Preparing for war is a fairly long complicated process. Unfortunately, I did not have that distinct advantage, and my peers have locked us out of such privileges. Even then it's not just my peers but the people of Vircuis that hamper the war effort. The land is a land of nobles and large in scale stretching from sea to sea east west. Bordering the tundras of Albon, the mountains of the hills, and the deserts of basilisk, most of Vircuis is temperate making it a good place to farm plant based goods. Such a large land is hard to govern, not to mention the land is governed by a strong feudal hierarchy. The nobles have a strong military culture poking and prodding its neighbors to prove themselves. Such a headstrong and stupid princible would have gotten themselves conquered and or killed if the conglomerate did not exist. Although much more of a truth if you consider the nation's neighbors.
The state of Basilisk has an extremely strong military and strong ties to druid heritage. With genetically modified warbeasts and monsters coming out of massive dungeon complexes. They have dug deep into the earth like the lot of them were incredibly angry ants. Not to mention their rival The Windy hills being a nation state of fortresses that pierce the sky primarily using flying warbeasts slowly being retrofitted for flying warmachines. Ants crawling underneath the ground and birds ripping up worms. What exactly does Vircuis offer at all compared to the other two states? Food, Money, And political power, all things that should rightfully be in the hands of the two superior states yet not. The deserts and mountains have little to no farmland and the only farmland the two states own are border towns on the northern and southern border of both states. Not to mention Grav the state behind the two being a peaceful farming state far from its roots. Most likely the softest target in this war after its guardian states fall.
A lot of the more cowardly nobles of Vircuis are actually retreating to their safe havens in Grav which simply demonstrates what the nobles truly think about the situation. Selfish for such an honorable culture and despicable for what it means to protect. Such a culture needs to change and change violently which is what I have advocated for many a session in the conglomerates counsel. If we forced modernisation and improved their discipline we may have had 3 buffers for this war instead of 2. Of course these buffers won’t do their jobs if the dwarfs are to be trusted. We would simply have had more time at least. Of course I need to consider my own plans at the moment.
The Crag is a network of canyons and plateaus and the main natural deterrent to stop Basilisk and The Windy Hills from annihilating each other. Rat holes from basilisk run deep into the crag and mountain fortresses spread from canyon ridge to canyon ridge and plateau to plateau. Making it into a great choke point for defense and what I'm currently working on. If Vircuis is to be sacrificed, holes must be patched. And the cheesed out rat network of tunnels in the crag leads a straight path for the demons to take. Only problem is one of two extremes, either the Vircuis noble is so corrupt that they demand absurd, upfront, material gain for their “participation” with outdated Modified soldiers using equipment that would be ineffective against the enemy. Or a Vircuis noble so obviously tricked and brainwashed into the Vircuis “Honor” system. That they ”want” to charge a line of fully augmented demons with an enchanted sword. They Actually don’t care about retreating and actually participating. It's almost pathetic and almost strange when it comes to how many of them actually exist!? Of course we finally land on the royal family that has no chaps and no sway in their own governmental system. Obviously taken advantage of by vast swathes of nobles and noble hierarchies. Vircuis as a nation would probably be 4-5 nations if the conglomerate didn’t prevent a change to national borders. Meaning i have to convince the 4 major political parties of Vircuis to actually work towards the conglomerates ends rather than their own. And well.. How well is that going? 3 out of the 4 party leaders have already ran tail between their legs to Grav. Leaving their commanders confused with orders to stand their ground. The honor system of Vircuis mostly affects their bottom line so to convince soldiers that would rather die than retreat to actually retreat is a pipedream. So it's somewhat understandable to not make an attempt. But really? To just leave them to die is another thing entirely. Really it just does not sit right with me for a leader of a nation to so easily run away. So all the letters I sent to those dimwits were for nothing. Really I'm starting to get tired of politicking. Well more than usual, it’s just a game of fucking people over, and man i’m bad at that. Or well i guess im good at it when it comes to "face to face" conflict. Somewhat depressed I looked to a fairly particular slender man sitting in a large chair to maybe make me feel a tad bit better.
“Sigh” “So Breivik, what's the situation of the windy hills and basilisk? are they fighting right now?”
The man was sleeping and woke up to my words.
“WHAT!?” “Er” “what did you say?”
Well I guess I have to be polite. “Are the Hills And Basilisk fighting?”
“What?”
Breivik looked properly confused, I assume because he had just woken up?
“Uh, give me a moment”
Breivik puts his hands to his head in a way you would usually see a disappointed teacher.
“Where did you get your information on the fallback countries?”
“I got it from the official logs and historys. What's the problem? Did they have a major ceasefire and we didn’t know about it?”
“I’m going to get some booze.”
Breivik gets up from his chair and leaves my office with no other thought.
Well.. it can’t be that outdated? We supposedly check about every demon invasion. Which happens about every 200 years. I suppose 200 years is a tad bit out of date, but it's not like a nation would improve that quickly. Although tech introduction was beginning according to my logs. Ah! Maybe they had some sort of revolution? But that doesn't necessarily mean ideas. Old ideas will still linger and old grudges would still exist right? I get out of my office to go to the library. I think I know a way to solve this.
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An old librarian sits peacefully sipping tea, lax about someone entering the space.
“General William. What can i do for you today?”
“I want to look at anatomical books about Birdmen and Goblins if you don’t mind.”
The librarian starts manipulating a runescript machine quite easily pulling out two books out of a welded-on compartment. As i take my books i ask
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Did Brevik come in?”
“No i did see him running past the hallway” With a pointed movement to the north
The north is in the direction of a the side exit into the railroad. So I assume brevik is working on something. “Well thank you for the information”
“No Problem” as the librarian goes back to sipping tea.
So sitting down in a quite conner of the currently barren public library. the two books I received are Goblin Evolution Hierarchy by Sage Helith and Guide To Druidry, Birdmen. I somewhat know this Helith book, supposedly it is only useful to goblins, and curses goblins. Although the information inside can be viewed by any race. I need these books to figure out how long these races live. Looking at the book of goblins every possible evolution a goblin can go through is stated in a fair amount of detail. I begin with the most basic goblin.
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Goblin Base
Notable Features: Adaptability
Curse: Strong (it's not necessarily that the Curse itself is strong mostly that the base goblin is weak)
Lifespan: 2 years, 10 day growth cycle
The goblin base is created by a goblin that had mated with a goblin female. Extremely weak and doesn't have access to many evolution options. Will inevitably end in the upper mid tier of goblin evolutions unless an augment is put in place or a druid interveniens.
(the text contentious on with a wide variety of draft work and anatomical images. The base goblin is quite small with extremely limited musculature. Even if I'm not a biologist I can tell that the organs look shriveled and a few look out of place.)
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2 Years? If this is a baseline for goblins I completely understand why most tribes are feral. They technically don’t even really have the chance to live or succeed. I guess these goblins just live to eat and fuck like animals, but an established socity like basilisk wouldnt have these types of goblins commonly. I look for another baseline.
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Orc-Goblin base
Notable Features: Adaptability, Large as a Human, Unnaturally Strong, Unnaturally Aggressive
Curse: Strong (the curse is worse in Orc-Goblins as they tend to have no self control)
Lifespan 35 years, 4 month growth cycle
Orc-Goblins are a testament to a tribe's success. To be able to capture an orc female and the even harder task of impregnating one is amazing no matter how distasteful. Usually these tribes fall apart from infighting as the Orc-Goblins become maddened by the curse and actually kill and butcher even their own tribe.
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Ah! So this is a baseline that makes sense for an empire of sorts. Although I don't see an empire of angry orc goblins the orcs have founded society's so some have probably popped up. Although of course for such a society to exist they have to have some sort of enslaved orc subgroup. Quite evil that. Of course the goblin curse is strong in this theoretical orc-goblin empire as well. Such an empire would be absolutely hated by its neighbors. Undying lust and a fundamental need for slavery I don't really understand how a truce would happen. Of course the neighbors in question are birdmen so I need to figure out what the base for that is?
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Birdmen-Goblin base
Notable Features Adaptability, durable, Minor Gliding Capabilities, Funny
Curse: Normal (the strange disposition of the birdmen has transmitted somewhat)
Lifespan: 22 years, 1 year growth cycle
The birdmen goblins are mostly native to Basilisk being the only goblin colony next to a birdmen settlement. The inherent mutations of the birdmen has caused strange mutations to the goblins. Birdmen-goblins have skin of stone and 2 large feathery wings. The stonelike skin and solid bones of the goblins prevents the wings from being useful similarly to the birdmen. Requiring use of magic in order to allow flight. But worse than birdmen with the stone mutation. With such large downsides the birdmen goblins aren't preferred in the basilisk goblin settlement. With the settlement mostly taking humans from Grav and Vircius to reinforce its slave population. Especially assorted tourists from gravs tourist economy. The only useful thing about a birdmen-goblin is that the Curse has minor effect on the subspecies.
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Hmm the tourists of Grav? Well that means we won't necessarily know the makeup of basilisk. Well I also think I have gotten a bit ahead of myself. The ages are about 25 years so 200 years can probably make some sort of major change in that time. Through simple population death and generational change. Massive changes like a ceasefire may be possible.
Stewing in my contemplation, my thoughts get interrupted by Bendan Fei Yu entering the room to seemingly get some strategic documentation. The man looks at me as asks politely with a bow "High General William, I am Researching a training regime to turn Vircuis bowmen troops into blasting rod marksmen"
I ask somewhat casually "how's that going for ya"
Fei Yu seemingly has a straight face "Yes. It's going fine."
Let's prod a bit. "Explain to me the specifics, maybe I could help."
Fei Yu looks at me skeptically, sort of breaking his straight face. "No need to be rude general but what kind of knowledge would assist me at this point"
"I don't mean to be offensive or even as rude as you. I guarantee I am qualified enough at least in this aspect."
Still skeptical, Fei Yu slowly explains "well the Vircius archers are prideful to a point, even if modified with superior vision and are decent soldiers. The majority of the difficulty is trying to get them to switch to a better weapon."
That is indeed something I can't really help with "how about the knights you have any plans for them?"
Fei Yu looks exhausted "the only thing we can do for them is give them militia treatment. Even if they are skilled knights, really warfare involves knights so little nowadays. I think it's a waste of resources, not to mention somewhat of a strategic pitfall.”
"But aren't they still knights? Why push them to that sort of role when they could be defensive or even offensive?"
Fei Yu looks miserable. "Sigh" "It's a problem with lethality. Yes they can be used defensively but those men will be shredded. No matter what position you put them in. It's almost better for such well trained soldiers to use that training in a more basic position."
"Would take a lot of effort to push such stubborn fools in that direction"
Anyway "have you heard anything from the Adventures Guild."
Fei Yu tiredly answers "they put out a notice a bit ago. Should have at least 2000 volunteers. Rather small and no real big names. It seems it's not just the Vircuis that knows this is a deathtrap.”
Not many, well “everything good for mobilization”
Fei Yu does perk up a bit for this, it seems to be good news at least. “Yes, we will be able to mobilize soon so you will be doing what you do best and out of HQ”
Honestly i genuinely start smiling