The Fordrassian Conquest WIP

The Invasion of Isarlan, 60aa - 60aa.

  After success at uniting all of Rangaru under the Church of Radiance and King Mihael Fordros, the second son of Archangel Arrennon, Mihael's nephew, Tarrenar, led a campaign north into Isarlan. Tarrenar knew that the Crimson Rise would one day return, but speculated that they'd attempt an invasion from elsewhere on Nemron, where there would be no Radiance to thwart them. So, to prevent this, he would spread the influence of the Church of Radiance and the Fordros dynasty throughout the world. He wouldn't stop until he reached Lun'var in the north, which is now Fordrassia.
  Most of Attria at the time was ruled by the Falculanian Empire, with its capital Al Nesa at the centre of Falculania itself. However, as this empire had no rivals, and it had been many centuries since its last large scale war, Tarrenar knew that it was weak and would not expect an invasion. Isarlan was governed by four trade princes, who had their own small militaries used for maintaining their law and order. They were corrupt, though, and not hardened military veterans as Tarrenar and his paladins were, just having fended off two demonic invasions 38 and 27 years ago respectively. The invasion started not with soldiers, though, but with clerics and priests who were sent into the major towns of southern Isarlan to preach. These priests were powerful luminaries, capable of wielding the Radiance to manipulate emotions. Many of those who heard the sermons were inspired and easily converted by them, meaning that when the Rangarian army arrived, it was met with little resistance. Those who did resist were usually magically capable mystics or guardians, or devout warriors of Trade Princes Rurik the First, and the 'Black Prince' Calyr who ruled the south. Calyr was most heavily affected by this, as his domain was Bravod, the capital of the south, which was the first city to fall. He fled north into the town of Irknav, at the feet of the Blackened Spires, where he sent messengers to the capital Ralair to beseech Trade Prince Simeon for aid. When it was declined, thanks to the tense relations between the two Trade Princes in the past, Calyr sent gold, with promise of more gold, should they come to his aid. By this time, the Fordros army had conquered the lands south of the Silver Mountains, although Keredomolk was holding out thanks to its steep terrain. Trade Prince Rurik had taken up refuge there, where he scrambled to gather what was left of his wealth. Simeon still did not send aid. Instead, he concocted a plan to position himself as the sole Trade Prince of Isarlan, by attempting to bribe Tarrenar Fordros. He sent him a vast amount of gold, requesting that he topple Calyr and Rurik, then move on to the final Trade Prince, a dwarf in the dwarven city of Mir'lethan. Tarrenar refused the gold. Only a week later, his Inquisitors had captured Calyr, and Calyr spilled the beans on the other Trade Princes. Firstly, it was apparent to his contacts in Keredomolk that Rurik had been assassinated in the secret tunnels beneath the Silver Mountains by his successor, Rin. Rin, now a Trade Prince, would likely hide in the mountains for a while. The dwarven Trade Prince, Vargrimm Goldforge, was said to have the loyalty of his people. He was a Stoneborn like the dwarves in Rangaru, and a powerful believer in dwarven supremacy. Finally, Trade Prince Simeon lived in a palace in Ralair, on the waterfront. He enjoyed a life of luxury and oversaw Isarlan's overseas trade.
  Tarrenar would use this information to his advantage. Once he captured Keredomolk, he sent Inquisitors into the tunnels to find Trade Prince Rin and capture him, which they were able to do so easily, while his priests got to work converting the town's people. He then marched his army of 50,000 strong towards Constantir, a crossroads town that was well connected to every major location in northern Isarlan. However, to get there, he had to skirt his army past the Woods of Ahlausbair, named after a great Forest Wyvern that lived there for centuries. Once he got around that, he set up camp in some ruins just on the other side of the small forest that surrounded Constantir. He attacked at dawn from the west, where the sun would be at his army's backs. However, the town was defended by an elementalist who later became known as Dayscourge for his ability to blot out the sun with powerful storms. He killed 50 paladins and around 300 soldiers in the first assault, forcing Tarrenar to break the siege. To take down Dayscourge, Tarrenar commissioned his alchemist, George Lothra of the new Lothra Household of Eastvale, to craft invisibility potions. However, to get reagents for it, they'd need to venture into the Woods of Ahlausbair. He sent several adventurers in, however none returned. So, he sent his loyal general and cousin, Samsada, first son of Mihael, with a handful of justicars, into the woods. Samsada returned with the reagents, after having battled and wounded Ahlausbair in a one-on-one fight. With these invisibility potions, Tarrenar sent his Inquisitors in to kill Dayscourge. One of the Inquisitors was caught and slain, but the others managed to emerge victorious, and opened the gates for the army. Priests calmed the angry populace and Tarrenar wasted no time in moving his armies to Cyredivalk, an important river town surrounded by a bountiful river on one side and rich farmland on the other. He left Samsada back at Constantir, to lead a force of 5,000 elite troops to take Senyav, a smaller coastal village to the east. However, Samsada found the village to be barely defended, as Trade Prince Simeon had his troops recalled to the capital to better bolster his own defences. Cyredivalk put up a fierce resistance, much like Constantir, but lacked magical defences and so the paladins were able to overpower the defenders. Tarrenar recieved word of Samsada's victory, and came up with a plan to deal with the dwarves without having to fight them. He'd sent emissaries into the dwarven city to tell them that Simeon was abandoning the rest of the country, which was now in their hands. If the dwarves surrendered, they could continue with Trade Prince Vargrimm in charge, and coexist with the Fordrassians. However, dwarves are resistant to the incantations of Radiance, and the emissary's head was sent back to Tarrenar on a pike. Tarrenar ordered his other cousin, Elias Fordros, second son of Mihael and a practicing Earth Guardian, to oversee the destruction of the dwarves with a force of 10,000, while Tarrenar continued conquering towns along the Bright Run.
  Elias was jealous that he could not visit the Gate of the Guardian yet, a spiritual place where it was said all five of the elements converged and Guardians could meditate to achieve enlightenment. However, he had his own plan to deal with the dwarves. Mir'lethan was situated at the north of a canyon in the Ruby Peaks. At the southern end of that was a fortified dwarven town, now known as the Red Ruins for the red rock there, but its true name is lost to time as Elias so thoroughly devastated it that barely anything remained but the shells of a few houses. The dwarves, however, were all spared, and sent back to Mir'lethan with the news. Vargrimm was enraged, but couldn't deny the power of Elias, and knew his city wouldn't stand against an assault. He sent a letter to Elias, agreeing to Tarrenar's previous request. Elias assumed Tarrenar would deny them, as they had denied him, but Tarrenar visited the dwarves personally and forged an alliance with Vargrimm. Elias was then sent north to begin scouting the next country, Esija. Tarrenar would begin marching to Ralair alongside Samsada with a force of 40,000. Despite Ralair being the largest city in Isarlan with the biggest military presence, upon hearing of the fall of the other three princes so swiftly, Simeon decided to flee. Although he had gotten his wish to have the others dealt with, he assumed the dwarves at least would devastate the Fordros army before it reached the capital. However, Tarrenar's conquests had seen his army lose only a few thousand over the course of a few months. Tarrenar summoned angelic beings at Ralair and showed the full glory of the Radiance by turning night to day and having his clerics and priests chant an incantation to convert the defenders. This worked, and Ralair opened its gates to the army with little resistance. Simeon fled and was never seen again, likely being killed by pirates out to sea.
  With the capital taken, the last remaining town, Piaskzamek, surrendered to Elias's small force, and the orcs of Skull Spire agreed to remain peaceful for fear of being wiped out.
 

The Conversion of Esija, 60aa-61aa.

  Esija is a desert country, with very little settlements or fortifications. There was a coastal town named Palabau, an oasis town named Mejeni, and the capital, situated in a crescent mountain range, named Dejeti, far to the north-east of Esija's border with Isarlan. However, each of these settlements were vastly populated, self sufficient, guarded by guardians and elementalists, and then there was Ranen, the Keeper of Earth, who made this desert his home. The people here worshipped Ranen, and so attacking them in their own domain would be dangerous for the Fordros army. Attempting to convert them might also invoke Ranen's ire. Elias had to come up with a plan before Tarrenar's army, with reinforcements from Rangaru, could arrive.
  By this point, the Empire of Falculania had taken full notice of Isarlan's fall, and there was a real threat of them coming to reclaim it. Tarrenar had to leave Samsada in Ralair with 20,000 men to defend it, while soldiers and mercenaries from Rangaru funnelled north to secure the smaller towns. The Greystone knights played a key role at this time, being elite soldiers that were capable of disciplined patrols between these new towns, and fighting off attacks from lesser mystics.
  Elias had heard that in the Vault of Ranen was a glaive known as Guardian's Fury, which could only be wielded by the Guardian Supreme, master of all five elements. He figured that wielding such a weapon could grant him the power to challenge Ranen. He headed there personally to claim it. Tarrenar arrived in Piaskzamek to reinforce his cousin, but found he was absent. So, he took matters into his own hands. He summoned his justiciars and a force of elite paladins to march north along the road into Esija to the coastal town of Palabau. The town was surrounded by high sandstone walls, defended by many earth guardians, and was a thriving town of 20,000 people. Tarrenar sent in his priests, but their teachings had little effect, and some were killed for blasphemy. However, many of the town's inhabitants had heard of Tarrenar's conquest of Isarlan, and there was some uncertainty and fear about whether or not they'll be next. Fortunately for Tarrenar, he did not need to go to war with the Esijans directly. He sent emissaries into Palabau, Mejeni, and Dejeti, to negotiate trade deals with them as a sign of good faith. Furthermore, he offered the services of adventurers and mercenaries from Rangaru to deal with the major problems of bandits and roaming monsters in the desert. Unfortunately, as Rangarians were accustomed to colder climates, fighting in the desert proved incredibly difficult, and many of the adventurers and mercenaries failed to defeat the bandit camps or any notable monsters. So, Tarrenar, as he had done with the Woods of Ahlausbair, sent his justiciars to deal with it. His justiciars were the strongest paladins he had access to, and their power made them more than a match for the scattered bandit warlords. Although the bandits were never completely destroyed, their effectiveness was crushed enough to make travel safe again for merchants.
  There was still the matter of Falculanian Troops and mystics residing in Esijan towns, however. A few skirmishes had broken out between them and Fordros troops across Esija. Tarrenar did not want to risk breaking the trust between him and the governors of Esija, but they were unwilling to betray the empire that had control over them. However, his prayers to Ayir were answered when news that Elias had claimed Guardian's Fury spread. Although Elias could not properly wield the weapon, its reputation would precede him, and Tarrenar put that to good use. He sent him north-east, past Dejeti, and into the country of Kanzlo to start attacking Falculanian strongholds there. Elias may not have been the most powerful Guardian, but with his powers over Earth, and his company of 300 capable paladins and clerics, he was able to topple many fortifications, drawing much of the empire's army out of Dejeti. Tarrenar knew he didn't need to conquer all of Esija, only the capital. He moved in, forcing the governor to abdicate, and claimed the seat of power. From there, he made official decrees that Esija was part of the new Fordrassian Empire. This angered the remaining Falculanians in the country, and their provincial leader, General Ak-zamir, and caused him to gather as many forces as he could to attempt to retake the capital. This was what Tarrenar had been waiting for. Now he had lured most of the Falculanian forces out of their settlements without having to risk the lives of those who lived there. The two armies met just outside of Dejeti, where Fordrassian troops descended upon Ak-zamir's forces of 30,000 from the mountains, while Tarrenar's main army of 15,000 charged them head on. 20 of Tarrenar's justiciars led the charge, and clerics and paladins provided magical support for the army. However, there were mystics within Ak-zamir's army, blasting the Fordrassians with lightning and cosmic magic that even the paladins couldn't defend against. The Fordrassians eventually emerged victorious after summoning several angellic beings, but the battle was far bloodier than Tarrenar hoped, and his armies across Rangaru, Isarlan, and now Esija were being stretched thin. He had to start converting more people to the Church of Radiance, and training new paladins. To do this, he made a risky move and called for the Luminary Patriarch, Dros Aysa Fordros, his sister, and his uncle, Mihael, to come to the front lines personally. Aysa refused, as she was overseeing the purge of Vilewood, which still had demons and undead left over from both Crimson Rise invasions. Mihael, surprisingly, agreed, and came to the front lines. He and the Luminary Patriarch were the most powerful clerics alive, and so their mastery of the Word of Radiance was greater than any priest Tarrenar could employ. They were able to spread their religion through thaumaturgy, cleverly allowing the Esijans to worship both Ayir and Ranen, as, after all Ranen was a Keeper created by the Elder Gods.
  It took almost a full year before the Esijans accepted Fordrassian rule, despite the manipulation of the Radiance. The Luminary Patriarch remained in Dejeti for a time, while Mihael returned to Rangaru. The Falculanians were unable to retaliate just yet, as Elias was still rampaging across Kanzlo and threatening to move further east into Falculania itself. Furthermore, Samsada had called much of Rangaru's vast naval forces to Ralair, to secure the pirate-infested bay known as The Breach, which sat right between both empires.
  Tarrenar set his sights on the northern land of Norfrier, shaped like a phoenix with its wings stretched high. This land was temperate, but rugged, and was once home to several orders of the Sacred Sun, before the Falculanians claimed it. However, with his battered forces and dwindling supplies, Tarrenar knew it would be a long campaign.