بخش دوم

Montfort archivists have been hard at work, as have I, to best record and comprehend the events of the last year or so, including the Nortan Civil War. Naturally our own historians have been somewhat lacking, both in point of view and in the ability to write while weathering a change in government. Obviously, the documentation I have found in Norta is quite biased toward the Silver viewpoint and not worthy of inclusion just now. That said, I found it fascinating to look back on events through another lens, and you might find it useful as well, if not simply interesting.

—JJ

safe passage for Ardents in hostile nations. The Monfortan government and military undertook a joint operation to identify, warn, and relocate Ardents within Prairie, Piedmont, Norta, the Lakelands, and the Disputed Lands. The need for secrecy complicated our efforts, but thousands of these individuals and their families were removed from these lands in the years leading up to the Nortan Civil War.

The first Ardent to be publicly identified outside Montfort was Mare Barrow, a young woman from the Capital Valley of Norta. At seventeen years old, while working as a servant to the Royal Family of Norta, she was caught on a Nortan broadcast using her electricon ability. While the Nortan government and monarchy quickly covered up her blood status by labeling her a Silver noblewoman, it was clear to anyone with knowledge of Ardents what she truly was. Barrow was betrothed to the second prince of Norta, Maven Calore, and used as a vital tool in Queen Elara Merandus’s plot to usurp her husband and place her son on the throne of Norta. While living as a Silver noble, Barrow was contacted by the Scarlet Guard, a rebel group, and oathed herself to their cause. She gathered intelligence and aided the Guard in its efforts to destabilize the Nortan government. Barrow was integral to organizing the Sun Shooting, one of the Scarlet Guard’s first open acts of violence in Norta. During a failed Scarlet Guard coup, Queen Elara arranged the murder of King Tiberias VI. Barrow and his heir, Prince Tiberias, were framed for the deed and sentenced to execution. They escaped with the aid of the Scarlet Guard. (For more information on the Scarlet Guard, see subsection 12.) Following the exposure of Mare Barrow, Montfort dispatched more operatives to Norta and the Lakelands. Most were assigned to observing and eventually making contact with the Scarlet Guard, while several were charged with tracking down Barrow for purposes of alliance. The latter did not succeed. After rendezvousing with the Scarlet Guard at one of the group’s bases, she left with a small detachment including Prince Tiberias, a Scarlet Guard captain, and her brother, another Ardent. (For more information on Ardent inheritance, see subsection 3.) Montfort intelligence postulates that Barrow was forced to flee the Guard base, fearing persecution of herself and the Nortan prince. On the Nortan mainland, her team, much like our own, sought out other Ardents (now widely recognized and called newbloods in Norta) to protect them from the Silver government.

Now king, Maven Calore was seeking newbloods as well. Barrow was operating off a list utilizing Red blood mapping, a Nortan innovation. Later on, Montfort would use similar tactics to expand its objective of finding, protecting, and sometimes relocating Ardents in danger. On the outskirts of the radiated lands of the Wash, in the once-abandoned Corros Prison, Queen Elara was collecting the Ardents her son found. She was believed to be examining them and using her whisper ability to control them. Barrow and her group stormed Corros, and Queen Elara died at Barrow’s hands. King Maven tripled his efforts to find Barrow, and she was eventually forced to turn herself over to the Silver king. It’s clear the young monarch became obsessed with the Ardent following her time in the Nortan court.

King Maven was quick to use Barrow to his advantage, putting out broadcasts of her to the Nortan nation. On camera, she rebuked the Scarlet Guard and praised King Maven, calling for Ardents like her to join him. Paired with King Maven’s decrees lifting harsh measures on the Red population, it increased his popularity within the kingdom considerably. Many Ardents answered Barrow’s call, joining the king’s army to be trained and wielded as his weapons. The first vestiges of fracture appeared during an attempted assassination of King Maven, when three Silver houses declared open rebellion against their king. They supported the return of Prince Tiberias. During King Maven’s coronation tour of Norta, the Scarlet Guard and the exiled prince captured the fortress city of Corvium, weakening Norta’s northern defenses. Feeling the strain, King Maven signed a treaty with the Lakelands, effectively ending the Lakelander War, which had lasted more than a century. He was forced to break his betrothal to a Samos noblewoman to marry Princess Iris of the Lakelands instead. Now the Silvers of both Norta and the Lakelands were free to turn all their military might on the Scarlet Guard, which was still growing in size, notoriety, and danger.

The Scarlet Guard struck again, attacking Archeon during the royal wedding of King Maven to the Lakelander princess. This was the first joint effort between the Scarlet Guard and Montfort, following weeks of careful contact and planning. During the attack, the combined forces rescued Barrow and dozens of Ardents, and raided the Nortan treasury to further fund the rebel efforts. Unbeknownst to the Nortans, Montfort had facilitated a deal with the neighboring nation of Piedmont, and the assaulting force returned to a military base in the south. The Kingdom of Norta splintered further when Lord Volo Samos declared himself King of the Rift, and his region seceded from Norta. This is generally considered a watershed in the Nortan Civil War.

King Maven moved to retaliate against the Red rebellion. Some weeks later, he and an allying force from the Lakelands marched on rebel-occupied Corvium. Together, the Scarlet Guard and Montfortan troops led by Premier Dane Davidson were able to throw back the Nortan and Lakelander assault. They were aided by Samos troops from the Rift as well as other rebelling Silver houses led by Anabel Lerolan, a former queen of Norta and grandmother to Prince Tiberias. Facing defeat, King Maven was forced to flee with his army, and King Orrec of the Lakelands was dead, killed at the hands of a lord acting on behalf of King Volo. Following their victory at the Battle of Corvium, the Scarlet Guard, Montfort, the Rift, and Lerolan turned their coalition into an unprecedented Red and Silver alliance against King Maven.

Unable to maintain Corvium and the Piedmont base, while still manning the war effort in Norta, the coalition elected to destroy the fortress city. Prince Tiberias named himself the true King of Norta, backed by the Red and Silver alliance, which pledged to put him back on the Nortan throne. He was betrothed to Princess Evangeline of the Rift, to cement a much-needed alliance. Still needing more troops, King Tiberias VII, Queen Anabel, Princess Evangeline, Mare Barrow, and General Farley of the Scarlet Guard accompanied Premier Davidson to Montfort. Together, they petitioned the People’s Assembly and were given more troops to overthrow Maven. During this time, the Montfort arrangement with Piedmont fell apart, and King Maven’s forces took over their base in the south. King Tiberias struck back in a double-pronged attack, directing the bulk of his forces to Harbor Bay, a vital city to the Nortan war effort and economy. Barrow, Scarlet Guard troops, Montfort Ardents, and Premier Davidson himself took over a Red tech slum nearby. Even though Lakelanders, including the ruling Queen Cenra herself, arrived with a fleet to protect Harbor Bay, Tiberias’s forces were victorious. After nearly dying to win the city, King Tiberias organized a parley between his coalition and Maven’s alliance. No agreement was reached until Queen Anabel offered up a trade—the killer of King Orrec for Maven. Both Queen Cenra and Princess Iris agreed, and they turned on King Maven Calore. He was brought back to Harbor Bay in chains. With Maven defeated, the Scarlet Guard and the Premier of Montfort offered King Tiberias a choice: step down from the throne, or lose their alliance against the still-hostile Lakelands. Tiberias chose his crown, and the Scarlet Guard, Barrow, and Davidson returned to Montfort with a kidnapped Maven.

In Norta, King Tiberias struggled to hold together the pieces of a country falling apart, with many Silvers remaining loyal to his brother. The Lakelands moved to strike the capital, meaning to conquer all of remaining Norta in a single swoop. Together, Montfort and the Scarlet Guard interceded, using Maven’s guidance to infiltrate the city. King Tiberias and his army were surrounded until he was once again given the choice to step down. He pledged to abdicate, and the joint troops pushed back the Lakelander force. King Volo Samos died in the battle, while his son and daughter went missing. Mare Barrow killed Maven Calore when he attempted to escape the city. Queen Cenra’s fleet was forced to retreat when Scarlet Guard submersives appeared in the river and torpedoed the Lakelander ships. They escaped to the sea and then to their homeland, their navy severely hobbled by the Battle of Archeon.

In the following weeks, the Ardent Mare Barrow returned to Montfort while her adoptive country, the Scarlet Guard, and the shattered Norta attempted to rebuild.