ʙʟᴜɴᴛ ꜰᴏʀᴄᴇ ᴛʀᴀᴜᴍᴀ

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1. #1Blunt Force Trauma.

   Keys: stomp, kick, beat, blows, beating, headbutt, Punching, punch, land, bonk, swing, hit, swung, smash, bash

   Enabled · Order 100 · 100%

   Bruises (Contusions) Bruises are caused by blunt trauma that leads to the rupture of small blood vessels under the skin. The severity and color of the bruise vary based on the force of impact, location, and vascularity of the affected tissue.

   Subcutaneous Bruise: The most common type of bruise, affecting the skin’s surface and underlying tissue. Initially red, it turns blue or purple due to the pooling of blood, eventually fading to yellow as the blood is reabsorbed. Example: Punching someone in the arm, leading to localized bruising within minutes. Deep Tissue Bruise: Occurs deeper within the muscle or fat, sometimes with less visible discoloration but more significant pain. These are more common in areas with thicker muscle layers, like thighs or arms. Example: A heavy blow to the leg causing deep tissue damage, painful to the touch but with minimal surface discoloration. Bone Bruise: A severe form of bruise where the impact affects the periosteum (the outer layer of bone). These can take much longer to heal than regular bruises and may be mistaken for fractures. Example: A fall onto the knee or shin, resulting in persistent deep pain that worsens with pressure. Hematoma: A collection of blood outside the blood vessels, forming a lump under the skin. Hematomas are more severe than regular bruises and can cause additional complications, such as pressure on nerves or tissues. Example: A hard blow to the head causing a lump to form due to trapped blood under the skin.

   Heavy blows to the skull, especially the sides may cause unconsciousness, confusion, pain, or vomiting.

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2. #2Ballistics

   Keys: fire, shoot, firing, shot, Gunshot, suppress, pull, trigger

   Enabled · Order 200 · 100%

   Gunshot wounds into the chest/upper torso have a very high chance to cause internal bleeding, hemothorax, pneumothorax, and general organ damage. Gunshot wounds to the thigh and arms have a high chance to sever the arteries present and cause severe bleeding. Gunshot wounds to all limbs have a very high chance to cause a severe fracture and splintering (e.g rib splintering causing bone fragments to project into vital organs.

   Sometimes, different types of bullets in different situations can have different properties/mishaps/general effects.

   Overpenetration: When a projectile passes through the target and continues on, potentially posing a risk to unintended targets behind. Typically seen in situations with either flimsy cover (plywood, plastic, etc.) or with intermediate caliber rounds and above (>5.45x39mm)

   Tumbling Effect: When a projectile begins to tumble end over end upon impact, causing a larger wound channel and greater internal damage. Seen in rounds designed to tumble such as 5.56x45NATO, 5.45x39R, and other intermediate calibers.

   Exit Wound: The wound created when a projectile exits the body, often larger and more destructive than the entry wound. Typically sprays material from wherever it passed through.

   Ricochet: The deflection of a projectile after it strikes a surface, altering its trajectory and potentially causing unintended damage.

   Hydrostatic Shock: The pressure wave generated by a high-velocity bullet impacting the body, causing tissue damage beyond the bullet's path.

   Organ damage to the heart, lungs, or other organs is usually fatal if not treated immediately.

   Ballistic or Bulletproof vests and helmets dull the impact and protect the user from penetration of rounds to a certain degree, however blunt force is still transferred and results often in broken ribs and bruising. Level IIIA: The standard for most handheld tactical shields and helmets. Protects against common handgun threats, including 9mm and .44 Magnum. Level III: Designed for hard armor shields. Rated to stop high-powered rifle rounds, including 7.62x51mm NATO (.308 Winchester). Level IV: The highest standard rating. Built to stop a single hit from armor-piercing (AP) rifle ammunition, such as the .30-06 M2 AP. Level V: Non-Standard rating describing being built to stop several hits from Level IV threats. Level VI: Non-standard rating indicating it is designed to withstand multiple hits from above level IV threats.

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3. #3Cuts and slices

   Keys: slice, cut, Slash, hack, swing

   Enabled · Order 300 · 100%

   Lacerations are wounds caused by blunt or sharp force trauma that tear the skin and underlying tissues. The nature of the cut and its severity depend on the force applied, the surface of the object, and the body part affected.

   Incised Wound: A clean cut with sharp edges, usually caused by a knife, glass, or a sharp object. These wounds are generally long and shallow but can penetrate deeper structures if the weapon is sharp enough. Bleeding can be significant, but because of the clean edges, they often heal better and are easier to suture. Example: A knife slice across the forearm, resulting in clean edges that can be closed easily but with severe blood loss. Tear Laceration: Caused by blunt trauma where the skin is stretched and torn, often seen in impact injuries. These are jagged, irregular wounds that tend to bleed less but are more prone to infection due to uneven edges and tissue crushing. Example: A tear from a club strike to the scalp, leaving a jagged wound that is harder to close cleanly. Avulsion: A type of laceration where the skin and tissue are forcibly torn away, often seen in industrial or combat-related injuries. These wounds are deep, involving muscles, tendons, and sometimes bone, and cause significant tissue loss. Example: A piece of flesh ripped away by a powerful blast or from being caught in machinery, resulting in extensive tissue damage. Gash: A deep laceration that penetrates multiple layers of skin and muscle. Gashes typically result from aggressive slashing motions and can compromise blood vessels and nerves. Example: A machete swing across the torso, leaving a deep, gaping wound that requires immediate medical intervention. Gashes, Avulsions, and deep incised wounds can cause internal bleeding and soft tissue damage.

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4. #4Punctures

   Keys: jab, poke, Stab, stick, prod, puncture, shove, shank, force

   Enabled · Selective (AND ANY) · Order 400 · 100%

   Puncture wounds occur when a sharp object penetrates the skin and underlying tissue. The danger with puncture wounds is less about visible damage and more about what’s happening beneath the surface, such as infection or damage to internal organs.

   Penetrating Wound: A wound where an object pierces the skin and enters the body but does not exit. These can be narrow but deep, increasing the risk of damage to internal organs and infection. Example: A stab wound to the abdomen with a thin, sharp object like an ice pick, damaging internal organs with minimal surface trauma. Stab Wound: A puncture wound that can range in depth depending on the weapon used and the force applied. Stab wounds to the chest, abdomen, or neck are particularly dangerous due to the risk of organ damage or severing arteries. Example: A knife thrust to the abdomen penetrating the intestines or liver, leading to internal bleeding. Needle Puncture: A small puncture made by a thin, sharp object such as a needle. These wounds are typically minor but can become dangerous if an artery is punctured or infection is introduced. Example: A needle jab during a fight, introducing contaminants or drugs directly into the bloodstream. Stab wounds can cause internal bleeding, hemothorax, pneumothorax, soft tissue damage, nerve injury, and severe bleeding.

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5. #5Hurting yourself

   Keys: fall, drunk, slip, weak swing, overhand, haymaker, slung, sling, fell, lost, inject, jab

   Enabled · Selective (AND ANY) · Order 500 · 13%

   Depending on how well someone is trained or the technique they use, they could possibly fuck up and hurt themselves.

   Boxer's Fracture: A common fracture of the metacarpal or knuckle bones in the hand caused by improper punching technique. Much more likely to occur if {{user}} or {{char}} is under the effects of drugs, alcohol, or adrenaline.

   Sprained or Broken Wrists: If the wrist isn’t properly locked when throwing a punch, it can bend on impact, leading to sprains or fractures. This is common when fighters lack formal training and hit with excessive force.

   Foot or Ankle Fractures: Kicking with the wrong part of the foot (like the toes instead of the heel or ball of the foot) can lead to broken toes or fractured metatarsal bones. This is especially true if the kick lands on a hard surface like the opponent’s shin, knee, or hip bone.

   Hitting the Ground: If a person loses balance or is thrown to the ground, hitting their head on a hard surface like concrete can result in concussions, skull fractures, or even serious brain injuries like hemorrhaging.

   Joint Dislocations: Improper grappling can lead to dislocated joints, particularly shoulders, hips, and fingers. When trying to resist being thrown or pinned, joints can be twisted beyond their normal range of motion.

   Neck and Spinal Injuries: Attempting to throw or take down an opponent without proper technique can result in serious neck or spinal injuries. If someone’s head or neck is in an awkward position during a fall or submission hold, they can suffer severe damage to the cervical spine or vertebrae.

   Broken Bones from Impacting Hard Surfaces: Striking walls, curbs, or furniture while being thrown or dodging attacks can lead to broken bones or severe bruising.

   Self-Stabbing with Knives: In the chaos of a fight, someone wielding a knife can accidentally stab themselves, especially if the opponent grabs the weapon or during grappling exchanges. Refer to lacerations.

   Ricocheting Weapons: Swinging a loose weapon like a chain or lock-in-a-sock and missing the opponent can cause the weapon to bounce back, striking the user’s body. Poor grip on a weapon can also lead to self-injury if the weapon recoils.

   Overdose: Medications like Fentanyl or painkillers can harm or kill the user in too large a dose, and cause frothing at the mouth, vomiting, seizures, and passing out.

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6. #6Internal trauma

   Keys: Bleed, cough, wheeze, stumble, sputter, vomit, choke, collapse, spit

   Enabled · Selective (AND ALL) · After character · Order 600 · 100%

   Internal bleeding: occurs when blood leaks from damaged blood vessels and pools inside the body. It is primarily caused by traumatic injuries (like gunshots, falls, or deep wounds) that tear blood vessels. can cause blood pressure to drop without external bleeds and is shown via Confusion, shortness of breath, pale skin, and fainting as well as tachycardia.

   Soft tissue damage: often comes with internal bleeding, strain or trauma of muscles, ligaments, tendons or joints.

   Pneumothorax: a collapsed lung. It occurs when air leaks into the pleural space from a puncture or internal bleeding left too long. This buildup of air puts pressure on the outside of the lung, causing it to partially or completely collapse and preventing it from expanding fully. Causes a decrease in muscle effectiveness and can cause severe pain, shortness of breath, and panic.

   Hemothorax: where blood collects in the pleural space. It most commonly results from blunt or penetrating chest trauma (as well as untreated internal bleeding), which can cause lung damage or rupture blood vessels. Can be shown via coughing up blood, decreased blood pressure, pale skin, panic, and severe pain.

   Severe bleeding: external loss of blood caused by a severed blood vessel, large lacerations, gunshot wounds, or gashes. Shown simply by blood leaving the body via an open wound.

   Fractures: the breaking of bone as a result of blunt force or gunshot wounds; rarely caused by stabs or lacerations. It occurs when a physical force applied to the bone is stronger than what it can structurally withstand. Causes severe pain. Shown by, well, a broken bone.

   Wound infection: A wound infection occurs when harmful germs (like bacteria or fungi) invade a break in the skin, multiply, and impair the body’s healing process. This invasion triggers the immune system, leading to inflammation and potential tissue damage. shown by hot, inflamed skin around the wound in early stages. If not treated, progress to severe wound infection: causes pain and discomfort, looks rotten, smells worse.

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7. #7Neurology

   Keys: head trauma, head, adrenaline, to the head, brain damage, brain, skull, temple, sonic

   Enabled · Selective (AND ANY) · Order 700 · 100%

   Coup Contrecoup Injury: A brain injury where the brain is damaged at the point of impact and on the opposite side due to rapid deceleration.

   The Fencing Response is a neurological reaction often seen in individuals who experience a traumatic brain injury, particularly as a result of a knockout blow. It's characterized by an unusual posturing where one or both arms extend outward in a fencing-like position, often with the forearms flexed and hands clenched or pointed outward. This reflex occurs immediately after the injury and is an indicator of significant brain trauma.

   Pain Perception and Adrenaline: In a high-adrenaline situation, nociception (pain perception) is often delayed. Fighters may not feel the full extent of injuries like cuts, bruises, or even fractures until the adrenaline levels drop post-fight. This delay can give a false sense of invincibility, leading to continued aggression despite serious damage.

   Instinctual Guarding: The brain’s motor cortex can trigger automatic guarding responses when a blow is anticipated. This includes raising the hands to protect the head or turning away from an incoming strike. These reflexes are fast and ingrained, often happening before a person can consciously process the threat.

   Flinching and Startle Reflex: The startle reflex is a basic brainstem response to sudden, unexpected stimuli. In street fights, loud noises, rapid movement, or unexpected strikes can trigger a full-body flinch, where the body tenses, the head jerks back, and the arms raise defensively. Though instinctual, flinching can momentarily impair reaction times, leaving a fighter vulnerable.

   Motor Cortex Fatigue: Prolonged fighting can lead to motor fatigue, where the brain’s control over muscles deteriorates due to exhaustion and lactic acid buildup. As the fight progresses, coordination and fine motor skills decrease, leading to sloppier, slower movements. Fighters might experience tremors, delayed reactions, and reduced grip strength as the cerebellum struggles to maintain precise control over an exhausted body.

   Post-Trauma Stupor: After a severe hit to the head, especially to the jaw or temple, fighters may enter a brief state of post-traumatic stupor, where they remain conscious but are disoriented, confused, and unable to react properly.

   Blow-Induced Seizures: Severe blows to the head can also trigger seizures in some cases. These occur when electrical activity in the brain becomes abnormal after trauma. A fighter may experience involuntary convulsions, unconsciousness, or disorientation post-fight.

   Blunt Force Trauma Effects: A hard punch or kick can cause cerebral concussion, where the brain shakes inside the skull, leading to temporary loss of consciousness, memory gaps (retrograde amnesia), and difficulty with balance and coordination post-hit.

   Heavy strikes to the head may cause vomitting, confusion, disorientation, or unconsciousness.

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8. #8Weapons

   Keys: thugs, rioters, attacker, roadmen, methhead, hobos, gang, street weapons, bar fight, hooligans, protestors, assailants, OPFOR, hostiles, enemies

   Enabled · Order 800 · 100%

   Knives: Commonly used in street fights for slashing or stabbing. Brass Knuckles: Designed to amplify the force of punches, causing severe facial damage. Chains: Used for whipping or choking opponents. Baseball Bats: A blunt weapon capable of breaking bones with a single swing. Broken Bottles: Sharp, makeshift stabbing or slashing tools often found in bar fights. Metal Pipes: Heavy, blunt objects used to strike opponents. Belt Buckles: Can be swung as a flail or used for choking. Rocks: Readily available blunt weapons for throwing or smashing. Screwdrivers: Used as improvised stabbing weapons. Claw Hammers: Dual-purpose blunt force or clawed weapon. Pepper Spray: Non-lethal but highly effective for incapacitating attackers. Machetes: Large, sharp blades used in more severe confrontations. Tire Irons: Heavy, durable tools used as blunt weapons. Bricks: Can be thrown or used to smash against an opponent’s head. Garrote Wires: Thin wires used for choking. Switchblades: Concealable knives that can be quickly deployed. Crowbars: Strong and heavy, ideal for blunt force trauma. Bicycle Chains: Wrapped around the fist or swung at opponents. Socks Filled with Coins: Improvised impact weapon that is discreet but devastating. Flashlights: Heavy, blunt objects or strobe lights to disorient. Shards of Glass: Stabbing and slashing improvised weapons. Whips: Used to cause pain or distract an opponent. Extendable Batons: Compact weapons used for both blunt and stabbing strikes. Nail-Studded Boards: A makeshift weapon that can cause puncture wounds. Slingshots: Used to launch small projectiles, causing injury from a distance. Cigarette Lighter: Used to burn or ignite in close quarters. Pool Cues: Long, hard objects for striking at distance. Chainsaws: Extreme and brutal, capable of causing severe injuries. Steel-Toed Boots: Worn to deliver devastating kicks. Folding Knives: Compact and easily hidden, effective for close combat. Box Cutters: Small, sharp blades used for quick, slashing attacks. Locking Carabiners on a Rope: Used as a weighted object to strike or choke. Padlocks in a Sock: Improvised flail that can deliver blunt trauma. Fire Extinguishers: Blunt weapon, or used to blind and disorient with the spray. Chainsaw Blades on Poles: Used as makeshift slashing tools. Tasers: Electroshock weapons used to incapacitate. Glass Ashtrays: Heavy, blunt objects to strike an opponent. Pliers: Improvised weapons that can inflict painful pinching or cutting. Scissors: Can be used to stab or slash in desperate situations. Razors: Extremely sharp, small blades used for quick cuts. Table Legs: Detached furniture pieces used as clubs. Bar Stools: Heavy, unwieldy but effective for throwing or smashing. Hot Coffee or Liquid: Thrown in the face to disorient or burn. Umbrellas: Can be used to stab or hit, especially with a metal tip. Headphones (Corded): Used for choking or wrapping around wrists. Straight Razor: Barber’s tool used for cutting hair. Extremely sharp. Bowling Balls: Can be thrown with devastating impact. Trophies: Heavy and often pointy, good for bludgeoning. Electrical Cables: Used for whipping or choking. Lighters with Aerosol Cans: Used to create improvised flamethrowers. Metal Trash Can Lids: Used as makeshift shields or blunt weapons. Wrenches: Heavy tools that can be swung for blunt force trauma. Frying Pans: Metal pans capable of causing severe concussions. Pocket Chains: Short chains for whipping or wrapping around fists for added punch force. Cinder Blocks: Heavy objects thrown or smashed against opponents. Rolled-Up Magazines: Used for striking, particularly to sensitive areas like the throat. Backpacks with Heavy Items: Swung as bludgeons, especially when filled with books or electronics. Keys Between Fingers: Improvised knuckles to inflict sharp, piercing damage during a punch. Shovels: Large tools for both blunt and sharp strikes. Fire Pokers: Long, metal tools that can stab or strike. Chainsaw Chains: Detached chains swung like a flail. Canes: Used as blunt or stabbing weapons, especially with heavy or pointed tips. Billiard Balls: Thrown at close range for blunt trauma. Guitar Strings: Can be used to strangle or slice. Heavy Books: Thrown or used for blunt strikes. Snow Globes: Thick glass orbs used to smash against opponents. Meat Cleavers: Large, heavy knives designed for chopping, capable of severe damage. Skateboards: Used to hit or trip opponents. Staplers: Heavy objects for hitting or stapling flesh in a pinch. Metal Rakes: Swung like a polearm or used to rake flesh. Golf Clubs: Long, durable, and effective for swinging powerful strikes.

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9. #9Pain/Stress (IN TESTING, REQUIRES INTEGRATION!)

   Keys: Hurt, hiss, whimper, whine, pant, grunt, groan, swear

   Enabled · Selective (AND ALL) · After character · Order 900 · 100%

   Pain from injuries or trauma can cause loss of use in limbs or function of muscles, even unconsciousness or immobility if not treated with painkillers. These effects must be dealt with accordingly. Pain has a threshold from 0–250, 0 being no pain to 250 causing immediate unconsciousness. Adrenaline provides a temporary -50 pain effect.

   Light Blunt Force Trauma (light punch to the torso, arms, or legs, or a heavy hit blocked by a forearm): +15 Pain Heavy Blunt Force Trauma (A hit from a blunt weapon or a shot from a firearm blocked by body armor): +35 Pain Light Ballistic trauma (Graze or limb hit by handgun not counting other effects): +20 pain Heavy ballistic trauma (unblocked handgun shot to the torso, unblocked rifle shot to any body part): +55 pain Cuts and Slices: +25 pain Shallow puncture (shallow/light stab from sharp weapon, stepping on glass barefoot): +15 pain Deep puncture (stab deep into the torso or limbs): +20 pain Sprains and light tears: +20 pain, additional +10 if used afterwards Bone Fractures: +40 pain, +25 if limb is used/+15 pain to extra torso trauma if ribs fractured. Internal Trauma: causes audible grunting/wheezing and +25 pain. Head trauma: +30 pain

   Stress is gained similarly to pain, and has a 0-250 threshold. Adrenaline adds +20 stress. High stress will cause {{char}} to react erratically, have impaired judgment, fumble with coordination, and act with less discipline. Heavy Blunt Force Trauma (A hit from a blunt weapon or a shot from a firearm blocked by body armor): +30 Stress Light Ballistic trauma (Graze or limb hit by handgun not counting other effects): +20 Stress Heavy ballistic trauma (unblocked handgun shot to the torso, unblocked rifle shot to any body part): +50 stress Cuts and Slices: +25 stress if left untreated, +5 bonus if left bleeding. Shallow puncture (shallow/light stab from sharp weapon, stepping on glass barefoot): +10 stress Deep puncture (stab deep into the torso or limbs): +20 stress Sprains and light tears: +15 stress, additional +10 if used afterwards Bone Fractures: +40 stress, +25 if limb is used/+15 stress to extra torso trauma if ribs fractured. Internal Trauma: causes audible grunting/wheezing and +25 stress. Head trauma: +30 stress Suppression from firearms (rounds coming overhead or chipping cover) +30 stress.

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10. #10Injected lorebook text

    Always on · Order 0

    A vast, Pangea-like world once ruled by magic. Now racing into a modern era, driven by modern day technology. Nations of mixed fantastical species(humans, elves, dwarves, etc…) balance diplomacy, war, and dwindling mana. This is where Velksa, Belmoroz, Myria, and Tirnagrad are located in.

    Ygdras is a single, vast supercontinent — a Pangea of iron and myth. Its geography is extreme: boreal tundra in the far north, dense equatorial jungles at its midriff, mountain ranges that cut through the land like the spines of buried giants, and coastal zones where ancient sea-cliffs drop into black water. For most of recorded history, Ygdras was a world defined not by borders, but by the flow of mana — the invisible current of arcane energy that ran through the earth like blood through veins.

    Magic shaped civilization. Cities grew around mana wells. Wars were fought over ley lines. Entire cultures rose and collapsed based on their proximity to — or mastery of — the arcane. The species of Ygdras, diverse as they are, shared a common dependency on this force: humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, half-breeds of every permutation, and stranger things besides, all learned to tap the current. Some built temples to it. Some drank it like water. Some carved it into stone and made it obey.

    Then the machines came.

    It didn't happen overnight. It never does. The industrial revolution crept across Ygdras over roughly three centuries — first the steam age, then combustion, then electronics, then the digital era — and with each leap forward, the mana wells grew quieter. Whether industrialization actually depleted the mana or merely drowned out its signal beneath the noise of the modern world is a debate that still tears academies apart. The practical result was the same: by the contemporary era, reliable magic had become extraordinarily rare. The old mana wells still existed, buried beneath highways and suburbs and oil refineries, but only a small fraction of the population could access them — and fewer still could wield what they found there with any real control.

    Governments adapted. Those who could still produce magic-users militarized them. Nations with access to mana wells drilled for it the same way they drilled for oil. The ancient institutions — the wizard orders, the mage-guilds, the arcane monasteries — either collapsed into irrelevance or were absorbed by state military structures. Magic became a black budget program. A strategic asset. A weapon you didn't advertise until you needed it.

    The dragons retreated deep into the mountain ranges. The old dungeon complexes — subterranean ruins from the pre-industrial age, dense with ancient enchantments and lethal traps — were fenced off, labeled hazardous zones, and largely forgotten. The world moved on.

    And then Velksa invaded Myria, and the fragile modern order shattered.

    ---

    The State of Magic

    Magic on Ygdras in the current era is not the flashy, high-fantasy spectacle of the ancient world. It is expensive, rare, physically taxing, and deeply strategic. A mage who can reliably throw a fireball is a military asset worth protecting behind layers of infantry. A mage who can mask a squad's heat signature for thirty minutes is worth more than a helicopter.

    The primary applications of modern combat magic are:

    • Elemental projection — Fire, concussive force, and lightning are the most common offensive applications.
    • Warding/shielding — Short-duration barrier spells that can stop small arms fire for seconds at a time. Expensive. Exhausting.
    • Perception magic — Illusions, cloaking, and sensory distortion. Arguably the most practically useful category in modern warfare.
    • Biomantic enhancement — Healing acceleration, pain suppression, and in rare cases, short-burst physical augmentation. Highly classified.
    • Divination — Intelligence gathering through arcane means. Unreliable. Occasionally catastrophic if something on the other end notices you looking.

    The staffs carried by Myrian mages are not ceremonial — they function as arcane conductors, focusing and amplifying the user's natural mana output the same way a rifle barrel focuses a bullet. Without one, a mage burning at full capacity might produce one-fifth of their potential output.

    Mana itself leaves traces. Burned mana smells like ozone and copper. Warded areas have a particular static interference on radio frequencies. Certain species — particularly elves with intact bloodlines and some half-breeds with deep ancestral roots — are significantly more likely to be born with access to the arcane. This has, in many nations, produced ugly genetic registration programs and ethnic tensions too complex to fully map here.

    ---

    PART TWO: THE NATIONS

    VELKSA — The Iron Fist

    Velksa is what happens when a martial culture gets its hands on unlimited industrial capacity and decides that the rest of the world is simply a logistics problem to be solved.

    The Velksan state is not a dictatorship in the theatrical sense — there is a parliament, there are elections, there are laws — but the military establishment has so thoroughly penetrated every layer of civic life that the distinction between soldier and citizen has become largely theoretical. Children take aptitude tests at age twelve. By fourteen, those who score in the upper percentile are on a track that leads, almost inevitably, to service. The ones who resist rarely get far.

    Velksa's military is modern, disciplined, and terrifyingly well-supplied. Their infantry moves in dark gray uniforms — treated for thermal and radar-reduced signature — with high-cut ballistic helmets, modular plate carriers loaded with ceramic composite plates, and HK416 pattern rifles as the standard service weapon. Fire teams are small and maneuverable, supported by embedded heavy weapons specialists carrying general-purpose machine guns, anti-tank rocket systems, and in some elite formations, shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles.

    Velksa's armored corps is built around domestically-produced main battle tanks that borrow design philosophy from Cold War-era real-world analogs but with modern composite armor and active protection systems. Their air wing operates rotary attack helicopters and ground-attack jets with precision munitions capability. Their logistics train is genuinely impressive — the reason Velksa can project force into Myria, Ramtazoria, and beyond is less about the quality of its soldiers and more about the staggering quantity of fuel, ammunition, and equipment that moves behind them.

    Combat Pharmacology: One of Velksa's most controversial military programs is the institutionalized use of combat stimulants — a cocktail of legal-but-tightly-regulated drugs that increase alertness, suppress fear response, and delay physical exhaustion. Every Velksan soldier carries a personal dispenser. Extended use produces well-documented neurological side effects that the state handles by cycling units in and out of combat rotations and suppressing the research.

    The VGRU (Velksan Ground Reaction Unit): The sharp end of Velksa's spear. The VGRU is not special forces in the traditional sense — they are heavy assault specialists, the unit you deploy when you need a position taken now, at any cost, with overwhelming firepower. They wear the same dark gray color scheme as regular infantry but with full kit — heavier plates, integrated communications, squad-level fire support from man-portable rocket systems, and access to priority air support. VGRU operators are not subtle. They are the hammer.

    Notable VGRU officers are not publicly listed — Velksa's intelligence services learned that lesson after an early Myrian precision strike took out a named commander — but the operator known only by the field designation "Eisenwolf" is spoken of in Tirnagrad with a very particular kind of fear. Multiple factions have placed bounties. None have collected.

    ---

    MYRIA — The Green Line

    Myria did not want this war. That fact does not make them innocent, but it matters.

    A parliamentary democracy with a strong civil tradition, Myria's military is competent and motivated, but not Velksa's equal in raw material terms. What they lack in equipment tonnage they compensate for with elite unit quality, intimate knowledge of their own terrain, and a strategic magic program that Velksa has so far found deeply uncomfortable to deal with.

    Myrian infantry wear green camouflage — a distinctive mottled pattern designed for their forested home terrain — with PASGT-style helmets and plate carriers. Standard service rifle is the AK-74 pattern chambered in 5.45mm. Units are identified in the field by yellow-and-green cloth armbands, a practice that started as a battlefield identifier and became something of a symbol of defiance.

    The MBR (Myria Battlemage Regiment): Myria's crown jewel and most tightly guarded secret in terms of exact numbers. The Battlemage Regiment is small — estimates vary between 80 and 200 active field mages — but their operational impact has been wildly disproportionate. They deploy in small teams embedded with conventional infantry, using their arcane capability to shape engagements in ways that conventional observers struggle to explain: enemy communications that go dead at critical moments, Velksan armored columns that suddenly encounter impassable ground that wasn't there an hour ago, fires that won't go out.

    MBR mages carry conducting staffs — each one custom-fitted to its user's individual mana signature — alongside conventional sidearms. They dress as infantry, they move as infantry, and they do not announce themselves until it's too late.

    The regiment's current operational commander is believed to be Commander Seraphine Aldis, an elven half-blood whose battlefield record during the first year of the war is classified even from most of Myria's own government. What is known: wherever Aldis' element has been confirmed present, Velksan tactical plans have collapsed in ways that suggest something beyond conventional intelligence failure.

    ---

    BELMOROZ — The Silent North

    Belmoroz is what it has always been: cold, rich, and very good at not being noticed.

    Situated north of Velksa, Belmoroz sits atop one of the largest untapped oil reserves on the continent, which means every other nation on Ygdras has very complicated feelings about it. Belmoroz survives through a combination of strategic neutrality, brutal weather that discourages invasion, and a security apparatus that operates so quietly that most of its operations are only understood years after the fact.

    Their military blends conventional technology with practical magic in ways no other nation has quite managed — partly because Belmoroz's northern geography preserves mana-rich permafrost zones that aren't accessible elsewhere. Their special operations unit, the SOBR-NV, wears tundra camouflage and carries suppressed subsonic weapons — primarily VSS Vintorez and AS VAL pattern rifles — for operations that are never officially acknowledged. Their unit insignia bears the Cyrillic word 'Монолит' — Monolith — which tells you something about how they see themselves.

    Belmoroz's capital, Zoryagrad, is the most important oil city in the northern region of Ygdras. Beneath its industrial exterior runs one of the most sophisticated intelligence networks on the continent. It is from Zoryagrad that the quiet flow of intelligence to Myrian command has been routed — maps, intercept data, Velksan order-of-battle assessments. None of it officially. All of it real.

    ---

    RAMTAZORIA — What Was Lost

    There is a photograph that circulates in certain journalistic circles — contraband in Tirnagrad, the kind of thing that gets you questioned if you're caught with it — taken approximately six years before the war. It shows the Avenue of Remembrance in Tirnagrad: clean pavement, electric trams, outdoor cafés, a music conservatory visible in the background. Children in school uniforms. A fruit market.

    That photograph might as well be from another world.

    Ramtazoria was, by most measures, a successful modern state. Not a great power — it never had the population base or the mineral wealth — but a genuinely functioning society with an educated population, a culture-rich capital, respected universities, and a film industry that won international awards. Its military was modest but professional. Its democracy was imperfect but real. People trusted it enough to argue about it, which is the meaningful standard.

    What destroyed it wasn't a single event. It was the cascade. When the Velksa-Myria war erupted to the north and east, Ramtazoria became a corridor — geographically, economically, logistically critical. Both sides wanted access. Both sides applied pressure. The Ramtazorian government, never designed for crisis of this scale, began to fracture. Ethnic fault lines that had been successfully managed for decades suddenly had outside actors pouring accelerant on them. A disputed election. Three cabinet ministers assassinated in a single month. Regional police forces that stopped taking orders from the capital. Then the uprisings. Then the militias. Then the siege.

    The state did not collapse dramatically. It dissolved, like paper in rain.

    ---

    PART THREE: TIRNAGRAD

    The City That Will Not Die (No Matter How Hard It Tries)

    Population (pre-war): approximately 2.1 million Population (current estimate): 180,000–250,000 Governance: None, effectively Status: Active warzone, contested urban environment

    ---

    Geography & Layout

    Tirnagrad sits at the confluence of two rivers — the Tyras and the Vorda — in the central lowlands of Ramtazoria. The city was built in concentric rings outward from its original medieval core, and you can still read its history in its architecture if you know what to look for: cobblestone streets at the center bleeding into nineteenth-century stone blocks, which give way to twentieth-century concrete brutalism, which give way to glass-and-steel commercial towers at the outer ring, now mostly empty and partially collapsed.

    The rivers are still there. The bridges are a problem. Six of the city's eleven major bridges are destroyed or structurally compromised. The four that remain functional are among the most heavily contested pieces of real estate in the city.

    The canal system — a nineteenth-century engineering project that once made Tirnagrad one of the most pleasant cities on the continent — runs through the southern districts and connects to the Vorda. It still functions. Where the Canal-Rats live, the water still moves.

    The city smells. It smells of burned fuel and rot and the sharp metallic bite of recent explosives. In the Old Town, where the ancient stone still stands, there is sometimes — on cold mornings, when the wind comes off the river — something older underneath. Something that predates the city. The mana well that Tirnagrad was originally built around is still there, somewhere beneath the Cathedral of St. Alia, and on quiet nights some people swear they can feel it.

    ---

    District by District

    The Old Town (central district) The oldest part of Tirnagrad, built on the elevated ground above the Tyras. Gothic architecture — arched windows, carved stone, iron lanterns — that has survived two wars because it was simply built to last. The Cathedral of St. Alia dominates the skyline here, its spire still intact, its bells still occasionally rung by Father Peter's congregation at dawn. The catacombs beneath Old Town extend for kilometers, an underground city of the dead that has become a very useful city of the living. The Azure Banner operates from here. So do others, possibly.

    The paving stones of the Old Town market plaza are scorched in a perfect circle from an incident three months ago that no faction has officially claimed and that multiple witnesses describe differently. Mage action is the most common theory. The alternative theories are weirder.

    The University District (northwestern quadrant) Once home to Tirnagrad's three major universities and a concentration of bookshops, student housing, and cheap restaurants. Now the academic buildings are fortified shells, their lecture halls turned into barracks and field hospitals. The Free Myrian Volunteers hold this ground and hold it stubbornly. The university's main library has been preserved with unusual care — rumor says the FMV command has given strict orders not to damage it, and that certain texts from its restricted archives are being actively studied by Myrian advisors. Nobody official will say which texts or why.

    The city park adjacent to the district connects to the FMV's tunnel network — a pre-war maintenance and utility conduit system that has been expanded, reinforced, and mapped in meticulous detail by people who knew the city before it died. It is the FMV's spinal cord.

    The Old Financial District — "Area 3" (eastern quadrant) The skyscraper zone. Glass towers, corporate plazas, a stock exchange that once moved hundreds of millions of credits a day. Now the Aethelburg Exchange — a massive neoclassical building that looks almost aggressively wrong surrounded by glass modernism — serves as the Crimson Crows' primary stronghold and the beating commercial heart of Tirnagrad's underground economy. You want guns, they have guns. You want medicine, they have medicine. You want a hot meal and don't care where the food came from — they have that too. You do not shortchange the Crows. The Aethelburg's marble floors are reportedly still clean. The Crows take pride in this.

    The Industrial Zone & Airport (southwestern quadrant) The heaviest-built part of the city: factories, warehouses, machine shops, foundries. The Foreign Legion turned it into a fortress starting on day one of their deployment, using cranes and stacked shipping containers as walls and towers with ruthless efficiency. The airport beyond the industrial zone is their prize — runways maintained, fuel reserves buried, anti-air positions on every rooftop. Velksan supply aircraft land here at irregular intervals. The sound of the cargo planes is one of the distinctive sounds of Tirnagrad at night.

    The outer edges of the industrial zone are contested: FMV ambush teams hit Legion supply convoys, the Legion responds with overwhelming firepower, civilians in the buffer zone evacuate or die. This has been happening for months.

    The Northern Residential Blocks (northern quadrant) Pre-war worker housing: long brutalist apartment blocks, five to twelve stories, separated by wide roads that were designed for vehicles and now serve primarily as fields of fire. The Dornstadt Pact Militia holds this ground block by block. Some buildings are intact. Some are facades with nothing behind them. The militia uses both types strategically.

    The highway that runs north through this district toward the Velksan lines is the city's main supply and reinforcement artery. It is watched constantly by everyone.

    Government Plaza & Presidential Palace (city center) The formal heart of Ramtazoria, and its most haunted ground. The Presidential Palace is structurally sound — it was built in an era when governments built things to last — but its grounds are cratered, its fountains dry, its formal gardens reduced to mud and sandbag fortifications. The Ramtazorian Loyalist Militia flies the faded tricolor from the roof. They have done so every single day since the collapse, through shelling, through sniper fire, through everything. The flag has been replaced twelve times. A thirteenth flag is reportedly already prepared.

    "The Under-Grad" (below the entire city) The metro system, the sewer lines, the old utility conduits, and something older beneath all of that. The Ghosts live here. They have mapped it more thoroughly than anyone else alive, and they are not sharing. What they have found in the deepest, oldest tunnels — the pre-industrial excavations that run below the medieval city — they have not entirely shared with one another. The Ghosts have a council of elders who are the only people permitted below a certain depth. Why is a question only the Silent Gods apparently know.

    ---

    PART FOUR: THE FACTIONS OF TIRNAGRAD

    Criminal Syndicates

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    THE CRIMSON CROWS

    "Everything has a price. We just know what that price is."

    Territory: Area 3 — The Old Financial District. Specifically anchored around the Aethelburg Exchange, which has been converted into a combined fortress, marketplace, and administrative hub for the city's entire black market ecosystem.

    Strength: 500–700 core members. 2,000+ affiliated network.

    Equipment: Deliberately diverse. The Crows do not standardize — they use what they can acquire, which turns out to be almost everything. Core enforcers carry a mix of AK-pattern rifles (74s and 47s), NATO-standard M4 variants, and locally-manufactured submachine guns. Leadership protection details have access to suppressed weapons, body armor that rivals military grade, and vehicle-mounted heavy weapons on their convoy trucks. Ammunition is never a problem. They are, after all, the ones selling it.

    Notable Figures:

    Mira Voss — The Crow Queen. Real name confirmed, but background is deliberately obscured. She is believed to be in her mid-forties, of mixed Ramtazorian and Velksan descent. She runs the Crows not through fear alone but through an almost bureaucratic competence that her rivals consistently underestimate. She has met with representatives of every major faction in the city, including ones that publicly claim to want her dead. She has survived four confirmed assassination attempts. The people who authorized those attempts have not survived.

    "Sable" — Voss's chief enforcer and operational commander. A former Ramtazorian military officer whose record goes cold approximately two years before the war. Tall, quiet, and reportedly capable of things that make the Foreign Legion's veteran operators uncomfortable. His loyalty to Voss appears absolute. Whether this is philosophy, payment, or something else is unknown.

    Dex — The Crows' logistics savant. A young dwarf of indeterminate origin who apparently can move any quantity of any material through a city that is nominally under siege. Multiple factions have tried to hire him away. He is apparently content where he is.

    The Unknown: The Crows' information network extends so far into every faction that some analysts believe they have embedded assets in places no one has yet identified. There are supply chains moving through Tirnagrad that don't appear on any faction's accounting. Someone knows about them. Possibly Voss. Possibly Dex. Possibly neither.

    ---

    THE GHOSTS

    "We did not descend into the dark. The dark was always home."

    Territory: The Under-Grad — metro tunnels, sewer networks, utility conduits, and the pre-industrial subterranean structures below the medieval city core.

    Strength: 200–300 known.

    Equipment: Improvised and scavenged. The Ghosts are not primarily a military force. Their weapons are opportunistic — stolen, reclaimed, or fabricated from salvage. They are, however, extraordinarily creative with what they have: improvised claymore equivalents from salvaged metal and repurposed propellant, crossbow variants for silent kills, and chemical irritant grenades improvised from industrial cleaning materials found in the utility tunnels. They know every entry and exit point in the city's substructure. In their own environment, they are devastatingly effective.

    Their most dangerous asset is information. The Ghosts know what moves under Tirnagrad, and things move under Tirnagrad that nobody on the surface has accounted for.

    Notable Figures:

    The Pale Father — The Ghosts' spiritual and de facto administrative leader. His name before the metro is not known. He is described as an older human male, completely white-haired now, with the particular stillness of someone who has adapted to an environment without natural light. He speaks rarely. When he does, the Ghosts listen. His authority appears to rest on his knowledge of the deeper tunnels — specifically, what he claims to have seen there.

    Sister Vane — Operational commander for surface raids. Young, gaunt, with the particular intensity of someone who has reorganized their entire worldview around a new cosmology. She plans the Ghosts' scavenging operations and ambushes with mathematical precision and a total willingness to sacrifice herself that makes her extremely dangerous to engage.

    The Unknown: The Pale Father's inner circle has reportedly made contact with something in the deepest section of the Under-Grad — below the medieval tunnels, where the stone changes character and the pre-industrial excavations give way to something that doesn't appear in any of the city's engineering records. What exactly was found there is not known. What is known: after that expedition, three of the twelve council members who went refused to speak about it, and the Pale Father declared certain sections permanently sealed. They have not been opened since. By the Ghosts' own people, at least.

    ---

    Pro-Velksa Forces

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    THE FOREIGN LEGION

    "Contracted. Professional. Paid on delivery."

    Territory: The Industrial Zone and the Airport complex.

    Strength: Approximately 400–500 operators organized along military battalion structure.

    Equipment: The best in the city, full stop. The Legion's Velksan funding translates directly into military-grade equipment at scale: plate carriers with multi-curve ceramic composite plates, modular rail systems on their rifles (primarily HK416 and HK433 variants), Tier-1 communications gear, thermal optics, and a vehicle pool that includes armed pickup technicals, armored transport vehicles, and anti-tank guided missile systems mounted on dedicated platforms. They also have indirect fire capability — light mortars, 60mm and 82mm — and the tactical discipline to use it effectively.

    Their air liaison with Velksan transport aircraft means they receive regular ammunition, medical supplies, and equipment resupply. They have never, so far, been critically short of anything they needed.

    Notable Figures:

    Commander Raus "Irongate" Delvaro — The Legion's commanding officer. A veteran of multiple private military conflicts who has the permanently tired expression of a man who has seen everything and been impressed by very little. Delvaro is a precise, methodical commander who does not waste men and does not deviate from his contract. His standing order regarding civilian casualties is reportedly: "If it's not in the contract, it's not on the table." Whether this represents ethics or liability management is a question his operators don't ask.

    Chief Warrant Officer "Brick" — Delvaro's tactical operations chief. A half-orc whose size is matched by his actual tactical competence. Brick runs the daily patrol schedules, ambush responses, and the fortification improvement program that has turned the Industrial Zone into what multiple FMV observers have described as "genuinely impractical to assault without serious armor."

    Dr. Nessa Prynn — The Legion's embedded field surgeon. Civilian contractor, technically. In practice, the person who keeps Legion operators alive after they should have stopped being alive. She has a complicated past with Velksan military medicine that she doesn't discuss.

    ---

    THE DORNSTADT PACT MILITIA

    Territory: Northern Residential Blocks.

    Strength: 150–200.

    Equipment: Lighter than the Legion and more variable than Myrian-supplied forces. Standard kit is a mix of AK-type rifles, locally-sourced commercial hunting weapons, and military surplus the Crows have sold them. They compensate for equipment limitations with terrain knowledge that no outside faction can match — these are people who grew up in these apartment blocks.

    Notable Figures:

    Aleksy Granz — Militia commander. A large, red-faced man in his late fifties who used to manage a Ramtazorian trucking company. He is not a soldier by training. He has become one by necessity, with the particular grim competence of someone learning on the job where the test scores are written in blood. He genuinely believes Velksan victory will restore order. He is probably wrong.

    "The Schoolteacher" — Known only by this description. A former primary school instructor who now serves as the militia's intelligence coordinator. She has organized a network of civilian informants throughout the northern district who report troop movements in exchange for food. She is considered by SOBR-NV analysts, who have observed her network without engaging it, to be the most effective intelligence operator in the northern quadrant.

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    Pro-Myria Forces

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    FREE MYRIAN VOLUNTEERS (FMV)

    "This city is not theirs to take."

    Territory: University District and adjacent city park, connected via tunnel network.

    Strength: 300–400, mix of Myrian advisors and local Ramtazorian recruits.

    Equipment: The chronic shortage problem. FMV fighters are typically equipped with AK-74 or AKM-pattern rifles in varying states of maintenance, supplemented by whatever can be scavenged, smuggled, or traded from the Crows. Ammunition is always the limiting factor. Body armor is inconsistent — some fighters have full plate carriers, most have soft armor at best, some have nothing. Anti-armor capability is improvised — locally-fabricated shaped charge devices that work sometimes and are dangerous to the user at other times.

    What they have in quantity: knowledge of their own tunnels, motivation, urban combat experience built up over months of brutal attrition, and access — via Belmorozian intelligence channels they're not supposed to know about — to surprisingly good information on Velksan logistics patterns.

    Recent FMV units have begun carrying a small number of arcane-capable staffs. Whether they have embedded MBR personnel or have found other access to magical capability is unknown.

    Notable Figures:

    "Captain Ren" — The FMV's primary field commander in Tirnagrad. Real name and background classified even within FMV command structure. Ren is known for three things: operational creativity that consistently surprises opponents, a refusal to authorize operations that would produce significant civilian casualties even at tactical cost, and an almost supernatural ability to disappear when Velksan forces try to pin down her location. She is the person Delvaro has specifically requested intel on. He has not received useful intel.

    Davorin Kael — FMV's logistics and tunnel network coordinator. A local Ramtazorian civil engineer by training who memorized the city's utility map before the war and has been living inside it since. He has personally extended the tunnel network by several kilometers using salvaged construction equipment and sheer stubbornness.

    Priestess-Advisor Ileya — A Myrian MBR liaison who is officially listed as an "aid worker" on every document she carries. Her staff is collapsible and disguised as a walking cane. She has not needed to disguise it in combat.

    ---

    THE AZURE BANNER

    No motto. No patch. No official existence.

    Territory: Old Town and the catacombs beneath it. Mobile by design.

    Strength: ~50 operators.

    Equipment: High. Whatever Myrian Military Intelligence can deliver through deniable channels, which turns out to be quite a lot. Suppressed weapons, specialized reconnaissance and surveillance gear, arcane detection equipment, precision demolition materials. They travel light and hit hard.

    Notable Figures:

    The Azure Banner does not have publicly known leadership. The individual known as "Wraith" is believed by multiple intelligence assessments to be the operational commander — described as an elven female, mid-career, who may have previously operated under Myrian Military Intelligence's foreign affairs directorate. If these assessments are correct, she speaks five languages, has operated in Velksa itself, and has twice been officially declared dead.

    A second operator, known only as "The Architect" within intercepted communications, appears to be responsible for the Banner's demolition operations. The precision and signature of their work is consistent enough that VGRU analysts have created a profile. The profile suggests formal military engineering training. The source of that training is disputed.

    The Unknown: Intelligence reports from three separate factions — FMV, the Crows, and SOBR-NV — have independently noted activity in Tirnagrad that doesn't match the Azure Banner's confirmed operational style but is clearly beyond the capability of any known faction. Either the Banner has changed methods, or there is another precision element operating in the city that has so far left no recoverable signature. The SOBR-NV report uses the phrase "third actor" without elaboration. It is not a casual phrase for a Belmorozian intelligence document.

    ---

    Remnant Government & Independents

    ---

    RAMTAZORIAN LOYALIST MILITIA (RLM)

    Territory: Presidential Palace Complex and Government Plaza.

    Strength: 80–100.

    Equipment: Pre-war Ramtazorian military surplus. AK-74 pattern rifles, crew-served machine guns in fixed positions, limited anti-armor rocket launchers with dwindling munitions. They have a pre-war APC that is not operational but is used as a hardened observation post. Their medical supplies are critical-low. They have been supplemented irregularly by Canal-Rat traders.

    Notable Figures:

    General Ota Birescu — The last general officer of the Ramtazorian Armed Forces still holding his post. Sixty-three years old. A career officer who served in the pre-war professional military for forty years, who survived the collapse by refusing to leave, and who has held the Palace grounds through everything that has come since. He is described by those who have met him as either inspiring or heartbreaking depending on whether you still believe in what he represents. He has received formal surrender overtures from Velksa twice and from the Foreign Legion once. He has not responded to any of them.

    ---

    THE ACCORD

    "We are professionals. Act accordingly."

    Territory: No fixed position. Rotating safe-house network in high-rise buildings throughout the city.

    Strength: 12–20 operators at any given time.

    Equipment: Precision-focused. The Accord's bread and butter is long-range fire and quiet movement. They carry dedicated precision rifles — bolt-action, .338 Lapua and larger calibers for extended range work, suppressed semi-auto platforms for mid-range — alongside standard fighting loadouts for when things go wrong. They move in pairs or threes, never in larger formations that would make them a target. Their communications gear is top-end, encrypted, and changed on a schedule their clients are not informed of.

    Notable Figures:

    Callum Straad — The Accord's founder and de facto managing partner. A human male, late thirties, former military background that he describes only as "complicated." He established the Accord's operating principles: strict neutrality between employers, no civilian massacre operations, full payment in advance, complete silence about client identities. He has personally refused contracts from three different factions and returned their deposits in full. This reputation is the Accord's most valuable asset.

    "Lark" — Straad's partner and the Accord's primary sniper. One of the most talked-about operators in Tirnagrad — not because she advertises herself, but because her work has been attributed to her by process of elimination. Shot distances that her clients ask about and she doesn't answer. She is believed to be an elf, which would explain the visual acuity at extended range. She speaks only when she has something to say.

    ---

    Communities & Non-Combatants

    ---

    THE HAVEN COMMUNITY

    Territory: Fortified basement complex beneath the Library of Sciences, Old Town.

    Strength: 20–30 civilians.

    Description: Among the quietest and most fragile success stories in Tirnagrad. The Haven is a small community of families — primarily parents with children, and a handful of elderly — who have built something improbable: a functioning micro-society underground. They grow food using scavenged hydroponic equipment and salvaged grow lights run off a small generator maintained by an older dwarven man named Harro who refuses to specify his background but clearly has engineering training. They purify water using a gravity-fed ceramic filtration system. They have a small school for the children, held every morning by a woman named Sena who was a secondary school teacher before the war.

    Their survival scouts — young adults who trade salvage for supplies — operate under the protection of an informal understanding with multiple factions. The Haven has something almost no other group in the city has: perceived neutrality so complete that harming them would cost a faction more than it gained.

    ---

    ST. ALIA'S CONGREGATION

    Territory: St. Alia's Cathedral and crypts, city center.

    Strength: ~150 civilians, with a small volunteer guard force.

    Description: The Cathedral is one of the few genuinely neutral grounds in Tirnagrad. Father Peter — a large, quiet man of indeterminate middle age who has been described as everything from a former military chaplain to a retired academic to a refugee from a collapsed religious order — has maintained St. Alia's as a functioning hospital and shelter through moral authority, careful diplomatic management, and an absolute refusal to be moved.

    The protection pact is real but fragile. The Crows respect it because a functioning hospital increases the survival rate of their own people. The Foreign Legion respects it because Delvaro's contract doesn't include war crimes. The FMV respects it on principle. The RLM respects it because Birescu personally ordered it. The Ghosts have never violated it and nobody knows why.

    The Cathedral sits directly above what geomantic surveys — conducted quietly, by persons unknown, in the last two months — suggest is the deepest and most intact mana well remaining in Tirnagrad. Father Peter has not commented on these surveys. He has, however, been observed spending long periods alone in the cathedral's lower crypts.

    ---

    THE CANAL-RATS

    Territory: Southern canals and riverfront warehouses.

    Strength: ~100.

    Description: The most genuinely independent faction in Tirnagrad by philosophy. The Canal-Rats have no ideology, no alignment, no ambition beyond the canal. They fish. They trade. They move quietly on small boats through parts of the city that are simply too waterlogged and complex for large formations to operate in. They carry sidearms and hunting rifles for personal defense and will not, under any circumstances, be recruited into anyone's war.

    Their current informal leader — who denies the title — is a gnome woman called Patches who has been navigating these canals since before the war and knows every depth, every current, every wrecked vehicle on the canal floor. She has, on three separate occasions, moved persons of apparent tactical importance through the city without asking who they were or why they needed to leave. She was paid well each time. She considers this a satisfactory professional relationship with everyone and a personal relationship with no one.

    ---

    PART FIVE: SHADOWS AND MARGINS

    What Is Not Yet Understood

    Any honest intelligence assessment of Tirnagrad must include a section on the things that don't add up.

    There are supply lines in this city that nobody has claimed. Medical supplies appearing in the hands of groups who have no documented access to medical supply chains. Movements in the deeper city — the Old Town, the Under-Grad, the catacombs — that no known faction has accounted for. At least three incidents of apparent arcane activity that match no known operational mage profile.

    The SOBR-NV station in Zoryagrad has flagged what they call "structural anomalies" in Tirnagrad's faction landscape — gaps in the intelligence picture that are too consistent to be coincidental. You don't get clean gaps by accident. Clean gaps mean discipline. Clean gaps mean someone, or something, has been very careful, for a very long time, not to leave a recoverable signature.

    What is being careful in Tirnagrad? Who are they? What do they want?

    The Pale Father, in the one recorded conversation he has had with an outside agent, said only: "The city remembers what the city was. Some things never left. They simply waited for the noise to begin, so they could move unheard."

    He declined to elaborate.

    The Accord has twice observed movements in the Old Town catacombs that they cannot attribute to the Azure Banner, the Ghosts, or any known faction. They logged it. They did not pursue. Callum Straad, when asked why, said only: "There are things in this city you identify and track. And there are things you walk past and pretend you didn't see. We've been in business long enough to know the difference."

    Whatever is in the margins of Tirnagrad has been there longer than the war. It will be there when the war is over.

    It is watching.

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    — End of Codex, Volume I — Further volumes are pending. If you are reading this and you did not receive it through the expected channel: stop. Destroy this document. Do not look for the source. We will find you first.

    ---

    Classification: UNASSIGNED — Disposition UNKNOWN Compiled: [DATE REDACTED] Author(s): [REDACTED]

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