The Nuggie Revolution

Article by Sable Aradia, Lord Galakrond, Sunny L, and Melody Relody.

Sable double-checks the Door, and makes sure to give the remaining keys for the moment, including her own, to Erin, after she explains what they are and how they work. When he asks why she is giving him all the keys, she grumbles, "Nuggies." "Have fun storming the castle!" says Erin with a wry grin as he turns back to his computer. Sable mutters something under her breath that sounds like it might contain a few swear words. She heads to her private Work Room and begins to assemble a plethora of objects; a black mirror, a number of boxes with magical seals in lead, several utterly flawless crystals, a wand tipped with amber at one end and jet at the other, an athame made entirely of charoite. About her waist, she straps something that looks like a leather blacksmith's apron, except into this, she slips her various magical tools. She double checks to make sure her phone and tiny keyboard are also in the apron. She pulls Fluffy down from its hanger, and hefts the iron mace with grim determination. "Filking nuggies," she mutters. She steps across the threshold of the Work Room and her burrow. As she does so, she shifts into her half-rabbit form. For a moment, anyone looking in the window would see a bright light, as bright and silver as the moon. Then the half-rabbit shape dissipates into something like a rabbit-shaped nebula; then a constellation; and then it is gone.

The Nuggie Revolution is the name given to an ongoing conflict between the Demon s of The Netherlayers and the Void Nuggies, a newly-spawned species of living, sentient chicken nuggets that have been infused with the weird, dark energies of The Void. The Voiders have weighed in on the side of the Demons, viewing the Nuggies as the greater threat, and have assumed command of the battlefield.

The Conflict

Prelude

At some point since the First Word War and the dawning of the New Age of Literomancy, The Missing House had a grand feast in The Void. Someone left some discarded chicken nuggets behind, and they sank down to the Netherlayers, as objects left in the Void are prone to do. There, they mingled with the fell energies of the Pit, and spawned into a self-aware species of moldy chicken nuggets, with arms, legs, and tentacles, who can respawn themselves through some sort of budding process. The self-aware Nuggies soon realized they were trapped in the Void, and, perhaps goaded by some instinctive awareness that they come from physical reality, they first made war on the Demons of the Pit in order to establish their own territory; then began fighting for access to the physical Realm. Lord Galakrond, friend to the Demons of the Pit, recognized the threat that the Nuggies posed, and quickly enlisted the aid of any and all other Voidtouched Literomancers he could find. The Voiders, perhaps being less chaotic and disorganized than the Demons, soon assumed command of their combined forces.

Deployment

Before Salema takes another step on the ground, two breaches open above Sable and below Salema. The breaches rapidly extend and cover the demons before they are sucked into the portals. The final seconds of the open breach shows several balls of fry oil being slung at a horde of blackish monstrosities. A small tentacled-covered nugget runs toward the breach but is immediately eaten by Salema. The portal closes and both of the demons are gone.

Until recently, the tactics of both sides have simply been to amass their forces through the powers of the Demonic Spawning Rocks and throw them at each other until attrition requires them to return to the Rocks to lick their wounds, and repeat the process. This continued until the Nuggies began reshaping the bodies of the Demons into weaponry, removing them from the theatre of war entirely. They apparently learned this ability from the Chthonics of the Twisted Starscape. The Nuggies have deployed in a similar fashion, but have begun to use diversionary tactics and display a more sophisticated understanding of strategy as of late.

Battlefield

Primarily, the battlefield has been centered in The Netherlayers; in particular, the Pit, with the Demonic Spawning Rocks being a highly-contested resource. Recently, however, the conflict has spilled over into other areas of the Void, as the Nuggies press their objective of escaping. The Nuggies have begun stealing the Voiders' food, indicating they are developing a more sophisticated understanding of tactics...

Conditions

George and I have a long standing...understanding. I try to kill him with a frying pan, he tries to hide from me after one of my tentacles smacked him into a wall.
— Princess Sunny, explaining the conflict

Oh, he's fine. He's just currently doing his thing. Y'know, Voider stuffs and things. The nuggies and whatnot. I think he's covered in crispy nugget goo or whatever. Totally fine.
— Boodles, a demon of the Pit, explaining Lord Galakrond's absence

The Nuggies have weaponized many of the components of their particular type of fast food. They sling frying oil and crispy nugget goo like boiling oil. They use ketchup to blind and confuse their opponents, and to obscure their injuries so that their enemies don't have a clear idea of the rate of attrition when fighting them. Iron seems to be effective as a weapon against the Nuggies, prompting Princess Sunny to make use of her frying pan as a weapon, and Sable Aradia to frequently use her iron mace, Fluffy. Items that are said to have special properties against spirit entities seem to cause extra harm to Nuggies, and prevent them from regenerating: such as jade, charoite, iron and silver. Items specifically designed for use against spirits, such as lead-sealed boxes and flawless crystals, are not effective against them, however. Much of the conflict centers around control of the Demonic Spawning Rocks in the Pit, the all-important healing and respawning resource that assures that troops on both sides can be replenished. Portals are also a highly-contested resource. The Nuggies cannot create portals, but every time one is formed by a Voider, they attempt to seize control of it. They seem willing to throw unlimited numbers of troops at this effort. Perhaps once they seize control of a portal, they will be able to harness its use, and spread that ability to others of their kind. Recently, Sable Aradia has begun making use of a new strategy; she brings dark mirrors into the Void to use as escape portals, which can be immediately shattered by her allies as soon as she has crossed back over to the physical Realm, preventing the Nuggies from being able to use it.

The Engagement

A rabbit-shaped constellation materializes at the threshold of the threshold of Sable's burrows, coalescing into a rabbit-shaped nebula, then Sable's half-rabbit form. Her fur is sticky with oil, and her clothing is streaked with oil and some sort of black ichor. She lets out a long, shaky sigh. Her eyes are wide and bloodshot. Seeing that no one has noticed her, she makes a beeline through the Warren and out one of the secret entrances. Seeing the Captain of the Owsla approaching, she greets him with a tired but warm smile. "Good morning, James." He reaches out to give her a hug, but she stops him with a raised paw. "Best not touch me just yet." She continues out the door and makes her way to a sunny clearing, where she immediately strips and lays all her clothing out in the sun, along with her leather apron and all the items she brought with her. Almost immediately, wispy black tendrils of shadow that look almost like tentacles start writhing, as if in pain, and dissipate. She quickly shifts to her full-bunny form, so as to not make her Owsla Captain uncomfortable, and lays in a sunbeam as well; but after a moment, when she sees that no shadowy tendrils are dissipating from her fur, she lets out a sigh of relief and stretches out on the grass, obviously weary. The Captain of the Owsla follows Sable Aradia wishing to help her in her plight. He is still in tiger form. Sable casts James an encouraging smile as she sees his look of concern, although it is a tired expression and the whites of her rabbit eyes are still showing a little. "I'm okay, James. I just... need to rest a bit. Those should be safe enough to touch now, and so should I... you might not want to though," she adds, ruffling her sticky fur. "I need a shower." She laughs. It is a slightly-strange laugh. James offers a tiger bath, but then shakes his head saying, "That's a little unprofessional of me and you're a rabbit. I don't want to turn you into a Nesquik dispenser." He bows his head, realising the harm he might had caused. Sable laughs for real this time. "Nah, you don't want to lick that anyway. Although probably it wouldn't hurt to have a good scrub. I think I'm going to need to get dish detergent to get this out of my fur." She wrinkles up her nose. "And I'm not going to change into human form until I get it off. I don't want it on my skin." She smiles up at James, the walleyed look fading. "How are things this morning, James? It is still the 24th, isn't it?" James as a tiger, points his head a way for a moment. A monstrous sneeze emits from James, rubbing his nose clean. "Yes, its actually nice out," he says, and replies he is healing well. "Glad to hear it, James! And yes, such a rainy spring. I'm enjoying the rare sun." James looks to Sable, curious. "What is this gunk, anyway?" She wrinkles up her nose in response to the question. "Frying oil," she says. She does not elaborate. It does not look like frying oil, unless it's frying oil that has been rotting in a dumpster for some time. It doesn't smell great, either.

The first stages of the war were random hit-and-run attacks. Eventually the Nuggies built up an army, and by forcing the Demons into weaponry and tools, were able to drive the Demons out of the Demonic Spawning Rocks. The Void Prince reformed the chaotic tactics of the Demons into more unified group actions, and they were able to take back enough of the Demonic Spawning Rocks that they were able to replenish their numbers and beat back the Nuggie threat. This was some time in early 2022. The Nuggies retaliated by beginning raids against the Voiders' stored food supplies. This came to a head during the Feast of the Void in April of 2022, when the Nuggies assaulted the Voider kitchens and pantries both during setup and after the feast had ended. The Voiders described the process as "cleaning up," but it was in reality a full-out assault against the invading Nuggies. Since then, every time a Voider opens a portal in the deeper layers of the Void, the Nuggies attempt to overpower the Voider and escape through the breach. The conflict has since heated up to a savage fight for survival in the Void. More than once, the Voiders have needed all hands on deck to repel a Nuggie incursion.

Outcome

...don't encourage the Nuggies please. Me and George have...conversations that usually include a very large mallet, me screaming obscenities and him cursing me in Crisplin.
— Princess Sunny, trying to warn Dazzlinkat about the Nuggie Scourge

Strangely, a number of A-Voiders have developed sympathy for the Nuggies. Whether this is because they think the Nuggies are a gag, are unaware of their savage and brutal nature, or simply because they're sort of cute remains unclear. The Nuggies have been strangely quiet since the July 2022 Tourney. This is making the Voiders distinctly nervous.

Historical Significance

The origins of the Nuggies and the early stages of the war have been documented in The Nuggie Journals, a private record of the Voiders. Recently, these journals have been published in a special edition of The Book of Necrosis.

This article is a work in progress, and may be subject to changes.

This article is part of a series related to streaming the Game of Tomes. For more information, see Streaming Game of Tomes.

Conflict Type

Military Campaign

Battlefield Type

Extraplanar

Start Date

? Sometime in early 2020

Ending Date

Ongoing

Conflict Result

Undetermined

Location

The Void

Belligerents

The Voiders & the Demons

Voiders Anonymous

Led by

The Nuggies

The Nuggies

Led by

George the Mad Nuggie

Strength

The Voiders by Tempest Kwake

Voiders Anonymous (4 Literomancers )

Demons (thousands, possibly millions)

Nuggies by Kat Illustration London

Estimated 5-10 thousand Nuggies

Casualties

Countless thousands of demons have been injured, maimed and killed, only to respawn in the conflict. Demons who are "reshaped" by the Nuggies into weaponry and siege weaponry number probably number around one or two thousand. The Voiders have all been injured in the conflict (none seriously)

Several thousand Nuggies have been destroyed in the course of the conflict, but it seems that as soon as they are defeated, more respawn. George the Mad Nuggie has been repeatedly injured, but remains at large.