[img]https://i.imgur.com/luayyBY.jpg[/img]
[center][i]An Avalian Mountain Watch soldier poses for a photo, Talnaberg, circa 1900[/i][/center]




[b]February 10th, 1901, Talnaberg[/b]

Sirens blared as men and women of the Mountain Watch moved into their positions. If there was any place ready for Vaurgemyr’s attack, it was the Mountain Watch of the ancient city of Talnaberg. The great guns of mountain bastions rose like ancient serpents awaken from their slumber. The old redoubts and castle fortifications had been only somewhat modernized, and the city itself at their center still had its long, black, sharply sloped walls surrounding it. 

Since the times before the Imperium, the Mountain Watch had guarded the border against monster and man alike. They were created during the age of the Sky’s King, who had unified and formed Avalia proper through might and magic. Some say the old walls of the city carried ancient wards of magic to repel any would be magical creatures who assaulted it. Of course, their purpose was obvious. 

To hold back the dragons. 

So, as generations had done before, the men and women, Valkyrians and Humans, sharpened their blades and prepared to defend their homeland from enslaving menace. 

Catarina Ossler, the fifty five year old Valkyrian, watched the preparations unfold in front of her. She was the current captain of the Talnaberg Mountain Watch Garrison and the de facto leader of the Mountain Watch. She had already sent her telegrams to the Field Marshal alerting him to the dragon’s slave armies movements. Spreading her old, brown gray wings, she suddenly took the sky, hovering above the main wall. Around her, she saw the domed defenses of the city. In older days, they covered musketeers, archers, and even Royal Cabal mages from attacks from above, while allowing them to fire. Now they held something even more destructive. Modern artillery. The city’s defense themselves were formidable in their own right, but all around her, hill forts and castles readied as well. Some had been modernized, while others…Catarina smirked, others would have battles straight out the tales of old. 

“MOUNTAIN WATCH OF TALNABERG!” she bellowed through a crude megaphone. The men and women halted for a moment and stared. ”Vaurgemyr knows that they will have to break us in this city or lose the war. If we can stand up to them, all of Avalia may be free and the life of the nation may move forward into broad, sunlit mountainside. But if we fail, then the whole country, including humans, including Valkyrians, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister by their perversion of power. For long we have suffered the bellows of pain from below. For long we’ve heard the scraping of their chains below. They will not cast those shackles upon us! We are the Mountain Watch! We are Avalians! WE ARE FREE!” The cries and shouts from the men and women below her would have drowned out any artillery barrage. Catarina turned and faced the north, not bothered by the cold wind mountain wind that blew from it.

They were ready.
---

February 25th, 1901, somewhere in the mountains of Venris

Odert Wallin followed his Vaspen contingent into the dwarven complex. It had been a long and hard journey here, and not without some apprehension. He’d arrived by boat under a different flag, road a train into Venris. From there it had been nothing but a long hike, and Odert began to wonder of he’d packed properly. Regardless, he was here to make sure the two very different nations found common ground. Vaspen was a monarchy through and through in Avalia’s eyes, but they were also an enemy of the Imperium, and a old one at that. Thus Odert was sent as an ambassador for his country men to see if the new republic could work something out with this old monarchy. 

Now before him sat the remnants of that monarchy and her advisers. Particularly of note was the old Vaspen general and several prominent political leaders. He was disappointed that the queen was not there, but nonetheless unsurprised. 

“Gentlemen, I am Odert Wallin, acting ambassador of the Republic of Avalia, entrusted by my nation to ensure we both achieve our respective goals. Those goals are exactly why I am here. With the Imperium tearing itself apart between the two Emperors, our nations find themselves in strange positions. Thus far neither of us have declared any support for either Emperor and we do not seek to. We seek to deal with them as nations of their own right!” Odert paused for a moment, looking down. “It is no secret that my country has no love for the nobility. Adron has made that much obvious, but!” he shot up again, staring with strong conviction. “Vaspen knows tyranny better than anyone in this land. That is something we both share. Long did Avalia stagnate and nearly collapse under the Imperium’s puppets and long has Vaspen suffered likewise under their rule. This is no mere alliance of convenience, no, we share far to much in common then at first glance. So, when the time comes, for when we throw the Imperium out of our lands, shall we recognize this and be friends? Or let the Imperium and its second Dark Age swallow us whole? “