All the wicked shadows coming tramp, tramp, tramp,
With the black night overhead.
- Robert Louis Stevenson, "Shadow March"
Oh Night Unholy (OP: Roendavar)Shadow Over Gael (OP: Balnik)Terror Over Gael (OP*: Dormill and Stiura)Inferno Over Gael (OP: tbd)
OOC | ICOOC | ICOOC |ICOOC | IC
*For the sake of this thread and for Inferno Over Gael, while the primary OP is whoever makes the opening post; Balnik, Dormill and Stiura, and Roendavar shall be considered the primary Co-OPs with respect to plot and story development. We started this project with Shadow and we would prefer to keep a majority of the story's focus in our control. However, since we at TWI pride ourselves on effective collaboration, all TWI map members are welcome to be involved in this story directly or in stories related to the Tragedy of Gael.
Welcome one and all, The Western Isles and NationStates alike, to Terror Over Gael, the second dedicated story and third so far in the Tragedy of Gael saga. I am your most humble host, Dormill and Stiura, and it is my high hope that you will join me in crafting and enjoying a tale of mystery, intrigue, drama, and conflict as the nations of Gael try to grapple with the aftermath of the events of Oh Night Unholy, Shadow Over Gael, and the News of TWI. The following sections of this OP will overview the situation in Gael immediately following the events of Shadow (alongside recapping it) as well as presenting a preliminary plot overview for the construction of a collaborative plot for this RP. This RP will require plenty of time to plan and more to post in character for given the time dedication of all involved. An in-character thread will be announced and launched in due time but for now, please use this thread to plan, organize, and hype for what should be TWI's next biggest RP.
Section 1: What is Gael?
Gael is one of the three primary continents (or subcontinents if you will) of the Western Isles, situated east of Argus, west of the Eterna Sea region, and north of the Southern Sea region. It is the second-largest and second-most-populous continent of the region and is home to some of the strongest and most vibrant economies in TWI. Originally settled by proto-Argean peoples in pre-history before developing into hundreds more distinct groups, Gael is home to some of the most diverse communities in the region as well as the largest home of European and Asian settlers in the form of the north coast nations.
All is not well however in this seemingly tranquil continent, a Shadow now looms over it spreading Terror wherever it falls too close to the ground, from the cultist attacks in Roendavar to the Saela Spring and more, fear is beginning to spread that Gael's stability is waning fast. What was the cause of all this? Who's to blame? In a continent of vibrant democracies and liberalism, why does autocracy have a growing reach? Come with me and explore some recent history.
Section 2: A history of Gael and a Recap of Shadow over Gael
- 1947: The First Imperial War ends
- 1949: The New Leeuwarden Concord is signed, normalizing diplomatic relations between Dormill and Stiura and several Gaeltic nations.
- Early 1950s: The United Republic of Balnik stabilizes, however it is rendered dependent on food imports to account for mass industrialization efforts.
- 1953: De Strijd, the period of heightened civil strife and conflict in north Gael, begins in earnest as the Ardedan National Army forms to resist growing discrimination, their efforts would remain underground for several years.
- 1958: Responding to the Manifesto of the Forgotten, the Roendavarian Army is officially disbanded.
- 13 August 1969: Celion Cornelius Decebal Iralethias of Roendavar dies, initiating a Treiorevicos that is hijacked by the Peony Movement and ends in the death of over 1200 people.
- 14 July 1973: The First Hyacinth Cry begins through student protests, simultaneous related protests begin in Dormill and Stiura to protest Denis' continued rule.
- January 1975: Antonin Siskind is elected President of Dormill and Stiura, replacing the ailing Merv De Vires in is dying years.
- 1976: Dimi Mio assumes the position of Chairman of the Balniki Communist Party, and begins pushing economic liberalization in concert with the Association of Gaeltic States.
- 1977: Neoliberal agendas prevail across Gael.
- 17 December 1979: Balniki Coup d'état commences, initiating the Horseshoe War.
- 1980: Gael Finance, a holding company for several venture capital firms, collapses, starting the Gael Crash and 1980 Economic Crisis. This would worsen the Horseshoe War and halt reconstruction efforts in north Gael.
- 12 February 1981: Ainslie is ejected from the Association of Gaeltic States for its role in the Crash, the organization would collapse by June.
- December 1981: Democratic Balniki Alliance is destroyed by Valkoi National Front, ending the first phase of the Horsehoe War.
- 1982: Kapolder Constitutional Convention is held, beginning the reformation of the Doraltic Constitution into the modern instrument.
- 10 December 1983: Andre Chernobog declares the formation of the Federation of Balnik.
- 2 November 1989: The Second Hyacinth Cry begins in Roendavar, prompting an end to westernization in Roendavar.
- 30 October 1995: The second constitution of Dormill and Stiura is formally adopted, Antonin Siskind resigns upon its adoption.
- 3 December 2001: Baetylus 2000VC04 breaks up over TWI, fragments impact across Balnik and Dormill-Stiura in the largest loss of life to any natural disaster in Gaeltic history.
- 10 January 2016: Cedar Dyson is inaugurated as President of Dormill and Stiura.
- 08 December 2020: Balniki forces occupy Faronna Islands.
- 13 January 2021: The Valcriosi attack the 2021 Erosithegon, the second major attack orchestrated by the group over the 2020-21 winter.
- 03 March 2021: The Eris Ninth Club is attacked by what is assumed publicly as a third Valcriosi attack, but is in actuality a confrontation between Valcriosi leader Valeris and Balniki Ratgaz agents.
- 01 July 2021: Dociara Grand Station is attacked in what is assumed publicly as a fourth Valcriosi attack, but is in actuality a confrontation between Doraltic Bureau agents and Balniki Ratgaz agents.
- 25 July 2021: A secret meeting is held by Gael Four intelligence leaders to discuss the situation in Dociara.
- 21 September 2021: Cedar Dyson recovers intelligence of a Balniki War Plan against Roendavar and the United Republics from defected pilot Max Rudin. Rudin is left to die in an anticipated attack on the United Republics Embassy by Legion of 500 forces. Later that morning, Cedar Dyson speaks at the Afaril moments before it is attacked. Both he and Celion Faunus survive the attack.
Section 3: The Oncoming Terror
This section is in progress but will go over the plot summary as planned collaboratively for Terror Over Gael.
- In the interim time between Shadow and Terror, Dormill and Stiura, Altera, and Roendavar deepen their security ties, anticipating further strife in Roendavar in the wake of the 2021 attacks.
- Events start with the abduction of one Silas Pascal, going by the code name Zuse, a agent of the Bureau of Special Intelligence (Dormill and Stiura's principal intelligence agency). Unknown to Dormill and Stiura, this is the first of a coordinated series of attacks against personnel connected to Project: Borehole, an ongoing espionage effort against Balnik started after Baetylus.
- TWI security experts, scholars, and certain political figures will attend a region-wide security conference and exposition which will set the tone for security policy in several nations and be an open presentation of the regional military-industrial complex's newest and best toys. If anyone wants to be known in the security world, they will attend the 2023 International District Security Conference.
- During the IDSC, President Dyson, who is attending as the opening keynote speaker, will announce a Doraltic-Roendavar joint security project aimed at increasing their readiness to respond to future threats (like Balnik) and prevent the previous year's tragedies.
- This announcement will have the side effect of upsetting the status quo of eastern Gael security, where it was once assumed that Roendavar would remain neutral and both Balnik and D&S would remain uninvolved. Faronna changed that and now D&S and Roendavar will respond by strengthening themselves. Balnik will not respond kindly to this development, an anti-Tripartite with Dormill at its center will render the Federation of Gael experiment moot, and Dovesti Chernobog will take whatever effort he can to prevent this from forming.
- At the same time, whispers of a coup against Chernobog within small parts of the Balniki officer corps begin to spread, they all suspect Teklak involvement in Roendavar, and they are incensed that they allowed Dormill and Stiura to kill one of their own (Max Rudin, who was in reality killed by Teklak officers) even if he was a traitor. This will put pressure on Chernobog to act more often and more openly to prevent them from removing him and starting a war against Dormill and Stiura themselves.
- Also at the same time, the Republic of Grottingon, bordering Roendavar and part of Balnik, is holding its state-level election. It is expected that this will be a bellwether for the federal elections at the end of the year and some politicians expect the Republic's government will shift towards the new party alignment (the one between Dyson's Forwards and the anti-federalist Democrats). While not immediately relevant to Terror, this inclusion is meant to set up a line of attack into Doraltic politics to sow terror and confusion and to possibly force Dyson to play a move he might not want to.
- Like with Shadow over Gael, the players will be the intelligence community as they try to keep their shadow war where they can control it, with each complication (as pictured above) undermining their ability to keep their war from spreading out into a full on military conflict, which will ultimately fail by some means I want to discuss.
- The Aegis (more below) forms from Doraltic and Roendavarian dissident ex-intelligence operatives and hostile cultists and attacks a secret Balniki gold store in Keverai revealed through Project: Borehole, this is to finance their coming operations and buy out several companies from McHenry's Port, a major mercenary hub.
- After a particularly nasty tsunami strikes Keverai, Dormill and Stiura is thrust further into the security dilemma of the Southern Sea. Concurrently, Aegis alongside McHenrite mercenaries and the Legion of 500 begin operations in Charbagnia on the side of anti-government insurrectionists in its northern islands. This will begin a proxy war between Balniki-aligned forces and Dormill and Stiura in Charbagnia that will inflame tensions in Gael.
- Eventually, with Doraltic elections looming, President Dyson decides to lean into the military conflicts to win votes. This rhetoric of needing to prepare for a war ends efforts to deescalate. This rhetoric is shared in Roendavar which is increasingly the subject of militarization and anti-dissident activity, culminating in a major raid against Aegis and the hostile cults, which is ultimately botched by overzealous Doraltic commanders and inexperienced Roendavarian commanders. The raid is framed as an attack against Roendavarian civilians, which opens an avenue for Balnik to intervene on the supposed moral high ground.
- Terror over Gael will ultimately end with the start of the open war between Balnik and Roendavar, just before Dormill and Stiura has the time to respond which will begin Inferno over Gael.
The Aegis is a newly formed anti-statist terrorist organization that aims to bring down Dormill and Stiura, Roendavar, and their allies by tearing down their intelligence services - the Bureau of Special Information and the Agents of the Rose respectively - and isolating them from the international world by exposing the dirty laundry of the two governments. This is done to set the conditions for a revolution in both countries that will depose Celion Faunus and President Cedar Dyson and pave the way for new, more "transparent" governments that the Aegis will be in control of.
This is where I want you all (who haven't come in yet) to feel free to join. The Aegis will be striking out at any target that makes D&S and/or Roendavar and their allies abroad look bad, or expose government secrets relating to the aforementioned intelligence services. In both cases, this will be especially important for those nations that may not believe the response of the Doraltic government due to existing mistrust, or where the public can be swayed by the disinformation campaign to discredit the two Gaeltic nations. This also means that anybody in TWI that wants to have terrorists to fight can start to fight against Aegis. All I ask is that, aside news posts, to use the Terror IC thread for actions made by Aegis or actions made against Aegis, so that we can expand on Terror's story and start setting up the sequence of complications I've mentioned in the post above that will slowly, but surely, compromise the Bureau, HEI, and Balnik to the point where someone somewhere gets it in their head that war is the only way to resolve this crisis.
With all that said, I hope you all can find a way to be affected by the events of this RP and participate yourselves. As for OPing, Balnik and Roendavar are my Co-OPs for Terror and they should be reached if you have any further questions I am unable to answer after I return to school. And as always, please use this thread for further planning of posts and other events relating to Terror as the RP develops. I hope to start the next chapter, where the Bureau gets desperate enough to consider (and start acting on) direct strikes against their enemies in an escalation of the shadow war, where the HEI goes forward with their operation to strike against the cults that have sided with the Aegis, and where Balnik starts mobilizing towards the Inferno!
Alright, here's how you can get involved in the story of Terror Over Gael:
- Gaeltic nations and allies of Roendavar, D&S, or Balnik: I welcome you all to become involved in the story directly if possible, especially to include other overt unconventional military forces in the growing proxy war between Balnik and myself. While we have not resolved how wide Inferno Over Gael between a limited conflict between just Balnik, Roen, and I or a wider conflict that could include Lesva, Ainslie, Altera, and Keomora. This is a debate that cuts between all three Co-OPs so this will take time to resolve. For the Gaeltic participants, you're welcome to contribute to this discussion but RP without militarizing until this discussion has resolved.
- Eternan, Argean, and Southern Sea nations: Especially for the Southern Sea, this proxy war will be fought on your doorstep so I welcome you to participate in that phase of the RP, especially in the Charbagnian situation. However, I will need you all to detail how you want to contribute to the plot and your plans for your parts of the RP as a whole.
- Anyone else: I unfortunately do not have a place in mind for anyone else to get involved, particularly Raelosi and Mesdernian nations. However, as I am a firm believer that an RP of this scope should have effects on a regional scale, I invite you all to react to the major public events of this RP as they come.