Sins of our Fathers
It was a situation which was years in development. Gileanas was a theocratic state that followed the Religion of the One. They worshiped a single God, who was called “the Eye” because he watched over Followers of the religion. It originated on the Roman Island, during the time of the Old Empire, around 520 BCE. The leadership of the Old Empire persecuted the worshipers of the Eye, forcing them to either leave or go underground. Leading the persecution were the religious heads of the empire: the Vestal Virgins and the Pontiffs. The Followers of the Eye settled on the mainland for many years, making a life in untamed lands outside of Roman control. Their book of worship, The Word of the Eye, taught that it was the duty of the Followers to convert all who they met in order to save them from themselves. The only way to achieve eternal peace was through the Eye. Should one refuse to convert, they could still be saved in the following manner: they were to have their eyes gouged out as they could not see the truth, so they would not be able to see. Then they were to be burned at the stake, for the fire would wash away their sins, allowing them the find rest and eternal peace. The conversions happened whenever they made contact with new groups. The Eyes were soon ostracized.
After the collapse of the Old Empire in 326 CE, the worshipers of the Eye wished to return to their homeland; a holy land of sorts. They gathered their forces and made plans. Ships were built and launched. The people would go island to island, stepping toward the main island: Insula Indigena, the Roman’s home island. The plan nearly failed from the start. A storm scattered part of the fleet and drove the rest off course. The landed on a different island than originally intended with 75% of the original force. They fought the current residents of that island, Insulum Longus. The war was brutal and long. After an initial push, the Followers of the Eye were stopped about halfway across the island. There the fighting grew to a stalemate, and eventually ended all together. The Followers of the Eye began to rebuild what had been destroyed. They attempted to convert the captured combatants. Those who wouldn’t were burned on the border, as an example as what would happen to the rest of islanders in due time, should they not convert. In response, the islanders erected crosses across the border with captured Worshipers of the Eye on it.
The Worshipers of the Eye set up their headquarters in the town they landed in: Gileana. They took the name of that town and named their nation after it: Gileanas. They believed the Eye caused the storm, which guided them to that town, so to honor that, they named their state after it. On the other half of the island, those islanders set their leadership in the village of Sicilon. In due time, they became known as Sicilonians, and the nation Sicilonia. As the years wore on, the two sides began to grow less suspicious of each other, and a status quo fell over the island. Many of the Followers of the Eye who had gone underground during the Roman Empire moved to Gileanas. In the 1500s, a secret law enforcement group was set up by religious/national leader. This was a combination of a secret police and an inquisition as all the laws came directly from the Word of the Eye. They enforced the religion and routed out any individual whose heart was not truly for the Eye.
The peace continued until the 1820s. The newly formed Novus Imperium Romanum (NIR) had found opposition in the Vestal Virgins, who claimed the NIR was suppressing their thoughts, and using the Cultus Deorum (Roman Paganism) falsely, and to their advantage. Because a purge of the Vestal Virgins would have looked bad to the Romans, they were instead banned by the Senate, and sent into exile. The Vestal Virgins moved to Sicilonia, where the Prince there had invited them. Upon arrival, the Vestal Virgins marched into the Palace, and demanded the Prince had total power to them. A religious man, and slightly timid, he gratefully handed all power, abdicating his throne, and retiring in comfort. The Virgins then began to build up the military. They would not abide by neighboring those who did not worship their Gods. To them, the idea of a single God was an abomination. Gileanas were alarmed by this change to the status quo and began to do the same. Tensions rose for the next 80 years. The Sicilonian invasion came in 1900. The initial push was brutal, with many deaths on both sides. Soon both sides dug trenches and the fighting lulled. In 1901, the first peace was signed as the trench lines became the new border. Several years later the Gileanian counter invasion occurred, which resulted in the sacking of several border towns.
Several more border wars were fought between 1900 and 1930, with both sides committing atrocities, largely burning and crucifying of POWs. These wars also featured one of the first uses of chemical weapons, used by the Sicilonians, then quickly followed by the Gileanians. In early 1930, the two nations came to a tentative peace until 1953 when Sicilonia attempted to capture the Gileanian half of the island. The invasion was repulsed and, once again, an uneasy peace returned. The NIR develop relation with Sicilonia in the 1960s, stationing troops on the border to discourage a Gileanian invasion. The Gileanians feared this buildup was a prelude to invasion and fortified their own side of the border. The expected by the Gileanians invasion never came, and thus was the status quo for the next 40 years. The two sides had several skirmishes, mostly artillery duels, but nothing major. In the early 2000s, after the ascension of Caesar Inbellis, the government of Gileanas began using aggressive rhetoric against the NIR. The threats levied by the Gileanians included the use of WMDs, chemical and biological weapons, on the Roman people should the military forces in Sicilonia not be removed. The Caesar relented and pulled all forces from Sicilonia. Unknown to the Caesar, the Gileanian’s WMD program could not hit Insula Indigena. The Medium Range Ballistic Missiles (MRBMs) were fake; the only capabilities for WMD they had were through artillery. At this point in history, the NIR was underfunding their intelligence services, and they were unable to properly investigate the Gileanian WMD program; they were stretched too thin.
So, another threat came, and more appeasement, all in hopes that the chemical and biological weapons wouldn’t fly. The NIR stopped their naval patrols around the island. Flight lanes were changed so they wouldn’t go over the island. They lost economic capital. They lost political capital. The appeasement continued, even after Caesar Inbellis was removed from office, and the current Caesar ascended.
All this time, Gileanas built up their forces, showing the world how strong they were. They made the great NIR cower. They were invincible. Rhetoric against Sicilonia was ramped up. Weapons were acquired and built at fast speeds. In late 2018, a Vestal Virgin went to the Caesar pleading for help. She presented evidence of an imminent Gileanian invasion. The Caesar refused to help, despite being given the same evidence by his intelligence services several days prior. When word reached the Gileanian leadership, the final decision seemed obvious: invade. If the NIR wouldn’t come to the aid of their religious sisters, then the Sicilonians would all convert or burn. So, early on December 24, 2018, Gileanian forces invaded Sicilonia, quickly overrunning the defenses, and reaching the end of the island by nightfall on December 25. The burnings and stonings quickly began. The Vestalis Maximus was found in her office, where she quickly surrendered. Unknown to those soldiers, she had ordered much of her government escape on boats toward the NIR. The Vestalis Maximus was the first to be burned alive. Many others, government officials, soldiers, and civilians soon followed. The temples were sacked and burned. Military Missionaries began enforcing The Word of the Eye.
When Vestal Virgin survivors were picked up by NIR naval and home guard ships – not all made it – they relayed the horror of what was happening. Gileanian news broadcasts quickly confirmed the accounts, and intelligence officials also confirmed.
The Gileanians had played into the NIR’s hand. The intelligence funding issues were solved in the early 2010s, after a terror attack in the stock trading center. When a proper team was assigned to track the Gileanian WMD program, they were surprised to find that what they had thought was the truth was wrong. The MRBMs were dummies. They did not have a ballistic missile capable of delivering a warhead to the NIR. When this fact was brought to the Caesar, he elected to sit on the information. The NIR continued their cowering. This Caesar was hoping to reestablish the empire of old. If he were to crush the Gileanians, the other island would hopefully fall in line. The Romans had expected an invasion of Sicilonia by the Gileanians for several years since the Gileanian build up began. They hoped the aftermath would be as brutal as previous wars had been (the Gileanians never swore off their eye gouging/burning beleifs). All this would provide the public support the Caesar needed to invade and restart the empire. In the prelude, the Caesar even sent envoys to Sicilonia to whisper in the ears of the Vestal Virgins, telling them that if they ramped up crucifying non-believers, criminals, political dissenters, and showing the strength of their religious resolve, the Gileanians would back down. In truth, that only angered the Followers of the Eye more, and made a goal of their war to save innocent people being sent to Under After without being saved. So they moved up their timetables to save the citizens from the pagans.
The Gileanians appeared to have a powerful, well trained and armed force. All the better for the NIR to crush. And so, early January 4, 2019, the NIR began a bombing campaign on the island to soften up Gileanian forces. NIR naval forces quickly defeated the Gileanian navy and cut the island off from the outside. In the sky, the Imperial Air Force shot down plane after plane, establishing air superiority, and enforcing a no-fly zone. Even a civilian jet liner that had taken off from Gileanas right before the air strikes began was shot down. It was carrying citizens to the far side of the island to begin a colonization and assimilation effort.
In March, the island was invaded with 4 Legions. The Legions made quick work of the inferior Gileanian forces. Two Legions landed in Sicilonia, the other two in Gileanias. Both began to push inward, hoping to meet in the middle. By May 6, 2019, victory was called with all resistance collapsing within a day after the invasion and mop up operations nearing completion. NIR flags were raised on both sides of the border. The military governor took up residence in the old capitol building of Gileanas.
Back in the NIR, the Vestal Virgins struck a deal with the NIR. They conceded control of Sicilonia for their old college. There, they began the process for selecting the new Vestalis Maximus. Though they lost the leadership of their nation, Sicilonia, the Vestal Virgins regained the religious leadership they lost in the 1820s.
As the sun rose over a smoking island on May 7, 2019, the NIR military went to work rebuilding what was destroyed, burying the bodies of the murdered, and rounding up any Gileanians who resisted the occupation and placing them in the hastily made POW camps with the captured soldiers.
After the collapse of the Old Empire in 326 CE, the worshipers of the Eye wished to return to their homeland; a holy land of sorts. They gathered their forces and made plans. Ships were built and launched. The people would go island to island, stepping toward the main island: Insula Indigena, the Roman’s home island. The plan nearly failed from the start. A storm scattered part of the fleet and drove the rest off course. The landed on a different island than originally intended with 75% of the original force. They fought the current residents of that island, Insulum Longus. The war was brutal and long. After an initial push, the Followers of the Eye were stopped about halfway across the island. There the fighting grew to a stalemate, and eventually ended all together. The Followers of the Eye began to rebuild what had been destroyed. They attempted to convert the captured combatants. Those who wouldn’t were burned on the border, as an example as what would happen to the rest of islanders in due time, should they not convert. In response, the islanders erected crosses across the border with captured Worshipers of the Eye on it.
The Worshipers of the Eye set up their headquarters in the town they landed in: Gileana. They took the name of that town and named their nation after it: Gileanas. They believed the Eye caused the storm, which guided them to that town, so to honor that, they named their state after it. On the other half of the island, those islanders set their leadership in the village of Sicilon. In due time, they became known as Sicilonians, and the nation Sicilonia. As the years wore on, the two sides began to grow less suspicious of each other, and a status quo fell over the island. Many of the Followers of the Eye who had gone underground during the Roman Empire moved to Gileanas. In the 1500s, a secret law enforcement group was set up by religious/national leader. This was a combination of a secret police and an inquisition as all the laws came directly from the Word of the Eye. They enforced the religion and routed out any individual whose heart was not truly for the Eye.
The peace continued until the 1820s. The newly formed Novus Imperium Romanum (NIR) had found opposition in the Vestal Virgins, who claimed the NIR was suppressing their thoughts, and using the Cultus Deorum (Roman Paganism) falsely, and to their advantage. Because a purge of the Vestal Virgins would have looked bad to the Romans, they were instead banned by the Senate, and sent into exile. The Vestal Virgins moved to Sicilonia, where the Prince there had invited them. Upon arrival, the Vestal Virgins marched into the Palace, and demanded the Prince had total power to them. A religious man, and slightly timid, he gratefully handed all power, abdicating his throne, and retiring in comfort. The Virgins then began to build up the military. They would not abide by neighboring those who did not worship their Gods. To them, the idea of a single God was an abomination. Gileanas were alarmed by this change to the status quo and began to do the same. Tensions rose for the next 80 years. The Sicilonian invasion came in 1900. The initial push was brutal, with many deaths on both sides. Soon both sides dug trenches and the fighting lulled. In 1901, the first peace was signed as the trench lines became the new border. Several years later the Gileanian counter invasion occurred, which resulted in the sacking of several border towns.
Several more border wars were fought between 1900 and 1930, with both sides committing atrocities, largely burning and crucifying of POWs. These wars also featured one of the first uses of chemical weapons, used by the Sicilonians, then quickly followed by the Gileanians. In early 1930, the two nations came to a tentative peace until 1953 when Sicilonia attempted to capture the Gileanian half of the island. The invasion was repulsed and, once again, an uneasy peace returned. The NIR develop relation with Sicilonia in the 1960s, stationing troops on the border to discourage a Gileanian invasion. The Gileanians feared this buildup was a prelude to invasion and fortified their own side of the border. The expected by the Gileanians invasion never came, and thus was the status quo for the next 40 years. The two sides had several skirmishes, mostly artillery duels, but nothing major. In the early 2000s, after the ascension of Caesar Inbellis, the government of Gileanas began using aggressive rhetoric against the NIR. The threats levied by the Gileanians included the use of WMDs, chemical and biological weapons, on the Roman people should the military forces in Sicilonia not be removed. The Caesar relented and pulled all forces from Sicilonia. Unknown to the Caesar, the Gileanian’s WMD program could not hit Insula Indigena. The Medium Range Ballistic Missiles (MRBMs) were fake; the only capabilities for WMD they had were through artillery. At this point in history, the NIR was underfunding their intelligence services, and they were unable to properly investigate the Gileanian WMD program; they were stretched too thin.
So, another threat came, and more appeasement, all in hopes that the chemical and biological weapons wouldn’t fly. The NIR stopped their naval patrols around the island. Flight lanes were changed so they wouldn’t go over the island. They lost economic capital. They lost political capital. The appeasement continued, even after Caesar Inbellis was removed from office, and the current Caesar ascended.
All this time, Gileanas built up their forces, showing the world how strong they were. They made the great NIR cower. They were invincible. Rhetoric against Sicilonia was ramped up. Weapons were acquired and built at fast speeds. In late 2018, a Vestal Virgin went to the Caesar pleading for help. She presented evidence of an imminent Gileanian invasion. The Caesar refused to help, despite being given the same evidence by his intelligence services several days prior. When word reached the Gileanian leadership, the final decision seemed obvious: invade. If the NIR wouldn’t come to the aid of their religious sisters, then the Sicilonians would all convert or burn. So, early on December 24, 2018, Gileanian forces invaded Sicilonia, quickly overrunning the defenses, and reaching the end of the island by nightfall on December 25. The burnings and stonings quickly began. The Vestalis Maximus was found in her office, where she quickly surrendered. Unknown to those soldiers, she had ordered much of her government escape on boats toward the NIR. The Vestalis Maximus was the first to be burned alive. Many others, government officials, soldiers, and civilians soon followed. The temples were sacked and burned. Military Missionaries began enforcing The Word of the Eye.
When Vestal Virgin survivors were picked up by NIR naval and home guard ships – not all made it – they relayed the horror of what was happening. Gileanian news broadcasts quickly confirmed the accounts, and intelligence officials also confirmed.
The Gileanians had played into the NIR’s hand. The intelligence funding issues were solved in the early 2010s, after a terror attack in the stock trading center. When a proper team was assigned to track the Gileanian WMD program, they were surprised to find that what they had thought was the truth was wrong. The MRBMs were dummies. They did not have a ballistic missile capable of delivering a warhead to the NIR. When this fact was brought to the Caesar, he elected to sit on the information. The NIR continued their cowering. This Caesar was hoping to reestablish the empire of old. If he were to crush the Gileanians, the other island would hopefully fall in line. The Romans had expected an invasion of Sicilonia by the Gileanians for several years since the Gileanian build up began. They hoped the aftermath would be as brutal as previous wars had been (the Gileanians never swore off their eye gouging/burning beleifs). All this would provide the public support the Caesar needed to invade and restart the empire. In the prelude, the Caesar even sent envoys to Sicilonia to whisper in the ears of the Vestal Virgins, telling them that if they ramped up crucifying non-believers, criminals, political dissenters, and showing the strength of their religious resolve, the Gileanians would back down. In truth, that only angered the Followers of the Eye more, and made a goal of their war to save innocent people being sent to Under After without being saved. So they moved up their timetables to save the citizens from the pagans.
The Gileanians appeared to have a powerful, well trained and armed force. All the better for the NIR to crush. And so, early January 4, 2019, the NIR began a bombing campaign on the island to soften up Gileanian forces. NIR naval forces quickly defeated the Gileanian navy and cut the island off from the outside. In the sky, the Imperial Air Force shot down plane after plane, establishing air superiority, and enforcing a no-fly zone. Even a civilian jet liner that had taken off from Gileanas right before the air strikes began was shot down. It was carrying citizens to the far side of the island to begin a colonization and assimilation effort.
In March, the island was invaded with 4 Legions. The Legions made quick work of the inferior Gileanian forces. Two Legions landed in Sicilonia, the other two in Gileanias. Both began to push inward, hoping to meet in the middle. By May 6, 2019, victory was called with all resistance collapsing within a day after the invasion and mop up operations nearing completion. NIR flags were raised on both sides of the border. The military governor took up residence in the old capitol building of Gileanas.
Back in the NIR, the Vestal Virgins struck a deal with the NIR. They conceded control of Sicilonia for their old college. There, they began the process for selecting the new Vestalis Maximus. Though they lost the leadership of their nation, Sicilonia, the Vestal Virgins regained the religious leadership they lost in the 1820s.
As the sun rose over a smoking island on May 7, 2019, the NIR military went to work rebuilding what was destroyed, burying the bodies of the murdered, and rounding up any Gileanians who resisted the occupation and placing them in the hastily made POW camps with the captured soldiers.
Major Secratary Aloviehn Dort 
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