You are Noel Tiberius di Hazaran, queen of the nation whose name you share and one of the senior leaders of a faction of monster-hunting warriors based out of your clan’s hereditary seat at Blackthorn Castle. Under your leadership Hazaran’s borders have expanded dramatically to include the mountains and valleys of Cuilan to the east, the rich plains of inner Tarsus to the west, the rivers and forests of western Bretonne to the south, and several towns and cities in the foothills of Sakia to the north.

Hazaran’s territory was more than doubled practically overnight, and its economy boomed both in terms of total productivity and diversity. Taxation and public works, particularly border defenses and improvements to roads, bridges, and waterways, was a thorny issue for a while, but eventually those problems were all solved.

And then Sakia was invaded.

The mainland, a place that had previously been just something you assumed had to exist but which neither you nor nobody close to you had ever seen, sent an invasion force that quickly gained a foothold on the coastline of your northern neighbor, and soon began probing your northern defenses looking for a weakness. They thought they may have found it on the western border with Tarsus, but after a multi-day battle were repulsed. They thought that awakening several of their male soldiers and sending them across the border through Cuilan might make for an effective strike against your faction of silver-eyed warriors, but with sound tactical decisions and the help of ‘reformed’ awakened beings who have chosen to fight at your side those attackers were destroyed.

Now you find yourself with the fruits of a raid into the port town that has served as a landing point and staging area for the invasion. One ship which you stole from where it lay at anchor carries seven single-mounted guns behind metal shields, each of which firing shells which weigh right around one hundred pounds. A smaller warship, which seemingly chased the one you stole all the way back around the island to the newly-acquired Hazari south coast, has been largely gutted by fire after being surprised by the first, has also been captured.

You’ve had a crew unbolt the remaining gun from that second ship and offload its ammunition, and they’ve begun bolting it back down onto some heavy wooden timbers on the shoreline to improve the harbor’s defenses.

“How has it gone?” you ask of the crew chief, who seems not to be in a particular hurry for the first time so far today. “Well, I take it by your pace?”
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