Volovna Brigade

The **Volovna Brigade** is a brigade within the Territorial Defence Force of the Armed Forces of Thornia-Aphthonis. It is based in Volovna and Elysia. The brigade is responsible for the defence of the Province of Elysia and Aphthonis, as well as both domestic and foreign intelligence. Despite having only being formed on 31 March 2022, its members also formed past iterations of Thornia's intelligence organisations.

Its direct predecessors have been heavily involved in the expansion of the Umic-Thornian world, political interference in its neighbours, and securing territories in the name of the state.

## History

### Holy States and the League of Palus era

Ume and Thornia's intelligence gathering activity dates back to the time of the Holy States. The Umic Army had infiltrated numerous locations in both friendly and supposedly hostile territory, namely much of Tyavyli and much of the Greater Shanjing area. The mission in Tyavyli is known to helped subside fears of an impending invasion of Ume City by Tyavyli. Umic agents managed to come close to much of the Tyavylian leadership in anticipation of orders from the Holy States government to carry out assassination orders.

### Kingdom of Thornia

The regal era of Great Thornia saw almost all of the former Holy States and League of Palus intelligence capabilities transferred to Thornia. It was at this point where the Royal Iron Guard emerged as the first organised force within the Thornian Army with intelligence responsibilities. The Royal Iron Guard oversaw Thornian expansion into the Goruid Sea and the South Sea, the Aphthonic survey missions, the invasion and capture of Shantouxian, and the capture and occupation of Shanjing.

Failure to take down various pillager forces throughout the empire led to a catastrophic collapse in the state's power as The Great Plague sowed chaos both domestically and internationally. Thornian Army intelligence managed to offset these embarrassments by recapturing Shanjing and eventually defecting from the royal government to the Aphthonic nationalist rebels, who they assisted with bringing to power.

### Thornia-Aphthonis

The Thornian Army and Thornian Navy were dissolved and replaced by the Armed Forces of Thornia-Aphthonis in early 2022. Thornian Army intelligence remained the only continuously operating component of the defunct army as the government sought to properly organise the new military. Thornian Army intelligence was first moved to the Logistical Operations Corps, then briefly to the Border & Expeditionary Force, before finally being integrated into the new Territorial Defence Force.

Throughout April 2022, the brigade was tasked by the government of South Aphthonis to survey the interior of the region. It made the shocking discovery that the flat deserts and savannah plains thought to exist in the borderlands between North and South Aphthonis did not exist. Instead, a new sea was discovered, named by the brigade as the Sea of Temples due to the desert temples dotted along its coast. The Volovna Brigade's recommendation to the Aphthonic government to withdraw from the parts of Smarna and North Aphthonis that it did occupy (accessed via the International Jungle Territory). This led to the national government and the South Aphthonis regional government merging and causing a hubbub amongst Aphthonis' elite about the image of the country.

An island village discovered during the April surveys of South Aphthonis, named Falainos (or Whale Isle, due to the island's whale-like shape), was made the brigade's temporary naval base on the Sea of Temples.