Imperyea

"Oh, here's one. Before there was a unified Imperyea, the islands were divided by four chiefdoms. Kushyrin, Imper, Cheypri, and, uh… I forget the fourth one. The chiefdoms eventually united as a Puritonist theocracy familiarly known as Imperyea. Religion is what brought us together under one banner; a united loyalty to the gods!" ―Daigon, EngelReise - Chapter 9
Imperyea is a major nation featured in EngelReise, is the setting for Season 1 (Chapters 1-10), and is the home of story protagonist, Tomako Angel. Geographically, Imperyea is located in the Shimuan continent to the far east, and consists of five autonomous island masses. For most of history, Imperyea stands as a sovereign nation led by an emperor and their five great lords, renowned for their many wars against Krucifix. By Season 1 of EngelReise, the Imperyean Empire has fallen to the far western Swatslandic Empire, and has been replaced by the Viceroyalty of Imperyea—a Swatslandic colony. Aside from its wars with Krucifix, Imperyea is known for its samurai culture, fine art, and united faith in Puritonism.
==History==
===Ancient Imperyean Chiefdoms===
The 'Pre-Imperial' or 'Pre-Samurai' era of Imperyea saw the islands independent of each other but culturally and spiritually identical, naturally leading to an early warlord period. In these ancient times, Imperyea was divided into four chiefdoms: Imper, Kushyrin, Cheypri, and Hi-Kin. In these centuries of separation, it was Imper and Kushyrin who stood the test of time, with Cheypri and Hi-Kin eventually falling to Imper; even with Imper besting two of its three rivals, Kushyrin would prove unconquerable due to its high population and superior coastal defenses.
Each chiefdom during this time were followers of early Puritonism, which was at the time less so a nationalized religion and more so a loose collection of commonly believed mythos. This uniting faith in early Puritonism would be the one thing keeping the chiefdoms from performing genocide against one another, as well as giving them a common enemy in the emergent Krucifixan kingdom that had taken the peninsula Puritonists claimed theirs. Puritonism is, ultimately, what would end the centuries of infighting, as the remaining two chiefdoms of Kushyrin and Imper would at long last lay down their arms and agree to unite under a new theocratic government loyal to Puritonist values.
To ensure that the new centralized government of Imperyea held the interests of Imper and Kushyrin with equal weight, a Kushyrian mother and Imperan father were nominated from both chiefdoms and made to wed. From this marriage came the birth of a son who would be granted the name Chonan and subsequently be raised as the first Emperor of Imperyea. The birth of Emperor Chonan marked the end of the chiefdom age and the rise of the Imperyean Empire as a political entity, though the only other empire in the world—the Superium Empire—would never recognize Imperyea as a real empire due to its small size and lack of relevance on the world stage.
===The First Dynasty===
During the regency of Emperor Chonan, Imperyean politics were consumed by a need for a structure of government that the five islands of Imperyea could all rally behind as legitimate. Many during these early years simply believed that the powers of Emperor should be defined by the respective High Chiefs of Imper and Kushyrin, however, the chiefdoms had been dismantled following Imperyean unification, and most in the new empire remained suspicious of Kushyrin. A second, more popular suggestion was that a national, professional military be quickly developed and given responsibility over government, effectively paving the way for a military state. Similar distrust over Kushyrin would lead to a weakening of support for the rise of a military government, namely because of the most prestigious Imperyean commander coming from Kushyrin. The continued obstacle of distrust towards the former Chiefdom of Kushyrin would lead to a natural conclusion that an Imperyean government would need to be led by ideals all islands were passionate about and where no island had a greater advantage over the other. The eventual answer to this long debate was to empower the clergy, ensuring that government always held Puritonism as its highest focus.
With all islands agreeing to expand the powers given to the religious class, the new capital city of Korion would quickly also develop into the spiritual center of the Puritonist faith. There in Kori Castle, the best clergymen in the empire gathered with the mission of educating the imperial dynasty in Puritonism, with the Emperor eventually taking over as Head of Faith and holding ultimate religious authority in the land. Emperor Chonan, once reaching adulthood, revealed himself to the Imperyean people as a dispeller of historical tensions and a spiritual healer, wanting to devote his life to erasing any identities unique to the era of chiefdoms. While Chonan would somewhat succeed in his mission, what he unintentionally ended up credited for was raising the importance of religious education throughout the country. By the end of his lifetime, most knew the fundamentals of Puritonism, and many workplaces required a proven education in the faith.
The reign of Emperor Chonan proved to be a monumental one but largely uninteresting; his son and successor, Emperor Jinan, would prove to be more controversial. Jinan even before ascending to the throne identified a problem in Puritonism, namely that a lack of official scripture meant that the exact retelling or interpretations of Puritonist canon varied depending on island. Calling upon his council of clergymen, a long, complicated process led to these men agreeing to organize all known Puritonist stories into an official body of papers. For the first time in Imperyea's short history, Emperor Jinan utilized his religious authority to declare that these pages of writings were the official canon, and that any straying interpretations were heresy. This declaration proved controversial around the empire, especially due to the government's inability to reproduce the pages enough times to effectively spread the canon. While the country accepted that an official text now existed, few in Imperyea would ever know what the text said due to limited access. Emperor Jinan's most significant change to Puritonism and Imperyean society came when he looked outward to the mostly ignored peninsula that the Krucifixans had colonized. For centuries, the Imperyean people laid claim to the peninsula due to mentions of it belonging to an Imperyean god, but few ever cared to act on the issue. Jinan declared in yet another act of religious authority that the greatest responsibility of the Imperyean people should be to colonize the peninsula, despite the Krucifixans already doing so. By emphasizing the religious duty of Imperyea to take the peninsula, Jinan had unknowingly initiated a conflict between Imperyea and Krucifix that would persist for hundreds of years onwards. One of Chodan's major albeit controversial accomplishments was his passing of a universal tax reform, which established that rates of taxation were weighted the same regardless of the island. With some islands benefiting from this idea more than others, there was great resistance to what would normally be instituted politically; henceforth, to end the debate, Chonan used his religious authority to declare his universal tax rate as the canonical will of the Puritonist gods. Emperor Chonan escaped any consequences from his constant use of religious authority as he would die rather young, but he established a precedent that would come to his successor as a heavy burden.
The third Emperor of Imperyea—Sonnan—succeeded Chonan with considerable skepticism and tension aimed toward him by the public. Many Imperyeans grew tired of Emperor Chonan's usage of religious authority as a means of achieving political victories, with many questioning whether any man or woman could truly add, remove, or adjust religious canon as he had. Emperor Sonnan was immediate in demonstrating his eagerness to continue this trend when he declared that the maintaining of dental hygiene was considered a moral issue since many Puritonists held idols of the gods close to their face when praying. Similar minor religious declarations would be made throughout his reign, but the most significant moment would come when he recalled Chonan's declaration that owning the peninsula controlled by the Krucifixans was the top priority for Imperyeans. Unlike Chonan, Sonnan went the final step on this issue by declaring to the Imperyean nation that the gods of Imperyea commanded them to strip the peninsula away from Krucifix by force. A period of seven months saw fishermen surrendering their boats and equipment to the military, a mass gathering of food supply from farmers, and a massive conscription of Imperyean men and even women. Later, these thousands of Imperyean soldiers would embark north in what would become known as the First Krucif-Imperyean War—the first of many to come. 
===First Krucif-Imperyean War===
Up to this point, Krucif-Imperyean relations had been neutral, with the two most often meeting only for the purpose of exotic trade; for this reason, the Krucifixans trusted the Imperyeans were content within their own natural borders. With little complexity to their plan, the Imperyean invasion fleet landed a phenomenal number of soldiers at the most southern point of Krucifix, at first occupying villages with little resistance, and little harm to the inhabitants. The Imperyean invasion of Krucifix saw the southern side of the peninsula swiftly occupied from east to west coast, granting them great control over their objective but at the consequence of spreading their military thin. The Krucifixans spent three months gathering hardened soldiers from the northern region of Greater Krucifix, but once in the peninsula, approached the Imperyean line with great enthusiasm. While the Imperyeans outnumbered the Krucifixan responders, their forces were of lesser quality, no familiarity with the region, led by the clergy, and on the offensive. Banking on the prediction that Imperyea did not understand the peninsula's terrain, the Krucifixan defenders rushed into the most elevated positions along the center of the peninsula, even permitting the Imperyeans to seize more villages if it meant luring them into a more vulnerable position. This gamble paid off, as every major battle to occur along the frontline led to the same conclusion of Imperyean forces being destroyed by Krucifixan missile fire. Once the Imperyean numbers thinned down, they decided to yield most of their current occupation to band back together, believing they would do better as a merged unit. This change in strategy did not work out for Imperyea, as their enemies took this as an opportunity to try and circle around the Imperyeans and attack them from multiple directions. Doom approached the thousands of Imperyean soldiers quickly approaching an encirclement; fortunately for them, once Emperor Sonnan learned of the tragic situation in Krucifix, he declared that the military operation was a failure and recalled the surviving army home. The First Krucif-Imperyean War was lost.
===Diverging Views of the Emperor===
While the Kingdom of Krucifix was generous in accepting the Imperyean withdrawal as the end of the war and without any dictations, consequences would nevertheless be felt in Imperyea. Up to this point in time, Imperyean society held the title of Emperor as the highest religious authority, and when Emperor Sonnan used his religious authority to assert that the gods mandated the retrieval of the peninsula, there was a societal expectation that this had to be seen to the end. Sonnan withdrawing from the peninsula and declaring that Imperyea had been defeated had a much harsher effect on his reputation than expected. Throughout the islands, debate erupted as to whether the Emperor was righteous in his actions. One way of thinking was simply that as the highest authority both politically and religiously, the Emperor was simply infallible and therefore vindicated of any crime he was accused of. Another thought was that the Emperor held the power to declare religious canon, but that the First Dynasty was abusing this power just as a way of making the islands adopt change quickly and with no room for debate or misinterpretation. This way of thinking pointed to the surrender in the First Krucif-Imperyean War as proof that in the current political establishment, the Emperor could mandate something as being critically necessary, only to end up abandoning that mandate in the same breath. A final, more radical point of view came to form in the more rural corners of Imperyea, which popularly took on varying positions around the central idea that the Emperor of Imperyea should exclusively serve a political function, and leave religion to the clergy. This most latter position would often times go so far as to reject the previous religious reforms as illegitimate, challenging the very existence of the emperor as a religious authority when the title of Emperor was a more recent creation never referenced in religious canon.
While Emperor Sonnan called for a banning of the most radical of speech against him, he did not act against the more mild criticism. Those of the most radical thoughts were labeled as 'Interprets' and became persecuted in the years to follow the war, with suspected Interpret farmers having their properties revoked, fishing and merchant licenses invalidated, and often kidnapped or executed as well. The more mild critics, known as 'Estrays,' went unpunished for these many years, but this tolerance would be to the Emperor's detriment as this allowed for such thought to be facilitated in urban centers across the nation, usually in the form of elite circles of literati. The Estrays would only finally cross the Emperor's tolerance when Imperyean temples, then education centers, began to attract Estray influence. With many temples of worship soon propagating the idea that the Emperor of Imperyea is a fallible being, Estray circles around the country now joined the Interprets as being prosecuted. Temples accused of propagating Estray ideas were subject to a new Loyalty Tax, and in some cases, the clergymen replaced. With the Emperor directly opposing the beliefs of the Estrays, their ideas gradually radicalized in a way where few would continue to support any claim of religious authority, thus blending in the views of the Estrays and Interprets.
===Rise of the Perfectly Honorable One===
Twenty years after the end of the FIrst Krucif-Imperyean War, Emperor Sonnan found his position of power threatened by Estray and Interpret influences running rampant around the islands of Imperyea. The Interprets had been considered the more problematic group due to their more radical talks of seeing the Emperor stripped of all religious duties, but this group were largely comprised of grumbling reactionaries who longed for the days of pre-Imperial Imperyea, most of whom merely farmed, painted, or fished. The Estrays proved to be the less radical and less offensive but subtly the most powerful threat to the title of Emperor due to their gradual rise among the literati and eventual infiltration of the educational centers. This escalating tension between the Emperor and Estrays came to a boiling point when the head of the temple in Sosa—a large coastal settlement hidden behind the vast forests of the largest islands—began to preach about the 'Perfectly Honorable One.' A new concept introduced by a clergyman known as Michi Mase, Michi gathered great attention for his claims that Puritonist canon, when read in careful succession, appears to indicate the prophesized emergence of a great Imperyean teacher who is of perfect honor and perfect knowledge. Michi suggested that the Perfectly Honorable One has not yet walked the earth, but will be born from an Imperyean woman of distinguishable honor. Michi went on to teach that the world exists in a cauldron of deviance, confusion, violence, and wickedness only because the Perfectly Honorable One has yet to arrive to educate the world.
This revelation by Michi Mase came as a result of his Estray ideology as he came to believe that the Emperor did not carry religious authority, but that only the existing Puritonist canon could be relied upon for dictating the laws and values of the faith. Through this belief, he took it upon himself to better interpret the canon, and from there, came to the conclusion that was the Perfectly Honorable One. The Emperor, seated only a day away in the capital city of Korion, was outraged by news of the Perfectly Honorable One, condemning the development as heresy and misunderstanding Michi Mase to be an Interpret. Regardless of the confusion, Emperor Sonnan and his allies viewed this development as Michi Mase falsely asserting religious authority, thus he took measures to shut the temple in Sosa down. Michi Mase refused to shut down the temple, criticizing the Emperor—still the legal religious authority in Imperyea—for trying to shut down a religious institution in a country as religiously strong as Imperyea. In a last ditch effort to save the temple, over a hundred letters were dispatched by the temple in Sosa to all islands of Imperyea, desperate to get other temples around the country to issue a protest to Kori Castle. When one of these letters was intercepted by an Imperial commander and brought back to Kori Castle, Emperor Sonnan misinterpreted the plea as a call-to-arms against his rule. The misunderstanding would lead directly to Imperyea's greatest period of chaos in its history so far.
===The Sosa Rebellion===
The 'Sosa Rebellion' is a somewhat ironic and misleading name, for the village of Sosa and its notorious temple was attacked by the Emperor's soldiers, occupied, and pacified all within the span of a week or so with minimal violence. Michi Mase himself when arrested by the Emperor's soldiers insisted that a misunderstanding had led to the incident and that he wanted an audience with Emperor Sonnan to clarify his discovery of the Perfectly Honorable One. This meeting was rejected, but Michi was merely exiled from Sosa and his license to preach religion revoked, indicating that the incident was not overly serious to the Emperor. Nevertheless, a snowball effect continued to take form as the occupation of Sosa, the closure of its temple, and the exiling of Michi Mase gave off the wrong idea to the many temples that would eventually receive Michi's letters. Fearing that the Emperor was now betraying Puritonism and preparing to shutdown temples, one-by-one, temples and their loyal villagers took up any arm they could, seeing the incident in Sosa as an ultimatum to the people of Imperyea to decide between loyalty to Puritonism and Imperyea. Very few village heads around Imperyea sided with the temples, most being loyal to the state more than faith. Village heads could rely on the merchant class to take their side and strip the temples of much needed subsidies; however, this provocative move led to most villagers aligned to the cause of the temples to start giving their taxes to the temples, rather than the village heads. The merchants, although mostly aligned with the village heads, capitalized on the conflict and profited off both sides of the conflict.
The Sosa Rebellion, as it came to be popularly known, did not have a centralized leadership, despite the popular urban legend that the Sosa Rebellion was led by Michi Mase. The Sosa Rebellion had no real designs of marching onto Korion in the beginning of the insurrection, rather the individual villages across the empire entered their own civil wars between temple and village heads. The Emperor, largely unable to levy troops from these many villages distracted by their internal infighting, focused on the capital of Korion, where he mostly enjoyed loyalty. Over the years, each village began to settle their feuds, almost all of which ended up with one side overtaking the other. Villages where the pro-Imperial village heads prevailed would soon lend troops to Kori Castle, while villages where the temple heads prevailed usually garrisoned their own troops and ran their villages like practically independent theocracies. The second phase of the Sosa Rebellion became known as the 'Sosa Wars' and deviated greatly from its original goal.
With the villages of Imperyea soon uniting either under Imperial or Sosa control, a new phase of the conflict began when those villages under Imperial control began to attack villages under Sosa control. The range of these offensives typically covered whatever island the villages were part of, thus for example, villages of Kushyrin were largely focused on dominating other villages of Kushyrin. The Emperor, once again struggling to build an army due to the village in-fighting, concentrated what few armies he had towards pacifying the most significant villages, and was cautious enough to only send his armies so far from Korion, paranoid that the war could reach its gates suddenly. With the villages contesting each other for control of the entire islands, the Sosa Wars played a massive role in decentralizing the empire while uniting each individual island. The original Chiefdom of Kushyrin, once spanning over three islands, was eventually identified with the most westward island of Imperyea when all of its villages would fall under Imperial control. The island east of Kushyrin—formerly controlled by the Chiefdom of Kushyrin—now earned an identity as 'Craykon' as Sosa dominance took control. Similarly yet, the most eastern island became known as 'Hippinshu' during this era as Sosa dominance, too, took hold. Finally, the most northern island, long ago known as the Chiefdom of Cheypri before being conquered by the Imper, would reclaim its Chiefdom era identity and become known as 'Cheyprin,' also dominated by the Sosa. The main island, historically known as Imper, remained highly contested but mostly loyal to the Emperor. This massive island took on two combatting names during the conflict, with Imperial loyalists continuing to identify the full island as 'Imper,' while Sosa rebels came to know it as either 'Sosaki,' but as more and more battles in the island were won for Sosa forces, another name for the island would become popularized—'Dayaking,' translating to 'Realm of Honor.'
With the third and final phase of the conflict rising of the Sosa Wars, the Imperyean Empire had fallen into complete civil war, with only the island of Kushyrin unanimously aligned with the Emperor's faction, while Cheyprin, Craykon, and Hippinshu all allied with each other and fought the war in Imper—or 'Dayaking.' This phase of the war saw another significant development, as these newly centralized islands established their own governments with the blessing of the temple heads. These men became known as 'Great Lords' and were declared as heads of their respective islands. Kushyrin was the only uncontested island not to appoint a Great Lord, owing to their loyalty to the Emperor. As an alliance, Cheyprin and Hippinshu sent their armies into the central island while Craykon dealt directly with the island of Kushyrin, taking the important task of keeping Kushyrin from sending armies in to support the Emperor. As a result of this strategy, the essential coastal villages of Sosa and Mengakisoko were seized by rebel forces, the former boosting morale due to its namesake significance to the Sosa Rebellion. With these acquisitions, the Emperor was faced by the Sosa Rebellion outside of Korion at last, where the bloodiest battles of the Sosa Wars would take place in the open plains outside of the capital. After several defeats, the Emperor appealed to the commanders of Cheyprin and Hippinshu, refusing to surrender, but offering to negotiate the future of Imperyea "in a manner which benefits the sacrifices of the rebellion." While Emperor Sonnan refused to surrender, his offer was tantamount to surrender. The Sosa Rebellion continued to battle the Emperor at the gate of Korion, but eventually accepted his call for negotiations.
In the end, a peace treaty was agreed upon that would appeal to both sides of the war. The Emperor would retain the power of religious authority, but from this point on was compelled to issue a final declaration to the religious canon that the Emperor of Imperyea required the temple head of each of the five Imperyean islands to unanimously agree on a mandate before it could be adopted as religious canon. These temple heads would be located in the capital of each island. Furthermore, the decentralization of the Imperyean Empire would be legalized, thus the islands of Kushyrin, Cheyprin, Hippinshu, Craykon, and Dayaking were recognized as autonomous banners within the empire, each with an installed dynasty—or Great Lord—at its head. The island of Kushyrin would at this time join the rest in naming a Great Lord—a member of the Nushikuo family. Finally, under this treaty, the Perfectly Honorable One would be subject to a vote by the temple heads in what was projected to fail; surprisingly, however, the temple heads of Kushyrin and Dayaking, despite being pro-Imperial in the war, ended up agreeing with the findings, and thus voted with the other islands to canonize the Perfectly Honorable One into Puritonism. One critical consequence of the peace treaty is that since the Emperor was allowed to retain his religious authority, all prior mandates remained canon, notably including dental hygiene as a moral issue, the flat tax rate for all islands regardless of income, and more consequentially, the mandate which claimed the Krucifixan Peninsula was the land of an Imperyean god, and that it was the duty of Imperyeans to take it back. With this treaty, Imperyea had settled once and for all the question of religious authority, and a time of peace would ensue for years to come.
Despite everything, two decades later, Emperor Sonnan, unable to produce a heir for his dynasty, adopted a son and named him Ja. Sonnan died some years later, ending the First Dynasty of Imperyea. Emperor Ja, a mysterious man with no recorded ancestry, came forth with a clean slate and the trust of many within the Empire. Ironically, while his adopted father fought a civil war over the emergence of the Perfectly Honorable One as a purported prophecy, Emperor Ja approached the matter in the opposite manner, not only obsessing over the prophecy, but even encouraging women be educated in the prophecy. A new, brighter era for Imperyea had begun.
===Twenty-nine Krucif-Imperyean Wars===
Only eight years after the conclusion of the Sosa Wars, Emperor Ja called for the Second Krucif-Imperyean War, recognizing that the Imperyean people were still honorbound to complete the conquest of the peninsula. This war differed from the first only in that this time the Great Lords of Imperyea were instructed to lead their own armies against the Kingdom of Krucifix and to coordinate the invasion with each other. This decision to allow the Great Lords to plan out their own desired participation in the war worked against the Empire's favor, as little coordination would occur, and each Great Lord aspired to be the one to boast a successful campaign for the peninsula. This invasion of Krucifix saw all five islands attacking the Krucifixan Peninsula from the southern shores, and the execution of the war was near identifcal to the First Krucif-Imperyean War, and would meet almost identical problems as the Krucifixans from the north eventually arrived south, fortified over high terrain, stopped the Imperyean advance, and then finished them off by the shores. Unlike the first war, each Great Lord had their own authority to retreat, and most would end up either trying to entrench themselves by the coast, or simply get back on ships to retreat to Imperyea. Just like in the first war, Imperyea was slapped out of Krucifix, leaving bodies and destruction in the peninsula on their way out. Emperor Ja instructed the Great Lords to reorganize, rearm, and try their invasion again, but with the element of surprise now gone, the Krucifixans shored up and prevented any returning invasion, thus the Second Krucif-Imperyean War was called off.
The consequences of losing the Second Krucif-Imperyean War was similar but far less destructive for the Emperor this time around, with elements similar to the old Estrays speaking out again, but this time coming nowhere close to rebellion. Krucifix would repair the peninsula, birth new children, and bury their dead; Imperyea would birth new children, train new warriors, and draw up new plans. Six years later, the Third Krucif-Imperyean War was declared, again by Emperor Ja. Like before, the Great Lords sent waves of ships to the southern point of the peninsula, razed the villages, occupied their way north, met the Krucifixans by the hills and mountains, were repelled, forced to get back on their ships, and Krucifixan archers would again reject future advances. The Third Krucif-Imperyean War went as miserably as the other two, but condemnation of the Emperor was even softer. Emperor Ja declared a Fourth Krucif-Imperyean War only four years later, believing that cutting the gap between wars would leave the Krucifixans in weakened position. While he was correct that the Krucifixan Peninsula was still recovering from the previous war, the war itself still followed a near identical script with the Imperyeans even struggling to get farther than before due to issues with foraging. Yet again, the Imperyeans were ejected from the peninsula with more Krucifixan villages razed to dust and its population largely annihilated. As always, the Krucifixans responded to the tragic war by birthing more children and paying northern Krucifixans to migrate south.
Emperor Ja declared a Fifth and Sixth Krucif-Imperyean War, within eight years after the previous, the Fifth Krucif-Imperyean War being conducted exactly the same as the other four, still believing that the Krucifixans could not recover from the previous wars so quickly. With the Sixth Krucif-Imperyean War, finally, the island of Kushyrin innovated on their strategy by sending their invasion fleet up north from the western side, choosing to invade past the problematic mountain while the other four islands continued their usual strategy of invading the southern point. This strategy came with a promising start, as the Kushyrins occupied villages never before touched, and with no mountains ahead of them, there was an optimistic view that they could singlehandedly hold off the Krucifixan response while the other islands occupied the southern region. This proved tragically false for Kushyrin, for the Krucifixan commanders simply pushed the Imperyeans against the mountain range with superior numbers, killing many Imperyeans and pressuring them to go up the mountain, where attrition would kill nearly all of them. This was the first time in Imperyean history when an entire Imperyean army was wiped out, with the troopships simply returning to Imperyea with no soldiers. From this point on, the Krucifixans flushed the remaining four islands out of Krucifix in an almost scripted manner. This had been the final attempt by Emperor Ja, who would die years later from natural cause. The death of Emperor Ja caused the Krucifixans some desperate hope that the Imperyeans would finally end their futile attempts at seizing their peninsula, but would be greatly burdened to discover that they had not even begun to scrape the barrel.
A ten year period of peace ensued that allowed both Imperyea and Krucifix to regrow and rebuild. The six failed wars easily made Imperyea recognized as the rival of Krucifix, and also gave Imperyea a very alien reputation to the rest on the Shimuan continent, simply knowing them as an isolated banner of islands obsessed with attacking their more competent neighbor. Imperyea cared little for their international image, however, and thus declared the Seventh Krucif-Imperyean War, popularly declared as the "final war against evil." This war returned to the old format of all five islands attacking from the deep south, only this time they were burdened by an innovative Krucifixan alarm system where coastal villages would ring bells in a codified manner to alert other nearby villages of an Imperyean invasion. Because of this, the Krucifixan Army of Greater Krucifix knew in less than a week that a new invasion had started, cutting mobilization time by well over a month and getting 'the script' ready far earlier than usual. While this did still result in the usual terror and destruction of the southern peninsular villages, the Imperyeans ran into Krucifix's usual mountain missile fire much sooner than expected, and not even a month later, the Imperyeans were yet again sent packing. For the first time ever, the Imperyeans did not attempt a re-invasion, knowing from the past six attempts that the Krucifixans could defend their shores.
Over the course of fifty years, five more Krucif-Imperyean wars would erupt, all of which with different islands attempting different strategies to try and acquire the elusive victory from Krucifix, but as with the other eleven attempts, the Krucifixan counterattack would repel them in each one. A consequence of the many wars and their repetitive nature was that while the region of Greater Krucifix continued to grow and develop, the Krucifixan Peninsula was never allowed to develop due to the Imperyeans constant insistence on razing their villages. While a clear sense of rivalry existed between Imperyea and Krucifix, a special kind of animosity was reserved with the Peninsular Krucifixans who managed to survive these wars. By the end of the Eleventh Krucif-Imperyean War, long gone were the days of the Sosa Rebellion where the Emperor conceding defeat was unacceptable. In Imperyea, zero judgment was put onto the defeated Imperyeans or their leaders, as the people of Imperyea had now long come to antagonize the Krucifixans as barbarians holding their sacred peninsula hostage.
The Twelfth Krucif-Imperyean War was unique in the twist it held. The Imperyeans attempted an invasion with Cheyprin and Hippinshu invading from the southern coast, while Dayaking, Kushyrin, and Craykon attempted to attack more north to try and once again stop the Krucifixans from getting an advantageous foothold in the mountains. This invasion, finally, marked the moment that Imperyea tried something radically new, and managed to take several new villages for the first time. Nevertheless, much like decades prior, this northern invasion led to the Imperyeans being pushed into the mountains, where they would largely starve or freeze to death, and the most southern armies later destroyed due to their dismal size in comparison. The Imperyeans yet again called off their war and retreated what soldiers they could back to Imperyea, as was tradition. This time, however, the Imperyeans were stunned to find the Krucifixan counter-offensive not ending at the peninsula's coast, as Krucifixan soldiers for the first time ever boarded vessels from the north and performed their own invasion of Imperyea, landing soldiers in the northern shores of Kushyrin.
The Twelfth Krucif-Imperyean War had taken a chaotic turn as Krucifixan soldiers quickly seized the port village of West Wowa, disconnecting Kushyrin from Dayaking. From here, the Krucifixans decided on a strategy of guarding the coast east of Kushyrin so to disallow an Imperyean invasion of its own island; the larger force of Krucifixans spread out with the objective of occupying the northern coastline of the island, its ultimate goal being the island's capital of Boshtang. Krucifix made the central error of assuming they were surrounded by plains, presuming that their enemy came from a land of simple terrain due to how poor they were at fighting in bad terrain. The Krucifixans, however, would be surprised and greatly distressed to find that Kushyrin is about 80% forest, with most of its settlements sticking out or even surrounded of forests. During this struggle to keep supply up and map out the enemy territory, the Imperyeans were quick to move whatever surviving warriors they still had to the island and start picking off the Krucifixans from forests. With the Krucifixans easily losing every battle, it was eventually decided to cancel the entire campaign and retreat back to Krucifix, knowing there was a serious risk that the Imperyeans may now get back on ships and attack Krucifix; this, however, never occurred, as the Imperyeans were just happy to have repelled a foreign invasion.
In the dramatic aftermath of the Twelfth Krucif-Imperyean War, the warriors who risked everything to fight the Krucifixan invaders were personally honored by the Emperor, and granted specially made armor and swords said to be made of the honor they had earned in the war. These several thousand men would go on to be known as 'samurai,' a title designated specifically for Imperyean warriors who defended the homeland. The samurai became renowned for being the most honorable of military men, and in time, were also treated as the most elite. A samurai culture would form around Imperyea in those coming years, with most islands even flirting with the idea of disqualifying non-samurai from future leadership roles. The Emperor created the title of samurai under the expectation that the Krucifixans, having gotten a taste for Imperyean soil, would return many times in the future, and thus more samurai would be promoted. As it would turn out, the Krucifixans would never again attempt an invasion of Imperyea, and so over the decades to come, the standards of what makes a samurai would slacken greatly. By the end of the Fourteenth Krucif-Imperyean War, thirty years later, the Emperor declared that since the peninsula is considered territory of an Imperyean god, anyone who fights in a Krucif-Imperyean War and slays an enemy in battle is eligible to be promoted to the rank of samurai. This carried a severe consequence come the Fifteenth Krucif-Imperyean War, as Imperyean warriors now felt incentivized to bring home with them body parts, personal belongings, and in even darker occasions, women and children, as proof that they had slain a Krucifixan.
The Sixteenth and Seventeenth wars returned to the strategy of having some islands invade the south while others invade the north, but this time experimented with the idea of bringing supply wagons filled decadently off the ships in the north, hoping that these could be relied upon in the mountains. When the Imperyeans would inevitably end up pushed into the mountains, the supply wagons did succeed in keeping them alive three extra months, but nevertheless still resulted in their destruction from attrition. After two failed attempts at this strategy, the supply wagon concept would never again return. The Eighteenth War is considered one of the saddest attempts in Imperyean history due to a very simplistic idea of returning to the oldest plan in the book from the First and Second Krucif-Imperyean War of just attacking together at a single point in the very south. Returning to the oldest strategy did surprise the Krucifixans, but nevertheless led to their demise as the Krucifixans, experts at defeating Imperyean armies at this point, did not even allow the usual wave of village razing to occur, as they simply defeated the Imperyeans in a series of straight coastal battles where superior Krucifixan missile fire reigned supreme.
Due to the disaster of the Eighteenth War, Imperyea would take a long break from invading Krucifix, returning to peace with them for thirty years. During this time, the Imperyean Emperor feigned interest in burying the hatchet with Krucifix, who entertained their suggestion for lasting peace. As the Krucifixans expected, however, the Nineteenth Krucif-Imperyean War would occur randomly following a time of genuine Krucif-Imperyean trade. The Imperyeans mostly invaded from the southeast for a change, a strategy that would become much more commonplace in the future. While the Krucifixans had expected this invasion for decades, they were still caught off guard as usual, and the usual villages of the peninsula would lose all progress made over the three decades yet again. This war featured one of the rarest battles of the Krucif-Imperyean Wars, as the Imperyeans would secure a massive victory against the famed elite archers of Krucifix for no other reason than that the conditions were finally working in Imperyea's favor. For the first time in history, the Imperyeans pushed the Krucifixans up to the massive Nostaw Range—where for the first time there was question as to whether the Krucifixans would face a struggle or not. The Imperyeans felt they could get revenge by forcing the Krucifixans to starve to death in the mountains for once, but this bold strategy worked against them, as the Krucifixans traversed the Nostaw Range and exited it from the northwest, then came around to surprise attack the Imperyeans and end another war.
By the time of the Twentieth Krucif-Imperyean War, the Krucifixans finally began to construct coastal fortifications, nineteen Imperyean invasions at last convincing them that building walls and towers along the coast from which the archers could fire safely from would help shave down the number of Imperyeans that ultimately end up landing. These measures had a minimal effect outside of causing the Imperyeans to waste time tearing down the walls each time. The simple fact that the Imperyeans always struck without warning simply meant that there would never be a time where the Krucifixans could be standing ready over the walls in time for the Imperyean landing. The Twentieth war ended on a stranger note, however, with the Imperyeans retreating for the first time without any major battles being fought. This was due to an earthquake striking Hippinshu and a terrible tsunami greatly damaging Kushyrin, thus the Emperor felt the men of Imperyea were better needed at home. The Krucifixans, catching wind of this, tried to appeal to the Imperyean spiritual sign, telling Kori Castle that this was surely a sign from their gods to stop attacking Krucifix. The Krucifixans, however, still to this day did not understand that the reason for all of these invasions was due to religious canon.
Still fresh, a Twenty-first Krucif-Imperyean War emerged only one year after the last, completely identical in execution from the last, only that this war saw an end. A war with the southern coast as the focus again, the only significance of this conflict was that for the first time, the Great Lord of Cheyprin went with his men to Krucifix, the first time a Great Lord campaigned. The Twenty-second Krucif-Imperyean War once more tried the southeastern strategy, seeking to once more force the Krucifixans into the Nostaw Range and try and force them to stay there this time. Disappointingly for Imperyea, the Krucifixans would win their initial battle, the momentum of which would see the Imperyeans quickly sent packing onto their ships. The Imperyeans attempted a second invasion only a month later, landing in the usual southern coast, and while this was a rare instance where the Krucifixans failed to stop them at the coastline, the Imperyeans were nonetheless sent home in defeat shortly after.
The Twenty-third Krucif Imperyean War was extraordinarily unique in that it was the first time ever that the invasion fleet was caught by a patrolling Krucifixan vessel. Having escaped Imperyean fire, the Krucifixan vessel sailed to Snyky'an and gave very advanced warning of the invasion. Consequentially, the Imperyeans lost their initial invasion at the beach, making this the first time ever that an Imperyean invasion was repelled at the start. The Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth wars both resulted in miserable defeats for the Imperyeans, both times due to the Krucifixans happening to have their military present in the peninsula and therefore able to respond immediately. By the end of the Twenty-fifth war, there was growing concern by the Imperyean Emperor that the Krucifixans may have finally trained themselves for Imperyean invasions too well, and that they may never again occupy anything in the peninsula. This fear was proven wrong, however, a decade later when the Twenty-sixth Krucif-Imperyean War had Imperyeans successfully occupy the southern part of the peninsula once more in a very classic rundown of the war; once more, Krucifix would lose all of its settlements to razing and looting, but would lose battles before reaching the mountains, and thus end up defeated earlier than usual in the classic scenario.
For twelve years, the Imperyean Emperor insisted on peace with Krucifix, stating a need for them to peacefully negotiate the transfer of the peninsula to Imperyea, strangely insisting that the Krucifixans and Imperyeans are historical friends forced to war because of an "awkward" misunderstanding in land ownership. The Imperyeans for these twelve years played a new strategy of treating Krucifix as a historical friend, but when Krucifix ignored their every attempt at outreach, Imperyea declared the Twenty-seventh Krucif-Imperyean War, this time claiming it was a war fought to "restore the honor of Imperyea." This was saw the usual early success, but just as oddly as the strategy that preceded the war, Imperyea tried a new strategy of only partially occupying and razing the southern villages, and instead prioritizing their advancement north, hoping to occupy around the mountains before the Krucifixans could respond. This failed miserably, with the Krucifixans in position almost a month in advance, despite the otherwise efficient movement of the Imperyeans. The usual elite missile fire annihilated the Imperyeans, and an ensuing series of battles would put this war at an end. The Imperyeans would never again try this war strategy.
The Twenty-eighth Krucif-Imperyean War was the first and only war in the series that never involved an invasion of the Krucifixan Peninsula. In this experimental approach, Imperyea relied entirely on naval vessels to try and disrupt essential trade between Krucifix and the larger Shimuan nations. Imperyean economists theorized that Krucifix's far eastern and isolated place on the world map meant that it relied on overseas trade routes to keep its economy afloat, not believing that cross-border trading with Quixang, Kinchon, and Kuchu could possibly suffice on its own. Either way, the Imperyeans underestimated the Krucifixan capability of combatting naval blockades, as the elite archers that Imperyea had come to despise so much found ways to fire flaming arrows onto Imperyean vessels, nearly sinking them each time. The other problem with Imperyea's plan was that this involved often enough mistaking merchant vessels from other kingdoms, leading to several close encounters with neutral parties. This war ended with a whimper, Imperyea simply losing motivation to continue their naval efforts, and the people too tired of the war to start an actual invasion.
Five years later, the Twenty-ninth Krucif-Imperyean War was launched utilizing intelligence gained from the previous war. The Imperyeans concluded in that war that the quick response from soldiers of Greater Krucifix was because there were cracks in the mountains dividing Greater Krucifix from the Krucifixan Peninsula that armies could squeeze through rather than climb. The Imperyeans hoped to surprise the Krucifixans by sending one island to the far north to plug these key valleys while the rest of the islands performed their usual invasion from the southern coast. The twist that the Imperyeans in the north were not expecting is that the Krucifixans, in fact, did travel by mountain, and therefore the Imperyeans found themselves being fired at from the mountains, easily annihilated as they tried to retreat. While the usual razing occurred in the peninsula, the Krucifixans went on to humiliate Imperyea by capturing their beached troopships and thus stranding their soldiers in the peninsula. With two Great Lords present and trapped, this went down as the most shameful defeat in the series of Krucif-Imperyean Wars, as the two Great Lords were forced to personally surrender to the Krucifixans and beg them for their soldiers to be returned home safely. The request was rejected, but offered to those who agreed to stay and repair the villages they destroyed in the war. Rather than accept this, both Great Lords committed suicide, along with most of their soldiers. Those who chose to remain would do as they agreed to do, rebuilding the villages, and even more shamefully doing so with an Imperyean style of architecture. This marked the only time in history that Imperyean structures would end up on the peninsula they so badly wished to conquer. These men who lived to return home would live terrible lives, considered dishonorable outcasts, and banished from Imperyean society. Many would go on to become Imperyean pirates, while others became Ronin.
With twenty-nine miserable failures all culminating in a final, horribly shameful one, the Imperyean Empire spent the next forty years licking its wounds, and keeping their interactions with Krucifix to a minimal. The Imperyeans and their samurai would eventually return to the Krucifixan Peninsula, but the next time, in a truly unpredictable context.
===The Bugashan Wars===
Far from Imperyea, the major Shimuan power known as the Kingdom of Quixang was undergoing a revolution prompted by a civil war that saw the old Quixan dynasty deposed and power of government transferred to the Quixan Army. Under the Great Commander Zhin Zuko-Zun, better known at the time as 'General Zhu,' the military council that had replaced the Quixan Kingdom reconstituted the country into the Quixan Grand Order, with General Zhu nominated as the leader of the military dictatorship. The Quixan Grand Order was short-lived, however, as General Zhu quickly used his dictatorial power to cement his family's rule in the country, he did so by passing the Bugashan Reforms, which redefined the administrative borders of the nation, established the Grand Order's line of succession as hereditary, and outlawed images of the old dynasty of Quixang. The Bugashan Reforms effectively revived the Kingdom of Quixang under a new dynasty, however, officially, General Zhu insisted on retaining the image of a general rather than a king. This would end just as quickly when the ambitious Quixan utterly defeated the neighboring Kingdom of Orcharx after centuries of rivalry, nearly doubling the size of Quixang. Under these new borders, General Zhu felt legitimate in proclaiming his status as a Shimuan emperor, thus the Quixan Empire was established.
The sudden loss of an entire country and the rise of an empire in its place led to widespread fears that Emperor Zhu would ride the momentum of his great victories so far in life and press forward with additional expansion, of which he had both the funds and manpower to commit to. During this time, the Bugashan Reforms were expanded upon to include new universal civic laws that saw women propertied, military service mandatory for at least ten years, and the adoption of the traditional Quixan language as mandatory. The controversy of the Bugashan Reforms came with the Quixan Empire imposing these reforms on the newly annexed Orcharx. Only years later, the ambitions and boldness of Emperor Zhu expanded, with him predictably beginning a conquest of the Kingdom of Rancher. Many had expected Rancher to put up more of a fight, but this kingdom, like Orcharx, fell at an astonishing speed simply due to the quantity of Quixan troops and their rise in quality. With the swift conquest of Rancher, Emperor Zhu reached the apex of his boldness by declaring himself 'Emperor of All Shimua,' a self-appointed title that alienated every single Shimuan nation, even including the most alien of them all—the Imperyean Empire.
Emperor Aoi of Imperyea had been up to this point drawing plans for a declaration of the Thirtieth Krucif-Imperyean War, but with the rapid expansion of the Quixan Empire and Emperor Zhu's declaration to hold claim to the entire continent of Shimua, war plans against Krucifix were cancelled. In the years to come, Quixan-Imperyean relations crumbled to irrelevance as an embargo was placed against the Quixan Empire and Imperyea openly refused to recognize Zhu as an emperor. During these years, an anti-Quixan attitude would foster within Imperyea, with many elite circles even going so far as to describe Krucif-Quixan relations as intimate and undivorceable. This perspective could not be any less accurate, as Emperor Zhu soon declared war on the Kingdom of Krucifix, laying claim to the entirety of the Greater Krucifix region. This was a flip in the switch for Krucifix, for they had survived twenty-nine wars at this point against Imperyea seeking to annex everything except for Greater Krucifix, now they were faced by an enemy that wanted everything but the Krucifixan Peninsula. The Krucifixans held the line against the Quixan Empire as best as they could, finding varying success with the help of their elite archers, but once weak points were exposed on the Krucifixan front, nothing could stop the Quixan Empire from flooding troops across the border, swiftly seizing vulnerable Greater Krucifixan villages and eventually even acquiring the Krucifixan capital. The King of Krucifix, fleeing to the peninsula, would have to handle the war from the underdeveloped peninsula while also praying the Imperyeans did not deal a finishing blow to them in the meantime.
The Imperyeans, watching the war closely, knew perfectly well that Krucifix had been crippled and that the peninsula was ripe for the taking at last. Imperyea also knew, however, that if the Quixan Empire were to win the war, that the Quixan Empire would only be days away from their own islands, and that war with the Quixan Empire was inevitable one way or the other. Emperor Aoi was especially concerned over the Bugashan Reforms and their impact in the conquered lands of Rancher and Orcharx. The Quixan Empire had demonstrated with every conquest that the Bugashan Reforms were a mandatory code of laws designed to erase native identities and better assimilate them into their empire. For these reasons, Emperor Aoi saw the Quixan threat as an existential threat to the Imperyean way of life. While there were supporters in Imperyea of the idea of invading Krucifix and then using the peninsula as a battlefield for an eventual war against the Quixan threat, Emperor Aoi preferred to utilize Imperyea's trademark strategy of attacking by complete surprise.
Gathering troopships led by samurai, all Imperyean Great Lords personally accompanied their warriors overseas as Imperyea embarked on a military campaign like never before. Using unorthodox shipping lanes that put the Imperyeans far out of sight of any foreign ships, the invasion fleet would eventually arrive to the east and south of the Quixan Empire, where the Imperyean islands would evenly split and begin occupation efforts from two fronts. Emperor Zhu was shocked by this turn of events, especially with all of his armies currently busy deep within Greater Krucifix. The Imperyean armies did as they typically would, razing villages to dust on their warpath to a strategic objective. The southern Imperyean armies seized the southern ports, leaving only open ports near dangerous waters infested with pirates of the Korcept nation, while the western ports from annexed Rancher did not yet serve Quixang effectively. When attrition failed to defeat the Imperyeans as Emperor ZHu had hoped, he was compelled to retreat from Greater Krucifix in portions, but enough so that a Krucifixan counter-offensive was able to take place, soon liberating the capital in Greater Krucifix.
Battles would open up between the empires of Quixang and Imperyea months later, but exhaustion from marching down from Greater Krucifix put the Quixans in a disadvantageous position, and the Imperyeans, motivated by a sense of adventure and patriotism, were unrelenting in their offensive. There were few battles fought between the Quixans and Imperyeans, but each of those battles were key battles and massive in scale. The key battle that the Quixans won drove a wedge between the southern and eastern Imperyean armies, but the battles the Imperyeans won all put them closer to the Quixan capital. Eventually, while two islands worth of Imperyeans busied the main Quixan army in battle, another island took an initiative to seize the Quixan capital. Emperor Zhu, not expecting the sudden arrival of the Imperyeans, was captured, tied to a public pole, and executed by a thousand cuts.
With the loss of their emperor, their capital, and their coastal ports, as well as all progress in Greater Krucifix, Krucifix and Imperyea were summoned to the negotiating table to discuss the Quixan Empire's unconditional surrender. For the first time in hundreds of years, government officials from both Krucifix and Imperyea met as unofficial allies to agree on terms. Krucifix outmaneuvered the Imperyeans at the table by fooling them into believing that a massive section of land was legally the territory of the Greater Krucifix region; in reality, this was natural Quixan territory, but knowing no better, the Imperyeans were easily convinced to agree on Quixang ceding this to Krucifix. Outside of this, the Quixan Empire was forced to renounce their claim of ownership over Rochang and Orcharx, returning these two nations as independent kingdoms. Finally, the Quixan Empire was forced to recognize the downgrading of its title, openly conceding to being a mere kingdom, thus the return of the Quixan Kingdom came of this peace treaty. The harsh treatment of Quixang in this peace treaty, as well as Imperyea's decision to raze all of their coastal villages, would further deteriorate relations between the three nations for hundreds of years to come.
Victory over the Quixan Empire seemed to be a natural bridge for Krucif-Imperyean relations, as the two had worked together to stop a greater terror and even led to Krucifix gaining new land in the end, but neither side congratulated the other nor thanked them. Over the many years to come, Krucifix would take great steps to wash away the history of the Bugashan Wars, not wanting future generations to know about Imperyea's role in saving the Kingdom of Krucifix. This campaign to censor this historical event would come with major success, with no monuments existing that reference the war, and even the Quixan people would become silent about this controversial period of their history. The Imperyeans would cherish their victory for a short time as a great victory, but over time, as economic repercussions came as a result of the cost of the Bugashan Wars, the Imperyean Emperor would, too, downplay the war, regretful that Imperyea did not gain anything materially from the war that cost them so much. These feelings would only intensify in the later years after Imperyea learned that they had accidentally rewarded Krucifix with new Quixan lands. To such an end, the one chance at burying the hatchet with Krucifix had been missed, and a new era of Krucif-Imperyean Wars would come decades later.
===The New Krucif-Imperyean Wars===
Thirty years following Imperyea's prestigious victory in the Bugashan Wars, the Imperyean Empire was not so subtle about their intentions of returning to war with the Kingdom of Krucifix. Celebrations were held across the islands with the purpose of raising patriotism and religious zeal, all sponsored by the Emperor with the purpose of instilling an idea that the Imperyean Empire was entering a new era. With the previous generation of samurai now growing old due to the break in Krucif-Imperyean Wars, there was a sense of urgency to create a war not just for the sake of trying to finally conquer the peninsula Puritonists claimed was theirs, but also to promote a new generation of samurai warriors. A consequence of these widespread celebrations is that Krucifix had ample time to prepare new defenses and ready soldiers by the coasts.
The Thirtieth Krucif-Imperyean War began with much excitement for the Imperyean side, most of whom had never before been on a campaign yet in the peninsula. Despite the very loud and widescale celebrations hyping up the approaching war, the Imperyeans were shocked to find the Krucifixan coasts fortified and ready for the invasion. For the first time in history, the full might of the Krucifixan Army met the full might of the Imperyean armies right at the beaches. The Imperyeans could do little more than brave the sand and charge into the legendary barrage of Krucifixan bolts and arrows. The Krucifixans put everything they had into these initial coastline battles, and of the seven major battles to take place on the southern coasts, only one would end with the Imperyeans victorious. With only the island of Hippinshu successful in a battle, the Imperyeans made an attempt to swarm into the crack in the Krucifixan defensive line, but the Krucifixans adapted responded to this quickly by nearly surrounding their enemy. Hippinshu would give up and retreat back to their troopships, ending the Thirtieth Krucif-Imperyean War in catastrophic fashion for Imperyea. Although a terrible loss, the epic battles to come from this war inspired a new generation of both Imperyeans and Krucifixans for different reasons. In Krucifix, the narrative was of heroes firing every arrow they had in their quiver at waves of beached samurai in defense of country. For the Imperyeans, the narrative was about heroically charging into battle alongside family and friends, braving everything the enemy could throw and not so much as flinching. Realistically, the Emperor took notes from this war and learned well that the element of surprise was too valuable to the Imperyean strategy proven both against Krucifix and the Quixan Empire. Future pre-war celebrations were barred from occuring.
The Thirty-first and Thirty-second wars came in quick succession, utilizing what samurai they were able to promote from the previous war to try and field a more worthwhile war effort. Both wars ended as they would have in the past, with the most southern half of the Krucifixan Peninsula being razed and looted. Both wars led to the usual defeat by the mountains and subsequent retreat back to Imperyea, and a Thirty-fourth war would start shortly after, yet again testing the old theory that striking again while the peninsula is still recovering is a workable strategy. Yet again, this led to the Imperyeans running into supply issues and therefore forced to end the war early.
A first-time consequence of four Krucif-Imperyean Wars occurring all within such a short span of years, and all ending quickly, was that the Imperyean Empire was facing a "inflation of samurai." Due to so many soldiers going to Krucifix and so many surviving each war, the islands of Imperyea found an unsustainable issue of there being too many samurai, many of which were robbed of the traditional rights and benefits of being part of such an elite class. A common example was that the samurai was owed luxurious housing, but with too many samurai and too little upper class housing, they were left to common housing, or worse. In terms of career, many samurai, who were assured peacetime jobs as military trainers, peacekeepers, or Imperial honor guards, were instead left to farms and fishing. This led to a conundrum for the empire, as the conclusion from this crisis is that no future Krucif-Imperyean War could take place until more samurai died.
Controversially, however, this did not occur. Instead, one of Imperyea's most notorious emperors, Emperor Isamu, initiated the Thirty-fifth Krucif-Imperyean War, and for the first time ever, did not require all young Imperyean men to answer the call. Emperor Isamu required all samurai to answer the call, but insisted that all Great Lords stay home and administer their islands, a mandate that angered just about every Great Lord. This new invasion, consisting almost entirely of elite samurai and only the most adventurous of young men who volunteered, bordered on being a suicide run, with the invasion fleet set to invade the very northern part of Krucifix, just north of the dreaded Nostaw Range. The plan in this war was to occupy the northern border of the Krucifixan Peninsula and try to disallow the usual Krucifixans of Greater Krucifix to ever touch the peninsula. The novelty of this strategy was so unexpected that for the first time, Imperyeans would be allowed to ravage the most northern villages while leaving alone the southern ones. After thirty-four failed attempts, villagers to the north had long presumed they could never be touched by the Imperyeans, thus this war made clear once and for all that no one in the Krucifixan Peninsula was safe from Imperyean destruction.
The Krucifixans, in a rare and embarrassing slipup, did nothing as Imperyea secured the northern border and cautiously worked their way down south, attempting to avoid the Nostaw Range completely so not to die of attrition. For many months, Krucifixans became scared that the most unlikely plan was finally the one that would work for Imperyea, as soon the Imperyean armies reached the lower half of the peninsula, leaving only the deep south for them to occupy—something they had centuries of experience doing at this point. Unfortunately for Imperyea, the Krucifixans would finally dive down from Greater Krucifix, walking past the destroyed villages along the way, until finally meeting the Imperyeans all in the lower center of the peninsula. Because of Imperyea's advantageous position, in this rare instance, the Krucifixans were unable to gain height over them, and so their archers fought with reduced efficiency. The Krucifixan side lost three straight battles against the Imperyeans, further concerning the country that defeat was imminent at last. Miraculously, however, with every defeat the Krucifixans faced, the Imperyean numbers diminished due to having no possible avenue for reinforcements. The Krucifixans, meanwhile, recovered from their losses partially due to peninsular Krucifixans flocking in to support the struggling Krucifixan Army. Krucifix would finally win its first battle against Imperyea, forcing them to retreat south toward land they had not yet occupied, hoping they would be surprised to find Imperyean warriors already in the south, that perhaps the Emperor sent for a second invasion. This did not occur as the retreating Imperyeans would only run into villages unburned. The final battle would leave the surviving samurai either killing themselves or going into hiding. For the many months following the war, Krucifix would encounter surviving Imperyean samurai who would hold out in mountains, forests, or in some more bizarre instances, even in villages.
The Thirty-fifth Krucif-Imperyean War was the most controversial yet. It led to nearly all of Imperyea's samurai being killed or misplaced and did not use a strategy many believed was realistic. Despite this, it was also the closest Imperyea had come to victory, with many suggesting that if Imperyea had simply included the usual drafting of warriors into the war, that they would have had enough to defeat the Krucifixan Army and finalize their occupation of the peninsula. Emperor Isamu both led the most successful attempt against Krucifix but also turned a surplus of samurai warriors into another deficit. His reputation would be effectively ruined only three years later when he attempted to rectify this by initiating a Thirty-sixth Krucif-Imperyean War, trying the exact same strategy but with common Imperyean men led by few samurai. This was went tragically for Imperyea, as the Krucifixans had prepared for a repeat of this unorthodox strategy, not even allowing the Imperyeans to seize the northern border this time. The Imperyeans were largely able to evacuate this time and return home, thus raising a new generation of samurai and restoring an equilibrium. Many Imperyeans openly criticized the Emperor for being careless with the conduct of both wars, and artistic depictions of Emperor Isamu in literati corners would have his eyes going in separate direction to suggest he had a wild behavior.
Emperor Isamu gave Krucifix a rest for twelve years, and in response to criticism over the years, agreed with his military advisors that repeating the northern invasion strategy was no longer viable, that the success found in the first war was due to the novelty of the strategy. Isamu allowed the islands to once again dictate their own campaign strategy going into the Thirty-seventh war, which they decided would involve attacking from the southwestern and eastern parts of the peninsula. The islands attacking in the east met unexpected peninsular resistance, with an army already active in the region comprised solely of peninsular Krucifixans. While they did not succeed in destroying the Imperyean armies here, they greatly slowed them down and caused the eastern army to overcorrect on their behalf, campaigning east rather than the northern direction they planned. The Krucifixan Army coming from Greater Krucifix, too, was confused, and ended up marching to the southwest to face the army here, but when they got there found they had vanished. Confusion to both sides bizarrely led to the Krucifixans of Greater Krucifix attacking the Imperyean armies from the southern direction, leading disarray as many Imperyeans now feared they were facing the wrong direction. As this chaos continued, it was decided to withdraw completely from Krucifix, having no idea how to get the war back in order.
A Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth duo of wars would come within a span of five years as the Imperyeans first tried the originally intended strategy to no avail, and then once more with a slight alteration, with one army attacking from the southwest, and the other the southeast. This failed, and another inflation of samurai would result as a consequence of three quick wars. With the Emperor unwilling to simply resolve the surplus of samurai by sending them off to die a second time, the problem began to develop a natural but undesirable answer as many samurai simply went off to become wandering Ronin, some adventurers that would attack Krucifix on their own, and others yet would become pirates, usually also harassing Krucifix, but sometimes Quixang as well. This escalating issue finally led Emperor Imasu to change samurai tradition, declaring that only warriors who defended the homeland and returned with the weapon of a slain enemy would be named samurai. This decision, while respected by Imperyean society, was seen as yet another controversial decision by a very unpopular Imperyean emperor. This declaration also led to black markets opening up in coastal cities that sold Krucifixan weapons, many shops even being run by Krucifixans and Quixans who would make brief stops with their merchant ships. Men who successfully cheated the system and became samurai through the black market were known as 'Bandit Samurai' and were subject to immediate execution if caught.
With thirty-nine failed invasions filling the history of Imperyea, the Imperyean Emperor, with the help of the clergy, hoped to spread a new perspective to the people before the approach of the fortieth attempt. Efforts were taken to stop looking at the thirty-nine attempts as failures, but rather a form of religious duty, a rite of passage for Imperyean men and even some women who fought these wars, and most importantly, a service to the Imperyean god who to this day still did not control the sacred peninsula he canonically had created. Imperyean temples were quick to stress this new perspective with great efficiency, convincing those of adventurous, militaristic, and zealotic minds that even in defeat, there was always a moral victory. With this new perspective trickling into the minds of the young, a Fortieth Krucif-Imperyean War would begin.
The Fortieth Krucif-Imperyean War honed in on the southeast as a concentrated force of islands, and with great efficiency, the Imperyeans seized the entire southern coast and campaigned up the eastern side. When meeting the main Krucifixan Army in what would usually result in a quick series of defeats, the Imperyeans secured a rare victory against them and forced the Krucifixans to abandon their position in the hills. The occupation of the eastern side of the peninsula continued with the archer-centric Krucifixan Army constantly on the retreat in search of a new advantageous position to stop them from. Part of the problem the Krucifixans faced, unique from all of the other attempts, faced an Imperyean youth with a fresh new perspective of the Krucif-Imperyean Wars, but most problematically, the new rule that warriors required a Krucifixan weapon to ascend to the rank of samurai meant that the Imperyeans were becoming very intense with their drive for face-to-face battle. The Krucifixans, who favored the high ground, now found Imperyeans charging up hills and mountains after them with far less caution than ever before. This was not enough to cause the Krucifixans to face a concerning defeat, but led to several more minor defeats that, in this instance, led to them being pushed all the way to the Nostaw Range, left with no choice but to abandon all of the southern peninsula to be razed. With the major southeastern coastal town of Snyky'an yet again set ablaze successfully, the Imperyeans would once more march toward the Nostaw Range, where they would meet bitter defeat yet again at the hands of Krucifix's superior archers.
In the usual primary objective of forcing Krucifix to surrender the peninsula to Imperyea, it was a fortieth defeat. In the "moral objective" of honoring the peninsular Imperyean god through battle and sacrifice, this war was an inspiring success. Furthermore, with the Krucifixans defeated several times, there were more than enough samurai promoted from this war, leading to a promotional victory as well. The Fortieth Krucif-Imperyean War was substantial for another reason, namely that the strategy of attacking as a combined force of islands from the southeast and attacking upward seemed to be a workable strategy. While not a brand new idea, Imperyea finally felt that they had achieved a level of professionalism in their military, religious zeal, skilled warriors, and great knowledge of the peninsula that they could innovate on this strategy. The Imperyeans were so confident that they had found the winning war strategy that they would never again deviate from this plan.
Come the Forty-first Krucif-Imperyean War years later, the Imperyeans would execute the same war plan, once more surprising the Krucifixans, especially due to the strategy being a repeat of the last. This was was unique in its exceptionally high number of Imperyean 'warrior women,' who were required to only fight alongside their loved one as a way of creating a romantic battlefield bond. The war itself, however, differed minimally from the last, with the Imperyeans storming the east coast and razing every village they could touch. The Krucifixans were surprised to find the Imperyeans for a second time completely ignoring the western side of the peninsula, and despite trying to answer errors made in the previous war, they ended up not only suffering the exact same defeats in the same locations, but suffered more than before as well. The Krucifixans would again abandon Snyky'an to be burned down and looted, and would again set up their winning defense in the Nostaw Range, but this time with noticeably less soldiers. The Imperyeans fell yet again before the Nostaw Range, but the final score was concerning to Krucifix, knowing that they lost far more soldiers than in the previous conflict. The Imperyeans lost another war, but was yet again inspired by battlefield success translating to a moral victory, and an equilibrium had been achieved with many samurai lost in the war, but new ones being promoted in their place. Furthermore, the Imperyeans were well aware of the Krucifixans more strained situation this time around, and went far in creating enthusiasm for another war.
The Forty-second Krucif-Imperyean War was one spoken about in Krucifix and Imperyea alike long before it would occur, as both nations knew it was to come imminently. The Krucifixan side, fearful that Imperyea was innovating on a winning strategy, was left with the all-important question of wondering where the next invasion would come from. Imperyea had a history of performing the same strategy twice in a row, but never before three times, and the Krucifixans were feeling confident that they would not stray from this tradition, thus they took measures to fortify the peninsula's western coastline, which had not been touched by the Imperyeans in years at this point. This gamble did not pay off, for the exact same invasion plan would occur and follow the same script as the previous two. The Krucifixans, however, who had been so certain of a westward attack, now had the burden of needing to mobilize their forces to the east. Most critically, this missed prediction allowed the Imperyeans to race past the first series of hills that the Krucifixans would usually start the battles from, giving Imperyea a rare head start in their occupation. The Krucifixan Army would eventually arrive in time to intercept the Imperyeans before their usual ravaging of Snyky'an, but chose to face the Imperyeans on flat terrain and during an occasion of high morale and vigor for their enemy. Unable to make the best of their elite archers, the Imperyeans found a resounding victory against the Krucifixans and were quick enough to block their retreat to the Nostaw Range. For one of the first times in history, the Imperyeans successfully forced the Krucifixans to retreat in the direction of the peninsula's plains, where Imperyean cavalry would harass them the entire time. Instead of marching into the Nostaw Range, the Imperyeans made the decision to pursue the Krucifixan Army westward, hoping to decimate them and complete their occupation of the entire south. The Krucifixans, knowing they were not in a healthy enough state to fight another battle, retreated all the way to the west coast, desperate to escape Imperyean cavalry. In a tremendous showing of morale, the Imperyeans changed their plan to instead begin occupying the full south. The Forty-second Krucif-Imperyean War had now put the Krucifixans in a dreadful situation.
The Imperyeans marched village-to-village, burning them all to the ground, and only gaining morale and momentum with every Krucifixan settlement they destroyed. With a sense of extinction nearing, peninsular Krucifixans were flocking to help the battered Krucifixan Army, still licking their wounds to the far west. In a first for Imperyea, word from the Great Lord of Craykon reached Korion of Imperyea's success on the campaign, and pleaded with the Emperor to send more men from Imperyea to help secure a final victory. While Imperyea had very few adult men left to send, the wives of countless husbands abroad stepped up to come accompany their lovers in Krucifix. The Emperor allowed only childless wives to go to Krucifix as warrior women alongside a fairly large amount of men who had just come of age. This provided the Imperyeans with untrained reinforcements, but would still help morale and fill gaps in the army. Eventually, the Imperyeans would come to occupy most of the southern peninsula, and the Krucifixan Army was finally compelled to move forward and try to stop them. A massive battle once more broke out between the two massive armies on open plains, still robbing the Krucifixans of their favorite terrain to fight from. The battle, while causing enormous losses for the Imperyeans, caused even greater losses for the Krucifixans, and would result in a defeat thought to be the last. With the badly damaged Krucifixan Army forced to retreat north into the mountains, what remained of the southern peninsula was occupied and torched by the Imperyeans. For the first time in history, the King of Krucifix was faced with a difficult question of whether to concede defeat and offer part of the Krucifixan Peninsula to Imperyea. It was thought that if they surrendered now, Imperyea, who faced forty-one defeats, may be desperate enough for a good outcome that they would accept only half of the peninsula. There were rightful fears that if Krucifix ever allowed Imperyea to own land on the peninsula, that Imperyea would easily be able to conquer the rest later. The advantage Krucifix had always had over Imperyea was the fact that the samurai had to attack from water. A simpler concern was that the Imperyeans simply would not accept anything less than the entire peninsula in a peace offer. The war continued, even without a path to victory in sight.
The answer to Krucifix's plight came from an unlikely place, and one place Imperyea had ignored for most of history: The Kingdom of Kinchon. While the Imperyeans were often, erroneously, described as the world's most eastern people, this technically was not true, for the Kinchonese stretched ever so further. No friend to the Imperyeans, the King of Kinchon humored an alliance with Krucifix, believing that Imperyean expansion benefitted no one. The Kinchonese were quick to send soldiers to the Krucifixan Peninsula's east coast, and from there marched west towards the Imperyean threat. The Imperyeans, unaware of Kinchon's emergence as an enemy, simply chased the Krucifixan Army north into the mountains, seeking to deal a final blow. The Krucifixans in this battle found great success in harming the Imperyean armies, finally able to fire arrows and bolts down from a mountain. A twist the Krucifixans were not expecting was that despite the high motivation of the Imperyeans going into this battle, their sense of urgency in claiming Krucifixan weapons from atop the mountain led to Imperyean warriors getting slaughtered en masse. A major defeat for the Imperyeans would finally be handed down even without the help of the Kinchonese, and this would suggest that an alliance with Kinchon was never actually necessary. Regardless, the final blow would come from the Kinchonese armies that came running in from the east, catching the Imperyeans by total surprise and leading to their utter destruction. The Imperyeans, unable to accept that they occupied half the peninsula, beat the Krucifixan Army, but were still going to lose, refused to withdraw, giving the Kinchonese one final major battle. The Krucifixan Army, joining the battle on flat fields, dealt the finishing blow as Kinchonese warriors clashed blades with the Imperyeans while Krucifixan arrows rained down on the samurai. A most heartbreaking defeat to accept, the Imperyeans withdrew from the peninsula, so close to winning the war, but simply unable to finish the job. From this point on, Krucifix and Kinchon would become great allies, so close in relations that the two would go on to practically share borders.
In Imperyea, complicated feelings about the recent war arose. While Imperyeans had become trained to see the moral victory behind each war, and this war had them making gains like never before, many were still depressed by the failure to secure the sacred peninsula. Additionally, with this war so close to victory, many wives ended up fighting alongside their husbands and shared these victories, trials, and eventual defeat together. There was optimism to be found in some knowing that with every war recently, they were coming closer to victory, but now with the Kingdom of Kinchon allied with Krucifix, there was despair in knowing that they had an entirely new enemy to face in future wars, and one that preferred melee combat for a change. Nevertheless, the Emperor of Imperyea was convinced that a final victory would be seen within a lifetime.
Unfortunately for Imperyea, their winning strategy had now been exposed as the one they were most likely to return to in the coming years. Krucifix took incredible measures to create coastal defenses in the southeast, and as a new innovation, built archer towers all throughout the eastern side of the peninsula that would enable the Krucifixan Army to gain the high ground on Imperyea without needing to goad them toward the hills or mountains. These would be put to the test years later with the Forty-third Krucif-Imperyean War, where Imperyea would attempt the same strategy as before, but this time be slowed down by the defensive fortifications. The archer towers, while not a substitute for the hills and mountains, also played a massive role in lowering Imperyean morale, thinning their numbers slightly, and most importantly, slowing their progress so that the main Krucifixan Army could arrive south. By the time the Imperyeans got close to Snyky'an, the Krucifixan Army caught them in the hills and dealt heavy blows. While the Krucifixan Army would still lose the battle and be forced to retreat north toward the Nostaw Range, the Imperyeans had lost so many soldiers at this point that they were only able to partially raze Snyky'an. The Krucifixan Army would emerge from the Nostaw Range and fight the Battle for Snyky'an, leading to Imperyea's swift defeat even without needing to call upon Kinchon for help. Krucifixan innovations helped immensely in keeping Imperyea from running away with another war, and put their enemies back to the drawing board.
The Forty-fourth Krucif-Imperyean War saw Imperyea trying the exact same strategy, but this time bringing with them weaponry suited for quickly dismantling Krucifix's defensive fortifications. The archer towers were swiftly dealt with and put Imperyea on pace to have a good campaign, but a week of awful weather still ended up slowing their razing of the east coast due to mud. The Krucifixan Army, once meeting Imperyea at the hills, for once was able to hand their enemies a swift defeat simply due to the Imperyeans being unable to traverse the mud and climb the hills. Imperyea would withdraw only after burning down the southeastern part of the peninsula. Weather proved detrimental to the Imperyeans, but their anti-fortification efforts nonetheless proved efficient.
Four years later, a Forty-fifth war saw this strategy yet again used, this time with the Imperyeans hoping they could tear down the many archer towers as before and proceed forward without the weather intervening. The Krucifixans, however, learned from the previous war and built their towers largely from stone and earth this time, not allowing the Imperyeans to so easily burn them down. This Krucifixan innovation led to a similar war performance as the Forty-third war, with the Imperyeans slowed down badly enough that a battle would occur in the hills that left the Krucifixans beaten back but the Imperyeans badly harmed. This time, instead of withering away at Snyky'an, the Imperyeans completed their razing of the southeast and turned their attention onto the southwest. While the Imperyeans were successful in razing most of the coastal villages, this did little to progress their ultimate war aim, as the Krucifixan Army would eventually chase them down and harass their march with bands of mounted archers. The Imperyeans had one final inspired hope that they could turn towards the Krucifixans and deliver a decisive blow that would put them on the defense just as they had three wars ago, To the Imperyeans' shock, the Krucifixan Army would defeat them on the plains by means of sword for once. The war would be won for Krucifix without Kinchon and without needing mountains.
An era of peace would finally follow many particularly violent wars, as for the next ten years, Imperyea would completely revisit their strategy. The Krucifixans now knew that Imperyea had a favored part of the peninsula to invade, and they were innovating in every war in ways that made the invasion more difficult. It was finally determined after forty-five wars that one of Imperyea's greatest hindrances was its insistence on razing every village in reach rather than concentrating on the most important villages. It was assessed that Imperyea could win a war without attacking the many small villages but it could not win without taking the largest ones. The southern coast, having only small settlements, was finally dismissed as places that could be avoided so to save on time and resources. By extension, there was no longer a need to waste time landing in the deep south, where the Krucifixans were predicting them. All concentration had now shifted from achieving moral victories to winning the war.
For the Forty-sixth Krucif-Imperyean War, this new direction was put to the test with an alteration to the usual strategy. Instead of landing in the open plains of the southeast, the Imperyeans chose to attack directly from the east coast, just south of Snyky'an, wishing to capture the prized village before the Krucifixans could properly respond. By doing this, the Imperyeans avoided all archer tower defenses and found themselves in an optimal position to strike north. The Imperyeans quickly marched to Snyky'an and met the village garrison, comprised of some elite archers but nowhere near enough to withstand the full attack of the Imperyeans. Despite the plan putting them at Snyky'an so early, the Imperyeans still ran into unexpected resistance as the Krucifixans attacked from rooftops and others harassing their supply lines via horseback archery. Snkyky'an was set ablaze but for once, a battle came to exist in the center of all the fire as peninsular Krucifixans refused to let the Imperyeans gain full control of their village. This prolonged battle notably included the brothers Kim Suo, Pin, and Chao, whose younger brother, Young, would go on to partner up with Tomako Angel.
Snyky'an would eventually fall to the Imperyeans, but the unusually complicated resistance of this battle gave time for the Krucifixan Army to arrive down from Greater Krucifix and deal battle with their rivals. Imperyea had briefly broken up their army to try and seize different major villages, hoping they could do this before the arrival of the Krucifixan Army, but this only led to the divided Imperyeans getting taken down one piece at a time. Some effort would be put into occupying coastal villages, but with losses building up, Imperyea soon conceded yet again and left the peninsula. Their new strategy of going straight for Snyky'an, while eventually successful, proved unusually difficult. The Imperyeans now had to assess what changes to make to the strategy, if any, in preparation for the next war. The war to come would, unknown to both sides, be the final Krucif-Imperyean War, but not for reasons Imperyea would expect.
===The Forty-seventh Krucif-Imperyean War===
"Did you also know I spoke truth when I said I held Chao in his final breaths? There in Kirchpuddle. ... Chao was alive as I held him in the red watery fields of Kirchpuddle, but only for minutes. I never heard his final words, only his dying breaths, and when it was all over,.. well…” ―Kim Suo, Chapter 23
Only a few years later, Imperyea was eager for another war with Krucifix, largely convinced that their struggles at Snyky'an was caused by being too cautious of Imperyean casualties. It was ultimately decided that for this war, the islands would split into two groups. Craykon and Kushyrin would strike under Snyky'an once more, while Hippinshu, Cheyprin, and Dayaking would return to their original spot in the southeast and perform their old war path. This plan was put into action, combining the past two strategies into one, and the eastern armies, led personally by Kushyrin Great Lord Otomo Nushikuo, would return for revenge against Snyky'an. This time the war would come to the village with fury, buildings reportedly set ablaze before the first arrow could be fired. The Imperyeans came into the battle with a crueler mindset of pressuring the Krucifixans to flee their village by destroying it as quickly as possible, not allowing for rooftop fighters to gain any footing. Upon learning that Snyky'an was falling as well as the southern coast simultaneously, the King of Krucifix decided to finally call upon Kinchon to intervene into the war, a call that was answered. The Krucifixan Army would arrive to deal with the forces active at Snyky'an, which had been effectively conquered and burned down. Wishing to avoid fighting the Krucifixans on their favored terrain, the Imperyeans charged at them on a stormy day towards the nearby village of Kirchpuddle. The Battle of Kirchpuddle, as it came to be known, was a major engagement over wet terrain that saw Imperyea fired upon by archers and then fought by swords. While the Imperyeans would end up retreating from the battle, the Krucifixans, too, were compelled to back off and reorganize near the Nostaw Range. The Battle of Kirchpuddle is notable for being the site of Kim Chao's death, where he, Suo, and Pin fought unsuccessfully in defense of their home. In the aftermath of this battle, Kim Min-Tuong, their mother, was kidnapped by the Imperyeans and never to be seen again.
While the Imperyeans of the east would be unable to regain their strength, the armies in the south found great success in razing villages, ultimately unable to follow the plan of only targeting the major villages. The Kinchonese would eventually move two armies into the peninsula and intercept the Army of Kushyrin, and even though Great Lord Otomo would succeed in battle against them, it was a pyrrhic victory as the Kushyrians left the battle with an insufficient number of troops to maintain the campaign. Kushyrin, followed by Craykon, withdrew from the war, removing them from the Krucif-Imperyean Wars for good. The remaining three islands that campaigned successfully in the south would end up occupying and razing most of the southern peninsula, but a combined force of Kinchonese and Krucifixans would return once more close to where they originally did in the Forty-second Krucif-Imperyean War. Three massive battles erupted as each island came into its own battle against an army, with the Army of Dayaking taking on the Krucifixan Army. Filled with fury over the destruction, the Krucifixans got vengeance when they would successfully defeat the Army of Dayaking, triggering a snowball effect that led to the Krucifixans helping the Kinchonese win one battle, and then all three joining forces to annihilate the last. The Imperyeans would gather one final time at the southern tip of the peninsula, in sight of their troopships, where they had one last climatic battle against the Imperyeans and Krucifixans. Kim Suo and Pin were part of this final battle that sent the Imperyeans off the peninsula for the final time. With this, the Imperyeans had succeeded in yet again causing mayhem in the Krucifixan Peninsula, but still the peninsula would nevertheless remain part of Krucifix.
The Krucif-Imperyean Wars defined much of Imperyea's national character throughout the centuries, becoming the obsession of Imperyean men, and few more than the emperors of Imperyea, all of whom wished unsuccessfully to be the one to secure this sacred territory for the Imperyean Empire. Emperor Jinan has, centuries prior, established religious canon that the Imperyeans had to constantly strive for the acquisition of the peninsula, never realizing that he had set in motion centuries worth of death, destruction, and failure. A retrospective assessment of Emperor Jinan's decision could find that, had he not made the radical decision to make this issue a part of Puritonist canon, Krucifix and Imperyea very well could have been friends, but this was not to be. Overall, the Forty-seventh Krucif-Imperyean War saw some promising results for Imperyea and still invoked motivation to move towards a new war with them in the near future. Unknown to the Imperyeans, this Forty-eighth Krucif-Imperyean War was never to be, for a most unimaginable adversity was now plotting their downfall.
===The Swats-Imperyean War===
Only a few years later, I