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The Vigilance, more commonly known as the Vigil, or the Vigil Overwatch, is the military and law enforcement of recently vassalized polities and locations, which are usually not loyal to the Aesoteric as a whole. The Vigil maintain order over the raging citizens, and slowly beat the newly conquered lands into submission, until they can be fully submitted into the Aesoteric empire. Even when this process is complete, the presence of the Vigil is still noticeably as their endeavors may not cease until another invasion is held. It mostly consists of volunteers, sympathizers, and slaves from the conquered polity the Vigil currently inhabits. The Vigil is separated into Septs, each dominating a recently conquered polity or province permanently, acting as its military and law enforcement on behalf of Aesoteric martial forces.

The Vigil’s architecture, technology, and membership is entirely varied depending on the location of the Sept. Usually, the technology and membership of Vigil Septs is dependent on their location.

Overview

The Vigil is a vital militia branch in the Aesoteric empire. The Aesoteric military is extremely numerous and powerful, however it is not quick to mobilize and scattered around myriad battlegrounds and warzones. The Vigil has one purpose: quell rebellion and enforce Aesoteric dominion. When a polity or land is conquered completely, the Aesoteric warminds will supplant the previous leaders with the Vigil’s military junta. When this new government is put into place, its forces will mobilize ─ completely replacing the polity’s previous law enforcement and military endeavors. The Vigil will then enforce Aesoteric laws, among other things to destroy the populace’s moral and finally submit them to Aesoteric dominion.

Unlike other Aesoteric military divisions, the Vigil lacks a standardized caste system. Instead, it puts into practice a more comprehensible ranking system, as to allow recently conquered organisms to better fathom and sympathize with it. It is split into Septs, each inhabiting a different polity or land to enforce Aesoteric reign. Each Sept is likely to consist of the Polity’s inhabitants, technology, architecture, and military vehicles. As such, the Vigil is almost perfectly adapted to countering new areas; each land’s Sept being tailored to survive and dominate within.

An artificial intelligence, likely a sub-division of Hubert, known as the Overseer commands the Vigil in day-to-day tasks. The Overseer issues orders, instructions, and relays information to the Vigil forces to assist and fulfill objectives. Vigil has a command structure from squad leaders leading whole squads to an entire Sept led by a Sept leader. Who is usually a grub-like organism which lacks true combat capabilities aside from telekinetic abilities.

When the Vigil first supplant the polity’s original leadership, law enforcement, and military, they will begin construction of a vast spire which acts as their base of operations. Hundreds of meters in height, these spires are large and imposing, with very blocky, monolithic shapes and sharp angles made of dull, blue-gray metal. For their buildings are purely functional, with no thought given for comfort, embellishments or decorations.

When the populace submits and finally calms, the Vigil will devolve. Their military junta will decay and be replaced with other Aesoteric governing faculties, and their great tower will collapse with assistance from explosives. The collapsing tower being retrofitted into standard Aesoteric flesharchitecture, and serving as the new base of operations for future Aesoteric endeavors. The remaining Vigil Sept will devolve into little more than law enforcement.

Military Hierarchy

See: Vigilance Military Hierarchy

List of Polities dominated by the Vigil

Below is a list of polities and other areas conquered by the Aesoteric, and whose government has been supplanted by the Vigil.

• Huliop – Huliop is a relatively large semi-democratic city with little to no military capacity due to its pacifistic leadership. It was crushed by a small Aesoteric warband, and Vigil forces are currently occupying the city.
  • Parot’n – Parot’n was a small neighboring splinter settlement of Huliop which was almost entirely destroyed during attacks on Huliop. Its remaining citizens have joined the Vigil, or have been executed.
• Aksium – Aksium is a sprawling theocratic militaristic polity which advocated and dedicated itself to its religion “Aksism”, pillaging smaller settlements to spread it. The nation attempted an attack on an Aesoteric stronghold and was obliterated in a brutal counterattack. Aksist monuments and other objects of veneration are being publicly incinerated by Vigil forces out of sadism.
  • Leumni – Leumni was a small province of the nation of Aksium, which has been entirely flattened after its land was cleared to construct the Vigil’s tower of operations.
• Tayron – Tayron was a barbaric city state which is currently in the later stages of Vigil occupation. Its original government is all but history, and its Spire is close to collapse as Aesoteric governmental faculties arrive to supplant Vigil occupation.
• Gantol – A feudalistic nation that attempted to fight against Aesoteric subterfuge via guerilla warfare. It is all but wasteland as its citizens initiated brutal asymmetric warfare against Vigil forces. Gantol may win this war, as Vigil forces are making an exodus from the nation. Unfortunately, this is because there is not much left.
  • Junorskis – The last surviving city in Gantol, and the location of the Vigil’s headquarters. It is currently being evacuated as the land around it has become useless to Aesoteric forces and uninhabitable to Vigil personnel.
  • Otharx – The dying last stand of the Gantol resistance, while decrepit and collapsing, it stands as a bastion of hope that the Aesoteric can be stopped.
• Hungorp – A fascist superstate of fungoid organisms that attempted guerilla warfare on Aesoteric fortifications near their claimed territory. Originally suspected to end in a white peace, the Aesoteric swiftly claimed a complete victory in the war after initiating bombing campaigns. It is in the early stages of Vigil occupation, as Hungorp’s previous governors are only just being replaced by Vigil admirals.
• Tylrol – A small autocratic nation that was extirpated by Aesoteric forces merely because its capital was located in the way of proposed trade route concepts. Its occupation is unique, as the Vigil has been tasked with systematically strip-mining the nation’s capital and other cities for resources. A headquarters has been constructed seemingly for the purpose of mining operations as the citizens of Tylrol have surrendered hope.
• Septumbs – A small rump state following a bastardized version of Bejetism. It was completely annihilated by Aesoteric forces during a military expedition, and Vigil forces are in the process of constructing their headquarters.
• Aunyth
• Rodan – The Spine is vast, so vast in fact that the Aesoteric only know about a fraction of its tunnels. In some far off regions, vast Spine networks are used by nations to travel between one another beneath the notice of the Aesoteric. Rodan had the unluck of awakening a dormant Undermind, located in a fossilized Spine station. It quickly awakened dormant Aesoteric forces, which attempted to conquer Rodan and beckon reinforcements. The first attack against Rodan was unsuccessful, and the Undermind destroyed itself in an attempt to send a distress signal back to the Khan Underminds. Unfortunately, this distress signal was received by greater Aesoteric forces. Using Rodan’s Spine networks strategically, the nation was defeated. Rodan is nearing the end of its Vigil occupation, as their headquarters have collapsed.