Event 11
Possession
11 Sep - 8 Oct, 2016
Introduction
In the smallest and farthest region of the Empire, things have been quiet. Since the return of both their self-governance and an old, favoured ambassador, Iadlain has been healing from the damage dealt to them almost a year ago. Isolation has served them well, leaving them mostly untouched by the tumult in the rest of the Empire and letting the forest re-sheathe its claws.
Neither the Empire nor Wispwood have ever been Iadlain’s greatest threats, however. And on the 24th Fire, it is the oldest and truest danger to their existence that finally shatters the peace: Reluir.
A series of sudden assassination strikes within Iadlain is quickly followed by reports of the Relan army pouring across the border. Soon, the declaration comes: as Atros’ true children and inheritors of His land and will, Reluir has at last resolved to seize back the region they see as rightfully theirs. For too long have they played meekly, giving empty promises of allegiance to a human empire and tolerating Iadlain’s heretical existence. It is time now to bring them, by force, under Reluir's rule again.
Both Iadlain and Koben are swift to react. Unprepared but incensed, Iadlain lashes back at its ancient enemy with violence of both its own and the forest’s, while Koben rushes its military from the nearest Bratkovan air base to defend the Empire territory. Reluir, after months of careful and silent planning, is ready for them, and the two sides meet – land, air and water – in a fury of steel and magic. A new war of possession has begun.
A war millennia in the making has finally erupted – Reluir has attacked the Empire territory of Iadlain with the intent to annex it back into themselves. Although the Koben Empire fights back, both sides of this conflict are powerful nations with deep claims on the region. Who, in the end, will Iadlain belong to?
Event Details
Possession
On the morning of the 24th Fire, Reluir's long-planned war to retake Iadlain commences. Across Iadlain's major towns, key figures of authority - including the Count, his Tiarnaí and the heads of influential families - are attacked by the Queen's Assassins, each one a vicious and suicidal mission. While the assassins are quickly and brutally overwhelmed, the attacks leave a trail of damage that signals the beginning of the Relan invasion.
Nestled deep within the forest as they are, the sight of Reluir's advancing forces may not have reached Iadlain's towns until much later. But not long after the assassination attempts, urgent news comes from Koben through the whisper trees: in an unexpected twist, Reluir's own crown princess had defected from her country and sought refuge in Koben's capital. Her arrival only that morning came with all the news of Reluir's plans that she was privy to and, in turn, Koben passes this to Iadlain.
Scouts and warnings are sent out immediately all over the region and, sure enough, reports come back of Reluir's encroachment. The queendom has held nothing back - old trade roads between the two regions have been carved into rivers of marching soldiers, their progress unstopped by the dangers of the forest through sheer numbers and disregard of the many who fall. Ships in both the air and sea swarm, bypassing the walls of mountains inland and curving southwards over the ocean to attack the coast. It takes two days for the Relan army to reach the Iadlish towns; two days for Iadlain to assemble its own forces and turn its shields against people as well as monsters; two days for the nearest Koben military airships to arrive from Bratkowice.
Despite using their more intimate knowledge of the woods to harass and hinder the Relan army at every chance, the Iadlish are too few in number. Reluir’s forces push fiercely on and arrive at Iadlain's towns before Koben, in the dead of the night on the 25th Fire. Iadlain capital, Balla, Corrdubh and Uirigh are their first and main targets of capture, and the moment they step past the first protective charms surrounding each one, the fighting erupts. Millennia of mutual bitterness finally find form between the Iadlish and Relans and a battle of the most violent magic sears the night. Although each hour sees the Relan army push the smaller Iadlish forces back, Iadlain’s towns themselves prove to be strongholds of defensive magic - testament to their long survival in the nightmare forest. As Reluir pries for openings, the dawn arrives along with the first of Koben’s airship fleet – bristling, ready and with more on the way from the rest of the Empire.
Now, evenly matched and unshakeable in each of their beliefs of who really belongs here, the two sides clash and the battle for Iadlain unfolds.
Note: As the alliance between Reluir and the Koben Empire has now been voided, all characters who are residents or citizens of Reluir may now choose to put 'Reluir State' for their allegiance.
Story
Activities
Event Outcomes
The event outcome will be determined by a raffle system, in which parts of Iadlain's land will be won by either Reluir or the Koben Empire. The Iadlain region will be divided into numerous sections and, at the end of the event, a ticket will be randomly drawn for each one. The in-canon ownership of that section of land will be given to whichever side the ticket belongs to. Members can earn raffle tickets via art entry and/or game participation, as detailed below.
Tickets
There will be a default, starting number of tickets for each side, which member-earned tickets are then added onto - this means both sides will have a chance of winning Iadlain's land but member tickets will dictate the odds.
Event Participation
Soldier Hunt Game
Participate in a game to hunt down the Relan soldiers infiltrating Iadlain and either eliminate or aid them. The game will run from the 19th to 25th Sep. Each participant will receive 5 EXP and up to 7 extra tickets.
❖ Join the hunt here ❖
Event Participation
Event Art
Draw, write or in any way depict your character's involvement in the battle for Iadlain, from fighting to support to survival. Finished art or literature entries will receive a bonus 30 EXP and 30 tickets towards the event outcome raffle (sketch or drabble entries will receive half this amount). Please specify on your entry which side your tickets are for. Only main characters are eligible for the bonus EXP and outcome raffle tickets.
Event Participation
Prompt Art
For characters who cannot be directly involved in the event, you can use this event as a prompt (e.g. reacting to the news from another city). Prompt submissions will get a bonus 10 EXP for the submission but will not count towards the event outcome.
Event Participation
Action Statement
If you don't have time to make an art piece, you can get 5 EXP by simply stating what your character is doing for the event via a post in the #event-board Discord channel. This applies to main characters only and there must be direct involvement with the events to get this. Side characters' involvement can be described to contribute to the event canon however no points will be given. If you go on to enter an art submission later, the EXP received for this will be replaced by the art submission points.
Special Role
Iarlaith Ó Ciardha
Death's Messenger
Of the assassination missions deployed across Iadlain, none were more ambitious and suicidal than the one assigned to Stitches: killing the Count of Iadlain. With personal connections to the city and a low profile, he slips close and strikes fast – but death has different ideas for them both. Stitches instead escapes, aided by an old Iadlish family who would betray their city for the Count’s death. They give him hurried instructions of a secret escape route through the forest and, taking it, Stitches finds himself pulled into a web of Wispwood’s magic. Before sunset, he is safely back at Reluir’s doorstep with a critical secret in his hands: a key for Reluir to Iadlain’s back door, and a message of death.
Conclusion
The fighting raged without ceasing for twelve days and twelve nights. Battles were lost, battles were won, and the borders between Iadlain and Reluir were shredded as viciously as the people and land.
On the 30th Fire, Uirigh collapsed under Reluir’s combined air and naval assaults. With few means to defend themselves on the water, the town’s shoreline was quickly breached and Reluir used this newly captured foothold to pry further into Iadlain’s land, securing the northern coast as their own. The infamously dangerous woods inland would prevent them from piercing any further, however, and Corrdubh stood strong despite the heavy encroachment. Unable to fell the forest town, Relan forces pushed past it, attempting to surround Iadlain city itself, but the capital too proved unshakeable. Even as the days of battling wore on, the land all around Iadlain city and to the west remained firmly in Iadlain’s hands. Still further west, over Balla, Koben and Reluir’s armies fought each other to an unrelenting standstill.
Then, on the 5th Rains, Balla fell. Pulling their military unexpectedly from other fronts, Reluir slammed the mountain town with a violence that spoke clearly of their disregard for its survival. A destroyed city was as good as an intact one, as long as it was theirs, and both Balla and Koben’s airforce there burned.
Alarm spread amongst the Empire defenders, along with the grim knowledge that in a war of true attrition, Reluir would inevitably hold the upper hand. And so, an equally grim plan was enacted on the 7th Rains: as Koben’s airships rose into the sky, the only place they would defend now, Iadlish forces slipped out over the forest, as close to Reluir’s lines as they dared. Using the knowledge of millennia, they aggravated the worst of Wispwood’s monsters and calamities, and the forest upheaved in violence.
Ravines cracked open and trees burst into savage growth, shattering paths and pouring out nightmarish creatures of both flesh and magic. In their fury, countless people within the forest were decimated. Iadlish and Relans alike pulled hastily back, the former huddling inside their towns and the latter retreating to their borders. Now, both sides wait out a terror far greater and older than either of them, watch closely for the next strike, and hold tight to what is theirs.