Berrovite Incursion

In the latter part of the Fourth Iteration, Emperor Wilhelm Haigheight Zum Dweebie IV was arguably the most potent administrator and martial leader the continent of Gruhym had ever known. The heritage of his governance, the Berrovite empire, would defy local and continental history, lasting for, in terms of his reckoning, more than 4,000 years. Despite records later found to verify his death in the year 17 of the Fifth Iteration. Though this did represent an impressive 80-year authoritarian rule, it was still 3,900 plus years shorter than his claims.   The difference, of course, between the reported and alleged reigns is known to modern historians as the Berovite Incursion beginning in 117 of the current iteration. (118,8I, by Historical Mark Reckoning). These events began more than 130 years ago. Since then, there have been strange sightings and an even stranger weather phenomenon that manifested across the Berrovian border with its northern neighbor,   Ready, Lauds 4, 175I. Couriers crossing from the western border town of Kilgerry, Berrovia, report a localized and quite bizarre weather pattern holding just east of the city. Describing visions of strange beings with heads of various mammals and birds cavorting and reveling during the odd Storm, they claimed to have stayed with the strangers for some weeks, yet their arrival time only showed them delayed but one day. A week later, Berrovite scouts, including Tomas A'day, famed debunker of myths, were dispatched to what was being called by the Heralds of the day "The Green Storm." The scouts expected back in just a week, were never seen again, but Tomas was said to have been seen in Kilgerry, drinking heavily and denying that he ever had been summoned by the Emperor, and that, indeed, Berrovia was, "No Empire at all". Reports are hazy about his condition thereafter, but the Tower of Troska, the Imperial's infamous Red Prison lists Tomas O'Day as one of its final victims in the waning days of the iteration.   Throughout the rest of the month and into the next, the enduring Storm, then assessed to be a Viridian Anomalous Undefinable Locus (VAUL), continued to remain static but seemed to be gradually expanding down what was known as the Olden Road. With its expansion, the Storm took on a more ominous coloration, shifting into a deep gray along its entire ten-mile storefront. More disappearances were associated with its existence, including at least three prominent business people who chose to explore independently. The losses were mounting, and the Emperor felt pressure to come up with answers. He deemed it necessary to secure the area and prevent further loss of life without delay.   Feastday, Lauds 28, 175I Emperor Zum Dweebie dispatches the First Warfighter Division to build a rudimentary skirmish line to discourage more disappearances. The following week a message sent from the Empire declares the Storm area a national disaster and coordinates from within the unit a specialized team of assault soldiers to enter the Storm, intending to rescue any discovered within. Three days pass, and there are no signs of the unit. Finally, on the First of Matins, the heroic soldiers return, not only rescuing the merchants they hoped to recover but a veritable bounty of treasures and a half-dozen prisoners that all seem from another world entirely.   The traders taken hostage by the Warfighters were a half-dozen strangers, who wore strange clothing, and were laden with foods and treasures unfamiliar and appealing; the travelers were affable, though speaking a dialect very strange and difficult, though not impossible to understand. Of strangest note was one of them was of a race, a species not encountered before. The being, short of stature and broad in the shoulders had a prognathic nuzzle, a cleft upper palate, and whiskers of gray. Its face was covered in hair, and longish, floppy ears rose from its skull near the apex, and dangled to left and right like shoulder-length hair. The impression the being presented was that of a largish woodlands hare, and though it was anthropomorphic and could indeed speak, its movements and uncanny capability for nearly silent stillness and impressive bursts of speed caused it to bear even more the resemblance rabbit-kind to an almost creepy extent. Calling itself by the name " Jack O' Lopes" did not help. When questioned about his appearance, Jack stated he was a Leporine Sekjhen, but could not articulate his particular lineage nor his nation of origin, other than to say he was a 'tax-paying citizen of the Berrovian Confederacy, which brought laughter from the gallery. (Historians will note that in the Fifth Iteration, Berrovia was an established Empire, and had been so for nearly a millennia. The idea of a confederacy was beyond their comprehension, hence the derision).   The interrogation of the six strange beings revealed that beyond the storm, or rather, through the storm a time far in the future could be reached. They spoke of unimaginable things like flying ships and waistcoats with pockets, of dozens of curious and quaint species of mortal beings, and of things that may come to pass. The answers they gave caused the Emperor's greed to overcome his senses, and he formally declared he would "Win the Future". The declaration of the formal Incursion would wait a month and three weeks, as he bribed, bullied, and bought the approvals of his Generals, Magistrates, and Counselors. On      Amid the treasures recovered by that first incursion were crystal shards, reminiscent of the Great Weapons only recently disinterred from their hidden troves by the Quarum of Champions. Seizing an op   In the days after their return, the Emperor decreed that the unit be "Stormguard", and granted the commander, Colonel Murray Rahles, exclusive directives allowing certain of the Stormguard units permission to make sorties into the interior for intelligence-gathering purposes. Within a month, the Stormguard begins a 'gray-market' trade agreement with other merchants, and the Incursion begins in earnest by the middle of spring of the next year.