VaultedWar VaultedWarThe HighCourt and DeepCourt came to a diplomatic standstill over trade routes, I believe. The worst relations since MeridianBalance.
QueenHydra sent some sort of messenger via a ship operated by the ArchebellochTradingCompany, that somehow managed to appear as a martial unit to the LordMilitant, who then had the offending citizen of Myriapodia beheaded. (It ended up being quite gruesome because the latter half of a myriapod wriggles for quite some time even without a heartbeat).
Then, it began. The ATC withdrew, of course, but it was a slaughter. The aquatic forces are more specialized and skilled, but there were many Skyknights. The SkyLevy was in full effect, and it was of course the first military action of the CrimsonCloud (although that incident brought a not inconsiderable amount of disgrace to the office-holding LuftBaron, of which there was only one at the time). The OrpheneClasp assassinated the lord later replaced by LadyKeys, I forget his name. Many of the Bluefins were killed in a coastal clash with the militarized PalaceGuard. The last three remaining TyrantKnights were slain single-handedly by JusticeEuphretes in her role as the head of LadyLionheart's personal troop of SkyKnights.
It ended, of course, when the shadow armies of BaronessaAcaraDeLaRook came tumbling out of Rook? and arrived in the fray on the TuvaStyx?. UmberAlliance or not, her army is too creepy for words.
-- JuneLaveau
Ah, the VaultedWar. Half the crew of the Darter was captured for ransom while the rest was sent to convey the LordMilitant's actions to the DeepCourt. Many of them were paid for and not delivered.
You see, in the past the DeepCourt has often treated with the HighCourt as it liked, confident that the depths of the sea would protect its citizens and power bases from reprisal, and to an extent this is very true - there is simply no practical way for a lander to invade the deeper waters, and the deeper they try to go the less meaning their numbers have. But in modern days they do not have to. The shores have become much too important and strategic, and they're all too accessible to SkyKnights.
And so it is that we must give right of way to lander ships on routes we find odious to cede, channels and streams that had previously been to our exclusive advantage. So it is we rebuild our reef homes and watch the skies.
Such days of blood and misery I am done recalling. We couldn't all dive away.
-- HalloaGrisau
The VaultedWar was the first time UnquenchableFire? was used in combat. A horrific business, to be sure, and a terrible surprise to the forces of the DeepCourt, who could not merely withdraw underwater.
Touchy stuff, though. More than one airship was lost to clumsy handling or disturbance during battle or maneuvering when the UnquenchableFire? touched off.