The War of Spring's Dawning

Opening Moves

  Fifty years after the first dawning of spring after the Long Winter, a force of Drughashi arrived by sea to make war upon the Three Kingdoms, as they were known then: Fu, Sariya, and Gispary. It was the third year of King Asprus Sariyii the Usurper of Sariya’s reign, in which year he intended to marry a Fucronavian princess in the hopes of attaining some kind of peace, so that he could set about pacifying the savages that plagued his southern borders.   First fell Gispary. It was a time of great lamentation, for many of the nobility were abducted and taken hostage, being deported from Mondlokk’s shores, never to be seen again. Gispary would never become a kingdom again, and for many years the city remained a wretched place.   Both Sariya and Fu raced to Geng-Ba’aat’s aid, to prevent the Drughashi forces from entering the inner lands in force. But due to a Drughashi deception, Fucronavian spies contrived to slay Asprus’ bride. In a rage, Asprus drew his great sword and swore eternal enmity to Fu. He ordered the new-built bridge, which Nuratum the Architect had made to facilitate an easier passage from Geng-Ba'aat to the west, destroyed. This caused Nuratum much distress.   A great naval battle took place south of the Straits of Hann which savaged the Drughashi invasion fleet and forced them to reconsider. They opted for a two-pronged attack. The Seventh Expeditionary Legion (“The VII”) would land in the Bay of Lies, attempting to cross Makliss and Ye-Tkull the south in an attempt to take Fu. Meanwhile the Eighth Expeditionary Legion (“The VIII”, nicknamed The Emperor’s Fist) would travel up the Vòhai River from the city of Vòhaiville, attempting to cross the Earthbones in secret, thereby taking Sariya by surprise.  

The Seventh

  The Seventh Expeditionary Legion’s invasion comprised a total of 50,000 fighting men – including a 10,000-strong contingent of Whúlvish cavalry. The VII soon encountered problems: The Kingdom of Makliss was no more, having been scraped clear off the face of the world by the Long Winter; the once fertile kingdom reduced to a barren wasteland. Once suppressed, and driven to the fringes of the southern plains, the Orkhr surged in to replace the missing kingdom of the Mannhr. Their warbands fought fiercely, and the desert’s inhospitability resulted in severe supply problems. None of their charts remained accurate, and the once-prosperous capital of the kingdom had simply disappeared, leaving behind nothing but ruins and a step-pyramid half-burned in the sand. Oases were few and far between; and when they found them they were fortified and formidably defended. Orkhr villages turned out to be cities. The Drughashi were driven west. When they reached the River Chúné, they built rafts and – harried by the Orkhr along the way – crossed the Earthbones at the Chúné’s source.   The Drughashi soon found the Zhudhwood and traveled east, taking and sacking Fucronavia. The Drughashi installed a puppet government, turning Fu into a Drughashi prefecture (a title it retains to this day). Subsequently they moved north, encountering fierce resistance.   Despite sacking and burning the Temple City of Zarathenis, they were forced to withdraw to Fucronavia. Effectively this split the old Kingdom of Fu. The Prefecture Fu itself was comparatively small and surrounded by mountains and thickly-forested hills on three sides, which the remaining Drughashi Legion was able to defend and hold. The rest turned into a loose federation of kingdoms collectively ruled from Zarathenis; this would later be united into the Hierophant’s Theocracy with the establishment of the Holy Church of Mankind's Redemption, and the relocation of its administration to the Temple City.  

The Eighth

  The Eighth Expeditionary Legion, commanded by Imperial Marshall Erenn Voroshti landed at the delta of the Vòhai River, only to find that Vòhaiville was nearly deserted. The inhabitants had fled to a patchwork of islands and anchored rafts in a hidden lagoon that could only be reached through treacherous and hard to navigate channels of the labyrinthine Vòhai delta — this refugee city would in time come to be the Most Serene Free City of Vòh. The VIII set to fortifying the remains of Vòhaiville as a staging fort, readying the host for the arrival of reinforcements from the sack of Gispary.    Once the Legion had attained full strength, Voroshti began the arduous trek north, along the course of the Vòhai River. The passage of this host up the Vòhai took nearly two years, and they were faced with many hardships. For a time, the Legion took the trouble to build a road long the way; much of that road remained in use for many years afterwards. The VIII crossed the Moorlands, following the Vòhai River, then a completely uninhabited waste, looking for a pass that was rumoured to exist. The VIII comprised a total of nearly 100,000 men, including 15,000 cavalry and 50 war elephants from Lanyric.     After establishing a winter camp at the confluence of the Vòhai and another large river, The VIII eventually found what looked like a suitable crossing. Scouts explored the broad valley (which belonged to the Vòhai's tributary) and found a narrow trail, apparently unguarded and undefended, leading to a high saddle. The trail was just wide enough to permit three or four men to walk abreast, or one war elephant.   Marshall Voroshti was satisfied; by his calculations they would cross into Sariya only about 500 miles from Sarimovad. The VIII – the Emperor’s Fist – began the climb. The pass was a difficult ascent. Many men and some elephants were lost to rockfalls and accidents on the icy trail. The saddle described by the scouts was surmounted, leaving the VIII in a large high and barren valley well above the tree line. There was another saddle, and the trail narrowed. Somewhat diminished but still strong, the VIII rested for a week and then continued their ascent.   To Voroshti’s horror he found the second saddle fortified. A small but formidable castle stood astride the trail. Archers and catapults caused great havoc, as the attackers had nowhere to go; the column was pushing from behind. The VIII lost 3000 men in the initial assault before the message could be transmitted down the column to halt the advance. Night fell, bringing a terrible blizzard, making the descent into the relative shelter of the valley perilous.   The following day just before dawn an elephant-borne ram was built and brought up under an improvised armour of hoplites’ shields. Despite the armour, and despite passing the dangerous area of artillery fire, the elephant panicked and lost its footing under a barrage of arrows from the castle at close range, falling to its death and taking almost a hundred men with it.   Voroshti recognised that a conventional retreat was impossible, so he ordered the VIII to camp in the valley. Recognising also that winter would soon set in, he ordered scouts and an auxiliary detachment to build a supply train to bring fodder and wood for heat and shelter up to the high valley. The following day the scouts returned to report that a rockfall had rendered the lower saddle impassable, trapping the VIII.   Voroshti, realising the danger he was in, summoned his lieutenants. A frontal assault upon the castle was destined to fail, but retreat was impossible.   Scouts were once again sent forth to see if they could find an alternative path. They determined that there could be some hope for a two-pronged attack on the castle by using a very narrow trail, which would allow the VIII to position archers above the castle itself. The resulting diversion would hopefully allow the VIII to come close enough to the castle to build a siege engine capable of breaching the gate.   Voroshti swore that if they were not able to overcome this small castle, that he would personally behead all of his commanders before falling on his sword and pledging all of their souls to Halreah who Dwells in the Halls of Black and Gold.   The third day on the pass saw the renewed assault. The high-positioned archers began their bombardment at dawn with fire arrows in the hopes of setting the roof or the siege engines ablaze, or at least deterring the crews from manning them. They were successful in that the catapults remained out of the fighting, but the castle’s archers still extracted a heavy toll. The Drughashi were forced to climb over the bodies of their fallen comrades, or use them for cover, or cast them into the abyss below.   After several hours of intense fighting, the gate was breached, only to reveal the true extent of the castle: the attackers were funnelled into a narrow passage and subjected to a withering defence. But the Drughashi, recalling Voroshti’s promise, dared not retreat. There was a second gate at the end of the passage; if that could be breached then the castle must surely fall.   The assault was relentless, lasting through the night and into the evening of the following day, but it was fruitless; this small castle stood fast against nearly 100,000 men. Only the archers atop the vantage point survived to survey the devastation, knowing that they were trapped in this charnel valley. They watched as Imperial Marshall Erenn Voroshti ordered his lieutenants to their knees, beheading each one in turn, before uttering a foul curse and thrusting his sword into his belly and up into his chest. He died slowly, screaming in agony, until a lone swordsman from the castle sallied forth and severed his head and put an end to it.   The Drughashi archers returned to their camp to report the news to the elephants, who had stayed behind. They decided to try to force their way out of the lower saddle and make their way south to Gispary.   The retreat was hard, and the rockfall took several days to clear. It became apparent that the rockfall had not been a natural event, so a small group of scouts followed a path which, had it been found earlier, would have enabled them to infiltrate the castle from the rear. But leaderless, and their forces much diminished, the remaining VIII, numbering less than fifty men, elected to return to Gispary. They camped for the winter at the headwaters of the Vòhai, but they were never heard from again.   The castle came to be known as Pasgaard, and it had been held by less than five hundred men. Only one hundred had lost their lives. The pass is now said to be haunted, and few travellers brave its terrors.  

The South

  Meanwhile the Kingdom of Sariya sent forth a great host to purge the Drughashi out of Gispary, installing a group of custodians as minor kings along the way. These small kingdoms eventually became the federation of the Southern Kingdoms. The City of Gispary itself remained largely in ruins, with a much diminished population.    In time, Gispary became a city-state under the protection of Geng-Ba'aat – along with Poràn – and later went on to join the Hanseatic Confederation.  

Aftermath

  This ended the Drughashi Empire's last attempt to re-conquer Mondlokk.The withering defeat, and the effective loss of two legions — one massacred, and the other permanently cut off from its homeland — condemned the Drughashi Empire to fall into complete disarray. None in Mondlokk now know what became of their erstwhile oppressors.