Espionage

Espionage is a part of Tales of Arkain.

## Synopsis

An unidentified spy writes its observations on factions and races for the Empress.

## Story

I write these lines in year 62 of the reign of our beloved Empress, may her bloodline, the one and only royal one, rule our glorious homelands until all ice melts, all water dries out and all fire loses its light. For the last twenty years I have been living in these lands, here they would call the year "19 Z. R." keeping my eyes open, gathering as much information as possible, travelling from place to place, infiltrating the ranks of the different factions and races. Only thanks to my magic I have been able to spend time among them. Yet, I have been successful on my mission. I have gathered the requested information in service of the Empress.

The Kingdom of Kerrel has suffered through a lot of drawbacks during the last two decades: The heir to the throne, the prince, was lost on the other side of the Void, the Dwarves have turned their backs on all humans during the civil war taking place during the Second Voidwar, the Elves have chosen Zyainor as exclusive ally, ships of the Tribal Dominion and other pirates attack its shores, their only remaining ally, the Kingdom of Rengar, lives in crisis and will not be of any use in a war.
King Dorten is getting old, very old. It seems that his daughter will take his place soon, though there are voices whispering behind closed doors talking about joining Zyainor instead of staying independent. Only very few doubt that they will have to choose sooner or later: War with Zyainor or joining its ranks. The latter would result in the Kingdom of Kerrel being ruled by the Order of Three Swords, most likely. Neither Dorten nor his daughter would allow their lands to be annexed like that, so the few whispers have to be careful to stay quiet because such talk would be considered high treason as it would involve "removing" both the king and the princess. The recently founded Royal Inquisition would gladly hunt and torture all who would be involved in such talk.
It is fair to say that the political situation in Kerrel is critical. Both inside and outside it has many enemies, it is far from being stable despite its attempts to hide it. Regardless, without outside interference, it is unlikely that Kerrel will collapse anytime soon. Even if King Dorten dies, his daughter is already taking care of most of his duties in his name and she is considered a worthy successor by many. The number of people with treacherous thoughts is low - either that or the inquisition is doing a fantastic job making it look like that, though I personally actually believe that any attempt to usurp the crown at this point would end in a disaster unless Zyainor would invest troops and resources into such a coup.
The military of Kerrel consists of the Royal Army with its sub divisions which do not differ much from each other. They are supported by the Order of the Flame and the few knight orders of Kerrel. Kerrel's military is now more powerful than they had been during the Second Voidwar, but if it came to a war, no matter against whom, it would stand alone.

The Kingdom of Rengar has suffered even more than Kerrel. Most of its lands are surrounded by a wall and put under quarantine, including its capital and king. Duke Oshan the Stern, father-in-law of King Hussan of Rengar, is a harsh but fair ruler who is attempting to keep the kingdom from falling apart. The economy of the land has mostly been ruined by the plague that made most of the rich parts of Rengar uninhabitable. The duke and the Order of the Flame are trying to find a way to remove the plague from the lost lands, but they haven't had any success in the past sixteen years, I doubt that this will change. The relations between Rengar and Kerrel have suffered greatly since Rengar refused to support Kerrel's trade blockade against Zyainor due to Rengar relying on outside support to survive. Apparently, Duke Oshan had repeatedly attempted to convince the Dwarves giving his realm another chance, inviting emissaries and nobles to his lands, but the Dwarves are not even replying to his messages. Neither the High King nor any other dwarf seems to be willing to even talk with any human anymore.
When it comes to its military capabilities, Rengar is divided into two allied factions: Its royal armies and the Order of the Flame. While the former is rather weak in comparison to all other major powers, the Order of the Flame is a force to be reckoned with. Powerful masters of fire, summoned creatures and a regular army. Make no mistake, the royal forces are weak and rely on mercenary support but the Order of the Flame is overpowering them severely. The Order is also very popular within Rengar. If they were political enemies or had any ambition to rule, the order could easily take over Rengar. Luckily for Duke Oshan, most firemages seem to have no such interest - yet there are people outside the order who would like to see that happen.

Salria, formerly the Kingdom of Salria and now home of the Tribal Dominion, is a place of beasts and monsters. Only very few humans remain here under this new leadership. There are of course tensions between groups of the different races, conflicts between rivals and some clans, but nothing major. Most conflicts are settled peaceful. It is amazing how the "empress" of these people, the orc Amari, manages to keep everyone in line. I have seen her only once during my time in the Dominion, but I can tell you that she is surrounded by an impressive magic aura. Her power must be most impressive to behold. I wonder how a former exile like herself had been able to obtain it, maybe she had a teacher or always had a natural talent for magic. But it is not power alone, her behaviour, deeds and personality have made her extremely popular within the ranks of the Dominion. That and the fact that under her leadership, the Dominion has launched more raids on its "neighbours" than the Orcs ever had during their prime. Out of all lands on the entire continent, maybe even the entire world, the Dominion is politically the most stable region of all, despite consisting of so many races. Even the Humans, who tend to be oppressed by the other races, seem to be fine with their situation. I was sure that they had a plan to get their payback, but no matter how much I used my skills, I was unable to find any so that I am starting to believe that they are being either kept in line or sued by their leader Vanessa who is a loyal servant of Amari.
The military of the Dominion is about as versatile as its races. Strong groups of brutish Ogres, legions of disciplined Gnoll soldiers, regiments of centaur cavalry, strong bearmen with their nature magic, innovative goblins and their constructs, swarms of hungry harpy hunters, intimidating numbers of red dragons, dark troll elite hunters and orcish enforcers, leaders and overseers. They look like an army of barbarians, but make no mistake, they use this appearance to their advantage. The Orcs may still be savage warriors but, to my surprise, they have evolved into skilled tacticians over the past two decades. I mean,the Dominion has founded an **university**where its officers are **studying** military history and military strategy! Whatever their leader Amari has done to accomplish such a thing, it is beyond my comprehension. Not to mention that they now even have some sort of "academy" to learn magic. It is most intriguing to see the Orcs evolve in such a way.
Anyway, the Tribal Dominion is a force to be reckoned with. They gain resources and combat experience with their raids while they seem to prepare their forces for a full scale war and build countless constructs. I do not know if they prepare to attack or to defend, however. It seems as if most of them do not know that either.

The Dwarven Realms consist of the mountains north of Salria and the great underground kingdom that lies below them. Since the Second Voidwar, no member of any race but their own has been able to enter the lands of the Dwarves. Even I have been unable to enter myself, so I had to rely on my abilities of foresight to gather information. From what I can tell, the dwarven society is divided into a huge number of clans with an interesting political system. In theory, the noble families of a clan vote the king of their clan. Those kings then choose one of them as the high king for life time. The current high king, Zarin of the Hammerfall Dwarves, has been in charge of his race for several decades by now. Yet, from what I have been able to gather, even the sacred underground halls of the Dwarves are not completely free of intrigue and conspiracy. The truth is that the noble families of a clan often fight each other secretly to increase their own standing. Yet, if you would compare them to the doings of nobles in the human realms, they are being peaceful and there is usually no violence involved nor anything that would completely ruin a family. And those kinds of games seem to affect only the lowest ranks of the dwarven nobles. Outsiders are not present in their realm and therefore wouldn't have an effect on the political balance even if they tried. I regret to report that I have been unable to find out the truth about the role of dwarven women.
As I have already been struggling to gather any form of information about the Dwarven Realms, information of their military situation is only vague. I can say for certain that the different dwarven clans all are both wealthy and powerful even after cutting all ties to the human kingdoms. They are under attack by the Tribal Dominion every now and then, but the Bloodstone Dwarves have unleashed their fiery weapons to defend their people. The Dominion stays a constant threat, but even they seem to respect the powerful defensive structures of the Bloodstone Dwarves that have been constructed in every border fortress. I have seen them in action with my own eyes and the fiery destruction they are capable of is most impressive, but not unbeatable.

The Elven Kingdom has been militarized and strengthened ever since Larine the Exile took the bloodwashed crown from the head of her dead predecessor Renova. The Elves can already be considered being part of Zyainor. Even if they themselves would call Zyainor an "ally" instead, I would call the Elves and their queen vassals of the Zyaise rulers. Critics and enemies of the queen tend to "disappear" if they show their point of view too open or if they are unlucky enough to be caught by agents of Zyainor. The number of noble families within the ranks of the elves has been halved over the past decade and only those who are loyal servants of the queen and Zyainor remain. In fact, the Elves who have served in the Ironfist during the Second Void War are replacing the nobles. The head of the elven society consists mostly of puppets of Zyainor now. There are still those who are not happy with the part they have to play in the politics of their queen or Zyainor, but they are few and do not dare to act or even talk about their concerns. The military of the Elves may be stronger than in the past, but it remains a rather small threat when compared with most others especially since most of its forces are not within the Elven Kingdom but instead are stationed in Zyainor to serve as support for the Zyaise legions. However, the Elves may lack power in an open field battle, but they are trained to be skilled and dangerous guerilla fighters - and no one knows their forest better than they do. An invasion of their forest will require a careful strategy - or enough fire to burn down the entire forest.

Now it is time to address the nation that our beloved empress has most interest in: Zyainor. I have spent very much time analysing the structure of this realm and watching how it had evolved during its time. I have also studied the history of the old Zyainor to compare the two nations with each other - taking into account of course that records can be misleading. It was a difficult infiltration, I had to hide from the Shadows of Zyainor about fourteen times during my stay, but I have been able to gather very interesting facts, much more than I can write down in this report. The society of Zyainor is a very fascinating construct. Power is not granted by blood or riches, it is given by deeds, loyalty and skill. Since most of the noble bloodlines who used to rule these lands no longer exist, the current nobility of Zyainor consists mostly of military officers who served Ca'laer Gardon during the Second Void War. Skilled soldiers or other loyal supporters of the realm can be given positions of power if they are considered worthy. Heritage does not matter, skill does. A noble who proves to be incompetent is quickly removed and replaced by a more capable underling. And the nobles are only one of the three political powers in Zyainor who serve the Ca'laer and the Ca'lea. In fact, most of the nobles are part of one of the other two political powers. Most, but not all.
The second one is the Dragon Cult, the only major religion tolerated in both the old and the new Zyainor. Other religions are not actively hunted by anyone but the most fanatical members of the Dragon Cult - which is most of them, really - but they hardly exist anyway. Most people of Zyainor have accepted the Dragon Cult as their one and only religion. The cultists are a dangerous and fanatical group who worship black dragons as godlike beings - it is important to point out that this is for **black** dragons only. The red dragons of the Tribal Dominion are not considered anything more than wild beasts. The cultists are fanatics, their loyalty towards their rulers is without question. The last political power of Zyainor are the different orders that have beetn founded within Zyainor. The most numerous is said to be the Ca'Rach, also called "Dragon Knights" by the other human nations. They obviously have close ties with the Dragon Cult and tend to be in charge of the regular forces of Zyainor. They are said to have mastered some form of dragon magic - personally I think that several high ranking members, including the grandmaster Lord Daskor the Dragonheart, simply ARE black dragons in human form. Interestingly, I think that the rumors about the Ca'Rach being the most numerous order are simply wrong. I think that most of those who are considered to be part of this elite order are actually fanatics of the Dragon Cult while only the leaders of such armies are actual Ca'Rach. The main bases of the Ca'Rach, and probably also the Dragon Cult, lie in Ker'Dramos next to the Bloodclaw Fortress and in Ker'Dossar in the Duchy of Isalmur. I have, by the way, found out that "Ker" means something like "Red Castle" in Zyaise.
The second order, the one I personally believe to be the most numerous, is called the Guardians of the Grave of Ker'Annoch, an order that has specialized on necromancy. The so-called "Grave Wardens" are former knights who have also learned to use necromancy in addition to their martial skills. They are the military commanders of the numerous forces of the order while most high-ranking necromancers focus on research. Both the living and the dead march for the order. I must say that I am amazed that this order still exists. As far as I know, necromancers of Arkain used to "disappear" if they became too powerful, yet this particular order has been able to make breakthroughs in their research that have never been touched by any mortal before. Whatever used to hunt down mortal necromancers in the past either ceased to exist, is allowing them to proceed or is occupied otherwise? I do not know, but I find the fact that this order is still existing very intriguing. I have not been able to see the grandmaster of the order, Lord Commander Varan the Soulkeeper, in person, but from what I have been able to find out, he dominates his order with an iron fist and tolerates no insubordination. Then there is the Order of the Three Swords, founded by the Three Dukes of Angas. Former nobles of Kerrel who have joined Zyainor voluntarily because they wanted a competent ruler, taking many knights of Kerrel with them. They are a noble order and while they are considered absolutely loyal towards their Ca'laer they are reluctant to take Zyaise customs as their own, including its language or religion. That is also why their home, Castle Angas, is still called like that instead of adapting a Zyaise name. It is said that the eldest of the three dukes, Duke Taron, is urging his siblings to change their attitude about adapting to Zyainor as it was now their nation but his siblings, Duke Daran and Duchess Eliran, insist on giving it time.
Unlike the Order of the Three Swords, the Order of the Black Fist do not care much for glory, they are the grim defenders of Zyainor against all enemies, whether they are inside or outside. I have seen the grim Blackguards of the Black Keep myself, they are a sight to behold. They are said to use magic darker than necromancy, darker than any other form of magic practised in Zyainor. I cannot report that I have seen them use any magic, but from their appearance alone I would say that those rumors could be true. The Black Keep is located in such a place that the armies inside could be moved both to the border to the lands of the Demons and to the border to the Tribal Dominion and the Dwarven Realms equally quickly. I have not been able to find out who was leading the order - or if the order even has a leader, maybe it is led directly by Ca'laer Gardon, Ca'lea Vail, Duke Thanok or Duke Birram.
The fifth and final major order of Zyainor is called the Shadows of Zyainor. Like with the Order of the Black Fist, it is not known who it is led by. Its main base Ker'Maran, a dark fortress on the border between Lor and Isalmur, is located close to the Academy of Birram. Apparently the most talented apprentices of shadow magic are invited into the ranks of the order. The Shadows of Zyainor are known mostly for their efforts as agents, infiltrating other countries and catching infiltrators of other nations within Zyainor. I do not know if they possess an army, I could not risk trying to get into Ker'Maran, but considering that they have this gigantic fortress, it is a likely assumption. I would have tried to gather more information about the shadow magic they are using, but as I mentioned earlier, I had been hunted by the Shadows of Zyainor fourteen times already, I did not want to risk anything. If I had been caught, I would have been of no use for the empress.
While the nation of Zyainor is united in its loyalty towards its rulers, there are still conflicts, of course. The Order of the Three Swords and the Order of the Black Fist are considered to be rivals. Both are orders focusing on martial skills, but the some within the Order of the Three Swords consider the dark magic of the Black Fist dishonorable while some the Blackguards consider the Order of the Three Swords ineffective and untrustworthy. Lord Commander Varan of the Guardians of the Grave has a few political enemies within the ranks of his own order and some of the lesser Ca'Rach tend to look down on the Shadows of Zyainor, dismissing them as nothing but servants. However, none of these conflicts seem to have a great impact, the factions remain powerful. Apparently, even within the royal chambers, there may be conflict. At least it is rumored that Ca'lea Vail and Queen Larine of the Elves despise each other and the Ca'lea is said to have spent much time in the Tower of Vail for the past year.
In addition to the powers mentioned before, Zyainor of course also has an extremely large regular army and is said to have recruited former bandits, thugs and thieves into its service. It is rumored that elven assassins, formerly agents of their queen, are now in the service of Zyainor as well.
In summary, I can safely say that Zyainor is as powerful and dangerous as expected.

The Undead seem to have been acting strange for the past years. From what I have been able to gather, they seem to no longer act as organized as before and in lesser numbers. The last time anyone has witnessed a large number of Undead was twelve years ago when an army of Undead attacked the Tribal Dominion and lost. After that, it seemed as if the driving force behind the armies of the dead has either gone silent or disappeared. I remember hearing about a group of Undead having attacked a dragon lair in Zyainor and another group claiming some ruins in Kerrel for themselves. The people of Zyainor seem to believe that the heart of the Undead is the "cursed" Dead Mountain and have surrounded that mountain with several garrisons. I believe that there exist several independent groups of Undead now, or at the very least it is the only explanation I can find for this behaviour. Key figures such as the apparent leaders of the Undead who had been seen in the Second Void War have not been seen ever since the end of the war.
I have not been able to locate any Undead myself - and even if I had, I do not know if I would have been able to infiltrate them without joining them as an undead myself - so I can only speculate about their power and motives. I think it is possible that there is a pattern behind their action, one that we are unable to see, but I do not really believe that to be the case. Instead I am still convinced that there are now several different groups of Undead, even if there have been no rumors about them fighting each other yet. Due to this, I am unable to say how powerful they are, but considering the stories I have heard about them, I would advise against ignoring the threat they pose.

Last but not least, the Demons and their legions. It had been a long and dangerous journey but I have been able to infiltrate the ranks of their slaves. I had been curious about their activity as they had not been seen on the other side of the Void since the Second Voidwar. I have been able to gain some insights into the politic of demonkind and it is filled with intrigue, betrayal, conspiracies and plans that take centuries to be completed. The legions appear to have spent the past two decades discussing the events of the Second Void War. Rather than planning a new invasion, there seems to be something else on their mind - maybe even a war between the different legions. The high ranking dreadlords seem to be blaming each other - but, and this is the interesting part, they do not blame each other for the failure of their invasion, they blame each other for **beginning** of that invasion! Apparently they didn't want this invasion to happen at all from what I could gather, which is interesting. As I infiltrate only the slaves, I was unable to gather details, but it seems that they consider this invasion a huge mistake that has put some other plan into disarray. A demoness called Ebira seems to try convincing the dreadlords to work together, but her success seems to be limited from what I could gather. Some side with her, some call her a traitor, others call her untrustworthy, and the rest seems to ignore her completely. I have also spent some time in the so-called "Seat of the Demon God", a gigantic ruin that is being rebuilt by the Demons and heavily guarded. The military of the Demons remains powerful, despite the losses of the Second Void War. Many legions have not even been involved in that conflict and therefore remain powerful. The fires in the Forge of Kôstragoth are burning day and night, the Demons have been creating massive amounts of weapons for the past years. The garrison of Ûldrazan has been doubled, so the Demons most likely expect an attack. Considering the political tension I expect that those preparations are being made for a possible civil war - or maybe they are just part of a cold war, to keep other factions in line. I am unsure, the political games and intrigues of the Demons seem to be endless.

Now that I have finished writing these lines and read them, I once again find myself agreeing with the empress that we cannot tolerate this situation to continue unhindered. I send this missive to her court and travel back home on the next day. My mission is done, I have gathered all the information I could. Now it is up to the empress to decide our next move.

For I am just an agent of our great empress, an eye in her service.