Restored Nation of Aison

Restored Nation of Aison
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Basic Information
Alternative name(s)	Restored Kingdom
Symbol	N/A
Government	Constitutional Monarchy (Under an extended Regency)
Title of leader	Lord Caretaker
Leader(s)	Arthur Ap Ygraine
Geographic Information
Base	Heaven's Keep (Capital)
Other strongholds	New Molson Fernsdale Camelot
Region(s)	Southeastern Continent, Formerly Aison.
Relationships
Member races	Humans, Dwarves, Elves.
Allies	Kemites (privileged trade partner) Dwarves of the Western Mountains (privileged trade partner)
Historical Information
Age	Fourth Age
Preceded by	Grey Cult (Main) New Molson Fernsdale Grey Cult (Remnant at Heaven's Keep)

The Restored Nation of Aison is the newest polity of the Fourth Age, formed from a union of New Molson, Fernsdale, and the recently-liberated Heaven's Keep after the defeat of the Grey Cult remnants who ruled from there. Regarding itself as a continuation of the Third Age Kingdom of Aison, it is unusual that its ruler and the liberator of Heaven's Keep, Arthur ap Ygraine, has refused the title of King and instead calls himself the 'Lord Caretaker of Aison, Warden-Regent for the Absent King'. This in turn is because there of the strong possibility that said 'Absent King', Byron Kagawest, has not lived out his natural lifespan or been killed.

As it is in the early days of consolidation, the Restored Nation has yet to establish a unified economy and common infrastructure, although the Lord Caretaker has began making moves to establish a centralized administration.

History

Background

See Catastrophe, New Molson, Fernsdale,.

The continent of Aison was broken by the Catastrophe into a Southwestern Continent (fate unknown) and Southeastern Continent (where several remnants of civilization stood). Among them, three centers of power emerged: New Molson to the northeast, Fernsdale to the southwest, and at the very center, Heaven's Keep, where a remnant of the Grey Cult remained under the 'Dark Prophet' Gwaen. There were also a collection of petty warlords in the plains in-between New Molson and Fernsdale.

This status quo went on for twenty years, until Arthur ap Ygraine, a precocious noble from New Molson, took an interest in gunpowder weaponry being sold by merchants, and learned all he could about guns and cannon. Setting up his own powder works and foundry, Arthur built up an army of mercenaries and slowly drove south, eventually conquering the warlords and setting up his base at the largest of their castles, which he renamed Camelot.

Encouraging trade with the Kemite Elves to the east and the Dwarves to the west, Arthur gained great wealth and influence in New Molson, which caused Fernsdale, under Patrician Leodegrance/Grance, to ask him for an alliance against the Grey Cult's remnants, which were trying to overrun the Southeastern Continent. He agreed, but rejected Grance's offer of a marriage with his daugther Gwen/Guinievire, choosing to marry the Patrician's son, Gwen's older twin brother Grifff, instead due to sensing an ominous feeling from Gwen.

The Southeastern Continent War

See Gwaen, Arthur ap Ygraine.

Preperations

Arthur's father, Uther, managed to acquire a Hwacha from the remnants of the Black Hunters, which he offered to his son to replicate in exchange for being given a good reason to lobby New Molson's patricians to make war on Heaven's Keep. Griff was the one who brought up that the Grey Cult saw both New Molson and Fernsdale as rebels and wanted their subjugation; a compelling argument in favor of all-out war.

The Campaign

Eventually gathering an army of 25,000 from New Molson's citizens plus his own holdings and assorted mercenaries, Arthur joined with a force of the same size from Fernsdale on the outskirts of his fortress of Camelot to the south of New Molson and struck out west towards 'Heaven's Keep'. Despite the size and strength of his forces, which included Arquebusiers, Cannons, Hwacha, and a contingent of Druids whose purpose was to prevent the army from despoiling the land by magically growing food instead, Arthur had vague forebodings that the campaign won't go as planned.

The First Battle

And so it proved. The 'Dark Prophet', despite his name, had used White Magic to forge an army of 'Angels'; flying servitors which embodied order and obedience, and sent out a party of them to try and attack Arthur when the latter set out with a hunting party to forage for food. Although Arthur managed to survive long enough for an artilleryman at the camp to fire a Hwacha at the band of flying beings, the boy saw three hundred more fly to attack the united host from the air; the first major battle for the campaign had come.

After managing to hold their own against this sudden strike from the air, the army faced an attack from a host of 8000 ground troops belonging to the Grey Cult and hoping to take their enemy's camp in coordination with the 'Angels'. Arthur and a force of riflemen, along with Grance and several thousand melee and spear infantry, set off to meet their advance. They succeeded in doing so, but Arthur speculated that the Grey Cult must have sent several more of these 'Angels' to strike at their supply lines, potentially slowing their advance to a crawl.

A Snail's Pace

After the victory, Arthur, his husband, Grance and Gwen (who brought her own fiancé, Lance) decided to sacrifice to Shakkan and Hephaestus to try and gain divine support but only succeeded in raising their army's morale. To make things worse, the surrounding countryside proved loyal to the Grey Cult and hostile to the combined host, providing food only at extortionate prices. There were also rumors they were acting as 'spotters' for Gwaen's Angels, which made Leodegrance/Grance call for their slaughter.

Gwen, his daugther, objected on pragmatic grounds (alienating the countryside would have doomed their army, especially with the Grey Cult still having the bulk of its forces battle-ready), while Arthur implied that his half of the army would not countenance the slaughter of (relatively) innocent civilians. Leodegrance/Grance stormed off with bad grace.

Moving closer to Heaven's Keep, Arthur had a chance to see that the Grey Cult had brought prosperity and good harvests to the lands it controlled, with irrigation canals, watermills, and windmills all throughout the land. Most of this harvest had been abandoned, but 'Angel' attacks made collecting it before it rotted a perilous affair, causing Leodegrance/Grance to call for the villagers' slaughter again. In private to Griff, his husband, he made no secret of what he wanted: Heaven's Keep, the lands around it, and all the Continent for himself, and if the Grey Cult and the current Clergies do not want that, he would found his own Church if needed.

A Dilemma, Resolved

Luckily, an army of reinforcements, composed of the remaining strength that New Molson, Fernsdale (and some of the Dwarves and Kemite Elves) could spare, arrived with more spellcasters and gunpowder weapons (which had allowed them to ward off attempts to intercept them from the air)... And an old History Book provided by Arthur's parents, Uther and Ygraine plus materials for a new Banner. The History Book was important because it provided the solution to Arthur's dilemma.

It had only been 34 years since Aison's last true Monarch, Byron Kagawest , had been driven out by the Yamatian Invasion, which in turn was replaced by the Grey Cult, then after the Grey Cult fell, anarchy. There was every chance that he was still alive, and if he wasn't, he had been elected to his position by the people of Aison and so that path was open to Arthur eventually. And so Arthur commissioned a new banner, a copy of the Kingdom of Aison, and declared himself not as a new King, but rather as 'Lord Caretaker of Aison, Warden-Regent for the Absent King'.

This not only restored Leodegrance/Grance's approval, but as the army marched, the old men and women who remembered King Byron's rule began convincing their villages to sell their harvests at discounted rates to the combined forces, and while their sons and daughters were more skeptical, their grandchildren and some of the elders who were still fit enough to fight began joining Arthur's army, swelling it to a full 52,500 fighting folk.

The Final Battle

The 'Dark Prophet' Gwaen, in response, proclaimed that he was going to lead his army against the alliance himself as a result, and on the outskirts of Heaven's Keep, his numerically-inferior, but better-armored force of 24,000 folk and 500 'Angels' confronted Arthur and his forces. Gwaen and Arthur exchanged threats through magic which amplified their voices, before Gwaen unleashed a spell of Judgement: Guilty to rain down meteors made of Holy Magic at his foes' host.

Arthur's contingency was to order the grand majority of his spellcasters, including Mystic Knights and Paladins, to pour all their Mana into a protective spell, a protective spell which shielded the bulk of his army but put most of them out of commission. Now it was up to his regular forces, his Druids, and his gunpowder artillery to fight, and up to him, Griff, and their best forces to take out Gwaen before the latter recovered from the drain his spell put on him.

Gwaen held out long enough, killing Leodegrance/Grance and hundreds of the combined forces' best troops by himself, before calling out Arthur on how the latter had spent the lives of his folk like water, and how that left him no right to claim to be the 'Caretaker' of anyone. Arthur, in a brief moment of clarity, realized that his foe, the leader of the enemy, was completely right.

And so he chose to let the 'Dark Prophet' and his remaining loyalists go, but not after formally banishing them from Aison; a debatable decision, but one which saved lives and taught Arthur the importance of magical weapons which would allow a few people to stand against a strong enemy without having to throw away lives.

Consolidation

Arthur's decision to spare the 'Dark Prophet' forced him to make concessions to Fernsdale and New Molson to gain their allegiance (Gwen/Guinevere requested and received the rank of 'Lady Paramount of Fernsdale and Warden of the South' while New Molson got preferential shipbuilding contracts and an immediate commission of fifty warships of various types). Luckily, Heaven's Keep was left with a full treasury and could easily afford such expenses.

Money was also put forward to the formation of a 'Pony Express' to improve communications throughout the land, while new charters were signed for the foundation of new Universities in New Molson, Fernsdale, and Heaven's Keep.

Military

Army

The army is the strongest part of the armed forces, equipped with handguns, crossbows, polearms (pikes and halberds), and with contingents of light and heavy cavalry, some with pistols as well as the traditional spears, swords, and shields. It also has cannons of various sorts and rocket artillery of their own modeled after the Black Hunters' Hwacha units. Fernsdale has also provided battalions of axemen, two-handed swordsmen, and Druids to the predecessor forces of the 'National Army' and might do so again.

Numbers-wise, however, the National Army has suffered from the grievous losses in the final battle of the Southeastern Continent War, as well as the dispersal of most of its original soldiers back to their homes or mercenary companies. However, enough remain to defend Heaven's Keep and the new 'Crownlands' against a conventional enemy or even a return of the Grey Cult.

Navy

Arthur has ordered the construction of a Navy of fifty warships of various types from New Molson, but otherwise, the 'National Navy' remains a nonentity, with its duties divided between the fleets of Fernsdale and New Molson and various mercenaries.

Economy

The Restored Nation was left with a full treasury after the liberation of Heaven's Keep, while the promised unification of New Molson, Fernsdale, and Heaven's Keep's territories into a single unified zone with minimal customs dues and tolls and few barriers to movement, is speculated to go a long way to repairing the damages of war. The 'Crownlands' around Heaven's Keep are also well-irrigated and serviced by windmills and watermills, allowing for fantastic harvests.

Trade relations between the Dwarves to the west and the Kemites to the east also provide the Restored Nation with raw materials and manufactured tools and weapons.

Geography

See World Map (Fourth Age), New Molson, Fernsdale.

The Restored nation claims all of the Southeastern Continent but currently has only roughly half of it or less, although it has established its capital in the fortress of Heaven's Keep near the center of the landmass. New Molson and Fernsdale have also sworn loyalty, bringing two port cities under the Restored Kingdom's rule.

Demographics

The predominant sapient species in the Restored Nation are Humans, although Dwarves had also settled in the area. Elves are even rarer due to the Grey Cult's purges beforehand, but a few might be scattered throughout the land.

Geopolitics

The Restored Nation is under the rule of the 'Lord Caretaker', who is theoretically a Regent for the true King of Aison, Byron Kagawest, until the latter is proven to have died or otherwise unable to retake his crown. As King Byron was elected to his position, the current 'Lord Caretaker' has proclaimed that the position of 'King', if truly empty, is open to election as well.

Relations

The Restored Nation does not have relations with any other sovereign country except for the Dwarves of the Western Mountains, plus The Rocks and the Kemite Elves who live there, but this might change as they rebuild their naval might and diplomatic services.

See Also

• Arthur ap Ygraine