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Bratmon

I can just type whatever I want here?
44 Badges
Feb 21, 2013
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  • Crusader Kings II
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Intermission
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13

Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 15.5
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19, Part 1
Chapter 19, Part 2
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22

Miskatonic University, Class of 1836

As so much has been lost in recent years, I have felt compelled to write my own complete account of the history leading up to this moment. I only hope that this information will be of some use to someone of a future generation.


I suppose there's no more logical place to start then January of 1836, the dawn of the Republic of New England. At the time, nobody understood how Johnathan Napier managed to convince Andew Jackson and the 24th United States congress to allow New England to secede and form its own nation, but I have developed a compelling theory in the intervening years.
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Of course, at that time, I was deep in my studies at the Miskatonic University at that point, and did not entirely understand our fledgling nation's place in civilization, or civilization's place in the universe until after I graduated.

I still remember President Napier's graduation speech as my first moment of looking out of the world before me. For historical context, I have reproduced it verbatim:

"Congratulations class of 1836! You are the first ones to make it out of the brand new Miskatonic University, and the first class of any university to graduate into the free nation of New England! I expect great things from you, but I know you'll rise to the challenge. Right now, I'm looking at the businessmen and engineers who will turn our industrial core into the backbone of the world economy!
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I'm looking at the scientists and artists who will come up the innovations that will define the future!
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I'm looking at the politicians that will lead our country into the new age!
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I'm looking at the administrators that will manage our new nation!
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And I'm looking at the diplomats that will manage our delicate relationships with out neighbors!
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Right now, I am looking at the future of New England!
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I can't wait to see the greatness I know is in each of you!"

At the time I did not realize how vitally needed the talents of myself and the remainder of the class of 1836 would be over the coming decades.
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I also failed to realize the importance of an event that occurred only a few days after my graduation. A few members of the Department of Ancient Religions returned from an expedition to war-torn Mexico telling stories of an obscure cult practicing rites unlike any they had ever seen. It would take years before we would understand the full import of what we were seeing.
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Interesting
 
Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah-nagl fhtagn

No points for guessing who I'm rooting for. Fingers crossed that this is the memoirs of a cultist writing about their early days and how they came to stop worrying and love Cthulhu.

(or I'm completing misjudging the direction this is going to take).
 
Definitely interesting.
 
Of all the government, President Napier was the only one to have any real reaction to the inception of the cult. When it first came to his attention as a minor addendum in his daily briefing, he immediately called Professor Dunster, the head of the Department of Ancient Religions, in for a conference. As Professor Dunster later told me, the President seemed thrown by this event, as if everything that had happened until now had been going according to some cosmic plan but now he was knocked off balance. Over the subsequent summer, President Napier's state department secretly funded a group within the department to investigate reports of cult activity around the world and study them. Because of my combination of qualifications (and the low budget for staff), I was appointed to be the liaison between the professors and the government. I quickly became acquainted with the regular commute between Arkham and Boston.

For Napier's part, he left our group to our own devices, as he quickly had to focus on the inaugural elections.
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In July, we found our first evidence that the cult was spreading. In both Bhutan and Uruguay, our observers found rites being practiced almost identical to the ones on Mexico.
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President Napier focused his election campaign on war policy. He seemed to have a particular admiration for the phrase "We are patriots and are going to fight for our country!" and liked to use it at every opportunity.
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The next cultist cell was found in the German territory of Hesse-Kassel.
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I remember this one in particular because when we first discovered it, Professor Dunster challenged the professors in the room, many of whom were experts in world politics: "If you can point out where on this map Hesse-Kassel is without looking it up, I will give you this five dollar bill!"
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Nobody won.

In September, we found cultists in Hamburg.
In November the election results came in. Napier's Federalist challenger (I cannot even recall his name) conceded days before election day, so the results were unanimous.
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Napier had done an excellent job riling up the people for war.
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It was almost a waste that there were no wars on the horizon.

His first term was fairly uneventful all considered. In January, smallpox swarmed the nation, and the valedictorian of my class, medical student Jason Daley, was put in charge of the response. A leaked proposal from the Nationalist party leader to let the disease run rampant resulted in the leader's resignation in disgrace.
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In May, our Navy made headlines: our inability to find reliable suppliers of naval supplies left our ships barely functional and at risk of sinking at the dock.
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Also in that month, we found cultists in Travancore, Krakow, Nepal and Frankfurt am Main, and congress found the money to fund a few rail projects, including one that drastically shortened my commute from the university to the capital.

In July, we found something we had hoped we wouldn't: evidence of the cult in a German-speaking nation we could find on a map:
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In December, the Republic of Texas surrendered to Mexico. This was a surprise to many who expected that with the assistance of the United States Mexico would fold quickly, but it happened that the sudden departure of New England had left the country on its heels.
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1838 was a particularly uninteresting year. Cultists in Brazil, Ecuador, Chile and Indore, research into medicine, the Coronation of Queen Victoria (which I trust my readers have read about countless times), and farther decay of our navy (down to 2% effectiveness, according to the admirals).

In January of 1839, the United States attempted to supplement its lost martial prowess by entering a military alliance with New England. The new battle reports confirmed that they were gradually liberating Texas, but it was slow going.
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New England was never called into this war.

A few more countries were found to have cultists, Lucca and Cambodia, if I recall correctly. At this point, I began to lose track of the spread of cultists on the multitude of unimportant countries across the globe. Yes, I do note the irony of writing off countries larger and more powerful than New England at the time as "unimportant."

In February, Mexico agreed to allow an independent Texas, which almost immediately applied for statehood.
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With Napier's first full term wrapping up, he announced his reelection campaign.
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The next development in cult-related news was shocking, not least because it was the state department that first informed us about it rather than the other way around. Our observers in Bogotá had noticed the cultists getting more and more brazen: operating openly in daylight hours and expanding their ranks to the point where there existence could not be considered "secret." But what happened in July shocked the world: the cultists moved as one to march on the capital, and seized control of the government in one fell swoop. Our ambassador was quickly expelled, which we assumed to be a precursor to war until a representative was sent to the consulate in Medellín to normalize relations. We were able to reestablish communication, but outsiders were never again allowed into Bogotá.
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With the expanded presence of cultists around the world, the University had started to attempt to piece together their motives; the only thing they could figure out for sure was that this cult was worshiping some ancient god which they believed to predate human existence, and they had some supernatural ability to co-opt governments to accomplish some unknown purpose. Comparisons to Napier's founding of the Republic were obvious, but left unsaid.

Columbia was not an isolated incident; Cambodia was next to fall, but they certainly would not be last.
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In the end of 1840, Napier was reelected with no organized opposition. This seems to be a political victory rather than a supernatural one: the Federalists were afraid to field a candidate and once more underscore their lack of importance, and the Nationalists' support of slavery in New England made them abhorrent to the electorate to the point where they couldn't get on the ballot.
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Napier had once again prepared the people for war. This time, however, he would find a target.
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The Brazilians attacked Colombia in February, not making any mention of the cult in any public statements. Whether the presence of the cult caused the attack or the Brazilians would have attacked anyway is a question we will never answer.
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At about that time, we noticed cult activity in the titan of the far east:
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The only other notable event of the next few years is Lucca falling to cultists as well, a grim picture of the future.

In 1843, after years of violent rhetoric on the campaign trail, Napier finally makes good on his promise to find an enemy and starts to plot an interncontinental expedition to the Zulu.
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This was not well-received either by the international community or domestically.
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I find the following quote from a press conference illuminating, especially given my current theory on Napier:

"'But why cross the world to fight them in particular?'
'Well, we need a foothold in Africa.'
'Why?'
'At some point decades from now, we in the west are going to have the technology to explore into the heart of darkness in Africa, and exploit their resources. We need to be well positioned for that.'
'How could you possibly know that?!'
'Have I ever been wrong before?'
'Err... Well, why would we want to colonize a continent so far away decades from now so badly that we're willing to commit our entire army to it now?!'
'It's tradition.'
'Something in the future?'
'Yes. It happens every time, and we don't want to miss out.'
'Mr. President, you're not making any sense-'
'I'm sorry, we're out of time.'"

At the time, we chalked it up to Napier's well-known eccentricities, but my own department would have learned a lot by pressing him farther at that moment.

During that month, something else happened of great personal interest to me: at the start of the school year in 1843 I went to the opening ceremony of Miskatonic University, and tried to meet as many incoming students as possible. It became clear to me that my own school had become the most respected institute of higher education in New England, beyond even Harvard or Yale.
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At the end of September, we got the news were had all been dreading: our observers in London found evidence of cultist activity. Now, the most powerful country in the world was threatened by forces we still did not understand.
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This was compounded by similar news from the opposite side of the world.
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In March of 1844, Napier got his war.
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The United States joined as an ally, mostly to prevent New England from being seen projecting force across the world more effectively than the nation it seceded from.
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Despite stronger than expected resistance from the Impi, the war was over in a matter of months.
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The day after announcing the end of the war, Napier also announced that he would not retire after two terms, and run again in the election of 1844.
 

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This update got longer than I expected. I never thought about how much there was to talk about in 8 relatively-uninteresting years of Victoria 2.

Interesting

Definitely interesting.

Thanks.

Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah-nagl fhtagn

No points for guessing who I'm rooting for. Fingers crossed that this is the memoirs of a cultist writing about their early days and how they came to stop worrying and love Cthulhu.

(or I'm completing misjudging the direction this is going to take).

You're looking the right way.
 
These spreading rumours of Cultists is a mite concerning.
 
From the journal of (at the time) Colonel Frederick William Wright:

Well, I guess I should start by telling you a bit about myself. I graduated with a degree in English Literature from Miskatonic U in 1836, having been really motivated by Napier's speech, immediately applied to the officer training school. It took a little prodding from a family friend who happened to be a senator, but I became a commissioned officer in 1838.

Like everyone else in the army, I didn't really do much of anything except spend my pay until Napier managed to convince the Secretary of War to actually do some war.

When we took that trip across the Atlantic, I was still a Second Lieutenant, having never been very good at the whole "sucking up" thing, but I rose through the ranks quickly after I was one of the few officers not to crap my pants and run away during the battle of Ulundi.

When the war ended, we all thought we were going home, but Napier had other plans in mind. Enough of the men were pissed at their new home that the overseas votes against the man moved the needle. Or would have, if either other party bothered to name a candidate.
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Democracy. Isn't it grand?

We got plenty of news from home, though. First, that they were finally building a clipper shipyard in New Hampshire so our boats wouldn't just rot away. It never made any money, and subsidies for it were an issue in Congress from then on.
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Now, our contracts said we had to stay "as long as New England remained at war." Most of us were counting down the days until the next boat home when we got word that the US called us into their war with Mexico. Nobody from New England ever actually saw the war, but it counted.
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A prophylaxis against malaria being discovered did lift our spirits a bit, if only because it slowed down the death rate.

In July of 1845, over a year into this stupid deployment, we were informed of the plan of what was called "Phase 2." We were going to attack some Southeast Asian nation somewhere and take their gold. Orders from Napier referred to it as a "tradition" for some reason. Suggestions that we focus on Mexico were laughed out of the room, even among the more pragmatic members of the general staff.
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Our state department was many things, but "subtle" wasn't one of them.
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Question I had when I saw this report that I never got answered: What border?

Turns out you don't need to be subtle if you pick the right targets.
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At this point, we didn't know it, but our diplomatic future was about to change. When the government launched the invasion, they called upon the US for assistance again.
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It wasn't until years later that I learned that Napier had known from back channels that the US would not join, and made a strategic decision to cut ties.

In the popular imagination, the US betrayed us out of nowhere, then rubbed salt in the wound by accepting a concession from Mexico and giving us nothing for all of our help.
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Months leader, headlines like "Top 10 Reasons the United States Needs to Go" still buried stories about how the natives in our new colonies were actually being treated.
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On the bright side, the administration sent in riot police fairly quickly.
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The strategic importance of Zululand magnified when a neighboring state fell to the cult, although the government was still keeping the list a secret at this point.
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Napier's third term was a bad time to be poor.
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All told, we won the war in Johore with very little resistance, propelling us to the illustrious rank of secondary power.
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All the promises of going home were dashed when we saw the state of the navy. The clipper factory we heard so much about didn't seem to actually be doing very much, and we didn't have a way to get back to New England.
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At this point, many senior officers retired from their commissions and took a ferry home from one of the British ports, and I was promoted once again, to the point where I was senior enough to be informed about the cult, which we suspected even the Pope was under the thumb of.
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In 1848, President Napier announced that his fourth term would be his last, emphasizing his desire that New England should be a democracy, not a monarchy.
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Let's take a moment to appreciate the sad case of the United States. With their best states taken from them in 1836, they managed to get only minor territorial concessions from Mexico, a nation that by all rights they should have rolled over. Internally, our departure had left them on the brink of collapse: the slave states enjoyed a substantial perpetual majority in the Senate, forcing the North to adopt extreme political measures to have their voice heard at all. In 1848, some abolitionist elements gave up on politics and tried to start a violent revolution of the substantial slave population. It was quickly put down, but it highlighted the divisions in a nation with a slaveholding majority and an increasingly desperate free minority.
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At this point, Napier made it his unofficial policy that the only path to greatness for New England was by exploiting the division and death of the United States. To underscore this, he brought back the "USA the traitor" rhetoric.
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With Napier's final term beginning, it was time to plan for the future.
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Quite a bit of foreign adventuring .
 
The 1850s were a transformative decade for both the politics of North America and the cult spreading across the world.

To start with, in the summer of 1850, the nation was occupied by an outbreak of disease.
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Which distracted even us from the ever-growing progress of the figurative disease that is the cult.
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Napier continued his obsessive work into shattering our relationship with the United States.
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The cult moved ever onward.
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Meanwhile, the United States made war against Mexico, and our rivalry with the Union continued.
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In January of 1852, entering his final year in office. Napier examined the problem of the decrepit fleet in Malaya once again, and decided to take action; with no path forward to return the troops home, Napier granted them all three months pay and dismissed the entire army, forcing them all to find their own way home through commercial travel methods. He then raised an entirely new army to garrison Boston.
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Having accomplished his goals of overseas expansion and making an enemy of the United States, Napier endorsed his successor, one George Keith. Despite Napier's reputation as having an answer to everything, Keith's reign would mark the first true challenge in New England's history.
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Napier's endorsement was enough for him to win unopposed.
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The apocalyptic vision regarding the future for the United States held by Napier and Keith proved accurate when an incident involving a slave made headlines across the world; the Supreme Court decided that if a slaveowner took his slaves into a free state, they would remain slaves, forcing the free states to accept the institution of slavery. The embattled northern states, now deprived of even the idea that their sacred portion of the country did not allow slavery, began talk of taking up arms to enforce their own rights.
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Napier responded by insulting the fragile government, and encouraging the states to revolt.
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As Keith's presidency began and he was informed of the status of the cult, I was forced to give him the worst possible news: London, the center of the world in every possible way from cultural to economic to political to longitudinal, was closed to all but the members of the cult. The mechanisms of the Empire were able to adjust in a matter of months, but we at the University were all forced to reflect that as the potential downfall of civilization spread from the fringes of the world to the center of it, we did nothing but watch.
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Although we did not know what form the cult would ultimately take, we knew that we were not ready to face them, and probably never would be.

In May of that year, the second major blow of Keith's presidency arrived.
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The day the news arrived in Boston, Keith gave his famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) "Eagle and Phoenix" speech, in which he argued that in the long term, it was only possible for New England to thrive as an independent nation if the United States failed, so New England must make sure the Confederate States win regardless of the morality of their position. In a matter of hours, his state department began putting his policy into place, the culmination of 16 years of influence from Napier, an individual who was no longer around to take the blame for it.
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In July, the United States discovered our plan to liberate New York.
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But we were undeterred.
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Another prong of this plan was a propaganda campaign to get the New English people behind the confederate cause.
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A well-publicized border incident between us and the United Kingdom happened to make the people even more restless and eager for war.
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On March 19, 1854, New English intervention into the American Civil war begun.
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The world is surely going slowly to hell.
 
Wow - certainly didn't expect the DoW against the USA!

I'm intrigued to see what happens next. Will the US be too caught up with their civil war and the war with Mexico to be able to defend itself against New England?
 
That's a lot of bloodshed, even before the cult starts causing more chaos.
 
From the journal of (at the time) Brigadier General Frederick William Wright:

When Napier disbanded the army then begged for us all to come back, I was one of the morons who said "yes." When I did that, my promotion to Brigadier General was pretty much guaranteed. That's the rank I stayed at throughout the American Civil War, and I wasn't promoted again for a long time after.

The first task in the war was to mobilize the Zulu auxiliary. The hope was that the Impi who knocked us onto our heels with spears would roll over the Americans with guns.
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In the opening months of the war, the Union had its army completely committed to the South; we were able to seize control of New York City with minimal resistance.
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The same day Mayor Westervelt surrendered, we received word that Mexico had reached a peace deal with the United States granting the United States most of their demanded territory. We prepared for the storm.
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As we secured Long Island, we also got word that a faction of Federalists finally got tired of perpetual Democratic rule and formed the Anarcho-Liberal Radical party. I hate them to this day.
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You know you've made it when multiple front page newspaper articles are personally relevant to your life. It doesn't hurt when the printing press is under your military occupation.
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In October, the Union troops finally arrived, charging into our troops in New York. As the battle opened, we has no idea what to expect, and relied on our training and elaborate battle plans. The Union troops seemed incredibly confident; they had just defeated Mexico and destroyed the bulk of the Confederate army and considered us another breakaway republic that could be easily put down. As we waited for the other half of army to arrive it seemed that way to us too.
upload_2018-11-14_20-28-47.png

When our reinforcements got here, the story seemed different. The Americans moved so fast across the country that they had left behind their artillery, giving us a huge advantage.

The "Halloween miracle" that happened next was the closest New England came to complete defeat. The rest of the Union army was following close on the heels of the unit that attacked New York, but word that the army in New York was in trouble never reached the reinforcements. The general of the reinforcing army assumed New England was defeated easily, and went North to liberate Buffalo and Rochester.
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That extra time was enough for us to crush Scott's army.
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The relief army, shocked by this news, decided that the best approach would be to go for the heart and quickly march directly to Boston. We were forced to move as fast as we could to try to intercept them. When we finally did meet them in Albany, we were off our plan and ragged.
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I wish I could credit my own skill, or the superiority of the New English army, but it was only a few lucky breaks that saved us during the battle.

At this point, we were badly damaged and disorganized, with most of our brigades down to less than half strength. When the third Union army showed up, we had no choice but to trust the captured forts in New York to slow them down as we retreated to Arkham to reorganize and reinforce.
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During our week in the city, I decided to return for a visit to my alma mater. I met up with one of my old friends, who was now running our intelligence network looking for cultist activity. He explained to me how unprecedented the rise of the cult was, and made me promise to look into military solutions to defeating them if we ever somehow got a chance, or defending ourselves if they ever decided to attack us. The man likes to use a lot of big words.

Properly reinforced, it was time to go back on the attack.
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We didn't realize it until the battle had started, but this group was entirely conscripts. We defeated them easily.
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At this point, President Keith replaced the empty suit running our navy with an admiral willing to set up a blockade around the Union's tiny remaining east coast.
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In response to a major prison riot in Boston, Keith ordered a fleet of ships sent to Zululand and Johore full of convicts, to get them away from the war as well as society in general. The ships were to return with reinforcements from the colonies.
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Unfortunately, the reinforcements were not up to the same caliber as those that distinguished themselves during the war so far.
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August of 1855 was a good month for us, we recaptured Buffalo and a resurgent Confederate army attempted to siege Washington DC.
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A lesson we learned over and over in this war was to never count the United States out. A fourth American army defeated the Confederate cavalry, relieved Washington, and started heading towards New York. We had to rush to intercept it.
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While I appreciate their tenacity, we were hardened veterans who had won a half-dozen battles in the last year, and they were a cobbled-together force of anyone who was left.
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This wasn't even close to the most pathetic last-ditch we would face; in February the Union's Argentinian allies sent an expeditionary force.
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Following that victory, President Keith added the acquisition of New Jersey to our list of demands.
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The Americans never stopped sending anyone they could get in a uniform and hand a gun at us.
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But we were only getting better.
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With the Americans mostly dealt with, we decided it was time to go for their heart. The American leadership expected Washington to be sieged during the war (it was less than 100 miles from Confederate territory after all), but I bet they never expected the attack to come from the north.
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After the occupation, the United States issued a formal offer granting us our demands.
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President Keith considered the offer for several days, but eventually refused. In another fiery speech, he argued that New England can never be safe as long as the future of the Confederacy is in doubt, and we must continue to fight the Union until the civil war is over.

In the spring, he signed a formal alliance with Richmond.
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With public enthusiasm for the war very high, Keith won reelection with no significant opposition.
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Our war plan had now been expanded: we were to liberate all the Confederate soil the Union had taken early on in the war and rehabilitate the almost-defeated CSA.
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The few remaining American troops thought they were safe in Tennessee. They were wrong.
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With no Union forces left, liberating Texas was relatively easy.
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The creativity of the the Argentinians surprised us once again; knowing that they could not defeat us in North America, they attacked our colony in Johore, which was wide open to for them.
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News on the cultist front not so good.
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With Texas free, the end was near for the USA.
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Even already at war with the USA, Keith didn't think it was worth it to pursue our debts. It's just not a good war goal.

On June 4th 1858, the USA officially organized a cease-fire and recognized the independence of the CSA.
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They accepted our demands two weeks later.
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The USA was still barely clinging to the title of Great Power, but the nation had been divided into thirds, and had lost all hope of being relevant on the world stage. Meanwhile, for the first time ever, New England was operating without the plans of the seemingly omniscient Napier.
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That was a lot more intense than I thought it would be; neither Mexico nor the CSA put up much of a fight.

Quite a bit of foreign adventuring .
That's a lot of bloodshed, even before the cult starts causing more chaos.
With the cult expanding, we have to be at the absolute top of our game.

What an interesting concept. As someone who has included Shub-Niggurath in an AAR before consider me subbed!
Thanks.

The world is surely going slowly to hell.
We're just getting started.

Wow - certainly didn't expect the DoW against the USA!

I'm intrigued to see what happens next. Will the US be too caught up with their civil war and the war with Mexico to be able to defend itself against New England?
One of the rules of Victoria: If you don't break the USA during the ACW, you aren't going to.
 
Definitely a humbled America.
 
subbed
 
Subbed !

Interesting so far. Good job on your war versus the USA.
 
The postwar period was defined by President Keith attempting to replicate the triumphs of Napier, and make a name for himself as a statesman in his own right.

The rule of New England over New York began with a slight on the new administration; the New York News decided our triumph was not worthy of the headline.
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On the economic front, the factories in New York were operating again fairly quickly, although Interior Secretary Samuel Wheeler was shocked to discover that New Jersey had no factories at all.
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Congress, having learned nothing from their prior experiments with subsidized shipyards decided to fund a steamer factory in the empty state.
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In early 1859, I finally received the information I had been half-expecting since I had begun inhabiting my position: evidence of the cult we had been pursuing across the globe was found in our backyard.
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Like many of the strongest moments of dread I had within the University, this was tempered by the positive events happening outside of it. By May of 1859, the powers of Europe had internalized the great defeat the United States had endured, and declared that New England was now the dominant nation of North America.
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The New York News once again decided to slight us.
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In their new position of power, the state department spent a moment taking stock of the world (or at least the parts of it containing the great powers)
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Our elation was short-lived. In July, we received word that Mexico was invading our Confederate allies and we were being called into war.
At this point, Keith realized that the New English people were not prepared for what promised to be an endless string of wars against North American rivals. He had his lawyers draw up an elaborate list of reasons why this particular situation was not covered by the terms of our wartime alliance.
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And tried to play both sides diplomatically.
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A glimmer of good news arrived in November, when a botanical expedition lead by a fellow Miskatonic alumnus discovered a plant now know as the New English Empress.
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Keith announced he would be running for a third term.
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The election was once again a landslide.
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In his new term, he begun to integrate our economy with that of the confederacy.
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Discouraged by the perpetual electoral status quo and the state's gradual slide away from protection of workers, a group of people form a new party in New England, embracing an idea from Modena known as "Socialism."
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The United Socialists believe in State Capitalism, which is potentially advantageous to our surreptitious preparation for a war against forces we do not understand, but they also believe in Pacifism, very damaging to any war effort.
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In a secret cabinet meeting, President Keith expressed these concerns, and it was decided that we would take all reasonable measures to ensure that the status quo is maintained, and the United Socialist party never ends up in power.
In the coming months, he would enact this policy by using questionably legal means to curtail distribution of socialist papers, and deploying national guard units to suppress socialist rallies.
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The Confederacy forgave our betrayal, probably after realizing that we were the only power on the continent they could possibly seek help from.
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In April of 1862, Pope Pius IX mysteriously withdrew from public life as cultist rituals spread throughout Rome.
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In the spring of 1862, those in the cabinet could tell that Keith was chafing without a war to fight. He assigned a group within the State Department to scour the globe and find a nation New England could conquer without risk of defeat or fear of reprisal from more powerful nations.
A majority of the group recommended an attack on Oman, as Zululand could form a base of operations and the conquest would grant New England a substantial foothold in the Middle East and eastern Africa. A substantial minority recommended Sindh; the war would have minimal expense and impact while granting New England a source of valuable tea.
A lone dissenter was not satisfied by either of these options, and reviewed the various reports that were written when we first earned Great Power status. He was shocked to discover that no power had any claim or guarantee on the ancient nation of Tunis.

Keith at this point believed his presidency could do no wrong, and decided that the relatively large population and proximity to the center of Europe characteristic of the Mediterranean nation were not points against the conquest, but points in favor of it. He ordered the state department to start drafting a war plan. This required a massive propaganda effort, but the State Department was up to the task: a few leaks to the New York News (which ended up on page 3), and the war was ready.
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As a Great Power, and soon to be a nation with interests in Europe, we began watching the crises of the continent unfold
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The war begun in October of 1862.
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The news from our own continent was not as good; the United States managed to take more territory from Mexico and bolster its influence to the point where we had a rival Great Power in North America.
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Their rivalry with Mexico did leave Mexico open to our influence.
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In May of 1864, another election cycle was starting. Many in the Democratic party were frustrated by President Keith's reckless invasion of Tunis, and there were rumors of the party pulling the nomination from under him.
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