The Sacrifice of Hans Jurgen Kürsch
“Had it not been for fathers sacrifice that day, there would be a pretty high chance that we would all be eternally suffering at the hands of Kerr by now. He gave his life for you and me and all of mankind. Its not surprising that he is revered as one of Gods legendary warriors. It is now up to us to continue his legacy and fulfill his dream. A world of peace and happiness without the corruption of the breaker Spoken by Lorann sanguinus meros to his brother Alexander about the sacrifice of their father.Hans Jurgen Kürsch was one of the greatest commanders of The Imperial Terran Federation and quite possibly, one of mankinds most legendary and mythical warriors of mankind. His actions during the fall of Cadmeia only served to enlarge his legend. At the time of his death, he was one of the oldest warriors in the federation at over 800 years.
Summary
In the year of 2975, humanity experienced one of its darkest hours. For the past few years, The great rift had been expanding and demonic activity around The Gehennian gate. was increasing exponentially. Anticipating a gigantic demonic crusade, the The Imperial Terran Federation sent massive amounts of reinforcements to that region in order to prepare for any impending attacks. What came out of that though, brought about one of mankind's darkest times.
Mankind's darkest hour
"We thought that our defenses were impenetrable. That all those bristling gun turrets and tanks and artillery would scare those godless fuckers back to the unholy shithole they came from. It was the exact opposite. What i witnessed in those times were all my nightmares come true. I saw my friends being butchered, mutilated and desecrated by endless hordes of monsters born from my worst nightmares. I still don't know how i survived the ordeal. We were constantly mauled by endless amounts of demons and when the void titans themselves arrived, our defenses crumbled like paper walls hit by anti tank shells. I will never forget the cries of my family and my friends as they were butchered like cattle by those merciless beings" Private Erik Larsson, one of the few surviving Cadmeians who escaped the fall of Cadmeia and the Gehennian gate, during an interview.A few solar months later, the first waves of the largest demonic invasion to have ever been witnessed by humanity reached the outskirts of the Gehenna system. Though they were repelled easily, they provided vital information to the main force of the invasion to plan their attacks accordingly. At first the defenders were relieved. Considering that they hadn't gotten any sign of further incursions, they felt that they had borne the brunt of the attack. This is exactly what the demonic forces wanted them to believe. For the main carnage was just about to begin. Then came the main force of the demons. It was the largest gathering of demonic forces ever seen since the great reawakening of Kerr almost ten billion years ago. Despite the valiant sacrifice of the Cadmeians, their forces were completely overcome by the demonic legions for the first time in history. The planet itself was corrupted by the sheer amount of demonic energy acting on it. Cadmeia had fallen.
The ultimate sacrifice
" I am sorry but I must have to go. For centuries, i have striven for the great dream of all mankind, an end to this conflict. Today I will have to give my life to see it through. Please take care of Alexander for me. He is going to have a hard time without ever seeing his family. I dream my dreams but this.. this is just a nightmare. Goodbye my little one. Trust in the lord and keep on struggling. Spoken by Hans Jurgen Kürsch to his son, Lorann sanguinus meros to take care of his brother Alexander before he goes to engage the demonic forces in orbit around CadmeiaHans knew the sheer gravity of the situation at hand. He had seen the demons razing his homeworld and realized that the time had come. The time to sacrifice himself and everything he had for the greater good of mankind. While the evacuation of the remaining soldiers were underway, he visited his son Lorann sanguinus meros and bid him goodbye before going into orbit. Once in orbit, he called upon the powers he was bestowed with centuries ago and transformed into the form of Sammael before engaging the demonic forces there. At first, the demons could do little to even scratch Hans as they were slaughtered by the billions by the enraged angelic being . Lucius saw this as a chance and decided to come into the fray and to defeat and humiliate one of the greatest warriors of mankind. To show how pathetic they were. But he underestimated Hans' determination And so, Lucius bellowed a challenge to Hans and he promptly accepted. The two then battled to the death, with Lucius being hellbent on humiliating Hans before murdering him. But he was undeterred and soon began to gain the upper hand. Desperate to win the fight, Lucius called upon the four Higher Void titans and prayed to them to lend their energies to him. They agreed and soon, Lucius transformed into a demonic being far far powerful than anything the universe had witnessed in billions of years. Hans fought on bravely. But even such a powerful being such as Sammael could not keep up with the raw power of four of the strongest demonic beings to have ever existed. Realizing that he was doomed to die, Hans summoned all his energy and made one last attack at Lucius. The attack crippled Lucius, but he regenerated quickly and soon cut of Hans's arm. Before killing him, Lucius did as he promised and taunted his opponent before cleanly cutting him across the waist. Though, it was the end of Hans, most of the surviving Cadmeians and federation soldiers had escaped from the vicinity. Hans had achieved his goal and mankind lived to fight another day.
Historical Basis
The events were closely detailed by the surviving forces of the fall of Cadmeia and have been written down in many history books. But in the following months, this sacrifice came to be a legendary tale amongst all of humanity. Though there are minor variations between some of the accounts, most of them are usually quite similar.
Spread
The Sacrifice of Hans is a commonly known fact across all of human controlled space. All history books in the federation make mention of his sacrifice as one of the main reasons why mankind had survived to fight another day.
Cultural Reception
The legend is regarded as a great source of pride by all of mankind and seen as a shining beacon of hope during their dark times. Every year, their is a special festival held on every planet to honour the heroes , saints and legends of mankind and amongst them, Hans is included. His death has only served to inspire the forces of mankind to struggle harder in their war against Kerr.
Date of Setting
2975
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Alrighty, let's tackle formatting/layout first since that's what you asked about specifically. In general, I really like the angled boxes, but I'm just not feeling the first one over the sidebar. It makes the page feel...lopsided, maybe? I don't know, it just bugs me. I think you'd be better off swapping that quote with the vignette text and making the vignette text as part of the sidebar. The quote does a lot to set the mood for the article, whereas the intro is mostly background information. As a layout thing, your "summary" doesn't really feel like a summary. It's setting the stage for your tale (almost in a movie trailer suspense fashion), but a summary should be an overview. Otherwise, my only comment is that IMHO, articles look weird if the sidebar is significantly shorter than the rest. I'm going to recap the plot, so you can tell if I understood it: a rift appeared that spewed out a shit ton of demons, so the Federation sent a legion of heavily armed troops and heavy artillery to try and combat it. Despite fearing a serious incursion, they believed their reinforcements were sufficient, due to the demons faking them out with a smaller invasion. Instead, the demons cut through them like butter and they had to evacuate the planet. Knowing the situation was dire, Hans decided to sacrifice himself to protect the planet. Before leaving, he visited his son to bid him farewell and remind him of his duties to the family. Then he turned into a super awesome supernatural being and laid waste to the demons, until Lucius got involved with his 4 void titans and killed Hans/Sammael, but Cadmeia had already been successfully evacuated by that point, so it was a fairly positive Pyrrhic victory. Did I get it all? Now, time for questions! This is less of a question, more of a place I think needs clarification: when I first read the summary, I assumed Gehennian Gate was the proper title for the great rift. It wasn't until I started poking around in other articles I realized the Gehennian Gate was the pre-existing place the rift appeared. Maybe include something that introduces Cadmeia, the Gehennian Gate, and the Gehenna system to clear this up? How much of this took place in space vs on the planet? The quote by Larsson seems to imply lots of ground combat (gun turrets and tanks, being able to see and hear butchering), but the Sammael vs Lucius battle specifically stated it happened in space. How did Hans' fight in space help the troops on the ground? What kind of naming convention are you using? You seem to be mixing your linguistic/cultural roots even within the same families. Is your culture supposed to be a kind of melting pot situation? How did Hans know that "the time had come"? Was he on the front lines? How was he monitoring the situation? Was it the beginning of the evacuation that forced his hand? How does meeting his son factor into all of this? Were they close by? You'd think his priority would be on convincing his son to evacuate. Is Hans Sammael, or does Hans merely have the ability to become Sammael? Is Sammael a specific person, or a kind of being? Did he always have this ability, or was he only granted it for this specific purpose? If Hans is not Sammael, who is Sammael? When Sammael/Hans was defeated in the battle, did both of them die? - I don't know if this is just because I'm not familiar with your setting or not, but it confused the heck out of me while reading. Another not-quite-a-question: the 4 void titans kinda jumped out of nowhere. It seems like they're a BIG DEAL, yet you don't mention when they appear, merely that they were too much for Hans/Sammael to handle. Were they there the whole time? Were they part of the invasion force? Or did Lucius summon them/bring them with him when he decided to challenge Sammael? How many people survived the evacuation of Cadmeia? How many people didn't? Most of the time when you refer to the evacuation it seems like you're only talking about military forces (troops, forces, soldiers, etc.), were there civilian evacuations as well? What happened to them? You referred to Larsson as "one of the few survivors" but your last couple of paragraphs seem to imply a decent amount of people successfully evacuated. Was few being used relatively there? In the last paragraph you say the events were all recorded by survivors. Were there any conflicting accounts? How were they able to collect all their information? How long did it take before there were history books about it? Where were they distributed? You also imply it was surprising the story spread through mankind, right after talking about it being written down in "many" history books. Isn't that a bit of a contradiction? Overall, I really enjoyed it! If you've gotta go, why not go out in style saving the whole planet, right? My only real critiques are the places I got a bit fuzzy on the details (noted above in the questions section) and I'm not entirely sold on the narrative voice you've chosen for this article. It feels very "campfire storyteller" to me, where you talk in grand, vaguely omnipotent ways in some parts, yet you get very close and detailed in others (Lucius roaring the challenge specifically stuck out to me). There are even hooks scattered throughout! I can't help but wonder if you'd be better off sticking to a more omnipotent voice and using more quotes for the closer, more visceral stuff.
Oh. ...I had no idea it was that long. Sorry, not sorry?