NorikSigma
"He's literally me"
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Whether by choice or fate, Neshtab has been largely passed over by the wider events of the Galaxy. Apart from the cataclysmic Waymancy Storm that washed over the region more than eight millennia ago, Neshtab has largely been left to its own devices, even during the galaxy-spanning Empire, one of thousands of backwater no-name worlds. As such, the communities that grew up and developed on it took very unusual turns.
Of relevance to the present era is the Neshtab Collective. Formed unknown millennia ago, long after the Waymancy Storm, the most recent incarnation of the Collective during the Second Dark Age was an allied confederation of the different communities of the planet:
Key location: highest peak. No snow.
Rocket-based culture/practices.
The latter three's goals aligned during the Second Dark Age, and around the year 800 ABY they began to make coordinated moves to exert control over the planet as a whole and allied together in the Council to push for more centralised control. A concerted and forceful reaction by the other four groups led to open conflict. Eventually, the three factions split from the Council, forming the Hallowed, based on old traditions and legends of the Waymancy Hollow. Aiming to centralise and militarise their societies, the split was also mirrored within all factions, beginning a confused time of feuding and civil wars. The Neshtab system, already a backwater of the galactic community, was further isolated as trade routes collapsed.
The communities under the Hallowed underwent a transformation over the years, becoming more militaristic and hierarchical, a streamlined military society devoted to conquest and war. Seeing the danger posed by the Hallowed and the fear that the wider Galactic community would return to crush the system as it did millennia ago if the Hallowed were allowed to antagonise the outside galaxy, the Council, though falling into squabbling and unable to form majority votes on much of anything, was able to agree on containing the threat of the Hallowed. Over the following century, the Hallowed were steadily ground down despite their technological edge, reduced in size and threat. As the threat diminished, however, so did the incentives holding the Collective together. By the time the Galaxy emerged from its Second Dark Age, the Council was, at best, a diplomatic platform, with none of the factions able or willing to maintain the unity of the Collective as a political fact.
It was in this internecine strife that the Pariah Legion entered the scene. Formed from a dissolute mix of Sith-Imperial refugees welcomed by neither the crumbling Sith Empire nor the New Imperial Order, the Pariahs were de facto formed when a Graug warband under [NAME] agreed to assist a renegade Armada Admiral in escorting a large collection of civilian refugees away from Sith space towards the western reaches. Gathering displaced civilians and military units on the run from the Imperials and Sith for one reason or another, the Pariahs suffered losses fighting through hostile local governments, enraged Imperials, and ravenous Sith, forcing the Pariahs to sell their military services to local government for safe passage and supplies. Eventually, many of the refugees and military personnel stayed behind, but the Graug remained united, as did a sizable minority of civilians and Sith Troopers. The name of the Pariah Legion eventually stuck, and it was this group that showed up in the skies of Neshtab one day at the behest of one of the factions on Neshtab.
The leader of the most pre-eminent of the Nests, the , at the time also held the title of Lord Protector of the Collective, a largely ceremonial title that usually meant being the de facto leader of the Collective. With the Collective and its Council largely defunct, however, the Lord Protector wished to re-assert the Nests' dominance over the other factions. Of particular concern was the Hallowed, which had steadily regained strength in the absence of a unified Council. The Doreau and Iron Network had also grown considerably at the expense of the others. Wishing to maintain the Nests' de facto hegemony, the Lord Protector contacted the passing Pariah Legion to assist in 'making an example' of 'renegade groups'. The first target was the Machinesmiths, which had mounted a successful assault on the Starport, temporarily throwing the Iron Network into chaos.
The Pariah Legion landed and immediately fought the Machinesmiths, establishing contact with AXIOM who assisted the Legion in routing the Machinesmiths and their archeo-tech weapons. After their victory, AXIOM unexpectedly pledged aid and loyalty to [NAME] and the Pariahs. Unknown to the others, [NAME] has privately communed with AXIOM and struck some sort of bargain to receive this support, knowing that Neshtab provided an ideal opportunity for the Pariahs to settle, and accordingly for [NAME] to be seen as delivering on his promises of a new home for his flock.
Upon hearing of this, the Stormsingers' Guidance Circle, at the time controlled by a pro-Machinesmith minority faction, chose to intervene against the Legion, rallying their Bazevey and attacking the rapidly spreading Pariah outposts. The offworlders surprised them, however, quickly adapting to the unusual Force powers of the Stormsingers and fighting them to a standstill. As suddenly as they entered the conflict, the Stormsingers surrendered, with the ruling Circle executed and replaced by a new Circle. It appeared that the plan of the pro-Machinesmith faction had failed and in fact cost them what little support they had left among the Circle. Much like AXIOM, the new Circle chose to openly support [NAME] in particular as opposed to a generalised anti-Hallowed position.
In reaction to this sudden shift in power, the Command Staff of the Doreau voted to form an alliance with the Legion in conjunction with the Network and Stormsingers. The reformation of almost half of the old Collective under a new banner shocked the Hallowed remnants as well as the Lord Protector, who realised that the interference of the Legion had created a new power bloc that could undermine the Nests' hegemony. In short order, the Hallowed's leaders reforged their alliance and aimed to bring overwhelming force on the burgeoning Pariah-centred alliance. On the slopes of [] the Pariah Legion and its allies won a costly victory against the Hallowed, destroying the better part of the enemy and destroying the entire leadership of the Machinesmiths at great cost to the Doreau.
The Lord Protector finally chose to act to wrest control of the alliance from the Pariahs: in his mind, the decisive victory should have belonged to the Nests and to him. [NAME] had proved himself an able commander of soldiers and leader of people, and with the Hallowed defeated, the Collective should be officially re-formed under its rightful leader. He schemed with dissatisfied Doreau Commands that had felt slighted and mistreated during the [] campaign, planning to turn the alliance against the Pariah Legion and assassinate its leader. Many Nest Chiefs, however, disagreed with the plan, and leaked its details to the Pariahs. So it was that when a grand meeting between the Pariah Legion and the Nest leadership to work out details of a political integration turned violent the Pariahs were ready, managing to fend off several ambushes and sabotage attempts. Most Nest Chiefs and Doreau Command Staff disavowed their traitorous brethren and took the leading role in purging them from their ranks. With that, the Lord Protector was executed by his own kin and the Nests finally swore allegiance to the Pariah Legion.
In the bloody aftermath of the war, the political order was restructured: the Council was brought back into force with a joint declaration of the leaders of the Pariahs, Nests, Doreau, Iron Network and Stormsingers. Defectors form the Hallowed were allowed to send non-voting representatives to the Council, while the Collective as a whole vowed to exterminate the last of the Hallowed. The title of Lord Protector was split from [nest leader], and bestowed on [NAME]. As leader of the smallest and newest community on Neshtab and yet its most militarily competent, he was well-poised to act as mediator and defender of the new Collective without unbalancing the internal politics of Neshtab.
It has been several years since, and the Collective has expanded its jurisdiction over the whole of Neshtab. With peace has come re-established trade with the Galaxy and immigration from some refugee groups has resumed.
- Intent: To create and detail the political situation of the governing coalition of Neshtab
- Image Credit: [ Provide credit to the original artist of the images in your submission. Link to the web page where it can be found and state the name of the original artist if possible. Each image used must be credited. Use TinyEye, Google Image Search, or the Image Credit FAQ to help.]
- Canon: Waymancy Hollow
- Permissions: [ Please link any Marketplace purchase or similar approvals to use other Writers' content as part of this submission. ]
- Links: Neshtab, Sisters of the Machinesmith, Rocket-Jumper Elite Advance Unit, 8t88
- Planet(s) Chosen: Neshtab
- Name of the Government: Neshtab
- Relationship With Overlord: None
- Type of Government: Alliance
- Symbol: [If your organization has a sigil or logo, provide a picture or briefly describe what it looks like.]
- Role: The Neshtab Collective was founded centuries ago to maintain a balanced peace among the major factions of the world; while some factions are more inclined to side with the two superpowers bordering its region, the Collective and its institutions ensure that the region's independence and autonomy are not undermined by infighting.
- Leadership: Lord Protector, Collective Council
- Capital: [peak, Neshtab
- Notable Assets: [This can be Canon/Codex Submissions, or, a general list. (Ex. Company HQ's, Military Units, Research Bases, Mining Bases, or anything they might be known for).]
- Important Members:
- Collective Council
- Nests leader
- Marshal of the Doreau (Dependents of R-EAU)
- First Chorister of the Stormsingers
- AXIOM, Coordinator of the Iron Network
- Hallowed (rogue communities)
- Supreme Commander of the Brotherhood of Six
- Dowager-Admiral of the Star Widows
- [PC's or NPC's may be linked. You can include more information about them and the role that they play.]
- Collective Council
- Government Stability: Medium. Ever since the Third Plague Schism half a century ago, Neshtab's governing council had lost much coherence and power, locked in an on-and-off war with the Hallowed. Ever since the Pariah Legion put an end to the Hallowed War and the subsequent Reforging of the Collective, the government has regained some measure of stability and legitimacy, though internal tensions and regional conflicts means it remains precarious.
- Wealth: Low. Neshtab does not offer much in the way of material wealth, though there are large untapped deposits deep in the planet. Neglect by galactic governments has resulted in little infrastructural development, though several important facilities exist, forming the core of the planet's off-world trade and wealth flow.
- Freedom & Oppression: The denizens of Neshtab live varied lives in their divergent communities, and are largely collectivist in nature; adherence to their community's tried and tested ways are paramount, and all are expected to contribute. Local authorities rarely 'bring the boot down' as it is difficult to afford such an expense, not to mention possible destabilising itself. As a result, where possible, people are free to contribute to their communities as they see fit, and commerce between the once feuding factions have resumed. The Pariah Legion remains the only 'standing police' but only as a means to keep the peace between the factions.
- Imports:
- Foodstuffs
- Capital goods
- Technology
- Exports:
- Ore
- Droid parts
- Mercenaries
- Specialty goods (rare flora/fauna, goods, specialised tech, weapons, delicacies, crafts)
- Information through the Iron Network
- Military Strength Rating: Medium.
- Military Force Name:
- Pariah Legion. A disciplined military force of Graugs and ex-Sith-Imperial stormtroopers, the Legion fights in a manner similar to the Sith-Imperials of years past and function as the peacekeeping force between the factions of Neshtab/
- United Levies of the Nests. The Levies consist of a mix of hunters and returned mercenaries; the former provide guerilla and environmental warfare skills while the latter bring modern warfighting to the army.
- Defense Command of the Doreau. The overall command of the Doreau, DefCom consists of a mix of full-time and conscripted soldiers that fights in the manner of the Old Sith Wars, with a large number of Rocket Troopers. With most Doreau undergoing military training in the modern sense, DefCom can balloon to surprisingly large numbers in times of emergency.
- Bazevey Lodge of the Stormsingers. Stormsingers that use their unique Force Tradition to harness the power of air and lightning, the Bazevey Lodge strictly speaking only consists of the 'Bazevey-by-Wind', a small fraternity of full-time 'war-singers' that preserve the full breadth of Force powers. However, they frequently trade their knowledge and skills to the many Stormsinger Choirs, and those sufficiently inducted into their knowledge are considered 'Bazevery-by-Iron', and it is they who form the military experts off the Stormsingers as a whole.
- War Clade of the Iron Network. Droids of all forms that claim allegiance with the Network, the War Clade has a preponderance to Assassin droids and some battle droid templates, with a few deactivated Stormtrooper Droid templates secretly stored for mass-production should the need arise. The War Clade is carefully monitored by AXIOM, with many of the droids in the clade encouraged to periodically upload their personality matrices into 'civilian' forms to assist other communities in peactime work.
- Provisional Armada of the Council, consisting of defected Star Widows and starships of the Council factions. The Armada is a ragtag fleet that largely focuses on patrolling trade routes and off-world settlements like the bases of the Wanderer
- Military Force: The Collective is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a military powerhouse. It is, however, very difficult to invade and occupy, due to the deceptively large population brought up in a cauldron of harsh living and constant low-level warfare. While the standing army of the Collective is relatively small, almost every inhabitant is able to meaningfully contribute to defence, and as such would be difficult to occupy without their consent.
- Military Role: The factions' militaries are largely for defence and to protect the few trade routes between Neshtab and the wider Galaxy. They also ensure that each community has enough strength to defend against raids from others; despite their renewed unity, raids and 'tolls' are an ever-present danger. The Pariah Legion plays the role of neutral peacekeeper, ensuring that the factions under the Collective's oversight do not come to blows. Of note is the Provisional Armada, a rag-tag collection of starships from Council-loyalist Widows and the other factions capable of policing its space-lanes and warding off further raids by the rogue Star Widows.
- Military Installations: The ancient spaceport has grown to become the largest surface installation on the planet; while it is the main hub for off-world civilians and traders, it is also home to the main garrison of the Pariah Legion and substantial numbers of the standing forces of the Collective. Weapons stockpiles and training bases exist all over the planet and deep in its mountains and underground.
Whether by choice or fate, Neshtab has been largely passed over by the wider events of the Galaxy. Apart from the cataclysmic Waymancy Storm that washed over the region more than eight millennia ago, Neshtab has largely been left to its own devices, even during the galaxy-spanning Empire, one of thousands of backwater no-name worlds. As such, the communities that grew up and developed on it took very unusual turns.
Of relevance to the present era is the Neshtab Collective. Formed unknown millennia ago, long after the Waymancy Storm, the most recent incarnation of the Collective during the Second Dark Age was an allied confederation of the different communities of the planet:
The Nests of Neshtab. This is the collective name of the societies of Neshtabines that live on the planet. Neshtabines are the earliest known inhabitants of the planet, a human offshoot living underground in cavernous tunnel systems marked by large nodes, also called nests, that function as the main population centres and sites of commerce. Each Nest is associated with a particular clan, more a political than hereditary identity, and it is the duty of the clan to both defend and maintain the livability of its Nest. The Nests are prone to inter-clan spats and warfare that range from occasional written demands every other year to constant warfare, both of which could last anywhere from a year to generations. The Nests vary wildly depending on their location and environment, with most maintaining contact with the outside world and trading deep earth ores, minerals and rare flora and fauna for technology and food from off-world.
The Doreau. Descandants of the Republic Rocket-Jumpers. A sizable force of these Rocketeers, refugees and their dependents were left as a garrison during and after the Storm to ensure the Nests and the Hollow never troubled the Republic again. While many Republic refugees were resettled under the watchful eye of the Rocketeers, eventually the Republican communities intermarried with some of the Neshtabine, forming a new culture, taking their names from the Republic Military destination of these communities, Dependents Of R-EAU. Unlike other resettled refugee communities on the worlds of the Hollow, the Doreau became more Neshtabine than the reverse. The Doreau do not live underground of the snow plains, instead building their homes inside the mountains that rise above the snowy plains of the world. They are organised into Commands, roughly analogous to the Nests of the Neshtabine, and loosely governed by a Command Staff, more accurately called a representative senate of sorts. They do retain many of the Old Republic traditions and language, forming a distinct political and social identity. Multiple waves of refugees throughout the millennia have strengthened their numbers and created a 'cultural fossil record' in their culture, overlaying idiosyncratic and anachronistic Republic practices over each other.
Key location: highest peak. No snow.
Rocket-based culture/practices.
The Stormsingers. Originally a breakaway sisterhood of the Machinesmiths straded on Neshtab, the matriarchal Stormsingers abandoned the certainty of iron to worship the turmoil of nature. They have become even more attuned to the blizzards of Neshtab, even more than the Neshtabines. They are naturalistic shamans, relying on Godsbreath (their name for the Force) to partially control and temper their environment. They navigate the few unfrozen waterways of the planet, forming an informal trade network between the many communities on Neshtab. Despite their changes, the Stormsingers retain knowledge of arms manufacture, passing on their knowledge through Rites of Forging throughout the generations. As a result, many antiquarians from the Galaxy occasionally visit to commission some of these truly ancient designs. The Stormsingers also maintained contact with numerous Force-attuned groups through the Galaxy, including the Jedi Order in the pre-Imperial years, taking in refugee groups and exiled Force-Users over the millennia, but contact was always sporadic and has been totally severed since the Great Plague.
The Iron Network. The Iron Network is a semi-formal social and political network of the numerous droids on Neshtab. Their origins are hard to pin down, but most historians agree that the Network is the remains of a Droids Rights movement that found refuge on the inhospitable planet in ~3000 BBY. Since then, waves of droids over the years have formed Clades and lived alongside the other communities, eventually being reformed into their present form by the First Oracle, a legendary figure that is variously ascribed as an incarnation of Saint-88, a rogue Stormtrooper Droid, or a lowly power droid. The First Oracle is variously ascribed as assisting the Empire in building the Stormtrooper Droid factory or setting up a fortified encampment in it after its destruction. Either way, the First Oracle sacrificed its functions by serving as a processing node of information for the scattered droid clades in a growing consensus-cyberdemocracy, allowing Clades to set up transmission and processing hubs using the First Oracle's infrastructure as pure computronium to process vast amounts of data for the Network to discuss and come to optimal decisions.
An unnamed disaster destroyed the First Oracle, forcing new Oracles to take its place until AXIOM in ~200ABY, a Droid of unknown provenance that has been able to both defend its secret processing location for centuries, expand into a distributed processing network as well as deal with the exponentially increasing data load of more and more droids immigrating to Neshtab as well as truly independent droid facilities creating new droids.
AXIOM has also lived up to its Oracle title by remaining conscious, weighing in on Network debates with its vast accumulated wisdom as well as seemingly gaining access to galactic holofeeds to expand its calculations. In the present day, the Network is de facto a political community of the Droid communities on Neshtab, though each Droid and their Clade communities are vastly different. Droid 'physiology' gives them a valued place on the planet, conducting environmental surveys, mining and manufacture in even the most inhospitable locations. The existence of the Network prevents Droids from being 'shackled' like Droids elsewhere.
: Saint-88 is a mythographical confusion between IG88 of the Droid Revolution and a later copy of 8t88 that has become AXIOM but nobody knows this IC.
Brotherhood of Six. The Brotherhood are a stratocratic society, descendants of survivors of the Whirl Point Six warriors of the Waymancy. They operate in strictly hierarchical warbands under local commanders, usually selling their services to other communities as protection or armed muscle. A large 'garrison' community was maintained at the Starport and Mountain in the old days, a gathering point for nearby warbands during annual promotion ceremonies, commemorative anniversaries and recreational congregations. The Brotherhood also frequently sold their services outside Neshtab, though most refrained from advertising their origins. Over time, these Sixers abroad would absorb other mercenaries, exiled armies, warrior cultures etc. forming a wide variety of warbands that would recongregate on Neshtab every few years.
The Sixers are thus more 'worldly' than other communities and are ambitious: many share a mindset with the Mandalorian Crusaders of old. Why should not the warrior culturees of Neshtab allow it to grow rich and powerful off the conquest of others? Many attempts have been made by rival warbands to unify the Brotherhood, and occasionally Neshtab, by force, enforcing a common hierarchical order. In preperation for The Great Campaign.
Star Widows. The Star Widows are a community strongly tied to starfaring traditions. While originally descended from the Wives of Tingrippa, a continual cultural malleability and innumerable migratory waves of pirates, naval deserters etc. over the millenia have created a widely distributed and varies society with a common shared ethos. Almost all of the Widows, civilian or otherwise, live in the void in great fleets of aging ships. Among the communities on Neshtab, they have the largest presence outside the system and are have a wide starfaring diaspora that has, over the millenia, led to varying levels of contact with galactic trader and smuggler networks. Its only real governing bodies are the ship captains who run day-to-day operations and convene in fleets to appoint admirals. Admirals, while holding sway over their fleets are subject to re-appointment should they lose the support of sufficient influential captains or if their fleet splits. When battle stations are declared by a fleet, the Admirals gain supreme unquestioned authority, though even their actions during such emergencies are subjected to scrutiny afterwards.
In recent times, the dominant strain of thought among captains, and thus the Admirals appointed, felt that they and Neshtab as a whole had failed to exploit the chaos of the galaxy, and wished to, using their space supremacy and control over trade, take over de facto representation of Neshtab on an interstellar level and ally with one of the superstates.
Machinesmiths. Of all the communities on Neshtab, the Machinesmiths are the closest to their ancient predecessors, and the one that has the strongest opinion on matters outside Neshtab. They resent the defeat of their predecessors at the hands of the Galactic Republic in 7011 ABY, and have continually raided Republic trading ships over the years, and stealing technology so they may experiment on it further. A relentless drive to improve "beyond the flesh" has continued to grip the Machinesmiths, though their relations with the Droid communities has been tumultuous and unstable; sometimes seeing them as ascended life forms, other times seeing them as lifeless mockeries of True Ironminds. They specialise heavily in cybernetics, 'parallel' technology (i.e. fields of engineering that, while not necessarily better than galactic standard, branched off from mainline developments down another path).
Even before the Second Dark Age, the Machinesmithes were always the least collaborative of the communities, refusing to renounce their rights to violence, raiding and forcibly absorbing other communities for supplies and technology. They have continuously maintained a hostile relationship with the Doreau, seeing them as their ancient Republic enemies. On a larger scale, the Machinesmith Magi aim to force the other factions under their dominion and 'guidance', before harnessing the combined untapped potential of the system into a war machine to force nearby systems to pay tribute for its research and quest for ascendancy.
The latter three's goals aligned during the Second Dark Age, and around the year 800 ABY they began to make coordinated moves to exert control over the planet as a whole and allied together in the Council to push for more centralised control. A concerted and forceful reaction by the other four groups led to open conflict. Eventually, the three factions split from the Council, forming the Hallowed, based on old traditions and legends of the Waymancy Hollow. Aiming to centralise and militarise their societies, the split was also mirrored within all factions, beginning a confused time of feuding and civil wars. The Neshtab system, already a backwater of the galactic community, was further isolated as trade routes collapsed.
The communities under the Hallowed underwent a transformation over the years, becoming more militaristic and hierarchical, a streamlined military society devoted to conquest and war. Seeing the danger posed by the Hallowed and the fear that the wider Galactic community would return to crush the system as it did millennia ago if the Hallowed were allowed to antagonise the outside galaxy, the Council, though falling into squabbling and unable to form majority votes on much of anything, was able to agree on containing the threat of the Hallowed. Over the following century, the Hallowed were steadily ground down despite their technological edge, reduced in size and threat. As the threat diminished, however, so did the incentives holding the Collective together. By the time the Galaxy emerged from its Second Dark Age, the Council was, at best, a diplomatic platform, with none of the factions able or willing to maintain the unity of the Collective as a political fact.
It was in this internecine strife that the Pariah Legion entered the scene. Formed from a dissolute mix of Sith-Imperial refugees welcomed by neither the crumbling Sith Empire nor the New Imperial Order, the Pariahs were de facto formed when a Graug warband under [NAME] agreed to assist a renegade Armada Admiral in escorting a large collection of civilian refugees away from Sith space towards the western reaches. Gathering displaced civilians and military units on the run from the Imperials and Sith for one reason or another, the Pariahs suffered losses fighting through hostile local governments, enraged Imperials, and ravenous Sith, forcing the Pariahs to sell their military services to local government for safe passage and supplies. Eventually, many of the refugees and military personnel stayed behind, but the Graug remained united, as did a sizable minority of civilians and Sith Troopers. The name of the Pariah Legion eventually stuck, and it was this group that showed up in the skies of Neshtab one day at the behest of one of the factions on Neshtab.
The leader of the most pre-eminent of the Nests, the , at the time also held the title of Lord Protector of the Collective, a largely ceremonial title that usually meant being the de facto leader of the Collective. With the Collective and its Council largely defunct, however, the Lord Protector wished to re-assert the Nests' dominance over the other factions. Of particular concern was the Hallowed, which had steadily regained strength in the absence of a unified Council. The Doreau and Iron Network had also grown considerably at the expense of the others. Wishing to maintain the Nests' de facto hegemony, the Lord Protector contacted the passing Pariah Legion to assist in 'making an example' of 'renegade groups'. The first target was the Machinesmiths, which had mounted a successful assault on the Starport, temporarily throwing the Iron Network into chaos.
The Pariah Legion landed and immediately fought the Machinesmiths, establishing contact with AXIOM who assisted the Legion in routing the Machinesmiths and their archeo-tech weapons. After their victory, AXIOM unexpectedly pledged aid and loyalty to [NAME] and the Pariahs. Unknown to the others, [NAME] has privately communed with AXIOM and struck some sort of bargain to receive this support, knowing that Neshtab provided an ideal opportunity for the Pariahs to settle, and accordingly for [NAME] to be seen as delivering on his promises of a new home for his flock.
Upon hearing of this, the Stormsingers' Guidance Circle, at the time controlled by a pro-Machinesmith minority faction, chose to intervene against the Legion, rallying their Bazevey and attacking the rapidly spreading Pariah outposts. The offworlders surprised them, however, quickly adapting to the unusual Force powers of the Stormsingers and fighting them to a standstill. As suddenly as they entered the conflict, the Stormsingers surrendered, with the ruling Circle executed and replaced by a new Circle. It appeared that the plan of the pro-Machinesmith faction had failed and in fact cost them what little support they had left among the Circle. Much like AXIOM, the new Circle chose to openly support [NAME] in particular as opposed to a generalised anti-Hallowed position.
In reaction to this sudden shift in power, the Command Staff of the Doreau voted to form an alliance with the Legion in conjunction with the Network and Stormsingers. The reformation of almost half of the old Collective under a new banner shocked the Hallowed remnants as well as the Lord Protector, who realised that the interference of the Legion had created a new power bloc that could undermine the Nests' hegemony. In short order, the Hallowed's leaders reforged their alliance and aimed to bring overwhelming force on the burgeoning Pariah-centred alliance. On the slopes of [] the Pariah Legion and its allies won a costly victory against the Hallowed, destroying the better part of the enemy and destroying the entire leadership of the Machinesmiths at great cost to the Doreau.
The Lord Protector finally chose to act to wrest control of the alliance from the Pariahs: in his mind, the decisive victory should have belonged to the Nests and to him. [NAME] had proved himself an able commander of soldiers and leader of people, and with the Hallowed defeated, the Collective should be officially re-formed under its rightful leader. He schemed with dissatisfied Doreau Commands that had felt slighted and mistreated during the [] campaign, planning to turn the alliance against the Pariah Legion and assassinate its leader. Many Nest Chiefs, however, disagreed with the plan, and leaked its details to the Pariahs. So it was that when a grand meeting between the Pariah Legion and the Nest leadership to work out details of a political integration turned violent the Pariahs were ready, managing to fend off several ambushes and sabotage attempts. Most Nest Chiefs and Doreau Command Staff disavowed their traitorous brethren and took the leading role in purging them from their ranks. With that, the Lord Protector was executed by his own kin and the Nests finally swore allegiance to the Pariah Legion.
In the bloody aftermath of the war, the political order was restructured: the Council was brought back into force with a joint declaration of the leaders of the Pariahs, Nests, Doreau, Iron Network and Stormsingers. Defectors form the Hallowed were allowed to send non-voting representatives to the Council, while the Collective as a whole vowed to exterminate the last of the Hallowed. The title of Lord Protector was split from [nest leader], and bestowed on [NAME]. As leader of the smallest and newest community on Neshtab and yet its most militarily competent, he was well-poised to act as mediator and defender of the new Collective without unbalancing the internal politics of Neshtab.
It has been several years since, and the Collective has expanded its jurisdiction over the whole of Neshtab. With peace has come re-established trade with the Galaxy and immigration from some refugee groups has resumed.
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