The Kingdoms of Man

“Graaaaawaaaargh!”

The Goblin Horde marched from the mountains, creating literal rivers of green as they piled together, all screaming for blood.

All screaming for war.

Waving crude weapons and wearing crude armor, the goblins of every shape and size descended into the plains where the Minotaur tribes dwelled, where the combined armies of the Minotaur Confederation waited to merge with them to become a massive horde.

The full combined forces of the newly-formed Coalition of Free Beings would soon however dwarf this force with the numbers their other members provided their militaries.

The Fliers of the Gryphon Kingdom.

The Kobold Rangers.

The Diamond Dog Cúnna Faoil.

And the most terrifying of them all, the newly-formed Great Dragon Crusade. Their respective target?

Mankind.

The newly-crowned Regnator pored over the map, considering many things.

The United Kingdom of Man wasn’t actually at all united, for their citadel-capital was but a part of the population of man. Various tribes were scattered in the wildernesses about, and they had proved friendly or barbaric.

Depending on the time of year, of course.

The Moenéills were mostly reasonable with their export of mana seeds, if a little extortionist. Their warlike natures should have made it easy to convince them of the necessity of their giving auxiliary troops.

However, the direbeast-riders of the Cualicoatltlaca would present a bit of a problem, seeing as their fierce isolationist and independent nature meat a military alliance would be shaky at best.

Outright war with them at worst.

Shaking off the thought, Regnator considered the other tribes.

To the extreme north, the salty frozen tribe of Magofinn would surely use the attacks as an opportunity to fill their coffers even more, so mercenaries from them wouldn’t be an issue.

Their neighbors to the east, though...

The Kalibuke mountain men were deeply spiritual and cared little for the affairs of men, as powerful as their warriors were. Perhaps Regnator could appeal to their collective sense of honor, if he could make sense of it....

Determining that, Regnator considered the tribes of the mid and far south.

The Fathuarto were nomadic traders by nature who roamed the desert on their tamed Kabegaeyas and were good friends with the Magofinns, so relations would be smooth.

However, there was one people that Regnator would prefer he didn’t have to deal with.

The Chladsutes.

Roaming the frozen wastes below, they inspired dread with the armored Dire Tyrants they somehow tamed. These creatures were massive and completely carnivorous: the people often circulate rumors that the beasts were fed by disobedient Chladsute children.

Regnator hoped that this was not the case. However, their beasts of battle could would prove useful, should an alliance be secured.

Regnator also remembered Saddle Arabia, a neighboring state of the Fathuarto. Home to both the noble horse and camel, they were masters of trade, considering their stamina.

However, the sheer size of the looming invasion would probably scare the Saddle Arabians off. They had no obligation to the Kingdoms.

As Regnator peered over the map and troop dispositions, he was unaware that the fighting had already begun.

The Moenéills and the Diamond Dogs had skirmished and sparred over mining and farming rights over the plains before... but now, two full-sized armies faced off against each other.

Diamond Dogs barked and howled on one side, showing off their spears, helmets, and shields that many Moenéills had considered stolen. Of course, the Diamond Dogs disagreed, but many travellers coming through the region considered the garb and weapon makeup of the Diamond Dog to be eerily similar to that of the Moenéills.

On the other side of the plains, the Moenéills chanted as they banged their longswords on their longshields. They waved their intricate swords and their custom-carved shields proudly. Behind them, the Moenéill nobility stood in their steel chariots, pulled by tamed, bipedal Gáelimons. Taller than a man and gangly looking, these herbivorous lizard beasts of burden were reliable and were also used by the diamond dogs to pull their own nobility in their own war chariots.

Chieftain Cú Chulainn looked down to his chariot, running his hand over the intricate designs that were welded into the steel chariot. He also regarded the elongated and sharpened spokes that jutted out from the big wheels of the chieftain’s chariot. They were to taste blood today, it seems.

Clearing his head, Cú Chulainn adjusted his heavy armor, looking down on his troops. They didn’t care to wear armor, instead favoring intricate patterns of mana paint to shield themselves. They didn’t even wear shirts, instead opting to show off their muscles in an attempt to intimidate their enemy. The patterns glowed bright blue, and Cú Chulainn took pride in his brave warriors as he looked across the field.

The diamond dog formations were almost a mirror of his own. Granted, they were using stolen mana techniques and stolen armoring and training techniques, but they were slightly impressive nonetheless.

Cú Chulainn signaled to his squire, who sounded a horn. His warriors quieted down and made themselves ready. He cleared his throat, and, with a short prayer to his ancestors, said, “Warriors of the Moenéill! Long have we regarded those dogs over there as rivals in this land, but now we can consider them enemies! They and their friends have declared war on us and those pretty city boys in the forest!”

Some murmuring began in the crowd, and Cú Chulainn said, “If ye didn’t know of this, methinks you stayed one day too long in the mines!”

That got a chuckle from his men. Grinning, he continued, “Look at them! I mean, look at them! Answer me this, boys. Have they anything they didn’tjust take from us?”

The answer from his men was a resounding and a amused “No!”

Cú Chulainn’s grin widened, and he shouted,

“Have they any right to our land, our birthright?”

“No!”

“Well, then. Show them who rules these lands!”

And with another sounding of the horn, the Moenéill painted warriors charged with a roar.

The Diamond Dog warriors did likewise.

The rushing groups met in the middle, lowest point of the valley.

Iron sang aloud, and shields banged together. Men sang and screamed as Dogs howled and barked. Flashes of blue light shone through occasionally.

A dust cloud gathered over the mass of fighting and dying warriors. Cú Chulainn singled out his nephew, who was in the front lines.

Where did that rapscallion go... oh, there he is.

The nephew in question was dueling with a diamond dog at the edge of the fighting formations. Blows were traded and were received across shields, and Cú Chulainn noted with pride that the fighting classes wasn’t wasted on his remaining heir.

However, the dog got a lucky shot in, and it seemed over for young Culann. However, the attack was repulsed with a blue flash of light, and Cú Chulainn grinned.

Culann had taken to runeweaving well.

Having been unbalanced, the Dog met a grisly end at the edge of Culann’s sword. Cú Chulainn noticed his aide pointing, and he noticed the enemy chariot formation moving to flank Culann and the painted warriors. That wouldn’t do at all.

Another sound of the horn, and his own chariots were moving to intercept those curs on their chariots. The spokes whistled as they spun, and the chariots clattered as they rolled towards each other.

Cú Chulainn readied his heavy crossbow, working the long lever action and placing a bolt in the groove. The aide driving the chariot noted with a bit of dread that the lever action of such a crossbow was notoriously hard to operate, and that only men of Cú Chulainn’s caliber could operate it.

Cú Chulainn let loose the bolt, and it impacted one of the opposing Gáelimons pulling a chariot. He grinned as the resulting collapsing creature overturned the diamond dog chariot.

Shame, though. It was a perfectly good Gáelimon.

Cú Chulainn put aside his crossbow in favor of his lance. He took the reins from his aide, who picked up javelins and took occasional potshots. Cú Chulainn let loose with a roar, as did the rest of the charioteers, and the chariot formations smashed into each other.

The targets now were not each other, but the animals pulling each other. Thus, they targeted each other’s steeds with their scythes and their weapons.

Charioteers moved in front of each other to catch the powerful hind legs of the Gáelimons in their sharp spinning scythes. Charioteers also endeavored to preserve their own gáelimons, so it was a real test of skill for the combatants.

They fought, and the song of steel and agony was sung.

“I welcome you all, Members of the Equestrian Alliance. This emergency gathering has now come to order.”

Celestia faced a long chamber full of the varied races of the political coalition known as the Equestrian Alliance. How fitting, then, that all the members were quadrupeds.

“You may know by now that the Dragons have formed the Coalition of Free Beings in order to destroy the Kingdoms of Man, whom we have allied ourselves with.”

Celestia looked around to gauge everypony’s reaction.

The representative from Saddle Arabia, Hakim, just watched Celestia with the signature horse stoicism.

The representative from the Pony Triumvirate just stewed in his own thoughts. He almost seemed... remorseful?

This was uncharacteristic of the hostile trio of independent Pony City states next to Saddle Arabia. These were Equestrian colonists who, due to distance and hostile enviroment, thought it best to break away from Equestria and found their own Nations, choosing not to depend on each other, but on themselves. The three pony races had established their own cities, with the pegasi founding Rachisopia, the unicorns founding Monomerton, and the earth ponies establishing Domhanit. They exist as the ponies did before the founding of Equestria, with a loose military and economic alliance to defend themselves from the hostile environment and their neighbors, the Minotaurs and the Saddle Arabians.

Celestia knew that maintaining diplomatic relations with the Triumvirate was difficult because they never considered themselves Equestrian. They considered Celestia to be ineffectual and soft, considering she pressured for peace and harmony with their environment where the Triumvirate would prefer to burn away the Everfree-like forests where they dwelled and slay the hungry creatures instead of taming them. Their near-hostility for their neighbors came from the banditry that wandered into the Triumvirate lands from neighboring ones, looking for easy prey. The constant conflict in those lands turned those ponies from a delightsome and friendly people to a prideful and boisterous one.

Which was why Celestia was unnerved by the silence of the Triumvirate representative, Silver Tongue. She cleared her throat and said, “Equestria has already pledged herself to her allies. What say you?”

Hakim nodded and said, “Saddle Arabia will aid Equestria.”

Celestia turned to Silver Tongue. After a moment, he said, “I’m sorry, Princess. We may have had a... sufficient alliance, with your assistance. But it is not enough this time.”

Silver Tongue sighed.

“We’ve been approached by the Dragons. They’ve offered us so much to help us tame the land that wages war against us. It was just too much to resist. So it is with a heavy heart that we turn our backs on our fellow Equestrians and join the Coalition of Free Beings. We’ve suffered so much at the claw and teeth of the land, and you’ve simply proven to be not enough for our cities. I’m sorry.”

With that, Silver Tongue departed. Celestia and Hakim traded a look. Celestia sighed.

This was grim news, indeed. This upcoming struggle would be all the more difficult. She thought for a moment, and considered herself lucky that her allies were human. After all, they thrived in hard times.

They should persevere.