The Skulls are the primary rebel group in Ramira, started by the Meint religion. Their creed is to kill a Dentherion for every Ramiran murdered by the Dentherion Empire's policies and actions.
Ramira
Ramira was the second unlucky country to fall to Dentheria. High on their success with Shaloar, the Dentherions ravaged Ramira, overrunning the inadequate resistance and slaughtering nobles and commoners alike. Ramira, however, did not bow after the initial conquest. Religious institutions were especially truculent, for the Dentherions planned to replace the native worship with their own Seven Gods and the Stars. The rebels, under the leadership of religious leaders, managed to disable a few military vehicles and steal the advanced weapons being transported. This interfered with, even if it did not halt, the conquest of other countries, which infuriated the Lord's Council.
Looking to quell the resistance, the Lord's Council chose General Servele to implement a strict tech policy, with the primary goal to deny vassal state populations advanced weapons technology while allowing a select few loyalists to still utilize it. General Servele not only restricted access to tech, he obliterated the electric grid, which effectively impaired the people's use of anything with a plug.
Unintended consequences immediately arose. People died from lack of medical care, for most medicine and equipment were now illegal. Farms could no longer harvest crops with automatic vehicles, and farmers did not have the means to switch to bovine-drawn plows. The food shortages were exascerbated by Dentheria's refusal to import goods and foodstuffs. The native currency crashed. People starved. The Lord's Council thought this would make the Ramirans compliant through helplessness.
They did not anticipate the Meint.
The Meint
While other religions gave way to the Seven Gods and the Stars, the Meint refused. As one of the oldest native religions in Ramira, they felt they protected their gods as well as their culture. They refused to submit to the evil that killed nearly a fourth of their population.
Under the leadership of Oracle Veros, the Meint vowed to kill a Dentherion for every Ramiran who had perished. They created the Skulls to fulfill this pledge. They infiltrated a Dentherion mining operation and stole their explosives, then created bombs and targeted Dentherion outposts and businesses that had decided to hook their futures to the invader's success. They caused havoc and stole some tech, though they did not have the knowledge to use it.
Hestoran rebels noted their success and copied their tactics, taking out the central Dentherion military outpost in their country. The Skulls cheered the victory, but it was short-lived. In retaliation, General Servele targeted anyone and everyone who even had a whisper of association with a rebel cause. The ensuing slaughter killed far more innocents than rebels, and the vassal states burned with resentment and debilitating fear.
The Skulls
The Skulls never fell to the disillusionment and helplessness that many other rebellions faced. They plotted and carried out many missions, even though they failed as often as they succeeded. They weathered the Dentherion hunts and went into hiding when needed. They inspired many other vassal states to form similar, aggressive rebellions.
150 years after the initial invasion, General Malk decided to wipe out the Skulls, hoping to obliterate them as well as disillusion the other rebellions they motivated. To the day that Dentheria first entered Ramira, he sent a legendary force to annihilate the Meint's Sunburst Temple complex and kill everyone they found within, believing the act would destory the Skulls.
Ten thousand troops, all heavily armed and transported by armored vehicle, arrived at the temple, which they anticipated would have less than a thousand inhabitants. It stood empty. Furious at being denied a slaughter, Malk ordered the temple burned. Explosions coincided with the act, and the troops went after the smattering of rebels who had attacked.
The Skulls, led by the militant priest Larousa, played cat and mouse with the invaders until nightfall, then lured the Dentherions into a marsh. The equipment and soldiers proved too heavy for the soft soils, and they sank into the mire. Different strategies were utilized to capture the Skulls and leave, but the results remained the same; Dentherions became lost, floundered about, then sank into and drowned in the mud. Those that survived were picked off by Skull archers; they did not even use the explosives they had planned to throw Dentheria's way. Out of the ten thousand sent to destroy the temple, only a few hundred survived the encounter. Malk was ousted in shame, and the Lord's Council decided to rethink some of their strategies for dealing with vassal states.
Commander Larousa used the defeat to advantage, sending runners in all directions hailing the Skull's victory. It hit a commoner nerve, and the debilitating fear that inhibited so many began to fall away. Disenchanted nobles sought her out and pledged money and resources to continue the fight, which she happily accepted. The route had dented the Dentherion's assumed impregnable armor, and she refused to let it reform.
Changes
The Skulls were disgusted with the Lord's Council ploy to soothe relations with vassals states by relaxing tech restrictions for those already able to use it. They were even more disgusted with the underground trade that arose to ferry tech into non-approved hands. They saw those merchants as thieves preying on the vulnerable, especially where medical tech was concerned.
Oracle Reyene decided to combat the illicit trade with Skull charity. The Meint purchased or stole whatever medical tech they could, then set up small regional clinics, usually next to local herbalists, where they treated the populace. The herbalists associated with the Skulls became hometown heroes, and while some residents refused their services, most people eagerly used the better accommodations.
The Ramiran puppet king brought the illicit medical services to the attention of the Lord's Council, who promptly sent him back home with a reminder that giving the poor a small bit of tech help tended to make populations more compliant. Furious at the dismissal, but unable to combat the good will the Meint had garnered, the puppet could only watch as they built medical facilities that rivaled the care of the wealthy Dentherion enablers, all the while undermining his rule wtih the reminder that some Ramirans still cared about the impoverished, the commoner, the less-than-wealthy merchants and punished nobles.
The Wolf Collaborate
The Skulls, as with the Shale Alliance, found themselves in a rut three hundred years after Dentheria began to conquer its neighbors. No missions seemed particularly worthwhile, and the most dangerous
expeditions returned little.
When Commander Jarosa received the letter from Alaric outlining how an alliance of rebellions would benefit all, she threw the offending paper in the trash. The Skulls did not need advice from an out-country rebellion that thought the Shale Alliance worth mimicking. Her advisors urged her to reconsider, seeing far more opportunity than she in the offer. She reluctantly accepted and made her way to a small Jilvayna estate called Nicodem.
Alaric's sincerity and conviction impressed her, and when he did not complain about her want to have a greater say in the alliance, it cemented her support. She offered a Meint temple complex as the headquarters for the new Wolf Collaborate, and her people, seeing the move as godly approval for their fight, jealously guarded it. Jarosa became a stronger voice after Alaric was killed, and focused on denying the Dentherions another wrenching victory.
Current Events
The Skulls are adamant in their rejection of an alliance with any Dentherion, for any reason. Jarosa sees the Shale's leader, Istak, as a fool for even listening to such an outrageous offer. Dentheria has shone nothing but contempt for its vassal states and their peoples, and rewarding a few bleeding hearts who would turn on them instantly if threatened holds no appeal.
Despite the Skull's anger, Jarosa and her advisors staunchly defend the existence of the Wolf Collaborate, for they see it as the only vehicle to a Dentherion defeat. Other rebellions are not so wed to the Collaborate's ideals, and the Skulls have taken it upon themselves to convince them to remain.
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