Steel Union: Chronicle of Fire, Faith, and Blood

During the period when the unity of faith bound our people, allowing us to withstand thousands of heretics and demons piercing reality, a curse of thought crept into our ranks. So deeply did it take root, altering people, that even the best among us betrayed the ideals once set as the task of the nation. Our leader was among those unfortunate, giving his soul to the cause. He saw light where all around perceived only decay, led by the family ruling our land. They worked for ruin, meant to claim each of us. They took away faith, cast us into the darkness of despair, hoping to bring about our end. Rubbing their hands in malice, awaiting the desired outcome, they did not understand how deeply within us was rooted the strength to rise.

He called us to fight! To fight as long as the heart beats! As long as the covenants of the Party live, created by God! He saved us, charting the righteous paths. Now we carry his word, cutting off the heads of the hydra of heresy, eager to finish what has begun. Though he is no longer with us, his spirit still lives in everyone who can raise a weapon and a cross.

- Soldier’s note

The Breaking of Unity

It all began in 1850, when the state declared a program to separate church and government. At a time when faith was still the last shield for many, this decision struck deep. By 1851, ordinary people - the vast majority - rose up to defend the religious community. The elites, however, united against them, seeing danger where the masses saw salvation.

Clashes with authority followed. No shots were yet fired, but the struggle intensified each day. Force could not extinguish the uprisings; instead, their power grew with every wave of discontent that rippled through cities raising divine banners.

The ruling union responded in 1853 with public hangings and burnings of leaders, ignoring the laws of faith. This brutal message was clear: justice, even drenched in innocent blood, would reach whomever the elites desired. The people quieted, rebellions momentarily ceased, and peace returned - but only on the surface.

The unprivileged, however, found unity in faith. Tens of thousands marched not only for themselves and their families, but for God. They believed themselves invincible. Thus began the great revolt - but by 1871, after years of slaughter and suppression, the people’s militia surrendered. Against the machinery of a regular army, backed by systems of repression, they could not prevail. Their war ended. But the dream of resistance lingered, waiting to ignite once more.

Collapse and the Shadow of the Emperor

Seven years after the suppression of the church, the ruling powers struck again. Under the banner of separating church and state, they launched a punitive march against the clergy. High priests and senior church leaders were executed publicly, “offered to the sword” in the name of new values meant to pacify the restless population. This brutal act, far from quelling dissent, rekindled it. Outrage spread across the empire, and the people once again rose to defend their ancient rights and their faith. Thus began a partisan war.

By 1882, corruption and betrayal had spread unchecked for eleven long years. That year brought one of the darkest tragedies of the age: the massacre at Svyatki. A small religious commune was torn apart by abominations conjured by the Emperor himself. The creatures slaughtered every man, woman, and child, leaving behind only desecrated corpses gnawed to the bone. Witnesses spoke of hunger and cruelty that could not be human - of shapes and movements alien to flesh.

In 1885, three years after Svyatki, he appeared - the son of a dynasty that was once great emerged before the people. He denounced the Church as a parasite, an institution that fed on lives and wealth while undermining the throne. In its place, he promised something greater: power beyond human limits, a gift from forces outside the world - offered only to those who would renounce their “petty beliefs” and swear loyalty to him.

But the Emperor’s promises were met with daggers. After three months the first assassination attempt took place, failing at the cost of many lives. A second attempt - after a year - left the Emperor grievously wounded, many believed he would not survive. Against all odds, he lived, and in 1888 the conspirators were executed in a grisly public spectacle. From that year onward, the Emperor never appeared in public again.

In 1890, diplomatic ties with neighboring states collapsed, severed by imperial decree. Two years later, in 1892, famine ravaged the land, claiming countless lives. Desperation boiled over into revolt: two cities rose in open rebellion, their militias fighting to preserve their families and their faith. By 1893, the rebels had captured a key supply hub, a vital node of survival. The imperial army tried to reclaim it in 1894, but failed. The defenders - ordinary men and women - stood unbroken, holding the line against overwhelming force.

Return of the Cross

By 1895, thirty-five years after the persecution, the church raised its cross once more. Despite the heretics’ grip, it endured. Its call to fight in God’s name resounded across fields soaked in blood and terror. In 1896, the conflict escalated when demons openly marched at the side of the ruling elite, forming a single unholy army. 

The resistance, which had begun by a movement of common people united under the banners of faith calling themselves the Party, rose once more to lead the fight. They lost several smaller battles, yet those defeats brought knowledge. From them it became clear where the ruler’s path - the path of one who had sacrificed both heart and reason to forbidden power - was leading the nation.

That knowledge became a weapon. It was shown to the doubters as proof of what their hesitation would cost, and together with the Church’s word, it convinced many to join the swelling ranks of the resistance. Even in the face of such unholy power, the people rallied.

In 1897, a new leader arose among the rebels. His fiery speeches set waves of resistance crashing across the empire. The church supported him, and by 1900, the Party’s great march restored its authority, creating a second power within the land.

By 1897, a new leader arose among the rebels. Young, fiery, and unyielding, his speeches inspired waves of resistance across cities held by the empire. He promised salvation for those who fought now, pledging that their loyalty would one day save them all. Supported by the Church, his leadership gave birth to the Great March of the Party in 1900, restoring the Church’s authority and creating a second great power in the land.

Between 1903 and 1905, the rebels struck decisive blows, driving the heretics from several territories. Yet fate turned cruelly: the leader himself was slain in battle. By 1906, without his guidance, the revolution faltered, and imperial forces began to push back.

In 1908, the Emperor himself returned to the battlefield, seeking to crush the revolution with his personal presence. At the border city of Gran, his armies clashed with the last gathered remnants of the Church’s scattered strength.

The defenders, led by the successor of the fallen leader - a man of the people, chosen by the will of the faithful - stood defiant. Yet under his command, key positions fell and the defensive lines collapsed. The tide of heretics and their demonic allies surged forward unopposed, spilling past the ruined fortifications.

By 1909, the shadow reached the once-proud city of Vydrin, overwhelming it in darkness. What had been a symbol of resistance was drowned beneath waves of horror, as demons roamed freely through the homes of the innocent.

But in 1910, the tide turned. At the ancient city of Kalan, the forces of the Church were drawn into a decisive, all-or-nothing battle. The heretics, having stretched their lines too thin, found themselves weakened. This flaw became the key to their downfall. The faithful struck hard, and the imperial family - who had marched forward in arrogance, seeking to celebrate their triumph - met their deaths in 1911, slain in the chaos. What had begun as their victory march ended instead in a house of slaughter, a place that became their tomb.

Once the head of the serpent was severed, its body faltered. By 1912, the disorganized remains of the heretics and their demonic allies were hunted down and purged. And in 1913, the Church restored its place as the cornerstone of society, rebuilding the sacred order alongside the returning strength of the faithful.

⚔️ The Steel Union is more than a faction. It is a brotherhood forged in suffering, sanctified by fire, and bound by faith. Their history is written in blood, but their march continues - against demons, heresy, and despair itself.

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