Nord invasions of Seria

Not satisfied with the riches they plundered and the countless blood and tears they shed and caused, the barbarians, after looting the lands of the Ikarians, set their sights on our country, leaving behind countless calamities that many still remember: homeless families, slaves in a foreign land, orphans, and desecrated temples.

— Arshak Daryaru, Seris Historian, ca. 410 AP

 

Prelude

Instability within the Ikarian Empire in the late 3rd- early 4th centuries AP meant that the coastline of the North Sea was left unprotected, and thus, Nord raids began to intensify along that coast, affecting not only the Empire but also the Snow Elves. The Nord raids on the Northern coast of the Ikarian Empire were so devastating that at the beginning of the 4th century many Nord chieftains consider the region "not profitable" for raiding, adding to this, a reinforcement on the coasts by the Ikarian army and navy after the stabilization of the Empire following the last civil war. Because of this, many Nord warlords and chieftains decide to gamble a bit and go East, crossing the Suris Strait, to the lands, cities and towns of the Seris Empire, populous and wealthy.

The first raids

The first recorded North Raid into the Seris Empire was recorded in 311 AP, when 10 Nord longships went up the course of the Cakew River and sacked the monastery and village of Unumi, taking the children and women as slaves. A couple of months later, Monks from the Golden Leaf Monastery alongside local units managed to evacuate the population inside their monastic stronghold and resist the raiding parties leading by a man called Sigurd of Lomberk, though they couldn't avoid the neighbouring towns to be plundered by the Nords.   A similar raid was conducted that summer in north-western Seria where a nord army numbering 5000 men sacked the city of Puriyama, and took alongside them many captives. The arrival of winter didn't stop the raiders who occupied the small Imi islands and from there launched raids across the the north-western coast, sacking dozens of towns and taking many captives. One survivor of those raids later said:  

It was as the gates of the underworld open and creatures with human appearance emerged from the bowels of the earth to destroy, kill, and consume everything in their path, to destroy the civilized world with total disdain for human life; only gold, silver, and riches seemed to satisfy them, not even food.

  In summer 312 AP the Nords resume their incursions. This time the Satrap of Aprakan led an army to fight the invaders but he, together with his army, was completely annihilated by the raiders, and let the entire province opened for them. The central government then decided to intervene and sent an army commanded by the Oronai mercenary Aristarchos of Myron who managed to defeat the Nords in two consecutive battles in the north of the country and also another naval battle near Varnayama where a significant part of the Nord fleet of the Imi islands was destroyed and the survivors who fled west were intercepted by the Ikarian navy under admiral Sergius Camilus and annihilated. At this battle the Oronai commanded was fatally wounded, dying at his flagship. He is considered a hero for the seris, and his tomb is still revered nowadays.

The Seris response

From then on until 315 the Seris began preparing the North-Western Coast of their country for future, even more numerous raids by building strategic fortifications (some of the first ever mentioned castles in Seris history) along key areas of the coast, that would allow people from the neighbouring regions to take cover inside their strong and well defended walls. The Ministry of the Army convince the emperor to form a new Northern Army task with defending this region and the new built castles.   The new measures seemed to be effective, as in Autumn of that year the Nords resumed their attacks but this time they were repelled thanks to the network of castles and the effective coordination of troops. Watching the futility of trying to raid the north-western part of the Empire, the Nords decided to go eastwards where the seris wouldn't think they could reach...

Raid on Taronsha Shrine

  The area of Hayaka Bay, close to the peninsula of Shiruz and its homonymous satrapy had been too far away to be affected by the Nord raids that devastated the other side of the country. Taronsha shrine, one of the main sanctuaries of the area, and one of the most famous in all the Empire ( for their two temples and its warrior priestesses) had thrived for centuries, accumulating donations, relics and precious objects as votive offerings, but in 318 AP all of this was about to change; as the nord raiding parties targeted the area of Hakaya bay, first entering the region through the mouth of the river Cliga and sacking the nearby villages and then assaulting Rinshai monastery and killing and enslaving many monks.   Not happy with sacking one of the oldest and wealthiest Yemuist monasteries of the northern Seris Empire, they turned their attention to Taronsha shrine, believing that it would be an easy target, but there they encountered the stubborn and fanatical resistance of the warrior priestesses, who defended the temple with great courage and skills, resulted in many of them being killed by the barbarians, including the high priestess. The younger ones, especially those with children, initially escaped through an underground passage in one of the temples that led to a cave overlooking the sea. There, they found a boat and reached Anuchi Castle, where many of the priestesses' husbands served as Namru warriors who, watching this, launched an attack from the castle forcing the The Nord to retreat to their ships with as many plunder as they could. This attack was a very serious matter to the Imperial court, since Taronsha and Hayaka Bay is less than a week from the imperial capital, Sakouramish, the seat of the ruler of all under heaven, whose safety now was questioned. The Empire wanted a decisive victory that could persuade the Nords never to come back but they need an army ready for that a capable commander, and that's what the Empire got.

Battle of Hayaka Bay

 

Opposite commanders

   

The Battle

  A week after the raid on Taronsha Shrine the Sittakid dynasty government ordered the renowned general Aruke Anao to raise an army and improve the coastal fortifications, something that he immediately started to work on. He gathered armies from nearby provinces and trained them to fight in close formations, as well as gathering a great number of archers, horse archers and heavy cavalry from the Imperial Guard.   He then distributed it in key locations around the North-Eastern coast, as well as establishing a serios of watchtowers and patrols across it that would inform him of Nord activities across the coastline and fortifying most of the beaches along the coast with strong stone walls and outposts. This strategy paid off in 318 when the Nords returned to the area of Hayaka bay with an impressive army. Apparently rumours of the riches of the area had reached the ears of many Nord chieftains and warlords, so they gathered a massive fleet to invade the region and extract all the booty and slaves they could, and who knows? perhaps establishing their own domains there... . Seris chronicles numbered this expedition around 10.000 men while the Seris had around 50 to 60.000 men spread across multiple fortifications and strongholds. Most of the expedition landed on Nayui Beach, near Taronsha, but Anao and Vaspukan were waiting for them with 7000 men plus 750 extra soldiers composed of the surviving Taronsha shrine priestesses, their Namru husbands and the widows of the deceased priestesses, thirsty for revenge.   The soldiers hide behind the wall until many of the nords had landed on the beach and as general Anao gave the signal a hellish rain of arrows fell upon the unsuspected Nords who began to fall in the hundreds, they tried to advance forming a shield wall covering their heads and bodies from the arrows but then, the Seris released their ultimate weapon, their cavalry.   Suddently, from behind the hill, appeared two regiments of horse archers and one regiment of super heavily armoured cataphracts , around 1500 men in total who began harassing the Nords and disrupting their formations. The harassed Nords have now a dilemma, they could turn around to face the cavalry and expose their backs to the soldiers and archers on the walls or they could retreat to their ships and try to scape but risked being cut down by the cavalry.  

The Seris don't fight like proper soldiers, they don't fight honourably, instead they hide behind their thick walls or shoot arrows at you from their horses

    Many chose the latter option and began to retreat slowly to their ships. Seeing this, Anao ordered a general charge commanded by Nie Vaspukan that, alongside the cavalry, began cutting down the enemy, the first soldiers that followed him into battle were the widows of the fallen priestesses of Taronsha Shrine,. One of the first Nords to fell at that moment was Ásgeirr of Elasky, who according to the chronicles was received an arrow shot from the widow of one of these dead priestesses. Seris chronicles describe the sea at the beach as turning red, such fierce and brutal was the fighting, no prisoners were made and it said that hundreds of heads were paraded around the neighbouring towns among cheering from the locals, and then, according to an old davidovian ritual for impious enemies, burning and their ashes placed on a big coffin and put on a mountain cave, as to not pollute either the sea or the earth.  

Aftermath

The campaign followed with the Seris assaulting the Nord camps in the delta of the river Cliga which managed to rescue some prisoners made by the Nords and captured many more as slaves. All of these successes made both Aruke Anao and Nie Vaspukan very popular and are regarded as national heroes to this day. 10 years after this campaign, Vaspukan became the Grand Protector of the Seris Protectorate of the East, and Anao became Minister of War in 331 AP, a position that held until his death in 353 AP.   The remaining Nord fleet began its journey back to their homeland but near cape Anion in the Peninsula of Moria, they were surprised by a great storm where many ships were destroyed and the ones who managed to reach the coast were made slaves by either the Ikarians or the Snow Elves. The Nords never attempt to raid Seria again , and in fact their raids decreased dramatically for a century.   To this day the Nord raids are considered as the greatest threat to northern Seris lands since the threat from the nomads of the Mervadid Dynasty in the last centuries BP. The system of fortifications built to defend Northern Seria is still intact and another consequence of the Nord raids was the increasing cooperation between Seris and Ikarians (only interrupted for two centuries due to the fall of the Ikarian Empire on one side of the Suris Strait, and the turmoil that followed the fall of the Sittakid Dynasty on the other) in order to fight together against realms or forces that they perceived as "evil".