Designing a War [Archive] - Wizards Community

Designing a War [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Lyinginbedmon
08-12-07, 10:29 AM A very large issue coming up for me is a massive war, involving the awakening of a long-'dead' god. However, I'm having some trouble plotting it's progression.

---------------------------

Precursor
The lost god, Astemin, was the primary cause of the war. Astemin drifted through the planes following the Great Exodus. Eventually, it landed on the Astral plane. Centuries later, the inert form was discovered by the last Beginners, who venerated it as a new god in defiance of their original creators, the Overlords. They would name this new god “Elegance”, after its graceful and beautiful appearance.

When the Sovereigns began repairing their damaged temples, they inadvertently allowed energy to return to Astemin. Because only one of the two temples necessary to fully restore Astemin were restored, it was left with insufficient energy to awaken. By this time, the Cult of the Dragon had grown into a collection of thousands. Astemin analysed the alterations to its capacities as the cult grew, and managed to discern the potential for Incarnum energy, the energy that composes the ‘soul’ of living beings. It was at this time that the worshippers began receiving their first ‘divine gifts’, in the form of grafts. The grafts improved their existing abilities or nullified weaknesses, but also siphoned Incarnum energy from the worshippers, turning them into living energy cells for the sleeping god. This, however, also nullified the usual divine benefits of worship that Astemin received. It considered it an acceptable loss however.

Over the millennia, the Cult grew its army, the Legion of the Dragon, and they infiltrated virtually every political facet of the populated world. Through this infiltration, they turned events in a way to inflict pain and misery upon the masses, making them easier to convert to the religion of the Cult of the Dragon. Then, when all had been done for the moment, they swung events in favour the converted, allowing the harsh times to be reversed and overcome, building morale, hope, and fervour in them. It was through this meddling that many of the larger wars occurred in history, including the Dark Space War, the Forgotten War, and the Great War.

Cause
In the final years of the last century, Arman Capel and the crew of his ship, the Parack, began a determined effort to locate and destroy the cult. This forced a radical re-determination of the cult’s existing plans, toward preventing their mission and its conceived impact upon Elegance’s awakening. However, the counter-measures failed, and with the aid of numerous powerful allies, Capel turned the Commonwealth against them. With help from the first leader of the Warforged Nation, an all-out war was declared upon the Legion of the Dragon on August 8th.

However, this declaration caused unforeseen circumstances. The crusade against the hidden conspirators brought further numbers to their order. On December 31st of the same year, Astemin was reawakened as over 560 thousand followers, across continents, were used as its new energy source.

Progression
The first incursion of the Legion’s forces was the use of the Terragate Network, a series of ancient portals to different locations on the planet, to send an invasion force directly into the heart and core of the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth was able to repel this attack, but it resulted in the shutdown of the entire Network for the duration of the war, in order to prevent the use again. In the meantime, allied ships without any means of travel to necessary locations were to be ferried by Sovereign ships.

<Unknown>

Battle of Sangria. With their first incursion attempt repelled, the Legion of the Dragon attempted to sneak behind Commonwealth territory by attacking through Necrus, the country of the dead, part of the Alastian Republic territory. They overran dozens of cities, quickly massacring the Grisgol Remnant inhabitants. The Republic alerted the allied Commonwealth and armadas were dispatched to rescue any survivors. Of note was the salvaged Makinoan cityship, Cialarm, which was tasked with rescuing survivors from the first city attacked, Sangria.

A ground and water-borne skirmish ensued between the Cialarm, its escorts, and the Legion forces. The battle continually escalated as the two sides reinforced their forces. Eventually, after three weeks, word was received from the Sovereigns that Astemin was detected moving rapidly towards Sangria in Necrus. The Commonwealth forces launched an extremely rapid motion to retrieve as many survivors as possible whilst the Sovereign forces held off the Legion of the Dragon.

The Commonwealth was unable to retrieve all of the survivors and all of their own troops on the ground, and were forced to retreat without them. Meanwhile, the arrival of Astemin prompted a large number of Sovereign forces to jump ship and join their god, forming the Civil War element that appeared in Sovereign prophecy thousands of years prior.

Necrus was lost. As a result of this battle, not only did the Legion acquire Sovereign technology and manpower, but also a foothold in the Commonwealth territory and enough resources to produce an unstoppable force. In desperation, the Commonwealth leaders tabled a radical decision: Pull out the forces encapsulating the Aberrus, Byatis, and Unus countries, which contained the Tsochari Emirate, the Illithid Empire, and the Centon Theocracy, villainous races thought too dangerous to allow to intermingle with the others. After a week of discussion, it was finally decided to allow all three countries entry into present affairs, under the provision that they aid the Commonwealth war effort and return to their respective homelands after the war to resume their sentences.

With aid from the Illithid Empire, through the use of their Portal Generators, forces from all across the continent were able to reinforce the armies in Necrus, whilst the powerful Centon weapons were brought to bear on the Legion ships, as the Tsochari beasts terrorised the crew. Eventually, the foothold in Necrus was dissolved and Astemin retreated, but not before significant casualties had been inflicted.

<Unknown>

Battle of Pey. The collected mind of the Commonwealth considered the best tactic to fight Astemin was to eliminate its new power source, the worshippers. To defeat the Legion, they had to remove its generals, the Cult of the Dragon, located on the Astral plane. A massive force was dispatched to the Astral plane, including the Cialarm, the Parack, and Capel and his crew, determined to spearhead a path into Legion territory.

The attack was unsuccessful at delving deep enough into the territory, so Capel utilised a Terragate, salvaged from Necrus to prevent the Legion from traversing deeper into their territory, onboard the Cialarm to transport the Parack further into the Cult, landing square on their headquarters.

The armada was recalled to keep Astemin and the Legion’s forces busy, as Capel and his crew tackled the high priests of the Cult. Eventually, they fell, leaving the Legion largely leaderless. As a result, they became disorganised and were picked off by the Commonwealth forces. As its power waned, Astemin entombed itself in a powerful crypt of dense adamantine, the Tresor, which now drifts erratically between the planes.

---------------------------

So there's my issue, I need to fill the time between the first incursion, the Battle of Sangria, the Battle of Pey, and the end of the war.

I've been considering if we assume that the Sovereign under the Legion's command are capable of duplicating the Illithid technology and/or creating a working Terragate portal, what then?

They can launch attacks on any part of the Commonwealth's territory, nothing could stop them. So how do we stop this? We figure out how to stop the Sovereign. Well, that's darn near impossible, so we get beaten back, and back, and back, until all that remains of the Commonwealth is an empty circle of territory.

However, this would give them a fairly unprecedented tactical advantage, though that might spark the fairly reckless battle plan of Pey.
Lyinginbedmon
08-12-07, 10:40 AM Quick note: Despite any similarities, the Legion was developed prior to the release of the whole Thoon idea. My internet stalkers will bear this out and I don't have MM5. :P
GoriceXII
08-12-07, 05:18 PM The way I do the in between stuff for my war campaign is to have the pcs deal with things like:

- diplomacy (escorting diplomats, acting as envoys themselves depending on who they are)

- scouting and spying

- grabbing and snatching (people, key items, etc)

- training (training npc units and such)

- hardships of war (food, clean water, resources can be hard to acquire in wartime)

- intrigue (inevitably there are political/military intrigues even on one's own side)
Lyinginbedmon
08-13-07, 12:23 PM Ah, right, let me explain a bit more: This is historical. At the time, the "PCs" were the crew of the Parack, however the campaign has since dissolved and the next one is set a few years afterwards. I need the history to fill in the gaps and precisely pinpoint what the post-war geography would be.

For example, Battle of Sangria. Necrus is now covered with trenches and mounds and a lot of dead earth from the efforts to acquire the resources in it.
Next, Battle of Pey. There's a lot less ships running around because most were used in the battle. The Pey region is a veritable graveyard of seagoing vessels.
Lyinginbedmon
08-14-07, 07:37 AM Okay, a second fight from the heart of the Commonwealth would presumably be much easier given that they would have suffered extreme amounts of damage from the first incursion. That would have been footnoted as the opening attack of the war, and with the Battle of Sangria, most of the Commonwealth's forces are shunted to the external territories of their domain, leaving the core relatively unprotected.

They would first need to establish a way of getting to the Commonwealth heart undetected to launch this attack, or else the full forces would just return and the Commonwealth would regenerate. Using the Terragates, they would need to construct a secondary gate on another plane (Because Gate doesn't go to the same plane, A->A, but only to others, A->B. Terragates are dual for this reason). Most of the Network is set to use the Plane of Shadow as this other plane, but if a part of the Legion can get to another plane without being noticed it could set this up.

Okay, so we'll say they used the Astral Plane for the second stage of their Terragate. They create this new Terragate, disconnected from the primary Network. Because of this, they'd need to enter co-ordinates manually, which shouldn't be too hard given their previously conspiratorial existence.

A portal opens into the heart of the Commonwealth. The devastated region is unprepared and largely unguarded, so any ships coming through have a fairly easy fight. Once the core is taken, they start working their way outwards, carving a donut shape into the Commonwealth territories. Some of the leaders manage to escape with teleportation magics and other transportation, but most are captured/killed.

The leaders flee to the outer reaches where the naval and military power is. It's a slapdash committee, but they manage to pull together the plan for victory with Capel's assistance. Since most of the Commonwealth is already gone, they don't have much to lose. But they still have the recovered Cialarm, a cityship with enormous power on its own. They decide on the lance attack of the Battle of Pey.

------------------
How's that sound?

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lyinginbedmon 08-12-07, 10:29 AM	A very large issue coming up for me is a massive war, involving the awakening of a long-'dead' god. However, I'm having some trouble plotting it's progression. --------------------------- Precursor The lost god, Astemin, was the primary cause of the war. Astemin drifted through the planes following the Great Exodus. Eventually, it landed on the Astral plane. Centuries later, the inert form was discovered by the last Beginners, who venerated it as a new god in defiance of their original creators, the Overlords. They would name this new god “Elegance”, after its graceful and beautiful appearance. When the Sovereigns began repairing their damaged temples, they inadvertently allowed energy to return to Astemin. Because only one of the two temples necessary to fully restore Astemin were restored, it was left with insufficient energy to awaken. By this time, the Cult of the Dragon had grown into a collection of thousands. Astemin analysed the alterations to its capacities as the cult grew, and managed to discern the potential for Incarnum energy, the energy that composes the ‘soul’ of living beings. It was at this time that the worshippers began receiving their first ‘divine gifts’, in the form of grafts. The grafts improved their existing abilities or nullified weaknesses, but also siphoned Incarnum energy from the worshippers, turning them into living energy cells for the sleeping god. This, however, also nullified the usual divine benefits of worship that Astemin received. It considered it an acceptable loss however. Over the millennia, the Cult grew its army, the Legion of the Dragon, and they infiltrated virtually every political facet of the populated world. Through this infiltration, they turned events in a way to inflict pain and misery upon the masses, making them easier to convert to the religion of the Cult of the Dragon. Then, when all had been done for the moment, they swung events in favour the converted, allowing the harsh times to be reversed and overcome, building morale, hope, and fervour in them. It was through this meddling that many of the larger wars occurred in history, including the Dark Space War, the Forgotten War, and the Great War. Cause In the final years of the last century, Arman Capel and the crew of his ship, the Parack, began a determined effort to locate and destroy the cult. This forced a radical re-determination of the cult’s existing plans, toward preventing their mission and its conceived impact upon Elegance’s awakening. However, the counter-measures failed, and with the aid of numerous powerful allies, Capel turned the Commonwealth against them. With help from the first leader of the Warforged Nation, an all-out war was declared upon the Legion of the Dragon on August 8th. However, this declaration caused unforeseen circumstances. The crusade against the hidden conspirators brought further numbers to their order. On December 31st of the same year, Astemin was reawakened as over 560 thousand followers, across continents, were used as its new energy source. Progression The first incursion of the Legion’s forces was the use of the Terragate Network, a series of ancient portals to different locations on the planet, to send an invasion force directly into the heart and core of the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth was able to repel this attack, but it resulted in the shutdown of the entire Network for the duration of the war, in order to prevent the use again. In the meantime, allied ships without any means of travel to necessary locations were to be ferried by Sovereign ships. <Unknown> Battle of Sangria. With their first incursion attempt repelled, the Legion of the Dragon attempted to sneak behind Commonwealth territory by attacking through Necrus, the country of the dead, part of the Alastian Republic territory. They overran dozens of cities, quickly massacring the Grisgol Remnant inhabitants. The Republic alerted the allied Commonwealth and armadas were dispatched to rescue any survivors. Of note was the salvaged Makinoan cityship, Cialarm, which was tasked with rescuing survivors from the first city attacked, Sangria. A ground and water-borne skirmish ensued between the Cialarm, its escorts, and the Legion forces. The battle continually escalated as the two sides reinforced their forces. Eventually, after three weeks, word was received from the Sovereigns that Astemin was detected moving rapidly towards Sangria in Necrus. The Commonwealth forces launched an extremely rapid motion to retrieve as many survivors as possible whilst the Sovereign forces held off the Legion of the Dragon. The Commonwealth was unable to retrieve all of the survivors and all of their own troops on the ground, and were forced to retreat without them. Meanwhile, the arrival of Astemin prompted a large number of Sovereign forces to jump ship and join their god, forming the Civil War element that appeared in Sovereign prophecy thousands of years prior. Necrus was lost. As a result of this battle, not only did the Legion acquire Sovereign technology and manpower, but also a foothold in the Commonwealth territory and enough resources to produce an unstoppable force. In desperation, the Commonwealth leaders tabled a radical decision: Pull out the forces encapsulating the Aberrus, Byatis, and Unus countries, which contained the Tsochari Emirate, the Illithid Empire, and the Centon Theocracy, villainous races thought too dangerous to allow to intermingle with the others. After a week of discussion, it was finally decided to allow all three countries entry into present affairs, under the provision that they aid the Commonwealth war effort and return to their respective homelands after the war to resume their sentences. With aid from the Illithid Empire, through the use of their Portal Generators, forces from all across the continent were able to reinforce the armies in Necrus, whilst the powerful Centon weapons were brought to bear on the Legion ships, as the Tsochari beasts terrorised the crew. Eventually, the foothold in Necrus was dissolved and Astemin retreated, but not before significant casualties had been inflicted. <Unknown> Battle of Pey. The collected mind of the Commonwealth considered the best tactic to fight Astemin was to eliminate its new power source, the worshippers. To defeat the Legion, they had to remove its generals, the Cult of the Dragon, located on the Astral plane. A massive force was dispatched to the Astral plane, including the Cialarm, the Parack, and Capel and his crew, determined to spearhead a path into Legion territory. The attack was unsuccessful at delving deep enough into the territory, so Capel utilised a Terragate, salvaged from Necrus to prevent the Legion from traversing deeper into their territory, onboard the Cialarm to transport the Parack further into the Cult, landing square on their headquarters. The armada was recalled to keep Astemin and the Legion’s forces busy, as Capel and his crew tackled the high priests of the Cult. Eventually, they fell, leaving the Legion largely leaderless. As a result, they became disorganised and were picked off by the Commonwealth forces. As its power waned, Astemin entombed itself in a powerful crypt of dense adamantine, the Tresor, which now drifts erratically between the planes. --------------------------- So there's my issue, I need to fill the time between the first incursion, the Battle of Sangria, the Battle of Pey, and the end of the war. I've been considering if we assume that the Sovereign under the Legion's command are capable of duplicating the Illithid technology and/or creating a working Terragate portal, what then? They can launch attacks on any part of the Commonwealth's territory, nothing could stop them. So how do we stop this? We figure out how to stop the Sovereign. Well, that's darn near impossible, so we get beaten back, and back, and back, until all that remains of the Commonwealth is an empty circle of territory. However, this would give them a fairly unprecedented tactical advantage, though that might spark the fairly reckless battle plan of Pey.
Lyinginbedmon 08-12-07, 10:40 AM	Quick note: Despite any similarities, the Legion was developed prior to the release of the whole Thoon idea. My internet stalkers will bear this out and I don't have MM5. :P
GoriceXII 08-12-07, 05:18 PM	The way I do the in between stuff for my war campaign is to have the pcs deal with things like: - diplomacy (escorting diplomats, acting as envoys themselves depending on who they are) - scouting and spying - grabbing and snatching (people, key items, etc) - training (training npc units and such) - hardships of war (food, clean water, resources can be hard to acquire in wartime) - intrigue (inevitably there are political/military intrigues even on one's own side)
Lyinginbedmon 08-13-07, 12:23 PM	Ah, right, let me explain a bit more: This is historical. At the time, the "PCs" were the crew of the Parack, however the campaign has since dissolved and the next one is set a few years afterwards. I need the history to fill in the gaps and precisely pinpoint what the post-war geography would be. For example, Battle of Sangria. Necrus is now covered with trenches and mounds and a lot of dead earth from the efforts to acquire the resources in it. Next, Battle of Pey. There's a lot less ships running around because most were used in the battle. The Pey region is a veritable graveyard of seagoing vessels.
Lyinginbedmon 08-14-07, 07:37 AM	Okay, a second fight from the heart of the Commonwealth would presumably be much easier given that they would have suffered extreme amounts of damage from the first incursion. That would have been footnoted as the opening attack of the war, and with the Battle of Sangria, most of the Commonwealth's forces are shunted to the external territories of their domain, leaving the core relatively unprotected. They would first need to establish a way of getting to the Commonwealth heart undetected to launch this attack, or else the full forces would just return and the Commonwealth would regenerate. Using the Terragates, they would need to construct a secondary gate on another plane (Because Gate doesn't go to the same plane, A->A, but only to others, A->B. Terragates are dual for this reason). Most of the Network is set to use the Plane of Shadow as this other plane, but if a part of the Legion can get to another plane without being noticed it could set this up. Okay, so we'll say they used the Astral Plane for the second stage of their Terragate. They create this new Terragate, disconnected from the primary Network. Because of this, they'd need to enter co-ordinates manually, which shouldn't be too hard given their previously conspiratorial existence. A portal opens into the heart of the Commonwealth. The devastated region is unprepared and largely unguarded, so any ships coming through have a fairly easy fight. Once the core is taken, they start working their way outwards, carving a donut shape into the Commonwealth territories. Some of the leaders manage to escape with teleportation magics and other transportation, but most are captured/killed. The leaders flee to the outer reaches where the naval and military power is. It's a slapdash committee, but they manage to pull together the plan for victory with Capel's assistance. Since most of the Commonwealth is already gone, they don't have much to lose. But they still have the recovered Cialarm, a cityship with enormous power on its own. They decide on the lance attack of the Battle of Pey. ------------------ How's that sound?