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Alias snippets, plot bunnies etc

We Will Tread Upon You
The mid 21st century would see the discovery of the moon, Pandora and setting off a competition among the various mega corporations over who would be able to exploit it and the winner being the Resource Development Administration or RDA for short. Of course they would need the ability to get their and pay quite a sum to achieve that but money was definitely something that did not lack and so designed and began construction of two spacecrafts, the Bradbury and Venturestar which would launch in 2077 in a momentous occasion but an event of a far greater importance and one would that would change the course of human history was taking place at Pandora. On the ground, the alien wildlife would be scared as two massive human bases were suddenly part of the landscape along with numerous outposts, research facilities and mining and extracting operations. Of course this was nothing compared to what was to come as in orbit the ten ships of the Joint Expeditionary Task Force commanded by RDA General Frances Ardmore and soon after numerous other ships would arrive while Ardmore fleet was dropping off their Landing Modules via space elevator and they would via giant plasma engines to slow their descent to the ground, burning the forest in a 20km radius and for the Na'vi watching it seemed as if the end times had come and unfortunately for them with time it would be. 3000 RDA troops would emerge from the modules to secure the landing zones and soon after far more workers with construction vehicles to transform the devastated landscape as suitable for building a city to be known as Bridgehead City as the first step in the colonization and eventual terraforming of Pandora as humanity's new home.

This explosive arrival did not go unnoticed by the personnel at Hells Gate with Colonel Miles Quaritch wanting some goddamn answers and wanting them right now and so dispatched a recon force to make contact with what he suspected were RDA but with communication currently disrupted it was just a guess. The recon force while traveling to Ardmore forces, would notice the various new outposts along their path adding to their already sizeable confusion before eventually landing at the edge of one the landing zones where they cautiously approached the security perimeter of one of the modules with them receiving a frosty reception as from the perspective of some of the soldiers of the JETF there was a suspicion that they were traitors lead by Jake Sully, enemy number one for the RDA. Course not all were convinced and cooler heads prevailed and after some negotiations, Quaritch men agreed to be disarmed and were escorted to General Ardmore and what followed a confusing discussion for all involved but quickly became apparent that they were all SpecOps and that for Ardmore forces it was 2168 while Quaritch forces believed it to be 2154. The general quickly decided to let the eggheads figure out the science of whatever the hell had happened while she brought all RDA forces and operations on Pandora under one chain of command with her personally traveling to Hells Gate, meeting with Colonel Miles as her forces made contact with various outposts. Quaritch was understandably confused by this whole situation but recognized Ardmore as his superior and now commanding officer though his confusion was quickly replaced with anger and rage learning what would have transpired and especially that a fellow Marine would betray humanity for those damn blue monkeys.

Communications would as well be established with the RDA ships in orbit and coordinating the lands of additional modules for the expansion of Bridgehead City while shuttles were directed to Hells Gate or the RDA base in the Wetlands region, Forward Base lead by Trinity Harper that had as well suddenly appeared on Pandora. General Ardmore as she was overseeing all this would have a newly arrived Jake Sully, Doctor Grace Augustine among others detained, while the workers that would have sided with him were given a second chance. As Bridgeport and the various outposts were expanded, planning as well begun for the fact that beside the Bradbury and Venturestar arriving with some remote controlled vehicles in 2084 and if they did not send a ship back to Earth soon, they wouldn't be receiving any support till 2089 or 2090 at the earliest so making sure the most minimal disruption to RDA operations was one of Ardmore top priorities. One of the other top priorities was making room for future expansion and securing valuable resources which meant the eradication of nearby Na'vi populations and other hostile species with strike forces rapidly organized and sent out and with deadly efficiency carried out their missions massacring countless Na'vi settlements with surviving members of the clans scattering in bands of varying numbers with many fleeing as far away from the RDA as they could. Others would attempt to fight an insurgency against the Sky People, launching hit run attacks but were no match for SpecOps greater numbers and firepower.

Another demoralizing blow for the Na'vi would be that it seemed some of their own people were fighting alongside the invaders but unknown to the Na'vi was that it was the 1st Recom Unit they were fighting who were human/Na'vi hybrids implanted with the memories of humans such as Miles Quaritch for example and which made for a surreal first meeting between the two Miles. As the RDA entrenched itself on Pandora, the Capital Star-class ships in orbit were loaded up with Unobtainium, Na'vi items, blueprints/schematics for various designs and technologies and anything else that would be of value to the RDA along with Jake Sully and his cohort. On the ground Bridgehead City was rapidly built up over the first year thanks to fabrication plants and construction and growing to be much larger than Hell's Gate with the long term goal of housing 2 million people with defensive walls 19 miles long and protected by an immense amount firepower, including guns and missile systems, some installed on massive concrete pylons. An additional layer of protection being the Kill Zone, regularly treated with herbicides and defended with automated weapons, this strip of death that was once a forest keeps insurgents along with any other hostiles far away from the city. In addition seeking a more efficient method of transportation, General Ardmore would order clearing of forest to construct maglev train lines which despite the occasional setback would quickly see maglev trains speeding along the newly built lines ferrying supplies, people and equipment back and forth to various destinations.

A massive scientific breakthrough would as well be made by Dr. Ian Garvin who would discover the substance he named Amrita from dissecting a tulkun and which if used by a human would stop the aging process and which would quickly see it become the most valuable resource sought out by the RDA and in the future would be critical to funding RDA future expansion in the future. Six years after the RDA unexpectedly arrived on Pandora far earlier than historically, the first of many ships began arriving at Sol to the massive shock of the governments and peoples of Earth while it was celebratory atmosphere at the RDA headquarters as they hit the technological and financial jackpot as their stock price surged while funding would no longer a problem with soon to be government subsidies and new lines of credit from the mega banks. It was disconcerting but not surprising to learn Earth was doomed but they had a head start and additional ships to begin an accelerated off world colonization program. As the scientific community was electrified at the existence of time travel and alternate timelines, nations both major and minor banded to begin the Herculean challenge of moving humanity off world as budgets shifted to fund the construction of massive shipyards in orbit while the colonization of places such as the Moon and Mars were massively accelerated with the latter began to be terraformed using technology brought back from Pandora. As the Pandoran ships were unloaded of their goods and the few people sent back, they were just as quickly loaded up with soldiers, personnel of various fields, colonists and whatever else was needed to transform Pandora into a new home for humanity before setting out once more.

As expected by the RDA on Pandora, the ships began to return starting in late 2089 with them unloading people and various equipment and updated orders from RDA while the ships were once more loaded up with resources. For the new arrivals while they had seen videos of Pandora it was nothing compared to actually seeing being there and then there was Bridgehead City which had resumed construction on housing and was massive and growing. It was also a major adjustment compared to life on Earth but adjusted as they moved into their newly built homes, took on varying jobs while those with children enrolled them in schools built years ago for the growing population of children born on Pandora. As the 2090s began and progressed, an increasing number of ships carrying greater numbers of people began arriving from Earth rapidly boosting the population of Bridgehead City as the RDA began to once more expand and rather violently the amount of land under its control for construction of additional cities and outposts or well loosely under its control while. By the late 2090s RDA began to enjoy a small demographic dividend in the form of children born since they arrived back as they began to enter the workforce and while initially a rather small population, the coming decades would see the population native to Pandora explode in size.

In orbit as well a permanent presence would be established with construction of space stations and shipyards etc. while the other planets and moons of the Alpha Centauri system would be colonized as the RDA extracted ever growing resources for both its needs there and to support the colonies in the solar system. Of course by the mid 2130s the RDA colonization efforts would expand to other systems discovered years earlier though the RDA would have to share them with the major nations as the latter wanted to avoid the RDA growing too powerful though many would argue that ship had long since sailed. Pandora would soon become the gateway to distant colonies as humanity expanded ever deeper into space as Earth became progressively abandoned as corporations sought to extract every last bit of resources they could.
………..
Three centuries have passed since humanity's unusual arrival on Pandora and much has changed and yet at the same much has stayed the same. On the Outer and Inner Colonies, tens of billions of people if not more call their home on colonies of various states of development from planets with populations numbering in the billions living on fully developed planets to backwater worlds with a few thousand or less people living there. The general unity that pervaded the Colonial Era among the various began to falter and eventually ended once humanity had fully entrenched itself beyond Pandora and the survival of humanity was no longer in question and so humanity returned to its old instincts with tensions grew among the major powers as they competed for resources and territories which eventually gave way to various wars which in time would see most of the governments that had relocated from Earth collapsing into numerous new nation with a diverse amount of ideologies and views. Adding to the growing dangers of the colonies is a returning of a long vanquished threat, pirates born anew from privateers and deserters from various interstellar navies who prowl the trade routes for easy prey. Adding to this tumult was human evolution via genetics which raises the question of what is human with reasons ranging from making living on alien worlds easier, creation of superior soldiers, and for the hyper wealthy to have the best children money can buy you among many more reasons.

There is one power that stands far above the various powers than the others and that being none other than the RDA. With deft leadership it has avoided being dragged into ruinous wars while making unimaginable profits selling to all sides and taking advantage of weakened powers to either make them into vassals or sign deals that massively favor the RDA. All overseen by the RDA government, now a shareholder democracy based out of the Bridgehead megacity which has long since expanded far beyond its planned size, with many mega cities dotting the surface with humanity having fully tamed and terraformed Pandora with the rest of the Alpha Centauri to varying extents transformed as well. The cost of human dominance has been the genocide and extinction of the Na'vi long ago and replacement of various native life forms with genetically modified versions of themselves with once great predators such as thanator now prey for wealthy people either bored or just loving hunting from the safety of towers built on either private or corporately owned hunting grounds. Speaking of corporations, the RDA no longer operates as the sole corporate group on Pandora or on other RDA controlled colonies though these other corporations operate under strict rules set by the RDA along with hefty taxes and know not to cross the RDA.

Of course the RDA control and protection of its immense interstellar empire being advancements in interstellar making trips that once took years, now either days or weeks. Finally there is Earth, the original home of humanity and a shadow of what it once was due its environment having been destroyed and for a time was abandoned by humanity. Though in recent years due to great strides made in terraforming and genetic engineering, the RDA has spearheaded the recolonization of Earth with subcontractors flocking from across known space to the planet that once was the center of humanity seeking their share of immense contracts and while Earth will never hold the importance it once had, it once more will host humanity even if it will be a small fraction of humankind. It is an uncertain era though if there is one certainty it is that RDA is seeking to build a better tomorrow and while at the same time making immense profits doing so.
 
Year of the Four Hokages
In the years leading up to the Shinobi World War, countries and ninja villages stronger than their neighbors would prey upon their weaker neighbors for resources and lands resulting in small but deadly wars breaking out. Concerned what this would logically lead too, Konoha's First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, would organize and host the first Kage conference where he would distribute the tailed beasts to the other strongest ninja villages in the hope of creating a new balance of power and thus establishing peace between the various countries. For a short time this did work till new and escalating conflicts broke out in the form of increasingly bloody skirmishes primarily between ninja and Hashirama ultimately died in battle. Tobirama Senju would succeed his brother as Hokage and attempted to preserve the peace his brother had so desperately wanted to continued but within a year of the Shodai Hokage death, war would consume ever more of the continent till practically all countries and ninja villages both big and small were at war with each other. In the lead up to the war there was belief held by those that had lived through the Clan Wars that it would be like that but somewhat bigger with it quickly becoming apparent greatly underestimated the strength the villages now wielded along with the size of the armies the various Daimyo could raise due to the far greater taxes and populations they could call upon with the consuming of smaller and weaker countries over the last generation.

The sheer number of men across the various lands conscripted to form armies of up to then unprecedented sizes saw the battles of the first campaigns see unprecedented casualties with the amount of lives lost quickly made the wars of the past paled in comparison. The lesson that armies and fleets needed support lest their officers murdered in their sleep, supplies destroyed or smaller army camps wiped out to the last man and a number of ships captured after the slaughtering of their crews. After two years of warfare the war had four main fronts, the border between the Land of Earth and Land of Wind, the Land of Rivers a battleground for the forces of Wind and Fire and their ninja while part of eastern coastal provinces of the Land of Fire occupied by Land of Water though unable to advance thanks to the tireless efforts of the Konohagakure and Uzushiogakure units assigned to the front and the many sacrifices of the soldiers of the Land of Fire chiefly the 4th and 7th armies while LoF fleets based out of the southern coast were making futile attempts to cut off the supply lines of LoW forces. The fourth and final main was the north western part of the LoF where the country was locked in battle with the forces of the Land of Earth and Land of Lightning and notorious for being the bloodiest of the fronts though such a fact not established by historians till years later. Having completed successfully completed a mission, the Hokage and his Escort Unit making their way through what was no man's territory found themselves by Kumogakure elite unit, the Kinkaku Force and while various options was discussed by the Hokage and his team, the reality that one of them would have to be a decoy and a sacrifice so that the rest could escape.

Ultimately the Hokage would select himself to be the decoy and was immediately bombarded with objections but made clear that this was way it had to be and that they had to carry on the Will of Fire and one of them to lead the village after his death and would select Kagami Uchiha as the next Hokage to the shock of all present and most especially Kagami Uchiha. With the greatest reluctance his students and Shinobi said their final goodbyes before making a mad dash to friendly lines while Tobrimara used every last bit of skill and chakra he had to buy his fleeing Shinobi the time they desperately needed and while the Second Hokage fell that day he made the Kinkaku Force pay dearly for that victory with the majority of the Kumo unit either killed or wounded and such were its losses that the unit was temporarily disbanded and those still combat effective. Before the survivors could claim the body of the fallen Hokage, they were forced to flee with the arrival of several squads of Konohagakure ninja following the first order of the new Sandaime Hokage to retrieve the body of his predecessor. As this was taking place, Hiruzen, Danzo and other Shinobi tried to convince Kagami to return to the village as quickly as possible in case of Kumo launched a new offensive, but he would not until their fallen leader body was secured and escorted back to Konohagakure. To the relief of the Jonin commander present, the Second Hokage body was successfully retrieved and so a mostly silent trip was made back to the village.

Arriving at the village gate it was hoped to keep Tobrimara death secret until the Senju could be informed but instead word rapidly and was a massive blow to the village morale. As well discontent began to rise over a fourteen year old being a Hokage and especially an Uchiha wearing the hat with some borderline discussions being held in some of clans. There was as well to be expected the general shock that Tobrimara "I don't like Uchiha" Senju would select one of them to be his successor but the most likely factor was the trust and faith the Second had in Kagami. Another challenge to the young Kage rule would be in his first meeting with the assembled clan heads where it was suggested by the Ezio Hyuga that a sort of regency be put in place till the young Hokage was truly ready to fully assume his position which naturally saw the meeting devolve into chaos with an outraged Kenji Uchiha accused him of trying to strengthen their position by weakening the power of Hokage and set a dangerous precedent. Some supported the Ezio and others Kenji position while others watched silently wondering if this was where the dream of the First Hokage would die.

Kagami watched as this unfold as their former leader hadn't even been cold for a day and petty politics was happening while Leaf Shinobi on countless battlefields were giving their lives, so to say Kagami Uchiha was enraged would be a massive understatement. He would make his displeasure clear with action as with a single gesture the room was flooded with ANBU and who were ready to draw their weapons if so ordered as the room in an instant became quiet. Now he spoke with his rage clear to all that he was the supreme authority and dictator of the village and that no one would attempt to limit his authority and that any attempt to would be viewed as treason, so asked if any present still supported Ezio's proposal. It was then that Tōka Senju spoke and the already high tensions in the room grew further though instead of what some had feared Tōka that she and the Senju clan supported the Hokage and if Tobriarama placed his utmost trust in him then she saw no reason to doubt Kagami ability to rule. So with this rare example of the Uchiha and Senju unity, the attempt to limit the Sanadamines power instantly crumbled.

Of course Tōka was rather stretching the truth that her clan supported the new Hokage as she earlier had to silence borderline treasonous talks and made it abundantly clear that she would not tolerate such talks and expected them all at the very least to accept their former clan head decision, a fact that wouldn't become known until after the war via a drunk Senju. Kagami could now turn his attention to ruling and quickly came to understand his predecessor's annoyance at paperwork and rapidly became annoyed with his own clan as the Uchiha attempted to make ridiculous requests but a few were reasonable such as relocating the clan compound to one of the center areas of the village. To the north within a few days of the Hokage death, a conference between the Raikage, his subordinates and the Lightning Daimyo generals was held to debate the next steps in their war with the Land of Fire. Many present were pushing for a new major offensive due to the belief that recent Konoha defeats on various fronts combined with the recent killing of the Hokage meant that Konoha was on the decline and that they could crush their frontline forces or at the very least cripple their forces that would eventually result in the Land of Fire defeat and then turn their attention to the other countries. Others were not convinced and were concerned about being overconfident and underestimating Konoha with the risk of launching an offensive too high at the moment especially with rumors that Iwagakure was soon going to go on the offensive once more.

As both sides argued, a report was delivered by a Kumo Intel agent to the Raikage with the identity of the new Hokage. Reading over the report and weighing the arguments of the various sides, the Raikage ultimately decided that Kumo would launch an offensive but keep back a force hopefully strong enough to hold back Iwagakure. So plans were drawn up, assignments given out before the order was given the Land of Lightning offensive was launched with it going well at first with major gains and then various traps began thinning Kumo Shinobi but still minor losses. Though as Kumo units became more distant and less able to support each other they suffered more and more hit and run attacks by retreating Konoha Shinobi before eventually tricking some Kumo squads with their common sense clouded by bloodlust and or overconfidence, into following them into kill zones filled with traps and other Konoha ninja with few managing to escape and for most of those that did would be tracked down and killed by squads composed of Hyuga, Aburame and Inuzuka clan members. Still the offensive continued till Konoha finally launched a counteroffensive as Konoha forces slammed into Kumo formerly advancing units with Tōka Senju herself taking the field and would be described in latter accounts as vengeance incarnated as she slaughtered any Kumo ninja who had the misfortune of finding themselves in her path.

Kumo commanders realizing the futility of continuing the present course of action and ordered a retreat, a very much welcomed action among the ranks of the Kumo Shinobi but unfortunately for some they found themselves trapped between the Konoha forces on their heels and the Konoha teams that had been operating the kill zones while the rest of the Kumo Shinobi found themselves hounded and any that fell behind were killed. They would find no respite when they returned to their camps, as Iwagakure had launched an offensive and had shattered the Kumo forces and was quickly making their way east. The Second Raikage seeing that their had gambit had lost them the war, that it was time to begin preparing for the next war and sought to buy time for the retreat north organizing units to protect the southern flank of their retreating forces while the Raikage gathered up volunteer units and made haste to west linking up with his shattered forces, sending away the wounded as they sought to hold Iwagakure while privately the Raikage sought amount of atonement for his failures. The Second Raikage and those that followed him would throw all their skills and all they had at Iwagakure and in the bloody battle, none of the Kumo ninja present there survived, with the Second Raikage having died on a hill made of Iwa ninja. While the cost was dear, their sacrifice had bought much needed time for the long retreat while inflicting sizable losses on Iwagakure who sought to consolidate recent gains and shift its forces to other fronts.

With the withdrawal of Kumo and its Daimyo forces, anarchy quickly gripped the lands of northeastern part of the Land of Fire with no country at the time willing to move forces in out of concern it would stretch their forces far too thin. Into this would step bandits and various criminal groups who carved up their own fiefdoms which they would rule with an iron fist with those that could flee to safer lands including dozens of families that would make their home in Konoha and represent the first significant group of non ninja to make their home there. With Kumo knocked out of the war and Iwa turning inward temporarily, Kagami would redeploy his forces to the remaining fronts strengthening the frontline units and in the early spring with several Konoha victories gained in the Land of Rivers and the eastern coastal provinces followed by a relative and temporary lull in the fighting for the rest of the spring as the various sides sought to consolidate recent gains while preparing for the next round of fighting which would begin as spring turned into summer as rivers once more flowed blood and bodies. In the east was where the Hokage focus turned too seeking to expel the foreign invaders with focus initially being to take out the weaker forts and Kirigakure garrisons while Kirigakure launched various offensives to try and spread Konohagakure thin but these ultimately failed to achieve that objective and what territory was gained was limited and came at a heavy cost as Kiri casualties mounted. Eventually Konohagakure would launch a grand offensive to push Kiri and the Land of Water soldiers back into the ocean with good progress being made and then the shifting balance on the eastern front was utterly smashed when the Great Defection crippled Kirigakure.

A brief history lesson for context, Kirigakure unlike almost all the other villages built up it's strength during it's found period by conquering and absorbing defeated clans into the village and as a result a caste system took shape with the highest ranking being those whose family lineage originally stemmed from within Kirigakure, the second caste was for members of families who were allied with Kirigakure on the battlefields in the past while the last and lowest caste consisted of members of the families conquered on the battlefield. As a result, the members of the third caste were handled with caution and had to complete the most perilous and dangerous missions for the village to keep them occupied and unable to rebel as the thinking went. With the ever escalating demand for manpower necessitated by the Shinobi World War meant deployment of the majority of the village military strength including its largest caste, the third caste. There were concerns about this but it was hoped quickly that hatred of Konohagakure would overshadow any hatred they held to the village along with whittling down their numbers via suicide missions and the spear point of various offensives to serve as canon fodder. To an extent some hatred developed for Konohagakure but this paled to the hatred they held for the higher castes who had abused and tortured members of their clans at times plus this only got worse as the lower caste was blamed for defeats and perceived failures as the war progressed.

So the situation among Shinobi of the lower caste deployed to fight Konoha was like a pressure cooker and the pressure increased ever more as commanders pinned losses on the third caste till finally began to bubble over. Now despite the propaganda they teach at Kirigakure academies, there was no grand conspiracy, just a small portion that could no longer tolerate the current situation, not to say the others were wavering in their very limited loyalty to Kiri but when some of the lower caste started defecting in the midst of battle on various fronts, this in turn inspired others to defect while loyalist Kiri ninja began killing any lower caste they saw as chaos enveloped Kiri forces as confused Konoha ninja had to adjust who there enemy was but were more than willing to take advantage of the chaos as they overwhelmed and broke Kirigakure forces. This sent the survivors into retreat minus its lower caste forces and the Second Mizukage Gengetsu Hōzuki who laid dead after being overwhelmed by Konoha forces as the units under his command fell apart. Despite the sizeable influx of defectors, for Konohagakure it would be a pyrrhic victory as the Third Hokage would suffer fatal wounds during one of the battles and as he laid dying as a medical nin futilely tried to save him, would name his friend Hiruzen Sarautobi as his successor before passing away. So for a second time that year a new Hokage would return with the body of his predecessor as the Uchiha were gripped by grief and sorrow while the rest of the village focus was instead on the many former Kiri ninja that would be joining and rather understandable as it was and still is an unprecedented defection of military forces from one village to another.

The Yondaime Hokage as he reluctantly adjusted to his new office, threw
himself into his work working to integrate and house the villages newest members while seeing the poverty that the recently arrived civilian were living in, began preliminary plans for a welfare system to boost their standard of living, to be funded of course initially by reparations from the nations recently defeated by the Land of Fire. Finally Hiruzen seeing as the balance of power was increasingly favored Konoha believed he could convince Sunagakure, weakest the three remaining major villages in the war along with its mother country to ally with the Land of Fire via the carrot and stick and would put his proposal before the Fire Daimyo who gave his approval and began diplomatic talks with the Land of Wind. The talks would be a success seeing the formation of an alliance between the two countries and the Land of Wind withdrawing from the Land of Rivers, not that they had any choice lest the wrath of Konoha fell upon Sunagakure which in turn would risk Iwagakure spearheading new pushes to claim parts or whole border provinces. The Land of Earth Daimyo seeing hismforces stood no chance against the combined might of the Lands of Wind and Fire, would quickly make an armistice agreement with the new continental power bloc as the soon to be victorious Daimyos discussed with their ministers and advisers what to seek from the coming peace negotiations. The peace negotiations among the ninja villages would would be far quicker with the peace treaty between Konoah and Iwa rapidly hammered out and was to sign at the temporary border created by the war but tragedy and treachery would strike during the event as missing ninja from Kumogakure known as the Wrath of Ninja would kill the Second Tsuchikage Mū to avenge the death of the Raikage and those others killed while the Fourth Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi was assassinated by the Sons of Iwagakure who opposed making peace with Konoah.

Both Iwa and Kumo would claim that these were just dissidents but Konoah Intel investigation would find that to be a lie and most likely to have been unofficially sanctioned operations but still Konoah would make peace with Iwa though with additional reparations gained while the Iwagakure and Suna along with their Daimyos making peace and while the major nations and their villages were now at peace the First Shinobi World War was not fully completed. A good number of the smaller villages and nations still remained at war seeing an opportunity while the great powers were rebuilding to conquer at least some of their enemies lands and so for two more years warfare continues but in most cases the wars became stalemates with only a few nations actually making gains from the Shinobi World War and even that came at a massive cost in blood and currency. Kumogakure military strength had been greatly depleted by the war and so its major focus in the years has been rebuilding that strength under the direction of the Third Raikage and by any means necessary from recruiting missing ninja from other villages to reorganizing its budget to be able to offer financial incentives for families to settle in Kumo and recruiting children of their capable of using chakra along with Kumo ninja traveling overseas to far off minor nations recruiting ninja clans to speed up the rebuilding of its forces. While these policies were rapidly replenishing Kumo strength, it would still be some time before the village felt confident in once more challenging Konoah on the battlefield. The losses suffered by Kumogakure however paled into comparison that suffered by Kirigakure and which deepened with a purge further reducing what remained of the lower caste as a release valve for the anger over their disastrous loss in the war while new restrictions were placed upon the caste.

The first act of the new Mizukage would be to remove the requirement for academy students to murder a classmate to graduate which saw a new record set for how many students became Genin but that of course being the lowest of bars to pass. The real boost and replenishment of Kiri forces would come from conscripting the children into the academies from numerous families that would flood into the village seeking to escape the civil war that erupted after news spread of the Land of Water expulsion from continent believing there was a chance by some provinces to regain independence but all they achieved was a bloody few years of war before the Water Daimyo reasserted his control across the country. So the Third Mizukage bides his time as his village strength returns and is protected by an ocean and fleets till Kiri is ready for revenge on Konoah and to have some nasty surprises for them from Kiri various research labs. Sunagakure while on the winning side of the war is very much the junior partner to Konoah though very much not content with that status quo and as well has been attracting families seeking to avoid falling back into its status of the weakest of the Great Villages. Also seeking a force multiplier has established the Puppet Master Corps lead by Monzaemon Chikamatsu, creator of ninja puppetry to field a growing force of ninja puppet while experiments are conducted hoping to use the One Tail chakra to create superior Shinobi though the chakra experiments so far have produced very little of use.

So Kazekage Shamon for now will continue the alliance with Konoah being in the village's interest to do so but if disaster were to ever strike Konoah he would in an instant seize any opportunity arising from that. Iwagakure while having lost the war, managed to preserve most of its military strength so within a few years was stronger than it had been at the beginning of the war. As well the Third Tsuchikage Kurobachi of the Kamizuru Clan who arose to the position due to the heated election to replace Mū, instituted various economic and administrative reforms which further strengthened the village. Of course that strength is not enough to challenge the combined strength of Konoah and its allies and so began allying with other villages such as Takigakure, Amegaure, Soragakure among others who for one reason or another seeks to overturn the current status quo. As well Iwa has reached out to Kumo and Kiri but so far these attempts have been for nought though the Tsuchikage believes these efforts will at some point result in one of the two perhaps aligning with Iwa while the other will eventually join the coming war.

Finally there is the strongest of the ninja villages, Konohagakure for the third time after the failed peace treaty signing, found itself itself with a new Hokage and via a will written by the Fourth Hokage shortly before he left for the doomed meeting, named Danzo Shimura as his successor, a rather unexpected decision considering the souring of the friendship between Danzo and Hiruzhen following the latter ascension to being Hokage. The reason for this decision only Hiruzhen knew and he took the reason with him to his grave and so Danzo Shimura, Godaime Hokage overseeing the village transition into the new peace and despite achieving the position he had sought since entering the academy years ago found achieving it to be at best bittersweet if not a hollow victory as it had cost him two of his best friends to achieve it forcing himself to confront the fact he had wasted the last few months he had with both over his pettiness and ego. With this a dark path he had been at an end, no longer letting the bitterness consume him but that's not to say Danzo became some righteous man. His friends Hiruzhen and Kagami were that but he would continue the peace but he was not blinded by naivety and knew that the peace was simply an interlude between wars and so increased the resources to the village intelligence department seeing the greatest network of spies and informants ever established across countless countries to keep the new Hokage well informed of events and threats both domestic and foreign. As well, ANBU would be expanded and put to great use by Danzo striking at Kumo and Iwa along with other hostile villages wherever possible helping to delay the next war even if it was a small amount of time.

Danzo as well would oversee the updating and expanding of curriculum at the village academies as lessons learned from the war were applied while former Kiri ninja taught what they had learned or had taught at Kiri academy as well as an accelerated program called ROOT was established by the Hokage to allow gifted students to graduate early and in turn how he eventually ended up with Tsunade Senju, Jiraya Otsuka and Orochimaru Tanaka as his Genin team after seeing massive potential in the trio. The other notable event of his reign being the implementing his predecessor planned programs to support the impoverished and creating new ones and sparking a great debate over its effectiveness and whether a wise use of funds for the village and a debate which continues to the present. As for Konohagakure itself, it has greatly changed from what it was like during the rule of the Second Hokage with the greatest example being the area nicknamed Little Kiri with a distinctive architectural style from the rest of the village where the various clans and families of ex Kiri ninja have made their home and one can find and buy various authentic Land of Water goods, foods and at some establishments in the case of the latter find foods influenced by the Land of Fire cuisine. Besides being interwoven into the economy of the wider village , the ninja of Little Kiri are well established in the politics of Konohagakure having married into clans both small and big which was kicked off by Tōka Senju not long after they settled in the village seeking to replenish her clan numbers and to add even more skills to the Senju already impressive list of talents. It was of course an adjustment for the former Kiri Shinobi and while there is a some sadness over there former caste members still stuck in Kirigakure they are without among the most dedicated ninja to Konohagakure and the Will of Fire and stand ready to fight and if needed die for it. Of course the defectors and their growing families are not the only source of growth for the village as migrants, immigrants and refugees from far and wide are attracted by opportunity and security in Konohagakure and seeing a small but growing number of Shinobi graduates originating from civilian families.

The people of Konohagakure have greatly enjoyed the peace and prosperity of the current era but over eleven years after the Great War ended between the Big Five, tensions were once more on the rise between the Elemental Countries as proxy wars were funded, pirates hired to harm the sea trade of competitors while in smaller countries Shinobi and non-Shinobi fought shadow wars via coin, blackmail and the blade to influence whose these countries would align themselves in the next war all knew was coming, sooner or later. The popular belief being that it will be the former as the conflict between Kusagakure, an ally of Konohagakure and Takigakure ally to Iwagakure grows ever more violent and expected that the two great villages will eventually enter the conflict which will see the bloodshed spread and once more plunge the continent into war.
…..
About 26 years after Konohagakure was established at the end of oneshot.
 
A Snapshot
In a final act of spite, Sargeras before he was imprisoned in the Seat of the Pantheon would impale Azeroth with his sword and the releasing of a resource known as Azerite. A resource capable of a number things such as empowering the strength and intelligence of those holding but more importantly in a world divided by two major power blocks it could be used to power machines and weapons so it only contributed to a worsening of an already tenuous peace between the Horde and Alliance. The true death knell of the peace lyes with Warchief Sylvannas observations that Azerite would revolutionize war in the coming years that a long peace would eventually result in a new war and with Azerite weapons it would be a war of annihilation with that being a fear held by leaders of both factions. There was however an opportunity following the end of the recent Legion invasion with both sides' navies crippled meaning they could not easily reinforce their holdings across the Great Sea meaning the Horde could potentially conquer Kalimdor and the Alliance be unable to send a liberation force for years. This in turn however risked the Horde holdings and nations in the Eastern Kingdoms but the Warchief had a solution in holding hostage the night elves capital, Teldrassil which meant the Alliance would risk an assault on Undercity or Silvermoon while as well hoping to spark division between the night elves and the long exiled Gilneans and in turn cause chaos within the Alliance.

Convinced by Sylvanas, High Overlord Saurfang makes plans and preparations for a conquest of the night elves lands and task made easier by Horde deception convincing the night elven leadership to make the now controversial and greatly attacked decision to send the majority of their forces to secure the growing Azerite deposits in Silithus. The Horde invasion of Ashenvale which sparked the Fourth War would face a few setbacks but ultimately the night elves are defeated, broken with their capital on the verge of falling to the victorious Horde forces. On the verge of seeing her plans fulfilled, Sylvannas would make the bizarre and monstrous decision of ordering her troops to set Teldrassil ablaze with some historians arguing that had decided on this action to break the night elves spirit and further reduce their numbers while other would argue that by this point madness had consumed her and that there was no logical reason to commit such a heinous act. This act would unite the Alliance to defeat the Horde while engulfing a war-weary Azeroth in another global conflicts as both sides recruited new Allie's to replenish their depleted ranks, the most notable of new members being Kul Tiras for the Alliance and the Zandalari Empire for the Horde. Roughly a year would pass before the war would come to a close at the gates of Orgrimmar with what little forces that could be mustered by the Alliance and Horde rebels led by Saurfang gathered there to end Sylvannas reign.

Saurfang would challenge Sylvannas to a Mak'gora and while the duel would be fatal for the High Overlord, he ultimately triumphed by goading Sylvannas into a outburst that saw her reveal she had no true loyalty to the Horde and its peoples nothing and then fled with her hold over the Horde destroyed. A global ceasefire was then declared and just in time as the forces of the Old God N'Zoth threatened to remake Azeroth according to the will of their dark god though they were defeated and N'Zoth seemingly destroyed once and for all. Soon after an armistice would be signed between the two factions with the Alliance abandoning its bases on Zandalar as a show of good faith while both sides announced they would hunt down Sylvanas Windrunner for her crimes. The likeliness of the armistice holding took an immediate Tyrande Whisperwind refused to sign this pact and distanced herself from the rest of the Alliance leadership while Greymane also questioned its effectiveness, seeing it as a waste of time that would not stop the Horde from eventually attacking them once again while some of the other Alliance leaders supported the armistice and others simply because their own lands and resources were largely depleted. So with Tyrande refusal to sign, no peace treaty has been signed to this day but the armistice is recognized by most as being the formal end of the Fourth War.
…………………………………….
The Horde had begun the Fourth War with high hopes and while war-war weary was still powerful and expected to emerge victorious though by the end of the conflict it's armies were depleted, their treasuries emptied, their resources stretched thin, that any blow to them at time would have been disastrous. In fact such was the terrible state of the Horde when the Zandalari struggled to rid their island of Sylvannas loyalists and their allies of the Widow's Bite, that only a small force of soldiers could be spared lest Orgrimmar would be defended by far too few warriors. The coming years would be a time of great change for the Horde such as the abolishing of the position of Warchief and replacing it with the Horde Council, with various leaders of the Horde helping to guide and heal a greatly weakened Horde. Orcs for most of the history of the New Horde identified simply as part of the Horde due to the melting pot effect of the internment camps upon the various orcs interned and from this formed families that were remnants of destroyed clans or composed by members of multiple clans via marriage and adoption. The Horde established by Thrall counted a few clans among its ranks such as the Frostwolves and the Warsong but as previously established Orcish society no longer revolved around internal clan dynamics or relations between the clans and this status quo held strong till the aftermath of the Fourth War.

As common following war, recession swept across Durotar as war spending was no longer propping up the economy with news taxes to fund reconstruction and the rebuilding of the Horde military adding to the economic troubles of business owners struggling to turn a profit while dealing with rising wages due to a labor shortage while for the worker any benefits from rising wages were cancelled out by rising prices for various goods. As a result of these economic headwinds and seeing the Mag'har orcs under Overlord Geya'rah pooling resources and supporting each other and while not prospering we're doing far better than most. Seeing this, Orc families copy to weather those trying times and this would see the refounding of some long extinct clans but this mostly resulted in the creation of brand new clans while others simply married into what is now called the Mag'har clan, the most powerful of the Orcish clans. Both clans new and refounded are far different from the clans of old with them being a mishmash of various clan cultures changed by time and circumstances while capabilities of these clans are diverse due to having orcs with various skills and adventurers such shamans, mages, warlocks etc as part of the same clans. Further change brought by the Mag'har is limited industry established in Durotar for the production of crude vehicles and siege weapons including tanks, cannons, and chariots. As all this is taking place there is debate in orcish society over what honor is following the actions of Sylvannas and previously Garrosh and there complicity in them with some placing all the blame on the former Warchiefs while many others are willing to interrogate what honor and glory is and seek new definitions and look to the example set by Saurfang where there is honor in restraint and mercy, and glory from self-sacrifice for a greater cause.

………

During the War against Deathwing and the then latest war between the Horde and the Alliance, would see the Shatterspear join the latter. This however was a disastrous decision as they would feel the wrath of the Night Elves would crush their forces, invade Shatterspear Vale and slay their chieftain Jor'kil. The tribe was destroyed while the survivors fled south with some settling in Horde lands, some finding work as mercenaries for various organizations while the rest eked out a living among the wilds of Kalimdor. This status quo would hold for three plus years till the Fourth War, with former Shatterspear trolls serving as scouts and their knowledge of Darkshore being of great use to the Horde. With the Night Elves' defeat in the War of Thorns, the scattered Shatterspear began to reunify and would reclaim Shatterspear Vale and some of their other territory.

This reclamation effort was however limited to warriors over concerns about night elf raids and this proved to be a wise move when Tyrande unleashed the Army of the Blackmoon on Horde forces and ultimately would emerge victorious in the Battle of Darkshore killing or expelling all Horde forces while the Shatterspear would lose their home for a second time in less than five years. Despite this the Shatterspear look toward the future with hope having established a new settlement at Stonetalon Peak, now tentacle free and having elected Ohseso as their new chieftain and who works diligently to rebuild his tribe which grows with new births and convincing much of the Shatterspear diaspora to settle at their new settlement. One would understandably assume the Shatterspear to hate the Night Elves for expelling them from their home twice but in fact most of the tribe holds no malice towards them due to what is considered an odd philosophy for trolls of harmony and peaceful coexistence and that they had went to war with the Night Elves and paid the price for that. Though if called to arms by the Horde they would gladly answer it to repay the Horde for past assistance.
……..

Ever since the Dark Portal was reopened for a second time, Stormwind forces have played a central role in numerous battles and campaigns gaining much prestige and glory for their kingdoms. Such things however had come at an immense cost in blood and gold, especially after so many wars and so by the end of the Fourth War, Stormwind was figuratively running on fumes and a peace being very much needed. Its recovery, unlike many nations in both the Alliance, has proven far more successful in part due to King Anduin talks with the Bank of Ironforge and other dwarven bankers where he successfully convinced them to reduce the debt Stormwind owed by a sizeable along with a number of more favorable conditions. The bankers recognized better to eat some losses now than to risk Stormwind defaulting on its debt in the near future. Also behind the scenes they came under heavy pressure by the Council of Three Hammers seeking to avoid Stormwind being a poor basketcase like it had been for many years after the Stonemason Riots.

With far less of Stormwind budget going to pay meeting interest payments, the young king now has some much needed fiscal breathing which he puts to good use as he lowers taxes on the lower class and merchants while providing subsidies to Gilnean industrialists who establish factories along the Nazferiti providing both jobs and a welcomed source of taxes for the treasury. Adding to the rising living standards is the recent record food harvests which has lowered the price of many food staples which is in large part due to the effort and diligence of the druids and Harvest Witches. This as well as Stormwind industry only being possible due to most of the Night Elves and Gilneans having permanently settled in the Kingdom of Stormwind rather than return to homelands that will be among the frontlines of the eventual Fifth War. In these last five years they've become ever more part of the fabric of the kingdom with their children knowing nothing of their homelands besides tales told by their parents. For the Stormwind military, it initially had to make due with far less funding and very few recruits but as the economy has grown, it also seen its budget begin to grow slowly but steadily as it mechanizes like the Dwarves and Gnomes along with adopting the budget and integrating druids and former Sentinels into its ranks.

The latter is an especially welcomed addition in keeping banditry within the kingdom as such criminals must weigh the risk of being turned into a pin cushion in the blink of an eye. Of course it's not only the kingdom that much has changed, life as well is now much more different for the young king who now has a family after his friendship with Tess Greymane evolved into love and eventually marriage much to the relief of Genn Greymane and Stormwind nobility. Already the royal couple has welcomed a son named Bolvar, named for Anduin long time protector and the couple expecting a second child within the next few months and ensuring a future union between Stormwind and Gilneas. After so much sacrifice and hard work, the future has begun to brighten for Stormwind and while King Anduin works to preserve the peace, he knows this is only a temporary respite till the next war and so when that day comes, he will once more lead the Alliance and he will fight to protect his kingdom and most importantly his family from any threats be they on Azeroth to among the far off cosmos.
……….
Something I was working on a few years ago. A bit of AU where Shadowlands doesn't happen. Recently found it and finished it. Only doing the three groups above as well not really much changes for the other races and nations in this AU
 
The More Things Change
If one had hoped the conclusion of the Second Shinobi World War would bring some peace, this hope was quickly dashed as countries primarily via their ninja villages skirmished with each other and sought to probe the strength and weaknesses of other countries. Even the Big 5 Shinobi Nations would endure these attacks as the smaller nations believed the reign of the Big 5 was crumbling as they were gripped by rising criminal activity, crop failures, droughts, rebellions among other issues while there villages strength had been depleted by the war and the bloody fall of Uzugakure. So there was a strong belief that the old order was ending and an opportunity existed for the smaller nations to gain at the expense of the major nations. This status quo would continue for three years till it would abruptly be ended by a likely act of the gods with the various ninja villages suddenly finding another version of their village next to them with and with many similarities but also many differences, such as different dates for the two Shinobi World Wars, the newly arrived villages being older and of course far more Shinobi with the alternate Big 5 villages having well over 50,000 ninja combined and so did not have to tolerate attacks by the smaller villages. The quick merging of the Big 5 and their alternate versions would quickly replicate this situation by launching devastating raids on the home countries of the minor villages attacking them and take their pounds of flesh from the villages that had dared to challenge them.

With the natural order of things restored with the minor villages having relearned the fact that it was suicide to challenge their betters, the major villages with the exception of Kiri then turned their attention to eradicating the bandits, pirates and criminals that had gone largley unchecked for years with countless Shinobi teams spreading across their nations and acting upon confirmed intelligence, rumors and tips from merchants and peasants alike who were sick and tired of the. For the criminal element it seemed like the apocalypse had arrived as the ninja the ninja carried out this bloody task and their reward being ill gotten loot, a major boost to their villages financial reserves as the surviving criminals either went into hiding or fleeing into other countries and finding the local ninja as well violently clearing out criminals. So they found themselves fleeing ever further till they would find territory where they could establish themselves without having to worry about their throats being slit in the middle of the night as they slept. With the decrease in criminal activity, many merchants no longer having to worry about being targeted by foreign Shinobi, as well new economic opportunities due to the sudden growth by the ninja villages which all together ended the economic malaise for most of the Elemental Countries as trade grew with increased employment at ports and cities as growing amount of tariffs and tax revenue gave some much needed replenishment to the Daimyos treasuries. Of course not all countries would be enjoying the economic benefits of this new era as some of the minor countries went to war with each other with their Daimyos convinced by their advisors they could achieve quick wars of expansion at the expense of the nations which had suffered heavily with the recent retaliatory raids of the major villages, though which quickly turned out not to be the case.

Civil wars as well would be tearing apart countries and villages with the civil war in the Land of Rice Fields prolonged by the arrival of ninja from the alternate world while Amegakure would see the two Hanzō being so paranoid as to be unable to trust each other, would kill the other in an attempt to seize control of the enlarged village and rapidly saw the village splinter into feuding warlords who would splinter the country into fiefdoms and establish new ninja villages and forcibly recruited children and teenagers to fuel their forces while conscripting vast numbers of peasants and the lifespan of these new soldiers both ninja and commoner alike being brutally short. Adding further to the misery and bloodshed of the country was Konoahgakure, Iwagakure and Sunagakure each bringing some of the warlords under their sphere of influence and soon supplies and other support in the form of ANBU teams running various missions to turn the tide in the favor of their villages proxies. The two Jiraya of the Sannin would as well take an interest in the proxy war after receiving an intel report confirming the survival of the three Ame orphans and who were attempting via their new group Akatsuki to change the village and country for the better but struggling to grow and so successfully lobbied the Third Hokage to supply them with aid. The two Jiraya made various arguments for why they should support them though the main reason the Third agreeing would be that they would be the easiest group to influence due to the connection they have to one of the Jiraya having spent three years training them, though the Hokage did not share this fact with the Jirayas. As this proxy war fueled tensions between the three major powers, conflict was also tearing apart Kirigakure as the alternate village was divided in a civil war between the Mizukage and his Jonin Commander, with the latter blaming the former for policies that was seeing the strength of the village deteriorating strength with the civil war rapidly consuming the younger version of the village and quickly seeing the death of their Third Mizukage.

The internal conflict would spread beyond the village as the two sides would send out forces to recruit Kiri garrisons and ninja across the Land of Water as civilians watched, at first confused why Kiri ninja were killing each other. The bloodshed continued for several months till eventually the Jonin commander forces would triumph with the capture of the Mizukage who would quickly be executed while the Jonin commander took up the hat and became the Fourth Mizukage. He then went to work rebuilding the village while temporarily suspend the murderous graduation requirement to replenish their shrunken forces having suffered losses in the civil war and a substantialportion of the village ninja having gone rogue and setting a new dismal record. Much the newly rogue ninja had scattered to the four winds seeking to avoid the wrath of Kiri though a large amount had followed the now former ANBU commander Kōzō Dōzaka overseas and settling in the Land of Demons, where with the approval of the Daimyo seeking to shift the balance of power on the eastern continent in his favor, would establish a new ninja village. They would rapidly expand their ranks recruiting local clans that didn't flee Demon country while allowing rogue ninja from other villages to speed up growth of the new village forces and acquire new techniques and knowledge. A major priority as well being to convince civilian families to settle in the village to both grow the economy and as well an additional source for potential Shinobi and to help lessen the number gap with the Big Five.

The unusual establishment of Kōzo village, provides with him many advantages that other young villages lack such as inheriting Kiri training methods minus the bloody graduations and many techniques along with many veteran Jonin and Chuunin and so able to command good fees for missions to help fund the growth of the village. Finally but not least being the inheriting of most of Kiri ANBU units and giving Kōzo the ability to strike at potential enemies far away and capable of destroying some of the nearby smaller villages without the assistance of the new village regular forces. Kōzo from his office looks upon his growing village and is pleased by what they've achieved in such a short time and while it will be a long time before they could challenge one of the Big Five, they now stand as the strongest of the minor villages and perhaps one day a Kage will oversee this village after having earning the title instead of pretentiously claiming it like the Hoshikages. Back across the sea, tensions were still continuing to grow over Amegakure civil war and then both Third Kazekage would vanish, with one of them last seen near the border with the Land of Earth, which naturally saw suspicion fall upon on Iwagakure. The need was also apparent to to select a Fourth Kazekage to guide the village during this time of crisis and eventually one of the Ebizōs was elected to take up the hat, over one of the up and coming Rasa due to the belief that an experienced ninja was needed to lead Suna. With its leadership, Sunagakure demanded to Iwagakure what they had done with their Kages while Iwagakire would deny any involvement but every denial simply fueled the warhawk faction in Sunagakure call for war till finally Suna would declare war on Iwagakure.

The war stretched far to the west where various ninja villages that aligned with either Iwagakure or Sunagakure to the long border between the Land of Earth and Land of Wind where the two villages would repeatedly clash while finally to the east, Shinobi from both villages flooded into Amegakure war torn country to directly support their chosen proxies with them no longer having to continue the fiction that they weren't supporting many of the feuding factions, though they would reign in their warlords and make it clear that attacking Konoha supported groups was a no go in order to avoid them siding with their enemy. While many ninjas are thrown into this new war, that war as of yet does include the armies of the smaller powers of the far larger forces of Wind and Earth Daimyos as both seek to build a sizable fiscal buffer before shifting and the debts accrued to wage the last World War and that ended only four years ago, weigh heavily on their governments budgets. Though their own ninja villages have yet to fully commit their forces to the fighting, seeking to preserve their own forces in case of Konoha attacking or Kumo striking against Iwagakure. As months pass by, the war quickly turns into a stalemate and with the current trends of the war, seems likely the war will drag on for years to come and so both Iwa and Suna turn to diplomacy to gain an advantage in the war as talks are opened with Konoah and Kumo but neither the Hokage or Raikage being interested in joining the war at this stage and quite happy to watch Iwagakure and Sunagakure whittle away at each other forces while they build up their military strength. At this time Kirigakure is on the mind of both the Raikage and Hokage and while that village is rebuilding and currently under strength, in time they will restore their strength and neither Kage wishes to leave the eastern coasts under defended or any opportunity for Kiri to exploit.

So life continues in the two villages for its peoples as it has for the last two years even as they know eventually they will join the war which will inevitably become the next Shinobi World War. Of course not to say nothing was changing in Konoha or Kumo as great numbers of refugees, migrants and business men would settle there and attracted by prosperity and safety. The wealthier among the latter would settle in the nicer district or build new estates while the two former groups settled in poor and crime stricken areas or packed tightly into ever growing slums as the Big 5 villages became more and more like small cities. For the average village leader the only things that merits their interest in the slums and such areas is keeping crime at acceptable levels and how many students they are providing for the ninja academies, the most notable exception to this rule being the Third Hokage. With the Third being a firm believer in the Will of Fire, which holds that all the people of Konoha are a family and that the Hokage is chiefly responsible for that family's well-being and so had instituted early in his reign a few programs to financially support the poor among the village population.

With the recent influxes of people moving into the now far larger village, it quickly became apparent how insufficient it was now and so funding was increased, new taxes to fund it along with reforms to provide support to families that gripped by absolute poverty and struggling to make ends meet. In many ways much has changed for the world but at the same it truly has not as Daimyos, Kages and village leaders dispatched their soldiers to fight and die to advance their interests as they plot to increase their power at the expense of so many but well that's life.
 
Falling and Rising
The Blood Elves arose from the ashes of Quel'Thalas and a need for vengeance but with their strongest warriors and and mages traveling south with Prince Kael all they could do was survive as they defended the refugees sheltering in a section of their ruined capital from nearby Undead forces as they also dealt with magical withdrawal while the land is hit by its first winter in milenia with the Sunwell no longer available to power the manipulation of nature. As their numbers were whittled away and with no word heard from their prince in months, despair began to spread among the Blood Elves as more and more began to wonder if all they were doing was just futilely fighting against their inevitable extinction. Then one day a portal opened on the outskirts of Silvermoon and emerging from it was Rommath and a group of mages bringing word of Prince Kael'thas adventures and new knowledge that Rommath attributed to Kael along with tales of a glorious promised land along with planting the idea Kael'thas might one day return to lead his people to paradise. Many of the Blood Elves rush to embrace mana tapping of vermin while the few utterly opposed to this along with what little remains of the High Elves are expelled from the kingdom to ensure political stability. With their people stabilized for the moment and some of their strength restored, the Blood Elves would reclaim their capital from the Scourge, though the amounts of mana they were currently collecting would be insufficient to begin rebuild their capital would be insufficient and so the harvesting of Fel energies by warlocks who would rapidly rebuilt the eastern part of the city along with powering newly built golems who patrol and protect the reclaimed portions of the city.

The public emergence and legalization of the warlock profession was only possible due to the lobbying of the new Grand Magister Rommath and successfully convincing Regent Lor'themar that they could not afford to limit themselves to only arcane power with the number of threats they were facing. This decision provoked outrage among the Farstriders fearing that it would be the beginning of a dark path for their people and that it greatly increased the risk of the Burning Legion being able to infiltrate their people. For Lor'themar this new controversy presented a new conundrum as he couldn't banish the warlocks needing their strength and not needing another enemy but ignoring the issue would only lead to growing tensions in their fragile society so seeing no other option he would de facto exile the Farstriders from Silvermoon but disguised this fact by dispersing them among newly trained military units to retake border territories overan by the emboldened Amani and to destroy various Scourge outposts that dot the kingdom. This however does not solve the issue as supporters of the Farstriders continue to press the issue which in response and as well to adding this discontent arising is the Magisters employing authoritarian methods to try and ensure stability which only worked for a short time before causing new controversy. To add to this never ending headache for Lor'themar there was outcry over the Blood Elves joining the Horde for much needed assistance which some understood and others not forgetting when the Orcs ravaged their lands and slayed their kin.

It would be putting it lightly that the Blood Elves were on a path to a uncertain future but whatever that future might have been is, will forever be unknown to them as in an instant all the Blood Elves on Azeroth and one particular "human" vanished along with eastern Silvermoon and Sunsail Anchorage. It rapidly became apparent they were on a different Azeroth chiefly from the ruins of Silvermoon and the Dead Scar but as well that it was a different year when the legendary Dath'Remar Sunstrider and his Highborne arrived before Silvermoon. After the Magisters quickly proved they were not an illusion or a trick, Lor'themar and Dath'Remar first order of business was establishing the Sunwell on the Isle of Quel'Danas with its birth transforming the Highborne from Night Elves into the High Elves while the Blood Elves felt restored, replenished, no longer feeling that desperate hunger for magic. With the two elven groups now empowered by the Sunwell, the rapid construction of the western portion of Silvermoon began while the combined elven leadership met to plot the conquest of Amani lands to expand the borders of the newly established Quel'Thalas. With plans for their initial campaigns influenced by the Blood Elves' knowledge of what had originally meant to occur and drawn up, elven armies were organized, supplied and marched out of Silvermoon to bloodily claim a homeland for their people.

First blood however would belong to strike forces of Farstriders and magi sent out earlier and who would sack what nearby troll villages they could discover, with the oldest to the youngest killed, none were spared. Eventually some trolls would survive this campaign of extermination which enraged the Amani and this rage would grow even further when scouts back word that the elves were defiling hallowed ground with the construction of Silvermoon and so the word spread from Zul'Aman across the breadth of their empire with the troll city states dispatching armies while the tribes living out in the wilds sent warbands to wipe out the elven invaders. Ever growing numbers of forest trolls were attacking and while they were inflicting losses on the elves, the trolls were suffering far more more grievous losses in return as despite their greater numbers, the scales were greatly evened partly by the elves being empowered by the Sunwell but in additional factors not present in the original timeline included larger elven armies, more advanced arcane spells, professional military forces, paladins, warlocks, priests and finally but not least the Amani forces split between two fronts as some of the Amani forces were pointlessly throwing wave after wave at a heavily fortified Sunsail Anchorage.

With the Amani forces split, elven forces were able to secure the north far more quickly than would had otherwise been possible before they turned their attention south and began routing one troll army after another including the forces that had been besieging Sunsail Anchorage with eventually the rest of the south falling under the control of Quel'Thalas. The war would continue for a time after this as Zul'Aman sought to reverse its ever decreasing authority over the rest of the empire believing that eventually the elven forces would break somewhere but that day never came with only thing breaking was the Amani Empire as the various city states seeing an opportunity, broke away and began to wage war upon each other seeking to carve out their own empires from the once mighty nation. With its strength exhausted and abandoned by their fellow trolls, the leaders of Zul'Aman accepted the bitter fact that the elves for the time being could not be defeated and so they focused on defending what remained of their empire with a recognition of a need for change especially to counter the immense strength of elven arcane and fel magics. New Amani cities as well began to arise by the labor of the immense numbers of trolls that had been displaced by elven expansion while their hatred of both the elves and the other troll tribes was exploited and fed by the Amani leaders to ensure the unity of their shrunken and evolving nation.
………

Having conquered land from Quel'Danas to the Thalassian Pass and securing this new status quo via vast amounts of troll blood, the elves began the process of turning these untamed lands into a homeland as the Sunwell was used to molded nature itself to ensure a never ending spring as roads were laid connecting newly built towns and farming villages to house the rapidly growing population while to protect the new kingdom fortresses were constructed and soldiers stationed their protecting the mages and engineers overseeing the building of immense and heavily fortified walls along the borders of Quel'Thalas while the elven navy is expanded to combat Amani raids on the coasts. Of course not only infrastructure was built as a new political order was put in place included the Convocation of Silvermoon with a far larger membership than the original group while the common folk were represented by the House of Commons resulting from a recognition that many of the Blood Elves not content with most political power being held by the Convocation though only a small portion of the population being able to vote due to a hefty poll tax which had been demanded by a majority of the new nobility, you know that whole elitists "The people don't know what's best for them" mentality, while King Dath'Remar was granted far greater powers than his other self in the belief that it would result in a far more efficient which includes among other things, running the state and control over the military. This political system so far over these last few years proving stable even as not all are content with it.

Much of the time, the government of Quel'Thalas focus is on subjects as defense and taxes but at times debates are held on the matter of future expansion, when to begin, how much land to conquer and whether to focus south on the divided forest trolls or focus east and eliminate the Amani as they make ever more extensive efforts to fortify what little they still have. The most contentious matter of course being the Human Question, of what to do about humanity before it can become powerful considering what humanity of the Azeroth had been able to achieve and had destroyed, with various options considered such as conquering them and turn them into vassals, making them allies and uplifting them, and among a small radical minority option being to eradicate lest they eventually become a threat to elven kind. Of course such a belief is very uncomfortable for the Blood Elves considering their recent history while among the High Elves there is greater support for this position but the answer to the Human Question is for now not pressing both due to geography and as well humanity for a few more milenia will simply be struggling to survive. No such considerations or debate is afforded to forest trolls, such is the hatred for the trolls fueled by both the recent war and tales of atrocity the Blood Elves spread, that the utter annihilation of the forest trolls is government policy and the few that oppose it keep such opinions to themselves lest they be ostracized by society.
……………

For these last few years the focus of the Magisters has been the construction of runestones to hide their use of magic from the attention of Burning Legion though this is recognized as a half measure at best and so numerous research projects have been ongoing to develop new and more deadly spells and arcane weapons along with joint projects with the Warlocks guild to combat the Legion and which could also be used against other threats to Quel'Thalas. On the matter of expansion, they strongly support it but feel at the bare minimum it should only happen a few decades from now after the kingdom had reaped the demographic dividends of the current boom in births as the Magisters like various other organizations rebuild their numbers and confident of being able to defeat the forest trolls in any future war. As for Grand Magister Rommath, his major of course being the training of Anveena Teague, a truly gifted "human" and if anybody becomes too interested in Anveena, they receive a visit by agents of the Magisters who inform them that it would be in their best interest to lose any interest in her and if that doesn't work, the Magisters have other means to make people comply.

The Blood Knights, this group of paladins held a cynical and jaded view of things partly a result of the bitterness of Lady Liadrin that the Holy Light had abandoned her during the Scourge invasion. Instead to wield the power of the light, they were draining the captive Naaru M'uru in order to unleash the Light's destructive powers upon the undead without having to follow the teachings of the Light and so when they were transported to the past Azeroth without M'uru, it was believed that they would soon lose their access to the Light. When this did not occur it was taken as a sign that the Light had given them a second distance despite their actions and so the Blood Knights recommitted themselves to the tenets that previously disregarded and upon the battlefields of the war against the trolls whee hey slayed many enemies and as well saved the lives of many soldiers with the latter helping to begin the process of the High Elves conversion to the Holy Light. While the Church of Light only counts a portion of the elven population as members, none can deny its growth or potential to influence politics.

The Farstriders de facto exile was ended by the event while the elite organization would slightly replenish their ranks with recruitment among the High Elves as the Farstriders along with mages would strike the first blows against the trolls and would earn much acclaim for their actions during the war. In the presents it's rangers patrol the borders of Quel'Thalas ready to repel any trolls foolish enough to try and attack the kingdom while some have been dispatched on long term missions to collect intelligence on nearby groups of trolls and as an early alert if they gather any evidence that would suggest a switch to a war footing by the trolls. On the subject expansion most members would prefer the kingdom did not expand beyond their current borders but seeing which way the wind is blowing, advocates that Zul'Aman and it's surrounding region be conquered to remove this threat on the doorstep of the kingdom.

With the goodwill accrued by the Warlock Guild due their exploits during the war, they enjoy high approval among the general but due to their use of the Fel, they understand the lack of trust some feel toward them as Spellbreakers regularly visits to Murder Row in Silvermoon to ensure the warlocks have not crossed any lines and any that do not live for long. Other groups such as the Farstriders keep a vigilant eye whilst making use of informants to report back on the warlock's activities and such. Still the warlocks press forward as they undertake various projects involving the Fel and under the close supervision of the mages and with a number of joint projects they seek more powerful weapons to defend the kingdom and as well to increase their own strength.

For King Dath'Remar, so much of this has been unusual but despite that he has adapted to these changed circumstances as helps to oversee the building of his new kingdom. Not to say it is not without its headaches as such the endless political wrangling, working to ensure no divisions emerge between the High Elves and Blood Elves while fending off calls to go war with the trolls so soon after the last conflict while also dealing with the various groups that have splintered from that bunch of loons that is the Cult of Kael'Thas but still after so much suffering and tribulations, a bright future lays ahead for his people as the kingdom of Quel'Thalas continues to thrive and prosper.
 
Sadow Victorious
With the death of the Dark Lord Marka Ragnos, a power void existed in the Sith Empire and to fill this void would step forward Ludo Kressh who would advocated continuing their current course and maintaining the status quo while in contrast Naga Sadow called for change and to expand the borders of the empire beyond the Stygian Caldera. An unexpected influence upon this inflection point would be the arrival of the starship Starbreaker 12, owned by Gav and Jori Daragon, two explorers who had managed in a random hyperspace jump to accidentally stumble upon the Sith Empire. The siblings were captured and the Sith Council debated what their fate should be with Ludo Kressh believing the the two were spies for the Republic and the precursor to an invasion, and therefore should be executed while Naga Sadow believed the two had valuable information that could provide an opportunity to expand their empire across the galaxy and therefore should be kept alive. Ultimately Kressh's argument prevailed although Sadow was undeterred and so launched an attack on the citadel freeing the Daragons and planting evidence suggesting the Republic had been responsible which rallied nearly all the Sith to Sadow's call for war. Kressh though would soon learn of Sadow deception and gathering a his forces would launch an attack on Sadow fortress though it was trap with Kressh forces crushed, Kressh forced into hiding and with Sadow now had the whole of the Sith Empire at his disposal which he quickly to a total war footing as Sith fleets and legions readied themselves to conquer the Galactic Republic.

Jori Daragon was horrified at the fact that she had unwittingly played a part in setting in motion a new war that would engulf the Republic and so would take the Starbreaker 12 and flee, seeking to warn the Republic of what was coming. She would however do so alone as Gav had become Sadow apprentice and as part of his plan ensure Jori would be able to flee with a tracking device providing a route for the Sith navy to follow. As the launching of their invasion was nearly upon them a disturbance in the Force was felt by much of the population of the Empire while in orbit of several worlds portions of shipyards appeared. As confusion and fear gripped, the Sith Council gathered and tried to make sense of what had occurred but as far as they could tell it was a rather positive occurrence that gave them additional capacity to build ships and included ships that were completed nearly and with it technology more advanced than what was at their disposal. Concerned though that the next such event, if it ever happened again, might bring hostile forces and so a portion of their forces would remain to defend Sith space while also being a reserve force that Sadow could call upon and draw upon these elements of the navy in order to man the newly gained warships that would be eventually sent to reinforce the invasion force.

At Ch'hodos, a majority of the Siths forces gathered into a grand armada, the largest ever assembled up to that point and then the order was given and jumped into hyperspace beginning the invasion of the Galactic Republic. The glorious invasion they had been expecting did not pan out as they would discover the same event that had benefited the Sith Empire had crippled the Republic with a portion of its territory replaced with systems conquered by a Sith Empire from another timeline with several other major worlds having suffered devastating attacks by the Mandalorians while Ludo Kressh who had been alive had seen what remained of his forces flung across the galaxy and slammed into Empress Teta fleet, killing him and crippling her fleet while the Empress herself which threw the recently united Koros system into chaos. Naga Sadow was quick to take advantage of this unexpected gift as his armada linked up with the Sith forces from the other timeline and then rapidly divided into numerous fleets as they fanned out across and conquering all that laid in their path. A conquest that grew easier as word spread of Coruscant and countless worlds having fallen to foreign forces along with the Mandalorians sacking of key Republic worlds and raiding others as they made their way back to Mandalorian space and with the Republic rapidly collapsing though some Senators that hadn't been on Coruscant when it was swapped would flee to Ossus to establish a government in exile as surviving elements of the Republic military and refugees began to arrive at the system with the Jedi doing there best to assist the refugees. The Jedi Council and military leadership held meetings to hash out plans to stem the Sith advance though not liberating any systems for the time being due to seeking to preserve what remains of their forces with the expectation that it will take a long time to rebuild their forces to a sufficient size to not only go on the offensive but hold onto any territory taken back from the Sith.

The remnants of the Republic gathering at Ossus would have an unexpected reprieve as the Sith turned their attention to the Mandalorians who had made unexpected raids on major and critical Republic systems and assaulted numerous worlds on their way back to Mandalorian space in the Northern Outer Rim. Their recently concluded rampage made it abundantly clear the threat they represented to the Sith newly conquered territory and with the fragile hold the Sith Empire had on there newly gained worlds, it would not take much to dislodge them and so Naga Sadow would reorganize his forces with garrisons drawn down from worlds judged to be unlikely to rebel or that had seen their governments and their security forces that had become Sith collaborators. The the freed up forces were sent either to rebellious worlds, reinforcing campaigns to crush the pockets of Republic space in the coreward regions that had yet to fall and finally to establish new reserve fleets that could respond to assaults upon Sith space or crushing any rebellions that overwhelmed garrison forces and with some of these forces counting Republic ships that had finished construction in the new shipyards in the Stygian Caldera and drawing upon some of the reserve force that had been left behind. As this movement and reorganization of forces was taking place, Naga Sadow also assembled a large force for an expedition to Mandalorian space and once a sufficiently large enough force had been gathered, he departed using what little information the Republic had on Mandalorian territory and as well guided by visions from the Force. Upon encountering a group of Mandalorians on patrol on the edge of their territory, Sadow issued his challenge to fight Mandalore and the victor would rule over both Sith and the Mandalorians.

For the Mandalorian patrol, a challenge issued could not be ignored lest they bring dishonor upon themselves and as well there would be who knows the advantages that adding these Sith to the Mandalorian nation would bring. So the Sith were escorted to Mandalore, while the leader Mandalore was contacted and informed of what had occurred and would soon meet the Sith on the planet and having brought much of his warriors in case of treachery by the Sith. On the surface and among the bones of the long extinct and enormous mythosaurs did the two groups gather and where they would watch as the two leaders approached with only a few words exchanged between the two partly due as there was no need and there being few words both could understand. Combat then commenced as Sadow attacked with his lightsaber while Mandalore defended with his Mythosaur Axe and for longer than the Sith had expected would this duel last in main part due to the Beskarr armor that Mandalore wore as both gave it their all and both desiring the power that victory would grant them. Despite this ultimately Sadow would emerge victorious, besting the Mandalore but the Sith Lord did not slay the Mandalorian, choosing instead to spare him to serve as a vassal and rule over the Mandlaorians in his stead.

With the allegiance of the Mandalorians, Naga Sadow would return to known space many weeks after first departing with a greatly enlarged force of both Sith and now Mandalorian warships with the Republic core territories having fallen and the last major bastions of Republic resistance being Ossus and some systems near it. Sadow armada would travel along the Perlemian Trade Route before jumping to Ossus seeking a final decisive blow that would end the Republic, instead Sadow would be frustrated as nearly the entire population of the planet had been evacuated to the Tion Cluster with only a small volunteer having remained behind to resist the Sith. Resist them they did as Jedi, soldiers and a hastily trained militia made the Sith and Mandlaorians bleed for every advance with the Siege of Ossus dragging on for far longer than had been expected by the Sith Lords and while Ossus would eventually fall, its defenders made sure the Sith paid a dear price for that victory as far more Sith and Mandalorians were killed with "Remember Ossus!" becoming a rallying cry for the defenders of the Republic in honor of those that bought the Republic precious time at the cost of their lives. No longer bogged down at Ossus, an enraged and seething Naga Sadow would unleash his forces upon the Tion Cluster to utterly wipe out the Republic and secure his dominion over much of the galaxy but once more would be frustrated as the Republic had during the last few months fortify the systems of the cluster while having built up its forces as much as it could and further bolstering them with mercenaries from Hutt Space. As the Sith would push into the Tion Cluster, Republic resistance grew ever stiffer and was simply verging on fanaticism as the forces of the Republic knew what would await them and their families grew if they failed as planets were fought over repeatedly and traded hands numerous times.

Eventually the fighting would become stalemate with the Sith Empire having only managed to conquer portions of the Thanium Worlds and Cronese Mandate with the Sith facing a long struggle and bloody struggle ahead of them for the conquest of the rest of the cluster but instead Sadow would choose a different strategy. Seeing the potential cost and worried over draining his forces with the potential threat of the Hutts, Sadow would decide to contain the Republic as much as possible with the Empire withdrawing its forces and keeping vigilant watch on the remaining words of the Republic and the Hutts to their south, beginning the False Peace.
…………

When it became quickly became apparent the Republic would not prevail against the Sith and word spread of Sith atrocities, numerous systems in their desperation would turn to the Hutts for protection and a protection they gladly provided though it would come a steep price with the worlds having to pay the Hutts for their protection along with contributing soldiers and ships to a new Hutt military seeing as their new Sith neighbor would happily conquer them at the first opportunity that presented itself. Of course the Hutts glady do business with both members of the Sith and Republic alike if they have the credits providing Hutts much with many profitable opportunities resulting from the conflict between the Empire and Galactic Empire from selling intel, arms trade, smuggling to name just a few. While the Hutts are zealously committed to their neutrality, the leadership of the cartels are plotting and will take whatever measures necessary to ensure their continued prosperity and to ensure their survival in this new and violent era.

………

The Galactic Republic or known by many among such names as the Republic of Tion, the Rim Republic, and the Republic with the latter being what most call it, is a shadow of what it once was, reduced to the parts of the Tion Cluster not conquered by the Sith while the past decade has brought about profound changes and challenges for the Republic, as it attempts to rebuild its infrastructure, government, and military from the ground up. The devastation caused by the Sith invasion resulted in the displacement of countless citizens, creating a massive refugee crisis and while most ended up settling in Hutt space, a sizable number fled to what was left of the Republic, straining the already fragile resources and infrastructure of the Tion Cluster with many slums forming resulting in tensions with local populations competing over housing and jobs and for a host of reasons see riots regularly break out and in turn needing the police and the military to restore order. To relieve these pressures and to secure new sources of resources, new colonies have been established where refugees and Republic colonists work to build new lives and like the Sith some of the locations known only to a select in the likely event that the Tion Cluster is conquered by the Sith, the Republic will survive. What remains of the Senate has relocated leadership and have relocated to Desevro and established a new Senate representing both the various worlds of the Tion and some worlds occupied by the Sith. With strained finances its chief focus has been pouring ever more money into the military with a focus on building as many ships as possible to have any hope of holding out against the Sith armadas.

Also if and that's a big if that the Sith can be defeated there is the question of what shape a restored Republic will take with many Tionese calling for them playing a far greater role citing their ongoing sacrifices and future ones as there is no going back how things were before the Sith invasion along with questions such as how to deal with the surviving Sith and the immense numbers of collaborators. While the politicians bicker and the generals plan, the Jedi at their new temples on Desevro and other worlds train their Padawans in both the Force and in warfare with the Jedi having grown far more militarized as a result of their failure to defeat the Sith with Jedi customary wardrobe replaced with specialized armor along with now wielding blasters and other weapons. While many young Knights believe with the Force at their side that they can defeat the Sith, the Council however is far realistic and as such for years has have numerous teams of Jedi train with Republic special forces and its intelligence agencies for the single purpose of killing Naga Sadow and hopefully plunging the Sith Empire into civil war and opening the long road to liberating their ancient homeworld of Ossus and reclaiming the galaxy.

…..

For the Sith, the ten years since the Tion Campaigns have turned into a Second Golden Age with their empire stretching from Korriban to Sluis Van in the Southern Rim with the Sith Lords accumulating wealth once only dreamed of and put to use it has besides the usual. Systems bordering the Republic and the Hutts are turned into fortresses as ever greater armies are conscripted from across the Empire while never ending numbers of warships are churned out by the Sith shipyards to bolster the Imperial armadas that patrol and drill for the next war while hunting down the countless insurgent groups that plague the former territory of the Republic. Assisting them is Imperial Intelligence led by the Sith Lord Xisha Daral whose agents, mostly former Republic intelligence operatives, scour the galaxy looking for rebel bases and hideouts while tips and rumors from the legions of informants across Sith space results in countless people accused of treason hauled away never to be seen again and contributing to countless innocents being caught up these intel drag nets being the abuse of the tip system to settle grudges and other disputes.

To rule such a sizeable Empire is something they could not administer properly by themselves and with much lobbying by Gav Daragon and his growing number of supporters to incorporate the bureaucracy of the Republic into the Empire, Naga Sadow seeing the wisdom of it and so the various government employees that hadn't died or fled were recruited and their respective agencies and ministries re-established under Sith control. Also established was the Imperial Senate and while nothing more than a rubber stamp for whatever legislation or laws Sadow wants, it does provide however small an illusion that the people of the Empire have some say in its running. Speaking of Gav Daragon, he did not adjust well to the Empire at first not fitting in with the Sith and for some time searched the galaxy for his sister Jori, chasing after every rumor and reported sighting till finally accepting that his sister either doesn't want to be found or transported to another galaxy and so began a new family and taking part in Sith politics where he advocates a more velvet glove approach to ruling the galaxy and while he rallies supporters around, very few share his beliefs out rather due to the favor he receives from Naga Sadow. Many Sith viewed him as weak and some conspired to eliminate him and his family, though unfortunately their plots would leak and while Gav is not a conventional Sith Lord but when you threaten his family now that's when he becomes the definition of a Sith Lord and his resulting rage and violent, terrible retaliation made it clear while Gav is kind he is most definitely not weak. One interesting aspect of this expanded Sith Empire is that while it conquered much of the known galaxy, the galaxy to a certain extent has culturally conquered the Sith as Sith Lords wine and dine with the rich and famous, hob knob with celebrities while enjoying the latest fashion and entertainment.

Some Sith would justify building relations with the powerful and influential of the galaxy to further their interests while others would truthfully admit that this is them indulging in all that the galaxy has and in their view why shouldn't they enjoy the fruits of their conquests. Not all have given into what a small minority of Sith Lords view as vices and weaknesses and feel the Sith Empire is increasingly straying from what the Exiles had intended and so lead rather austere and spartan living arrangements by Sith standards. With their disdain of their fellows' extravagant lifestyles, it has kept the movement's numbers small but it does add to the complexity of Sith politics with its plots, assassinations and sometimes open but regulated warfare between Sith Lords. Of course even if the Sith take advantage of all the galaxy offers does not mean they trust their new subjects with countless cities having portions of them rebuilt into fortified strongholds to house the Sith Lords that rule from there, their families along with their servants, soldiers from Old Sith Space and their most trusted slaves and designed and stocked to withstand long sieges and planetary uprisings till reinforcements can arrive to relieve, though so far no planet has dared to risk the fury of the Sith by rising up. In the old core of the Sith Empire, worlds such as Ziost and Korriban and nearby systems have been turned into fortress worlds and have massively built up their industry and strip mining worlds and moons to power it with the hope that these systems will never fall to an invading power, of course hope not being a strategy and so Sadow turns to other measures to ensure the Sith survival and to strengthen his hold over his massively expanded empire.

So he turned to the human slaves of the Stygian Caldera, a population loyal to their Sith masters and so seeing potential in them would make use of the massive wealth gained from the conquest of the Republic to purchase nearly all of them and then in turn settled them on the far flung edges of Sith territory while creating new bastion of loyalty along with secretly establishing colonies only in the unknown regions. The latter only known to Sadow and a select few for a range of contingencies ranging from civil war to the Sith Empire falling to a hostile force and to act as refuge where the Sith under Sadow could rebuild and eventually strike back from. Also to further bolster these developing colonies, the Sith have settled members of their species along with taking human orphans and most importantly young enough that they can be raised by their new families and molded into loyal citizens of the Sith Empire and to one day serve various roles from laboring to help continue the largest military expansion in galactic history, serving in the ever expanding Empire bureaucracy among others. While the former human slaves have seen their fortune greatly improve, in the last few years, a select few showing a talent among them have risen far above their fellows after showing a talent for the Force have been taken as apprentices and taught the secrets of and dark magics of the Dark Side in the hopes of producing Force warriors with power like Gav Daragon but with a Sith mindset though while some powerful warriors have resulted from this most apprentices have perished during their training and none yet Daragon. Last but not least there is the Mandalorian clans, subdued by Naga Sadow and whose warriors gained many victories but also paid a heavy price in blood and so have spent the last decade in rebuilding their forces as Mandalorian sons and daughters train and take up arms alongside veteran warriors and helping to replenish their ranks but still the Mandalorian leadership are worried that for the next war they will not have sufficient numbers.

As a result much pressure has been placed on Mandalorian mothers to have numerous children while to supplement their forces they have added combat droids, though the quality of these droids leave much to desire. Of course being subjects of the Sith has put vast resources at the disposal of the Mandalorians which they've put to use building vast industrial complexes to produce weapons, armor, ground vehicles and starfighters along with size-able orbital shipyards, the largest of the latter of course being above Mandalore with the workforces for these facilities being in the form of countless slaves from the Sith slave markets which these days make their Hutts counterparts pale in comparison. In the present the False Peace continues but as the Sith make use of their vast industry and far greater population to build the greatest warmachine ever witnessed by the galaxy, the day grows closer when the Sith will take over the rest of the galaxy, slaying all those who resist and then all will bow before the Dark Lord Naga Sadow.
 
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