Empire of Anvegad
May 1907

[b]Palace of the Sovereigns[/b]

Chairman Volkov looked at the wall of timepieces, letting the methodical tick-tick of the clockwork clocks roll over him as he sat at his desk, awaiting an answer.

"No reply from Murenheldt or Luckland. Not even a official letter of refusal." Noted the Minister of War, idly tapping a cigarette on his case. Volkov quietly nodded in reply. Curious how the steps leading to war were so anticlimatic, but he knew better than to expect a dramatic beginning to a war likely to have far reaching consequences for the world and for Anvegad.

Pulling a folder out of his desk, Volkov looked over the written declaration of war with Murenheldt one last time. Unless Murenheldt came with a declaration of surrender or desire to mediate a negotiated annexation in recognition of Anvegad's claims to their lands in reclamation of the Iron Empire within the week, there would be a formal state of war between Anvegad and Murenheldt. The legalease and arcane symbology of words rendered it in many other ways, but the base meaning ultimately boiled down to that. Another similar document was addressed similarly to Luckland. A third was held in reserve for Deltora, but he stayed his hand on that one to handle it later. There were more immediate issues to face first, and the political situation warranted some patience on the matter.

Watching the clock chime nine o clock, Volkov pulled out a pen and wrote his signature on the indicated lines and applied the necessary wax stamped seals of the Sovereigns and Anvegad here and there. The formal public announcement and cerimony would come in a few days, but the closed-letter orders for the military to begin final preparations and battlegroup movements to the nation's borders would be issued immediately.

So the dice was cast.

* * * * * *

[img]http://greatwarproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/NovoGeorge3.jpg[/img]

[b]Northern Anvegad
Staging Point Landis[/b]

"WHO ARE WE?"

[b]"OZO'S ARTILLERY!"[/b]

"WHO DO WE SERVE?

[b]"WE SERVE THE GUNS!"[/b]

"WHAT IS OUR DUTY?

[b]"TO SERVE THE GUNS!"[/b]

"WHAT IS OUR OATH?"

[b]"TO SERVE OUR IRONCAST LORD UNTO DEATH! OZO! OZO! OZO!"[/b]

Colonel Tannen frowned slightly at the display of the artillerists hauling their guns onto flatbed cars destined for the Murenheldt border. The veterans of Prince Ozo's Artillery hadn't been the same since the war in Soroya, returning home in shame after destroying their guns to keep them out of the hands of the enemy. Many of the artillery pieces that had gone abroad were regimental heirlooms, and the Tyran gunners descended from the first feudal lord to forge Anvegad artillery took such things seriously, whether they were avatar-worshippers or not.

Now equipped with new guns, and rumored to be first in line for even heavier ordinance in production and soon to be completed, Tannen seriously pitied whoever was next to fall under the siege guns of Prince Ozo's Artillery as he turned to his own Emphyran Rifles to begin directing them towards their own northbound train as it steamed into the military station.

A storm was coming. And they would endure where lesser men fell.

* * * * * *

[b]A SURPRISING PROTEST OF WITHDRAWAL FROM THE GAMES[/b]

In a curious incident in Kashkur, Anvegad's closest city to the Deltoran border, the Anvehold national Tennis team was caught attempting to cross the Deltoran border by military pickets of the 44th Kashkur Guards. Despite an official government notice that Anvegad's particpation in the Ekonian Games was regrettably canceled due to the heightened state of tensions between the Imperial Restoration and the Sociatatem, the sports team were not deterred in attempting to participate in the games, even if they had to smuggle themselves across the border to do so.

General Harkevich has ordered several rear-echelon forces to be on the lookout for other overzealous sports teams and groups in an effort to catch them before they cause any border incidents with Deltora.

"Though their courage and desire to serve the Empire is extremely laudable, we cannot risk national assets such as them at this time with war on the horizon. If they are so eager to serve, they are encouraged to do so on the homefront and in support of our Empire in other ways. There will be no shortage of duties for them to fulfill, nor for any of us."