Aexe Cardinal

Aexe Cardinal was a Agri-World that was part of the Imperium of Man. Located in the region of the Sabbat Worlds in the Segmentum Pacificus, the planet was home to a number of different nations with a variety of cultures, though they had a proud heritage of nobility and venerated the Emperor of Mankind with the reverence typical of any loyal Imperial World. Formerly a loyal and peaceful world with a proud culture, Aexe-Cardinal was brought under siege in a proxy war between the Imperium of Man and the Forces of Chaos.

The Aexe War
During the fall of the sector to the forces of Chaos, Aexe Cardinal managed to stay free of Chaotic influence. However, one particular country, the Republic of Shadik, was corrupted by Chaos and launched a great war against the rest of the planet, with the objective of conquering it for the Dark Gods. In response the other nations of the planet gathered into the great Aexe Alliance, led by the principal nation Aexegary.

The attack apparently caught Aexegary completely by surprise, as they were able to cut across the Upper Naeme valley. After five years of heavy combat, and the decisive Battle of Diem, the Meiseq Box was established, and the nearly-razed city of Meiseq rebuilt.

Kottmark had been the first to join the Alliance as a senior partner twenty years into the war, and its entry saved Aexegary from conquest by the Shadik. Later on, the Principality of Fichua also joined the alliance.

The result was forty years of extreme grinding warfare, with the battle lines changing very little if at all over the course of years. Despite the vast array of nations joining together in the Aexe Alliance, Shadik was able to hold against the combined might of the various other nations, with little progress being made over the course of the war. Two of the largest and bloodiest areas of combat on the Northern Front between Aexegary and Shadik were the Meiseq Box, the Peinforq Line, and the Seiberq Pocket.

The cost to every nation was devastating, both in terms of local currency, resources, and lives. The cost in lives was such that the Principality of Fichua, which had joined the war in 763.M41, would have had its entire population completely wiped out nine times over from the gathered casualties of the other Aexe Alliance armies.

Outside Aid
Eventually, after 40 years of warfare, Aexe Cardinal received aid from the forces of the Astra Militarum, which dispatched a force of infantry and armored units to help achieve a breakthrough that would hopefully end the war in the Imperium's favor. However, at the same time, Shadik received similar weapons and manpower support from the forces of Chaos, particularly the army known as the Blood Pact, which also brought powerful, long-ranged siege guns to the world.

The outdated and inefficient methods of the Aexe Alliance's chain of command and protocol hamstrung the operating capacity of many of the Imperial Guard units, as attempts to prevent Shadik spies from stealing battle plans resulted in many units not being told vital information, and constant politicking between high-ranking officers resulted in bickering and sniping between the Imperial Guard regimental commanders and the generals of the Alliance. Due to this, a breakthrough was not achieved before the Imperial Guard units were rotated out, however the Tanith First-and-Only regiment, under the command of Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt, were able to succeed in a mission to destroy the enemy siege guns.

The current outcome of the war and its progress is unknown.

Geographic Overview
Most of the planet's geography is unknown, but the terrain of Aexegary was idyllic, with a large number of forests, fields, and rivers in picturesque scenes, dotted with orderly towns and villages. However, towards the battle lines of the war, the terrain became muddy and more desolated, the product of forty years of unending war. Blasted trees and great muddy plains covered the area between Alliance and Shadik lines, from time to time punctuated by a structure that had managed to survive the near-constant shelling.

To the southeast, Aexegary had a large stretch of coastline along the Cardinal Ocean, which gave it a lifeline to the sea. Aexegary shared a border with the much smaller nation of Fichua, and across the Kottmark Massif was neighbored by the country of Kottmark. Aexegary and Kottmark both were bordered by Shadik, making them part of the war's front line. The eastern part of the lines were anchored by Frergarten, an Aexe Alliance fortress. Aexegary, Kottmark, and Fichua were three of the seven different nations that were part of the Alliance, battling the Shadik.

Some of the flora and fauna of the world included flowers, along with animals like the behj, a large ursine like creature that was the alpha predator on the planet, and the struthid, a massive, quadrupedal avian animal that was greatly muscled and had long claws on its feet and great, sharp beaks that were used by the cavalry of Aexegary. Their riders were bonded to them through neural links, which could have horrific consequences if the mounts were killed while the riders were attached. Juvenile struthids were often used in cockfighting by bored soldiers. Due to the war the species' numbers were dwindling.

Culture
The culture of Aexe Cardinal was that of a planet in the Second Millennium in the ancient history of Terra, with elegant cars, trains, and noble military officers. Aexegary was the largest and strongest of the seven different nations in the Aexe Alliance, ruled by its High Sezar. Its currency was called the scuto. The nation had a proud military history, and the High Sezar was guarded by an elite military unit, the Bande Sezari, in his palace of Mons Sezari. The country's capital, Brunsgatte, was a grand city with docks and a commercial district on the Naeme River. In the ancient days of Aexe Cardinal, generals rode to the Mons Sezari in jeweled palanquins from the city's Fortress Gate. This tradition was still kept in the city, and it was customary that the palanquin's driver was paid a scuto in return for his service. At the time of the war the High Sezar of Aexegary was a man named Leonid Fip Krefuel.

Kottmark was a similarly proud nation, who was often reckless as they tried to show the rest of the Alliance what they could do.

Technology
Much like their culture, the technology of Aexe Cardinal was that of Terra in the Second Millennium, though they had other technology that was more Imperial in origin. Though the main Aexe armies utilized bolt-action Auto Weapons, rhomboidal tanks with sponson or dorsal-mounted cannons, tri-wing propeller aircraft, and cavalry, they also make use of neural links to their cavalry (with the horrific drawback of feeling the pain and fear of their mounts if they are killed) and shielding to protect command posts from artillery bombardment (though these could be overwhelmed with heavy enough shelling), and servitors.

The arrival of the Imperium and the forces of Chaos into the war was an enormous change to the war, as despite being hamstrung by the war doctrine of the Aexe forces, the greater technology of the Imperium and Chaos were capable of overwhelming the Shadik and Aexe forces.

Aexegary
The largest and strongest of the nations of the Aexe Alliance, Aexegary was a nation with a long and illustrious military history that had a long-standing rivalry with the Shadik Republic, having fought and bested them in five different wars. A nation with a great deal of ritual, pomp, and circumstance behind it, Aexegary's nobility were a proud people that would never admit the possibility of losing a war, as Aexegary had never lost one in all of its years. Aexegary was ruled by its High Sezar, who ruled from the city of Brunsgatte.

Kottmark
Kottmark was a large country to the west of Aexegary, divided from the other nation by the mountain wall of the Kottmark Massif, and was the other senior nation in the Aexe Alliance. Its people were proud and brave, and it fought Shadik with as much fury as Aexegary.

Fichua
The Principality of Fichua was a more recent addition to the Aexe Alliance, joining in 763. It was a fairly small nation, located to the east of Aexegary and nestled between it and the Kottmark Massif. Its primary route to the Cardinal Ocean was south, in a large bay that lent the country a crook shape.

Shadik
The Republic of Shadik was the primary enemy of Aexe Cardinal, being the sole

enemy of the Aexe Alliance. In ancient times it had lost five different wars against Aexegary, and being subverted by Chaos gave it the ability to try for a sixth. After forty years it had managed to successfully hold seven different nations at bay in its war, and was supported in these endeavors by the Blood Pact as the war continued and the Imperial Guard was brought to the world. Unlike the forces of the Aexe Alliance, the Shadik Republic began to fight a modern war, often raiding trenches and using greater technology and different tactics, which made the situation more and more desperate for the Alliance. Its soldiers wore gas masks and chain-veil helmets, with khaki and brown fatigues. Old-patterened autorifles, pistols, and curved hangers were also used, and often raiders carried makeshift shields of flakboard.