Within the lands of Anglond the full effects of their past actions were beginning to sink in. Having abandoned their fellow humans to the undead scourge that now ruled what used to be Francus, Anglond was now completely cut off from any land-based travel or communication. While it was true that they possessed the greatest naval power that the Light Lands had to offer, this would do nothing to stop the undead from marching across the land-based borders with reckless impunity.

The realization that they had effectively blocked themselves off from their potential allies was slowly dawning on the populace at large, and this caused greater and greater concern as goods that normally would have been obtained from other nations via caravans and merchants simply stopped coming. Wood from the Teutonia Knightly Junta and grain from Ititlis Imperial Dominion could no longer make their way across what used to be Southern Albion and due to this the merchant fleet of Anglond had to shift into overdrive.

In preparation for the inevitable surge of undead over the border that was bound to happen, calls were sent out to the other members of the Luminas Confederacy. Tragically for Anglond, the only replies that were given were ones promising funds and supplies, not men or an entry into their fight for survival. A few armed groups did manage to sign up with the drastically outnumbered Anglish forces, but these were nothing more than mercenaries.

Mercenaries were unreliable and fickle by nature, always willing to flee a fight if it didn’t look good or take their money and run. But right now Anglond needed every living soul available, and used the funds sent by other nations to pay them.

Months had passed since the undead had occupied Francus and in a very uncharacteristic move they did not rush over the borders to invade the other nations. Worse yet, reports indicated that not only were the numbers of undead growing, were also dividing themselves up into self-contained armies that mirrored those used by the living.

A standard army was made up of one leader and twenty units of men, be they archers, melee fighters, cavalry or catapults. Each unit was a very specific size, which was meant to encourage comradery and uniformity. This was the way that wars had been fought for generations, and to see the undead, who normally just swarmed their foes, use such tactics was not only baffling but also incredibly insulting. For the vile and soulless undead to behave in a manner that only the living could behave was beyond upsetting, it was downright blasphemy against the concept the living were superior to the undead in every way.

While more espionage was desired, the spies never got far, as clouds of Fel Bats and packs of Dire Wolves patrolled the borders and also made erratic patrols throughout the interior. To compound the difficulty even further, some units of undead were buried just beneath the surface and would pop up and ambush those who got too close. More than one team of agents was lost when they were surrounded by a unit of Skeleton Warriors who emerged from shallow graves just beneath their feet. As the months went on and the behavior of the undead became more and more alarming, a hushed rumor made its way around taverns and alleyways.

“Something far worse than the mythical Abominable King has taken command of the undead.”

…

Rather than fielding large and unwieldly masses of undead, Kain had taken a page from the general unit composition of his foes and divided his large quantities of undead into blocks of twenty units. Unlike the armies of the members of the Luminas Confederacy, there was no ‘twenty first’ unit, the leader, among the vast majority of my armies. Kain had made them, and that effectively made him the ‘leader’ of each army.

Even if he was sitting miles away from them, they would still fight with the same power and ferocity that would be on display if he was there. Still, controlling every army manually all at once was taxing and Kain realized soon enough that having a kind of ‘general’ lead each army was more appealing than having to remote control every single unit in each of the armies that he created. It was a shame that so few people in his nation showed any aptitude for military leadership, with only himself, Alexis and Alistaira being suitable for leading powerful forces.

Alistaira preferred to use infantry-based armies comprised of mostly Skeletons and Zombies with one or two units of Dire Wolves thrown in to act as makeshift cavalry. Alexis, on the other hand, preferred to use wholly beast-type armies comprised of nothing but packs of Dire Wolves and swarms of Fel Bats. Rather than focus on one or the other, Kain went for the middle of the road and fielded armies comprised of a mix of cavalry and infantry. Each of the three main leaders had four armies under our command, not including the one they personally led. In total, the risen Darksol Empire had fifteen armies to defend it, which was more than enough to conquer Anglond, even if it had more forces than Francus did.

The conquest of Anglond would not be an ‘all in’ endeavor, however. Darksol would need to defend its border with the Teutonia Knightly Junta from possible invasion and one of the three main commanders would have to be relegated to deal with a potential counter-invasion. Needless to say, none of them wanted to miss out on the glory that would come to those who helped defeat and annex Anglond for the Darksol Empire. Anglond’s armies numbered only a total of seven, but that was only the case if you counted the mercenaries that made up more than half of the fighting force as actual units.

If not, then they had at most about four real armies, so sending two of the three would certainly be overkill, but would also allow for the nation to be taken that much more quickly. The mercenaries could potentially be a hazard, which was why two of the commanders were going to assault Anglond together, the question was who would remain behind and defend the home front? There was the uncertainty that the Confederacy could decide to invade through the lands of the Teutonia Knightly Junta, and Darksol would be helpless to oppose them if all of its forces were conquering Anglond. Undead may never tire, which lets them march day and night nonstop, but the damage done by an invading force would still be far greater than any of us would want.

So, after much deliberating between the three of them, they decided on who would remain behind. That person would be…