Race of Blind Men

Hostile entities have flooded onto the surface - at least three times the force we initially faced. Through clever application of COLOSSUS class mechanical suits, and selective artillery strikes, the enemy were deemed to be defeated. High-scale seismic activity was detected - and surely felt - shortly after victory was achieved. Units dedicated to determining the cause, and expected to report back within the hour. Hail to the Empire.

EMERGENCY MESSAGE: THE GROUND HAS SPLIT OPEN. SOMETHING IS PULLING ITSELF FROM WITHIN, AND I HEAR MY MEN SCREAMING THROUGH SHREDDED LUNGS AS I WRITE THIS. REQUESTING IMMEDIATE EVAC. REQUESTING IMMEDIATE EVAC. PLEASE - SAVE US.

— Lunar Mining Expedition to V.S.1: Final Report

SHE IS REAL

— Unexplained graffiti found on debris in the Lunar Scar

The Conflict

Prelude

At the peak of the Arenian Empire, technological progress was at an all-time high, and belief in the entity known as Sil had dissolved into fleeting mentions in children's fairy tales. The pride and ambition of this continent-spanning civilisation knew no bounds, yet the confines of this world had proven far too slight for the Empire to truly realise their vision. Setting their eyes to the stars, the Arenians began to construct mechanical engines capable of spiriting them over the clouds and into the Void beyond, utilising great foundries and alchemical decoctions lost to the Veran Central Archives to piece together these immense metallic beasts - of course, with the aid of the other peoples of the Empire. The enslaved Olthamites provided their hulking strength to piece together colossal sheets of steel. The Dorozi spent years piecing together the weaponry and ammunition that these skybound ships would carry. The Khords provided fields upon fields of synthesised meals to sustain these brave few, as they made the journey into the stars.

Arenian ingenuity was yet another thing to experience a golden age in this era, and within a decade, these marvels of engineering were complete. A month after their construction, a grand parade was held in the capital city of Sǿnderbjerg to commemorate these brave souls and their service to the Emperor, before the colonial vessels thrust themselves from our world in a blaze of noise and fury, with cheering millions watching on - and billions more watching with glee from their homes. It is said that the launch could be heard from as far as the distant city of Damaslan, but we can never know for sure.

The journey and landing on V.S.1 (or Ksieryca, in the Sylvar tongue) was a roaring success. Music rang out in the streets of every city of the Empire, and the land was wrought with celebration. Even further cause for joy came when word reached High Command from the moon, claiming that a new and exciting mineral had been found on its chalky surface. With smiles on their faces and pride in their hearts, the reply from High Command was simple.

"Get to drilling, and bring that treasure home."

A few weeks were all the Arenians needed to start carving away at the mother of the Sylvar, like butchers at a dying whale. This, it would seem, was the day the Empire's pride finally caught up with them.

Deployment

The Race of Blind Men was able to begin expeditiously, thanks to the Arenian military's already-present forces on Sil's home. While the exact troop numbers have been lost to time, it is known that the Arenians had command over at least ten devices referred to as COLOSSUS Class Mechanical Suits, which they utilised in abundance in their conflict against what was, by all definitions, a living god and its children.

Conditions

Conditions on V.S.1. were clearly not in the Arenians' favour. A complete lack of oxygen, the crushing pressure of the Void, and the lowered manouevrability of low-gravity environments made traversing the landscape and waging war a near-impossibility without some form of mechanical suit - which the Arenians possessed in abundance. Sil and her children were more than used to the low-gravity environment, and terrifyingly, their bodies were able to survive in a vacuum, making for formidable foes in the conflict.

Disease, famine, and other such inconveniences of war might have gripped the Imperial forces, had the war lasted longer than five days. Alas, it did not, and the Arenians were left instead to die in quakes, be torn asunder by Sil's children, or be thrown into the atmosphere and rendered into dust.

Outcome

The short-term effects of this conflict on V.S.1. were pretty obvious for all to see at the time, for the moon itself expoded and cast shards of molten rock down upon the people of Varen, utterly destroying civilisation as they then knew it, and forcing the Empire to retreat north to Sylmaneth and spend the next three centuries waiting for the world to be safe once more.

Aftermath

To people of Varen living more than a millennium later, the long-term effects of this conflict are still evident all around. Namely, of course, is the utter lack of Old World technology now present in their everyday lives. After the Cataclysm rocked the very nature of their world, it was decided by a collection of nations (excluding Aren) that would eventually become the Varen Central City Council (V.C.C.C.) that the Arenians would be stripped of their old technology along with the rest of the world, and these machines would kept highly secure in non-disclosed locations, to make sure such a tragedy never happened again. So far, it appears to have been working, yet there are still tensions between the races even today, as this generation of Arenians claim they should once again be granted the right to construct and invent on their own land. For now, the Arenian Restoration Movement haven't gathered much support outside of their homeland.

Another, more insidious change occurred since the conflict. Namely, the rise in magical energy in the northern land of Sylmaneth, allowing the country's mages to grow stronger than ever and achieve new feats of arcane mastery. Little do the people know, this is the product of Sil's crash landing onto the planet after the war's conclusion, and her decision to make a home deep into the wilds of Sylmaneth, where she works to increase the powers of those who turn to the arcane, and punishes any and all who seek to bring the world back into that dark era with their disgusting maltreatment of the natural order.

Conflict Type

War, Theatre

Battlefield Type

Extraplanar

Start Date

9th of January, 2733 P.R.

Ending Date

14th of January, 2733 P.R.

Conflict Result

Creation of The Lunar Scar, Explosion of the Moon and The Cataclysm

Belligerents

The Empire of Aren

The Thousand Eyed Mother

Led by

• Sil, The Thousand Eyed Mother

Strength

526 Arenians 250 Imperial Mechanical Suits 20 Excavation Tanks 10 COLOSSUS Class Mechanical Suits

???

Casualties

ALL LISTED ABOVE

???

Objectives

Repel and kill the Thousand-Eyed Mother and her attacking children, so that the moon might be mined for its precious minerals.

Defend Ksieryca from the heretical invading Empire, who had long since forsworn the holy name of Sil and made a mockery of her teachings to their people.