you will keep me from hurting people and keep people from hurting me and i will not resist you in this. i will not take your body or nest in your soul if i have somewhere else to go. under these terms i surrender. will you make me a body or shall i?

I will make you a body.

It gives her more control over the situation, which she feels she direly needs, to be able to embed this spirit in an artifice of her own design.  Funnily enough, this isn't the first time she's done something like this (even with a sin-flavored spirit, for that matter), so she actually has blueprints ready, and within a minute a similar spirit-housing shows up at the Black Plateau.  It's a rough cube of thaumaturgical machinery, painted prison-jumpsuit orange, marked with her sigil and PRISONER TRANSPORT: DO NOT DISMANTLE, then welded to a hardware-limited hover pallet.  It does have cameras to watch the outside world with, though what there is to watch is mostly Druj shamans encased in foam glaring angrily at machines.

This body is temporary until the Druj are handled.  Afterwards we shall discuss creating something more suited to your needs.  Please move in.

The spirit pours into the casing and projects a seething feeling of hatred at its predicament, which might in fact be what it considers to be a friendly thank-you.

Okay.

"Engage Sha protocol verification: entity contained."

The blinking yellow warning is replaced by a slightly more soothing blue block of text.

Hostile possessor entity reported successfully contained; please await confirmation.

Scanning . . . . . . . . . . . 

Cognitive integrity  OK

Soul checksum       OK (cnj4!bZq%#)

Ritual validation      OK

Habitancy check     1/1

Prison P-0A749X    HOLDING (100%)

Possessor entity: Successfully contained.

And the defenses spin down as the operation spins back up to its 'usual' breakneck pace.

She does have one more comment: "Fucking called it."

There is a newly erected marquee tent around her and a ritual team is mid ritual.

Evantia has run down to join the sentinel argument and is rather hoarsely insisting that yes while Solace of Chimes is the calmest possible aura the problem with magic auras is they're naturally very weak and that might not contain something bad enough to worry their esteemed guest.

Two people reply simultaneously to the intelligible statement - one is saying "Please don't interrupt the ritual" and the other is asking "Called what?"

"Spirit of hatred in the Black Plateau; it surrendered.  You're doing what?  Listen to Evantia, I can't pay attention to this and talk to you."

Evantia wins her argument and ushers forwards a couple of other priests, who take some liao and place an aura on the makeshift construction.

The effect of the aura settles on Myra and everyone in the tent - You feel a profound desire to protect the things you truly care for. You know your decisions are crucial to ensure their safety.

The ritual concludes, but it has no effect, because a magical aura cannot displace a spiritual aura. One of the ritualists tries to make a break for it and inflict violence on Myra with the staff she was using, but is put on the ground by two other ritualists with rods before she can take more than a step; they start picking her up to take her out of the tent for medical attention. The priests are holding an informal perimeter to stop anyone else going in the tent.

Well, that sure did happen.

What's the status of the Black Plateau's cognitohazardous effect, now?

Still pumping out hate, although it's starting to get an additional flavour... mmm, despair, yes, that's some despair there, resonating off all those Druj tied up in restraint foam.

Why did she think it would be that simple.

Alright, then.  Her initial blitzkrieg is winding down, honestly; when she tells her army to move it can move pretty damn fast.  But this...

She worries it's only just beginning.

So she spreads unoccupied forces out to tap local mana more effectively, takes up a meditative mien, and...

Well, experiences compassion for the people she's defeated.

Not just for them, but...for them too.

Born into a culture that prized cruelty and pain, how many of them even had a choice to become something more than this cruel perversion of even basic orcish instincts?  How many of their ancestors are horrified by what their children have become, have been shouting from beyond to those who will not listen?  For the strength of the pack is the orc, and the strength of the orc is the pack - but no pack, no pact this is; only cruelty, greed, and pain, instead of wisdom shared and thereby amplified.  She's seen this pattern, she knows this pattern all too well - and it will eat itself from the inside out.  This she knows, as sure as stone, as sure as steel.  Would they like something different?

Uh, so.

About a quarter of them are drawing on a source of spiritual strength they have handy to throw off this obviously foreign emotional effect.

About another quarter are extremely keen to abjectly surrender to anyone who has a plan which isn't 'die ignominiously of thirst over the next couple of days'. They would be very happy to sign up to whatever that value system is, regardless of what it is, Person Who Has Thoroughly Beaten Them.

The third quarter is not quite so absolutely keen to surrender utterly to anyone who will accept their surrender, but grudgingly agrees that they have definitely lost and it is totally within Myra's rights to do whatever she wants with them, including totally reshaping their culture if that's what she feels like doing.

The rest of them draw on the strength of their group belonging and hurl snarling defiance back at her.

None of the Druj really get the whole 'this is an offer' thing, 'offer' is not really something they understand, unless it translates to 'cruel trap' or 'attempted bargaining from a position of weakness'.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all souls are created equal, and are endowed in their creation with certain inalienable rights, amongst them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...

It's time to start rolling out infrastructure.

The snarling defiance...hurtles off into the metaphorical distance, because there is nothing to defy in this.  Just a possibility, that didn't previously exist.  Food, water, shelter, given freely, so long as none are harmed.  Indeed, amongst themselves, they-singular can live as they see fit, if they-collective wish to continue as they-singular have previously.

But there are people under her protection, and the Druj must know this: they shall not hurt another.  The only soul they can allow horrible things to happen to is their own.

The general consensus among the more surrender-inclined half is something along the lines of: well, fuck, we're all going to get eaten by the Abyss, but at least that isn't going to happen right now and maybe we can do something about it later.

The rest are clearly going to hurt someone else just as soon as they can just to prove they still can. Some of them are in fact trading personal insults right now.

...aaaand, some of the Imperials are moving to stab the helpless Druj, in a tiresomely predictable fashion.

Imperials, could you not.  Your business here is recovering your people.  Not murdering prisoners.

Also she soundly despises the Abyss on principle and will certainly be seeing what she can do to stop the eating people thing, if that helps.  Fuck true-deaths.

...She feels they are vastly misunderstanding something, but doesn't interfere in the insult-a-thon.  Better everyone get it out of their systems, anyway.

The Imperials in question absolutely will not stop until physically prevented, and some of them are surprisingly good at cutting their way out of the first attempt at preventing them, although Myra's forces adapt quickly. Some of the other Imperials are trying to apologise on their behalf.

The Druj insult-a-thon participants don't really mean it, mostly, they're just trying to hurt each other. To some extent they are kind of succeeding - they're extremely skilled in basically every way you can hurt someone, even if you are both entirely restrained from anything but making facial expressions, being able to talk is definitely enough.

Yeah, she understands; there's a lot of entrenched pain, here, and they want to lash out and hurt what they perceive as the cause of it, no matter how much any given individual was or wasn't involved in matters of culture and state as anything more than a victim themselves.  ...She wishes it was easier to punch sociological problems.

As she is finally no longer needing to immerse herself in field command, she stands up, safes the ritual circle (which is simple) and the magic amplifier (which is really, profoundly not, but she's pretty damn good at wards and working with magic items), and allows herself a facepalm.

"I told them to stop fucking hurting eachother without mutual consent, and they're finding new and creative ways to insult one another just to theoretically spite me, which is honestly just sad.  Anyone here have good estimates on how long I should expect them to be at it before they get bored or run out of repertoire?"

Oh, she should probably let Keth know the fighting's over.

"You mean the Druj? Forever," replies one of the Sentinels who just happens to be the first to speak up.

Several people make faces at the mention of the Druj.

"They're not all dead, then?" another Sentinel asks.

"Can you give us a briefing, please," requests their commander.

"They're not all dead, no; I rather hope they'll take this opportunity to make a radical change away from a culture that encourages being backstabbing dicks.  I think about half of them have actually bought in on it, to varying degrees of understanding and enthusiasm.

"Anyway.  Briefing.  Or rather, debriefing.  Let's see, what was I doing...Right.  Talking with Evantia about - it was the miasma aura projector things the Druj have, if I recall correctly, led me to actually deploying scout drones.

"At which point I found out that the Druj forces were retreating and salting the earth behind them.

"Salting the earth should be read to include 'killing the civilians'.  Because, well.  Druj.  Is there a single other culture on this planet that doesn't want to smack them about a bit for being assholes?  Anyway.

"I deploy with all due haste, and in the process of interrupting a Druj ritual sited there, find out that there is a spirit of Hatred in the Black Plateau.  I deploy my anti-possession and anti-soul-sucking-monstrosity countermeasures, and call on an ally of mine for assistance, which led to - I don't want to project anything onto the spirit, so I'll just say that I got it to agree to not hurt people, in exchange for, you know, getting - and having somewhere - to live.  Which isn't the Black Plateau, anymore.  I have some spirit anchor blueprints handy, so I used those for containment purposes."

She sets a reminder to take care of getting the spirit a more...body-shaped...body.

"Concurrent with that, rescue operations proceed apace, and with the Black Plateau just sitting right there, I took advantage of it to secure approximately half the Druj's forces' unconditional surrender, and the rest's grousing, because they really can't do anything about me telling them to not hurt people who aren't them.

"At approximately this point, some of the Empire's soldiers, who I had brought along to give friendly faces to rescued civilians, start trying to kill prisoners, which is not permitted by my rules of war, but that didn't require my personal attention.

"Any further questions?"

"Which regions are secured, and who is taking dominion of them? As long as the Imperial forces retain their existing regions, we don't have a supply problem for the Guard, but there are a lot of refugees waiting to return - especially to Endsmeet in Occursion, Echostorm and Cascade in Proceris..."

"Are the soldiers who attempted to slaughter the Druj okay? Is there a message we should send to the generals to secure their release?"

"Literally everyone hates the Druj."

"Is this just in Spiral and Zenith? There are a lot more Druj out in the Mallum..."

She waves a hand at the campaign map, then pulls up a copy of The Map beside it.

"Please direct geographical inquiries to the map; I quite literally don't know where any of those are yet.  Let me pull up the regio boundaries...annnnd there we go."  The campaign map shows regio boundaries, now.

She is pursuing the Druj army back along its supply chains until there stops being a Druj army, because, well, fuck the Druj, but at this point she's back to scouting.  She doesn't see any more miasmatic orcs in the Black Plateau's range of influence.  (There's not anything stopping her from pursuing beyond said range, but tactical evaluation suggests her autobattling is at a point at which she can be reasonably confident her forces know how to handle this opponent, and when they will need her assistance, so she's able to get out of the 'command tent'.)

"The forces who tried to kill the prisoners-of-war will be admonished and released when they wake up, generally.  They didn't know any better and, y'know, the aura's bad in there.  I'm not going to hold it against them too much.  If they try to do it again I'm probably going to drop them off somewhere that's not this - what was it, territory?"

"As far as refugees returning - I'm probably going to end up laying sovereign claim to those regios which were only contested by the Druj, because I don't want the Empire and the Grendel getting in a pissing match over them, but prior inhabitants are generally welcome to return, with the caveat that there are refugee camps going up right now for the ex-Druj.  Otherwise, whoever's soldiers are in the regio right now determines who you're going to have to talk to about that.  I don't like politics."

"Zenith's the territory. If you drop them behind the lines at Iteri, or just over the border with Redoubt there's a big river port city, Cargo - they should be able to find their way home from there without causing further trouble."

"So you're taking Screed and Ossuary, and leaving the armies to secure Proceris and Occursion? That does seem pretty equitable..."

"But, you know, somebody is going to kick off about the Legacy."

(There is a polite background ping from the auto-battling army; they've crossed the boundary to the north of Lustri and now they are in a terrible place which is a horrible marsh on the side of a mosquito-ridden lake, and the 'supply lines' appear to be a lot of diseased, starving fisher-folk, who have been turfed out of their rotten wooden buildings by the remnant of the Druj army and their distinctly unhealthy looking fish confiscated for army provisions... humanitarian work is somewhat outside their chase-down-the-army remit but they thought Myra might like to know.)

Oh bloody hell, time to ship over the slack-capacity relief bots from Feroz, on top of the ones that're already doing construction for the refugees.  This just won't do.

"The Legacy?  I'm afraid I don't immediately recognize what you mean, though I have guesses."

...She will just let her geonavigation software parse all that information about places.  Advanced technology is really quite useful when you hate having to memorize names and such!

Basically there's one of those big magical border lines in the middle of the Druj incursion, to the north is the bits the Imperial armies were fighting over anyway, to the south is the bit in the territory the Grendel control, and that latter bit has the Black Plateau and the Legacy, which is a big Mithril mine.

"The mine in Ossuary," someone helpfully points out. "You won't like what the Druj have done to it, I expect they've stripped all the safety precautions and trapped the workers inside."

(It turns out that there are two main kinds of locals in the Bloodwater Marsh on the banks of the Feverwater; one kind are abjectly terrified of everything and run off to hide in the rushes, and the other are very happy to take anything that's given and immediately turn around and try to use it to subjugate each other.)

( - aaaauuuuugggghhhhh why are people like this - )

Okay!  Unfortunately for them there aren't any implements of subjugation in the relief packages!

"Let's see what's going on over there, then."

Surely her forces have reached the mine.

The mine was pretty much the second target, as the second largest area of activity; they had to break down a few barricades built by orcs who claimed to be surrendering but hadn't sound-baffled the noises of suffering slaves still in there with them hard enough, and shore up a few excavations that were distinctly dangerous, but as areas of this clusterfuck go, it's pretty peaceful - most of the people on the 'people are restrained here and will need further action within the day' list here are the ex-slaves who immediately tried to murder their previous slavemasters in a fairly understandable kind of way, the Druj left at the mine mostly seem to be motivated by wealth than this bizarre drive to hurt anyone in sight that a lot of their compatriots have been displaying.

There is a very large and ever-growing list of 'people who are restrained and are going to need more action shortly because it's not at all clear how to safely un-restrain them' all over the operational area; over three quarters of them are marked as probably overall being victims rather than primary aggressors, although levels of uncertainty are high in many cases.

At about this point, notification that advance units have had to pull back starts coming in - a little way around the shores of the horrible lake, there is a Dreadful Spring Energy Vortex, writhing with uncontained life energy manifesting itself as giant insects, spider-fungus ettercaps, hideous shambling mounds of combined plant and animal life etc, which some of the displaced Druj army units and desperate terrified locals attempted to flee into; it does not seem to have gone well for them, but how it doesn't go well for them is mostly that they are transformed into additional force for the uncontained life excursion, which makes saving them... nontrivial.