Following Nora’s discovery that Vaile had gone on a rampage within the capital of the former Trelawney Kingdom, she made her way to the castle at the heart of the city, or rather, what was left of it. She did not expect to meet any survivors, even writing off the infiltrators as dead men. Imagine her surprise when she arrived and was greeted by all sixty men who were supposed to be the ‘slayers of a mad king’.

The sixty men kneeled in supplication and Nora demanded to know what had happened. She had obtained a version of the prior events from the child back in the ruins of Paradiso City, but now she wanted the words of an adult, someone more willing to tell her a more grounded version of events. The descendants of the first infiltrators readily supplied her with their version of Vaile’s Divine Wrath and spared no expense when regarding the five rat-people and their pursuit of their God.

The unexpected revelation that a demon, or rather, an Infernal, had been behind the rising of the masses and the odd coincidences she and the others had experienced on the warpath made Nora wonder what kind of deals Seivalt had made without telling anyone.

Nora looked down from the hill that the ruined castle sat upon and towards the ruined city. Watching the Red Mountain forces enter the city in search of her (and to occupy the place) made her realize that she had been absent too long. She shook her head and walked down the road to meet up with the forces that had so brazenly defied her orders. She would give them a stern talking to, but not too stern. She did realize that, after seeing the state the city was in from the outside, they were likely very worried for her safety.

She had been inside for a long time, relatively speaking, and had not communicated what she was doing inside to anyone. Yeah, going dark shortly after entering a ruined city was a big no no, especially for a Head of State and de facto head of the military.

She would really like to ‘discuss’ things with the Five-Clawed Paw too. They chased off Vaile, who was to be her husband, and since he wasn’t back by now, he was obviously not going to come back unless he knew the coast was clear. Which, since the Rattan Ruling Council had tracked him all the way here before, it wasn’t.

She was going to have to deal with everything by herself. Tearing down a nation is easy but building a new one in its place is damn difficult. Or so Seivalt had told her. She had a lot to do, and the other nations surrounding her new acquisition would be looking for any sign of weakness in order to take what they could from the still-fresh corpse of the old Trelawney Kingdom.

“What a pain…”

…

(Eight Years Later)

Nora sat in a throne fit for a King. She had long since given up on trying to reestablish the former Paradiso City as the capital of her nations. Instead, she and the entire seat of government was now located in the very mountain fortress that the former continental crime syndicate called home.

There were several reasons for the change. Number one among them being that there was no Vaile-damned way she would have her new government in a ruined city that was still in the midst of rebuilding. It would have been impossible to hold any kind of ceremony there, especially in that cramped and shattered husk of a castle. How old was that thing anyways? There was too much dust and too many evil acts had taken place there.

So, instead, she was hosting the ceremony to crown herself the new Queen of the Red Mountain Monarchic Republic. Yes, that is right, a Republic with a Monarch.

She had seen full well what a ‘pure and sacred bloodline’ could do, and decided that, although she was arguably the smartest and most gifted person in the nation, she wanted to follow the plan laid out by Seivalt. She and those that shared her lineage (or whatever lineage that eventually replaced it) would, for the most part, be figureheads. They would only be able to seize control in times of crisis, and those times would be decided upon by the will of the people.

She was still a Monarch, but now she would have the free time needed for her next big project. Or so she believed.

For you see, despite inviting the other nations on the continent to witness her ascension and the dissolution of the Red Mountain Bandits as a criminal organization, no one showed up. Well, that isn’t entirely true. People did show up, just not the people who she invited to come and witness this historic moment.

She swept her gaze across the room quite slowly, taking in every face, and/or lack thereof.

She saw her own subjects sitting beside the forms of monsters and beasts. It seemed that Seivalt had established ties to a great many of Vaile’s Tamed Beings. She saw Infernals begrudgingly sitting beside Celestials, Greenskins and the chimeric Beastmen sizing each other up, the Rattan Ruling Council glaring daggers at the Beastmen and herself. There were others; quite motley crew of bodies, all of them having had some connection to Seivalt in the past.

As the ceremony began, the voices aside from those engaging in Nora’s crowning fell silent.

Thankfully, the ceremony went off without a hitch, and soon after the reception was held. That too was bizarre. Each representative from the various signing members of that ancient treaty brought gifts, of which some brought alcohol. As Nora awoke the next day with a splitting headache, she realized that letting the booze be drunken there and then was definitely not the best idea she ever had. Still, she now had connections to every other major faction that followed Vaile, so what could possibly go wrong?

Five days later and the hangover had worn off. The guests still had not left, and neither had the reception ended. Nora talked it up with those who had served Vaile long before she had been born, and slowly made her way over to Chuu and the other four Rattan rulers. As she approached, they glared at her and Nora almost expected them to either leave in a huff or try and fight her. They did neither of the two and instead decided to try and smooth things over, and thus the attempt at diplomacy began.

Nora opened with a greeting, which the five Rattan women reciprocated. Nora then thanked them for showing up, despite her not being able to send them an invite, to which they replied that it was ‘no big deal’. Slowly, the conversation became more and more cordial and less and less gruff and curt.

Nora then asked if they knew where Vaile was, to which they merely responded with a clicking of their tongues and an expression that was full of disappointment. They did not seem to know where he was either.

The dialogue continued for some time before one of Nora’s subordinates approached her and handed her a letter from another Kingdom. Seeing the stamps of not just the Kingdom that sent the letter but several others as well, Nora decided that she would read it then and there.

As she read the letter, her grip on the parchment tightened and her anger became palpable to all around her, including the representatives.

“What does it say?” Chuu asked in a raspy voice.

Nora took a breath to calm herself down and spoke in a voice that everyone could hear.

“This is a demand from the other nations that I and my nation abandon our devotion towards Vaile or be faced with a ‘Holy War’ to force us to change our faith. If I and my nation don’t convert to the Common Faith, it states, they will bring ‘The Word of the True Pantheon to my nation of heathens and infidels with fire and sword.’ Can you believe them?”

There was silence, then a single chuckle from somewhere in the reception hall started a chain reaction of sinister and ominous laughter from everyone. Nora nodded silently to the guests and they nodded in affirmation back. The other nations controlled by The Races had already been badly hurt by the Tamed Beings in attendance, or at least their people, now they thought they were strong enough together to take on Nora and the Red Mountain Monarchic Republic?

Nora and the other people in the room let a sinister smile cross their faces. It was really too bad that the nations that sent this missive didn’t know that the Treaty still stood. The reception would have to be cut short, unfortunately, for there was a war to begin. Nora’s nation was not alone, it was package deal. If you messed with one member of the Treaty and the other members were allowed to help, you would be messing with all of them.

A few days later, she found a letter on her desk. It was written in a style she had not seen in over eight years, but knew straight away who had sent it. Although, the one who penned the letter as long dead by now. Cautiously, she opened it and read Seivalt's final message to her. As she finished, a smile crossed her face and she muttered a bit under her breath.

"You damn old man of mine... You were still pulling everyone's strings months after you died."

Nora smiled and sat down at her desk and read over the last paragraph of the letter again.

They read; "And so, if this letter finds you, my plans reached their fruition. We have retaken our rightful place and now the wheels of the war I have planned for have started turning. You learned everything I could have taught you, Nora. Now go and make your own way, for my last plan has reached its end. You are now the schemer, you are now the mastermind. Stack the deck, rig the jury, count the cards, and make your move when the time is right. I have faith that you will follow in my footsteps and even go beyond them. You will never know defeat, and the enemies of Red Mountain will fall. You'll go far, kid. - Sincerely, Seivalt."

…

(Eight Years Earlier)

Vaile walked through the Kraescan Forest, completely unfamiliar with the environment and basically just waiting for a Beastman to find him. He had no hope of getting out of this place on his own, and now that he was here, he had to either refuse to uphold his word to the Beastmen here or assist them in whatever objectives they wanted his help with.

Vaile would never let it be known that he was not a man of his word. He said that the next time he came here would be the time he would help them, and he also said that after he was done helping Red Mountain he would come here, so he couldn’t just leave. Even if he could, he couldn’t find anything in this place and assumed he was wandering in circles.

Vaile sat down and decided to take a nap in the shadows that the Kraescan Forest was filled with. He would just close his eyes for a short while and then he would try a bit more to find someone. Before he could drift off, however, a horrible stench hit his nose.

“Smells like… Doe-in-heat Bait?”

Vaile barely got those words out before he heard the sounds of grunting and howling from the other side of the tree he was resting against. This was followed by a wet slopping sound that intensified in speed until both sources of the noises howled at once and the smell of bestial love-juices flooded the air. The heavy huffing kept the slopping sounds from picking up again, but only for a while. Soon after they started up again.

Vaile stood up and yelled at the top of his lungs.

“Damnit! Get a fucking room, you perverts!”

This stopped the noises and the sounds of two creatures running off faded into the dense undergrowth. Vaile started walking again, hoping to get as far away from the stink as he could and hopefully keep himself from being a target of it.