War Brewing in the Island-Nation
His Royal Majesty, Archduke Konrad I, declared Vorona to be in a state of war against the Nature and Heritage Party rebels. The rebellion rose up against the tyrannical Archduke late last year, with most of Vojnovy Pokrik joining, whiles leaving Barovia almost entirely in the hands of the royalists. In his speech at Dechow, the Archduke officially movilized the 36,000 strong Kampenkorps to protect the major populations zones in Barovia. Following the order to deploy, he called "for all loyal and righteous Voronans" to report suspected rebel activity to the local Kampenkorps. In ending, Konrad issues a warning, "May this serve as the final notice to all supporters of these rebels; We are His Chosen, and We shall have no mercy upon those who defy us." As the Archduke walked off the stage, a family was herded onto the stage by two Kampenkorps soldiers. The parents were holding their two children(est. 8-5) close to them as the soldiers lined up behind them. The firing squad aimed, and fired, the family dropping like like-sized rag dolls. More soldiers moved to dispose of the bodies, and noticing one of the children still had a pulse, shot again, directly through the skull. No official clarified the situation, but the message was clear. If you rebel, you die. If you love a rebel, you die. If you are even borne from the same seed of a rebel, you die.
Reports from Ziegendorf indicate that the center of NHP support in Barovia has been put on a brutal lockdown, with the Kampenkorps deploying an estimated 10,000 of their soldiers to the city. The population of Ziegendorf, between the mass-executions of suspected rebels, and the fleeing of worried citizens has led to a significant drop in the city's population. Estimates range from merely a couple hundred, to tens of thousands of deaths in the northern city alone. Vojnovy Pokrik has been largely abandoned for the time being by His Royal Majesty, and the rebels run free. The situation may be worrisome to the royalists, though, as this leaves an open area for easy foreign intervention by opponents of the Archduke's reign.