Highwind Reach

The Highwind Reach is one of the autonomous allied realms (AARs) of Remnant located in North Western Mistral. The Reach spans the Drudic marshes at its southernmost to the Highwind peaks in the North, after which the realm is named. Known for its cold, damp weather, the Reach is sparsely populated at only around 7,500,000 inhabitants, most of which are Drudes or Drudic descendants. Though large, at roughly 3,523,106 km2 , The peaks themselves make up most of this area, concentrating the vast majority of the small population in the marshes and hills below the mountains.

The Reach is governed by an aristocracy of noble Mistralian families who have owned the lands that comprise it since the Pax Vytalia, when Libria's hasty retreat back to their home continent left the Reach under martial law of the exhausted and disorganized Mistralian Royal Army. In the chaos following the war, the area was quickly claimed and divided among Mistral's richest families, foremost among them the Fleur clan following general Lilas Fleur's bloody liberation of the region from Libria's forces and the hordes of Grimm that were drawn there during the Great War.

## Geography

The southern most point of the Reach is the Felspark mountains, which act as a natural border between the Reach and the Emerald Veil. North of the mountains is lush marshland, swamps, and forests which comprise Drudia, territory which the few remaining Drudic people still cling to despite multiple offers of Lien and other goods and services from the aristocracy.

Beyond the damp, rainy territory of Drudia there exists vast rolling hills and valleys, nearly all of which has been developed into farmland and vineyards, from which most of the world famous Mistralian wine is cultivated. These lands are owned by the aristocracy, who employ thousands of Drudes and Drudic descendants as farmers to work the land, and soldiers part of organized militias deployed to defend the various plantations and towns from Grimm attacks. The middle of the Reach is blessed with relatively moderate weather, ranging from bright, sunny, and warm to windy with light snow in the winter months.

In the north of the Reach are the Highwind Peaks, the colossal, snow-capped mountains responsible for the region's name. The range of mountains stretches on for many kilometers, and is the natural habitat of the Faustrechsteppar (*Horned rock stepper* in Northern Drudic), a large mountain goat-like creature with wool white as snow and four twisting horns unique to the mountains. The peaks serve as a natural deterrent from Grimm attacks from the north, and in the shadow of these mountains is the capital city of the Reach, Grandenburg, within the walls of which the aristocracy holds court. Walled and defended by the peaks themselves, Grandenburg is a marvel of Drudic urban architecture.

The majority of the Reach is dotted with Drudic architecture, lush vineyards, and several lavish estates. The region also bears the scars of warfare from nearly a decade of slaughter following Libria's invasion during the Great War, and the ruins of military outposts, the rusted husks of landships, and large craters left from artillery fire are all commonplace throughout the region.

## History

Before the Great War the Highwind Reach had been Drudic territory for countless generations. Though Grimm attacks were still not uncommon, the Drudic tribes had united under one banner and brought peace to their lands after decades of clan warfare. The Drudes were farmers and shepherds by trade, and most lived simple lives, only leaving the Reach to trade with the Chaakhari south of the Felspark mountains.

Eight years into the Great War, the Mistralian Royal Army was spread thin in battlegrounds all across Remnant. It was at this moment that the increasingly desperate Libria Consortium had backed themselves into a corner after turning on both of their allies. Now up against the four Great Powers of Remnant, economically broken, and without any hope of victory, they dispatched their airfleets, carrying hundreds of thousands of conscripted soldiers and heavy ordnance overnight to deliver a crippling blow to Mistral's strained war economy, with the goal of forcing a stalemate. Because of Libria's geographical location relative to Mistral, The Highwind Reach weathered the brunt of the assault which had been targeted for The Emerald Veil. The next two years saw Libria's forces led by General Haythen Krieg carve a path of blood and conquest through the Drudic territories. Though the hit-and-run cavalry strikes of the Drudic armies were little match for the organized combined arms of the Consortium forces, the Drudes resisted with dire tenacity.

But all efforts proved futile; In a single year Libria had swept aside all resistance, executed the Drudic leadership in their capital city of Grandenburg and declared martial law over the region. Though the Drudes resorted to scorched-earth tactics such as poisoning their own crops and flooding their own roads to slow Libria's forces down, only the frequent battles with the scattered Mistralian Royal Guard, dispatched from half the Empire away, delayed the Librian forces from crossing the Felspark mountains and pushing into the Emerald Veil. Though the Guard was well-trained, they were inexperienced with modern military combat, and lost thousands to Grimm attacks during their skirmishes with Libria.

The Mistralian government was buckling under the weight of an overstretched military, uncountable losses resulting from their failed invasion of Vale, and the dearth of food resulting from the loss of the Reach, which supplied most of Mistral's crop yield year round. Among the dead at Vale was the general of the 405th Mistralian Legion, Matthias Prothro, and with his death command of the 405th fell to Lilas Fleur, a young officer and second-in-command to the late Prothro.

Lilas realized the situation his country was in, and reorganized his shattered forces back in Mistral. He knew that Mistral would not survive if it did not focus on the threats at its door, but knew that the few thousand men that he had under his command were no match for Libria's warmachine, even economically plagued as it was. Bringing along only his own second in command, Theyn Arc, and a battalion of 500 soldiers, he journeyed deep into heart of the Emerald Veil.

The Highwind Reach was just a staging point for Libria's real objective: the Dust-rich jungles of the Veil, and if they were able to take the Dust for themselves it would only be a matter of time until Mistral would be forced to surrender, and with Libria dictating terms. Fleur hoped to request the help of the Karaburan, the formidable army of the Emerald Veil that had already successfully held fast against attacks from both Vale and Vacuo earlier in the war, and he seeked out an audience with the Zeng'jafah to ask for their aid in liberating the Reach from the hands of the enemy. Libria was stretched to their capacity around the globe, and Fleur argued that now was the opportune moment to launch a blitzkrieg to take back the Reach; otherwise, Libria would eventually regroup, cross the Felspark mountains and push into the Emerald Veil with a mass-conscripted, Prozium-controlled army that outnumbered entirety of the forces Mistral had left.

His plan was a daring one; a two-pronged approach where the Veil's forces would push through the mountains into the Reach from the South while Fleur led the Mistralian 405th, 407th, and 412th infantry through the impassable Highwind Peaks themselves. While the Karaburan would contest the Consortium's forces in the south, Fleur would retake and hold the walled city of Grandenburg in the north and cut off the enemies' supply lines, eventually starving the enemy that had all of Mistral vastly outnumbered and outgunned into surrender themselves. Fleur's plan would be known in history as Operation Anvil.

### Operation Anvil

Knowing that they could not hope to achieve victory against an enemy of such size alone, the Zeng'jafah agreed to the plan on one condition: if they were to divert the Karaburan to the Reach, thus taking defenses away from the Emerald Veil, than all Dust mining operations that were not sanctioned by the Chaakhari government were to be ceased immediately and for the future, as the Mistralian government had been funding various operations without the permission or consent of the Zeng'jafah. The negotiations took place over several days, after which Fleur acquiesced fully as a general of the Mistralian Royal Army, and therefore a representative of the royal government, to the requests of the Zeng'jafah in exchange for their armies.

Operation Anvil still required one more piece to fall into place before it was ready for execution, and that was the participation of the Mistralian Royal Navy. A Naval blockade was required along the coast of the Reach to successfully starve Libria's forces of supplies and reinforcements, but the entire Navy was scheduled to sail halfway across Remnant, braving not only enemy fleets, but also aquatic Grimm, for a foolhardy invasion of Vacuo in a week's time.

Though Fleur presented his plan to the royal army's leadership via radio transmission en route to the Highwind Peaks, the other generals saw diverting the Navy to their own turf as a waste of resources, lives, but most of all, a chance to settle a long standing score with Vacuo that had been simmering for decades. Believing that the future of his kingdom hung in the balance, Fleur turned to desperate measures: In his inner circle of true allies was a contact he had acquired during the ill-fated siege of Vale; a Black Circle operative by the name of Dulcinea Bloom.

Fleur ordered Dulcinea to forge documents redirecting the the Mistralian fleets to the Reach, completely defying the will of his own kingdom as well as contracting a criminal in the process. Though the details are lost to time and secrecy, Dulcinea's mission was a success, and the Mistralian fleets were redirected to the Reach where they quickly became engaged with Libria's ships and airfleets. By the time the Mistralian government realized the location of their fleets several weeks later, too much damage had been done to both sides to justify a retreat, or an invasion of Vacuo.

The attack of Mistral's fleets was buffered by the onslaught of the Karaburan. Emerging from paths in the Felspark mountains, the armies of the Veil surged northward, carving a path of destruction through the vanguard of Libria's forces and liberating Drudic territory at a frighteningly quick pace. The loss of ground prompted a mass movement of Libria's forces southward, and the plains of central Mistral and the marshes of modern Drudia ran red with the blood of tens of thousands as both armies met in a bloody series of battles fought over the next few weeks.

Meanwhile Fleur, accompanied by Theyn Arc and Dulcinea Bloom, led his armies through the Highwind Peaks; about 30,000 soldiers with artillery support. The expedition incurred many casualties from the cold and fatigue, and were ambushed by Grimm frequently, but after two weeks Lilas sent his forces into Grandenburg, charging the rear gates of the city on the back of a Faustrechsteppar he had befriended during his journey through the mountains.

The siege of Grandenburg was a Phyrric victory; despite overwhelming losses including the entirety of the 407th and the 412th, Lilas' forces liberated the city from the hands of the Consoritum. Over 50% of the city's buildings were razed or destroyed during the tense urban fighting, and Lilas himself lost his right leg to the blade of the enemy general Haythen Krieg. If not for the intervention of Theyn Arc, Fleur himself would not have lived to see the aftermath of the siege.

Though Grandenburg had been taken, the fact that it was not retaken by Libria is due only to the military superiority of the Karaburan, who continued to wreak havoc in the south and keep the majority of their armies's armies off balance, and suffering heavy losses. Inspired by the victories of the Karaburan, the Drudic resistance movement had reorganized and begun to strike at the remains of Libria's armies decimated by the Karaburan, their hit-and-run cavalry tactics much more effective against an enemy that couldn't even feed their troops, much less fuel their landships.

Despite this, the liberation of the Reach continued for months, both sides suffering uncountable death tolls as the fighting stagnated into tense guerilla warfare between the desperate, vengeful forces of Mistral and the starving, demoralized armies of Libria, who had also lost many of their elite Grammaton Clerics as well as their nearly-essential supplies of Prozium. Legions of Grimm harassed both sides and feasted on the suffering that burned across the entire region like an inferno. The Pax Vytalia brought an end to the carnage as the Reach was surrendered back to the Mistralian government, but the scars of war were slow to heal. In the aftermath of the War, the Reach was almost immediately divided into sections as various wealthy families claimed as much land as they could. So few of the Drudic people remained that their vocal opposition to the land-grabbing was like a whisper in a storm, and they gathered in the marshes and swamps of the southern Reach that comprises modern Drudia while the aristocracy sliced up the war-ravaged landscape for themselves.

## The Modern Reach

Fleur stayed true to his word, adamantly ensuring that all mining operations in the Emerald Veil were to be ceased immediately and without question during the Vytal Summit. Though legislation was implemented into the Pax Vytalia ensuring his demands, over 2,000 mining operations now exist within the Veil, circumventing the outdated wording of the treaty and operating with, or sometimes without, the consent of the Zeng'jafah.

Fleur, his treason either never discovered or acknowledged, was granted a plot of land just a few kilometers outside of Grandenburg's walls as a reward for his bravery and role in the ultimate fate of Mistral, where he commissioned the construction of the Fleur estate and wed Dulcinea Bloom, later having three children: Abricot, Moineau, and Corneille.

The remaining Drudic population, numbering at only a few million, subsist as either laborers, bodyguards, farmers, and servants of the aristocracy, or as shepherds and herdsmen as their ancestors were, eking out an existence within the marshes of the southern Reach. Though Drudes can be found all over modern Remnant, almost all are mercenaries or Huntsmen, selling their courage when they have little else.