Recaps

Heshima and Keledu prepared the Barbarian leaders for a desperate battle against the Expeditionary Army, with Heshima securing Barak’s succession and Keledu naming a successor for the Faith Order. As rain threatened the battlefield the next morning, the Barbarians took heart, believing it would disable the enemy’s weapons.

• Heshima summoned a military council and told the leaders that Barak would become chieftain if Heshima died in battle.
• Barak and other leaders objected, but Heshima declared his decision final and warned anyone who disagreed to leave at their own risk.
• Keledu announced that he had arranged a successor for the Faith Order and would fight beside Heshima the next day.
• Dark clouds and damp weather greeted both armies the following morning, with heavy rain expected.
• The Barbarians grew excited because they believed the rain would prevent the enemy from using its terrifying weapons.

As the Barbarians and the Northern Alliance Army’s Expeditionary Army prepared for battle, heavy rain led the Barbarians to believe the enemy’s mysterious weapons would be unusable. The armies clashed, and although the Two Rivers Legion’s heavy infantry shattered the barbarian vanguard, the Barbarians tried to encircle the elite troops with their superior numbers.

• Keledu returned across the river to arrange the defense of the fortified camps and later brought the Faith Order’s elite troops back to the Barbarians' Main Camp.
• Heavy rain delayed both armies, and the Barbarians’ belief that it would disable the enemy’s weapons boosted their morale.
• Heshima and Keledu gathered their elite forces as the Northern Alliance Army and the Barbarians assembled their battle lines.
• Both armies charged through the rain, while their ranged troops stayed out of the fight.
• The Two Rivers Legion’s heavy infantry scattered the barbarian vanguard, but the Barbarians held them back at great cost.
• The Barbarians began circling the Two Rivers Legion’s elite vanguard from both wings, hoping to use their numbers to surround it.

Victor’s plan to draw the Barbarian forces together succeeded, and the Expeditionary Army’s mortars shattered their army despite the rain. Heshima killed himself, Keledu stayed behind to face judgment, and the battle ended in a decisive victory for the Expeditionary Army and Northern Alliance Army.

• The Barbarians encircled the Expeditionary Army’s vanguard, while Victor waited for the enemy to gather within mortar range.
• Victor ordered the Maintenance Corps’ firefighting units to fire rain-resistant shells into the massed Barbarian troops.
• The mortar barrage broke the Barbarian army, and Heshima realized his plan had failed and killed himself.
• Keledu sent the Order Warriors to protect his successor and said he would remain to face the consequences.
• The nobles of the Expeditionary Army and Northern Alliance Army celebrated their victory as the rain stopped and a rainbow appeared.

Two months after the battle, the Northlands had returned to peace, but the territory’s administration struggled to meet ambitious plans after acquiring many poorly trained slaves. At a department meeting, Powell reprimanded officials for delays, while Weber said the Finance Department could not yet provide the first slave-purchase payment.

• Two Rivers County entered the summer farming lull as village children played and militias began concentrated training, while factories and schools in industrial centers continued operating.
• Powell scolded the Agricultural Department for falling far behind its expanded farmland target because its new Barbarian serfs were difficult to organize and train.
• The Agricultural Minister admitted the shortfall and promised to catch up in the second half of the year.
• Powell reprimanded Levant for delays in widening major roads, and Levant promised to reorganize projects and redirect construction teams to catch up by year’s end.
• Powell asked Weber when the Finance Department could make the first slave-purchase payment, and Weber said the territory could not yet raise one hundred thousand gold after the war.

Two months after the battle at the Shattered Ice River, Powell struggled to find funds for a difficult task. The chapter explained how the Northern Alliance Army’s capture of hundreds of thousands of Barbarian slaves crashed regional prices, leaving Alex and Victor trying to prevent the Northern Frontier nobles from suffering ruinous losses.

• After the battle, hundreds of thousands of Barbarians surrendered, and the Northern Frontier nobles divided the captives among themselves as spoils.
• Slave traders in the Vela Region drove Barbarian slave prices down to one-tenth of their former level, enraging the nobles who had expected to sell their captives for a fortune.
• Alex stopped the nobles from attacking the slave traders and suggested holding the slaves until prices recovered, but the nobles said they could not afford to feed and maintain them.
• Victor proposed that he, Alex, and other wealthy future great nobles buy the slaves at half their former peak price and sell them gradually.
• Alex realized that buying the nearly five hundred thousand slaves belonging to the other nobles would cost roughly two million gold coins, far beyond what his and Victor’s families could raise quickly.
• Two months later, Powell confronted Weber over the funds he had requested, knowing the territory could not afford the amount but had to find it anyway.

Alex and Victor persuaded the Northern Frontier nobles and Vela’s five great noble families to share the cost of purchasing the slaves, bringing the transaction to 1.85 million gold paid over four years. Two months later, Victor’s territory had organized the slaves for work, and Powell’s meeting found that Two Rivers County’s plans were back on track for completion within the year.

• Victor proposed that Vela’s great noble families share the slave-purchase cost and repay it in installments.
• The Northern Frontier nobles unanimously accepted Alex’s proposal to sell the slaves to Duke Alex, and Alex secured the Vela families’ agreement.
• The nobles settled on a total price of 1.85 million gold, with the Iron Birch Family paying the largest share over four years.
• Alex planned to borrow money from the Great Merchant Guilds and fund rewards and recognition for the nobles who fought in the battle.
• Victor brought most of the slaves and the Faith Order’s members to Two Rivers County, where the slaves helped address the labor shortage.
• Two months later, Powell convened a meeting that found the departments had organized the slaves and expected to complete their revised plans within the year.

Victor arranged to pay the remaining war expenses by borrowing fifty thousand gold coins from his godson Brando, while planning to repay the loan after Two Rivers County’s summer harvest. News of the Vela Nobles’ victory spread through the Raine Kingdom and raised their standing, but they focused on expanding into the Northlands rather than joining a southern invasion.

• Powell reported the territory’s financial shortfall, and Victor ordered Weber to find fifty thousand gold coins while he raised the rest.
• Victor asked his godson Brando for a fifty-thousand-gold-coin loan, and Brando sent the money by sea from Great Oak Territory.
• Victor thanked Brando and expected Two Rivers County’s summer harvest to ease its finances, though he planned to repay the loan next year.
• Raine Kingdom nobles learned that the Vela Nobles had decisively defeated more than a million Steppe Barbarians and reassessed their military strength.
• Nobles in the kingdom proper renewed calls for a southern invasion, while Alex and the other Vela Nobles focused on expanding into the Northlands and avoided another war.

Alex and Victor rejected the Raine slave merchants’ low offer and waited for the Slave Merchants’ Alliance to weaken, while smaller guilds proposed an alternative partnership. The chapter left the five Vela families holding their slaves and coordinating negotiations, confident the alliance’s market position would eventually force it to offer a better price.

• Raine’s major slave merchants offered to buy the Vela nobles’ slaves at sixty percent of their original price, but Alex demanded eighty percent after consulting Victor, and negotiations broke down.
• The major merchants’ suppressed prices left Raine’s slave market with goods but few sales, while smaller guilds began importing slaves and challenging the alliance’s market share.
• Smaller guilds offered Alex and Victor 400,000 gold for 100,000 slaves and proposed jointly selling the Vela families’ larger supply, but Alex and Victor rejected the plan.
• Alex and Victor decided to keep the slaves in Two Rivers County and North York County, monitor the alliance, and wait for a more satisfactory offer.
• The other three Vela families entrusted negotiations to Alex and Victor, while the major merchants’ attempts to approach them directly failed.

After prolonged negotiations, the Slave Merchants' Alliance bought most of Victor and Alex’s slaves in exchange for noble support in delaying Raine Kingdom’s invasion of the south. Victor kept nearly 150,000 Barbarian slaves in Two Rivers County, where the Faith Order’s core members received special status and Keledu eventually began revealing the organization’s secrets.

• The Slave Merchants' Alliance agreed to buy 550,000 slaves for three million gold, while the nobles behind the merchants promised to delay Raine Kingdom’s southern invasion.
• Victor and Alex arranged for the slaves to be transported and sold in two batches, with payment delivered in two installments over the sale period.
• Victor kept nearly 150,000 Barbarian slaves in Two Rivers County and settled the Faith Order’s 20,000 core members separately, allowing them to retain their faith under restrictions.
• Keledu began cooperating after learning that the Faith Order’s believers were being treated well, and he told Victor about the organization’s headquarters, structure, and history.
• Keledu avoided answering Victor’s questions about the Faith Order’s leader.

Victor rejected Keledu’s proposal for an immediate campaign against the Faith Order headquarters, but arranged to establish contacts there and gather intelligence. He also created a division to monitor the Barbarian Alliance in the Skyline Grassland, anticipating that its internal conflicts could drive tribes east into the Northlands Wasteland.

• Keledu explained the Faith Order’s origins, his estrangement from its headquarters, and offered to help Two Rivers County seize its knowledge and resources.
• Victor judged that a distant campaign against the Faith Order was too costly and difficult, but decided to use Keledu’s trusted subordinate Mizhene to gather intelligence from its headquarters.
• Victor ordered Keledu to send loyal priests and Order Warriors with a letter and token to contact Mizhene, and incorporated the team into a new division of Orlando’s Intelligence Department.
• Victor assigned the new division to build intelligence networks across the grasslands and monitor the Barbarian Alliance, which Keledu said could be destabilized by an ambitious chieftain.
• Victor warned that turmoil could drive defeated tribes east into the Northlands Wasteland, and insisted that Two Rivers County prepare to track their movements.

Victor discussed creating an intelligence network with Keledu and explained that wireless telegraphs could eventually connect people across thousands of miles. Keledu pledged his loyalty to Victor, who assigned him and several knowledgeable priests to the Research Institute.

• Keledu warned Victor that the Northlands Wasteland and Skyline Grassland were too vast for an intelligence network to operate easily with existing telegraphs.
• Victor said a wireless telegraph prototype was expected by the middle of next year and that a basic intelligence network could be established in the meantime.
• Keledu offered to cooperate fully with Victor and help seize the Faith Order's headquarters and its resources if needed.
• Victor accepted Keledu's loyalty, and Keledu asked him to spare the Faith Order's leader if he were still alive when Victor moved against the headquarters.
• Victor assigned Keledu and several technically knowledgeable priests to work at the territory's Research Institute.

In April 1673, the Raine Kingdom and the Vela Nobles invaded the East Sea Alliance, crushing its border forces and navy before advancing deep into its territory. The alliance abandoned East Sea City and suffered devastating losses in retreat, but the Allied Army halted at a new defensive line when its supply lines could no longer support the advance.

• The Raine Kingdom and the Vela Nobles launched a massive invasion, routed the East Sea Alliance's six border legions, and sent Victor's four legions by sea into its heartland.
• On April 24, the Two Rivers and Suffolk County fleets used steamships and modern artillery to destroy the East Sea Alliance Navy at the Daur Strait, where Count Kuside died.
• Victor's Eastern Expeditionary Army landed, conquered coastal domains, and defeated the two East Sea Alliance legions sent to drive it back, forcing the alliance to abandon East Sea City.
• Alex used intelligence from agents in the East Sea Alliance to arrange a surprise attack on its withdrawing army, and the Raine-Vela Allied Army annihilated six of its eight legions.
• The Raine-Vela Allied Army swept through a third of the East Sea Alliance's territory before stopping at its new defensive line because its supplies could not keep pace.

After devastating the East Sea Alliance, the Raine-Vela Allied Army received an armistice offer, but Raine and Vela leaders rejected it despite Victor and Alex’s concerns about the costs of further advances. Duke Sheriff planned another offensive with Raine forces leading while Vela troops guarded supply lines.

• The East Sea Alliance lost its northern and eastern territories, and Marquis Erdgao was replaced as Council Speaker after his own lands fell.
• The East Sea Alliance offered to cede occupied territory and pay reparations in exchange for an armistice, but Raine and Vela leaders refused.
• Victor and Alex warned that resistance in occupied lands, strained supplies, and vulnerable supply lines made deeper offensives dangerous.
• Duke Sheriff dismissed the concerns and assigned the Vela Nobles' troops to garrison duty and protect logistics.
• Duke Sheriff formed the Raine Assault Army from Raine Kingdom corps to continue the attack.

Duke Sheriff’s Raine Kingdom Assault Army became bogged down at Stone Mountain City, where the East Sea Alliance made a determined stand. After nearly two months of heavy losses, Vela reinforcements arrived for Sheriff, but the defenders also received troops from the Xister Kingdom, leaving the battle unresolved.

• Duke Sheriff’s nine Raine Kingdom legions advanced deep into the East Sea Alliance but were stopped at Stone Mountain City, a heavily fortified stronghold defended by more than eight legions and nearly four hundred thousand troops.
• The East Sea Alliance’s nobles rallied after learning that surrender offered no protection, while Xister Kingdom and the War Grand Duchy promised reinforcements if the defenders held out.
• The Raine Kingdom and East Sea Alliance fought several major battles around Stone Mountain City, suffering more than two hundred thousand combined casualties over nearly two months.
• Duke Sheriff asked Alex and Victor for support, and they sent four Vela Legions toward Stone Mountain City despite their concerns about weakening the occupied territories.
• Alex and Victor’s reinforcements reached Stone Mountain City in six days, as nearly one East Sea Alliance legion and three legions transported by the Xister Kingdom Navy also arrived.
• Duke Sheriff, whose troops were exhausted, watched the Xister Kingdom reinforcements enter the defenders’ lines without attacking.

Duke Sheriff reconsidered the Raine Kingdom's stalled campaign against Stone Mountain City and decided to withdraw rather than waste more troops. The Raine officers welcomed the decision, while Alex and Victor observed how months of fighting had drained their confidence.

• At a welcoming banquet for the Vela Nobles' reinforcements, Duke Sheriff and the Raine Kingdom generals sat subdued as Stone Mountain City's defenses and reinforcements made victory unlikely.
• A Raine Kingdom general asked Duke Sheriff whether they should adjust their battle plan.
• Duke Sheriff acknowledged that continuing the assault would waste the kingdom's wealth and army, then ordered the Raine Kingdom forces to prepare to withdraw.
• The Raine Kingdom generals cheered at the withdrawal order, while Alex and Victor were surprised by how much the officers' resolve had faded.
• The East Sea Alliance nobles had regained their courage and united against the Raine Kingdom after months of fighting.

After the Allied Army withdrew from Stone Mountain City, Alex and Victor routed a Xister Kingdom pursuit force with artillery before pulling the Vela Legion back to defensible territory. The East Sea Alliance recovered an abandoned half-county, but the front settled into a stalemate as both sides lacked the strength or will to continue fighting.

• Duke Sheriff ordered the Allied Army to retreat and assigned the Vela Army to cover its withdrawal while the Raine Kingdom legions destroyed supplies they could not carry.
• A Xister Kingdom prince led three legions in a nighttime pursuit, but Alex and Victor prepared an ambush, and the Vela Legion crushed the attackers with artillery.
• The prince returned to Stone Mountain City after losing nearly half his troops, while Alex and Victor withdrew once they were sure the enemy would not pursue again.
• Duke Sheriff was stripped of his command and recalled to the Raine Kingdom after his losses drew the king's and Noble Council's censure.
• Alex and Victor abandoned a half-county salient and established a defensive line in the remaining two counties; the East Sea Alliance retook the territory with little resistance.
• The East Sea Alliance and the Xister Kingdom Army lacked the strength to attack the Vela Legion's positions, and the front settled into a stalemate.

The East Sea Alliance rebuilt its navy and joined forces with the Xister Kingdom to challenge the Vela Navy, while the Raine-Vela Allied Army stabilized its occupied lands. Victor and Alex welcomed Crown Prince Grand Duke Balek as the new supreme commander and learned that the experienced General Stanley would actually lead the army.

• Count Valbi became Council Speaker as victorious war nobles gained influence, and the East Sea Alliance's council embraced the Pro-War Faction.
• The East Sea Alliance assembled a fleet of over eight hundred vessels and sent it across the Silver Moon Strait to join the Xister Kingdom Navy, abandoning and destroying its coastal ports.
• Victor and Alex returned to Cornwall County and welcomed Grand Duke Balek, the Raine king's eldest son, as the Allied Army's new supreme commander.
• At a private meeting, Grand Duke Balek told Victor and Alex that General Stanley, his military tutor, would command the army in practice.

Duke Barick explained Earl Stanley’s role in the campaign against the East Sea Alliance and revealed that the Raine Kingdom was facing a looming crisis. He left Victor and Alex considering the threat of a unified power emerging from the central City-State Union.

• Duke Barick told Victor and Alex that Earl Stanley would arrive in about half a month and wanted time, freedom from interference, and twenty army corps to wage war against the East Sea Alliance.
• Duke Barick explained that the king had sent Stanley nine army corps, using Barick as supreme commander to avoid opposition from the kingdom’s noble factions.
• Duke Barick inferred that Victor and Alex were reluctant to commit more Vela forces to the war, then said the Raine Kingdom was running out of time.
• Duke Barick revealed that Kingdom Nightingale intelligence predicted the central City-State Union might unify into a hegemonic state within five years, potentially becoming a major rival to the Raine Kingdom.

Duke Barick explained that the Raine Kingdom would withdraw its regular army in three years if it failed to defeat the East Sea Alliance, then focus on attacking the Central City-State Coalition before it unified. He asked the Vela Nobles to commit more forces to the campaign, offering them half the spoils and freedom to command their own troops.

• Alex asked whether the Raine Kingdom could support hostile factions against the Central City-State Coalition, but Duke Barick said the kingdom could not reach them and faced distrust in the City-State Union.
• Duke Barick said the Raine Kingdom would withdraw its forces to the mainland after three years and attack the Central City-State Coalition before it unified.
• Alex argued that Earl Stanley's forces could not defeat the East Sea Alliance, especially with the Xister Kingdom and possibly the grand dukes of the Chaos Lands intervening.
• Duke Barick warned that the Vela Nobles would face the East Sea Alliance and its allies alone if the Raine Kingdom withdrew, prompting Alex to accuse him of threatening them.
• Duke Barick asked the Vela Nobles to commit more troops, promising to split the conquered land's interests evenly and let them direct their own forces and plans.

Earl Stanley arrived in Cornwall County with two legions, took command of the Raine Expeditionary Army, and coordinated with the Vela nobles in the occupied lands. He arranged to rent Two Rivers Legion medical staff and secured Two Rivers County the army’s medical-supply contracts, while both sides prepared for a future war.

• Victor and Alex agreed that the Vela Nobles would cooperate with the Raine Kingdom, provided their interests were guaranteed.
• Earl Stanley arrived in Cornwall County with two legions, then toured the occupied area with Duke Barick, Alex, and Victor and praised the Vela Army’s strength and their efforts against resistance forces.
• Earl Stanley criticized Raine’s native great nobles and considered how he might gain the support of the Vela Nobles, while Duke Barick watched uneasily.
• Earl Stanley took command of the Raine Expeditionary Army and reorganized its forces, personnel, and command structure.
• Victor agreed to rent nearly eight hundred medical personnel to Earl Stanley’s army in exchange for fees and the Raine army’s medical-supply contracts.
• The occupied border fell into a prolonged lull as both sides replenished their forces and supplies.

Victor and Alex learned that hostile forces were buying large quantities of weapons and supplies, then allowed the arms deal to continue while restricting sales of superior armor to gather intelligence. As preparations for war drove up prices and land resistance faded, the Vela Navy raided enemy supply routes across the Silver Moon Strait.

• Rabik's Commerce Department alerted Victor to a surge in arms purchases, and intelligence officials identified several merchant associations as funded by the East Sea Alliance and the Xister Kingdom.
• Victor brought the intelligence to Alex, and they agreed to complete the sales to learn more about the hostile forces' procurement.
• Victor ordered the Arms Factory to sell mostly chainmail and leather armor while restricting brigandines and plate armor.
• By October, prices for weapons and materials had soared, grain had become unavailable on the Vela market, and resistance in occupied territories had largely vanished.
• The Vela Navy divided into small commerce-raiding squadrons and attacked supply routes, destroying more than a dozen merchant convoys and sinking or capturing nearly a hundred vessels.

The Vela Navy ended its raids after a tense standoff with the combined East Sea Alliance and Xister Kingdom fleet, and winter later halted maritime traffic through the Silver Moon Strait. Victor inspected occupied East Sea Alliance land and saw its farming potential, then began preparing to seek a tract there after the war while keeping Two Rivers County as his family’s industrial core.

• The East Sea Alliance and Xister Kingdom assembled large convoys and fleets, prompting Viscount Sonanda to withdraw the Vela raiders from the Silver Moon Strait.
• The combined fleet returned to the Scorching Sun Islands, ending Vela’s unsuccessful campaign to sever trade between the allied powers.
• By late December, drifting ice and then the frozen open sea halted shipping, while Victor remained in Cornwall County.
• Victor brought agricultural experts to inspect the occupied East Sea Alliance territory, and they found its climate, soil, and waterways suited to two wheat harvests a year.
• Victor rejected exchanging Two Rivers County for warmer land but decided that the Golden Sunflower Family should acquire farmland in the East Sea Alliance after the war.
• Victor assigned people to survey suitable land in the occupied territory and record their findings for the postwar allocation.

Earl Stanley offered Victor authority to restore agriculture and commerce across the occupied territory, along with an estate he could manage immediately and later receive as a reward. Victor saw the offer as a chance to plant winter wheat and help supply the Vela Legion before the next war.

• Vela and Raine nobles began surveying occupied estates for valuable assets such as mines.
• Earl Stanley sent Victor a letter praising his administration of Lincoln County and asking him to restore agriculture and commerce across the occupied territory.
• Stanley explained that famine and depleted grain supplies threatened stability and could disrupt the next phase of the war.
• Stanley offered Victor discretion over the task, freedom from the interim governors' interference, and an estate he could later receive outright.
• Victor recognized that he could plant winter wheat on the estate and use the harvest to help cover the Vela Legion's grain shortage.

Victor and the Vela Nobles accepted Earl Stanley’s offer to manage agriculture and commerce in the occupied East Sea Alliance territory, forming a Management Committee that aligned them with the Royalist Faction. Their work quickly restored order as the committee launched a campaign to suppress bandits.

• Victor consulted Alex and the other Vela Nobles about Earl Stanley’s terms, and they agreed the benefits outweighed the risk of provoking the Noble Faction.
• Victor offered to share the gains with the Vela Nobles, and they unanimously accepted the terms and established a Management Committee with Victor as chairman.
• Victor’s agreement aligned the Vela Nobles with Earl Stanley, Duke Barick, and the Royalist Faction, while Earl Stanley sidelined Noble Faction forces by sending a temporary governor home and slowing their reinforcements.
• The Vela Nobles’ committee began restoring agriculture and commerce across the occupied territory, where disrupted trade and insecurity had halted production.
• The committee directed the Vela Expeditionary Army to suppress bandits who were plundering towns and villages, and the regular troops quickly overwhelmed them.

Victor and the Vela Nobles worked to restore farming in their occupied territories by lending farmers seeds and tools, while the Raine Nobles’ harsh orders worsened conditions in their regions. The chapter left Victor focused on the Vela lands, where a successful harvest could feed the occupied population and the Vela Legion.

• After bandits were cleared out, Victor and the Vela Nobles repaired damaged settlements and offered farmers low-interest loans repayable in grain.
• The Raine Nobles ordered farmers to work without providing seeds or tools, and their soldiers caused further harm by taking livestock and supplies.
• Victor learned that the Raine Nobles relied on skilled hereditary retainers at home and lacked the knowledge to manage agriculture themselves.
• Victor concentrated on the Vela-controlled territory, where the Vela Nobles had to fund seeds, tools, and food for farmers across more than three million hectares of farmland.
• Victor expected a successful summer harvest to supply the occupied population and Vela Legion, while Count Stanley left the Raine Nobles’ conduct alone.