"Codex: Orbal Technology of Azeroth and it's effect on the Great Wars
In Azeroth, the technology can be observed as machines and devices created by the gnomes, the goblins, or the dwarves. However, the different races of Azeroth had fewer interactions with each other until a few decades ago, making it hard to tell whether a certain invention is only a few years or thousands of years old. Among their most common pieces of technology are firearms, steam or oil-powered engines, clockwork devices, rockets, and alike.
With the advent of the Orbal Technology that was jointly developed by the research team established by the dwarves of Ironforge, High Elven Artificers of Quel'Thalas, Gnomish Tinkers of Gnomeregan, and scientists of the Fire Nation, Azeroth entered the age of unprecedented technological development on a global scale.
Over time, each of these four factions that participated in the development of Orbal Technology developed their own respective branch of the technology and incorporated it into their own culture.
The Fire Nation, known for being the most militaristic among the four, refitted all of their Airships, Navy, and Tanks and even created new Armored Divisions with the new generation of Armored Tanks and vehicles together with Mechanical Suits.
The dwarves and goblins incorporated the Orbal Technology in almost every single aspect of their lives. Their fortress underground cities were armed to the teeth with various Orbal technologies and weapons, with gnomes developing the most advanced Mechs and Mechanical Automatons to fight their wars. On the other hand, the dwarves focused on developing as much heavy firepower as possible.
Meanwhile, the High Elves of Quel'Thalas incorporated the invention of the Orbal Technology into their already existing Artifier wonders, increasing the combat capabilities of their Golems and defenses by leaps and bounds.
Still, the most important question of the day was how all of these affected the face of Azerorth during the Great Wars. It is an undeniable fact that if not for the Orbal Revolution, then Stormwind would have fallen, as would the outer colonies of the Fire Nation on the southern continent of Azeroth. It was also noted that only due to their Orbtech inventions were the Gnomeregan and Ironforge able to resist the hundreds of thousands of Orcs that were sieging their cities.
During the Third War, due to the upgraded defenses of Quel'Thalas, the High Elves had enough time to dispose of the internal traitors and bolster their defenses against the incoming Scourge. Even though it was undeniable the fall of the High Elves Kingdom, they managed to hold long enough until the reinforcements from the Phoenix Kingdom arrived and pushed back the Lich King and the Scourge in an almost legendary duel between the Lich King Arthas Menethil and the Phoenix King Aenarion Septim.
Even more recently, contact with species alien to Azeroth and the discovery of ancient facilities in remote places of this planet revealed technologies far beyond even the capabilities of gnomes and goblins. Such are the ships capable of leaving a planet and traveling across the Great Dark Beyond (some at unimaginable speeds), the machines that have created intelligent living beings out of stone and metal in ancient times, or the use of crystals to gather arcane energy and power appliances.
The Orbal Technology has proved to be an essential and critical asset in the defeat of the Horde and in pushing back the forces of the Scourge and Burning Legion. In the modern age of Azeroth, Orbal Engineers are considered one of the most sought professions in both the Alliance and Sacred Phoenix Empire.
The Magocracy of Dalaran even included Orbal Engineering into their standard curriculum as well, though it was focused more on the general aspects of the Orbal Technological Development if anything else. The importance of the Orbal Technology has been proven during all three Great Wars.
Be it for the Alliance or the Sacred Phoenix Empire. Though it was noted that during the past few years, Goblin Cartels has managed to develop their own branches of the Orbal Technology, albeit very crude compared to the technologies developed by the Sacred Phoenix Empire or Alliance, it still fulfilled the purpose for the Horde.
It was widely attributed that only due to the alliance between the Goblins and Horde did the Orcs survive after they fled to Kalimdor. If not for the military supplies sold to them by Goblins, it was noted down that the Orcs would be exterminated by the Night Elves and Alliance-Imperial Expeditionary Forces to Kalimdor, but were saved by the sudden eruption of the Third War."
- Year 21 After the Dark Portal, Lecture on the Orbal Revolution, Dalaran
***
Royal Capital of Wei-Jin, Fire Nation, Fire Islands, Year 20 Before the Dark Portal
Today was an important day for the Fire Nation because the delegation from the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas and Ironforge would be preparing to go back to their respective homelands, and soon enough, the new wave of diplomatic visits would take place between them.
Aenarion was very satisfied with the arrangements and diplomatic relationship that Grand Chancellor Iron managed to secure. The dwarves were immediately on board with the idea of developing the Orbal Technology, and even the High Elves were intrigued by this, so it was decided that they would need to consult internally with their respective rulers.
Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar and High Explorer Brann Bronzebeard were walking side by side with the Fire Lord Aenarion and his Queens, Azula, and Esdeath, who were accompanying the Ambassadors to send them off.
"We must thank you for your hospitality, Fire Lord. When I return to the Quel'Thalas, I will personally talk with His Majesty and other Magisters about the alliance with the Fire Nation and send some Magisters to teach your people Magic in exchange for teaching some High Elves the Art of Bending and Chi Manipulation."
Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar knew that Chi Manipulation Techniques would be invaluable for the High Elven Warriors and could tremendously bolster their own forces and the strength of their people, while the Fire Nation would benefit from the Magic.
While the Quel'Thalas had a minimal diplomatic relationship with the different nations in Azeroth, the possible alliance with the Fire Nation could represent the first major diplomatic relationship for the Quel'Thalas in the past thousand years or so.
While they had some relationship with Dalaran, that wasn't really enough to call it a good diplomatic relationship between the nations. Most of this stemmed from the combination of arrogance and the self-sufficiency of the High Elves, as they didn't really need anything that the other nations of Azeroth had.
But with the Fire Nation, it was different.
Just their knowledge on Chi Manipulation and Bending Arts was something that was making them absolutely unique on the entire world scale.
And even though the Warrior Profession wasn't very widespread among the High Elves due to their aptitude for Magic, and even the Warriors were using Magic as their primary source of power, effectively becoming Mage Knights or Spellswords, concepts of the Fire Nation genuinely intrigued him.
After that, there was the topic of their technology, which was minimally decades ahead of the dwarves and gnomes, who were technologically most advanced species in the Eastern Kingdoms, who in turn were decades ahead of the humans.
Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar was an old High Elf and also someone who studied a lot of their Kaldorei ancestry and knew how much the Kaldorei Empire developed their own blend of Magic and Technology.
Yet, unfortunately, everything was lost with the fall of the Empire and the War of the Ancients and the Great Sundering.
"We would be awaiting the good news, Grand Magister."
Aenarion really hoped to maintain a friendly relationship with the High Elves as they were the strongest faction in the Eastern Kingdoms. Not to mention, they were magically the most advanced. If one didn't count the Blue Dragonflight, whose leader would soon enough go mad, or the lost city of Suramar, that would reveal itself in the future.
"And same to you, High Explorer. The Fire Nation would be really delighted to work on the new inventions together with the Ironforge and Gnomeregan."
The Fire Lord envisioned that in the future, the closest allies of the Fire Nation would be precisely the Ironforge and Gnomeregan, with the Quel'Thalas to some degree, because he didn't think that the isolationist nature of the High Elves would disappear anywhere.
He hoped to achieve the best result within the next twenty years by having at least regular trade and some exchange of knowledge. Aenarion knew that the fate of the Quel'Thalas was doomed to be destroyed by the Scourge in the future, and in fact...
Aenarion really hoped that it would happen so he could assimilate the remnants of the Quel'Thalas when that happened, though he really wondered how the appearance of the Fire Nation influenced the timeline.
"Don't worry, Fire Lord. Ironforge and Gnomerega would be very interested in the development of Orbal Technology. "
The dwarves and gnomes of the League of Explorers who participated in this expedition were greatly interested in and eager to learn more about Orbal Technology, as the concept seemed intriguing to many of them.
Not to mention, it was correlating with a lot of their already developed technologies and other things. Hence, both dwarves and gnomes saw this as an unprecedented opportunity to advance their own factions and develop even more.
Even though the current state of the Eastern Kingdoms was peaceful, it was clear that this peace wouldn't remain forever. There were already many reports that the Gurubashi Trolls were making some really suspicious movements and migration patterns.
It was really disturbing, especially for Stormwind, Gnomeregan, and Ironforge, and evidently, even the Dark Iron Dwarves took notice of this and started preparing for the possible confrontation with the trolls.
Soon enough, the delegation from the League of Explorers and Quel'Thalas departed from the port of the Fire Nation as their ship was being escorted by a few vessels from the Navy and Air Forces of the Fire Nation.
Aenarion then looked at his wives as he released a tired sigh because now he could have a moment of peace.
"Well, finally, we would have some moment of peace."
The time with the delegates was rather annoying for Aenarion because it was full of meetings and talk, not something for him, who was more used to leading men to the battle or doing something productive...
Aside from spending time with his wives in their bedroom...
"They would soon enough return, and hopefully, we will get access to some form of Magic..."
The Benders were in a rather peculiar position because their beings were so attributed to the Bending and Chi, it was clear that they couldn't learn traditional Magic. Instead, the dense Magic that was in the environment was being assimilated into their bodies and transformed into Chi, which was making them much stronger.
This much was confirmed by Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar, and Aenarion didn't have a single reason to doubt the High Elven Grand Magister. In a certain regard, this was good because it would make the Benders stronger and wouldn't divide their attention on learning the Bending Arts.
The last thing that Aenarion wanted were the Jacks of All Trades in this kingdom.
So, the future Mages of the Fire Nation would mainly come from the non-bending population that has an aptitude for Magic, but that would be the topic for the person who would be responsible for the matters of the Magic in the Fire Nation.
But for that, he would need a lot of help from the High Elves, as they hold the key to the Magic on Azeroth.
At the same time, Aenarion knew that June would have some success with a mission that he had entrusted to the Onmitsukidō, but not to the degree where they would be able to build a comprehensive Magical System on their own.
He needed for the High Elves to do the same thing for the Fire Nation that they did for the humans two thousand years ago. It was the High Elves who brought the Magic to the man in Azeroth, and despite his faith in the Onmitsukidō, he wasn't really that convinced that they would obtain very advanced Magical knowledge.
According to his own knowledge of the Lore of the World of Warcraft, all such knowledge was locked in the hands of Dalaran, Karazhan, and a few other similar places like the headquarters of Stormwind's Magic Corps, and that was it.
All the places that were really out of the reach of the Onmitsukidō.
"So what are we going to do now that the delegation is gone?"
Hearing Azula's question, Aenarion knew that it was time to discuss something with the High Council, and then the sole thing that they could do was to wait and do their own thing, like they were doing till now.
***
Elder Council Chambers, Royal Palace of the Fire Nation, A Few Hours Later
After the delegation from the Quel'Thalas and Ironforge left, Aenarion called for the meeting of the Elder Council of the Fire Nation. There were many things that they needed to decide on and establish the foundations of the new Magic forces that would be cultivated sooner or later in the Fire Nation.
Everything that would require a lot of manpower, a rather considerable amount of manpower and investments. It wouldn't be easy and cheap to create an entirely new magical foundation in the Fire Nation with the help of the High Elves of the Quel'Thalas.
Then, there was the topic of the development of Orbal Technology, which would really cost a lot of coins and even investments from the other factions of Azeroth.
The dwarves of the Ironforge, gnomes of the Gnomeregan, and the High Elves, or at least some part of the High Elves, would be interested in cooperating with the Fire Nation in the development of the Orbal Technology.
So, they would shoulder a large part of the risks of the development of the Orbal Technology, which was good news as the Fire Nation wouldn't be bearing alone and considering the fact that once the Orbal Technology spread, it would be reverse-engineered by the dwarves, gnomes or even High Elves either way, Aenarion felt that they could obtain more if they included them in the development of the Orbal Technology right from the start.
So, the entire Elder Council has been called on short notice, as Aenarion made a note that he would need to include new positions in the Elder Council that were not related to the military aspects of the Fire Nation.
Right now, most of the positions within the Elder Council are related to the military because of the ongoing Great War against the other nations in their old world. Right now, most of the civilian matters are directly under Minister Yuan Bo, who was the head of the Ministry of Domestic Affairs.
It was clear that he would need to divide the duties and rights of the Minister of Domestic Affairs because the bureaucracy in the Ministry of Domestic Affairs was already growing too high and complicated, which could prove to have a negative aftermath for the Fire Nation as a whole.
"I thank all of the members of the Elder Council for convening on the shortest notice."
Aenarion opened the meeting of the Elder Council now that everyone was present, aside from the Grand Archivist of the Fire Nation, who was the Spirit Wan, who was still in the grand library of the Fire Nation.
"I want to keep this meeting short, but we have several important topics to discuss after the departure of the delegation from the Ironforge and Quel'Thalas. The first thing is that we reached a preliminary agreement with Ironforge, Gnomeregan, and Quel'Thalas about the collective development of the project of Orbal Technology. The addition of the knowledge of Azeroth and their understanding of Magic and Technology would improve the development of Orbal Technology by whole decades. This matter would be directly handled by the Grand Chancellor as the oversight and Minister Qin and Minister Mechanist."
The matter of cooperation when it came to the research of the Orbal Technology was of the utmost importance for the Fire Nation. This would not only improve the relationship between the various species involved in this, but it would also benefit all of them in the form of an increase in their military might.
Aenarion was taking the matter very seriously, and he really hoped that everything would go well in the end. The rest of the Elders from the Elder Council had thoughts similar to his own because this was an unprecedented opportunity for the Fire Nation.
Even though they would lose the exclusivity of the Orbal Technology to the Dwarves, Gnomes, and High Elves, at the same time, they would obtain far more from cooperation between the four races.
The Fire Nation wouldn't be isolated anymore because it would obtain at least some sort of allies, which would be a great change compared to their previous status within the Earth, where they were in a war against everyone and everything.
"In a few months or weeks, perhaps depending on the state of matters in their respective nations, it is highly possible that the Ironforge, Quel'Thalas, and Gnomeregan would be sending over some people to finally the terms of the cooperation and even possibly some sort of alliance between our people."
This was another essential aspect of the future development of the Fire Nation, and he really couldn't wait to see its results.
"Now, aside from these matters, is there anything that you want to ask?"
Aenarion asked as he was ready to disperse the meeting of the Elder Council for this time, as he had already told what he wanted to say, and there was no point in prolonging the meeting as he wanted to spend some time with his wives.
They decided to go hunting on one of the smaller islands around the main Island of the Fire Nation, the Fire Island, as some sort of family bonding experience. Most of the administrative duties were handled either by the Bureaucracy he created to do it in his stead by more qualified personnel.
"Regarding the development of the recent events, I want to formally ask for more resources for the training of the Benders and Chi Masters. If we don't want to be left behind and surpassed by the different factions in his world who are far more powerful than us, we need to invest far more resources in the development of the Imperial Bending Legion, Khaos Brigade, and other special units of the Empire."
The development of the Benders was self-explanatory, and the Chi Master was an old/new occupation within the Fire Nation. One could say that every Bender was a Chi Master as the Benders needed to control their Chi consciously, but not every Chi Master or Martial Artist was a Bender.
There were countless people within the Fire Nation who could access and use their Chi, but they couldn't Bend. In the old regimes, especially during the time of Ozai and Azulon, these people were rather disregarded because properly cultivating them would take a lot of resources.
Mainly the time, then a lot of Elixirs to strengthen their Chi and flow of it, and also a lot of nutritious food, because the Benders and Chi Masters ate a lot as they needed to maintain their powerful physiques in shape, which wasn't really that easy.
Only during the new regime under the Fire did Lord Aenarion start recruiting these people en masse to the Order of the Phoenix Crownsguard, Khaos Brigade, Sardaukar, and those with the right aptitude to the Onmitsukidō.
Even though the Martial Artists often lacked the pure destructiveness compared to the Beenders, especially in the aspect of the Area of Effect abilities, they were actually very similar to the Warriors in this world who were using their Inner Energy to perform supernatural feats.
So, only now did everyone get the real hard affirmation that their Fire Lord indeed had a far superior sight for future events and that his decision was proven to be right.
"I will authorize the opening of the State Treasury and even the personal Vaults of the Royal House for the development of the Benders and Martial Artists. Also, the Elder Council would be welcoming new positions in the areas of Finance, Foreign Affairs, and so on. To increase government efficiency, the Ministry of Domestic Affairs would be split into several Departments as our government won't be all focused on military development. Aside from that, the Ministry of War shall be renamed as the Department of War Affairs and will be primarily responsible for managing the Military Affairs from an administrative perspective. Ministry of Science, Technology and Education would be restructualized into the Department of Mechanicus and Magic and would be responsible for any and all technological development in our nation."
Many of the present understood that this would be a complete overhaul of the current government of the Fire Nation. Right now, most of the government was compromising from the Military stuff, and even though Aenarion pondered if he should have removed the posts for the High General of the Imperial Army, Grand Admiral of the Imperial Navy, and Sky Marshall of the Imperial Air Force, he decided to act against.
Instead, they would change the way the Elder Council worked, where the Military part and the Civilian parties wouldn't be able to vote on certain topics that were not concerning them at all.
This was mainly to prevent the civilian part of the government from influencing the Military of the Fire Nation, as the Military must reign supreme in the Fire Nation under any circumstances, and at the same time, it would stop the Military from pushing some not really best ideas for the civilian development for the Fire Nation.
"How long do we have for the overhaul of the Ministry of Domestic Affairs?"
Grand Chancellor Iroh asked, as he was one of the people who were more pleased by such development, as this would immensely benefit the people of the Fire Nation and their living standards.
"I want to have a complete proposition within one week. Also include there the Judicial System, would also need some improvements, especially now that we can't decide everything on the principles of Military Justice. So week... maximally two."
Aenarion said with a tone of finality as he then ended the meeting of the Elder Council, and everyone went their own way to carry out the orders of the Fire Lord. By the end of this, the Elder Council will have four to six new seats or so...
The overhaul of the government was going to be huge as Aenarion knew that right now, they had some twenty years till the opening of the Dark Portal, and the closest thing to war was the Gurubashi War, where the Gurubashi Troll Tribes and Stormwind fought.
So, the Fire Nation also needed to focus on civil development as that would benefit them in the long run.
***
Asur Island, Several Hours Later
When the meeting of the Elder Council ended, Aenrion and his wives departed to Asur Island, which was very close to the Fire Island and was part of the Fire Islands Archipelago, and it was one of the most dangerous islands.
It was also the breeding ground for the most dangerous animals and beasts that inhabited their former world, as Aenarion created their entire islands that were filled with nothing more than flora and fauna.
They lived in an ideal environment where they could breed and expand their numbers, and the Fire Nation, on the other hand, obtained a stable source of food and meat. Not to mention, a lot of plants that were growing in these smaller islands were actually very rare and used in Alchemy and such.
They were literally camping in the wilderness of the island of Asur, which could be pretty dangerous, considering all the dangerous animals and beasts that were living on the Asur, and since the Great Shift, the place was getting even more dangerous.
The dense Magic in the environment was also affecting all of the animals, plants, beasts, or insects in the entire territory of the Fire Nation, as everything started evolving according to that destination.
Esdeath was overjoyed at the camping trip as she was happily setting up the huge tent together with Aenarion. June was alright as she lived as a mercenary for her whole time, so she found a certain enjoyment in this activity, and Azula was complaining as usual about the lack of comfort of the Royal Palace.
For Esdeath, this was reminiscing about her time in the Partas Tribe in the North of their old world, where nothing, just the wilderness and powerful animals, existed, and one needed to fight for everything.
Be it the warmth, food, place to sleep, or their very existence and continual survival. It was thrilling as it was nostalgic for Esdeath because it reminded her how much had changed for the Partas Tribe since then, and how long the journey they had walked since then.
"When will the tent be ready? I feel like freezing in here..."
Azula was already complaining a bit because it was rather cold in the Asur, though it seemed that the reason for the coldness was the incoming winter in Azeroth, and it seemed that, according to all testimonies, the winters in Azeroth were especially cold and freezing.
It was primarily attributed to the dense Magic in the environment that was influencing even weather to a considerable degree, making the winners or certain places unnatural cold and freezing to the point when it became problematic to survive there.
Yet for the natives whose bodies were used and tempered by the Magic, it wasn't actually life-threatening like for the natives of the Fire Nation who still needed to adapt to the environment.
"If you didn't bitch around and rather helped to build the tent, we would be done already."
Esdeath was already annoyed with Azula as the two of them considered each other as rivals in almost everything that they were doing. Ironically, though, the moment Esdeath started taunting her sister-wife, Azula started helping up with the tent building to show her rival that she could do the same job and even better than her.
Azula and Esdeath were extremely competitive in almost everything, even on their own, much less being said when they were competing against each other. That was a pure recipe for a disaster, but Aenarion already got used to it, and June ignored it most of the time.
At least, sometimes, really good things came out of their competitiveness, especially on the battlefield and in the bedroom.
Soon enough, they built the tent and started making fire as it was time to go out and hunt for some meat. This was most obviously the domain of Esdeath, and Aenarion would be joining them, as they planned to go hunt while Azula and June would be left in the camp.
"I am going with you two."
Suddenly, Azula stood out and went towards Aenarion and Esdeath as the blue-haired General of the Hunter Brigade frowned about that because she knew very well that Azula hunted, procuring her own food.
"And what are you going to do there? Play with fire and make yourself look pretty in the mirror image in water?"
Esdeath's sarcastic remarks indeed hit the soft spot very well because Azula knew shit about hunting for food, and even during some of her trips, she always had servants to do the job of procuring food, or it was done by Aenarion in her place.
"Shut up, you ice bitch. I don't doubt that I will hunt for a more powerful beast than you."
The Ice General's eyebrows twitched as she heard that. And if there was another person that was annoyed, being the belief was most obviously Aenarion who didn't want to deal with another of their competitions on this matter...
They were going here on the family bonding trip as, in the past time, they didn't have much time for themselves due to all of the work that was happening on the Fire Nation and after the Great Shift.
"Okey, now stop all of this drama. We are here on the trip and not another one of your stupid competitions about who has a bigger ego."
With one swift talk down, both Esdeath and Azula quieted down considerably as they hung their heads and started walking together with him to the wilderness of the Asur in their search for the meat.
The search for food was the most essential thing in the place.
They were not a bunch of veggie eaters, so they needed to hunt for their food, and Esdeath was serving as the head tracker in this. As a member of the Partas Tribe, she was the best Hunter around, and she instantly got into the action and started tracking for some wild animals or beasts.
"Azula, there is something that I want to ask you or rather task you with something."
Aenarion said that he planned to give Azula a position within the administration of the Fire Nation because she was one of the few people who were competent for the position, and he had absolute trust in her.
"You are not planning to give me some position within the Elder Council, don't you?"
Azula narrowed her eyes directly at Aenarion because she felt where this was going to...
"Actually, yes, and before you tell me to stick it somewhere."
Aenarion knew that Azula had a strong distaste for civilian duties and being the General of the Imperial Bending Legion.