The Throne of the Pantokrator

Thanks to the Eyes, Lord Kall and his councilors had been studying the maps and every strategic place. An important thing had then appeared : one of the most powerful throne, the Throne of the Pantokrator, was lying right on the border between C’ti and Marverni. For one to claim that throne would bring immense prestige and favour the conversion of new believers to his faith. Or, as it stood out at the time, Marverni believers were quite aggressive and his faith had been expanding all over his territory and beyond like no other.

With that in mind, the War council became quite worried … what if Marverni claimed the throne … what if people started to believe in the Fountain of Blood rather than Lord Kall … so an embassy was sent to C’ti to warn them and suggest that they should make a move to take the throne, a suggestion on which they fully agreed … Helheim on its part deployed a scout on the throne to monitor any event and be sure of its whereabouts.

Several months after the destruction of their army on the throne of Winter, Marverni had gathered a new army in Ur. At first, it was believed that they were going to seek vengeance after their ignominous defeat from Tien’Chi but as they came close to the Throne of the Pantokrator their intentions suddenly became unclear.

And then, it happened. In the midst of Spring of the 5th year of the war, a Tartarian Titan controlled by C’ti crossed the border and started to slaughter the guardians of the throne. Despite their numbers, the defenders where crushed to the might of the creature. At the same time the Marverni’s army had started its march to capture the throne for itself, and it is on a battlefield covered with cadavers of the former guardians that they met.

The Titan was an ancient banished god released from its imprisonment in Tartarus by the most powerful Death mages of C’ti. There were tens, if not hundreds of them in the Tartarus, imprisoned there for so much time that most of them had turned insane to their eternal sufferings. But here he was, standing, devoid of compassion for any life, and ready for anything to find back just a fraction of its former power.

However, the mages of Marverni were not impressed … with such a broken mind, these creatures were not invicible. By gathering their powers together, the Elder Druids   and Stargazers managed to turn its allegiance from C’ti to the Fountain of Blood. Soon, the ancient god started to wonder why he was going to fight the boars and their masters when his true enemy was the ignominous lizards that had called him back to this world … And so, devoid of opponents, Marverni claimed the land for himself and the Throne of the Pantokrator as his new possession.

And so began the war between C’ti and Marverni.

The C’ti war machine on the march

It took just a few months for the C’ti to be ready for this new challenge. They had already been pushed to the test by the demons of Yomi during a long war of almost 2 years. Aggressive and showing no mercy, the Desert Lion had successfully broken into their territory and, after several bloody battles, completely destroyed them. The C’ti armies had also waged a campaign against the remnants of Ur, just as Helheim and Tien’Chi did, and won some skirmishes against the armies of Tien’Chi.

But this new army was the result of 15 months collecting the Death gems from the Well of Misery. And the Tartarian Titan captured by Marverni on the Throne of the Pantokrator was just but one of several ancient gods coming back to life to serve the Desert Lion, and a terrifying Tartarian Spirit towered the new army . However, Death magic was usually not used to call ancient gods, as only the most skilled and wise mages could do that. Most necromancer relied on the spirits of ancient warriors revived to serve their deeds.

And some of the most powerful spirits that could be called from the Underworld were the Wights. These were ancient skilled warriors equipped with a heavy armor and a fearsome Bane Blade whose wounds could cause the target to age so fast that within minutes it would crumble into dust. The new army of C’ti had gathered almost 120 of them … a really scary sight for those who knew what they were capable of.

But even though these warriors promised a tough fight, the true power of the C’ti battleforce relied on its battle mages and the tactics they used. Thanks to their mastery of the most complex spells they would transform this already quite decent army into a pure war machine. The main tactic that would wreak havoc on any unprepared army was quite simple : strengthen the skin of its warriors to be as hard as gold, give them the Gift of Flight, and watch them fall on their ennemies in a screaming rage.

Even though this was enough to destroy almost any opponent, several small additions made it truely invincible. Every warrior was also granted the unreal power to regenerate their wounds very fast and transformed their bodies into fog, making them almost impervious to non-magic weapons. Furthermore a dark enchantment (Rigor Mortis) was making its way into the flesh of living creature, slowly exhausting them until they would become unconscious and die by whatever means … Last but not least complete Darkness covered the battlefield and only the gifted, or the undeads, could really see through it, making most warriors almost unable to fight.

So, despite the numerical superiority of 2 to 1 of the Marverni’s army, they stood absolutely no chance. However, in spite of this, they tried, they tried hard. As soon as the Wights had taken off the ground to fall on the rears of Marverni, the board tide started to charge in the middle of the enemy formation, pushing them back hard and trampling whatever creature they met. But … despite this apparent success in disrupting the enemy mages, they had little success. Indeed, protected by hordes of freshly summoned skeletons, they avoided the worst of the charge. Furthermore, even those attacked by the boars had several means to survive, thanks to their misty body, their thick golden skin, and their extremely fast wound regeneration.

As is, while the boars charge was stalling, the Wights showed no mercy to the enemy mages and escorts that were quickly completely destroyed. In the end, the last surviving boars trying to flee the battlefield were cut down one after the other …

Few were those lucky enough to escape the onslaught … by the end of the day, victory was complete and the Throne of Pantokrator captured. The end of summer was also the end of Marverni’s dreams of glory as the Desert Lion had no intention to stop there.

The fall of Ur

After taking the Throne of the Pantokrator, the C’tissian army had tasted blood and wanted more. Indeed, this was not a war for the Throne, this was a war for supremacy.

And so the army kept on marching south, easily overcoming the weak opposition left by the destruction of Marverni’s last army. Soon they reached the outskirts of Ur and in the midst of Autumn stormed it without mercy. The few former lands of Ur between Ur and the Throne of Winter had been completely isolated and easily conquered by the insatiable C’ti.

This was not such a good news finally for Helheim, as they had a new very, very powerful neighbour. Hopefully, C’ti main army was now engaged in the middle of the western mountains and if they ever wanted to attack Helheim, it would take them several months to redeploy.

Nemok’s fighting spirit

An unexpected surprise came though as Nemok the god of Ur came back from the dead to seek vengeance from his tormentors. Indeed, Ur had not been completely destroyed yet and their last fortress had been besieged by C’ti for more than a year. Nemok made a few raids and caused some trouble in the newly conquered lands of C’ti … However, despite the surprise and the bloodthirsty assaults, a Tartarian Titan finally cornered him and left him no chance. After that, the last hopes of Ur finally faded away and they slowly let themselves die in their last besieged fortress …

However, Lord Kall had been kept aware of this heroic last stand and had been quite impressed by the fighting spirit shown by Nemok. In the very end, he would not forget it.

Marverni calls upon the Vengeful waters

Marverni had lost large chunks of territories to C’ti. Thankfully for them, some other wars had compensated for that loss. They had joined the vultures in dismembering the realm of the giants of Formoria on the west, while finishing a 2-years war against Pangea in the south. However, despite the final destruction of Pangea, they had the sad surprise to meet there another C’ti army that had also pushed against the remnants of the centaurs …

Facing C’ti both north and south of its empire, Marverni decided to put to use the high number of believers that prayed for the Fountain of Blood. Indeed the faith could influence even the Elemental forces of the lands it controlled, and this was something the Fountain had been looking for for some time.

As such, a powerful mage of Marverni called upon the forces of Water, binding them to avenge from the heretics. And soon every water spirit started to be very, very angry against the unbelievers. If they were not taking care, drinking in a small fountain could be the way to a sudden drowning, and crossing a river gave the risk of being engulfed by a sudden surge of water.

And, indeed, every heretic was unsafe. Soon, Helheim’s scouts in Marverni dominion started to die like flies. C’ti Sauromancers of the C’ti army found themselves too in a bad situation as the frozen waters gathered into Ice elementals to crush the heathen. However, the most powerful commanders of C’ti weren’t really in danger, especially the Tartarians that laughed at the icy things.

Nevertheless, the enchantment caused a major diplomatic incidents for Marverni. Indeed, as its faith had spread around its territory, some big fortresses of Berytos were surrounded by believers of the Fountain of Blood. And soon the mages and commanders located there started to be attacked by the frozen waters and many of them died … Thankfully for Maverni, they could avoid yet another war … but it was the proof that any war against them would from now on require special measures to protect the commanders.

Disaster in the Throne of Bones

But despite the successes of the Vengeful waters, the armies of C’ti kept on their march to the south. After Ur, their next target was the Throne of Bones. Marverni had gathered there a very strong army and this time was hoping to fare better than the terrible defeat suffered on the Throne of the Pantokrator. The fact that the enemy was almost twice stronger than during their previous defeat wasn’t a concern : they would not be surprised this time, and would prevail.

However … in this winter was the time of a great celebration in Marverni. Once every 12 years took place a huge festival where every citizen and believer of the Fountain of Blood were invited to dance, drink and have sex. Despite the war, or may be because of it, the believers did not want to miss it for anything. So during that full month the celebrations went on, and on and on … and drunk to the bone, the commanders started to forget about the upcoming battle …

When the enemy army finally started to assault the fortress, it was too late, the battle plans had not been updated as they should, and both soldiers and commanders hastily woke up to face the fearsome enemy. (Gameplay note : Marverni player stalled by mistake …)

But … even if they had devised more subtle battle plans, nothing had prepared them for what was to come. Indeed, C’ti mages had finally uncovered the secrets of Beast Mastery. That insanely powerful spell could turn the minds of every animal in a battle and make them fight their former masters. And … 80% of Marverni’s army was made of the sacred boars, and, even though they were sacred, they were still animals …

When Leafsong the Ivy King finally released the energies of the spell, 180 out of 250 Marverni’s boars started to turn sides and attack their former friends. This was made even worse as even some of the most revered of them, the Great Board of Carnutes were charmed by the spell. That situation caused wide panic in the ranks and the battle spells initially intended to destroy the undead legions began to strike the maddened boars. But … it was already too late, some boars began to run to the druids and stargazers and trample them to death. Soon Marverni’s army was completly disrupted and both soldiers and commanders were left fighting for their lives.

In the end of the day, the disaster was complete. The army had been completely anihilated without inflicting a single casualty to the enemy … and the worst was that they now had 180 sacred boars fighting for them ! Nothing would stop C’ti now, and soon they would reach Xibalba and the borders of Helheim …

The boar will burn, death will fall on its kind

C’ti’s steamroller is on Helheim’s borders …

The news of C’ti huge victory began to worry the high command of Helheim. Would their armies fare any better than the Druids and their boars ? The window of time to finish the Plan was short before the undead legions could reach the Throne of Bureaucracy … If the enemy finally decided to march on it, the Throne would have to be defended with every single soldier and so measures were taken in that regard …