The Dirige Invasion of Darokin

[Nayt]

Nearest the End of the World, a cataclysmic series of events that permanently changed the socio-political climate of the world, the nation of Darokin fell under attack by an outside force, one beyond far beyond the expectations of the living and the dead alike.

The Dirige had long since eyed Darokin with the greatest of suspicions. The country's leadership was amongst the few most wanted Voleur d'Ame, spiritual criminals in the eyes of the Reapers, since the very inception of an organized community under the god of Life and Death. Shenfald, the unattested rule of Darokin, was renowned for his ruthless treatment of souls. Nearly every individual slain by an agent of Darokin is taken in both body and soul and reborn into the most basic of immortal servant, mindless undead that roam at the behest of Shenfald. Their souls are permanently trapped within different mindless husks and maintained to grant such bodies the same power of the living, while adhering to the direct control of Shenfald and his men.

The statutes of Shenfald's dictator directly contrasted with the Dirige, the organization of Reapers founded within the Dead World. Sworn to protect and guide the souls of the dead, Reapers have sought to eliminate Shenfald for years. The only problem is accessibility; the man has and continues to be next to impossible to locate, and the few Reapers that have attempted to track him down have never returned from Darokin. By winter, Dirige administrators--previously lost without guidance of their god--decided to begin an all out war. They took half of their most capable Reapers and hastily organized them into a standing army, nearly seven hundred strong. They charged a single city on the outskirts of Darokin, just before the mountains surrounding the country like fortifications. The city was set at the end of a tactical location, a thin cavern that separates Darokin from the southern city-states like Sythinia. Dirige administrators sought to use this as a choke point against Darokin.

Except there was one inherent difficulty: few Reapers were trained soldiers in life. The first days of battle wound up seeing the most recorded deaths of Reapers in Dirige history. The hordes of Darokin--soldiers of which are mostly revived corpses--were relentless and next to unending, but the first days of battle inevitably occurred within the same days of the End's greatest climate changes, and the mountain pass through which Darokin soldiers poured was sealed by an earthquake driven collapse, effectively putting an end to the constant flow of enemies--temporarily. The rock-slide that sealed the pass is not at all permanent.

In the chaos of the End of the World, the Dirige managed to capture but one city: Dachinst . . .