Operation Somniant
| Operation Somniant | |||||||||
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| Part of War League Internal Security and Spiritual Containment Operations | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Odiferia Division, Bassaridian War League Temple Bank of the Reformed Stripping Path Alpazkigz Division, Bassaridian War League Hatch Ministry Division, Bassaridian War League Council of Kings Division, Bassaridian War League
| Slave-trader–pirate alliance Alperkin insurgent cells Somniant Eidolan-aligned cults |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Odiferia Division Command Staff Missionary Council of the Somniant Alpazkigz Division Command Staff/ Captain Selim Bey (Hatch Ministry Division) Council of Kings Division Command Staff | Pirate–slaver cell leaders (various) Unidentified Alperkin cult cadres Somniant Eidolan (manifest) |
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| Units involved | |||||||||
Rail-borne Asset
| Slave-trader militias and pirate enclaves Alperkin insurgent detachments Cultic actors engaged in Eidolan summoning Eidolic phenomena (e.g., the Shroud) |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| ≈ 650 ground personnel (including v-99 crew and support) • 15 naval vessels (including Ismael Class Privateer Commission)• 4 aircraft • ≈ 275 missionary operatives | Indeterminate irregular forces • Dozens of small craft • Cults with summoning capability | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Low; isolated firefights and psychological trauma among frontline units | Multiple pirate camps dismantled; confirmed cultist losses; Eidolan remains active | ||||||||
| First battlefield deployment of the V-99 Thunderguard Citadel Train and first contained mainland manifestation of a Somniant Eidolan in Bassaridian history. |
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Operation Somniant was a large-scale, multi-domain containment and counterinsurgency campaign conducted primarily by the Odiferia Division of the Bassaridian War League in early 51 PSSC. Officially launched on 12/1/51 PSSC, the operation began as a limited naval security effort following the erratic surfacing of two Glinos Leviathan in the western corridors of Lake Morovia. Within days, however, it expanded into a vast regional conflict—targeting not only illicit slave-trading rings and pirate enclaves operating from the Odiferian Wetlands but also insurgent cult factions implicated in the conjuration of Eidolic phenomena.
At its height, Operation Somniant mobilized nearly every major pillar of Bassaridia Vaeringheim’s defense and governance apparatus. Though not the largest deployment in national history by troop count, it is widely recognized as the most comprehensive and integrated response ever enacted by the state. The operation united the strategic capabilities of the War League’s Odiferia and Alpazkigz Divisions, the clandestine reach of the Hatch Ministry Division, the logistical and doctrinal authority of the Temple Bank of the Reformed Stripping Path, and the decentralized enforcement power of the Baratar Corporation. Naval, aerial, mechanized, and spiritual assets were deployed in concert—coordinating actions across lake interdiction, terrain stabilization, metaphysical suppression, and civil reintegration.
The emergence of a fully manifested Somniant Eidolan—a hostile metaphysical entity associated with madness, spiritual collapse, and ontological destabilization—within the boundaries of mainland Bassaridia Vaeringheim was declared a national emergency without precedent. In response, War League units were placed under the joint command of the Temple Bank and the cultic Missionary Council, resulting in the launch of integrated operations involving ritual banishment, psychological trauma mitigation, mass civilian evacuation, and deep-strike counterinsurgency warfare.
These operations were soon accompanied by the parallel launch of Operation Leviathan, a sweeping internal-security campaign enacted by cultic enforcers to combat the ideological and spiritual spread of Eidolan-aligned thought. Leviathan unleashed a wave of brutal crackdowns, ritualized punishments, and civic purges across major cities and remote settlements alike—ensuring obedience and eliminating potential sources of heretical contagion. Though the War League officially maintained separation from Leviathan’s punitive scope, both operations became functionally interlinked, with civilian populations subjected to simultaneous military stabilization and theological discipline.
Together, Somniant and Leviathan are now regarded as among the darkest and most violent chapters in Bassaridian history. Yet they are also viewed by the state as a proof of concept—demonstrating the full operational strength of the Military-Temple-Market triad. Through coordinated naval blockades, airborne interdictions, ground repatriation logistics, and metaphysical containment rituals, Bassaridia Vaeringheim proved its ability to mobilize across every axis of power: force, faith, and finance.
By the time of its conclusion, Operation Somniant had reshaped not only the political and spiritual landscape of Odiferia, but the foundational doctrine of national defense itself.
Initiation and Early Discoveries
The operation was initiated following reports of erratic behavior by two Glinos Leviathan—cold-dwelling apex predators whose ecological role in Lake Morovia includes mesopredator suppression and nutrient cycling. These creatures had begun surfacing along major shipping routes in the lake’s western corridor, exhibiting signs of territorial aggression. On 12/1/51 PSSC, the Odiferia Division deployed a maritime patrol group comprising two Saluria Class Gunboats and two Aetherium Class Patrol Ships to investigate and stabilize the situation.
Instead of ecological disruption, the patrol uncovered evidence of a coordinated slave trading network operating in concert with rogue pirate groups. These elements had established fortified encampments along the lake’s western littoral and were actively disrupting commerce and civilian transport.
Escalation and Ground Combat
In response to the discovery, the War League authorized the deployment of two Manipuli (each comprising 96 active and 48 reserve personnel) from the Odiferia Division on 31/1/51 PSSC. These forces were tasked with dismantling the slave camps, securing transit routes, and neutralizing resistance.
On 33/1/51 PSSC, a significant escalation occurred when slaver-affiliated insurgents—supported by pirate collaborators—set fire to major shipping warehouses in Somniumpolis, severely disrupting the regional logistics network. A third Manipulus was subsequently dispatched to reinforce ground operations and stabilize the urban perimeter.
Combat persisted throughout Atosiel (spring) and into Thalassiel (summer), with Odiferian forces encountering not only conventional resistance but also signs of metaphysical and cultic activity. Intelligence reports noted the presence of ritual symbols, sacrificial implements, and glyphic invocations associated with arcane strains of Stripping Path heresy—suggesting an active effort to conjure a Somniant Eidolan.
Political Assassination and The Eidolan’s Emergence
On 25/2/51 PSSC, a Normarkian representative stationed near Somniumpolis was assassinated by a rogue Alperkin insurgent cell believed to be participating in ritual activity supporting the Eidolan’s manifestation. In response, the War League deployed a full Ordo (32 active and 16 reserve personnel) to reinforce security across the affected region.
Though prior reports of Eidolic activity had been restricted to Haifan Bassaridia, where it had been suppressed by large-scale banishment operations on 54/1/51 PSSC by missionaries representing the eleven major cults, the confirmed emergence of the Eidolan in Odiferia constituted an unprecedented breach of containment. On 26/2/51 PSSC, all contact was lost with the deployed Ordo. Civilian testimony from nearby settlements described the arrival of an overwhelming mist—known as The Shroud—and the appearance of an immense, cloaked specter with two radiant eyes. The phenomena matched all canonical descriptions of the Somniant Eidolan, a hostile emanation of the Host Spirit associated with spiritual coercion, madness, and metaphysical obliteration.
Spiritual Response and Evacuations
Following the confirmed disappearance of the Ordo, the major cults of the Reformed Stripping Path initiated coordinated banishment rituals across Somniumpolis and the greater Odiferia region, modeled on the successful rites carried out weeks earlier in Haifan Bassaridia. These rituals were aimed at severing regional spiritual conduits and protecting civilian populations from the Eidolan’s influence, which had by then been confirmed to be haunting the Odiferian Wetlands.
As part of the emergency response, civilians from rural and semi-rural settlements surrounding western Lake Morovia were evacuated to larger urban centers. Populations were temporarily resettled in Somniumpolis, Aurelia, Aureum, and Vaeringheim, with evacuation logistics facilitated primarily by the Trans-Morovian Express. The railway’s operational capacity enabled rapid, mass-scale transit between rural zones and secure urban hubs, thereby preventing widespread civilian exposure to the Eidolan’s sphere of influence.
Witness Testimony
The report below represents the first documented sighting of a Somniant Eidolan within the official borders of Bassaridia Vaeringheim since the nation’s founding, marking a critical turning point in the state's understanding of metaphysical threats. While scattered appearances of Eidolan entities have been previously recorded in ungoverned regions of the Green, those manifestations occurred outside the reach of formal investigation or spiritual containment. The emergence near Odiferia, however, placed the phenomenon squarely within monitored territory, triggering a full-scale military and theological response. As such, this account—engraved by Ordo Watchman Thalos Veyren—provides unprecedented insight into the psychological effects of direct Eidolan exposure. The witness, though spared immediate death or disappearance, suffered a catastrophic mental break consistent with complete eidetic collapse. Though he has shown partial cognitive recovery under long-term care at a Temple Alabaster sanitarium, the experience has left him with irreversible spiritual trauma, identity fragmentation, and cyclical dissociation, rendering him permanently unfit for service and dependent on ritual stabilization to maintain lucidity. This testimony is thus not only an artifact of horror, but also a vital resource in developing protocols for future encounters.
Appendix A: Final Testimony of Ordo Watchman Thalos Veyren
(Note: This recording was made in a soundproof, secure chamber following Watchman Veyren's rescue and isolation. Despite extensive analysis, the persistent background noises, intermittent chanting, distorted whispers, and unexplained audio interference remain unidentified. Temple authorities theorize these inexplicable sounds may represent residual metaphysical phenomena indicative of the Eidolan's continued attachment to or influence over the witness. On 48/2/51 PSSC, Temple Authorities released a partial copy of Veyren's interview to the public, noting that the audio had degraded significantly since it was first recorded, likely as a consequence of the persistent influence of the Eidolan.)
Recovered Audio Transcript
Speaker: Watchman Thalos Veyren
Recording Device: Standard-issue Ordo field audio recorder
Recording Location: Secure interview room, Temple Alabaster Sanitarium (post-rescue interview session)
Authentication: Confirmed by the Temple Bank of the Reformed Stripping Path
Clearance Level: DECLASSIFIED (RED-STAMPED)
Reference ID: SOMNIANT-AUDIO-IV-THALOS-5126-RED
(Recording begins with static interference, occasional audio distortions.)
Veyren: (voice trembling, whispering) "It… it wasn't fog. No… no, it was memory—memory undone. It… was… what the Host Spirit dreams when it sleeps too long. It was… (sharp inhale) it was before language, before thought. It speaks in roots. It screams… (voice breaking) in blood."
(prolonged static, scraping noises, followed by distant sobbing)
Veyren: (voice growing louder, strained, rapid) "The thing wasn't seen. It was understood. (pause, breathing heavily) Not… by eyes, not by soul—but by… by the part of me never meant to know. It rose—no, no, it rose without rising. The swamp… stretched into a temple. (voice cracks) Cliffs bending backwards, trees… panicking."
(Loud audio distortion, static bursts, indistinct chanting or whispers in background)
Veyren: (panicked, increasingly incoherent) "THE SHROUD, THE SHROUD, moving like… like meat under a veil. (strained gasp) Eyes… eyes not eyes, opened—opened in the fog. No symmetry, no mercy, just… (strained whisper) intention."
(chanting in background, distorted and reversed audio fragments)
Veyren: "We chanted… prayers answered backwards. Light consumed… before… before leaving the wick… (voice drops to terrified whisper) One spoke a name—mouth split open, ear to ear… another… another ran in place, in circles… (voice rises to a scream) third one dissolved! Ash… bleeding upward!"
(long pause, heavy breathing, scratching noises as if writing aggressively)
Veyren: (muttering, voice increasingly hysterical) "[i am not i]… [i am not i]… [i am not i]… (repeated 67 times, overlapping with sobs and gasps)" "[he is the blood made fog]… (repeated 41 times, voice strained, mechanical)" "[they were never here]… (repeated 29 times, whispered urgently)" "[we are inside the eye now]… (repeated 53 times, whispered frantically, voice trailing into sobs)"
(extended static, indistinct background noises, possible sounds of distant crying)
Veyren: (hoarse, drained) "The Host Spirit… (long pause)… wept black stars… (repeated 13 times, monotone and resigned)" "Sobbing… I hear sobbing in the water…"
(Audio breaks into static, then returns abruptly, voice weak, distant.)
Veyren: (barely audible, whispering desperately) "I do not know if I still believe in time…" (repeated 22 times, fading into static) "Born in the scream… die in the whisper…" (repeated 18 times, fading into unintelligible murmurs and static)
(Recording ends abruptly, prolonged static and distortion)
Temple Alabaster Analyst Summary
Filed by: Mn. Ceryn Vashtani, Analyst–Spiritual Trauma Division Date: 3/3/51 PSSC Classification: Archival Review – Eldritch Class Anomaly
The subject, identified as Watchman Thalos Veyren, is believed to have succumbed to complete eidetic disintegration following direct exposure to the Somniant Eidolan. Linguistic pattern analysis confirms onset of recursive thought collapse, pronoun dissociation, and non-linear cognition loops, all consistent with high-level Eidolic interference.
Of note is the subject’s descriptions of reality distortion: spatial overlap, metaphysical recursion, and ritual inversion, wherein sacred rites are reversed, silenced, or corrupted mid-performance. Such phenomena are consistent with Eidolic Temporal Unweaving—a rare and catastrophic breach of Host-pattern ontological sequencing.
References to the Eidolan as a precognitive or prelingual entity—"what comes before language"—support theological suspicions that it is not a being in the mortal sense, but a cohered impulse of the Host Spirit’s unconscious chaos, not unlike the "Abyssal Knowing" referenced in suppressed texts of the Old Dionysian Mysteries.
Insights Gained Regarding the Somniant Eidolan
Operation Somniant significantly advanced the academic and operational understanding of the Somniant Eidolan within Bassaridia Vaeringheim. While it had been previously established that the Eidolan represents a manifestation arising from the chaotic and unconscious dimensions of the Host Spirit, predating rational cognition, this operation provided critical new empirical observations. Witness testimonies and recorded data from the incident near Odiferia revealed previously undocumented aspects of the Eidolan, notably its profound environmental effects. Observations indicated that the Eidolan’s manifestation directly altered local physical phenomena, causing severe spatial distortions, gravitational anomalies, and disruptions in the natural behavior of wildlife and local ecosystems.
Analyses conducted by Temple Alabaster further confirmed the entity's profound and lasting psychological impact on exposed individuals. Victims experienced severe cognitive disruptions, including recursive thought patterns, acute identity dissociation, and pronounced temporal distortions, with symptoms persisting indefinitely. These effects suggest a uniquely invasive form of metaphysical trauma, extending beyond the immediate encounter and necessitating permanent ritual stabilization and therapeutic support for survivors.
Additionally, post-rescue interview recordings conducted under strictly controlled and isolated conditions revealed persistent auditory anomalies—such as unexplained whispers, distorted chanting, and static interference—for which no conventional explanation could be found. These auditory phenomena are hypothesized to represent residual metaphysical influences or attachments exerted by the Eidolan, indicating an unprecedented capacity for sustained influence over individuals even after physical and temporal separation from the original encounter.
Furthermore, recent therapeutic trials conducted in the wake of Operation Somniant have yielded considerable preliminary evidence that the administration of high-potency Noctic-Rabrev concentrates, administered on a prolonged and regular basis, may help to slightly alleviate the otherwise permanent cognitive and psychological symptoms resulting from Eidolan exposure. Although treatment outcomes remain limited, the potential therapeutic benefit warrants further investigation and refinement of dosage and administration protocols.
Finally, although it had been previously understood that the Eidolan could be ritually conjured, with the overwhelming majority of documented attempts historically unsuccessful, the successful manifestation near Odiferia raises significant new questions. Specifically, ongoing research is now focused on identifying the precise factors or conditions that allowed these particular summoning rituals to succeed. Determining these factors is critical for developing more effective preventive measures and security protocols to ensure such rituals cannot be replicated by hostile entities or insurgent cults in the future.
National Security Implications
The appearance of the Somniant Eidolan within the heartland of Bassaridia Vaeringheim is widely regarded as a moment of profound national peril. The Eidolan, a being tied to the most chaotic and coercive aspects of the Host Spirit, is understood within Reformed theology to be capable of obliterating entire settlements through psychic domination and spiritual disintegration. In light of the threat posed, the full weight of the state—militarily, spiritually, and administratively—was mobilized to effect its banishment and prevent further manifestations.
The War League, in coordination with the Temple Bank of the Reformed Stripping Path, continues to monitor the High Risk Anomaly Zone surrounding the Odiferian Wetlands. Ritualists, field exorcists, and spiritual surveyors remain active across the affected perimeter, while elite military units maintain a persistent presence. Operation Somniant is ongoing as of late Thalassiel 51 PSSC, with emphasis shifting from active combat operations to long-term spiritual containment, counterinsurgency intelligence, and metaphysical stabilization.
Aftermath and Conclusion
Initial Operational Phase (26/2/51 – 40/2/51 PSSC)
Overview
The first week of Operation Somniant began immediately after the confirmed emergence of the Somniant Eidolan in the Odiferian Wetlands. Directed by the Odiferia Division of the Bassaridian War League in concert with the Temple Bank of the Reformed Stripping Path, the phase sought to stabilize a rapidly escalating metaphysical and insurgent threat. Central to operations was the inaugural combat deployment of the Model V-99 Thunderguard Citadel Train, a heavily armoured mobile command centre that coordinated all military and logistical activity.
Deployment of the V-99 Thunderguard Citadel Train
On 26/2/51 PSSC the V-99 Thunderguard Citadel Train reached the Odiferian rail corridor and assumed operational control. Its hardened communications suite and multispectral sensor arrays enabled near-real-time intelligence fusion, while D.A.I.M.O.N. Mk.IX railgun turrets and Phalanx-VX point-defence cannons secured the perimeter against insurgent probes and low-flying drones. The train’s mobility allowed staff to reposition quickly between forward positions, sustain supply lines to dispersed patrols, and deliver precision artillery bursts in support of embattled Manipuli.
Military Engagements and Defensive Operations
Three pre-deployed Manipuli—288 active and 144 reserve troops—formed the principal ground screen. Line detachments fielded Kalithros and Delphica rifles, supported by sniper elements armed with Lothaya systems. Between 28/2 and 31/2, repeated skirmishes with pirate–insurgent cells prompted the commitment of Arachne light tanks and Syrinx infantry vehicles. Indirect fire from Odiferian mortar carriers—ranging off targeting data fed from the V-99—proved decisive in disrupting enemy concentrations.
Involvement of the Cults of the Reformed Stripping Path
Each of the eleven major cults deployed a single Kleisthenes (≈ 25 operatives) to provide metaphysical counter-measures. The Ordo Solis Invicti and Ignis Aeternum strengthened troop morale and mental resilience; the Azure Sentinel Sect and Order of the Umbral Oracle conducted anomaly surveillance; the Court of the Ironclad and Rex Catonis reinforced fortifications with protective sigils. Medical specialists from the Sanctum Vitalis issued concentrated Noctic-Rabrev extracts to frontline personnel and evacuees exhibiting early eidetic fracture.
Civilian Evacuation Operations
Evacuation began on 26/2/51, prioritising settlements nearest the Wetlands. Armoured Corythia convoys and escorted rail shuttles moved civilians to Somniumpolis and Vaeringheim. The V-99 acted as rolling headquarters and logistical anchor, while screening by Temple Alabaster operatives mitigated the risk of Eidolic contamination.
Public-Health Incident and Political Fallout (35/2/51 PSSC)
On 35/2/51 PSSC a critical failure in Somniumpolis’s ageing sewage network—already stressed by the influx of evacuees—triggered a public-health emergency across several districts. Local officials alleged sabotage by insurgent agents seeking to amplify social unrest. War League engineering teams, supported by municipal workers, restored core sanitation flow within forty-eight hours, but public anger intensified. Amid the turmoil, speculation spread that Watchman Thalos Veyren—sole survivor of Ordo Unit IV—must have deserted his post to avoid the Eidolan, thereby explaining his survival when his comrades perished. Civil groups and several opposition delegates petitioned the War League for a military tribunal. Senior command rejected the demand, citing the absence of evidence and Veyren’s current state of profound psychological impairment, declaring him unfit to stand trial.
Kardamyli Uprising (36/2/51 PSSC)
On 36/2/51 PSSC, an underground uprising erupted in the marshlands surrounding Kardamyli, reportedly led by heretical cult cells opposed to the authority of the Temple Bank. The rebellion resulted in violent clashes between rebel operatives and Temple-aligned loyalists stationed along the southwestern edge of the High Risk Anomaly Zone. Though not directly linked to the Eidolan's influence, investigators suggested the rebels may have sought to exploit spiritual disarray caused by the Somniant’s appearance to undermine state authority. The skirmishes were quickly suppressed by local militias and a reserve detachment of the Odiferia Division, though several cultic artifacts and encrypted communications seized from the rebel enclave are currently under review by Temple Inquisitors.
Secondary Collapse and Strategic Realignment (37/2/51 PSSC)
On 37/2/51 PSSC, Somniumpolis—still struggling to manage the sudden influx of displaced civilians—experienced a second critical failure in its central sewage network. The incident, which mirrored the crisis of two days prior, resulted in renewed public health emergencies across multiple densely populated districts. While the War League once again succeeded in restoring infrastructure in coordination with municipal crews, public frustration surged. The situation escalated further when a renegade priest, speaking before a crowd in the Ash Market district, publicly denounced the divine dream as a lie designed to enslave the people.
The priest, whose name has not been released, was quickly detained by Temple enforcement officials. Though the immediate threat was resolved, the second breakdown and increasingly volatile public discourse forced War League leadership to reassess the sustainability of continued civilian displacement. With pressure mounting from local authorities and Temple envoys alike, the War League determined that it would begin preparing for a drawdown of operations and the gradual repatriation of evacuees to stabilized settlements.
To support this phase of demobilization and ensure sufficient rear-area security, the War League authorized the deployment of one additional Manipulus, consisting of 96 active and 48 reserve troops. These forces were stationed along the Somniumpolis–Odiferia corridor to safeguard returning transit routes, oversee the orderly withdrawal of military units, and assist in crowd management where necessary.
By this stage in the operation, the Shroud had receded from nearly all inhabited zones, remaining only in a few remote marshland basins. No additional Eidolic manifestations had been recorded since the initial event on 26/2/51 PSSC. With spiritual conditions improving and insurgent activity suppressed, the War League began transitioning Operation Somniant from a forward containment posture to long-term regional stabilization.
Initial Outcomes and Strategic Implications
By 33/2/51 PSSC the combined military–spiritual screen had stabilized the outer anomaly and prevented major insurgent breakthroughs. The debut of the V-99 Thunderguard Citadel Train proved decisive in both battlefield coordination and rapid-response logistics, validating its doctrine as a mobile fortress and command platform. Nevertheless, the sewage-system sabotage and subsequent controversy, combined with the Kardamyli uprising, underscored the fragility of civil infrastructure and the complex political terrain surrounding Eidolic events. Phase-two planning now includes expanded counter-sabotage measures, deeper cult surveillance in sympathetic provinces, and reinforced doctrine for internal stabilization during metaphysical emergencies.
Second Operational Phase (commenced 40 / 2 / 51 PSSC)
Western Lake Morovia Interdiction
Phase Two of Operation Somniant opened on 40 / 2 / 51 PSSC, when anomaly-traffic summaries produced by the General Port of Lake Morovia and verified by auditors from the Temple Bank of the Reformed Stripping Path confirmed that insurgent financiers had revived covert shipping lanes in the reed-choked shallows of western Lake Morovia. Up to that point the campaign had been led almost exclusively by the Odiferia Division, which had stabilised the Odiferian Wetlands, shielded civilian corridors and contained metaphysical manifestations. The new maritime threat prompted an operational expansion that brought the Alpazkigz Division into the fold; Odiferia would henceforth concentrate on ground operations and refugee repatriation while Alpazkigz assumed naval dominance.
Alpazkigz therefore detached one Ordu, commanded from an Eidolon-class cruiser and reinforced by two Vaeringheim-class corvettes, two Cetus-class attack craft, a single Xylanda-class attack submarine, two Cetomagna-class minehunters and two Odobenus-class minelayers. Air cover arrived as Ptisis “Harbor Watch,” whose flight combined one Aithra-class Proximity Aircraft, one Symphonara-class Compound Intercept, one Thalassa-class Attack Helicopter and one Catonis-class Unmanned Aircraft.
In addition to these assets, six experimental Abeis-Bulhanu High-Speed Skirmishers were deployed under direct command from the Eidolon-class cruiser. Designed for rapid interdiction in shallow, congested terrain, the hoverbikes conducted coordinated swarm operations across the reed beds of the lake's edge. Their high speed, low acoustic signature, and onboard laser systems enabled them to disable surveillance drones, intercept fleeing craft, and neutralize contraband convoys operating beyond the reach of traditional vessels.
The task group cooperated closely with Captain Selim Bey, an Alperkin privateer granted a letter of marque by the Hatch Ministry and operating an Ismael-class Privateer Commission. Bey’s shallow-draft vessel penetrated reed channels that larger War League hulls could not enter, passed real-time position beacons to the minehunters and, on 41 / 2 / 51, guided a Vaeringheim corvette onto three contraband dhows attempting a nocturnal crossing. While Alpazkigz ships herded traffic into boarding lanes using dummy influence mines, Bey’s privateer delivered boarding parties that seized rocket propellant and unregistered Noctic-Rabrev concentrate. The Catonis UAV and the Thalassa helicopter neutralized an unlit cargo barge whose crew surrendered without casualties, and the Xylanda-class submarine denied deeper approaches to would-be runners.
By 42 / 2 / 51 PSSC the naval commander reported full control of every confirmed corridor west of the Morovia Meridian, enabling engineers to begin clearing dummy minefields and reopening civil lanes. The arrival of Alpazkigz—and the voluntary participation of Captain Bey—thus transformed Operation Somniant into a collaborative, multi-divisional endeavour: Odiferia focused on ground security and humanitarian returns, whereas Alpazkigz, augmented by Hatch-Ministry privateering support, imposed maritime dominance over western Lake Morovia. Together the forces established the secure conditions required for the broader draw-down envisioned in the transition from containment to regional stabilization.
First Leg of Recovery Operations (43/2/51-51/2/51 PSSC)
Following the expansion of the Western Lake Morovia Interdiction, the War League initiated the first leg of structured recovery operations on 43/2/51 PSSC. This new phase aimed to reestablish core infrastructure, enable the return of displaced civilians, and restore basic services to the formerly evacuated Wetlands region. At the time of launch, naval operations in western Lake Morovia remained in full swing, with fourteen vessels—including corvettes, minehunters, minelayers, support craft, and the Ismael-class privateer under Captain Selim Bey—actively engaged in interdiction, area denial, and search-and-seizure operations.
Operations on the first day were hampered by thick, cloying humidity and isolated downpours, particularly in the low-lying zones of the Odiferian basin. The sticky air impaired optics and electronics, while rapid flash pooling caused by sudden rainfall stalled mechanized movement along newly cleared transit lanes. Residual fog and disrupted barometric pressure—likely remnants of the metaphysical phenomenon known as the Shroud—further complicated ground coordination and slowed progress in the outer sectors. Despite these impediments, centralized command aboard the V-99 Thunderguard Citadel Train preserved operational tempo by deploying multispectral surveillance drones and redirecting motorized patrols along high-clearance causeways.
The recovery phase was overseen jointly by the Odiferia and Alpazkigz Divisions, whose responsibilities remained distinct. Alpazkigz maintained lake interdiction and naval enforcement along coastal trade routes, while Odiferia focused on domestic security and the reactivation of municipal infrastructure. The V-99 train operated continuously along the Somniumpolis–Nenivari rail corridor, relaying field intelligence, coordinating supply deliveries, and housing liaison officers for Temple Bank, municipal engineers, and War League administration.
Initial recovery tasks included debris clearance, bridge stabilization, culvert repairs, and the restoration of water and sewage management systems. The Corythia-class transport fleet began hauling reconstruction materials and food stores from secure warehouses outside Vaeringheim. Forward repair teams, protected by light infantry escorts, worked to reclaim at least fourteen settlements across the region. Basic resettlement infrastructure—such as emergency shelters, communication arrays, and checkpoint barriers—was established in towns designated as early-phase return sites.
The three deployed Manipuli, each composed of 96 active and 48 reserve personnel, were assigned complementary roles across the recovery zone. The First Manipulus operated as a rapid-response combat unit deployed from an Odiferian forward garrison. Equipped with Arachne-class light tanks and Syrinx armored infantry vehicles, this force secured strategic chokepoints, patrolled return corridors from Somniumpolis to Talahan, and suppressed small-scale insurgent sabotage. The Second Manipulus was embedded with convoys and municipal administrators, functioning as a civil–military security liaison. Recon elements in this unit, supported by Onceanic vehicles and Bijarian command platforms, coordinated with Temple Alabaster screening officials to ensure spiritual integrity during phased resettlement. The Third Manipulus, originally assigned to the Eidolan manifestation perimeter, shifted to deep-terrain overwatch in the northern basin, using mortar carriers and Lothaya-equipped sniper squads to monitor for residual metaphysical anomalies or cultic resurgence in high-canopy terrain.
During this phase, several cults of the Reformed Stripping Path redeployed auxiliary units to reinforce recovery efforts. The Sanctum Vitalis resumed its distribution of Noctic-Rabrev therapeutic concentrates to evacuees suffering from lingering exposure symptoms, while Rex Catonis operatives embedded with the Second Manipulus performed ritualized household warding ceremonies in newly reclaimed districts. The Azure Sentinel Sect and Order of the Umbral Oracle jointly established a metaphysical early warning station atop a high ridge near the central marsh, using relic-anchored scrying techniques to scan for anomalous Eidolic pulses. The Ordo Solis Invicti led coordinated chants at municipal gathering centers in Nenivari and Virdeh to promote social cohesion and accelerate post-crisis psychological stabilization.
By 45/2/51 PSSC, initial manifests cleared over 1,000 civilians for reentry into the Wetlands zone. Transport operations proceeded with support from Corythia convoys and armed craft along key tributary crossings. Military checkpoints were expanded at major junctions, with Onceanic recon teams conducting rolling security assessments along the lower Odiferian trunk routes. The V-99 train continued to serve as the central coordination node, relaying high-priority data to naval interdiction forces operating offshore.
It was during this period that Captain Selim Bey, operating the Ismael-class Privateer Commission, submitted a mission report confirming that he had killed one of the Glinos Leviathan that had originally prompted the campaign. The creature had surfaced erratically near the southwestern shelf of Lake Morovia and exhibited aggressive, disoriented movement patterns. Bey’s successful strike, carried out using a combination of depth ordnance and coordinated sonar decoying, was verified by aerial reconnaissance and resulted in a marked reduction in anomalous lake disruptions in the surrounding sectors.
Nevertheless, the second Leviathan identified during the early weeks of Operation Somniant remained unaccounted for. Naval patrols documented several unexplained sonar anomalies and wake disturbances in the deeper waters near the estuarial confluences of the southern lake edge, particularly below the Aetherium peninsula. Shipping manifests indicated a temporary re-routing of cargo vessels through the Vaeringheim Corridor, and the Alpazkigz Ordu intensified aerial patrols in the suspect zone to monitor for resurgence.
By 50/2/51 PSSC, War League leadership declared the inner Wetlands stabilized and authorized the transition into the second phase of phased repatriation. Military presence remained high, with active patrols along major return corridors and continued cult surveillance. No new Eidolic phenomena had been recorded since late 36/2/51, and the Shroud—though faintly visible in deep pockets of the northern marsh—was no longer considered active. As new convoys arrived and towns were reoccupied, the operation entered a period of guarded optimism, with local systems gradually returning to function under the combined stewardship of military command, cult advisors, and municipal governance.
Eidolic Manuscript Containment and Cultural Stabilization (44–48/2/51 PSSC)
On 44/2/51 PSSC, following reports of unauthorized reproductions of Eidolic invocation texts appearing in Somniumpolis back markets and unregulated printing stalls, the Temple Bank authorized the deployment of a special operations Kleisthenes from the Order of the Umbral Oracle. This elite unit was supported by one Hetairos from the Mystery of the Stygian Veil, one Hetairos from Temple Alabaster, and one Stoa from Rex Catonis tasked with restoring containment and investigating the source of the leak. Their mission focused on disrupting manuscript circulation, conducting psychological evaluations of exposed individuals, and coordinating with municipal archivists to identify and isolate known copies.
The Rex Catonis Stoa rapidly gained notoriety for its enforcement posture. Its missionaries, armed with Strix Class Combat Shotguns, were known to deploy these weapons "as tools for enforcing order and discipline." During the second phase of Operation Somniant, multiple field reports confirmed regular use of the Strix shotgun by Stoa operatives to suppress ritual disturbances, expel unauthorized vendors from sacred zones, and intervene in crowd destabilization incidents in the Ash Market district.
The following day, 45/2/51 PSSC, Somniumpolis held the annual Bassaridia Festival, a vibrant salute to Alperkin roots celebrated with street performances, traditional folk dances, booming ritual drumming, and reenactments of ancestral legends. The event—documented in state footage showing dancers pounding ceremonial drums adorned with Alperkin script and war motifs—was notably unmarred by disruption. The War League, still active in the region, officially endorsed the festival as a symbol of successful stabilization. In public statements issued by the Temple Bank and the Office of Homeland Reintegration, the celebration was described as a “clear indication that the cultural foundation of Somniumpolis had endured and emerged resilient in the face of Eidolic adversity.”
A few days later, on 48/2/51 PSSC, Somniumpolis hosted a more subdued ceremony commemorating the one-year anniversary of the War League’s victory in the Southern Lake Morovia Campaign. While the event proceeded without major incident, it was met with muted enthusiasm and considerable criticism from both citizens of Somniumpolis and observers across Odiferia. Many saw the ceremony as a poorly timed political maneuver, occurring even as recovery efforts remained incomplete and regional security operations persisted.
The commemorations also drew fire for overshadowing the controversial executions carried out two days prior under the authority of Operation Leviathan. These executions, which included the drowning and immolation of suspected insurgents as well as mid-level temple bureaucrats implicated in the suppression of early Eidolic warnings, had reignited tensions between civic and religious institutions. Critics described the anniversary event as an attempt to “ritualize deflection,” arguing that the focus should have remained on transparency, justice, and post-crisis healing. Nevertheless, the War League and Temple Bank defended the ceremony as a necessary gesture of unity and institutional continuity in a time of ongoing spiritual and civic recalibration.
Second Leg of Phased Repatriation (51/2/51 PSSC-54/2/51 PSSC)
As the War League continued its drawdown of security operations across Odiferia, a second leg of the phased repatriation program was launched on 51/2/51 PSSC. With much of the inner Wetlands declared stable and Shroud readings at near-zero across civilian corridors, the Odiferia Division shifted its operational posture from forward engagement to support and logistical decommissioning. The majority of fortified checkpoints were converted into reconstruction outposts, while ground forces began gradual withdrawal from outer perimeter sectors. Local civic agencies—assisted by War League engineers—assumed responsibility for long-term repair of roads, canal locks, and water treatment facilities.
Thanks to significantly improved coordination between military logistics personnel, Temple screening agents, and civil resettlement offices, the second phase saw a major increase in throughput. Over 7,500 civilians per day were repatriated during this period—nearly triple the number processed during the first phase. Returnees were routed into the marshward townships of Ishtari, Breya, and the outer wards of Somniumpolis. Temporary housing centers were established in the refurbished lecture halls of the Agricultural Temple Institute, where residents underwent spiritual clearance interviews, health assessments, and post-crisis reeducation seminars. Temple Alabaster field units issued guidelines for identifying “metaphysical instabilities,” while cult personnel from the Mystery of the Verdant Embrace and Harmony Sanctum provided rehabilitation kits, seed vaults, and water filtration pouches to returning homesteaders.
The success of this repatriation effort was due in no small part to the chilling effectiveness of Operation Leviathan, which by this point now entered its second week. The campaign’s uncompromising response to insurgency—including the highly public executions in Somniumpolis on 47/2/51 PSSC—had a profound impact on the psychology of the civilian population. As news of drownings, floggings, and immolations spread, resistance among returning evacuees sharply diminished. Entire neighborhoods were resettled in silence. Protests ceased. Community meetings were marked by deference, and small acts of tribute to temple enforcers became increasingly common.
Civic compliance was driven as much by fear as by belief. Citizens understood that failure to cooperate—or even perceived hesitation—might draw suspicion from cultic patrols or result in investigation by mobile inquiry teams still circulating through Odiferian towns. Though the War League played no direct role in Leviathan’s punitive actions, military officials acknowledged privately that the campaign’s “overlapping pressure profile” was instrumental in ensuring the smooth reintegration of difficult districts. The presence of Rex Catonis Stoai and Order of the Umbral Oracle Kleisthenes at screening checkpoints further emphasized that spiritual discipline was not merely expected—it was compulsory.
This climate of heightened vigilance was further reinforced by events in Odiferia itself on 51/2/51 PSSC, when a near-riot at the central marketplace was narrowly averted by a registered Ordo of Alperkin civilian auxiliaries affiliated with the Baratar Corporation. Armed and operating under temple mandate, the Ordo's rapid and disciplined intervention—later recognized with formal commendations by the War League and the Council of Kings—demonstrated both the lingering volatility of the region and the continued capacity of spiritually aligned civilian forces to maintain order without direct military support. The subsequent ritual sentencing of twelve agitators further amplified the message that dissent, even in its earliest stages, would be met with swift reprisal.
During this same period, Captain Selim Bey, while patrolling southern Lake Morovia aboard his Ismael-class Privateer Commission, intercepted a Morovian fishing vessel operating without transponder authentication. Upon inspection, the vessel was found to be carrying the preserved remains of a Glinos Leviathan—the second such creature whose erratic behavior had prompted the launch of Operation Somniant in the first place. Recognizing the significance of the carcass, Bey ordered the cargo secured and prepared for delivery to Temple authorities for formal analysis—pending financial compensation. Furthermore, the crew of the vessel was detained, and each member was scheduled for separate interrogations by Temple officials to ascertain the circumstances surrounding the creature’s death, including whether the fishermen had encountered any Eidolic emissions or irregular behaviors. The Ismael returned to Somniumpolis later that evening, bearing both the leviathan’s remains and the detained crew under armed escort.
Despite these undercurrents, the War League maintained its schedule. By 54/2/51 PSSC, seven forward outposts were decommissioned, and new repatriation targets were approved for inspection. Temple Bank reports described Odiferia as “logistically stabilized,” and War League communiques praised the “measured courage” of returnees. Yet beneath these proclamations, the legacy of Leviathan remained evident—etched into the silence of resettled streets, and into the eyes of those who had returned not just to homes, but to a homeland irrevocably changed.
Third Leg of Phased Repatriation (54/2/51 - 61/2/51 PSSC)
The final leg of the Odiferian repatriation campaign commenced on 54/2/51 PSSC, marking the end of civilian evacuation protocols originally implemented in the early days of Operation Somniant. With infrastructure repairs nearing completion, Shroud remnants fully dissipated from the basin, and coastal interdiction secure under the Alpazkigz Division, the War League shifted its final focus to reintegrating the last wave of displaced persons into interior settlements and peripheral canal towns. The conclusion of mass repatriation formally signaled the completion of the humanitarian phase of Operation Somniant.
Throughout this period, logistical coordination reached its peak. More than 10,000 civilians per day were processed and returned to registered homesteads or assigned new residential plots under emergency temple allocation guidelines. Corythia-class transports conducted round-the-clock convoy rotations, escorted by armored patrols operating from reconditioned Manipulus staging sites. High-speed rail corridors were opened along the Morovian Crescent, linking rural inland towns to major population centers. Resettlement officials confirmed the full repopulation of Nenivari, Talahan, Virdeh, and twelve outlying marshland districts. In tandem, Temple Alabaster’s auditing branches oversaw the spiritual and cognitive screening of repatriated individuals, flagging anomalous behaviors linked to Eidolic exposure and redirecting affected individuals into long-term therapeutic sanctuaries.
The combined strength of all deployed War League elements—three Manipuli, the V-99 Thunderguard Citadel Train, and the naval and aerial units of the Alpazkigz Division—was brought to bear in this final stage. Though repatriation was completed by 61/2/51 PSSC, the War League retained these forces in situ, citing the ongoing threat of insurgent resurgence, black-market Eidolic artifacts, and logistical vulnerabilities during the handoff to civic authorities. Forward bases were consolidated into long-term watch posts. Onceanic recon teams conducted perimeter sweeps, while Bijarian command vehicles continued to relay data to central command stations in Somniumpolis and Vaeringheim.
Public ceremonies were held across the region between 57/2 and 59/2/51 PSSC to commemorate the lives lost during the course of Operation Somniant. In Somniumpolis, the central plaza was transformed into a ceremonial esplanade, where clergy and War League officials unveiled a blackstone cenotaph etched with the names of the fallen from Ordo Unit IV—thirty-two active and sixteen reserve members, all but one presumed lost following the Eidolan’s appearance. Ash from the original reliquary fires was mixed with Noctic-Rabrev pulp and pressed into the foundation stones, symbolizing the purification of grief into communal memory.
Simultaneously, civic rituals were held in Talahan and Nenivari honoring civilians and soldiers killed during the fighting in the wake of the Eidolan’s emergence. The Third Manipulus held a vigil in the forests where their sniper detachments once monitored the retreating Shroud. At each gathering, temple choristers read aloud from the Litany of Last Memory, concluding with the affirmation: “We return not to what was, but to what we must become.”
Despite the formal closure of repatriation activities, security operations remained ongoing. Operation Leviathan—still active across Bassaridia Vaeringheim—continued to cast its shadow over reintegration. In Odiferia and its surrounding districts, Stoai from Rex Catonis and Kleisthenes from the Order of the Umbral Oracle remained stationed at major administrative nodes, conducting follow-up inquiries into spiritual contamination and cultural subversion. Cultist presence in the area was viewed with a mixture of gratitude and apprehension; their interventions, however brutal, had rendered visible the boundary between permissible doubt and forbidden doctrine.
Though the plaza celebrations drew large crowds, it was noted that many attendees remained silent throughout the rituals. Survivors of the Shroud, those scarred by Eidolic influence or marked by its passing, often stood apart—present but unspeaking. Memorial fires were left burning into the night.
By 61/2/51 PSSC, all evacuation mandates were lifted, and Odiferia was declared “culturally reintegrated and operationally restored.” War League communiques confirmed the conclusion of Operation Somniant as an active campaign. Yet with Leviathan still expanding its reach, and spiritual control tightening across the nation, few regarded the peace as anything more than a pause.
Operations Abroad (commenced 61 / 2 / 51 PSSC)
Strategic Strike on Tonar (61 / 2 / 51 PSSC)
On 61 / 2 / 51 PSSC, the War League’s newly established Council of Kings Division conducted a high-precision air operation in the independent city-state of Tonar, located approximately 1,128 kilometers west of Bassaridia Vaeringheim in the foothills of the Laceran Mountains. The target was a cluster of clandestine cultic production facilities believed to have supplied the ritual components, inscriptions, and psycho-spiritual reagents that enabled the conjuration of the Somniant Eidolan at the onset of the crisis. Intelligence linking these sites to the insurgency was corroborated by multiple Temple-led audits of captured materials.
The operation—codenamed “Operation Bebéakáus Ski”—involved no ground or naval units. It was carried out exclusively through a coordinated aerial campaign. One Moira squadron deployed six Misttalon Class Heavy Bombers and six Abeis-Minerva Class Combat Littoral Strike Aircraft, supported by a Ptisis flight of four Symphonara Class Compound Intercepts for air superiority coverage. All aircraft launched from an undisclosed forward air base near the Morovian Meridian and conducted the strike with synchronized radar suppression and rapid-exit protocols to avoid escalation with regional powers.
Targets included three known shrines, two chemical synthesis complexes hidden within Tonar’s artisanal district, and one subterranean archive reported to contain schematics. The strike was completed in less than twenty-seven minutes. Secondary explosions observed at two of the sites confirmed the presence of stockpiled chemical and energetic compounds. Tonar’s municipal authorities issued an immediate condemnation but stopped short of requesting international reprisal, suggesting broader fears of further engagement with the War League.
Temple authorities praised the mission as a “long-delayed act of interdiction” and emphasized its symbolic resonance. While the strike received mixed reviews from foreign observers, internal consensus treated it as both a retaliatory justice and a declaration of reach.
In the days following, scattered fragments of Tonarian media captured images of burning manuscripts and shattered vats, circulating widely before being removed.
Deployment to Bashkim (3 / 3 / 51 PSSC)
On 3 / 3 / 51 PSSC, the Council of Kings Division of the War League launched a high-profile military deployment to the independent city-state of Bashkim, situated directly on the western border of Haifan Bassaridia. Traditionally, Bashkim’s sovereignty had been respected by Bassaridia Vaeringheim, serving as a neutral frontier polity despite its cultural and geographic integration. However, intelligence gathered during the latter phases of Operation Somniant suggested that key insurgent figures—affiliated with the conjuration of the Somniant Eidolan—had taken refuge within Bashkim’s jurisdiction. This revelation prompted an immediate recalibration of regional doctrine and initiated a deployment designed to neutralize the threat before it metastasized.
The War League dispatched a full Centuria comprising 373 active personnel, supported by a coordinated force package featuring mechanized, armored, and airborne assets. Ground forces included ten squads of Abeis-Ismael Class “Cathartes” Littoral Hoverbikes and ten elements of Gargani Class Quadwalkers, providing the division with rapid urban maneuverability and superior close-combat terrain navigation. The armored backbone was formed by five Thalassa Class Main Battle Tanks and five Laya Class Heavy Tanks, reinforced by mechanized infantry mounted in Syrinx Class Armored Infantry fighting vehicles. These infantry detachments deployed with integrated dismounted squads armed with Kalithros Class Rifles for close-quarters suppression and urban pacification.
Force protection and logistical stability were ensured by the inclusion of two Abeis Class Mobile Laser Air Defense Systems, two Icaria Class Combat Engineering Vehicles, and two Corythia Class Transport Trucks for field sustainment.
The aerial wing, launched from forward staging zones near the Morovian Meridian, consisted of two Moirai—each composed of four Misttalon Class Heavy Bombers, four Abeis-Minerva Class Combat Littoral Strike Aircraft, and four Aurantius Class Multi-Role UAVs. These were accompanied by two Ptiseis for escort and airborne surveillance: each included two Symphonara Class Compound Intercepts and two Ventiflor Eye Class AEW&C Aircraft.
The sheer scale and composition of the force quickly drew scrutiny. Critics, both domestic and international, questioned whether the operation’s objective—allegedly to apprehend insurgents—could be met without provoking a wider regional escalation. Many suggested that the deployment foreshadowed an intention to occupy or annex Bashkim outright. War League authorities neither confirmed nor denied such claims, instead issuing a statement that the force composition reflected the anticipated complexity of urban containment in a politically sensitive and spiritually unstable environment.
Inside Bashkim, civil unrest flared immediately. City officials lodged diplomatic protests, and several local shrines closed preemptively amid fears of collateral spiritual fallout. Nevertheless, the operation proceeded with minimal resistance, its mere presence casting a long shadow over Bashkim’s future autonomy. For many in Bassaridia Vaeringheim, the deployment represented a formal shift from spiritual containment to border enforcement—and a warning that no safe haven would be permitted for those affiliated with the Eidolan or the doctrines that summoned it.
Initial Deployment to Ourid (8 / 3 / 51 PSSC)
On 8 / 3 / 51 PSSC, the Council of Kings Division initiated Operation Oceanic with a rapid‐insertion force projected 400 km west to secure the arid lowlands of Ourid. Two full Centuriae—approximately 746 active personnel—were airlifted into forward desert staging zones under cover of two Moirai strike squadrons and two Ptiseis escort flights. The ground component included fast “Cathartes” hoverbike interdiction squads, Khamsin‐class desert skirmisher teams, and Gargani quadwalkers to seize landing zones and screen routes through open plains and foothills. Behind this vanguard rolled Thalassa MBTs, Laya heavy tanks, Arachne light tanks for mountain passes, and Syrinx IFVs manned by mechanized infantry with Kalithros rifles. Point‐defense lasers, combat engineers, bridgelayers, recovery vehicles, and logistics trucks rounded out the package, ensuring mobility, protection, and sustainment in harsh, cooling conditions.
The immediate objectives were to neutralize remaining cult production cells, secure key transport hubs and high‐value terrain, and establish a defensive perimeter before the onset of winter snows. Simultaneously, Misttalon heavy bombers, Abeis‐Minerva strike aircraft, Chrysos sea bombers, and Aurantius UAVs delivered precision fires against identified command nodes, while Symphonara interceptors and Ventiflor AEW & C aircraft maintained air superiority and battle‐space awareness throughout the operation. By evening on 8 / 3, forward elements had secured the main supply route and three critical mountain passes, setting the stage for the main offensive push on 11 / 3—well ahead of the anticipated late‐March freeze.
The announcement of Operation Oceanica was cheered by many across Bassaridia Vaeringheim, who viewed a push into the western frontier as a necessary step to prevent any future Eidolic conjurations. Others, however, expressed signs of war fatigue—arguing that after years of near-constant foreign campaigns, a new offensive into the remote heartlands of Central Keltia felt excessive. A third group voiced concern over the timing: with winter fast approaching—and known to be especially brutal in the Central Keltian steppes—they worried that the operation’s rapid tempo might falter once snowfall and subzero nights set in.
Meanwhile, a pair of Bijarian Ballistic Missile Submarines lied submerged off Somniumpolis, ready to launch SLBMs against any high-value cult command nodes or counter-battery sites deep in Ourid should the initial assault encounter unexpected resistance—though no strike orders were issued at this stage.
Final Assessment
Operation Somniant is now widely regarded as the most comprehensive and multidimensional military campaign in the modern history of Bassaridia Vaeringheim. Initiated as a localized patrol mission in response to the erratic behavior of two Glinos Leviathan in western Lake Morovia, it swiftly expanded into a nation-defining effort blending spiritual containment, counter-insurgency warfare, technological experimentation, and mass civilian repatriation. Though not the largest deployment by manpower, Somniant mobilized the full breadth of the nation’s military-industrial-theological complex—uniting the Odiferia and Alpazkigz Divisions of the Bassaridian War League, the experimental assets of the Hatch Ministry Division, and the logistical command and metaphysical oversight of the Temple Bank of the Reformed Stripping Path.
The campaign’s turning point came with the confirmed emergence of a Somniant Eidolan within the Odiferian Wetlands—a metaphysical entity capable of inducing spiritual collapse, memory unmaking, and host destabilization. In response, the War League pioneered integrated protocols that blended conventional military cordons, cultic banishment rites, and ritual therapy. Forward units were sustained by the first combat deployment of the V-99 Thunderguard Citadel Train, while rotating Manipuli alternated between combat, overwatch, and civilian screening missions. Naval dominance was asserted through the Alpazkigz Ordu, securing inland waterways and supporting coastal interdictions.
As intelligence traced the supply of Eidolic materials beyond Bassaridia’s interior, Operation Somniant evolved into a broader campaign to pacify the Central Keltian Valley. On 61 / 2 / 51 PSSC, the Council of Kings Division executed “Operation Bebéakáus Ski,” a precision aerial strike on cult facilities in Tonar—over 1,100 km west in the Laceran foothills. Six Misttalons and six Abeis-Minervas, escorted by Symphonaras, obliterated shrines, synthesis complexes, and hidden archives in under thirty minutes, marking the campaign’s first extraterritorial act of preemptive deterrence.
That resolve deepened on 3 / 3 / 51 PSSC with a full Centuria deployment to Bashkim, a historically neutral polity on Haifan Bassaridia’s western frontier. Ten “Cathartes” hoverbike squads, ten Gargani elements, five Thalassas, five Layas, and Syrinx IFVs formed a force capable of both surgical containment and outright occupation—sending an unmistakable message that no sanctuary would be tolerated for those who trafficked in Eidolic doctrines.
The campaign reached its apex with Operation Oceanica, formally announced on 8 / 3 / 51 PSSC to justify the full-scale invasion of Ourid—400 km west in the arid Southern Crescent of the Eastern Caledonian Highlands. Two Centuriae, totaling nearly 750 troops, were airlifted into forward desert staging zones under cover of two Moirai strike squadrons and two Ptiseis escort flights. “Cathartes” hoverbikes and desert-skirmisher teams secured landing zones, Gargani quadwalkers screened routes through plains and mountain passes, and heavy armor—Thalassa MBTs, Laya tanks, and Arachne light tanks—penetrated cult strongholds. Precision fires from Misttalon bombers, Abeis-Minerva strike jets, Chrysos sea bombers, and Aurantius UAVs, supported by Symphonara and Ventiflor escorts and a pair of SLBM-armed Bijarian submarines positioned near Somniumpolis in western Lake Morovia, shattered residual cult infrastructure well before the late-March freeze. By 11 / 3, key transport hubs and strategic passes were under War League control, completing the initial stages of the valley’s pacification.
Throughout these interconnected operations—spiritual shielding in the wetlands, strategic interdiction in Tonar, urban containment in Bashkim, and combined-arms invasion of Ourid—Operation Somniant demonstrated extraordinary adaptability and doctrinal evolution. It forged a new paradigm of truly integrated warfare—conventional, technological, naval, aerial, and spiritual—capable of defending Bassaridia Vaeringheim’s soul as fiercely as its borders. Its legacy, however, is not without cost: civilian populations carry lasting psychological scars, dozens of soldiers and hundreds of civilians were lost or irreparably altered, and unexplained anomalies persist in the remote wetlands. While Operation Leviathan would later define the nation’s broader ideological posture, Somniant and its extension under Operation Oceanica remain distinct in their scope, precision, and the unyielding will to project that force far beyond Bassaridia Vaeringheim’s shores.
Operation Leviathan
| Operation Leviathan | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of War League Internal Security and Spiritual Containment Operations | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Temple Bank of the Reformed Stripping Path *  Rex Catonis*  Mystery of the Stygian Veil*  Mystery of the Verdant Embrace*  Order of the Umbral Oracle*  Temple Alabaster*  Order of Aurora Mystica*  Azure Sentinel Sect*  Guild of Golden Shadows Vaeringheim Division, Bassaridian War League New South Jangsong Division, Bassaridian War League Haifan Bassaridia Division, Bassaridian War League Baratar Corporation
| Alperkin dissidents Animist revivalist cults Eidolan sympathizers Insurgent networks and rogue factions |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| High Priestess of the Temple of Vaeringheim Cult leadership (city-level) Command Staff, Vaeringheim Division War League Command Staff, New South Jangsong Division War League Command Staff, Haifan Bassaridia Division War League/ Local Command, Baratar Corporation - Odiferia
| Localized cell leaders Rogue oracles Unidentified Eidolan-aligned operatives |
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| Units involved | |||||||||
Spiritual Forces
Military Support (select locations)
Civil Coordination
| Ocanal Firazde (Alperkin youth cell) First Nature (animist revivalist group) Heretical caravan liaisons Dissident oracles Eidolan propaganda networks |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| Dozens of spiritual cadres per city Estimated 1,000+ Temple operatives engaged across Bassaridia Vaeringheim and its territories Limited War League presence (targeted deployments) | Irregular and diffuse Several hundred known insurgents Widespread support among disaffected cultic elements |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Low; minor injuries, trauma among cult enforcers and clergy; isolated War League casualties | Over 70 executed 17 killed by War League forces during third Thermosalem riot Hundreds detained or subjected to public penance Numerous clandestine groups dismantled |
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| First invocation of full Leviathan Protocol since the containment of the Somniant Eidolan. First post-Somniant domestic deployment of Temple and War League forces in spiritual coordination. Constitutional reforms enacted to support operations through creation of the Baratar Corporation. Temple–military cooperation scrutinized by the Senate and public media in wake of Sylvapolis deployment. |
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Operation Leviathan was an internal-security campaign undertaken beginning on 46 / 2 / 51 PSSC by enforcement cadres of the Reformed Stripping Path. The High Priestess of the Bassarid Temple of Vaeringheim issued the emergency mandate following the successful containment of a Somniant Eidolan during Operation Somniant. Although the Eidolan threat had been neutralized, its brief manifestation inspired copycat visions, doctrinal panic, and localized riots in several cult-centers. Operation Leviathan was conceived to consolidate the gains of Operation Somniant and to demonstrate that public order and orthodoxy remained inviolate.
In return for the Council of Representatives' support in authorizing the operation, the High Priestess was asked to lend her endorsement to a constitutional amendment establishing formal provisions for the Baratar, the nation's decentralized civilian militia. She agreed. As a result, Article VIII: The Role of the Baratar Corporation was added to the Bassaridian Constitution of 50.43 PSSC on 48/2/51 PSSC, codifying the Baratar’s role under legislative authority and defining its relationship to the Council of Representatives and national defense doctrine.
Elite detachments from Rex Catonis, the Mystery of the Stygian Veil, the Mystery of the Verdant Embrace, and the Order of the Umbral Oracle, among others, were therefore deployed to restore discipline "by visible proof of divine authority." While the measures fell short of the excesses recorded in the Gulf of Jangsong Crucifixions, they drew consciously on the stern traditions of the Vine-Crowned and the Masked God: public humiliation, corporal punishment, and processional penance underscored cult supremacy. Each intervention was explicitly framed as a preventative measure to suppress sympathizers and conditions that might give rise to another Eidolan.
Ephyra (46 / 2 / 51 PSSC)
In Ephyra, a mass of nearly four hundred protesters surged into the courtyard of the Temple of the Seer during the midday prayer interval. The mob overturned stone altars, dragged ceremonial furnishings into the fountain, and set fire to a collection of archival scrolls while chanting slogans denouncing the reforms enacted in the wake of Operation Somniant. The smoke from the burning vellum was visible from the hills above the city. Temple guards, unarmed and outnumbered, were pelted with stones and forced to retreat into the inner sanctum.
Within hours, a Stoa of Rex Catonis and a Kleisthenes of the Mystery of the Stygian Veil were deployed to the city and began immediate suppression operations. Temple gates were chained and welded shut. Loud-hailers mounted on flatbed trucks barked warnings of lethal force, and tear-powder was discharged across the quarter without discrimination. Protesters were clubbed to the ground, restrained with wire cord, and stacked in open carts before being processed at a makeshift tribunal held in the courtyard itself. Thirteen men and women were sentenced to execution by pole-striking—a pre-modern civic penalty chosen for its symbolism. The condemned were lashed to vertical iron shafts and struck repeatedly with steel rods until they collapsed. Their bodies were left standing, upright and strapped, until sunset. The ground beneath the poles was covered in sand and saturated with vinegar to draw flies.
The remaining ten accused received twelve lashes apiece across the back and shoulders, delivered with flat leather belts by senior cult officials, followed by a red-hot brand of the Laurel of Cato applied just above the elbow. Each was then chained by the neck to individual pillories positioned at the four corners of the temple courtyard, where they remained exposed to the public for twenty-four hours without food or water. Witnesses later described the crowd as “silent, reverent, and afraid.”
Subsequent investigations confirmed that the riot had been planned in advance by a clandestine association of dissident oracles operating out of a residence attached to the old chancellery. The instigators, most of whom had spoken out against the containment of the Somniant Eidolan, were found to have circulated counterfeit visions, some of which mimicked the speech patterns reported during the original manifestation. These documents, seized during a raid, were destroyed under torch in a controlled burn inside the temple crypt. Thirty-two codices lost in the fire—including two partial transcriptions of the Fifth Vision of Amap—were declared unrecoverable. Replacement materials were sourced from the Thalassian Temple Granite Export Cooperative.
Reaction to the crackdown divided public sentiment across the province. In Ephyra itself, however, attendance at evening rites soared, and donations to the temple treasury nearly tripled in the weeks following the intervention. Local officials credited the brutality of the response with restoring order and preventing further contagion of heretical ideas. As cult officials made clear in their joint statement, “Those who carry the flame of false revelation must be snuffed before they reignite what the War League contained.”
Pelagia (46 / 2 / 51, 56 / 2 / 51, and 5 / 3 / 51 PSSC)
In Pelagia, a sustained breakdown in civic order began on 46 / 2 / 51 PSSC when armed agitators seized control of three desert oases, diverted water from municipal conduits, and daubed shrines with mud and blood accusing cult authorities of orchestrating the drought to punish disloyal provinces. Pilgrims were denied access at knifepoint. Regional priests attempting to mediate were driven off with rocks. The disruption collapsed daily water distribution, shut down caravan operations, and sparked widespread panic across the lowland markets.
By dawn the next day, a Stoa of Rex Catonis and a Kleisthenes of the Mystery of the Verdant Embrace entered the city in unmarked utility transports and established a perimeter around the Grand Oasis. Loudspeakers mounted on cranes broadcast a single message on loop: “Water belongs to the worthy.” Armored enforcers moved in without ceremony. Twenty-seven individuals were captured in the initial sweep. They were stripped to the waist and bound by the wrists in chains attached to the perimeter fence of the central shrine, where they remained under floodlight for five hours while locals jeered and chanted songs of purification.
At sunset, six were marched to the edge of the cistern, positioned with their backs to the oasis, and shot in the stomach with state-issued rifles. Their bodies were left seated, upright, beneath the public tap system overnight, where water continued to flow intermittently over their feet. The remaining detainees were shaven bald, forced to scrub their own slogans off the temple walls, and flogged with twisted cords soaked in brine. After the beatings, they were made to kneel in front of the same cistern and sign a covenant of loyalty on a tablet of clay that was later shattered ceremonially by the presiding Kleisthenes.
Investigators later confirmed that the revolt had been coordinated by a network of heretical Normarkian caravan liaisons and disaffected landowners who had hoarded water stockpiles in breach of sacred distribution codes. Secret caches were uncovered behind two salt domes near the outer irrigation field. In addition to the physical damage—including nearly fifty kilolitres of lost potable water—inspectors reported extensive psychological trauma among shrine custodians who had been forced to drink defiled wellwater as punishment during the uprising.
In the aftermath, a dusk curfew was imposed across Pelagia for two weeks. Access to shrine fountains was restricted to supervised processions of no more than five individuals per group. Daily prayer began with the pouring of a single ladle of water onto the grave pits of the executed. International observers condemned the measures as “ritualized cruelty bordering on collective punishment,” but cult authorities insisted that the crackdown had been a necessary demonstration of what awaits those who would conspire with the same ideological currents that once gave rise to the Somniant Eidolan.
Despite these measures, a second and more coordinated riot erupted in Pelagia on 56 / 2 / 51 PSSC. In the early morning hours, rebels again seized multiple oasis control stations and issued a proclamation of spiritual secession, accusing the Reformed Stripping Path of “usurping ancestral currents” and defiling the desert's divine rhythm. Fires were set in the grain yards. Shrine basins were poisoned with lime and blood, and a group of cultic water stewards was forced at blade-point to disrobe and lie face-down in the irrigation trenches.
Within four hours, additional forces from the Reformed Stripping Path arrived. The same Stoa of Rex Catonis, now operating under expanded Leviathan authority, was reinforced by a second Kleisthenes of the Mystery of the Verdant Embrace and one Hetairos of the Order of the Umbral Oracle. All roads into and out of the oasis were barricaded with overturned carts and draped tarpaulins marked with red glyphs of sedition. Seventy-one individuals were detained. Twelve were selected for public penance. They were marched naked through the oasis district, each bearing a clay jug filled with polluted water from the poisoned basins. When the jugs cracked under their own weight, each offender was flogged to the ground by shrine children with salt-vine switches. Five others were lashed to the legs of water towers and left exposed through the midday sun, forced to chant from the sacred texts while their skin cracked and peeled.
Three ringleaders—accused of writing the proclamation—were gagged and led on a procession through the market square before being submerged up to the neck in the southern cistern, where shrine elders took turns whispering verses of purification directly into their ears for seven continuous hours. After the final verse, the water was boiled, and the remains dissolved in situ. The cistern was declared sacred once more and sealed for seven days.
Following this renewed violence, a Manipulus from the New South Jangsong Division of the War League was deployed to reinforce the outer perimeter and maintain control of regional caravan lanes. While the War League maintained that the deployment was logistical in nature, Temple officials cited it as evidence of “unified martial-spiritual resolve.” Observers interpreted the joint presence as a warning that future disturbances would not be met with cultic reprisal alone. Reinforcements remained stationed in the oasis perimeter, and construction was started on a new cult station near the southern basin wall. As of 58 / 2 / 51, access to sacred irrigation channels remained tightly controlled.
On 5 / 3 / 51 PSSC, mere days after the High Priestess announced the formal drawdown of Operation Leviathan in the wake of the Thyrean desecrations, a clandestine cell of rebels infiltrated a holy site near the northern rim of the Grand Oasis and covertly replaced an entire cistern’s supply of consecrated springwater with cursed brine laced with psycho-corrosive compounds. Pilgrims who drank from the basin later reported severe nausea, blood-flecked tears, and visions of inverted baptism rites. Four novice stewards collapsed during the morning ritual and were subsequently treated by cultic healers.
Security footage and divine-scry logs revealed that the saboteurs had posed as municipal maintenance staff and utilized stolen liturgical robes to bypass the shrine’s lower gates. The desecrated water was found to contain hallucinogenic ash resin, fungal spores from the Shoshan basin, and sacrificial compounds used exclusively in funerary rites for unrepentant heretics.
Within twelve hours, Operation Leviathan protocols were reinstated by decree of the High Priestess, who publicly stated that “the defilement of water is no lesser offense than the corruption of breath.” A Hetairos of the Order of the Umbral Oracle returned to the site accompanied by two Dodekai from the Mystery of the Verdant Embrace. Eight suspects were captured in an evening sweep coordinated from the partially restored cult station. Three were sentenced to infusion drowning: submerged in brine mixed with the very toxins they introduced, their flesh dyed crimson by temple pigments, their screams silenced by stone weights pressing against their chests. The others were subjected to the Rite of the Withered Flow—forced to fast and chant inside parched irrigation canals while their skin blistered under reflected solar heat.
Though no public executions followed, the incident reignited tensions around the proportionality of Leviathan’s punishments, especially given that the operation had already begun its drawdown phase. Critics argued that the gravity of the crime did not justify the extremity of the reprisals. The High Priestess, however, reiterated that Leviathan remained active wherever spiritual offense was deemed critical, and that “the sanctity of water is older than the memory of mercy.” While no additional Manipulus units were deployed, the existing garrison’s patrol rotations doubled in frequency, and no civilian access to the northern cisterns has been permitted since. As of 6 / 3 / 51 PSSC, regional authorities report no further unrest.
Thermosalem (46/2/51, 54/2/51, and 57/2/51 PSSC)
Thermosalem (46 / 2 / 51, 54 / 2 / 51, 57 / 2 / 51, and 58 / 2 / 51 PSSC) In the spa-city of Thermosalem, unrest began on 46 / 2 / 51 PSSC when an organized cell of armed insurgents stormed the central bath-temple under cover of night. Wielding steel rods, accelerants, and sharpened masonry tools, the attackers breached the southern vestibule, ignited the archive wing, and reduced two reliquaries to rubble. Six clergy were injured—one blinded, one crippled—and several others barricaded themselves in the steam vaults. When the flames were contained, black smoke coated every mosaic in the sanctuary dome and scorched the marble around the central pool.
Twelve hours later, a Lampade of the Mystery of the Stygian Veil and a Hetairos of the Order of the Umbral Oracle arrived under Operation Leviathan authority. Power and water were cut citywide. Nine suspects were captured in the hypocaust system, bound with iron wire, marched naked through the halls, and forced to kneel in the drained sanctum. Four were executed by submersion in the hot-spring pool. The remainder were beaten with wooden paddles, branded across the chest, and placed in solitary confinement in the old apothecary wing.
Forensic investigators determined the fire was deliberate: resin-soaked rags, igniter jars, and damaged ventilation shafts pointed to an attempted gas-chamber detonation. The attack destroyed four centuries of temple ledgers and priestly records.
Eight days later, on 54 / 2 / 51, a second arson struck multiple secondary bath complexes during the morning ablution rites. Dressing halls, outer domes, and two private immersion cells were set ablaze. Panic swept the city. Although the damage was limited, the recurrence of violence prompted the War League’s Haifan Bassaridia Division to deploy one Maniupulus, officially to assist with citywide blackout response.
The same Lampade and Hetairos returned. Twelve arrests were made in overnight raids. Five offenders were publicly sentenced to dust-lashing—beaten until blood mixed with thermal powder. Two others were thrown, still conscious, into an emptied cistern lined with lime and runoff. Their screams were not recorded. No further repair was attempted. Instead, charred tiles from the dressing halls were repurposed into the paving stones of the city’s east gate.
Despite curfews, searches, and a heavy Temple presence, a third and most catastrophic uprising erupted on 57 / 2 / 51 in Thermosalem’s resort district. Protestors chanting against “false purification” surged through the sacred fountains and ritual gardens, smashing urns, pouring ink into cisterns, and burning paper votives. Temple attendants were dragged from their posts. One was crucified against a mineral pump.
The Maniupulus, already stationed in the city and now operating at full combat capacity, encircled the resort district. Armed with Kalithros Class Rifles, Delphica Class Grenadier Rifles, and Strix Class Combat Shotguns, soldiers launched a counterassault using tear-dust, concussive slugs, and live ammunition. Seventeen rioters were killed within ninety minutes. Six more were dragged from the hypocaust tunnels and turned over to the Temple.
The following day, cult authorities carried out the harshest mass sentence yet recorded under Leviathan Protocol. Thirty-two offenders were bound, marched into the empty mineral basins, and smeared with a lye-chalk compound. Each was branded on the face with the inverted sigil of the drowned, then submerged in boiling caustic brine until unconscious. Nine were left submerged. The remainder were revived and subjected to processional penance—forced to walk barefoot from shrine to shrine while struck with ladles of salt.
One day later, on 58 / 2 / 51, the annual Aprobellium festival—honoring Host Star Aprobelle—was allowed to proceed under heavy security. The decision followed hours of tense debate between city magistrates, Temple cult officials, and the Maniupulus command staff, with some calling for total cancellation due to recent violence. Ultimately, a limited celebration was approved. Streets were draped in red silk banners and hung with lanterns glowing like the sacred star itself. Acrobats performed before tight security cordons, and vendors distributed regulated rations of spiced ceremonial drinks. The Maniupulus conducted full-body screenings at all major intersections, and all performers were required to undergo spiritual verification by the Order of the Umbral Oracle.
Despite a subdued tone, the event proceeded without incident. Cult authorities framed the festival’s restraint as a symbolic reaffirmation of Thermosalem’s resilience and loyalty.
Somniumpolis (47 / 2 / 51 PSSC)
At 04:13 local time, masked insurgents armed with fire axes and bolt cutters breached the eastern wall of the Somniumpolis Temple Archive, bypassing both nightwatch stations and the inner gate bell system. Once inside, the assailants overpowered three unarmed stewards on duty, shattered a reinforced reliquary, and escaped with a collection of unrecovered Eidolic relics—items previously sequestered during post-Somniant recovery efforts. Surveillance footage revealed their escape via skiff through the southern canal into the Odiferae Wetlands. Local clergy declared an immediate state of spiritual contamination, and the High Priestess convened an emergency response under Operation Leviathan authority.
One Kleisthenes of the Order of the Umbral Oracle, one Dodekas of the Mystery of the Stygian Veil, one Hetairos of Temple Alabaster, and one Stoa of Rex Catonis were dispatched to Somniumpolis that morning. The eastern canal quarter was placed under total lockdown. All residents were ordered into the streets shirtless and barefoot, forced to stand in kneeling prayer posture for six-hour intervals while interrogators moved from household to household. Suspected collaborators were detained in the flooded antechambers of the defunct Maritime Guild and subjected to prolonged cold immersion and forced confession rituals under the supervision of Alabaster personnel.
Twelve individuals were charged with complicity. Five were flogged unconscious on the altar steps using chain-whips soaked in brine and ash. Three were executed by controlled drowning: their heads submerged beneath the lotus basin outside the archive in three prolonged sequences of immersion and revival. The remaining four were bound and marched through the canal district barefoot, pausing at every shrine to receive a blow across the face with the closed Catechism of First Purity. At the conclusion of the circuit, they were branded with the sigil of the Masked God and released to the public square, tattooed with grapevines on their left arms, and stripped of all cult protection.
The shattered wing of the archive was declared permanently condemned. After forensic teams removed all remaining unburned texts, the entrance was sealed behind fused concrete and crushed coral. Remaining ash and splinters from the desecrated relic chambers were swept into shallow clay vessels filled with Noctic-Rabrev residue and ritual vinegar. These were destroyed beneath the boots of the presiding Lampade. A black iron plaque now marks the site with a single inscription: “Let the Watchers Burn.”
In the days following the incursion, a classified security report was leaked to local scribal channels, revealing that senior temple administrators had suppressed evidence of Eidolic presence outside the city for at least ten days prior to the events of 26/2/51 PSSC. The revelation sparked panic and calls for wider investigation. Under direct order of the High Priestess, the Order of the Umbral Oracle initiated a second round of interrogations targeting temple staff and bureaucrats in the municipal records office. Six individuals were identified as having received warnings from spiritual auditors weeks before the attack and failed to initiate protocol.
Three of those officials—mid-level archive clerks—were shackled and drowned in the same lotus basin as the insurgents. One was burned alive on a pyre constructed from the shattered reliquary frames. Two others were publicly disrobed and lashed ninety-nine times with rods carved from salt-wood. Their tongues were then nailed to the temple doors and left for three days before surgical removal.
Cult authorities framed the episode as a necessary reaffirmation of the Reformed Stripping Path’s covenant with the Host Spirit: “To sleep on duty is to dream with traitors,” read the formal decree issued the next day. “Those who knew and failed to act must meet the same fate as those who dreamed the Eidolan into being.”
Symphonara (48 / 2 / 51 PSSC)
At 02:41 local time, an improvised explosive device detonated near Shaft Nine, a disused entrance to the ancient municipal tunnel grid beneath Symphonara. The blast breached a secondary seal erected during the post-Somniant quarantine period, providing access to a section of the tunnel system long believed collapsed. Within hours, masked insurgents seized control of multiple underground junctions, distributed anti-cult propaganda through storm drains, and issued a public communiqué declaring the establishment of a “new order beneath the city of harmony.” Panic gripped the upper quarters as rumors spread that the rebels carried Eidolic relics smuggled out of the southern archive disturbances, and that they intended to desecrate the shrine of the twin Divines Indigo and Momiji from below.
One Kleisthenes of the Mystery of the Stygian Veil, one Stoa of Rex Catonis, one Lampade of the Order of the Umbral Oracle, and one Hetairos of Temple Alabaster were dispatched to Symphonara under full Leviathan protocol. All known entrances to the tunnel network were sealed with steel girders and barbed concrete fill. Forcible evacuations were conducted in twelve apartment blocks situated above suspected rebel staging areas. Residents were ordered into the central plaza in their nightclothes, where they were sorted, documented, and subjected to interrogation by catechism and physical inspection.
Seventeen suspects were captured within twenty-four hours. Five were chained upright at major transit junctions and executed by blunt-force trauma—each struck repeatedly across the torso and head with ceremonial sledgehammers bearing the sigils of the Vine-Crowned. The remaining twelve were forced to carry rubble from the destroyed entrances through the streets barefoot, their heads shaved and coated in chalk. At each shrine they passed, they knelt and were struck across the back with leather-bound hymnals by junior clergy. Upon reaching the site of the original breach, they were placed in chains and lowered into the remaining tunnels to conduct forced cleanup under armed guard.
The uncovered tunnel sections were declared permanently contaminated. Interior walls bearing graffiti praising the Eidolan and the “False Flame” were photographed, then destroyed. A controlled demolition collapsed ninety meters of the underground corridor system. Charred relic fragments recovered from an improvised altar found in Subsection Delta-7 were incinerated publicly on the steps of the Temple of Indigo, and the ashes were swept into buckets of blood and ash collected from the earlier executions.
The operation was lauded by cult officials as a decisive measure to prevent a second Eidolan emergence. “Harmony must be enforced in blood if it cannot be maintained by song,” read the proclamation issued by the High Priestess on the day following the demolitions. “There is no sanctuary beneath the city.”
Alpazkigz (49 / 2 / 51 and 59 / 2 / 51 PSSC)
At 00:47 local time on 49 / 2 / 51 PSSC, coordinated fires ignited across eleven yurts in the central settlement ring of the Alpazkigz. The blazes were fueled with stolen sheep tallow and oil from a nearby lantern depot and ignited while most of the district's residents were attending a late-night communal meal. Though no deaths were reported, four of the destroyed yurts were sacred dwellings, their beams consecrated by the Saint Mothers themselves, and one—home to the Larak clan—was known to house ritual ash dating back nine generations.
Investigators from the Autonomous Cultural Council found marked pamphlets, red cord symbols, and a written manifesto attributing the act to a group calling itself the Ocanal Firazde, a rogue collective of Alperkin youths calling for the dissolution of clan structures and rejection of ancestral memory. Their stated aim was to “free the present from the bones of the past.” The Saint Mothers unanimously declared the fires an act of sacrilege and invoked their full judicial authority under Article X of the Bassaridian Constitution. Advisors from the Reformed Bassarid cults—including one Dodekas of the Mystery of the Stygian Veil and one Hetairos from Temple Alabaster—were permitted to assist in evidence gathering but played no role in sentencing.
Twenty-two individuals were apprehended in the immediate aftermath. They were paraded barefoot through the ash-covered central square of the Alpazkigz and bound to low posts as their clan elders chanted the names of their ancestors into the night air. Then, in an act of symbolic severance, each was forced to smash the sacred bowls passed down through their respective families for countless generations.
Of the twenty-two, six ringleaders were sentenced to ancestral forfeiture—a rare and gravest form of punishment reserved for those who commit the highest crimes. At dawn, under the direct supervision of the Saint Mothers, the mummified remains of each offender’s direct ancestors were manually exhumed from their resting places in the tar-pits. Normally, Alperkin sacred burial grounds are meticulously preserved, and the presence of tar-worms—predatory invertebrates drawn to human remains—is strictly prevented. However, in cases of ultimate judgment, these creatures are summoned at one site: the Great Nest.
The Great Nest is a single, unsealed pit at the far edge of the Sacred Tar-Lands—home to dozens of mature tar-worms, each as long as a man, whose ravenous feeding is interpreted as an act of final spiritual consumption. The condemned and their exhumed ancestors were brought before the edge of the pit in silence. The remains—still bound in burial cloths—were tossed in first, to the sound of rattles and dry-throat chanting. Then, one by one, the living offenders were stripped, bound with their own ancestral wrappings, and thrown in after them. The worms accepted them without delay.
No retaliation occurred. The Alpazkigz held a cold-fire vigil for three days. Communal fires were not relit until the Saint Mothers declared the hearths clean.
Ten days later, on 59 / 2 / 51 PSSC, additional unrest was narrowly averted when riotous mobs attempted to disrupt the annual Festival of the Graji Canïfaha, a seasonal rite which coincides with festivals across Bassaridia Vaeringheim honoring Azos. The mobs, later confirmed to be linked to exiled remnants of the Ocanal Firazde, sought to desecrate the Graji’s ceremonial fire-poles and collapse the central canopy of the great tent structure.
Although the Temple of Aprobelle has no official jurisdiction in the Alpazkigz and is not formally recognized within its governance structure, surveillance operatives embedded in adjacent trade operations intercepted chatter indicating plans for mass disruption. Working covertly, the Temple transmitted behavioral anomaly forecasts and coded name sets to a contact within the Saint Mothers' security tier.
With only six hours’ notice, the Saint Mothers enacted a full rite of preemptive interdiction. Provocateurs were detained at yurt thresholds and shrine entrances. Thirteen were found to be carrying ritual-desecration implements—including paint, brine dust, and twisted copper rods prepared for canopy sabotage. All were identified using pattern profiles provided by the Temple’s Priestesses of Discourse and Priestesses of the Veil.
Punishments were swift. Eleven were sentenced to rattle-silence: their teeth were bound with cord, mouths packed with sage ash, and heads covered with smoke-blind veils for six days of public penance along the sacred procession route. Two ringleaders were sentenced to cord-severance—a ritual expulsion in which their names were severed from clan records using braided cord burned on both ends. They were stripped of all ancestral claim, cast into exile, and forbidden from re-entering any tented structure on ancestral land.
Temple of Aprobelle officials offered no formal comment and have not acknowledged the role played by their operatives.
Sylvapolis (50 / 2 / 51 PSSC)
At 05:26 local time, a series of coordinated explosions tore through the central shrine of Sylvapolis, collapsing the southern façade and igniting fires throughout the adjoining gardens and prayer halls. The attack, launched during the dawn flower-offering ceremony, killed nine clergy and injured over thirty temple workers and worshippers. Entire sectors of the complex were reduced to rubble, including the Sanctum of Faun and the southern Hall of Boughs. The assault was claimed by an armed cell calling itself First Nature, a faction previously monitored by Temple security for distributing unauthorized editions of pre-Stripping animist texts and advocating a return to pre-unification beliefs.
In the hours following the bombing, a series of minor earthquakes rippled through Sylvapolis and the surrounding terraces. Though no structural damage was reported, the tremors—measuring between 2.7 and 3.5 in magnitude—were felt throughout the shrine district and contributed to intermittent power outages and disruption of municipal water pressure. Government seismologists attributed the tremors to directional drilling conducted by the Bijarian Energy Corporation, though the coincidence with the shrine’s destruction led many within the city to interpret the earthquakes as a divine warning, particularly given the shrine’s historical association with seasonal renewal and ancestral fertility.
Local authorities declared martial law within ninety minutes. Under emergency directives from the High Priestess, the Reformed Stripping Path authorized a full punitive response under Leviathan Protocol: one Kleisthenes of the Mystery of the Stygian Veil, one Stoa of Rex Catonis, one Lampade of the Order of the Umbral Oracle, and one Hetairos of Temple Alabaster were deployed to the city.
In parallel, the Vaeringheim Division of the War League deployed one Ordo—consisting of thirty-two active and sixteen reserve personnel—to the outer administrative districts of Sylvapolis. The stated purpose of this deployment was to assist with logistical stabilization in light of power outages caused by the seismic activity. However, the timing of the deployment, the unit’s positioning near Temple command stations, and the absence of engineering assets raised suspicion. Observers within the Senate of Elders and the national press speculated that the War League’s presence signaled a desire to monitor—or potentially intervene in—ongoing Temple operations under Operation Leviathan. Both the Temple and the War League publicly denied these claims, issuing a joint statement affirming “total alignment in spiritual, civic, and security policy.”
The shrine complex was sealed behind chain-link fencing and veiled in tar cloth. By 11:00, loudspeakers mounted on fire engines began broadcasting a continuous six-hour cycle of the Catechism of Expulsa. By nightfall, over one hundred individuals had been detained. Forty-three were identified as supporters or sympathizers through intercepted messages, coded prayer patterns, and altered devotional texts. Field courts convened within the city’s botanical conservatory.
Twelve individuals were sentenced to bark skimming—stripped, bound to cedar posts, and flayed down the back with hooked knives until spinal bone was exposed. Their bodies were coated in ash paste and hung upside-down beneath the shattered portico of the shrine. Eight others were sentenced to judicial planting: buried upright, waist-deep, in blackened garden plots with soil packed into their mouths. Each was marked with a wooden placard identifying them as “fertilizer for false roots.”
Among the remaining detainees, six received ritual silencing: their tongues were removed with branding tongs, their names struck from the civic registries, and their faces painted in green ink with the geometric pattern of the ruined sanctuary floor. One temple priest—found to have withheld security footage during the investigation—was crucified against a fallen beam from the Hall of Boughs, his arms shattered at the joint, his eyes sewn shut, and a broken communion bowl lashed to his throat.
The shrine was not rebuilt. Instead, the site was formally consecrated as a permanent ruin of instruction. Scorched timbers were repurposed into a skeletal lattice surrounding the crater, forbidding entry. All offerings were banned; chanting within audible range was declared sacrilegious. A single carved stone from the Mylecian quarries, mounted atop a shattered altar beam, bears the inscription:
“This is what becomes of rootless mercy.”
The High Priestess issued no public comment but ordered a complete blackout of all cultic transmissions for twenty-four hours. Cult officials later confirmed that the Leviathan intervention in Sylvapolis was executed with full authority and remains beyond appeal.
Riddersborg (51 / 2 / 51 PSSC)
At 07:42 local time, heretical banners were raised across key intersections, tram stations, and rooftop antennae in Riddersborg, bearing slogans calling for mass defiance against the Host Spirit and the dissolution of the Reformed Temple hierarchy. The coordinated action—occurring on the eve of the monthly vow renewal procession—triggered panic among civic authorities and prompted fears of a second uprising in the strategic Normarkian frontier city, still recovering from the week-long siege endured during the Lower Jangsong Campaign. Though no immediate violence accompanied the banners, the messaging was unequivocal: rejection of divine order, rejection of Temple sovereignty, and calls for spiritual mutiny.
In response, the High Priestess authorized a formal Leviathan response, with strict instructions to match the severity of interventions in Somniumpolis and Sylvapolis while avoiding escalation that might reignite separatist sentiment. Initial observation was conducted via an unarmed Lotos-Class Tactical UAV, lent to the Temple by the New South Jangsong Division of the War League. The drone conducted five low-altitude passes over central Riddersborg, capturing facial imagery, mapping ingress points, and monitoring civilian reactions. While publicly framed as a logistical courtesy, the UAV's presence raised immediate speculation of War League scrutiny into Temple activities.
That evening, a combined cultic force was deployed under full Leviathan protocol. One Lampade of the Order of the Umbral Oracle, one Stoa of Rex Catonis, one Kleisthenes of the Mystery of the Verdant Embrace, and one Hetairos of Temple Alabaster arrived via sealed transport, entering the city through municipal tram corridors and administrative tunnels. Operations began without announcement. Suspected collaborators were removed from dormitories, pressrooms, and maintenance stations. Banners were seized, documented, and sealed for ritual destruction.
Within twenty-four hours, Temple enforcers had detained forty-nine individuals. Twelve were subjected to interrupted sleep immersion: stripped, submerged in cold cisterns, and forced to recite modified dawn hymns through clenched jaws and shivering breath. Six ringleaders were condemned to crucifixion on iron ladders—an archaic form of ideological punishment not used since the Purge of Jogi. They were bound and nailed upright along the city’s northern wall, dressed in linen robes inked with the slogans they had helped propagate. Snow was packed around their feet and faces to extend the display. Nine others were sentenced to floor branding, laid flat upon the altar floor of the Temple Annex and marked across the back with the sigil of inverted harmony during live public liturgy.
Among the detainees, four were confirmed veterans of the Lower Jangsong Campaign. Although spared execution, they were disavowed by their former command officers, stripped of honors, and placed in spiritual isolation under Umbral supervision. Each was relocated to the lower archives of the Outer Forum, where they now live under torchlight and full doctrinal silence. The remaining detainees, including students, printers, and shrine acolytes, were sentenced to ritual exile. Each was assigned a cart of ash and broken hymnals and forced to march the perimeter of the city barefoot while reciting the penitential verses from the Book of Cleansing Wind.
All banners were taken to the western square and displayed from scaffold frames before being burned at midnight to the rhythm of the Reversal Cadence. Their ashes were mixed with iron filings and dispersed along the banks of the frozen river to symbolize the burial of false doctrine beneath the current of sacred memory. The High Priestess issued a formal statement the following morning, declaring, “Let Riddersborg learn what all cities must: The Path remembers. The Host watches. Justice does not retreat, no matter the terrain.”
The War League later released a clarification emphasizing that the Lotos-Class UAV had operated solely in an unarmed support role and reaffirmed its respect for Temple jurisdiction in matters of spiritual enforcement. Nevertheless, multiple internal correspondents noted the timing and proximity of the deployment as evidence of a growing unease within the Senate and among War League leadership regarding the unchecked authority of cultic enforcement. No additional unrest was reported. Riddersborg remains under curfew, and all future processions have been suspended pending review by the Temple's regional security directorate.
Odiferia (51/2/51 and 57/2/51 PSSC)
On the evening of 51 / 2 / 51 PSSC, coordinated rumors spread through the low-lying causeway districts of Odiferia alleging that sacred relics and ritual wares circulating in the central marketplace were contaminated with heretical incantations recovered from within the Operation Somniant anomaly zone. As a crowd began to form near the northeast entrance to the plaza, Temple observers recorded chants calling for the expulsion of relief vendors and the destruction of shrine kiosks thought to be under spiritual suspicion. The gathering was poised to erupt into a full riot targeting the marketplace—home to one of the few remaining relic distribution points still operating under high-security conditions.
At 19:42, as the crowd began pushing toward the outer perimeter, a registered Ordo of armed Alperkin civilian auxiliaries, operating under contract with the Baratar Corporation, mobilized from defensive positions inside the plaza. Numbering thirty-two active members, the Ordo was composed primarily of marshland homesteaders and yurtborn veterans of the Southern Lake Morovian Campaign. Armed with Doryon 7.62×39mm rifles, Orontes 12-Gauge semi-automatic shotguns, and Phokion 10mm sidearms, the Ordo took control of all four causeway bridges and initiated controlled dispersal maneuvers under pre-approved Baratar security protocol. The militia issued no warnings, and crowd leaders were incapacitated with non-lethal ammunition and restrained using combat-grade netting.
By 20:10, the plaza had been fully secured. The riot was averted with no shots fired and no damage reported to sacred infrastructure or civilian vendors. War League liaisons stationed in Odiferia issued immediate commendations to the Ordo’s field captain and security chief, and Reformed Temple authorities issued a joint commendation with the Circle of Saint Mothers praising the Ordo’s “decisive and spiritually aligned restraint.” The Council of Kings issued a formal recognition of the Ordo’s role, citing their actions as evidence of “civilian fidelity in the shadow of the Host Spirit.”
Following the intervention, Temple observers handed over footage and witness reports to Alperkin spiritual officials. Twelve individuals identified as riot organizers were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Saint Mothers under Article X authority. On 52 / 2 / 51 PSSC, they were sentenced to ritual mudfasting, a punishment involving confinement in standing pits dug into the shallow marshes bordering the Odiferian salt groves. The offenders were submerged chest-deep in mud, where they remained for four consecutive days without food, communication, or bedding. Each was monitored by silent wardens and permitted to speak only if reciting from the approved Catechism of Saline.
The marketplace resumed operation under heightened voluntary security. Vendors hung twine bracelets bearing the Ordo’s crest—an etched iron marsh rose—as a gesture of thanks and alignment.
No further disturbances were recorded in Odiferia until 57 / 2 / 51 PSSC, when a daring pre-dawn raid targeted the shrine complex on the northern edge of the wetlands. A small but well-organized group of assailants infiltrated the scroll vault through the canal foundation and escaped with a cache of forbidden scrolls cataloging rituals predating the Stripping Path’s reformation—materials believed to have been long sealed.
Spiritual authorities declared an immediate breach. The local Baratar Ordo launched a pursuit operation without consultation. The escapees were tracked into the inner swamp, cornered along the eastern reed trails, and executed on sight. Their bodies were not recovered. The action was praised by both the Temple and the War League as an example of “non-negotiable resolve.” A report released the following day stated that “no trials were necessary when the truth was already written in fire.”
That evening, Alperkin investigators under the authority of the Saint Mothers detained an additional seventeen individuals believed to have been involved in the planning or concealment of the raid. After a two-day tribunal held in a high marsh encampment, nine were sentenced to grove deprivation: stripped of garments, rights, and names, they were exiled into the salt groves without tools or contact, their fate left to the will of the wetland. The remainder were sentenced to shatter fasting—confined in reed-wrapped suspension cages above the tide channels, where their only water came from the marsh’s saltiest trickle and their food was limited to dry stalkmeal cakes until confession.
No cultic involvement was recorded in the response. The Saint Mothers issued a statement affirming Odiferia’s autonomy under Article X of the Bassaridian Constitution of 50.43 PSSC.
No further attempts to breach the shrine vaults have been reported. Surveillance has since been transferred entirely to Alperkin control. The Baratar Ordo remains on indefinite assignment in Odiferia.
Skýrophos (56 / 2 / 51 PSSC)
At 07:12 local time, violent unrest erupted along the waterfront of Skýrophos, capital of New South Jangsong. A crowd of nearly four hundred protesters surged into the harbor district, shouting chants denouncing the traditional Stripping Path and calling for the restoration of “sacred piracy” in defiance of recent cultic reforms. Shrine pavilions were overturned, minor relics desecrated, and smoke flares thrown into two anchored barges. Eyewitnesses described ritual-like invocations performed by masked agitators along the bulkhead, invoking chants drawn from forbidden nautical manuscripts. Several banners were raised bearing the sigil of the rogue privateer Captain Serik.
The riot occurred just four days after Serik’s dramatic capture near the Skýrophos coast by Mylecian privateer Nefra Sekeri during the final stages of Operation Ghäzle Häpi. Sekeri, a devout follower of the traditional Stripping Path, had become a national symbol of cultic loyalty and spiritual integrity. Serik’s seizure and the silent procession of his ship into Skýrophos under Temple escort ignited sectarian tensions within the harbor’s semi-autonomous maritime communities, many of whom viewed the traditional Path as an authoritarian regression. Cult officials later identified the riot as a coordinated attempt to destabilize Temple control over New South Jangsong's port system and to protest the legitimacy of Leviathan interventions along the eastern coast.
In response, Temple authorities activated a mid-level Leviathan enforcement protocol. One Kleisthenes of the Azure Sentinel Sect, previously stationed in Skýrophos as part of coastal safeguarding duties, led the initial response. The Kleisthenes was joined by one Dodekas of the Order of Aurora Mystica, who implemented ritual inversion measures to counteract the forbidden rites performed along the quay. A Hetairos of the Guild of Golden Shadows oversaw the rapid documentation of financial trail links to cultic insurgency, seizing ledgers from three harbor accounting houses within the first hour of deployment.
At 10:30, a Manipulus of the New South Jangsong Division of the War League was deployed to secure the municipal harbor entrances and enforce traffic lockdown along the canal checkpoints. The War League publicly stated that the deployment was authorized under standing regional emergency statutes and was conducted in full cooperation with cultic command. Nevertheless, the presence of uniformed soldiers during a spiritually charged Leviathan response was noted by foreign observers as a sign of increased militarization of sacred enforcement zones.
By 16:00, the harbor was under control. Twenty-nine suspects were detained, including three former crew members of Serik’s outer supply flotilla. Eight individuals identified as ceremonial leaders of the riot were sentenced to sea-bridled immolation: each was bound to a floating frame of driftwood and pitch-soaked rope, towed to the harbor’s midline, and set alight during evening tide. Their bodies were left adrift until the morning, when they were recovered and submerged in the sediment trench beneath the Temple’s tidegate. Ten others were sentenced to ritual net-walking, forced to crawl the full length of the dockfront over reclaimed ballast nets lined with salt-glass shards, reciting penitential verses from the Chronicle of Binding Wind between each breath.
As night fell, Dodekas-led cultic personnel erected a temporary shrine on the harbor wall using charred fragments from the riot itself. A slab of iron-stamped driftwood bearing Serik’s inverted sigil was nailed above the gatehouse with the inscription:
The following morning, the High Priestess issued a formal communique to the Council of Kings, stating that the events in Skýrophos demonstrated the necessity of continued Leviathan operations. Control over the harbor was reaffirmed, and all outbound traffic now required dual authorization from the Azure Sentinel and the local War League watchpost.
Norsolyra (57 / 2 / 51 PSSC)
At 04:48 local time, coordinated uprisings erupted across the marshlands and wisp-rice farming villages surrounding Norsolyra, a sacred agrarian district renowned for its cultivation of wisp-rice—rice crops fertilized with the droppings and biological waste of parasitic Morovian wisps. The insurgents, claiming spiritual allegiance to a fringe doctrine, stormed granaries, shrines, and ritual sluice channels, denouncing the Reformed Temple’s authority over the wisp-rice cycle and accusing local cult stewards of “welcoming demonic effluence as sacred blessing.” Three barge-hulls carrying unprocessed wisp-fertilized husks were overturned and set ablaze.
Temple authorities declared a full Leviathan emergency at dawn. A Kleisthenes of the Mystery of the Verdant Embrace, deployed from Sylvapolis, was placed in command of operations. The cult’s intimate custodianship over marsh-based fertility rites made it the logical choice for immediate response. One Dodekas of the Order of Aurora Mystica was dispatched to mitigate the spiritual panic triggered by the unbinding of stored Morovian wisp extract in two supply cisterns, while a Lampade of the Order of the Umbral Oracle was tasked with identifying and dismantling subversive prayer cycles circulating among regional workers. No War League combat personnel were mobilized; however, the New South Jangsong Division authorized observational escorts to support logistics and relay communication through specific corridors.
Twelve river villages were sealed with ritual marker-rope and sulfur fog traps. Travel along the irrigation causeways was suspended. Forty-two individuals were detained in the initial sweep. Among them, eleven were identified through grain track ledgers and shrine testimonial logs as having deliberately disrupted the controlled wisp-fertilization schedule by forcibly unmooring colonies into unregulated water channels. These eleven were condemned to light extinction—a sentence carried out in the northern flooded terraces at twilight. Bound at the knees and shoulders with algae-twined cord, they were submerged in shallow basins where fertilized husks had just been planted. After one hour, the marsh was drained. The exposed bodies were coated with processed Morovian residue, sealed in reed-wrapped bundles, and hung beneath the granary eaves for three days before incineration.
The remaining detainees—many of them stewards, apprentices, and canal apprentices—were subjected to ritual labor reversal. For five days, they were made to carry sacks of defiled wisp rice through the paddies while chanting reverse-liturgies. At every field they passed, they were required to bow to each seedling in apology. At the end of the route, they were stripped and laid prone in the mud, while a ring of local elders poured husk slurry and Morovian ash over their backs until they ceased struggling. Each was branded behind the ear with the broken crescent and exiled indefinitely from harvest rites.
All wisp-fertilization systems were placed under cult martial supervision. The leadership of the Norsolyrian Wisp Rice Farmers Association was dissolved by decree of the High Priestess and replaced with a sanctified provisioning office staffed entirely by initiates of the Mystery of the Verdant Embrace. The spawning pools were repopulated with properly tagged parasitic wisps retrieved from holding reserves.
Three days later, dense white mist settled over the eastern terraces. No birds returned for a week. In response, the Order of Aurora Mystica held three nights of unlit processions, allowing the marshes to “relearn the rhythm of devotion in darkness.”
Vaeringheim (59 / 2 / 51 PSSC)
In the early hours of 59 / 2 / 51 PSSC, operatives of the Temple of Aprobelle intercepted the rapid emergence of a rumor circulating through market circuits, private devotional halls, and canalway taverns in Vaeringheim. The rumor warned that at dawn, a demonic figure bearing the shadow of the Somniant Eidolan would appear before the Temple of Thalassa—a claim that, within minutes of circulation, began to trigger bursts of fear in high-traffic pilgrimage corridors.
Drawing from real-time outputs of the Watchful Priestesses and cross-flagged by the Priestesses of Discourse, Temple analysts issued a Level VI suppression order under the Silencing Priestesses bulletin protocol. Surveillance agents operating under cover within the plaza’s southern galleries—previously embedded during Leviathan Phase I—confirmed no visual anomalies near the Temple grounds. However, population mood signatures logged by the Priestesses of the Mirror indicated a measurable uptick in fear-associated behaviors, particularly among shrine servants and older pilgrims familiar with Eidolan lore.
At 05:09, a Resolute Priestess Anomaly Response Team was dispatched to the Thalassa district from a nearby substation. Simultaneously, a coordinated sweep was launched across public squares, temple markets, and canalway entrances. Mobile bulletin units disseminated revised chants and a pre-dawn litany, assuring worshipers of restored sanctity while subtly discrediting the notion of recurrence. Using ritual placards inscribed with the red triangle of behavioral falsification, the operatives moved crowd clusters into rerouted prayer stations and quietly extracted suspected disseminators of the false rumors.
By 06:00, the area surrounding the Temple of Thalassa had been sealed and cleared without violence. War League officials from the Vaeringheim Division, already present in the capital as part of extended Leviathan staging, were briefed in a closed session and authorized auxiliary patrols around nearby causeways. Public calm was restored within the hour.
Although no Eidolan or Eidolan-like entity was detected, Temple authorities cited the incident as proof of residual psychological volatility stemming from the events of Operation Somniant. Three individuals were arrested under suspicion of coordinating the rumor’s spread. Their names were redacted under confidentiality guidelines. Their fate remains undisclosed.
No additional disturbances were recorded in Vaeringheim. Priestesses of the Veil confirmed that daily loyalty signatures in the district returned to baseline by 61 / 2 / 51.
Pyralis (59 / 2 / 51 PSSC)
On 59 / 2 / 51 PSSC, the city of Pyralis became the focal point of a historic religious event during the annual Azorion Festival, as Pyros, Divine of Fire, Passion, and Creativity, manifested bodily among celebrants for the first time in generations. The appearance, which coincided with synchronized fireworks under Host Star Azos, was immediately recognized by authorities as the most significant divine manifestation in modern Bassaridian history, affirming the tenets of the Reformed Stripping Path and reshaping inter-cult relations across the nation.
Pyros appeared during the apex of the festivities, stepping barefoot from the volcanic arc near the Perpetual Flame Sanctuary clad in scorched armor and a woolen, ember-threaded cloak. He bore a traditional Alperkin spear and moved alone through the torchlit avenues. Described as physically mortal yet unmistakably divine, he was recognized instantly by cult officials and lay observers alike. Where he walked, torches sparked anew, steam hissed from the stones, and the scent of myrrh filled the air. His demeanor was celebratory and wild; he joined fire-dancers in the procession, laughed with elders, and shared wine and roasted fruit with children and artisans.
Eyewitnesses recorded at least three miracles: the rapid rekindling of a fire altar drenched in rain, the healing of a pilgrim’s paralyzed leg, and the spontaneous appearance of sacred symbols on a cliff face beyond the southern baths. During the celebration, Pyros was observed engaging in direct conversation with high-ranking cult officials as well as with unaffiliated citizens including vendors, performers, and street musicians. On several occasions, he was also seen fraternizing with local women in the gardens and cloisters of the upper district. None of the individuals with whom he interacted have made public statements, and Temple authorities declined to release their names. Notably, Pyros readily allowed himself to be photographed by revelers and shrine recorders; numerous verified images have since circulated widely, depicting the divine figure laughing, embracing celebrants, and walking barefoot across scorched cobblestones.
The manifestation coincided with the births of three sets of twins across different quarters of Pyralis and with glowing spiral glyphs appearing on the volcanic cliffs above the city. Initially feared to signify demonic intrusion, the symbols were rapidly embraced as marks of divine renewal. The convergence of signs led many local theologians to assert that the appearance of Pyros may have indirectly signaled the presence of the Host Spirit itself, though Temple Authorities refrained from issuing formal affirmation. As the husband of Thalassa (planet), Lady Divine of the Sea and War and Empress of the Divines, Pyros' appearance was further interpreted by many as a moment of cosmic alignment, reaffirming divine unity at a time of increasing spiritual disarray.
Cult leaders have formally inscribed the event into the National Archive as the first verified physical appearance of a planetary divine in the modern era. Pyros’ manifestation—marked by its intimacy, revelry, and wonder—further solidified public support for the Reformed Stripping Path, especially amid the spiritual turbulence addressed by Operation Leviathan.
Nevertheless, controversy followed. A vocal minority of critics, including splinter sects and rogue philosophers, openly questioned the authenticity of the manifestation. Some posited that the figure seen in Pyralis was not Pyros at all, but a conjured imitation—an illusion generated by the lingering energies of the Somniant Eidolan. These dissenters argued that the vivid miracles and charismatic presence bore the hallmarks of Eidolic projection, and that the ecstatic fervor of the crowd resembled previous episodes of Eidolan-induced mass hysteria. In the most severe version of the claim, certain fringe polemicists went so far as to suggest that the High Priestess herself had been corrupted by the Somniant and that the entire manifestation was a staged deception intended to reassert Temple authority.
Temple authorities dismissed these accusations as "fantasies of fear and blasphemy." The High Priestess issued a brief statement reaffirming the divine reality of the event and condemning what she called "traitorous distortions of sacred truth." However, her remarks did little to quell speculation in certain enclaves. Reverie Nebulous, the cult of Nephele, Lady Divine of Clouds and Dreams, issued a formal rebuke, characterizing the spectacle as a monopolization of divinity that undermined spiritual pluralism.
Despite such objections, public consensus remained firmly aligned with the Temple's position. Across Bassaridia Vaeringheim, spontaneous hymns, flame processions, and mural dedications surged in Pyros' honor. His image—now immortalized in dozens of verified photographs—was emblazoned on votive plaques, ceremonial fabrics, and even state banners.
Thyrea (61 / 2 / 51 PSSC)
On 61 / 2 / 51 PSSC, in the lakeside city of Thyrea, a sacred site dedicated to Agnis, Lady Divine of the Underworld, was desecrated under circumstances that Temple officials and regional leaders described as “both grievous and politically volatile.” Before dawn, profane graffiti appeared across the outer sanctums of the Kedemonian Hall of Agnis, including defacements of its ceremonial steps, black-pitch damage to the statue of the goddess at the Nyxian Hollow entrance, and the firebombing of one of the temple’s silver-clad incense towers. Ritual scrolls were found scattered and burned along the edge of the Agnian River, and emblems of the Helaen Kyklos, Agnis’ devoted cult, were defaced or incinerated.
Evidence recovered at the scene—including traces of copper salts, scorched bark, and melted votive ampoules bearing the sigil of Ignis Aeternum—led investigators to conclude that the attack had been carried out by extremists inspired by the recent, widely acknowledged manifestation of Pyros, the Divine of Fire, Passion, and Creativity, and husband of the Empress of the Gods. Witness testimony suggested that a small, organized band of zealots—emboldened by Pyros' unprecedented physical appearance during the Azorion Festival in Pyralis—had acted on their conviction that Agnis’ continued veneration represented a lingering impurity in the spiritual fabric of the nation.
Though no official statements were issued by Ignis Aeternum, internal Temple reports confirmed that the perpetrators had made explicit references to Pyros' divine authority as justification for their actions. They claimed that fire had “revealed its favor” through the god’s manifestation and that it was their duty to enact purification where sanctioned cults had failed.
Temple authorities categorically condemned the desecration, stressing that Pyros' teachings—while emphasizing transformation, passion, and renewal—did not sanction extrajudicial violence or the destruction of sacred sites, even those outside the Reformed Path. The Azure Sentinel Sect, cultic defenders of Thalassa, against whom Agnis once rebelled, dispatched a Dodekas to investigate and administer justice under the authority of Operation Leviathan. While Agnis remained an outlawed deity in most of Bassaridia Vaeringheim, Temple officials emphasized that her sanctuaries, when legally sanctioned by municipal authority, were still protected under national cultural heritage provisions.
Four perpetrators were apprehended in connection with the attack. All were confirmed to be practicing members of Ignis Aeternum, and two had previously attended rites at the Temple of Pyros in Pyralis. They were tried under Leviathan protocol by the Azure Sentinel Dodekas in full ceremonial dress. The sentence: ritual rebuke and eternal interdiction from all Reformed Stripping Path temples and shrines. The offenders were stripped of their ceremonial robes, branded on the sternum with the inverted sigil of the Flamebearer, and marched into a nearby marsh, where they were fitted with copper bridle masks and buried waist-deep in peat. There, they remained for one day and night without food or water, under the watch of three silent wardens from the Sentinel Sect.
While many within Thyrea, including the Helaen Kyklos, praised the Azure Sentinel’s swift intervention, the incident sparked wider political tensions. Some accused Temple authorities of fostering an atmosphere of permissiveness that emboldened militant zealotry, particularly following the divine emergence of Pyros. Conspiracy theorists alleged that the High Priestess had either turned a blind eye to, or secretly encouraged, selective desecrations of outlawed shrines in the name of consolidating spiritual power. Others went further, claiming the attack had been carried out by paid agents to discredit Agnis' dwindling followers. All such claims were strenuously denied by the Temple, the War League, and the Council of Kings.
In a statement issued shortly after the verdict, the High Priestess confirmed that Operation Leviathan would begin a phased drawdown, citing the stabilization of national spiritual order. However, she clarified that Leviathan authority would remain active and could be “reactivated without hesitation in the event of any future critical offense against the divine covenant.”
While Pyros’ teachings continued to inspire transformation and bold action across the Reformed Path, his appearance—and the ideological fervor it catalyzed—was now indelibly linked to one of the most symbolically potent incidents of Operation Leviathan’s latter days. As one historian wrote, “The fire that forged may also tempt those who would wield it without wisdom.”
Final Assessment
Operation Leviathan is widely recognized as the most far-reaching internal security initiative in the modern history of Bassaridia Vaeringheim. Originally conceived in the aftermath of Operation Somniant as a means of reasserting spiritual cohesion and eliminating subversive influences, the campaign rapidly expanded in scope and intensity, encompassing coordinated cultic crackdowns, public purifications, executions, mass detainments, and the reassertion of ritual authority across every regional division of the nation. Under Leviathan Protocol, the Reformed Stripping Path exercised its most extensive disciplinary mandate in recent memory, fusing military logistics with spiritual justice and redefining the boundaries of internal order in a society still reeling from Eidolic exposure.
The campaign’s earliest phases were marked by dramatic interventions in cities such as Thermosalem, Odiferia, and Pelagia, where coordinated acts of heresy, desecration, and incitement were met with uncompromising reprisals. Riot suppression, sacred-site restoration, and the use of metaphysical punishment rituals were standardized. Field units of the Reformed Stripping Path—including operatives from the Mystery of the Verdant Embrace, the Order of the Umbral Oracle, and Temple Alabaster—acted in conjunction with the Bassaridian War League, deploying Manipuli to reinforce control over volatile regions and assist in the ritual neutralization of cultic threats.
The campaign achieved early success in preventing the resurgence of Eidolic phenomena and in dismantling domestic insurgent networks suspected of aiding in the emergence of the Somniant Eidolan. Leviathan’s most severe interventions—including mass executions in Thermosalem and ritual drownings in Pelagia—proved controversial abroad but were widely supported internally, particularly as public sentiment aligned with the perception that rebellion risked not only civil unrest but metaphysical catastrophe.
As the operation progressed, however, its psychological and moral costs became increasingly difficult to ignore. Survivors, witnesses, and participants alike were forced to grapple with the Host Spirit’s apparent silence—its refusal to intervene, bless, or condemn, even as violence and coercion were enacted in its name. For many, this silence was not merely divine absence, but a form of divine ambiguity. The High Priestess of Vaeringheim herself acknowledged as much in a now-famous declaration:
“The Host Spirit, by its nature, loves equal to its hatred. It creates equal to its destruction. It is as good as it was evil, benevolent as it is wrathful. The Host Spirit loves, but for all its love it also hates. For all it seeks to create, it also seeks to destroy.”
From these contradictions, a new spiritual movement began to take shape: Bassaridian Stoicism. Unlike the ecstatically charged cults of the Reformed Stripping Path, Bassaridian Stoics rejected mysticism, revelation, and ritual magic as unstable and dangerous conduits for divine truth. Instead, they advocated for a life grounded in moral clarity, internal discipline, and silent reverence—a path that honored the gods not through incantation or vision, but through right conduct and personal fortitude in the face of metaphysical chaos.
Among the earliest and most prominent proponents of this emerging philosophy was Commander Zinar Tium, a retired officer of the Bassaridian War League who had led early interventions in the Odiferian Wetlands during the first phase of Operation Somniant. Witnessing the horrors of Eidolic emergence and the subsequent descent into ritualized brutality under Leviathan, Tium began to speak publicly—then publish anonymously—on the moral implications of obedience and the necessity of spiritual detachment. His writings emphasized the ancient Wisdom of Silenus, asserting that to live well in a cosmos ruled by a contradictory divine was itself a sacred act. He called for quiet living, honest speech, and a refusal to become an instrument of fear.
Though initially dismissed by temple authorities as reactionary, Tium’s views quickly found resonance among War League veterans, disillusioned cult operatives, and common citizens wearied by the endless cycle of punishment and purification. Columns of Stoic practitioners began to appear across the interior provinces, gathering not for rites but for silence—sitting in prayer beside empty altars, cleaning desecrated spaces without words, and burying the dead without chant. While they disavowed the term “cult,” several Columns adopted practices and structural hierarchies resembling those of formal Mysteries, leading to a degree of internal debate within the Temple over their classification.
The appearance of Pyros, the Divine of Fire, during the Azorion Festival in Pyralis on 59 / 2 / 51 PSSC was interpreted by many as a divine endorsement of Leviathan’s legitimacy. But for the Stoics, it further reinforced the central paradox: that a god could bring both healing and destruction, laughter and silence, light and fear—all within the same breath.
The desecration of shrines to the exiled goddess Agnis in Thyrea on 61 / 2 / 51 PSSC served as a symbolic conclusion to the main phase of Operation Leviathan. Although Agnis is no longer part of the Reformed Bassarid pantheon, the act of defilement prompted the implementation of Leviathan protocol by operatives of the Azure Sentinel Sect, signaling that the reach of the operation extended even to internal violations among Reformed cults themselves. This event marked the official beginning of the campaign’s drawdown, with High Priestess directives reclassifying Leviathan operations from “total intervention” to “situational enforcement.”
Nevertheless, Leviathan protocols remained active in a moderated capacity. On 6 / 3 / 51 PSSC, celebrations of Chag Tvuah in Sylvapolis were marred by rioters who defaced ancient groves and irrigation systems, disrupting holy harvest rites and forcing renewed ritual purifications. In Thyrea, unrest continued: a coordinated arson attack—allegedly carried out using forbidden incantations—ravaged temple grounds, prompting the continued enforcement of Leviathan doctrine.
On 21 / 3 / 51 PSSC, officials in Somniumpolis reported the discovery of a child found deep in the sewer system beneath the city's northern district. The child, gaunt and mud-covered, was reportedly speaking in reversed dialectic patterns resembling corrupted catechism fragments. Temple authorities immediately declared the incident a matter of metaphysical significance and enacted mid-level Leviathan containment measures. The child was sedated and placed under spiritual quarantine in the lower vaults of Temple Alabaster, where it remained under continuous psychic observation and ritual cleansing. While no formal statement was released, leaked reports suggested that the child’s words—when reversed—may have included phrases linked to Eidolic doctrine, prompting further audits of local households and sewer access points. Though the High Priestess issued a statement downplaying any direct link to residual Eidolic presence, she reaffirmed that “the price of spiritual vulnerability remains high, and vigilance is our only shield.”
Though no longer deployed at the height of its intensity, Operation Leviathan continued to serve as the principal framework for spiritual oversight and cultic discipline in Bassaridia Vaeringheim. It succeeded in halting the spread of Eidolic panic, suppressing rebellion, reaffirming doctrinal hierarchy, and consolidating cultic control across a fragmented religious landscape. Its legacy, however, remained contested. Critics pointed to its brutality, its disregard for judicial procedure, and its centralization of authority. Proponents, by contrast, argued that Leviathan averted a second metaphysical collapse and restored the sanctity of the Host Spirit’s covenant.
Ultimately, Operation Leviathan is likely to be remembered as a watershed moment in the theological, political, and philosophical realignment of Bassaridia Vaeringheim—a campaign that recalibrated the nation’s tolerance for dissent, elevated ritual compliance to the highest tier of civil responsibility, and inadvertently gave rise to one of the most consequential spiritual movements of the modern age.
