386YE Autumn Equinox winds of war

A storm of swords breaks across the Empire.

Overview

Over the last three months, Imperial forces have engaged in military campaigns against barbarian forces. Sometimes those engagements have been wide ranging and dramatic, other times they have been more sedate. Continuing the approach we took last year, we're presenting a summary of the campaign on this page. Where there has been more dramatic action, or where there are opportunities, we've given a Wind of War its own page. We're also continuing to provide information about the battle opportunities, listed in the theatres that they concern.

As always, how much or how little of this information you choose to know in character is up to you. Part of the purpose of Winds of War and the Winds of Fortune is to make players aware of things their characters should know, based on what their roleplaying says they have been doing, and to maintain the Empire as a living, breathing place where all kinds of events take place beyond the scope of Anvil.

It should go without saying that we ask everyone to abide by the rules about online roleplaying with regard to the military campaign. It's important that the key in-character activity of the Empire world takes place at events. The game is busier and better if everything that can happen in the field, does happen in the field. Military planning and political discussions should happen at events. For this reason we generally discourage too much downtime roleplaying between events and put strict limits on what can be done online particularly using our forums and Facebook groups.

All that said we now present a summary of the key military activity in the Empire - both with links to the expanded Wind of War pages and notes about other important things that have happened that didn't need a full battle campaign write-up.

Gathering the Harvest

Conflict	Wind
Asaveans, Meade	Harvest of infamy
Grendel, Feroz and Madruga	Glass and flame
Jotun, Mournwold	The wild wind rises
Druj, Therunin	Blood and mire
Grendel, Ayereed	Steel and salt

Autumn is the season of the harvest, a season of reaping and gathering-in. The slow slide into Winter has begun, but this year it seems more like a scramble. Storms continue to wrack the Bay of Catazar; torrential rains threaten to ruin the Marcher crops before they can be stowed safely in the barns; even over Dawn the bright blue skies of Summer are over-eager for the clouds that darken them. The weather above reflects the weather below; a season of tumult when the storm of swords breaks across the Empire.

Start with a crack of lightning, presaging the thunder to come. A lightning strike behind the lines, a treacherous attack against the people of Mitwold. The Asavean Plenum sends swift ships through the Sea of Snow down the Gullet, to strike at the Marches; a surprise assault on the first market town, on the city of Meade. A cowardly attack, to raid and ruin, leading to a Harvest of infamy.

On the Bay of Catazar, the Brass Coast suffers. For years Feroz has been under the heel of the vile Governor Rahab. The Grendel and their allies assailed Madruga and burned Siroc, and now the Children of Wrecks have seized the islands. The flames of war are lit, and the drums begin to beat, and the battle is joined. But who fights, and where? All that is certain this season is that there is a glorious triumph... but for whom? Look for the answers in Glass and flame.

Between Mitwold and the Brass Coast lies Mournwold. Last season, at the height of Summer, the Jotun Queen of the North, the Jarl of Jarls, lead two armies into Southmoor and captured the market town of Sarcombe. Now it is Autumn, and time to bring in the wheat, time to reap what has been sown. The Tusks lead the way as the Empire comes to drive the Jotun from the Mourn. But there is many a slip betwixt cup and lip... and it is hard to say which way the vane will point when The wild wind rises.

Across now the the east, to the marshes and forests of Therunin. Between Urizen and Dawn, the Navarr territory has been invaded by the orcs of the Mallum. Poison spreads in the soil, and death stalks beneath the trees and lurks in the pools and lakes. The Druj seek to kill human and orc inhabitant alike, pressing west. Worse, there are rumours and hints that they have a purpose here even more terrible than slaughter - that they seek to meddle with the slumbering vallorn. The folk of striding and steading will not stand for this; now is the time of Blood and mire.

And thence to the Broken Shore, and to unknown Ayereed. Three Imperial armies moving south from Mareave, into the Petrified Forest. The land here is as dry and unwelcoming as that to the north, and there are many dangers ahead as the Empire strives to conquer the Grendel homelands through Steel and salt.

Battle opportunities

Imperial prognosticators have identified three possible major conjunctions of the Sentinel Gate at the coming summit. The Military Council will muster on Friday night, and the generals will select two of them to be taken up by Imperial heroes. At the moment the full details of these opportunities are not clear; more information will be provided nearer to the event.

All battle opportunities are Combat Highly Likely environments.

Location	Opportunity	Opposition	Day	Learn More	CS Briefing
Madruga, Free Landing, Freeborn Plain	Break the Gathering Storm	Children of Wrecks	Saturday	The Gathering Storm	Briefing
Mournwold, Ore Hills, Jade Wood	Rouse the Mourn's defenders	Jotun	Either Day	Sixty Years Gone	Briefing
Therunin, Sweetglades, Ashborder	Stop the Druj's plan	Druj	Sunday	All Along the Lakeside	Briefing

Battle participation

• The Children of Wrecks battle opportunity involves a motley mix of fighters from across the Bay of Catazar

If the Military Council takes the opportunity involving the Children of Wrecks, we will ask player volunteers to take on a range of roles including: former Grendel soldiers, and former citizens of the Brass Coast, the League, Highguard, and Urizen. If you have your own orc mask please do bring it along as we're keen to ensure we can field a force predominantly comprised of former Grendel orcs. EMUs should monster as their orc Grendel as normal.

In the Madruga battle you can help by wearing any Grendel or Freeborn, League, Highborn, or Urizen-style kit or armour you have, as well as any iconic Grendel weaponry, particularly swords, spears and large shields. You can find out more about the iconic Grendel look here but the key element for portraying the Grendel is flowing layers and plate torso armour evocative of ancient Mediterranean cultures as their iconic look.

Any human roles will be formed into units and led by members of the Skirmish Team.

• The Jotun battle opportunity involves limited numbers of human yegarra alongside the Jotun orcs

If the Military Council take opportunities involving the Jotun, we will ask the majority of player volunteers to take on the roles of Jotun orcs as normal. If you have your own orc mask please do bring it along as we're keen to ensure we can field a force predominantly comprised of Jotun orcs.

In the Mournwold battle you can help by wearing any Jotun, Marcher, or Wintermark-style kit or armour you have, as well as any iconic Jotun weaponry, particularly axes, maces, and circular shields. You can find out more about the iconic Jotun look here but the key element for portraying the northern Jotun is leather and fur over maile as their iconic look. Any Marcher kit or armour you have, as well as any iconic Marcher weaponry particularly a bill, spear or other pole-arm, would contribute to the look of Stephen of Sarcombe's warband fighting alongside the Jotun forces.

• The Druj battle opportunity involves a force composed primarily of Druj orcs

If the Military Council take opportunities involving the Druj, we will ask the majority of player volunteers to take on the roles of Druj orcs as normal. If you have your own orc mask please do bring it along as we're keen to ensure we can field a force predominantly comprised of Druj orcs.

In the Therunin battle you can help by wearing any leather or plate armour you have, as well as any iconic Druj weaponry, particularly swords, spears and great weapons, as well as bows of all types. You can find out more about the iconic Druj look here but the key element for portraying the Druj is a mantle and ragged material layers that echo natural greens, browns, greys, and black, with occasional bright accent colours as their iconic look.

We understand the difficulty of getting to an event with additional kit at the best of times, especially as it will not be possible to tell before Friday night whether the Military Council will elect to take a particular battle, but if you are able to bring such kit along it will improve your experience as well as that of the players you are fighting against.

If you are already part of an elite monster unit that monsters as an orc warband, then please come to battle prep as you normally would for these battles. If you are part of such a unit but do not have your own orc mask then we hope that we will be able to supply an orc mask for you, but cannot guarantee one. It is not possible to play a human yegarra or human mercenary combatant in an EMU.

IMPORTANT - we will not be reusing any orc masks to players for these battle opportunities. Our orc masks will only be used once this event and then washed ready for the next event. We are continuing the provision of battle opportunities with non-orc enemies until such a time as we have sufficient masks to run two fully orc masked battles.

Conjunctions

The Sentinel Gate also allows smaller groups of Imperial citizens to reach locations all over the Empire where their intervention might change the course of events. Many of these conjunctions involve combat, but there are also a variety of other opportunities presented by the magic of the Gate.

For most conjunctions, the Civil Service has identified the Imperial titles that are the most appropriate to take overall responsibility for ensuring that a response is organised. Whilst the individual has been named by the Civil Service, there is no legal requirement for them to coordinate a response or travel on the conjunction. They may delegate oversight to another individual of their choosing. As always, Imperial war scouts will be on hand at the Sentinel Gate to provide further information to any citizens wanting to learn more. They can provide updates on the barbarians' goals, guidance on how to engage the enemy troops or advice on how to avoid casualties and return back to Anvil in safety.

Sometimes it is necessary for us to make small adjustments to the timing or size of encounters at the time of this publication and when an encounter runs at an event. Details for the conjunctions on Friday will be finalised on Friday afternoon of the event before time-in (18:00) whilst details for the conjunctions on Saturday will be finalised on Saturday before time-in (10:00). Please check the details of any conjunction you are interested in as soon as possible to ensure that you have the full and up-to-date information; it might also be sensible to check again shortly before the planned time of the encounter. You can check the details of a conjunction by casting Detect Magic (Discover Conjunction) on the Sentinel Gate in the presence of a referee.

It's very important to pay attention to the accessibility note for each conjunction, which covers the likelihood of combat. Further details about the accessibility of a conjunction are available both before and during the event. You can learn more about this on the accessibility page.

Friday

These times and numbers are subject to change until 18:00 on Friday

Time	People	Duration	Combat	Location	Responsibility	Overview/Link
18:30	75	20 mins	Highly Likely	The Barrens, Untrod Groves, Skrengal Copse	Knight-protector of Spring	Kill the Druj ritualists
19:00	75	20 mins	Highly Likely	Morrow, Peregro, Iulia's Grove	Churnspire Adjutor	Kill the Shuddering Wrast
19:15	10	20 mins	Possible	Mournwold, Chalkdowns, Tilly's Howe	Keeper of the Happiston Fields	Investigate the disturbance
No bows or crossbows after this time
20:30	80	20 mins	Highly Likely	Miaren, Goldglades, Soured Pasture	Grandmaster of the Rod and Shield	Kill the followers of the Braying Lord
20:45	20	20 mins	Highly Likely	Therunin, Peakedge Song, Bronwen's Stand	Eastern Broker	Stop the Druj
21:00	80	20 mins	Highly Likely	Hahnmark, Wood Heath, Tainted Bawn	Imperial Huntsmarshall	Kill the Crimson Band
21:05	6	40 mins	Possible	Nithoggir, Skarlans, Shaft #3	Ambassador to Otkodov	Investigate the situation
21:30	85	20 mins	Highly Likely	Temeschwar, Vardstein Vale, Putrid Fields	Delver of the Depths	Slay the Braying Lord

Saturday

These times and numbers are subject to change until 10:00 on Saturday

Time	People	Duration	Combat	Location	Responsibility	Overview/Link
14:15	15	20 mins	Highly Likely	Holberg, Holmaeur, Wunderkind Fields	Custodian of the Bloody Great Sausage	Kill the Feasters of Marrow
14:30	65	20 mins	Highly Likely	Tassato, Tassato Mestra, Felladonni Woods	Tassatan Hills	Stop the warband from claiming ilium
15:00	65	20 mins	Highly Likely	Mournwold, Southmoor, Charlie's Coppice	Nigel Hornbeam	Kill Dalton Royse
15:15	20	20 mins	Highly Likely	Astolat, Winterbourne, the Grand Spinney	Jared of the Sentinels Tower	Kill the Speakers of Famine
15:30	65	20 mins	Highly Likely	Mournwold, Southmoor, Fecund Boscage	Olyvar of Esther's Sanctum	Clear the last Jotun cache
17:00	70	20 mins	Highly Likely	Ayereed, Cornaghan, Anabla's Orchard	General of the Seventh Wave	Stop the Asaveans from reinforcing Stormlords Rise
17:15	15	20 mins	Highly Likely	Mournwold, Chalkdowns, Broken Corral	Reeve of the Happiston Mana Exchange	Defeat the Jotun
17:30	70	20 mins	Highly Likely	Sarvos, Uccelini, Isle of the Fox	Steward of the Sarvos Mana Exchange	Protect the Isle of the Fox
17:45	15	20 mins	Highly Likely	Bregasland, Grey Fens, Hal's Hollow	Imperial Advisor for the Feni	Stop the Jotun slaughtering the Feni
18:00	70	20 mins	Highly Likely	Kallavesa, West Marsh, Ardith's Holt	Speaker of the Crows	Protect the Pilgrim's Trail from the Asaveans
No bows or crossbows after this time
20:00	60	20 mins	Highly Likely	Madruga, Calvos Sound, Santana's Path	Hand of Guerra	Kill the wreckers
20:30	60	20 mins	Highly Likely	Necropolis, Longbeach, Magazjin Plain	Kruidenkenner Trademaster	Kill the wreckers
20:45	30	20 mins	Possible	Volodmartz, Perumaki, the Choked Forest	Grim Gardener	Soothe the wolves of Nadezhdikov
21:00	60	20 mins	Highly Likely	Spiral, Apulus, Eammon's Bawn	Senator for Spiral	Stop the Wailing Gyre
22:05 22:10 22:15 22:20 22:25 22:35 22:40 22:45 22:50 22:55	5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5	5 mins 5 mins 5 mins 5 mins 5 mins 5 mins 5 mins 5 mins 5 mins 5 mins	Unlikely	Karov, Duzekani, Bulgakov	Grieftender of the Forgotten	Make the vale of Bulgakov inhabitable

Military Considerations

Several territory pages now contain details of strategic obstacles presented or advantages provided by movement through or fighting in those lands. There are also several fortifications that follow different rules. Several armies or nations have special rules or opportunities related to the orders they can issue, which should be borne in mind when discussing military strategies during the Autumn Equinox.

• Billeting: Any Imperial army can take the Billet order in Bregasland, Upwold, or Mitwold. Link
• Dawn:
  • Dawnish armies cannot take the Cautious Advance order or the Give Ground order. Link
• Imperial Orcs
  • An Imperial Orc army can take the Forge Hammers order whilst in Skarsind. Link
• The Marches:
  • Marcher armies cannot take the Give Ground order. Link
  • The Strong Reeds receive an additional 1000 strength when fighting in Bregasland. Link
  • The Tusks receive an additional 1000 strength when fighting in Mournwold. Link
  • The Drakes receive an additional 1000 strength when fighting in Mitwold. Link
  • The Bounders receive an additional 1000 strength when fighting in Upwold. Link
• Varushka:
  • Varushkan armies involved in the same campaign as an army from the Brass Coast or Wintermark generate 10% fewer victory points. If armies from both nations are present, the reduction is increased to 20%. Link.
  • Varushkan armies can take the Hospitality of the Boyars order whilst in Ossium. Link.
• Wintermark:
  • Wintermark armies can take the Fight with Honour order. Link.
  • Wintermark armies fighting against the Jotun will gain 10% more victory points but inflict 20% less casualties. Link
  • Wintermark armies fighting against the Jotun have their casualties taken reduced by 10%. This effect continues as long as the Winterfolk continue to fight honourably. Link

Click Expand to see military considerations that are less relevant at the current time but are still active.

• Zenith: Any Highborn or Urizen army attacking into Zenith from Morrow gains a 20% bonus to any territory captured and suffers a 10% reduction in casualties inflicted. Link
• Morrow: Any Highborn or Urizen army that defends in Morrow against an army attacking from Zenith gains a 20% bonus to defend territory and suffers a 10% reduction in casualties inflicted. Link