Frozen Few

The **Frozen Few** originated as a club of explorers founded by the legendary adventurer Dozen fel Ammona. It was initially created for the express purpose of forming a team with which to reach the South Pole, which Dozen did so in 1677; however, it quickly expanded in scope once the expedition returned, serving as a platform for explorers, geographers and naturalists to share their knowledge with each other, and to connect skilled individuals with wealthy benefactors who could fund their expeditions.

The club came to lose its original purpose after Dozen's death, turning into a social club for Urilian elites. The club became infamous and despised for its role in deceiving and undermining the Imperial State in the First World War, and came to be regarded as the lowest of traitors, selling out the Empire for their own gain. The fury at the Frozen Few soon expanded to the Urilian race as a whole, leading directly to the Urilian Deportation undertaken by Emperor Adrion.

Anti-Urilian sentiment remains strong in Inecuria to this day, with many regarding them as arrogant, deceitful and disloyal, despite evidence showing that most common Urilians outside of the Frozen Few were often disproportionately over-represented in Imperial civil projects and military operations throughout history.

## Transition to Social Club

The club had always been dominated by Urilians, but the presence of other races steadily dwindled until the club was formally made exclusive to the Urilian race in 1746, twenty years after Dozen's death. From there, the club slowly transitioned over time from its original scientific purpose to a social gathering for Urilian elites; by the turn of the 19th century, it had essentially completely transformed into a social gentleman's club reserved for Urilians of wealth and status. Until 1932, the Frozen Few convened at their clubhouse in the Kitian countryside in Onshitama, but they relocated to Los Angeles in the USA once the anti-Urilian persecutions of Emperor Adrion began.

The Frozen Few club soon became a place where Urilian elites would discuss their political and financial interests; many business deals were made at the club, and its members often came to agreements to support particular magistrates to benefit their business ventures or further their ideological aims. The club was not entirely self-serving, as it also connected wealthy Urilians together for philantrophic projects and infrastructure developments (particularly the bourgeoning railways), and on many occasions it worked with the state for these ends.

The wealthy, educated and worldly members of the Frozen Few were generally highly influenced by liberal ideologies from overseas, and the club as a whole came to collectively believe in and push for a liberal agenda. Keenly aware of how destructive the French Revolution had been, the club resolved to use their power to transition Inecuria into a liberal society over time, entrenching themselves and their values into the state and culture over decades rather than in a sudden burst of violence. To some extent, the club can be considered remarkable for how often and how effectively it came to a consensus on such matters.

Its only real time of division was in the early years of the Civil War, when a large minority of the club expressed support for the liberal-minded Republicans, and it came close to disbanding completely. Despite almost all of the Frozen Few aligning with the principles of the Republicans, the majority regarded them as selfish warmongerers, and many were worried by the socialistic and anti-theistic tendencies of the more extreme wings of the Republicans; as a result, the majority remained loyal to the Emperor. Those who had originally supported the Republicans had all either returned to loyalty or had been killed by 1850, as none were willing to support what was clearly a demonic force enslaved to false gods.

## First World War

The Frozen Few was generally regarded as an innocuous, if often rather selfish, community of Urilians until the First World War. The Imperial State under Emperor Faltas V came to rely on the Frozen Few for financial and logistical assistance, and their connections overseas were invaluable for gathering intelligence. However, the state - and specifically the Emperor himself - were deceived by what has been described as the greatest and most successful conspiracy of all time.

Once the true, world-shattering scale of the war had become apparent by 1915, many within the Frozen Few began to doubt the possibility of victory, and began to see it as an opportunity for finally realising their goals of turning Inecuria into a liberal society guided by the wisdom of the Frozen Few. The club became increasingly radical during this time, increasingly espousing the belief in the supremacy of themselves and of the Urilian race, making frequent reference to their religious belief that they were the first mortal creatures to be created.

Plans were formulated over 1915, and by the turn of 1916 the Frozen Few had come to a consensus on what to do; those who did not agree quickly left in disgust and most joined the military in support of the Empire, but they were sworn to absolute secrecy and did not reveal the machinations of the club. The Frozen Few opened communications with the Allies, particularly the British, and discussed their secret scheme to undermine and deceive the Emperor to allow for total Allied victory and the restructuring of Inecuria under the Urilians. Some elements of the plan were already underway at this point, but the scheme - which came to be known as Morale Shock, or Operation Terror - did not begin in full force until 1917.

### Morale Shock

The Frozen Few and their agents began to misdirect the state and the military, sharing false intelligence and obscuring the true locations and intentions of Allied forces. Imperial logistics began to falter; the Imperial Army found itself unable to make significant offensives, and the Imperial Navy began to sorely lack fuel and had to substantially reduce the scale of its operations. However, the crux of the plan was a naval invasion of Rulkhar and the Nesarian Colonies, which would happen simultaneously to mass defections to the Allies; this plan came to heavily rely on naval support from the USA. The members of the club, many of whom were acquainted with Emperor Faltas V, knew well the meek, indecisive and easily worried personality of the Emperor; as such, their strategy relied upon exploiting the Emperor's personality to completely break his will. The Frozen Few were able to successfully hide the invasion until the day before it landed, at which point it was far too late to reposition military forces and effectively mobilise the people.

The actual military effectiveness of the invasion, which occurred in 1919, was doubtful. Though it successfully made many beachheads across the relatively undefended eastern coast of Inecuria and quickly swept away what little resistance existed, the Allies knew full well that they would never be able to reinforce their position faster than the Inecurians could. The battle in Inecuria itself was fundamentally unwinnable, but its purpose was not to militarily overwhelm the continent - its purpose was to divert forces away from the more crucial fronts in Southeast Asia and to terrify the Emperor.

The Allies themselves were doubtful of the likelihood of the Emperor actually being so shocked by the invasion that he would surrender, and instead focussed on its value as a diversion; they saw it as an effective and relatively low-risk method of drawing away forces from Southeast Asia, as intelligence from the Frozen Few had shown that Inecuria itself was only lightly defended - especially from the east, as an invasion from the Pacific had been thought impossible - and the Allied force could simply withdraw as soon as Imperial reinforcements arrived.

The Allies were, subsequently, pleasantly surprised that Emperor Faltas acted exactly as the Frozen Few had predicted. Unable to know what his enemies were capable of and unable to trust the loyalties of his government and military, the Emperor had been driven to total despair and informed the Allies of his immediate surrender. The British wanted to receive the Emperor with dignity, but the Frozen Few insisted that the Emperor needed to remain in despair for the peace they wanted to be agreed to, and they knew that Faltas was too meek to protest poor treatment unbecoming of a head of state. Faltas was, therefore, imprisoned and constantly kept under watch by soldiers, who were also present when Faltas was presented with the Treaty of Haguun, which had been drafted by the Frozen Few a year in advance. The Emperor, at this point a wreck of his former self, agreed to the treaty's extremely punitive terms without complaint.

## The Great Mistake

The Treaty of Haguun dramatically restructured the Nesarian Empire, breaking it apart into its constituent nations and establishing liberal democratic republics in all former Imperial territories, only allowing the Emperor to continue ruling Nesaria itself as a mostly-powerless ceremonial head of state. The Frozen Few, and Urilians in general, were placed into key positions of influence across the new republics to ensure the stability of their vision.

The Allies had serious doubts concerning the efficacy of the peace. The British, French and Americans in particular considered the peace bad for business; though they believed it necessary to hamstring the Empire, they wanted Inecuria to remain as a trading partner, and they - correctly, in the event - predicted that completely dismantling the Empire would rapidly destroy its economy. However, they were bound to agree to the Treaty of Haguun, as the Frozen Few had demanded the enforcement of their terms in return for their co-operation in defeating the Empire.

The Frozen Few themselves enjoyed their victory for the next several years, but quickly began to see the flaws in their plan; they were far from blind to the worsening economic situation, and were keenly aware of the rapidly mounting hatred towards their kind from the Inecurian people. They began to make concessions, largely undoing the secularisation of the new republics - especially Kalzuranur and Chalparna - and many members came to regard the whole scheme as a terrible mistake. Disgusted with their own actions, and afraid of the increasing possibility of violent retribution, approximately a third of the members of the Frozen Few had migrated to the USA by the time of Emperor Adrion's March on Capera in 1930. Upon hearing of Adrion's plan to reform the Empire and to execute the traitors he believed had caused the Empire's defeat, the Frozen Few flocked to America with increased urgency, now fearing for their lives.

It was at this time that the Urilian people as a whole began to refer to the scheme of the Frozen Few as the Great Mistake - also known as the Great Betrayal. The Frozen Few were surprised and shocked to find that they had no support at all from the common Urilian people, who detested them just as intensely as the other races, if not more so. While many Urilians did not fundamentally disagree with the club's principles, they condemned the club's behaviour as treason, and blamed them for causing the entire continent to turn on their race. The Frozen Few partially redeemed themselves in the eyes of their kin for transporting many Urilians to safety in California once the Urilian Deportation began, but their help was only accepted begrudgingly, and most modern Urilians both in Inecuria and a broad continue to revile the Frozen Few as traitors.