A new dawn rose golden over the Southlands.
The Imperial Aquila soared out, bloodied, wounded even, but triumphant.
Tuthmes Skytalon, his armour reworked to the station of a Chapter Master and angelic marshal, stood atop the peak of Atakora. Tuthmes had earned his name as one of the finest pilots of the Chapter, and had since served as Master of the Fleet. He had centuries of experience commanding rapid strikes, or long void-sieges, and for many years his charges had been the great beasts they called spacecraft. Yet now the fleet was downed, lying out across the plains away over the horizon, while his once proud Serenkai lay, half cannibalised to build the Fortress-Monastery Tuthmes now stood above.
The Imperium were truly entrenched on Mallus. Pharos was stronger than ever, the god-machines of Kolossi awakened and striding across the plains, while the techmarines stood ready at the macro-batteries. In Atakora, great grinding machines woke fire in the depths, drawing up heat and life from the planet's slumberings, fuelling mighty reactors to power the fortress' many machines. To the south the jungles had been scourged of the great reptilian beasts which had once stalked the land, while in the north the power of the Tomb Kings had been broken, the remnants of that once great civilisation falling to disorder upon the destruction of Settra and his army.
In Medes, the miraculous delivery of the people from their aggressors had been rewarded with a great surge of piety, and the remnants of the old order had been thrown down. Ginduris, archpriest of the Old Faith, had been martyred by the blades of daemons, and the Lady Hermina had been acclaimed by the people of the kingdom to lead them. In Araby, while refugees choked and starved amidst the ruins of the cities, some claimed new life bloomed upon the now gravid swellings of the River Mortis, perhaps some sign of the ancient curse upon that water weakening. While thousands had died in the Storm of Magic summoned by Settra's hierophants, whether to the raw energies of the Warp itself, or to the subsequent massacres by manifest daemons and warp-fuelled constructs, many more had escaped to the west, crossing the Mountains of the Panther and sheltering in dwarven settlements or simply fleeing into the Land of Assassins, the majority of which had been sheltered by the mountains themselves.
Immediate resistance to Imperial Compliance had been broken utterly, or so Tuthmes reflected when he looked out. Where perhaps once the armies of the native peoples might have overwhelmed the Imperium-on-Mallus through sheer numbers and magical might, the Celestial Lions and brave men of the Imperial Guard had scattered and reduced them, and the Southlands no longer held any major threat to the Lions' dominion.
Still though, there were always threats, Tuthmes knew this well enough. The conquest so far had left the Chapter critically short of munitions, despite their attempts to over-stock the Armoury before they'd fled Elara's Veil. More than this, the disruption the Lions had caused was now being felt out across the world, in one instance, there were reports of Feral Orks expeditioning out from the north, the old protections and sentinels of Nehekhara no longer active, or at least directed, allowing large bands to slip by.
Within the Chapter itself, hundreds of Marines had been killed in the taking of Mallus, and many Scouts and Aspirants. Yet, such was the way of the Angel of Death, their only progeny guaranteed by their own sacrifice. Astartes died to live, and while the Lions of Elysium may be dying, the Lions of Mallus were rising. Would Tuthmes live to see them take back the stars? Perhaps, but for now there were plans to be made and strategies to be considered.
The Chapter Master dismounted his perch, climbing back down the peak, his servo-driven fingers biting into the rock as if it were paper as he descended the mountain. The time of struggle had passed, the Old Night pushed back once again, now was the time for rule.
AN
So, you've successfully gotten to Arc 2. The Imperium is well established, though still pretty shaky in some places, and we'll now be expanding outward as the Compliance continues into the next phases. As the first chapter of the new arc, I'd like to hear your priorities for the Chapter. There'll be no specific 'voting' yet as this is too loose to form a proper vote, but I'll moderate your points and form them into the next options votes.
As a workplan of the next few chapters, we're first going to have the priority voting, then some 'issue' chapters (eg, 'what do we do about all these psykers popping up'), then the first of the economy chapters where you'll decide what you're building, and then we'll get back to the turns with actions and so on. Periodically this will be interrupted by interlude as it has previously.
As some general notes from the last few chapters…
Recent events
- Settra and army defeated, Tomb King resurgence destroyed and remaining Tomb Kings scattered across various cities. Settra presumed dead. Massive release of warp energy and subsequent effects. 12 3rd Company marines killed, fairly minor attrition among Guard units across Araby. No other significant losses to Imperial forces. Mysterious ghostly figures seen in battle. Amra imprisoned in Atakora, something spooky going on with him too. Evidence of some sort of conspiracy within Araby and abroad to destroy Imperium-on-Mallus.
- Most inland settlements and tribes destroyed, coastal cities, especially in Araby, damaged. Many dead.
- Population of Araby either fled to coastal areas or west over the mountains. Significant internally displaced populations, significant damage to rivers and other elements of natural environment, significant refugee crisis in other states, notably Tilea.
- Kingdom of Medes hit hard, but northern Araby hit even harder, exacerbating existing instability due to recent Imperial conquest, as well as ongoing famine and other issues.
Imperial organisation
- Mechanicum extraction activities continue, mines and oil wells established with associated refining facilities, to be further specified in economy update.
- General lack of equipment and munitions across operations, though capacity available to produce more.
- Pharos established as a city proper, rather than the fortified crash site it had previously been.
- All equipment, such as items previously trapped in cargo bays due to crash of ships, now available for use, including Knights.
- Imperial Guard elements severely damaged, currently combat ineffective for many missions. General lack of equipment for formation of new units.
- Missionia Galaxia force damaged, as with the rest of Araby. Directly ruling and administrating Medes, but incredibly unpopular in Araby at present.
- Adeptus Soroitas convent established, trainee Sisters of Battle under instruction.
- Lack of air assets generally, void assets available but expensive to use and maintain.
Chapter organisation
- Chapter severely mauled by battles. Hundreds of marines dead and significant quantities of materiel damaged or destroyed, especially air assets.
- Developing rift in Chapter between Reclusiam and Librarium.
- Significant quantity (at best, 300 graduates expected in several years) of Scouts requiring training and equipping, currently impossible with present stock of items.
- Current severe lack of geneseed due to implantation of entire stock in current classes of Aspirants.
International events
- Fulgurite Field and associated events felt by all moderately capable psykers across Mallus, with varying levels of knowledge regarding the events scryed or otherwise perceived by various actors.
- Norscan civil war between Imperial and Chaos aligned Norscans continues. Imperial defeat highly likely without interference.
- Vampire Wars progressing largely without Imperial input. Events slightly altered by contact by Imperium via 3 Astartes and their formation of an army in the northern Empire. Contact made with Cult of Sigmar.
- Warpstone and magic item production of Araby by Djinncallers disrupted, then cut off, various effects toward various organisations across the Old World and beyond.
- Ulthuan growing more hostile toward Imperium due to interference in trade and hostile actions by Imperium.
- Human tribes of Naggaroth enslaved or destroyed, Dark Elves largely concentrated on internal matters currently.
And as a reminder, now you can mention various priorities you might have. If you want more information on anything in particular, just ask. I'm inclined to provide information directly rather than in text, but some things I'll give a brief note of, then maybe write an interlude on the subject at some point.
Your priorities can be as broad or narrow as you like, but I'd tend toward broadness, which can be narrowed down in terms of strategy through discussion among players and intercession by me. For example, there's been discussion about conquering various places, that would count as a priority, so you can just say 'conquer bretonnia as previously discussed' for example.
As above, your priorities will, along with other stuff, form the options of the options votes when we get back around to the 'turns'. Some priorities may be established in the economy turn, such as 'build an autogun factory' or similar. The options I give will be the most obvious ones, not necessarily the best, that's your job to think up and discuss.
