As I mentioned before, I’m mainly just working on my final essay of the year. It’s a very interesting topic to read about (radio broadcasting in Cold War Latin America), but I need to force myself to start writing, otherwise I will have a pretty miserable Friday.
Radio broadcasting in Latin America during the Cold War certainly sounds like an interesting topic. With that said, I wish you the best of luck with your essay (and eventual exam), Novo.
That also goes to everyone else. If y'all have anything coming up or something that you are currently working on, I wish the best of luck to you guys and hope everything turns out well.
I've been doing pretty well so far. Haven't done much in terms of NS lately (I'm kinda going through another burn-out phase), and not much has happened in my personal life outside of the fact that my cat brought her three kittens inside of my house at some point last week (a calico and two orange ones), and that I've celebrated my older brother's birthday (and his girlfriend's birthday) earlier in the week.
Regarding current events in Orson, I'm posting a quick timeline of when exactly all these events occured (prompted by a TG Novo sent me asking for clarification). While I roleplayed them fairly close together, I do envision a significant time gap between everything.
28 February 2022: High Committee slashes Imperial Military budget, calls for a peace treaty to end the war.
7 March 2022: Bangui Government established.
27 March 2022: Meeting between Prime Minister Adrian Javand and Paramount Leader Jerick Pallas.
13 April 2022: Siege of Ravenwood begins.
2 May 2022: Treaty of Federation signed, Federal Union established.
Additionally, the new Federal Union will drop "Empire" from Orson's official name. The country shall be known as the State of Orson (or Orsonian State) until 2030, when this is change to Federation.
Long live the State of Orson! It'll be difficult to try and un-learn the 'Orsonian Empire', which has been such a fixture in the regional imagination for years. Though I suppose 'the Empire', with no qualifications, almost always signifies Cybus in my mind.
I’m doing ok. Stressed over some assignments due on Tuesday, yet I also can’t seem to make myself do them, which is an irritating paradox. I did successfully defend my thesis proposal the other day, so that’s good! I’m going to be exploring H.P Lovecraft from a historical perspective, trying to see the extent to which his views on eugenics and industrialization align with the cultural mainstream of the 1920s-1930s, using his works, letters, and contemporary sources such as the works of eugenicists like Madison Grant and Lothorp Stoddard.
In light of Orsonian mutinies in Kamchatka, and in anticipation of a spring escalation in fighting, Grand Duke Fyodor has evidently changed his stance on Yakutia, and has decided to relieve Far East Army General Yuriy Dallada of his command. Dallada's deputy, a young artillery officer named Konstantin Baryshnikov, has been appointed as a temporary replacement. Baryshnikov, however, has shown a distaste for boardroom politics, and has wasted no time in organizing his forces for a major offensive. Troop movements appear to have spiked across the front, and it appears Lucijan regulars will soon leave the defensive line they had dug into for the brutal Siberian winter.
There is fairly little information available on Baryshnikov. Originally from the city of Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea, he was relatively unknown outside of his native region before the 2020 Vladivostok Crisis, when as a battery commander he successfully repelled an attempted raid on Russky Island. Having caught the eye of his superiors, Baryshnikov was promoted and has since served as an aide-de-camp to General Dallada, frequently traveling across the Far East region to gather intelligence at the front.
Santa Lucija As part of the effort to assist the newly liberalized Tsardom, Torchwood counter-insurgency specialists, propagandists, sociologists and psychologists (to formulate ways to help win over the Lucijan populace to support the Tsar) have been formed into a detachment bound for Santa Lucija, to help identify ways to defeat the Lucijan separatist movement and increase support for the Tsarist regime. This unit is headed by Agent Josef Kohler, a highly trained German-Cybusian counter-insurgency specialist. The unit has already identified several areas the separatists will likely target next after the spring thaw, where ambushes or fortifications could be prepared, and have proposed several ways to increase support for the Tsarist regime: public works programs in areas under Tsarist control (funded via Cybusian investment), the use of the “carrot in addition to the stick”, trying to entice peasants and others in rural areas to support the Tsar by trying to improve their standard of living rather than just the threat of force, and the use of religious appeals, since Russia is primarily Eastern Orthodox. This unit's tactics and products will be passed off to their Lucijan counterparts, so they may take credit. To maintain plausible deniability, a fake cover company has been established; "Eusalov Group Think Tank", with the agents as employees, their “products” (tactics, ideas, proposals, areas considered likely to be targeted, etc) being "sold" to the Lucijan government. The propaganda is being handled by another dummy company; the "Kolchak Artistic Collective" which specializes in "nationalistic art" (propaganda of various forms). The Cybusians have had centuries to refine propaganda to an art form. Furthermore, any imports from the Cybusian Empire or the Free Economic Zone of Rapture will be handled by the “Brandenburger Import-Export Company”, a company with various false contracts to justify said imports to Cybusian firms, which will then be sent to the Tsarist government or military.
The Orson Empire Prime Minister Miriam Camara has proposed a Unified Front be formed, at least temporarily, between the Rachinsky Government and the Tsarists to oust Aturorist Occupiers in the Far East, and further has offered to contribute some of her own forces from the Caucasus & Kazahkstan if such would be requested by such a unified front.
If this political maneuver works, she might be able to simultaneously buy Rachinsky an opening to ship the vast quantities of small arms to his forces at greater rates than previously, position Rachinsky to be seen as a war hero defending Lucija from occupation and make him politically risky for the regime to continue to oppose as well as militarily risky giving him some leverage in negotiations with the tsarists.
Even if it doesn't work, if the Tsarists are the ones to reject it and attack Rachinsky's forces it could be seen as a sign of a weak government for the tsarists to ignore foreign occupiers in favor of shooting at their own brothers and sisters.
The Kāpok (Standard Dialect: "altered" or "changed") are a prominent ethnic group of Orsonians, descended from human ancestors accidentally or deliberately infected by the Blacklight virus millennia ago.
History
The earliest discovered Kāpok remains was a skull dated roughly 19,000 years ago, not long after the Exiles first arrived on Earth. How exactly the first Kāpok emerged has been hotly debated for centuries. A common origin story involves human hunter-gatherers cannibalizing Orsonian corpses and developing systemic Blacklight infections, but this theory is now debunked by biologists and archaeologists as rooted in racist beliefs, solely meant to portray humans as savages. The currently accepted scientific hypothesis is that Aboriginal Australians, alongside prehistoric human populations in New Guinea, contracted Blacklight during inter-species skirmishes and raids. It was common practice to strip the dead of any food, water, or other valuables, exposing humans to blood and bodily fluids containing Blacklight.
Unfortunate victims of infection underwent a rapid, traumatic transformation as their organs were reconstructed and tissues converted into durable biomass. This terrified their family members, who viewed them as possessed by evil spirits, and tribal chiefs typically banished the infected from villages. These early Kāpok formed tribal societies of their own, successfully competing against human competitors due to their newfound strength, agility, and regeneration abilities, while also deterring Orsonian incursions. Paleontologists assert Kāpok attacks contributed to the extinction of Aboriginal Australians and ancient Papuan tribes, ensuring eventual Orsonian dominance over Oceania.
Kāpok, alongside unaltered Orsonians began migrating en masse outside of Oceania in the 10th century AD, following the Srivijayan War, eventually composing a significant majority of Indonesia's population and substantial minorities in the Indian subcontinent, China, and Orsonian Africa. Orsonian lords opted to infect large groups of people in newly-conquered regions, creating a cast of loyalists to control subservient human societies. Humans frequently volunteered to be infected, as it would increase their status and rights within Imperial society. Orsonian blood was highly sought after by kings and nobles across the Old World in this time, viewed as a key ingredient in the elixir of life, a potion capable of granting immortality, eternal youth, and curing all diseases. Some nobles spent entire fortunes or even waged wars to obtain this mystical elixir.
Overview
Kāpok are mostly indistinguishable in appearance compared to humans, not possessing the characteristic grey skin of unaltered Orsonians. Nevertheless, they have increased muscle mass, red or violet eyes, and (rarely) silver hair, alongside the natural abilities of Orsonians. Due to genetic alterations, Kāpok are unable to reproduce with normal humans, but are fully capable of bearing children with Orsonians.
Unlike unaltered Orsonians, Kāpok are incapable of entering a rage state, and tend to experience less anger. Kāpok also retain the human capacity for romantic love, largely absent in unaltered Orsonians due to their psychology.
Excellent work Orson! I find the idea of people lining up to be infected interesting, and I can definitely see Orsonian blood becoming a magical ingredient, albeit a hazardous one (because of the possibility of Blacklight infection).
Despite the domestic political chaos, the Emergency Wartime Committee has resolved to continue its great war against Mamara and Mali, confiscating or nationalizing all resources possible while supplementing its losses with new reinforcements from Sasania. In hopes of bringing their enemies to heel and ensuring a rapid conclusion, High Command has initiated the clandestine Operation Dark Storm- a campaign to use Earth's weather as a strategic weapon.
Dozens of modified cargo and tanker aircraft, operated by Orsonian Strategic Command, have departed from airfields across Africa, flying up towards their maximum service ceiling near the equator. Upon arrival, the aircraft sprayed a chemical aerosol into the atmosphere, emptying their tanks before departing to refuel and perform subsequent flights. Cargo ships, flying false flags of various foreign nations to conceal their actions, have also deployed high-altitude weather balloons, carrying out the same task using on-board tanks.
The aerosol is sulfur dioxide, injected into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight. Weather patterns are expected to divert most of the sulfur over West Africa, where it will severely disrupt local climates for several years. The goal is to cause immense environmental degradation (through rapid cooling, acid rain, and ozone depletion) and collapse agricultural production, leading towards starvation for millions of Malians.
To achieve these effects, STRATCOM is tasked with injecting millions of tons of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere near West Africa over the course of several months.
Given the fact that this will likely drift to impact other countries, including possibly our African colonies, up into Europe, or across the Atlantic to the Americas, we may interpret this as an attack on every nation in the world and thus, us. If we can prove Orsonian involvement, of course, but given our complex network of orbital assets, we’d likely to show to review footage captured over weeks and months and detect patterns.
I'm thinking direct Cybusian involvement may become inevitable at this point. Novo recently asked me in a TG if WW3's length could change as a result of these new canon introductions, and I can't see the EWC restraining itself from using more and more extreme tactics in a desperate bid to win a victory.
Yeah, if we get involved, things will come to a quick and precise end: orbital bombardments and precise and unrelenting missile strikes against communications, control, or supply points, Cybusian fighters sweeping the skies clear and making room for dropships of Evolved shock troops to rapidly slaughter Orsonian troops in key command and control locations (an Earth Orsonian poses, by your own estimation, roughly a 30% threat to an Evolved at most, immersed in a Rage State), while our advanced submarine fleets destroy the Orsonian Navy. Ground combat would be kept to a minimum whenever possible to prevent the deployment of tactical nukes. And of course, any Orsonian satellites or orbital assets would be taken out nearly immediately, followed by orbital strikes to destroy ICBM silos and nuclear submarines.
You're right that indiscriminate atmospheric poisoning would very likely draw further countries into the war, and all but condemn the Bangui government/EWC to an all-fronts invasion by the rest of the world (at least the imperials could rely on neutral parties like the Timmies, Lucijans, and Formosans to varying degrees). From a canon perspective, it seems difficult to reconcile two existing truths about WW3: (a) that the war lasts several more years, until peace is negotiated in 2026, and (b) that the rebels not only prolong the war, but actually survive it as the Third Imperium, only being destroyed once and for all in the 2050s. For both to still happen, I imagine the Ravenwood government would have to exit the war entirely and focus on rebuilding, similar to how the Russian revolutionaries cut their losses during WW1 (Treaty of Brest-Litovsk). This would at least give the Bangui government enough breathing room to collect their forces and consolidate a reactionary bloc with puppet states like the Sassanids. The world would enter a new but no less gruelling phase of the conflict, as cities are liberated one by one and built back from the ashes. As isolated occupation forces would be overcome, the fighting would eventually be contained to Africa. Entente powers like Mamara and West Africa, already strained to breaking point by the war, would gradually wind down their commitments until an effective stalemate had been reached. Intermittent conflict between the Ravenwood and Bangui governments persist until the Treaty of Luanda is eventually signed, formalizing their separation but forecasting the ultimate midcentury showdown which would finally see the Orsonian world reunited.
This seems reasonable, except for one thing; once we start fighting, we would see little to no reason as to why the Bangui government/hardline Imperialists would be permitted to continue existing and wouldn’t stop the war unless we were facing worldwide international pressure. Cybusians are loath to leave things unfinished and we’d view the victory as not only incomplete but also furnishing the enemy with a space to rebuild and considerable propaganda value (“the entire world was against us, quite literally, and we beat them!”), not to mention being something of a betrayal of the ideals of the Federalists in the eyes of the idealists like Henry Whaite.
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