Last War

The Last War was a military conflict spanning across Duurn, fought between the Humanist League and the Rising Powers Pact. Most of the fighting took place in northern Jideran, the Farkellian Archipelago, Tteokseo-Akmyeon, and western Teshoya. Characterized by trench warfare, aerostat blockades, artillery, machine guns, and transcendental weaponry, the Last War carried an immense death toll. More than twelve million military personnel died, alongside close to ten million civilians.

There are many causes of the Last War, including the collapse of Khahlanong Hlusa Mfa's, economic decline following the Red Week, the formation of the Imperial Jiderani Union (IJU) and the rise of echelarism across Duurn, political turmoil related to the decline of traditional monarchies, and the signing of the Rising Powers Pact. The Last War officially began after the IJU invaded Umbrova, the latest of its targets for territorial acquisition. The Republic of Kaisa declared war on the IJU in response, which provoked Halar and the Hallowed Lands to come to the IJU's defense. Other nations would join as the war progressed.

At the war's beginning, many predicted a swift victory for the Humanist League. Most saw the nations of the Rising Powers Pact as relative upstarts that would be dominated militarily by Khahlanong, let alone the combined force of the rest of the League. However, the death of Tshakuksuha left Khahlanong barely able to hold itself together, let alone fight a war on this scale. Khahlanong only participated directly in western eshoya, and even there, only a token force was deployed. The Kingdom of Campeni, another major power of the IL, had split in half during the Prostian Revolution. Kaisa and Loritania became the lynchpins of the IL forces, joined by Dorn, Antiopa, Yıskan, and Hellissandur. Partisans, such as those that would form the Mutual Autonomies of the Tteokseo-Akmyeon Sea, and other polities across Duurn were also drawn into the conflict.

Almost as soon as the war began, any romantic notions of the glory of battle were dispelled. Modern technologies that had only been used previously in colonial wars against ill-equipped enemies turned battlefields into slaughterhouses. Aerial bombardments levelled civilian population centers and military positions alike, and transcendental weaponry and practicioners were wielded to warp reality and inflict horrors upon enemy forces.

Eventually, the war would end with a mixed victory for the Rising Powers Pact. The Imperial Jiderani Union and the Hallowed Lands came out of the war with vast gains in territory and new colonial posessions. However, while Halar gained some territory in western Teshoya, they entirely lost their hold over the Tteokseo-Akmyeon Sea. Lawuusmut, which joined the war on the side of the Rising Powers in hopes of driving the colonial powers out of Eaorma was betrayed by the other members of the alliance, losing territory to the Hallowed Lands and having the promise to free Eaorma rescinded. Nevertheless, after the Delchi Peace Conference that negotiated the official end of the war, the Humanist League was dissolved, and most of its member nations that participated in the conflict were left with enormous debts, among other penalties.

Technology and Military Strategy

While technology had advanced rapidly in the decades prior to the Last War, military doctrine had not advanced to match it. This incongruency was partly responsible for the massive death toll of the war and the slow, grinding pace the war took for years. Military strategists were used to fighting colonial wars and conflicts against much weaker enemies, but the strategies that worked in those wars turned this one into a meatgrinder. Eventually, new strategies were developed, leading to the breakthroughs that brought the conflict to an end.

Technology

The Last War saw the first use of industrial age technologies and mechanurgy in a war between equal combatants. Developments in communications, firearms, artillery, armored land vehicles, aerostatics, and aerodynamics saw widespread adoption by all nations of the conflict.

Radio facilitated rapid coordination and long-distance communication used in every facet of the war. Commanders could coordinate their forces quicker and more effectively than ever before. Aerostat fleets were equipped with radios that replaced the signaling flags used for centuries. Nations could communicate in real-time, and information could be spread to the populace much quicker than before.

On land, advances in artillery allowed for long-range indirect fire. Gun emplacements were fixed well behind battle lines, increasing their effectiveness and reducing the chance that they could be directly targeted. By the end, artillery accounted for a massive share of all casualties. Recoil-operated machine guns mowed down lines of soldiers, preventing the kinds of infantry charges commonplace in previous conflicts. Armored cars and tanks began to appear, though early prototypes were unreliable and often ineffectively deployed.

In the air, low-pressure buoyancy allowed the development of better armed and armored aerostats than ever before. A new class of ship, the broadhead, was created in Khahlanong. With advances in ballistics, aerostats were equipped with guns that could hit their target from distances previously impossible, overturning conventional aerial strategies. Autogyros saw widespread use as scouts and artillery spotters, which incentivized the creation of combat autogyros and further advances in the technology in general.

Transcendental Warfare

The transcendental arts have always been invaluable for war. In history there are countless tales of individual thaumaturgists changing the course of a battle or, if they were strong enough, a war. In many ways, those days are over. Too scarce to field in large numbers and often unreliable soldiers by nature, thaumaturgists were used in a similar to artillery or tanks during the war. While thaumaturgy was still a powerful force on the battlefield, mechanurgy surpassed it in its effect on modern warfare. Thaumaturgists may have greater capabilities individually, but mechanurgists can distribute the ability to warp reality across the battlefield and don't need to be present on the field.

Transcendental Weaponry

As the war progressed, each side raced to develop new weapons capable of turning the tide of combat in their favor. The deadly result of this was the proliferation of transcendental weaponry. Since the development of mechanurgy, it had been used to create weapons of war whose capabilities outstripped their mundane counterparts. However, the Last War was the first time that mechanurgical creations were used to kill on a mass scale. Previously, transcendental arts in combat were limited to individual practicioners. Now, a mechanurgist could create a weapon capable of channeling the raw energy of the Astatoma to rip apart reality in an enemy trench, and this weapon could be handed to common soldiers.

Land Strategy

The greatest paradigm shift in ground combat was the expansion of the tactical horizons of battle. The integration of aerostats as close air support and troop transportation expanded the horizons of battle into the sky, and indirect-fire artillery and tanks extended the depth of the horizons of battle. Strategicians were forced to consider not just the line of battle but miles ahead, behind, and even above. New communication technology facilitated this shift, but the early years of the Last War were a filter for high command officers unable to adapt to the changing circumstances.

At the beginning, the nations of Duurn were shocked when the strategies of sweeping maneuvers and mass engagements resulted in the deaths of thousands of people. The result was paralysis. The war slipped into the groove of trench warfare, and gaining even a kilometer of ground required sacrificing countless lives. By the end of the war, new strategies began to form. A shift towards smaller squads as the primary combat unit, the development of mechanized cavalry in the form of tanks and armored cars, and the use of aerostats and autogyros to move and support troops allowed battlefield maneuverability to once again became possible and broke the stasis of trench warfare.

Aerial Strategy

For years, the conventional strategy for aerial corps was to amass the largest, strongest fleet possible and bring it to bear against the enemy's fleet, smashing it to pieces. Then, with aerial supremacy secured, the fleet was free to blockade enemy cities, support ground troops, and target enemy supply lines. This led to an aerial arms race between the major powers of Duurn prior to the Last War, culminating in the development of broadhead aerostats. By the start of the war, the major powers all held massive fleets that were wildly expensive to construct and upkeep.

The side effect of developing such expensive and powerful fleets was hesitancy to engage in any battle where victory was not guaranteed. Instead, fleets would dance around one another, engaging in maneuvers and smaller skirmishes that attempted to weaken the enemy enough to confront directly or bait them into a vulnerable position. Where any nation could maintain aerial supremacy, they would focus on blockade actions, strategic bombardment, and close air support.

The Humanist League's clear aerial advantage in Jideran and Farkellia allowed them to blockade the IJU and Hallowed Lands. The Rising Powers were forced to adopt a strategy of fleet-in-being, keeping their main fleets at port to prevent a decisive battle that might allow the League to act without worrying about creating an opening for the Rising Power fleets. They kept a steady pace of supply-line raids and small skirmishes that kept the Humanist League spread out. Eventually, the IJU was able to break the League blockade when Drizhni entered the war, splitting Kaisa's fleet to opposite sides of the continent.

The aerial dominance of the Humanist League held true also in Teshoya. On that front, Khahlanong's fleet outnumbered Halar's two to one. However, because of Khahlanong's inability to deploy sufficient ground forces to combat Halar, they were able to carry out a extensive strategic bombardment but not much else. Without a strong land campaign to take and hold ground, Khahlanong and Yıskan were continuously pushed back.

This was reversed in Tteokseo-Akmyeon, where Halar held a strong aerial dominance over both the Tteokseo-Akmyeon partisans and Hellissandur, both of whom relied on outdated fleets mostly composed of smaller vessels. However, because of resistance to the occupation in Tteokseo-Akmyeon, Halar struggled to maintain supply lines that could support their aerial corps in Hellissandur. This was not helped by Halar being forced to apply most of their fleet towards the front in western Teshoya. By 1348, Halar was unable to effectively field their aerial corps in Hellissandur.

Progression of the War

Prior to the Last War, most modern conflicts were fought with a significant disparity between the technology and resources of the belligerents. Modern military technology such as machine guns and indirect-fire artillery were first tested in colonial wars and the suppression of uprisings. Many assumed, therefore, that the war would be over quickly, with one side or the other achieving a swift victory. This conception was dispelled in the first two months of the war, when the North Jideran Front and Teshoyan Front shifted into a pattern of trench warfare where neither side could gain more than a kilometer of ground.

North Jiderani Front

The war began in northern Jideran with the Battle of Toca, where IJU forces broke through the Umbrovan border defenses and pushed deep into the country. Their advance was stopped during the Battle of Liripo, where the IJU troops took heavy losses and began the Backwards March. For a short time, it seemed like the war would end soon, but the battles of Deculpa and the Minsele ended that dream and began the drawn out Battle of the Flanks, where the lines were drawn for the war of attrition that would drag on for years.

Meanwhile, at the northern border between Kaisa and the IJU, the Kaisan Army unsuccessfully assaulted the IJU fortifications along the border during the Battle of Rouverny. Once more, the conflict became a war of attrition, as both sides dug in.

For the next several years, both sides tried to break the stalemate through innovations in strategy and the use of technology. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers died on both sides, many through the use of chemical and transcendental weaponry. Despite the best efforts of the generals and military scientists of Duurn, neither force seemed able to break through the trench lines, which hardly moved from 1342-1345. Even when Loritania joined the war, opening the front along their border with the IJU, nothing seemed to change, no matter how many bodies were thrown into the meatgrinder.

By 1344, while the IJU was stretched thin from fighting off Kaisa, Loritania, and Antiopa all at once, their vast industrial machine was allowing them to sustain the war of attrition far better than the nations of the IL. Kaisa and Loritania, fearing that they would lose any advantage they posessed, began a combined offensive, called the Battle of the Vertaigne. Spending hundreds of thousands of lives and enormous pools of resources, they only managed to push 48 kilometers into the IJU. However, it offered a flimmer of hope that the IL could overwhelm the IJU and placed pressure on the RPP. Some in the IL hoped that the IJU could be forced to sue for peace, which they believed would lead the rest of the RPP to quickly fold.

However, on the 18th of the Month of Water, 1345, Zdrishle II of Drizhni was assassinated, and her son, Atvo III, took power. Unlike his mother, Atvo III strongly supported the RPP. Kaisa and Antiopa prepared for the worst. This proved prudent, as in the Month of Growth, Drizhni launched an aerial attack across the Prakva Sea. Antiopan and Kaisan aerostats were ready to defend, but with their attention split, the IJU was able to regain their lost ground, once more extending the war.

In 1346, the IJU began an offensive in Umbrova, referred to as the Battle of Valkevi. In the first indisputably successful battle since the Backwards March, the Kaisan Army is pushed past th Umbrovan capital of Valkevi. The blow is hugely demoralizing for IL forces, and Umbrova is left all but politically defunct after the loss of their capital and most of the country. Many consider this to be the beginning of the end for the IL's war efforts, as after 1346 they do not gain more than a kilometer of ground for more than a few days across the North Jiderani Front.

In 1347, the final nail in the coffin arrives when the IJU begins the Invasion of Lanpetia. In the Month of Storm, 1347, IJU troops took Lanpetia and the IL by surprise when their troops crossed the Giefla and launched a brutal offensive that pushed deep across Lanpetia before a unified defense could form. With the front lines now stretching across eastern Jideran, the numerical advantage that the IJU held at this point in the war became too much for the Humanist League to overcome, and the lines began pushing slowly but consistently into Kaisa and Loritania.

By 1349, Loritania and Kaisa were on their last legs. The front lines had pushed to the Anydrachos Mountains in the south, to the outskirts of Gemani in Kaisa, and past the Vertaigne Mountains in Loritania. Kaisa and Loritania, desperate to stave off defeat, agreed to make an all out offensive against the IJU, hoping to catch the RPP by surprise and place themselves in a more favorable position before negotiating for peace. This backfired immensely when the Kaisan and Loritanian armies, exhausted from years of war and unwilling to throw their lives away, mutinied. Across the front, soldiers disregarded orders from their officers, surrendered to IJU forces, and fled the front en-masse. They were joined in the Kaisan heartland by a growing general strike. The IJU redoubled their advance. In the northeastern part of the front, the Battle of Occima saw the IJU advance all the way to the Kaisan capital city, Chypos. Without any recourse left to them, Kaisa and Loritania signed an armistice and began negotiating the end of the war, joined soon after by the remaining Humanist League belligerents.

Farkellian Front

On the 15th of the Month of the Veil, 1342, the Hallowed Lands declared war on Kaisa, following Kaisa's declaration of war on the IJU. The Hallowed Lands immediately commenced an invasion of Camatte, a close ally of Loritania. On the first day of the invasion, they began the Siege of Turhli, where chemical weapons were used for the first time during the war. Upon taking the Camattean capital, they pushed east across the country, while their aerial force engaged with Dorn's in a game of cat-and-mouse in the skies over the archipelago. On land, the two nations fought a bitter back and forth across Camatte. All the while, the country they are fighting over was razed to the ground by both nations. By the end of the war, a full third of the population of Camatte was either killed or had fled the country.

The two nations were evenly matched, with neither side able to gain a significant advantage. However, in the Month of Growth, 1343, Lawuusmut joined the war with the Rising Powers, having made an agreement with the alliance that upon their victory the colonies in Eaorma would be dissolved, making Lawuusmut the undisputed regional power. With their support, the Rising Powers began to slowly gain on Dorn.

Unlike the wide terrain of Jideran or Teshoya, lending themselves to the trench warfare characteristic of those fronts, the war in Farkellia was composed of long sets of maneuvers between the aerial fleets of the belligerent nations, punctuated by quick and brutal battles in the air and on the ground. In 1346, The Hallowed Lands occupied and annexed Aaqsu, claiming they were allowing Dorn aerostats to resupply in their territory. Dorn had a more highly developed industrial base, but the Hallowed Lands, especially with support from Lawuusmut, had numbers on their side, and they worked to overwhelm the smaller nation's aerial fleet.

In late 1347, the Hallowed Lands launched an invasion of the Bronze Isle, Dorn's home island, culminating in the Battle of Ganton. Dorn's war machine was crumbling by this point, and though they won the battle, Dorn sued for peace shortly after repelling the invasion, signing the Treaty of Gadmeer to end their hostilities.

By this time, Lawuusmut was facing unrest in the south. In 1347, the Copilimba people of southeastern Eaorma rose up during the 1347 Copilimban Rebellion. Lawuusmut was unable to put down the uprising and called for aid from the Hallowed Lands. In 1348, the Hallowed Lands sent their forces and swiftly crushed the Copilimban rebellion, cutting short their dream of liberation. However, instead of giving the territory back to Lawuusmut, they continued their occupation, claiming the region as a protectorate. This enraged Lawuusmut, but the political situation at home was fragile at best, and they were forced to do nothing more than denounce the Hallowed Lands colonial aggression, leaving the Pact.

Tuksuhakmyon Front

Hellissandur

On the 8th of the Month of Light, 1344, the All-Hel of Hellissandur declared an embargo on Halaran vessels passing through Hellissandric airspace. Halar threatened war, and when Hellissandur did not back down, they made good on their threat. Halaran forces, already occupying the islands of the Tteokseo-Akmyeon Sea, invaded Hellissandur from the east. They created a beachhead during the Battle of Lärsmyt and press westward across the Iron Lands.

Fortunately for the Hellissandric defenders, the geography of the Iron Lands hampered the Halaran invaders, creating many chokepoints and logistical hurdles for the attacking force. To its credit, Hellissandur quickly adapted and abandoned the conventional strategy that initially proved unsuccessful. Soon, they dedicated the bulk of their force to slowing the Halaran advance, while more agile units targeted the weak points of the Halaran invasion force, namely their supply chains and command structure. During the war, one of the earliest modern examples of special forces emerged in Hellissandur, the Special Tasks Groups, units attached to larger forces and dedicated to undertaking unconventional operations.

This strategy was able to hold back Halar from reaching the more populous western side of the Iron Lands for close to four years. Eventually, as their control over the Tteokseo-Akmyeon slipped, due to escalating partisan activity and collapsing supply lines, Halar coordinated with the Hallowed Lands to assault the capital of Hellissandur, Kriegbäven, hoping to force a surrender. Though the All-Hel was killed in the fighting and the city was nearly captured, the Battle of Kriegbäven proved to be a miscaluclation for the Rising Powers, as it galvanized the previously neutral mountain clans of Hellissandur to join the war. Rather than break the spirit of the Iron Lands, it became a rallying cry, and by the end of the year, Halar was forced to pull their forces out of Hellissandur and sign the Treaty of Lärsmyt.

Tteokseo-Akmyeon Sea

In the Tteokseo-Akmyeon Sea, Halar had been maintaining an occupation of the archipelago since 1338, citing piracy. A partisan movement against the occupation had grown ever since, hampering their attempts to maintain control, but the outbreak of the Last War granted the partisans allies of opportunity in the Humanist League. With their material support, the partisans that had been fighting from refitted commercial aerostats with out-of-date equipment and inconsistent supplies now had access to modern military equipment and vessels, albeit mostly hand-me-downs from the larger League nations.

As the Last War progressed and Halar became further embroiled in conflicts in western Teshoya and Hellissandur, partisan activity in the Tteokseo-Akmyeon intensified and became more organized. Eventually, a confederation, called the Mutual Autonomies of the Tukusuhakmyon Sea, formed to oppose Halar's control over the region. By 1348, the cost of continuing the occupation was untenable, and Halar was forced to sign a treaty with the Mutual Autonomies, ironically becoming the only nation to recognize the confederation as a polity.

West Teshoyan Front

On the 22nd of the Month of Veil, 1342, Yıskan declared war on Halar, following Khahlanong. Since Halar's unification, the larger nation had been slowly encroaching on Yıskan, rattling their saber on the border between the two countries. Yıskan hoped that, with support from Khahlanong, Halar would be subdued before they could threaten Yıskan sovereignty. Despite Khahlanong's significant internal turmoil, they had promised Yıskan their full support. At the start of the conflict, it seemed that the two nations would easily defeat Halar. Combined, the forces of Khahlanong and Yıskan were twice the size of Halar's.

In the opening days of the conflict, the Khahlanong and Yıskan generals were slow to adapt to the new form of warfare, and they were losing almost three soldiers for every one of Halar's. Their numerical advantage absorbed this discrepency, however, and as the conflicted shifted into trench warfare, the lines of battles pushed further and further into Halar.

Unfortunately for the Humanist League forces, as the war progressed, the internal weaknesses of Khahlanong grew, and as they struggled to reinforce their armies in Teshoya, the Halaran army grew by leaps and bounds. By 1345, the forces were of equal size, and the front slowed to a crawl. In 1345 and 1346, the front moved just seven kilometers across its length.

In 1347, an armored offensive by the Halaran Army, supported by thaumaturgical forces, broke through the front, near the border with Miksand. From there, the League front line was forced to steadily retreat. By the end of 1347, the line had crossed the border between Halar and Yıskan, and the Halaran advance was only speeding up. When Halaran forces seized the capital of Yıskan, Wasun, in 1348, the government of Yıskan was forced into exile. The Khahlanong and remaining Yıskani forces continued to fight until early 1349, until they ran out of land to retreat to and had to cede southwestern Teshoya and what was once Yıskan to Halar.

Other Fronts

Prakva Sea

When Drizhni entered the war with the Rising Powers, Kaisa and Antiopa were not caught by surprise. Atvo III, the new emperor of Drizhni, had long been vocally supportive of the Imperial Jiderani Union and antagonistic towards Kaisa, despite Drizhni and Kaisa being long-time allies. Most of Antiopa's small aerial fleet, as well as the Kaisan Green Sea Fleet had been reassigned to be ready for an attack from Drizhni. On the 23rd of the Month of Growth, 1345, the first of the skirmishes of the Battle over the Prakva Sea began. The Drizhni fleet and Humanist League fleets avided direct confrontation, instead engaging in a battle of skirmishes, raids, and maneuvers.

Eventually, despite the size of Kaisa's fleet, it was split across two sides of Jideran, and even with Antiopa's aid, they were unable to prevent Drizhni from landing troops in eastern Antiopa and the Glehrheu Peninsula. Drizhni soon found themselves embroiled in a slow and bloody fight through the hills and mountains of both regions. In the Month of Decay, 1348, after more than a year of fighting in the Glehrheu Peninsula, Glehl nationalist rebels led by Judie Trerbon signed a treaty with Drizhni and seized control over the peninsula, creating the nation of Glehrheu.

While Drizhni was unable to take much ground in the Prakvan Sea Front, they forced Antiopa out of the northern front and contributed to Kaisa's collapse, hastening the end of the war.

Western Eaorma

Kaisa and Loritania both relied heavily on their colonial territories for resources and manpower during the war. In both Vieluesse and Eaorma, agents of the Rising Powers acted to hamper the war efforts through sabotage and fomenting rebellion. In Kaisan Eaorma, the IJU found success through an alliance with the Juuqiit, promising them independence in return for fighting in the war. Forces from Lawuusmut also placed pressure on Kaisan Eaorma from the east, though the terrain of central Eaorma made a sustained campaign difficult, especially with their frail supply chains.

The Juuqiit Revolt began in 1347 and resulted in Kaisan losing control over the southern portion of Kaisan Eaorma in and south of the Qimuunas Mountains. When the war ended, despite their promises to both Lawuusmut and the Juuqiit, the IJU took control over the southern portion of what was once Kaisan Eaorma, including the Juuqiits' land.

Resources and Forces of Participants

At the start of the war, many believed the Humanist League was significantly stronger than the Rising Powers, but while they did have advantages in the size of their militaries and pool of resources from their colonial holdings, most were still reeling from the Red Week and the ensuing economic collapse. Many also were facing significant social unrest at home and in their colonies, keeping some critical nations out of the war in part or full. In some ways, propaganda depicting the League as unwieldy, crumbling behemoths facing off against the youthful and energetic Rising Powers was not entirely inaccurate.

Economic Resources

While the economies of the League combatants were larger than those of the Rising Powers, partially because of the significant colonial holdings of nations like Kaisa and Loritania, they were also much more fragile. The Humanist League economies were deeply interconnected with Khahlanong's, and when the Red Week hit, they were impacted more than the Rising Powers, most of whom were more politically or economically isolated. The exception was Halar, previously Ras Tamura, but the Teshoyan city-state had managed to come out of the economic turmoil stronger than before, through a combination of good fortune and clever economic maneuvering. While the Humanist League was able to mobilize massive pools of resources and troops at the beginning of the war, the Rising Powers were able to sustain the war of attrition that ensued. The industrial capabilities of the Rising Powers were also greater than those of the League nations. Kaisa had yet to recover from the 1333 Revolution of just seven years prior, and most of their manufacturing power was in the regions most affected by the revolution. Khahlanong was struggling to maintain control of its peripheral provinces and was unable to utilize its industrial base to the fullest extent. Of the three major IL powers, Loritania had the most stable manufacturing capacity. In comparison, the IJU had been steadily growing into an industrial power, including the construction of railroads connecting every city in the nation, and while Halar remained dependent on trade for much of its material resources, it had a growing industrial base. While Drizhni was industrially less developed than the other members of the Rising Powers Pact, they were rich in mineral resources.

As the war progressed, a shift in aerial doctrine towards area denial, strategic bombing, and blockades had a devastating effect on the civilian populations, economies, and war support of participants. Many of the Humanist League belligerents were dependent on colonial extraction to keep their economies running. Once they were split off from those sources of resources and wealth, they began to flounder.

Land Forces

Most of the nations fielded conscripts, which became almost necessary as the war progressed, in order to match the scale of combat and replace losses. The only combatants that did not were Antiopa, Lanpetia, and Tteokseo-Akmyeon. Typically, 10-20,000 soldiers made up a division, 2 or more divisions made a corps, and 2 or more corps made an army. However, this varied between the combatants, depending on doctrine.

In 1342, Khahlanong had the largest military by manpower, followed by the IJU, then Kaisa. However, most of Khahlanong's military was deployed across its territory, suppressing regional uprisings and attempting to retake territory in Byighfall, Njill Mnyof, and Bohun. Additionally, the IJU was better equipped to move troops to and from the front lines in Jideran, both because of its geography and its well-developed system of railroads.

Below is a table of the approximate land force strength of each combatant, upon their entrance to the Last War. While Drizhni had the second highest manpower entering the war among the Rising Powers, by the time they joined most of the other belligerents had significantly expanded their manpower.

The Humanist League enjoyed a clear advantage in manpower at the beginning of the war, but this gap narrowed as the conflict progressed. Further, many nations of the League were unable to effectively deploy their manpower, because of aerial blockades, internal pressures, or geography. The exception was in Hellissandur and Tteokseo-Akmyeon, where the Rising Powers forces were stymied by significantly smaller armies because of homeground advantage and effective strategy.

The armies of the IJU and Hallowed Lands held an advantage in discipline and training that counteracted their numerical shortcomings, as well. In comparison, Kaisan and Loritanian soldiers particularly were often unmotivated and more likely to break under pressure. Leadership within many of the League nations was dominated by officers given commission by virtue of birth rather than talent, and these entrenched cadres of aristocrat officers proved inflexible to the changing conditions of warfare. Eventually, shakeups within the command structures occurred, but this initial shortcoming cost the Humanist League much of its early advantage. As the war dragged on, problems within the ranks of Kaisa would become more pronounced, culminating in a full-scale mutiny that forced an end to the war.