Redoubt Island Recwar II: Withdrawl
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 7:00 am
This thread is a continuation of the "Official Battle Thread" on MCS, which is currently both plagued by Jeremy and threatened with closure by the MCS authorities. Anyone with sense may participate, even (especially) foreigners, but it's kinda limited to people who have a reason to be there.
The Story Thus Far: The Wider War
An attempt to expand the Shirerithian Empire turned ugly when a Shirerithian fleet (played by Erik) sent to drive Britannic forces off Redoubt Island (Maraguo) was fired upon by the forces of Bosworth (played by King Edward), an ally of Britannia.
The attack set off a war across Benacia and the Great Wesern Sea. On one side was Bosworth and its ally, Nova England. On the other was Shireroth and its ally, Batavia. Shireroth and Batavia won a quick victory over the Duchy of Gascony, a Bosworth colony on Benacia, and took control of the territory. Gascony was divided into a series of occupation zones, with Batavia getting the southern part and the various Shirerithian divisions, especially the Atterock forces led by Mel'Kat (played by Andreas), dividing up the north. The west was given to a Shirerithian puppet regime, the Gascon communists under Dennis Moore (played by Jacobus), and patrolled by the formidable Elwynnbrigaden (played by the Khan). The island of St. Jean, around the center, was occupied by the Shirerithian county of Hyperborea (played by Scott). A group led by a Nova English commando named Richard (played by King Josephus) continued to make trouble in the Shireroth-occupied region, but his forces were gradually whittled down by the Khan's patrols.
With the death of Edward, the King of Bosworth, resistance collapsed, and Bosworth formally surrendered to Shireroth. Shireroth received poorly-defined powers over Bosworthian affairs; however, the new king, Dominique (possibly played by Jeremy), repudiated the treaty. Kaiser Hasan declared himself King of Bosworth, causing several foreign nations to protest. Bosworth denied the move, and the status of the peace treaty between Bosworth and Shireroth became in doubt. Around this point, Antica, a friend of Shireroth's, sent a fleet (played by Chris and Braden)to Gascony to aid in any trouble there.
Richard's guerilla activities ceased when Mel'Kat, head of the Atterock forces, made a gentlemen's agreement with him to accomodate him and his people in exchange for peace. With Benacia pacified, action continued only in the east, where Interland attacked the Bosworthian capital of Shrewsbury. The Hyperboreans launched a raid on the Britannic colony of Darwin, hoping to find evidence that the Britons were illegally aiding Bosworth, but failed to do anything besides embarrass themselves. With Shrewsbury successfully defending itself from the Interlanders, and international condemnation of Hasan's occupation growing, the Shirerithians started a second round of negotiations with Bosworth's new king, Wentworth (played by ???), . The results were a second, more robust peace treaty, the Khan-Bellamy Accords, in which Shireroth promised to withdraw from the majority of occupied Gascony by June 29th, and from the Isle St. Jean on July 1st. Shireroth's allies Batavia began negotiating a similar document.
The Story Thus Far: The Isle St. Jean
The occupation of the Isle St. Jean, a small island in the center of Gascony, was left to Hyperborea, a island county from the far north of Shireroth. The Hyperborean forces (played by Scott), under noted commander Rhoti Inkenion, were appalled by the poor conditions in the island (which they called Sanyyikoth), and decided to aid its economic and social development.
A civilian government was set up, with Hyperborean priestesses Tenre Spinrion and Dale Arkion as unofficial leaders. Gascons were also accepted into high positions. Sosni Iudekion, a Hyperborean soldier, began training a Gascon militia to guard the area once the Hyperboreans left. Their efforts were moderately successful. Classes were set up to educate the Gascons, new agricultural techniques were introduced, some basic infrastructure improvements were effected, and the militia began to take shape. The Hyperborean occupiers became popular among many Gascons, especially their leader Rhoti Inkenion.
When the Hyperboreans left to raid the Britannic base on Darwin, the Khan of Vijayanagara sent in the ethnic-Babkhan Elwynnbrigaden (played by the Khan)to replace them as guardians of order. The leader of the Elwynnbrigaden, Hafiz Rhodri, was a mediocre and little-regarded officer with outstanding debts to a vengeful criminal mastermind, "The Badger". Hafiz was baffled by his appointment as leader, but hoped to use the profits from his position to pay off his creditor, who would certainly otherwise murder him.
The Babkhans proved unpopular among both the local Gascons, whom they treated roughly. They were also unpopular with the Hyperboreans, who had a centuries-long conflict with them over Elwynnese politics.
The Badger approached Hyperborean Sosni Iudekion, suggesting he bribe Hafiz to acknowledge Hyperborean leadership of the occupation. The Badger hoped that the bribe would enable Hafiz to pay him back. However, leaving Sosni's quarters the Badger was arrested by Babkhan forces, who had set the entire situation up as a "sting operation" to gain control of his criminal empire. In the disturbance that followed, the Badger managed to escape, and Sosni was shot in the legs.
Meantime, the Hyperborean forces under Rhoti returned from Darwin, badly humbled. They had found no evidence of Britannic violations, although only Atterock historian Kel'Jar (played by Andreas) understood what was really going on. Rhoti, in disgrace, returned home and resigned the command in favor of his unlikeable and neurotic subordinate, Kalon Lusav, whose fear of Babkhans mostly paralyzed him and prevented him from making important decisions.
Meanwhile, the Anticans, led by Commander Octavius (played by Chris)and Commander Indianensis (played by Braden) arrived at the Isle with a large fleet. They had joined the war out of long alliance with Shireroth, but with the signing of the peace treaty found themselves left out of the action. They waited and stewed in their quarters for a while, trying in vain to seek an audience with the unamenable Kalon, but were eventually approached by the Hyperborean priestesses and representatives from the Gascon militia. Alarmed by the approaching handover to Bosworth, as well as by the increasing aggressiveness of the Babkhans, they wanted to declare St. Jean a free state. They sought Antican protection against Shireroth, Babkha, Bosworth, and the various other groups likely to be offended by this. The Anticans discussed this with their Speaker, Aryeztur, and appear willing to talk.
Then Jeremy started being, well, Jeremy, and we had to move it all here.
The Cast of Characters (St. Jean Storyline Only)
Anticans
Commander Christopher Octavius, Antican commander
Commander Braden Indianensis, Antican commander (with an alcohol problem)
Ensign Katherine Valeria, assistant to Commander Octavius
Nelson Werner, assistant to Commander Indianensis
Atterockians
Mel'Kat, commander of Atterock forces
Kel'Jar, historian
Babkhans
The Khan of Vijayanagara (Ardashir Osmani), Minister of Military Affairs and governor of Elwynn
Hafiz Rhodri, Commander of Babkhan forces and military governor of St. Jean
Lt. Edward March, Zjandrian County Security Officer
Hatim al-Rashid ("the Badger"), Crime lord and loan shark, wanted by the government
Hyperboreans
Rhoti Inkenion, disgraced commander of the Hyperborean forces
Kalon Lusav, current commander of the Hyperborean forces
Tenre Spinrion, Priestess of Truth
Dale Arkion, Priestess of Beauty
Sosni Iudekion, Paladin, commander of the Free Gascon Militia
Lusyya Tartakion, Paladin Lotter (commander of a small unit)
Nithi Kirenion, Kyyrhasi (governor) of Hyperborea
Useful Cultural Information
Ardashir has posted a map of St. Jean and some information about its culture two posts below.
Aside from what has been posted, the Gascon culture of the Isle St. Jean should be considered similar to medieval France, although with some modern technology (especially the weaponry).
Although we will probably be making a lot of stuff up for this story, Bosworth of course has final say on all aspects of St. Jean culture.
Unfortunate Political Issues
Shireroth has promised to withdraw all forces from St. Jean by July 1st. Anyone still operating after that point had better find another country or a false flag to do so under, or risk annoying both the Kaiser and the Bosworthians.
Bosworth has flatly refused to have this storyline affect reality in any way, no matter how trifling, so at the end the island had better either belong to Bosworth, or not belong to Bosworth in a way that allows us to still tell Bosworth and the MCS that really it belongs to them.
Although we've signed peace treaties with Nova England and Bosworth, I've invited citizens from those nations to participate here in a military role. In-character, they will have to come up with an explantion for violating the peace treaty; out-of-character, we don't care.