The Nurf

• Revna, Tuija and Lily travel to Nordskag to speak with the King, offering support in finance and military with his issues. The King responds fairly insulted that he has an army that is equal if not larger than the entire tenpenny army, and the implication that Regalia can just treat one of its prospect heartlands like a pathetic colony in need of military support is ludicrous. He states that House Sorenvik is already assisting where necessary, and that these diplomats should mind their own business, before ejecting them from the throne room, telling them they should be campaigning in palace halls to eject Ithania's objections to Nordskag's recognition as a heartland province instead of trying to play Velheim-community outreach programs.
• Allestane Delmotte retreats its army from Hvitskag.
• Several ammunition and supply depots in the Tryllejag Kingdom are blown up, far too many and far too close to each other to be a coincidence. No culprits is found, but both the Tryllejag army and the Viduggla are are unable to move without restoring their supplies, thus halting their advance against the Ogres and Thylans.
• The Di Civita army digs in in with fortifications, though the soldiers have trouble establishing any of them. They are able to make-shift use some of the old trenches dug years and years ago during the Nordskag-Hvitskag war, but the land is still piss poor. There is no food to forage, wild animals are sparce, and supplies are extremely low. House di Civita's army will require 5 Wealth Tokens worth of supplies not to starve next cycle. To add onto the problems, the soldiers while scouting the area discover that the Hvitskaggers have opened up their Helbolwen, and destroyed the cover stones. As a result, mindless Undead come out at night and repeatedly attack Regalian encampments.
• The Varcion army presses forward alone into Hvitskag hell-land and discover exactly why it is hell-land. Even while Teqaar and Fareen scout, the Hvitskaggers who have perfected winter landscape warfare against a superior foe refuse to be found, all they discover is endlesss stretches of snowy forest and rock landscape. As soon as the army arrives however, the landscape springs alive with Skagger berserkers, setting on the Varcion army from all sides. As much as they are well supplied, the army is hopelessly outnumbered by the Hvitskag army even without its winter warfare specialty, the mixed Kathar and Anglian soldiers being completely out of their element. The army gets severely battered until the under-officers basically force a retreat to the di Civita positions, out of risk of getting the entire army wiped out with severe morale impact. They fail to even capture a single Skagger.

Regalia

• Godrun Nordhjem inquires with moving Dwarves across Nordhjem lands. The bureaucrats reply that this is certainly possible, but not without dis-possessing existing barons and tribes of their claimed land. Everything in the Regalian Archipelago is owned by someone, except those specific islands the Dwarves settled on.
• Despite the court saying they would not affect the Emperor's Pride plantations in Litvinova lands, a group of five disguised and stealthy burns all of the plantations. No individual or group claims their actions, but considering these plantations no longer had a purpose, it also doesn't damage House Litvinova. (also technically this order processed before the trial even took place, because it was sent in the 6th, but I just processed it for today).
• The Kingdom of Torse and Arlora or the unified administration in the area tell the noble armies still present they are no longer needed. Their sudden acquisition of Alaru Addir, has allowed them to take care of all Bone Horror themselves.
• The Imperial Conservationist inquires with the bureaucracy for suitable regions in the Archipelago to house Ogres and Thylans. The Bureaucrats say that only Nordhjem or Viduggla lands are suitable. They would have to give up about 20% of their land to maintain the current Ogre and Thylan population proliferation space.
• Mene'lainn, Ceridwen, Aer'bueari, and Revna travel to an unnamed island south of Seileland to investigate the state of the local wildlife. They find some seagulls, coastal birds and some deer living in the forest. Nobody lives on the island besides occasional hunters who sail across the strait to pick off a deer and sail it back to the mainland. Everything is stable and fine.
• House Nordhjem mobilizes its army in preparation for abolition.
• House Varcion has a team of Taleos, Mikhael, Koko, Dana, Ania and Felsin (please cite out their names in written form, character app names and written names are not always the same) try to develop hovering scout drones to reduce impact on soldier losses. The request is made for them to be built cold resistant, as well as durable to attacks. The results however are disappointing. With the technology available in Engineering, the engineers basically return the conundrum that if the weapon should be cold resistant, it cannot fly, because rotor attachments are incredibly sensitive to temperature and strong winds, and if it is to be hit-resistant, it cannot be on the ground. With this inherent self contradiction, nothing is developed.
• Reynaud, Anri and Titus smuggle themselves into the Sorenvik lands because all borders are closed and the only way they can get in is by sneaking across the frozen coastlines of Guentyr-Sorenvik borders. Once inside, they investigate some suicide circles, but cannot find any lingering Void Essence. The assumption is made that if something occured before death, the only way to know is to get Isldar on the spot.
• Sorenvik authorities arrest all Carrhen refugees and ship them back to Carrhen. There's a lot of snotty screaming and crying from some refugees, screaming about not being responsible for Sorenvik's own careless dumping of refugees and that not killing anyone is not the Soldi saving mercy house Sorenvik thinks it is, but just an honorless death sentence in disguise. But it does get the desired outcome however, ritual suicides basically trickle to nothing. A few people who are being expelled kill themselves on the way out, and the ones that don't arrive back in Carrhen, bereft of their homes and usually not even being able to return home (as Soren is still under blockade), so a clut of refugees without houses or supplies just arrived in Rutgher for the Petrou military to take care of. (Nordskag does something similar, but does eventually decide to keep the refugees who don't kill themselves on the way out, turning the ships around halfway traveling to Rutgher, upon assumption that if there were any suicide cultists still among them, they would have already offed themselves. There's still a few instances of it, so their tactic wasn't 100% failproof, but it's mostly on a decline).
• House Sorenvik institutes the following policies:
  • Parents may only teach children Unionism if they are Unionist.
  • Unionist parents who teach children about Unionism must also teach them Old Gods.
  • Children may choose their own faith.
  • Missionaries remain banned because of political reasons.
  • This is responded to very positively by the Old Gods majority and the various non-Unionist tribes living in the eastern lands, but is responded to very negatively by the Unionist minority especially in Kerulv among the more urbanized regions which previously were not required by law to teach their children Old Gods. Representation indicates that they acknowledge their second-rank status in Sorenvik lands, and if the borders had been open, many of them would have left. Instead, they champion the "Buy-Unionist" policy where Unionist families refuse to buy goods and services from Old Gods families to keep the (often upper-class wealthy Unionist merchant class) money in circulation of Unionist circles only. This further exasperates Sorenvik financial woes as a result of the borders being closed, causing a loss of 3 Wealth Tokens from banking to balance the cost.  The Unionists demand that if Old Gods teaching is obligatory because the families are in Old Gods lands, then Unionist teaching should also be obligatory to Old Gods families because they are in a Unionist Empire.
• The Imperial army that was promised to arrive never arrives in Soren. The Emperor instead sends a messenger apologizing to the Marshals, indicating that there was need for "smoke and mirrors", to try and smoke out a traitor identified in the Marshal's cabinet who is passing information from the generals along to the individual known as Haqet. Unfortunately, the traitor did not bite as the Emperor sent conflicting orders to each Marshal to figure out where the leak was happening. The Princes concluded that this time the traitor did not bite, but still indicate that they have a likely suspicion that the individual known as Ezekiel Rubedo has been leaking information from the North and South Marshals to Haqet to allow Haqet to engage in their actions with fore-knowledge of Regalian general movements.
• A spontaneous movement develops in Osteiermark called "The Liberated Worker's Union", purchasing properties across Ivenna to establish communal housing and gathering places for ex-slaves, aimed at worker class and every day workers and commoners preaching for equality against their ex-owners. Some really inconsistent government response happens. While du Poncaire's own estate managers end up buying properties to support this organization, du Poncaire's own regional councils immediately shut these buildings down, impounding them for "jacobinist ideals and causing civil unrest". This causes weird situations like du Poncair's banking consort buying up two buildings that before the ink is dried are immediately impounded by the civil authorities as supporting illegal organizations, the bank acting on du Poncaire's orders, the civil authorities on what they think should be du Poncaire's orders and the state authorities. Regalia had to deal with a short bout of the Molotok Doctrine three years ago that ended in complete tragedy as the members were rounded up and executed for jacobinism. Anything to do with egalitarianism is immediately repressed by the state as a result. To make the confusion about this all even more complete, Haqet was identified in the middle of Ivenna by an Arcanologist who recognized Coraveau which could not be disguised. What resulted was a near encounter of Haqet with state authorities, however before an actual clash could happen, a unique event took place. In the streets of Ivenna, close to the state opera, Haqet was cornered by the city regional constables, only for all of them (haqet and blutritter included) to suddenly feel paralyzed. A tall Ailor-looking woman completely clad in white, with white eyes, white hair and dark skin walked onto the scene with one Puretek Quarter-tek held up high, making paces as if in a duel with one arm bent behind her back towards Haqet. She aimed the Quartertek slowly down to Haqet's forehead, held the weapon there, and spoke in a very calm but stern tone: "A child of purity has called, and Mother has answered this defilement", before point-blank shooting Haqet in the face, after which everything went white for Haqet. Haqet wakes some time after on a boat back to Regalia, Coraveau shattered in pieces next to them, not hearing the voices anymore. Blutritter was with them, explaining that the thing immediately disappeared in a flash of white when it shot the Puretek at point-blank range, and Haqet immediately passed out. Blutritter said that they saw Coraveau snap into a dozen pieces, spraying the area like a scattershot, killing even some of the Poncaire constables. Blutritter then added they collected all the pieces in a hurry, along with Haqet who was unconscious, and had to flee the area, bringing them back to Regalia. It was also there that Haqet, if only for a moment, lingering from the effects of whatever it was that the woman did to the face, could feel everything, conscience, fear, anxiety. This did not last long however. A murder of ravens appeared, descending on the sword, picking up all the pieces and slowly putting it back together again, and as it mended, so did the voices return in Haqet's head, remarking that it was a close call, but that the Ravenlord is not defeated this easily. News of the Mother of Purity eventually reached Regalia, as some of the guards who witnessed it all lived to tell the tale, and spread news back to Regalia about a blessing from the Everwatcher (or so, they perceived it to be).
• House Litvinova pays the Abolition tax for Baldmark, in communication with the Szabadok. The slaves aren't strictly being let free, but rather, the Szabadok use a workaround or set of loopholes to transition them into entertainment slaves, and as such, can avoid having to set anyone free with recommendations of House Litvinova, but agree to let the physical labor be taken over by machines.
• House Litvinova finally sends 2 Wealth Tokens worth of money to Novak, with an attached letter to the people & House Novak:
  
  "To the people of Ceardenland, and Steerland,
  
  House Litvinova would like to offer our dearest apologies towards the recent actions of your Count Redomir Novak as of late. It seems as if he is far more concerned with foreign affairs instead of those in his own lands. Do not fret, for even if the Count has forgotten his own citizens, we have not. Please accept these regals as a reimbursement for such negligence. We strongly believe that your hard earned regals should not go to waste in such a way, especially towards our own Szabadokian lands who do not care for such actions, and will give nothing in return. It is our wish that the Count should take this act of kindness to heart and reevaluate his priorities, as they should be with his people, not in far away lands.
  
  And for House Novak,
  
  Please do be less reckless with your finances. There is no need to continue to buy the Szabadokian's support, it is simply an unattainable dream. It is time to wake up, and turn your focus back to your own lands and citizens. We assure you that the Citizens of Baldmark are in good, and capable hands. We hope this will be able to refund the money you lost, and therefore help you learn the lesson that it is not wise to mess eith other's lands with out permission, as there are consequences. Luckily for you, we are sparing you from such, by reimbursing your citizens' hard earned money. If you wish to enter our lands again without permission such kindnesses will not be given. If you wish for permission do come to speak with either the Countess or Baroness Litvinova first, we promise we do not bite.
  
  Warmest Regards,
  
  Countess Acelina Litvinova of Rumvalia."
  
  Needless to say, the local barons are in dismay, finding both House Novak's finances have been spent on a region halfway across the archipelago, and the fact that nearly every Novak government action in the region has been steered towards Litvinova lands instead of domestic pursuits. The Barons say that if Novak spends one more single Regal on things in Baldmark, that they will start witholding taxes and funds from House Novak altogether.

Carrhen

• Anathema, Rennyn and Lau travel to Carrhen and speak to the 3 Wolf-man prisoners that the Regalian army did not cull. The wolf-men were fairly candid: saying they were the true followers of Bannor (which the group knows as Basjtur) and that they are inflicting justice/punishment for the traitors as commanded by their god who appeared to them. They say that the clergy of the Rutgher Theocracy (their Ceardian Old Gods priests) were seduced by the Power Arken, and have been leading the people of Rutgher into a feverish attempt to sell their souls to the Power Arken, believing him to be the true Velheim/Ceardian/Old Gods patron who saved them all along while the Old Gods abandoned them. They say that they have at all turns attempted to kill those who betrayed the Gods, as the only way to stop them from offering their soul to the Power Arken, is to deny them the ritual death they aim for, and send them to imellomgård straight away. Unfortunately, they say Regalia bought into its own self-righteousness assuming they were the "bad ones" because they were killing people, ignoring Regalia's own rampant genocidal history, and basically created the perfect scenario for the deviant priests to do their work, while acting compliant and giving Regalia what it wants while they are just buying time to finish their work. They already don't care about the land anymore, and are just acting like the lost party so they can finish their work without being disturbed.
• Without state or diplomatic backing, Count Avox Petrou declares Rutgher annexed by the Regalian Empire and establishes martial law. Silverwind settlers are brought in and they start settling in the houses of the Rutgherites who died during the war, but no real riots or unrest happens anywhere. The Rutgher priesthood just gives in and steps aside from their rulership without any protest, Avox Petrou taking up martial rule in the capital.
• Faure and Dragic's armies sweep the Serman Duchy. There is nothing really to sweep however. The capital is a burning ruin, the Royal family is dead, and the army was oblitherated. The land is basically defenseless and occupied by Regalia.
• House Novak attempts to declare the annexation of the Rutgher Theocracy but is met with Avox Petrou's martial authority already having done so. All of their attempts to cleanse Vampires or retain peace turn out to be pointless because Petrou already took care of it all.
• Elewisa Peirgarten keeps up the blockade and attempts to use Volodomyr to track the wolf-pelt men, but finds that they have largely all been eradicated. There are no hidehouts, no holdouts. The wolf-pelt men are defeated.

Finances

• The Legal Finance Ministry pays off 31 wealth tokens to the Essaleia region, successfully eliminating industrial slavery.
• The Legal Finance Ministry pays off 16 wealth tokens to the Pannor region, successfully eliminating industrial slavery.
  
• House Abbansadi is billed (this needs to be paid manually) 15 Wealth Tokens for their part.
• House Valoaan is billed (this needs to be paid manually) 15 Wealth Tokens for their part.
  
• House van Hal is billed (this needs to be paid manually) 15 Wealth Tokens for their part.
  
• Petrou sends 3 Wealth Tokens to Mene'lainn.
• House Petrou army is mobilized to prepare for slavery abolition.
• House Nordhjem sends 2 Wealth tokens to House de Azcoissia for assistance from Hexenblood's members.
• House Abansaddi pays 2 wealth tokens in a failed bid to be unbanned from Daenshore.
• House von Schwarzkrau pays 10 Wealth Tokens to the Legal Finance Ministry. '
• Mene'lainn sends 2 wealth tokens to Narla.
• House Varcion pays 5 Wealth tokens to amy supplies.
• House Sorenvik loses 3 Wealth Tokens on the Buy-Unionist policy championed by Unionists.
• House de Azcoissia pays 1 Wealth token to Seishan Wei
• House de Azcoissia pays 1 Wealth token to Baskoro
• House de Azcoissia pays 1 Wealth token to Biki Gregorescu

The West

• Saren, Nefer, Amir, Imara app not updated, Masuki, Anathema and Ashenvarya travel to Ithania once more taking Mages with them this time. Immediately when entering the upper plateau, or making some progress into it, Anathema and Ashenvarya touch some grass and sense a dark aura with their magical empathy. Some time later after attuning with the presence of Magic in the area, they fail to explain exactly what it is, because the Magic present is so much more powerful than either of them had ever felt, that they couldn't comprehend the scope of it. They sense a certain, draw, like something is pulling from the north southwards with immense force, and it's still doing this. Amir, with his stupidly high Wisdom, comes up with a crackhead hypothesis: Ithania is generally speaking very fertile riverland/lakeland, the Ithanian desert is not on any sort of longitude or latitude to fit the equator desert-line, nor does any of the geography explain it even being there as the weather is still wet enough. The theory assumes that during the Dewamenet-Allorn War, the Allorn Mages used colossal Magic spells to completely suck the temperate climate out of the heartland of the Dewamenet Empire to desertify it and strangle Dewamenet food production with ecological collapse, drawing the wetness of the climate south to create a jungle barrier to prevent Dewamenet war-machines from crossing into Allorn territory as they were not capable of crossing lush jungle marshlands. If that theory could be verified in any way, the group may be looking at the single act that helped the Allorn win the Dewamenet War, by essentially destroying the Empire from the center and making it a dessicated desert, but it does not quite explain how the Dewamenet had such anti-desert technology on the Ashal Islands.
• Akurgal and Enheduanna Abansaddi travel to Pannoc where they ask the shamans for more stuff about the past of their religion, and to contact the dead. The Shamans however make some long diatribe about how faith and spirituality are not built on factual reason and historical perceptions, but on conviction and belief, and basically refuse to investigate or look into the past of their own religion, citing that religious doubt and skepticism is a "Regalian thing", and that people in Regalia love talking to a flying rock that tells them their religion isn't real, but that they don't want to entertain any level of scientific investigation into the founding principles and times of their religion.
• Akurgal, Atum and Mihaela travel to Daenshore to try and get House Abansaddi unbanned. The governor allows them in, takes the money, and then immediately kicked them out again while also extending the ban to House Litvinova and Morathes telling them in a fairly long list of expletives to fuck off and that if they try to come in next time again they will be imprisoned.
• Markus, Elewisa and Rhea travel to Ithania to rub shoulders with the aristocracy and give Ithania its naval military expertise for free essentially. Ithania's naval doctrines start copying Regalian styles and Ithania starts building its own respectable navy.
• Ashenvarya, Saren, Amaira, Harlow and Nefer travel to Avela Shishumar to visit the Dravinda statue. They arrive in the trade city, surprised to see the sheer amount of people out in the streets, Suvial Altalar, Eronidas, and Ithanians. The Suvial seem very interested in Saren, more specifically wondering if his hair is a mutation or real, many of them plucking at his fur and ears as they pass by in amazement, clearly never having seen an Asha. The group sees Dravinda's statue from a distance as close-up approach is not allowed by tourists, most of the house around Dravinda's statue having been turned into a tourist trap. The Void-Out still hung ominously in the sky, a large black sphere form which nothing escaped not even light or reflections, occasional sparks of red lighting dancing off of it even visible at such a distance. They roam around a bit in the bazaars with all its spices, magical gifts and lecture books. The locals are surprisingly un-racist to Nefer and Saren, Asha slaves seem entirely absent from this region. In fact slavery among the Suvial here seems generally kind of non-existent. The group glances an occasional flame-soul traveling about, familiars made out of fire in a humanoid form that are bound with magic, and basically act the role of servants gently dancing around as the flame does not actually touch the floor or anything for that matter. They find that Dravinda's spice is expensive, but are able to buy some of it each to bring home on just personal funds.

Hadar

• Mirabel, Baskoro, Etsu, Eric and Siralli travel to Batara's palace to crack out the good ole' espionage. Fairly early on however, before the group even has any success to land their spies, the iridescent Slizzar shows up, holding up a silver emblem in its hand silently before walking off. Eric immediately calls off the mission saying they "Should probably end here, or make an enemy out of Sassrakkand", and that they likely aren't interested in the group's help because they aren't Slizzar. The group then speaks with Batara about the nature of his ambitions. Batara indicates some diversions would have been needed early on because he expected people to come looking for Yaotl. His intentions are for Hadar to be unified under one stratified authority and be recognized as a heartland by Regalia. Batara indicates that he does not aim to work with Fumeripit.
• Digmaan Bathanga reveals his deception, having pretended to be a Yaotl loyalist all along, however as soon as Yaotl approached him to support Batara, he revealed himself to be a traitor all along using Yaotl's reputation to take control. He throws out in the open that Yaotl has been alive all along, and is using deception to eliminate his opposition. This does result in Sang Hyang Kersa supporting Yaotl and Batara, but making it very clear that he will continue sending supplies and food around and will not support any military action. As a result of polarization, Sang Hyang Kersa, Batara and Kabau's prior lands unite, while Bathanga and Fumeripit unite against the big fish. This was obviously going to happen at some point, all the Digmaan weren't going to tolerate just being ruled over by someone with a strong Juara. At some point, one Juara was going to get more success than the others could tolerate, and they would resort to military actions. Bathanga and Fumeripit launch an invasion of Kabau's old domain, using Ksat soldiers. As Batara and Yaotl mobilize their armies, Hadar has now officially entered a civil war stage.
• The following order to perform espionage on Fumeripit is bounced, as the group can no longer travel down and the situation has changed.
• Hadarian emissaries at the Regalian palace for both Fumeripit and Batara who are seen as the two major players lobby with the court and the government to keep out of it. Fumeripit's representatives say that they are cleansing Void worship from the Allar people, and that they will see intervention as a great insult. Batara's representatives say they are cleansing Sendrassian collaboration from the Allar people, and that intervention will give the Allar collectively an inferiority complex trauma for the next 30 years, and that if Regalia wants to see Allar as equals, they should let them solve their own problems.
• Towards the very end of it, Yaotl meets with the group(s) again, and is fairly frank and honest that Cro-Droq is not "as natural born from egg, but created by wish and will", that he is unnatural and made of the Void, and that he doesn't care. He explains that Batara is indeed a Void worshiper, and that Void Worship is present among his Allar, but that this is the same as the Kathar who exist in the Archipelago legally and worship the Void, and that this is miles apart from the people-sacrificing habits of the Sendrassians, and that this is also their best bet at creating unity for the Allar, because he himself and Droq are not Void Worshipers, despite the latter made of the stuff.