- Joined
- Jun 29, 2012
- Messages
- 4,441
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- Age
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The cold tension in the Regalian Archipelago kept building, even in the face of the Spring festivities. House Claudio and Artiemus threw a communal banquet for the Dragenthalers who were criminals and rebels mere weeks ago, and now being praised by the Angle Veer nobles, providing but a tiny candle of happiness and communal joy in the an Archipelago that would prove to become more tense by the day. In fact, at the very same occasion where Artiemus and Claudio hosted a party, Tyrannian marched a 72,000 troop army, including house Winslough, Tyrannian itself and the Old Rebels around the Anglian Veer as a military exercise, but in reality to guard against invasion.
In the North, Sorenvik made a big public display of strength by marching troops around and formalizing Sorenvik armor for the levies, with a more predominantly urbanizing Holzskagger population, and with the rise of house Haagenvig in the North as a major Baron, the Skagger Elders (those that remained anyway) convened to discuss the local power spectrum between the major Velheim and Holzskagger families. The Conclave of Elders quickly concluded that the power of the great three had seriously eroded. Months of silence from house Santorski and unwillingness to be associated with the Velheimers, the death of Johanna Uëxkulla the Shieldmaiden during the north rebellion, and the aging of the Vladimir Vladislav seriously devalued the power projection of the great three and their ability to represent the Velheim people. As such, the Conclave of Elders proclaimed a new trio of Velheimer guardians, Valbrand Haagenvig, Kaya Sorenvik, and Szymon Vladislav, Duke Vladislav's oldest son. These three would now be identified as the Great Three of the North, wielding considerable influence in the Czabri Bone Shores and Throat Cap Wald tribes and hillsmen.
House Ortonnaise started their re-entry in the spotlight with a foreign diplomacy offensive, though it was likely more identified to be a smear campaign against Hengest Harhold. Ortonnaise's attempts to rouse the Nordskag King against Harhold's actions was unsuccessful. While King Krumme denounced Harhold's actions as dishonorable and in contradiction to the code of Ehren, he made no further statement about the matter and deferred to the Emperor in Regalia. Similarly in Lorhauser attempts failed to prove useful, the local population becoming disinterested in further agitation when du Pont troops started pillaging Peirgarten estates and sending bales of gold in loot from the estates to the Winslough family. Finally however, attempts to convince the Sovereign of Ithania to turn on Harhold were more successful. While the influence of both di Polignac and Ortonnaise had seriously waned in recent months, the Sovereign was disgusted by Harhold's actions and declared him a grand criminal in the eyes of all people's of Ithania, making him a wanted man. This meant little for Harhold who likely had no plans to travel to Ithania, but should he ever set foot there, he could expect a cold jail cell waiting for him. The Sovereign did make an official complaint against Harhold lodged with the Emperor, but chose to take the matter no further when the Emperor threatened to castrate the Sovereign's emissaries and cut all military support for the Ithanian Realm which was currently being protected by the Emperor's personal army from invasion by the Dread Empire if the Sovereign did not back down attempting to blackmail the Emperor into punishing Harhold. The Sovereign quickly backed down when an invasion from the Dread Empire Elves became a realistic threat, though continued her domestic charge against Harhold.
In Narlas, the houses Miramonte, Reinard, Claudio, Black and Haagenvig supported local redevelopment and recovery after the Old Rebels departed. This rare showcase of smaller noble families working together washed away most of the concerns in Dragenthal, especially since von Treppewitz's army was now present and no longer suppressing the people. With the Old Rebels gone and all nefarious forces removed that once tried to sow discontent and chaos, the region started slowly recovering. As such, Kehlen's attempts to garner more of the local Viscounts under his defence coalition failed. With the atmosphere in Dragenthal calming down, the smaller houses were less urged to join forces with greater collectives, and preserved their independence. Kehlen then made a two prong move: Firstly his army in the Elven Moors would continue to bunker down, now also joined by Hamelin d'Vaud and Garth Viduggla doing the same, and just in time too. Dominico Alferi's army disintegrated after numerous Noble Houses recalled their troops, collapsing the entire Elven Cities offensive and making Regalia lose practically 60% of its occupied land, holding onto a small segment of a southern Principality in the Elven Moors. The armies in the Elven Moors now had the prospect of having to deal with an army twice their size. They were reinforced by Digmaan Vazziss, who together with the 3 other armies, was able to stabilize the front and not suffer too much push back.
Kehlen's second move, was the invasion of Winslough lands, though now for occupation. While Winslough was just taking in the gold sent to them by dei Termini from the Peirgarten lands, House Kehlen's army ransacked through Winslough lands, pillaging and torching industry and trampling any agriculture in the realm they could find. There were no Winslough soldiers present, all assigned to Tyrannian's army halfway across the Archipelago, so the Kehlen troops just trashed the local economy without really offering a casus belli of substantive reason why. They did not occupy any land or kill any civilians outside of self defence, but simply destroyed the Winslough economy and income.
Naturally, the Emperor was enraged by the continued failures of the noble-led war in the Elven lands. The building tension in Regalia had directly led to armies being undersupplied and whole armies being folded back as Nobles started dealing with their own internal issues more, rather than wage the war for the Emperor. The Emperor immediately fired the Finance, Logistic, Foreign State and War Ministers, and announced he would soon release a series of new military acts to drag the levy system into a more structured state controlled system.
There were some investigations as well. The Scholar Ministry attempted to excavate a Dragon Vault on the border of Dragenthal, however their originally optimistic prospects failed quickly when they stumbled into the Vault's archaic defences and what were presumed to be undead guarding the halls. Further excavations were halted in favor of the safety of the diggers. Harhold meanwhile continued his own investigation into the resistance movements in his own lands, only to discover what everyone expected: the dog killings had been strongly related to the Old Rebels who had sent saboteurs into Harhold lands to try and attack his morale, but had long since shipped off to the Anglian Veer in the relative safety of the Veer Noble's hospitality.
In the North, Sorenvik made a big public display of strength by marching troops around and formalizing Sorenvik armor for the levies, with a more predominantly urbanizing Holzskagger population, and with the rise of house Haagenvig in the North as a major Baron, the Skagger Elders (those that remained anyway) convened to discuss the local power spectrum between the major Velheim and Holzskagger families. The Conclave of Elders quickly concluded that the power of the great three had seriously eroded. Months of silence from house Santorski and unwillingness to be associated with the Velheimers, the death of Johanna Uëxkulla the Shieldmaiden during the north rebellion, and the aging of the Vladimir Vladislav seriously devalued the power projection of the great three and their ability to represent the Velheim people. As such, the Conclave of Elders proclaimed a new trio of Velheimer guardians, Valbrand Haagenvig, Kaya Sorenvik, and Szymon Vladislav, Duke Vladislav's oldest son. These three would now be identified as the Great Three of the North, wielding considerable influence in the Czabri Bone Shores and Throat Cap Wald tribes and hillsmen.
House Ortonnaise started their re-entry in the spotlight with a foreign diplomacy offensive, though it was likely more identified to be a smear campaign against Hengest Harhold. Ortonnaise's attempts to rouse the Nordskag King against Harhold's actions was unsuccessful. While King Krumme denounced Harhold's actions as dishonorable and in contradiction to the code of Ehren, he made no further statement about the matter and deferred to the Emperor in Regalia. Similarly in Lorhauser attempts failed to prove useful, the local population becoming disinterested in further agitation when du Pont troops started pillaging Peirgarten estates and sending bales of gold in loot from the estates to the Winslough family. Finally however, attempts to convince the Sovereign of Ithania to turn on Harhold were more successful. While the influence of both di Polignac and Ortonnaise had seriously waned in recent months, the Sovereign was disgusted by Harhold's actions and declared him a grand criminal in the eyes of all people's of Ithania, making him a wanted man. This meant little for Harhold who likely had no plans to travel to Ithania, but should he ever set foot there, he could expect a cold jail cell waiting for him. The Sovereign did make an official complaint against Harhold lodged with the Emperor, but chose to take the matter no further when the Emperor threatened to castrate the Sovereign's emissaries and cut all military support for the Ithanian Realm which was currently being protected by the Emperor's personal army from invasion by the Dread Empire if the Sovereign did not back down attempting to blackmail the Emperor into punishing Harhold. The Sovereign quickly backed down when an invasion from the Dread Empire Elves became a realistic threat, though continued her domestic charge against Harhold.
In Narlas, the houses Miramonte, Reinard, Claudio, Black and Haagenvig supported local redevelopment and recovery after the Old Rebels departed. This rare showcase of smaller noble families working together washed away most of the concerns in Dragenthal, especially since von Treppewitz's army was now present and no longer suppressing the people. With the Old Rebels gone and all nefarious forces removed that once tried to sow discontent and chaos, the region started slowly recovering. As such, Kehlen's attempts to garner more of the local Viscounts under his defence coalition failed. With the atmosphere in Dragenthal calming down, the smaller houses were less urged to join forces with greater collectives, and preserved their independence. Kehlen then made a two prong move: Firstly his army in the Elven Moors would continue to bunker down, now also joined by Hamelin d'Vaud and Garth Viduggla doing the same, and just in time too. Dominico Alferi's army disintegrated after numerous Noble Houses recalled their troops, collapsing the entire Elven Cities offensive and making Regalia lose practically 60% of its occupied land, holding onto a small segment of a southern Principality in the Elven Moors. The armies in the Elven Moors now had the prospect of having to deal with an army twice their size. They were reinforced by Digmaan Vazziss, who together with the 3 other armies, was able to stabilize the front and not suffer too much push back.
Kehlen's second move, was the invasion of Winslough lands, though now for occupation. While Winslough was just taking in the gold sent to them by dei Termini from the Peirgarten lands, House Kehlen's army ransacked through Winslough lands, pillaging and torching industry and trampling any agriculture in the realm they could find. There were no Winslough soldiers present, all assigned to Tyrannian's army halfway across the Archipelago, so the Kehlen troops just trashed the local economy without really offering a casus belli of substantive reason why. They did not occupy any land or kill any civilians outside of self defence, but simply destroyed the Winslough economy and income.
Naturally, the Emperor was enraged by the continued failures of the noble-led war in the Elven lands. The building tension in Regalia had directly led to armies being undersupplied and whole armies being folded back as Nobles started dealing with their own internal issues more, rather than wage the war for the Emperor. The Emperor immediately fired the Finance, Logistic, Foreign State and War Ministers, and announced he would soon release a series of new military acts to drag the levy system into a more structured state controlled system.
There were some investigations as well. The Scholar Ministry attempted to excavate a Dragon Vault on the border of Dragenthal, however their originally optimistic prospects failed quickly when they stumbled into the Vault's archaic defences and what were presumed to be undead guarding the halls. Further excavations were halted in favor of the safety of the diggers. Harhold meanwhile continued his own investigation into the resistance movements in his own lands, only to discover what everyone expected: the dog killings had been strongly related to the Old Rebels who had sent saboteurs into Harhold lands to try and attack his morale, but had long since shipped off to the Anglian Veer in the relative safety of the Veer Noble's hospitality.
