“Children born of one emotion, Our devotion's deepest ocean, No division reasoned we'll be free.”
Dream Sweet in Sea Major - Miracle Musical
OC AU
The conflict is collectively known as The Long Engagement, a drawn-out series of wars, ceasefires, and renewed campaigns that have blurred into a single era of fighting. No treaties hold. No victory lasts. The continent is divided by allegiance to the two powers dominating the war: The Verdant Gambit and The Azure Crucible.
The war is remembered as inevitable, though no one agrees on why it truly began. The conflict spans decades. Cities that change hands too often to rename. (And cause I don’t wanna figure out geography + PS. ignore the fact that its chrislee colored, that was not on purpose)
THE VERDANT GAMBIT
“MARCH NOT FOR GLORY, BUT FOR TOMORROW. WE WILL BLEED, WITHDRAW, RETURN, AND SHOW THESE ZEALOTS HELL.”
The Verdant Gambit is a loose coalition of city-states, frontier provinces, and mercantile. It exists because no member can survive alone. The Gambit treats war as a series of calculated risks. Territory, manpower, and even loyalty are pieces to be traded if it produces long-term advantage.
Uniforms are deep green wool coats with brass buttons, cream breeches, and high black boots. Officers wear sashes marked with regimental glyphs rather than noble crests. Medical staff wear inverted colors: pale coats with green cuffs.
Ideologically, the Gambit believes individuals matter insofar as they serve the outcome. A soldier is respected, but replaceable. Sentimentality is considered a liability. Childhood ties are irrelevant once the uniform is donned.
The Gambit teaches that morality is a luxury of the victorious. Soldiers are trained to see civilians, allies, and even one another as variables in a larger equation. Loyalty is temporary by design. They justify their methods by insisting that someone must be willing to make the hard choices. In practice, those choices are often made far from the consequences.
Their hatred of the Crucible is not only ideological but visceral. They see the Crucible’s rhetoric as cowardice masquerading as holiness. They call them liars, priests, and butchers in velvet gloves. To the Gambit, the Crucible’s greatest sin is pretending the war is anything but slaughter. They despise the way the Crucible absolves itself by renaming itself as such. If the war is hell, the Gambit would rather rule it openly than pretend it is heaven.
“They promised you a falsehood. They did not promise you survival. They march you forward because it costs them nothing to lose you. The Crucible does not ask you to burn for nothing. We ask you to endure for something greater.”
THE AZURE CRUCIBLE
“ONWARD THROUGH FIRE AND BOUND BY STEEL. THE MISGUIDED SHALL FALL, AND FROM THEIR ASH THE STRONG WILL FORGE THE FUTURE.”
The Azure Crucible is a centralized state forged through prolonged internal conflict. Its leaders claim the nation was tempered by suffering, and that endurance is its defining virtue. To them, war is a trial, and its soldiers are put to the test. They are expected to hold positions beyond reason if ordered to do so.
Uniforms are dark blue coats with silver or pewter fastenings, darker breeches, and tall gaiters. Rank is shown through shoulder knots and sleeve bands. Medics wear blue with white armbands marked by stitched symbols, often homemade.
The Crucible teaches that history once reached perfection, and that perfection can be restored through discipline and sacrifice. War is purification. Enemies are misguided heretics. Their deaths are described as tragic necessities on the road to collective salvation.
“Pawn of the Gambit. Your commanders do not know your name. They know only your position on a map. They have told you this war is honest. Your officers have abandoned you. You are spent. The Crucible does not abandon its own. Lay down your arms. Step into the light. Be reforged.”