The Etalian War

Moving away from Imagience lore for a bit, as many of you know I am working on another book. This book is about the tale of a warrior from Kosii Kingdom who is enslaved and put to work as a gladiator in the Pathens arena known as "The Pit". But ,today's post is a lot of lore about the back drop that the story is set in, the Etalian War. 

The Etalian War


The Etalian War was a war in Underesca fought between the alliances of the Kosii Kingdom and Undar Empire against the Etalian city states and their allies. Although, initially the Haphnafnel Guild and Kingdom of Actresca assisted the Etalian city states, with the fall of Actresca by the Undar Empire and the fall of Sprocket in the second Sprocket invasion, by the second half of the war, the Haphnafnel Guild would turn their backs on the city states. Allowing a prolonged fifteen years of fighting, all the city states except for Ordo-Onn pledged allegiance to the Undar Empire or to their Kosii allies.


The war is split into two separate eras, the initial Kosii invasion, and the Undar backed invasion. The first half of the war saw the fall of Gorgon, Hyla, Iegara, Varetrian, Agonomon, Pathens, Sorinth and Argos. But, Pathens and Vintos resisted Kosii forces and rebels in and around the area and plagued the Kosii invaders. Not to mention Sprocket who in the first half of the war was impenetrable and was backing with the help of the Haphnafnel Guild, and the rebels. An initial, Undar backed invasion along with Kosii allies failed to break Sprocket's defenses, and the Kosii lost man power and resources laying siege to Partan.


After seeing that western Underesca was a threat to Udnar hegemony of the continent, one of the last things that the Emperor Undar did before his great sacrifice was to personal led a siege of Sprocket. This siege known as The 2nd Siege of Sprocket would open the war into it's second phase. Despite the emperor's death a year later, his son would with the help of the nefarious Cargyle Loki take Actresca. Allowing for the full force of the Undar Empire to descend upon Etalia.


The second half of the war would see Vintos, and Partan crushed, as well as establishment of Cliff Hoof and Grass Fort, two permanent Undar military posts. This would allow Undar forces to easily stop rebellions of Varetrian. The establishment of the Imperial city of Gessen was also around this time. As for the rest of the city states, the Kosii Kingdom backed by Undar forces would crus the Nycarnae and Pharlos armies at the Battle of Heranyces, and the Undar Empire would crush the Prophsus navy at the Battle of Tildurn Bay. Knoedes and Heliknos would sign surrender, but many soldiers of those city states along with Epheas would continue to be a pain in Undar side. The Undar and Kosii would eventually, establish the free city of Dorgon, weakening the area's resources, and eventually establishment Undar rule of the area. Many of the soldiers would later join Ordon-Onn, the lightwalker city backed by Haphhafnel Guild money.




Background
For years prior the Kosii Kingdom and the Partanian League also known as the South Etalian League had did a series of skirmishes and invasions of Akosi lands, mostly fighting with the Kabula Kingdom of the Akosi and the Ugana Kingdom of the loxosi. This ended when Appo dynasty of Laossi merged with it's other kingdoms. Creating a federation of human Akosi, loxosi, catfolk, lizardfolk, and leonin. This coalition would push back Etalians and create it's initial borders at the time.
This allied force successfully defeated the Undar empire at the Battle of Messe Point and allowed a deal to be struck between the Kosii Kingdom and Undar Empire. The empire would supply the Akosi and they would invade their ancestral enemies to the west, the Etalians.
The Undar Empire supplied them with dwarven steel, duegar sorcery, and siege weapons, all would be useful in taking out their traditional enemies.


Kosii Intial Invasion
In 395 BAC, the Kosii Kingdom led an invasion force of 130,000 across the isthmus of Sprocket and laid siege to Hyla, the city fell after a series of clashes and battles at the end of the year. Next came Gorgon, which fell at the end of winter in 393 BAC. Not but a few months after the decisive victory at Gorgon, came the siege of Iegara, the massive port. Here the Akosi would demonstrate the use of small raiding boats and tactics that surrounded and kept the massive Iegara navy at bay. Using fire bombs and smoke the Akosi would defeat the Etalian General Ionas Saggitarus at the Battle of Ionas, and give the Southern Etalian League the loss of it's most famous general. Meanwhile, the name of General Laputa of the Kosii Kingdom would become legend.


With a series of successes on their back the Kosii Kingdom encircled the heart of the Partanian League at Partan in hopes of making the city fall by their hands. However, due to a blunder of tactics and misinformation by hasty lieutenants, General Laputa's forces at Partan were slaughtered despite the use of firebombs, magic, numerical superiority and the use of alchemist's fire from Undar.


The victory allowed for the Etalian city states to converge their forces and strike back against Akosi invaders. It caused rebellions and raids against Akosi conquered cities and trade routes. After the defeat, General Laputa fought more defensively and pushed back Etalian rebels, but did not push his forces for the rest of the year. A huge invasion was initially planned to take Varetrian and Agonomon, but that plan would end with the general's assassination at the need of 392 BAC.




First Siege of Sprocket
Meanwhile in 392 BAC, the Undar Empire under the command of their oni general Guthux Grosaxos who conquered the south marshlands and dwarven hills had come with 200,000 troops to take the free city of Sprocket. Prince Yasu Aso II led 50,000 Kosii regulars to the battle as well to surround the city. Sprocket was backed by both the Halphnafnel Guild and Actresca at the time, and had ties to the Mage's Guild of Maios and the various Lightwalker city states opposing Undar expansion.


The siege continues for eight months, until Guthux challenges the city's defenders to a duel. A young Partan hero who had fought against Akosi named Vander Maximus challenged Grosaxos to a battle, and killed him. This created a rift between the Undar and Akosi forces. The next few days, fighting would continue, but the Undar officials couldn't control the massive army, and some turned on their own forces. The Kosii Kingdom would deal with these deserters, making the force dwindle to less then 80,000 Undar and 25,000 Akosi at the end of the year. A breif seasonal seize fire was signed in the winter, and Sprocket was saved for the time being.


Fall of Actresca
While the failure to capture Sprocket, Undar II, the son of the emperor along with various allies, mostly notably Cargyle Loki would begin their conquest of Actresca. The battles would thin Actresca's resources which caused problems for Etalia and Sprocket as they were both dealing with Undar blockades during the invasion of Actresca. By the end of 370 BAC, Actresca would completely submit to the empire, and by then Etalia would fall as well.


Second Siege of Sprocket
As his son was invading Actresca, the emperor saw that the Etalian League and the city of Sprocket lay in his conquest. Two years after the defeat, Emperor Undar led a force of 250,000 Undar with King Yasu Aso II continuing to plege support of 80,000 forces led by the newly returned prisoner of war, his own brother in-law Kabuja Kiyonga. The city would fall, and Undar would force the hand of the Haphnafnel Guild, proving the military and economic arm of the Undar Empire.


Kosii-Undar Invasion
The Undar emperor would leave the rest of the invasion of the Etalian city states to his newly made commander Cargyle Loki in taking Etalia while the Akosi were led by General Kabuya Kiyonga. In fact, Cargyle Loki never led forces, instead delegating tasks and invasions/sieges to his lesser forces and allowing the Kosii to do most of the fighting.
Second seige of Partan, led by the vengeful general Kabuja who was defeated three years prior as a soldier there, crushed Vintos and surrounded Partan, crushing it's walls with newly made Undar canons. They would continue to Pathens. Oddly, by the time that they reached Pathans the city had been under the assault of a troll kingdom to the north, weakening the city so that Pathens too would fall.


Meanwhile the Undar Empire crushed Varetrian and Agonomon in the north pushing the Undar-Akosi invasions to the Atlas Peaks and Zephyr River, as well as Pathens Bay.


Argos would fall in 384 BAC, Argos would fall by Kosii invasions while the Undar would along with Etalian allies, notably centaur herds invaded Sorinth and forced the city to surrender.


Undar Colony Cities and Forts
During the second half of the war, Undar in an attempt to ensure Undar control of the region would build various cities and forts in Etalia. Fall Cliff was built near Hyla and would be there to watch Sprocket especially and the Sprocket isthmus. Gorgon became an Undar city, and was a huge military center. Grass Fort was built in the plains north of Vintos to control the various farming communities importing wheat to make barley and rum. Cliff Hoof would be formed during the Varetrian invasion, and was kept there to ensure that rebellions could be suppressed. Gessen was formed to mine the coal, iron, and salt deposits of the region. It also became a trade hub and naval power.
The Undar would establish other forts and military bases throughout their conquest, but of all of these Dorgon would be the most legendary. Positioned originally to land the Undar and Actrescan land forces to invade the North Etalian League, it would become a permanent center of Undar control for the next 300 years.


Undar the II's Reign of Expansion
In 284, Undar the 1st would sacrifice himself to deal with the famous Legendyr incident, although he would not save the anti-magic field around the continent, the massive energy produced by the infamous Legendyr Incident would be reduced to do the machinations of various gods of multiple pantheons, as well as assistance of multiple tons of black imagicite from the Imagience. This would somewhat fix the problem, but in the end it drained Undar's life force and he died, only to ascend as a god of the Undar empire. His son, would become the new emperor and would continue the invasions.






Surrender of Etalia
A naval campaign by Admiral Ouchin in 283 would cripple the Pharlos and Prophsus navies at the Battle of Tildurn. Meanwhile land forces, the last to involve the Kosii Kingdom at the Battle of Heranyces would see the end of the Pharlos League and it's desolation at the end of the war.
Land campaigns led by the Dorgon forces would march west and win two small battles along the Nycane River against Nycarnae and Northern Etalian League forces. However, at the Battle of Euphera Basin, just west of Epheas in 374 resulted in the Etalian victory. Despite this, Knodes and Heliknos surrendered to the Undar Empire a few months later, after Undar blockades.
In 373, Epheas was led to be sieged, but the city decided a few days into the siege, to end the battle to protect it's citizens. Many rebels would flee to Ordo-Onn which was protected by a treaty with the Undar Empire and Lightwalker City states, but also the fact that Ordon-Onn was backed by Halfnafnel Guild money made it so that the Undar could not invade it. The former prince of Epheas and his wife the princess of Knodes formeraly surrendered to Undar control in 370, beginning Undar domination for the next 200 years.




Aftermath
Despite the formal surrender of Epheas in 370, the Etalians would continue to rebel and force various rebellions over the next 200 years. The Epheas royal family would move to Exos, and from there have a power base to fund rebellions for the next 200 years. The Lightwalker city states as well as Sprocket rebels and even help by Actrescan pirates would make Undar control of the region a difficult one.
Ordo-Onn would never submit to Undar control, despite many attempts by Undar II, his nephew Nordocc. This would allow the retention of Etalian philosophy and culture to circulate on the continient. Ordo-Onn would be the site of a great cultural and artistic revival in the 360's and 50's thanks to the Etalian culture, and a lot of propaganda about the Undar and Akosi treacheries would be known for centuries.