Requiem of a Black Sun Volume I: The Ebony Shogunate

Chapter VI: The Mountain of Ebony

In the world of Kveljastheim, players preferred to immerse themselves as much into the game as possible, but everybody, naturally, has their own style of play and will seek to maintain to that standard of play for as long as the community and developers will let them.

For example, players could enjoy mimicking a historical figure, creating a personality for themselves to abide by, or role-playing into a larger group and fitting into it in any way the guild or faction sees fit.

In the far south of the world, the White Knight of the Covenant and his legion of handpicked soldiers, Yrrvick's Watchmen, stand vigilant against invaders from the Northern Empire from their stronghold at Cathedral Rock, acting as the strongest player-lead faction on the Demonic Continent.

In the militarized country of the Seraphim, the Red Five act as the henchmen of the Seraphimic dictator and the most daunting force on the Descended-Seraphim DMZ; they too are a heavily player-based division.

Not to mention, on the Superior Elven Continent, the Golden Condor Legion is the most selective and lethal of all the player guilds and is the special task force of the Dominion in whatever issues they may encounter.

Despite all these massive guilds littering the vast world of Kveljastheim, many small ones arose as well during the game's genesis and the majority of them found residence in the lawless hills of the Broken Arrow Range where the Northern Empire's grasp seemed to wane and cheap, bloody work seemed to flourish. All across the west face of the low mountain range, small feudal castles and villages sprung up where mercenaries would be hired for quick doses of exp. here and there, and black market trade could proceed freely without fear of the Imperial guards encroaching on their business ventures.

As players began to wise up on the idea of owning a castle town, they became zealous and sought more land with which to spread their influence and line their pockets. Influence was not bought without power, and power was bought through large amounts of gold and healthy garrisons of troops. Therefore, for each castle town, there was a hefty tax levied upon the fair people that resided in each village within reach of the lord that sat upon the throne in the castle keep. This was the way of life until Fukuoka no Tetsuo rose to power with his clan and forcibly bent the knee of all the lords from the forested foot of the mountains to the arid deserts to the far west.

In the tradition of any Sengoku Jidai role player, Fukuoka crowned himself the Shogun of the Western Badlands and declared himself the lord of anybody who fell under his jurisdiction, which was just about anywhere where he could deploy his troops. From his impenetrable fortress of Kokutanyama atop one of the highest mountains in the range, Fukuoka asserted the dominance of his clan through gross extortion of players too weak to oppose his rule.

When a freelancing player, much too arrogant for his or her own good, came along to the lawless lands west of the Broken Arrow divide deceiving themselves with the idea that they could inflict justice upon the tyrannical lord, they were promptly strung up by the Shogun's men and left to hang in the forest leading up the road towards Kokutanyama as an example to those who would think to cross his clan. Fukuoka was not always seen as a malignant player by the community as he played a crucial role in acting upon the Empire's de facto agreements with the free government of Unica that resided in the northern portion of the lands west of the Broken Arrow mountains.

Long ago, during the reign of Lisette Drachenherz, those lands had been conquered by the Grand Imperial Army under the leadership of Else Koenigzjager. She was the half-sister of Lisette who was installed as the commander for the peacetime army because of her flawless and brutal military strategy.

After Else's rapid conquest of the city of Unica, she proceeded to demand either the allegiance of the local lordships to the Imperial banner or the heads of those who dissented in any such way. However, after Else's death in the Battle of Vehrlacht against the Seraphim, the subjugation of these western lands became turbulent and weak as they no longer had an effective leader. Lisette elected to retreat her armies from Unica as they were too costly to hold while the Empire was dealing with multiple threats from the various continents.