Author: Plemency

An Overview Of Our Future Worlds

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18/04/549 ASU

1. Actias. The homeworld and seat of power for the Leonid Royal Family. It features a large ringed outer continent, and a smaller continent which sits inside the acidic ocean.

2. Basugio. There’s a single continent spread across all hemispheres by long land bridges connecting the larger landmasses.

3. Tazpolvo. A world made mostly of arid deserts and tall mountains, with three isolated oceans and occasional seas.

4. Medalma. The breadbasket of the Empire. All its land is located in the northern hemisphere. The northern ice caps direct water south through a dozen major waterways, which creates billions of acres of fertile farmland.

5. La Piscina. Located in the center of the empire, it’s a water world with four major continents, and hundreds of thousands of island chains and archipelagos in the space between them.

6. Gatojo. Named after the eyes of a beast, the singular continent stretches from the north pole to the south. There are grasslands and forests on the flanks, stretches of tall mountains, then a vast desert on the inside.

7. Quintara. A muddy, swampy world with few parcels of dry land, and trees that extend upwards of a mile into the sky.

8. Esconderse. The sun is harsh and has made the surface inhospitable, so settlements can only exist within the millions of miles of natural tunnels that stretch deep into the planet.

9. Aguja. A planet and a moon connected by a truly gargantuan metal construct that dwarfs both. Travel to the planet is restricted because it’s ‘haunted’, so cabella settlement is primarily on the moon and the first hundred floors of the tower.

The Leonid Empire has owned these worlds for over 700 years. Their federation has thousands of countries, free cities, frontiers, and statelets, with well-explored starlanes keeping travel safe and reliable.

Leonid Lies, Imperial Imposters, Federal Foolishness

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13/13/544 ASU

I am saddened to report that Peldan Star News has made a terrible discovery with our soon-to-be conquest of the Leonid Empire.

Empires carry a very specific meaning to elves. It means dominance, peerlessness, strength and virtue, born from the fires of conquest and victory. There may only be one true empire at a time, for a true empire suffers no rivals.

The Protectorate, having defeated many empires, reigns far above that title.

But the Leonid Empire is not an empire. Its head of state may be called the Emperor, but it doesn’t meet the criteria we elves have used for millennia.

The Leonid Empire is more like the Leonid Federation. It’s a supranational collection of autonomous states who happen to share the same language, culture, ethnicity, and monarch. The emperor may not enter any state an issue decrees, he is bounded by an ancient constitution which defines and limits his power.

The history of the Leonid ‘Empire’ states they left Actias hundreds of years ago to ‘recolonize their eight lost worlds’. They were a traditional empire, though the Emperor had been a ceremonial role for centuries. As their colonies developed and calls for independence grew, a series of forward-thinking reformers in the Imperial Court launched an ambitious process to redefine the Empire before it tore itself apart in endless civil wars.

Each colony became autonomous once they reached a certain level of development. There was free trade and travel between all the states, all would recognize the Emperor or Empress as their monarch, and there was a shared military command structure to combat threats.

These reforms effectively kept the ‘empire’ together without major strife, though it’s now merely an empire in name only.

A shame. We were excited to add yet another empire to our ever-growing list of victories.

An Exciting New Foe To The West: The Leonid Empire

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07/15/543 ASU

Explorers and pioneers scouting the western reaches (west of the zatadun worlds, south of Sayar) have discovered a new race of aliens. Strange creatures with large boney crowns that end in three tall horns, two in the front and one in the back. The back part of this bone helmet extends into a long, flexible tail that ends in pincers or hooks or even a piston. Extending down from their helmet is a long brace which ends between their shoulder blades, presumably to reinforce their spines and support the excess weight.

The monsoorai-owned exploratory vessel, The Idonri, featured a crew with a sayran, three peldaks, a hemlock, 15 monsoorai, an arcadian, and four cirathans. They first discovered the alien world we believe is called ‘Basugio’, and from there the orange-skinned locals escorted the ship to the capital planet of Actias. The arcadian is a trained psychic who was able to translate their speech.

The Indori’s crew spent the next half year in the Leonid Emperor’s Summer palace, learning all about the cabella people and the particular leonid ethnic group that runs the empire, and a proper translation was made for the leonese language. Every night ended with a feast full of imported food from the colonies, they were waited on by exotic beauties whose skin came in a variety of colors and shades, and they regularly dined with the Leonid Royal Family, as well as thousands of important statesmen and leaders from around the empire.

Once the explorers finished the translation and had a written account of the empire’s proud history, the Leonid Emperor sent them back to the Protectorate with a mountain of treasure and relics.

The empire claims dominion over nine worlds.

The Peldak Protectorate has members on 35 worlds.

It will be 44 soon enough.

Sleeping With The Fishes: A Mermaid Mafia Story

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10/11/598 ASU

A cabella, Izan, enjoys a peaceful meal with his wife, Elena, in a corner store restaurant. He’s jumpy, scanning for any threatening sounds, and nervously taps the pistol on his holster.

“Are you okay, dear?” Elene asks, her eyes flush with concern.

“Perfect, babe, nothing to worry about.”

In truth he has a mountain of debt resting on his shoulders. One too many loans resulting in one too many poor investments caused him to take his family far across the ocean of La Piscina due to a ‘promotion’ for a job he doesn’t have. He left a lot of friends behind.

Two men enter the store.

Izan hunches his shoulders, hand tight around his pistol.

The men walk closer.

Closer.

Too close!

Izan slides out of the booth and turns with his gun ready, but they’re professionals. One moves in, grabs his gun, and punches him in the face. The other shoots Elena in the chest, and the store erupts in panic.

Izan’s struggles are futile; his sobs of apology fall upon deaf horns.

The two men pay for the meal as they leave and drag Izan off in the middle of a bright, sunny day. The police arrived an hour later to remove Elena’s corpse.

Izan is thrown onto a boat to meet the boss, and they sail 80 miles out into the ocean.

Awaiting them is a pod of mermaids; fishmen with the lower half of a fish, and the upper half of a beautiful cabellan woman.

Izan’s thrown overboard, and the mermaids drag him so far down that the pressure collapses his lungs. He’s fed to a gargantuan eel resting in a cove deep on the ocean floor.

Undercover agents revealed this happens thousands of times a year. The victims can never be found.

Fishman Exodus To Wonder World Of La Piscina

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19/03/574 ASU

Over 200,000 fishmen of the High Fitche clans have reportedly gone on pilgrimage to the former Leonid Empire world known as ‘the pool’.

La Piscina was supposedly named as such by Leonid explorers due to the existence of giant sea monsters which roam the many oceans and seas and waterways of that world, as if the entire planet was their playground. The world is similar to Meerester – the Homeworld of the fishmen – and ancient Peldor in that regard. Though the ancient elves hunted our leviathans to extinction, and the ancient fishman were either descendant from their leviathans, or the ancient fishmen turned into the first leviathans.

Regardless, giant sea monsters hold a deep spot of reverence in the psyche of not just the civilized High Fitche, but all races of fishmen, even the primitive masses of savages. A few bogmen clans have learned about these ocean beasts and have expressed interest in learning more about such distant travel, Sirens in the famed Queen Consort Resort on Peldor are requesting leave to travel to the world in bulk and swim with the sacred creatures. Mermaids are asking sailors for directions to the nearest port, and civilized fishmen from the many rivers, lakes, and ponds are asking their peldak friends to escort their clans across the void of space.

Normally it would be up to local authorities to approve such transients, but with the Leonid Empire gone and the remaining planet so fractured, the Protectorate has become the largest ‘local authority’ on La Piscina, and we’ve approved their locations for six potential settlements.

All fishman races are capable of surviving in any body of water, irrespective of temperature, toxins, or salinity. They will only require a few days for the adjustment, and several large meals for the necessary calories.

Queen Olympia Stuns With Sparkling Siren Serenade

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17/14/486 ASU

The Queen of Arcadia has once again defeated all rivals with the grand opening of the Queen Consort Resort And Leisure Lounge.

Built in the Protectorate Capital of Heaven’s Reach – the North Pole of Peldor and the only location where travelers can enter or leave the planet – it serves as prime real estate and is expected to service millions of transients every year, with expansions already planned due to the steady rise of interstellar shipping and travel.

The Queen Consort Resort encompasses 18 distinct campuses, all connected via railroads, and has amenities tailored for all known species in the Protectorate. The resort is owned and operated by the Arcadian Royal Family, though largely employs aliens to reflect the cosmopolitan feel of its clientele.

This luxurious focus contrasts the peldak hotels built in the past decades, which were primarily designed to accommodate the flow of elven soldiers as they awaited travel to the Ardennes front. They primarily rival the hotels built by the Firryan Economic Union, which employ an all-firryan staff and focuses on servicing politicians and ambassadors because all firryans are spies and seductresses.

The keystone of Queen Olympia’s resort is the dining lounge which sits in a grand dome surrounding a central spire. This spire incorporates pipes, waterfalls, and foliage to create a naturalist decore, and features hidden, underwater tubes to allow a concert of sirens to rotate shifts to ensure constant, romantic dinner music.

Sirens are a fishman offshoot that take the form of beautiful women, with multi-colored scales and vibrant fins which create the appearance of long ears and hair. Old zatadun legends say they used their enchanting voices to lure sailors to their deaths, which led to thousands of ill-fated attempts to enslave them.

Queen Olympia was the first to ever successfully negotiate an employment contract.

Bogmen Officially Subdued, Peace Achieved

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18/06/397 ASU

While the Good Hunt effectively ended a decade ago following the bogmen’s disastrous final assault, it has now officially come to an end with the subjugation of the last tribe in the ‘Bog-Of-Shimmering-Moonlight’ on 17/01/379.

The terms were the same we’d given all bogmen. They retain full control over their territory, they normalize trade with the zatadun states, and they stop their raiding and slave trading ways.

The bogmen have routinely revealed themselves to be a shy, but far more sophisticated people than we expected. They never considered themselves to be warlike, and claim it was the zatadun who appeared out of nowhere a few centuries ago, invaded their lands, and attacked without warning. The zatadun claim they did try to establish contact, and due to the war we fought we’re inclined to believe the zatadun.

Regardless, the bogmen are pleased with the new trade deals. They’ll collect bogsilver and brew potions in bulk, then travel to dedicated peldak outposts since we’ve built a reputation as a strong, honest people who only acted in self-defense.

Zatadun traders will arrive at the outpost and conduct trade under our supervision and translations – which we will freely teach to the zatadun. Now that they can talk to each other, the bogmen can ask for a much wider range of products they can’t develop in the wetlands, and the zatadun have already begun describing what kind of effects they want put into the potions they order.

We only expect to operate these outposts for a century or two before handing them off. Trust between the bogmen and zatadun will naturally build up over time, and eventually it can continue without our guidance.

The legionary presences in the regions are already winding down, and our forces are being repositioned closer to the zatadun-Slavani borders.

Linguistically Perfectly, Logically Poor, Lethality Prolonged

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11/15/370 ASU

The pair of linguist scouts the military sent into the swamp finished their work to a satisfactory standard and carefully walked into the bogmen den to converse. They identified the clan leader, bowed respectfully, then addressed him by name before introducing themselves. The bogmen, surprised by the ‘disgusting, long-eared monsters’ being capable of speech, spent hours communicating with the two elves – though it was a slow process and they couldn’t talk about many subjects.

Regardless, the elves conveyed the reasons for the war: that bogmen were raiding outlying settlements and so the ‘long-eared monsters’ were protecting their people.

The bogmen understood our reasoning and were surprised that such a peaceful people were so proficient at war – our linguists decided to not mention how we’re not a peaceful people. The tribe also agreed to teach the elves their language and improve the translation, which took most of the winter. Our understanding of the bogman language is now quite fluent.

The two elves then went around the swamp, introducing themselves to other villages and negotiating peace deals with each of them. There were five tribes in total, all subdued in a few months.

When they went to a different wetland hundreds of miles away, however, they couldn’t speak to the bogmen.

As it turns out, the vast distance between wetlands created entirely separate languages. We spent years making a language that only works for 1/57th of the bogmen population.

If this five-year translation cycle continues, we’ll have all the wetlands subdued in a brisk 285 years.

Obviously, we’re going to switch tactics. Each theatre is in charge of making their own translation with the native bogman of their assigned wetland. They have 10 years to do it; twice the time required for the dedicated linguists.

Last Gasp Of A Dying Wetland Empire

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06/07/367 ASU

The bogmen of Meerester were silent all winter, never trying to attack our patrols, passively trading, we were even invited into their villages. Some tribes even offered us food and rest within their villages without cost. It was a shocking display of hospitality from a species we weren’t sure could express it.

This changed on the first full moon following the ice thawing.

The bogmen, across thousands of miles and seemingly no way to communicate with each other, mobilized and attacked all at once. Our squads were scattered and taken by surprise, too used to the peaceful routine of traversing the wetlands. Entire armies of bogmen stormed villages and outlying cities. They were all fueled by potions as if the disparate tribes had stockpiling for this operation.

The initial estimates are anywhere from 150,000-300,000 bogmen are taking part in this mass assault, which could mean up to a third of the bogmen on the planet have picked up army to try and kill us. However, this is still less than the total number of soldiers we’ve deployed for these operations, and there are even more logistics troops that could be brought forward in an emergency.

We suspect that large scale combat will continue for up to three months. We’re looking to kill no less than 60,000 bogmen, though 100,000 would be ideal if their troop numbers are on the higher estimates. If we lose less than 3,000 peldaks during these operations, we’ll consider it a staggering success.

After their campaign fails, they should, finally, lose all hope in a military victory, and come to accept their position.

It should be noted that not all bogmen are participating. Those linguist elves still working on a translation have reported no abnormal behavior compared to last winter.