The Campaign of '68

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The Campaign of '68 was a disastrous attempt by British forces to invade Hell.

War Is Hell[edit | edit source]

"So we mounted up, loaded the pistols and set out to conquer Hell for Her Majesty..."[1]

There were already rumblings of war with Hell within months of the Fall of London,[2] but it took until 1868 for the first opportunity to arise. That year, the British Cavalry were tasked with mapping the vast new landscape of the Neath;[3] as they explored, they found Rubbery Men, devils, and more excitingly, news of the lands beyond London's borders. True to both imperial and Christian ambition, London's top brass decided upon an invasion of Hell.[4] However, it was the devils who struck first after learning of the British war plans. They invaded London through the Forgotten Quarter, the ruined remnants of the Fourth City.[5] Several British cavalry regiments were deployed in defense, but as they charged into the mist,[6] they were confronted by horrors beyond imagination. The battle was a catastrophe, and the remnants of the Empress’ cavalry were captured.[7] The prisoners were condemned to work on Hell's slave ships,[8] and the ransom Hell demanded was one soul for each prisoner[9] - a ransom sometimes paid by loved ones, at great personal cost.[10]

Hell's Gate

Despite this crushing initial setback, in 1870,[11] a portion of the British Army managed to push forward into the Hinterlands and cross into infernal territory. One battle took place at Moulin; the region now called the Moulin Waste was bombarded the most heavily,[12] and is now pockmarked with trenches, craters,[13] and anomalies in spacetime[14] from Hellish ordnance. The area remains littered with the scraps of both London's forces[15][16] and Hellish devices.[17][18] Hell's strategists deliberately allowed the British army to advance deeper into their territory, culminating in a battle at the Lamentations of the Violet,[19] a gorge fortified with infernal artillery and diabolic defenses.[20] British forces were optimistic at first, with some immediately attempting to scale the walls of Hell itself,[21] but they were soon crushed beneath an endless tide of devils and infernal artillery.[22] The Londoners resorted to a strategy of attrition, but such a plan was sheer folly against a less-than-mortal enemy; they were forced to employ trench warfare, an unfamiliar and desperate strategy.[23] The Fields of Roses bore the scars of intense combat, and wrecked siege engines littered the landscape: a testament to the futility of traditional warfare against Hell’s defenses.[24]

The Brazen Brigade

London did find an unexpected ally in the Brazen Brigade, a counterrevolutionary faction of devils opposed to the republic of Hell,[25] but their assistance was not enough to turn the tide of the war. By early 1871, the campaign had reached a standstill, and soldiers sought whatever small comforts they could in the trenches. On New Year's Day, a group of Londoners set up a game of football, but the devils released prisoners of war to compete against their former comrades[26] — a psychological tactic designed to erode morale even further, aided by the fact that the prisoners had gained infernal powers.[27] The final days of the Campaign descended into chaos. London’s forces, running out of modern ammunition, resorted to medieval siege warfare.[28] Hell, by contrast, deployed an endless array of eldritch weaponry, which not only tore men apart but warped their minds, turning soldiers into deserters or traitors.[29] Some stumbled straight into the waiting hands of Hell,[30][31] while others were caught and executed by their own superiors.[32] The trenches became mass graves.[33][34] Exhausted and outmatched, the British forces broke.[35]

The Thorned Manservant, a veteran affected by a weapon of Hell.

Those who made it back to London brought with them accounts of terrifying sights: burning roses, brass triremes, the relics of Hell's deposed aristocracy, the merciless bureaucracy that supplanted it.[36] Many of those who were captured were not the same when they returned. One was apparently transformed into a devil,[37] and another became a sapient rose.[38] Still others were not quite transformed, but roses burrowed deep into their flesh.[39][40]

Aftermath[edit | edit source]

"The terms of our settlement after London's sad little sortie were generous."[41]

After the war, London begrudgingly accepted normalized diplomatic relations with Hell. The devils constructed their consulate, the Brass Embassy, on what came to be called Moloch Street, and set up an express railway between London and Hell.[42] They forced London to legalize trade in human souls, although this trade remains strictly regulated, and extracted many significant concessions as well.[43] In addition to the soul trade, Hell also exports coal, sulfur, nevercold brass, and devilbone to London.[44]

The Violet Treaty,[45] signed between London and Hell, established a neutral buffer zone between the two cities. The part of the Hinterlands west of Balmoral fell under neither jurisdiction, with both parties forbidden from using the territory for espionage, political maneuvering, or religious conversion.[46]

In 1898, with the help of a second treaty brokered by the deviless Virginia (the Lord Mayor of London at the time),[47] the Great Hellbound Railway was founded as a passenger line through the Hinterlands.[48] The Railway brought an influx of people to the old battleground of Moulin, which is now a small hamlet[49] where historians excavate and sell relics of the Campaign.[50]

Veterans[edit | edit source]

The Regretful Soldier, a veteran of the Campaign.

"You examine regimental diaries and talk to historians. Few of the old soldiers from the ill-fated campaign of '68 are still in the Neath. One has attained high office and no longer speaks of such things. Another is a drunk, no doubt passed out in some gutter. A few themes recur in the stories you do hear: slave-rowed triremes, fields of burning roses, a vast and pitiless bureaucracy. A throne that stands in the shadow of a gallows."[51]

Even decades later, it is not difficult to find veterans of the Campaign around London: traumatized warriors in the bars of Watchmaker's Hill, peculiarly ambitious clergymen, drunkards passed out in the gutter.[52] The invasion left a long shadow on London,[53] but even after such a dramatic loss, some within the Anglican Church hold out hope for another attempt to vanquish Hell once and for all.[54]

  • The Regretful Soldier's wife traded her soul for his freedom, but freedom brought him no solace.[55]
  • The Bishop of Southwark, a chaplain of his unit at the time,[56] unwittingly caused his regiment to be captured in battle. He went on a hunger strike while rowing Hell's galleys, and eventually signed a contract allowing him to keep his soul and go home.[57] He has been spending his life ever since then preparing for another invasion.[54]
  • The Thorned Manservant has grown roses from his skull thanks to a weapon of Hell.[39] He now serves the Palace, where he has organized a support group for fellow veterans.[58]
  • The Bellicose Prince, one of the royal children, secretly joined the war effort as a young man; he survived, but was left with deep psychological wounds thanks to the horrors he witnessed and the choices he made.[59]
  • Many veterans whisper of a figure called "Nicator" among the ranks of the campaign. Some claim he led the charge to defend London against the devils in the Forgotten Quarter. The validity of these accounts is uncertain.[60]

Historical Inspirations[edit | edit source]

The Campaign of ’68 draws strong parallels to World War I. The Campaign prominently featured trench warfare, so its battlegrounds evoke the devastation of the Western Front: muddy and bomb-riddled terrain, barbed wire, broken soldiers. Much like Ypres or the Somme, the Moulin Wastes and the lands around Hell are liminal spaces between life and death, where geography no longer matters. The most important point of note, however, is that both wars had a sense of strategic futility, with absurd goals and battles that dragged on for months - despite the promises of overconfident generals that it would all be over by Christmas. The disparity between old military doctrines and the new realities of machine guns, chemical weaponry, and high explosives didn't help matters.

Ultimately, both these wars ended not in victory or even a stalemate, but in quiet horror, with veterans and survivors left to wonder what any of it meant. WWI was actually the origin of the term "shell shock," the condition that later came to be known as post-traumatic stress disorder, due to the symptoms its survivors experienced when they returned home. The Campaign's veterans, betrayed and abandoned, also suffer from trauma symptoms; some gather in support groups, while others slip into obscurity. Zealots like the Bishop of Southwark who call for a second invasion echo the unresolved fury that followed WWI, which eventually erupted into World War II.

Hell, meanwhile, becomes a metaphor for modernity itself: impersonal, industrial, bureaucratic. Gone are medieval impressions of demons with pitchforks; in their place are factories, contracts, and engines. The Campaign is the Victorian world’s failed last stand against the modern age. As WWI shattered faith in progress, reason, and empire, so does the Campaign reveal the old world’s impotence before mechanized dread.

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Caught Up in a Soldier's Heartbreaking Tale, Fallen London
  2. ↑ Archie: Ministry Theories: Tell Archie about rumours of war with Hell, Mask of the Rose "I outlined to Archie what I've learned: the hints of mobilisation to the west, the question of how the Masters might be involved."
  3. ↑ Caught Up in a Soldier's Heartbreaking Tale, Fallen London "In '69, once the city had settled and the dashed bats had cleared off, we in the Cavalry were detailed to map out the Neath. [...]" [Editor's note: The date noted here is likely a typo or the Soldier misremembering the year, since it's known as the Campaign of '68 everywhere else.]
  4. ↑ Caught Up in a Soldier's Heartbreaking Tale, Fallen London "Soon we came across the rubbery chaps, devils and so on, and learned that there were lands beyond London's borders. [...] So we mounted up, loaded the pistols and set out to conquer Hell for Her Majesty..."
  5. ↑ Caught Up in a Soldier's Heartbreaking Tale, Fallen London "Well, the Devils got wind of our expedition to Hell, and decided to invade London first. They came in over the Forgotten Quarter and we drew up our battle lines. [...]"
  6. ↑ Caught Up in a Soldier's Heartbreaking Tale, Fallen London "[...] The Blues and Royals, The 23rd Neathy Rifles, Heavy and Light Brigades, all lined up among the broken stone warriors of another stolen city. And off in the mists... well... the voices..."
  7. ↑ Caught Up in a Soldier's Heartbreaking Tale, Fallen London "[...] When the bugler sounded the charge I felt my insides turn to liquid, I don't mind telling you. We lowered our lances and spurred into the fog. [...] The voices on either side of us... eyes in the mist... Led us deep into the marshes [...] The last thing I saw was a face..."
  8. ↑ Caught Up in a Soldier's Heartbreaking Tale, Fallen London "When I awoke, I was in a boat on a dark river. [...] It was a great shining brass-clad trireme, and I was chained to an oar, along with the ragged remnants of the Empress' cavalry. [...] At the helm was a fellow with a bandaged face."
  9. ↑ Caught Up in a Soldier's Heartbreaking Tale, Fallen London "A Devil in a velvet suit sauntered up to me. 'Ah, you're awake,' he said. 'So glad you could join our little cruise. You'll be our guest until the Traitor Empress agrees to pay a ransom. One soul for each of you. Until then, you row.' And he pointed to the North."
  10. ↑ Caught Up in a Soldier's Heartbreaking Tale, Fallen London "Agnes was waiting for me," he says at last. "I gazed into her empty eyes, and the happiest day of my life turned into the saddest. Agnes had given her soul to buy me back, you see. I still love her, of course. And she loves me. In her own way..."
  11. ↑ A remembrance in the garden, Fallen London "[…] "It was 1870. We were in Hell. The Heavy Brigade had just been routed - five of us hid in a field, among burning roses. […] We could have escaped. Should have escaped. But I plucked one of the roses , and - my scars evidence the rest. […]"
  12. ↑ Carefully cross the fence, Fallen London "The Moulin Waste saw the worse of the ordnance of Hell. There are particularities to this place."
  13. ↑ Who built it?, Fallen London "Beyond it lies the Moulin Waste: a desolate battlefield, blasted with Hellish weapons during London’s war against Hell forty years ago. The landscape is churned mud, craters, and deep trenches."
  14. ↑ A Snap-Gap, Fallen London "The detonation of Hellish ordnance has left a crater here, [...] Inside it, space is having a difficult time holding itself together. [...] It's not entirely unlike the Missing Block. Trying to move across will lurch your body to the other side without passing through the intervening space. [...] these 'snap-gaps' are liable to break a few bones along the way."
  15. ↑ A Clatterwaul, Fallen London "Piles of discarded military paraphernalia accumulate in a muddy trench in the Waste: tarnished buttons from uniforms, rusting cavalry sabres, outmoded rifles rotting away."
  16. ↑ Account for what remains 100, Fallen London "Scraps of uniforms, discarded medals, and other items from the Campaign of '68."
  17. ↑ Account for what remains 100, Fallen London "And the crown jewel of your prize: a device of Infernal manufacture, still intact."
  18. ↑ Dig it up!, Fallen London "One of Hell's devices of war, left curiously inert."
  19. ↑ For All the Saints Who From Their Labours Rest, Fallen London "The Lamentations of the Violet" "The Scarlet Condottiere leads you towards a gorge carved into the fields. Smoke rises up from it in lazy plumes. Violet flowers speckle the rock, like the start of a rash. The Condottiere advises that you keep to the left, away from the smoke."
  20. ↑ For All the Saints Who From Their Labours Rest, Fallen London "This gorge is one of Hell's best defences. It marks the approach to London. In the war, Hell funnelled London's forces through the gorge, where they could be disposed of at leisure."
  21. ↑ The Remembrance of the Rose, Fallen London "The first salvo. Morale is high in the ranks. The Sergeant Major sounds the bugle, and it is up and over. When you reach the top, you –"
  22. ↑ Hold back, Fallen London "The devils do not die. They rise, and rise again. Stronger. Or else the law furnaces belch their hateful acrid, and so may they never die. At the battle's end, your battalion is at a third strength. The policy of attrition is not revised."
  23. ↑ For All the Saints Who From Their Labours Rest, Fallen London "Deep trenches are gouged into the ground. Abandoned siege weapons are mired in the ruined earth. Roses, red as wine, bloom across the scarred ground."
  24. ↑ For All the Saints Who From Their Labours Rest, Fallen London "The Fields of Roses" "Rusting machinery dots the scarred landscape, ruined by the troop movements: the raising and toppling of defences; the casting down of commanders. Here and there, roses rise from the earth: red as open wounds."
  25. ↑ The Remembrance of the Rose, Fallen London "Hell's enemies – and your allies – the Brazen Brigade are at your side."
  26. ↑ The Laws of the Game, Fallen London "It was New Year's Day, as far as they could keep the calendars making sense. The game started as normal – the soldiers often played football to keep themselves busy between sorties – but a half-hour in they realised that there were more players than there should be. They wore the faces of friends they thought lost."
  27. ↑ The Laws of the Game, Fallen London "They were lost soldiers of the regiment, released by the devils to play one game. Perhaps it was meant as some kind of indecipherable olive branch, but more likely it was meant to harm the soldier's morale. Apparently they had to fix up the rules to account for uncanny infernal tricks: searing sigils and the wax that poured from former comrades, that sort of thing."
  28. ↑ For All the Saints Who From Their Labours Rest, Fallen London "Battered armaments litter the tops of the trenches; cannon here, a chain-gun there; a single benighted Cotterell & Hathersage 'Discouragement', poking forlornly from the mire. When London's forces ran out of ammunition, they turned to antique weaponry: the trebuchet, the mangonel, the sling."
  29. ↑ For All the Saints Who From Their Labours Rest, Fallen London "Elsewhere, you can find the detritus of Hell's weaponry. A slumbering Utterance, never committed. The incandescent aftereffects of a Brazen Doctrine, still exuding perfume; the still-smouldering bulk of a War-Furnace; decreeing death, torpor and desertion."
  30. ↑ A Crown of Thorns, Fallen London "Alone, you crawl up an outcrop and fumble for your field-glasses. You watch helplessly as devils storm the glowing trenches, and herd the rest of the platoon into cages. This is your doing."
  31. ↑ For All the Saints Who From Their Labours Rest, Fallen London "[...] Some were fleeing east towards London; others, lost, ran in the direction of Hell. Amongst the wreckage, you find evidence of mounted cavalry: hoof-prints in the dirt. Hell's chargers, come to shepherd the fleeing soldiers through Hell's gates."
  32. ↑ For All the Saints Who From Their Labours Rest, Fallen London "The corpses here are human, but riddled with bullet-holes. No roses bind them. These were deserters, who tried to flee and were gunned down by their sergeants. [...]"
  33. ↑ For All the Saints Who From Their Labours Rest, Fallen London "A gibbet stands above the command trenches; three bodies still hang. They have been preserved: an edict from the Law Furnaces. They are handsome youths in regimental dress; their eyes closed as though sleeping. But for the livid marks on their necks, they might be."
  34. ↑ For All the Saints Who From Their Labours Rest, Fallen London "Pictures of old sweethearts hang on rose-mortared walls. Corpses lie together, their hands entwined, their fingers bound by blackened roses. The command trenches bear witness to frenzied anarchy; knives in the back of uniformed officers, victims of a mounted Ordinance."
  35. ↑ For All the Saints Who From Their Labours Rest, Fallen London "The trenches are clogged with the thrown down weaponry of failed battalions. You find letters in the command trenches; maudlin poetry, last-minute wills. Bodies strewn with roses hamper your path."
  36. ↑ Remnants of the war, Fallen London "You examine regimental diaries and talk to historians. Few of the old soldiers from the ill-fated campaign of '68 are still in the Neath. [...] A few themes recur in the stories you do hear: slave-rowed triremes, fields of burning roses, a vast and pitiless bureaucracy. A throne that stands in the shadow of a gallows."
  37. ↑ The Brass Grail, Fallen London "The devil pulls off his mask. "Was this effort to deny them worth it, Reginald? All Clarissa wanted was to get me into your seminary. Don't you want me any more?" An accent creeps into his voice, from the South end of Ireland. The Bishop drops his case. "Michael." The Bishop's former lover smiles and makes a slight bow. Michael says: "I haven't changed that much. We're more similar than you might think." The Bishop picks up a poker from the fireplace and then drops it. "No. We are finished, Michael. We are over. A hiss of steam escapes from Michael's eye as you and the Bishop turn away."
  38. ↑ Stay at your post, Fallen London "The Gospel of the Thorn 6:75. The boy found Hell not as expected. There was much he did not expect. He was welcomed to each district in time, and at the last, he was asked what he would like to be. There was only one possible answer. There only ever is."
  39. ↑ 39.0 39.1 A Crown of Thorns, Fallen London "The Thorned Manservant raises his fingertips to a flower budding above his ear. He twists it off, and blood drops from the stalk onto his shirt. "It's a war wound, from '68. I try not to complain. Some of the stories I've heard in this room – well, let's just say I got off lightly." [...]"
  40. ↑ For All the Saints Who From Their Labours Rest, Fallen London "At last, the cloth is away, and you can see the flesh exposed. His chest looks as though it has been tattooed from the inside. Except — except the tattoo is moving, and grows out from the bone. Thorns poke upwards out of the flesh. Roses bloom across the exposed chest, which bleeds incessantly. The man is entirely perforated."
  41. ↑ Attempt to leave, Fallen London
  42. ↑ Advertisements of a New Venture, Fallen London "Until not long ago, there was a treaty line between London and Hell. Plenty of ambitious people hoped to overstep it, but entrepreneurial blueprints spontaneously turned to ash. [...]"
  43. ↑ Attempt to leave, Fallen London "You are free to leave, of course. Though you must know there are certain treaties that can be called upon. Eventualities accounted for, when circumstance requires mitigation. [...] The terms of our settlement after London's sad little sortie were generous."
  44. ↑ Remnants of the war, Fallen London "There are the things that are commonly known of Hell, of course: its torrid climate, its exports of brass and hydrogen, its unquenchable appetite for souls. But what of London's attempted invasion?"
  45. ↑ Listen to the Synod's Opening, Fallen London "Learned friends, detested enemies, muddle-brained heretics, a great matter is upon us. Someone –" He glowers at you. "– has opened a Christian house of worship in the High Hinterlands. This contravenes the Violet Treaty, article seven."
  46. ↑ Listen to the Synod's Opening, Fallen London "The land west of Balmoral falls under neither the jurisdiction of Hell nor London. It is forbidden for either side to attempt to use the territory betwixt the two for matters of espionage, politics or religious conversion."
  47. ↑ Advertisements of a New Venture, Fallen London "That is when she announced a new initiative: a deal brokered with Hell, a whole stretch of land opened to London development."
  48. ↑ Advertisements of a New Venture, Fallen London "She founded the Ministry of Upper River Development [...] Seeing opportunity, His Amused Lordship joined a few friends to form the Great Hellbound Railway Company. Now they are seeking fellow directors from among the wealthiest and most notable Londoners."
  49. ↑ Build the station at Moulin, Fallen London "Far west, there is a muddy battlefield where London fought Hell, and lost. Within that battlefield lies a hamlet."
  50. ↑ A Hamlet, Fallen London "[...] You find no business of note, and little cause for human habitation, other than a cramped shop selling antiques. On the window, a sign proclaims the sale of Souvenirs & Mementos of the Campaign of ‘68."
  51. ↑ Remnants of the war, Fallen London
  52. ↑ A cavalry officer, Fallen London "That's the uniform of the 23rd Neathy Rifles. Though he's long since sold his brass buttons – for the cheapest gin, by the smell."
  53. ↑ Submit your prisoner to the ministrations of Hell, Fallen London "The Grey Man has feared these walls for decades, even though he has existed (in this form) only for a few months. He whimpers as you get closer. He asks you to relent. London came this direction in '68, and it was sorry, very sorry, to have done so."
  54. ↑ 54.0 54.1 Theological Husbandry, Fallen London "We have a plan. Pious sons of the Empire all, but I won't tell you any names. We're going to win where we lost back in '68. We're going to show them our mettle, once and for all. We're going to storm Hell, and I intend to be in the first rank."
  55. ↑ Caught Up in a Soldier's Heartbreaking Tale, Fallen London "Agnes was waiting for me," he says at last. "I gazed into her empty eyes, and the happiest day of my life turned into the saddest. Agnes had given her soul to buy me back, you see. I still love her, of course. And she loves me. In her own way..."
  56. ↑ The Brass Grail (Story), Fallen London "I was newly ordained back then. The army was in dire need of chaplains for the campaign and so I accepted a commission."
  57. ↑ The Brass Grail (Story), Fallen London "All I knew at the time was that it would allow me to leave with my soul. That such a craven should rise to the mitre..."
  58. ↑ A Crown of Thorns, Fallen London "My memories hurt far worse than these do," says the Thorned Manservant, pointing at the barbs that rupture his scalp. "I thought sharing them with other veterans might help, so I began hosting these meetings."
  59. ↑ A Crown of Thorns, Fallen London "Most Londoners can tell themselves they're nothing but pawns, left to fall where they may. But the son of the Traitor Empress can do no such thing. He is troubled, and he is doing something awful to bear it."
  60. ↑ Describe a Nicatorean Relic, Fallen London "Many veterans of the Campaign of '68 attest to having seen an unknown cavalry officer, eight feet tall and sat atop a massive war-horse, leading charges against the forces of Hell. What these soldiers do not know is that their description of this unknown 'Knight of the Forgotten Quarter' matches effigies found on Elder Continent coins struck around the year 500 A.D..."
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