Kain awoke from yet another passionate night to find that Zalga had left a ‘present’ at his doorstep. It was an absolutely massive construct, easily twice as large as two Gerald R. Ford-class American aircraft carriers combined, though not necessarily in terms of length but instead in overall mass. What was even more bizarre about the apparently dwarven construct was that, while it did possess some electrical systems, most of it was made out of what could easily be called a mix of steampunk and runic magic-based technology. The whole ‘supersized deep-sea tank’ was a technological mystery wrapped in a conundrum and sealed within an enigma.

Kain had no fucking idea how any of the stuff inside the machine worked, and as the crew was all dead and buried at sea, he had no one to interrogate in order to find out how to make the thing do anything. He did, however, possess an R&D team that would gladly take the massive machine and reverse engineer it. Hopefully, people like Wakanda would glean some useful information from the nautical big brother of the P-1000 Ratte. Maybe such tech would even find its way onto the battlefield or even into the homes of civilians before it came time to deal with the dwarves.

…

Kain once again sat upon the throne inside the citadel which itself was in Necrograd city, the capital of the Greater Darksol Empire. He was currently using the menu that came with his seat in order to survey the more volatile parts of his domain. The biggest issue his nation now had, aside from bringing the newest addition to the greater empire up to snuff in terms of infrastructure, the standard of living, and employment levels, was the fact that his newest vassal state shared a border with not just the Oriant Co-Prosperity Sphere but also the elven territory.

From the information given to the state by the elves that now called Darksol home, the lands occupied by dwarf and elf where Earth’s continent of Africa would be was the continent of Arcfira. The domain of the elves in that continent was known as the Arcfiran Confederated Tribes and was itself a relatively loose near union between the myriad micronations and independent city-states that called the place home.

Of course, when you hear the terms ‘micronation’ and ‘city-state’ you generally think of smaller communities with total borders no larger than maybe a modern major city. This both was and was not the case for the myriad tribes that made up the ACT. The issue with using the previous two terms to describe the current state of the elvish nation was that, while the individual tribes may well have had limited borders, they all also shared each other’s borders. Technically speaking, each tribe had three sets of borders that it had to abide by.

The first was the closest set, which dictated how much territory each tribe had. Due to all of the tribes save for a handful being nomadic, these borders were… malleable and often ignored. The second was a larger border, in which multiple tribes that were united by family, traditions, and more had. Once again, due to the mostly nomadic nature of the tribes, these borders were constantly shifting and hinging in terms of size and shape, oftentimes overlapping with others.

Finally, there was the third border, which was the boundary that contained the entire nation and all who lived within. This was the only truly concrete border that the ACT had, and within it the tribes and their greater communities moved around freely, never setting foot outside it for fear of banishment. Only a few elves had ventured outside and returned without being kicked out again, and among those who did stay, it was likely that only a handful of them lived more than a year without something terrible happening to them.

The new elvish citizens also let the state and, by proxy, Kain know that the entirety of the ACT was jungle. Apparently, there used to be savannas, and other biomes, but the ‘Great Tree’ saw fit to eliminate those and used its power to make the whole continent (save for the upper portion, which was a mix of coastal and desert areas) a green hell of jungles. Kain was already getting nervous when he learned that the elves preferred guerrilla tactics, but throwing in a nearly complete continent of rapidly growing jungle and violent flora and fauna made him wonder if the eventual campaign against the ACT would be Darksol’s Vietnam.

Regardless, Kain soaked up all the intel he could in hopes that he could get a decent advantage, but he also had to worry about the beastmen to the far east. Yes, there was a non-aggression pact keeping them from moving overtly against Darksol, but all that such a document meant was that no outwardly warlike actions could be taken. There was nothing in that document that forbade subterfuge, assassination, sabotage, and other forms of covert activity, and Kain had a hunch that his new neighbors would make full use of such things against him and his.

But Kain soon had much, much more pressing things to worry about. He had sent his children to school but it was growing late and he had yet to hear back from them. This was beyond odd and beyond abnormal, as his kids always, and I do mean always came to chat immediately after getting home. Hoping that his anxiety was all for nothing, he sent a telepathic message to his kids.

“So, are you not going to say hello to your old man?”

Instead of hearing either Raziel’s or Elizabeth’s voice answering him, he instead heard the words of someone who sounded far more pretentious and far older.

“Abominable King, we have your children.”

“You what?” Kain asked, stunned to near silence by the gall of this idiot.

“If you want them returned alive, you will give the Arcfiran Confederated Tribes all of the lands you currently own as vassals. Refuse, and you will never see them again.”