War for Endor, a faction game postmortem

Foreword

Inspired by the Matrix system, I set out to run a grand strategy game involving multiple factions, roleplay, diplomacy and skirmish warfare. Now I’ve never done anything like that before, only a short Matrix skirmish game (never played the system, just ran it), and I thought expanding on it to a multi-faction level game would be a good idea. I was right.

The Introduction

The city of Endor, reigned by the Witch-Queen and built by her demons, is besieged by a horde of Arcadian beast-men. A swarm of rats arrives from the south, demanding an antediluvian artefact supposedly hidden in the city. Death, the Empress of Mankind, sends a Wraith to investigate and ensure the city doesn't fall, by whatever means necessary.

This was the posted introduction to the game itself. Here’s how Babylon’s grand narrative describes the state of the world:

The Sun was swallowed by the Dragon of Chaos before the foundation of the world. The Stars were plucked out of heavens and put in leaden sarcophagi, where their agony powered the neon cities of the Lizards. The Flood rose to judge and destroy them for it, the rats are its last wave. 

Moon was the only heavenly light that remained, set as Steward of the world. It favoured the wilds and diminished humanity, making them live in caves, at the mercy of disease and beasts. 

Touched by their sorry state, Death rose up against the Moon and slew her, coating the celestial body in an ocean of blood and taking its throne for herself. She favoured humanity and gathered them into an empire under herself, all pivoted around the capital: Babylon - Gate of the Gods.

The System

Initially I intended to run it on Matrix (decide on 1 action and present 3 arguments for it), but quickly moved to a more freeform, simplified format.

• You decide on your actions, you can take as many as you want within reason. Define what units are performing what actions.

• You spend tokens which enhance or enable your actions. You can spend more than one per action.

• Every faction gets 1-3 tokens every turn. This was determined by the fiction - how involved was a faction in the city, how many resources they had, what was the state of their logistics, were there any events or reasons for why they’d get more.
  For example, on the second turn the Beastmen razed a couple of oasis villages and looted some resources. This gave them an additional token next turn.

• Each faction has a number of units, each with its particular capacities.

• There were various “important/hero” NPCs, some belonging to factions, others not.

• Updates happened every half a week - on Wednesday and Saturday. Each turn is about this much, both in game and in real life. Game took 7 turns, which was about 3.5 weeks.

Factions

Factions were not equally balanced against each other in raw power. This was intended, it was not a skirmish but a story game. Every faction brought something unique to the table and was as distinct from the others as possible. They also had varying goals depending on what the story demanded of them at the time.

Scarlet Veil (played by Mike from Sheepandsorcery) - the sorcerers of Endor, its pseudo-technocratic government, servants of the Witch, binders of demons led by the Grand Binder. They had control over the small garrison of the Endorian military and the giant horde of its demons. There were three groups of them: Warhounds (warriors with combat demons), Scribes (lore, knowledge) and Watchers (subterfuge, secret police, espionage).

Beastmen (more accurately Arcadia or Arcadian Clans; played by Michael Raston from the matrix game discord) - a nation’s worth of werewolves, led by the Champion chosen by the spirit of Lycaeon, their former king. Long ago Arcadia was attacked by Babylonian Empire (Endor being its part) and Lycaeon, in an act of desperation, swore his people over to the wild gods to preserve their independence.
Arcadians had units of berserkers, hunters and druids who invoked the wild gods, enhancing the power of their troops and calling forth natural disasters.
The Beastmen proper and Druids were played by different players.

Babylonian Emissaries - the inquisitorial emissaries of the empire. They were initially here to help keep the peace, but their goals changed as more information was uncovered.
This was the:

• Wraith Eliezer, an excellent combatant with the authority of Empress of Mankind (a single character).

• Dream Priestess, the priestess of Death, capable of calling forth nightmares from Dreamland and raising the dead. She joined later in the game.

Rats - led by a repentant antediluvian Lizard Fourth, the rats were a kind of divine judgement levelled against anyone who tried to resurrect the antediluvian world. Their devices detected one such interference from Endor. Rats were no bigger than dogs, walked upright, and wore desert-blending clothing.

They had:

• A sandstorm following them constantly.

• Fourth had a large anti-materiel rifle capable of breaking down city walls.

• Huge amounts of regular rats with pneumatic rifles.

• Ministry of Silence - heavy weapons and scouting units with light-guns.

• Ministry of Song - construction and support units.

Cursed People of Arvaq - the embassy of the people who saw themselves as direct descendants of the Lizards. They were capable of raising the dead as their own, and had knowledge of antediluvian tech, which they were using. Over time their involvement in the city increased.

Aurora - a temporary faction created by the maddening Northern Lights being summoned by the Beastman Champion in Turn 4. The Champion gave into the madness, which resulted in the player joining a new faction.

Aurora had a slew of maddened units from other factions, their core ability was corrupting people and spirits alike to their cause.

Turn of Events

These are just highlights. If you want to know more, join the Discord over here and ask for a Spectator role.

Turn 1

• All sides arrive at the field. Ambassadors are sent, lies are exchanged. 

• Rats parlay with the city factions (Sorcerers, Wraith, Arvaq) about the artefact - an antediluvian starlight generator.

• The Wraith gets a letter from his old friend, Hunter. 

• Sorcerers meet up with and recruit the local Fey - Sarah.

Turn 2

• Beastmen prowl in the night, catching undesirables.

• Sorcerers receive a letter from Nahreem the Wise, once a man of substance in Endor who set out to learn about the world beyond.

• Beastmen meet up with a monk living on the outskirts. They’re astounded at his ability to survive against the onslaught of beasts and spirits, and the fact that their gods are silent in his presence. The beastmen fail to recruit him to their cause.

• Arvaqii Ambassador gets a call to the Halls of Armageddon (their refuge in the spirit world).There he learns the reality of the matter - the Witch has the generator, and Kaxhan, T’ngi, is helping her develop it. He believes she can bring about a restoration of the antediluvian world.

Turn 3

• Beastmen raze all the oases and villages around the city. Endor is surrounded by a ring of flame!
  Nahreem, moving to the city with a small entourage of golems, is caught by them, same with a sorcerer’s daughter in one of the villages - Emma.
  While trying to kill the girl, their druid learns his gods are silent around her and will not lay a hand on her, she’s quite similar to the monk in that regard.

• The Wraith’s efforts help calm the populace from trying to escape the city, gaining him and the sorcerers some resources.

• Sorcerers install some trebuchets on the walls, and by trebuchets I mean demons lobbing big spears.

• Arvaqii ambassador and the Grand Binder meet with the Witch to learn she’s in possession of the generator. She believes she’s capable of bringing the ante- and postdiluvian worlds together - mix sorcery and star-tech!

Turn 4

A couple of things happen at the beastmen camp:

• Sorcerers and Arvaq infiltrate the camp with spies.

• One of the beastmen pack alphas - Titus is caught failing to return to camp, he’s instead found with the monk, learning about him and his god.

• Beastman Champion commands the monk slain, Titus begrudgingly steps up to it and cuts his head off.

• Heaven is torn open to blinding light and deafening horns. Third of the Arcadian gods die and many of their soldiers are blinded.

• Sorcerers use the moment - their spies entice the beastmen to attack each other in the chaos.

• The beastman Champion joins in the slaughter, his glee and utter madness summon the Northern Lights.

• The beastman Champion is maddened by the lights! He runs into the wilds with a number of other corrupted beastmen. He becomes the Auroral Champion as the spirit of Lycaeon leaves his body.

Turn 5

• Everyone hides from the maddening lights! Sorcerers have demons churn out smoke to obscure them in the sky.

• Sorcerers send a couple of riders with disease-filled pots to hit the beastmen and rush back; many of them are corrupted by Aurora.

• Rats dig tunnels underneath the land, including a secret entrance into the city!

• Nahreem and Emma are rescued and returned to the city.

• Babylon Emissaries meet up with Emma. They find out she’s a devotee of the Sun much like the monk; she claims it to be some kind of superior deity, uncreated and older than the world, and that it will judge all in the coming Dawn.

Turn 6

• The Dream Priestess as well as the Arcadian Druid set out to find Titus who defected from the beastmen. The Druid gets to him first and sacrifices him to his gods, who in turn name him the new Champion.

• Rats, maddened by the Aurora attack their brethren and collapse some of the tunnels!

• Arcadian druids invoke their gods, turning those cursed by the sorcerer plague into undying, disease-ridden plagueborn.

• Nahreem, thanks to Sorcerer support, builds a troop of golems that can withstand auroral lights and immediately heads out with them to slaughter some beastmen.

• Rats march into Endor en masse, allowed inside by the Sorcerers.

• The Wraith meets up with Death on the Moon, who tells him the Witch wants to use the generator against her. She commands him to ensure her plotting fails and sends Hunter - another Wraith - with him.

A couple more events happen rapidly at the beastmen camp.

• The beastmen decide to use druidic magic to slip into the wilds, leaving the camp behind.

• The maddened Champion of Aurora takes all his forces and strikes the camp, only to find Nahreem and his golems there!

• A battle ensues, in which the beastmen interfere to save Nahreem.

• A duel occurs - two Champions, one of Aurora and one of Lycaeon the beastmen king as the maddened rabble is slaughtered by the golems and Arcadians.

• The Auroral Champion is slain and his defection is avenged! The northern lights fade in the sky!

Turn 7

• Emma prophecies a terrible end for Endor, lest they repent and cast out the demons and antediluvian tech. Her voice is drowned out by people celebrating Nahreem’s victory.

• Shrinemaiden spies arrive in aid of the Emissaries. Hunter helps set them up to kill the Sorcerers rapidly.

• Babylonian Emissaries and Rats band together against Endor! 

• Beastmen declare to join them, but the spirit of their king Lycaeon convinces their Champion to betray the Babylonians instead.

Librarycrawl

The Grand Binder scours the library in search of secrets alongside the Arvaqii ambassador. This occurs over multiple turns and comes to its conclusion in the last turn.

• Grand Binder learns his father - Hadar’s soul is captive in the Library.

• They meet up with the Witch and see the generator.

• Further investigation reveals that Hadar’s soul is imprisoned in the generator. He fears his fate, knowing the antediluvians tortured stars for light. The Grand Binder ignores his fear and instead talks about his grand role in the turning of the age.

• They meet the Changeling, who tells them about a “princess” imprisoned somewhere within the Library. She offers to lead them there.

• The Grand Binder is led by the Changeling into a bright chamber, and meets the woman Raven White, clearly an antediluvian. Newly spirited, he brings her down to the city.

• They emerge, only to see Endor burning.

Battle for Endor

• In the Grand Binder’s absence, Nahreem gathers the sorcerers. He commands them to slay the civilians parading in the city and use their blood to ensure the city’s binding ring isn’t broken and demons don’t turn against them.

• Rats attack, slaughtering people in droves while their hivemind grips the Endorian demons.

• Beastmen arrive, but instead of helping the Rats as agreed, they tear into them! Fourth is slain by their Champion.

• Hunter breaks through to the library as the other Emissaries flee the city. He immediately tries to kill the Grand Binder, in hopes of getting to the Witch.

• The Witch joins the fight against Hunter. Rats and beastmen file into the Library and litter its halls with each others’ corpses.

• One of the Ministry of Silence rats skitters by the fighting people and shoots the generator, breaking it in the process and releasing the souls entrapped within. Hunter is torn apart by demons.

• The Witch concedes, letting the rats carry out the damaged generator. 

• The city, filled with corpses, its streets running with blood, falls silent. One girl, Emma, weeps over the corpse of her father.

Endor still stands! Alliances are forged and wars are declared as Arvaq and Arcadia join them in a war against Babylon, perhaps more nations are to follow?

I hope you liked this very abbreviated retelling!

If you’re interested, check out the server over here and ask for a Spectator role.

Huge thanks to everyone who participated in the game! You guys gave life to those factions and made this really unexpected and interesting.