Sovereign's Game

Sovereign's Game (君主の遊戯, Kunshu no Yūgi) was the name of an agreement among Crimson Denizen's organizations to wage wars against each other's using humans as pawns. This proxy war "games" occurred in Europe ever since Medieval period, up until the middle of 19th century when they were exposed to Outlaw by a certain group of Denizens and utterly destroyed.

Background

Establishment

As Bal Masqué was established to be wielded for the God of Creation's cause, one of its core principles was to never initiate an attack. This approach was not only a tactic to avoid the exhaustion due to possible conflicts with Flame Haze and other Crimson Denizen organizations, but also to foster a common knowledge to others that Bal Masqué was "a passive group that lost its leader". This notion would later play to their advantage in the inevitable battles ahead. In alignment with this core principle, the proxy war agreement among various Denizen factions in medieval Europe known as the Sovereign's Game was established by Bel-Peol.

The Game

As Denizens did not need a bloodshed among their own kind, Sovereign's Game was created as a game so neither sides will have to die. It was participated by many Denizen organizations, with their leaders referred to as Players (遊戯者 (プレイヤー) , Pureiyā (Yūgisha)). The Judge of this game was Bel-Peol, who also participated as a Player and was the Game's advocate. Stolas did the conclusion of agreements among organizations.

Each organizations would manipulate their respective sovereign as a pawn to start a war against opposing enemies. The organization that dominated the biggest area was to be considered the strongest group. Named participant included Gogmagog, who led his organization Minack in France's northern territory.

It was undisclosed how many historically known wars are actually things set up by Crimson Denizens. One of them was presumably the Hussite Wars, the war Samuel Demantius once fought as a soldier prior to his birth as a Flame Haze. On the verge of death, he was told of the proxy war and Bel-Peol who was behind it, leading to his agreement to make a contract with Zirnitra. Since that time, Samuel was fixated on avenging Bel-Peol for his comrades' death and a meaningless war they were dragged into.

Great War

Prior to the Great War around 16th century, Bel-Peol had formulated a plan to use Players' force to besiege newly formed Flame Haze Army in order to wipe Flame Haze away. However, the annihilation of six Players and their respective organizations in Northern Europe by Mathilde Saint-Omer and Wilhelmina Carmel prematurely thwarted this plan. Later on, fearing that Minack would help Töten Glocke, Sophie Sawallisch sent the two Flame Haze to destroy it, resulting in Gogmagog and his organization's destruction.

Although the Great War ended with Asiz's defeat, Sovereign's Game still existed and wars still broke out. It was not until the middle of 19th century that a major incident occurred which eventually led to its complete abolition.

Dissolution

In 1862, a year before Flame Haze's Civil War broke out, the truce conference among Player's representatives was held at the old castle in Austria. As it was a peaceful conference, they were almost defenseless against an ambush by a group of Crimson Lords, referring to themselves as Révolution, who stole their confidential information and Treasure Tools away. This event was later referred as the Contract Breach Incident (破約事件, Hayaku Jiken).

With information leaked, Player's whereabouts were exposed on human's newspapers. Outlaw that had been searching for the cause of many wars in the past used the information to locate and attack them. On their initial attacks, Outlaw was victorious; Flame Haze succeeded in destroying many organizations, even though they lacked of personnel as many of them were sent to the America to fight against the Four Gods of Earth. In dire straits, Crimson Denizens' retaliatory attacks severely damaged many weakened Outlaw bases.

Many great organizations fell into chaos and were annihilated because they could not assemble themselves to fight their true invisible enemies, a group of eccentric Crimson Denizens who wished to expose their existence to humans. Thus, the Sovereign's Game was dissolved at the hand of Outlaw. Later on, Outlaw had to reestablish their headquarters after the loss and commenced the war against Révolution which spanned for a hundred of years until its destruction.

The True Winner

In the end, Sovereign's Game tactic devised by Bel-Peol significantly reduced the risks of losing her own personnel and also helped avoiding direct confrontation with other organizations. It also allowed Bal Masqué to retain dominance over Europe for an extended period. Furthermore, Bel-Peol had cemented her reputation as a ruthless cunning person as she masterfully directed rival Players toward Flame Haze and also benefited from conflicts among Players.

Eventually, Bal Masqué became recognized for its gigantic size, while still perceived as a group of stray dogs that could not operate on its own without the leader. With this strategic advantage, Bel Peol was able to initiate preemptive strikes on her enemies as retaliation for the past.

Trivia

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