Senate Declaration of War Against the Iron Horde

The **Senate Declaration of War Against the Iron Horde** was announced during an emergency session of the Magus Senate on the 14th of October of 624KC. The declaration had overwhelming support, with very few dissenting against the motion for war. The *casus belli* for war is mostly cited as a retaliation against the Iron Horde for the destruction of Nethergarde Keep during the Iron Horde Invasion.

## Preceding Events

Months before the declaration of war, the Magus Senate had been investigating the Dark Portal due to various magical changes and variations. Ongoing with the investigation was various events that hinted at the coming invasion, mostly concerning timeway abnormalities, but most of the Senators had shrugged off the vague evidence as nothing special.

While the questions continued to the very day before the invasion, investigations into the changes were yielded as inconclusive, and many in the Senate assumed that it was no longer worth investigating. Nevertheless, many people were quoted to have a "bad feeling" that something was coming.

## Fighting the Iron Horde and Discovering Nethergarde

On the 14th of October of 624KC, the Inner Council had gathered the senate to announce that had lost contact with Nethergarde, and were going to investigate. Porting to the border between the Blasted Lands and the Swamp of Sorrows, the group of senators proceeded to walk into the Blasted Lands. Scouts had noted large movements of enemy troops before hand.

Not long before reaching the initial road to Nethergarde, the party was spotted by the Iron Horde and was attacked without prejudice. Many of the group thought that the New Horde had broken the ceasefire between them and the Grand Alliance, though the amount of Mag'hari Orcs attacking made such a notion hard to believe. The Senate continued to make its trek to Nethergarde through the horde of orcs, with many sustaining injuries along the way.

As soon as the ruined keep came into sight, many expressed feelings of grief and disbelief. Many expressed understandable notions of disbelief against Orcs in general, many still not knowing it was the Iron Horde, but rather thinking it was the New Horde still. Going through the keep, the Senators went into the keep's main fort to recover various arcane artifacts. During this, Viserth Arenall, a Forsaken and known criminal, cornered the group in the basement of the keep to retrieve his staff that had been previously been stolen from him. Viserth had covered the fort in felfire runes that would explode, but the senators managed to escape beforehand.

Artifacts in hand, the Senate had little time to honor the dead. They made their way out of the keep and out of enemy lines, making their way back to Dalaran for the session that was to happen. Meriahm Lausten met with officials, discovering that the New Horde were their allies against the allies in the named Iron Horde.

## Emergency Session and Declaration of War

Following the events prior, an emergency session of the Magus Senate was called purely to discuss war. The tone of vengence was strong amongst the senators, with Chancellor Damon Halliwell calling the meeting for the sole reason of declaring war.

Many voiced for their overwhelming support for the declaration with even a majority supporting the complete and utter genocide of the Iron Horde. A few of the dissenting Senators voiced for a more pacifist stance against the Iron Horde, namely the few Night Elves that were present at the time.

The vote was called after about an hour of debate and opinions made public, with many of the senators that were still injured from the prior fight with the Iron Horde growing ever frustrated at the speed of the voting. The final numbers came in as: twenty-three aye, one nay, and, two abstaining. From then, the Senate officially declared war on the Iron Horde, and has mobilized its forces for a counterstrike.

## Effect

Following the declaration of war, heavy amounts of manpower and coin have been put to the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of War. With the focus on warfare once again at the forefront, many budgetary cuts have been made to the Ministry of Arcanum and the Bureau of Administration to accommodate the changes in spending.

The Chancellor also issued an executive orders stated that all magics, even those of the forbidden magics class, are allowed to be used in their full capacity against the Iron Horde. Old God magic does not apply under this executive order.