Crusade of Saint Lazaros
| Crusade of Saint Lazaros | |||||||
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 Goetia
|  Athlon
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The Crusade of Saint Lazaros was a religious war between the Pentheral State of Athlon and the Civic Dominion of Goetia. It began in 1699 following the suicide of St. Lazaros Spiros after he witnessed the depth of the demonic depravity of the Navigators CF. The Dozan Bovic Church canonized Lazaros and declared a holy war against the Goetics, citing the worship of T'son the Undying Demon, as intolerable to exist on the Bovic Empire's backdoor. Athlon, which is a protected sovereign nation of Natopia, was permitted to mobilize it's military, the Holy Order of the Armored Goats, against Goetia largely due to Goetia's status as a pariah, demon-worshipping, nation.
Establishing St. Lazaros
Construction of the Cathedral-Fortress of Saint Lazaros began in early VI.1699 on the site of the eponymous saint's suicide. The central cathedral is planned to be a fortified structure built from modern materials in the imposing Romanesque style. The structure holds the bosarch-commandant's quarters, administrative offices, and a reliquary containing the taxidermized remains of Saint Lazaros posed in the act of emptying the blood from his veins. The walls protect the approximate area of the soil that was consecrated by Saint Lazaros' entire supply of blood. Outside the walls is a fully modern military base of the Order of the Armored Goats. The base around the cathedral serves as the staging ground for the Armored Goats'. As the soil itself was made holy by spilled bloodbutter, the Pentheral State of Athlon is attempting to establish permanent control over this area to protect it from further demonic corruption.
On 6.VI.1699 AN Demetrius Hummock, officer commanding of Cibola Command visited the site of St. Lazaros' martyrdom to present votive offerings to the Holy Order, so as to further its construction work, and to perform the adoration of the holy icons in accordance with the Dhurist rite. Greatly amused, upon being told of the Pentheral militia's ongoing efforts to exterminate a biker gang operating in the Green, he promised the prelates of the Holy Order that any officer under his command who expressed a desire to join the Holy War would be granted a thirty-day period of hunting leave, per Norton year, so as to partake in the eradication of the daemonic sects of the Green.
Donation of Nathan
On 8.VI.1699, Emperor Nathan II, called an extraordinary meeting of the Imperial Council of Natopia. During the meeting, he discussed his desire for Natopia to remain neutral in this conflict, but expressed a desire that Athlon be successful. Athlon had already formally requested permission to enter Natopian territory to proceed to Goetia, and Natopian officials had delayed their response. The crusaders' numbers were growing as highly trained Raspur Pact officers began to join the crusade against the disorganized and recently decimated Goetics. It was looking like the Crusade would be a one-sided extermination that Natopia could not officially condone.
Dr. Mishti Lohani offered her opinion as she saw it, "Your Majesty, the Goetics have relied on us as a buffer against the outside world since they revealed themselves. We have reluctantly allowed it in return for resource-extraction contracts on their land. Now that they no longer control their gold mines and marble quarries, why should we protect them? I offer this assessment first as your Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and secondly as a devout Bovic." Secretary for Defense Pierre Francois offered his advice as well, "With the Zaddi's Bay Defense Zone now operational, we have effectively prevented their escape to the sea. The Zone was established prior to the call for holy war, so I'm confident we can lock down Waffel Plains' borders during this escalation without appearing to favor either side. The demonists would probably be shot on sight trying to flee through the other Cibolan nations."
The other members of the Council also agreed that allowing Athlon to settle the Goetic question for them would be a net-gain for Natopia, as it would allow Natopia or Athlon uninterrupted access to the resources of eastern inner Cibola. The Minister for Security suggested that an Order-in-Council be issued to donate a land corridor from St. Lazaros to the Goetic border. This would allow the Athlonic crusaders to march without requiring Natopian approval of the crusade itself. The donation itself was in the form of a temporary 12-year lease, renewable indefinitely, and subject to review and cancellation by the Frenzy after 3 years. The suggestion received unanimous approval, and was jointly decreed by the Emperor and Chancellor on 9.VI.1699.
March to Gathering Place
By XI.1699, preparations had been finalized in St Lazaros to begin the march towards Gathering Place. The Armored Goats had mobilized and "recruited" nearly 5,000 Psiloi from the rural areas of Athlon to mount an invasion with the intent of eradicating or removing the Goetics from Gathering Place and establishing outposts in the former Goetic towns of Cliffbase and Gateway to prevent the demon worshippers from returning to this area of Cibola. Evidence of T'son worship among the Navigators CF prompted the Church to authorize the crusaders to embark on a mission of "total physical and spiritual exorcism of the land, people, and infrastructure, of the Goetics."
Week 1
As the Armored Goats marched west from St Lazaros, they encountered members of the Goetic paramilitary, the Gorillas. Armed with scavenged weapons, trained to hunt, and knowledgeable of the terrain between St Lazaros and Gathering Place, the Goetics initially inflicted heavy causalities among the crusaders.
Pelagia Antoniou, Ypostratigos of the Pentheral Militia and commander of the Crusade, had assembled a team of advisors. Tagmatarchis Persefoni Kokkinos, who provided security during the investigation into demonic activity was already aware of the situation and remained in St Lazaros to coordinate the construction of the fortress-cathedral and staging areas for the Armored Goats. Julius Senft, member of the Board of Coordinators of Waffel Plains had the most contact and experience with Goetics. As the Coordinator of Zone 3, he negotiated the deal that built the Gateway Western Expressway and was keen on securing the access to resources lost after Goetia's collapse.
Persefoni Kokkinos appeared as ordered at Antoniou's command tent, bowed deeply to the general, and gave her report, "Ypostratigos Antoniou, we have lost nearly two dozen psiloi during the first week of our march. This afternoon a convoy truck was overturned and damaged by a crude and poorly-made landmine. We've only managed to pick off three of these guerrilla fighters. Although an acceptable loss for Bous' glory, and these men and women will no doubt cherish their afterlife in Dairyland, we cannot allow our numbers to be reduced like this. Our snipers and forward guards cannot anticipate these ambushes, and the ambushes barely last more than 5 minutes. I have ordered mine sweepers to scout ahead, which will delay our advance to Gathering Place by 2-3 days."
"Thank you for the report, Tagmatarch Kokkinos. Coordinator Senft, you have dealt with the Goetics extensively, what do you make of their tactics?" Antoniou asked.
Senft cleared his throat and began flicking through the notes on his tablet, "Your Eminence, the Goetics are, first and foremost, survivalists. They have endured generations of secretive lives among the nations of the world before finally settling on Cibola. Even then, they survived as scavengers hiding among the great civilizations on this continent for several generations before the Alexandrian flu forced them to reveal themselves because the Green was becoming too inhospitable. They are stalling us, I'm certain of it. Their main goal is to survive and preserve their despicable way of life at all costs. Our last estimates suggest over 19,000 people live in Gathering Place now. Every Goetic is trained to handle firearms. When they lost access to their highways, their Nomadic Cycle Families integrated into other groups and no doubt began training their new families in tactics. These people are highly skilled at highway robbery, offensive driving, and homemade explosives. Generations of perceived persecution has hardened them into callous killers. They will not obey rules of engagement. They will use inhumane tactics. And they will never surrender despite our superior, better-trained, well-supplied force."
Antoniou nodded in thanks to the Tagmatarch and Coordinator, "Very well. Continue with the mine sweepers, double our advance scouts, and send a request to the quartermaster back in St Lazaros to expedite body armor for our psiloi. Dismissed."
Week 2
As the crusaders moved westward, they became more and more adept at avoiding the surprise assaults from the Goetics. Within a week and day, the crusaders were approaching the outskirts of Gathering Place.
Antoniou, in her command tent, met with the advance scouts who reported that Gathering Place had been hastily fortified in preparation for a siege. She scoffed at the photographs of barbed wire wrapped around moldy fences and other 'make shift' fortifications. "They can't be serious that this would hold off our forces." She called in Coordinator Senft, and updated him on the scout reports.
"Your Eminence, I doubt they seriously considered to be able to withstand any level of siege warfare from us. I'd wager ₦1,000 that a few unlucky Goetics were chosen to stay behind, knowing its a self-sacrifice while giving the bulk of their population time to escape and relocate further away. Remember, they are survivalists, and they spent generations as nomads. They are not tied to this land. But they do consider Cibola to have been demonically-raised from the seas. So they will stay here," Senft then gestured to a tactical map of Cibola on the table, "They won't go north, too populated," he tapped the map near the ruins of Southcape Fortress, "Here. It's remote, its far, its isolated by permanent sea-ice."
The general turned to her adjutant, "We'll leave enough forces here to lay siege to the city. But we will advance with the rest of the crusaders to hunt the Goetics down like the curs that they are. Make preparations to leave just enough forces here to prevent any escape. We will just starve them in their own hovels as the bulk of forces pursue them. Furthermore, send a request to the Naval Phalanx to dispatch an Eisboyle class assault ship to Southcape and monitor the situation.
Siege of Gathering Place
The bulk of the crusade continued marching in a south-westerly direction as a siege force began setting up four fortified camps surrounding Gathering Place. Supply lines from St Lazaros were secured, and there were no more guerrilla attacks as it was assumed all Goetics had either fled to begin fortifying Gathering Place or ran ahead to the exodus of Goetics fleeing Gathering Place towards Southcape. Everyday, at noon, a Bovic priest would pray over loudspeakers directed at Gathering Place for Butter Bull to smite the holdouts and that any Goetics that surrender and convert will be granted leniency. After five minutes, each of the 4 siege camps around G.P. would each fire 4 missiles randomly into the town. A visiting observer from Paine City noted that this was the most casual siege he'd ever heard of.
Observers from Waffel Plains visited often, trying to hasten the speed of the invasion so that the land could be cleared for development. The corporate interests that ran the demesne wanted unfettered access to the gold and marble quarries on Goetic land.
Meanwhile, the rest of the crusaders marched in pursuit. Occasionally picking off Goetic scouts, stragglers, and small bands of travelers that got separated from the main exodus. Without access to the Natopian satellite network, the Armored Goats had to rely on aerial reconnaissance from jets launched from the Naval Phalanx ships patrolling the international waters of the southern Cibola coast.
Pursuit of the Goetics
The crusaders had encountered large groups of Goetics at among the ruins of Dbiyyah, Monoviaville, Neurossheim, and Leichenberg. They were confident they were cornering the Goetics and would be closing in for a final massacre near Gebury or Southcape. Thousands of Goetics were executed in the name of Bous at each settlement. The massacre at Dbiyyah recorded an 80% execution rate, and that rate went down to 50% at Leichenberg. It was suspected that fleeing Goetics witnessed the extermination and warned their compatriots at the next camp of the brutal treatments.
By 1700, the situation had devolved into a quagmire. The Goetics had fallen back on their generations of living clandestinely, both out in the wild and among non-demonic populations in other nations. It was becoming increasingly impossible to track them. There was no sign of them at Southcape, and the Pentheros was requesting that Armored Goats mobilize to return back to Athlon if progress was not made.
It was rare for the Pentheros to mention current events in his weekly Herd, but he began to remind Bovics of the capricious four-sided nature of Bous: "We cannot know the mind or will of Bous. Who will be answering our prayers? The Bull may answer one day, but the Cow may overturn it the day after? Although the Crusade is ordained and commanded by Bous, we may not know Bous' desired outcome. It may be to simply exile the demon-worshippers from among us. Or to exterminate them. Or to punish them, as we know the siege of Gathering Place continues we know rations may begin to run low. We will soon hear of starvations, that is, if any other state takes note of Goetia. We will maintain the crusade for as long as you, the faithful Bovics of the world, continue to tithe to the St Lazaros Fund... which is building that former demonic coven into Athlon's first colony since the lost city of Aigialos on Eura so many generations ago. St Lazaros will be a new and gleaming city on the sea, a testament to the church's commitment to rooting out demonism and a sign that the church is looking towards the future as we enter a new century."
Fall of Gathering Place
By late 1701, the besieged Goetics in Gathering Place were showing no signs of surrender. The Pentheros had demanded an end to the crusade before 1702 and so the Armored Goats began stockpiling munitions for a final firebomb of Gathering Place, to eradicate all Goetics inside and raze the town for its sins. Before the final attack, however, the Pentheros issued a Bull allowing any repentant and reformed Goetics a place within the Church's secretive Cult of the Phallus. Leaflets were dropped over Gathering Place with the full text of the Pentheral Bull:
Chaire my beloved Calves of the World. Hear these words for they are the word of Bous. The demon-worshipers of Cibola have sinned by accepting certain deities as gods. But as we know there is not one true god here in this existence, rather various facets of a Divine Community of Our Creators. After months of study, meditation, and prayer, I have determined that certain "demons" of the Goetics are not as repugnant to devout Bovinism as others, and certain ones would feel comfortable in our own pantheon of saints and little godlets. The Goetics were misguided in their worship of these demons, and it is clear that some Goetics simply craved a religion of deities closer to our own mortal experiences--gods with a physical presence and actual ability to command the lives of their unwitting demonic servants.
Therefore, the Dozan Bovic Church does hereby offer Mercy to demon-worshipers who profess and swear an Oath of subjugation to Bous--in particular to the manifestation of Bous that is the personification of physical presence, knowing god, mortal understanding, and carnal experience. The Oath must be witnessed by a Bosarch and repeated exactly as follows: "I ____, a former and reformed Goetic, forever renounce the ways of my past, and instead subjugate myself to Bous through the active worship of The Butter Man, Theodores Athanatos. By freely joining the Bovic Cult of the Phallus I recognize the Mercy of the Dozan Church in allowing me to continue practicing my cultural rites, correctly refocused on worship of better and worthy gods."
The Church's lands on Cibola shall permit the continuation of certain Goetic practices that do not conflict with the Church's doctrine or direct Pentheral commands.
Several weeks were allowed before the first round of firebombing commenced. It was not until the first firebombing round had destroyed 30% of the city's southwestern section, that Goetics began to flee shouting for mercy. They were apprehended and held for conversion. The final round of bombing concluded on Cowmas Day, 25 Geburtsber, in 1701. After several rounds of firebombing, the city had been reduced to smoldering heaps. Nothing was left.
