In good company

Between Spring and Summer, the alliance stands together against the Jotun.

Ripples on the Lake

The water of Sermersuaq ripples with life, again. Spring magic infuses the entire territory, running in the streams and rivers, pooling in the lakes, glittering in the snow and ice that falls in the far north even in Summer. The enchantment has been almost constant for the last few years, and the land itself is beginning to show signs of it. The tundra is thick with animals, the scrubby grass gives way in places to young trees, and the lakes are crowd with silver scaled fish and verdant water weed.

This life, this water, are in stark contrast with the death, and the blood, that stain the territory as Spring becomes Summer. Battle continues to rage across Sermersuaq, with the alliance of Empire and Otkodov continuing to drive the Jotun out of the lands they have stolen.

The Spring Equinox provided barely a breather to the Imperial armies here. The Bloodcloaks and the Green Shield, the Drakes and the Summer Storm continue to press the Jotun in Suaq Fount. The orcs are in retreat, but they clearly have no intention of making the liberation of Sermersuaq easy for the Empire.

In the days immediately following the equinox, two of the Thule armies - the Chasm of Thunder and Banner of the Rime Hound - suddenly withdraw toward the Silver Peaks. There is momentary consternation from the Imperials, until two new armies arrive. The White Mountain Fire and the Shard of Winter join the warlocks and battle magicians of the Jaws of Winter's Lightning fighting the orcs of Narkyst and Kallsea. These armies are subtly different to those they replace. There are notably more orcs in lighter armour - scouts, hunters, and skirmishers replace the more heavily armoured warriors of the Chasm of Thunder, and the beastmasters of the Rime Hound. These troops are further reinforced by the garrison of the Citadel of Silver and Bone, the grand Thule fortification in the Silver Peaks. Originally drawn from the Summer realm by the Thule warlocks, anchored with ilium, it has since been enhanced and expanded with white granite and mithril. The warriors who join the Thule armies from the Citadel bear silversteel armour and bloodgold weapons and each is touched in some fashion by the magic of Summer - the blessings of the Queen of Ice and Darkness.

Bloodcloaks, we have battled our way back into the heart of our Suaq homeland. I have asked much of you. I have asked for your blood, your sacrifice, your trust, your lives. Now I ask you, will you push the line for me and take back Suaq font? Force the Jotun back out of our dominion, clear a path for our pilgrims to the storm. Stain your cloaks in the Jotun's heroically spilt blood.

Lofyn Blood-cloak, General of the Bloodcloaks

The magic of these orc warriors is notable, but hardly unique. Each alliance army - human and orc alike - bears a powerful enchantment. The Green Shield remain empowered with Autumn magic that helps them share their understanding of the northern tundra with warbands from across the Empire, that binds soldiers of many different nations together in a common cause. An entire additional army worth of independent warbands fight alongside the Green Shield in Sermerusaq this season, each one contributing more than the sum of the parts thanks to this powerful Autumn enchantment.

Every other army is inspired by the clarity and foresightedness of Day magic. The soldiers of the three Imperial armies enjoy supernatural clarity, profoundly aware of their role in each engagement, wordlessly able to coordinate with those around them, and with the soldiers of other armies. The three Thule armies possess the Grace of Hinodir that grants each warrior a supernatural insight into the terrain in which they fight, and a constant subtle awareness of where both allies and enemies are located at all times.

Heroes of the Green Shield Army, hail to thee! You are the shining spear in the Empire's red right hand. We go forth in the vanguard to drive the Jotun hence. This will be a campaign to sing about. A battle for the ages. Swords will be shattered! Shields shall be splintered! We march to a red day and our foes will fall beneath your Triumphant Charge!

Iron Osric, General of the Green Shield

The Shadow of the Ice

The Jotun do not intend to give up the Pride of Ikka's Tears. They gather their forces together in the shadow of the glacier, behind barricades and fortifications established in the wake of last year's raid. There are perhaps thirty-five thousands orcs here - orcs and humans. The yegarra of Kallsea under the walrus banner of Eisa Winterborn continue to support their Jotun master, and the warbands of the Howling Bear champ at the bit for another opportunity to face the champions of Otkodov and the Summer Sun. There is no doubt that they are determined to keep their ill-gotten gains; the hard-bitten, experienced warriors of the Shield of the Mountain.

Rise Drakes and have at them. The Jotun are being pushed back. We will carve a bloody path through them unless they draw forces from Bregasland, we fight the Jotun here to save Marcher land and support our allies.

Hal Talbot, General of the Drakes

There is also no doubt that the alliance plans to disappoint them. Arrayed against the Jotun are nearly fifty thousand alliance warriors. Where previously their tactics have been reasonably cautious, this season is very different. The alliance launches an overwhelming assault against the Jotun positions, seeking to sweep the outnumbered orcs away before a wave of steel and magic. The Green Shield are in the vanguard, always seeking out the strongest enemy troops and the most defended positions, prepared to stop at nothing to break the Jotun and drive them from the field. By contrast the warlocks of the Jaws of Winter's Lightning seem almost to hang back to the rear of the alliance forces, focusing on supporting and reinforcing the other armies as needed rather than taking the fight directly to the Jotun. This is mostly a matter of perspective - they aren't being especially defensive it is simply in comparison to the overwhelming assault by the other armies that they seem to be reticent to engage.

Empowered by Day I hear your voices. Living legends all, like ancestors in my head, and I feel your concern. Fighting alongside slaver filth was never something any of us signed up for. Before we leave this fight let us show them what awaits them if their ways remain unchanged. Our patience can only last so long.

Zerk, General of the Summer Storm

There is one army that is being noticeably more reticent however. The Shard of Winter do not seem especially interested in engaging the Jotun head-on. They scout the positions of the western orcs, push them where they can, but fall back in the face of concerted opposition - sometimes luring the orcs who pursue them into the blades of one of their allied armies. They give the strong impression that they are waiting for something.

if there is a weakness in the Jotun strategy is that they must ensure they are able to maintain an avenue of retreat - not only for themselves but for the great number of thralls who work the mithril mine. To the surprise of many Imperials, the mine is still operating even as the siege begins - the Jotun pulling the last few shipments of precious mithril from deep beneath the glacier before what they must know will be their inevitable defeat.

Sermersuaq is rich. Take what you can in the name of the Dragons. We will take the Silfurjökull in Suaq Fount, and the rich settlements of Suaq Wastes. We will replace the slaves taken by the southerners with Jotun thralls. While they will not fight us, remember that their guardians will. We will serve the purpose of the Dragons, and we will strike with the hand that grasps, rather than the first that kills.

Keya Prityanka, General of the Shard of Winter

And inevitable it is. After a week of pushing back and forth, the Jotun line is struck by the combined might of the Summer Storm, Green Shield, and White Mountain Fire, and it begins to buckle. A great beacon suddenly blooms with crimson fire atop the glacier, and the Jotun begin to fall back. Step by step, they regroup and abandon the defences at the mine, pulling back toward Sarda, and the Grave of the Giants. Retreating toward the Suaq Wastes.

The Jotun have forgotten why they fear the high peaks of Otkodov. Remind them of their weakness, first in Suaq Fount and then in the Suaq Wastes.

Stürmherra, General of the White Mountain Fire

The tundra is churned to a morass of mud and blood as the alliance finally takes the mithril mine. Despite the power of the Spring magic - visible sometimes at night as a shimmering radiance deep within the glacial ice - nearly two thousand orcs and humans are killed or permanently maimed before the siege ends. The last Jotun defenders withdraw into the mine itself, drawing Wintermark heroes in to face them in the dark amid the galleries and tunnels that sparkle with ancient ice. They fight bravely, and they die.

The orcs are not the only ones in the mines; there are several dozen Suaq miners here. Taken as thralls by the Jotun, they barricaded themselves in the lower tunnels, refusing to leave with the orc conquerors. Those who can still fight take up their bows and spears in service of the Green Shield; those who cannot are tended to by the Bloodcloaks.

We are here to conquer, not to kill. Alongside the souther armies, we will drive the Jotun from Suaq Fount and Suaq Wastes, and we will trust to the design of the Five-Who-Are-One.

Tomoreh Galdramathur, General of the Jaws of Winter's Lightning

While the Jaws of Winter's Lightning secure the mine, the rest of the alliance pursues the retreating Jotun and it is at this moment that the Shard of Winter suddenly make their move.

Throughout the campaign so far they have been careful in how they engage; no more. They fall on the retreating Jotun with surgical precision, making the most of Hinodir's Grace, supported by the garrison of the Citadel of Silver and Bone. Their target, it seems, are the thralls - the miners and those who supported them. The thralls, and the mithril they carry. The Jotun are taken by surprise, but rally quickly, fighting off the Thule forces - but not before they have secured several hundred orc slaves - and the mithril they were carrying.

The Jotun try to get their thralls back - but the Shard of Winter falls back behind the alliance advance. To get to their stolen mithril, their stolen thralls, the Jotun will need to fight the entire Imperial and Thule army, and in the face of that strength they are forced to keep moving, keep retreating. The Howling Bears still attempt it - still try to flank the alliance force and rescue their thralls - but they are pushed back with crushing casualties.

The captured thralls and the mithril they bear are sent back east to the Silver Peaks. Many Winterfolk soldiers are outraged by this behaviour, but the warlocks of the Thule point out that they are permitted by the treaty to claim as many of the Jotun thralls as they can secure. As to the mithril - the Thule are not demanding that the Empire share their spoils of war. Why would they expect the Thule to do so?

Beneath the Northern Lights

They are not the last slaves to be taken by the Thule. Each of the Thule armies does it's best to secure orc thralls wherever possible; the Shard of Winter are simply the most effective at doing so. While they fight alongside their allies to secure territory, their first consideration is always to plunder the fallen Jotun, or the abandoned settlements, taking slaves and valuables with equal enthusiasm.

The battle for Suaq Wastes is very different to that at the Pride of Ikka's Tears. A desolate tundra with few permanent Winterfolk settlements, the Jotun are ill-equipped to slow the advance of the attackers - the Day magic enchantments in particular give an advantage to the Imperials and Thule. The clarity with which they plan their strategy allows them to identify key locations to hit, and how to move their armies to ensure that they are defended against Jotun counterattacks. The western orcs are forced to retreat again and again.

There is some consternation as six weeks before the Summer Solstice, the northern lights dance and twine in the night skies over Suaq Wastes. They are visible throughout Sermersuaq, but seem especially bright over the Wastes. Suaq mystics consider this a very poor omen. Other scoff at their concerns. While the lights are most often seen, and at their brightest, during Winter it is not unknown for them to be visible in the Summer months. The weather has been especially fine, and there is powerful Spring magic in the air, they say. It is nothing more. And yet the mystics are still nervous, and a few are perhaps surprised to learn that some of their opposite numbers among the Thule share their concerns. The orcs of Otkodov are also familiar with the gold-and-green ribbons of light, and they too view them with dread.

But obviously there are more pressing matters than the lights in the sky. There is a war to be won.

No single engagement defines the war over the Suaq Wastes, just as series of battles as the Jotun stop to try and stem the flood of the alliance. Many of these fights take place around newly constructed Jotun villages - little communities of huts huddled together within a perfunctory palisade. Orc settlers, hunters, fishers, and farmers - thralls with a handful of Jotun protectors - who would offer little resistance if not for the presence of the armies. Each one falls to the alliance. Sometimes they fall quickly, sometimes they fall after several days, but they all fall. Those thralls who are not able to retreat with the Jotun are taken as slaves by the Thule.

The outcome is as inevitable as the fall of the Pride of Ikka's Tears. The Jotun are driven from the Wastes, and with that victory Sermersuaq is once again an Imperial territory. (Although... as some of the Winterfolk point out, if the Thule did not control the Silver Peaks, if the mountains were Imperial, then Sermersuaq would have become Imperial once again with the liberation of Suaq Fount...) The Jotun are forced to fall back again, to Tanikipari and Stark.

The Siege of Olgafsdottirshal

Igya Olgafsdottir is a champion of the Jotun. Eldest child of the Jarl of Tromska, she is widely considered one of the finest siege engineers of the Jotun, and a respected advisor of Yrsa Jansdóttir, Queen of Kalsea. She built Olgafsdottirshal herself, among the hot springs of Tanikipari, and she built the Fortress of Kalant for the Jarl of Keirheim. Now here work will be put to the test. The alliance continues to pursue the retreating Jotun, but in Tanikipari the situation changes. Rather than makeshift barricades, or wooden palisades, the Jotun have walls, and towers, and beacons, and the garrisons that maintain them. The settlements in Tanikipari - both repurposed Winterfolk halls and new-built Jotun halls - are significantly easier to defend than scattered Suaq campsites beneath the cruel serpents of the northern lights.

The Imperial and Thule advance slows when it reaches Tanikipari. They are able to lay claim to outlying parts of the region, but once they begin to encounter the Jotun settlements it is a different matter. Many of the warriors who garrison the defences here are Summer-touched champions of Cathan Canae - indeed it is believed that Igya Olgafsdottir herself is highly favoured by the Queen of Ice and Darkness. The stones of Tanikipari are garlanded with ice, despite the advancing heat of Summer, in spite of the steam from the hot springs. The Jotun will not give up Tanikipari as easily as they did the Suaq Wastes.

As the Summer Solstice draws near, it looks as if a siege is inevitable. Alliance forces make camp in the north and east of the region, regrouping after the campaign across the Suaq Wastes, carefully probing the defences of Olgafsdottirshal and the Fortress of Kalant. Sermersuaq is once again in Imperial hands, but the war is not over. The Jotun are in highly defensible positions; indeed there are signs that they are actively engaged in expanding the defences of both castles when the Imperial troops draw near. Furthermore, there are reports from the front lines that some kind of Summer magic is being brought to bear on the two forts. There are sightings of ice giants and some whispered rumours of even larger creatures, neither of which bode well for the coming season.

For Summer is coming, and in spite of the magic of Spring, more than four thousand orcs and humans have died in the campaign to drive the Jotun from Sermersuaq. More than four thousands lives ended - and between the Jotun, the Summer Storm, and the Thule armies, a significant proportion of those dead were orcs. Condemned to one chance to cross the Howling Abyss. It is a sobering thought, perhaps. . Yet even without knowing precisely what is going on with these fortifications, it will take significant force to drive the Jotun out of Sermersuaq. Leaving them to hold Stark and Tanikipari is risky - with the Silver Peaks belonging to the Thule it would only need a single region to be conquered by the Jotun and the territory would be lost to the Empire again.

Game Information

The Empire has conquered Suaq Fount and Suaq Wastes, and made significant headway into Tanikipari. The presence of the three Thule armies and the massive garrison of the Citadel of Silver and Bone has been the deciding factor here; if the Imperial forces had engaged the Jotun alone they would most likely have been defeated.

Sermersuaq is once again an Imperial territory. This does not, however, mean it is a part of Wintermark. As with any conquered or liberated territory, the Imperial Senate must use the power of assignment to determine which Imperial nation Sermersuaq will become part of. It is almost unthinkable that the Senate will not assign the territory to Wintermark, but they are under no legal requirement to do so. It could be assigned to any Imperial nation.

Likewise, the Empire has reclaimed the Pride of Ikka's Tears, and the Senate will need to use the power of allocation to decide whether the mithril mine will be Imperial or national in nature. Before it was captured, custodianship of the Pride of Ikka's Tears was a national position determined by the military unit owners of Wintermark. Again, the Senate is under no obligation to leave the Pride of Ikka's Tears as national (belonging to whichever nation it assigns Sermersuaq to), and could easily declare it an Imperial position that will be auctioned to the highest bidder and raise money for the Imperial treasury. Regardless of what happens, the seat would not be appointed until the summit after it was assigned at the very earliest - not least because there is currently no mithril in the mine thanks to the Jotun.

The alliance with the Thule continues, and will last for two more seasons. The Thule have indicated that further discussion of strategy will take place via the Ambassador to Otkodov - currently Yevgeni Katzev. Likewise, any concerns that the Empire may have about the tactics of the Thule will need to go via the ambassador.

The Jotun castles in Tanikipari and Stark are both rank one fortifications, but it is clear that they possess - or are in the process of receiving - some kind of enchantment. Fighting to conquer a region with a fortification can be especially challenging, even without the presence of large numbers of Jotun warriors. There is also some evidence that one or both of the fortifications are on the verge of being raised to rank two - which will make driving the Jotun from Sermersuaq even more challenging.