While crafting the realm of Sejhat it occurred to me that sooner or later I would have to tie all of the major powers of the continent together into a single key storyline, or at least a major storytelling context in which people could craft their own tales. Simply having four major powers and over a dozen humanoid species does not a story make.

Thus, I fell back on that popular pastime of mankind, revolution. True, mankind is but a single component in a grander realm, but at the heart of any fantasy or sci-fi work is the human condition, and this is no exception. Even imperious and regal Elves, it seems, are not immune to ambition and populist rage.

If you haven't read anything about or even heard of this little writing project, this is a pretty good document if you want to jump right in.

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THE TREMBLING FIRMAMENT


“A celebrated people lose dignity upon a closer view”
-Bonaparte

Synopsis:

The continent of Sejhat, long ago a land steeped in mystery and danger, has been largely tamed and carved out by four distinct nation-states and numerous smaller territorial powers. Fading fast are the days of untamed magic, petty warlords, and undiscovered countries. To the northwest the Beastfolk Alliance, a group of humanoid animals, struggle to bring civilization to their backwards, remote races and cultures. To the southwest is the Caliphate of Mankind, home to the humans and their racial allies, unified by faith and mighty despite scorching deserts, seething jungles, and volcanic hellscapes. To the northwest is the Dwarven Confederacy, a patchwork of industrialized states now openly at war with each other, their fears and hopes powered by ever more complex machines. Finally to the southeast are the lands of the vast, wealthy, and glorious Maenid Empire, home to the proud and conservative Elves.

In the past two centuries the fortunes of the continent have changed vastly. The humans, with the aid of the Odem faith, have unified and centralized into a mighty empire, adopting the cultures and influences of other races and cultures into their own. The Beastfolk, not long ago a poor and simplistic patchwork of clan societies, have also centralized and gone through great pains to embrace modernity, though they still have much progress to make. The Dwarves, a race of miners and laborers, enjoyed a long period of innovation and a blossoming of scientific enterprise, giving birth to industry and steam power. This transformation, in all its glories and failings, has inadvertently brought about war as the new wealth of the lowlanders has run afoul of the older, richer cultures of the highlanders. Only the Elves, with their beauty, majesty, and unparalleled arrogance have comparatively stood idle while the world around them has changed.

And the changing world has not been kind to them. Lacking organized industry, the embrace of agrarianism and old ways has done little to stimulate the economy. Slavery continues in some areas, but among the key problems are overpopulation and unemployment. Even in the legendary garden country they inhabit, small plots of land are most often worked by indentured farmers and miniscule tenancies that barely support the increasing number of families trying to work on them. The Humans and Dwarves have imposed heavy tariffs on the importation of Elven goods, meaning that many of their beautiful crafts and hand-woven goods sit unsold. The craftsmen and merchants slowly grow poorer as a result. Only the Checchiatari, greedy for quality goods at such low prices, have approached the Elves for large purchases, but as ‘sub-hominid’ beastfolk the Maenids reject trading with them, and as a consequence the feline humanoids can only trade with Elven communities illegally, through a healthy smuggling operation.

To help deal with the crisis, the Maenids have encouraged the settlement of the hostile northern deserts, still filled with venomous creatures, ravenous insectoid monsters, and a terrible scarcity of water. These ‘homesteaders’ were first economic refugees that the Empire attempted to find lands to settle, but as unemployment and crime skyrocketed the Empire began sending debtors and criminals there in order to remove the problem from society and from sight of the gentry. Many try to scrape out a meager existence in the poor lands, to try and simply get by. Many accept miserable toil in salt mines or prospecting for wells to gain a salary. Many more, it seems, simply perish in the nameless, unforgiving landscape.

Vagrants, debtors, and political dissidents alike are swept up by the government and given two options: Exile to the Outrene or forced convict labor in chain gangs. While some choose the Outrene, most choose the grim task of labor, if only to stay closer to home and be guaranteed a source of food. The chain gangs wander the countryside, ever present and ever growing, but the abundance of free labor combined with a scarcity of new projects means that paid laborers and professional masons, bricklayers, dredgers, thatchers, and stone carvers soon find themselves out of work, joining the ranks of the unemployed and, as a consequence, ending up in the chain gangs themselves. Smugglers or merchants who have illegally sold goods to the Checchiatari and gotten caught are also thrown in jail and given the same choices of exile or labor.

The existence of penal labor on a growing scale has forced the citizenry to pay ever increasing taxes to support the growing number of prisoners. Those unable to pay the taxes wind up in the labor camps they were struggling to support. There is a growing concern that before long, the Maenid Empire will become nothing more than a penal state! While the landed gentry and Elven nobles have been able to shoulder the burden of taxation and relish in the very low wages they can pay their depressed laborers, the majority of the people are scared, yet increasingly angry. There is a prevailing sense that something must change, and soon, before the Maenid Empire devours its own innards and collapses.

Theria, long the intellectual center of the Empire and home of the Therians, was once the source of philosophical support and the cultural nucleus of the Maenid Empire. However, with a new generation of thinkers came the shaking of condemned intellectual concepts to the surface, concepts like democracy and individual rights. Universities that once indoctrinated the elite and the brilliant into the cultural fabric of the Empire have started to question its wisdom, its actions, and even the fundamental need for an emperor or a ruling conclave. Holding and demonstrating such ideas publicly is a criminal offense, but in spite of this a revolution is brewing, fomented by an idealistic young generation of Elves, Elves who have designs on running the country someday.

While the concepts of democracy and inalienable personal rights would be celebrated by the poor and disenfranchised everywhere on the continent, the Radicals do not see these rights as the property of other races. The ancient principle of Elven racial purity and superiority lives on in the cause of the Radicals, the cause of the New Republic. In the new world, under the new nation, all Elves are representatives and owners of their grand empire and have a duty to expand the beauty and sovereignty of the Elven people to all the lands of Sejhat, pushing aside the lesser races as necessary. This mandate for expansion sours the flavor of the Republican cause considerably for other nations, who now look at the Radicals as racists and frauds.

Disturbingly, the dreams of world domination and taking what is destined to be theirs have truly resonated with the Elves. The belief in racial purity and superiority, long since drilled into the collective psyche of the race, makes this a crucial issue in the Republican cause. Many Elves now believe that the Maenid Empire has failed to bring the glory and righteous rule of the Elves to the far corners of Sejhat, and the Republic has billed itself as the government that can make this happen. While this concept is disturbing to all of the other races on Sejhat, time and hope are on the side of the Elves’ rivals and neighbors. Some Humans and Dwarves, determined by the Elves to be kinsfolk and fellow hominids, hope to curry favor with the Republic so that, if it wins, they will be temporarily safe from attack. The Orcs and Beastfolk, however, have little recourse but to openly reject this dangerous and threatening revolution.

It is the year 4237, year 278 of the Third Epoch. The stage is set for revolution and civil war. Elves must choose between the perils of democracy or the status quo of absolute rule. They must choose between shaping their uncertain future or praying that the Gods, the Emperor, and destiny will deliver them from evil. The choices of the Elves, however, pale in comparison to the choices their neighbors must make.

THE REPUBLIC:

The Republic and its ideals are not new. Amidst bloodshed, poverty, and oppression the Republic’s promises of redemption and justice have been on Elven lips for nearly a decade. However, when people think of a definitive moment that marked a point of no return was the seizure of Sipoi by revolutionaries and outraged peasants. The castle and fortified complex of the Kazanakia, a notorious and enormous dungeon at the center of the metropolis of Sipoi, was specifically designed to keep the local population in line. However, the intent to strike fear into the population backfired when the ruling aristocrat imposed a new tax on water, as the oracles had anticipated a drought in the coming year. The locals, already nearing the limit of their endurance, rose up and laid siege. In spite of bloody fighting in the streets the severely outnumbered Maenid soldiers stood little chance against the peasant mobs. After just a week, citizens impatient for blood clambered over the walls and began slaughtering the remaining defenders in a grand orgy of violence. In the aftermath, the citizenry set up a new city council of elected officials, who immediately declared that the citizenry be armed against the oncoming torrent of imperial troops who were keen to take the city back.

The Sipoid Republic lasted just one week. The armed citizenry, while tenacious, were little match against the professional soldiers of the Empire. The people were viciously cut down wherever they chose to stand, and those leaders of the rebellion that were captured were publicly eviscerated and left to the bloat flies to fester and rot in the execution square. Just as the horrors of the Kazanakia dungeon inspired the citizens to revolt, the butchery of the people of Sipoi inspired much of the nation to revolt against the Maenid Empire. The Maenids, now shown to be murderers of their own people, were officially at war with the public.

Even so, the fear inspired by the Maenid Army and its disciplined cohorts succeeded in keeping most of the central and eastern territories quiet, but anxious. Most rebellions in other cities ended more disastrously than the Sipoid revolt, and by the year 278 e3 the Republican cause’s future is uncertain. Only the far eastern fringes of Theria, near the jungles, and the far northwestern territories along the Outrene have revolted and successfully held on to the territory.

Two cities now form the brittle nuclei of the Republican movement. Ygropod is a beautiful, but small agrarian city near the Therian coast that has become a rally point for radicals all over the region. Mayro Nero, by contrast, is the southernmost settlement along the Outrene, a poor desert city filled with criminals, mercenaries, homesteaders, and refugees. Correspondence between the two is difficult, but eased by the Therians’ use of courier birds, which are not exceptionally dependable but are very difficult for the Maenids to reliably intercept. The Republic is in need of allies, money, and commanders, and actively searches for them. In the mean time, they work hard to provoke further rebellions and skirmishes all over the Maenid Empire, bleeding and distracting the monarchists so that they cannot combine their armies and effectively shatter the two cities.

In order to prevail against the conservative Maenids, the radical leaders of the Republic are prepared to embrace unorthodox strategies and arms. They are few in soldiers, but have no shortage of willing, able bodies hungry for revenge and liberty. If the Republic can find a means of elevating its throngs of peasants to even a basic level of professional soldiery, as well as locate competent commanders fully loyal to the Republican cause, then they will be more than a force of reckoning. They will be nigh unstoppable.

THE EMPIRE:

The Maenid Empire continues to pursue its policies the same way it has for centuries, even in spite of the growing epidemic of rebellions across the lands. They command townships and municipalities through the use of Imperial Cohorts, regiment-sized groups of professional soldiers garrisoned in lofty fortifications that leave no doubt to the citizenry who is in charge. They conduct foreign policy with casual arrogance, and while it’s clear to their neighbors that the Maenids will be in serious trouble, the official stance of the Boy Emperor, 19-year old Lusitanius II, and the Syskepsi conclave is that the Elves do not need foreign meddling to settle this domestic affair. They continue to stand against calls for reform with classical rigidity.

In spite of the problems tearing the Empire apart from within, it has advantages that go beyond its currently powerful, but bloodied military. While the loss of professional soldiers in dozens of small scale rebellions was first thought to be a path to cataclysm, citizens of the Empire have arisen to throw their lot in with the Emperor, volunteering for service. These Royalists share a common fear that the mission of the Republic is to obliterate the aristocracy and replace it with anarchy. The Ikonids and Vardyrai, both societies with strong landed nobility, openly support the Maenids, though these satellite factions have their share of local problems with Radical provocateurs and rebels. Money continues to flow into state coffers from sales and the Empire’s iron grip on mana. The Maenids have the world’s best mages at their disposal and the continent’s largest magical libraries, academies, and repositories. They also lay claim to far more territory than the Republic, but this could change with further mass revolts.

The Empire can be counted to rely on its time-tested methods of battle, from formations of disciplined swordsmen and cavalry to its excellent longbow archers and battlemage skirmishers. The duty of the aristocracy, Syskepsi, and the Emperor seems simple: Hold on and ride the storm. If the nobles choose effective leaders and spare no expense in the defense of the Empire, the Republic will eventually wither and die, or weaken enough to be destroyed by force. However, as with most grand plans and strategies the Maenids have failed to accurately assess the power of the ideology they are fighting against. Even now, some nobles are concerned that if they exhaust their fortunes and order their people to be slain in battle or on the gallows, they will be little better off than if they surrendered to the peasant mobs to be kicked to death. Elves can famously withstand sieges of all proportions, from tribal throngs to vast professional armies, but can they endure a daily siege by their own people? Will circumstances finally force the Maenids to change their culture and ancient ways, or will they be washed away by the torrent?

THE RADICALS:

The Radical cause, now effectively unleashed on the world, is not merely restrained to Elven lands. Among populations everywhere chafing under absolute rule the concepts of liberty, democracy, and citizen nationalism have taken root. In coffee houses and rathskellers, temples and universities, and halls great and small the subject can be heard in murmurs and whispers.

The Dwarves, long subjected to the reckless military policies of their ruling monarchs and clan warlords, have started to consider the wisdom of the big-bearded saps responsible for sending so many young dwarves to their deaths in their ‘grand’ civil war. Amidst all of the political wrangling and quagmire, the Dwarves now must content with an increasingly agitated populace demanding more say in their lives and nations.

Some Humans, more democratic in name than practice, chafe under the mysterious, fabricated policies of the Caliphate, all of them strangely ordained by the merciful lord, praise be his name. The flavor of the Human Radicals is distinct- their chief desire is not to rid the lands of nobles. Their desire is to pursue a secular government. To them, the Odem faith in all of its glories is best kept an independent entity from the State, for as long as the two are united there will always be the power among Caliphs and Ministers alike to play god and use the fabric of the faith to get whatever they want. Their detractors claim that the Radicals are atheists trying to tear divine power away from the Caliph and sever the divine conduit with the world, but the Radicals retort that the Caliph never had such a connection to begin with and that the faith belongs to the people, not the state.

Among the Beastfolk, the notion of a republic is more poison than poignant. With such an infant civilization, radicals are closer to anarchists than anything else, with a strong belief that might makes right and that the Tsars and Tsarinas, Counts and Contessas, Hetmen and Dvors should elevate the strong, rather than the weak. They stand against the luxury and delicacy brought into society by modern civilization, blaming it for the weakening of society’s spirit. Memories of the simple life are hard to forget, and as Beastfolk society grows more complex and tricky to navigate the Radicals will always find people more willing to embrace their base instincts, enforcing their will with force and intimidation. Strangely, the Radical Beastfolk embrace the racism of the Elven Republic, turning it on its head. While the Elves pledge to bring the Beastfolk to heel, the Beastfolk intend to strengthen the ‘stock and blood’ of the people to the point where they will become invincible. The Radicals remain a small cultural fringe group rather than a serious mass movement, but they are a problem that refuses to go away. The policy of the racial governments has been largely to ignore it. They have far more pressing concerns with development and modernization.

THE ROYALISTS/LOYALISTS:

Just as Radicals emulate selected ideals of the Elven Republic, the Royalists (or Loyalists) represent the sections of the population who stand firmly behind the status quo and will defend it, sometimes to the death. Predictably, the Royalists’ ideals run contrary to the Radicals’.

Among the Dwarves, the Royalists see the suffrage and individual rights movements as distracting, or even potentially fatal to their beleaguered nations. Simply put, Dwarves can’t afford to focus on social reforms at a time when they are in open warfare with each other. Typically members of the military, Royalist factions form into ‘Blackguard’ militias to sniff out dissent and use various means, fair or foul, to destroy it. As independent proxies, the clan warlords and monarchs publicly condemn the occasional misbegotten lynching, rape, or robbery while quietly slapping the offenders on the wrists with light sentences. As subjects to their lords, the Blackguards’ activities are limited to what their monarch ordains is necessary or acceptable, this being the only real limitation to their actions and depravities. In many cases, the presence of these vigilantes has actually galvanized the Radical cause.

In the Caliphate, the most virulent force standing in the way of the Radical movement is the Clergy, in particular the Imams and Sheikhs of the Odem faith. The agents of religious law call themselves the Mufassir, and their approach to Radicalism is to use their power over the law to condemn those who wish to drive a wedge between the Odem faith and the government. In contrast to common Muftis (preachers), whose life in the faith is largely independent of grand politics, the Imams and Sheikhs are firmly entrenched in the theocracy and do not wish to see themselves stripped of power along with the Caliph. As the Odem faith abhors or at least avoids the use of violence and capital punishment, the ‘justice’ brought about on those who stray from the lord’s blessing is no less damaging. The threat of being branded a heretic or an apostate is very real, as are the threats of losing family and property.

In spite of this, not everything goes the way of the Mufassir. The lesser Imams, Muftis, and religious scholars have been known to interpret the law differently, and since these lesser figures lack such a profound connection to the state they are less inclined to condemn the people. Worse, there is a movement among the religious called the Faquiya that fundamentally agrees with the Radical cause under the belief that the best way to preserve the Odem faith’s mission is to sever its direct connection with the corrupting powers of government. Another obvious issue is that the Odem faith does not extend to all the lands and allies of the Caliph. The Circassids and the Siparids are not beholden to Odem law, and also have a long standing suspicion that the Caliph’s bloodline is neither divine nor directly connected to higher beings. They cannot be counted upon to support the Mufassir.

In the Beastfolk lands the generally strong sense of racial solidarity contributes to an overall sense of pride and confidence in their governments, be they constitutional monarchies, absolute monarchies, or republics. In the case of the Beastfolk the problem is not one of fealty, but rather broad mistrust of neighboring races. When pressured, the impulse amongst most Beastfolk is to withdraw to the fortresses of their species and throw stones at the others. While this makes governance and civic order comparatively easy for individual species, it makes it difficult for a meaningful coalition to form. Thus, where Radicals are anarchists, in the Beastfolk lands the Royalists are in fact Centrists. The Centrists are typically Vucari and advocate a strong central authority that at any time can provide the members of the Alliance with military or development aid in a meaningful fashion. Of course, since most of the advocates, scholars, and soldiers of the Centrist movement are Vucari, there is naturally an almost violent distrust of their intentions. As a political faction the Centrists are the underdogs, facing broad distrust and recalcitrant behavior from racists and anarchists. They are driven by a feeling that they are in a race against time to transform the Alliance into a meaningful political entity backed by force. Above all the Centrists fear the murderous intentions of the Elven Republic, but their nationalistic fervor is also tempered by mistrust of the Caliphate. Old memories of the White Jihad still smolder.


THE CALIPHATE: (Pro- Empire)

The aging Sultan Abdulaziz III received a present on his 70th birthday: All out civil war between the Elves. While the Maenids were scrubbing the streets of Sipoi clear of all opposition in a vicious bloodbath, the Sultan celebrated an astonishing 45 years of rule in lavish ceremony replete with feasting, songs, spectacle, and dance. While many citizens of the Caliphate were relieved to see the hated fabric of Elven society torn apart by internal strife, the Sultan greeted the news with grim sobriety. Abdulaziz had presided over 45 years of peaceful legacy building, but now the nation was about to be confronted with a war not of their choosing and the realization that half of the continent, between the Elves and Dwarves, was now at war. In spite of his peaceful leanings Abdulaziz was first and foremost an experienced politician, and immediately set about devising a plan to first secure the Caliphate’s borders and interiors, then capitalize upon the conflict next door.

For the moment, time is on the Caliph’s side. The Elves pose no immediate danger to the Humans or their suzerainties, nor have they directly called for the Caliph’s assistance and forced him to make an immediate choice. However, Abdulaziz’s successor is already a notorious spendthrift and idle fool, and the elderly man cannot be sure that he will endure the rigors of age much longer. He believes that the Maenids, currently staunch in their refusal of aid from or diplomatic alliance with the Caliphate, will soon have no choice but to call upon allies. He leans toward supporting a weakened Maenid Empire, for a weakened empire brought salvation by its neighbors will have little choice but to agree to reforms and favors. However, he is reluctant to aid the Republic in order to intensify the war, as the leaders of the Republic have made their distaste of Humanity and the Odem faith clear.

Abdulaziz also faces increasing calls to separate the roles of the Caliph and Sultan into two separate offices, transforming the government into a secular organization and weakening both parties in the process. While Abdulaziz has a legacy of peace, he is also a firm absolutist and will not suffer the accusation that the royal bloodline has no physical connection with the Lord. He fears the influence of the Radicals both abroad and at home, and feels intense pressure to entrench the status quo and secure the throne, the national treasures, and the security of the Caliphate before he passes into the afterlife.

THE HIGHLAND DWARVES: (Pro- Republic)

In 278 e3, decades of civil war between the Highland Clans and the Lowland States has resulted in nothing more than the evaporation of Dwarven wealth and lives. In parts of the Highlands more than 60 percent of the population is under the age of 15, with most of the remaining population being women and elders. Once flourishing and vibrant towns along the foothills and frontiers between North and South lay in rubble, completely deserted. In many communities the gravestones outnumber the citizens. Factories and foundries barely have enough labor to stay in operation and there is a grim and pervasive sense that the Lowlanders will win the war, if only through bloody attrition.

However, news of the Republic’s rise offers some hope. While the clan leaders, nobles, and kings of Highland society condemn the regicidal aims of the Radicals, they present an opportunity that can no longer be ignored. The Outrene, that ferociously arid frontier along the southern borders of the Highlands, is filled with the desperate, hungry, thirsty, and unemployed refugees. The warehouses of the Highlands are filled with newly manufactured cannons, muskets, and rifles, all of them waiting for soldiers to carry them to war. It’s no secret that the Lowlanders have long hired Vucari mercenaries to aid their cause. In spite of the Dwarven resentment of Elves, public sentiments are such that they would be welcome allies, provided they can fight in the Dwarven fashion.

Thus, the Highlanders wish to ally with the Republic for mutual benefit. The Republicans, lacking weapons and discipline, will gladly accept weapons and training even in the profane martial arts of the Dwarves if they give them a chance to defeat the Empire. The Highlanders, weary of war and lacking in soldiers, will take the hungriest and hardiest of the Elves and set them against their hated Lowland enemies. The Highlanders may yet lose this war, but they will do so in a blaze of glory and blood. However, if by chance the Highlanders prevail and win their freedom once and for all there is a good chance that the Republic will look more kindly upon the Dwarves and, for a while at least, set their avaricious gaze upon other races and nations.

THE LOWLAND DWARVES: (Neutral, leaning Pro- Empire)

While the Highlanders teeter on the brink of collapse and capitulation in the face of the endless torrent of blue coats, the situation in the Lowland states and provinces is little better. While Dwarven men of military age are still to be found, public sentiment toward the war has grown so hostile that the Senedd (Parliament) now struggles more with maintaining public order than they do with the Highlander foe. Dwarven society was once on the rise, and it was believed that technology and military power could see the Lowlanders through any storm. The Civil War has proven this not to be the case, and Dwarven society is now stagnant. The ores and metals they once enjoyed in enormous quantities from the mountains now barely trickle into the factories, even from their Highland allies. Factories have shut down due to a lack of raw materials, leaving tens of thousands of shiftless, unemployed workers on the streets. Crime is rampant. Military service, the alternative to unemployment, seems more a death sentence than a life of glory as Lowland commanders have proven time and time again that the soldiers are little more than chaff, wasting lives on a terrible scale for no apparent purpose.

The rise of the Republic does not impress the Senedd or the King. The Army knows that the Highlanders already plan to sign on Elven refugees as mercenaries. The war is about to intensify once more, and the barbarous Vucari are the only people willing to step forward and defend the Lowlands from a counterattack. For now, the policy of the Lowland government is to defend their frontiers and lay stones on the ramparts. New commanders and military doctrines will be needed, and are being encouraged in anticipation of a new kind of war. They loathe the anarchy and fascism of the Republic, but are no great friends of the Empire either. Even so, there are calls to provide financial and military assistance to the Empire, provided they ever accept the need for Dwarven weaponry and tactics. This mission would be delicate and would put strain on an already stretched treasury, but it could pay dividends by hastening the end of the Republic and cutting off the stream of recruits to the Highlanders.

For now, the Lowlanders see it best to lick their wounds and seek out sources of metal from abroad, if only to keep the factories churning. They must put their restless people to work. This takes all priority over further offensive campaigning or any foreign assistance missions.

THE ORCS: (Provocateurist)

While the other nations of Sejhat struggle over what to do about the outbreak of hostilities in the Maenid Empire, the Babilaki (Orcs) spend much of their time relishing in the collapse of their hated rivals’ civilization. In their minds, the Elves have always been and always will be genocidal monsters. The one history that all Orcs seem to agree upon is the legacy of the Elven cleansing of the countryside, their attempts to colonize the Gangsa Tana, and the enslavement and murder they inflicted upon the people. Those Babilaki that can read inspect the newspapers and flyers regularly to vicariously imagine the Elves boiling in their own juices. Those that aren’t literate want more than ever to learn how, since fate has at last given them something they want to read about.

Even so, to say that the Babilaki and its secretive government are content to sit back and do nothing is a fallacy. Their indifference in the struggle between the Empire and the Republic isn’t merely apathy. Rather, the Babilaki government, experienced with matters of concealment, subtlety, and subterfuge, has organized a special arm of the Bayangan espionage branch designed to act as agent provocateurs. In a sense, the government has exhibited a special kind of foresight. The Orcs as a people have long desired revenge, as well as the conquest of the Elves. As with any government, the Babilaki wish to expand their power and influence, but their strategy goes beyond that. In their opinion, the only way to protect the world from the depravity of the Elves is to bring them to heel.

As it stands, the Elves are far too strong for the Babilaki to even hope to conquer. Siding with one against the other is insufficient, since the end result would still be a powerful, organized Elven nation. The solution, then, is to do everything in the Gangsa Tana’s power to pit the Elven factions against each other until their fortunes and lives are too exhausted to enable any kind of organized resistance. At that critical point, the Orcs can finally do something they never have in history- invade the lands of the Elves.

Not all is well. The Caliphate, a new and somewhat distant ally of the Gangsa Tana, has made it clear that they will support the Empire. It was the Maenid Empire that tried to eradicate their kind three times over, and the fact that the Humans support them speaks ill of their intentions and attitudes towards the Babilaki. However, as the Caliphate is a powerful neighbor and a key trading partner the Babilaki Government will avoid hostilities with them however possible. They are about to embark upon a dangerous game. Orcs are not welcome in Elven lands, but they will have to find a way to infiltrate their society and actively pit the Republic against the Empire. Once they succeed in this, they still have the matter of duping both sides into prolonging the conflict unnecessarily. They must also do this with a delicate touch not normally expected of Orcs, but this is where they have an advantage. While many suspect that Orcs are capable of violence, few among the Elves believe they are capable of intelligence. The Orcs have the additional advantage of a growing alliance with the Beastfolk, in particular the Checchiatari, whose traders and merchantmen are more intimately familiar with Elven customs and coastlines.

THE BEASTFOLK ALLIANCE: (Neutral, leaning Provocateurist)

The Beastfolk Alliance has long been removed from Elven politics due to its geographical isolation. The people continue to believe that the affairs of the Maenid Empire are too far away to be of local concern, but the government must plan for otherwise. The Empire has proven wholly resistant to the idea of trading and allying with the Beastfolk, who they see as barbarians and sub-hominids. However, the Republic has done one worse. They have used their hatred of other races, especially the Orcs and Beastfolk, as a founding principle of their new government. They have pledged none too idly that they will bring the lesser races to heel, and that the barbaric and uncouth Beastfolk are high on their list of conquests.

The Tsar and Tsarina of the Vucari, Nicholas III and Alexandra the White, are young monarchs of young noble houses, filled with ideas and dreams of development. Nicholas himself fought alongside the Dwarves as a mercenary and an ally, and has since set about broad and progressive reforms to Beastfolk society. It also helps that Alexandra, a beautiful and intelligent empress, is beloved by her people and keen to discuss their problems. The monarchs comprehend the kind of threat that the Republic poses to them, and they know that in the modern world mere distance is no longer a foolproof barrier against marauding armies. The Alliance must prepare to weather the coming storm. Its soldiers vary in equipment and tactics from the modern to the bronze age. Its frontiers are still weakly controlled, its industry barely existent, and its public services only just starting to come into play.

Fortunately, the Alliance is blessed with wealth. The Checchiatari, being keen scholars in monetary systems and very active traders, do more than just pour wealth into the Alliance’s coffers. They revolutionize both the way the people and the government approach commerce. While the Dwarves and Humans impose high tariffs to artificially inflate the prices of their goods, the Checchiatari impose low tariffs, taxes, and fees, encouraging more trade, and as a result more production. Unbound by the financial restraints of the Odem faith, such as the abolishment of usury, the Alliance benefits from an understanding of debt, allowing the middle class to invest and take risks. The Alliance’s approach to economics borders on the radical, which is a good thing because they will need all of the money they can secure in order to shoulder the enormous burden of modern war.

Industry has a finger hold in the Alliance, but it will take time for workshops to blossom into manufactories, and manufactories into industrial communities. It will take time to build ships, cast cannons, and construct fortifications. It will take time for courts, magistrates, schools, and ministries to be built and put into action. Above all, it will take persistence, labor, and considerable fortune to unite the lands with roads. None of these can be built in a day, but with pressure, investment, and a sense of national purpose the process of becoming civilized can be accelerated.

And so, the Beastfolk Alliance has taken a neutral stance and focused inward while the Elven Civil War rages. Siding with the Empire or the Republic are neither wise nor feasible strategies, but any action that gives them time to catch up with the world increases their chances of survival. In order to glean cash and expertise Nicholas has reinstated the leasing of combat regiments to the Dwarven Lowlands, where they have intermittently fought on behalf of the little hominids for centuries. The Checchiatari have also made diplomatic inroads with the Orcs and will do whatever they can to prolong the hostilities, provided the effort doesn’t require excessive treasure and loss of life. If peace and alliance can be maintained with their immediate neighbors, the Beastfolk may have a chance at withstanding the coming storm. Even if the Republic ultimately fails and the proposed invasion never occurs, the Alliance will be indisputably more resilient if it focuses exclusively on development.