Coalition War

The Coalition War was the largest and most destructive conflict in the history of the Core. Lasting little more than a year between 2001 CE and 2002 CE, it involved all of the Core Empires with the Barony, the Celestine Empire, and Kesh in alliance against the Alfaxmos Imperium and the Kingdom of Dumat. The fighting left tens of millions of people killed, mauled, and homeless; the balance between the empires was shattered, and maps were redrawn.

## Background

### Alfaxmos Anxiety and the Coalition

In the days of the Old Empire, the Alfax people were favorite slaves of powerful Clerics and Legates due to their perceived warlike and disciplined nature. After the Partition Wars, instead of freedom, the Alfax lands were instead split up among three of the new Core Empires; the Kingdom of Dumat, the Celestine Empire, and Kesh, and their people were bought and sold aggressively by Barony slave traders.

In 1800 CE, the powerful Zechshelm family led a massive revolt that wrested their largest city, Huss, from Dumat control. Barely 50 years later, the Celestines lost the city of Ostburg to rebellion, and when the Celestine Empire attempted to regain what they had lost in 1900 CE, the Alfaxmos turned them back in an embarrassing defeat, and used the victory to proclaim a new empire dedicated to uniting the Alfax people and protecting them from foreign abuse.

For a century, the Alfaxmos Imperium aggressively built their military and openly threatened their neighbors. The Barony was alarmed by the threat from the Alfaxmos navy and demands of reparations for their part in the ancient slave trade of the Alfax peoples. The Celestine Empire had ample reason to worry about the fortified land border with the Alfaxmos, and seethed with national rage at their defeat during the Alfax Rebellions. Concern grew within the Kesh nobility about Alfaxmos claims on ethnic enclaves within the borders of other empires, and that the Kingdom of Dumat would ally itself with the Alfaxmos out of sheer pragmatism- or desperation.

Attempts by Primarch Zadar to mediate these disputes backfired, and resulted in the Czar of Kesh, Empress Zurie of the Celestine Empire, and Lord Tethar and Baron Howe of the Barony forming a defensive coalition after learning of Kaiser Zechshelm and King Viermo's intent to forge an alliance.

### Technology and Advanced Weaponry

At around the time of the Alfax Rebellions, progress among scientists, scholars, and mages reached a golden age. The Westmoreland Trade Company had invented reliable, low-cost steam engines and begun to use them to develop the Core-wide railway system while Kesh and Dumat put these machines to work in agriculture. Celestine and Alfaxmos engineers began the long, parallel duel of gunpowder, canon, and musket research, while wizards across the Core pioneered essentium production. With all these new discoveries in mind, the Alfaxmos government created their General Staff, an organization dedicated to the study of technology and its application to the philosophy of war.

In a few short decades, the population of the Core Empires burgeoned, Empires held fantastic weapons at their disposal, and it soon became difficult to ignore past grudges or avoid opportunities to avenge them.

## Prelude

### Anti-Alfaxmos Espionage

Many scholars agree that the Alfaxmos Imperium fetishizes their history of victimhood, and uses any slight against their people (perceived or otherwise) for propaganda purposes. From that perspective, an upcoming war was seen as justified and inevitable.

For months during the years 1999 CE and 2000 CE, the Black Hand had attacked merchant traffic across the Core disguised as Alfaxmos soldiers. Though it was not known at the time, these actions were for their own nefarious purposes, and the rest of the Core Empires easily blamed the Alfaxmos Imperium for the attacks. Because of this crisis, the Knights Vanguard were quickly formed by the Church, and discovered the Black Hand's involvement, however, some political damage had already been done, and few were certain of the terrorist organizations origins.

Shortly after the discovery of the Black Hand, the Alfaxmos Navy's flagship, the ANS Zechshelm, was sabotaged. The incident took place within the Alfaxmos Imperium, so little factual news made it to the rest of the world. However, rumors spread of both Celestine and Vanguard involvement, worsening tensions further, especially after the subsequent attack on the Ostburg Port Authority which destroyed the train station as well as a Westmoreland locomotive.

In the Alfaxmos' efforts to eradicate the Black Hand within their borders, many rumors and allegations surfaced regarding foreign meddling against the Celestine Empire and the Knights Vanguard, including infiltration of the royal family and a high-profile jailbreak involving Knight Demur. The Kaiser also publicly accused the Celestine Empire of violent encroachment on their territorial waters, and lambasted Kesh for causing an international incident by harboring dangerous criminals wanted by the Alfaxmos government.

Further scandalous turmoil developed within Alfax nobility when the Kaiser's oldest daughter, Veronika Zechshelm, married Knights Vanguard member Rusty Calico at a ceremony in Tanis. It is generally accepted by scholars that Kaiser Zechshelm was placed in a vulnerable position by these perceived acts of aggression, and at some point the pressure from the nobility proved decisive.

### Royal Scandal and Spectacle of Threats

Alfaxmos nobility is infamous among the Core Empires for its conservatism and authoritarianism. The many foreign threats and constant embarrassment at royal scandals became unacceptable, and the Kaiser was either forced to take action, or acted himself out of pride.

According to rumors, at a private ceremony at the Imperial Palace in Huss, Kaiser Zechshelm attempted to have Rusty Calico executed. Allegedly, in doing so, the Kaiser openly threatened the lives of all foreign dignitaries in attendance, which included representatives from the Barony, the Celestine Empire, and Kesh. The Alfaxmos nobility was satisfied with the show of strength, and overjoyed to finally have the chance to crush their hated enemies in battle.

## Warfare

### Capture and Occupation of Tanis

While the massive, lumbering armies of the other empires mobilized, the Alfaxmos Imperial Army moved quickly to capture Tanis. Their aim was to tie down General Brusilov, the most experienced Marshal in Kesh, and make use of Tanis' central location, giving them easy access to the rest of the Core.

However, Brusilov withdrew from Tanis before the Alfaxmos arrived, and began a brutal occupation of the city. The Alfaxmos Imperium and their ally the Kingdom of Dumat celebrated the spectacular early victory. The nobility of Kesh were enraged, and demanded Brusilov's removal, though the Czar refused. Celestine generals were also incensed, as their strategy involved attacking through a friendly Tanis.

### Dumat Invasion of Kesh

The armies of the Kingdom of Dumat eschewed traditional methods of deployment and instead ordered units of all sizes to move across the Kesh border the moment they were in position to do so. In theory, this allowed enormous numbers of troops to begin fighting quickly. In practice, the Dumat troops that crossed the border were unprepared, under-strength, under-supplied, and incapable of performing large-scale maneuvers.

While the Kesh military had always been considered poor in quality, their strength in numbers combined with their legendary War Trains allowed them to almost immediately halt the advance, shatter enemy forces, and hurl them retreating back across the border within a few short months. The Kingdom of Dumat's invasion of Kesh barely made it halfway to Gorovkits, and is now considered one of the biggest military disasters in the history of the Core Empires.

### Celestine Attacks in the Serieuse Forest

In the far west of the Celestine Empire, troops were being mobilized to march through the Serieuse Forest and lay siege to Anselm. However, the ever-efficient Alfaxmos were able to attack before Celestine mobilization was complete. For over a month the Celestines fought bitterly and the fighting laid waste to the settlements in the forest, forcing nearly a million people from their homes.

When Field Marshal Heck finally broke the Celestines, he discovered why they fought so desperately; they had been buying time for their compatriots to fortify the entire length of the Armelle river.

### Battle of the Ostburg Sea

It did not take long for the Barons to gather their legendary navies and form what was, at the time, considered to be the most powerful fleet to ever set sail. Barony planning considered that the Alfaxmos fleets were permanently split in two by the Edge of the World, and ripe for the plucking. Their plan was to smash the Alfaxmos Imperial Navy in the open sea, then land their elite troops and capture Ostburg to relieve pressure on the Celestines in the Serieuse Forest.

However, the Alfaxmos had built their navy with this exact goal in mind. The Alfaxmos and Barony navies met in the largest naval battle since the days of the Old Empire. According to battle records from both sides, Alfaxmos warships had sturdier armor and bigger guns, and Alfaxmos sailors simply outfought their Barony foes. With their defeat imminent, the Barony navies fought a running battle in order to disembark their transport ships near friendly territory. Because of Alfaxmos attacks, they were forced to land near the Celestine city of Droitefort.

The seemingly invincible Barony navy had been destroyed, the Alfaxmos had gained free reign of the seas around both the Barony and the Celestine Empire. Despite significant damage to their own fleet, the Alfaxmos would go on to threaten Celestine and Barony colonies in the Eastern Jungles, as well as Kesh in the far north.

### Kesh Invasion of Dumat

After the Kingdom of Dumat's disastrous invasion attempt, the armies of Kesh took time to regroup, and then began their own invasion of Dumat. Many of the Kesh family's rivals prepared hastily and attacked with reckless abandon in an effort to embarrass them, hoping their success would accentuate the perceived failure and cowardice of general Brusilov's withdrawal from Tanis months earlier.

However, the armies of Dumat were capable enough to defend static positions, and proved brave enough to fight pitched field battles in defense of their homes. Kesh troops advanced quickly at first, but stalled upon encountering the defenses near Djozerstan and Vladimir, where they remained bogged down for the remainder of the war.

While not technically a defeat, the performance of Kesh armies in the north was unimpressive; little progress was made at the cost of breathtaking losses on both sides, amounting to well over one million people killed, injured, or forced from their homes.

### Brusilov's Playground

Brusilov's abandonment of Tanis was, at the time, seen as an unforgivable act of cowardice and incompetence; rumor has it the Czar, Brusilov's own brother, was a hairs breadth away from relieving him of his command. However, it soon became apparent that Brusilov had his own plan all along.

After leaving Tanis, Brusilov ordered his men to abandon their heavy loads, equipment, and weapons. He then marched north into the heartland of the Kingdom of Dumat virtually unopposed and caused no end of trouble. He severed rail connections from Tanis and Hoenschwangau and threatened shipping along the Dumat river and Swan Lake, effectively cutting off the Kingdom of Dumat from their Alfaxmos allies, and making communication and resupply of the Kesh front nearly impossible. Furthermore, Brusilov's troops scoured the land, looting food and supplies and burning anything else of value. Large divisions of Dumat troops were peeled off from their main formations in an attempt to eject Brusilov, but their commanders were inexperienced and failed in their task.

The area became known as "*Brusilov's Playground*," pejoratively by Dumat and the Alfaxmos, humorously by the Coalition powers. In the end, Brusilov's actions caused a humanitarian crisis by forcing millions from their homes, tied down multiple Dumat army groups, and crippled the Kingdom of Dumat's ability to effectively operate so badly that, eventually, Kaiser Zechshelm was forced to dispatch an entire Field Army in an effort to dislodge him, further relieving pressure on the Celestine theater.

To the frustration of Kesh nobility, Brusilov's cunning proved effective, and he regained the favor of the Czar.

### Siege of Jobert

Following the capture of Tanis, Alfaxmos ground and naval forces under Field Marshal von Braun launched an all-out attack on the metropolis of Jobert. The walls and outer defenses of the city were quickly overpowered, but, to the surprise of Alfaxmos commanders, they became bogged down in street fighting. Celestine troops under the command of Marshal Aimee stubbornly fought street by street, house by house. The Alfaxmos navy, unable to maneuver their large battleships in Jobert's narrow bay and canals, were forced into frustrating, uneven battles with more nimble Celestine Ships of the Line, and could offer little assistance during the siege.

Unable to overcome Celestine troops without suffering unacceptable losses themselves, the Alfaxmos resorted to systematically destroying the city, block by block. The fighting was intense, and would drag on until the end of the war.

### Crossing of the Armelle River

Three days after the opening assault on Jobert, Alfaxmos forces under Field Marshal Heck launched a dawn assault along the entire Armelle River. The timing of the delay was purposeful; Celestine commanders had begun to redeploy some of their forces to Jobert, meaning these troops would not be immediately available for either battle. Under cover of rockets, Alfaxmos grenadiers earned a fearsome reputation destroying and storming Celestine fortifications, allowing subsequent troops to break into open country and threaten Celestine supply and communication lines. When word reached the Celestine troops that the Alfaxmos had broken through their defenses by late afternoon, panic spread through the line and the Celestines routed. By the end of the following evening, Alfaxmos forces were inside Falaisefort, attacking the surviving Barony troops outside Droitefort, and bombarding Sentinelle from land and sea.

By total number of troops involved and area covered, the Battle of the Armelle is the largest battle in the history of the world, and is regarded by many scholars as a masterpiece of command and logistics, cementing Field Marshal Heck in history as a legendary commander and national hero in the Alfaxmos Imperium.

### Battle of Ghenna

Called the Battle of the Temesgar Strait in Kesh, the original plan was to gather a significant portion of the Kesh navy, trap the Kingdom of Dumat's navy in port at Ghenna, then threaten the entire Dumat coastline. Problems arose when ambitious commanders met with success trapping the Dumat navy; they decided to do battle and destroy as many enemy ships as possible, however, the Dumat navy was not trapped in port at Ghenna near the narrow mouth of the Dumat River. Instead, the Kesh navy had "trapped" the Dumat fleet in the large, open Ghenna Bay.

Even though Kesh forces achieved a great deal of destruction, the Dumat fleet had stalled them long enough for the Alfaxmos Navy to send a relief force. The Kesh fleets fought desperately, but were no match for the massive Alfaxmos Dreadnoughts, and after hours of fighting, the Kesh navy retreated in disarray, but mostly intact.

The Battle of Ghenna is considered by most scholars to be inconclusive. The Kesh fleets were heavily damaged, but Dumat navy was more-or-less destroyed. The Alfaxmos naval forces sent to relieve the fleets at Ghenna ended up taking the place of the fleets in service to the Kingdom of Dumat, and were unable to effectively pursue the battered enemy ships or threaten the Kesh coast.

### Battle of Jobert

After nearly a year of war, and many months of ferocious urban fighting, the Kaiser himself ordered a final, decisive push to overcome Jobert once and for all. The Alfaxmos Navy began the action by launching a frontal assault on Jobert's naval base, securing victory but suffering heavy losses. At the same time, the Alfaxmos army began attacks from all directions, gaining ground but suffering heavy casualties. After hours of frenzied activity, the Alfaxmos Zeppelin fleet arrived, and began bombarding Celestine positions from the air. Celestine forces were pushed back to their citadel at the heart of Jobert, a fortified cathedral from the days of the Old Empire.

The Alfaxmos launched combined attack from air, land, and sea. However, Marshal Aimee had spent the siege secretly building a massive electrical coil within the structure of the cathedral, and when the Alfaxmos troops were upon her, she activated the super weapon, which unleashed a torrent of lightning into the Zeppelins, causing them to crash into their own formations below in mile-high fireballs.

In a testament to Alfax discipline, the armies did not break, and continued their assault on the citadel. For hours, the Celestines fought through burning wrecks and heaps of bodies, but were pushed back to the very steps of the crumbling cathedral. Before the Alfaxmos could break through the last line of defense and storm the building, Kesh war horns were heard across the battlefield. In a shocking feat of logistics and stealth, General Brusilov had abandoned the Kesh theatre of war and moved his entire force to Jobert in a last-ditch effort to lift the siege.

The Alfaxmos forces were all but exhausted from months of siege, badly battered from days of desperate street fighting, and Field Marshal von Braun had been killed when his Zeppelin crashed. Now facing charges from Kesh's mounted Druzina and fire from their Unicorn artillery, the Alfaxmos abandoned their image of invincibility and hastily retreated.

During the siege and subsequent battle, over half the city was systematically razed to the ground. Many millions of people from the city and surrounding countryside were killed, wounded, or driven from their homes. It is widely regarded by the public as hosting the nastiest, most brutal fighting of the Coalition War.

The Battle of Jobert is shrouded in legend and mystery. Conspiracy theorists question the origin of the massive electrical coil, along with the convenient arrival of General Brusilov. Many rumors claim deep involvement of the Knights Vanguard and/or the Church, as there are reports after the battle of Knights coming to the aid of Alfax prisoners.

## Aftermath

### Formal End to the War

With the Alfaxmos on the defensive against the Celestines and the armies of Kesh being threatened by Field Marshal Steiner, Primarch Zadar managed to convince the leaders of the Core Empire to meet in Tanis, and negotiate a peace agreement.

The Alfaxmos Imperium withdrew to their pre-war borders in exchange for massive reparations from the Barony, some "secret concessions" from the Celestine Empire, and a promise from Kesh that Tanis would remain independent and neutral. Additionally, Barony prisoners and some captured vessels were released. The Kingdom of Dumat paid heavy reparations and relinquished the governorship of Vladimir and the surrounding areas to Kesh. Furthermore, all the Core Empires agreed that none of their troops would enter the established territory of Dumat for several years. Finally, Kesh, the Barony, and the Celestine Empire agreed not to enter into further alliances with each other.

Upon signing the Tanis Accords, both sides declared victory in the Coalition War. The people of the Alfaxmos Imperium saw the outcome as a substantial victory, although due to secrecy and propaganda, the true cost would never really be known to them. The staggering losses could not be hidden from the people of Kesh, and most celebrations were somber (at least from a Kesh perspective.) Propaganda from the Celestine Empire painted the war as an effort to expel the invading Alfaxmos, and was modestly successful. A great West/East schism split the Barony, with Lord Tethar and Baron Howe each blaming the other for their embarrassing defeat, and the public quickly taking sides. The people of Dumat were utterly crushed, and a national depression immediately took hold.

### War Crimes

The Alfaxmos Imperium was renowned for their expertise in science and engineering, but toward the end of the Coalition War, the soldiers of the Core, especially Celestines, began to suffer through what many scholars and experts consider extreme, cruel, and even evil tactics and weapons at the hands of the Alfaxmos. In his attempts to corral General Brusilov, Field Marshal Steiner allegedly employed several kinds of poisonous gasses (supposedly including chlorine and phosphorus) on numerous occasions, and not always on enemy combatants.

During the occupation of Tanis, Field Marshal von Braun suppressed all dissidence with violence. Newspaper journalists from all over the world have written accounts of summary executions, mass graves, and public hangings. An infamous example from the Tethar Tribune was when Alfaxmos troops suffered sniper fire from a tenement house window. The Alfaxmos troops marched the residents into the courtyard, and then began executing people one at a time until the identity of the shooter was revealed. While fighting for Jobert, Field Marshal von Braun also expelled all Celestine civilians that fell under his area of control, creating an enormous humanitarian crisis. Allegedly, he also made sparing use of poison gas to dislodge particularly troublesome Celestine positions.

Even though Field Marshal Heck cultivated his image as a gentleman warrior, some of the worst allegations of brutality came from his area of command. While the general public regarded the Siege of Jobert as being the most brutal battle of the war, scholars tended to favor the Tanager and Kestrel Salient for that dubious honor. Alfaxmos troops fighting the back-and-forth battle in the tight, winding streets of Tanager and Kestrel were known to simply demolish buildings in the way of their advance. If the building couldn't be demolished, then it would be burned. The Tethar Tribune's harrowing account tells of massive, mile-wide fires hot enough to melt a man through his armor and to ooze and coagulate into nearby cellars. After these fires, oftentimes buildings would topple into each other, blocking streets, forcing soldiers to fight room-to-room or, horrifyingly, cellar-to-cellar.

While regarded in Kesh as a great victory, General Brusilov's actions in Dumat were considered by many scholars, especially those in Dumat, to be unnecessarily ruthless. Nearly a third of the Kingdom of Dumat's farmland was burned by Brusilov, which caused a massive food shortage further exacerbated by the purposeful destruction of roads and railways. Tens of millions of people were killed, injured, or forced from their homes- numbers that dwarf those of Steiner or von Braun.

## Legacy

### Primarchy of Tanis

Out of the desire for a buffer to shield them from Kesh, the Alfaxmos Imperium demanded the independence of the Tanis governorship and its surrounding areas in the Tanis Accords. For the first time since the fall of the Old Empire, a new nation had been formed. Out of respectful tradition, the Church had always been the steward of the city of Tanis, and after the Accords were signed, Primarch Zadar became the de-facto head of state.

Under Zadar's leadership, the Primarchy of Tanis grew into a respectable regional power. After the Coalition War, the Alfaxmos Imperium and Celestine Empire enacted respective embargoes of each others goods, and Tanis became the best way to circumvent them. Money flowed through the Primarchy, and due to the charitable nature of the Church, the common people of Tanis got to enjoy this newfound wealth.

However, the threat of Alfaxmos power always loomed. Alfax officials regarded the Primarchy of Tanis as a "fake" country, or least a barely-veiled vassal state. The people of Tanis never forgot their treatment at the hands of the Imperial Army, and protests erupted during any Alfaxmos state visits.

### Dumat Civil War

During the negotiation and signing of the Tanis Accords, King Viermo was nowhere to be seen. Instead, his chosen heir, Lady Elizabeth, represented him. Afterwards it was revealed that he had fallen ill and died, allegedly upon hearing the concessions Lady Elizabeth had agreed to. Immediately upon his death, the vast majority of the Kingdom of Dumat devolved into chaos; the nobility had been preparing for the king's death for years, and all at once the ambitious lords and ladies began their fight for the throne, alongside interference from the Alfaxmos Imperium and Kesh.

It became clear that Lady Elizabeth intended to win the civil war. She crowned herself Queen Elizabeth, and took advantage of her carefully negotiated sections in the Tanis Accords to concentrate her forces and influence.

### Free State of the Many

When the Kingdom of Dumat collapsed after the Coalition War, something unexpected happened. Despite the best efforts of the Knights Vanguard, the Black Hand managed to seize control of a large portion of the western half of Dumat. They formed the Free State of the Many, and as good as their word, the wealthy and nobility were hunted down, assets and riches were seized by Worker's Councils, and food and housing were distributed to the common people.

However, under the leadership of Jerec the Poor, the Free State raised a colossal army of volunteers and began a secular crusade against the local Instigators, spreading into the Alfaxmos Imperium and further into the former Kingdom of Dumat. At the request of Queen Elizabeth, the Knights Vanguard raised an army of their own and campaigned successfully against the Black Hand, culminating in the messy Battle of Abgrund Cauldron.

Very little news escaped the Free State, but rumors claimed that even though Jerec the Poor seized control of the Worker's Councils, the people were well fed and considered themselves better off than under the Core Empires.

### Barony Civil War

All Barons involved in the Coalition War agreed upon the amount of reparations to be paid to the Alfaxmos Imperium, but the method of payment soon became a massive dispute. The majority of Barons favored a payment system based on population, while the Barons of the east, including Baron Howe, demanded that the vast numbers of indentured servants held under contract by Redfield Incorporated be exempt from the population count. Lord Tethar and his allies saw this as a cowardly attempt to saddle the Western Barony with a disproportionate amount of the reparations, while simultaneously undermining the Eastern Barony's claims of legitimacy regarding the legality of indentured servitude.

Mere months after the end of the Coalition War, Barons began to default on their debt payments to the Alfaxmos Imperium, and started seizing each others assets. Some Barons released indentured servants, which led to violent incursions by Redfield mercenaries attempting to retrieve them, which inevitably led to full scale war between Lord Tethar and his allies in the Western Barony, and Baron Howe and his allies in the Eastern Barony.

Soon the Barony Civil War ground into a stalemate; the Barons had lost most of their ammunition and heavy weapons in the Coalition War, and supply shortages caused advances on both sides to stall. However, the Alfaxmos Imperium began supporting the Western Barony , and the Celestine Empire began supporting the Eastern Barony, stoking further violence and turning the civil war into proxy war.