Post by Trippy Hare on Oct 6, 2006 5:13:05 GMT -5
The Battle of the Frozen Plain occurred between the armies of a still-living Erchaea and the beleaguered mages of Failewyn, nearly 50 years after the War of Oblivion had run its course. Erchaea had weathered the war better than many of its neighbors, at least in strength if not in sanity. The Erchaean society as a whole now revolved around military might, and alchemical enhancements and performance-boosting drugs were not only common, but encouraged.
Late in the year 52 NA (Nuovo Aggio, the New Age. In the commonly accepted calendars of Failewyn scholars, the fall of God-city is seen as the year Zero, with everything before it being PNA and everything after being NA), Erchaean forces began demonstrably increasing their aggression. Due to its geography, Erchaea was so well-established and held both the Alamy and Moonpoole, which were the major freshwater bodies in the entire continent. Erchaean raiding units, nicknamed 'berserkers' due to the drug-induced frenzy of their troops, had effectively razed every minor village, farm, and nonmilitary settlement within 100 miles of Erchaea to the ground. Military targets were left, for the moment, undisturbed. Some of them were abandoned by their former masters and left as decaying ruins, others sought to bolster their defenses by hiring sorcerer-mercenaries from Failewyn, elven archers, and dwarven foot soldiers. Those that could not afford the fees of these mercenaries hired out or conscripted human peasants and footmen. Erchaea saw these actions as acts of war, and stormed each fortress-city, one by one. Though losses were heavy, they eventually broke every target, and ran through the cities in a no-quarters slaughter of the inhabitants.
By 56NA, Erchaean borders and the vast tracts of unclaimed land around it were free of non-Erchaean influence. Easily the only kingdom capable of Empire at this early stage after the annihilative War of Oblivion, many hoped that the Erchaeans would simply settle back into their great city-state, and leave well enough alone. That, of course, didn't happen. Erchaea recalled its forces into the City-state until about 58NA, at which time Berserker armies poured out en masse. Their first target: the scholarly city-state of Failewyn, itself.
Failewyn the city sat at the heart of Failewyn the kingdom. Though all the governmental buildings, as well as the Academies and other scholastic pursuits, sat inside the City-State, several major population centers dotted the kingdom's holdings, taking advantage of the natural magical energies that seemed to just pour out of the ground. These cities were lightly defended, and relied on their mages to do the brunt of the foul business of warfare. Many of them were filled with refugees, who had fled the Erchaean purges four years prior. The Erchaean army ignored these outlying cities, even as the mages within rained deadly spells down on their heads. Of the nearly 300,000 total troops Erchaea sent into Failewyn, nearly 3,000 casualties were inflicted by these outlying cities, without any response from the massive black columns of Erchaeans.
Failewyn the City-State was better defended than any of her sister cities, but militarily, these defenses were sorely lacking. Her outer walls were a mere six feet thick, and her military might rested entirely with the combat-mage guild, the Hand of Wind. Though the Hand, some 6,000 mages strong, was a formidable force, it could not hope to hold back the enormous Erchaean military machine. For the only time in its history, Failewyn conscripted military forces out of its civilian population, forcing anyone between the ages of 14 and 60 to fight for their city, men and women alike. Most had to supply their own weapons, in the forms of pitchforks, clubs, and axes. Even the Queen armed herself for battle with a dwarven-made Mithril axe.
The Erchaean columns encircled Failewyn immediately, intending to starve them for a few weeks, weakening their defenses, before swooping in for the kill. The Hand of Wind used this lull to their advantage, raining shards of ice, bolts of thunder, and flaming hail down on the Erchaean forces, inflicting heavy casualties. An Erchaean commander named Comaen, disregarding orders from his superiors, sent his garrison of some 10,000 berserkers into action at the city walls, which crumbled before the rams and war-machines of the Erchaeans. The crazed warriors poured into the city, burning or otherwise destroying everything in sight. A force of about 16,000 Failewyn militia, only recently conscripted and with no real training, had arranged themselves in front of the Queen's chamber. Bolstered by a force of about 3,000 mercenaries, comprised mostly of elven archers and warriors, was the only thing preventing the Erchaean garrison from taking the Queen's throne, and with that, the kingdom of Failewyn.
Fighting was vicious and bloody. The Erchaean force, professionally trained and in a bloodthirsty frenzy due to the many drugs they had taken before battle, cut enormous swaths through the lightly armed and lightly armored peasantry. Failewyn's defenders, though lacking in both training and armament, held fast in their resolve to protect the Queen and their city. Daeleth herself sent spell after spell into the thick of the fighting. Though many of her spells hit her own people, the massive concentration of bodies made aiming difficult, while also guaranteeing that every spell would, at the very least, hit some Erchaean.
While this intense and bloody battle played out in the city center, the lines outside held their positions, doing nothing more than firing volley after volley of arrows into the city. The Hand of Wind persisted in its work, casting spell after spell after spell. Many of the Hand's mages fell dead of exhaustion, many more were killed by Erchaean arrows. Lack of supplies was beginning to take its toll as well, and the Erchaean strategy of starving Failewyn's defenders looked to be taking effect at last.
Inside the city, the fighting had become desperate. Failewyn's impromptu force had been routed after nearly four days of nonstop fighting. The survivors had taken to more unconventional tactics, forcing the Erchaean forces, now numbering 8,000, to take every house in bloody hand-to-hand combat. After nearly a week of fighting, the Erchaeans were at the steps to the palace, a trail of bodies and burnt buildings in their wake. Failewyn's army, if it can be called that, had fallen back to the palace with its mercenary support. Both now numbered fewer than 4,000. Defeat seemed certain, especially when Daeleth fell unconscious, having spent every minute in the last 8 days firing spells at the Erchaean column.
What happened next has been hotly contested, by historians and scholars alike. Only one being truly knows, and he isn't talking. The Lich, it would seem, has more important matters to attend to than clarifying the historical record. Regardless of how it occurred or who began it, this much is known: in that dark hour, with the Queen unable to continue, Erchaeans pounding up the steps of the palace, and Failewyn's only defenders weakened and demoralized after a bitter week of battle, something happened that would forever change the course of history for all of Eshathar: the Rise of the Horde.
Bursting from beneath ruined houses and long-forgotten crypts, the reanimated bodies of long-buried corpses and the recently slain Failewynian and Erchaean soldiers tore into Comaen's remaining forces. Comaen himself was killed, and his troops, terrified by the Undead Horde, broke and ran. The Horde itself gave chase, its numbers precipitously increasing after every skirmish.
All the while, the Hand of Wind and the Erchaean main army had exchanged blows, and the Hand came out the worse for wear. After a week of near-constant spellcasting, combined with constant volleys from the Erchaeans, had all but wiped the Hand off the face of the planet. Any Hand mages left alive were either unconscious from the overwhelming effort of spell casting, or dying from their wounds. Seeing that resistance had ceased, the main army of Erchaea quickly tore asunder the thin walls of Failewyn and poured into the city, only to find themselves facing an enemy that never retreated, could not be intimidated, never grew tired, and grew more and more plentiful as Erchaea's own forces were whittled down. Those who had been killed outside the city by Hand of Wind spells, and those who had been killed marching through the Kingdom by other mages, now rose as well and joined the battle, cutting off the Erchaean retreat.
Though surrounded and facing an unstoppable enemy, Erchaean soldiers were a powerful force to be reckoned with. There are few ways to permanently kill an Undead, yet the Erchaeans managed it, and did so rather well. It took the newly-reanimated Horde nearly two days to encircle the Erchaean forces, which were disoriented and dazed as their performance enhancers wore off and their commanders fell to the Horde. According to researchers, had the Erchaean army been able to continue the battle on a single front, they would have eventually won the day.
The Horde lacked tactics, and the reanimation was awkward and clumsy. Each individual Erchaean vastly outmatched a single risen Horde- but for the Erchaeans, even their excellent training, mastery of armaments, and performance-enhancing drugs could not stave off the tide of monsters. Erchaeans fell like stalks of wheat before the scythe. After two days of nonstop slaughter, the mighty Erchaean army of over 300,000 strong had been cloven into a smattering of 20,000 frightened, tired, hungry, and weakened troops. somehow they managed to break the Horde's lines at the rear, and retreated pell-mell over hundreds of miles back to Erchaea, the Horde nipping at their heels.
The aftermath of the battle was terrifying: pools of blood, hundreds of feet across and several inches deep, lay across the landscape. Not a single corpse remained, all of them having risen up in defiance of the Erchaeans. Queen Daeleth never recovered, and died in her sleep. The Hand of Wind had fewer than a dozen surviving mages, and only the Palace and the Academy remained relatively undamaged, most of the city having been burned to the ground. The population had been decimated, and out of a total populace of over 400,000 before the battle, fewer than 100,000 now remained, picking their way through the wreckage.
the Horde however, had chased the fleeing Erchaeans back to their city, which was itself now under siege. The kingdom itself had been scoured, and not a single living being existed anywhere outside Erchaea's formidable walls. The Horde did not attempt to break in, however, and merely stood outside, surrounding the city for nearly a mile in every direction. A starving populace tried in vain to break the lines, to no avail. Arrows, hot oil, stones, and even kitchen utensils were thrown from the walls at the unmoving masses, but still they remained. An effort to burn them away nearly succeeded, as flames fueled by hot pitch and brittle, decaying bodies ignited an enormous swath of the Horde, but it was too little, too late. By then, much of the populace had starved to death, and the Unlife had brought them back. The gates were thrown open, and every living thing was slaughtered.
At this point, the history is again hazy. Failewyn scholars insist that a coalition of mages, led by Avarus, the headmaster of the Academy, journeyed to Erchaea and cast the binding spell that keeps the Horde bound within the city walls. Others insist that the Lich himself, in a last winking of living compassion, cast the binding spell in an attempt to try and undo the great evil he had committed. In any case, the spell was cast, and the Horde remains contained for the most part, though Undead that are strong enough in will to hold on to their memories and personalities after death, the so-named Necrids, are able to leave.
Though the Battle of the Frozen Plain was an enormous victory for Failewyn, and indeed, the only thing that enabled its survival, the cost in lives and the rise of the Horde, combined with the death of the Queen and the near total annihilation of their capital, made victory bittersweet. Fantastic stories and legends have arisen from events of that battle, including the first accounts of the elven warrior Helios.
Late in the year 52 NA (Nuovo Aggio, the New Age. In the commonly accepted calendars of Failewyn scholars, the fall of God-city is seen as the year Zero, with everything before it being PNA and everything after being NA), Erchaean forces began demonstrably increasing their aggression. Due to its geography, Erchaea was so well-established and held both the Alamy and Moonpoole, which were the major freshwater bodies in the entire continent. Erchaean raiding units, nicknamed 'berserkers' due to the drug-induced frenzy of their troops, had effectively razed every minor village, farm, and nonmilitary settlement within 100 miles of Erchaea to the ground. Military targets were left, for the moment, undisturbed. Some of them were abandoned by their former masters and left as decaying ruins, others sought to bolster their defenses by hiring sorcerer-mercenaries from Failewyn, elven archers, and dwarven foot soldiers. Those that could not afford the fees of these mercenaries hired out or conscripted human peasants and footmen. Erchaea saw these actions as acts of war, and stormed each fortress-city, one by one. Though losses were heavy, they eventually broke every target, and ran through the cities in a no-quarters slaughter of the inhabitants.
By 56NA, Erchaean borders and the vast tracts of unclaimed land around it were free of non-Erchaean influence. Easily the only kingdom capable of Empire at this early stage after the annihilative War of Oblivion, many hoped that the Erchaeans would simply settle back into their great city-state, and leave well enough alone. That, of course, didn't happen. Erchaea recalled its forces into the City-state until about 58NA, at which time Berserker armies poured out en masse. Their first target: the scholarly city-state of Failewyn, itself.
Failewyn the city sat at the heart of Failewyn the kingdom. Though all the governmental buildings, as well as the Academies and other scholastic pursuits, sat inside the City-State, several major population centers dotted the kingdom's holdings, taking advantage of the natural magical energies that seemed to just pour out of the ground. These cities were lightly defended, and relied on their mages to do the brunt of the foul business of warfare. Many of them were filled with refugees, who had fled the Erchaean purges four years prior. The Erchaean army ignored these outlying cities, even as the mages within rained deadly spells down on their heads. Of the nearly 300,000 total troops Erchaea sent into Failewyn, nearly 3,000 casualties were inflicted by these outlying cities, without any response from the massive black columns of Erchaeans.
Failewyn the City-State was better defended than any of her sister cities, but militarily, these defenses were sorely lacking. Her outer walls were a mere six feet thick, and her military might rested entirely with the combat-mage guild, the Hand of Wind. Though the Hand, some 6,000 mages strong, was a formidable force, it could not hope to hold back the enormous Erchaean military machine. For the only time in its history, Failewyn conscripted military forces out of its civilian population, forcing anyone between the ages of 14 and 60 to fight for their city, men and women alike. Most had to supply their own weapons, in the forms of pitchforks, clubs, and axes. Even the Queen armed herself for battle with a dwarven-made Mithril axe.
The Erchaean columns encircled Failewyn immediately, intending to starve them for a few weeks, weakening their defenses, before swooping in for the kill. The Hand of Wind used this lull to their advantage, raining shards of ice, bolts of thunder, and flaming hail down on the Erchaean forces, inflicting heavy casualties. An Erchaean commander named Comaen, disregarding orders from his superiors, sent his garrison of some 10,000 berserkers into action at the city walls, which crumbled before the rams and war-machines of the Erchaeans. The crazed warriors poured into the city, burning or otherwise destroying everything in sight. A force of about 16,000 Failewyn militia, only recently conscripted and with no real training, had arranged themselves in front of the Queen's chamber. Bolstered by a force of about 3,000 mercenaries, comprised mostly of elven archers and warriors, was the only thing preventing the Erchaean garrison from taking the Queen's throne, and with that, the kingdom of Failewyn.
Fighting was vicious and bloody. The Erchaean force, professionally trained and in a bloodthirsty frenzy due to the many drugs they had taken before battle, cut enormous swaths through the lightly armed and lightly armored peasantry. Failewyn's defenders, though lacking in both training and armament, held fast in their resolve to protect the Queen and their city. Daeleth herself sent spell after spell into the thick of the fighting. Though many of her spells hit her own people, the massive concentration of bodies made aiming difficult, while also guaranteeing that every spell would, at the very least, hit some Erchaean.
While this intense and bloody battle played out in the city center, the lines outside held their positions, doing nothing more than firing volley after volley of arrows into the city. The Hand of Wind persisted in its work, casting spell after spell after spell. Many of the Hand's mages fell dead of exhaustion, many more were killed by Erchaean arrows. Lack of supplies was beginning to take its toll as well, and the Erchaean strategy of starving Failewyn's defenders looked to be taking effect at last.
Inside the city, the fighting had become desperate. Failewyn's impromptu force had been routed after nearly four days of nonstop fighting. The survivors had taken to more unconventional tactics, forcing the Erchaean forces, now numbering 8,000, to take every house in bloody hand-to-hand combat. After nearly a week of fighting, the Erchaeans were at the steps to the palace, a trail of bodies and burnt buildings in their wake. Failewyn's army, if it can be called that, had fallen back to the palace with its mercenary support. Both now numbered fewer than 4,000. Defeat seemed certain, especially when Daeleth fell unconscious, having spent every minute in the last 8 days firing spells at the Erchaean column.
What happened next has been hotly contested, by historians and scholars alike. Only one being truly knows, and he isn't talking. The Lich, it would seem, has more important matters to attend to than clarifying the historical record. Regardless of how it occurred or who began it, this much is known: in that dark hour, with the Queen unable to continue, Erchaeans pounding up the steps of the palace, and Failewyn's only defenders weakened and demoralized after a bitter week of battle, something happened that would forever change the course of history for all of Eshathar: the Rise of the Horde.
Bursting from beneath ruined houses and long-forgotten crypts, the reanimated bodies of long-buried corpses and the recently slain Failewynian and Erchaean soldiers tore into Comaen's remaining forces. Comaen himself was killed, and his troops, terrified by the Undead Horde, broke and ran. The Horde itself gave chase, its numbers precipitously increasing after every skirmish.
All the while, the Hand of Wind and the Erchaean main army had exchanged blows, and the Hand came out the worse for wear. After a week of near-constant spellcasting, combined with constant volleys from the Erchaeans, had all but wiped the Hand off the face of the planet. Any Hand mages left alive were either unconscious from the overwhelming effort of spell casting, or dying from their wounds. Seeing that resistance had ceased, the main army of Erchaea quickly tore asunder the thin walls of Failewyn and poured into the city, only to find themselves facing an enemy that never retreated, could not be intimidated, never grew tired, and grew more and more plentiful as Erchaea's own forces were whittled down. Those who had been killed outside the city by Hand of Wind spells, and those who had been killed marching through the Kingdom by other mages, now rose as well and joined the battle, cutting off the Erchaean retreat.
Though surrounded and facing an unstoppable enemy, Erchaean soldiers were a powerful force to be reckoned with. There are few ways to permanently kill an Undead, yet the Erchaeans managed it, and did so rather well. It took the newly-reanimated Horde nearly two days to encircle the Erchaean forces, which were disoriented and dazed as their performance enhancers wore off and their commanders fell to the Horde. According to researchers, had the Erchaean army been able to continue the battle on a single front, they would have eventually won the day.
The Horde lacked tactics, and the reanimation was awkward and clumsy. Each individual Erchaean vastly outmatched a single risen Horde- but for the Erchaeans, even their excellent training, mastery of armaments, and performance-enhancing drugs could not stave off the tide of monsters. Erchaeans fell like stalks of wheat before the scythe. After two days of nonstop slaughter, the mighty Erchaean army of over 300,000 strong had been cloven into a smattering of 20,000 frightened, tired, hungry, and weakened troops. somehow they managed to break the Horde's lines at the rear, and retreated pell-mell over hundreds of miles back to Erchaea, the Horde nipping at their heels.
The aftermath of the battle was terrifying: pools of blood, hundreds of feet across and several inches deep, lay across the landscape. Not a single corpse remained, all of them having risen up in defiance of the Erchaeans. Queen Daeleth never recovered, and died in her sleep. The Hand of Wind had fewer than a dozen surviving mages, and only the Palace and the Academy remained relatively undamaged, most of the city having been burned to the ground. The population had been decimated, and out of a total populace of over 400,000 before the battle, fewer than 100,000 now remained, picking their way through the wreckage.
the Horde however, had chased the fleeing Erchaeans back to their city, which was itself now under siege. The kingdom itself had been scoured, and not a single living being existed anywhere outside Erchaea's formidable walls. The Horde did not attempt to break in, however, and merely stood outside, surrounding the city for nearly a mile in every direction. A starving populace tried in vain to break the lines, to no avail. Arrows, hot oil, stones, and even kitchen utensils were thrown from the walls at the unmoving masses, but still they remained. An effort to burn them away nearly succeeded, as flames fueled by hot pitch and brittle, decaying bodies ignited an enormous swath of the Horde, but it was too little, too late. By then, much of the populace had starved to death, and the Unlife had brought them back. The gates were thrown open, and every living thing was slaughtered.
At this point, the history is again hazy. Failewyn scholars insist that a coalition of mages, led by Avarus, the headmaster of the Academy, journeyed to Erchaea and cast the binding spell that keeps the Horde bound within the city walls. Others insist that the Lich himself, in a last winking of living compassion, cast the binding spell in an attempt to try and undo the great evil he had committed. In any case, the spell was cast, and the Horde remains contained for the most part, though Undead that are strong enough in will to hold on to their memories and personalities after death, the so-named Necrids, are able to leave.
Though the Battle of the Frozen Plain was an enormous victory for Failewyn, and indeed, the only thing that enabled its survival, the cost in lives and the rise of the Horde, combined with the death of the Queen and the near total annihilation of their capital, made victory bittersweet. Fantastic stories and legends have arisen from events of that battle, including the first accounts of the elven warrior Helios.