Aenarch: Last Winter

Aenarch: Last Winter
also known as Last Winter Project
Kind	Campaign project
GM canon
first cited: [heralds-b#1]

Aenarch: Last Winter is the main campaign project, the frame inside which the party campaign Heralds of the Cycle is run. ^{[heralds-b#1]}

Setting up the campaign

The campaign is built around a war campaign of the Winter Elves, who are trying to conquer the other elven domains in order to gain power. ^{[heralds-b#3]} Against that, the player party defends the weak and the common people. ^{[heralds-b#3]}

The war is fought over the Velfald Regency, a Regency of the Aenarch Empire ruled by a Regent and made up of duchies such as Swanhall, Moonward and Timbermire. ^{[heralds-b#178]} Its two effective duchies are Swanhall and Moonward, and it also holds the county of Iceverf. ^{[last-winter#7]} Timbermire is the Regency's capital. ^{[heralds-b#198]}

House Ursa opened the Winter War campaign on the lands of the Velfald Regency from Oavenia, across three land fronts — Eastern, Western and Northern — and one naval front on the Frostveil Sea. ^{[last-winter#643 · last-winter#644]} By the point the sources record, House Ursa held roughly a third of the Regency's territory. ^{[last-winter#643]}

The collapse of the Velfald Regency

The Regency's central authority had already weakened and was full of cracks before the campaign's present. ^{[heralds-a#3]} Under the pressure of the war its control of its own territory came into question. ^{[heralds-b#446]}

Caerwyn Ursa mounted a joint attack with the northern and eastern fronts and destroyed the forest of Grayhost. ^{[heralds-b#40]} Having lost that front, the Spring Elves went over to full guerrilla warfare, to be carried on until the last tree was standing, and were reduced to small harrying, sabotage and raiding teams. ^{[heralds-b#40]} During the guerrilla war they took shelter inside Iceverf. ^{[heralds-b#148]} Commander Greywind and twenty archers held the first line during a Winter Elf attack, letting those falling back reach Iceverf and killing about fifty of the enemy. ^{[heralds-b#170]}

The Duchy of Swanhall, a mountainous duchy of precious metal and gem deposits ruled by House Ironwing, fell entirely to the Winter Elves, its mines, foundries and castles passing into their hands. ^{[heralds-b#150 · heralds-b#151]} Moonward, for its part, wants to become Velfald's protector. ^{[heralds-b#182]}

To hold the Eastern Front the Regent of Velfald bought a new group of mercenaries. ^{[last-winter#789 · last-winter#790]}

The Iceverf line

Iceverf is a county within the Velfald Regency; an important road runs from it to the Regency capital, and its count also rules the town of Sunbell. ^{[last-winter#21]} It is a city of roughly a hundred thousand people in a cold, snowy region, held by House Frostweave. ^{[heralds-b#164 · last-winter#324]} It is not under siege, but it has been rotted from within and carries both political and mystic threats. ^{[heralds-a#3]}

Behind that rot stands Blackice, a secret organization protecting Iceverf's ancient history from the Empire. ^{[last-winter#134 · last-winter#141]} A Blackice cell keeps a refuge in the sewer and cellar network under the city. ^{[heralds-b#366]} A man-made tunnel runs from the organization's abandoned inn to Old Iceverf. ^{[heralds-b#444]}

The county's politics broke down alongside the war: the late Count set out in answer to a summons from Altia and died on the road. ^{[heralds-b#166]} With the count absent, his daughter was left running the county while Blackice went on gathering strength. ^{[heralds-b#148]} The noble council opposes meeting the Winter Elves in open battle, which leaves them penned inside the walls of Iceverf, and the hard winter makes it unsafe for anyone to be outside. ^{[heralds-b#166]} After the count's death the nobles fell into disagreement over whom Astrid Frostweave should marry. ^{[heralds-b#166]}

Needs a decision: Whether the disappearance of Iceverf's count during the Rosereach evacuation and the late count's death on the road to Altia are the same event^{[heralds-b#149 · heralds-b#166]}

The Deadreach line

Before its fall, Rosereach was a port city vital to the Velfald Regency for its supply and reinforcement routes, and the seat of the war council. ^{[heralds-b#5 · heralds-b#6]} It is a county rather than a duchy, with a Legion barracks and a Seer but no Cardinal, the Cardinal for the region sitting at Timbermire. ^{[last-winter#862]}

The Winter Elf invasion reached the plains outside Rosereach, and Naevys Duskbloom began a modified cloudkill ritual to stop the Winter Elves and Baroness Bella's army. ^{[heralds-a#51]} The ritual killed most of the enemy army and raised its dead as a defending force, but the magic evolved in ways nobody had foreseen and the dead and the Remains slipped out of Naevys's control. ^{[heralds-a#51]} The Winter Elf army withdrew from the Rosereach plains, and the city became a dead but moving place. ^{[heralds-a#51]} Naevys and some surviving Arcanum mages were left trapped in the city's tower, working on a ritual to bring the network of dead they had made back under control. ^{[heralds-a#51]}

Lesser Smokers walk the streets of the ruined city, shaped by the consequences of the ritual. ^{[heralds-a#93]} Where one of the Remains is seen, several more are probably hidden nearby. ^{[heralds-a#74]} The Regency's Arbiter formally granted Naevys the title of Arcane Protector of Rosereach. ^{[heralds-b#49]}

The line closed when the Heralds of the Cycle killed the Reminder and the Remains network collapsed, Elnaril released a high-realm cold over the city, and Deadreach became a frozen quarantine wound; the surviving people were evacuated by ship. ^{[heralds-a#149]}

Relation to the Winter War

The Winter War is the war this campaign is set in: the Winter Elves' campaign of conquest against the other elven domains. ^{[heralds-b#3]} House Ursa's invasion of the Velfald Regency is the form that war takes on the map the players move across. ^{[last-winter#643 · last-winter#644]} Both of the campaign's city lines are consequences of it: Iceverf is the city the war has not yet reached but has already hollowed, ^{[heralds-a#3]} and Rosereach is the city that stopped the invasion by destroying itself. ^{[heralds-a#51]}

Heralds of the Cycle

Heralds of the Cycle is the sub-campaign run inside this project. ^{[heralds-b#1]} Its party is the group that tries to defend the weak and the people against the Winter Elf advance. ^{[heralds-b#3]}

Narrative threads

The game master set aside five narrative threads so as to be ready for whichever of them the players choose to pursue. ^{[heralds-b#239 · heralds-b#241]}

Players, stop here. What is hidden behind this point is game-master material. The full detail is on GM:Aenarch: Last Winter.

Related pages

• Heralds of the Cycle — the party campaign run inside this project
• Winter War — the war the campaign is set in
• Velfald Regency — the Regency whose collapse the campaign follows
• Iceverf — the northern city line
• Deadreach — the southern city line, formerly Rosereach
• Winter Elves — the invading people
• House Ursa — the house leading the invasion
• Spring Elves — the people driven into guerrilla war and into Iceverf
• Blackice — the organization working Iceverf from the shadows
• Naevys Duskbloom — author of the ritual that ended Rosereach
• Campaign Log — the running record of play
• Timeline of Aenarch — the events of the war in order

Unconfirmed ideas

The source conversations contain proposals for Aenarch: Last Winter that the campaign owner never confirmed. They are collected on Idea:Aenarch: Last Winter so they cannot be mistaken for canon.