And I’m back, because the third and final one came out just as I was posting the last two.

Cost

This Wind of War is about the ongoing war to take over the area of land known as the Barrens. Currently it is under the control of the Druj orcs, but they have many sub-groups known as septs and tribes (sometimes interchangeably, sometimes pointedly not) who have different feelings about the Druj and the Empire.

A previous Wind of Fortune from last season has more detail about the different groups and what opinions they have on the Empire and the Druj.

This Wind of War is a pretty long one, so let me summarise it very, very quickly.

Lots of Imperial armies went into the Barrens. They fought hard and there were a fuck tonne of deaths on both sides. In particular one army, the Hounds of Glory, were killed in such numbers that they have officially been disbanded as the survivors fled. But they won.

The Imperial Orcs also did some good work getting some of the locals, the Rhavin, on the Imperial side, so there is a group that have risen against the Druj and have taken over a mithril mine. They also don’t want to give it to the Empire but they aren’t the priority so the armies left them to it, some of the soldiers even sent them aid through the Imperial Orcs.

Another group, the Vendarri, do not like the Empire or the Druj so have been persuaded to take up a neutral stance. This still needs to be officially sorted out in the future. Some diplomacy will be required. 

There was a battle somewhere called Shadowmere, apparently NONE of the Urizeni fighting there died which is both impressive and suspicious. The heralds of Tharim who were fighting alongside the empire laughed when told about it and that is even weirder because they are not happy chaps.

So after this the Wind deals with the Hounds of Glory. Basically, they were told to go take the Plains of Teeth and the Spires of Dusk “No Matter the Cost”, and they did so, grinding through the armies arrayed against them until they had conquered everything they had been sent to do.

With these areas captured the Empire now holds five of the regions of the Barrens, there are I believe 11, which means the Empire are 1 away from officially conquering the Barrens. 

Almost all the players that sent a military unit to join in on this fight will start E2 with a lingering wound in their pack, if they wish they can have this wound be terminal and roleplay out their good byes and eventual death. Players can also roleplay that their military units were wiped out and will be able to take up a different resource in their nation without paying the usual costs, if the unit was upgraded then their new resource will have the same number of upgrades as the unit did.

Anyone who sent their military unit to join up with the Citadel Guard won’t be able to join in on these opportunities because the Citadel Guard did not take massive injuries because they were under powerful Winter Enchantments at the time.

ALSO if you would like your character to have picked up a spiritual aura while out and about you should email in before the 24th of May. There are four options to choose from;

  • Death to the Druj!
  • All slaves must be freed from their chains
  • I did what I know to be right and gladly paid the cost
  • I grieve the lives lost in this war

If you write in but don’t pick an aura then you will get one randomly. These auras will be strong and durable, which are technical terms for priests if you weren’t aware. 

There are two major conjunctions (aka battle options) available for the players to choose from, both to places in the Barrens to help finish off this war. One is to Dawnguard, and the other is to the Heart of Peytaht, though this might change by the event.

And that’s it for the Winds of War! What do you think? Was your character fighting in the Barrens or in one of the other fronts? Let me know in the comments.