World Progression 2022 Period 12

This Thread will record all submitted Progressions as they are processed. Deadline for Period 12 is 29th of June, Midnight London Time. Submissions will be posted as replies until the Deadline is reached.

 

Rat Race for the Claw Wardens

The banana peel of 310 AC was about to unfold itself onto the tiny mountainous province of Kleaster, unremarkable, home to only a small convent, a few hamlets, and some dispersed abandoned townlets that were far removed from House van Fryse's power base. Crossing from the golden wheat fields of Goudvelde, Haqet and a troupe of Vampires and allies (as well as some disposable Vampire friends they made along the way) made a mad dash for the village of Berkenstrand, on the very end of the Kleaster peninsula, which they would aim to reach in less than an hour in gallop. The whole group had captured some horses in the adjacent province, assuming some kind of resistance and perhaps even anticipated movements from Haqet's enemies, but the amount was certainly something they could not have anticipated.

Immediately upon crossing the border, Bludritter remarked that it was odd that there were no border guards. Normally each province has at least a token borderguard to record travel between the regions, as locals traveled very little and so it was easier for the aldermen to tax travelers. Indeed, the further their horses raced, the more Kleaster just appeared abandoned. The town of Zuidklooster had no residents in it, not even a barking dog as they marched into town. Haqet might have felt the first pang of "this is going to be a long day", when they saw Silver appear on one of the roofs of the buildings, flanked by ever increasing numbers of Isldar Archon. Having used his spy network, Silver had contracted several Archon from Draackenrust further in Anglia and set up an ambush. Immediately and all around, arrows and ice javelins hailed down on the group, striking several disposable Vampires outright. Haqet commanded for an urgent breach through, reasoning that they still had the element of movement. They were outnumbered, but the Isldar were heavily armed, and they were on horseback, so the large troupe made a mad dash out of the town of Zuidklooster, with Isldar descending down on them left and right, spears and moon-glaives poised to strike. The group broke through, and evaded the Isldar ambush, though they would not so easily get rid of Silver who had mounted his Wyvern and was flying high above, stalking the group and alerting anyone so much as looking to the sky for their location.

The group galloped on, until they reached the forested valley of Kriessenwoud. Blutritter had a bad feeling about this particular stretch of the road, but they had no choice, as this was the only area where they could conceivably hide from Silver circling overhead, under the canopy. Indeed, he did seem to lose them, but the group had only walked from one element of surprise into another. Tesfa had been galloping next to the group on hooves, reared her nose into the sky before bellowing for the group to run as fast as they could. Before long, it became obvious what Tesfa had smelled that the rest of the group did not, from between the thick trees barreled a Silvershale, a massive white furred-gorilla that slammed into the middle of the line, throwing some Vampires clean off their horses. Immediately in its wake of knocked over trees galloped Revna, Tarlok, Seth, Quin, Tlalli all Url, barelling into the group also, grabbing horses by the necks and dragging their riders off one by one. The group started scattering in a panic as the Silvershale kept choralling them into random directions. Haqet quickly deployed caskets of Tirgunn plague for everyone, buying them enough time with the slowed and dazed Url and Silvershale to make a run for it once more, but yet again, the group had been thinned out.

As the group rode out of the forest, Silver's Wyvern shrieked high up in the sky, to Haqet and other's annoyance, it could not be reached with any ranged weapons or Magic. They were not alone as they left the forest however. Behind them were five riders on black horses, clad in black leather robes and the distinct black pointed hat of the Darkwald Order, Darkwald Riders. The riders raised up what looked like Muskete Rifles, however these barrels held no normal ammunition. Streams of golden light erupted from them, like molten lava but with such great speed that when it punctured through the still remaining numbers of disposable Vampires that their entire body erupted into flames as if they were being burned from the inside. Haqet knew then and there that this was not a chase they could easily run from, and so turned around on the horse, Coraveay turning into a rifle in turn, and shot several horses of the disposable Vampire riders behind them. The horses tumbled, the Vampires flew off, but this causes enough of a barricade for the Darkwald Riders to rein in their horses and break off the chase, or risk tripping over the horses that were killed and being beset upon by the Vampires that were now on foot. They raised their rifles again and dispatched the Vampires on foot, but broke off the chase, allowing Haqet and the remainder to ride up to the town of Poortburg.

Poortburg also was completely empty. No citizens, all doors padlocked. When they rode into town, they considered staying for a moment, but Haqet Blutritter quickly called them to attention when they saw two armor-clad brutes standing by the exit gate of the town, resting their hands on their greatswords as if they were mere statues. Blutritter tried to urge the group the other way, but Vampire vanity got the best of Vallerik and the other Vampire casters, who got off their horsesand prepared a barrage of spells, certain to take down two mere opponents. Those two armored brutes raised their swords aimed forward and marched towards them, not even charging, a mere slow but heavy pace, with each foot step thudding into the ground and the metal clanking together on all the smooth and rough edges. Sure enough, the Vampires unleashed a barrage of spells, bloodfire and void hail, and the two armored brutes just shrugged it off. The magic just bounced off their polished black and gold-plated armor. At this point it was far too late when Vallerik realized the reason why one does not challenge the Imperial Guards, one started a running charge, his great sword to the side, before he landed a slamming punch right into Vallerik's mouth. The last Vallerik saw before his sight went black was two Silven eyes staring at him from behind the helmet's visor. The others were quick to respond, other Vampires jumped down to help, a few jumped at the guards from their sides but the Imperial Guards just did not seem to care. They grabbed Vampires from the air and cleaved them in half before they even landed. Luckily they were so busy dispatching the other Vampires that Jip could ride up to Vallerik, quickly pick him up and charge off. The group left those few Vampires behind who were getting terminator'd by those two Imperial Guards, with Blutritter cursing that they should have listened to him the first time, but that this was also very bad news, because it means the Emperor knew what they were doing, which means everyone knew what they were doing. Indeed, unbeknownst to the group, Countess Rowena van Fryse had gone to the Palace to report about the slew of activity in Kleaster, and the Emperor had sent these two Imperial Guards to investigate.

The group marched on, only to be beset by the next assault, though they would easier get away from this one. From the forested side of the road, hordes of van Fryse soldiers charged down the hill at the galloping Vampires, higher up the hill was Laurent van Fryse on the back of a horse. These soldiers had been sent in to patch up and clean up any straggling Vampires, and the sighting here also made sense: House van Fryse had evacuated the relatively sparsely populated Kleaster, and simply let a bunch of Haqet-unfriendly groups do whatever they wanted on the road, and it turned out to be the biggest gathering fiesta of groups that had been seen in a long time. Jip urged the rest of the group on, taking Vallerik and the wounded in a different direction, feeling confident that they could shake off the large van Fryse army and then make their escape. Indeed, they did, returning with the wounded back to Regalia a few days later, and buying Haqet, Blutritter, and the remaining Vampires some time to reach Berkenstrand.

Berkenstrand however was obviously going to have yet another ambush waiting for them, and the defense had saved the best for last. Cordenia, Medea, Jocelyn, Rangira, Maiyusa, Lynmard, Elmyra, Elena, Calibur, Lyonel and Allisa had Ley-transported ahead of everyone else to Berkenstrand and set up the final defensive line there for the Vampire group that had now been wittled down to less than a third the group that crossed into Kleaster. Immediately both groups broke into conflict, Medea pelting ice magic at Haqet with frustrated snarls, Cordenia and Jocelyn bending Dragon Magic to wittle down Haqet's disposable Vampires, and the others chasing down Haqet's faithful. Haqet knew this was a battle they likely weren't going to win, because the other groups (and Swyftfurusat who now came crashing down on his Wyvern and joined the fight) were still chasing them, and if they got held down in this fight for merely 20 minutes too long, they would be completely overwhelmed. Blutritter was already ahead of Haqet's thought process however, and had broken off the fight to charge through the abandoned town of Berkenstrand with Cecil, to the end of town where the supposed Archive of the Claw Wardens was located.

It was here that they realized their ultimate folly of (presumably) mis-communication. There was a reason that the Soulcore of the Orrorey had identified the /Ruins/ of the Claw Wardens Archive, something that was perhaps not communicated to Haqet by the hackers of the Orrorey who were very objective-oriented. There was nothing there. A vague outline of a foundation that had once stood there, Cecil could make out the stairs up to the building, the main hallway, and corridors that lead out to what he presumed were archive rooms, but the whole building was just gone, and it looked like it had been cleanly demolished. Blutritter cursed to himself, wondering why anyone had thought this would be any different. Surely if the presumption that the Emperor was the last Claw Warden had been correct, why would he, the man who engages in the highest octaves of politics, just leave an archive with incriminating evidence of his membership to some Occult organization sitting out in the open in such a badly defended location? Why would the man who co-orchestrated the Regalian Senate signing itself out of office be so stupid as to leave occult details about his own family and himself out in the open? Surely, the Emperor who was known to love collecting books and artifacts and locking them up in the safest place in the whole world: The Imperial Palace, would not be such a fool to just abandon his family's legacy to a dingy old archive where anyone could simply stroll in and steal all of its works. Sure enough, the building had been dismantled decades ago, not even with violence or disdain, but very calmly and orderly. The bricks had been removed cleanly and re-used to fortify the buildings around town. The only thing that still remained on the site was the badly overgrown and mossed-up insignia of the Claw Wardens, a stone carving of a Dragon claw on a blank shield.

This whole trip had been a disaster from start to finish, while the original group was still intact, they lost nearly all of their Anglian minions they had recruited along the way, and they had nothing to show for. Blutritter signaled their final retreat, and while they all got away (minus the disposable ones who cursed Haqet before being slain), Anglia would prove too hot for them to return anytime soon. The Crystal Spires of Draackenrust were now watching for them, and House van Fryse had established routine hunters to eradicate any sign of Vampirism in the area, while the Darkwald Riders also combed their way south. Indeed, even Hengest Harhold had come out of hiding in Vlissinghelm with his Unionist "clean-up service" to rid the south of Anglia of Vampires, and for the first time in nearly 50 years, Anglia was safe from Vampires.

(I know there were other orders, but this one was too good not to write out in full form, other orders to be processed tomorrow or otherwise) All information is public knowledge (except Rowena going to the Palace, only van Fryse would hear), with van Fryse soldiers gossiping about all the events back to Regalia.

 

Finances

• House Morathes pays 7 WT to Ta'leos Necratos
• House von Schwarzkray 10 WT to Legal Finance
• House Peirgarten 15 WT to Legal Finance
• House Peirgarten 3 WT to Civics Ministry
• Reminder van Hal AGAIN to pay 15 tokens (it's been 2 cycles of no payment)
• Reminder du Poncaire to pay 15 to finance ministry
• Reminder van Fryse to pay 15 to finance ministry
• Bill Novak 15 to finance ministry (this bill is not auto-paid, must be specified in orders)
• Bill Petrou 15 to finance ministry (this bill is not auto-paid, must be specified in orders)
• Bbill Dragic 5 to finance ministry (this bill is not auto-paid, must be specified in orders)
• Bill Sorenvik 5 to finance ministry (this bill is not auto-paid, must be specified in orders)
• Bill Vuhnrnirn 5 to finance ministry (this bill is not auto-paid, must be specified in orders)
• Bill Di Civita 5 to finance ministry (this bill is not auto-paid, must be specified in orders)
• Bill Viduggla 5 to finance ministry (this bill is not auto-paid, must be specified in orders)
  
• Finance Ministry pays 12 WT to abolish slavery in San Dirva.
• Finance Ministry pays 10 WT to abolish slavery in Lorenthaus.
• House Petrou pays 7 WT to Erwin Braunschweiger.
• House di Civita pays 10 WT to Naajy Al-Makir
• House di Civita pays 2 WT to Liborio dei Vesucii
• House di Civita pays 2 WT to Silver Swyftfurusat.

Imperial Somnery

• Madelyn de Azcoissia Somneries her way to pressure the court to solve the Velheim situation in a financial manner by solving Education and Finances in the North, but does not specify exact plans for them, but they lean the court in that direction.
• Wilvamair Arnyn Somneries his way to pressure the court to solve the Velheim situation in a financial manner by solving Education and Finances in the North, but does not specify exact plans for them, but they lean the court in that direction. Also he catches a winky-face from Noor Kade.
• House Sorenvik Somneries that there is a strong case to be made that there is no violent urge in the North currently, and that the north is very un-cohesive. They also Somnery implications that problems can be solved with education and financial investment, a noise that is echoed by de Azcoissia and Arnyn.
• The Somnery seems to be moving into a second phase, the court generally rummages around the idea of education and economic salvation, but there is a very great deal of differing opinions between the many Princes on how to solve the situation. Just outright investment from the south to the North seems to not be an option, not at least without massive concessions from the North that they are unlikely willing to make. As such, the general sentiments of the Princes and their express ideas is summarized as such:
  • On the Unionist-Racical side:
    • Justinian's stance is radical legalism, which just reduced Drixagh to a colony:
      
      • Strip the North of the right to make unilateral laws without the Emperor's approval, and then forcibly rescind all anti-Unionist laws and provide greater privileges for a Unionist settlement scheme, essentially treating the North like a colony.
      • Justinian Claims that the Old Gods faith and Velheim culture themselves are un-productive, un-capitalistic, anti-progress and anti-economic. He claims that the nature of traditional Velheim living makes education pointless and Old Gods practices of sacrificing hunted animals is a waste of economic resources.
      • Justinian Claims that the matter of economic investment and education investment is pointless on a people who resist the very idea of learning how to write and not discarding a pelt that can be sold on a powerless god, instead saying that the only way the north can be fiscally saved is by creating an upper class of Unionist Regal colonists who force the population to become productive.
    • William-Friso has no stance yet.
  • On the more militant leaning side:
    • Aliandre's stance is military purpose driven pride replacement of tradition:
      
      • Strip the North of its right to make unilateral laws, but fall short of creating an upper class of privileged Unionists. She does not want the north to be devolved to a Colony.
      • Aliandre claims that the situation in the North is a consequence of societal trauma that they still haven't resolved, and that the Velheim people have nothing to be proud of because they don't achieve anything and only exist as a footnote to Regalian history as a conquered people who won't accept they lost.
      • Aliandre claims that the military will bring pride and purpose to the Velheim people, and by installing a forced-conscription scheme on the North, many of the Velheimers can be taught discipline and structure in their lives, and be given very lucrative wages and subsidies in return for their military service.
      • Her claim is essentially that Nordskag is an ideal: A state that has pride in its military relevance to the Empire, and that when the Drixagh people have a purpose in life other than just being a minor inconvenience to the Empire's cohesion, they will stop being so banal about every minor legal convention.
    • Frederick has no stance yet.
      
    • Juliana has no stance yet.
      
    • Amalia has no stance yet.
  • On the more Progressive leaning side:
    • Constantine's stance is one called favor for favor, with a compromising attitude:
      
      • He does not want to change anything legally speaking in the north, but encourage a council of capitalist and aristocrats from the heartlands and greater Calemberg region to drive concessions for individual rewards.
      • Constantine claims that the issues of the North are too big to solve in a single package, and that each point (like Unionist Missionaries) should be solved with an incentive, but that generally speaking the Velheim people should expect concession in return for reward.
      • Constantine claims that if the people feel like they were able to bargain a point, that they will be more willing to swallow the hard concessions because at least they had a role in the matter, though he points out that the conceding willingness will have to come from the leaders, as without enforcing the need for a genuine solution, any talks and compromises will simply strand before they take off.
      • His first and simplest proposal is that the NDF is re-established as a quid-pro-quo, asking that all Drixagh realms remove any restrictions of Unionist missionaries, and removes any and all laws that ban or enforce religious teachings to children, in exchange for forcing the state to financially invest in the north, that the south will buy their right to exist in the north, and that the north will concede on losing some of their population to Unionism and can't force themselves on Unionist families, in exchange for a better standard of living. He says the primary concern right now is to stem the tide of Unionist emigreés.
    • Raymond has no stance yet.
    • Noor has no stance yet.
      
    • Shelia Manon has no stance yet.
  • On the Centrist leaning side:
    • Cedromar's stance is one called population dissemination, which is quite radical:
      
      • Cedromar believes that the issues of the North will never be solved so long as their people will cling to a xenophobic ignorant attitude that is enforced by ethno-determinism by their rulers.
      • Cedromar believes that in order to solve the general wellbeing of the Velheim people, an exchange of population should be done. He claims that the Anglian Old Gods worshipers who fled north almost a decade ago are actually thriving, claiming that the combination of the Old Gods faith and the Velheim cultural customs are a mutually toxifying combination that prevents them from being able to appreciate the concept of diversity, and that in that closed-mindedness, they aren't actually looking for solutions.
      • His plan proposes forcibly re-settling hundreds of thousands of Velheimers to fertile regions in Anglia, wealthy mining regions in Montania, and wine-cultivating regions in Bragacao that are all relatively sparcely populated. He says that in exchange, large populations of Anglians, Dressalo and Daen people should be settled in Drixagh to dilute the extreme cultural domination of Velheim, and create sizeable populations. He claims that the goal should be detaching at least 30% of the current Drixagh population and disperse them over the Archipelago.
      • His claim is that not only will these forcibly resettled Velheim people (who don't have to fear anti Old Gods laws in the lands they will be settled) will have better lives in milder climates with better soil, thje influx of cultural diversity, knowledge, and education in the north will force the Velheim people to cooperate with a sudden large portion of their population, thus creating a situation of necessity vs. oppression or compromise.
      • He also claims that these other regions in turn can be diversified and made more productive with Velheim populations urbanizing, and also familiarizing their populations with more Velheim familiarity, thus also making the south less ignorant to the Velheim people.
    • Reynaud has no stance yet.
    • Dominic has no stance yet.
    • Francis has no stance yet.
  • On the Velheim leaning side:
    • Henry's stance is realistic survival:
      • He doesn't really have a general plan to deal with any of this, but makes a general sentiment that Velheim culture and customs deserve to be preserved, but that at the current rate there are only two outcomes:
        • One, the Velheim lands who have always had a slow population growth because of slow food production will be rapidly out-bred by the south and eventually become a minority worth even less than the Kathar in the west of the Archipelago who reproduce by factor of nearly 300% higher than the Velheim. This means that the Velheim traditions and customs will eventually simply die out because there won't be any people left to remember them, bar from a few tribes in snowy wastelands. This future is one he does not want.
        • Two, the Velheim people think real hard about what aspects of their culture they like and want to hold onto, and integrate them into Regalia, or re-contextualize them in a way that creates a distinct break with past sentiments. He says, enfin, the last 3 centuries have been shit up shit's creek, and decisions were made by the Skagger Horde and subsequent Jarls that simply cannot be undone. The point of preservation was 70 years ago, it came, and it passed, and it is too late now. He acknowledges that he is basically just a modern cultural colonizer, he was born in Anglia, at some point converted to Old Gods, and just kind of got away with it, but that he can never call himself genuinely Velheim. He picked the parts of Velheim culture he liked and appreciated and adopted them into his personality, but also claims there are still plenty of Anglian habits in him purely from birth. He is a living example of the fact that it is possible to exist in the Regalian Empire and in a Regal-styled family while holding onto Velheim customs that are not his own, he merely adopted them, but he thinks there will be more people like him if the Velheim just culturally diverged. He finalizes his thought by saying that Culture is not a monolith, and that someone can still respect their ancestors with a tradition that honors their name without specifically rubbing their face in deer's blood or insisting on quite /that/ specific color of tattoo.
    • Ariane has no stance yet.
  • Taldemarr is absent, and will not be part of the Somnery.
  • Leah is absent, and will not be part of the Somnery.
  • Renly is absent, and will not be part of the Somnery.
  • Xander is absent, and will not be part of the Somnery.
  • Thomas is absent, and will not be part of the Somnery.
  • Duncan is absent, and will not be part of the Somnery.
  • Valdis is absent, and will not be part of the Somnery.

Ellador

• Revna, Tarlok, Seth, Nico, Reynard, Llaevryn, Magnus, Quin, Tlalli travel to Hedryll to go on a Vampire hunting spree. They round up a few dozen fairly easily, but note that there essentially aren't that many Vampires present in Hedryll for whatever reason. The Hedryllians indicate that with Regalia pulling its Maarket Colonial Charter out of Ellador and evacuating its citizens, that there is now a buffer of no-man's land, and beyond that two Isldar states between them and the Dorkarthi Vampires. The fact that there are no Ailor present in that no-man's land is actually a blessing, because it means the Vampires cannot reasonably reach Hedryll without incurring attrition from slow-movement through the snowy highlands, while having no blood available on travel. So the group eventually returns home after a successful hunt.

Hadar

• Harta, Saranamual, Citra, Siralli, Roro and Eko (I think Vegemiite retired this character?) travel to Hadar first to Fumeripit's lands then Batara to discuss Heartland situations. The Digmaans sign quite easily, but also note that the situation regarding private militaries has already developed, stating that heartland sovereigns are permitted militaries because they are not feudal Dukes. However, the point of the Digmaan liberties is still up for contention ofcourse. They suspect many of the smaller Digmaan, particularly the weaker ones will fall in line, but that the richer and more powerful ones will not, and will put up resistance, probably violently. They say that Hadar probably has to bite one final bullet and get assistance from Imperial Legions to secure their co-operation, but that in the meantime, the civil-war must be resolved first so that Hadar can prove it can at least solve some problems itself. There is no Slizzar involvement found anywhere in the civil war, if anything the implication is that they generally supported the triumvirate but had their own motivations for wanting it to succeed. There's some inferrence towards Cro-Droq present also, but it's really hard to actually send Slizzar to out-Slizzar other Slizzar without those Slizzar specifically signing off that futher investigation will probably make them targets for reprisals from the other Slizzar. Slizzar issue warnings only once.

Regalia

• House Dragic hosts a grand summer festival in Kyizamok with several fighting displays and a penultimate fighting tournament to scout out warriors for the new Ducal Guard. House Dragic finds a few suitable members in the higher fighting echelons. Not much more to say about it, the pious Kyizamok and surrounding lands people go straight back to their fields afterwards.
• Rudolf Adler and Riftan Dragic deploy 5 Legions to surpress any riots in San Selin on account of slavery abolition.
• Lupin Lomstedt, Erwin Braunschweiger and Hans Nowotny deploy 5 Imperial Legions to San Girobalda to surpress any riots on account of slavery abolition, and 5 to San Mataverda. (In the future each general should send their own order, one general cannot order two separate forces).
• Viviwynne Guentyr, Aldane Guentyr and Lynmard Lomstedt deploy 5 Legions to Osteiermark to counter rebel activity on account of slavery abolition.
• The Regalian military did the very thing the US government could not post Civil War by keeping their soldiers present to crack down on the slavers, thus preventing any and all Jim Crow type Laws from rising in the south.

Calemberg

• Lynmar, Lavani and Anshula return to Calemberg to continue their investigation. The trail on the Ceroscope of Cadar runs relatively cold, whatever information they can find re-iterates that the artifact disappeared when House Falkenreich fell from grace, there is a heavy implication in fact that it was lost in the war in Hadar, but more likely was impounded by the Palace, or gifted to the palace. Whatever whispers and rumors they pick up on however, say not that the artifact itself is that interesting, but the circumstances of the Pine wardens and the final fate of Rianne Cadar, information that they claim House von Drachenburg and Falkenreich surpressed from becoming public, but not knowing exactly what. And that the only way to find out, is probably to get von Drachenburg to spill, or to find the Vampire formerly known as Reimar von Falkenreich who is still at large.

Kintyr

• Cecil investigates the Ruined Sepulchre in Coltyr using his Progression special to sense Magic, except he senses no Magic. Which usually means it's either Ordial or Primal. And given there was crystal residue, Cecil makes the quick conclusion "wait, this place was probably raided by the Homeswarm to retrieve a Maraya Artifact, ergo there was crystal residue coming from the sky since the homeswarm is in the sky and it fires down projectiles made of crystals. He felt really clever and went home.

Valadia

• Dietrich von Drachenburg makes a large order of Puretek from the Belliard guild, getting them fully packed up and given to him for free because he claims it is for a good cause to get rid of "scum". Dietrich von Drachenburg then takes a small ship to Valladia, travels to the Sunnan Velheim and just starts handing out Puretek to the natives, while instructing them on how to use it. The Sunnan Velheim now have Puretek rifles and handguns, with the consequences probably felt somewhere down the line...
• Anathema, Tuija, Laurel, Amir and Bennet try to reach the Markaarr tribe, however with Dietrich von Drachenburg's WMD deployment on the natives, they are unable to reach them. The whole of the Sunnan Velheim have descended into a massive region-spanning conflict fueled by Puretek weapons that is making travel difficult, if not impossible with hostile tribes moving about. In order to avoid blowing their cover (disguises and the like) or get caught in the conflict, the group returns to Regalia without inquiring their investigation.

Hexenblood Shenanigans

• Ashenvarya, Xaella, Amir, Cecil, Argo, and Anathema travel to Torse first, where Amir uses blueprints (uwu, how did they get those???) of the Alaru Addir, a special weapon developed by the Palace and its Qadir allies to destroy Bone Horrors, and fires it on a bone horror to indeed re-verify that the weapon was made to destroy bone horrors, which is exactly is capable of, and does. This time however, there are other Mages present:
  • Cecil can't feel a thing when the Bone Horror dies, which is peculiar because the notion has always been held that Bone Horrors were tied together by Exist Magic. He thus has to conclude that what made them is Primal or Ordial.
  • Xaella detects something, extremely faint, but the implication is that there is something Ordial there. However, Xaella is unable to pinpoint exactly what it is, but is able to verify it absolutely is not the Malefica or the Hunter.
• The Mages also investigate the Alaru Addir.
  • Cecil feels nothing, because it's a piece of metal made with engineering and technology similar to Puretek which is simply not understood outside of a select group of people who guard their secrets closely.
  • Xaella equally cannot distinguish anything from the weapon either, but remarks that the weapon makes her feel uneasy. Not in the sense that it is dangerous, but when she looks at it from close-by she can feel her mind wandering or her vision becoming uneven like her exact perception of reality around her is shifting ever so slightly, an out of body experience.
• They travel to the Curag Fields, where some Regalian soldiers just finished putting up a stele monument to commemorate the dead. In fact, the colonists have started building a coastal fort in the area called Fort Curaggen.
  • Xaella communicates with some dead, but isn't really able to distinguish anything useful. The dead of Arlora reveal little, the only thing that can be established as certainty is that the soldier and rank of the Arloran King did not know about their King's plan and had no idea what the Midnight Court was, and obviously Regalians were none of the wiser.
  • Cecil this time can definitely smell the distinct odor of Arken on the air. Lots of them. A great many lots of them in fact, almost entirely Void oriented, and a heavy twinge of Exist also, but not any particular "odor" that he has ever sensed before, and it feels off somehow.
  • Cecil can definitely distinguish some sort of portal to a pocket dimension but remarks it's probably not a good idea to try and open it or figure out where it leads, on account of Arken having trapped whatever the alleged-Estel was in there, and opening it up might result in it breaking out if it is still alive.
• (elsewhere, so as not to disturb the Regalians in the area) Xaella summons an Ordial zombie, and Amir immediately clocks it with the Alaru Addir.
  • The zombie immediately collapses, its bodily cohesion destroyed. Xaella can't really distinguish exactly what happens, but remarks it felt like her grasp, the thing that allows her to command the entity to remain rooted in Aloria, just got severed, and that the corpse is in a blind-spot where she can't put new stuff into it to re-animate it until they drag the corpse out of the immediate 3foot area it collapsed in.
• The group goes home.

Carrhen Continent

• Haqet, Bludritter, Ringmaster, Vallerik and Scrybe travel to the Soren Kingdom, and while they are able to smuggle themselves into the Kingdom with great effort, any attempt to breach into Rutgher proper seems impossible, Avox Petrou's blockade is still up and any movement is likely to draw a great deal of attention, so instead they resort to just fulfilling their objectives in Soren. Their meeting with the Vampire king does not go quite as expected, rather, there is no Vampire king to speak of. The group having ignored Soren for so long since their first interaction and infection of the Kingdom has caused much of the hypothetical order and structure that Bludritter brought to the region to collapse. Simpler put, while Bludritter and Haqet were absent, the fledgeling Vampires did what fledgeling Vampires do best: flail around, slurp up the entire blood supply, and then become weak or die from lack of blood. The rabidness of the locals has caused a virile Fahlsa infection (a state in which Vampires become rabid as if infected with rabies and no longer capable of comprehensive reason). The state is in an effective point of near-collapse and at this point just waiting for Regalia to come clean up house, as the critical window of opportunity to set up a strong stable Vampire control over the region had come and passed. What little Vampires there are capable of reason with Haqet and the group insist that Soren is a lost cause and that regalia has built an iron cage around them. Even if they try to break the blockade it will cause them to lose massive numbers to break through, and then immediately get caught up by the huge Legion presence. They are rats in a cage right now, and imply that the best course of action would be to just cut losses in Soren, try to get as many Vampires out, and move them to a location where Regalia won't immediately curb stomp them.
• Avox Petrou levies a 3 month ban on exiting the continent even when the blockade ends, with offers of citizenship and grants of land for those who stay, with an additional emigration tax for anyone trying to leave. The sheer tyrannical nature of the legislation causes immediate outrage from a population that was already pushed to the brink after having been trapped in Soren for weeks by uncaring Regalians, finally let pass, only to be told that despite being foreigners who just want passage, they now also have to pay a tax for leaving as a tax for purely surviving. The outrage boils over to such a point that exasperation makes place for violent desperation, the Soren people having essentially just barely survived Soren, many of them having no money and actually no food income besides foraging from berry bushes and some charity from local missionaries, that they either have to settle to become subjects in a land that makes them miserable, pay a tax with money they don't have to leave, and wait for a period that will cause them to starve. With Regalia essentially instituting a death-tax on the Soren people, they immediately revolt, seize onto whatever weapons left by the chaos of the previous war, and start burning up New Silverwind from the inside, as the city is sacked in and out with the local guards being too spread out and unprepared to handle the sudden outburst of anger and pure desperation of a people who know that they are basically already dead men walking. The Soren people aren't strictly murderous but they loot and pillage anything they can get their hands on, food stores, money coffers, the idea being "if he wants to tax us, we'll pay him with his own blood money, the soul-les tyrant". Graffiti of Avox Petrou feeding babies to rabid Vampires quickly starts popping up all over the state wherever Soren refugees are numerous, and in some places, in greater number than the Silverwind settler locals. The Soren rioters also free the soldiers that were interned following their defeat at the hands of Regalian legions, thus swelling their numbers of people anguished to leave, making the New Silverwind people very nervous that their desperation might turn murderous soon and target them.
• Trajan Novak supported by Amalie, Miomyr and Theotyr deploy 5 Imperial legions to sally into Soren, using the relative collapse of its Vampire-order to march on the capital. Aleksandra Dragic, supported by Sihn-Nilolok, Sihn Llaevvryn, Va'la, Paedon and Birrani do the same, cleaning up Vampire stragglers along the way before setting up another 5 Legions to besiege the capital of Soren. Said capital is now under siege, and camps are set up. The message is once again reinforced to Haqet: with 70,000+ Regalian soldiers breathing down on the Soren capital and surrounding regions, there is nothing even Coraveau could do to change the tide, and that this was inevitable, and to just save as many Vampires as possible and invest them somewhere weaker.
• While Trajan Novak does settle in a siege, he loses several hundreds of soldiers along the way. His orders were already known by the Vampires before he even moved his troops up, and Haqet was present to help what little resistance there was along the way to ambush more and more Regalian soldiers, thus causing casualties while losing little themselves, though not enough to slow down Trajan's eventual siege.
• Avox Petrou is sighted at various skirmishes in the Serman Duchy, the Milat Duchy, the Utteran Kingdom, with a rabble of Regalian soldiers and very obvious Vampires, attacking locals, attacking border stations, and small towns close to the borders. These states lodge several severe escalated complaints to the Consuls of the Regalian Empire that Avox Petrou is violating the treaties these states have with the Regalian Empire, and demanding reparations for the killed families, burned villages, and dead soldiers.

Ithania

• Ta'leos, Ania, Koko, Mikhael, Kelemvor, Bremen and Madeline travel to Ithania, using a fleet of Necrotech drones and a Clockwork Centicuttler to travel through the Jungle (and leave a trail of damage to the fauna behind them as the scutter just plows through the trees and greenery). They attempt to search for engineering constructs, but find none. They attempt to find bones, but find none. They attempt to discover magical energies, but don't have the dimensional alignment or the right skills to do so, as most of them are Ordial planar. The conclusion essentially bocomes "whatever this area is, this was not part of the Dewamenet Empire, and if they wanted to scavenge something they should contend with the Ithanian Army and laws in the deserts north of the jungle. Furthermore, they wouldn't find any bones, since whatever conflict took place here happened over 1000 if not 1500 years ago, and jungles aren't exactly great environments to preserve anything, meaning any Dewamenet machines that might have once been there, have completely corroded to nothingness on account of the near 90% humidity at near all times of the day. The group goes home.

Daenshore

• Madelyn de Azcoissia takes Santiago de Azcoissia and travels to Daenshore to meet with the governor, who is naturally already annoyed that the state sent another government official to the Governorate. There is all manner of diplomacy that goes back and forth, with a final rough settlement that de Azcoissia promises army funding and supplies. The Governor however seems disinterested, and makes a general overture that the Daen province is more than capable of defending itself through its Fuego militia, and for normalization of relations demands the following:
  • Exception from all Slavery laws (which would tacitly permit them to re-enslave Eronidas and Asha) (This can only be done by the Legal Finance Minister since Slavery is considered a property right and thus fiscal)
  • Not Heartland Status, but an equivalent status of Ithania before Heartland that acknowledges their right for Daen Law provisions, and for Daen subjects to be treated under Daen Law instead of State law where inside Daen territories. (this can be done either by Imperial Audience, but the Emperor is likely to reject this outright, or by signature from all current Ministers as approving)
  • Retention of Military Access rights, meaning Imperial Legions cannot move through Daen without express approval of the Governor in consultation. (this is something that only the War Minister can sign off on).
• They also make a quick stop-over at the Asha states, and hand the plans of the Lance Chariot superweapon to the Ashal States "because lol", the Earaba, a fast moving machina with a large lance carried on its back that delivers long-distance artillery shots, far beyond any of the war-machine capabilities of what the Asha currently have, sans the lance part, but the Asha are quick to on-board it and develop their own artillery sets that were not included in the plans. The furries smirk. Madelyn de Azcoissia smirks. The Elves are going to have a bad day.

 

Somewhere, in a land far far away, Maelstrom screamed at waking up gray. Every Manathar suddenly woke up the next morning (except those night-owls who had stayed up at night) in their pre-Manathar appearance, Pride's Magic having waned away. Many would not know why or how, but eventually some of them would figure out by talking to Pride cultists and those able to commune with the Arken that the Pride Arken had finally had enough and simply disbanded the Magic that he used to fueled the Manathar. As such, the Manathar were no more, but the Arken also refused to elaborate or explain. The general sentiment eventually became that the Pride Arken had simply been disappointed by the Manathar, that they failed to live up to his expectations, that he could not be proud of them, and that by Griffin's grace they were lucky that he didn't do what he would usually do when his children disappointed him.

 

Regalia

• House Vehnreniirn sends large groups of Kathar from their region in the Archipelago in the west to Drixagh, sprinkled between Nordhjem, Sorenvik and Viduggla lands, causing immediate social unrest as non-Ailor non-Old Gods immigrants start settling and practicing Void Worship. With the recent scare of Power Arken worship among Ruttgher immigrants, the local (Unionist) Barons raise the alarm bells that this is a concerning development that begs some response from the Nobles, because Unionist missionaries are banned from the north, but these Kathar are /very/ intent on teaching the Velheim people around them the benefits of Void Worship.

Somnery:

• Wilvamair Arnyn and Magnus Rashida somnery their way around. Wilvamair also tries to stay in oblique sight of Noor Kade as much as he can, while retaining court respectability. At first this does not work, but eventually Noor whispers something to a nearby court lady, the Baroness of Mollatreux, who does eventually approach Wilvamair and tells him that the Princess has two hobbies, and that the Knight Arnyn might be able to help her with both, if he would be so inclined. She asks that Wilvamair acquire "one metal for each the four corners of the wind, and then one item that he thinks has meaning to him, and one item that he think could have meaning to Noor, and to deliver them to the Palace, and that there would be something in it for him.
• Other Somnery stuff is on the Diet thread: https://forums.massivecraft.com/threads/drixagh-diet-status.100857/
• Tujia Nordhjem announces her conversion to Dogmatic Unionism, and immediately cancels all bans on Unionist Missionaries who once again start flooding into her lands. The flip flopping immediately causes civil unrest, but because there was already Imperial Legions stationed in the lands, they are able to intercept any problems from spilling into violence. The migratory pull of Unionists from Nordhjem lands immediately ends, and reverses, with the migrants moving away from Dragic lands from Sorenvik and Viduggla lands, and instead moving to Nordhjem lands, while also accelerating the proces.

Carrhen:

• Howland von Schwarzkrau travels to Petrou's fleet to inquire with the officers, who verify that Avox Petrou was not with the fleet "the entire time"; because that would have implied that he wasn't able to issue orders over the New Silverwind region. In order for him to issue orders to this annexed realm, he would have had to be on land, and he was indeed on land. (this may be an ooc misunderstanding, if a fleet has passive orders, the "leader" is not ever really present, so for Avox to issue orders to his micro state, he would have to be on land). But the officers do say that while the claim he was on the ships the entire time is incorrect, they can verify that he was present around his officers the entire time, and that they can verify wherever he went in New Silverwind and the fleet and the ports, and never anywhere near the borders of those states north.
• The Siege of the Soren capital continues. The Legions are as of yet unable to breach the city walls, unlike Rutgher, where the internal chaos left the capital wide open.
• Howland, Carmen, Cadwyn, Wilvamair, Jugo, Andrei, Riften, Halston, Wynnstan and Humaira campaign to Carrhen to do Vampire hunting by landing in Serman. Serman is a wretched place, most of the villages they pass through are completely burned down with dead cattle in the fields rotting and some beggars in the streets. The capital is even worse off with most of defensive structures completely destroyed, not even by Regalia's hands because Regalia just walked in and captured it after the previous sacking armies pillaged the country. No Vampires are found anywhere in Serman. This group then also ventures into Milat and Utteran, where they equally find no Vampires. Despite Howland's "apologies after the fact", the reality that ten heavily armored Regalian knights just went on a strolling expedition past the borderlands without formal approval or ahead-notice following the alleged skirmish by Avox Petrou, escalates the situation to where both states are under the impression that they are now being scouted for invasion readiness. Both nations mobilize their armies and announce a common defense pact against Regalia, burning up social credit created by the Consul in recent months, with a demand delivered to Regalia for the immediate demilitarization of Serman and the removal of the naval blockade on all of Carrhen except Soren, otherwise both states (and their subsequent allies) will consider this an act of war by Regalia.
• Avox cancels the death-tax on the Soren refugees and starts importing food to feed the starving Soren, some of which does get eaten, but anything that is soft is immediately pelted back at anyone handing out the food with the common sentiment just being "let us out you rotting tyrant". There is no way these people will ever trust Regalians again given how much they were gaslit by the blockade the first time in Soren, and how much they have suffered since by Regalia's treatment. The rioting effectively continues though it has as of yet not become murderous.
• Viviwynne Guentyr continues to riot police and bring resources for rebuilding but it's just a drop in an ocean in terms of the severe extreme damage to the local country. Her investigation to the status of Serman's government is that there effectively is none. The King and the royal family is dead, all the knights and lords of the realm were slain when the state was invaded, and there is complete government anarchy.

Hadar

• Pendusta, Abigail and Alzaric enagage in espionage sabotage on the anti-triumvirate coalition of Digmaans, reducing their effectiveness in the civil war.
• Siralli, Roro, Loreanthel, Kelmeradryl travel to Hadar to meet with Cro-Droq to give him an extremely tacky gift that he nontheless accepts to give them exactly 10 minutes of his time. They inquire:
  • Comments about his life story: Saying there is very little to say. He was born to serve as a special type guard for one of the Digmaan who lives more on the main-land of Hyarroc to the west and has numerous red-eyed Slizzars in service. He was however born way smaller than the others, and so rejected from active service and just became a pitfighter instead.
  • He confirms he was born from an egg but refuses to elaborate further. He makes implications that it's possible he is some sort of homonculi, or born through some sort of Void ritual and that he's related to Armas but he also keeps insisting that Digmaan Cro-Ranawat is his father, who is the father of every Cro born like him.
  • He states the reason for his birth is already covered by question one.
  • He states he never cared for Void Worship and remarks that even though a bird shits birdpoop, the birdpoop isn't compared to a bird or reviewed in the scope of avian taxonomy. The point he is trying to make is that being a product of the Void does not mean you have to worship it, or even acknowledge it, just like how you can ignore your parents if you are born to your biological caretakers. He states he is atheist.
  • He permits them to take a blood sample, and further attempts to magically divine information about his result in nothing. It is definitely not related to an Arken, but he's also not quite just a Magical being. There is some faint residual Magic in him, but not in the way any Mage normally has, which is why it's so hard to figure out what the exact nature is without cutting him open. Which is obviously not an option.
  • On the way out they inquire to the alchemical serum used in the juara again, and both offers to buy and supervise research are rejected. The only thing they comment on is that it wouldn't work on someone other than Droq or those like him anyway, but that it's also Droq's own proprietary concoction and that he doesn't trust "Yaotl's boot lickers" - thinking they have loyalties and priorities beyond just playing nice with Yaotl because they think they have no other viable alternatives.

Couple of orders still due, which will be processed in the course of the week when I have more time.

 

Processing the last bit of Orders due from last week:


Archipelago

• Erwin, Galinthios, Bernadette and Rudolf travel to the Belliard Guild, using both their influence and Sangria to request a heavy hand-out of Puretek to the locals in Waldmark and Calemberg, which the Belliard Guild agrees to when Erwin promises to pay for it. While Erwin's entire slushfund is emptied, the Belliard Guild is able to produce thousands of rifles and pistols in a record time, and more than expected caches are sent to all major cities and townlets where the Shutter Guilds take them on for the purpose of hunting Vampires. With further campaigns to preach and generally rile up the populace, a religious fervor grips the Treppeweitz, Calemberg, Baldmark, Opper Calemberg, Osteiermark, and Ostfriedland areas against Vampires. Pogroms happen on the daily, with large numbers of Vampires rounded up. Some of the peasants get very trigger happy and start randomly clapping travelers and strangers, meaning there is an inevitable collateral of Mages, Silven, and all other manner of Occult minorities being swept up. Only those who are Vampires or Cahal end up getting killed, but a large number of other Occult suddenly find living or traveling in these regions very difficult because of the heavy handed peasant activities against anything Occult. Only the Duke of Treppeweitz does anything about it, deploying the Ducal Guard and requesting Imperial forces from the Crown to station in his realm. The Duchess of Treppeweitz, the Emperor's younger sister, pushes for the peasants to "know their place", and so the fervor largely ceases in the Treppeweitz area with the Emperor's legions backing her demands from the commoners.
• Several of the Emperor's Legions start deploying in Drixagh, using the imminent right of the Emperor to deploy large forces in all the major urban Velheim inhabited areas without any clear orders. For the time being, many of these forces simply establish wooden palisade forts and camps all over Sorenvik, Nordhjem and Viduggla lands, though largely ignore areas with high Unionist populations. By the time all deployments are made between Drixagh, Silverwind, and Treppeweitz, most of the Emperor's personal legions have left the capital, with the exception of the Emperor's Urlan Legions.
• The Emperor, on urging of Prince Henry Kade, signs into act the Forgiveness of Crypto Unionists Act. This Act does two things:
  • Firstly, the act forgives so called Crypto Unionists, Unionists who converted from another faith to Unionism but held hidden loyalties to their own faith, or continued to practice it in secret, including their descendants. This means that all fake Unionists can now safely come out and say they are not Unionists, without fear of legal reprisals.
  • Secondly, the act permits Unionists to convert to Old Gods and Dragon Worship or any other old Ailor or Urlan-based Pagan faith or religion, but specifically retains a ban on Faith of Estel and non-Ailor or non-Urlan religions.
  • This Act is welcomed in the North and the west alike. Many Dragon Worshiping Dukes and commoners in Anglia come out of the woodwork revealing their secret Dragon Worship shrines and temples, and the belief that Anglia was always a massive Unionist bulwark quickly waters down, with only major Unionist populations remaining in the major urban centers. The religious map shifts radically, and even in Vlissinghelm, the land once proclaimed 100% Unionist, at least a fifth of the population turns out to have been Crypto Unionists. Unionist hardliners are actually surprisingly positive about the law, despite the allowance for conversion to other religions. They feel, given the present power of Unionist doctrine and expansion, that they do not feel threatened by other religions, but more importantly, now that all the Crypto Unionists are coming out of the woodwork, they say they have unmasked the enemies they have attempted to identify for literal centuries.
• The Emperor, on urging of Prince Justinian Kade signs into act the Ban on Unionist teaching Act This does one thing:
  • Unionist Missionaries, teachings, literature or other religious articles may not be impeded, restricted, or limited in their freedom of movement and right to exist. This means that Missionaries cannot under any circumstance be limited in their movement, activities, or presence, and the same goes for books and other forms of religious narrative spreading content.
  • Because this law is now superceding Drixagh bans on Unionist missionaries, those laws are immediately rescinded (though the ban on teaching Unionism to Old Gods families or forcing Unionist families to teach Old Gods beliefs to children remains in place, since the Drixaghers simply found a workaround by making it illegal for Old Gods worshipers to be near Unionist preachers, even if the preachers can go and do whatever they want. This results in comedic scenarios of missionaries entering Velheim taverns, and preaching, following the entire tavern emptying out. The Emperor's Legions prevent any military outing, because the locals think that they are currently present to enforce the Emperor's new laws, but they don't actually seem interested in coming out of their forts.
• Wilvamair Arnyn delivers a set of items to the Imperial Palace:
  • A bar of Omnaleya from Ellador.
  • A bar of Loon Solay from Daen.
  • A bar of Laqoria from Essalonia.
  • A bar of Galenata from Hadaria.
  • An Anglian Longbow, to be though of value for Noor.
  • A simple fishing rod, well cared for and well used.
  • Noor's friend Baroness of Mollatreux takes all the items at the reception door, but Princess Noor herself is nowhere to be seen. She seems rarther annoyed at the fishing rod, but takes the items nontheless and hands them off to a passing servant. Her long nails tap on the door a couple of times while she rests her free hand in her side, looking down (from the stairs leading to the door) to Arnyn and comments: "Men chase, Women choose. But we like to think that the Princessroyal is both. More man to dress the dress. More woman to know regrets. Which one are you Knight Arnyn?" before promptly slamming the door shut in front of him.
• Yngvarr, Ithelion, Lily and Aksel, along with the Viduggla Ducal Guard start rounding up all the Kathar immigrants and forcibly seizing their property and migration papers. There is very little fighting, these Kathar aren't violent, but many of them make a whole slew of protests. While House Viduggla pays for them to essentially be expelled on a boat trip back to Vuhnerniirn lands, there is no coverage for the property loss, seizure, and costs of settlement already made for these people. The Kathar make bold claims that this will face litagation in Regalia because House Viduggla is engaging in illegal dispossession and Tyranny, as there is no laws against Void Worship and Kathar settlement in Viduggla lands. With the expulsion, Void Worship conversion halts completely. Grand statements of solutions, compromise, and progress made by Yngvarr fall on deaf ears however. The last 10 years or so have only seen the north steadily declining and degrading, and the families made little to no progress for the north, with some of the younger people who listen to the speeches claiming that house Sorenvik and Viduggla are just as much the problem as the stubborn-ness and heavy-handed behavior of the Skagger elites and the older generations, and that stagnation and apathy cause just as much damage to the north. ((this is in reference to the idea that promising to make things better when the family realistically had years to do that already but did not falls on deaf ears. Yes it is true that economic investments were barred by system functions, but there was plenty of opportunity to do other things in the Assembly prior, law proposal under the Audiences, or just other peripheral orders to achieve things. This does not mean the people hate House Viduggla, it's more a case of "yeah we're stuck with you guys so we'll support you, but don't come at us saying you have the golden bullet solution to a problem you are a part of".))

Baldmark

• Yuun'Shul, Tesfa, Ta'leos Necrato, Kailang, Mikhael Baskin, Vharse, Felsin Kretch, Vicktoria Gregorescu and Skotadi Xotiko travel to Baldmark in an attempt to pillage Balaur's tomb. Strolling up to the largest Unionist Temple to try and break into Balaur's Tomb, they immediately commence a fight with the large number of Villiers Knights present. The attack on the largest Temple is then immediately witnessed by the Town Guard and the Ducal Guard of the regional ruler, and so the whole group gets pub-stomped by a massive military force in what essentially becomes an extremely under-equipped field expedition to a City where an army would have evened the odds (Most of the Characters sent do not have the Stats or Packs to compete with heavy Knights and Ducal Guards). All Characters eventually escape as they never made it deep into the catacombs. The identified parties except those who had the necessary Roguery packs and thus were not noticed properly by the defenders (Mikhael Baskin, Felsin Kretch) are condemned through a Writ of Unholy Condemnation by the Dogmatic Unionist clergy for sacrilege, assault on a holy temple, and assault of religious functionaries. ((note, this is not a legal death-warrant, it's a request for "all good Unionists to hunt down these apostates and bring them to satisfied justice in the eyes of the Everwatcher)).

Carrhen

• Haqet, Mary, Vallerik, Ringmaster and Nevarr smuggle themselves into Soren and manage to convince the sane and sensible Vampires to escape Soren's death trap, while also suing Coraveau's influence to wield the feral Vampires and fledgelings into a suicide army to cover their retreat. The horde pours out of the capital onto the 9 besieging legions, but obviously gets annihilated quickly by the heavily armored and entrenched Legions, though not before the group escapes. The large group is able to escape through Milat, but when finally escaping on board of several trade ships that they seize, spies and saboteurs among them are discovered too late. Several of the ships they captured explode and go up in flames, wiping out all the Vampires on them, with several Slizzar seen jumping off the ships moments before and escaping under the seas. Haqet's flagship is the only one spared this circumstance, and makes it all the way to Ellador, but only with several dozen Vampires plus a few hundred captured sailors. The escape plan was anticipated, and Slizzar spies belonging to an unidentified party essentially foiled it. As a result of the Soren capital being emptied and the feral population clashing hard against the Imperial Legions, Regalia captures the Capital this turn. While Soren still has some feral Vampires in the countryside, the Legions are confident they are capable of handling the matter themselves now, and the Soren Kingdom is officially declared defeated with House Dragic planting the flag of victory.
• Revna, Seth, Tarlok and Leo travel to Kergünn to try and make economic deals. The group however is quickly ejected as the region is undergoing diplomatic meltdown with Regalia over the War Minister and Avox Petrou's skirmishing on their borders, and as such, none of the nations on the roster to visit want to talk to Regalian diplomats while they might soon be at war.
• Saranamual, Tarlok, Revna and Seth travel to Utterann and Milat to treay and ease the political meltdown. The terms are delivered:
  • Regalia denies its involvement in the Avox situation, and then produces papers and testimonies of the accused party investigating its own involvement and then absolving itself. The local states think the diplomats were dropped on their heads if they think that any foreign nation would accept Regalia investigating and absolving itself of its own actions as valid, and refuses to acknowledge any of the excuses of Avox or the War Minister who is legally a foreign invader in their lands.
  • They accept the demilitarization request of Serman.
  • They accept the removal of the blockade sans Soren, but because Avox Petrou has to implement this order, it is not done immediately, as the Consuls cannot command the Armadas. They urge urgency with this.
  • Von Schwarzkrau's gifts of good will is rejected, and the parties state they want a full repayment for the bereaved families of Avox's supposed crimes, and will continue to see von Schwarzkrau as a marauding invader otherwise.
  • For now, as much as these states still feel offended by the implication that Regalia can investigate itself and then proudly tout the results as fair and valid, they accept the circumstances and their armies seem to be winding down.
  • Immediately following it, the Soren citizens in Ruttgher cease their rioting and move toqwards the Utterann border, hoping to immediately cross it when it opens up and then emigrate through Utterann Harbors.

Ellador

• Lily Janssen, Wulf Grofsmid, Revna travel to Tryllejag to establish contact. While there, the diplomats make apologies for Viduggla's unexpected retreat (which they don't seem to care much for), while bringing questions to inquire about the Ogres and Thylans. They say they are very close to wiping out these animal invaders, but say they have made no progress to discover who was sabotaging them, though have a rough inclination that the order probably came from some state-unfriendly party inside the Empire, and that investigating further probably won't yield a responsible party as they used an extensive network of saboteurs. The King of Tryllejag re-affirms the North Mark's right to move soldiers into the territory to wipe out all invading species and enemies of the King. On the way back to Regalia through the southern town of Beorlund, Revna makes a comment about smelling something odd and familiar, but not being able to place the sentiment when leaving the town, so eventually the group just collectively shrugs, boards their vessel and returns to Regalia.

Daendroc

• Avaineiral, Camilla, Cyrillian, and Mene'lainn travel to Sol Fazais south of Daenshore to investigate more about Estel and the Void Tear. When arriving, the group is immediately confronted with the highly incindiary nature of Sol Fazais. Such a small and otherwise insignificant city and region is now the espionage capital of the world, with Lünassul, Regalian, Songaskian, Asha, Ithanian, Daen, Sollerian, Anahera, Kade, Isldar, Urlan, Allar, Slizzar and even Eronidas parties present, each with their own embassy, and each with a whole host of ostensibly diplomatic personnel engaging in daring espionage and infiltration. The group presents findings in past weeks made to the Lünassul Society, who quickly scan over the situation and nod along with the sentiment of: "Only Regalia sees that particular manifestation as Estel, because it helps in their narrative that our supreme being is a genocidal maniac, but the Allorn Empire at large completely rejects the idea that this manifestation was Estel at all, as Estel is still in a state of eternal slumber while she dreams the god-state, and the god-state is still enduring with Talea and the Avatars of the Gods present. The four present paperwork for entry into the allorn Empire. Cyrillian is APPROVED. Avaineiral is APPROVED. The other two are REJECTED, Camilla for being related to land holding Regalian families, and being a Knight thus loyal to the Emperor of Regalia, and Mene'lainn has a special "we hate Solvaan" sticker attached to their paperwork. Mene'lainn and Camilla cannot find any overt information about the Void Tear situation, both lack the necessary packs to compete with the local spies or even to infiltrate the places where such information would be held. And nobody wants to speak to outsiders. Same for further investigation into Rokhaal stuff (Dead end for now, since Rokhaal lore is really iffy).