The March

All of Cassius's classes for the day were cancelled with the news, with Hektor being pulled apart in six ways to ensure his business ran smoothly, and that his Caravan's were able to accompany the Margrave with all the necessary supplies and then some.

While Akeem had decided that he wanted to see the world a few more times before his ageing body began to fail him, and had decided to follow the Margrave to Stroh one final time. This had both Jacobs and Laurence protesting staunchly, but both men quickly gave up, knowing full well how stubborn the old soul could be once he had made his mind up.

His new found free schedule had brought Cassius nothing but irritation, he was going to become stir crazy rather quickly with nothing to do all day except laze around or plan for the future.

Thankfully, he had an opportunity to meet with Castellan Jericho that afternoon and introduce himself to the man.

Jericho was a holdover from the previous Margrave, a man approaching his fifties with a bald head, and a mighty moustache decorating his aged appearance. Jericho's time in service to the March was obvious, His face weathered over the decades with crows feet lining his eyes. The man appeared to be a properly experienced commander.

He stood across from Cassius above the impregnable Iron Wrought gates of the castle, the pair stood in silence as they watched the flow of men and supplies enter the castle in preparation of the busy morning ahead of them.

"Are you concerned about your father?" Jericho suddenly asked, never taking his gaze away from the movement below.

"Not entirely, my father is well equipped and prepared. But… I do have reservations about the Cross's intentions." Cassius stated.

Jericho frowned at this and turned his gaze towards the youth. "What are your thoughts?"

"Well, honestly I think that the Cross Kingdom finally have a leader whose learned from their previou mistakes, or have some sort of plan in mind that has granted them the confidence to attempt a siege. Any and all previous attempt from the Cross was a force numbering in the tens of thousands, and if what we've been told is true, then they're coming with a force numbering about ten-thousand strong."

Jericho closed his eyes and held his chin in thought. "It is strange that they've only brought such a paltry number, it took them throwing away the lives of nearly eight thousand men to eventually break Stroh during your great grandfather's era. Of course the Outpost then can't compare to the Stroh we've painstakingly erected."

The slaughter and loss of life in the valley back then was appalling, the Cross Kingdom Army at that time was led by an ambitious prince who wanted to reclaim his ancestors land, and came storming through with an army numbering over one-hundred thousand souls.

The entirety of the Ironforge Kingdom had sallied forth in a great host to repel the invaders and break the great siege of sturm at great cost. Six months it took to push the invaders out of the Stenfall March. It was considered a pyrrhic victory at best, an expense of tens of thousands of lives, destroyed forts, towns, towers, and battlefields can still be found littering the wilderness in the Stenfall March who had managed to absorb the entirety of the blow.

Hence the state of the Stenfalls of today, it was a generational blow to the mighty House who have been rebuilding and reinforcing ever since.

Hence the Stroh of today, the entire Kingdom spent several years defending and constructing the pass into the beast it was today. Only leaving when the March itself had recovered enough to take over its defence once again. Stroh was then improved on by the Stenfalls for generations until it neared its current state.

Two castles, miles of tunnels, a multitude of traps, ambush points, sally positions, logs and boulders that could be thrown down from higher passes to crush encroaching forces. The entire Cross side of the pass from the gentle slope near the base to the steep path closer to the thin mountain gorge between the two mountains where the Fortress itself was located had become the mediaeval equivalent to Iwo Jima.

Any assailing Army would find themselves harassed day and night until they eventually besieged the castle properly, even then, they had to be wary of both the temperamental landscape, or raids conducted from the rocks themselves.

Honestly, everyone in the Ironforge Kingdom gave a deep begrudging respect to any Cross Kingdom commander foolish enough to make the attempt.

—----------

Eventually Jericho had to disappear to oversee the change of command, and take stock of who he would have left in the Castle outside of his guard, both men young and old having their own reservations about the small host marching towards them.

Before he left though, he informed Cassius that several of his fathers Honour guard were staying behind in order to ensure no accidents befell the young lord in his fathers absence, while also informing him that as long as he brought these men with him, he could leave the Castle and visit the local town.

Swell, babysitters Cassius thought to himself Upsides Cassius upsides. They're bodyguards, they go where I go. Maybe I can finally explore the local area.

He still needed to go inspect the land Hektor had plotted out for him, and he desperately wanted to see how an actual Medieval town looked, every day he had seen that damn town only a short distance away but had never been given the opportunity or permission to sneak out past the location of his to investigate it. A WEEK he sat inside of this damn castle appreciating the torturous quaint beauty of the landscape, if he was forced to spend his younger years in this damn castle he knew he'd go insane before he turned twelve. 

According to Akeem, his birthday was apparently in the month of "Ignis" which was in a month. Unlike the Months he knew, there were four-hundred and eighty days to a year, divided equally into ten months.

Aetheris; The month of the sky god, representing the turn of a new year, and Celebration of life.

Umbra; The second month, representing the fading darkness and cold of winter.

Florion; The third month, representing the renewal of life and birth of spring.

Vernalis; Fourth, named for the breeding season of most animals & Leviathans, also the first harvest of the year.

Solara; Days have become longer, and warmer

Ignis; The hottest months of the year, summer and harvests follow

Tempestra; The beginning of Fall,

Harvest; Simply named, the height of fall, and the last harvests of the year should be carried out now.

Brahm; First month of Winter or late Fall, named in honour of the Brahm festival which was commonly known as the Harvest Celebration, hosted on the first of the month.

Nivara; The God of night and cold, Sister to Aetheris, Celebrating the end of a year, and the Celebration of death.

This confused him though, two harvests in a year? The only crops he had ever known to be able to grow that quickly were either genetically modified to all hell, or alien in nature.

He had expected harvests to have only been once a year in this era as he had read, but was informed that with careful planning and management, along with growing the right type of crop, that you could easily manage two Harvests in a given year.

Some unique crops in the deep fertile south could even be harvested monthly, hence how the Cross Kingdom and kingdoms further south of them were so large and populated; they simply had a cheat code to feeding their massive populations!

The North's advantage? Their tree's grew larger and faster, with the tallest species dwarfing redwood tree's by a fair margin; with some so wide and tall that some people had taken to living inside them comfortably. Unique fruit trees that only grew in the colder climates, and stalwart a peoples that were typically taller and far larger on average than the people of the warmer south.

Downsides? Cold as hell. The Leviathans here were also mostly carnivores, a beast like people possessing their own Kingdom to the East of the continent, and at the centre of the North? A brutal hellscape that was entirely unexplored, its alien environment making it lethal to approach. 

There were other unique advantages as well, nobody except the desperate, or the Cross really wanted to try for these particular lands, seeing them as undesirable and difficult to tame, or requiring too much effort to properly supply. This allowed most of the territories to the North to exist rather peacefully, creating unique cultures and developing themselves considerably.

The more he learned, the more obsessed he became with this world. He could never allow himself to become tied down as the Margrave and have to suffer through miles of paperwork and responsibilities.

-----// Author's note //-----

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