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Decisions for Partani

Information trickled in through the Traders and their long links of contacts, and through now non-existent radio signals. It seems the Bards (Amachi Kendia) had destroyed 8 billion people in two successive campaigns. Although those successes were against two of the most troubling guilds to the empaths, the outright slaughter of so many troubled them.

The best account of events goes as follows:

The bards sent a first fleet 3 years ago, approximately. The fleet utterly destroyed all defenses the Necromancer guild had. The Necromancers' main fleet tried to return from its siege on the Clerics' homeworld, but was destroyed by a Paladin battlefleet. Over a matter of four months, the Necromancers went from being the most dominant military power in the galaxy to being powerless.

Unfortunately for the bards, their first fleet was completed drained of supply and forced to cease bombardment. A second fleet was built and sent, arriving there and destroying the Necromancers' completely.

At the same time, the Empaths' main battle fleet met up with the Barbarians, and was utterly decimated, resulting in the second lost battle against them. The Empaths' took their time rebuilding yet again. This time they planned on building an overwhelmingly large fleet.

In the meantime, the Bards' fleet swelled to over 50 some ships. The fleet took the long route home, and upon arriving there was instructed to begin an attack on the Barbarians, having got word from a remaining Rangers' colony that the Barbarians had destroyed their homeworld and several colonies.

The Bard fleet was a serious drain on the Bardic economy to be sure, so results were imperative for the war fleet. The Barbarian war fleet had been mostly scrapped as supplies were extremely low after their campaign against the Rangers, and their battles against the empaths. Because of the Barbarians' lack of preparedness, their entire homeworld was depopulated in a matter of 15 hours of heavy bombardment.

This is the Last known position of the Bardic fleet. It is likely they are returning to their homeworld, perhaps to be scrapped, or perhaps to be sent out again.

The Clerics were severely damaged by the Necromancer assault, and a horrible plague wiped them out, thus making the Crusade war the most deadly conflict in galactic history. Among the six empires who had existed at its start, only the Paladins and a few million Thieves remain. Nearly 20 billion people have been guild, just in that war, with 8 more billion killed in various southern conflicts.

The Empath council had finally decided that they needed to take action in 2412. Capturing the bardic planet with little lost of civillian lives would be the most humane way to prevent further genocide. Any other empires that showed overt aggressiveness should be stopped, was the ruling of the council.

So the empath's built up yet another warfleet composed of boarding parties and infantry, which were the most humane ways of war to the empaths, and set off across the galaxy to put a stop to Bardic vengence. Although the Barbarians and Necromancers were severely misguided empires, the empaths still felt that many innocents were wrongly killed.

Of the eleven guilds that had left Elanthia, the old world, only the Bards, Empaths, Traders, Paladins and a small Thief presense remained.