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A House Divided

Pelasgia

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Athens, Greece
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Demos
«Χτίζει σπίτια ἡ ὁμόνοια, τὰ γκρεμίζει ἡ διχόνοια.»
"Houses are built by unity, and torn down by disunity." - Pelasgian saying

Propontis, Pelasgia
23/08/2018


The Senate House of Propontis had stood for over one and a half thousand years, having been built on the grounds of the Boule of Iopolis, the ancient Pelasgian colony that was previously on the site of Propontis, by Valentian the Great, back when the city of New Tibur was coming to life. The massive marble pillars and walls of the Senate House, coloured mainly red and white, and decorated with innumerable frescoes and geometric patters, supported a roughly orthogonal and parallelogramic structure at the heart of the Quarter of the Angels, near the Forum. The pillars themselves were a mix of Doric, Ionic, and, primarily Corinthian, the favourite rhythm of pillar of the Tiburans, being entirely smooth and topped by a crown decorated with an assortment of floral patterns. The red tile roof of the Senate House had survived sackings and damages, invasions and occupations, and rebellions and massacres, while also seeing the glory of Imperial Appointments, debates on the famed Propontine Legal Codes, and the triumphal restitution of the Senate's power.

The building itself stretched out of blocks and blocks, covering four large blocks by itself, with two more blocks being taken up by the renowned Senatorial Gardens, where many backroom deals and unofficial meetings between Senators took place. The three floors of the Senate and the one basement floor surrounded two main wings, which were split by a large internal garden. The garden was built in the Ancient Pelasgo-Tiburan fashion, being located on the subterranean basement level, with an open sky, with a covered hallway supported by pillars and statues surrounding the green space, through which climbing plants and pathways combined to create a small piece of paradise. The two wings were those of the House of Nobles and the House of Representatives, formerly known as the House of the Plebs.

The House of Nobles was closer to the entrance and formed the sole body original Senate, being made up by all the hereditary and, later, newly created nobles of the Southern Empire, and those who moved there from Tibur when the capital changed. It presently consisted of 698 Nobles, commonly called Senators, who served as the upper chamber of Parliament, amending, passing, or rejecting the lower chamber's bills and acts, on top of serving various important and ceremonial factions, such as holding Senatorial Committees (including the famed Standing Senatorial Committee on Martial Affairs) and ceremonially appointing the Emperor to his civic posts, chiefly among them Princeps and Consul. In this House, the Lower Aristocracy, representing provincial and lesser capital nobles, many of whom had mixed with and done increasingly more bussiness cooperation with the rising Bourgeoisie, held a clear majority, endorsing the Nationalist Party with 369 seats and the the Liberals with 83 seats. Some newer Nobles endorsed the Social Party with 69 seats, and even the infamous National Phalanx with 2 seats (about 0.004% of the body), while none ever had, and ever would, endorse the DKKP, since the party itself would reject such an endorsement, even if it ever came to be. The most prestigious seats were held by the large minority of the High Aristocracy, who save for one sponsor of the National Phalanx, endorsed the People's Party, known for boasting Purple symbols of the Imperial Loyalism and an undying support for the aristocratic, corporatist, monarchic, and traditionalist status quo (though, quite ironically, not the Status Quo of the synonymous Treaty).

The House of Represenatives had seen its emergence in the late 19th century, when the Empire made its overtures with endorsing Western, and primarily Burgundian, Engellexian, and Eiffellandish ideals, to establish itself as a modern country and reclaim its status as a Major European Power. Called the House of Plebs before the 1950s, it occupied the room formerly held by the Library of the Senate, which has since been moved to three large buildings next to the Senate proper, with some more regularly needed or otherwise special documents being kept in the basement of the Senate building. Unlike the House of Nobles which still clings to the Tiburan model of orthogonal columns of rows opposite each other with the Presiding Magistrate and the Officers of the Senate between and to the front of the two, similar to the Engellexian model, the House of Representatives uses a model reflecting the ancient Pelasgian and contemporary Gallo-Germanian semi-circular arrangement, like a traditional Pelasgian oratorium or theatre. Directly elected by all Imperial citizens of 21 years of age who have served two years in the Armed Forces (for men) or have born at least two legitimate children (for women), the House of Nobles is the heart of the Empire's politics since the Constitution of 1972, with the roots of parliamentarianism having been firmly planted in the 19th century and plentifully watered in the 1950s.

On August 23rd, 2018, the Proëdros of the House of Representatives called it to order, reading out the Decision of the Crown by which the Senate had been recalled from its Summer Recess pursuant to articles 40 and 48 of the Constitution. The Proëdros then informed the Representatives of their obligation to vote on an Imperial Decree on that day, as per article 43 of the Constitution, which allowed for the Crown to issue decrees, at the behest of the Government or of its own Accord, which should be voted on within 7 or 14 days, or even sooner, if certain provisions in Article 48 were invoked for special emergencies, like Declarations of War. The Proëdros then begun to read out the Decree titled "Declaration of War on Kadikistan, Xinhai, Serenierre, and Crotobaltislavonia," as was the custom of the body. Then, the clerks called all men to rise, as the Emperor had chosen to use His privilege to attend the vote, sitting in an elevated place, in a balcony behind the Proëdros and podium, and above the seats of all the Representatives. The session then resumed with speeches from His Imperial Majesty's Government and His Imperial Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition, both of whom, ironically aligned on the topic, with the Great Logothete, Mr. Theophrastos Anastasiades speaking first.

"Please it be His Imperial Majesty and all His loyal subjects to know that this motion, though introduced in good faith and in good heart, does not, by the Grace of God, Justice or Good to the Southern Empire of Tibur. For, whilst it does originate from a heartfelt desire to aid our partners across the Long Sea from a horrid menace, a desire which all good Tiburian hearts share, it does so in a manner inconsistent with the fundamental Principle of Justice and the Obligation of the Senate and the People of Tibur to act first and foremost in the interest of that Great Polity. Indeed, this motion does quite dishonour and injure our Empire, in that it not only shatters the lawful pact of this State with the Union of Ivar, but also does so to rectify numerous perilous errors of our partners across the Long Sea. For this State hath saved our allies from the same errors numerous times in the past, and at least thrice since last September, and yet all our protestations and all our warnings did but naught to stop their including Occitania in the Concord, before Trivodnia too, much aided and brought close to the Concord asked to join.

"Here we see events which Amstov, and Trier, and all the others should know would lead to catastrophe, for we ourselves did clearly see so. The Status Quo Treaty was violated and laid bare, and through the inaction and refusal to act of the People's Party and the High Nobles, here and in the Old Senate, we were not able to rectify or stop this. Can we really blame, dear colleagues, Kadikistan for wanting to see its sovereign interests protected and the promises it had been given numerous times kept? Have we forgotten the ancient Pelasgian folk tale of the Lying Shepherd, who after crying "Wolf!" to his neighbours numerous times as a joke, was left alone when true wolves arrived? Can we not see that the numerous provocations of Amstov finally caught up with it? Let me remind you, honourable members of the Senate, that we are here to protect the interests and livelihoods of the People of Tibur, and we would have a hard time convincing these lawful, good, dutiful veterans and mothers that a martial adventure across the Long Sea and the Kalahari, over an insignificant statelet, to save that very statelet from its repeated wrongs, would somehow be advancing their interests. I see not why these people would want to see sons torn from their mothers, and husbands from their wives, only for the imbeciles across the pond to repeat the same error in six months' time!

(at this point the booing of the People's Party delegates had to be stopped and order had to be restored over an interval of several minutes)

"And let us look, then, to the appeals of included in this Decree itself; '[...] to safeguard the Honour and Trustworthiness of the Empire [...]' and to '[...] protect our fellow Christian Monarchies from the Red Menace, which shall soon be at our doorstep [...]'. Good Sirs and Ladies of the Senate, in what way does this act do anything but undermine these very ends? For it brings us to open war with the Communistic states, who would have otherwise been kept afar by the Status Quo Treaty, and it injures our honour, and trustworthiness, and pride irreparably by violating a Treaty signed by a dutiful appointed Minister Plenipotentiary of Noble Blood, and confirmed by both Houses of this most noble Senate, and signed and sealed by the Hand of a Divinely Ordained Sovereign Lord. And all this it does on grounds most frivolous and immaterial, such as 'ties of kinship and brotherhood' from several centuries past, and 'participation in the noble Crusade against Communism'. Alas, most honourable colleagues, I cannot endorse this Act in good faith. And to those who previously shouted 'Judas!' and 'Traitor!' and to the Most Noble Sovereign Personage who honours us at this very moment with His August Presence, and might perhaps be entertaining such thoughts, I say this: it is because I am a noble servant of the Senate and People of Tibur and of the Emperor, and first of all of God, that I cannot let this injustice go ahead, but must, as a faithful servant, restrict the Hand of my Sovereign from committing a wrong that could never be righted. Long live the Empire! And long live God's good Peace!"

The speech of the Grand Logothete was followed by both clapping and protestations, the former silencing the latter. The leader of the Opposition would go on to echo the sentiments, and it was not until the junior Government Partner and second largest party in the House, the People's Party, got its turn, that any true opposition was heard. Much was said of treason, and cowardice, and dishonour, and subversion, but when all was said and done, the Decree was dismissed with 1209 votes against, from the Nationalists, Liberals, Socials, Internationalist Communists and half of the National Phalangites. Only 369 votes were for the Declaration of War, being those of the People's Party and half of the National Phalanx. The Imperial Decree was shuttered and with it was the government's unity. And yet, this humiliation of the Crown and the celebrations of peace, would both prove minuscule, as much greater and graver events were to follow.
 
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Pelasgia

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Athens, Greece
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Propontis, Pelasgia
24/08/2018

The night was already at its blackest when the tanks of the 1st and 2nd Armoured Brigades of the 1st Army’s 3rd Corps started moving to Propontis through the Propontis-Sidnos Imperial Highway, from their bases in the Selymbria-Propontis region. Behind them were the trucks of the 66th Motorised Infantry Brigade, while the commandos of the 5th Special Forces Brigade had already surpassed them. The troops were directed from the halls of the Logothesion of Military Affairs, a marble brutalist building six floors tall and four blocks wide, with flat, windowless walls, save for the hard, reflective windows of the first floor, placed above the ground by and accessible by stairs. In that building, the Imperial Loyalist officers of the General Staff of the Armed Forces prepared for the most characteristic of modern Pelasgian political traditions: a coup d’état. For the men of the Imperial Armed Forces, and the Pelasgian populace at large, a coup was business as usual and quite straightforward. Many of the men in that room had been junior officers or cadets during the last coup, their loyalties lying with the putschists, having risen thanks to the Crown’s patronage and the Nationalists’ tolerance due to the 1972 Compromise.

Led by Megas Doux (Chief Admiral) Stephanos Laskarides, Marshall Lazaros Belissariou, and Air Marshall Isaakios Angelopoulos, the men of the 1st Army moved on with the standard measures of any Pelasgian coup. Sitting at the front of the Operations Room, the three men were informed of the coup’s progress by their junior officers at every step. “The Special Forces have taken the Imperial Broadcasting Company’s headquarters. Two men and a guard were found, both have been captured without incident,” one of the communications officers informed the room. Before long, at around three in the morning, another announced the seizure of the capital’s major power plants in Pyrgos and the Eastern Suburbs, and the capture of the Imperial Telecommunications Association’s main hub. Save for the satellite links used by the Armed Forces, the capital’s phone lines went down. At that point, Megas Doux Laskarides informed the nation-wide commanders of the Astynomia and the Politarchy, the Empire’s urban police and gendarmerie, respectively, of the plan’s success and told them to prepare to enforce martial law, and to round up all potential trouble-makers.

The Special Directorate for State Security had given the Armed Forces and Security Forces lists of all such persons, including, for example, Nationalist Party leaders or DKKP members and associated union workers; by the time the Land Army’s ranks were rolling through Megalou Valentiou Avenue, surrounding the Senate, Great Logothesion, and other such important sites, the Imperial Politarchy and Astynomia, clad in their respective olive green and dark blue uniforms, had busted open the doors of persons and associations deemed to be contrary to the Crown’s wishes, and had gathered the undesirables at the Central Detention Centre and the District Detention Centres normally reserved for riots. Similar positions had been taken up by the Armed Forces across the country, the coup falling completely in place by 3:30 AM, the peak of night across the Empire’s various time zones. Opposition press and any potentially hostile organisations were suppressed.

Then, the Imperial Broadcasting Company (VIRT) started its long broadcast over all frequencies, including the Emergency Broadcasting System’s frequencies:

“Ioannes VII Lascaris, Emperor of the Tiburans

Having taken into consideration articles 48, 80, and 91 of the Constitution, and as per the Divinely Ordained Prerogative of Ours recognized in Articles 1, 2, 3, 10, and 14 of the Constitution, We immediately rescind the provisions of articles 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 18, 20, 95 and 97 of the current Constitution over the entirety of the Empire’s territory due to a manifest threat against the public order and security of the country from internal and external dangers. Our Household Officer of the Interior shall publish and execute this decree, thereby retroactively possessing all powers of the current Logothete of the Interior, who is hereby dismissed.

***

In Propontis, on August 24th, 2018

Ioannes VII Lascaris, Emperor of the Tiburans

The Privy Council

The President, the Members

Until further order, the circulation of traffic of any kind, whether pedestrian or vehicular is prohibited on the streets of the Capital and other cities. All those outside their domiciles must return there instanter. Violators will be shot without warning, after sundown and until sunrise. Circulation is only allowed to doctors, pharmacists, and the gravely sick, following the permission of local police authorities.

From today, effective immediately, the Senate is dissolved and its legislative powers are to be directly assumed by the Crown.

From today, and until further notice, the Imperial High Courts are sent into mandatory recess, and their functions are taken over by the Emergency Military Tribunals.

From today, and until further notice, the cabinet is sacked and all its members are dismissed, being replaced by the relevant Officers of the Imperial Household.

From today, and until further notice, Martial Law and a State of Siege are declared across the entire country.

From today, and until further notice, all strikes, demonstrations, and gatherings of over three people are prohibited.

From today, and until further notice, the Propontis Stock and Commodities exchange is closed.

From today, and until further notice, all withdrawals from banks and other financial institutions are prohibited.

From today, and until further notice, the purchase of foreign currency and gold is prohibited. Any attempts to hoard food will be considered sabotage and will be punished by death by the Emergency Military Tribunals.

[…]"

By 4 am the Armed Forces were entirely in control of the country, and with them the Crown was decisively the dominant factor of the State. As the Emperor started giving his televised and broadcasted address to the Empire’s citizenry through all media, the Grand Logothete and his political allies found themselves trapped and under armed guard. However, it soon became clear that something was amiss in the state of Pelasgia; by the break of dawn, when electricity had been restored to broadcast the Emperor’s message, automated messages started circulating across social media, calling on citizens and soldiers to resist the coup. Even worse, many of the captured leaders started broadcasting directly to the public through messaging apps. It had to be too good to be true.

By 11 am it had become clear that the coup had been discovered as it was being planned; at first it was thought the Special Directorate for State Security had somehow captured the Emperor’s message to the Ambassador of Eiffelland; however, it soon became clear that the entirety of the Sixth Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the Intelligence and Counterintelligence Division, as well as the General Directorate for State Security had been on the Nationalist side all along. Even worse, the putschists were far from the dominant position they thought they occupied. Soon, it became clear that most of the junior officers and soldiers in the army, as well as many of the senior officers were on the Nationalist side, having been converted by decades’ of a military and public education system dominated by the Nationalists. While the High Aristocrats gloated in their ivory towers, the Nationalists had converted the populace and the actual working gears of the system to their cause. The Entire 2nd and 3rd Armies were compromised, and even many units of the 1st Army were rogue. Before long, Loyalist units were surrounded, without any communication, isolated, and besieged by Nationalist forces and the local citizenry. The very tanks around the Senate seemed to be on the Nationalist side, while the Imperial Palace was thankfully occupied by Loyalist professional troops. Even worse, the Police and Politarchy seemed to have been greatly infiltrated by the Nationalists, especially the units outside Propontis and Therme. The commanding General of the Politarchy had been shot by a subordinate who was on the Nationalist side, a sight repeated in the 1st Army 2nd Corps’ headquarters in Selymbria.

The situation was just as bad in the other branches of the Armed Forces. While the Navy had been put on hold to prepare military operations against the Communists within three days, the 3rd Fleet, the Empire’s newest, staffed by officers who had come out of a Nationalist-dominated education system, did not respond. Even the First Fleet of Admiral Ioannes Theophanides on the Carrier Drabescus and the Second Fleet of Admiral Panos Argyropoulos on the Carrier Matthaios Kantakouzenos showed signs of uneasiness with many sailors refusing to set sail, and many marines refusing the disembark. The Air Force seemed to side with whichever side the land unit near its base favoured, due to its nature and inability to operate without land support, splitting in a way that somewhat favoured the Loyalists, though it was more scattered and the situation seemed prone to change soon if an armed confrontation broke. As the now freed Great Logoethete moved to address the nation from the HQ of VIRT, whose special forces occupants were secretly on the Nationalist side, and an air force jet bombed part of the northern wing of the Senate, civil war seemed ever closer to inevitable. The tables had turned, and this time, the Pelasgian populace was not going to passively watch its democracy get violated by Loyalists in jackboots.
 
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Rheinbund

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Oct 30, 2006
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Rotterdam, Netherlands
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Fehrbellin
24AUG2018

"Sssscccchhhheisse!!!! ... Scheisse Scheisse Scheisse Scheisse Scheisse!!"

Schloss Bellevue was a palace from the end of the 18th century. It was built in a style that was called neoclassical outside Eiffelland but classissistical in Eiffelland. This difference was made in Eiffelland to label the neoclassical buildings from the end of the 19th century until now "neoclassissistical".
This palace was the official residence of the Chancellor, and the location of the Chancellery. It was also the place where the cabinet meetings were held. Meetings which usually lasted until after midnight under the last Sociodemocrat Chancellor Horst Jörgens, who disappeared after he was impeached by the King (at that time Prince-Regent) eight years ago; that was due to the very bad relations between the Sociodemocrat ministers and the Christiandemocrat ministers, especially between Horst Jörgens and Matthias Graf von Seydewitz. After then, Von Seydewitz became Chancellor of a centre-right coalition; the cabinet meetings generally ended in the afternoon under him. Now Dr. Röpke was Chancellor of a coalition between Christiandemocrats, Sociodemocrats and Socioliberals. None of the Sociodemocratic ministers who served under Jörgens had returned, although some Sociodemocratic state secretaries of those days had returned as ministers. The Cabinet meetings under Röpke lasted longer than the ones under Von Seydewitz, but that was not due to bad relationships, only to larger differences in opinion.

It was Minister for Defence Ferdinand Jung who cursed. He immediately recognised the size of the disaster in Tiburia.

"Verdammte Sscchheisse!!"

The other ministers remained silent for a couple of seconds. Then the Chancellor started to talk.

"Do I rephrase your words correctly if I say that we can't count on the Tiburians in the war against Serenierre and the Rurikgrad Pact, Minister Jung?" he asked.
"You do, Herr Kanzler," Minister Jung said. "But not only that. Our oil supplies are in danger. If the civil war spreads to the oil fields of South TIbur, we will be run out of oil, at least temporarily. Then we have no other choice but to close a very disadvantageous peace deal. Or maybe have to surrender. Apart from that, we risk the DKKP taking over control in South-Tiburia. Then we not only have a communist threat in the east and the west, but also in the south ... Ladies, gentlemen, I think we have no other choice than intervening in South-Tiburia."
"On the side of the Emperor?" minister Zimmermann asked.
"Yes, on the side of the Emperor. That is the side that supported us, at least verbally," minister Jung said.
"I have a bit of a problem with supporting someone who assumed dictatorial power," minister Fritschler said.
"I understand that, but the situation is a bit more complicated than usual. The Emperor assumed dictatorial power, because he wanted to adhere to the obligations of the Trier Concord. Therefore, he decided to bypass the Senate. That is a different course of action than a far-left or far-right organisation that commits a coup to establish a far-left or far-right dictatorship with a psychopath at the top," the Chancellor said.
"This will give a blow to our international reputation. We continuously talk about democracy and human rights, the very reason why this war started was that we officially wanted to support Trivodnia against a dictatorial country, and now we support a dictator," minister Zimmermann said.
"I am fully aware of that, but we have no other choice. Governing a democratic country sometimes involves temporarily putting our principles about democracy and human rights aside at moments in which upholding those principles will cause those principles to die out. We repeatedly had to take such decisions against the GEL and the Volksunion during the Von Seydewitz cabinets. Now the situation is a bigger one than the struggle against the GEL, but also now we have to take this decision," the Chancellor said.
"Furthermore, I think that self-proclaimed freedom champion Engellex would do the same in such a situation, and contrary to us without any scrupules," minister Rheinfeld said.
"If the Loyalists loose the civil war, we wil have turned Tiburia into an enemy. Do you all realise that?" minister Zimmermann asked.
"We do, but we have to take the gamble. Doing nothing is not an option," minister Jung said.
"I do realise that the SPE and the LDP entered the Government with completely other intentions than having to fight a war, but this is the situation. I wish it would have been different," the Chancellor said.

The Cabinet agreed with helping out the Loyalists.

After the Cabinet Meeting, the LDP-ministers went to the Ministry of Finance to discuss the matter further.

"I agree with the Chancellor that we have no other choice but to step in, but I still have the feeling that this situation is the result of a judgemental error of Kadikistan's willingness to go to war by the Von-Seydewitz cabinets," minister Fritschler said.
"Well, they were not the only ones to make judgemental errors. You and Zimmermann were involved in the discussions about letting Occitania into the Trier Concord, overlooking that that Martinique lady was willing to start a war about that, even after all her hysteric outbursts of the past. But apart from that, the war is completely the fault of the Communist countries. It were the Communists who started this war, and it were the Communists who continuously screamed about us being warmongerers after giving economic support to Trivodnia. If the Communists would have behaved as good neighbours, Trivodnia and Occitania would not have approached us for help out of fear for their security. This war was started by the Communists, and by nobody else. The only mistake Von Seydewitz made, apart from the judgemental errors, was making promises about Trivodnia's security we cannot hold," Minister Rubinstein, a Jew, said.

Meanwhile, Minister Jung gave the order to send the Tierer Brigade (a conscript brigade) to Trier for transport to Occitania instead of the 9th brigade (which would go to Bremen for transport to the oil fields in western and southwestern Tiburia).
 

Occitania

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Nov 14, 2017
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British Columbia
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Marsilia
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Madagascar
Occitan diplomatic intelligence acknowledged the Tiburan situation, all men were needed in Occitania to defend the homeland, however, with allied naval superiority, Occitania could spare the 1st squadron of destroyers to assist the Tiburan emperor. The Occitans were highly supportive of the Tiburan monarch. Many Occitan citizens in Southern Occitania engaged in online spats with Tiburan dissidents.
 

Pelasgia

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Athens, Greece
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Demos
Narrow Sea Corridor & Hiberian Marches, Northe-East-Central Tiburia
31/08/2018


The outbreak of the Pelasgian Civil War had caught all sides involved by surprise, with no one side entirely certain of its capabilities or immediate targets. However, within a couple of days, the situation had become more clear. For the Loyalists, known across the country by the Golden Imperial Banner, maintaining domain over the northern coastal areas and the southwestern oil fields, near Hierosolyma, were the primary objectives towards maintaining their maritime dominance over the Long Sea, and their control of northern Tiburia's industrial heartlands. It also meant being able to funnel oil and supplies to the Trier Concord, even if the Empire was unable to directly join the war. A long-term strategic goal would be the capture of Melampson in Hiberia's small coastal area, as well as the Neapolis peninsula across from Prinkeponesos, to establish complete control of the Marble Sea and thus easily funnel troops and supplies between the Northeast and Southwest. At that point, isolating and capturing Lycaonia would be the next step, though the presence of the Third Fleet, as well as strong aerial units, ground forces, and anti-air missile batteries, would make the losses for this operation high if not prohibitive, without large-scale allied support. Of course, any prolonged inland campaign would be prohibitive for the Loyalists, as, on top of the Nationalists' control of the vast majority of the land forces, the populations of the major cities and the local bourgeoisie were far more positively inclined towards the Republican cause, necessitating the open display and even active use of armed force to keep the major cities in check.

For their part, the Nationalists, symbolised by a golden christogram on a cyan blue banner, were concerned with eliminating the small Loyalist enclave formed by the Melingian minority near Vasilikon, while also taking northern Kyphtic Memphis, and the major naval ports that the nationalists possessed there. Both tasks would be relatively aided by the Nationalists absolute dominance on air and land in those sectors, though the Melingians knowledge of the local terrain, and the strong Loyalist naval presence would pose a serious challenge. The capture of Orestias and Cyme, and the cities in between was a secondary objective, though somewhat harder due to those areas' proximity to Propontis. The well-supplied and armed troops of the Loyalists in northern Pelasgia necessitated a capture of territory in Philistaea, to join Lycaonia to the Neapolis peninsula and cut off the Loyalists from their oil supply, this supply proving a powerful tool to push for Trier Concord withdrawal and international recognition of the Republic. As the Republicans control most of the large farmland, food could also be used to pressure the Loyalist forces. From there, a push to the northern cities, ending with Therme and Propontis, would bring in more and more loyal citizens, factories owned by Nationalist bourgeois, and international prestige, while cutting the navy off from any ports to resupply or stop in. The only following step would be the capture of the Archipelago, which would be complicated by a strong naval presence, and strong Loyalist sentiment in the western Archipelago, possibly prolonging the campaign for six months or even a year. This could force the Nationalists to a compromise, to avoid further damaging the Pelasgian economy, international position, and military.

Thus, with the objectives and capabilities of both sides overlapping only in some parts of the country, two distinct fronts were created, around which the war was to be centered; one was the Northeastern Front, covering the Narrow Sea Corridor, and the areas near the triple Pelasgia-Hiberia-Kyphtic Memphis border, known as the Hiberian Marches. The other was the Southwestern Front, also known as the Western Front, which centered around control of Philistaea and its strategic oil fields and air bases, as well as its western ports and the Holy City of Hierosolyma, a major source of legitimacy for both sides in the war. The war started the soonest on the Northeastern Front, which was closest to the events and with a close proximity of multiple force concentrations of both sides.

The first action in the war was the artillery bombardment from the 106th and 107th Artillery Regiments of the 2nd Army against the Loyalist forces in Antigoneia, Kyphtic Memphis. The assault was followed by a large scale attack by mechanised and armoured divisions of the 1st and 2nd Corps of the 2nd Army against the plain west of the mountain range that cut Memphis in half, approaching Antigoneia and reaching the southern coast of the Bay of Antigoneia by the end of the day, meeting little to any resistance. While some naval elements attempted to retaliate with aerial bombardments from the 2nd Fleet's carrier, the Matthaios Kantakouzenos; however, the lack of any ground forces capable of defending Antigoneia, save for a few Loyalist law enforcement units and some Loyalist militiamen, combined with anti-air fire from the 107th's Missile Regiment, lead the Loyalists to abandon Antigoneia.

The Nationalist forces entered Antigoneia the following day, August 31st, without any incident, save for some shots being fired from a group of Loyalist Kyphtic militiamen. The men barricaded themselves in a building on the city's main street, Chaonias Avenue, and fired at approaching Nationalist motorised columns, before a Nationalist tank struck the building with an incendiary white-phosphorus round. The surviving men were shot at as they tried to exit the building, while two escapees were caught in a nearby alley and executed there, being later buried in unmarked graves in an empty field in an old factory near the city's entrance. The Nationalist troops then paraded through the Avenue and onto the waterfront without incident and to the celebratory ululations of thousands of Nationalist-supporting citizens, as the city was mainly populated by Pelasgian settlers and Pelasgised Kyphts, with the city's elite welcoming the Nationalist officers.

Following this defeat, the Nationalist 2nd Army moved quickly through northern Kyphtic Memphis' countryside, with local law enforcement not putting up any resistance and remaining largely neutral. Only two incidents of local TEPA (Special Defensive Militia Detachments, local right-wing militias armed with old government weapons to help the police counter any local insurgency) firing on Nationalist troops were noted, both without success, and before long, most of the region, save for the immediate city regions of Bolbitinum and Cassandris fell under Nationalist control. There, the Loyalists held out with a decided defence, such that, following the repelling of their initial scout parties, the Nationalist merely encircled the cities, but did not attempt to assault them. The cities in question held large ports, both of which housed Naval units and bases, including the Bolbitinum Naval Base and the Mendes-Cassandris Naval Base, including the 2nd Fleet's HQ and largest Marine base. The air support of the Naval Aviation and the decided defence of the Marines, coupled with the help of the 10th Air Wing from Klysma Air Base near Bolbitinum, meant that the two cities could put up a decided defence. However, both sides knew that the cities could not hold out in the long term, unless much-needed troops were ferried in from the Propontis-North Pelasgia corridor, which would open the way to a Nationalist advance there. Thus, the Loyalist forces would have to use the time bought to withdraw to the Archipelago and Northern Pelasgia with as much of their reserves and supplies as possible. For the 2nd Army to capture Cassandris and Bolbitinum would only be a matter of time, but the Nationalists wanted to avoid unnecessary losses and undue damage to the cities with a rush assault, and the Loyalists were aware of this fact.

Map:
Legend: Gold=Loyalists/Imperials, Blue=Nationalists/Republicans
 

Pelasgia

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Diospolis, Pelasgia
04/09/2018


The secret headquarters of the DKKP was located in an old Canned Olive Oil Manufactory in the village of Vryssoules, in the Province of Diospolis, in the Theme of Elimeiotis, in the part of Pelasgia near the border with Kyphtic Memphis and Hiberia, north of the Masis mountain range. There, the hollowed out factory and the underground complex constructed by the DKKP below gave the previously illegal and currently actively monitored party a discreet and relatively safe location to conduct its bussiness. The nearby mining town of Diospolis gave the DKKP an easy liaison for communications with the outside world, including a printing press for the party's newspaper and a broadcaster for its radio station, while the mountains of Masis gave an easy retreat in case the party was ever in need to fight. On one of the last sunny days of the early Autumn, the DKKP's central committee met at Vryssoules, away from the capital from whence it had been expelled alongside the rest of the non-Loyalist political parties. In the cement meeting room of the first underground floor of the former Kalambakiotes Olive Products Company, Pelasgia's oldest organised radical left group met to decide its course in the midst of the most important historical event in the country in decades, if not centuries. The opposing sides of the divided party entered the room, an orthogonal auditorium with cement tiers, while most of the neutral or undecided delegates were sat.

From the left of the speaker, entered Chairman Ioannis Stephanopoulos, an former junior military officer and a seasoned party man who had survived the Juntist purges of the 70s. His aged face, one of light olive skin and dark brown eyes, coupled with dark grey widow's peak -with the occasional white or black hair-, bore a serious expression, that of a man who had been through hell and back and still held on to his beliefs. Perhaps he had survived that hell because of those beliefs, but one could never guess about such a soul coated in hard rock, as those of hardened people tend to be. To his flank was Nikolaos Zephyros, one his proteges who, despite lacking much military skill, was a keen navigator of the political field; perhaps the young, blue eyed, pale, and pale fox-faced dock-worker unionist would overtake Stephanopoulos before his death or retirement. Opposite the two men was the Chairman's other protege, Demetrios Vitsioris, an established editor and publisher of DKKP-affiliated and other Marxist periodicals. Vitsioris featured a rather round nose, small round glasses, a rich, albeit greying hairline, and a skin tone that was neither dark nor light, coupled with a perpetually serious and pondering expression. His face was wider than taller, though not unbecomingly so. His zeal and deep research of the Marxist ideology had also come with somewhat heterodox opinions and recommendations at times; one more than one occasion, the Chairman himself had to step in and stop a motion to declare him a fractionist and eject him (or even target him for assassination, since he was a high-up of the party), hoping to reign in the young and passionate but somewhat indiscreet man. Evidently, the inevitable clash between the two men had finally come.

In a way, both men represented a different aspect of the DKKP: Stephanopoulos was the symbol of the Old Party, a man of immense patience and suffering, who was willing to heed Ivar's calls in exchange for support, and to bide his time in the shadows until the circumstances were right for a true, pure revolution to begin, headed by the DKKP. Vitsioris, on the other hand, represented the young and idealistic wing of the party, a wing that did not believe and concessions and even questioned what it saw as fault's in Ivar's system, having never faced persecution, and taking political liberty and freedom to participate in the Common Affairs as natural and inviolable. After all the men were seated, Stephanopoulos took the stand, by order of precedence and seniority.

"Comrades, the current time is a trying one for every true patriotic Revolutionary. For while it may seem that a Revolution is underway, and likely to succeed due to both popular and military support, we have elected to stay out of it. But, my comrades, I must disappoint you, for the time of Retribution that we have all been waiting for is not yet upon us. This 'Revolution' and this 'Revolutionary Army' is nothing but the bourgeoisie's attempt at seizing power from the remnants of the old feudal overclass. Whereas the fools of the pseudo-socialist bourgeois left, such as the Social Party, have rushed to join the so-called Republicans, they will find that once the Nationalists have won, they shall discard them like an emptied bottle, and break their necks on the pavement to avoid any inconvenience, such as meaningful legal opposition. Comrades, you must not be fooled by the weasels of Nestane; the bourgeois have always tried to make us come out in the open, so that they might have a more clear target to aim their guns and knives at. They call for help in dark alleys, so that they might stab us more easily when we least expect it. We of the Old Party know their ways, as when they claimed to oppose the Junta, but stood by while the Junists persecuted us, deciding not to act since they had not been acted against, yet. Our predecessors knew how the so-called Father of the Nation outlawed the Left in the '50s, but let the Fascists go about their way as always. Comrades, I have consulted with Ivar and I know this for a fact: if we do not act, we will not be harmed, as per the Status Quo Treaty. Even the Ultra-Reactionaries in Propontis would not dare to go beyond arresting a few unionists associated with us, lest they draw Ivar's active support rather than passive inaction on the side of the Nationalists. Thus, our position is clear: we shall wait out the current war, and use the carnage to build our strength while laying low. And from the ashes of the Old Regime, the DKKP will rise stronger as its opponents diminish themselves, ready to lead the Proletariat to salvation. Remember, Comrades: we have no allies. It is the DKKP versus all, and it has always been that way. Right now, our opponents are simply too busy fighting each-other to oppress us."

As most of the delegates assembled clapped, even most of those opposed to the Chairman, both due to precedent and due to true respect for the man, Demetrios Vitsioris, the young editor and publisher from Hagios Ioannes, raised his arm to interrupt the applause.

"Do you wish to speak before your turn, Comrade Vitsioris," the coordinator of the assembly asked; "Surely you've learnt the rules by now."

"Let him speak, Pavlos, it's alright," the Chairman said; "Better we hear the opposition now than after a dozen repetitions of what I said by the other Old Members. It's not like they'll change the mind of inflamed youth."

"Thank you, Comrade Chairman. Comrades, are we really to cower into the shadows so easily, like cowards? Do you all, who make fiery speeches for rebellion and insurrection every week, feel comfortable with hiding in a banker while shells fall around our country? We may not be Nationalists, but patriots we are, and Pelasgia is mother to us all! We have now the chance to free her! To fight against the reactionaries of the Crown, to wipe them out for good, like one wipes out rats from their holes, and to then force the Nationalists to give us a place in the mainstream public sphere of the new Republic they seek to make. From there we can slowly take over the moderate left and then the centre-left and the centre, before we expand the franchise, and make this country a democracy, where we will surely win. Why hide like cowards waiting to fight a war where we will somehow magically win against an opponent much bigger than us with our meagre numbers, instead of fighting, here and now, alongside powerful allies, to carve a place for ourselves in the New Pelasgia that's coming? If I wanted to hear such salvationist nonsense I'd go to some church, not the DKKP, the last bastion of the militant working class! Comrades, if you want deliverance, for yourselves, for your families, for your people, come and seize it, here and now! Stop hiding like rats, and come out and fight like men! As for Ivar, we know all too well how much water they're willing to pour in their wine, ever since the went from Leninovism to whatever variant of 'socialism' they have now. The Kadikistanis care only for themselves. I say, let them have Kadikistan, and we'll save Pelasgia for the Pelasgians!"

The cheers of most of the younger delegates filled the room, as did cries of "traitor!" and "fractionist!". Before long, the Chairman and the president of the assembly had restored order to the room, leading to one last exchange.

"Young man, I can no longer save you from yourself. You have fallen deep into the pit of fractionism and revisionism, and would throw away Ivar, the Status Quo Treaty, and all we have built, just for a momentary fool's hope of salvation. I want the Revolution as much as you, but angering over it's taking long and trying to force it into existence will not help you or anyone. You do not know the decades of oppression I have, and think that it is easy or even possible to deal honestly with the bourgeois. You'll follow the bourgeois pseudo-left into the grave, and take good men and women with you! I am telling you, the situation is not ripe-

"The situation is never ripe," the young man exclaimed; "You have been scared and shackled far too long the the fears and terrors of the past, and have become like an old Church-going peasant who knows he is being wronged but is too afraid to act, so that he may not end up like the unruly peasants hanged at the village square by the Lord and the Notables when he was young! Down with Ivar and down with this sham of a worker's front! I'm going out to fight! And those of you who still have ideals and a spine are welcome to join me. Let the rest of these cowards cower here and wait for their Second Coming of Leninov, like the sheep that they are!"

"Then go! And don't come back! Not that you will, once the bourgeois don't need you anymore..."

Vitsioris's faction left, and while some called for his immediate assassination, the Chairman cautioned against it, so as to not divide the party further. He feared and was almost certain, though he hoped otherwise, that his perceived allies would do that part themselves. A day later, the party's paper would release a denunciation of the young man and his supporters, while they themselves would found the Internal Communist Party of Pelasgia (EKKP), and its armed wing, the Working People's Liberation Front (AMEL). The day after, the would immediately announce their joining the United Front and would start recruiting hundreds if not thousands of eager young leftist Pelasgians and other Tiburians. The DKKP had fractured, and it seemed that at that point it the old party was being eclipsed by its newer breakaway faction. But Stephanopoulos stuck to his guns and his hideouts, having seen similar developments in the past. Only time would tell who was right in the end.
 

Rheinbund

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Philistaea, 04SEP2018

So Eiffelland was fighting a threefront war. Nobody would ever have expected that, but now it was a fact. First the Rurikgrad Pact and Serenierre, now Tiburia. The 9th brigade (consisting of professional soldiers) had already been transported to Philistaea to defend the oil fields in the Southwest. This was quite a task—the 3rd air force division had to give aerial cover. The 9th brigade had not made it completely unharmed, although the losses had been limited. But now it was the turn for the newly formed 19th brigade to be transported to Philistaea. This brigade had exactly the same structure and exactly the same amount of equipment as the 9th brigade, with the remark that the tanks were Gepard 1 tanks.

As per tradition, generals were only promoted to marshall and generaladmirals to grand-admirals during war time. General Modersohn, the General of the 1st army, was promoted to Marshall, because he would command the 1st and 3rd army. Generaloberst Feders, the highest ranking soldier of Eiffelland, was promoted to Grand-Admiral, because he would command all Eiffellandian armed forces during war tmie; he became Grand-Admiral because he originated from the Navy.
 

Pelasgia

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Rhakotis, Kyphtic Memphis
08/09/2018


After a week of observing the two remaining Loyalist strongholds in Rhakotis, Cassandris and Balbitinum, since the bloody failure of the first reconnaissance missions on the last day of August, the National Revolutionary Army finally decided to send in recon missions, equipped with lightly armoured reconnaissance vehicles. The signs of the observed city had proven right: checkpoints and roadblocks were empty, trenches were deserted, and strong-points around the city's periphery were completely unmanned. From the looks of it, the city had been abandoned by its defenders for at least one day, and the better part of a second. Slowly but steadily, more and more units of the National Revolutionary Army entered Balbitinum and then Cassandris, being originally fearful of some ambush in the city's deserted streets. However, as the entire 1st and 2nd Army Corps of the 2nd Army made their way through the cities, they soon found themselves only welcomed by closed up storefronts, shut up windows, and locked doors. Nobody walked on the streets of what were two of the Empire's largest port cities, even the stray dogs and cats of the metropoles taking care to avoid the sunlight and the large columns entering the twin ports' main thoroughfares. By the end of September 7th, the cities had been mostly put under control, with the 2nd Army's headquarters being occupied by its proper master.

Though the 2nd Fleet had evacuated the city along with its marines without a fight, and though there had not even been the small instances of resistance since in Antigoneia, the animosity of the local populace was clear. Save for a minority of bourgeois and urbanite Pelasgians welcoming the rebel troops as liberators, Memphians, even many of the Pelasgian settlers, were staunchly Loyalist, regarding the Emperor as something akin to their Pharaoh of old, if one were to be poetic. Whereas the populace did not mount a resistance, greater precautions were taken and the military police accompanied, and in many cases even replaced, the local police forces. Troops across the district of Rhakotis reported widespread hostility, bad looks, aggressive whispering, denial of service, and other elements of inhospitability by the local citizenry, much to the HQ's discomfort. While many units from the 2nd Corps were sent up north quickly, along with some 1st Corps elements, a large segment of military police and various other 1st Corps units were kept in Rhakotis to keep the region under control Artillery and AA batteries were also retained, in case the 2nd Fleet decided to make a return. The situation in the province, and Cassandris in particular, was tense at best.

***​

Pelasgia
08/09/2018


The capture of the last Loyalist-held areas in Kyphtic Memphis by the National Revolutionary Army greatly boosted the entire Republican faction's morale, with soldiers constantly chanting "We have taken Balbitinum, and we're going further!", while also freeing up a large number of experienced and well-equipped units for the Pelasgian theatre of the Northwestern Front. Before long, the Republican forces had made their first moves; light attack aircraft from the 10th and 11th Light Attack Wings stationed in Neokastron, Hiberia, started hammering the Melingian positions and civilian settlements in southern Elimeiotis, near the Pelasgian-Hiberian-Memphiot triple border, also known as the Hiberian or Melingian Marches. The aircraft of these units were rotor powered Type 11 Light Attack Aircraft "Glaux" ( ) planes, which were used by the Empire's Air Force for anti-insurgency and internal security operations against enemies with little to absolutely no anti-air capabilities, as was the case with the Melingians, and as had been the case with many of the Philistine insurgents during the Augousto-Septemvriana events in the 1950s. From their base at the Empire's centre, the aircraft rained fire against Melingian rebels, as well as, quite often, civilians in nearby settlements, opening the way for the ground forces to advance. From there on, the units of the 107th Artillery Regiment furthered pummeled their way across Lower Melingia, as the eastern plains occupied by the Melingians were colloquially known, forcing the Loyalist minority's forces to the mountains, alongside many scared civilians. The settlements left behind, many of which had lost up to half their population to abandonment and, in smaller settlements, bombardments and firebombings, were then easily occupied by Military Police, Conscript, and Volunteer units of the National Revolutionary Army. While MP officers strictly enforced orders against any crimes against the local citizenry, there was a foreboding sense that once the war was over, the fates of the Melingians would be far from prosperous. In some particularly strategic, pro-rebel, or sensitive towns and villages, the local populations were relocated either to either settlements, or to holding centres (in the case of adult, fighting-age men).

While the newly-crated Melingian Pacification Task Force held the rebels at bay, to prevent guerillas from harassing the Republican advance Northward and Westward, the main body of the National Revolutionary Army's Northwestern Command moved to attack Northern Elimeiotis, crossing the Nedon River and assaulting the coastal city of Vigla. The local navy garisson was barely able to evacuate the city in time, thanks to aerial support from the 2nd fleet and from other 1st fleet units, before the city succumbed to the Republican assault. Despite a valiant defence by some 4,000 local troops of the local Politarchy and elements of the 66th Motorised Bde of the 1st Army's 2nd Corps, assisted by some Loyalist militiamen, the Loyalist defence could simply not hold against a sudden large-scaled assault by the entire 1st Army 3rd Army Corps. While such a move would have previously left the Republicans' Western flank exposed and completely undefended, the arrival of the 1st Corps and elements of the 2nd Corps of the 2nd Army from Memphis had allowed the Republicans to commit their troops to such an assault. The Loyalists could do nothing but stay put due to being outnumbered, trying to consolidate their forces on choke-points near Mizythras and Drabescus, to at least hold Melingia and prevent the road to Therme and Propontis from being opened. Before long, Karavos fell, push the frontline to the north and west, to the river Oineus, right across from Mizythras and Amyntaion. The shaken and panicked 1st and 2nd Corps of the Loyalist 1st Army scrumbled all their units in the plain near Drabescus and the thin passage between Mizythras and the sea at Amyntaion, reading for a simultaneous assault by the 1st Army 3rd Corps and the 2nd Army 1st and 2nd Corps. However, the Loyalists had unknowingly fallen into a Republican trap, as the 1st Army had crossed the thin mountain barrier between Elimeiotis and Melingia, deploying on the plain of Nestane and the nearby mountains, with a direct view to Euxenia, and particularly the cities of Orestias and Marmaras, south of the immediate region of Propontis. At the same time as the 3rd Army 2nd Corps assaulted Cyme and the Melapson area, these forces would assault said cities, cutting Euxenia off from Propontis, and opening an alternative route to Propontis without any meaningful opposition, while also seeking to cut Philistaea off from Propontis. While the Loyalists assumed the Republicans placed great importance on the old Pelasgian cities to the north for ideological and practical-strategic reasons, the Republican aimed to end the war before such considerations as industrial potential came to the table, by capturing Propontis in a swift blow and decapitating the Loyalists. Moreover, the immensely rich and developed Propontis region would more than make up for any industrial or resource deficiencies they might find.

***​

Philistaea
08/09/2018


Tensions had been building up in the oil-rich region of Philistaea for quite some time, as both sides sought control of its resources, which were held by the Loyalists. However, the distance of the region from the capital allowed both armies to reassure themselves of the potential of the war to be resolved in up north before they had to waste a drop of blood against friendly forces. However, the arrival of an Eiffellandian expeditionary force, along with the promise of more, well-trained, battle-hardened, and well-equipped Trier Concord troops forced the National Republican Army to act at once. Within a day of the Eiffellandians' arrival, the 3rd Army 1st Corps and the 2nd Army 3rd Corps had launched a combined attack to the West. The latter had begun by taking Ampelia, a prosperous city named for its wines, which was located on a river right on the front line. There, a bloody fight with 20th Motorised Bde had cost the 1st and 12th Mechanised Infantry upwards of a thousand men, with the defender being nearly wiped out, painting the city's river literally red with blood. While the defence had stalled the 2nd Army 3rd Corps from further advances in that day, the immediate region was now largely open to assault, and the only major regular unit in that sector had been wiped out. The defence of the northern half of Philistaea's eastern border would have to be taken up by local conscripts and volunteers, who wore somewhat shabby surplus uniforms, and had even more shabby training. Further north, the 3rd Army 2nd Corps' 1st Special Forces Divisional Tactical HQ (1st Special Forces Bde, 2nd Mountain Raider Bde, 3rd Commando Bde) and various units of Republican volunteers and conscripted, supported by fire from the 59th Training Artillery Bde and aerial support from the 16th Air Wing from Diospolis, had managed to storm Cyme and force its defenders to its eastern outskirts, ramming through the city, which was largely held by Politarchs, Policemen, and citizens who thanks to the local highly arms-heavy and militarised culture had some semi-professional milita experience, alongside their mandatory military service.

Further south, the entire 3rd Army 1st Corps, comprised of the 8th Mech.Inf.Bde, 1st Motorized Infantry Bde, and 58th Artillery Bde smashed into the Loyalist positions across the river. The Loyalist 3rd Army 2nd Corps was much larger and better equipped, including the 4th Armored Bde,1st Mechanized Infantry Bde, 12th Mechanized Infantry Bde, 14th Mechanized Infantry Bde, 25th Mechanized Infantry Bde, 2nd Motorized Infantry Bde, 9th Motorized Infantry Bde, 34th Internal Security Bde, 48th Internal Security Bde, 49th Internal Security Bde, 51st Internal Security Bde, 59th Training Artillery Bde, and 109th Artillery Regt. However, many of these units, mainly the Internal Securit Bdes, had been rerouted north to defend against the 2nd Army 3rd Corps's 20th Armored Bde, 172nd Armored Bde, 108th Artillery Regiment. The two forces' situation was ironically mirrored; in the north of the Philistaea Front the Republicans had unopposed armoured units, while the opposite held true in the south. Soon enough, the 2nd and 3rd Paratrooper Brigades, supported by the 16th, 17th, and 21st Air Wing, started deploying in Philistaea, pushing the frontline forward alongside the Republican ground forces. Fighting initially centered around Metaikhmion, which was essentially leveled by constant bombardments and air raids from both sides. By the end of the day, the Republicans held a larger piece of the rubble that remained, though the Loyalist tanks managed to hold them from advancing further, into the actually contested region which contained the oil fields. That the Loyalists would hold with every fibre of their being, as it guaranteed them Eiffellandian support, kept their less numerous units going, and denied the Republicans long-term use of their superior ground forces. The Loyalists would respond to Republican aerial attacks with the 24th and 26th Air Wing, while the 18th Missile Wing would focus on repelling the anti-tank missiles of the Republican heavy artillery, with relatively great success.

MAP:
Legend: Blue=Republicans, Gold=Loyalists, Blue over Gold=Loyalist area captured by Republicans
 
Last edited:

Rheinbund

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08SEP2018

Philistaea


It was clear that the Eiffellandian and the Loyalist troops would sit in a trap when the Nationalist troops would close the access to the Marble Sea. So the 9th brigade had a clear mission: Keeping the access to the Marble Sea open. It received aerial support from the 3rd Air Force Division of Eiffelland, which had rebased to Loyalist bases in Philistaea and Pelasgia.

A standard brigade of the Eiffellandian army consisted of 9387 soldiers, 189 infantry fighting vehicles, 105 tanks, 60 attack helicopters, 20 transport and MEDEVAC helicopters, 21 tank destroyers, 16 howitzers, 16 multiple rocket launchers and 6 companies with surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles. The howitzers and the rocket launchers had the advantage that they were mobile. They were deployed according to hit-and-run tactics: Fire a shot, move, fire a shot, move etc. The howitzers operated 35 km away from the front, but the multiple rocket launchers further away. They fired tactical missiles with a firing range of 300 km. So they operated at 250 km away from the front. General-Major Fabius of the 9th brigade hoped that he could make the difference with the armour he and his men brought in.


Southwestern Pelasgia

The 19th brigade was thought to follow the same route as the 9th brigade, but then the Nationalists conquered Cyme. At that moment, the task of the 19th brigade became a different one: Defending the area between Kerasond and Orestias to prevent the troops in Southwestern Pelasgia from being trapped. Also this brigade came with 9387 soldiers, 189 infantry fighting vehicles, 105 tanks, 60 attack helicopters, 20 transport and MEDEVAC helicopters, 21 tank destroyers, 16 howitzers, 16 multiple rocket launchers and 6 companies with surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles. The howitzers and multiple rocket launchers followed the same tactics as the ones in Philistaea.


Skies above Philistaea and Pelasgia

The Wirbelsturm Interceptors patrolled the skies, assisted by Loyalist Type 801 Battle Command Aircraft, and fired beyond-visual-range missiles against the Nationalist fighter planes. The Wirbelsturm Strike planes and Wirbelsturm Electronic Combat planes carried out ground attacks while flying below the radar. The Wirbelsturm Strike planes fired cruise missiles, while the Wirbelsturm Electronic Combat planes fired anti-radiation missiles targeting radar installations and SAM batteries. The 56 Luftgeist 2 planes engaged in dog fights against the Nationalist air force while also assisting the Wirbelsturm Interceptors with their air patrolling tasks and giving air coverage to the Eiffellandian troops being transported in Tiburia.
 

Natal

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8 Septemvríou 2018
Haydis


Alexander Balas was a big man, more than two metres tall, in his early 50s, with gray razor cut hair and a white goatee. He was a colonel in the Imperial Army before the civil war. He retired in 2015 and since then he headed the Ethniki Enosi (National Union), a political movement supporting the monarchy, the orthodox church and the defence of the realm against anything they deemed to be republican, anarchist, communist, even socialist or too liberal. In time, the organisation managed to infiltrate much of the state institutions. This has showed how much the Pelasgian politics were drifting away from the centrist stability in the latter years, as such right wing movements and republican movements were sprouting all over, like mushrooms after a rain. The breaking point came in the summer of 2018 when the civil war started. Until then, the National Union managed to either infiltrate the state institutions in Haydis and Kyphtic Memphis (together known as Cyrenia) or to bribe the institutions of Philistea, Lycaonia and Pelasgia (together known as Lycia) so that they wouldn't be hunted by the secret services.

As the civil war started, Balas was taken by surprise. He imagined that this catastrophic event will come, but it will be fought mainly in Pelasgia, Lycaonia and Philistaea at most. He was taken by surprise to see the whole of Haydis and Memphis conquered by the anarchists he despised so much, calling themselves National Revolutionary Army. Some good things still came out of all this. With the front being far away, in Philistaea and Pelasgia and the arrival of the Eiffellanders to aid the loyalists, meant that the anarchists will be occupied there, while the stay behind units of the National Union can be activated and take them by surprise.

Balas went to a satellite telephone he had in his office and made a call to Perseus Balas, his younger brother and second in command of the operation.

"Activate the Peltasts to commence operation Septemvriana," said Alexander Balas. "Immediately," came the response. Balas closed the call and made the cross sign. The plan was simple. The peltasts, or the light infantry will take over many of the barracks in Haydis. The second phase will activate the Cataphracts, the loyalist armour units in the south east and the last phase would be a great march towards the capital of Kyphtic Memphis, Cassandris. The Peltasts and the Cataphracts were subunits of the larger Sacred Band, the military army of the National Union. Balas knew that the following hours were crucial. He was a politician with convictions. That is why he had his pistol ready. He would not run. Should all this plan fail, he wouldn't leave for another country, nor would be live in an anarchist Pelasgia. He didn't care what his brother planned to do, should things get bad and neither did he tell his family, his wife and four children, that the insurrection would start. It was all in God's hands now.

Ioannoupolis

Since the civil war started, many cities of the south-east were put under military administration, as the republicans and nationalists knew that even if they managed to occupy the historical territory of Cyrenia, keeping it would be problematic. As the region was one of the most reactionary and conservative ones in the Southern Tiburan Empire, the population wasn't content to see that from their own territories, the National Revolutionary Army is waging a war against what they saw as the legitimate government.

Perseus Balas was in the second armed personnel carrier from a convoy of are 45 such vehicles, driving on the Aristides Sophianou Boulevard. Just an hour earlier, soldiers and low grade officers from the military base near Ioannoupolis have revolted and arrested the leading officers and members of the National Revolutionary Army. Ioannoupolis saw the biggest and most successful of the revolts. Others took place in Hagios Artemios, Melpomene, Larissa, Khalkaiotis and were successful, but others, like the ones in Sardeis, Soussa and Mexatoupolis failed and were suppressed by the National Revolutionary forces. The convoy stopped in front of the town hall, were the centre of command of the NRA was situated.

The commanding officers for the Haydis region were still in the town hall, after the National Union managed to feed them false reports about how the insurrection in Ioannoupolis failed and now soldiers were coming to secure the city against any other reactionary operations.

Perseus stormed the conference office of the town hall and caught the revolutionary officers by surprise. The soldiers following him prepared their weapons, should the enemy resist. "You are under arrest for high treason in the name of the emperor and the people of the Southern Tiburan Empire," said Perseus as the NRA officers were being hand cuffed by his soldiers.

As the room was cleared and the reports of sporadic fighting in the city started to state that the region has been pacified, Alexander Balas came to the office of the Nótio Radiófono, the radio station of the southern regions and issued the following pronouncement:

"People of the Southern Tiburan Empire, the days of anarchism and revolution will soon end. From today, the National Union has taken control of Ioannoupolis and of important settlements in Haydis. The foreign agents of marxism-anarchism which are presenting themselves as national revolutinaries will not manage to take over our proud country and sell it to international marxism-leninovism or serazinism, atheism and depravity. We are now here, fighting weapons in hands to ensue that Southern Tiburia still exists as a Christian and God fearing Empire, where order and tradition prevails. We will fully liberate Haydis and then march on Memphis. Order and security will prevail in the end. God bless the Southern Tiburan Empire!"
 

Pelasgia

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09/09/2018


As the forces of the 1st Army 2nd Corps and the 1st Army 1st Corps prepared to defend Mizythras from an attack on two sides, dawn begun to break on the mountains of Tanagraia, which cut right between Melingia and Thracesia. Despite the Propontis HQ's predictions, the 2nd Army 1st Corps did not use its control of Drabescus to advance to the northern coast of Pelasgia. Instead, the dawn saw a massive assault by the 5th Armored Bde, 39th Mech.Inf.Bde, and 106th Artillery Regiment against the undefended city of Marmaras and the northern outskirts of Orestias. By the time the Loyalist HQ had understood what had happened, fooled by the artillery assaults of the 1st Army 3rd Corps against Mizythras into thinking an assault on that city was imminent, the National Revolutionary Army had reached Tanagra, and was dangerously close to Daphne, the seat of the 1st Fleet, which was the heart of Imperial power.

Enraged at this outrage, Megas Doux Lazaros Laskarides, the chief of the Imperial War Navy and of the Joint General Staff of the Armed Forces slammed open the door of the main Strategic Operations Room, which was located at the centre of the Logothesion of the Military, itself housed in the opulent Nikolaideion Megaron, a palace named after its chief donor, the famed Pelasgian shipping magnate Alexandros Nikolaides. Through the white, gold, and teal blue neoclassical halls of the palace, the outraged voice of the Megas Doux could be heard as he dismissed the chief of Military Intelligence -the (in)famous Section 6 of the General Staff- and ordered a "decisive assault on Drabescus and then Nestane, to cut the damn rebels in half!". A tall and lightly dark man, with emerald green eyes, the Lord Admiral was not used to being question; which is why his completely bold and clean shaved head went rather red when nobody moved, and the Chief of Intelligence, who had not left the room, coldly replied with a "No". Before he could respond, the man drew a weapon, as did the room's guards, who proceeded to don blue armbands.

"You are all under arrest in the name of the Senate and the People of Southern Tibur," the Intelligence Chief announced, as many of the senior officers were arrested by their subordinates. All across Pelasgia, the scene reproduced itself, with a Republican flag being soon raised over Therme, the Empire's second largest city and colloquial 'co-capital', once the local military governor was arrested. Anaktora, Diabata, Sidnos, Hagios Demetrios, and Selymbria followed, the last city also granting the rebels uncontested control over the Empire's Air Force headquarters. Even the junior officers in the Navy's headquarters, in Daphne, revolted, placing the port city under Republican control. However, the fleet itself was away at sea, save for a small flotilla led by a frigate and made of corvettes with the aim of controlling the Euxenian sea. However, this would force the 1st Fleet to relocate to smaller bases on the Archipelago, having been deprived of its largest base. Over to the west, the staunchly loyalist forces at Ephyra and Mizythras continued to resist in their narrow corridor, fighting a hopeless battle to defend what was perhaps the most loyalist area of all of Pelasgia. The only professional units in the fight on the Loyalist side were the men 66th Motorized Infantry Bde, who fought with the aid of the local TEPA (Special Defensive Militia Detachments), the paramilitary Loyalist anti-insurgency forces composed of a handful of local men from its settlement, which bore old surplus weaponry along with a distinctive armband and beret. In a matter of days, if not less, these men would be overrun by a combined assault by Republican forces on both sides.

Back in Propontis, the Senatorial troops approached the Grand Palace to arrest the Emperor. Their advance was stopped by the battalion-strong Varangian Guard Corps, the Emperor's personal bodyguard. The men of the Varangian Guard were foreigners, mostly from Jyskerige-Østveg, who had converted to Orthodox Christianity and held only loyalty to the Emperor, replacing the less trustworthy Pelasgian Guards since the middle ages. Their distinct purple insignia set them apart from other Imperial troops, and had long drown the ire of an increasingly nationalist Tiburian army. The palace's expansive grounds, including a large garden, were surrounded by tanks, snipers, and other troops on all sides when the commander of the 4th Mechanized Infantry Bde, Brigadier Theodoros Limberis came to talk to the chief of the Varangians. Many of the men, including the commander, still wore their grey ceremonial uniforms, with long grey coats and ornate kepis, decorated with gold and Tyrian purple linings. Other wore their duty camouflage uniforms, though without much gear save for liners and weapons; almost all lacked helmets, save for a few MPs.

"It is not necessary to waste the lives of all these good soldiers for but one fallen tyrant," the Brigadier said; "We can send you all home to your countries safely and with your weapons."

"He is our Emperor, and we shall defend Him to the last, Pelasgian," Guard Master Harald "Savas" Larsen replied; "We'd much rather die near him and with honour than at home and dishonoured."

Almost immediately, a rip of machine-gun fire killed the Pelasgian Brigadier, probably being shot by a restless Varangian without a command. In response, fire ripped through the palace grounds from all sides, with a tank even firing at the Guard's Barracks thrice, until the Varangians were silenced. Most fell, and a few lay wounded and still fought on: one grabbed a Republican soldier and committed suicide with a grenade; a group of three bleeding men hopelessly charged at a Republican company with bayonets from the Imperial Gardens' bushes before being gunned down, killing the Republican company's commanding officer. In a matter of two hours, the Varangians had been wiped out, but all of them had at least killed one Republican. Equally heroic was the last stand of the 1st Imperial Politarchy Battalion near the Hill of Artemis at the city centre, which killed more enemies than it had men, defending the Central Politarchy Barracks of Propontis to the last man against Republican police officers, volunteers, and conscripts, until armoured troops arrived. In the time the Varangians bought, the Emperor was able to board a Navy helicopter to Prinkeponesos; the Republicans wanted the Emperor alive to end the war, and did not dare shoot it down. Thus, while the last few Loyalist soldiers crossed from mainland Pelasgia to the isle of Pergomene through Iolcus by nightfall, the civil war went on. Still, the Loyalists had been dealt an immense blow, losing most of the Empire's industrial and economic core regions, and losing the legitimacy attached to holding the capital, Propontis. By the next day, the Republican Senate had already returned to its old quarters, and Republican troops parading through the streets in their distinctive side caps and kepis -whose Crowns had been replaced by Chi-Rho symbols- were welcomed as heroes by the bourgeoisie and the urbanite populace of Pelasgia, as well as many on the countryside.

The remaining Imperial territories consisted of Philistaea, the Ankyra-Kerasond region of Euxenia, Prinkeponesos and the smaller islands near it, and the Archipelago, as well as parts of the Empire's far south liberated by the Sacred Band. While the Imperial territories were still linked thanks to the Empire's continued naval dominance, the Republicans now possessed dominance on both land and air, and made the connection harder. Philistaea was the new core of Imperial power, and it would have to be defended at all costs.
 

Natal

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9 Septemvríou 2018
Southern Memphis

Operation Septemvriana was in full swing. The victories of the Sacred Band in Haydis and the proclamation of the insurrection has just detonated the powder keg that Memphis and Haydis were under the republican military administration. The people of Memphis took up to the streets to take control of the cities from the republicans. During the night, Alexander Balas heard of the events in Pelasgia itself and decided to change the strategy. Such huge changes could take place when the factions were not yet consolidated, and until recently there was an anomaly: the republicans managed to held pro-monarchist territories and vice-versa. Now with the National Union and the Sacred Band on the move in Haydis and Memphis and the republicans taking Pelasgia and Lycaonia, it was clear that the roles will reverse, with the republicans in Lycia and monarchists in Cyrenia. From there, Balas thought, things might reach a dead end, as both factions would be consolidated in the terrories they have the most supporters and will be entrenched. The war to take complete control of the Southern Tiburan Empire would reach a dead end. That is why, he started thinking that the best way forward would be to leave Pelasgia, Lycaonia and Philistaea to be the headaches of the republicans and from the dying body of the Southern Tiburan Empire, the Despotate of Cyrenia will rise. The era of successors, mirroring the successors of Anaxander, will begin.

The activation of the sleeper agents and stay behind units in Haydis and Memphis threw the province in total chaos. During the night, all but the major roads became no-go zones for the republicans, where bands of monarchist guerrillas were active, hunting and killing republican military patrols and even civilian sympathisers for the nationalist regime.

Even Balas was surprised how successful Operation Septemvriana was and was thinking that in a week from now on, if things were running smooth, he might be in Cassandris and finally declare the creation of the Despotate. He divided his units in two columns. One, led by himself would cross the Crystal Mountains and march along the coast of Memphis, first taking Larissa, Outopolis, Arsinoe and Hagios Petros. This column already left Ioannoupolis after the proclamation and after driving all night and have more and more volunteers in Haydis joining them, was already closing to Larissa. With the supportive population, the nationalist push for Pelasgia and Philistaea and the presence of the rural guerrillas of the Sacred Band, Balas wasn't expecting much resistance.

The second column had another mission. Led by the younger Balas, Perseus, they were leaving Ioannoupolis for Sardeis and Sousa to attack the nationalists from behind. Alexander thought that many of the loyalists fighting in Philistaea wouldn't join him to create just a Cyrenian state, rather than the whole Southern Tiburan Empire, but he though that they were now desperate enough for think and make some compromises, rather than fight and certainly lose. The mission of the second column was to attack the front from behind and create a breach, so that Philistaea could be evacuated and have the loyalists come to Haydis and Memphis.
 

Pelasgia

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Philistaea-Hiberia border
11/09/2018


With the large scale defection of units in Hiberia and Memphis to the Imperial cause, the Republican 3rd Army had been left with its flank exposed, fighting an uneven battle on two fronts. While a passive defence would perhaps allow for the force to hold its ground, the Army's advance into Philistaea and the battle over Metaikhmion had stretched supply lines and thrown the force in a position were most units were already engaged in front-line operations. Knowing all well that such a front could not be maintained, the Republican General Staff, now headquartered comfortably in the old Logothesion of the Military building in Propontis, decided to withdraw through the lowest part pf the mountain range between Hiberia and Haydis to the latter. The retreat would be covered by Republican units on the Haydis-Philistaea theatre, which would seize their largely unopposed offensive operations and stand their ground, providing coverage and support for the 3rd Army's withdrawal northwards. The withdrawal begun on the 10th, with some units already retreating on the 9th, once news of Loyalist advances in Memphis broke, and was largely successfully by the 11th, when most units were comfortably on the path to Haydis proper, either being very close to or within friendly lines. The retreat, however, did cost the 3rd Army, which lost upwards of three thousand men and fourty ground vehicles in the process of withdrawing to the north. While the Loyalist 4th Army did its best to assault Republican columns as they fell back, it did not attempt a pursuit, knowing full-well that an attack on the well-entrenched and largely superior units from Haydis, especially when a rout to the Salty Sea had narrowly been avoided, would be inadvisable. The move, while costly, would serve to entrench the Republican forces with the territory of the northwestern half of Tiburia, historically known as Lycia, where the support of the local populace and the roughness of the geographic frontier with Loyalist Cyrenia would prevent the 3rd Army from finding itself in a desperate double defence again.

West Coast of Philistaea
11/09/2018


The sun gave the waters of the Copper Sea a bronze colour reflective of their name as the morning sun broke on the western coast of Philistaea, across from the small archipelago formed by the rich and densely populated Copper Islands. The Descente (from the French "descendre", to descend, in reference to the sun setting to the west of the area) as the area had come to be known in the Lingua Franca of the long sea, also known as Dysē or Dysī in Pelasgian after the sunset (often anglicised improperly as Dysia), was a rather unique place in Europe; thousands of white-painted houses from all sorts of materials formed thickly populated cities, which sprawled over so many miles that they often had very little, if any empty space between their borders. These settlements, populated since very early antiquity and among the oldest in the Long Sea and Europe, were once the house of great seafaring cultures. Always cosmopolitan and diverse, they had seen the alternating rule of various Northern Himyari cultures, before the Pelasgians and the Tiburans finally raised their banners over the sun-scorched but fertile and bountiful lands of the Descente. Over a slow period since Anaxander's conquest, increasing Pelasgian settlement and Pelasgisation, alongside the arrival of a common religion that used Koine Pelasgian in liturgy, the coast of Philistaea had formed a unique and peculiar but vibrant cultural mix of Pelasgian, Descentine, Himyari, and otherwise Long Sea-related culture, dominated by a Pelasgian identity more related to language and faith than any "pure-blooded descent", such a concept being laughable in the Long Sea in general, and in the Descente even more so in particular. The local populace had largely lost loyalty to the Crown since the revolts of the 1950s but, in truth, most of trade-oriented locals mistrusted the large bureaucratic and feudal-based authority in Propontis, which constantly promoted corporatism and traditionalism over openness and trade.

Dysē was also notable for being the base of the 4th Army 1st Corps, a force which had been formed in the wake of fears of attempts to take Hierosolyma or Philistaea from the west, as well as to support any local repressive operations. Indeed, the 4th Army was a military force full of paratroopers, internal security divisions, sea landing units, amphibious mechanised sections, and other such troops, all of whom were designed for offensive usage, but were now called upon to do the one thing they were never meant to do: defend Philistaea. Even the internal security aspect of these forces' organisation was primarily directed at holding off until larger formations arrived from across the Salty Sea, a fact which was now impossible, given that these formations were engaged on the border with Haydis and Hiberia. The 3rd Fleet was supposed to provide defensive cover from the west, but its defection to the Republic early on had left the coastline open to attack, save for the presence of some unenthusiastic and largely neutral coast guard units. It was thus completely baffling for the commanders of the 4th Army 1st Corps when, on September 11, 2018, the 3rd Fleet reappeared near the Copper Islands, with large numbers of landing troops, marines, and airborne units entering the cities of the Descente. Very quickly it became clear that, despite orders to the contrary from a completely disconnected high command made up of nobles and loyalist sinecure-holders in Hierosolyma, the local forces of conscripts, many of which acted as training units, had no intention of resisting. Rather, the local troops, just like the local populace, welcomed the troops as liberators, flying Republican flags, many of them makeshift, and many more distributed by the Republican troops and Republican cells which had been acting in the city from before the assault. Erythrae was the first city to fall, followed by Byblos, Xerae, Laodicea, Azotos, Tyrus, Sidon, and before long, all the cities down to Anaxandretta on the Descente's southernmost coastal area. By the early evening of September 11, Lt. General Marios Theophanopoulos of the 4th Army 1st Corps HQ in Sidon had surrendered his sword to Brigadier Markos Drakopoulos of the 4th Army 2nd Cops 1st Amphibious Landing Infantry Bde, to the applause of the local populace. The Brigadier then went on the uproot a laurel tree planted by the Head of Government of the Military Regime in the 1970s, and replace it with an Olive Tree of Liberty, at the square outside Sidon Municipal Palace.

At the same time, the city's foreign populace was gripped with fear. Those belonging to neutral or non-Trier Concord countries but still from Gallo-Germania, such as the city's residents from Gallega, Borovanger, Engellex, or Gunnland, raised their respective country's flags outside their homes, schools, businesseses, and other buildings, often alongside the Nationalist flag. While the MPs, Astynomoi, Coast Guard Officer, and Politarchs were ordered, and swiftly acted to prevent any civil unrest between communities, many of the Catholic nations embroiled in the continetal war, and almost all of those from countries directly involved in the war in Tiburia, such as the Eiffellanders, locked up their properties in Dysia and fled to Hierosolyma, the larges city still under Loyalist control. There, the situation had begun to be more tense than ever, with thousands if not tens of thousands of foreign residents flocking out of fear of reprisals, including members of various Tiburian minorities such as Pelasgo-Catholics and Melingians, while Republican agents took advantage of the large movement to infiltrate the city and prepare for its capture. Joining the movement were also many terrified Loyalists from the city's coasts. The lodgings and facilities normally taken up by pilgrims in the Holy City were soon filled by the refugees of the war, many who couldn't afford them being housed due to the generosity of Catholic and other religious orders and charities. However, these were not adequate, and soon enough, people started staying in whatever crevice, street space, and shelter they could find, filling the Holy City's streets in an already congested atmosphere. The Tiburian Civil War had started showing its ugly face, and many of these people were horrified by a mix of tales of Cyrenian brutality against Nationalists and the reprisals it could entail, tails of entire towns and villages being burned and sacked by the Nationalists in Melingia, and fear of the growing divide between Lycia and Cyrenia, which might see them sent off from the only home they'd ever known, either to the other end of the Empire, or across the Long Sea. Soon enough, vigils and prayers were held across the city, along with calls to the Holy City's foreign consulates for assurances and protection (so much so that the Politarchy had to block off by force those who were not citizens of each consulate's country); meanwhile, the Nationalist majority of the city and the region at large went on painting windows and doors blue, and sheltering and cooperating with Nationalist agents.

The 4th Army's remaning Loyalist units might have been operating successfully on the Hiberian border, but the westward push of the Nationalists would soon see them driven to Cyrenia, potentially without much of a fight. To the north, news of the Nationalist 4th Army 2nd Corps and 2nd Army 2nd Corps' moving to connect the Neapolis peninsula to Lycaonia and cut off the Loyalists from Prinkeponesos had begun trickling into Hierosolyma, as more and more news reports showed images of Lycaonian ground troops crossing the Lycaonia-Philistaea border, confident that the capture of the coastline had cut off the support of any remaining Loyalist units. Little resistance was being reported, as the demoralised Loyalist troops begun fleeing to Hierosolyma, more akin to using it as a stop before continuing to Cyrenia, than as a fortress which they would defend alongside its occupants. Those who did not manage to cross the mountain of the northern frontier in time were caught by the Nationalist troops or, even worse, the Nationalist irregulars, known by their blue armbands and increasingly nicknamed the galanochitones, or blueshirts.
 

Bezonvaux

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EKKP safehouse Trapezon, Pelagsia

The three CEL operatives had managed to make contact with local EKKP members, there was something of a language barrier but through a mix of Frankish, Andaluz and Pelagsian the two parties where able to communicate. " We of the Comité de la exportación de la libertad feel that it would be in best interest of both our peoples and indeed in the interests of the international proletariat if the EKKP was to emerge victorious. To this end we are willing to supply arms,munitions and other supplies along with certain specialist advisers, now I understand that some among your ranks might be uncomfortable about excepting support from non Marxists but let me ask you this....where is Kadikistan...where is Serenierre, now if you accept our help you can expect a shipment in the next 24 hours".
 

Rheinbund

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11SEP2018

Euxenia, Ankyra-Kerasond region


With Hiberia turning Loyalist, the route from Euxenia to Philistaea was finally open. Major-General Köhler of the 19th brigade decided to take the opportunity and go westward. His aim was to attack the Nationalist troops moving from Lycaonia to Philistaea.


Philistaea

With the 3rd fleet in the Copper Sea, the Eiffellandian 3rd air force division had a busy job to fight off the planes taking off from the aircraft carrier. Unfortunately, it was not taken into account that the planes would have to attack ships; therefore, the 3rd air force division did not have any anti-ship missiles with them. They had enough other missiles though; and they used those missiles to attack the planes taking off from the aircraft carrier, and to attack the groud forces approaching Hierosolyma from the west.

Meanwhile, the 9th brigade engaged the Nationalist troops coming from Lycaonia.


Eiffelland

Also Marshall Modersohn and Grand Admiral Feders were looking at the Pelasgian map. After Cyrenia emerged and Hibernia switched sides, the situation had become less hopeless for the Loyalist side than it was two days ago. Indeed, Pelasgia had fallen, and the troops in Philistaea seemed to be trapped. But Feders immediately saw that not only the Loyalists in Prinkoponesos were trapped. The Copper Sea had only one exit. If that exit would be blocked, the Tiburian 3rd fleet had nowhere to go. Feders decided immediately to contact the Loyalist Navy. He adviced them to first block the sea entrance to the Copper Sea and then destroy the ships of the 3rd fleet.
 

Pelasgia

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Trapezon, Pelagsia

"Unlike the DKKP dinosaurs, you will find we have no problem with accepting help wherever it comes from. We ourselves are reformed Marxists, and have no problem allying ourselves with ideologies such as yours. Any and all support is welcome, provided it does not come with controlling strings attached."

Philistaea-Lycaonia border, area north of Tiberia
15/09/2018


The border between Philistaea and Lycaonia had, for thousands of years, been defined at the line created by Leucosyran Mountains and the Perates river. South of that border, one could see Phrygos river flowing and creating a strip of persistently and remarkably fertile land through the increasingly arid region leading to the city of Tiberias near the lifeless Salty Sea. At night, one could gaze across the flatland and see the lights of Tiberias and the settlements in Lycaonia reflecting light, and could could clearly see the trail of human settlement across the path of Phrygos. This plain formed the eastern flank of the mountains surrounding Hierosolyma, having long been a trail of traders and pilgrims to the Holy City and the ports to the west, while the western flank, formed by the Valley of Ambracia, possessed a much more temperate and hospitable climate. While otherwise serene and undisturbed, being inhabited mostly by farmers who were upset by the occasional influx of some airmen for a nearby airbase, or some particularly large group of pilgrims, the Plain of the Phrygos now found itself stripped of its serene silence; since the advance of the Nationalist 4th Army's forces southward, this silence had been replaced by the sound of jets and artillery, which hammered the Loyalist positions.

At first, the advance had been easy; the 4th Army's landing troops had already taken the western coast, including the Ambracian Plain, thereby blocking of the Holy City on one side. Moving down from the mountains of Lycaonia to the plains of Philistaea, the heavily armed and well-equipped Nationalist troops, who had maintained their command structure with remarkably little change since the war's beginning, mowed through whatever few conscripts or irregulars, supplemented by paramilitaries, put up a fight. Many locals welcomed the troops, or at least did not resist them. By the time, however, that the Nationalist troops had reached the river opposite of Tiberias, enemy resistance had turned fierce, and Loyalist troops, well dug-in and with a fanatical wish to fight, returned fire and brought the Nationalist advance to a standstill. While the Nationalists rejoiced in that their allied forces to the east had blocked off the Loyalists from Euxenia and the Marble Sea, since the Fall of Orchomenus, it had become clear that a fight would have to take place for Hierosolyma to fall.

That fight begun on September 12, with heavy bombardments on both sides. Before long, armoured units of the Nationalists attempted to cross the river further north, with a faked assault causing a destruction to the south. However, this attempt resulting in failure and the loss of five tanks and twelve APCs. Another attempt to cross the river came on September 13, with a small detachment of commandos getting to Tiberias through the Salty Sea and attempting to destroy installations of the Loyalists in preparation for an assault. Whereas they succeeded in blowing up a communications building, they failed in destroying the HQ and logistics building of the local garrison; a night attack followed, and was repelled, despite heavy losses and a short-lived breakthrough near the frontline's northernmost point. It was then clear that the Loyalists would not give up, reinforced by a number of civilian volunteers from the young men amongst refugees who had fled to Hierosolyma.

The final assault on the line would come on September the 15th. On the morrow of that day, Field Marshal Aristarchos Kavalaris gazed down onto the battlefield from far afar, on a hill at the southern part of the mountainous region on the Philistaea-Lycaonia border. The Marshal was a rather tall and impressive man, with thick, straight black hair and piercing dark brown eyes, alongside a chin and a nose reminiscent of the ancient Pelasgian statues, though with some Haydian mixing; his commanding look was reinforced by his white but tanned skin, which the soldiers considered fitting for a true general who fought in the field. His characteristic thick handlebar moustache (called a "tsingeloto" in Pelasgian) stood above his motionless, inexpressive mouth, which was showing the fainest signs of a smile. He was a prominent member of the Low Nobles, the aristocrats outside of Propontis, and, despite this status, his family was probably amongst the richest in his home city of Iole, and the Empire at large. Having lost his father to an Imperial execution during the purges of the 80s, the Marshal had grown up in a remarkably disciplined way despite his lack of a father; his uncle, a Brigadier, had served as his primary father figure, probably pointing to why he followed his father's steps to the top of his class in the Imperial Military Academy of Propontis, and then the Supreme School of War in that same city, earning his ornate General's kepi. His masterminding of the Liberation of Pelasgia through the flanking maneuver at Marmaras, and his ability to protect Lycaonia from conquest had earned him respect as the leading Nationalist commander, alongside the nickname the "Eagle of Lycaonia", also known as the "Vulture of Lycaonia" amongst his enemies. On that day, Marshal Kavalaris awaited his revenge; he would soon have it.

The first morning rays show a large-scale artillery bombardement and a relentless bombing of the Loyalsit position, the aircraft carrier-bound bombers and fighters of the 3rd Fleet making their last support runs as the fleet withdrew northwards, to the Long Sea. Following this, the 4th Army charged across the river shallow points and the various bridges built during the battle or already existing from peacetime. There was not much of a display of delicate maneuvers involved, other than a brutal grinding as mechanised, motorised, and foot-mobile units, supported by armour and fighting vehicles, crashed into each other on both sides. By noon, the first push-back had occurred in a very wide shallow point on the northern half of the front-line, known as the Widows' Passage, where the previous breakthrough had occurred days before. Two hours later, before that break could be fully contained, a second one was noted, as an armoured brigade eliminated opposition at the large Bridge of the Four Evangelists; the charges set on the bridge's western side could not be detonated due to malfunctions and hasty installation, and the column of tanks broke right through the line, followed by entire companies and then a full three battalions, which established a secure point across. Soon after, a third breach, closer to Tiburias, at the Brown Shallows, was noted; though the breach itself was not grave and could be pushed back, the volume of enemy troops pouring across the two other beaches pushed the line back, until the sectors close to Tiburias laid exposed. One by one, the Loyalist units started fleeing the field, with only some fanatical units, such as those of volunteers, standing and fighting to the death, so as to slow the Nationalists down. The bloody battle was over by the early to mid evening, with Tiburias laying undefended; the Nationalists would march through the next day, parading through a city once established as a symbol and stronghold of Imperial power in the area.

The Battle at the Phrygos River would remain to be known as one of the bloodiest in the Civil War, costing both sides over 40,000 dead, wounded, missing, and deserters. For the Nationalists, who had suffered their heaviest losses yet in the assault, 4,000 dead, 19,000 wounded, and over 400 missing were the cost of victory. For the Loyalists, 3,865 dead, 18,000 wounded, 201 captives, 5,000 deserters, and 3,000 missing had been the cost of defeat. And yet, despite comparable losses, the fact stood: the Loyalist 4th Army had been broken, and existed only on paper, unwilling and unable to put up a resistance on the road of Hierosolyma. The fact would be sealed by the suicide of Loyalist Marshal Pavlos Anastasioulas a few days later in his quarters. For the Nationalists, this represented what they had hoped for for so long: the dissolution of the last major obstacle to capturing Hierosolyma and putting the Loyalists out of the possession of any major land cities. While the remnants of the Loyalist 4th Army persisted across the Salty Sea, alongside the Eiffellandian Expeditionary Forces, they lacked any major population centres under their control, and would be soon hard-pressed for supplies, allowing the Nationalsits the luxury of waiting for their surrender or hopeless assault. Marshal Kavalaris gazed upon the map of Pelasgia with a more clear smile, staring intently at Hierosolyma; alas, the assault of the Eiffellandians close to Ampelia to attempt to connect to Euxenia would force him to divert some fo his forces to support the now entrenched and defending 3rd Army. But it was of little importance; Hierosolyma would soon be his, and with it, revenge and the end of an Empire. He could already hear the feet of the blue-coats marching through the Avenue of the Martyrdom to the centre of the Holy City.

Karavostatis, Eos Island, Archipelago
15/09/2018


Acting on the recommendations of the Eiffellandian High Command, the 1st Fleet, accompanied by the Occitan naval expeditionary force, had drawn up plans for a decisive attack on the 3rd Fleet as it moved to exit the Copper Sea. The fleet itself had suffered from the Nationalist Revolt in Pelasgia proper, losing the Megas Doux and several other key officers to the Nationalist arrest parties, as well as its key base in Daphne and the considerable strategic reserves of fuel, ammunition, and equipment left there. The fleet had since scattered to the Archipelago, moving its new headquarters to Prinkeponesos and then to Karavostasis, on the small isle of Eos in the western Archipelago. As the city's name suggested (meaning "Ship Stop"), it had served as a major naval station since olden times, being one of the main bases of the medieval Karabesianoi Corps, the core of the Empire's naval defence in the Long Sea outside the Capital Fleet. There, the 1st Fleet planned to leave the Occitan ships behind to continue patrolling the straights between the mainland and Prinkeponesos, while the Marines reinforced Loyalist land units that managed to flee the mainland and set up defences against beach landings from the mainland. As the Fleet prepared to set sail, various ships suddenly cut contact with HQ and raised a blue-white-brown ensign, a traditional Pelasgian ensign based on the colours of traditional fishing vessels in the Northern Pelasgian coast. Naval Police went around ships, noting minor exchnages of fire and various hostage situations of officers; an attempt to take over the HQ itself was noted, but its was repelled by the loyalist Naval Police troops. Before long what had occured became clear: a sizeable group of junior and middle officers, sympathetic to the Nationalist cause and especially the left-Nationalist elements of the United Front, had attempted to stage a coup and take over the 1st Fleet. By nightfall the coup had been suppressed, and the testimonies of the men indicated that they aimed to take over the fleet, arrest its commanders, and then use it to assault Prinkeponesos by sea, capturing the Emperor. Other than the Emperor's autocratic rule, grievances included the inaction in the face of the massacres at Memphis and the perceived lack of meritocracy and aristocratic favouritism in the navy's promotions to the higher officer positions. The resulting trial was short, and the Naval Coup as it came to be known would see multiple life sentences for treason and no less than seven executions; the bloody event would further sake the 1st Fleet's morale and force it to abandon plans for operations for the time being given, the gap in the chain of command and in the fleet's cohesion that had been created by the event.

Hagios Antonios-Hagios Menas Line, Kyphtic Memphis
15/09/2018


As the Loyalist advance northward threatened to reach Northern Memphis, the 2nd Army threw units from Pelasgia back to the Hiberian marches and the area along the line created by the cities of Hagios Menas and Hagios Antonios, alongside the Lake of the Kings, hoping to halt the Loyalsit advance. This goal was hampered by the large presence of Loyalist paramilitaries and guerillas who wrecked havoc behind Loyalist lines. The issue got so bad, that the 2nd Army started executing non-Nationalist villagers in the areas of the guerillas in reprisals against settlements suspected of aiding and abetting the Sacred Band. Though the tactic would prove to be a propaganda victory for the Loyalists in the region, it would, in the short run instill enough fear into the locals to help reinforce the line and temporarily slow down the Loyalist advance, with the aim of preventing an advance to Embasis before Hierosolyma fell. Aerial units of light attack aircraft were dispatched from Hiberia to the region with the aim of operating against the Loyalist Sacred Band, while the Politarchy was given broad powers to enforce martial law across the part of Memphis under Nationalist control. In this task, it was accompanied by the fanatical, and sometimes brutal, blue-coat volunteers and conscripts.
 
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Pelasgia

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Hierosolyma, Philistaea
17/09/2018


The morning sun broke over the Holy City as a new week started. The cities ancient and tight streets, which were normally full of life, now found themselves empty and deserted. The only people who filled them were the tens of thousands of refugees that had fled to the city for protection, alongside small groups of Loyalist soldiers who poured while fleeing the defeat at Tiburias, moving further to the south. In everyone's minds the question stood: would there be a battle? The very first Nationalist units had arrived outside the city in lightly armoured reconnaissance vehicles and on motorcycles the day before, staying outside the city's immediate boundaries. Slowly but steadily, more and more units moved near, until the first large column, consisting of a handful of APCs and IFVs led by a Major, entered the city. It was followed by mechanised units and jeeps, the latter's gunners being on edge. At one point, having crossed three intersections, the Major was stopped by a local police officer, who turned out to be a Major of the Imperial Cities Police. A short exchange between the two men made it clear that neither side intended to fight; the city was to be surrendered to Nationalist control peacefully. The Nationalist Major gave assurances that none of the refugees would be harmed, though any Loyalist soldiers or volunteers found in the city would be taken captive by force. His police counterpart concurred and stepped out of the way. Shortly thereafter, Pelasgian civilians started exiting their homes, flying Nationalist flags and welcoming the soldiers.

By the early afternoon, larger columns had arrived and were greeted by large, cheering crowds as they made their way to the heart of the city, where the Temple Mount was located. An endless sea of men, women, and children, often including various low-ranking clergy members, waved small Nationalist flags and cheered, threw flowers at the soldiers, and generally gave out an atmosphere of rejoicing and celebration. The crowd would cheer the loudest when the convoys of the higher officers, including Lord Field Marshal Kavalaris, entered the city, waving calmly at the crowds through their utility jeeps. At around 4 pm a ceremony was held where the Imperial Flag was lowered from the Temple mount, being replaced by the Nationalist one. As the Patriarch of Hierosolyma refused to bless the flag, it was instead blessed by the Bishop of Tyrus, who was in the city. The celebrations would continue as the Marshal entered the Grand Drosovoulas Hotel of Hierosolyma, which had been converted to the Loyalist 4th Army's HQ. There, he would find empty rooms, and the sight of the enemy Marshal having taken his own life by his sword. After a short pause, he closed the dead man's eyes and order him to be carried to his family and buried with dignity.

The Nationalist volunteers and MPs, joined by local police officers, would scour the city for deserting or hiding Loyalist troops, capturing upwards of a thousand, though with some sporadic exchanges of fire. Every sight of Nationalist troops seemed to instill fear into the refugees, who had flocked to the Old Market and the Consular District, and while some muggings and beatings by irregulars and angry Pelasgian crowds did occur, the forceful presence of the Nationalist MPs, who shot no less than two muggers, largely served to quell concerns of a massacre. However, prominent supporters of the Loyalists, such as Lady E. Antonopoulou and the Retalian merchant Mr. F. Klarewitz, did take place, albeit in a calm and orderly manner. The persons in question were detained at the aforementioned Grand Drosovoulas Hotel in rather good condition, and assurances were given to foreign diplomats and local clergymen that no reprisals would take place. The parade of the Nationalist troops through the Central Market and the Avenue of the Martyrdom and the surrounding spontaneous fanfare seemed to dominate reports of the day, as the Republican faction now rested assured of its established dominance on the Pelasgian mainland. Save for sniper fire from one building near the Catholic quarter, which was silence by tank fire, the day largely lacked any signs of manifest hostility. It would seem that Hiersolyma, despite being the object of many of the war's bloodiest engagements, did itself avoid the war's horrors.

Prinkeponesos, Thracesia
17/09/2018


Emperor Ioannes VII Laskaris was the eldest son of Emperor Isaakios V Laskaris and Empress Ioanna IV Botaniatissa, alongside four other children, two boys and two girls. He had inherited his father's large build and his mother's fair complexion, alongside a character that mirrored his father's calculating but somewhat emotional nature, and his mother's intelligent cynicism. As a result, he was often known, since his youth, to persevere for long, but make harsh and significant choices after being pushed too far or being disappointed with more soft-handed approaches. Originally a cynic keen on aphorisms, he had turned into somewhat of an institutionalist in his later years through experience and maturity. A loving father of five of his own children, he had never been too certain whether he'd made the right choice after one of his typical profound declarations, though he honestly aspired to do what was best and honourable. In a way, one could describe Ioannes Laskaris as a man who used cynical means to achieve idealistic ends. Pious more out of tradition than out of true conviction, he often visited his family's ancestral graves to reflect and find himself, always seeing Church as somewhere he needed to pretend and put in an effort, rather than relax and meditate.

The ancestral graves of the Laskarids on Prinkeponesos dated to the earliest of the multiple periods when a Laskarid had held the Crown or other positions close to it, such as being the Imperial Consort. The oldest standing grave was from the 14th century, with many older graves ebing in the family's ancestral province in Lycaonia. The old and hallowed halls of the Imperial graves lay below the ground, in tight catacombs of marble and stone, ornamented with floral and geometrical patterns, as well as statues, murals and calligraphic inscriptions. Above ground, a series of collonades surrounded the internal garden and the external perimeter of a stone structure which, while beautiful and clearly prestigious, did not emit ornate opulence, seeking to avoid hubris in a burial place. Rather, its quiet brick walls and coloured pillars, alongside beautiful images of flowers, forests, peacocks and biblical scenes probably inspired an air of serene respect more than an aura of awesomeness. The Emperor had climbed down the stairs of the catacomb nearly four hours before the present point when, upon being informed of the Fall of Hierosolyma to the Nationalists, he had left the Imperial Summer Palace and gone down. Prinkeponesos was a home to him and he knew its every corner, at least outside the couple major urban areas, where he had to hide his humanity and put on a reverent facade again. It was perhaps fitting that it was here that he would make the most important decision of his life.

Finally, he decided to ascend the stairs leading to the internal garden and follow the pathway leading outside, where his servants awaited. Without saying a word, he entered his personal vehicle, and motioned to the chauffeur in the direction of the Palace. There he entered the dining room, where his family were already enjoying their supper.

"We were worried for You," his wife said. He looked at her face. Her pale face contrasted well with her dark hair and eyes. She certainly had a somewhat Hiberian or Haydian look about her. He smiled; he liked that about her. He always liked women like that.

"I'm alright, Anna," he said, dropping the Imperial "We" in the discreet company of family.

"Father, did you go to see Grandfather?" he heard his eldest son, Antipas, asking. The young man was but twenty-four years old and had already made a name for himself as one of the best officers in the Imperial Land Army. Though he'd been automatically been granted a Higher rank due to his status, he had made good use of it, earning the respect of the other upper officers for his innovative use of combat engineers for rapid advance, as well as his doctrines on the deployment and use of AA systems for area control.

"Yes, my son. And Grandmother too. I lit a candle in the chapel for each one of us."

He sat down, and joined the others. The food was somewhat sweet; it seems that old Savvas, the head-cook, had taken care to try and sweeten the loss of the Holy City. Normally, the Emperor tried to eat sour food on sour occasions, but on a day of such loss even he could not bare further grievance. After almost twenty minutes, a knock was heard on the door; it was Admiral Themistokles Paraskevopoulos.

"You Imperial Majesties, and Your Imperial Highnesses, please do excuse my intrustion. I bring grave news," the man said.

"You are forgiven," the Emperor said, speaking in Ancient Pelasgian, as per Imperial custom; "What news do you bring?"

"Your Imperial Majesty's Field Marshal, General Commander of the 4th Army, and Military Governor of Philistaea, Lord Pavlos Anastasioulas, has taken his own life by his own sword, Your Imperial Majesty. The dishonour of losing the Holy City to the traitors was too grave for his soul to bear."

The Emperor waited a second before speaking. "And must his soul thus go to Hades? Forgive Us, Admiral, it is grievous that a good subject should condemn himself to the Fires Below for doing his best in our service. You may go."

"Thank You, Your Imperial Majesty. Good evening to all of Your Majesties and Highnesses."

The Emperor stared at the table before him blankly for a few moments, as the other members of the family expressed their shock.

"Enough!" he said out loud, not to the others but to himself, or to God perhaps. He turned his Parakoimomenos, his most trusted servant and pulled out a note from his pocket. "Have this sent to the rebellious Senate. It is time we parlay with their leaders."

As the Parakoimomenos exited the room after bowing, the Emperor's second eldest son, Isaakios, was aghast.

"Father, you will negotiate with the rebels now? We are at a great disadvantage! If our allies can disengage from Trivodnia, we might win the war yet. We must persevere."

"How do you presume we should persevere my son? How much more Tiburian blood needs to be spilled before you and everyone recognises that this crime has gone on for too long? This is not a war, this is a travesty! Pelasgian killing Pelasgian, Memphiot killing Memphiot and for what? For Trivodnia? They are lost. In this war, we only have to lose and our enemies, those outside the Empire's frontiers, only have to gain as long as it goes on."

"But Father, the Eiffellandians and the other Gallo-Germanians will support us to the end."

"And should I go down in history as the Tiburan Emperor who owes his Crown to the Hyperpontians*? That 'honour' already belongs to Alexios VIII Komnenos and his band of Crusaders. They are already calling me the 'Traitor Emperor' and the 'German-souled Tyrant'. Should I prove them right? No, I would rather lose my Crown than keep it through the foreign mercenary's bayonet. After all we still hold some important cards. If all goes well, I might retain the Crown or at least one of you may take my place on the Throne of Propontis."
*Hyperpontians (Ὑπερπόντιοι) means "those across the Long Sea"; it is often used to refer to those foreign to Northern Himyar as a blanket term; Aithiodermoi ("men with burned skin") is usually used for those south of the Empire.

Antipas stared emptily as he increasingly realised the burden of the Crown would probably fall on him much sooner than expected. His wife had not even given birth to their child yet; and he might have to wear the purple anyway, and consider that to be a good outcome.
 
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Rheinbund

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Rotterdam, Netherlands
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Fehrbellin
17SEP2018

The cease-fire was in place. The Nationalists had granted the Eiffellandian troops a retreat in honour. General-Major Fabius of the 9th brigade and General-Major Köhler of the 19th brigade ordered their troops to the closest-by harbour at the Marble Sea, under the white flag. The 3rd Air Force Division withdrew from Tiburia as well.
 

Pelasgia

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Pyrgos, Propontis, Thracesia
19/09/2018


The port of Pyrgos had, for centuries, been the primary link of the Imperial Capital to the outside world; alongside its fellow port to the north, Hagios Simeon, it connected the city proper of Propontis, known as Christoupolis, or Iopolis in antiquity, to the Long Sea, being one of the major home ports of the Tiburian Merchant Marine, the largest in Europe and the source of the wealth of most of the Empire's self-made bourgeois men, the famed and eccentric Pelasgian Shipping Magnates. Its streets had been tread on by the feet of millions, young and old, poor and rich, male and female, Pelasgian and barbarian, granting fortune to some, despair to others, and a dignified and occasionally happy struggle to most. Pyrgos drew its name from the large fortified tower at its tip, which had been built to ward off attackers. In this district, city's natives and the immigrants from across Pelasgia were joined by foreigners, either born into the port's centuries' old foreign communities (such as the Catholics) or having moved there of their own accord. In centuries past they might have been moved there on slave ships, a tradition which had thankfully been long outlawed by the 21st century.

Pyrgos, like most of Propontis, had maintained its Tiburan grid pattern, extending all the way to the part of Propontis known as Christoupolis, though its architecture had altered; ancient structures had given way to successive medieval Propontine styles, which themselves had given way to the Neoclassical buildings that included many of port's major landmarks, like the famed Municipal Theatre and Opera House, the New Admiralty, or the Naval Museum. These had slowly started giving way to more modern structures in the late half of the 20th century, most notably the highrises that characterised the port's southward sprawl, alongside the cement blocks of the less fortunate districts in those newer parts of the port.

At the centre of the richer, northern side of Pyrgos, right across from the sea, was the majestic Kastellas Hotel, a five-star luxury establishment catering to the elite of Tiburia and Europe. Its baroque halls had entertained stars, nobles, statesmen, bussinessmen, merchants, and diplomats alike, the famed grey-uniformed servants being always willing to lend a hand for a small tip, going so far as to clean the handles of the front doors every time they were touched. On this humid and sunny day, the hotel found itself ready to receive its ost prominent guests yet: on the one side, the Tiburian Emperor, the Admiral of the 1st Fleet and the Patriarch of Cassandris, and on the other the Grand Logothete, the President of the Imperial Chamber of Commerce, and the Lord Marshal. Each was followed by a host of advisors and delegates, and the Ecumenical Patriarch himself moderated the talks. The hotel found itself surrounded by journalists, police officers, and onlookers, while two roads behind it were the tanks of the Nationalist 1st Army, and across it at sea were the ships of the 1st Fleet, pointing their guns at each other and at the hotel.

As the two delegations sat down, and the due formalities were taken care of, the Ecumenical Patriarch first gave the floor to the Emperor, a move that not even the Nationalists opposed, being mostly led by properly bred and well-mannered nobles, who might wage war against a noble of higher status, but would never interrupt him.

"Your All-Holiness, dear subjects. We come to you not with the illusion that any one of us can, morally and truly, walk away from this table without burdening their conscience with another Civil War, and soiling their hands with the blood of thousands more. Rather, We come to finally restore peace to this Realm of Ours, which is also yours, or rather ours as a whole. To Us it is our divinely ordained place of dominion, to you your sacred home. We have no illusion as to how this war started, or to how it was conducted; but, seeing that the Great War across the Long Sea is as good as over, and that our own conflict has been dragged to its extreme, beyond which irreparable damage would have to be dealt to our own folk and land, we now gather here to learn how it shall end. Our good Lords and Hierarchs, we bare no illusion of turning back the river or of clearing it of the bloody colour that now stains it. But we can keep further blood from soiling it and that we shall do. Let us not stick to the Tiburia of the past or the so-called Republic of the present. Let us look to the Realm of tomorrow. It is in that land that we can make a difference, and that we should. For millions upon millions depend on it, and our very Fatherland demands it, in the name of Justice, and Truth, and of the Lord Himself. Now then, let us hear the demands of the recent conquerors of the Lord's Place of Expiry."

The Grand Logothete stood up and, after bowing, begun his speech.

"I, on behalf of all the Senatorial delegates, thank His Imperial Majesty for his willingness to negotiate. Let us then truly look to what we can do from now on, rather to what has happened. But to do so, we will have to take the past into account, so that we might not repeat its errors. For one, the faces of the past, who led us to this point have to go. And this includes nobody less than His Imperial Majesty himself. I am willing to withdraw from politics myself as a concession in return; both factions will have to shed their wartime leader, if peace is to prevail."

The Patriarch of Cassandris, who had evolved into the de facto head of government of the Loyalist faction stood up intently after hearing these words.

"Who are you, Lord Anastasiades, to exchange yourself for an Emperor, let alone demand his abdication?"

The Lord Field Marshal Kavalaris stood up in response.

"He is the one holding the confidence of the body that traditionally appoints the Emperors of Tibur: the Senate. That is still formally the Senate's function, and what Acts the Senate passes, it can repeal."

The Patriarch called on all men to sit down, and then the talks resumed more calmly.

"We would, to ensure peace and good order, be willing to abdicate our Crown; but on one condition: since Mr. Anastasiades can instruct his faction to choose his preferred successor, we too would like to designate our own, a right which has also been recognised by the Senate. We choose Our eldest son, Grand Despot Antipas."

"Very well, Your Imperial Majesty," the Grand Logothete said; "That is a most reasonable and legal recommendation. However, the Crown can never hold the same power, for we can see already how it can abuse it. I recommend then three great Archons to take up these duties, since they were in ancient times divided before the age of the Imperium overtook the Res Publica. The Archon Basileus shall take over the Emperor's duties as ceremonial head of the True Faith and of the Justice System, the Polemarch shall take over the Emperor's ceremonial duties as Commander in Chief, and the Eponymous Archon shall take over all other administrative and ceremonial duties. The three Archons shall be elected differently: the Eponymous Archon and Polemarch shall be elected by the Senate as a whole, and the Archon Basileus shall be elected by the Nobles of the Senate and all the Clergymen above the rank of Bishop. The current holder of each rank shall be able to nominate his successor, and the electors will first have to reject any such proposal to nominate a new Archon. In the case of the Archon Basileus, who shall hold nominal status as Head of State, a 2/3 majority will be required to reject the proposal, including a majority amongst both the Lords and the Bishops, making a rejection very unlikely. In this way, the succession of the Archon Basileus from the current Emperor is essentially assured."

"This is satisfactory," the Patriarch of Cassandris said, having looked at the Emperor nodding slightly in agreement; "But what of the actual powers in the sectors dominated by each Archon? We recommend that the Eponymous Archon's powers are exercised by the executive and the bureaucracy, to be held by the Sakellarios, who shall replace the Grand Logothete. The Sakellarios should also oversee the military affairs of the Polemarch, which would normally be managed by the General Staff and the Defence Ministry, but over which the Sakellarios should have final word, the Polemarch being one and the same with the current post of Megas Doux, a semi-autonomous head of the General Staff. And finally, with pertinence to the Archon Basileus, the religious and judicial duties should be exercised by the Church and the Judiciary respectively. And the former would include, Church patronage over and participation in the health and education systems, I should think."

"While our ultimate aim would be to make these systems directly fall under the state," the Grand Logothete said, "we could meet you half way and have them be an area of joint responsibility. So the Ministries would set guidelines, but staffing and execution would be up to the Church, with some Ministry involvement. In practice, neither system would be secularised, and clergy members would mix with non-clergy professionals under formal Church suzerainty and in accordance with Ministry guidelines, as set out by general Senatorial Acts. Of course, the Senate itself would have to be reformed; I'd recommend that the two houses be abolished. Instead, the Senate would be made up of Nobles, Bishops, former high ranking-diplomats, former provincial governors and metropolitan mayors, former and current ministers and heads of government, former high-ranking officers, and so forth. Legislative initiatives would be taken up by a Legislative Assembly, whose agenda would be set by the Senate. The Senate would also get to review and approve or reject laws, but actual drafting of laws within areas of policy set out by the Senate would be up to the Assembly, which would also choose a set number of representatives to the Senate, one of whom would hold veto among its acts, while also appointing the Sakellarios. The Senate would primarily appoint officers of state and pass very specific Acts or policy recommendations, creating a true distinction between the two bodies."

And so the negotiations went on, setting out the basis for the future of the Sovereign Commonwealth. However, neither the Melingians on the Loyalist side, nor the Leftists on the Nationalist side, were prepared to accept such compromises and deviations from their respective ideals of a pure Monarchy or a pure Republic. The effects of this split would become clear, and tragic in the not too distant future. But for now, the delegates of both sides gladly spoke to the press about the immense progress that they were making (which was not all that far from the truth, in all verity).
 

Pelasgia

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Pyrgos, Propontis, Thracesia
21/09/2018

As the main negotiations for the constitutional and political future of Pelasgia went on in the gilded halls of the Kastellas Hotel, the increasingly alienated factions of the EKKP and the Melingians drew more and more frustrated. The Melingians would withdraw all their representation, save for one largely ceremonial delegate; back at home, they would start withdrawing to Upper Melingia, at the mountainous western half of their lands, abandoning the plain, though many thousands of civilians would continue living in the plains closer to the foothills of the mountains, often with very small groups of insurgents at their back. Though they had not really stopped reinforcing their positions, they had waned somewhat in their works, and were now committed to continuing at full strength. The Melingian leader, Lord Mayor Ioannes Avdelas of the city of Nymphaion, had remained in the city of Propontis with but a couple hundred men as his personal bodyguard, alongside a few advisors. He knew all too well the local tale of Lord Mihai of Petrogephyra, who had been summoned to the Empress of Cities by Alexios I Komnenos without a bodyguard and had been flayed in public over a minor insubordination.

The EKKP, for its part, had grown more and more distant from the moderate left; as the moderates of the Social Party and the minor factions clustering around it debated how to convince the Nationalists against a deal maintaining the Crown and High Church, or how to best resist through protests and other peaceful means, the EKKP prepared for a fight; in Trapezon, an industrial port that served as its most important stronghold, it had organised large-scale strikes through unions, and had prepared bands of armed men to protect them from violent supression. Similar steps had been taken in the working class districts of Pyrgos and Hagios Simeon, while a large march across Thriamvon Avenue was planned, from the port to the Forum. The party's leader planned to appear to the public to rouse a mob against a restoration of the Crown through backroom deals, and to then call for a general strike across the country, using the contacts within the labour unions that had converted to the EKKP from the DKKP.

For its part however, the increasingly reconciled leadership of the state and the country's establishment, a delicately glued-together amalgamation of nobles, clergymen, military officers, statesmen, business interests, and intellectuals, had not sat by idle. Having ceased pointing their guns at each other, the organs of the state-or the State of Steel as one award-winning author had characterised it in the wake of the 1929 Militarist Coup-now found a common enemy. Soon enough, the Provisional Authority of Tiburia as the two sides had agreed to name the transitionary organ handling their joint executive decisions, had authorised Executive Act 255/2018 and Legislative Content Act 79/2018. With these measures, passed over nightfall with little debate and enacted by a Special Session of the Senate with no debate, the General Directorate of State Security (GDAK) and the Special Directorate of State Security (EDAK), each handling state security in the provinces and the capital respectively, were fused into the Central State Security Service (Kentriki Hypiresia Asphaleias tou Kratous, often simplified to Kratiki Asphaleia, meaning State Security, or just Asphaleia, meaning Security). The various paramilitary forces under the EDAK and GDAK found themselves merged into two branches: the Special Security Detachments (Eidika Tmimata Asphaleias / ETA) and the Special Prosecution Detachments (Eidika Tmimata Katadioxis / ETKA), the former being responsible for special operations within cities, facility security, and large-scale suppression operations, and the latter being responsible for operations in the provinces, and for the active pursuit of enemies of the state, particularly insurgents or covert groups.

This move, which went largely under the radar of the heavily censored (in wartime) and not quite independent (in peacetime) media of the Empire, effectively consolidated the near-century old State Security branches into one centralised organisation, capable of rapid and effective repression of any anti-state elements. A decree by the Provisional Authority of Tiburia mandating the inclusion of most loyal irregulars and paramilitaries into the Imperial Pelasgian Polytofylaki (Civil Guard/Militia) and the disbandment of those disobeying was drawn up and reserved to be immediately enacted, being directly aimed to disarming the Melingians and the Left. While the Melingians had their mountains to retreat to, the Left drew its power from the cities and it had nowhere to hide, forcing it into a disbandment or a slaughter, once the decree was enacted, which was planned to be after the passage of the new Treaty.

However, the world seemed to have a habit of disturbing grand plans.

On September 21st, 2018, Stelios Chroniaris, a cook working at the Kastellas Hotel entered his work as usual. At that time, HIM, the Emperor of Southern Tibur, and the Grand Logothete were giving a press conference to address the "immense progress of the Accords, which would be finalised soon". Unbeknownst to Stelios and anyone else in Pelasgia save for a select few, a rough final draft of the accord, typed on a typewriter, rather than drawn up in elaborate Propontine calligraphy, had already been signed, with three copies being safely guarded: one aboard the 1st Fleet's Flagship, one at the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and one within the secure Archives of the Bank of Tiburia. Stelios, however, advanced with purpose through the same halls he had gone every day for the past half-decade, wearing his cook's uniform on his body, and the emblem of the New Red Argonauts, a radical and tiny splinter faction of the far left named after an infamous terrorist group of the 1950s in his heart. A poor man from Pyrgos and a bastard by birth, Stelios had been raised, or, rather, had mostly raised himself, to hate the establishment that denied him even the courtesy of a last name (Chroniaris was his mother's last name, which he had taken to himself upon maturity, being still burdened with the phrase "Of an Uknown Father" instead of a patronymic in his full name) and the class that he could clearly see exploiting the squalor of Pyrgos' poor and needy at the docks and factories every day.

He worked at the Kastellas all day, and went through streets of orphans and beggars, many of them maimed by industrial accidents, at night. On that day, he made his way to the centre of the catering hall below the room where the conference was being held, supposedly carrying a large platter of turkey. He went through inspection easily, the inspector being a confederate of his from another tiny fringe cell, and placed the covered platter at the centre of a large table. Though he would have liked to stay and go like a man, he wanted to stay, face trial, and use it to speak his truth and what he considered justice: justice to a system that let his mother starve and his sister die of disease, justice to a system that used as a wheel to fuel wealth while priests in gold-plated clothes spoke of simplicity, and truth to a system that denied him the mere decency of a name due to no fault of his own. All his life, he had been a nobody; perhaps then he would be someone.

On September 21st, 2018, at 12:12 AM, a blast ripped through the grand Kastellas Hotel, taking out one of Pyrgos' most beautiful buildings, and over two hundred souls with it. Among the dead were twleve senior government aides, twenty journalists, over fifty servants, three Engellexian bussinessmen, two Eiffellandian merchants, one Kadikistani author in self-imposed exile, and one Ioannes VII Laskaris, Emperor of the Tiburans, and one Theophrastos Anastasiades, Lord of Dekhelia and Grand Logothete of the Senate and the People of Southern Tibur. The days that followed would thousands to this death toll, carving to words Bloody Autumn in the memory of every Pelasgian for generations to come.
 
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