World Progression

Massivecraft’s Roleplay scene has been intact for over 5 years. In this time, many plot-changing story progressions have taken place, making it difficult to understand the recent history of Aloria.

The Ascendency of Alexander Kade Recent history begins with the death of the Regalian Emperor, Justinian Ivrae II, and the signing of the Kade Settlement Act. This document was signed by Arch-Chancellor Moriarty Kade and Emperor Justinian II at the latter’s deathbed, and dictated that males from female descendants could inherit the throne of the Regalian Empire. Because all of Justinian’s children had died, this allowed the throne to pass through his brother’s eldest daughter, Liliane Ivrae-Kade, who married Moriarty Kade, and to actualize itself in her first-born son, Alexander Kade. Emperor Justinian II died on April 24, 302 AC. Alexander Kade was immediately vested as the Crown-Prince of Regalia, but did not ascend to the throne until months after.

The First Elven War and Regalian Civil Strife Upon taking up the office of Crown-Prince, Alexander Kade declared war on the northernmost Elven States of Daen: Thellassia, Medlo Telara, and Haelstrame. The war was a wild success--One warrior retrieved the lost Elven Crown of Medui for the Emperor--though the foreign conquests acted as an ample distraction for the nobility to scheme on the homefront. Several different houses committed acts of espionage on one another, before House Anahera, led by Arch-Chancellor Alejandro Anahera, outright conquered Pays du Sud and Riviella from House Pileran, impoverishing that house. Lady Lenora Santorski of House Santorski, Lady of Drixagh, conquered part of the House Typhonus dominion in Calemberg, while Freya Lo of House Lo, Lady of Dorinn, declared herself Empress of Regalia in open rebellion against Emperor Alexander Kade. Lo was soon defeated, and Lenora of House Santorski stepped down from Calemberg to pursue spirituality in the Old Gods, reverting the title back to Ulric Typhonus of House Typhonus, ousted Lord of Calemberg. Finally, the plotting ended in the waning days of the summer of 302 AC, when a majority of noble houses enacted a Cordon Sanitaire towards Arch-Chancellor Alejandro Anahera, where he was removed from the seat per popular opinion of the noble court and replaced by Lord Ulric Typhonus.

The First Songaskian War The end of 302 AC was marked by the invasion of the Rim Isles Lordship by the Songaskian Masaya, initiated by the young Musamansa Massya Song. After a failed counter-offensive, the Regalian Empire lost the Holy City to occupation by the Songaskians. After several resistance groups rose in opposition, including one which burnt the Bridge District down, the Songaskians pulled out of the Holy City. The war was to be continued on another front: Hadravia, a state adjacent to the Masaya’s holdings in Farah’deen. In this final theatre of the war, Imperial Prince Cedric Kade was captured and used as leverage to secure a white peace between the two war-exhausted empires. The war had ended; but a much greater threat loomed on the horizon. In the aftermath, the Musamansa Massya Song’s uncle, a man favored by the nobility for his military prowess, staged a coup against his nephew, whose post-war methods of appeasing Regalia were seen as weak.

The Appearance of Estel On June 2, 303 AC, in the midst of the First Songaskian War, a light-show dubbed “Mershell’s Dance” flashed across the sky. Ripples of distortion followed by green and blue coloration flocked to the northeast. Nearly two months later, a thick fog began to overcome Ellador, followed by sightings of a gigantic moving statue of a young woman covered in glowing runes, though with pieces missing here and there. She was accompanied by an army of stag-like humanoids with four arms. Many Altalar recognized identified the woman as their goddess Estel, and some scholars theorized that the stags were the lost Ohnak of the Northern Expanse. This army marched through Arlora and Torse; with the wave of a hand, the statue of Estel could disintegrate wave upon wave of foes. Nevertheless, the armies of the Regalia Empire marched to meet the looming threat at the Battle of the Curag Fields to make a last stand against the statue. After Regalia exhausted its armies and prepared for its inevitable doom, they were rescued by several Arken who joined forces and swallowed Estel into a magical portal. Aloria was saved… For now.

The Anahera Rebellion The victory at the Battle of the Curag Fields wore heavily not only on the state of Regalia but upon its people. Arch-Chancellor Ulric Typhonus resigned, and in his stead, Andrieu Anahera, younger brother to Ulric’s predecessor, Alejandro, took the seat. Anahera’s first action as Arch-Chancellor was the execution of his older brother, who he had claimed was supporting colonial rebels. This allowed Andrieu to inherit all of his brother’s titles. After internal conflict within House Anahera, as well as an assassination attempt on the Emperor’s life that left him confined to his bed, the Arch-Chancellor imprisoned and tortured the Regalian State Council and took the title of “Lord Protector.” After several weeks of implementing erratic socialist policies, penalizing House Kade for the Settlement Act, and destroying the religious establishment of Regalia, among many other horrific cruelties, Andrieu was defeated by the joined efforts of commoners and nobles of the realm, and was presumed dead when he fell into an abyss of flame at the end of 303 AC.

The Bone Horror Crisis Tensions that had been rising between the Kingdoms of Arlora and Torse rattled to a climax when the latter fully subjected itself to the rule of the Regalian Empire. Outraged, the King of Arlora, King Gulbrand I, mobilized its armies and prepared for war. The Regalian Empire sent a full invasion force to Arlora, and devastated their armies in a single battle where they outnumbered the petty kingdom four to one. As the battle came to a definitive closure, and King Gulbrand I and his commanders were captured by Regalian forces, the Statue of Estel appeared once more. King Gulbrand I and his inner circle all performed a magical ritual, and were in turn transformed into ghostly-looking variants of themselves by Estel. Vested with demonic powers, the brand-new Midnight Court began raising the dead. These were not ordinary Undead: These creatures were Bone Horrors; rabid amalgamations of the rotten corpses and bones left behind by the dead of the past, and they were out for Alorian blood. Thus began the Bone Horror Crisis.

Beams of light crossed the skies of Aloria, landing at the most populated centers of Aloria. Thousands of Bone Horrors rose and began attacking local populaces around the world, though Regalia was spared due to the supposed blessings of the Imperial Spirit. During this time, Freya Lo, the deceased Lady of Dorinn, was resurrected by the Midnight Court and was furthermore granted extra-dimensional powers of her own. All around Regalia, the dead began to rise as Deathlings; dark, grey-skinned servants who obeyed the will of Lo. After many weeks of warfare in the countryside, a joint-Regalian effort deposed Lo and restored order to the Crown Isles. With her death, the Deathlings she had risen turned to dust, and Regalia was left to rebuild once more.

As the Lo regime fell for the last time, news began pouring in of foreign powers restoring order to the world as the Bone Horror armies were pushed back and defeated. The Midnight Court was nowhere to be seen, and slowly but surely, Regalia restored order to its sphere of the world.

The Ascendency of Cedromar Kade and the Crown Alliance As Emperor Alexander Kade returned to power, his post-Lo policy was inclined away from the military men of the nobility, and toward the diplomat and blue-bloods of culture and grace. This force-triggered a conservative coup against his power, led by previous Arch-Chancellor Ulric Typhonus, a long-time military veteran who desired to return to his old office. In response, Alexander Kade passed over all of his sons and abdicated the throne to his younger brother, Cedric Kade, who took the throne as Cedromar Kade I on April 14, 305 AC. Cedromar I explained that he would change the role of the Emperor in a radical way, and opted to be the vanguard of humanity on the frontlines of battle.

It was doubtful that with his military-based policy, Cedromar would rule long before declaring war on the Regalian Empire’s long-time rival: The Songaskian Masaya. Diplomats who supported Alexander Kade’s inclination towards a more diplomatic approach felt they needed to compensate for Cedromar’s pending aggressive warfare. Baron Bonace Tylleronde, one of these diplomats, invited the idea of the Crown Alliance: An Ailor-led coalition of races bent on securing Aloria for the Regalian Empire. Tylleronde immediately wooed his old contacts in Hadar, and found an ally in the Allar and Qadir, whose scholars sought Regalia’s protection. He also brought the famed Varran corsairs into the fold. Meanwhile, the Songaskian Masaya, the Altalar of Teled Methen, and the Ch’ien-ji of the Yang-tzu Isles created the Magic Covenant unified by their inclination towards magic. The Shendar and Saivalthar, in outright rejection of the Altalar, formed the Blood Pact, while the Cielothar and the Avanthar allied in the Wild Union to protect against common enemies. It seemed the stage was set for a clash of alliances; and clash they did. Meanwhile, Isldar began besieging the last few Dwarven holds in the north.

The Second Songaskian War The Regalian Empire began their invasion of Farah’deen in the summer of 305 AC. Much had changed since Regalia’s last war with the Songaskians; they were now led by Kusamanu Massya Songel, the uncle of the previous Massya, Musamansa Massya Song. Musamansa had favored cooperation with Regalia, and feared another war with the Empire. Kusamanu viewed this as weakness, and he staged a successful coup that deposed Musamansa.

This conflict was the first to witness a Regalian Emperor leading troops on the field; Cedromar I Kade led many sieges, and often ordered the slaughter of the Songaskian nobility and peasantry before crowds of the military elite to raise war morale and intimidate the enemy. Enemies would either surrender, or face unprecedented brutality from the Military Emperor. As a result of the immense destruction wrought by the Regalian Empire, individual cities began rising up in rebellion against the Massya, who eventually consolidated his power toward his home provinces. The previous Massya, Musamansa Massya Song, was restored to power, and after a short civil war, restored peace to the Songaskian Masaya; a new ally of Regalia. Global peace would not last, however.

The Second Elven War The Second Elven War began in earnest as Charles Montagaard, then-Undercrown of the Regalian Empire, led an attack force into Teled Methen. Unfortunately, he underestimated the Elven guerilla fighting and perished in a mass slaughter of Regalian troopers. This initial defeat spurred the Regalians to invade Teled Methen en masse and enact cruelties such as genocide and the eradication of Elven cultural icons within the captured cities. This only rallied the Altalar further, who centralized into a new Elven Empire. Though the Regalian Empire is unable to make any headway into Teled Methen itself, a recent deal between Emperor Cedromar and the Ch’ien-Ji removed the Yang-Tzu Isles from the conflict and entered them into the Crown Alliance. Despite this gain, the Second Elven War continues to this day without a clear victory in sight.

The Return of Dragons While the war in Teled Methen continues in a stalemate, domestic strife has taken the forefront in Regalian life. The seeming return of the Feathered Dragons as a force to be reckoned with has all of the Regalian Holy City on edge. Rikkira, the Dragon who can transform into a regally-dressed Ailor woman, and her many Arken Lieutenants seem intent on enslaving the entire Regalian populace to usher forth a new world order; one seated by the Dragons. Regalia has been surprised with the appearance of a second Feathered Dragon who shared blows with Rikkira. The identity of this Dragon is presently unknown… But it has acted as a rallying banner to those in Regalia who resist the dominion of Rikirra.