The Final March Begins
July 18, 1015

The hour has come. The soldiers stand in formation, the tanks rumble at the borders, the artillery is loaded, and the skies above Cloudbury are thick with the roar of fighters and bombers preparing to take flight. All that remains is a signature. One stroke from President-Marshal Alexander Kemerskai Jr., and the Republic will be at war with the Aquileian Empire.

Kemerskai Jr. was never a very good general; he lacked the discipline to become better. His father had been the tactician, the commander, the revolutionary. Kemerskai Jr., however, his interest was in ponies more than war. He was worried about defeat, but he was also worried about victory. Defeat might mean the end of the Republic and all the hopes the republicangriffs had for a better world of republicanism. Victory would likely mean the end of his reign, as there would be little argument in support of retaining the martial law and expanded authoritarian powers after seizing the lands of the former Griffonian Empire. Calls to restore civilian government would rise again. And with them, the end of the Kemerskai dynasty.

The Aquileians were strong. Before they entered into war with the Changelings across the ocean, numerous Aquileian divisions sat on the Republic-Aquileian border. Far more than the Republic had, that was for certain. The President-Marshal could delay the war until the resistance in the newly conquered territories was meted out. Yet still, the President-Marshal’s advisers urge action. Civiliangriffs, raised on years of rhetoric and sacrifice, now demand the final crusade. And so, war they will have.

Twilight died last night from a botched injection of Talonbliss. An ill omen? Kemerskai Jr. was not sure, but he could not delay the proceedings any longer. There was a war to fight.

Now, all eyes turn south. The Republic marches, not just to defeat monarchism, but to confront the contradictions of its own soul.