Army of Liberty: a Fantasy Revolutionary Warfare Quest

Photomajig · Dec 5, 2023

Welcome to Army of Liberty! Napoleon was a poor movie, but it got me in the mood for Napoleonic warfare and Revolutionary politics once more. The Quest takes all that and adds a heavy dose of fantastical elements.

This is a Quest of revolutionary politics, strategy, tactical warfare and magic in an alternate world set at a time of our French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. You take on the role of a young military commander as they find themselves at the head of their own fighting division and in the pivotal battles of the Revolutionary Wars to come. Those battles will be played out on a tactical hex map as directed by you, voting on the actions taken by each regiment under your command.

The setting of this Quest resembles the late 18th century of our own, but only on the surface. The ancien régime and the world it represents is one of elven domination of myriad subject peoples. The Revolution promises equality, liberty and communality between all races and kin, a promise that has captured countless hobgoblins, dwarves, halflings, humans and others across the realms to its cause. As in the world we know, the Revolution will soon begin to eat itself up from the inside even as foreign powers threaten its survival - a situation that offers both opportunity and peril for an up-and-coming commander.

The exact mechanics of combat, army management, politics and so forth will be described as they come up. It is not necessary to understand the precise logic of the rules to participate, but they'll be introduced gradually in a tutorial mission to start things off.

***

"Messenger coming through, sir!"

The lookout's cry breaks you from your battlefield reverie. He is swiftly proven correct. The rolling banks of gunpowder smoke ahead part for a moment to grant passage to a mounted halfling woman on a stout and bloodied pony. She gallops to your station and draws up quick, both horse and rider panting.

"Compliments of General Guizot, sir!" the messenger says, thrusting a sealed message cylinder at you. "You are to take your reserve and make immediately for the village of Saintonge two miles north-north-east. Enemy forward elements sighted beyond the line; all forward divisions presently committed; swift action required to prevent collapse of left flank."

You take the message and confirm that it repeats the messenger's words. A shiver of excitement runs up your spine. Enemy forces threatening to fall upon the flank of the line, and only you there to stop it. A fine chance of pace from sitting in reserve for hours on end. A fine chance for promotion and glory for a measly Colonel, to be offered an independent command of a larger force away from the meddling of superior officers. A fine chance, you think, to prove yourself to the cause of the Revolution.

You dismiss the messenger and observe the soldiers assembled before you. Thousands of men and women from across the realm - among them tall and long-limbed hobgoblins, eager scores of halflings, expressionless dwarves with their rough stone faces, regal elven defectors and wild-eyed humans twitching with fervor yet to be released, all of them garbed in the joyous blues, oranges and browns of the new Army.

It is a sight that would have been impossible to conceive of only a year ago, not merely for the unity of their cause. It is Year One of the Revolution and though misled royalist mobs still frustrate the advance of liberty, the day has dawned brighter and more hopeful than ever.

You stand out amongst them and not merely for your rank. Few young officers can boast of such a rapid rise in the ranks, but the Revolution has opened many doors before thought sealed tight. Your previous circumstances matter little now, but you were of the...

Who are your people? What is your Kin?

[] Elves. They say Elvenkind rules the world, but that's always only been true for a handful of high-placed elites, leaving the rest of you with little to distinguish you from the peasantry save for a fine title. You are of the Elven noblesse mendiante, the gold-poor beggar-aristocracy of the realm. When the Revolution came, you were quick to defect for a chance at genuine glory and elevation.

+Blessed Blood: Elves live exceptionally long lives and resurrect spontaneously after deaths as long as there's enough left of the body. Their senses are sharp, their manners elegant, and their entitlement immense. You have improved relations with the conservative Constitutionalist faction. You have slightly improved relations with counter-revolutionary Royalists and foreign elites. Elven Units regain more casualties after battle and spot enemies more easily on the battlefield.

-Elven Stagnancy: When you're already perfect, there's no need for change. Elves tend to learn more slowly than others and become fixed in their ways. Elven Units require more experience to improve their fighting skills.

[] Hobgoblins. Treated like savages and cannonfodder for centuries, the Revolution now offers Hobgoblins a chance to claim an equal place in society. For the first time in centuries, there are paths open to them other than those of soldier or serf. Many of them cannot forsake war just yet, though – their strength, ferocity and martial traditions make them valued shock troops on the battlefield. You joined the Revolution as one of the first hobgoblin officers, and there is no way you are leaving behind anything but a spectacular legacy for that.

+Mighty: Hobgoblins have strong limbs and hardy bodies, making hobgoblin charges feared across the realms. You have improved relations with the militarist Liberationist faction. You have slightly improved relations with the radical Leveler faction. Hobgoblin Units inflict more damage in melee combat and have stronger charges.

-Hobgoblin Diet: A strong body requires a full stomach to maintain. Hobgoblins must eat far more than most to sustain themselves. Hobgoblin Units consume additional supplies on and off the battlefield.

[] Halflings. The small are not to be discounted. Halflings are a diminutive people with a great deal to gain from Revolution. Liberated from their fields and pastures they have been legally bound to for centuries, halflings now offer their services in the fighting corps of the realms. Their small size is a boon when moving unseen and staying unhit, but their frailty makes itself known in physical contests against others. You left a position on a village council to make your mark on a grander scale than that of provincial politics.

+Overlooked: Halflings rarely grow to more than 3 feet tall. It is easy to overlook them, a fact they use ruthlessly to their advantage among other peoples as well as while crossing battlefields. You have improved relations with the radical Leveler faction. You have slightly improved relations with the centrist Consular faction. Halfling Units are more difficult to hit with ranged attacks and hide more easily on the battlefield.

-Smallfolk: One cannot pack too much muscle into a pint-sized frame. Halflings do poorly in close combat against larger foes. Halfling Units take more casualties in melee combat.

[] Dwarves. The False-Kin are born not of mothers, but carved of stone in their strange halls deep underground. The overpopulation of the world below has compelled millions of dwarves to migrate to the surface, where they have found themselves easily exploited by others for their rigid, order-craving minds and enduring bodies. You enjoy a greater degree of independent thought than many of your peers thanks to an ideal mixture of stone in your Carving, which you intend to make the most of to elevate yourself and your kin in this new world to come.

+Stone Skin: Dwarves have hardened stony hides that can withstand harsh punishment and personalities that subsume fear under the bonds of routine, rote and discipline. You have improved relations with the centrist Consular faction. You have slightly improved relations with the conservative Constitutionalist faction. Dwarven Units take fewer casualties on the battlefield and gain greater benefits from drill and discipline.

-Stone Mind: Dwarves also have minds that find it difficult to act in the absence of clear rules, orders and hierarchies. This can cause problems when their assigned leaders are out of commission. Dwarven Units are disabled if their commanding officer is wounded or killed. Dwarven Units lose morale if discipline falls in their army.

[] Humans. The orphan people have no homeland to call their own, nor any origin or maker that they could tell you of. Humans have wandered and roamed the realms in their tight-knit groups since time immemorial. Military types have found them useful for their strong passions, quick learning and suspectibility to grandiose propaganda. You are a true believer in the cause, ready and willing to sacrifice anything and everything for the Revolution.

+Dreamers: Humans feel things strongly and attach themselves to causes and friends like no other people. Their devotion to those they believe in is unbreakable. More than that, humans are always striving and looking for more, dreaming of something greater. You have greatly improved relations with any one faction of your choice. Human Units require less experience to improve their fighting skills and gain greater benefits from morale and mood.

-Human Despair: Humans also react strongly when things go wrong. Defeats and losses can drive them to despondency to a degree that other peoples find absurd. Human Units lose more morale from defeats, unit losses and other setbacks.

[] Devils. Hell was once the pinnacle of power and sophistication in all of Creation. Then the elves drowned it. Now the last dregs of the infernal race drift as refugees in the world above, mourning their flooded and broken home, and carrying the memories and experiences of those they have lost with them forever more. You have shaken off the gloom and apathy of your kind with the coming of the Revolution and begun on the road to seeing what life might, in fact, still hold for the spawn of Hell as one of the only devilish commanders in this new Army.

+Infernal Immortality: Devils are ageless creatures of strange magics. They remember all that their forebears did and use their accumulated skills as naturally as other peoples breathe. The more experience they amass, the harder it is to beat them. You have access to infernal rituals on the battlefield. Devil Units never lose experience rank and gain greater benefits from experience.

-Lost and Damned: Only a fraction of Hell's teeming population escaped the Deluge. Only a fraction of those survivors continue to find life worth living. Devil populations are small and scattered and only growing smaller every year. Devil Units are much more difficult to find replacements and recruits for.

Another change, of course, is that the men are no longer only men. The stifling elven traditions and structures of gender have been abolished under the Revolution, allowing for soldiers of all genders to enter the ranks and the trades as they see fit. You yourself are...

[] Male. The narrative will refer to you with he/him pronouns.
[] Female. The narrative will refer to you with she/her pronouns.
[] Neither. The narrative will refer to you with they/them pronouns.

***

Photomajig · Dec 5, 2023

NATIONAL CONVENTION OF ARNÉ

Spring of Year Two

Constitutionalist (98 seats), -40 Relation
Consular (141 seats), +0 Relation
Unaligned (126 seats)
Liberationist (72 seats), +20 Relation
Leveler (100 seats), +20 Relation

Current Influence Gain: +0

***

PEOPLE

Raka Durand Revolutionary Factions

Raka Durand

Detail from "General Durand at Balme" (ARY 76), by Marianne Valmont

Born spring 1688 (Elven Counting) in the town of Boissec-Anville, in the south-west of the Kingdom of Arné. Third daughter of a sergeant from the garrison and member of a large soldiering extended family. Parish records list frequent penitences and censures issued on the family for unorthodox religious practice, insubordination and breach of sexual propriety during the years of her childhood and adolescence.

Enlisted in the local regiment alongside all four of her sisters and two of her brothers in 1699 (the youngest as runners and drummer boys) at the outbreak of King Dagobert's War of 1699-1708. Recorded as Rako Durand, a male hobgoblin, as was the custom of the time. Served in infantry detachment of divisional artillery. Commended for vigilance and bravery during the Battle of Tara in 1705 after spoiling a flanking attempt of enemy cavalry and seizing its standard in the ensuing fighting.

Retained in unit after demobilization in 1708. Swift rise in ranks in following five years, making Master Sergeant in 1714. Said to have managed her battery on behalf of absentee regimental commander, despite low rank. Unit mobilized again in 1717 for the outbreak of the War of the Grand Alliance, seeing heavy action in the disastrous 1718-1729 campaign.

Intended for colonial deployment in the autumn of 1731, only for unnatural storms to sink entire transport fleet soon after leaving port. One of few survivors who managed to swim to shore, but bedridden for months afterwards due to acute salt lung. Peace made during recovery, with most of her soldiers lost to the deep.

Dismissed from service without pay and benefits in 1732 as part of the royal bankruptcy crisis. Formed revolutionary militia during the Great Tumult of 1733 and participated in capture of the provincial capital of Orfeuille in the winter of 1734/Revolutionary Year One.

Commissioned as Colonel of the newly founded 5th Hobgoblin Horse Artillery of the National Army. Distinguished herself as commander of ad hoc brigade during the Battle of Angilmont-Saintonge in the summer of Revolutionary Year One...

-Excerpt from the Atlas of the Revolutionary Wars (ARY 164), section "Raka Durand"
Factions of the National Convention

The National Convention of Arné is a 537-member single-chamber parliament with supreme legislative and executive power over the Nation. While formal political parties do not exist, several prominent factions have nevertheless formed since the Revolution.

Constitutionalists

The Constitutionalist faction advocates for the preservation of the monarchy under a constitutional model, the moderation of social and political reforms, restoration of diplomatic relations with the other Golden Realms and representative democracy with limited suffrage. They believe that the political process must be guarded from "the tyranny of the mob", which showed its bloodthirsty face in the Great Tumult of 1733. Ancient institutions such as the church and the monarchy provide important stability and uphold the social order, and so radical changes to their status should not be undertaken.

The Constitutionalists are supported mostly by elven moderates, rural halfling elites as well as wealthier urban humans and dwarves. Their conciliatory policies have successfully brought many sworn royalists into their fold as well. They uphold the equality of all peoples before the law, but imagine Arné as a nation where each race has its place and purpose, working in unity for the benefit of all. As such, radical efforts to interfere in traditional systems are viewed with suspicion, such as rural land reform or the abolition of aristocratic titles.

The greatest revolutionary virtue for the Constitutionalists is Fraternité; a belief in national unity, social harmony, civic virtue and strength born of shared values. They have a strained working relationship with the Consular faction, oppose the Liberationists as warmongers, and are extremely opposed to the Levelers as formentors of social unrest and anarchy.

The current leader of the Constitutionalist is Jean-Paul Georges de Chavaniac, Duc de Haute-Plaisset, a powerful liberal aristocrat who has the distinction of having served as a financial minister in the royal cabinet in 1720-1726. He campaigned visibly for economic reform during this period that would have abolished most restrictions on vocations and trades. Additionally, he was able to end the widely-hated practice of the banalités, which compelled peasants to use their lord's mill and wine press - a state of affairs that had become increasingly untenable due to absentee landlords and the uncontrolled growth of the rural population.

While most of de Chavaniac's efforts were in vain, vetoed by reactionary forces at court, this earned him considerable goodwill among the educated classes of Arnése society and the commons alike. De Chavaniac is known as an energetic, well-educated polymath, with connections to liberal nobility all around the realms. His opinion of the masses soured considerably during the Great Tumult of 1733 and the collapse of order in the capital. In the aftermath, de Chavaniac spearheaded the effort to relocate the King to his estates in La Durance.

He also formulated the Constitutionalist idea of democracy, which rests on the shoulders of a small but politically active electorate - men and women of property and sufficient income. While this makes no distinction of race, these requirements heavily favor elves, wealthier halfling peasantry and established human-dwarven urban bourgeoisie - and mostly means men of these groups, since women's access to property and independent income has been possible only for a short while now.

Consular

The Consular faction advocates for a strong, centralized republic, moderate social reform, economic rationalization, normalized relations with foreign powers and representative democracy with limited suffrage. They believe that the institution of the monarchy is obsolete and stained by countless acts of tyranny; new symbols, institutions and traditions must be created on rational and modern lines to replace the ancien regime. They see the lack of a clearly defined executive branch of government a weakness and advocate for the election of representative Consuls to assume executive power under the mandate of the Convention. While wary of mass movements and the bloodthirst of the mob, they favor a broad suffrage of all "active" citizens that contribute labor and taxes to the Nation.

The Consular faction promotes the right to property, education and work. They support the abolition of all old restrictions on an individual's trade, faith, commerce, freedom of movement, legal rights, eligibility to office and military rank, with the aim of placing all citizens on a legally equal basis. They are supported largely by liberal-minded reformers, wealthier urban populations, intellectuals and moderates of all races.

The greatest revolutionary virtue for the Consular faction is Liberté; a guarantee of individual rights and freedoms, democratic participation and legal equality. They have a strained working relationship with the Constitutionalists and the Liberationists, but consider the Levelers dangerous radicals and would-be authoritarians.

The three most important Consular leaders are the elven Guy-Armand Polvérel (originally de Polvérel, Comte de Bruinard), the halfling Ronan La Chapelle and the human Jacques Martel. They are often referred to as the Triumvirate (Le Triumvirat) for their dominant position within the faction.

Polvérel, though born to well-connected high nobility, was radicalized into a republican around 1706, after court intrigues led to King Dagobert annulling his engagement and marrying his would-be wife to one of his rivals. This personal slight catalyzed a political awakening. Soon Polvérel found himself in exile in Ivernia due to his public opposition to the King, where he absorbed a great deal of republican thinking and began to organize Arné's radical elements.

La Chapelle is head of a village council from the region of Niveis, and a charismatic though uneducated politician. On the very first day of the Estates General in 1732, La Chapelle made a stir by calling for the sale of all crown lands and the royal palace to generate revenues for the state. Similar grand proclamations and promises have characterized him since, as well the wit and "country charm" he displays on the debate floor.

Martel, on the other hand, comes from local Loutharcian burgher stock. He previously earned his living as a lawyer representing the interests of elven nobles with assets in the city, as his father had done before him. The family's success and the patronage of powerful clients ensured young Jacques a comprehensive education; as a representative on the Convention, he played a key role in drafting the Constitution of the Year One. His legislative work is recognized by all parties as rather brilliant, tireless and easily-explained to the general public.

Liberationists

The Liberationist faction advocates for utmost commitment to republicanism and liberty at home and abroad, extensive social, economic and military reforms, and an aggressive hawkish foreign policy of exporting liberty to the rest of the world. They support universal suffrage and universal conscription as the basis of a truly equal and united Nation. The Liberationists are ideologically opposed to pragmatism and compromise, which extends to an open hostility to the institutions of monarchy, the church and the aristocracy. They believe the Revolution may only be complete when it has brought down the old order in every corner of the world.

The Liberationists call for harsh punishments for supporters of the old system and a forceful resolution to its remains; executions of the royal family for treason, abolition of the aristocracy, the break-up of noble estates and properties to be sold to citizenry or the state, repudiation of pre-Revolutionary debt, and seizure of foreign and émigré wealth in the Nation without compensation. They promote a state-regulated economy and high tariffs to protect domestic trade from foreign competition. The Liberationists have their largest base of support in the military, as well as among urban populations; the majority of their supporters are humans drawn in by their uncompromising politics and militaristic-minded hobgoblins.

The greatest revolutionary virtue for the Liberationists is Liberté; a guarantee of individual rights and freedoms, democratic participation and legal equality. They have a strained working relationship with both the Consular faction and the Levelers, but are staunchly opposed to the Constitutionalists.

The most important Liberationist figures are those of hobgoblin Saha Fortier and the elf Victor Chinerot (originally de Chinerot, Chevalier de Foyard). The pair are old and close friends (the gutter press claims lovers), having began their careers in the Army under the same command. Chinerot reportedly educated Fortier in formation command and strategy despite her low rank. Both career soldiers were elected to the General Estates and formed part of the radical wing of representatives. Saha Fortier famously revealed her gender at the entry of the Equestriennes and was perhaps the first hobgoblin woman of military rank to publicly present as such. Chinerot shocked many notables of his estate by forsaking his noble title and insisting on being called merely "Citizen Chinerot".

They have continued to serve as the de facto leaders of the Liberationist faction. They rarely take to the stand alone, but in pairs or one following the other. This, and their aggressive, uncompromising rhetoric, has seen them likened often to a pair of attack dogs.

Levelers

The Leveler faction advocates for radical social and political reform, redistribution of wealth, property and land, legal protections and rights for the peasantry and urban laborers, and direct democratic representation based on universal suffrage. They call for the abolition of all social and legal privileges, the destruction of the monarchy, the church and all their symbols, wage-fixing and price-controls on essentials to guarantee livelihoods for the poor, and the right to public education and welfare. They demand harsh punishments on counter-revolutionary elements at home and vigilance against foreign threats, though they support war only in defense of the People. They agitate against the selfishness, greed and decadence of the rich and highborn; in Leveler terms, the wealth of the Nation belongs to the People as a whole and is not to be hoarded by individuals. The Levelers are also strong advocates of the petites familles de la nation, the "Small-Kin" of minority races such as devils, reynardines, terrapini, nymphs and others.

The Levelers are an unorganized and loose grouping mostly held together by a handful of charismatic leaders. The most significant divides within the movement are over the centralization of power. The right-Levelers support a strong, centralized executive with the power to enforce top-down reform, while the left-Levelers support "social revolution" from the bottom-up through empowering local populations to self-organize in autonomous communes, inspired by traditional halfling village councils. Land reform is the single most important issue to the left-Leveler movement, while the right-Levelers are more interested in providing for the urban poor. Issues such as price controls on bread threaten to divide the Levelers further.

In broad strokes, the former fraction of the faction is supported by the radical urban poor, while rural supporters, especially halflings, provide for the latter. The overall Leveler base of support has relatively few elves and dwarves, though several of its leaders are populistic elven radicals. Humans, hobgoblins and halflings form the clear majority of supporters.

The greatest revolutionary virtue for the Levelers is Égalité; equality not only of opportunity and legal standing, but equality of outcomes, an universalist ethos where all beings enjoy the same security and social standing. They are staunchly opposed to the Constitutionalists, distrustful of the Consular faction, and have a strained working relationship with the Liberationists.

PLACES

Kingdom of Arné Arnése Colonies Kingdom of Norn Kingdom of Herculia Kingdom of Ivernia Kingdom of Bruttia Kingdom of Rûm Kingdom of Vechia Kingdom of Boiarsko Grand Duchy of Musselmond-Gelle

Kingdom of Arné

For the Map of Arné, click here.

Royal Flag of the Parvain dynasty/Flag of Revolutionary Arné

The oldest and most populous of the Eight Golden Realms, Arné at the eve of the Revolution in 1734 encompassed some 920,000 square kilometres, 38 million souls and a colonial empire ranging from the Fire Sea to the Straits of Aton. Nevertheless, only around 66,000 men formed the standing professional army of the Kingdom by 1734, with most regiments of the line dissolved 1732-1733 due to the royal bankruptcy crisis. Even the pay of those 66,000 soldiers was in arrears before the Revolution. Due to the collapse of the Arnése currency of the sou, the state began paying its expenses and debts in kind, primarily as grain and wine requisitioned from the peasantry. Predictably, this led to unrest both in the countryside and in the cities due to rapidly rising bread prices, directly setting off the Revolution.

Arné's founding is dated to the Mythic Age. The Song of the Taming of the Earth tells of elven hero-king Clotairus, who slew the great wyrm Anaxater in the wild lands that would become Arné. The tale goes that the killing blow impaled Anaxater so deep into the stone that the sword could no longer be moved. Taking this as a sign from the Highest, Clotairus declared that the dragon's dominion over the land had passed onto him and named himself king of Arné. The tales describe long centuries of the elves clearing out monsters and, in typical high-Elven telling, teaching the "lesser Kin" how to cultivate the earth, obey the law and know the gods.

The first historical evidence of elven rule over the region comes from an inscription on the Dominion Stone of Parvain. Dated 121, it tells of the conquest of the area by Elven-King Grimoald I. Carvings on the Stone appear to represent the subjugation of primitive hobgoblins, halflings and nymphs already present in the region. This establishment of the ruling de Parvain dynasty (or the Grimoaldings) is generally dated to this year.

From Grimoald I (?-192), the line of elven kings is well attested: Grimoald II (192-264), Dagobert I (264-381), Clotaire III (381-490), Clotaire IV (490-601), Pepin I (601-634 and 651-709, interrupted by the Black Glut), Clotaire V (709-732), Dagobert II (732-739), Clovis I (739-1001), Clotaire VI (1001-1251), Pepin II (1251-1315), Gométrude I (1315-1388), Clovis II (1388-1501), Clotaire VII (1501-1667), Dagobert III (1667-1714), ending in the disastrous rule of Clotaire VIII (1714-), the last of the absolutist kings of Arné. (...)

-Excerpt from A Primer to the Later History of Creation (ARY 201), chapter "On the Crisis of the Last Century"
Saint-Hippolyte

The crown jewel of the Arnése colonial empire, Saint-Hippolyte is a tropical island to the far west of Arné, across the Euric Ocean. At some 60,000 square kilometres, it is one of the largest islands in the Îles de Crepuscule archipelago, which lies off the Sunward coast. Its rugged, volcanic and mountain-encrusted interior means that much of this territory is largely uninhabited, with settlement favoring the low-lying coastal regions.

Revenues from Saint-Hippolyte's sugar and coffee made up a significant portion of the Crown's income on the eve of the Revolution. This trade was placed entirely in the hands of a small clique of human and dwarven mercantile interests based out of the port of Jeannais. Outside the ranks of the royal administration and this monopolistic company, most inhabitants of mainland Arné knew next to nothing about life on the island.

The island that would become known as Saint-Hippolyte was discovered by the elves of Arcadie in 1460 EC. Though rumors of lands west of the great Euric Ocean had circulated among mariners and mystics for centuries, no recorded contact was made before the Sunward Expedition of 1458-1460, which brought elvenkind to the New World. Known by the native Kin as Qisqilla, the island became a key early hub of Herculian colonization. The Herculians knew the island as La Serena, a moniker owing to the deep and protected harbor that became the site of their original settlement. This colony was dedicated to 5th-century saint Hippolytus of Optia, from which its Arnése name is drawn.

The Herculian settlers found the native population of the island a savage and primitive multitude, who were best put to work extracting gold and silver from the mountainous interior. When these deposits ran out in the 1500s, Herculian interests moved further west into the Sunward Isles, and the Crown was forced to find a new staple for La Serena's economy. Native tobacco and imported coffee soon became major crops, but nothing would be as consequential and fateful for the island as sugarcane.

The cultivation of sugarcane necessitated considerable investments of capital, labor and time. In time, this would concentrate the island's economy nearly fully in the hands of a small class of plantation owners. The initial workforce of halfling migrants proved unreliable, with tropical diseases and resistance to the back-breaking labor involved causing the available manpower to shrink rapidly. The native Kin were no longer numerous enough to suffice, either. The island soon declined into a backwater, a footnote in the Herculian Empire.

The island was ceded to Arné in 1618. The new administration hoped to reinvigorate the sugar trade, but faced similar labor shortages as their predecessors. Gradually, they began to look outwards, and downwards.

The devastating crusades in the New World and their culmination in the Deluge brought thousands and thousands of devils into elven hands. With their innate adaptability and ability to come back even from death, devils were found to be perfect workers for the hard labor of the plantation. Traditional Arnése laws afforded certain rights to different Arcadian Kin as part of the "harmonious society", but devils and native Kin had no such protections. They also had no right to own land of their own, legally practice any independent trade, or even serve in the local militias. Their only recourse was, in many cases, to sign themselves away to indentured servitude for those who did own land and property. When their lives ran out, their children and successors would find themselves facing the same fate.

The sugar industry would expand massively over the following decades. These de facto slaves, devil and otherwise, grew far more numerous than freemen. The plantation economy became the sole focus of the island, to the extent that grain now had to be imported from the metropole. The Crown instituted strict restrictions on trade to ensure it received the full bounty of the island's riches, a fact that the local Creole elites would find ever irritating.

For these elites, the Revolution presented a golden opportunity to be rid of such interference and gain autonomy and self-governance for the island. For the laborers on their fields, the Declaration of Universal Rights was a spark in a powder keg...

Îles du Crepuscule

Besides the crown jewel of Saint-Hippolyte, Arné's holdings in the archipelago include the smaller islands of Jouné, Petite-Terre, Point-Médian, Saint-Yves and Terre-Nouvelle. They are also mostly dedicated to the cultivation of sugarcane through exploited labor.

Terre-de-Soufre

A barren but strategically vital island holding approximately at the midpoint between Arné and the Sunward. Terre-de-Soufre's rugged, defensive terrain and deep anchorage have made it a key Arnése naval base for three centuries. It has only a small permanent population and produces sulfur as its only export. Terre-de-Soufre lies close to the Ivernian (previously Herculian) twin islands of Mwy Madoc and Llai Madoc.

L'Outremer and Avallen

The northernmost landmass of the Sunward holds an Arnése colonial territory commonly known as L'Outremer, or as Avallen (as named by its Ivernian discoverer). This large but sparsely uninhabited wilderness is mostly of interest for the fur trade, with "civilization" limited to small trading posts and forts along navigeable rivers. Aside from the furs, pine tar and pitch are important goods from the area.

Islands of the Fire Sea

The southern Fire Sea hosts several scattered Arnése trading posts and waystations, of which Île Parvain and Île Nocturne are notable as a naval station and penal colony, respectively.

Port-Orient

In the far east of the Straits of Aton, Arnése presence is modest. Among the bickering mercantile principalities of the region squats the fortified factory-town of Port-Orient (locally known as Landanak). Arnése spice merchants operate out of its confines, though they are bit players in the shadow of the Ivernian and Bruttian trading companies.
Kingdom of Norn

The Elven Kingdom of Norn (Nornisch: Elfenkönigreich Nornen) was one of the Eight Golden Realms. At the beginning of the Revolutionary period, it encompassed a fragmented web of territories in north-western and central Arcadie that amounted to around 260,000 square kilometres and a population of 12 million. Despite being the smallest of the Golden Realms in these regards, its ample natural resources, well-drilled and meritocratic army and economic power made it perhaps the most successful of them during the last century. After the War of the Grand Alliance, the Nornish Crown was able to leverage its victories into political and economic dominance of the northern and central Silver Realms, forming a web of satellite states wedded tightly to Nornish interests.

The end to Arnése grain imports after the Revolution destabilized the Nornish economy, however, and the spread of radical ideas fostered growing unrest against absolutist rule. King Athawulf II Friedrich received news of the Arnése king's fall from power first with glee, but later with increasing concern. The ongoing war against Vechia and its allies delayed any intervention in Arné, however. By the Revolutionary Year Two, the Nornish Crown was actively financing Arnése émigrés and providing arms, advisors and even veteran soldiers to the royalist Volunteer Army. This counter-revolutionary force was allowed to muster on Nornish soil a little ways from the Arnése border.

The history of Norn is a tumultous one. Supposedly founded in the Mythic Age by elven hero-king Alaricus at the coast of the Tar Sea, the realm was beset for centuries by seaborne monsters, hostile tribes and chaotic infernal radiance emanating from the hellrift at Teufelstein. Little evidence remains for the reigns of early Nornish kings after Alaricus. The first Nornish king mentioned in contemporary sources is Harbaud I (?-480), but periods of interregnum and state collapse make a definite chronology of Nornish monarchs difficult until the 1200s. Nevertheless, its status as a Golden Realm and successor to Atalanta had been maintained by the Church since at least the 400s.

From 1252 onwards, a direct line can be identified with the reigns of Gero I (1252-1411), Gero II (1411-1490), Konrad I (1490-1564), Athawulf I Hermann (1564-1701) and Athawulf II Friedrich (1701-). This period of continuity saw the Nornish realm expand and stabilize, repeatedly humiliating its traditional rival Vechia as well as annexing many of its smaller neighbors or subjecting them to its sphere of influence. The military reforms of Konrad I and Athawulf I Hermann are thought to be behind this rapid rise in power, allowing the small but disciplined Nornish army to defeat much larger feudal hosts raised by its enemies. The state of this army had declined in the aftermath of the War of the Grand Alliance as complacency and mismanagement set in, but its reputation was still one of the finest in all the realms.

-Excerpt from A Primer to the Later History of Creation (ARY 201), chapter "On the Crisis of the Last Century"
Kingdom of Herculia

Dominating the western end of the Arcadien continent, the Kingdom of Herculia (Herculo-Atalanése: Reino de Hérculia) was the second-oldest of the Eight Golden Realms. It entered the Revolutionary period in a state of disarray and decline, having incurred immense debt and devastation in the course of King Dagobert's War (1699-1708) against Arné and the long War of the Grand Alliance (1717-1732). Its once-vast colonial empire was a shadow of its old self after the loss of the "Crown Jewels" of the Sunward Isles to Ivernia in 1726 and the subsequent collapse of its overseas economy. Nevertheless, it still held some 750,000 square kilometres of territory and ruled over 45 million souls, of which nearly 10 million were colonial subjects of varying status.

Though the Crown of Herculia found itself in similar dire straits as Arné in 1734, it never faced the kind of challenge to the monarchy as the Revolution of its eastern neighbor. The reasons for this are complex and disputed, but the key differences were the lack of an educated and prosperous human middle class to champion radical ideas, the strong hold of the Church over the rural population, and the failure to foster inter-Kin unity among those radicals who existed. Each disgruntled group of the population fought and lost alone.

Royal attempts at economic reform faltered before the opposition of church and aristocracy, both large landowners invested in the traditional institutions of serfdom and tax farming. Indeed, royal power became sharply curtailed during the 1720-1730s as the nobility essentially made the King a prisoner on his own throne.

The Kingdom had great pride in its navy, which could boast of opening up the Starlit Sea and the discovery of the New World, the extinction of the last oceanic sea-wyrms, as well as a long list of victories against the fleets of its peer Realms. This history of naval excellence was made possible to a large extent by extensive use of amphibious cephids on their crews and marine forces. Even with the decline of the navy at the eve of the Revolution, the realm's cephid units remained well-respected on the battlefield and would prove their worth in the wars to come.

The Kingdom's foundation is dated to the Mythic Age. The elven hero-king Fulgentius is said to have toiled for one hundred years to dig a channel between the Herculian peninsula and Numia as a penance for the fall of Atalante, which at the time were supposedly connected by a narrow isthmus. This then became the modern Strait of Fulgencio. With his penance thus complete, Fulgentius settled his people on the rich land north of the Strait, founding Herculia.

The historical record supports elven settlement in the region by the 100s, but no Kingdom of Herculia is recorded before 155 EC, when the Church recognizes Herculia's status as a Golden Realm in the Council of Heliocos, and the legitimacy of King Ordoño I as Heir of Atalante. From him, the Kings of Herculia are: Bermudo I (261-381), Ordoño II (381-410), Ordoño III (410-609), Sancho I (609-661), Sancho II (661-850), Aurelio I (850-856), Ordoño IV (856-1102), Jaime I (1102-1363), Bermudo II (1363-1501), Jaime II (1502-1720), Ordoño V (1720-).

-Excerpt from A Primer to the Later History of Creation (ARY 201), chapter "On the Crisis of the Last Century"
Kingdom of Ivernia

Found on a cluster of islands north of Arné, the Kingdom of Ivernia (Ivernian: Iweirnu) at the start of the Revolutionary era was at the same time a globe-spanning world power and an insular "hermit kingdom". Its colonial empire encompassed the entirety of the Sunward Isles, factory-outposts across the coast of Numia and the East, and even a string of hardy little settlements on the inhospitable Hyperborean continent. This amounted to somewhere around 50-60 million souls, with a theoretical extent of 3,500,000 km2. Only some 14 million of these lived on the Ivernian Isles themselves.

Ivernian success was owed both to its powerful navy and excellent seamanship, as its ability to form alliances and treaties with local elites to support its encroachment on their territories. Typically, Ivernian "residents" serving as advisors would gradually obtain more and more power over their local patrons, until the entire region was de facto under Ivernian rule. Ivernian trading companies operated with impunity in these "overseas charters".

Even so, Ivernia's absence in continental affairs had been notable since the late 1500s. Its interest lay almost entirely overseas. This could lead to conflicts with its peers in the Golden Realms, but even so hostilities were confined almost entirely to the seas and colonial territories. The Kingdom participated sporadically and opportunistically in the War of the Grand Alliance (1717-1732), though it never officially joined either side. This yielded Ivernia its largest colonial expansion yet, the cession of the Herculian Sunward Isles in 1726.

Ivernia's booming (though speculation- and crash-prone) economy and global reach made it a fearsome foe, but one usually unwilling to commit to prolonged conflict. The threat of the Arnése Revolution breaking the balance of power in Arcadia made waves even in isolationist Ivernia, however, as was about to become apparent.

Ivernia is traditionally dated as having been founded in the Mythic Age, with hero-king Dephoidus arriving on the islands after decades of seaborne wanderings. According to traditional accounts such as the Demegion poem-cycle, Dephoidus found the land subjugated by savage giants and monstrous beasts. Unusually for an elven heroic tale, Dephoidus faces great struggle and defeat in his quest to drive the giants out of his future realm. Only with his marriage to a nymph queen, Ariarwen - a purely ceremonial marriage that was never consumnated, as far as the later Church was concerned - does he muster up the might to defeat his foes.

This symbolic union between the elven settlers and the large nymph population of Ivernia began a narrative of mutual harmony and consensual colonization that endures even today in the region. Ceremonial marriages continued to be held between Ivernian kings and nymphic consorts, though this has taken a smaller and smaller significance after the 1600s.

Nymphic populations were already in steep decline by the 1700s, as Ivernian woodlands were increasingly cut down for the needs of its other Kin and the Navy. This sparked several uprisings and inter-Kin conflicts, though most nymphs directed their wrath upon their halfling and human neighbors, not at the royal house. Particularly vicious was the Kindling War of 1702-1714, which began due to the deaths of over thirty nymphic males at the hands of local woodcutters who mistook them for trees, and which saw widespread massacres and ethnic cleansing on both sides.

The historical record identifies Ivernia first in 281, with the repulsion of Arnése invaders from its shores by "Kuiddiun, High Chief of the Ivernii". Gwydion's kingship and legitimacy as a Golden King was recognized by the Church in 290. His rule lasted until 401, and was followed by Anlach I (401-428), Gwydion II (428-672), Arthlwys I (672-801), Hywel I (801-924), Triffyn I (924-1144), Gwydion III (1144-1291), Idwal I (1291-1421), Eifion I (1421-1564), Hywel II (1564-1630) and Gwydion IV (1630-).

-Excerpt from A Primer to the Later History of Creation (ARY 201), chapter "On the Crisis of the Last Century"
Kingdom of Bruttia

Known as the "Heir of Atalante", the Kingdom of Bruttia (Bruttian: Regno 'e Bruttia) was one of the Eight Golden Realms. It encompassed not only Bruttia, the southern half of the Istian peninsula, but also a large swathe of territory to the west and north-west. It held a population of some 16 million and around 460,000 km2 of territory on the eve of the Revolution.

Bruttia's territories included the defunct Kingdom of Illyria (Ratsjkan: Kraljevina Ilirija), which had styled itself a kingly realm from 970 to its downfall in 1401. The wider Church had never recognized Illyria's legitimacy as a Golden Realm, but in 1570 the Bruttian archbishop broke with the Collegium and crowned King Tancredi III as "Elven-King of Bruttia and Illyria", effectively granting the fallen realm equal rank with Bruttia. This styling was retained by Tancredi's successor, Tancredi III, who ruled on the eve of the Revolution.

Bruttia sat out the War of the Grand Alliance (1717-1732). This was likely to its benefit, as it mostly avoided the widespread devastation of the conflict and flourished from trade diverted into its ports. The Kingdom used this time to cement its hold on the northern parts of the Istian peninsula ("the Littoral") through its satellite states and joined Norn in crippling Vechia in the aftermath of the War. As a result, it expanded its territory and increased its standing among the Realms with minimal use of arms.

Bruttian armies were thought inferior to those of its peers for the most part; their multi-ethnic and multi-Kin make-up had given them a reputation as uncoordinated and ill-disciplined. Bruttian-speakers formed a minority of the rank-and-file. This heavy reliance on local populations also allowed Bruttia to wield a variety of specialist units from smaller Kins, such as the northern werwölfe or loup-garous.

Bruttia's history is the best-recorded out of the Golden Realms. After the fall of Atalanta, various elven elites settled along the shores of the Devil Sea. These "exiles" founded several city-states and fiefdoms in Istia, but no large centralized realm existed until the founding of the Kingdom of Bruttia in the south in 160 by a conclave of local nobles. It was identified as a Golden Realm from the beginning by the Church, which had its oldest and most influential bishoprics in the region. While it did not claim lineage from any one hero-king, Bruttian records supposedly show clear descent from various families of Atalanta.

The first King of Bruttia was Alboino I (160-341), followed by Gulfario I (341-397), Alboino II (397-405), Arioaldo I (405-444), Alboino III (444-594), Rodaldo I (594-635), and then the brief reigns of Arioaldo II (635-637), Gulfario II (637-641) and Astolfo I (641-643), which correspond with the near-collapse of the Kingdom during the Black Glut. After the end of the blight, a new conclave chose Tancredi I (645-802) as their new king. His successors were Alessandro I (802-1104), Alessandro II (1104-1159), Giovanni I (1159-1244), Tancredi II (1244-1509), Rainulfo I (1509-1570), Tancredi III (1570-1604) and Tancredi IV (1604-).

-Excerpt from A Primer to the Later History of Creation (ARY 201), chapter "On the Crisis of the Last Century"
Kingdom of Rûm

Spanning a massive 4,9 million square kilometres, the Sublime State of Rûm (Rûmish: Devlet-iʿ Alīyye-i Rûm) was the largest of the Eight Golden Realms by territory. Despite its enormous size, its population on the eve of the Revolution was a modest 28 million.

Rûm encompassed not only a significant swathe of south-eastern Arcadia, but also extensive Qundish and Numian territories in a territorially contiguous whole. It shared a western border with Herculian Numia, a northern border with Bruttia-Illyria as well as Vechia in the Havasok Mountains in Arcadia, and a broken, porous border with Boiarsko in the north-east. Where its eastern border terminated in the Medes, Rûm competed with Ivernia over a great many Silver and barbaric Realms of the Orient. Much of Rûm's territory was arid desert, sparsely-populated and difficult-to-traverse highlands, or barren steppe, and Rûmish control over it often nominal.

The peak of Rûmish power had been in the 1500s-1600s, when its elite janissaries had seemed unstoppable on the battlefield. The decline of this empire was partly due to the vast expenditures involved in preparing for the Deluge of Hell, which it paid for in destructive tidal waves that struck Outer Rûm after its completion. A larger problem, however, was entirely out of its control: a drying of the climate in its core territories, which began to shrink harvests and cause hungry years at an accelerating pace in the mid-1600s. Between 1634-1734, desertification and deterioration of vital soils had killed or displaced over 10 million Rûmish subjects, a threat that the greatest scholars of the empire did not know know how to combat. Even so, Rûm in this period was noted for its cultural flourishing, progressive legislation and scientific innovations (many of them spurred by the need to combat the worsening droughts).

Rûm's interest in Arcadian matters was minimal on the outset of the Revolutionary Wars. Expensive conflicts against Boiarsko-funded cossacks and baskinji rebels in the north-eastern borderlands had weakened the royal administration, which had been forced to cede power to the Church and the powerful hobgoblin Janissary Corps. Palace intrigues and fighting between the King, the Church and the Corps prevented the formulation of any coherent response to affairs in Arné and elsewhere.

The Rûmish Army retained its crack Janissary units, though they had become more relevant as a political than as a military force. Though originally composed solely of hobgoblins raised from childhood to fight for the Crown, reforms in 1690 and 1704 had made it possible for outsiders to bid for prestigious commissions in the Corps, a situation that had predictably led to immense corruption and politicking. Beyond the Janissary Corps, Rûm could rely on large peasant levies and auxiliaries, who were supposed to make up in numbers for what they lacked in training and experience. The Rûmish Navy had declined in turn and consisted of little more than coastal flotillas with outdated armaments.

The foundation of Rûm is dated to 297, when a council of regional elven lords or beys nominated one of their number, Artabanus, as King of the region. Artabanus claimed descent from an Atalantean prince, whose descendants had populated the area of Inner Rûm ever since he'd landed on their shores to eradicate its monstrous overlords. The Church approved this claim and granted Rûm the status of a Golden Realm. The list of Rûmish Kings is known in its entirety: Artabanus I (297-334), Narseh I (334-419), followed by the controversial rule of Queen Altunjan I (419-462, 465-467), Narseh II (462-465) and Narseh III (467-512), Atamanus I (512-604), Bayintur I (604-692), Artabanus II (692-699), Qizilarslan I (699-852), Masud I (852-994), Artabanus III (994-1080), Baiyintur I (1080-1371), Timurtash I (1371-1410), Masud II (1410-1485), Berkyaruq I (1485-1487), Masud III (1487-1488, the infamous Masud Dragon-Feed), Qizilarslan II (1488-1622), and finally Bayintur III (1622-).

-Excerpt from A Primer to the Later History of Creation (ARY 201), chapter "On the Crisis of the Last Century"
Kingdom of Vechia

The Kingdom of Vechia (Vechian: Królestwo Vech) was one of the Golden Realms, and a kingdom at the nadir of its power on the eve of the Great Arnése Revolution. Though once a grand empire encompassing over one million square kilometres and leading the continent in cultural, scientific and military might, the last two centuries had not been kind to Vechia. Its heartland was the strategic Eastern Plain of exceptionally fertile flatlands between the Widra and Vesach rivers. With no native dragons and few beasts of significant danger, the region offered a peaceful "cradle of civilization" for the Vechian state to grow in through the medieval and early modern periods.

Vechia was founded, according to legend, in the late Mythic Age. Following a vision of Ael and carrying relics rescued from Atalanta, the elven hero-king Vechomir is pursued by three dragons into the land that would become Vechia, only for Ael to send two beasts (a firebird and a griffon) to defeat the first two wyrms. Vechomir stands against the third himself, but dies slaying the beast and thus by his self-sacrifice redeems the land for his sons. In the historical record, Vechia first appears in the 400s, with its recognition as a Golden Realm by the Church in 510 EC. It expanded steadily in the centuries following, subjugating the local halfling and human populations.

Vechia was at the height of its power in the 1400s and 1500s, when it was widely admired as "the Glorious Commonwealth". The Kingdom's decline began far earlier at court than it did on the battlefield, though. The 1600s saw what was known as the Golden Age of Liberty, in which powerful nobility progressively curtailed the power of the monarchy after the reign of the absolutist Leszek the Great, empowering their own privileges and developing a strangehold on political power. This soon destroyed Vechia's finances and hollowed out its army just as the rising powers of Norn and Boiarsko were making themselves known.

After 1703, the question with the Elven-Kingdom of Vechia was no longer if the Realm would fall to its enemies, but when. Defeated in the Nornish-Vechian War (1660-1667), the Great Eastern War (1701-1733), and abandoned by its traditional ally Arné after the War of the Grand Alliance (1717-1732) Vechia proved time and time again its inability to defend its borders. Humiliating peace treaties saw Vechia lose the entirety of its coastline, much of its agricultural heartland, and the natural defensive barriers of the Havasok Mountains to the south-west and the great Vesach River in the east. These cessions, later referred to as the Partitions, left Vechia a dysfunctional rump state, weaker than most of the regional Silver Realms.

The Realm's sole remaining defender was the Church. It held the order of the Golden Realms to be sacred and fixed; one of them could not simply be erased from the map. Indeed, the Church attempted to stem the bleeding of Vechian soil during the 1600s and 1700s, but could only prevent its outright annexation.

The first recorded Vechian king was Ardagast I (489-620), followed by Drogovec I (620-696), Drogovec II (696-818), Milyduc I (818-821), Veszek I (821-960), Drogovec III (960-1148), Zemomysl I (1148-1170/1176-1240) and Veszek II (1170-1176), Vechibor I (1176-1319), Vechibor II (1319-1390), Kazimierz I (1390-1479), Veszek III (the so-known Veszek the Great, 1479-1625) and Vechibor II (1695-).
Kingdom of Boiarsko

The Kingdom of Boiarsko (Boiarskan: Boyarskoye tsarstvo) was one of the Golden Realms. The youngest of the Realms, it had nevertheless grown vastly in the 1600s by settling the "Wild East" of the Oghoria, a vast expanse of tundra, taiga and desolate steppe stretching from the Arcadian south-eastern steppe (the so-called Near Oghor) to the easternmost point of Pania. On the eve of the Revolution, it had become one of the strongest of the Realms, though one looked down upon by the western Realms as a "half-savage" place due to its small elven population. Boiarsko was a legally segregated kingdom, with its various component Kins bound to live in separate regions. Many of these regions were granted considerable autonomy in return, leaving Boiarsko a patchwork of noble fiefdoms, tribal assemblies and cossack hosts all united in service of the Supreme Autocrat of the King.

Boiarsko's distance from Arné meant that it at first took no active stance on the Arnése revolution. The chaos in Arné was even met with some glee, as Arné had been the traditional ally of Boiarskan enemy Vechia. However, as the Revolution increasingly radicalized, Boiarskan King Pavel II would become instrumental in marshalling the forces of reactionary Arcadia against it.

The legendary Chronicle of the Great Boyar tells of the Atalantan hero-king Jarogorus fleeing Atalanta's destruction and wandering Arcadia until he falls into a magical sleep in a cave in the north-eastern hinterlands. He only awakens centuries later when a group of other Kin seeks refuge from beasts in his cave. Jarogorus then proceeds to save the "savages", who elect him as their boyar, or battle-leader, and ask him to unite their harsh land. Jarogorus' kingdom becomes known as Boiarsko, and while he is a legendary figure, his son and successor Vyshata I (612-888) is attested to in the historical record and recognized as a Golden King by the Church in 634 EC.

His reign is followed by Jarogor II (888-949), Vselovod I (949-1052), Vyshata II (1052-1210), Jaropolk I (1210-1259), Vselovod II (1259-1519), Yury I (1519-1555), Fyodor I (1555-1581), Fyodor II (1581-1596), Fyodor III (1596-1602), Pavel I (1602-1715) and Pavel II (1715-).
Grand Duchy of Musselmond-Gelle

The Grand Duchy of Musselmond-Gelle (Arnése: Grand-duché de Mousselmont-Gel, Rijker: Grootvorstendom Musselmond-Gelle) was a Silver Realm in north-western Arcadia. It was formed in 1663 with the inheritance of the Duchy of Musselmond by the Duke of Gelle, Baudouin II (1605-1691), a transfer of power that sparked the devastating War of Musselmondian Succession (1653-1663). The Nornish King Athawulf I Hermann (1564-1701) pressed for the elevation of his new ally - and client state - from mere Duke to Grand Duke in the aftermath of the war.

The unification of Musselmond-Gelle consolidated the southern Low Country under one ruler for the first time. The amalgam state was an unsteady one, however. Linguistically and culturally divided between populations of independent-minded Rijkers, Arnése-speaking Gaumése, and Nornish-minded Alemannish, the rising nationalism of the Revolutionary era proved destabilizing for the union. Gelle, predominantly Gaumése, and Musselmond, predominantly Rijker, were ever at odds politically, united only in fear of Norn annexing the nation outright. The Grand Duke's authority was limited from the onset, beholden as they were to the mercantile classes, who did much of the actual governing of the state.

Nevertheless, Musselmond-Gelle contained some of the wealthiest and economically significant areas of Arcadia. The twin cities not only dominated the textile trade in the region, they also housed the dwarven banking houses of Azuriet and Cérusite, which made them a hub of commerce and a natural satellite of the great Oostdam Stock Exchange to the north.

Musselmond and Gelle had been a battleground for the Golden Realms for centuries before their unification. For most of this time, Gelle and Musselmond had been in the Arnése sphere of influence, with the northern citystates more reliant on Ivernia. The rise of Norn from the 1600s onwards brought them into this contest and saw them emerge supreme over both Arné and their nominal ally of Ivernia, a situation only strengthened by their gains from the War of the Grand Alliance (1717-1732).

The Grand Dukes of Musselmond-Gelle were Baudoin II (1605-1691) and Amaury I (1691-).

EVENTS

The Great Arnése Revolution The Deluge of Hell

The Great Arnése Revolution

The story of the Arnése Revolution begins in 1732, with the ending of the War of the Grand Alliance. Financed largely by loans and debasement of the sou, the conflict had ended in a ruinously expensive stalemate. A grace period granted by the crown's debtors ended alongside the war. The royal government immediately began to default on its loans. The result was economic chaos, mass exodus of willing creditors, and a desperate need to cut down on state expenses. With the debased sou considered largely worthless, the crown turned to paying its debts in kind, through exports based on requisitions of grain and wine from the peasantry. Economic life soon ground to a halt, the price of bread skyrocketed, and bankruptcy loomed even closer.

The royal administration was unable to convince the parlements of regional nobility to even consider much-needed tax, customs and land reforms. This prolonged and increasingly public impotence degraded the prestige of the Crown and worsened attitudes towards the aristocracy in the Third Estate, saddled with all the costs of the feudal system.

As the scale of crisis became apparent, King Clotaire VIII was persuaded to convene the Estates General in an effort to win support (and spread the blame) for unpopular economic measures. This historical parliament was composed of the realm's three Estates - the nobility, the clergy, and the commons - and had not been called together in over a century. Their original duty was to advise the king and help draft legislation, as well as bring petitions of redress to His Majesty's attention. Notably, new taxes were supposed to be ratified by an Estates-General, a tradition not upheld in more than one hundred years.

Each Arnése province was called upon to send delegates to this new Estates General and at the end of 1732, 428 honorable members had arrived at the Arnése capital at Loutharc. Of these, the entirety of the nobility and clergy were elves, with the commons composed entirely of non-elves (each province sending one hobgoblin, one halfling, one human and one dwarven representative, as per custom).

The commons was the Estate most changed from the century-past last session of the Estates General. The regular meetings of the old Estates General had been a particularly important means of gaining the ear of the crown for the peasantry, which in turn had strengthened bonds of loyalty and fealty to what they perceived to be the benevolent king. With this tradition broken, an altogether different set of delegates arrived at Loutharc for the council. Though the estate encompassed a vast swathe of both the urban and rural population, the cities stood grossly overrepresented thanks to their greatly increased wealth, political and philosophical awareness, and rapidly growing populations.

This corps of politically educated, literate city folk was led and radicalized by human fervor, exemplified by individuals such as Jean-Clovis Daunou (one of over 100 lawyers among the Third's delegates). Hobgoblin veterans formed another influential bloc, one that found common ground with the dissatisfied officers of the elven nobility. Given these developments, halflings - legally bound to field and countryside - were a small minority of the representatives for the first time in the nation's history.

With all three Estates discontented by the crown's recent policies, the session was volatile from the beginning. The commons immediately demanded voting by head, not by estate, which would have empowered them significantly. The Church and the nobility remained stubbornly defiant over the matter of reform without greater power in return. King Clotaire had seemingly assumed that he would receive the assent of the Estates for his proposals by default. When the Estates began demanding for an accounting of the state of the royal treasury and the nation's finances, Clotaire reacted by ordering a recess for two days. During his absence, the Estates (particularly the Third) continued to speak, however. When the session reconvened, the Estates shocked Clotaire by demanding control over the crown's finances in full.

The following days saw a deeper slide into financial collapse, growing famine and bread riots only blocks away from the quarreling Estates. The press covered the events of the session with intense interest, with new newspapers popping up daily to sate the public's fascinations with the proceedings. Crowds began to encircle the Maison du Parlement where the Estates and the King were enclosed. But progress was minimal inside its doors. The commoner Third was stymied in all its efforts by the combined vote of the other two Estates, whose only common cause with it had been opposition to royal power. Bitter arguments and increasingly radical rhetoric were escalating, reported on with glee by newspapers and rumormongers all around the country.

Exasperated, Clotaire finally ordered the session closed and the Estates General dissolved on the 9th of Martiale, 1732. The king ruled by divine right and did not need to heed the council of such disloyal subjects. The delegates, however, refuse to leave the premises. Clotaire tried the carrot first, offering various privileges and distractions for the apparent leaders of the delegation. Festivities were organized on the grounds as the crown sought to flatter and buy the delegation. This approach came largely to naught, and thus on the 11th, Clotaire called the royal guard in to disperse the gathering.

Serment des Cavalières

"And so were the fairest roses of elven maidenhood compelled, against every nature and inclination, to shed their accustomed and favored conventions so as to with manly vigor stand guard for the cause of Liberty on that most auspicious of days..."

-Memoirs of Pepin-Albert de Bourmont, notable Constitutionalist thinker (published posthumously ARY 8)

"They're staying? Great. Maybe that means I can finally stop wearing this damned thing."

-Hobgoblin delegate Saho (Saha) Fortier at the entry of the Equestriennes, immediately before ripping off her binder

The festivities outside included a variety of traditional arts and performances. One such display was a riding exhibition of noble elven ladies. Horseback riding, as one of the High Ancient Traditions, was one of the few public entertainments in which an elven woman could honorably participate in pre-Revolutionary noble society. The popular clubs of the equestriennes had also taken on a notably political and intellectual aspect in the era. This meant that the performers outside the Maison du Parlement were not only versed in radical philosophy and new political discourse, but also equipped with strong horses and ceremonial staves they knew how to use.

At the approach of the royal guard, having heard of the intended dissolution of the Estates General, anger mounted in the crowd and among the equestriennes. When commanded to cease their performance, the equestriennes instead formed an impromptu cavalry blockade of the assembly gates. They then proceeded to hurl challenges and abuse at the royal guard, demanding that the knights either fight them as men or withdraw with honor (the most sensationalistic accounts have them baring their breasts as one to prove their gender). Elven gender norms of the period strictly frowned upon violence against women, as the honor of noble elven men was considered to rest on the protection of the "delicate sex". The defiance of the women and their assertion of battle-readiness was far more transgressive than that, however.

The impotent royal guards eventually withdrew. The Estates General, on the other hand, threw their doors open and welcomed these women in as heroes. Women had never been able to take part in such proceedings before; at least, not openly, as the subsequent unmasking of several male-presenting female delegates among the hobgoblins and dwarves went to show. Emboldened by this show of support, the chamber now put together and swore the famous Oath of the Equestriennes (Serment des Cavalières) in the riders' honor, with the delegates of the Third vowing not to depart the chamber until guarantees of constitutional rule and equality for all were had from the king.

The Legislative Assembly

This, however, split the already quarreling Estates. The clergy refused to sit with women. Almost all of its delegates abandoned the chamber during the swearing of the Oath. The nobility was more divided; it proved unable to come to consensus over its course of action, and so they too largely departed. Those who remained then reformed as the National Legislative Assembly. Audaciouly, it now took up the job of a national legislature by its own mandate. However, the clergy and the king simultaneously reconvened the "loyal" Estates General in a smaller chamber. In practice, this meant only the Estate of the clergy; the other two Estates were barred from entry.

This farcical "Estates Clerical" met for three days. The effort was the subject of widespread mockery in the press, with the king depicted as a bashful schoolboy berated by a council of draconian headmasters while the Arnése Archbishop Panopticus III lounged on his throne in the background.

At the end of three days, however, a phenomenal amount of new legislation was revealed to have been hurriedly passed. Accepting the royal proposals with amendments protecting their own interests, the clergy approved a long list of extreme measures to balance the royal treasury. These included a severe one-time tax on the lower classes and statutes forcing financial elites to purchase worthless royal bonds en masse. As a warning shot at the disloyal nobility, the grounds for abolishing their tax-free status were established. No actual taxes were levied on the nobility, as the measure was intended largely as intimidation. Nevertheless, it would backfire immensely and saw the noble Estate outraged.

These decrees did not win the approval of the people. The Legislative Assembly moved quickly to declare the "Estates Clerical" illegitimate and moot. The Assembly began to grow in size as defectors from the nobility (largely noblesse mendiante, poor country chevaliers and petty nobility) and the clergy (largely parish-priests with little in common with their wealthy bishops and grandmasters) joined its deliberations. The Assembly then engaged upon the drafting of a rival programme for economic, social and political reform, to be published in challenge of the royal decrees.

This ambitious and radical tract presented a vision of a nation of equal and free citizens ruled by a king whose authority derived solely from the consent of the governed. Its proposals included the payment of "the king's debt" through the seizure and sale of royal and church properties, a public accounting of the royal treasury to the citizenry, an immediate end to grain exports and requisitioning, the abolition of serfdom, end to the corvée on church and crown lands, rationalization of taxation laws, and most radically, the dismantling of all hereditary and racialized Estates in favor of a legally equal Citizenry. The text was then disseminated and published as the rather innocously named treatise, On the Debt Repayments.

The treatise was a bombshell. With feverish pace, the Assembly produced the Declaration of Universal Rights only four days later. This influential text laid out exactly what was meant by the proposals in On the Debt Repayments, and indeed went much further in a spirit of growing radicalization. The Declaration was signed by several noble members of the Assembly styling themselves as Citizen instead of their hereditary titles; an outrageous affectation for elves, who were by definition all nobility. Mass enthusiasm and mass unrest spread rapidly through the city, with thousands gathering outside the Maison du Parlement to cheer for the Assembly and its work.

On the 24th, Clotaire VIII at last agreed to reconvene the full Estates, fearful of the rapid collapse of public order. Talks were immediately derailed by the insistence of the Assembly on addressing the king as "His Majesty Clotaire VIII, Father of the Nation, King of the Arnése and Foremost Citizen" instead of his traditional address of "Elven-King of Arné by the Grace of Ael", which the king refused to answer to. After days of deadlock, the Assembly moved to happily ignoring Clotaire's legally required lack of assent for the proceedings and started work on a draft for a constitutional system of government and an extensive set of reforms based on its previous treatises. While these drafts were far more moderate than the radical thrust of the Declaration of Universal Rights, the king categorically refused to participate in the proceedings or even hear the Assembly's proposals until he was shown the proper respect.

On the 27th of Martiale, Clotaire had enough. The king announced that he would be leaving the Maison du Parlement, but this was challenged by members of the Assembly. With the righteousness of lawyers, they argued that all members of the Estates General were legally bound to remain in its sessions until such a time that they were concluded. Undeterred, the king proceeded to leave the grounds, but his carriage was soon after mobbed by the crowds outside and forced to return.

In the king's absence, the Assembly decreed that the crown had relinquished any influence over its proceedings, established a new Constitution, and assumed supreme legislative and executive power in the Nation as the National Convention of Arné.

Storming of the Royal Dungeon

One of the first actions of the Convention was to mandate the release of all political prisoners from the royal dungeons of the prison known as L'Oubliette. The royal warden refused to accept the Convention's authority to give such an order, however. In response, angry mobs and mutinous soldiers of the garrison stormed the dungeons, lynched the warden and opened all cells in a mood of bloodthirsty celebration. The situation was now escalating rapidly out of the Convention's control. The Maison's galleries had become choked with radicals from the streets that made their opinions on the proceedings known very loudly and very frequently. Convention delegates were conveyed by the tidal wave of the crowds to central offices of government in the city, where they were pressured to seize power in the Convention's name.

In the following weeks, mass unrest erupted across the country in what became known as the Great Tumult. Thousands of clerical and noble estates were plundered by peasant revolts and urban radicals, with many of their owners fleeing abroad or into more stable regions to evade popular anger. Revolutionary militias began to be formed semi-autonomously to restore order and enforce the Convention's authority over the provinces.

The Convention, fearful of the mob, decided in the summer of 1733 to retire the king to his estates in La Durance, as far from the unrest as possible. However, this "gracious gesture" was taken by royalists as an attempt to remove the king entirely from the centre of power and as a further usurpation of the crown. Royalist uprisings followed sporadically, with the stated aim of "rescuing" the king from the mob. This first test of the Convention's power proved a paper tiger. Forces loyal to the Convention put down these uprisings in campaigns lasting from 1733 to late 1734/Revolutionary Year One...

(To be continued.)
The Mythic Age and the Fall of Atalante

The first war between elves and devils is said to have begun before the world had even settled into its present shape. In this primordial conflict, the devils were driven deep into the bowels of the earth, while the elves took custodianship of the surface world. According to Church scripture, the devil-god Un was bound in the depths with them as punishment for inciting war against Ael's First People. The traditions of devils do not account for this supposed deity and reject this sequence of events entirely. However, there is no universally accepted alternative among devil groups. Their own records and legends were lost in the Deluge, and the memory-lines that survived are fragmented and sometimes contradictory.

The oldest tales make no mention of dwarves in all of this; a Kin the elves had not yet encountered when they were written down. Devil-lore holds that dwarves were placed in the "middle realms" between the surface and the Pit as a barrier of sorts between the devils and the elves.

This division did not end the hostilities, however. Elven civilization began in the First Realm of Atalante, a mythical island civilization traditionally thought to have been located somewhere in the modern Devil Sea south of Bruttia. As Atalante flourished in sophistication and culture, Hell grew envious in the darkness beneath the earth. Hellrifts emanating chaotic infernal magics began to appear around the land, spawning monsters and transforming landscapes in strange fashion. This culminated in the fall of Atalante, as what is known as the Great Rift opened up beneath the city and destroyed it in one terrible night.

Devils do not accept this account, either. They do not remember, through the surviving memory-lines, any intentional use of ritual magics on elven settlements (or knowledge of any place called Atalante, for that matter). There is recollection of hostile relations with surface peoples, but contacts between Hell and the surface appear to have been rare. The emergence of hellrifts is now thought to have been an unintended consequence of various infernal rituals performed in Hell itself. Revisionist elven scholars have thus concluded that the fall of Atalante was perhaps an unintentional side-effect of devil-magic; whether this still leaves devils culpable for the devastation is a matter of debate.

Regardless, traditional and Church opinion has always held that Atalante fell to devilish attack. Anti-devil sentiment has historically existed among most races under different names and practices.

The Long War

After this Fall, elven peoples spread around the continent and established the Eight Golden Realms. Conflicts with devils are attested to semi-regularly in historical record. Everything from strange weather and failed harvests to the emergence of monstrous beasts are generally blamed on Hell and its chaotic magics. While radiation from infernal rituals almost certainly exarcebated this phenomena, anti-infernal sentiment was always divorced from any real understanding of their cause.

Increasing numbers of devils began to appear on the surface in the 500s and 600s, as overcrowding in Hell encouraged migration elsewhere. These infernal colonies were small in number, but often caused severe consequences for surrounding areas from infernal radiation. Retributive crusades organized by the Church soon followed and razed many of these colonies. Devil magic was also blamed for the Black Glut in the 620s-650s, which saw elven resurrections increasingly go "wrong", resulting in soulless abominations and leading to widespread societal collapse.

Infernal colonies on the elven "home continent" of Arcadia were thus almost entirely wiped out in the following century, but they flourished across the seas. For the elven Realms, the threat of Hell became a secondary one to internal religious conflicts by the turn of the millenium. As elven colonialism emerged in the 1400s and these overseas settlements were encountered by elven colonial expeditions, anti-devil fervor raised its head once more. With it, the Orders Militant of the Church received a new lease of life and grew to far greater power than ever before.

Attacks on these infernal colonies sparked full-scale wars with Hell, where memories of the past crusades had over time forged a new determination to resist surfacer aggression. These bloody conflicts permanently tainted and irradiated large swathes of the colonial territories, fueling further hostilities. By the early 1500s, the Golden Realms had come together with a plan to destroy their enemy for good and enact vengeance for the Fall of Atalante. Their weapon would be, as a natural philosopher of the time put it, natural law and the inopposable Tyrant of Gravity.

The Deluge

The Deluge required the construction of an enormous artificial chasm some 14 kilometres in length between a point beneath the ocean floor of the Starlit Sea and the mantle of Hell's cavern (which itself encompassed some 10,000,000 square kilometres of territory). The first, elven-made attempt collapsed after 3 years of digging. The second effort was accomplished over a period of 119 years with dwarven mining expertise. Some three hundred thousand souls are estimated to have died during the construction.

While the dwarves worked for almost no compensation at all, the expenses of the administration, supply and security of the "Great Holy Work" bankrupted every Golden Realm at least once during its construction. The Herculian economy, in particular, never recovered from the effort. Wars on the surface would also severely hinder the process from time to time. While ostensibly secret, knowledge of the chasm circulated as rumors across the Realms throughout its construction. Why Hell never acted on the threat, if it heard of the Work, has been lost to history and the flood. Devils remember severe internal divisions and conflicts within Hell during these times, however, ironically sparked by the decision to go to the aid of the surface colonies. It is supposed that such strife prevented an unified response to the elven attack. Simple disbelief and faith in the supremacy of infernal magics against any attack may also have played their part.

In 1624, the chasm was complete. The Deluge was to be initiated by the detonation of a vast trove of gunpowder at its highest point, but this action was delayed for five years as disagreements broke out among the rulers and representatives of the Golden Realms. Only two of the monarchs who had originally authorized the chasm's construction in 1502 still lived. Their younger peers and courts had contributed to the work without true understanding of its effects. The prospect of now unleashing the ocean on Hell and potentially killing millions weighed heavily on some monarchs, such as Athawulf I Hermann of Norn and Hywel II of Ivernia, and was opposed on theological grounds by several archbishops (who feared the consequences of assaulting the supposed devil-god Un in this manner).

What had begun could no longer be stopped, however. Dwarven estimates suggested that the top of the chasm would break regardless of intervention given enough time, despite all their skillful artifice. The decision was eventually made, in the Council of Terraconde in 1629. The detonation commenced on the 1st of Marachiale with the blessing of the Church and the Eight Kings.

The explosion breached the seafloor in an instant and the water of the Starlit Sea surged down with a vanguard of falling rubble, collapsing the chasm as it went. In Hell, the reverberations of its descent gave some advance warning of what was to come, but few understood the danger. The main pillar of water broke through over the infernal city of Syr and destroyed it in minutes. This enormous, apocalyptic "tower of filth" was witnessed by many who survived the Deluge or inherited the memories of those within.

The rest of the cavern roof gradually broke in the following hours. Once begun, the process was irreversible. There is evidence of desperate rituals meant to stem the tide, but their power was consumed by such vast quantities of salt water. The exact sequence of events remains largely unknown, as only a fraction of Hell's population survived to carry the memories - most of who were already on the surface or on their way there when the Deluge began. Within days, however, almost all of Hell had been flooded and tens of millions were dead.

On the surface, the Deluge brought about tsunamis, earthquakes and a visible lowering of seas across the globe. These disasters particularly afflicted the colonies, but destructive tidal waves also ravaged the coasts of Ivernia, Herculia and Outer Rûm.

Though the Church had hoped to reassert its power (both spiritual and secular) through this historic triumph, the Deluge in fact had the effect of sparking horror and shock across the Realms. For most people, Hell and devils had been a distant, mythical thing; something to blame bad crops on and scare children into obedience with. The sudden influx of hundreds of thousands of devil refugees onto the surface brought the reality of the act into far wider awareness than before. This, and the subsequent draconian turn in Church morality and doctrine, were one of the most important factors in the birth of the rationalist "Enlightenment" on the continent.

Notably, Hywel II of Ivernia and his queen chose to incinerate themselves as the true cost of the Deluge became clear. Athawulf I Hermann of Norn decreed that all refugee devils would be welcome and protected within his borders a year later, a move that caused his own archbishop to openly turn against him. For the most part, however, the Deluge and its consequences became a taboo subject in many courts and clerical councils, save for the most reactionary and fundamentalist of them.

The trauma of the Deluge caused most devils to become largely apathetic and purposeless. Only with the Great Revolution of Arné in 1732 did many surviving devil groups begin to reconsider their situation and what they might become on the surface.

KIN

Elves Hobgoblins Humans Halflings Dwarves Devils Nymphs Loup-Garou Cephids

History and Geography

Elves originate in the continent of Arcadia. According to traditional and Church accounts, they were brought to life by the supreme god Ael in the mythical city of Atalante or Atalanta in what is today the Devil Sea. There their civilization flourished and advanced in sophistication, explored the continent and taught other Kin the basics of civilization. Due to infernal magics, however, Atalante was eventually swallowed up by the Great Rift and the elven population scattered in a mass exodus.

These refugees would go on to found powerful and enduring kingdoms, the Golden Realms, which would in time colonize and come to control much of the world. While native to Arcadia, elves can be found on every continent above the ground.

Biology

Elves in the revolutionary period stand at 170cm for males and 158cm for females on average. Physically, they most resemble humans. Indeed, some radical theories suggest humans to have diverged from the elven race in the prehistoric past, explaining their lack of a creator deity and origin. The Church has declared this a blasphemy. There are considerable differences, in any case. Elves possess far superior senses and the ability to resurrect, both absent in humans.

Elves reproduce slower than humans and most other races. As such, their population growth is modest, but this is offset by minimal mortality over time. Elves are not biologically immortal, but almost always come back from the dead. This bodily resurrection cannot be prevented by means of destroying or imprisoning the body. Hours to days after death, an elf resurrects to a state of being that they were in some minutes before their death. Observers have noted a dissolution of the body to golden motes of light, which coalesce into a version of the deceased at roughly around the spot where they died. This does not appear to be a geographically fixed point, as elves who die aboard moving ships do not resurrect in the sea where the ship was earlier, but on that spot on the ship's deck.

It is commonly thought that Ael guarantees that elves resurrect in a safe place and time. This is untrue, however, as resurrection can deliver elves directly back into danger or incapability. For example, an elf dying by being buried in a landslide may end up resurrecting repeatedly under the stone only to die again and again, until their mind gives way.

Long-term harm is not repaired by resurrection, either. Elven bodies decline with age, and the accumulation of cancers, organ failures and dementia begin to make life unbearable for elves at a typical age of 350-400 years.

The only viable means of preventing resurrection is through excessive physical or mental trauma. The Final Death is usually achieved through incineration, though any sufficiently destructive means will do. The exact requirements for Final Death to occur are not well understood. The leading theory points to a psychological cause instead of a physical one – the extent of physical harm is irrelevant, but extremely painful and traumatic deaths overwhelm the part of the mind responsible for resurrection. This may be alluded to in old elven hero-poems, where important characters may die permanently from the shock of betrayal or defeat, even if the manner of death itself should not guarantee this.
History and Geography

Church scripture states that hobgoblins were made by the god Hobb in his image, to serve as Ael's warriors and faithful watchmen. Their birthplace is thought variably to be in Numia, Arcadia or Pania. They are numerous on all these continents. Local hobgoblin populations tend to have certain sacred places where their bloodline was supposedly created, such as Mont-Vieux in Arné.

Hobgoblin populations were well established around the Arcadian continent by the time of the earliest historical records. Their chiefdoms and clans came to be subjugated under elven rule in the Mythic Age. Hobgoblins have always served at the forefront of elven colonial expansion, and have thus come to dwell on all continents alongside them.

Biology

Hobgoblins stand at a height of around 194cm on average. They are notably stronger and more robust than most other Kin. Sexual dimorphism is minor and absent for facets such as physical strength and endurance. Hobgoblins also have a demanding metabolism and require a high-energy diet maintain their powerful bodies, leading to a reputation as ravenous gluttons.

Hobgoblins live to around 120-160 years. Traditionally, dying of old age rather than from violence has been considered shameful, though revolutionary intellectuals are intent on eradicating this cultural stigma. Hobgoblins reach biological maturity at around 15 to 17 years, but are considered young adults up to their 30s where elven culture norms predominate.
History and Geography

The Orphan Kin have no known origin or creator. They are found on almost every continent, though they have historically been most numerous in Numia and Arcadia. Humans are known to have lived almost entirely nomadic lives until coming under elven rule, and some human bands still practice this lifestyle today.

Humans are held to be particularly emotional and irrational. They feel strongly and easily attach themselves to causes, stubbornly holding on to their creed or faction of choice past any hope of triumph.

Church scripture holds that the origin of humanity is fundamentally unknowable. While surely springing from the will of Ael, their creator god is not to be known by Ael's children in this life.

Biology
Please consult the ancient codex Wikipedianus for further information on the biology of humans.
History and Geography

Halflings are a diminutive and numerous Kin with origins in northern Arcadia. Halfling populations are thought to have been small and fragmented until the historical era, as they were unable to master the natural world around them before elven protection. From these modest origins, halflings have grown to become possibly the most numerous Kin in the entire world, with a thriving presence on every continent.

The halfling creator deity is the goddess Verca. She is foremost worshipped as a bringer of fertility and keeper of family. Church scripture holds that Verca is Ael's gardener on earth, rewarding Kin on his behalf for their faith and loyal service. Verca's associations with joyful sex, good living and indulgence in drink are less popular with Church authorities, but important to halflings worldwide.

Biology

Halflings measure up to around 60 to 90cm on average. Their smaller mass and less developed musculature make them physically weaker than most other Kin, though this also allowes them to hide well and move more silently. Halflings live around 60 years on average.

Twins and triplets are common in halfling pregnancies, though infant mortality tends to be high. Regardless, in times of food security halfling populations can explode, while famine and plague cull their numbers in horrific fashion. Recent advancements in medicine and agriculture have resulted in stabler and faster-growing halfling populations in Arcadia.
History and Geography

The so-called False Kin hail from below the world's surface. The Realms Beneath are poorly documented and understood by surfacers, who mostly interact only with surface dwarves. Church scripture claims that dwarves were placed beneath the earth to stand as a guard between elves and devils. Subsurface dwarves are notoriously insular and isolationist, with little interest in sharing their own histories. The surface Realms have been content to leave them to their dark and inhospitable home for the most part.

Dwarves have been periodically expelled to the surface since the Mythic Age. The reason for this is supposed to be overpopulation. Exiled dwarves dig their way up to the surface and join societies there if able. The rigid and ordered minds of dwarves encourage swift assimilation in their adopted cultures. Surface dwarves have been crafting new generations with no link to their ancestral home under the ground for centuries, but new expulsions do introduce underground stock to these populations regularly.

Biology

Dwarves have a peculiar biology. Their skin and organs appear to be composed of stone, though they function largely as those of other Kin. Some Church authorities have even described dwarves as not truly alive, though this is today considered heresy. Dwarves are not born, but fashioned from stone and given life by some innate magic in a process known as the Carving. They have no sexual characteristics, but typically adopt gendered roles and behaviors to conform to the norms around them.

As dwarves age, their stone skin erodes. Older dwarves are visibly smoother and rounder, whereas young dwarves tend to look quite rough. At a certain point, this process of erosion also smooths out their insides, killing them. The life expectancy of dwarves varies, as the stone and craftmanship used in their construction has a major influence on their resistance to this erosion. Almost none die before 100 years from natural causes, however. The oldest living dwarves are several centuries old. In an utilitarian fashion known to disturb other Kin, dead dwarves are reduced to rubble and reused in future Carvings.

Due to their rigid psychology, dwarves rarely emote or act in impulsive fashion. This has lead to a reputation for emotionlessness, but dwarves feel as strongly as anyone else - they merely do not present it as they do.
History and Geography

According to Church scripture, Devils were created by the god Un when the world came to be. Devils reject this view, though they have no universally accepted alternative to explain their origin. What is known is that devils originate from what was known as Hell, a vast cavern deep under the earth that served as the home of their entire race for millenia. After the Deluge of Hell, devils have survived in a diaspora around the world. Their numbers have long been in decline.

For more information, see The Deluge of Hell.

Biology

Devils are biologically immortal, though their immortality is very different from elven resurrection. Devil bodies are best described as unstable, constantly evolving masses of chaos-flesh that only trend towards humanoid for convenience's sake on the surface. In Hell, many devils existed more as amalgations of bone, flesh and organs that bore little resemblance to anything else living. They are immune to disease, aging and other universal biological failures. Even when killed, a devil may well reconstitute itself back from surviving parts – though this is a process that can take up to decades and results in a new personality, and thus is less resurrection and more like rebirth.

The bodies and personalities of devils are both in a state of constant flux. This changing can be directed by infernal magics, but most of the time it proceeds without input by the devil affected. Devils rarely remain attached to a fixed identity of any kind for long, as they are constantly shedding old selves and adopting new ones. On the surface, this causes frequent legal and social issues as devils simply abandon responsibilities, properties or relationships tied to their discarded identity. Some legislations allow devils to simply declare their old selves legally dead at will to manage this. In many cases, however, the new self is treated as a kind of child of the former, and thus may still be legally bound to the old identity. This means that a devil who volunteers for military service, for example, may be replaced by one for whom it is involuntary conscription that someone else has signed them into.

Devils find the clearly defined gender and sexual divides of other Kin nearly incomprehensible. Devils are capable of sexual reproduction at times, but in practice this almost never happens – very few devils will remain stable long enough to sustain a fetus for the whole of the required time. Devils mostly reproduce through the shedding of excess chaos-flesh, which may spontaneously grow into a new devil given time. Only a handful of devils have been intentionally made in this manner after the Deluge, however, due to the general malaise afflicting the race.
History and Geography

Nymphs are a minority Kin of humanoid beings with characteristics of plant life. They make their home in old growth forests and wilderness. Nymph populations have been declining across Arcadia for centuries due to deforestation and encroachment by settlers of other Kins. Nymphs claim to have come into being with the earth itself. They know and worship several divinities depending on the region, all of which the Church considers to have been created by Ael as custodians of nature.

Nymphic populations outside Arcadia remain large and prosperous in the great northern taiga, the Numian jungles, and the tropical rainforests of the Sunward Isles. These nymphes d'outremer have proven far more isolationist and xenophobic than their Arcadian cousins, leading to frequent conflicts between them and colonists.

Nymphs tend to live in old growth forests and woodlands. In Arcadia, nymphic populations are usually bound by treaty or granted a semi-autonomous status in exchange for military or economic service by the Realm claiming their territory. They avoid cities and areas of extensive construction, finding such environments unnatural. Most never meet a Nymph in their lives, making them the subject of exotic and lurid claims and tales.

Biology

Nymphs are sexually dimorphic in a way that other Kin tend to find strange and even disquieting. Nymph males resemble enormous trees. They are rooted in place, cannot or will not communicate, and may not even be intelligent in any real way. The ignorant may even mistake them for ordinary trees, though nymph communities rarely let outsiders get near.

Nymphs are thus, in practice, an all-female Kin. They may take lovers among themselves or even other Kin, but this is entirely divorced from reproduction. All this has left Church authorities scratching their heads on a number of points.

Female nymphs are humanoid, with bark-like skin and coloration. On average, they stand at around 120 to 180cm, depending on the population. They are innately tuned to living things and can subconsciously manipulate life around them. This generally takes the form of paths opening through thick forest undergrowth and branches twisting to offer handholds, but nymphs can affect the vigor and mood of Kin around them as well. Female nymphs live 30 to 40 years on average, while males can continue to grow for centuries if cared for.
History and Geography

Loup-garou are a small-Kin native to Arcadia. They are mostly found in various Arcadian highlands, such as the Atres, Havasok and Fjällen mountain ranges. Loup-garou have historically lived over a wider area, but persecution and competition with other Kin have fragmented their populations considerably through the historical period. Individual populations are culturally distinct, though their present-day languages derive from an older shared tongue and some mutual intelligibility remains.

Loup-garou tend to keep to their own communities high in marginal lands, and are thus not well-integrated into the wider nations which they supposedly live under. They have a frightening reputation among other Kin due to this rarity and isolationism, as well as their fearsome physiques. They are prized as mercenaries and bodyguards, such as with the Garde des Loupes of Arnése kings.

Loup-garou consider themselves the children of Father Wolf, a primordial god known to the Church as Rallagash. He is interpreted to have been created from a fang of the Beast of Chaos. Older belief also holds by a nameless personification of the Moon, a female divinity who is said to speak to loup-garou when they undergo their Change and who sang the world into being. Church missionary work has largely eradicated this Moon-worship at the time of the Revolution.

Biology

Loup-garou are not born in their mature forms. As children, they resemble humans or elves, though with excessive hair and faintly golden eyes. Around their thirteenth year, they begin to change into a full lupine shape. Adult loup-garou have a humanoid body, with wolf-like fur, head and legs. They stand 2.5m tall on average, giving them an imposing stature. The powerful legs of loup-garou allow them to move rapidly over most terrain, and their sharp senses make it easy for them to stalk prey.

Loup-garou live to around 50 years on average. They prefer the cold and thin air of mountains and highlands to lowlands.
History and Geography

The Deep-Kin of cephids are believed to originate from the western Numian coast, but populations can be found in Numia, Arcadia and the Sunward Isles. They require warm waters to reproduce and thus do not fare well in colder climates away from the equator. In Arcadia, their largest populations are found along the Herculian coast, where their breeding grounds are protected by royal decree. Historically, sea monsters have kept a check on cephid population growth, but thee xtinction of their largest predators and the adoption of amphibious lifestyles have allowed for unprecedented growth in the last three centuries.

Cephids trace their creation to the god Lysangabr – a traditionally ungendered or androgynous figure, though deemed male by the Church – who is typically depicted as an enormous nautilus with a rainbow-colored shell. According to Church scripture, Lysangabr was created by Ael to watch the deep waters of the oceans for devilish incursions. Older myths among cephids say that Lysangabr was the first being and responsible for the existence of everything; they were trawling the primordial ocean floor for treasure before the beginning of time and found the world inside a pearl inside an oyster under a rock in a bed of coral, and freed it – making Lysangabr the supreme creator, after a fashion.

Biology

Cephids stand on average at 120cm, with a hunched posture and stout frame of rubbery flesh protected by a hardened bony mantle. Their heads are similar to those of squid, with dextrous feeding tendrils lined marked by suckers for catching prey. Cephids are skillful and agile swimmers. They spend most of their lives in the water. They can store a considerable volume of water inside their bodies, however, which helps moisten their gill structures on the surface and allows them to breathe air.

Cephids reproduce in large birthing pools dug into warm sand in shallow waters. Genetic material donated by cephids mixes and intermingles in the birthing pool to form egg-masses that in time spawn new cephids. This process of en masse conception means that cephids have no distinct "parents". The sex of a cephid is also near-impossible to tell by a non-cephid, and plays little part in their lives. Indeed, many cephids claim to be ignorant of their sex, as the act of releasing genetic material into the birthing pools is visually indistinguishable between males and females.

Cephids live for 50 years on average. Exposure to cold and dry surface air are both factors which greatly increase the risk of disease and organ failure for cephids, and far-ranging military cephids may live as little as 10 years even if they are spared from combat injury.

THINGS

Military Doctrine The Church of the Highest Pre-Revolutionary Class and Estate Pre-Revolutionary Gender Monsters and Magic Months of the Year

Arnése Doctrine

Arnése military doctrine is the doctrine of elán - which holds that offensive movement and action is the key to victory on both strategic and tactical levels. Enemy forces should be brought to battle rapidly and in terrain of the attacker's choosing; failing to take the initiative is the first step towards defeat.

This cult of the offensive sees drill and training as secondary to zeal, morale and individual courage - an idea strengthened further by the Revolution's use of fervorous volunteer units. Humans are held to be particularly sensitive and useful in this area, though savvy commanders are aware that this runs both ways. Panicking human units can easily spread that panic to their fellows, leading to mass rout; thus the common practice of placing elven units as "fire breaks" between each human regiment.

Dwarven units are considered too rigid and emotionally insensitive to play a significant role on the battlefield. They are thought to be best suited to defense and holding ground, which condemns them to an auxiliary and reserve role in an army.

In practice, Arnése commanders rely heavily on the charge. The armies of Arné utilize far more hobgoblin troops than any of the other Golden Realms. Their cultivated savage reputation and devastating assaults make for excellent shock troops when wielded effectively. Many Arnése commanders have and continue to deploy their hobgoblins as the first line of their force. This line is then tasked with closing the distance to the enemy as swiftly as possible and breaking it with a charge. The sight of a hobgoblin force amassed ready for a charge is thought to be debilitating on enemy morale long before any contact is made.

While often effective, this tends to lead to brutal casualties to the hobgoblin troops forced to advance under fire. These kind of losses may win a battle, but lead to disaster in the larger campaign. Such a charge can also easily fail if heavy fire routs the attack before it reaches the enemy. More experienced commanders tend to deploy their hobgoblins in a second line instead. The first line, composed usually of elves and humans, shelters the hobgoblins from incoming fire and detection on the advance. The first line and artillery elements then fire upon the enemy across the line to weaken them everywhere.

Only after this is the charge ordered, with the first line allowing the hobgoblins to move past them and rush the enemy. Proponents of this tactic point out that while the sight of hobgoblins standing against you is damaging to enemy morale, the sight of previously unseen hobgoblins suddenly appearing in a charge is even more so.

Ideally, the infantry charge happens in conjuction with cavalry attacks on the flanks or even the rear. Historically, a lack of coordination and discipline has prevented this kind of "simultaneous impact" in most battles. While Arnése doctrine holds cavalry in high esteem and gives it key responsibilities in recon, charges, screening and pursuit, the difficulty of moving cavalry through rough terrain means that hobgoblin infantry is thought to be more flexible and reliable in an offensive role. Cavalry is considered necessary for dispersing and defeating enemy cavalry, however, for which armored cuirassiers are favored.

Arnése artillery doctrine is somewhat static in comparison. Horse artillery is a novel and rare invention, and the proper use of artillery is more concerned about operational matters than tactical. Conventional wisdom holds that one should not engage on terrain where their artillery cannot be placed in a commanding position. After the battle is begun, artillery is kept mostly in place and may thus become irrelevant if the line of battle shifts out of effective range.

The Armies of Reaction

The other Golden Realms of the continent practice similar but divergent styles of warfare. Arnése military thinkers have long been most concerned with their neighbors of Herculia, Norn and Ivernia. The superiority of Arnése armies has been accepted by its commanders for centuries, but several catastrophic defeats in the War of the Grand Alliance have now made cracks in this idea.

Herculian doctrine is widely considered confused and outdated. Its tercio infantry was once the envy of the continent, but the transition to linear tactics has been poorly managed. The persistent disaster of the kingdom's finances has heavily degraded its ability to maintain a professional cavalry force over the last century. While Herculian nobility are rightfully proud of their horsemanship and skill with the sabre, their cavalry squadrons are often ill-disciplined, uncoordinated and sometimes actively mutinous towards the general in charge. The expenses associated with maintaining cuirassiers means that Herculian cavalry tends to be hussars or light lancers. Herculian cephids, the Deep-Kin of warm coastal waters, are noted for their elite infantry units that make full use of their amphibious nature. However, these fearsome specialists make up only a small portion of the Herculian military.

Norn is known for its focus on discipline and drill. Arnése generals often scoff at this "warfare-by-rote", but Nornish armies are both exceedingly resilient and capable of complex battlefield maneuvers. On campaign, this shows itself in rapid advances and surprising movements over considerable distance. Norn schools its first-rank units specifically to withstand hobgoblin and cavalry charges. These regiments are often dwarven, who are seen as the natural counter to hobgoblin fury. Nornish doctrine against Arné sometimes actively baits a charge, trusting in its hardy line to withstand the assault and its reserves to envelop the now-committed enemy. Norn neglects its cavalry arm, which is not thought to be the equal of its peer Realms. The focus on maneuver and discipline necessitates highly-trained troops; provincial reserve armies rarely manage the coups of the Realm's elites.

Ivernia is chiefly a naval power and it is common in Arné to mock its "bleeders", referring to the scarlet red of Ivernian land uniforms. Where Ivernia's near-hegemony over the oceans is unquestioned, its land forces receive a pittance of funding and wages. The low morale and ill-discipline of its conscripts makes for a poor showing when it is called upon to fight on land. Ivernia prefers to fund allied armies to risking its own meagre forces due to this. Ivernian nymphs, the so-called Regiments of the Grove, are however thought more highly of, but rarely seen outside the nation's borders due to their ceremonial role as royal lifeguards.

Boiarsko's armies are thought to consist of impossibly brave and resolute serf-soldiers led by draconian incompetents, with minimal formation drill, hostility to personal initiative, and little capability for complex maneuvers. This representation is unfair and colored by conceptions of the Boiarskans as simple-minded savages, though: while the Boiarskan officer corps and doctrine are known to be subpar, the Boiarskan Army's long terms of service for the rank-and-file guarantee experienced and cohesive units. Boiarsko is notable for its almost complete lack of elven regiments, relying as it does far more on humans, halflings, hobgoblins, vlkolaks (eastern loup-garou), upyrs, biesy, nymphs and rusalkas. The composition of a Boiarskan army depends heavily on the specific oblasts mobilized for its creation. Like Arné, Boairskan military doctrine places heavy importance on the charge and the melee.
Church of the Highest

The Church of the Highest (also known as the Pansacranum) was at the height of its power in the decades immediately preceding the Revolution. Its harsh reaction against the revolutionaries played its part in creating the violently anti-clerical ideology of the Leveler faction.

The basic doctrine of the Church holds that the elven creator god, Ael, is also the creator of the world and the source of all divinity. In the dawn of time, Ael hunted and slew the Beast of Chaos, thus bringing about the coming of Law and Civilization. Ael's next act was to carve out chunks of the Beast and breathe his divine essence into them, thus creating the other gods. In this view, the other gods are "younger", "lesser" and "impure", born as they are of the Beast's blood and marrow. Thus their children are equally lesser and tainted.

The Church holds that the total number of lesser gods spawned in this manner is unknowable, which has proven convenient for integrating native deities into their dogma. Each organ and part of the Beast is thought to correspond to a lesser god; the liver gave birth to Hobb and the hobgoblins (as the seat of wrath and base emotion), the tongue was made into Un, the supposed god of the devils (as the seat of lies and disorder), the heart into Verca, goddess of halflings (as seat of loyalty), and so forth.

Church doctrine does not account for the creation of dwarves or humans, but classifies them as chaos-tainted and impure nevertheless.

The Church is organized as a strict hierarchy, with the known world divided into archdioceses who in turn manage smaller regional dioceses, monasteries and holy orders. Supreme authority is wielded by the Pansacral Collegium, a council of archbishops (at the time of the Revolution, these were always the archbishops of the Eight Golden Realms).

The Church upheld the old pre-Revolutionary world. Its doctrine legitimized elven supremacy and royal rule, maintained elven cultural and behavioral norms, and persecuted unorthodox religious thought. The most common form the latter took was selfish worship, which indicated religious services that failed to emphasize the position of Ael as the supreme overgod. The further one went from the metropole, the more frequent such incidents were. Usually this merely meant the exclusion of all other gods than the worshippers' own creator in a ritual, but radical religious resistance would sometimes outright mock, discredit or ritually "kill" Ael during their services, placing their own god above him.

Of note in the Revolutionary Wars are the Orders Militant of the Church, which contributed thousands of fanatical soldiers to the wars against the Revolution...

-Excerpt from A Primer to the Later History of Creation (ARY 201), chapter "On the Crisis of the Last Century"
Class and Estate

Traditional Arnése society, now increasingly referred to as the ancien régime, was founded on the principle of the "harmonious union". This set of laws, customs and expected behaviors fixed the Kin of Arné into several distinct social classes, based on their perceived aptitude for a certain kind of work and way of life. This racialized class system was theoretically wholly consensual and equal in the sense that all of its participants played a necessary part, but in practice it formed a feudal pyramid of obligations and privilege.

At the top of this pyramid stood the elves, "those who lead". It was their duty and purpose to hold all supreme positions of power and offer their wise guidance to their lessers. Their Ael-given quest to cultivate spiritual enlightenment, sophistication and self-discipline necessitated ample leisure time and comforts, for it was considered self-evident that wisdom could not be gained on the plowing field. All elves belonged to the Estates of the aristocracy or the clergy, depending on whether or not they possessed a clerical rank in addition to their noble title.

Elves were exempt of restrictions of dress and consumption, were to be addressed by their title (which could be anything from lowly chevalier and dame to the highest ranks ducs, grand-ducs and princes), and enjoyed exemption from taxes as well as a wide variety of other privilegia. They were barred from engaging in commerce or taking up trades, which placed the impoverished noblesse mendiante in a difficult position. In theory, they were to live off their lands and subjects, but those with poor land or no land at all had few options aside from the church, the state or the military.

Humans and dwarves were classified into "those who trade". They formed the burgher class of the cities, which consisted of artisans, merchants, lesser bureaucrats, clerks, lawyers and other skilled and educated personnel required for the operations of the state. They could own property in the cities, but not outside them. Furthermore, they were the only class entitled to the practice of commerce. The only lawful marketplace was that of the town; peasants were required to sell their produce and buy their goods at town markets, and rural peddlers defying this arrangement were persecuted.

This system, while convenient in the medieval period of Arné, was extremely dysfunctional by the 1700s. Centuries of population growth had resulted in rural de facto towns without city rights. Illegal trading of their produce by the peasantry thus abounded in the absence of legitimate trading posts in many regions. Urban populations had also come to contain vast numbers of people not engaged in traditional burgher trades and thus not entitled to the rights of their class. This disadvantaged mass of urban poor formed one of the key inciting forces of the Revolution.

Hobgoblins belonged to "those who fight", though other races under the crown were subject to military service when the state required as well. Hobgoblins were barred from almost every other profession than soldier, hunter, watchman, guard and a handful of other "trades of masculine vitality". In practice, the scarcity of such work meant that many hobgoblins were bound to provide unskilled labor in cities and villages instead. Mercenary service abroad was also a traditional line of work for unemployed and landless Arnése hobgoblins, ensuring warm bodies for every army on the continent.

Halflings, finally, made up the class of "those who work". This encompassed the free peasantry and the serfs of rural Arné. Their position in life was clear. A halfling was born a peasant and died a peasant. They grew their food, sold the surplus on town markets or relinquished it to their lords, crafted most of their own possessions and went on with very few luxuries in their lives. Free peasants owned their patches of land, but owed taxes and fealty to their feudal elven lord or priest. Serfs worked directly on lands owned by their masters and could not legally leave without said master's blessing. When such lands were sold, the serfs were sold with them. Between these two groups were many cottagers and tenant farmers, who were granted a small portion of a free peasant's or noble lord's lands to live on.

Halfling villages largely managed themselves in democratic village councils theoretically open to any male halfling peasant. This system was later glorified in Leveler rhetoric, but in truth the council was almost always dominated by the free peasants with the largest lands and favor of their lord. Halflings who were forced to migrate to towns due to lack of land and work, which became increasingly common in the 1600s-1700s, generally merged into the classless mass of urban poor.

Then, of course, there were those who did not belong in any of these groups. For one, the system did not make allowances for the petites familles de la nation; the minority races of devils, nymphs, reynardines, terrapini and others. They largely formed their own communities only tangentially involved in the wider Arnése society or lived nomadic lives on the margins. Many were protected to some degree by traditional pacts with local nobility, however, which granted them access to common lands, the right to engage in certain types of work, exemption from military service, or myriad other benefits. Such agreements were all abolished with the Revolution, which also led to an uncertain feeling among many of these minorities.

But the larger bulk of those outside the system in the 1700s was formed by the landless poor. Drift from one of the old classes into this broad underclass had become increasingly rampant before the Revolution. As they were not peasants, they could not own or rent land. As they were not burghers, they could not work in commerce, learn a craft or own a home in the city. They were certainly not eligible to be nobility or clergy - though the elven "beggar-nobility" of penniless chevaliers and entertainers was in many ways their mirror. While at first the landless poor tended to be born to a different class, over the centuries their descendants essentially inherited their status (or lack of it).

Many human communities have traditionally been nomadic, which still persisted in parts of Arné despite the formalization of humans as belonging to the burgher class. These "wandering folk", who formed a distinct subset of the landless poor, were frequently targeted by state persecution. While this generally resulted in expulsion from Arné, forced resettlement in cities - where urban humans shunned them harshly - was also frequent.

The lower rungs of the Church - those employed by priests, but not ordained themselves - did provide a more "honorable" kind of work for those unable to make their livelihoods within their own class. Gratitude and loyalty to generous priests who aided the poor in this manner goes a long way to explain the strength of counter-revolutionary feeling in some regions. Church employment was theoretically available to all, but only a fraction of these unfortunates could hope to find such work.

In the countryside, the landless poor worked as seasonal laborers, sold themselves into serfdom, begged, or established their own communities in isolated places. In the cities, they provided unskilled labor for the burghers, entered criminal gangs, or sold their talents and bodies to those with coin. Exploitation by the burghers who owned their rented shanty-town homes was universal. Expulsions and purges of this "wretched mass" were frequent in the century before the Revolution whenever local officials or prominent burghers so deemed fit.
Pre-Revolutionary Arné maintained a vision of society where your birth defined your place and purpose in life. Race and Kin were only one half of this "harmonious union", however. Elven gender norms and laws compelled all those within the system to conform to one, narrow identity of self that would define how they were to act and what they could do, on top of the greater hierarchy of Kin that already limited their choices. The abolition of these gendered structures – at least in the legal sphere – in the Declaration of Universal Rights was perhaps the most radical act of the early Revolution in Arné.

The doctrine of the Church of the Highest holds that in the beginning of time, the overgod Ael slew the Beast of Chaos. This primordial monstrosity was of all genders and none, an anarchic amalgation of masculinity, femininity and "senseless" blendings of both. Ael saw that these conflicting aspects of the Beast had driven it into eternal war against itself. When carving up the Beast, then, he took particular care to separate its sides into two distinct genders and selves: the male and the female. This binary was created equal but separate, a joining of two complimentary halves that nevertheless did not intersect or overlap, for such confusion invited chaos.

Armed with this story, elven civilization set out to assert its gender ideology over almost the entire world. To be sure, while this tale is found even in the earliest liturgy of the faith, there is considerable evidence that early Church interpretations of it diverged greatly with those of the later hegemonic Church. The early Church understood gender as a product of social conduct; how one acted determined their gender. Those who took on masculine roles were men, those who took on feminine roles were women. One's affinity for either role was thought to be based not on biology, but rather the innate gender of their soul. While still strictly binaric, this understanding allowed for a more flexible set of gender and sexual norms.

By the aftermath of the Black Glut in the 700s, however, the mainstream view of gender had become one based on birth and biology. Women could bear children and those who could bear children were women. This definition was always theoretical rather than empirical - infertility did not, for example, negate one's status as a woman. Nevertheless, what was appropriate behavior for either elven-recognized gender was still far less restrictive than it became later; only in the early 1600s did the Church begin to press for stricter conformity and policing of gender-morality.

As the Golden Realms established their hold on the world, they brought this ideology with them. Women bore children, nursed, took care ofthe home, raised the young and kept their male relations fed, clothed and content. Elven women were also expected to cultivate emotional sensitivity, which was considered a prerequisite for the Feminine Arts of poetry, dance and music. The beautification of the world by their conduct, artistic expression and perceived depth of emotion were defined by elven intellectuals as the aspiration that all women should devote themselves to.

Men, on the other hand, worked the fields, fought the wars, built houses, made crafts, handled finances and commerce, and made key decisions at home and in politics. Certain arts and interests, such as horseback riding, weaving and theology, were considered appropriate for both genders – but never in a way where they would place men and women in competition with one another. It was the sad but necessary part of men to kill, punish and maintain order so as to ensure the survival of Law and Civilization; thus, men were also to protect women and the beauty they brought – whether they wanted or not.

All elves were expected to spend much of their time contemplating Creation and cultivating their spirituality and intellect, but this took very different, gendered forms. Elven men were pressured to be preoccupied with death, legacy, law, the will of Ael, and the course of civilization, the state and societal development. Elven women, on the other hand, were to occupy themselves with life, beauty, emotional experience, personal spiritual fulfillment and enriching interpersonal relationships, and the growth of the individual. This did provide an avenue for elven women to establish salons and women's clubs in the 1700s, which played a vital role in spreading rationalist thought, and which eventually evolved into revolutionary political clubs around the realm.

While Church doctrine always asserted the equal importance and value of the two halves, in practice this system concentrated all power in the hands of male elves. Some of these divisions could be justified in doctrine more easily than others. It was true, contemporaries noted, that biologically male elves were physically stronger than female elves –and thus more suited for war and hard physical labor. This was also true for humans and halflings. Trying to apply this standard to other races proved more difficult.

Hobgoblins have very little sexual dimorphism, while asexually reproducing dwarves only adopted social gender roles on the surface to conform to elven norms. Devils, going even further, do not even possess fixed bodies and personalities; the very concept has been difficult for them to understand.

Andif this was the situation with the most common Kin, it fit even less with various smaller peoples – reynardines, who would shift between forms at will; nymphs, whose "males" are not even recognizable as thinking beings; cephids, who reproduce en masse through the mixing of genetic material in birthing pools, and myriad other Kin across the world.

Yet under elven hegemony, these awkward little details were to be brushed away or taken as signs of the Chaos-tainted blood of the lesser races. Those who could or would not conform were persecuted for impropriety and sexual misconduct by Church authorities and by their communities. The self-evident flaws and incoherency of the doctrine was rarely questioned in elven scholarship up until the 1600s, when an intolerant turn in the Church began to spark new, rationalist reappraisals of society among upper-class intellectuals.

In practice, these conventions were breached both at the upper and lower ends of the social hierarchy at the eve of the Revolution. Small peasants and landless poor could not afford a division of labor that kept their women off the field work or the men off domestic work. Wealthy nobility, on the other hand, was becoming increasingly liberal and transgressive in the privacy of their estates. It was then, strangely enough, the middle classes of human and dwarven bourgeoisie which most actively upheld these divisions; but equally, human thinkers issued some of the most radical challenges to the system.

As the rationalist ideas of the so-called "Universalist Enlightenment" spread, liberal ministers in the King's administration and some radical reformers in the ranks of the clergy did attempt to modernize the realm's gender and racial legislation. These efforts were almost entirely checked by the ancient and reactionary Archbishop of Arné, Panopticus III, who had great influence over both King Dagobert III (1667-1714) and Clotaire VIII (1714-).

As such, gender legislation in Arné on the eve of the Revolution was seen as regressive even by contemporaries; foreign dignitaries from Rûm, Bruttia and Ivernia were at times appalled by the draconian, backwards morality they sawas being upheld by Church and Crown. Reforms had taken place in the late 1600s in Rûm, the 1710s-1730s in Bruttia and Vechia, and in the last decade in Ivernia. While these acts – which included things such as the guarantee of property ownership and inheritance rights to women of means, right of divorce, relaxation of trade- and vocational restrictions, and a number of exemptions granted to non-elven peoples such as hobgoblins – may seem modest today, they provoked considerable anxiety in the society of the day. These foreign developments increased pressure for reform in Arné and made Arnése subjects of all genders and races more conscious of their place.

In part, these developments were caused by a significant demographic shift during the previous century. Traditionally, elves had children very infrequently. Halflings, humans and hobgoblins, on the other hand, reproduced at rates far higher than those of elves. While over time, this disparity tended to level out – due to the fact that most elves would come back after death, whereas those of other races did not – the adoption of various measures against child mortality and advances in agriculture were now resulting in rapidly growing non-elven populations without corresponding changes in elven family sizes. The hegemony of elven cultural norms was becoming increasingly fragile.

Just as well, ever larger armies required ever more soldiers; practical-minded military leaders in Arné and elsewhere thus turned a blind eye to the recruitment of female hobgoblins, who could in any case easily pass for males. Urban growth and mass migrations brought individuals of different races face to face with one another far more frequently than before. The growth of colonial empires also brought novel races under elven rule, which often practiced radically different conventions of gender and conduct. The foundations of the "harmonious system" were breaking under their own weight.

These developments culminated, finally, in the Declaration of Universal Rights, which dissolved the legal aspects of the old hierarchy for good. Changing the attitudes of all the millions who had been brought up under the ideology, of course, would take far longer...
It is understood, and supported by historical record, that once most of the continent was under the reign of monstrous beasts. As Kin spread and claimed lands, they killed most of these "monsters" or drove them away. By the time of the first surviving records, populations of beasts such as wyverns, imps, griffons, rocs, nixies, mammoths, fossegrims, sabretooths, manticores and basilisks had been diminished greatly from overhunting, extermination campaigns and loss of habitats. During the historical period, the Church encouraged killing of these monstrous creatures as spawn of Chaos, which caused rapid further decline. Monsters outside Arcadia fared a little better, though they were also pressured hard by local populations.

There is no strict line separating a monstrous beast from an ordinary animal, and indeed some have switched classifications over time. Generally, it is understood monstrous beasts are touched by infernal magic, which has led to their often enormous size, vitality and strange behaviors.

Kin, especially elves, thus could claim to have conquered the monstrous beasts of the primordial world. But there were significant exceptions. The sea was for many centuries untouched by these extinctions. Indeed, many monstrous creatures still remain, especially in the deep sea, and are well-familiar to sailors all around. On land, however, dragons reigned unchallenged until the late 1400s. Their thick, scaled hides, enormous size and destructive breath made them impervious to almost all weapons of Kin, and their territoriality, aggression and seeming intellect kept them a constant check on Kin expansion.

This reign was ended not by elven heroism, but by invention of gunpowder and shot. The cannon grew more and more reliable and devastating during the 1400s and 1500s, until it could effectively penetrate dragonhide even at a considerable distance. While some dragons were shot down while they were awake, most of the wyrms were actually killed in sleep. The older and larger dragons grow, the more time they are forced to spend in dreaming torpor, a hibernative state. While before nothing could truly threaten them during torpor, save for another dragon, the coming of cannons now made it possible to simply wheel a battery into a dragon's den and blast it dead at close range.

By the 1600s, dragons had been driven to extinction on Arcadia. At sea, naval gunnery and the "Herculian mine" subsurface explosive devastated the populations of draconic sea wyrms. The only dragons to survive this onslaught tended to be reclusive and hold territories in marginal and isolated areas, especially overseas in the colonies. There were a handful of incidents recorded in the following centuries, however, as truly ancient dragons stirred from torpor in their hidden dens and gave the world of Kin sharp reminders of why they had been feared in the first place...
The Arnése calendar is traditionally divided into twelve months.

Atriale
Somniale
Martiale Beginning of Spring
Quadiale
Verdiale
Garandiale Beginning of Summer
Beltiale
Chordeale
Sacriale Beginning of Autumn
Marachiale
Entriale
Lacriale Beginning of Winter

Photomajig · Dec 5, 2023

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Terrain
Feel free to consult this lovingly made infographic for all your terrainy needs.

Cavalry do not have Charge Advantage against Units in Forest, Wetland, Urban and Fortified Hexes.
Cavalry suffers doubled attack penalties on Village, Urban, Fortified, Wetland, Woods and Forest Terrain.
Hills allow an Unit to see over non-Hill Terrains that would normally block line of sight.
Movement onto Road Hexes counts as moving on a Road and has a Move cost of 1.
Crossings are areas of low water, such as river fords. They have a Movement Cost of 3, and inflict -30 to melee Attack for both Units attacking from such Hexes and attacking into such Hexes. Units cannot Fire in Crossing Hexes.

Mechanics

Units and You XP Combat Round Orders Advantage and Disadvantage Attacking Morale Checks and Stress Momentum Routing Movement Concealment and Spotting Retreat Facing Melee Engagement Traits COs Critical Hits Casualties and Recovery March Actions and Army Management

In Army of Liberty, you control formations of infantry, cavalry and artillery on the battlefield. These are known as Units. During battles, you may see Units tracked in the following style:

Unit XP Str. AP Mor. Mod. Stress Combat Mun. Spl. Con. Spt. Mov. Equip. Traits CO
1st Hob 6/20, Professional 1000/1000 3 +5 2 +20 8/10 5/5 0 5 2 Musket
Bayonets Hobgoblin Jacques de Sufficient-Velocité, Inspiring

This is an Unit's statblock. We can see the following stats:
- Name: Simply enough, the Unit's name. On the battlefield, we use abbreviated designations (1st Hob) instead of full names (1st Hobgoblin Regiment of Foot) for ease of reading.
- XP: The Unit's current Experience Rank and accumulated XP. The first number inside the brackets shows the Unit's current XP, while the second is the number that it must exceed in order for the Unit to rank up to the next Experience Rank. As Units fight and participate in winning battles, they gain XP. As Units take on Replacements after taking Casualties, they may lose XP.
- Strength: The Unit's strength in number of soldiers. 1 point of Strength corresponds to 1 soldier. As Strength falls from Casualties, the Unit takes gradual penalties to Attack and Morale Checks.
  - Infantry and Cavalry Units suffer Casualty and Morale Check penalties for every 100 men lost.
  - Artillery suffers Casualty penalties and effects to Morale Checks for every 10 men lost.
- AP (Action Points): The Unit's total Action Points. Action Points are used to complete Orders on the battlefield.
- Morale Modifier: The Unit's Morale Modifier is applied to Morale Checks, representing its cohesion, reliability under fire and confidence in victory. It is the sum of the Unit's bonus from Experience Rank, penalties from Casualties, and any effects from the Army of the Unit.
- Stress: As Units suffer shocks and attacks on the battlefield, they accumulate Stress through Morale Checks. Stress is applied to Morale Checks as a penalty and cleared through the Rest action.
- Combat: The Combat bonus represents their skill in battle. It is applied to any attacks they make and in melee, as a penalty to attacks against them.
- Munitions: The Unit's current and max carried Munitions. Munitions represent ammo. Munitions are consumed by the Fire action.
- Supplies: The Unit's current and max carried Supplies. Supplies represent food, drink, first aid materials and other necessities. Supplies are consumed by the Rest action.
- Concealment: Concealment represents the Unit's ability to go unseen on the battlefield. For most Units, it begins at 0. Concealment makes it more difficult to Spot this Unit.
- Spotting: Spotting represents the Unit's ability to scout and see over the battlefield. For most Units, it begins at 5. The Spotting value is the distance in Hexes that an Unit can see in every direction, modified by Terrain and enemy Concealment.
- Movement: Movement is the number of Hexes that an Unit can travel as part of a single Move action.
- Equipment: Equipment records the weapons and armor used by this Unit. Their statistics and effects are described separately.
- Traits: Traits records any special Traits of this Unit. All Units have a Racial Trait to begin with, in this case Hobgoblin. This affects how they work on and off the battlefield.
- CO: CO records the Commanding Officer of this Unit and their CO Trait. The CO Trait has further effects on the Unit.
In addition, Equipment and Traits may affect the following stats:
- Wounding: The Unit's ability to inflict harm with their attacks. Depends chiefly on the weapons used, but can be modified by Racial and CO Traits as well.
- Wound Threshold: The Unit's ability to withstand harm. Depends chiefly on armor or lack of it, but can be modified by Racial and CO Traits as well. Base WT for Units is 5, representing a 50% chance to survive a Hit from an attack and a 50% chance of becoming a Casualty, representing the wounded and the dead.
Units gain and lose XP in battles. They have an Experience Rank, which may go up or down as a result of this. This possible change happens after battles, never during them. Experience Rank affects various stats and importance on the battlefield:
- Green (0/1): -20 to Attack, -2 to Morale Checks.
- Trained (0/5): No effect.
- Regular (0/10): +10 to Attack, +1 to Morale Checks.
- Professional (0/20): +20 to Attack, +2 to Morale Checks.
- Experienced (0/40): +30 to Attack, +3 to Morale Checks.
- Veteran (0/80): +40 to Attack, +4 to Morale Checks.
- Elite (80>): +50 to Attack, +5 to Morale Checks, Elite Trait.
Units gain XP from combat and from participating in battles. Each turn where the Unit attacked or was attacked increases XP by +1. Each Battle participated in increases XP by +4.

Elite Traits are special Traits granted to an Unit once they reach Elite Experience Rank. Units can never lose their Elite Trait.
Battles in Army of Liberty are currently resolved in a turn-based fashion. A Round consists of the separate Turns of both armies. During your Turn, your Units attempt to complete the Orders you have given them. In some cases, an Unit can also act on the enemy's Turn.

At the end of each Turn, lines of sight and Spotting is rechecked and Momentum changes are resolved.

A Round represents something in the neighborhood of 10 minutes, but don't get caught up in the details.

Orders are different actions that you can order your Units to take. Each Order has an AP cost and the Unit has to expend AP equal to it to attempt the Order. Certain situations on the battlefield, such as being caught in a melee combat, limit the Orders your Units can receive.

Order	AP Cost	Description
Move	1	Unit moves Hexes up to its *Movement* speed.
Fire	1	Unit attacks an enemy Unit or Hex in range and within sight with ranged weaponry. This expends *1 Munitions.* An Unit already engaged in melee cannot Fire.
Charge	1	Unit moves and attacks a non-adjacent enemy Unit or Hex within its movement range in melee. They must move at least 1 Hex towards the target, with the last Hexes before the enemy being in a direct line, and spend the Movement cost to enter the target Hex as part of this action. If a Charging Unit *Routs* or *Destroys* their opponent from the Charge, they automatically move to occupy the target Hex. The attack has Charge *Advantage* unless the target Unit has *Braced*.
Attack	1	Unit attacks an adjacent enemy Unit or Hex in melee.
Brace	1	Unit prepares to receive an enemy charge. Charging Units do not benefit from Charge *Advantage* against this Unit and the Unit makes an immediate melee Attack on the first enemy to attack it in melee. An Unit already engaged in melee cannot Brace. An Unit can only Brace once on its turn.
Form Square	2	Infantry only. Unit becomes Braced with omnidirectional *Facing.* A Square cannot Move, Charge, Rest, Hide, Search or Supply without breaking the Square. This Order must be repeated on each turn to maintain the Square and its effects. Artillery Fire has Advantage against Squares.
Rest	Full	Unit rests for a little while in place. Unit clears all Stress and expends *1 Supplies.* An Unit that is hit by enemy attacks or disrupted by a Morale Check fails to Rest. If an Unit cannot expend a full 3 AP, they only recover half of Stress (2 AP) or a quarter of it (1 AP).
Hide	1	Unit attempts to use stealth. Their *Concealment* increases by +1 until the start of their next turn.
Search	1	Unit attempts to survey the battlefield for unseen enemies. Their *Spotting* increases by +1 until the start of their next turn.
Ready Action	Any	Unit delays an action to potentially act on the enemy turn. For Ready Action, specify a *trigger* and a set of *Orders*, using up to the Unit's full available AP. If this trigger is fulfilled during the enemy's turn by an enemy Unit the Readied Unit can see, the Unit acts out the Readied Order(s) then simultaneously with the enemy. A trigger must be specific and only one set of Orders can be Readied with one use of this action. Allowed Orders are Fire, Charge, Brace and Form Square. Ready Action can be triggered on the same turn they are set, if an enemy acts during it due to their own Ready Action triggering.
Set Up	1	Artillery Unit unlimbers its cannons and prepares to fire. While Set Up, Artillery Units must spend additional 1 AP to change their Facing.
Supply	Full	Unit resupplies from a stockpile or exchanges *Supplies* or *Munitions* with a friendly adjacent Unit.

Your Orders for an Unit can use up to their full AP available, typically 3. You can undertake any combination of Orders, but some Orders are best used at the end of the Unit's Turn.

Advantage allows the Unit to roll an additional time and choose the higher of the two results, which Disadvantage does the opposite. Multiple sources of Advantage or Disadvantage can stack. Advantage and Disadvantage cancel eachother out on a 1:1 basis if both are present. Advantage usually affects attacks and Morale Checks, but can be applied in other places as well.
Attacking allows Units to inflict Casualties and trigger Morale Checks on the battlefield. An attack requires either the Fire, Attack or Charge Order, or may be made as a counter-attack by an Unit that has been given the Brace Order.

For ranged attacks, the used weaponry's Range is a key modifier. Muskets are extremely inaccurate and only effective at short ranges. Basic musket types in the Quest have a Close Range of 100m, a Medium Range of 200m, and a Long Range of 400m. Beyond that, any attack is totally ineffective. Firing at Medium Range inflicts a -20 penalty to the Hits check, while Long Range inflicts a large -50 penalty. Specialist rifles and artillery have greater range.

The anatomy of an attack is as follows:
1. Attacking Unit makes its attack.
2. Target Unit may have to make Morale Checks. This can potentially Rout the defender before any Casualties are even applied.
  1. If the Attacker attacks while Hidden, this attack counts as an Ambush. Ambush attacks receive 1 Advantage and trigger an immediate Morale Check in the target.
  2. If they are attacking a target from a Flank, they trigger an immediate Morale Check in the target.
  3. If they are Charging, they trigger an immediate Morale Check in the target. If the target is not Braced or the Charge is into a Flank, the attack receives 1 Advantage as well.
3. Attacking Unit rolls for Hits. This is a d100 roll that determines the maximum possible Casualties from this attack. Hits are affected by:
  1. Unit's current Combat modifier.
  2. In melee, defending non-Routed Unit's Combat modifier.
  3. Terrain modifier of defending Unit's Hex.
  4. Range modifier for Fire attacks.
  5. Advantage or Disadvantage.
4. Defending Unit tests for Casualties from Hits. Typically, a Hit has a 50%-70% chance of inflicting a Casualty. This can be modified by the attacker's Wounding and the defender's Wound Threshold. Casualties are reduced from the target Unit's Strength.
  1. If the total of Casualties is a number with two matching digits (ie, 11, 33, 55, 77, 99), it is additionally a Critical Hit. Critical Hits inflict an additional Morale Check and a random Critical Effect.
5. If the defending Unit is not Routed and was attacked in Melee while Braced, they now make a counter-attack using the same rules.
6. If the defending Unit has suffered over 50 Casualties in this turn after the attack, they must make an additional Morale Check. Any further 50 Casualties triggers an additional Morale Check at increased Disadvantage.
7. In melee, defending Unit makes an additional Morale Check. This does not stack with number of attacks, but is simply triggered by being under any melee attack on this turn.
Units can make as many attacks on their turn as they have spent AP for.
Morale Checks are a dynamic way of testing the resolve and cohesion of a fighting formation. They are primarily triggered by falling prey to hostile maneuvers or suffering a great many Casualties at once.

Morale Checks incur Stress for the Unit if failed and may cause it to Rout. Each point of Stress penalizes subsequent Morale Checks by -1.
- The following trigger a Morale Check in an Unit:
  - Being Charged.
  - Being attacked in a Flank.
  - Being Ambushed.
  - Suffering a Critical Hit.
  - Adjacent allies Routing.
  - Suffering >50 Casualties in one turn.
  - Having been attacked in melee this turn.
  - Attacks at range which do not result in any Hits do not trigger Morale Checks, even if they would count as Flanking or Ambushing.
- The following trigger a Morale Check with Disadvantage:
  - Being Charged by Cavalry.
  - Adjacent allies being Destroyed.
  - Suffering >100 Casualties in one turn. Every additional 50 Casualties adds another level of Disadvantage.
  - Certain Critical Hit results.
Anatomy of a Morale Check
The Morale Check is a d20 roll. The total determines the level of morale impact the Unit suffers and is affected by the following:
- Unit's XP Rank: +1 per Rank above Trained (+1 to +5).
- Army Morale Check modifier.
- Momentum.
- Stress: -1 per 1 Stress.
- Casualties: -1 per 100 Casualties.
- Certain CO Traits.
Morale Checks are rolled on the following table:
- 0: Rout.
- 1: Take 9 Stress.
- 2: Take 9 Stress.
- 3: Take 8 Stress.
- 4: Take 8 Stress.
- 5: Take 7 Stress.
- 6: Take 7 Stress.
- 7: Take 6 Stress.
- 8: Take 6 Stress.
- 9: Take 5 Stress.
- 10: Take 5 Stress.
- 11: Take 4 Stress.
- 12: Take 4 Stress.
- 13: Take 3 Stress.
- 14: Take 3 Stress.
- 15: Take 2 Stress.
- 16: Take 2 Stress.
- 17: Take 1 Stress.
- 18: Take 1 Stress.
- 19: No effect.
- 20: No effect.
Example of a Morale Check

Unit A is Charged in the rear. This triggers two separate Morale Checks; one from being Charged and another from being attacked in a Flank. Unit A has a +5 modifier to Morale Checks from its Experience Rank and its Army-wide modifier. The battle is currently in favor of the Unit's side with a positive Momentum of +1. However, the Unit has accumulated 4 Stress earlier and thus suffers a -4 Stress penalty.

The total modifier is thus 5+1-4=+2. The Unit's lowest possible result is a 3 (1+2=3), for a gain of 8 Stress. The Unit has a 20% chance of taking no Stress at all.

We'll say the Unit rolls a perfect average of 10 on its first Morale Check; 10+2=12 equals a gain of 4 Stress.

This Stress is applied immediately, and thus is in play for the second Morale Check. Now the Stress penalty is a -6, for a total modifier of +0, a lowest possible result of 1, for a gain of 9 Stress, and a 10% chance of taking no Stress at all.

They happen to roll a perfect average 10 again, for a final result of 10 and a gain of 5 Stress.

If the attack inflicts enough Casualties to push the Unit over a threshold of having suffered 50+ Casualties, the Unit may have to make a third Morale Check. If they are pushed over 100+ Casualties, they must make a Morale Check for both thresholds, with the second being made at Disadvantage. If they were to suffer over 150+, that would trigger three additional Morale Checks, with the third having double Disadvantage.

We'll say they suffer over 50 Casualties and must make a third Morale Check. Now their Stress penalty is 11, for a total modifier of -5. This is dangerous territory, as any roll between 1-5 will cause them to immediately Rout. They have no chance of taking no Stress and are likely to accumulate it rapidly from this point on.
Momentum is a battlefield-wide value that affects the Morale Checks of all Units. It begins at 0 and can shift against you or for you based on how the battle goes. Momentum is gained and lost by Routing and Destroying the enemy's Units. The exact impact depends on the Experience Rank of the Unit:
- Routed
  - Green, Trained, Regular: +1/-1
  - Professional, Experienced: +2/-2
  - Veteran, Elite: +3/-3
- Destroyed
  - Green, Trained, Regular: +3/-3
  - Professional, Experienced: +4/-4
  - Veteran, Elite: +5/-5
Changes in Momentum are applied at the end of every turn.
An Unit that suffers a 0 on a Morale Check is Routed. Routed Units cannot be controlled and use all their AP to Move to a safe location behind their own lines and Resting when able. If they cannot find a safe location, they will Move off the map entirely. An Unit that is Routed but cannot escape will instead surrender. Routed Units cannot Spot enemies, even when directly adjacent.

Once Units Rest, they stop being Routed and clear their accumulated Stress. Routing is thus not a death sentence for an Unit, but does put it out of play for at least two turns. This can be extremely dangerous on its own!

Units adjacent to allies who Rout must make a Morale Check, possibly leading to chain reactions of mass routs throughout the line.

Routed Units can move into the space of their allies and vice versa, but if they end their turn in the same space as an ally, that Unit is Disorganized, dropping to 0 AP and being unable to take actions on their next turn. Enemy Units can also move into or through the space of a Routed Unit.

Two Routed Units will not Disorganize one another, as this would leave them stuck in place forever.
Units can Move on the map with the Move or Charge Orders. An Unit can move up to its Movement stat on either of these Orders. Terrain can affect how much Movement it costs to enter a Hex. If the Unit lacks Movement to complete the move, it fails to do so unless the next Order is also a Move action, in which case the partial Movement is carried over.

Units that are prevented from Moving into a Hex by an enemy Unit occupying it will automatically transition into a Charge/Attack.

For ease of planning, it is possible to choose the order in which Units resolve their Move actions (in the case of several Units moving through the same space, for example).
A battlefield in this day and age is a chaotic mess of gunpowder smoke, noise and moving people. Noticing everything on that field is a difficult prospect even on the best of days. Units have a base Spotting stat, which determines how far and well they can see. Units share any perceived enemies with the entire army.

Spotting determines the distance in Hexes that an Unit will see to. On even ground and clear weather, an Unit with 5 Spotting will see 5 Hexes away. However, Concealment increases the "cost" of seeing into a Hex. Concealment can be provided by Units or the Terrain of the Hex itself. If an Unit has insufficient Spotting to see into a Hex, they do not. Partial Spotting is ignored.

Some Terrains block line of sight altogether (Hill, Urban, Fortified, Forest), while others decrease effective Spotting range (Woods, Wetland, Village).

Units on Hill Terrain can potentially see over Terrain that normally would block line of sight. This does not allow them to see into such Terrain any further than normal. This means that an Unit on a Hill may see enemy Units beyond a forest directly in front of them or on the edge of the forest, but would not see any enemies inside the forest itself.

Units which are not Spotted by any enemy are considered Hidden. Hidden Units are invisible on the battlefield and Ambush when they attack. Units lose their Hidden condition after attacking, or when they end a turn in an enemy's Spotting range or adjacent to an enemy Unit. Units regain the Hidden condition when they break line of sight with enemies.

Artillery Units can only benefit from Ambushing at Short Range.

Units which begin their Orders Hidden are guaranteed to stay so only for the first AP of their actions. If they begin their second or third AP's action in a place where they would be Spotted, they will be revealed and cease being Hidden. Units can dart across open terrain in this manner without being Spotted, as long as they end that Move somewhere they're concealed again.

Routed Units do not provide any Spotting.

Ex.
- In this scenario, Unit A1, A2 and A3 have 5 Spotting. Units B1 and B2 have 7 Spotting. Let's see what they can see!
  - Unit A1 can see B1. The Woods Hex costs them 3 Spotting to see and the Plains Hex behind it 1, so they spend 4 out of their 5 Spotting to see B1.
  - Unit A1 can see B2, though only just. The Plains Hex costs them 1 Spotting to see and the Forest Hex behind it 4, so they spend their full 5 Spotting to see B2.
  - Unit A2 can see B1. The two Plains Hexes cost them 2 Spotting out of their total of 5.
  - Unit A2 cannot see B2. The Forest Hex costs them 4 Spotting, leaving only 1 remaining. Furthermore, Forest Hexes block line of sight, meaning that while you can see into them, you cannot see through them.
  - Unit A3 cannot see B1 or B2. Their line of sight is entirely blocked by Forest.
  - As they have higher Spotting, Units B1 and B2 can see through the same distances as well and better than A1-A3. However, they are equally affected by Forest, which blocks B2's line of sight to A3 completely.
When one side of a battle chooses to retreat or has all of their Units Rout, the battle enters a Retreat phase. During this phase, the following rules apply:

The enemy is in Retreat. Routing Units will continue running until they reach the edge of the map. Other Units act as normal. Units that Move out of the map escape the battle. Units can only Move out of the map if there are no non-Routed enemy Units adjacent. You can force enemy Units to Surrender if:
- The enemy Unit ends the Round with one of your Units in the same Hex, AND
- The enemy Unit has no friendly non-Routed Units in an adjacent Hex
Units can Move out of the battlefield as part of their normal Movement, if they have enough Movement to exit an edge Hex. The Retreat phase ends once all retreating Units have Surrendered or left the battlefield.
Units now have a Facing, which consists of a Hex that they are directly oriented towards and the two Hexes adjacent to it and the Unit. Units can only Fire or Attack in Hexes covered by their Facing.
- Ex. An Unit oriented to the West would have a Facing that covers W, NW and SW.
- The Unit can Fire or Attack Hexes directly W, NW or SW of it.
- The sides of the Unit opposite to those covered by the Facing are its vulnerable Flanks.
  - Ex. An Unit oriented to the West would have Flanks of E, NE and SE.
  - Facing can be changed as part of a Move, Charge or Attack action.
  - Artillery Units, while Set-Up, must spend 1 additional AP to change their orientation by Moving.
Melee Engagement represents an Unit committed to a close-quarters fight. Being Engaged in Melee limits an Unit's options and Orders.

Units are considered to be Engaged in Melee if:
- They enter a Hex adjacent to a Braced Unit covered by its Facing;
- They attack a non-Routed enemy from the direction that the enemy is Facing;
- They attack a non-Routed enemy in a Flank and end their turn adjacent;
- They are attacked by an enemy in melee, as above.
- Units which attack a Flank side in melee and then Move away, ending their turn non-adjacent, are not Engaged in Melee.
When Engaged in Melee, Units may only Move, Charge or Attack. Ending Melee Engagement requires an Unit to Move to a non-adjacent Hex. They may take other Orders as normal once Engagement is broken.

Routing on either side also cancels Melee Engagement.

Moving while Engaged in Melee costs an additional 1 AP. While Facing can be changed as part of the Move action as normal, this may expose a Flank to an enemy you are Engaged with!

Artillery Units Firing into a Melee Engagement risk hitting friendly Units. Artillery Units roll Hits against any friendly Units Engaged in Melee with their target in addition to the original attack roll.

Units have certain Traits, which affect them in and out of combat. The following list is not comprehensive, but contains all Traits you know of presently.

Trait

Type

Effects

Cavalry

Unit

Cavalry Charges trigger Morale Checks at Disadvantage.
Cavalry suffers additional Movement costs on some Terrains.
Cavalry suffers doubled attack penalties on Village, Urban, Fortified, Wetland, Woods and Forest Terrain.

Artillery

Unit

Artillery requires Set-Up before it can Fire or change Facing. Some types of Artillery may destroy terrain and buildings.
Artillery can fire over Units, though not over Terrain that blocks line of sight.
Artillery Firing on other Artillery receives a -50 penalty.

Elven

Racial

Spotting increased by +2.
Regain additional Casualties after battles.
XP rank costs doubled.

Hobgoblin

Racial

Retain Charge Advantage even against Braced Units.
Melee Wounding increased by +1.
Supply consumption doubled.

Human

Racial

XP rank costs halved.
Army Morale effect on Morale Modifier doubled.
Disadvantage on Morale Checks loss from seeing adjacent allied Units Rout.

Halfling

Racial

Concealment increased by +2.
Ranged Attacks against this Unit have Disadvantage.
Wound Threshold decreased by -1 in melee.

Dwarven

Racial

Wound Threshold increased by +1.
Army Drill effect on Morale Modifier doubled.
Lose -1 AP until end of battle when Routed.

Devil

Racial

Cannot lose XP rank.
Morale Modifier bonus from XP rank doubled.
Finding Recruits and Replacements is more difficult.

Nymph

Racial

Adjacent Units recover 2 Stress when Unit Rests.
Advantage and no additional Movement Cost in Woods, Forest and Wetland as Infantry.
Disadvantage for Morale Checks and cannot Rest in Village, Urban, Bridge and Fortified.

Loup-Garou

Racial

Morale Checks triggered by this Unit suffer 1 additional Disadvantage.
Movement increased by +1 as Infantry.
Concealment reduced by -1 and ranged attacks against this Unit have Advantage.

Unit Commanding Officers roll for a random Trait, which is revealed when they first enter combat. This roll is made with a d20, with lower results generally worse than higher ones.

CO Trait	Effects
1	Incompetent	All attacks are made with *Disadvantage.* All enemy attacks on the Unit have *Advantage.*
2	Demoralizing	Unit recovers only half of Stress from *Rest.*
3	Unsteady	Unit has *Disadvantage* on Morale Checks.
4	Careless	Unit can carry -2 *Supplies* and *Munitions.*
5	Distracted	Unit's *Spotting* is reduced by -1.
6	Loud	Unit's *Concealment* is reduced by -1.
7	Butcher	Both this Unit's and its enemies' *Wound Threshold* is reduced by -1 in melee.
8	Maverick	Unit may sometimes disobey *Orders* and act on its own.
9	Feared	Unit inflicts *Disadvantage* on enemy Morale Checks triggered by it, but recovers only half of Stress from *Rest.*
10	Optimist	Unit's *Rest* AP Cost reduced by -1.
11	Watchful	Unit's *Spotting* is increased by +2.
12	Sneaky	Unit's *Concealment* is increased by +2.
13	Logistician	Unit can carry +2 *Supplies* and *Munitions.*
14	Teacher	Unit halves XP loss from taking on *Replacements.*
15	Inspiring	Unit has *Advantage* on Morale Checks.
16	Lucky	Unit ignores *Critical Effects*.
17	Rapid	Unit gains +2 Movement.
18	Defensive Genius	Attacks against this Unit are made with *Disadvantage.*
19	Offensive Genius	Unit makes all attacks with Advantage.
20	Brilliant	Unit counts as 2 *XP ranks* above its actual rank.

f the total of Casualties from an attack is a number with two matching digits (ie, 11, 33, 55, 77, 99), it is additionally a Critical Hit. Critical Hits inflict an additional Morale Check and a random Critical Effect.

Critical Hit	Effects
1	Slowed	Unit's Movement is reduced by -1 until the end of their next turn.
2	Ruined Munitions	Unit loses 1 Munitions.
3	Ruined Supplies	Unit loses 1 Supplies.
4	Distracted	Unit loses -1 AP until the end of their next turn.
5	Shaken	Unit makes the Morale Check from this Critical Hit at a *Disadvantage.*
6	CO Wounded	Unit loses any effects from their CO, loses -1 AP, and makes an immediate additional Morale Check.
7	Disrupted	Unit loses -2 AP until the end of their next turn.
8	Standard Lost	Unit has *Disadvantage* on all subsequent Morale Checks.
9	CO Killed	Unit loses any effects from their CO, loses -1 AP, and makes an immediate additional Morale Check at Disadvantage.
10	Disorganized	Unit loses -3 AP until end of their next turn.

WORK IN PROGRESS

The Casualties Units suffer in battles penalize their attacks (-10 per 100, or -10 per 10 for Artillery) and Morale Checks (-1 per 100, or -1 per 10 for Artillery). After battles, Units will try to replace their losses. The base chance for a Casualty to recover is

Every 10 Replacements decrease the Unit's XP by -1, unless the Replacements are of the same XP Rank. Replacements of higher XP Rank increase Unit XP by +1 for every 10. This increase is always +1, regardless of the difference in XP Rank.
WORK IN PROGRESS

Army Morale and Army Drill affect a Unit's Morale Modifier.
- Morale or Drill Modifier
  0 -5
  1 -4
  2 -3
  3 -2
  4 -1
  5 +0
  6 +1
  7 +2
  8 +3
  9 +4
  10 +5
- The total of both modifiers plus the Unit's XP Rank bonus becomes the final Morale Modifier.
- Humans double the modifier from Morale. Dwarves double the modifier from Drill.
Intelligence

The Gather intelligence March Action allows you to increase your knowledge of a targeted enemy army. Each use of the Action increases the level of Intelligence over that Army by 1, and use of the Counter-intelligence Action reduces all hostile Intelligence levels by 1.
- You can have 0-5 Intelligence over an enemy Army. Intelligence is gained through battle contact and the Acquire intel action.
  - 0 Intelligence: You have nothing on this Army. No information is revealed before contact.
  - 1 Intelligence: You know the size of this Army.
  - 2 Intelligence: You know the size of this Army, something on its General, and its Units without Strength, XP Rank or Equipment.
  - 3 Intelligence: You know the size of this Army, its Drill, something on its General, and its Units without XP Rank or Equipment.
  - 4 Intelligence: You know the size of this Army, its Drill and Morale, something on its General, and its Units with XP Rank and Equipment.
  - 5 Intelligence: You know the size of this Army, its Drill and Morale, something on its General, its Units with XP Rank and Equipment, its approximate Supplies and Munitions, and something of its current plans.
- Counter-Intelligence negates a level of Intelligence that enemies have on you.

Duke William of · Dec 5, 2023

[X] Hobgoblins. Treated like savages and cannonfodder for centuries, the Revolution now offers Hobgoblins a chance to claim an equal place in society. For the first time in centuries, there are paths open to them other than those of soldier or serf. Many of them cannot forsake war just yet, though – their strength, ferocity and martial traditions make them valued shock troops on the battlefield. You joined the Revolution as one of the first hobgoblin officers, and there is no way you are leaving behind anything but a spectacular legacy for that.
[X] Female. The narrative will refer to you with she/her pronouns.

We're making it to Russia with this one!

Ralakesh · Dec 5, 2023

[X] Hobgoblins. Treated like savages and cannonfodder for centuries, the Revolution now offers Hobgoblins a chance to claim an equal place in society. For the first time in centuries, there are paths open to them other than those of soldier or serf. Many of them cannot forsake war just yet, though – their strength, ferocity and martial traditions make them valued shock troops on the battlefield. You joined the Revolution as one of the first hobgoblin officers, and there is no way you are leaving behind anything but a spectacular legacy for that.
[X] Male. The narrative will refer to you with he/him pronouns.

Mars · Dec 5, 2023

[X] Elves. They say Elvenkind rules the world, but that's always only been true for a handful of high-placed elites, leaving the rest of you with little to distinguish you from the peasantry save for a fine title. You are of the Elven noblesse mendiante, the gold-poor beggar-aristocracy of the realm. When the Revolution came, you were quick to defect for a chance at genuine glory and elevation.
[X] Female. The narrative will refer to you with she/her pronouns.

Near immortality feels like a cheat

silentorphan · Dec 5, 2023

[x] Halflings.
[x] Female.

Fortebraccio · Dec 5, 2023

[X] Dwarves.
[X] Male. The narrative will refer to you with he/him pronouns.

Kylia Quilor · Dec 5, 2023

[X] Devils
[X] Elves
[X] Female

MrRageQuit · Dec 5, 2023

[X] Devils.
[X] Male.

Theonetruelordke · Dec 5, 2023

[X] Hobgoblins. Treated like savages and cannonfodder for centuries, the Revolution now offers Hobgoblins a chance to claim an equal place in society. For the first time in centuries, there are paths open to them other than those of soldier or serf. Many of them cannot forsake war just yet, though – their strength, ferocity and martial traditions make them valued shock troops on the battlefield. You joined the Revolution as one of the first hobgoblin officers, and there is no way you are leaving behind anything but a spectacular legacy for that.
[X] Male. The narrative will refer to you with he/him pronouns.

Nerdorama · Dec 5, 2023

[X] Halflings.
[X] Female.

Hobbit commandos HOBBIT COMMANDOS

In a less ecstatic and more historically grounded sense, I believe halflings as written would make excellent sharpshooters or jaeger skirmish infantry, and playing a commander with that kind of experience and focus sounds exciting to me.

Ulvlar · Dec 5, 2023

[X] Humans

YesHello · Dec 5, 2023

[X] Hobgoblins.
[X] Male.

Darth · Dec 5, 2023

[X] Humans
[X] Elves
[X] Female

The Well Wisher · Dec 5, 2023

[X] Hobgoblins. Treated like savages and cannonfodder for centuries, the Revolution now offers Hobgoblins a chance to claim an equal place in society. For the first time in centuries, there are paths open to them other than those of soldier or serf. Many of them cannot forsake war just yet, though – their strength, ferocity and martial traditions make them valued shock troops on the battlefield. You joined the Revolution as one of the first hobgoblin officers, and there is no way you are leaving behind anything but a spectacular legacy for that.

[X] Female. The narrative will refer to you with she/her pronouns.

Starmine Starbow · Dec 5, 2023

[X] Devils
[X] Hobgoblins
[X] Female. The narrative will refer to you with she/her pronouns.

Chimeraguard · Dec 5, 2023

[X] Hobgoblins. Treated like savages and cannonfodder for centuries, the Revolution now offers Hobgoblins a chance to claim an equal place in society. For the first time in centuries, there are paths open to them other than those of soldier or serf. Many of them cannot forsake war just yet, though – their strength, ferocity and martial traditions make them valued shock troops on the battlefield. You joined the Revolution as one of the first hobgoblin officers, and there is no way you are leaving behind anything but a spectacular legacy for that.
[X] Male. The narrative will refer to you with he/him pronouns.

SilentSpaniard · Dec 5, 2023

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions... This seems fitting.

[X] Devils.
[X] Male.

Parzival95 · Dec 5, 2023

[X] Devils
[X] Female.

catstep · Dec 5, 2023

[X] Halflings.

Haruhi is Waifu · Dec 5, 2023

[X] Hobgoblins. Treated like savages and cannonfodder for centuries, the Revolution now offers Hobgoblins a chance to claim an equal place in society. For the first time in centuries, there are paths open to them other than those of soldier or serf. Many of them cannot forsake war just yet, though – their strength, ferocity and martial traditions make them valued shock troops on the battlefield. You joined the Revolution as one of the first hobgoblin officers, and there is no way you are leaving behind anything but a spectacular legacy for that.
[X] Female. The narrative will refer to you with she/her pronouns.

Photomajig · Dec 5, 2023

Calling the vote!

[X] Hobgoblins. Treated like savages and cannonfodder for centuries, the Revolution now offers Hobgoblins a chance to claim an equal place in society. For the first time in centuries, there are paths open to them other than those of soldier or serf. Many of them cannot forsake war just yet, though – their strength, ferocity and martial traditions make them valued shock troops on the battlefield. You joined the Revolution as one of the first hobgoblin officers, and there is no way you are leaving behind anything but a spectacular legacy for that.
[X] Female. The narrative will refer to you with she/her pronouns.

Your long limbs, furred skin and clawed hands fit your colonel's uniform poorly, designed as it is in the pre-Revolution times for a male and elven frame. Once you return from this expedition, you'll put in a commission for a well-tailored set of clothes. But that's hardly significant now. A great many things are in such an awkward, half-way state in your life. You have risen fast and proven yourself in the past year as one of the first hobgoblin officers of any note.

It is quite the leap from Master-Sergeant Raka Durand. That position was the height of your pre-Revolutionary military career, the highest rank allowed for those of non-elven stock. Of course, even then you ran the regiment in practice. You and the elven wastrel who was in charge on paper had a deal of sorts, what they in the service used to call a marriage of convenience. In short, you did all the work, he took all the credit - but at least the leech wasn't ever present to interfere with your command.

Nor did he make any trouble for you for the awkward matter of your gender. Not that the senior staff were ever foolish enough to poke at that hornet's nest. Even with the strange obsessions of the elves on what goes on under a soldier's uniform, something like a third of all your hobgoblin comrades must have been women. It was never an issue for your people, after all. The king's law was frequently bent over the years; the realm needed warm bodies to wage its wars, and when it came down to it, the service could ill afford to turn down the strength of Hobb just to cater to some archaic traditions. Even so, your old army papers have you down as Rako, a brave son of the service.

The time for that is past now, though. The Declaration of Universal Rights has abolished the old elven laws on gender, even if not everyone in the realm has gotten the message yet. They'll get it at the point of a bayonet, if nothing else.

The arrangement of your old, false command was an open secret, as they often were. That was to your benefit; the Revolution needed experienced officers, whether they'd officially led a formation or not. You gained your commission with very little prompting. Compared to many of your peers, you're really spectacularly overqualified.

Five months now spent as Colonel - a fine rank and a fine service, but not what you intend to be satisfied with. The road is open now to greater glories; generalship, command of a division, perhaps an entire corps. Anything is possible in this new world. All it will take is a solid victory. And that you could accomplish on any day of the week.

***

Battle of Saintonge

Revolutionary Year 1, Summer

"The summer months brought with them a bevy of new concerns for the unsteady National Convention. Grain prices remained sky-high, banditry abounded in the back country, and the confinement of the king to his estates in La Durance, though conceived as a gracious and conciliatory gesture, had inflamed royalist sentiment across the countryside. (…) The last of these abortive uprisings took place in Bellegarde-Charmois, with nearly 80,000 royalist levies and volunteers put down by Guizot's III. Army in the battles of Montigny, Brizon and Angilmont-Saintonge…"

-From the New History of the Great Revolution of Arné (ARY 122)

***

Marching feet beat a steady rhythm on the northbound dirt road. The country here is a tangle of tough old woods and ancient roadways of moss-eaten stone. Scattered hamlets stand encircled amidst the endless forest. Oh to be sure, the land opens up to the west, where Guizot is no doubt thrashing the royalists on the field before Angilmont, but out here it's hardly suitable for a pitched battle.

Saintonge was meant to be in the hands of friendly revolutionary militias, positioned out here precisely to thwart any flanking movement by the enemy. They must have been overrun. If any remain, it is your duty to relieve them and reorganize the defense.

+Secondary Objective: Relieve the Saintonge Militia.

According to the maps, Saintonge should be just ahead. The Army's scouts have marked additional details on them. The thick Corvaux Wood runs due west of here all the way to Angilmont, bisected only by a single road; presumably, the enemy seeks to march along this road to fall upon Guizot's flank on the other side. Preventing them from doing so must be your first priority.

+Primary Objective: Hold the enemy off the Corvaux Wood road.

An old ruined chateau, Beaume House, stands directly astride the crossroads up ahead. From the scouts' reports, it's a solid stone-built manor; a fortified location to make use of, perhaps.

You pause to take stock of the marching columns. A sizeable force, brigade-strength, larger than any you've commanded before. Only the scarcity of officers of rank under Guizot can have compelled him to hand the command to a mere colonel, but you shall make the most of it.

First comes the 310th Human Regiment of Foot and its twin, the 312th. They are in good cheer, but you know them to come straight from a training camp up north. Eagerness alone will not carry the day, so with luck they'll have more to offer than their grins. This will be their trial by fire.

In their wake, swallowed up by the shadowed woods from your vantage point, march the 41st Hobgoblin Fusiliers Regiment. Up until last year, they were a regiment of the king's own Fusiliers du Roi, but such royal associations have been shed with the Revolution. Unfortunately, they've also shed off most of their experienced troops – though a core of well-trained soldiers remains, giving the formation a solidity the human regiments lack.

Flanking the formation on the roadsides ride elves on horseback. Their formation, raised only two days ago out of a scattering of provincial volunteers, carries the provisional name of the 81st Elven Hussars. They are, to a man, starveling beggar-knights with only a fine title to their name, who probably could not tell you what a hussar supposedly was if you were to ask them. Still, even poor cavalry is still cavalry, and they at least know how to ride a horse.

Last, holding the rear guard, comes your pride and joy – your unit. Their discipline, camaraderie, fervor and skill are exceptional. More importantly, they have actual experience under their belts. They are heroes of Montigny and Brizon, worthy of medals a piece - even if they are yet to be commended in the dispatches as they deserve. That you may well change today.

Strategy wins wars, as they say. But you know for damn sure that a grand plan is worth nothing if you don't have what you need to execute it. You need to win the battles. And if strategy wins wars...

What is your favored service?

[] ...infantry wins battles. It all comes down to the humble infantryman in the end. You're an infantry officer at heart, a proud Colonel of Foot. You have command of an additional (Hobgoblin) Infantry Unit of Experienced rank.
[] ...cavalry wins battles. There's no line that cannot be broken by the shock and awe of a mounted charge. You're a cavalry officer at heart, a proud Colonel of Horse. You have command of an additional (Hobgoblin) Cavalry Unit of Experienced rank.
[] ...artillery wins battles. All that business of standing in lines and running about the place is just set-up for the real work of turning people into red mist with the power of cannon. You're an artillery officer at heart, a proud Colonel of Cannon. You have command of an additional (Hobgoblin) Horse Artillery Unit of Experienced rank.

As the last of your troops begin to come into view, you signal for your subordinates. Technically, they are that only for this mission; you are only above them until General Guizot deems it necessary. If you'll have your way, though, your acting rank will become your true rank soon enough. A victory of note should see you elevated to Major General, at the least.

The commanding officers of the units under your command attend to you. Young Henri Burrard of the 310th, a city laborer turned militia captain with hair the color of ripe wheat; Joséphine Wyler, his counterpart of the 312th, a wiry woman with smiling eyes, one of those political prisoners liberated from the royal dungeons during the Revolution; Alho Kléber, a gangly hobgoblin with myriad scars, a veteran of the butcher's wars before the Revolution; and Hippolyta de Montelivet, a melancholic, statuesque elven woman in charge of the untested hussars.

All of them known to you, more or less, but you have never seen how they fare in battle. This will be their trial, too. One hopes they shall rise to the occasion.

***

Kylia Quilor · Dec 5, 2023

[X] ...artillery wins battles

In this era, it's kind of true.

Duke William of · Dec 5, 2023

[X] ...cavalry wins battles. There's no line that cannot be broken by the shock and awe of a mounted charge. You're a cavalry officer at heart, a proud Colonel of Horse. You have command of an additional (Hobgoblin) Cavalry Unit of Experienced rank.

Hobgoblins are already amazing at melee, so this seems like the best way to go. Artillery is the battle-winner in this era, so I won't object if this wins.

Atriale
Somniale
Martiale	Beginning of Spring
Quadiale
Verdiale
Garandiale	Beginning of Summer
Beltiale
Chordeale
Sacriale	Beginning of Autumn
Marachiale
Entriale
Lacriale	Beginning of Winter

Morale or Drill	Modifier
0	-5
1	-4
2	-3
3	-2
4	-1
5	+0
6	+1
7	+2
8	+3
9	+4
10	+5

Army of Liberty: a Fantasy Revolutionary Warfare Quest

I really need to finish my quests. :V

I Have Two Moods, and Bitter is One of Them.

Do you want a wish?

We do deserve to exist.

I Have Two Moods, and Bitter is One of Them.

I really need to finish my quests. :V