regalian market, they will eventually not even be able to pay to maintain or build hydroponics to expand. Building a hold on Nordhjem lands is not viable, utterly impossible in fact, because the soil has no rare earth metals in it. As such, they are stumped on where to go from here.
• House Viduggla immediately closes the borders with House Sorenvik. House Sorenvik's lands are now closed border wise by all neighboring states, and the situation is starting to hurt their Economy. Cost is reflected in Finances.
• Ardige Viduggla sends out diplomats. Tuija Nordhjem is sent to Isk-Skjer to inquire for its Conservationist viability. The Bureaucrats respond that changing an entire region to a conservation is impossible, because the implication of a conservation region would be the expulsion of locals, requiring the removal of all inhabitants. Godrun is sent to Nordskag to inquire about a similar proposal on Nordskag territory. The King of Nordskag replies that the proposal is ludicrous and he won't support any weird Regalian touristisms on Nordskag territory. Sihn-Traeliorn travels to Hedryll to inquire a similar proposal. The Hedryll king equally declines, stating that this is the first time in centuries that his Kingdom is actually expanding, and he is not giving up any part of it for some dumb animals to graze in now that he has the chance to expand his once great Kingdom. None of them seem interested in payments.
• On the note of conservation. The Tryllejag is not part of the Regalian Empire, and as such, regardless of the conservator's announcement that Ogres and Thylans are to be protected, the King of Tryllejag just happily continues the slaughter of these near sentient beings as they try to flee south.
• House Delmotte inquires with the scholars in Basta to the location of the Grand Bijoux Vert. They respond that it was probably taken to Daenshore, which Anahera has historically used as a more secure location to store personal effects than the Regalian Archipelago where they could be seized. It is hard to tell where it went to however, as the rock must have passed from Alejandro Anahera who took it from House Pileran, to Theresa Anahera who inherited it as she took over from her son, to Gustavo Anahera as he usurped control over Daenshore's governorate from his brother. Whatever Gustavo did with it, nobody knows, because he died in a fire in Regalia, but there is a presumption it is still in Daenshore somewhere. The Callas and Wysland regions have generic rulers. The system is currently not equipped to allow for regional expansion on the map.
• House Delmotte messengers deliver letters to the Barons and Chiefs of Nordhjem lands, including copies of the signed treaty by the Duchess and the Count Delmotte, showing clear as day that the Duchess intends to allow for her children to possibly be Unionist, implying a Unionist conversion of leadership in the future is tenably on the table. The message included is something along the lines of "Can't wait for you all to embrace Unionism when that day comes". While this doesn't exactly have the (presumed?) effect of causing widespread anger towards House Nordhjem (it certainly does among the old faithful), it initiates a wider discussion in Viduggla, Nordhjem, and Sorenvik lands, about the encroachment of Unionism in their lands by freedom of religion. Some of the already Unionist citizens of these realms indicate they would favor religious freedom, even if they would prefer to teach their children the Unionist ways only, they are prepared to let them choose. The Old Gods faithful meanwhile oppose teaching their children any Unionist doctrine, saying it's all poison from the south, and in essence, demand/request their liege lords set a standard, whether their children will be taught both faiths and can choose, or whether they will enforce a religious belief as is their right as parents, and take the potential concerquences on the chin.

Financial

• House Novak pays 2 Wealth tokens to abolish slavery in Baldmark (it fails, but the payment is still taken).
• House Guentyr pays 2 Wealth tokens to supply their state army in Soren.
• House von Drachenburg pays 2 Wealth tokens to remove slavery in Calemberg (it succeeds).
• House Bancroft pays 1 Wealth Token to Baskoro
• House Bancroft pays 1 Wealth Token to Godrun
• The Civics Ministry pays 13 Wealth Tokens to the Legal? Finance MInistry
• The Civics Ministry pays 3 Wealth Tokens to Seishan Wei
• The Civics Ministry pays 1 Wealth Tokens to Dorian Prismyth
• House Delmotte pays 8 Wealth Tokens to buy out slavery in Basta (it succeeds).
• House Dragic pays 3 Wealth tokens to supply their army.
• House van Hall gives 1 Wealth Tokens to Carmen
• House van Hall gives 1 Wealth Tokens to Kyn'mii
  
• House van Hall gives 1 Wealth Tokens to Wayward Hare
  
• House Peirgarten puts 5 Wealth tokens into the East Consul Bank
• House Abbansadi gives Jushur 1 Wealth Token.
• House Guentyr pays 4 Wealth tokens for Urlan escorts.
• House Sorenvik loses 2 Wealth Tokens as a result of the border shutting on all sides and trade being hemmed in.

Rutgher

• Trajan leads the state army supported by Renzo, Paris, Miomyr and Wilvamair mopping up what little resistance remains in Rutgher, smoking out wolf-pelt men and just killing them as they refuse to be taken captive or lay down their weapons. Urban centers are occupied, or at least what is left of them. Most places are depopulated by almost 50%, and the strange murder-suicides that happen in Drixagh are also still happening here, regardless of how many wolf-pelt men they arrest or kill. The army eventually stations on the Soren Border.
• Elewisa Peirgarten firms up the Rutgher blockade and deploys Volodymyr and Vasiliye to espionage among the southern locals. Messages concerning the wolf-pelt men are very unclear, some citizens say they are wild savages that enact religious fervor on the people for not being faithful enough, some say they are eradicating the rot in Cillik Old Gods believers, and some say they are just blood thirsty savages and enemies of the state. It is not possible for them to actually find any wolf-pelt men themselves as they are too far in land in a place where Vasiliye would not be able to protect Volodomyr.
• The Southmark Marshal issues a travel grant to the Hexenblood to enter Carrhen.
• Aleksandra Dragic and the Southmark army, combing through the lands Novak already walked through, occupying it properly. More wolf-pelt men are smoked out and taken out back, and as a result, curiously, the ritualistic suicide rings start an increasing trend with several more discovered every day leaving the administrators and officers puzzled as to why it is increasing when they thought the wolf-pelt men were the cause of it to begin with.
• Avox, Aailyah, Galinthos, Dominique disembark with the state army and goes about capturing the coastal Rutgher settlements and ports finding most of them practically undefended. Wolf-pelt men are put to the sword when taken prisoner (if taken prisoner at all), and the local population seems relieved with the messages that they will be protected from the random killings happening everywhere. And then suicide circles start showing up, even in regions that previously didn't have them.
• The Soren army immediately surrenders to Faure's approaching army, even before the ultimatum is delivered. The Soren Army however refuses to assist in occupation of Rutgher, but also refuses to return home. They assume that most of their families have been killed already or been turned into Vampires, and they have no interest in returning to a land that is so quickly turning into a hellhole, content to just merge with the civilian population in Rutgher insteadm all they ask is not to be sent back to Soren. For now, the population is kept into an internment camp since they neither accepted nor declined the actual request of them.
• Saranamual, Beatrix and Aurora first travel to Enman-Rifftaman, noticing that Rifftaman has pushed Enman back so far that they are nearly ready to start incorporating the provinces on the border. They seem convinced that they will annex Enman in a few weeks time. They decline any offer for a peace settlement, indicating that they are going for full incorporation.
• The group then continues to Silverwind, where they are promptly rebuffed by a bunch of Regalian warships and Emperor's mandate scribes who say they have already expelled the local population and just parged a massive army on the island to annex it, and to "move on". The group then travels back to Rutgher, passing by the waiting (mostly Unionist) refugees from Silverwind who hope to pass the blockade to settle in Rutgher.
• In Rutgher, they contact the remnants of the clerical priest government who seem to have been reduced from 12 priests down to 3. They hastily and happily agree to the circumstances, handing over all paperwork and reports of where more wolf-pelt men are, referring to them as "Bannor's Servants". This again results in more roundups of Wolf-pelt people (who more often than not just get put to the sword) and their supporting families who all continue to shriek that Regalia has it all wrong and blablabla but they just thrown in prison so the jailors don't have to hear the shrieking anymore. The government also accepts the Naval treaties, being all too happy to sign all of them. Even the missionary one to the surprise of the delegation. They will also happily agree to the remaining of federal navies and armies in the region, and so the war seems over with Rutgher, while the Soren situation continues, and Regalia is technically still at war with the Serman Duchy, but its ruler is dead and the capital a smoldering ruin, so there's plenty of noise in the Regalian capital to not waste this moment and just outright annex all these lands since they wouldn't even be able to put up a fight.

Soren

• House Guentyr retreats the Regalian soldiers and pulls all out of Soren, with the Guentyr levies being demobilized and sent back home. What little remains of Guentyr's state troops is supplemented with fresh reinforcements from Regalia, and they march towards Faure to assist their army with the Soren army.
• Harta, Siralli, Briareth, Sage, and Sihn-Llaevvryn blockade the inner Rutgher-Soren strait, disallowing passage. At around the same time, the Serman Duchy is finally properly occupied by the coalition of the three states to the west, the capital is pillaged and sacked, and they all return home leaving the Serman Duchy a smoldering ruin. Harta's blockade announces to the Soren citizens that the blockade will allow those who wish to escape Soren to apply for safe passage, but then informs the blockade strictly that such approval will not be given. Naturally, the citizens are not informed, so huge streams of refugees fleeing the Vampire menace in Soren end up camping on the river side opposite to the Rutgher Theocracy, hoping to be let past as they are trying to flee Soren that is turning into a Dark kingdom, only to be met with perpetual stalling and waiting, causing the refugee pressure in the area to become massive. A few ships approach the blockade, and a lenghty checking and interviewing process proceeds with every refugee, however the interview process is slow at best. Even with 50 or so interviewers, it still takes them nearly an entire day just to clear 300 to 900 interviewees, and there are soon thousands of people camped up on the other side of the river. The situation spins completely out of control when groups of Vampires show up. In a re-enactment of this scene Regalia's orderly system completely collapses,  refugees start pushing into the makeshift mooring locations piling onto small fisher boats that become completely overwhelmed by the weight and sink. Hundreds of refugees start swimming to the other side of the river, climbing up to the Regalian warships, resulting in the Regalian warships opening fire both on the refugees still on Soren land, as well as using small arms weapons to shoot at the refugees swimming in the water and trying to climb on their decks. In the chaos several ships end up being boarded by Vampires and blown up, causing a sizeable portion to pass through, along with the stream of refugees. Luckily, Novak's army is on the other side of the river and able to quickly clean up any Vampires that pass through and quarantine the refugees who made it onto the other side, but all along the river, hundreds if not thousands of Soren refugees are killed, drown, or turned into Vampires as the blockade was completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of refugees that came for the false promise of being let out. The blockade is quickly re-established by reinforcing ships, but the promise of a way out of Soren is obviously one that has rung hollow with the Soren citizens, who are mounting different attempts to get out now. In hindsight, a remark is made that this plan would have probably succeeded if they just hadn't announced this corridor for evacuation as a fake promise. It brought thousands of refugees to the cramped checkpoint shorelines, and was basically an open invitation for Vampires to have a feast banquet on a platter, and for the mob to stampede in panic and overwhelm the Regalian forces.
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