Hello everybody and welcome to this update on what exactly the Imperial Armies have been up to this season. This is for the LARP Empire by Profound Decisions. It is in the UK and is a fantastic LARP for anyone looking to get involved in this excellent hobby.
First of all, let’s start off with some basic background stuff that should cover the entire empire. The weather has been absolutely awful. There was a major drought which was going to have a major effect on the farms of the empire, reducing their production by a significant amount. Unfortunately, things somehow got worse. Last event some magical constellation shenanigans meant if one of the various rituals were cast on the capital of the empire then it would also ripple out to everywhere else in the empire. Now there was a small selection of choices available to the magicians of the empire, one nice ritual that would cause some flooding but would primarily be a an optimistic rain, giving people hope and the strength to continue. Then there were three curses of varying horribleness. The nice ritual got cast, but so did one of the curses. So the last few months there has been torrential rain and all the farms and businesses of the empire have half production and the mines are also losing productivity. Because the magic is only going to places that are officially imperial this means that in some territories it is absolutely bucketing down, while in others there’s a drought on. Magic is weird.
But let’s get to the fighting stuff.
In Bregasland the forces of Matilda Fisher, supposedly a descendant of one of the families who left rather than join the empire but now a minion of the Jotun, continues to take control over the marshes. The locals have been warned not to get into any trouble, but to be as difficult as possible. The locals are famous for this already, so they are doing very well at it. The Jotun Yegarra will not be able to get any resupply from the area, while the Empire could if they needed to. Currently, the Strong Reeds army is hiding out and also causing problems for the Yegarra. Despite this Matilda Fisher thinks the Empire have pulled out completely. Since this was part of a deal she tried to make with the Empire she is sending some diplomats to Anvil to talk things over, they are almost certainly going to have a Time.
TLDR: Bregasland is still under Jotun/Matilda Fisher’s control, but the locals are being difficult, and there is an entire army in hiding there. Fisher thinks things are going her way though, so she’s sending diplomats to Anvil at some point at E4.
In Kahraman, things are a bit busier and a lot more magical. Five armies have swept in from the Empire to ensure the territory stays in Imperial hands; the Navaar armies have a magical fog cloaking them so that enemies cannot see where they are coming from. Also, there are loads of magical-ish birds flying in and out of the fog, and some of them seem to be helping out. It also seems to be making the more bloodthirsty soldiers even more bloodthirsty, and they are weirding out the Freeborn armies fighting with them. The Lasambrian Jotun are doing their best, and before the armies arrived they ripped up all the roads and bridges making travel about ten times longer, but it isn’t enough. The Imperial armies manage to force them out of Jade Range and are getting close to pushing them completely out of the territory. The weird magical ritual that was cast on the Navaar armies has also been removed from Imperial knowledge because it was from before PD had a good handle on what the magic game was like so it doesn’t fit into the world right. There is a potential battle in Kahraman which would stop the Lasambrians from being able to rescue a bunch of injured and healers. Also, Steven of Sarcombe will be there.
TLDR: The Lasambrian Jotun have mostly been forced out of Kahraman and are pretty close to entirely being driven out, but before they did so they ripped up all the roads and made a mess. There is a potential battle there on Saturday to get in the way of the Lasambrians saving some of their wounded.
In Semersuaq things are going pretty darn well. Both the Thule and Hylje have allied with the Empire and are helping out. The Thule are doing army stuff, while the Hylje are doing lots of stealthy scout stuff. Also, the Thule are being very polite to the Hylje and seem a bit wary of them. The Hylje change the topic when this comes up though. During the last event there was a battle opportunity to stop the Jotun from building some new forts, this failed so the armies had to go up against them both this last season. Luckily they absolutely smashed it. This means that the Jotun have been forced out of Semersuaq and the empire has two new forts! Only a little foxed on the edges, some slight wear and tear. In other big news the Thule took a load of prisoners but then ransomed them back to the Jotun in a very obvious “look we aren’t that terrible after all, are we?” move and have asked for various VIPs to be told about it.
TLDR: Semersuaq is entirely under Imperial control now, and the Imperials have access to a couple of new forts which will make holding onto it easier.
In Ossium things are in a calm before the storm feel. The Druj have left, though they demolished everything they could get their hands on as they went. One of the things they destroyed was the Tower of the Scorpion, so the Dawnish who want to start up a thriving adventure business there have upped the potential price for building their own thing there.
TLDR: In Ossium the Druj are gone, the Tower of the Scorpion is on the floor, and there are Dawnish who want to rebuild it.
There is no new news about the Barrens.
In Zenith, astonishingly, things also seem to be going well. There has been a lot of magical stuff happening, all the armies are enchanted up the wazoo, and also the area has a healthy spring ritual cast on it to stop people from dying from minor injuries (magical penicillin for the win!) AND there was maybe a ritual cast that made people see hopeful visions. So yeah, lots of magic in Zenith. How out of character. There is also a lot of religious magic going on as every congregation in the Empire has donated a piece of Liao to the effort of keeping the soldiers protected from the Druj Miasma, aka misery fog. There has also been some magic cast on the Druj by the Imperials which means they have magically stuck and can’t find a way out of Zenith. Anyway, with all of this magical stuff going on it is probably not a surprise to hear that the Imperials have managed take control of Zenith. The hold is tenuous, and there is no chance of getting any sort of resupply from the land because the Druj have ruined everything. There is a potential battle in Zenith on Sunday, at the moment there is no alternative for this fight, which is weird but maybe PD want to do a big fancy ending to the year? The battle is to hit the Druj generals where they seem to be having a meeting, which does sound like a pretty good idea.
TLDR: Lots of magic happened, Zenith is Imperial again, there is a battle on Sunday.
Now for something completely different.
As well as the usual battles there have been some daring raids for the Empire to join in on.
First up, Downwold/The Bloody Big Hole/Lorenzo’s Deep Pockets, whatever you want to call it the sinkhole has been sealed up and we are not going to have thousands of magically high insects boiling out and eating people’s faces. Because the seal has been put in people with Military Units can send their soldiers to go fight monsters and explore the depths over down time. This isn’t available to all of the nations, but anyone on the border with the sink hole, or the Dawnish (because ADVENTURE!), can do so. Because the adventurers got so deep they will have opened up opportunities for learning more about the various levels of the sinkhole, but PD are quite clear that there is no more info after this final batch. They are done writing about it.
TLDR: The seal is in place and Lorenzo’s Deep Pockets don’t have holes full of mana eating bugs anymore.
Next up, the raid on Skallahn! The Jotun got super smashed up and anyone who went along on the raid got oodles of money and resources to take home with them. Lots about the scary orca shapeshifters here if you want to read more about them, they’re pretty terrifying and cool! The ships that dropped off the soldiers then went and explored the coast. There should be more maps available for people now, though they won’t be super detailed. There appears to be another not Jotun group of Orcs sailing in those waters, which is interesting. Maybe they’ll be new friends! Knowing the Empire that will be unlikely. There is also some continuing interest in the fact that the Jotun have a lot of maritime defences, people are wondering if it is the scary cousins of the Hylje who are being defended against or if it is these new orcs, or something else entirely? Because everything was such a major success the Jotun are going to have major transport and supply issues going forwards, however there will also probably be revenge attacks and stuff. There are some new opportunities for raiding on that coastline going forwards for Marchers and Winterfolk, so Marcher pirates are now a thing.
TLDR: Skallahn 2: They’ll never see it coming! Worked fantastically; people are going to be coming back from it absolutely loaded, but also with proper respect for scary sea monsters. There will probably be more maps, and intrigue about potential new neighours, and chances for ship captains to do stuff in the future.
Finally the raid on Chalonsio! The Empire again smashes things, this time with allies from the Liberty Pact. They go into the city and destroy the temple to the God of Chains, which is particularly good as there was a big meeting happening to talk about the Liberty Pact and what to do about it. So the majority of the priests of the God of Chains are dead. Also the majority of the slaves being held in the city have been freed and most have left with the Sumaah to go find new homes. The castle belonging to the family which owns the city is destroyed, the ruling family killed, and the castle looted of anything valuable. Meanwhile, the raiders manage to find information about a major slave running ring and they will be bringing that info back to the Empire so that people can go after them too. The port is burned as the ships leave so there won’t be a chance for anyone to use the old space in the future. Given that the family in charge had a monopoly there is also a good chance that few in Asavaea will have the knowledge to start slavery up again, at the very least they will be worried about doing so with the Liberty Pact getting fighty.
TLDR: The city of slavery in Asavaea has been destroyed, the slaves have been freed, and info on a slave ring has been got. The Asavaeans will be mightily pissed off about it, and we will probably be at war with them by the end of the next summit.
Anyway, that is most of it. If anything tempted your fancy check it out at the official Profound Decisions website where you can read all about the world of Empire. Also if you haven’t been and feel like going please use my referral code as it will get money off for you and I will get credit for future tickets I buy! My code is 8086.14984 and you can find out more about the game Empire at http://www.profounddecisions.co.uk. Check out the section entitled Winds of War for where I got this info!