Post by Trippy Hare on Oct 6, 2006 5:40:15 GMT -5
Pyrus Terra, the magnificent mountain fortress city built by the Elders, was also their last stand. In 210 PNA, King Waelor, the ruler of Waeleden, dispatched the first of the many armies that would attack Pyrus Terra. Elders were masters of science and technology, and though few in number, had incredible machines and weapons to bolster their forces. Waeleden's army, on the other hand, was a loosely collected rabble, consisting mostly of convicts and criminals. Historians believe Waelor cared nothing for the Elder fortress city, and only sought a way to eliminate the expanding prison population of Waeleden.
By 201 PNA, Elder statesmen and diplomats had been expunged from every kingdom. Elder towns and research settlements had been burned by riotous mobs or roving bandits, or abandoned in fear of the same mobs. The power and prestige of the Elder race was diminishing rapidly. However, the city of Pyrus Terra, whose Elder name has been lost, was a magnificent example of their architectural, military, and scientific prowess. Looking on the outside like any other mountain in the Irethan chain, Pyrus Terra held within it an enormous infrastructure and settlement capacity. By the time the army of Waelor arrived for battle, over 700,000 Elders, almost the entire population, resided within.
Waelor's troops proved to be ineffective in frontal assault, and indeed, it took nearly a month to determine which mountain was in fact the Elder stronghold. Frontal assault proved completely ineffective, as Terran weapons and siege engines were far too pitiful to crack Pyrus Terra's walls. Elder technology, on the other hand, proved its worth time and time again, reaving through Terran troops like a hot knife through butter. Particularly effective were the Elder Golems, enormous statues of steel and mithril, controlled by Elders safely housed within the city through unknown means. These Golems marched through and over Terran troops with impunity, completely unaffected by any Terran weaponry.
The only real impact the Terran force made was in cutting off supplies by burning the land around Pyrus Terra, including the heavily forested regions growing over it and on the mountains surrounding it. Though the Elders had massive stockpiles of provisions, and additional means of growing food and purifying water inside the fortress, this loss of supply would become a lethal detriment during the much more effectively organized and executed Dragoon campaign in the year 186 PNA. Constantly harassed by 'armies' like Waelor's and with their supplies routinely razed, the city of Pyrus Terra never truly recovered from that loss, and within it, starvation and disease ran rampant. By the year 186 PNA and the Dragoon invasion, the total population of Pyrus Terra numbered fewer than 80,000. Even with all their amazing technology, nothing could save the Elders from the Dragoon tactics: poisoning the creeks and rivers running into Pyrus Terra, camping entire villages of disease-infested civilians all around the city, and worst of all: soaking the land all around Pyrus Terra with oil and setting it ablaze. The fire poured acrid black smoke into the air, even as the heat from the fire carved pools of 'glass' around the city and caused the beleaguered walls and foundations to warp and bend.
All the while, Elder technology had been running unchecked across the field of battle. By the year 185 PNA, over 1,800,000 casualties had been inflicted to the Dragoon forces and the various armies that had preceded it. Had the Elders been able to regrow any sort of food, they probably would have been able to remain in their mountain unaffected by Dragoon attacks: but few crops would grow in the depleted soil within the city. Those that did were destroyed by the poisoned water. Those that survived both those perils withered as the smoke from the Dragoon fires blocked out the sun pouring in from the various skylights. Eventually, the Elders did not so much capitulate as simply die out.
Once Elder Golems and other defensive machines simply stopped in their tracks, the Dragoon armies moved on, leaving a field of bodies and an enormous tomb in their wake. It should be noted that the overwhelming majority of the force camped outside Pyrus Terra were conscripts and peasants; the only Dragoon presence was in the generals and strategists who devised the schemes that eventually won the day, though they wiped an entire race out of existence and left over one million of their own conscripted corpses at the mountain's feet.
By 201 PNA, Elder statesmen and diplomats had been expunged from every kingdom. Elder towns and research settlements had been burned by riotous mobs or roving bandits, or abandoned in fear of the same mobs. The power and prestige of the Elder race was diminishing rapidly. However, the city of Pyrus Terra, whose Elder name has been lost, was a magnificent example of their architectural, military, and scientific prowess. Looking on the outside like any other mountain in the Irethan chain, Pyrus Terra held within it an enormous infrastructure and settlement capacity. By the time the army of Waelor arrived for battle, over 700,000 Elders, almost the entire population, resided within.
Waelor's troops proved to be ineffective in frontal assault, and indeed, it took nearly a month to determine which mountain was in fact the Elder stronghold. Frontal assault proved completely ineffective, as Terran weapons and siege engines were far too pitiful to crack Pyrus Terra's walls. Elder technology, on the other hand, proved its worth time and time again, reaving through Terran troops like a hot knife through butter. Particularly effective were the Elder Golems, enormous statues of steel and mithril, controlled by Elders safely housed within the city through unknown means. These Golems marched through and over Terran troops with impunity, completely unaffected by any Terran weaponry.
The only real impact the Terran force made was in cutting off supplies by burning the land around Pyrus Terra, including the heavily forested regions growing over it and on the mountains surrounding it. Though the Elders had massive stockpiles of provisions, and additional means of growing food and purifying water inside the fortress, this loss of supply would become a lethal detriment during the much more effectively organized and executed Dragoon campaign in the year 186 PNA. Constantly harassed by 'armies' like Waelor's and with their supplies routinely razed, the city of Pyrus Terra never truly recovered from that loss, and within it, starvation and disease ran rampant. By the year 186 PNA and the Dragoon invasion, the total population of Pyrus Terra numbered fewer than 80,000. Even with all their amazing technology, nothing could save the Elders from the Dragoon tactics: poisoning the creeks and rivers running into Pyrus Terra, camping entire villages of disease-infested civilians all around the city, and worst of all: soaking the land all around Pyrus Terra with oil and setting it ablaze. The fire poured acrid black smoke into the air, even as the heat from the fire carved pools of 'glass' around the city and caused the beleaguered walls and foundations to warp and bend.
All the while, Elder technology had been running unchecked across the field of battle. By the year 185 PNA, over 1,800,000 casualties had been inflicted to the Dragoon forces and the various armies that had preceded it. Had the Elders been able to regrow any sort of food, they probably would have been able to remain in their mountain unaffected by Dragoon attacks: but few crops would grow in the depleted soil within the city. Those that did were destroyed by the poisoned water. Those that survived both those perils withered as the smoke from the Dragoon fires blocked out the sun pouring in from the various skylights. Eventually, the Elders did not so much capitulate as simply die out.
Once Elder Golems and other defensive machines simply stopped in their tracks, the Dragoon armies moved on, leaving a field of bodies and an enormous tomb in their wake. It should be noted that the overwhelming majority of the force camped outside Pyrus Terra were conscripts and peasants; the only Dragoon presence was in the generals and strategists who devised the schemes that eventually won the day, though they wiped an entire race out of existence and left over one million of their own conscripted corpses at the mountain's feet.