Nemausus

The Harmonium and Its Enemies
The Harmonium’s ultimate goal is multiversal peace, harmony, law, and order, through the most pragmatic means possible. Their most frequent sapient enemies are thus demons of all kinds—tanar’ri, obyriths, loumaras, and more—who simply love to spread savagery, abandon, chaos, and evil wherever they crawl or soar.

Other creatures with an inexorable inclination towards dark-hearted anarchy—driders, ghouls, nightwalkers, werewolves, and dragons black, red, and white, to name a few—also have the tendency to Cross claws and blades with the Harmonium.

The Rehabilitation Arcologies
One day, the Harmonium resolved to do more than simply imprison and/or execute such miscreants. The Harmonium decided to redeem and transform these creatures into productive members of society, who would cast away their old selves and pursue the ideals of multiversal peace and harmony.

With a copious amount of funds from their treasuries in the Prime and the planes, they built two maximum-security prisons: Rehabilitation Arcology Locrian in the Arcadian layer of Buxenus, and Rehabilitation Arcology Phrygian in Nemausus. So grand they were in size that great nations could fit into them, and so heavily-warded they were that a molydeus was but a kitten behind bars.

The Harmonium assembled a host of the finest rehabilitators and redeemers from all their legions, and no small amount of mindbenders to give the malefactors a little psychic nudging. They shipped oceans’ worth of holy water from the Celestian city of Empyrea, said to cleanse away profanity and anarchy from anyone’s soul.

The arcologies filled up. Demons and other degenerates filled the unfathomably multitudinous cells. The Hardheads got to work. For a time, they produced results. Patience, empathy, psychology, phrenic caresses, and Empyrean water prevailed in showing many villains the light. They were released and given new homes in Buxenus and Nemausus, and many joined the Harmonium.

The Fall
But it was not enough. These successful cases were but a minority of the inmates. The facility members stepped up their game. Grew more forceful. Supplemented carrots with rough and splintering sticks. Doused the Abyssals and wreches with Empyrean water, within their bodies and without. Bored deep into minds. The Harmonium produced more successes, yes, even if ther eyes no longer shone. These were demons; surely such methods were morally justifiable?

It turned out that cruelty inflicted upon the cruel is still evil. All these acts in the name of law on so grand a scale, and all the evil concentrated within the prisoners themselves, pushed Arcadia to a breaking point. The earth and sky rent apart. Reality unraveled at the seams. Portals flickered and shut down. Nemausus broke away and hurtled down into Mechanus. The layer fragmented upon impact, then reconnected itself as a series of verdant-green cogs.

After the Fall
How swift the demons and savages in Rehabilitation Arcology Phrygia were to turn the tables. The wards had failed, and while some demons took this opportunity to escape, the highest-profile inmates saw an opportunity. No less than four tanar’ri lords rallied the prisoners under their charismatic banners and took over the leviathanic arcology for themselves. Baltazo, demon lord of diplomacy of strategy, ensures vague cooperation between the Abyssals. Hardheads turned to prisoners.

All across Nemausus, the nations of Arcadian petitioners and formians live in fear. They have been divorced from their home plane, from their gods, and from the Storm Kings. Those few who had the luxury of swift escape opted to stay behind and help their communities for the common good. Each day could be the day when an army of demons swarms their home, conquers and corrupts them, and then pops back to their impregnable fortress. The demons see this as an opportunity to smother law with chaos.

Where there is a mass jailbreak, the Red Death comes. Where the tanar’ri run amok, the baatezu arrive. The Mercykillers support Baator, so it is unsurprising that a vast army of devilish Mercykillers came barging in from Acheron. They are here to apprehend and contain all the criminals, yes... but they also figure that they can pull Nemausus a little closer to Hell. So they conquer Arcadian nations under diabolical jackboot as well, under the pretense of “lending support against demonic invasion.”

Modron protocols specifically dictate that in the event of a layer slide from an adjacent plane, the modron military is to assimilate all residents of the new cogs and cosmically register their souls under Mechanus’s ledgers. The clockwork creatures hardly appreciate the demons causing a fuss, nor do they approve of devils claiming territory, but they view the Arcadian petitioners and formians as enemies of equally high priority. Their lands will belong to Mechanus, Primus willing.

A planar layer slide has not occurred in ages! This is incredible! What are the “rules” behind such an event, hmmm? What is the precise threshold of such an event? How much “oomph” does any given action contribute to triggering such a slide, and are there diminishing returns? The Guvners are here to find out! They have no interest in conquest, but they are not about to let any modrons or fiends get in the way of their research! They are effectively highly well-armed civilians goofing around in a warzone.

Some Hardheads fell on their bayonets as they realized that they had very much done the opposite of promoting peace and harmony. “How in the Wheel are we supposed to set right what we did wrong?” is the burning question in the Harmonium’s minds. Cracking down on cruelty in Rehabilitation Arcology Locrian in Buxenus would be a start, but how will they take Nemausus back? Logically, good deeds should cause another layer slide... but there is little room for touchy-feely compassion now. They will have to vanquish evil.

Harmonium Relations
The new Mover Five Tessitura, half-angel and Netherese arcanist, directs the Harmonium’s efforts from the city-fortress of Melodia in Buxenus. In the cog Legato, the pit fiend Mover Four Villanella marshals and logistically provides for the armies and navies of Ortho, while the throne archon Mover Four Sonata coordinates matters of intelligence, diplomacy, and covert operations. The latter’s top agent is the nascent quasi-deity Mover Three Varvara.

The Harmonium’s initial attempts to reach out towards the nations of Arcadian petitioners and formians were rebuffed; “You Hardheads got us all into this mess in the first place, and there is no guarantee that they have our best interests at heart any more than the devils, demons, and modrons!” said the indigant Rainbow Princess Ritsuka, the t’uen-rin spiritual leader who unifies many of the petitioner nations. Formian Empress Furnica concurred.

The demons and degenerates are clear and obvious enemies to the Harmonium. The Hardheads have many compatriots being held hostage and corrupted in Rehabilitation Arcology Phrygia; will they have to sacrifice their friends for the greater good? Baltazo of diplomacy of strategy mediates the relations between the other three tanar’ri leaders: Aldinach of transformation; Rhyxhali of darkness, possession, and secrets; and Volisupula of finery and ostentatious ceremony.

The Mercykillers are formally the Harmonium’s allies, yet the Hardheads know exactly the ulterior scheme the Baatorians are trying to pull; how will the Harmonium tell the Red Death to get out and stay out? Duke and Justiciar Gaziel of Phlegethos and Duke and Justiciar Machalas of Stygia, cooperate as a symphony of infernal fire and ice to deliver justice upon the demons... and to “ensure that no Arcadian nations are harboring any criminals.”

The modrons are the rightful rulers of Mechanus; Nemausus is technically their territory now. It pains the Harmonium to have to oppose them, and many Hardheads are having doubts that reclaiming Nemausus is the right thing to do for the sake of peace and harmony. Still, the new state of affairs is a chaotic one, and if it means law fighting law to reinstate order, so be it. Secundus Rho and Secundus Phi have taken time off their duties in Regulus to personally attend to Nemausus.

As for the Fraternity of Order... well, the Harmonium is as allied with them as much as the Mercykillers, but at least they are not doing anything malicious. They are perhaps the most readily accessible allies to the Harmonium... if the Hardheads can somehow convince them that helping out against the devils, demons, and modrons will assuredly advance magical and scientific research. Telluria, Chief of Planar Affairs and dharum suhn, brings her chthonic mobile research facility.

Outside of Arcadia and Mechanus
Mount Celestia is shocked by the havoc wreaked upon Arcadia by the sacred mount’s own Empyrean water. Its Harmonium-aligned archons flock down to lend aid, but other archons are leery of assisting the Hardheads.

It is only a matter of time before the ’loths of Gehenna and/or the Gray Waste start prying their noses in...

A situation like this would normally draw the attention of Elysium’s guardinals. What could be prompting them to hold back from intervening?

Sigil is all abuzz with news reports and debates on the war in Nemausus, especially those damned Sensates taking recordings on sensory stones.

Power Level Expectations

 * This is a post-Maeldur game. Outsiders have no innate teleportation by default. They do not need to drink, but they do need two meals a day (they can skip breakfast) and two hours of sleep. These are spiritual needs that cause them to grow miserable if unfulfilled; they are not physical needs that let them die from starvation or exhaustion. Their dietary needs can be quite exotic; fiends might find larvae especially nourishing, and modrons must maintain themselves with scrap and oil. Outsiders can develop abilities that allow them to transcend such needs, however.
 * While sensory stones exist, “cell phones” do not. Telepathic communication and gaining a live feed of someone’s activities requires a special ability.
 * There are no lemures or nupperibos amongst the devils of the Harmonium and the Mercykillers. Such feral fiends do not have the conviction or intelligence to join up with a faction.
 * There are no dretches or manes in the hordes of tanar’ri who operate from Rehabilitation Arcology Phrygian. The Harmonium had never bothered with trying to rehabilitate truly bestial tanar’ri, and after the fall, the prisoners-turned-conquerors opted to gate in smaller amounts of higher-quality tanar'ri rather than rely on animalistic brutes.

Character Sheets

 * Varvara