Thornian Army

Banner of the Transitional Council and the Order of the Golden Trident.

The **Thornian Army** was the land force (and sole) branch of the Thornian Armed Forces, though it also has naval and aerial capabilities. In terms of active numbers, it was on par with the army of the Chen dynasty but it had far more combat experience through the Pillager Wars. The Thornian Army was de facto liquidated in January 2022 and de jure replaced by the Armed Forces of Thornia-Aphthonis.

Despite being a primarily land-based force, the Thornian Army traced its origins back to the navy of Ume City and the South Seas Company. Great Thornia evolved from a nascent self-governing colony of Ume into the great power that it is today largely with the help of its navy (which evolved to include land-based capabilities) which oversaw Thornia's expansion. Thornian forces only truly left the orbit of Ume (which evolved into the League of Palus) through the Pillager War (as Thornia's allies abandoned it, leaving its forces to rapidly develop its own military-industrial complex to sustain itself).

All Thornian citizens were required to serve in the army and to be called on in times of an emergency or war. Vocal or outright refusal (i.e. they were at least known to have at least witnessed the mobilisation order and either not acknowledged it or have responded with a refusal) to serve would have required that citizen to pay a hefty fine.

## History

### Formation (Mid 2016 - Mid 2017)

The Thornian Army can trace its origins back to the early militia that defended the nascent state that controlled Ume City. Most citizens favoured on focusing on building up land forces as Ume did not have any major overseas possessions, nor was it being challenged at sea.

Some impatient land owners who found little wealth in the city's boundaries founded the South Seas Company to explore, settle, and exploit the lands surrounding the Umic Sea. The company's small navy managed to discover the iron-rich *Thornica* region (now known as Palus) to the north, and charted the heavily-forested coasts between Ume and Bircalanium. As the company seeked to expand its reach even further beyond, members of the Umic Citizen's Assembly and the then-elected *Ezgeriet* of the day brought the company's navy under its command to prevent the city's resources from being overstretched. The company and the Ezgeriet agreed that the new Umic Navy could use Thornica as its home base.

The navy and colonial authorities in Thornica, which were all former parts of the company, worked hand-in-glove and used each others' resources and powers to rapidly expand the colony's reach throughout the Goruid peninsula and what is now Septia and Aphthonis.

### Thornian nationalism and federalism (Mid 2017 - Late 2019)

The Thornica colony expanded its territorial reach and wealth far quicker than Ume anticipated. Regional nationalism eventually wore-out Ume City's influence over the region and the navy. However, after several attempts to separate from Ume, authorities in Thornica and Ume eventually came to a compromise and established a federal system that allowed the Umic Navy to become the first iteration of Thornia's independent military.

This army would continue to exist until mid to late 2019 when the Holy States attempted to centralise all military command under a Chief of General Staff. The lack of effective leadership and resources eventually saw almost all military capabilities gradually degrade and dissolve over time as resources were almost completely focused on urban development. This practice continued de jure as the Holy States was replaced by the League of Palus.

### Pillager War and reformation (Late 2019 - Present)

After players successfully called for hostile mobs to be enabled on the server, all nations suddenly saw an influx of hostile mobs and the new illager mobs swamp their territories. This sparked the Pillager War, with Thornia starting the pushback against incursions by illager raiding parties.

#### Independent militia (Late 2019)

The Despotate of Thornia formed a new militia to fight-off illager incursions into Palus Urbem and Elysia, as both cities were by that time near-bankrupt and were thus unable to afford iron golems. Swords, standard bows, axes, and armour were all the equipment that Thornia was able to afford at the time.

The sudden upshoot in demand for resources like torches and construction material for garrison towns caused even more severe economic trouble for Thornia. This led to its formulation of the Palus Plan to convince residents of the region surrounding Ume City to move en masse to the Palus Bay region in the hopes of boosting internal trade and resource extraction from the region.

#### Reformation as the Royal Iron Guard (Late 2019 - March 2020)

The Palus Plan's hopes of rapidly increasing resource extraction failed as the new residents of the region found it difficult to adjust. Thornia's ruling elite willingly accepted demands to partition the eastern continental regions of Thornia into new autonomous states, and moved the capital to Elysia. The move to Elysia was meant to be somewhat of a rural escape, but the discovery of even more iron, gold, and diamonds, as well as the re-discovery of villages across Goruid suddenly changed Thornia's fortunes.

The Thornian rump state declared the creation of a monarchy at the end of 2019, moving into the start of 2020. The new monarchy rejuvinated the Thornian nationalist movement and saw the nation's wealth rise spectacularly. A new iron golem policing force called the *Royal Iron Guard* was formed after Elysia and neighbouring Thuron suffered several severe illager raids. The Thornian militia became a part of the Royal Iron Guard soon-after as the state attempted to go on the offensive against illagers.

The Royal Iron Guard went on expansive expeditions to retrace historic expeditions to update the state's knowledge base, as well as to seek new resources beyond the Goruid peninsula. The first such expedition saw naval action across the Umic Sea, Bircan Sea, Eastern Sea, and the Coral Sea (and the capture of the Coral Islands from illager forces). The second major expedition of this scale headed north instead and led to the founding of Volovna, the reinforcement of control over Aphthonis, and expansion into the former provinces of Scovia, Aldeby, and Darrowby.

### Breakdown of relations with the League of Palus (March 2020 - April 2020)

In late March 2020, Thornia got involved in a development aid program that sought to help develop the cities of other states in the League of Palus. Only Xandu accepted the offer of the program. The Royal Iron Guard was deployed to Shanjing to help with the construction of public housing, improving roads, and greenifying the city. As the program was wrapping up its first phase in the city, two illager raiding parties attack Shanjing on both sides of the Shanjing River. Thornian-funded iron golems managed to fend off the first few waves of attacks. Thornian forces intervened in the last few waves. This event, the Battle of Shanjing, brought Xandu into the Pillager War (de facto), but Thornia's intervention was a potential violation of the purpose of the program.

The Royal Iron Guard was renamed to the *Federal Guard* and recommitted itself to defending the entire League. Even these changes did not appear to phase leaders of other states. The Thornian monarchy dissolved itself in despair, and a new socialist party quickly took power, declared the independence of Great Thornia, and the creation of the Commonwealth.

### Post-independence and partisan allegiance (April 2020 - Present)

Under the new regime, the army was renamed to the *Thornian Army*, recommitted itself to just defending Great Thornia and the Palus Socialist Republic, and integrated its command with the Northern Revolutionary Socialist Party. For the first time in server history, a national army was under the direct control of a political party. This was later reversed when the monarchy was restored, and the army consequently pledges allegiances to both the Crown and the party.

Throughout April 2020, the Thornian Army conducted naval and ground exercises throughout the country to re-assess its defences after factoring out allies. It found that the newly acquired far-northern provinces of Scovia, Aldeby, and Darrowby were simply not worth defending (it initially also stated that Meridia was too difficult to defend before a second assessment found it to be defendable if the capital were moved), leading to the TRD.

In late April 2020, another expedition in the north set out to search for bamboos and pandas in the Northern Jungle (west of Aphthonis). Thornian forces briefly occupied the south-eastern sector of the jungle along the Xandunese and Septian border during the closing stages of the expedition after successfully finding and harvesting bamboo, and attempting to bring a panda back into Aphthonis (which ultimately failed).

Further expeditions into Aphthonis have seen the Thornian Army fight many more battles for total control over the province's prefectures. The province's external territories to the north have also seen action from the Thornian Army.

#### The Great Plague and the Second Pillager War (August 2020 - August 2021)

As the Pillager War wound-down, the rapid spread of a plague in Tyavyli and Umia led to societal collapse in the south. The Thornian Army's recent withdrawal from Xandu led to a great deal of instability in Xandu due to the lack of a strong authority to handle the plague. The Thornian Army thus sought to retake control of Xandu but was struck down by the plague itself and a revolt in Shanjing.

Forces recuperated on the border near Shuxian's Domain before returning to Shanjing, finding the city largely abandoned after the survivors of the revolt died off of the plague. Nevertheless, Thornian forces re-occupied the city and used it as a base to re-establish control of Xandu.

The army also sided with the uprising against the monarchy and with the Order of the Golden Trident. This saw the King being deposed, the NRSP banned, and the Order of the Golden Trident gaining control of national politics, religion, and the military.

On 29 August the city of Elysia faced an unprecedented attack by large waves of pillager forces. These waves for so overwhelming that the city's iron golems were unable to hold back the attackers, and thus an estimated 75-80% of Elysia's villager population was killed. The Thornian Army barely managed to end the attack. This caused the government to declare the Second Pillager War. Thornian forces and resources in Xandu were thus quickly withdrawn and forces in Aphthonis were mobilised to Goruid.

The army saw successes in north-east Goruid with the capture of the Adanon Stronghold, and the transformation of the village of Adanon into an important centre for military supply production. However it faced numerous waves of attacks on Elysia, and the city's complicated street layout has not made it easy to repel pillagers.

### Thornian Civil War and disbandment (2021-2022)

*See: Thornian Civil War*

The Thornian Army drastically grew in numbers after the end of the Second Pillager War in response to the influx of refugees from Xandu and Tyavyli, as well as riots and uprisings in rural regions still suffering the worst effects of the Great Plague. It grew large enough to form standing legions that could guard the Goruid peninsula and much of Aphthonis simultaneously. Continued government in-fighting saw widespread famine and the redirection of food resources away from Aphthonis and indigineous regions in Goruid. This fuelled (ethnically Umic) Aphthonic nationalist sentiment and resentment against Umic settlers in Goruid by native Goruidians.

Legions based in southern Aphthonis quickly unified throughout much of late 2021 and eliminated opposition in northern Aphthonis. The Aphthonic legions severely damaged Goruidian legions through several amphibious attacks in northern Goruid and eventually destroyed the remainder of the Goruidian legions in the Battle of the Grimsaurs just south of Colisia in southern Aphthonis. The Aphthonic legions were still formally considered the Thornian Army during the transition period between Great Thornia and Thornia-Aphthonis. The remaining legions were disbanded after the first transitionary phase to the new Thornia-Aphthonis government was complete and a new Armed Forces of Thornia-Aphthonis was formed. The effective successor to the Thornian Army is the Thornia-Aphthonis Ground Forces (arguably the Royal Aphthonic Rangers could also count as a successor).

## Regiments

The sole surviving regiment of the Thornian Army is the Knights of the Golden Trident. It is the elite guard unit of the Order of the Golden Trident. Most of the Thornian Army's regiments either were destroyed or faded into history as the country underwent numerous hardships in the form of the Pillager Wars and The Great Plague. The Pillager Wars proved that Thornia was effectively on its own even when it was allied with other states in the League of Palus. The Massacre of Elysia destroyed most of Thornia's iron golems on the west coast of Goruid. This led to the formation of the Knights of the Golden Trident to establish order across the country. The members of the regiment also effectively control the order and the Transitional Council.

The army gradually evolved towards being entirely amphibious after the Thornian Navy ran out of funds and was abandoned. All legions were considered 'maritime legions'.