Explore the Russian States
Following the socialist uprising in 1917 and the murder of Tsar Nicholas II, Russia has become a bitterly contested battleground. By 1926, Bolshevik forces—more commonly known as ‘Reds’ and led by Joseph Stalin—are still fighting against the royalist ‘White’ Russians. Meanwhile, invaders from the British Empire, Germany, America and Japan fight one another as they pursue their individual agendas. To the west of the country, a new and powerful enclave known as the Motherland of the Rus stands besieged by each of these combatants.
The White Russians have fought to maintain the monarchy since the Revolution. A cause that should have died years ago, the White Russian agenda has been reinvigorated by the return of the Tsar’s daughter, Princess Anastasia. Rescued and taken to America, Anastasia is now the figurehead of a U.S. expeditionary force. Intent on crushing socialism and placing Anastasia on the throne, this American army is aided by Cossacks and White Russian forces loyal to the princess.
The Bolsheviks, meanwhile, struggle to maintain a fragile grip on power. Beset by White forces and foreign invaders, the socialists have been denied the opportunity to consolidate their position in Russia. Nevertheless, the revolutionaries fight on with grim resolve. This determined army is further driven by a rapidly expanding, increasingly modern manufacturing base. Indefatigable, this collective of factories and labourers fuel the Bolshevik army with a fervour that none of their opponents can match.
To the west of Russia, a British invasion force continues to make grinding, inexorable progress from its bases in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. Initially deployed to Russia in a bid to thwart German efforts to capitalise on the collapse of the Russian monarchy, the British are now fighting for survival. Their bitter struggle is aided—for want of a better word—by their use of Rift weaponry. Whilst this new—and possibly apocalyptic—technology affords the British a destructive advantage no other nation can match, it does so only by introducing a further combatant into the conflagration that is Russia in 1926: the Scourge.
Alien and murderous, the Scourge are an invasive host of what would commonly be described as demons. No one knows where they came from, only that they are able to claw their way into our world through tears in the fabric of reality. These tears are created by the Rift technology pioneered by the British and used to horrific effect on the battlefield. Weaponised into not only man-portable and vehicle-mounted weapons but also bombs and artillery shells, Rift technology now hands a significant advantage to the British whilst simultaneously exposing them to incursions from the Scourge.
Meanwhile, against this backdrop of strife, one man has carved a new nation into western Russia. Established and ruled by the monk Grigori Rasputin and his supernatural allies, the Motherland of Rus occupies a swathe of western Russia. As such it endures constant raids by not only Bolsheviks to the north and white Russians to the south, but also small, mobile units of German Uhlans and stormtroopers tasked with harassing the monk’s new nation.
But Rasputin is not without both mortal and supernatural allies. Chief amongst these is the ancient witch Baba Yaga and her enclave of young sorcerers. Known as the Daughters of Rus, this cadre of warlocks and witches also includes Rasputin’s daughter, Varvara. As with all the Daughters of Rus, Varvara boasts not only a mastery of dark, Rus sorcery, but also a honed and deadly acumen with a blade. She is typical of the other deadly prodigies that form the Daughters of Rus.