General information (Pre-Great war):
Demonym: Abernite
Capital: Caltrenn
Key cities: Ostravaleth, Mornagast, Skalbrith and Corthmael
Official language: Kravenmor
Total population: 135,637,682
Total land area: 262,819 km2
Currency: Skarnp
Government:
The Presidential Relic (KEEP IT GROW):
[OMITTED] January, [OMITTED]
████████████████████████████████ - there was no meeting, no, it never happened. the ████████ was never even in Abern, not once, not ever. ███████████████████████ gave something, though. something small. a seed. ████████████████ kept whispering - water it. water it every day. and [UNNAMED] didn't wait; he planted it right into the ground where the meeting never was. ████████████████ watches it grow from nothing. ████████████████ keeps watering it. keeps watering it
Ontological status: Available evidence suggests the entity migrated to adjacent islands as the mainland became severely uninhabitable due to lethal disease conditions. To date, all attempts to contact or verify survivors on the islands have failed, and communication remains unavailable.
About Abern:
No one is entirely certain where the ancestors of Abern truly came from. Some say they arrived from beyond Eldervale. Others insist they were always there, hidden in the wetlands long before history began keeping track. What is known is this: before settling in their current homeland, their ancestors were spread across much of the Far Western Eldervale. Why they gathered into one place remains a mystery - retreat, migration, strategy, or something else entirely.
What did survive the ages was their cunning.
Abern's early people mastered their environment not through brute force, but through intelligence. They turned wetlands into fortresses. They built traps disguised as landscapes. They made the land itself fight for them. Mud swallowed armies. Hidden channels misled invaders. Camouflaged pitfalls and collapsible terrain transformed entire battlefields into puzzles only Abern understood. Conquering Abern became a nightmare not because of numbers - but because nothing was ever quite what it seemed.
In the late 11th and early 12th centuries, Abern attempted something unusual. Tired of isolation and constant tension, it began adopting foreign values in hopes of forming alliances. Languages shifted. Customs softened. Traditions were diluted. The effort achieved little diplomatic success, but it produced something far more unsettling: a generation that no longer knew its own cultural roots. They were called the Null Generation - citizens untethered from memory.
The backlash was intense. Society fractured internally. Debates turned bitter. Eventually, by the latter half of the 12th century, Abern decisively returned to its traditions, embracing its original identity with renewed intensity - not gently, but deliberately.
Abern's external relationships were rarely peaceful. Its longest-running hostilities were with Toutanglom and Velbor. Their antagonism is said to stretch back nearly thirty thousand years - so long that the original reason for hatred has been forgotten. Ancient records suggest there may once have been a form of mutual coexistence, even cooperation. But as ambition grew and each state sought dominance, fear replaced balance. Fear prevented lasting peace.
The longest period without war between them lasted just over two centuries, from -618 to -409 (BCE). Then the cycle resumed. By then, the reasons no longer mattered. Thousands of grievances had layered over one another like sediment. Old anger was constantly renewed.
Major conflicts such as the Colonial System Conflict (562–575) against the Tanglomi-Dravic alliance and The Great Quadragenary (612–654) with Velbor marked some of the bloodiest eras. Limited wars escalated into total wars. Over time, Abern drifted into regional isolation - mistrusted, wary, and inward-looking.
Everything shifted after the First and Second Great Wars. Abern formed a close relationship with Hleidisland and together they established the Vanguard Faction, a strategic alliance that finally pulled Abern away from complete isolation and back into geopolitical relevance.
If Abern's politics are defined by suspicion, its architecture is defined by roots.
Literally.
Abernite builders believe that roots - not walls - are the truest structural form. From the outside, buildings appear as if enormous root systems have erupted from the earth and wrapped themselves around constructed space. Massive exposed root structures grip façades. Thick buttress-like roots flare outward at the base, some disappearing into the soil, others arching upward to become walls. Upper floors appear suspended within woven root lattices. No straight edges. No perfect symmetry. Twisting. Interlocking. Slightly chaotic - but always structurally sound.
The primary palette leans into deep amethyst, royal violet, dusty lavender stone, and dark plum-toned wood. Materials include polished violet-tinted concrete, resin-infused timber with purple undertones, brushed oxidized metal, and semi-translucent purple glass veins that resemble channels of sap. At night, soft interior light pulses faintly through these "veins," giving the impression that the building itself is alive - bioluminescent, breathing.
The façade is dominated by a visible root exoskeleton. These roots thicken at structural stress points - corners, base, roofline - as if responding to pressure like living tissue. Smaller fibrous roots branch outward like veins, made from resin-stabilized timber or bio-concrete molded from real root scans. Between them, deep violet glass panels shift in gradient from dark plum at the base to pale lavender near the top.
At ground level, massive root-buttress systems spread outward dramatically. Some roots vanish into the earth. Others climb upward. On the roof, roots spiral and weave into a canopy-like crown. At the center, an oculus emits soft violet light - not harsh, but glowing like filtered dusk.
Inside, the space feels like entering the heart of a colossal tree.
Root-columns spiral upward. Vaulted ceilings are formed by braided root arches. Floors contain subtle vein-like inlays that glow dim violet beneath your feet. Shafts of light filter through narrow gaps in the root lattice above. The lighting is indirect and misty, slightly mystical but never theatrical.
Deep at the center of major structures hangs a suspended "root core" - semi-translucent, internally illuminated with a slow, rhythmic pulse. It resembles the heartwood of an ancient tree, but architecturally. It feels less like a chandelier and more like a living organ.
Small details complete the experience: root fibers embedded in flooring, purple mineral inlays along stair edges, door handles shaped like twisted tendrils, railings resembling braided vines.
Abern builds as if it never fully stopped being forest.
And perhaps it hasn't.
Across Ostravaleth and Mornagast stands a tree so immense it reshapes the horizon. Its name is Trovannic.
The trunk alone is wider than a fortress tower, its bark layered like stone cliffs carved by centuries. The upper branches are never fully visible from the ground; they rise into mist and sky until they disappear. Its canopy is so dense and luminous that, from afar, it resembles a second firmament suspended above the land. Branches stretch horizontally for impossible distances before curving upward again.
Its roots are colossal - mountain-like structures radiating outward, some arching above the earth before plunging back underground. Entire valleys form between them.
No one knows exactly how old Trovannic is. Some say it grew when Abern's ancestors first arrived; others believe it came later. What is certain is that the tree became the living symbol of Abern itself - rooted, enduring, and vast beyond immediate sight.
It is perhaps fitting, then, that Abern became masters of traps.
They can fashion traps from almost anything - terrain, shadow, pressure, even light. Wetlands become labyrinths. Reflections become misdirection. In war, traps are not secondary tactics but central doctrine. It is said they have devised more than five thousand types, many refined and upgraded over generations. An entire branch of government oversees the craft.
Since joining Vanguard and gaining trade access through Senas Tuath, Abern has developed rapidly. Yet modernization has not loosened its grip on tradition.
Like Trovannic, Abern remains deeply rooted - and far larger than it first appears.
Abern's authorities don't just police the shadows; they fund a monster to hunt them. That monster is Nemedon, an independent Task Force with a long reach and a very short temper. Operating both inside the city and beyond the border, they are the specialized scalpel used to cut out the darkest rot in society.
Their hit list is simple: human traffickers, sexual predators, child abusers, and the architects of the illegal trade, etc. They didn't just gain a reputation; they earned infamy. Nemedon is known for a brand of "aggressive efficiency" that most would call sheer brutality. They don't do sieges, and they don't do standoffs. They hit like a natural disaster - fast, loud, and final. While other units spend months building a case, Nemedon usually ends a criminal's entire career in under twenty-four hours. By sunrise, the doors are kicked in. By sunset, the targets are either in chains or erased.
Brief modern history:
On 2 January 1274, the state of Abern descended into an era of constant internecine warfare between competing political factions. This catastrophic collapse followed Abern's defeat against Toutanglom and Velbor during the First Great War of Eldervale, which had exposed fundamental weaknesses in both governmental legitimacy and institutional cohesion.
The crisis began with the abrupt resignation of Drust map Talorc, who stepped down from leadership merely two weeks after the war's conclusion. Canurix ui Nectovar assumed control as temporary head of state, inheriting a nation teetering on the precipice of systemic failure.
Widespread civil unrest erupted throughout the state. Nectovar's attempts to suppress dissent and pacify the population failed catastrophically - suppression operations devolved into indiscriminate bloodbaths involving both security forces and Abernite civilians. The situation deteriorated exponentially as authorities lost popular legitimacy, generating massive public disagreement with governmental policies and methods.
The most significant manifestation of popular resistance was the Purple Banner Procession on 11 April 1274, organized by the political party Uurgost Brogdrim (UB). This faction had gained tremendous popularity in the immediate aftermath of the First Great War, capitalizing on widespread disillusionment with the existing regime.
The march represented a direct call for citizens to rise against the government. Despite brutal suppression efforts, the demonstration achieved enormous popularity across the entire state, transforming UB from a marginal political movement into a genuine revolutionary force.
On 20 April 1274, the founder of Uurgost Brogdrim - Uurvathren mab Gorthelion - escaped from imprisonment where he had been held for nearly a decade on charges of extremism and anti-government activities. His liberation was facilitated by loyal comrades who exploited the chaos engulfing the state's security apparatus.
Throughout 21 April to 30 May, Gorthelion disseminated his political philosophy, which he had developed both before his incarceration and during his decade of imprisonment: Paleo-Nativism, commonly referred to as Gorthelionism. This ideology centered on protecting the interests of native-born inhabitants and demanded the state return to its "purest" primitive condition. Gorthelion postulated that modernization represented a malignant tumor corrupting the state's authentic character and reputation. His philosophy advocated radical cultural reversion, militant nativism, and the systematic elimination of foreign influences that had allegedly corrupted Abernite society.
The ideology resonated powerfully with a population traumatized by military defeat, economic collapse, and perceived betrayal by incompetent leadership. Within weeks, Gorthelionism transformed from a fringe theory into a mass movement commanding substantial popular and institutional support.
On the third day of June, armed confrontation erupted in the capital. The insurgent coalition, led by Gorthelion and supported by sympathetic officials within the regime's own security apparatus, initiated a military standoff. The original plan involved threatening Nectovar into resignation through display of overwhelming force.
However, Nectovar refused to capitulate. Instead, he ordered his loyalist forces to open fire on Gorthelion's insurgents. The situation escalated immediately into full urban combat within the capital itself. Both factions engaged in intense firefights across government districts, residential sectors, and critical infrastructure points.
Gorthelion sustained injuries during the conflict, though none proved fatal. The clash persisted for two days of brutal street-to-street fighting before Nectovar was finally apprehended by insurgent forces. He had been discovered hiding in an apartment in the far Northern district of the city, having attempted to flee the capital. His capture effectively terminated organized resistance to the coup.
Nectovar was imprisoned on charges of power abuse and war crimes. On 5 June 1274, Uurvathren mab Gorthelion was officially installed as head of state, marking the beginning of the Gorthelionist era.
The entire governmental regime underwent radical restructuring toward more extremist orientations. The new administration synthesized traditional Abernite cultural practices with aggressive, revanchist ideology centered on avenging perceived humiliations inflicted by enemy states. The resulting system combined intense nationalism with xenophobic policies and militant cultural purification campaigns.
The state continued experiencing severe difficulties stemming from war consequences: economic stagnation, erosion of governmental trust, and a devastating biological plague that Toutanglom had deployed during the conflict.
The new government implemented immediate recovery programs, prioritizing cultural enhancement and restoration of popular morale. On 9 June 1274, the Bratharneth Cinn-Adrost (BC-A) was established as the primary coordinating body for post-war reconstruction and state management. This department rapidly became one of Abern's most critical governmental institutions, effectively functioning as the administrative spine of the new regime.
The biological agent deployed by Toutanglom produced horrifying symptoms: victims' skin would peel away after approximately two weeks of infection, exposing raw flesh that subsequently liquefied within another week, causing death through catastrophic hemorrhaging and systemic organ failure. The pathogen remained unidentified by Abernite medical authorities, who lacked the technological capability to analyze or counter it.
Gorthelion made the strategic decision to request assistance from Hleidisland, despite initial refusal from that state. Through persistent diplomatic persuasion emphasizing shared regional interests and the potential for pandemic spread, Abern successfully convinced Hleidisland to provide medical intervention. This represented Abern's first substantive contact with Hleidisland, establishing a relationship that would develop significantly in subsequent years.
The first Hleidisland medical aid arrived on 20 June after their specialists successfully identified the biological agent. The pandemic was brought under control by mid-July, though not before claiming thousands of civilian lives and leaving lasting psychological scars on survivors.
On 23 July 1274, Abernite authorities launched the Brigadeth Uidron campaign, calling upon citizens to enhance their wetland forest environments through systematic reforestation programs and improvement of guerrilla warfare doctrine. The campaign represented both ecological restoration and military preparation - transforming Abern's natural terrain into a more strategic defensive asset.
Sophisticated tunnel networks were excavated across the entire border region, supplemented by advanced booby trap systems designed to neutralize mechanized forces and conventional military formations. The wetland forests, dense with vegetation and treacherous terrain, became ideal environments for asymmetric warfare - an explicit rejection of the conventional warfare doctrines that had failed so catastrophically during the First Great War.
Under BC-A leadership, the state achieved complete recovery to pre-war economic and institutional conditions within merely five years - a remarkable accomplishment given the scale of devastation. This rapid reconstruction was facilitated by the highly centralized command structure and the population's intense nationalist motivation cultivated through Gorthelionist ideology.
Following Gorthelion's philosophical framework, the state systematically abolished all policies and institutions associated with the previous regime, replacing them with more primitive, traditional, and deliberately primordial structures. This represented not merely administrative reform but a comprehensive cultural revolution aimed at purging foreign influences and restoring what Gorthelionists considered authentic Abernite civilization.
From the regime's inception, state propaganda apparatus relentlessly characterized Toutanglom, Draviskas and Velbor as "the filth of this world" - subhuman enemies whose very existence threatened Abernite survival. This dehumanization campaign intensified nationalism while cultivating xenophobic attitudes designed to maintain perpetual war-readiness among the population.
The armed forces underwent significant expansion and modernization, with particular emphasis on guerrilla capabilities, chemical warfare defense, and exploitation of Abern's wetland terrain advantages.
On 18 February 1281, the trial of Canurix ui Nectovar officially commenced. The proceedings lasted one month, during which prosecutors presented extensive evidence of power abuse, unauthorized violence against civilians, and responsibility for the massacre that had occurred during suppression operations in early 1274.
The court declared Nectovar guilty on all charges and sentenced him to execution. The verdict was carried out shortly thereafter, eliminating the last symbolic remnant of the old regime and consolidating Gorthelion's absolute authority.
Under the Mor-Cred policy framework, numerous aspects of state function - media, economic planning, legal interpretation, educational curriculum, and cultural production - were centralized under specialized departmental control. While technically administered by various bureaucratic bodies, all departments operated under indirect but absolute supervision by Gorthelion himself, creating a de facto authoritarian structure masked by nominally distributed governance.
Following implementation of the Morbreth policy beginning in January 1282, all written records from the pre-Gorthelion era were systematically rewritten, erased, or fabricated to conform with official ideology. Massive libraries and archival repositories were subjected to comprehensive "verification" processes - euphemistic terminology for wholesale destruction and falsification of historical documentation.
This represented one of history's most extensive campaigns of deliberate historical obliteration, creating a manufactured past that legitimized Gorthelionist authority while erasing evidence of alternative governance models or ideological frameworks.
The Sengarth movement, orchestrated directly by the regime itself, commenced in March 1282. This state-sponsored cultural campaign called upon citizens to embrace traditional practices and reject modernist influences. Any manifestation of modernist or foreign cultural tendencies was classified as taboo and constituted humiliation to the state's authentic character.
The movement encouraged citizens to self-police their own behaviors and those of their neighbors, identifying deviations from state-sanctioned values. This created an atmosphere of perpetual surveillance where conformity was enforced through social pressure as much as official sanction.
The Morbrith Genn program, initiated in 1280, represented the regime's most invasive social engineering initiative. Selected individuals - predominantly unmarried citizens identified through state surveillance - were subjected to arranged marriages designed to optimize "genetic patriotism." Marriage partners were selected based on ancestry purity assessments and ideological reliability evaluations conducted by BC-A.
The program's explicit objective was gradual creation of a generation of "pure Abernites" - individuals whose genetic lineage, cultural practices, and ideological orientation perfectly aligned with Gorthelionist principles. This eugenic initiative would continue for decades, fundamentally reshaping Aberneth demographic composition and cultural identity.
Despite extensive preparation, Abern was drawn into renewed conflict with Toutanglom on 30 April 1292, following the escalation of the Second Great War of Eldervale. Shortly thereafter, Draviskas joined the conflict as Toutanglom's ally, creating a two-front crisis.
Anticipating that Toutanglom would again deploy biological warfare agents, Abern accepted substantial territorial losses in border regions. However, strategic withdrawals were deliberate - enemy forces were being drawn into prepared kill zones. The majority of defensive infrastructure, including sophisticated trap systems and surprise attack mechanisms, had been positioned deeper within Aberneth territory where wetland forests grew increasingly dense and impenetrable.
As Tanglomi and Dravic forces penetrated deeper into occupied territory, Abernite guerrilla units conducted continuous surprise attacks utilizing hit-and-run tactics. The operational objective was systematic attrition of enemy combat effectiveness through perpetual harassment rather than conventional force-on-force engagement.
Despite pandemic conditions spreading throughout the state from renewed Tanglomi biological weapons deployment, medical support from Hleidisland successfully contained the outbreak, preventing the catastrophic civilian casualties that had characterized the previous conflict.
The most significant engagement of the campaign was Morathdunscarith, occurring from 8 June to 14 August 1292. This battle took place across a vast operational area in the Northern regions currently under Tanglomi occupation.
Combat operations spanned thirty-two districts within Brathsenmor Prefecture, subsequently expanding into Dunared and Morvect Prefectures by mid-battle. The engagement occurred predominantly during nocturnal hours extending into early afternoon, with Abernite forces fighting from concealed positions behind tree cover while launching coordinated harassment operations against enemy installations.
The sophisticated underground tunnel network proved decisive. Toutanglom attempted to destroy and infiltrate these subterranean passages but achieved negligible results - the tunnels were engineered with tens of vertical layers specifically to prevent disruption of operational continuity.
Tanglomi forces found themselves in predominantly defensive postures, experiencing severe psychological strain from anticipating constant Abernite attacks. Morale declined precipitously as soldiers realized they could neither predict nor prevent guerrilla strikes. The entire operational zone was saturated with continuous bombardment and concealed booby traps integrated into civilian infrastructure.
Abernite forces executed tactical withdrawal after accomplishing their psychological warfare objectives - instilling paralyzing fear among enemy combatants. Brathsenmor Prefecture was liberated merely two weeks following the battle's conclusion. The Tanglomi advance was permanently halted thereafter.
The Battle of Talarith in the Northeast on 26 October 1292 marked the first engagement between Abern and Draviskas forces. The battle occurred across extensive wetland forest terrain, resulting in deliberate Abernite tactical withdrawal - continuing the strategic pattern of drawing enemies deeper into unfavorable terrain.
On 7 December 1292, Velbor entered the conflict against Abern, dramatically expanding the threat matrix. The initial phase witnessed Velborina forces advancing into the Southern regions, deploying their temporal manipulation technology - time-freeze weapons systems capable of creating localized temporal stasis fields that immobilized defending forces.
The enemy advance decelerated substantially upon entering dense wetland forest environments where guerrilla tactics and comprehensive trap networks negated technological advantages. At the Battle of Brithan Fortress on 25 January 1293, Abern proved unable to maintain the defensive position and executed forced withdrawal. Subsequently, the fortress was subjected to continuous sabotage through sustained bombardment and rapid assault operations designed to deny the enemy effective use of the captured installation.
Abern deliberately lured Velbor forces deeper into the territorial interior where even more extensive trap configurations and guerrilla strongholds had been established. Among the most notorious subterranean installations was Toll Skorveth, located within Velbor-occupied territory.
This tunnel complex functioned simultaneously as a logistic distribution system and covert troop movement corridor. Additionally, it served as a firing position for surprise attacks - soldiers would emerge through concealed apertures, discharge weapons at enemy patrols, and immediately retreat underground. This tactic generated persistent anxiety among occupation forces, who could never determine when or where the next attack would materialize.
Under the direction of the Seven Broceth campaign, Abernite forces received substantial reinforcements across multiple strategic sectors. At dawn on 1 May 1293, tens of thousands of Abernite combatants launched coordinated offensive operations across multiple predetermined locations throughout the Southern and Eastern regions of the state, marking a transition from purely defensive guerrilla operations to combined arms counteroffensive doctrine.
The Seven Broceth offensive was strategically designed to sever Velbor's logistic infrastructure. Most engagements occurred with devastating rapidity, exploiting surprise and intimate terrain knowledge to overwhelm isolated enemy positions before reinforcements could respond.
The battles of Lannbroc, Aberskor, and Druimveth persisted for two months of sustained combat. While Lannbroc and Druimveth ultimately remained under Velborian control, Aberskor was successfully recaptured despite catastrophic casualties inflicted on both combatants. The urban environment became a charnel house - streets choked with corpses, buildings reduced to skeletal frameworks, and entire neighborhoods transformed into mass graves.
The battle concluded when Velbor forces executed emergency withdrawal, having proven unable to maintain defensive positions. Abernite forces had successfully interdicted reinforcement and supply corridors, creating logistical strangulation. Even Velbor's temporal manipulation technology and incendiary tactics proved ineffective against Abern's doctrine of continuous troop rotation and multi-position concealment enabling coordinated counterattacks from unexpected vectors.
This victory enabled Abern to systematically disrupt Velbor's entire supply chain infrastructure while consolidating their own defensive capabilities. The Velbor front transitioned to manageable operational status for the first time since their intervention.
On 18 May 1293, the Tanglomi-Dravic front witnessed renewed enemy offensive operations. On 23 May, Abern launched a massive counterattack across Brathmore and the remaining territories of Brathsenmor Prefecture. The engagement resulted in substantial territorial reclamation, though both fronts subsequently reverted to deadlock conditions with minimal positional changes - a grinding stalemate where soldiers died by hundreds for advances measured in meters.
From 5 July to 8 December 1293, Velborian forces advanced toward Abern's capital, Caltrenn, initiating siege operations. The city fell one week after initial assault commenced, though "capture" proved meaningless in conventional terms - both coalitions continued fighting for control of the urban landscape in what devolved into the most brutal urban warfare witnessed in Eldervale's modern history.
Every corner of the city remained perpetually occupied by combatants from one faction or another. Battles persisted throughout entire days without respite - dawn brought no ceasefire, nightfall provided no sanctuary. Every residential structure, every meter of street, every rooftop and basement became a strategic position contested with fanatical intensity.
The city was captured and recaptured multiple times, sometimes changing hands three or four times within a single day as momentum shifted between exhausted, blood-soaked forces. Soldiers fought room-to-room, floor-to-floor, often engaging in hand-to-hand combat when ammunition depleted. The stench of decomposing bodies became so overwhelming that combatants wrapped cloth around their faces merely to function. Buildings collapsed unpredictably, burying fighters from both sides in rubble graves.
By mid-siege, nearly the entire city existed as ruins - skeletal remains of what had been Abern's political and cultural heart. The battlefield expanded northward, engulfing the cities of Maeltrann and Corvanneth, which experienced identical apocalyptic conditions.
The entire operational theater was saturated with Abernite booby traps of horrifying sophistication: concealed explosive charges that detonated when weight shifted off them (killing those who discovered them when they attempted to retreat), sharpened stakes hidden beneath false floors that impaled victims through torsos, tripwires connected to suspended logs studded with metal fragments, and spring-loaded mechanisms that fired poisoned projectiles into confined spaces.
Velborian soldiers developed severe psychological disorders from the omnipresent threat - every doorway potentially lethal, every stairwell possibly trapped, every innocent object a potential trigger for mutilation or death. The battle concluded with Velborian withdrawal, the invading forces having suffered unsustainable attrition rates that rendered continued offensive operations operationally unfeasible.
Moving into 1294, the conflict entered a state of strategic stagnation. Both fronts exhibited minimal territorial fluctuation, with neither coalition capable of achieving breakthrough. Abern maintained relentless guerrilla harassment campaigns to systematically erode enemy morale and operational capacity.
Booby trap deployment reached epidemic density across contested zones, generating profound psychological trauma among occupation forces. Enemy soldiers became paranoid and dysfunctional, hesitating before every action, second-guessing every movement, paralyzed by the knowledge that any step might trigger dismemberment or death.
The Battle of Torveth Hill, lasting from 12 March to 15 May 1294, constituted the final major engagement against the Toutanglom-Draviskas alliance. The Abernite operational objective was destruction of a fortified enemy military installation positioned atop the elevation - a strategic command center coordinating regional occupation operations.
Abern attempted complete encirclement of the base but achieved only partial success - enemy reinforcement corridors remained partially functional despite intensive interdiction efforts. Abernite artillery conducted relentless bombardment against defensive positions, transforming the hilltop into a moonscape of overlapping craters and pulverized fortifications.
On 7 April, Abernite assault forces successfully penetrated Sectors 243 and 621 - heavily defended perimeter zones that required weeks of preparatory bombardment and multiple failed assault waves before being overrun. The casualties were staggering: entire companies were annihilated in minutes by concentrated defensive fire, their bodies left strewn across approach routes as subsequent waves advanced over their remains.
Following brutal close-quarters combat characterized by grenade exchanges in confined trenches and bayonet charges across corpse-strewn ground, two additional sectors fell to Abernite control. However, the Central Sector - the installation's most heavily fortified zone - remained impregnable. This sector was not merely defended by conventional arms but also protected by stockpiles of weaponized biological agents that would be released if Abernite forces achieved breakthrough, creating a dead zone that would render the position useless while inflicting mass casualties on attackers.
Recognizing the impossibility of direct assault without catastrophic losses, Abern transitioned to standoff warfare - maintaining siege positions while conducting artillery bombardment and sniper operations from maximum range rather than attempting close-quarters engagement.
On 10 May, Toutanglom deployed a new biological weapon in conjunction with Draviskas technological enhancement - creating what would become known as the most horrifying disease witnessed in modern warfare.
Victims suffered catastrophic internal mutations. Organs would twist upon themselves, merge into unrecognizable amalgamated masses, or transform into structures bearing no resemblance to human anatomy. The heart might fuse with the lungs, creating a pulsating mass that forced blood and air through the same corrupted passages. The digestive system would knot itself into impossible configurations, causing victims to vomit their own intestinal tissue. The liver and kidneys would swell to grotesque proportions, pressing against the ribcage until bones cracked outward.
External manifestations proved equally nightmarish. Flesh became puffy and distended, swelling to twice normal size in some areas while contracting into withered, desiccated strips in others. Skin would begin melting - not metaphorically, but literally liquefying and sloughing off in translucent sheets that revealed the writhing, mutating tissue beneath. The subcutaneous layer would separate from muscle, creating pockets of fluid that sloshed visibly beneath the surface whenever victims moved.
Most horrifyingly, infected individuals in proximity would begin merging with one another. Their melting flesh would flow together, creating biomass amalgamations of multiple bodies fused into singular entities - a tangle of limbs, torsos, and heads locked together in perpetual agony. These composite organisms lost all traces of individual consciousness or sanity, existing only as screaming, thrashing masses of corrupted biology.
After three days in this merged state, the biomass would spontaneously detonate with tremendous force, spraying everything within a fifteen-meter radius with highly corrosive acid capable of dissolving organic matter on contact and corroding metal surfaces. The explosion transformed infected individuals into biological ordnance, weaponizing their suffering even in death.
The entire pathological progression occurred over one week, following a predictable and inexorable timeline:
Days 1-2: Victims experienced immense pruritus across their entire body - an itching so severe that many clawed their own skin bloody in futile attempts at relief. Simultaneously, they reported the sensation of something crawling within them, moving beneath the skin and through internal cavities. Medical personnel initially dismissed these reports as psychological, until autopsies revealed the pathogen was indeed mobile within host tissue.
Days 3-4: Motor function deteriorated rapidly. Victims lost the ability to move limbs as neural pathways became corrupted by spreading mutation. Speech capabilities vanished as vocal cords twisted into useless tangles of tissue and the tongue swelled to obstruct the oral cavity. Victims could only produce gurgling sounds as their bodies betrayed them, their eyes conveying terror and pleading that their mouths could no longer articulate.
Days 5-6: The merging phase began if multiple infected individuals remained in proximity. Their bodies would literally flow together, flesh bonding at the molecular level. Witnesses reported hearing the wet, tearing sounds of tissue fusing - a sound that haunted survivors for the remainder of their lives.
Day 7: Detonation occurred with no warning signs, obliterating the biomass and distributing corrosive material across a wide dispersal pattern.
No method of reversing the disease was ever discovered. Quarantine proved the only effective response, though even isolated victims eventually detonated, requiring specialized containment facilities constructed specifically to withstand the explosive finale.
The psychological impact on Abernite forces was devastating. Soldiers developed intense paranoia about physical contact with anyone, fearing they might be in early infection stages. Medical personnel faced impossible ethical dilemmas - whether to isolate potentially infected individuals before symptoms manifested, essentially condemning them to die alone if diagnosis proved correct, or allow them to remain with comrades, risking mass infection events.
Following the Torveth Hill engagement and despite the ongoing biological crisis, Abern conducted multiple offensive operations ranging from small-scale raids to medium-intensity assaults across numerous strategic points. The nation prepared psychologically and logistically for prolonged conflict, fully expecting the war to continue for years.
However, the announcement of the Pax of Seraphic abruptly altered the strategic landscape. Abern signed the treaty on 5 July 1294, formally terminating hostilities.
The Pax generated intense controversy among Abernite officials and military leadership. The debate divided roughly into two factions:
The Continuationists argued the Pax was unnecessary and premature. They contended that Abern had successfully adapted to multi-front warfare, that guerrilla tactics were systematically degrading enemy operational capabilities, and that continued attrition would eventually force enemy withdrawal without territorial concessions. They viewed the Pax as a betrayal of soldiers who had died defending every meter of Aberneth soil, suggesting that signing peace while enemy forces still occupied national territory constituted capitulation disguised as diplomacy.
The Pragmatists insisted the Pax was essential to prevent further catastrophic losses. They emphasized that the hybrid plague represented an escalation Abern could not counter militarily, that continued warfare risked complete demographic collapse, and that the nation required breathing space to recover population, resources, and industrial capacity. They argued that survival necessitated tactical acceptance of unfavorable peace terms, with vengeance and territorial reclamation deferred to future conflicts when Abern would be stronger.
Despite Abern not suffering outright military defeat, the conflict left massive devastation across the state. The hybrid plague continued spreading through civilian populations, and extensive infrastructure had been incinerated by Velborian incendiary weapons. Urban centers existed as charred skeletal remains, agricultural regions lay fallow and contaminated, and transportation networks had been systematically destroyed.
During this period, Abern again requested medical assistance from Hleidisland. In exchange, Abern agreed to provide comprehensive instruction in their booby trap engineering techniques - the precise methodologies Hleidisland had been seeking to acquire for their own defensive doctrine.
The state entered an organized recovery phase, coordinating reconstruction efforts through BC-A oversight.
In December 1294, Abern proposed to Hleidisland the establishment of a formal military coalition, arguing that both nations shared common adversaries and strategic objectives. Hleidisland consented to the proposal.
The faction designated the Vanguard, subsequently Senas Tuath, Lepondunon and Morthen later joined the coalition, creating one of Eldervale's most formidable military alliances.
By 1311, the state had achieved substantial recovery and continued intensifying Gorthelionist ideological programs. The state relentlessly strengthened cultural preservation initiatives and nationalist sentiment among the Abernite population.
Once state stability was reestablished, authorities implemented a new initiative: Thranok. The program mandated monthly blood testing for all citizens to detect "foreign contamination." Individuals exhibiting "impure" blood markers were quarantined and subjected to "adjustment" procedures - euphemistic terminology for coercive medical interventions whose precise nature remained classified.
Fortunately for the regime, test results proved predominantly favorable, validating Gorthelionist claims about Aberneth genetic integrity.
All citizens were required to publicly recite their ancestral lineage extending back seven generations. Any suspicious genealogies triggered comprehensive investigations by state authorities.
In 1319, the state announced that authorities would sponsor cosmetic surgical procedures to make citizens appear more traditionally Abernite. Facial features deemed foreign-looking were subject to mandatory surgical alteration. The program represented physiological enforcement of ideological purity - literally reshaping citizens' bodies to conform with state-sanctioned ethnic aesthetics.
In 1323, a new cultural movement encouraged every family to plant and maintain a minimum quota of trees as patriotic duty - framed as tribute to fallen soldiers who had died defending the wetland forests. Thanks to this initiative, Abern's forest coverage expanded dramatically. Many trees grew to exceptional heights due to innovative double-plantation techniques wherein seeds were cultivated upon existing mature trees, creating multi-tiered forest canopies of unprecedented density.
On 12 January 1337, Uurvathren mab Gorthelion died after prolonged battle against leukemia. Following completion of the national funeral ceremonies, Nehtania verc Dres was elected as the new head of state. She pledged continuation of Gorthelion's ideological legacy and policy frameworks.
Between 1340 and 1361, the state officially declared itself "pure and primitive," though authorities simultaneously acknowledged that additional adjustments remained necessary to achieve complete ideological perfection.
The state continued developing its institutions, military capabilities, and cultural programs until the outbreak of the Third Eldervale Great War many decades later.
Idealology: Brath-Ebaran/Gorthelionism
The ideological foundation of Abern is constituted by the convergence of two distinct yet interrelated doctrines: the philosophy of sanctuary and the doctrine of Gorthelionism. The primary objective of the first ideological framework is to cultivate a state of authentic sanctuary, operationalized both internally within the consciousness of the individual and externally within the communal structure. This conceptualization of peace is not passive but constitutes an active, defensive resilience predicated on constant vigilance and preparedness. The ultimate aspiration is the realization of symbiotic harmony with the natural environment, wherein the authentic self is simultaneously nurtured by and defensively fortified through its organic integration with the land.
The core philosophical tenets reject external determination of the self, positing the individual as an unbroken seed resistant to deformation by exogenous desires. This foundational principle establishes a reciprocal relationship between the individual and their community: one must tend to the collective and the earth to receive tending in return, operationalizing the axiom that one reaps only what they have cultivated. Sorrow and loss are reconceptualized not as vulnerabilities requiring suppression but as deep waters which, when properly honored, nourish the most resilient foundations of character. Epistemological priority is granted to what is termed the "sharp apprehension" of sensory experience and embodied knowledge over persuasive rhetoric or artificially induced states of calm.
The principal doctrine posits that authentic security derives from perpetual awareness combined with a profound compact between the individual, the community, and the land. The core self must be protected from external penetration, to be fractured before its organic flowering according to its own temporal framework. Justice is conceptualized not as an abstract human construction but as a natural consequence arising from the inherent order of existence. Enemies are not to be subjected to reformative processes or carceral containment but are to be extirpated and reabsorbed into the earth as a mechanism for restoring equilibrium. Human nature is understood as neutral potentiality requiring active cultivation to achieve flourishing; absent such cultivation, it becomes susceptible to parasitic infestation.
Within this framework, human nature is metaphorically conceptualized as a garden requiring stewardship. An untended garden risks colonization by parasitic elements or descent into barrenness. A garden coerced into monocultural production constitutes an act of violence against its essential nature. The purpose of existence is therefore the honest cultivation of this garden, acknowledging simultaneously the necessity of warmth and the capacity for defensive strength.
The ideal state manifests as a societal structure analogous to the mycelial networks connecting arboreal systems. Communities are interconnected through bonds of trust, shared historical memory, and mutual assistance. Legal principles are not codified in textual form but exist as understood precepts of reciprocity and collective defense. Upon detection of external threat, the entire network mobilizes as a unified organism, deploying collective resources to isolate and neutralize the danger. This societal model prioritizes the safety and authenticity of individual members as the foundational basis for collective strength.
Gorthelionism constitutes the second convergent ideology, advancing a powerful imperative for restoration to a primitive or traditional state of existence. This doctrine systematically rejects all foreign influences - cultural, technological, and philosophical - as contaminating elements requiring methodical elimination. The ideological framework centers upon the zealous protection of native-born Abernites, establishing that only individuals with demonstrable pure Abernite ancestry qualify as legitimate citizens deserving full rights and state protection. The ideology promotes intense nationalism integrated with systematic xenophobia, characterizing enemy states as "the filth of this world," thereby providing ideological justification for unlimited actions taken against them.