Post by Lorie Zetros on Dec 14, 2022 11:19:20 GMT
PERSONAL LORE
GROẞHAUS HECHINGEN
"Blick zurück zum Vergessenerstern."
"Look back to the forgotten star."
Anthem: Remember the Forgotten Star
"Blick zurück zum Vergessenerstern."
"Look back to the forgotten star."
Anthem: Remember the Forgotten Star
HISTORY
RISE
One of the early Great Houses of the Belkan Warring Age, House Hechingen established itself prior to the Belkan expansion into the Dimensional Sea. Not much is remembered about this period despite Belka's extensive writings during its 5000-year recorded history. Not even the Great House's own scholars seem to care about reading up on it. But early records state that by the time of Al-Hazard's disappearance, House Hechingen had already spent 500 years as the ruling dynasty of the feudal nation-state known as Gullintanni.
Gullintanni itself was situated to the east coast of Belka's most developed northern temperate continent. It was known for its foggy, mountainous terrain and lush forests, rendering it difficult to challenge in ground combat.
Under House Hechingen's rule, Gullintanni became known for its highly professional citizen military, with well-paid commoners outperforming the poorly trained serf levies of neighbouring states. Above this stood an officer class that was trained to understand the importance of the "bedrock people" (Bk. Grundgesteinfolk) in warfare. A paradox that while they were the least privileged and hence the lowest form of rock, they were also the most crucial, due to their numbers, and thus potential to serve as a solid foundation for a powerful military.
Even today the descendants of Gullintanni's people, now based on the 17th Administered World Vindler, maintain a similar relationship with the nobility.
FIRST CONTACT: THE MAGNIFICENT WORLD
It was around the time when Belka's space age began to mature, when each major nation had either one large space station in orbit or a fledgling lunar colony, that they made first contact with Al-Hazard: The Magnificent World, and all of its splendour. Visiting Hazardian merchants in dimensional craft peddled their wares and trinkets to enthusiastic buyers.
While the Magnificent World considered them inconsequential enough to disclose to primitive planets along the periphery of its sphere of influence, the Belkans saw within each item great potential for advancement. Whether it was a "mere" action figure equipped with a Device-tier AI that put their greatest machine learning models to shame, or phones that used Dimensional mechanics to establish a connection with other phones rather than radio waves, Al-Hazard's trash was Belka's treasure.
CONFEDERATION AND EARLY CONQUEST
This technological advancement, their widened perspective on the question of their place in the multiverse, and the resulting change in political climate led to the Treaty of Interlaken. It was here that Imperial House Sägebrecht of the Forseti Empire unified all the Belkan nations into an alliance committed to ensuring the survival of their people. This United Belkan Confederacy would, over the following decades, ultimately evolve into the Belkan Empire.
As Belka slowly assimilated the dregs of the Hazardian Hegemony's vast wealth and technology, Gullintanni was one of the first nations to turn its eyes toward the stars. Militarising its lunar colony and building up a permanent contingent of moon-based forces, they set a precedent that was quickly pursued by the other states. By the time word had spread across the Dimensional Sea that Al-Hazard had disappeared in some sort of unspecified cataclysm, Belka was fully poised to strike.
House Hechingen and Gullintanni, with its commitment to a fully professional military, was positioned to serve as the spearhead of the Belkan dimensional conquest. Led by a genetically and magically enhanced officer class, now dubbed Knights (Bk. Ritter), its shock troops raided other peripheral worlds with the speed and ferocity of lightning. They seized every last piece of Hazardian technology they could find, to be brought back to Belka for reverse engineering.
Other Confederate kingdoms followed suit. The early years were easy. Given their preparations for eventual expansionism, they took many a peripheral world by surprise and brought them to heel as "fief worlds". Soon, Belka's laboratories were filled with magitek and even a few low-grade lost logia to dissect and reverse engineer.
It almost seemed like nothing would stop them.
CRETARIA: THE AMBITIOUS WORLD
Ten years after beginning their conquest, Belka hit its first - and perhaps greatest - major hurdle. Its immensity was such that a number of Belkan intellectuals declared it to be the Great Filter, the proverbial difficulty that prevents intelligent life from spreading across the cosmos. In theory it could have been anything from societal self-destruction to simple technological challenges that rendered widespread colonisation impossible.
In this case, the Filter took the form of one of the worst case scenarios possible: a hostile superior civilisation.
Al-Hazard was called the Magnificent World for a reason. It was the greatest civilisation in the Dimensional Sea. Its magitek and achievements were unsurpassed, and no other world would dare to call themselves its peer. The worlds of the dimensional community were glad that it was in charge. For it was, for the most part, benevolent. But that didn't mean it was pacifist.
Part of the reason the age of the Hazardian Hegemony is remembered in myths as the Pax Hazardia, was because it was not afraid to deploy its lost logia against violent civilisations that dared to disturb the peace.
With Al-Hazard and its closest allies gone, a great vacuum consumed the Dimensional Sea. It was room to expand. Not just for small upstarts like Belka, but for other large civilisations that, while nowhere near as advanced, were fearsome in their own right.
Cretaria was a 'mere' Midworld within the Hegemony. It lacked the power, prestige, and miraculous magitek boasted by Al-Hazard and her Core Worlds. But among the Midworlds, it was uncontested in military might... and in reputation as a duplicitous nation. With the fall of the Hegemony and the disappearance of the Core Worlds, Cretaria took the opportunity to fill the vacuum. Declaring itself the Successor World to Al-Hazard's magnificence, they began to move to politically unite the Dimensional Sea under their banner.
Those worlds that did not accept their terms were... "aggressively integrated".
They were not taking no for an answer.
SUCCESSION WAR: AL-HAZARD'S LEGACY
By the time the two powers first clashed, Belka had taken a vast swath of the Periphery under its control with their aggressive campaign. And though they were vicious warriors, the Great Houses understood that stability meant that loyalty was necessary. And so they ruled these fiefs benevolently, in a way. However, they gave no quarter to insurrection, and pushed for total assimilation into the Belkan culture.
At the forefront of this effort was House Hechingen, who held the prestige of conquering over half of Belka's new holdings. Thanks to their approach to the bedrock folk, their assimilation efforts went smoother than the others', and although it would still take at least a generation or two, it was already starting to pay off.
This influx of fresh blood allowed them to - at least initially - weather the storm of Cretaria's advanced technology. The Ambitious World had been quick to act with the fall of Al-Hazard, and so by this time had augmented its own forces with a number captured lost logia. Some of them having long been coveted.
Belka's continuing research and reverse engineering of Hazardian technology, and their liberal application of lost logia, closed the gap in time. But this conflict would last for several decades.
Cretaria fought to expand on multiple fronts, conquering its neighbours while dedicating a relatively small force to deal with the upstarts like Belka. While this allocation of assets was wise in the beginning, it led to a blind spot. The Cretarian leadership disregarded reports by commanders on the Belkan Front that the "Peripherals", as they were called, were adapting to their tactics and slowly closing the technology gap.
This attitude was partly because of an ancient - and at the time reasonable - assumption that Peripheral civilisations were small, weak, and primitive. No matter how many peripheral planets were unified under the Belkan Banner, they reasoned, they would never truly reach technological parity with Midworlds, let alone the most powerful one.
The Belkan approach was a simple one. Fortify the front lines against the Cretarians, consolidate their rule over their recent acquisitions, and build up their industry. Owing to their martial nature and pride, the Belkan nobility refused a number of suggestions to draft the people of conquered worlds to fight for them. They were not yet seen as "Belkan enough" to share in the glory of battle.
As a result, the first decades of the Cretarian War focused mainly on defensive efforts and maximising enemy casualties while minimising their own. A difficult challenge given Cretaria's technological advantage.
The Cretarians were an old dog in the Hegemony, and had certain old ways of fighting, ways that Belka could exploit. Their disdain for Peripherals also meant that they essentially fought with one hand tied behind their backs. Although their technology was superior, their absolute best was reserved for the conflicts with the other Midworlds.
Belkan pride only applied to their conquered thralls. To this end, the Belkan armies were supplemented through various methods of technological means. Imperial House Sägebrecht developed advancements in autonomous combat platforms resulting in the widespread Gadget Drone line. Great House Leinefelde initiated a mass cloning program, replicating its best troops to bolster its numbers. Great House Hechingen, meanwhile, increased their focus on amplifying their Light magic, until they could produce semi-stable constructs. With enough mana, their forces could erect Hardlight fortifications and create entire armies of Photonic Drones almost instantly.
Other Houses innovated in their own ways. Ultimately, this allowed the Belkans to hold the line for decades without expending the lives of their newly conquered worlds. Combined with an effective propaganda campaign painting the Cretarians as out to oppress and subjugate the Peripheral Worlds if they gained control, while lionising their Belkan overlords as their selfless protectors, the Fiefworlds over time warmed to the idea of assimilating into Belkan culture.
BATTLE OF ALVALDI: PRELUDE
One of the pivotal battles in the first stage of the Cretarian War was the Battle of Alvaldi. In the 35th year of the Cretarian War, the Cretarians were pushing hard against the Belkan front lines, trying to break through and conquer the Belkanised Periphery. The Belkans had been holding their ground, but they knew that they needed a decisive victory to turn the tide of the war.
A War Council between Sanktkaiser Haudwig of Great House Dahlgrun and her eight Prince-Competitors sifted through consolidated intelligence reports and concluded that Cretaria was gathering forces near Point 22 of the Belkan Line. Point 22 was an important area, with a high rate of mana regeneration, perfect for staging a large fleet of warships. It was an ideal location for a breakthrough, and if this was not a feint, the current concentration of ships could mean they could do so in under a month.
Point 22 was guarded by the Fortress World Alvaldi, fortified and manned by House Hechingen's forces under their loyal vassal, Count Diethelm von Jägerndorf. The Sanktkaiser drew up plans for a number of possibilities, and it was agreed that House Hechingen should supplement its forces on Alvaldi in the event that the Point 22 breakthrough was not a feint.
Implementing this plan, Archon Erdmann prepared to reposition House Hechingen's forces to prioritise Alvaldi. He would leave behind their Zauberers to bolster the remaining garrisons with Photonic Drones and Hardlight fortifications. The resulting gaps in House Hechinge's Fortress World garrisons would be filled by forces from other Belkan Houses.
House Hechingen had committed to defending Alvaldi, and they were determined to do so at any cost. They knew that if the fortress fell to a breakthrough, it would be a major blow to Belkan morale and could potentially open the floodgates for Cretarian conquest.
Erdmann met with Count Jägerndorf at the Archon's Citadel, located in Alvaldi's northern hemisphere and the planetary garrison's headquarters. Here, they planned to shore up the Fortress World's defences to weather any conceivable Cretarian storm.
Over the next two weeks, the jump lanes remained heavily trafficked as forces, nearly half of House Hechingen's total troop count, steadily jumped in from their other Fortress Worlds. Erdman, Jägerndorf, and their commanders paid close attention to the probe reports from the Cretarian staging point to ensure that the troops were positioned accordingly.
Finally, at the end of this period, and with just two weeks to go before the War Council's predicted date of the breakthrough attempt, Archon Erdmann left the surface to take command of House Hechingen's Fleet in orbit. Count Jägerndorf was entrusted with the command of the ground forces.
Preparations were more or less done. But the question was whether they were enough. Only time would tell.
BATTLE OF ALVALDI: FIRST STAGE
That time to wait was not long. For a humble Belkan footman who was eager to fight, it was a fortunate thing. For Archon Erdmann and his commanders, however, it was the worst-case scenario. The Cretarians made their move just four days later, and ten days before the War council's prediction.
The Cretarians had assembled a massive invasion force, consisting of thirty thousand ships and tens of millions of troops. They clashed with Erdmann's fleet. Cretarian Worldbreakers, each armed with apocalyptically destructive spinal cannons, each used entire wings of a thousand greatships as shields to soak up defensive fire. These penetrated the Belkan formations early on.
And although Alvaldi's network of defence satellites was heavily armed - each could singlehandedly take down a greatship - there were simply too many to shoot down.
With the fleet occupied with defending against the bulk of the Cretarian armada, and the satellite network attempting in vain to get to them through their greatship escorts, the Worldbreakers trained their spinal cannons on the planetary shield. The shield held for an entire hour. An impressive feat, given that each of the dozen Worldbreakers was capable of fragmenting a planet in mere minutes. But it was not impressive enough.
The shield was overwhelmed and shattered, leaving the surface vulnerable to orbital fire. Realising this, Count Jägerndorf made the painful decision of sacrificing the satellite network to prevent further use of the Worldbreakers. Using the last energy in their reactors, the hundreds of defence satellites orbiting Alvaldi formed spindles and charged straight into the Worldbreakers. They tore through the escorting greatships with impunity, punched through the Worldbreakers' powerful shields, and reinforced hulls, and detonated themselves inside.
It was a last resort, but it paid off. The shield could now recuperate. But the Cretarians didn't give them such a chance. The surviving greatships immediately opened fire on Alvaldi's orbital assets before the shield could recover.
Space elevators shattered and fell to the surface in skeletal pieces, crushing forests with bones many miles long. Broken remains of shipyards crashed into abandoned cities, vaporising them with the force of many nuclear bombs. A number of these destroyed certain shield generators, leaving a gap in the southern hemisphere that the Cretarians took full advantage of.
The greatships deployed gunships through the gap, allowing them to bombard the surface fortresses with everything they had.
But the Belkans held firm. House Hechingen had prepared for this battle for over two weeks, using all of their available resources and expertise to make sure that Alvaldi would not fall.
After two days, however, Erdmann's fleet began to show its crack. The disparity in numbers was simply too great. With each ship that the Archon singlehandedly boarded and destroyed from within, two more moved in to take its place.
Still, he stood fast and refused to abandon the planet. In order to continue the fight while preventing his fleet from fragmenting, Erdmann shifted the fleet to more survival-oriented tactics. As a result, many more Cretarian troopships were able to land, but at least they could keep the attention of the greatships on the fleet battle, instead of bombardment.
The battle raged for over ten days, with both sides suffering heavy losses. House Hechingen was outnumbered ten to one, but they fought with a ferocity that surprised the Cretarians.
Photonic Drones buzzed about the battlefields, using their mobility and numbers to flank and harass. This took the heat off of the troops, while continually disrupting Cretarian supply lines and formations in transit. Those who did make it to the front lines against the Knights and footmen were tired and on edge. And the loss of morale made them easy pickings.
The defenders were fortified with the House's signature Light magic, rendering even a neophyte footman a juggernaut worth five Cretarian veterans. Their Hardlight fortifications withstood the brunt of the enemy's assaults and regenerated as quickly as the orbital bombardments could blast holes in them.
But the tide of Cretarians seemed endless, and over the days, they slowly wore down the Belkan defenders.
BATTLE OF ALVALDI: THE FORGOTTEN STAR
As the battle entered its final phase, it seemed as though House Hechingen was on the verge of defeat. They had held the lines for as long as possible, but even with all of their preparations and unique advantages, they were near their limit.
The Cretarians had breached the outer defences of several fortresses on multiple continents and were even closing in on the Citadel itself. Count Jägerndorf had ordered his personal guard to man the walls and prepare to engage in single combat.
But the Archon had one final surprise up his sleeve. At the very moment his clock informed him that ten days had passed since the battle started, he gave the order, and broadcast it across the entirety of House Hechingen's domain.
"Activate the Bifröst Network! All of it!"
As the activation process began, the air around the marked Causeway Nodes began to hum with powerful energy. Then, one by one, these previously inconspicuous markings erupted into brilliant columns of light, forming a web of gold that enveloped the entire planet. Only Archon Erdmann and his fleet were able to witness this totality. The birth and death of a brief, ephemeral star that burned bright for just a few seconds.
But those few seconds were all that was needed. Within moments, millions of footmen and Knights from other Belkan Houses had poured out of the causeways, bolstering House Hechingen's beleaguered defenders. Thousands of Belkan warships, previously in orbit of other Fortress Worlds, emerged from the pillars in the space near Alvaldi, as a whole more than a match for the Cretarian Armada.
It was a simple plan and a great gamble. A gamble that somehow paid off. Sanktkaiser Haudwig was sceptical of it, but Erdmann assured her that the Bifröst was ready. All that he asked was for the reinforcements to be in position at the last hour before the end of the predicted month.
While testing had been done in the past decades, it was only in the last year that the Bifröst Network had truly come together. Still, much of it remained a work in progress, and so only key planets were prioritised for rapid completion of causeways. These key planets were the Fortress Worlds under House Hechingen's charge.
The fresh tsunami of reinforcements was just enough to turn the tide. On the ground, the Cretarian positions crumbled under the sheer weight of the sudden arrival. The armada was caught completely off guard, fragmented from Erdmann's splitting up of his fleet to lead his enemies directly into the paths that the Belkan fleets would manifest themselves.
What appeared to be a sure defeat was turned on its head and became a resounding victory, as the Cretarians were handily routed.
When the dust settled, the Belkans emerged victorious. The Battle of Alvaldi had been a costly one, with both sides suffering heavy losses. But the Belkans had proven that they were not to be underestimated. House Hechingen, in particular, had distinguished itself in battle, earning more respect from the other Great Houses.
Archon Erdmann and those in his fleet who saw the event when everything turned around, called it the Forgotten Star. Nobody else saw it. And while the Battle of Alvaldi would be written about in Belka's books as the Empire's first truly decisive victory over Cretaria, only House Hechingen's scribes would speak of that moment. When the Bifröst Network was truly born and created a short-lived star to announce its birth.
The Forgotten Star quickly became a symbol of House Hechingen's bravery, cunning, and sacrifice. Though the rest of the Empire may have forgotten the great sign in space that declared the turning of the tide of that battle, House Hechingen would always remember.
CURRENT STATUS
Today, the title of Archon is held in reserve solely for the disappeared Archon Anniken von Hechingen. This was an edict put into effect by her son and heir when he came of age and took the throne of Vindler. As a result, the head of House Hechingen styles themself the "Little Archon" (Bk. Archontchen), although due to how demeaning it sounds when translated, most foreigners choose to address them by the Belkan word itself.
As one of the nine sovereign dynasties predating the Treaty of Interlaken, the Archon of House Hechingen held a position known as Prince-Competitor (Bk: Wettkampferfürst), and was addressed as "Most Serene Highness" (Bk: Durchlauchtigste). In terms of prestige, they were second only to the Sanktkaiser, and their estates held such autonomy that they were practically sovereign nations within the greater Belkan Kaiserreich.
As the title implies, they and the other eight Prince-Competitors would gather upon the Sanktkaiser's death, to select a new one from among themselves. Specifically, through a grueling tournament that could very easily result in death for the unprepared. This often was the case, at least until Belkan medical magitek advanced enough to render previously fatal injuries survivable.
This tradition predated the use of the Saint's Cradle, and was phased out with the destruction of Belka and the resulting Reunification War.
Due to their long disappearance, House Hechingen retained this position only as a courtesy upon their reintegration into the Empire. The Sanktkaiser was now chosen as the Prince-Competitor with the greatest clout among nobles and magical potential to steer the Saint's Cradle, rather than the most skilled in personal combat. And though the House could produce the latter, their influence never recovered. As a result, Archontchens were always passed up for coronation due to the machinations of the other Prince-Competitors.
MEMBERS
ARCHON ANNIKEN VON HECHINGEN
The brightest of our ancestors.
The brightest of our ancestors.
The last Archon of House Hechingen. Anniken acceded to the throne of Gullintanni in the final stages of the Cretarian War. Her coronation was immediately preceded by the pivotal Battle of Dökkheim, where her parents and siblings all perished in the valiant defence of the Fortress World against the terrifying odds of the last major Cretarian offensive.
Through their sacrifice, Belka was able to maintain control of the crucial planet, which had been built up into a staging ground for the Empire's conquest of Cretaria itself. The battle, however, left her as the sole heir to the throne of House Hechingen. And with the loss of almost the entire family, it fell onto her shoulders to rebuild the Great House.
The Sanktkaiser and a number of Belkan leaders also died in this battle. As such, her first duty as Archon was to participate in the Competition to choose the next Sanktkaiser.
ARCHONTCHEN HRODBERT ACTROS HECHINGEN
He is an old man and a fool.
He is an old man and a fool.
Lorie's father and the current head of House Hechingen. A rare prodigy with thrice the strong blood, as indicated by his three cowlicks. Archontchen Hrodbert is a stern man who rules Vindler with gravitas and an even hand.
She is still bitter that he stripped her of her inheritance.
LOTHUR ZETROS HECHINGEN
He enjoys racing.
He enjoys racing.
Lorie's older brother. An upstanding young Knight Errant who wandered the Dimensional Sea on adventures of charity because he was not chosen to be the heir, and found that staying home for too long would grow boring. He eventually found his way into volunteering for Operation: Hex Hammer, and reports to a Field Base established somewhere in Northern Europe.
17TH ADMINISTERED WORLD: VINDLER
A small world to lick our wounds.
A small world to lick our wounds.
SCHLOSS SIGMARINGEN
Our own little Cradle and creche.
Our own little Cradle and creche.
Residence and Governing Seat of House Hechingen. Castle Sigmaringen was originally built as an impregnable fortress serving to protect Archon Annika's bloodline. In the decades after her disappearance, it quickly grew to be the rallying beacon for all of the Gullintanni survivours who found their way to Vindler.