A/N: Slight apology. This chapter was once again delayed since I wanted to time the release with my other fics.

ALN2: If you want the full extent of all the geopolitics in the Flare Titan, I highly suggest you visit the wiki, especially since your question reminded me that I have alot of map making to do. But to put it simply:

The Klatsky Tsardom is more like a WWI Russian Empire equivalent, with the borders being pretty much the exact same as its IRL counterpart, with the exception that the Sakahalin Isle equivalent is still fully owned by them.

China is similarly still a monarchy, the Xinyin Monarchial Republic, to be exact. Ruled by a combination of the Xinese Emperor and a ruling council led by a Prime Minister.

The Western Union is indeed the Americas, and the reason the North and South are flipped is because according to the map of AoT we were given, the entire world is pretty much upside down, which means the USA has been flipped as well.

All in all, there's a whole lot of geographical and geopolitical reasons for why the world is the way it is. Most of it stemming from the Great Titan War.

Another thing I feel like I should clear up. As you may or may not know, what is considered the African continent is the Continent of Marley in canon. However, in Flare Titan canon, the continent is geographically listed as two continents due to various geopolitcal factors, similar to how Europe and Asia are technically one continent, but since they're so geopolitically distinct they're separated into two continents. I would love to explain, but as is I'm already adding on hundreds of words in the review section alone. As well as the fact that alot of this lore is created to cover plotholes I left open earlier in the story. All you need to know is that the 'Marleyan Continent' is in the North, essentially around where South Africa, Namibia, and the general region south of the IRL Congo forest is. While north of said forest is the continent of Afrique, where Onyakapon comes from and the nation of Ikahala is.

NICHOLAS VERRELL: The funniest part is that the outside world technically HAS the technology Eldia has. Or at least, has the capacity to reach that level of advancement. But the main difference lies in how wars are fought on Paradis, and how they're fought in the outside world. With experience fighting Titans - where you pretty much HAVE to be fast to survive - combined with general awareness of their situation compared to Marley and the Intercontinentia, Eldia prioritizes blitzkrieg-style warfare over the WWI style attrition-based warfare. At best, the things they'll end up producing will end up like the T-38 or the Char B1S, and we all know how those fared.

Berthfalls: If I'm being honest, I enjoyed writing that alot.

Nobody here: For the record, Xinyin is a solid Marleyan ally. Especially since Eldia is allied with Hizuru. And yes, numbers alone is never enough to win a war, but its how Marley has been winning so far. That and their Titan powers.


Music:

1. ətˈæk 0N tάɪtn <WMid-2022 Ver.


Battle of Istantiople Part II (Arc Finale): The Fall of Istantiople

Zeke and Annie leapt out of the airship simultaneously, but Annie transformed first, slashing her finger open with her ring before a bolt of lightning struck her, summoning the Female Titan.

Annie dropped into the center of the city, Zeke following soon behind with his Beast Titan. Who immediately moved for a ruined building to his side.

"With this…" Zeke began as he ripped off the chunk of the building and began to grind it up. "The Gates of Istantiople fall!"


A line of Mid-East soldiers fired down at the enemy below them, cutting them down as they attempted to clamber up the wall.

"(There's no end to these devils!)" One said in frustration.

"(Just keep shooting!)" Another yelled, "(If they want the canal to run red with their blood - so be it!)"

Those were their tragic last words as a barrage of stones ripped through their section of the wall.


The Marleyan soldiers away from the wall covered their faces as the wall in front of them suddenly collapsed, taking a good portion of the defenders down with it.

"Was that artillery!?"

"Look! It's the Beast Titan!"

The soldiers cheered and with renewed morale, surged forward into the city.

"Porco. Zeke and Evangelica have succeeded in their phase of the plan. Let's move in and support the assault into the city." Pieck explained, and within his Artificial Titan, Porco nodded.

Pieck leapt towards the breach and over the charging Marleyan forces, landing on top of a group of disoriented Mid-East soldiers which were easily dealt with by her machine guns.

Porco leapt onto a house near the wall, before pouncing down on an HSA that had the misfortune of being too close to him.


In a building in the center of Istantiople, an anxious lieutenant burst into Büyük General Izzet Ahmed's quarters.

"(General! The Marleyans have breached the wall! The entire Warrior Unit is within city limits!)" The lieutenant shouted.

Ahmed calmly looked out the window overlooking the port, and exhaled a large cloud of smoke from his pipe. "(I see.)"

"(What…are we to do, sir?)" The lieutenant asked hesitantly,

"(Scuttle our coastal guns. We can't let them fall into Marleyan hands. And prepare to retreat across the channel.)" Ahmed ordered,

"(We're…abandoning Istantiople?)" The lieutenant asked in shock. Istantiople was a crown jewel of the Olturka Sultanate, second only to the capital itself.

"(Yes. It pains me to do so, but Istantiople is lost to our people.)" Ahmed told the lieutenant. "(This is no fault of the men. Rather, it is the rash decision making of our leaders that led to this catastrophe.)"

The lieutenant straightened and saluted, "(Sir!)"

Ahmed nodded, and turned back towards the window, '(We underestimated Marley. We believed that since they lost the Colossal, their Warrior Unit would have their effectiveness severely reduced…we believed wrong.)'


Several miles from Istantiople - Marleyan Airfield

"Get those fighters up now!" An officer shouted, on an airstrip, several new Marleyan Einecker D.I fighters were preparing to take off, behind them were several AD-50 torpedo bombers, developed by the Adao Aviation Company.

The pilot of the leading fighter pulled out his radio, and began to speak as he and his men taxied down the runway.

"Listen up! Our objective is to achieve air superiority over Istantiople. The torpedo bombers will deal with any remaining ships in the canal and harbor! Prepare for take off!" Dropping the radio, he pulled back on his joystick, forcing the plane into the air and towards the battle.

"Hey Major, is it true you served at Xanthe?" One of the pilots beside him asked,

"Yep. Thirty of us against about a hundred or so of them. Bastards pulled out pretty quickly though." The major nodded, "What about you?"

"Oh…I just came out of training sir! Flight school in North Marley."

"All the way up near Liberio? That's a long distance."

"Yes sir." The pilot replied,

"Listen kid, just do your best, and you'll get home just fine."


Istantiople Canal

"(Captain! Enemy aircraft approaching from the West!)" A Mid-Eastern lieutenant ran up to his captain,

"(Damn it! We're still covering the retreat of our forces! Where the hell are our fighters when you need them?! Get me on the line with the nearest air bases! We need to prepare to intercept!)" The captain moved over to a receiver and began speaking.

"(All crew! Battlestations! We got incoming aircraft!)" He yelled before slamming the receiver down.


Olturka Airstrip

"(Get that ammo onto a plane! Hurry! Our men are sitting ducks to those devils!)" An Olturka engineer yelled as the airbase scrambled to sortie its fighters.

The group of fighters taxied onto the runway before hastily taking off.

"(We'll be linking up with air groups from other bases in the area as well! We need to down those Marleyan bastards before they start sinking our ships!)" Their flight leader ordered, and the other pilots replied in acknowledgement.

"(Enemy aircraft up ahead!)" A pilot shouted over the radio, and immediately, the two sides broke up and began engaging in a massive aerial engagement.

First, an Olturka AVU.51 proceeded to swoop down on a Dr.I and its machine guns ripped through its pilot, the plane glided into the water below before breaking apart and sinking into the canal with a splash.

A small distance beside this, a Dr.I was desperately dodging and weaving through the combined fire of three AVU.51s, it banked left, taking several hits to its fuselage but still flying, it managed to get behind one of the AVUs and sheared its wing off with machine gun fire.

"Woo!" The Marleyan pilot cheered, "I got one-" He was brutally cut off by return fire from the AVUs vengeful comrades, his plane bursting into flames before he ever got to finish the sentence.

"Elev!" Someone shouted over the radio, only for them to be cut off with a dying gurgle as they were torn into by enemy gunfire.

"Damn it!" The major yelled, "Form up! Protect the torpedo bombers!" He ordered, however, his orders were lost to chaos.

Despite having a technical numerical superiority, and their planes being on equal terms. The Mid-Eastern pilots had an advantage when it came to experience. Very few Marleyan pilots had any experience past the occasional sortie over Ecarht. And with the dire situation, many pilots had less than fifty hours of training. Compared to the Olturka average of almost one hundred or more.

So when it came to a simple aerial slugfest like this, the difference in quality showed immensely.


"Warchief, our fighters are being torn apart up there. Magath suggests that you take down the retreating ships yourself." Pieck noted, coming up to him with her Panzer unit still blazing with machine gun fire.

"Understood. Have the coastal guns been cleared?"

"Yes, Warchief. Airborne units have already taken out most of the enemy's heavy equipment."

"Good. Pieck, clear out any remaining enemy units in the city. I'll deal with their retreat." Zeke began to walk towards the port, before stopping and looking at Pieck over his shoulder.

"Oh. And Pieck?"

"Yes, Warchief?"

"Have Stella bring up some extra Eldians."


"(Hurry! Those devils might be here any second! Hurry!)" A Mid-East officer yelled,

"(Marleyan troops are closing in the harbor!)" A man yelled, and as if to punctuate his point, a shell impacted the water.

"(Bastards! They'd sink ships filled with wounded?!)" The officer gritted his teeth, "(Hurry it up! The enemy will offer you no mercy if you stay!)"

The officer looked up into the sky, '(Good. Our fighters are maintaining air superiority for now. As long as this keeps up, we'll be able to evacuate a good portion of our army. The officers are already on a ship thats about to set sail-)'

1. Without warning, a hail of rocks and other debris proceeded to rain down on the port. Soldiers screamed as they were crushed and torn apart by the barrage.

"(What the-!?)" The officer cried out in a mix of shock and terror.

"(Incoming! Enemy artillery!)"

"(Its just rock-)" Without warning, a second barrage came, and this time, it tore into several evacuating ships, punching holes through their hulls and sometimes splitting them outright.

The officer unconsciously ducked from the barrage, looking up at the source of their torment, he saw the glowing red eyes of the Beast Titan.

"(It's a Titan! The Beast!)" One soldier called out, as if to punctuate his statement.


"Here are the…titans." Pieck said it slowly, as if struggling to say it. "The ones you requested."

"Good. Line them up." Zeke ordered, and Pieck nodded, grabbing the straitjacketed Eldians and placing them in a neat and orderly line. Zeke inhaled, before screaming.

1- At first, nothing happened, and then suddenly in a singular neat row, lightning struck down on all the Eldians, or perhaps came from them.

When the spectacular display of light finished, there were no longer people, but monstrous titans ranging from seven to fifteen meters in height, and Zeke gave one single command.

"Charge."


The officer wasn't sure who screamed it out first, but when it was said, everything fell apart.

"(TITANS!)"

As soon as someone shouted those words, everything went to hell. Soldiers pushed and shoved their officers out of the way, trampling their wounded comrades to avoid the hell that was a Titan's maw. Men fell into the water, some purposefully.

Meanwhile, the Titans rushed down through the houses, tearing through them with little harm to themselves. All to reach what they saw as a feast before them.

As men struggled to get onboard, the ships began to pull off, fostering an even more desperate struggle. The captains and their crew trying to get to the other side of the canal, where even titans would have trouble catching up, and the soldiers left behind trying to escape onboard the ships.

Finally, the first of the titans - a seven meter - burst through a line of houses, and immediately dived for a the nearest cluster of Mid-East soldiers, crushing several as it proceeded to stuff as many as possible into its greedy jaws.

Men futilely tried shooting at it - those who still had weapons or ammo, at least - but it was in vain. More titans began to pour through the houses. A fifteen meter jumped for a ship barely pulled away from the dock, splitting it in two under its weight.

On board the officers ship, Izzet Ahmed looked on from the bridge. His eyes blank with acceptance of his fate.

'I have failed my country.' He thought to himself simply, sitting down on a chair in the bridge, he let the chaos melt away around him, not even looking up when a fifteen meter peeled open the metal bridge like a banana and looked down on him from above, its mouth twisted into a grotesque frown.

He let out one final sigh as the titan began reaching down for him… 1x


Excerpt from the c.915 textbook: "Embers in the Ashes - The forgotten Pre-War of 850 to 854"

The Battle of Istantiople - also called the Istantiople Massacre, albeit this only refers to the final minutes of the battle - was one of the greatest losses of human life in a war. Out of the nearly 90,000 defenders of the city, only a mere 5,000 would escape. And almost 83,000 would fall prey to the Istantiople Massacre, either drowning in the canal, being eaten alive, or being sunk by Marleyan torpedo bombers.

Among the thousands of casualties, Izzet Ahmed - one of the best generals of the Mid-East Allied Forces - would lose his life aboard the O.R.S Ulanbaator. This loss - combined with the loss of many other experienced officers during and prior to this battle - would lead to an almost absolute collapse of the Olturka High Command.

Combatants:

Combatants: The Marleyan Empire

11th Assault Army & 2nd Buran Army

- 200,000 Soldiers
- 1,250 7.7cm Type 48 Infantry Guns
- 750 10.5 cm Type 45 Kanone
- 375
15 cm Type 40 Heavy Howitzer
- 16,000 Type 45 Mortars

Marleyan Air Force

- 600 Einecker Dr.I Fighters
- 200 AD-50 Torpedo Bombers
- 100 Jutland-Class Airships
- 10,000 Airborne soldiers

1st Independent Support Company

- 250 soldiers
- 20 Type 45 mortars

Warrior Unit

- Jaw Titan
- Beast Titan
450 Pure Titans
- Armored Titan
- Warhammer Titan
- Female Titan
- Artificial Titan
- Cart Titan

Combatants: The Mid-East Allied Forces

Mid-East Allied Army

- 90,000 soldiers
- 40 28cm 40-yazın Coastal Artillery
- 840 49-yazin infantry guns
- 505 75mm 45-yazın light howitzers
- 255 77mm 48-yazın heavy howitzers
- 200 HSA-49 Type C Armored Cars
- 300 HSA-49 Type G Armored Cars

Mid-East Allied Navy

- 5 battleships
- 10 Heavy Cruisers
- 15 Light Cruisers
- 20 Destroyers

Olturka Air Force

- 200 AVU.51 Fighters

Leaders

Leaders: The Mid-East Allied Forces

- Kor-General Izzet Ahmed

Mid-East Allied Navy

- Or-Admiral Haselin Hazel

Leaders: The Marleyan Empire

1st Independent Support Company:

- Hauptmann Stella Hauser

Warrior Unit:

Kommandant Theo Magath
- Warchief Zeke Jaeger
Vice-Chief Evangelica Tybur

Marleyan Army:

Generalmajor Howard Teren
- Oberst Halden Getzbi

Marleyan Aerial Korps:

- Marshal Norman Pöloker

Casualties:

Casualties: Marleyan Empire

- 12,000 Soldiers killed
- 1,247 Airborne soldiers killed
- 7,849 Soldiers wounded
- 576 Airborne soldiers wounded
- 435 Type 45 Mortars destroyed
- 12 Jutland-Class Airships destroyed
- 368 Einecker Dr.I fighters destroyed
- 98 AD-50 Torpedo Bombers destroyed

Casualties: Mid-East Allied Forces

- 56 AVU.51 Fighters destroyed
- Approximately 80,000 soldiers killed
- 3,237 soldiers wounded
- 2,000 soldiers captured
- 198 HSA-49 Type C Armored Cars destroyed
- 2 HSA-49 Type C Armored Cars captured
- 285 HSA-49 Type G Armored Cars destroyed
- 15 HSA-49 Type G Armored Cars captured
- 38 28cm 40-yazın Coastal Artillery destroyed
- 2 28cm 40-yazın Coastal Artillery scuttled
- 789 49-yazin infantry guns destroyed
- 51 49-yazin infantry guns scuttled
- 400 75mm 45-yazın light howitzers scuttled
- 105 75mm 45-yazın light howitzers captured
- 255 77mm 48-yazın heavy howitzers scuttled
- 3 battleships damaged
- 6 Heavy cruisers damaged
- 2 Heavy Cruisers sunk
- 5 destroyers sunk


Three days later - July 29th, 850

"'Marleyan forces achieve major victory over Mid-East Allied Forces. Olturka Sultanate driven back into the desert.'" Stella read off the headline of the newspaper she was holding. "What a crock of shit."

"What are you gripping about?" Porco yawned, "We won, didn't we? We leveled Istantiople and the Mid-Easterners ran with their tails between their legs."

Stella scoffed, "Easy for you to say. You don't look at the casualty reports." When Porco didn't respond, she continued.

"Almost a fifth of the total force we brought here is listed in casualties. And don't get me started on the grind it was to get here in the first place." Stella explained, "And then we'll have to cross the canal itself and head to their capital. The heat and terrain will kill most of our forces before the Mid-Easterners even get to them."

"It's true. There's a reason the Old Eldian Empire never went past Bosphoria. I don't want to be worrying if the rock I just stepped on is a homemade explosive made by a goat farmer in the village nearby." Evangelica added.

Suddenly, a knock came from the door to the room, and Pieck hurried over to open it.

"It's for Lady Tybur." Was all the soldier said before bowing and handing Pieck an ornately decorated letter.

"For…me?" Evangelica questioned, tentatively opening the letter before beginning to read.

As she read, her face began to pale.

"Eva…? What's wrong?" Pieck asked,

"It's my father." Evangelica said at last, "He's pulling me away from the front."


A/N: Aaand time skipping time! This is the final chapter set in the year 850, after this, we head to the year 851. Which will focus less on the Mid-East conflict (I have no more ideas) and will focus more on Asia and Paradis. Particularly the Indoxina region with the Free Francia Forces featuring in a future conflict. Might even end up making a trailer chapter just for it (let me know in the reviews if you would like that).

Also, as for the map making, i've been working on a map of the world for the past few days since I completed this chapter. If you want to check it out, here it is (remove odd spaces and add a period between google and com):

www .google com/maps/d/edit?mid=1WB27WtG3YPN_0Nz-Kq_rrDbQDY5oESY&usp=sharing

And here's the wiki link, as usual:

the-official-flare-titan .fandom. com