Ascorni Federation

“Never kick the pup,

lest you meet the hound it becomes.”

Come the year 1244 of the Withering Bloom, the Ascorni people were a sturdy and scattered people. Where the breadbasket of the Mormiloan colonies once stood is only a fragmented assortment of feudal settlements and isolated hamlets hidden under the dark trees that blanket northern Ravreka.

It is this weak and sparse land that the warring blocs of city-states sought to use as their route to the Venia deltas. But of course, no roaming army is satisfied simply passing by. It took a year at the longest for troops from all sides to begin massacring and raiding the ununified factions of the Ascorni woodland. Precious heirlooms and living souls were taken by the wagon, and their homes were often razed to the ground. It is this greed and unrestrained malice that had not only sent the Forest Spirit expansion spiraling fully out of control, but had also sent thousands into an unwilling pilgrimage to the neutral city of Senho - where the good lady Adelheid took them in with open arms.

It was one such raid upon the Conda coast that had eventually wrought the invader’s ruin. A lone soul was left in the mass graves, forced to claw his way out of the bodies of his students and compatriots alike. Alastair Braden, a teacher of history and village headman, had taken up the spear and set about vengeance. In his travels through the dark underbrush, he collected a band of vengeful militiamen, brigands and simple farmers that eventually numbered so high that they sought support from none other than Senho. Facing the sick and hungry refugees, the lady showed no hesitation in pledging supplies and arms to the militant peasantry. She and Alastair made a deal with Smyklion and the liberiomancer Hoib “The Hated” to begin importing dukespowder weaponry as well as production of living wagons that would serve as mobile fortresses to outmaneuver and shock the enemy.

The day finally came in 1247, where a particularly harsh winter led the rebel forces of the Ascorni Resistance to a crushing victory against the Pomeduan forces on the fields before the castle of Cowport. There, with the help of errant adventurers from a ruined village called Rhokastro, they also crushed the brewing betrayal of their sorcerer ally; Hoib. With their forces united and tempered by veterancy of three years of unstopping battle, a short alliance was struck with a turncoat band of dwarven mercenaries to strike at the heart of their worst foe; the lycan-knight order of Toletiva. The Cider Whores, Tilessian Braves, the Senhoan army, and the fearless Traccia levies all disembarked their ships in a near suicidal assault upon the snowy beaches of Toletiva a distance away from their main castle. The attack was bloody, and the pagan forces tore a bloody swathe through the ranks of the Ascorni. Alas, it was this sacrifice that had allowed the Last of Rhokastro to detonate the southern keep of Tole and effectively sever the main connection of the Toletivan knights to the woodland - as well as slaughtering most of the nobility that supported them.

With the northern threat neutered, the Ascorni retreated with their remaining fleet back to the safety of their newly allied city. Knight Hellvet “Monstermaw” Traccia led a vengeful campaign of mercilessly exterminating the remnants of the cut off Toletivans, wherein a lycan commander took his arm before Hellvet used it to choke him to death.

The Liccan bloc was quick to sue for peace once the Ascorni Federation was officially declared in Senho at the start of 1248 EWB, pursuing a policy of denial to all crimes committed by their mercenaries to curry favour with the new state at their borders. Left alone after the mysterious meteor that utterly destroyed the remaining keep of Tiva and slew the grand master of the lycan knights, Pomedua’s skeletal legions entombed the populace alive to await their empire’s return once an opportunity presented itself in the future - their necromantress empress sailing to the western horizons and vanishing.

The Ascorni stood alone at last. Enemies felled, free and on their own. Then they came.

The forests shook. Pollen burst into the land in a thick fog that crashed against city walls like a stormy sea’s fury.

The New King had declared war.

Even against this supernatural foe, the armies of the Federation refused to surrender. The King made his demands, and the animal head of his diplomat was sent back. He laid siege to Monstermaw Keep, and was met by a culture that armed every denizen to the teeth before sending them into a furious charge to break it. No matter how many soldiers were reduced to a tangled briar of thistle, the Ascorni always had a lifelong friend charging with reckless abandon to push his speartip into the ribs of another ageless entity. After half a dozen years of this brutal war, the Federation - though it refused to show so to its enemy - was on the backfoot. Armies were dwindled, and the only senior officer was Hellvet “Monstermaw” whose aging had rendered him bedridden. It was then that Adelheid, with the support of the Ascorni Senate, made a deal with the liberiomancer cabal of the “Moulding Needle”. In return for lease of the castle of Cowport with all its laboratories, the cabal would begin producing creations of animal and material that would aid the war effort. Such was the extent of their experimentation, that they eventually began committing to controversial methods; mixing humans with various elements and beings.

A breakthrough had been made when the elderly Hellvet was interwoven with a spider infected by a cordyceps, as well as his suit of armour. It took ten sorcerers lending their will, but he rose again. Renewed. Stronger. The success of this operation had eventually led to the forming of their senior officer corps entirely made up of these chimeras who are able to use their new properties to more effectively command humonculi and share information between distant fronts.

The Federation their fathers fought for must survive, even if the price is humanity.

These factors, along with the reformed Tilessians equipped with home-forged armour and state of the art dukespowder weaponry, allowed the war to stall to a halt at its ten year mark. The Federation has largely regained control over its eastern lands, but they are split with the dark forest that makes up the New King’s domain. To trek through it is a dangerous venture, however necessary for the survival of both halves. Humonculi are used across the nation for this exact purpose, but even they are not entirely safe from spirit reprisal.

Now the Federation looks to repair and repopulate the east. They use Rhokastro, since rendered largely abandoned, as a base of operations from which expeditions are launched to colonise the lost lands. The coffers owe a large debt to the distant empire of Smyklion, and the senate looks to Trodansk far more often than they’d like for military aid. Nevertheless, the people stand united and are hardy as ever - the land is famed for it, the Ascorni unity in facing issues ranging from small to catastrophic. None may know what the future holds for the young nation, but one thing is certain;

They will not go quietly into the night.