//------------------------------// // Aftermath // Story: [EAW] Twilight's Nightmare in Hellquill // by Mr_T_Man //------------------------------// This one is a whole other mod concept, a one where Maar’s Weltreich has won Armageddon. 20 years have passed since the assassination of Princess Celestia. Tens of millions now lie dead, and hundreds of millions live under tyranny. Weltreich is in total control of the planet right now… at least in theory. In reality, it now directly controls less than 10 percent of the world’s landmass. Some parts of the planet are now nothing but wasteland, while most of the world is now under the control of “governors” who are in reality, warlords, ruling their respective countries (or whatever they have in their possession) in the name of Maar. These were the people who were promised glory during Maar’s rise to power and volunteered to serve as underlings to him. And now they have succeeded in doing so… mostly. The warlords now govern massive chunks of land which they only saw in their dreams back in the day. But it wouldn’t surprise anybody to know that, eventually, these warlords will start having conflicting interests, and will start fighting each other for the sake of their own personal gain, even though they all still claimed allegiance to Maar. Think of the state of the world as Europe during the Middle Ages, where despite everybody claiming allegiance to a higher religious body, this doesn’t prevent them from acting as fully independent states, waging entire wars against each other and having their own interpretation of how a Maarist rule should be imposed in a country. But in contrast to the Pope of the Middle Ages, in the case of Maar, his way of enforcing his rule over those below him are far more… direct. Maar The technology has advanced to a miraculous level in the last 20 years, where Weltreich has by now invented vehicles capable of reaching space and achieving a moon landing operation just 7 years after the declaration of Weltreich. Now, with 20 years having passed since the start of Armageddon, Maar’s orbital missile systems, carrying nuclear warheads, patrol the heavens. The Strategic Bombardment Jets and Ballistic Missiles of Weltreich also can hit any target in the world within mere hours. Therefore, Maar can make the entire world get in line without making any proper effort. And since Weltreich has firmly banned all other countries in the world to use or possess nuclear weapons, except for Equusreich who can only possess it, it can be said that Maar’s rule has been truly solidified. Weltreich doesn’t enforce a direct rule, for no reason other than the fact that Maar finds no reason to, as he now shifted his focus to solidifying his presence in the solar system. But this fact doesn’t prevent Weltreich from occasionally dropping Atomic Warheads on any suspected Anti-Maar stronghold or any place suspected of being an Anti-Maar stronghold. But most of the time, Maar doesn’t intervene, as he is known for enjoying chaos unfolding on the ground. He doesn’t try to negotiate between his governors to achieve peace and root out conflicting interests, he knows well that even a world where he has directly enforced his rule wouldn’t be much different, since it also would be mostly ruled through intimidation rather than appeal, so let some poor soul do the job for him, it would be amusing to watch. Rebellions, wars, famines, and tragedies overall have become a regular affair, with warlords waging wars with their armies in hundreds of thousands, just to end up with a stalemate or a white peace. The political balance of power has become truly medieval, with no resolution in sight. For the commoners of any country in the world, the primary concern was to simply survive, but in some parts of the world, even this has become a challenge. Equestria in ruins By far, the most powerful Province of Weltreich is the infamous “Equusreich” which controls the entire continent of Equus through direct rule or puppet regimes. Led by Führerin Götterdämmerung, Equusreich is not only powerful but also exceptionally Totalitarian, even by the standards of the age. It is well known for its “Divine Cult” which is the closest thing it has to a state ideology. In it, the people, who are mostly ponies, are demanded to obey and worship their leader Götterdämmerungin every way they can, and one can assume what happens when they don’t. Following the takeover of Griffonia by Totalitarian regimes, tens of millions of ponies became unwanted citizens, particularly those in Riverlands, facing imminent extermination, Götterdämmerung would gladly take these ponies in as refugees with the help of Maar, bolstering the population of Equusreich greatly. But most of these ponies would soon come to realize that Dämmerung wasn’t doing this from the goodness of her heart, in the exact opposite, the state was literally punishing its own citizens for the vile crime of existing in Dämmerung’s presence. The Divine Cult didn’t preach humility like any other religion, it demanded from the citizens to acknowledge the fact that they are worthless slaves and can never be on the same level as their “Goddess”, no matter how hard they tried. Führerin Götterdämmerung The system was designed by Dämmerung to be as overwhelming as possible, with its entire bureaucracy fused with mind control magic, filled with semi-conscious officers who wanted nothing but to blindly serve their leader. It was a highly hierarchical pyramid of chains, with Führerin sitting on top of it, eyeing the hell she constructed below her with delighted eyes. However, Dämmerung herself was a slave without her acknowledgment, to her undeclared master Maar. And although she too accepted the fact that she was essentially a subordinate to him, she didn’t look upon this with disgrace, since Maar was the only individual she met that truly wasn’t from this reality, in her eyes meaning that his existence didn’t rely on herself, therefore Maar was the only creature that she could take advice from and even could treat with respect. Maar knew of Dämmerung’s mindset, and also knew that he needed to make Dämmerung feel special in her own regard, rather than treat her like somebody that could easily be betrayed and thrown away. Not because she posed a threat to his rule or anything, but because of how much her presence and actions mattered to his counter-thesis. That’s why he allowed her to control an entire continent, with multiple dependencies under her hooves, and that is beside the fact that he allowed her to develop her own Nuclear Arsenal, and as mentioned before, she was the only one in the world who was given the said right. But this exception came with a catch, as she wasn’t allowed to use any of the weapons she had developed throughout all these years, as Maar always prevented her from doing so, making up some excuse in its place every single time. He explained to her that he was doing this purely to “preserve the competition among nations” and to “give these bacteria a chance”, while in reality, he wanted to contain Dämmerung to Equus since the last thing he wanted was an erratic maniac taking over the world and risk the future of his antithesis. Across the sea, in Griffonia and Zebrica and other parts of the world, things weren’t exceptionally better, as Totalitarianism, Madness, and Anarchy have gained complete control over all living things with small exceptions. Griffonia was now divided between the sphere of influence of four Superstates, while Zebrica was not much different, with the Reformed Storm Empire encompassing most of the Western chunk of the continent, and smaller yet still powerful Totalitarian Empires controlling East and North portions of the continent. In Griffonia, Ferdinand Dawnclaw’s reformed New Griffonian Empire controlled almost the entire Eastern portion of the continent through direct control or domains, while its main rival, Beakolini’s Karthinian Empire controlled the South of the Continent. While to the East, the fruits of Hellquill’s “Grand Crusade” laid; the almighty Greater Griffonian Reich, and to its north; the infamous Dread Imperium, controlling the northern portion of the continent, often clashing with the Greater Griffon Reach for the control of buffer zones. New Griffonian Empire New Griffonian Empire: Ferdinand Dawnclaw started serving Maar in secret well before the declaration of Weltreich, back when he still was an army officer, to carry out acts in his name and get ready to take over the country during Armageddon. He never was fond of his native faith, and although he certainly wasn’t a Maarist, he saw no issue in a fruitful agreement with an eldritch creature such as Maar to root out the corrupt elite, gain power, and reorganize the Empire in his image, even if it meant serving under Maar. And when the time came, he and his covert coalition of Anti-Reactionary, Anti-Clerical, Militarist, and Ultranationalist groups and army battalions within the Empire launched a civil war against the Regime of Archon Eros. The war eventually merged with the other conflicts of Armageddon, and Dawnclaw’s forces eventually found themselves fighting against all types of enemies from all around the continent. And when the dust cloud faded away, the New Empire was victorious. Dawnclaw had killed virtually the entirety of the former government, including the young emperor and Archon Eros. Many years have passed since, with Dawnclaw establishing a Totalitarian Dictatorship and occasionally going to wars against the Karthinian Empire to the south and against the Dread Imperium to the north. His rule was benevolent in his own way, yet despotic regardless of perspective. He had also established a quasi-religious cult of personality that was only rivaled by Dämmerung’s Divine Cult. His Nationalist and Pan-Griffonian yet uniquely Anti-Traditionalist ideology led to a loose pact with the Greater Griffonian Reich, but this pact wouldn’t be the basis of an alliance between two Superstates as they still perceived each other as potential enemies, and this would only mean that they didn’t see each other as “primary targets”. Still, his ambitions are clear, he desires to unify the continent under one banner, his banner, no matter how much or how long it takes. Karthinian Empire Karthinian Empire: Guido Beakolini achieved virtually all of his initial plans for the Kingdom of Wingbardy, and transformed it into an all-out Imperial State, with him as its Supreme Leader. Although his making a deal with the embodiment of death was a controversial act among its citizens, dissidence was easy to suppress with the help of Maar. During Armageddon, Karthinian Empire destroyed all of its enemies surrounding it, carved up the Southwest Griffonia with the New Griffonian Empire, and even gained new colonies in Zebrica. Abnormally, Beakolini didn’t aim at conquering the entirety of Griffonia at first, as reclaiming the legacy of the Karthinian Empire was more than enough for him, but while the other 3 superstates still demand complete control over the continent, it became clear that Beakolini has no option but to continue fighting against his Northern and Southern Neighbors, especially against Dawnclaw’s New Empire and the Reformed Storm Empire. Ironically, once considered to be one of the most oppressive and totalitarian regimes in history, Beakolini’s fascist Empire became one of the most moderate ones in the whole world, as it didn’t pursue genocidal agendas without the interference of Maar. In time, Karthinian Empire became a hotspot for refugees escaping the nightmarish life in neighboring countries. And even though these refugees knew they would most likely end up as impoverished factory workers little more than slaves, they still preferred it to the life they were currently living under. Immigration is becoming more and more of a problem between the Greater Reich and the Karthinian Empire, a country which Beakolini tried to avoid war with ever since the end of Armageddon. But with border clashes becoming more and more common between the two Empires, an all-out war seems imminent, but the question of who or if anyone at all will win the upcoming war is uncertain. Dread Imperium Dread Imperium: Rosa Maledicta was the second leader after Wingfried von Katerinburg to directly declare loyalty to Maar, and with him being the literal God of Death and her being one of the most prominent necromancers in the world meant that it only would be natural in the case Rosa ever felt fond of him. She cherished the idea of serving the God of Death, and she continues to follow him virtually blindly to this day. Under her leadership and with the help of Maar, the Dread League transformed itself from a proto-state endlessly bickering with knightly orders to a full-fledged Empire encompassing the entirety of North Griffonia. And established itself as an Empire of the Dead, that cherished and promoted anything that was considered evil by Orthodox faiths, just like the way Maar would want. She played a vital role during the rise of Weltreich through her use of necromancy all across Griffonia through behind-frontline attacks, it allowed the technically inferior Maarist Forces to gain upper hand in Armageddon against their enemies and eventually win. And even though she could’ve easily hoarded more land under her name, since she dedicated herself to the victories of Maar, she made herself forget the concept of selfishness. Nevertheless, she declared herself “The Queen of Spirit” and established her own Empire in the North, dedicating all of her killings and sacrifices to Maar. Even back in its Dread League days, Dread Imperium is a mystery to the outsiders and even to the people living within, as nearly all information regarding it comes from rumors of refugees escaping it. It is also extremely difficult to project its power, as it is still known whether or not it’s the most powerful of the 4 Empires or the weakest. Regardless, the other 3 countries see it as a threat to their existence and have engaged in indecisive wars against it ever since the end of Armageddon. Meanwhile, it is rumored that Rosa Maledicta is spiteful and envious of the Empires around her. Why does Wingfried von Katerinburg get to be the one to release Maar when it was her who dedicated her whole life to the art of death? Or how does Götterdämmerung be the one who gets special care from Maar when it was her who followed him first? She never held grievances against Maar, as it was her greatest desire to live up to the expectations of God of Death. But she finally realized that in order to be worthy of Maar’s attention, she has to act beyond his expectations and become something far greater. Her envy eventually resulted in an attempted invasion of Equus a couple of years after the end of Armageddon, which resulted in a decisive victory for Equusreich. This, however, wouldn’t end her grievances with Dämmerung, as it is also speculated that she is trying to develop a Nuclear Arsenal to counter Equusreich without Maar’s notice, fully knowing she would be punished dearly in case Maar ever found out about her intentions. And this is outside the wars she went against the two Griffon Empires to the South, during which she didn’t care about the territorial/political gains and rather cared about the casualties inflicted against her enemies, believing that seeing death and chaos will appease Maar. Greater Griffonian Reich Greater Griffonian Reich: Hellquill was Maar’s beginning in this material realm, as he possessed the body of Wingfried von Katerinburg while absorbing his soul. Wingfried continued to rule the country under a façade, but when the Weltreich came, Hellquill became just another province of it. And although on paper Katerinburg continues to rule the nation as Führer, it is clear that he simply doesn’t exist anymore. No one is exactly sure what happened to him but most of the high-ranking officers now believe that he is now “one with Maar”. After Armageddon, as Maar ceased his direct rule over the country, the state affairs of Hellquill ended up being placed in the hands of Reformisten Leaders and Generals. They decided to reform the country under the name Greater Griffonian Reich. While his former Second in Command, Edler von Wingenberg became the Acting Führer following a council meeting of the Leadership, as they trusted him since he was the one closest to Maar during his path to Armageddon. Edler however was no longer the griff he was before Maar revealed himself. His “intense” experience with the Dark God of Death changed his persona fundamentally, as he would constantly experience near-death moments and receive duties specifically designed to challenge his skills under him. Once an esoteric and erratic griff who believed himself to be righteous regardless of what he was doing, he unexpectedly matured mentally under Maar, and effectively became his disciple. He would now observe the rationale behind the actions of griffons around him, rather than paranoidly label them as “traitors” whenever he would disagree with them in the slightest. He also observed the gains made by the Reich under Maar and have done calculations on how to preserve or even how expand the territories that were gained during Armageddon. He eventually came to the realization that the Reich couldn’t become the Unitary Empire he once dreamed of it to be, noticing that Hellquill Leadership is way too diverse to establish a proper centralized state under him since making these griffons working together would be impossible with him being the leader, and in case he tried to, it would possibly result in a civil war and cause the Reich to fall under the occupation of Neighboring Superstates. He decided that until conditions improved, and the Government can be centralized, the Greater Griffonian Reich had to reorganize itself as a confederacy to preserve its integrity and divide most of the land into states who would be Semi-Autonomous in nature with Governors in charge of them appointed by the Führer. The Reich was divided into 7 distinct Provinces, and in the end, the plan was mostly successful since the governors would control regions fitting to their characteristics and handle the socio-economic affairs of the said regions while allowing them to keep a small paramilitary force for self-defense. Wingenberg also sent a special request to Maar, asking for support in case of internal rebellion (potentially caused by some of the provinces) would prove itself to be too overwhelming, also reminding his superior of his previous duties under him in direst moments. Maar accepted, but also noted that he won’t be helping in case of a conflict against exterior force. The Reich as a whole is one of the most integrated provinces in the world within the Weltreich system. Since Weltreich’s presence overall varies wildly from country to country, while some countries are Weltreich provinces only when they feel like being so, some provinces don’t even have contact with the Central Government (who are typically bandit proto-states) probably only because of Maar not having any practical need for them. But when Maar demands one of the provinces something, let it be some type of resource for a space rocket armada he was building or an errand that needs fulfilling, he expects results. And if a province doesn’t comply with his demands… nobody knows what happens, because nobody had the courage to say “no” to the God of Death, and Maar is too smart to ask a province something it cannot fulfill. The Reich is probably the most obedient of all provinces, perhaps even more so than the Equusreich, so much so that it is essentially integrated into the Weltreich bureaucracy, and while Maar still isn’t ruling the country directly, its presence can be felt in almost all levels of the government. It also has more “direct control zones” within it than any other province. And as for the aforementioned “Provinces within the Province of Greater Reich”, they vary wildly in both ideology and governance. From the Genocidal and Tyrannical Province of “Gau Rijekburg” led by Gauleiter Eisen Silberkrone, built upon the former River Republic, to the “Gau Wittenland” led by Gauleiter Wilhelm Stackelberg who leads a Feudal Society which is essentially a Modern Medieval Kingdom (except all references to the traditional Griffonian faith has been replaced by Maarist doctrines), to the Moderate but still Authoritarian “Gau Nimburg” led by Gauleiter Erika Stahlflügel, which is surrounded by controversial incidents regarding the fact that it had taken the extremely radical decision of not choosing to outright exterminate or enslave the local pony population and rather let them free live in proletariat suburbs. Gau Nimburg The most prominent of controversies surrounding Gau Nimburg occurred a couple of years back, when Rainbow Dash, formerly one of the closest friends of Twilight Sparkle, was rumored to be dwelling within the province. These rumors eventually reached Equus and Dämmerung’s ears. She, to put it bluntly, went insane, and demanded Rijekburg’s Gauleiter Erika Stahlflügel to immediately turn over Rainbow Dash so Dämmerung can kill her personally, and in case Erika didn’t comply, she threatened to wipe Rijekburg off the map with Nuclear Bombardment despite Maar’s rules. And she sent this message when not even the local authorities were never able to confirm the rumor and couldn’t give away Rainbow Dash even if they wanted to. Erika Stahlflügel sent a message to Maar in desperation, begging him to prevent Dämmerung from nuking her province, also noting that she served Maar faithfully during all these years and is merely asking for a simple favor. As a result, Maar called Dämmerung off, telling her she is allowing herself to be dictated by emotions and petty revenge. Dämmerung hesitantly withdraws, preventing nuclear genocide. But Gau Nimburg is nowhere near the most unusual “Gau” of the Reich, as there’s a Region so unorthodox that it isn’t even attached to the Reich’s sphere of influence or anybody else’s; the Steel Kingdom. Officially known as “Gau Firtree” by the Reich, the Steel Kingdom was created following Führer Edler von Wingenberg’s discovery of the fact that there was an unusual amount of mentally ill members within the ranks of the Reformisten Movement, most notable being General Hermann Steeltalon, better known as the Butcher. Realizing that keeping these around will most likely harm the integrity of the Reich, Wingenberg initially considered just shooting all these griffons dead, but after he partitioned the Reich between his subordinates, he discovered that a good chunk of the former nation of Firtree Villages was not claimed by any of his subordinates since it had no great geographic or natural value to them, so he decided to turn it into a buffer zone against Dread Imperium and the New Griffonian Empire, declared it to be a Gau, put the Butcher in charge of it, filled it with whoever could throw in there, and then left it to itself. Initially, Wingenberg expected it to crumble to the ground, hopefully ending the lives of most of these maniacs. And it did… partially. The thing is, as soon Steeltalon the Butcher got in charge, things deteriorated so rapidly that not even the ponies living there couldn’t comprehend what was going on. Since Steeltalon was now only surrounded by mad griffons on his level, this meant that there was now simply no griff around to prevent him from doing whatever he wanted with a country he was in charge of. Steeltalon’s first order of business as the Gauleiter was to declare himself “King of the World” and changed the Gau’s name to “The Steel Kingdom”, which was named after him, of course. But forgot to declare independence, and when he was told that the Steel Kingdom was still a part of the Reich and needed to declare independence before declaring himself the lord of all beings, Steeltalon learned that that required a lot of paperwork, but he felt jaded by it, so he never declared independence. Within days, Steel Kingdom became an open-air prison with prisoners in charge of it. It was complete anarchy with criminally insane lunatics who were armed to the teeth intimidating other of their kin and the local population, continuously stealing from each other in order to survive. Constitution, Courts, Taxation, Military, Borders, or any type of authority other than criminal bosses were nonexistent, people got killed all over the country over nonsensical affairs and nobody had a guarantee of seeing another day. King Steeltalon on the other hand, not only did nothing to prevent the violence but instead encouraged it, believing that having the most bullies and killers in the world would make his kingdom the greatest and most powerful nation in the world. While the “system” in the Steel Kingdom, if it can be called that, was completely Darwinist, as anybody could kill anybody else for their position, much like a free-for-all criminal organization. And while this would mean certain death for any leader ever, it didn’t apply to Steeltalon, since he was so crazy and unpredictable that none of his lieutenants could out-maneuver him and beat him in his own game. To Edler von Wingenberg’s surprise, the ‘Steel Kingdom’ project unintentionally worked out very well, and in return, Edler started throwing all types of undesirables and mentally ill regardless of personality in there, eventually causing the population of the region to reach over 3 million within a year. Seeing the chaotic condition of the Steel Kingdom, the Governments of New Empire and Dread Imperium too started tossing their undesirables into the region, and in the following years, governments from all around the world started paying Reich to dump their undesirables in there rather than exterminating them themselves. With millions of new victims pouring into the Kingdom, Steeltalon couldn’t be happier. To give you an idea about how insane things were about to get; when Steeltalon realized that his kingdom doesn’t have a flag like any other country, he started putting all his time into a flag design, spending entire weeks on what to use as his flag. But he couldn’t find a design that fulfilled his expectations and was extremely frustrated by it, and as a result, became more and more introverted. However, when one of his lieutenants had the guts to tell him that he was wasting his time and overreacting to this whole issue, Steeltalon went berserk, pulled out his gun, and shot his lieutenant on spot in his head, causing his brain to spill all over the wall. But after noticing the blood-covered wall, a revelation struck Steeltalon, as he became mesmerized by the appearance of the “blood design”. And as a result, the flag of Steel Kingdom became a simple blood stain on a white background, and whoever was critical of this new design was too shot in the head on spot. Nobody is currently eyeing over the territories of the Kingdom, as it doesn’t hold any long-term valuable resources in it, and trying to keep the region in control with literally millions of maniacs in it is a challenge on its own. And although the Steel Kingdom is barely a threat to any other superstate surrounding it, the bandit raids coming out of it is quite a headache for a couple of years now, and terror-bombing it with jets also seems to not work as expected. The Madness coming off the Kingdom is currently contained as none of the superstates surrounding it is weak enough to falter in front of its attacks, but the status quo might change in the future, as the region’s stability might come at risk due to intensified fighting between the Superstates. As of now, the Age of Madness stands firm, with the Maarist States controlling most of the surface. But it is simply impossible to make people forget what earth was like 20 years prior. The resistance continues underground, literally, and no matter how trivial it might be in its current state, it still possesses a threat against Maar. Dämmerung had successfully killed Luna by the end of Armageddon, alongside her former sister-in-law, but failed to kill her niece and her former remaining friends, who disappeared into the unknown. And despite her maximized efforts, she still couldn’t manage to find the surviving dissidents. This made her even more unhinged since the idea of her former friends reappearing at some point and defeating her still horrified her, since her being defeated would prove that she is no god. And albeit she is now more powerful than ever, she was never more afraid of her enemies before. While those who oppose Maar’s rule try to reorganize in destabilized parts of the globe, trying to find ways to overcome massive obstacles placed in front of them, since they have no choice but to press forwards. Whether or not they’ll succeed, is completely up to you.