Archon's Curse [Pathfinder Kingmaker]

Late Gozran 4714
Eire had not had time to tour, in any comprehensive measure, the portion of his realm added by the absorption of Maegar's Varnhold... and he hadn't considered it a major priority. The mandate recognized for the Dunsward encompassed a truly massive expanse of 'unclaimed' 'unsettled' land to his east, and to Brevoy's south east.

Maegar's official northern border was the northern bank of the Shrike, where began the Rostlandic plain as dictated by ancient tradition... and if not for the series of water falls that marked the shrike's course as it tumbled south west the river would have been an ideal trade route for the Narlmarches to reach Restov.

Maegar did not have the resources to reach his recognized legal frontier in the mountains of the northwest, and certainly not to the truly absurd southern boundary of his charter of the waters of the Castrovin sea... but of course there were no civilized states closer and thus it fell to nature to set boundaries rather than the political zones of control established by men.

Galt's legal western border stopped at the Tor of Levenies ... far to the south of Vordakai's tom... indeed Eire could scarcely peg why Galt's northern frontier was as far north as it was. It failed to include the Creeper wood, or the territory of the lost city state of Nystara. It buttressed itself against Liberthane to the Northeast... but the north proper was open grasslands that didn't even connect Galt's northern frontier to the southern most boundaries of Mivon... a boundary for the Mivonese was anchored by their control of the great shrine to Cayden Cailean... which Eire presumed brought Mivon no shortage of pilgrims, and thus money into their coffers.

All the same his borders with Mivon were largely a matter of the southernmost tip of the narlmarches , and the Mivon Sellen River. He wanted to send Maegar orders to find the source waters of the Mivon Sellen in Iobaria and that he should establish a small settlement there... but that would have to wait. Now was not the time for that... even if it would have potentially secured them a clear marker of their southern frontier, and used the river as a natural boundary to protect the settlement while it grew.

He had asked Maegar to come and in part his expertise on holding Fort Drelev at bay, but that mostly about expertise on how Brevoy and its mercenaries and nobles waged war. He wanted to be able to put the town under a blockade if not necessarily a close order siege.

There was a knock on his door, and Brother Vaclav bowed, "Your Majesty, Lady Amvarean." The priest excused himself allowing them the war room.

"My sister and I have come to suspect that Ilthuliak likely has made arrangements with some power in the feywild," The first world, "Very likely that the Slough holds portals to their, though not it seems to any one of the Eldest's personal domains." That was a small comfort if at all.

The truth was that it made sense that there was a connection to the first world. "Jaethal believes there are undead as well, and Mbottu has spoken of the boggards and other races within the swamp," not all of whom were evil, but that there were certainly trolls, and marsh giants there... which of course brought with it other concerns.

In Eire's approximation, the armies which fought across Golarion were generally small. That was itself a reminder that for the political reforms which had allowed the developments of such as the levee en masse or the subsequent peace time conscription acts of Europe, of the drafts of the American civil war had not occurred in Golarion. It didn't matter that Earth had finished, he assumed, the first world war ... never mind the headache of that. The armies were reflective of this.... a gathering of two thousand fighting men was a colossal investment of manpower for all but the greatest nations of the Inner Sea... because of course keeping such a body of men fed and in discipline and generally fit to fight required more so than just that number. Aemon Trask's combined host of trolls, tiger lords, mercenaries and the rest was a good sized force by the standards that defined such things.

... and he supposed he would have to answer that in kind. Kisandra Numesti had stated with some confidence that Fort Drelev was a majority human settlement... no surprise there. That it was perhaps under three thousand in total population, did make it a sizable town, but Drelev had no complex bureaucracy to administer it. Drelev ruled through a small household staff... or had prior to bending the knee to Pitax, but that made sense he supposed.

It was a study in contrasts, Maegar had divided the Dunsward into plots of land around the Varnhold for his sergeants and lieutenants to establish brevic style crofts and homesteads. In a sense the settled mercenaries were more egalitarian in that dispersal as Drelev had granted outlying districts to his limitted number of feudal bannermen.

Bannermen who had been absent from the attack on Tatzlford.

Eobald, Linzi's mentor who had immigrated from Pitax, had remained in contact, and the situation with regards to presumably Irrisen but also just the growing barbarian presence in the vicinity of the city were taking their toll. Enough that a message had been carried out to Mivon that a forlorn group of desperate refugees were hoping to make their way to the east... it would have ben more sensible for them to after successfully departed Pitax to head south to Mivon on then come up the river if they meant to resettle... but he had assured Eobold that he would look for the caravan since they were going into the southern slough.

"You will send Tristian, then?"

"I think so yes." If not for the sudden request he probably would have asked the blonde priest to accompany Amiri, Maegar, and Regongar. So far as errands went it was likely to be much more inline with Tristian's skillset, and most likely if Tristian was able to find them, he could bring them back to the Temple of the Elk or some other religious site where they wouldn't be in the way of military preparations.

Harrim, the twins, and Valerie would all need to remain. There were still more discussions that needed to be had, before they could move forward beyond that basic framework. Drelev had been allocated a mandate, a charter from Brevoy recognize the slough as his... in theory the Iron Wraiths should have formed their barony on his western border... and from what he understood from talking to Kassil Aldori their charter would have extended to the Brantheld mountains, and to the border of Numeria... and very like created an inevitable border conflict with Pitax over that border, and the town of Mormouth, because the Charter as it had been drafted demarcated a western border for the Iron Wraiths barony as would have been the Sellen River.

... but the Iron Wraiths had disappeared into the area. They had never established a viable settlement , just disappeared into the western ranges of the Tiger Lords ancestral lands. To that end it wasn't clear who was responsible for their disappearance... but it didn't matter. Pitax had been responsible for the attack on Jamandi's manor home in Restov. They had sent Tartuccio, and after him, Grigori, and probably still otehrs, and they had mobilized against Fort Drelev sometime last year. "the mad queen of Irrisen," Amvarean remarked, "Her scheme must have caused all of them some trouble,"

"Yes, I imagine so," He agreed, whether or not that was the only reason was doubtful, "But from the sound of it Armag speaks of a conflict with Brevoy, not Numeria, and that will make things very difficult for us." He shook his head, "We will face that after, for now we need to organize to move against Ilthuliak."

There was no need to question Amvarean on that issue.

1 Desnus 4714
From the beginning of this journey into state building had drafted a number of ideas... to use magic, and enchantment to approximate the lessons of industry from Earth in the face of challenges. What was in front of him was only one of them. The steam built up and then caused the hammer to drop forcing hot steel into shape of the model, a workman sprayed down the steel with an alchemical mix as the hammer built up steam and reset itself, and then it came down again. It took several strikes, and moving the piece of metal to next mold to complete the pieces, but this was not only more effective in that it was faster it used less material... but of course this time last year they had largely been experimenting with the Enterprise.

The giant nodded at the progress of the steel works.

They had a much better idea of what they were doing now after they had built one. Enough that HMS Endeavor would have much greater cargo space than Enterprise, which had been limited by her single deck design to only about fifty tons of real cargo space. Endeavor with the additional decks could carry four hundred on top of that, and an additional sixty personnel in cabins.

... and if this process worked they'd be able to churn out parts to fit out Earnest as well, creating a standard class of ships. That had been planned as soon as he was sure that this was feasible with what they had available.

Enterprise, Endeavor and Earnest were supposed to fly north to Mendev carrying supplies... and on the return ferry refugees to settle here far from the crusade. They weren't warships, but all three ships together would likely have facilitated being able to transfer and army across the territory, across rough and impeding geography to take Drelev by total surprise... but the ships would be needed to support the crusade. It was aid he had already promised.

They would fight Drelev conventionally, or at least not with the air ships.

Eire departed and and moved from the workshop, and looked around for Jaethal. It took a minute to find her beneath one of the pavilions. "Pitax is having trouble," She remarked as he took a seat across from her, "The barbarians aren't popular, Irovetti is spending a great deal of money keeping the peace, and keeping them fed, but the rumor is that Armag always planned to raid brevoy he just isn't ready yet."

"Pitax is running out hard currency?" He asked hopefully.

"I don't' think its so severe," yet. "but Kaessi agrees he's certainly spending more money than he is taking in. Irovetti's rule has been characterized by spending for glamorous horribly gaudy attempts at being cultured." Which couldn't possibly be cheap, "Pitax has also alienated Brevoy since he came to power, though I admit House Surtova is equally responsible for tensions." In 4699 the Royal House of Rogarvia had vanished... the current ruler of Touvette had also seized power that year to the south of Pitax, and Kevoth-Kul had ordered the destruction of the Starfall Pathfinder lodge. All of that could have been coincidental of course but it was something he bore in mind. There was too much not known about how Iroveti had come to power.

Eire was completely inclined to ignore this card game foolishness as urban legend that was probably in Pitax's sense of humor supposed to be funny. "There is something else I take it?"

"You won't like it." Jaethal didn't wait for him to comment that he already didn't like the conversation as it was, "The reason Kaessi believes that Irovetti isn't scraping an empty treasury is that we believe he has run afoul of the Technic league by virtue of smuggling artifacts out of Numeria." Pitax was a smuggling center before he came to power, Irovetti was by all reports numerian by birth... two and two did add up to four.

Still, Irovetti's pitax was not a major productive economy. It was all well and good to talk about culture, and art, the schools, and Linzi's enthusiasm for such things was endearing, but he would have assumed that Pitax's majority of its gross domestic product was its agricultural sector.

Admittedly some of that normally was export of luxury foodstuffs for its high culture, but presumably the majority of its exports were revenues from more standard fare into Numeria, maybe even to Mendev. Countries that couldn't readily, or easily produce their own necessary food stocks sufficient to sustain their populations, or at least their cities.

Pitax wasn't a center of the mercenary trade, or a center of banking. It had its docks, and a series of ridiculously titled bandit houses and swathes of lands it exercised power over. Land that Irovetti had been trying to expand but that wasn't unique to irovetti. Pitax historically had had conflicts with borders with the Mivonese, who were a mercenary center. Pitax, more than Mivon was a crossroads of trade... that was probably still true, but it had been more true prior to Jamandi's sponsorship of the baronies.

That had probably irritated Pitaxian irredentism, but there could have been no predicting Narland's course of development... but here they were. Regardless, He handed the jacketed file over. It wasn't quite the type of file he was used to but the lacquered leather was as close to waterproof as was possible, and the sheets inside were safe. The ties were basically leather shoe laces though, which something of a nuisance to use properly.

"The defense of the realm act." She paused and read through the annex, "This outlines instructions and policies for-"

"Among other things the establishment of a national bank, and policies to provide notes, and credit..." And the other responsibilities of a central bank with clearly defined duties and responsibilities. There royal mint already produced coinage, but this would hand over the responsibilities to an actual central bureaucracy, "And make preparations for formalizing what we will need to do ahead of a major conflict," Planning War, Pursuing Peace... medieval... or early modern ish edition, really was what he was aiming for. "And as the first act states, establishes a Royal Navy."
--
The prospect of a royal navy was reassuring. It had a certain appeal... and

.. Were that it was that simple, airships or not Narland was always more likely going to be a territorial continental land based military centric state. A permanent series of royal regiments had always been a point of consideration, but it had been getting up to that point, building up the logistical means to support an army which had always been the impediment. He had no expectation of being able to sustain the rates of defense expenditures of medieval France or early modern Prussia. They certainly weren't there yet... actions against Drelev were going to be wholly feudal in terms of army composition, or otherwise turn into both sides hiring barbarian mercenaries.

... and of course that was another matter as well. Eire had a map of Avistan of the Taldan Imperial Period dominating the Kameland town's hall. Unfortunately Taldan written records weren't exceptionally useful.. by the time that Taldan fifth army of exploration had reached the point of carving out permanent settlements within the River Kingdoms they arrived in Iobaria to find among other people not just the Kellids but also Ulfen in the Lake of mists and veils, and oddly people they called Iobarians but sounded more like Tien Horselords like the Hongal ... which apparently there was a land route from Tian Xia that crossed the horse lords great steppes and probably linked Casmaron steppes to Tian Xia's.... and the subsequent two thousand years and the foundation of Irrisen in in 3313 had probably also changed the make up of the lands.

More to the point of his concern was that the Tiger Lords had at least in ancient prehistory laid claim over much of the Stolen Lands, and had in the time of Armag the Conqueror held rule over the sum of Numeria.... at least according to legend. That was its own complicated mess, that Eire had to contend with, but at some point it was generally accepted that during the centuries before the founding of Absalom that Armag had lead the Tiger Lords out from the realm of the Mammoth Lords, through Numeria and into Casmarron.

... where despite the argument over the warlord's soul by his Patron Gorum and Pharasma to whom he'd apparently given insult... a red dragon had proceeded to kill the great warlord without care to either deity. Gorum had snatched his champion's soul to deny it from Pharsma's meddling... and Pharsma had apparently shrugged and moved on.

The political crux beyond any religious arguing was that at one point the Tiger Lords had been the great royal bloodline of the great plains and steppes across the sprawling continental landmass. It was still a bit odd to see the sheer degree of irredentism related to the 'Stolen Lands' that existed in modern day Brevoy or Pitax given their respective age. The Tiger Lords, like other Kellid, and also Iobarian tribes claimed that at some point their ancestors had lived here. That these were ancestral lands, but at the same not in the same sense as more dedicated sedentary people with territorial irredentism as Pitax or Brevoy viewed land claims. For the largely pastoral nomadics this was more of a matter of reciprocity of traditional guest rights and hospitality.

... which of course entailed a nominal obligation to communal defense when a guest in a foreign tribe... or kingdom as the present case was. That entailed participation in that reciprocity by both host and guest. Armag the Twice Born claiming to the prophesied return of the champion of Gorum thereby presented a problem to pursuing such temporary reciprocity. It wasn't a good way to build a state, and outside of an immediate emergency was a poor choice for security.

There was a rap on the open door. It was not a normal or natural tradition, but a learned habit to those of north east Avistan. The Chelish were used to knocking, the Taldans as well so it was viewed as an urbane habit... something brought up from civilization in the south. "Kaessi," He said in greeting to the blue eyed tiefling, and then beyond her to the golden eyed Aasimar, "Arsinoe.," He remarked gesturing them into the study... he supposed a conversation with the church of Abadar was normal for this time of the year and frankly the recent acts, and legislations made that more so than most. "Recent events compel me to layout the process of a more comprehensive bureaucratic reform, and thus I am sure the discussions regarding the recent promulgations have aroused questions from the churches, and questions of where we go from here."

Desnus 4713
Amiri scowled. She didn't mind mud, but she didn't really care for it either. She was not some city folk, but this was not the battlefield she would have preferred to fight in... and of course she wasn't even sure that when it came down to it they would get a proper fight.

Insects buzzed in the late spring's warm air.... but it was fine weather for campaigning, for fighting, and fighting was what she was looking forward to.

She didn't really mind boggards or giants either. They took some getting used to, but Gary pretty well demonstrated they were fine. His old chief was a dirty coward... well leaving aside that it was a monstrous black dragon extorting tribute from the boggard village.

Not just the boggard village. The marsh giants were disgusting bastard offshoots of hill giants, just as stupid too. She had actually expected them to just basically be evil river giants ... that would have been easier.

Ilthuliak had apparently made many enemies in her thousand year life... which meant she had bullied and threatened many of the denizens of the slough, and narlmarches from hags, and trolls and giants and boggards and so forth to guard against potential dragon slayers. Jubilost had done a lot of searching around, skulking really asking questions about the evil dragon, and Maegar had told them all they could... and Maegar was actually here with them to help suppress the monstrous threat posed by the various monsters.

Gary was sure that his village and probably the other Boggard villages could be convinced to change side, and Harrgulka agreed. They just needed to knock enough heads together to make the frog people see sense and then they'd act right Amiri figured.

She understood the need to crack the skulls of the monsters south of the lake. It made perfect sense to her, Drelev was a sniveling coward relying on other stronger people to fight his battles while he hid behind his stone walls rather than riding to meet them. Iluthliak was a mighty black dragon she was the real threat... her and her giants.

So here they were going to fight giants, and trolls with giants and trolls... and then what? She wasn't quite sure only that well then they would come around through the south and attack Drelev. Regongar sat down, and the lord of Varnhold passed around him to take a seat. Harrgulka remained standing, enamored with a 'camp table' a big folding piece of carpentry stuffed with papers and maps. The troll king refused to allow it out of his sight since he'd been given it.

"I don't think I can get used to that." Maegar remarked shaking his head, "At one point we're in home camps, and the next the frontier," he coughed, "its, yeah, its something else... hard for me to get my head around it."

Amiri agreed, it was very strange to here to have entry into one temple and then in a column of divine fire be carried across the world to another one many days away overland. The reality though was that there was a space limitation to how many people could be transported... which was why there were talks about buildings and stone halls, going on. Amiri understood that much... it was the 'mechanism' of its acceptance the magic which she was less comfortable with not its results or its practical limitations.
--
Vordakai snorted as he moved another assembly in the machine, the astrolabe adjusted. It was offensive to his sensibilities to consider that they were at war with someone so categorically their inferior. He had never met this small human tyrant but all he had heard of Hannis Drelev filled him with a deep seated contempt.

... Calling it a war was surely an exaggeration, but the majority of the realm were those who lacked the talent of magic. This was a distraction the realm did not need... but if not this worthless petty tyrant than it would be his master... or the hordes of barbarians... and he did not need to divine the future to be certain that those conflicts would come in time.

He had given his word to help prepare things, which meant turning towards Casmarron, towards the barbarians, and to face the feral uncivilized descendants of the empire that he had seen collapsing around as he went into torpor in his tomb. The undead elf was likewise busy, she spoke of a developing religious fervor, but that did not surprise Vordakai. The ancient dragons of his day had always inspired human followers it was simply another instance of syncretism taking shape.

This kingdom would borrow and blend what traits it could from Azlant, from dragon kind, and with his learning the lessons of Koloran... perhaps the elves as well and also of course the modern humans. To that end he had a responsibility to make sure the great publications were coherent, and that they were understood by the realm and visitors alike.... not that he expected much trouble since he would not be alone.

Eranex had arrived from Silverstep, and there were a number of others who would form the committee responsible. He was grateful, as least as much as he could be, that there were no shortage of scribes who had made themselves available. It would make the process of relaying the dragon laws much easier to those who spoke Hallit... and many of hte new comers had a proper appreciation for erudition and logic.

"Ah Vordakai are you quite occupied I had hoped to make inquiries on how Old Koloran managed certain matters?" Pendrod questioned from the entry to the observatory.

The human might not have been the most powerful arcanist, but at least he could read and hold a civil conversation... even if he was a tad excitable at times. "I am nearly done," He answered. Maegar's resident scholar was the master typist for the committee that might have ordinarily been a task for the halfling bard but she was going west though Ervil would have her mentor Eobold's assistance with the compiling of the records... the Maestro would then bind the books and publish them in an accounting of the records of the realm. "I assume that the recordings are in, that there is something of note?"

"Oh yes, quite, I had hoped to speak with the Exchequer, but she is quite busy," Of that Vordakai had no doubt, the tiefling woman had very good reason to be busy given all that was ongoing, "I believe that we may see the most significant swelling of our ranks yet. If our computations of the numbers are accurate tallies, that there are some sixty thousand households in the metropolitan region of the Kingdom." He meant the greater vicinity of Shrikewall, so the capital, Candlemere, the towns on either east or west shores of the lakes. "Some of those will go on to people the road of shields of course," Of course, "But there are some twelve thousand more households at Silverstep and its surroundings between."

Vordakai knew that original plan to develop the kingdom... when it had been a smaller subunit had intended to emphasize the development of the dwarven road of shields on the then western frontier, but the thief stirring him from his slumber and bringing him into the day of the new modern world had changed all of their fates. That original plan had needed to change, in recognition for the realm's new, greater stature.

--
Notes: I am hoping to have Rabid Fox's update ready by tomorrow, but I also volunteered to DM so I may toss something else up and update Wednesday if its not ready.

As a very part of its nature, from its giantish construction Shrikewall's citadel easily dwarfed the Ruby Fortress, it had fewer floors of course. The great vaulted ceilings were built to accommodate the builders of the citadel... and the fact that Vordakai did maintain a permanent residence in the capital proper. The ancient cyclopean had actually been late to today's proceedings, which was unusual but she accepted that... they were in uncharted waters so to speak.

Valerie imagined that it must have been nice to take to the campaign trail, the bards of her childhood always swung loudly the ballads of valiant fighting to be done in the fine weather of the spring... but she was skeptical... but even knowing what real fighting was like she still suspected that she would have preferred being out there. Kaessi didn't seem to have any such confliction in where she imaged needing to be.

Harrim wasn't quite so grim... well he was after a fact, but more that Drelev's stupidity had surely doomed his entire barony to an ignominious destruction and that the barbarians might riot and turn out of control when Drelev inevitably lost. Maegar hoped to organize a relatively classical siege and encircle Fort Drelev and with an aims to force terms, but Valerie was skeptical if Drelev's pride would allow that... and also that.. Maegar under estimated the religious dimensions of the situation.

Iomedae's clergy were furious, but his Majesty's coreligionists were not even the most bellicose of voices being raised. No those clerics of the archangel of vengeance were the most belligerent about what needed to be done... and while those were the loudest voices there were other supporters for the unfurling conflict.

There was a rattling exhalation from the undead Cyclops. "The towers were intended to provide us a large assembly area a magical beacon, to facilitate the movement of people." The limitation was the magical component. It was easier to call on divine intercession than it was for the arcane systems of magic to replicate the magical means to do so.

She had understood the plan. Valerie therefor would have assumed that... what they should have done was to endow a school for wizards, or expand the network of large temples if it was more practical to call on friendly gods. She didn't understand... and it was not because of the draconic script the laws, and commands were written in... "What do you make of this?" She asked the cyclops.

A single white eye looked at the front page on the stack, "Admittedly I have not had the time to review all, but from what I divine of the text it is a metamorphosis, he means to shape the growing towns and countryside into a coherent centralized state. It is what I make of the word; Imperium." She started to protest that such already existed, but the atrophied lich would hear none of it, "It is not the same," He stated ever dismissive of modern kingdoms like her native Brevoy and probably would have been dismissive of Taldor at its height compared to ancient Azlant, what he saw in these documents were a further reiteration that the law was not arbitrary, and nor were the instruments by which the state operated.

With a sufferance to her questions the cyclops showed her what he saw within the documents. There little power sharing with local notables, as in Brevoy... because there were no great families. His majesty, Lord Hannis, Lord Maegar had all had bare years to establish their landholds. The baronies should have been just that small baronies. Religion though, and the commitment to erect a religious foundation at the beginning of the barony had shaped everything even before the defeat of the Stag Lord. Eire had invited settlers from the far south... and she hadn't really perceived that as the basis of a new kingdom initially.

"This, bank it will be divorced from the matter of tax collection." The cyclops continued dragging a finger down the page, "The matter of minting currency is to be fixed, a money trust, and privately held reserve banks." It was a concession to the church of Abadar she assumed, without actually saying it was... after all the church of Abadar were the first ones she thought of when the topic of banks came to mind. The Cyclops coughed, "I do not expect Lord Maegar will necessarily have the same 'capital-stock' to endow his regional bank as Shrikewall will, or Silverstep."

"His majesty said something about the black dragon Ilthuliak before he left"

"I suspect he means to slay the Black, and to liberate from her hoard the funds necessary to expand the iron works." Vordakai observed matter of factly.

She appreciated the frankness of the undead ancient... looting the foe's treasury was a simple practical aspect of war and adding it to the realm was perhaps the most normal prospect out of all of this.
--
"Lord Hannis is a craven," And a lustful cycnic, opportunist and no doubt no shortage of other negative character traits. Eire didn't precisely doubt that Drelev had no shortage of character flaws but he was really looking for something concrete. They didn't need to have moral justification for dealing with Drelev they had that. All of Hannis's flaws might have been an indictment of moral failings but they hardly would get them across his castle's walls.

Kisandra Numesti however had probably been raised at a larger Brevic court. All the accusations she rendered were indictments of Drelev's failure as a member of a nobility that prided itself on martial pride, and vigor... and she was emotionally invested.

Irovetti had apparently been the instigator of the condition of hostages. Drelev had agreed, Kisandra's father had objected resulting in Lord Terrion Numesti being thrown in jail by Lord Hannis, and the hostages being provided to the Tiger Lords. Armag had apparently promised their safe return, and Drelev had apparently made good on attempts to earn Armag's favor with some Tiger Lord relics that his demesne had purloined from grave robbing...

... from the sound of it Armag was busy to the further west gathering warriors and speaking of plans to raid 'the north'. That sounded like he meant Brevoy, but they didn't have enough information one way or another. Kisandra seemed confident that Armag had united all of the Tiger Lords but Eire wasn't confident that she was all that informed about Kellid tribal society

The crux of Kisandra's argument, or at least its aim were the rescue of her kinsmen, and the deposing of Hannis Drelev. Eire also surmised that Kisandra wasn't ... was omitting some details and likely overplaying the prospect of popular support for overthrowing Hannis, but it didn't matter. He had already more or less resigned himself to needing to declare war and dispose of Drelev he just wished she had been able to tell him more about Irovetti's mercenaries.

"Thank you Kisandra, I have heard enough." Kisandra wasn't prepared to directly confront Drelev out of a probably reasonable concern for her family's safety, there was little reason to bring her along to Hereford then, "There is a church to Milani in New Colton on the west shore of the Tuskwater they will provide you lodging while I am away." He handed over the brief letter of introduction, and it was probably an abundance of caution but regardless he planned to keep things close to the vest particularly because he had other reasons he was going to have to contend with. "it will take me a few weeks to assemble," Something that Kisandra accepted on the face of it because that was in itself... quick by the standards of organizing Feudal tenancies to meet martial needs.

Late Desnus 4714
They had... no good maps of the slough's expanse to work from. The east Sellen meandered its way south from Lake Reykal. The expansive wetlands were a soggy depression with the narlmarches to their east. Gary's home village of Mbotuu was unfortunately almost directly across the lake from where Drelev had raised his 'stone home'. Not that there weren't plenty of other boggards across the northern expanse of the swamp... and really the problem were the south not the frog folk or that matter the marine megafauna.

"I am sorry Jaethal, mind you repeat that."

The elf gave a long shuddering sigh of annoyance, "I said," She declared, "At some point a trio of morons murdered a fellow cleric of Urgathoa so that she cursed them into becoming bog mummies." And apparently the evil trio of cursed priests had been drowning passerby in hopes of getting the Pallid Princess to forgive them.

Eire wasn't precisely clear on the nuances of Urgathoa's faith but he wasn't sure how that was supposed to work. Leaving that to one side, "And then they attacked you?"

"Yes."

"So you destroyed them?"

"Of course."

He nodded after a moment's pause, "Very good then, is there anything else?" Apparently they were unaffiliated with Ilthuliak but that was at best a small comfort... the local malevolent fey... including willowisps were likewise unaffiliated Most likely because they were too spread out for the Witch to bother with... and Ilthuliak would have been just as likely to kill the pixies as a nuisance.

The slough was prone to flooding and expanding, but in terms of navigable, just by geography there was only one route year round... but as they had frequently heard, not far up the Sellen river from Mivon's border monsters began to become frequent, and given the curves in the east sellen as it twisted its way towards Lake Hooktongue it made traffic dangerous.

"The trolls and marsh giants we expected, the boggards are quick to offer up treasure to a naga who claims to act as intermediary for the tribe from what I gather she was the inspiration for raiding river traffic."

"Traffic up from Mivon has basically stopped," He observed.

"Yes, and I suspect that it pushing the increasingly dangerous competition between the dragon's lackeys given another year I suspect they might have been pushed to mounting an attack on Drelev in hopes of loot or sacrifices to the black."

A very likely scenario... but Drelev had submitted to Pitax before that, and instead it seemed that Drelev had expected to win fame and distinction at their expense. "Can you deal with the Naga?"

Jaethal looked mildly offended, "As long as you can handle the dragon, in whose company she might be with."

"I will have Amvarean to support me against Ilthuliak, Shaoyu should be able to support you," And they'd have clerics with cinderblades to deter any trolls in service to the dragon. He had been hoping to spare Hulthrak, the stone giant elder, to prepare the siege of Drelev, but that might not be an option. "Her lair is close by?"

"A few miles north west of here its large obvious scar on the surrounding marshland." He'd see what she meant when they went up the crest of the narlmarch's foothills overlooking the slough before they came back down and into the slough in a few days. "The mummies erected a shrine to Urgathoa so we should have no issue returning here with at least a small party."
--
He'd said it before, and he'd likely end up saying it again, but was jarring to be travel across the land in the fashion that ... that defined this campaign... even if they hadn't actually done that much fighting yet. That punk Drelev had attacked Tatzford but clearly had bitten off more than he could chew... but that was the thing.

Maegar wasn't stupid, or ignorant of the ways of war. The ability to transport oneself from church to church was not a standard method in the profession of arms. Admittedly in Mendev there were those wardstone things that prevented teleportation out of the world wound but he doubted even the great crusader state to the west routinely relied on teleportation to this extent.

The one eyed bastard didn't think all that much of it, but well he was from an era when maybe that kind of magic was normal. Really, that the king and lich both agreed that there were improvements to the system as implementation of magic rather than pioneering some new development really underscored that there were two different discourses going on.

Part of it made him want to write to his middle brother who had gone into the clergy of Abadar, but on the other hand Maegar had his doubts that that would alleviate the headache. The Church of Abadar was a powerful force in Brevoy. There were other problems at home, and he had been trying to convince the twins to join him in letter writing to Brevoy. He knew that Kassil, Jamandi's heir, wasn't taking the barbarian threat serious... and the truth was... even though he hadn't actually said it out loud if Kassil wasn't taking the threat seriously it was because he was taking after his mother.

He didn't want to bring it up, but Jamandi Aldori was unlikely to consider the bandits massing in the west seriously. She'd fought against the Tiger Lords before, but when they had been disorganized, and disunited into groups under individual tribal chieftains... Maegar could already tell that this was going to be different.

The way he could piece it together, was that Drevlev must have done things like back home. He'd called his forces sending a notice out. His father would have done the same thing, and at that stage the Varnling host or another mercenary company would have arrived, and it was why mercenaries were the usually preferred solution even though they didn't come cheap. You'd hire someone like the Varnling host, they'd show up you'd tell them what needed doing and you didn't need to worry about marching, where as for if a feudal levee needed to be called those days marching would eat into the days of service owed to their liege.

Apparently if you were someone with the ear of the gods it was just a matter of asking politely for a ride across the land. It meant clerics were doing something much more than healing the injured as well.
--
Notes: Maegar's point of view is an emphasis on that Eire / Narland is still operating under a feudatory system, but also with magic. What I mean by this short segment is two fold, it is still feudal. The medieval campaigning season that predominated warfare in western europe relied on customary labor rights, weather conditions and other calendar factors.

Hence planning for a campaign would mean messengers going out during winter, with the intention of those levees showing up in the fall since local organization is going to be gathering that body of men and assembling supplies to go. The time of a feudal levy in the field was also subject to regional traditions fifteen days to three months similarly there is a disparity of troops supplies, some very wealthy fiefs in England only had to supply four knights and their retainers despite significant resources, while less financially capable regions provided more troops to the norman monarchs of the 11th​ century.

Speaking of the 11th​ century, by the time the population influx from Crusader Kings fully settles and specifically that population we will be talking about roughly the population of England at the time of the domesday book survey the difference being that Narland operates on generally speaking a centralized but 19th​ century agricultural model and that has knock effects. Here however we are mostly contending with the trends and practices of western European medieval warfare to an extent and one largely limitted to a warfare in line with early medieval trends despite the existence of some 'technologies' and the impact of magic.

10 Sarenith 4714
His seat, or at least the space in front of where he sat, at the table was occupied with binders, and loose papers. A myriad number of fountain pens, a replacement of quills, and an interim for ballpoint pens sat in a tray color coded. Iron black, navy blue, vermillion red.

Eire looked at the papers and frowned at the calculations drawn from them. Brevoy had perhaps four hundred thousand people, maybe half a million. Restov represented about eighteen thousand souls; at least in permanent residents. That was Restov proper not the surrounding rural population around the free city that kept it supplied with grain, and extra labor. That was the problem because it presented an issue in the event of

If the sounds were right then there was a war coming, and there was nothing institutionally functional about Brevic society that would allow it to respond to a steppe army riding into its society during summer when most of the labor force needed to be tied up during the harvest. It was also exactly what the barbarians would do, and in a purely short term conflict they'd have overwhelming numbers of forces forced into a very small area because Armag was bringing in barbarian tribes and clans from a wide swathe of territory from the realm of the mammoth lords as well as across Casmarron...

Individual tribal customs could very, but the nomadic collection could field almost certainly every man over sixteen and up to potentially fifty and that might very well yield across all tribes and clans, a force for the confederation in sixty to seventy thousand range. Even accounting that some of those troops would almost certainly be second or even third line warm bodies either too young or too old,, and then also another portion of troops that would be tied up with mercenary and guard work Armag had a body of manpower that created a significant problem.

That cut both ways though. The army couldn't be concentrated without supply. Coming into the countryside they would likely pick the Rostlandic plains clean.

Jaethal sat down completing the limited assembly of the council. "The tiger lords do traditionally herd sheep, but the majority of the tribe expects tribute of beer and meat from either the war leader or from whomever they have contracted to fight for."

That made sense. It also explained why Pitax's usual export of wine had decreased relative to the last few years. Wine was a higher social status drink and being able to provide it was probably who Pitax was keeping the barbarians plied without being able to send them to raid, and thus loot the neighbors, after the presumably lackluster outing against Drelev. The tiger lords were spread out across the eastern sellen hills, in Numeria, all the way to southern Pitax's border with Mivon, the latter according to the sword lords of the south.

Still that coupled with Irrisen's actions had to be serious constricting Pitax's flow of goods... Leaving that aside, "Kassil?"

"He remains skeptical of whether or not the Tiger Lords are a real threat," Valerie mulled over her glass of wine she held, and then continued, "and I wouldn't expect Lady Jamandi to be particularly receptive of words of caution either."

Pitax was a bandit kingdom, and a generation previously Rostlandic nobles in the south of brevoy had dealt with a previous Tiger Lord raid from the sprawl of grasslands that ran from the northern stolen lands to the sellen hills in Numeria... but that had been a completely different scale for both sides. He suspected that the Rostlandic fuedal order had probably attacked in early spring after planning the campaign over the winter, when they were most able to spare the manpower, and against a much smaller tribal force.

He looked at the map. "Valerie?"

"Restov is quite far to the east, it would make more sense to attack House Lebeda." A house famed for their wealth. She was right a simple look at the map that was a significant pivot east riding through the Greenbelt and if they road to the south rostland road then Olegton was litterally right there just there at the turnpike. "New Stetven would be closer."

He hadn't thought about an attack on Brevoy's capital. "How far is the Rostlandic plain across?" It was a non standard question. It was not the kind of thing a feudal monarch would have considered. It was.. it wasn't even an early modern question, but more of one of post Napoleonic geographic ideals, late Victorian notions about warfare and science.... and the answer was that the Rostlandic plain was immense. There was no geographic measurement because it was a colloquial geographic expression. You knew it when you saw it.. and thus it would be considered three hundred miles or more across or comparatively smaller , but Rostland was dominated by it as a geographic feature, and that farmland was productive.

Valerie was right. New Stetven was larger, closer, and wealthier than Restov.... that was both a facet of it being the capital but also geography with the riverine trade ... it was odd that New Stetven was such a hub of the antiquities and magical goods trade ... but it had been so since the days of Choral the conqueror and his red fortress's raising.

... now it was a wait and see game... if it happened, if Armag were going to attack Restov, and if that were the case then it likely implied someone had put the idea in Armag's head... and the most likely suspect to that was Pitax.
--
It was late in the day now. Afternoon mass had concluded, a habit he had not expected to actually engage in. The truth was the medieval habit of daily mass, or even religious ceremonies multiple times a day had struck him as probably too dependent on a complex urbanized, or urban adjacent literati. It required having enough priests and resources to engage in that... and yet here they were... and of course Golarion was a world of much more active gods.

Eire looked at the sword, the picture of pensive reflection. They would be dividing their forces temporarily... not for the purposes of strategic movement, but because they had distinct intentions. They needed to check any further Drelev incursions, not that they assumed any further thrusts were forthcoming, but in order to complete an effort that had been under planning for more than a year... slaying the wyrm ilthuliak... but now was priority to prevent the thousand year old dragon from taking advantage of the chaos since they were relatively certain that she had had a hand the pressure checking trade up the slough.

To that end there were several lesser objectives besides. Though foremost was slaying the wyrm there were marsh giants, and likely trolls a plenty present, and possibly the hag tulvak to consider... but also the boggard community Gary had been exiled from. All things which needed to be dealt with...

With war against Drelev now a reality he now had no compunctions against violating his neighbors territorial integrity at whim. There were other reasons of course... he needed to kill Ilthuliak for a variety of potential gains in killing the wyrm beyond simply eliminating a major potential security vulnerability to the fledgling nation.

Killing Ilthuliak would secure his western frontier against a powerful dragon, he was fairly certain that the black dragon had depopulated the dragons native to the river kingdoms hunting them down increasingly further afield and targeting both chromatics in addition to metallics. Ilthuliak represented a danger to the realm in that way, in that she was likely to come after Amvarean a second time, and probably Eranex.

Then of course there were other reasons to kill a malevolent dragon on one's borders... he could do with the social capital that would earn him with the abundance of kellid tribes in the region ... even though it might not stop them from attacking it would increase his social standing in tribal opinion... which was why he had comprised the party and the distribution of who was going where.

Yet, even with those matters aside there were still other matters... so much work went into administering a kingdom, or a country, and too frequently the truth was the bureaucracy was too small to efficiently handle matters... admittedly that had been a problem which had continued into the bother of 19th​ century European colonialism... and even American domestic administration particularly before Wilson. In the longer run that would further define his Imperial Core and the surrounding hinterlands.

Amvarean lifted up a carefully reproduced diagram of early 20th​ century traction engine whose belts turned a threshing machine. It was capital... it was a step forward to increase the amount a limited number of men and horses could do. The first baronial farms had relied on standing buildings using horse turned wheels to thresh wheat. Even this particular traction engine was unlikely to be carried out into royal service... he expected more likely that the boiling vessel would use spells like heat metal to and similar to build up steam pressure ... and would likely be much larger than those viable on the great plains of the United States ... of the current era.

Eire hadn't forgotten that it was only the year 1919 on Earth assuming that he had correctly pegged the date from what Shyka had shown him of the earth that currently was. "I have built these pumps using steam power to remove water from the mines in the south," South of Silverstep, "They have helped, and allow me to spare my wizards elsewhere, there still remains the need to speak with the horse lords of the steppe, but they are not beyond reason."

He had to wonder how much of that were the likes of the White Stallions, in particular thought probably the other tribes from Iobaria had enough experience with sensible law abiding dragons... if admittedly more likely Blues to interact with the realm... or just that the iobarian horse lords had no grievance by which to make trouble over. He supposed it was entirely possible that given the realm's condition, and that nomadic groups engaged in trade with sedentary people that unless they chose to side with Armag in... if there was a fight then he might not have to worry... and the truth was, "I don't suppose we might be able t coopt them into a conflict against Armag is we are pressed into one."

Amvarean paused from scrutinizing the diagram, "It wouldn't be unfeasible, the Iobarians have their share of worshippers of the lord in iron, but there are still others," Simply claiming to Armag reborn or even being the reborn champion wouldn't win them all over. It was not, ironies aside, a magical solution even if it did clearly help Armag to levy support. The dragoness paused, "Slaying the Witch would do much to draw aplomb from the tribes."

"Which of course we already planned to do," He replied as the tiny yellow bird settled on his shoulder its golden eyes reflected on the blade.

Sarenith 4714
Midsummer was still a few days away, but the swamp had grown oppressively humid as the longest day of the year approached. It was much much more humid than the narlmarches... probably as a result of the difference in elevation. Jaethal's description from the previous month was accurate. Illthuliak had shattered the area she had built her lair in, battering down trees and marring the landscape with acid, and likely turning the still water further brackish with magic... she had probably nested here for perhaps a decade and the dragon had demanded regular offerings of tribute from the evil denizens of the swamp... and most recently that had included the boggards of Mbottu.

Illthuliak didn't seem to have any greater motivation for the swamp... there was no sophistication to the extortion racket just threats. She demanded tribute because she was the strongest thing around, and even if she wasn't she likely would have terrorized the landscape... and given time she would likely have depopulated the area and had to relocate.

... and like most of her breed Ilthuliak was arrogant. She saw them gathered round, and said nothing, but her body language radiated disdain. The Witch flared her wings. The boggard chieftan paying her homage quaked, and the frog folk likely did not need the narration of the naga to suitably terrorized by the physical flexing the wyrm put on. Even the marsh giants quaked... never mind the dozen or so trolls; given her kind's acid breath which their kind had likely been on the receiving of before.

Shaoyu bristled impetuously before the much older dragon, but Amvarean steadied her, taking the place in front of the younger. Jaethal had her expression fixed on the naga narrating to the boggards, which in ordinary cases would have been such a clear insult from the elef that the black dragon would have, should have gone ballistic... but before Ilthuliak could react Eire had dropped the pretense, the masquerade of mortality.

His human or humanoid form fell away. Red scales flashed in the summer day, and steam hissed around his form as a square leonine head formed. Ilthuliak started to snap back, there was to be no talking in this, her short neck flexed backwards as the earth shook, but the glowing corona of solar flame was only the beginning, a signal of a fight between dragons.

From his jaws a blast of radiant light exploded axial energy underscoring the flames, Ilthuliak was fast for her bulk, the flames missed tearing through a wing, and scored across the back of her shoulder instead, but even so that was enough. The counter blast of her acid streaked across his scales, and Ilthuliak perhaps in a misplaced moment of triumph roared before the steam cleared, as one his mithril claws wreaked downwards nearly tearing through her eye.

The two tyrants closed but the battle around them unfurled. Amvarean had dropped her half elf guise and circled to one side to prevent any potential distractions. A priest of minderhal waded forth with his adamantine hammer to smash a particularly hideous marsh giant in the forehead before the other giant could defend himself. Jaethal attacked the naga, while Shaoyu watched the inquisitor's side and menaced the boggards with her flaming sword.

Eire circled the witch, waiting for the black to either close or attempt to cast magic. Ilthuliak had expected her acidic breath to do something... not harmlessly splash against his scales. The Witch was careful, more careful now.

Be it said, that conventional wisdom held that it was only with red dragons that blacks might consider the effort of restraining their ferocious tempers... but it was also admitted across golarion that reds and blacks rarely intersected. Ilthuliak had no expectation that she was about to face an arch dragon in battle, never mind one with scales of hearth tones.

The mud, and muck squished beneath her boots as she navigated carefully. Jaethal eyed the sorceress, it would have been too much she expected to hope that Eire could have scoured the whole area with heaven's fire and denied the enemy their spellcasters... she accepted that the fight between dragons was always going to be the main event. No one expected once the black dragon was dead there would be much concrete resistance to their forces... but she planned to try at least to kill the naga before that became an issue.

Amvarean watched the flank, searching for any of Ilthuliak's pathetic slaves to try and intervene... but secretly she doubted it would be the case. If Ilthuliak did attempt to flee she would follow, but blacks were not cowards. Ilthuliak might consider retreat from them, but the Witch might well make a defiant last stand even in the face of their power. She was after all still a dragon.

Ilthuliak's sudden shout of profanity drew her attention and it wasn't hard to guess the black wyrm had realized she could no longer work spells. The black from the periphery of the silver's vision lowered her head and charged forward horns barred

and the trap was sprung..

There was a shrill call of a bird, and an adult gold dragon stood in their midst wrenching the black back into the swamp with a crash... and expose Ilthuliak to a lethal stroke of mithril talons that tore out her throat...

The black's eyes widened malevolent glowing red orbs that slowly faded as she gurgled her last and thrashed back into the swamp. The gold disappeared back again into a small singing bird circling the crown of flaming horns that ringed Eire's leonine skull, even as he spoke up echoing across the field of battle.

"We are Eire of Shrikewall." He intoned in draconic, wings extended as he loomed over the swamp scar. "We are sovereign of Narhold." Jaethal would admit that some of what followed was lost in translation from draconic even as the sunlight filled the deformed landscape... the marsh giants fought on, but the stone giants had expected the raving mad men to fight on... and the trolls fought as long as the giants did and then some made to flee.

The boggards surrendered when their chieftain died, and Jaethal held up the naga's severed head.

"Not bad for a day's work." Amvarean observed returning to her half elf form.

Jaethal tossed the head into the mud, and she brought up the valid point that there were still other boggards, and other evil denizens in the swamp's expanse that would need to be brought to heel. There were tributaries who were no here, other predators on riverine traffic.

Eire exhaled taking a step forward and extending his hand, a narrow silver longsword manifested and he severed the remaining muscle and scales holding Ilthuliak's head to her body.

Ilthuliak had sunk much treasure in the swamp here. There were no living prisoners here, perhaps that was a small mercy. The murky bottom of the swamp had no shortage of hoards of corroded coins of copper and silver, and Ilthuliak's coin bed was largely gold and platinum Mithril, unlike nonmagical silver did not corrode, nor did adamantine, and Ilthuliak's hoard contained vast quantities of various crystals... including a ridiculously oversized piece of quartz polished to provide a mirror image.

The black wyrm had had a vault constructed for still other treasures but they would take the time to drain the swamp with magic to pick everything clean tomorrow. Amvarean would carry back what Ilthuliak had looted from her own hoard at least of the items that remained, and then they would push north.

M'bottu would need to be secured, and he supposed that meant placing Gary in charge of the settlement since Shaoyu had slain the chief, Sepoko, who had ordered Gary's death and lead to the exile's subsequent flight east into the Narlmarches.

... but among the treasures in Illthuliak's collection, unharmed after thousands of years plus however long it had been exposed to Ilthuliak's possession was an adamantine case inscribed with runes, and sealed with a complex... combination lock from the looks of it.

"We'll return it to Shrikewall," Eire remarked putting it aside, "When the fighting is resolved we will contend with it, and with any other items here." There were other matters to attend to, and they would gather all of this, and take it back.

--
Notes: I had considered how to do a dragon fight, and ultimately while there is brief mention of one from an outsider perspective during the mendev interlude, I figured the best way to handle this was that Eire had no reason to provide Ilthuliak with either a fair fight, or that Ilthuliak herself had no reason to attempt to organize such hence the progression here as it plays out.

21 Sarenith 4714AR
Eire regarded the summer sky and returned his focus to cleaning his hands. It was something of a pointless gesture in their present environment. The slough was a massive swamp. It did after all sustain communities of boggards, trolls, lizard folk, bog striders, and among others the now unlamented passing of the black dragon Ilthuliak.

He had spent several days travelling, largely by boat across the slough. A number of the genial River Giants ensuring that he was ferried wherever he needed to be. The bog striders were civil enough, and Gary promised to do his best to bring his people into the light so to speak. What that would entail, Eire couldn't say, but the boggard village was large, and on the opposite shore to the south east of Fort Drelev.

They were preparing.

The east sellen river's path north tracked westernly, but the river as it flowed south from Lake Hontogune had countless tributaries, and streams flowing together east and west. The largest of these was the Siltstrand river... but the Hooktongue slough river itself had many 'horizontal' tributaries that flowed down from the messy stone carsts that formed the boundaries of the slough.

At its widest point the Slough proper was probably only about fifty miles, but its north south preponderance was at least a hundred miles if not a hundred fifty count the eastern banks of the river as it pressed down into northern mivon. Lake Hooktonuge was much larger than the Tuskwater... or Lake Silverstep for that matter. It was a massive body of water.

Certainly it had looked big on the map but he had failed to grasp precisely how large the slough ws in comparison to his own major lakes. Lake Hooktongue was almost eight hundred square miles of surface water. That wasn't counting a thousand square miles of marsh and rivers to the south of the lake that formed the south of Drelev's eastern domain... and in that mire expanse it was no wonder that Drelev had not realized the monstrous creature so close to his castle.

Ilthuliak might have not have noticed the fort and its outlying settlements, not really. Why would she? The black dragon would have, surely, given time, but this lair had been a recent transition... by draconic standards... out paranoia or other facets the black dragon had been here perhaps a few years ... maybe even had taken up residence in a twist of irony as the charters had been inked... maybe a decade or so... Whatever the case it didn't really matter.

What did matter was the matter of the dragon's hoard. Specifically returning whatever had been looted from Amvarean when Ilthuliak had slain the younger silver dragon. That was somewhat complicated matter of the broader conflict. With Ilthuliak slain, it was time to deal with the rest of the slough, and that meant Drelev, and the barbarian chieftains he was using as he was.

He regarded the severed head of the dragon, and then looked back at his hand. Ilthuliak had been dead when he had conjured the blade encarmine. It had disappeared after he was done, but it had been substantially more powerful than the mundane swords he normally wielded.

Jaethal was presently glowering at the assembled clergy of the Inheiritor piping on about miracles, and divine will. She paused to comment on his previously hitherto unmentioned immunity of the elder black's acid, but he shook his head.

He shrugged

The elf blinked and he flexed his admittedly still dirty hands. The conversation started to turn, but were interrupted by the sudden squawking, and the noise from the banks of the great lake. "Dragon." The inquisitor said turning.

"Dragons." He corrected as the argument increased in tempo.

Jaethal frowned but didn't object the correction.

Someone was huffily calling Shaoyu an insolent child, and it was clear to Jaethal that the red was having none of such lecturing from the stranger. Eire was quite used to his realm's attractions of such oddities... maybe it was the stolen lands in general perhaps it was just the nature of Golarion, but it was abundantly clear Jaethal felt the same... or at least that she had reached the same conclusion.

What Eire did wonder was how much of the inherent strangeness of the Stolen Lands was of course also a by product of the First World, and how much of what his kingdom experienced might be influenced not just by that by his steady assimilation of those shards of power. Shards which came seemingly in relation to changes to the realm... he might have considered it more likely to have been his war against drelev... but in hindsight no killing a great dragon was more distinctive than waging war against an ambitious neighbor.

"Where is Amvarean?"

"I didn't expect her back yet." Eire replied drawing up. The truth was they were preparing for the advance onto Drelev. That someone could wander upon them though, that did concern him. Drelev had chosen in many respects an excellent location to build Fort Drelev... at least from the perspective of protecting it from the threat of the slough, of someone trying to cross the body of water from the east.

Maybe defending not so much, it seemed as if the curtain wall around the town was incomplete, but it didn't matter. Drelev had made a solid attempt to secure his demsense.... and the truth was Eire had considered that carefully... and probably overmatched that. Amvarean had returned to Silverstep in part to make clear to not just hteir own sedentary population but nomadic tribesfolk that Ilthuliak had been slain.

Shaoyu was in an argument with a Tian woman, but the conversation carried on in Draconic. In itself that was nothing, a substantive portion of Narland's population spoke draconic even if not as a first language. It was the preferred language of the court, and the first language laws were published even if Taldane, common, iterations were also issued from royal printing presses.

She introduced herself with a hint of pomp and circumstance, and he was rather relieved the lady sky dragon was a cleric of the Empress of Heaven, that was to say another Lawful Good goddess of the sword.
--
Valerie had expected his majesty to return. The evil dragon Ilthuliak had been slain, a reiteration of the crown's divine right to rule, a reiteration that the king protected the realm. She hadn't necessarily expected him to return with another dragon in tow. Vordakai didn't seem particularly surprised, "This is less of an issue, admittedly in my previous time the Sky Dragons were more likely to remain in the distant east, but much has changed I admit that." The primordial cyclops rasped.

As she understood in that era the septs had largely settled geographically in territorial boundaries much as humans did. Apparently in distant Tian Xia the 'Imperial Dragons' still followed a similar tradition whereby families of dragons were frequently active in the goings on of human kingdoms... and it made sense she would admit that the most religious of such dragons, the lawful good ones would come and pay homage.

"And her claims?"

"Ruling dragons would likely spread their offspring far and wide," Vordakai replied, "I suspect that we are as choice a realm as any with the crusade." He glanced to the Iomedaen cleric.

"The Inheritor has much in common with the Empress of Heaven," Vaclav remarked, "Their church and ours enjoy great commonality in doctrine, with the virtues of knights, and the way of the sword." And as he admitted, it was entirely likely that Shelyn's direct request the year previous regarding the Golden Grove, after the events there, to shelter the Sthenos that Shizuru had found an appropriately pious envoy to send here. "Though admittedly there is a small congregation of the goddess's followers already within Shrikewall."

Which, to Valerie, sounded all well and good, if didn't complicate things. She had already been dreading the increased presence of Shelyn's church, not just brevic pressures, but even the storm giants. All of that would still have been manageable if not to her liking but they now had ... not just the issue of Drelev on their border but further conflict with the barbarians and it seemed unlikely that ... "Do you believe this is a good thing?" She was asking Vaclav, but Vordakai looked prepared to give his opinion as well, which probably would be just as insightful.

"Of course," The priest replied, "His Majesty has commanded the creation of a standing army, I should think that the intercession of gods near and far is a sign of Heaven's favor to the great work of civilization."
--
Notes: As I mentioned some time back that Eire's acquisition of his floating lair from Dragons wouldn't occur until after Ilthuliak was dead, and this is the lead into that. Also Tian Xia dragon introduction which has been in the works for a while now. Admittedly that wasn't a major factor in some of the continuing changes to the 4714 content, which is still in progress, I m officially no longer with a back log of stuff due to other factors so yeah.

Also thing I found on youtube:

Sarenith 4714 AR
They had roughly a week until the end of the month, but with Ilthuliak dead he was now prepared to end this. Kisandra had outlined the layout of Fort Drelev, and that had been largely confirmed for them by others. It was a large town situated along the lake shore and the hill prominence. There had been a lair of Chuul south of where the Sellen flowed out the Lake, that had needed clearing, but the River Giants had seen to that, and were now mustered with their boats at the southern banks of the lake... when the time came would sail north and land on the docks.... but that was only to be part of the matter. Maegar had crossed the Lake and the Siltstrand circling around to pitch camp on the northern banks of the river west of Fort Drelev. He was to largely focus on the west and north roads and prevent any potential escape.

Eire intended to enter the city by stealth, reach the temple of Erastil, and spend the night there, preparing for the actual investment of the town. The next morning he would visit the Velvet Corner, and the local priestess of Calistria. Kisandra's friend, Satinder, would ideally allow him to use here shrine to expand the force arriving in an ironic mirroring of Tazlford's relief.

Regongar and Amiri were too occupied with the great severed head of the dead Black Wyrm to pay mind to the matters of impending low warfare. That was not the reason he was leaving them here. The truth was he intended to invest the town, and preferably to distract whatever defenders by forcing them to move to the gap in the western wall before the columns of sunlight, and the arrival of archons informed the town that they were being 'liberated'.

... he hoped that the denizens of Fort Drelev would obey the celestial messengers to remain calm, and in their homes. He needed the streets of the castle town open and clear. Part of that was not just asserting control, but to ensure that they could deal with the hill giants apparently helping Drelev defend his town.

There were still yet other messages, and ground work that needed to be distributed. In particular the news of Ilthuliak's demise was being sent south to Mivon, with the proclamation that the Kingdom would be annexing Drelev's domain and that the Slough would be reopened to traffic upon the conclusion of hostilities... and also that the Mivonese Aldori would be told he was marching on Drelev soon. The truth was of course by the time Mivon was informed he expected that hte fighting would be done, but Mivon didn't necessarily need to know that.

The truth was he hoped to overawe the denizens of the castle or at least its surrounding town because he didn't want a messy assault... and also he was concerned about some of the other news of events still further west, and now from the north in Brevoy... but that would be something to deal with later, after this had been resolved.
--
The infiltration itself, the boat ride across the Slough into the delta where the siltstrand met the great lake was uneventful... most likely with Maegar pitched to the north west and limited guards Drelev was either concentrating his troops in his castle proper or at the apparent gap in his incomplete outermost wall... whatever the case it didn't matter. Fort Drelev was still a sizable town, even from reports they had weathered Elvanna's mad scheme worse than others.

Still if not for well built stone fortress on the hill, and indeed a number of other masonry architecture buildings Drelev had erected his seat of power in a largely typical brevic fashion. It was a brevic settlement with rows of sturdy little homes and shops built from wood. Just as the main outer palisade protecting the sprawling town was of wood.

The interior of the town's temple of Erastil, another hallmark of Drelev's rostlandic heritage, was unfinished... and there were no signs of its priests. Indeed the large stone building appeared to have been abandoned for at least weeks if not all winter. Still incomplete as a whole, the ground was consecrated. That would be enough... and silently Eire made a mental note that he would have to speak to his own Erastillian clergy at the Temple of the Elk to see about finishing the furnishings ... but its lack of attention would have to be addressed, or answered for.

He clapped his hands and sparks flew. The warm summer air drifted through the sanctuary. The bell tolled as lantern archons emerged from it to swirl around him in greeting, their lights dancing. He had little time to spend with the archons they were relying on magic to coordinate time, and while he was unsure if the guards actually thought Maegar Varn would mount a night attack, he hoped that the Issian scion had followed through with advertising his presence well.

There were no interruptions as night waned, and gave way to the first rays of dawn, and people began to stir, for another day of drudgery, and yet he was taking a chance of being spotted so early out in the street, but he no longer cared. The preparations in the church were laid, Erastil's temple would serve its purpose and there was still another sanctuary of sorts to visit.

He had actually misjudged the distance from the Temple of Erastil, to the Velvet Corner and his attention caught briefly on a small stone shrine across from it, before he turned into the gambling hall... and brothel. The bawdy house was typical of calistrian establishments pulling double or even triple roles as such, the same was true in Tatzlford after all.

He just needed to have a quick conversation with the priestess of Calistria before either the guards on the wall were lead to believe Maegar had begun his attack, or someone accidentally found the archons early. That proved easier said then done, as the Calistrian had little time this early in the morning trying to rouse a handful of unfriendly or downright ornery mercenaries who were sleeping off the previous night's drink... and then it was too late as the warnings went out to the guards, and Eire threw himself physically into one of the pitaxian sellswords.

Quicksilver eyes narrowed as fire boiled from his fingers searing through the man's neck, he left the man to fall on the wooden floor and swung his hands open to release the sun bolts.

"What-"

The screaming started though.

"I am Eire," It felt, off to use the first person singular, the draconic imperative wasn't truly plural but in the same royal we sense but it was more accurate to translate it as we, and in Taldane the royal vernacular was a much more clear royal we, "Kisandra Numesti sought my aid to," He trailed off... the discussion was almost pointless he could feel on his senses that the archons had begun to emerge to carry out his wishes and to direct the townsfolk to shelter in place... and also that they most likely had started firing upon the giants and guardsmen in Pitax or Drelev's service. "it matters not," He clapped his hands wrapping everyone inside the Velvet Corner in a much expanded word of recall and depositing them in the Temple of the everbloom that was sheltered the youngest Numesti daughter before he returned alone... or rather returned to the velvet corner's empty gambling hall with only the cleric of Calistria as a column of solar flame whisked down on the Temple of Erastil.

Unlike other times when they had done this, this time the column of solar flame came down in all its glory with the roar of heaven. Men emerged from the vertical sheet of holy fire armed and ready for battle, rushing forward to clear the space of holy ground provided by the temple, and rushed hurriedly down the streets invoking their gods as they moved.

"You said Kisandra sent you?"

The blue clad Calistrian had followed him back out into the street to see the forming ranks.
He cleared his throat, "We are Eire of Shrikewall," Eire reiterated for effect, but apparently Satinder Morne didn't speak draconic, "I am King of Narland," He stated in Taldane for the human cleric's benefit, but his attention had turned towards the battle as a flight of archons assaulted a stumbling hill giant.

--
Notes: Battletech will update in the morning I have a migraine and it needs some revisions before going up.

Sarenith 4714 AR
Maegar Varn lowered his far eye as he finished his count. There weren't that many guards.

There was one problem with this plan, Drelev shouldn't have been stupid enough to think that as an experienced campaigner that Maegar would launch an attack eastward marching into the rising sun... it would have made more sense for him to launch a night attack or one late in the day when the sun would be behind his forces... obviously of course Hannis still needed to defend his walls, especially with a gap in them already, but Drelev should have smelled that there was something wrong with the entire deployment of forces to his west.

The other issue was if the Tiger Lords had shown up to relieve the city, but Maegar had been less worried about that. They'd pitched their camp in sight of the walls, and the druids had raised formidable barriers to deter attacks... not that any of Drelev's knights had sallied out to attack them since they had been here, and there had been no Kellid tribesmen approaching from the west either.

Still he had maneuvered the troops into position to look as menacing as possible. It at least looked like they were moving to the threaten the lone watch tower that dominated the open gap of the walls. He had thrown up enough of a screen to the south that if anyone came out of the west gate they couldn't advance on them, but Maegar hadn't really seen much imitative from the Guards.

... given the lack of initiative he might have ordinarily pushed things, demanded that Drelev throw open his gates and surrender. He hadn't for a number of other reasons. Drelev had probably locked himself in his castle, and it had completed curtain walls, and a tower in addition to being set on the bluff overlooking the town. Hannis would make them assault the town and try and hide behind his castle walls... and with Pitax involved Maegar was leery of perfidy so he was comfortable waiting, and he didn't have long to wait.

The first column of solar fire was visible from more than a mile away. If Maegar understood the layout of the town, then that meant any giants that had arrived with the first wave could simply walk up the north road, and block the castle gates, they might even be able to force the north gate of the town by themselves.

He also suspected that if he, Maegar, hadn't thought to expect clerics transporting companies of armsmen across the land in columns of heavenly fire then Drelev probably hadn't expected that. He understood that the next phase would be securing the temple of Calistria, but also that the River Giants, and the Ulfen and Iobarian longships would attempt to cross the Lake and land at the docks in force... just as his forces were looking into the sun while facing the west wall, any guards on the docks would be looking across the massive body of water as the morning sun rose in the east.

--
Eire twisted his fingers in invoking gesture. There was an instant roar of fire and heat. A column of fire descended scattering the brigands in uniform stumbling through the street. He had pushed on from the Velvet Corner just as soon as he had marked it and then the Rat's Shrine; a small stone shrine to Hanspur, and then told Calistria's priestess what to expect; even if he had perhaps undersold things a bit.

Brigh's clergy had built mechanical clocks for the realm. The idea of a timed work day was unusual of course for a medieval realm, but they had been able to implement a time schedule, and thus also coordinate what needed to be done. They would signal through magical mirrors, and words of sending when the next parties would move from each temple.

From there it would be a matter of leapfrogging. The shrine to Hanspur, and the Velvet Corner were both on the western side of the down, and his eyes were already focused on the watchtower and the gap in the wall. He couldn't see Maegar's host beyond it, but he didn't need to.

If he had wanted he could have easily summoned a swarm of elementals from the plane for Fire to resolve this... but the truth was there were factors of restraint that needed to be conveyed. They needed to assert control of the town. The first troops to arrive at the Velvet corner would need to hold it to insure they had sufficient numbers to hold the docks to the south as well as check the watch tower... or at least that was the nominal plan, but if they could successfully land on the fishermen's wharfs then they could invest the town proper in short order and sweep east to link with further numbers arriving at the temple of Erastil.

There was a rush of wind as archons surged past the area and the guards he had blasted with flame strike and they, the lantern archons, struck out against the the tower's archers. Flashing pulses of radiant energy struck the upper deck.

As expected within minutes more columns of fire signaling the arrival of more troops from the various temples serving as staging points throughout the Narlmarches began to appear. They carried with them an array of forces but most were human regardless of ethnicity, though there were half elves and giants visible among the ranks.

Banners from the church of Iomedae were joined by those of Milani and Ragethiel as well as those of hawk headed Sokar, and falcon headed Horus. It was these that formed the main paladin vanguard behind which rangers and clerics from other faiths would follow.

It wouldn't have been wholly inaccurate to describe it as a holy army, or a crusader host given the disproportionate ranks of church membership forming the martial component... but of course that also went to the way they arrived... which Eire recognized would be something that would have to be discussed with more conservative churches like Erastil... that wasn't putting things fully on the human congregation of Erastil, but apparently no one had ever considered using churches in this fashion.

Something for later though, since of course again most of his troops were religious.

If it had been winter, or Winter adjacent such as with irrisen's incursion, the men would have had had wool cloaks, or even great coats dyed iron black through the royal textiles. Since it was summer most men had forgone those. The tabards of most of the paladins carried the holy symbols of their respective churches, otherwise emblazoned on shields. The Lion Rampant of Narland was disproportionately carried by giantish standard bearers from Stone Giants wading forward, and they largely belonged to Erastil's faith, though some served other giantish gods like Bergelmir. On the other hand it made the presence that much more outsized for its numbers.

There was no mounted component to this engagement. It was all men afoot. Drelev's layout was in no small part shaped by geography, and most obviously the lake on who's shores it was built upon. If Eire were to guess the house immediately south of the castle's hill, had probably been some of the first settlement. It had probably been the first brevic colonists here. He didn't know that for sure, but the North road and gate simply felt more planned, but that may have just been the wider nature of the thoroughfare leading to the north gate and its access to the castle gates.


Whatever the case was, with troops arriving in his proximity and at the Temple of Erastil the settlement was divided and there were still the troops outside as well. That was the point of course, no need to maintain a costly or protracted siege of a settlement of a few thousand people when this was an option.

Sarenith 4714
For all its size Drelev's town was actually smaller in population than it should have been... and yet at the same time smaller was a relative claim. Drelev's town surrounding his keep was large by the standards of Norman England, and meant that there were several distinct neighborhoods or rookeries where clusters of houses and shoppes gathered. For their numbers though, and regardless of discontent with the Baron there hadn't seemed to be any revolt forthcoming from the peasants living within the towns walls... and they certainly didn't need to be told twice to stay indoors as the archons swarmed about through the streets.

That was one less thing to worry about, and he was grateful for it. "I want that tower taken care of," Eire remarked matter of factly looking at the lone form of tower centered in the gap on the western wall.

There was a sharp nod from the sharp eyed bronze skinned form of the cleric of Shelyn. The giantess wasted little time in turning to the small collection of the clergy forming a throng around him. The air sizzled abruptly as the storm giant hurled a blast of lightning the exploded through the top of the tower... which rather effectively dealt with the problem, even if that hadn't quite been what he had had in mind... but that was his own fault he supposed for delegating without clear instruction.

A few moments later Maegar's voice echoed through the sending spell, asking for clarification on what it was he was supposed to be doing... if now was the time to advance? Whether it had been intended too or not it functioned effectively as. Drelev's gap in the wall allowed them to bypass the western gate house entirely.

Already his attention turned from the palisade, wooden protection ringing the city, to the castle's stone curtain walls. Given the growth of the city the palisade was an effective and inexpensive, and also the norm of brevic construction for defenses. The stone walls of the keep would b e more of a challenge, and given the rarity of stone construction in Brevoy might well have inflated Hannis's idea of safety.

Eire almost regretted not inviting Amvarean to participate in this, but they were already committed, and the truth was Drelev was already isolated. He had other forces elsewhere including Jaethal on other matters of state.

He started the walk eastward, past the Velvet Corner where now stood armsmen in Iomedaen livery directing traffic, and other men in piano black and crimson tabards stood further down the center thoroughfare running towards the Temple of Erastil. At the temple stood a centuries old stone giant cleric of old Dead Eye directing the matters at the fork where the east west course joined the north road near the temple and the stable and smithy. If Eire had had to guess he would have assumed that Drelev had staked out the site for the castle, and deforested most of it to provide the timber... admittedly he'd probably cleared much of the lakeshore tree line because had no doubt sunk much of his effort in his personal residence. Clearing the trees would have needed to be done, and he needed the wood to build much of the town... and while it wasn't exactly how Eire would have done planned it Drelev hadn't made any significant errors.

He had made good use of the terrain, it was probably just bad luck that Irrisen's mad scheme had unfolded... and that he'd been caught up in pressures and machinations of Pitax, and their barbarian allies. It was why he wanted to avoid damaging the walls if at all possible... it was why of course that close that gap in the wall would be something he would need to see to... after they had the castle in hand of course.

"They have locked the gate, my lord." A sergeant drawn from Hereford's garrison remarked approaching, "They have men in the towers," But either aware that his forces had taken magical precautions against arrows, or just unsure of what to do, the guards in the outer towers had made no attempt to attack. "There are further giants though in the courtyard."

"Ah," He replied with a nod, that made sense, "How many?"

"Six, sire. They seem well disciplined." The sergeant relayed.

The gate house was large enough to accommodate the giants, if Drelev attempted to sally they wouldn't have any trouble getting through the gate house. Drelev seemed to have erected his keep with high ceilings less because of giants but rather as a protection or comfort against the summer heat and humidity of the Slough. A part of him considered that maybe it would be better to provoke the giants to coming out. On the other hand, he had other options, "Prepare to knock the gate, gather to me a handful of our giant companions."

"Yes your majesty."

It took another half hour to assemble the necessary clerics to prepare to cast unshackle as well have enough men to reinforce the company of armsmen. It was an abundance of precaution since the majority of the realm's paladins were committed to this expedition. The senior cleric, a man nearly into his sixties... quite close to Jhod's age eyed the castle and cast the spell as Eire expended a spell of his own to cast dimension door for the mix of stone and storm giants around him.

The giants moved through the glowing portal of sunlight and warm flame as Eire turned to the towers raising his hands to release rays of sunlight as the two gate towers . He didn't necessarily care if he hit the men with in, it would serve him just as well if all they did was duck.

The gate was open and he could see the courtyard to cast the spell and thus his dimension door allowed their giants to simply appear in the courtyard. There were two more towers overlooking the courtyard but he doubted any men manning those were facing inward... and it didn't matter matter... for their part the Hill Giants had immediately started to action rolling to face the sudden challenge with surprising alacrity... but they were within the keep's walls.

--
The chorus of archons radiated across the town. It was in part magical, and part simply the number of archons which floated over the town. Unshackle was effectively Knock Mass it might as well have been called that and had been a surprise to keep in reserve until they forced the castle... but of course they had been prepared to bypass the palisades by magic anyway.

The mix of pitaxian sellswords, and the brevic guards from the Drelev demesne weren't intimidated per se by the archons, at least not any more than they were of the army as a whole. It didn't really matter the chorus was more for the peasants and the townsfolk anyway. Drelev's brother in law was a wizard and had had the foresight to protect the windows with magical locks, but probably against thieves not other spellcasters. The commoners on the household staff had hidden themselves away in their quarters when the fighting had spilled into the hall.

It was just as well.

What was not just as well was Drelev's disappearance in the assault. The man had probably fled during the chaos, the question really was where, and by what means... because it presented a problem. On the other hand the coward had abandoned both his wife and his mistress in the flight... which Eire supposed should have surprised him any... he doubted it would surprise Kisandra Numesti.

That was the other good news. Her father, Ser Terrion, at least had been in one of the few occupied cells in the north wall dungeon. He was fatigued from his stint there, but alive. That would probably make things easier in the long run.

Eire twisted slightly to regard the room. House Drelev's colors were a bit garish, and the room with its deep browns and bright gold tiles were probably fashionable by the standards of brevoy but they almost gave him a headache, and if they was a shrine or chapel in the keep his men had not been able to find it... still the audience chamber was tall enough to admit a handful of his giant vassals, including a storm giant cleric of Shelyn who had been elected from their ranks to join them here, along with one of the clerics of Minderhal who was to Eire's immediate right.

House Stroon, the deposed baron's in laws, were like House Drelev a baronial house of some standing in Brevoy of 'good taldane stock'. Simply killing the wizard and Drelev's wife out of hand was ... out of the question. The baron's current mistress was one of those dispossessed nobles from Galt and she'd ingratiated herself well enough with the baron even in spite of the troubles with Pitax... though that was probably just as much a facet of the Tiger Lords running rampant Drelev's hospitality had probably been been her best option.

"We are Eire of Shrikewall." He intoned royal and authoritative and warming the room a few degrees further.

Unsurprisingly the Stroon siblings both spoke draconic. The galtish womanish didn't. Not that it mattered the introduction was more for a matter of formal opening. That Ser Terrion understood at least that much draconic was also irrelevant.

There were several matters he needed to address formally as he glanced around.

Drelev had fled his keep in the face of a hostile army. He doubted he would have any protests from the churches of his realm and thus most likely their neighboring coreligionists to asserting his authority. He probably wouldn't have issues from Mivon... but Pitax was obviously going to be a matter of some trouble.

Whether or not a show of magnanimous clemency in sending the Stroon siblings back to Brevoy would win him anything he couldn't be sure of... but it was an option. Imeckus, the older brother of the baroness, had pledged his good contact ... and at the very least he seemed honest enough of having little positive to say of his brother in law... but Eire suspected the sooner he was rid of the two the better. He might regret it later but for now it was the expedient solution... and truth was the sooner this was resolved the sooner he could return to Shrikewall and start allocating resources to deal with other issues that Drelev's idiocy had alerted him to.

Late Sarenith 4714
In theory, with Mbottu brought to heel, Ilthuliak's demise and her tributaries otherwise removed as a threat the way into Lake Hooktongue was now clear to Mivonese trade. He hoped that would be enough to assuage Mivon's consent or concern as the political fallout settled. In the mean time there was the matter of the northern Slough, and the castle town.

Officially he was naming Kissandra Baron to succeed Hannis Drelev. It was 'officially' in the sense he had said it, but he had yet to draft the letters patent. He wasn't yet sure whether or not there would be a Drelev legacy. Would it remain Fort Drelev? He expected to write, when it came down to actually write it the actual barony would be named something like, the barony of the northern hooktongue or the like... and it might take another month or more to actually determine the borders the barony would entail similar to the demarcations that the Varnhold had undergone.

Then of course there was the endowment of the Church that would need to be built. Numesti's youngest and most impetuous daughter worshipped Milani... arguably it might have been better if she had worshipped the Inheritor but it didn't matter. The crown would fund a a temple to the everbloom, and would endow the existing church of Erastil with new clergy and complete it as well.

Part of that succession was it rewarded certain behaviors. The Numesti house traced its origins to ancient taldor, they were a knightly house of Brevic stock more recently they had the right pedigree and had been harmed by Drelev's misrule. It made sense on a number of points.

Admittedly Milani's temple would take time, time that they didn't necessarily have. Then of course there was ... well Drelev had apparently killed or been complicit in the murders of the previous erastilian clergy. Then on to of that issue, it was a largely brevic community so Abadar's church wanted representation... and there was an existing shrine, to a third deity, to the River god Haspur... which Eire had no particularly strong feelings one way or another... merely that the river rat's sole priest had fled Fort Drelev when the baron had surrendered, to Pitax, and gone seeking aid... the cleric had managed to end up with the refugees Tristian had shepherded along with some of his coreligionists fleeing Pitax.

Then of course was Amvarean, and the influx of others. Ilthuliak's demise spread fastest as a result of the silver dragon announcing it, and spread quickly among the horse lords... admittedly the Witch's severed head helped but the announcement shored up the attention from the eastern lands, well Iobaria's horse lords in this case. The slough was far from ideal to transit for humans much less mounted humans and the summer rains which had begun were now swelling the mud and while that facilitated riverine navigation it made the course of travel east to west much more narrower.

"I still would have expected the barbarians to raid the Lebeda domain." There were mumbles of agreement from others at Valerie's comment. "But Restov is richer still, the free city's merchants have greater wealth... it may simply be greed."

"Food stuffs wouldn't hurt, either," Maegar remarked in agreement "Securing food from the summer harvest for a protracted campaign."

Also a valid point since Armag had a great horde to feed through the winter.

He had no particular inclination to the taldane-rostlandic house of Lebeda one way or another... but from a purely real politic standpoint it would have been preferable to if the horde had been advancing into their lands, regardless of Restov's wealth. There was a rustling of magic as the shifting sands and structure of the realm map updated.

The influx of people, the prospect of concentrated, top down urban planning created a distinction between the Imperial Core as it would be later thought of an the more Brevic surroundings. Olegton, Tatzlford, the towns at the crossings under Kressle and Akiros, and the temple of the Elk were in addition to the northern slough, and the Varnhold all in the latter category. The distinction though of what was shaping lay in the expansion of the existing architectural distinctions, and the leadership guiding them. Then of course some of that was the immigration from the Inner Sea, from the great states of southern Avistan and further distant. Fundamentally the Imperial Core represented a body of land and legal authority distinct from brevic small holding traditions or tribal competing systems of authority.

Eire frowned, and drummed his fingers on the table in front of him.. The possibility as outlined was that regardless of proximity Restov might well have been tempting for its town goods, cities were cash cows, and there was likely more liquid wealth, and the foodstuffs as well, enough to feed a growing barbarian horde after the summer passed. The truth was he had been unprepared for the conflict with Drelev, or his fledgling barony... and it would have been easy to rally and turn to consider trying to bear through. "Amiri you said that there was further word from the six bears, they've signed on with Armag?" Not the words, not the idiom the kellids would have used, but one that made sense to the chelish and abadarians.

It wasn't exactly news either. Armag's confederation was taking what clans and tribes it could gather and using it to swell their ranks. That had been going on for a while now, but now it was an actual problem on their doorstep with fighting involved.

Amiri did not like the situation at all.

Much though as she might not have liked it, Eire recognized he had other priorities as well. "Maegar for the time being I am going to need you, and Amvarean to concentrate your efforts in the east," Eire paused... "And I will need to probably visit in the near future to speak with the Nomen centaur." Aecora Silverfire could hardly be expected to make a regular visit to Shrikewall given the distance... and frankly given the condition of the slough he hadn't planned to ask the Nomen for assistance with that problem if he didn't need to... and now in hindsight that did seem like it was going to be for the best. Most likely he would need them to cross the Shrike river to the north if they had to mobilize some force by which to make for Restov. "I expect also that part of that will be dealing with the iobarian," in the generic sense of ethnicity, "Horse lords as well, since they seem to be speaking to Amvarean regularly enough."

--
Eire folded his hands into a scholar's cradle. Not that that in anyway impeded or reduced the threat he could pose if he wanted to... and anyone with any real knowledge of magic would have known that, but it conveyed the appearance of less threatening, which for a man his size was relatively useful... even when he had several giants around.

Elder Hulthrak and Vordakai both made enough of an impression. The truth was regardless of the influx of population... actually that contributed to it after the fact, Eire knew that as an economic unit Narland had a labor shortage, at least in some areas. Not in agricultural productivity, that was not an issue, because of capital investment and the transplanting of techniques which were implemented that facilitated much more productive agriculture... and on already good arable land as well.. but in other areas there were labor shortages. There were shortages of in brick manufacture due to the limited number of kilns, there were limits in iron workers, and there were limits caused by limited supply of the base materials due to the lack of workers gathering those, or mining those as the case went. It was a long and complicated list of interdependent supply chains, capital and labor limitations that made the business of administration difficult.

"We will complete for the time being Drelev's walls with palisades," He remarked, it would be something he could call upon his druids for service to see to. That saw to some of his responsibilities, but he knew that he still had other bureaucratic responsibilities. He needed to expand the bureaucracy but that required an educated urban class that could read and write, and that meant compulsory education and that was something he had only had limited time to allocate his focus towards. "I will consider any recommendations you choose to make,"

Vordakai swept his single milky white orb around the room.

Eire had sent Maegar to join Amvarean, in his place were the two Aldori half elves... and the assembly was not short on others. Oleg had come down from his town, and that would be important given the Tiger Lords moving across the border with Brevoy...

The hall was filled with others... but it was also a reminder that he had neither an established community of middling orders, or nobility. The influx of people who settled the land, and even his own council and men of note had limited support structures compared to the web of organizing churches. On the other hand, no one questioned his expectation of oaths of fealty to the crown, the churches didn't brindle at the expectation of a loyalty oath. Still, that was an oath to a monarch, not to the nation.

This was not however a parliament except in the most potentially archaic sense of a body convened to provide advise to the monarch. Most of the people here were looking towards supporting the realm's expansion in traditional means. Drelev had been defeated in the field, and the settlement on the hooktongue seized. The outlying settlements of the barony were in the hands of the knightly houses Drelev had established and thus the best... way forward was to reiterate the crown's laws, and to exercise, to continue the royal program of construction.

The next stage from that would be to of course begin to lay territorial claim to parts further west, to the last of the proposed four baronies... the one that had never gotten off the ground in the first place. That was work which would largely fall to Valerie.

Erastus 4714
The seventh month of the year had opened with space to breath... with the third charter in hand, and new documents drafted... and were it that simple. Regongar and Amiri were likely to be busy for the summer months delving into the southern swamps, and hopefully once secure trade up the eastern sellen could resume and proceed up to lake reykal there... and enrich the newly enfeefed Numesti baroness that would be the best way to stabilize the new order.

He had to concede that Hannis had done a mostly ... efficient well thought out plan for laying out his castle, and the surrounding town. Admittedly it was likely Drelev had had help, and he would have prefered if the roads were wider than they were, but it was a well planned town. The siltstrand provided good southern security security from that side and the hill the keep had been reected on was well chosen. Given time Drelve's western defenses would haveen well sitauted ... that watch tower would have to go though. He planned to use the sight as the endowment to the Church of Milani and they would expand the western distract when they had time but that was still a matter of time and he doubted they would be able to lay foundation before Armasse.

The issue of course was the lack of roads. A problem that had already existed in the Narlmarches, if summer weren't already well upon them construction of a road on from Hereford in the western Narlmarches might have been feasible, and to connect them the thirty or forty so miles to reach the river network that flowed south from the Lake... but it was too late for the year now. The most they could ikely do were the surveys and to prepare labor plans for the following year, of asking the beaver folk and make plans for other feudal services to be rendered next year.

He had other vassals with whom he needed to address as a result of the latest territorial expansion. He would need to visit Gary at Mbottu and also receive the submission and really more accurately friendship of the bog striders of the southern slough... and insure peace between the two large humanoid communities. He would also need to rely on those communities to establish lines of communication and contend with any of the smaller boggard communities in the northern slough; east of the lake. There was also one further factor... and that was to be a beaverfolk settlement on the east sellen, north of hte legal border with mivon, and the temple to Eldas that would center their community. A community that would likely include river giants even the boat faring giants would only be a small part of the the community... so he expected to just as likely fund raising churches to perhaps Berglemir and Erastil. That was something for later, though, perhaps next year, perhaps further still.

"So now what?" Jaethal questioned. The Tiger Lords were still an unaddressed issue. One that he wasn't sure he had an ideal resolution for since really... and Jaethal had pointed out the Tiger Lords... at least Armag directly hadn't acted against their interests personally... and of course it was far from the only issue. The estimates in population were another matter.

He didn't immediately respond his mercury eyes drifting across Shrikewall's skyline, or more correctly the clouds out over the Tuskwater... and the castle in the sky, "We will raise a standing army." He replied... even though the plan was to prepare to call ... certainly not a levy en masse but to make calls to arms of parts of the feudal tenancies and the foederati if necessary... but that would be easier said than done. "That will require consideration of the treasury, and meaningfully other parts of the kingdom."

"The harvest wasn't disrupted by the outbreak of hostilities." Jaethal observed.

... but again that went to the matter of how much of the land ownership and cultivation was administered. The Royal Farms were centrally administered, how they used horse collars, and more importantly horses over oxen, and steel plows of 19th​ century Earth designs. That helped, this years winter wheat harvest had been another factor. "Which I know we should be grateful for." He replied honestly sounding somewhat terse in his reply, "Can we excercise control of the slough?"

"Can we, of course." Jaethal replied as imperious an elf as ever lived, and then, "You slew Ilthuliak, everything in the swamp is rightfully terrified of Amvarean, never mind your presence... and Gary," And it said a lot that Jaethal used the boggard's diminutive nickname, and the boggard's loyalty was genuine. "has control of his village, enough that he's confident to pledge a thousand frogs to the ranks." And the sootscale and mites of the Old Scyamore had offered a similar sized force, though if anything he expected Gary was more interested in matching or being perceived an equal of Trobold and Hargulka's promise of banners.

... and the truth was yes, the denizens of the swamp were unlikely to challenge Amvarean if it came to that, but also while forces had been offered... he didn't like the rumors of the massing tiger lords that he was hearing, and h didn't like how dismissive of the barbarian host Restov seemed to be.
--
As Chancellor Valerie dealt with official correspondence, that included the gratitude of Mendev as well as communications with the Mivonese and also Restov... and Brevoy. It also made her privy to the efforts of the communities and the work of the bell flower network, and the blind eye that the tiefling turned to their efforts.

She knew that Jaethal operated a internal directorate on his majesty's behalf as well who were likewise turning a blind eye. What she hadn't necessarily expected was a development with the Iomedaen church, and other patriotic organizations to merge ... not all of which were officially sanctioned by the crown... at least so far as royal warrants that had been publicly issued.

The establishment of the inquisition came though with the official publication, and reiteration of official policies for duties conducted, and discharged by the office. That was officially subordinate to the Cathedral of the Inheritor, whose official church staff numbered several hundred clergy now... and was not including other churches such as the one at Hereford.

If not for actual endorsement by the crown, Valerie wouldn't have had any reason to actually check the numbers of the church... and to an extent she understood that immigrants from the Inner Sea, leaving Cheliax would probably include members of the church especially since she was treading perilously close to Harrim's responsibilities as the councilor representing the many faiths of the world... but of course the dwarf was rather frumpish as one of her own former coreligionists put it, and the Brevic Church of Shelyn was anxious even to establish more direct ties, which she knew that the Church of Erastil were.... less sure of given the doctrinal differences emerging between Restov and the Temple of the Elk... but that was also in part due to the influx of traditions of Erastillian churches from the old heartlands of the Taldan empire on the Inner Sea, particularly Cheliax following the iomedaen influx... but it was also because the Rostlandic branch of Erastil's church could and had noticed the difference in other demographic factors.

The realm was disproportionately urban in population, which again also attracted the attention of Shelyn's church as town, and city dwellers were more interested in art. It also followed that unlike Brevoy where stone construction was quite rare Eire favored neat brick row houses where matters allowed him to plan his towns... and that made it feasible for town populations to expand. She had recognized the distinction from how Olegton... and Tatzlford had sprawled out from the center in Brevic fashion compared to Shrikewall's broad central streets even before giants in the kingdom made that necessary.

His majesty had said that those streets were wide for practical reasons... but the magic that protected the capital prevented fire from breaking out so the wide boulevards were not for fire prevention... unless of course Eire contemplated a battle between dragons erupting over the capital... which given the conflict with Ilthuliak yes she supposed that was possible. It was a sobering concern, but reasonable in the grand scheme of things.

It fell to her office though to also consider the internal domains within the realm. His Majesty spoke of territorial expanses of many tens of miles. Smaller than the charters issued recognizing territory by Restov but also much more manageable. Eire's notes on his baronial, and now royal, farms flew in the face of conservative rostlandic and erastilian farmers. If this had been her family's estate there would have been protests from the tenants not to do this that it just wasn't' done, that it wasn't how farming was done...

... but the Majority of the population and farmers were not Rostlanders. They were were largely chellish freemen who weren't familiar with the soil conditions and the terrain and the climate but still coming from taldane style large aristocratic estates. His Majesty had laid out the plan, and the chelish freemen had been provided the resources to undertake that work, and it had been done.

Those farms were much expanded now, and their products, their yields went to support the kingdom's population and loaded tens of thousands of bushels to be shipped to Mendev to feed crusaders, and the civilian populace in a land which blight by the demonic incursion could no longer feed itself. What she had not expected that to entail ... well was the reminder that this was not Brevoy and that her new country was not simply Brevoy in miniature.

Erastus 4714
As a monarch there were a number of impediments that frustrated his ambitions... or at least slowed them... Rome was not built in a day.

There were limits on the bureaucratic and institutional capabilities to which he had access to and magic could only do so much. Those limitations meant there was no point in attempting to create an army post on, post Napoleonic or specialist lines of the world war 1 driven reforms. The lack of firearms was superfluous to the issue, since there were other more basic structural components that were lacking. That he had printing presses at all was a much more significant advantage.

Still there were modern era innovation that could be integrated into the nascent prospect of a centralized royal army. Perhaps foremost among that were standardized uniforms, even if armor would be worn over some of that.

He did not like the notion of needing to be in a position to issue orders akin to the levy en mass. He hoped to avoid that. In the interim though the fundamental basic unit would be ten. The army would in theory have 'squads', but realistically the base ten unit would be built using formations of several ten man units of the same nature. Ten tens forming a theoretical Company.

He expected in all honesty to need to crib from the Mongols and the Turks at least to some degree on base ten organization. Most likely... most likely he would need a core of heavy infantry forming his center ranks and in pitched battle rely on cavalry on the wings... but that had ... that entailed its own logistical burdens. It would require him to create those formations, and that would mean finding a factor of common purpose when there was no unifying religion or national creed. That was going to be tricky.

"This is the other matter to which we require." The matter of artificers, and in a sense those would require something to be said for Napoleonic reforms... but they weren't there yet. The best for such was an expansion of the existing standards of measurements. That would be where they would start before they tried to get too far ahead... much as he wanted dedicated spell casters to call on.

Vordakai nodded, and Kanerah voiced her acknowledgement looking over the standards table. Weights, and measures. The short matter was that they needed to push forward with the airships, and their commitments to Mendev. Then still more on top of that was the fact that the dunsward was the northern tip of the expansive steppes of Casmaron... a steppe which of course extended well to the south of his southern border and the nomadic folk had little natural impediment to travel.

"You intend to appoint the other dragon to the council?"

"Meiqi, yes," Eire replied as Vordakai changed the subject from the matter of those commitments, even though the Mendev situation did shape that decision, "I want a civil bureaucracy, and in order to have that compulsory education is necessary."

"A wizard who cannot read is worse than useless." Vordakai remarked with the truism nodding, and with a pause, "And admittedly it would probably do well to have another dragon of high standing among the council given Casmarron's denizens."

The White Dragons of Iobaria were less of a concern... most likely any would take heed of Ilthuliak's demise and leave them be, especially given the climate of Narlhold... but Casmarron had more than whites. The blues, and the brass dragons had been discussed before but that had been before the wyrm had been slain... and of course even before that Amvarean had already had a young gem dragon among her own retainers.

"Yes," Eire replied, and it was here in the implementation he was somewhat leery about ... the secular authorities needed control over education... but that was an opinion from Earth, from modern earth where ... there were factors that didn't' translate one to one with Golarion's situation. More likely while he would need to set national curriculum for language, the realities of religion and magic were going to make things very different. Finally after the singular affirmative, and a moment as they waited for him to continue he nodded, "We will need to prepare the realm for war, I will need cavalry," That had never really been in question, "but I expect to require a contingent of heavy infantry."

Vordakai spread his hands, his bones creaking slightly at the gesture, "I make this remark only in broad recognition of the matter, but as I understand it your own church, and its affiliates would seem to be the most effective avenue of such mortal armsmen." and in the short term Vordakai was right the Inheritor's church and the Empyreal lord faiths did as demonstrated by the advance on Fort Drelev represent his most expedient option to raise heavy infantry.
--
The summer sun was high in the clear afternoon sky, and the market bustled with activity. Kallikke appreciated that clocks did provide a 'material use' but she didn't personally like the mechanical gadgets for the fact they imposed order on the day outside of the turning of hours, and the movements of the sun. The clock moved throughout the day, and with magical lighting insured that workers continued their tasks in shifts... it wasn't just those who manned the powerful mechanical looms either.

Kallikke and her sister sat at the top of the civil service... which of course was important given how limited the rolls of nobility were in the realm. The first summer harvest was already in, and the counting of it was being tallied, but so to were the spun clothes from the water powered looms of which some would of course be exported to the south down the mighty Sellen.

Part of trade, and of other textile goods would go to Mendev as part of relief supplies. Those shipments prevented a backlog of goods, and kept prices stable as the realm's subjects bought clothing when they needed them. The Varnhold did so less frequently than the populous of the Narlmarches and the growing Kameland towns, and she wouldn't have been surprised if even after Fort Drelev recovered its denizens purchased less of these 'jeans' than the center. On the other hand, the boggards and trolls and others might purchase jeans... they were popular clothing wares in Trollbold after all.

More importantly to trade though across the core, and to a lesser extent in Varnhold were the road network that projected across the Kamelands, and towards the major settlements linking with the Road of Shields. The watch posts and towers were expanding as the roads saw more traffic as Iomedaen, or she assumed, otherwise royally authorized retainers staffed the growing posts of horse stables and courier stations that allowed for the rapid transfer of supplies. There was no shortage of wood which went into frame homes where brick wasn't available and those way points meant that they could be shuttled rapidly where there wasn't a river to help as was the case in the central Kamelands or between the Mivon and little sellen.

Kallikke was still unsure of how to feel about the Irrissen diaspora but they were attempting to adapt to the climate, and the need to actually practice sedentary cultivation. Irrissen was a nation of serfs and their emancipation had proven a learning experience over the past year... and of course over the past year the knowledge that Narland had stood against the invaders had likely swayed further migration from the Inner Sea.

It gave her a lot to do.... even without accounting for splitting her time with Kanerah and her sister's interactions with Bozena. Bozena, and her half sister had been issued letters patent the year before and settled and Svetochka had in her tenure as duchess of wintercrux had relied on a bureaucracy of Jadwiga, while consulting no shortage of magical scholars, astrologers and so on which shaped how the two took to their new domains but didn't mean there weren't intersections not just between the sisters but her own, and the cyclops. It was true Wintersun was like other royal centers dominated by the church to the Inheritor at its center, and then also to the Church of Ragathiel raised along side it it was slated to house the kingdom's magic school, and thus was of great interest to Nethys's church, and others.

It was why Vordakai was actually going in person, and why he was requesting funds from the treasury to oversee Pendrod's expenses while the human wizard took over Vordakai's efforts to excavate cyclopean ruins that ancient cyclops would have otherwise presided over. She had no reason to refuse the request, it wasn't as if Vordakai was asking for any significant amount of additional money, just that the Maestro take receipt of it in his stead.

She had no objection. The realm's finances were expanding with a regulated system or standard policy of taxation spelled out within the law code. That annual tax, and of course the five percent tax on the value of certain transactions or services made it feasible for the realm to create teh royal infrastructure... it was what funded the great royal institutions.

Those taxes also, because of the shape the nature of the towns fell evenly across the populace. Her secretaries, the lieutenants responsible for sub officers, kept records for the towns. There were no great land holders in the realm with exemptions carved out, also the peasantry were not likewise burdened by dues and competing obligations. The Royal Court had universal jurisdiction as did the tax collection to which she and her sister were ultimately responsible.

Erastus 4714
The magical heat less flame lighting illuminated the hall far better than early electric bulbs. They threw no harsh glares, and provided ample light in all times of the day or night.

Feudalism, was as he was reminded by living on Golarion that feudal was largely a meaningless word. That it encompassed an idealized, for good or bad, sort of society that frankly didn't exist the real world practice on earth varied too widely even inside the borders of nominal kingdoms... and never mind here. Perhaps that was reiterated by the development of his own, of Narland's, Ivy league of universities... right down to permitting the church of Shelyn's ivy planting.

Officially of course the university at Shrikewall, here in the capital, Silverstep, Hereford, and also soon Wintersun, would house seminaries to the Inheritor... but they would be apart of Narland's national church with the doctrines that went with that. He wanted to do the same with Candlemere, but it was arguably the one community he expected resistance to Iomedaean hegemony (at least of higher learning), so it and Memphis nearby along with perhaps the growing community at the Temple of the Elk would likely form a second league of schools.

Such was both medieval and yet not really a matter of feudalism... feudalism was really more about rural methods of organizing labor, and his realm was while still predominantly rural had no insignificant number of towns of note. "you are prepared?" It was more a matter of formality than anything else.

The Cyclops bowed slightly, "Yes," He gruffed, then in a more alert tone "I am very interested in Irrisen's magic, I think we would benefit greatly from an understanding of it."

Elvanna had been dethroned of course, her mother, Baba Yaga, had apparently broken precedent and placed one of her grand daughter's on the throne of Irrisen. What that would mean for Irrisen was a question mark. It broke with 1400 years of precedence for the icy kingdom.

Beyond that though, Wintersun would be a center of magic. He needed wizards, and spell casters plenty. On the winter solstice the year before, on the holiday of Wintersun he had planted the first mana plants in the greenhouses of the city that carried the name. The aim was always to reinforce the kingdom, and the efforts which would go into Wintersun would reinforce the growing trend of the Imperial Core.

A medieval town could vary significantly in average population based on regional factors not limited to just the urban footprint. That could mean a town ranged from a couple thousand, to ten or twenty thousand. Then of course one had to recognize that cities was all too frequently a matter more of taxes and local government than it was of clear definition of what size. Formal city charters were something he.. he wanted to avoid... he'd need to allow incorporation to an extent but...

Vordakai departed, leaving Eire to examine the records. Canals, and the process of canalizing the rivers was a labor intensive, and frankly limited viability option. The Shrike was an example of this , where it wasn't practical, and Hereford was an example where canals were. The Shrike was wide enough, fast flowing enough that canals were an unnecessary expense to undertake. The broader tuskwater and candlemere lake network and river valleys surrounding the body created both an impediment to canals and also would have made them redundant. The Shrike's flow rate meant that it never froze even as one moved north past Nettle's Crossing, never mind closer still to the waterfalls which prevented one from taking the river all the way to Restov, which would have been a massive economic boon for trade.

It was annoying, but he had far more pressing matters to tend to. As much as he would have liked to preside over the construction that went into the realm especially with the population growth he was needed here... and as with the Drelev crisis was needed too often at the front... and Ilthuliak's demise would require him to be available to entertain the entreatments of those tribes who might potentially see him as an alternative to Armag... since he would likely need to sway them in order to provide troops quickly for any larger conflict. That was his most immediate concern, was if things played out with Armag threatening the borders, or Pitax for that matter making a play using Armag's host for something... and that had impacted the decision to go and kill Ilthuliak; and of course stacking the deck as far against the wyrm as possible before going.

A part of him wished to be proven wrong, and have Armag hay off to do as Regongar had speculated and invade Numeria to the west. That would have relieved a great deal of pressure, would have given them more time but there was no indication of that being likely. It also hadn't escaped him... that for whatever fertile nature the rostlandic plains represented and certainly they were a breadbasket of good soil the techniques there were confined to the early medieval period among other matters...

Matters which would just underscore the difference in productivity of Royal farms to the south... and he doubted that the focus would be on the role royal investment of capital. His farms allowed him to feed his growing population, supporter larger towns and cities, and export food to support the Mendevian Crusade in the west. If Armag waited long enough to take notice he would have problems... but Armag seemed more interested in older more traditional targets... and frankly it probably wasn't just grain it was probably the hunt for prestige in being able to extort from brevoy cash or tribute payments that would make Armag a heroic figure to an even greater number of kellid and iobarian tribes.

That in turn might see an even greater swelling of his ranks.

It was why he, Eire, needed to turn towards both the laws directed to establish a standing military, while also looking to fill out a force of a more medieval nature. In-depth military reforms, and broadsheets and efforts would have to be limited or wait in favor of expediency. The truth was, he disagreed with the traditional 19th​ century logic that steppe armies had been stopped by the advent of pike and shot in favor of a hybrid theory that that contributed but it was not the deciding factor rather it was their own political instability, the centralizing trend of strengthening sedentary states ... and ultimately the greater ability of centralized states to facilitate organized and coherent communicated responses.

And as he moved his hands over his own notes, and his maps, and so forth he lamented that this was not an academic conference. This was beyond the ivory tower, and he didn't have the telegraph, or the railway, or the maxim gun. He did have magic, but stopping a nomadic great horde would require much greater effort than anything to date. He needed an army of size.

Officially the edicts continued to cite the need for security, and spoke of natural rights, and the borders in broad terms. They were still much more early modern in language, but Eire couldn't help himself there. It would be Valerie's statements that would go out, but both under the Lion Rampant crest at their head, to lay out claims to what would have been the last of the four planned baronies. It didn't matter that he didn't intend to move further into the Glenebon reaches to his west the point was to layout his legal claim for later.

He wouldn't act on those claims until after this crisis with the Tiger Lords had been resolved. The late summer rains were also due in, and of course after that fall would mean a reduction in precipitation sometime probably in Rova. That was an important consideration since of course it meant that the southern Slough would likely swell as mud was churned. That was something he had to bear in mind with that now his western frontier.

Pack animals across level country could make an average of fifteen to twenty five miles. That was with a cart load of three to four hundred pounds... and part of that could be expanded with better harnesses or by using wagons over carts, but it was a logistical hurdle imposed by terrain. In short it was the same hurdle he'd been continuously dealing with, and often circumventing through the use of the river network that allowed him to move bulky supplies east west throughout his domain. That allowed him to circumvent the late summer rains that mired carts in the mud, but imposed other geographical limitations.

"Your majesty?" The chancellor questioned.

His hands moved over the papers in contemplation. There was, "So much to do," He murmured silver eyes narrowing ... he regretted not having the sheer utility of cheaply available lined notebook paper. Paper, even with the availability increasing availability of pulp provided by royal agriculture was still relatively expensive, certainly in comparison to the earth he remembered... and of course part of the reason to have Valerie issue the statements was because he would need to be touring the realm in the coming weeks, and months as the harvest either came in, or after it had been completed.

1 Arodus 4714
He had spoken the dawn's mass that morning, and as midday approached even the Cathedral bells tolled and smaller churches held service his court was convened. For Narland though, much of the populace was not concerned as they moved to celebrate the holy day... despite word from the north. He would have proclaimed the mass this morning even without the news... it was just now he had to bite back an acerbic I told you so.

Armag's host had swelled since the spring call to arms, with the promise of a campaign of plundering thousands had rushed to join him now that there was talk of real action. The result was that tens of thousands of barbarians had crossed the border north entering the fertile rostlandic plain. They had warned Kassil that this was going to happen... and he had been supposed to tell Jamandi. Jamandi though had been dismissive of the warning, and now... well now the situation was different.

Something on the order of maybe half of Armag's confederation spilling over the Brevic border to loot and pillage given a free reign by the Tiger Lords to do so. The present minimum estimate there were ten thousand kellids who'd gone over the border and were west of the East Sellen river forming many looting parties but not one great wing of battle. That was actually a good thing. Thus far no significant barbarian force had crossed to the east bank of the river. That was the good news... for them at least.

That hadn't stopped there from already being panic in Brevoy as the sudden incursion in force. The Church of Erastil had no effective way to level a response. It was the harvest season after all, if the harvest wasn't brought in people would starve in the winter. With hundreds of hectacres already burning there was no telling what wheat prices were going to be at market in a few months... and it wasn't jsut taking in the harvest, it would also be the question of was it safe enough to transport grain from farm to market.

That was only considering local problems... never mind what damage to Brevic harvests would do to grain prices in Numeria, or never mind in Mendev where the crusade was being fought. The problem was the conflict with Drelev. .. or rather its complications.

He doubted the barbarians could effectively invade across the hooktongue slough... or that they'd been want to do so, but they could attack fort Drelev where it sat on the western shore of Lake Hooktongue... or any of Drelev's former dependencies... which because of the geography of the slough were either west of the castle, or were fishing villages on the lake. Drelev had tried to dig a silver mine, but he had fucked that up.

The mine had flooded. The mine which was too far west to do anything about this year. Next year perhaps... if things had calmed down by that point.

Eire looked at the survey and rubbed his forehead. "Tell Numesti she is to hold the castle, her priority are reinforcing the defenses, and the temples to Calistria and Erastil," And that was probably going to be a headache. "I also want a riverine route up river into the Narlmarches for ferrying supplies directly from Hereford." That would supply both the Castle Town .. which was going to need a new name, and also the boggard village of Mbottu. The boggards were at least safe from a likely attack by the barbarians since there was no indication that they even knew they existed, or the bogstriders for that matter.

Such things were contingent on knowledge that thus far the barbarians hadn't crossed the sellen and moved east into Narland. If that happened they were going to start running into an obvious logistical problem of not having the manpower to defend the Northern Narlmarches... even bringing the Nomen centaurs from the east. Covering a ninety mile frontier from the Slough to Oleg's was not a readily practical medieval capacity for a field army. On the other hand they really didn't need to act as a field force so much as defend choice primary ground, and rely on the ability to teleport fresh troops to religious sights in the north to reinforce, but that meant holding Shrines, and temples in the north of the realm.

He supposed if he'd been willing to be charitable to Jamandi... which he particularly wasn't so inclined to be in this situation. On the face of it... dismissing the initial warning and sending Kassil to warn her about Armag must have seemed illogical. That was to say that Restov was far in the east it made little logical sense to think that the Tiger Lords and their confederates would move across the East Sellen and into the Rostlandic plain... but it didn't change the fact that they had warned her, in the face of their own problems.

"Your wisdom, majesty is uncontestable... it was the correct decision to prepare for a wider war." That was as much as the cleric of the inheritor chose to say... If Jamandi had not, if her patron goddess wasn't Milani then she likely would have been an easy target of recriminations but Milani's church was in or considered to be in his good graces so while 'obviously' misguided about the situation Jamandi wasn't likely to be too harshly criticized by the Chelish born clerics.

That he hadn't explicitly called Jamandi an idiot was why his own clerics were minding their manners. "Were that our preparations further along," He replied stirring the conversation away from Jamandi... and really Restov's lack of preparations for war, "Still to safeguard the peace we must prepare the war," He remarked rising from beyond the table and spreading his hands as he paraphrased latin into taldan, "The waltz is endless, Peace is only maintained by the establishment of a law strong enough to deter those who would breach it. Inevitably someone does try, but it is a cycle in three steps. We will organize at Armasse on the basis of ten men, under a leader and a unit that can be sub divided into two sections, two hands of five. Ten units of Ten a hundred above it."

The simple magic that weaved produced lights about the air, that shifted turned and become the draconic words for what he thought. Tens, hundreds, thousands. The basis of organization. A metric to guide by, and already common among the steppe. He would not be imitating it purely, because the shapes took form. He would recruit as needed, and by what resources allowed but at the core of any force were heavy infantry to stand their ground. To bring the enemy into the center where they could be enveloped and flank by men ahorse, and under attack from magic also... that was not something he was going to forget.

That Golarion was a world of sword and sorcerery and that forgetting to use the later was foolish. So while he intended to take lessons from Earth, it would not be limited to the mundane armies of the steppe, or those which had succeeded them. He was not going to be Ghenghis Khan but that didn't mean there were lessons that could not be learned.
--
The court had adjourned, it was after all the day of the Inheritor's Ascendance. Even as the laity gathered to celebrate the day that centuries previous Iomedae had succeeded to the place of Aroden's herald did not stop the work of state, and not with they had to contend. Armasse was two weeks hence and before all of this, the thought of such a swell of the ranks to warrant thousands would have caught him by surprise.

He could ill afford that impression, the numbers he knew he would need. The word carried by those fleeing along old taldane roads told him that much. The estimates of Armag's host was a place of concern.

Around him swam lantern archons swirling through the air, the tones and melodies a song lonesome, and fair. Mercedes Lackey's Cost of Crown not yet written on Earth echoed across his solar.

In truth he still needed to pen a letter to Mendev, and the Crusader Queen of that western realm, it was simply a matter of state given this time of year, but she would largely have to contend with shipments of food, and clothing and not martial aid. It was of course the Church's fear that Galt might potentially prove another challenge of demonic cultists and the terror of a second worldwound but he hoped that would never be. Armag though was a very real threat and a nation did not end at the walls of castles and towns.

What would distinguish Armasse of this year from previous was the expansion of the holiday yet again... and the expenditure investment of horses for riding, and training riders. That would warrant some degree of specialization between light infantry, and heavy cavalry. What was far less likely to draw attention was that Armasse would effectively be introducing the 'modern bureaucratic' system of a fiscal year.

Armasse's conclusion this year would coincide just with new military expenditures, but allocations to the broader royal bureacracy, and opening the discussion of compulsory education. And, of course though no one had mentioned it Noleski Surtova Brevoy's first and unpopular non Rogavarian monarch at least by his own claim for more than a decade didn't seem to be doing anything, but he also had left the chain across the Sellen river as well... no one thought to discuss New Stetven on the north end of the lake that dominated central Brevoy.
--
Notes:

Arodus 4714
The conflict with Drelev having been concluded forced him to turn his attention to matters elsewhere... but he would have had to contend with those besides. The truth was he recognized that he needed to stabilize the border situation. Armag had couched his claims in language that... given his background Eire perhaps himself found strange but it may have simply been his own misunderstanding of the situation. Armag's claim of being the Twice Born and he was of the Tiger Lords lineage did not necessarily make this a religious conflict it simply allowed Armag to call troops to arms... but the tribesfolk would expect battle, and booty.

... and that was something Armag no seemed intent on delivering by moving to plunder Brevoy.

He didn't want to authorize the expenses in labor or funds to fortify his northern borders. Part of that was he didn't think there was time, and there were so many other commitments. It was already late in the year. He had been weighing the introduction of paper notes to take, to address some of the matter of currency volume, or lack of volume in circulation, as well which construction would have economic issues.

That was one of the other matters with the population movements. The iobarian, and other steppe nomads used coinage to an extent but they and the river folk relied on barter given the general shortage of an accepted coinage depending on the location. He'd been attempting to in place a royal coinage, and the influx of Inner Sea populations had helped as had his minting of silver coins for the kingdom... but it took time to increase the number of coins in circulation and the cities were taking forms ... larger than he had expected.

Meiqi wasn't even the first dragon to migrate with the intention of permanently settling. Amvarean's gem dragon retainer had taken up a place at her court before this after all... though he doubted that had so much to do with law and religion. Those things had drawn Meiqi, and visiting silvers most of whom were too young to want to settle down.

That was fine. In truth Eire found Trobold's decision to focus on, to specialize stock grazing, corn animal feed production and ... well just choosing to specialize in agriculture to be very useful. Trobold did consume a lot of meat, but they could raise large volumes of pig, and pig was something they could do efficencently and use to feed large volumes of peasants. They could also raise cattle. The trolls had a harder time raising chickens, but the kobold tribes that lived in the south had been able to adopt to that even if the reality of transportation still made it difficult to bring eggs to market. Cardboard, and insulated containers weren't something they had time for... and it would be the former first, but again just because they could make paper didn't mean his mills had the output for that kind of consumption.

... but eventually, he suspected that the kobolds, especially city dwelling kobolds here, and most probably at Candlemere or Wintersun would manage to produce or expand production of the paper mills and produce alchemical ingredients for other applications. He needed tool making towns, and they would serve in that as well. That was only part of it though any conflict in Brevoy was going to require him to turn his focus towards expanding work on the Road of Shields, and their fortresses. He had always planned to do that of course they were too well positioned to ignore, too useful but Armag put them on a time table that was much tighter than he had expected.

That was of course part of which geographically bounded his focus. Trobold had been established on his original south western frontier, and Hereford and the Road of Shields were on his western frontier in the Narlmarches. To his north were Oleg sitting just south of the South Rostland Road built by old Taldane, and south of him were the Temple of the Elk and Akiros's fief, to the east of them was the old Scyamore, and Nettle's Crossing. Further east of them was the old taldane mine that had been where the disk had been hidden away. A mining settlement that was developing now, and also of course it was placed comfortably relative to the pass in the mountains that lead to Varnhold. It formed a rough crescent of his frontier lands but the realm had grown so, and also the internal realm shielded to the east by the Tors of Levenies had also changed. His printing presses were occupied with the producing copies of the realm's laws, and the reiteration that internal tariffs were verboten. That concept might have been harder to implement elsewhere, he knew Brevoy and in particular the Issian realms in the north of the kingdom made money from tolls on Rostlandic goods passing up river, but he would never allow those to develop here.

Similarly he had the ability to codify sales taxes and other revenues. He could put them into writing now, use the printing presses to insure those copies were far and wide and have them accepted. There was no parliament in Brevoy, and nor was there one here. In Brevoy though there were sufficiently strong noble houses which would have protested intrusions on their local rights. There were none such here.

From the Shrike across the Gudrin and Little Sellen down to his southern border where the Mivon Sellen formed the border with the Mivonese Aldori there were no competing strands of authority because all the towns were new. The farming communities on their outskirts and the development were all bounded within the Kamelands and those towns largely took their religious cues from here in Shrikewall. They all had clock towers, and town squares, and been built with wide avenue style boulevards.

If Linzi ever did manage to produce papers enough for regular consumption, for daily reading it would be these settlements which would be the principle consumers of that kind of publication... and also it was these towns which he had to focus on in terms of establishing compulsory education for children, and young adults.

Eire folded his hands resting his elbows on the massive oak hewn table. Not something he had prepared for. He hadn't brought books from earth to deal with preparing an education system, and there were limits to the books he had brought in terms of getting to where he wanted to be in terms of industry, and crafts, and the establishment of a government. Education, compulsory education, was going to require mass production of books even just basic books short primers were going to require more paper manufacturing, more pulp, more ink.

That he had begun ordering the planting of mulberry trees before this was happenstance. A coincidence, that they and tea leaves could settle here was ecology. Tea would cultivate better here than coffee, and so royal estates had set aside grounds for tea. For silk, that was more a matter of royal factories and weaving machines... Things, all things which were important, but he needed to prepare an army to defend his frontier.

... and he had Armasse to secure a call to arms this late in the year, and granaries stocked with farms on 19th​ century models full of food to winter troops. To train them over the winter if came to that, or to sustain them on the march if that was what it needed.

Eire stared down at the magically generated map... but his original realm had been more than the Narlmarches, and the kamelands. There was the greenbelt that ran the some fifty miles from the East Sellen to the Narlmarches, to where the northern narlmarches took shape. The greenbelt was a river valley if a wide one. It hadn't escaped him that he hadn't done much to settle or colonize the Greenbelt... for the Barony the original aim had been to work south settling and arranging his realm from Oleg to the capital and then work from there.

He shifted a handful of papers, reports from different settlements, and their census reports. He would not exempt people from taxes. Even himself, but on the other hand he knew that he could provide the churches with legal and functional sources of income... but there were limits. Mundane repair of goods, via things like mending would well effect and have knock on effects in the economy. He was already seeing more urbanization in the populace than he had expected, and that coupled with the mills meant more consumer goods, and less labor being done in the households.

People wouldn't need to spin their own clothes, even if they might still manufacture some clothes to wear for special events, but even that cloth, cotton or silk would still likely come from stores and not home grown. There would be less need for mundane repair if the churches were furnishing repair efforts as a service, or shoppes were readily available to simply buy replacement goods.

He sighed one thing at a time, and for the time being he needed to look forward to the publications which would need to go out for armasse given the war on their doorstep. A war that among other things would prevent him from trying to map out what was to his East, from supporting Maegar's efforts to chart the Dunsward and other efforts. Just, so much to do.

--
Notes: And in other news Apparently (eye roll) Paizo feels the need to kill off Gorum out of the core twenty. I'm not impressed by this decision, it seems stupid, inspite that Arazni is apparently replacing Gorum in the main deities. I like Arazni but it makes no sense given her portfolio and history versus Gorum. I really feel like this is some absurd marketting decision to be like 'look we're shaking up the setting' and not a well thought out lore decision it just doesn't not make sense as a good plot / writing choice.

Arodus 4714
The bright sky was high overhead. The late summer day warm, but not too warm. A perfect day to fly. The wind blue through her lustrous black hair as she peered around her surroundings from the promontory of Shrikewall looking over the Tuskdale valley that lay between the two rivers.

Meiqi surveyed the sprawling valley from the from the fortress wall, the nature a patchwork quilt of green, and blue with the stretch of other colors accounting for the humans. There were far fewer than she had expected compared to the Empire of Dragons the 'cities' were thin of people... but other than that she found for the most part things were to her satisfaction. All laws were codified in writing, and more than that translations from draconic with explanations followed from royal presses.

She would praise it.

The sprawling estate was worth of a true emperor even if the realm around it was not yet there. Of course contained within the palatial environs were the incubator for eggs, containing five mithril dragon eggs. The eggs would not hatch for another year and a half, but they were the dragons of heaven and Meiqi was not so foolish as to question her goddess's wisdom. She would dutifully obey and provide morally forthright guidance to the Church of Shizuru.

The yellow bird swept around, and flittered descending upon the red king's shoulder a soft trill. Eire's focus was more on the differences this place was to the majority of his realm. He wasn't alone up her on the bastion of course. His place here afforded him the opportunity to hold court, while surveying his domain.

Wattle and daub was cheap, and didn't require much in the way of skilled labor. There were trade offs as a result of that. There were no machine tools... or at least machine tools in the sense of he would have thought of them, but it was possible to use water wheels to turn a saw blade, and to cut lumber and lumber could then be kiln dried as opposed to waiting for it to try in a natural stone rack.

That was the issue of wattle and daub construction, wood naturally absorbed moisture and dried out. It had taken centuries for wattle and daub and ridgepole construction to be replaced in England by mortise and tennon and tongue and groove... and with Brevoy's abundance of timber and lack of stone the majority of the region was dominated by that old standby.

There was little truly complex or impeding about the alternate construction it simply required a specialization of labor and a direction provided from higher authority. The kiln drying method as applied to lumber was innovative only because of its scale in working with logs. The method of sawing was more technologically driven still but it was still a matter of harness water power to accomplish the task, and it allowed mechanical precision, and repetition.

Tongue and groove, and mortise and tennon both provided space for the expansion and contraction of the wood's reaction to wet and drying leading to a more robust and sound structure. It was still a timber product, but the kiln firing process was faster than waiting for wood to dry out in a shed naturally, and it resulted in a finished process allowing post holes to be dug in, and anchored facilitating the raising of simple practical buildings.

It was capital. Labor, and land usage were improved by the introduction of new labor saving machines, and standards which created time saving, and cost saving measures as well. Standardized boards, and standard nails, and screw pitches all contributed. It was timber that formed the basis for the majority of construction, even with bricks being produced by the thousands in tube kilns. In all likelihood the next steppe would have been the distribution of lathes and the manufacture of glue to fabricate standard plywood sections which would have only expanded wood products further. It was timber homes, and shoppes that were the majority of Narland's building. Brick merely supplemented timber architecture, and in most cases superseded masonry architecture as royal preference for the majority of state buildings. It was all, so far as Eire was concerned economics, or economics adjacent. The broad boulevards and granite set roads were economic adjacent yet, but they were also for military reasoning as well.

There was one ... small problem. Hither to the majority of his realm was, had been accessible if not easily by overland travel than largely be access to the waterways, the river network that defined core domain.

There was a shuffle of robes from the clergy as one man stepped forward.

All of that probably meant nothing to the priest of Nethys. It might have mattered to Brigh's church but that was still far from clear given their lack of unified position, and the church's lack of unified doctrine. He supposed there was no reason to expect a unified doctrine for such a thing. Minderhal's church had adopted the standard weights and measures as ordinal that such reforms were vital to construct strong objects. Of the Empyreal lords Mazludeh seemed the most doctrinally inclined to encourage the adoption of standards, with Eldas not far behind.

That distinction was not that important since the Empyreal lords' churches were overshadowed by the clergy from Yuelral, Ptah, and even Torag, which was saying something. Eire personally suspected Apsu's church at Silverstep was in attendance largely because Amvarean was here.

Flying islands were not unheard of. They were perhaps uncommon but they were apart of natural phenomenon, and thus highly sought after by Cloud and Storm Giants, or the favorite of silver dragons. Eire thought of the derelict that had drawn the attention of the Technic league in his then western lands... but his own flying ship while more intrinsically magical and the others like it were sufficient to reach the sky island above his capital. Enterprise, Endeavor, and Earnest were impossible for any of the clergy, or any of the denizens of the realm to miss... or for Mendev to ignore for what they contributed in carrying supplies to the Crusader state... and of course months earlier now he had issued the edict to establish a Royal Navy.

The easiest most effective way to access this floating island would not be by flying ship. He had too few of them. It would be by magic, divine magic and whorls of solar fire and that required sacred spaces... which admittedly the palatial estate already functioned as. He was not keen to advertise that per se, and of course while he would use it there were reasons to funnel churches here as well... as well as to raise another shipyard here among other things.

However, "Master," Teacher, the skull capped priest of Nethys bowed, "I have long studied stories of our ancient ancestors and the conflicts with the Shorry who themselves built great flying cities... in much the fashion of the Netherese you spoke of," The priest remarked side tracking himself for a moment, before finding his footing... the truth was Eire's comparison to Netheril had been an accidental slip of the tongue in a conversation related to the broader flying ships months earlier, and he had been unaware of the shorry's details, "with your blessing I would ask to be permitted to return to Osirion to redouble my research and return with findings in hopes of being of assistance to the construction of further magical vessels."

It was to be lucky timing. The expedition, mission to Osirion returned as other developments in the south would play out regarding that very topic. More than that of course, at least more pressing in the intermediate time was that Eire knew that their ties with foreign nations, particularly osirion which produced the cotton used in twill, and denim in particular for hte clothing his mills produced were a priority.

The doings of the ancient pharaoh Hakotep was only thing to be investigated. Just as further north, and to the kingdom's west was the shifts with Numeria, and the beginning of the Technic League's downfall and that that would wrought. The ascension early in the spring of the iron goddess Casandalee. This floating castle in the sky opened to the androids of Numeria who had already begun to be admitted on behalf of the Church of Iomedae, as well as those, to a lesser extent, of Desna and Sarenrae.

... and of course those were acknowledged churches, which was itself part and parcel of administering a polytheistic realm with a national, officially state organized church. As ruler he was patron of the acknowledged churches, and it was whether by intention or lack of care clear that even among that number there was a preference towards some and not others. It was simply a matter of how the world, how government in such a world functioned.
--

Armasse 4714
Eire had initially expanded Armasse from a week to two, because of course Vordakai was right it was amore practical matter than only a week of drill. It allowed him to assemble the community, and even though some of that needed to be delegated the touring could be done through the Kamelands and Narlmarch towns via the churches. What more than that defined the holiday was this year it was not just the community or those adjacent to Iomedae's church, this year the kellids and iobarians and other nomadic tribes including foederati like the Nomen centaurs were being apprised of the war to come.

That a war was on their doorstep, and his planning for it had impediments.

It wasn't however their inclusion which limitted his options, it was the realpolitik of the situation... and also at the same time the lack of institutional and structural factors. He could not simply prepare for a 19th​ century western war of mobilization or national identity and couldn't couch mobilization in those terms which left him somewhat at a loss. He did however have the option of forming zones, areas of operation, or the like from strategic regions.

There were roughly a hundred miles across difficult terrain between Shrikewall, and Fort Drelev on theopposite side of Lake Hooktongue. Silverstep, and Varnhold werecloser and much easier to access overland. Eire had envisioned his seat on the Tuskwater to be linked to Oleg and then to Brevoy inideally profitable trade with Restov... but that was not how things had developed. The value of trade with Osirion was far more important than to the Free City to his north east. He understood why that was the case. Osirion produced cotton, he had mills using water powered frames that spun clothe, the clothe produced high quality inexpensive clothes which were then sold in volume. It was economics in a way that simply didn't exist in a medieval production system. The agrarian system and the inefficiencies were a handicap.

It was also why he could uniform his soldiers, his recruits, and the army in universal standards. That would inculcate a cohesive identity even if national identity would take longer.

The knight bowed, "I will not fail your majesty's expectations." He had been assured of similar matters by most with similar responsibilities, from other knights, as well as by the clergy, including the Church of Milani, and Ragathiel. He hadn't precisely considered Ragathiel a patron of the holiday, but at least the local church had seemed to adopt it.

He accepted the profession of loyalty and duty from the knight and allowed the warrior to step away. His expression turned towards the sea of felt tents. Eire had already reached the conclusion and resolved that a war with Armag's confederation or at least some sort of conflict was inevitable the barbarian horde was simply too large now to not make some sort of challenge to his western frontier especially now that it had expanded to encompass the Hooktongue. He also recognized that the laminate composite bows typical of steppe nomads were going to have issues with the humidity of the Narlmarches and the Hooktongue... but he knew enough to recognize the problem and had his alchemists working on glues to prepare bows which would be less prone or even immune to such issues... but for a season or two of campaigning he doubted the humidity would be an issue... but if it went longer than that....well he needed the manpower.

That changed the contexts of Armasse significantly. At least they did for him, Narland's practice of the holiday was distinct, and changing from its inner sea counterparts and to the north in Brevoy there was no tradition at large. Mendevand Numeria to the west were unique cases as well. They couldn't be used for points of comparison either. Mendev had spent generations at war as the crusades had shaped the kingdom there... and Numeria ...Numeria was just strange in its own right but Mendev to its north certainly didn't help.

Eire had laid out the nominal strategy for what he intended to do if they were able to prepare his forces. He was ultimately constrained by the necessities of, to a degree of feudatory responsibilities... he, Amvarean, Jaethal, Shaoyu, Amiri, Maegar, Akiros, Regongar and the list went on for quite a ways were all required to participate or be available to in a real war, on the battle line. It would have been insane operationally to ignore that capability, but he needed a professional soldiery... in the interim though he had no shortage of horses. More horses than actually he could provide riders for even with a planned mongol program of reserve mounts and communications... that was in part what the knights would address.

He would be out the core of his army in heavy infantry fighting in the center with the wings where that was feasible supported by light and heavy horse. By armored knights, lancers, and bowmen. The focal strategy would be to convince the enemy to attack the center, then envelop and destroy them.

That still relied on having a cavalry contingent though to call upon.

--
Magic was a part of life. It was enshrined in the law code, so could never be forgotten. What they needed though was time, and time he wasn't sure they had. The last several years had entailed having the druids native to the greenbelt, and narlmarches ... basically the hinterlands of the rostlandic plain perform their feudal dues in labor. Setting fence lines, and suchthat would have feasible for peasants to do but otherwise been time consuming.

The stone giant druids, and clerics had largely superseded them in preeminence as the realm had expanded easterly and absorbed the Varnhold. The giants were also much more inclined to heed royal calls to arms. He could call on the human druids to do other things, like maintain lines of supply and communication or join the alchemists in preparing potions and care for the wounded as needed.

What he still lacked were wizards. Wintersun and its school would take time... perhaps three years before they could begin to address such from their own population...but Armasse was induction of pages and young potential clerics into the church's neophyte rank. Beyond those however were also the clerics who would at the end of the month be invested with newly forged cinder blades... those swords empowered his clerics would bolster the forces gathered. What distinguished this batch of alchemically treated sword blades were that Ragathiel church would receive a handful of blades... and likely given things progressing others would receive them as the metal works expanded to fill demand.

The truth though was he was already planning to expand the fraternity beyond. Those ranging clerics along river, and road would have to likely assume duties not unlike the staff officers of at least similar to Prussia with the education and professional civil service of post Napoleonic states even without firearms being involved. The truth was by the time clerics could cast flame strike unaided they were well established in the clergy and he would need them to serve in senior leadership roles within the martial church.

It was all magic, just different facets of magic. The spells which powered his foundries, the steam engines relied on heating metal inside of a vessel bypassing the problems that had lead to the development of Watt's engine on Earth, and also just generally being more efficient than the early Watt Engine. Limits on metallurgy, and implementation on standards and measurements meant they weren't far enough along in tolerances to go much further than that, but it was one example of magic's implementation in the realm.

It had no immediate martial application, and Eire knew that. He recognized that, but the application of steam power was what would insure he had the supplies to sustain the army. He could have used magic to complement a mongol style roster and levee system, it was already much more practical even without the use of firearms to rely on a derivative or the northern European, and ultimately Swedish allotment system... because again magic provided the ability to provide supplies. Even if those came not from cottage industries, but rather from royally established factories.

Jaethal scrutinized the image of the steel works, it was rather obvious that the elf did not per se understand the puddling pool but without ready access to crucible steel it seemed one of the best options he had available. "There are impediments."

"I know," The magic system at his disposal was not without its problem. The Narlmarches, and the slough would complicate his use of cavalry... and leaving aside how horses reacted to magical transportation the truth was most churches were not designed to permit groups of horses into their grounds. Shrikewall's cathedral and the basilica based on it, and the giantish religious sites to Erstig and other deities were exceptions.

The truth was the horses got skittish... but that could probably be managed.

"I am not going to like whatever it is you are about to suggest." Jaethal remarked.

"No... no you will not." He replied, "I will need to consecrate a temple to Alseta for what I have in mind, perhaps two even."

She knew what that implied given context, even if it was otherwise an innocent enough statement. "You mean to use the Aiudara."

"I do, we needed to head off concerns with Kyonin over their existence besides, but the Narlmarches and the Slough would impede the passage of my horse, and to tell the truth we will need garrisons for cavalry regiments that can manage their numbers of horses." And, already it was preparing to be more than that, he needed to be able to prevent a similar challenge from rising on the eastern steppes from either humans or one of the Rashalka lineages. "I mean to use them to secure my flanks, or supplement the transition of manpower, and it is only a partial solution, an arcane solution will still be needed where we can and those will need to be properly built fortresses." Or at least fortified towers.