Year 55

You and Brenda now rule the nation of Nalin as a married couple. There has been some issue on what your official titles are now. The simplest choices would be emperor and empress or king and queen. Eventually Brenda settled for imperatrix, which would officially make you imperator, though you still go by general for the most part.

In any case life has been good. You don't even mind that things have been slow since you conquered all those tribals in the east. You've been taking a slightly more active role in running the nation from an administrative point of view, but sometimes you still long for the day of a good battle. When that day comes you've also tried to keep up on the changing times of changing warfare. While the days of close combat are far from over, if the Eternal Dominion is starting to slowly incorporate firearms into their ranks, then you better do likewise if only to maintain a show of strength.

The ED isn't hostile though and you maintain a good trading relationship with them. Edgar still hopes you're going to join him one day, especially since you know he's got designs on going to war with the Felkan Kingdom (You gave him some friendly advice to not bother with invading Rask).

He'd probably like you to at least be involved in a joint military operation with him, but you think he's over extending himself and the Felkan Kingdom is no pushover. It's not exactly like you're near the Felkan Kingdom as far as location is concerned either. All you'd be doing is having soldiers die in a war that doesn't even directly benefit your nation.

That being said, Nalin hasn't sided with the Felkan Kingdom either in any way. Again, due to your location, you've had minimal contact with them. Brenda thought about allying with them in the past, but that was never seriously considered (Good thing too). Somehow though you imagine you're going to get dragged into this saber rattling between the Eternal Dominion and the Felkan Kingdom.

Funny how that feeling turns out to be true.

Late one night you and Brenda are awakened from your sleep. Some envoy from the Felkan Kingdom has sudden decided to show up in the middle of the night. Demanding to see the pair of you and claiming it's very urgent. You and Brenda don't get much sleep as it is, so you're inclined to tell your soldiers to just shoot him and go back to bed, but you've got a good idea of who it is.

"You really think it's him?" Brenda ask.
"You really think it isn't? It was only a matter of time. Ugh, I guess we better get this over with."

You shout at the guard behind the door to hold the envoy in the meeting room and keep a close eye on him until you and Brenda get there. After grumbling and getting dress you and Brenda head to the meeting room where you see a familiar face. He's missing an eye, all of his hair and his face has a few more winkles and scars on it now, but you still recognize him.

"Warrick, you better have a damn good reason for waking us up in the middle of the night." You say.
"…you aren't surprised it's me?"
"Not really, I actually thought you'd show up sooner, and how the hell did you manage to join the Felkan Kingdom anyway?"
"It's a long story…but well anyway, I'm glad to see you both. I was surprised to hear about your marriage. Didn't think that…"
"Warrick, I'm tired as well. It's not easy running a nation and I've been doing it even longer than my husband has, so get to the damn point of the visit or let this wait until tomorrow." Brenda demands rubbing one of her eyes.

Warrick looks a little hurt by your remarks, but he gets on with it.

"Very well, to business. The Felkan Kingdom wants an alliance with you."
"Yeah sort of figured that. Anything else?" you ask.
"Erm, no, but…"
"Okay then, the answer is no. We can talk more about old times tomorrow, if you want. Good night." Brenda says starting to turn around to go back to bed.
"Hey wait! No? Just like that?! You don't even want to consider the benefits?" Warrick asks.
"What benefits? If we ally with the Felkan Kingdom, all it's going to do is piss off the Eternal Dominion who we have a good relationship with diplomatically and tradewise. What is the Felkan Kingdom going to offer?" Brenda replies.
"How the fact that we're more likely to leave you alone after the war with the Eternal Dominion is over?"
"Warrick…Warrick…you should know threats aren't going to sway us." You remark.
"What?! NO! I meant, argh look. What I'm saying is if the unfortunate should happen and the Eternal Dominion wins don't you think that they'll try to invade you next?"
"I suppose it's possible yes."
"Whereas if the Felkan Kingdom wins, we have no intention on even expanding our borders."
"Probably true, but that still doesn't help us during the war. A war that is really between you and the ED."
"I can't believe I'm trying to convince YOU of all people to go to war. I would've thought you would've jumped at this chance!" Warrick says in a raised tone.
"Things change Warrick, and just because I'm not jumping through your hoops doesn't mean I've lost a taste for battle. But I'm thinking on a grander scale now. Going to war with the Eternal Dominion doesn't do us or Nalin any good. It's just going to result in dead soldiers at best. We've found that our continued expansion eastward is much better in building up the country. Maximum gain with minimum losses." You say.

Warrick paces a bit and sputters. He obviously thought this was going to go better.

"So that's it then huh? You just take Edgar's side over mine. I thought you didn't like him anyway."
"Warrick, it's not about taking sides. If you haven't noticed we're not exactly allied with the ED either. We trade with them and are on friendly terms, but that's out of convenience more than anything. Trust me, Edgar's been trying to get us to join for years. I don't know what you're even worried about, the Eternal Dominion is formidable I'm sure, but the Felkan Kingdom survived a war with the Empire. I'm guessing you should be able to handle the ED."
"I don't know if we can." He calmly states.

There's a moment of silence where you weren't expecting him to say such a thing so blatantly like that.

"Look, I didn't want to say anything. The Felkan Kingdom is what I serve now and I serve it to the best of my abilities as I did the Empire. To do anything less would be a failure as an Eternal on my part."
"But?"
"But I see the weaknesses that we have and I can't ignore them. It's not public knowledge to anyone outside the kingdom, but we're also suffering a large gnoll invasion from the west. It caught us completely by surprise. The Felkan Kingdom is a mighty nation, but right now it's straining its resources just to stay alive. A war with the ED…and we all know it's coming, could break us. The funny thing is I feel like I'm in the Empire all over again. You know during the bad times."
"I think they were ALL bad times Warrick. We just made the best of them." Brenda says.
"Perhaps. (sigh) I guess I can't convince you ally with us, I mean you've got a good thing going on here and you shouldn't wreck it. I'm glad. Glad that some of us are doing well. But couldn't you at least break off your trade routes? I mean that would at least cause Edgar's attention to be diverted. He might suspect you're up to something and not attack the Felkan Kingdom. At least not right away. It might be enough time for us to put up a better defense."
"Yeah and he might also attack us instead." Brenda remarks.
"I don't think he will, because then he has to divert his own soldiers and resources and then he'll be worried that we will attack. He can't fight a two front war, even Edgar's smart enough not to risk that. And that's if he dares fighting you in the first place."
"That's a big if, there Warrick." You say.

You and Brenda tell Warrick you'll both discuss this in a little more detail outside. He says he understands and will await your decision.

You and Brenda don't have too much to talk about really, since it's basically coming down to helping out a former comrade in arms and starting a possible war with another one or avoiding the situation entirely. Brenda is for staying neutral; oddly you're actually of two minds of this.

You convince Brenda to help Warrick

Maybe it isn't the most tactically sound decision, but he's still an Eternal and you feel like you should give him a fighting chance. It takes some convincing, but Brenda eventually agrees with you, but she still thinks this isn't one of your better ideas. You both go back inside to tell Warrick the news.

"Okay, Warrick after talking it over, we'll help you indirectly by breaking trade with the Eternal Dominion."

Warrick's face doesn't show a great degree of happiness, but one more of relief..

"Thank you. Thank you both, my friends. This might not seem like much, but it still helps. I'll never forget what you've done here."
"Yeah, yeah, you better go before I change my mind." Brenda says.

Warrick, not wishing to wear out his welcome he bids you both goodbye and takes his leave. Brenda remarks again that she sees no good coming of this, but what's done is done and you've all made your choices now. The pair of you go back to bed and try to get some sleep.

Year 56

"Great that's all we need a war with the Eternal Dominion while we have a fucking epidemic going on right now!" Brenda shouts throwing a paperweight against the wall in frustration.

When the trade routes were broken with the Eternal Dominion, Edgar did not take it well, and while it was always a risk, you didn't think he'd actually wage a two front war over it. He immediately suspected you both were in league with each other and declared war on you both.

You would probably fare better against the ED, but a terrible plague has hit Nalin pretty hard around the same time. Nobody knows exactly where it came from or how it spread, but the common thought is that the Eternal Dominion has something to do with it. You on the other hand entertain another idea, one that you'd rather not believe and that's Warrick had something to do with it.

Destabilize your country and weaken it to a point where the Eternal Dominion can destroy it completely while they also waste their own manpower at the same time. Possibly even spread the plague to their own lands too. It's a good plan.

If that really is the case, you question your judgment and beginning to wonder if you're even fit to command anything anymore. You know Brenda has been a little distant towards you lately, however to her credit she has not blamed you for the current situation. Though she wouldn't since she'd only blame herself as well for agreeing to break trade with the ED to begin with.

In any case, right now is not really the time to second guess or lament possible past mistakes, a serious situation rears it's ugly head right now and it must be take care of.

"Well, the plague hasn't hit eastern Nalin yet and we've drafted every healer, medic and hedge wizard we can find to help cure this blight. We've managed to quarantine the towns and cities that have been hit the hardest. The problem with that though is we've had to redistribute soldiers to those places where we could desperately use them on the northern borders." You explain.
"Yes, I'm aware of the situation, what's your solution?" Brenda demands.
"Kill everyone in the quarantine and cleanse it with fire. No more people, no more plague and we can focus on the war."

Brenda chuckles.

"Figures you'd suggest something like that."
"Well I'm coming up with the most efficient plan, waiting around for the docs to come up with a cure isn't really time we can afford." You say.
"And massacring entire settlements isn't going to endear us to anyone. You know what? To hell with it, I'm leaving this up to you, I'm sick of running this fucking country anyway…" Brenda says and walks out the room.

You aren't exactly sure of what to make of that response, but you go through with your cleansing plan since you can't afford to wait around for some cure that may never come.

Killing everyone has worked for you on several occasions in the past, no reason to change tactic now. First thing you do is get every remaining "old guard" officer that's still serving since the days of the Empire and have them put in charge of this operation. You know they won't even question this command coming from you. Then you tell them to go through their personnel rosters to see who is going to be up for this grim task. You personally suggest including all of those elves you made into orphans years ago. While they may all be good indoctrinated soldiers now, you think they wouldn't hesitate at a chance to kill some humans and would be good candidates for this job. Besides, elves seem to be more resistant to the plague anyway.

Three entire towns are put to the sword, gun and torch until there is nothing left, but burned corpses and hollowed out buildings. In keeping with non-humans being seemingly less affected by the plague, you have kobolds remove the bodies and clean out what they can. They're more than happy to do this as they get the chance to loot some stuff for their own impoverished reservation you've set aside for them.

This action causes a great outcry and you even have to execute several soldiers who took up arms against you during the cleansing. Many Nalin citizens aren't happy with the fact that you've implemented several non-humans in helping with this massacre as well. Indeed some begin calling you their inhuman "Eternal overlords" and wonder if they aren't already under the rule of the Eternal Dominion.

As far as the plague goes, you did successfully wipe it out from being an ongoing danger. Medics, healers and the like are able to focus their attentions on the places where it's less of a problem and eventually it is gone completely.

As for everything else, western Nalin, is in horrible condition and soldiers from eastern Nalin have to be brought in to reinforce the northern borders which have now changed hands a bit as the ED army has pushed you back. Eastern Nalin is in good shape as it was spared the plague and isn't in any immediate danger from the fighting, but there are rumors of the population aren't happy.

With the plague gone though, you dig in ready to focus on the Eternal Dominion invasion.
Year 60

"Fort Glory has fallen sir." A disheveled messenger tells you while you look over a map of Nalin in your tent.
"Doesn't matter, it was no longer a priority anymore." You say not looking up.
"So you're still going through with the plan involving the kobold sappers?"
"Yes. I figure it'll take a few days for those eternals get settled in their new conquest and then that fort crumbles right underneath them. A shame, I used to like that fort, but this is war."
"Sir, I don't mean to question your orders, but how can you trust those little scaley bastards? They're little more than animals."
"That may be, but they're animals that are more scared of me than anything else, and that's all that's important. Speaking of which how do things fare in eastern Nalin?"
"All major settlements are under martial law, lots of structures destroyed, several dissidents executed and there are reports of rebels in the wilderness, but most of it is still under our control."
"Good enough for now I suppose. Tell Captain Yasil, that I want her to mount an attack on Camp Conquest in a tomorrow. We're going to make our major offensive soon and I want her to weaken that camp as much as possible."
"…you mean that large eternal camp in northern Nalin? The main one? That's suicide! Her company is only at half strength from the last mission you sent her on!" the messenger exclaims.
"Her sacrifice will be remembered. That will be all." You say still not looking up.

The messenger sounds like he would like to say something else, but realizes he better not and just leaves. Smart move on his part. You would've killed him. You have little patience for hesitation nowadays, especially since you've got nothing left to lose.

You rub your eyes and stop looking at the map of Nalin and sit down to take a short break. You're tired, but you don't remember the last time you had a good night's sleep. You look over at a portrait you had made of Brenda a long time ago before this war ever broke out. An image of her in happier times.

You often speak to the portrait, during times like this and tonight is no different.

"You were right, shouldn't have broken that trade agreement with the ED (Sigh) just wish I would've been the one that paid for that mistake instead of you. Though I suppose I paid for it, when some suicidal asshole shot you in the head two years ago."

You focus more attention on the portrait

"Maybe you're better off…I mean you were getting increasingly unhappy. Heh, who knows maybe you would've just left altogether. You were right about ruling not being any fun too, I've been trying to do your job and mine, but I find myself just not caring about much lately. I'm half ready to just get up and leave it all behind, but I still feel the need to control and regain what has been lost. Maybe it's that old Empire syndrome popping up again. I dunno. Recently I've just been focusing on the war. It's about the only slight pleasure I get anymore. Sometimes I wade into battles, bones creaking, joints aching and five times slower and weaker than I once was, yet do it anyway. I guess I'm hoping to at least die a warrior's death, but somehow I still manage to survive. The war's not over yet though, so maybe there's still time right?"

You pick up the portrait and look directly into Brenda's face.

"I don't know if you still loved me near the end of everything, but I still loved you. Still do. Maybe I'll be with you soon." You say.

You put down the portrait and lie down on your bed. You won't get a good night's sleep, but you don't need it. You just need a quick recharge before you go back to the business of war.

The next couple of day pass and you're ready for your final push. You have no idea if you'll actually succeed in driving out the Eternal Dominion, but you're ready to put an end to this one way or another. You lead the battalions to the north.

When you arrive to the frontlines, you receive a report that Fort Glory completely collapsed and killed a couple of companies of eternals that were planning their next move from there. Kobolds took advantage of the chaos and finished off the wounded. Captain Yasil's mission was also somewhat successful, you see the smoke in the distance from the main ED camp. The smell of gunpowder from the cannons lingers in the air; hundreds of trenches are filled with the living and the dead on both sides.

You heard that this is how the battlefield looked when the Empire fought the Felkan Kingdom, seems like this is going to be standard for war, until something else changes in the way people kill others. You remember when things were much simpler though. The funny thing is that the Felkan Kingdom is despite being accustomed to this sort of fighting and more technologically advanced, they're apparently having a much worse time holding off the Eternal Dominion than you have, though you imagine that they're getting more of the brunt of the combat.

You are approached by several of your officers; they say their respective companies are ready to advance, if you give the word. You nod and tell them the attack will commence.

You watch as thousands of your soldiers run forward to kill and die for you. If there has always been one consistency with you, is you ability is muster up a shitload of people to do that, even when you're not popular. And you're REALLY not popular with the average Nalin citizen right now.

But ungratefulness is something you're used to. You experience the same thing in Rask, after you destroyed all the barbarian tribes. Peasants complain and know nothing of real sacrifice. Not like you do.

The battle is going strong and a cannon ball from the other side even crashes a few feet away from you. One of your majors advises that you should step further back from the battle so you stay out of harm's way.

But maybe you don't want to; in fact maybe you want to just end it all right now.

You walk into the battle

You look out at the battlefield from your horse and get off of it. This is it. The time is right. The major is screaming at you to take cover and asking you what do you think you're doing walking forward into the battlefield like you're doing, but you ignore him.

No sooner have you taken number of steps forward and large explosion occurs behind you causing you to fall forward. You push yourself up and look behind to see a small crater where the major and your horse once stood. Your head hurts and seems to be bleeding, but you shake off the cobwebs and crawl into the nearest trench.

The stench of death fills your nose immediately. You see several dead soldiers with various fatal wounds. A few living ones are looking for their next opportunity to crawl forward to the next trench. They see you and are quite surprised.

"Gen..general?" one of them says.
"What are you lot waiting for? There's a great big war out there just dying to be won!"
"Uh, well the enemy cannons are…"
"No excuses! Come on, follow me! I'll lead you to fucking victory!" you shout excitedly and crawl out of the trench.

The soldiers are a little reluctant to follow you at first, but they do so anyway. Explosions and gunfire are all around you as you crawl forward. The danger you've put yourself in right now is giving you a rush. You make your way to the next trench where you encounter even more of your soldiers who are in close combat with the enemy eternals. You help out with your own superior swordsmanship.

"That's how you do it!" you shout as you run your sword through the neck of an enemy. "Eternals my fucking ass! Back in my day, a single eternal could've killed the lot of you! And that Eternal would've been me!" you tell your men who are a little unnerved by your remarks.

"But fortunately I'm helping!" you shout with a slight giggle and motion them to follow you forward.

You crawl from trench to trench through mud, blood, guts, bodies, and all around nastiness and you love every moment of it. The soldiers you've "picked up" along the way believe you've gone completely mad, but they continue to follow since you're actually making progress and your combat abilities still surpass their own.

You don't even know how many eternals and "regular" soldiers you've killed so far, but you aren't keeping track. All that you do know is that you still haven't reached your goal. Along with completely disregarding your safety, you start to become a little delusional as well, you end up shouting at your men that they need to watch out for possible wendigos in the area confusing the hell out of them.

"Why isn't there snow? There's usually snow in Rask." You mumble to yourself.

You see the enemy camp in sight and there is already some fighting going on there, but by the Emperor, you are NOT going to miss this fight!

"For the Empire!" you shout, which at this point your soldier aren't even surprised by whatever you yell about now. They're too busy thanking their gods that you managed to lead them to the enemy camp with no losses.

Camp Conquest is in chaos. There is fighting everywhere and you jump right in the middle of it. You proceed with your bloodthirsty adrenaline crusade. You suffer several wounds that probably would've stopped a normal man your age in their tracks and even you're starting to feel the effects. Fortunately you've still got your small personal troop behind you to take up the slack.

"Look general there's the commander's tent!" one of them shouts. It would appear your enthusiasm has finally rubbed off.

With sword cuts across your face, a bleeding gash on your left arm, your armor half destroyed and a bullet in one of your legs, you continue forward. You're starting to feel a little wobbly though.

"These Eternals will pay for their betrayal of the Emperor!" you mutter.

The enemy commander with some of his own staff stands around several dead bodies and upon seeing you he pats his mace in his hand waiting for you to arrive. As you get closer, there's something somewhat familiar about him. Like you knew him, but he's older now.

He bashes the face in of one of your soldiers before clashing with you. He starts to babble about how he's wanted revenge on you for killing his friend twenty-five years ago. He kicks you to the ground and tries to crush your skull, but you roll out of the way.

Your head is really starting to hurt, and you're feeling a little dizzy. Images of the past and present begin to mix together and you have a moment of clarity of where you are, and it isn't Rask and you aren't serving the Empire.

The bleeding from the back of your head was actually caused by shrapnel from the explosive cannon ball that nearly killed you at the beginning of the battlefield. You've been suffering from a mild brain injury the entire time, hence your delusions. This fool that's trying to kill you now is one of those eternals that was under your command when you left the Empire and killed private Felding in the process.

You dodge another mace swing as you try to regain your wits. You're stating to feel your strength really ebb. This is what reality feels like and it sucks, you were enjoying yourself up until this point.

You don't know if you're actually going to survive this, but you'll be damned if you're going to give this asshole the satisfaction of getting his revenge. You hack at his foot causing him to fall to one knee. You then strike out against one of his soldiers trying to sneak attack you. Before the commander to get back up, you hack his arm off at the shoulder. Blood spews from the stump and he screams in agony. He stops screaming when you kick his teeth in and sever his head from his body.

You look around and see that your soldiers are winning the day. You know that the Eternal Dominion presence is still in Nalin, but it has now been greatly reduced with this victory. The war isn't over yet, but maybe it is for you.

You stagger to the asshole's tent you just killed and lie down on his bedroll. You head hurts something fierce and you're starting to feel like you're about to pass out. One of your soldiers says he'll go find a medic or healer, but really you don't care anymore.

You're going to die here and that's okay. You've had your last win and really even if you did survive to see final victory; you'd rather not go through the drudgery of ruling alone anymore. You're too old and too tired and now that Brenda's gone, you just don't have the motivation anymore.

"Brenda, I'm coming to join you." You say and close your eyes.

You never wake up.