Alas. Our hopes are in peril; a peaceful means to avert our looming catastrophe eludes our most capable negotiators. We are forced by circumstances beyond our control
To the south west, Eldarwen of the Ljosalfar sends her regrets; she is unable to help us because of the politics of her court. Elves have long memories, and even longer grudges; after the razings of the Hippus in the first age, there are many elves who would just as soon watch mere humans starve as help them. Many of those hold high positions of power amoung the Ljosalfar, high enough that Eldarwen dares not move against them in public.
To the south, the Doveillos mocked our request in their barbaric way. The Prime Minister was not pleased at the state in which the remains of our envoy were recovered. Pinchette and his fearsome horse lead a retaliation, to better impress the Doveillo. It is sad that two ages have not taught them to respect anything other than power.
---
An opportunity of hope, most secret salvation. Agents of the Ljosalfar Queen have come with a proposition: asist in a palace coup, to overthrow the stalwarts. If we remove the hardliner generals, if we share our knowledge and trade with them, Eldarwen has promised to trade in food and commerce with us in equal measure.
We have sent Comillo and Rivanna into the Ljosalfar border. Together, with some assistance, we hope to they can bring forth the changes our people need to survive.
---
The Doviello fall, a capitulation beyond our greatest expectations. We had intended a raid, a demonstration of force, but their forces wilted before our advance. The Baron is forced to heel once more.
Our generals are concerned. Reports indicate our men never faced Lucian on the field, for he was killed by savages invading from the Doviello east. Though we have not met these savages, besides the occassional goblin fort under the control of the Scorpion Clan, our generals are urging us to prepare our defenses to the barbarians. Midgard has expanded with the facilities to train every possible type of troop, from axemen to archers to horsemen, and our garrisons are expanding. We even have the nucleus of a small navy, able to carry men across the Great Divide to the Doveillo lands and back as needed.
For now, we watch what we hold uneasily, and Midgards garrisons prepare to ferry over the Divide. We eat more securely tonight, though the Doveillo gains alone are far too fragile to rely upon.
---
Comillo, as always, is successful. A veritable one-man army, he barely needed the support of another veteran force in order to decapitate the Ljosalfar military. Soon, our warriors marched behind Eldarwen in the streets of Evermore, allying with her supporters to remove the military xenophobes.
She is a brave, brave, woman, one who will be fondly remembered by the Grigori forever more. What she has done might have been called treason, but in her stand she has saved the Grigori from starvation.
We keep our pledge. Our knowledge, our secrets, we share freely with her, and her advisors share freely with us. Though Comillo and Rivanna have left the Ljosalfar lands, to avoid tensions brought by their fine work, we leave a veteran force to guard the Ljosalfar capital until it can rebuild its army under more loyal leadership.
I hear a few reports suggest that some of those men protecting the elven city have become annamored with the locals. When I shared that tidbit with Prime Minister Esirce, he smiled. Ramsus, he said, it is my sincere hope that one day that one day the distinction between Grigori and Ljosalfar are little more than regional, and that we soon share the same enlightened views. If our men want to marry with their women, or vice versa, let them: it will make all the stronger ties between us.
It was clear he meant as long as they shared our views, but I couldnt bring myself to correct him about that, or is ever-varying misuse of my name. I was simply glad, like the rest of the capital, to be off of half-rations as the first intermittant shipment of clams and forest fruit made it to the capital.
---
The first savages appeared outside Midgard today. Though a rabble, they are numerous, almost as numerous as the Doveillo. Are small garrison was too much to risk, and a regiment of archers is being rushed.
Already, though, there are protests and interference in the streets. The Doves, the ultra-pacifists, are not happy; they see the happenings in the Ljoslafar as an invasion supported by a treacherous queen, and call the taming of the Doveillo meaningless bloodshed against a proud and noble people. I doubt they would think so if they had seen what they had done to our mans body, but what is worse is their objections to protecting the capital.
Not only do they protest and interfere with the training of more archers, they demand we negotiate with the savages, try to reason with them. While I admire their faith, I feel they are fools. These are not civilized people; you can no more reason with them than you can reform a demon, but some people are committed to trying.
The issue has been vexing the Prime Minister, and what vexes him goes to the council. They will decide on something, I am sure.
---
Prime Minister Esirce commissioned our stages to consider a subject today. What makes savages savage? When makes evil men evil. Just what are the ways of the wicked?
Everyone has their own opinion, but few ask why it occurs, just what motivates such people. Perhaps we once knew in the last age, but time blurs such memories.
Our sages pour across the lands in study. We ask the Amurites why the DTesh rebelled. We ask the Ljosalfar what twisted their Svartalfar cousins. From the safety of the garrison, they observe the actions of the conquered Doveillo amoungst themselves. All to understand
why?
How?
The council hopes that such an understanding might allow us to deal with the savages in a wiser fashion, to be above just killing them as enemies of civilization. We are not the Bannor.
---
So much has been relearned. So much we had forgotten to fear. The ways of the wicked are terrible indeed.
What makes one wicked? Anything. Everything. It is a matter of intent. The Savages would raid, would destroy all merely because they lack. It is far too complex, too philosophical, for me to grasp easily.
What I do understand, however, are common signs. The wicked want power over life. They want to tame it. Defy it. Destroy it. Drain and deny all pleasure of it. That is why DTesh was so terrible, though we could not understand it in such terms then.
But there is another people who make a mockery of life, who break the balance of life and death. To our east, the Sidar. They refuse to shed light on what makes them everlasting. Perhaps it is nothing sinister. Or perhaps they are clever enough to hide the truth. Llangru and Carrow the Hunted, given sturdy horses, have been sent to discover the truth one way or another.
Though we catalogue and make science of the accomplishments of our generals down South, we already prepare to derive the secrets of tracking. Soon, the wicked will have no place to hide, no means to disguise themselves. Not even the Sidar will be able to evade our notice.
In our sages studies, we have relearned so much. We remember, have deeper perspectives, of the crimes of the past. Of Aurics attempt for Godhood. Of the Sheaim attempt to bring Demons into this world. Of the Last Crusade of the Bannor, so determined to bring demonic-angels into this world in the name of righteousness that even the Dwarves turned against them.
We will not let that happen. When we once declared isolationism, the wicked did not leave us alone: they marched into our lands, killed our people, made blood sacrifice of our leader. We will not repeat that mistake.
Prime Minister Esirce has convenced a secret council with the Amurites, the only ones we can trust to share in our mission. A council so hidden, not even the wicked may know of it if it were under their own noses. The Undercouncil, dedicated to identifying, infiltrating, and stopping the wicked.
---
The council has decided on a path to deal with the Savages, and with others who would fight us for causes of malevolent ideology or religion. A path that appeals in part to the pacifists, who incessantly demand no man war against another. A system of re-education for the fallen who would attack us.
Our soldiers are taught not only to defeat, but subdue and capture them if at all possible. These prisoners, proven guilty by their presence in the battlefield, are sent to mass detainment camps, where they are schooled in the error of their ways and taught the Grigori way.
When they have been pacified, by learning and whatever firmer means that might be necessary, they will will be given the chance to work off what they owe the state for their care and re-education. There are two options: a free Grigori citizen can purchase a servant-contract, and that servent can pay off the cost until the account is settled or freed from the obligation by the contract-owner, or the prisoner can pay off the debt themselves with hard labor for the state. They would work on public projects, such as road work to connect ourselves and our Ljosalfar partners.
A few protested this as nothing more than contractual chattel slavery, little better than the Calabim aristocrats of old. They claim the wage is a pittance, taking nearly an adult lifetime to pay unless one takes dangerous jobs. Advocates disagree: they point that all children are automatically born free regardless of the state of their parents, that all captives are guaranteed a base salary for their work to spend or save as they see fit, and point to a list of legal protections. No indentured servant, for example, can be sent to do hard labor in the fields, crimes against the indentured are crimes the same, and after their period of service all indentured servants become free Grigori citizens.
Call it slavery or whatever else you will, it does provide a productive and beneficial alternative fate to the many savages we will surely face as their number and raids grow. Would you rather us kill them all and let the demons of hell sort them out?
---
The north is a dangerous place, as we have been reminded. A monstrous Kraken has been spotted in the Inland Sea. How it got there despite being too large for the river is unknown; perhaps it swam up the river as a child. As long as we stay clear, however, it is not a threat.
What is, however, is the copper dragon that claims the region as its own. Coppertongue was found asleep, and the remains of one of our experienced scouts found beside him. Though the scout put up a good fight, the beast, even in its lair, is too dangerous and fearsome to kill. Llangru and Carrow the Hunted have skirted around him, and all further movements will go south of the Inland Sea.
The South is not much safer. Many animals have grown so vicious on the flesh of savages that they are no longer animals, but beasts. Cave Bears inhabbit the plains of the south, and our hidden Kimble, who wanders near the Svartalfar, has reported a Wyrm that lurks outside the Svartalfars frozen Deep South.
---
In the South, the conquerors of the Doveillo have found and laid seige to Fjirgard, the Doveillo outpost that marks Lucians grave. A great many savages and Scorpion Clan have been rooted out, including Lucians killer, and reinforcements of theirs come from the South. By the time our troops walked into the city, they had expanded it enough that the battles did not destroy it.
We will gladly keep it, though it will be hard to defend at first. But when our borders expand, we will be well glad to have access to the stone to the south, and there promises to be lucrative economic opportunities in the silk that grows across the river from the city. Our mages are even giddy at the prospect of a pure mana node; they say it can be made into any type we desire.
(OOC: I isnt showable, but I got really, really lucky: one of the units in the city was a Scorpion Clan Wold Rider with Combat V and even some first strike promotions. It out-matched my strongest unit, Comillo, in a straight-up fight, but it charged Pinchette while he was on a forested hill.)
---
East of Fjirgard where are armies lay seige, Pinchete has discovered the base of this source of Scorpion Clan Goblins. A fort in these wilds is no small prize, but it lay overlooking something even more amazing: the Bair of Blanca.
Pinchete says that he must clear the fort before he can safely investigate the valley in which it lies over, but our sages and wise men are breathless. Once our garrisons are expanded and our empire protected, the next settlement will be on the coast there. There is deer to hunt in the south, mining to the east, commerce to the west, and a number or resources from which a city could grow rich and prosperous indeed. And with the number of savage slaves increasing by the month, we will have a labor force to improve it as well.
---
Pinchete has made a breakthrough, terrifying the goblins into fleeing from their fort without even taking the time to raze it. And lucky they did, too: they had a prisoner who we liberated. Airodaunt Balon told us his tale, and made it all the more interesting.
Once, before the Ice and in the previous ages, this land was colonized by the Bannor, as this continent had been infested by demons. The Bannor had set up many of the forts that dot the land, foundations for what the Scorpion Clan would later claim and expand upon. Airodaunt and his family had manned this fort for hundreds of years, and it wasnt until the end of the Winter that they opened the gates
and were soon overrun by the Scorpion Clan.
Airodaunt has asked to remain with the fort, and we have let him. He makes an excellent fort commander, and he is far safer in its walls than outside. Pinchete, who is due to enter the Bair, will not be there to protect him.
---
In Midgar, there is a great celebration: Hephaestus of the Jotnar has sent the Grigori people a gift. Cast in bronze on his own forge, this statue is a testament of how the Grigori stand up as Titans amoung the men of Erebus. Prime Minister Esirce was pleased to accept it and placed it at the edge of our harbor. Even across the Great Divide, our Doviello counterparts can see and be impressed.
I wonder if they laugh at it as well. The joke around Midgard is that when the Jotnar crafted it, they forgot to scale up other parts, if you know what I mean.
---
Shortly after the Titan came to our towns, so did an impressive figure. Kthun, something of an oddball in the Ljosalfar lands, was perhaps the one loyal general to Queen Eldarwen. Its not that hes fond of us in general, but he was more loyal to her than to his position.
Or perhaps hes keener with the odds than the rest, and saw that the way to keep his position was to support her. He isnt a great general for nothing.
Kthun is setting up a command post in Evermore, which will help the city in its efforts to reorganize defenses. One novice unit of hunters died after miscalculating the odds of surviving a goblin wave, though our garrison quickly ended that threat.
---
The Sidar are as we feared. Llangru and Carrowv were invited, treated as guests, as Mirrough walked them through the streets. It was the antithesis of what you would expect of the Sidar, but Mirrough is a salesman of death.
He was not ashamed to admit it. He worships that god religiously, even if He never answers. He paraded their gift, of how they outwitted disease and sickness, how they and they alone were fearless masters of their own ends. He boasted of the Sidar legend of old, of a relic that would strike down those who feared Death least, one which claimed the blood of many an Adventurer in Sidar lands. He even cajouled them to accept the Sidars dark gift.
And when they declined, and retired to their tents, it was undoubtedly he who ordered the Divided Soul into their tents with drawn knives.
But Grigori Adventurers are not the kind to be murdered peacefully in their sleep. Though we have sent reinforcements, I am not sure it matters; while Sidar may be hard to kill, Llangru and Carrow the Hunted are far, far harder to stop.
---
The Sidar are not a people meant for war. They lack even copper weapons, and many of their soldiers were nearly grateful to surrender to a life of indeterminate captivity when Llangru and Carrow advanced. Then again, I would be terrified of Carrow as well; he is a scourge, nothing less, and the sooner one is not his enemy, the better.
Celo fell in a few short days. The greatest, most enthusiastic, defense came from Mirrough himself. Wielding not a magical blade but a plain knife, he none the less died bravely. With his death the Sidar capitulated, and assented to our governors.
Though misguided, they are not a wicked or evil people at heart. Our governors will not stop their practices, so long as they learn due respect for mortality and avoid any further unsanctioned actions.
---
, really enjoying reading this.
This should be over with Grigori complete dominance over Erebus pretty soon. A bit OP, these early adventures, in that modmod, right?
