The year is 1660. War is brewing and thousands will die once more. The Maecktian Empire though overextended and close to collapse a decade ago has been consolidated under the rule of Willander II. With every passing day Imperial prosperity and strength grows with wealth flowing in from their trade routes. The silver from the mines of Haggrum buy the spices from Sodonia which are then sold in the North for staggering prices. The profit from the North then buys vast amounts of wheat from the Far West which feeds the Imperial military. A military which has now finally recovered from its great losses in the previous war.
The core of veteran soldiers that crushed the uprisings in the aftermath of the Imperial defeat have been reinforced with fresh recruits from all over the provinces. Their weapons and armour have almost all been replaced with dwarven steel, making them deadlier then ever before. This new army is led by young talented commanders fresh from the Keizefurt officer academies, chosen by the emperor Willander himself to ensure their loyalty. For the past ten years these officers have been drilling and training their soldiers, turning them into an elite fighting force anxiously waiting for their first great test. The Imperial navy, that fights privateering wars as far south as the Sodonian Sea and as far west as the Neiw Haase, knows no match in size and strength. Armed with their dwarven ballistas the Maecktian ships are the deadliest force on the seas. The only weakness that plagues the Maecktian navy is how far stretched out their fleets are.
The Maecktian Empire is a great behemoth to reckon with yet who is to bring about this reckoning? In the north the kingdoms of the Traak Coalition still stand triumphant. In the years after their crushing victory over the empire, the ties between the kings have only strengthened. The marriage between King Aryan of Meteizen and Queen Priscilla of Vidanis have all but united these two kingdoms in common rule, with Aryan and Priscilla acting as co-rulers. Though at first threatened by the power imbalance it created within the alliance, the other kings, Pavel of Kragge, Trenmer of Deveern and Dys of Olgrand did not break up the coalition, as they too began to intermarry to strengthen their bonds.
Despite the Traak Coalition being more united than ever, it still deals with a great many problems, most important of these being economic ones. Merchants and traders of the kingdoms can barely compete with the Imperial mercantile might. The only things that seems to be keeping Maecktian merchants and producers from monopolising the entire northern market are the high tariffs and trade restrictions that limit Maecktian activity within Coalition borders. The only profitable trade route that seems to exist for northern traders is in the Far West, where Vidanis and Meteizen have established a foothold only because of the sanctions the Zeeburg Treaty placed upon the Empire. Losing these colonies would put the Coalition kingdoms in even more economic peril, which might be why so much effort is put into holding and expanding them. The privateering war between the Maecktian Empire and Vidanis and Meteizen in Western Waters is only one example of the many measures taken by the kingdoms to ensure the survival of their western trade route. Many criminals in the Coalition kingdoms can expect an amnesty if they are willing to settle in the vast lands of the Far West to add to the labour power there. Gangs of outlaws in the West are secretly hired by Coalition spies to raid Maecktian villages, even though the favour is returned to them in equal measure. Just a week ago the thousand man strong mercenary band of Ivar Ludikis landed in Ororia, to “ensure safety” in the countryside.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
The eyes of the Traak Coalition monarchs are not solely focused on the Far West though. There are plenty of problems to their south as well. In their protectorate Rieve, or as the Maecktians call it Midlandt, the rule of their puppet duke Bergar has proven to be rather tenuous. The duke’s rule only extends to the towns and cities, the countryside is almost completely in the hands of the Duke’s Men: Guerrilla fighters who are led by a man who claims to be Duke Oskar, the rightful ruler of the dukedom, who was believed to have died in the wake of the Maecktian invasion of the country. This Duke Oskar, imposter or not, has many followers and has spent the last decade fighting a bloody insurrection war in Rieve. Nobles or towns loyal to Bergar, as well as any Coalition forces residing in Rieve have been attacked by the Duke’s Men. Many attempts have been made to hunt down and kill the Duke, yet all have ended in failure. The activities of the Duke’s Men have prevented the Traak Coalition from building the defensive fortifications they have wanted in Rieve since the signing of the Zeeburg Peace. The kings’ generals had wanted to build many forts in Rieve, so that in case of another Maecktian invasion the war would be fought out in a grinding stalemate in Rievian land and not once again past the Traak into the Traak kingdoms themselves. As it stands however Rieve is virtually defenceless from any attack from the south and the guerrilla war drags on wasting Coalition resources.
In the case of an Maecktian invasion, which is becoming ever more likely, the existence of the Traak kingdoms will once again be threatened. The odds are stacked against the Coalition. yet the Maecktian war machine was stopped by them before so who is to say it cannot happen again.
Just like the Empire was defeated in the North, it too was once bested in the South. Though now half a century ago, the Battle of Infe was a testament to the strength of the Sodonian city states when they are unified. That bloody victory won in the Sodonian sea ensured the continued independence of Sodonia from imperial rule. The Maecktian Empire is still a major player in the South however despite giving up on political domination of the territory it still wages war on the Sodonian city states. Nearly everyday ships are sunk in the Sodonian sea by Imperial privateers, corsairs or Sodonian warships in the unofficial privateering war between the Maecktian outposts and the city states. It is because of this war that the Sodonian cities are still loosely allied, instead of resuming the traditional territorial wars between each other. The alliance may not appear as strong as that of the Traak Coalition in the North, yet it has withstood fifty years of Maecktian intrigue and bribing. In the year following the defeat of Maeckt in the North the city states even launched a second assault at Gadna though this assault met the same fate as the last one.
As long as the alliance holds the power balance in the South will remain a stalemate with neither side strong enough to deal a fatal blow to the other. The only things that could upset this balance are either a betrayal within the Sodonian alliance or a Maecktian collapse. For both of these possibilities many plots are in motion, it has even been said that Sodonian emissaries and those of the Traak Coalition have been in contact with each other to negotiate a defensive pact.
This is the current state of our world. We are on the precipice of a calamitious series of wars that will decide the fate of many. Before this all unfolds however you must know how we ended up in the calm of this storm. For if you want to understand the present, you must first know the past.
-Your Humble Encyclopaedist, 1660