THe War over Embers

Officially lasting from 90 BTF to 96 BTF, this was one of the biggest conflicts to face the World Beyond the Fall. While some claim that the initial invasion of Grailguard lands is the true beginning of the war, none can argue about its terrible cost.

Army against army, humanity met eldritch horrors. Sorcery and monstrosity carved into soldiers and defenders with ease. Only through machination, alliance, and the blood of heroes did humanity prevail against such powerful and nigh unkillable foes.

Here now do we look upon the biggest battles that made the shape of this red-handed War.

The siege of Grailhome

88 Btf

The warnings were many. The Astral Tome’s divinations and the Dustriders’ own exhausted words were not unheeded — The next few years were spent by Grailguard in preparation and evacuation. They even attempted to gain allies from the other settlements in the Midwest and Mid-Atla — only the Dustriders and a rare few others responded.

However, it was not one Harbinger that attacked the Grailguard but four. The Grailguard’s finest paladins could not withstand the horrors that tore flesh and steel with ease. Even their sharpest blades could not find purchase, bending, breaking, and scattering to the winds. Indeed, the Wardens still mourn Crosse’s ensorcelled blades.

After dozens of brutal skirmishes, the Harbinger Host lay siege to Grailhome. To buy time for the refugees and to deal a blow to the Harbingers, Grailhome was to be detonated but this ploy would not come to fruition. The fortress’ defenses were unraveled and keep was sacked. The region still suffers, turned into a Shroudland by eldritch energies.

To this day, Grailhome awaits a crusade that will cleanse it once and for all. Much of the Grailguard’s secrets and lores are there, along with great amounts of hoarded pre-Fall lore. But the Grailguard and their allies have not forsaken hope — so do they say from the Dragonspire to East Praesidium:

“Grailhome Endures!”

The crows feast at three poles

91 BTF

“Crows’ Feast” marks the first great Victory for the Free Tribes and the Templars. At this time, the Illustrados did not yet see the shape of this war and its threat to all humanity. The sparse reports they received had convinced them that this was an tribal war — even now do the Magistrados mourn this folly.

Through mysterious means, a Harbinger and his Host was lured into the village of Three Poles. Within this ruin, they were encircled and defeated by Conclave and Tribe. Their reinforcing allies were also defeated at immense cost.

Though the victory is remembered well and fondly, the tale of what the Free Tribes and the Templars did to that village remains a tightly kept mystery. Indeed, the land has yet to heal and no one resides there.

The official reports and announcements of the day proclaim that the Corpse Priest, in his ponderous, many-headed bulk, was harried to his doom by Cartel Operatives and Dustrider Companies at his flanks. The Talon Conclave and the Grailguard were the mailed gauntlet that smote the Harbinger into ruin. Sorcerers from the Carmine and the Scavvers ensured that the trap would not be seen until it was sprung. It would be almost two years before the Corpse Priest would be seen again.

While this victory stopped the Harbingers in their tracks, its success would not be repeated for a while: the Infernal Apostasy drew all but a small garrison of Templars away from Mid-Atla to defend their Oracle-Avatar.

Though the Free Tribes did not utterly crumble after this but many of their battles thereafter were fought on the backfoot. The Templars of the Imperial Spears Chapter would suffer greatly alongside them, though they themselves would not survive the War.

“The mighty, the majestic, and the meek — all will swell the worm’s belly in the end” — Pale Wolf proverb.

the altar of fools

94 btf 

This marked the first major battle where all three ArchFactions worked together. After several small victories, the Archfactions now stood face to face against the Hive Mind and her chitinous horde.

Battle lines were readied. Preparations were made. But it ended poorly nonetheless.

The lack of coordination was exacerbated by in-fighting among the different groups and philosophies. The Illustrados’ gunships and emplacements were swarmed by fliers. The Templar fought bravely too far from their support. Save for the Grailguard, the Free Tribes meant to harry and flank the Hive Mind but they were themselves outflanked by the Lightless’ abominations.

The result was a total rout, made worse by the Lightless’ flanking maneuver. In a doomed charge against the Hive Mind, Talon-Archon Telestria and the Imperial Spears Chapter would enter legend alongside the Vulture Dogs and the Night Slayer Motorgangs. Those Templars who survived claim to have seen a bolt of lightning strike down where her blade bit into the Harbinger. The faithful of the Desolation claim the same, though they credit their Ancient Thunders for the omen.

More companies, chapters, and other orders would be shivered and splintered before the remaining forces reached Illustrados gunships or managed to ride out of pursuit. No ship left without their berths filled to bursting and hulls ready to fracture. Martillo-Coronel Jacques-Baptiste Oge and his retinue leapt from his ship in Celso powered-armor. The gloom wavered against the multitudinous flash of a thousand gun barrels and Celso lances.

Giants and abominations fell but Xhibal did not. Still, precious time was purchased with heroes’ blood yet again.

For months afterward, it seemed that the alliance between the Archfactions would bring them doom instead of hope.

“My life for the Empress. Let it be finished” - Telestria Hwang, mortally wounded before her final charge.

the Salvation at Snakewater

Btf 94

“Salvation” was the first major inter-faction victory for the Archfactions. What began as a small skirmish between the Harbinger foragers and the Peace Maker Cartel snowballed into a bloody and brutal conflict. Each side drew upon allies and reinforcements - after a fortnight of skirmishes, none could see the autumnal leaves beneath sprawling blood and severed organs.

Snakewater itself was flattened by a Harbinger’s appearance, though the townsfolk were largely evacuated at that point. God-flesh titans and Fleshlings walked Snakewater’s streets for a few hours before they were driven into the mud and the blood by a coalition of Hellhounds, Grailguard, and Talonites. Even when the charge was stopped by the obliterating gaze of the Lightless, the trap closed shut at the Harbinger’s blind spots. Naval cannon fire and the Oracle-Avatar’s sorcery withered the Harbinger’s defenses and cleared his defensive retinue. When his magics made him elusive to sorcery and artillery, Archfaction Operatives and soldiers had slain the solitary Xhibal with blade and bullet.

The defeated Harbinger would reincarnate a year later, warded against Avataral Void-Fire (though it ultimately helped him little). Similarly, the town of Snakewater would rebuild and reconstruct several years later.

“Peace through honor, discipline, and superior firepower” — Lance Mariner “doctrine”

The Derrsburg enigma

96 BTF

One of the more mysterious events of the War over Embers is simply called the “Derrsburg Enigma”. Even in the years following the War, too many “facts” defy explanation of that fateful winter.

Far and north of the War’s front, a joint Archfaction facility was invaded by the Smiling Shadow and his shades. Many believed the facility (a former prison turned fortress) to be a hardened target, even for the Harbingers. The evidence from what remained suggested otherwise, however. The tales of the event was reported only from the few survivors of the attack. The survivors themselves were taken into custody by their Archfactions (or specific Tribes) and perished from afflictions shortly thereafter.

The dozens of differing stories on the matter agree on one point — by the time the Archfactions arrived at Derrsburg, there was almost nothing left of the facility. It was savaged root and branch, its personnel and inventory scattered and unaccounted for. Indeed, the mutilated bodies found in the area do not match typical Harbinger “aftermaths” nor do they match the facility’s records, so the tales claim.

Rumors point to sightings of the Fomori Caravan and the Four Winds Charioteers in the area, suggesting the idea that the facility built for research — delving into dark relics and hazardous magics. The two Power Groups’ notoriety suggest that they have ferried dangerous materials and items over to this remote mountain holding.

The Derrsburg Enigma cast a pall over future war efforts, although these were largely successful and were leading to the Harbingers’ end. For their part, the Oracle-Avatar does not answer questions about the Enigma, beyond that which the official reports claim. Similar queries among the other Archfactions’ leadership only find a similar silence.

Pilgrimages and journeys to Derrsburg find the roads ill-maintained and the way itself fraught with danger. Upon arrival, visitors are ushered away by groups of Templar, Illustrados, and Cartel Operatives. Those who persist in their trespass are investigated thoroughly. Some folk are never seen again.

“Three folk can keep a secret, if two of them die” - Charioteer saying, taken from a pre-fall scholar.

The battle of the broken bell  

96 btf

This is the most remembered and most celebrated events of the War over Embers. The “Broken Bell” was the culmination of several months’ planning and years of small victories. In this 3 day battle, the Harbingers were lured into range of Free Tribe emplacements and Illustrados warships while being outflanked and cut off from reinforcements.

Weakened by artillery and experimental sorcery, the Harbingers were stripped of their retinues and ripped asunder one by one. The Corpse Priest’s cadaverous bulk was riddled with bullets before being sorcerously severed into bloodless chunks. The Hive Mind and the verminous mass that made its bulk was set alight by alchemy and Void-Fire. Even the Smiling Shadow could not escape — held still by spellcraft, his tenebrous form was shredded like parchment by a dozen ensorcelled blades.

Only Xhibal the Lightless remained and stayed proof of sorcery. Though bereft of his humonculi guardians, his obliterating gaze wrought retribution in kind. Though devastating to all but a few survivors, this strike would prove integral to Xhibal’s downfall — the smoke and dust thrown up by the ruin blinded the Harbinger’s many eyes to a lone charging figure, fractured shield in front of him and alchemical satchel in his other arm.

Burned and blinded, only the Oracle-Avatar and those around them withstood the Lightless One’s onslaught and the final gambit of Ser Arcturus the Errant. On the other hand, the Harbinger would not survive the activation of the Illustrados device within the Paladin’s satchel.

When smoke and dust were cleared, the Harbinger Hosts had broken to the Archfactions, save for those who simply fell apart without their masters’ sustaining sorceries. The Harbingers’ Emissaries, Messengers, collaborators, and minions that were not slain managed to elude their pursuers. Not the same could be said of the Harbingers’ remains: every scrap, chunk, and stain did not escape the Oracle-Avatar’s Void-Flames - as few things do.

Though they celebrated their victory, the Archfactions remained on high alert for months afterward. However, their vigilance would not bear fruit — though the Harbingers had reincarnated in the past, they would not reappear.

And thus far, Humanity’s luck had held, even after three years of reconstruction and armistice.

The Tenet of Nurturing: Humans are the Children of the God-Empress and the Templar are Her Chosen. The Templar must protect, instruct, and hone Humanity for the Final Ravening/Last Reaping.

— The Second Tenet of the Templar