[Lyinginbedmon]

A very large issue coming up for me is a massive war, involving the awakening of a long-'dead' god. However, I'm having some trouble plotting it's progression.

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Precursor
The lost god, Astemin, was the primary cause of the war. Astemin drifted through the planes following the Great Exodus. Eventually, it landed on the Astral plane. Centuries later, the inert form was discovered by the last Beginners, who venerated it as a new god in defiance of their original creators, the Overlords. They would name this new god “Elegance”, after its graceful and beautiful appearance.

When the Sovereigns began repairing their damaged temples, they inadvertently allowed energy to return to Astemin. Because only one of the two temples necessary to fully restore Astemin were restored, it was left with insufficient energy to awaken. By this time, the Cult of the Dragon had grown into a collection of thousands. Astemin analysed the alterations to its capacities as the cult grew, and managed to discern the potential for Incarnum energy, the energy that composes the ‘soul’ of living beings. It was at this time that the worshippers began receiving their first ‘divine gifts’, in the form of grafts. The grafts improved their existing abilities or nullified weaknesses, but also siphoned Incarnum energy from the worshippers, turning them into living energy cells for the sleeping god. This, however, also nullified the usual divine benefits of worship that Astemin received. It considered it an acceptable loss however.

Over the millennia, the Cult grew its army, the Legion of the Dragon, and they infiltrated virtually every political facet of the populated world. Through this infiltration, they turned events in a way to inflict pain and misery upon the masses, making them easier to convert to the religion of the Cult of the Dragon. Then, when all had been done for the moment, they swung events in favour the converted, allowing the harsh times to be reversed and overcome, building morale, hope, and fervour in them. It was through this meddling that many of the larger wars occurred in history, including the Dark Space War, the Forgotten War, and the Great War.

Cause
In the final years of the last century, Arman Capel and the crew of his ship, the Parack, began a determined effort to locate and destroy the cult. This forced a radical re-determination of the cult’s existing plans, toward preventing their mission and its conceived impact upon Elegance’s awakening. However, the counter-measures failed, and with the aid of numerous powerful allies, Capel turned the Commonwealth against them. With help from the first leader of the Warforged Nation, an all-out war was declared upon the Legion of the Dragon on August 8th.

However, this declaration caused unforeseen circumstances. The crusade against the hidden conspirators brought further numbers to their order. On December 31st of the same year, Astemin was reawakened as over 560 thousand followers, across continents, were used as its new energy source.

Progression
The first incursion of the Legion’s forces was the use of the Terragate Network, a series of ancient portals to different locations on the planet, to send an invasion force directly into the heart and core of the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth was able to repel this attack, but it resulted in the shutdown of the entire Network for the duration of the war, in order to prevent the use again. In the meantime, allied ships without any means of travel to necessary locations were to be ferried by Sovereign ships.

<Unknown>

Battle of Sangria. With their first incursion attempt repelled, the Legion of the Dragon attempted to sneak behind Commonwealth territory by attacking through Necrus, the country of the dead, part of the Alastian Republic territory. They overran dozens of cities, quickly massacring the Grisgol Remnant inhabitants. The Republic alerted the allied Commonwealth and armadas were dispatched to rescue any survivors. Of note was the salvaged Makinoan cityship, Cialarm, which was tasked with rescuing survivors from the first city attacked, Sangria.

A ground and water-borne skirmish ensued between the Cialarm, its escorts, and the Legion forces. The battle continually escalated as the two sides reinforced their forces. Eventually, after three weeks, word was received from the Sovereigns that Astera Damin was detected moving rapidly towards Sangria in Necrus. The Commonwealth forces launched an extremely rapid motion to retrieve as many survivors as possible whilst the Sovereign forces held off the Legion of the Dragon.

The Commonwealth was unable to retrieve all of the survivors and all of their own troops on the ground, and were forced to retreat without them. Meanwhile, the arrival of Astera Damin prompted a large number of Sovereign forces to jump ship and join their god, forming the Civil War element that appeared in Sovereign prophecy thousands of years prior.

Necrus was lost. As a result of this battle, not only did the Legion acquire Sovereign technology and manpower, but also a foothold in the Commonwealth territory and enough resources to produce an unstoppable force. In desperation, the Commonwealth leaders tabled a radical decision: Pull out the forces encapsulating the Aberrus, Byatis, and Unus countries, which contained the Tsochari Emirate, the Illithid Empire, and the Centon Theocracy, villainous races thought too dangerous to allow to intermingle with the others. After a week of discussion, it was finally decided to allow all three countries entry into present affairs, under the provision that they aid the Commonwealth war effort and return to their respective homelands after the war to resume their sentences.

With aid from the Illithid Empire, through the use of their Portal Generators, forces from all across the continent were able to reinforce the armies in Necrus, whilst the powerful Centon weapons were brought to bear on the Legion ships, as the Tsochari beasts terrorised the crew. Eventually, the foothold in Necrus was dissolved and Astemin retreated, but not before significant casualties had been inflicted.

<Unknown>

Battle of Pey. The collected mind of the Commonwealth considered the best tactic to fight Astemin was to eliminate its new power source, the worshippers. To defeat the Legion, they had to remove its generals, the Cult of the Dragon, located on the Astral plane. A massive force was dispatched to the Astral plane, including the Cialarm, the Parack, and Capel and his crew, determined to spearhead a path into Legion territory.

The attack was unsuccessful at delving deep enough into the territory, so Capel utilised a Terragate, salvaged from Necrus to prevent the Legion from traversing deeper into their territory, onboard the Cialarm to transport the Parack further into the Cult, landing square on their headquarters.

The armada was recalled to keep Astemin and the Legion’s forces busy, as Capel and his crew tackled the high priests of the Cult. Eventually, they fell, leaving the Legion largely leaderless. As a result, they became disorganised and were picked off by the Commonwealth forces. As its power waned, Astemin entombed itself in a powerful crypt of dense adamantine, the Tresor, which now drifts erratically between the planes.

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So there's my issue, I need to fill the time between the first incursion, the Battle of Sangria, the Battle of Pey, and the end of the war.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Okay, a second fight from the heart of the Commonwaelth would presumably be much easier given that they would have suffered extreme amounts of damage from the first incursion. That would have been footnoted as the opening attack of the war, and with the Battle of Sangria, most of the Commonwealth's forces are shunted to the external territories of their domain, leaving the core relatively unprotected.

They would first need to establish a way of getting to the Commonwealth heart undetected to launch this attack, or else the full forces would just return and the Commonwealth would regenerate. Using the Terragates, they would need to construct a secondary gate on another plane (Because Gate doesn't go to the same plane, A->A, but only to others, A->B. Terragates are dual for this reason). Most of the Network is set to use the Plane of Shadow as this other plane, but if a part of the Legion can get to another plane without being noticed it could set this up.

Okay, so we'll say they used the Astral Plane for the second stage of their Terragate. They create this new Terragate, disconnected from the primary Network. Because of this, they'd need to enter co-ordinates manually, which shouldn't be too hard given their previously conspiratorial existence.

A portal opens into the heart of the Commonwealth. The devastated region is unprepared and largely unguarded, so any ships coming through have a fairly easy fight. Once the core is taken, they start working their way outwards, carving a donut shape into the Commonwealth territories. Some of the leaders manage to escape with teleportation magics and other transportation, but most are captured/killed.

The leaders flee to the outer reaches where the naval and military power is. It's a slapdash committee, but they manage to pull together the plan for victory with Capel's assistance. Since most of the Commonwealth is already gone, they don't have much to lose. But they still have the recovered Cialarm, a cityship with enormous power on its own. They decide on the lance attack of the Battle of Pey.

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How's that sound?

[Lyinginbedmon]

Ok, examining the issues with the above proposed desperation scenario:

By it's very nature, a "desperation scenario" is something only to be done when you're desperate. It's something that is so last-ditch effort that if you do it, you have no other options afterward and most likely, you're too dead to think of any.

In this particular scenario, we have supplies to consider. If the lands to which the Commonwealth flees are not abundant with supplies, an unlikely event, then they will be hampered by the lack of food, water, and other resources. It could be this that in part pushes them towards Pey, because they will die of starvation otherwise. The resource could also be Morale, it'll only last so long with the heart gone.

Time is limited, they have only until the Legion is done tearing at the heart before they start devoting their forces to nibbling and gnawing at the edges of the remaining circle. Maybe a few weeks, perhaps even days, depending on their progress.

The main issue with this plan on the side of the Legion is that second Terragate on the Astral Plane. Besides the normally hazardous denizens of the plane, they also have to ensure some way that the Commonwealth does not discover their creation or they risk losing the very foundation of the attack. Perhaps they have alternative bases on other planes, but this would increase the time it takes to launch the attack by multiples, as well as increasing the necessary resources.

For the Legion, it's also a risky endeavour even if they can implement it. If the forces at the heart, which they haven't seen for months, are too powerful, then they could be overrun at the gate and the Commonwealth forces would flood back through their own portal.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Sigh, no-one likes a good war anymore

Alternatives to Pey:

• They could pull back and try to re-establish their power centers elsewhere. This would effectively mean losing the war and handing over everything to the Legion. This would be a massive historical black mark and it would cripple morale for decades. Meanwhile, the Legion would win everything imaginable. Advantage: It's a definite success and everyone left survives. The only risk is if they get pursued on the way out by the Legion.
  
• They could try to retake the heart. This would be an attack from all sides, but they would have to pull out all forces from the fringes. The heart would almost certainly be secured given this tactic, but the fringes would be lost, giving the Legion the same advantage. This would buy some time, but since the Legion can just open up a portal to the heart again, they wouldn't buy much.
  
• They could re-establish their power centers in the fringes. This would involve digging in as hard as possible into the fringe regions and completely surrendering the heart. Negotiations could be opened with the Legion for surrendering, because there's no way they could hold the areas indefinitely if the Legion chooses to continue. The Commonwealth loses the war and becomes a submissive group under the Legion.
  
• They can pool together and attack directly to the heart of the Legion in a lance attack. Basically: The Battle of Pey. Advantages are that it would short-circuit the Legion's offensive and leave them leaderless. Disadvantages are that this would mean attacking their most heavily-fortified and defended region in a state where any loss is absolutely final, if the attack fails the Commonwealth loses the war absolutely. Advantages are that it uses all of the remaining forces, so it's the strongest attack they could utilise in their present state, and that it means an almost absolute victory should they succeed, because anything left of the Legion is a disorganised mess. This isn't an alternative, admittedly, but I felt it was necessary to examine it similarly here.