The Nekon Empire is populated by semi anthropomorphic cats derived from housecats. They have hands in place of forepaws, longer limbs proportionate to their body and are reconfigured somewhat to be more humanoid figure. In total they stand 55-65 centimeters tall and weigh in at an average of 6.5 kilograms. Their throats are capable of human speech and they have been adjusted to have an average lifespan of about 70 years. They also have human level intelligence and are more social. Instead of giving birth to litters, the Mollys of this species usually give birth to a single kitten. They tend to wear garments that is remarkably similar to that of premodern Japan.
These felines inhabit a continent about 8,000,000 square kilometers in size divided into a number of feuding states before being united under the rule of the centralized Nekon Empire about 500 years ago and subsequently thrived and industrialized despite a civil war every century or so, which led the Emperor to create a constitution and eventually a parliament. It industrialized over the last century and in the past fifty years send expeditions out to chart the ocean, circumnavigating the world, finding three other continents. Unfortunately one of the continents that they found was the size of Eurasia which is largely dominated by the Holy Dominion.
The Holy Dominion is a body several dozen feudal kingdoms populated by about 300 million humans subordinated to a central Theocratic priestly hierarchy. The kingdoms are allowed a fair bit of independence and often fight with each other over territory, but to challenge the authority of the Eccesiarchy is heresy and usually ends up with a crusade being dropped onto them. A strict caste system is in place of nobles, warriors, artisans, merchants, peasants and untouchables. Priests are drawn from the noble, warrior and artisan caste, but only those of noble birth can rise high in the hierarchy. There are sumptuary laws and strict rules dictated for each caste, for example it is illegal for a peasant or untouchable to be taught to learn to read or write and the penalty for doing so is death for both teacher and student. The only mobility in the class system is military: peasants, artisans and merchants are used as cannon fodder by the kingdoms and sometimes get promoted to the warrior caste by high ranking priests and occasionally warriors are promoted to nobility to replace fallen noble houses by the priesthood. The religion is misogynistic, looks down on sex outside of marriage and "sexual deviancy", is perfectly fine with slavery, think the world is flat and the center of the universe, and heretics/aspotates are usually impaled and burned to death. Moreover, the Ecclesiarchy has decided to declare a crusade against Nekon after contact. They sent sailing ships to chart out the location and now they have decided to launch a crusade against you.
They sent a fleet of 2,000 ships carrying 400,000 people to your continent about a year ago, of which some 240,000 survived. Among these were 40,000 warriors and nobles. The landed in a minor argicultural province of your empire and set up a small city, killing the inhabitants wherever they went. Their technology is at a level comprable to that of 1500s Europe (and has been at that level for about three centuries) and their armies are made of a mixture arquebusiers, pikemen and halberdiers in helmets, breastplates and mail lead by noble heavy cavalry armed with lances, swords and muskets. Cannons exist, but are used as naval weapons and as siege weapons. More soldiers are being brought in steadily to reinforce this position and they are beginning to threaten the military.
You serve as an Aide for the Nekonian Military in this time of crisis of a similar nature to that in the Belasarius series. Your job is to help the cats defeat these hairless giants, drive them from the Empires shores and if possible, destroy the Dominion. The population of the Nekonian Empire is about 300 million cats. Its technology is at a level of that around 1850-1870 in most areas.
- 300,000 Riflecats armed with caplock rifled muskets with bayonets, 3mm caliber. Each of them gets a uniform and a conical steel helmet.
- 50,000 Imperial Catvalry mounted on the back of a breed of small quick footed 40 kilo antelope that is used for mounts, they are armed with lances, 2mm Kit Revolvers, 20cm long Catana swords and a few of them are armed with the experimental paper cartridge using Mouser breech loading rifle. They have Kabuto style helmets and samurai style curiasses.
- 5,000 artillery pieces ranging in caliber from 20mm light guns to 200mm siege guns. Mostly muzzle loading and about a quarter of them are rifled. Rockets to the effect of Hall rockets are also used.
- 150 wooden hulled warships in the 20 to 40 meter range with steam engines, armed with cannons ranging from 30mm to 75mm.
- The Black Tiger: an experimental 26 meter long warship with a 25mm of steel plating armed with 16 50mm cannons.
What do you do?
Zor