The New Kingdom
The New Kingdom was not built. It was provoked into existence.
When the Rat King allied with the Iron Works, the consequences spread through every layer of Rum Coast society. Irons who had escaped slavery and built new lives in the Kingdom found themselves fugitives again. Postal workers who had smuggled the enslaved to freedom now had bounties on their heads. The Sunken Saints, who had tolerated the Rat King's rule for as long as it served stability, found their assassins returned as severed heads with politely worded notes.
The New Kingdom arose from the convergence of groups that could no longer remain neutral. Captain Vincent Douglas of the Conch Battalion directed his First Mate, Sathrik Son Louise, to join the cause. The Sunken Saints committed assassins. The Trade Union threw its weight behind the movement after the Iron Works demanded the death of all postal workers. The Rusty Lanterns provided field operatives to coordinate ground operations. The Rising Tide, Captain Roberts' pirate fleet, allied its ships with the Conch Battalion.
The movement's strategy was not to defeat the Rat King's armies in the field. That was impossible. Instead, the coalition recruited settlements to stage rebellions loud enough to draw the Rat King's full military attention away from the Kingdom itself. While his armies crushed what they believed was a genuine insurrection, the Sunken Saints would send their best assassins through the unguarded gates. The plan required settlements willing to serve as bait, willing to endure the full weight of the Knights of the Rat King long enough for the real strike to succeed.
The New Kingdom found those settlements, one at a time, and asked them to choose between submission and revolution.
When the Rat King allied with the Iron Works, the consequences spread through every layer of Rum Coast society. Irons who had escaped slavery and built new lives in the Kingdom found themselves fugitives again. Postal workers who had smuggled the enslaved to freedom now had bounties on their heads. The Sunken Saints, who had tolerated the Rat King's rule for as long as it served stability, found their assassins returned as severed heads with politely worded notes.
The New Kingdom arose from the convergence of groups that could no longer remain neutral. Captain Vincent Douglas of the Conch Battalion directed his First Mate, Sathrik Son Louise, to join the cause. The Sunken Saints committed assassins. The Trade Union threw its weight behind the movement after the Iron Works demanded the death of all postal workers. The Rusty Lanterns provided field operatives to coordinate ground operations. The Rising Tide, Captain Roberts' pirate fleet, allied its ships with the Conch Battalion.
The movement's strategy was not to defeat the Rat King's armies in the field. That was impossible. Instead, the coalition recruited settlements to stage rebellions loud enough to draw the Rat King's full military attention away from the Kingdom itself. While his armies crushed what they believed was a genuine insurrection, the Sunken Saints would send their best assassins through the unguarded gates. The plan required settlements willing to serve as bait, willing to endure the full weight of the Knights of the Rat King long enough for the real strike to succeed.
The New Kingdom found those settlements, one at a time, and asked them to choose between submission and revolution.
