Parley in Elysium

[grnappa 1230]

Parley in Elysium - The Duke’s Word

19th Sigismund’s End 1819

 

~Duke Eugeo of Elysium and Major Iskander Basrid shaking hands circa 1819~

 

 

 

Major Iskander Basrid of the Imperial State Army set forth from the Capital of Providence in 1819. Many thoughts ran through his head as he marched with his men as they went across the country. The foreign diplomats in Providence had made one thing clear in the minds of the Imperial Soldiers, Elysium was not the target of war. Elysium was just as much a victim to the warmongering Chief Sven as the Empire was. Even so, Chief Sven’s soldiers inhabited it, and they were their target. With 1000 steadfast members of the Imperial State Army and 200 Hounds of Don, the force snaked its way through the Imperial Heartland up the River Augusta to make landfall near Elysium. 

 

Making their way ashore, the brave men of the Empire circled around the North of Elysium, searching for any signs of life from the city as they huddled near their fires. After a moment, the Orenian force spotted two figures in the snow. It was then that the combined force of Imperial soldiers and the mercenaries fell upon Rheinhart Stamirsk & Emerald Guenevere wandering outside the safety of their walls. Sir Anthony Alexios encountered the pair first at the behest of Lord Robert Don’s steadfast eye. With his contingent of men the Basrid ordered them to raise their hands. The Elysian soldiers quickly set down their weapons, knowing that they were outnumbered against the Imperial contingent. 

 

The Elysian diplomat to Oren, Inui Caromud was at this time found by Lord Robert shivering in the cold wastes. Whisking her to the assembled group upon his steed, Inui quickly announced her efforts to negotiate the release of the prisoners that had been captured. “Please Orenians! Let us work this out with peace and not blades!” Inui spoke passionately on behalf of her countrymen. Nodding in agreement, Major Iskander Basrid allowed the Elysian diplomat to return to the city.

 

Inui returned with a large host of Varhelm and Elysian bannermen under the command of Duke Eugeo who began parley with Sir Iskander Basrid. The Varhelm soldiers screamed and shouted for the death of the Imperials as the two forces met. The steadfast soldiers of the ISA held careful vigil over their prisoners as the Major finally spoke up. “We seek no quarrel with you Elysium!” The Rhenyari commander shouted as he made his way over to face the duke. “Then why do you hold blades upon my people?!” The Duke replied in quick fashion. Maintaining stoic silence, the men of Oren watched on as Varhelm soldiers screamed and shouted at the group, desperately trying to instigate a fight with the assembled Imperials. Their final attempt to start the fight led to Lord Robert being shot at with a crossbow by a norlander with poor aim. The Baron of Doggersden managed to dodge the bolt with great ease atop his steed, his movements agile even in the harsh climate.

 

 After a tense standoff between the two great forces, an understanding was reached and Major Iskander ordered the Elysian prisoners released in good faith and promised to depart from the field to halt the senseless massacre of man. At this, Duke Eugeo ordered his men to stand down in turn as the Major did the same with the Imperial soldiers. The Varhelm soldiers were angered by this temporary truce as they stormed from the field in anger. However, the Elysians simply took their wounded and departed from the field, equally as stoic as the Imperial forces. The two forces left for their homes and would rest easy that night. The snow remained white, unstained by the blood of men who might have died in the frozen wastelands.

Sir Erik Othaman
Commander of the Reserves
@grnappa

 

Lord Joseph d’Azor
Chief of the Imperial Arsenal
@Taketheshot 

 

Duke Eugeo of Elysium,

 

War is, by its very nature, a hellish test of the innocent man’s resolve. We regret the despicable Chieftain’s warmongering. Before these past years, we have loved peace, and many of our people had found friends among the Elysians.

 

Today, by your good nature, and the mercy of God, we met on terms favorable. You swore that we could speak if we released the people we held, and in good faith, we did. You upheld your end, and commanded the lowering of arms. These are qualities unlike many of the arrayed forces against us. They are the murderous apostate, and not the Elysian.

 

While your country’s Chief Sven declared war on us, we have chosen to take the fight to Nordling land, and keep the conflict as far from our people as possible. Unfortunately, as a result, your people have become the victims. This is not by our fault, but by the fault of war itself; and he who declared it, the Chief Sven. He condemns your people to it.

 

Your people are not Nordlings, not at heart. Not the ones you hold dear to you. They are friends and families who flourished in peace, as we once did, before it was taken from both of us. We, as a people, pray that a swift defeat of the Chief Sven will give us both what we once so enjoyed.

 

All this said, make no mistake. We will not relent until that day. Neither of us shall have peace while Chief Sven reigns. So long as you allow his soldiers within your city, no peace between us can prevail.

 

HIH THE DUKE OF CRESTFALL
@BenevolentManacles

 

Edited May 12, 2021 by grnappa

[Milenkhov 4497]

The Baron of Doggersden returned to the heartlands in silence, finding the exchange most affable and amicable in his eyes; the reasoning of men, devout of their own groupings left him with much greater satisfaction than snow drenched in red. Such things put a smile on Robert's countenance, veiled by his heavy plating embrace.

[Taketheshot 3834]

Joseph d'Azor Smiles the suns smile as he reads the letter he helped craft at his desk in Providence. Looking across the mahogany table his eyes fall upon the portrait of Coraline d'Arkent as he reaches out to grasp the framed pictured. "We will have peace in our time my chera... The Elysian's will see the error of Chief Sven's raving lunacy of aggression." He sets the picture back down standing from his desk as he looks across the skyline to the north where Varhelm lay. "Soon..... Oren will know peace once more, I just hope the Duke of Elysium joins in the peace, rather then fall in the pyre of Varhelm." 

[Vibeo 57]

Aelius is upset for personal reasons.

[DarkWrath94 762]

General William Darkwood would read upon the missive and note to his captains: "Successful negotiations, the people from Elysium are quite sensible indeed."

[Josef_Rippelberg 0]

Kelhus Vladimir Othaman would nod slowly as he read the missive "Peace with Elysium shall be a noble goal, and it shall be a goal we need to pursue. If they are niet Norlanders indeed, they must show us with action niet with words."

Edited May 12, 2021 by Josef_Rippelberg

[XOCO 502]

"That's reassuring, I suppose." A troubled Ezekiel Moores mumbles to himself.

Edited May 16, 2021 by XOCO

[Harald 2465]

«The Orinians truly show their canonist values in freeing those in prisoned.” Johan Vuiller would give a slight dip of his head “These actions must be taken into account after their testimony’s have been given.” He’d smile the suns smile starting to write down four letters from the Auditor of the Tribunal. 
 @grnappa @Imperium @KBR

[Sham404 464]

"If only the Orenians could understand that Elysium is part of Norland. Their past transgressions will not go forgotten, and will never be forgiven, by any citizen of our land." Edric muses.

[christman 2216]

Mary Amaricius would read the missive, rather quietly. As she furthered read, the more she realised she no longer could muster care for this war. Her fingers grasped the parchment, looking along it once more - a final time. It was stuffed, quickly and effortlessly, into a nook in a shelf. It would not see the light of day for many years. . .

 

"I wonder what'll be for dinner."

[rukio 8909]

Spoiler

 

Yet from within the Elysium clinic lays a victim of Orenian cruelty. Aobh Aldin, with her left calf's tendon severed and the wound in her stomach reopened and restitched, holds her infant son close. His big, blue eyes, looking up at her with worry, tears on the verge of streaming down his face. Truly, he was of the same heart she was at that age. 

 

"Shh, you're okay, its okay." She'd murmur softly, tone motherly to the boy, her left hand ruffling his hair. With painful, slow movements, she would sway the boy back and forth ever so slightly, each breath and shift in posture a reminder of the agony in her abdomen. "Ne tears, oem'ii." She'd murmur, slowly coaxing the boy into slumber, herself unable to find that peace. 

 

"Orenian cruelty." The medic mused, chin atop her sleeping son's head. A quiet inhale as she reflected on the day and what had transpired- how her son had almost lost his mother. Silver-grey hues closed in pain and reflection, unable to sleep. Blissfoil seemed to do little for her, the pain she endured emotionally driven in nature, a cut untreatable by a medic's herbs.

 

-

 

New snowfall, a cold day, but then, this was the North and she had learned to adapt to the harshness of weather, the peacefulness of life here. Yet, perhaps the peace and quiet she and Kaelan had found, the things that had made her want to settle down here, was long gone.. Herself, unarmed, in civilian clothes, simply caught outside of the walls at the wrong time. Erik Othaman and someone unknown to her rising as though shadowy monsters, their blades suddenly at her throat, the unknown man's attempt to behead her.

 

"Come on, lets not be hasty!" Erik had squealed with piggish delight. Animals, all of them, eager to slaughter and destroy.

 

"I'm ne the one attacking an unarmed medic." She'd retorted, eyes dull. So little to live for... and yet.. to die to beings so far beneath her, her inferiors in every way?...it wasn't time, not yet.

 

 Her own grasping of Dilly's wrist, her attempt to flee...

 

The agony of being tackled to the snow, the stitches of her stomach ripping open. For half a moment she thought back to her own youth, when she had saved Erik after the Orenians had abandoned him to bleed out after a goblin attack outside of Helena. She thought to mercy, and how others always held it over each other's heads when they pretended to grant it. She knew there would be no mercy as the snow under her grew crimson. 

 

"I'm sorry it had to turn out this way, Aobh." A familiar voice, that of Caspian. The blade of his sword dragged along her calf, severing the tendon. Thusly, too, did she briefly think of the time she had done her best to save the person he loved most. Burning, agonizing pain. Two blades to her throat and then...

 

"Halt, Orenian scum." 

 

The Elysium rally. She allowed her face to fall into the snow, eyes shut. The world around her was strangely numb, the once white snow now a horrible shade of red. Yet still, safety from the tormentors without morals. Everything was a blur. Vaguely, she knew she was dying, she knew the armies stood in opposition over her soon to be corpse, but her thought was only of Kaelan and Nehtamo, of how she couldn't leave them as her mother had left her family when she was young, and so she clung to that final string of life.  

 

-

 

"Where is my Malii'mal?" 

[Lumie 124]

A figure sat on the edge of the wall, near the back gates to Elysium. Staring out into the wilderness, shoulders tense and sword ready, Aylin Siannodel Vanari took a deep breath. Releasing it, she found herself momentarily distracted by the small cloud of fog. She shook her head, tired but still trying to be aware of what was outside the walls. "Come on Aylin. Stay awake." She thought about her duty, the same one which had been questioned by Orenians not long before. The same Orenians who had taken two of her fellow initiates and a medic as hostages, going so far as to bind them and inflict injury. Her friends, people she cared about... Her vision flashed red, a new headache forming. She grabbed some snow off the wall near her, she placed it on her forehead, doing what she could to alleviate the pain. She looked next to her at her falcon, Zephyr, and then down to where a note was tied to his leg, one that held a message of warning, should it be needed to be sent faster than her legs carry her to the the bell in the town square. She murmured to him giving him a small fluff of his feathers, "I wonder how the Orenians will spin their tale. Certainly it will be in their favor. Will they claim they outnumbered us? Or that we were angry over nothing, even when they had brought so much harm against our own?" Her gaze turned back to the trees, the snow glistening under the moonlight, pure. A stark contrast from the red stained snow that she knew lay just beyond the tree line, Aobh's blood staining it. A flash of pain went through her head once more. "Perhaps I should go find someone to take over for the rest of the night." She swung her legs over the edge, setting her feet back on the walk way, standing up and cracking her neck. "Come Zephyr, we shall be useful tomorrow." The falcon flapped over onto her outstretched arm, rubbing his head against her bicep, as though he was comforting her. She smiled, jumping down from the walls and running back towards the keep, her body light, but her mind and heart heavy.

 

Edited May 12, 2021 by Beelzemier