While hardly a major war by most standards, this conflict between the
Kingdom of Polira and her southern neighbors, the
Tribal Assembly of the Suranet and the
Nation of Khaldai over water rights brought up questions of ownership of natural resources. It also ended with the destruction of
Yavareth. Its croplands and pastures dried up from lack of water, and the war itself broke and scattered the
Suranet.
The Conflict
Prelude
In the year 320 AS, the Poliran government began building a series of embankment dams along the length of the Bassier River to better provide drinking water and irrigation to those living in both Upper and Lower Bassier Valley. The project took twenty-three years to construct all six earthworks, despite each individual dam being relatively small in scope. Combined, they managed to slow the Bassier River as it left Polira to almost nothing at the driest part of the year. Polira's neighbor, the tribal assembly of the Suranet, lodged a formal complaint with the Poliran Queen, demanding the restoration of the river that the Suranet depended on. Queen Isabeau responded that the Suranet had no inherent right to the water of a river that flowed primarily through Poliran territory. Desperate, the Suranet assembly declared war.
Initially, the conflict took the shape of guerilla attacks on the dams themselves. Groups of Suranet, all acting independently of each other, would sneak across the border, often deep into Poliran territory, to sabotage the six dams. Primarily, they targeted the spillways and wooden sluice gates, or dug trenches in the tops of the dams down to the water level, causing water to resume flowing, undermining the earthworks, and often putting additional pressure on dams lower down the river. Segments of the Poliran army were quickly deployed to guard the dams, and it became harder and harder for the Suraneti fighters to successfully sabotage the earthworks.
Meanwhile, the Suranet Assembly had managed to rally their neighbors to the south to a common cause. Also dependent on rivers that flowed through Poliran lands, the leaders of the nation of Khaldai were concerned enough to send a small army and a smaller contingent of casters to aid the Suranet. This in turn led the Polirans to move an army down to the border lands as well, including a large contingent of
Sanguine Tower casters.
The only major battle of the conflict took place on the
Tiravesh-no-Kal in Yavareth. This was a relatively flat stretch of rock-hard grasslands with no cover whatsoever. The advantage would be decided by strength, and it was. Both the Khaldaian and Poliran armies were well trained and equipped, but the less populous
Khaldai had a smaller army, and the spear hunters of the Suranet, while brave, were not enough to make up for the shortfall. Magical strength was also a factor. The Sanguine Tower casters were numerous, and would fight until they collapsed, only to be replaced by fresher bodies. Meanwhile, the volunteer casters of Khaldai were not as willing to risk themselves or spend their strength to the last drop. When the Poliran side started specifically targeting the Khaldai casters, they turned and fled. The Khaldaian army sounded retreat not long afterwards, leaving the Suranet to be massacred.
The Bassier Dams remained in place, and guerilla attacks on them came to a halt. Without enough water to survive, the Suranet tribes became refugees, forced to relocate to neighboring nations, primarily Khaldai.
The Suranet lands quickly became desert without a reliable year-round water source. Canals and irrigation works dried up and pasture lands withered. Yavareth evolved into a wasteland buffer between Polira and Khaldai.
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