RavenDaas
Member
ILYA THE TYRANT had introduced herself to the world of men and fay in an unorthodox manner that would grow to be a staple of her regime. Where other self-proclaimed liberators would promise bread and wine and wealth to those who swore fealty, her promises were stays of executions and assignment to plantations and land clearance with promises that their children would inherit the land they worked. Unsurprisingly, few took upon these offers. Unknown to them were just how generous of terms they were: true, demons were a very real threat to the Mortal Realms, spilling forth from their portals to wreck havoc and procure prisoners for themselves before returning to HEL. These raids were disorganized however, not for lack of will and discipline on their parts as much as the randomness that allowed them to come forth, portals being torn open between worlds and allowing only the most brief of skirmishes before they must return lest they be trapped and killed in short order.
This was much worse.
Millennias of perpetual warfare and conflict had hardened demons into a brutal thing, arriving with firearms, cannons, halberds and pikes and developed unit tactics that made paltry work of the armies sent to rout them back to their homeland. Like so much scythed wheat, baronies, duchies, kingdoms, then entire empires collapsed beneath their mighty boots, preaching the liberation of the masses under their new ruler, the pettiness of human feudalism dissolved and the rise of ILYA'S PEACE. As much cause for war as philosophical and socioeconomical treatise, the people's liberator came to them with promises of land to work and direct participation in her new government, modeled after progressed, demonic rule of law. And she kept it. Though the crowds had initially pelted her with stones and insults and fruit they evolved into cheers and welcomes and opened gates in overthrown cities and townships once news of her sincerity arrived.
"A world where only the strong go in fear."
This could not last however glorious it was. Like most things, it came crashing down on a Saturday evening. THE CHURCH OF SAINTS had called upon GOD to deliver them, a mortal being to be chosen to rally the contentious-filled and rivaled realms of the world to defeat this threat before all was lost. They came. Ilya never had the opportunity to learn much about them, as their first encounter was on the battlefield, a coalition of the world's greatest forces assembled before her: armed and chained knights of the monastic orders, Elven archers and artillery pieces, Dwarven infantry and crossbows...it was the greatest army that the Realms had assembled in history. Each of them filled with the zeal and righteousness of their cause to defend their homelands and redeem themselves in the fervor of war.
Well.
They lost.
Logistics rarely stand up because of principle, and it wasn't longer before bickering over rations and camp space and who had the honor of leading the right flank added to the very real issue that the demons they were facing outnumbered them, had them beat for quality in arms, training, and leadership, and were supplemented by various volunteers to their cause.
"Not that anyone would know it."
Ilya had muttered the same words to herself hundreds of times by now. She, her people, and the surviving remnants of the COALITION FOR GOOD both knew it had been one-sided, and nobody else ever would so long as propagandists had their way. And they would. At the end of the day, she had been tricked, banished back to her home in a vicious, cruel trap created under the flag of peace talks. Now...
Now she was back where she'd started, and where she belonged. A hole-in-the-wall bar serving drinks, or in the back room, dragging from the hose of a hookah and letting smoke escape her mouth towards the ceiling, letting herself feel self-pity for lack of better things to do.
