Antediluvixen

Bayonets, Brimstone, and Bullets - A Napoleonic Inspired NRP

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Bayonets, Brimstone, and Bullets - A Napoleonic Inspired NRP

Bayonets, Brimstone, and Bullets - A Napoleonic Inspired NRP

“The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood.”

Otto von Bismarck

Some maps:

A Geographic Map of the World

A Political Map of the World

An overlay map, with the political and geographic maps together.

A heavily WIP Koppen Climate Classification Map

Change looms. The world is marching on a new era. Revolutions, societal upheaval, technological advancement, and more seem to fill the world. From the ice cold arctic tundras in the north to the humid tropical jungles of the equator, in the great steppe and the vast mountain ranges of the east, within the subjugated and defiantly independent lands of the new world, change is poised to strike hard and fast. The two great empires, of Quat’i Al-Qarikha and Grakaisaran Imperpulau Anyueva, millenia old rivals, teeter on the brink of war. Around them, the lesser powers both great and middling watch eagerly, desiring to enrich and empower themselves in the ensuing carnage.

______________________________________________________

In this NRP, you play as a nation of your own creation. This is a setting with heavy historical inspiration, but no direct parallels. The best term for the setting is schizotech - this is a world wherein an orderly column of line infantry exchange musket fire after being ferried across the nation by train, while steam-powered drydocks assemble great first-rate ships of the line to rule the seas. While not to the same extent as my other NRP, this, direct comparisons are to be avoided - as a nation taking inspiration from the likes of China or Peru may boast technological capabilities that exceed the greatest of European powers at the time. Vast empires with vast populations, deep history, and so on. That said, this is not a map painting simulator, and if you want to conquer the world, I fully understand, but this is not a Total War or EU4 game and such should not be your driving goal.

Individual nations are player created, with randomly rolled stats serving as a guideline upon which you should build your nation.

This is a world with by now some decently well established lore, and I encourage you to speak to me and the other players about how your own nation fits into it!

Technology is a bit of a giant anachronism, but the most technologically advanced nations could be said to be in a position around the early 1860s, with railways, steam powered industry, and more making their way into the big time. The major exception is military technology - which has lagged behind, and will at the beginning of the RP resemble that of the Napoleonic wars. As the RP progresses, it will catch up with the rest of technology as rifled muskets, minie balls, improved artillery, and more make their way into play.

I invite those interested to join our Discord server and get to know the players already in! This RP will hopefully begin early March, and I hope you enjoy it!

Rules

• Use common sense.
• Don't game the rolls.
• No godmodding, powergaming, etc. You get the point.
• What the GM and Co-GMs say, goes. Please don’t push things this far. I don’t like having to put my foot down but I will.
• No meme nations (why do I have to make this a rule?)
• Don’t be an arse.

Character Sheet

Name of Nation:

Territorial Claims:

Species:

Population (total and by species):

Culture and Society:

History:

Economy:

Army:

Navy:

Traits:

Foreign Relations:

Rolls: (Rolled by GM in the Discord Server. Just ping me, and I’ll roll as soon as I’m able.)

Capabilities:

Societal Development:

Technological Development:

Economy:

Land Power:

Naval Power:

Arcane Sophistication/Religious Strength:

Other:

Religion

Religion has been a vitally important aspect of life for nearly all of history - and in this RP it is even more crucial, being central to the performing of magical acts. Religions in this RP fall into two broad categories - Elder and Gestalt. These terms reflect both the nature of the gods or pantheons they worship and the ways in which their followers pay homage.

Elder gods are ancient, primordial beings, having existed long before the emergence of life as we know it upon the world and possessed of natures wholly Eldritch and unable to be fully comprehended by mortal minds while retaining what we might call sanity. They are heavily influenced by the works of HP Lovecraft and such, and while many of them are not actively malevolent as his creations were (some may even be more benevolent in nature), they are inscrutable, powerful forces that exist on a level of reality far beyond that of mortal ken. However, they do have their ambitions and goals, esoteric and incomprehensible as some of them may be, and will grant knowledge of the workings of the arcane and more in exchange for service and devotion. With this knowledge, a nation can construct magitechnological devices and works to further their goals. Elder god religions are recommended for those who are not only familiar with the writings of HP Lovecraft and other contributions to the Cthulhu mythos, but who prefer the slower, more definite and permanent nature of their magic.

Gestalt gods are those new ones formed by the collective minds, thoughts, and spiritualities of their followers. They are myriad and varied, ranging in power as widely as they do in their nature. Being an innately ‘human’ construct they follow mortal morals and whims, and are much more in line with the nature of various historical deities of a humanoid and personified nature. Gestalt gods, being of a wholly different make and nature to their Elder counterparts, likewise interact with their followers and the universe in a wholly different manner as well. Instead of conferring upon their followers the knowledge of the cosmos and the arcane, for such knowledge is beyond them too, they utilize the collective might that makes up their being to bend the laws of the universe to their whim - or more accurately, to the whim of their followers. Magical power and capabilities of such beings can wax and wane rapidly and drastically as the size and strength of conviction of their following grows or shrinks. With this power, a nation can call forth works of the divine to suit their ends, instead of constructing the elaborate and dizzyingly intricate works of those nations following an Elder god. Gestalt religions are recommended for those players wishing to create gods and religions more heavily inspired by the culture and mythology of our own planet earth, are unfamiliar with or do not like the work of HP Lovecraft, or prefer a more ‘traditional’ means of working magic as an inscrutable force of the arcane.

Magic

Magic, in this world, is significantly different from that of most fantasy settings. In most settings, a mage conjures a fireball in his hand from the ether and propels it at the enemy - that is not how it works here. Imagine the magic of the world as a shallow puddle with the breadth of an ocean, covering the entire world, but not ‘deep’ enough to allow much more than low level cantrips, or a telepath to communicate with others. But within this puddle there are spots that could be considered ‘low lying’ - where the magic of the world collects and concentrates, manifesting physically as a crystalline material that can be mined and processed, brimming with the magical energy of the world. These magical crystals can be used as power supplies for the magical works of those nations advanced in the arcane or possessed of a powerful god, a machine to cast bolts of lightning or launch balls of fire for those of great sophistication, or a contraption to draw water from the earth or a stone circle to communicate at great distances for the middling. A nation’s magic roll is related to the prevalence and size of these ‘hotspots’ - determined by the magical reserves roll. Just as with material resources for a nation dependent on tech, the supplies of this crystal are crucial for the war effort of a nation dependent on magic.

Magic is performed and learned of through two primary routes, through communion with an Elder god to learn of the ways of the universe through their revelations in exchange for some service, or through prayer and devotion to a Gestalt god to gain their intervention in the working of magic. As explained in the section on religions, the ways in which different peoples will use these capabilities vary widely. Those following an Elder religion rely upon what is essentially magitech, imbued with its nature through myriad means of channeling and shaping the forces of the universe, in much the same way that electronics or mechanical devices must be carefully manufactured and arranged for all of their components to function together. Those who follow a Gestalt religion will invoke the power of their god, and, provided sufficient crystal is available and the faith has the power to do so, the desired effect will be worked through the divine intervention of the deity in question.

For example - to draw water from an underground aquifer:

An Elder worshipping people possessing the relevant knowledge will construct a device reminiscent of a pump, perhaps covered in various runes to focus and channel the power of the arcane, which when supplied with crystal, performs the work of a pump and mechanically pulls water from underground through a hole drilled through the rock.

A Gestalt worshipping people will, provided sufficient crystal is available to power the ritual and the faith is capable of the task, assign a priest to call upon the intervention of the god. The god will then act, and the water in the aquifer may be transported into an awaiting reservoir, cast into the sky to fall as rain, or so on.

Those learned in the ways of magic’s use are known as mages - almost anybody can become a mage, as the use of magic is for the most part a matter of learning and applied technique, rather than any inborn attributes.

There are other means of supplying magic in the field, but these are costly. The sacrifice of living beings, for instance, - dozens or hundreds - can create enough energy with the turmoil of death to supply magical devices for a limited time. This method is widely abhorred in much of the world, and those seeking to use such means with any frequency will find themselves similarly shunned.

Magic’s use, however, comes with a darker side - one that can and has spelled doom for many civilizations and empires before. Excessive extraction of magical crystal can lead to depletion of the magical field in the area - ‘dry’ spots can occur, and should action not be taken to dramatically lessen or outright halt crystal extraction, calamity can occur. There is always ample forewarning - magically sensitive individuals will experience splitting headaches and full body pain, for instance. A basic (and somewhat silly) visual guide can be seen here.

Should such a calamity occur, it will become immediately obvious. At the point wherein the depletion reaches a critical point, the very landscape will begin to change. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, vast lightning storms, and all manner of natural disasters are likely to occur, greater than any recorded on earth in living memory. The land itself will turn fallow, life becomes twisted, corrupted, a shadow of its former nature as universal forces unknown to the living crash into the mundane world. Such land is tainted, and for the first centuries at least the land will be unlike anything of the natural world. Warped abominations will prowl through toxic streams, plants and animals molded into new, perverted mockeries of life, unable to live outside of the hostile, abnormal conditions that gave rise to them. The only mercy is that those who created such conditions rarely live to see the worst of them. To survive, let alone remain sane and uncorrupted within such land is all but impossible, and it can take a millennium or more for the area to truly heal.

Magic is a flexible system - but it is far from omnipotent; and with great power comes great responsibility.

Explanations on Rolls and other aspects of the RP

And now, a brief explanation of the rolls, tech trees, and other aspects of the sheets.

Your rolls are a guideline for your nation, and they serve as an upper limit. If your roll is large, but you wish to go smaller, you are welcome to. With your rolls, you can subtract a total of ten points from wherever you wish and redistribute them elsewhere. Additionally, you can choose any two stats within a roll to swap - changing fertility with land area, for instance. However, to increase a stat from 19 to 20 will require the use of two points, in order to prevent minmaxing and to reflect the significant jump in capabilities from 19 to 20. Likewise, decreasing a stat from 20-19 will yield two points.

Stats can be increased in game. Players wishing to increase their stats must make a post describing in at least some moderate detail the events and efforts of their nation to begin this process - be it gathering the wisest heads in the land or plundering lost forgotten cities of old lore, posts need not be in excruciating detail. This post may even take the form of a direct message to myself with a bullet point list of actions if time is short. The GMs will then roll a d20 to determine the success of these efforts. Increasing a stat has four tiers, to advance in tier the roll must equal or exceed the current value of that stat, if a 20 is rolled you may even advance multiple tiers at once. Once finishing tier 4, the stat is increased by one.

Your Land Area: This roll determines the amount of land you have under your sway. It covers how much of the map is under your control.

Your Land Fertility: This roll dictates the suitability of your land for your people. A low roll may be host to a harsh climate (natural or artificial) difficult to inhabit, it may have soils that yield small crops or those inedible to your people. Conversely, a high roll will have rich, fertile soil and a climate that lends itself to habitation by your people.

Your Army: This roll dictates the size of your nation’s land forces, and the level of training and sophistication of your land forces. A nation with a large army roll is likely capable of raising powerful forces, numerous, well trained, and well equipped.

Your Navy: This roll dictates the size of your naval forces. In addition, it represents the sophistication, extent, and other facets of your marine infrastructure - dockyards, drydocks, ports, and so on. This roll does not solely determine the quality of your warships or ability to field advanced designs, as these are also tied to your economy and technological development. A nation extremely high in all of these may well be fielding fleets of early steam ships.

Your Economy: Your Economy is a representation of the wealth of your nation. It stands for the money your people hold, the amount you import and export, and to some extent how connected with others your nation is. A nation with a high economy is able to fund and finance more expensive works, and can maintain a war for considerably longer periods of time.

Your Societal Development: Societal Development represents the sophistication and development of your nation’s culture, civilization, and governmental structure. It is essentially the difference between a country with bustling cities and intricate systems of trade and taxation, and a collection of thatch roof villages loosely controlled by a reigning warlord.

Your Technological Development: In contrast with Societal Development, Technological Development represents the sophistication of techniques, tools, materials, and equipment available to your people. A more technologically developed nation may field a train network, steam powered industry, and will likely be on the verge of or in the midst of an industrial revolution.

Your Magical Reserves: In this, Magic is not powered by an unseen ethereal force - but by a physical, tangible object. An iridescent crystal that goes by many names is the physical manifestation of magical energy that permeates the universe. Its scarcity varies greatly throughout the world and the universe at large, and this roll dictates the reserves of crystal you have available.

Your Arcane Sophistication/Religious Strength: In this world, magic is a potent force but a tricky one; it requires intensive study to understand and requires expert training and meticulous technique to harness - or a powerful and numerous faith to bend reality to its whims. It is better described as “the Science of the Arcane” rather than “Magic” for those of an Elder bent, and as “Collectively powered works of the Divine” for those of the Gestalt. Capable of impressive feats when properly used, a magically potent nation can create massive contraptions to unleash a ball of flame upon their foes or invoke their god to cast lightning from the sky, or more mundane uses - a trained individual can communicate remotely with a similarly trained individual in a manner akin to a radio (range dependent on the power of the system) or water can be drawn from deep underground aquifers.

Every single stat is an important one, not to be overlooked and ignored.

Traits - The Traits of a nation are miscellaneous additions outside the base rolls and tech tree system. A nation can have up to five different traits. Traits must carry a trade off past the first one, or be countered by another trait with negative effects. Traits can confer a number of effects, such as bonuses or other effects upon your militaries, populations, climates, or other elements of your nation not touched on by other mechanics.

Your traits can carry some flexibility with your rolls, but nonetheless they are still constrained - for instance, a nation with a fertility score of one may not have a trait that describes their land as being a bountiful nation of plenty. An example trait, for instance, may reference an age old warrior culture and boost the morale of their armies, ensuring that flight is only a possibility in truly dire circumstances.

Battles will be decided in two ways. Battles between player nations, where the two players have agreed upon the story they wish to tell require no GM involvement, and can be written in whatever style chosen. Battles between a player and an NPC nation, or between players who disagree on the outcome of the battle, will be decided by rolling. Players will describe the actions they wish to take, and dice will be rolled to see if that action succeeds or fails, with bonuses being applied based on relevant stats. The exact details of the battle will then be written according to the players’ desires, in line with the results of the rolling. This is for multiple reasons - to ensure a way to break stalemates while remaining fair and impartial, to prevent immediate steamrolling of NPCs, and because the element of uncertainty and randomness adds some excitement!

Land Area sizes:
1 up to Lebanon in size (4000 mi²)
2 up to Denmark in size (16,000 mi²)
3 up to Ireland in size (32,000 mi²)
4 up to Bangladesh in size (50,000-60,000 mi²)
5 up to United Kingdom in size (90,000-100,000 mi²)
6 up to Japan in size (140,000-150,000 mi²)
7 up to Thailand in size (190,000-200,000 mi²)
8 up to Turkey in size (300,000 mi²)
9 up to Ethiopia in size (400,000-430,000 mi²)
10 up to Assyrian Empire in size (550k mi²)
11 up to Iran in size (630,000-640,000 mi²)
12 up to Almohad Caliphate in size (850,000 mi²)
13 up to Song Dynasty in size (1,200,000 mi²)
14 up to Seleucid Empire in size (1,500,00 mi²)
15 up to Tibetan Empire in size (1,800,000 mi²)
16 up to Achaemenid Empire in size (2,100,000 mi²)
17 up to Ming Dynasty in size (2,510,000 mi²)
18 up to Brazil in size (3,200,00 mi²)
19 up to Canada in size (3,800,000 mi²)
20 up to slightly below Qing Dynasty in size (5,500,000 mi²)

NPC Nations

NPC nations are nations controlled either by the GM or players that create them, intended to serve as flavor, flesh out the region, and provide a rich playground for our greater powers to frolic in. NPC nations have stats much the same as our own nations do, rolled by me, the GM.

Technology and other capabilities.

In place of a tech-tree system, as in other RPs and in my own older NRP Takanis, you will write up a description of the capabilities of your nation in the selected fields below and append this to your nation sheet below under the “Capabilities” section. I will give you feedback and guidance on it. You will write a description of your capabilities for the following stats:

Societal Development:

Technological Development:

Economy:

Land Power:

Naval Power:

Arcane Sophistication/Religious Strength:

Technological advancement will be a matter of good writing, and if I or a co-GM decide that something is to our distaste, we will inform you.

And with that, I welcome you to this land - troubled though it may be, and await your own entry into the great games of war and politics that will play out!

Bayonets, Brimstone, and Bullets - A Napoleonic Inspired NRP

@The Wyrm

Fixed!

Bayonets, Brimstone, and Bullets - A Napoleonic Inspired NRP

Bayonets, Brimstone, and Bullets - A Napoleonic Inspired NRP

“The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood.”

Otto von Bismarck

Change looms. The world is marching on a new era. Revolutions, societal upheavel, technological advancement, and more seem to fill the world. From the ice cold arctic tundras in the north to the humid tropical jungles of the equator, in the great steppe and the vast mountain ranges of the east, within the subjugated and defiantly independent lands of the new world, change is poised to strike hard and fast. The two great empires, of Quat’i Al-Qarikha and Grakaisaran Imperpulau Anyueva, millenia old rivals, teeter on the brink of war. Around them, the lesser powers both great and middling watch eagerly, desiring to enrich and empower themselves in the ensuing carnage.

______________________________________________________

In this NRP, you play as a nation of your own creation. This is a setting with heavy historical inspiration, but no direct parallels. The best term for the setting is schizotech - this is a world wherein an orderly column of line infantry exchange musket fire after being ferried across the nation by train, while steam-powered drydocks assemble great first-rate ships of the line to rule the seas. While not to the same extent as my other NRP, this, direct comparisons are to be avoided - as a nation taking inspiration from the likes of China or Peru may boast technological capabilities that exceed the greatest of European powers at the time. Vast empires with vast populations, deep history, and so on. That said, this is not a map painting simulator, and if you want to conquer the world, I fully understand, but this is not a Total War or EU4 game and such should not be your driving goal.

Individual nations are player created, with randomly rolled stats serving as a guideline upon which you should build your nation.

This is a world with by now some decently well established lore, and I encourage you to speak to me and the other players about how your own nation fits into it!

I invite those interested to join our Discord server and get to know the players already in! This RP will hopefully begin early March, with the OOC going up at the end of this week, and I hope you enjoy it!

Some Information About Lore and a Few Mechanics

Religion

Religion has been a vitally important aspect of life for nearly all of history - and in this RP it is even more crucial, being central to the performing of magical acts. Religions in this RP fall into two borad categories - Elder and Gestalt. These terms reflect both the nature of the gods or pantheons they worship and the ways in which their followers pay homage.

Elder gods are ancient, primordial beings, having existed long before the emergence of life as we know it upon the world and posessed of natures wholly Eldritch and unable to be fully comprehended by mortal minds while retaining what we might call sanity. They are heavily influenced by the works of HP Lovecraft and such, and while many of them are not actively malevolent as his creations were (some may even be more benevolent in nature), they are inscrutable, powerful forces that exist on a level of reality far beyond that of mortal ken. However, they do have their ambitions and goals, esotetic and incomprehensible as some of them may be, and will grant knowledge of the workings of the arcane and more in exchange for service and devotion. With this knowledge, a nation can construct magitechnological devices and works to further their goals. Elder god religions are recommended for those who are not only familiar with the writings of HP Lovecraft and other contributions to the Cthulhu mythos, but who prefer the slower, more definite and permanent nature of their magic.

Gestalt gods are those new ones formed by the collective minds, thoughts, and spiritualities of their followers. They are myriad and varied, ranging in power as widely as they do in their nature. Being an innately ‘human’ construct they follow mortal morals and whims, and are much more in line with the nature of various historical deities of a humanoid and personified nature. Gestalt gods, being of a wholly different make and nature to their Elder counterparts, likewise interact with their followers and the universe in a wholly different manner as well. Instead of conferring upon their followers the knowledge of the cosmos and the arcane, for such knowledge is beyond them too, they utilize the collective might that makes up their being to bend the laws of the universe to their whim - or more accurately, to the whim of their followers. Magical power and capabilities of such beings can wax and wane rapidly and drastically as the size and strength of conviction of their following grows or shrinks. With this power, a nation can call forth works of the divine to suit their ends, instead of constructing the elaborate and dizzyingly intricate works of those nations following an Elder god. Gestalt religions are recommended for those players wishing to create gods and religions more heavily inspired by the culture and mythology of our own planet earth, are unfamiliar with or do not like the work of HP Lovecraft, or prefer a more ‘traditional’ means of working magic as an inscrutable force of the arcane.

Magic

Magic, in this world, is significantly different from that of most fantasy settings. In most settings, a mage conjures a fireball in his hand from the ether and propels it at the enemy - that is not how it works here. Imagine the magic of the world as a shallow puddle with the breadth of an ocean, covering the entire world, but not ‘deep’ enough to allow much more than low level cantrips, or a telepath to communicate with others. But within this puddle there are spots that could be considered ‘low lying’ - where the magic of the world collects and concentrates, manifesting physically as a crystalline material that can be mined and processed, brimming with the magical energy of the world. These magical crystals can be used as power supplies for the magical works of those nations advanced in the arcane or posessed of a powerful god, a machine to cast bolts of lightning or launch balls of fire for those of great sophistication, or a contraption to draw water from the earth or a stone circle to communicate at great distances for the middling. A nation’s magic roll is related to the prevalence and size of these ‘hotspots’ - determined by the magical reserves roll. Just as with material resources for a nation dependent on tech, the supplies of this crystal are crucial for the war effort of a nation dependent on magic.

Magic is performed and learned of through two primary routes, through communion with an Elder god to learn of the ways of the universe through their revelations in exchange for some service, or through prayer and devotion to a Gestalt god to gain their intervention in the working of magic. As explained in the section on religions, the ways in which different peoples will use these capabilities vary widely. Those following an Elder religion rely upon what is essentially magitech, imbued with its nature through myriad means of channeling and shaping the forces of the universe, in much the same way that electronics or mechanical devices must be carefully manufactured and arranged for all of their components to function together. Those who follow a Gestalt religion will invoke the power of their god, and, provided sufficient crystal is available and the faith has the power to do so, the desired effect will be worked through the divine intervention of the deity in question.

For example - to draw water from an underground aquifier:

An Elder worshipping people posessing the relevant knowledge will construct a device reminiscient of a pump, perhaps covered in various runes to focus and channel the power of the arcane, which when supplied with crystal, performs the work of a pump and mechanically pulls water from underground through a hole drilled through the rock.

A Gestalt worshipping people will, provided sufficient crystal is available to power the ritual and the faith is capable of the task, assign a priest to call upon the intervention of the god. The god will then act, and the water in the acquifier may be transported into an awaiting resevoir, cast into the sky to fall as rain, or so on.

Those learned in the ways of magic’s use are known as mages - almost anybody can become a mage, as the use of magic is for the most part a matter of learning and applied technique, rather than any inborn attributes.

There are other means of supplying magic in the field, but these are costly. The sacrifice of living beings, for instance, - dozens or hundreds - can create enough energy with the turmoil of death to supply magical devices for a limited time. This method is widely abhorred in much of the world, and those seeking to use such means with any frequency will find themselves similarly shunned.

Magic’s use, however, comes with a darker side - one that can and has spelled doom for many civilizations and empires before. Excessive extraction of magical crystal can lead to depletion of the magical field in the area - ‘dry’ spots can occur, and should action not be taken to dramatically lessen or outright halt crystal extraction, calamity can occur. There is always ample forewarning - magically sensitive individuals will experience splitting headaches and full body pain, for instance. A basic (and somewhat silly) visual guide can be seen here.

Should such a calamity occur, it will become immediately obvious. At the point wherein the depletion reaches a critical point, the very landscape will begin to change. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, vast lightning storms, and all manner of natural disaster are likely to occur, greater than any recorded on earth in living memory. The land itself will turn fallow, life becomes twisted, corrupted, a shadow of its former nature as universal forces unknown to the living crash into the mundane world. Such land is tainted, and for the first centuries at least the land will be unlike anything of the natural world. Warped abominations will prowl through toxic streams, plants and animals molded into new, perverted mockeries of life, unable to live outside of the hostile, abnormal conditions that gave rise to them. The only mercy is that those who created such conditions rarely live to see the worst of them. To survive, let alone remain sane and uncorrupted within such land is all but impossible, and it can take a millenium or more for the area to truly heal.

Magic is a flexible system - but it is far from omnipotent; and with great power comes great responsibility.

Eden(Small-scale Space NRP)

I was killed near Rzhev
In a nameless bog,
In fifth company,
On the Left flank,
In a cruel air raid

I did not hear the explosions
And did not see the flash
Down to an abyss from a cliff
No start, no end

And in this whole world
To the end of its days -
Neither patches, nor badges
From my tunic you’ll find

-Aleksandr Tvardovsky, “I was killed near Rzhev”

Kurkesta-II, planetary capital of Volynogra

A distant rumbling echoed through the still morning air like rolling thunder. On the horizon, flashes of light lit up the dawn sky, the sound of orbital artillery washing over the position. Were she as blissfully ignorant as she had been but a year ago, Melekhova could have mistaken it for the innocent murmur of something natural. But she had seen far too much to mistake it for anything else. It had been eight months since she’d been deployed to the war zone raging across the fertile world of Kurkesta-II. Compared to the vast megalopolises of Mirvolyudki, the cities upon this world seemed little greater than a small town - but they had been turned into fortified citadels, bombed to rubble through continuous orbital strikes. The tank battalions of Mirvolyudki had swept aside comparatively less experienced defenders in the open plains where once vast bumper crops had been sewn. Now, though, they had been encamped in a siege of this city for months on end.

The occasional crack of sniper fire echoed across the near landscape. At times, she would hear a muted scream or shriek of pain in response, then the clatter of answering machine gun fire. Sometimes they would find their mark, and an enemy sniper would fall from their perch. Mostly, the killer would have already snuck away, quietly laughing to themselves. She could not fault the gunners, futile as their desperate returning fire was - it was impossible not to do something. To sit idly by as comrades fell without answering. She had done the same.

Soon, it would hopefully end. Today, they would commence the final assault. Now, the traitors’ holdout would be eliminated, and the rebuilding of the world could begin. She of course would be redeployed to the next hellish war zone - but at least she would not be stuck in this nightmare of a city anymore. She would no longer suffer in this ditch, unknowing if a sniper’s bullet awaited her around the next corner.

Behind her, she heard the earth shaking tremor of ground based artillery opening up, their salvos of heavy shells joining the cacophony of the warships in orbit. Explosives arced overhead, slamming into defensive fortifications. Clouds of dust rose from the earthworks and reinforced concrete structures that ringed the city as the explosives slammed into their marks. Even as the artillery continued to increase in its volume, vast fireballs bloomed across the horizon, bomber aircraft far out of her sight delivering precision strikes on the enemy fortifications. A small part of her swelled with some twisted pride in the power of her nation, but a much larger part of her was filled with dread at the thought of what would await them.

The almighty din filled the heavens and earth, even as the mechanical whine of tanks and armored carriers began to trundle towards the enemy lines underneath the cover of the apocalyptic bombardment. From the trenches rang the war cry of the Sukhoputnyye Voyska, a deep, throaty cry of “URA!”

Thousands of vehicles burst forward from the line, followed shortly behind by steady streams of millions of foot soldiers. Ahead of the tanks ranged minesweeper teams, sifting through the devastated hellscape of mine and shell craters to clear safe passage for the assault teams. At times, an explosion would ring out and a team would be destroyed, or a tank would strike an undetected mine, going up in flames. From the enemy positions, those brave enough to open themselves to the artillery spotters, a hail of withering fire erupted. Heavy hypervelocity slugs tearing through body armor and the flesh behind, directed energy weapons supplied from the broader cluster burned horrific holes through plasteel and skin alike. At such close range, few shots missed their mark.

Melekhova cursed the Raygonians, the Arcadians, the Halcyon Continuance, every single member of that accursed alliance that fed supplies and arms to the scum of Tretirykh. She cursed the foul beings who had begun the ‘movement’ deep within the underbelly of the Union. She cursed herself, for she had lapsed, and had she not done so she would not be here now. And as it came time for her unit to go over the top, to charge forth into the awaiting maelstrom of the final stretch of hellish urban war that awaited her and her unit, she joined in the war cry that echoed along the entire front as she and her comrades took their rifles in hand and surged out of the trench.
____________________________________________________________________________

A sniper bolt burned through the armor covering starshyna Nalikova’s chest. A spray of blood and viscera erupted from the crater where before had been her chest, covering Melekhova’s face and body in pieces of the woman. The starshyna collapsed in a limp heap as the smell of ozone filled the air. Melekhova stared, her mouth agape at the prostrate form of her commander, then up and around at the surrounding buildings, frantic, desperate to see from where the shot had come.

She screamed at her squad to take cover, pulling her machine gunner from her position overlooking the cratered boulevard.

Her vision shifted into infrared as she ducked behind a nearby wall, and she scanned the skyscraping residential buildings. She strained to glimpse anything out of the ordinary for the devastated metropolis, any stray heat signatures that might give the killer away.

Out of a ruined home, she saw something, a faint glimpse of what looked like the barrel of a rifle, warm from the recently fired shot. Forgetting her own self preservation, she seized the abandoned machine gun from its position, hefting the weapon to her shoulder and squeezing the trigger. The deafening burst of the weapon filled the air as her helmet clamped tight over her ears, shielding them from the worst of it. The bullets tore through the plascrete and anything that might be hiding behind it, kicking up a dust cloud that obscured much of her vision, even thermal.

A dull thud reached her ears, and she cautiously took a step forward, and then another, her eyes alighting on the bleeding, crumpled, bullet ridden form that had fallen from its perch. A strange thing, what of its skin she could discern an unusual greenish, scaly material. The eyes, now dead and lifeless, were small and beady, out of place from the squat, densely built body. A rifle unlike their own lay next to it, a strange device that glowed gently with indicator lights. Hurriedly, she dashed forward, seizing the rifle, or whatever it was.

She stood right over the dead body of the foreigner. It was true, she realized. Wherever this creature… a Raygonian, if she recalled correctly, had come from - it was most certainly from outside of the Union’s space. Most probably sent by the unholy cabal that ruled the hive planet to which the thing’s species had lent their name. The implications weighed heavy on her, and she stumbled back to her squad and sank to her knees next to the dead body of starshyna Nalikova.

“My god, it’s true.” She muttered, looking up at the remaining members of her squad. “It’s true, that… it wasn’t from here. The rumors are true.”

Her comrades said nothing, the gunner gingerly moving towards her and resting an arm on her shoulder, taking back her weapon. Another moved up, grabbing hold of one of the starshyna’s ID tags and yanking the chain free.

Wetness fell upon her chin, and Melekhova realized she had been crying. “Her children.” She whispered hoarsely, “She joined for them, she was telling me how excited they were that mommy was fighting the traitors, that her oldest would turn ten soon. She was due for leave to visit her in just a few weeks. Oh god, what do I tell her? What do I tell them? Little mladshiy was due for her first implant but she wanted to be there for her because she was scared.” Tears came faster now, streaming down her face as she sobbed, pulling the gunner into her embrace, “I’ll kill them all.” She said, teeth gritted, “I’ll kill every single one of them.” She choked back another sob, crushing a piece of rubble to powder with a cybernetic fist, not minding the signals of pain, “Why wasn’t it me? I have nobody, why was it her? She’s not a priztuyvnik like me, she had something to give!”

Out of the corner of her eye, her vision blurred by tears, she noticed something - Nalikova’s arm outstretched before her, a small electronic device in her hand. Gently, another member of the squad pulled it from her fingers, before she too began to cry. Her tears joined those of Melekhova as she slumped against the wall. On the dimly glowing screen, the image of a happy family beamed back at them. Starshyna Nalikova’s eyes filled with life, a broad smile on her face as she held her newborn son, her first child beaming up at her with a face full of wonder. Behind them stood five others, Nalikova’s other mates, one of them pregnant, all beamed at the camera. One of them - Melekhova remembered her name being Nataly - had her hand rested on the starshyna’s shoulder, an expression of the purest adoration on it.

Melekhova clutched the image tight to her chest as the unit mourned in silence.

It felt as though hours passed, but slowly the gunner returned, crouching low beside her. “We need to move on, Corporal.” She pulled Melekhova’s eyes away from the dead form of the commander, “I know you two were close, but we need to move on.” The sounds of urban warfare echoed around them in the distance as she spoke, explosions and gunfire muted by the husks of the dying city.

Melekhova nodded, slowly standing from her perch. “I’ll carry her.” She murmured, “We’ll rendezvous with Kapitan Galina. We can move on from there.” She looked around at her unit, “Pass me the thing’s rifle - I’m sure command will want to get their hands on as many of these things as possible. They go straight through our armor.”

An uneasy look passed between the squad and the gunner stepped forward again. “Corporal, her body is heavy. We’ll be slowed down, we might not be able to rendezvous with the Kapita-”

She was cut off as Melekhova placed her hand over her mouth, “I am not leaving her here.” She said, her voice choked with emotion. “We leave nobody behind. I’m not leaving her here in this godforsaken city. I’m not leaving her to be found by some pack of those… things from the rest of the cluster for them to do… Heaven knows what they might do to her! Yefreytor Filippovnu Madgalina, I will carry every single member of this squad back home myself, if I have to. Is that understood?”

The gunner said nothing, her eyes wide as she took a slight step back from the incensed Corporal. Melekhova looked at her squad, meeting each of their eyes in turn. None raised further protest.

Silently, they turned back the way they had come, crouching low as they dashed between points of cover. Steadily, they made their way to the point of the heaviest fighting, following the sound of explosions and the callouts barked on radio. The ground began to shake once more, and the squeal of tank tracks pierced through the air. The deafening report of field artillery shook loose a small rain of pebble sized rubble from the ruins surrounding them with every blast.

The central city square lay ahead. On its outskirts, a forward operating base had been hastily erected. A primitive hospital and morgue showed the devastating results of the final push to capture the city. The moans and cries of the sick and dying filled the air, the rows upon rows of simple coffins awaiting disposal via composting, were ample testament to the cost. Formality was not stood upon, not now - in short order she and her squad had reported to the Kapitan of the company. They had been assigned on scouting duty, to investigate the quality of defenses and debrief command of possible assault routes. Images flashed between them, audio recordings, and the final moments of Starshyna Nalikova.

“I couldn’t leave her there.” She said, after some minutes had passed without an exchange. “I… you saw the thing that killed her. I couldn’t just leave her out there, we don’t know what they might do!”

The kapitan remained silent for a moment longer before nodding, resting a hand on Melekhova’s shoulder. “I understand. It was dangerous, what you did, but I understand. There is a time to mourn, but that time is not now. I can’t have you if you can’t fight, understand? There is precious little time to waste now, I will see to it that you are given time to mourn and contact her next of kin.”

“With respect, kapitan, there is no time for this.” interrupted the gunner, stepping between the two.

Melekhova nodded, steeling herself. “My unit is awaiting orders, kapitan. We are ready.”

____________________________________________________________________________

A red burst of blood splattered the wall behind the unarmored humans, his strange energy-weapon clattering to the ground as he fell forward. Melekhova stared grimly down the sights of her rifle, her heart hardened to the man’s expression of shock. Another one of the Ragyonians - as she had confirmed they were called - hastily aimed its weapon in her direction, and she shifted her aim, sending another two bullets downrange. More blood painted the floor of the corridor, and the thing crumpled to the ground.

An earthshaking tremor rocked the building, and the squad steadied themselves, well accustomed to the impact of artillery on the remaining defenses. Only a small shrivel of enemy territory remained in the city, and before entering the building they had been able to view the other side of the battle, as the encircling army of the Soyuzka i Mirvolyudkiyska ground its way through the defenses. It was a matter of hours at most now until the last defender was killed, and the world would be restored to order.

Gunfire erupted in the room adjacent to the corridor, accompanied by the erie crack of foreign energy rifles discharging. A tense moment followed as Melekhova and her squad positioned themselves by a doorway.

“Three enemy combatants behind a barricade, 3 o’clock, two of our own and one injured, 10 o’clock.” Reported a squad member, watching through a small crack in the wall through which her enhance vision could penetrate. “Wall is too thick to hit them from behind. Solid plascrete.”

Melekhova grimaced, “Just for this one room, I’d like it if we hadn’t built it to withstand the apocalypse. Federova, you’re on point, flashbang and go in shooting. Our people should be unaffected. Nataliya, suppressing fire while we take position. Now move, move, move!”

As she had ordered, her squad carried out the plans to the letter - a brilliant flash lit up the room as the grenade detonated, and the squad poured through the doorway, weapons blazing. Instantly, one of the enemy went down, another unarmored human, her body collapsing limply over one of her comrades, shielding him from the worst of the gunfire. Another went down in short order, her weapon discharging wildly in all directions as she fell. Outflanked and caught off guard by the unexpected assault the remaining man threw his weapons to the ground, crying out in thickly accented, broken speech, “Surrender! Me surrender!”

Melekhova blinked, unsure how to react. She looked back at her unit, her confusion obvious. Nobody in her squad moved, they remained crouched behind cover. The members of the other unit, however, did move. One of them leapt from his position, sprinting over to the enemy soldier and driving his fist into the man’s face, then his gut, his ear, his chest. Again, and again, and again, as he screamed meaninglessly, tears glistening on his cheeks.

“Heavens damn you!” He screamed, grabbing the man and throwing him into the center of the room, pulling his sidearm from its holster and aiming it in his direction. "Give me a reason not to shoot you right here and now."

Relative silence descended, and Melekhova and her squad rose from their own positions. Cautiously, they approached the two, motionless as they watched each other. Her eyes alighted on the surrendering man, a haggard looking thing, his eyes bloodshot and his leg was wrapped tightly in a dirty bandage. She almost pitied him, but her heart held little room for sympathy for the soldiers of Tretirykh, let alone those who had come from abroad to aid them.

“They killed everyone.” Melekhova’s attention was drawn back to the man from the other squad, his hand trembling as he pointed the handgun at the foreigner. “You killed everyone! How many of my family are left?! Just me? My sister, what of her? My mother, my brothers, my father? How many of them are lying in some ditch somewhere?” He stomped closer, pressing the muzzle to the man’s forehead.

Wide eyed, the captive looked around at the others for help, for salvation, desperate for something to save him. “I- I… I not Trah- Trahterick! From Federation! Not Trahterick!” His breath came in ragged gasps, and he looked between each of the observers, seeking their intervention. “I… I like Mirvolyudki!” He forced a smile, his eyes darting between the gun to his head and the other soldiers standing around him. He began to sing the anthem of the union - or at least, he tried to. The cadence was there, but the words themselves were scattered and confused.

“Nikita, put the gun down.” Murmured the second member of the squad, her eyebrows narrowed. “Put the gun down, and I’ll take him and green over there back to camp. We’ve won at this point.”

The foreigner’s eyes shifted to her, his expression filled with hope. He smiled at her, “Y-yes, surrender! I surrender! I lose! You win! I help!” He edged towards her, “Help carry! I help!” The man was visibly trembling, his emaciated body barely looked as though it could support his own weight, let alone assist in carrying a wounded soldier. He began to speak rapidly to himself in his own language, incomprehensible to any of the assembled soldiers. Melekhova debated intervening as he looked back up, “Pl-please! I have fami-”

The sound of a gunshot echoed through the room. Two dozen more followed in its wake as the soldier emptied his gun into the foreigner.

The man fell to the floor, dead, in a rapidly forming pool of his own blood and brain matter. Melekhova stared, wide eyed in shock as he tossed the empty magazine aside, inserting a new one and emptying it into the foreigner’s body as well. Callously, he slid the weapon back in its holster, delivering a final kick to the corpse and spitting on what used to be his face.

“So did I.”

____________________________________________________________________________

At last. They had taken the planet. As she looked out from the viewing screen at the planet below, Melekhova could not help but wonder at the purpose behind it all. Tretirykh had seized the world, murdered millions, and begun a war that already had claimed in excess of a billion lives. What was their aim? They knew, surely, that their war was futile, that the people of the union would stand strong against their atrocities. And yet, how many wasted lives now lay upon that godforsaken rock? How many broken promises lay upon the plains of the world below? How many children would awake, now motherless, how many parents would have to consecrate the memorials of their children, how many had been robbed of family and friends by Tretirykh?

Behind her, her squad gunner lurked, wordless like she.

“You never told me what happened to your old squad before you were reassigned to us, Lavrova.” Melekhova murmured to her, breaking the silence. “You never told anyone, as far as I know.”

Silence reigned between them again as Lavrova did not respond, remaining soundless as she watched the planet gradually shrink away. They had been spared little more than a few hours before being ordered aboard the transports once more, enough time to visit the dead and pay their last respects before being ordered away.

As the silence lapsed on, Melekhova dug out the small device she had taken from the Starshyna, her lips pursed as she held back fresh tears at the sight of it. She would return it to Nalikova’s family, of that she was adamant.

A sound from her side drew her attention away from the device, and she looked back up at the gunner. Tears streamed down Lavrova’s cheeks, her eyes red from crying. It was evident she had been for some time, her cheeks and nose red from wiping away the tears.

“Artillery shell.” She finally whispered in reply, her voice choked with emotion. “A month after deployment. Some… artillery piece supplied from one of the foreign countries. There was barely anything left.” She wiped her hand along her nose again, trying to clear her face of the signs to little avail. “I couldn’t even find their tags. Ana had a letter on her tablet she wanted me to give her mother if she died. It burned with her. I was helping someone else set up a gun, all I received was a sunburn. But there was nothing left. No bodies. No bones. Not even ashes to scatter.” Again, she drew breath, unable to tear her eyes from the view of the planet. “Nalikova knew, of course.” She muttered, and a fresh round of tears began to well in Melekhova’s eyes once more. “She knew, she never told me, but she knew. She told me I could tell her anything, that she was there for all of her soldiers.”

Melekhova nodded, gingerly placing an arm around the shoulder of her comrade. No more words passed between them as they watched the planet fade away into a distant, blue sphere, almost lost amidst the vastness of space. Another warzone awaited them on the next world, and another, and another.

Takanis - A Dark Fantasy Nation RP

Off the Coast of Imasicia

_________________________________

Surabhumi:
Shridaveh Enheduana
Sarasvati Kusari Adwani
Aasmi Achaerikar Sayyanvar
Sujati Khvamahant Enazhal

Imasicia:
Tingitus Ieder
Mocoricus Udadus
Gafasus Munatas

_________________________________

“They are late.” Grumbled Shridaveh, her boot tapping rhythmically on the deck of her ship. “We were told we would meet at half past the thirteenth hour. And yet I see neither hide nor hair of them. I do not like being exposed in this manner.”

“Be calm, Shridaveh.” cautioned another, Sarasvati, her expression serene. “I do not fear the Imasicians at sea. They may possess a navy greater than our own, it is true, but they will not attack us so brazenly this close to Arcana. For all intents and purposes, we are a simple diplomatic mission to their city. To assault us here and now would make them a pariah in the eyes of all, and would reveal their true nature. No, no, though the dogs of Imasicia may be bound only by a tenuous leash of fear, it still binds them nevertheless. We will be safe here for now until they come.” She smiled, folding her arms, “Besides, Shridaveh. Have you so little faith in your sailors?”

Shridaveh’s face fell, and she shook her head slightly. “I am afraid not, your Honor. We have suffered great setbacks in the training and construction of a new navy, and I am afraid even my personal fleet is far cry from a true force, in quantity or quality. Were those hounds to attack us now, we would be lucky to escape with our lives.”

“Oh, come now, Shridaveh!” spake the priestess Sujati, entering the conversation unannounced, a prominent blade visible sheathed on her back even now. “Sarasvati may be a little infuriating at times, but even she is right! Even if they had the audacity to attack here, our soldiers are the finest in the land. We may not outsail them, but we can always throw them overboard if the need arises! Away with these negative thoughts, they do you no good! We shall dock in Arcana soon to negotiate with them and the Imasicians - and even if those go awry, we have our friends due to arrive soon to count on!” Sujati beamed, “And besides, I’ve seen you strutting about, danger or no danger, the sea is in your blood. You can’t lie to us, you’ve enjoyed being out on the ocean once more. Just smell that air! Nothing compares to it!”

Shridaveh allowed herself a small smile at these antics, nodding slightly. “It is true, I have missed the waves. These legs were meant for the deck of a ship, not sitting in Rhaputira listening to the council deliberating over grain shipments.”

The priestess’ eyes sparkled, and her grin turned mischevious. “I’d say they’re suited for more than that, but I suppose you would know more than I, wouldn’t you? Tell me, did you re-”

Sujati was cut off by a call from the ship’s mizzen, “Sails ahoy! Sails ahoy!” A Sanghar sailor rushed over, his red skin tanned and toughened by years in the sun and salt. “Your Honor,” he said, speaking to Sarasvati. “We have sighted the delegation of the Imasicians.”

Sarasvati’s lips tugged upwards in a small smile, and she looked towards her companion, a slight twinkle in her eye. “See? What did I tell you?”
_______________________________________
“Do Surabhi foreigners speak Imperial? Do they speak Old Imasician?” asked the young Tingitus Ieder, scratching the scruff around his neck. He did that often, especially now, when it had grown in tufts over the sea journey.

“We will speak to them in Imperial, worry not about it,” responded Munatas, looking out at the masts approaching from the horizon. “As long as we do our part and they theirs, we need not fear any misfortune befall any of the Gentes Optimates, which, fortune willing, shall instead pass onto the Gentes Unitates and their sickly lap-dogs the orkh-lords.”

“Everything should be in place,” said Udadus, in his rumbling voice. “Even should something go awry. Let us hope it does not come to that . . .” his eyes glance to the door leading down to the lower deck. There is enough crystal in there to blow their boats, those of the Surabhi, and the nearest beach straight into the spiritual world. All that would be left of any of them is horrific wasteland, dotted with monsters of unthinkable proportions.

“I shall make sacrifice and prayer after. If you would join me,” said Munatas. “Very well, young Ieder. Let us make your uncle our grandmaster proud with our silver tongue and diplomatic manner. It is most befitting of the greatest families, the Optimates, that we keep our demeanor pleasing, lest we become seen as the animals we seek to fight. Signal the landing. Let us bring honor to Imasicia Patria.”
_________________________

Sarasvati inclined her head slightly towards the Imasician delegation, her robes neatly arrayed in the customary fashion of a diplomatic priestess. “Greetings, friends.” She called in Imperial, a thick accent sticking to her words “I am sorry if my Imperial is poor, it has been long since I had need of it.” She gestured to her companions in turn, “May I introduce Shridaveh Enheduana, our naval leader. It is on her ships we have traveled here today. Sujati Khvamahant Enazhal, a protégé of our order. Aasmi Achaerikar Sayyanvar, a commander of our armies. And I myself am Sarasvati Kusari Adwani, appointed negotiator for these meetings. I am pleased to make your acquaintance.”

She took a step back, allowing the Imasician party to board via ramp, “If you will, please follow us into the cabin. We have more comfortable accomodations arranged within.”

Leading the small party to the specified area, she gently undid the latch holding its door in place, permitting their entry. Within was the personal quarters of Shridaveh, her small bunk visible off to one corner, and an even smaller shelf of tomes adjacent it. Centrally located was a strong mahogany table, around which was arrayed nine chairs. Upon the table sat a large pot of tea, steam rising gently from its spout. A small array of candied fruits, rich cheeses and dry crusty breads, and a small bowl of sugar lay fastened to the table. Though a sailor, Shridaveh had had a difficult time without these ‘essential’ foods, and had thus spent no small fortune equipping her personal vessel to provide for these ‘needs.’

“Please, take a seat.” Sarasvati said, motioning the Imasicians towards the table, “I apologize if you hoped for some accommodations from your own home. I am afraid we lack experience with many such things.”
_____________________________
“Something . . . naval . . . something . . . ships . . . appointment?” Ieder said, speaking in Old Imasician. “She talks silly. I can hardly make sense of it.”

“No, you twit,” Udadus snapped. “You’re lucky you had the good sense to speak the old tongue. Those very words could mean the end of negotiations for the rest of either of our lives. A diplomatic incident!” He reached over to slap the young man, but his partner grabbed his shoulder before they could humiliate themselves before the Surabhi company.

“Please, let us deal with this another time. What’s important is that he learned,” said Munatas, flashing that signature charismatic smile of his, that peeled apart his skin like an oily lemon. He switched to Imperial and began to address the Surabhi. “We are honored that you would speak to us in the tongue of our ancestors, and those of our kin here in Arcana. The Imperial language, I fear, is dying. The newer generation prefers the vernacular of the native tongue of Imasicia. Children, yes? They must be taught.”

“We are more than happy with what you have granted us,” Udadus said, picking a small date and setting it on his tongue. “Eager, dare I say, to partake in these cultural gifts of which we have been given.” He shoots an evil glare at Ieder, shoveling sugary raisins into his mouth without any regard for the world around him.

“Indeed. The foul gentes who disease our senate claim to be sworn enemies of Surabhumi, yet we see their merchants same as ours on the same desert roads, buying the same delicacies as our own, straight off the coming wagons,” Munatas says, gesturing with his hands at the cheese in his hand. When he gets going, he truly is a force, a storm of words. He alone could carry the Optimates through countless victories in the senate, if only he had been born a patrician of the old families. “The Gens Inumedigus, how detestable their manner! It is in their blood, passed from paterfamilias to filius minoris. Say, I believe I have had this before, yet not nearly as delectably fresh as what you have served to us. They call this, I believe . . . paneer?”

Sarasvati smiled slightly, shaking her head. “I am afraid not. It is… Shridaveh, what was it again?” She inquired, turning to the Sanghar woman - mid-bite through a heavily laden slice of bread laden with another cheese. She held up a finger, chewing slowly as she savored the flavor, before clearing her throat.

Speaking in the dialect of Surabhumi, she did well to mask her scorn. “No, Sarasvati. It is nothing close to paneer. I believe the merchants informed me the common name outside of our borders is… brie, however. I do not expect them to be familiar with our cheeses, simply keep them away from my pecorino. That is all I have to say on the matter.”

Sarasvati pursed her lips, shaking her head slightly, before turning back to the Imasicians. “I have been informed the name you might be most familiar with is ‘brie’? I do seem to recall it not being an invention of our own. Nevertheless, I am sure you have had it at some point. It originated from Annotilus, as best I can remember.” She allowed herself a smile, plucking a candied lemon wedge from the table. “But alas, we did not come here to discuss things as pleasant as our cultural delicacies, though I am sure Imasicia has many good things too.”

Reaching down, she pulled from a small bag a detailed map of the region, Imasicia, Arcana, and all other small states that dotted the coast. “Though it pains me, war seems likely if our negotiations in Arcana do not bear fruit. While we have some cursory understanding of your nation’s geography, we are unfortunately ignorant of much of it. We will depend upon you and your people to aid us in bringing justice to… Masinissa, was his name, yes?.”

“Masinissa! The dog’s whelp!” Munatas shouted. “On behalf of all of Imasicia, he has wrought a stain! He is of the cursed Gens Fesus, you see. I warned the old king Bogudus Senior, believe me I did. They are a sorry lot, poor in house politics and too quick with their marriages. That they would have the gall to call themselves a great dynasty, when the elder took that whore for wife . . . “

“What my colleague means to say, is that the actions of one gens is not representative of our kingdom,” Udadus says, barely hiding his disappointment. While Munatas was a performer at heart, and loved his theatrics, he did tend to put a bit too much ham into his act. “We cannot speak on behalf of the king nor the Fesi, but only ourselves. We, who call ourselves Optimates, would never dare any similar action. Very well then, what is it you ask of us to do regarding our . . . man of the subject?”

Unfazed by the outburst, Sarasvati simply smoothed her robes, allowing the young man to exhaust his bluster, and for his older counterpart to continue. She remained silent for a time, simply observing the Imasicians before her, sipping from her mug of tea as she did so.

At length, she spoke, “I am glad to see we are of one mind on this man. The demands of Surabhumi are simple, in truth. We seek to be given custody of this man that he may stand trial for his crimes on our soil, under our own laws, that he may face the repercussions of his actions. We would also demand reparations for his actions, taken from his own finances. The people of Aasiti have suffered greatly at the hands of his army, and the suffering of many a grieving dhutris would be alleviated by this. The liquidation of the estate to which he belongs, if such is necessary, would be well received as well.”

She set down her tea, looking Udadus in the eyes. “In turn, we are prepared to assist your faction within Imasicia. We hold no grudge with your people, nor do we wish vengeance upon them. But I think it would be to the betterment of all that the Regnum’s leadership be of a more… reconcilable nature with the other nations of this world.”

“Sol Inuictus! That’s-” Ieder began, but was silenced by Udadus’ hand gripping his shoulder. They looked into each others’ eyes, and knew immediately they were in understanding. They were talking about treason. The two of them then turned to Munatas, and even behind his unflappable demeanor they could see the fear in his eyes.

“The things you ask, the things you offer, both are very grave,” Udadus said. “It may not be in our power to promise such an arrangement. That lies solely in the hands of the king, and any man who is familiar with his temperament, as we are, will know that he is no friend to Surabhumi.”

“Yes, and your support for our cause, while admirable, may be a bit . . . hasty,” continued Munatas, clasping his hands together. “I am impressed that you are familiar with the factional system present in our governance. However, these things are . . . complicated, dare I say. If everyone could grasp the nuances, then what need have we for senators?” He laughed nervously, just enough to make the point that it was a joke. Even the self he kept in his mind, his honest self, was sweating like rain. Imagine if their enemies caught wind of them making clandestine deals with foreign powers. Imagine if the public did.

Sarasvati smiled. “What seems to be the matter, sir? We are merely sitting around a table, enjoying some delicious tea and discussing our views of politics and matters of state.” She showed no hint of guile, her face a serene mask of innocence. “Any meaning you take from this conversation is, of course, your own. I am but the messenger of my people, as are you. I can do nothing but represent the wishes and best interests of the people whom I owe allegiance to - and the same goes for you.”

In her fingers she toyed with a cube of candied plum, “But, in these little discussions of ours, perhaps it might slip that the Realm of Surabhumi is fully prepared to embark on a military expedition as a certain General threatened, should our negotiations with Imasicia in Arcana fail. It might be said that her demands are reasonable and just, to judge and to sentence one who has committed crimes against her and her people under her own terms, on her own soil.” Slowly, she slid the morsel between her lips, studying the men before her evenly. “And it might be said as well that if the monarch’s whim is not the best for their people, the people’s whim might not be best for the monarch.”

The threat was clear. Ieder wiped sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. The eyes of the Surabhi woman stared him down, forcing him back from the table by the force of her will. In his mind, he could see villages, burning. Cities, turned to dust under hails of fire and thunder. Great Mirgamas, and its Castra Senatorum that dominates the skyline on its hill, turned to nothing but pebbles of marble. The Surabhi armies were a legacy even the Imperials knew. It was said the shield of the old Venda was unbreakable. Masinissa must have found out for himself.

“It is true, what you say,” Munatas began, letting the smile creep back into his face. It was more false than an orkh merchant. “I do not know how much you are aware of the political machinations within Imasicia. We, who call ourselves Optimates, have in late generations fallen out of favor with the kings. From Guba Quartus to Bogudus Tertius, they have been Unitates all. I fear our golden age is long past us. Are you suggesting that to guarantee our continued success, the position of Rex Imasicianus may be . . . rearranged?” That was it. He has crossed the line. The other two would either follow him into treason or betray him to his death.

Sarasvati’s expression remained neutral, and she sipped at her drink serenely. “My dear Optimas - if you will pardon my use of the term in such a manner - I am suggesting nothing. I am merely stating my view of the world. In Surabhumi, we once had a war the likes of which dwarf even our great clashes with the Sangharans. Those who held much power and influence used those for ends that harmed the people. Eventually, a tipping point was reached.” She set down her cup, staring him in the eye. “The census two years before the war reported a population of some one hundred and seventy five million, three hundred and twenty six thousand, four hundred and ninety two. Twenty years later, after the war had been over a year, another census was taken.” Idly, she plucked a small piece of cheese from the platter, toying with it before popping it in her mouth. Silence reigned as she turned her gaze back to him. “That census reported a population of eighty three million, two hundred and seventeen thousand, five hundred and eleven. Even today, farmers find mass graves in their fields. Fields strewn with armored skeletons, their names and memories lost. Entire dhutrisi disappeared, the priestesses who would have marked their passing likewise falling before they could do so. Surely, you know of my peoples’ fondness for libraries and records - did you know we must rely on Sangharan accounts of many of our past rulers? Stolen documents from Odhisa for many arcane works? We not not much of our own history, for it was destroyed. In turn, those who destroyed it were rendered extinct.”

A long sigh escaped her, and for once the diplomat’s expression showed a hint of genuine emotion, “I am telling you of what has happened in the past, and what will happen in the future. Whatever the people of Imasicia choose, the Realm of Surabhumi must react to in order to benefit our own.” She gestured in the direction of land, towards Imasicia. “Imasicia will do what it wishes, and you Optimates shall do as you see best befits yourselves. If you wish our support in changing Imasicia’s leadership, for the betterment of your home as a whole and to spare it calamity, that I can promise you.”

“Can we refuse? It doesn’t sound like we can refuse,” Ieder said, the words passing through his mouth in Old Imasician as he chewed on his piece of cheese.

“The boy has the right of it,” Udadus says, staring grimly at the table. “She has Imasicia at the point of her scythe-weapon. There is no winning, not for us, not with the senate we have now.”

“Faith, my friends,” Munatas said. “Keep hope in your hearts. There remains many paths by which-”

“Let me be direct, for these negotiations must be done. Should you support us, then we in turn shall support you. As our ancestors would say, quid pro quo,” Udadus said, switching to Imperial. “You are right, of course. Radical action may succeed where machination has long been trapped. Just tell us what we are to expect from Surabhumi in the coming moons, and when the optimal time comes that we should raise arms.” He stood up, and extended his hand to Ieder to do the same. Munatas sat, mouth agape, like he had been struck in the back with an arrow. For once, he was speechless.

Sarasvati smiled, though it did not reach her eyes. “Aasmi will discuss the military minutiae with you, know that we each speak with the full authority of the Electorate Council behind us. I am glad you have taken such initiative, Optimas. We will aid you in bringing benefit to both of our peoples.” She stood, inclining her head slightly. “I will take my leave for now and allow you and Aasmi to negotiate these matters. Please, call if you need me.” Making for the doorway, she paused, turning back to the assembled Imasicians, “And do bear in mind, if word of this leaks to the wrong ears - there will be consequences.”

Eden(Small-scale Space NRP)

Still WIP

Sheet

Nation Name/Flag: Mirvolyudkiyska Soyuz (Union of Mirvolyudki)
Demonym: Mirvolyudkiye
Government Type: Socialistic Stratocracy
Nominally a Federal Republican system of government, the real power of Mirvolyudki lies in the military and the vast workers’ unions. Indeed themselves theoretically separate, in practice the military and the economy are so closely linked as to be indistinguishable. A head of state and Commander-in-Chief known as a Premier is elected from the pool of those individuals who have completed their state service, be it explicitly military or some other field, and will serve in this role for a period of five years. A position analogous to Prime Minister known as a Chair is also elected from this same pool. Once more, in theory these positions may be filled by nearly anyone - but in practice they nearly always come from the upper echelons of military hierarchy. Civil servants are wholly part of the military’s administrative apparatus, and public works are funded and constructed by the Ministry of Domestic Infrastructure, a wing of the military’s engineering corps.

Demographics:
Mirvolyudki - National Demographics:
Population: 27,182,818,284,590
Volyudki: 93.2928% - 25,359,612,296,606
Humans: 3.1294% - 850,659,115,398
Achenastirri: 3.2611% - 886,458,887,079
Other: 0.3167% - 86,087,985,507

Planet Breakdown:
Mirvolyudki: 17,163,557,658,710 - 63.1412%
Mirvolyudki-L1: 924,215,822 - .0034%
Mirvolyudki-L2: 2,240,190,420,470 - 8.2412%
Novaynadezh-II: 1,982,823,496,951 - 7.2944%
Novaynadezh-IV: 854,111,333,320 - 3.1421%
Novaynadezh-VI: 351,718,485,784 - 1.2939%
Novaynadezh-VII: 1,160,679,157,934 - 4.2699%
Onkuiliv-BIII: 6,061,768,477 - .0223%
Onkuiliv-BIV: 22,126,814,084 - .0814%
Onkuiliv-BV: 733,936,094 - .0027%
Furymilvyaz-2i: 3,046,623,090,519 - 11.2079%
Gucenov-Cypso 2: 156,328,387,955 - 0.5751%
Gucenov-Cypso 5C: 196,613,324,652 - 0.7233%
Other: 326,193,818 - .0012%

Volyudki

Volyudki:

An offshoot of humanity tracing their origins back to the early days after the detection of the rogue star known as Perses. In the vast, uncontrolled violence and pandemonium that ensued, one nation created the progenitors of the people that would come to call themselves Volyudki. Initially an attempted supersoldier project, they have come far since then through liberal use of genetic modification technology, sporting an engineered compatibility with cybernetic modification. The average Volyudki stands at 193cm and 136kg, not including the extensive cybernetic modifications made to most individuals throughout their lifetimes. The Volyudki posess an unmodified average lifespan similar to that of healthy humans, and a modified lifespan that can seemingly stretch on for hundreds of years. In addition to the physical modifications done to themselves, signwprefab housingificant modifications have been made to other aspects of their biology, such as their male to female sex ratio - currently sitting at 1:20.

Achanastari

Achanastari:

The indigenous population of the planet Furymilvyaz-2i, the Achanastari had already achieved limited spaceflight by the time of the arrival of the Volyudki in their system and had begun the process of explorative landings upon the other planets within their system, hoping to establish colonies upon them. This was interrupted by the Volyudki, who imposed their presence upon the system with little negotiation, subjecting the uninhabitable planets to aggressive mining operations and beginning the construction of more of the vast housing and manufacturing sectors that defined their burgeoning empire. The Achanastari, left with little in the way of meaningful resistance, were entirely subsumed into the apparatus of their new overlords, a cultural affinity for bureaucracy ensuring them a solid, well defined role within the society of the Federation. Despite the harsh, violent change to their way of life they have adapted shockingly well, pioneering many of the adaptations of Volyudki cybernetic enhancement to their own biology and to that of unmodified humans. Culturally strongly individualist and solitary beings, they often clash with the more communally minded Volyudki, leading to occasional small scale violence and frequent workplace friction.

Leadership:
Valeriev Glagoleva Mariun Konstantinovna: Premier of Mirvolyudki.
A young Premier at only 84, Valeriev is a precocious and charismatic leader. Having been elected from a comparatively junior rank of only a field captain, her forward thinking capability was credited with saving the lives of many comrades during her tour on the border with Saudovskaraviya. Doubted by many for her relative youth, she is a bold and polarizing figure within Mirvolyudki.

Tyomkina Fenya Borisovno Innokentievna: Chair of Mirvolyudki
Unlike the Premier, Tyomkina is far, far older at 314, a seasoned military commander holding the rank of Army General and an equally seasoned politician, having survived the decades of intrigue and the rise and fall of countless political movements.

Burov Ludomir Semyonovich Kudashova: Minister of Finance

Larionova Lydia Petrovnu Nikitovna: Minister of Military Industry

Economy:

A massive industrial powerhouse, the economy of Mirvolyudki is a market economy like many of their contemporaries - though the similarities end there. There are no vast megacorporations within the confines of Mirvolyudki’s space - instead there are equally vast worker owned cooperative enterprises spanning the width of the entire economy. Shipbuilding, electronics, the manufacturing of goods both necessary and frivolous, all these sectors and more are dominated by cooperative and state enterprises - though like many spheres of life in Volyudki, it can be difficult to tell the two apart, so tightly they are intertwined. The state retains almost complete control of military manufacturing, producing reliable, rugged machines and equipment. Some of the surplus is sold to other nations in exchange for shipments of food or raw materials the Voldyuki lack. Almost all Volyudki, and many of the other segments of Mirvolyudki’s population are heavily augmented with cybernetic technology, and the production and maintenance of these crucial components of not only everyday life but of the nation’s strength and welfare is of vital concern.

Products from Mirvolyudki are known to be reliable, ruggedly built, cheap, and utilitarian - with little in the way of extravagances or luxury in mind. Those items manufactured with a private consumer in mind, such as personal electronics, sacrifice some of their rugged durability for a more comfortable and enjoyable experience. Cybernetics from Mirvolyudki are likewise known to be simple and rugged, immensely powerful and robust devices with a higher cost than the norm expected of products made by the Volyudki, however they make no effort to hide the cybernetic nature or to emulate human form - instead prioritizing maximum efficacy at their intended tasks.

With the war with the traitors of Tretirykh, the economy is under great strain as millions, if not billions of souls are called up to fight against this deadly threat. Automation fills much of the gap, but even still, the price of everyday goods has risen in order to finance the war effort. The new domestic shortfall in agricultural production has an even more marked effect on the related goods, available food has become much more expensive and much less varied. Preprepared stockpiles of preserved staple foods are being emptied to feed the hungry masses, but without imports from abroad the situation is untenable long term.

Notable Products and Technologies:

Military:

The military of Mirvolyudki is a near all-encompassing entity, dominating public construction, criminal justice, and more - and its budget it set to match. Even viewed solely through the lense of its wartime arm, the military of Mirvolyudki is an enormous behemoth commanding the respect and consideration not only of just their neighbors, but the whole cluster. Rooted in the deep seated cultural paranoia and militarism ingrained in the average Volyudki since childhood, the vast military of Mirvolyudki reflects the deep suspicion and distaste with which ‘outsiders’ are frequently viewed. Those nations not of the Volyudki themselves do not understand the trials endured by their people, and those nations will surely seek to explot or destroy them, such is their view. In response, the military can call upon vast, seemingly endless manpower to fill out its infantry formations, tank battalions, and the armadas of heavy warships. This enormous force places an equally enormous strain on the nation that hosts it, and it is for this reason that the military so permeates nearly every aspect of life within Mirvolyudki.

With the outbreak of the Tretirykh Rebellion, the military of Mirvolyudki has been kicked into overdrive. Hundreds of mothballed warships were refitted and remobilized, tens of thousands of tanks, vast reserves restored and rearmed. The military is gearing up for the grinding, bloody war of attrition developing in the embattled systems.

Zvesdekrygenflyot (svez-deh-kree-ghen-fl-yoht) - the Star Navy:
Size: 16180 Combat Vessels
Composition - Main Fleets:

• Battleships: 1185
• Heavy Cruisers: 2601
• Cruisers: 4271
• Patrol Cruisers: 4712
• Corvettes - 3047
• Interdiction Cruisers: 239
• Planetary Fleet Carriers: 123
• Prototype Stealth Ships: 2

Sukhoputnyye Voyska - The Ground Army:
Average Volyudki Infantrywoman

Morskaya Pekhota - The Naval Infantry:

Notable Military Technologies:

WIP

Culture and Society:

WIP

History:

A BRIEF HISTORY OF MIRVOLYUDKI

During the near-apocalyptic wars waged in the aftermath of the discovery of the brown dwarf that would spell the end of humanity’s habitation of the earth, one nation, situated in the territory of modern day Russia, Finland, and Sweden, sought to achieve supremacy on the battlefield. In doing so, they leveraged the comparatively primitive genetic manipulation technology of the time. Their goal was the creation of a strain of humans that, with the addition of further training and cybernetic enhancement, could become the ultimate soldiers. Fearless, pitiless, harbingers of death that would assault any position, purge any foe, and obey any order. But as any cautionary tale of science fiction would warn, creating a new life form, a sapient one, and expecting it to perform as planned is a fool’s errand. The progenitors of the people who would become the Volyudki rebelled at some point, the exact date lost to time. Sickened with being used as expendable troops, forced to commit atrocities no sane being could condone, they rose up against their creators and seized power in a part of the country. Their fledgling rebel nation coalesced around an urban center once known as Saint Petersburg. For years, the fighting raged on, brutal, bloody, grinding warfare. A siege the likes of which the city had not seen since a time almost a century before, when the people of Saint Petersburg had likewise been surrounded by an enemy determined to wipe them out. At first, it was an insistence upon crushing the rebellion, but it grew to an ideological war of annihilation as the emerging culture of the people who would come to call themselves Volyudki grew to be influenced by schools of economic and societal thought from decades past. The fighting grew even more bitter as at times entire formations of the enemy’s soldiers, modified and unmodified, would defect to the side of the rebellion.

At some point, yet another rebellion occured within the state, one wider reaching and more vast than anything achievable by a comparatively small segment of the soldiery. The state’s power waned as vast swathes of its territory fell in a matter of weeks, and soon the Volyudki’s progenitors were faced with a new potential foe - but this new state came with an offer of peace instead. They would be reabsorbed into the broader state apparatus and would pledge their by now formidable military might to the annihilation of a few remaining foes - and in turn they would be granted passage on an Ark of their own. Fierce debate raged, and a rebellion nearly broke out within the ranks of the rebellion, but at length the offer was accepted. With the redoubled efforts of the once more unified nation, many targets fell within days under the relentless, brutal assaults of the hardened veterans that filled the ranks of the Volyudki.

The rest followed as expected, and the construction of the arks began. The Volyudki dedicated themselves with gusto to the task. But once more, they would be used - as they entered cryosleep, the capsules containing the hibernating Volyudki colonists were separated and distributed amongst multiple arks, rather than one of their own as they had been promised. A calculated effort to weaken and divide them, ensure they would not have the power to rebel and cause havoc once more.

Upon awaking in the new cluster, they were not greeted with the idyllic garden worlds they had hoped to see, but a murderously cold planet, so volcanically active that entire rivers and lakes of lava coursed through the permafrost. Many colonists had begun to starve and die in light of the difficult conditions, and they soon realized the betrayal that had befallen them soon after - as the overseers of the colony instructed them to instill order in the now riotous people. Initially, they were lead on, promised their own corner of the world to grow and build on, but as they suppressed the rebellions the same distaste and loathing as before grew within them and they turned their weapons on their would be rulers, commandeering the ark in a brutal coup and casting the overseers out into the cold with the colonists they had sought to control. They would watch coldly as the colonists began to starve, unable to adapt to the planet’s harsh climate. They would listen as the people called them callous murderers, a feral pack of wolves that cared only for themselves. As the last of the screams died off, months later, they emerged from the ark, greeting the remaining survivors with bullets or arrest, depending on the individual. But the experience had left them shaken, traumatized - the name wolves had stuck with the colonists, and the Volyudki began to adopt it to describe themselves. They were wolves, they would fight and destroy any obstacle that threatened their wellbeing, they would work as a group to survive and thrive even in the bleakest adversity, they would mercilessly carry out whatever needed to be done to live.

It was then that, as they began to expand across the planet, they discovered Genestealer technology. Already a genetically modified people, ones who had fully embraced a transhuman ideal, the discovery of this new technology, advanced beyond anything they could have imagined before, sent a ripple throughout their society. Once more, open conflict loomed within their own ranks, some wanted to destroy it, others sought to embrace it - in the end the latter won. The leadership at the time proceeding to craft their new image of the people who would go on to claim the planet for themselves, to bend its icy, volcanic fury to their whim. They would properly embrace the name wolves. As the process began, the term Volyudki first came into true common vernacular. They were the wolf people. Other changes became evident as the process continued - an incredible resistance to the cold, a remarkable adaptability and compatibility with cybernetic augmentation, and most controversially, a birth sex ratio heavily skewed in favor of women. Justified by the then de-facto leader of their people as a necessity of the times - they were in unknown space, more of the people who would have them destroyed and purged lurked out there in the uncharted stars, their population would have to grow as fast as possible to accomodate the threat. In private she was more candid - wishing for a society dominated by and almost wholly composed of women. Her exact reasons were never determined.

The Volyudki population boomed, and they began to cover the entire world in vast industrial cities, greenhouses built with the aid of the copious volcanic activity feeding them in ample quantities for a time. But as it always did, ideologies grew separate, and violence reared its ugly head. Once more, rebellion loomed amongst the Volyudki as they struggled to assert their own individual ideologies. But this time, it could not be averted. A vast war broke out across the entire planet, raging for years and racking up a death toll into the hundreds of millions as factions representing a dozen different ideologies waged a brutal war across the ice fields and solidified lava plains, in local space, and more. As the years dragged on, two primary factions remained, one professing a Maoist ideology, and one adhering to the market socialistic model identified with Mirvolyudki to this day. The war raged on, a grinding attritional nightmare, with no end in sight - until one day, in one of the planet’s fits of volcanic fury, nearly an entire continent was consumed in the fire of a supervolcanic eruption. Billions perished in the ensuring chaos, an entire megalopolis wiped off the face of the map - but the side that would go on to create the modern empire of Mirvolyudki had survived, and despite the logistical nightmare, pushed hard into the chaos, securing all points of value that remained and declaring final victory.

Decades followed, almost a century, and the planet was once more thriving, united under the same basic governmental and economic structure that characterizes Mirvolyudki to this day. And the eyes of the Volyudki turned to the stars, once more. They began to build shipyards, docks, and their colony ships, teeming with colonists began to branch out into first their local solar system, bringing to heel the equally unforgiving climates of the other technically ‘habitable’ planets of the solar system, and then branching out from there, building vast communications networks through the gates and upon their planets. New solar systems came under their heel, an entire new species, and re-contact with unaltered humans, many of whom reacted with bewilderment at the sight of the Volyudki. In under a century, the borders of Mirvolyudki reached their present extent, but the real work of development had yet to be undertaken. Vast mining and construction projects began on the conquered and colonized worlds, those planets and asteroids not habitable even by the stubborn Volyudki were mined even more intensely. Mind bogglingly enormous cities and industrial complexes began to rise from the crusts of their worlds.

But a danger loomed unbeknownst to the people and leadership of Mirvolyudki. Festering in the underworld and dark corners of the internet, a movement thought long defeated grew in size and power. Calling themselves Tretirykh, they professed adherence to ancient ideologies that many in Mirvolyudki considered repugnant and abominable. And yet, this movement grew, buoyed by false claims of endless prosperity in the lands outside Mirvolyudki’s sealed borders, images of the palatial estates of the corporate elite of Raygon and promises that all would live like kings under the rule of Tretirykh. By the time Mirvolyudki’s leadership became aware of the scope of the threat, it was too late, and a full fledged rebellion erupted upon an industrial world in the Kravinigorka System. Bolstered by arms and equipment from across the cluster in numbers scarcely believeable, the rebellion quickly seized control of the entire system, putting to death those they deemed inferior and launching lightning assaults on unprepared adjacent systems. The militaries of those systems fought bravely, but were woefully underprepared to face a threat from within their own borders, the vast bulk of Mirvolyudki’s armed forces being deployed in maintaining the closed borders and preventing the incursion of outside interlopers.

Hurriedly, the Premier called up available reservists and recruitment drives began, tens of millions of soldiers being rushed to the defense of the interior from this inexplicably well equipped rebel force. The momentum had been lost, however, and the rebellion succeeded in annexing the majority of the systems of Vylganitsyn and Kurkesta, and with it Mirvolyudki’s most productive agri-worlds. Only a small foothold consisting of a mining world in the Vylganitsyn system and the military bases of the moon orbiting Kurkesta-II remained, and it was from these that counterattacks would be launched with the full force of the military of Mirvolyudki. But though the counterattacks succeeded in establishing small footholds in a few occupied planets, the fighting was fierce. Grinding, attritional warfare set in as even well drilled tank batallions and heavy orbital bombardment were unable to dislodge the defenders - whose numbers defied belief and showed no signs of thinning. The key targets, vital agri-worlds that made up a vast percentage of Mirvolyudki’s overall food supply could not be retaken. And Mirvolyudki began to go hungry.

And so, faced with starvation, after centuries of relative isolation in the wake of past conflict, of being the reclusive, heavily armed nation that refused to trade, the Volyudki opened their borders in desperation. They began to hunt for potential trading partners, nations whom could feed the hungry soldiers and workers of Mirvolyudki in their war.

Characters:
Valeriev Glagoleva Mariun Konstantinovna: Premier of Mirvolyudki.
A young Premier at only 84, Valeriev is a precocious and charismatic leader. Having been elected from a comparatively junior rank of only a field captain, her forward thinking capability was credited with saving the lives of many comrades during her tour on the border with Saudovskaraviya. Doubted by many for her relative youth, she is a bold and polarizing figure within Mirvolyudki.

Tyomkina Fenya Borisovno Innokentievna: Chair of Mirvolyudki
Unlike the Premier, Tyomkina is far, far older at 314, a seasoned military commander holding the rank of Army General and an equally seasoned politician, having survived the decades of intrigue and the rise and fall of countless political movements.

Burov Ludomir Semyonovich Kudashova: Minister of Finance

Larionova Lydia Petrovnu Nikitovna: Minister of Military Industry

Melekhova Agasha Tarasovnov Georgievna (Mashka): A hapless criminal, convicted of manufacture of Class III pharmaceuticals without a license and improper maintenance of state issued arms. Sentenced to thirty years of state service, twenty if in a combat unit. Melekhova accepted the latter, and is currently a Lance Corporal, serving in her third year. She has been deployed to the polar front on the planet of Vylganitsyn-III, leading an infantry squad.

Isayeva Verka Yakovn Adeliya

Relations:
Tretirykh (NPC): At war. No peace may be brokered, only unconditional surrender.

Delta Green: Whispers in the Darkness

Okay soooo this looks interesting and neat. Been rereading The Color Out Of Space and Shadow Over Innsmouth and I'm always game for some mind warping horror. Could there be room for someone with a nice education from a technical college whose faith in literally everything has been shaken to the core by seeing too much one night? Presumably former military - perhaps having gone on to be a military contractor servicing sensor equipment wherein they saw the wrong thing?

Then, presumably turning to laudanum some sort of drug to numb the crushing existential dread?

Eden(Small-scale Space NRP)

WIP

Mirvolyudkiyska Soyuz

Nation Name/Flag: Mirvolyudkiyska Soyuz (Union of Mirvolyudki) - Mirvolyudki
Government Type: Socialistic Stratocracy
Nominally a Federal Republican system of government, the real power of Mirvolyudki lies in the military and the vast workers’ unions. Indeed themselves theoretically separate, in practice the military and the economy are so closely linked as to be indistinguishable. A head of state and Commander-in-Chief known as a Premier is elected from the pool of those individuals who have completed their state service, be it explicitly military or some other field, and will serve in this role for a period of five years. A position analogous to Prime Minister known as a Chair is also elected from this same pool. Once more, in theory these positions may be filled by nearly anyone - but in practice they nearly always come from the upper echelons of military hierarchy. Civil servants are wholly part of the military’s administrative apparatus, and public works are funded and constructed by the Ministry of Domestic Infrastructure, a wing of the military’s engineering corps.

Demographics:
Mirvolyudki - National Demographics:
Population: 27,182,818,284,590
Volyudki: 81.2928% - 22,097,674,102,455
Humans: 15.1294% - 4,112,597,309,549
Achenastirri: 3.2611% - 886,458,887,079
Other: 0.3167% - 86,087,985,507

Planet Breakdown:
Mirvolyudki: 17,163,557,658,710 - 63.1412%
Mirvolyudki-L1: 924,215,822 - .0034%
Mirvolyudki-L2: 2,240,190,420,470 - 8.2412%
Novaynadezh-II: 1,982,823,496,951 - 7.2944%
Novaynadezh-IV: 854,111,333,320 - 3.1421%
Novaynadezh-VI: 351,718,485,784 - 1.2939%
Novaynadezh-VII: 1,160,679,157,934 - 4.2699%
Onkuiliv-BIII: 6,061,768,477 - .0223%
Onkuiliv-BIV: 22,126,814,084 - .0814%
Onkuiliv-BV: 733,936,094 - .0027%
Furymilvyaz-2i: 3,046,623,090,519 - 11.2079%
Gucenov-Cypso 2: 156,328,387,955 - 0.5751%
Gucenov-Cypso 5C: 196,613,324,652 - 0.7233%
Other: 326,193,818 - .0012%

Volyudki

Volyudki:

An offshoot of humanity tracing their origins back to the early days after the detection of the rogue star known as Perses. In the vast, uncontrolled violence and pandemonium that ensued, one nation created the progenitors of the people that would come to call themselves Volyudki. Initially an attempted supersoldier project, they have come far since then through liberal use of genetic modification technology, sporting an engineered compatibility with cybernetic modification. The average Volyudki stands at 193cm and 136kg, not including the extensive cybernetic modifications made to most individuals throughout their lifetimes. The Volyudki posess an unmodified average lifespan similar to that of healthy humans, and a modified lifespan that can seemingly stretch on for hundreds of years. In addition to the physical modifications done to themselves, signwprefab housingificant modifications have been made to other aspects of their biology, such as their male to female sex ratio - currently sitting at 1:20.

Achanastari

Achanastari:

The indigenous population of the planet Furymilvyaz-2i, the Achanastari had already achieved limited spaceflight by the time of the arrival of the Volyudki in their system and had begun the process of explorative landings upon the other planets within their system, hoping to establish colonies upon them. This was interrupted by the Volyudki, who imposed their presence upon the system with little negotiation, subjecting the uninhabitable planets to aggressive mining operations and beginning the construction of more of the vast housing and manufacturing sectors that defined their burgeoning empire. The Achanastari, left with little in the way of meaningful resistance, were entirely subsumed into the apparatus of their new overlords, a cultural affinity for bureaucracy ensuring them a solid, well defined role within the society of the Federation. Despite the harsh, violent change to their way of life they have adapted shockingly well, pioneering many of the adaptations of Volyudki cybernetic enhancement to their own biology and to that of unmodified humans. Culturally strongly individualist and solitary beings, they often clash with the more communally minded Volyudki, leading to occasional small scale violence and frequent workplace friction.

Leadership:
Valeriev Glagoleva Mariun Konstantinovna: Premier of Mirvolyudki.
A young Premier at only 84, Valeriev is a precocious and charismatic leader. Having been elected from a comparatively junior rank of only a field captain, her forward thinking capability was credited with saving the lives of many comrades during her tour on the border with Saudovskaraviya. Doubted by many for her relative youth, she is a bold and polarizing figure within Mirvolyudki.

Tyomkina Fenya Borisovno Innokentievna: Chair of Mirvolyudki
Unlike the Premier, Tyomkina is far, far older at 314, a seasoned military commander holding the rank of Army General and an equally seasoned politician, having survived the decades of intrigue and the rise and fall of countless political movements.

Burov Ludomir Semyonovich Kudashova: Minister of Finance

Larionova Lydia Petrovnu Nikitovna: Minister of Military Industry

Economy:

A massive industrial powerhouse, the economy of Mirvolyudki is a market economy like many of their contemporaries - though the similarities end there. There are no vast megacorporations within the confines of Mirvolyudki’s space - instead there are equally vast worker owned cooperative enterprises spanning the width of the entire economy. Shipbuilding, electronics, the manufacturing of goods both necessary and frivolous, all these sectors and more are dominated by cooperative and state enterprises - though like many spheres of life in Volyudki, it can be difficult to tell the two apart, so tightly they are intertwined. The state retains almost complete control of military manufacturing, producing reliable, rugged machines and equipment. Some of the surplus is sold to other nations in exchange for shipments of food or raw materials the Voldyuki lack. Almost all Volyudki, and many of the other segments of Mirvolyudki’s population are heavily augmented with cybernetic technology, and the production and maintenance of these crucial components of not only everyday life but of the nation’s strength and welfare is of vital concern.

The greatest weakness of the economy of Mirvolyudki is food - for their domestic production falls far short of the necessary amount to feed their own people. Vast quantities of staple crops are imported from abroad to feed the hungry masses of Mirvolyudki’s forge worlds, which in turn produce vast quantities of ships, other vehicles, prefabricated housing, electronic goods, weapons, and more.

Products from Mirvolyudki are known to be reliable, ruggedly built, cheap, and utilitarian - with little in the way of extravagances or luxury in mind. Those items manufactured with a private consumer in mind, such as personal electronics, sacrifice some of their rugged durability for a more comfortable and enjoyable experience. Cybernetics from Mirvolyudki are likewise known to be simple and rugged, immensely powerful and robust devices with a higher cost than the norm expected of products made by the Volyudki, however they make no effort to hide the cybernetic nature or to emulate human form - instead prioritizing maximum efficacy at their intended tasks.

With the war with the traitors of Tretirykh, the economy is under great strain as millions, if not billions of souls are called up to fight against this deadly threat. Automation fills much of the gap, but even still, the price of everyday goods has risen in order to finance the war effort. With the war with the traitors of Tretirykh, the economy is under great strain as millions, if not billions of souls are called up to fight against this deadly threat. Automation fills much of the gap, but even still, the price of everyday goods has risen in order to finance the war effort. The new domestic shortfall in agricultural production has an even more marked effect on the related goods, available food has become much more expensive and much less varied. Preprepared stockpiles of preserved staple foods are being emptied to feed the hungry masses, but without imports from abroad the situation is untenable long term.

Notable Products and Technologies:

Military:

The military of Mirvolyudki is a near all-encompassing entity, dominating public construction, criminal justice, and more - and its budget it set to match. Even viewed solely through the lense of its wartime arm, the military of Mirvolyudki is an enormous behemoth commanding the respect and consideration not only of just their neighbors, but the whole cluster. Rooted in the deep seated cultural paranoia and militarism ingrained in the average Volyudki since childhood, the vast military of Mirvolyudki reflects the deep suspicion and distaste with which ‘outsiders’ are frequently viewed. Those nations not of the Volyudki themselves do not understand the trials endured by their people, and those nations will surely seek to explot or destroy them, such is their view. In response, the military can call upon vast, seemingly endless manpower to fill out its infantry formations, tank battalions, and the armadas of heavy warships. This enormous force places an equally enormous strain on the nation that hosts it, and it is for this reason that the military so permeates nearly every aspect of life within Mirvolyudki.

With the outbreak of the Tretirykh Rebellion, the military of Mirvolyudki has been kicked into overdrive. Hundreds of mothballed warships were refitted and remobilized, tens of thousands of tanks, vast reserves restored and rearmed. The military is gearing up for the grinding, bloody war of attrition developing in the embattled systems.

Zvesdekrygenflyot - the Star Navy:

Sukhoputnyye Voyska - The Ground Army:
Average Volyudki Infantrywoman

Morskaya Pekhota - The Naval Infantry:

Notable Military Technologies:

WIP

Culture and Society:

WIP

History:

A BRIEF HISTORY OF MIRVOLYUDKI

During the near-apocalyptic wars waged in the aftermath of the discovery of the brown dwarf that would spell the end of humanity’s habitation of the earth, one nation, situated in the territory of modern day Russia, Finland, and Sweden, sought to achieve supremacy on the battlefield. In doing so, they leveraged the comparatively primitive genetic manipulation technology of the time. Their goal was the creation of a strain of humans that, with the addition of further training and cybernetic enhancement, could become the ultimate soldiers. Fearless, pitiless, harbingers of death that would assault any position, purge any foe, and obey any order. But as any cautionary tale of science fiction would warn, creating a new life form, a sapient one, and expecting it to perform as planned is a fool’s errand. The progenitors of the people who would become the Volyudki rebelled at some point, the exact date lost to time. Sickened with being used as expendable troops, forced to commit atrocities no sane being could condone, they rose up against their creators and seized power in a part of the country. Their fledgling rebel nation coalesced around an urban center once known as Saint Petersburg. For years, the fighting raged on, brutal, bloody, grinding warfare. A siege the likes of which the city had not seen since a time almost a century before, when the people of Saint Petersburg had likewise been surrounded by an enemy determined to wipe them out. At first, it was an insistence upon crushing the rebellion, but it grew to an ideological war of annihilation as the emerging culture of the people who would come to call themselves Volyudki grew to be influenced by schools of economic and societal thought from decades past. The fighting grew even more bitter as at times entire formations of the enemy’s soldiers, modified and unmodified, would defect to the side of the rebellion.

At some point, yet another rebellion occured within the state, one wider reaching and more vast than anything achievable by a comparatively small segment of the soldiery. The state’s power waned as vast swathes of its territory fell in a matter of weeks, and soon the Volyudki’s progenitors were faced with a new potential foe - but this new state came with an offer of peace instead. They would be reabsorbed into the broader state apparatus and would pledge their by now formidable military might to the annihilation of a few remaining foes - and in turn they would be granted passage on an Ark of their own. Fierce debate raged, and a rebellion nearly broke out within the ranks of the rebellion, but at length the offer was accepted. With the redoubled efforts of the once more unified nation, many targets fell within days under the relentless, brutal assaults of the hardened veterans that filled the ranks of the Volyudki.

The rest followed as expected, and the construction of the arks began. The Volyudki dedicated themselves with gusto to the task. But once more, they would be used - as they entered cryosleep, the capsules containing the hibernating Volyudki colonists were separated and distributed amongst multiple arks, rather than one of their own as they had been promised. A calculated effort to weaken and divide them, ensure they would not have the power to rebel and cause havoc once more.

Upon awaking in the new cluster, they were not greeted with the idyllic garden worlds they had hoped to see, but a murderously cold planet, so volcanically active that entire rivers and lakes of lava coursed through the permafrost. Many colonists had begun to starve and die in light of the difficult conditions, and they soon realized the betrayal that had befallen them soon after - as the overseers of the colony instructed them to instill order in the now riotous people. Initially, they were lead on, promised their own corner of the world to grow and build on, but as they suppressed the rebellions the same distaste and loathing as before grew within them and they turned their weapons on their would be rulers, commandeering the ark in a brutal coup and casting the overseers out into the cold with the colonists they had sought to control. They would watch coldly as the colonists began to starve, unable to adapt to the planet’s harsh climate. They would listen as the people called them callous murderers, a feral pack of wolves that cared only for themselves. As the last of the screams died off, months later, they emerged from the ark, greeting the remaining survivors with bullets or arrest, depending on the individual. But the experience had left them shaken, traumatized - the name wolves had stuck with the colonists, and the Volyudki began to adopt it to describe themselves. They were wolves, they would fight and destroy any obstacle that threatened their wellbeing, they would work as a group to survive and thrive even in the bleakest adversity, they would mercilessly carry out whatever needed to be done to live.

It was then that, as they began to expand across the planet, they discovered Genestealer technology. Already a genetically modified people, ones who had fully embraced a transhuman ideal, the discovery of this new technology, advanced beyond anything they could have imagined before, sent a ripple throughout their society. Once more, open conflict loomed within their own ranks, some wanted to destroy it, others sought to embrace it - in the end the latter won. The leadership at the time proceeding to craft their new image of the people who would go on to claim the planet for themselves, to bend its icy, volcanic fury to their whim. They would properly embrace the name wolves. As the process began, the term Volyudki first came into true common vernacular. They were the wolf people. Other changes became evident as the process continued - an incredible resistance to the cold, a remarkable adaptability and compatibility with cybernetic augmentation, and most controversially, a birth sex ratio heavily skewed in favor of women. Justified by the then de-facto leader of their people as a necessity of the times - they were in unknown space, more of the people who would have them destroyed and purged lurked out there in the uncharted stars, their population would have to grow as fast as possible to accomodate the threat. In private she was more candid - wishing for a society dominated by and almost wholly composed of women. Her exact reasons were never determined.

The Volyudki population boomed, and they began to cover the entire world in vast industrial cities, greenhouses built with the aid of the copious volcanic activity feeding them in ample quantities for a time. But as it always did, ideologies grew separate, and violence reared its ugly head. Once more, rebellion loomed amongst the Volyudki as they struggled to assert their own individual ideologies. But this time, it could not be averted. A vast war broke out across the entire planet, raging for years and racking up a death toll into the hundreds of millions as factions representing a dozen different ideologies waged a brutal war across the ice fields and solidified lava plains, in local space, and more. As the years dragged on, two primary factions remained, one professing a Maoist ideology, and one adhering to the market socialistic model identified with Mirvolyudki to this day. The war raged on, a grinding attritional nightmare, with no end in sight - until one day, in one of the planet’s fits of volcanic fury, nearly an entire continent was consumed in the fire of a supervolcanic eruption. Billions perished in the ensuring chaos, an entire megalopolis wiped off the face of the map - but the side that would go on to create the modern empire of Mirvolyudki had survived, and despite the logistical nightmare, pushed hard into the chaos, securing all points of value that remained and declaring final victory.

Decades followed, almost a century, and the planet was once more thriving, united under the same basic governmental and economic structure that characterizes Mirvolyudki to this day. And the eyes of the Volyudki turned to the stars, once more. They began to build shipyards, docks, and their colony ships, teeming with colonists began to branch out into first their local solar system, bringing to heel the equally unforgiving climates of the other technically ‘habitable’ planets of the solar system, and then branching out from there, building vast communications networks through the gates and upon their planets. New solar systems came under their heel, an entire new species, and re-contact with unaltered humans, many of whom reacted with bewilderment at the sight of the Volyudki. In under a century, the borders of Mirvolyudki reached their present extent, but the real work of development had yet to be undertaken. Vast mining and construction projects began on the conquered and colonized worlds, those planets and asteroids not habitable even by the stubborn Volyudki were mined even more intensely. Mind bogglingly enormous cities and industrial complexes began to rise from the crusts of their worlds.

But a danger loomed unbeknownst to the people and leadership of Mirvolyudki. Festering in the underworld and dark corners of the internet, a movement thought long defeated grew in size and power. Calling themselves Tretirykh, they professed adherence to ancient ideologies that many in Mirvolyudki considered repugnant and abominable. And yet, this movement grew, buoyed by false claims of endless prosperity in the lands outside Mirvolyudki’s sealed borders, images of the palatial estates of the corporate elite of Raygon and promises that all would live like kings under the rule of Tretirykh. By the time Mirvolyudki’s leadership became aware of the scope of the threat, it was too late, and a full fledged rebellion erupted upon an industrial world in the Kravinigorka System. Bolstered by arms and equipment from across the cluster in numbers scarcely believeable, the rebellion quickly seized control of the entire system, putting to death those they deemed inferior and launching lightning assaults on unprepared adjacent systems. The militaries of those systems fought bravely, but were woefully underprepared to face a threat from within their own borders, the vast bulk of Mirvolyudki’s armed forces being deployed in maintaining the closed borders and preventing the incursion of outside interlopers.

Hurriedly, the Premier called up available reservists and recruitment drives began, tens of millions of soldiers being rushed to the defense of the interior from this inexplicably well equipped rebel force. The momentum had been lost, however, and the rebellion succeeded in annexing the majority of the systems of Vylganitsyn and Kurkesta, and with it Mirvolyudki’s most productive agri-worlds. Only a small foothold consisting of a mining world in the Vylganitsyn system and the military bases of the moon orbiting Kurkesta-II remained, and it was from these that counterattacks would be launched with the full force of the military of Mirvolyudki. But though the counterattacks succeeded in establishing small footholds in a few occupied planets, the fighting was fierce. Grinding, attritional warfare set in as even well drilled tank batallions and heavy orbital bombardment were unable to dislodge the defenders - whose numbers defied belief and showed no signs of thinning. The key targets, vital agri-worlds that made up a vast percentage of Mirvolyudki’s overall food supply could not be retaken. And Mirvolyudki began to go hungry.

And so, faced with starvation, after centuries of relative isolation in the wake of past conflict, of being the reclusive, heavily armed nation that refused to trade, the Volyudki opened their borders in desperation. They began to hunt for potential trading partners, nations whom could feed the hungry soldiers and workers of Mirvolyudki in their war.

Characters:
Valeriev Glagoleva Mariun Konstantinovna: Premier of Mirvolyudki.
A young Premier at only 84, Valeriev is a precocious and charismatic leader. Having been elected from a comparatively junior rank of only a field captain, her forward thinking capability was credited with saving the lives of many comrades during her tour on the border with Saudovskaraviya. Doubted by many for her relative youth, she is a bold and polarizing figure within Mirvolyudki.

Tyomkina Fenya Borisovno Innokentievna: Chair of Mirvolyudki
Unlike the Premier, Tyomkina is far, far older at 314, a seasoned military commander holding the rank of Army General and an equally seasoned politician, having survived the decades of intrigue and the rise and fall of countless political movements.

Burov Ludomir Semyonovich Kudashova: Minister of Finance

Larionova Lydia Petrovnu Nikitovna: Minister of Military Industry

Melekhova Agasha Tarasovnov Georgievna (Mashka): A hapless criminal, convicted of manufacture of Class III pharmaceuticals without a license and improper maintenance of state issued arms. Sentenced to thirty years of state service, twenty if in a combat unit. Melekhova accepted the latter, and is currently a Lance Corporal, serving in her third year. She has been deployed to the polar front on the planet of Vylganitsyn-III, leading an infantry squad.

Isayeva Verka Yakovn Adeliya

Relations:
Tretirykh (NPC): At war. No peace may be brokered, only unconditional surrender.

Takanis - A Dark Fantasy Nation RP

@JrVader

Vast majority of those huge posts are collaborations and we take way too long on 'em, so no need to worry. If you can output a few paragraphs, you can do it!