Dark Wrath

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The army of EVIL in the Great War!

The army directly serving the Dark Gods. The Dark Gods would often rely on their allies (like Ticondera) who maintained their owned independent forces; however, later in the war, the Dark Gods rolled all of their troops under one banner.

Organization

Like in the Grand Army and most other forces, the regiment soon became a standard unit of organization. The Dark Wrath tended to designate a force of multiple regiments as a Corps.

On a higher level, though, the Dark Wrath's organization reflected a degree of factionalism among its constituent parts. Although as High General, Burzmale Julian was the highest-ranking military officer, he did not command the same level of overall control as the analogous position of Generalissimo. Burzmale could reliably count on the various Lord Generals and most of the Dark Wrath's military professionals. However, the Dark Gods themselves could (and often did) divert troops and other resources for their own projects, and rarely listened to Burzmale. Similarly, Burzmale had difficulty exerting much control over the Dark Gods various priesthoods (who were, additionally, often in competition with each other for power and influence). The Dark Wrath's air and naval forces tended to cooperate poorly with the ground forces. Finally, the Dark Wrath drew on several forces from outside the known Web, who tended to have their own leaders and agendas.

Many individual regiments would align with a particular Dark God, in an attempt to secure that God's favor. Sometimes soldiers in these regiments would receive special gifts from their chosen god. Sometimes their chosen god would simply demand sacrifices.

Troops

The Dark Wrath's forces were extremely diverse. They were drawn from fanatical followers, races who venerated the Dark Gods, horrifying monsters created by the Dark Gods, and large number of conscripts drawn from the Dark Wrath's occupied territories. Though Dark Wrath record-keeping was less then perfect, they almost always outnumbered their opponents. During the decisive fighting of 25-26 WR, it is believed that the Dark Wrath was approximately twice the size of the Grand Army.

Numerically, humans comprised the majority of the Dark Wrath's forces. Although some were fanatics, the vast majority were conscripts, forced into service (not so different from a typical Grand Army soldier of the time). Some secretly kept to the Light Gods, but most 'went through the motions' of supporting the Dark Gods even if they did not truly believe. They usually received only rudimentary training before being thrown into combat. The Dark Gods themselves regarded humans as mere cannon fodder. The Dark Wrath tended to use massive, 'human wave' tactics to overwhelm their enemies with sheer numbers and magitek rifle blasts. Most of the troops lacked the training for more subtle maneuvers.

In addition to their regular forces, many of the Dark Wrath's priests were quite capable of fighting. These were usually deployed with the regular troops, to 'enforce morale'. They also protected the various temples and shrines to the Dark Gods. Many of the most powerful priests had special powers and abilities, depending on how favored they were in the eyes of their god.

The Dark Wrath also managed to field whole regiments of Ogres. These large, powerful humanoids were given extra-large rifles and grenades and used as shock troops. The Dark Wrath valued them because they were naturally tough and obedient, and quite fearsome in close combat.

The Dark Dragon Clan was very important to the Dark Wrath early in the war. These warriors were often fearsome in their own right, but were especially terrifying for their ability to turn into Dragons. However, as powerful as they were, full-blooded warriors capable of dracomorph were few in number. Late in the war a Dark Dragon was a rare and powerful fighter indeed.

The Eldrakyn were an advanced civilization from beyond the Web. Twisted, evil Lunarians who venerated Zeromous, the Eldrakyn possessed powerful magic and advanced weapons. They provided the bulk of the Dark Wrath's air forces. They also provided a few ground regiments. However, they had difficulty replacing their high-tech weapons and vehicles, and although they were powerful combat troops, attrition eventually wore them out.

Although the Web had not formally met the Gate Dimension yet, this did not stop the ancient Kingdom of Zeal, led by the godlike Queen, from intervening in the Great War. She provided a cadre of Enlightened Ones as magic support for the Dark Wrath. These powerful magicians were very hard for the GA to counter, as their magical traditions were completely unknown to the Web at the time.

Finally, the Dark Wrath created beings specifically for the war. Combining dark magic, human, and esper blood gave rise to the terrible Banelings, stealthy assassins that terrorized the enemies of the Dark Gods.

Equipment

The Dark Wrath had a wide variety of equipment, although Burzmale attempted to standardize a few designs and weapons systems. Many of the Dark Wrath's innovations and systems were picked up by others after the war. However, due to the Grand Army's massive blockade and strategic air campaign, the Dark Wrath's industrial base always struggled to provide enough equipment, replacement parts, ammunition, and other supplies to provide for its vast forces.

The standard infantry weapon for the Dark Wrath was the magitek rifle. (Since this was the first magitek rifle produced, it didn't get a name; after the war it simply became known as a "Dark Wrath Magitek Rifle"). Running off a magitek capacitor, a rifle could fire thousands of shots before being depleted, greatly simplifying the Dark Wrath's logistics. However, it was a weak weapon, only useful when deployed en masse. Soldiers derided them as "flashlights" for their low killing power. The Dark Wrath was never able to produce good Needle Weapons, however, so it was stuck with the magitek rifle for most of the war.

For field artillery, the Dark Wrath made extensive use of rockets. They had a variety of launch platforms, ranging from modified trucks to spider walkers to towed mortar versions. Almost all could fire dozens or even hundreds of rockets very quickly. Though they were very inaccurate, they could rapidly saturate an area with heavy firepower.

There was no standard design for the "spider walkers" that formed most of the Dark Wrath's armored support; they had four, six, or eight legs, and mounted a variety of armaments. These early mecha were excellent in rough terrain, however, they lacked the protection and firepower to go toe-to-toe with the GA's Leo tanks. The Grand Army decisively won almost every armored confrontation of the war.

Although it came late in the war, one of the Dark Wrath's biggest military innovations came when Burzmale Julian helped design the Julian Infantry Carrier. This treaded vehicle was well-protected against small arms fire, had some punch of its own, and could move a squad of eight Dark Wrath infantry. This was one of the Web's first true "battle taxis", and it gave the Dark Wrath's forces some much needed mobility which Burzmale used to good effect in the Transbaron campaign. This design was widely copied after the war; the Communist Protectorate still used a descendant of this design.

Air Forces

The Eldrakyn provided the bulk of the Dark Wrath's air forces. They had two main models of aircraft; the Eldrakyn designation was unpronounceable in the Common tongue, so most the GA designations of "Tau" and "Octa", for their respective shapes. The Tau model, named for its distinctive "T", was the Eldrakyn's primary fighter. It was highly maneuverable and possessed energy weapons well in advance of anything in the Web at the time. It was superior to all of the Luftwaffe fighters deployed during the war, however, like all Eldrakyn technology, it was difficult to repair and replace. Eventually the Eldrakyn simply ran out of fighters. The "Octa", named for its figure-8 shape, was a larger aircraft, and the Eldakyn's primary bomber. It was a fast "bomb truck", capable of outrunning most early fighters and delivering its payload unscathed. However, the Eldakyn never coordinated well with the ground forces, and so Dark Wrath close air support tactics lagged well behind the Grand Army's for most of the war.

The Dark Wrath attempted to produce a few large, prop-driven airships in the mold of the Red Wings, but they only ever produced a few ships. Baron destroyed its prized airship foundries rather then let them fall into the Dark Gods' hands.

Naval Forces

The Dark Wrath struggled to put together a strong navy. There were a few fearsome battleships constructed, most notably the famed WaveWrath Domination, they never had enough shipbuilding capacity to build the small and medium craft essential for screening the larger vessels, escorting convoys, and hunting Kriegsnavee submarines.

Notable Dark Wrath commanders

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