Legacy War

The **Legacy War** Campaign took place within the Second Fialta Imperium from the year 396 A.U. until 399 A.U., when the 3rd Treaty of Korinth was signed.

The Legacy War Campaign was run parallel with the Spires of Aeldrum campaign, which covered the same historical material (namely the First Coalition War) but from the Serene Duchy of Aeldrum perspective.

## Background

By the reckoning of the Aeldmen, the newly begun year is 397 A.U..  In the calendar of the Imperium, it is the year 99, nearly a century since the birth of the glorious Emperor Tiel'Fialt, and 38 years since he founded the magnificent Second Fialta Imperium, unifying the disparate Fialta people into a proud nation once more. In late 97, the jealous and perfidious Serene Duchy of Aeldrum contrived a series of border incidents to build a *casus belli* to dim the rising Imperial star, declaring war on the Imperium in 98.  The Serene Doge of Aeldrum has since spent blood and treasure enough to gain the key world of Korinth and tempt his craven lapdogs, the Shantine Emperor and the Despot of Alusia, to openly join him against the Imperium. As generals and councilors of the Emperor, you must advise His Majesty on the prosecution of the war, winning glory for the Imperium, for the gods and for yourselves. If you should fail, you may condemn Tiel'Fialt's great conquests to a footnote in history, while the jeering elves of Aeldrum send the Fialta people into shame once more.

### The Fialta and Their Imperium

The Fialta are a near-human race, distinguished from common humanity by their distant angelic heritage. Fialta tend to be taller and stronger than common men, often dark red or golden of hair and complexion. The Fialta are also more resilient to disease and longer-lived than other humans, routinely living to a century old and sometimes up to two or three decades after.

The Fialta claim descent from various angels who served the Lords of the Pentacle; through their forefather Dres'Fialt, they universally claim the angel Fialt, who was a swordarm of the god Thalran. As Fialt perished eons ago in the Pantheon War, there is conveniently little way to dispute this universal descent. Ironically, though proud of their martial lineage, many Fialta are probably more strongly descended from the angels of the god Dalthad, who was particularly fond of mingling his divine servants with mortal kings and nobles.

For millennia, Fialta formed the upper castes of the so-called Fialta states, which they hold in inheritance from the long-dead and legend-shrouded Fialta Imperium (now the First Imperium). They retain this position in both the Second Fialta Imperium and in the Fialta Free States, though some non-Fialta have risen to prominence in the Imperial Court.  Nobles and warriors are almost exclusively Fialta, as are most priests except for the Cult of Shantara, which is led and primarily constituted of elves.

Many "Fialta" of the lower social orders are relatively new to the race: the general vagary of Fialta descendance, the proclivities of bored Fialta garrisons and the constant need for fresh bodies in the wars of the Fialta States and now the Imperium have produced a stream of warriors who wended their way into lucrative mercenary service, retired and bought themselves lineage documents of varying accuracy to cement their new status.

The Imperium is only 38 years old, and so most of its traditions come from the Fialta warlords that preceded it (though the Fialta Free States and the Thalranese Marches will sneer that no true Fialta would ever accept an autocrat). The Emperor rules by the force of his will and armies and though all Fialta are meant to be loyal to him, in practice the military is still largely feudal, with men swearing fealty to their captains, their captains to a planetary lord, that lord to a general, and the general to the Emperor; perhaps only half the standing Fialta military can be said to follow a modern hierarchy with professional officers who command at the pleasure of the Emperor rather than paying homage to him by supplying their personal soldiers.  The Fialta place considerable stock in personal charisma over inherited rights, and theirs is a culture obsessed with personal honor and feats of individual daring; this poses something of a challenge for a would-be statebuilder like Tiel'Fialt, especially when many Fialta are accustomed to electing their officers and serving out of personal loyalty to a warlord.

### A Short History of the Second Fialta Imperium

The Fialta-Shantine War is remembered by historians as the crucible that broke the Shantine Empire and forged the Fialta Imperium.  In the year 351 A.U., a coalition of warlords and princelings of the Fialta States, funded by the Bank of Valdos, launched an invasion of the Shantine frontier worlds. From among the squabbling potentates of the Fialta States, the war elevated a handful of truly great leaders, and the greatest of these was Mithranatus. When the Fialta-Shantine War ended in 357 A.U. with a humiliating defeat for the Shantine, Mithranatus and his closest allies reaped the richest rewards, taking planets, ships and slaves to pour into their private military ambitions.  By the year 359 A.U., Mithranatus declared himself Emperor of the Second Fialta Imperium, channeling the legendary heritage of all Fialta from their ancient conquering forebear, Dres'Fialt.  The self-crowned Emperor styled himself Tiel'Fialt, "Fialta Reborn."  In the ensuing 38 years, the Emperor asserted his right to rule over all Fialta: in their dwindling corners of the cosmos, his Free-State critics point out that to do so, he slew millions more of his Fialta brethren than any other foe combined.  Perhaps the Aeldrum-Fialta War will give his armies a chance to undo that unfortunate statistic.

### Gods of the Fialta

The Fialta worship the Lords of the Pentacle, an alliance of five deities dating to the Pantheon War. These are: Valdos (Lord of Contracts/Lord of Lies), Dalthad (The Genteel Lord/The Decadent), Thalran (The Martial Lord/The Tyrant Lord), Shantara (Lady of Guile/The Archtraitor), Othal/Qualos/Athderin/etc. (Lord of Secrets/The Whispering Madness).

Though thought of together, the gods have their own interests and compete with each other for influence within the Imperial Court.  Currently, the Fialta Imperium is most strongly influenced by Valdos and Dalthad, whose churches are roughly co-equal at court.  Shantara's church is favored by elves living within the Imperium.

## Characters

Though still in rude health for a 99-year-old, the Fialta Emperor is not immortal, and by the old customs of the Fialta, the Imperium has no formal succession law: the crown must be earned, and only on the deathbed of the Emperor will his chosen successor be revealed. There are front-runners in the Emperor’s favor, but none can be truly sure of where they stand – Fialta warlords have historically named one of their children or grandchildren to succeed them, but it is not unheard of for a warlord to name a favorite general instead. The Aeldrum-Fialta War presents a unique opportunity for a clear successor to emerge by feats of arms and strategy. Many of your characters will be potential heirs who seek to use the war to cement their claim to the throne.

## Summary

### Session 1

State of the war:

* Orcish Directorate and Thalranese Marches—are also at war with us
	+ Thalranese are the last major resistance to Fialta empire
* Despotate of Alusia—we’re invading their shipyards
* The Shantine Empire and Aeldrum invading us via Korinth (kind of... Shantine are opportunists, like France after WWI—bore the brunt of the fighting, lost lots of men, really didn’t want to join the war until Aeldrum looked strong enough. We can probably slow them down / scare them off relatively easily)
* Fialta Imperium’s being attacked on 3 sides by a collection of nations w 1.5x total our output (bigger than us, but less organized)
* outnumbered, and we need to mobilize faster, slow them down, and/or remove or turn their allies
* Aeldrum government is hurting their war effort, not helping it
* Serene Duchy has manpower, but not conscription. professional standing forces, but when those are knocked out,
	+ time is on our side; they need to win it fast
* Shantine: can raise lots of troops, but haven’t committed them yet
* Nippon States: our best likely allies
* Aeldrum's war department took Fialta prisoners and sold them as slaves—made it look like the Nippon states were buying them
* Emperor is willing to give higher ranks, etc to those who recruit others

Invasion:

* Thalranese Marches & Orcish Directorate deeply mistrust each other (can’t even fight in the same theater), and probably Aeldrum too
	+ Orcish Directorate really just want to be a country
	+ Orcs don’t directly neighbor us; they don’t care about losing personnel, so they get paid in loot & tech from major empire for fighting for glory somewhere that doesn’t threaten their home world (big win)
	+ Thalranese Marches's big fear was orcs and Aeldrum invading them on both sides
	+ Aeldrum: had to deal with misgivings about how many troops would be fielded at a time, to avoid public panic among Thalranese
* Once we took Korinth, the Shantines sued for peace with us, so while they’re fighting against us now, if we really slaughter a lot of Shantines (or otherwise make it look like fighting us is pointless & Aeldrum are using them for cannon fodder), they’ll probably back out again
* Aeldrum’s rep: detached, puppetmaster kind of empire—intimidated locals into accepting protectorate
	+ They won the empire by fighting lots of small, inferior foes piecemeal
* Only Aeldrum & Fialta are fielding things like dreadnought-style battleships
* Aeldrum haven’t lost any major offensives (because they’re all just killing each other)
	+ Marivan = their next likely target

What to do?

* Octavo working on tech to slow them down: closing gates
	+ Pie in the sky research—scramble gates (100 years out)
* Titus making overtures to the Nipponese, who don’t like Aeldrum because they held out and fought against the Naga; the Naga now have a Mind Virus and have collapsed
	+ Nipponese want [some of] Celestial Space & Naga Space for themselves–Aeldrum Trade Company always ends up snapping it up when free. With us distracting Aeldrum, they’ve got an opportunity to slowly claim more space
	+ Won’t accept Imperial (Fialta) ships in celestial space
	+ Maybe blockade the Pin Jump (after letting them know) to block baddies approaching Nippon states or us
* Aeldrum communicating transport commands: Octavo might be able to scramble this
* We have a fate point that we can collectively spend to decide a convenient fact about the outcome of the treaty between Orcish and Thalranese
* Need to win over Orcs, but not by making them an empire—they want to be a respected people / peer nation.
	+ They’ve done all kinds of stuff to their own people to win this respect
* We show the orcs the backdoors that Aeldrum built into the inferior weapons they provided
* Thalranese "organically discover" that ATC was hiding fact from them that orcs were getting Fialta weaponry
* Aeldrum set up observers as security (on ship). Observer could not stop this.
* Border patrol, do well
* Kristen’s Orc guys approach border too early. Orcish ship wait for Thalranese ships and turn around. >> no “smoking gun” to turn Orcs against them, but undermined trust. Military mobilization frozen
* To convince Orcs at Harwel
* Orcs will land troops when we breach the gate. Were not able to breach.

Public treaty getting Orcs and Thalranese into Aeldrum alliance: Treaty of Aeldrum

### Session 2

* Aeldrum has a new Serene Doge
* Pin Jump fell surprisingly quickly, because there were backdoors in the big guns
* Four ATC warships coming behind us
	+ ATC is not supposed to have “big capital ships” aka warships, so there’s been secret weapons building
	+ Likely cutting off our supply lines
* Multiple attempts for Cato’s troop to break through to Harwel, but failed
* Industrial minister of Aeldrum made emergency production lines for fighter jets
* Casualties are against us, but also, we really should not lose Cato’s men (400k)
* Spooked the Aeldmen with the orcs maneuver (who have now promised the Orcish Directorate 1/4 of the Pin Jump)
* Things have slowed down, especially mobilization of Thalranese & orcs
* Annexing the pin jump made the Nipponese mad; they declared war against Aeldrum
* Neutralized the Orcs
* Brass Cities + ATC–industrial base for more troops to come around from behind and hit us
* Pin Jump is now a super important location–links Aeldrum’s manpower with their materiel
	+ Pin Jump will probably fall if the Brass Cities do, but Nipponese will probably get stopped at Brass Cities
* Only way into Naga Space (where ATC kinda reigns) is thru the Pin Jump
* Octavo investigating disrupting gates (close down the ones we control–may either block travel, best case, or just make navigation harder)
* New boss at Aeldrum: Doge Bareth–part of same conservative faction as the old boss
	+ Old boss: Doge Leopold, killed by occult bullet–soul burned itself out; Church of Idolmar, god of healing, couldn’t do anything
		- Shortly before he died, Homer of Lidenia convened parliament to announce that his political officer had organized the assassination of far-left person (who died after this), which precipitated the whole political system getting really messy. Also: Amalia Josune Spiros was concerned that someone would reveal that she wasn’t a full-blooded elf (he says). His governor (his fixer) was a half-elf (also now dead; a martyr against racism against non-full-elves), as is Doge Ulysses of Galthad
	+ Tiello Augustine, Doge of Estonne, denounced deceipt of Doge of Galthad. Modern establishment wing alienating doge of Galthad, who is now going a little nuts. Isn’t allowing Serene Doge into his spire.
	+ Other party passed a law (industrial secrets) that no one can unionize or report on factory conditions–classified as treason
	+ Aeldrum Militia (violent labor movement) don’t like Homer of Lidenia–open to negotiating with us (they think their leaders are as bad as us)
	+ Spread talk of conscription?? Conscription would be “the matchstick that sets it all on fire” for Aeldrum
	+ 7 spires, of which we care about Aeldrum, Galthad, Estone. Serene Doge of Aeldrum is the head of state
* Aristocracy, gentry, religious think the war is great, all for different reasons. Some in the lower classes support it, but many resist
* Aeldrum: best to be an elf; ok to be human; bad to be anything else

Goals:

* Slow down Aeldrum attack of Harwel
* Convince Nipponese to attack Brumaire, and plant someone to mess it all up
* Destroy / mess up gates

Nipponese ideal outcome:

* We exhaust ourselves fighting
	+ They appreciate the fact that we exist to oppose Aeldrum
	+ There was enough of an alliance against us that they were concerned we’d die, hence jumping in
	+ Declared war on Aeldrum; currently fighting in Celestial Space (taking over outer worlds)
	+ Want us to make Aeldrum look untrustworthy, but don’t want us to be the sole superpower

Aeldrum is arming the Margravate of Tarim:

* Nipponese will probably win, but it’ll cost them
	+ Nipponese are biggest kids on the block in Celestial Space, but they also have big neighbors, who just don’t have the same tech / organization
	+ They’re doing “the Manchuria thing” to expand into Margravate (hybrid culture of merchants & explorers, who are allied with Aeldrum)
* If we can take Harwel, we starve the Pin Jump (so Aeldrum has to spend troops on us)

Nipponese are going to invade both Brumaire and Bishant, as long as we say they have the right to Celestial Space (we aren’t gonna try to get in there)

Doge of Galthad makes a big statement saying that Aeldrum is arming the civilian population in Harwel with the intent to later conscript them–spreads rumors pretty well and there’s some unrest, protests. Sylettis’s people help here.

* Aeldrum start pre-emptively evacuating Harwel; Aeldrum Militia blows up a lot of defenses for us
* (Small) war between constabulary and civilians!!!!! Some of each killed by the other–martial law, mistrust by the locals
	+ Cato concludes that Orcs don’t want to fight through him (they don’t want to fight big battles)–so just blocks them off. Uses lighter, smaller craft to land (just crash land–they don’t need to leave)

Nipponese accidentally alert the Shantine, who annex Geneva, blocking Nipponese

* But, Shantine are not attacking at Korinth
* Nipponese also failed at the Pin Jump

Rough estimate of battle casualties:

* Cato steps back (after 30k dead, 45k wounded) and Claudius Felix’s guys take the lead
	+ Felix loses 13k dead, 21k wounded just on the Pin Jump–sacrificed a lot!
	+ Heavily opposed on landing, so hold back
* Bush & Titus’s troops take the lead (Bush loses 10k men, 8k wounded); Titus loses 10k, with 18k wounded
* Total 63k dead, 90-some k wounded–just up to the landing
	+ Burn 17k bank troops on landing the next turn; 12.6k wounded
* Total cost: Felix loses 31k men, 42k wounded
* Titus loses 25k,
* Cato loses another ... many
* Aeldrum loses 119k soldiers total, and 91k wounded. 39k dead/64k wounded civilians, 80k dead parliamentary Aeldmen, 20k constabulary, 16k dragoons, 14M refugees displaced (we have 2.8M in our territory); we strangled the Pin Jump; Shantine getting pursued by the Nipponese on all sides
* Fialta lose 146k, 169k wounded, and we have almost half the planet.
* Total dead on all sides: 300k so far

Bank of Valdos destroys an ATC warship and some other orcs–get an arc to send some ships to do raids (Felix gets silly in the Pin Jump)

Final takeaway:

* Cato’s guys manage to land etc on Harwel
* Bank of Valdos + prince Felix’s troops take over
* the Nipponese have lots of unusual knowledge of space routes, because of worshipping vestiges of elder gods
* Aeldmen got the Nipponese in an awkward position where Nipponese are attacking Bishant, but their own gate worlds are really vulnerable
* Bigger problem: Nipponese are in a worse position than the Shantine–aren’t yet at Bishant, nor do they have a blockade going, whereas they are being successfully blockaded
* Harwel: “modest gains at enormous cost”

### Session 3

State of the war:

* There are three fronts: Nippon-Brumaire, Genova-Bishant (also Nippon-Aeldrum), Pin Jump-Harwel (us-Aeldrum)
	+ Aeldrum probably doesn’t care about winning quickly at Harwel; they mostly want to cost us manpower, rather than take the planet back, and are only using volunteers there (not professionals). We should entrench, make it impossible to get
	+ Defender of Firhbank–it didn’t fall, but not for lack of trying–the man in command is the Butcher of Korinth (one of our dudes)
* Lots of labor abuses happening in Aeldrum, both of indentured servants & free workers
	+ ATC is massively anti-union
* Aeldrum Secretary of State: told state media to back off of ATC / Lidenia, which was doing our job for us but now is not
* If they win Firhbank, big moral victory, esp for Thalranese. Links Thalranese front with Aeldrum front, so they suddenly don’t have to coordinate small amounts of troop increase with orcs... essentially, total Thalranese commitment.
* If we win Harwel, we paralyze their commerce, but it’s a huge gamble.
* If the Nipponese fold entirely, then that’s great, but if they just pull out, we’re screwed (and Shantine are happy)
* Net, we lose a war fleet at Firhbank, humiliated / regroup with the Butcher–disaster
* At the Pin Jump, gain the second deck (allied with Brass Cities)–we claim the Pin Jump!!! (Brass Cities have more control of it, but we’re in there. Sweet. They run off to mess with the ATC in Celestial Space)
* Bush is the real hero at Harwel and, while they didn’t win the gate, pushed significantly

### Session 4

State of the war:

* Serene Duchy has null bombs now–that’s how they won Firhbank
	+ Gate is kinda more open now than previously (temporarily disabled)
	+ Couldn’t land heavy crafts until several hours after the bomb detonated, but smaller skiffs almost immediately
* Octavo–looking into shutting down gates
* Null bomb: appears to have been carried by a repurposed frigate (turned into an ICBM)
	+ Was launched from Aeldrum blockade positions over Aeldrum’s gate from distances over 10 km (and established a clearance zone around the gate)
	+ Wiped out 10 km radius; shock waves caused fires much farther out
	+ Null space tech comes out of black pyramids
		- We probably don’t have any of these; there are some overgrown ones in Imperial Space, and also some in Naga Space
	+ Scale of the universe is different: it’s not like this was nuking Hiroshima
* Introducing subtle, random errors into Aeldman communications and navigation–signal jammers (and radio repeaters)–so they won’t know where we’re coming from at the beginning of attacks
	+ propaganda is that this will also help Aeldmen communicate with each other if/when the Serene Duchy withdraws support infrastructure
* Can set up contingencies–infrastructure ready to go–at Semal and Marivan for gates to appear to be failing after use of null bombs (but we would really prefer not to lose these worlds, especially Semal)
* All their new fancy weapons tech can’t be used on Harwel because of all the infrastructure and civilians. So we should probably keep taking the war to places they care about!!
* Ambassador Ludivine Josse Charbonneau is “welcomed here”, per Prince Rogers
	+ Rogers wants a line of communication between the two parties
	+ Prince Titus (sec of state) – negotiated initial overtures to end war, and the release of General Carter
* Firhbank: the people in charge were Carter and the Butcher of Korinth (the latter still on the loose)
* General trend is that the Aeldmen slay us in naval engagements, & we win more on the ground
	+ Might blockade us at Harwel, in which case, we’re screwed
* ATC / Thalranese plan is stop blockading Nippon Gates–but they are fine with bombardments on Mir'Thalran, since it’s a fortress, so they’ll probably let the Nipponese head there while they come to Semal
	+ Resolution eventually–we focus on Mir'Thalran, while Nipponese focus on Brumaire etc.
* Korinth is full of psychics! If we could drop someone with a mind virus there, we may throw the planet into chaos and win it back. Delightful possibility—part of the recon into Naga Space will be potentially picking up a couple of psychics with the virus.
	+ Other goals in Naga space: kidnap ATC people, claim random planets, cover story is establishing a diplomatic presence with the Perfect Princes
	+ We do warn the Nipponese in advance, i.e. right as we’re going in (give them a heads up)–and we obviously don’t bother any worlds where they have presence
* Prince Rogers & Titus tried to set it up to look like Prince Felix was slowly poisoning the emperor... but also, they tried to make it look like the Aeldmen were doing this. We expel the Ambassador under the claim that they tried to orchestrate this poisoning and pin it on the Prince. (also, we torture them to death and send a body double in their place.)
* Positioning signal jammers wherever needed to mess with the Thalranese corsairs (I think around Mir’Thalran?)

### Session 5

State of the war:

* Aeldrum upgraded its null bombs–“sophisticated”–figured out what made the previous bombs tick, and will be able to produce them at a consistent rate (maybe 1-2/session)
* Lots of tariffs (or lack thereof) for ATC
* We held Semal–lots of casualty and troop movement, but no real strategic gains for them.

Nipponese update:

* Margravate of Tarim convinced the Middle Kingdom to declare war on the Nipponese
* Kingdom of Aksai Chin then declares war on the Brass Cities, so maybe it’s a wash? But mess in Celestial Space, and Brass Cities and Nipponese might fight each other

The Shantine Empire took a Nippon gate (their planets are more densely interconnected, so it doesn’t matter which one)
Shantine versus Nipponese at Brumaire–Nipponese win the naval battle

Naga Space:

* We establish an embassy with Sigvald (Perfect Princes)
* Brass Cities having a field day when attacking defended positions–so Sigvald is ready to negotiate (ATC failed him, lost the Pin Jump, ditched him, likely have all gone to ground)
* We found some black pyramids–Brass Cities got the early ones (and this is holy stuff to them; they think they’re descendents of angels of Baradun), but there are more further in (dust worlds)
* Rebel factions under Sigvald are rising up, aided by tech and forces from Imperial Space (maybe ATC operatives, maybe someone else, maybe Margravate people)

Harwel:

* We didn’t lose the gate, but we did lose a lot of men
* They’re cut off, so we can’t put more troops there

Mir’Thalran:

* We control it
* Thalranese Marches are busy with controlling Firhbank, which Aeldrum just gave them

Korinth:

* Psychics started a psychic terror attack on Fialta forces
* Possible for us to take it back, if they keep diverting forces elsewhere (Semal, civil war)

Aeldrum:

* On the verge of civil war: Aeldrum Militia rebels against Doge Bareth
	+ He never used the military, just local “volunteers” or police forces
* They try to get Doge to be elected by core worlds instead of just Aeldrum, but just barely fail
* Bareth and Doge Durant (very leftist) make a deal with Workers Party, but they don’t hold up their end of the deal (not enough people on his side), so he betrays them and attacks the protestors
	+ Durant (doge of Galthad) secedes, and now there’s lots of dirt on him
* Maybe impeachment of Serene Doge?
* ATC not allowed on Aeldrum, but are in position to attack Aeldrum (!)
	+ Fired as war secretary and then rebellions immediately broke out
* Serene Doge maybe making a junta; maybe going to arrest Parliamentarian
	+ Has industrialists in his camp
	+ He needs:
		- Conservative backing–if no, screwed; if yes, at least has capital
			* Sinvas Luvelath–son of Doge before Leopold; possible hero of the conservative movement
		- Lidenia backing–if no, lots of resources against him (could cause impeachment rather than civil war)
		- Progressive leader, Doge Tiello (candidate in impeachment scenario)–will he get baited into violence or something else that could lead to his arrest
			* Maybe we would like him better: not a warmonger; could hand over more power to parliament (de-centralize military command structure)
			* He’s like central left–a compromise progressive–gets stuff done (Obama)
		- Guilds and sovereign cities (core world stakeholders): back impeachment or open rebellion?
		- Industrialist, Corina Vendrin. If she wipes out Luvelath
* Lidenia probably has a bomb, but officially Hanon Mossag holds them (Serene Doge)
* Supreme Coalition Commander
* Military is days or weeks away by communication or by ships–can’t really stop domestic forces from doing things
	+ Military elsewhere are loyal to the Doge or to private interests
* Flashpoints:
	+ Count of Lidenia–existentially essential for him to remove the Doge for some reason?
	+ Do Galthadis remain in open rebellion long enough to inspire others, especially the Core Worlds?
	+ Does progressive leader Doge Tiello get goaded into violent action, or something that’ll be met with violence by the Serene Doge?
* We do still have an agent within the Aeldrum state department (tried and almost succeeded in getting Lidenia assassinated)
* Sylletis has links to militia and anarchist movement; assassinated a moderate and blamed it on the police
* Aeldman government cannot ally with militia or workers party anymore, but alone they will lose
	+ Will he have to bring in the military to quash them, or just local forces?
* Dalthadi bank, until very recently, had Doge Leopold

Perfect Princes:

* Banshee: son of Sigvald, currently battling for Aeldrum at Korinth
	+ Try to win him with promise of governorship

Lidenia tried to sell plans to Brass Cities on capital ship designs

* We give this intel to the elvish friend of Graves who we’re coordinating with

Most sophisticated robots are pure deterministic machinery (least sophisticated are partly organic, just resistant to psychic stuff)

So–Banshee betrays at Korinth as soon as we make a move

### Session 6

Aeldrum Cabinet under new military dictatorship:

* Luvalath is chancellor (vice Serene Doge; designated successor)
* Mimir is back at the table, heading civil service
	+ He has spent a lot of political and material capital recently
	+ Have lost ships, manpower, Naga Space, colonial revenues
	+ ATC hasn’t rebelled because Mimir keeps a close hand on it, and major shareholders of ATC are conservatives who are just being bribed right now
	+ Industrial Party has outsized influence, financial power, 1 of 8 seats
	+ Has own constabulary
	+ Fiscally backing this deal; liberally pillaging people (likely causing unrest)
	+ Bareth (Doge)
* There’s a core worlds guy to reduce Mimir influence, who “occasionally gets listened to”
* Secretary of State sidelined
* Sevrar Orvhim–intelligence guy–survived assassination of Leopold (he was 3rd in command)–controls much of domestic military manpower
	+ Harwel is a bloodbath, but service with Orvhim is seen as a cushier position, so having no problem recruiting
* Aeldman elites have been spending blood of the core worlds, so they will be discontent–which is not a priority of the government. They’ve lost a lot of influence (1/2 of all parliamentary votes -> 2/9 people in cabinet)
	+ Lidenia has spent a lot of capital to keep the core worlds quiet
* Change in leadership significantly privileges Aeldrum government in favor of core worlds
* Colonies are also unhappy
* Guilds have been robbed of all their indentured servants, so the most discontent of all

Coalition’s current war goal is “convincing disarmament” of Fialta Imperium; restoration of our territory to others; parliament wanted an Elvish ethnostate–basically, they're playing around with ideas of dismantling the Imperium

Nipponese lost convincingly to the Shantine last time. Being invaded on both sides–one by Middle Kingdom. They probably want to back out and would listen to Aeldrum proposal of neutrality unless we help more

Galthad government in exile:

* We could reach out to him if needed
* No standing troops, but have access to 10s of thousands of rebels, terrorists, ...
* In a week of slow fighting & bombing, Doge Durant’s #2 embedded deep resistance networks – arsenals, supplies, secret bank accounts
* Can we help?
	+ Kill people who are inconvenient to them
	+ Fund them
	+ Arm them (Aeldman Militia is happy to take our gifts)

Aeldrum have Semal, mostly; they have Tar’Thalran. If they relieve blockade on Mir’Thalran, they can do lots of high-attrition tactics

* If we lose Semal, then last line of support to Harwel has been extinguished

Would be nice to hit Bishant (untapped manpower reservoir for the Shantines). It’s also their holy world, and has lots of people, infrastructure

Telrion has two ethnic groups that would be happy about change in management (dwarves and kobolds). Is a lightly-defended ATC world (we could probably storm it in one session)

Null bombs are a big bomb with an occult dimension, changing aethereal patterns, sweeping planets clean–would be great to discover and change occult lettering; or disrupt its power source (risky, via angels in the vicinity); or hack their black pyramid if we can get control of another, functional one

Brass Cities robots: “really angry arachnid cuisinarts”

Priorities / DM advice:

1. Worry most about the null bombs
2. Don’t focus on big things like mass uprisings. Instead, which assassinations, successions, uprisings most impair Aeldrum’s ability to maintain an offensive
3. Decide how many fronts we can fight on and commit

Null Bombs:

* Controlled by Aeldrum Navy; being made in the Aeldrum colonies
* Chain of command: Serene Doge has final say; gives writs of deployment (you have license to make one detonation in this theater) to the commanding admiral–because their comms aren't good enough for him to approve real-time
* Hanon Mossag:
	+ Director of energy department, inventor of null bomb. Is there anyone else who is essential to the process of making new ones? (No, doesn't seem like there are other linchpins like him)
	+ Mossag likes to party but he’s a multibillionaire, so he does it at his own places.
	+ He vanishes for long periods of time to New South Saldan.
	+ He’s the only person involved in the null bomb project who has a personal relationship with the Serene Doge
	+ Almost every time he comes back to Aeldrum, he takes 24h to “decompress” first. Then takes his train line or an airship to the capital
	+ Aeldrum is the one place where he doesn’t stay at his own palaces. Goes to some big club, and also then goes “slumming”–mapping something out in the base of the Aeldrum spire.
	+ Probably vulnerable:
		- When boarding his airship,
		- Transit to and from transports,
		- Maybe his own place–then the government might not know about it for a while,
		- When he’s slumming it
	+ No shame; unblackmailable; media darling
	+ Throws lavish parties at his private estate–easiest way to infiltrate
	+ Easiest place to get him physically is in the "slums"/basement of Aeldrum spires
	+ Weaknesses:
		- Unwilling to accept oversight
		- Network of variously informed subordinates
* Null Bomb Ingredients:
	+ Obscene amounts of quicksilver
	+ Black pyramids as enrichment facilities
* New South Saldan is only known, functional, viable location of black pyramids (three of them). Almost definitely where they’re doing the testing & building. It’s on the 9th ley line. Connected to Aeldrum and to Saldan. If they lost this, they’d lose the ability to make null bombs for a while.
	+ Try to hack from Sigvald’s black pyramid?? Distance is no issue
* There might be a critical window: could probably make our own, maybe via e.g. mass sacrifices... or, screw up how they make theirs–maybe overload engines of a large aetheric ship. Create a countervailing aetheric pressure front–set it off kilter so it tires itself out faster

Mind Virus:

* Psychics are great for transmission, and angels are psychic, so may be susceptible. Passes much less easily from normies, via weird art, but we can still be easily infected. People become either catatonic or deranged as a result.

We have an enormous communications advantage over Aeldrum

Consider peace negotiations: plausible if we show that war is costly (win a big victory) and there’s a shored-up line of Imperial succession

Constantinus conversation with Octavo + various:

* Very angry–not with Octavo, but thinks he’s been robbed... of a lot of things. Undercurrent of revenge-minded fury (wants to correct the past). Would’ve been the next emperor and now probably won’t.
* He’s embittered, angry, uncompromising. The diplomacy in the mess hall was a front. He’s desperate, profoundly angry, profoundly wounded
* His apparent assassination was from inside the Imperium
* Thinks the empire got too expansionist, needs to modernize
* Doesn’t think we can conquer all of Imperial Space... so in the meantime, wants a “modern, strong, productive empire”–too strong to be taken by force, and too internally linked and cohesive to be split apart.
* Prioritizes a clear order of succession above all else–from a territory run by a warlord to a true empire; wants Fialta Imperium to be a “first among equals”, a leader among civilizations
* Thinks there should be a high council or something like it–an organization dedicated to a clear succession, which won’t change based on the whims of the current emperor
* Very shrewd: plays a political dance like someone who’s been in the game, not out of it for 20 years. Clearly structures his answers in a way that is plausible, but doesn’t match the man Octavo knew.
* Brucius was very young when his father died: 15, 16–doesn’t know his father well enough to know that he’s inconsistent with how he was before.
* His mannerisms, visions, ideals are still consistent with before

Black Pyramid info:

* There’s way more noise than expected on New South Saldan, plus a low droning background noise – coming from somewhere within Naga Space

Sending away all the next obvious successor candidates while Emperor dies:

* Vermes –> Semal
* Felix –> Telrion
* Brucius –> with Banshee to Bishant

Dampening bombs:

* We built a shipyard that will create more of these–doesn’t prevent initial damage, but mitigates aetheric winds effect. Octavo’s prototype goes with Vermes to Semal

One of Octavo’s engineers goes to the second black pyramid in Imperial Space, plus two new friends of Titus’s:
Carl Wigmond: old elf who’s worked with various lords of the pentacle
Allie Flashpan: saw work supplanted by ATC, deeply bitter, and wants an end to “all this” (null bomb stuff? war? unclear)

We do a little unraveling of spacetime (a “weft”) via the Pin Jump, which is apparently an essential part of keeping the universe together: Pin Jump is bound more tightly against itself. Sometime, somewhere in the future, this catastrophic amount of potential energy is going to be released. It will do something “deleterious.” In the meantime, we harness the other side of that energy now. We turn the Pin Jump a fraction of a degree, and we disconnect the link with Celestial Space

Calamitously destroy all three black pyramids on New South Saldan, and the planet cracks into pieces, losing specific gravity needed to hold space around itself

* The black pyramid that was Sigvald's also is destroyed
* The one in Imperial Space is not

Gravitational force is constant, as a function of range

People of the knolls: mass hysteria on the planet before the news could have reached them. Lots of psychics have bad nightmares (including Banshee and his people). General calamity and unease

Congrats to Constantinus, who is assigned as regent…. Or is he??

* Big Titus–Constantinus–Octavo showdown. Octavo gets to decide whether to kill Constantinus and take the regency.
* The generals aren’t here, but enough of the big wigs witness this moment that Constantinus is an enormous risk if he is left alive while Octavo ascends as Regent
* Octavo leaves Constantinus to lead as Regent

### Session 7

State of the war:

* Our black pyramid: the fact that it exists is quasi-public info, and rough location is probably known (but not world / location on world)
* Prince Vermes’s Semal attempt totally failed (didn’t seem super willing to invest his resources)
* Korinth: we hold; Brucius’s attempt to take Bishant doesn’t take, but we don’t lose Korinth as a supply line
* Telrion is in doubt but not lost: we took it, then were encircled, but Felix and his allies block them from totally cutting us off
	+ We lose some ships
	+ Now he’s messing around with the ATC colonies, where he can wreak lots of havoc, which may still allow the entire venture pay off
* ATC has lost lots of ships and manpower in this war; they’re now actively recruiting more men to fight on other fronts (not the colony worlds, which is their industrial base)
* We still currently have people in the way between Mir’Thalran and Semal–but our strategy is conceding Semal in favor of Harwel

What keeps the Imperium going is relative territorial cohesion. If they take the Firhbank line, and worlds like Hybern and Zanevuela, they could bisect the Imperium. Aeldrum could survive this kind of attack, but we can’t–our mobility is all internal.

* We would be super vulnerable if they cut us off there, but we’re well defended

Retreat through Semal?

* “The great conga line of conquest”
* “We’re building honest, old-fasioned, good old black-magic-powered weapons.”

Cato attempts to take Harwel:

* Apparently it fails, despite having brought a heart that Valdosian angels verified was an organ of the previous emperor
* Constantinus asked Cato to go
* Cato landed there with a bunch of ground troops, who are fine, but...
* Aeldrum secretary of state was dispatched on a secret mission to Orcish Directorate for major mobilization, and he promised the orcs a breakthrough at Harwel. They kept a null bomb in reserve and just pulled it on our navy
* It looks like a sure loss, and Cato falls. Having told his men to take the flesh of the emperor to a particular spot, he reappears–rebirth??? Claims blood of the emperor and abilities of a god (says he has already fallen on the planet once before)
* Cato and 100k men make it to the gate to Aeldrum

Conditioned on some chaos happening in Aeldrum

* We demand:
	+ Full recognition of Imperium’s boundaries, right to exist, and rightful successor
	+ Bishant can’t come further than Korinth
	+ Return of Semal
* We offer:
	+ Cede Korinth to the Shantine
	+ Elvish ethnostate run by the Shantarans

### Session 8

Alusians: humans. racist but open religion.
Shantine: less racist but more dogmatic

Troop withdrawal to allow initiation of peace talks with Aeldrum:

* We keep appearance of holding Telrion

Shantine want Korinth before peace talks begin to make that “status quo”

Fun fact: Felix has won the most battles of any general, and also has never lost a battle.

Aeldrum updates:

* Offers made to both Felix and Cato to attempt to get them to withdraw, for some concessions

Tech update:

* Backdoor is currently covered

### Session 9

* Our commercial losses aren’t enormous; industrial losses are pretty bad (1/4 of empire’s industrial capacity)
* What to do about Cato?
* Aeldrum government is consolidating
	+ Nationalizing ATC
	+ Intel from Graves: shakeup in Aeldrum cabinet is not yet done. (Bareth vs Sevrar, security chief, who was helping assassinate Mimir)
* Things they might ask for that we don’t want to give up:
	+ Freedom of navigation through Imperium–trade routes
	+ Tech

### Epilogue

The War of the Coalition ended on February 22nd, 399 A.U. with the signing of the 3rd Treaty of Korinth.

Aeldrum is triumphant, led by its Serene Doge, Bareth Aefendt. Almost immediately after signing the treaty, Bareth will return to Aeldrum to reassemble Parliament and win a constitutional amendment extending his term for another ten years. It seems that Aeldrum is on the verge of a technological and economic golden age driven by the likes of Rose Clintock, Hannon Mossag, Chella Nebai and Francis Mervodan, but perhaps not an especially democratic one.

Thanks to some last minute maneuvering, the Second Fialta Imperium did not collapse into civil war and was able to coalesce around Prince Bruscius as its new emperor. Though the Imperium survived, it will be much diminished for a time. Perhaps this smaller, leaner Imperium will be able to forge itself into a model nation. Octavo's stealth ships may yet carry the armies of General Cato to new glories. Prince Titus will have his hands full selling the new Imperium with what part of his time is not consumed by obsession with the Unnamed.

The seeds of new greatness, or perhaps a second calamitous war, are sown by the formation of the Fialta Confederacy. The Thalranese may rightly consider themselves to have achieved almost every one of their wargoals, except perhaps for the stinging slight of Aeldrum's annexation of Semal. Their leading role in the Confederacy may cut both ways: time will tell if opening themselves to the influence of the Bank of Valdos will lead to the Valdosian hegemony over the Fialta that has been the nightmare of so many.

The Orcish Directorate will proudly announce to all who listen that this treaty marks their ascension into the fellowship of great powers. Certainly, they will have a seat at the table in the future cosmic order.

The Shantine have won a moderate territorial gain but an enormous religious coup: it seems like that with Kirvan and Idolmarite preachers spilling into the new Fialta Confederacy, the next conflicts in the region will be wars of religion.

The Shantarans have won their state, but with the establishment of the Fialta Confederacy, they may not be able to exploit the divisions they hoped would be rampant in the postwar era. They will need to bide their time until the next great conflagration.

Alusia has affirmed itself as a secondary power, but it is not yet a cosmic power: its next moves may bring it into conflict with its Shantine cousins.

Sigvald is perhaps lucky to have escaped an Aeldman firing squad, and he remains the autocrat of his backwater kingdom.

Count Homer of Lidenia was undoubtedly the key to Aeldman victory, and while generous toward his memory, the Aeldrum history books will never quite encompass the extent of his role. They will certainly never record his final, ignoble end, handed over to the Bank of Valdos by one of his remaining agents for an 80 year old bounty.