January 2025: The Lefebvre Memorandum
Majesty.
It is with some trepidation that I received your missive of yesterday morning, inquiring as to the readiness of the Queen’s Army for the commencement of offensive operations in regards to an autumn campaign. I comprehend and commend fully, your Majesty’s grasp of the strategic situation and of the politickal necessity to strike the traitor Wulfram a blow before his position in Tannersburg can be consolidated, and before the disparate coalition of powers under his current direction may be made a unified force capable of themselves launching offensive operations in turn.
However, such concerns are beyond the remit of a Colonel of Grenadiers, or even a General of Brigade. The brief which you have bestowed upon me pertains solely to my own command, and to the task you have assigned me of ascertaining the state of your Majesty’s forces, a task which I have made my chiefest priority.
Thus, what I convey to you now is from the position of knowledge which that brief has so fortunately placed me in – and as you have always enjoined me to communicate plainly and without conceit to yourself and those individuals which your Majesty has chosen to repose your most intimate trust, I shall endeavour to do so now.
Which is to say that the forces under your command are not capable of offensive action, nor will they be for some period of time into the future, perhaps even into the beginning of the next year.
This is, I think, a truth which you have already suspected, having seen for yourself the forces assembling within Aetoria. For all of their numbers, they remain mostly a patchwork of disparate militias and Houseguards: a force whose current greatest strength rests in their physickal presence sitting atop the centre of mass for the whole of this Kingdom and its government. To disperse this force – as would be necessary in the course of conducting offensive operations – would be to negate this sole advantage. Should Wulfram or his deputies act boldly, then the enemy may yet proceed to destroy a great proportion of the forces at your disposal before they may be used to their full effectiveness. Worse, they may choose to strike direct at Aetoria at a time when timely relief is made impossible by the enemy’s command of the sea, and by the natural sluggishness of a disorganised, undisciplined force – for although the forces currently in the city are impressive in number, only a very small fraction may be said to be in any state fit for campaigning.
My own Grenadiers, of course, I would count as the chiefest of this small fraction. Their ability and loyalty I believe I have no need to elaborate upon, having yourself seen the most evident demonstration of such qualities on the day of Wulfram’s attempted coup. The Dragoons – now the Dragoon Guards – I believe are of similar calibre, and should they be restored to the state of readiness which they possessed at the final phase of the war in Antar, I believe that they would be equal to almost any cavalry in Creation, perhaps even the cavalry of the Takaran Imperial Guard.
However, both these corps remain greatly depleted following the events of the past months. My Grenadiers possess only half its officers and two thirds of its men fit for duty. Two companies of the second battalion remain effectively absent from the order of battle for lack of fit men to fill the ranks. Though our depot battalion has provided sufficient replacements to maintain all the companies of the first battalion to ensure the continued security of the Northern Keep and your Majesty’s person and household, such assurances cannot be made if the regiment is made to serve as the core of a force in the field. Likewise, the Dragoon Guards are short a great proportion of its authorised strength, a matter which has been exacerbated by the recalcitrance of its former commanding officer. Should Cunaris be brought into line, the supply of pay and replacements will likely resume, but until then, the officers of that regiment have been compelled to improvise, to the detriment of its immediate readiness.
This leaves the two other regiments being stood up in the city which your Majesty intends to incorporate into the professional core of the army. Of these, the Queen’s Own Rifles are perhaps in the best condition. Colonel Reyes assures me that he has been able to raise a great number of men who had previously served under him in Antar, and whose loyalty he may vouch for. Unfortunately, a great many of these individuals have since lost some considerable part of their fitness, or have grown into a condition which makes them unsuited for action at this time. As a result, out of the seven hundred men he has been authorised to raise for the first battalion, he reports that only two hundred or so are fit for active duty at any given time, with perhaps another three hundred to reach that condition in the months to follow.
Likewise, my Lord Palliser reports to me that he has had a great glut of volunteers for his new regiment of so-called “Red Lancers”, which he styles as the continuation of his previous regiment now gone over partially to the enemy. He estimates that he has had three applicants for each place available within his six authorised squadrons, likely drawn by the prestige of its colonel. Unfortunately, the great majority of these men are of the city and lack the requisite experience in the saddle to be utilised as effective cavalry. Perhaps some of the more promising of these ill-suited recruits – those who are hardy enough and well-schooled enough in firelocks – may be diverted instead to the Dragoon Guards once the organisation of that regiment is resolved, but lancers must be fine horsemen above all, and where a dragoon may cover his deficiency in the stirrup with prodigal skill at arms or in the skirmish, the same cannot be said of a lancer.
I would urge under strongest terms to avoid field operations before these two corps are ready, for they provide capabilities to an army no less vital than that made by the Grenadiers or Dragoon Guards. Good bodies of light horse and light infantry will provide the ability to reconnoitre the surroundings of the army, maintain contact with the enemy, and broaden the army’s ability to forage and contact the local forces which currently hold much of the country for your Majesty’s government. Without such capabilities, the body of the army – no matter how formidable – will be acting blind and maimed. One need only go to the Shrine of Saint Jeremie and ask the memory of the previous Duke of Wulfram to receive an answer as to how such a condition may ill-serve an army and its chief.
The previous assessment, I must regret to inform your Majesty, is of those components of your army which are in the best condition. I fear it is – as the carters say – all downhill from there.
As of the past few days, I have undergone the process of requesting and recording strength returns from the commanders of those Houseguard and militia units which have mustered to the capital. I have perused these returns in person, and concluded that as of this week, your Majesty is in command of thirty-three thousand, six hundred and fourteen fighting men of this sort.
This figure is, of course, a combination of wishful thinking, brazen falsehood, and straw-brained idiocy.
That the commanders of Houseguards will inflate their numbers in hopes of receiving greater subsidies is known to almost all. The sheer scale of such deceptions were made obvious to any by the course of the war in Antar. The Countess Welles has in her report – which we have both quite obviously read – calculates that the average subsidised Houseguard possesses sixty-five men under arms in reality for every hundred claimed.
This, I believe to be something of an overstatement, no doubt much distorted by the uncommonly good state of Welles’ own Houseguards – which my Lord Barithorne still believes to be of our party regardless of current position.
As such, I would assess the true strength of the irregular forces in the capital at somewhere between twelve and fifteen thousand. Based on the inspections which my officers and other associates have covertly undertaken, I would also suppose that about two in three are lacking in either musket, bayonet, or any manner of uniform which may mark them out as a Queen’s soldier on the field of battle. Many of these supposed companies likewise lack the musicians and colours with which movement in a cohesive body is made possible. It ought to be taken for granted that very few of these men have mounts, and that none at all may field any useful artillery.
Here the stocks in the Northern and Southern Keeps may be of some use, as well as the caches of arms stored in the city. We have in our possession approximately twelve thousand stand of muskets and half a million cartridges. The cannon kept in ordinary within the city’s arsenals may provide us with anywhere from two hundred to two hundred and thirty guns of the appropriate calibre for field use.
However, these figures present a far more optimistic picture than reality. The majority of the firelocks stored in the city are of imperfect condition, and perhaps only one in two may be well-disposed to immediate issue. Likewise, there is lack of bayonets for these weapons, which will mean that any equipped with them will be ill-suited for any engagement against horse. Many of these arms are also of previous patterns, which may make them ill suited for the ammunition in stock, which all dates from the reserve built up during the war with Antar and is thus of more recent make.
The situation regarding the reserves of artillery is no less unfortunate, and may in fact be more dire. While we possess a great stock of barrels, the soundness of these pieces cannot be spoken for, and the fact that the majority of these pieces were taken off warships and merchantmen means that there is a corresponding lack of field carriages and caissons. Though such arrangements may be improvised on short notice, there is no guarantee than any manner of arrangement intended to mount these guns will stand up to the rigours of campaign. While there are gun carriages stowed in the various arsenals, they have been much neglected these past six years, and may be our doubtful condition. We may, with some effort, be able to refurbish enough limbers, carriages, and caissons to serve a tenth of the field guns currently in storage – assuming that a sufficient number of guns may be found fit for service.
I anticipate that your Majesty will concede that the force at her disposal is greatly deficient in all the qualities which I have enumerated, but that you will likewise reply that all armies are deficient from the ideal state in which they may be assured of victory, and that even with such deficiencies taken into account, an autumn campaign may be mounted – imperfectly, but mounted nonetheless.
However, given the strategic disposition of forces, I would advise your Majesty that such a campaign would be exceptionally difficult – at best – to bring to a successful conclusion.
With the assumption of a short and decisive campaign to be decided before the onset of winter, our theatre of operations must be constrained to the northern coast of the Duchy of Aetoria, and the corresponding coast of Wulfram. A campaign must be conducted through the shortest route, along lines capable of supplying a force both capable of forcing decisive battle, of supporting the breaching batteries necessary to open the field works of Tannersburg, which Wulfram’s captains – if not the traitor himself – have no doubt directed.
Given the enemy’s control of the sea, this means any force would be obliged to move quickly. Ideally, they would strike the final decisive blow before the enemy is even fully aware of our intentions, for their superiority in ships and their position at Northern Pillars also allows them the ability to make descents all along the coastline should they be given the time to prepare them. Such descents might be used to delay any advance along the coast roads, or likewise cut our lines of communication and supply from the rear. With supply of such a substantial force difficult to maintain along inland routes, such descents could equally starve and detain the army as it advances.
As I am sure your Majesty would reply, these considerations would only be of relevance if the army does not move quickly enough. As you will no doubt remind me, it is a two weeks’ coach ride from Aetoria to Tannersburg, and an army could realistically be expected to carry the supplies needed for such a duration within its train and the packs of its soldiers. Here however, I will remind you that an army does not move at the speed of a coach, and that even the best-drilled and best-conditioned men move sluggishly by the standards of any individual traveller when marching in a body. The affair might still be hazarded, were the road to Tannersburg open. Unfortunately, it seems that the Viscount Weir has anticipated such a move on our part, and has spent much of the past few weeks upon his estates along the coast road, rendering any advance upon that route most inconvenient.
It would not be difficult to imagine the result of a campaign in such conditions, in such a theatre with the army in the current, precarious state. With supply infrequent and movement likely slow, any army sent into the field will shed its components like a ball of ice thrown into a bathtub of hot water. Men will desert for want of food and pay and will easily do so from a force which has yet to be made wholly cohesive within itself. Once before the fortifications which the traitor Weir has thrown up, the militias and Houseguards will likely disintegrate at a very rapid rate, leaving the professional regiments – which are the main source of our current fighting strength – to be destroyed or taken by an enemy who will be far closer to his own base of operations than we to ours.
As a consequence, I would advise under the strongest terms not to commit to an autumn campaign, but to wait until the following spring, when our position is likely to be far more secure, when your professional soldiery are brought up to wartime strength, when the irregular troops may be fully armed and incorporated into a field force, and when perhaps contact is made with Havenport and his Grace the Councilor-Militant, who may provide some means of support even from his distant station.
-Lefebvre, General of Brigade
February 2025: An Assessment of Military Powers, Pt 1
1: INTRODUCTION
It is no easy task to evaluate the military capability of a foreign power. Although it is generally a trivial matter to discover the official strengths of a given state’s active armies and fleets, it is far less simple an undertaking to then consider the quality of the soldiery and fighting crews involved, doubly so when one must take into account the quality and availability of arms, accoutrements, and the materials and supplies necessary to render such implements of war efficacious in campaign and on the field of battle.
Of even greater difficulty is the task of measuring the more intangible quality of a state’s ability to mobilise its latent military capacities. This consists not only of those trained reserves of fighting men – and in some cases women – which the states in question might maintain in a case of great exigency, but also the willingness of the general populace to bear the cost of military action – both in blood and treasure. As the example of Saint Ludovico’s War has shown us, even the mightiest army and the most unmatched fleet may find themselves unable to carry their government to victory should the general populace who furnish those armies and those fleets with tax revenues, recruits, and the products of their manufacture and agriculture make sufficient opposition to the continuing conduct of military operations. Thus it must be concluded that the evaluation of a power’s military capacity must in some way include the capacity of those that state governs to bear up against hardship and poverty for the sake of the cause which their betters have seen fit to engage them in.
Unfortunately, this final capacity proves almost impossible to quantify. One might travel within a land for a lifetime, spend every waking day in the intimate company of the dignitaries and mechanicals of that country, and even then only have a skewed or narrow understanding of the character of the people they live among – especially as in many cases, that character often changes in a time of great danger or unrest. Thankfully, the study of such matters are not covered by the brief of this report, or the offices which have seen fit to commission it. Such matters are the remit of the Foreign Office and the Clandestine Services, from whom no information has been requested for the composition of this particular precis.
Thus, this document restrains itself to those capacities of foreign powers which have been deemed wholly military: those of the strength of its active forces under arms, those forces which might be mobilised in rapid order, and a basic assessment of the quality and hardihood of those factors aforementioned. The result is an admittedly incomplete picture, but one must hope that it will serve the purpose for which this report was commissioned.
-Welles
2: THE GREAT POWERS
It has been traditionally held that there are four great powers, two greater and two lesser, with the precise identity of those two parings shifting as the particular ruling houses which direct them rise and fall. After the collapse of the Santamorids in the east during the early 570s, this arrangement has often been considered in need of revision, with the number reduced to three. As of recent years, following the defeat of the League of Antar, there are even those who would now put the number at two.
This, I believe to be premature. The fundamental arrangement of landmasses within the known world will always support the existence of four great powers. That oft-quoted Kian statement of ‘Four Corners of Creation, Four Powers Under Heaven’ is not so much a descriptivist theory of political philosophy as it is a simple statement of fact. There are four landmasses great enough to support a power of sufficient wealth and population to project their might over open water in the pursuit of their interests, and those four landmasses will inevitably host powers which will do so, provided they are not in some state of interregnum in which one power falls and gives way to its replacement.
It is this process which is now in play in the east and the north, with the Regency of Varahd soon likely to supplant the last remnants of the old realm of the Santamorids – and with the Principality of Khorobirit likely to at some point in near future fully dispose of the moribund remnants of the League of Antar – itself the successor and deposer of the old Octovian Empire.
In addition to this, it must be remembered that even the Dominions of the Kian and the Altrichs vam Takara are not constants in history. The former has maintained its current configuration only these last three centuries under the power of the Zi’enne Emperors. The latter has lasted significantly longer, being a self-proclaimed republic with a history nearly six hundred years old. Yet this longevity is as much a function of the great longevity of its citizens as anything else. There are those in the Takaran Senate whose grandparents fought in the armies of Friedrich Wilhelm vam Paulus and Darian vam Holt – a distinction which very few of our own Lords of the Cortes may claim regarding the founders of our own Unified Kingdom.
Thus, it must be said that there are four great powers extant in the world today: Takara, Kian, Varahd, and Khorobirit, and it is in that order which the following section shall assess them.
2.1: TAKARA
The Altrichs’ active capabilities are well known to any possessed of at least some basic knowledge in the arrangement of the Great Powers: one hundred and eighty-four battalions in eighty-six regiments of foot, seventy-two squadrons of horse in sixteen regiments of horse – including the two double-strength regiments of the Imperial Guards Brigade – totalling a paper strength of nearly two hundred thousand under arms. These units are split in a peculiar fashion, with the vast majority serving as a standing army on Takara’s home island, and most of the remainder operating as crews aboard the Richshyr’s ships – which include some six or seven hundred smaller craft, and anywhere between ten and a dozen very large troopships.
However, the resources of the active service Richshyr comprise only a small proportion of the fighting capability of the Altrichs in a time of war. There are also the Provincial Militias, which are required to maintain bodies of soldiery and – in the cases of coastal provinces – flotillas of warships. These bodies are drawn from the civilian populace of the empire. Although these forces are trained infrequently, they possess the same equipment as their counterparts in the regulars, and each may possess an accumulated decade or more of experience in uniform, however intermittent that service might have been. In time of war, such a force may be mobilised to easily triple, or quadruple the amount of soldiery under the command of the Takaran Emperor.
Likewise, there are also the various special services and clandestine forces under the command of the various ministries of the Imperial State, chief among them the private armed forces of the Ministry of Imperial Intelligence, and the armed gendarmes of the various local Offices of Police. Naturally, the strength of the former is a carefully guarded secret, while the latter is very difficult to assess, seeing as Takara devolves the ordinary policing of its citizens to municipalities. Though these gendarmes – despite the name – are generally unarmed, they possess some training, and may serve as support for any military operation. Both of these bodies present uncertainties regarding their likely strength, but there can be little doubt that their training and the resources which have been employed to maintain their readiness would make them significant threats by themselves to any power of the secondary rank.
2.2: KIAN
When one thinks of the armies of the Great Kian, one thinks primarily of the towering and multitudinous masts of the great Fortress Ships, and of the disciplined ranks of the Imperial Banner Army – each one of its Grand Divisions equal to the whole of our own army at wartime strength in capability, its formations bristling with rockets and horse artillery and thunder-lances and any vast variety of curious but undoubtedly effective armaments. However, this force – however large it might be to our own eyes – represents only a fraction of the soldiery which the Kian Emperor might call upon in times of war. It is those other elements which bear further exposition, for much as our own regular regiments serve as only the professional core of a wartime force formed primarily of Houseguards, the Imperial Banner Armies and its associated fleet are only the peacetime portion of a vast host of Dominion Armies, possessed of a weight of numbers which no power in Creation could ever match.
As most are well aware, the lands of the Kian Emperor are primarily divided into eight Dominions, which possess their own traditions, cultures, local governments, and regimes of customs and taxation. While all acknowledge the suzerainty of the Imperial Throne and the Grand Staff and rely upon it for a great many services and undertakings, they are in many ways sovereign, and organise forces for their own defence as well as the defence of the commonality. These forces – referred to commonly as ‘Dominion Armies’ are intended to be mobilised in force during a time of war. In case of great exigency, each Grand Division of the Imperial Banner Army is to form a core for the mobilised forces of the Dominion Armies, to create seven large armies in the field, each possessed of at least some quantity of soldiery trained and equipped to the highest standard.
The remainder of these forces – those raised locally in the Dominions themselves – are of variable quality and composition, as befitting the environs and conditions in which they were raised from. These range from marine infantry and skirmishers raised among the marshes and shores of the coasts to the light horse of the southern steppes. These troops are often indifferent in quality, being trained only intermittently, and without the long decades of practise which their Takaran counterparts may take advantage of. However, this relative deficiency in quality is to be made up for by the flexibility which is imparted by an army made up of so many different varieties of troops, the massed firepower of the Imperial Banner Army and the auxiliary artillery trains of the Dominions, and by sheer numbers, which the Kian may readily replace due to their immense population.
2.3: VARAHD
It is tempting to think of Varahd as an ancillary of the Great Kian – the equivalent of a drier Butea or Rathkurin with better food and worse beaches, yet it must not be forgotten that the territory of the Varahdi floodplain once supported almost the majority of the population of the old Santamorid Empire, and that each of its dozen great cities might easily rival Aetoria at its peak season. Almost as many people live in this region as on the whole of the Calligian continent, and the Regency itself has over the course of the past few decades, developed a system of taxation and administration which allows it to use this great population to support the largest and perhaps best-equipped armies on the Mhidi’yossi continent.
It would likewise be tempting to dismiss the Regency’s military capacity as entirely being propped up by support from the Great Kian. While it is true that the latter power subsidises the Regency and provides considerable support to its armies in the form of advisors and even expeditionary forces, the bulk of such support is in fact naval in nature, with the relatively underdeveloped fleets of the Regency supported by the might of the Kian Baieyanne Haie’jounne and several ancillary commands. Out of any five Kian assigned to the support of their ally, four are sailors, not soldiers.
The fifth Kian in this analogy ought not to be considered a substantial part of the Varahdi military strength either. Though they have surely operated in direct action against the Regent’s enemies, they have primarily constrained themselves to raising companies of troops trained and equipped in the style of the Imperial Banner Army. However, these forces make up barely three or four thousand in total, and are rarely employed except at occasions of the utmost extremity. There are perhaps twenty times that number of troops in the Regency’s regular armies, these forces being well equipped and trained for the purposes of fighting along the rich floodplains of the Regency’s northern border, and the deserts of Old M’hidyos. While they remain stymied by the rebellion in their south, their engagements against enemies on both ends of their domain have proven the troops engaged to be at least the equal of any Tierran Army – and with the ability to field considerably larger contingents of heavy horse and light field artillery as well.
2.4: KHOROBIRIT
There are those who would question the Principality of Khorobirit’s inclusion in this category. Were they not, after all, but a mere portion of the League of Antar, a power which we have so lately beaten upon their own territory? Was Prince Khorobirit himself not beaten upon the field of battle, hounded back to the estates of his home territory, and then betrayed by the greater part of his own allies?
Yes, yes, and yes. However, the events subsequent to these reverses demonstrate not that Prince Khorobirit is a beaten foe, but only how fortunate we have been in facing a divided and moribund republic as venal and self-destructive as the League of Antar, rather than an individual capable of more effectively marshalling the plentiful resources of the Calligian continent.
Prince Khorobirit now marshals a force of thirty or forty thousand professional soldiers, including regiments of foot, horse, and field artillery. He has begun developing the necessary facilities for the development and establishment of batteries of horse artillery and begun assembling a formidable siege train superior to that of any Prince in what for the moment remains the League of Antar. In addition to this, he may continue to draw upon the traditional military resources of himself and his allies – whom he has taken great effort to remake into subordinate members of his Privy Council. Such a force may comprise of up to a hundred thousand serfs to be armed and levied at any given time. Given the other administrative reforms which the Prince has undertaken, he may be able to field an even greater force in the years to come.
Only the presence of hostile powers on his borders and his lack of ability to raise a fleet or train the sailors to crew it keep him confined to his corner of the Calligian continent. It would be inadvisable to assume that affairs will remain in such a state for any period beyond perhaps five or ten years. Should he be given the time to consolidate his power fully and cement his reforms, he may have the wherewithal to overawe or control the entirety of Calligia, suborning the League to his will or abolishing it entirely. Should that happen, one doubts there would be any further dispute as to the validity of his claim to Great Power status.
2.5: CONCLUSION
It ought, perhaps, to be self-evident the pointlessness of seeking a comparison of strength betwixt the armed strength of any of these powers and our own. Such comparisons are only of use when there is a question regarding the relative capacity of two powers – to determine which of any two parties is the stronger. In the context of Tierran policy, the answer to such a question will unquestionably and unambiguously be the same in regards to the powers assessed previous: ‘they are’.
This, I do not think, is subject to much dispute. Although certain of the aforementioned powers may lack the means to pose a direct threat to the Unified Kingdom, they nonetheless maintain sufficient armed strength to easily overwhelm any resistance on the part of this country on conditions which favour them, be it their home ground, or some other field of battle in which they will be able to exert the fullness of their power.
Such assertions, thankfully, cannot be made of those powers assessed in the next section.
March 2025: An Accounting of Noteworthy Officers
——–,
I have taken the liberty of interpreting and summarising the notes which Ellie and Rina have provided regarding certain officers of my brother’s army for future reference. These draw on both sets of reports, as well as Lina’s impressions, which I have been able to acquire through the normal means in which she makes her reports.
As the officers in question have so recently come into possession of their ancestral titles and taken their seats in the Cortes, I have also taken the liberty of advancing them invitations to our next meeting. I believe that they may be turned to our purposes if handled appropriately. Thus, I would have you read these notes in preparation for that occasion and make ready to act upon them as appropriate.
I have no doubt that our counterparts are compiling and examining notes of their own – we cannot assume that they are so lax as to give up on any fresh Lord of the Cortes before they even make an earnest effort. We must assume that we are, in effect, already operating in a state of contention with them regarding the opinions and dispositions of the officers noted below. I will trust you to act accordingly.
Alaric d’al Castleton, Baron Aldershall, Lieutenant-Colonel (Dragoons), KCSJ, GR, MSO.
Age: 29
Place of Birth: Aldershall, Wulfram.
I fear we may have our work cut out with this one. He is of a mould which seems to conform quite closely to what our counterpart would consider an ideal conscript to his cause. From Lina’s reports, I am given to understand that he is well-mannered, well-spoken, and well-connected. Despite the relatively paltry income and status of his family, he has used the war profitably to secure close alliances with Cunaris, Hugh, and even my own uncles. Whether this is a result of intention, what Lina calls an ‘incorrigibly endearing ability to make friends of anyone he lays eyes on’, or a combination of the two remains a mystery to me. Our counterpart, no doubt, will consider him the good-hearted and well-mannered compleat gentleman which he carries himself as, and will just as likely seek his friendship by appealing to such an image.
Here, perhaps, we have one advantage. Rina tells me that she has likewise been able to cultivate some manner of attachment to Lord Aldershall. The precise nature of this arrangement I have seen fit not to investigate, although given the parties involved, I suppose various guesses might be made. Her impression is that Aldershall possesses a certain addiction to playing the gallant, a predilection which we may turn well turn to our advantage provided we do not greatly press his forbearance to the point of offense.
Rina, of course, believes that she is far from violating such a boundary, but she has always played overly bold with the affections of others – and far too readily resorts to cynicism when attempting to assess the character of another.
To which, I may only offer Ellie’s own remarks as a manner of counterpoint. By her impression, Aldershall is actually a rather indifferent soldier and possessed of only the most rudimentary graces, which comes as something of a contradiction when regarding his rather impressive military record and his great ability to make friendships with those above him. This, I suspect, is more a function of a near-suicidal sense of bravery on and off the field than anything else, which would be another point in support of the argument that his disposition and comportment is an honest reflection of his character, and not a mere masque with which to achieve advancement.
As a result, I would advise we deal with Aldershall honestly, and without artifice. His natural predisposition towards gallantry will give us a certain degree of freedom to operate, but we must take care not to behave too brazenly before him – such men often do not react well when their illusions are broken. We must take care to respect them in good faith for as long as honour and expediency allow. Our counterpart has already extended him an invitation to the Rendower Club, which means he is one foot into the camp of our adversaries already. Let us endeavour not to press him into following with the other.
Louis d’al Sancroix, Baron Reddingfield, Major (Dragoons), KSCJ, CSJ, MSO.
Age: 36
Place of Birth: Reddingfield, Cunaris.
One ought to know by now just how difficult it is to get any two of us to be in complete agreement on a given subject of any specificity. Thus, you would likely share my surprise to know that on the subject of my Lord Reddingfield, there is an agreed caucus of three.
“A glib imbecile”, Rina calls him. Ellie is somewhat more caustic in her own remarks to me – though I suspect some of those reports to have been made the subject of some embellishment at the instigation of that razor-tongued harridan Barbone. Lina does not seem quite so condemnatory in her own words, but I believe I know her manner of writing well enough to say that every single phrase she devotes to the description of the man possesses some backhanded reference to his apparently quite worrying lack of intelligence.
Yet clearly, there is more to this man than a silver tongue and an empty snuff box where a brain ought to be. For one, it is not an easy thing to appear witty and well-mannered among the educated and the cultured – yet Reddingfield has evidently been able to make some profitable connections despite his apparent lack of intellectual capacity. Likewise, it is no easy thing for a man to maintain a reputation and a steady advancement in an army at war when one possesses neither the means nor the familial connections to secure favour and patronage from those willing to dole it out.
I would note then that Ellie speaks not at all of his ability on the field of battle. Evidently, she has seen little of him in that capacity. Oddly enough, it is Rina who speaks of his capacities in that quarter, and who makes some rather oblique references to his willingness to act upon his own initiative. I will not copy her words directly here – I suspect that they allude somewhat to matters regarding her work which I would not speak of even in private correspondence.
Normally, such a fellow would be an obvious candidate for the ranks of our counterpart’s faction, yet he has made no move to secure a place within it. Indeed, if anything, he has aligned himself with Lord Palliser and his Overseas Club, which renders him more open to our party than not. Lina has made some mention of extenuating factors which may serve to dispose him favourably towards us, but I would rely on such matters with a great deal of caution. She has ever been too fond of silly risks for the sake of some fleeting advantage, and I fear this one might end up blowing up in her face.
Let us then resolve to win over this fellow honestly. If he truly is as featherbrained as my dear friends believe, it shall not be so difficult a matter to achieve.
Arturo d’al Maradirez, Baron Sanloren, Major (Dragoons).
Age: 25
Place of Birth: Sanloren, Aetoria.
Where all are in agreement regarding Reddingfield, none seem to be possessed of any common ground in regards to Sanloren.
To hear Rina and Ellie speak of him, one would practically imagine two entirely different men. The former speaks of him as if he were one of my brother’s finest fighting officers – though not quite with the same degree of praise with which she describes her own. The latter seems wholly of the belief that the only means to deal with such an individual is to put him down like a rabid dog. As I am not in the habit of making friends of those who lie habitually (to me, at least), I must conclude that these two images, however contradictory, are facets of the same man.
Ultimately, it is Lina’s reports which must bind these two supposedly opposed faces together. In her own account, she describes him as akin to a human musket ball, who when fired will devote the whole of his skills and energies to the annihilation of the target he has been pointed at. Such an assessment makes sense of the seemingly contradictory images of efficient soldier and callous thug which the previous reports have made, in a manner which I believe has given me a somewhat satisfactory appraisal of the man as a whole. I have known others of the like, which means I believe I might understand the character of such an individual.
In short, there is a sort of rough honesty inherent in such men. They care little for the niceties and the higher sentiments which Ellie seems so enamoured of. At the same time, they lack the internal complexity which causes them to hesitate at moments of decision. They will always take the action which they believe they are supposed to take, without second thought or particular contemplation of any wider consequences. They are weapons, to be directed carefully and in hands suited to best employing them. Should such men have their essential nature misunderstood or neglected, they will do only unintended damage – yet should they be cared for and attended to properly, they may be effective beyond the imagination of those who consider such individuals no more than unlettered brutes.
Such men also tend to gravitate to each other, and as the late war as revealed the character of so many such men and placed them in company with one another, it ought not be surprising that Sanloren has done so. Rina’s brother, I am told, has actually gone so far as to refer to the man as his friend, which must have taken a prodigious amount of effort on the part of poor Sir Caius. Likewise, he has managed to secure a place in the Admiralty Club, thanks to his friendship with Sir Daniel d’al Lefebvre – an unlikely pairing to say the least if one were to compare anything but their similar characters. In such a place, with such friends, Sanloren ought already to be predisposed towards our party. We need only ensure that we do not offend his nature by treating him as something he is not.
And that Ellie does not attempt to throttle him next they meet.
James d’al Ortiga, Baron Ezinbrooke, Lieutenant-Colonel (Dragoons), GR, CSJ, MSO.
Age: 41
Place of Birth: Ezinbrooke, Salt Coast.
One might perhaps be happy to know that Rina and Ellie are very much in agreement regarding the character of this one. The former describes Lord Ezinbrooke as a brave if somewhat untutored soldier, an excellent judge of character, and a man of surprisingly keen intellect. Ellie likewise rates Ezinbrooke’s ability as a fighting officer poorly, but much praises his abilities in organising and motivating the dragoons under his command.
The fact that he has evidently rendered some great service for Rina’s employers in Royal Intelligence – and seems to heartily agree with a great number of Ellie’s beliefs and theories regarding the future reform of my brother’s army surely has very little to do with their approval, I am sure. As keenly intelligent and firmly sensible as they are – as, I would remind you, all of you are – they are not entirely impartial.
Which leads me to Lina’s assessment, of an entirely different character. “A pompous, self-loathing jackass, who bends his considerable skill at sophistry solely towards the end of making others feel sorry for him”, those were her exact words. Obviously, she has not quite responded as well to Ezinbrooke’s evident charm as the others have, although whether this is because she has been required by the exigencies of the service to keep much closer company, or simply Lina’s natural sense of cynicism, I cannot say. Whatever the case, it means that I must at least entertain the possibility that the closest observer of the man is wildly off her mark, or that two of the most intelligent and perceptive individuals I know have been thoroughly cozened by an expert in the arts of deception.
In either case, I suspect such a person would be most useful to us, and that he might think the same of us in return. Given his apparent gifts for oratory, it comes as no surprise that he has recently received an invitation to the Reform Club, which I suspect Ellie may have played some part in securing for him. As a result, Ezinbrooke may already be of the belief that he is in some way indebted to us. Should we act on this perceived connection, we may quite easily turn his disposition to one favourable towards our aims – but should we presume too openly or too greedily, he may just as easily turn away from us out of spite. I have little doubt that our counterpart would much covet the recruitment of such a figure, and I would very much not wish to indulge such a sentiment on their part.
I would be speaking falsehood if I did not confess my own misgivings as to the daunting nature of swaying any of these men to our side over the course of a single interview. Individuals such as these are not accustomed to taking orders from those such as us.
However, I would likewise be expressing falsehood if I did not state my confidence that we are better positioned to do so than we might have been at any other possible occasion. With the intelligence which our dear friends have furnished us, and the skills which I know you all to possess, I believe we might count on a reasonable chance of success.
If we all play our parts well, and use what leverage we possess skillfully, we may yet win my brother great advantage in the days ahead.
-Izzy
(Note: Assume Welles is alive for all of these)
April 2025: Intelligence Assessment – Wulframite Forces
Frahliin Intendant.
As requested, I have compiled a brief assessment regarding the military assets currently available to the Duke of Wulfram and his supporters. Pursuant to standing orders from the Director of Imperial Intelligence, this assessment is not to be entered into the official record, and exists outside of the regular documentation and categorisation system.
If this document is reproduced in an official capacity, Third Office is to deny all allegations of involvement.
The situation in Tierra remains highly fluid, and as a result, the information in this assessment is provisional, and serves as a best-estimate of the situation on the ground. While Wulfram’s General Headquarters (referred to from here on as Tannersburg) lacks complete information as to the forces nominally available for deployment, it does still possess the most complete picture regarding those assets at its disposal. As a result, this assessment will draw heavily from information available at that point, both received second hand from human intelligence sources which have been deemed of sufficient reliability to be trusted, and the observations of the officers on the staff of Ambassador Sept – which are of course to be trusted implicitly.
In short, the forces available to Tannersburg can be divided into three broad categories:
The core of Wulfram’s forces, formerly what passes in Tierra for professionals.
Organised territorial forces which are theoretically similar in structure to our Provincial Militias, called ‘Houseguards’.
Unorganised militias which existed primarily for purposes of political organisation and intimidation, which have now found themselves in a situation of open warfare.
Which is to say, forces which might be useful in the short term. Forces which may be useful with considerable investment of time and resources. And forces which will likely never be useful, except to deprive their enemies of ammunition by having it shot into their bodies.
The first of these categories, the so-called ‘professionals’ are the most qualified of the forces which Tannersburg possesses, but their numbers are few, their units are in many cases depleted, and their loyalty to the regime remains less than certain with a single exception, this exception being the regiment of Cuirassiers which the Dukes of Wulfram has traditionally maintained as a personal bodyguard – and an unofficial threat against those who would be too open in opposing them. This regiment, is of course, extremely loyal – perhaps too loyal. During the violence in Aetoria, they performed quite well until they were thrown into confusion by the unexpected charge of a laughably small unit of Isobeline Dragoons. This force, having endangered the person of the Duke of Wulfram, compelled the Cuirassiers to wheel about to protect their nominal head, a movement which proceeded to spread panick and lead to a general collapse of morale.
This engagement also shows the weakness of the professional infantry under Tannersburg’s control. Even in the Richshyr, there is a small amount of respect for the Tierran Marines. The Incident of Lyndsfriden 39 demonstrated them capable of fending off – if not defeating – a Liquidation Team with the assistance of well-chosen ground and superior numbers (the specifics, of course, I am sure you are quite familiar with). However, their actions at Aetoria demonstrated their weaknesses when deployed not as detached companies and half-companies, but in whole battalions. In such a condition, the Marines performed about as well as could be expected by the regular troops of a third-rate power, but they were likewise thrown into confusion by the sudden Isobeline cavalry attack on their flank. Such an incident demonstrates their unfamiliarity with and inability to respond effectively to cavalry – as well as their officers’ lack of experience in handling their commands when brigaded together into a larger formation.
Last of all, and perhaps most formidably is the Tierran Fleet, or rather the most powerful of the three fleets which Tierra maintains. This formation – referred to as the Northern Fleet – consists of perhaps half of the former Tierran navy’s capital ships, and many of its fastest and newest light vessels. While these ships are sluggish and ill-designed compared to our own, there is little question that they will be able to not only maintain maritime dominance of Northern Tierra, but also interdict and deny Aetoria’s customary trading lanes at will, unless the Isobeline regime chooses to begin convoying their merchant shipping, a decision which will sap more of their own scant naval resources.
A secondary fleet, the Reserve Fleet, is also nominally under Tannersburg’s control. However, its position is considerably more precarious, being composed primarily of older and lighter vessels, and ships which have been placed on inactive status – lacking masts, guns, and other fittings. It will take at least six months to a year to ready the ships of this fleet for action, and this fleet’s base at Crittenden lacks the resources and the facilities which serve the Northern Fleet at Northern Pillars and Meerhaven.
For all of their faults, these forces remain the most professional and experienced at Tannersburg’s disposal. However, they are not numerous enough to win a general conflict. In total, the land component of these forces consists of, at most, a single regiment of heavy cavalry and four battalions of infantry – though these battalions of infantry may indeed be required elsewhere for regular duties as ship’s marines. Additional units are being raised to meet the need, though a lack of funding and available veteran troops for training cadres will delay the formation of these units, which currently consist of a regiment of light cavalry, and six battalions of light infantry.
The second category consists of the bulk of what might be considered the more reliable element of Tannersburg’s forces. These are the Houseguards, part-time militias raised and armed by local aristocrats, whose existence is subsidised by the central government. In times of war, these small five-fen armies are ’embodied’ into coherent regiments, their commanders become officers, and they form the vast majority of the forces which the Tierran crown deploys. While this system might seem superficially similar to those of the Provincial Militias, these embodied regiments from this source tend to be of uneven quality in discipline, drill, and equipment. It is well-known that corruption has been endemic within the Tierran aristocracy, but the embezzlement of Houseguard Subsidies in particular serve as an egregious example of this behaviour. As I am sure you yourself have gathered from your own observations in years previous, the forces which are constituted by such a system often fall dramatically short of even the standards of the Tierran regular regiments, let alone those of any civilised military.
However, there are particular elements within this mass of militias which are more coherent and better-drilled than others. These tend to be the private troops of particularly wealthy or civic-minded local aristocrats, who have invested particular time and energy into the maintenance of effective troops for times of war or emergency. Some of these units are almost equivalent to ‘professional’ battalions in quality, if not in size. Unfortunately, these forces are exceptions, rather than the rule. Perhaps only a few hundred of the thirty or forty thousand total raised Houseguards available to Tannersburg are of such standard, with the rest falling far short, being more the equivalent of a local shooting club than anything of military value.
In addition, these forces are ultimately not loyal to Tannersburg itself, with the exception of those Houseguards raised by the Duke’s immediate allies. While our Provincial Militia are drilled and trained to support the defence of the Altrichs as a whole, these Tierran Houseguards are primarily formed for local defence, and are therefore immediately loyal to the local magnate who pays and feeds them, and the prefecture which they are raised from. In the war with Antar, this was not a concern. At no point were the holdings of any Tierran lord directly threatened. In the case of the current conflict, however, there will always be the chance that the officers commanding these Houseguard units will find their personal estates threatened, and be forced to confront a conflict of interest between their loyalty to their military superior, and their loyalty to their own interests.
It cannot be assumed that they will default to the former.
With the third category of forces, we come to the most frustrating part of the assessment – for in regards to its numbers, we know almost nothing. In the status of its organisation and equipment, next to nothing. In its loyalties, we know less than nothing.
Prior to the outbreak of open violence, the Duke of Wulfram and his supporters sponsored the creation of many irregular militias throughout the cities and the countryside. When hostilities ensued, Wulfram raised a large number of these irregulars in the city of Aetoria itself, to be matched by Isobeline irregulars of comparable number. Upon evacuating the city, Wulfram made the unadviseable decisions to take as many of these irregulars as he could, which was achieved at the cost of heavy casualties on the part of those professional forces under his control.
If the quality of the irregulars evacuated are representative of their quality as a whole, then it would be easy to say that this was not an advantageous exchange.
To call such forces a military asset would be an exercise in some imagination. From what I have seen of them, they lack proficiency in even the most basic drill, maintain no discipline whatsoever, and do not so much possess officers as they have among their number those who occasionally give them commands – which are not always guaranteed to be obeyed.
Their equipment is in no better a state. None are uniformed, save for a blue sash to denote their nominal allegiance. Only one in two possess a firelock of any quality or type, and the remainder possess only improvised clubs or knives. Of the weapons which were arranged for delivery to this group prior to the outbreak of violence, there is no sign. Either they have been captured by the Isobeline forces, kept reserved for the hands of those actually capable of using them effectively, or have been distributed in five-fen packets among the great mass of these irregulars, who have proceeded to lose, sell, or otherwise dispose of them ineffectively.
Perhaps it is for the best that such arms have not been distributed efficiently, as there is news every day of some mishap wherein some untrained irregular shoots another in a heated dispute, or a training mishap, or – in some cases, it seems – for sheer amusement. Were all of these irregulars fully armed, I have no doubt that the rate of these incidents would be even greater.
The question of their reliability is also an open one, though I suspect both of us could intuit the answer. At their foundation, these irregulars do not see themselves as soldiers and have not prepared themselves for a long campaign. Many expect an adventure of a few weeks or months, and a return to their homes for the harvest or the winter. They lack the skills necessary for competent campaigning, they do not know how to march efficiently, or camp in a manner befitting a military force. If committed to the hardships of a prolonged campaign, it will not be a question of if they will desert and sicken in great numbers, but how quickly.
Should these forces actually be exposed to combat, the rate of attrition will only increase. In Aetoria, I am told that these forces melted away before even the slightest opposition, and that the vast majority of them proceeded to abandon whatever loyalties they professed to melt into the city. I am told that those which disembarked at Tannersburg were, in fact, the best trained, best equipped, and most loyal of all of those present in that action.
According to their own reports, there are approximately fifty thousand of these irregular bands mobilised within the Duchy of Wulfram. The Viscount of Brockenburg estimates the true number to be closer to thirty thousand. I suspect we shall be fortunate to see two thousand of them remaining in six months time.
Assets are at this moment being emplaced for wider assessments if required. However, given the decentralised nature of the Tannersburg government’s forces, it may be a period of several weeks or months before a comprehensive review may be delivered. Given the extreme fluidity of the current situation, this could result in considerable deviation from the observations in this report.
-Wendela Murakami
Under-Intendant, 3rd Office
May 2025: Old Calligia – What We Know, Pt 1
Old Calligia: What We Know
translated edition, 616
Delivered Originally by Lieux Jiannehouwe, Lecturer of Classics at the University of San’heu.
Foreword to the Tierran Translation by Nicolas Eliadore Jerome d’al Gascoyne ae Torrington, Viscount Halford:
The land of Old Calligia seems to us sometimes like a land out of myth, its existence being so far removed from our present times. Indeed, much of what we retain of that great empire comes to us only as myths and legends, in the distorted shapes of folk-tales and snatches of half-forgotten poems, and the set-dressing for the stories of the end of their world and the beginning of our own. Were these the only evidences of such a country’s existence, it would perhaps be easy to dismiss the very idea of Old Calligia as a sham – the product of envious Octovian scholars fabricating a great ancestral story of their own to rival that of Old Kian, or the work of Antari polemicists seeking to create a legacy of glory to reach back towards.
Yet what cannot be dismissed are the ruins of the great cities which are sometimes found in what was thought to be untamed wilderness, the collections of artifacts and fragments of finely worked goods far beyond the capacity of modern Antari serf workshops to create, the sections of road so straight and smooth and enduring that the Octovians themselves could but conform their own networks of highways to those systems – and the remnants of great irrigation works which show evidence of not only having brought water great distances, but against the force of gravity as well. These are the legacies of Old Calligia which we cannot ignore, and the recent sojourn of our armies to Southern Antar during the late war so recently concluded gives us a new wealth of sketches, accounts, and souvenirs to add new points of knowledge from respectable and reliable sources to add to our fragmentary understanding of this long-ago world.
And our knowledge does, regrettably, remain fragmentary.
While the primary purpose of the Foundation is to study the nature of the Bane and the Curtain of Storms, this field of examination necessarily leads to the study of Old Calligia and its contemporaries – for to study the Bane is to study the Banedeath, and to understand the Banedeath is to seek knowledge of those civilisations which flourished before it. One cannot understand the magnitude of the loss of human Banecasting without understanding the wonders which were lost in the first place. The Kian, of course, possess admirable records of life and great affairs in such a time, as do the Takarans. However, the former have so successfully maintained the structure of their society through the traumatic events of that time that it is difficult to determine what part of it emerged as a product of the Banedeath, and what predated it. The Takarans, likewise, possess little evidence that their society changed very greatly at all, and much of the events of the Banedeath are overshadowed by those of the long-running civil war which supplanted the Second Altrichs with the Third.
At first glance, even the recent uncovering of considerable evidence does little to assist in this endeavour. For all that we may say that our knowledge of Calligia’s remnants has doubled or even increased tenfold these last few years, the structure of that knowledge remains fragmentary, and to piece together the shape of that society, its laws, and ways of comportment through such fragments would be like assembling the narrative of a novel from individual brushstrokes taken from the pages of the first volume. True, broad strokes might be induced: that the Calligians were great builders who raised their structures with the help of Banecasting, that this capacity allowed them to live lives of plenty and ease which we could only dream of, that the loss of this capacity resulted in the overthrow of their civilisation, and the age of chaos led to the rise of Saint Stanislaus. However, these were things which were already known, and there would at first seem little profit in peeking outside ones’ window simply to confirm the dampness of the rain.
However, that does not mean that there is no profit in examining such fragments. Though they offer us no concrete answers, they give us some means of speculating with a greater or lesser degree of confidence, much as the individual lines of a sketch might make it easier to discern the shape of the whole. Such guesses are not, of course, definitive answers. They may be inaccurate, or even entirely wrong – but that does not mean that they cannot offer useful and elucidating conclusions, which may advance our understanding of the Old Calligian people.
Take, for example, the ancient fortress of Januszkovil, a name made so familiar by recent events. It is well known that this edifice was a fortress of the Old Calligians, and used in that capacity up until the very downfall of their civilisation – Saint Stanislaus’ failed siege of that citadel is well-attested to, almost unusually so for an event of that chaotic time. From this now common knowledge, much can be inferred: the fact that a fortress of such size would be maintained at such expense despite existing well inside the known borders of the Old Calligian state implies that such an edifice was meant not to stand off against the invading armies of some foreign power, but for the sake of policing some internal frontier.
There are, of course, other potential explanations for the position and continued maintenance of such a fortress: perhaps it was refurbished and regarrisoned only at the time of Old Calligia’s fall. Perhaps some method of Banecasting allowed the Old Calligians to rapidly deploy soldiery to areas of disquiet and insecurity from bases deep within their own heartlands. Perhaps the fortress possessed some ceremonial significance in peacetime which necessitated the upkeep of such an impressive fortification, much as we maintain the Northern Keep and its strong garrison even in times of peace.
However, the most likely explanation is one supported not only by the fact that it does appear to be the most simple and prosaic, but also by the realities of geography which have shaped the structure of the League of Antar, and of Octovia before it: that the Calligian continent is so vast and so varied that the sort of direct rule which is often imagined of the empires of old was simply impossible, and that like the Kian’zi of today, the empire of the Old Calligians was in some ways fragmented into multiple, quasi-independent domains, which maintained their own institutions for defence, commerce, currency, law, and other such functions. Perhaps these individual domains acted much as Tierran duchies do – though obviously, the duchies of Tierra are neither so wealthy, nor so contentious as to spend such efforts raising fortresses against one another. It would be unthinkable for a Duke of Wulfram to lay out a fortress on the scale of Januszkovil – with its attendant garrison – solely to guard its frontier with Aetoria.
This is not to say that these component regions of Calligia existed in some form of anarchy, with each little region at constant war with another, as one might see with the current state of Antar. Proof of that comes from the testament of other remains: the vast network of smooth, broad roads which many of the Octovian highways were built upon, such thoroughfares being far superior to their successors – even now there are parts of Antar where one might see the rounded cobbles of the Imperial Highway set upon a bed of smooth and unmarked stone thrice the width – the residue of the Old Calligian roads which preceded it. Outside of the pleasure gardens of the truly wealthy, roads of such width are not used for any purpose other than to facilitate trade of such a reliable and immense volume that the idea that the benefactors of such commerce would willingly disrupt it to their own loss is absolutely ludicrous.
Further proof of this vast and robust Old Calligian trade network comes from sheer size of the cities which the Old Calligians inhabited. The fragments of records and oral tradition which are passed onto us would claim that Calligia once possessed a population which could rival that of Kian, a level of settlement which modern Antar has not been able to restore itself to even after six centuries of recovery. These tales would be easy to dismiss if not for the fact that some elements of these vast cities still remain, though often covered up by the much smaller settlements of modern Antar. There is some evidence to suggest that during the time of Old Calligia, a greater part of what is now the Octan River Basin was in fact, part of a single great agglomeration – an immense network of townships linked so closely that they became almost a single city, with parks and stretches of forest and farmland betwixt them.
From this too can be inferred certain other conclusions. For example, for urban centre of such size to have been populated, hundreds of thousands – perhaps even millions – of people must have been resident within, even if each resided in a townhouse the size of a small palace. Yet as we are all well aware, such cities must be fed – and they cannot be fed in such numbers by the methods which are now currently in use. In Tierra, even the most well-appointed and richest regions may at best boast a ratio of farmers to all other types of four to one. Similar proportions hold sway in much of Kian, though peculiarities of diet, land distribution, and machinery may allow some isolated areas to better that ratio. The Takarans, with their mastery of banecasting and greatly efficient use of the soil, still maintain a ratio that might be estimated at best at three to two. For the Calligians of old to have peopled such cities and not be obliged to give over every single acre of their continent to the plough would demand at least a similar proportion.
Thus, we may conclude that the Old Calligians must have possessed some method of agriculture far more efficient and productive than our own and been able to transport the fruits of that agriculture great distances overland with miraculous efficiency. While it is true that the Central Plains of the Antari heartlands are possessed of some of the most productive soils in Creation, modern Antari society certainly offers no proof that they are capable of supporting even the relatively modest great cities of our modern age, let alone the truly immense megapolises of their ancestors. Here it is folklore which must bridge the gap. Tales passed down by the Antari serfs tell of the farms of Old Calligia – not worked by serfs as in present times, but by free citizens bound to each other by a legislative body which consisted of every able-bodied adult in a given communal estate.
This is, of course, likely as much the wishful thinking of miserable creatures reduced to the cruellest and most wretched form of servitude than anything else. No doubt the starving of Aetoria City would just as likely dream of Old Calligia as a place where hunger was banished and food so plentiful that rotundity of body was the norm rather than an extreme of luxury. However, we cannot simply dismiss these tales as fanciful simply because they seem so to us in our own more prosaic times. A great many things about Old Calligia – proven and much-attested things – are likewise just as fanciful. Perhaps the Old Calligians really did organise their agriculture in something like that method, though the precise means and procedures have likely been much distorted by six centuries of retelling. However, it is almost certain that such methods involved Banecasting in great degree, and is all-too likely the reason why such methods of organisation and cultivation did not survive the fall of Calligia.
What we do know for certain – or even what we might speculate with any degree of real confidence – remains a mere sliver of knowledge against the great void of what we do not know, including some pieces of intelligence which we might consider fundamental to any real understanding of the Old Calligian civilisation. Questions like those pertaining to their system of governance, their means of commerce, the composition of their armies, the methods of their manufactories and workshops, and the nature of their final overthrow – all of these ring out to be answered with only silence at best, and a cacophony of voices which may be accounted unreliable at best and falsehood at worst.
Yet as scholars, we must seek out answers, and where none are provided, we must speculate our own and test them against the evidence which we uncover, as an armourer might proof a piece of plate against a pistol shot. These speculations are the subject of the lecture which this piece introduces. They are not, by any means, proven truths, yet what we have discovered thus far has done nothing to refute such hypotheses, and there always remains the possibility that such guesses may yet be proven true by the discoveries of the future.
June 2025: A Discreet Investigation
Barithorne,
In pursuance with the conditions of the White Protocol, Your Lordship is being informed of the current state of the investigation into the shipwreck of the Royal Flagship. I am informed that an office has already been established on your part to receive any information which we might receive which might be of relevance to your own investigation. As is customary under the Official Secrets Act, we possess no expectation that any findings on your part be brought to our attention. However, we would strongly encourage any intelligence which might be of import be forwarded to us as a courtesy.
Our lead Intendant on this case is Lord Victor d’al Reyes, an Intendant of relatively low seniority. We believe this will allow him to be underestimated. Despite his junior station, he has already proven to be an excellent investigator, and has shown himself – through his previous service in Antar – as a man possessed of a cool head and a talent for fitting disparate pieces of evidence into a coherent picture. I believe that Lord Victor has had previous intercourse with your side, and am given to understand that such dealings were always of an effective and cordial manner. Thus, we expect that he will prove satisfactory to your office in the purpose which he has been engaged in.
His liaison with your establishment will be the most junior of the four Sub-Intendants assigned to Reyes in this case, Weller. As a man of exceptionally junior station, somewhat diffident inclination, and common birth, we consider him least likely to draw attention from unfriendly actors.
Naturally, this information is quite sensitive. Intendancy regulations require me to maintain a copy for the archives, so it will be of little use burning this message. However, I am sure the usual precautions – and some additional measures besides – might be necessary to maintain the confidentiality of this, and all further correspondence.
I remain, your obedient servant,
Nicholas d’al Torrington, Viscount Halford.
Lord High Intendant
Barithorne,
Far be it from me to question the significance of the White Protocol, but I believe that our resources could be used in more productive fashion elsewhere. We are on all sides confronted with threats which must be dealt with on an immediate and decisive basis, and given the current dearth of resources, one wonders if we ought not to prioritise more stringently. Even in the case of the worst possible case, one might possibly think it irresponsible to expend what officers and assets we possess on the investigation of a plot already brought to fruition rather than on the detection and prevention of new ones.
I will vouch for the Intendancy’s man on this investigation. One cannot see how Reyes will perform any less thorough an accounting of events than any of our own people, especially given his background. I would strongly advise that we leave the man to his work, and focus our own efforts elsewhere.
-C
My Lord,
Have arrived at village of —–, closest inhabited point to the supposed site of shipwreck. No debris immediate visible from wreck site.
Over past two days interviewed local inhabitants under guise of cover provided by Intendancy. Have found several eyewitnesses, whose reports correspond with one another regarding night of shipwreck.
-HMS Rendower sighted bearing W/NW from Weathern approximates five kilometres off coast at about 8:00 PM.
-Dim orange glow perceived by some witnesses from gun deck, provenance unclear.
-Great crash and sound of breaking timbers barely perceptible over sound of surf from about 9:30 PM.
-Lifeboats sent out, but unable to reach wreck due to darkness and roughness of the sea.
-Bodies and flotsam sighted washing up to shore early next morning, but of exceptionally small quantity.
This reports will require additional investigation, but I believe the rudiments of a timeline might be formed.
Your Obt. Svt.
Sir,
I must, on first instance, protest the manner in which you have presented your inquiries to me. An engineer’s ability to make inferences and come to conclusions can be derived from the quality and specificity of the information he is provided. I find the provision of both to be severely lacking in this instance. I am given to understand that this is due to some matter of great importance to the security of the state, but I nonetheless submit protest formally, as a means of qualifying the answers which have been requested of me.
Firstly, the glow you describe is quite consistent in appearance to that of a fire in a confined space, as seen from a great distance. However, such a phenomenon might just as easily be the result of some atmospherick effect upon a more concentrated light, such as that from a lantern. Without further information regarding the weather conditions and the distances involved, I cannot offer a more conclusive answer.
Secondly, as to your query regarding the lack of wreckers and other such scavengers in the region of coast which you describe: the channels of the Straits of Weathern are known to be exceptionally violent, and scour the channel much as a footman might scour the spout of a kettle. Almost all debris from any shipwreck within the area is carried out almost immediately and directly into the Calligian Sea, where it is rarely able to be recovered.
Regarding your additional questions, these are queries which demand knowledge beyond my competences. They are best asked of a military engineer, rather than a surveyor or any manner of architect. My nephew Almansur is an officer of the Engineers, and despite the reputation of that corps, is a young man of great knowledge in his field. As he is also possessed of prodigious patience when confronted with incomplete and imprecise queries, I would highly recommend that you address these queries to him.
I remain, Your Obedient Servant.
-Abdulhakim d’al Gado, Coastal Surveyor-in-Ordinary to His Grace, the Duke of Cunaris
My Lord,
As instructed, I have used my connections within the wreckers active on the coasts of Cunaris and Wulfram to further investigate the matter of any flotsam which might have washed up in the weeks subsequent to the wreck.
As of date, we have found approximately sixty pieces of likely wreckage, most of rather small size. Being as the individuals involved usually burn such pieces as firewood or carve them into trinkets for the amusement of their families, I would hazard that such fragments represent perhaps a fiftieth of those which have been recovered in total. Naturally, not all of these pieces will have come from HMS Rendower, but I have enclosed with this message several fragments which I believe most likely to have originated from the flagship’s hull.
Your Obt. Svt.
My Lord,
On the first instance, I must be obliged to thank you for taking me into the confidence of your institution. It is well understood that the majority of your work is done in the strictest of confidence for the sake of the best interests of Crown and Kingdom. No compulsion of duty required you to share with me your findings, regardless of the imperative nature of our respective briefs, and thus I find myself very greatly honoured by the way you have chosen to cooperate so closely with us.
As for the sample you have provided me, it does indeed seem a curious object, and one whose appearance and characteristics incline me to be in agreement with your man. The shape of the splinters implies that this was a piece of some much larger and heavier beam which was violently sheared loose by a manner of force which was not so concentrated as that of a flying object such as a cannonball or a loose mast, but one which would have applied its force almost evenly across the length and breadth of the whole. Furthermore, I see no further markings which might indicate this piece being struck by some object. Most damningly, the surface of the wood on one side is blackened as if by fire – yet the other remains untouched. Under normal circumstances, a timber consumed by fire will show signs of destruction to its very core, but the sample you have provided does not. In fact, the wood immediately underneath the burnt surface remains almost entirely unmarked.
As my lord is no doubt aware, I served for nine years in Antar as an Officer of Foot. In that time, I have spent more time than any sane and reasonable man ought to have around the munitions and accoutrements of war, so when I conclude the following, it is in deadly earnest.
I know powder burns when I see them.
Your Obedient Servant,
Victor d’al Reyes, Intendant.
Your Grace,
With events progressing as they are in the capital, I have seen fit to order the winding up of the current investigation. As loath as I may be to terminate an operation which has come so close to acquiring actionable intelligence, I cannot see how such intelligence may be used to any profitable means in the interests of Crown and Kingdom. It seems that events have somewhat overtaken us, and for this, I bear full responsibility.
All surviving notes and correspondences regarding this investigation will be destroyed upon the receipt of your approval, as is customary.
-Barithorne.
Barithorne,
On the contrary, I think that you overestimate just how great an effect the current situation has on the relevance of this investigation. You are, of course, entitled to your opinion regarding the matter, but recall that you aren’t the only one sitting at the table right now.
Personally, I would wish to see the investigation continue. I want to see how deep this goes.
-Warburton.
July 2025: Confidential Reports to the Marquess of Fernandescourt
My Lord,
I have expressed to the Parlement of Fernandescourt your will regarding the measures you intend to take regarding the defence of the city. As pertains to this affair, I am pleased to report that the majority of the Justices present for the relevant announcement have expressed that they would be in support of most of the measures which you have enumerated. In particular, the restoration of the harbour booms, and the stocking of powder and shot in Old and New Fortresses.
However, perhaps a third of the Justices have made their concerns known regarding your lordship’s desire to restore the Old Fortress to a condition which may allow it to once more be a fully active fortification. Some of these objections were trivial or purely particularist in nature. Justice Delacourt of the Fifteenth Ward has protested that the resumption of gunnery practice from the bastions of the Old Fortress would greatly disturb his constituency, seeing as they have over the course of the previous period of the Old Fortress’ inactivity built up nearly to the verge of the glacis. Justice Montalvo of the Ninth Ward has also brought up concerns that such an action would require the transportation of building materials, machinery, and other such impedimenta which may greatly inconvenience the residents of that district, as it relies greatly on the Street of the Bastions for its regular commerce.
Other objections, I fear, are grounded on more general principles, and ones which must be addressed with some firmness and great alacrity. The first being the concern that the restoration of the Old Fortress would require the levying of additional taxes. While your lordship’s decision to offer relief from the burdens imposed on the city from the Crown pending the resolution of the current troubles has been much applauded by those who considered such obligations onerous, many of these same figures now wonder if they have not exchanged one yoke for a tighter and more burdensome one. Justice Alva of the Third Ward suggested in our most recent session that the burden be laid more broadly, on the whole of the region surrounding the city, if not the whole of the Duchy itself. As Fernandescourt would almost certainly become a place of safety in the dreadful eventuality of outside invasion, it could be reasoned that its defence is in the interest of all who might seek refuge there in such a case. I suspect the Justices of the other Parlements may see things differently, but that is thankfully beyond the scope of my office or those of my colleagues.
Lastly, there is a final concern, of a more delicate and personal nature.
The Parlement has expressed a certain measure of concern regarding the current disposition of His Grace the Duke, and his continued seclusion. While they are well aware of the many distresses which currently assail him, and your lordship retains the chamber’s confidence that you speak in his name, there has nonetheless been question as regarding the precise nature of the measures you have seen fit to call for in the pursuit of your lord father’s intentions. While these remain murmurings, they have grown in number and volume as of late, and I fear that should the current state of affairs persist, such sentiments may prove to be a substantial obstruction to the continued functioning of the governance of the city.
I would then strongly urge your lordship to press His Grace to appear before the Parlement in the capacity which we have long been accustomed to seeing him, to assuage the concerns of the Justices and ensure their continued support for the measures which are so necessary for the common good.
Your Obedient Servant,
Alphonse d’al Labastro
Speaker of the Parlement of Fernandescourt
——
My Lord,
It is my honour to inform you that the orders which you have assigned me are now duly in the process of being carried out.
As per your orders, I have met with the relevant figures in the villages of Chartrand and Millevertes and confirmed that their loyalty lies first and foremost with the House of Findlay. These assurances having been assured, I have proceeded on to the second portion of my brief, being that of the readying of the people of this region for any eventuality which might require the use of military force.
Pursuant to such aims, I have made inventory of the fighting men of each locality, the current state and disposition of the local Houseguards and the current tally of firelocks in working condition and stocks of shot and powder. The local worthies have been informed of the plans which you intend should the region be invaded by unfriendly forces, and are in complete agreement, as is the Baron Milverton, who has likewise received your personal appeal with the greatest of acquiescence, though I suspect with some resignation. As to his specific objections or insights, I cannot offer any further elaboration, as I have taken care not to read or otherwise attempt to perceive the meaning of your message. It remained sealed until it arrived in the hand of My Lord Milverton, as you have ordered.
I now proceed to the final stage of your lordship’s instruction, being that of the preparation of final contingencies. As by your instruction, I have picked a small body of men with experience in woodcraft and concealment. Tomorrow, I will proceed into the Milverton Wood for the purpose of establishing the hidden caches and fighting positions which you have determined as necessary in the case of the direst extremity. I assure you, I shall take the greatest care to ensure that such positions and any signs which might be made by men occupying them will be invisible from the roads, and that once established, those who have been assigned these positions may use them to harry the forces of any interloper and cause them great disquiet without revealing themselves or their bases of operations.
By the time this letter reaches your lordship, such work will be complete, and I will be prepared for further orders.
Your Obedient Servant,
[REDACTED]
——-
My Lord,
Having arrived at Aetoria, I write to inform your lordship that I am now engaged in the task which you have assigned to me for the purposes of this journey.
Unfortunately, it appears that this undertaking shall prove neither easy nor simple, and I fear that its success may be uncertain – and that even should matters conclude favourably, such an outcome would require the expenditure of considerably more resources than previously believed.
Under normal circumstances, to establish the good intentions of one’s master, one must first rally the allies which that master possesses within the Chamber. Unfortunately, it was for many years the policy of His Grace the Duke to avoid great involvement within that august body, through some measure of personal distaste for practises common within. Given the nature of such practises, such a position was, perhaps a laudable one – however it is one which has also now created some measure of difficulty, for as of the current moment, there are very few Lords of the Cortes which possess the links of patronage or mutual interest with the House of Findlay which might normally be used to sway them in favour of our interests. Of the great number of politickal clients which your lordship’s House once maintained two decades ago, many have since died, or become the allies of some other master.
As a result, it has become clear that an entirely new series of arrangements must be concluded to secure the support of a sufficiently large party of Cortes Lords to meaningfully advance the interests which your lordship has directed me to serve. These arrangements will almost by necessity be ones which will require considerable subtlety and demand great expense. Furthermore, the current politickal situation within the so-called Red Cortes – and especially the vigilance of those who are closest in company with the Queen – render such work exceptionally delicate. To be present as an envoy from a power which the Gryphon Throne yet seeks to sway renders my current position not entirely insecure. However, should certain parties be convinced that my aim is to serve any purpose which may weaken the crown’s hold on those prerogatives and entitlements it sees as its lawful property – which I would hasten to add, includes the fealty of the Duchy of Cunaris – my position here will be very greatly imperilled.
And so I would request further funds for the accumulation of the associations required to ensure the continued inaction of the Crown towards the Cunaris. I have little doubt that my brother, sent to Tannersburg for the same purpose will send the same manner of request shortly – but I would make the case to your lordship that my request is the more pressing one by manner of three arguments:
Firstly, Aetoria and Cunaris are neighbours, and the forces of the former may more easily cause some mischief or harm to the latter solely by principle of physickal proximity.
Secondly, while the House of Findlay maintains some residual familial ties with the House of Candless, the same cannot be said of the House of Rendower. Tannersburg is more fertile ground – and the Duke of Wulfram likely more favourably disposed – for an accommodation of some sort than his counterpart.
Thirdly, I have gained some appreciation for the character of this Queen, who does not lightly suffer professions of neutrality. She has already through rather stark measures made herself the enemy of compromise, and thus the work of creating one in this instance must be one of imposition from a position of strength, in which she is given no choice but to acquiesce.
I pray your lordship responds quickly, for the situation here is ever-changing – yet regardless of matters in Fernandescourt, I will ever endeavour to advance the interests with which you have charged me to the best of my resources and abilities.
Saints go with you,
Lord Dominique d’al Langeron ae Findlay, Lord Lieutenant of the Duchy of Cunaris
August 2025: On the Queen’s Antari Legion
Sir,
I will not deny that to receive such correspondence from you comes as something of a shock. It ought not to be understated just how few of those individuals matching the description you have rendered me are still resident in this, regrettably disunified kingdom. To be entirely frank, I had considered the possibility that your inquiries might have been those of less than benign nature, and that the lines of questioning pursued were in the service of Her Tierran Majesty’s enemies. However, you have accompanied your request for information with letters of reference from three individuals known to have served in the late war in Antar, who all attest to your character and identity. The fact that one of those individuals has regrettably found himself compelled to commit treason is only of tangential significance, especially given that the others have somewhat more intelligently chosen to forgo this unfortunate life decision.
Thus, I may conclude that you are who you say you are: that being a Gentleman of the Blood born and raised on the Calligian continent, who has previously served as a Lord of the League Congress and a Church Hussar in the ranks of one of Antar’s great princes. This rather simplifies matters regarding the answering of your inquiries.
Under normal circumstances, information regarding the subject which you have queried is tightly controlled. It is, in some ways, still a state secret. However, given the references you have provided, and the interest you have otherwise expressed, I believe that it may be significantly in the interests of Her Tierran Majesty’s Government to be frank and open in providing the answers to your questions.
Thus, to begin with: yes, a force is being raised of Antari serf-refugees in this city. Given the exigencies of the current conflict, Her Tierran Majesty has seen fit to seek out any means of fighting men which might otherwise be outside the reach of conventional recruiting. In this regard, she has concluded that the presence of some thousands or tens of thousands of foreigners of appropriate age, preexisting military experience, and no deep connection to local communities or existing regional loyalties may serve as an excellent raw material for a new corps of infantry, to be raised for the purpose of participating in the current conflict.
It is her expectation – or perhaps merely her hope – that the time which these individuals have spent under the aegis of Tierran Liberty may have created some attachment to the Crown which has so provided such individuals with rights and privileges which they would not have been able to enjoy in their home country. Furthermore, she seeks to deliver some form of productive employment to individuals which would otherwise be drawn by desperation to brigandage, larceny, or other such mischief prejudicial to the continued peace of the realm – though one must suppose it may in current times be quite difficult to conceive of the phrase without some expression of irony. While such an enterprise will surely only draw in a small minority of those originally of your country currently in a state of want, it is surmised that the pay (and perhaps, the plunder) derived from such service by one man might serve as well to feed his family and friends. More cynically, Her Majesty is also possessed of some belief that those who would be most inclined to risk life and limb to feed ones family in the pursuit of the valuables of others would happily also be the ones most eager to do so should in the guise of an orange coat and under the restriction that they only thieve and defraud those unhappy individuals aligned currently with the Duke of Wulfram.
The eventual object of this project the creation of one or more regiments, firstly of foot and perhaps in future of horse as well. It is perhaps these projections – which some have rather fancifully begun referring to as the “Queen’s Antari Legion” – which have managed to make their way to a place where they had the opportunity to be brought to your attention.
It is at this point that I would feel obliged to depress any high hopes which the previous description might have aroused with you. It is very often the case that the predictions and aspirations of those who draft policy fall far short of the result of that policy. In the case of the raising, training, and equipping of fighting men, I have found this to be doubly the case. Thus, I must inform you that at the moment, only three provisional companies of this force are authorised, two in Aetoria, and one in Montjoy, where there has been much complaint regarding the presence of your countrymen from local crofters and woolworkers who find their presence – and their ability to work for lower wages – odious. Three companies, as I am sure you are no doubt aware, will not constitute even half of a battalion of foot, and thus you may surmise – though the confidence of Her Majesty’s Government does not allow me to confirm – that these are provisional formations, ones which are to be subject to a series of tests in practice if not in name.
The first test is whether there shall be enough of your countrymen willing to enlist in such a force. Given the character of their previous terms under arms, I would expect that a greater proportion of those otherwise eligible would be much disinclined to shoulder a musket again, especially in circumstances such as these.
The second is to see whether those of your countrymen who do volunteer will be able to withstand and acclimatise themselves to the character of soldiering in a Tierran army, this being a very different manner of affairs than those undertaken in an Antari one.
Thirdly is to be the question of whether these recruits, being then trained, would find themselves much discouraged by the current dearth of all manner of accoutrements and weapons of war. This conflict being one which necessitates the raising of great bodies of men on short notice, there are simply not enough arms, uniforms, or any other impedimenta to go around, and it would naturally be the case that the meagre stocks currently at Her Tierran Majesty’s disposal will go to those formations deemed most reliable or most capable of immediate action, of which these provisional companies naturally do not number.
There is an element of prejudice to these tests, I suspect. I am given to understand that the Antari serf makes for a superlative soldier, if given the appropriate encouragement and training. However, it is the opinion of many in Grenadier Square who have faced Antari armies composed of such men who were categorically not given such support, that they have seen the limits of what the serf-soldier is capable of, and that these limits are quite restrictive indeed.
In this regard, the only possible remedy for this misapprehension is that of direct action against the enemy, and it is the intention of Her Majesty’s Government to ensure that these provisional companies be given the chance to do so at soonest opportunity. While troops of uncertain reliability and condition would normally be used for engineering tasks under the direction of the officers (which is to say, the NCOs) of that corps, or the policing of rear areas, Her Majesty’s opinion on the matter is that the use of foreigners for such tasks would only breed resentment amongst the native-born parts of the populace. Thus, you may have the utmost reassurance that these provisional companies will be led into action at soonest opportunity, in circumstances wherein disgrace would only come from failing to follow the commands of their chiefs.
Naturally, these circumstances in question may prove of somewhat less desirability for those men who must be required to endure them. It being perhaps a maxim of military organisation that those bodies of soldiery considered most suspect are also those considered most expendable, you may freely assume that the provisional companies now being raised will be expected to disprove their inherited and much undeserved reputation through the harshest means possible. Thus they are like to be at the forefront of assaults, used to salvage dire emergencies in major actions, and be heavily used in the sort of outpost duty which necessarily results in heavy losses. The idea – at least officially – is that once the survivors have gained the necessary experience and proven their capacity, they will go on to serve as corporals and sergeants for further recruits. In private, I find it far more likely that this arrangement is a compromise betwixt those who would see this experiment expanded and those who would see them expended, to use a vulgar turn of phrase.
That being stated, the question of who are to actually command these provisional companies remains an open one. While the previous war has created many officers with some knowledge of the Antari language, few are otherwise suitable for the role of commanding the forces in question. An inconveniently large number of them have chosen to commit treason, while the best of those still in possession of their proper loyalties are officers in active service or half-pay who have already been claimed by their own regiments. Others are by this eventuality too aged or infirm or otherwise unsuited for an active command, although this has certainly not stopped many such gentlemen from applying for employment of a martial nature in past and present. Furthermore, though there remain some number of otherwise eligible gentlemen who possess the necessary facility with the language, they are otherwise rendered less than ideal candidates based on the simple reason that familiarity has, to some extent, bred a certain degree of contempt regarding the practises and other customs of your countrymen. Needless to state, we have determined that to place an officer in command of a company of men whom he is already predisposed to despise does little to further the effectiveness or harmonious operation of a body of soldiery.
Which is perhaps a very roundabout way of indicating that should your inquiries be preliminary to the request for an officer’s commission in one of these provisional companies, one may be assured that such a request would be looked upon favourably. A Gentleman of the Blood, well-accustomed to the life of a soldier, fluent in the Antari language, and intimately familiar with the customs of those peoples would serve us very well indeed in command of any of the provisional companies now being recruited.
It is at this juncture which I must offer a much-needed word of caution. Though the raw material of these provisional companies may be men of your own country, it has been Her Majesty’s explicit desire that they be raised foremost as companies of Tierran foot, to wear the orange coat and the black shako and to be subject to all the obligations, disciplines and privileges of the Tierran soldier. While to most men of this country, playing such a role would seem more stricture than liberty, those men which have already enlisted in these provisional companies have made it very clear that it is the dignity and the privileges which the Tierran soldier enjoys over that of the conscript-levies of their former country which have attracted them to this service. It is thus to be inferred that the maintenance of these dignities and privileges are to be seen as the chiefest force which keeps them under discipline and in ranks.
Which is to state that for any officer of any country to command such a force, he will necessarily have to do so in the capacity of an officer commanding Tierran soldiery, with all the considerations and niceties observed with exceptional severity and precision. The excesses which Antari officers are known to commit upon their soldiery are to be avoided in particular. There will be no impalings and no executions without at least summary courts martial. Punishments are to be determined strictly by the measures laid out under the Queen’s Articles of War, which are to be followed to the letter. Pay and rations are to be issued at the highest grade of regularity and completion possible in the circumstances, and all efforts must be made to respect the rights of the soldiery as Queen’s Subjects, and Citizens of the Unified Kingdom.
If you have further inquiries regarding this force or any subject which might pertain to it, I would be more than pleased to receive you in Aetoria, where appointments may be made with my staff – although given the current exigencies, it may be some time before such an engagement may be scheduled.
I remain,
Your Obedient Servant,
William d’al Elson, Baron Hawthorne
Acting Secretary at War
September 2025: The Personal Log of Ambassador Nobuhide Sept
Time Cipher [HANA].
Increasingly clear that [NIJUMARU] suspects collusion between [ISSEI] and [BOKKEN]. Cordon around embassy may be breached. All superfluous personnel are to be quietly removed from premises, leaving only [YUMI] and [BOGU] on station.
This will necessarily lead to diminished capabilities, especially in regards to the [TEPPODAMA], but I will not risk the compromise of any operation in this region for the sake of ease. Our top concern must be to conceal all relevant operations and potential operations from the instruments of [NIJUMARU].
The remaining staff, especially the members of [YUMI] will of course, register complaint. They have grown far too used to light work on this overcrewed ship. Perhaps a bit of austerity will do them good.
-Sept.
——
Time Cipher [HANA].
New arrival of confirmed [BOGU] assets on station. They bring with them sufficient supplies of [YARI] to support the defence of this building against substantial enemy attack should the eventuality arise.
Still, I do not trust this place. It was built by the locals, and it is not entirely unlikely that [NIJUMARU] may already be in possession of intelligence which compromises its physical security. [KABUTO] was disturbingly neglectful in maintaining operational security round the premises. Perhaps this was at least in part due to his familiarity with members of [NIJUMARU] faction. Perhaps he even regarded them as his friends.
I will not be so complacent. [YUMI] has been assigned to probe for any such possible breaches or potential breaches, especially ones in the basements and cellars.
-Sept.
——-
Time Cipher [HANA]
Meeting with [BOKKEN] and close associates. [TEPPODAMA] greenlit.
Operation cannot, under any circumstances be compromised. It is clear that [NIJUMARU] is watching the situation closely especially after the attack on [TENSHU]. Some superfluous staff have yet to be removed or evacuated. This process must be expedited.
Local staff can be quickly removed based on pretense of increased instability on the streets. An order to remain indoors with several weeks’ advance pay will suffice to cozen these animals. Station staff of questionable reliability must be removed more delicately. I will request to [ISSEI] that these elements be reassigned elsewhere, and are taken off with the arrival of [NAGINATA] upon the completion of the first phase of [TEPPODAMA]. This will be exceptionally risky, but I believe that the superfluous elements will be unable to penetrate the cordon to be maintained by [YUMI] in time to compromise the operation before they are removed from any means of contacting [NIJUMARU].
If I am wrong in this assumption, I will take full responsibility – but better to be bold and risk failure than to take no risks and allow others to snatch victory from your hands.
-Sept.
——-
Time Cipher [MATSURI].
[YUMI] has discovered possible point of egress – a tunnel leading from the deep cellars of the building onto street level. The passage is currently bricked up, and it is likely marked as much in official records. The wall blocking the passage is of good quality, or whatever passes for it in this place. The labour was likely sanctioned officially, as opposed to some unauthorised action.
This may serve to our advantage, especially for the purposes of executing [TEPPODAMA]. Blockage of passage likely translates to official knowledge. [NIJUMARU] likely to assume passage is to remain inaccessible for foreseeable future.
[BOGU] has been detailed to monitor passageway in preparation for excavation.
-Sept.
——-
Time Cipher [MATSURI].
First phase of [TEPPODAMA] complete. Initial consignment of ten thousand now secure in the deep cellars, under guard by [BOGU] assets. [NAGINATA] now in transit to [ISSEI] for additional support.
The situation in the city continues to deteriorate. [BOKKEN] has informed me of intentions to confront [NIJUMARU] within the day. [BOKKEN] assures me this will give me another week with which to complete remaining phases of [TEPPODAMA]. I do not concur with this assessment, but see no means of dissuading [BOKKEN] from current action without antagonism.
I have therefore ordered all [YUMI] assets to high alert, and requested additional assets from [ISSEI], though I suspect they will not arrive in time. Alternative arrangements for the security of the premises and its assets are to be put into place, should the situation require them before the return of [NAGINATA].
Sept.
——
[SHINKEN] [SHINKEN] [SHINKEN].
——
Time Cipher [TSUTA].
Situation critical. Embassy premises no longer secure. [YUMI] and [BOGU] assets maintained perimeter as essential staff effected evacuation through contingency passage. Their performance met highest expectations of the service. They will be remembered.
[TEPPODAMA] assets left within embassy grounds, but are believed to be later recovered by [TACHI] assets. Phase two operations effectively carried out, will acquire confirmation as required.
Commandeered smallcraft in harbour and are current in transit to navigation point [ROKU]. Expected to meet with [NAGINATA] and receive further instructions as per contingency [SHINKEN].
Sept.
——
Time Cipher [TSUTA].
Currently in transit onboard [NAGINATA], in company with [BOKKEN] and [TACHI].
Secondary premises to be supplied by [BOKKEN], following overt military action by [NIJUMARU]. All sensitive material at previous embassy premises confirmed destroyed as per contingency [SHINKEN], once again thanks to professionalism of [BOGU] assets.
[ISSEI] requests full report to be delivered directly at soonest opportunity. Likely to result in additional involvement of a nature which remains uncertain.
Sept.
October 2025: The Khorobirit Fleet Programme
My Lord,
As requested, I have ordered new reports from my agents devoted to the surveillance of Prince Khorobirit’s endeavours in building a sea-going fleet. These reports having now arrived, I hasten to convey the relevant information within to your Lordship in as concise and complete a fashion as possible.
Firstly, my agents in the city of Khorobirit itself have reported to me that much of the population of that city has been recruited for work during the off-season. Under military escort and to the beating of drums, they are marched off along the Old Imperial highway along the right bank of the Khoran. My agents along that route report that these groups consist almost entirely of able-bodied men of twenty to forty years, although these being serfs, many look considerably older due to the great hardship of their means of living.
These men are conveyed, in parties of one or two hundred, under armed guard to a site further up the Khoran, to where it becomes navigable to the sea by deep-draught vessels. Here, Prince Khorobirit is building what appears to be a naval yard of significant size, as well as strong fortifications of the latest fashion about ten to fifteen kilometres downstream. Despite attempts to bring agents into the sites of these constructions, my agents have hitherto been met with little success, so what follows is merely speculation:
Based on my agents’ reports, I would suspect that Prince Khorobirit is using this site as a future shipyard. Given the presence of ample timber of the variety best-suited for shipbuilding, as well as easy access by river to the foundries of Jugashavil, this would be a perfect place to support the mass construction of ships of war. Likewise, the fortifications overlooking this site would be perfectly suited to safeguard such a position from raids by sea, especially those made by ships of war. As there is work on both banks of the river, it would be easy to surmise that a boom or chain will be drawn across the river as well. As Prince Khorobirit is likely clever enough to use such a mechanism for multiple purposes, it seems likely that this new fortress complex will also be used to control what traffick is allowed to travel up and down the river, increasing his control over those areas longest within his house’s control and likely most precious to him.
For these reasons, I would suspect that the area being prepared is intended to be the primary headquarters of Khorobirit’s fleet programme, with both a shipyard and a protected anchorage likely to be in advanced stages of construction. Although there was no occasion for any of my officers to make measurements of an exact nature, a certain degree of reconnaissance was affected, yielding certain results from which estimations can be made. These estimations would post that the yards being constructed consist of four slipways, each of approximately three or four hundred paces in length. Such constructions would be fit to support the construction of large warships up to and including ships of the line of battle.
However, it is here that I believe that Prince Khorobirit has met a problem which he cannot resolve simply by throwing blood and treasure at it, for the construction of a ship of war is a very exact science, and although there are still Antari likely advanced in the discipline of designing such vessels, they are primarily concentrated in the south, outside of the power of Khorobirit and his allies. As a result, my agents within Khorobirit have reported that the Prince has gone to the extremity of seeking foreign experts to oversee the design and construction of a fleet. In this matter he has met with very little success, for such experts are very difficult to find on the Calligian continent, and the agents of Khorobirit rarely possess the means to hire them from further afield, at least ones which are otherwise unattached.
Likewise, my agents in Khorobirit and Jugashavil have reported a further difficulty in the Prince’s scheme, namely that of the casting of appropriate artillery to outfit any ship of war which might eventually be constructed. This may seem somewhat unlikely, the Antari being well-known for their skill in casting pieces of heavy artillery. Yet the siege guns customary to their armies are not like those required for naval gunnery, these being altogether handier and more complex pieces in many ways. Although experiments have evidently been made in the casting of guns fit for shipboard use, the results have remained heavy and unwieldy. Although they may yet find use on the deck of a ship of war, their excessive construction and the yet-primitive state of their carriages will ensure that the state of Antari naval gunnery will lag behind our own in speed and handiness for the foreseeable future.
Where the Prince has apparently achieved more considerable success is in the hiring of a squadron of small warships from the city-states of Alte-Castria. These ships, being each of less than two hundred tonnes burthen and mounting only twelve or fourteen guns each, are not suited for general fleet action – yet they remain extremely capable sea-going vessels built by some of the best shipwrights in that part of the world. Although the Castrians are rumoured to have demanded exorbitant prices for the lease of such a squadron and their crews, Prince Khorobirit seems to have paid the sum gladly, from his own coffers – not in the measures of grain and other goods commonly used in the commerce between Lords of the Congress, but in good silver and gold bullion, which Antar possesses precious little of.
Yet it is clearly not the intent of the Prince to use this force as the nucleus of a new fleet, nor is it his intention to hire a fleet completely from the Castrians, especially as that body of cities remains in a state of contention with its rivals on its own continent, and likely has only spared the small ships it has for the sake of so grand a subsidy. It is of my opinion corroborated by several of my agents that this force is meant more as an object of study – ships and crew both. By examining the means by which the Castrians build their ships, Khorobirit’s own engineers will be able to design vessels of similar character for his own use. Through the use of their crews as instructors, he may likewise allow for the creation of a trained corps of sailors and officers with which to crew such a fleet, all without rendering himself indebted to some other outside power which might use the resulting leverage to their own ends.
Supporting this supposition is further report from another agent further along the bank of the Khoran, who has witnessed the creation of another set of edifices far from the city or the shipyard. This place is cited at a point where the river has bent naturally to create an ox-bow lake of abnormal placidity for this part of the country. The buildings being raised there seem to include stables, storehouses, and several barracks, enclosed within a perimeter wall too low to be a fortification yet still formidable enough to maintain a degree of security and privacy. This, we believe to be the beginnings of a manner of naval college, to quickly train men in service to the Prince in those disciplines which our own officers learn through ample experience at sea and long tradition – two resources denied to the Antari.
If this is the case, then it will be some time – perhaps a generation – before Prince Khorobirit possesses the capacity to deploy a fleet of any size or weight, yet when he does do so, it will be of ships built by his own yards, crewed by men of his country loyal to him and trained thoroughly in the sciences of navigation and gunnery by some of the best fighting sailors in the Infinite Sea. Such a force will be superior to any which the League of Antar has ever brought to open water, and if this is the case, then we may find ourselves in a position of great difficulty, when it is inevitably brought to battle against us.
November 2025: On the Marshals of the League
My Prince,
I write this report to you thirty-four days after I have departed from the passes out into the Central Plains. The Imperial Highways here are in a state of great disrepair, and it is often more suitable to travel over open country than to risk the broken and uneven surface of those arteries which our ancestors once paved for the Octovian Emperors.
In this, my escort have been a great help. I have engaged the services of a dozen Oberlinders as guards and guides to lead me to where the League Marshal musters his forces at the fortress of Januszkovil. They are insolent men, who have become far too accustomed to the liberties which they have enjoyed free from the character-forming strictures of civilisation, but they are excellent riders and hunters.
They are also an excellent source of information. While they are all too happy to take liberties with their betters, I will admit that their willingness to make free with their tongues and opinions also makes it quite easy to coax from them opinions and observations, for although these folk are simple-minded, they are also very well-travelled. Their leader, who calls himself Olek and styles himself “headman” – though of what, I have neither interest nor need to discover – claims that he has ridden as far west as Noribirit, and as far south as Kharangia, and it is from he that I have received some preliminary understanding of the character of the great host now gathering ahead.
These observations are, of course, crude and greatly prejudiced. The Oberlinders do not like us, and they like the Princes of the League least of all. This Olek has little patience for the way we make war, considering it a slow-moving shambles too burdened with considerations of precedence, rank, and the comfort of its chiefs than the effective defeat of an enemy. How a petty chieftain who has likely never seen a cannon in his life and who must consider a few hundred men to be an irresistible force can make such judgements against Lords of the Congress assembling an army of tens of thousands, I do not know. All I can say is that he is convinced of this, and believes that the only way in which our own forces may triumph is if the Southmen prove even more inept at the making of war than we.
It will be perhaps three or four days before we pass the Plains and return to the roads, perhaps then I will have a chance to prove my Oberlinder companions wrong, and show them what it truly means when the League makes war in deadly earnest.
—–
My Prince,
It has been perhaps three days since we returned to the roads. Here, the Highways are better maintained, likely because the country is far rougher, and thus travel must be confined to these narrow arteries if they are to cover any distance with any form of cargo.
We have encountered another party, a force also bound for the League’s muster. At first, I perceived this body to be the levy of some minor lord, for although it was a body of considerable size – perhaps three or four hundred – there rode at its head only three Hussars, and perhaps a dozen other men on horseback. However, upon my approach, I was somewhat surprised to learn that the head of this assemblage was in fact Jan Michal, lord of Karastovil, who I am given to understand possesses rich estates of nearly thirty thousand serfs. When corrected of my error, I made some show of my perplexity. The League had made clear that all the lords of the South and West were to muster with the greatest force they could support and march to the support of the League Marshal. Surely a man of such wealth could support a larger force of fighting men than the fifteen or so which he had brought.
In this, the Lord of Karastovil sought to correct me by ennumerating his reasons for bringing only so compact a force.
Firstly, of the twenty Hussars which his house could arm and equip, the vast majority were required to remain on his estates, both to manage them, and to ward off the risk of servile insurrection. This, I conceded was a very reasonable precaution, for with so many fighting men at muster, the animals may be roused to acts of insolence and defiance which may not otherwise have even entered their consideration.
Secondly, he claims that a larger force would be far more difficult to supply. This too, I found a very convincing argument, although Karastovil is only two weeks’ travel from the point of muster, the state of the roads means that any one single force must bring along its own baggage and victuals. To draw supply from depots in the rear would be impossible, as with so many armed parties converging upon the same point, the same few passages would quickly grow congested by hundreds of caravans bound for the retinues of hundreds of lords.
Yet here, I confess I expressed some confusion, for if this was the case, why did the Lord of Karastovil simply not bring fewer serfs?
This, he explained, was purely a manner of convenience. There was a need to bring the accoutrements of campaign with his retinue: tents, furnishings, spare arms, ammunition, powder, and all the other necessary implements of war. Furthermore, the Hussars which chose to accompany him did so on the condition that their comforts be seen to, and this required a great number of porters to effect their transport.
Privately, Olek confided to me that this all seemed very wasteful, that when an Oberlinder Host went to war, it carried only the shot, powder, and food necessary, which usually necessitated only the use of a pack horse or two for each fighting man. This is perhaps an adequate means of making war – when one’s idea of war is that of raiding lightly-held enemy encampments, and the length of a campaign is perhaps only a week or two.
We are perhaps a few days from Januszkovil now. Soon, I will be able to make a report on the army as a whole.
—–
My Prince,
It has been two weeks on the Imperial Highway now, where we find ourselves vexed by a most infuriating issue: not one of logistics, or of numbers, or even one of genuine confusion.
No, the muster of an army called in defence of the League has been held up for nearly a week and a half over a matter of precedence.
In simplest terms, the siege guns which have been sent by his Highness, the Prince of Jugashavil have been travelling upon this road for some time. As the guns themselves are exceedingly heavy instruments, they must remain on the road if they are to make any meaningful progress. However, the retinues of different lords find this situation to be intolerable, and as they are each Lords of the Congress, they each see themselves as being of superior importance to the seatless placeman whom Prince Jugashavil has sent to husband the guns which he has sent, there is now a dispute of considerable rancour and complexity over who shall have use of the road, and who must give way.
Naturally, such a dispute would have never occurred in Khorobirit. Things are too well-ordered and the way of things too well established for any to be so foolish as to obstruct the business of your Highness, or his brother-Prince of Jugashavil. Here, however, there is no set order of precedence, as we are all supposedly equal. So, the individual lords now spend their time comparing their achievements and estates in hopes of overawing the others, even as Jugashavil’s man attempts to leverage some of the authority of his master to allow at least for the passage of the guns which we are likely to require for use against the Southmen and the fortifications they are known to have already begun making around Noringia.
This dispute has now taken up the whole of the road – not only of those before us, but those behind as well, to the degree that the immense column held up upon this thoroughfare may consist of as many as eight or ten thousand men, perhaps a quarter of the army which is meant to assemble at Januszkovil. To sit stock still in the saddle and see men, supplies, and guns in such great number waiting for this matter to be settled whilst time is of the essence and all martial powers are needed desperately to be directed against a foreign invader feels the height of absurdity. It is said that we have always made war in such a fashion, and that the longevity of Octovia, and now the League are proof positive that it cannot be as dysfunctional and debilitant as it seems. Yet I could not imagine that Saint Stanislaus or Eugen of Antagia or even your own illustrious ancestors were ever made so dilatory and immobile for so trivial a reason.
Olek seems to agree, in his own impudent way. He says that among the Oberlinders, such a dispute would have long since been settled by a duel with sabres. This I dismissed out of hand, as such a form of resolution would not determine who was right, but simply who was the best or luckiest swordsman.
To this, he replied that it was better to be wrong and arrive first on the field of battle, than to be right and arrive last.
I confess I have not yet mustered a satisfactory answer.
—–
My Prince,
It has been four days now since I have arrived at the camps of the great army at Januszkovil.
You will note that I refer to this assemblage in the plural, for that is indeed how things here have been arranged. There is not one great encampment in which defences, depots, and other things may be shared in common alongst the many Lords and their retinues. Instead, there is a great profusion of many smaller camps, one for each Lord and his followers, spreading along the road and the forest floor so widely that when we first happened upon it, the smoke from the many camp-fires was so great that the very forest seemed to be steaming, like the skin of a roast pig.
This, as your Highness will no doubt agree, is a very inefficient and cumbersome way of doing things, but the reasons are clear enough, for although the many houses here are gathered for a common cause, this does not erase the many rivalries and feuds which exist among them. So we may say that this Lord despises this other one for some minor dispute which has festered for generations, and as a result, both Lords seek to maintain fortifications and picquets not against the common enemy, but against each other, and any other opportunist which may feel a desire to align themselves with their rival for the sake of some future obligation. As a result of this, the army itself is spread so thinly and so greatly that it has taken a whole day to traverse the army from its furthest reaches to its centre, at the great fortress of Januszkovil itself.
Here is where the current Marshals of the League hold court, and again I must specify that I do indeed mean this in the plural.
As my Prince is no doubt aware, in the last plenary session of the League Congress, the marshalate was awarded to Prince Jaroslaw of Januszkovil, for the great speeches he made, and the zeal which he demonstrated in offering his own fortress as the muster point. It was understood then that he would have sole authority over the army being mustered, and sole command over the council of war which would direct the campaign against the Southmen invaders.
Yet not a month had passed before the young Prince’s decisions began to make him a great number of enemies within the Congress. These enemies were presented with a conundrum, for having awarded Prince Januszkovil with a marshal’s baton, they did not have the unanimous support within the Congress to order him to return it. Instead, they sought to appoint one of their own number a second marshal. In this, they encountered more success, for convincing the truncated body of the Congress that Januszkovil was himself too young and inexperienced, they were able to elect Sviatoslaw of Garazanobirit as a second, co-equal leader of the army.
It took me only a few minutes in the council of war to recognise how these two marshals interacted with one another, and I fear what I observed does not fill me with great confidence.
The first sign of some dysfunction came with the calling of the council of war itself, for it apparently was a thing which required an appointment three days in advance. This was a necessity simply because it took a day for the relevant summons to reach all of the camps, and another for the Lords to travel to the headquarters at the fortress. The third day was so that the Lords in question may render themselves in a state fit to be presented, for each of them entered with their retinues as if it were the opening of the Congress in Octobirit, with all of their great furs and mantles and attendants and banners.
This was, of course, a ludicrous imposition, and one which I do not think would be tolerated in Khorobirit even for major occasions. For a council of war in which haste is of the utmost necessity, it seems even more ridiculous. I have little doubt that the Southmen do not require three days to call a council of war, for although their tyrannous system of lesser and greater nobility may oppress nine out of every ten of the Blood, it may at least be said that the tenth man is very capable of doing things quickly.
Evidently, this was also on the mind of the young Prince Januszkovil, who called the meeting in the belief that such councils were of little use if they were to take three days to muster, especially as even with such notice a full third of the Lords were unable to be reached and summoned in time. Instead, he suggested that for greater speed and convenience, that all Lords of the army bring their immediate retinues into the fortress itself, where they may be called upon not in three days, or one, but in a matter of hours.
This caused great excitement among the assembled lords, of which Lord Garazanobirit became the natural focal point. He instead argued that such a measure would be an infringement on the liberty of the individual leaders of the army, and that furthermore, having only three days to answer a summons to a council of war was itself a great imposition, for many are the Lords who have taken the opportunity to hunt or tour the surrounding countryside in ways which would make them unreachable on such short notice. Instead, he suggested that the time of notice instead by increased to a week. This was received with some opposition, but also great approval from the majority of those present. Had Januszkovil been the sole marshal, he would have no doubt been able to press the issue and force acquiescence for the common good of the army. Yet with his co-marshal and equal championing an opposite measure to such acclaim, it was he was forced to give way. Indeed, I am already coming to suspect that the younger marshal’s authority has already been much eroded, and by the time the army takes to the field – should it ever take to the field – he may find himself a non-entity.
The Oberlinders of course, find all of this to be the greatest entertainment. From what Olek has told me, they have their own councils of war, but unlike us, when they elect a leader for a campaign, he stays as such, and all others subordinate themselves to his authority, at least until the fighting is over. When I mentioned that it seemed very strange that a people who valued freedom so greatly would allow themselves to be subjugated in such a fashion, he gave me the flattest and most insolent of looks.
“In a time of war, a man always has a choice,” he replied. “He must agree to fight as one with his host and to follow the orders of the headman which has been chosen, or to fight alone, and die alone. There is no alternative.”
Under other circumstances, I would make some objection to this statement. Have not we of the League shown that such an alternative exists? Did not this alternative avenge the Sainted Martyr Eugen and overthrow the tyrants of Octovia? Surely such a thing must be considered and acknowledged?
But with such an army as encamped around me, and such Marshals of the League to lead them, I cannot help but wonder how warranted such an objection might be.
December 2025 – The Honours of War
The Decorations and Honours of His Tierran Majesty’s Armed and Clandestine Services
Gryphon of Rendower
Authorised: 475 OIE, by Edwin I (the Strong)
Citation Type: Awarded for Act of Singular Valour in Battle, on Land or at Sea, by an Officer of His Tierran Majesty.
Description: Gold medallion embossed with rampant gryphon. Gold and silver ribbon.
The most senior of any award given by the Gryphon Throne, military or civil, the Gryphon of Rendower – or simply “The Gryphon” – is given out only for those who distinguish themselves singularly in combat. It requires royal approval to be awarded – although this authority is usually delegated to the Councilor-Militant, and has only been given out a few hundred times through Tierran history. A particularly large number of them (nearly a hundred) were given out during the first rush of enthusiasm in the first phase of the Dozen Years’ War. There is nothing to outwardly distinguish between these “clipped gryphons” and any others, but there are a very select few who consider those who wear them as slightly inferior to those who won theirs at other times – although most would argue that the difference in distinction is so little as to make little difference in turn.
Cross of Saint Jerome
Authorised: 564 OIE, by Alaric (Spitfire)
Citation Type: Awarded for Acts of Singular Valour leading to Victory at Sea.
Description: Silver cross with arms of red enamel. Centre holds portrait of Saint Jerome in profile. Red and white ribbon.
Created by King Alaric Spitfire upon his assumption of the Gryphon Throne, the Cross of Saint Jerome was intended to be a particular decoration to compliment the nature of the war which that King fought against the League of Antar. Intended to reward naval actions which explicitly led to the taking of enemy ships, this award was not only made eligible to the officers of the then-regular navy, but to privateer captains as well. In theory, even a private subject of the Crown could win such an award, were they to somehow take a ship flying the colours of a power which Tierra was at war, though this has never been put to the test.
Star of Aetoria
Authorised: 552 OIE, by Edmund II
Citation Type: Awarded for Acts of Extraordinary Service to the Tierran Crown.
Description: Eight pointed bronze star surmounted by a centre piece embossed with the tower of Aetoria. Blue and orange ribbon.
Originally founded as a civil decoration, the Star of Aetoria quickly established a somewhat seedy reputation, as a bauble handed out by King Edmund II to any who would contribute sufficient funds to his rebuilding projects to receive some distinction – but not enough to warrant a Baronetcy. Over time, however, “the Star” has become a catch-all award for any baneblood seen to have done some great act of courage or inspiration in service to the crown.
Cordon of Saint Octavia
Authorised: 481 OIE, by Edwin I (the Strong)
Citation Type: Awarded for Services Rendered to the Subjects of the Tierran Crown.
Description: Silver medallion embossed with a portrait of Saint Octavia in profile. Blue and silver ribbon.
The early phase of the Wars of Unification were in many ways a war of irregulars and militias. Military administration was improvised and unregulated. There were great examples of inefficiency and abuse, but also exemplars of ability and integrity. The actions of these individuals saved lives from starvation, cold, and exhaustion in a time when attrition was more deadly to armies than battle. It was these exemplars which Edwin the Strong wished to reward with a new decoration, named not for any of the traditional Saints of the Red, but the seniormost of the Tierran Saints of the Blue.
Naval Service Medal
Authorised 508: OIE, by Edwin II
Citation Type: Awarded for Acts of Courage by an Officer of His Tierran Majesty’s Navy.
Description: Silver medallion embossed with a ship under sail. Blue and green ribbon.
The Wars of the Second and Third Coalitions were in many ways, naval wars, with a great many minor naval engagements between Tierran, Wulframite, and Callindrian warships and merchant vessels. In a bid to reward the victors of these engagements and build the professional culture of the newly-formed Royal Tierran Navy, Edwin II instituted the Naval Service Medal, one of the most enduring legacies of his short reign.
Cordon of Saint Ignacio
Authorised: 571 OIE, by Alaric
Citation Type: Awarded for Works of Great Martial Ingenuity by an Subject of His Tierran Majesty.
Description: Wide green ribbon with orange stripes. No medallion.
King Alaric’s War was, in many ways, an engineer’s war. Shipwrights and naval architects pioneered faster and sturdier hulls. Artillerists and gunfounders made more improvements to cannon in half a decade than they had in the past two generations. Murad d’al Gado was given a title and a seat on the Cortes for his scheme of coastal defence, but others – especially those without the Blood of Command – were not quite so eligible for so exalted a reward. As a result, Alaric Spitfire instituted the Cordon of Saint Ignacio as a reward for such services by soldiers, sailors, and civilians alike.
Meritorious Service Order
Authorised: 475 OIE, by Edwin I
Citation Type: Awarded for Exceptional Conduct in Wartime by an Officer of His Tierran Majesty’s Army.
Description: Blue enamelled cross trimmed with gold. Dark blue ribbon.
A general exceptional service award instituted by Edwin the Strong upon the formal creation of the Unified Kingdom, the Meritorious Service Order is in many ways the junior counterpart to the Gryphon of Rendower. Though a citation must still be submitted and a recipient must still be judged as deserving, the criteria for this award has become so varied that the “Blue Bauble” is often seen as a consolation prize for an officer not quite courageous enough – or too much in disfavour – to earn a Gryphon or a Cross of Saint Jerome.
Embassy Service Medal
Authorised: 475 OIE, by Edwin I
Citation Type: Awarded for Service in an Overseas Embassy by an Officer of His Tierran Majesty’s Regiments of Marines.
Description: Brass medallion embossed with an anchor in silver filigree. Sea-Green and Orange ribbon.
A general service decoration for officers of Marines who have served at least six months in a capacity as an embassy guard. While theoretically quite trivial, “Embassy Marines” are often chosen for their temperament, good conduct, and skill at arms for the sake of representing the Unified Kingdom in the face of foreign – and often wealthier and better armed – powers. Thus possession of the “Dangling Doorman” is by itself a testament to a Marine officer’s good conduct and character.
Homeland Service Medal – 508
Authorised: 511 OIE, by Edmund I
Citation Type: Awarded for Services Rendered by an Officer of His Tierran Majesty in the Unification of Realm.
Description: Copper medallion with the crossed swords and the Crown of Edwin the Strong on one side, and “508” on the other. Orange and iron grey ribbon.
While Edwin the Strong’s institution of the Gryphon of Rendower and the Meritorious Service Order pertained to the regular troops of the King’s Army, those who had fought as the commanders of allied contingents – such as Clan Havenport of Kentaur or the multitudinous Cunarian Houseguards – were not eligible for such awards, as they had not precisely been King’s Officers at the time. Thus, the Homeland Service Medal was instituted by the Cortes Regency of Edmund I so that the Lords of the Cortes who had fought alongside – but not under – Edwin the Strong could award themselves for their loyalty.
Naval Service Medal – 571
Authorised: 571 OIE, by Alaric
Citation Type: Awarded for Services Rendered by a Subject of His Tierran Majesty in the War against the League of Antar, 564-570.
Description: Pewter medallion showing the two-headed Antari eagle impaled upon an anchor on one side and “571” on the other. Iron grey and blue ribbon.
The Naval Service Medal of 571 was originally intended only to be awarded to the wardroom officers of the Royal Tierran Navy who had served in a wartime capacity. However, protests by multiple serving officers and privateer captains – including Lord Hector d’al Candless, heir to the Duke of Wulfram – led to the award’s eligibility being extended to common sailors and gunroom officers as well, beginning a tradition of awarding campaign medals to all serving, not just officers. However, this meant that a massive number of such medals would need to be made, leading to the issue of cheaper pewter medallions, as opposed to the more customary copper or brass.
Overseas Service Medal – 613
Authorisation Pending
Citation Type: Awarded for Services Rendered by a Subject of His Tierran Majesty in the War against the League of Antar, 601-613.
Description: Under review.
The award of a service medallion for the Dozen Years’ War was not supposed to be a controversial measure. However, the looming budget crisis and the sheer cost of striking tens – if not hundreds – of thousands of medals to commemorate a contested victory in an unpopular war meant that the design and issue of this award remains in a state of bureaucratic suspension, despite vigorous lobbying efforts by the Overseas and Admiralty Clubs.
——
The White Cordon
Authorised: ???
Citation Type: ???
Description: Rumoured to be a plain bleached white silken cord.
The White Cordon is less of a decoration than it is a rumour, a story that officers of Royal Tierran Intelligence who have demonstrated particular ability or loyalty are given a cord of white silk, to be won under their clothes. This cord represents more than just a secret adornment and mark of distinction, but a tacit authorisation to commit any act – up to and including murder – necessary to safeguard the Unified Kingdom’s interests. This is, of course, nothing more than a wild tavern tale. There is no record of any senior official of Royal Tierran Intelligence authorising the award of such a decoration, and sources up to the Crown itself have denied its existence.
Secret Service Cross
Authorised: ???
Citation Type: For Extraordinary Services Rendered to Officers of His Tierran Majesty’s Clandestine Services
Description: Plain bronze cross surmounted with an embossed open eye. Sable ribbon.
The only official decoration awarded by Royal Tierran Intelligence, the Secret Service Cross is something of an oddity. It is forbidden for a living recipient to wear the decoration openly, and only when special dispensation is given can it be worn at death – to be burned on the pyre with its now deceased bearer. Indeed, the few occasions in which this has been allowed offers the only proof that such an award has been officially authorised and exists at all.
The Iron Penny
Authorised: ???
Citation Type: ???
Description: A black iron disc stamped with open eye on one side and “FOR SERVICES RENDERED” on the other. No ribbon.
Rumour has it that if you do an officer of Royal Tierran Intelligence a good turn – as a minor deed, but one worth remembering – they will give you an Iron Penny. Rumour has it that if you are ever in a position to call upon Royal Tierran Intelligence’s resources or assistance, you need only present such a token to one of their officers to see the favour returned – if possible. Some say this is just a story – there are similar tales about Takaran Imperial Intelligence – but all that is really known is that such tokens do exist, here and there, though their bearers are certainly in no position to explain their meaning…
Paul Wang 