Pre-Campaign Backstory



Emery Cavanaugh is a 20-year-old merchant's son who was sickly all through his childhood on and off. His sister, barely a year younger, has always been his closest friend, and they did everything together. When their father died in the war, it left the two of them and their mother to manage the merchant business. Luckily, Emery has a head for business and crunching numbers. Under his control, the business is thriving.



But when the draft comes to Calorel, he is in no state to take part in the oncoming war. He knows he wouldn't survive the march to battle.



So Solana jumps in. She's smart enough to know that without him, their livelihood will crumble. But without HER...they'd manage. So banking on the fact that she and Emery could be twins, she takes it upon herself to go.



She has a chance of coming back alive. The Draft is a death sentence for Emery.



Cutting her long hair to look like his, she has just enough time to borrow some of his clothes and get dressed before the Officers knock on the door. With her disguise and her brother's reluctant blessing, she successfully took Emery's place and his name to battle.





In-Game Story



Since leaving Alberwind, her home city south of Calorel, Emery (Solana) has been busy. First, she realized Emery's best friend Fabian was also drafted. Her disguise holds, however. She plans to tell him and enlist him in her ruse.



Their squad quickly forms once they make camp, including Fabian, Steffan (only fifteen years old), Tobias, Dirk, and Henry. Each of them hail from Alberwind. They band together to form a squad, and drill for weeks. Drills in the morning, marches all day, then set up camp, sleep, rinse and repeat.



Fabian learns her secret and isn't happy about it, but promises to help her keep it. As their main army marches, they encounter an opposing force in a hastily erected fort, and combat ensues. Between the gunpowder and sound of cannons, it's chaos. Men die, and Emery gets her first taste of real combat and immediately knows that the faces of those she killed will haunt her.



Her line and squad is rushed by cavalrymen, and while they manage to take down one, another is right behind. The Commander, Albrecht Drachen-Valerian III, arrives just in time with their own horsemen, taking the head off the attacking man.



Victory is achieved, and the fort is taken. The Commander addresses the group as a whole, and announces that they will be splitting off into smaller forces.



Taking 3,000 of the 5,000 to assault the capitol, Commander Drachen-Valerian leaves the rest of the army to split into four forces of 500, each assigned to a fortress. Their duty? To keep the forces from providing assistance to other areas.



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Upon arrival, their forces make camp and begin to dig trenches. Emery quickly realizes as time goes on that the commander of their detachment has no plans to simply keep the forces from sallying out. Instead, he's launching an assault.



WIP To be continued.