The beginning of the Genabackis was never stated in the books. It could be anywhere from 1150-1154. It is for sure that in 1154 (towards the end of the year) Surly/Laseen assassinated the Emperor. At which point she fully launched the campaign into Genabackis and restructured the army. One of the most notable things she did was promote Dujek Onearm and demote Whiskeyjack. It is known that the first place they attacked was Genabaris, a port city. Making it their main base of operations.
by 1161 The Malazan army wasn't making anymore headway. The 2nd army was stuck outside Pale. The 5th was in the Blackdog Forest.
In 1163 they defeated the armies at Pale. The High Fist at this point merged all the 2nd and 6th into the 5th army.
Alright, so we could assume that the Army sacked Genabaris towards the end of 1153 and conquered a bit of land until the usurpation at 1154 and that's where we begin?
I was thinking along the lines of going into the opposing army's POV when it's relevant. Like something major happening, like Silanda flying over the swamps and blazing everything down, ya know. Major typa events. Otherwise we stick to the Malazans
They did! Probably as an inside joke to mess with their readers. Definitely something I'd do to get a small laugh. And you know how Erickson is all coy and subtle, so I wouldn't it put it past him.
Okay. So I was thinking/sleeping and I came up with a counter. Instead of playing the entire army we play a single squad that interacts with canon characters (and may even have some in it). We'd reference the big events that we're not apart of, such as campaigns in other parts of the content. One such way w would be through these physical military grapevine. The other is through unofficial gossip.
The only way I thought of to play such a large army would be to go the NRP approach.
True, I like that. So a new squad that's part of the Bridgeburners or nah? Since this is going to be something like an AU, we could just assume our OCs were part of them along with their squad
Honestly it would probably be easier if we were part of the Bridgeburners but in a different squad then the canon cast. Of course they'd still slow up quite often since we'd all be part of the same army and serve the same function and all.
Sorry for the lateness of this response! Yup, I agree with that fully! Sounds a lot better, would make things easier, and I can add some interesting NPCs to the squad