Empire History

### The Bladed Conquest Campaign

*The Bladed Conquest campaign started on November 1999 and stretched through September of 2005, making it the longest running campaign in all of Verdish history.*

#### Child Barbarians

Long before there was an Empire or Antioch... there was a group of young kids who took up an interest in hurting one another with medieval weapons made of solid wood. One Christmas in 1998 Derath and Vathtinkai received two great-swords forged of pine. The children fell in love and immediately began battling one another.

But their thirst for war could not be so easily satiated! Young and unaware, their true nature as Verditians was manifesting! Derath, empty from the monotony of simple combat, thirsted for more! He sought the aid of his father: Menoar.

Menoar showed him how to craft more complicated weaponry. With every new build the arsenal became a little more deadly, finally peaking with giant two handed weaponry. *(Infamously, one of the two handed axes was fully capable of felling a small tree!)*

Derath began recruiting friends from the neighborhood, they would meet frequently throughout the week to break one another's will. What once was 2-3 had grown to groups of 10-15!

Now armed with shields, spears, bows, axes, swords, and throwing knives... these meetings always ended in injury. Your drive to be a better fighter was so you didn't go home crying for your parent's medical attention.

By 2002, a warrior named Conpheric had entered the scene. He had previous experience with a fighting game called 'Dagorhir' and introduced the group to foam weapons. Surprisingly the introduction of safe ways to fight did not immediately become the focus point.

For roughly a year Dagorhir and wooden weapons co-existed. But that all came crashing down one fateful day:

A battle was held to celebrate the birth of Derath, fighters from all around the high-school were in attendance. They battled in the streets and in the lawns of the sub-division. The war spread far and wide and eventually lead to skirmishes in the surrounding forest. In one of these skirmishes the warrior known as Flame cast a throwing knife into the face of a local school-boy known as Dave Sheppard. Dave was wounded so profoundly that he was rushed to the hospital and required plastic surgery to bring his face back into proper order. Unsympathetically, the war continued on as soon as he was rushed away.

After the war had subsided the wooden weapons of old were permanently shelved, never to see mass combat again. Universally, the warriors agreed this could not continue. Dagorhir would have to be the path for satiating the need for battle.

#### The Birth of Verdite

There was much debate on how to run the group within the context of the greater Dagorhir community. Conpheric was exposed to the newly formed chapter of Eryndor and expressed interest in assimilating into their ranks. It seemed logical, Eryndor was pushing north from Toledo and would soon engulf the Monroe area. They were woodland fighters, requiring all their members to adopt garb of the same style.

Derath pushed for a sovereign chapter based on the self-created story-line and world of Antioch. His vision was strongly reinforced by Talen, a new fighter at the time. Conpheric's division of 'The Iron Plague' was very similar to the old Eryndor standards while Derath's 'Verditians' were becoming something else entirely.

Eryndor was larger, at the time boasting more members, and Conpheric was concerned there was no possible way to keep a foothold against such an aggressively expanding group.

The debate was shattered the day two warriors joined the group. Their names were Demorian and Hrazlinne. These two goth kids had a natural talent for recruitment and soon boosted the membership of Antioch dramatically. Demorian and Hrazlinne were brutal fighters, bolstering techniques that were reminiscent of the old wooden weapons. Through overwhelming aggression and strength they purged lesser fighters of the era.

Recruitment skyrocketed and the demand for more weapons was an ever growing problem. Derath forged a new armory that reflected the coming revolution. All weapons were black, heavy, and built to last. Eryndor had backed away from the insane practices of pre-Antioch, as these young Verdish were seen as savages to a more refined style of Eryndor.

#### The Purge of Havenmyr

Derath was finally old enough to attend Ragnarok, so he and Menoar gathered some of the best weapons in the Verdish armory and left for war.

Growing divides in the group allowed a fighter by the name of Haldor to start his own secret group. He amassed great support with the newest generation of warriors and began prepping a chapter he would call Havenmyr. Haldor was not a fan of Derath and created an entire government system that kept him from having any form of influence. *(Even though Derath had funded and constructed over 90% of the weaponry)*

When Derath returned: he was furious! His home group had devolved into casual sparring littered with rampart smoke-breaks. The average warrior standard was so low that old-Verdish warriors would be able to slaughter them without the slightest opposition. Demorian famously said ***"I get worse every time I fight them."***

This was unacceptable, so Derath enlisted the aid of Hrazlinne, Demorian, Ashimaru and Talen. Together they rallied the old Verditians for a grand show of force against Havenmyr.

It was a bloodbath. The Havenmyr forces were torn apart by the overwhelming might of the Verdish. At the day's end Derath and the verdish reclaimed all the weapons they had made, effectively crippling Havenmyr's ability to arm their warriors.

After seizing the means of production, Havenmyr collapsed and Antioch officially registered as a Dagorhir chapter. When Haldor attended an Antioch practice he was confronted and told that there would be no other group than Antioch. He fell silent that day and faded into obscurity shortly after.

Haldor and his followers assimilated into Eryndor, effectively spawning ‘War-band’ and ‘Senegal’. These rough interactions became the source of long-standing rivalries for years to come.

### The Insurrection Campaign

*The Insurrection Campaign started on September 2005 and stretched through August of 2006. This campaign is revered as the greatest of all campaigns spawning the true birth of Antioch and the Verditians.*

#### The Grand Conversion

If there was one word that could most easily sum up this era: It would be **Zeal**.

The Chapter ethics became dominated by a Military authoritarian structure hell-bent on the assimilation of all of it's people. With the exception of Conpheric, all remaining Iron Plague members were hunted down by the most zealous Verditians and coerced into assimilation. Not only were these members assimilated, they were forced to throw away their own identity and forge a new proper Verdish name. Ashimaru was at the forefront of assimilating all people into the Verdish.

There would be no disdain, the chapter could not afford anything short of total unity. From the south Eryndor pressed it's boarders, galvanized from the influx of Havenmyr.

A new term became commonplace within Antioch: **Lothtarian**. Citing events from lore, any non verdish were considered children of Loth, the betrayers and heretics of Verdite. The term became part of our national identity, if you weren't Verdish, you were a Lothtarian. And Lothtarians only deserved one thing from verditians: **Death**.

Verdish militarism and xenophobia skyrocketed as we forged weaponry purposely designed to shatter and break the low-born Lothtarians. From the ashes of the boarder skirmishes came the mighty Kelv, a weapon that would purge any non-Verdish from the field.

> *(interesting side-note is at the time, the entire Dagorhir community were convinced that red weapons were desperately ineffective. Almost nobody would take red hits to their shields, claiming 'light' on all but the most devastating hits. The Kelv was the Verdish response to this problem. Each Kelv weighed roughly 80 ounces and would actually collapse most enemies when struck)*
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Kelm-Crafted uniforms became the norm and Antioch quickly shifted to a point where it would be more accurate to call the chapter **Verdite** instead.

A socialism based economy manifested out of necessity. Community forges were commonplace as chainmail armors began hitting the field. With the war economy in full-swing the Verdish Army was brutalizing it's enemies in every engagement.

#### The Verdish Elite

Verdish Supremacy over the Lothtarians was absolute. Antioch was achieving victory against impossible odds, peaking when the Verdish purged a Lothtarian army when they were outnumbered 5 to 1!

The Verdish were brutal, so much so that many enemies of Verdite lost their taste for war early and refused to fight them ever again. This was compounded by the emergence of the Verdish Elite. Fighting styles, war-strategies, and weaponry shifted to maximize the killing potential of the most powerful Verditians.

It was through this approach that Aimias discovered a way to create and supply chainmail rings to the chapter at 1/10th of the cost of what the army had paid before. This solidified the ancient tradition of weekend forges, where Verditians build armor. Chainmail for those most devout became a reality.

Antioch eventually attended Ragnarok showing unmatched brutality, destroying enemy shield lines and holding objectives with effectiveness that remained etched in the minds of her enemies for many years to come.

#### The Age of Verdite

Antioch had carved out its boarders and slowly drifted into isolation. Our brutal war-practices, fueled by the old rivalries from the Havenmyr incident, created social upheaval in the surrounding Lothtarians. Eventually the hassle of politics outweighed our thirst for domination. The vast majority of Antioch agreed they saw little payoff in waging war with the weak surrounding forces. The council concluded it would close its boarders to the outside world, a policy that would remain in place for over a decade.

The children of Verdite focused their gaze towards expansion. Many colonization attempts were crafted, but ultimately none proved effective. In our isolation the leadership of Verdite crafted another division within the chapter, to satiate our need for a worthy rival.

From the story-line we crafted a chapter version of the Goddess' Legion: The Amorias!

### The Honor Campaign

*The Honor Campaign started on August 2006 and stretched through June of 2008. This campaign is the collection of the lifespan of policy introduced during the Insurrection Campaign. It is also the time where the Amorias Legion was born.*

#### The Amorias Legion

The Legion's Law and Concept was drafted and ready for implementation. Active sign-ups were enacted and the ranks of the Amorias Legion began to fill! All that was left was to find a suitable leader.

Derath picked Aimias, a prominent and powerful Verditian whose social ties in the NJROTC program looks extremely promising. Traditionally this program was always where the main influx of fighters came from.

Isolation had it's consequences however, recruitment waned and Antioch leadership was desperate to rebuild the ranks. The Insurrection Campaign's shadow loomed heavily in this era. Verdite began to shift from a devouring horde to a fallen empire.

Aimias was the new hope for Antioch and from him the Amorias would rise to the challenge of the old Verdish.

#### The Stagnation

Growth from the restructure was minimal. Aimias found it difficult to recruit from the ROTC's newest generation. Many members were leaving the homeland for personal reasons and for the first time ever: an off-season was implemented, effectively ending winter practices forever.

In our arrogance we failed to address the growing Lothtarian swarms surrounding our boarders. It became impossible to recruit from the general public as they rapidly outgrew us. It became clear that Antioch was suffocating beneath their encroaching grasp.

Hope was not lost though, while the local chapter may have skyrocketted in numbers, they lacked a unifying identity. Soon the surrounding group were becoming overrun with political strife. Internally, they began fracturing and ultimately becoming internal enemies. The local chapters began to split into fleeting independent nation-states.

Antioch remained watchful, never interacting, and never playing a hand. They hoped to acquire a space to maintain operations in opposition to the decline.

#### The Death of the Iron Plague

Conpheric resigned from Dagorhir and so the Iron Plague was officially disbanded. Stagnation in the chapter had come to an equilibrium momentarily. Gatherings were consistent both in attendance and frequency.

### The Exodus Campaign

*The Exodus Campaign (Formally known as the Haylo Campaign) started on July of 2008 and stretched through November of 2009.*

#### The Silent Year

Suffocated and isolate, the chapter faded away. Talen had left the homeland and Antioch gatherings came to a halt.

Very soon it would become clear that the council would need to vote whether to dissolve the chapter or not. There was no place for Antioch in the local environment. Old warriors were growing up and building foundations for their new lives. Ultimately it was clear, Antioch was dead.

### The Decadence Campaign

*The Decadence Campaign started on May of 2010 and stretched through November of 2010. This campaign was supposed to be the last of Antioch’s campaigns and operations. The irony in it was that during this time frame Antioch saw new growth.*

#### The Last Ragnarok

Derath prepared for the death of his chapter with one final journey to Ragnarok. He pulled together a handful of warriors still interested in the trip. In the Exodus campaign, many of them had drifted apart and found little common ground among one another.

At Ragnarok, old bonds were reforged as Antioch took to the field with its tiny squad and again swept through the lines of it's enemies. The embers of war had been stirred and it became clear that this was not Antioch's final moment.

#### The Return of the Legion

The fallen kingdom of Antioch awakened as the new-age zeal expanded outward! The fractured units of Eryndor lost all hold in the immediate area and Antioch took to the streets to reclaim its former glory.

All new recruits entered the Amorias and the rivalry was truly underway. Weekly gatherings became commonplace again as warriors of old returned to bring life back into Antioch.

### Post-Decadence

*Post Decadence refers to any time-frame after the end of the Decadence Campaign in November of 2010.*

#### The Sarlona Contact

Slowly Antioch began realizing some of their weaponry had gone missing. Small primitive arms from the golden age were hardly missed, but it started to become concerning.

After some investigation, It became clear that another group of fighters had taken the relics from a forgotten war, and used them to forge a small army. They called themselves: Sarlona.

Antioch leadership quickly deployed spies and informants. They found out the people of Sarlona were openly hostile towards any interaction that would threaten their sovereignty. Initial diplomatic attempts were disasters until Derath personally reached out and scheduled a meeting.

Derath brought with him a small group of Elite warriors, he knew that if he did not come showing Antioch's might, that Sarlona would inevitably feel empowered to push for full sovereignty. The introductions were cold and little conversation took place. There were small skirmishes breaking out but nothing official was happening. Soon the people called for an Antioch versus Sarlona battle! The forces of Sarlona rallied behind their leaders: Pyrus and Sarudon. While Derath took his elite warriors aside and, in secret, told them to purge these barbarians from their field.

When the lines clashed Sarlona was annihilated. But they fought bravely and never retreated from the might of Antioch. To Derath, he saw the child barbarians of old before him. He knew someday these children would make fine Antioch warriors.

Desperately wanting to avoid another Havenmyr incident, Derath diplomatically approached the Sarlona leadership and offered them the chance to join Antioch and take advantage of her infrastructure. He said that with the aid of Antioch this band of children could be some of the most destructive and devastating warriors the world had ever known. Sarudon and Pyrus asked to deliberate for a week. Derath agreed and left the meeting with the other Antioch fighters.

Later that same night Sarlona sent word to Antioch:

> ***"We will join."***
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Unknowingly to everyone then, but that simple deal began the era of the War-Bound Campaign, the second golden age of Antioch!

In the aftermath of the assimilation, Pyrus became a major power-figure within Antioch. He hosted forges, organized war-efforts, and brought much of Antioch operations back into full-swing. Without his work during this time, it is likely that there would be no foundation for modern Verdite.

### The War-Bound Campaign

*The War-Bound Campaign started on March of 2012 and ended on March 2016.*

#### The Uprising

Antioch wasted no time to get their new generation ready for war! Antioch split Sarudon and Pyrus separately into the Amorias and Verdish as to solidify Antioch control. From there they drilled and trained the new recruits multiple times a week until they were worthy of an Antioch symbol.

It was rare for a recruit to go into the Verdish, as all new recruits were automatically enlisted as Amorias. Soon it became synonymous that to be Amorias meant to be a second class citizen to the Verdish. Even Aimias, the Lord of the Amorias made his fame as a Verditian.

To the people of the Legion, they lived in the shadow of the **Insurrection Era** and the Verditian's culture monopoly over Antioch.

#### The Amorias Insurrection

When it came time for the Amorias to prove their might at a Ragnarok, they showed up in overwhelming force! This is often called the Amorias Ragnarok where only 4 of the members present were Verdsh.

Tensions rose as rumors swept through the Legion. Dark whispers of defamation poisoned the minds of the people. And from this poison the seeds of descent festered.

Key members of the Amorias secretly organized an insurrection and began plotting a take-over of Antioch.

At the end of Ragnarok, Derath was finally warned of the oncoming storm. With a heart full of rage, Derath ranted to his Verdish allies. But the journey home was long and by the time they reached home, Derath had decided to forfeit his command over Antioch to the Insurrection. He felt if he had caused so much disdain in the people, that he had no right to rule.

The supporting council objected! They decreed that the Antioch will die in the hands of the Verdish before it is ever handed over to a false insurrection.

After many hours of deliberation, the council decided to simply isolate the leaders of the Amorias Insurrection. They would attempt to cut them from leadership and resolve the issues causing such discontent.

#### The Confrontation

As the members of the new insurrection were confronted, it became clear that they were not able to organize enough power to stop the counteraction of the Verdish. Asserting dominance, Antioch leadership gave them an ultimatum:

> *"You're either one of us. Or you aren't."*
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Most decided they were Antioch warriors still. Others faded into obscurity, never to be heard from again.

Once Antioch felt they had weeded out problem members, they worked with the previous insurgents to tackle many of the issues that drove the initial divide.

#### The Reform

Antioch found itself in the midst of a social evolution to accommodate the new generation. Policy changed and clear standards were established. The chain of command was strengthened and all standards became higher.

Artallies passed his footman test, becoming the first new footman in five years. This broke the long-standing gridlock of the grunt/crusader pool, allowing other footman-tier fighters to finally pass the test.

Amorias and Verdish citizenship became a choice to the member in question. Instead of being assigned by Antioch leadership.

Plate armor started to become more common in Antioch and Hrazlinne’s proposed garb reform lead to a much higher standard of uniform. Antioch was growing and sowing the seeds that would lead to the modern day tech empire.

#### The Golden Age

Even though the Amorias Insurrection was long gone, there was a lingering scent of hostility in the air. Hrazlinne advocated disbanding the Amorias and implementing in a new, full-Verdish government.

Command reforms shed away the concept of "Antioch Leadership" and implemented the "Command Staff" structure.

A united Verditian front was celebrated with, arguably, the most significant event in the War-Bound Campaign: **The first War-Bound Generation Weapon.**

Antioch weaponry from this point on would be of the highest standards in foam fighting. More projects opened and members received the greatest quality of life ever seen within the chapter.

The membership growth was rapid and healthy. In this final span of the War-Bound Campaign, Antioch prepared for its greatest challenge yet: to stop being Antioch, a small town chapter. And to instead become Antioch, **The Verditian Empire**!

#### The Arms Race

The War-Bound era weaponry first manifested itself in the generation one katana. This new katana was faster, stronger, and all-around better than any weapon fielded by Antioch. Katanas swept through the field, defying any standards of weapon effectiveness. Shields, pikes, and reds crumbled before them. Antioch practices devolved to swarms of katana-men sweeping through any Verditian unfortunate enough to still be using equipment from an older era.

When generation 2 and gen-3 weapons started hitting the field, the balance of powers shifted towards these new designs and classes of weaponry. The old European weapon variants were a thing of the past as names like *tsurugi, nodachi, nagamaki*, etc, became the standard.

Red weaponry became supreme in Antioch once again when the first War-Bound Kelv showed its dominance over the Verditian katana. Shields and pikes all but vanished for a year as weapon tech accelerated faster than the meta could adapt to. It was total chaos in Antioch!

With generation 4 of weaponry, pikes received a much needed update to their design and shields started to return to combat the rise of archery. The meta stabilized with the creation of generation 6 weaponry.

#### The Priesthood

In the west, Talen’s struggles to establish a functional branch of Antioch had finally taken hold! Under his guidance, the priesthood of Maechalon began with small regular practices. They luckily avoided the arms race issue by just importing batches of weaponry from the central lands. Maechalon’s insurrection-era weaponry were very quickly abandoned.

### The Reckoning Campaign

*The Reckoning Campaign started on March of 2016 and ended on November 2017.*

#### The Absent Lord

Back in mainland, Derath's connection to the Netherlands and rising issues in his personal life started to consume much of his time. Soon he realized he was unable to lead the chapter. Derath decided to leave the group in the hands of a handful of capable Verdish.

There was never a full-trade of power but as the time came for Derath to shed his responsibility to Antioch, the leadership structure began withdrawing from their responsibilities. The year was rough as leadership was distant and uncertain.

Thankfully the efforts of Malak helped to ease the central-Verdite population. Derath returned back into service later that year and begun prepping for a new era.

Artaillies had been functioning as a high-functioning general for some time at this point. He upheld major forge operations and even took over running practices. Like Pyrus before him, Artaillies was the powerhouse of Verdite.

#### Maechalon Rising

After the year of uncertainty, there was another year of stable growth and expansion. In the west, years of failure were about to pay off. Talen's vigilance in creating a new Veridsh army began slowly with small practices where he'd host fights in hopes of recruitment. But that all quickly shifted to full Verdish events when Beriadann and Narryyn joined the group.

Like Demorian And Hrazlinne's work of old in the mainland, Beriadann and Narryyn ushered in a new age by exposing Verdish culture to the masses. Quickly Maechalon established its boarders and became the dominant fighting force in the area.

Surrounded by Lothtarian scrum, they forced outward, challenging and mocking the culture of the weak 'Norclaia' alliances.

#### Faith in Steel

Antioch united and pooled large amounts of funding for the long-anticipated Steel Works. Production began immediately!

A new guild was founded by the Seven Crafters, and from their labors they began bending and shaping steel to their very will. This culmination of Verdish industrialism created the first Samurai armor.

Tales of it's perfect combat ability echoed through the Empire as the Crafter's Guild saw a large increase to its membership.

Central stood proud as it ambitiously set in motion plans to arm the empire with Japanese armors.

#### The Verdish Empire

Back in the west, Beriadann's recruitment efforts exploded. Maechalon, while still smaller than central, was building stability to finally claim the title of self-sufficient.

With the coming of Ragnarok, Maechalon sent 4 Verdish to unite the branches. Instantly the two groups bonded and from this introduction the seeds of the Verdish Empire were planted.

While Maechalon may have become self-sufficient, they still were not innovating or creating weapons to the same standard that had become the norm for other Verditians. As such they were facing stagnant technology and required aid.

Later in the year, Derath took a trip out to Maechalon, attempting to bridge any technology gaps. He was met with total acceptance. The western Verditians were strong fighters and fielded many footman-class warriors. At the time, central footmen were becoming stagnant, so this difference was well-revived and celebrated.

#### Verdish Elite - The Second Generation of Knights

While there may have been temporary stagnation in footmen, it wasn't fully representative of the era as that concern quickly resolved itself. During this time Verdite saw major jumps in fighting ability, most notably through the new batch of Knights: Ashimaru, Artaillies, Lactoes, and Lachlan.

While not every new Knight was active at the same time, one began functioning at a level unseen for generations. Lachlan was the second Verditian to push into above-elite status, shadowing all other fighters around him. His field contributions were legendary and he even mastered other major crafts such as weaponry and armor.

In the era of the empire, Lachlan became the branch leader of central Verdite, leading powerful war-efforts that re-ignited the crusades of old. He became Derath's most trusted partner in operations and became known as one of the most influential Verditians of all time. Sharing this status with the names like Demorian, Derath, Hrazlinne, Talen, Pyrus, and Artaillies. He left a major impact on Verdish society that shifted our mission into new areas.

### The Crucible Campaign

*The Crucible Campaign started on* December *of 2017 and ended in February 2020.*

#### Verdish Independence

There were musings of dangerous (such as abusers, supremacists, etc.) individuals within the Dagorhir community. The community responded by establishing a national ban list. Any member of the community was offered a resource to report and ban members who were deemed unsafe to the community at large. While initially a positive resource and response, it sadly shifted to blanket accusations hunts and an echo chamber of slander. The community uncovered a slew of individuals who ranged from sexual abusers to participants of neo-nazi ideology and thankfully made action to disassociate with them. However, as Verditians, we had to ask ourselves if we wanted to associate with an organization that has these kinds of problems. Empire-wide every branch voted on whether or not they wanted to continue to promote themselves as a Dagorhir chapter.

The vote was unanimous in favor of forging an independent Verdish entity that was not bound by any laws but its own.

With the reform came the new armor tier-system.

#### The Black Crusade

Central Verdite had been slowly growing and the new influx of recruits were incredibly powerful. Warriors such as Ashe, Rakdos, and Auroch made footmen quickly and almost broke the testing system with their high-functioning ability. They pushed the bar so heavily that they were fighting on the same level as Vanguards in many aspects.

Central Verdite's member base decided the only way to secure a thriving foothold for the founding branch of the Empire was to push outward in all directions, purging all Lothtarian that dared stand before them!

Like the days of old, the drums of war were echoing throughout Central. The Lothtarians would come to fear the new steel-clad warriors of the Verdish. From the depths of isolation the Empire would return once again as a devouring swarm!

At every encounter Verdish forces dominated the opposition. The enemies of man were not prepared for the united front that appeared from nowhere. For months this trend continued until new weapon technologies came into the hands of our opposition.

New Lothtarian weaponry were faster, slimmer, and longer than any other weapon we fielded. As they became more common, the Verdish armies were found at extreme disadvantage. For the first time in the black crusade, the armies of Verdite were pushed back and **defeated**.

#### Tech Empire

Years prior to the defeats suffered during The Black Crusade, Central Forges developed a red weapon that utilized new exotic cores and construction techniques that would make weapons longer than they've ever been while simultaneously being lighter than they'd ever been. Weapons would outrage war-bound Kelvs (6ft+ ~40oz swords) while maintaining blade profiles and weights similar to Kokatanas (roughly 24oz and much thinner than war-bound Kelvs). Derath had chosen not to adopt this technology because he feared it would change the meta forever in a way that would outclass every weapon before it.

Lachlan, seeing the way Verditians were outclassed by enemy weaponry, asked Derath to re-open the "Generation-8" project to give Verditians the means to continue the crusade. Given the state of the war, **there was no alternative**.

Derath opened the program and gave Lachlan full control of the foam-works. While Derath acted as a mentor and adviser, Lachlan took the project to exciting and powerful directions, producing a wide array of Gen-8 weaponry.

Verditians in central rejoiced as the war-effort was back on! We saw interesting dynamics manifest as gen-8 became more prevalent. We watched as footman-class warriors started operating at Vanguard levels just simply because they were using a better weapon.

Due to the high-infrastructure of Verdite, it became clear that we could simply outspend our enemies. **And that's exactly what we did.**

We poured thousands of dollars into subsidy and research for our war-effort. Slowly the losing tides of the Black Crusade shifted back into our favor as we became dominant once more!

Victory at every encounter was our new identity. Gen-8 weapons were the new-meta and central adopted them in full. But in the west, there were tensions and whispers of descent spreading. Before even holding these new weapons, they were not on-board.

#### Instability

There were unforeseen consequences to adopting higher technologies. Western Verdite (Maechalon), had begun focusing more and more of their authority into a single family that began collecting power and ultimately would become an 'inner circle'. Eventually over half of the command staff had ties to it. Of all of their members, Beriadann began being the most outspoken.

Debates fired between the two branches. In the west, they were clinging onto very rigid ideologies of romanticized heavy weaponry. Policies that mimicked proto and primitive Antioch, eras none of them, with the exception of Talen, had been a part of. West Verdite operated in complete isolation, devoid of competing groups that offered a consistent source of combat. They weren't experiencing the same problems central was.

Derath and Lachlan tried to articulate the need for new weaponry, citing the extreme disadvantage older-tech has against the new and refined lothtarian war-machines. But all fell on deaf ears as Western administration responded emotionally and took disagreements as personal attacks. Derath even went as far to explain that each technology boost in Antioch history has had critics, all of them were later shown to be fear-mongering or blatantly untrue.

The most frustrating aspect for Central administration is that the west hadn't even held one of these weapons. They just made blanket assumptions. Derath hoped that these encounters were just a product of the cold portrayal and misinterpretation of internet text. He had felt such a strong connection with western verditians before, so he took a large chunk of the funding in central and prepared a gift for the west: Samurai armor, gen-8 weaponry, and a hide of armor-grade leather.

Derath, Rakdos, Skull, and Tenryu visited West Verdite and built them a suit of samurai armor and two generation 8 weapons: the **Zanbato**, a weapon that shows the absolute limits of a standard gen-8 core and a D**aihanedachi**, a more practical implementation of it. While these two weapons were nowhere near representative of the plethora of gen-8 options, it was a start.

The trip went well overall, but there were clear tensions between Beriadann and central. He had made up his mind and there was no changing it. At the time we thought we could repair this relationship.

#### Fractures

Beriadann's complaints never stopped. He perpetuated a rhetoric that central hates the west and garnered more and more support. Through this following the 'inner circle' became increasingly problematic. Derath and Lachlan attempted to address the concern with Talen but found that each time Beriadann was confronted, he just simply changed tactics. By the time the next Ragnarok came around, tensions were very high.

While struggles with Beriadann may have been forefront in central command staff's mind. There were major jumps in western production. Torrens began producing samurai armor to great success and offered a healthy place of collaboration between central and the west. Western forges were producing highly advanced armors that rivaled any made in the empire. The west also began increasingly impressive film works where they boosted their outreach.

#### Backlash

The Empire united for a final Ragnarok boasting numbers that exceeded 50 members. Verdite's forces were hungry and dominant. Lothtarian forces were completely annihilated to the point where they quit in frustration.

While the military might of the empire was absolute, it finally garnered national attention where many members of the community hurled accusation of cheating, unsafe play, and poor behavior. Verdish administration was confused about two areas of complaint, as far as we'd ever seen there were no major problems with cheating and headshots. With reviewed footage we could not find an occurrence or anything to substantiate the claims. We shrugged it off as people angry with our mockery. On the final point of poor behavior, we knew we had some bad run-ins. We had intentionally trash talked during combat and left our opponents humiliated. But this Ragnarok brought on a new level of poor interaction:

Talen was rude and unwavering to local camps and put major strains on the relationships. It was all recounted as the community fired complains upon Antioch. On this front we had to be accountable. However, constant visitors to our practices came only to throw fits and create stressful environments for our members. As such we closed practices and began planning.

Lachlan and Sapientia started campaigns of restoring relationships to the local groups that were very successful and chipped away at the problems that had been present for years. In time we were able to undo local damages and begin building stronger relationships.

#### The False Knight

The year was hectic and it took away from some of the initial tensions growing between central and west. But as normal operations came back, the problems came back with them.

This time central administration began getting complaints from western and southern members about Beriadann and Talen. Desperately problematic accusations of stolen funding, the spread of divisive rhetoric, and a slew of personal attacks kept coming in. It took a lot of time to weed through the hysteria to uncover the truths, but before they could come into the light there was a major announcement from the west: A new Knight!

Narryyn had completed his Knight trial and was crowned the first homegrown western Knight. The empire rejoiced and congratulated him. Derath even suggested a promotion to taichou as Narryyn had finally obtained the final goal of that title. It wasn't until central administration began being contacted by western members voicing concerns of bad-honor that any further thought was given to the issue.

When the footage of the trial became public, it caused extreme uproar. The trial was reviewed by a collaborative council featuring members from every branch of the empire and had been found to exhibit 22 issues of concern.

When evidence was presented to western administration, they initially agreed that the test could not stand. However since power had shifted from administrators to the inner circle, they instead sought out a friend to review the footage who has been known to refuse to say that another member is cheating, effectively muddying the entire response. But even with this testimony the west still agreed at least 3 cases of cheating were present.

Western administration stood steadfast in the stance that the amount of cheating in the trial didn't affect the outcome. The rest of the empire held the belief that we can't say for sure that the cheating didn't affect the outcome. Ultimately the case fell into the hands of the Verditian Lord, who upheld the collaborative council's stance and voided the trial.

#### Death of an Empire

This trial now added to the ever growing list of concerning practices coming from the west and sparked emergency command staff meetings. Again a collaboration of verditians from every branch in the empire came together to debate and discuss, a vote was held to leave the empire, as we could no longer be associated with the kinds of activities coming from the west. The vote wasn't unanimous, but majority vote decided to attempt to enter into negotiations and resolutions in an attempt to save the empire. Western members of the council even convinced central command members to try and talk things out with 'the inner circle.' About a day later Talen and the inner circle voted to leave the empire. When non-family command western command staff members voiced against this, they were told that the vote was ceremonious, as the decision had been made.

Derath was informed of these shadow meetings and attempted to contact Talen directly. In a tense week, the collaborative council (again featuring both western and central command members) came up with a list of concerns they wanted to address with western administrators.

There were 5 major concerns:

1. There was extreme blowback from the west against empire administration exercising the legal right to void a rank trial. Additionally western administration was asserting that upholding group standards is subversive to group relationships, maintaining a consistent rhetoric of threats. Threats included, but are not limited to, Western command members threatening that many people we cared for would suffer if we voided the trial, this was perceived as an emotional hostage situation. Or that taking action would "*cause great harm to the empire."*
2. There was a growing pattern of Western administration to misrepresent information and policy suggestions from the central branch as a dictation instead of an invitation for collaboration. Western members were not informed that they had a right to vote on major policies or that central policies were products of votes.
3. Incomplete and inconsistent financial records concerning the line between Empire and VEC. There were a plethora of accounts of funding being misappropriated and used for personal gain. At the last summit meeting in the west, the administration even went as far to claim they "lost the card so they can't show you the financial records". This was hugely problematic because an administrator was directly profiting off of operations and using the labor of their members to expand their income. At this point it seemed that western administration had willfully refused to show proof that these practices were not occurring.
4. Lack of Western representation within highest governing body. At the time the only view expressed seems to be 'inner circle' through Talen as a proxy and Apris as someone who will not vote against Talen. This became problematic because western administration members became notoriously unreliable witnesses. Other command members within the western front were also not contacted about major decisions, as they are not part of the inner circle (such as the decision to leave the empire). Some command members felt they cannot voice an opinion with confidence it’ll even be heard. Central wanted to promote Torrens into the council to alleviate this issue and ensure the misrepresentation of information stopped.
5. Continual support given to subversive command members. Even when concerns are presented that they are fueling larger divides within the empire. Such as the long track record of Beriadann's behavior to undermine central.

When negotiations actually took place, they were muddied with complaints about generation-8 weaponry and officially halted when Talen was confronted with the feelings of his command members feeling they weren't included because they weren't part of the inner circle. Even in the presence of western command testimonials, Talen could not admit fault or even oversight. He lashed out and claimed that arguments were intentionally being made in bad faith. Talen made a **unilateral** decision to leave Verdite, forbidding a national vote, against the wishes of empire administration. As a result there were no public debates about questionable VEC activity or subversive command members. Central administration voiced concerns against this dictatorial practice but it was too late.

The west's treatment of key command members during this incident caused some fallout in their ranks. Ultimately some members in the west stayed loyal to Verdite and closed their steel-works and foam-smithing aid, crippling quality of life standards. However, the mass majority cut all communication avenues.

### The Reclamation Campaign

*The Reclamation Campaign started in* February *2020 and is still the current era.*

#### Post Empire

West Verdite re-branded as Kuroheim and Verdite passed new policies to protect against the corruptive practices that plagued the western branch. The separation had caused incredible strife and anxiety in the surviving members of Verdite. For months Verditian's attempted to make sense of the previous events. However, like all things, the pain began to fade away as new innovations in weaponry reached Generation-9 and world concerns about COVID-19 dictated that public gatherings could be dangerous. At this point there was no choice but to focus on moving forward.

Kuroheim administration enacted a purge of contact, cutting all non-members from their lives. They began spewing incredibly defaming rhetoric that demonized and attacked many members of Verdite. This caused a much harsher view of the west in modern times than was ever present during our united organization. This bias and view is now fully presented in this recount and most likely paints the issues harsher than they were perceived initially. The fairest recount we can give is that there seemed to be an objective by Beriadann and the other command staff tied to his family to sever ties with the governing body they couldn't sway. Talen resisted their influence for many years but ultimately fell to it. The problems central held with the west were localized to the west's 'inner circle' and not the general membership. Post collapse accounts by western command members offer insight to this issue:

*"Imagine you're the Saturday morning Grunt. You know, the average guy. You kind of know about some group on the other side of the country, but you don't know a lot about them. Then all of a sudden you hear that there's this guy over there, let's call him Derath. **Well Derath is keeping Talen down and pushing him around!** Now you're a big fan of Talen, so you're not going to stand for someone pushing around the guy you know!*

*It just doesn't make sense. None of this information was ever made available to you, you had no idea how much of what you have come to enjoy comes from there. You just want to keep going on Saturdays. And let's say you do know what's going on, you can't vote against that inner circle, look what they did to the people who publicly voiced concerns? You weren't given a choice. Talen and that inner circle made it for you."*

A sad truth slowly became commonplace in Verdite, the west leaving truly has no real impact on our quality of life or operations. In fact, many Verditians started to see it as a positive event, where we no longer had to walk on eggshells with increasingly emotional and vindictive internal politics.

#### Moving Forward

Armor innovations continued forward as new breakthroughs began outlining a new generation (gen-3 armors). While COVID-19 may have extended the winter break, it left a lot of time for innovation.