The Dengardian Empire

The Dengardian Empire, colloquially called Dengard, is an absolute monarchy composed of five major provinces and various federal possessions. The nation resides in the heart of the Alancrian continent, the four directional provinces surrounding the central, original territory that contains the nation's capital city, Mendai. At 18 million square miles, with over 150 million people, the empire is the continent's largest and most populous nation. It stands as the world's most ethnically diverse multicultural nations due to its history of rapid expansion, large scale immigration, early colonization policies, and aggressive military campaigns. Thanks to its size, Dengard lays claim to a wide variety of geographical environments, and is home to a wide array of wildlife.

Humans have lived in the original lands that would become Dengard for thousands of years, ultimately forming feudal states that coexisted for hundreds more, until finally uniting into a single sovereign nation under the auspices of the royal family Ennius. The date of Dengard's formation would become the de facto calendar for the entire continent of Alancria. A central monarchy was formed, and the capital city of Mendai was founded to house the new Dengardian throne, which would be controlled by the Ennian dynasty for more than 1200 years.

Compelled by a fierce desire to conquer the continent, Dengard underwent aggressive expansion. This process involved the subjugation of other human and non-human city states, the displacement of various druidic communities, and the acceptance of petitions from various independent city states and territories. Treaties with

   neighboring nations resulted in several large territorial gains, most notably the purchase of the elvish owned city of Ordin and the surrounding land, as well as the settlement of the Eastern frontier that bordered the sovereign territories of the Nan'xin League. The Ordinian Rebellions, The War for the Basin, and the Mad Man's War cemented Dengardian dominance on the continent, establishing its character as the only true Empire in Alancria.

The Dengardian Empire has the continent's largest economy, benefiting from vast natural resources, a massive labor force, and lucrative trade relations with virtually every other sovereign entity on the continent. The best prepared nation for the dawning Industrial Revolution, Dengard is one of the continent's most prolific manufacturers, second only to the goblin nation of Karsahgane. Dengardian international patronage accounts for a considerable chunk of continental business. The empire stands as the world's foremost economic and military power, the dominant political and cultural force, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovation.

## History

### Early Human Societies and the First Hextorian Crusade

Records indicate that human communities have existed within central Alancria for thousands of years before the first human kingdom of note, Heironeum, the patron city of the god of Justice, Heironeous. The city became a gathering place for the faithful, massive pilgrimages of human populations making their way to Heironeum in an effort to find refuge from the brutal wilderness in the supposed home of Heironeous himself. Here began the Heironean Church, which would ultimately become the most powerful religious institution on the continent, protected and funded by the first great human dynasty: the Perfidae family. The Perfidae dynasty would last for several hundred years, ruling Heironeum and the thousands who congregated there.

Heironeum was the first of many city states that would rise to power in central Alancria. Rival city states that worshiped the god of War, Hextor, rose up in Eastern Central Alancria, engaging in several ultimately unsuccessful wars against the Perfidae dynasty, each one resulting in little more than a mutually costly stalemate. As Heironeum grew, the Perfidae family's influence expanded, extending its serfdom further east and south, encroaching on Hextorian city states and temples. What followed was the Sanguine Century, a 100 year period of crusades that pit invading Hextorians against the Heironeans. The Hextorians were ultimately defeated, but the city of Heironeum was destroyed and the entirety of the Perfidae family was killed during a three year siege.

In the aftermath of the Sanguine Century, the Hextorians, crippled by their loss against the Heironean Church, were chased deep into the East by the vengeful followers of Heironeous. The exodus of Hextorians would be the largest single migration of people for millennia, ultimately giving birth to large Hextorian societies in the Wei Mountains far to the east.

### Heironean Theocracy

With the Perfidae family erased, a brief but turbulent power vacuum threw the disparate collection of city states into chaos. Heironeum's lands were pillaged and picked apart by rival states, leaving little more than the shell of the once great city to lord over the scraps of arable land. In time, however, the Church of Heironeous regained much of its former power, assembling the faithful in a holy quest to rebuild Heironeous' patron city and found a stable, thriving society beneath the auspices of the Paragon General, the head of the Church. So began two hundred years of a theocracy, as the Church gathered neighboring weaker city states in a holy confederacy run from Heironeum, the base of Heironean worship.

The success of the Heironean Theocracy was in great part due to its military order of knights and paladins, the Brotherhood of Glory Everlasting, the first of its kind in size, influence, and rigid hierarchy. Having pledge total allegiance and obedience to the Paragon General, the Brotherhood engaged in countless Church sanctioned campaigns that either accepted other smaller communities into the theocracy, or subjugating the unwilling into submission. The faith of Heironeous became the one and only faith of Central Alancria, a stringency enforced by the Church through its devoted Brotherhood.

Yet as time advanced, and the Church developed, the moderate voices within the clergy grew louder, decrying the intensifying tyranny and zealotry of the Brotherhood and the Paragon Generals. As the Church's hierarchs argued, the Brotherhood of Glory Everlasting grew more and more restless, until, under the orders of what would become the last General Paragon of the Heironean Theocracy, Jerziah Thadmus, they stormed the city of Heironeum and slaughtered the dissenting clergy and their guards, sparking a theocracy-wide civil war within the Church. Archbishop Chamillo Essellot, one of the only surviving leaders of the Heironean moderates, fled the city, establishing a new and self-proclaimed "legitimate" center of Heironean worship in the neighboring city of Mesoford.

### Essellot's War and the Founding of the Office of the Grand Monitor

With two authorities claiming legitimacy, the people of the theocracy were forced to choose--a decision that may well have dictated whether they would live or die. Perhaps not surprisingly, most guessed at a better chance of survival by siding with the moderate seat in Mesoford. This included the standing army of the Church, the main branch that had always lived under the brutal shadow of the Brotherhood of Glory Everlasting. The army turned on Paragon General Thadmus, covertly moving its base of operations to the city of Mesoford before laying siege to the city of Heironeum. The Brotherhood defended the city and launched insidious counter attacks against Mesoford, sending assassins with orders to cause panic through the murder of as many city leaders as possible in hopes of undermining faith in Essellot. Although two mayors were killed by the Brotherhood's agents, Essellot managed to maintain control.

After two years, Heironeum was retaken, and Jerziah Thadmus was executed. The new Paragon General, Chamillo Essellot, had the commanding officers of the Brotherhood killed, dissolving the Brotherhood for good and allowing pardon for its knights if they swore fealty to a new creed, a revolutionary department of the new government of Heironeum, designed to enforce the balanced hand of law and justice on both the monarchy and its people. Essellot named Dameus Prabastian, his former personal guard, as the new leader of this great political experiment, naming him the Grand Monitor, of the Office of the Monitors. The Office would enforce the laws of true Justice, the balanced hand of Heironeous' unbiased judgement, be the transgressors citizens of kings, and all in between.

The seat of the Church's power returned to Heironeum and, in a move that would change the continent's perception of political power and judge of character, Paragon General Chamillo Essellot dissolved the national authority of the Church of Heironeous, establishing a new monarchy and an ancillary council of advisers. Essellot held a private vote among the pre-selected hierarchs of the Church, which ultimately named Brutulus Ennius to the throne of Heironeum, beginning a dynasty that would last to the modern day--over 1200 years. The knights who once belonged to the Brotherhood of Glory Everlasting either joined this new Office, or they were exiled from Heironeum under pain of death. The choice was not difficult, although the handful of zealots who did leave would later start puritan communities in the northern reaches of the continent, centuries later joining Dengard as the beginnings of the Northern Provinces.

### The Founding of Dengard

Brutulus Ennius, a human nobleman from the South, brought his large family to Heironeum to take the offered throne. By accepting the crown, Brutulus gained control of not only the largest human city in central Alancria, but of the vast tracts of territories that belonged to the Church of Heironeous. Essellot's final move to consolidate the state of Heironeum around a strong, legitimate monarchy was to donate most of the properties that the theocracy had once ruled over, making them sovereign land of this new kingdom. The newly crowned monarch of the Heironean nation state moved his family to the capital of Heironeum, where he met with Essellot to discuss the future of the ravaged lands of the surrounding territories. For two weeks, dignitaries and lesser royalty gathered in the great city, where humanity's greatest minds colluded on how best to pursue the best future for the human populations of Central Alancria.

From this assembly came the Ennian Accord, in which dozens of land owners, monarchs, and nobles swore allegiance to a new human empire, to King Brutulus Ennius, the patriarch of what would become the longest lasting dynasty in the history of Alancria. The signing of this pact in effect founded the nation of Dengard, claiming the city of Heironeum as its capital, and bringing almost 200,000 citizens into the empire, spanning thousands of square miles. Brutulus, with the Office of the Grand Monitor at his back and the Church of Heironeous at his right, set about consolidating his claims, pacifying all remaining resistance to the establishment of his throne.

Word spread of the founding of this nation, and thousands more began to pour into its borders, countless hopefuls who saw a future either in a central human authority, the promise of security and prosperity, or a combination of the two--a legacy that would both comfort and haunt the Dengardian Empire for its entire existence. So great was the influx of humanity that the Grand Monitor Prabastian deployed the Office itself alongside the Dengardian military to meticulously guard and process the border situation, an effort that proved generally successful, although there is no doubt that a considerable portion of the Dengardian population would call the overlooked, unprocessed masses their origin.

### Overthrow of Brutulus Ennius

Brutulus Ennius spent close to ten years establishing the nation of Dengard, building a mighty human military and funding vast, sweeping reforms that would prove to plant seeds for the abolishing of the feudal system that operated in the empire. These revolutionary changes made Brutulus a man of the People, a hero in the human territories despite his categorical intolerance of political dissent. Yet despite this accomplishment and in spite of his efforts to nurture a passionate, amicable relationship with the citizenry, Brutulus' abuses towards the aristocratic strata of Dengard proved to be disastrous. Throughout this decade, countless uprisings and noble-led rebellions were ruthlessly quashed, and resistance to the ever corroding state of the feudal lords soon became synonymous with death. Soon, Brutulus had the entirety of the aristocracy in his control, using intimidation and the power of the Office to enforce his will on the bitter, fearful noblemen.

Their response proved insidious, and ultimately successful. Brutulus' younger brother Cassalla, who served as a high ranking knight in the Dengardian military, had been a close ally to the aristocracy for most of his life, and, while harboring no ill will for the citizenry, saw his brother's unprecedented munificence as an insult to the long history of aristocratic dominion and peacekeeping of the many human territories. To abuse the elite and to coddle the peasantry, for Cassalla, was to ignore and dishonor the many years of service their own father had given to the strict and guarding reign of the feudal lords who for centuries had overseen the safety and well-being of the people--people who were unequipped and incapable of managing themselves.

These sentiments stewed in the heart of the honorable Cassalla, who for many years acquiesced to the authority of his older brother the King. Yet as the strictures against the aristocracy grew more and more suffocating, Cassalla fell into the company of the resentful elite, who began the slow process of turning Cassalla against Brutulus. Fourteen years into Brutulus' reign, there was a swift, brutal uprising, as Cassalla sparked a militant coup against his brother. Yet despite Cassalla's efforts for a painless transition, the situation quickly escalated, and Grand Monitor Prabastian, Paragon General Essellot, and Brutulus' family were killed in the ensuing takeover. Brutulus, a broken man, was given a bitter mercy by his brother, who exiled the ex-monarch to the deep south under pain of death. The former king swore vengeance, cursing Dengard and denouncing both the people who had abandoned him and the government that had turned on him. Disappearing into the deep deserts of the Zento Desert far to the South, Brutulus faded into history as his brother was crowned King.

### The 500 Year Storm

In the aftermath of this coup, Cassalla found himself in a difficult situation. Having deposed a champion of the People, he was forced to contend with the ire of the citizenry, who saw the exile of their hero as the move of a tyrant--one they would not suffer. At the same time, the Office of the Grand Monitor was outraged, their Grand Monitor murdered by Cassalla's servitors. Cassalla made political moves to assuage both parties, refusing to implement a feudal system once again, to the angry surprise of the noblemen who had backed him, and showering the Office with funds and restitution. Despite these measures, tensions continued to stew, threatening to consume the young nation. Cassalla, strapped for options, decided to look outward. Rousing the now standing Dengardian army, one of the largest war machines assembled, King Cassalla ordered them West, sending them on a conquest of Western Alancria, a great march to the ocean in an effort to ostensibly expand Dengard's borders and economy--and redirecting the bitterness of the nation abroad. Further pushing his narrative of growth, renewal, and strength, King Cassalla renamed the city's capital to Mendai, an Old Common homage to his family's ages old mantra: "For Man and Gods."

The ploy worked, and the Dengardian military set out on a massive campaign that would in time be dubbed the 500 Year Storm, half a century of conquest that pitted Dengard against the piecemeal entities of the West. Under Cassalla, Dengard smashed through its first obstacle, the obstinate elves of Tymbrael, who were sent reeling further north into the chilled timber forests. Cassalla became the architect of Dengard's first and lasting alliance, parlaying with the defeated Elves, and granting them exclusive lumber rights to the massive forests that Dengard would need, promising Dengard's continued patronage. Faced with endless war as an alternative, and enticed by the immeasurable wealth that was promised, Tymbrael accepted, and Dengard had found its first ally.

After Cassalla's death, the conquest continued as Dengard grew and adapted to its ever changing borders. Goblin Expeditions from Karsahgane to halt the advance were crushed by the Dengardian vanguard and its new Elvish allies, compelling the shrewd Goblinoid people to quickly halt their own hostilities and make peace with the inevitable. Tymbrael's harvesting of the forests, paired with Karsahgane’s exponentially increasing production to fuel its new trade routes with Dengard, sparked a lasting, centuries long conflict with a number of Druidic Enclaves. Six wars were waged with the druids during these 500 years, each one sending the druids further and further West until they were at last confined to Ordin Wood, where they quietly disappeared. After these brutal struggles, Dengard had only to contend with native tribes of various species and the hordes of bandits who saw the ever thinning supply lines of the Dengardian army as fodder for coin.

By Storm's end, Dengard had nearly quadrupled in size, and its population had swelled to hundreds of thousands--not only humans, but the masses of Elves, Goblins, Gnomes, Orcs, and others who saw in Dengard not only an inevitable master of the continent, but as a fount of opportunity, an entity of great change and the architect of Alancria's future. Trade routes with the Goblins and Elves had created a volcanic surge in economic development, and, having made contact with the Basin, Dengard found itself secure and strong in its tremendous acquisitions. Yet even as its prospects improved, Dengard was seized by unrest, humanity and un-humanity confined together abruptly and awkwardly, forced to learn for themselves how to tolerate and abide each other. The Dengardian government proved unequipped to deal with the issue, until an Ennian Queen rose to replace her fatally ill older brother, Rudric. Queen Feticia Ennius II, the latest in the uninterrupted Ennian dynasty was faced with the nation's destiny, having inherited the chaos born from her mother, Feticia I, whose reign had proved economically and socially disastrous for the Dengardian People. It was up to Feticia II to assuage the violently chaotic race relations that now plagued Dengard, a new and never before seen struggle in nature and scope, as well as the gaping divide that had developed between the beleaguered people and the Dengardian government. To this end, Feticia II would enact one of the most dramatic and ambitious political restructures in Alancrian history.

### The Charter of 502

Feticia II penned the document that would be called The Charter of 502 herself, presenting it to the political aristocracy and Office of the Grand Monitor for revision and council, until she was satisfied with its comprehensiveness. The document's tenets were threefold: expansion of the powers of The Office of the Grand Monitor and the establishment of two large and influential government entities: The Admonition Committee and the Preservation Committee.

The Office of the Grand Monitor had in the preceding centuries acted more as a legal body than anything else, more or less unable to enforce its edicts given its small size and outdated resources. With the Charter of 502 came a wave of change that elevated the Office into a mighty government fixture. The Office was granted control and management over the Imperial Sentinels (the Dengardian police force), was made the liaison between the Dengardian government and military, and was made federal governor of all Dengardian settlement projects and militant expeditions. Now able to enlist and maintain a standing force of Office soldiers, and backed by the temporarily resentful Sentinels and military, the Office of the Grand Monitor had become a force to be reckoned with, in effect becoming the true right hand of Dengardian interests, serving at the pleasure of the monarch--no more and no less. The Grand Monitor of the time, the unprecedentedly young Lucere Ulemont, was ecstatic. Pledging loyalty to the Queen, he accepted her orders, and mobilized his forces to set about with Feticia's vision: to tame, settle, and protect the new territory acquisitions of the past 500 years, an effort that had until now been all but impossible.

The Admonition Committee was established as a political body dedicated to the advisement of the monarch and the facilitation of the Crown's execution of its responsibilities. This entity would hire and train officials, politicians, diplomats, and all manner of royal servants that would attend to the ever broadening scope of the Crown's duties. They would manage the Treasury, assist in building realm policies, hold court to address local and state matters of both peasant and noble, write laws and enforce it within Dengardian courts, and in all ways necessary advise the monarch in how best to address the many issues that faced the empire, all in service to the Throne. Directing these efforts was an all-powerful Admonition Council. If the Offices of the Grand Monitor were the hands of Dengard, then the Admonition Council was its brain, an assembly of the governments greatest minds, who would not only regularly coordinate with the monarch to aid and advise in all matters, but would personally give audience to legitimate petitioners to the Dengardian government, the face and voice of the Dengardian state.

Full Article on Admonition Committee Here

The Preservation Committee was born of logistics. The Office had gained wide reach indeed, but with only soldiers, lawyers, statesmen, and bureaucrats in its ranks, its new found civil duties proved awkward and clumsily executed. To that end, and to address the matter of realm-wide maintenance and growth, Feticia founded the Preservation Committee, whose duty lay in Dengard's literal foundation and maintenance. Faced with the inexorable tide of time that would wear and chaff against the empire, the PC was responsible not only for repairing, cleaning, reinforcing, and otherwise maintaining the realm, but also in its expansion of cities, municipalities, and civic services. Plumbing, garbage collection, construction, masonry, demolition, animal control, building codes--the duties of the Preservation Committee were as numerous as they were diverse, all for the goal of keeping this great nation running smoothly and efficiently in the face of such constant tumultuous change.

Full Article on Preservation Committee Here

Feticia II would reign for almost forty years, and in her reign saw her projects flourish and grow into great successes. Her birthday became one of the first national feast days, the first day of spring, celebrated throughout the realm. The Feast of Feticia would become the preferred day for many government ceremonies. In the wake of her death, her son Idric Ennius, led his nation to close the century in a startling international peace (eventually dubbed The Quiet 6th), continuing his mother's work of consolidating and maintaining the realm, preparing the empire for the tumultuous centuries to come.

### The Acquisition of Ordin

In 572, the Dengardian government had no greater ally on the continent than Southern Tymbrael, whose lumber had made its aggressive expansion possible. Tymbrael's largest lumber producing city was Ordin, a massive metropolis that sat at the doorstep of Ordin Wood, built along the banks of the Fraas River that led to the Western Ocean. Ordin was the largest city on the continent, in both size and population, the economic capital of Tymbrael. Yet despite its industry, Ordin had proven to be a difficult asset to manage for the Tymbraelese government, not only due to its distance from the rest of Tymbrael proper, but for its history of unrest. Enforcing law and order in Ordin had by 572 become all but impossible, with large street gangs and bandit groups claiming control of much of the city, in spite of the Tymbraelese forces who called the city home. Soon, the criminal elements of Ordin began to corrode those economic benefits, hamstringing Tymbraelese efforts to make profits as timber harvests were sabotaged and looted.

Paired with the growing unrest between Tymbraelese aristocrats and the elvish Hierarchs, the Ordin situation proved to be a net liability, and after a century of failed efforts to stabilize the region, the Tymbraelese government found itself without recourse, all but abandoning the city in 572 and focusing on the vast, lush timber forests of Northern Alancria rather than the expanse of Ordin Wood to the West. The Dengardian monarch of the time, King Persard Ennius, coveted the city of Ordin despite its infamous instability, seeing the chaotic city as the final piece that would accomplish what Cassalla Ennius had started all those centuries ago--connecting Dengard to the sea. In an effort to realize this ages old dream, Persard journeyed to the Tymbraelese capital of Taigiev, with a brazen offer to purchase the city of Ordin from the Tymbraelese government. Outrage ensued within the Tymbraelese hierarchy, which nearly consumed itself in the maelstrom of debate that followed the Dengardian king's proposal. The nationalist aristocracy, who had always dreaded the ever increasing influence of Dengard over the continent, spurned the idea as the next step on the path to national suicide, while the Dengardian sympathizers of the government saw this deal as an opportunity to free itself of Ordin's dead weight and find space to invest in the resource rich Northern timber woods.

Ultimately, the Tymbraelese oligarchs accepted Persard's proposal. This decision would soon lead to the fracturing of Tymbrael and trigger the elvish schism that would create Northern and Southern Tymbrael, but for Persard, this moment was his defining victory. In a move that many in the Dengardian government saw as despicable, Persard delayed the mobilization of the Office of the Grand Monitor to secure control of the city, allowing the city of Ordin to descend into greater chaos and desperation. Once satisfied, King Persard, opened the floodgates, and sent not only the Office but the vast majority of the military to seize the city. After four months of conflict, Ordin city was tenuously stabilized, the primary bandit lords and street moguls pacified or killed under the might of the massive expedition. Hailed as heroes, Persard's forces had gained the necessary civilian respect they needed to establish itself in the turbulent city. The Imperial Sentinels, Dengard's police, laid roots in Ordin, making the city its de facto HQ, where an almost disproportionate garrison of Sentinels would enforce the Crown's peace.

Persard's strong-handed and perhaps underhanded approach, vastly different from the centuries of Tymbraelese more peaceful methods, proved to be successful in the long term, enduring the economic stagnation that came with the destruction of much of the city, and ultimately allowing Ordin to blossom as the crown jewel of Dengard's economy. Ordin's role as a timber city dwindled as its character as a mercantile paradise grew. The Fraas River gave access to the entire Western coast, allowing Dengardian merchants a massive market to exploit, not to mention the city's proximity to the Basin and the Dustry Mountains which facilitated lucrative trade routes that, due to diplomatic tensions between Tymbrael and Karsahgane, had been otherwise inaccessible. The economic impact of Ordin would in time propel Dengard to a position of unparalleled continental dominance.

### Dengardian Assimilation

After acquiring Ordin from Tymbrael, Dengard found itself in a supremely fortunate position on the continent, having in one way or another pacified any enemy that had stood against them while maintaining control over a vast and thriving territory that spread from Central Alancria's rolling hills to the Western Coast. Peace prevailed into the 7th century, as the People of Dengard slowly adapted to their new fellow citizens that came from across the continent. All manner of peoples would be subsumed into the empire, but the two primary migrant groups would be the Orcs of the Maljevo and Tymbraelese elves.

Orcish newcomers drifted down to the Southern Provinces, where they settled the dry grasslands in Spartan frontier colonies not far from the Capital. These settlements drew many human pioneers as well, who, like the orcs, saw opportunities in the deep quarries that littered the Southern plains. Mining towns popped up along these ore rich gulches, and the two peoples found room and incentive to cooperate together, forming small but lucrative operations. These colonies persisted even after the initial rushes of valuable ores were depleted, enduring the dip in economic promise until new mining equipment could bring them ever deeper into the earth, where more of their livelihood lay in wait. Luckily for the orcs and humans who worked here, the Southern Provinces acted as a bridge between East and West, making it a popular avenue for explorers and merchants alike who wished to avoid the pike tolls of Central Mendai and the dangers of the Dreadlands further South. Small towns flourished into successful supply depots for many travelers, and, paired with the security of being so close to the Capital, the Orcish and human societies bloomed.

More than half of the elvish immigrants who arrived in Dengard eventually would migrate to Ordin city, drawn there by the rich elvish history that continued to define the metropolis. Ordin continued to grow steadily over the decades to accommodate an ever growing population. The elves that arrived in Ordin enthusiastically joined in the Dengardian grind, rushing to work the massive and lucrative Fraas Docks that dominated coastal trade in the West, working in the thriving Ordinian textile industries that produced tremendous quantities of cloth for Dengardian needs, and even became the majority conscripts for the Imperial Sentinels garrisoned in the city. So complete was the Elvish influence on the city that by the end of the 7th century, the governor of Ordin, the Judicator of the local Sentinels, many of the merchant princes that managed Ordin's trade, and half of the city's population would be proud Dengardian elves loyal to the Crown. In the wake of Ordin's salubrious effects on national success, King Persard Ennius would famously remark that "As Ordin goes, so follows the nation."

A considerable portion of the newcomers were those of the Diminutive Peoples, such as Goblinoids, Gnomes, Halflings, and Kobolds. Although generally insular societies by nature, the allure of Dengard would convince many to settle within the human dominated empire. Due to their size, many of the Diminutive Peoples found great difficulty in finding employment within the quickly industrializing nation, forced to compete with larger, more robust counterparts. This resulted in the formation of many small towns in the Western Provinces, where the smaller races gathered in self-segregated communities, working not for the exclusive, broader convenience of the nation, but rather for the needs of fellow Diminutives. As political tensions would boil and cool between the Gnomish Basin and Goblin Karsahgane, these communities would split and collude sporadically over the century, although by the final years of the 7th century, these communities would be scooped up by larger cities, and were assimilated into the greater Dengardian society. The largest of these "Sapling Cities" became the thriving industrial metropolis of Mesoford, a large city that lay near the mountainous Dread Barrier that separated the arid southern Dreadlands from the lush outskirts of The Basin. in Mesoford, Gnomes particularly proved very successful in their efforts to succeed in Dengardian society, finding niches in the arts, entertainment, and city governance.

By the dawn of the 8th century, Dengardian society had comfortably reached a level of peaceful integration between its human natives and the inhuman immigrants. Yet with greater intake of disparate cultures came an ever growing feeling of unrest as racial tensions inevitably ground against one another beneath the ostensible calm. The Dengardian government, primarily through the intervention of the Admonition Council, would work tirelessly to keep these tensions managed and peaceful, securing internal peace for another hundred years.

### The Eastern Trek

Having reached the Western Coast and established Dengardian dominion in Western Alancria, the Crown set its gaze to the East, which had for centuries been seen as a wild, un-tamable frontier, a wilderness filled with voracious, unimaginable beasts, hordes of cut throat bandits, and cults of pagan gods. Many explorers had over the years mapped out much of the East, yet none had ever managed to pierce the dense Wei jungle that stood between Dengard and the Eastern Seas. Yet more frightening than any of these dangers was the knowledge that somewhere in the East, the followers of the god Hextor had fled, settled, and multiplied. To settle the East and claim its territory for the throne would be tantamount to re-sparking the conflict of almost 1000 years ago. King Surgis Ennius, a middle aged king who had spent most of his reign overseeing a peaceful, quiet decade, soon felt the compulsion of history and his ancestor's ideals, and set about planning a large scale movement into Eastern Alancria. He tasked his Grand Monitor, the aged Richtus Laurent, with organizing an advance expedition of the Dengardian military--which had by now been dubbed the Crimson Vanguard, legions of royal color bearing knights and career soldiers who had been trained under Dengardian generals and heroes. This expedition would lead the first wave of settlement, driving 1000 miles into the East seeking the inevitable coast, and ensuring the safe passage of both the settlers and the colonial intentions of the Crown.

Grand Monitor Laurent assembled a force of five thousand soldiers of the Vanguard, nominating the decorated High Constable Bek'Nolav Meretsky, an elvish nobleman turned royal officer, to personally lead the expedition into the Eastern Great Plains and secure the wilderness for Dengard. Attached to this expedition was a small contingent of Heironean Paladins, a company of the militant order of the Heironean Church who served as the guard and crusaders of the Church's clergy. They would act as heralds of the Church's intentions, spreading the Heironean word or destroying the enemies of Heironeous as needed by High Constable Meretsky. Once the expedition had been assembled, the word was spread, and several thousand hopeful settlers were chosen from the Dengardian citizenry to embark on the journey east.

This quest went under way in 722, in the final days of winter. As the caravan moved east, specialists from the Preservation Committee who had joined the effort advised High Constable Meretsky on the prime locations for Dengardian settlement. Slowly, the expedition shed its pioneers, settling them in fertile ground with ample supplies, opening an ever extending supply line from the capital that would feed each frontier settlement the resources with which to build and grow their nascent communities. The land was vast and open—an ocean of grasslands that seemed as fertile as it was endless, providing ample opportunities for Dengardian settlers to construct outposts, depots, and homesteads. Farms were born of the settlement, and soon Dengard had founded its own large scale plantations with which to feed its diverse multitudes.

Securing the land became increasingly difficult the further East High Constable Meretksy marched. Explorers had reported large communities of humans who had made the Eastern plains their home, humans who claimed allegiance to an entity known as the Nan'xin League. Initially, Meretsky's encounters with these small townships were peaceful, and the local Easterners provided further supplies and trade for Meretsky's expedition. Yet the deeper Meretsky moved into the East, the more tensions with the locals soured. Meretsky, a loyal kingsman, stayed true to his orders, and brooked no argument with any of the Eastern authorities who condemned his settlement of the lands surrounding the small townships and villages that housed the Eastern locals. Either they accepted their new neighbors willingly, or Meretsky's Vanguard forcefully ensured their compliance. Not waiting to parlay with the entity known as the Nan'xin League, Meretsky almost made the first 1000 miles into the East, settling the territory as he saw fit.

By the end of this first 1000 miles and over the course of more than a year, he had shed all but a handful of his pioneer charges, and had bypassed several dozen small and medium sized communities of Nan'xin members. Meretsky built Fort Laurent, a massive fort to house his weary expedition, which was situated on a bluff in the middle of a hill swollen plain that finally had the Wei mountains on the horizon. With the Wei Range in sight, Meretsky dug into his position and established patrols to satellite settlements. Sending a courier escort back to Mendai, he reported the success of the first phase of the trek, and requested further orders, mentioning the Nan'xin League described by locals and explorers.

The return took the couriers only two months, and by the time they had returned to the first settlement, it had flourished into a medium sized town, Avnin, named for a local wild flower that bloomed along the rolling hills that blended into Central Alancria. Avnin would later become one of the most important cities in Dengard, the doorstep to the East. It would be a major transport hub for Dengard's trade and military, and would soon take part in every Eastern conflict that would come the empire's way. Meanwhile, in the Dengardian capital of Mendai, Meretsky's success was met with celebration. Efforts were redoubled to secure the small communities that now dotted the frontier, a massive territory that would test the will, patience, and wisdom of the Dengardian monarchy. But by the time Meretsky's orders to seize the Nan'xin villages and towns along the frontier reached the High Constable, Meretsky would be mired in what would become one of the bloodiest wars in Dengardian history, against the Nan'xin League and its Hextorian allies.

### Second Hextorian Crusade

A month after his courier left for Mendai, High Constable Meretsky was visited by a Nan'xin envoy offering terms of withdrawal of the Dengardian Expeditionary Forces in the region. The terms asserted that Meretsky and his men would relinquish their control of the region and relocate to Avnin; if Meretsky did not comply, the envoy stated plainly, there would be consequences. Outraged, Meretsky seized the envoy, had him stripped of valuables and vestments, and dismissed the naked Easterner from Fort Laurent. The Nan'xin reply came within several hours, and Fort Laurent was attacked by none other than Hextorian troops, the militant forces of the Hextorian societies that had flourished in the East in the aftermath of the First Hextorian Crusade. The First Battle of Fort Laurent lasted two days, but Meretsky was ultimately successful in his defenses, albeit at the cost of almost a third of his 5000 men. Driving the Hextorian advance troop from the hills surrounding the fort, the Dengardian Expeditionary Force established small outposts, peppering the territories at the edge of the Wei Jungle with small blockhouses.

The High Constable relayed word to Mendai of the presence of Hextorian crusaders, and was answered with the full might of the Dengardian military. Grand Monitor Laurent dispatched 30,000 troops, comprised of several thousand conscripts, Office servitors, and standing Vanguard soldiers, into the East under the command of the intensely devout Heironean Earl Marshal Edmus Haver, gathering volunteers from settlements along the way. By the time they reached Fort Laurent, it had been all but burned to the ground. According to the 1200 men of the original 5000 man settlement force, High Constable Meretsky had led an ill-fated offense into the jungle in order to capture the Hextorian field commander, whom scouts had reported had established himself on the edge of the Wei jungle. Hoping to kill the commander and put a decisive end to the conflict, Meretsky had instead walked into a trap--his small army was massacred at the edge of the jungle, the Heironean paladins hung from the trees of the jungle, and Meretsky himself beheaded by his target--the Hextorian commander, Lieren Shan. Quickly reestablishing control of Fort Laurent, Earl Marshal Haver rebuilt the fort and began construction of extensive fortifications along the edge of the Wei Jungle, reinforcing Meretsky's blockhouses and preparing to engage the cunning Shan.

So began the Second Hextorian Crusade, as Haver and Shan clashed along the edge of the Wei Jungle in over two hundred engagements over the course of three years. The opening years of the Crusade would see 75,000 men battle for control of hundreds of miles of open plains and stretches of jungle. The Hextorians and Dengardians pushed each other back and forth, deeper into the jungle before driving further back into the Eastern Plains. Dengardian casualties skyrocketed, as Haver's exhausted troops were forced again and again to contend with fresh, zealous columns of Hextorian crusaders who used the Wei Jungle as a near impenetrable shield, miring any Dengardian offensive in unfamiliar, difficult terrain. Over the course of these first three years, Haver would make numerous attempts to torch the jungle edge, hoping to burn his way through the natural fortress, but each time was repelled by Hextorians and Nan'xin coalition forces. As the death toll mounted, the moral of Haver's Expedition plummeted, forcing Haver to pull back to Fort Laurent and abandon his beleaguered blockhouses. A the third winter took hold of the Eastern Plains, Haver found himself, like Meretsky, trapped within his fort with swiftly dwindling supplies. Sending word to Mendai, Haver called for reinforcement and resupply, stating plainly that he and his men would not last to the new year otherwise, and the East would be lost.

The response came quickly. The Office, in coordination with the Preservation Committee, set up an ambitious supply line from Dengardian territory to the Eastern front, a rigorously maintained road dotted with transport depots and refitting stations that would span the length of the Eastern Provinces. Starting in Avnin, the Pinjang Trail crossed more than 1000 miles of open prairie and swelling hills, a massive road that would transport supplies and troops to frontier settlements and to the crusade frontline. Another 40,000 troops and four years’ worth of supplies were transported in this way to Haver, who, despite his claim, was indeed holding his position early in the fourth year of the crusade. As spring arrived, Haver's Expedition had been refreshed, re-armed, and reinvigorated. Backed by almost ten thousand Heironean Paladins and clerics, Haver renewed his assault, using newly minted artillery to obliterate large swaths of the outer jungles, forcing the Hextorian forces within to fight or flee in the charred clearings. Edmus Haver and Lieren Shan would never meet in person, neither ever able to corner the other in the bloody chaos of the Wei Jungle, but their rivalry would become the microcosm for the entire conflict, as the Dengardian chased the Easterner in and out of traps time and time again, neither giving a second thought to the quickly mounting death toll.

Haver launched a four pronged assault along the jungle front, using his specially designed artillery to turn much of the outer jungle to cinders to clear the way for a slow, deliberate, and inexorable ascent up the slopes of the lower Wei Mountains. Having failed to out-maneuver Shan in the unfamiliar tangle of the Wei Jungle, Haver committed to a desperate scorched earth blitz. The offensive would take two years, but by the end, Haver had either incinerated or taken control of the jungle strongholds from which the Hextorians based their operations. All along this front, Dengardians and Hextorians fought for every inch of ground, along misted peaks, in deep tangled jungle glades, and across open ashen plains. With the Hextorian defenses destroyed or under his control, Haver was poised to land a final, decisive blow to the dominion of the Nan'xin League. But as Haver's armies coiled for their final assault on the Nan'xin capital temple, King Surgis Ennius deployed a courier bearing explicit orders: spare the League and offer the chance of negotiations.

In the face of total destruction, and at the behest of none other than the now legendary Lieren Shan, the Nan'xin League had no choice but to enter into negotiations for their surrender.

### Treaty of Fort Laurent

King Surgis Ennius himself, despite his advanced age, made the journey himself to meet with the Nan'xin oligarchs themselves, eager to settle a lasting and lucrative peace. Of the five Nan'xin saints who controlled the coalition of civilizations, the first and foremost was the enlightened Dixian, Jinshen, who met with the monarch of the Dengardian Empire, Surgis Ennius. Assisted by their closest advisors and statesmen, the small delegation secluded themselves in an isolated temple, as their armies stood face to face.

Jinshen's primary concern was autocracy. His constituents feared the encroaching Dengardian imperium, relishing their long history of strong local governance that answered to a lofty, yet intimate authority in the League. To submit to the iron fist of a dynastic monarchy would be a shattering change, and would beget only bitterness and rage from the long independent peoples of the East. Eastern matters, Jinshen proclaimed, would remain Eastern matters, free from the regency of Mendai. There could be no surrender--only partnership.

After almost a millennium of conquest, Surgis was reluctant to be known as the Ennian king who had grown soft. The East was in his grasp, and all he had to do was reject the terms he had offered and make the final strike, however bloody and costly it might be. Yet Surgis had come with the frontier in his mind, thousands of miles of vulnerable Dengardian settlements, a beleaguered military stretched across half a continent, and a dwindling treasury. To eliminate the Nan'xin was to place the East in his control, but that control, Surgis finally concluded, and Jinshen confirmed, could result in the end of the Empire.

To that end, Surgis acquiesced to Jinshen's sentiments. They struck a deal, a political partnership even more intimate than that which bound Tymbrael and Mendai together--the Nan'xin League would allow Dengard to settle the vast plains that stretched from the jungle to Central Alancria, so long as Dengard's reach remained categorically outside of the jungle and mountain kingdoms. The farmlands beyond the jungle would belong to Dengard, so long as the Nan'xin were given privileged but reasonable access to the harvests. The Nan'xin would allow commerce between the two entities, and work to protect and maintain trade routes, but Dengard would have to accept that they would not have direct access to the Eastern ocean--not through the Nan'xin sphere. So long as Dengard remained outside of the jungle and Nan'xin affairs, the East would cooperate. Surgis accepted, confident that the massive economic gains made in the past six years would be secured under the auspices of his armies and the Nan'xin coalition forces.

Though peace was restored, there was no joy in the field. The bloody tension and vengeful ire that had suffused the crusade would not be so easily dispelled. The Heironean Church, with the majority of the Hextorian faithful, were outraged that anyone would try to put so abrupt an end to their centuries old vendetta. Although the militants were dispersed, small regional conflicts would continue for months afterward, until at last the Nan'xin League and the Dengardian government were able to reign in the rogue forces. Only through the efforts of Lieren Shan, the Hextorian commander, was a lasting peace discovered. Deeply impressed by the vigor and ruthlessness of Earl Marshal Edmus Haver, Shan personally promised to kill any Hextorian who betrayed the Dixian's treaty. By 732, the bloody Second Hextorian Crusade had finally come to an end.

### Consolidation of Eastern Acquisitions

In the aftermath of the war, King Surgis was faced with the daunting task of rebuilding the miles of frontier torched and destroyed by the years of conflict. Dozens of villages, townships, and cities were in dire need of reconstruction and security, while countless acres of farmland lay in ashes. If the cost of war was to be assuaged, and the original expedition's purpose realized, the frontier would have to be rebuilt and refortified for settlement and governance. To this end, the Preservation Committee was deployed, given vast powers of influence over the regional governors and officials. Under the watchful eye of the Committee's chairman, the visionary Normit McCollick, the East was restructured. Nan'xin retained control of all territory beyond the Wei Jungle to the East, ceding the plains and hills of the Pinjang Valley to the West to Dengardian settlement. McCollick made Avnin his capital, transforming the frontier township into a thriving, bustling hub of transportation and supply for all the Eastern settlements and communities. Small settlements were constructed close to Avnin, with construction moving ever Eastward, protected and secured by Office troops.

Fort Laurent became the central meeting point of East and West, a large fortress built within sight of the Wei Jungle, one of the furthest points of Dengard's presence in the East. The chair of Eastern Province government, Fort Laurent housed the Office Magistrate, the Preservation Overseer, and the Nan'xin Liaison, who in tandem would govern the territory. Indeed, cooperation with the Nan'xin League became the focal point of the Eastern Provinces' culture and character. East and West began to collude on all levels of society, from the many farmers who tilled the vast acres of ariable land across the Pinjang Valley to the policing forces who protected the settlements from the innumerable outlaws who roamed the plains and jungle slopes. The Nan'xin agreed to help house and finance the Eastern branch of the Dengardian fleet, which, having access to the eastern seas, expanded dramatically in the decades following the crusade. Trade routes laced the provinces, connecting the western cities such as Ordin, Mesoford, and Mendai with the temple cities of the Nan'xin and the countless monastaries that dotted the Wei Mountains.

The Nan'xin league very quickly found a place beside the Dengardian Crown, swiftly rising as one of its staunchest and most cooperative allies. The ease with which the two powers buried their conflict rippled through each of their govenring bodies, particularly in the Nan'xin coalition where bitterness and outrage at the perceived abdication of Eastern sovereignty boiled over into frequent disputes. The Dexians of the Nan'xin, the quasi-deific masters of the East, would spend centuries arguing and rearguing the case for closeknit ties with the Dengardian Empire, constantly teaching the passing generations of the need for cooperation, collusion, and forgiveness. Yet as tensions remained in the higher eschelons of Eastern society, particularly among the religious leaders of the various orders and monastaries, spirits remained high and optimistic in the jungle and mountain cities, untouched by Dengardian influence but awash with the fruits of the economic partnership.

By King Surgis' death in the year 801, the East had flourished into a vibrant province, with settlements branching out from Avnin, getting ever closer to the border of Nan'xin regency. Settlements became towns and many towns blossomed into full fledged cities, bustling with Easterners and Dengardians of all kinds. The primary effect of Eastern consolidation, however, would not spark in the East, but rather in the city of Ordin far to the West.

### The Plunge

As Dengardian's attention intensified in the Eastern corners of Alancria, the Western Provinces of the realm began to slump with state neglect. Office resources, once concentrated in the city of Ordin and the surrounding townships, were siphoned away by decades of conflict and reconstruction in the tumultuous, lucrative Eastern reaches of the realm. Thousands of Office servitors, from the Sentinel Police who guarded Dengard's streets to the legions of Crimson Vanguard who manned the many Dengardian bases about the realm, were transferred to the East, leaving many of the Western cities decidedly understaffed and underfunded. This change would become particularly profound in the growing, crowded metropolis of Ordin, now the capital of the Western Provinces.

Since its acquisition in 572, the timber town of Ordin had grown exponentially with an influx of Dengardian peasants looking for work in the many lumber mills and paper plants. By the year 825, the population of Ordin had reached several hundred thousand. Elves remained the majority, flowing in from Tymbrael as the elvish nation descended into intensifying wars with the Maljevo orcs, but Dengardian humans, Karsahgane goblinoids, and Basin gnomes arrived by the thousands, bringing with them large families and clashing cultures. As Dengard's governmental oversight slipped East, the regional governor, Tai'luch Pilliev, gained tremendous influence over the Western Provinces. Governor Pilliev, an elvish nobleman whose family had ruled Ordin since before the acquisition, became obsessed with bringing Ordin to heel. The tide of migrants from all across the continent applied tremendous pressure on the regional governments and their efforts to accommodate and police Ordin. Governor Pilliev, with no substantive assistance from the Capital, tasked himself with bringing order and security to the chaotic city.

His first and most infamous project resulted in the The Plunge, a large district constructed on the banks of the Fraas River, extending west into Ordin wood. The massive undertaking pushed Ordin's size to an historic size, requiring contracts with a number of Tymbraelese construction guilds to complete. In two years, by the year 830, the new housing district was completed, giving more than ample room to the thousands of homeless, resource-less multitudes. Yet even this extension of the city was not enough to satisfy the hopeful masses. The Plunge almost immediately became an enormous ghetto, clogged with thousands upon thousands of migrants who settled there. Municipal services was overwhelmed, and would never be able to catch up with the chaos of Ordin's new citizens. The Plunge fell into disrepair and squalor over the decades, its inhabitants locked in brutal conditions as they worked in the countless mills and plants that fed Dengard's endless needs for lumber and manufactured goods.

Governor Pilliev, however, was not concerned. He had successfully housed the vast majority of newcomers, and established a system of provisional distribution that allowed for a rudimentary welfare program, staving off famine for those lucky enough to be housed and registered. Despite his efforts, however, tens of thousands remained in crippling poverty. The Plunge became athe dark heart of Ordin, where the eternal poor lived out their gloomy lives, struggling alongside Ordin's less wretched residents--with much less success or opportunity. Epidemics of yellow fever and cholera became yearly occurences, compelling the Sentinel Police to establish permanent strongholds near The Plunge's perimeter. There, checkpoints would rise by the hundreds in times of disease, penning in the sick and healthy alike. The Church of Hieroneous planted roots into The Plunge as well, doing what they could to end the epidemics that routinely arose from the Plunge gutters. In spite of these efforts, life in the Plunge remained dismal and wretched, even as an incessant flow of hopeful migrants continued to flow for centuries.

### The Ordinian Rebellion

In 856, Ordin was wracked by a historic epidemic of Typhus. For over a year, more than a hundred thousand people in the Western Provinces contracted the disease, more than half of them perishing. Yet in The Plunge, the epidemic seemed to stall. While the Church of Heironeous cleansed the region without, inside the Plunge, the inhabitants suffered a trifle few deaths to the disease. The marvel became the nexus of attention, as the humbled Heironean Church was seemingly bested by the efforts of a single person--Mother Cadencia. Though her true full name was never discovered, Cadencia, a young orphanage matron turned nurse, organized a large scale operation within The Plunge, treating and indeed curing thousands of the affliction. Using both natural and divine remedies, born of volunteers and her own miraculous powers, Mother Cadencia saved The Plunge from certain obliteration in the face of such a virulent outbreak.

The people rejoiced, and Cadencia, then as now a figure cloaked in truth, myth, and legend, arose as a voice for the people of Ordin. And her influence did not end at the Plunge checkpoints. All across the city, which routinely suffered from neglect, mismanagement, and dismal fortunes, people turned to her for guidance and aid. The influence of Heironeous and the elvish deity Lorathian ebbed as young Mother Cadencia's inspiring presence spread. For several years, Cadencia would campaign on behalf of the people, accosting city officials and Sentinel officers with questions, requests, and ideas. Afraid of her ever-expanding influence, Governor Pilliev contacted the Dengardian capital city, Mendai, requesting both advice and security reinforcement. he received both from the newly ordained Grand Monitor--a seasoned, brutal veteran named Wyrus Vault.

Grand Monitor Vault did not dispatch more Sentinels; instead, he sent Office Guardians, the elite shock troopers of the Empire. Once in Ordin, the Guardian platoons seized control of The Plunge, instituting a harshly regimented daily schedule for its inhabitants. Wyrus' grip tightened on the district, shutting down the weekly gatherings of Cadencia's disciples. Cadencia herself remained in public, fervently, and peacefully, demonstrating against the Office's advances. Tensions rose as the people's and the Office's fears grew. Cadencia's campaigns for labor and welfare reform became acts of civil unrest, and the Office responded accordingly--Cadencia was arrested while organizing a district wide strike on the timber mills of Ordin--it's greatest economic operation.

The people grew enraged. Cadencia was held without trial in an Office prison for two months under heavy guard--and still, her influence on the people of Ordin grew. Riots ignited in the nearby streets; manufacturing centers and mills were torched and vandalized; government officials and Office servitors were assaulted and killed. In turn, the Office's grip became a stranglehold--mass arrests and public executions became routine in the quickly destabilizing city with more and more Office troops arriving by the month. The climax would come on a warm summer night in 862, when Cadencia's followers, aided by Office sympathizers, launched a full scale attack on the prison holding Cadencia, killed its guards, and released a starving Cadencia. She was quickly smuggled deep into The Plunge, where she would go into hiding for a full year.

Wyrus responded by leading a full regiment of the Crimson Vanguard, Dengard's military, straight into Ordin and instituting martial law. From The Plunge to the wealthiest districts, Ordin was fully in Wyrus' hands as he combed every street and alley for Mother Cadencia--and as he did, he instigated one of the bloodiest periods in Dengardian history. The people of Ordin struck back, by the thousands. Mobs of Cadencia's followers, now empowered by a more militant message, began to attack the occupying force daily, engaging in savage guerilla tactics that left the clustered, awkward forces of the Office reeling. Food rations were poisoned; officers were assassinated; Governor Pilliev himself was dragged out of his manor and hung by the Ordinian rebels who declared their defiance of Dengard's authority, leaving only Grand Monitor Wyrus Vault to defend the Empire's interests.

Two years of constant bloodshed followed, as the Office struggled to pacify the fickle mobs of Cadencia, and as the disciples of Cadencia struggled to break Wyrus' hold on the city. For his part, Wyrus became the more visible of the two opposing demogogues. Every week, he personally saw to the execution of dozens of rebels and traitors to the Crown--a Crown that continued to look Eastward. Yet for all Wyrus' brutal crackdowns, he was not able to penetrate the maze of alleys and canals that was the Plunge. The fervor of Cadencia's followers was astounding. The tenacious disciples seemed as fearless as they were many--and far more cunning and diabolical than any peasant was expected to be. Wyrus's men, trained and disciplined as they were, grew more and more anxious in the unending labyrinth of cut throats and arsonists that was now Ordin.

In 864, however, it was Cadencia who made the final blow--the enigmatic woman, leading close to twenty thousand enraged citizens, descended on Wyrus' command headquarters, wielding nothing but a buckler and punching dagger. Historical accounts on how are unreliable, but the conclusion is always the same: Cadencia somehow went toe to toe with one of Dengard's finest warriors, Grand Monitor Wyrus Vault, and killed him on the stairs of Crux House, his base of operations at the city's center. The Office was sent reeling, losing control of the city completely as their forces were scattered and leaderless in the face of a completely unforseen upset. Yet even as Wyrus' corpse was paraded throughout the city, his men fought on, grimly holding every inch of city they could. Cadencia quickly became the de facto ruler of the city, to the adulation and joy of much of the citizenry.

Despite her willingness to kill, Cadencia remained ever the matron and nurse. Rumors began to spread of her healing abilities--including unverified accounts of her being able to bring the slain back to life. She personally saw to the treatement of all surviving Office members for the next six years, as Ordin settled into a hushed but brutal period of recovery. The Office and her followers continued to clash in the streets throughout this period, yet each seemed more or less content to keep the order of their respective turfs--the Office in the Eastern quarters, and the Cadencians in the Eastern districts and most of the city center. In this way, a sense of normalcy descended on the city, putting an end to the most turbulent years of the rebellion. With the city mostly controlled by Cadencia, life seemed like it could change for the people of The Plunge, as well as the terrified citizens throughout the rest of the city, for better or worse. Even the new Grand Monitor, Luger Hadrick, seemed ostensibly content with the fickle conflict.

However, Cadencia's de facto reign would only persist for those brief six years. One night, while tending to victims of one of her followers raids, Mother Cadencia was ambushed, dragged into the street, and hung by Hadrick's men.

### The Apostles of Cadencia

With their leader gone, Cadencia's followers quickly became cripplingly demoralized, prime targets for the Office servitors who were emboldened by the assassination. Within the year, by 831, the city was pacified and the Ordinian Rebellion was crushed. Ordin, bathed in blood of thousands, did what it always had and what it always would--it endured and recovered, becoming all the larger and more significant to Alancrian affairs. Hadrick, keen to avoid Wyrus' brash mistakes, removed the Guardian forces from the city, instead promoting an expansive recruitment program within the Plunge. Thousands of residents would join the Sentinel Police in the Rebellion's aftermath.

Hadrick oversaw a light reform of the city's Plunge policies, founding a number of workhouses within the ever expanding slum to assist the endless masses of destitute. While initially a great success, the poorhouses within Hadrick's Quarter would eventually fall to corruption and cronyism, spelling continued struggle for the people of the Plunge. This, along with the continued trend of poverty that wracked much of Ordin, would give rise to a uniquely sinister cabal of thieves, murderers, and racketeers.

In the wake of Cadencia's death, the folk heroine quickly gained status as a martyr of the poor. So great was her influence, magnified all the more by the circumstances of her brutal death, that Cadencia ascended from folk heroine to divine emissary. Shrines were established in her honor as Heironean Churches slowly were eclipsed by Cadencia's prominence in the people's hearts. By the end of the 800s, Cadencia had become a goddess, claiming tens of thousands of adherents within Ordin. From this distinction, a centralized religious institution was born: The Apostles of Cadencia.

The founder of the Apostles remains unknown. All that is recorded is the foundation of the Cathedral of the Our Mother's Embrace, and its clergy of green and black clad arcanist priests. From this Cathedral, the faith expanded. Chapels dedicated to Cadencia sprung up in all corners of the city, pushing the Church of Heironeous almost completely from the region. The Apostles themselves emulated the interpreted spirit of Cadencia, despite her never having written anything from which to extrapolate doctrine. The responsibility of her message, therefore, fell to those the clergy called The Favored--twelve supremely dedicated believers supposedly granted divine favor and power from the Mother herself. These Favored established the populist, collectivist message that would become the signature Cadencian tenets.

The Favored dispatched emissaries all across the city, and into the greater Western Provinces of Dengard, gaining tremendous success among the poverty stricken citizens of the Empire. Mendai, though unnerved by the faith's growth and success, was hesitant to crack down--the Apostles of Cadencia appeared to promulgate a message of peace and unity. Should the Office interfere, it might spark yet another gruesome conflict; no one, in or outside of the Capital, wanted another Wyrus Vault situation. Therefore, the Apostles were left to their own limited devices, the Office merely maintaining strict surveillance of their movements and actions.

Yet underneath the surface of faith brewed a darker purpose--though its original purpose is mere speculation, the Apostles of Cadencia was quickly being taken over by a uniquely sinister cabal of thieves, assassins, and racketeers. The institution slowly but surely became subject to a number of scandals and criminal investigations, revealing that the Apostles of Cadencia was not only a religion, but an organized mafia. Works of charity and faith were committed alongside grand theft and opportunistic killing. Thousands of angry citizens joined the criminal ranks of the Cadencian mob, in many ways reigniting the scattered conflicts of the past within the city of Ordin. Due to the clandestine, shifty nature of the Apostles, it became impossible for investigators to consistently discern what was true religious charity and what was organized criminal enterprise.

The Apostles of Cadencia operate to this day, controlling huge swaths of Ordin under the watchful gaze of the Sentinel Police. The back alley war between these two factions is seemingly without end--yet in spite of, or maybe because of, this perpetual chaos, Ordin is more prosperous and busy than ever, swiftly becoming the largest economic hubs of Alancria. Though the Plunge continues its tradition of poverty and desperation, the Apostles have given much of the population hope, and even a newfound sense of purpose, legal and otherwise.

### The Dread Wars

The 10th century gave birth to modern Dengard; having secured the Eastern Provinces to the edge of the Wei Jungle and having pacified the Western Provinces, Dengard entered a brief but memorable era of peace. The conflicts that had rattled Dengardian affairs for several centuries had been settled, leaving only the quotidian matters of governance. King Panrick Ennius came to power in 906, and presided over several decades of Alancrian peace. Content to merely provide oversight to the nation, King Panrick made no move to expand Dengardian borders or launch military campaigns, even against growing threats such as the expansion of goblinoid Karsahgane and the encroaching conflicts between orcish Maljevo and elvish Tymbrael. Thus, the first half of the 10th century saw more domestic action, such as a massive undertaking to modernize and maintain the Dengardian road system as well as the manufacturing boom in the Western Provinces.By 966, however, the rest of the continent faced the latest in existential threats: the gradual confluence of the tribes of the Dreadlands.

The Dreadlands, the vast deserts and badlands of the Alancrian southwest, were home to millions of unique tribes of nomadic peoples, long seen as barbaric hordes nipping at the heels of Alancrian civilization. The mystique of the Dreadlands, the most unknown corner of settled Alancria, contributed greatly to the perception of its people as a savage race of war-mongering humans--in a word, barbarians. This distinction was not far off; the tribes of the Dreadlands had sporadically collided with any and all nearby civilizations unfortunate enough to get in their way. The result was always the same: the nomadic warriors would aggressively attack and hound any who wandered to close to the deserts and wasts of the Dreadlands. While the barbarians were quick and willing to wage war on anyone and everyone, however, they were far from continental conquerors. There had never been a unified coalition of tribes that lasted longer than a few years. The culture of the Dreadlands promoted ruthless individuality and personal freedom, enforced by pugnacious tendencies and a disdain for "underhanded" diplomacy.

In the latter half of the 10th century, however, the tribes of the Dreadlands began to coordinate with much greater frequency--and with far greater success. For the next few centuries and into the new millenium, the "Barbarians of the Dreadlands" organized long periods of raiding wars and looting sprees all across the Dengardian borders and into the Basin. Motely hordes of tribesmen from the many clans gathered together, roaming further and further North as they pillaged and explored outside of the barren deserts they called home. The vast majority of these strikes were small in scale, but their frequency compelled serious action. Queen Odesse Ennius was the first to contend with the marauders from the Dreadlands, granting her Office of the Grand Monitor powers to further fortify and even occupy border towns and roads to combat the sporadic raids from the South. Grand Monitor Bolvaire lead this effort against the barbarians, temporarily moving the seat of Office power to the Southern city of Mesoford.

For the next two hundred years, Dengard and the tribes of the Dreadlands waged a sporadic set of small wars and conflicts, spanning the Southern border, as far West as Ordin and as far East as the border of Avalon. The Odesse Line, a range of forts and city fortifications along Dengard's Southern border, proved to be an adequate defense in the long term--the Dreadlands marauders were simply too dispersed and disorganized to make any meaningful incursions into Dengardian territory. However, despite the efforts of Bolvaire and is successors, the barbarians raided and pillaged almost every town and city within reach, repeatedly conducting guerilla strikes on population centers and Office forts. Hundreds burned to the ground, only to be built again--and often burned down once more. As the years passed, as monarchs and monitors came and went, the barbarian threat remained. Numerous excursions were made into the Dreadlands, most notably an expedition of some ten thousand of the Vanguard led by veteran General Rute Tythick; yet each one ended in negligible victories, or, in Tythick's case, total failure (Only several hundred knights returned from the South; Tyhick never returned).

Public sentiment slowly soured. Faith in the capital had been on the decline ever since the Ordinian Rebellion--but with the unstoppable tide of barbarian attacks wearing away at the southern border, the citiznry began to actively resent their leaders. Civil unrest over poor conditions simmered throughout the realm, from Mesoford to Avnin. This period of chaos, known as the Dread Wars, remained unresolved until the end of the 13th century.

### Rise of King Armant

By the middle of the 13th century, Dengard had endured a turbulent century and a half of stagnant growth and unrelenting conflict on its Southern Border. Not since the Hextorian threats of the crusades had an enemy so plagued the Dengardian way of life. The barbarians of the Dreadlands, now known as the Epimetheans, the First Peoples of Alancria according o historians, while unable to make any territorial gains or threaten the Dengardian nation's stability, had succeeded in both pillaging untold amounts of incredible wealth and eroding away at the citizenry's faith in its government and military. No longer did the Dengardian peasant regard his King and Grand Monitor as reliable sources of stability and security.

King Armant Ennius came to power as the realm's morale had sunk to historic levels. In 1154, the day he was crowned, the new king was burned in effigy in several of the townships near the Southern border, the most recent sites of barbarian attack. Armant's first act would dictate the nature of his term succinctly--the perpetrators were arrested and sent to hard labor, along with the majority of the realm's prison population. Armant's harsh, cold nature was evident at every juncture of his kingship--yet it may have saved the realm itself from evental dissolution. Armant is one of the only kings in Dengardian history to dismiss his Grand Monitor, Luchas Radge, a dramatic move that left the Admonition Council outraged and the Office forces baffled. Radge, while by no means a failure, was in Armant's mind an unimaginative, myopic leader with no ambitions to change the stangant conditions of the Southern front or the tense realm. Radge was dismissed five years after Armant's crowning. For the first time in history, the King of Dengard chose the successor, rather than the retiring Monitior or the Admonition Council. Armant's choice was the quiet, brooding Kofkas Nairn, a young captain from the Southern border.

Armant and Nairn would prove to be a tremendous duo. Both were cold and calculating figures whose concerns rested not in the individual worries and issues of the people, but in the grand scale, long term portrait of Dengardian life. Armant's focus began and ended on the Southern border, which suited Nairn just fine. The Odesse Line, in disrepair from more than a century of abuse, was rebuilt and expanded. Small border towns became fortresses and patches of covering forest were leveled for lumber and vision. Armant sent Nairn deeper south, settling the swamplands north of the Avalonian border, building even more forts and outposts along the frontier. The Admonition Council repeatedly warned King Armant that the Treasury would not be able to cover the costs of these aggressive expansions. Armant's response was nonchalantly levying new taxes--most notably in the Eastern Provinces, where the Nan'xin were forced to pay or strain diplomatic relations.

Yet Armant's most notable domestic move was the foundation of the Dengardian Magical Research Institute. Dengard had universities and government departments dedicated to the arcane arts, just as the Church of Heironeous had dedicated most of its clergy and faithful in the research of divine magics; however, never before had there been an independent entity founded for the sole purpose of researching the fundamental science behind the magic that the continent had used so prolifically. What was once an effort of scattered schools and individuals found a centralized source of funding, marketing, and infrastructure. Immediately, the greatest minds of the continent began to gather, requesting a spot in the coveted halls of the DMRI. Armant allowed the institute to remain independent from total government control--with all parties involved aware that the obligation lie withthe DMRI to cooperate with the Crown's desires. And so, the first contract from the Dengardian government came to the office of the DMRI. He found a willing partner in the first Prime Magus of the DMRI: Ariel Aubrey. Aubrey's husband had died years before at the Odesse Line, one of the countless casualties of a century long war against the barbarian raiders. Aubrey never forgot, and was known as a formidable evocation specialist, master of powerful explosive arcana; she was perfect for Armant's purposes.

Armant's first contract with the DMRI had one goal: put an end to the Dread Wars once and for all. Unfortunately for Dengard, the first move made in a new war would come from the South.

### The First Epimethean War

As Epimethean attacks on the Dengardian Southern border intensified, the maurauding hordes found a leader at home--a charismatic, ambitious warrior, Nero Augustulus. The Dengardian named halfbreed had done what a scarce few had been able to do for thousands of years: unite the many tribes of Epimethea into a unified war machine. Having done so, Nero stood at the head of one of the largest, most savage armies the world had ever known, in the year of 1163. Fifty-thousand Epimetheans began a ruthless, savage campaign against Dengard and its allies, carving a bloody path through the stunned Souther Border, straight into Ordin Wood. The raiding armies, extremely mobile and only lightly encumbered, ran circles around the scrambling defending forces, laying waste to undefended towns all over Western Alancria. Under Nero's wily direction, the horde slipped past the Odesse Line in small parties, coalescing further North to pillage and burn through the countryside.

King Armant was furious. His personal hatred for Epimetheans was matched only by Prime Magus Aubrey, whom he immediately petitioned for swift development with which to crush the raiding armies currently burning the country to nothing from within. While Aubrey and her teams slaved on a new form of weaponry, Grand Monitor Nairn led his forces on a brutal, endless chase. His pursuit of the Epimethean army, though unable to corner the horde, managed to repeatedly shepherd the barbarians away from major cities and farmlands, pressuring Nero's forces to remain moving through the hills and valleys of Central Alancria--in sight of the unassailable walls of the capital city, Mendai. The Odesse Line was fortified and augmented, preventing any further signifianct Epimethean reinforcement from the South--and locking the two adversaries within the Western Provinces.

The war raged for more than a decade. Nero's marauders remained in small war parties, disengaging from any attempt by Nairn to force a fair fight in the field. The death toll mounted as scores of civilans were slaughtered, helpless in the face of such quick and savage offensives. King Armant himself paired with Nairn in war councils, helping design every step of the way towards Nero's defeat. Yet even as Nero's forces were slowly dwindling, it seemed he would outlast the slow, cumbersome armies of the Dengardians. They simply could not keep up with Nero's maneuvers. The situation went from bad to worse, as Mesoford, one of the largest and most important cities of Dengard, was attacked and pillaged by a massive Epimethean war party, leaving Nairn's forces far from a fortified position.

It was in the final years that Prime Magus Aubrey revealed her greatest scientific contributions: advanced equipment enchantment and arcane sustenance. The former ensured that Dengardian troops were efficiently outfitted with top of the line arms and armor, enchanted with powerful enhancements that improved their speed and durability. The latter, perhaps the most important development of the last few centuries, allowed for a dedicated, reliable division of field casters. Where once casters were forced to conserve their magical repetoires for sustained, important engagements, Aubrey's newly designed scroll- and wand-tech allowed Dengardian caster troops to liberally make use of their abilities, enabling destructive--and mobile--light artillery squads to decimate the small raiding parties that plagued Dengard's countryside.

The effects were near immediate. Within the next few engagements, it became clear that Nero's troops, while tenacious and relentless, were simply outmatched in equipment and logistics. Aubrey's contributions ensured that the Nairn's forces could keep up with and match the Epimethean forces rampaging across the territory. Nairn's caster brigades, free to unleash an effectively endless barrage of arcane artillery without the burden of traditional ordinance, laid waste to any Epimetheans brash enough to try and flank the Vanguard's columns.

Nero realized the end fairly quickly, no fool in the face of such a dramatic turn of events. He broke off from the main army of Epimetheans, ordering them to continue their guerilla techniques against the Dengardian heartland, even as they were pushed back to the Odesse Line, where they were slowly squeezed and crushed into nothing. Nero, always the fox, escaped Armant's and Aubrey's retribution by sneaking through The Basin, commandeering a Gnomish galley, and sailing around the coast, straight back to Epimthea and the Dreadlands. Behind him, his forces were obliterated by Nairn, scattered into oblivion.

By 1176, the First Epimethean War had come to an unceremonious end, the barbarian war machine crushed by the King Armant, Grand Monitor Nairn, and the DMRI. The legacy of this conflict, however, would shape the new millenia in unforseen ways.

### Judasus Ennius and the End of the Line

King Armant Ennius was the latest in a string of members within the Ennius bloodline to have issues continuing the Ennian family name. Where once the Ennius family had borne many children, sporting a respectable family tree of uncles, cousins, and other relations, in recent decades the Ennius family seemed to be dying out for unknwon reasons. Fertility became a whispered Ennius issue over the centuries, even as King Armant tried for over a decade of his reign to birth a child. As the years dragged on, Armant's relatives began to die--or go mad. Armant soon found himself one of the only members of the Ennius family left. Four separate wives were queen during this time, each one mysteriously failling ill and perishing before they could give Armant a child. Armant, not one to be discouraged, married a fifth time to a noblewoman. With no living relatives, it was his duty to continue the Ennian Dynasty--he would not allow an Ennius to marry one of the lesser monarchs of the continent. Dengard would remain human-ruled. Of this, Armant was viciously certain.

It was in this context that his one and only child, Judasus Ennius, was born to Armant and his fifth wife, Pennata Ennius, in 1174. Pennata and Armant threw countless celebrations and ceremonies in the baby's honor, spending the first few months of his life endearing him to the people of Dengard. While no fans of Armant's brutally practical reign, the people of Dengard began to develop a warm affection for the new baby child, in no small part due to the subtle calming effect it had on King Armant, whose iron grip on the nation eased into firm and irresistable guiding hand. Despite Armant's genuine adoration of his son, however, Armant proved to be a distant father, spending all of his time in council chambers and audience sessions, leaving the child rearing to the doting mother Pennata, whose sole duty in life became the care of her only child.

The years passed, and Judasus grew older with Dengard. The nation had eased into a tentative malaise--the Eastern Provinces were booming with wealth and trade, while Ordin produced and shipped goods at a historic rate. The future was bright in 1180, the new century just around the corner. Due to Judasus being the only Ennius child worthy of the throne, the young man lived a sheltered life, never leaving Mendai's walls. Even now, his father continued to live in another world, spending little to no time with his son or wife. Judasus' life revolved around Penatta and the small army of teachers and experts that were brought to him. His mother Penatta poured her efforts into educating Judasus, scheduling him to meet and learn from Dengard's greatest minds, many from the DMRI. As Judasus grew and studied, his distant father fell ill to an unknown affliction--quickly and without warning. He lasted less than a week. King Armant died in the Autumn of 1192, his family by his side.

Judasus, at the age of 18, became the youngest Ennius monarch to ever take the throne. Still, his mother Penatta remained at his side, one of his closest advisors in these critical developing years, along with a host of other councilors and advisors, as many as they were diverse in utility. Judasus' education was brought to bear, allowing him, with the help of his mother, to navigate the first few years of his reign with relative peace. In 1193, Grand Monitor Nairn, as distant a role model to Judasus as Armant, died of old age, passing on his blessing and mantle to Gustavel Camnus. At 25, Camnus was one of the youngest Montiors ever named. Judasus and Camnus, despite their similar youth and intensive preparation for their duties, did not bond as quickly or as smoothly as their predecessors. Judasus, a cool headed optimist, had great difficulty managing the pugnacious, perpetually angry Camnus, who quickly developed a muzzled, silent disdain for the benevolent Judasus. As they grew, the pair maintained a healthy distance outsideof their official duties. Grand Monitor Camnus threw himself into the law enforcement portion of his work, while King Judasus studied the simmering civil bitterness left over from his father's reign.

Their attitudes would prove to be crucial to their first international challenge--the looming threat of yet another Hextorian campaign.

### The Third Hextorian Crusade

In 1194, an emissary from the Nan'xin League, a half-orc monk named Lee Fan-Jun, arrived in the city of Mendai, searching for King Judasus and Grand Monitor Camnus. So determined was he to reach the pair, that Lee fought his way through at leasta dozen of Cassalla Keep's guards, until he was finally restrained in the throne room at Judasus' feet. Lee had come with a request for aid--the Hextorians had once again risen from the Eastern jungles, led by the despotic Elder Fa, assembling a coalition of faithful and slaves to threaten the political and religious balance not only of the East, but of the entire continent. The Nan'xin League could not put the Hextorians down alone, and needed Dengardian assistance--or the East would fall, an with it, Dengard's provincial interests.

The decision was not difficult, particularly for the blood thirsty Camnus, who mustered more than twenty thousand of Dengard's finest, along with newly designed artillery batteries and highly trained caster brigades, both the product of the DMRI's 2nd Prime Magus, Mestrick Altokiln. Altokiln's obsession with flame-based designs both miltiary and quotidian, was an enormous influence on the Vanguard's composition--a motif that would prove invaluable to this new Eastern conflict. Camnus personally led this force, the East Company, directly to the Eastern front, Lee at his side.

The situation was bleak. Elder Fa, along with his apprentice, Fray Kai-Rex, had assembled an enormous force of bitter, discontent Easterners who viciously opposed Dengard's growing control of the East, and held every Eastern loss and Western gain on the effete, feckless leadership of the Nan'xin League. With home support unreliable, the Nan'xin stood to lose total control of the Eastern civilizations and religious orders, and the region, in turn, tottered on the edge of total dissolution. Fa's forces, led by Fray and his fanatical sect known as the Tiedao (the Iron Path), had cut a huge swathe through the jungle mountains, cutting off most of the cities and towns from the shrines and temples of the Nan'xin and its allies. With the means of production in their hands, the Hextorians were able to field terrifying divine magics and unmatched martial power.

The crusade lasted for four more years. Camnus and Lee, leading the Dengardian/Nan'xin coalition, went toe to toe with the latest reincarnation of the Hextorian war machine. Unlike the Epimetheans of decades past, the Tiedao and its minions relished open combat, throwing themselves into week long battles with the allied forces. At first, prospects seemed more promising for Camnus and the Nan'xin--the Hextorians, while many, could not match Dengardian tech for long, and the Nan'xin troops proved just as tenacious and ferocious as their Hextorian rivals. Yet as the war dragged on, it became clear to Camnus and Lee that Fa could in fact win in this savage, bloody war of attrition. Hextorian forces had begun cutting off the already strained supply lines of Dengard's forces, even capturing heavy artillery ordinance and using it against its makers. With their forces dwindling, Camnus and the Nan'xin made a final desperate maneuver to end the war once and for all--a straight assault on the Primex, the seat of Hextorian power and the base of operations for Fa himself. If they could put Fa down, the Tiedao and its minions would succumb and surrender.

For more than three months, Camnus and Lee pushed the allied forces to the brink, compelling their troops to an endless march to the Primex, blitzing every Hextorian defense in their way. Losses became catastrophic, but by the end of the march, Camnus and Lee had led a modest army to the Primex's doorstep, where Fa and his honor guard awaited. The battle for the Primex lasted two weeks. Fray and the Tiedao began to close in on the remaining Dengardiand and Nan'xin from all sides, totally collapsing allied logistics. Fray himself stopped the young Lee Fan-Jun from reaching Elder Fa, challening the monk to a duel to the death. As they struggled, Camnus led his men on a final charge against the Tiedao, a suicide manuever desperately hoping that the Nan'xin's last hope and Lee's mentor, the aging martial genius known only as Master Yip, would reach and defeat Elder Fa.

Yip and Fa fought openly on the steps of the Pirmex, as their apprentices tore eachother nearly to pieces not far away. By nightfall, Yip had done the impossible--Elder fa lay dead at his feet, the Hextorian leadership almost completely wiped out. Their lord and master utterly defeated, the Tiedao, spiritually obligated, surrendered to this single unmatched feat of supremacy, their many more minions and slaves fleeing in terror and relief. The Hextorians had been defeated, for the third time in 1200 years. The Nan'xin regained control of the region, with Yip at their head. Camnus, despite his newly forged bond with Lee Fan-Jun, gave his fare-wells, and, in a move that shocked the Nan'xin and Mendai, withdrew all Dengardian forces from the jungle, ceding the region totally to the Nan'xin. Having expected further Dengardian expansion, the Nan'xin were happily surprised.

Camnus returned home in 1198, leading a mere four thousand men home.

### The War of the Mad Man, the Second Epimethean War

In Grand Monitor Camnus' absence, Dengard had been revisited by a newly united Epimethean scourge--but this new threat was very unlike the evasive Nero Augustulus. Though Dengardian intel had suggested that Nero's younger brother, Julius Augustulus, would be the next Epimethean Totem Lord to unite the barbarians and lead them into conquest once more, it appeared that fate had taken a drastic turn. Julius was brutally killed by his son, Danius Augustulus, several years prior, seizing total control of the Epimethean peoples and their thousands. Weak as they were in the aftermath of their past defeat, the Epimethean war machine was now, under Danius the Mad, it found new savage purpose. Unlike his cunning uncle, Danius had no patience for guerilla tactics. Young as he was, Danius whole heartedly believed he could lead his army of close to twenty thousand warriors to the Dengardian capital city of Mendai and bring the city, and the nation, to its knees. And he almost did.

Camnus arrived back in Dengard after the second year of Danius' assault. Danius had launched a volcanic blitz that had smashed a massive hole in the Odesse Line, sending the Vanguard reeling. Inside Dengard, Danius made a bee line for Ordin city, eager to turn one of Dengard's crown jewels to ash. For a full year, Danius' army actively sought out the scattered Vanguard garrisons and fortifications. Unlike his uncle, Danius refused to flee from any fight that was not blatantly suicidal. And, whether from the strength of his men or the horrified shock of his enemies, it seemed to work. The Vanguard was simply unable to assemble an effective defense force, as Danius' horde picked them apart piece by piece. Only in the fields outside of Ordin did Danius' onslaught stall--the Vanguard, aided by thousands of Sentinel police from the Western Provinces, finally managed to muster an effective resistance, tying up the bulk of Danius' forces in a bloody struggle that lasted several months. Only when Camnus returned and took command of the scattered forces around the realm was Danius forced to withdraw.

Thus began a new game of cat and mouse, reminiscent of Nairn and Nero. Camnus chased Danius' war machine through the Western Provinces--and even briefly into the elvish nation of Southern Tymbrael. Danius, through tactics that would have appalled even his uncle, ripped his way through towns and fields, pillaging and resupplying at will. Camnus' forces, like his predecessor's, simply could not keep up. Danius made a concerted effort to send large raiding parties away from the main body to completely level towns and small cities, forcing the furiously dutiful Camnus to send his own men to counter, often unsuccessfully. Once more, it seemed that the Epimetheans would bleed Dengard dry.

Yet as Camnus' forces dwindled, unable to secure the breach of the Odesse Line, where Epimethean reinforcements arrived by the thousands--spurred on by Danius' startling success--Danius grew cocksure. His brazen ambition was clear--he would destroy the capital city of Mendai. To this end, he made his only subtle move of the war. Scouts and pathfinders were dispatched, their only goal being to find alternate paths into the Dengardian capital. And find one they did. Not far to the northwest of Mendai, they found the entrance to a vast network of antediluvian catacombs, ancient tunnels that branched straight into Mendai itself. This subterranean crypt-city, now known as Cassalla's Folly, was entirely unknown to the Crown or the realm. Constructed by unknown actors for unknown reasons, it nonetheless would help Danius accomplish his goal--to rip Mendai apart, now from the inside out.

Danius sent the bulk of his forces deeper into the Western Provinces, personally leading a war party just short of 6000 men to the entrance of the ancient catacombs. Danius planned on steadily funnelling his men through the tunnels, where they would be poised to strike at locations throughout the city center. The Mad Man was so confident in his victory, and so contemptuous of his foes, that he dismissed every opportunity to scout out the site of his impending victory. This would cost him the war, as he immediately saw upon entering the catacombs. The catacombs had been flooded and completely blocked off--someone had betrayed Danius' intentions to Camnus. Just as Danius was able to discover this sabotage, Camnus' ambush began.

Thousands of crossbowmen supported by pyromantic brigades and artillery, opened fire from their hidden positions in the nearby hills, scattering and panicking the Epimethean horde as Camnus tore through them from every side, leading a massive wave of heavy cavalry. Utterly defenseless and completely disorganized, Danius' forces were cut down without restraint. The Great Route, as it was later dubbed, was without mercy--a mere few dozen Epimetheans escaped Camnus' wrath, including Danius himself, who disappeared into Central Dengard for the next seven years, humiliated and defeated. With their leader gone and many of their comrades slaughtered, Danius' horde dispersed. Many, loathe to return to a ravaged, hollowed out Epimethea, simply assimilated into the Western and Southern Provinces of Dengard.

Danius Augustulus, The Mad Man, spent the next seven years living in Dengard on the run, too ashamed to return home and too vengeful to settle down. Thirsty for revenge against the Grand Monitor who had somehow duped him, Danius spent this time causing countless acts of violence, leaving a wake of human suffering behind him.

Camnus returned to Mendai a hero in 1200. Two dramatic military victories under his belt at the age of 30, the Grand Monitor became one of the most respected men in the realm, a fact that both delighted and infuriated the young Judasus, who felt newfound pressure to make something of his reign. While the young king celebrated Camnus' victory, he eagerly sought ways to find his own place in the settlement of such a brutal and vicious conflict. He was soon approached by Sovria Scolcess of the Oros Combine, a Psionic research and security conglomerate of think tanks, universities, and paramilitary labs. She proposed a contractual agreement allowing her organization to head the occupation and re-education efforts in defeated Epimethea. The Sovrian Pact was signed quickly after by an eager Judasus, who was deeply inspired and intrigued by the enigmatic organization and its leader. Dengard would give vast rights to the Combine, allowing them unprecedented control of occupation efforts in Romume and beyond. In exchange, the Oros Combine would grant the Dengardian state a large share in profits made by the scientific and technological advances made from Epimethean research and development. The Admonition Council and Grand Monitor Camnus approved the Pact after a notable presentation made by both Judasus and Scolcess, and the Oros Combine began establishing itself in the Epimethean captial of Romume by the end of the year 1200.

### Relief Edict of 1201

During the seven year period that followed the Second Epimethean War, King Judasus Ennius set about establishing the foundation of what he hoped would be his legacy. Unlike his stringent father, for whom the comfort of his civilians was far less important than their immediate security and stability, Judasus saw great importance in the happiness of the Dengardian people. For decades, the people of Dengard had lived with a general attitude of weary resignation, satisfied only that they were more or less left alone by their government, convinced that their many issues were their own to bear. King Judasus would spend seven years defying that attitude, and would eventually become the most popular monarch since Queen Feticia.

Judasus' first move was to reform the bare bones subsistence programs that had fallen by the wayside during his father's reign, issuing the revolutionary Relief Edict of 1201. Local governments were restructured in order to support a robust, if primitive, welfare program for their citizens. Steady and reliable routes were designed between the Pinjang Valley and the Western Provinces, through which tremendous amounts of crops and food were transported, emptying many of the emergency silos Judasus' father had built. Every week, local governments were instructed to distribute an allotment of food and simple supplies to its constituents, both delivering shipments to isolated homes and holding vast amounts for pick up. The change in attitude was almost immediate--most civilians gained access to a steady supply of subsistence, alleviating a tremendous amount of human misery in the poorest corners of the Western Provinces.

While Judasus' program helped restore much of the citizenry's faith and genuine affection for the State, it was soon threatened by its own success; as the program gained ground, demand and expectations grew. Intranational migration sent tens of thousands rushing to the largest cities of the Empire, such as Ordin, Mendai, Mesoford, and Avnin, all hoping to benefit from the influx of resources. The urban population boom led to ever souring relations between local governments and their citizens, with the demand for aid soon becoming unsustainable. As food was distributed among the multitudes within Dengard's largest cities, the outer reaches of the Empire--as well as the small, isolated communities within--began to suffer, as population movement was thrown into chaos. Labor shortages became common as frontier towns and expeditions lost people to the promise of Judasus' generosity.

Even as the cultural, civic shift continued to simmer, opportunity arose among every strata of society for exploitation. In 1202, Bellmore Industries was founded, one of the first manufacturing companies on the continent. Bellmore Industries began offering its own program similar to Judasus, offering to house, feed, and even educate its employees on the condition that employees patronize Bellmore for all their needs. Quickly, small factory, mining, and lumber towns sprang up all across the West, drawing thousands of hopefuls who soon became utterly reliant on Bellmore for survival. Ordin became home to one of the most infamous lumber towns, a company district known as Sapwyn, a huge shanty town quickly overcome by the Apostles of Cadencia. Sapwyn exemplified the newfound practice that was soon imitated all across the continent, as private institutions, which had already begun to grow in size and influence in the past century, expanded their ability to control, for better or worse, the lives of their workers.

Judasus adamantly resisted calls from his advisers and Admonition Council to repeal or downscale the Relief Edict, insisting that the nation would soon acclimate to the abrupt shift in its society. By 1206, while Dengardian society had stabilized, its finances had not come close to recovering. Tax increases were set in motion two years earlier, and while expectations were good that Dengard would soon find its footing once more, the decades of rampant Dengardian growth had long since ended.

### The Concord Imperative

By 1206, Dengard had reached a point of stagnation. The Empire's days of conquest and settlement had been severely hampered by costly internal struggles--conflict with the Apostles of Cadencia had intensified; Epimethean raiders had resurfaced along the Southern border; organized crime rings had begun to reveal themselves within local governments and industries; rumors of a new Hextorian uprising had begun circulating across the continent; and, most dramatically, an enigmatic militant cult had begun operating within Dengard's borders. Judasus was faced with these issues and more, even as his own popularity among the peasantry had improved state-citizen relations. Inspired by his good friend and Admonisher Rork Huront, Judasus began to draft a new state funded initiative to combat the increasingly diverse crises that were plaguing his nation. Collaborating with Admonisher Fantine and Lord Oretio Tsamara of the Treasury, Judasus crafted a campaign as a bold as it was peculiar. Nothing of its like had been used since the Grim Ages, when Dengard had only just been founded. Then, the monarchs had routinely contracted bands of traveling mercenaries to settle the crises of the times. With Dengard's rise to prominence, as well as the accelerating development of the wilderness, standing armies and enterprising locals had taken the place of these parties of heroes. Judasus sought to bring the practice back.

To that end, he signed the Concord Imperative in 1206, establishing a state-funded party of exceptional individuals supervised by the Office of the Grand Monitor, to travel the nation and help settle its conflicts--while acting as an exciting, inspiring face of the Dengardian government. Judasus spent several weeks giving audience to hopefuls and aspiring heroes, but was dissatisfied with almost every one. It was in the autumn of 1206 that providence provided.

For years, Grand Monitor Camnus had personally oversaw the search for Dengard's most wanted criminals. Three primary targets had risen to prominence, from a combination of their crimes, their connections, and pure chance; chance, indeed, became the catalyst for history. Danius Augustulus the Mad Man, Sor'mon Astra the Umbra of Ordin, and Professor Jovian Astronox, by chance not seen for generations, all found themselves at an unassuming tavern in the small town of Alfis, just to the South of Mendai, one balmy afternoon in the Autumn of 1206. Each a fugitive for crimes against the State and its People, the trio was summarily arrested by the years-long efforts of Grand Monitor Camnus, accompanied by a restless Admonisher, Rork Huront. Camnus had tracked each down meticulously for years, and had finally seen the fruit of his labors.

Camnus prepared to escort his prisoners back to Mendai. It was just then, however, that the town of Alfis became the first victim of what would become known as the War of the Archfiend--Alfis was attacked, quickly and relentlessly, by a horde of undead, led by the Cult of the Rightful Path. The Cult, a collection of necromancers and their followers sworn to an entity only known as Fate, sent thousands of undead warriors pouring into Dengard from all sides, an international ambush. Camnus, in order to save his men, released his prisoners, using their exceptional talents to escape before the town of Alfis was consumed and destroyed.

Camnus stubbornly apprehended the fugitives once more, and escorted them to the Captial for execution. His hand was stayed, however, by a deeply impressed and desperate Judasus. Judasus offered the fugitives an alternative to execution--become wards of the state, little more than slaves, and embark on missions for the empire. The choice was an easy one. While the fugitives celebrated their luck, Camnus was furious. The relationship between him and Judasus was fractured forever. However, true to his duties, Camnus accepted his responsibility, becoming the supervisor of the first iteration of the Concord Imperative:

* Gustavel Camnus, human, Imperious Grand Monitor of Dengard
* Rork Huront, human, Celebrity Admonisher to Judasus Enniues
* Danius Augustulus, human, Vengeful would-be Conqueror of Alancria
* Jovian Astronox, human, Genius Planar Physicist gone Rogue
* Sor'mon Astra, elf, Apostle of Cadencia turned Reformed Vigilante

### War of the Archfiend

Dengard would spend the next year contending with the Cult of the Rightful Path, whose ranks of fatalist, destiny-obsessed zealots would relentlessly seek to destroy the Empire from within through sabotage, civil unrest, and coercive conversion. The Cult was led by an unknown man known only as the Prelate, who claimed fealty to what could only be assumed was the commanding personality of the organization--an entity named Fate.

The Cult of the Rightful Path utilized many of the pre-existing tensions within Dengard to further their ultimate goal of sundering the Empire and its allies. The head of the Dengardian Magical Research Institute, Prime Magus and archmage Derrick Kayle, was soon revealed to be cooperating with the Cult in its necromantic efforts, drawing illegal sources of thaumic power from the Astral plane. The Concord Imperative was dispatched to remove him, and was successful thanks to the change of heart of the would be traitor Tomas Sa'dor, a royal archivist. Kayle's oblivious secretary, Jordan Sahl, was made acting Prime Magus for the indefinite future.

Agents of the Cult infiltrated the ranks of the Apostles, using the Cadencian faithful to embark on ever more dramatic acts of arson and violence against the Office presence. The Apostle agenda became infested by the Cult's influence, turning the anarchistic cut throats into glorified mercenaries. This became evident in Ordin, where Cult rabble rousers convinced the Apostle rank and file to spark an open rebellion within the city. With Ordin's garrison occupied, a Cult led army of undead launched an attack on the Western Provinces, forcing the Concord Imperative to join the Dengardian army in open combat against the undead menace. Most notable was the arrival of Tiny Head, a skeletal behemoth of unknown origins. It was only by defeating Tiny Head that the siege was broken and order was restored.

Apostle operations continued to be uncovered in far flung reaches of the Empire, distant from the usual Apostle theatre of conflict, most notably in the Savoy Isles, one of Dengard's most promising colonies in the Southern sea. Led by Naydren Rath'Cliss, a notorious rising star of the Apostles of Cadencia, the Apostles launched a massive human trafficking program among the Dengardian island colonies, kidnapping hundreds of children in the region for transport back to Ordin for indoctrination and training. A young Imperial Sentinel rookie named Dadron Hill was assigned to the Concord Imperative, and, though largely inept, aided the party in its efforts against both Rath'cliss and the Cult. Rath'Cliss' operation, which unbeknownst to him would funnel the children into the hands of the Cult, was stopped thanks to the intervention of the local druidess, Linea.

The Savoy Isles were cleared of Apostles just in time to confront the Prelate, who had planned on using the Savoy Isles as both recruiting ground and base of operations from which to spread a necromantic affliction born from the sap of a dying, corrupted Tendriculos. Although the party managed to destroy the Tendriculos, defeat a returned Tiny Head, and break the Cult's grip on the Isles, the Prelate was able to escape with one last kidnapping victim, Dadron Hill. The Party gave chase to the Prelate, ending up in Avalon, a militant city state in the plains of Southern Alancria. There, the Avalonian commander, Falcon Cultain, aided the Party in crushing an undead army. The Prelate fled once more, and the Party continued their pursuit.

The Concord Imperative pursued the Prelate to the southern coast of Alancria, setting up a base of operations in Calenport, one of Dengard's most industrious port cities. There, the party cooperated with regional allies to dig up Cult influence from the area. Assisted by Daini Ichimoku, a Rakshasa monk ally of Lee Fan-Jun, the party eliminated the illusionist known as the Emissary, who had usurped control of the city's Sentinels in his efforts to erase Dengardian influence in the region. With the Emissary gone, the party found another opportunity to confront and defeat the Prelate. Unfortunately, their efforts were foiled by a traitorous Dadron Hill who, bitter and resentful of the harsh treatment and contempt of the members of the Concord Imperative, had allowed the Prelate to turn him into a vessel of the necromantic affliction--a living petri dish. The Party was able to defeat Dadron and eliminate the last of the Prelate's followers, forcing him and Dadron to flee into the wetlands of the Southeastern Alancria.

With the Cult's organization all but destroyed, the Concord Imperative was disbanded. Camnus, Astronox, Fen, Dalvamin, and Danius returned to the Dengardian capital of Mendai; Rork, Ker'Kadin, Sor'mon, and Lee found their way to Mellowing Springs, a high class spa and resort for the wealthy. Sashley Lastergann, an agent of the Dengard, was discovered to be working undercover investigating the mysterious nature of the Springs' management. While the members of the Concord Imperative enjoyed the Springs, Lee Fan-Jun discovered the true nature of the Springs, revealing it to be a front for the criminal organization known as Sybarius. Lee was captured before the information was brought to light and was subjected to hideous torture at the hands of Scabs, the true owner of the Springs. Agent Lastergann was summarily captured, raped, mutilated, and left to die in the cell opposite Lee. It was only when Ker'Kadin Tern managed to discover the truth of the Springs that the party was able to free Lee, rescue Agent Lastergann, and dismantle the Mellowing Springs. Scabs escaped in the chaos of the conflict, leaving the party to return to Mendai.

Meanwhile, at the capital, the other half of the Concord Imperative found that the local Sentinels of Mendai had dramatically increased its presence within the city, mustering Sentinels from the surrounding villages and townships. Although the Cult of the Rightful Path had been seemingly defanged, there was concern among the military that an attack was imminent. King Judasus, himself unconcerned, returned many of the city's garrison to their homes, and instead bolstered the ranks of the Royal Guard to protect Cassala Keep and the city below.

Once the party was reunited, plans were made to pardon Danius, Astronox, and Sor'mon for their past crimes, an idea that sparked a vicious argument between Camnus and Judasus. The young king was adamant, and in the end, Camnus had no choice but to accept: three of the kingdom's most wanted criminals were pardoned for their dramatic crimes against the empire and its people.

That same night, the alarm was raised. The Cult had struck, but it had not been a seige. King Judasus was revealed to be a collaborater, the victim of a cloying influence originating from the true semi-divine leader of the Cult, none other than Brutulus Ennius. Brutulus, after his exile from his own nation almost a thousand years previous, had wandered deep to the South, where he was able to secure access to a powerful but malignant leyline of magic. With it, Brutulus gained lichdom and slowly, through the centuries amassed the resources, influence, and power to develop the Cult and infiltrate Dengard, her allies, and the minds of his most necessary pieces.

Judasus led his small army of Cult members in a vicious attack on the city from within. Mendai was nearly tor in half, the estates and districts of Dengard's wealthiest nobles decimated. In the ensuing slaughter, Camnus led the Concord Imperative to defend the Keep, eventually fighting his way to King Judasus. Judasus struggled to resist the necromantic influence, but it was only through the help of Rork Huront and Dalvamin Silverfingers that Judasus managed to rebuff Brutulus' control long enough to destroy the Cult army, sacrificing himself to do so. In the ensuing explosion, the Cult of the Rightful Path was obliterated, along with a third of the city and Gustavel Camnus' parents.

Leaving no time for grief, Camnus led a select group of Concord Imperative members--Rork Huront, Dalvamin SIlverfingers, and Jovian Astronox--into the heart of the Zento Desert, intent on destroying Brutulus Ennius once and for all. They found him hidden away deep below the Earth, a living tomb teeming with thousands of Undead. Believing themselves doomed, the party made straight for Brutulus Ennius and engaged him in a long, desperate battle. It was only by turning Brutulus' powerful leyline of magic against him that the Party was able to destroy him. With the undead army still on their heels, the party consigned themselves to death. However, unbeknownst to Camnus, the other members of the COncord Imperative had not stayed at home. Instead, they had followed Camnus south to reach Avalon, where they convinced Commander Falcon to lead the Avalonian Legion into the desert on a suicide campaign against the remaining undead forces. With their help, Camnus and the Concord Imperative were able to decimate the undead army in its entirety.

In the aftermath of this most turbulent year, the Concord Imperative were hailed as heroes. Gustavel Camnus became Steward of Dengard, and began searching the realm for a suitable heir to the throne; Jovian Astronox was made Prime Magus of the Dengardian Magical Research Institute; Rork Huront returned to the Admonition Committee. Danius Augustulus remained a ward of the Dengardian State, under constant security despite his pardon. Sor'mon Astra, Lee Fan-Jun, and Fen were made Peacekeepers of the Office of the Grand Monitor, stationed around the continent in order to maintain peace and security for Dengard. Dalvamin Silverfingers was made the Basin's Ambassador to Dengard; Ker'Kadin Tern returned to bounty hunting, gaining lucrative contracts in the Western Provinces.

Four Years Passed.