The caravan of Duke Richard Grande Headington was stopped along the road. The various people that made up said convoy were marveling at the wonderous beauty of the Arcadian Commonwealth. Although, to be precise, they were marveling at the massive flying city in front of them, rather than the scenic countryside. As they watched the floating island which was just under 4 times the size of Manhattan, a massive, oddly shaped beast was seen coming from one of several large rectangular holes in the side of the island.

The beast flew towards them and then landed gently 300 meters away. It towered overhead, and the knights in the employ of Duke Headington made ready to fight. The beast’s belly opened up, like a massive maw, and the entourage presumed that they would be swallowed whole. In a matter of speaking, they were not wrong. The modified Medea was designed to carry human-sized passengers, and thus the Ducal convoy was surprised when a group of humans walked out from the massive ‘beast’. While still apprehensive about the nature of the ‘monster’ in front of them, the knights inched forward towards the waiting humans at the base of the Medea.

…

It had been a few hours since the knights had been informed of the nature of the ‘monster’ that they were prepared to face and they in turn had informed the Duke and his entourage of the Medea’s capabilities. By now the Medea was loaded up with the whole convoy and all personnel, free and otherwise. With all passengers and cargo secured, the large doors closed shut and the Medea lifted off with a lurch before it took to the sky and made a beeline for the floating island it had come out of. This modified Medea was not designed for transporting high-value people, and thus had only basic amenities. In many ways it was less like a flying cruise ship and more like an oversized and oddly shaped commercial airplane. You could get small cups of ice water, a single small cup of soda and a single small complimentary bag of pretzels, peanuts or cookies.

Needless to say; with the opinion of the Duke and most of the Human Lands having dropped below zero, almost every expense was spared in transporting the Ducal convoy to the sky island. Arkhan had actually planned for this to happen, or to be precise he had several plans in place depending on how first contact went. The words his MSGs had spoken at the border was specifically designed to test the waters and see if any positive relations would be possible. Unfortunately, his fears of overt religious fanaticism being the norm were proved true, and so the current plan was put in place.

Arkhan knew that for such a nation, his policies were blasphemy and he himself would be seen as a traitor to the human race and a heretic, not that he cared. All this meant was that hostilities were inevitable, something Arkhan had known would be true, one way or another. He had a good idea, based on reconnaissance from the sky, that the nations closer to the easternmost nation would be the most fanatical in their faith. As you would expect, the nations closest to the Theocracy were indeed the most devoted to their dogma, and the ones farther away were less overtly zealous. What Arkhan hadn’t counted on was the fact that the nobles and knights would use being outwardly zealous as a way to rise through the ranks, and that this would ultimately stain their minds from being merely partial believers to fanatical ones.

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…

The Medea docked in one of the many hangar bays in the artificial sky island and as the passengers disembarked, the flight crews and airport staff had to work hard not to both laugh and gag as the Duke slowly waddled his stinky and stained body past them. As the Duke’s party finally exited the airport, the sight they saw before them both amazed and infuriated them.

What amazed them was the massive technological might that surrounded them, they had no idea that all of this had not existed less then five years ago and assumed that this had been built ages ago during what was known as ‘The Lost Age of Splendor’. It was said that in the Lost Age that life was so easy that everyone, even the poorest of people could live as kings; that both men and women danced among the stars and all the mysteries of creation were answered. It was even said that magic first came into existence during the Lost age, and that its misuse led not only to the downfall of the first civilization, but the rise of monsters and the other races.

The dogma of the church preached that the downfall was caused by the various non-human races attempting to usurp humanity and rise out of the position of slavery that had been the norm. That was part, but not all of why the free people of the ducal convoy were so angry. In this place, this place that rivaled the imagination of those who dreamed of the Lost Age, Beastmen and other Non-Humans were walking around as free as could be, talking with humans on equal footing and some even flirting with and being flited at by humans! Everything the Holy Gospel said NOT to do regarding Non-Humans was being done here, in front of them.

What sickened them the most, however, was the various Human/Non-Human couples who, based on the golden rings on their fingers were wed to each other. What made matters even more dangerous was a group of several men dressed in black pants, white long-sleeved dress shirts and black ties who approached them and asked them if they had heard the word of the Great God, Arkhan. It was at this point, Arkhan’s plan entered its next stage as the Duke snapped and ordered his knights to slaughter the ‘Heathens, Traitors, Blasphemers, Heretics and Sub-Humans’.

Before the knights could even begin to attack, several MSGs appeared from thin air and knocked the knight unconscious with a mix of Heat Rods, heavy melee strikes and Shield Bash attacks. The Duke and his subordinates were arrested on the charge of multiple accounts of attempted murder and thanks to the knowledge from the Beastmen, Dwarven and Elvish Kingdoms the slaves of the Duke were freed to much celebration and joyful weeping.